The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-29 00:00:00

not evacuating it in time (which has led the whole of
the East to believe in our defeat up to this hour)—so
much for our denuding India of European troops—so
much for our neglect of Persia, and allowing the iwrigues
of Russia to prevail—promising Persia the support of
10,000 men if necessary in her progress through Herat
to India—so mach for our Affghan neighbours, who are
now draining our Indian treasuries. Haw lung is India
to be impoverished by feeding these lawless banditti,
and fur what ? To massacre us all some day,
while they are in league with Persia, while they
have decoyed a deputation ( a delusion again) into their
country, they have spread the seeds of revolt (massacre,
slaughter) throughout our Indian army. The retreat from
Baz.irgon added force to the general impression. The
Persian account of that affair depicted the English army
as totally defeated; and even to the English it appeared as
an untoward event. The dethronement of the King of
(Jude was regarded as a want of faith, and 300;0 sepoys,
nati,•es of that territory, rejoiced at the occupation of
Herat and the advance of the Persians, and the co-opera-
tion of the Atfghans. lodia, now denuded of European
troops, they saw would be an easy victory ; they only wanted
a pretext to rise—they each were afraid to commence. At
this time the flashes of the coming storm were discernible
in the distance ; yet no precautions were taken to secure
the vessel of the State, and ward off the slaughter. The
sepoya held secret meetings at Barrackpore —these were
reported by a few faithful men, but no notice was taken of
them. The Persian papers, &e., were filled with the most
significant appeals, and a telegraph was despatched to every
regiment and detachment to let them know that the doom of
the English was drawing nigh; yet no precautions were
taken ; thus telegraphs were allowed to speed from
station to station, the carriers of the chepatee (a wheaten
cake) could have been arrested, and the matter traced at
once to the fountain head—it would have been traced to the
nearest oorps and detachment—and the " murder would
have been out ;" but nothing was done—all was lulled in a
fatal security. The pretext, the occasion, at last came—
any would have done—but the cartridge was the very thing
—it was greasy certainly, and had some show of reason
( but the chepatee telegraph was speeding its way before
this), and it was an innovation, it was the arm of defence
too, the very thing the English required—we won't use it,
we will give religion as the reason. The (lie was cast—yon
know the rest—the Meerut outbreak. The mutiny could
have been checked here in the bud ; but a doubly
fatal security appears to have possessed the authorities.
There was a large, overpowering force of Europeans;
nor were the mutineers followed up and broken, but
allowed to reach Delhi. No accounts have been given in
palliation of the conduct of the authorities. The staff are
as much to blatne as the general, and the officers cum•
mending the European corps as much to blame as the
general and staff; the senior of these should have taken
the command and purseed the mutineers. What an op.
portunity for a Clive ! What an halo of glory would he not
have merited—what anguish, what tears, what tortures,
what massacres, would he not have saved. But, as in the
Black Sea, there was no Nelson to prevent a Sinope—at
Meerut there was no Clive to save a massacre. The dis-
h aiding of the 19th and :31th it is invidious to criticise ;
but this added to the flames. Had the mutineers been
marched down to Calcutta, and put on board a few hulks
nailer cover of ale guns, and kept there for transporta-
tion, the whole plot would have been discovered (laid
bee) by some of them, i.e , promising to those who gave
tto information pardon, dec., as the case might be. The
Indians dread transportation more than death ; they glory
In a death before their countrymen.
India, July, 1837.

A private letter from Point de Galle, in Ceylon,
dated Jury 15, gives us some came of apprehension
of an outbreak there :

There is scarcely anything either to write or to think
ab Jut (says the writer), except these terrible mutinies in
Bengal. They are not yet put down ; and from the want
partly of European troopi, and partly, I very much tear, of
vigour and decision among the authorities, they are not
likely to be put down for atone time. Wherever the officer
iu command 11:01 been a man of boldness and vigour (and
we only hear of throe such men, Wheeler, Sir H. Law-
rence, and Colonel Neile, of the Madras army), there the
aepoys have been utterly routed and sent to the rightabout.
Everywhere else they are masters; and the barbarities
they have perpetrated are beyond everything you have ever
heard of,—even of pirates, or of soldiers who have just
taken a besieged town, having committed. That they will
be put down there cannot be a doubt; but how such mul-
titudee of ruffians are to be punished will be the difficulty.
There is no appearance of anything being wrong in Ceylon ;
but the Europeans are not without their feelings of nil-
easiness. All the European troops, except abou'. three
hundred, have been sent to Bengal. The Ceylon regi-
ment. more than LOIN) strong, is almost entirely Mahoine-
den, and there is a large resident population of Mussul-
mans, who may rise on us when we least expect it
Although we do not expect it, yet people are uneasy ; and
we are afield to take preeautions, such as organising a
volunteer force, lest the appearance of suspicion bring forth
the event that is dreaded.

SIR. C. NAPIER AND THE BENGAL
ARTILLERY.

A " Lieut.-Colonel," formerly in command of the
artillery in lininaon, bordering on the Nepaul
frontier, and who in 1850 had occasion to repoit en
the weak state of defences in our province, and at
the same time invited the gererGl's attention to
other matters oonnected with the efficiency of the
regiment of artillery, writes to the Times this week