The Express.
London, England, 1864-12-26 00:00:00

Sahib had an agent in the Crimea who gave him
but s poor account of the British soldiers. Pro-
phecies rose for the occasion, the British Raj was to
terminate in 1857, that is, one hundred years from
the battle of Plassy and the conquest of Bengal.
The combustibles were all prepared and heaped
together, only the spark was wanted to ignite them.
It is impossible not to feel the most profound
astonishment that all this could be going on under
the very eves of the British, and that they yet had
not the remotest suspicion of it ; nay, the regimen-
tal officers who might have been supposed to know
everything connected with the men of their several
companies, not only did not suspect any disaffection,
but when some few, more observant than others,
expressed the opinion that there was something
ominous about the attitude of the Sepoye, they were
laughed at, the regimental officers took such suspi-
cious almost as personal insults, and expressed
the most unbounded oontidenoe in the fidelitYl
of the native troops. The Europeans kept
themselves aloof from the Asiatice through
pride and indolence, sustained by the conacious.l
nese that the British were the conquering and'
dominant people, whilst the Asiatics were kept
together by prejudices still stronger, and further I
corroborated by the hatred which was always latent I
in their minds against the intrusive race. If ever,
competitive examination were necessary it surely
would be necessary to test the competency of young
officers for the command of • people of different
blood, of different minds, and of different habits.
We ehosdi hails% to entrust the driving of odd
elephant to an English groom who had been brought
up to the knowledge of horses only, but we never
hesitated to entrust to raw youths and inexperienced
men, whose military knowledge was gained in
English garrisons, the command of au army of
300,080 men differing from Englishmen in almost
every essential point. When the fruit is ripe the
twitter of • sparrow will cause its fall, when the
mine is fully charged the merest accident may sup-
ply the spark. The story of the greased cartridges
came at the very crisis, and inflamed the
slumbering elements of revolt from one end
of the country to the other. The extraordinary
fitness of this story to all the circumstances of the
case, the exact manner iu which it was calculated to
arouse the passions alike of Hindoos and Maho-
medans, and its being addressed exclusively to the
Sepoys, leads to the suspicion that it was concocted
for the special purpose of arousing the native army
to mutiny. Mr. Kaye says that it Aimee thus. A
low caste Lascar asked a high caste Sepoy for a
drink of water from his rlotah ; the Brahmin ob-
jected on the score of caste ; the Lascar replied that
high caste and low caste would soon be all the
same, as cartridges smeared with beef fat and hog's
lard were being made for the Sepoys at the depots,
and would soon be in general use throughout the
army. Thus the deadly prejudice of the Maho-
medans against the swine, and the reverence of the
Hindoos for the cow, were directly outraged, and
that in the most offensive manner. The suspicion
that the story was concocted is unhappily
without foundation, and we are forced to
the conclusion that the military authori-
ties themselves, in their self-sufficiency and
ignorance, furnished the facts of which it was •
true version. The utter blindness which this in-
dicates on the part of the British is another proof
of the absolute state of alienation in which the two
races stood to each other ; it looks almost judicial,
and certainly was followed by consequences suffi-
cient to cure it fur ever. The Sepoy returned to
his cantonment, and reported what the Lascar had
said ; immediately there was a ferment in the lines
—horror, disgust, and rags seemed to animate the
soldiers. From Dum-Dum, near Calcutta, the
tidings of this deadly blow against the faith of the
people spread with inconceivable rapidity through-
out the country; in an instant they reached Bar-
rackpore, sixteen miles distant, where four native
regiments were stationed • from thence the fatal
news leaped on to Berha:inpore, a hundred miles
distant, and, as the lightning darts from one black
cloud to another, so did this report fly as if
it were carried through the air to all the
great military stations throughout India.
The government was taken by surprise, the
military authorities were at their wits' end. They
could not believe that their" beautiful regiments "
were unfaithful to their salt. But our countrymen
did not lose their courage ; if they brought evil
upon themselves by their negligence of common
precautions, they met it in • spirit of heroic deter-
mination which has impressed the subject people
with a deeper idea of British power and resolution
than a hundred battles gained by their arms. Mr.
Kaye narrates the means taken at the various sta-
tions to recall the Sepoys to a sense of their duty,
and here we recognise the sterling valour and noble
devotion of every British officer in India. There is
not in the long roll of men whose lives, and what ,
was more precious than lives, were surrounded by
fatal perils, one single name that dues not awaken
our pride and our sorrow. We have purchased our
Indian experience deeply ; it is to be hoped that
we shall use it wisely. Mr. Kaye concludes this !
volume at the outbreak of the mutiny. Two other
volumes will succeed it, in which will be fully re-
counted, in a style worthy of such a theme, the
darkest and brightest episode of England'. story.

THE MIDNIGHT MEETING MOVEMENT.