The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-15 00:00:00

4)
,L.

LONDON, TUESDAY, DEC. 15, 1857.

The public interest at this moment is m ainly
directed towards Lucknow. There it is that
English women and children are still assailed by
diabolical wretches, anxious to destroy them with
everydegree of ignominy and cruelty that could
enter into the most depraved imaginations—in
fact, to have ar
epetition of the Cawopore atrocities
on as enlarged scale. This was fortunately ren-
dered impossible by ELANET.
--ocK and 017 TRAM, who
came to the relief with a desperate resolution that
eclipsed all their former exploits, determined either
to share the fate of the fugitives and their protectors
England vio ld
he—apart from the ordinary
:
or to perish with them. u , iudee3
mourn any catastrop
oasualties of war—that might happen to that hero
or to the faithful garrison who so patiently and
devotedly resisted all th 3 odda that could be
brought against them by the whol© power cf the
rebels
We have, however, the pleasure of inserting
this day a letter from a young officer at Lucknow,
written on the 27th of October, in the happy and
joyous spirit befitting a true soldier sans pear) e/
sans reproche. Lieutenant NlJorsom seems to be
just the sort of man required for the serviv, one
with whom we should wish t) be associated at
feast or fray, Re gives a graphic and cheer-

ing description of the position occupied by the
relieving force, under HAVELOCK and O 1 TRAM.
He says—"We relieved Lucknow from its instant
peril, and are now ourselves occupying a more
extended position in the town, blockaded with
the garrison." After trying to alleviate
the natural apprehensions of some who have
friends at Lucknow, he goes on to show that
there is no danger of failure either of provisions
or ammunition, the only possible dangers that
were to be dreaded. He says, in his own felicitous
style,—" We have grub abundant, ammunition,
good quarters, plenty of fighting men, stout hearts,
and our GOD on our side ; on the other, our
enemy numerous, but cowardly, with a scarcity
of iron and lead for guns. Had we not many
women and children, and sick and wounded, we
could walk out of the town at any moment. As
it is, we can hold our own and steadily make
small advances until reinforcements arrive."

As he truly declares, the stout-hearted fighting-
men could walk out at any moment, but for the
women and children, the sick and wounded.
These could not be abandoned ; and now that
GRANT and GREATIIED have arrived with 5,000
men at Alumbagh, and that the "CAMPBELL'S
are coming" in good earnest, Sir CoLIN himself
being at their head, there is but little real danger.
We await patiently, but confidently, the glad
tidings of new victories that will crush the in-
surrection at Lucknow and all through Oude, as
completely as it has already been suppressed at
Delhi, and that will give the "Arch-Demon,"
NANA SAHIB, the exemplary punishment he so
pre-eminently merits.

Another letter from, or rather relating to,
Lucknow appeared in our impression of yesterday,
which we would earnestly commend to, public
consideration. It is a letter from a lady, one of
those fugitives about whom the people of the
United Kingdom are so deeply solicitous. As the
letter of Lieutenant MOORSOM was that of a gal-
lant young officer—just what it ought to be,
—the one under notice was from a true-
hearted Englishwoman, who proved herself
to be a real help to those engaged in the
defence. It is on© that ought to be
written in letters of gold, and deposited
in the national archives, as it would have been
during the reign of Caliph HAROUN ALRASCHID,
of glorious memory. Never have we perused
anything more plaintively touching than the ac-
count of the feelings with which the first notes of
" the blessed pibroch" were hailed by the ex-
hausted garrison. The fair writer says :
" On every side death stared 113 in the face ;
no human skill could avert it any longer. We saw
the moment approach when we must bid farewell
to earth, yet without feeling that unutterable hor-
ror which must have bean experienced by the
unhappy victims at Cawnpora. We were resolved
rather to die than to yield, and were fully persuaded
that in twenty-four hours all would he over. The
engineers had said so, and all knew the worst.
We women strove to encourage each other, and to
perform the light duties which bad been as-
signed to us, such as conveying orders to the
batteries and supplying the men with provisions,
especially cups of coffee, which we prepared day
and night."

Poor JES'SIE BROWN, whose name will long
survive, first heard the joyous sounds. Her hear-
ing had been sharpened to the utmost extent by
the extremity of peril, and while others were un-
able to distinguish the distant sounds, she recog-
nised the heart-inspiring notes of the highland
slogan, proving that bravo and faithful men bad
indeed come to the rescue in the dark hour of
trial, when the world and all it contained were

I rapidly passing away.
We shall use the beautiful language of the
writer—simplex munditiis. She speaks of her
comparatively humble companion—dear good
JESSIE—at the first indication. The scene is
thus described :—" A look of intense delight
broke over her countenance, she grasped my hand,
drew me towards her, and exclaimed ' Dinna 3e
hear it 1 dinna ye hear it ? Ay, I'm no drennite,
it's the slogan, o' the Highlanders ! We're saved,
we're saved !' Then, flinging herself on her knee 4,
she thanked Gad with passionate fervour. I
felt utterly bewildered : my English ears heard
only the roar of artillery, and I thought my
poor Jessie was still raving, but ale darted to
the batteries, and I heard her cry incessantly
to the men, ' Cnirage ? coarage I hark to the slo-
gen—to the Macgregor, the grandest of them a'.
Here's help at last l' To describe the effect of these
words upon the soldiers would be impossible. For
a moment they ceased firing, and every soul lis-
tened in intense anxiety. Gradually, however,
there arose a murmur of bitter disappointment, and
the wailing of the women who had flocked out
anew as the colonel shook Lis head. Our dull low-
land ears heard nothing bnt the rattle of the mus-
ketry. A few moments more of this deathlike
suspense, of this agonising hope, and Jessie who
had again sunk on the ground, sprang to her feet,
and cried in a voice so clear and piercing
that it was heard along the whols line—" Will
yo no believe it noo 1 The slogan has ceased, in-
deed, bat "the Campbells are comin' 1" D'ye hear,
d'ye hear t' At that moment we seemed indeed
to hear the voice of God in the distance, when the
pibroch of the Highlanders brought us tidings of
deliverance, for now there was no longer any doubt
of the fact. That shrill, penetrating, ceaseless sound,
which role above all other sounds, could come
neither from the advance of the enemy, nor from
the work of the Sappers. No, it was indeed
the blast of the Scottish bagpipes, now shrill
and harsh, as threatening vengeance on the foe,
then in softer tones seeming to promise succour to
their friends in need. Never surely was there such
a scene as that which followed. Not a heart in
the residency of Lucknow but bowed itself before
God. All, by one simultaneous impulse, fell upon
their knees, and nothing was heard but bursting
sobs and the murmured voice of prayer. Then
all arose, and there rang out from a thousand lips
a great shout of joy which resounded far. and wide,
and lent new vigour to that blessed pibroch. To
our cheer of " God save the Queen," they replied
by the well-known strain that moves every Scot to
tears, `Should auld acquaintance be forgot. "
We cannot add anything to this perfect descrip-
tion. Never was there more cheering music than
the tones of that " blessed pibroch." It told of
home and happtness—of prolonged life and
prosperity, which that amiable lady well deserved,
and which we earnestly hope poor JESSIE BROWN
may also enjoy. Those brave Highlanders should
receive a suitable ovation on their return.
They have well earned the °tie/ m cum
dignitate on their return home. There is not a
single man of HAVELOCK'S band who ought not
to receive the Victoria Cross, accompanied by a
Pension sufficient to support the honours so nobly
acquired.

A 3 we anticipated—(vide our impression of
Wednesday, the 9th of December)—the Extra-
ordinary Session of 1857 has collapsed, leaving
nothing behind it but the miserable pro forma
else is coolly given
egd—is comfortably
Bill ogof_lbnydfisniatyd.roiEtivy•eryshthielvn
the
cushioned. Ministers want to have a pleasant

holiday ; and, therefore, they postpone all annoy-
ances until that political To-morrow—February.
The Right Hon. Gentleman the Leader of her
Majesty's Opposition—certainly not very unrea-
sonably solicitous about this period of emergency
—requests the merest hiat as to the intentions of
the Government. And lo ! he is complacently,
not to say impertinently, recommended by the
First Lord of the Jokery, as Mr. DICKENS, once
upon a time very happily dubbed the Prime
Minister : the Leader of a great Party—the Chief
of the Conservative Opposition—is flippantly re-
commended by Lord PALMERSTON to entertain
himself, as he best may, during the Christmas
Recess with—his own—speculations ! With the
weightiest responsibilities pressing all the while
upon the Cabinet, both commercial and colonial,
in reference to the state of the currency, and in
reference to the revolt in Hindostan ! With the
heart of the country sore, and the mind of the
people troubled, and the iron of calamity entered
deep into the soul of this great empire—not a
glimpse vouchsafed in any one direction of
anything in the shape even of the most sha-
dowy hope of our ultimate extrication from exist
ing difficulties

We are as contentedly as we can to entertain
ourselves during this miserably anxious winter—
for the words are addressed, of course, through
Mr. DISRAELI to the whole population—with our
own " speculations 1" The very phrase seems iro-
nical ! For it is surely the exact course recently
pursued by so many mercantile firms to the verge,
in several instances over the verge, of the Preci-
pice of Ruin—this course of amusing themselves
with their own speculations !
Parliament has now actually adjourned until the

inevitable political Tomorrow—February. And
nothing is left us but this Bill of Indemnity, and ,
two or three of these preposterous committees !
Nothing is explained. Everything is postponed.
Parliamentary Reform—lndian Reform—Cur-
rency Reform : all these are left as extremely
hard nuts to crack over the Yule log during
Christmas. Our Administrators refuse even to
make a clean breast of it upon comparatively
subordinate matters (important, some of them,
vitally important, subjects of inquiry, but, compa-
ratively speaking, subordinate)—Ministers, we say,
refuse as doggedly and good-humouredly as that
honest old rascal JACK FALSTAFF himself, to ex-
plain—upon compulsion !
Precisely in this way have they acted in regard
to the " vexed question" of the Transport of our
Troops to the far away Indian Battlefield. All they
consent to do is—in February—to allow the com-
mittee of Inquiry peremptorily demanded by the
Hon. and Gallant Member for Westminster. Yes 1
we may Inquire, and Inquire, and Inquire—in
February—through another of these absurd and
interminablet Committees. Ministers have no
objection to that—in February. But—in the
meantime they wish it to be distinctly understood
that they are not the least in the world at fault in
regard to this affair about the transport of
our Troops to Hindustan. Hear what Mr. VER-
NON SMITH has to say upon the subject—only
,
hear him ! Why that Right Hon. Gentleman
condescends to tell us among other things—in a
pet —that, As to sending troops to India by way of
Suez, the Minister who advised such a course es
that, would have been deserving of Impeachment !
That, As to its being the shortest way it was really
nothing whatever of the kind—it was just of all
the ways the very longest—(Of course, precisely
upon the same principle that a straight line is a
circumbendibus !) That, Even if it were the
shortest way the perils of the Overland Route

were altogether something really very appalling !

Had Hon. Gentlemen ever crossed the de.
sert themselves ? And so forth ! Now
this last argument of all is to us really,
of all, the least endurable. It is the ap-
plication in times of crisis of the new fangled
notion that soldiers, when making a campaign,
should be coddled as tenderly as a parcel of in-
valid young ladies in a boarding-school, wrapped
up in flannel, and nouriehel with caudle, and com-
forted with whey, and, generally speaking, laid
up in lavender ! A system of things against which,
we doubt not, the manly heart of tha British
soldier':revols with indignation.
No ! whatever Mr. VERNON SMITH may say,
and however coolly the whole matter may be
pitchforked over to that hypothetical Committee
in February—there is not one moment's
doubt in the public mind, but that Minis-
ters have in this very affair, ab,-.ait the transport
of our troops India-wards, been monstrously at
fault, not simply at fault, but at fault monstrously!

That they ought to have been despatched to the
seat of war, to the arena of the revolt at once,
and by the most direct way, and that that most
direct way was incontestibly through Egypt,
across the Isthmus of Suez! That they ought

to have been despatched, moreover, ou board
screw steam transports, instead of on board
sailing vessels—no matter how clearly Mr.
VERNON SMITH and his colleagues may be
able to explain to themselves (to their own satis-
faction) that two and two make three—or, in
other words, that not only i 3 the road to India
via Suez the longest way thither, but that the
slowest of all means of transit is that by means of
steam communication. Finally, to condense the
whole matter into a very few words—England is

perfectly satisfied that Ministers (whatever they
may say to the contrary) are very seriously to
blame indeed, in net having sent the troops out
to India by the quickest and the shortest way, by
the very route upon which, of all routes, they
ought in reason to have been forthwith hastened
by a really patriotic Government. Another thing
let us add : Englishmen recognise still, of course,
as perfectly constitutional, the old time-honoured
axiom, that "The KING can do no wrong." But
the application of that axiom to Ministers, the
transfer of its deep inner meaning from the Crown
to the Cabinet, we are all of us entirely agreed to
be not a jot less absurd than unconstitutional.

COURT CIRCULAR.

OSBORNE, Dxc. 14.

The Queen and Prince Consort, the Prince of Wales,
the Princess Royal, Princess Alice, and Princess Helena,
attended by the Ladies and Gentlemen is Waiting, went
to Whippingham Church yesterday morning, where the
Rev. G. Prothero performed the service.
Prince Alfred, attended by Lieutenant Cowell, Royal
Engineers, returned to Alverbank this morning.

A deputation from the Cotton Supply Association of
Manchester, consisting of Mr. Edmund Ashworth, vice-
president, and Mr. Whitworth, the secretary, had an
interview with the Esrl of Clarendon yesterday at the
Foreign-office. The deputation was introduced and ac•
•companied by Mr. James Aspinall Turner, M.P., and
Mr. John Cheethaiu, M.P.
C)Ionel Talbot had an interview with Mr. Secretary
Labouchere yesterday at the Colonial office.
A deputation from the Victoria Docks and vicinity,
relative to the police, transacted business yesterday at
the Home-office. The deputation consisted of Mr.
Drew ( Victoria Dock Company), Mr. Wise (Thames
Ironworks), and Messrs. Harvey, Brown, .Barrett,
Cunningham, Branscombe, Heritage, and Morgan.
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council sat
yesterday. An appeal (the La Plata), High Cart ot
Admiralty, was heard. The Lords present were the
Chancellor of the Duchy of Cornwall, Sir J. Dodson,
and Sir W. Maule.
Despatches were received yesterday at the Colonial•
office from the Governors of Hong Kong, Ceylon,
Labuan, land the Lord High Commissioner of the
lonian lilandp. Despatches were sent to the Governor
. of the Cape of Good Hope.