The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-11 00:00:00

unscrupulous, had they been applied to, would, no doubt, have
acknowledged every farthing of the debt, on purpose to make
the British Government pay it, and the more so as they were
then sanguinely expecting to be restored to their dominions,
where torture would soon have squeezed back all the money
from the Hindoos. The Sindian Mussulmans have acted with
less asperity, for their transactions were not pecuniary, and
they show no vindictive feeling towards the Beloochees, but
seem content at being emancipated from their thraldom. The
three races under the Ameers were, in fact, precisely the
Normans, Saxons, and Jews of England under the first Norman
Kings ; but with this difference, that the Saxons bad laws, the
Sindians none.

At the moment of conquest, and for a long time after, no
artizans could be found; the mechanical industry of Sinde was
driven away by oppressive exactions, and workmen came from
Bombay ; now they are flocking in so rapidly from every part
that appeals have been made from neighbouring states against
the emigration of their subjects to Sinde.
The Indus, in consequence of its Protean nature, is still a
doubt and a puzzle with reference to its commerce; and so
shortly after the violence of eonquest and revolution no strongly
marked progress in commerce can be fairly expected in a
barbarous country. The thing is impossible ; the din of arms
has scarcely ceased, and the Ameers, abetted by their British
partisans in India and elsewhere, have never ceased inculcat-
ing a belief that they are to return to Sinde. The effect of
this, to say the least of its imprudence, has been most mis-
chievous to commerce. Take an instance : an inhabitant of
Kurachee, who is the greatest merchant and the richest man in
Sinde, has turned all his convertible property into gold, silver,
and jewels, and has retired to Delhi ; at the same time inform.
ing the Governor, that if he could assure him that the Ameers
would not return, or guarantee his security if they did, he
would remain, and whenever the English dominion of Sinde
should be established past a doubt he would return ; but that
his known good-will to the English would not only ensure his
being ruined, but tortured also, if the Ameers came back ;
wherefore he took the opportunity of British protection to re-
move out a those princes' reach, with all his property ! This
is not an islolated case, but one of many, and even some of the
British officers themselves are afraid to build, or are doing so
with the fear of losing their property ; they therefore live in
tents, as no other quarters are allowed them by the Company.
But, in despite of all this, Kurachee has nearly doubled its po-
pulation since the conquest; mercantile speculations have be-
gun to show signs of activity, and the Lady of the Lake was
expected last March direct from London to Kurachee with a
cargo of something more than was exactly necessary for the
mere military consumption in that country. This swallow,
therefore, promises a future summer.
The shikargurs, or wooded bunting-grounds of the Ameers,
are likely to turn to enormous account ' • large forests on the
banks of a large river must ever be valuable, and the Governor
of Sinee took the early precaution to place them under the
charge of an especial department, by which they base been care-
fully attended to, and are soon, it is said, to yield great profits.
But in everything relating to the regeneration of such a country
and people extreme patience is above all things necessary, and
the magical effects of wealth and enterprise in Eng-
land spoils us for the slower progress of other lands.
Nevertheless, there is strong reason to believe that trade
is very rapidly increasing even under all these disadvantages,
although on the part of Sinde the exchange must as yet be
in raw materials alone, but to what amount is not yet ascer-
tained. Her chief produce is indigo, sugar, wool, tobacco,
opium, grain, alum, sulphur, salt, and saltpetre; and by an
experimental garden, formed by Sir Charles Napier's orders, at
Kurachee, it is proved that every kind of vegetable yet tried,
as well as fruits of all species, flourish surprisingly. There
seems also strong reason to believe in the presence of both iron
and coal, if not in Sinde, at least close to it, in the Bolan Pass,
and in Schwistan, close to the Indus. As the climate of Sinde
is only unhealthy on the banks of' the river, subject to inunda-
tion and consequent malaria, sickness will abate whenever the
waters are brought under control, but probably never be en-
tirely removed ; there are now, however, sanguine hopes
entertained that, in consequence of the precautions, suggested
by reason and experience, which the Government will pro-
bably soon have completed, little or no loss of Europeans will
occur next bad season, and at all others Sinde is a healthy
climate, except in the usual effects of great heat on European
constitutions, which equally apply to every other part of India.
Neither Hyderabad nor Kurachee is unhealthy; the latter is
fast becoming a favourite Indian station, and in time will pro-
bably be the Alexandria of Sinde. Although the feudal chiefs
still hold their land on tenure of military service, the Governor
is gradually changing it into one of landlord and tenant;
yet this must necessarily be a very slow and difficult
operation, but which he, as it would seem, means ultimately
to follow up, by allowing the Jaghirdars to purchase their
lands on fee-simple ; a still more difficult measure, for these
chiefs have no money, neither can any of them write or read,
and they are all in debt to the Hindoos. These and other
obstacles, all well known to Government, must be removed
before any important change can take place in the land
tenure of Sinde. But " patience and perseverance"
is the Governor's maxim. I will conclude this letter by giving
a general outline of the machinery of Sinde government,
as conceived and established entirely by Sir Charles Napier,
almost in the midst of hostilities. The Executive Ministers,
if I may so call them, are a Government secretary, three
collectors of land revenue, and one collector of customs ;
the latter resides at Kuracbee, and regulates the Sinde trade
according to the Bombay forms, which have lately been revised
and corrected, and, besides being reckoned good in themselves,
have been wisely adopted in Sinde to facilitate the transaction
of business with that port, which must necessarily be for a long
time the focus of' Sinde commerce.
The three collectors of land revenue have eighteen deputy-
collectors under them, and under these again are " kardars"
and minor officers, all of them the same as under the Ameers ;
so that those in immediate contact with the people are not
strangers, only better behaved friends. Sir Charles Napier
divided Sinde into three great revenue districts or collector-
ships—namely, Kurachee, Hyderabad, and Sukkur.
That of Hyderabad includes all the British territory on the
eastern bank of the Indus, as far north as the dominions of Ali
Morad, which begin at Nowshara.
That of Kurachee includes the territory on the western bank
of the southern Indus as far as Sehwan ; and the collector-
ship of Shikarpore, or Sukkur, all the British territory from
Schwan to the northern boundary on both banks of the river.
The deputy-collectors are dotted about the different collec-
torships ; their duty is generally that of a magistrate and the
collecting of the revenue,—as well as to look after the conduct
of the kardars and other subordinate officers, to see
that the canals are properly cleaned previous to the inun-
dation of the Indus, and to make reports to Govern-
ment, through the collectors, on any improvements that
they think may be undertaken for the advantage of the people.
Each of these gentlemen keeps a diary, in which he inserts an
abstract of every letter that he receives or issues from his
office. He also records therein all his decisions relative to
questions of revenue and land. This diary is sent weekly to
the Government Seeretrry through the collector; the former
lays them before the Governor, who reads everything, and
thus becomes acquainted with every transaction carried on by
the collectors and their deputies; for the former also keep
their separate journals. This is a very simple, but for the
ruler a very laborious means of knowing the state and wants of
the country ; yet they are worth the labour, for the great ability
with which most of them are said to be drawn up must be of the
highest importance to the Governor, for several reasons. They
give him a thorough knowledge of what is going on; they
enable him to keep his system more consistent in its movements
by an uniform method of acting amongst the collectors and
their deputies; they enable him to judge of the abilities
of these officers, are a check to their assumption of powers
(were any so inclined) that do not properly belong to their
office, and restrain each within his legitimate bounds, of
which none can better judge than the author of the system
himself. Still he has given himself a hard task, unaided as
he is by any council or any of those great official establish-
ments which exist in all old and regularly organised govern-
ments. 'the whole machine is of his own construction, and
he must necessarily feel an anxious responsibility for the
movement of every wheel, to maintain which these diaries
afford him considerable instruction of a general nature, by the
opinions therein recorded on subjects with which he must ne-
cessarily be unacquainted. These opinions the Governor is
said to collate with great care, drawing from them his own
conclusions ; by these he is at least enabled to form opinions
that he could not otherwise accomplish, and if they are, as is
said and believed, extremely able producdons, he must gain
considerable information both in opinions and facts. The de-
sert tribes in the s orth-eastern part of Sinde, bordering on
Cutch, are placed on a different system ; they are very dis-
tant from Hyderabad ; are robbers, with peculiar manners
and customs ; and were in some degree independent of the
Ameers, the Rao of Cutch, or any other Government. Sir
Charles Napier, seeing the inapplicability of his main system of
financial administration to them, placed their country under
the direction of Lieutenant-Colonel Roberts, an officer of great
ability, who had been political agent in Cutch, and passed
many years of his life amongst those tribes. Under this gen •
tleman's able management they have been reduced to an or-
derly state ; and he draws a revenue from them, in accordance
with their own customs, which would all have been broken
through by an attempt to apply the Sindian system, and pro-
bably caused a revolt. The police is intrusted with the usual
du'ies of such an establishment, and consists of 2,000'
men, cavalry and infantry, well armed and tolerably drilled by
one European captain and three lieutenants of police ; all the
other officers are natives. The revenue of Sinde far exceeds
the expenditure, including the police ; but whether it includes
also a young battalion of Beloochees that Sir Chas. ^ apier has
already ventured to raise, arm, and discipline, I cannot say ;
but where I could speak with confidence I have, in this neces-
sarily long communication, endeavoured to add a few facts to
the slender and imperfect knowledge of Sindian affairs that has
hitherto satisfied, or rather dissatisfied, the public ; and have
the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant,
AN OFFICER.