The Press.
London, England, 1858-03-27 00:00:00

TRIAL OF THE EX-KING OF DELHI.

The trial of the ex-King of Delhi commenced on
Wednesday the 27th of January, in the Dewan Khas
of the Palace. The court was composed of Colonel
Dawes, Horse Artillery, president (in the room of
Brigadier Showers, about to leave the station).;
Members—Major Palmer, H.M.'s 60th Rifles
Major Redmond, 1131.'s 61st Regiment; Major
Sawyers, H.M.'a 6th Carabineers ; and Captain
Rothney, 4th Sikh Infantry. Major Harriott, Deputy
Judge Advccate General, Government prosecutor,
and Mr. James Murphy, interpreter to the court.
The details of the trial come down to the twelfth
day, but a telegraphic despatch states that the court
on the fourteenth day tound the royal prisoner
guilty of treason against the Stag, and sentenced
him to be transported for life to the Andamans. The
conduct of the prisoner during the trial was stolid
or jocose. Some days he would sleep through the
proceedings ; at others he would watch the proceed-
ings with drowsy indifference ; at others he would
amuse himself by sipping brandy, and twisting
and untwisting a turban round his head, or
playing with a scarf. He was brought in each
day sitting in a palanqnin under a guard of
Rifles, at the appointed hour. He appeared very
infirm, and he tottered into court supported on one
side by the " interesting youth " Jumma Bukht, and
on the other by a confidential servant, and coiled
himself into a small bundle upon the cushion as-
signed to him. To the question "Guilty or not
guilty," he first professed himself profoundly igno
rant of the charges brought against him, and finally
pleaded " Not Guilty." In the evidence given little
was educed to implicate the prisoner directly in the
murder of the victims of the 11th of May, or of the
more general slaughter five days later. But ample
details of the massacre—which, be it remembered,
took place in the palace—were given, and, while
there was an evident shrinking on the part of the
witnesses from asserting that they were directed by
the prisonee, there was not a particle of evidence to
show that he was dissuading or even passive in the
matter. That he had traitorous correspondence with
Persia during our war with that power had been
asserted in a letter, efferently anonymous, addressed,
as far back as March last, to the late Mr. Colvin,
and the alleged agent in that correspondence—a
Mussulman fakeer said to be greatly in the King's
confidence—was examined before the court. But the
fakeer was too wary to disclose anything of im-
portance, contenting himself with denying all claims
to, and all reputation for, supernatural powers or the
successful practice of intrigue. That the Persian
war was at leas to subject of conversation among the
Mussulreans of Delhi appeared from other evidence,
as from that of Sir Theophilus Metcalfe. Sir T.
Metcalfe was of opinion (as most European resi-
dents of Delhi are) that the war with Persia created
much excitement in Delhi, and was the subject of
much conversation during the time it lasted; while
other native witnesses expressed their firm convic-
tion that the Mahomedans of India were " very
much excited" about the Persian war. Choonee,
one witness, the editor of a native Delhi paper, stated
in reply to questions by the Government prosecutor
that the Mahomedans of the city were in the habit
of boasting that the Persians, aided by the Russians,
were coming to drive the English out of the country,
and gave it as his firm belief that the Mahomedans
were highly excited about the Persian war. The
chuppaities, which were circulated, were, he said, for
the purpose of bringing together a large body of
men for some business to be explained to them here-
after, and he said they originated at or near Kurnaul.
The witness, in reply to a question by the prosecu-
tor, said that abuut five or six days after the city had
been in possession of the mutineers, ho heard that
there was a great disturbance in the palace, and on
going to see the cause, found a number of sepoys
and some of the prisoner's armed servants, killing
Europeans, men, women, and children :
There was a great crowd collected, and he could not
see distinctly through it, but after the slaughter was com-
pleted, he inquired of the sweepers, who were removing
the bodies, and heard that in all fifty-two persons had been
killed; of these only five or six were males, the rest all
females and children! The bodies were being removed
in carts, and were thrown into the river ; when lie saw
them lying dead they were in a circle. A number of Ma-
homedans were on the top of Mirza Mogul's house,
spectators of the scene, and the witness heard that Mirza
Mogul himself' was one of those looking on. These un-
fortunate people were confined, previous to their massacre,
from the 11th to the 16th of May, in a sort of receptacle
for rubbish, where the prisoner's lowest culprits were
confined, in which it would have been an insult to cDnfine
a person with any pretensions to respectability. There
were many better and more suitable buildings, but they
were not allotted to the Europeans.

Replying to a question put by the progecittor, t 3
who gave the order for the massacre of the Euro-
peans, Choonee sail, " The King himself ; who else
could give the order ?"

Golan), another native witness, gave some particulars
of the massacre of the Europeans of which he was
an eye-witness. He said that it was known two days
prior to the fearful deed that the European prisoners
were to be slaughtered on that dey ; and a great
crowd had, in consequence, collected :

They, the prisoners, were all ranged in a line on the
edge of a tank, or watercourse, and at a given signal (un.
seen however by the witness), the mutineers and palace
servants, by whom they were completely surrounded,
ushed in and hacked them to pieces with swords. Shots
were fired at them at the commencement (according to
another witness), but one of the bullets happening tostrike
a sepoy, the sword was resorted to, and the bloody work
was soon completed. The confusion was too great for the
witness to frame an accurate idea of the number murdered,
but it was large, and the majority of them were womeu
and children. Their brutal murderers must have num-
bered one hundred and fifty to two hundred. When the
bloody work was over, the spectators were turned out of
the palace, and the bodies carried away. No one attempted
to interfere to prevent this frightful slaughter, no meh-
senger from the King came to stop it, and the witness said
he heard nothing which could lead him to believe that the
deed was not gloried in by the Mahomedans.

He then, in reply to a question by the prosecutor,
said he was present at the murder of the Beresfor d
family :
Mr. Beresford was, it seems, badly wounded at the
onset, one arm being broken by a shot, but armed with a
sword, and his brave wife with a spear, they contrived to
keep the ruffians at bay for some time, Mrs. Beresford
killing one and wounding another. They were at length
overpowered, and the whole party murdered. With theta
were, it is supposed, the Rev. Mr. Hubbard, and another
missionary, who had gone to the Rank for safety. The
house where they were all slaughtered still bears the
marks of the struggle, and the closing scene of horror.
Several other witnesses were examined, but so far as
our intelligence of the proceedings of the court ex-
tends, no evidence favourable to the humanity of
the King had been given.

The following letter concerning the actual position
of affairs in Delhi, from a lady (one of the Indian
sufferers whose husband was killed in the mutiny at
Gwalior), dated December 21st, 1837, and descriptive
of the present appearance of Delhi, is eAtremely
interesting •—"
Friday afternoon from Meerut, having left Agra on
the 12th of December, and entered by the Calcutta
Gate across the bridge of boats. The principal
street, the Chandney Chowk, is vet), curious; it is
the bazaar, full of native shops and houses ; many
of the latter are painted in a very strange way ; one
or two I will describe. On the walls flowers, old
signs, stars, and crescents, &c., and pictures of lions
and tigers; one is an absurd picture of an English
officer—a little man, with a very red face and beard,
on a horse suspended in the air, fighting with a lion,
and several other figures of ladies and gentlemen.
flta Chandney Chowk did not look any the worse
for the siege ; none of the houses are destroyed,
and the streets are far too crowded with gaily dressed
natives, seated before their shops very busy buying
and selling, and all looking much too impudent.
This street is the only one that does not show signs
of the siege. It was very amusing to see English
soldiers in their bright uniforms, Sikhs on their wild
horses prancing about, the funny little Ghoorkas ;
ladies and children riding on immense elephants;
gentlemen on camels, horses, and ponies ; and a
prize agent in a very pretty carriage, with servants
in handsome livery, and his children after him
mounted on an elephant. To see all this was so
exciting alter my long, wearying six months'im-
prisonment in the fort at Agra. The contrast
of the different shops, houses, and costumes,
and gay pieces of calico hung across the
streets, the blue sky, and green trees made
a very pretty picture ; and one might have
forgotten for the time the fearful things that
had happened there but for two large gallows
in the middle of the street, on which some wretches
almost daily pay the just penalty of their crimes:
It is the back streets tend bye lanes, of which Delhi
is full, that show you a siege has taken place ; num-
bers of houses are riddled with shot, the trees torn
up, walls and houses entirely destroyed by shells,
heaps of rubbish lying about, and the place has a
horrid deathly feeling; it was these streets in which
so many of the fights took place, and which were
found full of dead sepoys ; in the Chandney Chowk
only a skeleton or two were seen when our army
entered. It seemed, if the streets had been well
defended, the city never could have been taken ; the
houses are all made as if for that purpose, with flat
roofs, and little passages and corners where the
enemy could hide and fire on our troops. This they
did, and killed numbers ; but if they had defended
the place well it never could have been taken. In
the evening we went out by the Lahore Gate, ronud