The Express.
London, England, 1857-07-17 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, JULY 17.

A DOUBLE NUMBER of the " EXPRESS "
will be published TO-MORROW.

IT is rather vaguely announced that Governmen
will send a "steam squadron" to India. If by this'
it is meant that Government is about to despatch a
number of our screw line-of-battle ships to India,
the measure cannot fail to be productive of the hest
results. Anything short of this will be unavailing.
The importance of the presence of a strong fluid
force at the present crisis in the Indian waters has
been denied, but upon utterly untenable grounds.
It is alleged that " the presence of one European
regiment in Upper India would outweigh that of a
steam frigate in the Bay of Bengal ;" that "the
mutineers will not select the sea coast as the scene
of their operations." That is not the question. The
arrival of a couple of line-of-battle ships in each of
the harbours of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta, would
give confidence to the European inhabitants of
these cities, and strike panic into the bosoms of the
mutineer+ throughout India. The inhabitants of the
three Residencies know, from the annals of the siege
of Sebastopol, what service our blue-jackets can
render on shore. They would feel perfectly safe so
long as they knew the crews of two or three men-of-
war were within hail, and could be brought to afford
them protection at a moment's warning. They
would see with tranquillity their towns denuded of
European troops, and the whole of our effective
English soldiers marched to Bengal. On the other
hand, these mighty ships would be regarded by the
natives u the avant-couriere of a mighty English
army. Their arrival would set all the pens of the
native news-writers into prieternataml activity ;
and the news would fly like lightning over India
that an immense army of Englishmen was on its way
to trample out every spark of disaffection in Hin-
doetan. A moderate number of first-rate ships of
war would be of more avail in the harbours of the
Residencies than a dozen of regiments in the interior.
On one point, however, the sceptics as to the value,
at this time, of a naval force off the coasts of India,
are in the right. Our large war steamers ought to
be used se transports. Ia war, promptitude of action
is more than half the battle. The costly experiment
of converting all our first-rates into screw steamers has
been justified on the ground that the change neces-
sarily imparts additional speed and certainty to all our
naval movements. If there is truth in this allega-
tion, to freight sailing vessels to convey troops and
munitions of war to India, when our roomy and
swift men-of-war may be employed for that pur-
pose, would be the height of absurdity. After pro-
curing at an enormous expense the very best ships
for warlike purposes, are we to continue to use the
old-fashioned and inferior ships? A notion appears
to have gone abroad that the Admiralty deem it
inconsistent with the dignity of men-of-war and
their crews to perform the service of trans-
ports. No true soldier (whether by land or
water) can think anything beneath him by
which he can accelerate or render more
euro the march to victory. The ascendancy of Eng-
land in the wars of the last 300 years his been
mainly owing to the singular aptitude possessed by
Englishmen for the combined operations of land and
sea forces. The clerks of the Admiralty and the
civilian Lords of the Admiralty may fancy the
dignity of a Queen's ship compromised by its
being employed to expedite the arrival of soldier,
and munitions in India ; but we will be bold to may
that a notion so absurd never crossed the mind of
any true sailor. Our gallant seamen will be but too
proud to assist in wafting their brother warriors of
the land, with all their arms, more speedily to their
destination, and in taking pert in any operations in
India in which their services cab be available. Settlers'
stores may be entrusted to hired transports; but
men, horses, and arms ought to be forwarded with-
out delay by the QUEENN steamers. It has been
known from the beginning that more European
regiments are urgently wanted in India; and now
we are told "the Bengal establishment ia, unfortu-
nately, deficient in artillery." Why, want of artil-
leg may enable the mutineers in Delhi to prolong
their resistance, and thus give insurrection time to
consolidate and organise itself and to draw to a head.
Who that is at all conversant with modern
English history can have forgotten CAN-
WING'S glorious burst of eloquence when he
described our English men-of-war slumbering on
their shadows, yet, amid their seeming inert-
nem, ready to rouse and ruffle their wings at
a moment's warning? The might and efficacy of
OUT menof-war have since CANNING 'S time been
augmented immeasurably by the application of
steam ; and shall we not avail ourselves of our in-
creased power ? The pragmatical slaves of etiquette,
-who counsel such abstention, must be descended in
the direct line from the worthy spouse of the Vicar
of Wakefield, who, to vindicate the family gentility,
made each of her daughters carry about with her a
guinea as pocket money, but with strict injunctions
never to change it.

IT was determined yesterday by the Liberal
Members who met at the King's Anna to eon-