The Press. — London, England, 1857-10-31 00:00:00

1060 THE WEEK. THE capture of Delhi is a solid satisfaction. That little army which for nearly four weary months had tenaciously held its ground with indefati gable perseverance in the face of the rebel stronghold, at last took the initiative, and in a fortnight won the prize. The effect of this success must be great in India. It will be enormous throughout Europe. Our troops have done the State a signal service, and have acquired the utmost honour for themselves. The credit of the siege and of the capture belongs entirely to them. No succour from England reached their camp. The " Army of Relief," which did not sail till August, was still at sea in September, and it is to the skill, the valour, and the per severance of the officers and men in India, that we owe not only the capture of Delhi, but the positive preservation of our Eastern empire. Whatever may be the event of this war, the heroism and constancy of our troops will shine on the page of history, for never did the British army stand higher in point of military glory than at present . That they should derive fresh confidence and new vigour from this glorious result of their past labours is natural. The fall of Delhi will stimulate every English soldier in India, as it must depress every rebel in arms against us. By its capture the balance of acquisition and resource is once more in our favour, for, including all that has been lost by us in territory and treasure, yet with a view to resources what has been lost by the rebels in losing Delhi, is more in point of perma nent value and present means than all our losses put together. An enormous arsenal, vast stores of arms:and ammunition, with parks of artillery, and, above all, a head-quarters stronghold, have been wrested from them by a force numerically their inferior, and after sustaining unmoved and unwearied their desperate assaults day and night for nearly four months. Yet we must not forget that if Delhi prove such a loss to the rebels, numerically so strong, a fortiori may it prove not only a gain, but something more, an anxiety, to us numerically so weak. For with that small army, we must remember, General Wiesos has to hold and ;protect a large city, peopled, among others, by many thousand fanatics, who only want the opportunity to give him trouble with impunity. We cannot conceal from ourselves that his position is at best hazardous. It will not do to comfort ourselves with a brilliant analogy or a pointed antithesis. The necks of the rebels, we fear, are not yet broken. The rebel troops fought too desperately at Delhi, and retreated in too much order for that to be fairly asserted. Besides, their loss during the siege was but trifling, and this important fact will go far to explain the desperate tenacity with which they clung to their ground for the last six days of the great struggle. Now, if they join the Gwalior rebels and attack Agra, or retreat into Oude, they will give us more trouble yet. Meanwhile, without glancing at all at ulterior operations, we have the capture of Delhi as a great fact to rejoice over. It has restored the prestige of our arms, and it has shown to the world that the British soldier of to-day has lost neither the valour nor the perseverance of his ancestors, and that in whatever position ho is placed, in his keeping may be safely reposed the honour and interests of his country. With respect to the rest of India the general intelligence is not so satisfactory. We see symptoms of the spread of mutiny throughout the Bombay army. The diiks are stopped between Lahore and Moulton, and this causes us much apprehension, for this route is 300 miles from any body of rebels in the field, and yet the act of stopping the diik is essentially the act of a rebel. A common marauder rarely commits this crime; but it is the first and immediate aim of a rebel. Then, again, the whole of Southern Bengal is in arms, a revolt has broken out in Assam, and in point of fact one or two new elements have been brought into play against us, for besides the partial suc cesses of rebels in Lower Bengal, and the critical position of Patna Benares, and Allahabad, the Government of Calcutta exhibit a disposi tion to damp the ardour and fetter the exertions of our generals. This will never do. We rely, and justly, upon the skill of our generals, and upon the courage and perseverance of their troops, and they must not be hampered in their movements. On one occasion we find a Mr. SAMUELLS, a civil servant, ordering Captain RATTRAY, against his military opinion, to attack a body of rebels outside Gya. Captain RATTRAP protested, but was compelled to act, and what was the consequence ? The rebels outflanked his small force, entered Gya iu his rear, plun dered it, and marched out again with impunity. Again, we find Mr. GRANT, at Benares, desiring General NEILL, at Allahabad, not to act upon martial law, and preventing the infliction of a just sentence upon all mutineers caught with arms in their hands. SVe are not disposed to advocate sanguinary views, and it is just possible that any prisoners General NEILL had in keeping were very innocent persons, but that spirit of interference with military law and with the actions of our generals must be put down if we wish to see this rebellion crushed. We are ready to admit that the rebels pursue a system of terrorism to some extent. They exist by a requisition of person and property, therefore everything that weakens that system weakens their means; and though the adoption of moderation may sap it on one side, yet per severance in attack pulls it down on the other; and hence our generals must have fair play, or the sooner we give up the contest the better for our reputation. The relief of Lucknow after the capture of Delhi forms the next great object of the campaign. From the length of time General OUTRAM took to reach Cawnpore, from the 2nd to the 17th of September, eight days more than he anticipated, we may infer what will be the difficulties of the advance to Lucknow. Then again the united forces of HAVELOCK and OUTItAII are not numerically THE PRESS, OCTOBER 31, 1857. much superior to those with which HAVELOCK first started. The rebels aro very numerous, the roads are almost im passable, and every village is a fortified post to be stormed. Now, with such obstacles before them, we must not expect too much of this gallant litle colutnn. That they will dare and do all that human effort is capable of to relieve their fellow-countrymen we may rely upon it, and whether they succeed in bringing them off in safety or not, the glory and honour of our arms, we may rest assured, will he well maintained. Little is known of the state of the garrison at Lucknow, but that little is favourable. They have repulsed the assaults of the rebels, spiked their guns, captured provisions, and appear animated by the most determined spirit. Let us hope, therefore, for the best, and place our firm roliance on the God of Battles. The triumph of Lord STRATFORD at Constantinople, the chagrin of his antagonists, and the return of REDSC II ID PACHA to power, has caused quite a sensation throughout Europe. The fact is that the diplomatic) bullet which is to extinguish this superb diplomatist is not yet cast. Lord STRATFORD is, as he has ever been, more than a match for all his antagonists. The Paris papers, of course, are very angry, and among other foolish reports state that M. de PERSIGNT has been desired to read a note upon the subject to Lord CLARENDON. There is not the slightest truth in this statement. M. de PE RSIGN Y is, at present, on a visit to Compeigne ; and we should imagine that if the Government of the Emperor of the FRENCH thought it necessary to take umbrage at the exercise of that free-will every independent sovereign employs in his choice of a minister, a representation in this case would have been made, not to the British, but to the Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs. The tone in which Lord Chancellor BRADY composed his recent manifesto was singularly ill-chosen. His Lordship ought to have recollected that recent events have clearly shown that the Court of Rome has entered on a new policy, and that ecclesiastical engines are being set at work in Ireland, in order to mark distinctively the lines between Protestants and Roman Catholics. The Irish Chancellor might have remembered that if Roman Catholics have reasons to complain of " Orangeisin," on the other hand the Protestants of Ireland have much reason to be indig nant at the way in which the patronage of the Crown has been diverted upon professional agitators, who have passed their lives in stirring up hatred against the law of the land. The manifesto of the Chancellor was the more galling, as at the last general election the Lord Chancellor's son was run in double harness along with Mr. RRYNOLDS at Dublin. The Protestants of the north of Ireland, also have had bitter reason to complain of the way in which they have been treated by modern Whig Ministries. It can. not he gratifying to them that the Government think it right to quarter the sons of the late Mr. O'CONNELL on the public purse. We believe that two sons of Mr. O'CONNELL have between them about four thousand a year. We do not say one word against these gentlemen ; but it is not passing the fair limits of public discussion to assert that such distributions of patronage are not of a conciliatory character. It is unlucky, also, that for some time past the Lord Chancellor is stated to have placed in the Commission of the Peace, in the southern and western parts of Ireland, a considerable number of Roman Catholics to a degree far higher than the numbers of their gentry would be entitled to claim. In the appointment of stipendiary magistrates there has, also, been much jobbery, and we should not be surprised if the style in which Lord Chancellor BRADY has made "J. P.'s" of his own political connection would yet become the subject of serious and sustained discussion. The unfortunate letter of De CULLEN (dated Rome, September 23), and addressed to one of his Vicars-General, ought to open the eyes of Government to the danger which they are running in their systematic courting of the Roman Catholic interest. It' it be right that Orangemen should be put down, it is by no means clear that Roman Catholic " agitators " should be set up in authority and honour. Surely one side is not to be crushed for the gratification of the other. Dr. CULLEN and his advisers are foster ing a bad spirit, and they are opening fresh fountains of bitterness which we had hoped were dried up for ever. As yet the Catholic laity have not come prominently forward in a body to separate themselves from the intense sectarianism which the Cullen rule is meant to inaugurate. Here and there a few Catholic commoners and profes sional gentlemen have manfully spoken out, but the fact cannot be denied that so far as the Roman Catholic portion of Ireland is concerned, the missive of Dr. CULLEN has been witheringly effective. The Roman Catholic Archbishop has damped a great movement, and chilled the public spirit in many a generous breast, and we must insist that the Government in Ireland should show more true impartiality and more official caution than it seems ready to exhibit. If " Orange Societies " be offensive to Roman Catholics, we have no hesitation in saying that the showering rewards upon mere " agitators," and making "J.P.'s " by wholesale to please the " P.P.'s" of Doctor CULLEN'S Church is deeply calculated to wound and alienate the feelings of the Protestants of Ireland. Jobbery and partiality are the curses attendant on Whig rule in Scotland. We know what a state the Whigs brought that country to by constantly truckling to agitators, and rewarding theta as they were violent, and a portion of the Minis try seems bent upon resuming practices which were supposed to have been exploded. There are rumours that the Cabinet is not of one