The Sun. — 1858-01-16 (London, England)

THE LATE GENERAL NEI LL.  We learn from Madras that the community of that city have resolved to commemorate the gallant Neill, and the honour he has done to the Madras army, by the erection of a monument. This will consist of a granite obelisk suitably inscribed, and bearing, besides the name and services of Neill, the names of the officers and men of the Madras Fusileers who have fallen in this conflict, iu Bengal. A public meeting on this subjec -, held at Madras on Gth Dec., was presided over by Lord Harris, who spoke in especial praise of Neill's care of his men. The last words that officer addressed to him before leaving Madras, were commending t`}►e families of the soldiers to his lordship's Care. Two of the speakers singled out another of Neill's qualities for peculiar eulogy. This was his readiness in an emergency to undertake f r the public good heavy personal responsibility from which most men would have shrunk. The Hon. the Chief Justice of Madras said—l firmly believe that to the decided conduct, the unflinching energy, amid the noble self devotion of the late Gen. Nell, not only the safety of Calcutta, but the peace of this and the sister Presidency of Bombay is mainly, if not wh,lly, owing. He was essentially the man for the occasion—equal to it, because he dared'to take: upon himself rePponsibility, and, having d, ne so, to act irrespective of the opinion of others. He was not the man -to wait for orders in an emergency which require el to be met at once with energy and decision, and in a mode fitted only to the extraordinary circumstances then occurring. I feel that in thus speaking I may be approaching dangerous ground ; but I beg most distinctly to disclaim all intention of referring to or reflecting iu the slightest degree on, the conduct of others. My object is to do honour to the gallant Neill, and to show to how large an extent his coun- try, in my opinion, is indebted to him. Had a leas determined or less energetic man appeared at Benares at the important moment that he did, who can say to what places the conflagration, then raging and threatening to involve the whole of India in its flames, might not have reached ? We need not attempt to conceal the fact now. This was no partial disaffection and mutiny of a portion of a❑ army, to be put down by ordinary means." The AttorneyGeneral held language nearly similar, and said :-"He believed he might safely say that with the single exception of the gallant Havelock, whose loss he feared they had also to lament, there was no man on whose steps the country hung with such intense interest, or who so absorbed their admiration, From the time when the general took possession of the railway station at Calcutta, there, as so often afterwards, fearlessly assuming responsibilities front which ordinary men nervously shrink, to the time when he saved Allahabad, and at Cawnpore inflicted righteous retribution on those high caste murderers, the Bengal Brahmin Sepoys, the fame of his deeds rang trumpet-tongued through the land, and in England, at all events, that retribution was not looked on as vengeance or revenge, but simply as that which the Commaneler-in-Chief of theßritish army, the Duke of Cambridge, had so lately said, amidst the cheers of all who heard him, he hoped and trusted would be rigidly carried out, namely justice—prompt and stern justice—on every sharer in those atrocities." (Loud applause.)