The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-12 00:00:00

In the end of November had risen only to 250.

No one need be told by what herculean and
heroic efforts on the part of LAWRENCE, WHEELER,

NEILL, NICHOLSON, OUTRAZ, HAVELOCK, and WIL-

SON, the horrible disasters in the North-Western

Provinces were at first arrested, and at length in

some degree surmounted, Cawnpore and Delhi re-
gained for the British arms, and the suffering and
enduring garrison in Lucknow by an almost super-
human effort of courage and determination reinforced
by the little band of heroes under HAVELOCK and
OUTRAN. But even after this had been done,
land GREATHED'S avenging column had joined the
General at Alumbagh, and,the Commander-in-
Chief had brought up with him every gun and
sabre he could collect from the southern pro-
vinces, the whole force that he could collect for
the relief of the beleagured. garrison of the Luck-
now Residency was barely 8,000 men, with 48
guns. Two thousand had been left under WIND-
HAM at Cawnpore to make head against 8,000 of
the Gwalior Contingent—the best disciplined and
bravest troops of central India, and 18,000 of
whom had maintained a desperate struggle with
14,000 British under Lord GOUGH in 1843. Sir
CoLIN's line of communication from Alumbagh to
Allahabad was 192 miles—protected only against
this large and dangerous force by WINDHAM'S
weak column, whilst Sir COLIN charged himself
with the onerous duty of forcing his way through
the entrenched camp of the besiegers into the
Lncknow Residency, defended though the enemy's
position was, strongly fortified and defended by
60,000 men, with an immense train of artillery.
Here was an undertaking, apparently desperate,
which required all the fortitude of FREDERICK the
GREAT to undertake, and the eagle eye and iron
arm of a NAPOLEON to execute. But Sir COLIN
CAMPBELL was equal to the task. Massing his
little army together at Alumbagh, and skilfully
avoiding the tedious and narrow streets of Luck-
now, quickset with guns and bayonets, he made
a skilful circuit of the town, and struck the deci-
sive blow in that quarter where the attack was
least expected, and access to the Residency
through the town was shortest. After four days'
fighting and struggles, in severity never before
surpassed in war, he succeeded in forcing his way
into the Residency, with a loss of 7,000 to the
enemy, and delivering the garrison, whom he
has conveyed in safety to Allahabad, a place
of security, 200 miles in the rear. But hardly,
by the aid of his invincible followers, was this
duty accomplished, when imminent danger
threatened him on the other side. The Gwalior
contingent, by their immense superiority in force,
had overwhelmed the little corps opposed to them,
and the Hero of the Redan had been driven back
with serious loss to the neighbourhood of Cawn.
pore. But then was seen with what consummate
genius and skill Sir COLIN'S field of action had
been chosen, and how qualified he was to make
the most of it. Instantly abandobing the post he
held at Lucknow, and taking advantage of his
interior line of communication, he hastened back
to Cawnpore, fell like a thunderbolt on the
Gwalior contingent—emboldened by their previous
success—and totally routed them, with the loss
of eighteen guns and their whole ammunition
and baggage. It may be truly said of him, as it
was of NAPOLEON by his soldiers in the Italian
campaign, that "he made more use of the legs
than the arms of his soldiers ;" and the military
student will recognise in the skilful use thus made
of an interior line of communication the same
admirable skill by which the Consul NERO dis-
comfited both HANNIBAL in Apulia, and HAS-
DRUBAL on the Metanous, in Roman story, and
by which NAPOLEON gained immortal fame iu his
campaign on the Olonna in 1796, on the Elbe
in 1813, and in Champaigne in 1814. There is
only this difference in favour of the British hero,
that his force was infinitely smaller than that of
either the Consul NERO or the Emperor NAPO-
, LEON, and the odds against which he had to con-
tend three times greater.

-Victorious over both his enemies by these re-

doubtable blows to the right and left, Sir COLIN
will now probably take up a central position in
or near Cawnpore, and quietly remain there,
gathering ap his renewed reinforcements from the
South and North, until he is able to resume the
offensive, and complete the conquest of Oude.
Possibly it may be several weeks before he is able
to commence his final campaign, as his reinforce-
ment., coining up at the sate of only 250 a-day,
will, for long, only do little more than compen-
sate the loss of life in this bloody warfare.
When we reflect that the Baron, and the other
sailing vessels which left England in the first
week of July, only reached Calcutta in the middle
of November, while the steamers which left in
August began to arrive in the end of October, and
that a battery of artillery, which recently left
England by the overland route for India, was
actually in the field in India within, six weeks after
its departure from the British shores, one is filled
with the utmost regret that so much hazard as
has actually been incurred should have been in-
curred in India by this extraordinary hallucination
as.to the mode of conveyance. But perhaps pos-
terity will have cause to rejoice that this immense
mistake was committed, as it has brought forward
in such brilliant colours, the transcendant merits
of the Commander-in-Chief, and his brave
generals and soldiers ; and, by showing the world
\ what they could effect with a handful of men,
giving the best earnest of what may be expectedof them when
they enter the field with forces at
iall proportioned to those of their antagonists.