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

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 3, 1857.

an age to move the English, and that it was folly on
their part to wait for that event; that whenever they
took the trouble to come to his Owe he would be ready
to meet them. The Rajah of Putteesla has sent a large
force to join the British troops before Delhi.
The last despatch gives a favourable view of the
position of affairs before Delhi :
Delhi, August 11.
The English were never in a better position than now
in camp. The matineers are quite dispirited by the
utter failure of their attacks on the Ist and 2nd, their
loss being estimated by themselves at 3,00 d. The dis-
persion of the rebels may now be really looked for. Nino
hundred of the Neemuch force alone never returned to
the city after the attack of the Ist. The loss of the Bri•
tish was under thirty. Brigadier Cl►arnberlayne'a and
Colonel Seaton's wounds progressing favourably.
The following is from the summary of the Bengal
Hurkaru (Calcutta) of August 21:—
Reinforcements had arrived at Delhi, and the besiegers
were making more impression upon the place than they
had ever done before, were in batter spirits, and had the
fullest confidence in their speedy and triumphant success.
The besieged were in a wretched condition, and it is
said had offered terms of capitulation, which had been
refused, nut because they were unsatisfactory, but because
no terms at all could be accepted. After the many false
reports which have been circulated upon the subject, we
can scarcely expect our readers to share our coufidenee
hell we once more express our belief that Delhi will
have fallen long before this sheet is in their hands. But
such is now the general impression, and it is justified by
the strongest facts. The besieged, it is known, are nearly
without ammunition, having fur some time past been
firing pieces of telegraph wire and kunkur from their
muskets, and they are besides being fast decimated by

faiuiue and disease.
General Cortlandt was at Jbansi on the 7th of
August, and would have to engage a large body of
insurgents of the 4th and 9th Native Infantry and
14th Irregulars and Hurrianah Contingent Infantry,
strongly intrenched, fourteen miles south-west of
Ilansi, in the Itanghur village of Jumulpoor.

CANVNPORE.
From Delhi we turn to Cawnpore, and hero the
intelligence is far from satisfactory. General Have-
lock, after the most gallant advance upon Lucknow,
and the defeat of the rebels at Busseerutgunge, was
compelled to retire upon Cawnpore, on the l,t Aug.,
to relieve himself of his sick! and wounded. It was
at this point that our former narrative left that gal-
lant officer and his little band of heroes. Reinforced
by General Neill with two guns—he had no infantry
to give him—Havelock once more advanced to the
relief of Lucknow.
He marched on the evening of the 4th of August, and
encountered on the sth an army of 5,004) men, whom he
engaged and defeated, cauturing three guns. He then
pushed on to Busseerutguage, the scene of his former
exploit, and there received information that full 3,000 men
were between him and Lucknow, with three fortified vil-
lages and one broken bridge, strongly intrenched, on the
road; and that the enemy had a large body of artillery and
irregular csvalry. General Havelock had but 90J Euro-
pean soldiers in all, and but little or no carnage fur his
sick and wounded. He therefore decided upon again
retiring upon Cawnpore, and holding that post until
reinforcements arrived. The possibility of his making
his way to Lucknow was out of the question, but the cer-
tainty of sacrificing his men and failing iu the relief of
the garrison was evident. Thus in all probability the
three parties, viz., those at Lucknow, at Cawnpore, and
his own, would have been cut off in detail, whereas by
retiring upon Cawnpore he secured that place, and there
was still the chance and the hope of the Lucknow garrison
being able to hold out until reinforcements arrived.
General Havelock and General Neill will, I hope, be
able to bold their ground until reinforcements reach them.
In the meanwhile I tremble for the fate of Lucknow,
which has had strong assaults to repel, and heavy losses,
iu the death of Colonels Banks and Reed, to deplore.
The Ayr Observer has been favoured with the fol-
lowing extract of a letter from General Neill, dated
Cawnpore, August 1:
Since I arrived here I have been hard at work to get
order reestablished. I have now put a atop to the
plundering I found going on by reorganising a police. I
am also collecting all the property of the deceased, and
trying to trace if any have survived, bat as yet have not
succeeded in finding one. Man, woman, and child seem
all to have been murdered. As soon as that monster
Nana Sahib heard of the success of our troops and of their
having forced the bridge about twenty miles from Cawn-
pore, he ordered the wholesale butchery of the poor
women and children. I find the officers' servants
behaved shamefully, and were in the plot, all but the
lowest caste ones. They deserted their wasters and
plundered them. Whenever a rebel is caught he is imme-
diately tried, and unless he can prove a defence he is sen-
tenced to be hanged at once ; but the chief rebels or ring-
leaders I make first clean up a certain portion of the pool of
blood, still two inches deep, in the shed where the fearful
murder and mutilation of women and children took place.
To touch blood is most abhorrent to the high-caste natives,
they think by doing so they doom their souls to perdition.
Let them think so. My object is to inflict a fearful
punishment for a revolting, cowardly, barbarous deed, and
to strike terror into these rebels. The first I caught was a
subadar, or native officer, a high-cute Brahmin, who tried