The Sun.
London, England, 1850-06-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

OVERLAND MAIL

INDIA.

We have received, by Extraordinary Express, our
dispatches from Bombay of May 1, and trom Cal-
cutta, of April 20, with private letters from the latter
place of April 22, in advance of the Overland Mail.
The intelligence they supply is not of particular inte-
rest. The Alf;edies who have lately caused much
trouble upon the Peshawur frontier, have been so-
liciting terms from Colonel Lawrence, who refused
to acceed to their request, until an answer should
be received to their communication from the
Governor-General. It was suspected that this was
but a scheme of the rebels to obtain time to gather
in their crops, which, being accomplished, they
would renew their hostilities with increased energy.
The last mail brought accounts from Oude which
represented the ,uccessful resistance of a refractory
Zemindar to the British troops, and in which contest
Lieutenant Elderton, of the 10th Bengal Native In-
fantry, and several men under his command, lost their
lives. On the Ist April, a further supply of men
and an additional gun were sent out against the
enemy : and their enterprise was crowned, we are told,
with complete success; but we have no details of this
affair.
Moolraj h, the Moultan chief, and Maharajah Singh,
arrived prisoners at Calcutta on the 18th of April.
The former is to be confined to the fort, where every
accommodation is to be afforded him ; but the latter
is to be transported to the Straits of Malacca. Sir
Charles Napier complains of ill-health, and intends to
return to England in October.
Commercial advices from Bombay and Calcutta
still continue unfavourable. Manchester goods were
in trifling demand in the former market, but all
other kinds of commodities seemed to be almost
unsaleable. At Calcutta there was little or nothing
doing.

(From the Bombay Times of May 1.)
SUMMARY.—The approach of the monsoon now
begins to break in on the usual days of mail dispatch :
on the present occasion the Ist has been substituted
for the 3d—on the next and the following we shall
have the 11th and the 25th instead of the 17th May
and 33 of June; and thenceforth till September we
shall have only one Bombay dispatch monthly. The
past fortnight has been in a great measure newsless,
the local press having been chiefly occupied by the
discussion of the question of the most eligible line for
a railway. Public opinion, both at home and here,
seems to be coming round to the views of Col. Grant,

that the Poona line is the best. So far from the Court
of Directors having, as is averred, neglected their
duty in the matter, so far back as 1842, before the
public thought of railways here at all, they desired
the services of Mr. Vignoles as commissioner to in-
quire into the railway capabilities and prospects of
India. The Supreme Government have at length
passed an Act enabling the managers of charity
schools to apprentice the children under their charge,
and magistrates of police to bind those who fall into
their hands, to learn trades and professions; the latter

clause has been introduced by suggestion from Bom

bay, where schools of industry- have long been in pre.
paration for the reception of the destitute, and for the
instruction in the improved practice of the arts and
handicrafts of all who care to resort to them. G-o-
-verninent, for the past eight years, have been
spending thousands of rupees monthly in en-
deavouring to instruct cotton cultivators in clean-
ing and picking cotton, by sending teachers to the
districts; the Bombay plan is to open a school for all
comer!, and hundreds on hundreds are expected to
resort to it, some having been here already, and many
having applied. The proposed plan bears the same
relation to the existing one as parothial schools at
home would do to the plan of sending teachers 'to
every hamlet and glen—incurring a thousand times
the coast, and offering not one hundredth part of the
returns. In January the Court of Directors granted
a superintendant for the schools—all they have for a
long time past been waiting for ; the moment the
Board of Control gives their saction, the schools will
be opened, money, material, ground, tools, and work
having already been secured. The Affreedie chiefs,
lately annoying us on the Peshawur frontier, have,
of their own accord, gone in to Colonel Lawrence

:o seek for terms. They disowned all knowledge of
,he murders lately committed, but so little doubt

waa entertained of their complicity, that they were
told that they must wait for an answer till the

wishes of the Governor-General were known. Sir

Charles Napier is said to be desirous of sending
the new 66th or Goorkahs (Nepaul highlanders) to

Peshawur, where they are likely to do—good eeryice.

Dost Mahomed is said to be doing every thing in his
power to provoke and annoy us—his latest act being
the interruption of some rafts of wood floating down
the Caboul river to Pashawur for building purposes.

The Commissioner in Sinde reached SuCku'r on the

15th of April; his stay would, it was expected, be
but short. Dr. Don had reached Kurrachee and re-

lieved Dr. Scott of the duties of Superintending Sur-
geon, and the latter gentleman has returned to the

presidency and resumed his former berth as Secretary
to the Medical Board. On the Ist of April another

gun was sent out against the refractory Zemindar at
Oude, and success seems at length to have crowned
our efforts, though no details are given. The Governor-
General left Calcutta on the 14th, and was expected

at Bemires on the 23d ult., on his way to Simla.
Sir C. Napier has reached the latter place. Lord
Falkland left Bombay fur Mahabuleshwar on the
18th ; and Sir E. Perry, Chief Justice, returned to
the presidency on the 23d. Storms of thunder,
lightning, and hail, are beginning to make their ap-
pearance all over the country, and at Bombay the
weather has been hot and damp, which predicts rain
be near at hand.

MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.
Casualties by death in the armies of India, reported
since the departure of the mail on the 16th April.
H. M.'s Tsoors.—Lieutenant J. H. C. Loft, 64th
Foot, at sea, on the 18th January.
BONBAY.—Captain A. N. Aitcheson, 13th N. 1., at
Cairo, on the Ist April.
MADRAS.—Liutonant H. W. Urquhart, 6th N. 1., at
Dharwar, on the 13th April.
BENGAL.—Assistant-Surgeon E. Edlin, M.D., at Cal-
cutta, on the 6th April. Assistant-Surgeon W. Veal, at
Umballa, on the 9th April, Lieutenant-Colonel C. E. T.
Oldfield, C.B.' sth Cavalry, at Nakodah, on the 16th
April. Civil Assistant-Surgeon M. Nightingale, Hissar
establishment, at Mussoorie. on the 10th April.

TRACTS OF AN ANTI-TRACTARIAN. No.
XI V. By a Barrister.
These tracts well deserve the notice they have
excited. It is not often we find law and theology
side by side; but the gentlemen of the long robe,
when well qualified for their profession, are fitted to
take the field whatever be the subject of inquiry. If
we did not know that they were really written by a
member of the profession, we should pronounce,
without hesitation, that these tracts came from the
pen of a theologian, so ample is the doctrinal know-
ledge they display, and so complete a master is he of
the most secret movements going on in the religious
world. His exposure of the Jesuits in some of the
former numbers has had the effect of attracting the
public attention to the daily increase of their numbers
in London and in the provinces, in defiance of the
Act of the 10th Geo. IV., c. 7, which prohibits their
appearance either in Great Britain or in Ireland, un-
der a penalty of 501. for every month they remain.
This is a subject to which attention cannot be too
strongly directed. The reasoning is convincing, and
the utmost force is given to it by the vigour and
variety of the style. Sufficient proof of this will be
found in the following sample :
" There never was a time in which it more behoved
the clergy to remove from Christianity all the mysticism.
which has so long impeded its progress. Never, until
this is done, will it give a moral tone to the character,
or influence the sympathies, of the great mass of the
people. Religion must be made a matter of feeling, not
of disputation. Let it be taught in its simplicity, and it
will make its way to the conscience and the heart. It is
only the fountain of living water that can purity either
the one or the other.
"There is a scepticism gaining ground which nothing
but truth will convince, an active spirit of inquiry for
which nothing but truth will find employment. The
real queition, as it relates to important public interests,
is, not whether this or that opinion shall prevail, but
whether the Church will make a progress in belief and
in discipline, which, by making her a copious source of
wholesome and interesting knowledge, will restore to her
that influence over the great body of the people, which
is equally necessary for her own safety and for their
enlightenment. Let her not be satisfied with remain-
ing—what she has so long remained—a fountain flow-
ing one day in seven; but a perennial stream issuing
from the well-spring of Divine Wisdom, and finding its
way wherever crime, and ignorance, and infidelity is to
be found."

The following observations, coupled with the elegant
and enlightened spirit of the criticism which precedes
them, will not fail to arrest the attention of the reader,
whether lay or clerical :
"It is said by the celebrated Cardinal de Retz, in his
Memoirs, that a party is like a serpent, the tail pushes
on the head:' the truth of this is evidenced by all that
n tTu rhyo
y ago;
w h
is going on around us. The condition of the world is,
whaotfititws
changing: the character of the English nation is 'not
nor is the charac-
ter o were sent to re-
form the world have forgotten their mission. Those
acsl evengy theh aif
a same.c e
who should cure the malady of dissent, spread the in-
fection. When, we look at the mass of ecclesiastical
machinery, and consider the vast expense to the country
at which that machinery is kept in motion, it is sad to
see that the chief product of its manufacture of late has
been heresy and schism. This comes of attempting to
put new wine into old bottles, an act manifesting, at this
juncture, a great want of wisdom.
" Why was not the ordinance of baptism permitted to
rest on the ground of positive institution? It was clear
from the first to all thinking men, that to draw it into
popular discussion as a question on which our salvation
depended was in every way dangerous. THERE IS
NOTHING VITAL TO SALVATION BUT HOLINESS OF LIFE.
Be this truth ever remembered, for its import is eternal.
Our Churchmen, loaded as they are with the learning of
both Universities, are not the deepest of thinkers.
There are minds,' says Lord Bacon, ' like milk, which
will only bear one skimming.' Minds of this stamp are
abundant everywhere, and the Church holds its portion
of them, a fact but too visible amid the dust and ferment
raised by the question of baptismal regeneration. Bap-
tista is not of Gospel origin. It was a religious rite
practised by the Mexicans in ages long anterior to the
introduction of Christianity. In their form of baptism,
the head and lips of the infant were touched with water,
and a name was given to it; while the goddess Cioa-
coatel, who presided over childbirth, was implored
' that the sin which was given to us before the foutida-
tion of the 'world might be washed away, and that,
cleansed by these holy drops of water, it might live and
be born anew l'*

" Other extraordinary coincidences are to be found
which plainly prove the Pagan origin of many practices
common to the Catholic and to our Protestant Church.
'lt is remarkable,' says Mr. Prescott, that the Mexi-
cans administered the rites of confession and absolution.
The secrets of the confessional -were held inviolable, and
penances were imposed of much the same nature as
those enjoined by.the Roman Catholic Church. There

were two remarkable peculiarities of the Aztec cere-
mony. The first was, that the repetition of an offence
'once atoned for, was deemed inexpiable: Confession was
made but once in a man's lira, and was usually deferred
to a late period of it, when the penitent unburthened his

conscience, and settled at once his long arrears of ini-
quity. Another peculiarity was, that priestly absolu-
tion was received in place of the legal punishment of
offences, and authorised an acquital in case of arrest.'t
" This must have proved a most abundant source of
revenue to the priesthood. It has ever been a very pro-
ductive item in the Catholic budget of ways and means,
as the profits of the confessional can testify.
" We have, in this our United Empire, a State-Church

maintained at a cost of ten million tiyoar—an enormous

and most unproductive outlay. And this mainly for
the perpetuation of articles, the belief of which was
made imperative when Popery was in its meridian ; doc-
trines which contribute nothing to the enlightenment of
tho ignorant, or to the reformation of the vicious;

which beget doubt in minds into which, without them,
doubt never would have entered; doctrines well enough
suited to the era in which they were framed, but a
fruitful source of sectarianism in this reasoning and in-

quiring age.
" In England the days of priestly dictatOrship have
gone by. They have passed away, never to return. At

-
no time did they ever avail
" To keep expiring honesty alive,'
which can only be done, if it can be done at all, by
preaching the truths of Christianity in their primitive
and vital energy, a duty but ill discharged by the
members of a divided household. Faction has found its
way into the Temple destined to the worship of Heaven,
and has stirred up a most unseemly and dangerous mu-
tiny. When religion is made a trade, it is not sur-
prising that there should be a strike among the work-
men. The patrons of all the richest and most coveted
of the church-livings are in the hands not of the apos•
tolic, but of the aristocratic; not of the Lord's anointed,
but the anointed of the Prime Minister. The elect of

Downing-street, who reckon time by a holy week of
their own—

" The week, in which six days are kindly given
To think of earth, and one to think of Heaven.'
They it is that rule in the ecclesiastical realm; they it
is who appoint whatever pastors and masters it shall
please them to put in authority over us. It is from
this wealthy conclave that they receive their apostleship.
Thus appointed, they become the sole depositories of re-
ligious light, and must be reverenced accordingly."
The great aim of the writer is directed to the pursuit
of truth, and he strews so many flowers along the
road, that we delight to travel with him. He sifts
prosy. He throws out suggestions so striking that
I but is never dull, never
his subject to the bottom
they force the reader to think, while they make him
always better for his thoughtfulness. The low price
at which they are published is purposely intended to
put them within the reach of all classes. They may
be ranked among first-rate productions. Though
written anonymously, we believe it is no secret that
Mr. Sedgwick, the ex-Chairman of the
sthteamwprißteroaird.s

History of the Conquest of Mexico.

f Ibid.

Every man ought to aim at eminence, not by pull-
ing others down, but by raising himself; and enjoy the
pleasure of his own superiority, whether imaginary or real,
without interrupting others in the same felicity.—Eliza
Cook's Journal.

Two YEARS' ADVENTURES IN UPPER AND LOWER
CALIFORNIA (IN 1848-9), wfyir 23 PLATES, By W. R.
RYAN, .Esq.—" The interest which attaches to all informa-
tion coming from the regions of the newly-discovered gold
districts of California will be considerably heightened by the
perusal of these volunies. Mr. Ryan here gives. in plain
and unvarnished language, his own experience after indetati-
gable research, and opens up information which has been
not attempt e universally desired,give an outline, or an analysis, of the many
interesting facts which he has recorded, as such an imper-
fect sketch as our own would infallibly be would be unjust
t but never previously imparted. We will
to that gentleman. The perusal of his book will so fully re-
pay the reader, that we would rather refer to its pages than
attempt to give any elucidation of their contents; and we
athreatmtuhce ihnmteirsetastkienng if e thece n
ntgenerals ins
not to the effect,
certain recommendation than any encomiums which a critic
can bestow."—Bell's ,Messenger.
GENERAL PEPE'S NEWORK.-.Aaw hwhich
it opinioncen
contains
are far a more
a
W
narrative of
the late events in Italy, from 1847 to 1850, including the
Siege of Venice, by Lieut.-General P9e, commander-in-
chief of the army of Expedition of Naples, and of the
Forces of the Venetian Republic, has just appeared. We
predict (says the Standard) that posterity will accept
General Pepe as the historian of the great Italian movement
of the nineteenth century. His book is written, no doubt, in
a revolutionary spirit, but it is a generous and honest revo-
lutionary spirit, which prompts him to do justice to oppo-
nents, though not always upon allies. For example, he ex-
tenuates the crimes of Charles Albert and the follies of Pio
.Nino. In other respects, General Pepe's work is worthy of
all commendation. His style is animated and graphic, and
the immense mass of matter which his two volumes present
(nothing less than the two events of the two years of war,
universal in Italy and Sicily) is arranged without the least
confusion, while the more interesting occurrences, such as
battles, sieges, negotiations, &c., are described with a mi-
nuteness sufficient to satisfy the most curious military or
diplomatic reader.
LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS OP THE
WEEK.—This day—Entomological, 8 P. At. ; Chemical, 8 P.M.
To-morrow—Linnosan, 8 P.M* Wednesday—Geological (Mr.
Darwin on "Fossil Lepapldre ;" Mr. Weston on "The
Diluvium of the Neighbourhood of Bath ;" Rev. H. M. de
la Condemine on " The Tertiary Strata of Blackheath"), 8i
P.M.; Archaeological Association (Council), 4 P.M. ; United
Service. Institution (Major Adams on " Fortification ; Attack
and Defence"), 3 P.M. ; Royal Botanic, 31 p.m. Thursday
—Royal Zoological (Election of Fellows), 3 P.M. ; Anti-
quaries, 8 P.m. Friday—Royal Institution (Mr. Faraday
on "Certain Conditions of Freezing Water"), 8 p.m. ;
Botanical, 8 P.M. Saturday--Horticultural (Exhibition at
the Garden).—Literary Gazette,