The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-03 00:00:00

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 3, 1857.

protection, and condescendingly says of him,
" that he (Lord JOHN) is far too useful a man
" to be consiyned to the dreary shade of a back
" bench."

No, no, there cannot be a Duke of Bedford.
It is impassible. The degeneracy of the
" House of Russell" has not passed into such ab-
ject political decrepitude. Yet who corresponded
with Mr. MIALL? Aud who ran the horses at
Newmarket,? Let us see what " Dod " says.
Yes! It is too true—there is a Duke of Bed-
ford ; his name is " Prancis," and ho is a
" special Deputy Warden of the Stannaries."
How aro the mighty fallen ! A Duke of Bed-
ford's sole public distinction to bo a " special
" Deputy Warden of the Stannaties," and Lord
Jolts to be picked up by Mr. OSBORNE ! Thus
it would seetn that though the Duke of BED-
FORD is alive, the " Bedford Whigs" are
defunct. The Bedford title exists, but its
grandeur is no more .

Is he dead? Is be rotten ?
He's worse—he's forgotten.

MINISTERS ON INDIA.

THE reputation of her Majesty's Ministers as
practical statesmen is an opinion at least
zealously propagated, if not widely enter-
tained. The merit of this opinion we will
undertake to bring to an issue, on which every
reader of the meanest capacity can determine
for himself.

The position of affairs in India has now
arrived at a point at which it is very generally
admitted our destruction on the one hand, or
our success on the other, is reduced to the
simple question of reinforcements. The dis-
affection in the native army first evidenced
itself in January last, in March, and again
in April. The worst symptoms appeared upon
the surface—incendiarism was rife, and overt
acts of mutiny were committed, until at length
the long pent up conspiracy prematurely burst
forth in May. With a daring and a heroism un-
equalled in the history of the world, our scat-
tered soldiers are still holding India at bay.
The question then arises why, if the rebellion
broke out in March, April, and May, our army
was not reinforced by August, and why will
no reinforcements from England reach India
before November? We will endeavour to find
a reply in the expressed opinions of Ministers
during the last few months upon Indian affairs.
As the annexation of Oude is the recognised
cause of this Indian rebellion, it is important
that we should ascertain and show the
opinion of the Government upon that act of
spoliation. On the 21st of July, 1556, Mr.
VERNON SMITH, in his annual Indian Budget,
officially announced the annexation of Oude,
and, speaking in the name of the Government,
expressed an opinion that it was " a very tea-
" sonable thin,/ " for Lord DALTIOUSIE to
accomplish. Mr. V. SMITH, then entering into
some detail as to the preliminary steps Lord
DALHOU3IE had taken, said that he was per-
fectly indifferent as to whether "the transac-
tion" were designated " as an annexation, an
" acquisition, or a cession," and concluded
his observations upon the subject with the fol-
lowing positive declaration of policy :

- -
I am perfectly prepared, therefore, whenever it shall
be questioned, to defend the acquisition of Oude.—Sprech,
2lst July,

This is conclusive. The wisdom of the act,
within one brief year, has been tested and torn
to shreds ; and, whatever imputations this
result casts upon either the sagacity or fore-
sight of Ministers, it is clear that, by first
authorising and then declaring themselves
ready to justify this act of annexation, they
bound themselves neck and heels to that in•
evitable revolt the act was destined to excite.
The question then arises, did they, with the
sagacity of practical statesmen, prepare for
every emergency ; and when the first symp-
toms of disaffection were exhibited, did they
show a correct appreciation of the danger
surrounding us ? Mr. VERNON SMITH, in the
above speech in July, 1896, admitted the
existence of disaffection among the Oude
Sepoys, arising from our annexation. It
was transitory and evanescent, and he hoped it
" would pass away." But not one active
measure Was taken to meet that disaffection

as it should have been met, by the immediate
addition of several European regiments to our
force. Quite the reverse. The Ministers at
that moment had resolved upon a Persian war,
and in a few months drained India of so
many of her troops that Lord CANNING ex.
pressed his gravest apprehensions for the
safety of the country. The inswrection was
rapidly organising. 'Upon the 24th of Jan-
uary, 1857, the 34th ititgiment at Barrack-
pore btleued down the station, on the 25th of
February the 19th Regiment mutinied, and
the ohupattie movement commenced. On the
31st of March the 19th Regiment was dis.
banded. The situation of India was felt to be
extremely perilous, and the most earnest
representations, we have reason to believe, were
conveyed to the Home Government by the
mail arriving on the 19th of May. Yet, how
did the Ministers decide upon so grave an
event as a mutiny in the native army, and an
appeal for an immediate despatch of troops
from England? They decided as mediocrity
always decides : they resolved that it was a
matter of no consequence. Blind to the tenor
of their despatches, and heroically closing their
ears when fact and demonstration thundered in
them that a rebellion was rising in India,
they pronounced it to be a " trifling outbreak "
which would bo " easily suppressed." Lord
Partmuax on the 19th of May, in reply to Lord
ELLKNBOROUGH, declared their utter ignorance
of what they ought to have known well, by
stating

The accounts from India are not such as to create in
the minds of the Government a belief that there is any
absolute necessity for lipecial meamtrel.—Spccch,lgth May.
Here there is at onco a definite opinion formed
upon the insurrection at Barrackpore, the
chupattie movement, the incendiarism at
Umballah, and the appeal of Lord CANNING for
troops. There was "no absolute necess.ty "
for those special measures which, by their
timely application, would have prevented these
terrific results from coming to pass ! These
words deserve to be remembered. Upon
the 11th of June Mr. VERNON SMITH, re-
ferring to the mutiny at Meerut and the
murder of the British officers, entreated the
public, in their accommodating credulity, to
feel "no alarm," and in reply to Mr. Run in
the House of Commons sail:—
He should add the expression of a hope that the public
would be under no alarm upon that subject, as, owing to
the promptitude and vigour which had been displayed by
his noble frieud Lord Canning, and the excellent demon.
strations which had been math upon the occasion of the
disbandment of the 19th Regiment by General Hearsey,
as well as the eloquent and stirring speech to which that
gallant officer had then given utterance, the late disaffection
among the troops in India had completely been put an end
to, as he felt quite sure anysuch occurrence would in future
be put an end to by the exhibition of the same promptitude
and the same vigour as that to which he had just referred.
—Speech, 11th Jane.

When. on the :2 9t h June, the mail brought
intelligence of the seizure of Delhi, and dis-
pelled all hopes that the outbreak was partial
and not an organised insurrection against our
rule, Lord GRANVILLE deprecated our feeling
" any unnecessary alarm," and protested
against Lord ELLENBOROUGH'S proposition that
the Militia should be embodied as a measure
of " exaggerated alarm." On the same evening.
Mr. V. SMITH announced that 14.000 men would
leave England in the course of July. It was
"a measure of security alone," rather than that
any danger was to be apprehended :

I say (said Mr. Smith) that our Indian empire is not
imperilled by the present outbreak ; and I hope that in a
short time the disaster will be effectually suppressed by the
force already in the country.

The Right Hon. Gentleman then, us we
recently showed, made the notorious statement
about the mail having left a day too soon for
him to apprise us of the razing of Delhi to the
ground. Time wore on. Every one remembers
the thrill of horror which at each succeeding
mail vibrated through the country; but when
the great heart of England was now throbbing
with grief, now beating high with stern resolu-
tion, Ministers, with a sagacity and fore-
sight so peculiarly their own, apprehended no
danger, and would take no extraordinary mea-
sures for the security of our fellow-countrymen.
Lord GRANVILLE, on the 1-ith of July, in reoly
to Lord ELLENBOROUGH, denied in positive
terms that the insurrection extended beyond
the army. Lord PALNLERSTON the same evening
took cheering views, and, referring to the

The bridge of boats at Delhi is reported broken on the
Meerut side, and the mutineers were attempting to
repair it.
(Signed) J. 1). Macrimasos,Put.-Colonel,
Military Sec. to the Chief Commissioner.
It is said that the mutineers in the city mustered
1,000 rank and file less on the 2nd than they did on
the Ist, after the fearful thrashing they got from our
men. The contest is reported to have been more
severe than any former one, the mutineers being
drunk and reckless.
The Sind Kossid Extra, August 18, adds a small
scrap of news :
Some infernal machines had been sent by our force
against the bridge of boats at Delhi, for the destruction of
which we have offered a reward of •241,00 a rs. One
account has it that they struck an island and exploded.
another that the mutineers discovered them, and managed
to secure them before they could do any damage.
The Poonah Observer of the 27th August states
that the King of Delhi had made an offer of
terms :
A letter from Aboo, dated the 11th instant, mentions
that the King of Delhi has offered to make terms with us,
on the condition that thirty six lass of rupees annually,
instead of fifteen as heretofore, should be secured to himreu
and his successoN. This proposal was, of course, pel)*
torily declined. He was informed that nothing but un-
conditional surrender could he accepted ; and this we
should hope would be instantly followed by unexeeption•
able hanging, drawing, and quartering, on a gallows raised
so high over the royal palace at Delhi, that the " Great
Exhibition" should be witnessed by all the country round.
A diary of events which since the siege have
occurred in Delhi, and kept by a native, contained
some statements of interest. After detailing the
events of the first days of insurrection in May, the
plunder of the city, and the massacre of the
Christians, the writer states that by July 11th order
was restored, plundering had ceased, and the rebels
paid in ready cash for everything. The rebels in
Delhi on the 30th May, after the battle of Subzee
Mundee by Sir Henry Barnard, only mustered 7,000
men. They had collected a treasure of 530,000
rupees. " Parties of fifty and. one hundred join
daily," adds the narrator:—
-

On the •2nil of :tine a great battle was fought. Thou•
sands of rebels were killed. The British tomes were
victorious. On the 9th of June another action took place,
and hundreds of the mutineers were killed and wounded.
On the 10th the action continued and lasted till late in the
evening. Since yesterday the shells from the British
camp fall in the city, but as yet no lives have been lost.
The rebels, although they have no commander, tight
bravely. They, however, receive no reinforcements and are
daily diminishing in number, whereas the strength of the
British fortes continue to increase. It is said that two
Europeans dressed as natives came into the fort with an
intention of blowing up the powder magazine. They were

detected and killed.
June 23.
Actions are fought as usual, but nothing decisive has as
yet taken place. From 10) to 21)4 of the rebels arc killed
daily. No information is obtainable of the losses iu the
British forces. Firing of guns and musketry keep up all
night. Shells are thrown in the city and fort, winch has
caused the destruction of many buildings near the Cash-
mere and Cabul gates, and some lives have been lost. The
Nitaseerabad brigade of mutineers came in two days ago.
On the 27th he tells us of a successful ruse of our

generals :
About two or three days ago a " muhawnt" with an
elephant from tho British camp came to the King, saying
that he was so much annoyed by tho Europeans that he
made his escape. The King ordered the elephant to be
kept in the Feelkhans and took the muhswut into his
service. For two or three days the muhswut went about
examining the different places in the fort, and then sud-
denly disappeared. It is supposed that he was a spy from
the British camp, as, since the day he left the fort, shells
are continually thrown on the palace, part of which is
demolished.
The King finds the palace rapidly becoming top hot
for him, sends fur the Subadar Bahadour, the com-
mander-in-chief, who commands the troops in the
fort, and desirel him either to remove him out of
the fort or do something to stop the British shelling,
which was very destructive :
The subadar begged the King to remain in the fort
another day, and that during that time he would devise
means to put a stop to the shelling. Early the next
morning the subadar, with a party of 1,000 Porbeas
k natives of the eastern provinces), armed only with swords
and muskets, attacked the British ttoops. They fought
desperately, but the Europeans and Sikh troops, who were
about 10,000 strong and were on the alert, opened a tire
of grape on the subadar. With the exception of a few men
the whole of his party was destroyed.
The Rajah of Putteeala would appear to have full
faith in our raj, according to the diarist :
It is reported that the Porbeas sent a message to the
Rajah of Putteeala, inquiring why he was assisting the
English, and telling him not to do so ; otherwise, on
the establishment of the King's authority and the ex-
tinction of the English, he should be the first person to
suffer for it. The Rajah sent an answer that it required