English and Foreign.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 558, 10 March 1858, Page 3

English and Foreign.

INDIA. - In the ■•■Cape Argus' of January 16th we find' news from India; to the lOtli December. The narrative 'of the hionth previous is given in the following1 able SUMMARY OP EVENTS. The intelligence received from India by the City of Manchester is hardly surpassed in interest, and importance1 ]by any of the accounts which had previously reached the colony. i: , It abounds in exciting incidents, gallant" deeds; and brilliant successes ; but its lustre is at the same time shaded by the most^ mournful loss our army there has yefcsustaiiied. Napoleon's presence in person on a field of battle was reckoned by friend and foe alike as equivalent to a reinforcement of 50,000 men. We may scarcely say as much' of Sir Henry Havelock; bat the worst reverse our troops in India.have met; with yet has,! not been a severer loss than the individual death of that one .distinguished hero.

Tb indicate the progress of affairs from the "dales' of buiv previous' intelligence to the'loth of December, when the steamer leftj-'We shall rapidly summarise the most salient points of the history, and present theni as briefly and succinctly as we can. It will be remembered that Lucknow was the principal centre of active hostilities. Generals Outram and Havelock held possession of the garrison there with a force of only 2,500, and encumbered by nearly 1,000 of the sick, the wounded, and the women, whom it had been found impossible to forward in safety to Cawnpore. Against this small band, a host of about 100,000 infuriated rebels were encamped all round the city, as well as within its walls. A constant firing was kept up against the Residency, and deep anxiety was felt lest the pressure* might prove irresistible, and Lucknow be converted into an Aceldama as horrible as the grini butcheries of Cawnpore had been befoi^T Such was the position of Outram and Havelock from the end of September to the 22nd of November.; Oa the 27th of October, Colonel Grant's column arrived at Cawnpore, crossed the Ganges without delay, and reached Alumbagh in four days afterwards. There the precise position of the beleaguered garrison was accurately ascertained; the forces at Col. Grant's disposal were insufficient to_ cope with the dense masses of the rebel army; and they appear, therefore, to have wisely -fallen back ( again on Cawnpore, where General Wyndham held & strongly entrenched: position in the vicinity of the town. Troops from Calcutta were in the meantime' rapidly concentrating upon this point, and along with them appeared niost opportunely the Commander-in-Chief in person. On the 11th November he left Cawnpore,' rode forty miles in one day towards Lucknow, and disposed all his available forces for an attack upon the rebel armies—General Wyndham being still left in command of a reserve at Cawnpore; Every point within several miles of the Residency was strongly garrisoned by the enemy, and Sir Colin Campbell and his army were compelled to fight their way inch by inch, encountering" throughout the most fierce and obstinate resistance. The ( steady coolness and militaiy precision', for which Lord Gough had eulogised the General on the field of Chillianwallah, shone equally on this occasion too, and now, as then, he carried everything before him. At one position, Samuch, the enemy's garrison was reduced only after a tremendous cannonade . of nearly five hours arid 'ras severe a fight, according to Sir Colin's own description, as ever he had witnessed anywhere. At another position he carried lais point by dint of stratagem and unflinching courage combined. The suburb in question was held by.swarms of the rebel force;'every house in it was a garrison ; and every wall was loop-holed and bristling with muskets. The General, on perceiving this, gave a sudden order to sound a hurried retreat. It was obeyed, of course, kut with the immense disgust of the men, who were as ardent for the conflict as they had uniformly seen their commander had been before. This retreat of .our force gave fresh courage to the rebels; they rushed out from tlie village in frantic excitement and glee; but still Sir Colin Campbell pursued steadily his. retreating march. The enemy followed, and this continued for a distance of three miles. A halt was ordered, now, as suddenly as had been tlie retreat before; a further command for turning quickly round and charging the pursuing army was responded to with

infinite delight; and, to use the words ot the narrator, " in a twinkling, the men went like bull-dogs at the enemy. The unexpected attack commenced with three volleys, fired in quick succession ; this done, the cavalry outflanked the rebels, ami the infantry charged." The stratagem proved eminently successful. So ".terrible were the losses inflicted on the enemy, that afterwards, in one place only, no fewer than fifteen hundred of them were found killed. By daring- and skilful deeds like these—in - which, by the. way, Sir Colin himself was slightly wounded—our small army of 5,000 men forced their way against overwhelming numbers of the enemy, and retained each point successively as they gained it. It was apparently on the 21st Novembef they reached the garrison at the Residency, and Generals Outram and Havelock came out to meet them. On the 22nd, the garrison was withdrawn under coyer of the relieving force, falling back on : th'e Dilkb'sha, in the presence- of the whole force of Oude; and the day following* they all retired in safety to Alumbagh, The . Commander-iti-Chief, before evacuating tHe Residency, however, possessed himself :of all in it that had been of any value; the Kings's treasure was carried away seicurely; the state prisoners were all retained, and every serviceable gun was removed in perfect order. It was at Alumbagh, and only two days after this relief of Lucknow had been successfully achieved, that Sir Henry Havelock ended his bright career. Whether from the heavy pressure of the burdens of his high office in a season of such terrible perplexity as he had passed through at Lucknow for the previous two months, or whether shot in a skirmish with the enemy, we cannot satisfactorily learn. One thing is only too true, that he is gone, and that in him the British nation has lost a commander, who, by his distinguished military skill, his personal gallantry and heroism, and his noble character as a Christian, —-which is only, after all, the highest style of man —-had won for himself a reputation "above all Greek, above all Roman fame." He entered the army in 3.815, and since that time his career in the first Burmese war, in the most trying crisis of the Affghan campaign, and in the Scinde and Punjab wars of later years, has been one of uniform and most ; proud distinction. His bearing* and successes at Cawnpore, and his dashing intrepid, march to Lucknow, will never be forgotten while national gratitude has any ' existence. 'His whole history reminds us of some of the best and bravest of the old ; Puritanic heroes, who exemplified in ' all . their actions that wisest of all philosophy, when with Cromwell " they put their trust i in Providence, and kept the powder dry." Havelock was one of that stamp. It had been once the'fashion to scout him as a strait-laced bigot and a saint but his conduct proved that sanctity, when it is a reality at all, and not, as it only too often is, the most odious of shams, is something" in no degree inconsistent with heroic daring and deeds of the highest emprise. Who sneers at Havelock now? New honours were intended for him, we find, by the British Sovereign; a baronetcy "of Lucknow" was gazetted for him in London a few days before his death. Most of his honours will follow the general custom of rewards of distinguished merit, and prove only posthumous ones. In the affections ■of the British people, however, he will be : long* esteemed and venerated. The pecu- [ liar circumstances of his death will asso--1 ciate his name with such men as Moore, whose fall at Corunna has secured to him : more of the nation's tenderest regard than .' could have been awarded to him though he had lived to a venerable *ag*e as the victor of a hundred fights. But to resume our narrative: a <few days ■after Haveloek's death, Sir Colin Campbell i returned to Cawnpore, bringing the sick i and wounded and the women and children along with him, and leaving General ' Outram in command of a division at Alumbagh. ,At Cawnpore, during the Com-rnander-in-Chiefs absence at Lucknow, General Wyndham was attacked by a strong force of the Gwalior contingent. The fight that ensued lasted for an hour and a lialf, and ended, of course, in the defeat of the. enemy and capture of three of their .gims." After Sir Colin's return, the same contingent, reinforced by the Dinapore mutineers and others, showed the greatest insolence to our forces and manifested a disposition to attack us. On the 6th December, the General resolved on* gratifying* their desires. He attacked* them at 11 a.m., completely routed them, and pursued them on their retreat for a distance of 14 miles. He succeeded in capturing- 16 of their guns, 26 battery

carts, and an immense;quantity of ammunition. This intelligence is given in a telegraphic dispatcli from the Commander-m-Ghief himself, dated on the 7th December, which is the latest date from the seat o± war; Sir Colin purposed waiting at Cawnpore for a week or two, until more reinforcements should arrive from Calcutta A body of 9,000 Ghoorkas, under General Jung Bahadoor, were marching- rapidly to join him, and European forces were arriving at the rate of 300 men a day When his force should thus be increased to anything like an adequate extent, he would again cross the Ganges assume the offensive in Oude, and sweep the rebel hordes before* him. That he will if he lives long enough, accomplish all that has been expected of him in this terrible jlndian warfare, he has given- already, in ■his Lucknow expedition, a most assuringpledge. & The other portions of India which excited most attention besides the kino-dom of Oude were Delhi, with its surrounding territory of Rohilcund, and Eastern Bengal towards the boundaries of Arracan. The intelligence from Delhi is meagre." A keen battle was fought on the 16th November at Narnoul,' between Colonel Gei-rald's column and 5000 of the enemy. The rebels were utterly defeated; but Col! Gerrald himself was mortally wounded, and died shortly afterwards. The death of Brigadier Wilson is simply reported, but where he fell, and under what circumstances, it is impossible to discover. Around Delhi a canvas town had sprung up with mushroom .rapidity and was in° habited by the bands of native population, expelled from the city, by our forces. The Hindoos among them were being gradually re-admitted, but the Mahomedans were still strictly excluded. The villages at some distance from the capital were filled, it was said, with armed native hordes, who were displaying an intolerable degree of insolence, and against whom no patrolling or attacks had been attempted. Within the city, trials for treason and executions were progressing with grim regularity and solemnity. In one day some 24 of the inferior members of the Royal family were executed by sentence of a military commission. The King of Delhi was to be removed to Allahabad for trial there; his appearance is described as miserable- in the extreme. Another report had got abroad at Calcutta, of a character quite inconsistent with this statement, and well adapted if correct to rouse all the bad feeling against the Government, which it unfortunately did; at least for a time give occasion to. It was said that the Royal family were maintained in great state, and that the King's youngest son rode through the streets of Delhi, mounted on an elephant, with two British officers attendant behind him. This story is wholly incredible, and all the more so when it will be remembered that one of the first proceedings of the authorities, immediately on the capture of the city, was the public execution of the old Mogul's two eldest sons. The excitement in Eastern Bengal arose from the mutiny of several companies of the only two remaining regiments of the Bengal Army—the 34th N.I. at Chittagong, and the 73rd N.I. at Dacca. This was wholly unlooked for, and, of course, as entirely unprovided for. At Chittagong, the mutineers set fire to their lines, released all the prisoners, looted the treasury, and but for a mere accident would have massacred every European in the place. And now 2 with these mutineers from Chittagong and their worthy compatriots from Dacca, the whole of Eastern Bengal, the most important rice-growing-province of India, is infested by savage bands of brigand villains, rendering both life and property equally insecure. .Looking altogether at the prospects of the winter campaign in India,there is everything to inspire confidence in the intrepidity," activity, and skill of the military power as long as it boasts a supreme commander so distinguished as the hero of the Alma and Balaclava. But in the political foresight, the administrative energy, and the statesmanlike bearing of the members of the civil government, we can discern but little that is encouraging or in anywise calculated to inspire confidence or respect. Eastern Bengal was garrisoned solely by native troops, and the whole country was left helplessly exposed to their tender mercies. Yet nowhere do we find any representation of the probable danger of all this, either from the civil authorities on the spot or from the central authorities at Fort William. The ancient cry of ' peace, peace,' was indulged in, until the conviction was forced on them, irresistibly, that

there was no peace; Again, tlie Government at Calcutta were aware, several months before, that overwhelming reinforcements of troops would speedily arrive from England ; and we might expect to have heard of extraordinary preparations, being made for forwarding them to the seat of war with the utmost possible despatch. And now we find, according to the statements of well-informed observers on the spot, that no further appliances of this sort have been put into use than were there a year before, and reinforce ments could be forwarded to the northwest in driblets of but 300 at a time. The odium of all the inefficiency of the Government has, of course, fallen mainly on the devoted head of Lord Canning personally. This is manifestly unjust; the members of Council are notoriously quite as powerful as he is, and the principal grounds for censure against his Lordship must, in fact, consist in his reluctance to take more direct responsibility upon himself, and his disposition to place himself so unreservedly at the disposal of his inferiors in the Government.