THE TRIAL OF THE EX-KING OF DELHI.

Colonist, Issue 54, 27 April 1858, Page 4

THE TRIAL OF THE EX-KING OF DELHI.

The papers to hand only give the proceedings of the third, fourth, and fifth days, and even these, with great brevity. We quote from the Delhi Gazette of 3rd February. THIRD DAT, 29TH JANUARY. , The prisoner was brought into court in a palanquin, attended by his Wukeel, Gholam Abbas and tvyo servants; the intelligent youth, Jawan Bukht, having very properly received a hint' to remain in confinement •since the first da} r, owing to a certain "free and easy " manner assumed by him during

the day's trial, and observed by most people'in court. Up to past twelve the Court was occupied in having read to^ the I prisoner the vernacular of the translations read to the Court-the day previous; a process not very interesting to the Court, and apparently of little moment to the prisoner, who, coiled .up easily upon his cushion, appeared lost in the land of dreams; and, except when anything particular struck him, continued unmindful of what was passing around him. Occasionally, however, when.a particular passage was read from any of the documents, the dull eye might be seen to light up, and the bowed head would be raised to catch every word, a fact from which might be deduced in support of, or against, the argument of the utter debility assumed occasionally being real or feigned. From some supplies made by Gholam Abbas, the prisoner's Wukeel, to the prosecutor, it became evident that, as he was present in the palace throughout the rebellion, he might, be useless as, a witness, and at the suggestion of the prosecutor, he was accordingly sworn and examined. As far as it went, this person's statement was, as micrht have been expected* in : favor,, of his master, the prisoner, and -.consisted -chiefly of a repetition of what we already, know concerning the atrocities committed in Delhi on and after the 11 th May by the rebel troops, and endeavours to impress upon the Court that the prisoner did all in his power to protect the late Mr. Frazer and Captain Douglass, even to seizing the latter by the hand, and restraining him from his purpose of going amongst the rebel troopers.. The Court closed its proceedings at four, p.m., and adjourned till eleven a.m. of the following day. FOURTH DAY, 30TH JANUARY. The proceedings commenced with the continuation of the examination of Gholam Abbas, the.prisoner's Wukeel. This proved tb be a mere waste of time, the witness being one of the non mi ricordo class, determined to know nothing that could, by a recital, criminate the prisoner, his family himself, or anyone connected with the palace; and this soon became so .apparent that he was twice or thrice reminded through the interpreter tnat he was giving his evidence upon oath. Nothing, however, was elicited from him, and he was permitted to resume his office of Wukeel to the prisoner, after being subjected to a rigid cross-examination by the Government prosecutor, Major Harriott. The prosecutor then proposed that the .petitions of the late Rajah of Bullubgurh, which were translated, and read at the trial of that rebel, be accepted as evidence which being agreed to, he proceeded to read to the court the English translations : and on these being concluded the inter-' preter read the original for the benefit of the prisoner, who up to this time had been: sleeping. He was awoke for the purpose, and appeared to listen attentively, making some remark at the conclusion of each, and indicating by signs during the reading that he knew nothing whatever about them! He appeared in much better health arid humour than on any of the previous days, and laughed in great spirits as each successive paper was taken up to be read, as if quite amused at there being so many. At 2 p.m. the Court adjourned for a quarter of an hour, when the prisoner had; a jrnll at his hookah; after which the reading of the documents in the original was resumed, and lasted till 4 p.m., when the Court adjourned till eleven o'clock on Monday.

It is perhaps not a very remarkable fact, that of the many native witnesses whose evidence had been taken against the exking not one has confessed that he knew of the massacre of any Europeans whatever in the palace. The atrocities committed there, and probably perpetrated by the very villains who deny all knowledge of. them, were, according to their statements, given on oath, only heard of by them, and no traces of the fearful deeds were left to tell the tale. • FIFTH DAY, IST FEBRUARY. The trial was resumed this morning. The prisoner was, to all appearance, not so well as on Saturday. He scarcely noticed the proceedings, but lay coiled up upon his couch, apparently asleep, from which state he was roused whenever it was absolutely necessary for him to listen to any document about to be read. Up to nearly half-past one o'clock the Court was occupied in reading documents in the vernacular; but when these had been disposed of, the translations of the military papers were read, and afforded considerable amusement to the [Court. These consisted chiefly of petitions from ■" the Lord Sahib, Mirza Mogul, Commander in Chief of the Royal army;" Baukht Khan Bahadur, and other rank traitors, upon various subjects. In some the helpless state of the " infidels'* was set forth in the most glowing terms, pointing, out how, with very slight assistance and delay, they would be sent to a place, which even Mohammedan murderers are never to see, others pointing out how certain districts had been brought under the " Royal rule," and treasure too, by the revolt of those whose duty it was to guard its safety; while all were full of hatred to the "infidels," and unbounded love for the miserable object under trial, whose appearance would have excited laughter, but for the fearful atrocities perpetrated by his sanction. To most of these documents the prisoner's autograph order and signature in pencil is attached, and in no single instance is it in opposition to the-'general; desire of the rebel army to exterminate the British.

At 2 p.m. the Court adjourned^ for a quarter of an hour, and at the expiration of that time resumed its sitting, when the reading of the translations was concluded, and the originals in the vernacular commenced and continued till the usual time of adjournment—-4 p.m.

"THE ILLUSTRIOUS DEAD!" At a public-meeting of the inhabitants of Calcutta, called to do'honor to the memory I of Generals Neill, Havelock, and Nicholson, it was unanimously carried, "That a subscription be opened for. the purpose of erecting in Calcutta a suitable monument to the memory of Generals Havelock, Neill, and Nicholson, and their brave companions in arms, who fell nobly in the service of their: country during the siege of Delhi, and the defence and relief of Lueknow." This was one of many resolutions. From the Hiurkarvts report we;extract the following beautiful tribute, which was uttered by Mr. Ritchie, the mover of the above:—i

" The deaths of each of, the distinguished men whose services we are met specially to celebrate, deeply as we mourn them, carry with them much of comfort as well as much of glory. Each did his appointed work on earth, and each did that work so well that it were sin to say that his life was, incomplete ; nay, we may say that his life would have been incomplete had it not been fol^lowed by such a death. Look at the death of the glorious Neill.; He fell pressing through a gateway at thronged with the dead, the dying, and the advancing hosts of the British avengers of blood, at the head of his own beloved regiment, with everything; to urge the warriors onwards, and to make a moment's pause as repugnant to his nature as it was perilous, and yet the hero paused on his onward course, and that, pause, exposing him to steady, murderous aim from behind the treacherous loophole, cost his precious life. But he paused for no work of slaughter, but for a work of mercy—not to strike doWn1 a foeman, but moisten from his own flask the lips of a poor private, who had sunk wounded or exhausted by his side. We all remember that beautiful story, dear to us from our childhood, of Sir 'Phillip Sidney, when dying oh the field of Zutuphen, waiving from him the cup! of cold water that was offered to him^; with the words: "Give it to that'poor man; his necessity is greater than mine." ..That deed of the Christian warrior is and ever will be unsurpassed; but is it not now.equalled? Was not the charity as lovelyf the self-de-nial as sublime, which could stay the advancing footsteps of the fierjf Neill, eager to avenge his slaughtered countrymen and countrywomen, that he might succour his poor, faithful, simple hearted follower as those which animated even the noble Sidney ? And when after we are gone,our children's children shall.be taught the last words of the gentle warrior-poet at Zutuphen, shall they not also read" with-glowing hearts and moistened eyes of. the undaunted Neill dying at Lucknow ? Then, turn we to the death of the heroic Nicholson. He fell a youth in years, a veteran, in the wisdom of his counsels, in the multitude of his campaigns, in the splendour of his achievements. He fell as a soldier would wish; ■• to fall, at the head of his gallant1 troops,' with the shout of victory in his ears; but longafter he fell mortally wounded, he resisted; being carried to the rear, and remained heedless of the agony of his wounds, heed-; less of the shadows of deaLtlrclosing around; him, to animate his ■ troops, checked—but; only .fi# a while, in 'their advance by the loss of such a leader. Wjas riot such a' death worthy of such a life ? Jixid will hot the Cabul Gate, where he fell; as his gallant, comrade,has told,us with such, feeling, live in future British history, as livethose heights of Abraham on which there, fell, a century ago, another youthful; hero, the immortal Wolfe, like him in the number of his years, like him in his noble qualities and aptitude for command, like'him in the love and confidence he inspired in 'all around him, and^ like him in the wail of sorrow with 1 which his death marred the joy. of ntlie nation in; the hour; of victory ? As- to the gallant Havelock, the privilege of a soldier's death on the actual field of'battle '.was denied him. But never, probably;,1 did a soldier meet, or wish to meet, from comrade a nobler, simpler, truer epitaph than that which our beloved friend Outram (for so I am sure he would wish us to call him, and who still, thank God,' lives to receive oui[ thanks,) who has so well been . called; by Mr. Cochrane, the generous, noble] hearted Outram wrote of his friend, " Worn out by toil and exposure," so runs the desj patch, "he lived long enough to witness the end for which he had fought so nobly! and to receive: the valued: tokfen ' of his sovereign's approbation. "But vyhat a blessing, and considering- all that he went through, what a marvel that he should haye lived so long? May we not say without profaneness or; irreverence that ne who m the days of old preserved His apostles through perils of the heathen, perils of false brethren, perils of the wilderness, in wearif ness and painfulness,:in watching often; in fastings often, in hunger and thirst, until His work was done, preserved also by means as providential and welll nigh as marvellous, through perils well nigh aS appalling, the modern soldier of the cross, the champion of civilisation, the armed apostle of the cause of humanity, upon his mission of deliverance to the captive, of light to those that lay in the shadow of darkness, of life to those that seemed appointed to die? And when he, thus marvellously preserved, had finished the good work set before him, think you not that he too could exclaim, " I am now ready to be offered up; to depart. I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith ? " With such thoughts as these methinks, we the Christian countrymen of Havelock and of Neil and Nicholson console ourselves, for, the loss of our heroes is the hour of their triumph. For us the keen and bitter disappointment; the monument of woe; the funereal cypress. For them, the hero's triumph, the patriot's reward, the martyr's palm*- The man who dare not recognise the hand of God going forth with our armies, guiding and sustaining our leaders, animating our troops in their advance against the votaries of worse idols than Belial, or Moloch, or Ohemos; against the murderersi6f Christian men and

women, and of those little ones for whom rwe know our Heavenly Master careth, and upon the offenders against whom he has denounced a fearful doom, would not, methinks, awake from his slumber if one were to rise from the dead to tell him it was so.