The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-19 00:00:00

THE

IFLHI.

When we took Delhi in 1803, the outer wall In
in a very ruinons state, without any flanking de
fences further than small round bastions placed
intervals. The ditch wa% imperfect ; there was n
glacis, and the ground outside was covered up 1.
the very walls with ruins of streets, tombs, an
mosques, and was, besides, intersected and out u_
with ravines. Yet even thus, as we have said,
small body of our native troops was able, in 1804
to re7el all the attacks of JeswantßaoHolkar,
wit

a victorious army of 70,000 men.
The scheme for the improvement of the fortifi9a
times was entrusted to Captain George Hutchin-
son, of the Bengal Engineers, who was succeeder
by Captain Robert Smith, of the same corps, an(
under these two officers Delhi was placed in al.
situation with regard to works in which it now
stands. C. apt. Hutchinson determined on establish-
ing a series of bastions, with faces and flanks as usua'
along the whole of the enceinte, the bastions to
be mounted with heavy artillery. He re-
paired the old walls, and for the purpose of pre-
venting escalade protected them, especially on
the river face, by fraise, or beams, the sharp ends
of which were pointed at an acute angle down-
ward into to the ditch. The ditch was cleared
out, repaired, and deepened, especially on the south
side, where the wall rested on rock. A glacis was
formed to cover in some degree the scarp of the
wall ; the ground outside was cleared of houses and
ruins, the ravines were filled in, so that the works
were rendered proof against wild plundering hordes,
or indeed any force whatever unaccompanied by
heavy artillery. At the same tieae Captain Hut-
chinson was strengthening the defences against at-
tack from without, he made preparations also against
a rise of the inhabitants, which at that tune ap-
peared a probable event. To meet this danger he
erected along the line of wall a series of detached
Martell° towers, entirely separate from the walls,
and accessible from them only by a drawbridge.
Each tower was to have a gun mounted on a pivot,
so that in the event of a rise in the city, artillery-
men might take possession of the towers, raise the
draw-bridges, and pour shot into the town from the
whole circle of the enceinte. The Muhammadan
College, or Madrisah, at the Ajmir Gate, was pro-
tected by an outwork, and the gateways of the city
were strengthened by the usual defences in regular
fortification. The Kashmir Gate, on the north,
from which runs the road to cantonments, was
formed into a place of arms, in which was the guard-
house, &c. It was in the enclosure of this gate
that several of the officers were killed in the late
mas,acre. We have before stated that Lord
Auckland, in 1838, recommended extensive re-
pairs, and in particular of the Wellesley Bas-
tion, which was, in fact, entirely reconstructed.
It appears that he also suggested the erection of
a citadel, though the palace may itself be regarded
as one, being surrounded with a ditch, and having
walls of great height, built of red sandstone, and
pierced for matchlocks. The river face of the
palace constitutes the defence of the city on that
side. It is a curious fact the custom-house, built
by a medical officer on the glacis near the river on
the north of the city, was sold to the Government
as a treasury—outside the walls ! The engineer
officer, Colonel Robert Smith, was unable to get
rid of the building. He pointed out the absurdity
of its position, and the embarrassment which it
caused him in his plan of defence ; bu although
thousands had been spent in removing houses and
bazaars, and in clearing the esplanade round the
walls, this great building was allowed to remain
with all its offices. It was used first as a treasury,
and afterwards as a customhouse, and. with its
garden and enclosures is doubtless now in the
hands of the rebels.
We will now turn to the position of the besieged
as regards water and supplies. The population of
Delhi has been variously computed, but we shall
perhaps not bo far wrong in reckoning it at 180,000 ;
and the influx of troops and of people from the
surrounding villages will probably have compensa-
ted for the numbers killed in the late conflicts, and
for those who have carried off their property to
more secure localities. There are considerable
supplies of grain kept up by the grain merchants of
the city, but little fodder for horses is procurable.
For a lengthened siege the supplies within the city
would be insufficient, but some might be obtained
from the opposite side of the river, or from the
villages on the right bank, many of which, espe-
cially those in the neighbourhood of the
Delhi Canal, would be able to pour in vast
stores of both corn and fodder. As the Eastern
Jumna Canal enters the Jumna opposite Delhi,
and as that canal irrigates all the country in its
vicinity, the supply of corn, iSerc., from the left bank
would be by no means contemptible. We suppose
that these supplies have been cut off by the Mee-
rut force under Brigadier Wilson, whilst those
from the right bank have been secured by General
Barnard and the main army, which is encamped to
the north and north-west of the town, in the can-
tonment, which is situated about a mile and a half
from the Kashmir Gate, and is separated from the
country in which the city stands by a low ridge of
rock, on which the telegraph tower is built. This
ridge i s now in possession of General Barnard.
a Tmhisetwakeellstoarseupcpoomsepattlaretriveeliys
fnewo winaterinDellt ishi.
num-
ber, but they yield a fair supply. Generally speak-
ing, however, the water is brackish, but in some
wells it is excellent. A new well of large dimen-
sions was made by an enterprising individual in
1848-49. The reason that wells are not so nume-
rous as they otherwise would be is that the Delhi
Canal is regarded as the favourite source of supply.
But during severe drought, when every particle of
water is required for the irrigation of the crops,
Delhi is annually and frequently left without any
supply for the canal, and this for twenty or thirty-
' days at a time. The inhabitants then have re-
course to their well and the branch of the Jumna,
which flows past their walls. Were the supply
from this branch cut off by our troops, water might
still be procured by the besieged by digging, or
even scratching holes in the sand 'as it lies close
to the surface in the low tracts, which are affected
by the main river. Moreover, the position of the
old fort of Selimgarh, with its bridge connecting it
wish the Palace, is favourable as a cover for parties
going to get water. There is not the slightest
doubt that the -cutting off the canal supply will not
prevent the inhabitants from getting water. What-
ever difficulty, however, there may have been on
this he.d, and which must have been equally, or
even more severely felt by our own troops, owing to
their greater distance from the Jumna, will have
been mitigated after the fall cf rain—that is, after
the 18th of Juno.
It must be !added that flour is ground for the
consumption of the citizens by the c inal mills, and
these of course are stopped. All the women of
Delhi will, therefore, have had to grind away at
their hand-mills from morning to night, or flour
would run short.
Witlr regal d to the capture of Delhi by Escalade,
It is probable that a few salvos would bring down a
portion of the long line of wall between any of the
two towers, and render an escalade tolerably easy.
But when the assailants had entered the town, if
the narrow streets were well defended by firing
from the houses on either side, or by a gun judi-
ciously placed, so as to rake them down their whole
length, the position of a weak column of troops
would be far from secure. Gel oral Barnard, ou. r
opinion, is wise net to hazard a reverse, which
isti
present circumstances, would be most disastrous.
He will now daily be receiving reinforcements, and
will be enabled to make the attempt ere long with
every prospect of success.—Smith, Elder, and Co.'s
_Homeward Mail.

The Drutchmansteaanship, which has arrived from
the Mediterranean, brought home detachments of
day.
on the
troops, belonging to the 3d Buffs, 46th and 91st
Regiments, to the number of 56 men, under the
command of Captain W. Pownall, 3d Miffs. The
troops
embarked a ro
fk
July,e d boardollanci
sailedt he
on
Dutchman
the i
followirgat Corfu
FRENCH RAILWAYS.—The official receipts
of the dif-
ferent railways in France for the first
have just been published. The six months of 1857
gross
lines amounted to 148,999,458 f., beingoss receipts for 14
of 25,917,205 f. over the an augmentation
corresponding period of 1856.
The length of the lines at
work on June 30, 1857, was
6,896 kilometres (4,310 mile), being 993 kilmetres (620
miles) more than at the same period of the preceding
year. The receipts
per kilometre were 23,019 f. to
21,842 r. in 1E56.
THE PORT OF ODESSA.—The Board of Trade has
received notice of the new Russian Custom-house regu-
lations to come into force upon Odessa ceasing to be a
free port on the 15th of August of the present year. Tho
port now comes within the regulations of the General
Customs Tariff of the Empire. 1111 foreign merchandise
found at that date in the port which has not paid import
duties at the rates of the tariff of the free port will be
forced to pay the full rates of the general tariff, cr will
be allowed to be re-exported for the space of one year.
With regard to foreign merchandise intended for con-
sumption within the limits of the free port, which may
still he in circulation in the commerce of the town ef
Odessa, and which, under the general tariff regulations,
will be subject to the Custom-house stamp, the merchants
of Odessa have the right of presenting the list until the
15th August, to the chief of the Odessa Custom-house
district, for the purpose of having it stamped. After
that date all merchandise not declared, h w lc may be
found in commercial circulation without the protection of
Customhouse stamps will be confiscated. The right of
warehousing for an unlimited period ceasing at Odessa
with its extinctiou as a free port, the right of warehous-
ing for the period of one year will be instituted on the
same terms as at the ports of St. Petersbnrgb, Riga,
and Archangel. From and after the 15th of August
the payment of a fifth Tart of the, produce of the import
duties which has been levied upon foreign merchandise
for the benefit of the town of (Mesita will cease.