INDIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 522, 4 November 1857, Page 3

INDIA.

The latest from Calcutta is the 11th July. The inhabitants of that city were in a state of great consternation in consequence of the troops at Benares having mutinied:—

"The results not known; report says the Sikhs there stood and assisted to turn out the 6th Native Infantry, and about 20C0 men that came over from Oude. Gwalior contingent gone on the 14th, killing six or seven officers, escorted the ladies safely out of the station, but insulted them, in every way they could. 10th Native Infantry, at Futtehgurgh, mutinied on, the 17th, one company remained, fired, and protected the treasury and civilians in the fort; afterwards they attacked Mynpooree with some Oude men, and hung what Europeans they could take alive. Sir H. Wheeler is surrounded and we can get no information from him. They say he had four days hard fighting "at his intrenched camp, and is hard up for water. We are all prepared here to go into the fort at a moment's notice. Four months provisions have been put in for all hands; women and children of schools and uncovenanted servants who have no conveyance have been put in. We collect at houses fortified to stand a siege for some days if guns are not brought against us. All well, and anxiously praying for more European troops to come up-country."

Telegraphic information has been received at Bangalore to the effect that the King of Delhi has been hanged in his own palace. " This," says the Bangalore Herald of the 3rd July, " was a necessary measure, and will not fail to have the desired effect upon the people of India. We are glad to find that the Government have abandoned half measures with respect to the quelling of the rebellion. What with the fall of Delhi, the extermination of the rebels, the hanging of their king, and the confinement of the ex King of Oude in Tort William, the insurrection must soon die out as a consequence. It was also reported at Ghazepore that the rebels had been driven from the palace of Delhi with immense loss.

General Havelock's force has thrice beaten the rebels, taking1 twenty six of their guns. Cawnpore Has been re-occupied, and JSTana Sahib had fled to Bhitoor. This place is only eight or ten miles from Cawnpore, and no doubt General Havelock would rapidly follow up the treacherous Mahratta.

The following general order was issued by General Havelock after his splendid victory at Futtepore, on the 12th. July :— '■'Brigadier General Havelock, CIS., thanks his soldiers for their arduous exertions of yesterday, which produced, in four hours, the strange result of a whole army driven from a strong position, eleven guns captured, and their whole force scattered to the winds, without the loss of a single British soldier.

" To what is this astonishing effect to be attributed ? To the fire of the British Artillery, exceeding in rapidity and precision all that the Brigadier-General has ever witnessed in his not short career; to the powrer of the Enfield Rifle in British hands ; to British pluck—that good quality which has survived the revolution of the hour; and to .the blessings of Almighty God in a most righteous cause—the cause of justice, humanity, truth, and good government in India." v At the last advices Lucknow still held out. The * Pooiia Observer' regrets to have heard it stated that the Native Irregular Cavalry/with Brigadier-General Havelock's force behaved; very badly in the action at Futtepore, and refused either to charge or fire upon the rebels. Several of them, it is reported, went over to the enemy, and the remainder were disarmed. Of course they will have met with condiga punishment ere this. . Tne ' Poona Observer 'says it was runurared in Calcutta that his Highness the Maharajah. Scindiai ofGwalior, has been murdered by his own army. ■ A Bombay paper thus refers to the atrocities committed by the mutineers. Although little that is absolutely new has

-reached us since oar last, we yet feel bound to lay before our readers much interesting detail of the terrible-events occuring in India. Who •cam wonder if the hearts of English soldiers burn for -vengeance when they liear of a whole family at Allahabad being tied to trees, their toes and arms chopped off, and their tortured -bodies then burnt alive. Wili not the blood •of every Briton, of every class, first run cold and then boil as he reads such detaila as the following, and pray that the God of Battles may strengthen the armies of his country who have gone forth to inflict just punishment on the vile perpetrators of deeds, abhorrent to God and man. We-quote from the letter of an Agra correspondent of the Times:'—"l have heard of one family, who, "with their children after moving from village to village, hiding themselves under bushes, with their faces blackened, penniless, screened and protected by some of th« natives, after some eight or ten days fatigue, and in constant danger, arrived at Kurnaul. I know of four, of both sexes, who were stripped naked and sent to Agra (I am modifying the treatment). I shave heard of officers being tormented "by their «wn sepoys in the Oude disti-ict; ladies violated, by sepoys and others; their mutilated remains perambulated about the street. A ladj' Tar advanced in pregnancy, trying to escape, fell in unfortunately, with some of these vil■lainous scouiidi'els, and whatever else they may Shave done to the poor creature, I will only tell •you, they cut her open alive, took out the child, £,nd burned both. .

'Jt will be observed, remarks a Singapore f)aper.,-that in the Punjaub on one occasion no "feweiythan forty mutineers of the 55fch Native Trifantiy^were blown from the guns. It is deplorable that a necessity should have arisen for terrible-vengeance—but no one doubts the necessity. The only question is, whether Brigadier--Chainberlain does right in wasting the much needed powder out of respect to caste. Sir Henry: Lawrence makes use of the gallows, le does eot think a Brahmin traitor too good ■±o-be touched by a sweeper.