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    •Ko; 4*40, August 28,1858.] THE LlAD^B. ...

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    The Indian Rebellion. Eight Mouths* Camp...

    larly upon the great Military Revolt , we are accustomed to hear it remarked by the unthinking that "the subject ^ is worn out , " "the public are sick and tired of it , " and the like . Both these observations are erroneous . The pre-revolutionary history of India has all to be reconsidered , and in part rewritten , for the deductions drawn from fallacious views of our influence and of the native , character , have now crumbled under the foundations of our polity . Now that the annexation of the peninsula to tlie British Crown has brought the Government and progress of India more legitimately within the scope of the British public , a degree of inquisitiveness may be expected , and will insist upon being

    tra tified , far beyond that which was wont to be satised by volumes authorised at Leadenhall-street , written by Leadeiihall-street pensionaries , or Leadenhall-street expectants . The penetrating- gimlet of a free press , over which Crown ' .. officials will be comparatively powerless , will , now that Hindostan takes full instead of brevet rank as a colony , commence ere long its searching operations into all things Indian . The double Government , which has favoured joint irresponsibility for ill-deeds and unfairly divided credit for good ones , is at an end . The trade in Indian politics is in fact thrown open , and all Indian information will henceforth be more greedily sought for than was conceivable in the days when the-threat of an Indian debate could all but

    clear the benches of the House of Commons ; and wliett most of those -whom official position , or a high sense of legislative duty brought to face it , were lulled to helpless sleep by the then uninteresting periods of the speakers . . The grand dimensions of the subject ., worn out 0 ? threadbare , arc Only now beginning to be appreciated . Its surface is as yet but scratched ; and far from being glutted ,, the market for Indian intelligence is still , we believe , as brisk as when the horrors of Meevut and Cawnpore first broke upon us . In tlifi early davs . of-. our curiosity about the Sepoy revolt ., hardly lia'd the--first , ' . consignments of the sick and wounded military and of tlie refugee civilian families reached us , than the press groaned with memoirs and recollections . All of these were not

    the : works of persons whose experience was worth having as materials for history . Some of them were rechauffes of diaries , by people who had either been long home from India , or who , , quitting in an . excitement on the verge of stirring times , had seen next to nothing . Some were frauds de circonstance , perpetrated by sound cockneys , who Would " get U ])"—as Mr . Dickens would say ^—at the British Museum a treatise on Chinese Metaphysics and on the Hcvolt of the Sepoy army with equal facility . Others were tlie halting brood of Cacocthes—and a few were thrown together at the request of " indulgent friends . ' Oh those "indulgent friends , " what misery have they not indicted upon us !

    Next there came a superior class of works , such as Captain Wilson ' s J ) lury and Lieutenant , Inncs ' s Hough Notes . Of these gentlemen , one belongs to the Native Infantry , and the other to the Engineers ; and have well detailed as much as any wen engaged in actual warfare can be supposed to have seen . But now we have daily sent to us the works of men of older standing , of enlarged Indian experience , and of considerable power , who were capable , and often unhappily so for themselves , of sifting and duly weighing the conflicting opinions , rumours , and scraps of intelligence , that fill the very air in times of trouble ,. and whose position gave them access to the best , of information .

    The curiosity of ihc reader , far from relaxing , seems to increase as he makes his way through the mass of stirring adventure , condensed historical and political narrative , find able civil and military comment , to be found in . \ lie works of Colonel Bourcliicr . and Mr . Edwards , the authors whose names wo have bracketed ut the head of our article . These arc both men of mark of a time no \ y passed away ; nnd of an order which , in sp ite , of pretended care for the middle classes , the absorption of the East India Company liy the upper classes may

    happily shut out in future from the highest Indian appointments heretofore open to them . They have both seen , « nd dared , and suffered much . The gallantry of Colonel Bourchier and his beloved No . 17 battery have made the modest soldier a belted knight ; and , at the outbreak of the revolt ,, Mr . iSdwnrds , magistrate mid collector of Buduon , sole European oliiccr in a district : comprising a lawless population of more than a million souls , and thirty miles from any European assistance , stuck to his > post uutil the mutineers und released gaol birds had

    closed in upon him from all sides , and were , in fact , looting his house and office . The first care of each , after verifying the fact of the rebellion , was for his family , and the-nexfc his duty . The man of the sword , who was at Sealkote when Sir Xohn Lawrence . ordered the removal of ladies and children to a place of safety , entrusted his own to a Panjabee gentleman , who escorted them as far as Lahore , and went himself 5 nto camp with the thermometer at 120 ° ; patrolled the Punjaub with the movable column under General Nicholson , helped to disperse the Sealkote brigade of mutineers , and having had a flying visit to Simlah , there to deposit his heart ' s treasures , rushed down headlong after Nicholson to

    our camp before Delhi . "He would sooner , " he said , " have lost bis commission than have allowed his battery to inarch into Delhi without him . So he made friends with the jolly old landlady of " the Bull Inn" at Halka—a kind of Mrs . Seacole , by all accounts . She prevailed—softened postal officials who had been obstinate to the gallant colonel , and got him a seat on the mail cart , whereon he plunged down at the rate of eleven miles an hour to the -postal-junction , at-UmboUa . Here it was necessary to change carriages , or rather carts , and as a sable-countenanced apothecary appeared upon the stage , "who was as anxious as our hero to get dowa to Delhi , and had been waiting for three days for a place :-

    —An argument ( not , of the gentlest kind ) , says the colonel , then arose , as to -whether the iuflicter or healer of wounds was most urgently required at Delhi . He was positive that his advent would bp hailed with joy , while that of a captain of artillery-would be but a matter of indifference . Perhaps he was right ; but be that as it may , Aw hile he stormed , I adjusted my seat and started , leaviiig my little black friend vowing that all sorts of pains and penalties should attach to my devoted person . :

    painful adventures , the artistically artless detail of which , combined with its native hue of Orientalism , reminds the reader more of an Arabian tale than of a modern narrative . With a heavy heart the collector left his once peaceful , happy home . Of all his retinue , and of all the public establishment , but one Afghan bodyservant and the Sikh Peon were faithful to their salt . Without a change of clothes , but with a little Testament , " darling little Mary's purse , intended for my birthday present , " Ins watch , revolver , and 150 rupees between them , the little

    party started upon their perilous journey for Nynee Tal , where Mrs . Edwards was already in safety . In their miserable wanderings they met with , oases of gratitude , devotion , and friendship , of which the mere narrative is affecting .. They traversed by night great tracts in the power of the murderous enemy—now wading through morasses , now tracking the densest jungles , hardly able to distinguish the genuine offer of sympathy and protection from the treacherous allurement into ambush and destruction . They were tempted as well as guided by unknown and anonymous communications conveyed through mysterious channels . We

    have not space for extract of the interesting story of Misser Byjenath ' s generosity * and the talent of his messenger Khan Singh , nor of the adventures of the author and Probyn with Hurdeo Buksch ; but we cannot resist the story about Rohna the letter-carrier . Rohna was a peasant whom the fugitive judge encountered at This most desperate need , when lurking about the country with Mr . Probyn . He had T ) een attached to our commissariat in the Sutlej campaign , and was grateful to the British Government tor their generosity to him . He undertook to deliver ?> fetter to Mrs . Edwards at Nynee Tal by way of Bareiliy :-

    —The colonel was iu this fever to catch his battery at Kurval . No . 17 , however , was an ignis fat ' am , but at last , having caught her at Paneepiit , he arrived before Delhi an the 14 th of August . Since the 8 th of June , " Wilson-. had been holding a position there analogous to that of the allied army before Sebasiopol—tliat is , of besieged besiegers . The author ' s narrative of the siege , while interesting as a professional man ' s record , is enlivened by the natural spirits he . obviously enjojs ; but we have not space to fight again in our flying columns the lights of

    I had , says Mr . Edwards , but a small scrap of paper ( half the flyleaf of Bridge ' s on the 119 th psalm , -which happily we bad with us ) oil which to write both notes . Pencil or ink I had none , and only the stump of a lead pencil , of \ yhich the lead was so nearly exhausted that only a " , little ; atom remained quite loose . I at once commenced rhy writing ; in the middle , the little atom of lead fell out , and I was in despair . At last , after much searching 1 in the dust of the mud floor , I fonnd Stand contrived to refix it in its place sufficiently to enable me to finish two very brief notes , about one inch square ; which was all the man could conceal about his person ,

    Delhi , Luckiiow , and Cawnpore . We must part with him on the very threshold of the eight months ' campaign , -in-which he saw and did a great deal of hard service ,-with a kind word and a hearty coinmendation to our readers . None who really desire to be more than very superficially acquainted with tlie rise and progress of the rebellion may consider their studies complete until they have read Colonel Bourchier . The very nicely engraved plans from the Colonel ' s own sketches confer additional value upon his contribution , trt t . he literature of the Indian war .

    or would consent to take , as it was reported that the rebels were in the habit of searching all travellers for letters and papers , and had already killed several who were discovered with English letters upon them . When the notes were ready , 1 got a little milk to make the writing indelible , and then put them out to dry in the sun on a walL In an instant a crow pounced on one , and carried it off ; it was that for my wife . Wurzeer Singh had , unknown to me , seen the crow , followed it with one of the herdsmen , and ,, after a long chase of about an hour , saw the bird drop it , and recovering it brought it back to me uninjured .

    While Ihe revolution was not yet an accomplished fact , and the civil servants of standing who saw tlie storm blowing ; up , and had no course open to them but to wait its bursting with what dignity they might , Mr . Edwards had hardly disposed of his family , than he was aware of a plot among the Mahomedans of his district to-plunder and destroy the place . He succeded in delaying the impending catastrophe by a magnificent eifort of moral courage . Ho surmnonco the leading men of that religion to meet him at liis house on the day and at the hour fixed for their rising ; talked against time to them , played upon their internal feuds , and contrived to occupy their attention until the moment they believed propitious had passed by , and for a season only , the danger with it . But the respite was brief . The entire district , of Budaon became a scene of

    But tins letter was to have yet another narrow escape , for , during the difficult journey through the beleaguered country between Bareiliy and the hills , Rohua was nearly detected by a rebel sentry : —> He liad concealed the tiny despatch in a bamboo walking-stick , and knowing that this would be most likely seized and examined , he cracked it across half way Up , so that if taken from him and broken , it might give way nt that exact part . This actually occurred . He was stopped at a post between Bareiliy and Sampore by a soldier who took the stick from him , struck one end on the ground , breaking it in half as was intended , and then , thinking it contained nothing , throw the pieces away . Rohna picked them up again , and proceeded on liis way without further notice .

    utter anarchy . The ancient proprietary took the opportunity of murdering or expelling t hose who had purchased their ancestral fiefs at Government auctions . The flimsy pretext of greased cartridges or human bone Hour were soon abandoned , und the struggle vns more or less openly avowed for their hereditary lnndholdings , called by them "jan se aaccB , " dearer than life . The magistrate ' s duly was to stay by the sinking ship , and nobly he did so . Nearly entrapped by a ( reaebcrous native officer into tlie hands of the

    The two fragments , we must say , should have beea more dangerous to their bearer than the entire stick . Sonic too practical reader might like to enquire what Ilohna did , or would have done , when next challenged . But the tale , like many more of the author ' s adventures , is well told , and interspersed as arc his pages with sound reflections , they will , we arc sure , much interest all who take them up .

    Tlie trials of the little party after they were ngam united at Nyncc Tal were lar from over ; but we must leave to the reader the agonies and hairbrcudlli ' scapes of their voyage down llio river to Cawnpore , where they arrived on the 31 st of August . Wo have sufficiently indicated the style and character of the work , and a more dry precis of it , though ib might crowd our columns , would do small justice to the author .

    Sepoy guard , he was saved by the entreaty of his Sikh ' Peon and henchman . At length the main flood of the Bnvcilly mutineers and convicts surged upon Budaon , and not until the Treasury was sacked , Ihe gaol burst open , and his own house and effects divided among them , did lie take one lingering look behind , and start upon a scries oi

    •Ko; 4*40, August 28,1858.] The Llad^B. ...

    • Ko ; 4 * 40 , August 28 , 1858 . ] THE LlAD ^ B . $ 73

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 28, 1858, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28081858/page/17/