The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-20 00:00:00

DEATH OF YEH.

T_he notorious Yeh died at Calcutta on the 9th
of April. The only regret that he expressed Was
on account of his having been unable to destroy all
the Chineoc rebels and all their kindred.

TANTIA POPEE.
(r,vpm the Bombay Gazette.)
SEPREE, April 18.

I had expected before this to have reported the
execution of Tantia Topee ; but he is still alive,
under a strong guard of the 3d Bengal Europeans
in the fort. But the electric flash may transmit to
you his exit long before this reaches you. The
telegraph appears to transmit orders concerning
Tantia with its usual rapidity. On Thursday last
an escort was told off to accompany him, some re-
ports said to Goonah, others to Jhansi, others to
Gwalior, where his family are at present confined
in the fort. In a few hours these orders were can-
celled. Tantia was to have been hung on Saturday
at 5 p.m., a scaffold having been erected on the
encamping ground in front of the old Sepoy lines ;
but reports say this is intended for a couple of
malefactors—father and son—who have lately been
amusing themselves by plundering the mail.
Maim Sing, who has his tent and his guard
under some trees close by the encampment of
the European detachment, and Tantia Topee,
are , the lions of Sepree at, present. Maun
rides out on his prancing charger or smart-
going elephant, driving the latter himself,
iron spike in hand, followed by his limited
retinue and the tagrag and bobtail of the station.
No natives are allowed to approach Tantia—by
his own wish, it is presumed. Europeans only arc
allowed to have a peep at him. A respe3tably-
dressed native merchant requested to have a look at
him. The Baboo said he wished to see Tantia, as
it would be all he would get for 900 r. which the
rebel chief had some time ago made him disburse.
Tantia looked glum, and the Baboo shook his head.
Tantia answers questions put to him in Hindus-
tani curtley and apparently straightforwardly ; he
appears not ,to understand much English, and to
inquiries of him in English or by tyros in Hindus-
tani he quietly answers, " inahtnz nat.." A glance
of quiet contempt is noticed in his countenance
when following. the departure from his presence of
mediocre superiors. For Burra Sahib Major Meade
Tantia appears to have considerable respect.
. Meade is reported by his own men and all who
know him to.be a kind man and a *good soldier.
We have generally noticed that a brave, courageous,
' and considerate soldier is never a martinet, conse-
quently is respected by those who serve under him
and ultimately succeeds in his profession. It would
be well for the army were there more of such men.
Tantia had his charge read to him on Wednesday
and Thursday, to which he'made a statement, which
was afterwards prepared and read to him by a
moonshee. He afterwards signed this latter docu-
ment in good English writing, " Tantia Topee."
He disclaims all participation in the massacre at
Cawnpore or in the killing of Europeans, except in
fair fight; and he also absolves from the same im-
putation the Nana Sahib, who, Tantia says, was at
one time made a prisoner by his own men, because
he would not proceed with them to Delhi. Tantia
attributes the massacre and subsequent murders to
the unrestrained, infuriated soldiery. He states
that he himself put provisions, &c., on board the
boats at Cawnpore, and that no orders were given
to commit the atrocities that ultimately took
place. Tantia says he was fourth in corn
mand at Cawnpore ; and was afterwards in com-
mand at Calpee, where he was four months. At
the battle of the Betwa he had the greatest
rebel army which had been under his command-
-22,000 men, with 130 pieces of artillery, but after-
wards at Koonch it had dwindled down to 8,000.
When the Gwalior Contingent came down on Agra
on the 10th of October, Tantia commanded, and had
then 8,000 with him. He says he would then have
given Greathed more to do had he not been deceived
by the red jackets of the 3d Bengal Europeans and
the noise they made, thinking the reinforcement
was greater than it really was. Sir Hugh Rose in
his Gwalior despatches gives Tantia Topee credit
for the skilful disposition of his troops when Sir
Hugh attacked them and made the rebels so quickly
fly from Gwalior. The last affair which Tantia states
he was engaged in was at Dowsa, in January last,
when Brigadier Showers came on the rebels by
surprise one morning just before daylight. Tantia
was at some distance in rear when Showers made
the attack ; but ultimately in this affair had a
splendid gray charger shot under him. The rebels
were then completely disorganised, disputes were
high among their chiefs, and guards were bolting
with the scanty ways and means, which were now
beginning to be more difficult to get hold of than
they had hitherto been. Since then Tantia Topee
has been a wanderer and a vagabond until the be-
trayer, Maun Sing, assisted Meade in capturing
him.

Tantia was under trial by a court-martial nearly
the whole of Friday at Captain Field's bungalow.
When the officer told him the previous day to pre-
pare for his trial, Tantia said that he knew for
fighting against the British Government his punish-
ment would be death ; he wanted no court, and he
therefore wished to be despatched (holding up his
manacles) from this misery either from a gun or by
the noose as quickly as possible. He did not wish
to see his family, but the only one thing he asked
the Government was that they would not punish
his family for transactions in which they had no
concern.

Tantia Topee is a native of Poona, which he left
30 years ago, and it is stated he was a Government
pensioner, having been at one time in the Com-
pany's military service. Latterly ha was in the
service of the Nana at Bithoor, as a keranit. He is 49
years of age, stands about 5 feet 6, is stout and well
made, has a pretty large head of great breadth
from ear to ear ; it is covered bountifully with
strong gray hair, with beard, moustache, and
whiskers to Match. His cheek bones are slightly
elevated, and his black eye, under sharply-arched
eyebrows, is clear and piercing. Altogether his
features are intelligent and expressi-re, denoting
decision, energy, and ability. Tantia is a Brahmin,
and the Braluninical cord is always very religi-
ously placed over the ear when he goes out of his
tent to prepare his meals, &c. He performs his
ablutions, goes through his genuflexions, and pre-
pares and devours his Khanna once a day with all
the strictness and religious ceremonies of his caste,
having members of the Brahmin caste there to
attend him.
I have now given you all I can at present glean
concerning the celebrated rebel chief, Tantia Tepee,
whose military
.skill and ability were worthy of
better troops in a better cause. I suppose his
charge, proceedings at his trial, and statement will
nltirnatelv be given to the public for their infor-
mation. *The execution was announced as about to
take place as I was writing (4 p.m.),•so I proceeded
to where the scaffold was erected. The ground
was kept by some men of the 24th and 9th Native
Infantry, and some of Meade's Horse. Tantia was
brought from his tent in the fort by an escort of
the 3d Bengal Europeans ; and then a consider-
able square was formed, with, the gallows "in the
centre. The companies'of the 24th and 9th Native
Infantry formed one side ; the men of the 14th
Dragoons and 17th Lancers, who had come into
the station that morning and the previous day,
were drawn up on another side ; the detachment

of 3d ~
Bengals and Meade's Horse, in considerable
strength, formed the two remaining sides. A con-
siderable number of natives were scattered all
over the plain, and any little elevation command-
ing a view of the scaffold was thickly studded
with white-clad spectators. Tantia had expressed
some anxiety to know his fate, and to have it expedi-
tiously executed. Consequently at 12 (noon) it was
intimated to him that he was to be executed that
evening. He again feelingly expressed a wish that,
as were about to take his life, the Government
would see to his baba in Gwalior. Major Meade
read the charge, that he, being a resident of Bithoor,
in British territory, was guilty of rebellion in
waging war against the British Government. The
Ending of the Court was guilty, and the sentence,
th at he be hanged by the neck until he was dead.
TA e mistree then knocked off the leg irons, he
mo tinted the rickety ladder with as much firmness
as t.l:e handcuffs would allow, was then pinioned,
and .his legs tied, he remarking that there was no
neces.lity for these operations, and he then delibe-
rately put his head into the noose, which being
drawn .tight by the executioner, the fatal bolt was
drawn. He struggled very slightly, and the
" mehters s'''' were called to drag him straight. A
sergeant lif the 3d Bengals acted as hangman.
Thus finish.ld the career of the rebel chief Tantia
Topee, with :el the due solemnities of British mili-
tary routine. When the suspended body became
motionless, the troops were all marched off, and the
body remained bunging for the remainder of the
evening. After Ow troops left a great scramble was
made by officers anal others to get a lock of hair, &c.

(From At Friend of India.)
Tantia Topee has been caught at last. The co-
lumns under Col. de Solis and Col. Birch came upon
the rebels under Feroze Shah, in the Seronje jungle,
and inflicted a signal, and we hope final, defeat.
No less than 500 are reported to have been slain,
and immediately after the victory Tantia Topee,
who had either rejoined or never quitted the force,
fell into our hands. Whether he was captured, or
surrendered under the proclamation, is not stated,
but in either case his doom is, we imagine, sealed.
He was, we fear, among the actors in the Cawn-
pore tragedy, the only gang for whom, even in the
strong reaction of the English mind, no voice of
pity has been raised. It is just as well as politic
that he should die, but among the horde of
princelings, zemindars, and adventurers who
rose to command among the mutineers, Tantia
Topee is the only one whose fate will elicit in India
a solitary expression of regret. He is the only one
whose career comes up to the English idea of the
mutability of Asiatic fortune—the only one who
had the brain to revert at once to the Asiatic mode
of warfare. With his ill-armed followers and inces-
sant defeats he has probably cost us more lives than
the Nawab of Bareilly, with his " Soubandars,"
" English institutions regular army, and orga-
nised dominion in Rohilcund.
Tantia Topee, according to the official account, is
a Brahmin, from the neighbourhood of Calpee. Up
to the period of the mutinies he is said to have been
a money changer, and probably never saw a shot
fired in anger in his life. The mutinies, however, so
full of possible careers, and so deficient in men to
pursue them, seem to have woke him up to a new
ambition. Where or how he became connected with
the Nana, or whether he was connected with him
at all, seem to be one of the endless uncertainties
attending his biography. It is doubtful, even, whe-
ther the strange name by which he is known among
Europeans is an invention, a nickname " the weaver
artillerist," or a corruption of his real title as com-
mandant of the Peishwah's artillery. His first
appearance as a recognised leader was at the battle
of the Jumna, where he appeared as commander-in-
chief of the army of the Peishwah, so called, we
imagine, not because it obeyed the Nana, but be-
cause its nucleus was formed from the Gwalior
Contingent. These men—Scindiah, their immediate
Sovereign, being openly hostile to them—had no
resource but to fall back upon the ancient authority
of the Peishwah, just as the Sepoys of the Mussul-
man States, passing over the King of Oude, fell
back upon the Emperor of Deihi. It is curious, by
the way, to observe how little the theory of legiti-
macy in the European sense entered into their ideas.
They looked only to the powers who immediately
preceded the British raj. The true head of the Mah-
rattas, for instance, is the heir, whoever he may be,
of the Sattara family, the descendants of Seevajee.
The only legitimate Hindoo Monarch in Northern
India, the Rana of Oodeypoor, was defied and
insulted by his own troops.
At the battle of the Jumna Tantia planned the
most formidable attack With which Sir Hugh Rose
had to contend. He was not, however, present,
retiring then and ever afterwards at the very be-
ginning of the fray. His career is a strange one
for a coward, but either personal timidity or mis-
taken policy has made this habit the weak point of
his proceedings. Thoroughly acquainted with his
countrymen, their prejudices, and their credulity,
Tantia has ,repeatedly raised armies from the
ground. He seizes some admirable position, posts
his force with a skill which leads English Generals
to anticipate a severe contest, and then flies on
ahead to plot again, leaving the web he has already
spun to be torn to pieces. Immediately after the
fall of Calpee his influence was felt in one of the
heaviest blows dealt us in the war. He had con-
trived to secrete himself in Gwalior, where, screened
by a small section of the Durbar, who longed for
the old days of plunder, he opened communications
with Scindiah's remaining troops. He secured them
all. Scindiah, aware as he was of the character of
his countrymen, finding he could not obtain Euro-
peans, met the rebels advancing on Gwalior with
his own forces. They all fled or deserted, except a
few of his bodyguard, and Tantia Topee gained a
kingdom at a stroke. He had posssession of the
city, the richest remaining to the Mahrattas, of its
fortress, one of the strongest in India, stores to
equip a great army for the field, artillery in abun-
dance, and a treasure estimated at from £1,500,000
to £5,000,000, He had at least 22,000 soldiers, and
a single victory, a successful skirmish against the
Europeans, would have brought him 100,000 men.
The blow was felt by every Englishman in India,
though the natives, who have an instinctive percep-
tion of the vital points of the empire, considered
the march of a few hundred men into the Delta
infinitely more importaut. With an enemy less
persevering than the British Tantia might have
founded a great State, rebuilt the Mahratta power,
and reigned as Peishwa,—an office not originally
hereditary. Sir Hugh Rose, however, approached,
the old terrors fell fast on Tantia and his followers,
and Gwalior was evacuated without the contest it
deserved.
And then commenced that marvellous series of
retreats which, continued for 10 months, seemed to
mock at defeat, and made Tantia Topee's name
more familiar to Europe than that of most of our
Anglo-Indian generals. His reputation, though ex-
aggerated by the fact that all other resistance had
ceased, was by means undeserved. The problem
before him was not an easy one. He had to keep
together an army of beaten Asiatics, bound by no
tie to his person, and bound to each other only by
one common hate, and one common fear—hate of
the British name, and fear of the British gallows.
He had to keep this ill-assorted army in constant
motion, at a pace which should baffle not only the
enemies who pursued him, but the enemies who
streamed down at right angles to his line of march.
He had, while thus urging his half disciplined host
to mad flight, to take some dozen cities, obtain
fresh stores, collect new cannon, and, above all, in-
duce Tecruits to join voluntarily a service which
promised only incessant flight at 60 miles a day.
That he accomplished these ends with the means at
his disposal indicates ability of no mean • kind.
Slightly as we may hold the marauding leader, he
was of the class to which Hyder Ali belonged, and
had he carried out the plan attributed to him, and
penetrated through Nagpore into Madras, he might
have been as formidable as his prototype. As it was
the Nerbuddah proved to him what the Channel
was to Napoleon. He could accomplish anything
except cross the stream. His original idea, if we may
judge from hisrnarches, was to collect a great army
from the little States bordering on the Nerbuddah
valley, fly down towards Bombay at a pace which
Mould baffle pursuit, cross into the Deccan, and
raise the true Mahratta provinces, and perhaps a
large section of the Bombay army. He was disap-
pointed by movements which form one of the most
remarkable features of the struggle. The Govern-
ment of Bombay could find no troops to catch, or
even seriously to threaten him with capture. But
they could and did find a succession of moveable co-
lumns who presented them selvesat the shortest notice
at every menaced point. From the moment he quitted
Gwalior to the moment he surrendered at Sono*
Tantia Topee found but one great place at once rich
in munitions and undefended. These columns,
which moved at first as slowly as British columns
are accustomed to move, learnt to march at last, and
some of the later marches of Brigadier Parke and
Colonel Napier were equal to half of Tantia's
average rate. Still he escaped, and through the
hot weather, and the rains, and the cold weather,
and the hot weather again he was still flying,
sometimes with 2,000 " dispirited" followers, and
sometimes with 15,000 men. His last experithent
was to penetrate into Bikaneer, but it failed, and
he was compelled to double back on Bundelcund,
where all hope of further retreat seems to have left
him. He took, as Koer Singh did, to the jungle,
and was caught. i
We question if he will object to die. Twenty
months such as he had led since May, 185 k, must be
worth in their mad excitement the remains of life.
There must be many Asiatics like him in India, to
whom life is intolerable unless it consists of long
intervals of rest broken by flashes of adventure. It
is not a pleasant reflection that by the necessity of