The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-05-11 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL 'STANDARD.

FOREIGN .5- 'COLONIAL INTELLIGENCE. 1

THE OVERLAND MAIL

An extraordinary express in anticipation of the over-
land mail has arrived, bringing papers from Calcutta to
the 23d March, and from Bombay to the Ist of April.
The only intelligence from the Punjaub is corrective of
what has previously appeared in reference to the state.of
Sikh affairs in .general. No attempt on the life of Tej
Sing appears to have been anticipated, neither had the
tlazarch people resisted the government of Goolab Singh.
Goolab Singh does not seem a worse or more unpopular
ruler than the bulk of the chiefs around him. Since our
connection with him began we have had no fault whatever
to find with him. He has at our suggestion cleared his
dungeons of state prisoners, restored lands unjustly es-
cheated, and abolished suttee and female infanticide. No
attempt to prevent the Durbar meeting on Sunday had
been made, or to restrain the movements of the Queen
Mother or her son. No commemoration of any of our
victories had occurred in the Sikh capital. Everywhere
the country was tranquil ; trade and cultivation were
everywhere advancing as the public confidence increased-;
and a stern system of inquiry into the state of the finances
of the country had been entered on with a view to retrench-
ment

We are sorry to say there is nothing cheering in
the commercial intelligence from either of the Presiden-

cies. Instead of an improvement in the demand for
manufactured goods, as was expected, there had been a

, .
decided falling off in the sales, and also a decline in prices.
The money markets of. Calcutta, as well as Bombay, were

most unusually tight, a state of things for which we have
seen no good reason assigned, as they were yet free from
the influence of the,causes that are acting with such force
At Calcutta it appears that the banks

-..-.._ the rate of discount on private paper to
cent., and on the government bills to 8 per cent. This is
extravagantly high, even in India, although even these
rates have been thrown into the shade by the unparallelled
charges made on commercial paper in London within the
last few days. The only favourable portion of the intelli-
gence is the declaration of the Treasury, that they will
make advances on the hypothecation of goods to Europe
to the extent of £1,255,040 within the financial year in-
stead of £800;000, the amount applied during the past

had rail,

CULTIVATION OF COTTON •IN INDIA.—The. Indian pa-
pers received by the present mail show that the question
of a decrease of cotton cultivation, which is ascribed to the

prevailing system of c

ye land taxation, is likely to
and it is

be made the subject of serious investigation
stated that a committee has been appointed by the
vernment to conduCt the inquiry, The facts and figur

brought forwar

'y the writers are

.ing in the ex

and clearly establish the case of the ZeMindars, or land
proprietors, who, from the oppression exercised towards
them, have been, in a measure, obliged to abandon the
cultivation. The question of Transit, however, we doubt
not, bears quite as deeply as that of taxation upon the in-
trinsic points of this important subject.—Times.

AMERICA

CAPTURE OF VERA CRUZ AND S

By the Prince Albert, Captain Sober, which arrived on
Wednesday evening at Liverpool; the Arcolo, Captain
Hodlas, which reached the river on Thursday morning,

id the Yorkshire, which arrived on Friday night, have
,eived New York papers to the 17th ultimo. The news

is highly important. a
The city. of Vera Cruz and the castle of San Juan
d'Ulloa, were surrendered to the American army under
Major-General Scott, after a destructive bombardment of
three days and a half, in which the Mexican loss is esti-
mated at a thousand killed and wounded, and the loss of
the Americans at only 15 killed and 50 wounded. On the
22nd of March, the town was summoned, and, in conse-
quence of the reply of the governor, at two o'clock that
day the bombardment commenced, and was continued at
intervals till the 26th, when overtures were made by Gen.

Landert, on whom Gen. Morales had devolved the prin-
cipal command, which led to the surrender of the town
and castle on the 20th of March.

The following is from the New York Herald :—On the
second day of the bombardment an offer was made to sur-
render the town, but General Scott would not accept the
town without the castle, and two days more of bombard-

ment ensued, when the soldiers of the garrison, listening
to the entreaties of the suffering inhabitants, compelled
the general commanding to surrender both town and
castle. General Morales refusing to act in the premises,
resigned or retired, when General Landero succeeded to
the command, and signed the convention for the sur-

render

The bombardment of four days placed the town in
ins, under which great numbers of non-combatants
Einar,. buried ThP htlmhard_

Ment is represented to have been terrific, and to its
thunders succeeded the moans of the dying in every part
of the town for several days afterwards.
General Scott offered to the inhabitants, foreigners,
retreat from the town prior to the commence-
ment or operations.

&c., a s

" Except a few shots from the gun-boats, not a shot
was fired from the castle. The navy bore but little part
in the attack ; a battery of navy guns, under the com-
mand of navy officers, did great execution in battering
down a portion of the walls of the town and effeeting a
breach. The army did little more than to bombard the
town. The skirmishing at the landing of our troops
tested the nerves of our untried troops, and Colonel Har-
ney, with some dragoons and a few pieces of light artil-

this ability at the late assizes, ,plentifully, over the
jury, the bar, the witnesses, and the audience, with a
.degree of impartiality which, however, many may smart
under the application, leaves none of them reason to com-
plain that they had more or less than their share. Thus
to one of the loudest of the learned counsel he defined
oratory to be " making a great speech, to show that pick-
ing a pocket is a virtuous action." One of the witnesses,
WHO presented the qnintescence -of " a very nice young
man," he covered with confusion, by requesting him to
"drop his ultra-gentility of tone and raise his voice."
One of the special jury, too, having asked permission to
question a witness, was politely permitted to do so " if he
pleased, particularly as it would form an agreeable variety."