Notes on India.

Colonist, Issue 31, 5 February 1858, Page 3

Notes on India.

: Nena Sahib.—We are all in a mistake about Nena Sahib, at least according to Mi Eugene Pergeaux, in the Courrier de Paris'. M. Pergeaux does not indeed represent this fiend as an Andonis; but in otlier respects he describes the too famous Sahib as having so soft a heart that, despite his whipping children to death and murdering women* he cannot read a tender line in Byron or Shakespeare without being moved to tears! Bte speaks French, Italian, and English, is acquainted with their several literatures, talks bur own language as fluently and surely as any „" gentleman de, Hyde Parck," and has translated "Hamlet" into Hindoo, to the great admiration of competent critics* Then the heart that coutd comprehend Ophelia was, of course, accessible to influences from living beauty, arid this amiable Nena so loved the fair Miss Margaret O'Sullivan that, when she died of consumption, he went arid wept over her tomb, and would not be consoled.. He wandered about his palace, this exquisite lover, repeating nothing but. " Poor Margaret,"— and then-his eyes would suffuse with tears, and he would quote some appropriate passage from Byron, as well as he could do so for sobbing. Since that time he never: loved woman, it is supposed, says M. Pergeaux ; but this adorable individual .took to ride steeple-chases, play in fencing matches, and to killing tigers coolly in single combat. But, best' of all, he is the man who has music in his soul, and he told " le jeune Wooths " that French music was his especial delight—the soft, gay, brilliant, light French music—and to show that he! spoke with connoissance defait, he sat down to the piano and improvised an air that brought down the loudest applause from an audience of connoisseurs. M. Pergeaux seems puzzled to account for the hyena turn taken by this heroic gentleman; but he assures us that he finds, upon inquiry^ such was the man whose name now, in the nostrils of every human being warmed by a spark of Christian love and charity, stinks more foully than that of Satdn himself*, Let us add, that we have corrections of Indian History from other sources aisOi The ultramontanist journal, the tJhiversi speaks of General Neil, and not Neria Sahib, as the wretch who has made himself infamous at Cawnppre by his 4' refinements of torture!" The Univers is sd shocked that it hopes England will be defeated—thus preferring the cause of Neiia* who nailed infants in wooden boxes and threw them into the flames, to that of civili-4 sation. We notice these matters because they have a literary bearing. If tne.tfltramontanist,. as represented by the Universi are audacious enough thiis. to-write contemporary history, we are authorised in being sceptical when they pen legends ot qld times. This bold transmutation of Nend, and Neil, reminds us of a dramatic parallel, in " The Siege of Troy," at Astley's, when Mr. Amherst, the author, by a huge slip of the pen, put the Greeks in the city of Troy* and sent an army of" Trojans from Hellas to punish the Greek ravishers of the reluctant Helen. — Athenceum.

A Mild pRESCRiPTi6N;-4^he riew cor* respondent of Le Nord, who sighs himself1 "Verax," and who professes to be a civil servant of the East India Company of .'3(O years' standing, continues his." Revelations of India," but still without adding any thing whatever to our stock of information upon, the subject. He declares that our. judical system in India is so corrupt that what should be a court of justice is no better than " a den of thieves;" and it is this, together with iniquitous annexations of native states, which has caused so violent and sudden an explosion of hatred in the hearts of the Hindoos. While he protests against the "savage cry for vengeance " uttered by the English journals, this writer observes that even the excessive abuses of our go*' verriment "do not justify the brutal atrocities committed by the Sepoys;" and fot their punishment he goes on to prescribe the following:—"lf I were the government," he says, " after the suppression of the revolt I would propose a law by virtue of which every Mahomedan should be deprived for ever of his civil rights in AngloIndia. I would brand every one of the rebels with an M (for Mutineer) upon his backhand I would propose a law by which every person thus branded who might hereafter be found within the English dominions in India, should be hanged without even the form of a trial, upon the first tree by the roadside, and if it were posible to catch Nena Sahib alive, I would send him to London, to be shut, up in an iron cage, in which he should be exhibited with the wild beasts at the Zoological Gardens.'* It is remarkable that the same writer whd recommends this wholesale sentence upoii the Mahomedan population (in which community, in spite of the 25 years' experience in India for which " Verax" takes Credit* he evidently-supposes Nena Sahib to be included), goes on to say, in another part of his letter, that he "shudders" to think of the cruelty of General Neil in obliging' the murderers of our countrywomen to clean up the innocent blood which they had spilt* In a subsequent letter, he relates with great Jravity a story of a civil officer of the East ndia Company who shot a young Hindotf woman dead, for refusing to show him, her" face, and who, though afterwards found guilty of "murder,"- was merely condemned to pay a fine of £100. Stories s<j preposterous require no refutation.

Who is to Blame ?—Who is to blame ?' It is hard to say. It is ominous of conscious mismanagement and impending disaster, that all concerned are anxious to disclaim responsibility beforehand. At Leadenhall-street confidential complaints are whispered into the ears of visitors, of the obstructions interposed by the Board of Control to energetic action. In Cannonrow, the incompetency and imbecility of the Directors of the East' India Company are a favourite theme. The friends and proteges of Lord Canning, are nnintermitting*

in their attempts to disseminate the belief that he is thwarted and impeded by his council; while the friends of these gentlemen are equally indefatigable as missionaries of the opinion that Lord Canning is an incapable, forced upon Leadenhall-street by Ministers to subserve their own political ends. The public care little about these recriminations; they see with apprehension that India is in more danger from the incompetence" of its administrators than from the hostility of the mutinied Bengal army. They care not to apportion to each clique or coterie concerned its exact measure of reprehension; they hold them all to be responsible, "jointly and severally." Still there is one individual who more than all. the others has; reason to dread the storm of public indignation that will be roused if this country has to witness a second and worse Crimean lazar-house in India. Notwithstanding the specious outcry against a "double government," the country knows that the Ministers of the day have the power, and habitually exercise it, to override and control the decisions of Leaden-hall-street regarding India. It knows that the Prime Minister —he who has been allowed to " form" a government "—is sovereign master of the Board of Control. It will not stoop to fly at meaner gamesecretaries, directors, and such "small deer." It will not waste its time upon Vernon Smiths and Melvills and Cannings., It will call Lord Palmerston to account for anything and everything that goes wrong in India; He it was that appointed Lord Canning, and he it is that has power to recall him. It. is to suit his purposes that the reassembling of Parliament has been delayed ; ■ the East India Company driven to such discreditable means of raising temporary advances of money under great disadvantages; and the bringing of an Indian loan with an imperial guarantee into the market postponed until the Company has contracted new and heavy liabilities, and until the interest of money, which was moderate at the time when the loan ought to have been contracted, has been raised to its present enormous dimensions.— Daily News.

Proposed Bishopric for Delhi.—The High Church party are making an effort to turn recent events in India to account, for the immediate erection of a bishopric there, and, if certain rumours which are afloat turn out to be correct, they may possibly accomplish that object. A correspondent of the Guardian, writing upon the subject, says:—" It was in contemplation before the mutiny broke out to found a bishop's see at Agra for North-West India. But for our timidity, Delhi would probably have been selected as the most appropriate site. No such false delicacy can now be pleaded. If Delhi is to stand, the king's palace of course will be turned into the seat of government. Let the Jumna Musjid, every red granite of which we have purchased with our blood, be con-r verted into a cathedral church. Surely; this would be at once an act of Christian revenge, a heavy and lasting blow to the accursed principles of the Mahomedan and the Hindoo, and a noble memorial of our slaughtered countrymen."— Home Neius.

Proposed Description or Recruits for India.—ln Toronto, and we believe in several other parts of Canada, there are Emancipation Societies, composed for the most part of escaped slaves and free coloured men. We are not aware of the aggregate of their numbers, and as coloured people usually come to Canada by the " under-ground railroad," we are not able" to say what proportion they bear to our whole population. They number, how-: ever, we should say, at least 10,000 in Upper Canada; and we have understood: that they contemplate offering to raise a regiment either' to go to India, to serve in Canada, or to be employed in any way, or: for any period, that, may be deemed most advisable by the Imperial Government. The offer is at once both patriotic and honourable; and will, whatever may be the decision as to the' regiment, give no ordinary pleasure to the Queen and the people of England. The . offer, at this particular period, is in excellent taste; and we question much if better men could be got for service in India. The climate would be exactly suited to them; and they have more than once proved in Canada their value as soldiers.— Toronto Colonist.

The Sepoys/t-Sprung from a class which regards the profession of a soldier as only second in honor to that of a priest; infinitely superior in pay and material comforts to the native cultivator or the mechanic; treated both in cantonments and in the field not simply on a par, but in many points with more solicitous consideration than the European soldier; indulged with : regular furloughs to visit the home of his youth, his family, or the shrines of his religion; rising to commissions by seniority; decorated with an order of merit; and finally assured of a handsome pension on retirement,-r-no private soldier in the world enjoys the advantages of his profession to the same extent as the Bengal sepoy. His position was declared by Lord Dalhousie to be incapable of improvement. Allhis temptation, in short, arises from having his own way too much and too often; and of this the Government have latterly become so sensible that orders have been issued to abstain from the old practice of recruiting exclusively or chiefly in the same districts, and to promote a due admixture of castes in the ranks. Every regiment ought to. contain at least 200 Sikhs—-men who, maintaining sufficient amount of amour propre on other grounds, regard the Brahminical pretensions with contempt. The Brahmin, however, is tall, and well-formed, docile, polite, and gentler manly in his demeanour. Six feet in height, and 40 inches round the chest, are attractions irresistible to recruiting officers and commandants; and, in spite of the orders, the two higher castes have continued to maintain their preponderance in. the Bengal infantry.— Bhcwvood's Magazine. ,

Dry Goods QuEßif.—How can colors be called fast whic^ are warranted not to ntn f