The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-30 00:00:00

"WHAT NEWS I WHIT NEWS ?

" This is the question that is asked of yon t y all ;
this is the question you ask of others. Aye, and we say,
well may you ask, for there is news, and it concerns you
much.

" When we say this, we presume that we are address.
ing men who still retain some, at least, of that feelin
which God originally lint hots in the breasts of all, viz.,
a love of freedom and justice, and a consequent hatred
of all oppression and injustice.
"The news, therefore, concerns yon much, for it ttl's
you that at length the just wrath of Heaven is being
poured upon those who for centuries held by the right of
the strong hand what was and is justly-yours. - It tells
you that hand is becoming palited—aye, palsied with the
curse of blood, the weight of crime. It tails you that
the wail of suffering, the cry for vengeance bas at length
been heard, and that when least expected the sword of
the destroying angel has fallen on the guilty.
Yes, a portion of the E empire, the richest
and largest of a'l her ill-gotten phssyssions, has risen
against her, and is avenging with terrible vengeance
the slaughtered millions of her children, whose blood has
been poured out as a river since England first set foot on
her soil.

"It tells you of Sepoy barbarities of women
and children murdered. Yes, the chained tiger
of Bengal has broken loose, and scattered ruin
in his path. But, goaded as the Hindoos have
been un-Christianised as they are -- we have
yet to hear tbat they have exceeded Cromwell at Drog-
heda and Wexford, or tke Biack Horse in '9B ; or that,
like the English Government in '47, they condemned a
million of human beings to die the lingering death of
starvation.
"Perhaps you will a-k, " What of all this !we k, env
it all before. What would you have us to do t' Read
of it—think of it ! again and again ; you will be
the better prepared to act when the time comes ;
make others (And they are many) read and think
who at present do neither. Thus will you keep
alive the faith in (id's justice ! the faith in
Ireland's liberty ! and England's downfall ! Dis-
courage drunkenness, and thus prevent many a mis-
guided fool from swelling the ranks of your oppressors
and becoming the victim of Indian cholera or the sabre
of the sepoy ; and further, you nay sometimes even
teach those whom they have already ensnared that a day
may soon come when au Irish soldier, with arms in his
hands, might write a new and glorious page of Irish
history.
"He who reads and understands this will neither
burn nor destroy it, but read it again, and give it to be
II read to him who does not ; it is idle to speak."
STATE OF BELFAST.

The latest movements of the Rev. Hugh Hanna
are thus ehronielld in the Belfast Mercury of yes-
terday :
" The Rev. Mr. Hanna was met on Saturday at the
Corn Exchange by. some clergymen of the Presby-
terian Church and others, and the recommendation con-
tained in the fifth resolution of the Belfast Presby•
tery, adopted at its spe&al meeting on Friday, was
pressed strongly on his attention, After a good deal
of debate Mr. Hanna consented to forego his deter-
mination to preach on Sunday. At this meeting a pro-
position was also made to collect a subscription for a
fund, to be devoted to the expenses of bringing actions
against the magistrates who were instrumental in pre.
venting the open-air preaching of the preceding Sunday,
but, after some c-Insideration, it was rejeoted by the
meeting. Yesterday, in consequence of Mr. Hanna's
absence from Corporation-square, the quays were very
quiet. The police on duty were enabled to return to
their quarters at 4 o'clock, and the evening wore off
more quietly than the ordinary run of Sunday elrenings.'

BELIEF FOR THE INDIAN SUFFERERS.

KINGTON.

A public meeting was held on Monday last at
lifilner'is Hotel in this town for the purpose of pro-
moting a subscription in aid of the fund for the
relief of the sufferers by the Indian mutiny. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir G. C. Lewis,
occupied the chair, and there was a good attend-
ance of the aristocracy and gentry of the town and
neighbourhood, including
.Rear Admiral Sir T.
Hastings, C. 8., Mr. J. K. King, M.P., Lady The-
resa Lewis, Lady Hastings, Mrs. and Misses King,
Mrs. Pilkington Dawson, alec.
Sir G. C. Lzwes said—lt seems to me that this
is an occasion which at once recommends itself to
all your feelings,
which does not require any rheto-
rical amplification on the part of the person where
duty it is to state to you tee object of the meeting.
We all know what a great catastrophe has fallen
upon our Indian empire. Every one who reads the
daily' papers must have peruse t with a shudder the
dreadful details of the atrocities which have been
commited by the insurgent soldiery of that coun-
try upon our unhappy countrymen, upon military
officers and upon civil servants, their wives and
children, who have been suddenly attacked by those
whom they believed to be their faithful and obe-
dient servants and defenders. We know from these
details that the English residents in India—a class
of Persons habituated to an affluent and comfortable
life—have suddenly, by the cruelty and treachery
of tie Sepoyregiments, been many of them deprived
of their property, that others have been treacher
ously assassinated, that their families in many cases
have been reduced to want and severe privation,
and that misfortunes have accumulated upon them
which would command the sympathy of an English
and Christian public. Plunged suddenly in the ex-
treme of suffering by this unexpec'ed blow, they
have displayed the utmost heroismand courage, and
in no respect have they been wanting in those qua-
lities which an English soldier or the servant of
an English Government, placed iii such circum-
stances, ought to have exhibited. (Heir, hear,
hear.) In this state of things can it be
doubted that a response to the appeal which has
been made to the country will arise from all quar-
ters. Even if the condition of our countrymen were
less deplorable than it is, even if we did not know
that such sad cases of distress have arisen, we
should at all events be willing to exhibit our sym-
pathy with the sufferings of which we read the daily
accounts in the newspapers. Perhaps there may
be some who may be inclined to take a less favour-
able view of the merits of our unhappy country-
men, who may say that they were the means of
carrying on a Government oppressive to the native
population of India. We read effusions to such an
effect in some of the Irish papers, and some of the
organs of the ultra-Catholic party on the Continent.
Far from exhibiting any sympathy with the suffer-
ings of Englishmen in India,: they exult over them
as a righteous ret: ibution or what they represent
as so much tyranny and oppression exercised by
our Government. So far, however, from any such
feeling having been generally exhibited, I think
that England may justly be proud of the sympathy
which has teen exhibited in her favour by the voice
of the civilised world. When I read articles which
have appeared in French, in German, and in Ame-
rican newspapers, not expressing any ungenerous
exultation in the temporary misfortune of this
country, but sympathising with the suffer-
ings of the servants of the English Government in
the East, I cannot but rejoice, though I scarcely
expected ever to see the day when the base feelings
of international jealousy would have been so much
weakened among the great nations of the wore],
(Hear.) Neverthelesa, there have been symptoms
of a different feeling. Now, we naturally ask our-
selves what it is that the naives of India complain
of when they have raised the standard of revolt,
when they have committed atrocities which the
pea must refuse to write, the tongue refuse
to utter, and over which the decirum of am
dern civilization compels us to throw the
veil ? What is it that the natives allege as
their justification fur committing these atro-
cious cruelties ? I have been much struck by
reading a proclamation which appears to have been
posted up in the town of Cawnpore by one of the
leading insurgents against English government in
India, whose name unhappily has become too fami-
liar to us—l mean Nana Sahib—a man with respect
to whom it would be a libel upon the brute creation
if we were to describe him as a mixture of the ser-
pent and the tiger. I think that proclamation throws
some light on the motives of the Ilindoos for at-
tempting to throw off our government, and its au-
thenticity does not appear doubtful. The right hon.
baronet here read the notorious proclamation of
Nana Sahib, and then continued—lt is very curious
that the Sultan of Turkel-, who is here supposed to
have a sympathy with the Indian insure. nts, has
shown his sympathy with the sufferings of English-
men in India, by contributing 1,0001. towards the
fund which we are met to promote. That procla-
mation shows the cause of the insurr-ction to be
one of religion, for ne complaint is made that the
English have plundetedtho natives of their posses-
sions, that justice has not been administered, that
the civil and military officers whose wives and chil-
dren have been so treacherously murdered have
not properly discharged their duties. Nothing of
this sort is alleged, but it is sai 1 that an attempt is
being made to destroy their religion. Now, un-
doubtedly there was a measure taken by the mili-
tary authorities upon the introduction of an im-
proved musk t into the army which led to the un-
f iunded beli-f that there was an intention on the
part of the Government to destroy the creel and
the caste of the Hindoes. That intention, I need
not say, did not exist ; but the appearance gave an
opportunity to designing men to create among the
native soldiery the beliet that such a design was en-
tertained by the Government. Intriguing men
worked upon the simple minds of the sepoys ; and
the fact that such an event was used as the meaosef
poisoning their minds against British rule proves
that there was no substantial ground of complaint,
—that the forwidab'e 'mutiny that now exists did
not arise from any ground of misgovernment which
could in any sense be said to justify or to excuse an
iusurrecti n, or a resistance to Government in
any ferm. to sly nothing of the atroci ins cha-
racter which this insurrection has assumed.
But whatever may be the c qi-e of the insurrection
we must all agree th it the investigation of it must
be postponed until a future psriod. What we are
now called upon to do is to assist our countrymen,
and to suppress the mutiny by ell the means in our
power ; to restore tranquillity to the country, as
well as to afford protection to our countrymen. I
do not suppose that frortepne end of the country to
the other a sing'e voice has been raised in favour of
submit ing to the resistance which has been m ide
to our legitimate authority, yet let us put an hype-I
theticil case, and ask what would be the condton
of India if we were to withdraw from the cluntry
an i leave it in the,power of the Sepoye. The Chan-
cellor here read extracts from a letter of a native
which was published in The Suit of the 18th Sept.,
showing since Delhi was in the hands of the muti-
neers every species of oppression had been prac-
tised, therich houses and shops had been plundered,
A number of poor shopkeepers killed for asking the
proper price for their things, that the bazaars were
n .t opened, that the shopkeepers and citizens curse
the mutineers from morning to ewning, that work-
men starve, and widows cry in their huts, dec. Now
I can hardly (continued the right bon. bare.) con-
ceive a more striking picture of anarchy, of confu-
sion, of injustice, and of rapacity than is penned in
these few lines ; and we may hence judge to what
we should leave India if the protecting power of
the English Government were withdrawn—for be
it observed that India has fur centuries past been
governed by foreigners. It is long since the people
have been ruled by native princes, and it is merely
a question with them whether the Government
should be transferred from the English t ) the Mus-
autumn invaders, who preceded our rule. It has
been said that property has its duties as well as its
right, and so it may be said with equal truth that
conquests has its duties as well as its rights. By
conquering and keeping the continent of India we
have contracted certain important obligations to-
w ade the natives and inhabitants of that country.
Without any reference to oar own interests it is our
duty, so fir as we aro able to do so practically,
to govern justly and to the advantage of the vast
population f that extensive country. The struggle
which is going on in India is not, in my opiniore to
be regartkd simply as a struggle of the British
against the Ma"meaaha and the Ilindeos—not
is
simply e
against the S`' ''y g mutineers ; nor
00,f,iunti,risbutitaintitiys
tahgeacionast.
it still less th
Mahomedauism and
ttat of aivilisetion againf t barbarism. (Hew.)
It is
an attempt of the European Gose!.ntnent to intro-
duce just and equi'able rule among a great Oriental
populations. (Applause.) If the account could be
eland anti- India, and the
made. up between En,
balance struck of the benefits which
England has
derived from India, and the benefits which India
;voted
Lai derived from England, I cannot doubt it _
be found that the preponderance would lie in favour
of India and against England ; that our ru'e, wintt_
ever ohjeetion may be mode to it in detail, would
be found to have conferred greater benefits upon
the people of Ind:a trim England, in its turn, has
dt rived from the Government of those large pro-
vinces. (Applause.)
Mr. K. KING, M. P., moved a resolution expres-
sive of sympAth with the sufferings of our fell° w-
count, ynien and conntrywomea in India, and re-
marked that there could be no doubt that the re
cent events wculd 1 ad to a very extensive change
iu the government of the country, and to the r. er-
g sn'sa ion of the.lrd an army.
Mr: 0. W. ALLEN seconded the resolution.
Sir T. HASTNCVF3) C. 8., moved the--neat resolu-

tion, appointing means for raising a subscription,
and corrended at some length against an assault of
Delhi, depicting in glowing language the horrors
which must inevitably ensue.
Mr. MTIVORS seconded the resolufon.

Other resolutions were also proposed, and at the
close of the proceedings the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer expressed the satisfaction with which he
heard so eminent authority as Rear-Admiral Sir T.
Hastings state his opinion that no advantage would
be derived from a precipitate assault upon Delhi,
and that the ultimate reduction of the town might
be considered a matter of certainty with the ap-
pliances and resourcesofpivilised nations. He would
not say (,ne word which would seem in anyway to
deprecate criticism, either in public meetings or in
Parliament, upon the conduct of the present Go-
vernment of India. They -would be prepared at
the proper season to defend their conduct; and to
show that they had used all proper means for main-
taining the legitimate authority of the Crown in
India, and for defending the lives and properties of
its subjects. (Hear.) But he must remark upon
the state of things when this mutiny broke our.
We had an army consisting of 290,000 men, of
which 50,000 were Europeans, and 240,000 were
n dives. The population of India was reckoned to
be about 150 millions, and he believed there were
about 10,000 civilians. Everybody must see that
such a state of things was most perilous, although
it had been succe.sful for many years. Neverthe-
less, to attempt to govern so extensive a region and
so vast a population with an army of only 50,000
Europeans, together with a native army of 240,000,
on whose allegiance we had hitherto implicitly
relied,—and relied, too, with the concurrence of
the best judges of the Indian character and the
Indian population—was a perilous experiment ;
and when that native army, at least that portion
of it in the provinces of Bengal, • suddenly turned
against tri, it was hardly to be wondered that the
state of things should become very dangerous. We
had, however, the gratification of s'_eing that the
insurrection had been almost exclusively confined
to the army—that the native population, which we
were accused of having so grievously misgoverned,
had for the most part shown no disposition to join
the mutineers. (Applause.)
The subscription list was then opened, and up-
wards of 2001. was soon rstalised, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer heading the list with a subscription
of 1001.