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

THE SUN, LONDON,

OVERLAND MAIL

INDIA.

We have received from Marseilles dispatches in
anticipation of the Overland Mai!, which lift 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

hours.
" 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 tell in twt lye hours. Up to the pre-
sent date the falls amounts to 16.00 inches in all.
" There is now no finger any douht about the retire-
ment of Sir C. Napier. Ile takes fuel leave if 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
Bombly 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-
dustry, fur some time in contemplation at the presidency.
The Chief Justice presided; the whole of the members
of Government, the Judges of the Sudder 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 lion. J. P. Willoughby, the Hon. D. A.
Bane, Mr. John Warden, Sir Samsetjee Jejeebhoy, and
Mr. Juggonath Suokeraett. Committeet—Mr. A. Spens,
Mr. M. Larken, Mr. John Smith, Captain P. T.
French, Captain H. J. Barr, Mr. Cursetjee Jamsetjee,
and Mr. Cursetjee Peatonjee. 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, of in immediate pros-
pect. The objects of the establishment, are, in the first
place, to reclaim juvenile culprits, 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 pro►ed 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 most strictly under the surveillance
of the British Government, has just coma to light.
Some 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 stud spirit, was four 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 in 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 whole till
they were of age—the survivor to inherit all in case of
the decease of either. The Brahmin died—five months
after wards 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
airine, 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 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 coart of
Baba's sieves 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,
K ben 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 than 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 having joined the persecu-
tion against her sister, and to be 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 unknown in Oriental history.
The family of the banker a ere 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 expose 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 decisions.' The cruel Baba, 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 21. a year of
duty for papers which will never enter the post-cffice.
So long as postmasterships areconsidered 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 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 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 8,000/. a-year of bonus to the sinecure, for which
nothing whatever is received in return.
" Mr. R. M. Stephenson and the engineering staff of
the Bengal Railway have arrived at Calcutta, and 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 the Court of
Directors. The moat feasible 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 7} per cent. gross gain may
be looked fur; from this fall to be deducted the charges
for working the line. Past inquiries with the cost of
course become useless, and an entirely new scheme,with
a new guarantee on a much larger capital than at pre-
sent, must be secured. We have no doubt of the
India House coming into any reasonable measure that
can be laid before them; past occurrences are anything
but calculated to secure the confidence of capitalists.
We mentioned in our Overland Summary of the 17th of
April that some such result as this was inevitablei. the
statement was met by the emphatic contradiction of the
London board. Unfortunately its accuracy was not
only notorious to every mau 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 dispatch of last mail Captain Newbold,
one of the most distinguished of our English 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 uu-
looked for. He died at Mahabuloshwar on the 29th of
May. lie was cut off without a moment's warning, in
he midst of his studies.

sOidneenooyf, our mLoasrtkewnotretrhpyr,isihnags
bmeeadoicoaol t moeffn
bayt
ohthoePre.
lera—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
joined by Colonel G. St. P. Lawrence, from Peshawur,
who has obtained sick leave till January next, the duties
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. Etimonstone, C.S., has 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, and has called for the reasons
which induced him to resign. It is further said that in
future there is to bea commissioner for Upper as well a 3
Lower Sinde, and that both are to be under the orders
of the Lahoro Commission.
" The Nizam'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 Poonah on the 31st of 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 blussoorie
on the sth inst.
" Trade is at a standstill."

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
BOMBAY MARKETS, FROM THE 25TH 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 per cent. discount. Fours have been sold at 85.
Shares aro comparatively neglected, but we hear of
some transactions in those of the Bank of Bombay at
20 per cent. premium. Orientals we quote at 164 per
cent. discount, and Agras at 41 per cent. discount.
The itnrort 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 supplies
have arrived since the date of our last report, but while
the present high prices for cotton aro maintained, we
can look but for light supplies of .alanchester 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 its 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
qr. per piece ; and bleached jacconets 1,800 pieces at
from 3r. to sir. p.p. In other descriptions there have
been but few transactions. . .

Cotton 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 11i at
12 annas, and Turkey red, q,r. per lb.
Metals—Copper—Sheathing, tiles, and braziers', are
firm and in good demand. A small quantity direct from
Australia has sold for 47}r. per cwt. Iron—Swedish
bar is in request, while British bar, nail rod, sheet and
hoop and Swedish steel, are but little inquired for. Lead
—Sheet as before, dull; pig in request.
Cochineal—We have heard of a sale of 2,0001b5., at
2r. 3a. per lb. The market is dull, but prices remain
firm.

Saffron—No transactions.
Woollens—The only sales effected during the month
have been 144 pieces scarlet, 54 inch 22 yards, at lir.;
and 8 pieces 62 inch 19 yards, at 2ir. per yard. In
flannels we hear of sales of 100 pieces at 7,100 at 10a.,
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.
Maine 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, very dull.