and that he might possibly join you in the morning, and this circumstance alone would, I have no doubt, have induced them to retreat in the night. Your mode of attack, though it might not have been the safest, was undoubtedly the most decided and heroic; it will have the effect of striking greater terror into the hostile armies than could have been done by any victory gained with the assistance of Colonel Stevenson's division, and of raising the national military character, already high in India, still higher. "I hear that negotiations are going on at a great rate; Scindiah may possibly be sincere, but it is more likely that one view, at least in opening them, is to encourage his army, and to deter his tributaries from insurrection. After fighting so hard, you are entitled to dictate your own terms of peace. "You seem to be out of humour with the country in which you are, from its not being defensible. The difficulty of defence must, I imagine, proceed either from want of posts, or from the scarcity of all kind of supplies; the latter is most likely the case, and it can only be remedied by your changing the scene of action. The Nizam ought to be able to defend his own country, and if you could contrive to make him exert himself a little, you would be at liberty to carry the war into the Berar Rajah's country, which, from the long enjoyment of peace, ought to be able to furnish provisions. He would probably make a separate peace, and you might then draw from his country supplies for carrying on the war with Scindiah. Believe me, dear General, yours most truly, Though the policy of fighting the battle of Assye be still a point open to discussion, it has never been denied that, in the conduct of it, General Wellesley displayed the highest tactical skill. In another letter of Sir Thomas Munro, addressed to his brother, we find the following passage:"You are quite an enthusiast with respect to General Lake. General Wellesley, however, had greater difficulties to encounter; a greater body of infantry and artillery; a much more formidable cavalry, and all ani. mated by the presence of their sovereign; not dispirited by the desertion of their officers, like the northern army. If there was any thing wrong at Assye, it was in giving battle; but in the conduct of the action every thing was right. General Wellesley gave every part of his army its full share; left no part of it unemployed, but supported, sometimes with cavalry, sometimes with infantry, every point that was pressed, at the very moment that it was most necessary."' With regard to Wellesley's general conduct of the campaign, all military men agree that it was admirable. His forces were uniformly placed where they could act with the greatest efficiency; the plans of the enemy were not only anticipated, but defeated at every point; and certain it is, that the victory of Assye contributed more than any single event to the consolidation of British power in India. "THOMAS MUNRO." The The truth is, that the principles of The military events which followed Assye may be briefly told. Scindiah, willing to temporize, invited General Wellesley to send an officer to the Marhatta camp to treat. This was of course refused, but General Wel lesley expressed his readiness to receive any vakeel or envoy from the confederates whom they might empower to negotiate a peace. The war went on. Burhampoore surrendered to Colonel Stevenson on the 16th of October, and the strong fort of Asseerghur capitulated on the 21st. On the 11th of November a vakeel from Scindiah arrived in the British camp with proposals for a truce. This was readily agreed to by General Wellesley, who considered a cessation of hostilities with Scindiah to be highly advantageous, since it enabled him to direct his whole force against the Rajah of Berar. With this view he put his army in motion to co-operate with Colonel Stevenson, whose corps he had directed upon Gawilghur, a fort in the Berar territory. On the 28th General Wellesley came up with the army of the Rajah, and found in conjunction with it a considerable force of Scindiah's cavalry, in direct violation of the conditions of the truce. On the following day, a junction was effected with the corps of Stevenson at Parterly, where from a tower the enemy could be discerned apparently in march. The weather being intensely hot, and the troops having marched a great distance, it was not thought prudent to pursue them; but shortly after wards, bodies of horse appeared in front, and skirmished with the Mysore cavalry. The infantry picquets were advanced to support them, and on reconnoitring, the whole army of the enemy was discovered a few miles off, drawn up in order of battle. Scindiah's force, consisting of one heavy body of cavalry, formed their right wing, with its flank covered by a body of Pindarries and other irregulars. The infantry and guns were on the left of the centre, and on the left was the Berar cavalry. The line occupied by this united army was about five miles in extent. In their front was an extensive plain, broken by water-courses, and in rear the village of Argaum, with its extensive gardens and inclosures. General Wellesley formed his army in two lines; the infantry in the first, the cavalry in the second, and the Mogul and Mysore horse covering the left. In forming the line, some confusion and delay took place from the unsteadiness of the native troops under the fire of the enemy's artillery. This, however, was remedied, and the whole advanced in the highest order. A large body of Persian soldiers made a fierce attack on the 74th and 78th regiments, which repulsed them with great slaughter. Scindiah's cavalry attacked a Sepoy battalion, and were also driven back in confusion. Their whole line then retired in disorder, followed by the cavalry, which pursued them till night-fall. of the action was the capture of thirtyeight pieces of cannon, and all their ammunition. The following extract of a letter of General Wellesley relative to this action will be found interesting: The result "Major-General the Hon. A. Wellesley to Major Shawe. "MY DEAR SIR, Camp at Akote, 2d December, 1803. "I have but little to add to my letter of the 30th to the Governor-General respecting the battle of Argaum. The number of the enemy destroyed is very great. Vittel Punt, who commanded the cavalry of the Rajah of Berar, was killed; and Gopal Bhow, who commanded Scindiah's cavalry that fought, was wounded. If we had had daylight one hour more, not a man would have escaped. "We should have had that time, if my native infantry had not been panicstruck, and got into confusion when the cannonade commenced. What do you think of nearly three entire battalions, who behaved so admirably in the battle of Assye, being broke and running off, when the cannonade commenced at Argaum, which was not to be compared to that at Assye? Luckily, I happened to be at no great distance from them, and I was able to rally them and re-establish the battle. If I had not been there, I am convinced we should have lost the day. But as it was, so much time elapsed before I could form them again, that we had not daylight enough for every thing that we should certainly have performed. VOL. XLI. NO. CCLVIII. 2 G "The troops were under arms, and I was on horseback, from six in the morning until twelve at night.' Gawilghur next fell, and the war was at an end, Peace followed on terms highly advantageous. Large cessions of territory were made by Scindiah and his allies, and the talents of General Wellesley were no less conspicuous as a negotiator than as a leader of armies. From this period the military reputation of Wellesley was equal to that of the most distinguished of his contemporaries. Honours flowed in upon him. As a testimony of his Sovereign's approbation of his services, he was elected Knight of the Bath. The thanks of Parliament were voted to him. The British inhabitants of Calcutta presented him with a sword L.1000 in value. The officers he commanded solicited his acceptance of a golden vase, in testimony of their attachment and admiration. A monument was erected in Calcutta in commemoration of the battle of Assye. On resigning the command of Mysore, the inhabitants of Seringapatam transmitted to him a parting address, imploring "the God of all castes and of all nations to hear their earnest prayer, and wherever greater affairs than the government of an Indian province might call him, to bestow on him health, glory, and happiness." At Madras a grand entertainment was given in honour of his arrival by the civil and military officers of the Presidency. It was with such testimonies of ad miration and regard that General Wellesley quitted India. It pleased God that he should return in safety to commence a new course of glory, and confer benefits on his country, in comparison with which, his services in India now seem but as dust in the balance. But had it been otherwise ordained, he had already done enough to secure an honourable place in history for the name of Wellesley. In conclusion, we think it right to state that we have been able to touch on very few portions of the correspondence connected with India in the work before us. By far the greater part relates to political negotiation, and the details of civil government and military discipline, and therefore contains little which, if taken separately, would be found interesting when transferred to the pages of a popular periodical. But we say deliberately, that the correspondence cannot be perused by any one competent to appreciate its merits, without exciting the highest admiration of the extraordinary mental activity, and extensive knowledge of the writer. By those especially, whose duties are more immediately connected with India, the three first volumes of the work will be found a treasury of military and political knowledge, and to their earnest study we most strongly recommend them. ELIZABETH OF SIBERIA. BY THE SKETCHER. AMID Siberian snows the exile's child 463 ABOUT the middle of the last century, when the French Savans began their notable conspiracy against the Christian religion, one of their favourite contrivances was, to praise the virtues of Paganism. Examples of excellence were quoted in every corner of the globe but Christendom. The Chinese, the Laplanders, the Sandwich Islanders, the Tartars, all were pronounced to exhibit virtues unknown to nations degraded by Christianity. But it was on India that the eyes of the perfectionists were turned with the most assured triumph. The gentle manners, and gentle countenances of the Hindoos were assumed as spontaneous evidences of moral superiority. Their diet chiefly on herbs, their dwelling chiefly among forests; their pastoral, simple, and obscure habits, marked them, in the estimate of Paris, less as the best of Pagans, than the moral masters of mankind. Raynal's huge romance, Savary's Egypt, The Stories of Paraguay, The Narratives of the American Wilderness, all teeming with the charms, passions, valour and ge nius of uncultivated man, displayed before the dazzled eyes of Europe a perpetual panorama. Still the Hindoos were the chief figures of the illusion; and the crimes of Christianity were gloomily contrasted with the innocence of a vast people, reposing under their banyan trees, bathing their graceful forms in vast marble fountains by moonlight, offering up their primitive worship to Nature and Mind, in temples of porphyry; and, when life was about to decay, calmly sitting by the brink of some of their mighty streams, and surrendering their feeble forms to the sacred embrace of the Indus or the Ganges. The growing intercourse of the English with India from the period of the famous battle of Plassey in 1746, partially resisted this declamation. They rapidly discovered the qualities of the Hindoo, and the Englishman's rough sincerity, at all times the antipodes of the Frenchman's willing delusion, alternately argued against, laughed at, and disdained the romances. But all France resounded with the tri ví. umphs. fits literature, its voice would ival,-its opinion was the ne, and the Englishtuous of national ' left the truth od time. ways does, and the native Hindoo character Time has done its work, as it a.. has at length blackened the cover of ry virtue. Treachery, craft, cruelty, romance that wrapped it in imaginaunbounded, were acknowledged to be selfishness instinctive, and sensuality the national character. And though exceptions may occur, the utter infe riority of the Indian Pagan to the European Christian has long been au established conviction. this conviction has just been given. But a remarkable reinforcement to It has been ascertained that Hindostains at this hour, a vast multitude tan has contained for ages, and conwhose profession is murder, whose livelihood is the plunder obtained by this murder, and whose religion consists in offering up human lives, from pendious bloodshed, to their demon one to a hundred at a time, in comgoddess, Kalee! government of Lord William Bentinck The enquiries made during the late have proved that this Satanic brotherhood consists of many thousands; that it has existed through many ages, and all the revolutions of Indian power in those ages; that it it has spread over the whole immense surface of the counthat it has held on its hideous course try, from the sea to the mountains; alike under the successive Hindoo, Mahometan, and British lords of the golden peninsula; and most singular of all, that it has almost wholly evaded that, fully known to exist, it has always research during this long period, and escaped the direct grasp of justice, thus adding to the remorseless cruelty of a fiend scarcely less than the impalpability and invisibility of a spirit of darkness. This abhorred league, or worship, is called Thuggee, and the assassins are called Thugs. The history of their goddess is as follows: early ages of the world, devoured the ; human race as fast as they were born. To enable the world to be peopled, Kalee Davey resolved to destroy this universal devourer. But the demon was a giant, of so vast a stature, that the deepest waters of the ocean could not reach above his waist, and he strode over the earth with inconceivable force and swiftness. Still Kalee Davey assailed him, and in the fight clove him down. But the fight was not finished by his fall. From every drop of his blood another demon sprang, who desperately renewed the battle. Successive deaths only produced a still more countless crowd of new-born demons and Kalee, already exhausted, saw that she was surrounded by a new host of terrors, and that the victory was about to be lost. The flow of blood was obviously the cause. In this crisis, she brushed the moisture from one of her arms-of it formed two men and, that no drop of blood more might be shed, equipped them with two handkerchiefs, to strangle the demon army. The work was done. The demons were extinguished, and the two champions returned to the goddess to restore their handkerchiefs. But she desired that they should preserve them, as the means of a profession by which their descendants were to live. Enjoining them to strangle men with the handkerchief, as they had strangled the demons, and giving them their plunder, she added, perhaps for the ease of their consciences, they might claim this as a matter of right; for, having been the means of securing the peopling of the earth, they were entitled to take some lives at their pleasure. Kalee next told them, that they need not trouble themselves about burying their victims, as she would provide for that case, on the condition, however, that they never looked back to see what she did with them. At length, a slave had the daring curiosity to look. He saw Kalee, utterly naked, devouring the bodies, and toss. ing them into the air. The modesty of the goddess was offended, and she pronounced that thenceforth they must manage the matter for themselves. It must have startled our showy residents, and glittering dames at the Bengal Presideney, to know, that in Calcutta they were in the favourite region of Kalee; that they had assisted at the orgies of Kalee; and that the Hindoos regarded them as frequently worshippers of this incarnate devil, whose chosen name is Kimkalee (the cater of man). But such is the state of the national belief. The Thugs hold, that Kalee first appeared on earth in Calcutta ; that, after she had destroyed the demon chieftain, Rakut, at the eastern extremity of the Vindeya range, she bore the corpse to Calcutta, and that she buried it on the spot where her temple is now reared. From the strangely inconsiderate manner in which the Europeans go to the idolatrous feasts of the natives, and, among the rest, from their attendance on the Nautches and festivals of the great days of Kalee, they imagine them, and with some show of reason, her votaries. The East India Company, too, is charged with the idle and culpable subserviency of assigning to this horrible superstition lands for the endowment of its temple! And the priests often publicly make offerings to the idol in the name of the Company. Should such things be? Or, if they exist, could we be surprised at any degree of scorn that might be felt for our timidity, our policy, or our religion? The Hindoos worship her with great veneration. They often repeat in their prayers, "Oh, Kalee! great goddess of Calcutta, may thy promise never be made in vain." Her delight is said to be in massacre; her drink is perpetual gore. She is believed to be of the intensest black, and to be so hideous, that no mortal eye could endure the sight of her appalling deformity. This we conceive to be a final answer to all the dreams of human perfectibility. A league in which mutual crime is the single bond; a worship in which murder is the religion; a morality in which the commission of the most revolting of all human crimes is held not merely innocent, but a duty. What is this, but Satan visible in man? |