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ind then to idolise him as a leader . Happy in his narriage aud with one darling child , he describes liimself as the most fortunate and the happiest man in India . But with the winter of 1 S 55 came a chilling frost xipon his prospects . His appointment to the " Guides" had raised up enemies against him , and the biographer hints that Lawrence ' s removal from the" Punjab being due to intrigue , and the Anglo-Indians being pretty good haters , the fall of the outspoken confidant became an object with those who had compassed that of the superior . To avoid a long story , a series
of charges werie concocted against Hbdson , of which the only substantial one was the irregularity of his regimental accounts . A court of inquiry sat upon this , and closed on the 15 th of January , 1 So 5 ; - ' T ) ut Hodson ' enemies having official mechanism at command , its report was not submitted to the Governor-General for six months , the victim being meanwhile superseded . At length an examiner was appointed , who reported in his favour ; but this also was suppressed , or , to speak more guardedly , delayed in transitu . Hodson was on the point of starting for Calcutta to appeal iii person to the . then new Governor-General , Lord Canning , when the rebellion broke out . The emergency superseding all routine considerations ,
General Ansoh , who felt kindly towards him , at once cut the knot of his troubles , and secured his sabre for his country . He received orders to raise and command a- new regiment of Irregular Horse , and in less than three weeks was before Delhi as head of the Intelligence Department , and Assistant Quartermaster-General . He thus had his hands full , but he was ever foremost in the field , seemingly f ifted with ubiquity and a charmed life . He was escribed by a brother officer as " sitting on his horse before the Moree Bastion on the day of the assault like a man carved in stone , and apparently as unconcerned as the sentries at the Horse Guards * the balls flying as-thick as hail . "
We have space for neither his sparkling narrative of the siege , nor for the vivid narratives by different hands of the capture of the King of Delhi . It appears that" Hodson , with difficulty , extorted permission to start upon and perform this wonderful exploit : how he accomplished it is now a matter of history . The editor has mustered amp le proofs that the old King's life was guaranteed before , not after , his capture , in order to effect that captureotherwise impossible—and in compliance with the prudent orders of the general . The prompt extermination of the three princes was also admitted by good judges to be a necessity in the presence of a surging mob of 6000 Mahomedans . That deed alone enabled the little band to reach Delhi with
their royal prize ; but what infinite satisfaction it must have afforded him who felt himself the minister of Heaven ' s justice , may be gathered from his remark three weeks before . "If I get into the palace , the house of Timur will not be worth five minutes' purchase . " After the fall of Delhi , Hodson , now a Captain , learned officially that his conduct never required justification , and after a fly ing visit to his wife he joined Showers ' s Brigade with his regiment of horse , ppw 1000 strong . They were employed in clearing the country south-west of Delhi , and in collecting supplies . That there was sometimes an embarras de richesse' in this lino , appears from the following anecdote , which shows that our hero ' s composition , so rich in the elements of Criohton , was not without a spice of Rob Roy : —
On quo occasion upwards of X 700 head of cattlo had begn taken . When they were brought in , Showors exclaimed , " Hang me ! what in the world am I to do with them ? It would take half my force to convoy thorn back to Delhi , I can't take them . " On this Captain Hodson said , " Well , sir , will you sell , thorn to mo , and let me take my chance ? " " Willingly , " said the Brigadier ; so the bargain was struck for two rupees a head . Oaptaln Ilodson sent thorn off , under charge of their drivers , and two or three of his own sowars , to Delhi ,
¦ where they arrived safely , and wero of course sold at a largo profit . Tho speculation turned out a good one , but the ohanccs were against it . No one olso , probably , under the cirqutnstancoa , would havp run tho risk , and tho cattlo would have boon loft bohind . Shortly afterwards ho invested part of tho proceeds in a houso at Uinballu , which happened to bo then put up for a forood Bale at a great depreciation , This , consequently , went among his friends by tho name of the " cow-houeo . " In December , t , hc " Horso " jomod Soaton ' s 'column , in charge of a train of supplies for Sir 0 . Campbell , which covered fifteen miles of . road . Tho escort was but 2000 strong j yet three actions wore fought , twQnty . flvo guns , with vast stores of
ammunition , taken , and Captain Hodson , with his favourite lieutenant Macdowell , accomplished an unescorted ride of more than a hundred-miles through the enemy ' s . country with despatches . We have no room for the details of this adventure , but must lead our reader at once to Shamshabad ( where poor Macdowell was killed and Hodson wounded ) , and lastly to Lucknow . Under the walls of that city he threw' away his life . Having mounted a breach en amateur beside his friend General Napier ,, whom he playfully insisted oil accompanying , he peered into a dark room in search of hidden Sepoys .
A shot was fired from within , and he fell pierced through the chest . The next morning saw the end of one whom , to use his brother ' s words , " the Commander-in-Cliief pronounced the most brilliant soldier under his command , whom all ranks of the army in India reckoned amongst their bravest aud most skilful leaders , whom the popular voice has already enrolled among the heroes of the nation , whose name was known , either in love' or fear , by every native from Calcutta to Cabul . "
The reverend editor has well shown , as he set out to do , what military life in India may be ; how vast a field it sometimes opens for the exercise of high and noble qualities ; and how such qualities were displayed by his brother . In his affection for his hero , he appears rather to ignore other celebrated " Irregular" leaders whom we cannot forget ; but this venial and common error among biographers is one the reader will not fall into . Neither will the reading public altogether endorse his condemnation of the Government for affording Hodson " no mark of his Sovereign ' s approbation
•^ -no recognition of gallant services and deeds of daring . " We are no votaries of this or that department , but we cannot help remarking evidence throughout these letters that the writer was a highly successful man . He was ever watched by friendly eyes , and Ins interest supported by powerful hands . We have his repeated avowal of what is true , that his services were appreciated and rewarded beyond his hopes . He was upheld by strong arms at a time when men less favoured but as pure might have been maddened to suicide , and . in violation of etiquette ,
without knowing what influences had wrought for him , he was rescued by the well-timed sagacity of General Anson from the thick darkness that had for a time obscured him . The biographer perhaps regards all this as mere scant justice , but how many thousands are there who must have deemed it Fortune ' s favour to a pet cluld . Again , we read with sorrow that Hodson ' s wondrous exploit at the Tomb of Humayopii was as good as suppressed by his superior at Delhi ; aud that he had perished before the official news of his equally daring night ride could well have reached this country . But
yet the biographer of one who so despised newspaper reports could hardly claim honours for Hodson ' s memory upon the strength of his own communications to the . Times . On the other hand , though promotion be now impossible , the honour pf Lord Clyde at least demands that the hardly-earned Victoria Cross he promised should pass as an heirloom to the famil y of the departed nero . Thcro is yet time for the right to be done ; but if it be denied , are not the admiration and sympathy of England , unattainable as yet by fools and llunkcys , something soothing to repose upon ?
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BARTHOLOMEW FAIR . Memoirs of Bartholomew Fab \ By Henry Morloy . With Fac-similo Drawings ,, Engraved upon Wood by the Brothers Dalziel . Chapman and Hall . " An unwritten portion of tho story of the people , " as the compiler of those Memoirs styles his work , which lias been got up with all tho artistio effect that typographic skill and bibliopolio art ennsuggost or afford , while tho wood sculptures advertised in tho title-page aid the genbral embellishment of tin ' s handsome volume . Mr . Morloy is ovidently
sensible that tho subject of his book , which forcibly ro > minds us of Mr . George Daniel ' s Merry England in the Olden Time ,, is iusuflioiont in the eyes of many to command that attention ho considers it dosorves , and thoroforo some introductory as woll as correlative subjects have boon , and that with considerable judgment and taot , embodied , Mr . Morloy giving us tho early history of the priory and convent of St . Bartholomew , the original grantees of Bartholomew Fair , first placing vividly ooforo our eyes tho degrading superstition of tho time of Henry I , and his successors , and next enabling us to view an " adumbration" of tho ancient topographical peculiarities
of Smithfield , Halffield , JIalfmarsh , adjoining the great moor through '¦ which' flowed the River of Wells , in . still earlier times an outer protection to the City Wall , and . subsequently developing the gradual extension of buildings . upon the reclaimed marsh of old , thus endeavouring to supply the lacuna of three centuries that exist between the curt notices of Fitzstephen and the methodical descrip tion of Stow . These remarks , with some obscrva tions upon the ancient marts or fairs , those ambulatory resorts of ancient commerce , constitute an agreeable and wcll-tiniecl induct ion to the Fair itself , with its minor accompaniments ; and here Ben
Jonson ' s Bartholomew Fair affords Mr . Morley an opportunity of displaying his well-conceived illustrations of the characters in that comedy , but here we must , as a subject of regret , remark that , as he proceeds in his volume , Mr . Morley frequently digresses into a one-sided political history of the seventeenth century in order to laud the Roundheads and Puritans and disparage Charles I . and the Cavaliers , forgetting that Puritanism was accused of rebellion , although the times of Charles I . arc associated with higher notions of prerogative than our present constitution , as settled by the Bill of Rights , will allow . The
motions and puppet-shows of old Bartilmew arc exquisitely described ; Every one in those days crowded to witness the performance of a Droll . "On the 29 th August ; 1 G 6 S , Mr . Pepys having found poor entertainment at the playhouse , was dull , " and therefore desired to relieve his mind by the sight of sortie broad farce , -wlie-rc the " unities " were not so strictly preserved as in legitimate drama . " So I but , and met iny wife in a coach , and stopped . iny wife going thither to meet me , . and . took her and" Mercer and Dtsb . to Bartholomew Fair , and did there see a ridiculous obscene little stage plav ,- called Marry Audrey , a foolish ; thing ,
but seen by everybody . " Bartholomew Fair- " , indeed , a place for sight-seeing and show-pecpiug , and a long account have we given us oi the grimaeiers , jack-puddings , and merry-aridrews of Bygone times , together with the more recent wonders of learned pigs , spotted boys , monsters , deformities , and cxtraordinaries , that formerly glutted vulgar curiosity ; at the same time the pleasant vices of old Bartholomew , as related by the author , demonstrate that the Sinithficld Saturnalia ,
even when restricted to three uays , were a nursery for debauchery and riot ; the leading events of old Bartilmewe certainly do not impress upon the reader any favourable comparisons of the past with the present . Even in the memory of ourselves the quiet of night was disturbed with the tumultuous orgies of "Lady Holland ' s Mob , " a collection of drunk and disorderly journeymen tailors , who were accustomed to sally forth from the tap-rooms of Cloth-fair , and at twelve o ' clock on the night of that which witnessed the civic state of the Lord
Mayor ' s proclamation of the next day at upon , to make a mock proclamation . The origin of this Mob , remembered only by bruised pates , broken windows , and other accompaniments of supper and " distempering draughts , " is thus stated by Mr . Morley , who thinks nothing too minute or' too local , so long as it can bo rendered subservient to the illustration of Bartholomew Fair , viz . . ' — In Oliver ' s day , thcro was much secret connivance at dramatic entertainments , private performances wero held now at one place now at another a few miles from town , sometimes at nobleinoji ' s houses ; and among noble patrons thoro was none so prominont as tho ' onoin
whoso family part of Bartholomew Fair was an inheritance . Of the sqcrot performances at Holland Houso thoro is especial recollection . At such nieotiiiga the performers wero paid by a collection made among those prosont . At tho groat festival times of Christmas and Bartholomew Fair , it was found possjblo to bribo tho oillcer who commanded at Whitehall ami to open tho theatre in St . John ' s-street , tho Hod Bull , which , from ita vicinity to Smithfiold , was especially tho Bartholomew Fair playhoueo , far a few performances . Even tho
then , however , they wore disturbed somotimes by soldiery . Remembrance is hero duo to Kobert Cos , a good comodian , who , during ' the suppression of tho playhousos , wroto drolls or farces which woru acted under tho diaguiao of rope-dancing , ho himaolf usually taking the chief character , llo represented thus tho living drama in tho fair ; and it U said that by his performance of the part of Simpleton tho Smith at a country fair , he so impressed ft blnchsmith who waa present with his genjua for smith ' s work , that ho offered him tha post of journeyman at twolvo ponco a week
extra wages . At tho Restoration , tho old actors who sur-vJvod vraxo formed into a company that porformod at sovoral of tho old playhouses , including the Rod Bull , until too
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44 ' THE X . E A I ) ER . [ No . 459 , Jan £ ary _ 8 , 1859 .
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 8, 1859, page 44, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2276/page/12/
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