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    ' • ¦ ¦ • No. 413, Febrttart 20, 1858-1 ...

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    THE BOMBARDMENT OB" CANTON. Ti£E Canton ...

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    THIS OKIENT. J C1KCASS1A. Tub Nurd of Ur...

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    PU13UC MKBTINGS. VAIWWUL.I.I llANtJUKT T...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Special Lett1sks Fitom India. , (From A ...

    towards him ? Bat these unstatesmanlike and unseemly phrases , though I doubt not sincerely employed by Lord Dalhousie , were not even reasonable or true . Able at all tiroes to command the resources of that State , to <» Btrol its acts , and to dictate its policy , it is not true that we could have ' crashed it at our will , ' at least not with safety or impunity . There are many Indian statesmen who would have told Lord Dalhousie ( probably have told him ) that the existence of the Hyderabad State is a most valuable guarantee of the peace of Southern and Western India . All the most experienced officers of the Hyderabad Contingent , long before any

    extensive disaffection in our Native Army was dreaded , were well aware that their men could not be relied onto fight cheerfully against the Nizam himself . One distinguished officer , the lamented brigadier William Mayne , whose opinions on military affairs were not despised by Lord Dalhousie , used to say that an open war between the Company and the Nizam would be quite as difficult and bloody a business as the Punjab campaign of 1849 -was . But could Lord Dalhousie have crushed the Hizam at his will in 1857 ? Or if he bad crushed him at his will in 1854 , 1855 , or 1856 , what would have been the state of the Deccan during the rebellion of

    1857 ? I allow that Lord Dalhousie was justified in enforcing , ¦ w as bound in duty to enforce , by all legitimate means , the payment of the debt due by the Hyderabad State ; I know that in his minute of the 27 th May , 1851 , ¦ w hich immediately precedes in the Blue Book the letter from which I have just quoted , he expressly disavows all intention or wish to interfere in the Nizam's affairs , or forcibly to assume the administration of his dominions , as had been recommended b } ' the Resident ,

    General Fraser ; and yet the sole object of this threatening letter , and of the negotiations which followed it , was to obtain from the Nizam the cession in full sovereignty of nearly one-third of his territory ; . and the result was that the desired districts were assigned and transferred to our management for the support of the Hyderabad Contingent , and the payment of the interest of our debt . But those transactions are not at present under discussion ; it is solely against this overbearing tone , and against this language , so irritating and so alarming to a friendly power , that I protest .

    But this seems to be one of Lord Dalhousie s favourite formulas ; he appears to have considered its application to-our most faithful allies peculiarly appropriate and impressive . We meet with these very words in the 7 th paragraph of his farewell minute reviewing his eight years' administration , applied to the present liujah Euiibeer Sing of Cashmere , son of Ghoolab Sing , who was then in a declining state of health : " And when , as must soon be , the Maharajah shall pass away , his son , Meean Runbeer Sing , will have enough to do to maintain Ills ground against rivals of his own blood , without giving any cause of offence to a powerful neighbour , which ha well kiiows can crush him at his will . " In July , 1857 , Rajah Ghoolab Sing did pass away , and Runbeer Sing , instead of wasting his . resources in fighting any rivals , managed somehow or other to advance fifty lakhs of rupees ( 500 , 000 / . ) to Sir John Lawrence , and to send 3500 of his own troops to assist in the siege of Delhi .

    At Hyderabad also , in the same critical period , the usual agitation and disorder of a succession occurred—Nasirood-dowlah , the late Niznin , having died in July , 1857—yet the firmness of the present young Prince restrained the warlike and turbulent population of his dominions , . and facilitated every movement of the Madras Army ; while more than one-half of that Hyderabad Contingent , wliich Lord Dalhousie politely informed line . Nizam ' s futher , in the letter already quoted , was ' the main support-on which depended the stability of his throne , ' wus pushed forward boyoncl the Nizam ' s frontiers into our own provinces , to uphold tho stability of our empire against our own mutiuoud troops and our own rebellious subjects .

    Scindia , llolkar , tho Guicowar , the Rajah of Rowah , and others , have resisted all attacks and temptations , and tho persuasions of their own relations and vuasuls , and . have remained faithful to us \ the Rajahs of Puttiola , Jlusond , and Uhurtpore have given us timely and jiealoud assistance in men and money . Tho despised dependents , tho useless incumbents , uavo proved our beat islands in the hour of ueod ; and wo must bo truly blind if wo hnvo foiled to remark how formidable they would have been as enemies . They clieiusolvos cannot huvo lost sight of tho moral advantage ll » uy have gained by the events of 1857 , ami by tho part that they have played tkeruiii .

    Wo luivo hitherto placed ourselves In all sorts of anomalous and confused relations with tho Native States ; we have originally treated with sumo of thorn na equal and independent powers , and Iwivo gradually depressed them into tributaries , and vlrtuul though not uoknow-—iwlged-fetidatories . — Atid-thia-tftiito-of-ftUluga-Utta-nob brought with it tho goniul putnaroliul tics uud mutual sympathy of lord and vuaaul ; but , on tho contrary , wo have taken everything that wo ouuld gut—cessions of territory , tribute , loans , contingent troops—uud have . givon uothiug in . return except that genoral military protection provided for by treaties , and tor tho expenses of which wo have always exnutod a full oqulvalont }

    while during the last thirty years they have seen us watching to take advantage of any excuse or pretext for exercising our assumed right of general succession and of deposition . Now I think this state of things must cease ; the relations of the paramount power and of the minor sovereignties of India must be placed on a more definite and a more equitable basis ; and the bonds of federal amity and mutual obligation must be drawn more closely . The native princes must be taught no longer to regard us with alarm and suspicion , as a haughty , inscrutable race , whose interests and objects are totally incompatible with their own , and who , however long the evil day may be deferred , are their destined and determined spoilers and successors ; and we , on our part , must learn to recognize the native monarchies as forming an essential condition and a main security in the development cf the full power , resources , and wealth of our Eastern Empire .

    But for the inauguration of our imperial status among this congeries of princes , and chieftains , and nations , a name more significant and more imposing than that of the Honourable Company , is required . The Queen ' s name would be indeed a tower of strength in India . For loyalty , and wonder , and child-like confidence , and all the ' eheap defence of nations , ' remain available in that excitable and productive stage of civilization through which India must pass , to be replaced by other , and , as we think , higher sentiments and motives , in a more advanced and deliberative social state . It will be very long before any important number of the hundred and fifty millions attain to that independence of thought and will on which we pride ourselves in England . And , in the meantime , complicated interests will have sprung up , closer ties will have been formed between the two

    countries , and will be maintained and strengthened by every dictate of inclination and reason . We have not hitherto appreciated the sources of power that lie in the peculiarphase of civilization and sociallife in India . We have hitherto neglected to guide , to mould , or to encourage the political sentiments of the natives , which are thoroughly monarchical and conservative , but have left them to fe ed on the memories and glories of bygone days and fallen dynasties . It is our fault that they have continued to gazefor the contre of their national existence , interests , and honour , anywhere but towards the British-Sovereign ; nolhiug ^ has tended to impress them with tuergrandeur of forming an important part of the British Kinpire . There never was a more favourable time than the present for inaugurating a nobler , a more consistent , and a truly imperial policy . ~~ Jii . V ¦

    ' • ¦ ¦ • No. 413, Febrttart 20, 1858-1 ...

    ' ¦ ¦ No . 413 , Febrttart 20 , 1858-1 THE LEADER , 175

    The Bombardment Ob" Canton. Ti£E Canton ...

    THE BOMBARDMENT OB" CANTON . Ti £ E Canton correspondent of the Times seems to have succeeded to , or to have . shared ,-the vigorous and vivid powers of description pf Mi \ Russell . He lias furnished an account of the bombardment of Canton which rcicals the striking pictures of warfare which used to reach the public three years ago from the Crimea . Thus , on Tuesday , December 29 th , does he chronicle the progress of the fiery tempest directed against the walls of Canton : — " 1 mark the change of days , but they are not divided by repose . All night the city was girt by a line of flame ; The approach of morning was indicated by a suspension of the rocket practice , and by the reopening of the mortar battery with redoubled energy . xVa the

    day broke the Humes sank down and the sun rose upon a perfectly smokeless city . The charges of powder must have been increased in the mortar batteries , for the shells now flow high up to the hill forts . One of them at daybreak burst upou an embrasure of Fort Gough , and another went right over it . Tho ships that had boon enfilading the eastern wall now ceased firing . It was the moment for the assault . In tho neighbourhood of tho east fort , tho three divisions ' formed , and tho rush was made . For two hours , nothing id visible but smoke—nothing is hoard but tho rattlo of muskotry ami loud cheering . "What deeds are dono among this broken ground — among those trees arid brushwood- —ou tho topi * anil in tho interstices of those grave-covered hillocks—how faro those forces , spi'uud over mow tliuu a milo of attack , what divisions are first , who fall and who survive * —I

    must toll hor « ufter . At eight o'dlock , tho wall is gained , and I boo the bluo-jackota , English and French , racing along it northwards . ( . Hough ' s Fort gives out ita tiro , lot us hopo -without ou ' , but , woll-sorvod , its guns might swoop Uio wall . There la a chock and silonco for half an hour . I c > u recognize tho blue trousers of onu of tho dividioiiri of our naval brigade . Tho loaders arc probably touching them how to tnko that live-storied pagoda upon tho north-western wall . Along tho city wall , and protected by its buttlomonts , they pass ( I think unscialied ) tho lire from Uough ' s Fort away to tlioIr ^ riBlur ^ ttd ^ oomo ~ ln ~ troiVt ^ Bf ^* a ~^ lSalT » in g '' AvintT buttery , newly built , and full of guns erected upon a lodgo of tho rook upon which tho wall and tho llvestoriud pagodu horo staud . If tho assailants would only go to a prupor distance , how tUoao guns would riddki thorn 1 Itut with a rush aui | - a . cheer a detachment strikes from the cover of tho wall , which the guus do not command , uud houses it self » uf « ly at tho foot of the

    very rock which bears the battery . Not a shot can * fire . The riflemen from the walls now ply this half moon for some minutes , and in a quarter of an hour th « detachment at the foot of . the rock has gone round and taken the " position from behind . " Relieved from these guns , -which might have swept them down by hundreds our men in serried masses are now swarming along . the walL The five-storied pagoda ( which is no more a pagoda , according to our notion of a pagoda , than it is a bum-boat , but an old square red building divided into stories ) is carried by the bayonet , and the French and

    English colours are hoisted simultaneously . Now , Gough ' s Tort opens out sulkily upon ita late ally ; but the assailants , not waiting to reply , hurry along the intervening : wall westward . I can follow them for some time from my position , and I hear them cheering , when I lose them in the hollow . A few minutes of sharp fusillade , and blue-jackets emerge from the trees and buildings upon Magazine-hill . A moment after , and up go the two bits of bunting which tell that this key of Canton is our own . " In the Overland Reaister we read : —

    " The French and English Naval Brigades advanced on Monday forenoon ( December 28 th ) and took Fort Lin ; one French officer was killed , and several French casualties ; some English wounded severely . The troops then advanced towards the south , and bivouacked for the night off the south-east angle of the city wall . We believ * Lieutenant Hackett was acting as aide-decamp to General Straubenzee , and while at some distance from any corps , carrying despatches , was set upon by a party of Chinese , who overpowered and slew him . " The advance on the Magazine or City-hill Fort , a 3 it is variously termed , took place at nine a . m . on the 29 th . Captain Bate was killed and Lieutenant Lord Guildford -wounded there . Captain Bate , as usual , ever forward [ where duty called , was volunteering to place the scaling-ladders , when he was shot from the wall through the stomach . He died as he had lived , a Christian hero , with , the sounds of victory ringing in . his ears .

    " Mr . Hackett was a young promising officer , much . esteemed by his immediate commanding officer , and beloved by his regimental cornnaniona . ¦ Hi 3 death is much regretted . Be-sides Bate" and Hackett we hear only of the loss of Mr . Thomas , midshipman , of the Sanapareil . ''Some official , despatches from General Van Straubenzee and Admiral Seymour huve been published . In a despatch from the latter , dated " Her Majesty's ship Corojuundel , at Canton , Dscembsr 23 th , 1857 , " we read : —

    " On the 18 th I received a communication front the Earl of -Elgin and Baron Gros , stating thrrt the reply o £ the High Commissioner [ -to , the . ultimatum of the Powers ] hail been received—that it was most unsatisfactory , and . inviting the naval and military Commanders-in-Cliief to a conference on board the Audacieuse , to consider -what further steps should bo taken in consequence of Yeh's determination to resist the very moderate demands of the two Governments . " The conference was hold on the 21 st inst ., when it was determined that tho Plenipotentiaries should address

    a letter to the Imperial High Commissioner , informing his Excellency that , in consequence of his non-compliance with thu demands submitted for his consideration , the further settlement of the question hud been transferred to tho uav . il-anil military authorities , and that we should also address a lottor to his Excellency stating the above fact , and that if at tho end of a further term of forty-eijrlxt hours tho city , should be peacefully surrendered into our hands life ami property would be respected ; but tliar , if tho terms were not accepted , the city would be attacked . "

    This Okient. J C1kcass1a. Tub Nurd Of Ur...

    THIS OKIENT . J C 1 KCASS 1 A . Tub Nurd of Urussols assorts that Schainyl is still uiioonquered , although a considerable portion of tho pluin of Tchutuhnia has boen cleared by the . Russians of tho mountain < iera , 'and is occupied by ltusaimi columns . Schainyl , accompanied by tho mountaineers , who still cling to his fortunes , has rotircd to the rocky retreats beyond tho plain . risiwiA . Mr . Murray , our envoy at Teheran , is recovering from his late eovorti illness .

    Pu13uc Mkbtings. Vaiwwul.I.I Llantjukt T...

    PU 13 UC MKBTINGS . VAIWWUL . I . I llANtJUKT TO Ott . LlVlNU . STttNlC . A oiiAND banquet wan given- 'last Saturday oveuing at tho Frooimuoiis Hall , to Dr . Llvlngstouo , previous to his return to Africa . Considerably moru than tliroo hundred gonUouiou assowbloJ , though covor' * ha'l ouly T » o ^ muWTwT"lm ^^ 51 . wore oflurart for a soat } but numbers wore unable to obtain admission , the room , an It was , bulntf urainmed . Tho chair wa « taken by Sir itoUorlek JVlur « iul * on ana several normiim of tho highest omhioiico in aoUueo and , art were m-usuiit . In his opening speech , Sir Uoilorick all ' udud to line appointment of Dr . Livingstone to tho English eouauJshiiJ in tho Portuguese eolonloa ui Africa \

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 20, 1858, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20021858/page/7/