The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-22 00:00:00

been so easily captured. An officer in the camp be-
fore Delhi writes, dated Tune 24:

These rascals are giving us an immense deal of trouble.
We are just where we were a fortnight ago, with the excep-
tion of having built a few batteries. The mutineers fight
like demons, and, being about six or seven to one, attack
us every day. We have lost a great number of noble
soldiers and officers, and have killed an enormous number
of the enemy; bat we are not strong enough to go in at
them behind their fortifications. They all sneak behind
oralls—if we could only fairly see them I think we could
easily exterminate them. Of our little body of uppers-
-180 natives, 41 Europeans, and lit officers—we have lost
16 natives and 5 Europeans killed and wounded; yet,
wonderful to say not an officer touched, though of course
we always lead tie way. We got a little reinforcement
yesterday of 400 or 500 Europeans, but I don't think now
we are more than 3,000 strong, besides three native corps
of 600 each. These are the Guides, one Sikh regiment,
and the Ghoorkas—the last are little bits of men from
the hills, like Chinese, but first-rate soldiers ; they think
it great fun, and say it is better than killing deer or
tiger*. The other two corps are splendid fellows, nearly
all Sikhs, who will go anywhere or do anything. Out of
five officers in the Guides, in one day one was killed and
three others wounded. All these three regiments ought.
to be remembered for ever by Englishmen.
Yesterday we had a very hard brush with the " Pandys,'
as we call them, but, as usual, polished them off. They
say they are getting very disheartened in the city, bat
we sadly want more men, and shall have to stay here till
we get them. This is the first scrimmage in India where
the enemy have had an unlimited supply of artillery of
every description. They are splendid gunners, and pitch
their shells with most disagreeable precision. One round
shot the other day killed one officer and six men, and
wounded two others, I believe mortally, besides a few
others who were bruised by the stones it knocked up. I
was sitting in the battery the day before yesterday smoking
a pipe, when a shell came bang behind and burst in the
parapet. It knocked me well forward, but did not even
upset a sandbag, to my great joy, for I was rather afraid
that the battery was too thin. If they don't give us a
medal when this is over, I will never speak to a director
again l
or two, by all appearance. I hope the men won't get ill
in tents.
Another correspondent remarks:—

I fear Delhi will not fall without a great sacrifice of
valuable life, as the place is strong and well defended by
at least 14,000 men of our mutinous corps, and we have
comparatively a small force. Our communicaticins are'
cut off from Agra, Cawnpore, Lucknow, and all stations
east of this. We are anxiously looking out for the arrival
of European regiments from Calcutta, as several mast be
well up country by this time, but none as yet have been
heard of. e A part of the 4th Cavalry are here. A guard
of forty troopers were sent towards Delhi on some duty or
other, and more than half went over to the enemy.
is here, and —at Umballah. I would advise them to
keep their eyes open, for these are strange times, and no
natives can be trusted. I only wish I could get dear
and the children to the hills, but there is no stirring into
the district; the whole country is up between this end
Mussoorie. We heard yesterday that a part of the 4th
Irregular Cavalry bad murdered their °Meets at Mosuffer-
nuggur (near this) and had left for the imperial city, where
God grant they may come in for the retribution they so
richly deserve. I can fancy the commotion all this will
cause in England. I hope they will send out some
20,000 men immediately.
June 28th.—News reached ns last night of there having
been a hard fight before Delhi on the 23rd. It lasted from
sunrise till sunset. The enemy were repulsed with con-
siderable loss. It seems to be hard work for our troops,
for these sorties take place sometimes twice a day, and
the exposure to the sun knocks many up. The siege is
not progressing so satisfactorily as we expected, partly
owing to the heavy ordnance we have made the rebels a
present of, our gnus being of less calibre than theirs, and
consequently there is no silencing their fire. Reinforce-
ments are now pouring in I am glad to say on our side,
and the rebels I hear are getting disheartened at their
repeated defeats, but my opinion is they will stand to the
last, as they are all fighting with halters round their necks
and will of course sell their lives as dearly as possible.

The correspondent of the Daily News, whose last;
Indian letter is sound and lucid, observes upon the
position of General Barnard :

General Barnard hu been placed under the obvious
disadvantage of fighting against a well•provided enemy
with short and inadequate supplies of ammunition. The
siege train which he took with him from Phillour was
furnished with a limited quantity of shot and shell, and,
strange to relate, was unaccompanied by artillerymen
enough to work the guns. It was found necessary, at the
latest moment, to draught a number of gunners from the
various stations of Lahore, Ferozepore, Loodhiana, and
other places, with the painful certainty that lives so pre-
cious cannot for the present be replaced in case of loss by
wounds or sickness. The necessity for economising am-
munition has not been confined to the artillery, but
extends to that of small arms, now also likely to run short.
The enemy, aware, no doubt, of these deficiencies, have
harassed the besieging force by daily sallies, knowing that,
even when repulsed, they are inflicting incomparably
greater injury on us than we can do to them. Nor is this
the only danger under which we labour at Delhi. The regi-
ments which mutinied at a distance have reached the
ground in the vicinity of the city in large numbers, and,
taking up positions in our rear, they render still more
unsafe a position already full of dangers. To meet the
exhaustion of our numbers by death, we have now. at
Delhi little or nothing to tall book upon, after the juselairs