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

THE SUN,

OVER ,A.N131 MAIL

INDIA.

We have received from Marseilles dispatches in
anticipation of 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 Jane, the transit having been
accomplished in the singularly short space of 27 days-14
hours.
" Our rains have thi; season been somewhat late of
setting in;liitherto they have been rather scanty, but we
can augur a 3 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-
derstorns on the morning cf 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 fills amounts to 16.00 inchcs in all.

" There is now no longer any dotili:at..cut the reirr-
ment of Sir C. Napier. He tidi,sti final leave Innis
in October. No authentic acnunts of the Milne of his
successor have yet been promulgated.
Sir W. Gomm is expected to ti.ke chArge of the

Bombay army in Novetree:r.
" On the 29th of May n public meeting took place in
the Town-hall, for the ineuguration el a School of In-
diastry, for sorae time in contemplation et the presidency.
The Chief Justice presided; the whole of the members
of Government, the Judaea ot the Sudder Arlawlut, and
the greater part of the general staff now at the presi-
dency, were present. Tne Right Honourable the Gover-
nor was chosen patron; Sir E. Perry, president; Vice-
Presidents—The lion. J. P. Willoughby, the Hon. D. A.
Bane, Mr. John Warden, Sir Samseljee Jejeebhoy, and
Mr. Juggonath Sunkersett. Committee :—Mr. A. Spena
Mr. M. Larkee, Mr. Jelin Smith, Captain P. T.
French, Captain H.. 1. Barr, Mr. Cursetjco Jamsetjee,
and Mr. Cursetjee Pestoejee. Secretary, Dr. George
Buist. The school leis since been opened for the
reception of pupil:, ot whom there is a considerable
number now in attendance, or in immediate pros-
pect. The objet's ef the establishment, are, in the first
place, to reclaim juvenile culprits, and teach them trades,
by which they may earn their bread; Kcondly, to en-
deavour to improte 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 impacted to any one desiring it. The
attempt to introduce improvements by locating indi-
vidual improvers in the districts has hi herto proved a
complete failure. There seems no reason to doubt in
the success of a central establishment resorted to
from all 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 meat strictly under the surveltunce
of the British Government, has just come to light.
Some years since a wealthy merchant at Baroda died,
leaving two wives behind him; the el:kr widow was
of weak intellects, but had a son; the younger, a
woman of talent and spirit, was fair months ad-
vanced in pregnancy at the time of her bereave-
ment. The husband willed that his property,
amounting to above half a million sterling, should be life-
rented its the widows, and that in the event of a boy
being born, it should be divided equally betwixt the
children, the mothers being trustees over the whale till
they were of age—the survivor to inherit all in case of
the decease of either. The Brahmin died—five months
afterwards his widow was delivered of a son; as the
heritage was an enormous one, every precaution was
taken to secure evidence of the genuineness of the child.
Not 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 r.n im-
postor—that the child was none of hers—that hers had
died in infancy. Remonstrance was in vain. Baba had now
secured every channel of access to Government by bribes
or loans. At length a punchayat or jury of five was pro-
posed. 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 deves was now constituted, and the care decided
against her, no intimation having been gircn her as to
the charges to which the was to enevrsr, the evidence
supporting them, the rvcord kept, or sentence pronounced.
Repeated applications on the subject have hitherto only
produced the answer -Met the case was closed--Baba was
content, so were his abettors; when did ever the cause of
suffering awaken sympathy or arouse frlerAls in the East,
when the sufferer woe poor and pennilese? The Bombay
Government have last been petitioned to take into con-
sideration the Leer matter of the abduction of the child.
Baba had nu more right to make assey with an adopted
child than with the offspring of the widow—the theft offirs
the strongest presumption of his guilt. The senior widow is
now said to repent her ever having joined the persecu-
tion against her sister, and to be aexiGus, if left to her-
self, to come into the field in her dsfence. Well she
may, if she dreams that her own offspring will ever see
maturity or she herself survive man) years, she must
look for a consummation unknown in Oriental history.
The family ot the benket mere under the protection of
the British Government, and on this ground it is that
we are specially bound to interfere, either to secure for
the widow her rights or expole her as an impostor, if
what has been stated should 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 decie;.ene.' The cruel Baba, at all events, de-
serves no mercy, uulse, child-stealing is to bs 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 pubic
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 pustages, 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 21. a year of
duty for papers which will never enter the post-effice.
So long as postmasterships are considered exclusively civil
service appointments they must be in a great measure sine-
cures. However able 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 au 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 regard, his advancement to the next stage
fixed in the service, to which the postmastership is looked
on as a transient step merely—theduties would be as well
performed by deputy without him as with him. The
Post-office is thus made available with the sum of 6,000/.
or B,cool. a-year of bonus to the sinecure, for which
nothing whatever is received in return.

"Mr. R. M. Stephenson and th 3 engineering staff cf
the Bengal Railway have arrived at Calcutta, aad find-
ing the plan concocted betwixt the London Board and
the Court of Directors impracticable, are preceeding on
the examination of a new line, in hopes of obtain-
ing a fundamental change in all their arrangements,
and a further and fresh guarantee from tie Court of
Directors. The most tensible scheme seems to be to pro-
ceed in the direction of Burdwan, where large returns
may be looked for from the transmission of coal and other
minerals. On the expenditure of a million sterling the
Friend of India assures us 71t, per cent. gross gain may
be looked for; from this fail to he deducted the charges
for working the line. Pact inquiries with the cost of
course become useless, a,AI an entirely new scheme,with
a new guarantee on a much larger capital than at pre-
sent, must bo secured. We have no elonbt of the
India House coming into any reasionabk measure that
can be laid before them; past eccurrences are anything
but calculated to secure the confidence of capitalists.
We mentioned in our Overland Sumtrary of the 17th of
April that some such result a-; this wet inevitable; the
statement was met by the emphatic could &diction of the
London board. Unfortunately its accurvy was not
only notorious to every man in India, bat the impossi-
bility of constructing a railway on the plan proposed
h:l.d been shown at lamas 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 riTeat Indian Peninsula meeting of the
29th of April ',-.oaching Bombay, stock at once fell 50
per cent.

" Since '.,ne dispatch of last mail Captain Newbold,
one of thn
, most distinguished of our Eaglish geo-
grapher, has been removed by death. He was assistant
to the _Resident at Hyln: abad. Ho had been long ailing,
a•A his demise, though deeply lamented, was not un-
`.ooked for. He died st Mahabuloshwar on the 29th of
May. He was cat off without a moment's warning, in
the midst of his studies.

" One of our most enterprising medical men at the
Presidency, Dr. Lsrkworthy, has been cut off by eho-
lera—the dis,mse whose ravages he was at the time en-
to stay or to mitigate.
deavouring

" Sir IL Lawrence hes proceeded on leave for a few
months to Cashmeer, where it is probable he will. be
joined by Colonel G. St. P. Lawrence, from Pesbawur'
who has obtained sick leave till January next, the duties
of the former officer beia in the meantime performed
by Mr. John Lawrence, and of the latter by Lieutenant
H. B. Lucosden, commandant of the Guide Corps. Mr.
G. F. Edmonstone, C.S , bas succeeded Colonel Macke-
son, C. 8., as Commissioner and Superintendent of the
Cis-Sutlej states. It is reported that the Governor-Ge-
neral will not accept of the resignation of Mr. Pringle,
commissioner in Sinde, end has celled 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 Shade, and that both are to be under the orders
of the Lahore Commission.
" The Nizarn'a 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 Poonah on the 31st cf May and 31 of June,
where they remain till Oct:rber. The Governor-General
and Commander-ie.-Chief in India are at Simla.
" A smart shock of earthquake was felt at Mussoorie
on the sth inst.
" Trade is at a standstill."

d 14T'
L ist,.

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

BOMBAY MARKETS, FROM THE 25TE' MAY TO THE 24TH

JUNE INCLUSIVE.

BOMBAY, MONDAY EVENING, JUNE 24.
Money still continues abundant, and discounts easy,
and there is likely to be a continuance of this state of
affairs for some time to come. Government securities
have maintained their value, the open loan being at par
to 1 per cent, discount. Fours have been sold at 85.
Shares are comparatively neglscted, but we hear of
some transactions in those of the Bank of Bombay at
20 per cent, premium. Orientals we quote at 161 per
cent. discount, and Agras at 41 per cent. discount.
The import market during the past month has been,
as usual during the early part of the monsoon, almost
totally inactive—the only sales effected being the con-
sumption on the spot. By the end of the rains the up-
country markets will have become bare, and should the
season prove a favourable one, a brisk trade may be
looked for. A large number of vessels with suppliee
have arrived since the date of our last report, but while
the present high prices for cotton arm maintained, we
can look but for light supplies of .t Manchester goods.
The cotton market continues extremely active, and is
the only article of export inquired after.
Cotton Piece Goods—To effect sales in any descrip-
tion of piece goods a reduction on last month's rates has
to be submitted to. Those chiefly iu request are 40-
inch and 45-inch grey, and 72 reed white shirtings of
the middling and superior qualities, and the best de-
scriptions of jacconets. Grey shirtings have sold to ex-
tent of 1,900 pieces, at prices varying from Sr. 3a. to
64r. per piece ; and bleached jacconets 1,800 pieces at
from 31r. to 5-g-r. p.p. In other descriptions there have
been but few transactions.

Cetton Yarn—The sales during the month amount to
111 bales (chiefly No. 20's) mule, and 250 bales (chiefly
No. 30's) water twist, 70 bales orange yarn, and 25 bales
Turkey red yarn. Best quality orange realizes 11,1- at
12 annas, and Turkey red, Qr. per lb.
Metals—Copper—Sheathing, tiles, and braziers', are
firm and in good demand. A small quantity direct from
Australia has sold for 47fr. per cwt. Iron—Swedish
,bar is in request, while British bar, nail rod, sheet and
hoop and Swedish steel, are but little inquired for. Leal
—Sheet as before, dull; pig in request.
Cochineal—We have heard of a sale of 2,0001b5., at
2r. 33. per lb. The market is dull, but prices remain
firm.

Saffron—No transactions.
Woollens—The only sales eff:ctel during the month
have been 144 pieces scarlet, 54 inch 22 yards, at 11r.;
and 8 pieces 62 inch 19 yards, at 2ir. per yard. In
flannels we hear of sales of 100 pieces at 7,100 at 105.,
and 75 at 9a. per yard.
Beer, Wine, and Spirits—ln Allsopp's, Bass's, and
Hodgson's, beer, large sales have been made during the
month. In wines and spirits there has been little doing.
Marne Stores—The only sale we have heard of is one
of 150 cwt. cordage, at 19r. per cwt. Oil of linseed is in
some slight demand; paints and spirits of turpentine, as
also canvas and twine, wry dull.

EXPORTS.
Cotton Wool—The purchases during the month
amount to 3,350 bales and 4,250 candies. Although last
advices from England were highly favourable, the large
quantities of the st?.pl now in the market have prevented
the rise in price which would otherwise have taken
place; and, indeed, a &cline is looked for, owing to the
setting in of the rains, and the fact of last accounts from
China being of a less encouraging nature than those
formerly received.
Opium—Since the arrival of laat China mail on the
21st inst., the Frio, of Malwa has advanced to 1,530 r.
per chest; prior to that date ;the rate was 1,240 r. to
1,200 r.

Freights—Subsequent to the date of our last Overland
dispatch several ships were taken up f )r Liverpool at 11.
10s. per t)r, since then the rate has advanced, and en-
icageuient.s have been made at 11. 17s. 6d. per ton, and
for partial lots at 21. ss. To L-indon the rates have been
ruling between 1/. 15s. and 21., but to-day something
more could be obtained we think. To China shorely
after the departure of the last mail numerous vessels
were entm,ved at 61r. per candy. Since then rates have
advanced to 7r., Sr., and 9r.; but in consequence of un-
favourable accounts of the cotton market in China, the
I a`e has again declined, and is now nominal at 7r. to Br.
Exchange—The Commercial Bank has been drawing
at 94. 01, six months' sight we understand, and docu-
ment bills have been placed at 2e. Op. and 2s. Oid. six
months' sight. Russell's and other clean credits seem
scarce. Transactions for this mail have not been heavy;
at this season they seldom are.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.
OXFORD ClRCUlT.—Stafford, July 27.
By the co-operation of Mr. Whateley, Q.C., and Mr.
Greaves, Q.C., who presided in separate courts, one in
the grand jury room, and the other in the Judges
dining-room, for the trial of prisoners, all the Crown
business, with the exception of the murder case, on
which the jury were deliberating, and two indictments
for perjury, were disposed of by ten o'clock last night.
At that hour the first of the indictments was called
on in the Crown Court, before Mr. Justice Wil-
liams, when

Mr. HUDDLESTON (who was the leading counsel for
the prosecution), said, that having been engaged
the whole of that day in the two cases of murder, ho
was physically inclpable of proceeding with another
case that evening; and aq, moreover, the defendant was
not present, he hoped his Lordship would adjourn the
court until the next morning.
Mr. Justice WILLIAms said he should be most glad
to do so if the state of the public businees would
permit him, but there were three civil cause*,
asd two indictments for perjury still to he
tried, and yet to-morrow was the commission day
at Shrewsbury. He had no doubt that the counsel was
very much fatigued, but ho must remember that both
himself (the Judge) and the jury had been working
equally hard, and were equally tired. He did not in-
tend that the whole case should be tried that evening,
bat merely wished to make some progress in it. The
presence of the defendant was not indispensable, this
being a misdemeanor, and it was admitted she would
surrender in the morning.

Mr. Hunneesroer still contended that the presence of
the defendant was necessary, and as Counsel for the pro-
secution, required that she should surrender before the
trial was proceeded with. He also further urged the
plea of exhaustion, and added, that from the pressure of
business at these ass:zes, he had not been able to open
his brief in the present case; and, if he were compelled
to proceed must read it at length to the jury, in order
that he might at the same time inform himself and them
of the charge against the defendant.
After a long discussion,
Mr. Justice WILLIAMS directed the jury to he sworn
and the case to he proceeded with.
After the oath had been repeated to the jury,
The crier said, my Lord, one of the jurymen refuses
to take the oath.
Mr. Justice WILLIAMS—HOW is this, sir? Juryman
(producing from the depths of his fob an enormous
wateb, and extending it at arm's length towards his
Lordship)—Whoy, my Loard, its noaw mare than ten
o'clock, and I'om now bean sitting here and in t'other
courts moan) then thoirteen hours, and I wo'ant sit no
moair this noight if I can help it.—(Great laughter, in
which the Judge joined very good humouredly.)
Further discussion took place, and at length it b:-
came apparent to everybody that no progress would be
made in the case even if it were proceeded with, and it
was adjourned until the morning.
PERJURY.—EIIen Capewell, aged 45, was indicted for
wilful and corrupt perjury, committed at the last Sum-
mer assizes.
Mr. Huddleston and Mr. P. M'Mahon appeared for
the prosecution, and Mr. Whateley, Q C., and Mr. Skin-
ner for the defence.
The case occupied the Court from nine in the morning
till six o'clock. It arose out of an action of trespass
brought by Captain Powys, of Cheadle, against a man
named Clewes, to try the title to a piece of wharf at the
left-hand side of Basford canal bridge as you go from
Leek to Cheadle, occupying altogether a space of 16
yards. Clewes defended as the servant of a gentleman
named Sneyd, and the question of title was therefore in
substance tried as between Powys and Sneyd, both being
gentlemen of the highest respectability and of very con-
siderable fortune; and both resembling the honest
Dandy Dinmont in hie litigation—looking not to "the
value of the thing but the justice." The few feet of
wharf were admitted on both sides to be really of little
value; but each claimed a title from a remote period,
Mr. Sneyd contending that it had been in his family
along with the surrouuding land at that aide of the
canal bridge for at least 70 years; and Captain Powys
claiming it for a very long period also, under a deed of
exchange with the former proprietors of the ad-
joining land. Captain Powys's land was at the
north side of the bridge, and Mr. Sneyd'a at the
south; and the spot in question was on the south, and if
Captain Powys's claim were well founded would
certainly interfere with the fair proportions of Mr.
Sneyd's land; and, therefore, if ever " the grays of a
goose" were an excusable ground of litigation it was
certainly so here. The cause was entered for trial at the
Spring Assizes of 1849, and in consequence of the judges
not having time to try it, it was, at the close of the
assizes, made a remanet—of course, at an enormous ex-
pense to the parties, who had kept upwards of sixty
witnesses for some days at Stafford. It was tried at the
rext assizes by a speciel jury, and ended in a verdict for
Captain Powys. The defendant was one of his witnesses.
She had been authorised formerly both by him and Mr.
Sneyd to collect the wharf-dues for both, but since 1832,
when Mr. Sneyd erected a public-house called the Navi-
gation Inn, near the bridge, she had ceased to collect for
him. In order to prove user and possession by Captain
Powye, it would be very material to ascertain who had
received' the dues for this piece of wharf since the
erection of the Navigation Inn, and she swore that she
had been always paid them for Captain Powys by all
persons using the wharf—by Mr. Sneyd himself, by
several of his servants, tenants, and others claiming
under him, whom she named, and particularly by his
woodrangsr; that it had not been claimed by any one
but the Powys family; that sho had not received
any money for it on account of Mr. Sneyd; and
that she had not had a particular conversation with
some of her neighbours. Fur these statements she was
now brought to trial. Eight of those whom she named
as having paid her on account of Csptein Powys con-
tradicted her point blank, swearing that they had not
done se, and that when she demanded wharf ego for the
wharf now in dispute, they refused to pay ir, and she
udmitted that she had no right to that side of the bridge.
Others proved that she demanded the wharfage in the
rhone of Mr. Sneyd, and others proved the conversation.
On the other heed, witnesses
towere
and this was treated as it sailed d tohe
ephr Provo
sit hre.
Baron
A fte
r Rolfe,
the
speeches, who t ried the act everything but the con-
versation,ions, as mere idle talk.
ct),hevidences,,pairaeostaitrs9emen_
retired to
summing up had
occupied nine hours, thet jury
minuteshe
verdi
c to
fpa
guiltyst six,
na and to consult at a few
returned with a
seven
nerial assignments,
acquitting her on the charge es to the conversatiwi.