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

1108

THE WEEK.

THE Indian Mails will arriN e this day, and the facts they bring, we
apprehend, will be found to present very different features to those
exhibited earlier in the week. The Ministers and their supporters
beast that the neck of the revolt has been broken at Delhi, and that
"all is over "—that is the favourite phrase, we believe—but the fire-
works and the rejoicing. It may be so, and we shall be glad if the
facts this mail makes known will bear that interpretation ; but in the
meantime let us examine the position of affairs as generally repre-
sented by the telegrams. We have captured Delhi ; that is a sound
success, but at a frightful cost of European life—a certain, and for the
time irretrievable, loss. The rebels, after fighting for the city for six
days, retreat() .1 and encamped beyond the walls ; now we learn that
they have broken up their encampment and marched in force upon
Agra and Cawnpore into Oude. That is clearly their route. Two
columns are in pursuit, so far as to render assistance to Agra in case
of need, but nothing more. Meanwhile the Gwalior rebels are biding
their time, and when the Delhi forces come into their neighbourhood
we shall be able to understand exactly the value we can place upon
SCINDIA'S powers of restraint and subjection. But, supposing that
Agra is covered by our columns, Cawnpore preserved from any attack,
and the Gwalior rebels kept in hand, we may safely assume that the
Delhi rebels, who throughout the campaign have displayed no want
of military skill and general efficiency, will make at once for the neigh-
bourhood of Lucknow, where swarms of rebels will welcome such an
addition to their force. It may be said that the retreat for some 250
miles of a defeated body of troops will exhaust, if it do not dis-
organise, them ; but we must remember that the rebels in the first.
place will march through a country generally friendly to them, that
their wants are few, and that they are capable of sustaining under
such circumstances fatigue that would kill the European. Once in
Oude, they will be in a. position rapidly to assume the offensive ; and
under what circumstances let us ask of those who declare the neck of
this terrible rebellion to be broken.
HAVELOCK has fought his way to Lucknow in time to save the
garrison from massacre, it is true, but only to place himself in their
position, and only, we fear, to tax the already failing and exhausted
energies of the heroic little garrison with a further defence, and with the
care of his sick and wounded. In all human probability HAVELOCK
brought with him a supply of provisions and military stores ; and
if, as the telegram from Sir JAMES OUTRAN of the 2nd of October
appears to intimate, it is found necessary for the main body to cut its
way back to Cawnpore in order to reopen communications, the garrison
3f course will be left strengthened in force, supplied with provi-
sions and stores, but, in point of fact, left once more, and this time
with the additional care of nearly 1,000 sick and wounded, to withstand
the attacks of bloodthirsty rebels, smarting under recent defeat, and
flushed with an intense desire for revenge. It is true they may be
placed in such a state of defence as may enable them to defy the rebels
for some time to come ; hut who can regard their
rebels, position
without apprehension and dread? All this shows that the
if defeated, are not disheartened, nor in the least dis-
posed to lay down their arms and return to their duty or their
occupations. The fact of their surrounding Lucknow in such numbers
as to compel HAVELOCK to leave the garrison behind him andfight his
way. back to Cawnpore in order to preserve his Communisations is
sufficient proof of the feeling which animates them, and of the critical
position in which affairs remain for us.
That HAVELOCK should have succeeded in relieving Lucknow is a
glorious consolation. Of the nature of the obstacles he had to con-
tend with ou his advance from Cawnpore we can easily judge, from
his consuming six days in marching fifty-three miles. His loss during
those days is not reported, but his sick and wounded, with the 130
women and children at Lucknow, are given as 1,000 ; and thence
arises the question of force. HAVELOCK started with 2,500 men.
We may assume that with 1,500 leas he will start on his return to
Cawnpore. As he had to fight his way to Lucknow, he will, in all
prabability, have to fight it back again to Cawnpore, and what will be
his position when he gets there ? It must be clear upon reflection that
" all "is not yet " over." We shall find a second Delhi in Oude, and
there we shall not have a single garrisoned town to watch andbom-
bard, but we shall find a fortress in every mud hut, and a garrison in
every village. The people are against us to a man ; they are well
armed ; they are active ; they detest our rule, and will die sooner than
submit. We have no alternative, then, but;the complete and crush-
ing conquest of the country. To achieve this, we shall require an
army, not a brigade, and what are HAVELOCK'S prospects as to re-
inforcements?
If we turn from Oude to Central India, to Bombay, to Scinde, and
again to the Punjaub frontiers, we find nothing but fresh out-
, more plots and mutinies, frequent executions, aud apprehension,
A, and disturbanceevery where. And yet, because we have captured
stronghold of the enemy, this irritation, though its continuance para.
all our movements, and threatens a further tremendous outburst,

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 14, 1857.

is held to be merely local, the neck of the rebellion is declared to be
broken, and we are congratulated upon the speedy pacification of
India!
The official summary of news published by the East India Com-
pany, and printed in our Postscript. bears such obvious marks of a
design apparently upon the part of Mr. ANDERSON to make things plea-
sant, that not the slightest reliance can be placed upon half his state-
ments. The Delhi mutineers, he tells us, " fled," some to Rohilcund,
some to Nluttra, and some towards Oude. One portion of them are
caught by our columns, and they stood a severe thrashing, with a loss
of 400 men. A force to enter upon an engagement and stand such a
loss could not have been seriously disorganised. Then he tells us that
Lucknow is " relieved," and that " order appears to to be restored " in
Bengal ! In that case the army of relief may as well re-embark at
once for England. In Bombay everthing is quiet, with the excep-
tion of " an outbreak of Bheels," and the discovery of " plots " against
the Government in the army. The Punjaub is perfectly tranquil,
except that " some predatory tribes " have interrupted the postal com-
munication—an act, by the way, that mere predatory tribes most
rarely indulge in—and, finally, " all has remained quiet in Scinde,"
except that " the state of the frontier " is not " satisfactory," and only
" less gloomy " than it was a fortnight before. Why, at this rate of ad-
missions well qualified, we may safely assert that the whole of India is
tranquil, " except " that an insurrection is raging over two-thirds of
the country. Do not let us deceive ourselves—we are not yet out of
the wood ; and it remains to be shown that the practical application of
the army of relief will be so speedy and sure as to insure us prompt
relief from the apprehensions we are justified by events in
entertaining.

Certain of the American journals are offering us reflections on the
monetary crisis of a nature more practical than pleasant. Those
classes who have failed to find in baseless speculation the means of ex-
travagant luxury are very likely, we are told, to organise a general crusade
against the honest part of mankind, and to redeem their broken
fortunes by the seizure of a province or an island. They do things on
a grand scale in America. Such a contingency, too, is spoken of with
considerable self-complacency. The " emigrants " would not consist
of that " scum " which seems, in an American's opinion, an invariable
characteristic of European society. No, they would embrace all the
trades and professions we used to count on our waistcoat buttons at
school, and would start up a ready-made commonwealth with all its
parts complete. The fortunate countries over whom this tide of immi-
gration would first be rolled are, of course, Central America and Cuba,
and we need not say we wish them joy of the prospect. It does not, how-
ever, seem to occur to our self confident cousins that there are two
parties to the realisation of this future ; and that, whatever we may
think about the spread of Anglo-Saxon blood, we shall hardly see
friendly States despoiled to furnish a host of swindlers and spend-
thrifts with the means of resuscitating their luxury.

Rumours are afloat of an intention on the part of Government to
enlist French and Belgian soldiers in the British service. We have
heard them with considerable disgust, though we must own with little
surprise. Flectere si nequeo, Svc., is a maxim on which certain friends
of the foreigner would not blush to act, and organs can readily be
found to advocate such measures when the leading ones have been
tried in vain. To steal a march upon the country while Parliament
was not sitting is conduct quite consistent with some we have already
witnessed. But we trust, if there be any truth in these reports. that
this contemplated act of injustice to thousands of meritorious men
may yet be nipped in the bud.

We can fully sympathise with the feelings of an eloquent and
accomplished scholar, who, with the dignified title of professor, is per-
forming the drudgery of a fourth•form schoolmaster. The irksome-
ness of such a position would alone be a sufficient excuse for any ebulli-
tion of personal feeling. Professor BLACKIE, however, who the other
day delivered one of his periodical protests against his own degrada-
tion, rises above mere selfish indignation, and has uttered truths
which the commercial classes of this country would do well to take to
heart. It is perfectly true, as the Times says, that merchants will not
spare their sons away from the counting-house after sixteen or seven-
teen years of age. But we are unwilling to accept this circum-
stance, like the leading journal, as a fait aecompli with which
it is perfectly useless to contend. The tone of mercantile
morality at the present day is one to excite the anxiety of
all thoughtful persons. The contempt for intellectual culture,
united with an excessive indulgence in material luxury, which
distinguishes but too large a number of our modern millionaires, tp.)
far from being treated as an inevitable, and not wholly discreditable
feeling, should be encountered with all tho opposition which litera-
ture, and the press as a part of literature, is capable of offering. We
have reason to believe that these feelings are peculiarly deep-rooted
in Scotland. How far the defects of Scottish scholarship and the
general carelessness of its acquisition may react upon each other
cannot be calculated with exactness. But they probably do so react ;
and if either the one or the other could be effectually remedied, we
have no doubt that sonic of Professor BLAcittE's aspirations might be
realised. That gentleman, however, would do well to recollect on

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