Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 26th November 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 8, LATEST INDIAN INTELLIGENCE. The overland...

Page 8
Page 8
8 of 24

On this page

  • Text (4)
  • Transcript

    • 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.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Work. The Progress Of Our Railways Is Cl...

      and coach-building establishment , showing labour in every possible form , and a thousand men so en > gaged ; here , too , where machinery endeavours to supersede manual labour . As a training school to the native it must induce important consequences ; tut supposing this were not within the pale of possibility for various reasons , still the profitable employment thus afforded to large bodies of workmen is due to the railway . And here , more than anywhere else , the value of artisans is being duly experienced and improved npon . notice

      It were needless , in this cursory , to enter into elaborate detail , to show how extensively native agency finds employment in different departments of the railway . On the opened line between JBomba . v , "Wassind , and Campooke , we see natives chiefly employed as station-masters , and wholly so in all menial capacities . With the extension of these lines the demand for labour has increased , new depots and stores throwing open a wider field of work . These are not the only arguments that might be brought forward to show how abundantly the railway has blessed the Indian community , and how thankfulness their

      much cause there is for on part for i :- introduction into the country . Doubtless there n : ; .- sections of that community who will carp :. nd' deny the value of tlie railway for anything at all ; but the sober and the sensible , as well as those who have interests at stake ^ will think otherwise . Will it be said that the railway will do nothing for those vast tracts of country now only partially cultivated by cotton , indigo , sugar , and other produce , and where quantities of that cultivation rot for want of carriage ? Will it be nothing for the poor of the interior to get their salt from the coast for an almost fabulous price compared to what they now pay ? .

      The advantages of railway communication , everywhere abundant , are emphatically so in respect of India . A railway station soon becomes a centre of life and movement . Within its immediate radii pulses go quicker , time beats more regularly , —there , if anywhere , are action , vitality , and progress . As a builder of towns , the railway is a most beneficent as well as a most fertile power . la England its social influences are widely and intensely felt ; of what it can do for the arts , and especially for architecture , we mat seek illustration in such places as Ghent , Heidelberg , Milan , Leghorn , and other towns on the Continent , —Bombay Gazette .

      1292 The Leader. [No. 505, Nov. 26, 1859...

      1292 THE LEADER . [ No . 505 , Nov . 26 , 1859 .

      Salt In Oude. Whilst The Confiscation Po...

      SALT IN OUDE . Whilst the confiscation policy has been so successful in Oudethat the Commissioner who carried it into effect lauds the wisdom wliich had placed despotic power in his hands , annihilating all previous claims and tenures , another great measure is in progress , of which we hear nothing in the Legislative Council . The people of Oude have been prohibited manufacturing salt . The earth in many parts of that province teems with this mineral , and a large population obtained employment in its manufacture and preparation for market . The produce of the salt fields supplied all Oude , and was , moreover , carried into some of our older provinces . All this has been put an end to by the same fiat which confiscated the lands . This is another great fiscal measure , to lay a tax on salt , and to collect it easily and cheaply . Oude , because it is difficult to tax the numerous small salt

      that the same policy should be extended to distant provinces whose circumstances are far from being the same . This is one of the serious cases where that anxiety to . treat all India as one country , to be governed by the same rules and the same laws > becomes a great political blunder . The people of Oude will be irritated more by this step than by the disarming Act . It will render the British Government more unpopular , whilst the Act cannot be defended on any other grounds than that it is easier and more convenient to prohibit the production of salt in

      Oude than to prevent its manufacture under Excise laws . The precedent of the Rohilcund districts will be quoted , that they have suffered the hardship of paying the heavy carriage hire , as well as the taxation of the salt they consume . This is true ; but in Rohilcund there are no salt-fields , or there are so few as to be of no weight in the consideration of the case . llohilcund has always been dependent on Oude or the districts west and south of the Jumna for its supply of salt . So the injustice that we believe is now inflicted on Oude was never

      suffered by the people of Rohilcund from Government regulations regarding salt . Here is another example of a great fiscal measure being carried out without the slightest reference to council . Oude is despotically governed by the Governor-General of India ; and as far as we can judge , the result of that government is very much like that of the Governor-General in Council for all India , backed by a Legislative Council of delegates from the services of the three presidencies . —Calcutta Englishman .

      works within its own territory , must import salt from the foreign territories of Bhurtpoor , and the States west and south of the Jumna . Salt must not only come burdened with the duty to Government , but it must come witli the enormous charge of carriage over many hundred miles added to it . This is considered a politic measure , while an income-tax is declared to be the contrary . At the same time we must admit that if the whole population of Oude is compelled to pay four times the price for their salt which they have hitherto done , it is necessary to bo cautious before any more taxes are imposed upon them ; of this immense addition to the pried of salt one-half is probably taxation , and one-quarter the value of the produce of ita own soil . The financial wisdom which has resolved on carrying out this

      measure in Oude is quite equal to that which has elaborated the licence and income-tax . This measure is copied from that which gave so much offence in the old provinces of the Donb . There -was , however , dome good reasons for prohibiting tho manufacture of salt in those districts ; a small portion of thorn only was distant from the salt producing lands , and as there were no large deposits nor extensive aalt works in existence -within them , the hardship involved in tho system was not great , whilst the advantage to the revenue was undoubted , Smuggling was nearly annihilated , and the preventive , lines were made eflloiont . But because this policy was so successful In the provinces which SKU-t the countries froni whence the salt is exported , conajieMlng fcll * whole ealt consumed in thorn to PftBo the revenue cordon , It certainly does not follow

      Latest Indian Intelligence. The Overland...

      LATEST INDIAN INTELLIGENCE . The overland mail which arrived on Monday last , brought intelligence from Bombay to the 26 th October . The news of the capture of the Fort of Bey t is confirmed , though it appears that the storming-party was at first ' repulsed , and that the place was subsequently evacuated by the enemy . No intelligence had been received of the operations against Dwarka , regard e d by the Waghers as impregnable . A serious question has arisen out of the demolition of-Beyt . It contains celebrated temples , rich temples , and grandly bejewelled gods . This treasure Avas

      the frying-pan to the fire . If the English rule , they say , be bad , the Nepaulese is worse . FINANCE . A financial despatch has been published at Calcutta , which is important . An estimated improve - ment in our finances has appeared to the extent of 77 £ lacs ( . £ 775 , 000 . ) , reducing the deficit to 650 lacs ( 6 , 500 , 000 ) . The improvement is owing to reductions in military and public works' expenditure increased receipts from the new tariff , and the stamp * salt , and license taxes ( the latter is , therefore , expected to come into operation ) . The revenue' for . 1860-61 is estimated at 3 , 890 lacs ( £ 38 , 900 , 000 ) , the charges at 4 , 225 lacs ( £ 42 , 250 , 000 ) , the estimated deficit thus being 335 lacs ( £ 3 , 350 , 000 ) . Thequestion has been asked , has this statement been put forth to show that we can do without Mr . Wilson ? THE POLICY OF THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL . The Calcutta correspondent of Allen ' s India Mail makes the following pungent observations : —" The English papers , led by the Times , have , for some time past , condemned the poMcy of Lord Canning , regarding the old company ' s European troops , in terms as unmeasured as the press of India . It was universally believed that the ministry disapproved of the acts of Lord Canning , by which a most valuable army has been lost to the public service , together with a million sterling , and that they hesitated to recall him only because of his political opinions and his friendly relations with some of the leading members of the Cabinet . To the astonishment of the Indian public , Lord Canning , on the eve of his departure to the provinces , has published a . despatch from the Secretary of State for India , dated 31 st August , 1859 , entirely approving of the course he has pursued in the ivhole matter . What becomes of the angry diatribes of the Tiynes and the English press regarding the blunders of Lord Canning , and the incapacity of those arouud him , when ministers themselves approve , in the most marked manner , the worst of all his acts ? Asa curious corollary to this published approval , an order arrived by telegraph from Bombay desiring Lord Canning to endeavour to detain the men by offering them a bounty of £ 5 each , and a free kit to re-enlist , for China , although he had refused the small bounty of £ 2 a-head previously to the very same men . Two vessels , with one thousand of the discharged men on board , were on the point of sailing from this port t and were stopped by order of the Governor-General . An officer was sent on board to offer the bounty , and try to induce the men to enlist for China ; but so exasperated were they at the treatment they had received , that only fifty men out of the thousand offered to remain . -The hostilitv shown to them by Lord Canning has been more worthy of a shrewish virago than of the viceroy of a great , empire . Some of the men asked to be allowed to go to Australia-, thus saving the Go' vernnient the cost of their passage to England . It was refused . One soldier showed that ho had obtained a situation in India of £ 15 a-month , and begged to be allowed to remain , as it would save his passage money , and the loss of six months salary . No ! ho must go to England or remain with his regiment . Many of the old soldiers told tho officer who was appointed tp register their names for discharge that they would enlist for the Artillery without bounty . They wore told they must go to Englund or remain with tlieir regiments , it is in a . case like this that Lord Canning displays what he considers vigour . Ail India is full of irritation at the new xneasuros of taxation proposed by him , and ' we have no hope of any improvement from the advent of Mr . Wilson . He will be quite a cipher m tho Supremo Council * ana for months will not even see Lord Cunning .. There is but ono hope for India , and that is the recall of tho present Viceroy , ana we sec no clianco 6 t that so long as ministers approve of tho worst and most mischievous ot His acts . "

      looked upon as fair loot , and both private and public plunder was acquired by the saekfull . Moreover , when the walls were blown up the temples were unavoidably blown down . The consequence has been a great outcry from the Hindoo community , all over Western India , " You have desperated and destroyed our temples and stolen our goda , " say they . The great festival of the Dewali took place at the departure of the mail , and the Hindoos would not observe it . They have applied to Lord Elphinstonc , and he has told them that all the public plunder shall be returned , but that what the soldiers pocketed is gone beyond recall .

      On the 11 th October a great native meeting was held , at which the petition to Parliament from the native community , sent home by last mail , was signed by some 2 , 500 persons , and by as many more on the day of the mail ' s leaving . One of the chief points in the petition is the offer to raise £ 6 , 000 , 000 sterling for the relief of Government , only stipulating that they should be allowed to raise the sum in their own way . . We are assured that if Government were to accede the amount would bo forthcoming within a year . It is a continuous tax which the natives dread .

      The Governor-General arrived iu Allahabad on the 14 th of October , and proposed to proceed on the 17 th to Cawnpore , where his lordship expected to meet the Commander-in-Gluef . Groat preparations were being made at Lucknow , and tfuttehghur , to give due eolal to the forthcoming durbars . The object of the journey , U said to be ? ' tho , re-, cognition of rnnny of the now tenures in Oude , tho reception of native princes of the Punjab and others , his direct intercourse with' those who loyally lent their aid to uphold the British power , and tho personal acknowledgment of these services , and for inspecting Delhi and Oude . " Every chiof of note in commandedrto appear before the two representatives of England ' s power—tho Governor-Gonoral and

      Commander-in-Chicf . It will bo a grand occasion , and for the conquered powers sufficiently humiliating , The ex-King of Oudo is said to have accepted a pension of twelve lacs ( £ 120 , 000 ) , and relinquished all claims on Oude . Our hypocritical ally , Sir Jung Balmdoor , G . C . B ., has at length boon bribed to aot contrary to hie conscience , and it is believed that ho will take effective measures to expel tho Oudo fugitives from tho Nepaulese territories . Humours of tho Nanu ' a death had been industriously circulated at Lucknow , evidently with the intention ot \ mieloading tho authorities . Major Tliuillier has gono to settle tho boundary of tho Torai , which is to bo restored to Nepaul . The people who are to bo thus turned over , by no means relish the proposed transfer from

      Napoleonic Millinery.— Ra Paris Letter I...

      Napoleonic Millinery . — rA Paris letter in the Literary Gazette informs us that thero is a system ot crinolinismestablished , for tho proper fulfilment of which four toilottos a day are about tho general requirement , though there are days when only turoo are necessary j tho invitations are for eight uays , and no lady Is expected ever to be soon twice wearing the same gown . Count this up , and you w find an average of thirty or thirty-two toilettes tobo carried down to tho court . Suppose a lonuuo invitta not to be alono , but to have a daughter ( . two daughters ) with her—you como at onco to ninety or ' nlnety-eix drosses 1 Now tho avcrago o » thoso gowns will bo 250 francs ( XI 0 ) , boaauso , wim » the finer ones cost 300 , 400 , or flOO francs each , tnoro may be some whioh cost only 120 or 100 francs ; pu « them all at 260 francs , you reach , for each person , tho figure of JG 300 or # 320 » and If two persons , ^ 000 , or £ 040 i it three , < C 900 , or £ 900 . "

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 26, 1859, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26111859/page/8/