The Press. — London, England, 1857-11-14 00:00:00

1108 THE WEEK. THE Indian Mails will arriN e this day, and the facts they bring, we apprehend, will be found to present very different features to those exhibited earlier in the week. The Ministers and their supporters beast that the neck of the revolt has been broken at Delhi, and that "all is over "—that is the favourite phrase, we believe—but the fire works and the rejoicing. It may be so, and we shall be glad if the facts this mail makes known will bear that interpretation ; but in the meantime let us examine the position of affairs as generally repre sented by the telegrams. We have captured Delhi ; that is a sound success, but at a frightful cost of European life—a certain, and for the time irretrievable, loss. The rebels, after fighting for the city for six days, retreat() .1 and encamped beyond the walls ; now we learn that they have broken up their encampment and marched in force upon Agra and Cawnpore into Oude. That is clearly their route. Two columns are in pursuit, so far as to render assistance to Agra in case of need, but nothing more. Meanwhile the Gwalior rebels are biding their time, and when the Delhi forces come into their neighbourhood we shall be able to understand exactly the value we can place upon SCINDIA'S powers of restraint and subjection. But, supposing that Agra is covered by our columns, Cawnpore preserved from any attack, and the Gwalior rebels kept in hand, we may safely assume that the Delhi rebels, who throughout the campaign have displayed no want of military skill and general efficiency, will make at once for the neigh bourhood of Lucknow, where swarms of rebels will welcome such an addition to their force. It may be said that the retreat for some 250 miles of a defeated body of troops will exhaust, if it do not dis organise, them ; but we must remember that the rebels in the first. place will march through a country g enerally friendly to them, that their wants are few, and that they are capable of sustaining under such circumstances fatigue that would kill the European. Once in Oude, they will be in a. position rapidly to assume the offensive ; and under what circumstances let us ask of those who declare the neck of this terrible rebellion to be broken. HAVELOCK has fought his way to Lucknow in time to save the garrison from massacre, it is true, but only to place himself in their position, and only, we fear, to tax the already failing and exhausted energies of the heroic little garrison with a further defence, and with the care of his sick and wounded. In all human probability HAVELOCK brought with him a supply of provisions and military stores ; and if, as the telegram from Sir JAMES OUTRAN of the 2nd of October appears to intimate, it is found necessary for the main body to cut its way back to Cawnpore in order to reopen communications, the garrison 3f course will be left strengthened in force, supplied with provi sions and stores, but, in point of fact, left once more, and this time with the additional care of nearly 1,000 sick and wounded, to withstand the attacks of bloodthirsty rebels, smarting under recent defeat, and flushed with an intense desire for revenge. It is true they may be placed in such a state of defence as may enable them to defy the rebels for some time to come ; hut who can regard their rebels, position without apprehension and dread? All this shows that the if defeated, are not disheartened, nor in the least dis posed to lay down their arms and return to their duty or their occupations. The fact of their surrounding Lucknow in such numbers as to compel HAVELOCK to leave the garrison behind him andfight his way . back to Cawnpore in order to preserve his Communisations is sufficient proof of the feeling which animates them , and of the critical position in which affairs remain for us. That HAVELOCK should have succeeded in relieving Lucknow is a glorious consolation. Of the nature of the obstacles he had to con tend with ou his advance from Cawnpore we can easily judge, from his consuming six days in marching fifty-three miles. His loss during those days is not reported, but his sick and wounded, with the 130 women and children at Lucknow, are given as 1 , 000 ; and thence arises the question of force. HAVELOCK started with 2,500 men. We may assume that with 1 , 500 leas he will start on his return to Cawnpore. As he had to fight his way to Lucknow, he will, in all prabability, have to fight it back again to Cawnpore , and what will be his position when he gets there ? It must be clear upon reflection that " all "is not yet " over." We shall find a second Delhi in Oude, and there we shall not have a single garrisoned town to watch andbom bard, but we shall find a fortress in every mud hut, and a garrison in every village. The people are against us to a man ; they are well armed ; they are active ; they detest our rule, and will die sooner than submit. We have no alternative, then, but;the complete and crush ing conquest of the country. To achieve this, we shall require an army, not a brigade, and what are HAVELOCK'S prospects as to re inforcements? If we turn from Oude to Central India, to Bombay, to Scinde, and again to the Punjaub frontiers, we find nothing but fresh out , more plots and mutinies, frequent executions, aud apprehension, A, and disturbanceevery where. And yet, because we have captured stronghold of the enemy, this irritation, though its continuance para. all our movements, and threatens a further tremendous outburst, THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 14, 1857. is held to be merely local, the neck of the rebellion is declared to be broken, and we are congratulated upon the speedy pacification of India! The official summary of news published by the East India Com pany, and printed in our Postscript. bears such obvious marks of a design apparently upon the part of Mr. ANDERSON to make things plea sant, that not the slightest reliance can be placed upon half his state ments. The Delhi mutineers, he tells us, " fled," some to Rohilcund, some to Nluttra, and some towards Oude. One portion of them are caught by our columns, and they stood a severe thrashing, with a loss of 400 men. A force to enter upon an engagement and stand such a loss could not have been seriously disorganised. Then he tells us that Lucknow is " relieved," and that " order appears to to be restored " in Bengal ! In that case the army of relief may as well re-embark at once for England. In Bombay everthing is quiet, with the excep tion of " an outbreak of Bheels," and the discovery of " plots " against the Government in the army. The Punjaub is perfectly tranquil, except that " some predatory tribes " have interrupted the postal com munication—an act, by the way, that mere predatory tribes most rarely indulge in—and, finally, " all has remained quiet in Scinde," except that " the state of the frontier " is not " satisfactory," and only " less gloomy " than it was a fortnight before. Why, at this rate of ad missions well qualified, we may safely assert that the whole of India is tranquil, " except " that an insurrection is raging over two-thirds of the country. Do not let us deceive ourselves—we are not yet out of the wood ; and it remains to be shown that the practical application of the army of relief will be so speedy and sure as to insure us prompt relief from the apprehensions we are justified by events in entertaining. Certain of the American journals are offering us reflections on the monetary crisis of a nature more practical than pleasant. Those classes who have failed to find in baseless speculation the means of ex travagant luxury are very likely, we are told, to organise a general crusade against the honest part of mankind, and to redeem their broken fortunes by the seizure of a province or an island. They do things on a grand scale in America. Such a contingency, too, is spoken of with considerable self-complacency. The " emigrants " would not consist of that " scum " which seems, in an American's opinion, an invariable characteristic of European society. No, they would embrace all the trades and professions we used to count on our waistcoat buttons at school, and would start up a ready-made commonwealth with all its parts complete. The fortunate countries over whom this tide of immi gration would first be rolled are, of course, Central America and Cuba, and we need not say we wish them joy of the prospect. It does not, how ever, seem to occur to our self confident cousins that there are two parties to the realisation of this future ; and that, whatever we may think about the spread of Anglo-Saxon blood, we shall hardly see friendly States despoiled to furnish a host of swindlers and spend thrifts with the means of resuscitating their luxury. Rumours are afloat of an intention on the part of Government to enlist French and Belgian soldiers in the British service. We have heard them with considerable disgust, though we must own with little surprise. Flectere si nequeo, Svc., is a maxim on which certain friends of the foreigner would not blush to act, and organs can readily be found to advocate such measures when the leading ones have been tried in vain. To steal a march upon the country while Parliament was not sitting is conduct quite consistent with some we have already witnessed. But we trust, if there be any truth in these reports. that this contemplated act of injustice to thousands of meritorious men may yet be nipped in the bud. We can fully sympathise with the feelings of an eloquent and accomplished scholar, who, with the dignified title of professor, is per forming the drudgery of a fourth•form schoolmaster. The irksome ness of such a position would alone be a sufficient excuse for any ebulli tion of personal feeling. Professor BLACKIE, however, who the other day delivered one of his periodical protests against his own degrada tion, rises above mere selfish indignation, and has uttered truths which the commercial classes of this country would do well to take to heart. It is perfectly true, as the Times says, that merchants will not spare their sons away from the counting-house after sixteen or seven teen years of age. But we are unwilling to accept this circum stance, like the leading journal, as a fait aecompli with which it is perfectly useless to contend. The tone of mercantile morality at the present day is one to excite the anxiety of all thoughtful persons. The contempt fo r intellectual culture, united with an excessive indulgence in material luxury, which distinguishes but too large a number of our modern millionaires, tp.) far from being treated as an inevitable, and not wholly discreditable feeling, should be encountered with all tho opposition which litera ture, and the press as a part of literature, is capable of offering. We have reason to believe that these feelings are peculiarly deep-rooted in Scotland. How far the defects of Scottish scholarship and the general carelessness of its acquisition may react upon each other cannot be calculated with exactness. But they probably do so react ; and if either the one or the other could be effectually remedied, we have no doubt that sonic of Professor BLAcittE's aspirations might be realised. That gentleman, however, would do well to recollect on round breaks turmoil one str( lyscs al