The Press. — London, England, 1857-12-19 00:00:00

THE PRESS, DECEMBER 19,1857. 1222 gaum, between Ankjee and Ammewar. The 28th Native Infantry was sent after him, and marched from Rnjahpoor on the 2nd. We have no news as yet of their success in bringing the Bhee:s to battle. Such depredators as C.;.se are a greater pest than a regular enemy. Bands of them now roam in many parts of the country, some of them having had the boldness to appear even in the vicinity of the More Ghat. It has been found necessary to send out 200 of the 4th Native Rifles against the band lately disperse at Sinnur. - - • It seems, writes the Times correspondent, to be thought in England that we shall have almost too many men for the work before us : It is forgotten that the territory to be recongnered is larger than France, Austria, Prussia, and Spain all put together, with no means of communication, and a popula tion at best passive. At the present moment, Oude, with its forts, its chiefs, and its armed populace, is in open in surrection. In several districts of the north-west the authority of the British is limited to the ground they stand on; Central India is in horrible anarchy, anarchy such as Englishmen will, I hope, always fail to realise. Anarchy in India is not merely the absence of the con• stable. It means the rule of banditti springing in every direction out of the ground, the subjugation of the mer chant, the artisan, and the cultivator to the classes who live by plunder, and who in their hour of triumph invari ably display the cruelty innate in the Asiatic. In Bengal Proper, the richest of our provinces, there is not out of Calcutta a disposable European. Assam, a province as large as Wales, is guarded by 100 sailors. Dacca, a country the exports of which alone last year were worth 2,00,0001. sterling, has another hundred. Dinagepore and ltungpore, districts about the size of Yorkshire, have not a man. The troops are wanted in fifty points at once, and until the north-west is subjugated they cannot be spared. The number of deaths, too, will be very great both from battle and exposure, and reinforcements ought to be poured in to the extent of at least thirty per cent. of the original force. If the Gwalior Contingent, 7,000 strong, cavalry, infantry, and artillery, and now at Calpee, turn south ward towards the valley of the Nerbudda, a central campaign will open, and the real battle will have to be fought in Central India. These men possess those elements of discipline which form such a dangerous nucleus for the disaffected To them we have at present to oppose but the merest handful of men. " A glance at the map," writes one correspondent who enters fully into the position of affairs, " and a slight knowledge of the positions and numbers of the English garrisons will suffice to show what a grand game Nana Sahib might have played had he been a man as bold and able as he is cruel and trea cherous " Placing himself at the head of these Gwalior mutineers, he might have moved through Bundelcund, swelling his numbers by any quantity of marauding Bundelas, upon the Saugor and Nerbudda territories. These districts could not have been held against him, the small Madras column, abandoning S.iugor and Jubbulpore, must have fallen back across the Nerbudda, the Nana with ever increasing forces might have followed in pursuit, and pro claiming the restoration of the Peishwa's rule might have entered the Deccan with 50,000 men at his heels, with no European regiment to oppose him nearer than at Hyderabad. Does this scheme read a wild one ? Hyder Ali would not have thought so, nor any man who, having sinned against us so deeply as the Nana has done, possessed even an average amount of determination and ingenuity with which to back his hatred of the English name. "To meet a hostile force in this direction," adds another writer, " we have as yet no column formed at Nagpore, from whence we have hitherto been unable even to send the necessary force for the relief of Saugor ; the greater part of the Nizam's contingent under Major Orr was already at Hindia last month, and the remainder went at the same time to Mhow or to Aurungabad. From the latter place the Deccan field force was ordered also to Mliow in the early part of this month : so for some time to come the mutineers in Central India may lake their pleasure undisturbed on the borders of North Berar and Khandeish, leaving the cotton growers to raise fresh malcontents against us." We have said that anarchy is supreme in these districts, and the po'ition of affairs there as exhi bited to us by this last mail supports this view. The Mehidpore Contingent were attacked on the Hth Nov. by a large body of rebels. The greater part of' the contingent killed several of their British officers, and went over to the rebels. Mehidpore was plundered, and the rebels started off for Mandesor. The Mhow column, under Brigadier Stuart, attacked and defeated their vanguard on 13th November, but nothing further was known. More than two months have elapsed since we first learnt that Mundesor had been occupied by a band of rebels, under the standard of some moulvie (priest). The Rajah of Rutlam is also reported to have been killed by his own contin gent (about 800 strong). This part of Malwa is populous, and Rutlam alone was once able to yield a force of 1,200 horse at a moment's notice. Mun desor is also an important town, thickly inhabited. Between it and Neemuch there are almost as many hill forts as villages, ail of which are occupied by rebels ; and these Brigadier Stuart is vainly at tempting to reduce. He has one regiment, when he wants twenty, for the work on hand. As an instance of the nature of the fort fighting in this district, the attack made by a small force under Colonel Lawrence, despatched on 22nd Oct. to capture the fort of Jeerun—a small, compact place built on the top of a steep hill studded with rocks and jungle, and having only.one road of access— offers a very fair example of what is yet to be achieved in India. Jeerun, as we have said, is a paltry fort on the top of a hill, but by nature in that very defensible position usually selected by the natives for the erection of these forts. This place lies twelve miles south of Neemueli, on the road to Baroda, and notice was given to Captain Lloyd, the political agent, that 500 rebels there intended to move round to Jawud, and other villages, for purposes of plunder. Three parties were sent out the same day to reconnoitre, and on the 23rd one of them returned with the intelligence that the enemy ',chiefly Affghans) were at rest in the fort, and that no other body of rebels was in the vicinity. Fifty men from her Majesty's 83rd were at once told off to accom pany 225 of the 2nd Bombay Light Cavalry (lately deprived of their firearms for disaffection), 100 of the 12th Bombay Native Infantry, two field pieces, manned by the 2nd Cavalry, and some European sergeants of Artillery, and a mortar. This force moved out, and after a march of three miles, and an engagement with an advanced guard of the rebels, the fort was reached, the guns and mortar were placed in position, and the bombardment opened. The rebels made several sorties, drove our men back, captured the mortar ammunition and instru ments, being unable apparently to carry off the mortar itself, and ultimately, after a whole day's fighting, compelled our force to retreat, with the loss of two gallant officers and three men killed, and five officers and twelve men wounded—a dear price to pay for one petty fort held by fifty ruffians. The effect of this defeat, besides being most depressing upon our men, raised the spirits of the rebels to the highest pitch. Upon every defensible rock that some native, ambitious of command and hopeful of plunder, chose to hoist a red rag for his flag, fifty followers were to be found in an hour. The whole country now is a nest of these hornets. What the result will be, time will prove. With respect to the rest of India there is nothing of very great importance to relate. At "putrid Delhi" matters are tolerably quiet, but unfortunately our troops are fast falling sick. "Our soldiers;' writes a medical officer on :28th September, " now that the terrible excitement is over, are fast filling the hospitals, with fever cases for the most part." l'his, unhappily, is what usually happens to an army in India, and indeed everywhere else, after the exhausting labours of such a siege, and the riot and the debauchery which inevitably follow the cap ture of an assaulted city. The shooting of the King's sons, it is probable, will yet give rise to some discussion. A private letter from an engineer officer, dated Delhi, Oct. 12, gives a different version to any yet received, and one which places Captain Hodson's conduct in a rather questionable light. He writes : Hodson went out next day ( Sent. 221 with 120 cavalry. He found a great number of Pandies, &c., about 4,000 I believe, some unarmed, some armed, some throwing away their arms. He found two sons and a grandson of the King. They were in a carriage, and gave themselves up. Well, Hodson went with eighty of his men to play about the mass of Pandies, and sent the remaining forty with the carriage and prisoners towards Delhi. When they had got some distance (two or three miles) he left the Pandiea and overtook the carnage. When about two miles from Delhi, he halted, made the three princes get out, strip all except their drawers, and then get into the carriage again. He than shot two himself, and his subaltern shot the other. The reason that he shot them in the carriage was that, if he had shot them on the ground, no one (native) would have lifted the corpses into the carriage. The bodies were brought to Delhi and exposed at the Kotswallie,that is, the place where the native city authorities used to live. - - Another writer, after detailing the capture of the King on the :21st—who, when he was brought into Delhi, thought to enter the palace, where head quarters are; but "the general hunted him cff," and he was eveutuall) " stowed away in a pokey hole off the Chandny Choke,' or Regent.street of Delhi, under a sergeant's guard"—goes on to describe the capture of the princes : Next day three of the princes, the Shalizada gentlemen, who with their fowling•pieces, and sitting ou handsome chairs, '• drew the first blood" from the crowds of our captured countrymen, women, and children, on the 1 lth of May last and following days, by firing in amongst them, anti then leaving the sepo)s, butchers, and other villains to complete the massacre, met their just punishment and the fate decreed for them—the Mussulman are fund of predes -1 tination !—by a just and avenging Providence. These blood-dyed villains, no doubt, encouraged by the tempo rary escape of the King, expected the same leniency; but they were mistaken ; for being taken by the same officer who captured the old murderer, they attempted to put rather a light and bewildered face upon matters, as if quite innocent, and asked, " What, Sahib, what's your order? The order was to " strip," and it was scarce complied with by the amazed and terrified wretches when they were shot dead, and their bodies being brought into the city in a common hackery, were thrown in the kennel near the Kotawallie, for every one to look at and learn a lesson from that liked—n ghastly and very suggestive spectacle as I can assure yoLt. Another of the princes since captured has escaped for tho time. With the two princes who were shot was captured an English sergeant-major, one Gordon, formerly belonging to the 28th Native Infantry. This man had been in the pay and service of the rebels throughout the siege. He was to be tried by court martial. A private letter from Delhi states that a crore of rupees has been demanded of the inhabitants as the ransom of the city, and that they have already offered eighty lacs. The trial of the King is not yet concluded, but it is believed his life will be spared, and that he will be sent to Allahabad. Bri gadier Showers' flying column was sweeping the country around Delhi, and 'had succeeded in cap turing the important fort of Kanoud, and in recover ing upwards of 70,000/. of treasure. The column would return to Muttra after it had cleared oat the country around Taone and Sonuth. High up the 1)oab the country seems to have been quiet, but on the other side of the Ganges the hill station of Nynee Tal has been visited a second time by a large force from Bareilly, which now occupies a permanent position. This body of rebels appeared at Kat Godown (foot of the Nynee Tel hills) on the oth of October, gradually increased in numbers till it mus►ered 5,000 strong, with artillery, and then took possession of Huldwanee and Kalla doongee, thus blockading both passes to the English position. At the same time 3,000 men are at the Nuggurghaut near Roorkee ; and Walleedad Khan, the fugitive Malaghur raja, is roaming about Robil cund with several regiments and some artillery for the collection of revenue. l3elaspore, on the extreme north-east of our frontier, is firmly hold by a small band under one of the Skinners, who keeps the fort and is well supplied with guns and ammunition. The details which have reached us of the murder of Major Burton and his sons at Kotah, on 18th October, show it to have been a much► more delibe rate murder than at first appeared. For five hours Major Burton and his two sons withstood the attacks of the rabble of the town, and neither the Rajah nor a single man of his contingent, nor a single citizen of the town, made an effort to relieve the Resident and his sons standing at bay on the roof of the Residency. 140 Sikh soldiers were standing round the Residenc,y but refused to interfere for " want of orders," and at last saw the gallant major and his boys butchered without lifting an arm to save them. A " Civilian," who has not been " long " in the country, writing from Allahabad this week, gives an interesting description of the state of the country about that district; but the most valuable portion of his letter relates more particularly to the causes of the insurrection, and, as his views entirely support the arguments from time to time urged in this journal, we take the liberty of calling the attention of our readers particularly to the following para graph : Whatever popular opposition there is in our own older districts, besides the mere freebooting of the plundering tribes, may be traced almost exclusively to one great source of hostility, which bas raised many people against us—l mean the very general transfer of landed rights which has taken place under our system, especially by the action of the civil courts, and the unlimited and summary sale of landed rights in satisfaction of decrees. These transfers are for the most part mere piper transfers. The old pro prietors 'still reside on the spot —most frequently in the character of tenan•s they retain the land —but by paper transfer in the collector's office their rights, dues, privi leges, and emoluments are given to another; and there they are, discontented, angry men, still looking on them selves, and looked to by others, as the real proprietors, oppressed and in abeyance. We suddenly imposed with out check a system to which the people were altogether strangers, and the consequence has been so general a transfer of landed rights as has, perhaps, neverbeen known in any age or country. Well, our Government being to all intents and purposes overthrown and swept away from these provinces, these old proprietors have, as a matter of course, resumed their own again. The auction purchaser disappears with our system just as much es our collectors of revenue and police officers do. No native would dream of supposing that this admitted of argument ; but the re sult is that the old proprietors, the popular men, are com mitted to hostility to us. I hope that, under the circum stances, the past will be treated indulgently. Of course, right or wrong, what has been done by us must be reas serted ; but surely we must take warning—surely we shall not thus rudely destroy the remaining tenures, and render hostile the remaining provinces. If the land of the Pun jaub had been transferred as that of the north-west pro vinces, it is quite certain that we should not now be here ; that we should hold nothing of India beyond the guns of our ships; we should neither have taken Delhi nor saved Allahabad. The Sikhs would have been against us to a man, and General Havelock would probably have been now defending Calcutta. THE REINFORCEMENTS AT CALCUTTA. It appears, from a tabular summary compiled for the Calcutta EngliBhntan, that between March 10th I