TIIE LATEST NEWS FROM INDIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 537, 15 March 1862, Page 7

TIIE LATEST NEWS FROM INDIA.

We are enabled to state, upon the authority of an officer in a responsible position, that reports of a very exciting, if not alarming nature, were received in Ceylon from Bombay, just before the sailing of the last vessel toAustialia. The fact asserted as indubitable was this: that, notwithstanding the frequency of the ma.il steamers' departure, the Governor-General had chartered a steamer, at Bombay, at an expense of .£15,000, to convey a despatch to England, with orders to spare no cost in forwarding it to London. The subject matter of the despatch was kept a profound secret; but, of course, conjecture was rife, the 6pponents of the Government at Calcutta, whispered that defalcations to a fabulous amouut had been discovered, and that the object of the Government was to anticipate the arrival of the last preceding mail in Europe. The politicians believed that alarming discoveries had been made of an impending rebellion of the Sikhs, extending over the whole of the north-west of India. Others coupled with this report the intrigues of Russia, and it was confidently affirmed by persons supposed to be well informed, that the GovernorGeneral had learned the existence of a secret treaty, by which Persia had acknowledged the sovereignty of Russia, and that a corps rf' armee, consisting of £0,000 men, had crossed the frontier, and taken possession of all the strong places in the north of Persia, down to the passes of Cabul. We gire the report just as we have received it, only vouching for the high character of the gentleman who brought the information direct fio.n India.— Herald.

On the same subject the Argus has the following: — A story of mystery has come to us, which, though in ordinary times it might have been dismissed in a small shipping paragraph has acquired importance in the present anxiety for foreign news. The story, although from 'some oversight it did not appear in our columns at an earlier date, is on undoubted authority, and may be accepted as perfectly true. A passenger by the last overland mail met at Suez the captain of the P. and 0. Company's steamer Ganges, then lying at anchor in that port, and learnt from him that the Ganges had been sent off, at a very short notice, from Bom T bay, to overtake the regular steamer, and to carry an officer with special and highly urgent despatches from the Indian Government to the Home authorities. The captain of the Ganges was ordered on no account to allow of any communication between any of his crew and the shore, eitiier at Aden or at Suez ; and he was to wait at the latter port for a reply to the despatches. At the time of the Benares leaving Suez, the Gauges had been a week in port, and her appet ranee there, under the circumstances, and as a supplement to the regular mail steamer, was exciting considerable curiosity. • The Indian papers, we are informed, were strictly forbidden to take any notice of the Ganges' sudden departure, or to iudulge in any speculations as to her errand ; but we gather that it was generally believed that she was the bearer of some extraordinary news, of a nature not to be trusted even to the Mediterranean telegraph wires. Whether the mystery refers to the discovery of another rebellion" in India, the appearance of a foreign enemy on the frontier, or any great financial difficulty, it is, of course, impossible for us to conjecture. But, at' the present time, it suggests a cause for the detention of the incoming mail steamer, which is, perhaps, as probable as any of the other causes suggested.