The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-13 00:00:00

The following is the letter of the Herald corres
pondent :

CALCUTTA, DEO. 7.
"The papers from England, of the 26th of Octo-
ber, sing exultingly over the changed tide of affairs
in India, and are already bragging in anticipation
over a "long roll of splendid victories" to be
achieved. The news going forward by this steamer,
I regret to say, must check these bounding hopes
—silence the va►n boasts. You at home will learn
before we can do the exact extent of our disasters,
as Lord Canning, who alone could enlighten us,
most sedulowly conceals all information, and the
despatches from the seat of war, known to be re-
ceived, will first meet the eye in India through the
medium of the English newspapers.
"From what,we cangather, however, from private
letters and from little scraps of information which
leak out upon `good authority,' enough has trans-
pired to prove that, since the commencement of the
rebellion in May last, no mail has taken to England
such disastrous intelligence as will the present—
never, perhaps, has our power in India appeared
in so precarious a position. I hope, before closing
this letter, I may be able to chronicle some
slight success, but I also fear to hear of further
disaster.

"As I said before, exact intelligence you must
not expect ; but we know enough to show that the
glowing telegrams of successes sent home by the last
two mails have been completely deceptive, and serve
but to swell the list of misrepresentations, or worse,
with which our Government have so frequently de-
luded us. It was with great difficulty that Sir Colin
Campbell succeeded in getting into Lucknow ; and
he only managed, with much loss, to get round the
place to the Residency and effect a junction with
General Sir H. Havelock (whom England has now
to mourn as decd), and then evacuated the place,
taking with him the women, children, baggage, &c.
From that point government has told ttle public
nothing ; but every native in the Baz sr knows that
po )r Sir Colin, wounded, and overpowered with
difficulty and enormous loss, fought back his way
to Cawnpore. He has managed to send on the
women and children to Allahabad, with the sick
and wounded, amounting, we hear, to 2000 men.
He himself, with what force we know not, is now
behind the entrenchments of Cawnpore ; the t )wn
itself is in possessiola of some 14,000 of the enemy,
whom he was firing upon all Sunday (sth instant)
with whit success we have yet to learn. Some days
previously General Windham with rash courage
twice attacked the Gwalior rebels who, just before
Sir Colin returned, were surrounding Cawnpore.
The first attack was successful—at least Govern-
ment House tells us so ; but in the second he was
beaten back, forced to retire behind the entrench-
ments, with a loss of 700 men and the tents and
baggage of three regiments.
" Lawer down the Azimghur rebels, instead of
flying in terror to Fyzibad, as Government House
would have us believe, are by last accounts on the
march, some 20,000 strong, towards Benares, and
as the place is but feebly garrisoned, and can have
no reinforcements but the small parties of 200 to
300 me* who are going forward daily from this, we
are all most anxiensly awaiting the news of the
next few days.
" Still nearer home I regret to have to chronicle
a further disaster—this at least to be clearly traced
to the clement' Canning. It is the shameful blun-
der of Dinapore over again on a smaller scale. At
D scat and Chittagong there were some companies
' of the 34th Regiuient, the remainder of the corps
disarmed at Barrackpore in May last. Will it
be believed at home, except by those who know
Lord Canning well, that, notwithstanding re-
peated representations these companies were
allowed to remain armed 1 Months ago, and
frequently since, Lord Canning vas urged to
treat them as their brother rebels were treated,
but he turned a deaf ear to the hint. He was
entreated then to send 10J Europeans to protect
Chittagong ; but he neglected the request, though
he could readily spare a few hundreds of the
European soldiers or sailors now staggering about
the grog-shops of Calcutta. The result might be
expected ; but a few days back the loyal scoundrels
" looted" the treasury and bolted. At Dacca
there were 100 sailors who charged and soundly
thraskad them ; but still they managed to bolt,
money and all, and the bands from the two places
are now wandering about the country levying con-
tributions upon the villages they pass through,
burning and destroyingiwhen they leave.
Nearer home still, at Barrackpore, Lord Canning
is keeping a pet body of 4,000 convicted and dis-
armed mutineers, I suppose to give them an oppor-
tunity of looting the " first city of the East"
whenever they think their chance comes. There
are 2,000 European soldiers lying idle there watch-
ing the scoundrels ; when these are sent up country
I suppose we shall again have cannon in the
streets of Calcutta, and the merchants parading the
streets all night with arms in their hands. Why
t le scoundrels should be allowed to remain so close
to Calcutta is one of the mysteries which his lord •
ship will souse day be called upon by the voice of
England explain.
to Why not have sent them to
China? More than one regiment volunteered to
go b e
rteh eirne twowb nt months a
the
wholego and
mightthere are
be
embarked troop sihni ps
a
day—anything to get them away from the neigh-