The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-26 00:00:00

THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 26, 1857.

getting the 600 prisoners from Gholab Singh's territory,
and shooting or flogging them on the spot, as the case
may be. I shall be very glad when all this shooting and
hanging is over; it sets people's minds more or less against
us, and keeps us all in a stale of excitement. The Sikhs
have behaved well hitherto, but I assure you the treachery,
ingratitude, and cold•blooded cruelty we have witnessed
and seen every day have more or less unsettled the minds
of all, and made us mistrust everybody with a black face.
If we are preserved through all this I dare say I shall have
benefited by it, and seen a good deal of human nature
which may be of use afterwards. Such experience, how.
ever, has been dearly purchased.

In corroboration of this view, by the following extract
from the later of an officer stationed at Alluhabad,
and recently employed upon some village razzias,
it would seem as if our people occasionally took a
leaf out of the rebel book :

In the expedition of which I have just been writing,
and which is only one of several which have taken place
in this neighbourhood within the last four weeks, the
civilian who was sent out as the acting•ntagistrate con-
ducted himself in a manner I was astonished to observe in
any European having pretensions to the character of a
gentleman. When villagers were brought in as prisoners,
in order that they might be questioned, he would com-
mence conversation by walking up to them as they
squatted on the ground, and kicking their naked bodies
with his heavy riding boots. At another time he would,
with his fist, strike the unresisting wretches in the face,
and these gentle persuasives failing, he would ha►e them
tied up to a tree and whipped with a stick or piece of
rope, until they would give the information he required.
This appeared to me very like the old mode of putting
people to torture to extract evidence. People say, in de-
fence of these " dours," as these expeditions are called, that
the whole of the people are disaffected ; but it seems to me
that it is not very likely to reclaim them to serve them in
this manner, and I really think I should be inclined to
turn rebel myself under similar circumstances.
We recur now to our Punjaub correspondent :
July 25.
The hanging and flogging still go on. Yesterday 120
servants of people in the station, who had bolted with the
mutineers, came in under a guard. Our new levy now
receiving the prisoners from Cashmere shot seventy-eight
the day before yesterday, and are keeping the native
officers to be shot in here, to make an impression. We
have a hard day's work before us again to-day, for another
batch have come in. They are nearly all " down•easters,"
as we in the Punjaub call them—i.e., men of the north-
west provinces. These the Sikhs hate, and cordially ap-
prove our severe measures. The Sikhs are a noble race of
men, and are serving us well everywhere. They are far
more open and frank and physically finer men than the
" down-easters," for whom they entertain a most profoand
contempt and hatred. They do not look upon us as such
a different race of beings from themselves as the others
do; they will drink with us, and eat, I believe, some
things with us, but not off the same plate. Grog they
have a great weakness for ; nevertheless, there are plenty
of fanatics—men of rank and others—who remember the
glories of the Khalsa army; and the ferocities which
attended their wars with us show us what we should have
to expect from their half-savage villagers in case anything
should happen to alienate their minds from us, or to make
them believe that they might once more recover their own.
It is to be ready for such an emergency that the forts at
Lahore and Ferozepore have been put in order and pro-
visioned. Let us only hear that Delhi has fallen, and I
think we should have little cause to fear.

" Let us only hear that Delhi has fallen, and we
shall have little cause to fear." What if the fidelity
of the Sikhs before Delhi and elsewhere rest, upon
that event?

In so much bush-fighting as there is in front of
Delhi, there are, of course, not wanting instances
of individual courage. Here is a noble one :
A European private was the other day hearing a wounded
ensign, a mere boy, from the field, or rather the suburb,
before Delhi. A mutineer fired from the upper windows
of a house. Deliberately the soldier placed his senseless
officer under shelter, walked to the house, tramped up
stairs, dashed in the door, and shot the mau. Two other
mutineers were with h:rn, and before they came to their
wits two rapid thrusts of the bayonet had finished their
course. The soldier then walked coolly back and resumed
his burden.

The same writer gives another, and adds a good
reason for not attempting the capture of the city with
such men :

One hundred and fifty mutineers got into a serai (or
walled inclosure for travellers) on our flank, and kept up
a galling fire upon stragglers; twenty Europeans went at
them, but they shut the door ; it was blown open, our men
rushed in and shut it behind them. They then slew every
traitor inside, actually nulling from one to another, and
driving their bayonets through them as if they had been
sheep. You'll think with such difference of material l)elhi
could easily be taken; and so it could, but our officers say
that once in the Europeans could not be held together;
they'd be all over the city in a minute, and would be sur•
prised at the 'oarricades, or put hors de combat at the grog
shops, which are worse than bullets. More troops are
wanted, when out of the lot enough may be held in hand
to clear the streets and keep the palace. Some force must
be near Delhi now from the eastward. How the antiquated
commander,' have been giving in! The fourth within two
wombs is Wilson. I think this business, atop of Bushire,
after Sebastopol, will at last have a chance of ridding us
of centenarian generals.