The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-04 00:00:00

" PLENTY OF GOLD, AND WHERE AND
HOW TO GET IT.

"Sir,—The new railiament has met—the Select
Committee on Banking has again been appointed ;
and though the Chancellor of the Exchequer very
fairly told the House of Commons that he shall not
oppose the Committee being an open one, should
the House desire it ; yet, with the exception of
Mr. Roebuck, not a member seemed to think it
worth asking for. This indifference on the part of
the elected can only be palliated by the apathy
shown by the electors at the late general election,
who scarcely put a question to any candidate on a
subject affecting more than any other their material
welfare. Now the difference between a secret and
an open committee is almost tantamount to the
difference between renewing or repealing the Act
of 1844. Under an open committee the evidence
would be published daily ; the press would be the
advocates of the contending parties ; the public
would be the jury ; and truth would obtain the
verdict of public opinion, which in this country is
omnipotent. Upon a secret committee the public
will be kept in the dark until the evidence is com-
plete ; and then, after the Legislature has probably
renewed the baneful charter, it will be laid before
them in volumes too ponderous to be read, and too
late to be of any service ; publicity, and not secrecy,
ought to be the ordeal to which our monetary laws
should be subjected.
" The monetary pressure:still continues, and will
continue, and merchants and others can expect no
redress for years from the slow process of legisla-
tion ; they should, therefore, make use of the power
already in their hands.
" Let them demand gold for the notes they hold,
as by law they are entitled to do, and by so doing
they will put an end to the absurd and unjust Act
of 1844—absurd, because producing the very evil
it was intended to avert—unjust, because sacrificing
all other classes to the monied classes.
" Let them demand gold for their notes, and
Government will be obliged to suspend the Act as
in 1847, when the severity of the monetary pressure
will instantly cease, as the panic then did. The
Government may do this with perfect safety, and
without departing in the least from the principle
•of convertibility—by empowering the Bank of Eng-
land to issue one pound notes in exchange for sove-
reigns—the Bank reserving one-third of the sove-
reigns to ensure the convertibility of the notes into
gold.
" The continued oppressive stringency of the
money market must be my excuse for repeating at
this moment the remedy I recommended some time
ago for the unnatural monetary pressure, and which
at the same time would add considerably to the
wealth and revenue of the country, by converting
unproductive into productive capital, and by the
Government reaping the benefit of the charge for
discount.
" I am, sir, your obedient servant,
" HAMER STANSFELD.
" Burley, near Otley, May 25, 1857."

THE WEATHER.

METEOROLOGICAL REPORTS.

LITERA 2 JlitE.

The Tunjab and Delhi in 1857. By the Rev. J.
Cave Browne, M.A., Assistant-Chaplain, Bengal
Presidency. 2 vols. Blackwood.

Probably few national events have given the
world so many goodly volumes as the Indian
mutiny. The circumstances themselves were so
startling and tragic, transporting us suddenly as it
' were back to the earlier ages of civilisation, the
actors and sufferers were so closely united to us,
the admiration and sympathy called forth by their
heroism and their trials were so fervent and sincere,
the indignation excited by the conduct of the
enemy so deep and universal, that all relating to
the Indian catastrophe assumed an immediate inte-
rest. The English public read with avidity the
details of that memorable struggle, the records of
individual exploits and escapes, and the narratives
of those who had formed part of the avenging
army. It was long before the supply exhausted
the demand, but at length the volumes grew
fewer as the deadly struggle passed away, and
for a considerable period we have heard no
more of works on the Indian mutiny. The volumes
before us, notwithstanding their numerous prede-
cessors, can scarcely fail to attract attention. They
give a clear and connected account of the events of
1857 in the Punjab and Delhi, and the means by
which, under Providence, the country' was pre-
served. The master-minds who, fortunately for
the nation, held the posts of authority in the
Punjab, were not men to shrink from sudden re-
sponsibility or yield to timid vacillating counsels.
Had Sir John Lawrence and his immediate asso-
ciates acted with less promptness and sagacity,
there is no *doubt that the whole Punjab
would have been in a blase of rebellion that
would have been hard indeed to quench.
Fortunately they were equal to the occasion, and
the Punjab was saved, though at how imniinent
a risk, only those who had full and accurate infor-
mation of the state of the country, knew. The
author, who was assistant chaplain in the Bengal
Presidency, was on the spot when the formation of
the Punjab moveable column was determined on,
and !at once volunteered to be its chaplain, which
arduous and dangerous post brought him subse-
quently to the walls of Delhi. His narrative relates
entirely to the course of events in the Punjab and
at the siege, and although he expresses a fear that
this limitation may deprive it of more vivid inte-
rest, yet in some degree it increases its value, by
giving us a complete picture of one part of the
subject, and enabling the reader the better to
follow the chain of events and to comprehend their
connection. The work originated in a journal kept
in camp, which afterwards appeared in Black.
wood's Magazine, and whose accuracy attracted
notice in India. After a time the author was
induced to enlarge and connect these notes,
and the kind assistance he received from many
quarters in. furnishing him with corroborative
details, has easily enabled him to do so. Various
reasons have delayed its appearance, but this
is scarcely to be regretted, since the work is
less likely to be overlooked in the crowd of
similar volumes. "It should be borne in mind,"
says the author in his preface, " that the events of
which the Punjab was the scene, noble as they
were, seem in their very success less thrilling, less
appalling in their character, than those which
marked the course of the mutiny in other parts of
India. Even the fires of Meerut and the bloodshed
of Delhi, in the month of May, dwindle into com-
parative insignificance beside the flames of Cawn- 1
pore and the massacre in its " slaughterhouse" two
months later. The siege of Delhi, too, with all its noble
soil and struggle, and endurance, and its assault of
unparalleled boldness, lacked scmewhat of the deep,
absorbing human interest which will ever centre
in the beleaguered garrison of Lucknew. Nor
had the column which swept the Punjab, from
the Indus to the Jumna, the opportunity of vie-
ing in glorious deeds with the army with which
Sir Hugh Rose so gallantly recovered Central
India." Yet the Punjab was not without its heroes
or its scenes of thrilling interest, as those who
read these pages will readily acknowledge. Com-
mencing with the anxious and unsettled state of
feeling which in many quarters marked the open-
ing of 1857, the author speedily brings us to the
catastrophe of Meerut. After giving the de-
tails of the outbreak, he asks, as many have
asked before, why the progress of the mutineers
towards the fated city was not checked, and la-
ments the mismanagement which rendered the
forces on the spot comparatively useless. " The
sepoys have come in from Meerut, and are burning
everything. Mr. Todd is dead, and, we hear,
several Europeans. We must shut up."
Such was the last message telegraphed from
Delhi on the fatal 11th of May. We may guess its
effect on the receivers. A few hours later fugitives
reached Kurnaul tellingothe horrors of the Delhi
massacre and the suspension of all further commu-
nication. At Lahore, the political capital of the
Punjab, " peopled by hereditary soldiers," and
surrounded by native regiments, the news might
well strike terror. Sir John Lawrence, Chief
Commissioner, was absent, and on Mr. Montgomery,
Judicial Commissioner, the responsibility devolved.
His opinion, in which all his advisers concurred,
was that nothing but a prompt, vigorous course
could save the city. But during the day their
measures were hastened by the discovery of a deep
laid conspiracy to seize the fort, free the gaol pri-
soners, and massacre the Europeans. The plan of
the natives was, during the relief of the native
guard in the fort, to take advantage of the time
when both wings of the regiment were in the fort
together, rush on the officers, overpower the small
body of Europeans, and fire a building close by as
i a signal to their comrades in the town. It must be
remembered that the force of Europeans altogether
was very small. It is manifest that such an emer-
gency was not to be trifled with,andßrigadierCorbett,
who was immediately consulted, in spite of the de-
murs of too credulous officers, resolved on the bold and
unprecedented step of disarming the whole of the
native troops on the station. How this desperate
move was effected we leave the author to tell in
his own words:—

It so happened that the gay world of Mean-Meer, in the
enjoyment of a fancied security, had selected that evening
(12th May) for a large ball, which was to be given by the
station to the officers of her Majesty's 81st Regiment. The
discovery of this conspiracy made some of the authorities
sugge t the postponement of the ball; but it was wisely
overruled, as any such change might have led the Sepoys
to infer the detection of their plot. So the ball ; but it
could scarcely be said of it as of the far-famed ball at Brus-
sels which preceded the battle of Waterloo, that—
" All went merry as a marriage bell," •
for, not to mention an air of anxiety and gloom which the
most light-hearted of the votaries of Terpsichore could not
altogether shake off, the room itself betrayed signs of pre-
paration—

" For in each corner
The eye on strange objects fell ;
There arms were piled,"
and every officer knew where to find his weapon in case of
need. The evening, however, passed over undisturbed,
and dancing was kept uT, till two in the morning, when the
scene changed, with short interval, from the ball-room to
the parade-ground.
Never had such a parade been held before. The whole
brigade of all arms, European and native, were turned out,
avowedly, to hear the general order for disbanding the
seven companies of the 34th Native Infantry at Barratkpore ;
really, to enact a drama which for originality and boldness
of design, was without precedent in the annals of Indian
history. Anarkullee sent forth all her leading civilians to
witness it ; and their eager faces betokened the keen anxiety
with which they watched its issue. The troops were thus
drawn up :—On the right were the two troops of horse
artillery ; next to them came six companies of H.M. 81st ;
then the native infantry regiments in their order—the 16th,
26th, and 49th ; with the Bth Native Cavalry on the left.
The general order was read at the head of each native regi-
ment ; the word was then passed for the native regiments
to change front to the rear. While they were occupied in
this manoeuvre H.M. 81st also changed front, and marched
round, left shoulders forward, so as to present a line along
the new face of the native corps, the artillery beyond and
behind them also moving round, and loading as they went,
unobservedly by the sepoys. Then came the critical mo-
ment. Lieutenant Mocatta, adjutant of the 26th Light
Infantry, advanced and read an address explaining to the
sepoys that the mutinous spirit which pervaded so many
regiments down country had it necessary to adopt measures
not so muck for the peace of the country, which the British
could maintain, as for the sake of preserving untarnished
the name of regiments whose colours told of so many
glorious battle-fields ; and that it had been, therefore, de-
termined by the brigadier to take from them the opportu-
ni y of ruining their own characters, should designing
malcontents ,attempt to involve them in mutiny and its
ruinous consequences. The order was then given to "pile
arms." A slight hesitation and delay were perceptible
among the 16th Grenadiers, to whom the order was first
-given; but it having been previously arranged that while
the address was being read to the Sepoys, the 81st should
form into subdivisions and fall back between the guns, the
16th found themselves confronted not by, a thin line of
European soldiers, but by twelve guns loaded with grape,
and port-fires lighted.; The clear voice of Colonel Renny,
"Eighty-first, load I" and the ominous ring of each ram-
rod, as it drove home its ball cartridge, carried conviction
to the heart of the waverers—they sullenly piled arms; the
49th N. T., and the :portion of the 26th Light Infantry
followed the example, while the Bth Cavalry unbuckled
and dropped their sabres.
A company of the 81st now advanced, collected the arms,
piled them in carts brought for the purpose, and escorted
them to barracks. Thus were some 2,500 native soldiers
disarmed in the presence of scarcely 600 Europeans, and
marched off to their lines comparatively harmless."
Lahore was saved, and, as the writer observes,
that bold stroke was the first move in the game
which saved the Punjab. " With Lahore seised,
the fort mastered, the European troops surrounded
and powerless, the whole Punjab must have
and perhaps all India, for a time." Thankful gone,
deed may we be, as Mr. Cave Browne expresses
himself, that the Lahore brigade, at so imminent
in.
a crisis, was under the command of one so fitted to
cope with the emergency. He was happy, says
the author, in possessing that rarest courage which
will risk the censure of officials and the fear of
responsibility, and in Mr. Montgomery he found
Vow able coadjutor. The interference of inezpe.