INDIAN NEWS.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 56, 10 February 1843, Page 3

INDIAN NEWS.

News from Bombay, by the Fortitude, arrived at Singapore, extend to the 30th August. The Englishman of the 25th August contains an account of the failure of the house of Messrs. Fergusson (Brothers) and Co,, bankers, Calcutta. It is proposed to wind up the affairs of the firm by means of trustees. The amount of their debts is stated at 12,400,000 rupees. It is thought probable that the GovernorGeneral will levy a tax of twenty-five per cent, upon staff appointments and the allowances of the civil servants. The following have been appointed by the Governor-General as the Presidency Finance Committee, in accordance with the notification of his lordship, viz. : —G. A. Bushby, Esq., C.S. Revenue Department, F. Millett, Esq., of the Judicial Department, T. R. Davidson, Esq., C.S. Revenue Department, and C. B. Greenlaw, Esq., of the Marine Department. Suspicions are entertained that an attempt had been made to poison the artillery men at Kamptee by mixing poison with the bread, which is prepared by natives. The circumstance is undergoing investigation by a committee, and a portion of the bread has been forwarded to the Professor of Chemistry in the Medical College to be analyzed. A great number of the “ peasantry” of the lower provinces met in Government-place on the 10th August, to petition the Deputy-Go-

vernor to remit the land rent l’or the season, the rain having caused a shortcoming in their crops.

The palke bearers in Calcutta had threatened to strike, in consequence of some of a low caste having ventured to come upon stations hitherto appropriated to the higher castes. From late intelligence from Afghanistan it seems that the married officers who are prisoners, and who have been charged with deserting their posts in action to place their wives and themselves under Akbar Khan’s protection, regard Lady Sale as the person who originated this charge. One of the prisoners, Lieutenant Eyre, has transmitted to the Governor-Gene-ral’s Secretary a full narrative of the Cabool disasters, and a list of the killed and wounded, requesting that it might be published as soon as possible. It is stated in a letter from one of the married prisoners to the Editor of the Englishman, that the parties who went over lo Akbar Khan at Koord Cabool, did so by order of General Elphinstone. Captain M’Kellar, of the Colombo, has been appointed to the command of the India steamer. Lord Ellenborough was to leave Allahabad on the 24th August, and expected to reach Simlah, where he is to remain, about the Bth of September. The latest accounts from Jellalabad represent the force as being still inactive and expecting to be ordered to retire as soon as the cattle arrived and the weather became more moderate. Large supplies of cattle were on their way through the Punjab to Jellalabad. The heat still continued to be very great, but the sickness appeared to be abating. The Fort or Futtyabad, on the Cabool road, is occupied by a strong detachment of Sappers and Miners and two hundred of Tait’s horse. On the 24th July, a reconncisance was made by Brigadier Monteith in the neighbourhood of some forts belonging to Sekunder Khan. In this affair three men were killed and twenty-three wounded. On the 26th the brigade attacked the enemy and routed them, destroyed all the forts to the number of forty, and burnt or carried away all the property of Sekunder Khan. Captains Troup and Lawrence arrived at Jellalabad on the 2d August, from Cabool, on parole It was thought that their mission had reference to Dost Mahomed. The latest accounts from the prisoners represent them as all well, and Akbrfr Khan doing all he can to make them comfortable. It appears from the Eastern Star, of the 28th August, that orders had been issued for an advance on Cabool. No casualty bad occurred among the European officers since their surrender. The report of Colonel Palmer’s death is contradicted. The officers are said to be all in the town, of which they have the range ; but the Sipahies are distributed among the neighbouring villages, where they are obliged to perform the most degrading duties, being treated as slaves. They look forward with confidence to the advance of the forces to free them from tlieir miserable condition. The cholera is raging with frightful violence at Rangoon, and amongst the neighbouring villages—two towns had been deserted by their inhabitants. A singular case of embezzlement had just been adjudicated in the Bengal presidency, which very much unhinged the confidence of the natives in the British administration of justice. The facts of the case are shortly as follows : —Dyal Chaud Bysack, the Deputy Treasurer in Calcutta, an accredited officer of Government, some time in December last, received large sums of money from natives, in his official capacity at the Treasury, with which lie immediately absconded. The parties who had paid him the money applied to Government for repayment, and, not obtaining it, instituted an action at the Supreme Court, and obtained a verdict in their favor. Government was sentenced to refund the amount, because it' had been paid to its acknowledged agent. The delinquent, after having long eluded the vigilance of the police, was at length seized, an action for embezzlement was brought against him by his masters, whom he had defrauded—and he was acquitted on points of law. The law, therefore, in the estimation of the natives, is inconsistent with itself. The verdict in their favor formerly given being been construed into a verdict against the prisoner by implication. In accordance with a requisition addressed to the sheriff of Madras on the 15 th August, by certain respectable native inhabitants, a meeting was held at the Hall of the Hindoo Literary Society, for the purpose of presenting a farewell address to Lord Elphinstone. Captain W. G. Burn, the sheriff, having opened the meeting, and Streenevassa Pillay, Esq., taken the chair, the address was read by B. Pooroo Hothum Naidoo, a native. The character of the document, says the Athenamm, was such as we should have expected from the occasion. The sentiments it embodied evinced the lively gratitude and attachment which the native community felt towards his lordship for the deep interest he had invariably taken in their civil, political, and intellectual welfare. The number present was large, and demonstrated liow anxious they were to further the object in view. Six native gentlemen were requested to form themselves into a committee for the purpose of collecting subscriptions for the establishment of scholar-

ships in the Madras University in the name of his lordship, it appears, from the Englishman of the 20th of August, that there is a good prospect of a semi-monthly communication by steam between England and India being brought into operation, through an arrangement between Government, and the Peninsular and Oriental Company. The plan embraces a monthly communication by steam with China, of which Singapore will also have the benefit. The Ceylon Herald of the 2d August devotes a long supplement to a report of a debate in the Legislative Council on the second reading of a bill " for the prevention of mischief by dogs.” The bill proposed that all dogs found running at large should be forthwith destroyed—a severe measure, which was so repugnant to the humane feelings of Mr. Urquhart Stewart, that he moved as an amendment, that a tax of Is. 6d. per annum be paid by every person owning and possessing a dog. The amendment, however, was lost, and the bill carried. We learn, from the Bombay Times, that a specimen of rock containing quicksilver had been . some time since forwarded by a Dr. Malcolmsori at Aden to the Bombay Government, and has since been examined and reported on by the Assay Department of the Mint. The rock is a reddish coloured vesicular slag, which would, if found as an ordinary trap, be considered as a variety of amygdaloid, containing a considerable. quantity of red oxide of iron. The mercury is found in small globules adhering to the sides of the cavaties, so minute in general as scarcely to be visible to the naked eye, though readily discernable under a glass. When struck upon a board or table, they are shaken out and coalesce in a globule of considerable magnitude. From the fluidity and perfect spherity of this globule, the purity of the metal is discernible without actual analysis. This rock abounds very much all over Aden, and the mineral, it is expected, will soon form a valuable article of commerce. The Duchess of Kent has brought news from India to the 15th October. At that date Generals Pollock and Nott were rapidly advancing towards Cabool. The prisoners had been removed a considerable distance into the interior. It was rumored that a chief, who was independent of Akhbar Khan, had seized them, and that they would be given up when the British arrived at Cabool. Authentic intelligence had been received in the camp at Jellalabad of the doings of the forces in their advance towards Cabool. General Nott achieved a most splendid victory ouer the Aflghan force under Shumshoodeen Khan, Governor ef Ghuznie, on the 30th August, killing Shumshoodeen, taking his guns, two in number, routing his army, and burning* his camp. Ghuznie is now a heap of ruins, and it is supposed that General Nott would leave that place for Cabool on or before the 10th September. Pollock was expected to be there before the 14th or 15th. Shumshooaeen’s followers fled in every direction. Two Bombay cavalry officers were killed and two wounded on the 30th. Nott and his army are in the highest spirits, and they do not expect to meet with any resistance at Cabool. A. skirmish had taken place at Jugduliuck on the Sth instant, in which Captain Nugent, Deputy Assistant Commissary General, was killed by a ball in the head, General Sale struck by a spent ball, and about thirty soldiers wounded. Mahommed Shah Khan, satisfied with the superiority of our arms and strength, had retired to his fort at Lugman. It is expected, however, that the English will pay Lugman a visit, oust the wily old villain who so long had possession of the prisoners, and raze this fort, with all the other forts, to the ground. 64 men were killed and wounded. It is with feelings of horror we hear that some Affghan fiends burnt a man of H.M. 44th, whom they had possession of, in presence of the column as it was advancing on the heights; and fearing the flames might not prove fatal before our meu reached him, they cut his throat as they fled ! Several other atrocities have been perpetrated. As Monsieur Peyschier, the French merchant, was proceeding from Jellalabad to Peyscher with a Sikh guard, he was met by a party of Affghan freebooters opposite AJee Baghan. After a short scuffle the Sikhs ran off, leaving poor Peyschier to protect his little boy, about eight years old. It is said the villain killed the child, and the poor father had to carry the corpse before him on horseback to Dhakka, where it was interred. A letter from Peshawur says that Comet Vibait, of the sth L.C., left that place (on sick certificate) for the Provinces on the 7th inst. 40,000 rounds of British ammunition were found on the field on which Shumshoodeen had ventured to encounter General Nott.

The Bubble Bank. —The robbery of Major Lockyer, of Kissing Point, Parramatta River, of his whole property, to the amount of about 25,000/., by Mr. Boucher, on the part of the British and Australasian Bank, who purchased it for their bills, returned protested, which reduced the unfortunate gentleman to ruin, was brought before the Court of Chancery on the 28th Julv. — Ibid .

Lighthouse at Ft. .lauo de Cuba.—-A lighthouse has been erected on the table land, about 300 feet to windward, or east, of the Morro Castle, intended to indicate the entrance of this harbour, and thus prevent vessels from running to leeward of it during the night. The lanthorn has been lit, and will continue to be so from sunset to sunrise. It is a revolving light, forms its complete revolution in two minutes and a half, is ‘340 feet above the level of the sea, and may be seen at a distance of 30 to 34 miles. Singular Discovery of a Silver Coin of King William Rufus. A tew days since, a labouring man, who stated that be was enp’asred in digging up the foundation of an old bouse in the vicinity of Yv estminster Abbey, entered the premises of Mr. Tummond, who keeps the Sun public-house, in Brownlowstreet, Drury-lane, and throwing a silver coin upon the bar, asked Mr. Tummond, if he would let him have a pot of beer for it. Perceiving that it was good silver Mr. T. accorded with the man’s wish. On the following day, on showing it to a friend of his, he was informed it was a very rare and valuable coin of Rufus. The tnedal bears date 1090. The shield or escutchon contains a naked sword and three fleur-de-lis, on the reverse is a warrior, accoutred in mail, on horseback, with the superscription “ Concordia parvu crescent Tim Income Tax. —Sir Walter Scott, in his memorable description of Mrs. Bethune Baliol, in the “ Chronicles of the Canongatc,” savs, “ She was punctiliously loyal even in that most staggering test of loyalty, the payment of impests. Mr. Beauff'et, her butler, told me lie was ordered to offer a glass of wine to the person who collected the Income Tax; and that the poor man was so overcome by a reception so unwontedly generous, that he wellnigh fainted on the spot.” A severer piece of quiet satire on the obnoxious character of the tax can havdlv he conceived. Sir Walter little thought his friends, the Tories, would re-im-posc it in a time of peace. Taxes. —The whole of the Taxes imposed in Great Britain, in IS4-1, was: —Land-tax, 1,183,585/., other taxes, 51,997,000; in France —Land-tax, 23,950,000/., other taxes, 17,500,000/.; in Prussia —Land-tax,3,994,000/. other taxes, 3,067,000/; in Austria —Landtax, 8,795,000/., other taxes, 7,700,000/. Probate and legacy duty of 1,138,000/., not daid bv landholders. From the beginning of the reign of George the Third to 1834, 0,840,540 acres of waste land were enclosed. The British Queen. —The Belgian speculation of purchasing the British Queen , to run between Antwerp and New York, does not seem to have attained its object, the positive loss upon two voyages performed amounting to 8,800/. sterling. Will of'Justice Littledale. —The will of the late Justice Littledale, Knight, has just been sworn, in the Prerogative Court. The personal property has been sworn under 250,000/. " The bulk of the property goes to his daughter, who married Mr. Courtney, (who is one of the executors), to whom a dowry of 23,000/. was given at marriage. The will is of great length. ADVERTISEMENTS DISPLAYED IN THE BRAZILIAN JOURNALS. "Opportunity of obtaining a Waiting-worn an for One Shillings ! —To be raffled for, a wait-ing-woman, with a child eight years of age, and other objects of value. Tickets may be had at No. 91, Rua do Roserio.” “ To be sold, a little Mulatto, two years of age, very pretty, and well adapted for a festival present (Christmas box). No. 3, Rua dos Latoeiros.” “ To be sold, a wet nurse, Mulatto girl, aged 20 —has very good milk, her first child, now four months old. Rue da S. Pedro, No. ISO.” “ To be sold, a black woman, five months gone with child, fit for all kinds of service. Largo do Poco, No. 5.” “ To he sold, a waiting woman, with milk, and with a son eight months old. She may be had either with or without the child ; has the qualifications of a good waiting-woman, and is without vice, of any kind.” Vice being used pretty much in the jockey sense, as in England. THE AGE OF INTELLECT. Sunday “ Amusements” in the Regent’s Park. —The Regent’s-park, the opening of which for the rational recreations of the people was so stoutly and so successfully fought for by the vestry of Marylebone, has now become the Sunday rendezvous for the teetotaller, the Owenite, the chartist, the fanatic, and the halfwitted. The curious pedestrian, who will take the trouble to wend his way on the Sunday afternoon to the portion of the park opposite the Coliseum, will find these persons each in brawling disputation, or holding forth in his own peculiar style to a group of the most heterogeneous listeners. All that Butler has written of mad reformers, lay or clerical, is here graphically illustrated, from the hero who battled it out with “ Trulla,” to the fishwoman who “ Trudg’d away to cry no bishop.”

A visit had almost need be made to the spot j ere credence can be given to the “ performances” which, Sunday after Sunday, are “ enacted” here, for performances they are with the wildest and most grotesque of actors, and audiences of the oddest description. The exhibition of last Sunday afternoon may (as we are informed) he taken as an average specimen of what has been going on in this park every Sunday for months past, under the very noses of the park-keepers and the police. At four on Sunday afternoon nine separate “audiences,” varying from some thirty to two hundred or three hundred persons, had been collected there. Eight of these audiences were on the east side of the broad walk, and one was on the west side of it. The first audience or mob met with in proceeding from Portland-place were attending to two persons, a teetotaller and a chartist, the one a very pale-faced skeleton of a man, the other the very counterpart of the filthylooking creature in Hogarth’s “ Gin-alley.” The teetotaller was showing “ the analogical necessity of total abstinence” from the fact, “ that the fish in the frozen seas of the icy north never required stimulants to warm their blood, and prevent them catching cold, and that the lion and the tiger in the torrid zone never needed brandy or gin-and-water to preserve them from fevers. It was, therefore, madness to say that any atmospheric influences or changes of climate called for the use of strong drink.” “ But,” said the chartist, “ what if I like a little drop, and car’nt (hic- : cuping) leave it off. Aye ! what do you say to that, Mr. Tallow-nose?” This interrogatory occasioned a scene of boisterous mirth, and some minutes elapsed before “ order” and silence could be enforced. The discussion then went on again for a few minutes, when personalities again interfered. A similar boisterous scene ensued. Order was again restored, and then the chartists declared that the teetotaller’s twenty minutes had elapsed, and that it was “ old jolly nose’s turn to go in at pale-face.” After some little squabbling, the teetotaller gave way, and his chartist antagonist proceeded to address the mob “ upon something that was better than auv humbug about what the enslaved millions never tasted —he’d talk to them about the charter.” Proceed we to the second group. This consisted of about forty persons, congregated round a respectably-dressed man, who was holding forth upon the necessity of perfectly free religious discussion, “ the vices of | the clergy of the established church,” and { “ the beauty of republican institutions.” This I worthy man’s opponent was a socialist, who very impressively laid it down that “ mankind would never be wise or happy till they got rid of all existing religious institutions ;” and the majority of the mob, No. 2, seemed to be decidedly of his opinion. Let us now cross over the broad walk, and visit the solitary audience on the western side of it. This mob numbered about two hundred persons, and the orator was explaining a “ wonderful discovery he had made of the triangle of glory.” This person had deposited upon one of the seats, placed in the park for the accommodation of the public, various diagrams and anatomical plates, all of which were employed in illustrating his “ wonderful discovery.” As this man bearded the park-keepers for some time, and was handsomely supported in doing so by his mob, it may be worth while to sketch him and his party with more minuteness. His discovery was, he said, to be found in Isaiah, and it consisted simply in the beauty of straight lines, which formed a triangle. “ This triangle (he continued, holding up a piece of paper on which there was a diagram that very much resembled a cap of liberty upon a pole), “ is the triangle or the arch of glory, and is emblematical of all that man requires for sublunary happiness, but the parsons have inverted it.” Here he turned the “ triangle of glory” downwards. “ Man is the most perfect straight line in nature. A straight line passes right down his back. Here is ‘ the picture of his skeleton’ (holding up an anatomical plate), and you will see in his bony structure numerous illustrations of the truth of ray discovery. Here (pointing to the shoulderblades) are two triangles or arches of glory, and here (pointing to the nasal orifice)is the central arch of glory, all tending to show .that the most perfect animal in nature, the animal that has the most perfect straight line down his back, is full of types of the first great archetype —that he is full of the arches of glory. Upon this grand dial, yes, gentlemen, upon this mystical dial of Ahaz, 1 found my great discovery, which will be sufficient to ensure the happiness and salvation of the nation. For I tell you the parsons may try all they can to invert it, and they have done all they can in this attempt since the year 1340, but it will be of no use— I will defeat them with this little triangle of glory, setting it in its proper position, like the blue vault above us, and showing you what they hide from you —the truth and the glory.” This madman had gone thus far to the admiration of his mob, when two or three persons sat down upon the seat where he had deposited his “ triangle of glory,” and other papers; He protested against this “ encroachment upon the liberty of discussion,” and called upon two of the park-keepers tp remove the this he was vehemently supported by several of

his audience, one of them observing, that “ if, the old Bishop of London had come canting there, the park-keepers would have got the an easy chair;” The park-keepers declined to interfere with the persons who had encroached upon the space occupied by tlie orator’s papers, and told him that the orders were, not to permit speakers to occupy the seats. He “ peremptorily demanded to see their written orders,” but finding that he could not intimidate them, he quietly observed, “ G d it, I must pack up and go on the other side of the walk,” which he did to the loudly-expressed dissatisfaction of his mob, several of whom were not very choice in the epithets they bestowed upon the park-keepers. When this propounder of the beauty of straight lines reached the east side of the broad walk, he delivered a long address upon “ the potter’s vessel,” which he said was “ typical of the diseases incident to mankind.” “ Here,” said he, exhibiting the sketch of an urn, “is the potter’s vessel. What does it contain ? This (turning the sketch, and showing the figure of death) ; and here is its antidote (lifting up a sort of lamp). This lamp of life will dissipate all the aqueous humors in the constitution, political and physical. It will purge the land. Let me explain. The blood of woman beats the same time that the blood of man does,” &c. This man was certainly laughed at by a few, but he was most attentively listened to by the many.—Group the forth—or rather mob the fourth —surrounded by a maniacal-looking personage, who declared tliat “ every soul that visited a theatre was d to all eternity.” The supposititious cases put by this poor wretch in reference to the apostles and our Saviour, were of a character not to be detailed in the columns of a newspaper. This person spoke till he was exhausted, and when he retired, was immediately succeeded by “ another minister,” who denounced “ the damnable doctrines that the sinful man who had just gone from among them had been preaching.”— Group the fifth were listening to another teetotal discussion ; group the sixth to a chartist and socialist; group the seventh to a discussion upon the corn-laws ; and groups eight and nine, the one to a teetotal oration, and the other to a second denouncer of theatres, balls, and profane music.—N.B. All who desire to see “ what they shall see,” should visit the Re-gent’s-park on Sunday afternoon ; and if those so inclined have never read “ Hudibras,” we beseech them to do so before proceeding there.