The Express.
London, England, 1857-09-21 00:00:00

of the city—hae been obliged to hang several
conspirators. The sucoeseive arrival of regiments
from England would, indeed, enable the Anglo-Indian
Government to retake from the mutineers any of the
great towns on the Ganges that might fall into their
hands ; but how much harm might they not do even
by a abort occupation ? There is Patna, for example,
where, in addition to the Provincial Treasury, Go-

vernment has its great opium stores. The loss from
the destruction of Government property which the
rebels might effect there in a few days could not
be repaired for years.
It is meter to mince matters. Things need never
to have been brought to this par had the Home
Government and the local Government in Bengal acted
with dos decision and promptitude. This is an ungra-
cious theme to which, we fear, we shall frequently
be obliged to recur. But two observations will suffice
to justify the remark for the present. We have now
before us private letters from officers in the armies of
all the three Presidencies. Every one of them con-
tains the remark—varied, of course, in expression—
that matters need not have been so bad, if the
Home Government had despatched a few thou-
sands of men overland when reinforcements

_
were first applied for. In confirmation of
this opinion, we may observe, that natives who at
first hung aloof from the revolt have been heard to
account for their subsequently joining it by alluding
to the non-arrival of troops they had expected by the
note of Suez. So much far the Horne Government.
Fee a proof of the indecision of the head of the local
Government, we need only point to the conduct of
Lied CANNING with regard to the contingent from
Nepaul. The GI.Ae affirmed a few days ago that it
had disproved the charge. tier contemporary's
memory is short ; he did not disprove the
report, he confirmed it. But he apologised
for Lord CANNING on the plea that the services
of the contingent were accepted in the first
place by an officer whose rank did not warrant his
taking so much responsibility upon him. Really
this is to accuse Lord CANNING of having in the pre-
sent most perilous crisis acted with the folly of the
dotard Spanish monarch who was burnt to death
because no grandee was present whom court etiquette
recognised as of sufficient rank to undertake
the task of saving him from the fames. Our
last accounts from Calcutta tell the story then
—At the first outbreak of the mutiny JuNG
HAIIADOOn offered to the Resident at Cat-
monde° the services of a subsidiary force of
Oheorkas. To express his sense of the friendly
offer, the Resident accepted of 3,000, and they were
immediately marched to the frontier. While they
were waiting there for instructions, the Resident
received a reprimand frown headquarters for his pre-
sumption in accepting luso BAUADOOR's offer, and
the 3,000 were recalled. But scarcely had they begun
their backward march when a second letter from
headquarters was received, urging their advance.
Had they been allowed to march forward at the first
their presence at Goreekpore would, have sufficed
to deter the regiment at Begowlee from mutinying.
Nay, more, we are told that their mere appearance
within the British frontier may paralyse the opera-
tions of the assailants of Lueknow ; might not their
earlier appearance have paralysed the operations of
the assailants of Cawnpore ? Lord CANNING'S
bigotry to etiquette—more worthy of a dancing-
master than of a statesman has given a
fresh impetus to the Mutiny ; and it may shake the
good faith of neighbouring States. When Jr•eo
Btfisnooa beard of Lord CANNING'S vacillation, he
asked, " Does the English Government hope to re-
" fain India with such a Governor-General ?" This
was said in joke; bat it is a truth that no Govern-
ment can expect Allies to remain true to it after it
has ceased to be true to itself.