The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-16 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDkY, SEPT. 16, 1857.

The Overland Mail, so anxiously looked for,
has arrived, and copious extracts will be found in
another part of this day's impression. It will be
soon that the atrocious miscreant, NANA SAHIB,
the ringleader of the cmspiracy, the murderer,
ir,t only of the fugitives, who might have ex-
pected protection at his hands, but also of those
who, confiding in his deceitfal and treacherous
promises, had capitulated at Cawnpore, has ex-
piated his diabolical offences by an act of self-
murder—all his family, according to Eastern cus-
tom, being involved in one conamon destruction.
This is a striking example to tTao rebels. It shows
that the man, to whom they chiefly looked as the
head of their confederacy, the acting chief of the
future Indian Empire, had totally despaired, and
avoided impending justice by an act of self-immo-
lation. This rests on no doul)tful authority. It
is contained in a despatch from the camp
of the gallant HAVELOCK* in which it
is stated that, after the unopposed destruction
of Bithoor, the rebel leader had at first con-
templated going to Lucknow, but when he came
to the river, finding hinasellf deserted by his
ea•valry and infantry, "he had drowned himself
with all his family."
It would have been more satisfactory had he
mot the felon *death ho so richly merited—had
the hangman's skill been called into operation.
Brit, as it is, a great effect must necessarily be
'produced on the mutineers, and all their aiders
and abettors.

It 15 a positive relief to the national mind to
know that the career of this sanguinary ruffian
hos been brought to a summary conclusion. There
was not a single redeeming feature in his char
racier. The blackest treachery was added to the
mo,t fiendish cruelty. Ilia victims wore those
with whom ho had previously associated, and for
whom ho professed sincere friendship—whom he
heel aerul'y pressing them
promiied to protect,
to F. oil refuge in his fortress at Ilithoor, where they
would be safe front any outbreak► And yet it was
b his orders that they were consigned to tic
,;
nioa; horrible and heartrending destruction.
It was on the 16th July that TlevELoen
rup relied into Cawnpore. ll© had previously
tak n 12 guns front the rehel:--, after their igno•
minima flight from Futtelipore—we- -e can scarcely
call it an action. On the 15th his troops were
twice again engaged, and captured foie more
guns 1 and on tho 16th be recap!arred Cawnpre,
ha-r:ing totally defeated NANA SAIJIB and taken
•six more guns, four of thorn of siege calibre.
There had been contests at a succession of villages,
behind which the enemy were posted. But
the flank being ably turned, the rebels
fled in dismay, and Cawnpore was re-
gained. There the terrible evidences of
the fearful outrages that had been committed
wore discovered. A wholesale massacre had been.
perpetrated t 88 officers, 190 men of her Ma-

jesty's 84th Regiment, 70 ladies, 120 w omen
and children of her Majesty's 32d Regiment,
and the whole European and Christian population,
including' civilians, merchants, shopkeepers, engi-
neers, pensioners, and their families, about 400
in number, were butchered in the most
heartless manner, and with every circumstance
of aggravation, that made even death
itself a blessing anxiously desired by our
unfortunate countrywomen. The court-yard was
swimming in blood. The women and children
had been stripped naked, beheaded, and thrown
down a well. The children being flung alive
over their murdered parents, only four are said
to have escaped. On the 29th of July 15 guns
were captured by HAVELOCK, en route to Luck-
now, as we have already stated, and on the 30th
other successes were achieved at Buper- Gunge. The
rebels were probably the besiegers of Lucknow, as
NANA SAHIB'S fugitive troops had, after the destruc-
tion of the fort at Bithoor, dispersed, after destroy-
ing their arms, and, after the suicide of their
leader, to their respective homes. There could
he but little doubt that the relief of Lucknow
would be accomplished, as had been anticipated,
on the 31st July, and that HAVELOCK would then
be at liberty to march on Delhi or Agra as seemed
most advisable.

The rumours respecting the capture of Agra
by the rebels do not appear to rest on any
satisfactory foundation. We may therefore hope •
that this awful catastrophe has not taken place,
and that the 5,000 fugitives have not been sub-
jected to the tender mercies of the bloodthirsty
insurgents. Considerable anxiety must neces-
sarily be felt as to their fate. But we cannot see
whence the force could come that would be
sufficient to defeat 500 British troops holding
a strongly fortified position. The rebels under
NANA SAHIB had sought refuge in flight. The
mutineers from Neemuch, discouraged by the
warm reception they received, had joined
the rebels at Delhi, and the other roving
bands were tolerably well accounted for. We
shall therefore hope for the best, and discredit
the appalling report until better evidence is forth-
coming to sustain it.
The news from Delhi and other quarters is in
accordance with that contained iu the telegrams,
which we have already noticed.
The pressure on our space prevents us from
offering further comments. We may, however,
refer to the large extracts we have given,
as well as to the summary from the
Bombay Times, which will give full information.
It is to be hoped that the fate of Delhi will soon
be accomplished, when the troops now before it
are reinforced by those under HAVELOCK, VAN
CORTLANDT, and NICHOLSON, and the brave and
energetic Sir CoLix is on the spot to direct the
whole against the devoted city, and to inflict con-
dign punishment on the treacherous wretches who
were " unfaithful to their salt," and turned
against those by whom they were fed and kindly
treated.

That the Mahommedans will be found to have '
been at the bottom of the mutiny we have little
doubt. Whether another enemy whom we only
half punished in the Crimea stimulated their am-
bition to try and regain the dominion of the
GREAT MOGUL may perhaps never be known, or,
if known, will come to light only at that distance
of time when secret political counsels and treaties
no longer implicate the living. Certain it is that
our loss of Kars ; our folly in leaving the Crimea
in the hands of Russia, when its occupation by
the Western troops, of any of the Allies, would
have proved to Orientals who was master ; oar
leaving Circassia still to smart beneath the gun-
boats in the Black Sea, and the troops on land,
of the CZAR; our petty work in Bo s‘rabia, in-
stead of transferring all that province at least to
Turkey ; nay, the present delay iu the elections
in the Danubian Provinces itself : certain we take
it to be, that all these things are bruited by ap-
proved agents amongst all the tribes bordering in
Asia on the Turkish Empire, at the Court of
Teheran, and to the very borders, probably to the
heart, of India itself. We never committed a
greater mistake in regard to India, not to say iu
regard to Germany and Turkey, than when we
consented to terminate the war at the request of
two imperial despots trembling for a brother
despot, and to allow all the East to hear tho tale
of the finest army England ever sent forth being
compelled, for so the tale would run, to evacuate
the Russian territory even after it had destroyed
one town.

It is, however, gratifying to see that all Ma-
hommedans do not participate in the madness of
thew of Delhi. One who certainly knew us
well, who could speak our language, and
who, having been Persian and English translator
to the Board of Administration in the Punjab,
must have gained a fair acquaintance with our
general policy, can denounce, and that in a letter
to his son here, as strongly as an Englishman, the
folly and cruelty of the mutineers. Writing from
Jubbulpore, July the 19th, he says :—" Those
wicked and consummate fools the Sepoys have
spread terror and consternation through every
province. Notwithstanding the special favour with
which they were treated by the British Government,
notwithstanding it cherished and indulged them
like its own children, paid them regularly,
secured to them promotions and pensions, and
granted them prize money when on active service,
these wretches, for I will not disgrace the word
men, by giving it to them, have committed atro
cities not to be paralleled in history, and from
the idea of which the mind recoils with sickening
horror." He proceeds to lament that in his old
age, after having ao Ilng known all that could be
known of us in India, he has to be the .messenger
of evil tidings, and to inform his son of the barba-
rities practised on Captain SIMI; whom the first
accounts represented as having killed both him-
self and his wife, after a brave unsupported de-
fence of himself and her for many houre, to pre-
vent their falling into the hands of Sepoys. It
now appears that the case was even more painful.
MEER. SPED MOllll3 1.11()D, the writsr we have
quoted from, states that a wretch whom he had
relieved and taken into his service out of cempas-
sion, liberated and armed the prisoners, forced his
way into the fort at their held, massacred every
European, reserved C iptain SIiENE, and having
butchered his wife and two lovely boys before ilia
oyes, finally murdered him also ; and then hav-
ing plundered the place of all the property he
could find, " made off w;th his accursed crew
towards Delhi."

justiceei plaltsylolattivoethreefseerreody, however, to his letter, prin.-
show that those of us who demand
focus of their viPll - 52
and on Delhi, the nest and
c9nscience of worthy are at least backed by the
natives themselves. liplahe'nmelm3 among the
puling" ionnge"
whhuotukannoi twas-
ri a n s, would do well to liras:
us well, but who mint know his own countrymen
and his co-religionists far better than We do. He
has not a word to say for them ; rather, there is
not a word which ho does not say against them.
He feels, though a Mahonimedan, that they have
violated such obligations, and repaid the . beat
treatment with such fiendish ingratitude, that be-
lieving in ALEUT and his prophet,- ho cannot

imagine that their faith can be a pretext for such
villany. He never suggests it as as excuse. Nay,
verily, we believe, that the honest man deems it
profanation of his simple faith in ALLAH to allege
his name in defence of their atrocities. Ho could
not, we believe no respectable Mahommedan
could, believe in any exoneration from the duty
to benefactors. We believe that Sepoy in-
gratitude is viewed by the better part of
the Mahommulans themselves, with as much
detestation as by us, and by the
devout part of them, with the firm persuasion
that ALLAH himself will inflict retribution for such
enormous crimes. Indeed, we feel no doubt what-
over that the maudlin cant of the humanitarians,

if listened to, would lower Christianity itself in
the eyes of the natives of India. They well know
that they have been guilty of outrageous atrocities
against European Christians. They have perpe-
trated these barbarities under the mask of religion.
They will now begin to reflect on what they have
done. They will hear that British troops are
pouring in by thousands at Calcutta and Bombay.
What will their first feeling bo when they begin
to fear that all is over with thorn ? Wo take it
that they will remember what LUTFULLAII—tho
Mahommedan who has published his biography—
knew of the Feringhees, " that they are inexorably
just.') Of that justice they will expect but one
thing—retributivn. They will feel that theft's is
no case for mercy. Not only that, all the natives
of India would despise Christianity, if it did not
exact plenary retribution for Sepoy crimes. They
would think our religion failed to teach men the very
elements of justice; mercy, they would think mean-
ness cowardice, littleness of soul. They can under-
stand magnanimity no doubt as well as we in the
-forgiveness of personal injuries, but they would
contemn the general and the judge who talked of
mercy for the murderers and abusers of the pure,
the tender, the innocent, the helpless.
But, enough. England happily is thoroughly
aroused, and our soldiers who represent us in

India—our LAIVRENCES7 our HAVELOCK% our
NICHOLSON.% are not likely to be worse than
women, with the horrors of all the treachery im-
mediately beneath their eyes. We only hope that
deliberate retribution, will follow martial retribu-
tion. We, of course, want no bloody assizes in
India, but we think it will be most saint try, that
no mutineer who can be proved to have partici-
pated in these outrages, should over escape. We
are willing enough to show leniency when it can
be shown that numbers have been led astray by a
few designing men, but lot this bo distinctly
made out, and let every mutineer understand
that even yielding to temptation is a
just cause for death ; on the seducers,
however, let unmitigated vengeance fall.
They showed no mercy, let them have none.
They undid others, let them perish without
mercy themselves.
The closing words of the Mahommedan letter
aro well worthy reprinting—" Should this" he
says " be my last letter, I beg you never to for-
get that India cannot have a better ruler than
the British Government, or be better adminis-
tered than by the East India Company (he lives
in the Punjaub.) Faults undoubtedly have been
committed, and abuses have existed, and do still
exist, but what human institution can boast of
being exempt from them ? One thing is certain—
, that the result of these disturbances will be an
increased desire on the part of the authorities to
remove every cause of complaint, and to introdue,,
all the reforms and improvements required by the
present system of government."

A Cabinet Council was held yeater.lay at the official
residence of the First Lord of the Treasury in Diwning-
street. The Ministers present were—Viscount Palms! s-
ten, the Lard Coancellor, the Marquis of La.'s•lo Roo,
the Earl of Flarrowby, Sir George Grey, Mr. Secretary
Labouchere; Lord Panniure, the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, the Right llon. R. Vernon Smith, and the
Right lion. M. T. Baines.
The dividends are advertised of the Peruvian Danish
Three per Cent., Brazilian Five per Cent., and Chilian
Six per Cent. loans.
THE CHOLERA.—The cholera has broken out at Ham-
burg. Between the 29th of August and the Gbh of
September, there were 239 cases, of which 136 proved
fatal.
The saving to the East India Company by the mutiny
and desertion of each Bengal regiment, of 1200 sepoys
strong, will be about 30001. per month. Some fifty re-
giments have disbanded themselves, and the company
will have therefore saved, at the end of August, newly
half a million of money in the pay of sepoys, non-com-
missioned officers, &c.
Although the increase of the Rest in the last DILI:
return showed a surplus over tho usual limit of
3,000,060/., which would admit of a dividend of 6 per
cent., this amount will be reduced by rebate of bills,
&c., and it is consequently not expected that the distri-
bution will exceed 51 per cent.
Mr. Duffy, ex-Minister for Woods and Forests in
the Melbourne government, is likely to find his level
even at the Antipodes. By that excellent journal, the
Aryus, we find that he and Mr. Shannesq, irritated
by the defeat of their cabinet, employ themselves in
obstructing the course of legislation by long speeches,
motions for adjournment, &c., and upon one occasion
they kept the house sitting, with little intermission,
for 20 hours.

EXTRAORDINARY INC/MT.—The following almost in
credible statement appears in the last number of the
Drogheda Consereatire :—" On the 27th ult. the body of
a female infant, was found, by the police at Kelle, con-
cealed in the soil of a privy, at the back of the house of
Mr. Richard Close, medical practitioner, aecoucheur,
proprietor of a medical establishment &c. They
reported the circumstance at once to a local magistrate.
Witnesses were instantly summoned, and a most
respectable man, Dr. Pentland, all of whom agreed that
Rose Meredytb, a servant in the establishment, was the
mother of said infant, and that it was dead born, and
bad not come to maturity. After a short consultation
between the magistrate and the police, having /summed
up, they came to the following conclusion We find
that Rose Meredyth, mother of the infant, is not only
not guilty, but perfectly free from any blame whatever ;
_and we further add, that she was justified in burying
her offspring dead born, even in a privy, dung heap, or
sink, or where it suited her convenience.' Mr. IT.
Martha, coroner of the county, having got private infor-
mation, lost no time in ascertaining the facts, when he
was called on to interfere, and at once issued his precept
and warrant to disinter the body preparatory to holding
a legal inquisition. He summoned 15 result stable
jurors on Thursday, the 3d inst., 14 of whom attended
,and were sworn, and after a most minute and particular
inquiry, without the slightest hesitation, the jury re-
turned a verdict that the body of the said infant wa4
found concealed in a privy in the town of Kale, and
that Rose Meredyth is the mother thereof, and, finally,
tbat she concealed the birth of the same. In the
interim between the former and the latter inquest, R ice
Meredyth was allowed to escape, when the coroner had
no alternative but to issue his warrant for her apprz-
honsion."

TEE DEATHS BY DROWNING AT DIINBAR.—TkIe parti-
culars of the melancholy accident whiela took place at
Dunbar on Saturday afternoon, and which was brit fly
noticed in The Sun of yesterday, are thus related 'by the
Edinbu;gh Evening Courant :—" Mr. William Wilson,
a gentleman from London, brother of Mr. J. Wilson,
Secretary of the Trea;ury, and of Mr. W. Wilton, ma-
nufacturer, lie wick, had a few weeks since br.aight,
down his family to Dunbar, where he possessed a marine
villa called Kirkbill Cottage. The cottage was neat the
beach, and the windows overlookel the place where the
family were wont to bathe. The water had been v, ry
rough the previous day, and on Saturday there was still
a strong under current. While the tide wag receding,
Misses H. and A. Nilson, aged respectively 17 and 14,
ventured into the sea to bathe, along with a female ser-
vant. They had not been long in the. water when a
heavy sea struck the group, throwing the servant upon
the beach, but drawing the young ladies under the
waves. Tile former seeing the danger her charge wsre
in gave the alarm and ran to the cottage. Mr. Wileor
and his son Janes, came down to the beach—the latter
immediately dashed inti the water, but was soon beyond
hie depth and drowning. The father, seeing hie Lima.)
in such peril, rushed also into the water, hut vain ai.d
fatal wag his effort, for he alio was drawn into tie cur-
rent, and before aid could be got they all rrished to-
gether. The distracted mother followed to the beach,
and Was about tt encmonter the same danger, when som,
one on the beach followed her in`o the water and drew
her back. A police-constable gallantly succeeded withir.
10 minutes in roc ,verirg Helen, and upan being draw',
upon the beach she was heard to draw a sigh, hut no
further evidence of life was given, and all effort to restore
it proved fruitless. James was got iu 3 or 4 minutes
af:-r, but he was quite dead. The bogy of Misi
Alice was not recovered till 5 p.m., when it was found
nearly half a mile to the westward, near the old harbour.
The
a'clo
oynomf Monrd.ayWeilvseonniThiga-1, n9trli
rb.3 e‘nv
osheardoil wasof up to
the
b C
et residing some months in the year with his family
at Dauber, lie was 55 years of age.