The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-07-02 00:00:00

SHIPPING.

Arrived at New York since steamer sailed :—Glencople,
Cardiff; Barque Wynandote, Limerick; Cutter Adelaide,
arrived at Abacoa.
(Signed) D. MACCLENAGHAN,
STANDARD, Liverpool.
D. H. CRAIG, Halifax, N.S.
W. A. THOMPSON,
Courier and Enquirer, New York.

INDIA.-THE OVERLAND MAIL.

GREAT LOSS OF LIFE AT BENARES.

An express in anticipation of the Overland Mail ar-
rived on Saturday. The dates are Calcutta, May 13 ;
Bombay, May 25.
Dr. Butter and Captain Fagan, formerly directors of
the Benares Bank, have been tried by court-martial and
dismissed the service. The charges against them were
that they had induced parties to purchase stock by repre-
senting the bank as profitable and flourishing, when they
knew it to be the reverse, and had in consequence can-
celled a number of their own unpaid-up shares; that they
expressed their high opinion of a secretary when they
were on the point of denouncing him for incompetence;
of having put forth false reports as to the state of the
bank, with the view of misleading the shareholders ; and
of having cancelled shares of their own at par value, when
they knew them to be at a discount of 25 per cent. in the
market.

The Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of
India are at Simla. The Governor of Bombay quits Ma-
habuleshwar for the Deccan, where he will sojourn during
the rains, three days hence ; he will, it is understood, re-
turn to the hills in October, and come to Bombay when
the cold weather sets in. The Commander-in-Chief and
staff are at Khandalla ; the weather there is so hot, that
part of the staff will, it is said, proceed immediately to
Psona.

Cholera is still very prevalent amongst the natives—no
Europeans, so far as we have heard, have yet suffered.
The monsoon threatens to be late of setting in.
Colonel Grant has resigned the appointment of Adju-
tant-General of the Bengal army, and been succeeded by
Colonel Tucker, a young and able and eminently popular
officer.

Trade continues dull, and the season may be considered
as closed.

Details of the calamity at Benares, where upwards of
1000 persons lost their lives by the explosion of magazine-
boats loaded with gunpowder, forms the great topic of the
present mail. A fleet of thirty boats, containing ordnance
stores, including no less than 3000 barrels gunpowder, had
reached Benares, on their way to the Upper Provinces.
Here they anchored late in the afternoon of the Ist of
May, off the principal landing-place, and close to the
hotel in the centre of the town. Tne place, it seems, is
usually occupied by vessels of this sort. They were under
the care of a warrant officer, who seems to have quitted
his charge on arriving at Benares. About ten o'clock a
burst of flame was seen for an instant to proceed from one
of the boats, followed by a terrific explosion, heard or
felt ten miles off, which spread destruction and dismay
everywhere. The boats themselves were, of course, de-
stroyed ; houses were shaken to their foundations, and
doors and windows blown in. Four hundred and twenty
human beings were killed on the spot, and the list of
killed and wounded includes no fewer than 1200. Ar-
rangements were being made to have the magazines of
gunpowder, hitherto too frequently situated in the centre
of great towns or thickly-peopled neighbourhoods, re-
moved to situations less pregnant with danger. A letter,
dated Benares, May Ist, states, " About half-past ten
p.m. a fleet of magazine boats, anchored under the old
Fort at Raj Ghent, took fire, three thousand (more or
less) barrels of gunpowder exploded, carrying death
and devastation before it, throwing down the high
bank and all the houses, and shattering everything.
The hotel was blown to pieces, and most of the
servants killed. Two young officers sleeping there,
strange to say, have escaped with rather severe injuries.
Scarcely a soul of the crews, and only two sepahees of the
guard, escaped. Hands, feet, heads, trunks, and entire
corpses lie strewed in all directions ; every house for
many hundred yards round-was unroofed, and many shook
down. The exact amount of killed is not yet known.
Three hundred prisoners are hard at work exhuming the
victims ; the two Shazadahs, whose houses were right
and left of the hotel, have each lost their wives, and one
hie daughter, the other his nephew and many followers.
The toll-house over the hotel has come down entirely.
Not
,a boat appears to have escaped Conductor For-
syth s wife has not been found, and a river merchant lost
all his boats, and his wife and some other relative. The
man has gone mad. As far as can be ascertained, the fire
took place at the lower end of the fleet. The powder
boats being immediately under the hotel, it would seem
that, had the boat been cut adrift at once, the rest might
have been saved. The concussion was so great that win-
dows were broken in Secrole, and the ground shook. The
noise was terrific. Mr. Gordon's house is much shaken ;
all hands were thrown out of their beds. The number of
killed is variously estimated, but it must be more than
500, for the crew amounted to 400, and very few, it is
believed, escaped. A very large portion must have been
blown into the river. Measures are being taken to ascer-
tain,

The cradle for the Queen of Spain's expected baby has
been made in Paris ; it will cost £6OOO.
The celebrated painter, Howe Vernet, has returned to
Paris from St. Fetersbargb,