INDIA.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, Issue 73, 8 December 1855, Page 2

INDIA.

[From the Sydney Empire.']

We have files of Madras aud Bombay journals to the 27th May. For the following summary of Indian intelligence we are mainly indebted to the Bombay Overland Times of that date. India seems peaceable almost throughout ; the closing m of the hot season and approach of the rains bringing about the period of langour and repose which, until September, keeps every thing but the elements which make up for it m their strifes, m a state of almost total quiescence. Some inconsiderable disturbances and one foul murder m Burmah constitute almost the sole exception to this uninteresting state of things. Captain Madigan, of her Majesty's 84th Foot, au officer of singularly quiet and gentle demeanour, having been employed m erecting, posts for the Electric Tele graph between Donabew and Henzadah m Pegu, was on the 23rd of April tied to a tree and speared to death, m revenge for the execution of the son of one of the chiefs, who had been hung some months ago by order of the ' Deputy Commissioner. He was obviously mistaken for a political officer, and though m possession of 1,400 rupees, which was offered by himself and by his servant if his life were spared, the murderers left his property untouched, but refused to spare him. Meanwhile the murderers of Captaiu Latter seem all to have been discovered, and we shall probably now have facts brought to light, clearing away entirely the aspersions cast on that officer at the time of his death, and explaining m what manner these atrocities, obviously planned by very different persons from those who put them m execution, are brought, to pass. A telegraphic notice has already been given of a brilliant affair at Dersamund on the 30th of April, where summary chastisement was inflicted by a single troop of cavalry and a company of infantry on about two thousand hill robbers of the Terar tribe, chiefly Oorukzaies. The place of the encounter is about fifty-five miles west from Kohat, where Major Coke, with a troop of the 4th Punjaub cavalry, land a company of the Ist Punjaub infantry, were stationed. For two days it had been rumoured that the enemy, to the amount of three thousand, had been collecting m the hills with the view of attacking our camp, and on the morning of the 30th, just after breakfast, two thousand of them were seen within half a mile of us, marching up aud down beating their drums, brandishing their swords, and discharging their matchlocks, with a view of enticing our troops out to attack them. As the position they held was a strong one, Major Coke resolved to wait until they abandoned it ; about eleven, a portion of them began to come still nearer us, and were shortly close enough to fire upon our pickets. The troop of cavafty

under Major Jacob and Captain Frazer now dashed out upon them, cutting down eight on the spot, and dispersing the remainder, who retired on their main body, and there seemed resolved on a stand. A company of Coke's infantry now advanced on them, and speedily sent them scampering over the hills, subject to total discomfiture, and leaving fifteen dead behind them ; on our side there was not a single casualty to deplore." A letter from Peshawur, bearing date sth May, gives the following as the true version of the above affair : — " For the last two days Major Coke had had intelligence that the hill men were collecting to the amount of 3,000, with the intention of attacking our camp. On the morning of the 30th, after breakfast, some 2,000 of them were seen on a hill about a mile and a half from our tents, marching up and down, with tom-toms playing, waving their flags and tulwars, and discharging their matchlocks, evidently with intent to entice our force up the hill to attack them. As its face was covered with breastworks, the invitation was declined. At 1 1, they began to descend towards camp ; the order to turn out was given, and the Brigadier and his staff went out to reconnoitre. His decision was to wait one hour, to see if they would venture into the plain. At halfpast 11, sure enough, down came a number of them and commenced firing at our advanced piquets. A troop of the 4th Puujaub cavalry, under Major Jacob and Captain Frazer, now dashed right gallantly at them, cutting down eight on the spot, and dispersing the remainder some distance into the hills, where they, retired on their main body, and made a stand. This, however, was of short duration, for a company of Coke's infantry, the Ist Punjaub, under Travers, coming up and opening fire upon them, they fairly turned tail, and, to the surprise of all, scampered up the hill side like a flock of sheep, closely followed by Coke's men. They were driven clear over the hill, and so completely did they lose heart, that when our infantry retired, their opponents did not attempt to fire a shot. They left behind them 15 dead, but no wounded, though these are not over estimated at three times that number. Two of our horses were killed, and three troopers slightly wounded. No artillery was used. A few sowars belonging to Khwaja Mahomed Khan, Chief Kuttucks, were with our horse and behaved very well. Thus were 2,000 men fairly driven over their own hills by one troop of cavalry and a company of infantry : it has been altogether a most successful affair. The enemy were Terar people, chiefly Oorukzaies ; the Ren of the village had nothing to do with the business, they are paying up their revenue. Dersamund is about 55 .miles west of Kohat." The Hyderabad country continues to be rent by internal dissensions, to be brought to a conclusion only when the dynasty of the Nizam ceases to reign. After having despatched the 10th Hussars and 1 2th Lancers, all idea has been suspended of sending more men from India to the Crimea this season. The 14th Dragoons were brought down from Meerut to Kirkee, having been first marched from quarters about the new year, returned to cantonments on the 19th January, and then started a second time shortly after, nearly a two mouths' march, on purpose for embarkation, reaching just m time to get six weeks of the roasting winds of the Deccan, and be so close on the South-west monsoon, that it was impossible to embark them at all! In December, when the order for troops from India arrived, the Governor-General had an army of 280,000 men at his disposal, or about double that deemed adequate for the tranquil maintenance of the country a few years ago, when we had formidable enemies m the midst of us and on all our borders. Of these nearly .15,000 were Company's European troops ; 26,800, or nearly 7,000 more than the law allows for India, belonged to the Queen's army. Of these, 20,000 could have been spared without the slightest difficulty or danger, and might by the Ist of May have been before Sebastopol, forming a heavier force by a tenth than the whole British army now attacking it, and consisting wholly of thoroughly seasoned men, accustomed to field service, a fourth of them at least within the last eight years sharers m the laurels of a dozen of victories. In place of sending off this magnificent army at once, we despatched some 1,200 cavalry, reserving, we presume, the remainder of the force for the campaign of 1856 aud future years, should the siege of Sebastopol last as long as that of Troy, which seems probable at the present rate of progress. We have given, under the head of Law Intelligence, some curious illustrations of the anomalous nature of the proceeding of the Company's Courts, and shall probably have occasion to continue the heading for the benefit of our English readers — we have offered no comment on ,them for the present. The prevalence of torture of the most horrible nature, with a view to the discovery of crime, has thus been made out m the Bombay presidency, as it had previously been m Madras. But it must be remembered that this is not a practice introduced or countenanced by the British Government, though it must necessarily have been known to a number of their European, and to most of their native servants ; the disclosure of it has filled them with not more horror than surprise, and it is from henceforth only that reproach can justly attach to them should they exhibit indifference or langour m discovering it and putting it down. Amongst an unboundedly timid, cowardly, and cruel people, for ever tyrants or slaves by turns, submitting to any cruelty or affront under despotisms so abominable as those preceding ours, which craven-hearted cowards, such as we have described, would have alone submitted to, the. resort to torture was part and parcel of the system of administration of twenty centuries. Like infanticide, like thuggee, like our bundergangs, and twenty other systems of atrocity, discovered only yesterday as it were, and the first of which alone, after seventy years of exertion, has been put down, it now, for the first time, has become known to us, and a shout is raised as if it had been introduced or countenanced by Englishmen. It is to be hoped that we shall immediately have commissions like that of Madras over all the Presidencies, that no room for scandal shall be left against the Government, and that everything the arm of authority can hope to accomplish may be attempted to bring to an end a

practice which would disgrace the most barbarous people. Mr. Landon's spinning-mill at Broach, some couple of hundred miles to the north of us, is now nearly finished and ready for work, and the machinery of a spinning-mill at Bombay, of about equal size, from 60 to 80 horse-power, has nearly all arrived, and the buildings are being proceeded with great rapidity. When the two come fairly into work, we shall have a solution of the very important question as to whether, with cheap native labour, we cannot manage to provide ourselves with our coarser cotton goods on the spot, where the staple' grows, than by giving it 24,000 miles of journey m the shape of raw cotton or manufactured, burdened with a score of commissions or sources of expense. The two great obstacles m the way are the difficulty of keeping up fine machinery, and the immense expense ■ of Europeans m India; the intense shortsightedness of all joint-stock companies, and the tendency amongst them to job and neglect their own affairs, which "seems m the East next to incurable. The Friend of India gives the following ■ amusing extract from a public journal pub* lished m the Teloogoo language, about a I brigade of giants now existing m the Cuddapah district, Madras : — ' " While the pilgrims were assembled about the 22nd of April last, at a celebrated temple of the God Shiva, on the hill of Stree Salem, m Cuddaper, some eighty individuals of unknown caste and tribe, of gigantic stature, and clad m steel, carrying hows and arrows, effected an entrance into the temple, and killing five cows on the spot, bedaubed the images with their blood, and then began to pillage the accumulated treasures of the temple. They next broke the images m pieces, and walked out of the temple, with large pieces of beef m their hands and mouths ! These giants were resisted by a small body of peona stationed to guard the temple, assisted by the pilgrims, some 1 0,000 m number, who were worsted m the encounter, the giants slaying some 30 peons and 70 pilgrims, and threatening that the Teroopaty idol should share a similar fate m the course of a couple of months."