a sum per ton, and since their charter expired it is much less: while they will unload a vessel in as many days as they take weeks in the East India Docks. Every other charge was proportionably high; but in consequence of its being discovered that the Act only compelled owners to take the ship into the East India Docks, but that they might convey their goods by lighters to any other approved warehouses, a great many merchants availed themselves of this saving clause, and then the Gentlemen Directors of the East India Docks thought proper to reduce some of their rates. Thank heaven, this grievance will die a natural death in a very few years; for our ministers are too wise to shackle commerce with any more of these harpy companies. In conclusion, I have only to observe, that the trade to the East Indies has risen to its present importance, not by the means of the East India -Company, but in spite of it; and that its further and almost infinite extension is sure to follow the abolition of their charter. As that period, however, is somewhat distant, let us hope that Parliament will prepare us for the meridian blaze of this sun of our commerce, by a curtailment of the chartered abuses which now obscure its beams. P. B. P. NOTE OF THE EDITOR. We are gratified at the testimony borne to the utility of our labours, even at this early period, by our intelligent Correspondent: and we feel persuaded, that the powerful assistance rendered by the exposure of facts like those contained in his previous articles on the Tea Monopoly, as well as in the present, must contribute essentially to dispel the ignorance and delusion that so generally prevail on the subject of East Indian affairs. Let him but persevere in his useful exposure of the thousand abuses to which this overgrown monopoly has given rise: he may always rely on our zealous co-operation, and he will deserve the thanks of his fellow-countrymen in addition to the consolatory approbation of his own conscience. AN INDIAN NIGHT AND MORNING. THE Moon was darkly shrouded, chilling rain Save when the fitful meteor glimmered past, D. L. R. This Sonnet was written at Bhaugulpore, in the East Indies, on a most resplendent morning, which succeeded a night of tempest and gloom. These sudden changes of weather are very frequent in India, particularly towards the commencement or close of the rainy season. LETTER FROM BOMBAY, ON THE CONTROVERSY RESPECTING THE ENGINEER CORPS OF THE INDIAN ARMY. To the Editor of the Oriental Herald. SIR, IT is amusing to observe CANDIDUS sneering at CATO's style of writing, and to be enlightened by the following beautiful lines, taken from one of his concise and comprehensive paragraphs: "CATO (says Candidus) seems entirely to have forgotten, that by the new arrangements, another Colonel is to be added to the Engineer Corps,' to share those emoluments he mentions; and which, be it known, will come out of a fund entirely belonging to the other branches of the service, and from which the present Colonel has received his, although the corps did not contribute towards it till of late, and then only about one-fourth of what the other branches do." Elegant composition! admirable logic! severe criticism! alas, poor CATO! all the world must pity you. To be sure, INVESTIGATOR has given CANDIDUs a few awkward facts; and I, Mr. Editor, with your permission, will convict CANDIDUS of publishing the thing which is not. If I comprehend the meaning of the above admirable morceau from the refulgent epistle by CANDIDUS, it is this-That the Colonels of Engineers are paid a share out of the off-reckoning fund, equal to the share of the Colonels of Artillery, Cavalry, and Infantry, to which fund the Engineer Corps do not contribute in the same proportion as the Artillery, Cavalry and Infantry."Be it known," then, that not one farthing is contributed to the off-reckoning fund (as it is still called by the East India House Military Secretary) by any one individual in the Honourable Company's Military Service! Facts are stubborn things; and this is an undeniable one. Formerly, certain stoppages were made from the Indian soldiers'pay, to provide them with clothing. The money thus produced was called "The Off-reckoning Fund;" and the surplus cash, after paying the clothing expenses, was divided among the Colonels of Regiments. But the stoppages from the Indian soldiers' pay have long since been discontinued; and the Honourable Company now give the Colonels of Regiments a sum equal to that which the former off-reckoning fund produced. Why then does the India House Military Secretary still call the donations liberally given by the Honourable Company to the Colonels of Regiments an off-reckoning fund?-Why are not the Colonels of Engineers entitled to share the bounty of their employers equally with the Colonels of the Artillery, Cavalry, and Infantry?-And why, Master CANDIDUS, do you publish the thing which is not, tending to injure a body of men who never injured you? Permit me, Mr. Editor, to thank CATO for his able and disinterested exertions, in favour of the three Engineer Corps: the best proof I can give him of the truth of his statements is, that His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, and the Government here, have reported to the Court of Directors the impossibility of carrying the new regulations, regarding the Engineer Corps, into effect, from a want of officers, and particularly of field-officers. Three field-officers were required by the Commander 1 From one Colonel added to the Corps, subtract one Major taken away from the Corps, and how many field-officers are added, Mr. CANDIDUS ? in-Chief a short time ago, and there was not one to send. There are now seventeen Infantry officers executing Engineers' duties; ten are required to take charge of the Sappers and Miners from the Infantry officers; three Engineer officers were a few days since taken from executive duties to go on service, and no one to supply their place; three officers are allowed by the Court to be absent on leave in Europe, and not one is away from the Corps; and there is not an officer to assist the executive Engineers, who have provinces of several hundreds of miles in extent under their superintendence, and who have applied for assistance;-and not one to relieve an officer in case of sickness, or any other emergency. If fifty officers were added to-morrow to the present strength of the Engineer Corps, there would be full employment for the whole of them. The urgent demands of the public service for Engineer officers has induced the Commander-in-Chief and the Government, to solicit the Court of Directors, in the strongest terms, to augment the Engineer Corps; and they have recommended a greater increase of the field-officers than even CATO proposed-but of course it is the height of presumption in the Honourable the Governor, His Excellency the Commander-inChief, and the Members of the Council, to pretend to know the wants of their own Government! The Military Secretary sitting at a desk in the India-House, must unquestionably be a far better judge of what is required, than the gentlemen above named on the spot;-they, indeed, can only see with their eyes, and hear with their ears; but the Military Secretary has resources within his own mighty mind, soaring above facts, ocular demonstration, and hard-earned experience. If the Members of the Court of Directors, and the Members of the Board of Control, would take the trouble to read the despatches sent home by this Government on the subject of augmenting the Engineer Corps, and be not blinded by garbled extracts from them, made by any prejudiced or bigoted India-House Secretary, then they would know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Through your kindness, Mr. Editor, and the publicity of your excellent Journal, facts, which designing people have long been able to conceal from those in authority in Leadenhall-street, will by degrees be brought to light. As CATO well observes, "Can it for a moment be imagined, that the Court of Directors should, year after year, distribute prizes to those Cadets who have distinguished themselves in their academical studies, publicly telling them that they will be posted to the Engineer Corps as a reward for their talents and industry, if the Court did not conscientiously believe they were conferring a high reward?" That the reward is somewhat TARDY in its operations, will appear from the following fact:-Lieut. Col. Brooks, the Chief-Engineer, has been forty-five years in the service, and is now sitting at the Military Board, with his Excellency the Commander in Chief, the Commandant of Artillery, and three officers of Infantry,-all of them far junior to him in the service; and yet the Chief-Engineer is the worst paid officer of the Military Board. One of the Infantry officers of the Military Board is, indeed, junior to the three senior Captains of the Engineer Corps ; and the present Colonel Commandant of the Garrison is also junior in the service to the three senior Captains of Engineers. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Bombay, Sept. 25, 1824. FACT. ON THE SHAKESPERIAN ROPE BRIDGES LATELY INTRODUCED INTO BENGAL. To the Editor of the Oriental Herald. SIR,-Having observed your critique upon the Shakesperian RopeBridges, I wish to call your attention to the real merits of so ingenious an invention. A model of the first bridge thrown over the Berai Torrent in Bissenpore, is now at the house of the Society of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce in the Adelphi, which I hope you will have leisure to inspect. Mr. Shakespear has the merit of erecting the first of these bridges in India, at his sole risk and expense. Lord Hastings, Sir E. Paget, and several General Officers and Engineers gave the plan their decided approbation; and the Government adopted it. The first bridge having stood the test during a season of unusual inundation, others have been erected. The efficiency of the department over which Mr. Shakespear so ably presides, is best proved by the celerity and regularity of the Dawk, exceeding all former example, and in a country intersected as India is with rivers and deep ravines, frequently impassable during the rainy seasons. The simplicity and portableness of the Rope-Bridge will render it a valuable means of conveyance at all times, and in war, it will prove a serviceable appendage to our Indian army. I could refer you to the highest testimonials in favour of this ingenious structure from the best judges of its utility, and it has been pronounced as unique by the first authority in this country. As a friend of Mr. Shakespear, I cannot allow your remarks to pass unnoticed; and I rely upon your candour for the insertion of this reply. Whatever pride may attach to the Post Master General, results from a conscious feeling that the important duties of his office are discharged with zeal and assiduity, with advantage to the Government, and, I will add, with distinguished credit to himself. "Palmam qui meruit ferat." London, Feb. 18, 1825. I am, Sir, your humble servant, NOTE OF THE EDITOR. C. B. We are not among the number of those, who, having stated one view of a subject would deny to others the privilege of stating an opposite one. We leave this unfair and unhandsome practice to the authorities in India and their abettors. We adhere, however, to our former opinions, not from obstinacy, but from a conviction of their general accuracy. Our Correpondent has stated his. Here, few persons will, perhaps, take the trouble to compare them. But in India, where Mr. Shakespear's real merits are better known, the valuable will be easily separated from the worthless parts of his pretensions: and his new turbans, belts, badges, and rope-bridges, will be each estimated as they deserve. ORIGINAL LETTER OF THE PATRIOT HAMPDEN. To the Editor of the Oriental Herald. SIR, I AM induced to offer you (verbatim et literatim) an original letter in my possession, (which there is no reason to suppose was ever printed,) because I am sure that the name of John Hampden will be acceptable to yourself and to a large proportion of your readers, both Oriental and European. It serves also to show that, in his military capacity, he was regarded as much more than merely the colonel of a regiment. It is remarked, indeed, by Dr. Towers, (Brit. Biog. Iv. 436.) that "his activity and courage in the field, and his wise and spirited councils on the operations of the war, rendered him so formidable a rival of the Earl of Essex, that it was thought, had he lived, that Parliament, who were greatly dissatisfied with that nobleman's conduct, would have taken the command from him and made Hampden general." Hume, also, not usually extravagant in his praise of anti-royalists, says, of Hampden, that "his valour, during the war, had shone out with a lustre equal to that of all the other accomplishments by which he had ever been so much distinguished." 6 66 No year is affixed to the date of this letter, but it must have been written in 1642, just after the battle of Edgehill, which was fought on the 23d of October, and in which Hampden appears to have had a command. Vicars, an early and a very quaint chronicler of the civil war, published in 1644 his Jehovah Jireh, God in the Mount, or England's Parliamentarie-Chronicle.' On the battle of Edgehill, (p. 194,) he describes" Colonell Hampden" as leading a brigado of the army," which appears to have conducted "the artillery and ammunition," when, falling in with" the enemies horse," under Prince Rupert," he gave them a stop." Again, (p. 214,) on "the bloody bickering at Brainford," Nov. 12, 1642, this chronicler relates how " that noble and right Christian Souldier Colonell Hampden, being somewhat neare at hand, and hearing such hot pelting, came and joined his regiment with that other which was fighting, being Colonell Hollis, his regiment." "But he did not live," says his biographer, Towers, before quoted, "to reap the reward of his valour, or to restore his country to the enjoyment of that liberty which he so ardently patronized and promoted; for he was taken off by a mortal wound, which he received in a skirmish with Prince Rupert, at Chalgrove-field, in Oxfordshire." He was seen, contrary to his usual custom, to ride off the field before the action was finished; his head hanging down, and his hands leaning upon his horse's neck. Next day, the news arrived that he was shot in the shoulder with a brace of bullets, and the bone broken. His wound, after occasioning him to linger six days in exquisite pain, put a period to his life the 18th of June, 1643." It is extraordinary that among the very large collections of original letters in the British Museum, written by Hampden's contemporaries, I have not been able to discover one of his autographs. OTIOSUS. The army is now at North Hampton: moving every day nearer to you if you disband not wee may be a mutuall succour each to other but if you disperse you make your selves & y country a pray. You shall heare daily from North Hampt [On the Envelope.] Yo' servant For my noble friends Colonell Bulstrod Captaine Grenfield Captain Tyrrell Captaine West or any of them. |