The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-24 00:00:00

spec! to any guilty knoal,dge of the origin of the fire.
The stove and flue from it in Reed's cellar on the same
floor (the ground floor) eith Adlirgton's kitchen
was proved by him and his servant never to have been
used. The builder of it deposed to having never
finished it. It was intended for the purpose of dryilig
tobacco (Reed being a t)bacconist). On the other
hand, the builder on being sent by the coroner to exa-
mine that particular place as it now lay hare by the fire,
on his return stated that as it now etJcel it was Ttite dif-
ferent from what be had built. Mr. Reed depo,,ed that
it bad never been altered, and had never be. n used alto
built by this man. Adlington persisted in bis stet( meat
as given before the magistrates on the Wednesday fol-
lowing the day of the fire, that he saw the fire burst into
his back parlour from a cupboard by the side of the fi se
in the partition between his house and Reed 'f. The evi-
dence on this point wai. as prolix as it was inconclusive.
On the whole, it may Ai h ttuth be said that the ma,s of
evidence gone into proved nothing further than that the
fire originated in one or other of the two houses respec-
tively occupel by Ileum Adlington and Recd. The
jury appeared to have come to tech a corclusion by giv-
ing the following verdict:—
" Thst the two homes lately known as No. 65 and 66,
in High street, were burned down and destroy ed by fire
on the I lth of August, 1850, but by what means such
fire originated there was no evidence to show.

EXECUTION AT MONMOUTH.
MONMOUTH, FRIDAY EvENixo —This morning Mall.
rice Murphy' and Patrick Sullivan underaent the x-
treme penalty of the law for the wilful murdsr of an aged
Welch moman named Jane Lewis, near Newport.
The wretched culprits, who were Roman Catholicp,
were attended in their last moments upon the drop by
the Rev. Mr. Burgs?, c f that persuasiln, to whom, on
the previous day, they had admitted the justice of their
punishment. Murphy said he first struck the woman
Lewis with a stone; that she then became stupified, and
that they took her in that state into the wood, where
Sullivan struck and kicked her, breaking in her jaws
and cheeks. They left her there, they said, believing
she was not quite dead. They had killed her, supposing
her basket to contain provisions, for they were literally
famishing for food. They also expressed their contrition
for crimes committed by them previously to their arrival
in England, and their satisfaction that the death of the
excise officer at Sydney, cousin of the woman whom they
had murdered near Newpor►, did not stain their guilty
hands.

The execution took place upon the gallows erected in
front of the county gaol. Calcraft was the executioner.
The tolling of the bell at tho gaol denoted the com-
mencement of preparations within. Just after eight
the procession ascended the platform, Sullivan and
Murphy, looking haggard and ghastly, walked up to the
drop with some difficulty. Having reached that spot
they were directed by the hangmen to their positions
under the fatal beam. The Rev. Mr. Burgess addressed
the culprits at this moment, and they made some reply
expressive of their trust in the forgiveness cf tho Al-
mighty. The culprits were then directed by Calcraft
to move a little farther apart, and the caps being
placed over their eyes, in a lel moments the bolt was
withdrawn, and the miserable wretches were launched
into eternity.
The last execution at Monmouth wet that of Michael
Kelly, also an Irishman, who was hanged for the murder
of bis sweetheart at Neeport Barracks about two years
since. The inhabitants of Monmouth memorialised the
Home Secretary against the itiliction of capital punish-
ment upon Kelly, but open the present occasion not a
single voice was heard in favour of a reprieve for the two
cowardly wretches who this day sufTerel the extreme
penalty of the law for the brutal murder of an DO and
unolLnding woman.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
TIMES.—We propose place before out readers an
intelligible outline cf some accounts with which they are
not very familiar, although few suljetn, are more se-
riously referred to in Parliamentary discussions. When
we explain that the balance-sheet before us is that of
the East India Company, it will be readily conceived
that our limits must be ill-proportioned to our materials.
The finances of a Government administering the affairs
of ninety millions of subjects distributed over a country
four times as large as France can hardly receive any
adequate exposition in one of our columns, but the topic
is unusually interesting, and our obser.vations may so
far facilitate private inquiries as to remove much of the
mystery which the transactions of the Company are
thought to involve. In pursuance of the Act renewing
their charter, the East India Company are compelled
to present to the Imperial Parliament a statement
of their revenue and c xpenditure, and as the accounts
thus rendered are published in the usual form of
such returns, there is no difficulty in procuring the
documents, though it might perplex the general reader
to arrive at the information they contein. The
computations are made in " Company's rupees"—a coin
of the inconvenient value of about Is. 101 d. The' sicca
rupee," on the other hand, is rated at exactly 25., or the
tenth part of a pound sterling, so that accounts kept in
this coin are readily reducible to English comprehension.
The easiest way, perhaps, to deal with the returns now
before us is to consider the rupees quoted as sieca rupees,
on which assumption they, of course, become pounds
sterling by striking off the right band figure from that
sum, and it 6 ter cent. is then deducted for the inferior
value of the Company's rupee, the result will be accurate
enough for all practical purposes. The revenues of the
Indian Government aro derived, in the old Oriental
fashion, from the rents of the territory vesting wholly in
the sovereign power, from monopolies of certain sales,
and from sundry smaller duties. 'rho two former items,
however, constitute at least four-fifths of the imperial
income, and the attention of The general inquirer
need hardly to extended beyond them. Besides
these there are subsidies or tributes receivable
from certain native courts in consideration of past
transactions or present countenance; while, on the
other hand, there are certain assignments or allow-
ances charged on the revenues of the Company,
and payable to families or individuals, in accordance
with the treaty engagements of the Government. Such
is the income by which the Indian Treasury is reple-
nished. Its charges are constituted by the interest on its
debts; by its expenditure on civil, political, and judicial
establishments; and by the cost of the military force
maintained for the protection of the whole. The out-
goings, therefore, of this Government resemble aim of
European countries, while the sources of its revenue are
for the most part different. India, for the purposes of
adminiLtration, is divided, as the reader is aware, into
three presidencies or governments—those of Bengal,
Madras, and Bombay, which vary materially as well
in other respects as in the extent of their terrlto-
ries and revenues. The Presidency of B. ngel in-
cludes the whole cf liindostan Proper—that is to say,
of the country north of the Nmbudda, comprising
also the eastern shores of the Bay of Bengal, and
extending in the opposite direction beyond the
banks of the Indus. We speak of this as practically
one presidency, though the mrth-western provinces
were detached from id. by the Act of 1833, and the for-
mation of the new presidency of Agra was actually an-
nounced in Government proclamations. But the sue-
gestion of the Court of Directors on this occasion, that
the nomination of a Lieutenant-Governor for these prc-
vinces would di,pense with the ceepensive machinery of
a new presidency, was tacitly allowed to prevail, and
though tie financial accounts of this portion of India
are still rendered separately, the distinction is not re-
tained in the principal departments of administration.
The presidency of Madras, the next in importance and
magnitude, comprises almost the whole of Peninsular
India, the presidency cf Bombay being confined to a
narrow strip on the Malabar coast between Cambay and
Gee, with the additions of Gue:rat and Cutch, and the
anomalous appendage of Scinde. The boundaries, how-
ever, of these presidencies are arbitrarily taken, and the
resources of each are, of course, interchangeable.
In the chit f or Bengal presidency the net revenues
and charges for the latest year ascertained, that
of 1847 8, amount respectively to about 74 mil-
lions and 101 millions, showing a deficiency, speak-
ing in round numbers of about 2i miilicns. The gross
revenue reached the sum of nearly 10 millions, but the
charges of collection—above l millions—and the allow-
ances of which we have spoken above as payable from
these funds—about 250,000/.—reduced it ultimately to
the amount specified. The land rents contributed 3}
millions to the total; the monopoly of salt li millions;
thrt of opium nearly 2 millions; and the subsidies from
indebted states rather less than a quarter of a million—
making altogether some eight millions out of ten; stamp
duties and cm terns yielding a large share of the remain-
der. Besides these regular items, there are also brought
to account in the returns of tnis imperial presidency
the receipts and charges respectively of the territories
ceded by the Burmese at the close of the war, of the
more recenily cor (jeered province of Scinde, and of
what are called " the Straits settlements"—that is
to say, cf Penang, Singapore, and Malacca. The
Burmese forfeits, between the mouths of the
Ganges, and those of the Irawaddi, return a act sur-
plus of about 8!1,0001; but the Straits settlements
do net quite liquidate by their revenues the demands
of their Governments; while Seinde shows an excess
of charge amounting to more then :100,000/. This fact,
however, as wo have more than once heretofore explained,
a twits of considerable qualification, and it is not;ceable
tint the returns of the province are on the increase,
while its charges are steadily lessened year by year.
The civil and political services of the Company in the
FreA 'ency of Bengal absorb ebotn. one million sterling,
and some 670,000/. is deveted to the administration of
jtt tire. The charges of the nailita.ry estelatishment (in-
cluding that of the north-eeedtru provinces) aro not
less than 5 millions, and the interest on debt consumes
nearly two more. Altogether, the balance of receipt
and expenditure fur this presidency represents, as we
have said, a diireretec., of some 2. millions against the
t; easur) ; but in considering these; figures it must be re-
mttinbcred that the heaviest charge of a Government—
that of tie military force—has een brought to account
act this tt tad without any corresponding apportionment of
income. It is from this circumstance that tho north-
vrevc rn provinces, taken by themselves, exhibit a large
surplus revenue. Relieved of all military obligations,
they are burdened with no expenditure save the cost of
tl eir civil, political, and judicial establishments, and a
nominal interest payable on their peculiar dtbt—
charges amounting in the total to no more than
870,0004 04 the other hand, their hucl-rents sxosed