The Overland Mail has brought dates from Bombay
to the 2nd of June, Calcutta to the 1st of June, Madras
to the 10th of June, and Hong-Kong to the 23rd of May.
There is no political news from India or China of any
importance. The Governor-General of India had arrived
at Simla on the 2nd of May, and his health was so much
improved by removal to a cooler climate, that it was no
longer believed that he would leave India before the
expiration of his term of service.

A tremendous accident happened at Benares on the
1st of May. A fleet of thirty boats, containing ordnance
stores, was destroyed by the explosion of 3000 barrels of
gunpowder with which they were freighted. Four
hundred and twenty persons were killed on the spot,
about 800 more were wounded, and a number of houses
were levelled with the ground. The cause of the
disaster remained unexplained, as not a human being
was left alive who could tell the tale.

The famous oriental diamond the Koh-i-noor, or
Mountain of Light, was presented to the queen at the
levee on the 3rd, by the chairman and deputy-chairman
of the East India Company; it had arrived from India
a few days before under the custody of Colonel Mackeson,
political agent, and Captain Ramsay, military
secretary of the governor-general. This unrivalled
jewel was discovered in the mines of Golconda, just
three hundred years ago, and first belonged to the
Mogul emperor Shah Jemaum, the father of the great
Aurungzebe. Its subsequent transmissions have attended
the revolutions of empires. When the Mogul empire
was destroyed in 1739, by Nadir Shah, it was the most
precious of the spoils carried off by the Persian conqueror.
It afterwards became a trophy of the Affghan conquests;
and from the sovereign of Cabul it passed in a similar
way into the hands of the famous Runjeet Singh, the
"Lion of Lahore." Its last transference was into the
hands of England, in consequence of the issue of the
Sikh war; and it is now the richest ornament of the British
crown. It is of the shape and size of the pointed half
of a hen's egg, and its value, calculated in the way
employed in estimating diamonds, is stated to be two
millions sterling.

The advices from Hong-Kong state that the City of
Canton and the neighbouring towns are affected with
a malignant fever, which has proved very fatal to the
natives. It had not, however, made its appearance in
the European factories.

In Cambodia and Cochin-China the cholera was
raging fearfully, and at the date of the latest accounts,
March last, it was feared that the same calamity would
again visit the neighbouring country of Siam; where,
during last year, it had carried off nearly one-fourth of
the population. Commercial and agricultural operations
were in a great measure suspended, and the sufferings of
the inhabitants were augmented by a drought which
was destroying the crops of rice and sugar.

On the 1st of May three pirates were hanged at West
Point, Hong-Kong. Through some mismanagement
they were kept on the scaffold for more than half-an-
hour with the cords round their necks. The bolt could
not be drawn, and after shaking the gallows violently,
the police sent to the naval stores for a hammer, with
which they knocked back the bolt. Two of the criminals
fainted, and were held up until the bolt was forced
back; the third kept calling "fidee, fidee;"—be quick,
be quick. The scene was very disgusting.

The Overland mail has brought news from Ceylon to
the 11th of June. The commissioners, sent to Kandy to
inquire into the circumstances connected with Captain
Watson's proclamations, had closed their proceedings,
but the result was not made public.

Accounts from Batavia, of the 25th of May, mention
an insurrection in the district of Bantam; which, though
suppressed for the time, gave much uneasiness to the
Dutch government. It is attributable to a foreign
regent having been placed in power whom the natives
refuse to acknowledge. The disturbances broke out
during the native festivities in the month of April. The
insurgents attacked the town of Anjeer, in the Straits of
Sunda, and succeeded in burning the houses in the
outskirts; but they were at length beaten by the military,
and retired into their fastnesses, leaving many dead and
wounded.—An earthquake had taken place at Amboyna,
followed by an epidemic which carried off nearly all the
European population. The governor and most of the
civilians had died, and the garrison was reduced to
seventeen men.

The West India Mail brings papers from Jamaica to
the 22nd June. The only event which engaged public
attention, was the early meeting of the legislature, which
had been called by proclamation to assemble on the
25th of June. The principal business was to remove
some defects from the bill, passed last session, for raising
a loan to liquidate the island debts. The weather was
favourable, and the island healthy. From Barbadoes,
Tobago, St. Vincent, Dominica, aud Grenada, the
weather is described as favourable to agriculture. On
the 31st of May, Tobago was visited by a severe squall,
which blew down some labourers' houses, and did
considerable damage to the grounds.

The advices from Corfu state that, on the 12th of
June, Sir Henry Ward, the Lord High Commissioner
issued a proclamation proroguing the House of Assembly
to the 12th of December, and at the same time sent a
special messenger to England with despatches to the
Colonial Office.

The latest accounts from Malta state that the cholera,
which had appeared in the island, was declining. From
the 9th of June to the 10th of July there had been—of
the population, 122 attacks and 89 deaths; in the fleet,
32 attacks and 18 deaths; in the garrison, 19 attacks
and 19 deaths. Total cases, 173; total deaths, 126.

The Court of Policy of British Guiana, on the 13th of
June, on considering a petition of the inhabitants for a
reform in the existing institutions of the colony, passed
a resolution to the effect, that the legislative institutions
of British Guiana are unsuited to the existing state of
society, and that a house of assembly and an elective
legislative council should be established in their stead.
It was further resolved, that the governor be requested
to transmit copies of the foregoing resolution and
petition to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

There are advices from Toronto to the 5th of July.
The Canadian Assembly had agreed, by a large majority,
to an address to the queen, expressive of their attachment
to the crown and government of Great Britain,
aud their determination to maintain the connexion with
the mother country unimpaired. It is stated, however,
that many who voted for this address are in favour of
making the second branch of the legislature elective.
Some local measures of importance were engaging the
attention of the house, particularly a school bill, and a
bill for enabling municipal corporations to purchase
railway stock. A bill has also been introduced to
permit the introduction of foreign reprints of British
copyright books on the payment of a duty of twenty per
cent. Two calamitous accidents had taken place. On
the 16th of June the steam-ship Griffith, running
between Buffalo and Toronto, was destroyed by fire, and
out of 326 persons on board, only 40 were saved. A fire
at Montreal, on the 15th of June, destroyed the church
of St. Amis, and upwards of 200 houses.

A large portion of the table rock of the Niagara
Falls has fallen away. A carriage was on the rock at
the time, in which there were a man and a boy; they
escaped, but the carriage went down. The effect of the
crash was felt for miles around.

PROGRESS OF EMIGRATION AND COLONISATION.

A meeting of influential members of both Houses of
Parliament look place on the 8th, to devise the best
course of proceeding in order to induce Her Majesty's
government to approximate the Australian colonies by
Means of Steam, to Great Britain; when it was resolved
that steps should be immediately taken to bring the
whole subject under the attention of both Houses of
Parliament. As a preliminary course, it was arranged
amongst other measures, that an address to Her Majesty
should be proposed in the House of Commons by Lord