The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-19 00:00:00

THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 19, 1857.

battle. Sure enough on the morning of the 18th
they evactuterl the place, and the native teachers
were liberated. Hunonian, a wealthy Hindoo
zemindar, befriended them until they got to a place
of safety.
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With regard to the present position of affairs and
the nature of the intelligence brought by this mail,
Mr. Hay is decidedly of opinion that Delhi will not
be taken before November or December. He has
visited Delhi. The fort is built after the native
fashion. Heavy guns would soon batter down its
walls. Unfortunately the guns which were sent to
batter them down were captured by the rebels at
Phillour. When Mr. Hay left Allahabad the Eng-
lish troops before Delhi were scarcely able to hold
their own; although always beating the mutineers
in every attack they had slightly receded from their
original position. It takes nearly fifty days for
troops to get to Delhi from Calcutta. Mr. Hay was
seventeen days getting to the latter place from Alla-
habad. He got down to Calcutta in a steamboat.
While he was on the voyage Sir Norman Leslie and
other officers were massacred near Dinapore by
sepoys belonging to the very regiments the mutiny
of which was announced on Monday by electric
telegraph. The assassins of Sir Norman Leslie
were caught, tied up from the backs of elephants to
a gallows, and then swung off. The soldiers of their
own regiments were made executioners, and it was
boasted at the time that one of the assassins was
hung by his own father, in order to show the loyalty
of the regiments. Mr. Hay says that many old
East Indians foretold that these troops would ulti-
mately mutiny, and that there could be no doubt
they sympathised with the assassins of Leslie and
his brother officers. Their turning executioners,
_

and a father hanging his own son, were only a blind.
They were bidir.g their time. Mr. Hay thinks the new s
of the mutiny at Dinapore is bad news, because it
shows that the communications between Calcutta
and Delhi may be interrupted. He thinks also that
the telegraph despatch on Monday did not contain
good news generally from India. It cau hardly be
said that Central India is tranquillised; it must he
only small portions of it. The mutinies at Dina-
pore and in the Bombay Presidency are ominous of
evil.

He was twenty days in Calcutta before be left for
England ; during that time there had been two or
three panics there, and persons living in the out-
skirts had taken refuge in the tort and on board the
ships. Confidence, however, was restored when he
left, owing chiefly to 1,7)0 troops from China that
were landed from the Himalaya. It was at one
time fully expected that the native Mahomedan
servants would rebel in Calcutta. Numbers had
been saying to the European children of whom they
had charge that all the houses in Calcutta would
soon belong to the natives. A converted Brahmin in
Calcutta had been accosted by natives who did not
know of his conversion, and was told that there
would be a general rising in Calcutta, and that the
troops would be assisted by the native servants in
driv:ng out the English. About 5,000 fresh troops
had arrived, and been sent up the country since the
mutiny broke out. They go up by steamers as far as
Allahabad, which is situated at the junction of the
Junina and the Ganges. Mr. Hay, as he was pro-
ceeding to Calcutta, met General Havelock and his
forces going up the country. He considered that
Havelock would, after leaving Cawnpore, proceed to
destroy Nana Sahib at Bhitoor before he went to re-
lieve Lucknow, to prevent Nana from occupying the
rear with any force. Mr. Hay doubts the report of
the death of Nana Sahib, who, he says, is as
cunning as he is cruel; and it is possible that
the account of his suicide is but a ruse adopted
to stave off pursuit. He states that on his passage
to England he met a French officer, a Captain La
Fous, who had been in the Punjaub war, and knew
Nana Sahib intimately, and saw him at Cawnpore
after the mutiny had broken out at Delhi. To show
_ .

the duplicity of this scoundrel, he lamented to Capt.
La Fous the outbreak, and stated that he could
hardly believe it—it was most shameful. Mr. Hay
considers that Agra must have fallen by this time,
unless relieved. Many of the native professors and
graduates of the Government universities and schools
are implicated in the present revolt. Some extra-
ordinary disOosures have yet to be made public on
this matter. Names are mentioned in Calcutta of
persons who it is expected will yet be compromised.
It is expected that Sir Cohn Campbell will proceed
up to Allahabad, or some such central place, where
lie can best superintend the disposal of troops where
they are wanted. The writer asked Mr. Hay
if lie had any doubt as to the ultimate defeat of the
mutineers. He said he bad not the slightest doubt
of their defeat. There are about 21,1X/0 European
troops now up in the north-west provinces. The
Sikhs, he believes, will be faithful ; at least they have
no sympathy with the Mahomedans and Hindoos.
The European troops are now much impeded in
proceeding up the country from Calcutta in conse-
quence of the camping stations having been de-
stroyed by the mutineers.