436 



INDIA. 



INDIANA. 



perished in the Crimean winter. Fully one- 

 third of the entire force was hors de combat 

 from malaria, and there was hardly an officer 

 not expecting to get an appointment some- 

 where else. "When the season for resuming 

 military operations came, after enormous ex- 

 penditures, a peace was signed at Buxa, on 

 November llth, which was unanimously con- 

 demned throughout India, and by all classes, 

 and humiliating and unsatisfactory in its guar- 

 antees for the future. The Indian Government 

 is to pay to Bhootan, not only the old " tribute," 

 as the natives call it, but double the sum, or 

 5,000 a year. Toungso Penlow, who, by in- 

 sulting the British ambassador, occasioned the 

 war, and who alone fought against the English, 

 was no party to the treaty, and it was regard- 

 ed doubtful whether the Deb Rajah, a mere boy 

 whom he appointed, or the Paro Penlow, his 

 defeated rival and enemy, could succeed in in- 

 ducing him to submit. 



The continuing progress of the Russians in 

 Central Asia, created nowhere so much alarm as 

 in British India. No one in India doubted that 

 it was the policy of Russia to make the frontier 

 of her empire' in Central Asia march with the 

 English. A grave apprehension was entertained 

 of the consequences of such an advance of Russia, 

 in exciting the hopes of disloyal Indians and 

 distracting the attention of England in another 

 European war. To obtain information superior 

 to the meagre facts received from the news- 

 writers in Cabul, and contained in the drawers 

 of the English Ministers in Teheran, the Gov- 

 ernment of India despatched three intelligent 

 native officials, as pedlars, to Bokhara, Khiva, 

 and Khokand, independently of each other, and 

 by different routes. But Sir John Lawrence 

 refused to give any assistance to the envoys 

 from the despoiled khan of Khokand, who 

 visited Simla and Lahore, or to allow a party 

 of English officials who volunteered for the 

 duty to accompany them on their return to 

 their own country. 



A complication with the neighboring author- 

 ities of Netherlands India, arose from the latter 

 seizing the principality of Assahan, on the 

 northeast coast of Sumatra, in defiance, as the 

 English maintain, of the treaty rights of both 

 its ruler and England. The merchants of Pe- 

 nang regarded this as such a danger to their 

 trade, that they addressed a vigorous remon- 

 strance to the Governments of India and Eng- 

 land. 



The Crimean "War ten years ago transferred 

 to India the trade of Europe in jute, fibres, and 

 seeds, and at once added enormously to the 

 wealth of Eastern India. The American war 

 four years ago gave India, for a time, the 

 virtual monopoly of the supply of cotton. 

 Contemporaneous with these events, the gold 

 discoveries were affecting seriously the value 

 of the precious metals all over the world; 

 and the rapid progress of railways in India, 

 larger in extent and in the magnitude and 

 solidity of their works than any in the world, 



not only attracted sixty millions steilmg to 

 the country but caused the influence of com- 

 merce to penetrate into the remotest hamlets 

 of the producing districts. In the ten years 

 ending April, 1865, Bombay exported to the 

 United Kingdom 53,863,464 cwts. of cotton, 

 valued at 98,727,141. Looking only at the 

 four years of the American war ending on the 

 same date, Bombay obtained 78,094,563 for 

 12,627,164 cwts. exported to the United King- 

 dom alone, or 82,386,724 for 13,344,788 cwts. 

 exported to all places. In the year before the 

 war 1860-'61, Bombay got only 6,978,700 for 

 355,500,000 pounds of cotton. Last year, 

 the last of the war, she got 30,333,333 sterling 

 (30,375,076), for little more than the same 

 quantity, or 380,500,000 pounds, at the av- 

 erage rate of twelve annas and nine pie per 

 pound, instead of two or three annas at which 

 she used to sell it. In four years Bombay 

 has received 82,500,000 pounds sterling for 

 what, but for the American "War, would have 

 given her only a quarter of that sum. This 

 wealth culminated in the past year, of which it 

 is by far the greatest fact. Nor was this pros- 

 perity confined to the Western Presidency. All 

 the ports partook of it in a diminished because 

 healthier ratio. The whole trade of Bombay 

 in 1864-'65 was 79,791,891 in value; that of 

 Bengal was 45,441,738 or five millions more 

 than the preceding year; that of Madras 17,- 

 494,356 ; that of British Burmah 8,819,754, a 

 great but permanent increase ; and that of 

 Sindh 5,244,715. Thus the whole sea-borne 

 trade of India, omitting the Straits Settlements, 

 was 156,792,454 in value, or a third of that of 

 Great Britain. 



INDIANA. The regular session of the Leg- 

 islature of Indiana convened at Indianapolis 

 on January 5th, 1865. The House of Repre- 

 sentatives, in which the Republicans had a small 

 majority, was organized by the election of John 

 N. Pettit as Speaker; but the Senate, being 

 composed of an equal number of Republicans 

 and Democrats, remained unorganized until the 

 9th, when the Lieutenant-Governor assumed 

 his seat as presiding officer. On that day, also, 

 Oliver P. Morton was inaugurated Governor. 

 The regular sessions of the Indiana Legislature 

 are biennial, and limited by the Constitution to 

 sixty-one days, which proved in 1865 too short 

 a period for the perfecting and passage of a num- 

 ber of important bills. That the time spent on 

 these unperfected measures might not be lost 

 to the public, an act was passed, providing that 

 the unfinished business of any regular or special 

 session might be transferred to the next special 

 session of the same Legislature, to be there dis- 

 posed of in the same manner in which it would 

 have been in the session in which it originated. 

 In accordance with this act, Gov. Morton, by 

 proclamation, summoned the Legislature to meet 

 in special session on November 13th, 1865, that 

 being the only method of pushing to completion 

 the unperfected measures of the regular session. 

 The Governor's message was delivered on the 



