"N.B. This is from private informa. tion, no return having been received.

"W. L. WATSON, A.G."

PEACE WITH THE BURMESE.

The Government Gazette Extraordinary of January 20th contains the following particulars respecting the termination of hostilities with the Burmese, and of the transactions which preceded that event. Demi-Official.

Fort William, January 20, 1826.-Despatches have been received from Brigadier Smelt, by the H.C.'s steam vessel Enterprize, which left Rangoon on the 13th inst., containing the following highly important intelligence:

It appears that the sloop of war Cham pion sailed on the 9th instant, for Calcutta, with Capt. Snodgrass on board, bearing despatches which announce that Major Gen. Sir A. Campbell reached Patanagoh on the 27th ult., and that negociations were opened by the Burmese chiefs on the 30th. A treaty of peace was agreed to according to the terms dictated by the British commissioners, and signed on the 3d inst. The principal articles are stated to be, the cession of Assam, and its dependencies; of the four districts of Arracan; and the provinces on the coast of Tenasserim, viz. Yé, Tavoy, and Mergui, to the Hon. Company; Munnipore to be given to Raja Gumbheer Sing; and one crore of rupees to be paid. Stipulations also have been made for the security of the Peguers, who may have joined or assisted us during the war. It was stipulated that the treaty should be ratified by the King of Ava, and returned to the commissioners at Maloun, with all the European prisoners in Ava, and an instalment of three lacs of rupees, on or before the 18th inst. It was expected that Col. Tidy would reach Rangoon with the ratified treaty about the 24th inst., and his Majesty's ship Alligator was under orders for bringing on the despatches.

On

Brigadier Smelt reports also that Col. Pepper's column marched from Pegu on the 23d ult., and arrived at Shoeegem on the 3d inst., which place he found evacuated, and had succeeded in getting back the inhabitants with their families. the 7th inst. he detached Lieut. Col. Conry, with the 3d Madras N. I., to take possession of Zittoun, where a small force of the enemy was said to be stationed. They proved, however, to be very numerous and strongly stockaded, and after a most gallant attempt to carry the work by escalade, the detachment was obliged to retire with loss, Lieut. Col. Conry and Lieut. Adams being killed, and two officers wounded; with twelve sipahees killed, and twenty-one wounded. Col. Pepper was expected to arrive at Zittoun

on the following day, and recommence the attack with his whole force, unless he should, in the mean time, receive the orders, informing him of the conclusion of the treaty of peace at Patanagoh, and directing his return to Pegu.

We copy the following from the John Bull extra of this morning, and are happy to add, that there is every reason to believe in the correctness of this satisfactory intelligence, although its confirmation must await the arrival of the official despatches. The ratified treaty was expected at Rangoon on the 24th. We understand the Enterprize is to return thither immediately.

Peace with the Burmese.-The H. C. steam vessel Enterprize has returned from Rangoon ; arrived at that place on the 12th inst. at night, and left on the 14th at one

P. M.

After the battles of the 2d, 3d, and 5th, Sir Archibald Campbell moved on to Tatnagoe, 120 miles in advance of Prome, through a country fortified with the strongest stockades, but which had been deserted; the enemy had suffered severe loss by the cholera, and the ground was strewed with dead, in groupes of twenty and forty. Immediately on the arrival of Sir Archibald at Tatnagoe, he was met by the first minister of the Lootoo, sent expressly from Ava to sue for peace; and after several conferences, this boon was granted to him on the following terms, viz. The cession of Mergui, Tavoy, Yea, and Arracan, to the British; Ava to receive a Resident, and at Rangoon a Consul; together with the payment of one crore of rupees. The preliminary treaty was granted the 3d, and fifteen days were allowed for the ratification to arrive from Ava.

When the army advanced from Prome, Sir James Brisbane, in the Diana, moved up with the flotilla, and passed several batteries, mounting fifteen to twenty guns, of heavy calibre, without molestation; so great was the dread of provoking further

vengeance.

The Supplement to the Calcutta Gazette of January 19, contains likewise the following details:

Our

The immediate effects of our success in the early part of December were, to oblige the enemy to call in all his flanking parties, and fall back with such part of his force as could be kept together, upon Meaday and Maloun. Since that period the navigation of the Irrawaddy as far as Prome has been completely free and open. troops, it appears, did not return to Prome after the action. Sir A. Campbell marched from his encampment on the Nowain river, on the 9th ult. by the route of Watigaon, intending to make a detour inland, so as to turn Meaday; whilst Gen. Cotton, with the Madras division, advanced direct upon Puloh. The movement of the latter divi

sion was delayed for a short time, by a heavy fall of rain, but it appears, that on the 15th, it was at Meeoung on the Irrawaddy River, and expected to reach Bolay on the following day. It is said that the

Suda Woon, who is a great favourite with the king, and formerly defended Ky Kuloo and the White Pagoda at Donabew, was sent off express to the court immediately after the affair of the 5th.

BIRTHS.

Nov. 30. At Bankeepore, Mrs. M. Ward, wife of Mr. F. Ward, assistant in the office of the Central Board of Revenue, of a son and heir.

Dec. 1. At Saugor, the lady of Dr. Urquhart, of a daughter.

Jan. 10. At Fort William, the lady of the late Capt. D. Thomas, superintendant of government cadets, of a daughter.

12. At Bishop's College, the lady of Professor Holmes, of a daughter.

14. At Chowringhee, the lady of Lieut. Col. Com. J. A. P. MacGregor, deputy military auditor general, of a son.

15. At Chowringhee, the lady of Dr. W. P. Bermingham, H.M.'s 87th foot, of a son.

18. The lady of Colin Lindsay, Esq., civil service, of a son.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT. HOUSE OF COMMONS, April 28. East-India Writers Bill.-On the motion for the commitment of this bill,

Mr. Denman opposed the bill, as a departure from a great principle long established. It was well known that the incapacity of persons sent out by patronage to govern India had been the cause of all the mischiefs of which that country had had to complain. The college at Haileybury had been instituted to afford some remedy for the evil, by giving the persons so sent out a suitable education;

and he had understood that the experiment had been in a great measure successful. Not that he pretended to say the institution was free from blame, but he would contend that it had in a great measure attained the object for which it was established. The clause now intended to be repealed was that which enacted that no writer going out to India should be employed, unless he brought a certificate

of his having received an appropriate education in England. If the necessity existed for repealing this security, he still could not but regret that the rules and regulations of the college had not been incorporated in the bill, instead of leaving the matter to the discretion of the Board of Control and the Court of Directors.

He

Col. Trant said, that, so far as his ex.. perience went, the young men who went to India before the establishment of the college, were not inferior in education to those who had gone out since. would remind the hon. and learned gentleman, that, from the school in which they studied together, many well-educated. young men had gone to India, as well as from all the great schools of the country, since our first establishment in India. He took the liberty to say, that the abuses did not take place in India for want of education in those who administered the system; but the system was very different now to what it then was. It was to the 5 L 2 system,

system, and not to the education of the person administering it, that he attributed the abuses which had prevailed. He thought the Civil Service in India had been but little improved by the establishment of the college. He should support the measure now before the House, as he knew there was a necessity for it.

Mr. Canning observed, that, although England had, before the establishment of Haileybury College, possessed many great men in India, yet the college had produced several officers who had greatly contributed to the service of the country. He agreed with Mr. Denman, in thinking that the country had a right to expect a security for the competent education of persons who went out to fill important offices in India: at the same time he entirely agreed with Colonel Trant, that if there could be a security for a general education in those persons, he should certainly prefer it to the more limited educa tion acquired at the college; for he thought the general education given to an English gentleman more suited than any other of which the world could boast for qualifying them to fill with propriety every situation to which they might be called. There might be some things of which to complain in the college; but the examinations were a test quite necessary, and for that purpose a separate institution was required. Under all the disadvantages to which the college had been subjected, it had been conducted with great credit to the professors, and with manifest advantage to those who had been placed under their care. Instead of the college being placed in a corner of a barren heath, he should have preferred it in a situation where the students could have an opportunity of associating with others; and also if the college had been placed under the superintendance of one of the universities, instead of the visitors to which it was at present subjected. Still the institution, notwithstanding the disadvantages of its constitution and insulated situation, had been conducted with great credit, and with partial success. He was therefore sorry that the supply of young men from that college was not sufficient to meet the exigencies of the service, and that there was a necessity for suspending the operation of the act. In giving his consent to the measure, he begged to be understood as doing it under a pledge that no attempt would be made to get rid of the institution altogether, but that it would again be reverted to as soon as the present necessity should have passed away, subject only to the change, if it could be effected, of giving a more general British education, instead of the present limited plan.

Mr. Lushington said, having had two of my sons at Hertford College, I feel that I am in justice bound to offer my opinion on this bill. The matter upon which it

legislates is of very high importance. It concerns the qualifications of those who are to be successively intrusted with the happiness of a hundred millions of our native subjects. For this noble purpose the College of Hertford was instituted, and therefore those who think with me, that it has answered the benevolent objects of its foundation, notwithstanding the difficulties that have embarrassed its progress, must see with deep regret any departure from the principles and use of this establishment. The study of the Eastern languages was the primary purpose for which the College of Hertford was formed, and the proficiency of the students in this branch of learning is the test by which its merits ought to be tried. After a careful examination of this subject, both during the four years in which my sons were at Hertford, and since their arrival in Calcutta, aided by my own recollections of what is required from a civil servant in situations of great power and responsibility, I am convinced that the country owes to the principal and professors of that College, a large debt of gratitude for the able and efficient discharge of this and every other part of their important duties. It is true, that classical literature and sound principles of policy, morality, and justice, are taught there as they are in the schools and universities in different parts of the kingdom; but the College of Hertford was principally established for the cultiva tion of the Eastern languages; and the success of the institution must be adjudged upon that test. I know no mode of forming a judgment upon this point so pure and so impartial as the reports of the College Council in Calcutta, upon the acquirements of the Hertford students. In the College of Calcutta there can be no motive to applaud the Hertford student, unless he shall deserve it. The inclination of the native teachers would rather be to shew that the Hertford student brought little of Oriental Learning to the College of Calcutta, however much he might carry out of it. But it is a fact no less honourable to the College of Hertford, than to the Professors of Calcutta, that several students have been pronounced, after a very short residence in India, perfectly qualified to enter upon the discharge of their important duties. One of these is, indeed, so remarkable, that I cannot deny myself the gratificatoin of doing an act of justice, by referring to it, although it is the case of my own son. He had been, for the period prescribed by law (four terms), at Hertford. He arrived in Calcutta on the 17th of May, and was examined early in June. The Governor-General, the visitor of the College, thus states the result:"College of Fort William, July 21,

1824.

"The Right Honourable the Visitor delivered the following discourse :· "Mr.

"Mr. Lushington was admitted to the College, on the 26th of May last; and his attainments in Oriental languages, brought from the College of Hertford, or made during the voyage to India, are highly creditable to his talents and exertions. At the examinations in the following month of June, Mr. Lushington held the first place in Persian; and, in the short space of another month, he was reported by the examiners, to have acquired such a knowledge of the Hindoostanee Language, as, with the Persian, duly qualified him to enter on the public service.

"With reference to the date on which Mr. Lushington quitted the College of Fort William, this notice of his acquirements would be more properly included in the Report for the ensuing year, 1824-5; but I cannot deny myself the gratification with which I have viewed his honourable and successful exertions to qualify himself for the early discharge of his public duties.'

One such instance as this (and there are many of the same character) is a decisive proof of the efficiency and success of the system pursued at Hertford. Indeed, I have, this very morning, had the happiness of learning that my second son, who entered the College at Calcutta in the middle of last October, was pronounced qualified in the Persian language for the service, by December; and a medal was given to him for his proficiency.

With

such happy fruits from this institution, I regret the necessity which has arisen for suspending the provisions of the law, rendering it imperative upon every writer to pass four terms at Hertford. This is, however, a necessity which cannot be controlled. The service must be supplied with a sufficient number of persons adequate to the good government of an empire of such unequalled magnitude; and it only remains for us to consider of the most likely means of securing to the Company's service, officers who shall in due time acquire the qualifications necessary for so great a purpose. In this spirit my right hon. friend has brought in his bill. It provides, that any person who shall produce such testimonials of his character and conduct, and pass such an examination, as, by rules and regulations to be framed and established, shall be required, may be appointed a writer, without passing four terms at Hertford College. Without knowing the nature of the rules by which the qualifications of the parties to be appointed are to be tried, it is impossible for the house to form a correct judgment; but I am quite aware that a full discretion must be given to those who are to be the judges of individual fitness for the service. There is, however, one broad principle which ought to be rigidly applied, and it is this not to let any writer proceed to India who is not likely, from proficiency

Every

and age, to pass quickly through the college at Calcutta, or to avoid it entirely ; for if the restraints upon admission into the service here are diminished, whilst those in Calcutta remain as they now exist, the consequences to the young men must be most ruinous, and full of disappointment to the Company. They will remain collected together in that luxurious and debt-alluring capital, and before the period of their qualification for the service arrives, many of them will be in a state of servile and disgraceful dependence upon native creditors. I am convinced there is no matter more vitally important to the prosperity of our affairs in India, than that this state of things should be im mediately corrected, and absolutely pre vented for the future. The remedy for this latter purpose seems to me perfectly simple, and easy of execution. writer, upon his arrival at Calcutta, should be immediately sent to some of the numerous out-stations, and he will then learn his duty and the language and customs of the country, free from those temptations to debt, idleness, and profligacy, which surround him in the capital. Reports of his progress, and specimens of his proficiency, should be made rigidly and impartially every month, by his immediate superior, and the Gov.-general. Thus the attainment of all those qualities which are required to form a good civil servant of the East-India Company will be effectually stimulated. There is no other point which I think deserving of consideration. bill, as it now stands, repeals the law requiring a residence of four terms, or two years, at Hertford; but it does not extend to the persons going out to India, who have not been at Hertford, the benefit of the 47th of the King, which allowed the time passed at Hertford to be considered as time passed in Calcutta, or any other of the Company's settlements. Some provision of this nature will be found, I think, indispensable; for the pay of the Company's servants in their early period of service is extremely low, and disproportioned to their unavoidable expenses; and to this cause may be, in a great measure, attributed that state of dependence which is attended with disappointment to all their own hopes, and with great detriment to the Company.

The

The house afterwards went into a committee, when,

Sir Thomas Baring proposed a clause for providing that candidates for civil employment in India, who might, after two years' residence at the college at Fort William, pass their examination in a satisfactory manner, should be eligible for such service without being obliged to come over to England in order to qualify at Haileybury; which was rejected without a division.

East-India Naval Force bill. -On the question for the second reading of this bill, Mr.

Mr. Bright took occasion to lament the utter ignorance which prevailed in England respecting the condition of our East-Indian dominions, although it might have been thought that so vast an empire, and a population of 100,000,000 of subjects, might claim a more lively interest than they had at any time appeared to possess among us. He had already called, and in vain, upon his Majesty's ministers to lay before the house some documents of an official character relative to the origin and operations and present state of the Burmese war. (Hear, hear !)—All that people in England at this moment knew of the progress and the events of that terrible struggle, in the result of which our Indian possessions were so immediately involved, they derived through those unofficial but most true communications-private letters, and intelligence of that sort. It was a fact that the very last papers respecting the course of the Burmese campaign, which were published in the London Gazette, were not official papers, (Hear, hear!)-but copies only, or extracts taken from copies, of private letters. (Hear, hear! from Mr. Wynn.) He objected to the bill, as divesting parliament of so much control over the affairs of India. Before such a bill passed, the affairs of the Company should be submitted to parliamentary examination.

Mr. Wynn observed, that the expenses of the war in India were paid out of the funds arising from the Company's territorial possessions. By the Company's charter, the Indian government were bound to support 20,000 troops in India; and if a war with any of the native powers should render an addition to that force necessary, the expenses of that additional force were also to be defrayed by the Company. But a naval force, for the purpose of aiding the military operations in that country, being a new feature in their mode of warfare, had not been contemplated in the charter; and therefore the present bill had been introduced for the purpose of regulating the method in which the expenses of that service were to be defrayed.

May 2.

Magistrates of New South Wales.- Sir M. W. Ridley prefaced his motion respecting the conduct of the magistrates of this colony by the following remarks. The hon. Secretary for the Colonial Deparment had already laid on the table several documents relative to the magistrates of New South Wales. There was nothing more important in any country than the pure administration of justice; and when the manners, habits, and character of the colonists of New South Wales were considered, the importance of that general principle was not diminished when applied to them. He would proceed to call the attention of the house to a presentment made

He

by the grand jury of Paramatta, in August, 1825, in which they presented the state of the gaols, and went into some particulars of the mal-administration of justice on the part of the magistrates, to which he would now call the attention of the house. The first case was that of a man who was sentenced to receive 25 lashes daily, till he disclosed where a sum of money was secreted. After that proceeding the man was indicted; and though still protesting his innocence, he was sentenced to be transported to Port M'Quarrie for 12 months. Robert Johnson was sentenced to receive 25 lashes every morning, till he told where a pair of blue trowsers were hidden. He also was sent to Port M'Quarrie. was happy to say that the Rev. Mr. Marsden, whose name had been introduced as concurring in these illegal sentences, had clearly exculpated himself from any share in the transaction, as it appeared he was at a considerable distance from the spot at the time it took place. After the papers were laid upon the table which he intended to move for, he should call upon the house to express its opinion upon the case which they could disclose, which would demonstrate to our colonies, in whatever part of the globe they were situated, that no infraction of the laws could take place without being observed, and visited with the censure of that house. He did not mean in the present stage of the proceeding to cast any reflection on the character of the Governor of New South Wales; he desired "to extenuate nothing, nor set down aught in malice;" but all he desired was a full and fair inquiry. concluded by moving that an humble address be presented to his Majesty, requesting that a copy of the order to stay proceedings against the Justices of Paramatta in New South Wales, signed by Sir Thomas Brisbane, and dated the 11th October, 1825, be laid before the house. Also a copy of any presentment of the Grand Jurors of the Colony, in 1825, against any Justices, for illegal or cruel conduct in their offices. The motion, after a few words from Mr. Wilmot Horton and Mr. Bright, was agreed to.

May 8.

He

Lord Charles Somerset.-Mr. Beaumont presented a petition from Mr. Bishopp Burnett, complaining of the conduct of Lord C. Somerset, in the government of the Cape of Good Hope, and praying that Lieut. Col. Bird might be examined at the bar of the house, touching the charges against his lordship.

Mr. Wilmot Horton observed, that the report of the Commissioners of Inquiry at the Cape contained an opinion very unfavourable to the petitioner. He should oppose any motion for the detention of Col. Bird in this country.

Lord E. Somerset said that it had been insinuated in the petition that Lord C. So

merset