The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-17 00:00:00

THE MASSACRE AT CAWIVPORE.

The following is an extract from the letter of an
officer of the Madras Fusileers

" Cawnpore, Oct. 28.

" I went the other day to see the house of horrors
where the unfortunate women and children were mas-
sacred. At the entrance I found a gibbet, and under it
the carcase of a wretch who had just been hanged as a
spy.
" It is a small brick building built in a square, the
rooms opening into a small court-yard in the centre.
The place is still strewn with fragments of clothes and
lots of shoes. The walls in places aro sprinkled with
blood, and the mats on the floor appear to have been
drenched with it. On carefully examining the walls I
found scratched en the plaster behind a door the follow-
ing—written apparently by the wife of a European sol-
dier, of whom there were several shut up there :
" Countrymen and women, remember the 15th of
July, '57. Your wives and families are here in misery
and at the disposal of savages, who have ravished both
young and old, and then killed us. Oh !oh ? My
child ! my child ! Countrymen, revenge it !'
I don't think anything would appeal so strongly to the
feelings of our countrymen at home as this simple
statement of misery. It is expressed and spelt as above
and seemed to have been scratched with the point
of a knife. The walls of the little room where it was
written were spattered with Llood, and the plaster cut
in several places with swords.
"I went to see the intrenchment where Wheeler de-
fended himself so long. It is a low mud bank about three
feet high, surrounding two large buildings that were
formerly hospitals. The walls of these are literally rid-
dled by round shot, and the roofs of both have fallen in.
It seems quite miraculous, when you look at the wretched
defence, how men could have held out one day, much
less many days, against a host well armed, and plovi led
with big guns and every requisite material. They oiust
have been arrant cowards—as, indeed, we know they
were--for they never dared to come out into the open,
but fired from the cover of some half-finished barracks
near the intrenchment. If with the small force we have
had hitherto we have been able to command vic,ory,
what will it be when England's armies now arriving
march through the country ? In six months India will be
more entirely in our power than it has ever been before."

GENERAL IlevELocies DESPATCH.--In the Guardian
of last evening we find the following observations cn
General Havelock's despatch :—" The general a euld
appear to be guilty of writing a bad hand, and may
not possess the power of very clearly expressing him-
self, for the printer has been obliged to leave several
blanks, has made nonsense of several passages, and a
hash of gallant names that every reader of Indian
news must be familiar with." It may obviate a re-
petition of similar remarks to state that the despatch
in the form in which we have it was received at Cal-
cutta from Cawnpore by telegraph, and is less enig-
matical than most communications similarly trans-
mitted.
STATE OF EMPLOYMENT IN MANCHESTER. The
weekly return of the state of employment in 236 of the
factories and workshops of Manchester, up to yesterday,
sh ,ws an increase of the numbers unemployed and of
those on short tune. Of the whole number of mills and
workshops 54 only are working full time with full com-
plement of hands, and 50 with less than their fu'l com-
plement ; 109 are on short time, and 23 are stopped
altogether. This is a decrease of son full time and
an increase of 4 that have stopped. Of the work-
people only 15,493 are working full time, against
17,587 the previous week ; 21,766 have gone on short
time, against 19,888 • and 9,185 persons are wholly
unemployed, against '8,909 in the previous week.
NORTH NORTHAMPTONSHIRE ELECTION.—The con-
test in this division has terminated in the return of Mr.
George Ward Hunt,
W havinga d en hoobet,a i
nt
eh
de
aconservativef
candidate, that gentleman
326 in a constituency of 3,900 registered electors, Mr.
o f
Fitzpatrick Vernon, son of the President of the Board
of Control, took the field only at the eleventh hour, and
the neglected state of the register, the absence of a pre-
under circumstances of extreme disadvantage, owing to
the struggle. The battle, commenced by the spontaneous
vions canvass, and the general default of preparations for
action of a few electors, has been entirely one of prin-
ciple, and the result is considered to open a most
encouraging prospect of success at the next election,
before which the register will be greatly reformed to the
advantage of the liberal party.
SIN4IILAR ACCIDENT.—FALL OF AN ICE-WELL.—
Considerable consternation wile excited yesterday in the
neighbourhood of Great Cambridge-street, and Gold-
smith-street, Hackney-road, owing to the following
somewhat remarkable occurrence. It seems that for a
long time an immense ice-well has existed there, and
commencedi
employed
in
repairing
during
the
thela sin daytra internal brickwork,t o
to decay. Shortly after they had left work yesterday
morning the inhabitants were startled from
their seats
•by a noise resembling a convulsion of nature. It was
found that the side walls of the well had fallen in, and
the ground around, for the space of at least 50 feet, had
followed, and several of the back walls of the yard on
either side had been hurled down. Fortunately, as no
one was in the well at the time no lives were sacrificed.
IPreparations have been made for shoring up the adjoin-
ing property, and it is hoped tbat no further mischief
will ensue.