The Press. — London, England, 1857-09-19 00:00:00

approaching Mohurrum (22nd August). At Cal. cutta, especially, the most serious fears are felt. With regard to the rest of India, a brief summary is all that we are enabled to give. The Pithjaub remains tranquil. The remnant of the Sealkote mu tineers have been destroyed almost to a man by Brigadier-General Nicholson, who crossed her Majesty's 52nd Light Infantry in boats to the island in the Ravee, on which they were posted, captured their gun, and slaughtered or drove the whole body of them into the river. A quantity of plunder was recovered. Numbers of the fugitives continue to be seized and brought in by the police and people of the country, and also from the territory of Maha rajah Gholab Singh. They are summarily executed. A fanatical moulvie from Swat had moved down and set up his standard at Nivumzee. In twenty. four hours he was attacked, defeated, and fifty-five of his men killed. At Mooltan, the subadar of the 69th Native Infantry had been blown from a gun. Sir J. Lawrence was at Lahore on the 20th July. The accounts from Rajpootana are said to be satis factory, all the Rajpoot chiefs having given un• doubted proofs of loyalty to the British Government, and having afforded substantial support to the troops. The arsenal at Ajmere has been placed in a perfect state of defence by Lieutenant Carnell, of the above corps, who has under his command a detachment of 100 men of her Majesty's 83rd Regiment. Two mortars (says the Bombay Telegraph) have been placed in position to shell the city on the least symp tom of a disturbance, and have overawed the large and fanatical Musulman population, who are discon tended and ripe for a revolt and the destruction and plunder of tho Hindoos. The district around is in a comparatively quiet state, and no further symptoms of disturbance have taken place than an occasional dacoity, but the surrounding population would instantly rise on any symptom of weakness being shown. Up to the 17th matters were quiet. In Affghanistan no movement had yet taken place, but the attitude of Gholab Singh was peculiar. The Rajah was busy storing his frontier fortresses, re viewing his troops, and exhibiting such "extreme affability" towards his English residents that not the slightest reliance was placed upon his good faith. " The authorities at both Bombay and Calcutta, , says the Telegraph, "have taken every precautibn to secure the public safety, and in the event of any emeute taking place it will be promptly and sternly put down":— Several arrests have been made lately in Calcutta, which have placed Government in full possession of information on all points concerning the Mahomedan conspiracy. The Moonshee Golam Hossein, or Golam Khan,—we are not sure which is his proper name—who was arrested near Wellesley-square, is a personage after whom the Govern , ment has for some time been making inquiries. He is said to be one of the most active of the conspirators, and a plotter whose arrest was of the greatest importance. He contrived to escape from Calcutta when the ex-King of Oude was taken into the fort, and it is said proceeded with haste to Lucknow, where his presence gave additional vigour to the insurrection. What brought him back to Calcutta we can only guess at, but he did not arrive there without his coining having been notified to Govern ment by the military authorities. His arrest, it is said, was attempted more than once since his return, but with out success, until Friday night, the •23rd of July, when a number of town sergeants and some soldiers, all in shames, Proceeded to the neighbourhood of Wellesley-square to the house of a wealthy Mahomedan, where the Moonshee was reported to be. - • - The man was pointed out, arrested, awl with some confederates imprisoned. To sum up briefly: while the country can congra tulate itself that the noblest deeds of our army have never surpassed the marches and victories of Gen. Havelock, it must remember that from no other corner of India can we abstract cause for congratulation. The rebellion is slowly but surely attaining de velopment, and unless some fortunate change in our favour speedily takes place, we shall have ultimately the whole of India in arms against us. We have received the following private letter, dated Bombay. It gives some interest ing details as to the real state of European feeling in India : August 15, 1857. The mail leaving Southampton on the 4th ult. arrived here on the morning of the sth inst. Seeing the mail flag hoisted at eix. a.m. I hurried down to the pier, anxiously hoping with many others that we should have news of troops being already on their way through Egypt; many, indeed, were sanguine enough to look for them by the mail steamer, think ing that a few would be sent from Malta, even though they came through Egypt as private passengers, and without arms, in the absence of arrangements for TH E PRESS, SEPTEMBER 19,1857., their conveyance with the Pasha. Disappointment and gloom were depicted on the faces of all on find. ing it was not the case. I heard from the passengers that the mail from Bombay of the 15th June had arrived during their journey to Marseilles, and that they were detained there two days, in order to give time for Sir Colin Campbell to join them, who had on receipt of the news of General Anson's death been appointed commander-in-chief. The newspapers gave us intelligence to the 10th July, and though we heard from them that 14,000 soldiers are by this time on their way to India, it had no effect in dispelling our anxiety, as all know and feel that the turning point in the great struggle will have taken place before their arrival. Later intelligence reached us this morning from England by the Australian mail packet via Ceylon, giving news to the 19th ult. from England. Although 4,000 additional troops were to he sent in screw steamers via the Cape, we hear nothing of (what all were so anxiously expecting) any arrangements being made for sending any through Egypt. In such a crisis as this days are weeks, weeks months, and months years. Every European regiment is worth a small army in ordinary times. Lord Ellenborough alone has taken a clear view of matters. It is confidently expected that after the receipt in England of subsequent mails, each one of which has exceedei the former in magni tude of disaster and danger, he will be sent out as Governor-General ; and no fitter appointment could he made. Such an appointment would be hailed with delight by the European community, and his name alone would be a tower of strength, and inspire the minds of the natives with awe. The policy of Lord Canning in Bengal and of Lord Elphinstone in Bombay have been from the first precisely the re verse of the course adapted to the Asiatic character. They have endeavoured to blind themselves to the magnitude of the occasion ; they have been politely thanking men for barely doing their duty, when they should have been shaking every available weapon in the country in their faces, and staggering them by a display of energy and determination such as they had never dreamed of. Luckily for them, men have not been wanting of a better metal. The Lawrences, Wheeler, Havelock, Neill, Renaud, Van Cortlandt, Rose, with hosts of others, have nobly done their country service which nothing can repay. A great feeling of alarm was prevalent in Bombay on the Ist inst. The day being a Mussulman festival a rising of the bazaar rabble was feared, and some people had apprehensions that the three native regi ments now in garrison were not to be trusted. Many Europeans left their houses, and went within the fort walls; others went on board the ships in harbour. This fear is not to be wondered at, nor was it without foundation : the unwise attitude taken by the Govern ment in no way tended to dispel it. Since the early part of June last the Governor has obstinately refused to enrol volunteer forces, though the matter has been pressed on him continually. He relies, it is supposed, on the supposed knowledge cf all that goes on in the bazaar by a clever superintendent of police. On the above date we had only two hundred European soldiers in garrison, and, in the absence of any kind of information as to what preparations had been made in the event of a disturbance, every one was more or less alarmed, especially as a short time previously it had transpired that the heads of Government had places of rendezvous fixed on in case of an emeute which the public generally were unacquainted with. Numbers of tradesmen, clerks, civilians, and others, would be ready to serve in both cavalry and infantry corps ; and in addition some 2,000 sailors might have been drilled and a large body of effective men organised by this time, had not our Governor been so confident that nothing could happen in Bombay. Luckily for him, her Msjesty's 33rd arrived from the Mauritius just in time to save him from a responsibility few would like ; for on the very evening of their landing the remaining two hundred soldiers of the 86th were ordered away to quell a mutiny in the 27th N.I. at Kolapore, and had not the 33rd so opportunely arrived Bombay would have been without a single English soldier! When the mutiny broke out in the 27th Regiment at Kolapore, the newspapers were all directed to be silent on the subject; and though every native in Bombay knows of the occurrences through their own especial channels of communication, the Europeans alone are deprived of intelligence. What purpose all this secrecy serves no one knows : it is far better to boldly state all that has happened, and vow ven geance against the perpetrators of the evil. Rumours are afloat of another regiment being disaffected at Darwar, or in that direction, and a portion of the 33rd, with some artillery, have been sent down the coast. We are kept in a painful state of suspense on these matters. All communications to the newspapers which re flected on Government have for some time past been returned. Some titne back, advice was abundantly offered to the effect that the ladies should be re• moved from all outstations, and put in places of security; it was pooh poohed then, but is now being acted upon. The ladies all left ,Sholapoce a few 013 days ago, under an escort, en route to Bombay. The fort was being garrisoned and provisioned. Many more places will follow their example, if wise, and you may shortly expect arrivals of successive batches of ladies and children in England, where they ought all to be now. Although, since the departure of the last mail, we. have been successful, I hope you will not allow the sanguine tone of the Indian press, which is prover bially wrong in its views, to influence you, nor yet the official stereotyped commonplace gloss of the Government. The European community in India now know and feel that on them devolves the duty of saving the country; nor do they quail before the difficulty; their hearts are as true as of old, and the desire of revenge for the wrongs of English ladies and children animates them. Our position at Delhi is a critical one ; although invariably successful, the losses we suffer cripple cur force. I believe that, after weighing all things, we shall succeed, though it will be more on account of the dissensions and troubles of our enemy than our own immediate strength. We hme a large number of our country men shut up at Agra ; they are in a dangerous posi tion. Then General Havelock, brilliant as have been his successes, cannot be looked upon as secure ; his small force has suffered heavy losses, he has no cavalry and consequently cannot render his victories complete, the season of the year is deadly, and he is surrounded on all sides by hosts of enemies. A. reverse at Delhi now would be mcst disastrous ; the probability is that if such a thing happened (and we must look the worst in the face), the whole Bombay army would rise as well as the Nizam's Contingent. The consequence might be judged when you consider that we have now only six European infantry regi ments in the Presidency, and that they are scattered in small detachments all over the country; in no one instance is a regiment entire. Although I sincerely hope all this will not happen, I do not trust a single Bombay regiment should an opportunity occur for a successful rise. The people of the country, so far, are not entirely against us, except in some districts where special grievances have caused a bad feeling, such as the Inam commission at Sattara, the withholding of the Kolapore raj from its owner, the Nagpore annexa tion, &c. Large bodies of robbers and hill-men are, however, abroad, and two months hence, the time at which they usually commence their excursions, many more will he in the field. From the commencement of these disturbances, the Government have taken no measures to estab lish secret postal communications where the regular post was cut off, nor have spies been employed to give information, nor the scrutiny of native letters been sanctioned passing through tl e post. Our rulers seem to have been too busy hiding their heads in the sand, and endeavouring to persuade their countrymen to do the same, to organise any of these ordinary and simple precautions. You may not know at home that at this moment the mails between Bombay and Calcutta are carried over the most exe crable road it is possible to conceive ; wheeled carts cannot travel on it at this season, and on some por tions the rivers are almost impassable; the bags are carried on packhorses. The Home Government will doubtless be glad to hear of our having taken up the troops destined for China. The 90th and sth, I believe, have arrived at Calcutta. We have the 33rd at Bombay, from the Mauritius, as well as a company of Royal Artillery. India would have been in poor plight indeed with out these reinforcements. Aden is now left entirely destitute of European troops, and is by no means safe ;it should be garrisoned immediately. The wing of her Majesty's 80th Foot, from that place, have been sent down here. I have just seen a cap tain of a New York steamer, who reports that several vessels with troops for China were at the Cape when he touched there. I have not papers yet, so cannot give further particulars. They would doubtless be detained in the Straits and sent to Calcutta, the order for all troops to be sent to India not having at that time reached the Cape. Fifteen ships have just been chartered, and will sail immediately, to con vey horses from the Cape. They have contracted for three months. The horses are required for the dragoon regiments expected from England, and for the new horse artillery to be raised. Mr. Lumsden, our senior member of Council, pro ceeds home by the mail of to day. He has been a retired man here, but his wisdom in council is of high order, and he will be able to give some sound advice on the present state of matters to the Home Government; unfortunately he has not hardihood enough to press home his own views, and allows himself to be overruled. He retires from the service beloved by all who knew him. His place in council will be filled by Mr. Reeves, late Revenue Commis sioner for the southern districts. Yesterday, having been set aside as a day of humi liation, was generally observed; business was stopped, and all classes of the native community attend.. 3 their different places of worship to offer up prayera for the restoration of peals.