The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-05 00:00:00

critical state of our Indian Empire, and in
urging the remedies required to prevent that
catastrophe which has overtaken us at last. At
the same time we should like briefly to examine
the ground for all these pavans over our
good fortune in possessing a" vigorous Govern-
ment " in a period of peril.
For months previous to last June the Go-
vernment were in possession of accurate
information upon the critical condition of
the Bengal army, and by the mail which
arrived on the 28th of May last they received

full details of the mutinous conduct of the

19th and 34th Regiments at Barrackpore, of
• suspicious symptoms and incendiary fires at
Umballah, and of the undoubted general dis-
affection of the entire Bengal army. This
grave intelligence was coupled with expla-
nations from Lord CANNING of the urgent
necessity for the immediate despatch of
British troops from England. At that moment
on the 28th of May, our unhappy countrymen,
were no longer upon the verge, but were
struggling in the gulf of a terrible rebellion.
Mark the vigorous conduct of her Majesty's
Ministers. For three weeks the Government
considered the question, took no extraordinary
measures in reply to Lord CANNING, and upon
the 18th June despatched, in the ordinary
routine, a solitary troopship with 21-1 men,
" reliefs " who had been four months under
orders for India. From that date to the 10th
July—we beg to call attention to dates—during
which the most momentous intelligence ar-
rived by successive mails of the massacres at
Meerut, the seizure of Delhi by the rebels,
and the spread of the rebellion throughout
Oude into the Punjaub, three troopships,
carrying out the ordinary reliefs, left our• ports
with an aggregate of 034 men.
Thus, at a period when not an hour was to be
lost, when each wasted day brought a year of
calamity to every home in the kingdom, and
imperilled our empire in India, did a" vigorous
Government," wavering between a rebellion
they had not the sagacity to foresee, and the
demands of a crisis they failed to appi-ehend,
rouse themselves to a sense of their terrible
responsibilities and to the magnitude of the
danger which threatened our rule. In seven
weeks eight hundred and fifty men were
despatched to the succour of our unhappy
countrymen, who, with arms in their hands
and courage in their hearts, were struggling
against overwhelming odds, or meeting a
miserable fate with a fortitude which has
excited the admiration of the world. Eight
hundred and fifty men in seven weeks !—a
fraction of the ordinary reliefs which for months
had been under orders for India, and would
have sailed under any circumstances. These
were the decisive measures of our vigorous
and sagacious Government.
But if the measures of the Ministers failed
to sustain their claims to promptitude and
decision, perhaps their statements iu Parlia-
ment will console us for the failure. On
the 9th of June Lord GRANVILLE, admit-
ting the mutiny as a fact, declared the
reports of the then recent massacre at Meerut
to be " much exaggerated ;" but the discretion
of the President of the Council was two days
afterwards corrected by the President of tho
Board of Control, who assured us that the
disaffection had been "completer- put an
end to," and was so communicative as to pro-
mise us that " any such occurrence iu future "
would, he felt sure, be suppressed "with the
same promptitude and vigour." This, at

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