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Leader (1850-1860), 30th January 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 102, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      1 ( w THE LEA D > El JSL p * b > 410 , Januar y 30 , 1858 ,

      Untitled Article

      Cawnpore , of which he thinks only a modified account will be published . He says : — " Seeing that we were attacked , the 82 nd moved on in Front , and we were sent ( i . e .,. two companies ) through a tillage qn our right flank , and took up a . position on the Nawalegunge road . After waiting here for some considerable period it was reported that the 82 nd and 88 th were retiring . So , marching down tile road , we found jurselv . es , in about twenty minutes , on the other side > f Cawnpore . Wheeling to the right , we attempted to . join the main body and then what confusion greeted na!—flying camels , elephants , hackeries , servants , horses , and musket balls ; before us overturned tents ,

      pillaged officers' baggage , and men ' s kits . Wall , we made a stand , and my company was detached from the others , and had to take np a position on the top of a large mound of earth , where we overlooked the whole field of action . It was a desolate scene , and one to make us feel uncomfortable . Again the order to retire was given , and silently through the deserted bazaar of Cawnpore the ' beaten Feringhees ' made their way to the fort . I was lucky ; all my baggage , with the exception of blankets , shell-jacket , &c , was saved- through the fidelity of a Madras servant . My horse , too , is safe . I found him at night in the entrenched camp . And now I must give you an account of the third dayr the most disastrous for us of all .

      " The Sepoys attacked us about ten o ' clock . All through the Bazaar and Canes we kept fighting till about two ; then we advanced , and sustained such a storm of grape , musketry , and shells as some of the oldest among us had rarely or never beheld . My company was in front about four p . m ., and repulsed the enemy , rescuing a gun in great style . About five , my captain took off one subdivision , my fellow-subaltern a section , and I was left with about twenty men at a ' place where I certainly never wish to be again . The men were falling fast , when suddenly from a road on the left a rush of 82 nd men , Sines , and oxiitJr corps cainu down , and the whole , in spite of the attempts of the officers to rally them , rushed pell-mell into the fort . The firing and fighting was kept up until dusk , when we retired from the town , leaving the mess-plate of ten regiments , and the baggage of nearly all those officers who were murdered , in their hands . "

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      SPECIAL LETTERS FROM INDIA . ( From a Military Correspondent . ' ) Tfaffpore , December , 1857 . We have now taken a hasty survey of the real nature of the crisis through which ^ e have passed have pointed out that the aim and object of the rebels was a war of extermination , and that the attainment of that aim was far from being so chimerical or so impossible as I fear some people will now try to persuade us . Are we again to be exposed to such & danger ? The surest way to guard against it is to estimate it correctly , not to underrate and not to exaggerate it . We have also endeavoured to calculate the forces which have enabled us to overcome and subdue the danger for this time ; and if my views are accepted , an impression will have been produced that we should watch closely and foster the conservative interests of the country , and strive to obtain the highest talent and qualifications for its administration , especiall y encouraging the employment of natives , and steadily opposing the reckless intrusion from the mere lust of patronage of young- Europeans into posts of authority and emolument without any special training or proved aptitude .

      And now we come at last by a natural transition to the point which at the outset of this letter I promised to elucidate—the cause of the very general diaiike to our rule and distrust of our intentions , which have for years been apparent to all who have succeeded in gaining the confidence and eliciting the undisguised uonthnonts of the better educated natives of India . In India wo see an immense and- populous empire subject to an alien race , undeniably far- superior to the natives in knowledge , skill , and energy , in veracity and justice Divided and scattered by tlio fntnl and mysterious customs of caste , hulf the people exulted above ami the remainder degraded below hope , tho occupations and rnnk of all fixed ( according to strict principle ) for . life , and apathy and resignation encouraged by the spirit of their religion—the Hindoos for a thousand years have been tho slaves and victims of a succession of

      conquerors . In many districts a state of ohronio war has'only ceased within the memory ol men now living . Heroic deeds have often graced their annuls , but united action under the hideouH tyranny of cnato- has hitherto foP'evor . heenJrnpj 9 psife | &- ^ l , Ll « LoX t ? 2 J ) miltlci ft Bllb " jcot of reproach against the people of'InTlfirt'irnT'thelr civilization , if it has not retrograded , hat * boon stationary for many years . Even granting to tho ftill extent the justice of this reproach , it cannot be denied that at that critical period , when tlio presence of tho English began to be felt in India , everything portended th « approach « of great "changes . r J'l > e Mogul power waa destroyed in all but name , nil tho more important viceroys hud he ' eomo virtually independent ; and- the vaot Mahratta armica wore founding Hindoo states and upholding Hindoo nationality in every part of the penlneuln . Holltar , Scindiuli , tho Bhouulu , and

      the Guicowar , all Sudras of low caste , had become powerful monarchs . The mass of Hindooism was moving . But it is useless to speculate on what might have been the issues of those revolutions , the enmities and divisions consequent on which contributed greatly to the establishment of British power . These revolutions were checked by our superior influence , and our supremacy is a great fact . For fifty years-we have been the undoubted paramount power on the continent of India ; and no prince has dared to fire a shot or take a step without our permission . We have stopped the independent development of the Hindoo races by taking the-management of affairs into our own hands , and condemning their best men to insignificance and inactivity . We have carried the system of class-government to the greatest extreme , retaining all the honours and high emoluments of government in the hands , not only of a class , but of foreigners—not only of foreigners , but to a great extent of inefficient and unqualified foreigners .

      our moderation and regard for the illustrious families of the country . But with the disappearance of th « last vestige of an opposing power our moderation began to disappear ; tho lust of patronage , the swelling of our establishments , led to financial difficulties , and the imprudent and most unjust expedition to Afghanistan in 1839 was the commencement of a series of annual deficiencies , which appear to have stimulated our rulers to annexation , and to the more rapid and sweeping resumption of estates as a means of restoring a financial equilibrium . That this plan has signally and deplorabl y failed must be now sufficiently apparent . That it has led to a widely spread discontent among the most influential classes , whose ideas descend and penetrate through every rank of Indian society , is equally certain . In every mosque , in every bazaar , in every assemblage of the people , during the last ten years , loud and bitter have been the denunciations of the bad faith of our Government . Sattara , Nagpore , and Oude hav . e been the greatest sources of discontent E . V .

      None knew better than the more intelligent natives of India that life , property , and personal liberty were never so secure under Emperor , Nabob , or Rajah , as they are under the British Government ; that cruel , arbitrary , and capricious punishments are forbidden by the laws in force ; and that fixed principle and the absence of passion and partiality are the characteristics of British rule . But with all this the higher and better class of natives have no attachment to our Government . A native of birth and education may in some degree admire and esteem he English , but if he possesses an atom of manly pride and self-respect , he must regard with dislike and indignation a system which , however favourable to the merchant , banker , and cultivator , ignores and threatens to destroy the ancient aristocracy and those of the higher classes who are not engaged in trade , shutting out from them all hope and prospect of retaining or regaining their place , position , and rank in society .

      For not only does our system of administration tend to exclude all men of birth and station , and their children , from any honourable post , civil or military , under Government , but the policy of Calcutta , intensified within the last twenty years , and urged to excess ' under Lord Dalhousie , has ever been directed to diminish as much as possible the extent of land held rent-free , or by the tenure of a very light or nominal tribute , by the old families of the country . Except in Bengal Proper , where Lord Cornwallis ' s perpetual settlement was carried fully into effect , and which is the most prosperous and contented province in the empire , there is no such an institution as private property in land in India . Advantage is taken of the ancient customs of the despotic monarchs

      of India—Tippoo Sultan , the Peishwa , and others—to extinguish private rights in land or hereditary charges « n the revenue ; but no respect is paid to ancient custom when it appears to secure a family in the permanent possession of an estate . On every succession the sunnuda or title-deeds are called for , and the slightest flaw , or the absence of express assurance by the granter of perpetual hereditary possession , even although the estate may have been enjoyed for more than one generation , will frequently be held sufficient to justify tho confiscation of tho estate , with the grant , perhaps , of a pension for one or two lives of half the income of the estate . Imagine such a commission of settlement and inquiry set to work by an absolute or a republican government in England ov in France 1 It is in every respect , I

      maintain , an iniquitous and an impolitic destructive proceeding . It is true that a native monarch was absoluto , and that his relations , nobles , and high officials had no regular or legal mode of enforcing their acknowledged rights against him if ho chose to act in an arbitrary and grasping manner towards them ; but they not tho less did possess clear , undisputed , recognized , acknowledged rights on his protection and support , and thoy were almost invariably hold sacred . Wo seem to think ourselves justified in availing ourselves of the exceptional arbitrary power of refusing to recognize , or of

      extinguishing those rights , but not to conceive ourselves bound to their general observance . And it must also bo remembered that if the absolute monarch confiscated estates sometimes , he also granted cwtutea to others , and thut from those privileged clasflos all tho groat civil offices and military cointnandu were filled . So that every feature of our rule tends to tho Impoverishment , degradation , and exasperation of the most elevated and tho most improvnblo classes of tho country , those who ought to form our conservative classes , and who are conservative and attached to our rule , wherever from peculiar circumstances they have been allowed to exist undisturbed ; ¦¦¦¦ * - —•«— . ¦— .-,,.,, When tho founders of our Indian empire were maintaining 1 and strengthening a precarious position , subduing fierce onemk'H , and conquering provinces , alliancoa with the native princes woro sought , and wo certainly drew our full share of advantages from such as wo formed . Foryoarawo woro celebrated as faithful and liberal friends , our genorouu restorations of the Myuoro and Sattara RajaIib gained' us golden opinions from all aorta of people ; our generous leniency after the treachery of Appah Sahib , the ltnjah of Nngpore ( in 1817 , In placing ; another member of the' family on tho inuonud , was a strong proof of

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      THE OKIENT . CHINA . Tim note of preparation for the attack on Canton is still sounded in the Hong-Kong journals . The steam transport Adelaide , with Colonel Holloway and the residue of the 1500 marines from England , came in on the 2 nd of December , and , on tho 7 th , hen Majesty ' s screw steamer Assistance arrived with other marines and that portion of the 59 ih Regiment which got ' away from the Transit when she was wrecked . The Earl of Elgin has been to Macoa , and has there met the envoys of France , Russia , and America . The United States Minister has upset several of the judicial decisions of his predecessor . Of the progress of the rebellion there are only very vague accounts ; but matters would seem to be in favour of the Imperialists .

      In token of the close union between the English and French in the matter of Canton , their vessels hoisted each other ' s colours on the 13 th of December . The doomed city is so closely blockaded that it begins to suffer from want of food . " A notification in the name of the two Plenipotentiaries , " says the Overland China Mail , "is in circulation along the river , warning tho inhabitants of the impending contingency , and urging them to look to themselves ; some copies , we understand , have been sent into the suburbs [ of Canton ] for distribution . " Our men have been expressly forbidden to plunder the city when they shall have entered it Those who disregard this order are threatened with severe punishment . The military force has sustained a heavy loss in the death , from inflammation of the bladder , of Lieutenant-Colonel Lugard , commanding the Royal Engineers . Som 3 alarm has been felt for Hong-Kong during the expedition to Canton ; but the island appears to be well provided for in tho general arrangements . French , English , and Americans will contribute to its safety .

      BABBAKY . During a storm of extraordinary violence which has prevailed for some weeks on the seaboard of Barbary , two merchant ships , ono of which belonged to Austria and the other to Portugal , were cast ashore on the coast of Riff . Tho pirates pillaged tho two ships , and murdered the greater part of tho crews .

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      IRELAND . This Tiuajl op Fathhr Conway . —The trinJ oC tho Rov . Mr . Conway , as tho result of tho Attomcy-Goneral ' s application for a change of venue , will take placo in the city of Dublin boforo a special jury of tho county at tho close of tho next after-sittings , subject , however , to a motion , for which notice has been served , whether tho Common Law Procedure Act does nut apply equally to criminal and civil proceedings . Encumhkkisu Estate Counx . —The King Willinmstown estate of Mr . Vincont Scully has boon purcliHsmi by private contract for 9500 / . Tho lamia comprise tho model farm and the villago of King Williamatuwn , witu ull the Government improvements , which hud been some time since sold by tho Crown .

      Riot at Bislkast . —Tho evening of tho Princess Royal ' s wedding day was distinguished » t Mt'lfiwt in " way quite-congenial with the antecedents <> f that excitable city . There wan a riot , apparently without n » y cuuso ; Btonoe wore thrown , and tho head constable was seriously hurt in the head . Tho Mayor went IjiiiwoH w tho scene of tho disturbance , and road the Klot Aot ; out it wus not until some arrosts were wado that the crow dispersed .

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      AMEIUOAl ^ ~ AoooitDiNO to tho laat advicew , tho United States expedition against tho Mormons wae encamped , and iiwniunfe the proper souson for tho opening of tho oampaisiM" ™'" tho Salntu' determine on prolonged rottiatunco . i » o armv la Bufflclontly provided with food to bo securo oi moderate rations till Juno ; and Colonel Jolinutow wo « , 80 well anflurod that tho Mormons will leave tor w British poBBOBsions In tho spring ( indood , it la said »» " pioneer parties have already loft ) , that ho has not « n «

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 30, 1858, page 102, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2228/page/6/