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Leader (1850-1860), 10th October 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 4, THE FAST DAY. Wednesday was pretty gener...

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      The Indian Revolt. > No Further News Dir...

      ones demands that we should exert ourselve 3 to keep up health and spirits as much as possible . There is a reverse to this sad picture . Delhi may be retaken in a short time . Aid may come to us , and all may subside into tranquillity . once more * . Let ua hope for the best , do our duty , and trust in God . above all things . Should I be spared , I -will write to you by the latest date . As long as we can live in our house during the day , we suffer but little comparatively , but we may be shut up at any time . We must not . give way to despondency , for at the worst we know that we are in God ' s hands , and he does not for an instant forsake us . He will be with us in the valley of the shadow of death also , and we need fear no evil . God bless you 2

      " . . Last night [ this is written at a subsequent date , June 1 st ] , after much fatigue and several nights of imperfect rest and mental torture , I fell quite into a state of stupefaction . Body and mind alike refused to be longer active ; it was necessary—just Nature asserting her rights to restore the exhausted powers . And there ¦ was my child so restless ! and Mrs . H- took her and ¦ walked about with her , and soothed the little thing , that I might not be disturbed . I believe we shall be some support to one another under every trial . " CALCUTTA . Sir Colin Campbell , -who arrived at Calcutta on the 4 th of August , in perfect health , issued the following proclamation to the troops in India on the 17 th of the same month : — " BY THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF . " Her Majesty having been graciously pleased to appoint me Commander-in-chief of the forces in India , in the room , of the late lamented General the Honourable George Anson , and her Majesty having also been graciously pleased to confer upon me the rank of General in the East Indies , I now assume the command of the army in . India . . .-. " . In doing so it affords me the highest satisfaction to . find under my orders troops who have so fully proved themsel-ves , in the recent arduous operations in the field , to be what I have ever known British soldiers in every quarter of the globe —courageous , faithful , obedient , and enduring .

      " In former years I have commanded native troops of India , and by their side I have been present in many battles and victories in which they have nobly borne , their part ; and it is to me a subject of deep concern to learn that soldiers of whorn I have been accustomed to think ao favourably should now be arrayed in open and defiant mutiny against a government proverbial for the liberality and paternal consideration , with which it has ever treated its servants of every denomination . " When I join the force now in . the field restoring . order to the district disturbed by the disaffection of the . army of Bengal , I shall , at the head of the British troops , and of those native soldiers who , though few in number , have not feared to separate themselves from their faithless comrades and to adhere to their duty , feel my old confidence that they will march to certain rictoiy .

      , " I shall not fail to notice , and the powerful Govern-. ment which I have the honour to serve will not fail to reward , every instance of fidelity and valour shown by the troops under my command . ^ "I call upon the officers and men of both European . and native troops zealously to assist in the task before us ; and , by the blessing of God , we shall soon again see India tranquil and prosperous . ( Signed ) "C . Campbell , General , Commander-in-Chief . " Calcutta , 17 th August , 1857 . " AKRAH . Mr . Wake , a magistrate at Arrah , has transmitted an official report of the siege and relief of that place . He writes : — - . " During the entire aiege , which lasted seven days , . every possible stratagem m \ s practised against us . The . GJUuMno -were nrcd as frequently as they could prepare Bhot , iffitb . which they were at first unprovided , and . incessant assaults were made upon the bungalow . Not only did our Sikhs behave with perfect coolness and . patience , but their untiring labour met and prevented every threatened disaster . Water began to run short ; a well of . eighteen feet by four was instantly dug in less . than twelve hours . The . rebels raised a barricade on the top of the opposite house ; ours grew in the same proportion . A shot shook a weak place in our defence ; tho place -was mado twice aa strong aa

      before . We . began to feel the want of animal food and the B » ort allowance of grain ; a sally was made at night and four sheep brought in , and , finally we ascertained beyond a doubt that the enemy woro undermining us ; a counter mine was quickly dug . , On tlie 80 th , < troopa . sent to our relief from Dinaporo were attucked and beaten back close to tho entrance of tho town . On tho next day , tho rebels returned , and , tolling us that they had annihilated our relief , offered tho Sikhs and tho women und children ( of which there woro none with us ) their lives and liberty if they would give up . tho Governmout ofliccra . August 1 , wo were all offered our Hvea und louve to go to Calcutta if wo . would give up our arms . On the 2 nd , the greater part of tl » o Sppoys went out to meet Major Eyre ' s field force , and 011 their buing soundly thratthed tho rost of thorn abandoned the station , and that night wo went

      out and found their mine had reached our foundations , and a canvassed tube filled , with gunpowder was lying handy to blow U 3 up , in which , however , I do not think they could have succeeded , as their powder was bad ; and another stroke of the pick would have broken into our countermine . We also brought in the gun which they had left on the top of the opposite house . During the whole siege , only one man , a Sikh , was severely wounded , though two or three got scratches and blows from splinters of bricks . Everybody in the garrison behaved well ; but I should be neglecting a duty did I omit to mention

      specially Mr . Boyle , to whose engineering skill and untiring exertions we in a great measure owe our preservation ; and Mr . Colvin , who rendered the most valuable assistance , and wlio rested neither day nor night , and took on himself far more than his share of every disagreeable duty . In conclusion , I must earnestly beg that his honour the Lieutenant-Governor will signally reward the whole of our gallant little detachment of Sikhs , whose service and fidelity cannot be overrated . The Jemadar should be at once made a Subahdar . Many of the rest are fit for promotion , and , when required , I will submit a list with details . "

      964 The ' Le.Ad _Eju __ Jno. 394, Octobe...

      964 THE ' LE . AD _ Eju __ JNo . 394 , October 10 , 1857 .

      The Fast Day. Wednesday Was Pretty Gener...

      THE FAST DAY . Wednesday was pretty generally observed , if not as a day of' humiliation , ' as a day of abstention from work . Labour , however , did not entirely cease , for it might be observed every here and there in obscure places ; but the shops for the most part were closed , and the streets wore a sort of Good Friday look of wretchedness and gloom . An east wind increased the resemblance ; so that we might almost have imagined that , as Horace Walpole said , " Spring had set in with its usual severity . " The clouds gathered thickly , and the rain fell heavily and pertinaciously , balking the hopes of those who designed to humiliate themselves at Greenwich , or to fast ( on the

      contents of heavy baskets ) at Hampstead or Richmond . Great was the solitude of Piccadilly ; inexpressible the dolefulness of the Strand . Dr . Johnson would not have gone that day , as was his wont , to rub off his hypochondria against the crowds of Fleetstreet , for the crowds were not there ; nor would Charles Lamb have * wept with joy at-the fulness of life , ' but rather with depression at the absence of it , in the great thoroughfare from Charing-cross to Temple-bar . The mass of the people not being in the streets , nor ( we should imagine ) at the chief suburban places of Cockney resort , excepting at the Crystal Palace to hear Mr . Spurgeon preach , we will take it for granted , that they were at church ; and certainly , whatever may be thought of ' humiliation ' according to Royal Decree , there never was an occasion more suggestive of sad and solemn thoughts .

      The reporters for the daily papers say that the religious edifices were well attended ; and the streets in the forenoon showed , many troops of worshippe rs passing on to church or chapel . They : ilso showed labouring men lounging about with their hands in their ' pockets , and ' gents' with cigars in their mouths , chaffering for apples and nuts with itinerant girls , and evidently not going to churcli or chapel . Here , shrill-voiced women and husky-voiced men — transformed for the nonce into a species of Christian muezzins , though calling from the muddy pavement instead " , of the airy distaneoe of minarets , and having a truly Episcopal eye to money matters—bawled out , " Mbmin * and Even ' m' Prayer , a penny ! " There , the moping policeman stalked along by himself , like one of ah army of blue devils . Such , in London streets , was the outward aspect of the Fast .

      Within the churches there were , we may be sure , many devout , and no doubt many sorely stricken , worshippers—many also who only went because the Queen commanded them , anil it was ' the thing . ' Into the depths of whatever was real in the way of anguish' and passionate supplication , let us not attempt to pry , but simply cull for the reader a few extracts from the chief sermons of the day .

      ST . l'AUl / S CATHEDRAL . The cathedral was crowded to overflowing , and tho morning sermon vvns preached by the liev . Morgan Cowie , who selected as his text the words from the first book of Samuel , chapter 17 , verse 47 , " The battle is tho [ Lord ' s . " He observed : — " All must recognize in the calamity the chastoning hand of . God . They were being punished because they had shown thoinsolvea cowards in fighting tho battle of God in India . They hud neglected to spread the Christian religion , amongst tho idolatrous race .- } of that tho Dritiah

      mighty . empire . Ho would not condemn rule in India—possibly it had been productive of some amount of good ; but tho British tiovurnuncnt had not evinced sufliciont anxiety fo » tho real welfare of tho people . , There were very few persons engaged in the task of Christianizing tho heathen iti Indiu—fewer , much fewer , compared with tho largo area of the empire , than tho small and devoted army at present contending against tho chief city of Oudo . They hud not fought the battle of tho Lord in India ; they lmd only been engaged in fighting the battlo of man , mid if they were oincoro that day U 1 C 3 ' could not help acknowledging that

      them , to ' go forth , and fight the battle of the Lor their country , and their sovereign . ' ' Iu the afternoon , the Lord Mayor and various Citv officials , who had been present privately in the morning , attended in state , with their scarlet robes & c The ltev Canon Dale now officiated , and' selected his text from the 26 th Book of Isaiah , verse 9- — " When Thy judgments are on the earth , the inhabitants of the world \ v 51 l learn righteousness . " The tendency of the sermon was similar to that delivered in the morning . .

      their shortcomings in India had been visited bv the „ tional calamity they all deployed . He trusted the feaTrfi atrocities in India would be punished , but not imitate ? Vengeance did not belong to man : ' Vengeance is mine saith tte Lord ! ' He advocated a stern , severe , unW promising , but just retributio n—no private , reveTie ^" vindictive slaughter . Those who had taken life 3 to suffer death ; but no idea of indiscriminate murder could meet with support from any humane nation " He concluded by exhorting those who are strong l ? 5 t " ? "" £ and who have no tics to prevent

      WESTMINSTER . ABBEY . The Abbey , like St . Paul ' Cathedral , was crowded The Very Pov . the Dean preached the sermon , and took his text from the Lamentations of Jeremiah . In the course of his remarks , he said : — " If there was one more deadly sin than another that had led to the ruin and desolation that now exists , it was the accursed traffic in opium and other deadlv poisons , for the purpose of profit and re venue , a sin as deadly as that of slavery . England resolved that the slave trade should be abolished , and it was abolished ; and England could stay the trade of opium , and at the same time advance the true spirit of Christianity and religion throughout India , not merely for the protection of our dominions in India , but the advancement of the truth . If in times past we had been guilty of shortcomings ; let us . not continue the evil . " THE TEMPLE CHUKCH ; Here the sermon was preached by the Rev . P . G . Stainforth , who , after touching upon more theological matters , continued : — " His own opinion was that the half measures of the Government had been its ruin . We might have governed the Indians if we had left them as we found them —an ignorant , slavish race—and the Indian Government , he believed , would not have been indisposed to have left them in that state ; but the feeling and sense of the country were against such a policy , and the result was that we gave the natives of India a certain amount of education and liberty , but we did not instil into them the principles of religion . Education and liberty without religion first brought about the French Kevolution , and here were the same cause and effect exemplified in

      the case of our fellow-subjects in India . He did not believe we could hold India without a native iirniy . That army must , of course , be officered by liuro ]» euns , and therefore it was absolutely necessary that we s \ v *\ A improve the Christian character of those ofneeiv . anil non-com missioned officers who represented our pov . vr in foreign lands . Jf we assumed the Governmental' J-idi . 1 we were bound to give every blessing which -nrc were capable of bestowing' or the Indians could receive . 'Clio first net , hou-orer , must be to establish our authority , and give up to unsparing punishment the men wlu had bean guilty of such hideous offences against humanity . Hut , when justice was appeased , let it be riMiien . liardl that these' men were as much to be pitied for tlieir ignorance as abhorred for their crimes . Let us extend towards India the principles of our holy faith . " ST . STKI'IIKN ' S , W . VLIHIOOK . The Kev . Dr . Oroly ' s sermon at this church cmtained a grout dual of purely historical and political disquisition . He remarked : — " In 178-1 , the government of India was virtually tnkon out of this hands of the Company mnl £ "' over to the Knglish Government , when a Governor-General of Indi . i was sent out ; and that was the o'inmencumciit of the extraordinary spirit of jiuuo . k itmn which has marked the career of affairs in that country . Ho would not say whether those wars were unjust , or whether any persons had a right to try to recover their l ' rn ' tory ; but this lie would say , that scarcely any ( . iovenmr-General had been in India since 17 Bt without « " ' j This is a country of peace , whoso avocation is to f-x \ cm Christianity as ' the great source of all happing WIS "

      dom , and advancement . We had inherited throu tf rclU errors , viz . : putting too much confidence in the ^ 'l '" - ' considering thsit thu course of conquest must be pul j " sued ; and nmu . 'cting the customs of idolatry , ini't' < knew how those had resulted . AVilh lv . tfunl lo l ^ future , they must first put down tins rebellion , nml . ' " " show that wo are indignant at tho atrocities co mmits , that they will not be suffered , and that Ki » gl : i »< ' i" »^ not Lo provoked by . such cruelty to mankind- ll ' beenmo their duty to augment tho fund , und '" ' '"' Christian 1 i lie rail ( y to the suflcm ™ . He ' in tf llWI ^ to a sense of their dut . y towards India , ^ l' ? " 1 | fV abandon warn and annexations , and get rid of " " ' ¦ by showing tlio beauties of Christianity . IUol ('' . ^^ aionaries must be sent out , and the Church » uis } . of over them . They must adopt a higher polk ' y u " tho Gospel and peace . "

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 10, 1857, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10101857/page/4/