The Press. — London, England, 1857-09-12 00:00:00

presidency is almost ludicrous. Before the mutiny wo had only four regiments of infantry and one of cavalry, or rather half a regiment of cavalry ; and now that we have sent one to Bengal, we have only three, and these hundreds of miles apart. The conclusion of this letter is not of much impor tance, though it shows the opinion in India that the mutiny arose from gross neglect, and that the Home Government bad ample notice of it. The writer is in error a s to Lord Dalhousie's views. Besides, the blame of annexation does not lay only at the indi vidual door of Mr. Vernon Smith ; it lays at the door of the collective Cabinet which supported the policy of unscrupulous annexation : If Government at home do not call the Board of Control to account, you deserve that we should every one of us be cut to pieces, and that India should pass from you. The Government at home accepted what I may call half of Lord Dalhousie's policy; they accepted his annexation of Oude without the troops. The European troops he declared to be necessary to hold it; and, more than this, they took away four of the already inadequate number of regiments, and they left Government here without the means of keeping one regiment at Nagpore—a newly-annexed ter ritory. It has been held—no thanks to them—by our Madras troops. For this folly—for this flagrant military and political blunder—surely you will call them to account. Is Mr. Vernon Smith the man to whom to intrust India ? At his door the mischief lies. Everybody in authority here, from Lord Dalhousie downwards, can prove that. He was warned of the consequences. The whole Govern ment has to be reconstructed ; its whole machinery is destroyed. The destruction of property, private and public, is complete; and, for the future, the Government of India carried on not on the rose•water principle. But ah, me! who will give us back our dead ? who will wipe out this terrible disaster ? In the stillness of the night we fancy we hear the innocent blood, spilt on the ground like water, cryint; net, " How long! how long, oh Lord!" Many a delicate woman, flying to the jungle w►th her little one, trusting rather to the tiger, who could but kill, must have thought, in her agony, of the words of our Lord—l read them this day—•` Blessed (just now) are the barren and the wombs that never bare, and the paps that never gave suck." THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 12, 1857. Department. Having been dismissed from his office by Major Sleeman on account of his dishonesty and general bad character, this seed of the Wicked One came to Capt. Skene, fell at his feet, and, weeping bitterly, protested his innocence, swearing at the same time that he and his family had not eaten bread for several days. As his half. starved, miserable looks bore witness in some degree to his statement, Capt. Skene, whose kind and benevolent heart, now before Allah, was known to every one, took compas• sion on him, and be appointed him darogha (gaoler). Will you, can you, believe that at the above critical june. tare this monster liberated all the prisoners in his custody, furnished them with offensive and defensive weapons, placed himself at their head, forced his way into the fort, and there massacred every European. For his kind bens• factor, Capt. Skene, he reserved unutterable agony, not giving him the fatal stroke until lie hail first butchered before his eyes his wife and two lovely boys, his sons—one four, the other five years old. After this, having plundered or destroyed whatever property he could find, he and his accursed crew fled towards Delhi. A terrible narrative is given by one writer of the escape from Nowgong. The party consisted of seventy-nine men, part of them some faithful sepoys, and some forty women and children. The heat of the sun was terrible ; some of the men lost th eir senses, others fell dead from apoplexy; the women sunk from exhaustion. Everywhere the party was menaced or attacked by the villagers—nowhere was a helping hand held out to them. One day they adopted a curious ruse to get safely through a town : At noon the sergeant•major died before me in the most awful way of apoplexy ; he fell as if struck, rose and fell, and staggered. The major ere I reached had died of the sun too. I had lost sight of some of my party. I went slowly, and did all I could for them, but I was obliged, the country being so hostile, to join the main body, and save those on my horses. The sepoys were very glad to see me; they feared I had been murdered, as Malwa; Ewart had said I had entered it with him, and that we had been fired at there, and that I had not come away. He went in alone, when I was miles behind him. His imagination was for a long time quite destroyed. For the remainder of the day we moved on as a party of officers escorted by rebel sepoys to be killed at Banda by a Nawab. The ruse took, and we were allowed to pass. We entered and passed through a large city. Then were fed by it. I heard our men say, " They are great people, the Sahibs; we must treat them as such, and entertain them ere killing them." The citymen assented. We had an opportunity tew have of knowing natives; hundreds surrounded us as we sat on the ground and ate chupattees and native sweetmeats. Not one said an uncivil word. Some said our rule had been very just; some expressed sorrow; some, it struck me, did their utmost to gets few of us killed for the amusement of the city. At length all cleared off, it being dark. At length, after suffering incredible hardships and privations, and miraculously escaping murder on many occasions, the remnant of the party of refugees, thinned by constant deaths, reached Chattepore in safety. JHANSI AND NOWGONG. It appears that the first report of Captain Skene having at the last moment of defence of the fort at this place first shot his wife and then himself, is incorrect. An officer, writing from Agra, gives the following version of the affair : I The fort gates were barricaded inside with stones, and the garrison Christians only, with some native servants, (tainted their enemies, who began the attack on the 6th. One man said the garrison gave in on the Bth ; another says the 11th was the day. The latter authority was inside the fort during the defence. Burgess, he said, killed fourteen men. Poor Powys shot a man who tried to open one of the gates, and was killed with sword cuts in return. Burgess killed his murderers. Both tales agree on this point, and also that Captain Gordon was hit in the head when looking over the wall parapet. He died of it. Some of the writers tried to escape in native clothes, letting themselves down by ropes, but they were caught and killed. At last Major Skene and the rest were deceived by assurances that their lives would be spared if they sur• rendered, and they opened the gate, the Hindoos and Mahornedans having both sworn to them. Two attempts to said word to Nagode and to Gwalior for help had failed, end so, taking the hand of some man or other, Major Skene marched out first; they were taken to a garden, tied to two ropes in two rows, men and women separate—Burgess's servant says the men alone were tied — and then every soul, whatever the age, rank, or sex, was killed by the sword. The men died first, Burgess taking the lead, his elbows tied behind his back, and a Prayer book in his hands. What a sad end for so kindhearted and unselfish a man. But to (lie confessing the faith is a noble death. The rest died in the same way. They tried hard to get the women and children saved. Our quartermaster sergeant and his family alone were spared ; the servant says he was taken with the rebels when they left. This man said the women stood with their babes in their arms, and the older children holding their gowns. They had to see the men killed, but I believe they were spared any violence save death. Dear little Mrs. Powys—l think of her with such a pang. Poor Dunlop, too, the first friend I made in India, and Turnbull, so warmhearted and anxious to do good and to benefit others. Poor little Taylor! he had been with Ins brother, and had made great haste to rejoin on the mutinies breaking out at other stations. lie reached .11iansi a few days before he died. A native collector also gives us the following further details of this horrible instance of treachery and murder : Alas! how sorry am T that in my old age, when my strength is broken, I am to be the messenger of evil tidings, and recount what has befallen my best of bene factors and your kind friend and patron, Capt. Alexander Skene, superintendent. He, wits, Capt. Gordon, of the 10th Regiment, deputy commissioner of Jaloon, together with the keeranees (Christian clerks), took refuge in the fort, where they were besieged by the refractory troops, but, although they fought like the heroes Roostum and Isfund.- year, they were, after a most desperate conflict, over powered. But the worst is yet to be narrated. One Bukhshis Allie, a wretch born without a sense of shame, and to be accursed of God, was employed under Major tjleeman as a mohurrir (Persian writer) in the Thuggee PESHAWUR. Lieutenant. Colonel Edwardes, C. 8., writing from June 21 to July 0, expresses opinions upon our posi tion which are worthy of attention. One thing is remarkable. He appears to place unbounded re liance upon the native troops of a district which hitherto has always proved " an incessant anxiety." Is it only the stimulus of plunder which has so sud denly changed refractory chiefs and a dangerous people into the most faithful of allies ? As yet we have made no impression on Delhi. Gene. ral Reed's, or rather General Barnard's, force was too weak to besiege Delhi, and has had to stop and wait for reinforcements just as General Whish had at 1110016 in. The rebel. far exceed him in numbers and in guns. The numbers are of little consequence, for disorganised frag ments of rebel regiments never can contend successfully with the serried battalions of a well-appointed army led by English officers; but it is a serious matter to have 150 pieces of artillery (taken nut of our own magazine) playing upon our camp. Engagements take place every two or three days, and we are easily victorious in the open field. The enemy loses hundreds in every skirmish, and the heaps of dead are replundered by our soldiers of all the plunder they had secreted round their waists. We lose very few men or officers; but we don't get into Delhi, and the delay damages our reputation and en courages the belief, artfully disseminated by the Brah mins and Moollabs, that " all prophecies agree that the English rule is now to end!" So the deluded people rise here and there, and add to the anarchy and confusion. We trust that 20,000 soldiers are now embarking from England, but they cannot reach till September, and you may judge what has to be endured and done during the intervening months. There never was anything a hundredth part so serious in India before. This post, so far from being more arduous in intim. will be more secure. Events here have taken a wonderful turn. During peace Peshawur was an incessant anxiety. Now it is the strongest point in India. We have struck two great blows—we have disarmed our _ own troops, and raised levies of all the people of the coun try. The troops are confounded ; they calculated on being backed by the people. The people are delighted, and a better feeling has sprung up between them and us in this enlistment than has ever been obtained before. I SB7 have also called on my old country, the Deragat, and it is quite delightful to see how the call is answered. Two thousand horsemen, formerly in my army at Mooltan, are now moving on different points, according to order, to help us in this difficulty, and every post brings me remonstrances from chiefs as to why they have been forgotten. What fault have they committed that they are not aent for? This is really gratifying. It is the heart of a people. It does one good all through. The l'eshawurees had often heard that had been grateful in setting rewards for my followers after the Mooltan war; but they were not prepared to see such a demonstration from the other end of the Soolimanee Moun tains. It excites their better feelings, and will do them good to. All yesterday I was busy in fitting out 700 horse and foot levies (Mooltanee ) to reinforce Nicholson at Jullundur. How all the liberality shown to these Moo'. taneesafter the war of 1418-9 is now repaid, in the alacrity with which they rush to our side again to help us ! They are now invaluable, and so glad to see me again ; it is quite a pleasure in the midst of this howling wilderness. That our great safety rests upon the incapacity of the rebels to take advantage of the situation, there can be little doubt. " Indeed," writes the ltev. II . S. Polehampton from Lucknow, May 12, If there were anything like union among the natives and a clever man at their head, all that we could do pro bably would not prevent our all being cut off to a man, and the English would have to reconquer the country. Things throughout India never looked so serious. It may all come to an end soon, and the country be more tranquil than ever, or we may all be murdered in a week. I think it will be the former. Whatever happens cannot be without the will of God, and " heaven," as the old sailor said, "is as near us here as at home." To show yon how serious people in authority think the state of affairs, the other day, after the mutiny in the 7th Irregulars had been put down, I said laughingly to Sir Henry Lawrence, " Why, Sir Henry, you may have some work cut out for you now before you go home." He said, very gravely, " I can assure you it is no laughing matter." I heard Colonel Inglis say the same thing to a man who was inclined to be too jocular yesterday. BENARES. A corporal of the 10th, writing home, gives a vivid description of the fight at Ben ares We left Dinapore on the 22nd of May by steam, and arived on the 31st. Everything remained quiet until the afternoon of the 4th of June, when word was brought that the sepoys were going to give us a clipping that night. We were ordered to load, and shortly after we fell in on our parade ground with the artillery and thirty men of the Ist b'usiliers, who were the covering party for the guns. We marched down the 37th Native Infantry lines. The moment they got us about fifty yards to their lines they opened fire upon us, killing four of my company and wounding ten; but they suffered for it, for never did a body of men in the British army fire so quick and with such precision ' • we were well app'anded by every officer on the ground. The Sikh regiment turned on the artillery ; but you never saw such a sight in your life—they were mowed down, and got several rounds of grapeshot into them when out of our range. Well, the next job was the cavalry ; but they killed their officer, Major liaise, before we gut any chance of touching them, which we did in gallant style. I'll just tell you the number of European fighting men on that evening—merely '2OO, fighting against 1,300 sepoys, and that accounts for their showing such courage in murdering women and children. The affair with the sepoys lasted from half.past four to half-past seven o'clock p.m., but we got no rest that night. I was nearly catching it myself after escaping on the plain. I went on to the main guard belonging to the 37th Native Infantry. We brought out all the killed and wounded sepoys of the guard and threw them on the plain. We thought everything was quiet in the guard-room, but one of my sentries cried out that there was a sepoy under one of the cots. I went to where the cot was, turned it over, and saw a 37th sepoy lying there. 1 asked him who he was in his own language, " Toom Koon, hi sepoy," says he; I then says, " Koonpul tan, what regiment ?" and he said, " Burrel ka pultan," at the same time cocking his piece, but I was not to be got easy, so I gave the contents of my piece to him, and he died almost instantly, heaping curses on the Hoorah sol• diers in the country. Well, the next affair we had was on the 6th of July with a body of the mutineers encamoed about five miles from our intrenchments. You must know that Benares is a holy city, one that never was be sieged. We were the first who ever fired a shot in Benares in anger. Well, a body of us went out with two guns and gave them another beating. We set fire to the village and took forty prisoners, whom we tied together, and a company was ordered up to them, who shot and bayoneted every one of them. The corporal writes in good spirits, but the work be says is hard:— The duty is very hard ; - the men get two nights in bed, but the non-commissioned officers don't get one. You come off day guard, and you are named for night guard. With sixty rounds on your back and a loaded musket in the hot season is not very pleasant, I can assure you. The following letter, upon the authority of the Edinburgh Daily Express, is from a medical gentle , man, a native of Edinburgh, attached to General , Havelock's division : Camp, Futtypore, July 13, 18:57. We are going on with a large force of Europeans and Royal Artillery, and the vagabonds are flying before us. Yesterday, immediately after we encamped, three regiments of infantry and two of cavalry, formerly our own, with s body of artillery, attacked us. Our artillery opened upon them with the guns beautifully pointed, and away the whole force scuttled, leaving us in possession of oven guns, one