The Express.
London, England, 1857-10-10 00:00:00

TEE DEFENCE OF BENARES.

The following interesting letter is written by the
ion of Major Peddie, of Stirling :

Seism, August 21, 1857.
Dear Mother,—l have jut received four newspapers from
papa, but no letters this time, so that some of those black
blackguards must have got hold of them. I hope this will
reach you, an no doubt you are quite anxious enough already
ere this time. We are safer here in Bewares (or at haat as
ask) as in Calcutta or London. We have been throwing up
entrenchments., which might almost be called fortifications,
they are so strong. As there were no military engineers
here, I had, by request of Brigadier Gordon, command-
ing, to commence and carry on the works, and m
to throw them up at a rate that rather sato=
the old Indians hereabouts. They have given me no
end of praise. The works ere now in charge of two peilitary
engineers, who arrived the other day from Calcutta,lut it to
more than probable they will have to move on in a day or
two, and then I will be "Commander-in-chief" awn. The
works are on a high isolated mound, bounded on three sides
by the rivers Ganges and Burns, the banks of which are
precipitous, the 4th aide has been defended by 24-pounder,
IS-pounder, 12-pounder, and 6-pounder betterem, with three
10-inch mortars. These batteries command the river, the
city of nfOlft., and the approaches to the works. l'rovi.
pions for 600 men have been already stored, sufficient to bat
one and a half years. Barracks are being erected, and an
there is one main poeition, with two lines of outworks, the
place can be defended: by either 400 or 5,000 men, as in the
event of oar having only the first number, the
outworka could be given up, and yet the enemy
would Fain no advantage thereby. The only fear now is that
they will not oome near as they know oar strength. We
have had' some beautiful {intents with the guns and mortars.
The entrenchments ere at present occupied with 200 of the
37th 'Queen's) and about SOO of the faithful Sikhs—they are
men that refused to join with the reel of their regiment on
the night of the mutiny here. They are fine fellows ; one of
them saved his Colonel's life. We have also forty men of
the Madras Artillery. In the event of • row, all the troops
(about 400) would come down from the station, which is 31
mite distant. There is so little danger here now that none
of the troop, ero detained on their way from Calcutta, but
pushed on at once towards Cawnporo and Lucknow. I went
out the other night with 2.50 men end two guns that were
sent along the Grand Trunk ]toad to intercept the
Denspore mutineers, but they heard of our coming, and
bolted acmes country, where the guns could not follow
them quirk enough, so we missed them. All the railway
works are at a complete stand still for the present. But we
will soon be pushing them on again. Another two months
will settle all this part of the country as far up as Futteh-
pore. The Delhi Imams, will take longer, as it is such a
distance for troops to march. The accounts from Delhi this
morning are good—the mutineers' powder manufactory, with
50 art ifioevs, has been blown up. I had a lot of the sth
Fusiliers up here during the other day—they were on their
way to Allahabad. I find I must dose, as the bags will
close in a few minutes. I have acrawlal this in great harts.
A. the arrival of the papers wail the first Intimation 1 had of
the Bombay line being open, I had not calculated on being
able to send yen a line this time."

THE BRITISH FORCES IN AND EN ROETE TO
lain/L.—We are enabled, ater careful research, to ye...A
our readers with a tabular statement of the force in India up
to the end of September, and the force which, sine:2l.7.
but, hoe been deepatched to the three presidencies
We also append a statement of the number of &teepee= in
the serviee of the East India Company, and the num-
ber of native troops disbanded and mutinied. From
this it will appose that in Bengal about the
time of the mutiny there were 21,988 Queen's
troops; in Madras, 1,312; and in Bombay, 4,259;
besides the 16,353 European troops in the service of
the East India Company. Since May there have been sent
to Lituttal 19,994 troops grail anni ; to Madras 2,213 troops,
and to Bombay, 4,615. While we estimate the troops or-
dered for service in China and at the Mauritius as "in
India," we have not placed the six regiments expected from
the Cape ae ea rook. These may be estimated at about
4,000 men.—Press.
b.IIOOTING A FELLOW-SERVANT.—On Sunday
afternoon hot s young woman named Ellen Warne', livings,
servant to Mr. Horatio Howlett, former, of 'tented, was
shot at and rather seriously wounded by a bey named Wil-
horn Simmer& her fellow-servant. It seeing that during the
afternoon the two bed been playing in the kitchen, and the
romping having become somewhat boisterous, the girl
playittUy struck Stemmed a sharp blow with a stick. Ile
became infuriated. rushed out of the room, and returned
directly with a gun, and declared be would shoot her, and
hitting ite.rerteined with the ramrod that the gun was
loaded he deliberately took aim at her. The gill became
alarmed and ran b&ind a pump which wee in the kitchen,
thinking to hide herself, but the young villain immediately
fired, and though most of the charge was lodged in the pump,
a considereble pottion took effect in the girl's arm. The
people of the how* became alarmed, assistance was rendered
to the note Brainard girl, and was given into the
custody of the county police. Oa Monday he was examined
before the maw;mime. et the Shirehull, and was remanded
till Saturday neat.—Norfolk News.