The Press. — 1858-01-23 (London, England)

THE PRESS, JANUARY 23,1858.  soldiers. A correspo  writing on the Bth  December says : The town full of soldiers; drunkenness the order of the day; but the peculiar features of Borne of the cases have induced the regimental surgeons to examine into them minutely, and use the stomach-pump. They declare the men to have been either poisoned or drugged, and the analysis 3f the contents of one Highlander's stomach is stated to have exhibited arsenic. Any Govern• ment would be chary of the lives of soldiers brought out, fed, and kept at such an awful expense. Our rulers prove their anxiety to preserve European life by wholly neglecting to place the grog-shops under proper restriction and surveillance. With respect to the feeling of Calcutta as to the general position of affairs, he writes that the abandonment of Lucknow is looked upon by the natives as " an important triumph " : My belief is the actual fighting part of the business has yet to come.. All these accounts of splendid victories, and proofs of what British valour can do, will not controvert the fact that our enemies are increasing in number, and are as well armed and found as ever, in spite of the immense quantities of warlike stores we have destroyed ; nor do they seem to be a bit afraid of meeting us—all their previous thrashings have not dispirited them one bit. The writer attributes this to the considerate treatment of the rebels by the authorities : At Delhi, the sentries have been disarmed ; they mount guard with sticks, in the midst of a ferocious, fanatical population thirsting for their blood; and all this to conciliate the murderous thieves. In Calcutta, the horses of the Governor-General's body-guard, about 200 of them, have been made over to the King's Dragoon Guards ; but to conciliate this loyal body of men, who were disarmed in July last, the sentries of the Queen's Dragoons mount guard disarmed, or with sticks in their hands, because the Governor-General's body-guard pass and repass their temporary barracks twice a day, and it might hart their very tender and delicate feelings to see European soldiers better treated than themselves. But you must not suppose that our Governor-General sacrifices his love for his own guards to the emergencies of the State. Nut he ; a few of the horses and men are retained to escort himself and Lady Canning on their rides and appearances in public. The Calcutta Volunteer Cavalry were impertinent enough to offer him an escort of men and horses Queen Victoria might have been proud of. He might now have an escort of 7th Hussars, Bays, or Dragoon Guards; but none suit him so well as the black faces of his beloved body-guard. English soldiers, with three and four hard-earned medals, are made to mount guard at such places as the Bank of Bengal and the Treasury, with disarmed sepoys more than half suspected of treason. The sepoy has a good room and his usual bed for the night, but that good-for-nothing brute " John Bull " may sleep on the stairs or in the verandahs as he can ; any dog's kind of treatment is good enough for him. There are at Barrackpore near 5,000 sepoys who do not work, carry no arms, have no drill, parade, or other annoyance ; a European regiment has every now and then to be under arms all night, but that is a trifie—il serves to conciliate the natives. Now and, again some secret depot of arms is discovered. They are not bidden in one place, and will be available when wanted. The sepoys are daily making a bolt of it, we know not whither—some to Oude, many to Chittagong and Dacca.