The Press. — London, England, 1858-08-07 00:00:00

THE PnESS, AUGUST 7, 1858. the 10th, and marched towards Gwalior. Three miles to the eastward of the city and fort, and therefore between them and Sir Hugh's advance,lies the Moorar cantonment formerly the head-quarters of the contingent. On recon noitring the station Sir Hugh found that it was occupied by the enemy in force. An immediate advance was ordered. The enemy's fire was at first smartly sustained, but the first brigade turned their left flank, silenced the guns, and drove teem through the whole length of the can tonment in rapid rout. Emerging at the other end of the lines on their proper right, the second brigade were upon them, and as they fled towards the city, horse artillery, cavalry, and infantry followed in hot emulation. For the two former arms the ground was little favourable, but the infantry. advancing in skirmishing order, made play with their rifles, and in one part of the field were engaged, if on a small scale, yet more desperately. A party of the sepoys had taken refuge from the pursuing horse artillery in a deep and narrow nulluh, out of which they kept up a fire from their muskets. A company ot• the 71st came up, and went straight at them. Wyndham Neave, leading the High landers, was shot dead at the edge of the di'ch, but the next instant his men were down among the rebels, and his death was sternly avenged. Steadily the European bayonet bore down the native tulwar. The wounded sepoy hogged the fatal steel, to deliver with his failing strength one last cut at his opponent. All that hate and despair could do was done, and in vain. Not a man left the ditch alive. The corpses numbered forty-three. Of the High. lenders, besides poor Neave, three were killed and five more or less severely wounded by aword•cuts. No other loss is reported on the English side, and that of the rebels was light. But the Moorar cantonment was occupied, and, in anticipation of further and complete successes, an express was, as I have said, at once despatched to Scindia to bring him down to the scene of action. Meanwhile Brigadier Smith's column—wing Bth Hussars, wing Bombay Lancers, the 05th, Bombay 10th Native Infantry, and a Bombay troop of horse artillery—joined, as I have said, by Om anti his men of the Hyderabad Contingent, was ad vancing from Antree, where the junction had taken place. Early in the morning of the 17th the brigadier was at Kota• ki-Serai, ten miles from Gwalior, on the little river Oomrar. Beyond this point the road crosses or winds among successive ranges of hills till the plain in which Gwalior lies is attained. Below, and in front of the first of these ranges, the enemy's pickets were observed from Kota ki•Serai when morning broke. Skirmishing parties of infantry were thrown across the stream, and a squadron of the Bth Hussars followed to reconnoitre, when they were fired upon from a concealed battery. An advance in force was now ordered ; the cavalry charged and took the battery, of three guns, and the infantry carried and occupied the first range of heights. On our side Lieutenant Reilly, of the Bth, was killed or died from sunstroke, and Crealock, of the 95th, and Anderson, of the Bombay Lancers, were wounded. On the side of the enemy is credibly reported to have fallen no less notable a person than the Ranee of J banal. Either by the bullet of a rifleman or a fragment of a shell—for reports differ on this point, as they are likely to do—this determined and valiant, if cruel and abandoned woman, met an end not unfitting her soldierly qualities. Her body was not fiund ; was burnt at once, it is said. The effects which she had saved from the general wreck at Jltansi fell to her rebel confederates. On the following day, the 18th, Smith's force remained quiet—only exchanging long shots with the enemy on the next range of heights, whose fire was annoyingly good— waiting to be joined by Sir Hugh Rose. Sir Hugh, seeing that the strong positions of the enemy lay all in front of his subaltern officer, whose force alone might not be sufficient to carry them, determined to join him by a flank march with the greater part of his division. On the 18th, by a circuit of twelve miles to his left, through Kota ki-Serai, be attained his object. The following morning reconnaissances of the positions of the enemy on their heights were met with smart resistance, and gradually, by the impetuosity of the rebels, were turned into a general action. The whole force advanced—the 86th in skirmishing order on the left, the 71st similarly on the right, the 95th and Bombay 25th and 10th Native Infantry supporting. The 80th took the troublesome guns and the heights opposite them—the 71st were equally suc cessful. All the high ground cleared, the force appeared at the edge of the plain of Gwalior, about a mile broad. Cavalry and infantry were here in numbers; but, as the Hussars and Bombay Lancers and the infantry skirmishers advanced, they fled in all directions, pursued by the cavalry. Here Cornet Mills, of the Lancers, was killed. By three in the afternoon, after a running fight of more than five hours, the town of Gwalior was occupied, ant the enemy were in full flight, leaving twenty seven gem in the hands of the victors. Our loss from the enemy has been trifling, though many had suffered severely from the sun. Two other officers, however, than those I have mentioned, wore wounded,—Colonel Raines and Lieu tenant Sexton, of the 95th. On the following day Brigadier Napier, with a fiyirr: column of cavalry and horse artillery, went after the fugitives, who were heading towards Kerowlee and Jeypore. Other columns watched their flanks. The brigadier caught them up on that or the following day, took twenty-five more guns (making fifty-two in all, fine pieces of Scindia's) and an immense quantity of ammunition, and killed many. "In the field," telegraphs Sir Hugh, " the enemy killed are lying about in every direction." The Maharajah was now to be restored to his recovered capital, and accordingly on the :20th. having arrived in camp the day before, he again took his seat on the royal ml6lllOll, attended by Sir Robert Hamilton, Sir Hugh Rose and his staff, and escorted by the Bth Hussars , lath Light Dragoons, 71st, 86th, and 95:h. One mournful event marred the joy of the (lay's success. The famous fort of Gwalior was reported to be evacuated, but a shot fired from its walls at the cavalcade proved that it was still occupied. That this was the case had become known during the morning to Lieutenant Lose, of the 25th Bombay Native 761 Infantry, stationed at the Kotwelee in the town. Finding upon inquiry that the enemy still in the fort numbered only ten or fifteen men, Rose proposed to Lieutenant Waller, of the same corps, who WAS with him, to go up with their party of seposs and take the place by storm. The other agreed. A blacksmith forced the outer gate for them, and they with their men rushing up forced five gates in succession, and gained the top unhurt. Here they sepa• rated their little hand of about twenty into two bodies, and while %Yeller's attacked and shot the men who had worked a gun at the assailants during their ascent, Rose's cut up another small party of the rebels after a desperate hand•to• hand tight. From this encounter Rose escaped w.hurt; but immediately afterwards, while advancing a few paces alone, he was shot through the body from behind a wall by a Pathan—said to have been ltahein fill, of Bareilly—who, then emerging from his concealment, rushed upon Rose, and gave him two more wounds with a sword. He then advanced upon Waller and his party, by whom he was shot down. The tort was taken, but paor Rose's wounds proved rapidly fatal, to the very great concern of the whole force, to whom he was known as an excellent officer. I may mention, to avoid confusion, and as Captain Rose, of the Rifles, is, or rather was till lately, with his uncle, that Lieutenant Rose was no relation to the general. Almost simultaneously with the victory at Gwalior Lord Canning issued a new proclamation to the people of Oude. Its tenor is as follows : The Right Honourable the Governor. General hereby notifies, for the information of all those concerned in the present rebellion, his ultimate views and intentions regard ing principals, seconds, and followers engaged in the same, during the past twelve months. To all parties immediately concerned in the murder of Christian British subjects, no hope of pardon, on arrest, can be held nut; they must pay the forfeit the laws of this and every civilized country have decreed to a mere brutal and gratuitous slaughter of the unprepared, the defenceless, and the innocent ; they are out of the pale of humanity, and the magnitude of their offence while they live will ever call aloud for retribution. With these the British Govern. ment can make no terms. To all those who have offered asylum to refugees or others, being the murderers of Christian British subjects, and known them to have been such, or who have been leading movers against the authority of the British Govern. ment, and have persistently acted throughout this rebellion against the constituted paramount power of the land, the Right Honourable the Governor• General can offer only terms of life : their punishment will be proportioned to the offencea they have committed against the State. All those who shall surrender on or before the 30th day of September next will have their lives guaranteed to them, after which date, should they still continue in arms, or in opposition to the Government, their several cases shall be summarily dealt with by the authority in whose hands they may chance to fall, whether civil or military. To all others, second to principals, zemindars, sepoys disbanded, fugitives throughout the country, or any person whatsoever in arms against the Government, not acting on his own free sill and authority, b.it aiding and abetting some principal,the Right Honourable the Governor. General offers at once a general amnesty. Let them return to their homes and pursue their ordinary avocations, using their best endeavours to maintain peace and quiet. Their estates shall be guaranteed, and an act of oblivion thrown over the past. Should they, however, still continue to bear arms against the British jouster, they must bear the consequer.ces of their own acts. The time for clemency will have passed away. gout anb 4asOion. THE ROYAL VISIT TO CHERBOURG. HER Majesty and the Prince Consort left Osborne house soon after twelve o'clock on Wednesday, and at once proceeded on their visit to the Emperor of the French at Cherbourg. The ships of war which were appointed to form the convoy to her Majesty left Spithead 14 an early hour on Wednesday morning, a proceeding necessary for them in consequence of the very superior speed of the royal yacht Victoria and Albert. This necessity can be easily understood when it is known that last week the Victoria and Albert went out for a cruise round the Isle of Wight —a distance of rather more than sixty miles, and that the journey was completed without any severe pressure upon her engines in three hours and twenty minutes. This will explain why the war steamers should set off some hours in advance of her Majesty if they were to precede her on her visit to Cherbourg. The Osborne royal yacht, and the Black Eagle, bearing the Admiralty flag, with Sir John Pakington, First Lord of the Admiralty, on boara, left Osborne soon after ten o'clock, and proceeded up the Solent, and for a considerable distance the company had an opportunity of witnessing the contest for her Majesty's Cup by the yachts of the Royal Yacht Squadron. Her Majesty's yacht, the Victoria and Albert, was seen from Cowes coming down the roads at twenty minutes past twelve o'cloc k . 'rho Iloyal standard was run up to the mast of the Royal Yacht Squadron-house, and the vessels in the roads soon followed the example, It is not customary at Cowes, SPAIN. The Queen of Spain has been well received in the .Asturias. " Though on pleasure bent," she has, like John Gilpin, " a frugal mind," and made a visit to !Ceres in the mountains, the centre of operations of the Asturias Mining Company. The artillery o ffi c er, placed over the works, had prepared a collation, and her Majesty took pride in the develop• silent of these unbounded mine:al resources, which the Ri anz ares tram or railroad to Gijon has now rendered available for shipment at that port. HOLLAND. King William 111. of Holland is seriously bent on abdication in favour of his son, the Prince of Orange, who will he n eighteen next September. Various causes are assigned for th is step, but those who have studied his character ascribe the resolve to a stubborn quality of mind inherited from his maternal grandfather Paul I. of Russia, and an im patience of such control as the constitutional system in the Nethetlands is able to exercise over royal authority. He is now at Weisbaden, and emulates the peculiarity of his paternal ancestor William " the taciturn." DENMARK. The commission appointed to corsider the Danish proposals respecting the Duchies presented its report to the Diet in the sitting of the 211th ult. The commission came to tho following conclu sions • —The Diet should — I. Declare to the Danish Government that its communi cation of the 15th July of this year could not be considered ti sufficient compliance with the Federil resolution of the 20th of May last, and with the Feleral obligations upon which that resolution was based, as well as that of the 11th of February last. 11. Consequently, request the Danish Government, in virtue of Article 5 of the Executive Regulations of. the 3rd of August, 1820, to make within the term of three weeks 1. A more precise declaration as to whether, with the general Constitution of the 2nd of October, 1855, are also suspended the Royal Ordinances of the 16th of October, 1855, establishing a Ministry of the Interior for the whole Monarchy, those of the 23rd of June, 1856, relative to the snore precise settlement of the private affairs of Holstein, and Articles 1 to 6 of the Ordinance of the 11th of June, concerning the Constitution of the Duchy of Holstein. 2. To make to the Diet, through the organ of the united committees, at the private sittings, at which the Danish representative is requested to be present for that purpose, communications responding to the tat article of the reso• lotion of the 20th of May, to insure the execution of the resolutions of the 11th and 25th of February last. [ll. To authorize the united committees to receive and examine at once the communications of the Danish repre sentative. IV. To invite that representative to bring the present resolution to the cognizance of his Government. The German press urges action against Denmark, and the last alvices received at Copenhagen from Frankfort seemed to indicate that the Federal Diet was disposed to lend itself to the views of the Berlin Cabinet, which the Danes charge with harbouring interested designs against the integrity of their country. People were speculating on what would occur if Denmark persisted in not yielding, and allowed the Duchy of Holstein to be occupied. The party which is for the exclusion of Holstein•Lauen- burg would gladly, says a letter, see this measure adopted, and would then support the Government. There are persons who imagine that the German Diet can deprive the Danish Civil List and Exchequer of the contribution paid by the Duchies to the general expenses of the monarchy. This, however, ►t is urged, would he infringing the sovereignty of the King of Denmark and violating the integrity of his dominions, guaranteed by Europe. The Euro ,►ean powers would then have to occupy themselves with the question. This is a tedious and extremely complicated one, but it is not impossible that it may come to a point that will command the attention of the public, which as yet has heeded it but little. PIEDMONT. According to letters from Turin, the recent con ference between the Emperor of the French and Count de Cavour at Plombieres was on the general situation of the affairs of Italy, and terminated in a strong recommendation from his Majesty to the Minister to adopt a moderate and circumspect policy both towards Austria and Naples. TURKEY. The Sultan has granted a rente via** of 12,000 f. to the daughter of the Fren',h Consul who was killed in the outbreak at Jeddah. INDIA. We subjoin the following particulars of the capture of Gwalior from the Bombay correspondent of the We have now lo trace the progress of the British columns converging under Smith on the sonth and Rose in person on the east• The latter, whom we left at SassJwlee on the 15th, broke up his camp at that village on the uxorniug of