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508 $HE LEADfeR. [No;476, May 7, issq
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NOTES ON INDIAN PROGRESS. Two of the fri...
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The Deanb-Hahdin-g Revolver. —An improve...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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508 $He Leadfer. [No;476, May 7, Issq
508 $ HE LEADfeR . [ No ; 476 , May 7 , issq
Notes On Indian Progress. Two Of The Fri...
NOTES ON INDIAN PROGRESS . Two of the friends of India , - who have taken an active part in its advancement , Mr . William E-wart late chairman of the Committee on . Colonisation , and Mr . IX Seymour , one of its members , have been re-elected to serve in ihe new Parliament Sir Charles Trevelyan has arrived in Madras , and been received with acclamation . The Great Ship fittings are going on , but it will not yet be ready for its Indian voyage . The shares of this company were the only shares that rose during the panic , it being supposed that she would be available for Government purposes on a large scale during the war . There has been a most serious decline in Indian railway securities during the panic , and which for the time will impede all new enterprises . As railways must go on , and new lines must now be encouraged , we may expect that the Government will soon be obliged to raise the Government guarantees to 6 per cenf ., to the same rates as the Governments of Spain , Portugal , Brazil , and Turkey . Therise in materials and freights will enhance the price of rails and other supplies , and increase the cost of Indian railways . This , may , however , lead to a greater encouragement of the iron manufacture in India . The Universal Review has an article on the " Resources of India and its Colonisation . "
At the last advices the Coinmander-in-Chief , IiOrd Clyde , was still on his way to Simla . He has a very large staff with him , the arrival of which at Simla will be very welcome to the shopkeepers and inhabitantSi Some people object to the absence of liord Clyde 1 , 200 miles from the staff in Calcutta , but they forget this distance is aggravated by the neglect of the Government in providing railway accommodation , and that were the Northern Bengal Railway completed , the Commander-in-Chief and the whole staff might live at Darjeeling , only 370 miles from Calcutta , in a healthy climate , and that the mail might be run every night / or twice arid thrice a day in a few hours . The post would he one day's post . .
Great discussions are taking place in India and at home about the Northern Bengal Rail way , an attempt being made by the Eastern Bengal Railway Company to get hold of the' line , now that the Northern Bengal Railway Company have succeeded in bringing the enterprise -under the attention of Government after so much time , labour , and expense . The Darjeeling people cling to the Northern Bengal Railway Company , because they think it only fair , and because it will obtain for them a railway at the earliest date , not only to Calcutta , but to the North-Western stations ; whereas they see that if the Eastern Bengal Company are allowed to
take the line of the original company , its construction will be indefinitely postponed . The chief justice , bishop , and leading persons in Calcutta , have signed the memorial in behalf of the Northern Bengal Company ; but there is a difference , of opinion in the Calcutta community , some of the agents of the Eastern Bengal' Bail way holding forth that their company will give a through line , with a bridge over the Ganges , when it turns out that the connecting branch to their line qan equally well be laid by the original company ; and that the bridge is not likely to be made for years , but that the traffic is to be worked by a steaua-ferry , as on the Rajxnahal branch .
There has been a sharp controversy in Herapath ' s Journal between the advocates of the two companies , in which the Northern Bengal Company have the best of it . Our own opinion is that the Eastern Benga Company will render the greatest service to Calcutta and to India by constructing their nearer branch to the hill . country of Sylhbt , which will bring that district ; , with its coal mines and tea plantations , within a few hours of Calcutta ; and , Although ; the damp climate of Chirra Poonjee cannot
compete with Darjeeling as a permanent abode , still the scenery of , Sylhet will bring many visitors and a good first-class traffic . Under the pressure of events , the Government will be forced to guarantee both the Sylhet and the Darjeeling lines . Captain C . Iaucmore and Ensign Hodgkinson , both of H . M . 37 th Foot , have obtained six months ' leave to Darjeqling . Captain L . J . P . Jones , H . M . 88 th Foot , has leave for six months to Simla .
impossible that such districts as Wynaad , Simla , and Darjeeling can long remain without legislatures , and in a worse position than Ceylon . British Columbia and Natal have obtained legislatures , Moretor i Bay . or Queensland , has just been emancipated from New South Wales , and British Caffraria is . to be made a province , and a part of the South African federation , as Queensland is of the Australian federation ; but nothing is done to give parliamentary institutions to the hill settlements of India , or to promote a federal union among them . There are several quite as important as British Caffraria . The trade of Wynaad is as great as that of New London .
Dr . W . E . Aitken havingbeen appointed to a post at Madras , has been temporarily succeeded in the medical charge of the Neilgherry hills by Assistant-Surgeon H . Nott . Lieut . A , P . Bainbridge , Madras Artillery , has leave for six months to Bangalore . In the Madras Civil Orphan Asylums there are now 120 English and India-English children . It is much to be regretted these asylums are not moved to the Neilgherries or Shevaroys , where the children would be brought up in a healthy climate and with healthy associations . It is to be hoped Sir Charles Trevelyan will take measures to place this asylum alongside of the Lawrence Asylum for military orphans , which is to be judiciously placed in the hills . .
An increased number of candidates has im ^ T for entrance to the Universit y of Calcuua M number in 1858 being 464 , and in 1859 708 tVcomment on the fondness of the Government f a Bindostannee and Persian , that only twenty-A / f have been examined in Hiridostannee and twn Persian the main bulk presenting t hemselves fl their native language-Bengallee . All have to pass in English . There were only eight offt-red for San skrit and none , for Arabic ; the Government are therefore doing wisely in suppressing those nuisances and hotbeds of bigotry the Sanskrit college and Madrassah , and instituting professorships of ArX and Sanskrit in the college . ie
The occupation of the Island of Perim , in the Red Sea , is so far permanent that a lighthouse has been erected on it , and the events of the war render it necessary it should not be again abandoned . It is true the want of water is a great obstacle , but we eannot see why it is less difficult tomaintain it than to maintain the communities of English merchants and native populations at Squique , Cobija , and Caldera in the rainless desert of Atacama , on the west coast of America . Dr . Normandy's , and other distilling apparatus will supply some common water ; there is rain at Perim , so that it is better than Atacama , and fresh water can be imported . At Caldera they can only import distilled brackish water . .
We trust the island of Socotra will now be looked after , for attention must be turned to the invasion of India by the way of Egypt . . The settlement on the Andamans is going on . Of convicts there ware in Ross Island 1 , 124 , on Vepir Island 222 , and on Chatham Island 180 . The convicts are now healthier . Tea and coffee cultivation in India , and that of tobacco , of which fine qualities are being tried in Darjeeling , are likely to be promoted by the new tariff , as . there is an additional tax on each article of 20 per cent . As there is a like charge on provisions , hams , and cheeses , this will foster the dairy and farming arrangements in the hills .
It . is well there should be some good from evil , and the hills are most likely to benefit from the tariff . What are called European luxuries can there be produced naturally . We have enumerated provisions , fresh , and not preserved or potted , like those from home j game , hanis , bacon , butter , cheese , confectionery , jams , northern fruits , tea , and coffee , are all to be had in the hills . The tariff will also give a help to brewing . Beer lias been successfully made in the Neijgherries , but was suspended from the competition of English beer . The brewery at Mussoorie has , however , worked on ,-and a brewery which has been proposed at Darjeeling will now go on . Cider is worth attention in the hills . Beer , ale , porter , and cider all pay an additional tax of sixpence per . imperial gallon , six quart bottles being reckoned as a gallon .
Ice is a free article . As yet , from want of railways , the hill districts have not gone into the ice and snow trade , which will , in time , yield a good trade . Ice from the United States by sea is duty free . Hill . produce docs not suffer much from export ! duties under the now tariff . Lao dye and shellac are to pay four per cent ., and " country articles " generally three per cent . The city of , Moulmoin now contains 43 , 000 inhabitants , of which 300 are English and Indo-English , with a church , military buildings , court-houses , and twenty-five miles of macadamised road . This is
altogether the fruit of English enterprise ; in eight and twenty years 140 ships have been launched from our dockyards in that port . The new city of Luoknow is getting on rapidly . The mosque of Saljfidut AH has been turned into a church , a rauckburah into a reading-room , the Taboon Bukah into mission promises , and a now church is being built in the cantonments . The town will have quite another appearance . The Caloutta Auction Company has done well in its first half-year , and declared a dividend of ton per cent ., besides reserving as much . Tho sales aro how 80 , 0007 . monthly . The paid-up capital Is 10 , 838 ; ., and the profit 1 , 223 * .
The 93 rd Highlanders had not yet arrived at Soobalhoo , . . One , of the most remarkable circumstances in the late news from India is the Madras memorial , prompted by the tariff , which demands not only a 6 hax © in the Legislative Council of India , hut independent repreBentatiTe government for the English in India . This movement will spread , because it is
The Deanb-Hahdin-G Revolver. —An Improve...
The Deanb-Hahdin-g Revolver . —An improved revolver has been patented by Messrs . Deane and Son , of London Bridge . In this improved arm thp use of all intricate action is avoided , and to facilitate the process of cleansing , the weapon is made bv the withdrawal of a pin , to fall asunder in three parts consisting of the stock , chambers , ami barrel whilst the readjustment is as quickly performed . There are other improvements which make this pistol nearer perfection in the art of killing than anrthiu * we have seen . . ° ExGLISH A 3 STD AMERICAN FltlijATE . j . —The Beyrout correspondent of the Times draws the following comparison : — "Although in first-rate order , I must in candour state that the Euryalus is not nearly so fine a ship as the United States frigate , the Wabash , that we had here last summer . And what has become of the old race of sailors which used to man our ships of war formerly—the regular breed of ' salts , ' which were of a genus quite apart either from the seamen of other nations or om- own mercantile navy ? Of late years they have not ' been visible in any of the vessels of tli : > . royal navy I have visited , their place being taken by a parcelof young , weedy , fresh-water-looking men , whom I should say were hardly worth the food they eat . The Euryalus has a much finer crew than any I have seen for some time past , but the great majority . even of her sailors are not of the stamp—have not the stamina and sinews—that one expects to see under the British flag . The Wabash had . a much finer-crew , and so had the Unite J Suites frigate , the Congress , that was here about a year and a half ago . In one arm certainly no nation I have yet seen can come near us ,. and . that is in our marines . They are an infinitely finer body of men than those of the United States navy , who' with their clean , shaven faces , old-fashioned shakos , and obsolete cross-belts , look like relics a quarter of a century old . By the way , how is it that our royal navy seamen are not yet allowed to wear their beards ? The American sailors wear both beard and moustache just as they like , and it improves their appearance greatly , besides being an immense , comfort to them , both in very hot ami very cold weather . In their service the marines shave cleanas our infantry used to do before the Crimean warbut their seamen do not . With us it is exactly tbe contrary . " Volunteers in the Sardinian Army . —A . Turin correspondent writes : —" . In some of the regiments at Alessandria , I noticed a groat ninny of tlie lately enlisted volunteers from various parts ui Italy , most of them very young men , whoso slender frames but illfilled out the long and ample surtout of coarse grey cloth . Sitting down to rest hi . tho coursejrt my wanderings , I fell into conversation with three of them—gentlemanly lads , all from 1 lorence—w ho had been barely two months in the ro ^* ™ " £ Piedmontese army . They evidently found then : new profession a desperately hard one , but thovshoweu no flinching , although they would fi ^'"?'"" ° ™ pensed with a portion of the very largo . nl own com arill to which they aro daily su bjected , in order to fit them to stand shoulder to shoulder with « gr moro experienced and less gently nurtured WJj wej . I was amused by tho little » ofl »« ' " ^ P ^ c c 0 „ SSt life , which still cling to some of them , a . d ^ "J oddly with their course , unbecoming unl ^ rnis gj pipe-clayed bolts . One of them , who spoke , g ) £ «« well , and had been in England , proJueoj l a c « d J » g and handed mo his visiting card , on which h 0 «!« __ his regiment and company . Another boko 1 n ourn fqlly at his hands , as if rather ftshninod of ' ^"'" ng said something about tho lmnoaslbiHtj ^ W them clean . And I saw another , who was oW and who , to judge from hie Jimr , cut J tl . o ju w had just come out of the handset tin wf'g ° ftte barber , pulling on a pair of kid eto ™* " $ t ™ £ p of a man whose fingers had never boe 1 used 10 » uj port a musket-butt . Volunteers co , itlnuo to JJ fl Sally , but among most of tho owl ¦ nl » l iking largo proportion of undersized and feomo 10 . » toys . I have all along considered , hoj ^ J , the muster of volunteers was to be I 00 Ko « j ^ rtith o * as apolitical demonstration than as a vwu accession of military otrongth .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 7, 1859, page 22, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07051859/page/22/
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