The Manchester Examiner. — 1848-02-19 (Manchester, Greater Manchester, England)

SALT TRADE OF INDIA. —We anchored last night off Nairingunga, the great salt depot for the natives in this part of India. I say for the natives, because Chittagong is the government salt depot; but the native merchants will not send their boats to Chittagong on account of the danger, real or imaginary, of the voyage; and, consequently, the Company are obliged to hire the huge clumsy vessels we saw lying in the river there to carry the salt to Nairingunga, from whence it is circulated by the many veins and arteries of the enormous Delta throughout this part of Bengal. Nairingunga is a very populous place; its numerous salt-go-downs look like so many ill-formed haystacks. The people flocked in crowds this morning to look at the steamer, which, probably, many of them now saw for the first time. The salt merchants are chief!), Armenians, a rich and numerous race at Dacca; and their character does not stand very high for honesty, as I am assured by the Baptist missionary, who professes to know, and probably does know, this part of India very well, that to every maund of salt received from Chittagong they add a maund of mud before it is retailed to the smaller merchants and sent up the country. The profits to the company from the salt monopoly must be very large, being a tax which necessarily catches everybody. Indeed, it presses with peculiar severity on the poor natives of India, to whom salt fish is a most important article of food. Colonial Church Chronicle. ALLEGED MURDER AT Fax.—A very painful sensation has been created in this district, in reference to the mvsterious death of an aged female, named Elizabeth Grabb, Who, for some considerable time past bad resided with her husband at a place called Littleport, a few miles distant. The deceased expired on Friday last, somewhat suddenly, but then it was generally supposed by the inhabitants of the village that her death was perfectly natural. The suddenness of the deceased's death made it necessary that an inquest should be held on the body. Accordingly, Mr. W. Marshall, the coroner, was apprised of the death, and that functionary forthwith issued his warrant for an investigation to be opened on Saturday last. Upon that occasion the jury was sworn, and after the body of the deceased had been viewed, evidence of such a startling character was received relative to the cause of death, that the coroner at once adjourned the inquiry until Monday.. In the meantime Mr. Laxton, of Littleport, and Mr. Stephens, jun. of Ely, both surgeons, were ordered to make a post mortem examinatiop of the body. Upon the reassembling of the coroner and jury the medical evidence showed that the head of deceased was most extensively injured from external blows, apparently inflicted with some heavy instrument. There was no doubt expressed by the medical men that the deceased had died from the effects of violence. The evidence of the other witnesses went so far as to fix the guilt upon the husband of the deceased. The jury therefore returned a verdict of wilful murder against John Grabb, the husband, who was forthwith committed to Cambridge Castle to take his trial at the next assizes.