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    that Havelock had neither failed them nor miscalculated , and that his forces were at hand . Ibis the sound of field artillery at no great distance seemed to corroborate . The . enemy soon began to evacuate ' his position } hurling a fearful farewell hurricane of shot and shell into the Residency , he melted away at last across the river , and was succeeded by the relieving forces . " It is impossible , -says the Commissioner , " to describe the scene within the " entrenchments that evening "—and we feeheve 1 W ™ But every reader of this spirit-stirring aiarrative can picture for himself the sensations of the worn-out garrison , and the no less harassed reliefand to admire the good , taste of the historian

    him , and . lie dismisses it with arguments which , m our opinion , should have led him to combine it with the fifth and sixth alleged causes , which he believes solely to have originated and stimulated the revolt . , Alarm on the subject of caste and religion , had long previously b' een growing in the native mind . In the April before the mutiny ,, the surgeon of the 48 th Native Infantry had so deeply irritated the Sepoys by applying to his mouth a regimental medicine bottle , thus violating their caste , that , his colonel felt obliged to destroy the desecrated flask , and publiclv to rebuke the . offender , whose house and property were a few nights after burnt over his head . Government , it was extensively believed , had

    hear with the ears and see with the eyes of the native sub-officials , and when these arc venal , as they always are , they will put to usance the power and the influence thus thoughtlessly demised to _ them , and the middle man saplaccdinust each day inevitably become a-greater scourge' to those below and a more necessary evil to an indolent superior . It is the modern system of withdrawing a large number of regimental officers from staff employment that

    has fostered , if it has not created , this indifference . Men sure of Leadenlmll-street influence have found it better worth their while to study for staff appointments than to become thorough regimental officers ; and men sure of no advancement have been prone to neglect routine duties in the absence of all prospect of reward for exertion . May it not be so , and tenfold worse than so , in the days yet to come ? ( To ha continued . ')

    sent cargoes of bone-dust up the country for admixture with flour and sweetmeats , so that all who ate of it might lose their caste . Others believed in the intention of the Europeans to import Crimean widows wholesale , force them as -wives upon the zemindars , and declare ' the offspring of such matches heirs to the various properties of their native fathers , thus supplanting in course of time the Hindoo proprietary . A propitious soil is the native mind for the growth of superstitions , and when information was given to the Sepoys by a low caste labourer in the arsenal that each who had used a rifle cartridge had taken to his

    lips the fat of bulls and had so lost his caste for ever , can we wonder any longer at the explosion . The greased cartridge affair , in fact ,. which men long viewed here as a mere pretext , should be regarded somewhat as the " last feather , " or the portfire to a charged petard . The native prejudices had for years , we can learn from the Commissioner ' s luminous pages , been outraged , not soothed , by the well-intentioned educational measures which , went , it must be confessed , to a maniacal length . Contributions were levied upon villages for the purpose ... Criminals actually , in default of voluntarv scholars , were educated in

    astronomy and the arts , as well as in elementary knowledge , and " when proficient were sent from gaol to gaol as professors ! Missionary enterprise , again , was favoured here and there to an jextrnvagaut extent , and sometimes , since IS 5 , 0 , forced upon the people by over zealous propagandists , in a far 4 oo fervent manner . The Legislature , again , had legalised the marriage of Hindoo widows , confirmed converts in their inheritances , in defiance of the native tradi-, tional law , and was threatening the institution of polygamy . The organisation of the Bengal army offered ample scope for the development of discontent once sown . Our Bengal Sepoys were nearly

    all Oudh men of a few of the highest castes , and drawn from the same families . Consanguinity bound them to one another no less than fanaticism . Discipline had of late years been relaxed . The lash had been abolished under Lord William Bentinck , and , in the words of an old native officer , "the army ceased to fear . " Centralisation of command at head-quarters , which though well enough in countries blessed with telegraph and penny-post , is an absurdity in the vast territory of British India , had reduced commandants to the rank of cyphers . Deprived of power and responsibility , many of them , as might be expected , had drifted into indifference . The extension of the limits within which the

    native soldier was formerly compelled to serve by the articles of his enlistment , was another ground for discontent . While servioe beyond the world of his i'deas was paid for by double batta , he was soothed and consoled for the violence done to jiis intense religio loci , but when service in China , Burnuih , and Java were made part of India for tho purposes of those articles , and foreign service pay ceased from him , he murmured lor his antique shrines and holy rivers . The option of invaliding upon pension af ' ter fifteen years' service was practically withdrawn from men not actually disabled , and their compulsion , under Lord Haraingo ' s Government , to remain by the colours as camp servants was another grievanoe which wo oan imugino to have nearly touched tho homo-Biok Bengalee Sepoy . But the diminished interest of tho European

    jrfu& £ &jUUl ( h £ ^^ if proven , do admitted as a yet moro obvious . cause of disorganisation , " "I have long " says Gubbins , " noted tho improper distance winch separates tho young British subalterns from the grey-board subahdar or the young Sopoy of his company , I have often remonstrated with my young military friends on the subject , ' How can you expect devotion iu the flold , ' I havo asked , ' wliou you arc a stranger to your men in cantonment 1 "" Unless the European officer take pains to make himself readily accessible to tho people ho can but

    , -who has not robbed imagination of her privilege . The second period of the siege , termed by General Havelock " the blockade , " now commenced . Having left their stores outside at Alumbagh , and having with them no means of transport , that officer and General Outram . had no means whatever of carrying off the relieved force in face of the enemy , through whom they had just now with such difficulty cut their own way . They remained therefore within the walls to share the provisions and the dangers of the old garrison in a far more extended position . This , as is now well known , they did until finally all got clear

    -away , on the second relief by Sir Colin Campbell . During this epoch Gubbins ' s post was one ot less . prominence and danger . The author had therefore time for civil pursuits , and among others superintended the erection of a telegraph between the Residency and the Alumbagh , which isolated post Avas sustaining a siege of its own . At the end of < 3 ctoberSir C . Campbell ' s advance was a matter of ^ certainty , on the 12 th of November he was at the Alumbagh , and such was' the tenacity of the - mutinous army ^ that lie did not _ perfect his communications with the Residency till the 17 th , when

    he ordered its immediate evacuation . On the 19 th this commenced , _ and on the 22 nd the relieving" force , of 4550 men , carried off the'remnant of the garrison in the face or " , 000 enemies . Sir Cfolin Campbell , who douM neither brinJEj himself-to storm the Royal Palace , where also all was ready for an evacuation , nor to continue the ^ occupation of the Residency , took-the = proud little band , who " can well imagine were hardly grateful ^ i . the moment , in his train to the Alumbagh , and within a week relievers and relieved were rejoicing and mourning together at that well of bitterness—Cawnpore .

    We have been led into the foregoing lengthy , though sadly meagre , analysis of Mr . Gubbins ' s military chronicle , for the simple reason that it deserved no less at the hands of a conscientious reviewer ; but there is yet in his pages abundant store of very interesting and important material for consideration , to which we must , however briefly , aEude . Chapters IV ., V ., and VI . of the work are devoted to an elaborate consideration of the causes of the mutiny which , the rule of the India Company

    being now ended , must henceforth more—not , as some would say , less—than ever be a subject for reflection for all who take , any interest in the extension of our power , our trade , and civilisation generally . Mr . -Gubbins ' s Memoir , which contains , we apprehend , the substance of an " opinion" prepared by him for Mr . Colvin , then Lieutenant-Governor of Agra , is ¦ entitled to the more weight that it met with the approval of Sir Henry Lawrence , who had himself contributed papers on the condition of the Bengal Native Army to the Calcutta lieview .

    Tho following ( says tho author ) embrace all tho causes that have been adduced , so far aa I have heard or read , to account for this wide-spread and unlookedfor mutiny ; 1 . It has been attributed to Russian intrigue . 2 .. To a long-matured conspiracy on the part of tho Mahommedana . 8 . It baa been viewed by others as a national . revolt . 4 . Not a few attribute the mutinies to the British ' -annexation of the Province of Oudh .

    5 . Some regard it . to be a religious outbreak of tho soldiery , aroused by our interference with their prejudices ^ RdM ^ gi ^ JUUE ^ ,,,, „ Lastly . It is regarded by others « a chiefly attributable to the absence of a sufficient European force ; to tho condition and management of the Bengal army having been unsound and bad ; and to the Sepoy having boon too much freed from the bonds of discipline , and having Jbecomo discontented . - ¦ , ¦

    Tho first three of these causes Mr ., Gubbins shows to bo clearly insufficient , and nearly without founda * tion . To the relation of tho fourth to tho result his very intimate connexion , as a civilian of high standing , with the annexation soema to have blinded

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    HISTORY OF THE PARSEES . 'The Parsees : their History , Manners , Customs , and Religion . By Dosabhoy Framjee . Smith , Elder and Co . WiiAi'EYEii may be said against the English administration of India , it is something that we have secured the allegiance , the affection , nay , even the devotion , of its wealthiest and most ¦ intelligent race . The Parsees , though comparatively few in numbers , are valuable supports to a Government . They are not military , though during the mutinies , they did offer to enlist at Bombay on the proud condition

    that they should be paid as English soldiers ; but their influence is gi-eater than any mere physical strength could give them . The very grounds on which they have clung to us , even in our darkest hours , are equally complimentary to them and to ourselves . When we hear , indeed , a people of merchants , in a country where we have been accused of endeavouring to suppress all native development , coming forward and thanking us for an enlightened and liberal sway under which they have doubled their wealth and their numbers , we may well be

    ea g er to accept such a suffrage . The community , too , " which , in a land of prejudice * and passion , is actuated by such motives , places itself on a very high levcL We could easily understand , therefore , why a volume like that before us should be read with eager and gcneraHnterest . ¦ ~~ A book written by a fire-worshipper , a follower of Zoroaster , in the nineteenth century , in English , and published within- a hundred yards of the Bank , is iu itself a curiosity . . Dosabhoy Pramjee , however , is a clear and sensible writer , and requires no adventitious circumstances to secure attention .

    His knowledge of our language is remarkable . In his pages we are never startled by any na ' iveth , nor offended by the slang which foreigners who fancy they know our language frequently employ in order to seem more English than the English themselves . His object is to make the race to which he belongs moro popularly known in Europe , where , indeed , he somewhat too modestly supposes its very existenco is problematic to many . The historical sketch with which he commences is well done . He

    does not give more than due importance to legcuds , however iutciesting ; but tells , in a brief , picturesque manner , how the Parsees , the descendants of the ancient Persians , were oppressed by Mohammedan incursion , and how the majority were forced to adopt tho now religion , whilst a faithful few either retreated into Khorassan or retired first to Ormuz in the Persian Gulf , and ultimately to India . The account of their reception at Soujau is singuarly interesting and romuuiic , though ruther in tone than in details . " The Tarao . es underwent

    various vicissitudes in their now country , aud were gradually dispersed and trodden down , until at ; ength , when tho English became possessed of Bombay , they found their natural protectors . Tho numerical strength of tho Parsees docs not at present exceed one hundred and fifty thousand , including tho small remnant left jn Persia . They are rapidly increasing , and Dosab ' ioy Framjee states that this is in consequenco of their attending to

    sanitary rules far more than tho oilier races of luuiu . JTjieyaiX&aliAuUc ^ tho Kudmis , buttho ground of d fie -once seouia merely to bo as to the correct chronological date for tho computation of the era of Zeydozond , tho laat King of tho anoiont Persian Monarchy . Equally futilo subjects of dispute have ' led , in other religious , to sanguinaryandinterminable wars ; but tho Pnrsocs , though oao'h sect obstinately slicks to its opinion , mingle freely in society , and in ovory relation iu life , without exhibiting anything liko tho Qitiuni tkoologioum . One most interesting part of tho present work

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    906 THE LEA PER . [ No . 441 , September 4 , 1858 .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 4, 1858, page 906, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2258/page/18/