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

Home Government completely misunderstands the

nature of the contest in which our countrymen are

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engaged. " Things are in a very bad state all over
India (says one writer, August 2:3rd) ; in Bengal they
could hardly be worse, the result of incapacity and
want of energy on the part of our rulers here, which
is only surpassed by the culpable neglect and idiotic
blindness of the Government at home." The Euro-
peans, too, without exception, bitterly deplore the
apathy of the Government as exhibited in their
refusal to despatch troops overland. " regi-
ments (observes the above writer) sent out at once by
the Red Sea would have had more effect, moral and
physical, than all the troops they are sending out
round the Cape."
" It is painful (observes another writer, August 14,
from Calcutta) to real the amount of misappre-

pension at home on the subject of the rebellion " :
Colonel Sykes and the Daily News still speak of
it. as a religious question, the former " feeling that
the sepoys were animated with as high a principle
as hail in times past carried Latimer and Ridley to
the stake "—the latter, supported by Mr. Mangles, seem-
ing to ascribe it to the " officers being too proud or lazy
to mingle with the men ;" and " the native soldiers being
galled by the impossibility of their ever rising above a very
subordinate rank "! A brilliant display of the amount of
knowledge of the manners and customs of the natives of
India, and the constitution of the native army, attained by
those who profess to lead public opinion I Colonel
Sykes's speech at this moment only excites a derisive
smile; but even Lord Ellenborough appears to ascribe the
revolt to "the apprehensions of the troops that their
religion would be interfered with." Mr. Lewin, in his
pamphlet, " The Way to Lose India," however, has looked
a little deeper into the millstone, and strikes at the root
of the evil, which he shows to he, not in the cartridge
manufactory at Dum Dum, but in a certain establishment
in Leadenhall street. Meantime all admit the danger of
the crisis. What steps have you taken to avert it ? 11,000
men are on their way—round the Cape, and will arrive
here in October and November. The Earl of Hardwicke
seems to have been the only man who remembered that
England had available troops in the Mediterranean, and
the overland route to bring them at once to the shores of
India. Earl Granville hesitates to admit the extent of the
danger, prompted by the " pooh•pooh " Government here,
and waits before taking further measures, afraid that the
world should think him afraid.
Here, the non despatch of troops overland, and the appa-
rent total absence of all intention of sending any by that
route, is exciting a universal feeling of disappointment—l
insy almost write dismay. Surely neither France nor
Egypt. who so gladly allowed us to send forces from this
to the Crimea by the Red Sea, will object to the passage of a
few of those regiments now lying idle in the Mediterranean
to help us here in our utmost need ? Surely the crisis was
sufficiently alarming to have adopted such a course. If
not, will it be thou/lit so now ? What will you say when
you hear that the rebellion has spread to within 104) miles
of Calcutta itself, which is kept in subjection by the
presence of several European regiments, and the emus-
rnent of its comparatively small European population?
" As to the mutinies (writes another correspon-
dent), matters look worse every day, and the
mutineers, instead of being crushed, are daily
gaining strength and power " :
Agra and Lucknow are so critically situated that
every day may bring us news of the fall of one or
both of these important places. General Havelock,
after retaking and leaving Cawnpore on his way
to relieve Lucknow, had to retreat, the rebels being in
such force as to put it beyond the power of his little column
of 1,000 men, with a long train of sick and wounded, to
force a passage. The road was cut across, bridges broken
down, and every village intreoched. Ave, the seat of Go-
vernment of the northwest provinces, is taken, and the
officials and Europeans there are defending themselves in
the fort. The native troops throughout Bengal have all
mutined. The whole of our northwest provinces,
including Lucknow, may be virtually said to be separated
from our Indian possessions, and our hold upon the
districts between Allahabad and Calcutta is but by a thread ;
in fact, the late mutiny of three regiments at Dinapore has
cut off communication, except by steamers on the river,
between Allahabad and Calcutta. The mutiny at Dinapore
is the most serious affair that has happened lately, inas-
much as the whole of that district— licrar—within !VW
miles of Calcutta, is now in a blaze, and troops intended
for the northwest and Delhi have now to be halted there
to protect lienares, Patna, Gazeepore, and other important

towns. . • • . .
To day a report has arrived that the Santhals have again
risen, and the state of Bengal—overrun with 150,fita1
savages, who delight in blood, plunder, and rapine —will
indeed be terrible. In the hands of such a race Bengal will
become a howling desert. From Shergotty, in the south,
to ISO miles north of Meerut in the north, and from the
confines of Nepaul in the east, to Indore and Mhow in our
Presidency, the whole country, excepting the few spots held
by Europeans, is in the hands of a savage and insatiable
soldiery.
It is most extraordinary that in a country many
times larger than the British Isles, in which were many
thousands of commissioned officers, cjvil servants, commis-
sioners, collectors, magistrates, courts, judges. police,
innumerable, no one should have been found to tell the
Government of the gigantic plot which has been visibly
hatching since last January, when the celebrated chupattie
cakes were circulated throughout the country. The fatuity
and blindneas of the Government officials continue to the