The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-06 00:00:00

THEATRE ROYAL, ADELPHI.
THIS EVENING
Will be repeated a New Drama, entitled CLARISSE ; or, The
Merchant's Daughter. Martial, Mr. Webster ; John Cabot, Mr.
Munyard ; Barbillon, Mr. Wright ; Galon, Mr. Paul Bedford;
Clarisse, Madame Celeste; Milanie, Miss Woolgar.
To be followed by SEEING WRIGHT.
After which, will be repeated, THE BIY KING; or, Petite
Peccadillos. Louis XV., Madame Celeste; De Lauzum, Miss Wool-
gar. In the course of the piece, Grand Review of the lufantint
Infantry.
To conclude with MOTHER AND CHILD ARE DOING WELL.

,To

sufferers from the want of the commodity, this " salt
duty" has never been collected. The plain fact is, that
at present there is a deplorable want of high roads, even
of a practicable kind, throughout the Peninsula. The
system and the scale on which the land-tax is collected
in India haves to the Government little or no pretext
for demanding, of those who would chiefly benefit
by the extension and improvement of these high-
ways, further contributions on account of the
expenses incident to the construction and mainte-
nance of such roads. Now salt is a very bulky
commodity. Without the advantages of roads fur
its transport, of vs hat value to the ryot who toils
in the most sequestered villages within the Madras
presidency, or to the midland cultivators of Behar, of
the Mysore, or the lloab, are the salt treasures of the
north-west and the north cast, the eastern shores and
the western, and the south-eastern provinces of llin-
dostan ? If railroads existed, how different would be
the aspect of affairs in this instance ! That which is
now loaded with " transit" and other charges would
be delivered, at any or every village of the Peninsula,
with only a fractional charge to the consumer for its
carriage beyond the Government duty, which latter
already is much diminished, as well as the transit dues
(co unaccountably revived after their abolition by Lord
ELLENBOROUGH), will no doubt soon be finally extin-
guished. What would thus occur to salt would, of
course, equally take place with regard to treasure and
stores. The conveyance of the former, owing to the
great bulk of the currency of the country being in silver
rupees (not to speak of the cowrie shells, one thousand
of which represent but a solitary coin of this kind,
but which are not so much the object of transport
out of one district into another)—this conveyance
is a most formidable item of charge to private
individuals, especially if they be engaged in factory
property connected with the cultivation of indigo,
in inland trade, &c. But to the Government it is one of
enormous magnitude. The almost general impractica-
bility of the roads is aggravated by the tedious character
of the navigation of the great rivers, in boats which
every night are brought to an anchorage in the stream,
and delayed till daybreak next morning. Before the
introduction of steam•-boats on the Ganges, an officer,
ordered to Allahabad, consumed as much as three or four
months in the inland passage from Calcutta with his
baggage, &c. But we rejoice to find that the present
Governor-General, deeply impressed with the wisdom
and necessity of consolidating the permanency of British
power in India on firmer and es -• e.teseetve bases than
tnose to be supplied by military conquests, is directing
all the energies of his powerful mind—in the very first
place, after maturing his noble plans of native education
and advancement—to the application of steam navigation
on the Ganges and the Jumna, and even the Indus, and
to the organisation of a grand and comprehensive plan of
trunk railway lines throughout the length and breadth of
his magnificent government. Thus, over those fair but
benighted regions, which have slumbered for ages in the
disgraceful moral lethargy—encouraged, for their own
bad purposes, by the crafty ministers of a degrading
and idolatrous superstition—through the wide em-
pire bequeathed by the first Mogul Sultauns to their
degenerate successors,—and amidst the fertile but neg-
lected territories ravished from their original possessors
by the fierce and faithless Mahratta, or the piratical and
unscrupulous Rajpoot, European invention and capital
are about to extend the peaceful but nobler and more
enduring invasion, and triumphs of European science
and arts, and institutions. Railroads will bring the timid
and effeminate inhabitant of the plains of Bengal into a
safe, and by degrees a cordial commurion with his
fiercer compatriots of the mountainous regions of the
north-west. The military tribes of the Upper Provinces
will gradually assimilate their more predatory and violent
pursuits to the tranquil occupations of the cultivators
and the merchants of the Lower. Railroads have, al-
ready, so far triumphed over the prejudices they had at
first to encounter, that they are now universally ad-
mitted to be adapted for the most rapid, most certain,
and most extended career of civilisation, in an empire,
which, like India, has witnessed in an era which even
tradition does but dimly reach, the highest point of re-
finement, of luxury, perhaps even of letters. From that
lofty position she rapidly declined, under the iron rod of
her Moslem masters; and eight or nine hundred years
of unmitigated despotism had almost blotted out her
grander recollections from the page of history, when the
association of her native soldiery, with those of Britain,
once more opened for her a field of noble distinction, and
acquired for her people new rights and establishments.
Railroads, alone, were wanting to give combination and
effect to her reviving energies, in order to make them
available to the progress of her ameliorated civil and
social instituti nn:;; and she has now the happiness to
possess a Governor-General who is urging on that noble
work with all the profound sagacity and administrative
rigour of his bold, capacious, and unfettered intellect.

We hear from various quarters great complaints
against the late decision of the Court of Aldermen on
the election of Lord Mayor for the city of London. We
am-sns, s uw subject,
for anything so derogatory to the character of the City,
solcontrary to the established practice of the Corporation,
and so unfair, selfish, and revengeful, has hardly ever
disgraced a civic community. But we are surprised that
the affair has been allowed to pass by with so little noise,
and that the Livery and the different wards represented
by the junior aldermen do not bestir themselves, and
assert the honour and dignity of what was regarded once
as the most powerful, influential, and independent cor-
poration of Christendom. The time was when a vote of
that body carried with it an effect not much inferior to
that of the House of Commons, when it was looked up to
by all the civic bodies throughout the United Empire,
and could not be treated with indifference either by the
Sovereign or the Legislature. It gave its opinion on
questions of peace and war, on any great domestic event,
whether it was a Bill of Pains and Penalties instituted
by a libertine Sovereign against his Queen, or a State
prosecution against some obscure individual who risked
his property and his life in the cause of freedom—and
that opinion, not unfrequently, was echoed by a vast
proportion of the community. Within the last few
years, however, there has been a sad falling off in this
respect. If we recollect right, the present LORD
MAYon tried to get up a meeting of the citizens to ex-
press their disapprobation of the Maynooth grant, and
some resolutions to that effect were passed, but it made
so little noise at the time, and was regarded with such
complete indifference, that the impression has bren
almost effaced from the public mind. But this is only
one obscure instance. On all the great topics of the
day the voice of the city of London is rarely heard.
The income-tax, the corn-laws, the new tariff, the re-
dress of Irish grievances, and twenty other public mea-
sures, that would, under similear circumstances, have Oc-
cupied the attention of the City Parliament, have been
allowed to pass unnoticed, while their time has been oc-
cupied with personal affairs, or corporation jobbing,
tending little to raise the character of the City, or benefit
the population over whom they have almost supreme
rule. Looking at their acts with the utmost impartiality,
we must say that their very last—the election of Alder-
man JOHNSON to the Mayoralty—is the least excusable
and the least creditable to the City. We will not enter
into the merits or demerits of Alderman WOOD. The
hasty, rash, and, perhaps, unfounded attack made upon
him by Lord DENMAN raised the cry against him, and
we are not surprised at it, considering the just respect
entertained by the great body of the people to-
wards the judges, and the impartial manner in
which they perform their duties. But Lord DENMAN'S
opinions will not always bear a strict scrutiny. He
is, perhaps, more than any other judge on the bench carried
away by the impetuosity of his temper or by a hasty con-
elusion, and, as in the affair of the privileges of the
House of Commons and the rights of the subject, shows
a vacillation which lessens in a great measure the effect
of a dogmatic opinion, though delivered in a hall ofjus-
tice. We will judge Alderman WOOD rather by his own
compeers, by his colleagues in office, men who have
known him long, and who have besides devoted no little
time to ascertain the weight of the objections urged
against him. Ile was returned by the Livery along with
Alderman JOHNSON, and judging from the display in
the Common Hall, bad a very large majority. The
Court of Aldermen, however, departed from the usual
course by electing his junior, but only by a majority of
two. And how was that majority obtained ? By the
votes of the aspirants to office who would not forego
for one year this rich prize, but like a brute
herJ, ran down and trampled on the stricken deer
to make themselves more secure. Of the senior alder-
men, those who had served the office of Lord Mayor
and knew its duties, seven voted for him and only five
against him. Alderman LUCAS would also have voted
for him, but was prevented by infirmity. The same
cannot be said of Alderman THOMPSON, but possibly he
had some other reason for not recording his vote. Then
of those who looked to the civic chair only, two had the
self-denial to forego their own claims, and that for one
year, while not fewer than seven, including his rival'
who should in fairness have remained neuter, if he had
not courage to be generous, recorded their votes against
him. We know not how Aldermen HOOPER and MOON
would have voted, but they had at all events the discre-
tion and good sense to keep away, and, as far as regarded
themselves, left the decision to parties who
bad no selfish interests to serve. The pub-
lic cannot rest satisfied with such a result.
It is not only unfair to Alderron WOOD, but an
act of Contempt towards those whorl he re-