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

TH E PRESS, SEPTEMBER 19,1857.,

their conveyance with the Pasha. Disappointment
and gloom were depicted on the faces of all on find.
ing it was not the case. I heard from the passengers
that the mail from Bombay of the 15th June had
arrived during their journey to Marseilles, and that
they were detained there two days, in order to give
time for Sir Colin Campbell to join them, who had
on receipt of the news of General Anson's death been
appointed commander-in-chief. The newspapers
gave us intelligence to the 10th July, and though we
heard from them that 14,000 soldiers are by this time
on their way to India, it had no effect in dispelling
our anxiety, as all know and feel that the turning-
point in the great struggle will have taken place
before their arrival. Later intelligence reached us
this morning from England by the Australian mail-
packet via Ceylon, giving news to the 19th ult. from
England. Although 4,000 additional troops were to
he sent in screw steamers via the Cape, we hear
nothing of (what all were so anxiously expecting)
any arrangements being made for sending any through
Egypt. In such a crisis as this days are weeks,
weeks months, and months years. Every European
regiment is worth a small army in ordinary times.
Lord Ellenborough alone has taken a clear
view of matters. It is confidently expected that
after the receipt in England of subsequent mails,
each one of which has exceedei the former in magni-
tude of disaster and danger, he will be sent out as
Governor-General ; and no fitter appointment could
he made. Such an appointment would be hailed
with delight by the European community, and his
name alone would be a tower of strength, and inspire
the minds of the natives with awe. The policy of
Lord Canning in Bengal and of Lord Elphinstone in
Bombay have been from the first precisely the re-
verse of the course adapted to the Asiatic character.
They have endeavoured to blind themselves to the
magnitude of the occasion ; they have been politely
thanking men for barely doing their duty, when they
should have been shaking every available weapon in
the country in their faces, and staggering them by a
display of energy and determination such as they
had never dreamed of. Luckily for them, men have
not been wanting of a better metal. The Lawrences,
Wheeler, Havelock, Neill, Renaud, Van Cortlandt,
Rose, with hosts of others, have nobly done their
country service which nothing can repay.
A great feeling of alarm was prevalent in Bombay
on the Ist inst. The day being a Mussulman festival
a rising of the bazaar rabble was feared, and some
people had apprehensions that the three native regi-
ments now in garrison were not to be trusted. Many
Europeans left their houses, and went within the fort
walls; others went on board the ships in harbour.
This fear is not to be wondered at, nor was it without
foundation : the unwise attitude taken by the Govern-
ment in no way tended to dispel it. Since the early
part of June last the Governor has obstinately
refused to enrol volunteer forces, though the matter
has been pressed on him continually. He relies, it
is supposed, on the supposed knowledge cf all that
goes on in the bazaar by a clever superintendent of
police. On the above date we had only two hundred
European soldiers in garrison, and, in the absence of
any kind of information as to what preparations had
been made in the event of a disturbance, every one
was more or less alarmed, especially as a short time
previously it had transpired that the heads of
Government had places of rendezvous fixed on in
case of an emeute which the public generally were
unacquainted with. Numbers of tradesmen, clerks,
civilians, and others, would be ready to serve in both
cavalry and infantry corps ; and in addition some
2,000 sailors might have been drilled and a large
body of effective men organised by this time, had not
our Governor been so confident that nothing could
happen in Bombay. Luckily for him, her Msjesty's
33rd arrived from the Mauritius just in time to save
him from a responsibility few would like ; for on the
very evening of their landing the remaining two
hundred soldiers of the 86th were ordered away to
quell a mutiny in the 27th N.I. at Kolapore, and had
not the 33rd so opportunely arrived Bombay would
have been without a single English soldier!
When the mutiny broke out in the 27th Regiment
at Kolapore, the newspapers were all directed to be
silent on the subject; and though every native in
Bombay knows of the occurrences through their own
especial channels of communication, the Europeans
alone are deprived of intelligence. What purpose
all this secrecy serves no one knows : it is far better
to boldly state all that has happened, and vow ven-
geance against the perpetrators of the evil.
Rumours are afloat of another regiment being
disaffected at Darwar, or in that direction, and a
portion of the 33rd, with some artillery, have been
sent down the coast. We are kept in a painful state
of suspense on these matters.
All communications to the newspapers which re-
flected on Government have for some time past been
returned. Some titne back, advice was abundantly
offered to the effect that the ladies should be re•
moved from all outstations, and put in places of
security; it was pooh poohed then, but is now being
acted upon. The ladies all left
,Sholapoce a few