The Sun. — 1844-03-11 (London, England)

WALIOR.  The following description of Owalior, which we extract from the " Hand-book of India," will render the description of the attack more intelligible, and explain also the almost insuperable difficulties our troops had to surmount :  "On the south of Agra, distant 74 miles, stands Gwatior, the scat of the ancient sovereignty of Sindia. The recent death of Maharaja, and the serious disruption which has resulted therefrom, has rendered it necessary for the Governor-General of India to march a large force to the frontier of the state; and while we pen these pages it is quite impossible to say whether the self-appointed Regent, who has seized the reins of power, has been con. firmed in his authority, or who-her the British Government has intervened, and placed the country on the footing of other states enjoying our protection. By the latest accounts all was anarchy and confusion. We must, therefore, in this place content ourselves with a brief description of the town and fortress. The city is approached by a footpath over some trifling clay and sandstone heights, from which it is seen to advantage, lying wader the wing of the giant stronghold, which rises in a complete precipice from its very bosom, and interspersed with trees and minarets, after the usual fashion of native cities. The suburbs are somewhat scanty, and there is no wall lof defence to the town, which, however, by means of strong portals connecting the parallel streets, and open.. ing or closing the communication at the pleasure of the inhabi. tants, as well as by the aid of the external gates, is 'capable of making a brief defence against any irregular attack. These gate_ ways are singularly elegant, although a jumble of modern and Hindoo architecture. They are built of sandstone. The gateway itself is an architrave of stone, supported upon ornamented co. lumns of the same. Above this rises the pointed Saracenic arch, and above that are elegant arabesque bas-reliefs, the roof of the structure being flat, " The Jinni-ma Musjid is a handsome building, in the style of those at Lucknow. On turning the flank of the defences we come upon the grandest and most imposing exhibition of military architecture ever beheld. We doubt if the world contains anything so magnificent as this long lino of Gothic towers, scarped by an overhanging precipice ; poised in mid-air, dignified by the impress of the ages that have passed over their heads, yet unim. paired in strength and beauty, and presenting, not the blind aspect of mere holds of power, in which a garrison is pent up and excluded from the outer world, but that of the fittest possible residence for a mighty Sovereign, the object of all regards, raised above the world by his grandeur, and gazing down, from its unapproachable eminence, upon the kingdom submitted to his rule. It is impossible to imagine this noble mass of architecture designed for the vile purposes for which its isolated position afterwards rendered it convenient. But in exact proportion to our admiration of the structure is our indignation at the tyranny, the cruelty, the barbarous and murderous policy, for which no language has epithets sufficiently severe, of which Gwalior was the theatre, and continues the memorial; and as we gaze upon its lofty battle. ments, and recal to memory the hundreds of unhappy captives condemned to waste away in perpetual imprisonment, or to escape this prolongation of misery only by the slow operation of a poison, that destroys by sapping all the fountains of life, and poisoning all the springs of enjoyment and breaking down the firmness of a heart that would have defied, in its health, the extremity of torture; thus reducing the noblest to .the quality of the vilest, and making him, previous to his end, the scorn even of himself—when, we say, we reflect how many victims to royal jealousy have here rotted away into oblivion, there only crime that of having hung at the same breast with their murderer, or, perchance, of having a better claim than his to the throne, or of having excelled him in virtue, or being beloved by their fellow-men, we turn shuddering from the grandeur which had so greatly excited our admiration, and mourn that infamy should have been permitted so unsuitable a shrine. Had those towers been clad in some of the gloomy horrors which their interior has witnessed, they would have been a beacon of terror to the world. To the thoughtful they yet hold