The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-27 00:00:00

003131ITTEE,

Mr Alex. Anderson.--IThev. IT. M'Sorley.
Mr. E. 11. Burrows. Mr. W. J. Maxwell.
Mr. A. D. Chapman. I Mr. Alfred shot
Mr. E. F. Gedge. Mr. Robert Sinclair.
Mr. G eorge Moo.-e.
1 Mr. E. J. Tabrum.
Mr. Francis Lycett. Mr. B. T. Turnbull.
Treasurer—W. H. Winans, Esq., 78, Basinghall-street. E.C.
Honorary Secretary—Mr. A. 0. Charles, £6, Suffolk-street,
P4ll-Mall East, S.W
Bankers—Messrs. Smith, Payne, and Smiths, I, Lombard-

street,

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whosein April,oh a r
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admissiont h e Orphan t o
tAsylums,he R fu gea
sn. d
Swuchlr aeretetnhlasre
who, from neglect, are already on the road to ruin.' Such are
those who have been deserted by their natural protectors and
left to beecome idle wanderers. Such are those whose
parents may have at one time or other received parish relief,
and who are now friendless orphans. Such are those whose
toraari sun
tths
eat rrec breakersi
no ft
htel I
sea
ml a Nov
p,
aotrh
.a r es
oi
onh parries otnh,
sando whose
evil associations have already had their painful effect, and
must lead them to a life of crime and misery.
agel' ht
oe rleoa. reTnhoewroSiOs little Inmatesr
yf rforn,, aabnodutthfoo uJo
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of
would joyfully see the Home filled at once; they only wait
for the necessary subscriptions.
The Commit:ee feel constrained to p'ead for those who
cannot thus plead for themselves ; and, referring to the cir-
cumstances of some who have been already admitted, they
ask—ls it right to make a widow and her slimily paupers for
li'e because one of them (the naughty boy of the fern ly) runs
wild in the streets and is beyond her control ? Is it kind to
tell her, because she has so large a family, that. you will not
h fp her to put one of them into a Home, but that the, must
ail go into "the louse?" Is it doing the bat we can for the
little destitute orphan to send him to the workhouse. Is it
doing to others es we would they should do unto s that when
these little ones have unnatural parents wit ) turn them into
the streets, or force them by ill-treatment to "sun away,"
none of us stirs d be found to care for them, to speak a kindly
word to them, to befriend them, to house and clothe th m ?
Shall we leave them still on the doorstep, vassing by on the
other side, or else exclaiming "Am I my brothdr's
keeper?"
The necessity for an Institution for these little ones is evi-
dent from the police statis les, which show that in London
alone, in one year, no fewer than 311 boys under 10 years of
age,.have been apprshended for various offences, 79 of whom
were convicted and punished, while the bulk, 232 were dis-
charged by the magistrates with a rebuke, as being too
young to punish. thoush not too young to learn the beginnings
of crime. On the other hand, the! e are numbers who, but
for the timely help afforded by such an Institution, must
otherwise become paupers, and losing all ideas of self-reli-
ance and self-help, be permanent burdens to the State.
The mode of admission to the House is twofold,
Ist. By election of she subscribers. Poys thus admitted
are received free, boarded, clothed, educated, and taught all
they are 11 years or age.
With the view 1 0 ss cure the election of the most deserving
cases, the Committe have from the first discouraged canvas-
sing, and they do not 'mint any addresses of the subscribers.
The voting papers contain a description of each case, as care-
ful
y investigated by the Committee, and with this informa-
tion the subscribers are able to judge ler themselves as to
those most eligible for free admission.

2d. By payment of ss. a week, made quarterly in advance.
All children must be under 10 years of age at the time of
admission. Those received on payment are admitted at any
time as soon as approved by tie Committee,
Elections of chi dren to be ad;aitted free will take peace as
frequently as the increase in the annual subscriptions will
admit, till the Home is foil ; they will then be held periodi-
cally
Forma of application for the admission of children may bs
had at the Home, and of the Honorary Secretary,

BOMBAY MAIL.

By the arrival of the above mail,we have advices
from Bombay to Feb. 28, and from Calcutta to
Feb. 21.

THE BHOOTAN EXPEDITION.

The Indian papers are unanimous in regarding
the Bhootan expedition as a complete failure. The
Calcutta Englishman says that it was mismanaged
from the very commencement, and that the only re-
sult that could have been expected has followed upon
" incompetency and ignorance." " The men we de-
spised and laughed as wretched curs who had not
even the courage to fight for their independence (it
adds) have turned upon us and driven our trained
native soldiers from the posts which, according to
the Bengal Government, could be safely left to'the
care of the police. All the pomp and circumstance
of glorious war, the right centre column, the left
centre, the centre, the Armstrong battery, the mor-
tars, all the appliances of modern engineering skill,
have led to what ?—the evacuation of two of the
forts, over the easy capture of which there had been
so much rejoicing. And, unfortunately, we can
scarcely, even in the instance of Dewangiri, call it
evacuation. It was something far worse. Rumours
were afloat that the true colours of the affair were
even darker than they had been painted, and we re-
gret to say that these rumours are confirmed by our
own letters since received. It is not pleasant to have
to say of a force commanded by British officers—
but, like a good many other unpleasant things, it
seems to be true—that the so-called evacuation was
a disgraceful retreat, the consequence of a still more
disgraceful panic, and best described by the Ameri- ,
cans as a skedaddle.' "
The following letter, published by the same
paper, contains particulars of the Dewangiri disaster;
and is dated Feb. 9, Koomrekatta, whither the force
had retired after evacuating the stronghold :
" When I wrote to you from Dewangiii the account
of the attack of the Bhooteas on our position on Jan.
30, and their repulse, I little thought that my next
letter would tell you of our disastrous retreat to this
place, with the loss of all our artillery, ammunition,
and baggage. On January 31, and Ist and 2d Feb-
ruary, the Bhooteas remained pretty quiet, occa-
sionally annoying us with their fire, but not actu-
ally attacking us or'coming to an engagement. On
the 3d they had a stockade thrown up about half a
mile from our position, and that night they advanced
still further and closed the Derunga pass to the
plains. Our water was now running fearfully short,
the enemy having got command of the chief source
of our supply, which was a mile and a half from
camp, the water being conducted from that distance
in split bamboos forming a long spout. It was im-
possible for us to drive the enemy from their posi-
tion above the water ; and even if we had been able
to do so we should have been worse off than before,
as
.we could not have retained the position, and
must have lost at least half our men. Our whole
force at this time was about 550 ; and the Bhootea
prisoners all along maintained that we were con-
fronted by between 5,000 and 6,000 men. Briga-
dier General Mulcaster, who was in Gowhatty, was
written to on January 30 for reinforcements, and he
got the letter the same evening. He had with him
two companies of the 43d Native Infantry, and
some of the 12th Native Infantry ; and had these
men been sent off at once, they might have reached
Dewangiri by forced marches in two days ; but the
Brigadier-General wrote back to say that he con-
sidered our force ample to maintain our position,
and to drive the enemy from any they might take
up. He was written to every day while the pass
remained open ; and on Feb. 4 a party of 40 men
of the 12th Native Infantry, escorting ammunition,
attempted to reach us, but -the pass was then closed
and the Bhooteas in force between us and them, and
they wore compelled to retizrxr-without effecting
their object. I don't mean to say that, had every
available man in Gowhatty been sent to our assist-
ance we should have been able to hold our position
at Dewangiri, for I don't think we could, as the total
failure of the water supply must have compelled
us to abandon the position ; but, reinforced, we
might have kept the pass open, and retired in good
order with our guns and baggage. On Feb. 4 the
Bhootea stockades commanded the camp ; and it
being with the greatest difficulty that the men could
get even a drop of water to drink, it was decided to
retreat that night to the plains by the Libra pass.
Two hundred men of the 43d Native Infantry were
told off to carry and escort the sick and wounded,
50 to help to carry the artillery. guns, and the re-
mainder, 200, to form the advance and rear guards.
The column began its gloomy march at about one
o'clock in the morning of the sth, and from that
moment everything went wrong. The paths were
mistaken ; the advance guard went one way, part
of the main column, with sick and wounded, another;
and another part, a third ; part of the rear guard fol-
lowing one party, part another. The sick and
wounded were deserted by their escort and bearers,
and left on the road side ; and the men told off to
help the artillerymen to carry the guns bolted ;
leaving only 17 artillerymen to carry two 12-pounder
howitzers. The gunners struggled on with them for
some time up a steep and rugged road, if such it
could be called ; but after going about a mile they
were totally worn out, and the inevitable choice-of
two evils alone remained, either to leave the guns,
or to remain and lose the men, without in the end
saving the guns. The guns were spiked, and thrown
over the edge of the road, down a khud. At this
time the artillery officer and his men were, I believe

totally separated from the column ; but pushing
along what they thought might be the road, they
came upon two of our own men, who had been badly
wounded on the first day, and who were deserted on
the road. These men they helped and brought along
with them, and reached camp at Koomrekatta in
the evening. Being the last to come in. The whole
affair was in no way a retreat ; it was a disgraceful
rout and flight from beginning to end. The 43d
N.I. behaved disgracefully, and deserted everything
entrusted to their care.

The Times of India is of opinion that two great
mistakes have been committed. " First (it says),
an expedition, with which l3ritish prestige was
temporarily bound up, was sent beyond the frontier
of India, though in its composition the ingredient of
European troops was wanting. When we trust to
native soldiers to carry our arms into the Himalayas,
we should beprepared to hear of unpleasant reverses.
Even the native troops we did send to Bhootan
were under-officered, or at any rate are so now.
Than under-officered sepoys there are no troops in the
world more likely to become panic-stricken. Native
troops, to be got well into battle, require not fewer,
but Eur fullypean
troops. double
Mistakeman No. 2 consisted in a bady inspiriting leaders as
selection of sites for the advanced post in the passes,
and leaving them in charge of guards neither suffi-
ciently alert nor strong enough. It is impossible
not to percieve that in more than one instance the
Bhooteahs have been able to surprise our troops in
a manner apparently discreditable to the latter, and
that had they even advanced unmaskedly the posts
were too weak to long hold out against them. In
few instances has the absence of European infantry
been productive of more complete demoralisation
than in the Bhootan pass fighting, or skirmishing,
or retreating, or whatever else may be the proper
term for it."

The Hurkaru says that Sir John Lawrence has
from the outset manifested a more thorough appre-
ciation of the Bhootan affair than those about him.

" He it was (it adds) who insisted on the force being
raised to its present strength, and if his advice had
been followed General Showers or Brigadier-Gene-
ral Tombs would have exercised the supreme com-
mand, and we should in all probability have escaped
the checks the troops have recently suffered."
At last advices we learn that strong reinforcements,
including an entire British regiment, the 80th, had
been ordered up to the seat of war, and that Briga-
dier-General Tombs, commanding at Gwalior, had
been appointed to the supreme command in the
Bhootan Doors, and ordered to join without delay.