BOOKS.

TILE REVEREND J. ROTTON'S SIEGE OF DELIII.• ALTHOUGH the Chaplain of the Delhi " field force " and " num- bers" belonging to it questioned " the wisdom of so small an army assuming [at the outset] so proximate a position to a city of such dimensions, with such a population and such resources," the wisdom of that objection may be doubted. In a technical sense, the idea of a small force sitting down before a city, whose garrison, in common parlance, was large enough to eat it, might be wrong, and against all the rules of war. To talk of a siege when the besieging army was rather the besieged—could only threaten one side of the city—was more frequently attacked itself than capable of taking an " initiative," and was at first compelled to occupy a position too far off to do any damage from want of guns of sufficient calibre—might be all very absurd not to say danger- ous in the eyes of formalists. Nevertheless, it was the first step in the salvation of British India. It may be a subject of discus- sion whether from the outset the plan was a thoroughly-formed conception, or whether General Anson and after him General Bar- nard simply resolved on marching upon Delhi to overtake the mutinous troops and crush the mutiny, and once there, Sir Harry Barnard saw the political and moral dangers of retreat. The fact itself may challenge comparison with any other historical event which marks resolved determination to attain the object or perish. Lucknow appeals more to the sentiment from the feelings connected with the women and children, and the long suspense of the relief ; nor would its fall have been without an injurious moral influence in various ways. But poli- tically and even morally, its fall would not have had the same re- sults as a triumph of the enemy at Delhi. There (would it have been said) had ever been the seat of the Mogul rule—there was the Great Mogul himself, restored to the rights so long usurped from him by the Feringhees—there massacre had taken place, and the whole of the hated infidels been swept from the earth on the place of their usurpation. In a large strategical sense the siege of Delhi was of vast importance, and exhibited that un- conscious wisdom which seems better attained by a simple and faithful discharge of the duty to be done than by taking "intel- lectual" thought. To Delhi, the mutineers mostly flocked ; and there they were kept. Whatever the actual fact might be, the British appeared the assailing force ; and troops which could not compel an army to retreat from the residence of the sovereign and the imperial capital, could not be spared for distant offensive ex- peditions.

We believe the country fully appreciates the services rendered by the besieging army of Delhi, although the more touching in- terest connected with Lucknow may have excited greater popular attention. The Chaplain, however, is dissatisfied with the official recognition of the services of the Delhi force, possibly not without reason ; and also with the manner in which those services are esteemed by the public at large. Here, we trust, he may be wrong. But right or wrong, he ascribes his own conclusion to the want of a despatch-writer. Brigadier Inglis held a more gra- phic pen than the successive officers in command at Delhi, and hence the sad result of which the divine complains-

" In vain they toil'd, in vain they bled,

They had no poet, and are dead."

Mr. Rotten, however, forgets that the defender of Lueknow did not send in his report till all was over, and could write a consecutive narrative. The generals before Delhi wrote current accounts as things happened and opportunity served. The Chaplain was well situated for supplying the shortcomings of the Generals ; for he not only served throughout the whole of the siege, but witnessed the preliminary proceedings. On Sunday the 10th May—the day of the outbreak, he was on duty at Mee- rut. Being warned by a female servant not to go to church, as there was to be a "fight," Mrs. Rotten became alarmed. The Chaplain felt perfect confidence ; but to quiet the fears of his wife their two little children were taken with them. During service his confidence was shaken.

"The sounds of musketry, and the pillars of smoke ascending into the air, and proceeding from the burning bungalows, or houses, in the native lines of cantonment, forced upon me the conviction that mischief had alrea4y commenced. By and by, I heard the Rifle bugles sound the alarm and as- sembly. The cantonment was now evidently in motion, troops were assem- bling, and people were congregating, the church parade dispersed, and was converted into a general assembly of troops of the three arms."

His subsequent adventures were consistent with the beginning. Leaving his family at Meerut, he accompanied the scanty force which first advanced upon Delhi. He was present at the victory over the mutineers when marching out from Delhi they attempted to stop the Anglo-Indian advance, and he ministered to many on the battle-field, one penitent's case involving a somewhat long doctrinal exposition. During the earlier times of the siege the entire clerical duty of regular church services, hospital duties, and personal attendances or private prayer meetings for the whole army devolved upon him and a single Romanist priest', which he truly says was far too much for any two men to discharge pro- perly. At a subsequent period another chaplain and a second priest arrived ; but as the army was increased by reinforcements, the duty was not much, if at all, diminished, owing to the greater .number of wounded through the closing operations of the siege.

• The Chaplain's Narrative of the Siege of Delhi, free, the Outbreak at Meerut to the Capture of Delhi. By John Edward Wharton Rotten, Id.A., of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, one of the Chaplains of Meerut, and Chaplain to the.Delld Field Force. With a Plan of the City. Published by 'Smith and Elder.

It was Mr. Rotton who buried Nicholson ; and who, at the request of General Wilson, performed a thanksgiving service in the

Dewan Khas " or council chamber of the Mogul on the capture of Delhi, his colleague, Mr. Ellis, reading prayers, and he himself preaching from the text " What shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits which he has done unto me." Psalm 116, v. 12th. A. more solemn service took place the day before the assault.

"The breaching batteries continued their work as busily and as noisily as before, unscrupulously trespassing on the rest of the Sabbath ; during the whole of which a respite from fire, even of a moment, was literally un- known. The camp knew no such happy sound as the church-going bell but our usual services, notwithstanding the want of it, were held, and many more attended them than might have been supposed ; of course many a familiar face was missing, and its absence from the solemn assemblies of camp accounted for by its presence in the trenches.

"In addition to the ordinary prayers, and the delivery of sermons, I was requested by the officers of one of the most gallant corps composing part of the force, to administer to them and as many of their brigade as would at- tend, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Of course I could not but com- ply, and never was compliance with request more cordial, or accompanied with intenser pleasure. It was a deeply solemn and impressive occasion. We assembled for the purpose in a tent, and there each of us, absorbed in the depth of his own thoughts, and I trust looking up, at the same time, with the eye of simple faith, and in a spirit of true repentance, towards Him who said, 'Do this in remembrance of Me,' partook of the Holy Eucharist. It is one of the Sundays of camp, which, methinks, I never can forget ; not simply or only, though principally, because of this devout act of commemo- ration of the Redeemer's dying love ; but also because a presentiment uni- versally prevailed throughout the force, and which more than ordinarily solemnized the mind, that the time was very near at hand when the word of command would be, Advance columns to the attack.' "

The doubt expressed above as to the time of the assault relates to what took place at a Council of War, or rather a meeting of ; for General Wilson did not it would appear so much seek advice as unfold his plans.

"Of course every one present was anxious to know the day and the hour when the deadly strife should commence ; though it is not very likely that any one ventured to put the question to the President of the Council. He knew what was probably the thought uppermost in every mind of the assem- bly over which he sat presiding ; for one of the privileged number told me that the General said, Gentlemen, I do not myself know the day nor the hour of the assault ; and if I did, I freely confess I would not tell you, for fear, in some happy moment, or at some social board, the secret might casu- ally and unwittingly escape.' Thus he dismissed them, and the meeting ended."

This Council was followed by another meeting of a private, al- most accidental kind, illustrating what indeed is prominently shown throughout the book—the manly, serious, self-devoted character of the force, calm without depression, cheerful without levity, and resolved without ostentation or display. Whatever else the book may do, it will tend to raise the character of the British soldier, and neutralize the malignant libels which the peace party so readily circulate against their countrymen.

" Some little time after the departure of the members of the council of war to their respective camps, I chanced to drop into the tent of a friend, and found myself in the midst of a knot of men seated and absorbed in con- versation. The subject of conversation was the meeting which had been assembled at eleven o'clock a.m., and all that was said at it which might be told without a breach of confidence, was canvassed freely. The thoughts, first of one and then of another, were given. Every man present, except myself, was to take part in the assault; many of them were married, and had wives and children. Great, therefore, were the claims of affection upon these. Perhaps, it may be asked, with the prospects before them, what were the words of those men, and what the impression which their manner made upon you ?

"These were questions concerning which I myself felt curiosity and con- cern, as I sat in that tent more as a hearer than a speaker, and rather as an observer than as one desirous of attracting attention towards myself. These men seemed to realize fully the solemnity of the coming struggle, which might now engage them at any hour. Yet were they not downhearted or melancholy ; still less were they light and trifling. A lively sense of the country's expectation of them to do their duty, and a determination on their part to do it without favour or partiality to themselves, were the most con- spicuous features of the conversation and the company. There was here the absence of all vaunting, and in the place of it was the sobriety of rea- son, and the inflexibility of Anglo-Saxon purpose and courage. And from what I both saw and heard in that tent, taken in connexion with the con- viction, which spontaneously sprang up in my own mind, that only the reality of their sentiments had been expressed by the speakers, I went away impressed with an increase of respect for human nature. I saw that, with all its usual selfishness, it could be thoroughly unselfish, and was so on the present occasion."

The Chaplain's Narrative of the Siege of Delhi is more remark- able for its pictures of men in a moral and religious aspect during the progress of a harassing seige, or when suddenly stricken down by the enemy or disease, than as a military narrative ; or for such sketches of daily life in war as are exhibited in Mr. Rees's "Siege of Lucknow." Mr. Rotton lived throughout in the camp, mingled continually with the soldiery, and when he took a holiday he employed it to get a view of an action, if any operations were going, while he sometimes became a close observer without his con- sent. Yet this kind of life, as we see in the case of newspaper cor- respondents, becomes but a poor substitute in an historical point of view, for military knowledge and actual experience. A man really has to depend upon the information of other people, and while anxious to tell nothing but the truth, is liable to be biassed by the views of those who prompt him; and to present but a dis- organized view of events as part of a whole. In Mr. Rotton's ease this tendency is perhaps increased by a natural promptness to see an able soldier in a devout Christian. Incidents connected with military piety interfere somewhat with the military narra- tive. The book is readable ; it contains many anecdotes exhibiting human nature under trying circumstances and not unfavourably standing the test ; it presents a picture of the social and physical evils the gallant army of Delhi had to encounter ; and it well ex- hibits the incessant nature of the attacks made upon the key to

its position, the Hindoo Rao, as a contrast to the defence of Luck- now ; though this, it will be seen, is really shown by a summary of statistics rather than by actual observation.

"I might carry on seriatim the enumeration of the enemy's struggles to regain Hindoo Rao, continued throughout July and August ; in which last month, so determinately were they bent on their object, that from the 6th to the 9th, both days inclusive, our men were under arms by day and by night. But I need not thus weary my readers, seeing that a simple refer- ence to the preceding pages will confirm the correctness of the sum total of such attacks : they were twenty-six in all. Nor was the number of attach alone remarkable : the fighting was fierce, and pertinaciously continued. True, the enemy seldom stood our charges in the open, but from within houses, and behind walls and trees, they fought as desperately as the most valiant of men. And to use the words of Brigadier Inglis himself, If fur- ther proof be wanting of the desperate nature of the struggle,' we can point to roofless and ruined houses, to open breaches, to shattered and disabled guns,' and other evidences of the havoc of war. "Yet, after all, the most convincing proof is doubtless the loss sustained by the defenders of the main picquet before Delhi. In this work of defence mainly the Rifles lost 401 men, including both killed and wounded, out of a strength of 700, and the Sirmoor Battalion' 327 killed and wounded, out of 490 of all ranks ; so that actually, out of a total strength of 1190, these two regiments lost between them 728: not reckoning the very heavy losses sustained by the reserves and supports, called up upon every occasion of such attacks. Contrast these figures with those of Lucknow, which by the Government returns, are shown to be, between the 30th of June and 26th of September, including killed and wounded, 633 out of 1618 occupants of that garrison ; and however strenuous their efforts for existence, ours were doubt- less yet more energetic than theirs."

We cannot, however, say that "the Chaplain's Narrative," will do that which the pens of the Generals failed to accomplish, and render " the Siege of Delhi " as interesting to the popular mind as the Siege of Lucknow.