The Sun. — 1861-12-13 (London, England)

PUNJAB.  The revenue of the Punjab in the financial year 1859-60, £2,957,058, was 20 lakhs of rupees over that of the previous year, an increase due in great part to the imposition of the trade tax, extending taxation over the non-agricultural population. Large .sums were laid out upon roads and canals; but the entire local expenditure, including the cost of the local corps, left a surplus of £1,187,417. The Imperial charges, however, in respect of the reguli r army and military public works would go far towards turning this into a deficiency of as large an amount. The correspondence carried by the post has trebled since 1855, a proof of the value of rudimental education. The number of scholars increased largely.in the year. A first-class school was established by the Government at Lahore, in which, to meet-the views of the chiefs and courtiers of the old Sikh monarchy resident there, a higher department was created, into which none but the sons of persons eligible for the Governor-General's durbar are admissible ; without this they would not be sent at all. The change which may be hoped for in the Sikh aristocracy may be measured by the fact that Runjeet Singh used to keep his Royal accounts by cutting notches on a stick. The police report a slight increase of crime in the year, but a larger proportion was detected and punished than in the previous year. Of the cases reported threefourths were brought to trial, and of the persons tried three-fourths were convicted; and above a fourth of the property stolen was recovered. The police reports assert the gradual extinction of infanticide, and the extinction of thuggee is only prevented by the number of old hardened practitioners at large. The returns from the district courts show above 6,000 sentences, of which flogging was a part or the whole ; a recent change in the penal laws had extended the list of crimes to which this punishment is allotted. The practice of poisoning by giving dutoora has attracted attention. Dutoora grows in many parts of the Punjab, and it is given sometimes in the form of a sweetmeat to a traveller, or mixed up in a family dinner by the poisoner disguised as a fakeer or a Brahmin, or administered to a dancing girl in order to plunder her of her ornaments, or to a cartman for the sake of his bullocks, the accomplices hanging back until the drug has taken affect. One man, a Mussulman, confessed to 17 of these murders. It was considered that it would be necessary to make the possession of concealed dutoora a criminal offence. Ignorance and superstition cause the people to be easily imposed upon by designing characters. Some agitation was created in the coarse of the year by rumours of the appearance of the "Imam Mehndee," a prophet expected by the Mahomedans at the end of the world. Several persons were convicted of publicly uttering sedition, and sentenced to various slight punishments, which had the effect of putting an end to the temporary excitement. It came out also that there had been a discussion among certain Mahomedans employed in the educational department concerning the lawfulness, in reference to their faith, of sewing the British Government. The frontier tribes were a source of some trouble. A plundering expedition of 3,000 Mahsoods, a principal branch of the Wuzeree tribe, was most gallantly checked by Ressaidar Sahadut Khan, of the sth Punjab Cavalry, the native officer at the frontier post of Tank, with less than 200 men at his command. He led the Mahsoods to follow him until he reached ground where cavalry could act, and then, in the midst of their shouts of derision and an ill-directed matchlock fire, to their amazement the little body of cavalry faced about, charged the wild disunited mass of hill-men, and put them to almost instant rout. Personally brave and of vigorous muscular frames, these warriors wanted the power of combination to resist a charge Effectually; and the whole body became a helpless rabble, and lost a tenth of their number before they regained the safety of the mountain pass. Our loss was one killed and 15 wounded. The officer did not go unrewarded for his judgment and intrepidity; a sword of honour was presented to him, and he waft admitted to the second class of the Order of British India, with the title of Bahadoor. Upon the whole, the year was one of progress and prosperity in the Punjab. The Mahomedan population, excluded from the city of Delhi on its capture by our troops, were allowed to return, and the attachment was taken off their houses.  COUNTRY litARl E 2 S.  ~.. ~.