The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-07 00:00:00

AGES OF EXISTING NEWSPAPERS.

We find by an examination of Thomas's Newspaper
List, that the oldest existing paper in Great Britain is
the Edinburgh Gazette, which was established in the
year 1600. The Caledonian Mercury, established
.in
1660, stands next in point of antiquity ; the Edtn-
bu,gh Evening Courant, of which the first number ap-
peared in 1690, being some thirty years younger, and
yet sufficiently old to be venerable. The oldest existing
paper in England is the Stamford Mercury, which
was established in 1695. The first paper now in ex-
istence, in the United Kingdom, which appeared in
the last century, was Berrows' Worcester Journal,
first published in 1709. Two years afterwards, in
1711, the IVewcastle Courant was first issued, and in
the same year appeared the lint number of the Dublin
Gazette. In 1717, the Kentih Gazette, and 1718
the Leeds Mercury first commenced their career of in-
formation. I:etween 1720 and 1730 inclusive, the fol-
lowing papers were first ushered into existence :—The
Northampton Mercury and Salisbury Journal in 1720;
the Gloucester Journal in 1722; the Reading Mercury
in 1723; the Norwich Mercury, and the Dublin
Evening Post in 1725 ; and the Chelmsford
Chronicle in 1730. Eetween 1730 and 1740 the
following papers appeared—St. Jantes's Chronicle and
the Chester Courant in 1731; the Derby Mercury iu
1732; the Sherborne Mercury in 1736; the Belfast
News Letter in 1737; and the Hereford Journal
1739. Between 1740 and 1750, the journals addrd
to the stock were the following:—The Birmingham
Gazette and Nottingham Journal in 1741; the
Bath Journal in 1742; the Edinburgh Wealy Journal in
1744; Vie Bristol Journal (Felix Farley's); the Sussex
Advertiser and the Sligo Journal, in 1745 ; Saunders'
News Letter (Dublin) in 1746; the Aberdeen Journal,
in 1747 ; and the Cambridge Chronicle, 1741. Be-
tween 1750 and 1760, only tour of the papers now
published made their appearance. These were, the
Oxford Journal 1753 ; the Leeds Intehigencer 1757 ;
the Liverpool imes 1756 ; and the Bath Chronicle
1756. Between 1760 and 1770, the following ap-
peered :—The Norfolk Chronicle 1761; the Exeter Flying
Post and the Dublin Freeman's Journal 1763; Lloyd's
List, the Sherburne Journal, the Newcastle Chronicle,
and Edinburgh Advertiser in 1764; Gore's Liver-
pool Advertiser in 1765 ; the Limerick Chro-
nicle in 1766; and the Bristol Gazette, and Kilkenny
Journal in 1767. Between 1770 and 1780, the
following new candidates came into the field:—The
Morning Chronicle in 1770 ; the Morning Post,
the Shrewsbury Chronicle, the Hampshire Chronicle,
and the Londonderry Journal in 1772 ; the Racing
Calendar, the Chester Chronicle, and the Bristol
Mirror in 1773 ; the Cumberland Pacquet and the
Kerry Evening Post in 1774; and Prince's London Price
Current, and the Clare Journal in 1779. Between
1780 and 1790, the following journals were born:
—The Morning Herald 1781; the Bury and Nor-
wich Post 1782; the Maidstone Journal 1786; the
Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, the Evening Mail
(London) and the Gazette de Guernsey 1789; and the
Kent Herald, the York Herald, and the Bristol Mer-
cury 1790. The following appeared between 1790 and
1800:—The Glasgow Courier 1791; The Sun the County
Herald (London), the County Chronicle (London), and
the Bath Herald 1792; the Morning Advertiser, the
Commercial Daily List, the Hull Advertiser, the
Worcester Herald, and the Doncaster Gazette
1794; the Kelso Mail 1797 ; the imes, the
Observer, the Daily Packet List, and the Cal lisle.lournal
1798; the Hampshire Telegraph, and the Greened,: Ad-
vertiser 1799; and the Essex Herald and Oxford Herald
in 1800. We have only brought our statement down to
The close of the last century. Since then, between three
and four hundred papers have been commenced in the
United Kingdom, all of which are now in existence.

IMPROVEMENT OF " LORD :MAYOR'S SHONV."—
Mr. Godwin's letter to the Lord Mayor elect, sketching the
history of the show, and suggesting the desirability of ren-
dering it more worthy of the time and country than has ]
lately been the case, was referred to the Lord Mayor and
Sheriffs' Committee for conducting the entertainment, and
we may now state that it has been determined in consequence
to attempt to make the present pageant one of more than
usual interest. We trust that taste and good judgment will
1,3 called in to guide the endeavour. We have received a
number of letters from men with knowledge on the subject,
all concurringin the suggestion. From one we learn that
the cost of the day, including the dinner, has lately been
2,4251., so that something satisfactory might surely be ex-
pected. Of this the City contributed 2004 the Lord Mayor
1,1121., and the Sheriffs a like sum between them. The
item of charge for the men in armour was 1101. 103. The
cost of the banners, barges belonging to the companies, trap-
pines for horses, Sz.c., did not come into this sum. One city
antiquary writes, that the principal knight, and his retinue
(should) represent the City standard-bearer. "Robert Fitz-
waiter held Baynard's Castle, to him and his heirs, on the
tenure of being the City standard-bearer and leader of the
civic forces in time of war?"l'he recent Volks-fest at Mu-
nich, afforded a proof of what artistical taste can do in similar
cases, without large expenditure; the inhabitants of Au sent
a model of their church, with its stained glass windows; the
joiners a model house; a pavilion of Byzantine form, drawn
by richly caparisoned horses, contained the bust, of King
Louis ; the porcelain works afforded a collection of
hoe forms,
and the car of the sculptors and artists were charmingly ar-
ranged.—Builder.
THE POISONINGS IN LINCOLNSIIIIM—SUrgeOII
Clegg, of Boston, writes a letter, referring to a case of lb or
16 farmers' labourers, who were seized with symptoms of
poisoninz by arsenic after drinking ale supplied to them by
their master. Mr. Clegg states that the circumstance was
purely accidental. "An arsenic solution," he says,
.‘‘was
used in dressing certain kinds of seed, and, Ly an acciee.
whh
contained the supplied
some portion of the poison gained access to the pitcLer
pplied'to the labourers as their morning's
allowance."

DEATH or A Rion AllsEß.—Die(l last week, at
Kentish. town, a miser of the name of Shel-
don. He had formerly carried on the business of a breeches-
maker, but or the last twenty years had retired, and lived
by the contributions of the neighbours, or any one who would
assist him. Ile was so penurious in his habits as to deny
himself a coat, and seldom wore a hat, and would pick '93
pikes of bread out of the road and eat them. The room Hi
which he lived had not been cleaned or twenty years. He
died suddenly, at the age of 85, leaving a fortune of upwards
of 15,0001.

TO THE CHAIRMAN AND COURT OF DIREC-
TORS OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

Genth>men,—A letter appeared in the Times of
the 28th June, stating that the widow and son of
the late Raja of Sattara, with their numerous retinue',
were starving at Benares, and that not one rupee had
been paid in relief of their necessities since the Reja's
decease in October, 1847.

In the last return (No. 669, sth August, 1850),
you have made to an order of the House of Commons,
is a letter to the Directors, dated Fort William, 6th
April, 1850, and signed " Dalhousie, J. H. Littler,
F. Currie, J. Lovvi," that is to say, by the Governor-
General and Council of India, which contains the fol-
lowing passages

Par. 7. " The Government of India has always
advocated the grant of an ample stipend to the adopted
son of the ex-Raja.
Par. 13. " But we do not f-el ourselves justified
in making these grants, unless both the Ranee and the
boy at Benares renounce all right to the Raj of
Sattara ; or, at all events, unless the use of the desig-
nation and all marks of sovereignty are abandoned
by both of thew."
In the letter above mentioned, of the 23,1 May, your
Court was apprised " That Ballajee Punt Nattoo, the
pensioned traitor and conspirator, had suddenly ap-
peared at Benares from Bombay, in the very height
of the widow's distress, and was secretly tampering
with her near relatives and servants, with the design
of stifling her complaints, and aweing her into silence
and submission" to the wishes of Marquis Dalhousie
and his Council. The relative whose instrumentality
was employed was the Ranee's own father, who was
dispatched from the Court of Nagpore, where he had
been residing for many years, fur the express purpose,
there can now be no doubt, of securing the success of
the scheme.

It has succeeded ; the last Indian Mail, it appears,
brought a dispatch, stating that the Ranee, worn out
by three years' want and incessant threats and persecu-
tion, has at length been starved into compliance; that
she has been starved into signing and dispatching to
the Most Noble Marquis Dalhousie a document, pre-
pared and dictated to her by the Brahmin, in which,
as the Governor-General exacted, " both the Ranee
and the boy at Benares renounce all right to the Raj
of Sattara, and abandon the use of the designation and
all marks of sovereignty." It is to be hoped that the
Most Noble Marquis slept tranquilly in his bed in
Koonawur, when he at last clutched this precious docu-
ment thus obtained from the captive widow and orphan
child. You also, gentlemen, must be congratulated
on its obtainment. Surely it merits, like other great In-
dian victories, to be celebrated by a banquet given at
the expense of the natives of India, at which the
Directors may toast " the eminent success" of the Most
Noble Marquis, and wash their own pure hands in
rose water I Suffer me here to suggest a fitting use
for this paper—let it be duly framed and glazed,
and shown in the largest letters to the assem-
bled civilized world in 1851, as one of your
valued contributions to the " Exhibition of the
Industry of all Nations." Let me at the same
time ask the civilized world, which will be as-
sembled to behold the trcphies of an empire, " upon
which," it is vauntingly told, " the sun never sets,"
whether the French people, when they extinguished
the sovereignty of the Bourbons, stopped the dower
of the Duchess of Orleans until she had renounced in
writing her son's hereditary title of " Comte de Paris,"
and the use of the arms of France ? Let me ask if
the French people first confiscated all the private pro-
perty of the late King of the French, after pledging them-
selves five times in writing to respect it,* and next made
it a condition with his sons, not of the restoration of
that property, but of their not being left to die of
hunger, that they should renounce their family titles ?
And yet this is what the magnanimous British people,
as represented in India by the East India Company,
have deliberately done to the widow and son of the Raja
of Sattara. Marquis Dalhousie says (par. 4), "The boy
wrote in the character of Raja"—(an offence clearly
beyond the pale of pardon in the eyes of this Most
Noble Marquis).
Par. 7. " The Government of India has always'
advocated the grant of an ample stipend to the adopted
son of the ex-Raja, and is still of opinion that he
should be liberally treated as well as the Ranee. Such
is evidently the wish of your Honourable Court,
which we infer from your having lately directed us to
make payments to which these persons had forfeited
all fair claim.
Par. 8. " But we apprehend that you cannot wish
this Government to confer a pension on the adopted
boy at Benares, at the time that by persisting in de-
signating himself Raja of Sattara he is virtually dis-
puting the right of the East India Company to terri-
tory qf which it has assumed possession. Nor do we
suppose it can be your wish that we should increase
the pension of the Ranee, while she if recognising
and maintaining these sovereign rights in the adopted
son" (by signing his name to a receipt for 800
rupees!) Think of an Englishman penning such a
sentence as this !
But what is this "liberal treatment," which the
world is now so ostentatiously told it was the anxious
wish of the Directors and of the Governor-General
should be bestowed upon the Ranee and her son ?
Before the Ranee left Sattara, a captive with her late
husband the Raja in September, 1839, the sum which
your own Resident, Colonel Ovans, certainly no friend
to her or her family, thought it but decent should be
settled upon her in the nature of pin- mony, as the
Raja's second wife, altogether distinct from the
monthly allowance of 7,700 rupees made to the Raja,
was 800 rupees (801.) a month. This sum she re-
ceived for her own private use up to the Raja's death
in October, 1847. At his decease the whole of his
allowance was at once stopped, and all his retinue,
amounting to 1,000 or 1,200 persons who had accom-
panied him from Sattara, were cast for subsistence
upon the Ranee, who was informed, that her pin-
money of 800 rupees would be continued to her as a
pension, provided she renounced all the rights of her
adopted son.
The " liberal allowance" to be granted jointly to
the Ranee and her son during her life has been since
increased to 2,400 rupees a month, equivalent to
2,8801. a year. Let us examine this magnificent
liberality.
In your return of the sth of August is given part
of a minute, dated 18th April, 1849, by the Governor
of Bombay, in which he states that the "gross rent-
roll of the Sattara territories is estimated at between
39 and 40 hies of rupees (390,0001. to 400,000/.
a year), of which," with the necessary annual remis-
sions, little more than 14+ lacs (142,5000 have been
collected."
This " liberal allowance," when truly stated in your
account with the family of the deposed Raja, stands,
therefore, thus .
Present net annual revenues of the Setters
State taken and annexed by the E. I.
Company •• ••• ••• 4142,500
(Prospective value 390,0001. a year.)
Value of private property left at Sattara by
the Baja as per inventory taken at the
time, about Rs. 30 lacs., 300,0001.; annual
interest thereon at ten per cent. for eleven
years...

33,000

Total annual income appropriated by the E.
I. Company ... •••

... £175,500

DEDUCT
" Liberal allowance" proposed for the Ranee
and her son during pleasure by the Di-
rectors •.• •.• ••• ••• •••

2,880

Balance of revenue appropriated by them by
the annexation of Sattara... £172,620
The "liberal allowance," therefore, amounts to
your offering to the Ranee and child 2,8001. a year,
for themselves and all those dependent for bread
upon them, still detaining them prisoners, while you
take to yourselves in territory and property 172,6201.
a year, with a prospective increase of between
400,0001. and 500,0001. a year ; of their right to all
which your Governor-General and Council exact a
peremptory written surrender from the Ranee and
child as a condition of their receiving even the 2,880/.
a year during pleasure.
These facts and figures furnished by yourselves
and your Indian Government, coupled with the last
crowning act of the latter, speak for themselves ; and
render one word of comment superfluous. They will
convince every man who reads them what the real ob-
ject of your conduct throughout has been ; first, in
in
entering the Palace of the ex-Raja the dead of
night, seizing him while sleeping in his bed, and de-
posing and exiling him without trial ; next, in con-
fiscating all his private property in the face of five
public written pledges to respect it ; third, in appro-
priating all his dominions on the pretext that he left
no male heir, while you yourselves make prisoner of
the heir, and forcibly detain his person at Benares ;
fourth, in starving that lawful heir and adopted
son, and the Raja's widow, whom also you
hold captive, into a written renunciation
of their right to those dominions, of which
you nevertheless proclaim to the world you
have assumed " lawful possession ;" fifth, in keep-
ing that helpless lady and child prisoners at Benares,
pending the pleasure of the Bombay Government.
" As anticipated," writes to you Lord Dalhousie,
"the Government of Bombay strongly objected to
either one or the other being allowed to return at
this time !" (par. 6)—and the chivalrous Governor-
General of India, at the bead of 300,000 bayonets
ready to do his every bidding, acquiesces in the guilty
fears of these guilty men ! It is a man who,
in the fawning parlance of his country, is
styled a " Nobleman," who males this war upon
a woman and child whom he has in his power.
He does so eleven years after she has been forcibly
taken from Sattara and kept captive at Benares, while