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598 TEE LEADER ; [ No . 476 , May 7 , issq .
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NOTES ON INDIAN PROGRESS . Two of the friends of India , who have taken an active part in its advancement , Mr ; William Ewart , late chairman of the Committee on Colonisation , and Mr . D . Seymour , one of its members , have , been re-elected to serve in the 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 sftpposed that , slie 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 goon , and new lines must now be en-¦ couraged , we may expect that the ¦ Government will soon be obliged to raise the Government guarantees to 6 per cent ., to the same rates as the Governments of Spain , Portugal , Brazil , and Turkey . The rise 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 Commander-in-Chief , Lord Clyde , was still on his way to Simla . He has a very large staff wifch . him , the arrival of which at Simla will be very welcome to the shopkeepers and Inhabitants . 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 and thrice a day in a few hours . The post would be one day ' s
post-Great discussions are taking place in India and at home about the Northern Bengal Railway , an attempt being made by the Eastern Bengal Railway C ompany 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 Railway 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 can equally well be laid hy the original company ; and that the bridge ia not likely to be made for years , but that the traffic is to be worked by a steam ^ ferry , as on the Rajmahal branch .
impossible that such districts , as Wyriaad , Simla , and Darjeeling can long remain without legislatures , and in a worse position than Ceylon . British Columbia and Natal have obtained legislatures , Moreton 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 .
An increased number of candidates has appeared for entrance to the University of Calcutta tht number in 1858 being 464 , and in 1859 , 708 ft i * comment on the fondness of the Government f Hindostannee and Persian , that only twenty-sewin have been examined in Hindostannee and two in Persian , the main bulk presenting themselves for their native language—Bengallee . All have to pass in English . There were only eight offered for San skrit , and none for Arabic ; the Government ar ? therefore doing wisely in suppressing those nuisance and hotbeds of bigotry , the Sanskrit college and Madrassah , and instituting professorships of Arabic and Sanskrit in the college .
Dr . W . E . Aitken having been appointed to a post at Madras , has been temporarily succeeded in th e medical charge of the Neilgherry hills by Assistant-Surgeon H . Not t . 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 .
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 cannot see why it is less difficult to maintain it than to maintain the communities of English merchants and native populations at Sq . uiq . , 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 Ataeama , and fresh water can be imported . At Galdera 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 were 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 alike 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 ; game , hams , bacon , butter , cheese , confectionery , jams , northern fruits , tea , and coffee , are all to be had in the hills . The tariff will also give a heip to brewing . Beer has been successfully made in the Neilgherries , 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 gullon , 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 enow trade ,. which , will , in time , yield a good trade . Ice from the United States by sea is duty free . Hill produce does not suffer much from export duties under the now tariff . Lac dye and shellac are to pay four per cent ., and " country articles " generally three per cent . The city of Moulmein 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 iu that ) port . The new city of Lucknow is getting on rapidly . The mosque of Sahadut All has been turned into a church , a muokburah into a reading-room , the Taboon Bukah into mission premises , and a new church is being built in the cantonments . The town will Have quite another appearance . The Calcutta Auction Company haa dope well In its first halfryenr , and declared a dividend of ton per cent ., besides reserving as much . The Bales are now 20 , 000 * . monthly , The paid-up capital is 10 , 888 * . and the profit 1 , 228 / .
There has been a sharp controversy in HerapatlCs 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 Sylhet , 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 Poonjeo cannot compete with Darjeoling as a permanent abode
still the scenery of Sylhot 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 . Xuxmore and Ensign Hodgldnson , both of H . M . 37 th Foot , have obtained six months ' leave to Darjeeling . Captain I * . J . F . Jones , H . M . 88 tH Foot , has leave # > r six months to Simla . The 93 rd Highlanders had not yet arrived at Soobalhoo . . .
One of the most remarkable circumstances in the late news from . India ia the Madras memorial , prompted by the tariff , which demands not only A fthare in the Legislative Counoil of India , but independent representative government for the English in India , This movement will spread , because It is
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The Deane-Habding Revolver An improved revolver has been patented by Messrs . Deane and Son , of London Bridge . In this improved arm the use of all intricate action is avoided , and to facilitate the process of cleansing , the weapon is made , by the withdrawal of a pin , to fall asunder in three parts consisting of the stock , chambers , and barrel , whilst the readjustment is as quickly performed . There are other improvements which make this pistol nearer perfection in the art of killing than , anything we have seen . English and . American Frigates . —The Beyrout correspondent of the Times draAvs 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 Wabasb , 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 quit a apart either from the seamen of other nations or our own mercantile navy ? Of late years they havu not been visible in any of the vessels of the royal navy I have visited , their place being taken by a parcel of young , weedy , fresh-water-lookin ^ 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 thejrreat maioritv
even of her sailors are not of the stamp—have not the stamina and sinews-r-that one expects to see under the British flag . The "VVnbash had a much finer crew ,, and so had the Unite J States 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 and 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 the contrary . " Volunteers in the Sardinian- Aiui y , — A Turin correspondent writes : — " In some of the regiments at Alessandria , I noticed a great many of the lately enlisted volunteers from various parts ot Italy , mosc of them very young men , whose slundur frames out illfilled ou » the long and ample surtout of coarse grey cloth . Sitting down to rost m the V ° . , °° ' my wanderings , I fell into conversion with t roe of them—gentlemanly lads , all from Florence-Mw had been barely two months in the rnnlca ot tue Piedmontese army . They evidently found then ' new profession a desperately hard one , but they s howea nr > flmnhino-. filMinuffh tllOV WOlllil yMly llftve HIS
pensed with a portion of the very . In rye " . "ow ^ fj g drill to which they are daily subjected , in order to fit them to stand shoulder to shouldor with tljoc more experienced and less gently nurtured- conwades . I was amused by the little refinements of the r pass life , which still cling to some of thorn , and *™ t w oddly with- their coarse , unbecoming " »" "" gj pipe-clayed bolts . Ono of them , who » I > f ° J W well , ana had been in England , produced a cf » oa 8 g and handed me his visiting card , on whiohh Q JjJ his regiment and company . Another looked mourn fully at his hands , as if rather ashamed q ^ ptag said something about tlip impossibility o Jg them clean . And I saw another , " > Y * 3 and who , to judge from his hair , cut o the jgjg had just come out of the hands pf "WW . J „ barber , pulling on a pair of kid B \ ov ° '"M }™ $ . of a man whose fingers had never boon us 0 < ; * ° 7 v 0 ««* . «• o m ; iairA < -.. v > iifcii . Volunteers continuo \ ° » . ' „
&y ; butamong most of the onjv a 1 ^ « KK largo proportion pf undersized and loo wo » j m boys . I We oil along con 8 id ? roc 'J ^ Ted up <« the muster of volunteers was to bo w ° Koa ^ rather as a political demonstration than eva ft raiuu acceosion of military strength .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 7, 1859, page 598, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2293/page/22/
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