The Press.
London, England, 1857-12-05 00:00:00

DELHI.

Since the capture our interest in Delhi has to
some extent subsided.
A letter in the Times this week from a" Civilian"
conveys to us a vivid impression of the dangers of
our position before Delhi, of the difficulties of the
siege, and of our comparatively prostrated strength
after the capture. He regards the capture of Delhi
as an enormous piece of goad luck, but he seems
doubtful a to the effect of the triumph :

I hope (ho writes) it may prove that Delhi has been
token at the right time. ]t is certain that it was not
taken a day too early, and that a little more delay in a
Delhi September. work, climate, and the prospect of rein-
foroements to the enemy from Mhow and Gwalior all
telling against us, would probably have proved fatal.
Great, indeed, will be our " lkbal " if it has all turned
out for the best.

-- --- -----
The assault and capture appears to have been
fraught with danger to us, for our men, as well as
their Sikh, Ghoorka, and Affghan allies, finding
"vast quantities" of wine and spirits—evidently left
in their way with a purpose—indulged to au extent
which might have proved disastrous :
In truth, the days which followed the first assault were
a time of great anxiety. Our progress was slow; the
number of men whom we could bring into action curiously
small, and the abandonment of the positions held by the
enemy was, I believe, a relief to the generals, even though
we did not exterminate the mutineers. In fact, I believe
that the bridge of boats was purposely left intact by our
batteries; we were well content to leave a bridge to a flying
enemy. I do not think that the enemy were actually
forced nut by our shells. I was surprised to find how
little damage was done by them.
With respect to tha state of onr army at Delhi the
"Civilian" alludes suspiciously tothe terrible losses in-
fhcted on the European officers of our allies, and
points out the marked numerical inferiority of
European to native troops :

In all the history of this world of ours there is nothing
that in any degree approaches the most strange spectacle
of Sikhs and Affghans—whose country we so lately and
with so much bloodshed occupied with armies of Hindus-
tanees—now under our banners sitting bloody and plunder-
laden in the Palace of the Moguls. Yet these men are by
far the most conspicuous occupants of Delhi, and to them
we chiefly, in the exhausted state of our European troops,
look to enable us to reoccupy our lost provinces of Hin-
dustan. They have served us so far with the most com-
plete fidelity.
- - - -

In another portion of his letter he speaks of the
Europeans being " completely used up and ex-
hausted," while the efficiency of our own native
regiments is cruelly diminished by the "prodigiously
large proportion of loss among their European offi-
cers. In fact, hardly any remain, and they are com-
manded by new young men who know nothing of
them and their peculiarities." As to our prospects
tor the future, he depicts in strong terms the utter
"disorganisation of the country ":

The consequence of the absence of heads, civil and
military, is a singular want of unity of action. The inter-
rupted communications, abnormal state of all things, and
summary forms of procedure have considerably relaxed all
discipline and subordination, and left every man pretty
free to do as he chooses What between the want
of generals and the want of troops, it is, I fear, very doubt-
ful whether the Delhi army will effect the whole of the
primary objects I have mentioned without English aid;
and it yet may be that the delay in furnishing chat aid may
inv.-Ave &continued serious risk to the empire for some
months to come The chief difficulty will be to
supply to the civil power a fitting force to hold our dis-
tricts as we recover them, disorganised and demoralised
ai they have been by the mutiny; and in their own country
the sepoys may possibly yet offer a very stubborn resis-
tance before we can exterminate them. Desperate men,
we may drive them from position to position, but when will
it end? They can never submit—they can always out-
march us, and how soon and at how great cost shall we
kill them all ?

The other serious danger is, lest our present
violent feeling against the Mahomedans should
drive to despair that great section of the population,
and induce a really general Mahomedan revolt as
dangerous as the great mutiny.

General Wilson has really resigned the command to
General Penny, and retired to the hills to recruit his
broken health. The city is comparatively empty. Our
troops have been moved off in all detections ; one
column, under Greathed, has marched to Agra, on the
left bank of the Jumna; another under Brigadier-Gen.
Showers, is marching down the right bank; the s:tud
Regiment of Europeans has been despatched at
once to Lahore, which is reported "uneasy," and the
'2-Ith are follow rapidly. Brigadier Showers had
captured and sent in two more sons of the King,
Mirza Mention and Mirza. Bakhtowar. They were
tried by a military commission of five officers, with
Brigadier-General Chamberlain as president. Evi-
dence was produced before the court, principally
documentary, consisting of reports, returns, &c.,
bearing the prisoners' seals, showing that they exer-
cised command of their regiments and acted. In
tlitir defence they pleaded total ignorance of the
intention of the sepoys to mutiny, and said that
when the Meerut mutineers first reached Deli on the
Ilth of May they (the princes) thought it was a
Russian invading army ! They were then summoned
to an audience by the King, and a few days after
were appointed colonels of regiments at the request
of the sepoys themselves :

The court (says a letter of the 15th October), however,
found the prisoners guilty, and sentenced them to death;
and, accordingly, yesterday they were shot by a party of
the 63th Rifles. Detachments of Rides, Artillery, Sappers,
and Ghoorkas were present, and a great number of spec-
tators. The bodies were cast into the Jumna river.
Showers had then marched upon Goorgaon and
Rewarree, which he had occupied, driving out the
rebels and capturing ammunition and stores.
But the principal operations which have followed
the fall of Delhi are those which have been achieved
by Colonel Greathed. Among the many brilliant
exploits of this war they stand the foremost. It
will be rem-.bmbered that the mutineers who evacuated
the city on the 19th of September marched some of
them eastward towards Bareilly, but the greater part
to the southward, in the direction of Muttra and
Agra. Two days after the final occupation of Delhi
Colonel Greathed went in pursuit with 1,600 infantry,
r)00 cavalry, and eighteen guns. He first moved on
Anopshuhur, and halted on the third day at Secun-
derabad, which had been quitted by the fugitives,
and where were found, it is said, articles of Euro-
pean use, and particularly ladies' clothes—a sign
that some atrocity had been perpetrated on the spot.
As a punislinient Secunderabad was at once burned
to the ground. On the 27th Colonel Greathed came
up with the enemy at Bolundshuhnr, about fifteen
miles further on. The Delhi rebels, joined by the
Jhansi mutineers, had here taken up a strong posi-
tion; a hard fight of course ensued, the enemy were
defeated, and seven guns captured. Here a curious
incident is related by a cavalry officer, who writes
from " Camp, Agra, Oct. 12." After detailing the
artillery attack on the town, he continua