The Express.
London, England, 1858-01-14 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 14.

WE entirely concur with the 00VE101011,-01-
Emit, of India that " there does not stand
" recorded in the annals of war an achieve-
" meat more truly heroic than the defence of
" the Residency of Lucknow;" we firmly believe,
with him, " thst never has a tale been told which
" will so stir the hearts of Englishmen and English-
" women ma the simple, earnest narrative of Brig'.
" dier Imotmi." At length we know the fall
details of that extraordinary history. The energy
and the daring, the dauntless resolution and the
heroic endurance, the eighty-seven days and nights
of unceasing toil and obstinate resistance, the abso-
lute isolation from the whole outer world, the
weary watching for the rescue that came not, the
long-deferred hopes such as make the heart sick, the
overpowering odds and the ghastly mortality, the ten-
der devotedness of the women and the iron hardihood
of the men—all are set before us in that admirable
narrative with the modest simplicity of a brava
heart and the lucid brevity of a clear head. Let as
endeavour to trace a brief outline of this grand
historical picture.

On the 30th of last June, Sir HENRY LAWRENCE,
having received information (purposely falsified)
that an inconsiderable detachment of the rebel army I
were advancing on Lucknow, marched forth at the
head of a small force to meet them. He had been
deceived as to the force of the enemy—he was mis-
informed as to their position. He came suddenly
upon a numerous army, and at once, in spite of
the disparity of numbers, proceeded to the attack.
Then the treason became manifest. The Onde artil-
lery, which formed his main reliance, refused to act.
The men overturned the guns into ditches and cut
the traces of their horses. All that valour or skill
could do was effected, but Fir Homy was obliged
to fall back with considerable lose. His original in-
tention had been to hold both the Residency at
Lucknow and a neighbouring fort, called the
Muchhee Bhowun. The lass he had sustained ren-
dered this impossible : the fort was blown up, and
the whole garrison concentrated in the Residency.
Had this not been done, the defence of Lucknow
would have been impossible. The place was in-
vested en the lit of July ; on the 2nd, Sir HILNIIT
was mortally wounded by the explosion of a shell
thrown with fatal precision of aim into a room of
the Residency ; and on the 4th he died. The
command then devolved on Brigadier Hrous.

The position of the Residency, when invested, was
anything but retasuring. Only two batteries were
completed; considerable portions of the defences
were left unfinished ; the neighbouring buildings
were left standing--some of them within easy pistol
shot of the British barricades. The enemy, who
seem throughout to have shown a very consider-
able amount of engineering skill, were not slow in
making the most of these advantages. They
occupied the nearer buildings, made loopholes in the
side which bore upon the Residency, and with no
lees than 8,000 men kept up night and
day a terrific and incessant fire, which canoed
constant casualties, and from which no single spot
in the whole range of the British works could be
considered rate. Within fifty yards of our
fence, the rebels soon succeeded in getting from 20
to 25 inns into position, some of them of very large
calibre. They so skilfully erected barricades in
front of these guns that all attempts to silence them
by muskets wen entirely unavailing, while against
shells they were effectually protected not only by
their extreme proximity, but also by the expedient
of digging In the rear of each gun " very narrow
" trenches, about eight feet in depth, in which the
0 men lay while our shells were flying, and which so
" effectually concealed them, even while working
" the guns, that our baffled sharpshooters could
" only see their hands while in the act of
" loading." Night and day, for nearly three
soothe, an incessant and destructive fin was kept
up against the garrison from these terribly close
quarters, varied only by the explosion of mines,
followed up by general assaults. Of these there were
four, one on tke 20th of July, another on the 10th of
August, a third on the 18th, and the fourth and Lot
on the bth of September. The issue of all these
assaults was uniform. The vehement ardour of the
native onset, though seconded by an overwhelming
prepondennes of numbers, was dashed back, as the
sea-spray from the rock, by the indomitable hardi-
hood of British gallantry. These concerted attacks
would have boon far more auserems but for the
imomant vigilance of the besieged in watching
and blowing op the enemies' mimes before they
were completed. In this labour, and in that of con-

strutting countermines, the exertions of the little
garrison were indefatigable. The enemy, hopeless of
overcoming their tried valour in fight, attempted to
weary them out by incessant watching. Night
' after night, they raised alarms—tiring heavily,
sounding the advance, and shouting for hours toge-
ther. It was necessary on these occasions, which
were of almost nightly occurrence, for the whole gar-
rison to stand at their arms, and remain at their
poets till the demonstration had ceased ; for through-
out the siege no part of the works was strong enough
to allow of a portion only of the gentian being pre-
pared for resistance. " Owing to the extreme paucity
" of our numbers," writes Brigadier Inoue, " each
" man was taught to feel that on his own individual
" efforts alone depended in no mull mania the
" safety of the entire position. This consciousness in-
" cited every officer, soldier, and man to defend the
" post assigned to him with such:desperate tenacity,
" and to fight for the lives which Providence had en-
" trusted to his care with such dauntless determine.-
" tioo, that the enemy, despite their mutant attacks
" their heavy mines, their overwhelming numbers,
" and their incessant fire, could never gain an inch
" of ground within the bounds of this straggling
" position, which was so feebly fortified that had
" they ever obtained a footing in any of the out-
" posts, the whole place must inevitably have fella."
For eighty even days and nights this incessant
privation, hardship, and anxiety went on unabated.
One of the most trying circumstances of their po-
intim) was its absolute isolation. They knew literally
nothing of what was going on beyond the circle of
fire which incessantly blued around them. Whether
India was lost or won ; whether they were alone in
their heroic resistance; whether rescue might be ex-
pected, or whether they were to fall unrelieved
and unrevenged, were points on which they were
utterly and profoundly in the dark. It was the
twenty-sixth day of the siege before any tidingawhat-
ever reached them from without. Then a messenger
brought the good news that Havriocit was
at hand, and might be expected in five or
six days. This was at the latter end of July—
the date of HA VILOCK'S first and unsuccessful attempt
at rescue. The messenger was sent back with a
request that when the relieving army approached
the outskirts of the city, two rockets might be sent
up to ►nnounce the coming deliverance. Alas !
" The sixth day expired, and they came not, but for
0 many evenings after officers and men watched for
" the ascension of the expected rockets with hopes
" such as make the heart sick." Let the sciolists
who tell us that poetry has taken wing from the
modern life of man, think, if they are capable of
thought, on that night-watch from the ramparts of
Lucknow. It was not till nearly* mouth afterwards—
on the 23th of August—that the besieged learnt why
it was that the rockets had never been sent up
against that western sky, and this communication,
which conveyed the tardy tidings of HAVELOCK'S
first retreat, was the last which the garrison received
till the arrival of HAVELOCK and OUTRAN on the
26th of September.
And so, in hardship and in watching, "in alter-
" nate vicissitudes of extreme wet and intense heat,
" with very insufficient shelter from either, and in
" many places without any shelter at ell," the heroic
garrison held on. The women were worthy of the
men ; their patient endurance, their cheerful resig-
nation, their constant and tender solicitude at the
bedsides of the wounded and the dying, will never die
away from the recollections of a grateful country.
All were animated by the same spirit. The civilians,
in courage and constancy,showed themselves scarcely,
if at all, inferior to the soldiery. Of the soldiery it
is impossible to speak too highly. The devotion and
courage of British troops in India have become so
mach the rule that we take it almost as a matter of
course that the glorious 32nd (now barely 300
strong) and the residue of the Europeans in Luck-
now should have showed that they knew well " how
"to die for their country." But the loyalty of the
31st, 48th, and 71st Nair* regiments--a
loyalty which, in the deliberate opinion of Bri-
gadier bottle, " hse surer been surpassed"—
was not equally to be reckoned on. These men had
abundant temptations to be faithlees. They were
ill-fed, worse lodged. They were so near the enemy
that conversation could be carried on between them,
and, as might have been expected, " every effort,
" persuasion, promise, and threat was alternately
resorted to, in vain, to seduce them from their all.-
" giance to the handful of Europeans who, in all
" probability, would have been sacrificed by their
" desertion." And yet these men never wavered for
a moment. Of all the extraordinary circumstances
connected with this memorable siege this probably is
the most astonishing. We are glad to observe that an
order has been issued by the Govitanot-Oxivemti in
Council awarding the order of merit, with increase of
pay and the permission to count three years addi-
tional service, to every native oomminioned officer
and soldier who has formed part of this heroic gar-
rison.

Such was the defence of Lricknow--a defenoe un-
paralleled in modern history—such were the events
of which, u the GOVERNOR-GENERAL in Council well I
says, " the fellow-countrymen of the heroes of
" Locknow will read with swelling hearts, and
" which will endure for ever as a lesson to thou who
" shall hops by treachery, numbers, or boldness in
" their treason to overcome the indomitable spirit of
" Englishmen."

A 11.0111INTAILT Prison—a prison held in seig-
niory by a noble Duke under a charter bearing date
in the reign of Jeros L, and confirmed in the reign
of CHAILLa 11.—a prima perched in the ruined keep
ot a feudal castle—a prison in which no food, no
fuel, no water, no medical attendance, and no reli-
gion. instruction is supplied to the unfortunate in-
Mates—all this would sound absurdly incredible in
fiction, but is neither more nor lees than a literal
matter of fart. The prison in question is the
Debtors' Gaol at Swansea—its noble owner is the
Duke of Buscroir. As to its condition, it must be
only too notorious at headquarters, though
it comes with the freshness of surprise on
the general public. For the last fourteen
years successive Secretaries of State have been
memorialised on the subject of this grow abomina-
tion, and in the 18th Report of her ALuitorr's
Inspectors of Prisons we find the most recent of
these unheeded complaints. There it is, chapter
and verse, precisely as we have stated it. " The
" prison," reports the persevering and unregarded

Inspector, " consists of the ruined keep 0! the Castle
"of Swansea, divided into four roc's:. Theo rooms
" consist of the mere walls, no furniture whatever
" being allowed to the prisoners. They are very
" cold in winter, but no fael is furnished for warming
" them. No food is allowed; but the prisoners' Mends,
"if they have any, are permitted to feed them. If,
" however, they are not so fortunate, they must
" depend upon the intercession of some person
" with the parish to procure for them a pittance for
" their maintenance, and their chance of medical at-
" tendance in sickness depends on the same precarious
" assistance. There is not even any water within
" their reach, the supply of this necessary of life
" being entirely dependent upon the occasional visits
" of a gaoler residing in a distant part of the town.
" I have not been able to learn that any religious in-
" etructor has ever been seen within the prison.
" The prison is the property of his Grace the Duke
" of BEAUFORT, who has the custody of all debtors,
" except those committed by the County Courts, by
" virtue of his lordship of the seigniory of Gower
" and Kil:ey."
This is such an astonishing picture of a gaol in-
terior, in the heart of this age of philanthropy,
model prisons, and reformatories, that we have trans-
ferred it unaltered from the canvass of the official
artist, who cannot be suspected of that tendency to
exaggeration which all constituted authorities are fond
of attributing to the representations of the press.
No food, no water, no fire, no medicine in sickness,
no consolation in despondency—such is the cheerful
prospect held out to those who become tenants under
dunes of the law to the most noble the Lord
of Gower and Kilvey in the ruined keep of his
castle of Swansea. A further light was thrown
upon the attractions et this pleasant spot by
an investigation which took place one day last
week before the learned Commissioner of the
Bankruptcy Court at Bristol. An unlucky linen-
draper of Swansee—one EVAN Dsvixs—who had
spent about six weeks in this manorial stronghold of
the PITZEOTS, was examined with regard to the
alleged misappropriation of a couple of sovereigns,
which had been furtively brought to him in the
Keep by a trusty shopboy. The money clearly be-
longed to the creditors, and as clearly had been ex-
pended by the bankrupt on his own account. It
became necessary to ace under what circumstances
this was done. The bankrupt's short and somewhat
forcible justification was, that if he had not spent
this money he must have starved. He had laid
it out in procuring the barest necessaries of life.
"After reoeiviog this 40s. I had to pay for fetching
"food and water. There was no allowance whatever
" made to the prisoners ; not even straw to lie upon.
" My friends afterwards sent me a bed. The part of the
"gaol where I was confined had several broken panes
"in it. It was in a very filthy state, and was never
" swept except by myielf. The rain came in through
" the roof." When the messenger of the court came to
discharge the prisoner, under an order of release, he
had some difficulty in discovering the place of the
man's confinement. It was approached "by a
" plank across a sort of ditch." " Though I knew
"Swansea well, I was about theca hours finding it
" out." "It is without exception the most wretched
" and miserable place one could ever dream of. It
" is nothing but a ruin."
There, my Lord Duke of BRAUPORT—there, Mr.
SECRETARY for the Hong DEPARTMENT, are a few
plain facts for you. How long is this to last? A
seigneurial right to starve prisoners in a ruined Keep
is not one that will hold water now-a-days, though
the charter on which it is founded " bears date in the
" fifth year of Janes 1., and was confirmed by an
hispeximw in the thirty-third year of CHARLES IL"
A privilege that might approve itself to the
insperimus" of a STUART will not bear the
inspection of a free and intelligent public.
There must be a speedy end made of this seigneurial
right. We cannot afford, for the credit of our common
civilisation, to keep his Grace of BEAtTroxr in the
luxury of a ruined prison, though held under a manorial
right, at the expense of the broken constitutions and
protracted sufferings of the miserable debtors who fall
within the gripe of his seigniory. Surely the Duke
of BeAuroar can have no wish to perpetuate such
a nuisance ; surely Sir OEOROZ Our, after this
public and flagrant exposure, will feel himself im-
pelled to take measures for its instant and effectual
suppression.

Comama Dissosuii.—At the annual meet-
lag of the Glasgow Young Men's Christian Association,
bald as Monday evening, Mr. Baxter, who presided, in the
coarse of his speech, nethrked :—" As a British merchant
feel Maned to bang down my hied when readof the
wholesale tobbary perpetrated on tha public by men occupy-
ing high peahens in the meroantile world, and of the &ma-
ths aliorath ker carrying on a system of plunder by too many
of oar beaks. Both in theory and in practice there tea
hoes morality prevalent in trading circles, which must be
frowned down and reprobated by the community, or it will
Mem • cancer eating into the very heart of our national
ty. I restart to think that vary few men amid for
the place pat their nem to • bill for which value had
sot been received wYboat having a certain still small voice
rebuttal( the deed • sad yet how many of otherwise
peoschabie abash seem em rely to rerhand that, what-
ever the law may sup ea the sa4sot—satl feel the diScalty,
Hest the hapmelhatty, of mime the MI by legislation—
ethey emelt treasseekm le • grand. May Ibe permitted to
a hope that this sad exposure at othathad reddens
expect and personal eahaveg may epos
us all men deeply the kali, r wall as the athh of de-
parting from the path of coalmen:Lel Integrity, and of for-
MIL" pain( all other considerations in oar too great haste to get
IaPAN.—" The Emperor of 'Rpm," mys a letter
from that country in the Pays " has, by a deem of the 26th
October Mt, appointed Prince Hayashi high imperial com-
missioner of the three pores of Nagmaki, iimoda, and litho-
dadi. In that capacity the management of relations with
foreigners will be maded to him, and for his gaidenoe the
Emperor has canoed to be drawn up a series of regulations,
Axing the hematites to be observed' by foreigners who want
to take np their rieldence in the ports opened to them,
the name in which they are to carry on trade, and
the privileges their consuls are to enjoy. Thom regale-
thus are of a liberal character, and are In wooed-
moo with the spirit sad latter of treaties. Ths_peesest Em-
peror is a very enlightened man, and Prince Hayashi, who
=all kis madam, I. also Intelligent, tree hors me-
against lorelthmes, and blows several Earepeth lan-
ig=When the Americans we here, they parented the
ce with models of a railway, end with • small electric
telegraph. His Majesty was greatly 'Weed with both, end
had the latter flthi4banhis palate; he themes* under-
stands it, and OS its importance. He bat ordered
that • line of shall be ocostructed from Jeddo, his
capital, to itheoda, Prince Hayashi Is to reeide:

MONUMENT TO GENERAL iIATELOCZ AT BON-
D saLAND.—It is Warr to erect a mosiumint to re nor
wry et General Harter, in Sunderland, him native town.
Zed Tame 1r eesprel to thor who have ineremrd then-
mmir• liar. mar, int the MIONNEIist le WNW to the
saw perms is re ridgy of Illimmeemirerneeb ; that •
isleiderma be re at to be Imbed le re raiimin in-
habit" e
nd these mairmlei rib Neety Dritam ;
mind OM tree arid be • Ur to re mama entacrip-
dem me Ike el time hamsemerminte. near is to
in bre& Lao il Town Omura ea Wed-
weft umr. The dle peperd ter the reed= of the
mane mint le en re MI In re Peaph's Pm* emrserling
a row be New Mr dre Cionamit O. Om pmem of
the Tyne, re Immilereeb, end tbe Tam inr. ...herr •
non
601. ibrr
fedi. of genernms hare cane to meburfbe the nun
at

auxin/ D.—On 'fileettiseT Mthilleleat Ur. H.
Thant teetered In this Sews ea Lima
eaudesing the people ageing sawing the 1111•1111111111 peed-
sage of India to per whim* cossideratios bib the basis et
the govenosast. The loam% which Wed =.O
Douse, wee !Teased to by a large end deportable
with eager attention. On the motion of Mr. Janina%
ireeNd
sikushitiVr. J. H. Rattan, a petition to parlessoe TM
y praying for an works of the
satrap to the dross, rote by ballot, dhlbeetedle•
mist et seise and corrupt boroughs, sad urging the dells of
the &Wet of Gonewsd, cosrdsg upwards of 21,00
shabeests, to be emelitated a parliamentary borough.
UltltraslTY bITILLIGISNCE.--CANIBIDG hit.
IL—The Mowing TM be sallied, at szsralsation at the go-
otarlirepreeless eseashastles la the Lest Took 1839 —The
et
Close de M et. Matthew
Book ,
_Homer. Died, Books 111.asd IV.
I*