them, they obstinately continued to fight until the destruction was so great, that their numbers were reduced to 120, many of whom were wounded. At last, seeing resistance utterly hopeless, they were induced to throw down their arms and surrender; not a single footman escaped capture or death: two horsemen alone out of the whole force of the enemy, stated by the prisoners to have been full 700 in all, including 35 horsemen; among the slain are several chieftains of note, in fact all the leaders of repute in the tribe. The undermentioned were recognized among the dead.

Hundoo, Nothanee.

Kora, Kulpur.

Kurreemdad, Raimoozye.

Juman, (outlaw) Jackranee.

Chuttah, ditto, ditto (killed in the attack on Kundranee). Kumber, nephew of the Shumbrane Chief" Lango." Also a nephew of Hundoo's, name unknown.

Sungur, Kind.

There were also many others, esteemed as warlike characters, but of less note, killed. Neither Islam Khan not Alim Khan

were with the party.

Our own loss has, I am happy to say, been trifling compared to the result as shown by the annexed retnrn of killed and wounded (nine), nine of our horses were killed and ten wounded, seven of them mortally so; amongst the wounded is your own horse, which I was riding at the time. He has received two severe sword cuts, one on the loins close behind the saddle, and the other on the heel. After all was over I returned to Shahpoor via Chuttur, to which latter place I had sent all the prisoners able to march, under the custody of Naib Russuldar Azeem Khan. Russaidar Shaik Ali, with the remainder of my detachment, I left at Koonree, to take care of the wounded till I could send out assistance and carriage from this place. All returned to Shahpoor this morning.

Before I fell in with the enemy they had attempted to plunder the village of Kundranee, when they were beaten off by the head man, Deen Mahomed Kyberee, in splendid style. Deen Mahomed and his people killing the notorious "Chuttah," Jakranee, and others, and taking one prisoner. Three determined attacks were made by the Boogtees on the Fort, and at one time the assailants had actually reached the top of the wall, but were thrown back by the defenders.

All my native officers and men behaved well in this affair ; nothing could be more perfect than the steadiness. resolution, and quickness which they showed throughout; but I beg particularly to bring to your notice the excellent conduct of Sowar Bujjoo Khan.

Russaidar Shaik Ali.

Naib Russaldar Azeen Khan. Sowar Sullur Khan.

I saw these sowars each kill several of the enemy in a fair stand-up fight, hand to hand, but nearly all must have done equally well, although it be not possible for me to specify every man's deeds individually. I beg leave also to remark that the destructive effect of our little carbines, used in one hand, at close quarters, was quite terrifying to behold. Every shot appeared to kill or disable an enemy, who were often, by reason of the bushes and broken ground, enabled just to keep out of sword's reach.

I must not omit to mention that Jan Mahomed Kyheeree, with four of his followers, was close to me during nearly the whole of the action, and behaved exceedingly well. Jan Mahomed fought stoutly, killing several of the enemy before his sword broke over the head of another.

I have made the best provision I can for the wounded prisoners, who are being carefully attended to by Assistant surgeon J. Pirie.-I have the honour to be, &c.

(Signed) W. MEREWETHER, Lt. 2nd in command, S. I. H., Commanding Outposts, Shapoor. Shapoor, 2nd Oct. 1847. (Trué copies.) A. MALET, Chief Sec.

MISCELLANEOUS.

INTERNAL GOVERNMENT. - The commissioner, Mr. Pringle, is proceeding quietly and steadily with the work of reformation; and the Kurrachee Advertiser, long the organ of Sir C. Napier, now that he is gone, acknowledges how greatly it is needed. Lieutenant Lester acts as assistant, not as secretary to the commissioner, Captain Brown retaining under the present the post he held under the former ruler; most of the other officers retain their appointments till the pleasure of the home authorities be known as to the arrangements finally to be adopted. The salary of the commissioner is 4,000l., not 6,000l. as formerly intimated. Mr. Clerk, the Governor of Bombay, proceeds, by special desire of the Governor-General, to Kurrachee about the end of the year.

He will remain for some months in Scinde to see and

examine for himself into the real state of matters about which so much mystery and misstatement has been made. He will be accompanied by his private secretary Captain French, long assistant political agent under Colonel Outram iu these provinces, and whose intimacy with the country and people, and zeal for native improvement, will make his services with the Governor of the greatest value. Captain Chamberlain, military secretary, who will we presume also attend the Governor, has long been intimately acquainted with the feelings, manners and customs, of the mountain tribes in India.-Bombay Times, Nov. 1.

TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. Several Literary Notices are in type, but from press of matter, are unavoidably deferred.

ALLEN'S INDIAN MAIL,

LONDON,

MONDAY, December 6, 1847.

SOME men are so entirely imbued with the spirit of gambling, that they will play where loss is all but certain rather than sit out. So, again, there are men actuated by such an uncontrollable spirit of restlessness, that they must give exercise to their morbid activity, though the consequences are sure of being injurious to themselves. Such a man is the ex-Governor-General of India. It will be seen from the parliamentary reports, that his lordship has been amusing himself by moving in the House, of which he is a member, for certain papers, and getting rid of a portion of oppressive bile, by abusing the authority which he lately served. This would be all very well if motions and speeches in Parliament were made with closed doors. Lord ELLENBOROUGH might be relieved by the operation, and no one but the few peers present on the occasion be any the wiser. But the practice of reporting renders such a mode of throwing off crudities and superfluous acidity neither safe nor prudent. Every individual in the United Kingdom who reads a newspaper (and small is the number in these days who do not), within a few hours after the exhibition has taken place, learns when and how a noble peer or an honourable commoner has committed himself; and great has already been the chuckling over Lord ELLENBOROUGH's display of November the 30th. If a child has a sore place, he is always rubbing it; and those who are children in mind, though men in age and stature, fidget their mental sores in like manner. If there were one sub

ject which, beyond all others, Lord ELLENBOROUGH might be expected to avoid, it is India. His career there was singularly deficient in all the qualities of statesmanship, and its termination, though memorable on account of its unparalleled character, was not exactly such as the sufferer was likely to cherish among his favourite recollections. These things, however, are now almost forgotten; and if Lord ELLENBOROUGH could be content to exhaust his superabundant activity on any other subject than India, they might descend in peace to that oblivion which so soon entombs the deeds of inferior men. But his lordship must talk, and he must talk about India-nothing else will do for him; and, accordingly, on the evening to which we have referred, he proceeded to lecture the Indian authorities on two grave instances of misconduct-one constant, and one occasional. They continue to realize a part of the funds required at home by advances on the hypothecation of

goods, although his lordship has told them not to do so; and they have actually (so, at least, Lord ELLENBOROUGH believes) committed the enormity of ordering a shipment of bullion for the same purpose. On the former subject his lordship has quite made up his mind. Where, indeed, is the subject on which he has not? And he declared that he did not hesitate to deliver an opinion "even before looking into the papers." Now, we are quite ready to admit that his opinion upon any matter, before looking into the evidence, is quite as likely to be sound as if it had been formed after that process; and therefore we do not quarrel with his lordship for thus reversing the ordinary succession of examination and judgment. Hang first, and try afterwards, was "LYDFORD law," and determine first, and inquire afterwards, is ELLENBOROUGH logic. We offer no objection, because, as his lordship's opinion, whatever it may be, cannot influence any other person, the mischief arising from his coming to an erroneous conclusion, if he should happen to do so, will be confined to himself. We are very sorry that even one noble peer should fall into error; but it is consoling to know that he will carry neither peer nor commoner with him. Lord ELLENBOROUGH was very anxious that the subject of his motion should be taken up by Ministers; not merely by the President of the Board, the proper person, but by every member of the Cabinet. Men are said to regard their successors in office with little favour, and possibly Lord ELLENBOROUGH's feelings towards Sir JOHN HOBHOUSE may not be of the most benevolent character. Or his lordship, in the extraordinary suggestion which he threw out, may have had in his mind a lingering regard for his own practice. We do not know whether Lord ELLENBOROUGH, when in office, was accustomed to extend his care to every other department of the state, as well as his own—his colleagues only can tell; but there is nothing in his character that renders this at all unlikely; and as his lordship regards himself as a model statesman, he would naturally be anxious to recommend his own example to others. He might do this with all the solemnity befitting the situation of one who, as to the world of politics, is dead. Many strange events occur, but Lord ELLENBOROUGH's return to office is not within the category of possibility. We had almost said his lordship himself must have given up all hopes of it, but this, perhaps, would be going too far. All other persons however know that his return is a thing not to be thought of. How he came into office on the last occasion is well known, and it is equally well known that the same good fortune can never attend him again. On the alleged shipment of bullion, and the injury thereby inflicted on India, Lord ELLENBOROUGH was not less warm than on the hypothecation question. He seemed to have forgotten-but we recal the word, for no man can forget what he never knew-and to accuse Lord ELLENBOROUGH of knowing any thing about India, though he has been in succession President of the Board and Governor-General, would be gross injustice. We will not say, then, that his lordship forgot, but he might have known, if he would have taken the trouble to inquire, that the imports of bullion and coin into India annually exceed the exports from that country by about two millions sterling: that is, India absorbs two millions of the addition which is annually made to the general stock of the precious metals. Surely, then, she may, on an emergency, render

back a small portion without any great wrong or any great injury. But, then, his lordship altogether despises the purpose for which this supply of bullion is procured. It was only to meet the home engagements of the Company,to pay the dividends on the Company's stock. What right have the proprietors to look for any dividends, if it be the pleasure of Lord ELLENBOROUGH that they should wait? We feel the force of this ques

tion, but we beg in all humility to remind his lordship that example is far more powerful than precept. COBBETT tells of an old farmer who was accustomed, when any difficult job was to be performed, himself to take the lead, alleging that he had always found there was a great difference in the results between "go boys," and "come boys." Now let Lord ELLENBOROUGH lead the way in the field of self-sacrifice. Let him say not "go boys" but "come boys." These are times of unparalleled commercial and financial pressure in this country. Let him postpone-not relinquish altogether, but only defer till better days, the receipt of the compensation-money which he periodically draws in consideration of the enormous sinecure which he was compelled to surrender. And when he has done this, let him call upon the proprietors of East-India Stock to postpone the receipt of their dividends. We do not say that after he had taken the step which we are suggesting, he would be in a situation to make this call on the ground of equality. The East-India proprietors have bought their stock, and paid for it the market value; or have inherited it from others who have so bought and paid for it. Lord ELLENBOROUGH Owes the income which supports his title to the accident of his father having had the power to give his son a fortune at the expense of the public. There is, therefore, a wide difference. The EastIndia proprietors claim the just returns upon an outlay of capital. Lord ELLENBOROUGH claims and receives an enormous income, in the purchase of which not a shilling was ever expended-at least, by him or any of his family. It was purchased by the suitors in the Court of Queen's Bench, and the son of a Chief Justice of that Court enjoys the benefit. Still we will not be hard upon his lordship. If he will indicate his own willingness to wait, we will not find fault with his expecting others to wait also.

we

A sinecurist does not stand in the best position for taking up the occupation of a reformer. This reflection recommend to Lord ELLENBOROUGH's attention. There is another point on which it may do him no harm to meditate, and which, in parting, we beg to submit to him. Candid and discreet men never pay much regard to the abuse heaped upon a former master by a servant discharged with

out a character.

THE question of the Usury laws, to which we lately drew the notice of our readers, is naturally attracting attention among those subjects which the circumstances of the times force upon consideration. Mr. J. WILSON, a new member of the House of Commons, adverted to it on Wednesday last in the course of a speech of great length and some ability. He said :

"It was not uncommon, even in this day, to hear gentlemen of some intelligence advocating a recurrence to the Usury laws. But he was convinced that, if the committee which had been moved for by the Chancellor of the Exchequer was appointed, it would have to report upon the extreme inconvenience of any portion of those laws being left in existence. He believed that there were many honourable gentlemen opposite [on the opposition benches] who would now bear witness to the inconvenience which landlords had recently ex

perienced in having retained what they deemed a privilege to themselves, when they permitted merchants to pay more than five per cent. for their accommodation. Recently, too, inconvenience had been felt in Scotland from the impossibility, or rather illegality, of borrowing money on heritable securities at the current market price of money. There were, it was true, modes of evading this law. Landlords might carry a bill of exchange to a banker's, and procure discount at ten per cent., lodging heritable bonds as collateral security. But was this the way in which the Legislature should proceed? Was this the position in which the great landed and commercial interests of the country should be placed? Nothing had more contributed to the alleviation of the late distress than the partial repeal of the Usury laws; and, so far from recommending their re-enactment, he believed that the advice of the committee would be, that Parliament should repeal whatever remnants remain."

No

Now this passage is a string of fallacies from beginning to end; but before examining any of them, we must be allowed a passing remark on Mr. WILSON's confident persuasion that the committee, which in parliamentary phrase he had in his eye (that is, in his mind's eye), would report not in favour of the re-enactment of the Usury laws, but of the abolition of so much of them as has been left. We will not argue on the probability or improbability of this. Mr. WILSON is a very young member of Parliament, but we doubt not he has lived long enough in the world to know, as well as we and all the British public know, that a parliamentary committee is the most monstrous delusion, the most barefaced sham, the most arrant piece of humbug that exists. A parliamentary committee is the creature of the party which commands a majority for the time being; and it reports according to the will of its maker. one, when informed of the construction of a committee, has ever any doubt as to the nature of its report. It is an instrument for enabling the ruling party to do what it is disposed to do, but which it could not so easily effect without the employment of this precious piece of stage-trick. No sensible man regards the members of the committee as having any thing to do but to register the decrees of those by whom they have been nominated. A few dissentients are always put on for the sake of show, but especial care is taken that they shall not be in such number as to endanger the result. The committee sit day after day, week after week, and sometimes month after month; call witnesses before them, and examine them after their own fashion (very different from that prevailing in Westminster Hall); great masses of papers are brought forward; enormous blue-books issued, to the great advantage of the parliamentary printers and the dealers in waste paper; and in due time out comes a report, recommending exactly what the nominators of the committee would have recommended without all this sham-fighting if they had dared. This is one of the many tricks to which all men submit, though none are deluded by it. The report of a committee claims a certain weight,

"And has its claim allowed."

Yet nobody is deceived by it. We no more regard the committee as really engaged in searching for truth than we attribute reality to the quarrels of Punch and Judy in the puppet-show. We are fully aware that in both instances the proceedings are determined by those who hold the wires. Mr. WILSON may, therefore, for aught we know, be right as to the probable report of any committee likely in the present temper of the House of Commons to be appointed to inquire into the Usury laws; but such report would be worth just as much as the panegyrics passed by the shopmen of a puffing linen-draper on their master's goods-not a whit more. It is impossible that so clever a man as Mr. WILSON should not know and feel this.

And now we will turn for a moment or two to the delusive statements made by Mr. WILSON on the subject of the Usury laws themselves. First, he says the landed interest have suffered inconvenience from the existing state of the law. We are disposed to think that they have; but what is the cause of it? Why, the permission given to reckless borrowers and reckless lenders to raise money, or to furnish it, provided the security be not land, on any terms which the necessity of the one party and the cupidity of the other may dictate. Suppose all borrowers came into the market on equal ground-suppose all were subject to restriction as formerly-why the landed man would have as good a chance as his non-landed neighbour. The evil, then, on the shewing of the champions of freedom for usury, has arisen from the relaxation of the law. With regard to Scotland, we are probably not so well versed in Scottish law as Mr. WILSON, but we presume that, in the cases to which he refers, the borrower had only a life-interest in the property. This, of course, takes it out of ordinary rules, and would have done so while the Usury laws were maintained in their integrity, as well as now. People will not advance money for an annuity determinable on a single life on the same terms as on a perpetual one, and no law can make them do so. They did not act thus before the Usury laws were modified, and they will not now. But the law may be evaded, it seems, by drawing a bill of exchange, and getting it discounted at the rate of ten per cent. All we can say to this is, that if Scotch landholders can afford to borrow money at ten per cent., it is more than English ones can, unless they are in an unusual hurry to accomplish their own ruin.

66

But though bad for the landholder, the change is said to be good for the merchant. Nothing," says Mr. WILSON, "has more contributed to the alleviation of the late distress than the partial repeal of the Usury laws!" There it is, in good legible type, in all the morning papers, or it would be incredible that such an assertion should have been made. Take the facts to which on a former occasion we invited notice, compare them, and then say what degree of weight is to be attached to this assertion. Eight and nine per cent. have lately been current rates for the discount of first-rate bills, and what rates have been demanded and obtained on bills of inferior character is known only to usurers and their victims. Cotemporary with this, the price of Consols has been about 84. Half a century ago, Consols being under 50, mercantile bills of any description which a prudent man would discount at all, were without difficulty convertible into cash at the rate of five per cent. At which period did the merchant stand in the best position? If the assertion that "nothing has contributed so much to the alleviation of commercial distress as the partial repeal of the Usury laws," be true, then it follows as a matter of course that it is better for a merchant to pay ten per cent. for money than five; for had the laws been yet in operation, all men in fair credit would have been enabled to borrow at five. If it be better for a borrower to pay ten

per cent. than five, it may be inferred that there is no limit

to the rule that a high rate of interest is beneficial to him; if ten per cent. be better for him than five, twenty per cent. is better than ten, thirty per cent. better than twenty, and a hundred per cent. better than any lower rate.

We have had a taste of the blessings of unrestricted usury; but, as yet, no more. If the law remains unaltered,

or be further altered in the direction of the previous change, we shall know more of the matter. In India, usury has been for ages the curse of the country; and an article from an Indian paper, which will be found in another part of our publication, well illustrates its practical operation.

WE are great enemies to political mummery. Obtaining money under false pretences is punishable at law; obtaining fame or popularity under false pretences is cognizable by no tribunal but that of the press, and when a bad case of such a nature comes before it, duty requires that it should be severely dealt with. The Friend of India has lately been thrown into a fit of ecstasy at the recollection of a noble deed of a Governor-General of bygone times. It claims for the Marquess of HASTINGS the credit of having emancipated the press. The Friend boasts of having dined with a long succession of Governors-General. We forget whether the Marquess of HASTINGS was one of them; but if he were, perhaps the reminiscences of his lordship's splendid hospitality and winning manners may have interfered with the accuracy of the Friend's recollections on other points. "The Marquess of HASTINGS," says the Friend, "knocked the fetters off the press." In plain English, he abolished the censorship. His motives we shall shortly see, and for information as to the qualifying accompaniment to this measure we quote the following passage from the Friend. "It is true," says he, "that the rules laid down for the guidance of the press on the abolition of the censorship still imposed very severe restrictions on the freedom of public discussion, and that the penalty for the breach of them was deportation." There really seems, to our simple apprehension, very little gained here. The Friend thinks the contrary, and quotes the following passage from the answer made by the Marquess of HASTINGS to a laudatory address from Madras, as intimating that nobleman's opinion on the subject of the liberty of the press :—

"One topic remains. My removal of restrictions from the press has been mentioned in laudatory language. I might easily have adopted that procedure without any length of cautious consideration, from my habit of regarding the freedom of publication as a natural right of my fellow-subjects, to be narrowed only by special and urgent cause assigned. The seeing no direct necessity for those invidious shackles, might have sufficed to make me break them. I know myself, however, to have been guided in the step by a positive and well-weighed policy. If our motives of action are worthy, it must be wise to render them intelligible throughout an empire, our hold on which is opinion.

"Further. It is salutary for supreme authority, even when its intentions are most pure, to look to the control of public scrutiny. While conscious of rectitude, that authority can lose nothing of its strength by its exposure to general comment. On the contrary, it acquires incalculable addition of force.

"That government which has nothing to disguise, wields the most powerful instrument that can appertain to sovereign rule. It carries with it the united reliance and effort of the whole mass of the governed; and let the triumph of our beloved country in its awful contest with tyrant-ridden France speak the value of a spirit to be found only in men accustomed to indulge and express their honest sentiments."

This is all very fine, showy, and high-sounding. What a pity there should not have been a little sprinkling of sincerity in it. If Lord HASTINGS felt what he said, why did he not make the press free? The Friend has an answer-" It was well known to the Marquess, that if every restriction had been removed at the same time with the censorship, that measure would undoubtedly have been revoked by the Court of Directors." The Friend does not dine with the Court of Directors, so they are brought in to bear the blame. But let us look a little into the matter; and a very edifying passage from the evidence of Mr.

CHARLES LUSHINGTON before a Committee of the House of Commons (given on the 8th March, 1832) comes to our assistance :

"The press in Calcutta was for a long time under a censorship; at last, in the time of Lord Hastings, an Anglo-Indian editor discovered that he could not be legally sent out of the country for press offences; the consequence was, that he set the Government at defiance, and refused to adopt the erasures of the chief secretary, who was the censor of the press. The Government then, making a merit of compulsion, adopted a set of regulations, by which they required that the proceedings of the public press should be conducted, and took off the censorship."

Mr. LUSHINGTON, after adverting to the contests of the Government with the editor of a particular newspaper for breaches of the regulations, thus goes on:

"I am not certain whether I am correct as to dates now, but about this time an address was presented from certain individuals at Madras to Lord Hastings, congratulating him, and complimenting him upon having taken off the restrictions upon the press, which restrictions were in existence at that time. Lord Hastings was extremely pleased with this address; and in his reply dilated upon the advantages of a free press, and the credit which reflected upon a liberal government from allowing its measures to be publicly discussed. Whilst he was receiving those compliments as GovernorGeneral, he was authorizing remonstrance and threats to the editor of the Calcutta Journal, as Governor-General in Council; and latterly, whenever the editor received one of those letters of remonstrance from the chief secretary, he of course threw into the teeth of the Governor-General those liberal expressions in his speech; the consequence was, that Lord Hastings felt himself committed, and though he acknowledged the necessity of curbing and coercing the editor of the Calcutta Journal to the very utmost, yet he was in a dilemma, and he deferred each hour the infliction of severe punishment until he left the country."

And thus is the mask torn off the policy of the liberal and magnanimous Marquess of HASTINGS! He abolished the censorship because he found he could not enforce it. He then set up a body of regulations in the teeth of his own received opinion-that the press should be free; these regu lations he had not the courage to enforce, nor the straightforwardness to withdraw, and so he continued during the latter part of his residence in India to laud the press in public and to battle with it in private; receiving his own words in answer to his own orders, and compelled to let "I dare not wait upon I would." In truth, the Marquess of HASTINGS was one of the most consummate actors that ever trod the stage of state. He played his part so well, that those who saw through his assumptions almost forgave his insincerity for the skill with which he disguised it. At heart one of the haughtiest of aristocrats, he was outwardly one of the most thoroughgoing of liberals-he flirted with liberty till he persuaded half the world that he was really in love with the object on which he bestowed so many graceful attentions. One of the most plausible of men, he was at the same time one of the most hollow. All about him was factitious, made up, theatrical. He put on liberal sentiments as he put on his court dress on state occasions, and he put them off again when they had served their turn with as much unconcern as he denuded himself of his embroidered suit. But he is gone, and we should be willing that his faults should rest with him. We would not have come forward at this distance of time to expose his all-craving vanity or his utter want of sincerity, had not an injudicious Friend provoked the exposure. Save me from my Friend might the shade of his lordship indeed exclaim, if it were conscious of the praise so foolishly heaped by that Friend on his memory. The Friend, indeed, has a talent for the use of butter, when disposed to apply it, and spreads the article not with a knife but a trowel.