The Times' correspondent in Calcutta is very trying to the
patience of Anglo-Indians. There is always in so vast an Empire something going on of interest, but with the control of the telegraph for one night in the week, and a monopoly of the communication between India and England, he sends us ru- mours of local disturbances in Afghanistan which signify no more than disturbances in the Zoological Gardens, extracts from " disaffected " newspapers which are, perhaps, read by two thousand people all put together, and details of Bills about tenure which are hardly intelligible even to experts. We do not believe there are ten men in England who understand even the surface meaning of his telegram of Monday about the Rent Bill. It is a pity to see a unique opportunity of explaining India to England so steadily thrown away. At this moment the produce trade of India is in such a state that we are informed every importer in London is losing, and that in dangerous proportion to his capital ; and this in spite of 'the high purchasing power of gold as against silver. Suppose the Times' correspondent, who has access to the most experienced merchants in Calcutta, throws a little light on that state of affairs. Just imagine a human being telegraphing the following sentence seven thousand miles to an English popular journal :—" 19th, to omit the section regarding Utbandi and Halhasili lands, and to regard both classes as subject to the ordinary incidents of ryotti land."
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