Published unsigned as a leading article, without a headline, in the New-York Daily Tribune, No. 5156, October 29, 1857, p. 4, cols. 2-3; MEGA² (I/16) prints it in its appendix, as an article by Karl Marx reworked by the editors of the paper, under the title “News from India”; first republished in MEGA². Text from the original newspaper (Library of Congress, Chronicling America). Traducción al español.
The arrival of the Persia yesterday put us in possession of complete details of the latest news from India, of which we had received a telegraphic summary by the Baltic. It wears in its present form the same improved aspect for the English which we noticed in commenting on the telegraphic dispatch. The Mohurum festival passed over quietly, the mutinies in the Bombay army had not spread, Lucknow held out, Agra had not fallen, and the foolish device of sending the 90th and 5th regiments to Lucknow via Fyrzabad had been abandoned. It is true, the English had gained no decided advantage, but, as a leading French journal justly remarks, “in the respective positions of the belligerents, the simple status quo is a gain for England.”
The news from Delhi is to August 30. On the 26th, Gen. Nicholson defeated a small body of insurgents, said to have attempted, by a flank march on Soneput, to intercept a siege-train, the arrival of which in the camp was already announced by the last mail, but which is now stated to be at Kurnaul, or, according to another report, on its way somewhere between Loodiana and Kurnaul. After the capture of 13 guns, Nicholson retired, with about 40 killed and wounded. On the same day, the mutineers in the city, thinking that most of the British troops had gone after their detachment, made an attack on the camp, but “produced no impression,” and were repulsed in the usual way. According to the latest advices, the ground in front of Delhi was being cleared by the British, and trenches for advance were being formed. There is danger that this work, undertaken in the pestilential month of September, may reduce Gen. Wilson’s forces to a still weaker state than those of Barnard and Reid before the arrival of the Punjaub reënforcements. The Lahore Chronicle gives a list of the generals and field-officers killed, wounded, dead from sickness or disappeared from the camp without medical certificates. The entire number is 97. Among those reported as “gone away” without medical certificates, are five officers in the general staff, including Colonels Congreve and Curston. The report of The Calcutta Englishman that “the Delhi detachment against Hissur had been three times defeated by Cortlandt,” gives us at least some clue as to the whereabouts of that General, and as to the sort of obstruction which, up to the end of August, had prevented his long-expected junction with the British camp. It shows, at the same time, that the Delhi mutineers do not limit themselves to operations against the enemy in their front. Allighur, situated about midway between Delhi and Agra, we knew already, from the previous mail, to be in the possession of the insurgents, who were encamped about three miles from it. A small force detached against them from Agra, although reported to have defeated them, with a loss of 150 killed, proved too weak to dislodge them, and had, consequently, to retreat. If the report of The Madras Athenæum that “there was a revolution at Gwalior on the 25th of August,” that “the troops rose against Scindiah, deposed him, and placed a prince of Delhi on the Musnud,” should prove true, the position of the Agra garrison must be considered as very critical.
The garrison of Lucknow, in spite of its successful sorties, cannot yet be considered safe. According to the latest advices, they were reduced to three hundred and fifty soldiers in effective condition, encumbered with a helpless band of women and children of the same number. It is true that the 5th and 90th regiments, after having been sent up and down the Ganges, had at last arrived at Allahabad, and were, on September 6, to be marched for Cawnpore, by Gen. Outram. Yet, on the other hand, the rebels had taken up a strong position on the Oude side of the Ganges, opposite to Cawnpore, on the only road to Lucknow practicable at this season of the year; while letters from Buxar mention that the people from Oude were crossing over in crowds to Allahabad. The evacuation by the British of Goruckpoor, situated in a northeasterly direction from Oude, would seem to be a step in the right direction. But nothing can yet be regarded as secure. There is still a possibility that the great strategical lines of the upper Ganges and the Jumna may be lost by the English before the arrival of their reënforcements.