The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-31 00:00:00

THE STATE OP DELHI.

The following are extracts from a very interest-
lug private letter, dated Delhi Palace, Nov. 16 :
" We are here to accompany a column about to
march down country to convey tents and carriage to
Cawnpore for the Commander-in-Chief and troops
from England, now reaching Cawnpore in numbers.
No date is yet fixed for the column leaving this ; in
the meanwhile a grand sale is taking place of the
captured booty of Delhi, and a wonderful and rare
sight it is to see all the collected things—the spoils
of a sacked Palace and city ! We left . . . at Dins
o'clock at night, and it was strange to find our-
selves driving by starlight along the Delhi road,
which is as safe now as an English lane ! We
slept calmly on the way, but roused at dawn to
watch the battlefield of the Hindon (where General
A. Wilson distinguished himself), and shortly came
in sight of shattered Delhi. What a memorable
sight r Every wall or bastion that faced our camp
is in almost shapeless ruin, while the white marble
pavilions of the palace rise unharmed along the
.J.umna bank.
"In one of those live the There is no
describing the beauty and quaintness of their rooms.
I long for photographs to send home. They are all
of ialaid marble, with semianabs pitched in the
asnanah courts between ; but all around speaks of
awful war—the rows on rows of captured guns—
the groups of English soldiers at every post ; and
not English only, for our brave defenders the
Ghoorkas, Sikhs, and Cabulees mingle among them.
A strange army, indeed, with not a trace of pipe-
clay ! It is a frightful drive from the Palace to the
Cashmere-gate—every house rent, riven, and tot-
tering ; the church battered, and piles of rubbish
on every side. Alas ! the burnt houses and de-
serted shops ! Desolate Delhi ! and yet we are
told it is clearing and much improved since the
storming of the place. It has only as yet a hand-
ful of inhabitants in its great street, the Chandnee
Choke, who are all Hindoos, I believe. Many mis-e
rable wretches prowl through the outside of the city
begging admission at the various gates, but none
are admitted whose respectability cannot be vouched
for. Cartloads of ball are being daily dug from the
Moirie Bastion, now a shapeless battered mass.
The mutineers are collected in Oude in formidable
masses. Most of them are represented as hopeless,
and aware that they are only assembling there to
die. After Oude there will ensue a Itohilcund
campaign. There will be ample work for everyone
whom mother England has sent out : but it is a
triumph of the great Anglo-Saxon race that so
much has been accomplished before the reinforce-
ments came by India's Army of Heroes, " few,
but undismayed. The finger of God is in-
deed traceable in the taking of Delhi. LA no
man at home dare to underrate the work, or
talk of the delay of it; accomplishment. It
was a daring, fearful undertaking for oar small
army, against such a city of endless fortification
and so very numerous au enemy. Had not God
been on ourside, that vast army of mutineers could
never have been driven front such a stronghold.
Great perils may attend the passage of the column
we are to accompany. It may possibly meet bodies
of mutineers on the road in sufficient numbers to at-
tack us, and we may find ourselves in the midst of
a battle ; but, as ladits are to be permitted to go
under its escort, it is of course hoped that the road
will not be impeded. Many unusual precautions
will have to be taken, no tents or servants can be
sent on over night (as in peaceful times) to await
our arrival in the morning ; but we must carry one
small tent only, which cannot be struck till we are
about to march with it ourselves. All must keep
close together ; there would else be certain harm
frcm armed thieves. I fear we may lose some of
our baggage, but we shall arrange and hope for the
best. Some artillery go with us and same Carabi-
neers, and a party' of the Sikh Guides, and a Pun-
jabee Ressalah is expected in time to more with uR.
Most of the neighbouring Nawabs have been brought
in captive. Some are criminated beyond dout.t,
others have only been very discreditably neutral.
We have seen the captive king and royal family—
they are in ruinous little rooms in one of the gates
of the Palace. The old king looks very frail. He is
too old to be responsible for anything that has been
done. With his sons much more guilt may lie ;
some have been shot, and some are yet untaken.
The youngest son we saw looking like 15, they say
18, bold and coarse to look at. He is the only
child of the Queen. With her some of our ladies
have bad a long interview ; they found her seatcil
on a common charpoy (bedstead), dress-d in white
cotton clothes, with few and very trilling or-a-
ments--all her grand things having been taken
from her. She is 'described as short and stout,
above 30 years of age, with a round, animated face,
not at all pretty but having very pretty little plump
hands ; she was cutting betelnut to eat with her
pawn. Some 30 females, relatives and menials,
surrounded her. She professes the utmost horror
of the 3d Cavalry, to whom she traces all ber mis-
fortunes. She says the King was helpless to con-
trot them, and that when their arrival had placed
Delhi in rebellion against us they were as ready to
rob her as any one else. She says the mutineers
did rob the palace, and that all her jewels were
only saved by being buried. She does not seem to
blame us for their present captivity ; she under-
stands the necessity for inquiring into guilty or ii.-
nocent parties; but she did not seem to as,ert the
King's innocence as much as her own. She said
he had been in the hands of bad people. There ap-
peared to be frightful rivalries among the women ;
it is said she criminated the sons of the former
wives, she being the last. Her sister is represented
as much better looking than herself, and has a
daughter of 13 married to the King's youngest sin
already mentioned, and reputed very beautiful.
Our ladies describe her as having superb large aye
and a most beautiful little mouth, but her face
.otherwise too flat and full. Some of the women
told them they had Lad English women and chil-
dren in the Palace after the massacre, in hope of
preserving them, but the mutineers demanded them
and could not be resisted. They sly the Sepoys
complained that the King was feeding English-
women daintily, while he only gave them gram for
food. Haven knows if the Royal Family be clean
in heart or hand or not. I say nothing sentimental
about them, but pity them. Their religion is
quite enough to excite our pity, and if they have
been abettors of murders they ought to be pitied
for their sins. If they are, as they say, innoceet
of any share in the rebellion, they are victims in-
d- ed.

" I trust all. examinations may be judiciously
and fa'rly conducted. Mr. —is an excellent
man—most upright and indefat gable in discover-
ing truth, and withal most tender-hearted. He
will not spare ti)e gnilty, nor indict suffering on
the innocent. But I must pauso.

The following lettAr from au officer affords a re-
markaVe illustration of one of the greatest of
In Ilan difficulties—the low moral state and help-
lessness of the people, and especially of the Ben-
galees

• " October 20.
" I am sure, if anything is dispiriting it is the
work have in hand just now in collecting carriage
for the troops which are every day arriving. The
eternal shifts and evasions of the zeminflars, of the
cart drivers, of the contractors, lead to c-mstant
disappointment; and were it not that I begin to
think that one must make up one's mind to a repe-
tition of the satne kind of semi-demi success through-
out life, at least in India, why I should be thoroughly
disgusted.

" Anywhere else high wages and regular payment
would bring the carriage in of itself. Here it only
makes the matter more complicated, as you have to
take the greater procauliens t 3 insure the strict
fulfilment of your conditions, and no one will be-
lieve that you can insure it. The very police roe
all engaged in defeating your object. They have
actually so terrified the owners of carts that no one
can undertake a contract to provide carts until he
has secured the interests of the darogah by agree-
ing, of course, to pay a per centago on the profits.
Then, again, the amlih or officers of my court used
formerly to have the real c irection of these sort of
contracts ; and because Government is now at-
tempting to do away with impressment, in which
lay their enormous profits, I cannot get the slightest
assistance from them. n the contrary, tLey in-
trigue right and left to prevent parties front coining
to a settlement with me. Thus I have had one con-
tractor after another slip through my fingers for no
apparent reason ; in fact, while consenting he re-
fuse.. I have just now lost a couple of hours in
answering a sudden complication' between an agent
of mine andone of a neighbouring officer, who are
fighting with each other and doing their best to em-
broil us together ; and here is another who posi-
tively declares that unless I give him the aid of the
police cannot secure a single gbary. I know well
enough what that probably means—viz , that he
wants an order for impressment,
which would be a
Small fortune to him. If I refuse I ri-k the loss of
his aid altogether, as the chances we he'll throw up,
in the certainty that before long!. must take to im-
pressment."

A CHILD SCALDED TO DEATH.--Ye terday Mr. Wm.
Carter, the Surrey coroner, held au invest on the bcdy
of Arthur Rivers, aged 3 years and 10 months. lA,b
parents lived in Thomas-place, Lambeth. On Chii t,na,
day a nurse, who was attending the mother, placed a
kettle of boilirg water upon the table, from which the
child drank, and although medical aid was promptly ob
tains), he lived only 25 hours. The jury having return( d
a verdict of accidental death, the coroner said parents
should never allow children to drink out of either teapo's
cr kettles, whether the water contained therein was hot
or cold, fur if they were allowed to drink from such
vessels when the water was cold they were apt to make
a mistake, and drink the water when hot.