The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-31 00:00:00

OVERLAND MAIL

INDIA.

We have received from Marseilles dispatches in
anticipation o: the Overland Mail, which left Bombay
on the 25th ult.
The intelligence is not important. 'We take the fol..
lowing ample summary from the Bombay Times:—
" The English mail of the 24th of May arrived in
Bombay on the 21st of June, the transit having been
accomplished in the singularly short space of 27 days 14,

n
.
oun% _
" Our rains have this season been somewhat late of
setting in; hitherto they have been rather scanty, but we
can augur as yet nothing from what has occurred as to
the ultimate character of the season—on the whole it
seems to promise favourably. We had a severe thun-
derstorm on the morning of the 14th, when one or more
houses in the fort were struck with lightning, and about
six inches of rain fell in twelve hours. Up to the pre-
sent date the falls amounts to 16.00 inches in all.
" There is now no longer any doubt about the retire-
ment of Sir C. Napier. He takes final leave cf India
in October. No authentic accounts of the name of his
successor have yet been promulgated.
" Sir W. Gomm is expected to take charge of the
Bombay army in November.
" On the 29th of May a public meeting took place in
the Town-hall, for the inauguration of a School of In-
dastry, for some time in coniemplaticn at the presidency.
The Chief Justice presided; the whole of the members
of Government, the Judges of the Sadder Adawlut, and
the greater part of the general staff now at the presi-
dency, were present. The Right Honourable the Gover-
nor was chosen patron; Sir E. Perry, president; Vice-
Presidents—The Hon. J. P. Willoughby, the Hon. D. A.
Mane, Mr. John Warden, Sir Samsetjee Jejeebhoy, and
Mr. Juggonath Stmkersett. Committee:—Mr. A. Spens,
Mr. K. Larken, Mr. John Smith, Captain P. T.
French, Captain H. J. Barr, Mr. Cursetjee Jamsetjee,
and Mr. Cureetjee Pestonjee. Secretary, Dr. George
Buist. The school has since been opened for the
reception of pupils, of whom there is a considerable
number now in attendance, or in immediate pros-
pect. The objects of the establishment, are, in the first
place, to reclaim juvenile culprite, and teach them trades,
by which they may earn their bread; secondly, to en-
deavour to improve the processes of manufactures and
advance the resources of the country. Destitute juve-
niles alone are maintained by the charity, but instruction
will be willingly imparted to any one desiring it. The
attempt to introduce improvements by locating indi-
vidual improvers in the districts has hitherto proved a
complete failure. There seems no reason to doubt in
the success of a central establishment resorted to
from ate quarters by parties who return to their country
to introduce the implements in which they have been
taught.

"A. curious case of the tyranny practised in native

states, even when most strictly under the surveil/dace
of the British Government, has just come to light.
Som' years_since a wealthy merchant at Baroda died,

leaving two wives behind him; the elder widow was
of weak intellects, but had a son; the younger, a
woman of talent and spirit, was four months ad-
vanced in pregnancy at the time of her bsreave-
men t. The husband willed that his property,
amounting to above half a million sterling, should be life-
rentai in the widows, and that in the event of a boy
being horn, it should be divided equally betwixt the
children, the mothers being trustees over the whole till
they were of age—tho survivor to inherit all in Case of
the decease al either. The Brahmin died—five months
afterwards his widow was delivered of a son; as the
heritage was au enormous one, every precaution was
taken to secure evidence of the genuineness of the child.
Net the slightest doubts on this subject were raised for
a year and a half, when the younger widow began to
bring Baba, the manager of the estate, to account for ex-
travagant conduct. While the child was out on an
airing it was stolen and carried into the wilderness by
Baba's directions, as is now allowed; the mother was
placed under personal restraint, and told she was an im-
postor—that the child was none of hers—that hers had
died in infancy. Remonstrance was in vain. Baba bad now
secured every channel of access to Government by bribes
or loans. At length a punchayat or jury of five was pro-
peed. This, at first, according to the advice of a native
lawyer, anxious to maintain litigation, the widow, strong
in her consciousness of innocence, declined. A court of
Baba's eleves was now constituted, and the case decided
against her, no intimation having been given her as to
the charges to which she was to answer, the evidence
supporting them, the record kept, or sentence pronounced.
Repeated applications on the subject have hitherto only
produced the answer that the case was closed—Baba was
content, so were his abettors; when did ever the cause of
suffering awaken sympathy or arouse friends in the East,
when the sufferer was poor and penniless? The Bombay
Government have at last been petitioned to take into con-
sideration the new matter of the abduction of the child.
Baba had no more right to make away with an adopted
child then with the offspring of the widow—the theft offers
the strongest presumption of his guilt. The senior widow is
now said to repent her ever
tote
joined the persecu-
tion against her sister, and anxious, if left to her-
self, to come into the field in her defence. Well she
may, if she dreams that her own offspring will ever see
maturity or she herself survive many years, she must
look for a consummation nuknown in Oriental history.
The family of the banker were under the protection of
the British Government, aid on this ground it is that
we are specially bound to interfere, either to secure for
the widow her rights or expose her as an impostor, if
what has been stated sheuld turn out incapable of proof;
and, what is apprehended is, the usual lazy answer by
which injustice is soothed and ease secured—' refer to
previous decisions.' The cruel Bebe, at all events, de-
serves no mercy, unless child-stealing is to be formally
sanctioned under authority of the British Government.
" Mr. Beadon has been appointed to inquire into the
state of the Post-office at Calcutta, Mr. H. Forbes at
Madras, and Mr. W. Courtney at Bombay, with a view
to the general improvement of the system. It is ex-
pected that the franking system, which debits the public
with the carriage of Government letters and papers, and
is liable, besides, to the most enormous abuses, will be
recommended to be done away with ; that a large reduc-
tion on letter postages, with probably the prepayment
system,
will be introduced, and that the charge for the
transmission of newspapers will be commuted from
postage to a one anna (Id.) stamp, enforced on the same
general plan as at home. The measure will be emi-
nently unhappy to those journals, three-fourths of
whose circulation is at the place of publication, which,
being mainly devoted to personal squabbles, and abuse,
or to local gossip or slander, can never look for extend-
ing their circulation, and will have to pay 2/. a year of
duty for papers which will never enter the post-effice.
So longas postmasterships are:considered exclusivelycivil
service appointments they must be in a great measure sine-
cures. However ale:e or excellent may be the gentleman
on whom they are conferred—and there is no division of
the service more full of ability—a civilian who late in life
comes into an appointment of the duties of which he
can know nothing—where he finds these all well dis-
charged by his deputy, where he has no inducement to
exert himself or to learn, as perfection will not accelerate,
nor want of it retard, his advancement to the next stage
fixed in the service, to which the postmasterehip is looked
on as a transient step merely—theduties wouldbo as we'd
performed by deputy without him as with him. The
Post-office is thus made available with the sum of 6,000/.
or 8.000/. a-year of bonus to the since are, for which
nothing whatever is received in return.

" Mr. R. M. Stephenson and the engineering staff cf
the Bengal Railway have arrived at Calcutta, and find-
ing the plan concocted betwixt the London Board and
the Court of Directors impra'Aicable, are preceeding on
the examination of a new line, in hopes of obtain-
ing a fundamental chanfp in all their arrangements,
and a further and fresh guarantee from the Court of
Directors. The most feasible scheme seems to be to pro-
ceed in the direction of Burdwan, where large returns
may bo looked for from the transmission of coal and other
minerals. On the *dxpenditure of a million sterling the
Friend qf India ass ores us 71 per cent. gross gain -allay
be looked fur; h.(,aa this fall to be deducted gin charges
for working the ' Ate. Past inquiries with the cost of
course become 'aseless, and an entirely new saheme,with
a new guaran 4ee on a much larger capital than at pre-
sent, must, 'oe secured. We have no doubt of the
India 11•Juse coming into any reasonable pleasure that
can be 'said before them; past occurrences are anything
but ce:tculated to secure the confidence of capitalists.
We .mentioned in our Overload Summary of the 17th of
April that some such result as this was inevitable; the
statement was met by the emphatic contradiction of the
London board. Unfortunately its accuracy was not
only notorious to every man in India, but the impossi-
bility of constructing a railway on the plan proposed
had been shown at home years before. Is it wonderful
that when such things as this occur all confidence in
home management should be lost in India? On the
accounts of the Great Indian Peninsula meeting of the
29th of April reaching Bombay, stock at once fell 50
per cent.

" Since the dispateh of last mail Captain Newbold,
one of the most d.stinguished of our Eoglish geo-
graphers has been removed by death. He was assistant
to the Resident at. Hyderabad. He had been long ailing.
and his demise, though deeply lamented, was not un-
looked for. rte died at Mahabuloshwar on the 29th of
May. He ',vas cut off without a moment's warning, in
the midst '.,f his studies.
" On',l of our most enterprising medical men at the
Presi Jency, Dr. Larkworthy, has been cut off by eho-
ler4—the disease whose ravages he was at the time en-
deavouring to stay or to mitigate.
" Sir H. Lawrence has proceeded on leave for a few
months to Cashmeer, where it is probable he will be
Pt
he e d idauwt duties
joined by Colonel G. St. P. Lawrence, from
who has obtained sick leave till January next,
of the former officer being in the meantime performed
by Mr. John Lawrence, and of the latter by Lieutenant
H. B. Lumsden, commandant of the Guide Corps. Mr,
G. F. Edmonstone, C.S., has succeeded Colonel Macke-
son, C. 8., as Commissioner and Superintendent o the
Cis-Sutlej states. It is reported that the Governer-Ge-
neral will not accept of the resignation of Mr. Pringle,
commissioner in Sinde, and has called for the reasons
which induced him to resign. It is further said that in
future there is to be a commissioner for Upper as well as
Lower Sinde, and that both are to be under the orders
of the Lahore Commission. . _

" The Isfi;am's dominions are once more in a disturbed
state, and it is rumoured that Sir G. F. Berkeley in-
tends visiting the capital shortly.
" The Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bombay
reached Poonab on the 31A cf May and 3d of June,
where they remain till October. The Governor-General
and Commander-in-Chief in India are at Simla.

" A smart shock of earthquake was felt at hlussoorie
on the sth inst.

" Trade i 3 at a standstill."