The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-01-24 00:00:00

THE STORMING OF RIKA-BASHEE FORT.

(From Liety.Eyre's Narrative oithe Afghan Disasters.)

The who!e issued from cantonments, a storming party con-
sisting of two companies from each regiment, taking the
lea., preceded by Captain Belley, who hurried forward to
blow open the gate. Missing tke gate, howwever, he blew
open a wicket of such small dimensions, as to render it im-
possible for more than two or three men to enter abreast, and
these in a stooping posture. This, it will be seen, was one
cause of discomfiture, in the first instance • for the hearts of
men failed them, when they saw their foremost comrades
struck down, endeavouring to force an entrance under such
disadvantageous circumstances, without being able to help
them. The signal, however, was given for the storming
party, headed by Col. Mackerell. On nearing the wicket,
the detachment encountered an excessively sharp lire from
the walls, and the small passage through which they endea--
voured to rush in, merely served to expose the bravest to al-
most certain death, from the hot fire of the defenders. Col.
Mackerell, however, and Lieut. Bird, of Shah's 13th Infan-
try, accompanied by a handful of Europeans and a few
Sepoys, forced their way in ; Captain Westmacott, of the
37th, being shot down outside, and Captain M`Ctae sabred
in the entrance. The garrison, supposing that these few
gallant men were backed by the whole attacking party, fled
in consternation out of the gate, which was on the opposite
side of the fort, and which ought to have been the point
assailed. Unfortunately, at this instant, a number of
the Affghan cavalry charged round the corner of the
fort next the wicket : the cry of " Cavalry" was raised—
a cry which, ten often, during our operations, paralyzed
the arms of those, whose muskets and bayonets we have
been accustomed to consider as more than a match for de-
sultory charge of irregular horsemen ; the Europeans gave
way simultaneously with the Sepoys—a bugler, of the Gth
infantry, through mistake, sounded the retreat—and it be-
came, for the lime, a scene of sauce qui peut. In vain did
the officers, especially Major Scott, of 44th' knowing
the fearful predicament of his commanding officer, exhort
and beseech their men to charge forward— not a saul would
follow them, sove a private of thethe 44th named Stewart, who
was afterwards promoted for his solitary gallantry. Let me here
Brigadier Shelton justice; his acknowledged courage redeemed
the day ; for, exposing his own person to a hot tire, he stood
firm amidst the crowd of fugitives, and by his exhortation
and example at last rallied them ; advancing again to the
attack, again our men faltered, notwithstanding that the fire
of the great guns from the cantonments, and that of Capt.
Mackenzie's juzaillchees from the N.E. angle of the Mission
Compound, together with a demonstration on the part of our
cavalry. had greatly abated the ardour of the Affghan horse.
A third time did the Baigadier bring on his men to the as-
sault, which now proved successful. We became masters of
the fort. But what, in the mean time, had been passing
inside the fort, where, it will be remembered sevevral of our
brave brethren had been shut up, as it were, in the lions' den.
On the first retreat of our men, Lieutenant Bird, with
Colonel Mackerell and several Europeans, had hastily shut
the gate by which the garrison had for the most part evacu-
ated the placr, securing the chain with a bayonet. The re-
pulse outside, however, encouraged the enemy to return in
great numbers, and, it being impossible to remain near the
gate on account of the hot fire poured in through the crevices,
our few heroes speedily had the mortification to see their foes
not only re-entering the wicket, but, having drawn the
bayonet, rush in with loud shouts through the now re-opened
gate. Poor Mackerell, having fallen, was literally hacked to
pieces, although still alive at the termination of the contest.
Lieutenant Bird, with two Sepoys, retreated into a stable,
the door of which they closed; all the rest of the men, en-
deavouring to escape through the wicket, were met and
slaughtered. Bird's place of conceaiment at first, in the
confusion, escaped the observation of the temporarily
triumphant Affgbans ; but, at last, it was discovered,
and a desperate attack commenced at the door. This
being barricaded with logs of wood and whatever else
the tenants of the stable could find, resisted their efforts,
while Bird and his now solitary companion, a Sepoy of the
37th N. I. (the other having been struck down), maintained
as hot a fire as they could, each shot taking deadly effect from
the proximity of the party engaged. The fall of their com-
panions deterred the mass of the assailants from a simulta-
neous rush, which must have succeeded ; and thus that truly
chivalrous, high-minded, and amiable young gentleman,
whose subsequent fate must be ranked among the mysterious
dispensations of Providence which we cannot for the present
fathom, stood at bay with his equally brave comrade for up-
wards f an hour, when, having only five cartridges left, in
spite of having rifled the pouch of the dead man, they were
rescued as related above. Our troops literally found the pair
"grim and lonely there,' upwards of thirty of the enemy
having fallen by their unassisted prowess. Our loss on this
occasion was not less than 200 killed and wounded.

THE FORCE OF FRIENDSHIP.—Some time ago a very re-
spectable gentleman died in the parish of Largo. Many were
uninvited to his funeral, and among others a worthy cronie
of the old school, who took the matter all the more deeply to
heart, because, as he forcibly observed, " I'm sure if he had
been alive I wud hae been bidden."—Fife Journal.

LIBERAL LAWLESSNESS.—American institutions were
established, no doubt, upon the principle that those who had
so large a share in making the laws, would certain.y respect
them. But experience has proved this hope to be fallacious;
for no men know better than the Judges of America, that on
the occasion of any great popular excitement the law is power-
less, and cannot, for the time, assert its own independence.—
Boz.

ENCOURAGING YOUNG MECHANICS—Here is a young
mechanic just opened—give him a job. He will remember
his first patron as long as he lives. We have never forgotton
our grateful feelings to the men who gave us the first job we
received :n printing. To be sure it was small, and besides it
was never paid for. but he intended to benefit us, and we
have always held him in grateful remembrance. Encourage
the young man and he will never fsrget you.

MRS. SIDDONS IN OBSCURITY.—A near relative of the
writer, a great many yegrs ago, saw the afterwards cele-
brated and wealthy Mrs. Siddons walking up and down both
sides of the street in a provincial town, dressed in a red
woollen cloak, such as was formerly worn by menial ser-
vants, and knocking at each door to deliver the playbill of
her benefit. Roger Kemble, the father, was manager of a
strolling company, in which Mr. and Mrs. Siddons per-
formed. The company consisted principally of the Keinble
family.—Bentley's Miscellany.

WITCHCRAFT.—Judge Blackstone never found himself
more embarrassed than in treating upon the subject of witch.
craft in his Commentaries. Dr. Grey, in his notes on Hudi-
bras, mentions that Hopkins, the noted witch-finder, hanged
GO suspected witches in one year ; and then cites Hutchinson
on Witchcraft, for the dreadful number of 20,000 that were
burnt within 150 years. The humane Judge Barrington like-
wise relates many horrid particulars, with excellent remarks,
in his Observations on the Statutes. Howell, in one of his
letters, dated 1647, says, that in two years there were in-
dicted, in Suffolk and Essex only, between 200 and 300
witches, of whom more than one-half were executed. It was
not, indeed, until towards the conclusion of the seventeenth
century that this infamous superstition began at all to abate.
SUFFICIENCY OF THE SCRIPTURES.—I Will not scruple
to assert," says Bishop Horsley, " that the most illiterate
Christian, if he can but read his English Bible, and will take
the pains to read it in this manner" (the bishop had been re-
commending a diligent comparison of parallel pas.s.ages),
" will not only attain all that practical knowledge which is
necessary to his salvation, but, by God's blessing, he will
become learned in everything relating to his religion, in such
a degree, that he will not be liable to be misled either by the
refined arguments, or by the false assertions, of those who
endeavour to engraft their own opinions upon the oracles of
God. He may safely be ignorant of all philosophy, except
what is to be learned from the sacred books, which indeed
contain the highest philosophy adapted to the lowest appre-
hensions. He may safely remain ignorant of all history.
except so much of the history of the first ages of the Jewish
and Christian Church as is to be gathered from the canonical
books of the Old and New Testament. Let him study these
in the manner I recommend, and let him never cease to pray
for the illumination of that Spirit by which these books were
dictated ; and the whole compass of abstruse philosophy and
e
recondite history shall furnish no argument withwbte h the
perverse will of man shall be able to shake this lienadrereted,
d
Christian's faith. The Bible thus studied will,
an d
prove to be, what we Protestants esteem it, a certain
sufficient helmet of salvation,
rule of faith and practice, a
which alone may quench the fiery darts o( wicked."—
Bishop Horsley.