THE LAST DAYS OF THE sth REGIMENT.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVI, Issue 1515, 19 April 1861, Page 4

THE LAST DAYS OF THE sth REGIMENT.

[From the Times Dec. 24.] The decisive proceedings of Sir Hugh Rose with the mutineers at Dinapore will take no one by surprise. For the last three years mutiny appears to have been naturalized among the forces, whether native or European, of the Bengal Army, and the revolt of the Sepoys was followed by the disbanding of those regiments which had been most activeiu suppressing the rebellion. It might have been hoped, after the European troops of the old Company had been indulged with their discharge, that the seivice had been purged of the elements of disaffection, and that the battalions of the now Indian establishment would retrieve the character for discipline and fidelity which had been unhappily lost. But the spirit of insubordination, once raised, was! uot to be exorcised so soon. Especially was its influence manifested in the sth regiment of Bengal. lnfantry, recently quartered at Dinapore. This corps had been foremost in the scandalous disturbances of 1859, and, though many of its worst men were then discharged, it speedily became evident that the leaven of mutiny remained behind. On the 21st of last September, a number of men rose suddenly in their barracks during the darkness of the night, and rushed to the adjacent quarters of the Bengal Artillery, "with the view of inducing the troops of that corps to join them in the revolt. Fortunately, the artillery were true to their duty. Headed by their Sergeant-major, they turned gallantly on the rioters, drove them from their lines, and made two of the ringleaders prisoners. A week afterwards teese delinquents were brought to a court-martial, couvicted, and sentenced to four years' penal servitude. Sir Hugh Rose returned this sentence for revision as not adequately proportioned to the enormity of the offence, and the criminals were accordingly consigned by a second decision of the Court to penal servitude for live. Coupled with this proceeding, appeared a General Order, in which the conduct of the regiment was severely stigmatized, aud a warning emphatically given, that if any renewal of the mutiny should be attempted, the Conimander-in-Chief would vindicate discipline by visiting the crime with the extreme penalty of the law, The menaoe, it was hoped, would be effectual, but it has proved otherwise. The sth Europeans have again broken out in mutiny, and Sir Hugh Rose has kept his word.

On the 25th of October, Sergeant Eades ordered a private named Henry Shields to go to his cot, which order Shields deliberately and repeated refused to obey. Upon this the Sergeant summoned William Johnson, theu on duty as one of the barrack picket, to arrest Shields and take him to the guard. Johnson refused obedience to the order, and persisted in bis refusal, though he was on duty for the express purpose of acting on such au occcasiou. The Ser geant then called to Henry Marnham, a private in the same regiment, but who was not actually on duty, and gave him the order to take Shields into custody. Marnham disobeyed in like manner, and for the moment all discipline was at an end. In the course of the night, however, subordination was restored, and the three offenders placed in confinement, after which a court martial was duly assembled, to take cognizance of the proceedings. The prisoners were all found Guilty. Shields was consigned to penal servitude for 14 years, and Marnham to the like punishment for life, while a sentence of death, but accompauied by a recommendation to mercy, was passed upon Johnson, as the worst offender. This recommendation, which the Court was unanimous in making, proceeded on the two considerations of the prisoner's "youth " and his " very good character." Sir Hugh Rose rejected the recommendation, alleging that the grounds on which it was based weie both invalid. Tho age of the prisoner being 23 years, rendered him, he observed, perfectly accountable for his actions; while " good characters," he added, were so common in the sth Regiment, and had been pleaded so indiscriminately by the worst criminals, that they afforded no guarantee against the worst military oriines. Tho sentence, accordingly, was left to be carried out, — WTiiTe~The~ corpse of the culprit lay bleeding upon the ground, tho 73rd Foot moved rapidly up to the Ironfof the sth Europeans, who had been paraded to witness the spectacle, while the flanks of the disgraced regiment were threatened by cannon. The men of the sth were theu ordered to pile arms, and in another minute they beard the doom of the whole battalion. The sth Kegiment of Europeans was struck out of the Army List, its noncommissioned officers reduced to the ranks, and its soldiers were draughted in five equal divisions among the remaining regiments of the Queen's Indian Army. Not an hour was lost in the execution ot the decree, and by daybreak the next morning the first detaohmont of the dw banded corps, ignominiously stripped ot its arms and its honor, had commenced a three months' maroh to the oonfines of Scinde. , These measures, severe as they may seem, will be viewed, we are oertain, with

entire approval in this country. They were imperatively demanded by the exigencies of the case. Forbearance had been carried to its utmost limits, and the indulgence, indeed, which had been extended to insubordination for some time past had apparently induced the men of the sth to believe that by persisting in mutiny, they could obtain whatever they desired. About their objects there was neither doubt nor obscurity. They wished, without having the same excuse, to get the same release which had been accorded to the dissatisfied European's in the old Company's service. Those men, atter an agitation which was carried to the verge of mutiny, had obtained a discharge from the terms of their engagement, a free passage to England, aud a chance of fresh bounty upon re-enlist-ment into some regiment of their own choice. A prospect so attractive, and so fresh in their memories, sufficed to draw the soldiers of the sth into the worst of military crimes. They forgot that they were without the justification — such as it was which exonerated the original mutineers, and they struck audaciously for the same concessions, though they had not a word to allege in behalf of their demands. They had no more title to what they sought than they had to any other property not their own. These words, which were used by Sir Hugh Rose in his General Order on the occasion, described with perfect truth the extravagance of the claims set up. The mutineers of the sth had no warrant whatever for their demands. They clamour for their discharge, not because there was any uncertainty in the terms of their engagements, nor because they were oppressed or unfairly treated, but simply because they reflected with envy on the opportunities which a different state of things had formerly brought within reach of their comrades. Such exactions could only bo met in one way. Had they been granted, there would have been an end of discipline in the Indian Army, and fortunate it is for -the destinies of the- empire that India possessed in Sir Hugh Rose a Com-mander-in-Chief who was equal to the exigencies of the conjecture.

That a sentence like that pronounced on the sth Regiment should involve some cases of individual hardship is certainly possible, but it is unavoidable. All the soldiers of the corps were perhaps not mutineers, but it does really seem that the infection of the corps was almost universal. Already, on the occasion of the outbreak in September, Sir Hugh Rose had sternly remarked that the noncommissioned officers of the battallion must necessarily be to blame, for that if they did not know tho slate of feeling in the regiment they were unfit for their posts, while if they knew it, and did not report it ihey betrayed their duty. Even the coaimauder and other officers of the regiment wore brought under Sir Hugh's rebuke on the same grounds, so that when, withiu a few weeks of tbe time, mutiny again broke -out, there was no further room left for compromise or, warning. We may trace the whole of these deplorable occurrences to one oause. They originated in the complexity or the impolicy of the arrangements by which the. fovoes of the old Company were transferred to the Crown. The European troops, though not in reality visited with any hardship or suffering any. grievance, had perhaps a legal title either to discharge or to a fresh engagement. Under judioious management they would probably have closed with the latter offer; but, as it happened, they were left to take tho former, and under 3ucli circumstanoes that it seemed as if their victory was due to prolonged and resolute determination. That unfortunate example of successful mutiny has not yet been forgotten. We sincerely trust that the spirit which it has evoked may be finally quelled by the signal example now made, but the incident is sufficient in itself to show how indispensable was the" dissolution of tho looal Indian Army.