The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-02-23 00:00:00

THE LUCKNOW FUGITIVES.

In anticipation of the arrival of the Europeans who
were so long pent up in Lucknow, the following notifica-
tion was published in a Calcutta Gazette Extraor-
dinary
Fort William, Home Department, Jan. 6.
" Notification,

" Within the next few days the river steamer Madras,
conveying the first of the ladies and children and of the
sick and wounded °Moors of the Lucknow garrison, will
reach Calcutta.

" No one will wish to obtrude upon those who are
under bereavement or sickness any show of ceremony
which shall impose fatigue or pain. The best welcome
which can be tendered upon such an occasion is one
which shall break in as little as possible upon privacy
and rest.

" But the rescue of these sufferers is ivictory beyond
all price, and in testimony of the public joy with which
it is bailed, and of the admiration with which their
heroic endurance and courage have been viewed. the
Right Hon. the Governor-General in Council directs
that upon the approach of the Madras to Prinsep's
Ghent a Royal salute shall be fired from the ramparts of
Fort William.

_
" The Governor-General in Council further directs
that all ships of war in the river shall be dressed in
honour of the day.
"Officers will be appointed to oonduct the passengers
on shore, and the state barges of the Governor-General
will be in attendance.

" As soon as the telegraph shall announce that the
Madras has passed Atcheepore two signal guns will be
sired from the fort.

"By;T4,7,lthe Right Hon. the Governor-General
of India in Council.
"CECIL BEADON, Secretary to the Government
of India."

The Lucblow fugiti;es-;;;;rdingly landed from the
Madras steamer on the morning of Saturday, January
9, under a Royal salute, and amid the cheering of some
hundreds of the European community of Calcutta.

THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW.

The following despatch from General Havelock, ad-
dressed to the Adjutant-General of the Commander-in-
Chief fully describes this memorable event :
" Residency, Lucknow, Sept. 30, 1857.
"Sir,—Major-General Sir James Outram, having,
with characteristic generosity of feeling, declared that
the command of the force should remain in my hands,
and that he would accompany it as civil commissioner
only, until a junction could be effected with the gallant
and enduring garrison of this place, I have to request
that you will inform his Excellency the Commander-in-
Chief that this purpose was effected on the evening of
the 25th inst. But before detailing the circumstances,
I must refer to antecedent events. I crossed the Sye
on the 22nd inst., the bridge of Bunnee not having been
broken. On the 23rd I found myself in presence of the
enemy, who had taken a strong position, his left resting
on the enclosure of the Alumbagh, and his centre and
right drawn up behind • chain of hillocks. The head of
my column at first suffered from the fire of his guns, as
it was compelled to pass along the trunk road between
morasses; but IA soon as my regiments could be de-
ployed along his front and his right enveloped by my
left, victory declared for us, and we captured five guns.
Sir James Ontram, with his accustomed gallantry,
passed on in advance, close down to the canal. But as
the enemy fed his artillery with guns from the city, it
was not possible to maintain this, or • less advanced
position for a time taken up; but it became necessary to
throw our right on the Alumbagh, and refuse our left,
and even then we were incessantly cannonaded through
out the 24th ; and the enemy's cavalry, 1,500 strong,
crept round through lofty cultivation, and made a sud-
den irruption upon the baggage massed in our rear.
The soldiers of the 90th forming the baggage guard re-
ceived them with great gallantry, but lost some brave
officers and men, shooting down, however, 25 of the
troopers, and putting the whole body to flight. They
were finally driven to • distance by two guns of Capt.
Olpherts' battery.
" The troops had been marching for three days under
a perfect deluge of rain, irregularly fed, and badly
housed in villages. It was thought necessary to pitch
tents, and to perpit them to halt on the 24th. The as-
sault on the city was deferred until the 25th. That
morning our biiggage and tents were deposited in the
Alumbagh under an escort, and we advanced. The Ist
brigade, under Sir James Outram's personal leading,
drove the enemy from • succession of gardens and
walled enclosures, supported by the 2nd brigade, which
I accompanied. Both brigades were established on the
canal of the bridge of Charbagh.
"From this point the direct road to the Residency
was something less than two miles; but it was known
to have been cut by trenches, and crossed by palisades
at short intervals, the houses also being all loopholes!.
Progress in this direction was impossible; so the united
column pushed on, detouring along the narrow road
which skirts the left bank of the canal. Ito advance
was not seriously interrupted until it had come opposite
the King's Palace or the Rimier Bagh, where two guns
and a body of mercenery troops were intrenobed. From
this intrenchment • fire of grape and musketry was
opened, under which nothing could live. The artillery
and troops had to pass a bridge partially under its in-
fluence ; but were then shrouded by the buildings adja-
cent to the palace of Pureed Buksh. Darkness was
coming on, and Sir James Outram at first proposed to
halt within the courts of the Mehal for the night ; but
I esteemed it to be of such importance to let the be-
leaguered garrison know that succour was at hand, that
with his ultimate sanction I directed the main body of
the 78th Highlanders and Regiment of Ferozepore to
advance. This column rushed on with desperate sal-
lanky, led by Sir James Outram and myself, and Lieu-
tenants Hudson and Hargood, of my staff, through
streets of fiat-roofed loopholed houses, from which •
perpetual fire was kept up, and overcoming every ob-
stacle established itself within the enclosure of the Resi-
dency. The joy of the garrison may be more easily con-
ceived than described ; but it was not till the next
evening that the whole of my troops, guns, tumbrils,
and sick and wounded, continually exposed to the attacks
of the enemy, could be brought step by step within this
enceinte and the adjacent palace of the Pureed Buksh.
To form an adequate idea of the obstacles overcome
reference must be made to the events that are known to
have occurred at Buenos Ayres and Saragossa. Our
advance was through streets of houses such its I have
described, and thus each forming a separate fortress. I
sin filled with surprise at the success of the operation,
which demanded the efforts of 10,000 good troops. The
advantage gained has cost us dear. The killed,
wounded, and missing, the latter being wounded
soldiers, who I much fear—some or all •- have fallen
into the hands of a merciless foe, amounted, up to the
evening of the 26th, to 535 officers and men. Brigaxlier
General Neill, commanding Ist Brigade; Major Cooper,
Brigadier, commanding artillery; Lieutenant-Colonel
Basely, a volunteer with the force—are killed. Colonel
Campbell, commanding Kith Lightllntantry ; Lieutenant-
Colonel Tytler, my Deputy-Assistant Quartermaster-
General; and Lieutenant Havelock, my Deputy-Anis-
tent Adjutant-General, are severely, but not danger-
ously wounded. Sir James Outram received a flesh
wound in the arm in the early part of the action near
Charbagh, but nothing could subdue his spirit; and,
though faint from loss of blood, he continued to the end
of the action to sit on his horse, which be only dis-
mounted at the gate of the Residency. As he has now
assumed the comivand, I leave to hem the narrative of
all events subsequent to the 26th.

I have, &a,
"H. HAVELOCK, Brigadier• General,
" Commanding Oxide Field Force."
The total of casualties appended to the despatch is
119 offioers and men killed, '3:39 officers and men
wounded, 77 men 'visaing.

An Indian newspaper has the following with reference
to the serjeantmajor who joined the Delhi rebels. It
seems too horrible to be true :—" We have often won-
dered how the rancorous mutineers brought themselves
to trust among them a European—Sergeant-Major Gor-
don, of the late 28th N.I. But what has now been learnt
by visitors to Delhi explains the mystery. The price of
his infernal apostasy was not simply abjuring Christianity
spurning the true religion, contemning his God, and
embracing the false faith of Mahouset ; but in heavy
addition, the perpetration of a damnable, diabolical

crime, the cool and deliberate murder, before the eyes
of the gloating savages, of his poor wife and children,
by his own bloody hands."
Tug CALCUTTA PETITION.—The famous petition of
the inhabitants of Calcutta for the recall of Viscount
Canning has been printed at length by order of the
House of Commons, with marginal notes indicating the
chief errors of fact put forth in it. The Governor-
General abstains from comment upon the opinions and
deductions expressed in the petition.
PRECIDENTS OF LEGISLATION FOR INDIA.—The Act
of 1784 not only established the Board of Control, but
also the Secret Committee of Directors, which was re-
quired to transmit to India, without disclosing to their
colleagues, such instructions as the Board of Commis-
sioners thought it necessary to keep secret. The Act of
1793, which renewed the Company's charter for 20
years, further enforced Mr. Pitt's Act by requiring that
all despatches transmitted by the directors should be
considered and approved by the Board of Control under
the signature and seal of the secretary. The next step
taken was at the next renewal of the Company's charter
in 1813. The trade monopoly of the Company, as far
as India was concerned, was then abolished; and only
the monopoly of the China trade left them; so that more
and mote the natural and only legitimate ground for
independence—the trade by virtue of which alone they
had become a corporate body at all—wag undermined,
and they were left with privileges which they exercised,
and were intended to exercise, simply as temporary
trustees for the Crown. In 1833, again, this process
was completed by the extinction of the monopoly in the
China trade and the substitution of a guaranteed divi-
dend of 10 per cent. to the shareholders of the Com-
pany, redeemable by the payment of £2OO for every £lOO
stock in lieu of their claims. And, lastly, the Act of
1853 expressly provided for the direct nomination by the
Government of six directors of the Company, and for
the reduction of the remaining number of directors to
12, while the charter of the Company was renewed for
no definite term, but simply "until Parliament shall
otherwise provide." All these changes point in one
direction. At every fresh step new limitations to the
independent responsibility of the Company have been
introduced; and now Lord Pahnerston's Bill proposes
to complete this series of changes by provisions which
will really introduce far lean novelty of principle than
Mr. Pitt's Bill of 1784, though they will have the con-
spicuous merit of fastening final responsibility distinctly
and definitely on one head alone. . .

EABS INDIA Huoss.—A special general Court of
the East India Company was held on Wednesday at
their house in Leadenhall Street, Loudon, when the
following resolutions were agreed to. "That the thanks
of this Court be given to the Right Hon. Viscount Can-
ning, Governor-General of the British possessions in the
East Indies; the Right Hon. Lord Harris, Governor of
the Presidency of Madras; the Right Hon. Lord Elphin-
stone, Governor of the Presidency of Bombay; Mr.
Halliday, Leiutenaut-Governor of Bengal; Sir John
Laird Mak Lawrence, G. C. 8., Chief Commissioner of
the Punjab; and Henry Bartle Edwazd Frere, Esq.,
Commissioner of Soinde, for the enemy and ability with
which they have employed the resources at their com-
mand to suppress the widelyspread mutiny in Her
Majesty's Indian dominions. That the thanks of this
Court be given to His Excellency General Sir Colin
Campbell, G. C. 8., Commander-in-Chief in India;
Major-General Sir James Outram, G. C. B. ; Major.
General Sir Archdale Wilson, Bart., K. C. B. ; and
Major-General Sir John Eardley Wilmot Inglis, K. C. B.
for the eminent skill, courage, and perseverance dis-
played by them in the achievement of so many and
such important triumphs over numerous bodies of the
mutineers. That this Court doth highly approve and
acknowledge the high courage, the devoted loyalty, and
the brilliant services of the non-commissioned officers
and men of her Majesty's military and naval forces ; of
the European troops in the service of the Hon. East
India Company ; and of the great body of those native
corps throughout India who have remained faithful to
their standards ; and that the same be signified to them
by the Commanders of the several corps who are desired
to thank them for their gallant behaviour. That this
Court cloth highly appreciate and cordially approve the
courage, self-devotion, and exemplary conduct of those
persons who, though not holding military rank, have
nevertheless performed valuable military service in the
field orin defenoe of various poststhroughout the disturbed
districts in India at which they were resident ; and that
the Governor-General be requested to thank these per-
sona for their spirited and patriotic exertions."