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

AUSTRALIA.

THE OVERLAND MAIL

THE MUTINIES IN INDIA.

We have received our advice@ in anticipation of
the Overland Mail. The dates are: Calcutta, Aug.
10; Madras, 17; Ceylon, 21 ; Hong-Kong, July 25 ;
Sydney, July 8 ; Melbourne, July 22.
A considerable portion of the Indian intelligence
brought by this mail has been anticipated in the
Bombay news which we published in the second
edition of the Daily Noes of Sept. 15.
The following is the commentary and summary
of the Calcutta Englishman :
"We fear that when this paper reaches our
English readers, they will throw it away in disgust,
exclaiming,' Out on youowls, nothing but songs of
death. It is with the deepest sorrow that we say
we have nothing else to record. One calamity fol-
lows another, and nothing cheering can be related
save the indomitable spirit everywhere displayed by
British soldiers, which carries them through diffi-
culties otherwise overwhelming. One serious mis-
fortune, and one alone, has occurred to them, which
was in pursuing the mutineers from Dinapore ;
the particulars will be found below. It is a
month at least since a deputation of merchants
interested in property in the neighbourhood of
Dinapore waited on the Governor-General to entreat
that the three native regiments at that station might
be disarmed. The reply was an expremion of con-
fidence in their fidelity. At last the symptoms of
mutiny become unmistakeable, even to the obtuse
senses of the military authorities, and then the
attempt to disarm was so clumsily made, as to fail,
and to cause the loss of 200 lives, and probably from
ten to twenty lakhs worth of property. But after
such tragedies as those of 'banal and Cawnpore,
others sink into insignificance. We have not yet
all the details of this last terrible massacre, but it
la computed that nearly a thousand Christians lost
their lives in it.

"Those who have lost dear friends and relations,
those who from affluence are reduced to want, may
be expected to express themselves bitterly, but we
think the calmest reflection will justly fix a heavy
load of censure upon Indian maladministration. We
said on a former occasion that Lord Canning, as a
stranger, unavoidably trusted to those about him,
and has laudably exerted himself to the utmost; but
men in office here, clinging to the system by which
they may havetheirgains,eould not, or would not, see
that it was crumbling under their feet, and resemble
those who, seeing house after house swallowed up by
an inundation, flatter themselves it will never reach
that which they inhabit.
"It will be asked what are our present hopes and
prospects. In the Punjaub mutiny has been quelled
and punished with a strong hand, but from its fron-
tier throughout the North Western Provinces, law
and government do not exist, and except here and
there an isolated garrison, the British power is for
the time extinct. Delhi has not fallen, nor is it be-
lieved that the little army which has dared to be-
siege the numbers collected there can take itwithout
reinforcements. Agra is believed, for we have no
certain information, to have been plundered, and
the garrison to have retired into the fort.
Descending the Ganges, we hold nothing but
Cavrnpore, which is re-occupied and held by General
Neill. General Havelock advanced from that point
to the relief of Lucknow, but has been opposed by
so large a force that it is understood that he will
have to wait for reinforcements, of which, according
to the latest accounts, a small detachment has
reached him. It is supposed that on his reaching
Lacknow, the garrison will be withdrawn, and Gado
abandoned fur the time, and that a force will In
concentrated at some convenient point, to advance
as soon as the season permits. Bengal and
Behar would have been undisturbed, had
not the wretched blundering at Dinapore
enabled the mutineers there to escape, and to do
much mischief. The revolt, which according to the
latest English papers, was declared by Mr. Vernon
Smith in his place in Parliament to be entirely
subdued, now includes at least one hundred thousand
men, and extends through whole kingdoms.
" In such times we shall be excused for neglecting
minor topics, and shall confine ourselves to noticing
the few matters of importance which have occurred
since the last mail. Government has opened a new
loan, or rather has modified the conditions of the
existing 6 per cent. loan, taking payment partly in
cash and partly in 41, 4, or 31 per cent. paper. If
this measure had been originally adopted on open-
ing the b per cent. loan, it would have made
it popular, but in these times of alarm and distress,
it will bring money bat slowly into the Treasury.
. _

" We an informed that the Governor-General's
body guard gave up their arms on being requested
to do so by Major Thomson and other officers. There
was no hetitadea on the part of the men in com-
plying with the wishes of their officers; on the
contrary they expressed their willingness to part
with their arms in order to assist in allaying the
excitement against the native troops now so gene-
rally and justly prevalent."