The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-02 00:00:00

INDIA AND CHINA.

By the arrival of the Calcutta mail we (Times)
have received our private correspondence and files
of papers from Calcutta to the 18th of July, and
from Hong Kong to the 6th of July.

INDIA.
The following is the letter of our Calcutta
correspondent :

" CALCUTTA, JULY 18.

" There is a lull in the campaign which will last,
all Europeans regiments hope, till the cold weather.
The Commander-in-Chief is actively exerting him-
self to bring his soldiers under cover, and prohibits
all further action, except in Jeypore and Behar. In
Jeypore the Gwalior insurgents, after a series
of marches to and fro within the State,
which it would be difficult to make intelligible
without a local map, suddenly invaded Tonk.
On the 9th they had seized the town and
commenced the siege of Bhoongur, the Rajah's
fortress. They had, however, no guns. The Rajah
held out gallantly enough, and the approach of
Hohnes's brigade, a body of cavalry and horse artil-
lery, despatched, I think, from Agra, compelled
them to raise the siege. They fled southward, and
invested Rampore, a town belonging to Tonk, and
which contains 12 guns and some military stores.
These they hope to obtain, but Holmes's brigade, at
the latest date to which we have intelligence (July
11) was only 15 miles behind, and these flying corps
never stop to think about odds. Colonel Napier,
at Gowra, attacked 11,000 men with 600 horse,
and had their number been quadrupled would have
attacked them all the same. A few of the Tonk
soldiery have joined the losing side, but unless
the garrison of Rampore are traitors, the rebels
must fly again. Their course is expected to be
southward, as they do not know that Mhow now
contains three European and four or five Bombay
regiments. They may en passant defend Kotah ;
but, whatever they do, their career must be but
short. They are fairly surrounded by British
troops, and have neither leaders, guns, nor ammu-
nition. Unless joined by some local potentate, they
can obtain none, and I would not waste so many
words on them but for the uneasy feeling, obvi-
ously shared by Government, that a momentary
success might bring them formidable allies. Cen-
tral India is a magazine, and nobody can watch the
smallest spark in the air without speculating on a
possible explosion. If it were ever safe to predict
in this campaign, I should say next mail would
carry you intelligence of their final dispersion.
" In Behar matters are still in a most unsatisfac-
tory position. As I mentioned to you, after the
withdrawal of the Europeans to Benares and Dina-
pore, Umur Singh returned to the Jugdespore
jungle, where his followers began to concentrate.
In a week or two he had 3,000 men, and began col-
lecting revenue. Notwithstanding: a check received
from Captain Rattray, who at Kusina cut up a
band of 400, headed by one of the inferior leaders,
Umur Singh kept his position, and detachments
from his force entered Chupra, plundered some vil-
lages in Tirhoot, and threatened Patna. Their ob-
ject was chiefly plunder, and after burning a few
factories,
i part went northward to the great ren-
dezvous n Oude, and part fell back into Shahabad.
They confine themselves generally to the jungle,
sallying out every now and then to plunder a vil-
lage, murder the native servants of Government,
and collect the revenue, The command of the dis-
triet has been given to Brigadier Douglas, now at
Benares, whose object is apparently to circumscribe
the war and render the cold weather campaign
final, lie is establishing a chain of posts round the
jungle to cut off all escape. The affair, I must re-
peat, though troublesome, is of little political mo-
ment. Umur Singh, beaten or victorious, can effect
nothing, but his impunity costs us the revenue of
one entire country alarm, distress, and discontent
in three more. ere has been, of course, a good
deal of exaggeration current as to our actual losses.
For instance, the collector of Behar reported that
Gya, the country town, had been entered by insur-
gents, the gaollbroken open, and all the prisoners
released. It seems, nevertheless, very doubtful if
any enemy has ever been within ten miles of Gya,
arid whether the whole story was not invented by
the gaol guard, who had themselves releasoft the
prisoners. You may imagine from this incident how
difficult it is even for the well-informed to discover
the truth;
" This difficulty is not lesscilEtl by an occasional
forgery. The Bombay Gazette recently published
a proclamation said to have been issued by the Go-
vernor-General in Oude. The style was perfect,
and the tenour, containing, as it did, a guaran-
tee of their estates to the Oude landholders,
seemed in exact accordance with the speeches of
the Tory Ministers. As the Bombay Gazette is
believed to have official intelligence, the proclama-
tion was accepted, and has, of course, been sent to
England. It is now officially declared by the Pre-
sident in Council to be a pure invention without
any foundation whatever.' It is not easy to com-
prehend what motive anybody could have had for
so discreditable a forgery, still less how he should
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