The Press.
London, England, 1853-09-03 00:00:00

Sir Charles and his handful of men immediately set
to work, mined the whole place, blew it up, and re
turned across the desert without having lost a ship)
man. The Duke of Wellington alluded to this sin-
gular exploit in his speech in the House of Lords as
being "one of the most curious military feats which I
have ever known to be performed, or have ever
perused an account of in my life."
Sir Charles now turned his attention to Meanee
and the army of Beloochees, organised by the Ameers.
Ile had hoped that with his 2,600 men he could at-
tack and defeat a body of 16,000 Beloochees before the
other divisions came up. In that he was disap-
pointed, for the night before the attack an army of
20,000 Beloochees arrived, and Sir Charles found his
1,800 infantry and 800 cavalry drawn up opposite a
host of 25,000 infantry and 10,000 irregular horse-
men. Yet he did not change his plan, although the
Beloochees were strongly posted in the bed and on
the bank of a dried-up nver. l'erceiving that he
could not turn the flank of the foe, the general gave
the daring order for an attack in front. The details
of the battle which followed are too well known to
require recapitulation. It was fought on the 17th
of February, 1843, and won by less than 2,000 men
against more than 30,000. The result was, that, of
the British forces, twenty officers went down, six
killed, with two hundred and fifty sergeants and pri-
vates, of whom sixty were slain outright. The loss
of the Beloochees was enormous. A careful compu-
tion gave 6,000. In four hours two thousand men
struck down six thousand—three to each man.
Six of the Ameers at once surrendered, yielded the
fortress of Hydrabiel, and offered their rich swords
and arms to the general, who would not accept them.
In a few days the army took possession of Hydmbad,
the Aniv..rs, who had none of them shown them-
selves in the field, being left unmolested in their
palaces. Still, however, Seintle was not won. Shere
Mahomed, one of the most powerful, and, to do him
justice,most manly, of the Ameers, was collecting a
sew army, and menacing a now war.
Sir Charles then determined on the step which
excited r,o much controversy—the dethronement of
the captive Ameere—and afterwards attacked Shere
Mahomed at Hydrahad, when another glorious
victory was won against enormous odds, and the
power of the Ameers effectually broken. Seventeen
standards and fifteen guns were the trophies of the
fight. Mahomed returned to the desert, and a few
days after the battle the general was in the palace
of the Ameers, and limiter of Seititle; having in
sixte:nt days, with 5,00() men, defeated more titan
25,000 in little. captured two great fortresses, Omer•
cote and marched two hundred miles
under a Scindian sun.
Sir Charles was appointed by Lord Ellenborough
governor of the province he ha I conquered, with
responsibility only to himself. The general then
continued his labour of entirely subjugating the
Ameers, the hill tribes, and the whole warlike popu-
lation, in all of which he was entirely successful.
Meantime, a war of charges and counter charges, in
respect to his Scindian policy, was commencing, and
Sir Charles took a manful part in pen-and-ink self-
defence. Still, amid this intellectual labour, he
worked at the improvement of Sande, and the eleva
tion of its people. In fact, he reorganised the
native society, and shelished slavery, the suttee, and
the practice of infanticide. He opened canals, anti
directed commerce and industry into newly discovered
channels.
When, in 1845, a Sikh war wit impending. as a
precatitionury measure, Sir Charles got together a
Scindian and Bombay army of 15.000 men. While
this force was being collected, the battle of Ferozhur
was fought, and Sir Charles's plans for a gnat inva-
sion of the Sutle.i were thrown over by his army
being ordered to Bhawalpoor by the new Governor-
General, while the battle of Solomon, putting an end
to the war, put an end to all Sir Charles's future
schemes of conquest.
In July, 1847, the bad health of Lady Napier ren-
dered a colder climate necessary, and in October
the ex-Governor of Scinde embarked amid a grand
military demonstration. He was received in his
native land with similar honours, though of a more
civil character. Thanks had already been voted to
him by both Houses of Parliament for each of his
victories. and his arrival was signalised by a series of
magnificent festivals.
For some time after his return home Sir Chitties
Napier lived in retirement, until the disasters of the
last Sikh war raised a perfect panic in England. and
all eyes turned to the hero of Scinde as the deliverer
of our Indian empire. Prompt to obey a call of
duty, the veteran general started in March, 1849, but
found, on his arrival at Bombay. that the Sikhs had
been finally routed, and that his work had been
performed for him.
Sir Charles then turned his attention to the sub-
ject of military reform, and succeeded in abolishing
many flagrant abuses which had grown up, especially
the officers. He remained Commantler-ia-
the Indian finny for a! nut two yen's, and

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