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THE PERILS SURROUNDING THE CAMP.

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known, and perhaps even more unknown, there to hold on during three months of an Indian scorching pestilential season-the very fierceness of the sun apparently tempered to their need-the season itself more than usually favourable, and free from sicknessthere to hold on still, and in the end succeed! Yet withal how weak, how powerless, how really at the mercy of the rebels had they only known their own strength, was that little band of heroes!

Why did not the rebels, as they so easily might, cut off the army from its supports in the Punjab? To have done so would have stopped all the supplies, and the whole force must have perished with hunger. Why did not the native servants, who had the lives of their masters in their hands, join in one vast conspiracy, and in a single night poison every Englishman in that camp? Why, again, when the whole force had, on the 14th September, been thrown into the assault, did they not make the rear-attack upon the camp, and then turn a triumph into a massacre? Why, on the following morning, when they who survived the assault were powerless from drink, the too-ready prey to the snare so craftily laid for them, did not the rebels rush back and recover the city in an almost resistless slaughter? Why not? He in whose hands are the hearts of men, willed it otherwise.

Their most formidable plans were frustrated, their deepest counsels and most deadly machinations defeated, by internal jealousies and feuds — their very numbers proved their weakness.

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AVERTED BY PROVIDENCE ALONE.

Once more: had Delhi been the only focus of rebellion, humanly speaking, it must have been successful. Providentially, a second was formed at Lucknow, and so each weakened the other. Had the thousands of mutineers who rallied to Lucknow and wasted their fury on that heroic garrison been added to those thousands who concentrated on Delhi, Delhi could never have been taken by the handful of men the Punjab could spare. With a double siege, a divided army, the one weakened the other, and both failed.

It may be said that half the siege of Delhi was carried on at Lucknow, and the relief of Lucknow half effected before Delhi !

Our tale is told-our task is done. We have seen how the storm rose and the hurricane swept over our vast Indian possessions, as they lay wrapt in fancied security (if we may be allowed the metaphor), like a fleet of richly-laden argosies riding at anchor in a peaceful haven.

Those that lay beyond the fury of the storm felt only the roll of the ground-swell and escaped; others were stranded and their freight abandoned, and the surviving crews hardly rescued as they clung to the shattered wrecks; one wholly perished. ONE-with her has lain our tale-saw the danger, ran out to sea, and weathered the storm. Such was the course of the Punjab.

Our tale has told how she bore on like a gallant bark in a seething sea; how billow after billow

AVERTED BY PROVIDENCE ALONE.

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gathered up to overwhelm her; how she wore round to meet each as it came now struggling in the trough, now rising with the wave-how there were master-minds at the helm, and a Protecting Power above; and how she was saved!

We who are alive, and remember the perils of 1857, shall we not say with the Psalmist, "It is of the Lord's mercy that we were not consumed"?

APPENDIX.

NOTE K, page 26.

GENERAL ORDERS BY MAJOR-GENERAL REED, PROVINCIAL COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.

HEADQUARTERS, CAMP BEFORE Delhi,

July 17, 1857.

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR P. GRANT, K.C.B., having, in a general order dated the 17th June, at Calcutta, announced his having assumed command of the Bengal army from that date, Major-General Reed has ceased to exercise the duties of Provincial Commander-in-Chief.

Major-General Reed, having been recommended by his medical advisers to avail himself of a sick certificate to repair to the hills, as the only chance of his recovering his shattered health, which has latterly prevented him from taking an active part in the field operations, has made over the command and charge of this force to Brigadier-General A. Wilson.

It is with the greatest reluctance the Major-General has come to the determination to take this step, but his duty to his country must be paramount to any selfish consideration; and being incapacitated himself for the post by disease and weakness, he has no alternative than to devolve his arduous duties upon another.

Of Brigadier-General Wilson's merits it is unnecessary for Major-General Reed to speak: his judgment, gallantry, and conduct have been conspicuous since he led his small but victorious band from Meerut up to this day.

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It only remains for the Major-General to congratulate the forces before Delhi on being placed under so able a commander as Brigadier-General Wilson.

Major-General Reed takes this opportunity of requesting the headquarters and divisional Staff to accept his thanks for the great assistance received by him, and by his lamented predecessor, Major-General Sir H. Barnard, K.C.B., not only in the exercise of their departmental duties, but also in the operations in the field.

To Brigadier-General Chamberlain, Acting Adjutant-General of the army; Colonel Congreve, C.B., Acting AdjutantGeneral, her Majesty's forces; Colonel Beecher, Quartermaster-General of the army; Lieutenant-Colonel the Honourable R. W. P. Curzon, Acting Quartermaster-General of her Majesty's forces; Lieutenant-Colonel Young, Judge - Advocate General: Captain Norman, Assistant Adjutant - General of the army; Captains Garstin and Hodson, Officiating DeputyAssistant Quartermasters-General of the army; Major Ewart, Deputy-Assistant Adjutant-General, and Captain Stewart, Officiating Deputy - Assistant Adjutant - General; Captain Maisey, Deputy Judge-Advocate General; and Captain Shute, Deputy-Assistant Quartermaster - General of Division,-his acknowledgments are eminently due.

The Major-General's warmest thanks are due to the whole artillery of the force, who have on all occasions behaved with conspicuous gallantry, and have ever maintained the reputation of their distinguished corps.

To Lieutenant-Colonel Baird Smith, and the Engineer department, Major-General Reed offers his most sincere acknowledgments for the valuable services they have rendered.

To Lieutenant-Colonel Thomson, Deputy Commissary-General, and his assistants, to Superintending Surgeon Tritton, and all the officers of the medical department, the MajorGeneral's best thanks are due for their indefatigable and successful exertions.

To Brigadiers Grant, Longfield, Jones, and Showers, and to the gallant officers and troops, European and native, under their orders, the Major-General begs to award his tribute of admiration for their brilliant and distinguished conduct in a succession of attacks, in which the enemy have on every

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