The Press. — London, England, 1857-10-24 00:00:00

V in 1843, and bestowed upon him the gloriosa title of " Friend of the Army "? Every class—the civilians whom he put down to their proper place excepted—now calls out loudly for him • and it is earnestly hoped that the people of England will respond to that call, by sending out Lord Ellenborough, as under a somewhat similar exigency they formerly hailed by acclamation his gallant coadjutor, Sir Charles Napier, as commander-inchief. Sir Charles's favourite lieutenant, and--longo intereallo--successor, Sir Colin Campbell, cannot get on with the civilian faction, which now reigns at Government-house, and evinces the utmost impat►ence at their feeble and vacillating measures. lie is, however, powerless, his hands are tied, and he can do little more than lament over and protest against a policy which he cannot control—Cor. from Calcutta. The financial condition of the Government would appear to be on a par with its political stat us : It could, indeed, scarcely be worse than it now is. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is a Mr. Hugh Lushiugton, a most amiable gentleman, but a very poor financier. He has made three abortive efforts this year to obtain a loan. In the month of December, last year, the Government was aware that it would be necessary to raise money. In the month of March they opened a loan at four and a half per cent.; the capitalists offered them as much as they wanted at five per cent., but they scorned the idea. About six weeks later, necessity compelled them to sue for these very terms ; but the market had become tighter, and there was a sign of dirty weather on the horizon ; the money-interest offered to buy into the new loan, provided the Government would accept the Old Four per Cents. at par for halt' the amount subscribed. Again they rejected. and again, too late, were they compelled to accept the offer. But little money, however, has come into the treasury. The Bank of Bengal itself, governed de facto by a civilian committee, has actually refused further advances on the security of Government paper, and everywhere want of confidenoe, a sense of insecurity, and all those lesser evils the natural consequences of a feeble and incompetent administrar;- are beginning to be manifested.—l 6. Another writer, under date September 9, 1857, observes : lUD, I am in hopes the next steamer will bring oat a lot of bullion, and this will relieve matters a good deal. Com pany's fonr•per cent. paper has been soli at thirty-two per cent. discount; the niggers in the Bazaar fancying the Company's rej is over, are getting rid of the Company's paper as fast as they can; and well they may think so after seeing the insane acts of the Government: they may be right, too; but I hope there will be a strong Queen's Government. Another letter from tha same writer, dated Sep tember 10, 1837, says : Nothing new to tell you since 1 wrote yesterday, except ing that you may conceive what our real position is before Delhi, when 1 tell you that four-fifths of the mutineers are intrenehed outside the city, and that they attack us in rear and flank just as they like, and though always licked, yet their numbers are so great that they do not feel the loss of men, while every victory weakens us. The brutes have lots of provisions, and sally out and collect money from all the country round, and we cannot prevent them. Delhi, you will see, will not fall into our hands before the cold season. has just come in with news that the irregu lars that murdered Major Holmes and others have come back and murdered Dickson, the opium agent near Bet fish, and are on their way to Mootiharry. 1 hope there are some Ghoorkas at Aloortiharry to stop them, or there will be the devil to pay iu Tirhoot. No doubt great ad vantages will be taken of the Government proclamation, and incite many to join the rebels who would be otherwise deterred, under the impression that by scheming and cunning they may evade the gallows or punishment alto gether, even should the Government eventually prove the victors. The feeling of the Europeans in India is unmistake ably in favour of the rebellion being a national move mant. Tho correspondent of the Daily News, alluding t) the surrender of Cawnpore, corroborates that re markable statement, that Nana Sahib had offered to spare the lives of those who had nothing to do with Lord Dalhousie's Government : From this it wonld appear that that nobleman's grasping policy had not only alarmed but exasperated the nati►es of India, and that the present insurrection is traceable to his tenure of office. The following facts are certain—that it has been brewing for some years past, subsequent to the annexation of the Punj:iub; that the annexation of Onde brought matters to a crisis; that it is a Mahomedan re volt; that the annexation of Oude placed a weapon in the hands of the Mahoinedans which they used with terrible effect ; that the greased cartridge was the screw by which the Mahomedans worked upon the more ignorant Hindoos ; that it is a general re►olt of the whole country. Messrs. }teadon, Halliday, and Co , will of course deny the latter premises, as it tells with so much effect against the fore sight and capacity of the civil service; but the general risings in Behar, the Azimghur, 'Senates, Cawnpore, Rn hilcunul, Agra, Delhi, and Allahabad districts, place the fact beyond a doubt. Symptoms of disaffection have broken out in the Bombay and Madras armies ; to your correspondents !at those Presidencies I leave the duty of supplying you with details, merely stating that ftnm all we learn the mutinous feeling appears to be spreading in Boinbay.—Cur. D.N.—Calcutta. Another writer, under the same date, makes some general observations of interest upon the position of affairs : The insurrection is holding its ground, and even ex Minding it, the large district of lioruckpore haring most "IriE g unaccountably been abandoned to the rebels. The work of plunder is going on all over the upper, and over great part of the lower, provinces of the Bengal Presidency. Articles of food have risen to exorbitant prices, and, as large tracts of laud are left uncultivated, famine appears imminent. _ ..... We still consider ourselves safe in Calcutta, but frightful tragedies have been enacted at Cawnpore, Jhansi, Hisser, and other places, particulars of which are now coming to light. The mind is scarcely able to compass the horrors to which our countrymen and countrywomen have been subjected, and the heart sickens at the recital of the wholesale massacres. Men made to sit down in a group and deliberately shot down by the sepoys, in the presence of their wives and children, who had previously been torn away from them, and these women and ebildren afterwards collected in a large hall aud slaughtered by butchers and executioners, headed by a few stpoys; children literally torn to pieces, or crucified against the walls, or flung in the air and caught at the end of the bayonet. Then the dead and the dying heaped up together, and two days later, when they were thrown into wells, some were still alive, but they were thrown along with the dead. Such are some of the incidents of the Cawnpore massacres. About a thousand persons perished in that station. Painful aud revolting as are our feelings at the thought of these atrocities, they become more so when we reflect that these disasters have been brought about by the dis- honesty, the rapacity, and the incompetency of our own rulers. Religious prejudices are not the primary cause of the insurrection. They are one of the means em ployed to stir up a disaffected people who bad no watch worJ to unite them. The real cause will be found in our misgovernment of the country, in the heavy taxation laid on the people, and which could be levied only by means of torture; in the corrupt and inefficient state of our courts of justice ; in our police, who, instead of protecting the people, plunder and oppress them ; and the rapidity with which the country has been wrenched from our hands is to be ascribed to the fact that our hold of it has ever been weak and precarious, resting as it did on im• pressions and prestige, not on actual strength ; for years past the whole of the native army has been in a mutinous state, but the Government here and the Directors of the East India Company have always concealed the real state of things, and trained all officials to this work of conceal. ment and falsification. Each man was trying to fill his own pockets, trusting the edifice would stand his time. Bold spirits, honest men, have from time to time risen to denounce the real state of the country, and warned the Home Government of the impending danger—the Hon. Frederick Shore, in 1830, Lord Metcalte, some years later, and Sir Charles Napier, when commander-in-chief here in 1849 and 18.59—but the whole strength of the East India Company was raised to discredit their reports, and in this they sucoecded but too well. If this country is to be saved, the East India Company must be swept away ; for those whose rapacity could never resist temptation (despoiling even women of their jewels, as was again lately done by Lord Dalhousie with the Nag• pore Bailees), and who were unable to grapple with lesser difficulties than those which beset the Government now, are not the men to save the country, and the resources of troops and money which are on their way from England are sure to be frittered away unless a wholesome change takes place in the direction of affairs. Sir Colin Can't). bell has to fight with the officials as well as with the rebels, and the former have already so harassed him that he feels ill. Many important posts, both civil and m►li tars, are still held by incompetent and dishonest men, and you may be prepared to receive accounts of fresh dia. asters, unless fortune favours us more than we deserve. In the city of Calcutta there is a general absence of all sense of security. The English residents were sending their families home. One writer gives us the following instance of the singular indifference of the authorities to the safety of the city:— A few days ago a statement appeared in the editorial columns of the Englishman to the effect that 1,000 stand of arms bad been purchased by a native in Calcutta. The statement attracted the attention of the Government, and Mr. Wauchope, as Commissioner of the Police, was directed to report on the matter. He did report that no such sale had taken place, and that so largo a sale of arms could not have escaped the observation of the police. This off hand way of treating the matter was not considered satisfactory, and he was directed to make inquiry and then report. He sent in a second report, stating that there was no foundation for the statemetit wade in the Englishman. Somehow or another this did not exactly satisfy Lord Canniug, or it may have been that he was desirous of visiting with has displeasure the originator of the report. The report was traced to Mr. A. G. 11—, the gentleman who succeeded Mr. C— in charge of the Military Orphan Press ; he was called upeu to account for having assisted in spreading the report, and he gave OA his authority our friend Mr. D—, and from him, at last, Lord Canning ►as learned the truth of a matter which escaped the vigilance, or perhaps was concealed by the treachery, of the pollee. Messrs. T. E. T. and Company a short time ago received a consignment of 1,000 Enfield rides, complete with ail apparatus. D--, hearing of this, went to purchase four of them, and was then told that the whole 1,000 had been sold togethi rto a native. lie talked about it as a strange circumstance, and an it got into the columns of the Englishman, and to the knowledge of every one in terested in the fact except the Commissioner of Police, whose business it was to know it. No one can be surprised at a sense of insecurity existing when the sale of arms among natives is unrestricted. Another writer, speaking of the suf ferings of our people, observes : Yon will, no doubt, read long accounts of the terrors of this, thegmateat and moat sanguinary rebellion ever known. You will read of the hardships and sufferings of Poor fugitives, men, women, and children, who are bunted like wolves or foxes from one cover to another; but I defy any production of pen or pencil ever to give an idea of ►he actual sufferings of those who escaped by flight. Some, finding refuge in the tops of large trees, were shot down like rooks; others, who lay in holes and caverns, were drawn forth and put to a slow death by lopping off first a leg, then an arm, then the nose, then bursting out the eyes; after which the further operations of the brutal murderers cannot be described. Some persons have escaped altogether, but so worn out by starvation and fatigue that death must shortly terminate their lingering existence. The thermometer in the fort at Allahabad was 118 degrees in the shade from the 10th to the 30th of June. l'ut your foot in water at that, and think what it is to breathe into your lungs a fluid of the same degree. The rain in July, and up to this, has cooled the air, but troops in camp have suffered unparalleled hardships. I accompanied General Havelock's column in its first march from Allahabad to Cawnpore, end then oniy did I estimate rightly a soldier's sufferings. The rain fell in torrents, and the troops, wet to the skin, were obliged to encamp in a swamp without bedsteads, lying down on a piece of oiled canvas. The general himself was just as badly off. He is a small man, with grey hair and lively energetic manner. What he does, he does at once ; there is no indecision, no fumbling—he forms his column into shape in a second, and had he only cavalry and horse artillery, I think he would drive his men through a stone wall; but 1 have seen those confounded bullocks which draw his cannon become frantic, rushing at the drivers and scattering all around in confusion. The rebels have horses--Government horses—to their guns, and can do much to harass us by the rapidity of their movements. If the kitmagar had not announced tiriin (lunch), I believe I would never stop. I will end by one line more after I despatch a biscuit. The biscuit is done for, and I now finish. The Ranee of dhansi has embodied 12,000 fighting men against us. The Rajah, or one of the Rajahs of Ruudfecund, has embodied 14,000 men, but not yet declared against us. Now, depend upon it, others will do likewise unless a heavy blow is soon struck. Among all the enormous treachery with which this insurrection is stamped, it is well to rescue an instance of filelity, however humble. An " English Lady " writes to the Times this week that she and another English lady w're rescued at Aurungabad and taken to Ahmednuggur by one Boman Bucksh, a sower of the 3rd Hyderabad Cavalry. The mutiny of his corps occurred on the 12th June. Booran had told these ladies, "Fear nothing, sleep quietly, and the moment danger approaches I will be with you," — and well he kept his word. At eleven o'clock that night Booran returned to them, and said they must prepare to leave, as the cavalry were again arming. We leave the English laby to tell the story in her own words . My husband, hastily commending us to his care, left us to make preparations to man the bridge between the cavalry and infantry lines, and Booran, placing us in a country cart, and covering its open front and back with sheets, in the fashion practised by the families of Mossul mans when travelling, armed himself, and, mounting his horse, proceeded at our side to a place some twenty miles distant, where we halted for a time. We continued the journey for several successive days, till we reached Ahmed nuggur, and he endeavoured the whole time, by the most vigilant attention and kindness, to lessen the discomtbrts of the road. In the course of the four or five days I several times offered him a bag of rupees, which I begged, nay, besought him to take ■nd use as freely for his own wants as for ours, but I could only persuade him to take very small sums from time to time, as they were required for our expenses. Again and again in the course of our subsequent intercourse, knowing him to be much em barrassed by a large and unavoidable addition to his usual expenses. I begged him with great earnestness to allow me to relieve his necessities, er even (as I found it impos- Bible to induce him to listen to this proposal) to accept any sum he might require for a time, and till, possibly, he might be in better circumstances; he said it would be a " great disgrace " to him to accept money hom me, and that he only desired " that his name might be good " among the English and neither by tears nor entreaties could I ever persuade him to change his mind. I had some difficulty in inducing him even to accept as a memo rial a ring of little value which I chanced to have on my finger when 1 bade hin► farewell, but the tears streamed from his eyes when I told him I felt I owed him more than I ever could repay, and that to the latest hour of my life I should consider him one of my most valued friends. Since the above circumstance occurred Booran's house hrs been burnt down, as it is supposed, by some one inimical to the English. Up to the time I left India — now about two months ago —this good and truehearted man had not been promoted, but I hope and trust he may be so ere long, for surely both policy and gratitude would suggest that in times like these no instance of fidelity and attachment on the part of the Indian soldier to the Eng lish should fail to be both publicly and privately recognised and rewarded. Several touching letters have appeared from the martyrs at Cawnpore. Those from Lieutenant- Colooel and Mrs. Ewart are especially aff,:cting. Poor Mrs. Ewart writes on the 28th May Yesterday we were in expectation of news from Delhi, but none arrived. All depends upon the c nomanderio chief striking a successful blow there ; but we hear nothing sud this suspense is dreadful. You see, my dear people