SIR, THE SIEGE OF BHURTFORE, Letter from a Bengal Engineer. Your Number for April contains an article entitled "the Siege of Bhurtpore," which attaches so much blame to the operations of the Engineers, that I cannot, in justice to that corps, refrain from requesting your insertion of the following observations. As an Engineer employed on that service, I must necessarily be better acquainted with our proceedings, and the reasons for acting as we did, than the writer of the article in question, who is evidently not an Engineer, and will therefore, I hope, be glad to see some of the errors he may have unintentionally fallen into corrected. The causes which led to the siege are given with sufficient accuracy, and the capture of the embankment is tolerably correct. But with regard to the remark, that "It was to the re sistance offered by this ditch, or rather canal, indeed, that the failure of Lord Lake is mainly attributable; and had Lord Combermere's measures been less prompt than they were, perhaps a similar result might have attended our present undertaking"-I must observe -concurring, as I do most cordially, in the praise bestowed upon Lord Combermere-that even if the ditch had been filled with water, no failure, though much additional trouble, would have been the consequence. The Engineers had calculated upon finding a wet ditch, and were prepared with the means of crossing it. The case was very different when Lord Lake attacked this Fort in 1809. The Engineers on that occasion had no park of their own, and were entirely dependent on other departments, both for men and materials. In describing the fortifications of the town, it is stated that "the curtains were low." They certainly were much lower than the bastions, yet 50 or 55 feet is no inconsiderable height. The points of attack chosen were not the "large-backed bastion" and a circular bastion 300 yards to the left, but two curtains. Failing to form good breaches in them with our artilfery, we afterwards selected two other points to breach by mining, that on the right called the north-east angle, and that on the left the long-necked bastion. The account of the occupation of Kuddum Kundy, and Buldco Sing's garden on the 23d of December, is extremely incorrect. Immediately on getting possession of the former post, two guns were placed in a temporary battery, and were never intended to be employed there; and so far from the shelter afforded by an old house being attributable to "good luck," it was on account of the cover it presented, that the post was originally selected by the Engineers. The party remained "inactive," because there was in fact nothing for them to do, our object being gained, in having everything ready to commence opera tions at nightfall. Our loss both in men and cattle, instead of being severe, was so inconsiderable as to be scarcely worth mentioning. With regard to the non-appearance of a breach on the 27th December, it is sufficient to remark, that the sole purpose for which our guns then in battery were intended was to dismount those of the enemy, and to ruin his defences, but not to breach. It is singular that an eye-witness, in speaking of the effect produced by our fire on the 28th, 29th, and 30th December, should say, that it " merely caused the outer face to peel off, with out, in any respect, damaging the masonry." He is evidently not aware that the ramparts of Bhurtpore, and I may add, of mud forts in general, are constructed in the following manner: When the breadth of the rampart has been marked out, a layer of well-tempered clay, about six inches thick, is spread across the whole breadth, and allowed to bake in the sun till it becomes almost as hard as brick. Another layer is then added, and so on, till the rampart is completed; and it has now been fully proved by experience, that a wall entirely constructed in such a manner, is almost proof against artillery. Had the ramparts of Bhurtpore been "composed of masonry, coated every year by fresh layers of clay," we should have found little difficulty in breaching them. It is stated, that "a mine was begun on the 2d January, for the purpose of blowing in the counterscarp, and so laying open the whole rampart to the view of our gunners." It is true, that a mine was begun about the time mentioned; not, however, for the purpose described; but with the sole view of forming a descent into the ditch. Our line of fire being considerably to the right of the part mined, the shot, unless moving in a crooked line, could not possibly have passed over that which would be blown in; and, even then, would not have struck lower than if following its natural straight-forward course. The gun In reply to the observation that the 66 escarp was full 60 feet high, and only one-third of it seen;" I beg leave to say, that on the right attack it was 52 feet high, and about two-thirds of it seen; and on the left, 54 feet high, and more than half seen. breach on the left was subject to a cross fire, but we had guns bearing on the bastions which flanked it, while the breach on the right was not subject to any such fire. If there was any intention of taking the place by escalade, I can only say it was kept a secret from the Engineers. The statement in the next paragraph, to any one at all acquainted with such matters, must appear very surprising; "that a mine was exploded on the 7th January, under the Gossal Ghur Bastion, but produced little or no effect; for the counterscarp was not ruined, and the wall stood as perfectly sheltered as before." Surely no man in his senses would place a mine under the scarp to blow in the counterscarp. Certain I am the Engineers at Bhurtpore made no such attempt. You next say that "a mine was at last exploded under the counterscarp, opposite to the right attack, which was much more successful than the former mine, for it blew in a large portion of the work, and held out fair hopes that our fire, in this quarter, at least, would no longer be thrown away.” From what has before been stated, the injustice of this charge must be evident. This was the first mine we had exploded under the counterscarp. It formed an easy descent into the ditch; and this, as I before remarked, was its sole object. The loss sustained by the explosion which occurred in our depot, by one of the enemy's shot striking a tumbril, is greatly overrated, so far at least as regards the Engineer depart ment. "Some thousand of fascines, gabions, and scaling ladders," were not destroyed. About 300 gabions, half that number of fascines, and a few cotton bags, were burnt, and nothing else. VOL. XXIII. In the next paragraph is another charge against the Engineers, quite unmerited. The sap carried forward to the edge of the ditch was, like all the other saps, formed "with an excavation," and fully answered the pur pose intended, viz. to cover the operations of our miners. Again it is said, (speaking of the 11th and 12th,) "Looking down, as we were now enabled to do, into the ditch, it was seen, not only that a quantity of water (whether great or small, we knew not) was there, but that a counterscarp of 40 feet in altitude stood in the way of our descent, whilst of the scarp itself full 30 feet stood yet entire." Now, it is an absolute fact, that on the night of the 27th December, the depth of the ditch, and of the water in it, opposite the right attack, had been ascertained by the engineers. On the left this was a much more difficult task, but on the night of the 8th January that also was accomplished. The counterscarp, instead of being 40 feet in height at the point mentioned, was only 24 feet; and this it was not intended to descend by means of ladders. The counterscarp opposite the right attack had been blown in, forming an easy descent, and, on the left, mines were in readiness to effect a similar object. With regard to Captain Taylor, the fact was, that he and another officer of engineers, with a small party, undertook, on the night of the 12th January, to destroy a gallery which the enemy had made through the rampart into the ditch, and which gave them the power of sending out scouts at pleasure to watch our mining operations. The night was dark, and Captain Taylor, while engaged hand to hand with the enemy, was mistaken for one of them, and severely wounded. We drove the enemy that night out of the ditch, though we failed in our main object. The officer who accompanied Captain Taylor, however, succeeded, on the morning of the 14th, in lodging and exploding 1000lbs. of powder in spite of all the enemy's ef forts to prevent him, and by this means was the gallery not only destroyed, but a tolerably good breach formed, which was afterwards improved by the artil lery. It is strange that one who writes as if minutely informed in most matters connected with the engineer operations, should omit to mention this circumstance. It is true that the mine, sprung on 6 A the 14th January, did not produce the desired effect. We had good reason to suppose the enemy were attempting to countermine us, and that by deferring the explosion till the mine had been carried to the extent originally proposed, the advantage we expected to reap from it might be entirely lost. Our success in loading a mine, placed under the long-necked bastion, in consequence of the above partial failure, is by no means to be attributed to " great good fortune." It is true, that the miners (not the "pioneers") ran considerable risk; but our ultimate success, from the means adopted, was certain; and an object, whose extreme importance would have justified the loss of many lives, was effected without any loss. The real charge of this mine, instead of being about 5000lbs., as is stated, was 11,000lbs.,-5000 in one chamber, and 6000 in the other; and the effect produced was such, that the breach formed with the horizon an angle of about 28°. It may well, therefore, be termed "tolerably inviting," while the descent into the ditch, formed at the same moment, was equally good. The great mine, instead of being loaded with 15,000lbs., which would have been an overcharge, contained exactly 10,000lbs., which, considering the nature of the ramparts, and that the line of least resistance was upwards of fifty feet, was indispensably necessary. In detailing the arrangements for the assault on the 18th of January, no mention is made of two small columns, composed entirely of Company's troops; the one commanded by LieutenantColonel Delamain, the other by Lieutenant-Colonel Wilson. These were intended to aid the two grand columns by escalading at two points that had been partially breached, and thus distracting the enemy's attention. As to the statement of what occur red between Lord Combermere and the Engineer, not having been present, I cannot speak; but of this I am certain, that the head of the column, at the moment the mine exploded, had got in advance (within about a hundred yards of the breach) of the point originally intended by his Lordship, and approved of by the Engineers. That several men lost their lives, and a considerable number were stunned by clods of earth, cannot be denied; but that the column in its ad vance trampled upon upwards of " 140 of their comrades, whom the bursting of the mine had either killed or mutilated," is an assertion not borne out by a reference to the return of killed and wounded. From the statement given, we would be led to suppose that the mine had done more harm than good, whereas it was in fact the principal means of taking the place. It destroyed about 300 of the enemy, and opened such a road into the town, that his Majesty's 14th, as I have been informed, met with little opposition till after they had reached the ramparts. The angle formed with the horizon was about 25°; and as a proof of the excellence of the breach, and of the descent into the ditch, it may be here mentioned, that immediately after the leading divisions had entered, a couple of guns were taken across the ditch, dragged up the breach, and opened on the enemy. Having thus examined, and as I believe fully proved, the incorrectness of some statements in the article in question, I may be excused in asserting that the engineer operations were con ducted not without some share of skill, and this is best proved by the fact, that Bhurtpore was captured with a loss of killed and wounded of "hardly 1000 men of all ranks." That the siege lasted longer than had been ge nerally expected, I am well aware. Many were of opinion that it might have been brought to a close about the 10th or 12th of January, had the gun breaches been assaulted, and this I admit would very probably have been the case; but we might have failed, and what would have been the consequence? All India would have been up in arms, and that too at a time when our affairs to the eastward, with the Burmese, had not the most favourable aspect. Lord Combermere, who knew well what was at stake, agreed with the engineers that it was better to postpone the assault until there was a moral certainty of success; and this was fully established by our mining operations, particularly by the mines exploded on the evening of the 16th, and morning of the 18th January. I am happy to add, that a full account of this interesting siege may shortly be expected from an officer of engineers, every way well qualified for the task. I am, &c. A BENGAL ENGINEER. London, 28th May, 1829. THE REVIEWER REVIEWED. BY PHELIM MoGILLICUDDY, A SUFFERING PAPIST. DOMINE NORTH, Manners make the man, as I write in the round hand copies; but, sir, to the purport of this letter, for, after a pleasant though brief indulgence in senile garrulity, I love to rush in medias res, the rather, in this instance, that I feel "in publica commoda peccem-" I should sin against the common weal, were I to trespass on your invaluable time and paper by tedious and irrelevant ambages. This latter, Sir, I humbly hold to be the true interpretation of the commencing apology of Flaccus-his first Epistle of the Second Book; for if the words, longo sermone, be taken, as too commonly and heedlessly they are, to signify a prolonged discourse, or letter, the passage involves an irreconcilable contradiction, or discrepancy, with the matter of fact, seeing that this very epistle is the longest, with the single exception of the tractate touching poetical art, in the entire volume. This word," volume," indeed, I apprehend to be improperly applied to collections of pages, folio, quarto, or octavo, formed in the modern fashion, inasmuch as it is manifestly derived from the word volvo; as Decius Junius Juvenalis, signifying Marcus Tullius his second epistle, saith, volveris a primâ quæ proxima. The Etymon intimating, in the Roman tongue, to roll, from the circumstance of the fabric of their manuscripts being constituted of skins, or sheets, attached to each other continuously in a consecutive series, by a sutilatory process, now designated the operation of sewing, and the whole being then rolled up much in the manner that a piece of linen, technically so called, now is. A similar practice has, in more modern times, prevailed for the preservation of certain legal records, particularly those belonging to the Courts of Equity, as the Chancery and Rolls, the origin of which latter tribunal— But notwithstanding that were I as tedious as a King, I could find in my heart to bestow it all of your worship, nevertheless I shall confine myself for the present to the Edinburgh Review, and postpone the discussion of this most interesting topic to a more favourable opportunity. Having lately had occasion to visit the Rev. Father Shanavan, in the low countries about the lakes, his reverence was so kind as to press upon my acceptance the loan of the January Number of Francis Jeffries, Esquire's, Review; observing-for he is a shrewd man, Mr North-that it was as stupid as usual, everything in it below mediocrity but an obsolete criticism on Dryden, which, though rendered novel and lively by a lengthened extract from a curious and rare work, entitled Tom Jones, yet does not convey any new or distinct idea concerning the peculiar excellence of Glorious John. "But," subjoined his reverence, "I perceive by the table of contents there is an article on Emigration, in which you, Mr MacGillicuddy, will perhaps be interested, as some of your friends are thinking of going out."' On this hint I betook myself to the perusal of article ninth, at the head of which were recited the titles of the works of three different travellers in various parts of the world; and, by the by, it would have been just as germane to the matter, to have put down the travels of Captain Parry in search of a North-west passage, or of Selwyn in Search of a Daughter, as a heading, for there is not, that I observed, one syllable about the travels the review of which is made the false pretence for this very slovenly and crude performance. As to the question of emigration itself, though I did intend to have offered you the results of my small experience on the subject, I have been so fully anticipated by the able and unanswerable paper thereanent in your May Number, that I shall be silent on that head, and content myself with another division of the reviewer's lucubrations. After informing us that "we manage our foreign possessions in a droll way," and displaying his perfect ignorance of the state of things in our West Indian plantations, and in South America, in a manner so deplorable, that through compassion to him and to your columns, I shall pretermit its exposure, he proceeds, at his leisure, to heap the most unmeasured obloquy and vituperation on this the Island of Saints, or rather on us its inhabitants. It is the malignity of this attack which has called forth the present reply, which should have reached you sooner, but for the circumstances above related, which retarded the book some eight or ten weeks in its progress to these remote parts. To be ever selected as the ready topic of intemperate declamation, and the victim of foulmouthed slander, seems indeed the destiny of my country. The Edinburgh Review has always been the willing organ and mouthpiece of the systematic calumnies directed against our people. Profound ignorance of the King's English in general, and of the subject proposed for investigation in particular, must certainly constitute sterling qualities for a reviewer in that periodical. By means of the latter accomplishment, he is enabled to thrust forward the most astounding absurdities, with that pertinacity and confidence which tend to procure credence from the uninformed and unwary, while, by the former, he frequently eludes the grasp of the castigator, by sheltering himself under sentences either perfectly guiltless of meaning, or so ill expressed as to admit of being interpreted ad libitum. With your permission, sir, I shall go through a single page of this offensive production, with a running commentary of my own; the page I shall select is No. 226. And, first, the reviewer gravely informs us that, "The Irish peasant had multiplied in his rabbit war ren"- I have spent a very respectable proportion of man's existence in Ireland, and have never known an instance of any one individual who either multiplied or performed any other rule of arithmetic in a rabbit warren-" partly through the selfish administration of Middlemen, who, under terms of years, rode the estate as a post-horse, to make the most of it out of their scrambling cottier tenants"- I cannot ride out of this scram ble on the post-horse-" and partly by the political temptation which has led ambitious landlords to sacrifice the comfort of a well-conditioned peasantry for the excitement, vanity, or power of a herd of 40s. freeholders." The writer will be so good_as to explain, in the next edition, the meaning of the figure about the horse and the scramble, and also about the excitement and vanity of the forties. Again, lower down; "besides, government has never given the Catho lics in Ireland an object by which character was to feel its influence, and independence learn the value of self-respect." I, and every Catholic in Ireland, must take this observation as a great personal disrespect-character and mental independence, are blessings which government can neither give nor take away. Small are the ills which states can cause or cure. The loss of reputation, or of the innate dignity of humanity, is not among the number. "Meanwhile, political economists were telling us to look at America and see the strength of the principle of population (the strength of the principle of population!) in a career of boundless acres and prospe rity, whilst Ireland was in dark and neglected misery, proving the dreadful point at which extremes may meet." You see, Mr North, he speaks expressly of a mathematical point, so this, whatever it was, was proving that which hath no parts. All this stuff, he says, the "political econo mists were telling us." I don't doubt it. It is of a piece with the rest of their unintelligible jargon. But if this writer meant anything by his "dark and neglected misery," which I suspect to be a little supplement of his own, though he tries so slyly to father it on the poor economists, I beg leave to assure him that the sun both of heaven and of hilarity, can shine a thousand times more laughingly and brightly even in our western island of sorrow, than ever it did on a Whig |