The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-15 00:00:00

THE BRITISH ARMY IN INDIA.

(From.the Times' Special Correspondent.)
VALLEY OF CHUMBA, HIMALAYAS, OCT. 1.
I am on my way to Simla, which I hope to reach
in a few days, and thence I shall proceed by way
of Agra and Meerut to join the Head-quarters
Camp, which will be formed at Allahabad on the
10th, so that I may accompany the troops in their
march into Oude, and witness the opening of the
cold weather campaign in that turbulent and re-
fractory province. It is most probable that the
troops assembled at Allahabad will cross the river
at that place, and commence operations at Soraon
and Pertabghur. You will receive from Bombay
and Calcutta much more recent intelligence than I
can communicate for some time to come, but no very :
important events are likely to arise till after the
date of my arrival at Allahabad. " Likely," •
however, is a word singularly inapplicable to the
course of events in India.. At the present moment
we have received news up here which I cannot but
regard as sinister and ominous. The 10th Punjab
Infantry are reported to have marched off with all
their arms for Dera Ismael Khan, in the hope of
inducing some of their countrymen to join in an
nsurrectionary movement. Should this be an
isolated instance of disaffection on the part of the
many Sikh battalions in our pay, arising from some
sudden pique or the influence of evil counsels, there
is little to fear. If it should be an overt act of a
great conspiracy—which appears to me most im-
probable—it is impossible to exaggerate the dan-
ger. Our empire in India is, indeed, in desperate
case should the Sikhs, who are now fighting our
battles in every district where an enemy to our
rule can be found, turn traitors ere the mass of the
reinforcements from England can reach us. There
is reason to believe that mischief has been brewing
at Dera Ismail Khan since the discovery of the plot
which occasioned such excitement in the North-
Western Provinces a few weeks ago. , It
would appear as if Brigadier Chamberlain's
investigations into the origin of this plot had
led him to the knowledge of facts which he
considered of a dangerous character, for it is
only within the last few days that a column, con-
sisting of Blount's troop of Horse Artillery, a wing
of the 7th Fusileers, a squadron of the 7th Dragoon
Guards, and some 300 Sikh infantry, marched from
Lahore to strengthen the place, which is mainly im-
portant because it commands the Indus (on the
right bank of which it is situated), and, further,
that it contains the magazine of the whole of the
Punjab Irregular Force. All over India the Sikh
nation and the Punjabees, composed of Hindoos and
Mahomedans, are giving evidence of their courage
and devotion to our rule. Each day we hear of
actions in which Sikh police and Punjab regiments
have defeated the rebels, and it would be deplorable
indeed if we were suddenly forced to withhold our
confidence from these gallant soldiers, and to exer-
cise that surveillance over them which is requisite
in the case of mercenaries who may become enemies
at any moment. There is no use in disguising the
fact that the great number of those Punjabee bat-
talions excited serious apprehensions in the minds
of many who were, however, forced to admit their
existence to be a necessary evil. Our Frankensteins
had created a monster on whose fidelity and devo-
tion we must rely in hope and trustfulness, whose
services were great as his strength. Those who are
acquainted with Lord Clyde's views will admit that
he was among those who shared in the apprehen-
sions so justly causally our forced reliance on such
a gathering of Oriental races—the most warlike of
the East—who had many traditions of recent glory
and the memories of late defeat; the knowledge of
Affghanistan, of the passes of Cabool, fresh in their
minds, great lust of gold, and all the fickleness and
subtlety of the Asiatic. It is remembered that
those fierce soldiers even at Delhi were fond of re-
calling the stories of the great battles in which they
in vain sought to destroy the supremacy of our arms,
and that they were in rude jocosity wont to say—
"We fought against you 10 years ago and you
beat us ; now we are fighting for you ; in 10 years
more or less we may once more be fighting against
you." During the late campaign they fought side
by side with our best troops, and were foremost
in many of our most desperate assaults. In a
former letter I have told you of their strength,
which cannot be less now than 80,000 horse and
foot. It would be unjust in the very highest de-
gree to assume now that any considerable portion,
or even any appreciable portion, of these troops are
disaffected, but the Delhi regiment is known to
have been troublesome on several occasions. The
Sikhs of one corps have- notoriously. conspired
against us, and the question, which might arise,
0 What would you do in case all the Punjabees re-
volted ?" is one to which, as matter of pure hypo-
thesis, we should be prepared with an answer. In
the Dera Jat, of which Dera Ismail Khan may bo
regarded as the capital, there are,unfortunately the
three Punjab frontier batteries organised by Lord
Dalhousie, consisting of 18 pieces of artillery in
very complete order • that this is the only force of
suns actually in their hands. The strength of
Europeans in the Punjab is about eight battalions
of infantry, one regiment of cavalry, and some 54
field guns ; but further south the country is almost
denuded of British soldiers. In any case we shall
require to manage the Sikhs with great tact, par-
ticularly when the time comes for reducing the bat-
talions under arms to a peace establishment. lam
told that an occurrence at Umballa the other day
gave great offence to these irascible warriors. The
Rajah of Putteeala's wife presented him with a son,
on which there were great rejoicings, and the sounds
of the, salute fired on the occasion alarmed the offi-
cer on duty at Umballa, who thought that the Sikhs
had risen, and in that belief turned out the Euro-
pean guard, marched them to the posts occupied by
detachments of a Punjabee regiment, and forced
them to deliver up their arms. At the moment I
write a telegraphic despatch has been received by
one of my companions, Colonel Tombs, dated
Meerut, Sept. 26, informing him that half of his
troop has been ordered to Delhi, and requiring him
to go down to Meerut without a; moment's delay.
The 9th Lancers are on their way from Umballa
down country, and their presence will probably in:
sure the safety of the main trunk road for the time.
Specific news I have none, except ofsuch small signi-
ficance that it would possess no interest for the Eng-
lish public. The Queen has not yet been proclaimed.
Tantia Topee and the Nana Sahib are still free. No
details of General Mitchell's great success over the
former have yet reached us, but we know that all
the guns so injudiciously left at Jalra Patun have
been recaptured, and that the enemy are once more
" in utter disorder, and thoroughly dispirited."
Much of this success is no doubt due to the fore-
sight of Sir It. Hamilton, whose talents and ability
have been strikingly displayed during all the
operations in Central India.

- If, indeed, the safety of India depended on the
ability of the servants of the Government, or on the
courage of our own race, I should have little fear of
any contingency that might arise now or at any
future period, but it must be remembered that,
great as inay be the British power in India, it is
great only so long as its exercise is consonant
with the feelings of the people of India ; for I
hold that,. weak as those myriad millions are in
physical resources, in moral courage, in mental
vigour, and in true independence of spirit, it would
be quite beyond our strength to hold India by
armed force. Were it possible to do so, it would be
financially impossible, and even as it is the cost of
the military operations which have taken place will
astound the nation when the bill is presented for
payment. We must learn—and I fear the lesson has
not yet been taught, and that it will be unwillingly
learnt by many—to conciliate the affections, as I
believe we have gained the respect, of the people.
•Respect for our rule may- be independent of regard
for ourselves. The manifestation of a hostile and
contemptuous spirit engendered in the late contest,
" the study of revenge—immortal hate," must be
counteracted by all the powers of government. How
can we expect the gospel to prevail in India so long
as we
set at defiance all its precepts of charity,
or
giveness and mercy ? What hope can there be
of convincing the natives of the purity, morality,
and heavenly origin of the Christian faith as long a;
the Indian press i breathing fire and sword against
the people of India, and reviling the Government
because it does notmhapermit a dragonade against the
Hindoo and the
there who seem to think
? There are some
that we, the English in
India, are the bearers of thesmite Ark of the Covenant,
is t
and that our mission the Canaanite hip
rn
and thigh from the morning to
t not e setting of the
sun ; to go forth and spare hurl down
every idol, and to force every :NI a h o dfaani
faith
h e has
no idol to overthrow—to abjure his
Heaven has not given us power for this mission,but
nor did we come into the land proclaiming ourselves
the chosen people of the Lord, who were to deprive
the heathen of his inheritance. Others there are
whose brains have been affected by Thomas Carlyle,
and who preach a Puritan crusade, who believe that
Oliver Cromwell was the true type of an Indian
legislator, and who would apply to all our subjects
the same receipts which had such singular success in
converting the people of Ireland at Drogheda and
elsewhere from Roman Catholicism to the faith of
the Old Testament. But these are theorists who are
only mischievous in so far as their hallucinations
may be taken by the people as exponents of the
feelings and policy of the English Government.
Let us proclaim to the people of India that we are
a Christian people, but let us not act as if we were
ancient Jews. Let us tell them that we are deter-
mined, as long as we wield the sovereign power, to
recogniie the claims of the Christian faith to
equality and protection, and to secure the freedom
of its professors ; but let us itot violate our faith, our
professions, and our treaties by arming those who
are willing to go forth and preach with the power

and authority_of State officials. Let us also give a
heavy blow and great discouragement to those who
seem tohave imbibed the worst part of the spirit of
Orientalism, and who speak as if Anglo-?axonism
meant tyranny, despotism, and contempt of right.
I tremble for the effect that may be produced on
those young Englishmen who may arrive during
this frenzy in this country to act as its judges or its
administrators. There are some voices raised,
but they are little heard in the tumult, against
the insolence, the cruelty, and the folly to which
many of our countrymen have been urged by the
sanguinary excesses of the contest in which they have
been engaged. The " griff" will now be indoctrinated
in a school whose lessons are very . different from
those taught in Anglo-Indian society before the
mutiny and the rebellion. He will hear natives
spoken of almost universally as " niggers" with
prefixes of strong adjectives, referring to the sup-
posed future state of " darkies" and " pandees." He
will be taught that the height of his ambition should
be "to make a good bag," which is the specific
name used on all occasions for killing a good many
of the enemy—that mercy is "snivelling white
pandyism," and that " potting a pandy" is one of
the highest and purest enjoyments of which Chris-
tians are or ought to be capable. He will learn
that the " nigger" is a being incapable of feeling
either gratitude or affection, that it is preposterous
to speak of him as a fellow man, that he is not
entitled to participate in the equal administration
of justice, that he ought to have a distinct code of
his own, framed, it is to be presumed, on different
principles. and the argumentum baculinum is the
only ratiocinatory process he can appreciate. Of
such doctrines I dread the influences and the con-
sequences, but I can give you chapter and verse,
printed passages from newspapers, for each, and for
much worse, and if called upon I shall do so. In
my next letter—this is now closed in obedience to
cries of " The dak runner is going —I shall return
to this subject, and to others more pleasing, I hope,
if less important.