out any command from the captain; but nevertheless the captain was aware Powers was a prisoner of the crown, and consequently left him on Howe's Island on his return to port.

The jury (civil) returned a verdict of not guilty.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Road-gangs. Great complaints are made of the inefficiency of the road-gangs in the repairs of the roads, and the public inconveniences sustained by the assemblage of large bodies of convicts in one spot, who plunder the farms, rob travellers, and indulge in riot and debauchery. The Gazette says: "We have no hesitation in asserting that labour in irons is very inefficient; the public regulations, which would make it a punishment, are scandalously evaded. Every sitting of the criminal court presents palpable cases, in which the spirit of the Governor's orders are despised, and crimes have been perpetrated."

Representative Assembly.-A requisition, signed by Sir John Jamison, and others, was addressed to the sheriff, calling upon him to convene a public meeting of the free inhabitants on the 29th May, to take into consideration certain important matters connected with the subject of the petition to parliament for a representative assembly. The sheriff (Mr. Macquoid) declined compliance therewith, as meetings of this nature have been already held without the intervention of the sheriff," and he did "not consider it a part of his duty, as sheriff of this colony, to convene county meetings."

The course taken by the sheriff is severely censured by the opposition party; and an invitation to the colonists to meet on the day named, signed by Sir John Jamison and several other justices of the peace, was published.

Influx of Capital.-We understand that three gentlemen may shortly be expected here from India, with a joint capital of £100,000, to be employed in a discounting establishment. What with the capital of the new chartered bank of Australia, that of the present Sydney banks, and the further additional capital of £100,000, we should think that a scarcity of money, at all events, need not be an evil to be apprehended.-Sydney Gaz., May 23.

Steam Navigation.-The impetus which steam navigation gives to exertion in all parts of the colony to which it is directed, has had its desired effect on the condition of Newcastle and Maitland. Property in those now rapidly rising towns is daily increasing in value; new buildings are springing up, and the proprietors of inns find their account in the facility and ex

pedition with which a communication is now kept up between the district of Hunter's River.-Ibid.

VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.

La Perouse.-Capt. Bond, of the ship Anastatia, who has just returned to Sydney from a whaling trip to the South Seas, touched on one occasion at one of the Manicolo islands for a supply of wood and water, and had the good fortune, though scarcely aware of it at the time, to discover some further particulars of the unfortunate La Perouse. Capt. Dillon, now stationed at Sydney, it will be recollected, about four years ago, was the first to discover among these islands some remains of the wreck of this unfortunate voyage, of which the full particulars were given in our Journal at the time. In the course of his traffic with the natives, whom he found to be a quiet and peaceful race, Capt. Bond received some very long iron bolts, which seemed to have been on the island many years, being much corroded with rust. The natives also brought him a piece of a very old double-barrel French fowling-piece. Not being aware of the interesting nature of the relics, they were suffered to lie about the deck of the vessel for some time, until, being in want of an axle for his grindstone, he made use of part of the fowling-piece for that purpose. On the arrival of the vessel at Sydney, Chevalier Dillon went on board, and soon elicited the value of the relics. On cleaning the piece of the old fowling-piece, the French maker's name and the date were distinctly visible-forming a strong corroborative proof of the fate of La Perouse, as affixed by Capt. Dillon, the propriety of whose appointment by the French government as resident at Sydney is now so fortunately confirmed. Capt. Dillon, it was supposed, would fit out a small vessel to carry the researches among the fatal islands of Manicolo more fully and satisfactorily into effect.-Hobart Town Courier, April 17.

Pashalik of Bagdad.

Extract of a Letter from Constantinople, dated Oct. 3:-Bagdad, according to the intelligence received in Syria, had for some time been the scene of daily frays between the Bedouins and the Sultan's troops. The Pasha had withdrawn his forces from the portion of the town situate on the western banks of the Tigris, and abandoned it to the rebels. He had applied for assistance to Redshid Pasha, whose head-quarters are now at Moussoul. Two regiments are shortly to be sent from Constantinople to reinforce his army. It appears certain that the troubles in Mesopotamia are chiefly fomented by Mehemet Ali's agents. His object

evidently is unceasingly to occupy an attention which might prove fatal to his designs, were it to be permitted to concentrate itself against him. Ibrahim openly avows that he has his eye on Bagdad, and that his first step, on being attacked by the Sultan, will be to annex this possession to his dominions.

Col. Chesney is yet at Bir, gradually recovering from the effect of a coup de soleil, which placed his life in the most imminent danger. His negotiations with the Arab wandering tribes had hitherto been highly unsatisfactory. They are decidedly averse to the steam-navigation of the Euphrates, and in fact to every innovation tending to introduce civilization in the country. They have expressed the determination of impeding the passage of the river by throwing rocks in its bed.

Cape of Good Hope. Cape papers to the 29th of August state that desultory warfare still continued in the province of Adelaide, and the colonists were invariably massacred when they fell into the hands of the Caffres. Major Cox had succeeded in bringing the chiefs Macomo and Tyali io a parley, from whom he learned the fate of Lieut. Baillie and his party. It appears they were surprised in the night, the sentinels being asleep, overpowered by numbers, and immediately murdered, with the exception of one man, who was spared until they had extorted from him all the intelligence he was able to afford, and then he shared the fate of his companions. The left column of Major Cox's division, under Capt. Alexander, fell in with a considerable body of the Caffres on the 12th of August, who were attacked with vigour: 30 were killed on the spot. In the morning, a message was conveyed to the colonial forces, that the hostile chiefs wished to have an interview with the officers, and Majors Cox and Warden accordingly proceeded to the place appointed, about three miles from the camp. On arriving near the place of rendezvous, the hostile Caffres, Macomo and Tyali, came forward, and a conversation ensued, which lasted about an hour and a half. At the conclusion, each of the chiefs presented an assegai to Major Cox, with a request that they might be conveyed to his Excellency in token of submission, and that it might be communicated to the Governor that they wished to be his children." Macomo appeared to be much dejected, but Tyali exhibited recklessness of temper. During the conference, it was observed that, besides the Caffres present, a large number were assembled on the heights above, watching attentively the proceedings. This step on the part of

the insurgents would, it was hoped, put an end to the war.

An address from the inhabitants of Graaf Reynet was presented to the Governor on the 10th of August, in which the memorialists advert to the imputations which had been cast upon the settlers on the Caffre frontier in particular

by factious or mistaken persons, conveying an erroneous notion to the mother country, that the colonists are actuated by a spirit of aggression and hostility towards the natives. "The same spirit of partial philanthropy," they observe, "which seeks gratification in untrue statements of the colonial and the savage character, had a direct tendency to give an undue stimulus to the desires or the pretensions of the savages, and has been actively and successfully exerted in rendering nugatory the imperfect means of defence against external enemies afforded by arraying the armed inhabitants."

His Excellency in his reply states:"I too have observed, with a regret corresponding to that expressed in the address, and, I acknowledge, not without painful astonishment, the dangerous efforts of some (I would fain hope but a very few) persons within the colony, to sacrifice the cause, and to degrade the character, of their fellow countrymen, in defence of those of a savage and treacherous enemy; nor do they scruple even to pass over unnoticed, or to hold as trifling, the almost unequalled sufferings of the former, in the barbarous invasion which laid the frontier districts in blood and ashes, while they earnestly invite all commiseration for the case of the latter.

"Whatever may be the real and ultimate object of this perversion of facts and of inferences, its manifest and immediate tendency is, at home, to deceive and mislead his Majesty's Government and the people of England, by making the worse appear the better cause,' and so to shut the sources of sympathy and assistance there against the sufferers here; in the colony, to paralyse the operations and impede the success of a war, not of choice, but of stern necessity, and waged (if ever war were so waged) pro aris et focis.

"These misrepresentations have not failed to produce all the pernicious present effects which the address imputes to them; and I may not here conceal my convictions, that the support thus extended to the cause of the enemy, and the reprobation lavished upon that of the colonists, as recklessly maintained as industriously disseminated, having become communicated to the savage chiefs, have supplied an encouragement which has acted as an incentive to reanimate among them a spirit of resistance, which had been well-nigh extinguished; has prevented the submission which they had been about to make."

GOVERNMENT ORDERS, &c. ELIGIBILITY TO THE SITUATION OF SUPERINTENDING SURGEON.

Fort William, May 25, 1835-The following regulation, on the subject of the eligibility of surgeons to the situation of superintending surgeon, is substituted for that published in G. O. of the 19th March 1833, which is hereby rescinded:

2. No medical officer is to be considered eligible to the situation of superintending surgeon, who shall not have served for two years, in the military branch of his profession, at some period subsequently to his promotion to the rank of surgeon, unless he shall have held, for a similar period, the appointment of Marine or Presidency Surgeon, or Surgeon to the General Hospital in Bengal, or some corresponding situation at either of the other presidencies.

3. Surgeons in the Company's service, who have served in that rank for two years, with the troops commanded by British officers in the Nizam's army, or the army of any other native state, shall be considered eligible to the situation of superintending surgeon, in like manner as if they had served for the same period with a regiment of the line.

ABSENCE OF REGIMENTAL CAPTAINS ON

STAFF EMPLOY.

Fort William, May 25, 1835.- The attention of the government having been drawn to clauses and 4 of G.O. No. 163, of 17th Aug. 1827, the former restricting to two the number of regimental captains that may be absent as the same time from a corps of the line, on staff or other public permanent employ, and the latter providing for the return to his corps of any staff officer on promotion to the rank of captain, who would otherwise be an absentee in that grade in excess to two, the Governor-general of India in Council has had under consideration the consequences which have resulted from their combined operation, and being of opinion that a strict adherence to the rules laid down in those clauses must occasionally be productive of injury to the public service, and unnecessary hardship to individuals, is pleased to modify the provisions of both, to the extent hereinafter specified.

When two regimental captains are absent from a corps of the line, on staff or other permanent employ, a third captain shall not be withdrawn for such employment, but a staff officer, promoted from

the rank of subaltern to that of regimental captain, shall not, in consequence of his promotion, be required to vacate an "appointment which he previously held, and to which he is eligible in his advanced rank, although two captains be already absent from his corps in staff or other permanent situations, unless the Com

mander-in-chief should consider the return of such officer to his regiment essential to its due efficiency, and by application to the Government, obtain its sanction to that measure.

When at any time, under the operation of this order, the number of captains absent from a corps of the line, shall have been increased beyond two, no other captain shall be taken from such corps for the staff or other detached employ, till the number of its absentees in that grade be reduced to one.

APPOINTMENTS OF BRIGADIER OR BRIGA DIER GENERAL.

Fort William, June 1, 1835.-The fol lowing extracts from a letter from the Hon. the Court of Directors to the governor of the presidency

1834,

Bengal, under date the 17th William in are published in General Orders:

"We have no hesitation in expressing our opinion that officers have no strict right to succeed to the appointments of brigadier or brigadier general, on the ground of mere seniority, these being staff appointments, involving both confidence and responsibility. But we must express our firm reliance on the discretion and good feeling of our several governments, that the claims of officers to these or any other appointments, arising out of length of service, will never be set aside, except on public grounds.

With respect to the question raised as to the disqualification of colonels, eligible

by seniority to divisional commands to hold certain offices, which they could not hold under the present regulations as general officers. We are of opinion, that colonels so situated ought to have the option of either retaining their appointments, or of succeeding to divisional commands as brigadier general; but if they prefer the retention of their offices, the divisional commands should not afterwards be open to them, except in special cases to be determined by Government, and reported to us for our approbation and sanction.

"The same principle ought to be applied in the case of senior brigadiers, waving their right to succeed to divisional commands. If they prefer remaining as briga. diers, the superior appointment of brigadier-general ought not, in our opinion, to be open to them, except in special cases.

"All the members of your government concur in recommending that general officers or colonels at home, appointed by us to divisional commands, should not displace officers previously in possession of these appointments, but wait the occurrence of vacancies after their arrival at the respective presidencies. In compliance with your recommendation, we direct that henceforth a general officer or colonel, appointed by us to a divisional command, shall not succeed to that command until the occurrence of a vacancy, unless we shall have specially directed otherwise.

"On the last case put by the Governorgeneral, the possibility of there being in India supernumerary major-generals in the Company's service, we concur in opinion with him and the other members of your government, that no reason exists why major generals should, in that event, vacate any offices or staff appointments of which they may be in possession, until it actually comes to their turn to accept or decline divisional commands, when the same rule will apply to them as we have now directed to be applied to colonels holding staff appointment."

COURT MARTIAL.

LIEUT. S. R. WALLACE.

Head Quarters, Calcutta, June 17, 1835. At a European general court martial, assembled at Meerut, on the 20th April 1835, of which Col. Oglander, H. M. 26th regt., is president, Lieut. Samuel Robertson Wallace, of the 39th regt. N. I. was arraigned on the following charge:

Charge." With having, in a letter to the adjutant-general of the army, under date the 20th Aug. 1834, attempted to defame the character of Capt. Henry Monke, of the same regt., by using grossly insulting and offensive expressions, in the following instances:

1st Instance “In having, when asAsiat Journ. N. S, VOL. 18. No.72.

signing reasons for the conduct of the mess of the 39th regt. N.I., in excluding the said Capt Monke from the mess of the regiment, stated, it is simply this, the members do not consider Capt. Monke a gentleman,' and also, ‘they had no intention to allow a member of their body to insult them, by intruding at their table one whom they do not regard as a gentleman,' alluding to the said Capt. Monke, and avowing, in the said letter, that the opinion and sentiments which he, the said Lieut. Wallace, had expressed, as above quoted, are his.

2d Instance." In having made the following assertion: for had Capt. Monke entered the mess-house as a guest, he would undoubtedly have been turned out of it.'

3d Instance." In having asserted, that insults and accusations were heaped on him (meaning the said Capt. Monke) about the commencement of April 1831,' the same being unfounded, and known to be so, by Lieut. Wallace.

"Such conduct being unofficer-like and insubordinate, destructive of harmony and good order in the regiment, prejudicial to the service, and injurious to the character of Capt. Monke, as an officer and a gentleman."

Finding and Sentence." The Court, having duly weighed the evidence for the prosecution, together with what the prisoner has urged in his defence, is of opinion, that the fact is proved, that Lieut. Wallace did use the expressions as set forth in the charge; but, in consideration of the circumstances under which they were used, attaches no criminality to them, with the exception of those specified in the second instance; viz. for had Capt. Monke entered the mess-house as a guest, he would undoubtedly have been turned out of it,' and so much of the first instance as relates to Capt. Monke's being intruded at the (mess) table, which it considers as highly censurable.

The Court having found the prisoner guilty of so much of the charge as is specified above, sentences him, Lieut. S. R. Wallace, of the 39th regt. N.I, to be reprimanded in such manner as the provincial commander-in chief may deem proper."

Approved and confirmed. (Signed) JAMES WATSON, Maj. gen. Prov. Com.-in-chief. Lieut. Wallace is to be released from arrest, and directed to return to his duty.

CIVIL APPOINTMENTS, &c.

BY THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL, Judicial and Revenue Department. May 9. Mr. atrick O'Hanlon to be a magistrate of town of Calcutta, in room of Mr. T. Hoseason deceased.

12. Mr. C. T. Davidson to be an assistant under (21)