RUSSIAN SPIES IN INDIA.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XII, Issue 842, 24 July 1855, Page 3

RUSSIAN SPIES IN INDIA.

It occuued during my sojourn in the al ove country, that I had occasion to meet with an adventurous cliss of peisons, who, being neither covenanted servants of the Hon. East India Company, nor admitted as free traders into their territories, were occasionally, in the practice of obtruding themselves, from time to time, into both the President-its ot Bengal and Madras (I cannot touch up 01 Bombay, tor I never visited that settlement), who by their professional or trading pursuits, concealed what they might have been, and most decidedly were, nicicenary tiavelling emissaiies, commissioned by the Russian Government to in\ estimate the political as well as commercial relations pert lining to the Briti&h rule and monetary finance* of India and itM maritime dependencies in the Eas!, Indian Arch.pelago. It happened in one instance, that I was located with the collectors of Midnapore, a Zillah station situate about I 130 miles south of Calcutta, when, one morning, two persons habited and engarbed in Arab costume, presented themsehes at the door of his residence, who represented themselves tobePersianmerchants. They were possessed of an imposing appearance, and assumed an importance which added vastly to the bearing of their general demeanour. The collector questioned them in Persee, whence they came, the object of their puisuit, and their ultimate destination. 'IVy, in reply, stated that they were Kussilbashees, and had p issed through the different states of Afghanistan, had traverwd a great distance through the Sikh territoiy, and had e\entually reached Bengal. Their offerings i>v sale wore of insignificant value, consisting chiefly of invaluable trinkets, spices, pertumes, &c, which constituted the most common ai tides pin veyed by the Hindoo community of merchants and might have been met with in any bazaar throughout the various distributed markets of the countiy. The Magistrate of Zillah, at Midnapore, strongly suspected that their representation was deceptive, and their motive was not that which they represented it to have been, and immediately instituted an inqury into the circumstance, by referring to the native heads of the police authority at Midnapore. It was discovered shortly afterwards that they had been three days 1 -eating in" the town, and had been occupied diligently in questioning the Kraunies (Portuguese clerks), engaged in the diffi lent departments of the Zillah jurisdiction, the amount of revenue the collector received in the shape of jumniin from the native dependents, the stiengih and character of the military ioree necessarily required on the spot to enforce the returns of jummin into the collector's cutchering for government purposes. The Magistiate, upon being made acquainted with the aho/e circumstances, issued a rewinnuh, to cause the Ku -sibashees to be anested, but they had endeavoured, beiore it could be executed upon them, to change their assumed attire, and had decamped to Calcutta. luo m >nths aiterwards it happ* ned that a very strange and lortu.t -us mcid Tit occurred to the wnt-r ot these reminisce ices. He left the Midnapore to visit Calcu't*, and for h'.s shoit interval of absence had taken apartments at the Bcntinck Hotel, in WollmgUm-squaie.

This Hotel was a general rendezvous for -visiting travellers to the Presidency, and as the rooms for accommodation in an Indian climate are not so closely observed as the same are in England, one morning, whilst at my hreakfast, I was abruptly obtruded upon by * plain Europeanly dressed person (evidently a foreigner)* who wished to force his conversation on me. He stated that he was a Russian merchant, had proceeded from Cronstiidt, and that as I had an intimate knowledge of the circumstances connected with the country (India) he should wish to became belter acquainted with me a» exterior circumstances would admit* I immediately, upon his opening his voice, detected him to be one of the affected Kussilbashees I had seen at Midnapore. Just at that immediate time another person entered my appartment, observing, " Sir, beware of that stranger ; he is a Russian spy, he is under the sanction of the Court of St. Petersburgh." Strange to name it, but it is but too true in the rchersal, the Litter personsonage who imparted to me this salutary warning was no less than the notorious E. E. Oliver, the government spy equally notorious under the go\ ernment ot the Liver--pool Administration in ISI6 and ISI7. This person died of cholera at the Bentinck Hotel, on the 13th May, 1833, in a state of comparatively distressed circumstances. — Notes from an E. I. correspondent, ( London paper. J

The last accounts from Russia describe the impression produced by the appeal of the High Directing Synod with a view to excite the people of the empire to arm themselve* for the defence of the throne, the country, and their holy religion, menaced by the impious attempts of the common enemy. One of the measures adopted by the High Synod, and sanctioned by the Government, consists in the addition to all the corp3 of militiamen, composed each of 1080 combatants, of 1 1 popes, or clergymen ; that is, one for every hundred men. These popes are to carry, at the head of each company, a banner on which the double Cross of the Christian Church in the East is to be represented. The Government continues to take precautionary measures, rendered necessary by the war. In anticipation of the reappearance of the allied fleets in the Baltic, it has ordered that the public school established at Revel, at the expense of the State, and in which the children of the military men of Finland, Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia receive a gratuitous instruction, be transferred immediately to Pskoff, in the interior of the country. An American paper states that the recruiting stations for the British army are likely to be soon established on or near the frontiers of the United States, aDd in Canada, and New Brunswick. Extract of a letter from H.M.S. Sitlon, Kazatch Bay, March 17 :— " We returned from the look-out but yesterday, and shall now be employed three days in coaling. We were prevented a trip to Balaklava, the harbour being so full that a gun-boat can scarcely find room for herself. The night before last a Russian deierter came alongside of us in an oyster punr, and gave himself uj>. He told us that he got out of Port Constantine (where they are all penned in like sheep, and not allo^ ed to come out) by one of the ports, jumped into the pun f , knocked the fisherman overboard, and pulled off to us. The boat was filled with the unfortunate fisherman's oysters, the quality of whwh was lint-rate, and afforded us a great treat, and the boat was declared a lawful prize, and given over to the crew to clean the ship's copper, in lieu of a rickety affair of our own construction. A Russian midshipman also deserted a few days ago. He walked into the water up to his neck, and so waded along shore until he got opposite a French battery, when he gave himself up, and is now on board the French liner 'Montebello.' According to his account the Russians have only a biscuit a day on board their ships, and are in the greatest misery. I was on shoro this afternoon at K'azatch, and could not help admiring the French military road, which in the present beautiful weather is just like a street in London— so firm and haul -I savr a 60-pounder dragged along by six horses almost a? quick a§ a cabman could drne. The French have now 200 guns in position, and are landing daily from the ships. The English are now all ready, an 1 the weather being so fine, thing* cannot remain quiet much longer." Improvement in Screw Steam Machinery. — A very simple but effectual plan has recently been introduced by Mr. Perm, the eminent engine-maker, for preventing that constant and excessive wear and tear of the bearings on the shafts of screw steamers, which has hitherto been found so practical a difficulty and so continually recurring a source of expense. He introduces between the bearing and the shaft thin slips of wood, which have the remarkable property of entirely suspending that incessant waste of material which, aftgr a certain pressure on the square inch has been attained, is constantly in progress This simple expedient has been adopted in the'recent repairs ot the Himalaya, and will probably be applied, if found successful in her case, to all screw steamers. While the surface of the bearing is preserved from waste, singularly enough the slips of wood show no indication of being rubbed away or heated. 'A newspaper in Chinese and English was started at St. Francisco on the Ist January last. It is cal'ed the Oriental, or Tuiiff-Nffai-Sa-i-Ltife ; and is published under the auspices of an English Missionary Society, for the purpose of converting the Chinese in California to Christianity. The Chinese editor is one Lee-Kan r who was converted to Christianity at Hongkong.

England's Minrual Weai/th. — On the authority of Mr. R. Hunt, the Government Keeper of Mineral Records, according to the Mining Journal, the following statement is regarded as a near approximation towards the annual value of our mineral wealth :— Coal as raised at the pit's mouth, £11,000,000; iron, £10 000,000 ; copper, £l,« 00,000 ; lead, £1,000,000 ; tin, £100,000; silver, 210,000; zinc, £10,000; salt clays, &c, £500,000; giving the enormous total of £24,620,000. This is the value of the raw material.— When the cost of labour employed in converting this mass of matter into articles of utility or objects of ornament is added, it will be swelled a hundredfold.

Ceksus of tkk United States. — American journals contain many curious particulars from the lately published ceiwis of the United States. The States th^m contained 23,191,176 inhabitants— being only 4,389,571 less than the united population of Great Britain and Ireland. Of the above 3,204,313 are slaves. The number of children attending school was 4,089,-507. There were of the free population adults, upwards of twenty ve-irs of as*e, 1,053,420 who could not read or write. Of " libraries other than private " there were 15,615, containing 4,636.411 volumes. Of newspapers and priodicah there were 2,526, issuing annually 426,409,9* 8 copies Of these 254 were daily papers, with an average circulation of nearly 1,000,000 copies each per annum. In round numbers the States contained 27,009 clergymen, 24 000 lawyers, and 41,000 physicians and surgeons. The live stock included 4,336,719 horses and 6,385,694 mlich wsco. „. .„.

Pkonounciation* of Sebastopol. — Sir William Molesworth, when in Edinburgh lately, instructed the savans by his pronunciation of Sebastopol. He laid the accent on the penultimate syllable, calling it Sevastopol The Russian letter "b," the third letter in the alphabet, is pronounced vay. The correct pronunciation is Sevaystopol.

The monetary advices from London, dated Saturday, \pril 7th state" that the Bank of England had reduced' their rate'of discount from 5 per cent., at which it had stood since the 30th August last, to 454 5 per cent, lhe measure being fully expected, its effect on the stock market was very slight. Some persons had fancied that during the existence of the war, and with the immediate prospect of a loan, no reduction would be made, whatever might be the influx of money, but these were a small minority, and the general public feel reliance that the sound system of letting the rate be gmded by the demand, instead of endeavouring to adapt it to theoretical contingencies, would still be followed Tho stock of bullion now held by the Bank of England is greater than at any time during the past year, and there is every prospect of its increase. Tie 'Liverpool Daily Times,' in a carefully considered review of the state of the English tallow market soys " The portion of the tallow market continues to attract a good deal of attention; and a strong opinion is expressed that even supposing a peace should result from the pending negotiations at Vienna, that prices will still be maintained. The ' Melbourne Argus' of June 29, states that all thebank* except one, had lowered the rates at which they issued drafts on England to three per cent, premium, that being «he same rate as charged by the Sydney branches of the same establishments. On the following day the same journal announces that the Bank of Victoria posted a notice yesterday afternoon, that drafts are now issued on England at that bank at 2j per cent, premium. We do not recommend combination among the banks to regulate the exchanges, but we think, taking into consideration the facts we have given above as to the increase of our gold export ard the tacts we gave yesterday as to the diminution of imports, they may as well come down at once, without any further show of competition.

Holiday's Ointment and Pills, certain Rtmedres for Xhen-. mTnsm.-Henn Foot, a S od 52, of Mitchwn, near Adelaide, ™ a se ore sum rer from this complaint, and tried a number of reputed remedies, liopmp they would benefit him, but he betame so bad at las? as to be entirely" confine 1 to his bed, and he « unable to. no. c ei'her hand or foot. While he wa« in this horrible condition, a f iend bro.ij?hr him a quantity of HolloWs Ointment and Pill*, ■which he immediately commenced to use; he ioon found himseir «-d»ruTv improved by them, and by pereevering with them fop eleven weelcs, he va» entirely cured, and hai ainw enjoyta. tft% best of health.