Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-08-17 00:00:00

THE CITY OF DELHI.

When we took Delhi in' 1803, the outer wall was in a
very ruinous state, without any flanking defences further
than small round bastions placed at intervals. The ditch
was imperfect; there was no glacis, and the ground out-
side was covered np to the very walls with ruins of
streets, tombs, and mosques, and was, besides intersected
and cut up with ravines. Yet even thus, as we have said,
a small body of our native troops was able, in 1804, to
repel all the attacks of Jeshwant Rao Holkar, with a
victorious army of 70,000 men.
The scheme for the improvement of the fortifications
was en'rusted to Captain George Hutchinson, of the
Bengal Engineers, who was succeeded by Captain Robert
Smith, of the same corps, and under these two officers
Delhi was p'aced in the situation with regard to works
in which it now stands. Captain Hutchinson determined
on establishing a series of bastions, with faces and
flanks as usual, along the whole of the enceinte, the
bastions to be mounted with heavy artillery. He repaired
the old walls, and for the purpose of preventing escalade,
protected them, especially on the river face, by fraise, or
beams, the sharp ends of which were pointed at an acute
angle downward into the ditch, The ditch was cleared
out, repaired, and deepened, especially on the south side,
where the wall rested on rock. A glacis was formed to
cover in same degree the scarp of the wall ; the ground
outside was cleared of houses and ruins, and the ravines
were filled in, so that the works were rendered proof
against wild plundering hordes, or indeed any force what-
ever unaccompanied by heavy .artillery. At the same
time Captain Hutchinson was strenghthening the defences
against attack from without, he made preparations also
against a rise of the inhabitants, which at that time ap-
peared a probable event. To meet this danger he erected
along the line of wall a series of detached Martello towers,
entirely separate from the walls, and accessible from
them only by a drawbridge. Each tower was to have a
gun mounted on a pivot, so that in the event of a rise in the
city, artillerymen might take possession of the towers,
raise the draw-bridges, and pour shot into the town from
the whole circle of the enceinte. The Muhammadan
College, or Madrisab, at the Ajmir Gate, was protected',
by an outwork, and the gateways or the city were strength-
ened by the usual defences in regular fortification. The
Kashmir Gate, on the north, from which runs the road to
cantonments, was formed into a place of arms, in which
was the guardhouse, &c. It was in the enclosure of
this gate that several of the officers were killed in the
late massacre. We have before stated that . Lord
Auckland, in 1838, recommended extensive repairs, and
in particular of the Wellesley Bastion, which was, in
fact, entirely reconstructed. Itt appears that he also
suggested the erection of a citadel, though the palace may
itself be regarded as one, being surrounded with a ditch,
and having walls of great height, built of red sandstone,
and pierced for matchlocks. The river face of the palace
constitutes the defence of the city on that side. It is a
curious tact that the custom-house, built by a medical
officer on the glacis near the river on the north of the city,
was sold to the government as a treasury—outside the
walls ! The engineer officer, Colonel Robert Smith, was
unable to get rid of the building. Ho pointed out the
absurdity of its position, and the embarrassment which it
caused him in his plan of defence; but although thousands
had been spent in removing houses and bazaars, and in
clearing the esplanade round the walls, this great building
was allowed to remain with all its offices. It was used
first as a treasury, and afterwards as a custom-house, and
with its garden and enclosures is doubtless now in the
hands of the rebels. _ _ _

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We will now turn to the position of the besieged as
regards water and supplies. The population of Delhi has
been variously computed, but we shall perhaps not be far
wrong in reckoning it at 180,000; and the influx of troops
and of people from the surrounding villages will probably
have compensated for the numbers killed in the late con-
flicts, and for those who have carried off their property to
more secure localities. There are considerable supplies of
grain kept up by the grain merchants of the city, but little
fodder for horses is procurable. For a lengthened siege
the supplies within the city would be insufficient, but some
might be obtained from the opposite side of the river, or
from the villages on the right bank, many of which,
especially those in the neighbourhood of the Delhi
Canal, would be able to pour in vast stores of both
corn :ind fodder. As the Eastern Jumna canal enters
the Jamna immediately opposite Delhi, and as that
canal irrigates all the country in its vicinity, the supp'y
of corn, &c., from the left bank would be by no means
contemptible. We suppose that these supplies have been
cut off by the Meerut force under Briga Her Wilson,
whilst those from the right bank have been secured by
General Barnard and the main army, which is encamped
to the north and north-west of the town, in the canton-
ment, which is situated about a mile and a-half from the
Kashmir-gate, and is separated from the country in which
the city stands by a low ridge of rock, on which the
telegraph tower is built. This ridge is now in possession
of General Barnard.
It is a mistake to suppose there is no water in Delhi.
The wells are comparatively few in number, but they
yield a fair supply. Generally speaking, however, the
water is brackish, but in some wells it is excellent.
A new well of large dimensions was made by an enter-
prising individual in 1848-49. The reason that wells
are not so numerous as they otherwise would
he is that the - Delhi Canal is regarded as the
favourite source of supply. But during severe drought,
when every particle of water is required for the irrigation
of crops, Delhi is annually and frequently left without any
supply for the canal, and this for twenty or thirty days at
a time. The inhabitants then have recourse to the wells
and the branch of the Jumna, which flows past their
walls. Were the supply from this branch cut off by our
troops, water might still be procured by the besieged by
digging, or even scratching holes in sand as it lies close to
the surface in• the low tracts, which are affected by the
main river. Moreover, the position of the old fort of
Selimgarh, with its bridge connecting it with Palace, is
favourable as a cover for parties going to get water. There
is not the slightest doubt that the cutting off the canal
supply will not prevent the inhabitants from getting water.
Whatever difficulty, however, there may have been on
this head, ant which must have been equally, or even
more severely felt by our own troops, owing to their
greater distance from the Jumna, will have been miti-
gated after the fill of rain—that is, after the 18th June.
It must be added that flour is ground for the consump-
tion of the citizens by the canal mills, and these of course
are stopped. All the women of Delhi will, therefore have
had to grind away at their hand mills from morning to
night, or flour would run short.
With regard to the capture of Delhi by escalade, it is
probable that a few salvos would bring down a portion of
the long line of wall between any of the two towers, and
render an escalade tolerably easy. But when the assail-
ants had entered the town, if the narrow streets were well
defended tv firing from the houses on either side, or by a
gun judiciously placed, so as to rake them down their,
whole length, the position of a weak column of troops
would be far from secure. General Barnard, in our
opinion, is wise not to haz ird a reverse, which in present
circumstances would be most disastrous. He will now
daily be receiving reinforcements, and will be enabled to
make the attempt ere long with every prospect of success.
Smith, Elder, and Co.'s Homeward Mail.

IMPE DIAL ' PARLIAMENT.

(By British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph.)

HOUSE OF COMMON&--SaTuanar.
The Speaker took the chair atlwelve o'clock::

NEW PALACE YARD.

Mr. Conolly inquired of the First Commissioner of
Works whether his attention had been drawn to the
present arrangement for ingress to and egress from Ne w
Palace Yard ; and whether it was not possible to effect
some improvement in the same ?

Vv
Sir B. Hall said he would make inquiries on the subject,
and if any improvements could be made, he would take
care that they should be carried oat.

A petition was rresented by the men in the employment
of Messrs. Chubb, at Wolverhampton, h favour of half_
holidays on Saturdays, instead of opening places of
amusement on Sundays•