sent practice. I write no more at present, as I hope to meet you to-morrow, or perhaps shall have that pleasure to-day.-Believe me, &c.

'Wednesday morning.'

'MY DEAR —,—You cannot conceive how much your communication has annoyed me, as an officer of the Honourable Company's Service, and holding his Majesty's commission. I feel more than hurt at the ungentlemanly feeling which seems to guide the conduct of many of the Members of your Club, towards officers of the Indian army, and I more than agree with you in what you say on the subject. While the regulations of the Club continue as at present, and professions are publicly held out that the Members are admitted on the principle of an union of the services, I repeat that it is ungentlemanly for the Members, from any one particular service, to unite, in secret, for the purpose of generally excluding those of another service to themselves. In fact, I will go farther, and say, that it is assassin-like in those who can publicly hold out union and good fellowship in one hand, and yet secretly stab with the other. The sooner an exposure takes place the better; and, that the feelings of my brother officers may not be further outraged by a party, I shall endeavour to make your communication as public as possible, which I trust you will not object to.

'Anticipating, as I did, that, as an officer of the Indian army, I should have met with that fairness which one gentleman has a right to expect from another, I felt obliged by your having so kindly put my name on the list; and, without attaching any, or the least blame to you, I feel now only hurt that I should have allowed it to appear in a place where party feeling seems predominant. That there are many honourable men in your Club cannot be doubted; but that there are others, your communication sufficiently proves.-Yours,' &c. 'Saturday morning.'

SIR,

GENERAL LETTER OF NEWS FROM MADRAS.

To the Editor of the Oriental Herald.

Madras, December 31st, 1827. I CLOSED my last letter to you on the 4th inst., but I am not sure that you will receive it much before this, although despatched long before. I need not here recapitulate any thing I then said, but go on informing you of the occurrences of the month, the most prominent of which is a sad storm with which Madras has recently been visited. I enclose you the particulars of it, as correctly as I have been able to ascertain them; perhaps from some of the newspapers you may glean something more, but I think I have not omitted any thing of consequence. Little else of novelty has occurred throughout the month. I inclose you copies of such General Orders as I think of sufficient interest; you will perceive from one of them that the officer, formerly mentioned as having killed one of his brother officers, by a blow from a billiard cue, has been tried by a General Court Martial, found guilty of manslaughter, and sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment. A sepoy was shot on the 24th inst., at Palaveram, for attempting to take the life of a Native Officer; you will find his Court Martial † in the inclosed, and some other rather strange Orders.

George Lys, Esq., has been appointed Sheriff of Madras, for the year 1828; and he has appointed Mr. J. T. Baillie as his Deputy. This is as it should be. Mr. Lys is an old and very respectable inhabitant of Madras; he has for some years been Coroner; and young Baillie, whom he has appointed his deputy, is the son of a late highly respectable medical officer on this establishment, and is now entered as an Attorney of the Supreme Court. He once exhibited symptoms of being an honest attorney, (a rarity indeed at Madras,) but of late he seems to have fallen into the wicked courses of his professional brethren, and will probably turn out as great an adept as any of them. J. Nixon, Esq., a gentleman belonging to the Bench, has succeeded to the situation of Coroner, in room of Mr. Lys. Accounts have been received here, this month, of the death, on his passage to England, of Captain D. Newall, C. B., an old and distinguished officer of the coast army.

A country-born man, who had carried on the business of silversmith and jeweller for some years here, having given rather extensive credit, found himself in embarrassed circumstances, about two

* The letter referred to has not yet reached.-ED.

+ This will be found under the usual head, in a subsequent page.-ED.

years ago; and, for the satisfaction of his creditors, he made over his books, with about eighty thousand rupees of out-standing debts on them, to an attorney of our Supreme Court, with instructions to use every legal measure to recover the amounts. The attor

ney retained the books for eighteen months, and then returned them, accompanied, of course, with a statement of his success. From this statement, it appeared he had collected the sum of eleven thousand rupees, and his bill of costs, charges, and expenses, amounted to nine thousand five hundred, leaving to the creditors of the unfortunate silversmith the sum of fifteen hundred rupees out of the eighty thousand! It would occupy too much of your pages, were I to detail many of the enormous charges in this bill of nine thousand five hundred rupees. One only I will mention; to a young officer, who owed the estate twenty-eight rupees, the zealous attorney had addressed three separate letters of demand, for each of which he charges ten and a half rupees, although the fee of such letter, as laid down by the Court, is three and a half rupees; notwithstanding which, this bill has been taxed and passed by the Master in Equity.

You will observe from the inclosed General Order, that our right honourable Governor has been graciously pleased to honour the class, formerly distinguished here by the name of Country-borns, with the more gratifying title of Indo-Britons. The benefit they are to

derive from this I am unacquainted with, but hope it is considerable; what is rather extraordinary is, that it is generally understood here the boon has been granted at the earnest request and solicitation of a few country-born individuals, the descendants of banished Dutchmen, refugee Spaniards and Portuguese, and others, whose fathers, mostly Germans, came to India in the regiment de Meroun. At all events, a letter has been sent up to Government from this class, returning thanks for this accession to their hereditary honours; and, as it is signed wholly by this race, it follows that all now consider themselves Indo-Britons, and entitled to all the immunities and privileges of such.

Nothing of a public nature has been done by Mr. Lushington, since he assumed the Government. It is said he is about soon proceeding on a tour to the Neelgherry Hills, where it has been determined to form an establishment for the benefit of sick officers and soldiers, and the Governor enters keenly into its adoption: engineers, &c., accompany him for the purpose of forming the proposed buildings. It is said there is to be a large barracks and hospital for the European soldiery, and good detached bungaloes for officers and others. No doubt is entertained but this establishment will be of material utility to the service in general; and many will derive, from a few months' residence there, that restoration to health which it at present requires a voyage to England to obtain; and it will be the

saving of the lives of many European soldiers. Major Kelso, of the Native Infantry, is appointed to the command at the Neelgherries.

Report says that our Governor is most anxious, by some means or other, to augment the revenues of the country,- -a rather difficult affair, coming after Sir Thomas Munro, as, under his government, every thing in this way had been effected that ingenuity or a complete knowledge of the country could with safety warrant. And it is further added, that finding little can be done in increasing the revenue, recourse is to be had to curtailing the expenses of Government in every possible manner. The pruning-knife of reform and retrenchment is to be set hard at work, and every reduction made that can be effected. It is, however, to be hoped they will only be exercised where the retrenchment is of real importance, and not on paltry trifles, such as the pay of a few sepoys, and the still more trifling pay of half a score of peons. The Governor has appointed his son, (a civil servant,) to be one of his secretaries. It is said the secretaries and others know but little of what is going forward, as the Governor himself is most indefatigable in his attention to business, and executes a great deal with his own pen. Since his arrival he has been examining minutely all the accounts and records of Government for some years back, comparing the revenues and expenses of collection, the salaries of all ranks, and every thing else connected with the commercial, judicial, and revenue departments. The expenses of the army, it is said, are also undergoing his scrutiny; if with a view to retrenchment it is to be hoped he will recollect the occurrences of 1809, when Sir George Barlow, by his endeavours to render himself popular in Leadenhall Street, nearly sacrificed the whole establishment, and involved the army in a labyrinth from which it has not yet recovered.

Some misunderstanding exists between the military authorities at Penang and the Recorder; no authentic statement of it has yet come before the public, although report blames both parties. Of the Recorder we as yet know but little; of course he is an upright judge. The military commandant, Captain Fraser, is an officer well known to the Coast Army, as one who has had experience and seen service, and withal a gentlemanly, shrewd officer.

In the inclosed Garrison Orders, you will find a caution from the Commander-in Chief, as to bringing before military courts martial, individuals who are not amenable to such authority. I will write you during the ensuing month, (January,) as there will be many opportunities.

I remain, Sir, your obedient Servant,

C. D.

Madras was visited, on the night between the 5th and 6th of December, with one of those severe hurricanes to which it is occasionally subject, but which, fortunately, are of rare occurrence, as, from the year 1807 to the present period, we can only recollect three of equal violence; viz. those of 1811, 18, and 20. During the whole of the 5th, the weather wore a most threatening appearance, the surface rose to a great height, the clouds were gathering thicker and blacker, and during the day, the violent gusts of wind from the north-west, accompanied by heavy clouds of dust, indicated a coming storm. Towards evening the wind became rather less violent, although at intervals sudden gusts continued to break forth, and at midnight it commenced to blow a perfect hurricane, exciting dismay and spreading desolation far and wide. It had rained, more or less, during the twelve hours preceding; but it now fell in torrents, and the gale had acquired such a violence as seemed to carry a llbefore it. From about two o'clock, A.M., of the 6th, till between four and five o'clock, the storm of wind and rain continued most severe; during this period it was at its height; the wind then veered from the north to the east and the south-easterly points of the compass, still blowing with great fury; but soon after five o'clock it abated considerably, and by nine o'clock it became moderately calm.

'The scene next morning was dreadful; the destruction terrible. Every one's thoughts were naturally turned towards the shipping. Seven vessels were in the roads the preceding evening, and had been seen riding hard all the day before; no communication had been carried on with them during the 5th, and all attempts of the commanders, who happened all to be on shore, to get on board, proved fruitless, as no boat could possibly leave the shore from the extremely heavy swell and high surf. The vessels were, the Hope, Captain T. Hill; the Security, Captain A. Ross; the Malabar, Captain D. Oliver; the Felicitas, Captain P. Campbell; the Gunjava, Captain J. Taylor; the David Malcolm, Captain W. D. Messiter; and the schooner Waterloo, Captain J. Williams.

"The Hope had only arrived from England five days before, and the Security during last month. Out of those seven vessels, five were driven ashore, and totally wrecked. The Hope, Security, Malabar, and Waterloo, were lying on the strand, to the south of Fort St. George, off St. Thomé. The Felicitas was wrecked about seven miles to the south of Covelong. The Malabar got safely into Divicotta, with the loss of her masts and rudder. Of the Gunjava no tidings have been heard; but it is hoped she is safe, and she is supposed to have been seen by the ship Royal Charlotte, which arrived here from England on the 9th; as, two days before she made this port, she saw a ship answering the description of the Gunjava, without a mizen-mast, but was unable to communicate with her. Of the ships thus unfortunately wrecked, not one will be saved; Oriental Herald, Vol. 17. 2 B