THE PRINCE IN INDIA.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 556, 30 March 1876, Page 3

THE PRINCE IN INDIA.

The visit of the Prince to Delhi is thus described by the special correspondent of the Argus: — Delhi, the capital of the Mogul empire, the focus of the great Indian rebellion, is, next to Lucknow, the most interesting city in India in its association with deeds of British valour. It stands on the Jumna, within strong walls, the work of English engineers, with picturesque beehive-shaped crenelations to match those of the walls of the great fort in which lay the Royal palace. The wall has been taken down now at the end of one or two of the broad thoroughfares, and near the Cashmere Gate is the breach rugged and narrow, by which Nicholson led his column, while the other column passed in at the Cashmere Gate itself, after Ham and Salkeld and their gallant little band of Royal Engineers had blown it in, despite the concentrated fire of the enemy's musketry. Half a mile outside the walls is the sharp long crest of rock known as the Ridge. Here for months a handful of British troops, with a few faithful Sikhs and other native troops, kept at bay an army of mutineers, urged to fury by their own fear, and ordered time after time to the attack by their Emperor and his sons, who knew that so long a? the British flag floated in menacing defiance upon that rocky ridge, their newly-recovered power wag worse than afl empty pageant. That flag once down, and the Mogul Empire might indeed have had another chance of existence. Many of the great native chiefs were only watching for its fall as a signal to declare against us; not in the nortb-wesc alone, but throughout, all India the eyes both of the natives and Englishmen were turned towards it. alike felt its significance. It was the symbol in India of the British Raj. If it had fallen, assuredly that Raj would for a time have terminated. None who know the English nation can doubt that it would have been regained, but it would have been only reconquered after an effort, an expenditure of blood and treasure to which those spent in all our previous Indian wars would have been nothing. At Lucknow men were fighting for their lives and the lives of those dearest to them. Had that little garrison fallen it would have made no difference to the general course of-the war. At Delhi men fought for the English flag, the English honour, and the possession of the Indian Empire. It was a fitting thing, then, that at Delhi should this year be gathered the forces of the north-west for their annual manoeuvres at a time coinciding with the visit of the Prince. At other places the spectaoles provided for the Prince's amusement have for the most part had a native and Oriental character; here the displays h,.vo been purely military, tinged, of course, with Orientalism to the extent of their surroundings. There were 20.000 troops collected there, encaraped beyond the Ridge, many of them on the very ground held by the British troops during the siege. These lined the road from the railway station to the camp, a distance of nearly four miles. The route led through the portion of the town now demolished and planted with trees to the gate of the fort, th?nce it proceeded past the Jumma Musjid, the great mosque of the city; thence through the Chunder Chowk, the broad bazaar street of the town ; onwards, out by the Lahore gate ; and then across the oprn country over the Ridge to the Royal camp. The great Bight of this procession was the Jumma Mu-jib. This is a superb mosque, stauding on a plateau of rock some 50ft above the surrounding city, "i he mosque itself occupies one side of the plateau. and round the other three sides a long arcade encloses a magnificent courtyard. Access to this courtyard is obtained from the city by great steps, over a hundred feet wide on either side. These steps were crowded with a mass of people whose bright-colored turbans rising line above line gave them the appearance of numerous banks of bright flowers. Every where the crowd was great, but at this point the scene culminated. The next day there was a grand march past of the whole of the troops, It took place on a wide plain two miles beyond the Prince's eamp, and, barring the dust, a finer place for such a display could hardly have been selected, All European Delhi was there, in carriages, on horseback, or on elephants. Native Delhi, in bullock hackeries and on earned, was less largely represented than might have been expected ; but then Delhi is pretty well accustomed to military spectacles, aud the manoeuvres had been going on for ?. month. The cavalry and artillery, as usual, went past first at a walk. The infantry marched past in columns of double companies, and the artillery and cavalry then came past, first at the trot by batteries and squadrons, and then at a gallop in line of batteries and regiments. It was a grand and a mirvellonsly varied night. With the exception of the British troops, scarcely two regiments were dressed alike. Some were in blue, some in scarlet, Borne in the rough, serviceable cotton cloth known as kaika; some had white, some red, some blue, turbans or puggeriea, and the ends of them, which when wound form a knot on the top of the turban or fall down the back, were even more vaiious than was the color of the uniform: aorao had white, some black gaiters; some of the Sikh and Punjaubee regiments marched in swathings of cotton stuff instead of leggings, and many of the regiments wore the native slippers instead of boots, Some, such as the Ghoorka regiments, were composed of little, lithe, wiry men, as active as cats ; while the northern regiments, the Sikhs and Punjaubees, were superb men, far taller than English infantry, and marching with a proud, free, martial gait, which I never saw at all approached by any infantry in the world, although the Hungarian, perhaps, approach most nearly to it. The cavalry were as varied in dress and demeanor, and, as wave after wave swept p-st their lauce points flashing in the sun, the horses fretting and

champing under the enforced pace, the arms rattling, and the turban ends flying behind them, it would, indeed, Lavo b an a

cold-blooded man who did not feel his heart beat faster and his color rise at that magnificent spectacle of the pomp an power of war. The two following days were occupied by manoeuvres of the troops divided into two armies—the one being supposed to be making an attempt to enter Drliii, or to turn the position of the other ou the Ridge. The particulars cf these manoeuvres would be of no interest whatever, except to those acquainted with the ground and troops ; suffice it to say that the relieving army under General Hardinge was repulsed with great (supposed) slaughter by the defenders of the Bidge under General Sir C. Reid. Next to these affairs the great event of the Delhi week was a ball given by the military at the Old Palace. This was incomparably the finest thing of the nort which we have seen in India The old audience-hall is entirely built of white marble in the Saracenic horse shoe-arched style with which we are familiar at the Alhambra at Granada. In the Alhambra, however, the material employed is a green marble, whereas it is here the purest and whitest marble. The massive pilasters and walls are all exquisitely carved, and are inlaid with cornelian, jasper, calcedony, onyx, lapis lazuli, and other stones in delicate pattern, resembling the Florentine pietra dura work. This lovely audience hall would not, however, have sufficed no a ballroom for the number of guests expected ; fortunately upon two sides it was open to courts, each some 50ft square, beyond which lay the private apartments, exquisite little gems of marble work, with perforated marble screens, beautiful in'aid work and fountains. These courts were converted into ballrooms by white canopies, the flooi'3 were boarded and polished, and a military band was stationed in each. The central part, the audience chamber, was used as a drawing-room, and dancing went on simultaneously at each end. The effect of these superb marble walls and arches, brilliantly lighted with cut-glass chanddiers, and bright with uniforms of every color and cut, and with the dresses of the ladies, presented by far the most brilliant coup d'ceil I have ever witnessed, and I have seen balls in almost every palace in Europe. Unfortunately, the supper proved an utter fiasco. The contractor appointed failed wholly, in spite of the large sum per head paid to him, -"and the result was general wrath and vexation. This, however, was after all a matter of importance, and the only real regret connected with the ball was the very large proportion of gentlemen to ladies, being, in fact, nearly four to one. Had the general garb of the men been the funereal dress coats of ordinary life this would have been fatal to the appearance of the ball, but there were not fifcy black coats in the room, and the brilliancy of the various uniforms was at least equal to that of the ladies' dresses.