*We are authorised to give publicity to the following copy of a letter which has been addressed to the Hon. Court of Directors of the East-India Company, by John Hudleston, Esq.

GENTLEMEN,- In the year 1783-4, when your affairs on the Coast of Coromandel were administered by the late Earl of Macartney, and I held the office of Secretary to the Military and Political Departments, I consented, at his lordship's earnest solicitation, to be added as third member to a commission which had nearly a month before been appointed to proceed across the Peninsula, overland, to the Malabar Coast, to negotiate a treaty of peace with the late Tippoo Sultaun, who was then encamped with his army near Mangalore; the other commissioners were the late Anthony Sadlier, Esq. then second member of the Madras government, and the late Sir George Staunton, Bart. then private secretary to the Governor. The success of the negotiation completed the pacification of India, and I have for these thirty-four years enjoyed the consciousness that if, in my long career of service in India, there was any conduct worthy of commendation, or from which the public interests derived benefit, it was manifested in the unsought for and painful office of third member of the commission; and in the humble share which I had in that negotiation, I neither expected nor received any other recompence. But if I was contented that it should prove, as it literally did, a thankless service to me, I did not, I could not anticipate from it reproach or obloquy; having done nothing which the spirit of malignity itself would lay hold of against me. If I am believed in this averment, the honorable mind of each and every member of your court will judge with what sensations I must have perused a book entitled "Historical "Sketches of the South of India, by Co"lonel Mark Wilks," (a respectable member of that body of men of whose glories I have fancied myself a partaker, and among whom some of my earliest and most cherished friendships were formed); a passage in which charges the late Sir

George Staunton and myself, with having in our capacities of second and third commissioners planned and intended to make our escape (as it is termed) from the shore and scene of the negotiation, by getting clandestinely on board a ship then in Mangalore Roads, with a view to secure our own personal safety, leaving the rest of the persons belonging to the embassy, including the first commissioner, to their fate. Owing to various circumstances and particularly to a long absence from home occasioned by 'domestic anxiety, I did not receive the volume, nor become acquainted with the nature of the charge until the 20th of December last; and the first step I took was prompted by reflecting on the instances of sudden death which have occurred in my family. To guard therefore against such an event, and lest the same should happen to me that has happened to my associate in the accusation, who is no longer living to vindicate his fame, I committed to writing, a short declaration, which I shall here repeat in the same words, and the truth of which I am ready now to confirm with my oath, and shall at my last hour, if then sensible, confirm with my dying lips, namely: "I do most solemnly and unequivocally "deny the charge, and declare upon my "honour, and as I shall answer at the "last judgment if I am declaring false"ly, that I am as unconscious of having "entertained or suggested or concurred "in the unworthy and degrading intention "imputed to the two commissioners," (or, I now add, of having ever held any conversation or consultation with the late Sir George Staunton or any other person, on which such an intention was formed, or such a projec tconcerted or discussed),

March 11.-A Court of Directors was held at the East India House, when Captain T. Larkins was sworn into the com. mand of the ship Warren Hastings, consigned to Bengal and Madras.

March 12.-The dispatches were finally closed at the East India House, and de livered to the pursers of the following ships, viz:

The Marchioness of Ely, Captain B. Kay; and Prince Regent, Captain T. H. Harris-for Madras and Bengal.

Passengers per Prince Regent-for Bengal-Mr. F. Currie, writer; Messrs. Assistant Surgeons Inglis, Carruthers, and Barker; Messrs. Burrows, Graham, Woodburn, Simpson, Thorpe, and Forbes, cadets. For Madras-Major Taylor and lady; Lieut. Stewart; Messrs. Dighton, Bury, Hamilton, Wyllie, Woodburn, Sutton, O'Loughlin, and Thorpe, cadets.

dress you on this occasion. It would have been more agreeable to my feelings to have followed the advice of some of my dearest and most respected friends, by maintain. ing an entire silence until after the ensuing general election, relying in the interval on the character which I have endeavoured to sustain, for a refutation of the only accusation that, I trust, has ever been brought against it. You are aware of the observations made by an honorable Proprietor at the last General Court, which have induced me to adopt the course I now pursue, in offering you this short address, and which I shall, for the present, conclude with repeating what I most sincerely stated in answer to that honorable Proprietor; namely, that if, after twenty-three years of not inactive nor unacknowledged services in India, and twelve years of devotion of my best faculties to their interests here, I possess not sufficient of character, to protect me against this most unjust charge, I ought not to be re-elected a Director; on the contrary, I now add, it should be considered as a subject of congratulation to the East India Company, that they have escaped the perils to which their affairs must liave been exposed, by the various trusts which I have held both before and since the selection of me to negotiate with the late Tippoo Sultaun. That in the event however of my being re-elected, I shall submit to each of my constituents, in a statement, which I am now preparing, all that the lapse of thirty-four years, and the ravages of death in that interval, have left me to offer in vindication of my own character, and that of my late colleague Sir George Staunton, whose name is included with mine in the charge; pledging to them also my honor, as I again do, that if it shall not convince them of the injustice of the charge, I will resign my seat in the direction by disqualifying. Indeed it would be no longer an object with me to retain it, after their confidence should have been withdrawn.

I have the honor to be, with the
Most cordial esteem and respect,
Gentlemen,

Your faithful humble servant,
(Signed) JOHN HUDLESTON,

To the Hon. the Court of

Directors, &c. &c.

Asiatic Journ.-No. 28.

Per Marchioness of Ely-For BengalMessrs. Gifford and Beauchamp, free mariners; Mr. T. Burn; Misses Langley and Densdale; Messrs. Fisher, Colebrook, Roberts, Minto, Beauchamp, and Jardine, cadets. For Madras-Captain Chauval Miss Sewell and family; Misses Thompson and Neale, Mr. Cotton; Messrs. Rogers, Macdonald, Milford, Doveton, Pullarton, Campbell, Ruddiman, and Bayes, cadets.

;

March 18.-A Court of Directors was held at the East India House, when the following commanders took leave of the spective destinations, viz :— Court, previous to departing for their re

Captain T. E. Ward, Fairlie; and Captain J. P. Anstice, Henry Porcher, for Bengal and Bombay,

March 18.-A quarterly General Court of Proprietors of East India Stock, was held at the East India House. A full report of the proceedings and debate on that occasion, will be found in page 388 to page 401 of our present Number.

March 26.-The dispatches were closed at the East-India House, and delivered to the pursers of the two following ships, viz. Fairlie, Captain T. E. Ward, and Henry Porcher, Capt. J. P. Anstice, for Bengal and Bombay.

Passengers per Fairlie-For BengalMr. T. Galloway, free mariner; Mrs. Tiver and two children; Messrs. C. R. Bellew, A. R. Macdonald, cadets.-For Bombay-Messrs. J. Scott, J. Lloyd, T. Lechmere, J. Thomas, cadets.

Per Henry Porcher-For Bengal-Lieutenants Fireworker and H. Rolfe ; Misses VOL. V. 3 I

J. Clark, and A. and H. Hamilton; Messrs. R. H. Cumming, C. T. Foster, and A. Fenton, cadets.

March 4, dispatches were received from Admiral Sir R. King at Trincomalee, and from Admiral Plampin at St. Helena. Dispatches were also received at Earl Bathurst's office, from Sir Hudson Lowe, at St. Helena.

Several of the daily prints have amused the public with continual reports of the return of Marquis Hastings to Europe, and have even gone so far as to mention his successor; we merely notice this vague, though repeated rumour, to assure our readers that it is utterly destitute of foun

dation.

Governor Farquhar has resigned pro tempore the government of the Mauritius: to recruit his health, which he never thoroughly enjoyed at the island, is the object of his return to this country.-He will resume the government as soon as his health may be re-established.

does not rest at all with the Court of Directors.

J. F. Saunders, Esq. Agent for Lloyd's Coffee-house at the Isle of France, has been appointed by the Hon. East India Company their agent also at that place.

By the death of the Rev. John Rawlins, there is a vacancy among the Company's chaplains at Bombay.

A letter from the Cape of Good Hope, dated December 30, says :-"The Barton, Nelson, from Batavia, on the 13th inst. in lat. 35. S. long. 22. E. met with a most violent westerly gale and a tremendous sea; all her guns were thrown overboard; she had all her bulwarks and her larboard quarter-gallery washed away; the ship also became very leaky, so much so, that it was with difficulty she gained this port. She will be obliged to unload. Before the gale she saw two ships at a distance."

Several shipwrights and carpenters are about to proceed from Portsmouth Dockyard to the Dock-yard at Trincomalee.

In consequence of the late disclosures relative to the practices of some of the tea-dealers adulterating their tea with sloe and ash leaves, it was understood that some notice of that circumstance would be taken by the heads of the trade, either at or subsequent to the usual time of their meeting at the tea sales at the India House. Accordingly, on Wednesday March 11, during an interval between the sales, Mr. Richard Twining rose and addressed the Chairman, Sir John Jackson, to the following effect :

"

"Mr. Chairman, as the room is now most numerously attended by gentlemen of the tea-trade, I think it a proper time to address you, Sir, upon reports which have been circulated, not only in town, but all over the kingdom, so injurious to the characters of the tea-dealers in general, than whom, I will venture to affirm, there is not a more respectable body of men existing. I mean the report that nine-tenths of the tea-trade do adulterate their tea with ash, sloe, and other leaves. This report, Sir, has been circulated widely through the medium of the public prints, and if suffered to go uncontradicted, will cast an odium upon the whole body of tea-dealers, which ought to rest solely upon a few obscure individuals. I am satisfied that no respectable house in the city of London is guilty of such illegal practices; and therefore they ought not to suffer an imputation of so serious a nature to pass unnoticed. At first, I and other persons, the heads of the trade,

ing to what extent the practice of adulterating tea had come within the knowledge of the Board, what seizures had been made, &c.

It was resolved that they meet the same week, at the King's Head, Poultry, to receive the report of the committee.

thought that the falsehood of so general a censure was so glaring that no person would give credence to it, and therefore it would be best not to notice so gross an aspersion. But I understand that the statement has gained belief; and I submit to you, Sir, whether it would not be proper for the tea-trade, either now or at the close of the sales, to discuss the subject, and immediately pursue such a course as will expose the real practisers of such an abominable fraud. I am satisfied that it is the interest not only of the tea-trade but of the country, which gains such an enormous revenue by the sale of tea, that the subject be taken into consideration. I therefore move that now, or at the close of the sales, as the Chairman shall think most fit, the reports which have been circulated against the tea-trade, which may in their consequences prove highly injurious to them as a respectable body, be taken into consi. deration, and a committee appointed with power to act as shall be best for the interests of the tea-trade."

Mr. Richard Shaw rose and addressed the Chairman :-" I second the motion of Mr. Twining, because I am certain the trade will be injured by such reports. In fact, I know an instance where my own business suffered. A gentleman, whose family I have for many years served with tea and every article of grocery, in his customary order last week omitted tea; and, as a reason, said, that he should leave off taking tea until he could procure it genuine, which he could not then obtain from the tea-dealers. I told the gentleman that the statement, if it were meant to apply to the great body of teadealers, was a most infamous falsehood: to which he replied, "that the tea-trade had suffered it to go uncontradicted, and that he thought was a sufficient ground for his supposing it to be true." I therefore hope that the trade will give their concurrence to Mr. Twining's motion."

The whole of the gentlemen present gave immediately their sanction to Mr. Twining's motion.

The Chairman thought it would be best for the tea-trade to have a meeting after the sales, and they could then proceed in the business without interruption.

At the close of the sales a meeting was accordingly held, and a committee, appointed Mr. Twining was called to the chair.

Committee. Mr. Fry, Mr. Sanderson, Mr. Twining, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Stringer, Mr. Antrobus, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Fincham, Mr. Abbey, Mr. Garratt, Mr. Sharp, Mr. Sparrow, and Mr. Yockney.

The committee being appointed, they agreed to meet on the following day, when a deputation was chosen to wait upon the Board of Excise for the purpose of learn

House of Lords, March 5.-The Lord Chancellor informed their lordships that he had received a letter from the Marquis of Hastings, in answer to one wherein he had communicated to the noble Marquis the thanks of the house, for his able administration in the war of Nepaul.

The letter was then read: it was in substance as follows:

"Cawnpore, Sept. 19, 1817. "My Lord-At this place I have just received your lordship's letter, communicating the thanks of the House of Lords for my arrangements during the late war in Nepaul. Generosity, my lord, is the more exemplary, when the reward overrates the service; but so far as an earnest zeal and unwearied activity can entitle their possessor to their lordships' favour, I may venture to assert my pretensions to it. My exertions have been earnestly, and I trust not unsuccessfully directed towards the confirmation of the British empire in India; and in pursuing this object I conceive that I have best promoted the interests of humanity. I cannot, my lord, conclude this letter, without expressing to your lordship my sincere acknowledgments for the very flattering manner in which you were pleased to express your sentiments towards me on this occasion.

"I have the honor to be, &c.
"HASTINGS."

Paris, March 11.-The ship Chandernagore, of one thousand tons, from Bengal, cast anchor on the 3d of this month at Cherburg. Her cargo is valued at several millions. It consists of sugar, coffee, indigo, cotton, saltpetre, pepper, ginger, and other precious articles, particularly two boxes containing Indian antiquities. This vessel is destined for Havre.

Amsterdam, March 17.-His Majesty's ship the Amsterdam, of 74 guns, bound from Batavia to Holland, with a cargo of coffee, sugar, &c. having put into the bay of Algoa, near the Cape of Good Hope, with the loss of her masts, went entirely to pieces at the end of December.

Sussex Lent Assizes.-Charge of Bigamy.

Horsham, March 19-This morning the court was excessively crowded with ladies and gentlemen, to hear an inteteresting trial. Before eight o'clock, Ma

ria Walton, alias Maria Wilkins, was put in the prisoner's box: she was dressed in white, with a light coloured pelisse, and wore a round black hat with feathers, and a black veil. Her countenance was exceedingly prepossessing, notwithstanding the natural anxiety of her feelings upon the situation in which she was placed.

A few minutes after eight, Mr. Baron Graham entered the court, and Mr. Gurney (special counsel), and Mr. Bolland, both for the prosecution; as also Mr, Nolan and Mr. Chitty, counsel for the pri

soner.

After the indictment had been read, the prisoner pleaded Not Guilty, and was allowed the privilege of a seat.

Mr. Gurney opened the proceedings by stating, that the prisoner was the daughter of a respectable tradesman, and was married very young to a Mr. Cox, who lived at Bombay, in India, where he died in 1806. The following year she was married to Mr. Wilkins at Bombay, when they shortly afterwards returned to England. For a considerable time the prisoner lived at Brighton, upon their separation, where Mr. Walton became acquainted with the prisoner, and was so captivated with her person, that he fell in love with her, and they were married at Lewes, in 1816. Mr. Walton had been thrown into gaol, in consequence of debts contracted before marriage. He was a young man of military fame, and had acquired glory by his bravery in the memorable battle of Waterloo. He would call witnesses to substantiate the fact of the bigamy. The prosecution was carried on by the mother of Mr. Walton.

Mr. Maitland, clerk of the Secretary's office at the India House, produced the book of registers of marriages, births, and deaths, at Bombay, commencing the 14th of January to the 19th of December 1810.

The Rev. Mr. Burroughs stated, that he was a resident chaplain at Bombay forty-two years: every marriage is regis tered at the church, and copies are regularly transmitted to England, after they are compared from the original register book, signed by the clergyman. The prisoner was married to James Thomas Hacket Wilkins, by him, on the 26th of January 1810. They left Bombay soon afterwards. Witness had not seen the prisoner until he had an interview with her in Bristol gaol, where she was confined for want of sureties to keep the peace against Mr. Walton's mother. This was about three weeks ago. He knew the prisoner well at this interview, notwithstanding the length of time which had elapsed since the marriage at Bombay, owing to the celebrity of her character, and the observation he made at the time

as to her person. This was further corroborated from the conversation he held with the prisoner at that time, when she recognized him. There were no subscribing witnesses to the marriage at Bombay, which was by license.

Mr. Winter, the parish clerk of St. Peter's, Lewes, produced the register of the marriage at that parish church, namely, "Robert Baron Walton, of the parish of Brighton, and Maria Cox, of the parish of Lewes, by license, 28th May 1816." The witness was present at the solemnization.

Mrs. Brierly, of the Pelham-Arms, Lewes, was also present at the marriage.

Mr. Bampfield, surgeon, of Bedfordstreet, Covent Garden, knew the prisoner and her deceased husband, Mr. Cox, in Bombay, and subsequently her second husband, Mr. Wilkins, who introduced the prisoner to him as his wife. They resided at Bombay till June 1809, when they sailed for England. Witness left India in the same fleet, and since their arrival in England, witness often corresponded with Mr. Wilkins, and who was now at Horsham.

Mr. Yates, clerk to Mr. Evans, solicitor to the prosecution, proved the acknowledgment of the prisoner, that she was married to Mr. Walton whilst Mr. Wilkins was living.

Mr. Nolan addressed the court, and urged a variety of objections as to the validity of the marriage with Mr. Wilkins, and contended that the record on the indictment did not give a value to the preceding contract of marriage in India, as the jury could not try it in a civil or crimiindictment could not be sustained. nal capacity, and upon these grounds the

Mr. Chitty followed in a similar course of argument.

The learned judge overruled these ob jections, but at the same time reserving his opinion for a further argument before the bench of judges, if the counsel for the defendant thought fit.

A

The prisoner, in her defence, stated, that she was married to Mr. Wilkins in India, and that on their arrival in England he became involved in his circumstances. separation ensued with mutual consent, and an agreement to that effect was entered into; that when Mr. Walton paid his addresses to her, she told him of her circumstances, and also, that by the opinion of her professional advisers, she was repeatedly told that her marriage with Mr. Wilkins was illegal, owing to there being no witnesses present at the solemnization. She declared her innocence of having inveigled her second husband to a marriage, and for a long time resisted his importunities,