The Press. — London, England, 1857-10-10 00:00:00

nor will signally reward the whole of our gallant little de tachment of Sikhs, whose service and fidelity cannot be overrated. The jemudar should be at once made a suba dar. Many of the rest are fit for promotion, and when required I will submit a list with details. Another officer, writing from Mirzapore, Aug. 11, in reference to the Dinapora mutiny, observes : I do not think I exaggerate when I say that the north west provinces and a part of Bengal are lost. We shall want 60,000 men (Europeans) to reconquer it. It will be a startling thing for the English people to learn that the finest possession under the Crown is virtually out of their grasp. But let them consider, and they will admit that it is their own fault ; and when they remember that they have held a territory as large as Europe with sonic 24,0i0 men, at the same time maintaining an army 01 100,0ild natives, armed with the best weapons England could give. them, and disciplined by English officers, they will cease to wonder at what has happened, and marvel that it has not occurred before ; but I think I see in this revolution the beginning of the end. Before six months have passed over us the natives of India will have learnt that Ina a very small atom of the power of England has been dis played in India, and when this country is overrun with European troops they will find that the last days of their prejudices have begun. I do not suppose that the papers would agree with me as to our state out here, but the editors are not cn the spot ; they do not know everything that goes on, and everything which (to any one who observes) points out the way the stream runs ; they do not see the faces of the people—they do not see the faces of the Mussulmans, how they brighten when they hear of our reverses ; they do not see or hear the villagers when they refuse to pay their revenue proclaim the " Augreez Raj " to be at an end. They do not see or hear all this, but those who are in constant and daily commu nication with the natives, who pass them and hear their talk,—those persons know that what I say is true. have had myself four or five cases in which the prisoner has made public his opinion about our government being ended. If I had my way I would have hung those men, as they were our subjects and guilty cf treason. The dunk both going and coming is so very uncertain that this is the last day (11th of August) 1 can venture to keep this letter. I still think we shall have no attack on our position. After the Dinapore mutineers are gone we have but few native troops in this direction ; besides which it is about high time for the mutineers to be fighting among them. selves. All Behar is in insurrection. Is it not wonderful how the Sikhs are sticking to us? It has been the saving of us here. Indeed, if the Sikh regiment who held the fort of Allahabad when the 6th mutinied, and for three weeks after, had mutinied also, the whole of this part of India would have been in the hands of the rebels. I think they deserve anything that can be done for them. To he sure, they only do their duty, but where so many have failed those who " stand firm " shine out all the more brilliantly by contrast. A letter from Benares, dated August 20th and 21st, states that great excitement reigned there from the advance of the Segowlie and Dinapore mutineers. "Our preservation hitherto," says the writer, " has been marvellous :" Again and again we have appeared on the verge of destruction. We are only now beginning to know the perils through which we have passed. Some nights we lay down in seeming security, when our very houses wero told off for the assassin. Bet the fiendish men who were to massacre us " could not find their hands." The Pro• vidence of God saved us front their violence. A writer from Simla expresses the general feeling of surprise and regret at the news brought from England by the 10th July mail : This English day's mail strikes every English heart with dismay, for we find that, instead of apprehending the magnitude of our deep peril, the lords and Ministers are disgracefully squabbling, and are, indeed, blaming Lord Calming for the one hopeful act of his administration. Massacres, not on!) of men but women and children, are desolating every station in succession—misery, ruin, mid death have fallen all around, anl we only wait our• selves fur the same portion. And we read that the English public debate about sending reinforcements, and send them out the longest way ! If the next mail do not bring tidings that they are sent in very large numbers, every family that has relatives in India may prepare themselves with trimming, for nothing but the preserving hand of an Almighty Father and the fear of future retribution restrains the destroying knife from our throats. We are perfectly aware that here, as in other places, at the slightest signal of defeat we should be sacrificed. I cannot enumerate the many terrible examples already given of this truth. In our small neighbourhood alone almost every house counts a relative or countryman among its members numbered with the dead. They have fallen either by the knife of the assassin, the bullet of the mutineer, the round shots Of Delhi, or the cholera. This last is now in the camp as well as 'in the country. There never was such universal mourning, or such a call for earnest and con• filmed prayer. _ _ THE PRESS, OCTOBER 10, 1857. The only enemy we look out for is the large army at Gwalior, consisting of the Uwalior Contingent and several other regiments. They have hitherto remained quiet, thanks to the mysterious influence of the Maharajah, or else to their own pusillanimity. Scindia deserves much praise fur controlling such a body of rebels. But we fear they may at last take the high hand, and go either to Delhi or Agra. The latter would be strategically wrong, when our forces at Cawnpore are daily increasing, and a Bombay force is at Mhow, in the south of Scindia's territories. The Gwolior Contingent has a siege -train, but only six IS-pounders anti four or six mortars : surely they will not bring that against Agra. Had they only joined the Neeinuch mutineers, and strictly blockaded us, our miseries, deserted as we were by every native servant, would have been such as to satisfy amply their hunger for our lives. Many persons believe that several of our country men and women, returned as deal, are yet living concealed in different villages. The following extract of a letter receive , ' from Captain Kirby, of the Bengal Artillery, dated Nynee Tal, August 4, would seem to give strength to this belief : I have just beard thz , astonishing news that a letter has been received by Colonel Troup, With 11,..)giment, from Lieutenant Uewan, Adjutant Ithli Native Infantry (supposed to have been killed), wiling us of his being in safety in a village near Bareilly, protected by the zemindar of the village, a ; and that several other officers, &e. ,names unknown, were kept in neigh. bouring villages. AGRA. A letter from Agra, Aug. 12, does not give a sati- factory account of the position of the 4 ; 100 refugees at that date. "We weary for reinforcements," says the writer, ' 4 but cannot expect any till let September, I fear " : The defences of the fort here are being strengthened in every possible way, and we do not fear any foe, except the lvemrs inseparable front a siege, when 4,300 non c,onhatants crow,' every uuuk and corner. URA preserve us from such misery SIR J. PAKINGTON ON INDIA. Sia J. PAKINGTON, who was present at the Worcester Agricultural Association on the :Ind inst., in the course of his address upon that occasion made the following remarks upon India : He confessed that he felt very anxious that England should speak out in this crisis of its history. They could not at this moment commit a greater folly than to shut their eyes to the magnitude of the crisis. He thought that the greatest faith that the Government had committed —and here he spoke of the Government of India rather than of her Majesty's Ministers in this country—had been in underrating the magnitude of the rebellion, and in speak ing of it as only a military mutiny, and a passing outbreak which would spi•edily be subdued. ( Hear, heat). They might depend on it this was not a mere passing military mutiny. He believed that instead of its being a mere military mutiny, it was a deeplyorganised, long matured, conspiracy, with the object of exterminating the English in India. ( Hear, hear.) In this aspect they ought to view it; and in viewing it in this aspect was our greatest safety. His advice to the country was: don't let us underrate the danger, but let us meet it in the spirit of Englishmen determined to subdue it. (Cheers.) He wished to be clear from any misunderstanding as to the opinion which he entertained on this subject. Let it not be supposed that in using this language lie felt anything like an ap proach to despondency or despair. On the contrary, he could say with sincerity that the view which he took of the state of uffairs—gloomy and anxious as he admitted it to be—was a sanguine feeling of ultimate success. There was one fact which they would all have observed in connection with this rebellion. He thought it was clear to demonstration that the relative superiority, man to man, of the European over the Hindoo was now as great as it was when the great Clive won the battle of Plessy. It was ex• traordinnry that it should be so when they considered that the soldiers whom the Europeans had now to contend with were the soldiers whom they had trained up themselves. But it was the fact that the superiority of the European over the Hindoo was as great now as it ever was; and when the reinforcements from England should have landed in India, and marched to the assistance of our 1 army there, he sanguinely hoped that the authority of the Queen of England would soon be re-established. (Cheers.) There was another fact on which he grounded a strong hope, and he formed it on a private letter received a few days since from the Governor of Ceylon, who said we had great reason to be thankful that the matter was not worse than it is. The Governor of Ceylon wrote that we in England had hardly yet a full conception of the danger which we had escaped, for that India had been saved by the premature outbreak at Meerut. In another fortnight, had not that outbreak taken plaice, there would have been a simultaneous massacre of all the Europeans in India. And his correspondent used this remarkable expression, that " he verily believed there would not have been a European left to tell the tale." We had been saved that danger by the premature outbreak at Meerut. This, then, he would say, wes the time for Englishmen to prove their loyalty, and at all events to support the Throne ; and this done, he believed the triumphant result would be to re establish our dominion in India. With regard to the atrocities of the sepoys, justice must be vin Heated, crime must be punished, the power of England must be asserted, and the horrible deeds committed must be treated as they deserved. Englishmen demanded this; but he would say let it be done in no vindictive spirit. Let justice be tem pered with mercy. It might be perhaps not an acceptable sentiment to them, but it was a sentiment deep in his heart, and when they came to deal with the matter after the victory had been gained, let them bear in mind that our own hands were not clean. (Hear, hear.) India had not been governed as it ought to have been. ( Hear, hear.) It was only yesterday that be had submitted to the astonished eyes of a large party in a country house official proof that in collecting the revenues of India there had been practised in the name of England—he would not say by the authority, but he feared not without the knowledge of linglishtuen—there had been practised tortures little less 985 horrible than those which we now deplored. This must be borne in mind iu the day of reckonitrz ; and in dealing with this question let them bear in mind these two great cardinal objects—first, t.iat as a great nation we must re establish the authority of the Sovereign in India; and secondly, that when that authority is re established India must be better governed. (Hear, hear.) We must take care that our past errors are corrected, and our great mission so fulfilled that we may not only reap the benefit in the government of that great empire, but so do it as to promote the happiness, the welfare, and the ultimate civilisation of that vast portion of the human race intrusted to our care. ( Loud cheers.) WHO CAUSED TIIE REVOLT? TO TIIE EDITOR OP " TILE PRESS." Sir,—The Whigs are unfortunate, but they aro never wrong ;theref.lre, although the Indian mutiny is part of their ill.luek, they ate utterly blameless, and not only exhibited the greatest possible sagacity in foreseeing it, but adv:ed the most vigorous measures for its prevention. To prove this is, how ever, somewhat difficult ; so, amongst other sohemes they have had recourse to in order to convince the sceptics, they lay the blame on the missionaries—an hypothesis which politicians in general, of what• ever party, have, in order to save the credit of their craft, supported. On the other hand, the evangelical party of all denominations have not been slow to vindicate the missionaries, asserting, not only that they have all along acted from the best of motives, but, what is somewhat more problematical, that they have acted with consummate prudence. I will attempt to do justice betwixt the parties. I am no to be drawn into any ethical dis cussion. 1 will not inquire into the justice of the various annexations, repudiations, and subsidiary treaties ; neither will I argue the case as to whether the missionary is bound, in season and out of season, to attempt to convert the heathen. All I mean to determine is, the specific share the Government on the one hand, and the missionaries on the other, have had in creating the discontent which has led to the revolt. Such being try assign, it follows that I must look to the different questions involved from an Indian and not from an English point of view ; for it is the discontent of the Indians, not of the English, which I propose to inquire into. John Company has his backers, who are ready to prove that he has acted on the strictest principles of international justice, and that he now governs on the purest and most humane system of administra tion. But to prove all this needs an elaborate trea tise extending to the length of Alison's " Europe ;" and meantime the question is, bow do the natives, who cart not and will not engage in this lengthened inquiry, and who, like all natives, draw simple infe rences from what they see, regard John Company? No,v, the great patent fact of the conquest of India stares them in the face, and, without overworking their brains, they jump at once to a conclusion ; for, judging of others by themselves just as we do, and being conscious of very strong robber instincts, they see in the conquest of India what would be the per fect satisfaction of their desires, and naturally con clude that this conquest has been effected under the in tluence of similar instincts on our part. What other opi nion can Mahrattas and Rohillas, Sikhs and Pindarries, come to? The little they know of their own history corroborates such a conclusion, and the great deal they know of their own ,passions and desires seems to them to make it certain. With respect to our administration, again, they see our collectors wring from the relue,tant ryot by torture his scanty wealth ; they think torture the most natural means of col lecting taxes, and so long as they are not tortured themselves see little harm in it, but they do not think it shows any extraordinary clemency on our part. If they take the pains of inquiring still more minutely into our policy, they find us meddling with the law of succession, trampling under foot the sanc• tities of prescription, cancelling pensions which we had promised to pay, and annexing Oude, which we had promised to respect; and, totally unaccustomed to nice distinctions, being, in fact, poor "ignorant niggers," they naturally conclude we are actuated by the same rapacious motives which would impel them to similar proceedings, and they are lost in admira tion, not of our superior virtue, but of our superior proficiency in the science of extortion. Now, it is an axiom that a robber nation is very impatient of its own maxims and practice being tried against itself; and since the inhabitants of Hindostan think themselves in this position relative to John Company, it is plain, as a matter of fact, John Company, that is to say the Whigs, who for half a century have managed his affairs, are re sponsible for a considerable share of the discontent in India which has produced the revolt. Let us now inquire how the missionaries stand, applying to them the same principles of reasoning, or, in other words, looking at their proceedings through an Indian pair of spectacles. I find from the Edinburgh Evening Post and Scottish Record, the organ cf the Presbyterian Community of Scotland, that— Seven years back the missionary conference of Madras, made up not alone of Church of Scotland miesionarrea but