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

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 10,1857.

men a day by cholera. He has been reinforced and is at
them again. We expect to hear of another fight. The
situation of Lucknow and its brave garrison is desperate.
Poor Bankes was shot before he had commanded forty.
eight hours. That " excellent " man Nana Sahib is before
Lucknow; he lost 40.00.1100 rupees in treasure, and C. B.
51.00.000 ditto, iu Uovernment securities of the Five per.
Cont. Loan, which are to be confiscated ; I hope ho will be
caught alive. Europeans are being enlisted in the police
at 51. a month. The consequence is no ships will get away
fur some time to come.

The question begins to be asked, where are this month's
salaries of public servants to come from ? The treasury is
nearly empty, and Government have neither money nor
credit.

Everything in Calcutta up to famine price, and the
present is a joke to what must follow in consequence of
the immense tracts of country left uncultivated.
Our native servants have all been tampered with, to
murder or poison us, but have fortunately refused, some,
very few, from fidelity, most from fear. I hope to add
before finishing this that I have caught and hung the
emissary. My own old servant explains the reason, which
that if the native princes of India got the upper hand,
the native gentry would give them half the wages, and
exact from them exactly four times as much work as we
do—they do not attempt to conceal that it is the King of
Delhi, King of Oude, and Nawab of Moorshedabad, who are
stirring up the present disturbance; but there is a great
Belatee Rajah—a foreign potentate—who is at the bottom
of it all.

August 13.—Arrived, the steamer Bengal, with Sir Colin
Campbell, and a delightful account of how the British pub-
lic view our present troubles. Lord Ellenborough is the
only man who knows a bit about it. The plot thickens;
more ph‘ces are destroyed, and more treasure plundered.
Captain Peel (her Majesty's ship Shannon ), with 400 sea-
men and marines, start by water for upper provinces. Ile
takes a formidable battery with him. Fourteen miles from
Calcutta a ship is fired into. At last permission to flog all
native loiterers and lurkers about the fort to the extent of
fifty lashes is extorted from Lord Canning,but he manfully
resists ( August 13) seizing large stores of arms and
ammunition pointed out to him, will not call out the
militia, will not do anything to some hundreds of native
wealthy and influential people who have been named as
having aided and abetted the rebellion. Quere—is this
not doing likewise? There is a talk of disagreement
already between him and Sir Colin Campbell.
August 15.—More reports of disasters in the upper
provinces; but Government resolutely shut up post•tele-
graphs, and every possible source of information; the native
post runs regularly and safely. East India Company's
paper of the Five-per• Cent. Loan sells in Lucknow at
eighty-one per cent. discount. A hard nut for any one who
says the funds are a sure indication of coming events.
August 10.—Matters at Itaneegunge are said to be in so
unsatisfactory a state from large armed bodies collecting
and threatening the collieries, that her Majesty's 33rd are
ordered off to see what's the matter and quiet the people;
it is supposed and hoped they will be back again in Cal-
cutta for the Mohurrum. This festival commences on
Thursday, the '2oth, and from that day the Volunteers are
to be on duty, half of them by day and half by night, for
ten days, and perhaps until the 3rd of September. In the
meantime the blacksmith opposite my house is hard at
work forging pike•heada, night and day, in full sight of the
police, and I only mention this as a sample of what is per-
mitted to be carried on openly in Calcutta at such a time
of danger and uncertainty. News is now coming in that
thn irregular cavalry, our last stand by, are universally
proving faithless, and are accordingly disarmed wherever
they can be caught. Lord Canning visits the Shannon,
moored close alongside the fort ; her extra cabins are
ordered to be left standing until after the Mohurrum, absit
omen, but it looks as if they still might possibly be
wanted.

Sir Colin Campbell goes incog. into Fort William, and
finds matters so little to his liking that and
another officer are put under arrest. It is said he will
not be sworn in commander•in•chief until he is to have his
own absolute uncontrolled will, in spite of Lord Canning's
fancies and weaknesses for rebels and murderess.

August 17.—Various cr"eks and small rivers which run
into the Hooghley are full of boatloads of armed men, all
making for this place, and bent on murder and plunder.
The Chief Commissioner of Police at last begins to mis-
trust the native police, and is making frantic efforts to
procure Europeans. Any fool could have told him the
same months ago.
The festival of the Mohurrum commences the 20th
inst., and we shall see then or thereabouts what may be
coming.
I this day refused to join the Vigilance Committee, and
did my best to dissuade others. I would like the thing
well enough if it would simply begin and end in flogging
and pickling the Legislative Council ; but the danger is
from our numerous German and other foreigners, whom
nothing short of blood would satisfy; add to this, a highly
exasperatrd European soldiery would mutiny, and then
there is no saying what the end might be.
August ls.—Lord Canning remonstrates with General
Campbell for the row he kicked up in the fort, and receives
the following answer :—" Very well, my lord, you shall have
the fort, and do what you like there, but I mean to remove
every European soldier out of it."
I am mistaken in the name of the officer put under
arrest : it was not —, but
Thank God it is a fact, the militia is to be formally called
out and embodied by compulsory enlistment. This will
give us over 3,000 Europeans and half-caste armed men,
who, at all events, will make a show.
Government have received information, in a singular
manner, of all that, is intended to be done in the Mohurrum.
The only fear is it may not be acted upon, the Governor-
General being determined to listen to no suggestions
whatever. I trust, however, he will think better of it.
Full details are ready to go home to the Times ifhe refuses.