The Press.
London, England, 1857-11-14 00:00:00

officers, and privates, when I say that we should hail the
completion of the ranks to the proper strength with the
greatest delight ; and we are only waiting to put the shil
ling into the hsnd of any willing man. Thus much for
the yeomanry.

With regard to India and the atrocities perpetrated
by the mutineers, Mr. Deedes said :

I do not ask—God forbid I should—for indiscriminate
vengeance, or vengeance at all. That is a word that
should never come from the mouth of a Christian ; but I
do ask for retributive justice—l do ask that no consident-
tion shall be shown to men who, by their cruelties, have
placed themselves beyond the pale of mercy. They have
no right to expect it after what they have done. They
have cast the die and must abide the consequences. lam
sure the noble address of General Wilson to the soldiers
before Delhi would come home to them all ; and let me
say that I have a deep interest in the matter, for a son of
mine has been serving there for four months. I well
know the interest with which he would read that address;
but I do not believe that a thought ever entered the heart
of any of them to take vengeance upon helpless women
and children because those fiends in human shape had
wreaked their vengeance in catch a manner. These are
not the sentiments that actuate the heart of a British
soldier; and 1 am confident that, when full details arrive
of the assault at Delhi, it will ne found that nothing has
been committed of which we need be ashamed, except that
which can never be avoided when we take into considera-
tion the weakness of human nature under certain circum-
stances. I have heard with deep regret—though Ido not
believe it—that a civil servant has been sent to supersede
one of the military officers engaged in active warfare ; and
it is further stated that he has ordered the release of a
number of prisoners. I do not believe it ; but if it is so,
then the sooner such a state of things is put an end to the
better. Nothing can possibly prosper if, at such a crisis
as the present, there is to be a conflict between the civil
and military powers.

Ar the Ashford Agricultural Society's meeting, a
day or two afterwards, Sir Norton Knatchbull pre-
sided. Mr. Deedes and Mr. Hugessen, M.P., were
among the company. The chairman, in proposing
" The Army and Navy," said that three years ago,
when he filled that seat, we were at war with Russia.
We issued from that war, if not with glory, yet, with
the help of our brave allies, with victory. Not long
after the restoration of peace, there came from the
East. sounds of wailing and woe—cries of men mur-
dered, of women ruthlessly violated, of children tor-
tured, with horrors too terrible to relate :
Gentlemen, such doings as these demand a stern reta-
liation. By this Ido not mean vengeance. My friend on
the left ( Mr. Deedes) has a child in India; I have a child
in India ; you, if you are men, if you ere Englishmen,
if you are Christian men, yon all have children in India.
We desire to execute justice upon the guilty. The Apostle
says, " Vengeance is mine ; I will repay, saith the Lord ;"
but in what may be called the same chapter he goes on to
say that man has the right to wield the sword of justice.
Let, then, no man presume to step between the British
soldier and that justice in the name of which he will
strike home to avenge an insulted country.