The Express.
London, England, 1859-01-24 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY- 24, 1859.

LITERATURE.

Racellsetions qf a Wintar Campaign in India. By
Captain 0. J. Jos's, B, N. tisanders and Otley.

The war in India has hitherto been very deficient
in one feature, which greatly enhanced the interest
taken by the British public in that which has so
lately terminated in the Crimea—namely, the flood
of private correspondence which, ultimately finding
its way into the public journals, made us familiar
with a thousand stirring incidents, a thousand
presions deeds of bravery, a thousand instances of
the way in which the best qualities of the human
heart are often brought out amid scenes of blood and
e ; matters which could never ham seen the
light we been trusting to the formal summary
of the official despatch, or the wide, general view of
the " special" correspondence. We shall not soon
forget the numberless letters of the private soldiers,
so greedily perused at the time, so well remembered
now, and so sure to prove of immense value by and
by, when. the Macaulay of the period sets about
collecting his materials for a luminous history of
the war. From India we ham had hithertd
Lew or none of these gratifying, hope-inspiring,
characteristic letters. Whether it be that the wea-
-1 they is too hot in that country for pen mercies,
or that the distance is too great, or that the soldiers
are too key or too weary, we cannot tell, but the
Abet balsa we ere them sompletely on the official
dispatches and the letters of the regular corm-
vondents of the London papers for all our informa-
tion respecting a campaign which, whether we re-
gard the theatre in which it is being enacted, the
mighty interests at stake, or the number of English-
men actually engaged in it, must be admitted to be
far more interesting to the English public than the
short year's fighting which terminated with the
ca tare a of Sebutopol.
fain Jones has now broken the ice. If we can-
not ve the soldiers' or the sailors' letters, he is
resolved that we shall have a few from an officer,
who, having nothing better to do, determined to go
over to India, join the army as an amateur, and run
the chance of getting shot or sabred by the &pays
as often as the rules of the service would permit. As
a fine hearty sailor, Captain Jones very properly
looked upon battles, sieges, and assaults in
the "imminent deadly breach " only as so
many " sprees " to be enjoyed ; and, actuated
by that sincere and earnest love of"sprees" for which
the British tar bee been since time immemorial

distinguished, he contrived, during the short space
of seven months,to get into as many charges, battles,
and assaults as many men would find sufficient had
they been regularly commissioned, paid, and pro-
moted for the risk. 'fhe letters in which the stalwart
captain's—we say stalwart, because being favoured
with a portrait of him in the title-page, we are
enabled to form a proximate idea of our author's
physical development—adventures are recorded are
not of very high literary pretension, nor hays they
been written with the slightest view to future effect.
We are told all about the storm on board the
Colombo, and of the fine seaman-like conduct of
Captain Field, whom the naval officer does not think
it necessary to all "skipper," as a snob who acci-
dentally held her Majesty's commission would do,
and of all the people he met, what he thought of
them, and how they received him. When he arrives
at Alexandria he finds the Semitic juvenile actuated
by aa insane a desire to take temporary possession of
your carpet-bag as his Teutonic equivalent at Rams-
gate or Folkestone, and he is u much pushed about
when getting his ticket for the Cairo Railway as if
the scene had been London-bridge and the time the
morning of the Derby day. Having at length, after
much pushing and striving, got a seat in the train
amongst a lot of Arabs whom he does not find to be
the pleasantest company in the world, the captain
starts for the shores of the Red Sea, and finds .is
route his early training as a midshipman of immense
use in enabling him to swallow the extraordinary
refreshments which were all the most vigorous
scrambling enabled him to procure. In due time he
arrives at Calcutta, where he has much difficulty in
getting lured on to the camp, every horse, am, and
camel having been secured beforehand by the go-
vernment for the transport of troop,. At length he
obtains the quadrupedal necessaries, and in addi-
tion a biped indispensable, whom he christens
" Malakoff," and whose portrait, which is giveh in
the book, does not say very much for the per-
sonal beauty of our Oriental fellow-subjects.
When at last arrived at the scene of
action the Captain briefly alludes in his letters to
what he sees, and is most particular in telling his
friends at home what acquaintances he has made,
whom he shakes hands with, and who most frequently
asks him to luncheon. We do not allude to this in

any spirit of hostile criticism, but on the contrary,
as a proof of the genuineness of the letters, and as
calculated to give greater value to certain points in
them which we are about to notice, and which we
take to be of some value, as straws thrown up to
show the way in which the wind actually site in our
eastern empire. Here we find a British naval officer,
who, having nothing better to do, goes to the seat
of war for his amusement, and who, mixing
in friendly and intimate terms with his
brethren of the sister service, rapidly acquires their
tone of thinking end speaking, and unconsciously
expresses the real sentiments with which they regard
the native races. We find everywhere the Hindoo
celled "Nigger," and very often have little incidents
described which show that his position is not much
better than that of the original " Nigger," in the
United States. The most sanguineryfeehngs towards
the doomed race are everywhere expressed, end Sir
Charles Napier is quoted as saying that the proper
place for an Englishman's sword is" up to the hilt in
the heart of a Nigger." Be it remembered too, that if
this ever was said, it must have been said
before the mutiny. An officer who had killed
eleven " Nigger," with his own hand is exalted into
a pattern for heroes, and the captain himself, who
only joins in the fighting as an amateur, is not
atoned until at least one barrel of his revolver has
done duty by "rolling over" one or two of the
enemy. Allowances must, of course, be made for the
circumstances under which our English soldiers and
sailors went into this war; but still we must remem-
ber that they are English soldien and sailors—that
their officers ere, or ought to be, Christian gentle-
men ; and therefore we cannot bat feel a little un-
comfortable when we read these unconscious evi-
dences of a ferocity of feeling in these parts towards
the unfortunate, deluded population of India, which
we fear, to put higher considerations out of the
question, will very much retard the solid pacifica-
tion of that country. There are in that country two
hundred millions of human beings who have in one
way or another been brought under our rule. Out
of that number an army of 100,000, whom we had
been petting, and spoiling, and pampering for years,
at last revolted, and one native king and one
native prince were guilty of atrocities for
which they deserved to be hanged. But
are the whole two hundred millions of peaceful
people to be branded as "Niggers" on that account,
are they to be shot like dogs when and where they
are met with, and are our brave English soldiers to
reckon up the number of them which they "pot," as
the sportsman at home would his snipe or his par-
tridge? Rebellion must be put down with the
strong hand, and blood must not be spared where its
effusion is necessary ; but what we object to is the
tone of military feeling in India which thispassing
traveller at once gets into, and which he adopts in
his letters, quite unconscious that he is using any
but the most ordinary language. We call attention
to these points, if it were only that her Majesty's
, gracious proclamation of amnesty may be allowed to
have its full effect in reclaiming her errant Indian
subjects. Of what use kind and gracious words
from the Sovereign, if her representatives on the
spot habitually treat the natives as dogs, call them
• "Nigger*" and deem them worse, and perpetually
cons the hanging, shooting, and "looting" of
'• them the legitimate province and privilege of the
British soldier? They murdered—treacherously,

baseir, eraelly murdered a few hundreds of our race
at the essuessiosment of the outbreak l bat we ham
sine* destroyed a hundred thousand of them in terri-
ble retribution. Has there not, then, been enough
of expiatory blood shed? and in it not time
that our brave soldiers should begin to re-
member their chivalry, and to entertain some
feelings of mercy towards the conquered ?
Captain Jones is a naval officer, brought up from
youth on the quarter-deck of a man-of-war, a rough
school. and where a man is not likely to learn fas-
tidious delicacy with respect to the infliction of pain.
Bat although the captain soon learns to call the
natives of Fndia " Niggers," although he can exult
like his military friends at the number he may have
" potted," or the frequency with which he has " notched
his sword on their thick skulls," he sees some things
going on which even his strong stomach cannot
digest, as, for example :
After the tunnel was over, we wait to Farrukabad to see
the mention of the ephameil king. Poor wretch, he only
=jive hie usurpation for a my few hours.
hiet is a street which runs through the whole
length el the atlialwhielt le divided by six or semi pm
ways, se on, headsets.. Close to the middle re grew a
ill% NM this, from its arra position, wee ohms for
seeds I assist ef ausalcxo:o. of the breathes of the teesbeing
ethe the
We arm ma harm mead onset* both of airier
mast said the lihr far the our, bestir •
ors4a tom sit asimiela ember.
pea
lave Or, ea•
w ader 111 merles r
' that astllsa, apeolally a • rasa td ma, Sao
would have bra same assereas sal istasy et behavior ;
but on the eadrery, sea perk seemed to think very
lightly of it, sad wen erre Ask ghee sad maim thew
Aso.
dim country people ems lop with Km poultry, which
was seized and sold by • meek asiden, by sn case Ming
es aserreser; is the awe el width good fun the guard
with the wrist ernier.
He wee tied dawn i• • elaspey—s sort of maths bed-
asai—sai emir wake as Isla tree, upon which he oat
ma sailor look when ha saw the aria seependcd there-
from.
He was than stripped, flogged, and hanged. He had on
handsome shawl, whrnh an officer took pommel= of on the
spot—en action which requires no comment.
The man behaved with great firmness. While the rope
was being edjasteloa moldier struck him on the face; upon
which be turned round with great fierceness, and said—
" Had 1 had • sword In my band, you dared not have struck
that blow;' his last words before he was launched into
eternity.
We quite agree with the gallant captain that such
actions ' require no comment," and we trust that,
although noted by him as mere ordinary incidents of
the war, it does not often occur that a British officer
" loots," or a British soldier strikes on the face a
dying criminal. Of a very different character is the
following anecdote of the brave Brigadier Franks,
who may be justly termed one of the Paladins of the
British army in India:
ha sasedots 1 was told of General Franke by one of the
offices of the 10th will give as good • picture of the men as
volumes coma. When he first eucceaded to the commend el
the 10th, some things did not come up to his Swot *Sal-
m°, tad dhdpUne, sad he set to work to oared what he
thought wrong Is a determined manner ; and, as Is as
the ass wires people head book our Iris *are Irregu-
larities, he got proportionally abased, and a report got about
that some of his men Intended to shoot berths first Use, they
went into action. Soon afterwards we had the strtzlim to
ode
the Portal), and just before going into arks he
his men, saying—" 1 hear some of you mean to shoot ore ;
all I can say is, if you fire in the direction Igo, you will do
no hum ;" and so bravely end well did he lead then rep to
the enemy, that ever since no regiment bra been awe prosd
of its colonel than the gallant 10th are of the stria, though
undaunted Franks.
There are in the book some interesting particulars
respecting the last moments of Bir William Peel,
which can only add to the previous high estimation
in which the memory of that distinguished officer is
held by the British public, and several stories of a
lighter and highly amusing character; but we repeat
that its great value consists in its phraseology and
turn of expression, being an unconscious reflex of
the British meaner and teeing with reference; to the
natives of India, and as such is well worthy the
attention of those who are entrusted with the paci-
fication and permanent government of that country.

MEATH or M. HENRY HALLAx.—The hint
Ana of the Middle Ages, of &nivel of Letters, end of the
English Comadtiatioe, died on Saturday last,
at the age of 81. He .haTfeltitibtliew of his companions
behind him, and, ',More than this," &merest the Tines,
"it wail his bitter fate to outlive those who should have come
due him, to see two eons of rare promise, who should
have preserved his name, go before him, the pride of his
Ids matched from his eyes, tho delight of his old age laid
low is the dust of death. One of them • wee that Arthur
Henry Hallam, who died in 1833, and t whom Tennyson
didkrtid the remarkable series of poems which have been
published under the title of In Memoriam.' The
bereaved father wee broken-hearted for his son, and spoke of
his hopes on this side the tomb being struck down for ever.
A year or two afterwards, when he produced ,the Intro-
duction to the Literature of Europe,' there appeared a most
Effecting pesesge in the preface, which, to those who knew
him, intoned the hidden grief that was preying on his
mind. He referred to the imperfection of hie work, to the
impossibility of rendering it complete under any &cum-
I and to theespecial impossibility of his doing
stiacir'i have other warnings,' he said, 'to bind up my
shaveswhile I may—my own advancing years, and the
gathering in the heavies.' His hopes, however, revived es
kb younger eon grew up to manhood, and seemed to promise
not low then the accomplished youth whom his father had
471=1and trot without reason, as an only one without
r' But this eon oleo, Henry Piternautios
was taken from him shortly after he had been called to the
bar to 1830, and the poor bereaved father buried him in
Clervedon church, in Somersetehire, by the side of his
brother, sad his sister' and his mother. He selected the
place, as he lays in his meraoir of the elder eon, ' not only
from the consexion of kindred, but on account of its .till
and seriosetered situation on a lone hill that overhangs the
Bristol Channel; It is to this hill, and to this Channel,
and to this grave to which now Merriman@ of the old, Imre-
broken' father are to be added, that Tennyson nice to the
most pathetic of We poems—

'And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the bill!
' But, 0 for the touch of a vanished hand
'And the sound of a voice that is still!
' Break, break, break,
' At the loot of thy crags, 0 sea!
But the tender gram of a day that is dead
Will never come back to ZOO.'
There ate few literary men who have reached an einkanca
to be compared with that of Mr. Hallam, of whose personal
history so little Is known to the great public. That he was
born in or shout 1778, that he was educated at Eton, that
from Eton he pamed to Christchurch. Oaford, end that at
this university he took Lis degree in 1799, are almost all the
facts of his early life which have been published. After
leaving the university he took up his residence in London,
joined himself to the whip, and acquired his first reputation
as a contributor to the great Whig Review astabli,hed in the
northern metropolis."
Tll6 PROFESSED BORE.—The gods take care of
CNA/ I That may be said in truth of the professed bore,
" who comes, and sees, and conquers l" He knows he is •
bow, and modes upon it. I have two bores who haunt me,
male end female. They began in Kildare street, they con-
tinue it in Paris, and they will pursue me to the Pontine
Mamba

-
They stop the cheetah. end ten board the heti.
Well, I gm nodes in the pate's lodge that Insole would
be "at home "to Mr. W.—die, and would never be out"
to the Baron Humboldt. bias, miladi," said the
porter, writing on his slats! end so I thought myself secure
of the leseption of the first man in the world In soy (*Woe,
wished

and sae to escape the lest men in the ercWill der N.
to ma. Well, my own servant bung out, the imitator en-
tered, 'amounting Mons. Valdie and complacently present-
Mg me, at the same time, with a little billet written in the
ledge from M. Humboldt! Here It ia M. Humboldt
!arum utallteureux." After such a tontretavips, one has
nothing left but to die, to retire into a convent.—From the
Autobiography of Lady Morgan.
THE IRISH LEGAL LUANGEB.—We undentand
that Mr. Jobs George, Q.C., received the cee=idema of
Ma friends yesterday in the Hall of the Four on his
appointment to the oaks of lioLicitor-Cienenth The gentleman
who has been thus appointed Memoir' Mr. Harm, Q.C., els-
rated to the barna, represented the musty of Wexford from
the year 1862 until the general election of 1867. Hie votes were
always given with the extreme Protestant party,
been recorded on several occasions against
gnat and for the inspection of convents. He has for soma
r. filled the honourable position of father of the lAilleiSr
imr• Mr. George is a gentleman of large landed estate* in
the county of Wexford. He enjoyed considerable practice
on Ma circuit until his appointment se its leading crown
pprraasseeoenator, which necessarily involved his retirement from
busimrs at the civil aide of the maize courts. Mr. George
has the reputation of a lawyer of moderate ability. He ts,
unquestionably, a perfect gentleman; his kindliness of
demeanour hating won for him many friends, end left hint
perhaps without ea enemy, notwithstanding his well-known
end avowed externs political sad religious oplaione.—
Yramsaies Amu&