Glasgow Courier. — 1857-08-25 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

NATIVE DREAD OF EUROPEAN TROOPS—WHOLESALE EXECUTIONS.  The following are extracts from a letter from the Rev. James Kennedy of Bemires. The letter is dated June 29, 18.57 :—' We hare had many ups and downs since I wrote last; but thanks to the Divine goodness we are still In safety, and though it is wellnigh impossible to have a feeling of security, we think our position is daily improving. The country in the immediate neighbourhood is settling down into quietness. For several days, so far as we know, there has been no plundering or murdering within several miles of our city. For this comparative impunity, when the greater part of the country is in • blaze we are iudebted under God to several things. 1. We have no native soldiers worth naming to keep us in dread, while we have a very considerable body of European troops, to whom daily additions are made. Not • day passes without several arriving. They are being constantly posted on,ind yet we have from 600 to 700 always here, with slarge guns. The dread of the European soldiers has fallen remarkably on the people since the engagement on June 4. We think thorn demons in human forms, and to this opinion our safety is in a degree traceable. 2. We have an officer in command of the station of great vigour, in whom all have confidence. 3. Our judge is a man greatly feared by the people, and during this crisis he has done most excellent service. For daring vigour he has no equals; his name is a proverb for swift, stern justice. There are, of course, thousands in this city set on mischief, and the dread of. this one man has done more to keep them quiet than anything else. The result is that the city, notwithstandits well known turbulence even in peaceful thnes,rernains astonishingly quiet. Many of the people are petrified with fear of our soldiers being let loose OR them. Our head magistrate is also well spoken of by the community. 4. The gibbet is, I must acknowledge, a standing insti tution among us at present. There it stands, immediately in front of the flagstaff, with three ropes attached to it, so that three may be executed at one time. Two additional gibbets were erected, with three ropes to each, but they have been taken down. Scarcely a day passes without some poor wretches being hurled into eternity. It is horrible, very horrible! To think of It is enough to make one's blood run cold; hut such is the state of things here that even fine delicate ladies may be heard expressing their joy at the vigour with which the miscreants are dealt with. The swiftness with which crime is followed , by the severest punishment strikes the people with an astonishment, it is so utterly foreign to all our modes of procedure, as known to them. Hitherto the process has been very slow, encumbered with forms, and such cases , have always been carried to the supreme court for final decision. Now, the Commissioner of Benares may give commissions to any one he chooses (the city being under martial law) to try, decide, and execute on the spot, without any delay and without any reference. The other day a party was sent out to Gopigang, some thirty miles distant, to seize a landholder who had proclaimed himself Rajah, and two men said to be his Ministers. The three men were Burp! iced and taken. They were tried on the spot by a commission composed of five military and civil officers. After a short trial the three were condemned to be executed then and there. The Rajah and the others protested they were innocent, and appealed to the Sudder (the Supieme Court). They were told there was no appeal to the Sudder In these days. To their utter amazement and horror preparations were made for their execution before their own door, and before the sun went down they were executed. : Whatever may be thought of such doings one thing is certain. that these executions have 'amok terror into the hearts of the marauders in this district, and have done much to awe them into better conduct. Roads near us in which people were hourly plundered a fortnight ago are now quite safe.'