CHAPTER II. THE ATHENÆUM, 1858. ON the seventh day of the new year a brief telegram was received from India announcing that "General Havelock died on the 24th of November from dysentery, brought on by exposure and anxiety." On the 16th of January the following tribute appears in the Athenæum: HAVELOCK. Wherever banner quivered on the wall, While Christmas beaker steamed with jovial foam, After the fond, familiar name of home, Thy name came next-as though a nation's call Of "Welcome back from Victory!" shook the hall, Hailing a weary chief, in glory come To grace with pride old England's festival. -Who dreamed the task was done?-that Silence strange Had stilled the sharp pursuing trumpet's breath? -That arm so prompt to rescue and avenge Speak to thy myriad hearts with tongue no time can change? Death of Havelock. General 'Biographical On the 20th of March it is stated that the Sketch' by the Rev. William subscription to the 'Biographical Sketch of Brock. General Havelock,' by the Rev. William Brock, had reached the very large number of 32,000 copies. William Peel. A poem by Mr. Gerald Massey on the death Death of Sir of Sir William Peel appeared in the Athenæum of the 12th of June, and Mr. Gerald Massey has kindly supplied the following amended version: SIR ROBERT'S SAILOR SON. The ghosts of glories gone; Still pass the live torch on ! With beautiful bravery clothed on, The flash of rare soul-armour shone Out of his noble face! So mild in peace, so stern in war, Just one of Shakspeare's Warriors for His Sailors loved him so on deck, So cheery was his call, They leapt on land, and in his wake Followed him, guns and all. For, as a battle-brand white-hot, Sleep, Sailor Darling, true and brave, You may have wished the dear Sea-blue To have folded round your breast, But there was other work for And other place of rest. you We might have reached you with our wreath If living; but laid low You look so grand! and after death The dearness deepens so! To have gone so soon, so loved to have died, So young to wear that crown, We think, but with such thrills of pride God rest you, gallant William Peel, And forests of hands clutch at this Sword Our old Norse Fathers speak in you, Speak with their strange sea-charm, That sets our hearts a-beating to The music of the storm. There comes a Spirit from the deep, That rouses from its Inland sleep The blood of the old Sea Kings. GERALD MASSEY. Sir William Peel, the gallant commander of the Naval Brigade, was born in 1824, and was a son of the great statesman. Sir William, with four hundred seamen and ten 68-pounders in a steamer towing flats, left Calcutta for Allahabad on the 18th of August, 1857. On the 19th of March in the following year he was wounded in the successful attack on Lucknow. He died of smallpox on the 27th of April at Cawnpore, while on his way down, bound for China, where his services were required. His death caused The Naval universal regret. Capt. Peel's Naval Brigade Brigade. proved so successful that at the time of his death there were two thousand men scattered in different detachments throughout the country. One illustration will show the popularity of the service. While the H.C.S. Coromandel was off Madras the seamen on shore heard that men were being shipped for service in Bengal, and immediately came off in large parties, going away much disappointed when they found that only a few men were wanted to complete the crew. The loose clothing of the sailors gave them a great advantage over the soldiers, and enabled them to undergo more hardships. The tight belt worn by the European troops occasioned much discomfort, and after long marching the pressure against the side frequently caused a serious wound that often mortified. Mutiny. The books on the Indian Mutiny included Books on the 'India in 1858,' by Arthur Mills, M.P.; 'The Chaplain's Narrative of the Siege of Delhi,' by the Rev. J. E. W. Rotton; A Personal Narrative of the Siege of Lucknow,' by L. G. R. Rees, one of the surviving defenders; 'The Defence of Lucknow,' by a Staff Officer; 'Personal Adventures during the Indian Rebellion,' by William Edwards; 'Eight Months' Campaign against the Bengal Sepoy Army,' by Col. George Bourchier, C.B.; An Account of the Mutinies in Oudh, and of the Siege of the Lucknow Residency,' by Martin Richard Gubbins; 'The British Army in India,' by Julius Jeffreys; 'Notes on the Revolt in the North-Western Provinces of India,' by Charles Raikes, Judge of the Sudder Court at Agra; 'The Crisis in the Punjab, from the 10th of May until the Fall of Delhi,' by Frederic Cooper, C.S., Deputy Commissioner of Umritsur; 'Service and Adventure with the Khakee Ressalah, or Meerut Volunteer Horse, during the Mutinies of 1857-8,' by R. H. Wallace Dunlop, B.C.S.; and 'A Personal Journal of the Siege of Lucknow,' by Capt. R. P. Anderson, 25th |