SUPPLEMENT TO CALCUTTA INTELLIGENCE. CIVIL APPOINTMENTS. Territorial Department. Oct. 31. Mr. H. J. Middleton, Collector of Etawah. Mr. H. Swetenham, ditto of Sarwan. Mr. R. H. Boddam, ditto of Saidabad. Mr. R. Lowther, ditto of Bolundshahur, Mr. J. French, ditto of Backergunge. Mr. W. H. Vaply, Secretary to Board of Revenue in Western Provinces. Mr. T. B. Biscoe, Sub-Collector and Joint Magistrate of Phillebheet. Mr. H.T. Owen, ditto ditto of Etawah. Mr. W. Dundas, ditto ditto of Mozuffer Nuggur. CALCUTTA. This city has been agitated or amused, for about six weeks, with a succession of exaggerated rumours respecting an attack upon the British frontier by "his Majesty of the Golden Feet," alias the King of Ava. At length, however, it was ascertained that the war supposed to be raging between the two empires, was nothing more than an insolent attack on the part of the Burmahs upon the island of Shapuree, situated in one of the mouths of the Burampooter, and which indisputably belonged to the British Government. The following, we believe to be the most correct report of what has actually occurred. "From the first of our sending the guard, &c. to Shapuree, the Birmese authorities talked loudly and insolently of expelling it unless withdrawn. Some letters to this effect were exchanged be- Shapuree, not even staying there by night, for fear of a rejoinder, I conclude, but coming to hunt and shoot there in the day time with much parade and ostentation. "It is only a year since the King of Ava released nine out of ten poor Kedda people (elephant hunters of ours), whom they had seized on our territory while thus employed, pretending they had as good a right to levy taxes for catching elephants in the forest, as we have to levy them on their exports and imports from Chittagong, &c. They were kept in durance a year (with the death of one), and then released by accident. It was only January last they shot one of our Mugh subjects on board his own boat, for refusing to pay them dustooree on entering the wharf, the common boundary of equal property of both states. The invariable insolence of their address to our Government, or its officers, their overweaning confidence and arrogance, their encroachments on all the petty states on our borders, till all are now swallowed up in that empire, ending with the Rajah of Assam, whose government they usurped, and rendered him a fugitive two years, all tend to prove the farce is acted systematically, and with malice prepense in this outrage. Whether this systematic arrogance and encroachment is to be quieted by diplomacy, or by stronger arguments, is for the Government to decide. We can only rely on their wisdom for the efficacy of their decisions, whatever they be. "When Symes was at Ava, we believe, the King wondered our Government did not apply to him for assistance against Buonaparte. He would find 40,000 Birmen who would sweep the French nation off the face of the earth, or something to this effect equally feasible and enlightened.' However petty this affair may appear, as contrasted with the rumours that were afloat respecting it, it was impossible that the Indian Government should pass it over in silence. Consequently, such an expedition has been despatched to that quarter, as will command respect, while a proper spirit is shewn by our diplo matists. There are also military movements on our western frontier, but equally trifling. The Government of Oudipore appears to be in a somewhat distracted state, arising, as we should imagine, from the feudal arrogance of the principal chiefs. Our readers are aware that the British Government engaged, at the close of the late Mahratta war, to maintain the internal peace of this principality. Consequent ly our services are now put into requisition, to reduce the fortified town of Humeergur. The Rajpoot nobles are a haughty race, and will doubtless give us trouble even where they have little prospect of success: but the truly valuable publication of Sir John Malcolm gives us reason to hope, that we already command both the respect and confidence of the bulk of the population. The expedition is formed from the Nusserabad and Neemuch detachments, and is under the command of Colonel Lumley. The following official letter has been sent to the conductors of the Calcutta Journal, which publication has consequently ceased to exist. To Messrs. J. F. Sandys, J. Palmer, G. Ballard, and P. S. De Rozario. (General Department.) Gentlemen: You were apprized by my official letters of the 18th of July and 3d of September last, of the sentiments entertained by the Governor General in Council, in regard to the repeated violation on the part of the conductors of the Calcutta Journal of the rules established by Government for the regulation of the periodical press. The Editor of the Calcutta Journal, notwithstanding those communications, has since, by the republication in successive numbers of that newspaper, of numerous extracts from a pamphlet, published in England, revived the discussion of topics which had before been officially prohibited, and has maintained and enforced opinions and principles which, as applicable to the state of this country, the Governor General in Council had repeatedly discouraged and reprobated; the extracts themselves, so published, containing numerous passages which are in a direct violation of the rules prescribed by Government, under date the 5th of April last. The Right Honourable the Governor General in Council has in consequence this day been pleased to resolve, that the license granted by Government on the 18th of April 1823, authorizing and empowering John Francis Sandys, and Peter Stone De Rozario, to print and publish in Calcutta a newspaper called "The Calcutta Journal, of Politics and General Literature," and supplement thereto is. sued on Sundays, entitled and called "New Weekly Register and General Advertiser for the stations of the interior, with heads of the latest intelligence published as a supplement to the country edition of the Calcutta Journal," shall be revoked and recalled, and you are hereby apprized, and respectively required to take notice, that the said license is resumed' revoked, and recalled accordingly. I am, Gentlemen, Council Chamber, 6th Nov. 1823. A Society has been formed at Calcutta for the establishment of a regular steam navigation between India and England. The Hon. J. Harington presided at the meeting convened on the occasion, and the plan proposed to be adopted was laid before the meeting by a Lieut. Johnston, the projector. The outlines of this plan have already appeared in the daily London prints, in such a form as to preclude the necessity of our dwelling upon them. We have only to state, therefore, that the measure has been patronized in our eastern capital in a manner fully equal to the encouragement that is given in the mother country to any speculative scheme of similar cr higher character. The journey across the isthmus of Suez is of course regarded as a trifle. A well-attended meeting of the friends of the Parental- Academic-Institution was held at their house, in Wellington Square, early in November, for the purpose of forming some rules for the future management of its concerns. Several regulations were entered into, the principal of which provided for the admission of members, and for the education of the children of such members as may die without leaving a sufficient sum to pay for it. Persons subscribing monthly or yearly, or making a donation to a certain amount, are to be members, and by them the committee and the executive officers of the society are to be appointed. The rule relative to the children of indigent members is simply that they shall be educated gratuitously at the charge of the society as far as its funds will admit. Several other rules were entered into, in the forming of which the greatest care was taken to prevent any future misunderstanding. A book was handed round for subscribers, and they then proceeded to the election of a committee, consisting of twelve members and a secretary, after which the meeting broke up. A general meeting of the Calcutta Diocesan Committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge has been held at the house of the Lord Bishop in Fort William, which was numerously attended, previous to his taking the chair as President of the Committee. The Bishop having offered the usual prayers, addressed the meeting at some length. He spoke with much feeling of his last parting with the society in London, and of the solemn charge committed to his hands by some of the best and wisest men in the church; he spoke of their zeal for the spiritual interests of the East, and of his own anxious wish to further their Christian views so far as they lay in his power. His Lordship adverted more particularly to the subject of native education, and called upon the Committee to redouble their exertions in this important branch of their labours. In reference to this subject, it was most gratifying to the Committee to see at their board two Reverend Missionaries of the Church of England, recently commissioned by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to superintend the department of education in the neigh bourhood of Calcutta. Some classes of the children now receiving instruction in the Diocesan Committee's schools, near Bhoaneepore, attended before the meeting, and showed great proficiency in reading and writing, both Bengalee and English, as well as in other branches of the education afforded to them. The arrival at Calcutta of a Catholic Bishop (whose diocese is Tibet!) is thus announced in one of the Indian newspapers. The Right Rev. Zenobia Maria de Florença, Bishop of Thermien, and Vicar Apostolic of Tibet, has recently arrived here from Rio de Janeiro. He was engaged in the Catholic Mission of Angola, in Africa, where he received his appointment from Rome, and proceeded hence from that place. After a residence there of ten months, he embarked for Calcutta in the brig Ulysses. He attended the old Catholic Church on the 9th Oct., and was received with the honour due to his rank and character. He has just left Calcutta for Chandernagore, where, we understand, he is to remain for about a month, when he will proceed on his mission to Silhet. He intends visiting the Catholic Churches at Patna, Bettiah, and Agra. The Bishop was accompanied by the Rev. Cazimiro da Pontremoli, an Italian priest, attached to the Tibet mission lately arrived at this place from Cairo, by way of the Red Sea, in a Turkish vessel. We quote the following paragraph, relating to the Tibet mission, from the Monthly Magazine for June 1823: "If credit be due to the Roman journal, entitled Diario Romano, the Queen of Tibet has requested of the Pope eighty missionaries of the college de Propagandâ Fide, to introduce Christianity, and for Asiatic Journ.-No. 101. the conversion of her subjects. Five ca puchins have already set out for that country. An Italian of Brescia has been instrumental in the queen's conversion; he now acts as her prime minister.' It is rumoured, that the bishop will permanently reside either at Tibet, or in the dominions of her highness the Begum Sumroo, as he is to preside over the mission from the Propaganda Fide, at Rome, or as it is commonly called, the Italian mission in Hindustan. It would be well if the bishop would take our north-eastern frontier in his route to Tibet, and visit the very numerous Catholic Christians who are to be found from Goalpara to Joghigopa, in a most wretched condition; particularly in every thing connected with Christian instruction and the ordinances of religion. We believe the Italian mission has not yet completely recovered from the distress into which it was plunged, in consequence of the blow struck by Buonaparte at Rome, and the capture of the venerable head of the church. The stated pecuniary remittances from Rome have not been renewed to this day, since that period; and but few missionaries have yet been sent out to supply the places of those who have departed this life to render an account of their ministry, and of those whose hands have been enfeebled by age in the service of the altar. Owing to the circumstance we have noticed, we learn that the Christians on our frontiers have not had a pastor among them during the low state of the mission. The very Reverend Doctor Jacobus, an Armenian by birth, but a dignitary of the Catholic Church, has recently arrived at Calcutta from Rome. The Rev. D. Corrie, LL.B., Senior Chaplain of this Presidency, was installed Archdeacon of Calcutta with the usual ceremonies, on the 25th October. MADRAS. Our intelligence from this Presidency is down to the beginning of January. The most interesting occurrence we have to mention, is the establishment of a male and female Orphan Asylum in the Black Town for such children as are not eligible to be admitted into the military asylums. The foundation stone of the edifice to be erected was laid by the masonic body with the mummery with which they usually amuse themselves on such occasions. Sir Charles G. Metcalfe, Bart., Resident at Hyderabad, had been so seriously VOL. XVII. 4 E was in the immediate neighbourhood of the city, near the old palace. indisposed that he was obliged to leave Hyderabad, for Calcutta, to obtain the best medical advice. The Government yacht had been sent from Calcutta for him early in November. The scarcity of grain in the line of country between Nellore and Gonjoon, was so excessive, that many families in the vicinity of Ingeram had gone without food for two and three days. Government had, however, taken up ships to convey rice to Coringa. On the night of the 22d December, a vast multitude assembled in the Black Town, and proceeded to break open some of the rice stores belonging to native merchants, which were plundered, and much grain carried off. Guards of native troops were sent to protect property of this description; the mob, however, behaved in a most daring and outrageous* manner towards the sepoys, while the latter, we understand, acted with the greatest forbearance, under very trying circumstances; two of the mob, however, are reported to be wounded, and one killed. It is imagined, that not less than 100,000 persons were collected. At first sight of the woman I was imothers, that she was more or less intoximediately convinced, in common with cated; but before the various ceremonies were gone through, which on such occasions precede the act of burning, those doubts had given place to a perfect con viction that she was in her sober senses, and fully aware of the dreadful act she was about to perform. Of this I am the more satisfied from the question having been frequently put to her by the European gentlemen present, "whether it was her wish to be burnt," to which she always returned the same answer, "that she knew what she was doing, and that it was her own pleasure to burn." Having offered the more harmless sacrifice of incense on a small fire from which the pile that was to consume her body was afterwards to be lighted, and having parted with all her golden ornaments to those in attendance, she deliberately, and without shedding a single tear, took a last leave of all she held dear on earth, ascended the pile, and there laid herself down with the ashes of her deceased husband tied round her neck. The entrance was then closed with dry straw, and the whole pile surrounded with the same light material, and immediately set fire to by the officiating priests. I had placed myself directly opposite the entrance to the pile, and could distinctly see the unfortunate victim struggling to escape. This did not pass unob. served by the attending Bramins, who instantly began to knock down the canopy, which, containing nearly as much wood as the pile itself, could have effectually secured their victim in the fire had it fallen on her. All this while no one except the officiating Bramins interfered; but when the sufferer did make her escape from the flames, and, running towards the river, either fell or threw herself at the feet of Mr. T., that gentleman, assisted by Mr. S., immediately carried, or rather dragged her into the water, in which the latter gentleman suffered by incautiously laying hold of her burning garments. An attempt was now made by the officiating priests to carry back their victim to the blazing pile, which was resisted by the gentlemen present, and one of their number was dispatched to acquaint the Magistrate of her escape, and learn his pleasure regarding her; but before the messenger could return with an answer from the civil authority, the Bramins had persuaded the unfortunate woman once more to approach the pile. And, as she declared, on being questioned by those present, that it was her own wish to reascend the pile, they stood aloof, fearful of giving offence to the prejudices of the native population on the one hand, or to |
