The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-08 00:00:00

cruiting. How cordially would we speed there
exports
koghud on their journey, and how

heartily would we desire that "we might ne'er
see their like again."

Remember what this difficulty really is that we
are now called upon to cope with in Hindostan.
The outbreak has been correctly described as a
Military Mutiny rather than a General Insur-
rection.

But it is a military mutiny of from 80,000 to
100,000 men altogether. It is the mutiny of a
vast army distributed in very nearly one hundred
different stations, over a gigantic country a
country almost as gigantic geographically us
Austria, Prussia, and France united. It has been
recently calculated, in a timely brochure by
General BRIGGS, that while the territorial
possessions of those three great European
powers blended together would give a total area
of not less than 566,431 square miles, inhabited'
by a population of 87,864,978 in the aggregate
—Bengal and the Western Provinces (the actual
scene of this Mutiny I) present an area of just
513,016 square miles, inhabited by a population
of absolutely as many as 93,188,065 altogether !
So that while we describe the late movement as a
Mutiny—rather than an Insurrection— we
must remember that it is a Mutiny so enor-
mous, so sudden, and so disastrous as to
be literally, we believe, without any parallel.
As to the dimension of the Mutiny, we have
already stated it to be in round numbers the
simultaneous revolt of very little short of 100,000
fighting men—Sikhs and Ghoorkhas, B.incloos and
Mussulmans. Before the movement began, the
Native, or otherwise the Sepoy Army of Bengal,
comprised within it—Eleven Regiments of Light
Cavalry, Four Troops of Horse Artillery, Two
Battalions of Foot Artillery, Seventy-four Regi-
ments of Infantry. Together with Twenty-three
Regiments of Irregular Cavalry, Twenty Corps
miscellaneous, and Seven Battalions of Sikh Infan-
try. Added to which were several minor native
contingents admirably skilled and disciplined.
The signal for the disbandment of this magni-
ficent force was of an insignificance absolutely
ridiculous. It was the casual and spiteful remark
of a workman (classic) employed upon the maga•
mine at the artiPery station of Dum Dam, near
Calcutta. The vaz,bond had been scornfully
refused a draught of water—upon the score of
caste—by a Sepoy of the Second Native Infantry.
Whereupon quoth the artisan to the soldier with
a sneer—" You'll soon lose your caste, as
you'll have to bite cartridges covered with the
fat of pigs and cows <•' The poisonous seed
was dropped in that one flippant remark into a
rank soil ready for its reception. It was multi-
plied, and it was sown broadcast over the land—
over a'l Bengal and the Western Provinces—over
a. region of more than 500,000 square miles, with
a population very little short of 100,000,000. It
got abroad among the Sepeys of that army of from
80,000 to 100,000 men, that, first of all, the
balls of the Enfield rifles (then coming into use),
and afterwards the thin glazed cartridges served
out with the weapon to those who han-
dled it, were really, as the malignant
classic hod said at Dum Dum, greased with a filthy
unguent the mere touching of which would be a
contamination to the true believer, to the high-
caste Hindoo, to the Rajpoots and the Brahmins !
The flames of indignation smouldered on from
January (when that incident took place at the ar-
tillery station near Calcutta) to the 3d of April,
when the 19th Native Infantry was disbanded for
mutiny at Barrackpore. Another month elapsed :.
when on the sth of May another regiment
had to be no less summarily disbanded—
, this time, the 34th Native Infantry, comprising
seven companies—again at Barrackpore.
The contagion spread then with frightful rapi-
dity—with what rapidity we all but too vividly
remember. It extended on the 10th of May to
the 11th and 20th Native Infantry, and to the
3d Light Cavalry at Meerut. The mutineers
marched upon Delhi, and there the whole Sepoy
garrison revolted—the 38th, 54th, and 74th Na-
tive Infantry, and with them the 3d company of
the7th battalion of artillery. There and then it was
that the most sublime occurrence that has illumined
the darkness of this horrible catastrophe in Bengal
transpired—when Lieutenant WILLOUGHBY, the
Commissary of Ordnance, unable himself to pro-
tect his charge, fired the magazine of gunpowder
with his own hand, thereby blowing up himself,
and with himself a crowd of the ruffian rebels,
who had hastened there to take posses.sion of it !
From that heroic, but lamentable day, the fate of
the Bengal Army was decided. Scarcely 3 months
had sped by, before it was scattered to the winds.
Regiment after regiment revolted—at Ferozopore,
at Peshawur, at Umballah, at Agra, at Lacknow,
at B3nares, at Allahabad, at Cawnpore, at Muol-
tan, at Gwalior, at Bundleound. An army of at
least 80,000 had, as such, by the middle of July
wholly disappeared. Here and there the mutineers
collected together in desperate and formid-
able bodies having their stronghold from
the first at Delhi ! But in Delhi it is
believed that since the 12th of May there
has never at any time been gathered together
within its walls more than 15,000 of those re- ,
volted soldiers ! The largest force yet hoard of
outside the walls bearing the banners of the
Mutiny being that under the silk-clad Ruffian
Nms-a. SAHIB the great Gentleman Black-
guard of the Demonstration. Frightful as the
outbreak is, therefore, in its character, it presents,
after al►, no very appalling difficulties to a
really gifted Military Commander—one who
is both bold in assault and skilled in
strategy. Resolution, promptitude, concen-
tration—these are the first requisites for the
carrying out the grand work of Retribution.
Every mutineer found with arms in his hands
should die the death. Delhi must, of course, be
taken : but when taken, it must at once, as a
penalty and as an example, be razed to its
foundations.

COURT CIRCULAR.

BA.LMORA.E, , SEPT G.

Her Majesty the Queen and the Prince Consort drove
yest,er3ay to Birkhall, proceeding thence up G.en Muick.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent and Lord
and Lady James Murray were inclu led in the dinner
party in the evening.

Despatches were received at the Colonial-office yester.
day from the Governors of the North American P,o•
vince3, the Lord High Commis +loner of the lonian
Islands, and the Go►ernor of the Falkland Islands,

The Marquis of Lansdowne shortly leaves Bowood-
park, Wilts on a tour.
The Right Hon. Sir George Grey is the Secretary of
State remaining in town to transact the urgent business
of State, during the absence of his colleagues from the
metropolis. _

The. Eail and Countess of Malmesbury have been en
tertaining a select party at Aclanacary, in the Highland,.
S9me stags have been killed, but grouse are nearly ex-
tinct on Lochiel's moors, chiefly in consequence of the
burning of the heather, which has been universal on this
estate.

Lord and Lady Dansany, Admiral Ryder Burton,
and Mr. and Lady Henrietta Riddell have arrived at
Tunbridge-wells.
The Bishop of Montreal (Dr. Fulford) has arxived in
England, and is proceeding on a visit to his brother at
Stafford. The right rev. prelate has not been in this
country since he left for Canada immediately after his
consecration in 1850. Bishop Fulford was formerly
minister of Curzon-street Chapel, Mayfair, and chaplain
to the late Duchess of Gloucester. vaisrA