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Leader (1850-1860), 24th September 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1079, Untitled Article

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    • INDIA, AND . . • INDIAN PROGRESS.
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      Untitled Article

      No . 496 . Sept . 24 , 1 S 5 Q . 1 THE LEADER 1079

      Untitled Article

      as described to me , reminds your correspondent of a similar one he witnessed , together with the present Lord Lyons , in the spring , of last year at Salerno . There a half-famished man , fit only for the hospital , roped to 200 others , fell fainting m the mud . We approached and saw the blood gushing out of his mouth . A gendarme cut the rope , the wretched link was detached , dragged across the street , and pitched on the back of a companion ; so , in a pouring rain , he was taken back to his prison . What became of him 1 know not , but Francisco

      Esposito died on the road on the 6 th inst ., his only comforter the priest who had thus unexpectedly presented himself . In his pockets were found a few copper coins , a rosary of the Virgin , formed of small pearls , and some letters * full of affection , Avhich were sent to his mother . Were this a solitary case of barbarity I might let it pass , but it is only one of many that have happened and happen continually under the irresponsible system of a police who seem to gloat over human suffering . ' „ . ,:. The armament in

      Italian Volunteers . " Parma , " a recent correspondent from Florence tells us , " proceeds in a slow and slovenly manner . We have here about 400 or 500 volunteers , most of whom axe ill-clad and unarmed , arid yet . the town swarms with lazy , hulking fellows , who could be put to no better use than enlisting them . I do not know whether this scanty armament arise ? from the lack of good will on the part of the recruits or from want of good management in those who have undertaken to organise them . " An unprejudiced traveller , who has seen both the Duchies arid the Rpmagnas , gives no more cheering account of those districts . Here in Florence I see numberless uniforiris , but for the

      last month at least , I may honestly say , I seen no regular troops of any description at their drill . Those famous gentlemen-hussars , who were to be 150 , arid had dwindled to twenty-five when I last mentioned them , only mustered seven at the grand review of the National Guard on Sunday last I French Mebdlixo in India . —The following has appeared in a French paper : — - " We are assured that M . de Sercey , who was sent by the French Government on a secret mission to India , has drawn , in a report addressed to M . Walewski , a very gloomy- picture of the situation ofthat country . " The object the French Government can have in seeking information , by means of a special and secret agent , concerning our Indian possessions , is not very clear , and must remain matter of conjecture . From another source it is confirmed that a

      M . de Sercey has been pursuing investigations India . To many persons it will doubtless appear rather extraordinary that a French agent should have been sent upon such a mission . The choice of that agent may also be considered strange , although that is a matter which concerns the French Government alone . M . de Sercey was formerly a lieutenantcolonel in the French army , but peculiar and very unpleasant circumstances removed him from its ranks . He had , however , the advantage of having been , in former years , a particular friend of Count Walewski , to whom he was indebted for his recent employment on tin ' s rather equivocal service .

      Can it be True ?—The letter of a Paris correspondent contains the following assertion , which , for the sake of suffering humanity , we trust is true . " Every dog has his day ; and it is really believed that crinoline , after all , is not eternal ; the patent office statistics are of some value in the matter , and by them we find that , in 1855 , there were four patents tuken out in connexion with this invention , in 1856 sixteen , in 1857 thirty , in 1858 thirty-seven 1 and , during the first seven months of the present year , only thirteen .- The thing seems , then , to have passed its perihelion , and to bo retiring into obscurity . In fact , some fashionable dames hero have almost ' - ontirely discarded it , in order , as they say , that they may not be mistaken for their maids—and other kinds of people . This is not quite a satisfactory argument , as a lady ought not to be afraid of suoh errors j but , with an evil of such gigantic proporthe of its

      tions , we cannot afford to choose moans removal j so wo bless our stars that the egregious folly has at length become apparent , " This Paius Bou&evabds .- —For some yoars past the trees on the Boulevards of Paris and in tho public gardens have suffered from disoa . se . This year the evil has been increased by tho unusual dryness of the summer . Tho horso-chestnuts and Hmo trees have suffered most . Tho magnificent trees which lino the . walks in tho Jardin dies Plantes arc now stripped of their loaves , as if it were tho month of December , and somo of thorn are dead . A groat number of the trees are reduced to tho state of skeletons . , Tho garden of tho Tuilerios has not boon better treated . The terrace on tho aide of the Rue do Rivoli Ja nearly deprived of all shade , and in the masses in tho centre of tho garden tho eye is offended by quantities of dried branches andwituorod foUage .

      India, And . . • Indian Progress.

      INDIA , AND . . INDIAN PROGRESS .

      Untitled Article

      AHITHOPHEL . If the rebellion was not fertile in great men on th e native side it developed an amount and a kind of character the full extent and nature of which we cannot understand or sympathise with . For a short time it afforded a career to men who , under the Moguls , would have ruled courts , filled thrones , and commanded victorious armies , but whose restless longing for the kind of activity dear to the Asiatic had found vent only in litigation and debauchery . Rajahs whose warlike tastes had manifested themselves only in the glitter of a liveried troop of servants : zemindars , who had never been able to claim a more honourable victory than a triumph over lattials : poor adventurers , who had found Dacoitee , Thugge , and other forms of violence and murder the only means for the exercise of their talents ; even traders and menial servants , who had wasted _ their warlike vis in deception and chicanery , suddenly

      found a field for the exercise of their various powers in the revolt of 1857 . We > whose whole nature and training unfit us to judge of the Asiatic , looked at the insurgent mass from the outside , and did not stop to fathom their varied motives , to understand their different temptations to rise tip against us , to observe the play of their passion and the direction of their hate . We had suffered— suffered as no nation before us ever did our power had to be re-established , our wrongs avenged ,- and there was little time . But now that the storm is over arid the rebel fleet has been shattered to pieces by its fury , we can calmly watch the wrecked fragments , as the oceari , no longer troubled , casts them up upon the shore . will dembt

      Manyi now beyond the frontier , no escape us , though disease and starvation will have them sooner or later . There are Nana Sahib , and Azimoolah Khan , his minister , once a khitmutgar There are Mumniob Khan , the Begum ' s paramour , and Dabee Bux , the Rajah of Gonda , and Bala Rao , reported as recently dead , and a score of Talookdars with their retainers , like feudal barons of old . The Central India leaders , Furzund All , Runmust Singh , Burjore Singh , Feroze Shah , and Rap Sahib , have yet to be hunted down . The trials of the last of the Moguls and the Nawab of Furruckabad have revealed facts of which a skilful novelist might well avail himself . If we could have looked at the rebel forces from within when they were at the height of have found materials of

      their triumph , we might which to form an epic as varied in its characters as the Iliad , and as dark in its gloom as the Inferno . One who may . with truth be called the Ahithophel of the rebellion was tried in March last , before Mr . George Campbell , the judicial commissioner of Oude , and Major Barrow , and the papers have just been made public . Moulvie Fuzul Huk , not to be confounded with another notable scoundrel of the same name , who was a chuckladar and leader of the rebel troops , was a leading adviser of the rebel Court of Delhi in 1857 , and of the rebel chiefs in Oude in 1858 . He was born in Oude , of a family which owed everything to the British , and he himself occupied a good position in their service . Leaving it he filled offices in Oudo

      of some honour and importance , Rampore , and Ulwar , so that he became well known among the natives all over Upper . India . Leaving the Court of Ulwar , when tho mutiny began ho went to Delhi . His time had come . He threw himself and his fortunes at once boldly into the vortex of revolt , and took his chance . Of his conduct in Delhi , in . the eventful months of its siege , clear evidence was not produced . When the city fell he seems to have attached himself to the Oudo party , and especially to Mummoo Khan . A sort of rebel couuoil , termed by themselves " Urbab Shora , " or Masters of Consultations , and known by the English as tho ' Cutchorry Parliament , " was hold ut Bonclco , and Moulvio Fuzul Huk was its leading spirit . Ho was high in tho confidence of tho chiefs , and at once ambitious ,

      wise and bigoted , was always conaultod by thorn . It was tills class of men who prolonged tho contest and increased its cruelties . It was this elaas who began the struggle , as in tho case of Ahmed Aloe Shah , tho Fyzabad Moulvio , who , from Arcot , his native place , rogularly preached a crusade against the Christian , a Jehad , a holy war , from city to city , and station to station , till he reached Fyzabad , in February , 1857 , and offered armed resistance to tho magistrate . Of this class also wore the Moulvio at Allahabad , and tho fanatics of Hyderabad , who oven yet keep tho city in commotion . If tho actual soldier , caught with arms in his hands reeking with Christian blood , desorvod death , doubly so did tho class who used tho soldier as a machine for their own ends . This Fiwul Huk " quoted and perverted

      texts from the Koran , insisted that the persons who had served the English were apostates , and their death was required by the law , and even went so far as to tell the rebel chief that if he spared them he was himself a criminal in the eye of God . " Found guilty of having been an ' instigator of rebellion . and a propounder of doctrines calculated to encourage murder , . he was sentenced as a State prisoner to be transported for life , and to the confiscation of his property . Considering his advanced age , his position in life , and his character as an Oude subject , and for many years past a servant of native states , he was not treated as an ordinary

      convict . . The teaching of the Koran can produce only one kind of fruit , and we see it in Fuzul Huk . Like the Papacy , circumstances may seem to modify and pretences to cloak its unsparing and . blood-thirsty exclusiveness . But it will change only when it perishes . Well for us if the rebellion , which has disclosed a plot against Christianity , extending from Cairo to Borneo , have the same effect in leading us manfully to declare the truth as the Armada had , when with its broken timbers it shattered the Papal Jjea , gue .- * - Friend of India .

      Untitled Article

      LATEST INDIAN INTELLIGENCE . The Bombay Mail has arrived with letters and papers to the 20 th ult . From the summary of the Bombay Gazette , we extract the following } nf 2 *~ mation : —The Hon . Mr . Bruce has applied to the Governor General for troops ; but where are they to come from ? Having been presented with their discharge , about 10 , 000 men are at this moment on the point of leaving India . Everyday we hear of the withdrawal of large bodies of soldiers from their regiments , and the army itself is rapidly dissolving away . In the Bengal regiments 5 , 800 men have taken their discharge , about 2 , 300 are expected to embark from Madras , and 2 , 100 from Bombay .

      From the districts traversed by the rebels we have scarcely any news . If we may . credit some letters that have been published , in the Bengal papers , they are almost in a state of starvation . They prowl about in bands of from 50 to 500 , and are dispersed over the lower ranges south of Nepaul . A letter from Rohilcund in the Bengal Hurkaru mentions that Bala Rap , ~ brother to the Nana , Hurdut Sing , Talookdar of Bhpwne , near Baraitch , have died from the

      and the Nawab of Nujeebabad effects of the climate near Dhoker in the Nepaul territories , somewhere near Boohwall , where the Begum is . The Nana is suffering from fover . The Begum still holds out bravely , and , it is said , will give us some trouble , . should the rebels succeed m getting out from their present abode into Tirboot and the Santhal Purgunuahs . This is unlikely , however , as they are at present doing their utmost to avoid the plains , where they are sure to come in

      collision with our troops . Several arrests have been effected in Oude and Bareilly , and tho prisoners are accused , some of having taken part in the massacre of Europeans during the mutiny , and others of attempting to seduce soldiers from their duty . But they are not all dealt with as they deserve . Some of the rebels lately caught at Bareilly have been transported . One Reng Rao was sent by the Nana as an emissary to Hyderabad , where he was arrested and sentenced ; the Governor-General has remitted capital punishment and commuted the sentence to transportation for life .

      A little before the festival of tho Mohurrum , tho Punjab was in a state of excitement in "uon-Bequence of some rumours , more or less e ^ g ^ rated , regarding disaffection among tho Ma ho no tan * oi Sealkotef Umritsur , Lahore , and J ""« " * ft * fukoer , a religious ¦ beggar , was « a *™* * "Jr . ? Sealkoto district with , some treasonable P « PJ * f » E = S £ SSSS ment for a few months . » fjrej 212 ? gSSSVi £ ?

      SSSSSfiSSig asssBS 9 gsfSS sword in defence of their roligion , and killing all tho Christians o ? tho place . These facts give us a gllnSundo ? So surface of Mahometan political fookSJ The festival pf tho Mohurrum passed off very quloSy at Bombay , but in tho Deccan ana olseVhoro great discontent ftt tho position they hoW under the British Government 1 ms been openly expressed . "

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 24, 1859, page 1079, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2313/page/11/