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A HISTORY 
 
 SEPOY WAR IN INDIA 
 
 1857-1858 
 
 JOHN WILLIAM KAYE, F.R.S. 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 "TUE history of the war in AFGHANISTAN" 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 mtntb BOition (1880) 
 
 LONGMANS, GEEEN, AND CO. 
 
 LONDON, NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY 
 1896 
 
 All fightg reserved 
 
69570 
 
 TMP^fa 
 
 -0229 U 
 
1 SHOULD HAVE DEDICATED 
 THESE VOLUMES 
 
 TO 
 
 LORD CANNING; 
 
 II A -^ I IF. LlVIil : 
 
 I NOW INSCRIBE THEM REVERENTIALLY 
 
 TO HIS MEMORY. 
 
CONTENTS OF VOL I 
 
 BOOK I.— INTEODUCTOEY. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF THE PUNJAB AND PEGU. 
 
 FAOZ 
 
 The Administration of Lord Dalhousie — His Tarewell Minute — Ue- 
 irospect of the First Sikh War— Tiie Military Occupation of the 
 Punjab— Tiie Council of Regency— The Second Sikh War— The 
 Annexation of the Punjab — Its Administration under tlie Law- 
 rences — The Conquest of Pegu 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE "right OE lapse." 
 
 The Administration of Lord Dalhousie — Adoption — The *' Right of 
 Lapse" — Sattarah — Nagpore — Jhansi — Kerowlee — The Carnatic 
 — Tanjore — Tiie Case of the Peishwah — DundooPunt, Nana Sahib 
 — Sumbhulnore 69 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE ANNEXATION OF OUDE. 
 
 The Annexation of Oude — Early History of the Province — The 
 Treaty of 1801^-Effects of the Double Government— Creation of 
 tlie Kingship — Progress of Misrule — Repeated Warnings — The 
 Unratified Treaty — Colonel Sleeman's Reports — Lord Dalhousie's 
 Minute — Yiews of the Court of Directors — Sir James Outram 
 Piesident — Annexation proclaimed 112 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 mOGKESS OF ENGLISHISM. 
 
 Destruction of the Native Aristocracy — Retrospect of Eeveniie 
 Administration — The Settlement of the North-West Provinces — 
 The Ousting of the Talookhdars — Resumption Operations — The 
 Inam Commission — Decay of Priestly Power — Social Reforms — 
 Moral and Material Progress 153 
 
 BOOK II.— THE SEPOY ARMY: ITS RISE, PROGRESS, 
 AND DECLINE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EA.RLY HISTORY OF THE NATIVE ARMY. 
 
 The Sepoy Army of the Company — Its Rise and Progress — TliePirst 
 Mutiny in Bengal— Deteriorating Influences — Degradation of the 
 Native Officer — The Reorganisation of 1796 — Progress of Innova- 
 tion — The Mutiny of Yellore — Later Signs of Disaffection — 
 Causes of the Mutiny 201 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 DETERIORATING INFLUENCES. 
 
 Subsidence of Alarm— The Soldier in England and in India — The 
 Sepoy and his Officer — Deteriorating Influences — The Drainage of 
 the Staff — Progress of Centralisation — The Reorganisation of 1824 
 — The Barrackpore Mutiny— The Half-Batta Order— Abolition of 
 Corporal Punishment . .252 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SINDH MUTINIES. 
 
 The War in Afghanistan — Pernicious Effects of Defeat— The An- 
 nexation of Scinde — Results of Extension of Empire — The Indus 
 Allowances — Mutiny of the Thirty-fourth Regiment — Embarrass- 
 ments of Government — The March of the Sixty-fourth — Mutiny 
 at Shikarpore — Disaffection in the Madras Army .... 274 
 
CONTENTS. Vli 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE PUNJAB MUTINIES. 
 
 Page 
 
 The War on the Sutlej — Tlie Patna Conspiracy — Attempt to Corrupt 
 the Sepoys at Dinapore — The Occupation of the Punjab — An- 
 nexation and its Effects — Reduction of the Sepoy's Pay — The 
 Mutinies at Rawul Pindee and Govindghur — Lord Dallionsie and 
 Sir Charles Napier 303 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 DISCIPLINE OF THE BENGAL ARMY. 
 
 Character of the Bengal Sepoy — Conflicting Opinions— Caste-^The 
 Seniority System — The Officering of the Army — Regular and Irre- 
 gular Regiments — Want of Europeans — The Crimean War — Indian 
 Public Opinion — Summary of Deteriorating Influences . • 324 
 
 BOOK III.— THE OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 LOUD CANNING AND HIS COUNCIL. 
 
 Departure of Lord Dalhousie — His Character— The Question of Suc- 
 cession — Arrival of Lord Canning — His Early Career— Commence- 
 ment of his Administration — His Fellow-Councillors — General Low 
 — Mr. Dorin — Mr. Grant— Mr. Barnes Peacock — The Commander- 
 in-Chief 353 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE OUDE ADMINISTRATION AND THE PERSIAN WAR. 
 
 Lord Canning's Eirst Year— The Oude Commission— Waj id AH and 
 the Embassy to England — The Persian War — The Question of 
 Command— James Outram — Central-Asian Policy — Dost Mahomed 
 — John Lawrence and Herbert Edwardes at Peshawur — Henry Law- 
 rence in Lucknow ... 39 5 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TH2 RISING OF THE STORM. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Lord Canning and tlie Army — The Call for " More Officers" — Dread 
 of the Black "Water — The General Service Enlistment Act — Anxie- 
 ties and Alarms — Missionary Efforts— Proselytising Officers — Poli- 
 tical Inquietudes — The Prophecy of Fifty-seven . . . .455 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE FIRST MUTINY. 
 
 The new Rifled Musket— The Story of the Greased Cartridges — 
 Dum-Dum and Barrackpore — Excitement in the Native Regiments 
 — Events at Berhampore— Mutjnv of th** "^J'neteenth Regiment — 
 Conduct of Colonel MitcijeJ . . . • • . .487 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PROGRESS OF MUTINY. 
 
 Causes of delayed Action — The Government and tlie Departments — 
 Investigation of the Cartridge Question — Progress of Disaffection 
 at, Jbarrackpore — The Story of Mungul Pandy — Mutiny ot tne 
 Thirty-fourth — Disbandment of the Nineteenth . . . .510 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 EXCITEMENT IN UPPER INDIA. 
 
 Progress of Alarm — The Panic at Umballah — General Anson and 
 the Rifle Depots — Incendiary Eires — General Barnard — Events at 
 Meerut — The Bone-dust Elour — The Story of the Chupatties — 
 Intrigues of the Nana Sahib 548 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 BURSTING OF THE STORM. 
 
 The Montli of May — General Survey of Affairs — State of Feeling at 
 the Rifle Depots — The Rising Storm in Oude — The Revolt at 
 Meerut — The Seizure of Delhi — Measures of Lord Canning — The 
 Call for Succours 581 
 
 Appendix ^ , . . . 619 
 
FKEFAOE- 
 
 It was not without mucli hesitation that I under- 
 took to write this narrative of the events, which have 
 imparted so painful a celebrity to the years 1857-58, 
 and left behind them such terrible remembrances. 
 Publicly and privately I had been frequently urged 
 to do so, before I could consent to take upon myself 
 a responsibility, which could not sit lightly on any 
 one capable of appreciating the magnitude of the 
 events themselves and of the many grave questions 
 which they suggested. If, indeed, it had not been 
 that, in course of time, I found, either actually in 
 my hands or within my reach, materials of history 
 such as it was at least improbable that any other 
 writer could obtain, I should not have ventured upon 
 so difficult a task. But having many important 
 collections of papers in my possession, and having 
 received promises of further assistance from surviv- 
 ing actors in the scenes to be described, I felt that, 
 though many might write a better history of the 
 Sepoy War, no one could write a more truthful one. 
 
X PKEFACE. 
 
 So, relying on these external advantages to com- 
 pensate all inherent deficiencies, I commenced what 
 I knew must be a labour of years, but what I felt 
 would be also a labour of love. My materials were 
 too ample to be otherwise than most sparingly dis- 
 played. The prodigal citation of authorities has its 
 advantages ; but it encumbers the text, it impedes 
 the narrative, and swells to inordinate dimensions 
 the record of historical events. On a former occa- 
 sion, when I laid before the public an account of a 
 series of important transactions, mainly derived from 
 original documents, public and private, I quoted 
 those documents freely both in the text and in the 
 notes. As I was at that time wholly unknown to 
 the public, it was necessary that I should cite chapter 
 and verse to obtain credence for my statements. 
 There was no ostensible reason why I should have 
 known more about those transactions than any other 
 writer (for it was merely the accident of private 
 friendships and associations that placed such pro- 
 fuse materials in my possession), and it seemed to be 
 imperative upon me therefore to produce my cr© 
 dentials. But, believing that this necessity no longer 
 exists, I have in the present work abstained from 
 adducing my authorities, for the mere purpose of 
 substantiating my statements. I have quoted the 
 voluminous correspondence in my possession only 
 where there is some dramatic force and propriety in 
 the words cited, or when they appear calculated, 
 without impeding the narrative, to give colour and 
 vitality to the story. 
 
 And here I may observe that, as on former occa- 
 sions, the historical materials which I have moulded 
 into this narrative are rather of a private than of 
 a public character. I have made but little use 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 of recorded official documents. I do not mean 
 that access to such documents has not been ex- 
 tremely serviceable to me; but that it has rather 
 afforded the means of verifying or correcting state- 
 ments received from other sources than it has sup- 
 plied me with original materials. So far as respects 
 the accumulation of facts, this History would have 
 differed but slightly from what it is, if I had never 
 passed the door of a public office ; and, generally, 
 the same may be said of the opinions which I 
 have expressed. Those opinions, whether sound or 
 unsound, are entirely my own personal opinions — 
 opinions in many instances formed long ago, and 
 confirmed by later events and more mature consi- 
 deration. No one but myself is responsible for them ; 
 no one else is in any way identified with them. In 
 the wide range of inquiry embraced by the considera- 
 tion of the manifold causes of the great convulsion of 
 1857, almost every grave question of Indian govern- 
 ment and administration presses forward, with more 
 or less importunity, for notice. Where, on many 
 points, opinions widely differ, and the policy, which 
 is the practical expression of them, takes various 
 shapes, it is a necessity that the writer of cotempo- 
 rary history, in the exercise of independent thought, 
 should find himself dissenting from the doctrines and 
 disapproving the actions of some authorities, living 
 and dead, who are worthy of all admiration and re- 
 spect. It is fortunate, when, as in the present in- 
 stance, this difference of opinion involves no diminu- 
 tion of esteem, and the historian can discern worthy 
 motives, and benevolent designs, and generous striv- 
 ings after good, in those whose ways he may think 
 erroneous and whose course of action he may deem 
 unwise. 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 Indeed, the errors of which I have freely spokeit 
 were, for the most part, strivings after good. It was 
 in the over-eager pursuit of Humanity and Civilisa- 
 tion that Indian statesmen of the neAv school were 
 betrayed into the excesses which have been so griev- 
 ously visited upon the nation. The story of the 
 Indian Rebellion of 1857 is, perhaps, the most signal 
 illustration of our great national character ever yet 
 recorded in the annals of our country. It was the 
 vehement self assertion of the Englishman that pro- 
 duced this conflagration ; it was the same vehement 
 self-assertion that enabled him, by God's blessing, to 
 trample it out. It was a noble egotism, mighty alike 
 in doing and in suffering, and it showed itself grandly 
 capable of steadfastly confronting the dangers which 
 it had brought down upon itself. If I have any pre- 
 dominant theory it is this : Because we were too 
 English the great crisis arose ; but it was only be- 
 cause we were English that, when it arose, it did not 
 utterly overwhelm us. 
 
 It is my endeavour, also, to show how much both 
 of the dangers which threatened British dominion in 
 the East, and of the success with which they were 
 encountered, is assignable to the individual characters 
 of a few eminent men. With this object I have sought 
 to bring the reader face to face with the principal 
 actors in the events of the Sepoy War, and to take a 
 personal interest in them. If it be true that the best 
 history is that which most nearly resembles a bundle 
 of biographies, it is especially true w^hen said with 
 reference to Indian history ; for nowhere do the cha- 
 racters of individual Englishmen impress themselves 
 with a more vital reality upon the annals of the 
 country in which they live ; nowhere are there such 
 great opportunities of independent action ; nowhere 
 
PREFACE. Xiii 
 
 are developed such capacities for evil or for good, as 
 in our great Anglo-Indian Empire. If, then, in such 
 a work as this, the biographical element were not 
 prominently represented — if the individualities of 
 such men as Dalhousie and Canning, as Henry and 
 John Lawrence, as James Outram, as John Nichol- 
 son, and Herbert Edwardes, were not duly illus- 
 trated, there would be not only a cold and colourless, 
 but also an unfaithful, picture of the origin and pro- 
 gress of the War. But it is to be remarked that, in 
 proportion as the individuality of the English leaders 
 is distinct and strongly marked, that of the chiefs of 
 the insurrectionary movement is faint and undecided. 
 In the fact of this contrast we see the whole history 
 of the success which, by God's providence, crowned 
 the eiForts of our countrymen. If the individual 
 energies of the leaders of the revolt had been com- 
 mensurate with the power of the masses, we might 
 have failed to extinguish such a conflagration. But 
 the whole tendency of the English system had been 
 to crush out those energies :, «o again, I say, we found 
 in the very circumstances which had excited the 
 rebellion the very elements of our success in sup- 
 pressing it. Over the Indian Dead Level which that 
 system had created, the English heroes marched tri- 
 umphantly to victory. 
 
 In conclusion, I have only to express my obhga- 
 tions to those who have enabled me to write this 
 History by supplying me with the materials of which 
 it is composed. To the executors of the late Lord 
 Canning, who placed in my hands the private and 
 demi-official correspondence of the deceased &ti*.t<^s- 
 man, extending over the whole term of his Indian 
 administration, I am especially indebted. To Sir 
 John Lawrence and Sir Herbert Edwardes, who have 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 furnished me with the most valuable materials for 
 my narrative of the rising in the Punjab and the 
 measures taken in that province for the re-capture of 
 Delhi ; to the family of the late Colonel Baird Smith, 
 for many interesting papers illustrative of the opera- 
 tions of the great siege ; to Sir James Outram, who 
 gave me before his death his correspondence relating 
 to the brilliant operations in Oude ; to Sir Robert 
 Hamilton, for much valuable matter in elucidation of 
 the history of the Central Indian Campaign ; and to 
 Mr. E. A. Reade, whose comprehensive knowledge 
 of the progress of events in the North-Western Pro- 
 vinces has been of material service to me, my warmest 
 acknowledgments are due. But to no one am I 
 more indebted than to Sir Charles Wood, Secretary 
 of State for India, who has permitted me to con- 
 sult the official records of his Department — a privi- 
 lege which has enabled me to make much better use 
 of the more private materials in my possession. No 
 one, however, can know better or feel more strongly 
 than myself, that much matter of interest contained 
 in the multitudinous papers before me is unrepre- 
 sented in my narrative. But such omissions are the 
 necessities of a history so full of incident as this. If 
 I had yielded h} tlie temptation to use urj illustrative 
 materials more freely, I should have expanded this 
 work beyond all acceptable liinits, 
 
 London, October, IS 64. 
 
. . , For to think that an handful of people can, vmn the 
 
 GREATEST COURAGE AND POLICY IN THE WORLD, EMBRACE TOO LARGE EX- 
 TENT OF DOMINION, IT MAY HOLD FOR A TIME, BUT IT WILL FAIL SUDDENLY. 
 
 — Bacon. 
 
 ... As FOR MERCENARY FORCES (WHICH IS THE HELP IN THIS CASE), 
 ALL EXAMPLES SHOW THAT, WHATSOEVER ESTATE, OR PRINCE, DOTH REST 
 UPON THEM, HE MAY SPREAD HIS FEATHERS FOR A TIME, BUT HE WILL MEW 
 THEM SOON AFTER. — BaCOn. 
 
 If THERE BE FUEL PREPARED, IT IS HARD TO TELL WHENCE THE SPARK 
 SHALL COME THAT SHALL SET IT ON FIRE. ThE MATTER OF SEDITIONS IS OF 
 TWO KINDS, MUCH POVERTY AND MUCH DISCONTENTMENT. It IS CERTAIN, 
 SO MANY OVERTHROWN ESTATES, SO MANY VOTES FOR TROUBLES. . . . ThE 
 CAUSES AND MOTIVES FOR SEDITION ARE, INNOVATIONS IN RELIGION, TAXES, 
 ALTERATION OF LAWS AND CUSTOMS, BREAKING OF PRIVILEGES, GENERAL 
 OPPRESSION, ADVANCEMENT OF UNWORTHY PERSONS, STRANGERS, DEATHS, 
 DISBANDED SOLDIERS, FACTIONS GROWN DESPERATE ; AND WHATSOEVER IN 
 OFFENDING PEOPLE JOINETH AND KNITTETH THEM IN A COMMON CAUSE.— 
 
 Bacon. 
 
mSTORY OF THE SEPOY WAR. 
 
 BOOK I.— INTEODUCTOET. 
 
 [1846—1856.] 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 THE ADMIN ISTRATIOX OF LORD DALHOUSIE — HIS FAREWELL MINUTE — 
 BETROSPECT OF THE FIRST SIKH WAR — THE MILITARY OCCUPATION O^ 
 THE PUNJAB — THE COUNCIL OF REGENCY — THE SECOND SIKH WAR — 
 THE ANNEXATION OF THE PUNJAB — ITS ADMINISTRATION UNDER THE 
 LAWRENCES — THE CONQUEST OF PEGU. 
 
 Broken in bodily health, but not enfeebled in spirit, 186G. 
 by eight years of anxious toil, beneath an Indian 
 sun, Lord Dalhousie laid down the reins of govern- 
 ment and returned to his native country to die. Since 
 the reign of Lord Wellesley, so great in written history, 
 so momentous in practical results, there had been 
 no such administration as that of Lord Dalhousie ; 
 there had been no period in the annals of the Anglo- 
 Indian Empire surcharged with such great political 
 events, none which nearly approached it in the rapidity 
 of its administrative progress. Peace and War had 
 yielded their fruits with equal profusion. 
 
 On the eve of resigning his high trust to the hands 
 of another, Lord Dalhousie drew up an elaborate state- 
 
 B 
 
2 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1856. paper reviewing the eventful years of his government. 
 He had reason to rejoice in the retrospect ; for he had 
 acted in accordance with the faith that was within 
 him, honestly and earnestly working out his cherished 
 principles, and there was a bright flush of success 
 over all the apparent result. Peace and prosperity 
 smiled upon the empire. That empire he had vastly 
 extended, and by its extension he believed that he 
 had consolidated our rule and imparted additional 
 security to our tenure of the country. 
 
 Of these great successes some account should be 
 given at the outset of such a narrative as this ; for it 
 is only by understanding and appreciating them that 
 we can rightly estimate the subsequent crisis. It was 
 in the Punjab and in Oude that many of the most 
 important incidents of that crisis occurred. Lord 
 Dalhousie found them Foreign States ; he left them 
 British Provinces. 
 
 1845-d6. Lord Hardinge conquered the Sikhs ; but he spared 
 First occupa- the Punjab. Moderate in victory as resolute in war, 
 tion ot tlie -j^Q i^f^ ^^Q empire of Runjeet Singh, shorn only of its 
 outlying provinces, to be governed by his successors, 
 and strove to protect the boy-prince against the law- 
 lessness of his own soldiers. But it was felt that this 
 forbearance was only an experimental forbearance; 
 and the proclamation which announced the restora- 
 tion of the Punjab to the Maharajah Duleep Singh 
 sounded also a note of warning to the great military 
 autocracy which had well-nigh overthrown the State. 
 " If this opportunity," said the victor, " of rescuing 
 the Sikh nation from military anarchy and misrule be 
 neglected, and hostile opposition to the British army 
 be renewed, the Government of India will make such 
 
THE MILITARY OCCUPATION OF LAHORE. 3 
 
 Other arrangements for the future government of the 1846. 
 Punjab as the interests and security of the British 
 power may render just and expedient." Thus was the 
 doubt expressed; thus were the consequences fore- 
 shadowed. It did not seem likely that the experi- 
 ment would succeed; but it was not less right to 
 make it. It left the future destiny of the empire, 
 under Providence, for the Sikhs themselves to deter- 
 mine. It taught them how to preserve their national 
 independence, and left them to work out the problem 
 with their own hands. 
 
 But Hardinge did more than this. He did not 
 interfere with the internal administration, but he esta- 
 blished a powerful military protectorate in the Punjab. 
 He left the Durbar to govern the country after its 
 own fashion, but he protected the Government against 
 the lawless domination of its soldiery. The Sikh army 
 was overawed by the presence of the British battalions ; 
 and if the hour had produced the man — if there had 
 been any wisdom, any love of country, in the councils 
 of the nation — the Sikh Empire might have survived 
 the great peril of the British military protectorate. 
 But there was no one worthy to rule ; no one able to 
 govern. The mother of the young Maharajah was 
 nominally the Regent. There have been great queens 
 in the East as in the AVest — women who have done 
 for their people what men have been incapable of 
 doing. But the mother of Duleep Singh was not one 
 of these. To say that she loved herself better than 
 her country is to use in courtesy the mildest words, 
 which do not actually violate truth. She was, indeed, 
 an evil presence in the nation. It rested with her to 
 choose a minister, and the choice which she made was 
 another great suicidal blow struck at the life of the 
 Sikh Empire. It may have been difficult in this 
 
 u 2 
 
4 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 IS4G, emergency to select the riglit man, for, in truth, there 
 were not many wise men from whom a selection could 
 be made. The Queen-Mother cut through the difficulty 
 by selecting her paramour. 
 
 Lai Singh was unpopular with the Durbar ; un- 
 popular with the people ; and he failed. He might 
 have been an able and an honest man, and yet have 
 been found wanting in such a conjuncture. But he 
 was probably the worst man in the Punjab on whom 
 the duty of reconstructing a strong Sikh Government 
 could have devolved. To do him justice, there were 
 great difficulties in his way. He had to replenish an 
 exhausted treasury by a course of unpopular retrench- 
 ments. Troops were to be disbanded and Jagheers 
 resumed. Lai Singh was not the man to do this, as 
 one bowing to a painful necessity, and sacrificing 
 himself to the exigencies of the State. Even in a coun- 
 try where political virtue was but little understood, 
 a course of duty consistently pursued for the benefit 
 of the nation might have ensured for him some sort 
 of respect. But whilst he was impoverishing others, 
 he was enriching himself. It was not the public 
 treasury, but the private purse that he sought to re- 
 plenish, and better men were despK)iled to satisfy the 
 greed of his hungry relatives and friends. Vicious 
 among the vicious, he lived but for the indulgence of 
 his own appetites, and ruled but for his own aggran- 
 disement. The favourite of the Queen, he was the 
 oppressor of the People. And though he tried to 
 dazzle his British guests by rare displays of courtesy 
 towards them, and made himself immensely popular 
 among all ranks of the Army of Occupation by his 
 incessant efforts to gratify them, he could not hide the 
 one great patent fact, that a strong Sikh Government 
 
THE FALL OF LAL SLXGII. 5 
 
 could never be established under the wuzeerat of Lai ]84G. 
 Singh. 
 
 But the British were not responsible for the failure. 
 The Regent chose him ; and, bound by treaty not to 
 exercise any interference in the internal administra- 
 tion of the Lahore State, the British Government had 
 only passively to ratify the choice. But it was a state 
 of things burdened with evils of the most obtrusive 
 kind. We were upholding an unprincipled ruler and 
 an unprincipled minister at the point of our British 
 bayonets, and thus aiding them to commit iniquities 
 which, without such external support, they would 
 not have long been suifered to perpetrate. The com- 
 pact, however, was but for the current year; and 
 even for that brief period there seemed but little pro- 
 bability of Lai Singh tiding over the difficulties and 
 dangers which beset his position. 
 
 Very soon his treachery undid him. False to his 
 own country, he was false also to the British Govern- 
 ment. The province of Cashmere, which was one of 
 the outlying dependencies taken by the British in pay- 
 ment of the war-charges, had been made over to Gholab 
 Singh, chief of the great Jummoo family, who had 
 paid a million of money for the cession. But the 
 transfer had been resisted by the local governor, who 
 had ruled the province under the Sikh Rajahs, and 
 covertly Lai Singh had encouraged the resistance. 
 The nominal oiFender was brought to public trial, but Dec. 18 1ft. 
 it was felt that the real criminal was Lai Singh, and 
 that upon the issue of the inquiry depended the fate 
 of the minister. It was soon apparent that he was a 
 traitor, and that the other, though for intelligible 
 reasons of his own, reluctant to render an account of 
 his stewardship, was little more than a tool in his 
 
6 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 IS4G. hands. The disoTace of the mmister was the im- 
 
 o 
 
 mediate result of the investigation. He left the Durbar 
 tent a prisoner under a guard, an hour before his own 
 body-guard, of Sikh soldiers ; and the great seal of the 
 Maharajah was placed in the hands of the British 
 Resident. So fell Lai Singh ; and so fell also the first 
 experiment to reconstruct a strong Sikh Government 
 on a basis of national independence. 
 
 Another experiment was then to be tried. There 
 was not a native of the country to whose hands the 
 destinies of the empire could be safely entrusted. Tf 
 the power of the English conqueror were demanded 
 to overawe the turbulent military element, English 
 Avisdom and English integrity were no less needed, in 
 that conjuncture, to quicken and to purify the corrupt 
 councils of the State. Sikh statesmanship, protected 
 against the armed violence of the Praetorian bands, 
 which had overthrown so many ministries, had been 
 fairly tried, and had been found miserably wanting. 
 A purely native Government was not to be hazarded 
 again. Averse as Hardinge had been, and still was, 
 to sanction British interference in the internal ad- 
 ministration of the Punjab, there was that in the com- 
 plications before him which compelled him to over- 
 come his reluctance. The choice, indeed, lay between 
 a half measure, which might succeed, though truly 
 there was small hope of success, and the total abandon- 
 ment of the country to its own vices, which would 
 have been speedily followed, in self-defence, by our 
 direct assumption of the Government on our own 
 account. Importuned by the Sikh Durbar, in the 
 name of the Maharajah, Hardinge tried the former 
 course. The next effort, therefore, to save the Sikh 
 Empire from self-destruction, embraced the idea of a 
 native Government, presided over by a British states- 
 
HENRY LAWRENCE. 7 
 
 man. A Ccitlicil of Regency was instituted, to be 1846. 
 composed of Sikh chiefs, under the superintendence 
 and control of the Resident ; or, in other words, the 
 British Resident became the virtual ruler of the 
 country. 
 
 And this time the choice, or rather the accident, of 
 the man was as propitious, as before it had been 
 untoward and perverse. The English officer possessed 
 well-nigh all the qualities which the Sikh Sirdar so 
 deplorably lacked. A captain of the Bengal Artillery, 
 holding the higher rank of colonel by brevet for good 
 service, Henry Lawrence had graduated in Punjabee 
 diplomacy under George Clerk, and had accompanied 
 to Caubul the Sikh Contingent, attached to Pollock's 1842. 
 retributory force, combating its dubious fidelity, and 
 controlling its predatory excesses on the way. After 
 the return of the expedition to the British provinces, 
 he had been appointed to represent our interests in 
 Nepaul ; and there — for there was a lull in the san- 
 guinary intrigues of that semi-barbarous Court — im- 
 mersed in his books, and turning to good literary pur- 
 pose his hours of leisure, he received at Catamandoo 
 intelligence of the Sikh invasion, and of the death of 
 George Broadfoot, and was summoned to take the 
 place of that lamented officer as the agent of the 
 Govern or- General on the frontier. In the negotiations 
 which followed the conquest of the Khalsa army, he 
 had taken the leading part, and, on the restoration of 
 peace, had been appointed to the office of British 
 Resident, or Minister, at Lahore, under the first ex- 
 periment of a pure Sikh Government hedged in by 
 British troops. 
 
 If the character of the man thus placed at the head 
 of afi^airs could have secured the success of this great 
 compromise, it would have been successful far beyon'^ 
 
8 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1846. the expectations of its projectors. For no man ever 
 undertook a high and important trust with a more 
 solemn sense of his responsibility, or ever, with more 
 singleness of purpose and more steadfast sincerity of 
 heart, set himself to work, with God's blessing, to 
 turn a great opportunity to great account for the 
 benefit of his fellows. In Henry Lawrence a pure 
 transparent nature, a simple manliness and truthful- 
 ness of character, were combined with b'gh intel- 
 lectual powers, and personal energies which nothing 
 earthly could subdue. I may say it here, once for 
 all, at the very outset of my story, that nowhere does 
 this natural simplicity and truthfulness of character 
 so often as in India survive a long career of public 
 service. In that country public men are happily not 
 exposed to the pernicious influences which in England 
 shrivel them so fast into party leaders and parlia- 
 mentary chiefs. With perfect singleness of aim and 
 pure sincerity of purpose, they go, with level eyes, 
 straight at the public good, never looking up in fear 
 at the suspended sword of a parliamentary majority, 
 and never turned aside by that fear into devious paths 
 of trickery and finesse. It may be that ever since the 
 days of Clive and Omichund an unsavoury odour has 
 pervaded the reputation of Oriental dij)lomacy ; but 
 the fact is, that our greatest successes have been 
 achieved by men incapable of deceit, and by means 
 which have invited scrutiny. When we have opposed 
 craft to craft, and have sought to out-juggle our op- 
 ponents, the end has been commonly disastrous. It 
 is only by consummate honesty and transparent truth- 
 fulness that the Talleyrands of the East have been 
 beaten by such mere children in the world's ways as 
 ]\Iountstuart Elphinstone, Charles Metcalfe, James 
 Outram, and Henry Lawrence. 
 
HENRY LAWPvENCE. y 
 
 Henry La^vrence, indeed, was wholly without guile. 1846. 
 He had great shrewdness and sagacity of character, 
 and he could read and understand motives, to which 
 his own breast was a stranger, for he had studied well 
 the Oriental character. But he was singularly open 
 and unreserved in all his dealings, and would rather 
 have given his antagonist an advantage than have 
 condescended to any small arts and petty trickeries 
 to secure success. All men, indeed, trusted him ; for 
 they knew that there was nothing selfish or sordid 
 about him ; that the one desire of his heart was to 
 benefit the people of the country in which it had 
 pleased God to cast his lot. But he never suffered 
 this plea of beneficence to prevail against his sense of 
 justice. He was eminently, indeed, a just man, and 
 altogether incapable of that casuistry which gives 
 a gloss of humanity to self-seeking, and robs people 
 for their own s'ood. He did not look upon the mis- 
 government of a na.tive State as a valid reason for the 
 absorption of its revenues, but thought that British 
 power might be exercised for the protection of the 
 oppressed, and British wisdom for the instruction and 
 reformation of their oppressors, without adding a few 
 more thousand square miles to the area of our British 
 possessions, and a few more millions of people to the 
 great muster-roll of British subjects in the East. 
 
 Above the middle height, of a spare, gaunt frame, 
 and a worn face bearing upon it the traces of mental 
 toil and bodily suffering, he impressed you, at first 
 sight, rather with a sense of masculine energy and 
 resolution than of any milder and more endearing 
 qualities. But when you came to know him, you saw 
 at once that beneath that rugged exterior there was a 
 heart gentle as a woman's, and you recognised in his 
 words and in his manner the kindliness of nature 
 
10 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1846. which won the affection of all who came within its 
 reach, and by its large and liberal manifestations made 
 his name a very household word with thousands, who 
 had never felt the pressure of his hand or stood in his 
 living presence. But, with all this, though that name 
 was in men's mouths and spoken in many languages, 
 no unknown subaltern had a more lowly mind or a 
 more unassuming deportment. 
 
 Such was the man who now found himself the 
 virtual sovereign of the empire of Runjeet Singh. 
 The new protectorate, established at the end of 1846, 
 gave to Henry Lawrence "unlimited authority," "to 
 direct and control every department of the State." 
 He. was to be assisted in this great work by an efficient 
 establishment of subordinates, but it was no part of 
 the design to confer upon them the executive manage- 
 ment of affairs. The old officers of the Sikh Govern- 
 ment were left to carry on the administration, guided 
 and directed by their British allies. Under such a 
 system corruption and oppression could no longer run 
 riot over the face of the land. It was a protectorate 
 for the many, not for the few; and for a while it 
 seemed that all classes Avere pleased with the arrange- 
 ment. Outwardly, indeed, it did not seem that feel- 
 ings of resentment against the British Government 
 were cherished by any persons but the Queen-Mother 
 and her degraded paramour. 
 
 IS4.7. And so, in the spring of 1847, the political horizon 
 
 was almost unclouded. The Council of Regency, 
 under the control of Henry La^vrence, seemed to be 
 carrying on the government with a sincere desire to 
 secure a successful result. Tranquillity had been re* 
 stored ; confidence and order weT(3 fast returning. 
 The Sikh soldiery appeared to be contented with their 
 
ELEMENTS OF DANGER. 11 
 
 lot, and to be gradually acquiring habits of discipline 1S47. 
 and obedience, under a system which rendered them 
 dependent on the British officers for whatever most 
 promoted their interests and contributed to their 
 comforts. But it did not escape the sagacious mind 
 of the Resident, that serene as was the aspect of 
 affairs, and promising as were the indications of con- 
 tinued repose, there were, beneath all this surface- 
 calm, dangerous elements at work, waiting only for 
 time and circumstance to call them into full activity. 
 The memory of frequent defeat was still too fresh in 
 the minds of the humbled Khalsa to suffer them to 
 indulge in visions of at once re-acquiring their lost 
 supremacy. But as time passed and the impression 
 waxed fainter and fainter, it was well-nigh certain 
 that the old hopes would revive, and that outbursts 
 of desperate Asiatic zeal might be looked for in 
 quarters where such paroxysms had long seemed to 
 be necessary to the very existence of a lawless and 
 tumultuous class. It is a trick of our self-love — of 
 our national vanity — to make us too often delude 
 ourselves with the belief that British supremacy must 
 be welcome wheresoever it obtrudes itself. But Henry 
 Lawrence did not deceive himself in this wise. He 
 frankly admitted that, however benevolent our motives, 
 and however conciliatory our demeanour, a British 
 army could not garrison Lahore, and a British func- 
 tionary supersede the Sikh Durbar, without exciting 
 bitter discontents and perilous resentments. He saw 
 around him, struggling for existence, so many high 
 officers of the old Sikh armies, so many favourites of 
 the old line of Wuzeers now cast adrift upon the world, 
 without resources and without hope under the exist- 
 ing system, that when he remembered their lawless 
 
12 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 IS47. habits, their headstrong folly, their desperate suicidal 
 zeal, he could but wonder at the perfect peace which 
 then pervaded the land. 
 
 But whatsoever might be taking shape in the future, 
 the present was a season of prosperity — a time of 
 promise — and the best uses were made by the British 
 functionaries of the continued calm. Interference in 
 the civil administration of the country was exercised 
 only when it could be turned to the very apparent 
 advantage of the people. British authority and British 
 integrity were then employed in the settlement of 
 long-unsettled districts, and in the development of the 
 resources of long-neglected tracts of country. The 
 subordinate officers thus employed under the Resident 
 were few, but they were men of no common ability 
 and energy of character — soldiers such as Edwardes, 
 Nicholson, Reynell Taylor, Lake, Lumsden, Becher, 
 George Lawrence, and James Abbott ; civilians such 
 as Vans Agnew and Arthur Cocks — men, for the 
 most part, whose deeds will find ample record in these 
 pages. They had unbounded confidence in their 
 chief, and their chief had equal confidence in them. 
 Acting, with but few exceptions, for the majority 
 were soldiers, in a mixed civil and military character, 
 they associated with all classes of the community ; 
 and alike by their courage and their integrity they 
 sustained the high character of the nation they re- 
 presented. One common spirit of humanity seemed 
 to animate the Governor-General, the Resident, and 
 his Assistants. A well-aimed blow was struck at 
 infanticide, at Suttee, and at the odious traffic in 
 female slaves. In the agricultural districts, a system 
 of enforced labour, which had pressed heavily on the 
 ryots, was soon also in course of abolition. The weak 
 were everywhere T>^oi^''«ted against the strong. An 
 
FIRST ADMINISTRATIVE EFFORTS. 13 
 
 entire revision of the judicial and revenue systems of 1847. 
 the country — if systems they can be called, where 
 system there was none — was attempted, and with 
 good success. New customs rules were prepared, by 
 which the people were greatly gainers. Every legiti- 
 mate means of increasing the revenue, and of con- 
 trolling unnecessary expenditure, were resorted to, and 
 large savings were eiFected at no loss of efficiency in 
 any department of the State. The cultivators were en- 
 couraged to sink wells, to irrigate their lands, and 
 otherwise to increase the productiveness of the soil, 
 alike to their own advantage and the profit of the 
 State. And whilst everything was thus being done 
 to advance the general prosperity of the people, and 
 to ensure the popularity of British occupation among 
 the industrial classes, the Army was propitiated by the 
 introduction of new and improved systems of pay 
 and pension, and taught to believe that what they 
 had lost in opportunities of plunder, and in irregular 
 largesses, had been more than made up to them by 
 certainty and punctuality of payment, and the interest 
 taken by the British officers in the general welfare of 
 their class. 
 
 As the year advanced, these favourable appearances 
 rather improved than deteriorated. In June, the 
 Resident reported that a large majority of the dis- 
 banded soldiers had returned to the plough or to 
 trade, and that the advantages of British influence to 
 the cultivating classes were every day becoming more 
 apparent. But still Lawrence clearly discerned the 
 fact that although the spirit of insurrection was at 
 rest in the Punjab, it was not yet dead. There were 
 sparks flying about here and there, which, alighting 
 on combustible materials, might speedily excite a 
 blaze. " If every Sirdar and Sikh in the Punjab," he 
 
14 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1847. wrote, with the candour and good sense which are so 
 conspicuous in all his communications, " were to avow 
 himself satisfied with the humbled position of his 
 country, it would be the extreme of infatuation to 
 believe him, or to doubt for a moment that among 
 the crowd who are loudest in our praise there are 
 many who cannot forgive our victory, or even our 
 forbearance, and who chafe at their own loss of power 
 in exact proportion as they submit to ours." People 
 were not wanting even then, in our camp, to talk with 
 ominous head-shakings of the " Caubul Catastrophe," 
 and to predict all sorts of massacres and misfortunes. 
 But there was no parallel to be drawn between the 
 two cases, for an overweening sense of security had 
 not taken possession of the British functionaries at 
 Lahore. They had not brought themselves to believe 
 that the country was "" settled," or that British occu- 
 pation was " popular" among the chiefs and people of 
 the Punjab. With God's blessing they were doing 
 their best to deserve success, but they knew well that 
 they might some day see the ruin of their hopes, the 
 failure of their experiments, and they were prepared, 
 in the midst of prosperity, at any hour to confront 
 disaster. 
 
 Even then, fair as was the prospect before us, there 
 was one great blot upon the landscape ; for whilst the 
 restless nature of the Queen-Mother- was solacing itself 
 with dark intrigues, there was a continual source of 
 disquietude to disturb the mind of the Resident with 
 apprehensions of probable outbreaks and seditions. 
 She hated the British with a deadly hatred. They 
 had deprived her of power. They had torn her lover 
 from her arms. They were training her son to be- 
 come a puppet in their hands. To foment hostility 
 against them, .wheresoever there seemed to be any 
 
BANISHMENT OF THE MAHARANEE 15 
 
 hope of successful revolt, and to devise a plot for the 1847. 
 murder of the Resident, were among the cherished 
 objects by which she sought to gratify her malice. 
 But she could not thus labour in secret. Her schemes 
 were detected, and it was determined to remove her 
 fix)m Lahore. The place of banishment was Sheiko- 
 poor, in a quiet part of the country, and in the midst 
 of a Mussulman population. When the decision was 
 communicated to her by her brother, she received it 
 with apparent indifference. She was not one to give 
 her enemies an advantage by confessing her wounds 
 and bewailing her lot. She uttered no cry of pain, 
 but said that she was ready for anything, and at once 
 prepared for the journey. 
 
 The autumn passed quietly away. But an im- 
 portant change was impending. Lord Ilardinge was 
 about to lay down the reins of government, and 
 Colonel Lawrence to leave the Punjab for a time. 
 The health of the latter had long been failing. He 
 had tried in August and September the effect of the 
 bracing hill air of Simlah. It had revived him for a 
 while, but his medical attendants urged him to resort 
 to the only remedy which could arrest the progress of 
 disease ; and so, with extreme reluctance, he con- 
 sented to quit his post, and to accompany Lord 
 Hardinge to England. He went ; and Sir Frederick 
 Currie, a public servant of approved talent and in- 
 tegrity, who, in the capacity of Political Secretary, 
 had accompanied the Govern or- General to the banks 
 of the Sutlej, and who had been subsequently created 
 a baronet and appointed a member of the Supreme 
 Council of India, was nominated to act as Resident in 
 his place. 
 
 Meeting the stream of European revolution as they 
 journeyed homewards, Hardinge and Lawrence came 
 
16 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1848. overland to England in the early spring of 1848. 
 Brief space is allowed to me for comment ; but before 
 I cease to write Lord Hardinge's name in connexion 
 with Sikh politics and history, I must give expression, 
 if orly in a single sentence, to the admiration mth 
 whioli I regard his entire policy towards the Punjab. 
 It was worthy of a Christian warrior : it was worthy 
 of a Christian statesman. It is in no wise to be 
 judged by results, still less by accidents not assign- 
 able to errors inherent in the original design. What 
 Hardin ge did, he did because it Avas right to do it. 
 His forbearance under provocation, his moderation in 
 the hour of victory foreshadowed the humanity of 
 his subsequent measures. It was his one desire to 
 render British connexion with the Punjab a blessing 
 to the Sikhs, without destroying their national inde- 
 pendence. The spirit of Christian philanthropy moved 
 at his bidding over the whole face of the country — 
 not the mere image of a specious benevolence dis- 
 guising the designs of our ambition and the impulses 
 of our greed, but an honest, hearty desire to do good 
 without gain, to save an Empire, to reform a people, 
 and to leave behind us the marks of a hand at once 
 gentle and pow^erful — gentle to cherish and powerful 
 only to sustain. 
 
 conquest of The portfolio of the Indian Government now passed 
 unjab. jj^^^ ^YiQ hands of Lord Dalhousie, a young statesman 
 of high promise, who, in the divisions of party politics 
 at home, had been ranged among the followers of Sir 
 Robert Peel, and professed the newly- developed libe- 
 ralism of that great parliamentary chief. Held in 
 esteem as a man of moderate views, of considerable 
 administrative ability, and more than common assi- 
 
LORD DALIIOUSIE. 17 
 
 Julty 111 the public service, his brief career as an 1S4\ 
 English statesman seemed to afford good hope that, in 
 the great descriptive roll of Indian Viceroys, his name 
 Avould be recorded as that of a ruler distinguished 
 rather for the utility than for the brilliancy of his ad- 
 ministration. And so, doubtless, it seemed to him- 
 self. What India most wanted at that time was Peace. 
 Left to her repose, even without external aid, she 
 miirht soon have recovered from the effects of a suc- 
 cession of wasting wars. But, cherished and fostered 
 by an unambitious and enlightened ruler, there was 
 good prospect of a future of unexampled prosperity — 
 of great material and moral advancement — of that 
 oft -promised, ever realisable, but still unrealised 
 blessing, the " development of the resources of the 
 country." The country wanted Railroads, and the 
 people Education, and there was good hope that Dal- 
 housie would give them both. 
 
 When he looked beyond the frontier he saw that 
 everything was quiet. The new year had dawned 
 auspiciously on the Punjab. The attention of the 
 British functionaries, ever earnest and active in well- 
 doing — for the disciples of Henry Lawrence had 
 caught much of the zealous humanity of their master 
 — was mainly directed to the settlement of the Land 
 Revenue and the improvement of the judicial system 
 of the country. They had begun codifying in good 
 earnest, and laws, civil and criminal, grew apace 
 under their hands. In a state of things so satisfactory 
 as this there was little to call for special remark, and 
 the Governor-General, in his letters to the Home 
 Government, contented himself with the simple ob- 
 servation, that he "forwarded papers relating to the 
 Punjab." But early in May intelligence had reached 
 Uaicutta which impelled him to indite a more stirring 
 
 G 
 
18 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 18.48. epistle. The Punjab was on the eve of another 
 crisis. 
 
 In September, 1844, Sawun Mull, the able and 
 energetic Governor* of Mooltan, was shot to death by 
 an assassin. He was succeeded by his son Moolraj, 
 who also had earned for himself the reputation of a 
 chief with just and enlightened views of government, 
 and considerable administrative ability. But he had 
 also a reputation very dangerous in that country : he 
 was reputed to be very rich. Sawun Mull was be- 
 lieved to have amassed immense treasures in Mool- 
 tan ; and on the instalment of his son in the govern- 
 ment, the Lahore Durbar demanded from him a suc- 
 cession-duty f of a million of money. The exorbitant 
 claim was not complied with ; but a compromise was 
 effected, by Avhich Moolraj became bound to pay to 
 Lahore less than a fifth of the required amount. And 
 this sum would have been paid, but for the convul- 
 sions which soon began to rend the countrj^, and the 
 disasters which befel the Durbar. 
 
 On the re-establishment of the Sikh Government 
 the claim was renewed. It was intimated to the 
 Dewan that if the stipulated eighteen lakhs, with cer- 
 tain amounts due for arrears, were paid into the 
 Lahore Treasury, he would be allowed to continue in 
 charge of Mooltan ; but that if he demurred, troops 
 Avould be sent to coerce him. He refused payment of 
 the money, and troops were accordingly sent against 
 him. Thus threatened, he besought the British Go- 
 vernment to interfere in his favour, and consented to 
 adjust the matter through the arbitration of the Resi- 
 dent. The result was, that he went to Lahore in ihe 
 
 ♦ I have used the word most in- financial manager or revenue-farmer 
 
 telligible to ordinary English readers, of the district, with tiie control of 
 
 but it does not fitly represent tiie the internal administration. 
 office held by the *' Dewan," who was -f Nuzzuraua. 
 
AFFAIRS OF MOOLTAN. 19 
 
 autumn of 1846 ; promised to pay by instalments the isis. 
 money claimed ; and was mulcted in a portion of the 
 territories from which he had drawn his revenue. The 
 remainder was farmed out to him for a term of three 
 years. With this arrangement he appeared to be 
 satisfied. He was anxious to obtain the guarantee of 
 the British Government ; but his request was refused, 
 and he returned to Mooltan mthout it. 
 
 For the space of more than a year, Moolraj re- 
 mained in peaceful occupation of the country which 
 had been leased out to him. There was no attempt, 
 on the part of the British functionaries, to interfere 
 with the affairs of Mooltan. That territory was espe- 
 cially exempted from the operation of the revenue 
 settlement, which had taken effect elsewhere, and of 
 the new customs regulations which had been esta- 
 blished in other parts of the Punjab. But the com- 
 pact which had been entered into with the Lahore 
 Durbar did not sit easily Tipon him. He thought, or 
 affected to think, that its terms were too rigorous; 
 and accordingly, about the close of 1847, he repaired 
 to the capital to seek some remission of them. He 
 soon began intriguing with the Durbar for the reduc- 
 tion of the stipulated rents ; and not coming to any 
 satisfactory arrangement, intimated his wish to resign 
 a charge which he had found so little profitable. He 
 was told that his resignation, when formally tendered, 
 would be accepted ; but was recommended to reflect 
 upon the subject before finally coming to a determi- 
 nation, which could not be subsequently revoked. 
 Moolraj quitted Lahore ; and sent in first a somewhat 
 vague, and afterwards a more distinct, resignation of 
 his office ; and the Durbar at once appointed a suc- 
 cessor. Sirdar Kan Singh, who was described as "a 
 brave soldier and intelligent man," was nominated to 
 
 c 2 
 
20 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALIIOUSIZ. 
 
 'ia4S xhe Governorsliip of Mooltan, on a fixed annual 
 salar}'. At the same time, Mr. Vans Agnew, a civil 
 servant of the Company, and Lieutenant Anderson, 
 of the Bombay army, were despatched to Mooltan 
 Avith the new Governor, and an escort of iive hundred 
 men, to receive charge of the place. On their arrival 
 before the city there were no symptoms of any hostile 
 intentions on the part of its occupants. Moolraj him- 
 self waited on the British officers on the 18th of April, 
 and was peremptorily called upon to give in his ac- 
 counts. Disconcerted and annoyed, he quitted their 
 presence, but next morning he met them with a 
 calm aspect, and conducted them through the fort. 
 Two companies of Goorkhas and some horsemen of 
 the escort were placed in possession of one of the 
 fort-gates. The crisis was now at hand. Moolraj 
 formally gave over charge of the fort ; and as the 
 party retired through the gate, the British officers 
 were suddenly attacked and severely wounded. Mool- 
 raj, who was riding with them at the time, offered no 
 assistance, but, setting spurs to his horse, galloped 
 off in the direction of his garden-house, whilst the 
 wounded officers were carried to their own camp by 
 Kan Singh and a party of the Goorkhas. 
 
 In the course of the following day all the Mooltanee 
 troops were in a state of open insurrection. Moolraj 
 himself, who may not have been guilty in the first in- 
 stance of an act of premeditated treachery, and who 
 subsequently pleaded that he was coerced by liis 
 troops, sent excuses to Vans Agnew, who, with the 
 generous confidence of youth, acquitted him of all 
 participation in the outrage. But he was soon heart 
 and soul in the work ; and his emissaries plied their 
 trade of corruption with unerring effect. Before 
 nightfall, the commandant of the escort, ^vith all his 
 
MURDER OF AGNEW AND ANDERSON. 21 
 
 men, went over to tlie enemy. The building in which 1848. 
 the wounded officers lay was surrounded. A motley 
 crew of ruffians — soldiers and citizens — men of all 
 classes, young and old, moved by one common im- 
 pulse, one great thirst of blood, came yelling and 
 shouting around the abode of the doomed Ferin ghees. 
 In they rushed, with a savage cr}^, and surrounded 
 their victims. The wounded officers lay armed on 
 their beds, and helpless, hopeless as they were, put 
 on the bold front of intrepid Englishmen, and were 
 heroes to the last. Having shaken hands, and bade 
 each other a last farewell, they turned upon their 
 assailants as best they could; but overpowered by 
 numbers, they fell, declaring in the prophetic lan- 
 guage of death, that thousands of their countrymen 
 would come to avenge them. The slaughter tho- 
 roughly accomplished, the two bodies were dragged 
 out of the mosque, and barbarously mutilated by the 
 murderers, with every indignity that malice could 
 devise. 
 
 Irretrievably committed in the eyes both of our coun- 
 trymen and his own, Moolraj now saw that there was 
 no going back ; he had entered, whether designedly 
 or not, on a course which admitted of no pause, and 
 left no time for reflection. All the dormant energies 
 of his nature were now called into full activity. He 
 took command of the insurgents — identified himself 
 with their cause — bestowed largesses upon the men 
 who had been most active in the assault upon the 
 British officers, retained all who would take service 
 with him, laid in stores, collected money, and ad- 
 dressed letters to other chiefs urging them to resist- 
 ance. He had never been looked upon by others — 
 :iever regarded himself — as a man to become the leader 
 of a great national movement ; but now circumstances 
 
'22 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 ^^^-* had done for him what he would never willingly have 
 shaped out for himself; so he bowed to fate, and be- 
 came a hero. 
 
 Thus was the second Sikh War commenced. Out- 
 wardly, it was but the revolt of a local government — 
 the rebellion of an officer of the Sikh State against 
 the sovereign power of the land. But, rightly con- 
 sidered, it was of far deeper significance. Whether 
 Moolraj had been incited to resistance by the prompt- 
 ings of a spirit far more bitter in its resentments, and 
 more active in its malignity than his own, is not very 
 apparent. But it is certain that when he raised the 
 standard of rebellion at Mooltan, he did but antici- 
 pate a movement for which the whole country was 
 ripe. Already had ominous reports of ill-concealed 
 disaffection come in from some of the outlying dis- 
 tricts, and though the mortifying fact was very re- 
 luctantly believed, it is certain that the state of things 
 which Henry Lawrence had predicted was already a 
 present reality, and that the Sikhs, chafing under the 
 irritating interference of the European stranger, were 
 about to make a common effort to expel him. A finer 
 body of officers than those employed under the British 
 Resident in the Punjab seldom laboured for the good 
 of a people. That they worked, earnestly and assi- 
 duously, animated by the purest spirit of Christian 
 benevolence, is not to be doubted. But it was not 
 in the nature of thinas that even if the thino- done 
 had been palatable to the Sikhs, they would have 
 reconciled themselves to the doers of it. Habituated 
 to rule in all parts of the world, and to interfere in 
 the affairs of people of all colours and creeds, Eng- 
 lishmen are slow to familiarise themselves with the 
 idea of the too probable unpopularity of their inter- 
 ference They think that if they mean well tliey 
 must secure confidence. They do not consider that 
 
FIRST ADMINISTRATIVE EFFORTS. 23 
 
 our beneficent ways may not be more in accordance 18^8, 
 with the national taste than our round hats and stiff 
 neckcloths ; and that even if they were, alien inter- 
 ference must in itself be utterly distasteful to them. 
 It is not to be doubted, I say, that the young Eng- 
 lishmen first employed in the Punjab laboured earn- 
 estly for the good of the people ; but their very pre- 
 sence was a sore in the flesh of the nation, and if they 
 had been endowed with superhuman wisdom and 
 angelic benevolence, it would have made no differ- 
 ence in the sum total of popular discontent. 
 
 But it is probable that some mistakes were com- 
 mitted — the inevitable growth of benevolent igno- 
 rance and energetic inexperience — at the outset of 
 our career as Punjabee administrators. The inter- 
 ference appears to have been greater than was con- 
 templated in the original design of the Second Pro- 
 tectorate. At that time the God Terminus was held 
 by many of our administrators in especial veneration. 
 The Theodolite, the Reconnoitring Compass, and the 
 Measuring Chain were the great emblems of British 
 rule. And now these mysterious instruments began 
 to make their appearance in the Punjab. We were 
 taking sights and measuring angles on the outskirts 
 of civilisation ; and neither the chiefs nor the people 
 could readily persuade themselves that we were 
 doing all this for their good ; there was an appear- 
 ance in it of ulterior design. And, as I have 
 hinted, the agents employed were sometimes wholly 
 inexperienced in business of this kind. *' My pre- 
 sent role^' wrote a young ensign* of two years' 
 standing in the service, whose later exploits will 
 be recorded in these pages, "is to survey a part 
 
 * W. R. Hodson (" Ilodson of the fate of Anderson at Mooltan, for 
 Hodson's Horse"), Januar}-, 1848. he had been selected in the first in» 
 This young officer narrowly escaped stance to accompany Vans Agnew. 
 
24: THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALIIOUSIE. 
 
 1548. of the country lying along the left bank of the 
 Ravee and below the hills, and I am daily and all 
 day at work with compasses and chain, pen and 
 pencil, following streams, diving into valleys, bur- 
 ro Aving into hills, to complete my work. I need 
 hardly remark, that having never attempted anything 
 of the kind, it is bothering at iirst. I should not be 
 surprised any day to be told to build a ship, compose 
 a code of laws, or hold assizes. In fact, 'tis the way 
 in India ; every one has to teach himself his work, 
 and to do it at the same time." Training of this kind 
 has made the finest race of officers that the world has 
 ever seen. But the novitiate of these men may have 
 teemed with blunders fatal to the people among whom 
 they were sent, in all the self-confidence of youth, to 
 learn their diversities of work. As they advance in 
 years, and every year know better how difficult a 
 thing it is to administer the afi'airs of a foreign people, 
 such public servants often shudder to think of the 
 errors committed, of the wrong done, when they 
 served their apprenticeship in government without a 
 master, and taught themselves at the expense of 
 thousands. The most experienced administrators in 
 the present case might have failed from the want of 
 a right understanding of the temper of the people. 
 But it was the necessity of our position that some 
 who were set over the officers of the Sikh Govern- 
 ment knew little of the people and little of adminis- 
 tration. They were able, indefatigable, and con- 
 scientious. They erred only because they saw too 
 much and did too much, and had not come to under- 
 stand the wise policy of shutting their eyes and 
 leaving alone. 
 
 And so, although the rebellion of jMoolraj was 
 at first only a local outbreak, and the British autho- 
 rities were well disposed to regard it as a movement 
 
EVILS OF DELAY. 25 
 
 against the Sikh Government, not as an oatrage espe- 1818. 
 cially directed against ourselves, that fiction could 
 not be long maintained — for every day it became more 
 and more apparent that the whole country was ripe for 
 another war with the intruding Feringhee. The Dur- 
 bar officers did not hesitate to express their conviction 
 that to send Sikh troops to act against Moolraj would 
 only be to swell the number of his adherents. To 
 have despatched with them a small English force 
 would have been to risk its safety and precipitate 
 the conflict. An overwhelming display of force, on 
 the part of the British Government, might have 
 crushed the rebellion at Mooltan and retarded the 
 general rising of the country. But the season was 
 far advanced ; the responsibility was a great one. 
 The Commander-in-Chief of the British army in India 
 was not far distant. Currie, therefore, though his 
 own judgment inclined to the commencement of im- 
 mediate hostilities, rightly referred the momentous 
 question to the military chief. Lord Gough was 
 JT® against immediate action ; and the head of the In- 
 dian Government unreservedly endorsed the de- 
 cision. 
 
 The remnant of the old Khalsa army eagerly watched 
 the result, and were not slow to attribute our in- 
 activity, at such a moment, to hesitation — to fear — 
 to paralysis. I am not writing a military history of 
 the Second Sikh War, and the question now suggested 
 is one which I am not called upon to discuss. But I 
 think that promptitude of action is often of more im- 
 portance than completeness of preparation, and that 
 to shoAv ourselves confident of success is in most cases 
 to attain it. The British power in India cannot 
 afford to be quiescent under insult and outrage. De- 
 lay is held to be a sign of weakness. It encourages 
 enmity and confirms vacillation. It is a disaster in 
 
26 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1848. itself — more serious, often, than any that can arise 
 from insufficient preparation, and that great bugbear 
 the inclemency of the season. On the other hand, 
 it is not to be forgotten that to despise our enemies is 
 a common national mistake, and that sometimes it 
 has been a fatal one. We have brought calamities 
 on ourselves by our rashness as we have by our 
 Indecision. The History of India teems with ex- 
 amples of both results ; the most profitable lesson to 
 be learnt from which is, that, however wise we may 
 be after the event, criticism in such a case ought to 
 be diffident and forbearing. 
 
 But whilst the Commander-in-Chief, in the cool 
 mountain air of Simlah, was deciding on the impossi- 
 bility of commencing military operations, a young 
 lieutenant of the Bengal army, who had been engaged 
 in the Revenue settlement of the country about Bun- 
 noo, was marching down upon Mooltan with a small 
 body of troops, to render assistance to his brother- 
 officers in their perilous position, and to support the 
 authority of the Lahore Durbar. A letter from 
 Vans Agnew, dictated by the Avounded man, had pro- 
 videntially fallen into his hands. He saw at once the 
 emergency of the case ; he never hesitated ; but aban- 
 doning all other considerations, improvised the best 
 force that could be got together, and, with fifteen 
 hundred men and two pieces of artillery, marched 
 forth in all the eager confidence of youth, hoping 
 that it might be his privilege to rescue his country- 
 men from the danger that beset them. 
 
 The name of this young officer was Herbert Ed- 
 wardes. A native of Frodley, in Shropshire, the son 
 of a country clergyman, educated at King's College, 
 London, he had entered the Company's service as a 
 cadet of infantry, at an age somewhat more advanced 
 
HERBERT EDWARBES. .?7 
 
 than that which sees the initiation into military life lS4i 
 of the majority of young ofiicers. But at an age 
 much earlier than that which commonly places them 
 in possession of the most superficial knowledge of the 
 history and politics of the East, young Edwardes had 
 acquired a stock of information, and a capacity for 
 judging rightly of passing events, which would have 
 done no discredit to a veteran soldier and diplomatist, 
 He had served but a few years, when his name be- 
 came familiar to English readers throughout the Pre- 
 sidency to which he belonged, as one of the ablest 
 anonymous writers in the country. His literary 
 talents, like his military qualities, were of a bold, 
 earnest, impulsive character. Whatever he did, he 
 did rapidly and well. He was precisely the kind of 
 man to attract the attention and retain the favour of 
 such an officer as Henry Lawrence, who, with the 
 same quiet love of literature, combined a keen appre- 
 ciation of that energy and fire of character which 
 shrink from no responsibility, and are ever seeking to 
 find an outlet in dashing exploits. In one of the 
 earliest and most striking scenes of the Punjabee 
 drama, Edwardes had acted a distinguished part. 
 When the insurrection broke out in Cashmere, he 
 Avas despatched to Jummoo, to awaken Gholab Singh 
 to a sense of his duty in that conjuncture ; and there 
 are few more memorable and impressive incidents in 
 Sikh history than that which exhibited a handful of 
 British officers controlling the movements of large 
 bodies of foreign troops, — the very men, and under 
 the very leaders, who, so short a time before, had 
 contested with us on the banks of the Sutlej the 
 sovereignty of Hindostan. 
 
 On the reconstruction of the Sikh Government, 
 after the deposition of Lai Singh, Herbert Edwardes 
 
28 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALIIOUSIE. 
 
 1848. was one of the officers selected to superintend tKe 
 internal administration of the country ; and he had just 
 completed the Revenue settlement of Bunnoo, when 
 the startling intelligence of the Mooltanee outbreak 
 reached his camp. He marched at once to succour 
 his brother-officers ; crossed the Indus, and took pos- 
 session of Leia, the chief city in the Sindh Saugor 
 Doab. But tidings by this time had reached him of 
 the melancholy fate of Agnew and Anderson, and 
 there was then no profit in the immediate movement 
 on Mooltan to compensate lor its certain danger. But 
 the demonstration still had its uses. It was something 
 that there was a force in the field with a British officer 
 at the head of it to assert the cause of order and au- 
 thority in the name of the Maharajah of the Punjab. 
 Such a force might, for a time at least, hold rebellion 
 in check in that part of the country. But Edwardes 
 dreamt of higher service than this. To the south of 
 Mooltan, some fifty miles, lies Bahwulpore, in the 
 chief of which place we believed that we had a 
 staunch ally. In the name of the British Government, 
 Edwardes called upon him to move an auxiliary force 
 upon Mooltan ; and he had little doubt that, after 
 forming a junction with these troops, he could 
 capture the rebel stronghold. The confidence of the 
 young soldier, stimulated by a victory which he 
 gained over a large body of rebels on the great anni- 
 versary of Waterloo, saw no obstacle to this enterprise 
 which could not be overcome if the Resident would 
 only send him a few heavy guns and mortars, and 
 Major Napier, of the Engineers, to direct the opera- 
 tions of the siege. He knew the worth of such a man 
 in such a conjuncture, and every year that has since 
 passed has made him prouder of the }^outhful forecast 
 which he then evinced. 
 
EDWARDES AT MOOLTAN. 29 
 
 The Baliwulpore troops were sent, the junction was 134S. 
 formed, and the forces marched down upon Mooltan. 
 Phicing himself at the head of a considerable body of 
 men, the rebel chief went out to give them battle, but 
 was beaten by Edwardes, aided by Van Cortlandt, a 
 European officer in Sikh employ, Avho has since done 
 good service to the British Government, and Edward 
 Lake, a gallant young officer of Bengal Engineers, 
 directing the Bahwulpore column, who has abun- 
 dantly fulfilled, on the same theatre of action, the 
 high promise of his youth. But much as irregular 
 levies, so led, might do in the open field, they were 
 powerless against the walls of Mooltan. Again, there- 
 fore, Edwardes urged upon the Resident the ex- 
 pediency of strengthening his hands, especially in re- 
 spect of the ordnance branches of the service. Only 
 send a siege train, some Sappers and Miners, with 
 Robert Napier to direct the siege, and — this time, for 
 the difficulties of the work had assumed larger pro- 
 portions in his eyes — a few regular regiments, under 
 a young brigadier, and we shall "close," he said, 
 " Moolraj's accounts in a fortnight, and obviate the 
 necessity of assembling fifty thousand men in October." 
 
 In the early part of July this requisition was re- 
 ceived at Lahore. The interval which had elapsed, 
 since the disastrous tidings of the rebellion of Moolraj 
 had reached the Residency, had not been an unevent- 
 ful one at the capital. Early in May, discovery was 
 made of an attempt to corrupt the fidelity of our 
 British Sepoys. The first intimation of the plot was 
 received from some troopers of the 7th Irregular 
 Cavalry, who communicated the circumstance to their 
 commanding officer. The principal conspirators were 
 one Kan Singh, an unemployed general of the Sikh 
 army, and Gunga Ram, the confidential Vakeel of the 
 
30 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 IS 18. Maharanee. These men, and two others, were seized, 
 tried, and convicted. The two chief conspirators 
 were publicly hanged, and their less guilty associates 
 transported. That they were instruments of the 
 Maharanee was sufficiently proved. The conspirators 
 acknowledged that she was the prime instigator of the 
 treacherous attempt, and her letters were found in 
 their possession. With this knowledge, it could no 
 longer be a question with the Resident as to what 
 course it behoved him to adopt. The mother of the 
 Maharajah and the widow of Ruiijeet Singh could no 
 longer be suffered to dwell among the Sikhs. She had 
 already been removed from Lahore to Sheikopoor. 
 It now became necessary to remove her from the 
 Punjab. Accordingly, certain accredited agents of 
 the Lahore Durbar, accompanied by two British 
 officers, Captain Lumsden and Lieutenant Hodson, 
 were despatched to Sheikopoor, with a mandate 
 under the seal of the Maharajah, directing her re- 
 moval from that place. Without offering any resist- 
 ance, or expressing any dissatisfaction, she placed her- 
 self under the charge of the deputation ; and, when 
 it became clear to her that she was on her way to the 
 British frontier, she desired — not improbably Avith 
 that blended irony and bravado which she so well 
 knew how to employ — that her thanks might be con- 
 veyed to the Resident for removing her to the Com- 
 pany's dominions, out of the reach of the enemies 
 who would destroy her. With a considerable retinue 
 of female attendants, she was conveyed to Ferozepore, 
 and eventually to Benares, where she was placed under 
 the charge of Major George Macgregor, an Artillery 
 officer of high personal character and great diplomatic 
 experience, who had well sustained in the Punjab the 
 brilliant reputation which he had earned at Jellalabad 
 
THE RISING OF THE NATIOX. 31 
 
 Such was the apparent growth visible at the British 1S43, 
 Residency, recognised in our State-papers, of those 
 three months in the Punjab. But in the hands of a 
 Sikh historian these incidents would form but a 
 small part of the national annals, for all over the 
 country the great chiefs were actively maturing the 
 plan of their emancipation, calling upon all true 
 Sikhs, in the name of the great Founder of their 
 Faith, to exterminate the Christian usurpers, and 
 even those nearest to the throne were among the 
 arch-promoters of the movement. The daughter of 
 Chuttur Singh and the sister of Shere Singh was 
 the betrothed wife of the Maharajah ; but these 
 Sirdars, though anxious to veil their designs until 
 the whole country was ripe for a simultaneous rising, 
 were intriguing and plotting for our overthrow. The 
 former was in the Hazareh, where his fidelity had 
 been for some time suspected by James Abbott — 
 another officer of the Bengal Artillery, friend and 
 comrade of Henry Lawrence, who had been set- 
 tling that part of the country — one of those men 
 whose lot in life it is never to be believed, never 
 to be appreciated, never to be rewarded ; of the 
 true salt of the earth, but of an unrecognised 
 savour ; chivalrous, heroic, but somehow or other 
 never thoroughly emerging from the shade. He was 
 not one to estimate highly the force of the maxim 
 that " speech is silver, silence is gold ;" and his sus- 
 picions are said not to have been acceptable at Lahore. 
 But though it may be good to suspect, it is doubtless 
 good, also, not to appear to suspect. And if Currie, 
 in that conjuncture, had betrayed a want of confi- 
 dence in the Sikh Sirdars, he would have precipitated 
 the collision which it was sound policy to retard. So, 
 whatever may have been his genuine convictions, he 
 
22 TUE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 iHi, still appeared to trust the chiefs of the Regency ; a^id 
 Shere Singh, with a strong body of Sikh troops, wis 
 sent down to Mooltan. It was wise to nnaintain, as 
 long as possible, the semblance of the authority of 
 the Sikh Durbar — wise to keep up the show of sup- 
 pressing a rebellion by the hand of the native Go- 
 vernment. To send down that undeveloped traitor to 
 the great centre of revolt may have been a hazardous 
 experiment, but it was hazardous also to keep him 
 where he was ; and the master-passion of the Sikh 
 soldiery for plunder might have kept his battalions 
 nominally on the side of authority, until they had 
 glutted themselves with the spoils of Mooltan, and pre- 
 parations had, meanwhile, been made in the British 
 provinces for the commencement of military operations 
 on a scale befitting the occasion. But the repeated re- 
 quisitions of Edwardes for British aid at last wrought 
 upon the Resident, and Currie determined to send a 
 force to Mooltan, with a siege-train for the reduction 
 of the fortress. In General Samson Whish, of the 
 Artillery, under whose command the force was de- 
 spatched, there was not literally what Edwardes had 
 asked for — " a young brigadier" — but there was a 
 general officer of unwonted youthfulness of aspect 
 and activity of body, who could sit a horse well, 
 could ride any distance at a stretch, and was gene- 
 rally esteemed to be one of the best artillery officers 
 in the service. This forward movement w^as not 
 countenanced in high places. The Commander-in- 
 Chief shook his head. The Governor-General shook 
 his head. But the Resident had ordered it, and it 
 could not be countermanded, without encourao^inir a 
 belief that there w^as a want of unanimity in British 
 councils. 
 
 So the besieging force inarched upon Mooltan, .ard 
 
THE DEFECTION OF SIIERE SINGH. 25 
 
 arrived before the city in higli health and excellent 184a. 
 spirits. On the 5th of September, in the name of the 
 Maharajah and Queen Victoria, the British General 
 summoned, the garrison to surrender. No answer was 
 returned to the summons, and. the siege commenced. 
 But on the 14fe^ when our guns were within breach- 
 ing distance of the walls of the town, Whish, to his 
 bitter mortification, was compelled to abandon the 
 siege. The Sikh force under Shere Singh had gone 
 over to the enemy. 
 
 This event had long been matter of anxious specu- 
 lation in the British camp, and now took no one by 
 surprise. It was known that the hearts of the soldiery 
 were with Moolraj ; but there was something of a 
 more doubtful character in the conduct of the Rajah 
 himself, who had on more than one occasion testified 
 his zeal and loyalty by voluntary acts of service in 
 our cause. In his ow^n camp, the Khalsa troops said 
 contemptuously, that he was a Mussulman. With 
 Edwardes he was outwardly on the best possible 
 terms ; spoke freely of the conduct of his father, 
 Chuttur Singh ; declared that he washed his hands 
 of all the old man's rebellious projects ; and candidly 
 avowed his mistrust of the Sikh troops. But in all 
 this he was playing a part. He had written to his 
 brother to say that he intended to go over to the 
 enemy on that very 14th of September, and he kept 
 his word to the letter. On the morning of that day, 
 the whole Durbar force sought entrance into the 
 city. Doubtful of the real nature of the movement, 
 Moolraj at first refused them admittance ; but soon 
 satisfied of their intentions, he opened his gates ; the 
 long dreaded and fatal junction was efifected ; and 
 th^. British General was under the mortifying neces- 
 sity of raising the siege of Mooltan. 
 
Si THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHQUSIE. 
 
 yns. The whole truth was now visible before the world. 
 
 It was impossible any longer to maintain the fiction 
 of a local rebellion, to pretend that the Lahore Go- 
 vernment, assisted by British troops, was endeavour- 
 ing to coerce a refractory subject. The very heads 
 of that Government were in open hostility to the 
 British, raising the standard of nationality in the 
 name of the Maharajah. It was obvious that the 
 war now about to be waged, was between the Britisli 
 and the Sikhs. Some hope was at one time to be 
 drawn from the fact of long-standing feuds among 
 the different Sikh families. Then there was the not 
 unreasonable conviction that the Mahomedan popu- 
 lation of the Punjab might easily be kept in a state 
 of enmity with the Sikhs. But these assurances soon 
 melted away. Hostile families and hostile religions 
 were content to unite for the nonce against the 
 Feringhees; and the Commander-in-Chief, as the 
 cold weather approached, was gratified by finding 
 that there had been no premature birth of victory — 
 that the work was yet to be done — and that an 
 army of twenty thousand men, under his personal 
 command, was required to take the field. 
 
 And from that time Mooltan ceased to be the focus 
 of rebellion and the head-quarters of the war. In 
 the Hazareh country Chuttur Singh had thrown off 
 all vestments of disguise, and plunged boldly into the 
 troubled waters that lay before him. The thoughts 
 of Shere Singh soon began to turn towards that 
 quarter — indeed, such had been his desire from the 
 first — and before the second week of October had 
 passed away, he had marched out of Mooltan to 
 join his father. The whole country was now rising 
 against us. Having used the name of the Maharajah, 
 the Sikh leaders were eager to possess themselves of 
 
MOVEMENTS OF THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL. 35 
 
 the person of tlie boy- King, and but for the vigilance 1811 
 of the Resident they would have achieved an object 
 which would have added a new element of strength 
 to the national cause. Duleep Singh remained in our 
 hands virtually a prisoner at Lahore. 
 
 All this time the Govern or- Gen era! was at Cal- 
 cutta, watching from a distance the progress of 
 events, and betraying no eagerness to seize a favour- 
 able opportunity for the conquest of the Punjab. In- 
 deed, it has been imputed to him, as a grave political 
 error, that he did not at an earlier period make due 
 preparation for the inevitable war. But, it would seem 
 that in the summer of 1848, his desire was to recog- 
 nise as long as possible only internal rebellion in the 
 Sikh country — to see, not the rising of a nation 
 against a foreign intruder, but the revolt of a few un- 
 loyal chiefs against their own lawful sovereign. But 
 with the first breath of the cool season there came a 
 truer conception of the crisis, and Lord Dalhousie pre- 
 pared himself for the conflict. " I have wished for 
 peace," he said, at a public entertainment, early in 
 October; "I have longed for it; I have striven for 
 it But if the enemies of India determine to have 
 war, war they shall have, and on my word they shall 
 have it with a vengeance." A few days afterwards 
 he turned his back upon Calcutta, and set his face 
 towards the north-west. All the energies of his 
 mind were then given to the prosecution of the war. 
 
 The British army destined for the re-conquest of 
 the Punjab assembled at Ferozepore, and crossed the 
 Sutlej in difl'erent detachments. On the 13th of 
 November the head-quarters reached Lahore. At 
 that time it could hardly be said that British influ- 
 ence extended a rood beyond the Residency walls. 
 In all parts of the country the Sikhs had risen against 
 
 d2 
 
36 THE ADMINISirwATlOii OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1S48. the great reproacli of the English Occupation. Id 
 many outlying places, on the confines of civilisa- 
 tion, our English officers were holding out. in th( 
 face of every conceivable difficulty and danger, with 
 constancy and resolution most chivalrous, most 
 heroic, hoping only to maintain, by their own per- 
 sonal gallantry, the character of the nation they re- 
 presented. There was, indeed, nothing more to be 
 done. We had ceased to be regarded as allies. S(; 
 eager and so general was the desire to expel thr 
 intruding Feringhee, that the followers of Govincl 
 sank for a time all feelings of national and religion: i 
 animosity against their Afghan neighbours, and in- 
 voked Mahomedan aid from the regions beyond the 
 passes of the Khyber. 
 
 On the 21st of November, Lord Gough joined the 
 army on the left bank of the Sutlej. A veteran com- 
 mander, who within the space of a few years ha<l 
 fought more battles in different parts of the world 
 than were crowded into the lives of most living war- 
 riors — a general whose uniform good fortune had 
 glossed over his want of forecast and science, and 
 whose repeated successes had silenced criticism — he 
 was now about to engage in military operations greater 
 than those of his antecedent campaigns, with, perhaps, 
 even less knowledge of the country and less considera- 
 tion of the probable contingencies of the war. But all 
 men had confidence in him. India had been won by 
 a series of military mistakes that would have dis- 
 graced an ensign before the examination period, and, 
 perhaps, would not have been won at all if we had 
 infused into our operations more of the pedantry of 
 military science. He was a soldier, and all who fougli L 
 under him honoured his grey hairs, and loved him 
 for his manly bearing, his fine frank character, and 
 
BAMNUGGUR. 37 
 
 even for the impetuosity which so often entangled 
 his legions in difficulties, and enhanced the cost of 
 the victories he gained. 
 
 The arrival of the Commander-in-Chief was the 
 sio^nal for the immediate commencement of hostilities. 
 The force then under his personal command consisted 
 of upwards of twenty thousand men, with nearly a 
 hundred pieces of artillery, and Gough was in no 
 temper for delay. On the day after his arrival in 
 camp was fought the battle of Ramnuggur, the first 
 of those disastrous successes which have given so 
 gloomy a character to the campaign. The enemy 
 had a strong masked battery on the other side of the 
 river, and very cleverly contrived to draw the British 
 troops into an ambuscade. The operations of the 
 Commander-in-Chief, commenced with the object of 
 driving a party of the rebels, who were on his side of 
 the Chenab, across the river, had the effect of bring- 
 ing his cavalry and artillery within reach of these con- 
 cealed guns ; and twenty-eight pieces of ordnance 
 opened upon our advancing columns. The cavalry 
 were ordered to move forward to the attack as soon 
 as an opportunity presented itself. They found an 
 opportunity, and charged a large body of the enemy, 
 the Sikh batteries pouring in their deadly showers all 
 the while. Many fell under the fire of the guns, many 
 under the sabre-cuts of the Sikh swordsmen, many 
 under the withering fire of a body of matchlockmen, 
 who, taking advantage of the nature of the ground, 
 harassed our horsemen sorely. Nothing was gained 
 by our " victory;" but we lost many brave and some 
 good soldiers ; and our troops returned to camp 
 weary and dispirited, asking what end they had ac- 
 complished, and sighing over the ^ost. 
 
 Some days afterwards a force ^^^der General Thack- 
 
38 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1848. well was sent out to cross the river, but being scantily 
 supplied with information, and grievously hampered 
 by instructions, it succeeded only in losing a few men 
 and killing several of the enemy. No great object 
 was gained, but great opportunities were sacrificed. 
 The Commander-in-Chief pompously declared that 
 " it had pleased Almighty God to vouchsafe to the 
 British arms the most successful issue to the extensive 
 combinations rendered necessary for the purpose of 
 effecting the passage of the Chenab, the defeat and 
 dispersion of the Sikh force under the insurgent 
 Rajah Shere Singh and the numerous Sikh Sirdars 
 who had the temerity to set at defiance the British 
 power." These " events, so fraught with importance," 
 were to "tend to most momentous results." The re- 
 sults were, that the field of battle was shifted from 
 the banks of the Chenab to the banks of the Jhelum. 
 The enemy, who might have been taken in rear, and 
 whose batteries might have been seized, if Thackwell 
 had been free to carry Out the most obvious tactics, 
 escaped with all their guns ; and on the 1 3th of 
 January bore bloody witness to the little they had 
 suffered, by fighting one of the greatest and most 
 sanguinary battles in the whole chronicle of Indian 
 warfare. 
 
 By this time Henry Lawrence had returned to the 
 Punjab. The news of the outbreak at Mooltan had 
 reached him in England, whilst still in broken health, 
 and had raised within him an incontrollable desire, 
 at any hazard, to return to his post. He had won 
 his spurs, and he was eager to prove that he was 
 Avorthy of them, even at the risk of life itself. It has 
 been said that he ought not to have quitted the Pun- 
 jab, and that if he had been at Lahore in the spring 
 of 1848, the war would not then have been preci- 
 
RETURN OiF HENRY LAWRENCE. 39 
 
 pitated by tlie rebellion of Moolraj, for ^' any one but 1848. 
 a civilian would have foreseen that to send Vans 
 Agnew and Anderson down to Mooltan at the time 
 and in the manner selected was almost sure to pro- 
 dace an ebullition of feeling and violence." But if Calcuttu 
 Lawrence had not gone to England at that time, he 
 would, in all human probability, have died ; and 
 though he might not have sent the same men to 
 Mooltan, he would have sent a mission there for the 
 same purpose. " I meant to have sent Arthur Cocks," 
 was his remark to the present writer, when the dis- 
 astrous news reached us in London. He saw at once 
 that the Mooltanee revolt was but the prelude to a 
 great national outbreak, and though his friends 
 trembled for his safety and counselled delay, his 
 strong sense of duty to the State overruled all per- 
 sonal considerations, and so he carried back his shat- 
 tered frame and his inexhaustible energies to the 
 scene of the coming conflict. Leaving London at 
 the end of October, he reached Bombay early in De- 
 cember, and pushing up the Lidus with characteristic 
 rapidity of movement, joined the camp of General 
 Whish, before the walls of Mooltan, two days after 
 the great festival of Christmas. 
 
 On the second day of the new year, Whish, rein- 1819. 
 forced from Bombay, carried the city of Mooltan. 
 Long and obstinate had been the resistance of the be- 
 sieged ; and now that our storming columns entered 
 tlie breach, the garrison still, at the bayonet's point, 
 showed the stufl* of which they were made. Frightful 
 had been the carnage during the siege. Heaps of 
 mangled bodies about the battered town bore ghastly 
 witness to the terrible effects of the British ordnance. 
 But many yet stood to be shot down or bayoneted in 
 the streets ; and the work of the besieging force was 
 
40 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1 849. yet far from its close. Moolraj was in the citadel wltli 
 some thousands of his best fighting-men ; and the 
 fort guns were plied as vigorously as before the cap- 
 ture of the town. The strength of this formidable 
 fortress seemed to laugh our breaching batteries to 
 scorn. Mining operations were, therefore, com- 
 menced; but carried on, as they were, beneath a 
 constant discharge from our mortars, it seemed little 
 likely that the enemy would wait to test the skill of 
 the engineers. The terrible shelling to which the 
 fortress was exposed dismayed the pent-up garrison. 
 By the 21st of January they were reduced to the last 
 extremity. Moolraj vainly endeavoured to rally his 
 followers. Their spirit was broken. There was no- 
 thing left for them but to make a desperate sally and 
 cut their way through the besiegers, or to surren- 
 der at once. The nobler alternative was rejected. 
 Asking only for his own life and the honour of his 
 women, Moolraj tendered on that day his submission 
 to the British General. Whish refused to guarantee 
 the first, but promised to protect the women ; and 
 on the following morning the garrison marched out 
 of Mooltan, and Dewan Moolraj threw himself upon 
 the mercy of the British Government. 
 
 Meanwhile, Henry Lawrence, having witnessed the 
 fall of the city of Mooltan, hastened upwards to Feroze- 
 pore, conveyed to Lord Dalhousie the first welcome 
 tidings of that event, took counsel with the Governor- 
 General, made himself master of the great man's 
 views, then hurried on to Lahore, communicated with 
 the Resident, and on the same evening pushed on to 
 the camp of the Commander-in-Chief, which he reached 
 on the night of the 10th of January. He was there 
 in no recognised ofiicial position, for Currie's tenure of 
 office did not expire until the beginning of the ensuing 
 
CHILLIANWALLAH. 41 
 
 : tiontli ; but he was ready for any kind of service, and 1849. 
 he placed himself at Lord Gough's disposal, as an 
 iionorary aide-de-camp, or any other subordinate 
 officer, in the fine army which was now stretching out 
 before him. 
 
 Three days after Lawrence's arrival in camp the 
 battle of Chillianwallah was fought. The time had 
 arrived when a far less impetuous general than Gough 
 might have deemed it incumbent on him to force the 
 Sikh army into a general action. It is true that the 
 final reduction of the fortress of Mooltan would have 
 liberated a large portion of Whish's column, and 
 greatly have added to the strength of the British 
 army on the banks of the Jhelum. But the Sikh 
 Sirdars, on this very account, were eager to begin the 
 battle, and would not have suffered us to wait for our 
 reinforcements. Gough already had a noble force 
 under him, equal to any service. It was panting for 
 action. There had been a lull of more than a 
 month's duration, and all through India there was a 
 feeling of impatience at the protracted delay. Gough, 
 therefore, prepared for action. Ascertaining the 
 nature of the country occupied by the Sikh army, 
 and the position of their troops, he planned his attack 
 upon sound tactical principles, and fully instructed 
 his generals in the several parts which they were 
 called upon to play. On the afternoon of the 13th 
 everything was ready, and the battle was to have been 
 commenced early on the foUoAving morning. But, 
 unwilling to give the British General the long hours 
 of the morrow's light, from daybreak to sunset, that 
 he wanted, to fight his battle according to approved 
 principles of modern warfare, the Sikh leaders, when 
 the day was far spent, determined, if possible, to 
 aggravate him into an immediate encounter. They 
 
42 THE iy)MmiSTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1849. knew their man. So they advanced a few guns, and 
 sent some round-shot booming in the direction of the 
 British camp. The bait took. The warm Hibernian 
 temperament of the British leader could not brook the 
 insult. He moved up his heavy guns, responded wath 
 some chance shots at the invisible enemy, and then, 
 there being little of the day left for his operations, 
 gave the command for his line to advance. 
 
 The story of what followed has been often told, and 
 it is not so gratifying a page of history that I need 
 care to repeat it. Night closed upon the fearful 
 carnage of that terrible engagement, and both armies 
 claimed the victory. What it cost us is written in 
 the Gazette. Never was an official bulletin received 
 in England with a wilder outcry of pain and passion. 
 The past services, the intrepid personal courage, the 
 open honest character, the many noble qualities of 
 the veteran Commander were forgotten in that burst 
 of popular indignation, and hundreds of English 
 families turned from the angry past to the fearful 
 future, and trembled as they thought that the crown- 
 ing action with that formidable enemy had yet to be 
 fought by a General so rash, so headstrong, and so 
 incompetent. 
 
 In the high places of Government there was uni- 
 versal discomposure, and the greatest military au- 
 thority in the country shook his head with an 
 ominous gesture of reproach. Then arose a wild 
 cry for Napier. The conqueror of the Beloochees was 
 sent out in hot haste to India to repair the mischief 
 that had been done by Gough, and to finish off the 
 war with the Sikhs in a proper workmanlike manner. 
 But the hottest haste could not wholly annihilate time 
 and space, and though this sudden supersession of the 
 brave old chief, who had fought so many battles and 
 
THE APGHAN ALLIANCE. . 43 
 
 WOT) SO many victories, miglit shame his grey hairs, it 1848 
 could not bring the war to a more rapid or a more 
 honourable close. The carnage of Chillianwallah 
 shook for a time the confidence of the army in their 
 chief, but it did not shake the courage of our fighting- 
 men, or destroy their inherent capacity for conquest. 
 It was a lesson, too, that must have scored itself into 
 the very heart of the British chief, and made him a 
 sadder man and a wiser commander. The errors of 
 the 13th of January were to be atoned for by a 
 victory which any leader might contemplate with 
 pride, and any nation with gratitude. Scarcely had 
 his appointed successor turned his back upon England 
 when Gough fought another great battle, which 
 neither Napier, nor Wellington himself, who talked of 
 going in his place, could have surpassed in vigour 
 of execution or completeness of efi*ect. 
 
 Anxiously was intelligence of the surrender of 
 Moolraj looked for in the camp of the Commander- 
 in-Chief Since that disastrous action at Chillian- 
 wallah, Gough had been entrenching his position, and 
 waiting reinforcements from Mooltan. The surrender 
 of that fortress set free some twelve thousand men, 
 and Whish, with unlooked-for rapidity, marched to 
 the banks of the Jhelum to swell the ranks of the 
 grand army. A great crisis was now approaching. 
 Thrice had the British and Sikh forces met each other 
 on the banks of those classical rivers which had seen 
 the triumphs of the Macedonian — thrice had they 
 met each other only to leave the issue of the contest 
 yet undecided. A great battle was now about to be 
 fought — one difi*ering from all that had yet been 
 fought since the Sikhs first crossed the Sutlej, for a 
 strange but not unlooked-for spectacle was about to 
 present itself — Sikhs and Afghans, those old heredi- 
 
44 , THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1849. tary enemies, fighting side by side against a common 
 foe. The Sikh Sirdars, I have said, had been in- 
 triguing to secure the assistance of the Ameer of 
 Cabool. For some time there appeared little like- 
 lihood that old Dost Mahomed, whose experience 
 ought to have brought wisdom with it, would lend 
 himself to a cause which, in spite of temporary suc- 
 cesses, was so sure to prove hopeless in the end. But 
 neither years, nor experience, nor adversity had 
 taught him to profit by the lessons he had learned. 
 The desire of repossessing himself of Peshawur was 
 the madness of a life. The bait was thrown out to 
 him, and he could not resist it. He came through 
 the Khybur with an Afghan force, marched upon the 
 Indus, and threatened Attock, which fell at his ap- 
 proach ; despatched one of his sons to the camp of 
 Shere Singh, and sent a body of Douranee troops to 
 fight against his old Feringhee enemy, who for years 
 had been the arbiter of his fate. How deplorable an 
 act of senile fatuity it was, the events of the 21st of 
 February must have deeply impressed upon his mind. 
 On that day was fought an action — was gained a 
 victory, in the emphatic words of the Governor- 
 General, " memorable alike from the greatness of the 
 occasion, and from the brilliant and decisive issue of 
 the encounter. For the first time, Sikh and Afghan 
 were banded together against the British power. It 
 was an occasion which demanded the putting forth of 
 all the means at our disposal, and so conspicuous a 
 manifestation of the superiority of our arms as should 
 appal each enemy, and dissolve at once their compact 
 by fatal proof of its futility. The completeness of the 
 victory which has been won equals the highest hopes 
 entertained." And there was no olficial exaggeration 
 in this ; none of the vain boasting of the interested 
 
GOOJRAT. 45 
 
 (lespatcli-writer. At Goojrat, to wliicli place the 1819, 
 enemy had unexpectedly moved their camp, Lord 
 Gough fought a great battle as a great battle ought 
 to be fought, coolly and deliberately, by a British 
 Commander. Every arm of his fine force was brought 
 effectively into play; each in its proper place, each 
 supporting and assisting the others, and each covering 
 itself with glory. From the early dawn of that clear 
 bright morning the cannonade commenced. Never 
 had the Bengal Artillery made a nobler display ; 
 never had it been worked with more terrible effect. 
 Resolute and well handled as was the Sikh army, it 
 could not stand up against the steady fire of our guns. 
 By noon the enemy were retreating in terrible dis- 
 order, "their position carried, their guns, ammuni- 
 tion, camp equipage, and baggage captured, their 
 flying masses driven before their victorious pursuers, 
 from mid- day receiving most severe punishment in 
 their flight." And all this was accomplished with 
 but little loss of life on the side of the victorious 
 army. It pleased the Almighty that the bloody 
 lessons of the Chenab and the Jhelum should not 
 be thrown away. 
 
 A division under Sir Walter Gilbert, an oflficer of 
 great personal activity, unequalled in the saddle, was 
 ordered to follow up the success of Goojrat, and to 
 drive the Afghans from the Punjab. And well did he 
 justify the choice of his chief. By a series of rapid 
 marches, scarcely excelled by any recorded in history, 
 he convinced the enemy of the hopelessness of ail 
 further resistance. The Barukzye force fled before 
 our advancing columns, and secured the passage of 
 the Khybur before British influence could avail to 
 close it against the fugitives. By the Sikhs tliem- 
 .^elves the game had clearly been played out. The 
 
45 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1849. Khalsa was now quite broken. There was nothing 
 left for Shere Singh and his associates but to trust 
 themselves to the clemency of the British Govern- 
 ment. On the 5th of March, the Rajah sent the 
 British prisoners safely into Gilbert's camp. On the 
 8th, he appeared in person to make arrangements for 
 the surrender of his followers , and on the 14th, the 
 remnant of the Sikh army, some sixteen thousand 
 men, including thirteen Sirdars of note, laid down 
 their arms at the feet of the British General. 
 
 The military chief had now done his work, and it 
 was time for the appearance of the Civil Governor on 
 the scene. Lord Dalhousie was on the spot prepared 
 for immediate action. Already was his portfolio 
 weighty with a proclamation which was to determine 
 the fate of the empire of Runjeet Singh. I do not 
 suppose that a moment's doubt ever obscured the 
 clear, unsullied surface of the Governor- General's re- 
 solution. It was a case which suggested no misgivings 
 and prompted no hesitation. The Sikhs had staked 
 everything on the issue of the war, and they had lost 
 it in fair fight. They had repaid by acts of treachery 
 and violence the forbearance and moderation of tlie 
 British Government. We had tried to spare them ; 
 but they would not be spared. First one course, 
 then another, had been adopted in the hope that 
 eventually a strong native Government might be esta- 
 blished, able to control its own subjects, and willing 
 to live on terms of friendly alliance with its neigh- 
 bours. Our policy had from the first been wholly 
 unaggressive. There was no taint of avarice or ambi- 
 tion in it. But it had not been appreciated ; it had 
 not been successful. The whole system had collapsed. 
 And now that again a British ruler was called upon 
 to solve the great problem of the Future of the 
 
THE FATE OF DULEEP SINGH. 47 
 
 Punjab, he felt that there was no longer any middle 1849. 
 course open to him ; that there was but one measure 
 applicable to the crisis that had arisen ; and that 
 measure was the annexation of the country to the 
 territories of the British Empire. So a Proclamation 
 was issued announcing that the kingdom founded by 
 Runjeet Singh had passed under British rule : and 
 the wisdom and righteousness of the edict few men 
 are disposed to question. 
 
 The last Sikh Durbar was held at Lahore. The fj'''^'^' 20. 
 fiat of the British conqueror was read aloud, in the 
 presence of the young Maharajah, to the remnant of 
 the chiefs who had not committed themselves by open 
 rebellion ; and a paper of Terms was then produced 
 by which the British Government bound themselves 
 to pay the annual sum of forty or fifty thousand 
 pounds to the boy-Prince and his family,* so long as 
 he should remain faithful to his new master and 
 abide by his sovereign will. It was a happy change 
 for Duleep Singh, born as he was for the Sikh 
 shambles; for in his new state he had abundant 
 wealth, perfect safety, freedom from all care, and the 
 insurpassable blessing of a saving faith. Becoming, 
 in his twelfth year, the ward of the Governor-General, 
 he was placed under the immediate tutelage of an 
 Assistant-Surgeon of the Bengal Army,f who was so 
 fit a man for the ofiice, so worthy of the confidence 
 reposed in him, that the little Sikh Prince, under his 
 wise ministrations, developed into a Christian gentle- 
 man, an English courtier, and a Scotch laird. And 
 it may be recorded here, before I pass on to the his- 
 tory of British rule in the Punjab, that the mother 
 
 * This is not the loose diction of less tlian four, or more than five, 
 doubt. The agreement was, that the lakhs of rupees. 
 British Government should pay not f Afterwards Sir Johu Login. 
 
48 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1S49. of Duleep Singh, the widow of old Runjeet, that rest- 
 less, turbulent Chund Kowr, whose intrigues did 5^.0 
 much to precipitate the fall of the Sikh Empire, after 
 a series of strange romantic vicissitudes, prematurely 
 old, well-nigh blind, broken and subdued in spirit, 
 found a resting-place at last under the roof of her 
 
 1863. son, in a quiet corner of an English castle, and died 
 in a London suburb. 
 
 1849. The Proclamation which turned the Punjab into 
 
 lion^oFtlie ^ British province was not the only weighty State- 
 Punjab, paper in the portfolio of the Governor- General. 
 Whilst Gough had been preparing to strike the last 
 crushing blow at the military power of the Khalsa, 
 Dalhousie, with Henry Elliot at his elbow, never 
 doubting the issue, was mapping out the scheme oj 
 administration under which it seemed good to him tc 
 govern the country which was about to pass undei 
 our rule. The crowning victory of Goojrat found 
 everything devised and prepared to the minutest 
 detail. The men were ready; the measures were 
 defined. There was no hurry, therefore — no con- 
 fusion. Every one fell into his appointed place, and 
 knew what he had to do. And never had any 
 Governor better reason to place unbounded confi- 
 dence in the men whom he employed ; never was any 
 Governor more worthily served. 
 
 The country which had thus fallen by right of 
 conquest into our hands embraced an area of fift} 
 thousand square miles, and contained a popula- 
 tion of four millions of inhabitants. These inhabi- 
 tants were Hindoos, Mahomedans, and Sikhs. The 
 last were a new people — a sect of reformed Hindoos, 
 of a purer faith than the followers of the Brahminical 
 superstitions. It was a Sikh Government that we 
 
THE PUNJAB AND ITS PEOrLE. 49 
 
 had supplanted; and mainly a Sikli army that we ^^^^ 
 had conquered ; but it must not be supposed that 
 Punjabee is synonimous with Sikh, that the country 
 was peopled from one end to the other with the fol- 
 lowers of Nanuk and Govind, or that they were the 
 ancient dwellers on the banks of those five legendary 
 rivers. The cities of the Punjab were Mahomedan 
 cities ; cities founded, perhaps, ere Mahomed arose, 
 enlarged and beautified by the followers of the Ghuz- 
 nivite. The monuments were mainly Mahomedan 
 monuments, with traces here and there of Grecian 
 occupation and Bactrian rule. Before Delhi had 
 risen into the imperial city of the Moguls, Lahore 
 had been the home of Indian kings. But the rise of 
 the Sikh power was cotemporaneous with our own, 
 and the apostles of the new Reformation had not 
 numbered among their converts more than a section 
 of the people. And as was the population, so was 
 the country itself, of a varied character. Tracts of 
 rich cultivated la^nds, the corn-field and the rose- 
 garden, alternated with the scorched plain and the 
 sandy desert. Here, as far as the eye could reach, a 
 dreary level of jungle and brushwood ; there, a mag- 
 nificent panorama, bounded by the blue ranges and 
 the snowy peaks of the Himalayah. And ever the 
 great rivers as they flowed suggested to the cultured 
 mind of the English scholar thoughts of that grand 
 old traditionary age, when Porus fought, and Alex- 
 ander conquered, and Megasthenes wrote, and the 
 home-sick Argive, on the banks of those fabulous 
 streams, sighed for the pleasant country he had left, 
 and rebelled against his leader and his fate. It was 
 a country full of interest and full of opportunity ; 
 and it grew at once into the pet province of the 
 
 £ 
 
50 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 iH9. British Viceroy, tlie youngest and the most hopeful 
 of all. 
 
 That a country so situated, so circumstanced, and 
 so peopled, should not be brought under the system 
 of administration prevailing in our long-settled pro- 
 vinces was a mere matter of course. But Dalhousie 
 had no disposition to rush into the opposite extreme 
 of a purely military government. He had at no time 
 of his career any class prejudices, and he did not 
 see why soldiers and civilians should not work har- 
 moniously together in the administrative agency of 
 the province. He had faith in both ; each in his ap- 
 pointed place ; for there was rough soldiers' work to 
 be done, and much also that needed the calm judg- 
 ment and the tutored eye of the experienced civilian. 
 So he called in the aid of a mixed Staff of civil and 
 military officers, and at the head of this he placed a 
 Board of Administration, presided over by Henry 
 Lawrence.* 
 
 The Board was to consist of three members, with 
 secretaries to do the pen-work of the administration, 
 and to scatter its instructions among the subordinate 
 functionaries of the province. It was not a control- 
 ling authority which a man of Dalhousie's stamp was 
 likely to affect ; scarcely, indeed, could he be sup- 
 posed to tolerate it. But he could not set aside the 
 great claims of Henry Lawrence, nor, indeed, could 
 he safely dispense with his services in such a con- 
 juncture ; yet he was unwilling to trust to that honest, 
 pure-minded, soldier-statesman the sole direction of 
 affairs. The fact is that, with a refinement of the 
 justice and moderation which were such conspicuous 
 features of Henry's character, he dissented from the 
 
 * Sir Frederick Currie had by this time resumed his seat in the Su- 
 preme Council of India, 
 
JOHN LAWREXCE. 51 
 
 policy of annexation. He tliouglit that another effort 1849. 
 might have been made to save the Sikh Empire from 
 destruction. Out of this difficulty arose the project of 
 the Board. It was natural that Dalhousie should have 
 desired to associate with one thus minded some other 
 statesman whose views were more in harmony with 
 his own. A Board of two is, under no circumstances, 
 a practicable institution ; so a Triumvirate was esta- 
 blished. But sentence of death was written down 
 against it from the very hour of its birth. 
 
 The second seat at the Board was given to the 
 President's brother, John Lawrence. An officer of 
 the Company's Civil Service, he had achieved a high 
 reputation as an administrator ; as one of those hard- 
 working, energetic, conscientious servants of the State, 
 who live ever with the harness on their back, to whom 
 labour is at once a duty and a delight, who do every- 
 thing in a large unstinting way, the Ironsides of the 
 Public Service. He had taken, in the earlier stages 
 of his career, an active part in the Revenue Settlement 
 of the North- Western Provinces, and had subsequently 
 been appointed Magistrate of the great imperial city 
 of Delhi, with its crowded, turbulent population, and 
 its constant under-current of hostile intrigue. In this 
 post, winning the confidence of men of all classes and 
 all creeds. Lord Hardinge found him when, in 1845, 
 he journeyed upwards to join the army of the Sutlej. 
 There was an openness, a frankness about him that 
 pleased the old soldier, and a large-hearted zeal and 
 courage which proclaimed him a man to be employed 
 in a post of more than common difficulty, beyond the 
 circle of ordinary routine. So, after the campaign on 
 the Sutle], when the Jullindur Doab was taken in part 
 payment of the charges of the war, John Lawrence 
 was appointed to superintend the administration of 
 
 e2 
 
52 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1849. that tract of country ; and on more than one occasion, 
 during the enforced absence of Henry from Lahore, in 
 the first two years of the British Protectorate, he had 
 occupied his brother's seat at the capital, and done his 
 work with unvaried success. That there were great 
 characteristic differences between the two Lawrences 
 will be clearly indicated as I proceed ; but in unsullied 
 honesty and intrepid manliness, they were the counter- 
 parts of each other. Both were equally without a 
 stain. 
 
 The third member of the Lahore Board of Admini- 
 stration was Mr. Charles Grenville Mansel, also a cove- 
 nanted civilian, who had earned a high reputation as 
 one of the ablest financiers in India, and who supplied 
 much of the knowledge and experience which his col- 
 leagues most lacked. His honesty was of as fine a 
 temper as theirs, but he was a man rather of thought 
 than of action, and wanted the constitutional robust- 
 ness of his associates in ofiice. Perhaps his very pecu- 
 liarities, rendering him, as it were, the complement of 
 the other two, especially marked him out as the third 
 of that remarkable triumvirate. Regarded as a whole, 
 with reference to the time and circumstances of its 
 creation, the Board could not have been better con- 
 stituted. It did honour to the sagacity of Lord 
 Dalhousie, and fully justified the choice of agents 
 he had made. 
 
 The system was one of divided labour and common 
 responsibility. On Henry Lawrence devolved what 
 was technically called the "political" work of the 
 Government. The disarming of the country, the 
 negotiations with the chiefs, the organisation of the 
 new Punjabee regiments, the arrangements for the 
 education of the young Maharajah, who had now be- 
 come the ward of the British Government, were among 
 
THE PUx\JABEE OFFICIALS. 53 
 
 the immediate duties to which he personally devoted 1849. 
 himself'; the chief care of John Lawrence was the 
 civil administration, especially the settlement of the 
 Land Revenue; whilst Mansel superintended the 
 general judicial management of the province ; each, 
 however, aiding the others with his advice, and having 
 a potential voice in the general Council. Under these 
 chief officers were a number of subordinate adminis- 
 trators of different ranks, drawn partly from the civil 
 and partly from the military service of the Company. 
 The province Avas divided into seven divisions, and to 
 each of these divisions-a Commissioner was appointed. 
 Under each of these Commissioners were certain 
 Deputy- Commissioners, varying in number according 
 to the amount of business to be done; whilst under 
 them again were Assistant- Commissioners and Extra 
 Assistants, drawn from the uncovenanted servants of 
 Government — Europeans, Indo-Britons, or natives of 
 pure descent. 
 
 The officers selected for the principal posts under 
 the Lahore Board of Administration were the very 
 flower of the Indian services. Dalhousie had thrown 
 his whole heart into the work which lay before him. 
 Resolved that it should not be marred by the in- 
 efficiency of his agents, he looked about him for men 
 of mark and likelihood, men in the vigour of their 
 years, men of good performance for the higher posts, 
 and sturdy, eager-spirited youths of good promise for 
 the lower. It mattered not to him whether the good 
 stuff were draped in civil black or military red. Far 
 above all petty prejudices of that kind, the Governor- 
 General swept up his men with an eye only to the 
 work that was in them, and sent them forth to do his 
 bidding. Some had already graduated in Punjabee 
 administration under the Protectorate ; others crossed 
 
54 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 18^9. the Sutlej for the first time with honours taken under 
 Thomason and his predecessors in the North- West 
 Provinces. And among them were such men as George 
 Edmonstone, Donald Macleod, and Robert Mont- 
 gomery from the one service ; Frederick Mackeson 
 and George Macgregor from the other ; such men, 
 besides those already named,* as Richard Temple, Ed- 
 ward Thornton, Neville Chamberlain, George Barnes, 
 Lewin Bowring, Philip Goldney, and Charles Saun- 
 ders; soldiers and civilians working side by side, 
 without a feeling of class jealousy, in the great work 
 of reconstructing the administration of the Punjab 
 and carrying out the executive details ; whilst at the 
 head of the department of Public Works was Robert 
 Napier, in whom the soldier and the man of science 
 met together to make one of the finest Engineer 
 officers in the world. 
 
 They found much to do, but little to undo. The 
 Government of Runjeet Singh had been of a rude, 
 simple, elementary character; out of all rule; in- 
 formal; unconstitutional; unprincipled; one great 
 despotism and a number of petty despotisms ; accord- 
 ing to our English notions, reeking with the most 
 " frightful injustice." But somehow or other it had 
 answered the purpose. The injustice was intelligible 
 injustice, for it was simply that of the strong ^vill 
 and the strong hand crushed down in turn by one 
 still stronger. Petty governors, revenue-farmers, or 
 kardars might oppress the people and defraud the 
 State, but they knew that, sooner or later, a day of 
 reckoning would come when their accounts would be 
 audited by the process of compulsory disgorgement, 
 
 * Anie, p. 12. I have here named Others there were, appointed at a 
 only those distinguished during the later period, equally entitled to ho- 
 earlier period of our Punjabee career, uourable mention. 
 
THE PUNJAB SYSTEM. 55 
 
 or in some parts of the country settled in the noose of 1849. 
 the proconsular gibbet. No niceties of conscience and 
 no intricacies of law opposed an obstacle to these 
 summary adjustments. During the existence of that 
 great fiction the Council of Regency, we had begun to 
 systematise and to complicate affairs ; and as we had 
 found — at least, as far as we understood the matter — 
 a clear field for our experiments, we now, on assuming 
 undisguisedly the administration of the country, had 
 a certain basis of our o^vn to operate upon, and little 
 or nothing to clear away. 
 
 The system of administration now introduced into 
 the Punjab, formal and precise as it may have been 
 when compared with the rude simplicity of the old 
 Sikh Government, was loose and irregular in com- 
 parison with the strict procedure of the Regulation 
 Provinces. The administrators, whether soldiers or 
 civilians, were limited to the discharge of no par- 
 ticular departmental functions. They were judges, 
 revenue-collectors, thief-catchers, diplomatists, con- 
 servancy ofiicers, and sometimes recruiting Serjeants 
 and chaplains, all in one. Men trained in such a school 
 as this, and under such masters as the Lawrences, 
 became equal to any fortune, and in no conjuncture, 
 however critical, were ever likely to fail. There 
 was hardly one among them who did not throw his 
 whole heart into his work; who ever thought of ease, 
 or leisure, or any personal enjoyment beyond that 
 which comes from an honest sense of duty done. 
 They lived among the people of the country, their 
 tents open to all the points of the compass;* and 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm used to say here is a pleasant illustrative proof, 
 
 tliat tlie only way to govern the from a paper v;rritten by one of them : 
 
 people of a newly-acquired country — " For eight months in the year the 
 
 was by means of c/iar durwaseh kolah, tent is the proper home of him who 
 
 or four doors open. That the Pun- loves his duties and his people. Thus 
 
 jabee officials well understood this, he comes to know and be known of 
 
66 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1849. won by their personal bearing the confidence and the 
 admiration of all who came within their reach. 
 
 And so, far sooner than even sanguine men ven- 
 tured to predict, the Punjab began to settle down 
 under its new rulers. Even the old Khalsa fighting- 
 men accepted their position, and with a manly resig- 
 nation looking cheerfully at the inevitable, confessed 
 that they had been beaten in fair fight, and submitted 
 themselves to the English conqueror. Some were 
 enlisted into the new Punjabee Irregular Regiments, 
 which were raised for the internal defence of the pro- 
 vince. Others betook themselves, with the pensions 
 or gratuities which were bestowed upon them, to their 
 fields, and merged themselves into the agricultural 
 population. There was no fear of any resurrection 
 of the old national cause. For whilst the people were 
 forced to surrender all their weapons of war — their 
 guns, their muskets, their bayonets, their sabres, their 
 spears — the whole province was bristling with British 
 arms. An immense military force was maintained in 
 the Punjab. It was a happy circumstance that, as 
 the Indus had now become our boundary and the 
 country of the Sikhs our frontier province, it was 
 necessary for purposes of external defence, after the 
 apparent settling down of our newly-acquired terri- 
 tories, still to keep our regular troops, European and 
 native, at a strength more than sufiicient to render 
 utterly harmless all the turbulent elements of Pun- 
 jabee society. Had the British army been withdrawn 
 
 them; thus personal influence and and almonds, according to the fashion 
 local knowledge give him a power of their country, and are never so 
 not to be won by bribes or upheld happy as when allowed to seat tiiem- 
 by bayonets. The notables of the selves on the carpet and talk over 
 '.leighbourhood meet their friend and old times and new events — the pro- 
 ruler on his morning march ; grey- mise of the harvest and the last 
 beards throng round his unguarded orders of the rulers." — Calcutta Re- 
 door with presents of the best fruits view^ vol. xxxiii. 
 of the land, or a little sugar, spices, 
 
THE SIKH SIRDARS. 57 
 
 from the Punjab, as at a later period it was from 1849. 
 Oude, it is hard to say what might not have resulted 
 from our confidence and incaution. 
 
 On the acquisition of a new country and the ex- 
 tinction of an old dynasty, it has commonly happened 
 that the chief suiferers by the revolution have been 
 found among the aristocracy of the land. The great 
 masses of the people have been considerately, indeed 
 generously treated, but the upper classes have been 
 commonly prostrated by the annexing hand, and have 
 never recovered from the blow. This may be partly 
 attributed to what is so often described as the "in- 
 evitable tendency" of such a change from a bad to a 
 good government. It has been assumed that the men 
 whom we have found in the enjoyment of all the 
 privileges of wealth and social position, have risen to 
 this eminence by spoliation and fraud, and maintained 
 it by cruelty and oppression. And it is true that the 
 antecedents of many of them would not bear a very- 
 jealous scrutiny. Now, so far as the substitution of a 
 strong and pure for a weak and corrupt government 
 must necessarily have checked the prosperous career 
 of those who were living on illicit gains and tyran- 
 nous exactions, it was, doubtless, the inevitable ten- 
 dency of the change to injure, if not to ruin them, as 
 the leaf must perish when the stem dies. But it must 
 be admitted that for some years past the idea of a 
 native aristocracy had been an abomination in the eyes 
 of English statesmen in India ; that we had desired 
 to see nothing between the Sircar, or Government, 
 and the great masses of the people ; and that, how- 
 ever little we might have designed it, we had done 
 some great wrongs to men, whose misfortune, rather 
 than whose fault, it was that they were the growth of 
 a corrupt system. There was at the bottom af this a 
 
58 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 3849. strong desire for the welfare of the people — an eager 
 and a generous longing to protect the weak against 
 the tyranny of the strong; but benevolence, like 
 ambition, sometimes overleaps itself, and falls prostrate 
 on the other side, and out of our very love of justice 
 come sometimes unjust deeds. 
 
 To the great chiefs of the Punjab the annexation 
 of the country to the British Empire was a source ot 
 sore disquietude.* Mercy to the vanquished in the 
 hour of victory was not one of the weaknesses they 
 had been accustomed to contemplate. They had 
 played for a great stake, and they had lost. They 
 had brought their losses on themselves. They had 
 invited by their own acts the conflict which had 
 ruined them. In no one instance had our policy 
 been aggressive. We had not coveted the possession 
 of the Punjab. We had not invited either the 
 first or the second great conflict between the British 
 and the Sikh armies. A brave nation fio^htino; for 
 its independence is one of the noblest spectacles 
 of humanity; and the leaders of such a movement 
 have just claim to sympathy and respect. But these 
 men had risen against us whilst they pretended to 
 be our friends. They had soiled their patriotism 
 by treachery, and forfeited their honour by false- 
 hood and deceit. Still, to a man of large mind and 
 catholic spirit like Henry Lawrence, it could not 
 seem right to judge these Sirdars as he would the 
 
 * This was admitted in the first thusiasm, cannot return to the ordi- 
 
 Punjab Report, the following pas- nary level of society and the common 
 
 sage of which may be advantageously occupations of life without feeling 
 
 quoted : — " A great revolution can- some discontent and some enmity 
 
 not happen witiiout injuring some against their powerful but humane 
 
 classes. When a State falls, its conquerors. But it is probable that 
 
 nobility and its supporters must to the mass of the people will advance 
 
 some extent suffer with it ; a domi- in material prosperity and in moral 
 
 nant sect and party once moved by elevation under the influence of 
 
 political ambition and religious en- British rule." 
 
JAGHEERS AND TENSIONS. 59 
 
 flower of European cliivalry. So lie dealt gently 1849. 
 with tlieir offences ; and when he came to consider 
 their position under the new Government, he re- 
 spected their fallen fortunes, and laid a lighter hand 
 upon their tenures than higher authority was alto- 
 gether willing to sanction. That a large portion of 
 the revenue would be alienated by grants to military 
 chiefs and to priestly sinecurists was certain ; not 
 less certain did it appear that the money might be 
 better bestowed. Still, it might be politic, even in 
 a financial aspect, to tolerate for a time abuses of 
 this kind, as not the most expensive means of re- 
 conciling the influential classes to our rule. Thus 
 argued Henry Lawrence. So these privileged classes 
 received from him, in many instances, though not all 
 that he wished to give, more perhaps than they had 
 dared to expect. Existing incumbents were generally 
 respected; and the privileges enjoyed by one gene- 
 ration were to be only partially resumed in the next. 
 Thus, by a well-apportioned mixture of vigour and 
 clemency, the submission, if not the acquiescence, of 
 the more dangerous classes was secured ; and our 
 administrators were left, undisturbed by the fear of 
 internal revolt, to prosecute their ameliorative mea- 
 sures. It would be beyond the scope of such a nar- 
 rative as this to write in detail of the operations 
 which were carried out, under the Lahore Board, at 
 once to render British rule a blessing to the people, 
 and the possession of the Punjab an element of 
 strength and security to the British Empire. These 
 great victories of peace are reserved for others to 
 record. That the measures were excellent, that the 
 men were even better than the measures, that the 
 administration of the Punjab was a great fact, at 
 which Englishmen pointed with pride and on which 
 
60 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1349. foreigners dwelt with commendation, is freely ad- 
 mitted, even by those who are not wont to see much 
 that is good in the achievements of the British 
 Government in India. Under the fostering care of 
 the Govern or- General, who traversed the country 
 from one end to the other, and saw everything with 
 his own eyes, the " Punjab system" became the 
 iashion, and men came to speak and to write of it as 
 though it were a great experiment in government 
 originated by Lord Dalhousie. But it w^as not a new 
 system. It had been tried long years before, with 
 marked success, and was still in force in other parts 
 of India, though it had never been carried out on so 
 large a scale, or in so fine a country, or been the 
 darling of a viceroy. The only novelty in the con- 
 struction of the administration was the Lahore Board, 
 and that was abandoned as a failure. 
 
 I do not say that it was a failure ; but it was so 
 regarded by Lord Dalhousie, who, in 1853, remorse- 
 lessly signed its death-warrant. A delicate operation, 
 indeed, was the breaking up of the Punjabee Cabinet 
 and the erection of an autocracy in its place. It was 
 the will of the Governor-General that the chief direc- 
 tion of affairs should be consigned to the hands, not 
 of many, but of one. And when the rumour of this 
 resolution went abroad, there was scarcely a house, or 
 a bungalow, or a single-poled tent occupied by an 
 English officer, in which the future of the Punjab — 
 the question of the Lawrences — ^was not eagerly dis- 
 cussed. Was Henry or was John Lawrence to re- 
 main supreme director of affairs ? So much was to 
 be said in favour of the great qualities of each 
 brother, that it was difficult to arrive at any antici- 
 patory solution of the question. But it was in the 
 
ABOLITION OF THE BOARD. 61 
 
 character of the Governor- General himself that the 1S33, 
 key to the difficulty should have been sought. Lord 
 Hardinge would have chosen Henry Lawrence. Lord 
 Dalhousie chose John. No surprise is now expressed 
 that it was so ; for, in these days, the character and 
 policy of Dalhousie are read by the broad light of 
 history. No regret is now felt that it was so ; for, 
 when the great hurricane of which I am about to 
 write swept over India, each of those two great 
 brothers was, by God's providence, found in his 
 right place. But there were many at the time who 
 grieved that the name of Henry Lawrence, who 
 had been for so many years associated with all their 
 thoughts of British influence in the Sikh country, and 
 who had paved the way to all our after su,ccesses, 
 was to be expunged from the list of Punjabee admi- 
 nistrators. It was said that he sympathised overmuch 
 with the fallen state of Sikhdom, and sacrificed the 
 revenue to an idea ; that he was too eager to provide 
 for those who suffered by our usurpation ; whilst Dal- 
 housie, deeming that the balance-sheet would be re- 
 garded as the great test and touchstone of success, was 
 eager to make the Punjab pay. John Lawrence, it 
 was said, better understood the art of raising a revenue. 
 He was willing, in his good brotherly heart, to with- 
 draw from the scene in favour of Henrv ; but the Go- 
 vernor- General needed his services. So he was ap- 
 pointed Chief-Commissioner of the Punjab, and a 
 new theatre was found for the exercise of Henry 
 Lawrence's more chivalrous benevolence among the 
 ancient states of Rajpootana. 
 
 Outwardly, authoritatively, and not untruthfully, 
 the explanation was, that the work of the soldier-states- 
 man was done, that the transition-period in which 
 
62 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1613. Henry Lawrence's services were so especially needed 
 had passed ; that the business of internal administra- 
 tion was principally such as comes within the range 
 of the civil officer's duties ; and that a civilian with 
 large experience, especially in revenue matters, was 
 needed to direct all the numerous details of the Exe- 
 cutive Government. Dalhousie never liked the Board. 
 It was not a description of administrative agency 
 likely to find favour in his eyes ; and it is not impos- 
 sible that he placed, with some reluctance, at the 
 head of it a man who had not approved the original 
 policy of annexation. But he could not have read 
 Henry Lawrence's character so badly as to believe 
 for a moment that, on that account, the policy once 
 accomplished, he could have been less eager for its 
 success, or less zealous in working it out. There was 
 the indication, however, of a fundamental difference of 
 opinion, which as time advanced became more and 
 more apparent, for Henry's generous treatment of his 
 fallen enemies came from that very source of enlarged 
 sympathy which rendered the policy of annexation dis- 
 tasteful to him. It was natural, therefore, that the 
 Governor-General, who had resolved to rid himself 
 of the Board on the first fitting opportunity, should 
 have selected as the agent of his pet policy, the 
 administrator of his pet province, the civilian who 
 concurred with, rather than the soldier who dis- 
 sented from, his views. The fitting opportunity 
 came at last, for there was a redistribution of some 
 of the higher political offices;* and Dalhousie then 
 
 * The Hyderabad Residency was bered) that either lie or bis brother 
 about to be vacated. It was an should be sent to Hyderabad. Lord 
 office that had been held by Sir Dalhousie, however, sent General 
 Charles Metcalfe and other eminent Low to the Court of the Nizam, and 
 men. 1 believe that Henry Law- gave Henry Lawrence the scarcely 
 rence suggested (for the days of the less honourable appointment of Go- 
 Board had been for some time num- vernor-General's agent in Raj pootana. 
 
HENRY AND JOHN LAWRENCE. 63 
 
 swept away tlie obnoxious institution, and placed the i?^3* 
 administration of the Punjab in the hands of a single 
 man. 
 
 Henry Lawrence bowed to the decision, but was not 
 reconciled to it. He betook himself to his new duties 
 a sadder and a wiser man. He did not slacken in 
 good service to the State ; but he never again had the 
 same zest for his work. Believing that he had been 
 unfairly and ungratefully treated, he had no longer 
 his old confidence in his master, and as the Dalhousie 
 policy developed itself, under the ripening influence 
 of time, he saw more clearly that he was not one to 
 find favour in the eyes of the Governor- General. 
 Much that he had before but dimly seen and partly 
 understood now became fully revealed to him in the 
 clear light of day. Once, and once only, there was 
 any official conflict ; but Henry Lawrence saw much 
 that whilst he deplored he could not avert, and he 
 sighed to think that his principles were out of date 
 and his politics out of fashion. 
 
 In the mean while, John La^vrence reigned in the 
 Punjab. The capacity for administration, which he 
 had evin(ied as a Member of the Board, had now free 
 scope for exercise, and was soon fully developed. His 
 name became great throughout the land, and he de- 
 served the praise that was lavished upon him. Right 
 or wrong he did all in accordance with the faith 
 that was in him. He was a fitting agent of Dalhousie's 
 policy, only because he believed in that policy. And 
 happily the greater part of his work lay along the 
 straight road of undebatable beneficence. How he 
 worked, day after day, early and late, and how all 
 men worked under him, is a history now well known. 
 He was emphatically a man without a weakness. 
 Strong himself, bone and muscle, head and heart, of 
 
64 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1853. adamantine strength, that would neither bend nor 
 break, he expected others to be equally strong. 
 They sighed, perhaps they inwardly protested, but 
 they knew that the work he exacted from them he 
 gave, in his own person, unstintingly to the State : 
 and they could not regard as a hard task-master one 
 who tasked himself hardest of all. From moral in- 
 firmities of all kinds he appeared to be equally free. 
 He did not even seem to be ambitious. Men said that 
 he had no sentiment, no romance. We so often judge 
 our neighbours wrongly in this, that I hesitate to 
 adopt the opinion ; but there was an intense reality 
 about him such as I have never seen equalled. He 
 seemed to be continually toiling onwards, upwards, 
 as if life were not meant for repose, with the grand 
 princely motto, ^' / sej^ve,'' inscribed in characters of 
 light on his forehead. He served God as unceasingly 
 as he served the State ; and set before all his country- 
 men in the Punjab the true pattern of a Christian 
 gentleman. 
 
 And it was not thrown away. The Christian cha- 
 racter of British administration in the Punjab has 
 ever been one of its most distinguishing features. It 
 is not merely that great humanising measures were 
 pushed forward with an alacrity most honourable to 
 a Christian nation — that the moral elevation of the 
 people was continually in the thoughts of our ad- 
 ministrators ; but that in their own personal cha- 
 racters they sought to illustrate the religion which 
 they professed. Wherever two or three were gathered 
 together, the voice of praise and prayer went up from 
 the white man's tent. It had been so during the Pro- 
 tectorate, when, in tlie wildest regions and in the 
 most stirring times, men like the Lawrences, Reynell 
 Taylor, and Herbert Edwardes, never forgot the 
 
THE BURMESE. 65 
 
 Cbvistiaii Sabbath.* And now tbat peace and order 135 j, 
 reigned over the country, Christianity asserted itself ,^ 
 more demonstratively, and Christian churches rose atj 
 our bidding. There was little or none, too, of that 
 great scandal which had made our names a hissing 
 and a reproach in Afghanistan. Our English officers, 
 for the most part, lived pure lives in that heathen 
 land ; and private immorality under the administra- 
 tion of John Lawrence grew into a grave public 
 offence. 
 
 And so the Punjab administration flourished under Conquest of 
 the Chief-Commissioner and his assistants ;y and the °^* 
 active mind of Lord Dalhousie was enabled to direct 
 itself to new objects. Already, far down on the 
 south-eastern boundary of our empire — at the point 
 farthest removed of all from the great country whose 
 destinies we have been considering — ^the seeds of war 
 had been soAvn broad-cast. Ever since 1826, when 
 the hrst contest with Ava had been brought to a close 
 by the surrender to the English of certain tracts of 
 country in which no Englishman could live, our rela- 
 tions with the Burmese had been on an unsatisfactory 
 footing. In truth, they were altogether a very un- 
 satisfactory people ; arrogant and pretentious, blind 
 to reason, and by no means anxious to manifest their 
 appreciation of the nice courtesies of diplomatic in- 
 
 * Many will remember that de- was sufficiently a Christian to be 
 ligbtful little story, so pleasantly admitted to swell the two or three 
 told in Edwardes's " Year on the into three or four. 
 Punjab Frontier," of Reynell Taylor's f On the abolition of the Board, 
 invitation to prayer on a Sunday Mr. Montgomery, who had succeeded 
 morning in February, 1848, and of Mr. Mansel as third member, became 
 the question whether the half-caste Judicial Commissioner, and Mr. Mac- 
 colonel, " John Holmes," who had leod was appointed Financial Com- 
 " always attended prayers at Pesha- missioner. 
 wur " in Georgr© Lawrence's house. 
 
Gf) THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1849. tercourse. To find just cause, according to Europeait 
 notions, for chastising these people would at any tim^ 
 have been easy. But their insolence did us very little 
 harm. We could tolerate, without loss, of credit or of 
 prestige, the discourtesies of a barbarian Government 
 on the outskirts of civilisation. An insult on the 
 banks of the Irrawaddy was very different from an 
 insult on the banks of the Jumna. The Princes and 
 chiefs of India knewnothino; and cared nothins; about 
 our doings far out beyond the black waters of the 
 Bay of Bengal. But at last these discourtesies cul- 
 minated in an outrao;e which Lord Dalhousie thouo-ht 
 it became the British Government to resent. Whether, 
 under more discreet manao-ement, redress mic^ht have 
 been obtained and war averted, it is now of little 
 moment to inquire. A sea-captain was appointed to 
 conduct our diplomacy at Rangoon, and he con- 
 ducted it successfully to a rupture. A war ensued, to 
 which the future historian of India may devote a not 
 very inviting chapter, but its details have nothing to 
 do with the story of this book. English arms were 
 triumphant, and the province of Pegu lay at our 
 feet. Dalhousie annexed it to the British Empire, 
 " in order that the Government of India might hold 
 from the Burmese State both adequate compensation 
 for past injury, and the best security against future 
 danger." Thus did the British Empire, which had so 
 recently been extended to the north-west, stretch itself 
 out to the south-east ; and the white man sat himself 
 down on the banks of the Irrawaddy as he had seated 
 himself on the banks of the Indus. There were not 
 wanting those who predicted that the whole of 
 Burmah would soon become British territory, and 
 that then the ^'uncontrollable principle," by reference 
 to which a great English statesman justified the 
 
THE ANNEXATION OF PEGU. 67 
 
 seizure of Sindh, would send the English conqueror 1849. 
 to grope his way through the Shan States and Siam 
 to Cochin-China. But these apprehensions were 
 groundless. The administrator began his work in 
 Pegu, as he had begun his work in the Punjab, and 
 there was no looking beyond the frontier ; but, on the 
 other hand, a desire to avoid border disputes, or, if 
 they could not be avoided, to treat them as matters 
 of light account, inevitable and soon to be forgotten. 
 There was a military officer, admirably fitted for the 
 work, who had served long and successfully, as a 
 civil administrator, in Arracan ; who knew the Bur- 
 mese language and the Burmese people, and had a 
 great name along the eastern coast. Those isolated 
 regions beyond the Bay of Bengal are the grave of all 
 catholic fame. Whilst the name of Lawrence was in 
 all men's mouths, Phayre was pursuing the even 
 tenor of his way, content with a merely local reputa- 
 tion. But the first, and as I write the only commis- 
 sioner of Pegu, is fairly entitled to a place in the very 
 foremost rank of those English administrators who 
 have striven to make our rule a blessing to the people 
 of India, and have not failed in the attempt. 
 
 In India the native mind readily pervades vast 
 distances, and takes little account of space that the 
 foot can travel. But it is bewildered and confused by 
 the thought of the "black water." The unknown is 
 the illimitable. On the continent of India, therefore, 
 neither our war-successes nor our peace-successes in 
 the Burmese country stirred the heart of Indian 
 society. In the lines of the Sepoy or the shops of the 
 money-changer they were not matters of eager inte- 
 rest and voluble discourse. We might have sacked 
 the cities of Ava and Amarapoora, and caused their 
 sovereign lord to be trodden to death by one of his 
 
 f2 
 
63 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 Z?A^. white elephants Avithout exciting half the interest 
 engendered by a petty outbreak in Central India, or 
 the capture of a small fort in Bundelkund. The 
 Princes and chiefs of the great continent of Hindostan 
 knew little and cared less about a potentate, however 
 magnificent in his own dominions, who neither wor- 
 shipped their gods nor spoke their language, and 
 who was cut off from their brotherhood by the in- 
 tervention of the great dark sea. We gained no 
 honour, and we lost no confidence, by the annexation 
 of this outlying province ; but it opened to our Native 
 Soldiery a new field of service, and unfortunately it 
 was bevond the seas. 
 
LArs2. G9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LOUD DALHOUSIE— ADOPTION — THE "EIGHT OF 
 
 lapse"— SATTARAH — NAGPORE — JHANSI— KEROWLEE THE CARNATIC — 
 
 TANJORE— THE CASE OF THE PEISHWAH — DUNDOO PUNT, NANA SAHIB — 
 SUMBIIULPORE. 
 
 So, three years after his arrival in India, Dalhousie 184S.1856, 
 had brought to a close two great military campaigns, 
 and had captured two great provinces. . He had then 
 done with foreign wars; his after-career was one of 
 peaceful invasion. Ere long there was a word which 
 came to be more dreaded than that of Conquest. The 
 native mind is readily convinced by the inexorable 
 logic of the sword. There is no appeal from such 
 arbitration. To be invaded and to be conquered is a 
 state of things appreciable by the inhabitant of India. 
 It is his " kismut ;" his fate ; God s will. One stronger 
 than he cometh and taketh all that he hath. There 
 are, however, manifest compensations. His religion is 
 not invaded ; his institutions are not violated. Life 
 is short, and the weak man, patient and philosophical, 
 is strong to endure and mighty to wait. But Lapse 
 is a dreadful and an appalling word ; for it pursues 
 the victim beyond the grave. Its significance in his 
 eyes is nothing short of eternal condemnation 
 
70 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1S484856. "The son," says tlie great Hindoo lawgiver, "de- 
 livers his father from the hell called Put." There 
 are, he tells us, different kinds of sons ; there is the 
 son begotten ; the son given ; the son by adoption ; 
 and other filial varieties. It is the duty of the son to 
 perform the funeral obsequies of the father. If they 
 be not performed, it is believed that there is no re- 
 surrection to eternal bliss. The right of adoption is, 
 therefore, one of the most cherished doctrines of 
 Hindooism. In a country where polygamy is the 
 rule, it might be supposed that the necessity of adopt- 
 ing another man's offspring, for the sake of these cere- 
 monial ministrations, or for the continuance of an 
 ancestral name, would be one of rare occurrence. But 
 all theory on the subject is belied by the fact that the 
 Princes and chiefs of India more frequently find them- 
 selves, at the close of their lives, without the solace of 
 male offspring than with it. The Zenana is not an 
 institution calculated to lengthen out a direct line of 
 Princes. The alternative of adoption is one, therefore, 
 to which there is frequent resort ; it is a source of 
 unspeakable comfort in life and in death ; and politi- 
 cally it is as dear to the heart of a nation as it is 
 personally to the individual it affects. 
 
 It is with the question of Adoption only in its 
 political aspects that I have to do in this place. There 
 is a private and personal, as there is a public and 
 political, side to it. No power on earth beyond a 
 man's own will can prevent him from adopting a son, 
 or can render that adoption illegal if it be legally per- 
 formed. But to adopt a son as a successor to private 
 property is one thing, to adopt an heir to titular 
 dignities and territorial sovereignty is another. With- 
 out the consent of the Paramount State no adoption 
 
THE SATTARAH LAPSE. 71 
 
 Of the latter kind can be valid. Whether in this case 1818-1856 
 of a titular Prince or a possessor of territorial rights, 
 dependent upon the will of the Government, Hindoo- 
 ism is satisfied by the private adoption and the penal- 
 ties of the sonless state averted, is a question for the 
 pundits to determine ; but no titular chief thinks the 
 adoption complete unless he can thereby transmit his 
 name, his dignities, his rights and privileges to his 
 successor, and it can in no wise be said that the son 
 takes the place of his adoptive father if he does not 
 inherit the most cherished parts of that father s pos- 
 sessions. 
 
 But whether the religious element does or does not J848. 
 rightly enter into the question of political adoptions, Sattaran. 
 nothing is more certain than that the right, in this 
 larger political sense, was ever dearly prized by the 
 Hindoos, and was not alienated from them by the 
 Lords-Paramount who had preceded us. The im- 
 perial recognition was required, and it was commonly 
 paid for by a heavy "nuzzurana," or succession- duty, 
 but in this the Mogul rulers were tolerant. It was 
 reserved for the British to substitute for the right of 
 adoption what was called 'Hhe right of lapse," and in 
 default of male heirs of the body lawfully begotten to 
 absorb native principalities into the great amalgam 
 of our British possessions. " In 1849," wrote Lord 
 Dalhousie, in his elaborate farev/ell minute, "the 
 principality of Sattarah was included in the British 
 dominions by right of lapse, the Rajah having died 
 without male heir." The Princes of Sattarah were the 
 descendants of Sevajie, the founder and the head of 
 the Mahratta Empire. Their power and their glory 
 had alike departed. But they were still great in 
 tradition, and were looked up to with respect by the 
 
'72 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1848. Mahrattas of Western India. In April, 1848, the last 
 Rajah died;* and a question arose as to whether, no 
 direct male heir of the body having been left by the 
 deceased, a son by adoption, or a collateral member 
 of the family, should be permitted to succeed him, or 
 whether the rights and titles of the principality should 
 be declared to be extinct. Sir George Clerk was then 
 Governor of Bombay. He looked at the Treaty of 
 1819 ; saw that " the British Government agreed to 
 cede in perpetual sovereignty to the Rajah of Sattarah, 
 his heirs and successors," the territories which he had 
 held, and at once declared himself in favour of the 
 continuance of the native Raj. The members of his 
 Council looked upon the question as purely one of 
 expediency, and considered it the duty of the British 
 Government to decide it in the manner most advan- 
 tageous to ourselves. But the Governor refused to 
 admit any secondary considerations, saying, " If it be 
 inconsistent with justice to refuse coniirmation to the 
 act of adoption, it is useless to inquire whether it is 
 better for the interests of the people or of the empire 
 at large to govern the Sattarah territories through the 
 medium of a native Rajah, or by means of our own 
 administration." The trumpet of that statesman Avas 
 not likely to give an uncertain sound. 
 
 When this question first arose, the Govern or- Gene- 
 ral was in his novitiate. But new as he was to the 
 consideration of such subjects, he does not appear to 
 have faltered or hesitated. The opinions, the practi- 
 cal expression of which came subsequently to be called 
 
 * Appa Saliib. He had sue- creditable. It is wortliy of remark, 
 
 ceeded liis brother, who in 1839 that Sir Robert Grant, being satisfied 
 
 was deposed, and, as I think, very of the Rajah's guilt, proposed to 
 
 rightly, on account of a series of punish him in the manner least 
 
 intrigues against the British Go- likely to be advantageous to our- 
 
 vernment, equally foolish and dis- selves. 
 
THE POLICY OF ANNEXATION. 73 
 
 the "policy of annexation," were formed at tlie very 1848. 
 outset of his career, and rigidly maintained to its 
 close. Eight months after his first assumption of the 
 Government of India, he placed on record a confes- 
 sion of faith elicited by this agitation of the Sattarah 
 question. Subsequent events of far greater magni- 
 tude dwarfed that question in the public mind, and 
 later utterances of the great minute-writer caused 
 this first manifesto to be comparatively forgotten ; 
 but a peculiar interest must ever be associated with 
 this earliest exposition of Dalhousie's political creed, 
 and therefore I give it in the words of the statesman 
 himself: "The Government," he wrote on the 30th 
 August, 1848, " is bound in duty, as well as policy, 
 to act on every such occasion with the purest in- 
 tegrity, and in the most scrupulous observance of 
 good faith. Where even a shadow of doubt can be 
 shown, the claim should at once be abandoned. But 
 where the right to territory by lapse is clear, the 
 Government is bound to take that which is justly 
 and legally its due, and to extend to that territory 
 the benefits of our sovereignty, present and prospec- 
 tive. In like manner, while I would not seek to lay 
 down any inflexible rule with respect to adoption, I 
 hold that, on all occasions, where heirs natural shall 
 fail, the territory should be made to lapse, and adop- 
 tion should not be permitted, excepting in those cases 
 in which some strong political reason may render it 
 expedient to depart from this general rule. There 
 may be conflict of opinion as to the advantage or the 
 propriety of extending our already vast possessions 
 beyond their present limits. No man can more sin- 
 cerely deprecate than I do any extension of the 
 frontiers of our territory which can be avoided, or 
 which may not become indispensably necessary from 
 
74 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1B49. considerations of our own safety, and of the mainte- 
 nance of tlie tranquillity of our provinces. But I 
 cannot conceive it possible for any one to dispute the 
 policy of taking advantage of every just opportunity 
 which presents itself for consolidating the territories 
 that already belong to us, by taking possession of 
 States that may lapse in the midst of them ; for thus 
 getting rid of these petty intervening principalities, 
 which may be made a means of annoyance, but which 
 can never, I venture to think, be a source of strength, 
 for adding to the resources of the public Treasury, 
 and for extending the uniform application of our sys- 
 tem of government to those whose best interests, we 
 sincerely believe, will be promoted thereby. Such is 
 the general principle that, in our humble opinion, 
 ought to guide the conduct of the British Govern- 
 ment in its disposal of independent States, where 
 there has been a total failure of heirs whatsoever, or 
 where permission is asked to continue by adoption a 
 succession which fails in the natural line." 
 
 The Court of Directors of the East India Company 
 confirmed the decision of the Govern or- General, and 
 Sattarah was annexed. There were men, however, in 
 the Direction who protested against the measure as an 
 act of unrighteous usurpation. " We are called upon," 
 said Mr. Tucker, ever an opponent of wrong, "to 
 consider and decide upon a claim of right, and I have 
 always felt that our best policy is that which most 
 closely adheres to the dictates of justice." "We 
 ought not to forget," said Mr. Shepherd, who, on 
 great questions of this kind, was commonly to be 
 found side by side with his veteran friend, contending 
 for the rights of the native Princes of India, "that 
 during the rise and progress of our empire in the 
 East, our Governments have continued to announce 
 
DEATH OF THE BONSLAH. 75 
 
 and proclaim to the people of India that not only 1849- 
 should all their rights and privileges which existed 
 under preceding Governments be preserved and main- 
 tained, but that their laws, habits, customs, and pre- 
 judices should be respected."* And what right more 
 cherished, what custom more honoured, than the right 
 and custom of adoption ? But the majority of the 
 Court of Directors supported the views of the Governor- 
 General. They had heard the voice of the charmer. 
 And from that time the policy of Dalhousie became 
 the policy of Leadenhall-street, and the '' Right of 
 Lapse" was formally acknowledged. 
 
 And it was not, for reasons which I have already i853. 
 given, likely long to remain a dead letter. Soon ^agpoi"e. 
 another of the great Mahratta chiefs was said to be 
 dying, and in a few days news came to Calcutta that 
 he was dead. It was the height of the cold season 
 of 1853 — a few days before Christmas — ^^vhen the 
 slow booming of minute guns from the Saluting 
 Battery of Fort William announced the death of 
 Ragojee Bonslah, Rajah of Nagpore. At the age of 
 forty-seven he succumbed to a complication of dis- 
 orders, of which debauchery, cowardice, and obstinacy 
 were the chief. There have been worse specimens of 
 royalty, both in Eastern and Western Palaces, than 
 this poor, worn-out, impotent sot; for although he 
 was immoderately addicted to brandy and dancing- 
 girls, he rather liked his people to be happy, and was 
 not incapable of kindness that caused no trouble to 
 himself. He had no son to succeed him ; a posthu- 
 mous son was an impossibility ; and he had not 
 adopted an heir. 
 
 It may seem strange and contradictory that if the 
 
 * Colonel OHphant and Mr. Leslie Melville recorded minutes on the 
 same side. 
 
76 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1853. right of adoption as sanctioned by religion and pre- 
 scribed by ancestral usage be so dear to tlie people of 
 India, tliey should ever fail to adopt in default of heirs 
 of their body. But we know that they often do ; and 
 the omission is readily explicable by a reference to the 
 ordinary weaknesses of humanity. We know that 
 even in this country, with all the lights of civilisation 
 and Christianity to keep us from going astray, thou- 
 sands of reasoning creatures are restrained from 
 making their wills by a vague feeling of apprehension 
 that there is something ^' unlucky" in such a pro- 
 cedure ; that death will come the sooner for such a 
 provision against its inevitable occurrence. What 
 wonder, then, that in a country Avhich is the very 
 hotbed of superstition, men should be restrained by 
 a kindred feeling from providing against the event of 
 their dissolution ? But in this case there is not only 
 the hope of life, but the hope of offspring, to cause the 
 postponement of the anticipatory ceremony. Men, 
 under the most discouraging circumstances, still cling 
 to the belief that by some favourable reaction of 
 nature they may, even when stricken in years, beget 
 an heir to their titles and possessions. In this sense, 
 too, adoption is held to be unlucky, because it is 
 irreligious. It is like a surrender of all hope, and a 
 betrayal of want of faith in the power and goodness 
 of the Almighty. No man expects to beget a son 
 after he has adopted one. 
 
 In the case, too, of this Mahratta Prince, there were 
 special reasons why he should have abstained from 
 making such a provision for the continuance of his 
 House. According to the law and usage of his 
 country, an adoption by his widow would have been 
 as valid as an adoption by himself. It was natural, 
 therefore, and assuredly it was in accordance with 
 
THE NAGPORE SUCCESSIQJT. 77 
 
 the aharacLer of tlie man, who was gormandising and 1S53, 
 dallying with the hand of death upon him, that he 
 should have left the ceremony to be performed by 
 others. Whether it was thus vicariously performed is 
 not very clearly ascertainable. But it is certain that 
 the British Resident reported that there had been no 
 adoption. The Resident was Mr. Mansel, who had 
 been one of the first members of the Lahore Board of 
 Administration — a man with a keen sense of justice, 
 favourable to the maintenance of native dynasties, 
 and therefore, in those days, held to be crotchety and 
 unsound. He had several times pressed the Rajah on 
 the subject of adoption, but had elicited no satisfactory 
 response. He reported unequivocally that nothing had 
 been done, and asked for the instructions of the 
 Supreme Government. 
 
 Lord Dalhousie was then absent from Calcutta. 
 He was making one of his cold- weather tours of in- 
 spection — seeing with his own eyes the outlying pro- 
 vince of Pegu, which had fallen by right of conquest 
 into his hands. The Council, in his absence, hesitated 
 to act, and all the instructions, therefore, which they 
 could send were to the effect that the Resident should 
 provide for the peace of the country, and keep things 
 quiet until further orders. There was no doubt about 
 Dalhousie's decision in such a case. Had the Rajah 
 adopted a son, there was little likelihood of the 
 Governor- General's sanction of the adoption ; but as 
 he had wilfully failed to perform the ceremony, it ap- 
 peared to be as clear as noon-day that the great organ 
 of the Paramount State would pronounce the fatal 
 sentence of Lapse. 
 
 Dalhousie returned to Calcutta, and with cha- 
 racteristic energy addressed himself to the mastery of 
 the whole question. Before the first month of the 
 
78 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 Jan. 28, new year had worn to a close, he attached his signa- 
 ture to an elaborate minute, in which he exhausted 
 all the arguments which could be adduced in favour 
 of the annexation of the country. Printed at full 
 length, it would occupy fifty pages of this book. It 
 was distinguished by infinite research and unrivalled 
 powers of special pleading. It contended that there 
 had been no adoption, and that if there had been, it 
 would be the duty of the British Government to 
 refuse to recognise it. "I am well aware," he said, 
 ** that the continuance of the Raj of Nagpore under 
 some Mahratta rule, as an act of grace and favour on 
 the part of the British Government, would be highly 
 acceptable to native sovereigns and nobles in India ; 
 and there are, doubtless, many of high authority who 
 would advocate the policy on that special ground. I 
 understand the sentiment and respect it ; but re- 
 membering the responsibility that is upon me, I can- 
 not bring my judgment to admit that a kind and 
 generous sentiment should outweigh a just and 
 prudent policy." 
 
 Among the members of the Supreme Council at 
 that time was Colonel John Low. An old officer of 
 the Madras army, who long years before, when the 
 Peishwah and the Bonslah were in arms against the 
 British, had sate at the feet of John Malcolm, and 
 had graduated in diplomacy under him, he had never 
 forgotten the lessons which he had learnt from his 
 beloved chief; he had never ceased to cherish those 
 "kind and generous sentiments" of which the Go- 
 vernor-General had spoken in his minute. His whole 
 life had been spent at the Courts of the native Princes 
 of India. He had represented British interests long 
 and faithfully at the profligate Court of Lucknow. 
 He had contended with the pride, the obstinacy, and 
 
JOHN LOW. 79 
 
 the superstition of the effete Princes of Rajpootana. 1854. 
 He had played, and won, a difficult game, with the 
 bankrupt State of Hyderabad. He knew what were the 
 vices of Indian Princes and the evils of native misrule. 
 But he had not so learnt the lesson presented to him 
 by the spectacle of improvident rulers and profligate 
 Courts ; of responsibilities ignored and opportunities 
 wasted ; as to believe it to be either the duty or the 
 policy of the Paramount Government to seek "just oc- 
 casions" for converting every misgoverned princi- 
 pality into a British province. Nor had he, knowing 
 as he did, better perhaps than any of his countrymen, 
 the real character of such misgovernment, ever che- 
 rished the conviction that the inhabitants of every 
 native State were yearning for the blessings of this 
 conversion. There were few such States left — Hindoo 
 or Mahomedan — but what remained from the wreck 
 of Indian dynasties he believed it to be equally just 
 and politic to preserve. And entertaining these 
 opinions, he spoke them out ; not arrogantly or 
 offensively, but with what I believe may be described 
 as the calm resolution of despair. He knew that he 
 might speak with the tongue of angels, and yet that 
 his speech would no more affect the practical result 
 than a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. What 
 am I against so many ? he said ; nay, what am I 
 against one? Who will listen to the utterance of 
 my ideas when opposed to the " deliberately-formed 
 opinion of a statesman like the Marquis of Dalhousie, 
 in whose well-proved ability and judgment and in- 
 tegrity of purpose they have entire confidence ?"* But 
 great statesmen in times past had thought that the 
 extension of British rule in India was, for our own 
 sakes, to be arrested rather than accelerated ; that the 
 
 ♦ Minute cf Colonel John Low. February 10, ISol. 
 
so THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1S54. native States were a source to us of strength rather 
 than of weakness, and that it would go ill with us 
 when there were none left.* 
 
 Strong in this belief, Colonel Low recorded two 
 minutes, protesting against the impolicy and the in- 
 justice of the ; proposed annexation of Nagpore. He 
 said that already the annexation of Sattarah had in 
 many parts of India had a "bad moral effect ;f that it 
 had shaken the confidence of the people i\\ the justice 
 and good faith of the British Government ; that 
 people had asked what crim.e Sattarah had committed 
 that sentence of political death should thus have been 
 pronounced against it ; that throughout India acqui- 
 sition by conquest was well understood, and in many 
 cases admitted to be right ; that the annexation of the 
 Punjab, for example, had not been regarded as a 
 wrong, because the chiefs and people had brought it 
 on themselves, but that the extinction of a loyal native 
 State, in default of heirs, was not appreciable in any 
 part of India, and that the exercise of the alleged 
 right of lapse would create a common feeling of 
 uncertainty and distrust at every Durbar in the 
 
 * "If Great Britain shall retain 1850, v^here I met many old ac- 
 
 lier present powerful position among quaintaaces, whom I had known 
 
 the States of Europe, it seem? highly when a very young man, and over 
 
 probable that, owing to the infringe- whom I held no authority, I found 
 
 ment of their treaties on the part of tbese old acquaintances speak out 
 
 native Princes and other causes, the mnch more distinctly as to their 
 
 whole of India will, in the course of o'dnion of the Sattarah case ; so 
 
 time, become one British province ; much so, that I was, on several 
 
 but many eminent statesmen iiave occasions, obliged to check them, 
 
 been of opinion that we ought most It is remarkable that every native 
 
 carefully to avoid unnecessarily ac- M^ho ever spoke to me respecting the 
 
 celerating the arrival of that great annexation of Sattarah, asked pre- 
 
 change ; and it is within my own cisely the same question : ' What 
 
 knowledge that the following five crime did the late Eajah commit that 
 
 great men were of that number — his country should be seized by the 
 
 namely. Lord Hastings, Sir Thomas Company ?* Thus clearly indicating 
 
 !Munro, Sir John Malcolm, the Hon. their notions, that if any crimn had 
 
 Mountstuart Elphinstone, and Lord been committed our act would have 
 
 Metcalfe." — Minute, Feb. 10, 1854. been justifiable, and not otherwise.'* 
 
 t " When I went to Malwa, in Minute of Colonel Low, Feb. 10, 1854-. 
 
LOW'S MINUTES. 81 
 
 CO (ill try. He dwelt upon the levelling effects of 185^ 
 British dominion, and urged that, as in our own 
 provinces, the upper classes were invariably trodden 
 down, it was sound policy to maintain the native 
 States, if only as a means of providing an outlet for 
 the energies of men of good birth and aspiring natures, 
 who could never rise under British rule. He con- 
 tended that our system of administration might be far 
 better than the native system, but that the people did 
 not like it better ; they clung to their old institutions, 
 however defective, and were averse to change, even 
 though a change for the better. " In one respect," he 
 said, "the natives of India are exactly like the in- 
 habitants of all parts of the known world ; they like 
 their own habits and customs better than those of 
 foreigners." 
 
 Having thus in unmeasured opposition to the Dal- 
 housie theory flung down the gauntlet of the old 
 school at the feet of the Governor- General, Low 
 ceased from the enunciation of general principles, and 
 turned to the discussion of the particular case before 
 him. He contended that the treaty between the 
 British Government and the late Rajah did not limit 
 the succession to heirs of his body, and that, there- 
 fore, there was a clear title to succession in the 
 Bonslah family by means of a son adopted by 
 either the Rajah himself or by his eldest wddow, in 
 accordance with law and usage. The conduct, he 
 said, of the last Prince of Nagpore had not been such 
 as to alienate this right; he had been loyal to the 
 Paramount State, and his country had not been mis- 
 governed ; there had been nothing to call for mili- 
 *^Ty interference on our part, and little to compel 
 grave remonstrance and rebuke. For what crime, 
 then, was his line to be cut off and the honours of 
 
 G 
 
82 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1554. his House extinguislied for ever? To refuse tlii* 
 right of adoption in such a case would, he alleged, 
 be entirely contrary to the spirit, if not to the letter, 
 of the treaty — But how was it to be conceded when 
 it was not claimed ; when no adoption had been 
 reported ; when it was certain that the Rajah had not 
 exercised his right, and there had been no tidings of 
 such a movement on the part of his widow? The 
 answer to this was, that the Government had been 
 somewhat in a hurry to extinguish the Raj without 
 waiting for the appearance of claimants, and that if 
 they desired to perpetuate it, it was easy to find a 
 fitting successor. 
 
 Of such opinions as these Low expected no sup- 
 port in the Council-chamber of Calcutta — no support 
 from the authorities at home. It little mattered, in- 
 deed, what the latter might think, for the annexation 
 of Nagpore was decreed and to be accomplished with- 
 out reference to England. As the extinction of the 
 Sattarah State had been approved by the Company, 
 in the face of an undisputed adoption asserted at the 
 right time, Dalhousie rightly j udged that there would 
 be no straining at a gnat in the Nagpore case, where 
 there had been no adoption at all. Indeed, the 
 general principles upon which he had based his pro- 
 ceedings towards Sattarah, in the first year of his 
 administration, having been accepted in Leadenhall- 
 street, there could be no stickling about so mild an 
 illustration of them as that afforded by the treatment 
 of Nagpore. The justification of the policy in the 
 latter instance is to be found in the fact that there 
 was no assertion of an adoption — no claim put for- 
 ward on behalf of any individual — at the time when 
 the British Government was called upon to determine 
 
. EXTINCTION OF THE BONSLAH FAMILY. 83 
 
 the course to be pursued. It is true that the provi- 1854. 
 sional Government might, for a time, have been 
 vested in the eldest widow of the deceased Prince, 
 adoption by whom would have been recognised by- 
 Hindoo law and Mahratta usage ; but it was not 
 probable that the British Government would have 
 thus gone out of its way to bolster up a decayed 
 Mahratta dynasty, when the head of that Govern- 
 ment conscientiously believed that it was the duty of 
 the Paramount State to consolidate its dominions by 
 recognising only among these effete Princes succession 
 by direct heirship of the body. Cherishing the faith 
 which he did, Dalhousie would have gone grievously 
 wrong, and he would have stood convicted of a 
 glaring inconsistency, if he had adopted any other 
 course ; so the kingdom of Berar was declared to 
 have lapsed to the British Government, and the 
 family of the Bonslah was extinct. 
 
 The country passed under British rule, and the 
 people became British subjects, without an audible 
 murmur of discontent except from the recesses of the 
 palace. There the wretched ladies of the royal house- 
 hold, at first dismayed and paralysed by the blow 
 which had fallen upon them, began, after a little 
 space, to bestir themselves and to clamour for their 
 asserted rights. Liberal pensions had been settled 
 upon them ; but their family was without a head, 
 and that which might soon have faded into an idea 
 was rendered a galling and oppressive reality by the 
 spoliation of the palace, which followed closely upon 
 the extinction of the Raj. The live stock and dead 
 stock of the Bonslah were sent to the hammer. It 
 must have been a great day for speculative cattle- 
 dealers at Seetabaldee when the royal elephants, 
 
 g2 
 
84 THE ADMINISTRATION' OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1354:, horses, and bullocks were sold off at the price of 
 carrion :* and a sad day, indeed, in the royal house- 
 hold, when the venerable Bankha Baee,f with all the 
 wisdom and moderation of fourscore well-spent years 
 upon her, was so stung by a sense of the indignity 
 offered to her, that she threatened to fire the palace if 
 the furniture were removed. But the furniture was 
 removed, and the jewels of the Bonslah family, 
 with a few propitiatory exceptions, were sent to the 
 Calcutta market. And I have heard it said that 
 these seizures, these sales, created a worse impression, 
 not only in Berar, but in the surrounding provinces, 
 than the seizure of the kingdom itself. J 
 
 But even in the midst of their degradation, these 
 unfortunate ladies clung to the belief that the Bons- 
 lah family v/ould some day be restored and rehabi- 
 litated. The Governor- General had argued that the 
 widow, knowing that her husband was disinclined to 
 adopt, had, for like reasons, abstained from adoption. 
 He admitted the right according to Mahratta usage, 
 but declared that she was unwilling to exercise it. 
 He contended, too, that the Bankha Baee, the most 
 influential of the royal ladies, would naturally be 
 averse to a measure which would weaken her own 
 authority in the palace. But his logic halted, and 
 
 * Between five and six Imndred f The Bankha Baee was a widow- 
 elephants, camels, horses, and bul- of the deceased Rajah's grandfatlier. 
 locks were sold for 1300/. The Ha- J I know that the question of 
 nees sent a protest to the Commis- public and private property, in such 
 sioner, and memorialised the Gover- cases, is a very difficult one, and I 
 uor-General, alleging^, in the best sliall not attempt to decide it here. 
 English that tlie Palace could fur- 1 only speak of the intense mortifi- 
 nisli, that " on tlie 4th instant (Sept.) cation which these sales create in the 
 the sale of animals, viz. bullocks, family itself, and the bad impres- 
 horses, camels, and elephants, com- sion which they produce throughout 
 menced to sell by public auction and the country. Rightly or wrongly, 
 resolution— a pair her hackery bul- they cast great discredit on our 
 locks, valued 100 rupees, sold in the name ; and the gain of money is not 
 above sale for 5 rupees.'* wortli the loss of character. 
 
RETIREMENT OF MR. MANSEL. 85 
 
 his prophecy failed. Both the elder and the younger j^gg^ 
 lady were equally eager to perpetuate the regal dig- 
 nities of their House. Mr. Mansel had suggested a 
 compromise, in the shape of an arrangement some- 
 what similar to that which had been made with the 
 Newabs of the Carnatic, by which the title might be 
 maintained, and a certain fixed share of the revenue 
 set apart for its dotation. But he had been severely 
 censured for his indiscretion, and had. left Nagpore 
 in disgrace. He was, perhaps, the best friend that 
 the Ranees had in that conjuncture; but — such is 
 the value of opinion — they accused him, in the 
 quaint Palace-English of their scribe, of '' endeavour- 
 ing to gain baronetage and exaltation of rank by re- 
 porting to the Governor- General that the late Rajah 
 was destitute of heirs to succeed him, with a view to 
 his Lordship being pleased to order the annexation 
 of the territory."* But there was not a man in the 
 country less disposed to annex provinces and to 
 humour Governors than Charles Mansel, and instead 
 of being exalted in rank, he sacrificed his prospects 
 to his principles and retired from the Service. 
 
 Failing altogether to move the Governor-General, 
 the Ranees sent agents to London, but with no better 
 
 * Lord Dalliousie, in liis Nap^pore imperatively requires, in order to 
 
 Minute, says that the Rajali did not render the act of adoption valid, still 
 
 adopt, partly because he did not like the known disinclination of the Hajah 
 
 to acknowledge his inability to beget to all adoption could not fail to dis- 
 
 a son, and partly because lie feared incline his widow to have recourse to 
 
 that Ihe existence of an adopted son adoption after his decease." It will 
 
 might some day be used as a pretext be seen at once that the ordinary 
 
 for deposing him. He then observes : logical acumen of the Governor-Gc- 
 
 " The dislike of the late Rajah to the neral failed him in this instance, for 
 
 adopt ion of a successor, was of course the very reasons given by the writer 
 
 known to his widow ; and although himself for the failure of adoption hj 
 
 T.he custom of the Mahrattas exempts the ]lajah ceased altogether to be 
 
 her from that necessity for having operative, ipso facto, " after hbde- 
 
 the concurrence of her husband in cease." 
 adoption, which general Hindoo law 
 
86 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1854 result. After the manner of native emissaries from 
 Indian Courts, they spent large sums of money in 
 feeing lawyers and printing pamphlets, without 
 making any impression on Leadenhall-street or Can- 
 non-row, and at last, being recalled by their em- 
 ployers, and having nothing wherewith to pay their 
 debts, they flung themselves on the generosity of their 
 opponents, and were sent home by the help of the great 
 Corporation whom they had reviled. Meanwhile, the 
 elder widow of the late Rajah died, and a boy, of an- 
 other branch, whom the Ranees called Janojee Bons- 
 lah, and in whose person they desired to prolong the 
 Nagpore dynasty, was formally adopted by the dying 
 lady. Clutching at any chance, however desperate, 
 an attempt was made to revive the question of the 
 political adoption ; but the sagacity of the Bankha 
 Baee must have seen that it was too late, and that 
 nothing but the private property of the deceased 
 Princess could be thus secured to the adopted 
 heir. The country of the Bonslahs had become as 
 inalienably a part of the Company's possessions as 
 the opium go-downs of Patna, or the gun-factory at 
 Cossipore. 
 
 Thus, within a few years of each other, the names 
 of two of the great rulers of the Mahratta Empire 
 ceased from off the roll of Indian Princes ; and the 
 territories of the Company were largely increased. 
 Great in historical dignity as was the Sattarah Raj, 
 it was comparatively limited in geographical extent, 
 whilst the Bonslah, though but a servant in rank, 
 owned rich and productive lands, yielding in profu- 
 sion, among other good gifts, the great staple of our 
 English manufactures.* Whilst the annexation of 
 
 * Lord Dalliousie put forth the ments whicli he adduced in favour of 
 cotton-growinq qualit ics of the Berar the annexation of the territory, 
 country as one of the many argu- 
 
SATTAKAH AND NAGPORE. 87 
 
 tlie Punjab and of Pegu extended the British Empire 1854. 
 at its two extreme ends, these Mahratta acquisitions 
 helped to consohdate it. Some unseemly patches, 
 breaking the great rose-hued surface, which spoke of 
 British supremacy in the East, were thus effaced from 
 the map ; and the Right of Lapse was proclaimed to 
 the furthermost ends of our Indian dominions. 
 
 There is a circumstantial difference between these 
 two cases, inasmuch as that, in the one, there was an 
 actual and undisputed adoption by the deceased 
 Rajah, and in the other there Avas none ; but as 
 Dalhousie had frankly stated that he would not have 
 recognised a Nagpore adoption had there been one, the 
 two resumptions were governed by the same principle. 
 And this was not a mere arbitrary assertion of the 
 power of the strong over the weak, but was based, at 
 all events, on a plausible substratum of something 
 that simulated reason and justice. It was contended 
 that, whenever a native Prince owed his existence 
 as a sovereign ruler to the British Government, that 
 Government had the right, on failure of direct heirs, 
 to resume, at his death, the territories of which it 
 had originally placed him in possession. The power 
 that rightly gives, it was argued, may also rightfully 
 take away. Now, in the cases both of Sattarah and 
 Nagpore, the Princes, wliom the British Government 
 found in possession of those States, had forfeited their 
 rights: the one by hidden treachery and rebellion, 
 the other by open hostility. The one, after full in- 
 quiry, had been deposed ; the other, many years 
 before, had been driven into the jungle, and had 
 perished in obscurity a fugitive and an outcast* In 
 
 * It is to be observed, too, with Raj itself bad been resuscitated by- 
 respect to Sattarah, that not only had us in the person of his predecessor, 
 the last Rajah been elevated by the We had found the Rajah prostrate 
 British Government, but that the and a prisoner, almost, it may be 
 
88 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LOUD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 IS54. both, cases, therefore, the " crime" had been com- 
 mitted which the natives of India are so willing to 
 recognise as a legitimate reason for the punishment 
 of the weaker State by the stronger. But the offence 
 had been condoned, and the sovereignty had been 
 suffered to survive ; another member of the reigning 
 family being set up by the Paramount State in place 
 of the offending Prince. Both Pertaub Singh and 
 Ragojee Bonslah, as individuals, owed their sove- 
 reign power to the grace and favour of the British 
 Government. All this is historical fact. It may be 
 admitted, too, that when the crimes of which I have 
 spoken were committed by the heads of the Sattarah 
 and Nagpore families, the British Government would 
 have been justified in imposing conditions upon the 
 restoration of the Raj, to the extent of limiting the 
 succession to heirs of the body, or even in making a 
 personal treaty with the favoured Prince conferring 
 no absolute right of sovereignty upon his successors. 
 But the question is whether, these restrictions not 
 having been penally imposed, at the time of for- 
 feiture, the right which then might have been exer- 
 cised could be justly asserted on the occurrence of a 
 subsequent vacancy created by death? Lord Dal- 
 housie thought that it could — that the circumstances 
 under which the Sattarah and Nagpore Princes had 
 received their principalities as free gifts from the 
 British Government conferred certain rights of suze- 
 rainty on that Government, which otherwise they 
 could not have properly asserted. But, on the other 
 hand, it is contended that both principalities, what- 
 
 said, at his last gasp ; we had res- necessarily imparted additional force 
 
 cued him from liis enemies, and set to it. The same may be said of tiie 
 
 him up in a principality of his own ; Nagpore Enj. It was "resuscitated'* 
 
 a fact which, assumin^g the validity by the British Government, 
 ■^f the argument against adoption, 
 
JHANSI. 89 
 
 soever might have been the oiFences committed years iS54v 
 before by their rulers, had been re-established in their 
 integrity — that no restrictions as to their continuance 
 had then been imposed — that treaties had been con- 
 cluded containing the usual expressions with respect 
 to succession — in a word, that the condonation had 
 been complete, and that both the Sattarah and the 
 Nagpore Houses really possessed all the rights and 
 privileges which had belonged to them before the 
 representative of the one compromised himself by a 
 silly intrigue, and the head of the other, with equal 
 fatuity, plunged into hostilities which could result 
 only in his ruin. 
 
 This justificatory plea, based upon the alleged 
 right of the British Government to resume, in default 
 of direct heirs, tenures derived from the favour of the 
 Lord Paramount, was again asserted about the same 
 time, but with some diversity of application. Com- 
 paratively insignificant in itself, the case claims espe- 
 cial attention on account of results to be hereafter 
 recorded in these pages. In the centre of India, 
 among the small principalities of Bundelkund, was 
 the state of Jhansi, held by a Mahratta chief, origi- JimnsL 
 nally a vassal of the Peishwah. But on the transfer 
 to the British Government of that Prince's posses- 
 sions in Bundelkund, the former had resolved "to 
 declare the territory of Jhansi to be hereditary in the 
 family of the late Sheo Rao Bhow, and to perpetuate 
 with his heirs the treaty concluded with the late 
 Bhow ;" and, accordingly, a treaty was concluded 
 with the ruling chief. Ram Chand, then only a 
 Soubahdar, constituting '^ him, his heirs and succes- 
 sors," hereditary rulers of the territory. Loyal and 
 well disposed, he won the favour of the British Go- 
 vernment, who, fifteen years after the conclusion of 
 
90 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1851 the treaty, conferred upon him the title of Rajah, 
 which he only lived three years to enjoy. 
 
 For all purposes of succession he was a childless 
 man ; and so various claimants to the chiefship ap- 
 peared. The British agent believed that the most 
 valid claim was that of the late Rajah's uncle, who 
 was at all events a direct lineal descendant of one of 
 the former Soubahdars. He was a leper, and might 
 have been rejected, but, incapable as he was, the 
 people accepted him, and, for three years, the admi- 
 nistration of Jhansi was carried on in his name. At 
 the end of those three years he died, also w^ithout 
 1S38. heirs of the body, and various claimants as before 
 came forward to dispute the succession. Having no 
 thought of absorbing the State into our British terri- 
 tories. Lord Auckland appointed a commission of 
 British officers to investigate and report upon the 
 pretensions of the several claimants ; and the result 
 was, that Government, rightly considering that if the 
 deceased Rajah had any title to the succession, his 
 brother had now an equally good title, acknowledged 
 Gungadhur Rao's right to succeed to the hereditary 
 chiefship. 
 
 Under the administration of Ragonath the Leper 
 the country had been grossly mismanaged, and as 
 his successor was scarcely more competent, the British 
 Government undertook to manage the State for him, 
 and soon revived the revenue which had dwindled 
 down under the native rulers. But, in 1843, after 
 the amputation of a limb of the territory for the sup- 
 port of the Bundelkund Legion, the administration 
 was restored to Gungadhur Rao, who carried on the 
 government for ten years, and then, like his prede- 
 cessors, died childless. 
 
 Then again arose the question of succession ; but 
 
ANNEXATION OF JHANSI. 91 
 
 the claims of the different aspirants to the Raj were 1853» 
 regarded with far other eyes than those which had 
 scrutinised them in times past. The Governor- Gene- 
 ral recorded another fatal minute, by which the 
 death-warrant of the State was signed. It was ruled 
 that Jhansi was a dependent State, held by the favour 
 of the Peishwah, as Lord Paramount, and that his 
 powers had devolved upon the British Government. 
 A famous minute recorded, in 1837, by Sir Charles 
 Metcalfe, was cited to show the difference between 
 Hindoo sovereign Princes and " chiefs who hold 
 grants of land or public revenue by gift from a sove- 
 reign or paramount Power," and to prove that, in the 
 latter case, " the Power which made the grant, or 
 that which by conquest or otherwise has succeeded to 
 its rights, is entitled to limit succession," and to 
 " resume on failure of direct heirs of the body."* To 
 demonstrate the right to resume was in those days 
 tantamount to exercising it. So Jhansi was resumed. 
 In vain the widow of the late Rajah, whom the Poli- 
 tical Agent described as " a lady bearing a high cha- 
 racter, and much respected by every one at Jhansi," 
 protested that her husband's House had ever been 
 faithful to the British Government — in vain she 
 dwelt upon services rendered in former days to that 
 Government, and the acknowledgments which they 
 had elicited from our rulers — in vain she pointed to 
 the terms of the treaty, which did not, to her simple 
 understanding, bar succession in accordance with the 
 laws and usages of her country — in vain she quoted 
 
 * But what Sir Charles Metcalfe suck cases,iherehre, the Vower which. 
 
 really said was, that the paramount granted, or the Power standing in its 
 
 Power was "entitled to limit succes- place, would liave a right to resume 
 
 sion according to the limitations of on failure of heirs male of the body.'* 
 
 the grant, w^iicli in general confirms This passage is very fairly quoted in 
 
 it >o heirs male of the body, and Lord Dalhousie's Minute, 
 consequently precludes adoption. In 
 
92 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1853. precedents to show tliat the grace and favour sought 
 for Jhansi had been yielded to other States. The fiat 
 was RTevocable. It had been ruled that the interests 
 both of the Jhansi State and the British Government 
 imperatively demanded annexation. ^'As it lies in 
 the midst of other British districts," said Lord Dal- 
 housie, ^'the possession of it as our own will tend to 
 the improvement of the general internal administra- 
 tion of our possessions in Bundelkund. That its in- 
 corporation with the British territories will be greatly 
 for the benefit of the people of Jhansi a reference to 
 the results of experience will suffice to show." The 
 results of experience have since shown to what extent 
 the people of Jhansi appreciated the benefits of that 
 incorporation. 
 
 KeroTrlee. Whilst this question was being disposed of by Lord 
 Dalhousie and his colleagues, another lapse was under 
 consideration, which had occurred some time before, 
 but regarding which no final decision had been 
 passed. In the summer of 1852, the young chief of 
 Kerowlee, one of the smaller Rajpoot States, had died, 
 after adopting another boy, connected with him by 
 ties of kindred. At that time Colonel Low repre- 
 sented the British Government in Rajpootana, and he 
 at once pronounced his opinion that the adoption 
 ought immediately to be recognised. 
 
 The Governor-General hesitated. It appeared to 
 him that Kerowlee might, rightly and expediently, 
 be declared to have lapsed. But his Council was 
 divided; his Agent in Rajpootana had declared un- 
 equivocally for the adoption ; and the case difi'ered 
 in some respects from the Sattarah question, which 
 had already been decided with the sanction and ap- 
 proval of the Home Government. How great the 
 difierence really was appeared far more clearly to the 
 
KEROWLEE. 93 
 
 experienced eye of Sir Frederick Currie than to the 1855. 
 vision of the Governor- General, clouded as it was by 
 the film of a foregone conclusion.* The name of 
 Sattarah had, by the force of accidental circum- 
 stances, become great throughout the land, both in 
 India and in England; it was a familiar name to 
 thousands and tens of thousands who had never 
 heard of KeroAvlee. With the Mahrattas, too, the 
 House of Sivajee had been held in high veneration ; 
 but the Mahrattas could only boast of recent sove- 
 reignty; their high estate was one of modern usur- 
 pation. Their power had risen side by side with 
 our own, and had been crushed down by our greater 
 weight and greater vigour. But the Houses of Raj- 
 pootana had flourished centuries before the establish- 
 ment of British rule , and the least of them had an 
 ancestral dignity respected throughout the whole 
 length and breadth of Hindostan, and treaty rights 
 not less valid than any possessed by the greatest of 
 territorial Princes. To men who had graduated, 
 from boyhood upwards, in Indian statesmanship, 
 there was something almost sacrilegious in the idea 
 of laying a destroying hand even upon the least of 
 the ancient Houses of Rajpootana — of destroying 
 titles that had been honoured long years before the 
 face of the white man had been seen in the country. 
 But impressions of this kind are the growth of long 
 intercourse with the people themselves, and we cannot 
 be surprised that, after a year or two of Indian go- 
 vernment. Lord Dalhousie, with all his unrivalled 
 quickness of perception, should not have thoroughly 
 understood the vital differences between the various 
 
 •-' Sir i^rederlck Currie's Minute facts, clear in its logic, anv^i unuxcep- 
 on the Kerowlee question is an ad- tionable in its political morality. 
 mirable state-paper — accurate in its 
 
94 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1852. races inhabiting tlie great continent of India. Had 
 he done so, he would at once have sanctioned the 
 proposed adoption ; as it was, he referred the question 
 to the final decision of the Home Government. 
 
 Eager as they were at that time to support the policy 
 of Lord Dalhousie, and entire as was the faith of many 
 of them in his wisdom, the Directors could not look 
 with favour upon a proposal to commence the gradual 
 extinction of the ancient principalities of Rajpootana. 
 Jan. 2G, '^ It appears to us," they said, " that there is a marked 
 
 ^^^'^' distinction in fact between the case of Kerowlee and 
 Sattarah, which is not sufficiently adverted to in the 
 Minute of the Governor- General. The Sattarah State 
 was one of recent origin, derived altogether from the 
 creation and gift of the British Government, whilst 
 Kerowlee is one of the oldest of the Rajpoot States, 
 which has been under the rule of its native Princes 
 from a period long anterior to the British power in 
 India. It stands to us only in the relation of pro- 
 tected aUy, and probably there is no part of India 
 into which it is less desirable, except upon the 
 strongest grounds, to substitute our government for 
 that of the native rulers. In our opinion, such 
 grounds do not exist in the present case, and we 
 have, therefore, determined to sanction the succession 
 of Bhurt Pal." 
 
 But before the arrival of the despatch expressing 
 these just sentiments and weighty opinions, all chance 
 of the succession of Bhurt Pal had passed away. Had 
 the adoption been granted at once, it would, in all 
 probability, have been accepted by the members of 
 the late Rajah's family, by the principal chiefs, and 
 by the people of the country. But it is the inevitable 
 tendency of delay in such a case to unsettle the public 
 mind, to raise questions v^hich but for this suspense 
 
KEROWLEE. 95 
 
 would not have been born, and to excite hopes and 1853. 
 stimulate ambitions which otherwise would have lain 
 dormant. So it happened that whilst London and 
 Calcutta were corresponding about the rights of 
 Bhurt Pal, another claimant to the sovereignty of 
 Kerowlee was asserting his pretensions in the most 
 demonstrative manner. Another and a nearer kins- 
 man of the late Prince — older, and, therefore, of a 
 more pronounced personal character — stood forward 
 to proclaim his rights, and to maintain them by arms. 
 The ladies of the royal family, the chiefs, and the 
 people, supported his claims; and the representative 
 of the British Government in Rajpootana recognised 
 their validity. That representative was Sir Henry 
 Lawrence. Succeeding General Low in the Agency, 
 he cherished the same principles as those which had 
 ever been so consistently maintained by that veteran 
 statesman ; but circumstances had arisen which moved 
 him to give them a different application. This new 
 pretender to the throne had better claims on the score 
 of consanguinity than Bhurt Pal, but Adoption over- 
 rides all claims of relationship, and. if the adoption 
 were valid, the latter was legally the son and heir of 
 the deceased. In this view, as consonant with the 
 customs of the country, Henry La^vrence would have 
 supported the succession of Bhurt Pal ; but, on inves- 
 tigation, it appeared that all the requirements and 
 conditions of law and usage had not been fulfilled, 
 and that the people themselves doubted the validity 
 of the adoption. It appeared to him, therefore, that 
 the British Government would best discharge its duty 
 to Kerowlee by allowing the succession of Muddun 
 Pal. Even on the score of adoption his claims were 
 good, for he had been adopted by the eldest of the 
 late Rajah's widows, which, in default of adoption by 
 
96 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1853. the Raj all himself, would have been good agamst all 
 claimants. But, in addition to this, it was to be said 
 of the pretensions of this man that he was older than 
 the other ; that a minority would thus be avoided 
 altogether ; that he had some personal claims to con- 
 sideration ; and that the voice of the chiefs and the 
 people had decided in his favour. As the succession, 
 therefore, of Bhurt Pal had not been sanctioned, and 
 as the decision of the Home Government in his favour 
 had not been published, there would be no wrong to 
 him in this preference of his rival, so Henry Lawrence 
 recommended, and the Government of Lord Dalhousie 
 approved, the succession of Muddun Pal to the sove- 
 reignty of Kerowlee. 
 
 So Lapse, in this instance, did not triumph ; and 
 the ancient Houses of Rajpootana, which, during 
 these two years of suspense, had awaited the issue 
 with the deepest interest, felt some temporary relief 
 when it was known that the wedge of annexation had 
 not been driven into the time-honoured circle of the 
 States. But it is not to be supposed that because no 
 wrong was done at last no injury was done by the 
 delay. Public rumour recognises no Secret Depart- 
 ment. It was well known at every native Court, in 
 every native bazaar, that the British Government 
 were discussing the policy of annexing or not annex- 
 ing Kerowlee. The mere fact that there was a ques- 
 tion to be discussed, in such a case, was sufficient to fill 
 the minds of the people with anxiety and alarm. For 
 two years Kerowlee was without any other ruler than 
 the Political Agent of the British Government ; and 
 this was a significant fact, the impression of which 
 was not to be removed by the subsequent decision. 
 The Rajpoot Princes lost their confidence in the good 
 faith of the British Government. Kerowlee had beei2 
 
EAJPOOT ALARMS. 97 
 
 spared, tliey scarcely knew how ; some were fain to l?53. 
 attribute it to the well-known justice and liberality of 
 Henry Lawrence. But the same moderation might 
 not be displayed again ; there were childless men 
 amongst them ; and from that time a restless, uneasy 
 feeling took possession of them, and no man felt sure 
 that his House would not perish with him. It was 
 not strange, indeed, that a year or two afterwards 
 there should have been in circulation all over the 
 country ominous reports to the effect that the policy 
 of Lord Dalhousie had eventually triumphed, and 
 that the gradual absorption of all the Rajpoot States 
 had been sanctioned by the Home Government. It 
 was a dangerous lie ; and even the habitual reticence 
 of the Court of Directors was not proof against the 
 grossness of the calumny ; so it was authoritatively 
 contradicted. But not before it had worked its way 
 in India, and done much to undermine the founda- 
 tions of that confidence which is one of the main 
 pillars of our strength. 
 
 There is one other story of territorial annexation Sumbhulpore 
 
 • 1849 
 
 yet to be told — briefly, for it was not thought at the 
 time to be of much political importance, and now is 
 held but little in remembrance. Beyond the south- 
 western frontier of Bengal was the territor}-' of Sum- 
 bhulpore. It had formerly been an outlying district 
 of the Nagpore principality, but had been ceded by 
 the Bonslah family, and had been bestowed by the 
 British on a descendant of the old Sumbhulpore 
 Rajahs, under terms which would have warranted 
 the resumption of the estate on the death of the first 
 incumbent. But twice the sovereign rights had been 
 bestowed anew upon members of the family, and not 
 until 1849, when Narain Singh lay at the point of 
 death, was it determined to annex the territory to 
 
98 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1849. tlie British dominions. There were no heirs of the 
 body ; no near relatives of the Rajah. No adoption 
 had been declared. The country was said to have 
 been grievously misgoverned. And so there seemed 
 to be a general agreement that the Lapse was per- 
 fect, and that annexation might be righteously pro- 
 claimed. Dalhousie was absent from the Presidency ; 
 but the case was clear, and the Government neither 
 in India nor in England hesitated for a moment. 
 And, perhaps, though it was not without its own 
 bitter fruit, there is less to be said against it, on the 
 score of abstract justice, than against anything of 
 which I have written in this division of my work. 
 
 But there were lapses of another kind, lapses 
 which involved no gain of territory to the British 
 Government, for the territory had been gained be- 
 fore. There were several deposed princes in the land, 
 representatives of ancient Houses, whose sceptres had 
 passed by conquest or by treaty into the white man's 
 hand, but who still enjoyed the possession of consi- 
 derable revenues, and maintained some semblance of 
 their former dignity and state. It happened that, 
 whilst Dalhousie reigned in India, three of these 
 pensioned princes died. Of the story of one of them 
 I must write in detail. There had once been three 
 great Mahratta Houses : the Houses of Sattarah, of 
 Nagpore, and of Poonah. It has been told how 
 Dalhousie extinguished the two first ; the third had 
 been for some thirty years territorially extinct, 
 when he was sent out to govern India. In 1818, 
 at the close of the second great Mahratta war, 
 the Peishwah, Badjee Rao, surrendered to Sir John 
 Malcolm. He had been betrayed into hostility, and 
 treacherous hostility ; he had appealed to the sword, 
 and he had been fairly beaten ; and there was nothing 
 
THE FALL OF THE PEISHWAH. 99 
 
 left for Ilim but to end his clays as an outcast and a 1818. 
 fugitive, or to fling himself upon the mercy of the 
 British Government. He chose the latter course ; 
 and when he gave himself to the English General, 
 he knew that he was in the hands of one who sym- 
 pathised with him in his fallen fortunes, and would 
 be a generous friend to him in adversity. Malcolm 
 pledged the Government to bestow upon the Peish- 
 wah, for the support of himself and family, an annual 
 pension of not less than eight lakhs of rupees. The 
 promise was said to be an over-liberal one ; and 
 there were those who at the time condemned Mal- 
 colm for his profuseness. But he replied, that " it 
 had been the policy of the British Government, since 
 its first establishment in India, to act towards princes, 
 whose bad faith and treachery had compelled it to 
 divest them of all power and dominion, with a gene- 
 rosity which almost lost sight of their offences. The 
 effect of this course of proceeding in reconciling all 
 classes to its rule had been great. The liberality and 
 the humanity which it had displayed on such occa- 
 sions had, I was satisfied, done more than its arms 
 towards the firm establishment of its power. It was, 
 in fact, a conquest over mind, and among men so 
 riveted in their habits and prejudices as the natives 
 of their country, the effect, though unseen, was great 
 beyond calculation." It was a solace to him to think 
 that these sentiments were shared by such men as 
 Mountstuart Elphinstone, David Ochterlony, and 
 Thomas Munro. 
 
 So Badjee Rao went into honourable seclusion, and 
 an asylum was found for him at Bithoor, distant 
 some twelve miles from the great military station 
 of Cawnpore, in the North- Western Provinces of 
 India. He was not then an old man, as age is calcu- 
 L,fC H 2 
 
100 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1818-51. lated by years, but he was said to be of debauched 
 habits and feeble constitution ; and no one believed 
 that he would ver}^ long survive to be a burden upon 
 the Company. But he outlived his power for a 
 third part of a century, living resignedly, if not con- 
 tentedly, in his new home, with a large body of fol- 
 lowers and dependents, mostly of his own race, and 
 many others of the outward insignia of state. From 
 the assemblage, under such circumstances, of so large 
 a body of Mahrattas, some feeling of apprehension 
 and alarm might have arisen in the mind of the 
 British Government, especially in troubled times ; 
 but the fidelity of the ex-Peishwah himself was as 
 conspicuous as the good conduct and the orderly 
 behaviour of his people. Nor was it only a passive 
 loyalty that he manifested ; for twice in critical con- 
 junctures, when the English were sore-pressed, he 
 came forward with offers of assistance. When the 
 War in Afghanistan had drained our Treasury, and 
 money was grievously wanted, he lent the Company 
 five lakhs of rupees ; and when, afterwards, our 
 dominions were threatened with an invasion from 
 the Punjab, and there was much talk all over the 
 country of a hostile alliance between the Sikhs and 
 the Mahrattas, the steadfastness of his fidelity was 
 evidenced by an ofi'er made to the British Govern- 
 ment to raise and to maintain at his o^vn cost a 
 thousand Horse and a thousand Foot. As he had 
 the disposition, so also had he the means to serve 
 us. His ample pension more than sufiiced for the 
 wants even of a retired monarch ; and as years 
 passed, people said that he had laid by a great store 
 of wealth, and asked who was to be its inheritor ? 
 For it was with him, as it was with other Mahratta 
 princes, he was going down to the grave leaving no 
 
DEATH OF THE TEISHWAH. 101 
 
 «on to succeed him. So he adopted a son, from his 181S-51. 
 own family stock,* and, some years before his death, 
 sought the recognition of the British Government for 
 an adoption embracing more than the right of suc- 
 cession to his savings (for this needed no sovereign 
 sanction) the privilege of succeeding to the title and 
 the pension of the Peishwah. The prayer was not 
 granted ; but the Company did not shut out all hope 
 that, after the death of Badjee Rao, some provision 
 might be made for his family. The question was re- 
 served for future consideration — that is, until the 
 contingency of the ex-Peishwah's death should be- 
 come an accomplished reality ; and as at this time 
 the old man was feeble, paralytic, and nearly blind, 
 it was not expected that his pension would much 
 longer remain a burden on the Indian revenues. 
 
 But not until the 28th of January, 1851, when Death of 
 there was the weight of seventy-seven years upon ^ ^^^ '^^ 
 him, did the last of the Peishwahs close his eyes 
 upon the world for ever. He left behind him a will, 
 executed in 1839, in which he named as his adopted 
 son, " to inherit and be tbe sole master of the Guddee 
 of the Peishwah, the don.hiions, wealth, family pos- 
 sessions, treasure, and all Ids real and personal pro- 
 perty," a youth known as Doondoo Punt, Nana Sahib. The Kana 
 When Badjee Eao died, the heir was twenty-seven 
 years old ; described as '' a quiet, unostentatious 
 young man, not at all addicted to any extravagant 
 habits, and invariably showing a ready disposition to 
 attend to the advice of the British Commissioner." 
 
 * Strictly it should be said that Rao, my j^randson ; tliese three are 
 
 lie adopted three sons and a grand- my sons and grandson. After me 
 
 son. His will says : " That Doondoo Doondoo Punt, Nana, my eldest son, 
 
 Puiit, Nana, my eldest son, and Gun- Mookh Perdan, shall inherit and br; 
 
 gadhur llao, my youngest and third the sole master of the Guddee of the 
 
 son, and Sada-Sheo Punt Dada, son Peishwah, &c." — MS. Records, 
 of my second son, PuiidoD ilung 
 
102 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1S51. What lie was safe to inherit was about 300,0007., 
 more than one-half of which was invested in Govern- 
 ment securities ;* but there wls an immense body of 
 dependents to be provided for, and it was thought 
 that the British Government might appropriate a 
 portion of the ex-Peishwah's stipend to the support 
 of the family at Bithoor. The management of affairs 
 was in the hands of the Soubahdar Ramchunder 
 Punt, a faithful friend and adherent of Badjee Rao, 
 who counselled his master with wisdom, and con- 
 trolled his followers with vigour ; and he now, with 
 all due respect for the British Government, pleaded 
 the cause of the adopted son of the Peishwah. " Nana 
 Sahib," he said, " considering the Honourable Com- 
 pany in the room of the late IMaharajah as his pro- 
 tector and supporter, is full of hopes and free of care 
 on this subject. His dependence in every way is on 
 the kindness and liberality of the British Govern- 
 ment, for the increase of whose power and prosperity 
 he has ever been, and will continue to be, desirous." 
 The British Commissioner at Bithoorf supported the 
 appeal in behalf of the family, but it met with no 
 favour in high places. Mr. Thomason was then 
 Lieutenant-Governor of tht-: North- Western Provinces. 
 He was a good man, an able man, a man of high re- 
 putation, but he was one of the leaders of the New 
 School, and was no friend to the princes and nobles 
 of the land ; and he told the Commissioner to dis- 
 courage all hopes of further assistance in the breasts 
 
 * The official report of the Com- Manson was Commissioner -when the 
 
 missioner said, 16 lakhs of Govern- Peisliwah died, but he left Bithoor 
 
 ment paper, 10 lakhs of jewels, 3 shortly afterwards, and Mr. Morland, 
 
 lakhs of gold coins, 80,000 rupees then magistrate at Cawnpore, took 
 
 gold ornaments, 20,000 rupees silver his place, and on him devolved the 
 
 plate. principal business of the settlement 
 
 j- It should rather be said, " two of the ex-PeishTah's affairs. 
 British Commissioners." Colonel 
 
THE NANA SAHIB. 103 
 
 of the family, and to " strive to induce tlie numerous 1651. 
 retainers of the Peisliwah speedily to disperse and 
 return to the Deccan." Lord Dalhousie was Go- 
 vernor-General ; and, in such a case, his views were 
 little likely to differ from those of his Lieutenant. 
 So he declared his opinion that the recommendations 
 of the Commissioner were ^' uncalled for and unrea- 
 sonable." " The Governor-General," it was added, 
 " concurs in opinion with his Honour (Mr. Thoma- 
 son) in thinking thd;, unaer any circumstances, the 
 Family have no claim upon the Government ; and 
 he will by no means consent to any portion of the 
 public revenues being conferred on them. His Lord- 
 ship requests that the determination of the Govern- 
 ment of India may be explicitly declared to the 
 Family without delay." And it was so declared ; 
 but with some small alleviation of the harshness of 
 the sentence, for the Jagheer, or rent-free estate, of 
 Bithoor was to be continued to the Nana Sahib, but 
 without the exclusive jurisdiction which had been 
 enjoyed by the ex-Peishwah. 
 
 When Doondoo Punt learnt that there was no hope Memorial o 
 of any further assistance to the family at Bithoor *^^ ^'*^^* 
 from the liberality of the Government of India, he 
 determined to appeal to the Court of Directors of 
 the East India* Company. It had been in contem- 
 plation daring the lifetime of Badjee Rao to adopt 
 such a course, and a son of the Soubahdar Ram- 
 chunder had been selected as the agent who was to 
 prosecute the appeal. But discouraged by the Com- 
 missioner, the project had been abandoned, and was 
 not revived until all other hope had failed after the 
 ex-Peishwah's death. Then it was thought that a 
 reversal of the adverse decision might be obtained 
 by memorialising the authorities in England, and a 
 
104 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALEOUSIE. 
 
 December 29, memorial was accordingly drawn up and des^)alclied, 
 in the usual manner, through the Government in 
 India. ''The course pursued by the local govern- 
 ments," it was said, " is not only an unfeeling one 
 towards the numerous family of the deceased prince, 
 left almost entirely dependent upon the promises of 
 the East India Company, but inconsistent with what 
 is due to the representative of a long line of sove- 
 reigns. Your memorialist, therefore, deems it expe- 
 dient at once to appeal to your Honourable Court, 
 not merely on the ground of the faith of treaties, but 
 of a bare regard to the advantages the East India 
 Company have deri\ ed from the last sovereign of the 
 
 Mahratta Empire It would be contrary to 
 
 the spirit of all treaties hitherto concluded to attach 
 a special meaning to an article of the stipulations 
 entered into, whilst another is interpreted and acted 
 upon in its most liberal sense." And then the me- 
 morialist proceeded to argue, that as the Peishwah, 
 on behalf of his heirs and successors, had ceded his 
 territories to the Company, the Company were bound 
 to pay the price of such cession to the Peishwah and 
 his heirs and successors. If the compact were lasting 
 on one side, so also should it be on the other. " Your 
 memorialist submits that a cession of a perpetual 
 revenue of thirty -four lakhs of rupees in considera- 
 tion of an annual pension of eight lakhs establishes a 
 de facto presumption that the payment of one is con- 
 tingent upon the receipt of the other, and hence that, 
 as long as those receipts continue, the payment of the 
 pension is to follow." It was then argued that the 
 mention, in the treaty, of the " Family" of the Peish- 
 wah indicated the hereditary character of the stipula- 
 tion, on the part of the Company, as such mention 
 would be unnecessary and unmeaning in its ap plica- 
 
^lEMORIAL OF THE NANA SAHIB. 105 
 
 tioii to a mere life-grant, *'for a provision for tlie 18* 
 support of the prince necessarily included the main- 
 tenance of his family ;" and after this, from special 
 arguments, the Nana Sahib turned to a general asser- 
 tion of his rights as based on precedent and analogy. 
 '• Your memorialist," it was said, "is at a loss to 
 account for the difference between the treatment, by 
 the Company, of the descendants of other princes 
 and that experienced by the family of the Peishwah, 
 represented by him. The ruler of Mysore evinced 
 the most implacable hostility towards the Company's 
 government ; and your memorialist's father was one of 
 the princes whose aid was invoked by the Company 
 to crush a relentless enemy. When that chieftain 
 fell, sword in hand, the Company, far from abandon- 
 ing his progeny to their fate, have afforded an asylum 
 and a liberal support to more than one generation of 
 his descendants, without distinction between the legi- 
 timate and the illegitimate. With equal or even 
 greater liberality the Company delivered the de- 
 throned Emperor of Delhi from a dungeon, re-in- 
 vested him with the insignia of sovereignty, and 
 assigned to him a munificent revenue, which is con- 
 tinued to his descendants to the present day. Wherein 
 is your memorialist's case different? It is true that 
 the Peishwah, after years of amity with the British 
 Indian Government, during which he assigned to 
 them revenues to the amount of half a crore of 
 rupees, was unhappily engaged in war with them, by 
 which he perilled his throne. But as he was not 
 reduced to extremities, and even if reduced, closed 
 with the terms proposed to him by the British Com- 
 mander, and ceded his rich domains to place himself 
 and his family under the fostering care of the Com- 
 pany, and as the Company still profit by the revenues 
 
106 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LOUD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1852. of his hereditary possessions, on what principle are 
 his descendants deprived of the pension included in 
 those terms and the vestiges of sovereignty ? Wherein 
 are the claims of his family to the favour and consi- 
 deration of the Company less than those of the con- 
 quered Mysorean or the captive Mogul ?" Then the 
 Nana Sahib began to set forth his own personal 
 claims as founded on the adoption in his favour ; he 
 quoted the best authorities on Hindoo law to prove 
 that the son by adoption has all the rights of the 
 son by birth ; and he cited numerous instances, 
 drawn from the recent history of Hindostan and the 
 Deccan, to show how such adoptions had before been 
 recognised by the British Government. "The same 
 fact," he added, " is evinced in the daily practice of 
 the Company's Courts all over India, in decreeing to 
 the adopted sons of princes, of zemindars, and persons 
 of every grade, the estates of those persons to the ex- 
 clusion of other heirs of the blood. Indeed, unless 
 the British Indian Government is prepared to abro- 
 gate the Hindoo Sacred Code, and to interdict the 
 practice of the Hindoo religion, of both of which 
 adoption is a fundamental feature, your memorialist 
 cannot understand with what consistency his claim 
 to the pension of the late Peishwah can be denied, 
 merely on the ground of his being an adopted 
 son." 
 
 Another plea for refusal might be, nay, had been, 
 based upon the fact that Badjee Eao, from the 
 savings of his pension, had accumulated and left 
 behind him a large amount of private property, 
 which no one could alienate from his heirs. Upon 
 this the Nana Sahib, with not unreasonable indigna- 
 tion, said : " That if the withholding of the pension 
 proceeded from the supposition that the late Peish- 
 
MEMORIAL OF THE NANA SAHIB. 107 
 
 wah had left a sufficient provision for liis family, ifc 1852. 
 would be altogether foreign to the question, and un- 
 precedented in the annals of the Histcry of British 
 India. The pension of eight lakhs of rupees per 
 annum has been agreed upon on the part of the 
 British Government, to enable his Highness the late 
 Badjee Rao to support himself and family ; it is im- 
 material to the British Government what portion of 
 that sum the late prince actually expended, nor has 
 there been any agreement entered into to the effect 
 that his Highness the late Badjee Rao should be 
 compelled to expend every fraction of an annual 
 allowance accorded to him by a special treaty, in 
 consideration of his ceding to the British Govern- 
 ment territories yielding an annual and perpetual 
 revenue of thirty-four lakhs of rupees. Nobody on 
 earth had a right to control the expenditure of that 
 pension, and if his Highness the late Badjee Rao had 
 saved every fraction of it, he would have been per- 
 fectly justified in doing so. Your memorialist would 
 venture to ask, whether the British Government ever 
 deigned to ask in what manner the pension granted 
 to any of its numerous retired servants is expended ? 
 or whether any of them saves a portion, or what 
 portion, of his pension ? and, furthermore, in the 
 event of its being proved that the incumbents of such 
 pensions had saved a large portion thereof, it would 
 be considered a sufficient reason for withholding the 
 pension from the children in the proportions stipu- 
 lated by the covenant entered into with its servant ? 
 And yet is a native prince, the descendant of an an- 
 cient scion of Royalty, who relies upon the justice 
 and liberality of the British Government, deserving 
 of less consideration than its covenanted servants? 
 To disperse, however, any erroneous impression that 
 
108 'inE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DATJIOUSIE. 
 
 1S53. may exist on tlie part of the British Government on 
 that score, your memorialist would respectfully beg 
 to observe that the pension of eight lakhs of rupees, 
 stipulated for by the treaty of 1818, was not exclu- 
 sively for the support of his Highness the late Badjee 
 Rao and his family, but also for the maintenance of 
 a large retinue of faithful adherents, who preferred 
 following the ex-Peishwah in his voluntary exile. 
 Their large number, fully known to the British Go- 
 vernment, caused no inconsiderable call upon the 
 reduced resources of his Highness ; and, furthermore, 
 if it be taken into consideration the appearance 
 which Native princes, though rendered powerless, 
 are still obliged to keep up to ensure respect, it may 
 be easily imagined that the savings from a pension of 
 eight lakhs of rupees, granted out of an annual re- 
 venue of thirty -four lakhs, could not have been large. 
 But notwithstanding this heavy call upon the limited 
 resources of the late Peishwah, his Highness hus- 
 banded his resources with much care, so as to be 
 enabled to invest a portion of his annual income in 
 public securities, which, at the time of his death, 
 yielded an income of about eighty thousand rupees. 
 Is then the foresight and the economy on the part of 
 his Highness the late Badjee Rao to be regarded as 
 an offence deserving to be visited with the punish- 
 ment of stopping the pension for the support of his 
 m:s. Records, family guaranteed by a formal treaty ?" 
 
 But neither the rhetoric nor the reasoning of the 
 Nana Sahib had any effect upon the Home Govern- 
 ment. The Court of Directors of the East India 
 Company were hard as a rock, and by no means to 
 be moved to compassion. They had alreadv ex- 
 pressed an opinion that the savings of the Peishwah 
 were sufficient for the maintenance of hi3 heirs and 
 
AZIM-OOLLAH KHAN. 109 
 
 dependents ;* and when the memorial came before 185?^. 
 them, they summarily rejected it, writing out to the the Company. 
 Government to " inform the memorialist that the 
 pension of his adoptive father was not hereditary, 
 that he has no claim whatever to it, and that his 
 application is wholly inadmissible." Such a reply as May 4, 1S53.. 
 this must have crushed out all hope from the Bithoor 
 Family, and shown the futility of further action ; but 
 it happened that, before this answer was received, 
 the Nana Sahib had sent an agent to England to pro- 
 secute his claims. This agent was not the son of the 
 old Mahratta Soubahdar, to whom the mission first 
 contemplated was to have been entrusted, but a 
 young and astute Mahomedan, with a good presence, 
 a plausible address, and a knowledge of the English 
 language. His name was Azim-oollah_ Khjji . In the 
 summer of 1 853 he appeared in England, and in con- 
 junction with an Englishman, named Biddle, prose- 
 cuted the claims of the Nana, but with no success. 
 Judgment had already been recorded, and nothing 
 that these agents could say or do was likely to cause 
 its reversal. 
 
 So Azim-ooUah Khan, finding that little or nothing 
 could be done in the way of business for his em- 
 ployer, devoted his energies to the pursuit of pleasure 
 on his own account. Passing by reason of his fine 
 clothes for a person of high station, he made his way 
 into good society, and is said to have boasted of 
 favours received from English ladies. Outwardly he 
 was a gay, smiling, voluptuous sort of person ; and 
 
 * "3/(7^19, 1852. — ^We entirely three years afforded liim the means 
 approve of the decision of the Go- of making an abundant provision for 
 
 vernor-General that the adopted son his family and dependents, and the 
 
 and dependents on Badjee Rao have property, which he is known to ' 
 
 no claim upon the British Govern- left, is amply sufficient for 
 
 ment.^ The large pension which the support." — The Court of Direct 
 
 ex-Peishwah enjoyed during' thirty- the Government of India.— MS. 
 
110 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1853. even a shrewd observer might have thought that he 
 was intent always upon the amusement of the hour. 
 There was one man, however, in England at that 
 time, who, perhaps, knew that the desires of the 
 plausible Mahomedan were not bounded by the en- 
 joyment of the present. For it happened that the 
 agent, who had been sent to England by the deposed 
 Sattarah Family, in the hope of obtaining for them 
 the restoration of their principality, was still resident 
 in the English metropolis. This man was a Mahratta 
 named Rungo Bapojee. Able and energetic, he had 
 pushed his suit with a laborious, untiring conscien- 
 tiousness, rarely seen in a Native envoy ; but though 
 aided by much soundness of argument and much 
 fluency of rhetoric expended by others than hired 
 advocates, upon the case of the Sattarah Princes, he 
 had failed to make an impression on their judges. 
 Though of different race and different religion, these 
 two men were knit together by common sympathies 
 and kindred tasks, and in that autumn of 1853, by 
 like failures and disappointments to brood over and 
 the same bitter animosities to cherish. What was 
 said and what was done between them no Historian 
 can relate. They were adepts in the art of dissimula- 
 tion. So the crafty Mahratta made such a good im- 
 pression even upon those whom his suit had so 
 greatly troubled, that his debts were paid for him, 
 and he was sent back at the public expense to Bom- 
 bay with money in his pocket from the Treasury of 
 the India House ;* whilst the gay Mahomedan floated 
 about the surface of society and made a conspicuous 
 flgure at crowded watering-places, as if he dearly 
 loved England and the English, and could not per- 
 
 * Rungo Bapojee returned to India Company gave him 2500/, and 
 India in December. 1853. The East a free passage. 
 
^.arnatic and tanjore. li { 
 
 suacle himself to return to his own dreary and be- 1853. 
 nighted land. 
 
 So little material are they to this History that I Carnatic ai)r> 
 need not write in detail of the circumstances attend- ^"J°^^* 
 ing the extinction of the titular sovereignties of the 
 Carnatic and Tanjore, two ancient Houses, one Ma- 
 homedan, the other Hindoo, that had once flourished 
 in the Southern Peninsula. Lord Wellesley had 
 stripped them of territorial power. It remained, 
 therefore, only for Lord Dalhousie, when the Newab 1854. 
 of the Carnatic and the Rajah of Tanjore died with- 1S55. 
 out heirs of the body, to abolish the titular dignities 
 of the two Families and " to resume the large stipends 
 they had enjoyed, as Lapses to Government." Pen- 
 sions were settled upon the surviving members of 
 the two Families ; but in each case, the head of the 
 House made vehement remonstrance against the ex- 
 tinction of its honours, and long and loudly cla- 
 moured for restitution. There were many, doubt- 
 less, in Southern India who still clung with feelings 
 of veneration to these shadowy pageants, and de- 
 plored the obliteration of the royal names that they 
 had long honoured ; and as a part of the great sys- 
 tem of demolition these resumptions made a bad im- 
 pression m more remote places. But empty titular 
 dignities are dangerous possessions, and it may be, 
 after all, only mistaken kindness to perpetuate them 
 when the substance of royalty is gone. 
 
 \* In this chapter might have to increase, in some measure, tlis 
 
 been included other cases of Lapse, feeling of insecurity in men's minds, 
 
 as those of the Pergunnah, of Odei- they were comparatively of little po- 
 
 poor, on the South-Western Fron- litical importance; and Lord Dal- 
 
 tier, and of Jeitpore, in Bundle- housie did not think them worth a 
 
 khund ; but, although every addi- paragraph in his Farewell Minute, 
 tioual absorption of territory tended 
 
112 TUE ADMl^^SIKATION OF LORD OALHOUSIIi 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TV.H AyiJF.^ATION OF OUDE — EAELY HISTORY OF THE PROVINCE — THE TREATY 
 OP 1801 — EPPECTS OP THE DOUBLE GOVERNMENT — CREATION OP THE 
 KINGSHIP — PROGRESS OP MISRULE — REPEATED WARNINGS— THE UN- 
 RATIFIED TREATY — COLONEL SLEEMAN's REPORTS — LORD DALHOUSIE's 
 MINUTE — VIEWS OP THE COURT OF DIRECTORS — SIR JAMES OUTRAM 
 RESIDENT — ANNEXATION PROCLAIMED. 
 
 1856. There was still another province to be absorbed 
 
 into the British Empire under the administration of 
 Lord Dalhousie ; not by conquest, for its rulers had 
 ever been our friends, and its people had recruited 
 our armies ; not by lapse, for there had always been 
 a son or a brother, or some member of the royal 
 house, to fulfil, according to the Mahomedan law of 
 succession, the conditions of heirship, and there was 
 still a king, the son of a king, upon the throne ; but 
 by a simple assertion of the dominant will of the 
 British Government. This was the great province of 
 Oude, in the very heart of Hindostan, which had long 
 tempted us, alike by its local situation and the reputed 
 wealth of its natural resources. 
 
 It is a story not to be lightly told in a few sentences. 
 Its close connexion with some of the more important 
 passages of this history fully warrants some ampli- 
 tude of narration. Before the British settler had esta- 
 blished himself on the peninsula of India, Oude was 
 
EARLY CONNEXION WITH OUDE. 113 
 
 a province of tlie Mogul Empire. When that empire 1756- 179G. 
 was distracted and weakened by the invasion of 
 Nadir Shah, the treachery of the servant was turned 
 against the master, and little by little the Governor 
 began to govern for himself. But holding only an 
 official, though an hereditary title, he still acknow- 
 ledged his vassalage -, and long after the Great Mogul 
 had shrivelled into a pensioner and a pageant, the 
 Newab-Wuaeer of Oude was nominally his minister. 
 
 Of the earliest history of British connexion with 
 the Court of the Wuzeer, it is not necessary to write 
 in detail. There is nothing less creditable in the 
 annals of the rise and progress of the British power 
 in the East. The Newab had territory ; the Newab 
 had subjects ; the Newab had neighbours ; more than 
 all, the Newab had money. But although he pos- 
 sessed in abundance the raw material of soldiers, he 
 had not been able to organise an army sufficient for 
 all the external and internal requirements of \h(i 
 State, and so he was fain to avail himself of the 
 superior military skill and discipline of the white 
 men, and to hire British battalions to do his work. 
 At first this w^as done in an irregular, desultory kind 
 of way, job-work, as in the infamous case of the 
 Rohilla massacre ; but afterwards it assumed a more 
 formal and recognised shape, and solemn engagements 
 were entered into with the Newab, by which we un- 
 dertook, in consideration of certain money-payments, 
 known as the Subsidy, to provide a certain number of 
 British troops for the internal and external defence of 
 his Excellency's dominions. 
 
 In truth it was a vicious system, one that can 
 hardly be too severely condemned. By it we esta- 
 blished a Double Government of the Avorst kind. The 
 Political and Military government was in the hands 
 
 I 
 
114 THE ADIUmiSTRATIOX OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 i:OG. of the Company ; the internal administration of the 
 Oude territories still rested with the Newab-Wuzeer. 
 In other words, hedged in and protected by the 
 British battalions, a bad race of Eastern Princes were 
 suffered to do, or not to do, what they liked. Under 
 such influences it is not strange that disorder of every 
 kind ran riot over the whole length and breadth of 
 the land. Never were the evils of misrule more hor- 
 ribly apparent ; never were the vices of an indolent 
 and rapacious Government productive of a greater 
 sum of misery. The extravagance and profligacy of 
 the Court were written in hideous characters on the 
 desolated face of the country. It was left to the 
 Nabob's Government to dispense justice : justice was 
 not dispensed. It was left to the Nabob's Govern- 
 ment to collect the revenue ; it was wrung from the 
 people at the point of the bayonet. The Court was 
 sumptuous and profligate ; the people poor and 
 wretched. The expenses of the royal household were 
 enormous. Hundreds of richly-caparisoned voracious 
 elephants ate up the wealth of whole districts, or car- 
 ried it in glittering apparel on their backs. A multitu- 
 dinous throng of unserviceable attendants ; bands of 
 dancing-girls ; flocks of parasites ; costly feasts and 
 ceremonies ; folly and pomp and profligacy of every 
 conceivable description, drained the cofl'ers of the 
 State. A vicious and extravagant Government soon 
 beget a poor and a sufi*ering people ; a poor and a 
 sufl*ering people, in turn, perpetuate the curse of a 
 bankrupt Government. The process of retaliation is 
 sure. To support the lavish expenditure of the Court 
 the mass of the people were persecuted and outraged. 
 Bands of armed mercenaries were let loose upon the 
 ryots in support of the rapacity of the Aumils, or 
 Revenue-farmers, whose appearance was a terror to 
 
INTERVENTION OF LORD WELLESLEY. 115 
 
 the people. Under such a system of cruelty and 1798. 
 extortion, the country soon became a desert, and the 
 Government then learnt by hard experience that the 
 prosperity of the people is the only true source of 
 wealth. The lesson was thrown away. The decrease 
 of the revenue was not accompanied by a corre- 
 sponding diminution of the profligate expenditure of 
 the Court, or by any effort to introduce a better 
 administrative system. Instead of this, every new 
 year saw the unhappy country lapsing into worse dis- 
 order, with less disposition, as time advanced, on the 
 part of the local Government to remedy the evils be- 
 neath which it was groaning. Advice, protestation, 
 remonstrance were in vain. Lord Cornwallis advised, 
 protested, remonstrated : Sir John Shore advised, 
 protested, remonstrated. At last a statesman of a 
 very different temper appeared upon the scene. 
 
 Lord Wellesley was a despot in every pulse of his 
 heart. But he was a despot of the right kind ; for 
 he was a man of consummate vigour and ability, and 
 he seldom made a mistake. The condition of Oude 
 soon, attracted his attention ; not because its govern- 
 ment was bad and its people were wretched, but be- 
 cause that country might either be a bulwark of 
 safety to our own dominions, or a sea of danger which 
 might overflow and destroy us. That poor old blind 
 ex-King, Shah Zemaun, of the Suddozye family of 
 Caubul, known to the present generation as the feeble 
 appendage of a feeble puppet, had been, a little while 
 before the advent of Lord Wellesley, in the heyday of 
 his pride and power, meditating great deeds which he 
 had not the ability to accomplish, and keeping the 
 British power in India in a chronic state of unrest. 
 If ever there had been any real peril, it had passed 
 away before the new century was a year old But it 
 
 i2 
 
116 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1799. miglit arise again. Doubtless the military strength 
 of the Afghans was marvellously overrated in those 
 days ; but still there was the fact of a minacious Ma- 
 homedan power beyond the frontier, not only medi- 
 tating invasion, but stirring up the Mahomedan 
 Princes of India to combine in a religious war against 
 the usurping Feringhee. Saadut Ali was then on the 
 musnud of Oude ; he was the creature and the friend 
 of the English, but Vizier Ali, whom he had sup- 
 planted, had intrigued with Zemaun Shah, and would 
 not only have welcomed, but have subsidised also an 
 Afghan force in his own dominions. At the bottom 
 of all our alarm, at that time, were some not unrea- 
 sonable apprehensions of the ambitious designs of the 
 first Napoleon. At all events, it was sound policy to 
 render Oude powerful for good and powerless for 
 evil. To the accomplishment of this it was necessary 
 that large bodies of ill- disciplined and irregularly 
 paid native troops in the service of the Newab-Wuzeer 
 — ^lawless bands that had been a terror alike to him 
 and to his people — should be forthwith disbanded, 
 and that British troops should occupy their place. 
 Now, already the Wuzeer was paying seventy-six 
 lakhs of rupees, or more than three-quarters of a 
 million of money, for his subsidised British troops, 
 and though he was willing to disband his own levies, 
 and thereby to secure some saving to the State, it 
 was but small in proportion to the expense of the 
 more costly machinery of British military defence 
 noAV to be substituted for them. The additional bur- 
 den to be imposed upon Oude was little less than half 
 a million of money, and the unfortunate Wuzeer, 
 whose resources had been strained to the utmost to 
 pay the previous subsidy, declared his inability to 
 meet any further demands on his treasury. This was 
 
THE TREATY OF 1801. 117 
 
 what Lord Wellesley expected — nay, more, it was 1800. 
 what he wanted. If the Wuzeer could not pay in 
 money, he could pay in money's worth. He had rich 
 lands that might be ceded in perpetuity to the Com- 
 pany for the punctual payment of the subsidy. So 
 the Governor-General prepared a treaty ceding the 
 required provinces, and with a formidable array of 
 British troops at his call, dragooned the Wuzeer into 
 sullen submission to the will of the English Sultan. 
 The new treaty was signed ; and districts then yield- 
 ing a million and a half of money, and now nearly 
 double that amount of annual revenue, passed under 
 the administration of the British Government. 
 
 Now, this treaty — the last ever ratified between isoi, 
 the two Governments — bound the Newab Wuzeer to 
 ^^ establish in his reserved dominions such a system of 
 administration, to be carried on by his own officers, 
 as should be conducive to the prosperity of his sub- 
 jects, and be calculated to secure the lives and pro- 
 perties of the inhabitants," and he undertook at the 
 same time " always to advise with and to act in con- 
 formity to the counsels of the officers of the East 
 India Company." But the English ruler knew well 
 that there was small hope of these conditions being 
 fulfilled. "I am satisfied," he said, "that no effec- 
 tual security can be provided against the ruin of the 
 province of Oude until the exclusive management of 
 the civil and military government of that country 
 shall be transferred to the Company under suitable 
 provisions for the maintenance of his Excellency and 
 his family." He saw plainly before him the break- 
 down of the whole system, and believed that in the 
 course of a few years the entire administration of the 
 province would be transferred to the hands of our 
 British officers. There was one thing, however, on 
 
118 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1801-17. wliich he did not calculate — the moderation of his 
 successors. He lived nearly half a century after 
 these words were written, and yet the treaty outlived 
 him by many years. 
 
 If there was, a,t any time, hope for Oude, under 
 purely native administration, it was during the 
 wuzeership of Saadut Ali, for he was not a bad man, 
 and he appears to have had rather enlightened views 
 with res^Dect to some important administrative ques- 
 tions.* But the opportunity was lost \ and whilst 
 the counsels of our British officers did nothing for the 
 people, the bayonets of our British soldiers restrained 
 them from doing anything for themselves. Thus 
 matters grew from bad to worse, and from worse to 
 worst. One Governor-General followed another ; one 
 Resident followed another ; one Wuzeer followed an- 
 other: but still the great tide of evil increased in 
 volume, in darkness, and in depth. 
 
 But, although the Newab-Wuzeers of Oude were, 
 doubtless, bad rulers and bad men, it must be ad- 
 mitted that they were good allies. False to their people 
 — false to their own manhood — they were true to the 
 British Government. They were never known to break 
 out into open hostility, or to smoulder in hidden trea- 
 chery against us; and they rendered good service, when 
 they could, to the Power to which they owed so little. 
 They supplied our armies, in time of war, with grain , 
 ihey supplied us with carriage- cattle; better still, 
 they supplied us with cash. There was money in the 
 
 * Sir Henry Lawrence says that to the resentment he felt for liis 
 Le was "in advance of the Bengal own wrongs, and the bitterness of 
 Government of the day on revenue soul with which he must liave re- 
 arrangements," and gives two strik- ceived all advice from his oppressors, 
 ing instances of the fact. With cha- no less than to tiie impunity with 
 racteristic candour and impartiality, which they enabled liiin to play the 
 Lawrence adds that Saadut All's tyrant," — Calcutta Revieic^ vol, iii. 
 mal-administration was " mainly at- See also Lawrence's Essajs, in whici 
 tfibutable to English interference, this paper is printed. 
 
PROGRESSIVE MISRULE. 119 
 
 Treasury of Lucknow, when there was none in the 18I7. 
 Treasury of Calcutta; and the time came when the 
 Wuzeer s cash was needed by the British ruler. En- 
 gaged in an extensive and costly war, Lord Hastings 
 wanted more millions for the prosecution of his great 
 enterprises. They were forthcoming at the right 
 time ; and the British Government were not un- 
 willino; in exchano;e to testow both titles and terri- 
 tories on the Wuzeer. The times were propitious. 
 The successful close of the Nepaul war placed at our 
 disposal an unhealthy and impracticable tract of 
 country at the foot of the Hills. This " terai" ceded 
 to us by the Nepaulese was sold for a million of 
 money to the Wuzeer, to whose domains it was con- 
 tiguous, and he himself expanded and bloomed into 
 a Kino; under the fostering sun of British favour and 
 affection.* The interest of the other ^million was paid 
 away by our Government to a tribe of Oude pen- 
 sioners, who were not sorry to exchange for a British 
 guarantee the erratic benevolence of their native 
 masters. 
 
 It Avould take long to trace the history of the pro- 
 gressive misrule of the Oude dominions under a suc- 
 cession of sovereigns all of the same class — ^passive 
 permitters of evil rather than active perpetrators of 
 iniquity, careless of, but not rejoicing in, the suffer- 
 ings of their people. The rulers of Oude, whether 
 Wuzeers or Kings, had not the energy to be tyrants. 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm said that the rence seems to have thought that 
 
 very mention of *' his Majesty of this was precisely what was in* 
 
 Oude" made liim sick. "Would I tended. "The Newab Ghazee-ood- 
 
 make," he said, " a golden calf, and deen Hyder," he wrote, " was en- 
 
 sufTer him to throw off his subordi- couraged to assume the title of 
 
 nate title, and assume equality with King; Lord Hastings calculated on 
 
 the degraded representative of a line this exciting a rivalry between the 
 
 of monarchs to whom his ancestors Oude and Delhi Families. " — Cal 
 
 liave been for ages really or nomi- cuita Revieu\ vol. iii. ; and Essays. 
 
 ually subject?" Sir Henry Law- page 119. 
 
120 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIR 
 
 1 917. They simply allowed tilings to take their course. 
 Sunk in voluptuousness and pollution, often too hor- 
 ribly revolting to be described, they gave themselves 
 up to the guidance of pandars and parasites, and 
 cared not so long as these wretched creatures admi- 
 nistered to their sensual appetites. Affairs of State 
 were pushed aside as painful intrusions. Corruption 
 stalked openly abroad. Every one had his price. 
 Place, honour, justice — everything was to be bought. 
 Fiddlers and barbers, pimps and mountebanks, be- 
 came great functionaries. There were high revels at 
 the capital, whilst, in the interior of the country, 
 every kind of enormity was being exercised to wring 
 from the helpless people the money which supplied 
 the indulgences of the Court. Much of the land was 
 farmed out to large contractors, who exacted every 
 possible farthing from the cultivators ; and were not 
 seldom, upon complaint of extortion, made, unless 
 inquiry were silenced by corruption, to disgorge 
 into the royal treasury a large portion of their gains. 
 Murders of the most revolting type, gang-robberies 
 of the most outrageous character, were committed in 
 open day. There were no Courts of Justice except at 
 Lucknow ; no Police but at the capital and on the 
 frontier. The British troops were continually called 
 out to coerce refractory landholders, and to stimulate 
 revenue-collection at the point of the bayonet. The 
 sovereign — Wuzeer or King — knew that they would 
 do their duty ; knew that, under the obligations of the 
 treaty, his authority would be supported ; and so he 
 lay secure in his Zenana, and fiddled whilst his coun- 
 try was in flames. 
 
 And so years passed ; and ever went there from the 
 Residency to the Council-chamber of the Supreme 
 Government the same unvarying story of frightful 
 misrule. Residents expostulated, Governors- Genera] 
 
LORD WILLLUI BENTINCK AT LUCKNOW. 121 
 
 protested against it. The protests in due course be- 1831 
 came threats. Time after time it was announced to 
 the rulers of Oude that, unless some great and imme- 
 diate reforms were introduced into the system of 
 administration, the British Government, as lords- 
 paramount, would have no course left to them but 
 to assume the direction of affairs, and to reduce the 
 sovereign of Oude to a pensioner and a pageant. 
 
 By no man was the principle of non-interference 
 supported more strenuously, both in theory and in 
 practice, than by Lord William Bentinck. But in 
 the affairs of this Oude State he considered that he 
 was under a righteous necessity to interfere. In April, 
 1831, he visited Lucknow ; and there, distinctly and 
 emphatically told the King that " unless his terri- 
 tories were governed upon other principles than those 
 hitherto followed, and the prosperity of the people 
 made the principal object of his administration, the 
 precedents afforded by the principalities of the Car- 
 natic and Tanjore would be applied to the kingdom 
 of Oude, and to the entire management of the coini- 
 try, and the King would be transmuted into a State 
 prisoner." This was no mere formal harangue, but 
 the deliberate enunciation of the Government of 
 India ; and to increase the impression which it was 
 calculated to make on the mind of the King, the 
 warning was afterwards communicated to him in 
 writing. But, spoken or written, the words were of 
 no avail. He threw himself more than ever into the 
 arms of parasites and pandars ; plunged more deeply 
 into debauchery than before, and openly violated all 
 decency by appearing drunk in the public streets of 
 Lucknow.* With the corruption of the Court the 
 
 * This was Nussur-ood-deenHyder tive merits. Colonel Slecman seems 
 
 — tlie second of the Oude kings, and to have thought that he might have 
 
 perhaps the worst. I speak du- extracted more good out of Nussur- 
 
 biously, however, of their compara- ocd-dccn than out of any of the rest. 
 
122 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1S31. disorders of the country increased. The crisis seemed 
 now to have arrived. A communication was made 
 to the Court of Oude, that " instructions to assume 
 the government of the country, if circumstances 
 should render such a measure necessary, had arrived, 
 and that their execution was suspended merely in the 
 hope that the necessity of enforcing them might be 
 obviated." 
 
 But in what manner was the administration to be 
 assumed — in what manner was the improvement of 
 the country to be brought about by the intervention 
 of the British Government? There were different 
 courses open to us, and they were all diligently consi- 
 dered. We might appoint a Minister of our own 
 selection, and rule through him by the agency of the 
 Resident. We might depose the ruling sovereign, 
 and set up another and more hopeful specimen of 
 royalty in his place. We might place the country 
 under European administration, giving all the sur- 
 plus revenues to the King. We might assume the 
 entire government, reducing the King to a mere 
 titular dignitary, and giving him a fixed share of the 
 annual revenues. Or we might annex the country 
 outright, giving him so many lakhs of rupees a year, 
 without reference to the revenues of the principality. 
 The ablest and most experienced Indian statesmen of 
 the day had been invited to give their opinions. 
 Malcolm and Metcalfe spoke freely out. The first of 
 the above schemes seemed to -represent the mildest 
 form of interference ; but both the soldier and the 
 civilian unhesitatingly rejected it as the most odious, 
 and, in practice, the most ruinous of all interposi- 
 tion. Far better, they said, to set up a new King, or 
 even to assume the government for ourselves. But 
 those were days when native dynasties were not con- 
 sidered unmixed evils, «.nd native institutions were not 
 
MODERATION OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 123 
 
 pure aborainations in our eyes. And it was tliouglit iS-^i? 
 that we might assume the administration of Oude, but 
 not for ourselves. It was thought that the British 
 Government might become the guardian and trustee 
 of the King of Oude, administer his aifairs through 
 native agency and in accordance with native institu- 
 tions, and pay every single rupee into the royal trea- 
 sury. 
 
 This was the scheme of Lord William Bentinck, a 
 man of unsurpassed honesty and justice ; and it met 
 with favourable acceptance in Leadenh all-street. The 
 Court of Directors at that time, true to the old tradi- 
 tions of the Company, were slow to encourage their 
 agents to seek pretexts for the extension of their 
 dominions. The despatches which they sent out to 
 India were for the most part distinguished by a 
 praiseworthy moderation ; sometimes, indeed, by a 
 noble frankness and sincerity, which showed that the 
 authors of them were above all disguises and pre- 
 tences. They now looked the Oude business fairly 
 in the face, but hoping still against hope that there 
 might be some amelioration, they suffered, after the 
 receipt of Lord AVilliam Bentinck's report, a year to 
 pass away, and then another year, before issuing 
 authoritative orders, and then they sent forth a 
 despatch, which was intended to bring the wliole , , 
 question to a final issue. They spoke of the feelings 1834 
 which the deplorable situation of a country so long 
 and so nearly connected with them had excited in 
 their minds — of the obligations which such a state of 
 things imposed upon them — of the necessity of find- 
 ing means of effecting a great alteration. They ac- 
 knowledged, as they had acknowledged before, that 
 our connexion with the country had largely contri- 
 buted to the sufferings of the people, inasmuch as it 
 had afforded protection to tyranny, and rendered 
 
124 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1834. hopeless the resistance of the oppressed.* This made 
 it the more incumbent upon them to adopt measures 
 for the mitigation, if not the removal, of the existing 
 evil. They could not look on whilst the ruin of the 
 country was consummated. It was certain that some- 
 thing must be done. But what was that something 
 to be ? Then they set in array before them, some- 
 what as I have done above, the different measures 
 which might be resorted to, and, dwelling upon the 
 course which Bentinck had recommended, placed in 
 the hands of the Governor-General a discretionary 
 power to carry the proposed measure into effect at 
 such period, and in such a manner as might seem 
 advisable, but with the utmost possible consideration 
 for the King, whose consent to the proposed arrange- 
 ment was, if possible, to be obtained. It was sug- 
 2;ested that all the titles and honours of sovereio'ntv 
 should remain with his Majesty as before ; that the 
 revenues should be mainly expended in the adminis- 
 tration and the improvement of the country, and 
 that either the surplus, or a fixed stipend, should be 
 assigned to the King. But, at the same time, the 
 Government were instructed, in the event of their 
 proceeding to assume the administration of the coun- 
 try, distinctly to announce that, so soon as the neces- 
 sary reforms should have been effected, the admi- 
 nistration of the country, as in the case of Nagpore, 
 would be restored to its native rulers. 
 
 Colonel John Low, of whose character and career 
 I have already spoken, was then Resident at Luck- 
 
 * For a long time, as we have vengeance.'* This scandal no longer 
 
 said, our troops were employed by existed ; but our battalions were 
 
 the King's officers to aid them in the still stationed in the country, ready 
 
 collection of the revenue; thereby to dragoon down any open insur- 
 
 active, as tiie Court frankly described rection that might result from the 
 
 it, as " instruments of extortion and niisgovernment of Oude. 
 
VIEWS OF COLONEL LOW. 125 
 
 now. The despatch of the Court of Dh^ectors, autho- 1S35. 
 rising the temporary assumption of the Government 
 of Oude, was communicated to him, and he pondered 
 over its contents. The scheme appeared in his eyes 
 to be distinguished by its moderation and humanity, 
 and to be one of a singularly disinterested character. 
 But he was convinced that it would be misunderstood. 
 He said that, however pure the motives of the British 
 Government might be, the natives of India would 
 surely believe that we had taken the country for our- 
 selves. So he recommended the adoption of another 
 method of obtaining the same end. Fully impressed 
 with the necessity of removing the reigning King, 
 Nussur-ood-deen, he advised the Government to set 
 up another ruler in his place ; and in order that 
 the measure might be above all suspicion, to abstain 
 from receiving a single rupee, or a single acre of 
 ground, as the price of his elevation. " What I re- 
 commend is this," he said, " that the next heir should 
 be invested with the full powers of sovereignty ; and 
 that the people of Oude should continue to live under 
 their own institutions." He had faith in the charac- 
 ter of that next heir ; he believed that a change of 
 men would produce a change of measures ; and, at all 
 events, it was but bare justice to try the experiment. 
 But, before anything had been done by the Go- 
 vernment of India, in accordance vnth the discretion 
 delegated to them by the Court of Directors, the ex- 
 periment which Low had suggested inaugurated itself 
 Not without suspicion of poison, but really, I believe, 
 killed only by strong drink, Nussur-ood-deen Hyder 
 died on a memorable July night. It was a crisis of 1S37. 
 no common magnitude, for there was a disputed suc- 
 cession ; and large bodies of lawless native troops in 
 Lucknow were ready to strike at a moment's notice. 
 
126 THE ADMlNISTPwATION OF LORD DALHOUSIF. 
 
 ISS7. The cool courage of Low and his assistants saved the 
 city from a deluge of blood. An uncle of the deceased 
 Prince — an old man and a cripple, respectable in his 
 feebleness — was declared King, with the consent of 
 the British Government ; and the independence of 
 Oude had another lease of existence. 
 
 Lord Auckland was, at that time, Governor-General 
 of India. The new King, who could not but feel 
 that he was a creature of the British, pledged himself 
 to sign a new treaty. And soon it was laid before 
 him. That the engagements of the old treaty had 
 been violated, day after day, year after year, for more 
 than a third part of a century, was a fact too patent 
 to be questioned. The misgovernment of the coun- 
 try was a chronic breach of treaty. Whether the 
 British or the Oude Government were more respon- 
 sible for it was somewhat doubtfal to every clear 
 understanding and every unprejudiced mind. The 
 source of the failure was in the treaty itself, which 
 the author of it well knew from the first was one of 
 impossible fulfilment. But it was still a breach of 
 treaty, and there was another in the entertainment 
 of vast numbers of soldiers over and above the stipu- 
 lated allowance. Those native levies had gradually 
 swollen, according to Resident Low's calculations, to 
 the bulk of seventy thousand men. Here was an evil 
 not to be longer permitted ; wonder, indeed, was it 
 that it should have been permitted so long. This the 
 new treaty was to remedy ; no less than the continued 
 mal-administration of the country by native agency. 
 It provided, therefore, that in the event of any fur- 
 ther - protracted misrule, the British Government 
 should be entitled to appoint its own officers to the 
 management of any part, small or great, of the pro- 
 vince ; that the old native levies should be aban- 
 
THE DISALLOWED TREATT. 127 
 
 dcJQed, and a new force, commanded by British 1S37. 
 officers, organised in its place, at the cost of the Oude 
 Government. But there was no idea of touching, in 
 any other way, the revenues of the country. An 
 account was to be rendered of every rupee received 
 and expended, and the balance was to be paid punc- 
 tually into the Oude Treasury. 
 
 This was the abortion, often cited in later years as 
 the Oude Treaty of 1837. Authentic history recites 
 that the Government of India were in throes with it, 
 but the strangling hand of higher authority crushed 
 all life out of the thing before it had become a fact. 
 The treaty was wholly and absolutely disallowed by 
 the Home Government.* They took especial excep- 
 tion to the establishment of the new auxiliary force, 
 which was to cost the Oude Treasury sixteen lakhs 
 of rupees a year ; for, with all the pure logic of 
 honesty, they said that the treaty of 1801 had made 
 it compulsory on the British Government to provide 
 for the defence of the countr}^, and that a large tract 
 of territory had been ceded with the express object of 
 securing the payment of the troops necessary for this 
 purpose. If, then, it were expedient to organise a 
 fresh force under British officers, it was for the Com- 
 pany, not for the Oude Government, to defray the 
 expenses of the new levy. But not only on these 
 grounds did they object to the treaty. It is true 
 that, a few years before, they had given the Governor- 
 General discretionary power to deal, as he thought 
 best, with the disorders of Oude, even to the extent 
 of a temporary assumption of the government ; but 
 this authority had been issued at a time when Nussur- 
 ood-deen, of whose vicious incapacity they had had 
 
 ♦ That is to say, by the Secret Committee, who had, by Act of Par- 
 liament, special powers in this matter of Treaty-making. 
 
128 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1838. many years' experience, sat upon the throne; ana 
 the Home Government were strongly of opinion that 
 the new King, of whose character they had received 
 a favourable account, ought to be allowed a fair 
 trial, under the provisions of the treaty existing at 
 the time of his accession to the throne. They there- 
 fore directed the abrogation, not of any one article, 
 but of the entire treaty. Wishing, however, the 
 annulment of the treaty to appear rather as an act of 
 grace from the Government of India than as the result 
 of positive and unconditional instructions from Eng- 
 land, they gave a large discretion to the Governor- 
 General as to the mode of announcing this abrogation 
 to the Court of Lucknow. 
 
 The receipt of these orders disturbed and perplexed 
 the Govern or- General. Arrangements for the orga- 
 nisation of the Oude auxiliary force had already ad- 
 vanced too far to admit of the suspension of the 
 measure. It was a season, however, of difficulty and 
 supposed danger, for the seeds of the Afghan war had 
 been sown. Some, at least, of our regular troops in 
 Oude were wanted to do our o^vn work ; so, in any 
 view of the case, it was necessary to fill their places. 
 The Auxiliary Force, therefore, was not to be arrested 
 in its formation, but it was to be maintained at the 
 Company's expense. Intimation to this effect was 
 given to the King in a letter from the Governor- 
 General, which, after acquainting his Majesty that 
 the British Government had determined to relieve 
 him of a burden which, in the existing state of the 
 country, might have imposed heavier exactions on 
 the people than they were well able to bear, ex- 
 pressed a strong hope that the King would see, m 
 the relaxation of this demand, good reason for apply- 
 ing his surplus revenues firstly to the relief of op- 
 
ABROGATION OF THE TREATY. 129 
 
 pressive ^..ixation, and, secondly, to the prosecution jssA. 
 of useful public works. But nothing was said, in 
 this letter, about the abrogation of the entire treaty, 
 nor was it desired that the Resident, in his con- 
 ferences with the King or his minister, should say 
 anything on that subject. The Governor-General, 
 still hoping that the Home Government might be in- 
 duced to consent to the terms of the treaty (the con- 
 dition of the auxiliary force alone excluded), ab- 
 stained from an acknowledgment which, he believed, 
 AYould weaken the authority of his Government. But 
 this was a mistake, and worse than a mistake. It 
 betrayed an absence of moral courage not easily to 
 be justified or forgiven. The Home Government 
 never acknowledged the validity of any later treaty 
 than that which Lord Wellesley had negotiated at 
 the commencement of the century. 
 
 Such is the history of the treaty of 1837. It was 
 never carried out in a single particular, and seldom 
 heard of again until after a lapse of nearly twenty 
 years, except in a collection of treaties into which it 
 crept by mistake.* And, for some time, indeed, 
 
 * Much was attempted to be tlie Commissioners for the affairs of 
 made out of this circumstance — but India. (Signed) "R,. Gordon. 
 the mistake of an under Secretary " India Board, 3rd July, 1838." 
 cannot give validity to a treaty It must, however, be admitted, on 
 which the highest authorities refused the other hand, that, years after 
 to ratify. If Lord Auckland was un- this date, even in the Lucknow 
 willing to declare the nullity of the Residency, the treaty was held to be 
 treaty because its nullification hurt valid. In October, 1853, Colonel 
 the pride of his Government, the Sleeman wrote to Sir James Hogg : 
 Home Government showed no such "The treaty of 1837 gives our Go- 
 unwillingness, for, in 1838, tlie fol- vernnient ample authority to take 
 lowing return was made to Parlia- the whole administration on our- 
 ment, under the signature of one of selves," And again, in 1854, to 
 the Secretaries of the Board of Con- Colonel Low : " Our Government 
 trol : would be fully authorised at any 
 
 "Tliere has been no treaty con- time to enforce the penalty pre- 
 
 vied with thepresent King of Oude, scribed in your treaty of 1837." 
 
 'h has been ratified by the Court This was doubly a mistake. The 
 
 •ectors, with the approbation of treaty was certainly not Low's. 
 
130 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1838-46. little was heard of Oude itself. A Native State is 
 never so near to death, but that it may become quite 
 hale and lusty again when the energies and activities 
 of the British are engrossed by a foreign war. Now, 
 it happened that, for some time to come, the British 
 had quite a crop of foreign wars. First, the great 
 Afghanistan war of Auckland, which made him 
 wholly forgetful of Oude — her People and her King 
 — ^her sorrows and her sensualities. Then there was 
 the Sindh war of EUenborough, intended to wash out 
 by a small victory the stain of a great defeat, but 
 fixing a still deeper stain upon the character of the 
 nation ; and next the fierce Mahratta onslaught, which 
 followed closely upon it. Then there was the inva- 
 sion from beyond the Sutlej, and the first Sikh war, 
 in which Hardingc was most reluctantly immersed. 
 Altogether, some eight years of incessant war, with a 
 prospect of further strife, kept the sword out of the 
 scabbard and the portfolio out of the hand. Then 
 Oude was safe in its insignificance and obscurity. 
 Moreover, Oude was, as before, loyal and sympa- 
 thising, and, although the hoardings of Saadut Ali 
 had long since been squandered, there was still 
 money in the Treasure-chests of Lucknow. But 
 peace came, and with it a new birth of danger to the 
 rulers of that misruled province. There had been no 
 change for the better ; nay, rather there had been 
 change for the worse, during the years of our con- 
 flicts beyond the frontier. One Prince had succeeded 
 another only to emulate the vices of his ancestors with 
 certain special variations of his own. And when 
 Lord Hardinge, in the quiet interval between the two 
 
 1817. Sikh wars, turned his thoughts towards the kingdom 
 of Oude, he found Wajid Ali Shah, then a young 
 man in the first year of his reign, giving foul pro 
 
LORD HARDINGE S WARNINGS. 131 
 
 mise of sustaining tlie character of the Royal 1317. 
 House.* 
 
 With the same moderation as had been shown by 
 Lord William Bentinck, but also with the same 
 strong sense of the paramount duty of the British 
 Government to arrest the disorders which had so 
 long been preying upon the vitals of the country, 
 Lord Hardinge lifted up his voice in earnest remon- 
 strance and solemn warning; and the young Kin^^- 
 cowered beneath the keen glance of the clear blue 
 eyes that were turned upon him. There were no 
 vague words in that admonition ; no uncertain sound 
 in their utterance. Wajid Ali Shah was distinctly 
 told that the clemency of the British Government 
 would allow him two years of grace ; but that if at 
 the end of that period of probation there were no 
 manifest signs of improvement, the British Govern- 
 ment could, in the interests of humanity, no longer 
 righteously abstain from interfering peremptorily and 
 absolutely for the introduction of a system of admi- 
 nistration calculated to restore order and prosperity to 
 the kingdom of Oude. The discretionary power had 
 years before been placed in the hands of the Governor- 
 General, and these admonitions failing, it would as- 
 suredly be exercised. A general outline of the means, 
 by which the administration might be reformed, was 
 laid down in a memorandum read aloud to the King ; 
 and it was added that, if his Majesty cordially en- 
 tered into the plan, he might have the satisfaction, 
 
 * There was somethinp^ in the liope of an improved administration, 
 
 number seven fatal to the Princes of But^ capax imperii nisi imperasset, he 
 
 Oude. Ghazee-ood-deen Hyder died was, for all purposes of government, 
 
 in 1827 ; Nussur-ood-deen in 1837 ; as incompetent as his predecessors, 
 
 and Umjid Ali Shall in 1847. The His besetting infirmity was avarice, 
 
 last named succeeded, in 1S42, the and he seemed to care for nothing 
 
 old King, whom we had set up, and so long as the treasure-chest was 
 
 from whose better character there full, 
 appeared at one time to be some 
 
 k2 
 
132 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 847. ■\vitliin the specified period of two years, of checking 
 and eradicating the worst abuses, and, at the same 
 time, of maintaining his own authority and the native 
 institutions of his kingdom unimpaired — but that if 
 he should adhere to his old evil wa}^s, he must be 
 prepared for the alternative and its consequences. 
 
 Nervous and excitable at all times, and greatly 
 affected by these w^ords, the King essayed to speak ; 
 but the power of utterance had gone from him. So 
 he took a sheet of paper and wrote upon it, that he 
 thanked the Governor- General, and would regard his 
 counsels as though they had been addressed by a 
 father to his son. There are no counsels so habitually 
 disregarded ; the King, therefore, kept his word. 
 Relieved from the presence of the Governor-General 
 his agitation subsided, and he betook himself, without 
 a thought of the future, to his old courses. Fiddlers 
 and dancers, singing men and eunuchs, were suffered 
 to usurp the government and to absorb the revenues 
 of the country. The evil influence of these vile 
 panders and parasites was felt throughout all condi- 
 tions of society and in all parts of the country. Sunk 
 in the uttermost abysses of enfeebling debauchery, 
 the King pushed aside the business which he felt 
 himself incapable of transacting, and went in search 
 of new pleasures. Stimulated to the utmost by un- 
 natural excitements, his appetites were satiated by 
 the debaucheries of the Zenana, and, with an under- 
 standing emasculated to the point of childishness, he 
 turned to the more harmless delights of dancing, and 
 drumming, and drawing, and manufacturing small 
 rhymes. Had he devoted himself to these pursuits 
 in private life, there would have been small harm in 
 them, but overjoyed with his success as a musician, 
 he went about the crowded streets of Lucknow with 
 
RErJllEVE FOR WAJID ALL 133 
 
 a big drum round his neck, striking as much noise 1849. 
 out of it as he could, with all the extravagance of 
 childish dehght. 
 
 The two years of probation had passed away, and • 
 the British Resident reported that " the King had 
 not, since the Governor- General's visit in October, 
 1847, shown any signs of being fully aware of the 
 responsibihty he incurred." " In fact," he added, " I 
 do not think that his Majesty can ever be brought to 
 feel the responsibilities of sovereignty strongly enough 
 to be induced to bear that portion of the burden of its 
 duties that must necessarily devolve upon him; he will 
 always confide it to the Avorthless minions who are 
 kept for his amusements, and enjoy exclusively his 
 society and his confidence." So the time had arrived 
 when the British Government might have righteously 
 assumed the administration of Oude, The King had 
 justly incurred the penalty, but the paramount power 
 was in no haste to inflict it. Lord Dalhousie was 
 Governor-General of India; but again the external 
 conflicts of the British were the salvation of the sove- 
 reignty of Oude. The Punjab was in flames, and once 
 more Lucknow was forgotten. The conquest of the 
 Sikhs; the annexation of their country; the new 
 Burmese war and its results; the lapses of which I 
 have spoken in my last chapter; and many impor- 
 tant affkirs of internal administration of which I have 
 yet to speak, occupied the ever-active mind of Lord 
 Dalhousie until the last year of his reign ; but it was 
 felt by every one, who knew and pondered over the 
 'wretched state of the country, that the day of reckon- 
 ing was approaching, and that the British Govern- 
 ment could not much lono-er shrink from the 
 performance of a duty imposed upon it by every 
 consideration of humanity. 
 
134 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALIIOUSIE. 
 
 IS49-50. Colonel Sleeman was then Resident at Lucknow. 
 
 He was a man of a liberal and humane nature, tho- 
 roughly acquainted with the character and feelings, 
 the institutions and usages of the people of India. 
 No man had a larger toleration for the short-comings 
 of native Governments, because no one knew better 
 how much our own political system had aggravated, 
 if they had not produced, the evils of which we most 
 complained. But he sympathised at the same time 
 acutely with the suiFerings of the people living under 
 those native Governments; and his sympathy over- 
 came his toleration. Having lived all his adult life 
 in India — tlie greater part of it in, or on the borders 
 of, the Native States — he was destitute of all over- 
 weening prepossessions in favour of European insti- 
 tutions and the "blessings of British rule." But the 
 more he saAV, on the spot, of the terrible effects of the 
 misgovernment of Oude, the more convinced he was 
 of the paramount duty of the British Government to 
 step in and arrest the atrocities which were converting 
 one of the finest provinces of India into a moral pest- 
 house. In 1849 and 1850 he made a tour through 
 the interior of the country. He carried with him the 
 prestige of a name second to none in India, as that 
 of a friend of the poor, a protector of the weak, and 
 a redresser of their wrongs. Conversing freely and 
 familiarly in the native languages, and knowing weU 
 the character and the feelings of the people, he had a 
 manner that inspired confidence, and the art of ex- 
 tracting from every man the information which he was 
 best able to afford. During this tour in the interior, 
 he noted down, from day to day, all the most striking 
 facts which were brought to his notice, with the re* 
 flections which were suggested by them ; and the 
 whole presented a revolting; picture of the worst type 
 
COLONEL SLEEMAN. 135 
 
 of misrule^of a feebleness worse tlian despotism, of 1850. 
 an apathy more productive of human suffering than 
 the worst forms of tyrannous activity. In the absence 
 of all controlling authority, the strong carried on 
 everywhere a war of extermination against the weak. 
 Powerful families, waxing gross on outrage and rapine, 
 built forts, collected followers, and pillaged and mur- 
 dered at discretion, without fear of justice overtaking 
 their crimes. Nay, indeed, the greater the criminal 
 the more sure he Avas of protection, for he could pur- 
 chase immunity with his spoil. There was hardly, 
 indeed, an atrocity committed, from one end of the 
 country to the other, that was not, directly or indi- 
 rectly, the result of the profligacy and corruption of 
 the Court.* 
 
 Such was Colonel Sleeman's report of the state of 
 the Oude country ; such was his account of what he 
 had seen with his own eyes or heard with his own 
 ear&. There was not a man in the Two Services who 
 was more distressed by the fury for annexation which 
 
 * " The Talookdars keep the a day has passed since I left Luck- 
 country in a perpetual state of dis- now, in which I iiave not had abun- 
 t^irbance, and render life, property, dant proof of numerous atrocities of 
 and industry, everywhere insecure, tliis kind committed by landholders 
 Wlienever they quarrel with each within the district tlirough which I 
 other, or with the local authorities was passing, year by year, up to the 
 of the Government, from whatever present day." And again : " It is 
 cause, they take to indiscriminate wortliy of remark that these great 
 plunder and murder— over all lands landholders, who have recently ac- 
 not held by men of the same class — quired tlieir possessions by the plun- 
 no road, town, village, or hamlet, is der and the murder of their weaker 
 secure from their merciless attacks neighbours, and who continue their 
 — robbery and murder become their system of plunder in order to ac- 
 diversion, their sport, and they think quire the means to maintain their 
 no more of taking the lives of men, gangs and add to their possessions, 
 women, and children, who never are those who are most favoured at 
 offended them, than those of deer Court, and most conciliated by the 
 and wild hogs. They not only rob local rulers, because they are more 
 and murder, but seize, confine, and able and more willing to pay for the 
 torture all whom they seize, and favour of the one and set at defiance 
 suppose to have money or credit, till the authority of the other." — Slee- 
 they ransom themselves with all they man's Diary. 
 have, or can beg or borrow. Hardly 
 
136 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1852, was at that time breaking out in the most influential 
 public prints and the highest official circles. He saw 
 clearly the danger into which this grievous lust of 
 dominion was hurrying us, and he made a great effort 
 to arrest the evil;* but he lifted up a warning voice 
 in vain. The letters which he addressed to the Go- 
 vernor-General and to the Chairman of the East India 
 Company appear to have produced no effect. He did 
 not see clearly, at that time, that the principles Avhich 
 he held in such abhorrence were cherished by I.ord 
 Dalhousie himself, and he did not know that the Court 
 of Directors had such faith in their Governor- General 
 that they were content to substitute his principles for 
 their own. But, utterly distasteful to him as were the 
 then prevailing sentiments in favour of absorption and 
 confiscation, Sleeman never closed his eyes against the 
 fact that interference in the affairs of Oude, even to 
 the extent of the direct assumption of the government, 
 would be a righteous interference. Year after year he 
 had pressed upon the Governor- General the urgent 
 necessity of the measure. But, perhaps, had he known 
 in what manner his advice was destined to be followed, 
 and how his authority would be asserted in justifica- 
 
 ♦ See Sleeman's Correspondence, danf^erous to our riue in India, and 
 
 passim. Exempli gratia: "In Sep- prejudicial to the best interests of 
 
 tember, 1848, I took the liberty to tlie country. The ptople see that 
 
 mention to your Lordship my tears these annexations and confiscations 
 
 that the system of annexing and go on, and that rewards and honorary 
 
 absorbing Native States — so popular distinctions are given for them anij 
 
 with our Indian Services, and so for the victories which lead to them, 
 
 much advocated by a certain class and for little else; and they are too 
 
 of writers in public journals — might apt to infer that they are systematic 
 
 some day render us too visibly de- and encouraged and prescribed from 
 
 pendent upon our Native Army ; that home. The Native States I consider 
 
 ihey might see it, and that accidents to be breakwaters, and when they 
 
 might occur to unite them, or too are all swept away we shall be left 
 
 great a portion of them, in some des- to the mercy of our Native Army, 
 
 perate act." — {Colonel Sleeman to which may not always be sufficiently 
 
 Lord Dalhousie, April, 1852.) And under our control." — Colonel Ski- man 
 
 again : *' I deem such doctrines to be to Sir James Hogg, January, 1853. 
 
sleeman's warnings. 157 
 
 tion of an act which he could never countenance, he 1852. 
 would rather have suffered the feeble-minded de- 
 bauchee who was called King of Oude still to remain 
 in undisturbed possession of the throne, than have 
 uttered a Avord that might hasten a measure so at 
 variance with his sense of justice, and so injurious as 
 h ought to our best interests, as that of which 
 the interference of Government eventually took the 
 shape. 
 
 Sleeman's advice had been clear, consistent, unmis- 
 takable. ^'Assume the administration," he said, "but 
 do not grasp the revenues of the country." Some 
 years before the same advice had been given by Henry 
 La^vrence,* between whom and Sleeman there was 
 nuich concord of opinion and some simihtude of cha- 
 racter. The private letters of the latter, addressed 
 to the highest Indian functionaries, and, therefore, 
 having all the weight and authority of public docu- 
 ments, were as distinct upon this point as the most 
 emphatic words could make them. " What the people 
 want, and most earnestly pray for," he wrote to the 
 Governor-General, "is that our Government should 
 take upon itself the responsibility of governing them 
 well and permanently. All classes, save the knaves, 
 who now surround and govern the King, earnestly 
 pray for this — the educated classes, because they would 
 then have a chance of respectable employment, which 
 none of them now have ; the middle classes, because 
 they find no protection or encouragement, and no 
 hope that their children will be permitted to inherit 
 
 * "Let the management," he said, (The italics are Lawrence's.) "Let 
 
 " be assumed under some such rules Oude be at last governed, not for one 
 
 as those which were laid down by man, the King, but for him and his 
 
 Lord William Bentinck. Let the people." — Calcutta Review, vol. iii, 
 
 administration of the country, as far (1845) ; and Lawrence's Essays, p. 
 
 as possible, be native. Let not a 132. 
 rupee come into the Company' » coffers.^' 
 
138 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1853. the property they leave, not invested in our Govern- 
 ment Securities ; and the humbler classes, because 
 they are now abandoned to the merciless rapacity of 
 the starving troops and other public establishments, 
 and of the landholders driven or invited to rebellion 
 by the present state of misrule." But he added : " I 
 believe that it is your Lordship's wish that the whole 
 of the revenues of Oude should be expended for the 
 benefit of the Royal Family and People of Oude, and 
 that the British Government should disclaim any wish 
 to derive any pecuniary advantage from assuming to 
 itself the administration." And again, about the same 
 time, he had written to the Chairman of the Court of 
 Directors, urging the expediency of assuming the ad- 
 ministration, but adding : " If we do this, we must, in 
 order to stand well with the rest of India, honestly 
 and distinctly disclaim all interested motives, and 
 appropriate the whole of the revenues for the benefit 
 of the People and Royal Family of Oude. If we do 
 this, all India will think us right." And again, a few 
 months later, Avriting to the same high authority, he 
 said, mournfully and prophetically, that to annex and 
 confiscate the country, and to appropriate the reve- 
 nues to ourselves, would "be most profitable in a 
 pecuniary view, but most injurious in a political one. 
 It would tend to accelerate the crisis which the doc- 
 trines of the absorbing school must sooner or later 
 bring upon us."* 
 
 Such was the counsel Sleeman gave ; such were the 
 warnings he uttered. But he did not remain in India, 
 nay, indeed he did not live, to see his advice ignored, 
 his cautions disregarded. After long years of arduous 
 and honourable service, compelled to retire in broken 
 
 * Private correspondence of Sir of the English edition of his " Diary 
 W. H. Sleeman, printed at the end in Oude." 
 
JAIklES OUTRAM. 139 
 
 health from his post, he died on his homeward voyage, 1S53. 
 leaving behind him a name second to none upon the 
 roll of the benefactors and civilisers of India, for he 
 had grappled with her greatest abomination, and had Thuggee, 
 effectually subdued it. Some solace had it been to 
 him when he turned his back upon the country to 
 know that his place would be well and worthily filled. 
 " Had your Lordship left the choice of a successor to 
 me," he wrote to the Governor- General, "I should 
 have pointed out Colonel Outram ; and I feel very 
 much rejoiced that he has been selected for the office, 
 and I hope he will come as soon as possible." 
 
 An officer of the Company's army on the Bombay 
 establishment, James Outram had done good service 
 to his country, good service to the people of India, 
 on many different fields of adventure ; and had risen, 
 not without much sore travail and sharp contention, 
 to a place in the estimation of his Government and 
 the affections of his comrades, from which he could 
 afford to look down upon the conflicts of the Past 
 with measureless calmness and contentment. Versed 
 alike in the stern severities of war and the civilising 
 humanities of peace, he was ready at a moment's 
 notice to lead an army into the field or to superintend 
 the government of a province. But it was in rough 
 soldier's work, or in that still rougher work of mingled 
 ^vsiT and diplomacy which falls to the share of the Po- 
 litical officer in India, that Outram's great and good 
 qualities were most conspicuously displayed. For in 
 him, with courage of the highest order, with mascu- 
 line energy and resolution, were combined the gentle- 
 ness of a woman and the simplicity of a child. No 
 man knew better how to temper power with mercy 
 and forbearance, and to combat intrigue and perfidy 
 with pure sincerity and stainless truth. This truth- 
 
1834. 
 
 140 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 fulness was, indeed, perhaps the most prominent, as it 
 was the most perilous, feature of his character. Whatso- 
 ever lie might do, w^hatsoever he might say, the whole 
 was there before you in its full proportions. He wore 
 his heart upon his sleeve, and was incapable of con- 
 cealment or disguise. A pure sense of honour, a 
 strong sense of justice, the vehement assertions of 
 which no self-interested discretion could hold in re- 
 straint, brought him sometimes into collision with 
 others, and immersed him in a sea of controversy. 
 But although, perhaps, in his reverential love of 
 truth, he was over-eager to fight down what he might 
 have been well content to live down, and in after life 
 he may have felt that these wordy battles were very 
 little worth fighting, he had still no cause to regret 
 them, for he came unhurt from the conflict. It was 
 after one of these great conflicts, the growth of serious 
 oflicial strife, which had sent him from an honourable 
 post into still more honourable retirement, that, re- 
 turning to India with strong credentials from his 
 masters in Leadenhall-street, Lord Dalhousie selected 
 him to succeed Sleeman as Resident at Lucknow. 
 
 The choice was a wise one. There was work to be 
 done which required a hand at once gentle and strong. 
 The fame of Outram was not the fame of a spoliator, 
 but of a just man friendly to the native Princes and 
 chiefs of India, who had lifted up his voice against 
 wrongs done to them in his time, and who would 
 rather have closed his public career than have been 
 the agent of an unrighteous policy. But a measure 
 which Low, and Sleeman, and Henry Lawrence had 
 approved, nay, which in the interests of humanity 
 they had strenuously recommended, was little likely 
 to be an unrighteous one, and Outram, whilst re- 
 joicing that his past career had thus been stamped by 
 
1854. 
 
 OUTRAMS REPORT. Ill 
 
 his Government with the highest practical approval, ^524 
 accepted the offer in the full assurance that he could 
 fulfil its duties without a stain upon his honour or a 
 burden upon his conscience.* 
 
 Making all haste to join his appointment, Outram 
 quitted Aden, where the summons reached him, and 
 took ship for Calcutta, where he arrived in the first 
 month of the cold season. His instructions were soon November, 
 prepared for him ; they were brief, but they suggested 
 the settled resolution of Government to wait no longer 
 for impossible improvements from within, but at once 
 to shape their measures for the assertion, in accord- 
 ance with Treaty, of the authority of the Para- 
 mount State. But it was not a thing to be done in a 
 hurry. The measure itself was to be deliberately 
 carried out after certain preliminary formalities of 
 inquiry and reference. It was Outram's part to 
 inquire. A report upon the existing state of Oude 
 was called for from the new Resident, and before the 
 end of March it was forwarded to Calcutta. It was ISi 
 an elaborate history of the misgovernment of Oude 
 from the commencement of the century, a dark cata- 
 logue of crime and suifering " caused by the culpable 
 apathy of the Sovereign and the Durbar." "I have 
 shown," said the new Resident, in conclusion, " that 
 the afi*airs of Oude still continue in the same state, if 
 not worse, in which Colonel Sleeman from time to time 
 described them to be, and that the improvement which 
 Lord Hardinge peremptorily demanded, seven years 
 ago, at the hands of the King, in pursuance of the 
 Treaty of 1801, has not, in any degree, been efibcted. 
 And I have no hesitation in declaring my opinion, 
 
 * I speak, of course, of the mere inj^ oui; the measure had not then 
 fact of the assumption of the ad- been decided, 
 ministration. The manner of carry- 
 
142 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1&55. therefore, that the duty imposed on the British Go- 
 vernment by that treaty, cannot any longer admit of 
 our ' honestly indulging the reluctance which the Go- 
 vernment of India has felt heretofore to have recourse 
 to those extreme measures which alone can be of any 
 real efficiency in remedying the evils from which the 
 state of Oude has suffered so long.' " 
 
 To this report, and to much earlier information of 
 the same kind with which the archives of Government 
 were laden, the Governor-General gave earnest and 
 sustained attention amidst the refreshing quiet of the 
 Blue Mountains of Madras. The weighty document 
 had picked up, on its road through Calcutta, another 
 
 ircli 28, still more weighty, in the shape of a minute written 
 by General Low. Few as were the words, they ex- 
 hausted all the arguments in favour of intervention, 
 and clothed them vnth the authority of a great name. 
 No other name could have invested them with this 
 authority, for no other man had seen so much of the 
 evils of native rule in Oude, and no man was on 
 principle more averse to the extinction of the native 
 dynasties of India. All men must have felt the case 
 to be very bad when John Low, who had spoken the 
 brave words in defence of the Princes and chiefs of 
 India which I have cited in the last chapter, was 
 driven to the forcible expression of his conviction 
 that it was the paramount duty of the British Go- 
 vernment to interfere at once for the protection of 
 the people of Oude.* 
 
 * Low said lliat lie was in favour inatically disregarding^ our advice, 
 
 of interference, " because the public instead of following it, or even en- 
 
 and shameful oppressions committed deavouring to follow it ; because we 
 
 on the people bv Government officers are bound by Treaty (quite 'different 
 
 in Oude have of late years been con- in that respect from our position re- 
 
 stant and extreme ; because the King latively to most of the great Native 
 
 of Oude has continually, during many States) to prevent serious interior 
 
 years, broken the Treaty by syste- misrule in Oude; because it has 
 
LORD DALHOUSIE's MINUTE. 143 
 
 It was not possible to add mucli in tlie way of fact 1855. 
 to what Outram had compiled, or much in the way of 
 argument to what Low had written. But Dalhousie, 
 to whom the fine bracino; air of the NeiMierries had 
 imparted a new-born capacity for sustained labour, 
 sat himself down to review the whole question in a 
 gigantic minute. He signed it on the 18th June ; and, 
 indeed, it was his Waterloo — the crowning victory of 
 annexation. It is not necessary to repeat the facts, 
 for I have stated them, or the arguments, for I have 
 suggested them. No reader can have followed me 
 thus far, without a strong assurance on his mind that 
 it would have been a grievous wrong done to hu- 
 manity to have any longer abstained from inter- 
 ference. But what was the interference to be ? Here 
 was a question for the Governor- General to solve in 
 the invigorating atmosphere of Ootacamund — a ques- 
 tion, the solution of which was to yield the cro^vning 
 measure of his long vice-regal career. 
 
 There may have been many Avays of working out 
 the practical details of this measure ; but there was 
 only one uncertain point which was of much substan- 
 tial importance. All men agreed that the Treaty of 
 1801 might rightfully be declared to have ceased by 
 reason of repeated violations, and that with the con- 
 sent of the King, if attainable, or mthout it, if unat- 
 tainable, the Government of the country might be 
 transferred to the hands of European administrators. 
 That the King must be reduced to a mere cypher was 
 
 been fully proved that we have not to these pungent sentences an ex- 
 prevented it, and tliat we cannot pression of opinion that the un- 
 prevent it by the present mode of iultilled threats of Lord Hardiiig3 
 conducting our relations with that had increased the evil, inasmuch as 
 State ; and because no man of com- that they had produced .an impres- 
 o-jon sense can entertain the smallest sion in Oude that the Indian Go- 
 expectation that the present King of vernment were restrained from inter- 
 Oude can ever become an efficient ference by the orders of higher 
 ruler of his country." And he added authority at liome. 
 
144 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 iSitS, certain ; it was certain that all possible respect ought 
 to be shown to him in his fallen fortunes, and that he 
 and all his family ought to be splendidly endowed ; 
 no question could well be raised upon these points. 
 The question was, what was to be done with the 
 surplus revenue after paying all the expenses of ad- 
 ministration ? Just and vrise men, as has been shown, 
 had protested against the absorption of a single rupee 
 into the British Treasury. They said that it would 
 be as politic as it would be righteous, to demonstrate 
 to all the States and Nations of India, that we had 
 not deposed the King of Oude for our own benefit — 
 that we had done a righteous act on broad principles 
 of humanity, by which we had gained nothing. But 
 Lord Dalhousie, though he proposed not to annex 
 the country, determined to take the revenues. 
 
 It is not very easy to arrive at a just conception of 
 his views : " The reform of the administration," he 
 said, ^' may be wrought, and the prosperity of the 
 people may be secured, without resorting to so extreme 
 a measure as the annexation of the territory and the 
 abolition of the throne. I, for my part, therefore, do 
 not recommend that the province of Oude should be 
 declared to be British territory." But he proposed 
 tliat the King of Oude, whilst retaining the sove- 
 reignty of his dominions, should "vest all power, 
 jurisdiction, rights and claims thereto belonging, in 
 the hands of the East India Company," and that the 
 surplus revenues should be at the disposal of the 
 Company. What this territorial sovereignty was to 
 l^e, without territorial rights or territorial revenues, 
 il is not easy to see. When the Newab of the Carnatic 
 %Ad the Rajah of Tanjore were deprived of their 
 right** and revenues, they were held to be not terri- 
 torial, but titular sovereigns. The Nizarriy on the 
 
dalhousie's views. 145 
 
 other hand, might properly be described as " terri- 1835 
 torial sovereign" of the Assigned Districts, although 
 the administration had been taken from him, because 
 an account of the revenue was to be rendered to him, 
 and the surplus was to be paid into his hands. But 
 the King of Oude, in Dalhousie's scheme, was to have 
 had no more to do with his territories, than the 
 titular sovereigns of the Carnatic and Tanjore ; and 
 yet he was to be told that he was " to retain the so- 
 vereignty of all the territories" of which he was then 
 in possession. 
 
 Strictly interpreted to the letter, the scheme did not 
 suggest the annexation of Oude. The province was 
 not to be incorporated Avith the British dominions. 
 The revenues were to be kept distinct from those of the 
 empire ; there was to be a separate balance-sheet ; and 
 thus far the province was to have a sort of integrity of 
 its own. This is sufficiently intelligible in itself; and, 
 if the balance being struck, the available .surplus had 
 been payable to the King of Oude, the rest of the 
 scheme would have been intelligible also, for there 
 would have been a quasi-sovereignty of the territories 
 thus administered still remaining with the King. But 
 the balance being payable into the British Treasury, 
 it appears that Oude, in this state of financial isola- 
 tion, would still have substantially been British ter- 
 ritory, as much as if it had become a component part 
 of the empire. Again, under the proposed system, 
 Oude would have been beyond the circle of our 
 ordinary legislation, in which respect it would not 
 have differed much from other ^'' Non- Regulation Pro- 
 vinces ;" and if it had, even this Legislative segregation 
 superadded to the Financial isolation of which I have 
 spoken, would not have made it any the less British 
 territory. The Channel Islands have a separate 
 
146 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1865, Budget and distinct laws of their own, but still they 
 are component parts of the British Empire, althougu 
 they do not pay their surplus into the British 
 Treasury. But in everything that really constitutes 
 Kingship, the BailiiF of Jersey is as much the terri- 
 torial sovereign of that island as Wajid Ali would 
 have been territorial sovereign of Oude under Lord 
 Dalhousie's programme of non-annexation. 
 
 But this transparent disguise was not to be worn ; 
 this distinction without a difference was not to be 
 asserted, anyAvhere out of Lord Dalhousie's great 
 Minute. The thino; that was to be done soon came 
 to take its proper place in the Councils of the Indian 
 Empire as the Annexation of Oude ; and it was as 
 the annexation of Oude that the measure was con- 
 sidered by the Government at home. The Court of 
 Directors consented to the annexation of Oude. The 
 Board of Control consented to the annexation of 
 Oude. The British Cabinet consented to the annexa- 
 tion of Oude. The word was not then, as it since 
 has been, freely used in official documents, but it was 
 in all men's minds, and many spoke it out bluntly 
 instead of talking delicately about "assuming the 
 Government of the Country." And, whether right or 
 wa^ong, the responsibility of the measure rested as 
 much with the Queen's Ministers as with the Merchant 
 Company. That the Company had for long years 
 shoAvn great forbearance is certain. They had hoped 
 against hope, and acted against all experience. So 
 eager, indeed, had they been to give the native 
 Princes of India a fair trial, that they had disallowed 
 the proposed treaty of 1837, and had pronounced 
 an authoritative opinion in favour of the main- 
 tenance of the then existing Native States of India. 
 But twenty more years of misrule and anaichy had 
 
ORDERS FROM HOME. 147 
 
 raised in their minds a feeling of wondering self- iStC/. 
 reproach at the thought of their own patience ; and 
 when they responded to the reference from Calcutta, 
 they said that the doubt raised by a survey of the 
 facts before them, was not whether it was then in- 
 cumbent upon them to free themselves from the re- 
 sponsibility of any longer upholding such a Govern- 
 ment, but whether they could excuse themselves for 
 not having, many years before, performed so impera- 
 tive a duty. 
 
 The despatch of the Court of Directors was signed November 19 
 in the middle of November. At midnight on the 
 2nd of January, the Governor-General mastered its 
 contents. Had he thought of himself more than of 
 his country he would not have been there at that 
 time. The energies of his mind were undimmed ; but 
 climate, and much toil, and a heavy sorrow weighing 
 on his heart, had shattered a frame never constitu- 
 tionally robust, and all men said that he was " break- 
 ing." Without any failure of duty, without any 
 imputation on his zeal, he might have left to his 
 successor the ungrateful task of turning into stern 
 realities the oft-repeated menaces of the British 
 rulers who had gone before him. But he was not 
 one to shrink from the performance of such a task 
 because it was a painful and unpopular one. He 
 believed that by no one could the duty of bringing 
 the Oude Government to solemn account be so fitly 
 discharged as by one who had watched for seven 
 years the accumulation of its ofi*ences, and seen the 
 measure of its guilt filled to the brim. He had inti- 
 mated, therefore, to the Court of Directors his wil- 
 lingness to remain at his post to discharge this duty, 
 and in the despatch, which he read in the quiet of 
 that January night, he saw on official record the 
 
 l2 
 
148 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1856. alacrity with which his offer was accepted, and he 
 ofirded himself for the closins: act of his long^ and 
 eventful administration.* 
 
 Next morning he summoned a Council. It was 
 little more than a form. Dalhousie had waited for 
 the authoritative sanction of the Home Government ; 
 but he knew that sanction was coming, and he was 
 prepared for its arrival. The greater part of the 
 Avork had, indeed, been already done. The instruc- 
 tions to be sent to the Resident; the treaty to be 
 proposed to the King ; the proclamation to be issued 
 to the people had all been drafted. The whole 
 scheme of internal government had been matured, 
 and the agency to be employed had been carefully 
 considered. The muster-roll of the new administra- 
 tion was ready, and the machinery was complete. 
 The system was very closely to resemble that which 
 had been tried with such good success in the Punjab, 
 and its agents were, as in that province, to be a 
 mixed body of civil and military officers, under a 
 Chief Commissioner. All the weighty documents, by 
 which the revolution was to be effected, were in the 
 Portfolio of the Foreign Secretary ; and now, at this 
 meeting of the Council, they were formally let loose 
 to do their work. 
 
 The task Avhich Outram was commissioned to per- 
 form was a difficult, a delicate, and a painful one. 
 He was to endeavour to persuade the King of Oude 
 formally to abdicate his sovereign functions, and to 
 make over, by a solemn treaty, the government of 
 his territories to the East India Company. In the 
 event of his refusal, a proclamation was to be issued, 
 declaring the whole of Oude to be British territory. 
 
 * The Court of Directors to the Government of India, November 19, 
 1855. Paragraph 19. 
 
ANNEXATION. 149 
 
 By a man of Outram's humane and generous nature 1856. 
 no counsel from his Government was needed to 
 induce him to do the work entrusted to him in the 
 manner least likely to wound the feelings of the King. 
 But it was right that such counsel should be given. 
 It was given ; but the decree of the Paramount State, 
 tempered as it might be by outward courtesy of man- 
 ner, was still to be carried out, with stern and reso- 
 lute action. No protests, no remonstrances, no pro- 
 mises, no prayers were to be suffered to arrest the 
 retributive measure for a day. It need not be added 
 that no resistance could avert it. A body of British 
 troops, sufficient to trample down all possible opposi- 
 tion, had been moved up into a position to overawe 
 Lucknow, and for the doomed Government of Oude 
 to attempt to save itself by a display of force would 
 have been only to court a most useless butchery. 
 
 Outram received his instructions at the end of 
 January. On the last day of the month he placed 
 himself in communication with the Oude Minister, 
 clearly stated the orders of the British Government, 
 and said that they were final and decisive. Four 
 days were spent in preliminary formalities and nego- 
 tiations. In true Oriental fashion, the Court endea- 
 voured to gain time, and, appealing to Outram, 
 through the aged Queen Mother — a woman with far 
 more of masculine energy and resolution than her 
 son — importuned him to persuade his Government to 
 give the King another trial, to wait for the arrival 
 of the new Governor- General, to dictate to AVajid All 
 any reforms to be carried out in his name. All this had 
 been expected; all this provided for. Outram had 
 but one answer ; the day of trial, the day of forbear- 
 ance was past. All that he could now do was to 
 deliver his message to the King. 
 
150 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1856. On tlie 4th of February, Wajid Ali announced 
 
 his willmgness to receive the British Resident; and 
 Outram, accompanied by his lieutenants, Hayes and 
 Weston, proceeded to the palace. Strange and sig- 
 nificant symptoms greeted them as they went. The 
 guns at the palace-gates were dismounted. The pa- 
 lace-guards were unarmed. The guard of honour, 
 who should have presented arms to the Resident, 
 saluted him only with their hands. Attended by his 
 brother and a few of his confidential Ministers, the 
 King received the English gentlemen at the usual 
 spot ; and after the wonted ceremonies, the business 
 commenced. Outram presented to the King a letter 
 from the Governor- General, which contained, in terms 
 of courteous explanation, the sentence that had been 
 passed upon him, and urged him not to resist it. A 
 draft of the proposed treaty was then placed in his 
 hands. He received it with a passionate burst of 
 grief, declared that treaties were only between equals; 
 that there was no need for him to sign it, as the 
 British would do with him and his possessions as 
 they pleased ; they had taken his honour and his 
 country, and he would not ask them for the means 
 of maintaining his life. All that he sought was per- 
 mission to proceed to England, and cast himself and 
 his sorrows at the foot of the Throne. Nothing could 
 move him from his resolution not to sign the treaty. 
 He uncovered his head ; placed his turban in the 
 hands of the Resident, and sorrowfully declared that 
 title, rank, honour, everything were gone ; and that 
 now the British Government, which had made his 
 grandfather a King, might reduce him to nothing, 
 and consign him to obscurity. 
 
 In this exaggerated display of helplessness there 
 was something too characteristically Oriental for any 
 
ANNEXATION. 151 
 
 part of it to be assigned to European prompting. But 1S5G. 
 if the scene had been got up expressly for an English 
 audience, it could not have been more cunningly con- 
 trived to increase the appearance of harshness and 
 cruelty with which the friends of the King were pre- 
 pared to invest the act of dethronement. No man 
 was more likely than Outram to have been doubly 
 pained, in the midst of all his painful duties, by the 
 unmanly prostration of the King. To deal harshly 
 with one who declared himiself so feeble and defence- 
 less, was like striking a woman or a cripple. But 
 five millions of people were not to be given up, from 
 generation to generation, to suiFering and sorrow, 
 because an effeminate Prince, when told he was no 
 longer to have the power of inflicting measureless 
 wrongs on his country, burst into tears, said that he 
 was a miserable wretch, and took off his turban in- 
 stead of taking out his sword. 
 
 There was nothing now left for Outram but to 
 issue a proclamation, prepared for him in Calcutta, 
 declaring the province of Oude to be thenceforth, for 
 ever, a component part of the British Indian Empire. 
 It went forth to the people of Oude ; and the people 
 of Oude, without a murmur, accepted their new 
 masters. There were no popular risings. Not a 
 blow was struck in defence of the native dynasty of 
 Oude. The whole population went over quietly to 
 their new rulers, and the country, for a time, was 
 outwardly more tranquil than before. 
 
 This was the last act of Lord Dalhousie's Ministry. 
 When he placed the Portfolio of Government in the 
 hands of Lord Canning, the British officers to whom 
 had been entrusted the work of reforming the ad- 
 ministration of Oude, were discharging their pre- 
 scribed duties with an energy which seemed to 
 
152 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1856. promise the happiest results. The King was still 
 obstinate and sullen. He persisted in refusing to 
 sign the treaty or to accept the proposed stipend of 
 1120,000 twelve lakhs; and though he had thought better of 
 the idea of casting himself at the foot of the British 
 Throne, he had made arrangements to send his nearest 
 kindred — his mother, his brother, and his son — to 
 England to perform a vicarious act of obeisance, 
 and to clamour for his rio-hts. 
 
 With what result the administration, as copied 
 closely from the Punjabee system, was wrought out 
 in detail, will be shown at a subsequent stage of this 
 narrative. It was thought, as the work proceeded 
 in quietude and in seeming prosperity, that it was a 
 great success ; and it gladdened the heart of the 
 Government in Leaden hall-street, to Chink of the 
 accomplishment of this peaceful revolution. But 
 that the measure itself made a very bad impression 
 on the minds of the people of India, is not to be 
 doubted ; not because of the deposition of a King 
 who had abused his powers ; not because of the in- 
 troduction of a new system of administration for the 
 benefit of the people ; but because the humanity of 
 the act was soiled by the profit which we derived 
 from it ; and to the comprehension of the multitude 
 it appeared that the good of the people, which we 
 had vaunted whilst serving ourselves, was nothing 
 more than a pretext and a sham ; and that we had 
 simply extinguished one of the few remaining Ma- 
 homedan States of India that we might add so 
 many thousands of square miles to our British terri- 
 tories, and so many millions of rupees to the revenues 
 of the British Empire in the East. And who, it was 
 asked, could be safe, if we thus treated one who had 
 ever been the most faithful of our allies? 
 
EXTlN"CTION OF THE ARISTOCRACY. i53 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF THE NATIVE ARISTOCRACY — RETROSPECT OF REVENUS 
 ADMINISTRATION — THE SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES — 
 THE OUSTING OF THE TALOOKHDARS — RESUMPTION OPERATIONS— THE 
 INAM COMMISSION — DECAY OF PRIESTLY POWER — SOCIAL REFORMS- 
 MORAL AND MATERIAL PROGRESS. 
 
 Whilst great principalities were tlius being ab- 1806 lS5?s, 
 sorbed and ancient sovereignties extinguished, a war 
 of extermination no less fatal in its effects, but more 
 noiseless in its operations, was being waged against 
 the nobility and gentry of the country. The original 
 proclamation of this war did not emanate from Lord 
 Dalhousie. The measures by which the native aris- 
 tocracy were destroyed were not primarily his mea- 
 sures. It was the policy of the times to recognise 
 nothing between the Prince and the Peasant ; a policy 
 which owed its birth not tt one but to many ; a policy, 
 the greatest practical exposition of which was the Set- 
 tlement of the North- West Provinces. It was adopted 
 in pure good faith and with the most benevolent in- 
 tentions. It had the sanction of many wise and good 
 men. It was not the policy by which such statesmen 
 as John Malcolm, George Clerk, and Henry Law- 
 rence, sought to govern the people ; but it was sanc- 
 tified by the genius of John Lawrence, and of the 
 Gamaliel at whose feet he had sat, the virtuous, pure- 
 minded James Thomason. 
 
] 54 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1S06-56. To bring the direct authority of the British Go- 
 vernment to bear upon the great masses of the people, 
 without the intervention of any powerful section of 
 their own countrymen — to ignore, indeed, the exist- 
 ence of all governing classes but the European officers, 
 who carried out the behests of that Government — 
 seemed to be a wise and humane system of protection. 
 It was intended to shelter the many from the injurious 
 action of the interests and the passions of the fe^7. 
 The utter worthlessness of the upper classes wafi 
 assumed to be a fact ; and it was honestly believed 
 that the obliteration of the aristocracy of the land 
 was the greatest benefit that could be conferred on 
 the people. And thus it happened that whilst the 
 native sovereigns of India w^ere one by one being 
 extinguished, the native aristocracy had become well- 
 nigh extinct. 
 
 Doubtless, we started upon a theory sound in the 
 abstract, intent only on promoting the greatest hap- 
 piness of the greatest number ; but if we had allowed 
 ourselves to understand the genius and the institu- 
 tions of the people, we should have respected the 
 rights, natural and acquired, of all classes of the com- 
 munity, instead of working out any abstract theory 
 of our own. It was in the very nature of things 
 necessary, inevitable, that the extension of British 
 rule, followed always by a reconstruction of the ad- 
 ministration, and a substitution of civil and military 
 establishments fashioned upon our own models and 
 composed of our own people, should have deprived 
 many of the chief people of their official rank and 
 official emoluments, and cast them adrift upon the 
 world, either to seek new fields of adventure in the 
 unabsorbed Native States, or to fester into a disaffected 
 and dangerous class sullenly biding their time. This 
 
THE TERmTORIAL NOBILITY. 155 
 
 is an old story ; an old complaint. Half a century 1806-55. 
 before the time of which I am now writing, it had 
 been alleged to be one of the main causes of that 
 national outburst in Southern India known as the 
 mutiny of Vellore. But this very necessity for the 
 extinction of the old race of high native functionaries,' 
 often hereditary office-bearers, ought to have ren- 
 dered us all the more desirous to perpetuate the 
 nobility whose greatness was derived from the Land. 
 It is true that the titles of the landed gentry whom 
 we found in possession were, in some cases, neither of 
 very ancient date nor of very unquestionable origin. 
 But, whatsoever the nature of their tenures, we found 
 them in the possession of certain rights or privileges 
 allowed to them by the Governments which we had 
 supplanted, and our first care should have been to 
 confirm and secure their enjoyment of them. We 
 might have done this without sacrificing the rights 
 of others. Indeed, we might have done it to the full 
 contentment of the inferior agricultural classes. But 
 many able English statesmen, especially in Upper 
 India, had no toleration for any one who might 
 properly be described as a Native Gentleman. They 
 had large sympathies and a comprehensive humanity, 
 but still they could not embrace any other idea of the 
 Native Gentry of India than that of an institution 
 to be righteously obliterated for the benefit of the 
 great mass of the people. 
 
 There were two processes by which this depression 
 of the privileged classes was efi*ected. The one was 
 known by the name of a Settlement, the other was 
 called Resumption. It would be out of place here, if 
 I had the ability, to enter minutely into the difficult 
 question of landed tenures in India. It is an old story 
 now, that when that clever coxcomb, Victor Jacque- 
 
156 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 180C-56. mont, asked Holt Mackenzie to explain to him in a 
 five minutes' conversation the various systems of Land 
 Revenue obtaining in different parts of the country, 
 the experienced civilian replied that he had been for 
 twenty years endeavouring to understand the sub- 
 ject and had not mastered it yet. Such a rebuke ought 
 to be remembered. The little that I have to say on 
 the subject shall be said with the least possible use of 
 technical terms, and with the one object of making 
 the general reader acquainted with the process by 
 which the substance of the great landholders in Upper 
 India was diminished by the action of the British 
 Government. 
 
 In the Literature of India the word " Settlement" 
 is one of such frequent occurrence, and to the 
 Indian resident it conveys such a distinct idea, that 
 there is some danger of forgetting that the general 
 reader may not be equally conversant with the exact 
 meaning of the term. It may therefore, perhaps, be 
 advantageously explained that as the Indian Revenue 
 is mainly derived from the land, it is of the first im- 
 portance, on the acquisition of new territory, clearly 
 to ascertain the persons from whom the Government 
 dues are to be exacted, and the amount that is payable 
 by each. We may call it Rent or we may caU it 
 Revenue, it little matters. The adjustment of the 
 mutual relations between the Government and the 
 agriculturists was kno-\vn as the Settlement of the 
 Revenue. It was an affair of as much vital interest 
 and concernment to the one as to the other, for to 
 be charged with the payment of the Revenue was to 
 be acknowledged as the proprietor of the land. 
 
 When we first took possession of the countr}^ ceded 
 by the Newab-Wuzeer of Oude, or conquered from 
 the Mahrattas, all sorts of proprietors presented them- 
 
TALOOKHDAREE RIGHTS. 157 
 
 selves, and our officers, having no special theories 1806-56. 
 and no overriding prejudices, were willing to con- 
 sider the claims of all, whether small or great holders, 
 whom they found in actual possession ; and brief set- 
 tlements or engagements were made with them, pend- 
 insr a more thorouo:h investis^ation of their rights. 
 There was, doubtless, at first a good deal of ignorance 
 on our part, and a good deal of wrong-doing and 
 usurpation on the part of those with whom we were 
 called upon to deal. But the landed gentry of these 
 Ceded and Conquered Provinces, though they suf- 
 fered by the extension of the British Raj, were not 
 deliberately destroyed by a theory. It was the in- 
 evitable tendency of our Regulations, especially of 
 that great Mystery of Iniquity, the Sale Law, and of 
 the immigration of astute native functionaries from 
 the Lower Provinces, which inaugurated our rule, to 
 subvert the supremacy of the old landholders. Under 
 the system, which we introduced, men who had been 
 proprietors of vast tracts of country as far as the eye 
 could reach, shrivelled into tenants of mud-huts and 
 possessors only of a few cooking-pots. The process, 
 though certain in its results, was gradual in its opera- 
 tion ; and the ruin which it entailed was incidental, 
 not systematic. It was ignorantly suffered, not deli- 
 berately decreed. But, at a later period, when a new 
 political creed had grown up among our British func- 
 tionaries in India, and upon officers of this new school 
 devolved the duty of fixing the relations of the agri- 
 cultural classes with the British Government, the 
 great besom of the Settlement swept out the remnant 
 of the landed gentry from their baronial possessions, 
 and a race of peasant-proprietors were recognised as 
 the legitimate inheritors of the soil. 
 
 How this happened may be briefly stated. A Per- 
 
158 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1806-5G. manent Settlement on the Beno;al model had been 
 talked of, ordered and counter-ordered ; but for nearly 
 a tlin^d part of a century, under a series of brief 
 engagements with holders of diiferent kinds, uncer- 
 tainty and confusion prevailed, injurious both to the 
 Government and to the People. But in the time 
 1833. of Lord William Bentinck an order went forth for 
 the revision of this system or no-system, based upon 
 a detailed survey and a clearly recorded definition of 
 rights, and what is known in History as the Settle- 
 ment of the North-West Provinces, was then formally 
 commenced. 
 
 That it was benevolently designed and consci- 
 entiously executed, is not to be doubted. But it was 
 marred by a Theory. In the pursuit of right, the 
 framers of the settlement fell into wrong. Striving 
 after justice, they perpetrated injustice. Nothing 
 1845. could be sounder than the declared principle that " it 
 was the duty of the Government to ascertain and pro- 
 tect all existing rights, those of the poor and humble 
 villager as well as those of the rich and influential 
 Talookhdar."* It was said that this principle had 
 been not only asserted, but acted upon. But the fact 
 is, that the practice halted a long way behind the 
 principle. Such were the feelings with which many of 
 our officers regarded the great landholders, that equal 
 justice between the conflicting claims and interests 
 of the two classes was too often ignored. There 
 were scales over the eyes of commonly clear-sighted 
 men when they came to look at this question in the 
 face, and therefore the ^'poor and humble villager" 
 
 * See letter of Mr. Jolm Thorn- undeniable truth, that "in so far as 
 
 ton. Secretary to Government, North- this is done with care and dih'gence 
 
 West Provinces, to Mr. H. M. El- will the measure be successful in 
 
 liot, Secretary to Board of Revenue, placing property on a healthy and 
 
 April 30, 1845. It is added, with sound footing.'* 
 
SETTLEMENT OF NORTH ^^YESTERN PROVINCES. 159 
 
 Iiad a full measure of justice, pressed down and run- 1S3G40. 
 ning over, whilst the "rich and influential Talookhdar" 
 had little or none. 
 
 There are few who have not become familiar with 
 this word TaloohJidar ; who do not know that an 
 influential class of men so styled in virtue of certain 
 rights or interests in the land, were dispossessed of 
 those rights or interests and reduced to absolute ruin. 
 It must be understood, however, that the proprietary- 
 rights of which I speak were very difl<erent from the 
 rights of landed property in England. The Talookh- 
 dar was little more than an hereditary revenue-con- 
 tractor. His right was the right to all the just rents 
 paid by the actual occupants, after satisfaction of 
 the Government claims. His property was the rent 
 minus the revenue of a particular estate. This Ta- 
 lookhdaree right, or right of collection, was distinct 
 from the Zemindaree right, or proprietary right in 
 the soil. The Talookhdar, who paid to Government 
 the revenue of a large cluster of villages, had, perhaps, 
 a proprietary right in some of these small estates; 
 perhaps, in none. The proprietary right, in most 
 instances, lay with the village communities. And it 
 was the main eflbrt of the English oflicers, engaged 
 in the Settlement of the North- West Provinces, to 
 bring these village occupants into direct relations 
 with the Government, and to receive from them the 
 amount of the assessment fixed upon their several 
 estates. 
 
 Now it was a just and fitting thing that the rights 
 of these village proprietors should be clearly defined. 
 But it was not always just that the Government should 
 enter into direct engagements with them and drive 
 out the intervening Talookhdar. The actual occu- 
 pants might, in a former generation, have been a con- 
 
160 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 :83G-4:6. sequence only of a pre-existing Talookhdaree right, 
 as in cases where cultivators had been located on 
 waste lands by a contractor or grantee of the State ; 
 or the Talookhdar might have acquired his position 
 by purchase, by favour, perhaps by fraud, after the 
 location of the actual occupants ; still it was a pro- 
 prietary interest, perhaps centuries old. Let us ex- 
 plain their position as we may, these Talookhdars con- 
 stituted the landed aristocracy of the country ; they 
 had recognised manorial rights; they had, in many 
 instances, all the dignity and power of great feudal 
 barons, and, doubtless, often turned that power to 
 bad account. But whether for good or for evil, in past 
 years, we found them existing as a recognised insti- 
 tution; and it was at the same time a cruel wrong 
 and a grievous error to sweep it away as though it 
 were an incumbrance and an usurpation. 
 
 The theory of the Settlement officers was that the 
 village Zemindars had an inalienable right in the soil, 
 and that the Talookhdar was little better than an 
 upstart and an impostor. All the defects in his 
 tenure were rigidly scanned; all the vices of his 
 character were violently exaggerated. He was writ- 
 ten doA\Ti as a fraudulent upstart and an unscrupu- 
 lous oppressor. To oust a Talookhdar was held 
 by some young Settlement officers to be as great an 
 achievement as to shoot a tiger ; and it was done, too, 
 with just as clear a conviction of the benefit con- 
 ferred upon the district in which the animal prowled 
 and marauded. It was done honestly, conscien- 
 tiously, laboriously, as a deed entitling the doer 
 to the gratitude of mankind. There was something 
 thorough in it that wrung an unwilling admiration 
 even from those who least approved. It was a 
 grand levelling system, reducing everything to first 
 
TREATMENT OF THE TALOOKHDARS. IGl 
 
 principles and a delving Adam. Who was a gentle- 1833-4C 
 man and a Talookhdar, they asked, when these time- 
 honoured Village Communities were first established 
 on the soil ? So the Settlement Officer, in pursuit of 
 the great scheme of restitution, was fain to sweep out 
 the Landed Gentry and to applaud the good thing he 
 had done.* 
 
 And if one, by happy chance, was brought back by 
 a saving hand, it was a mercy and a miracle; and 
 the exception which proved the rule. The chances 
 against him were many and great, for he had divers 
 ordeals to pass through, and he seldom survived 
 them all. It was the wont of many Settlement officers 
 to assist the solution of knotty questions of pro- 
 prietary right by a reference to personal character 
 and conduct, so that when the claims of a great 
 Talookhdar could not be altogether ignored, it was 
 declared that he was a rogue or a fool — perhaps, an 
 atrocious compound of both — and that he had for- 
 feited, by oppressions and cruelties, or by neglects 
 scarcely less cruel, all claim to the compassion of the 
 State. They gave the man a bad name, and straight- 
 way they Avent out to ruin him. A single illustra- 
 tion will suffice. One of the great landholders thus 
 consigned to perdition was the Rajah of Mynpooree. 
 Of an old and honoured family, distinguished for 
 loyalty and good service to the British Government, 
 be was the Talookhdar of a large estate comprising 
 nearly two hundred villages, and was amongst the 
 most influential of the landed aristocracy of that part 
 of the country. The Settlement officer was one of 
 
 * In sober official lani^uai^e, de- lions, and to substitute, -whenever 
 f/r-il^d by Lieutenant-Governor Ro- tliere was an opportunity, a villagia 
 berison as "the prevailing, and per- community for an individu^il land- 
 haps exceseive, readiness to reduce holder." 
 
 extensive pioperties into minute por 
 
 M 
 
162 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALIIQUSIE. 
 
 1836-40. the ablest and best of his class. Fulfilling the great 
 Mr. G. Ed- promise of his youth, he afterwards attained to the 
 luoiistone. Jiigliest post in those very Provinces, an eminence 
 from which he might serenely contemplate the fact 
 that the theory of the Dead-Level is against nature, 
 and cannot be enforced without a convulsion. But, 
 in the early days of which I am speaking, a great 
 Talookhdar was to him what it was to others of the 
 same school ; and he represented that the Rajah, 
 himself incompetent almost to the point of imbecility, 
 Avas surrounded by agents of the worst character, 
 who in his name had been guilty of all kinds of 
 cruelty and oppression. Unfit as he was said to be 
 for the management of so large an estate, it would, 
 according to the prevailing creed, have been a 
 righteous act to exclude him from it ; but it was 
 necessary, according to rule, to espy also a flaw in 
 his tenure; so it was found that he had a just pro- 
 prietary right in only about a fourth of the two 
 hundred villages."* It was proposed, therefore, that 
 his territorial greatness should to this extent be 
 shorn down in the future Settlement, and that the 
 bulk of the property should be settled with the vil- 
 lage communities, whose rights, whatever they might 
 originally have been, had lain for a century in 
 abeyance. 
 
 Above the Settlement officer, in the ascending' 
 scale of our Administrative Agency, was the Com- 
 missioner ; above the Commissioner, the Board of 
 Revenue ; above the Board of Revenue, the Lieu 
 tenant-Governor. In this cluster of graduated autho- 
 rities the Old and New School alternated like the 
 Black and White of a chess-board. The recommen- 
 
 * The exact number was 189, of pensation, in llie shape of a per- 
 
 which it was ruled that the Rajah centngo, war, to be given him for the 
 
 could justly be recorded as pro- loss of the rest, 
 piietor only of 51. A money-coin- 
 
TREATMENT OF THE TALOOKHDARS. 163 
 
 dations of George Edmonstone were stoutly opposed 183G-46 
 by Robert Hamilton. The sharp, incisive logic of 
 the Commissioner cut throuofh the fallacious reason - 
 ing of the Settlement officer. '' He was of opinion 
 that the value of landed possessions and the import- 
 ance attached to them could never be made up by a 
 money allowance ; that the imbecility of the Rajah, 
 if affording a justification for his being relieved from 
 the management of his estate, could be none for de- 
 priving his family of their inheritance ; and that it 
 was inconsistent to denounce as oppressive in a native 
 ruler the same measures of sale and dispossession 
 which were adopted by our own Government towards 
 Revenue defaulters."* But the Board, of which the 
 living principle was Robert Bird, dissented from the 
 views of the Commissioner, and upheld the levelling 
 processes of the Settlement officer. Then Lieutenant- 
 Governor Robertson appeared upon the scene, and 
 the decision of the Board was flung back upon them 
 as the unjust growth of a vicious, generalising sj^stem, 
 which would break up every large estate in the 
 country into minute fractions, and destroy the whole 
 aristocracy of the country. He could not see that, 
 on the score either of invalidity of tenure or of ad- 
 ministrative incapacity, it would be just to pare down 
 the Rajah's estate to one-fourth of its ancestral dimen- 
 sions ; so he ruled that the settlement of the whole 
 ought rightly to be made with the Talookhdar.f But 
 the vicissitudes of the case were not even then at an 
 
 * Despatch of Court of Directors, elusive ; that if the Zemindars ever 
 
 Aiii^ust 13, 1851. possessed the riglits attributed to 
 
 t "The Lieutenant-Governor re- tliem, they had not been in the active 
 
 corded his opinion, that no proof of enjoyment of tliem for upwards of a 
 
 the Rajah's mismanagement, such as century, while the Rajah's claims 
 
 could justify his exclusion, had been had been admitted for more than 
 
 adduced ; that the evidence in sup- four generations ; that, admitting 
 
 port of tlie proprietary claims of the the inconvenience which miijht.some- 
 
 Zemindurs was insufficient and incon- times result from the recognition of 
 
 M 2 
 
Cletk. 
 
 Mr. Tlioma- 
 
 164 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 183G46. end. The opposition of the Board caused some delay 
 in the issue of the formal instructions of Government 
 for the recognition of the Talookhdar, and before the 
 settlement had been made with the Rajah, Robertson 
 had resigned his post to another. That other was a, 
 
 Mr. George man of the same school, with no greater passion than 
 his predecessor for the subversion of the landed 
 gentry ; but sickness rendered his tenure of office too 
 1844. brief, and, before the close of the year, he was suc- 
 ceeded by one whose name is not to be mentioned 
 mthout respect — the honoured son of an honoured 
 
 3on. """"■" father — the much-praised, much-lamented Thomason. 
 He was as earnest and as honest as the men who had 
 gone before him ; but his strong and sincere convic- 
 tions lay all in the other way. He was one of the 
 chief teachers in the New School, and so strong was 
 his faith in its doctrines that he regarded, Avith feel- 
 ings akin to wondering compassion, as men whom 
 God had given over to a strong delusion that they 
 should believe a lie, all who still cherished the opi- 
 nions which he had done so much to explode.* 
 
 the superior mal^oosar, it would not much honesty of principle Le is pos- 
 
 be reconcilable with good feeling or sessed of a constitution of mind 
 
 justice to deal as the Board pro- which prevents him from readily 
 
 posed to do, with one found in actual adopting the principles of others, or 
 
 and long-acknowledged possession, acting upon their rules. A great 
 
 He condemned the practice of de- part of his Indian career has been 
 
 ciding cases of this nature on one passed in opposition to the prevail- 
 
 invariable and generalising principle ; ing maxims of the day, and he finds 
 
 stated that he could discover no suf- himself conscientiously adverse to 
 
 ficient reason for excluding the Hajah what has been done." With respect 
 
 of Mynpooree from the management to these prevailing maxims, Mr. F. 
 
 of any of the villages composing the H. Robinson, of the Civil Service, 
 
 Talook of Minchunnali; and finally in a pamphlet published in 1855, 
 
 withheld his confirmation of the quotes the significant observation 
 
 settlement concluded with the vil- of an old llessaldar of Gardener's 
 
 lage Zemindars, directing the engage- Horse, who said to him : " No doubt 
 
 ments to betaken from the Talooich- the wisdom of the new gentlemen 
 
 dar." — Despatchof Court of Directors, had shown them the folly and the 
 
 Aurfust\2t, 1851. ignorance of the gentlemen of the 
 
 * See, for example, his reflections old time, ou whom it pleased God, 
 
 on the contumacy of Mr. Boulderson, nevertheless, to bestovv the govern- 
 
 ci" whom Mr. Thomason savs : "With ment of India." 
 
TREATMENT OF THE TALOOKIIDARS. 165 
 
 Supreme in the North-AVest Provinces, he found the 1830-40. 
 case of the Mynpooree Rajah still formally before the 
 Government. No final orders had been issued, so he 
 issued them. The besom of the Settlement swept the 
 great Talookhdar out of three-fourths of the estate, 
 and the village proprietors were left to engage with 
 Government for all the rest in his stead. 
 
 It is admitted now, even by men who were per- 
 sonally concerned in this great work of the Settlement 
 of Northern India, that it involved a grave political 
 error. It was, undoubtedly, to convert into bitter 
 enemies those whom sound policy would have made 
 the friends and supporters of the State. Men of the 
 Old School had seen plainly from the first that by these 
 measures we were sowing broadcast the seeds of future 
 trouble. Foremost among these was the veteran Di- 
 rector Tucker, who had been engaged in the first set- 
 tlement of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces, and 
 who knew as well as any man what rights existed on 
 our original assumption of the government of those - 
 territories. "The way to conciliate the peasantry," 1832. 
 he wrote, "or to improve their condition, is not, I 
 think, by dissolving the connexion between them and 
 the superior Talookhdars, or village Zemindars. The 
 one we have, I fear, entirely displaced ; but we cannot 
 destroy the memory of their past or the consciousness 
 of their present state. They were once prosperous, 
 and they and their descendants must feel that they are 
 no longer so. They are silent, because the natives of 
 India are accustomed to endure and to submit to the 
 will of their rulers ; but if an enemy appear on our 
 Western frontier, or if an insurrection unhappily take 
 place, we shall find these Talookhdars, I apprehend, 
 in the adverse ranks, and their ryots and retainers 
 ranged under the same standard." And a quarter of 
 
Il36 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSiE. 
 
 J8"o64G. a century later, one who had received the traditions 
 of this school unbroken from Thomas Campbell 
 Robertson, at whose feet he had sat, wrote that he 
 had long been pointing out that, " although the old 
 families were being displaced fast, we could not 
 destroy the memory of the past, or dissolve the 
 ancient connexion between them and their people ; and 
 said distinctly that, in the event of any insurrection oc- 
 curring, we should find this great and influential body, 
 through whom we can alone hope to keep under and 
 control the rural masses, ranged against us on the side 
 of the enemy, with their hereditary followers and re- 
 tainers rallying around them, in spite of our attempts 
 to separate their interests." " My warnings," he 
 added, "were unheeded, and I was treated as an 
 alarmist, who, having hitherto served only in the 
 political department of the State, and being totally 
 inexperienced in Revenue matters, could give no 
 sound opinion on the subject."* 
 Treatment of Warnings of this kind were, indeed, habitually 
 geiiiry. disregarded ; and the system, harsh in itself, was 
 
 carried out, in some cases harshly and uncompro- 
 misingly, almost indeed as though there were a plea- 
 sure in doing it. It is true that men deprived of their 
 vested interests in great estates were recommended 
 for money-payments direct from the Treasury ; but 
 this was no compensation for the loss of the land, 
 Avith all the dignity derived from manorial rights 
 and baronial privileges, and it was sometimes felt to 
 be an insult. It was not even the fashion in 
 those days to treat the Native Gentry with personal 
 courtesy and conciliation. Some of the great masters 
 
 *' Porsonal Adventures during the and late Mafjistrale and Collector of 
 Indian Kebellion. By William Ed- Ludaon, in iloliilcund. 
 wards, B.C.S., Judge of Benaics, 
 
RLNT-FREE TENUIlES. 167 
 
 of the scliool, men of the highest probity and bene- ISSfi-if 
 volence, are said to have failed in this with a great 
 failure, as lamentable as it was surprising. " In the 
 matter of discourtesy to the native gentry," wrote 
 Colonel Sleeman to John Colvin, " I can only say 
 that Robert Mertins Bird insulted them, whenever 
 he had an opportunity of doing so ; and that Mr. 
 Thomason was too apt to imitate him in this as 
 in other things. Of course their example was fol- 
 lowed by too many of their followers and admirers."* 
 
 And whilst all this was going on, there was another Renh-fiee 
 process in active operation by which the position of *^^"^^*' 
 the privileged classes was still further reduced. 
 There is not one of the many difficulties, which the 
 acquisition of a new country entails upon us, more 
 serious than that which arises from the multiplicity 
 of privileges and prescriptions, territorial and official, 
 which, undetermined by any fixed principle, have 
 existed under the native Government which w^e have 
 supplanted. Even at the outset of our administrative 
 career it is difficult to deal with these irregular 
 claims, but the difficulty is multiplied tenfold by 
 delay. The action of our Government in all such 
 cases should be prompt and unvarying. Justice or 
 Injustice should be quick in its operation and equal 
 in its effects. Accustomed to revolutions of empire 
 and mutations of fortune, the native mind readily 
 comprehends the idea of confiscation as the imme- 
 diate result of conquest. Mercy and forbearance at 
 such time are not expected, and are little understood. 
 The descent of the strong hand of the conqueror upon 
 all existing rights and privileges is looked for with a 
 
 * See Correspondence annexed to whose authority is entitled to ]-e- 
 published edition of Sleeman's Oude spect, tliat the statement is to bo 
 Diary. I have been told by men received with caution. 
 
168 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 18.36-4G. feeling of submission to inevitable fate ; and at such 
 a time no one wonders, scarcely any one complains, 
 when the acts of a former Government are ignored, 
 and its gifts are violently resumed. 
 
 Under former Governments, and indeed, in the 
 earlier days of our own, there had been large aliena- 
 tions of revenue in favour of persons who had rendered 
 good service to the State, or had otherwise acquired 
 the favour of the rulers of the land. These rent-free 
 tenures were of many different kinds. A volume 
 might be filled with an account of them. Some were 
 burdened with conditions; some were not. Some 
 were personal life-grants ; some were hereditary and 
 perpetual. Some were of old standing; some were 
 of recent origin. Some had been fairly earned or 
 justly acquired ; others were the vile growth of fraud 
 and corruption. They varied no less in the circum- 
 stances of their acquisition than in their intrinsic 
 character and inherent conditions. But anyhow they 
 were for some time a part of our system, and had 
 come to be regarded as the rights of the occupants. 
 Every year which saw men in undisturbed posses- 
 sion seemed to strengthen those rights. An inquiry, 
 at the outset of our career of administration, into the 
 validity of all such tenures would have been an in- 
 telligible proceeding. Doubtless, indeed, it was ex- 
 pected. But years passed, and the danger seemed to 
 have passed with them. Nay, more, the inactivity, 
 seemingly the indifi*erence of the British Government, 
 with respect to those whom we found in possession, 
 emboldened others to fabricate similar rights, and to 
 lay claim to immunities which they had never en- 
 joyed under their native masters. 
 
 In Bengal this manufacture of rent-free tenures 
 
RESUMPTION OFERATIOXS. 160 
 
 was carried on to an extent that largely diminished 1830-10. 
 the legitimate revenue of the country. A very con- 
 siderable portion of these tenures was the growth of 
 the transition-period immediately before and imme- 
 diately after our assumption of the Dewanec, or 
 Revenue - Administration, of Bengal, Behar, and 
 Orissa. At the time of the great Permanent Set- 1793. 
 tlement the rent-free holders were called upon to 
 register their claims to exemption from the payment 
 of the Government dues, and their grounds of exemp- 
 tion : and as they still remained in possession, they 
 believed that their rights and privileges had been 
 confirmed to them. The Permanent Settlement, 
 indeed, was held to be the Magna Charta of the 
 privileged classes; and for more than forty years 
 men rejoiced in their freeholds, undisturbed by any 
 thoughts of invalidity of title or insecurity of 
 tenure. 
 
 But after this lapse of years, when Fraud itself Kesumpt 
 might reasonably have pleaded a statute of limita- ^^^^^ '^"^ 
 tions, the English revenue-officer awoke to a sense of 
 the wrongs endured by his Government. So much 
 revenue alienated; so many worthless sinecurists 
 living in indolent contentment at the cost of the State, 
 enjoying vast privileges and immunities, to the injury 
 of the great mass of the People. Surely it was a 
 scandal and a reproach ! Then well-read, clever 
 secretaries, with a turn for historical illustration, dis- 
 covered a parallel between this grievous state of 
 things in Bengal and that which preceded the great 
 revolution in France, when the privileges of the old 
 nobility pressed out the very life of the nation, until 
 the day of reckoning and retribution came, with a 
 more dire tyranny of its own. Viewed in this light, 
 
 ion 
 
170 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1S36.4G. it was held to be an imperative duty to Colbertise the 
 Lakhirajdars of the Lower Provinces.* So the re- 
 sumption-officer was let loose upon the land. Titles 
 were called for; proofs of validity were to be esta- 
 blished, to the satisfaction of the Government func- 
 tionary. But in families, which seldom last a genera- 
 tion without seeing their houses burnt down, and in 
 a climate, which during some months of the year is 
 made up of incessant rains, and during others of 
 steamy exhalations — where the devouring damp, and 
 the still more devouring insect, consume all kinds of 
 perishable property, even in stout-walled houses, it 
 would have been strange if genuine documentary 
 evidence had been forthcomino; at the rio;ht time. It 
 was an awful thing, after so many years of undis- 
 turbed possession, to be called upon to establish 
 proofs, when the only proof was actual incumbency. 
 A reign of terror then commenced. And if, when 
 thus threatened, the weak Bengalee had not some- 
 times betaken himself in self-defence to the ready 
 weapons of forgery, he must have changed his nature 
 under the influence of his fears. That Avhat ensued 
 may properly be described as wholesale confiscation is 
 not to be doubted. Expert young revenue-officers 
 settled scores of cases in a day ; and families, who 
 had held possession of inherited estates for long years, 
 and never doubted the security of their tenure, found 
 
 * " In a memoir of the Great Col- taxation by the prostitution of Court 
 
 bert I read the following words, favour, or the abuse of official pri- 
 
 which are exactly descriptive of the vileges. These cases Colbert caused 
 
 nature of the pretensions of the great to be investigated, and those who 
 
 mass of the Lakhirajdars, and of the failed in making out a legal chiini to 
 
 present measures of the Government: immunity were compelled to pay 
 
 • Under the pernicious system which their sliare of the public burdens, to 
 
 exempted the nobility from payment the relief of the labouring classes, on 
 
 of direct taxes, a great number of wliom nearly the whole weight of tax- 
 
 ])ersons had fraudulently assumed aiion ieW.' "—See Lctkis of Gavht- 
 
 titles and claimed rank, while another let, addressed to the Calcutta Faper» 
 
 class had obtained immunity from o/'i838. 
 
RESUMPTION OPERATIONS. 171 
 
 themselves suddenly deprived of their freeholds and lS3G-d6. 
 compelled to pay or to go. That the State had been 
 largely defrauded, at some time or other, is more 
 than probable. Many, it is admitted, were in posses- 
 sion who had originally no good title to the exemp- 
 tion they enjoyed. But many also, whose titles were 
 originally valid, could produce no satisfactory evi- 
 dence of their validity ; so the fraudulent usurper 
 and the rightful possessor were involved in one com- 
 mon ruin. 
 
 The success of these operations was loudly 
 vaunted at the time. A social revolution had been 
 accomplished, to the manifest advantage of the State, 
 and at no cost, it was said, of popular discontent. 
 The Bengalee is proverbially timid, patient, and long- 
 suffering. But there were far-seeing men who said, 
 even at that time, that thouo:h a strono; Government 
 might do this with impunity in those lower provinces, 
 they must beware how they attempt similar spoliation 
 in other parts of India, especially in those from which 
 the Native Army was recruited. If you do, it was 
 prophetically said, you will some day find yourselves 
 holding India only with European troops. The pro- 
 bability of alienating by such measures the loyalty of 
 the military classes was earnestly discussed in the 
 European journals of Calcutta;* and it was said, by 
 those who defended the measure, that it was not in- 
 tended to extend these resumption operations to other 
 
 * The following, written a quarter charitable foundations which it is 
 
 of a century ago, affords a curious nowsought to conliscate and destroy, 
 
 glimpse of the apprehensions even The alarm has not yet, we l)elieve, 
 
 tlieu entertained by far-seeing men : spread to the Army, but it has not 
 
 " We would just hint by the way to been without its causes of com- 
 
 those who have planned this very plaints; and we would very cahuly 
 
 extraordinary attack upon vested and respectfully put it to our rulers, 
 
 rights, that the Sepoys are almost all whether it is wise or prudent to run 
 
 landholders, many of them Brahmins, the risk, to which this Kebumptioa 
 
 vvht)se families are supported by the measure would sooner or later in- 
 
Pi-oviucfS. 
 
 172 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 183G-4G. parts of the country. But scarcely any part of the 
 country escaped; scarcely any race of men, holding 
 rent-free estates of any kind, felt secure in the posses- 
 sion of rights and privileges which they had enjoyed 
 under Mogul and Mahratta rule, and had believed 
 that they could still enjoy under the Raj of the 
 Christian ruler. 
 Norih-West In the North-West Provinces it was part of the 
 duty of the Settlement officer to inquire into rent-free 
 tenures, and to resume or to release from assessment 
 the lands thus held. The feelings with which the task 
 imposed upon him was regarded varied with the 
 character and the opinions of the functionary thus 
 employed ; but whilst those w^ho Avere disposed to look 
 compassionately upon doubtful claims, or believed 
 that it would be sound policy to leave men in undis- 
 turbed possession even of what might have been in 
 the first instance unrighteously acquired, were few, 
 the disciples of Bird and Thomason, who viewed all 
 such alienations of revenue as unmixed evils, and 
 considered that any respect shown to men who were 
 described as " drones who do no good in the public 
 hive" was an injury done to the tax-paying com- 
 munity at large, were many and powerful, and left 
 their impression on the land. Rejoicing in the great 
 principle of the Dead-Level, the Board commonly 
 supported the views of the resumptionist ; and but 
 for the intervention of Mr. Robertson, the Lieutenant- 
 
 fallibly lead. The native soldier has The Government may then learn 
 
 lonf^ been in tiie habit of placing,' im- rather late that revenue is not the 
 
 plicit reliance upon British faith and only thing needful, and that their 
 
 iionour; but let the charm once be financial arithmetic, instead of niak- 
 
 hroken, let the confiscation of rent- ing twice two equal to one, as Swift 
 
 free land spread to those provinces says was the case in Ireland, may 
 
 out of which our Army is recruited, end by extracting from tiie same 
 
 and the consequences may be that ])rocess of multiplication just no- 
 
 we shall very soon iiave to trust for thing at all." — Englishman^ Novem- 
 
 >ur security to British troops alone, her 2, 1838. 
 
RESUMPTION OPERATIONS. 1 73 
 
 Governor, there would scarcely, at the end of the 1838-46. 
 Settlement operations, have been a rent-free tenure 
 in the land. There was sometimes a show of justice 
 on the side of resumption, for the immunity had been 
 granted, in the first instance, as payment for service 
 no longer demanded, or what had been originally 
 merely a life-grant had assumed the character of an 
 hereditary assignment. Perhaps there was sometimes 
 more than suspicion that in unsettled times, when 
 there was a sort of scramble for empire, privileges of 
 this kind had been fabricated or usurped ; but in other 
 instances strong proofs of validity were ignored, and 
 it has been freely stated, even by men of their own 
 order, that these earnest-minded civilians "rejected 
 royal firmans and other authentic documents," and 
 brought upon the great rent-roll of the Company 
 lands which had been for many generations free from 
 assessment. Nay, even the highest authority, in the 
 great Settlement epoch, declared that "the Settle- 
 ment officer swept up, without inquiry, every patch 
 of unregistered land ; even those exempted by a sub- 
 sequent order, which did not come out until five- 
 sixths of the tenures had been resumed." In one 
 district, that of Furruckabad, " the obligations of a 
 treaty and the direct orders of Government were but 
 lightly dealt with ; and in all, a total disregard was 
 evinced for the acts even of such men as Warren 
 Hastings and Lord Lake."* Li every case what was 
 done was done conscientiously, in the assured belief 
 that it was for the general good of the people ; but 
 the very knowledge that was most vaunted, a know- 
 ledge of the institutions and the temper of the natives, 
 
 * Minute of Mr. Robertson, Lieu- tlie Court of Directors, August 13, 
 lenant-Governor of the North- West 1851. 
 Provinces, quoted iu Despatch of 
 
174 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 IS3G 40. was that which they most lacked. They were wre(;ked 
 upon the dangerous coast of Little Learning. 
 
 There were, however, it has been said, some men en- 
 gaged in those great Settlement operations who were 
 not smitten with this unappeasable earth-hunger, and 
 who took altogether another view both of the duty 
 and of the policy of the State. Mr. Mansel, of whose 
 eager desire, so honourably evinced at a later period, 
 to uphold the Native States of Lidia I have already 
 spoken, was the principal exponent of these excep- 
 tional opinions. " If it be of importance," he wrote, 
 in his Report on the Settlement of the Agra District, 
 " to conciliate the affections of the people, as well as 
 to govern by the action of naked penal laws ; if it be 
 important that the natural tendency of every part of 
 native society in these provinces, to sink into one 
 wretched level of poverty and ignorance, should, as a 
 principle, be checked as far as possible by the acts of 
 Government ; if it be important that the pride of 
 ancestry and nobility, the valour of past times, and 
 the national character of a country, should be che- 
 rished in recollection, as ennobling feelings to the 
 human mind, 1 know of no act to which I could 
 point with more satisfaction, as a zealous servant of 
 Government, than the generous manner in which the 
 restoration of the family of the Buddawar Rajah to rank 
 and fortune was made by the Lieutenant-Governor 
 of Agra ; and I cannot refrain from allowing myself to 
 echo, for the inhabitants of this part of the country, 
 that feeling, in a report of necessity, largely con- 
 nected with the welfare and happiness of the district 
 of Agra." Mr. Robertson had granted the Buddawar 
 Jagheer to the adopted son of the deceased Rajah, and 
 it was the recognition of this adoption which so re- 
 joiced the heart of the sympathising Settlement officer. 
 
RESUMPTION OPERATIONS. 175 
 
 As the events of which I am about to write occurred, 1 817-52. 
 for the most part, in Northern India, it is to the dis- 
 turbing causes in that part of the country that the 
 introductory section of this book is mainly devoted. 
 But before it passes altogether away from the subject 
 of Resumption, something should be said about the 
 operations of that great confiscatory Tribunal knoAvn 
 as the Inam Commission of Bombay. This was but Tlie Tnam 
 the supplement oi a series oi measures, oi which it of Bombay 
 would take a long time to write in detail. A great 
 part of the territory, now constituting the Presidency 
 of Bombay, was in 1817 conquered from the Peishwah. 
 With conquest came the old difficulty, of which I 
 have spoken* — the difficulty of dealing with the 
 privileges and prescriptions, the vested interests of all 
 kinds, territorial and official, derived from the Mah- 
 ratta Government. As in Bengal and in the North- 
 AVestern Provinces, these difficulties were greatly ag- 
 gravated by delay. Had we instituted a searching 
 inquiry at once, and resumed every doubtful tenure ; 
 had we cancelled even the undoubted grants of former 
 governments, and suddenly annulled all existing privi • 
 leges, such proceedings in the eyes of the people would 
 have been the intelligible tyranny of the conqueror, 
 and, at all events, in accordance wdth the custom of 
 the country. But our very desire to deal justly and 
 generously with these privileged classes generated de- 
 laid and unequal action. At different times, and in dif- 
 ferent parts of Western India, these old alienations of 
 Revenue were dealt with after different fashions ; and 
 it was a source of bitter discontent that, under like 
 circumstances, claims were settled by Government 
 with far greater rigour in one part of the country 
 than in another. 
 
 ♦ Aiife, page 1C7. 
 
176 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 ^.^??. Years passed, various regulations were framed, for 
 
 the most part of restricted operation ; and still, after 
 the country had been for more than a third of a 
 century under British rule, the great question of 
 alienated revenue had only been partially adjusted. 
 So in 1852 an act was passed, which empowered a 
 little body of English officers, principally of the 
 military profession — men, it was truly said, "not 
 well versed in the principles of law, and wholly un- 
 practised in the conduct of judicial inquiries" — to 
 exercise arbitrary jurisdiction over thousands of 
 estates, many of them held by men of high family, 
 proud of their lineage, proud of their ancestral privi- 
 leges, who had won what they held by the sword, and 
 had no thought by any other means of maintaining 
 possession. In the Southern Mahratta country there 
 were large numbers of these Jagheerdars, who had 
 never troubled themselves about title-deeds, who 
 knew nothing about rules of evidence, and who had 
 believed that long years of possession were more 
 cogent than any intricacies of law. If they had ever 
 held written proofs of the validity of their tenures, 
 they had seldom been so provident as to preserve 
 them. But, perhaps, they had never had better proof 
 than the memory of a fierce contest, in the great 
 gurdee-ka-wukht^ or time of trouble, which had pre- 
 luded the dissolution of the Mahratta power in 
 Western India, and placed the white man on the 
 Throne of the Peishwah.* Year after year had 
 
 * See the admirably-written me- mitted arms and retainers, with 
 
 morial of Mr. G. li, Seton-Karr : whose aid they had learnt to con- 
 
 " Chiefs, who had won their estates sider mere titles superfluous, as with- 
 
 by the sword, had not been careful out it they were contemptible. In 
 
 to fence them in with a paper barrier, other instances, men of local in- 
 
 which they felt the next successful fluence and energetic character 
 
 fidventurer would sweep away as un- having grasped at the lands which 
 
 ceremoniously as themselves. In- lay within their reach in the general 
 
 stead of parchments, they trans- scramble which preceded the down- 
 
THE INAM COMMISSION OF BOMBAY. 177 
 
 passed, one generation had followed another in m;- I8?.lt 
 disturbed possession, and the great seal of Time stood 
 thern in stead of the elaborate technicalities of the 
 Conveyancer. But the Inam Commission was esta- 
 blished. The fame of it went abroad throughout the 
 Southern Mahratta country. From one village to 
 another passed the appalling news that the Commis- 
 sioner had appeared, had called for titles that could 
 not be produced, and that nothing but a general con- 
 fiscation of property were likely to result from the 
 operations of this mysterious Tribunal. "Each day," 
 it has been said, " produced its list of victims ; and 
 the good fortune of those who escaped but added to 
 the pangs of the crowd who came forth from the 
 shearing-house, shorn to the skin, unable to work, 
 ashamed to beg, condemned to penury."* The titles 
 of no less than thirty-five thousand estates, great and 
 small, were called for by the Commission, and during 
 the first five years of its operations, three-fifths of 1852-67. 
 them were confiscated.! 
 
 Whilst the operations of the Revenue Department Operation of 
 were thus spreading alarm among the privileged Jt^^g^^^ 
 classes in all parts of the country, the Judicial De- 
 partment was doing its duty as a serviceable ally in 
 the great war of extermination. Many of the old 
 landed proprietors were stripped to the skin by the 
 decrees of our civil courts. The sale of land iu 
 satisfaction of these decrees was a process to which 
 recourse was often had among a people inordinately 
 
 fal of the Peishwah's Government, precarious title, or of no title at all, 
 
 liad transmitted their acquisitions to found themselves suddenly brought 
 
 the children, fortified by no better face to face with an apparatus, 
 
 titles than entries in the village which, at successive strokes, pee'ed 
 
 account-books, which a closer ex- away their possessions with the hr fs!i 
 
 amination showed to be recent or precision of the planing machine " 
 spurious. Housed from the dreams * Memorial of G. B. Seton-? aif. 
 of thirty years, these proprietors of f Ibid. 
 
 N 
 
178 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1830 56. addicted to litigation. We must not regard it alto- 
 gether with English eyes ; for the Law had often 
 nothing else to take. There was many a small landed 
 proprietor whose family might have been established 
 for centuries on a particular estate, with much pride 
 of birth and aifection for his ancestral lands, but 
 possessing movable goods and chattels not worth 
 more than a few rupees. He might have owned a pair 
 of small bullocks and a rude country cart consisting 
 of two wheels and a few bamboos, but beyond such 
 aids to husbandry as these, he had nothing but a 
 drinking-vessel, a few cooking-pots, and the blankets 
 which kept the dews oif at night. Justice in his 
 case miofht not be satisfied without a surrender of his 
 interests in the land, which constituted the main por- 
 tion of his wealth.* So a large number of estates 
 every year were put up to sale, under the decrees of 
 the courts, in satisfaction of debts sometimes only of 
 a few shillings, and bought by new men, perhaps from 
 diiferent parts of the country, not improbably the 
 agents or representatives of astute native function- 
 aries from the lower provinces ; whilst the ancient 
 proprietors, still rooted to the soil, shrunk into small 
 farmers or under-tenants on their old ancestral do- 
 mains. Thus a revolution of landed property was 
 gradually brought about by means of English appli- 
 cation, which, acting coin ciden tally with the other 
 agencies of which I have spoken, swelled the number 
 
 * I have stated here the principle Bengal Civil Service, in a Memoran- 
 
 upon which tlie law was based. But dum before me, "estates put up for 
 
 I believe that in many cases no pains sale for four rupees (eight sliillings), 
 
 were taken to ascertain in the first which appears to me just the same as 
 
 instance what were the movable if an English grocer, getting a decree 
 
 goods of the debtor. Recourse was in a small-debt court against a squire 
 
 had to the register of landed pro- for half a sovereign, |)ut up his estate 
 
 perty, even when the debt amounted in Cheshire for the same, instead 
 
 to no more than four or five rupees, of realising the debt by the sale of 
 
 " I have seen," says an off "".er of the his silk umbrella." 
 
DEPRESSION OF THE UPPER CLASSES. 179 
 
 of the disa,ifected, dangerous classes, who traced their 1836 56 
 downfal to the operations of British rule, and sullenly 
 bided their time for the recovery of what they had 
 lost, in some new revolutionary epoch. 
 
 This general system of depression, which, thus as- 
 suming many different forms and exercising itself in 
 many different ways, struck with uniform precision at 
 the most cherished privileges of the upper classes, had 
 not its orio^in in the fertile brain of Lord Dalhousie. 
 He only confirmed and extended it ; confirmed it in 
 our older provinces, and extended it to those which 
 he had himself acquired. In the Punjab it sorely dis- 
 quieted some few of our more chivalrous English 
 officers connected with the Administration,* and it 
 was carried into the Oude dominions, as will hereafter 
 be shown, with a recklessness which in time brought 
 down upon us a terrible retribution. Every new 
 acquisition of territory made the matter much worse. 
 Not merely because the privileged classes were in 
 those territories struck down, but because the exten- 
 sion of the British Raj gradually so contracted the 
 area on which men of high social position, expelled by 
 our system from the Company's provinces, could find 
 profitable and honourable employment, that it seemed 
 as though every outlet for native enterprise and ambi- 
 tion were about to be closed against them. It was 
 this, indeed, that made the great difference between 
 
 * Sir Herbert Edwardes, in a state of the old officials and Sirdars." 
 
 Memorandum quoted by Mr. Charles Of Henry Lawrence himself, Mr. 
 
 Raikes in his graphic " Notes of the Raikes says : " He fought every 
 
 Revolt of the North-West Provinces losing battle for the old chiefs and 
 
 of India," says of Arthur Cocks, Jagheerdars with entire disregard for 
 
 that he " imbibed Sir Henry Law- liis own interest, and at last left the 
 
 rence's feelings, and became greatly Punjab, to use Colonel Edwardes's 
 
 attached to the chiefs and people, words, dented all over with defeats 
 
 He hardly stayed a year after annex- and disappointments, honourable 
 
 ation, and left the Punjab because scars in the eyes of the bystanders." 
 he could not bear to see the fallen 
 
 N 2 
 
180 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1836-5G. resumptions of rent-free estates under the Native 
 Governments and under our own. It has been said 
 that under the former there was no security of tenure ; 
 and it is true that the Native Princes did not consider 
 themselves bound to maintain the grants of their pre- 
 decessors, and often arbitrarily resumed them. But 
 the door of honourable and lucrative employment 
 was not closed against the sufferers. All the great 
 offices of the State, civil and military, were open to the 
 children of the soil. But it was not so in our British 
 territories. There the dispossessed holder, no longer 
 suffered to be an unprofitable drone, was not per- 
 mitted to take a place among the working bees of the 
 hive. And what place was there left for him, in 
 which he could serve under other masters ? We had 
 no room for him under us, and we left no place for 
 him away from us. And so we made dangerous 
 enemies of a large number of influential persons, 
 among whom were not only many nobles of royal or 
 princely descent, many military chiefs, with large 
 bodies of retainers, and many ancient landholders 
 for whom a strong feudal veneration still remained 
 among the agricultural classes, but numbers of the 
 Brahminical, or priestly order, who had been sup- 
 ported by the alienated revenue which we resumed, 
 and who turned the power which they exercised over 
 the minds of others to fatal account in fomentino- 
 popular discontent, and instilling into the minds of 
 the people the poison of religious fear. 
 
 Tlie Priest- Other measures were in operation at the same time, 
 
 ' the tendency of which was to disturb the minds and 
 
 to inflame the hatred of the Priesthood. It seemed as 
 
 though a great flood of innovation were about to 
 
BRAHMINISM. 181 
 
 sweep away all their powers and their privileges. The iSiS-Sft. 
 pale-faced Christian knight, with the great Excalibar 
 of Truth in his hand, was cleaving right through all 
 the most cherished fictions and superstitions of 
 Brahminism. A new generation was springing up, 
 without faith, without veneration; an inquiring, 
 doubting, reasoning race, not to be satisfied with 
 absurd doctrines or captivated by grotesque fables. 
 The literature of Bacon and Milton was exciting a 
 new appetite for Truth and Beauty ; and the exact 
 sciences of the West, with their clear, demonstrable 
 facts and inevitable deductions, were putting to shame 
 the physical errors of Hindooism. A spirit of inquiry 
 had been excited, and it was little likely ever to be 
 allayed. It was plain that the inquirers were exalt- 
 ing the Professor above the Pundit, and that the new 
 teacher was fast displacing the old. 
 
 Rightly to understand the stake for which the 
 Brahmin was playing, and with the loss of which he 
 was now threatened, the reader must keep before him 
 the fact that Brahminism is the most monstrous 
 system of interference and oppression that the world 
 has ever yet seen, and that it could be maintained only 
 by ignorance and superstition of the grossest kind. 
 The people had been taught to believe that in all the 
 daily concerns of life Brahminical ministrations were 
 essential to worldly success. The Deity, it was 
 believed, could be propitiated only by money-pay- 
 ments to this favoured race of holy men. *' Every 
 form and ceremony of religion," it has been said ; " all 
 the public festivals ; all the accidents and concerns of 
 life; the revolutions of the heavenly bodies; the 
 superstitious fears of the people; births, sicknesses, 
 marriages, misfortunes ; death ; a future state — have 
 all been seized as sources of revenue to the Brahmins ^' 
 
182 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 IS^.S-5G. " The farmer does not reap his harvest without paying 
 a Brahmin to perform some ceremony ; a tradesman 
 cannot begin business without a fee to a Brahmin ; a 
 fisherman cannot build a new boat, nor begin to fisli 
 in a spot which he has farmed, without a ceremony 
 and a fee."* "The Brahmin," says another and more 
 recent writer, " does not only stand in a hierarchical, 
 but also in the highest aristocratical position ; and 
 he has an authoritative voice in all pursuits of in- 
 dustry. All processes in other arts, as well as agri- 
 culture, are supposed to have been prescribed and 
 imparted through the Brahmins. Every newly-com- 
 menced process of business, eYery new machine, or 
 even repair of an old one, has to go through the cere- 
 mony of ' poojah,' with a feeing of the Brahmin. "f 
 And as the Brahmin was thus the controller of all the 
 ordinary business concerns of his countrymen, so also 
 was he the depositary of all the learning of the 
 country, and the regulator of all the intellectual pur- 
 suits of the people. There was, indeed, no such thing 
 among them as purely secular education. " It is a 
 marked and peculiar feature in the character of 
 Hindooism," says another writer, himself by birth a 
 Hindoo, " that instead of confining itself within the 
 proper and lawful bounds prescribed to every theo- 
 logical system, it interferes with and treats of every 
 department of secular knowledge which human genius 
 has ever invented ; so that grammar, geography, 
 physics, law, medicine, metaphysics, &c., do each form 
 as essential a part of Hindooism as any religious topic 
 with which it is concerned. ... In their religious 
 works they have treated of all the branches of secular 
 
 * Ward on the Hindoos. is much interesting and valuable 
 
 f Jeffreys on the "British Army matter, 
 in India," Aj)pcndix, in which there 
 
PROGRESS OF ENLIGHTENMENT. 183 
 
 knowledge known among them, in a regular, systematic 1845-56 
 manner ; and have given them out to the world in a 
 tone of absolute authority, from which there could be 
 no appeal."* But the English had established a Court 
 of Appeal of the highest order, and Brahminism was 
 being continually cast in it. In a word, the whole 
 hierarchy of India saw their power, their privileges, 
 and their perquisites rapidly crumbling away from 
 them, and they girded themselves up to arrest the 
 devastation. 
 
 All this had been going on for years ; but the pro- 
 gress of enlightenment had been too slow, and its 
 manifestations too little obtrusive, greatly to alarm 
 the sacerdotal mind. As long as the receptacles of 
 this new wisdom were merely a few clever boys in the 
 great towns, and the manhood of the nation was still 
 saturated and sodden with the old superstition, Brah- 
 minism might yet flourish. But when these boys 
 grew up in time to be heads of families, rejoicing in 
 what they called their freedom from prejudice, laugh- 
 ing to scorn their ancestral faith as a bundle of old 
 wives' fables, eating meat and drinking wine, and 
 assuming some at least of the distinguishing articles 
 of Christian apparel, it was clear that a very serious 
 peril was beginning to threaten the ascendancy of the 
 Priesthood. They saw that a reformation of this 
 kind once commenced, would work its way in time 
 through all the strata of society. They saw that, as 
 new provinces were one after another brought under 
 British rule, the new light must difl'use itself more and 
 more, until there would scarcely be a place for Hin- 
 dooism to lurk unmolested. And some at least, con- 
 founding cause and effect, began to argue that all this 
 annexation and absorption was brought about for the 
 
 * Calcutta Review^ vol. xi. Article : " Physical Errors of Hindooism." 
 
184 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 ] 848-56. express purpose of overthrowing the ancient faiths of 
 the country, and establishing a new religion in theii 
 place. 
 Education. Every monstrous lie exploded, every abominable 
 practice suppressed, was a blow struck at the Priest- 
 hood ; for all these monstrosities and abominations 
 had their root in Hindooism, and could not be eradi- 
 cated without sore disturbance and confusion of the 
 soil. The murder of women on the funeral-pile, the 
 murder of little children in the Zenana, the murder of 
 the sick and the aged on the banks of the river, the 
 murder of human victims, reared and fattened for the 
 sacrifice, were all religious institutions, from which 
 the Priesthood derived either profit, power, or both. 
 Nay, even the wholesale strangling of unsuspecting 
 travellers was sanctified and ceremonialised by re- 
 ligion. Now all these cruel rites had been sup- 
 pressed, and, what was still worse in the eyes of the 
 Brahmins, the foul superstitions which nurtured them 
 were fast disappearing from the land. Authority 
 might declare their wickedness, and still they might 
 exist as part and parcel of the faith of the people. 
 But when Reason demonstrated their absurdity, and 
 struck conviction into the very heart of the nation, 
 there was an end of both the folly and the crime. 
 The Law might do much, but Education would as- 
 suredly do much more to sweep away all these time- 
 honoured superstitions. Education, pure and simple 
 in its secularity, was quite enough in itself to hcAV 
 down this dense jungle of Hindooism ; but when it 
 was seen that the functions of the English school- 
 master and of the Christian priest were often united 
 in the same person, and that high officers of the State 
 were present at examinations conducted by chaplains 
 or missionaries, a fear arose lest even secular educa- 
 
PROGRESS OF ENLIGHTENMENT. 1 85 
 
 tion miglit be the mask of proselytism, and so the 1848-56. 
 Brahmins began to alarm the minds of the elder 
 members of the Hindoo community, who abstained, 
 under priestly influence, from openly countenancing 
 what they had not the energy boldly to resist.* 
 
 And, every year the danger increased. Every 
 year were there manifestations of a continually in- 
 creasing desire to emancipate the natives of India 
 from the gross superstitions which enchained them. 
 One common feeling moved alike the English Govern- 
 ment and the English community. In other matters 
 of State-policy there might be essential changes, but 
 in this there was no change. One Governor might 
 replace another, but only to evince an increased hos- 
 tility to the great Baal of Hindooism. And in no 
 man was there less regard for time-honoured abomi- 
 nations and venerable absurdities — in no man did 
 the zeal of iconoclasm work more mightily than 
 in Lord Dalhousie. During no former administra- 
 tion had the vested interests of Brahminism in moral 
 and material error been more ruthlessly assailed. 
 There was nothing systematic in all this. Almost, 
 indeed, might it be said that it was unconscious. 
 It was simply the manifestation of such love as any 
 clear-sighted, strong-headed man may be supposed 
 to have for truth above error, for intelligent pro- 
 gress above ignorant stagnation. From love of 
 ihis kind, from the assured conviction that it was 
 equally humane and politic to substitute the strength 
 and justice of British administration for what he 
 regarded as the effete tyrannies of the East, had 
 emanated the annexations which had distino^uished 
 
 * The English journalisfs some- *'We cannot help expressing great 
 
 times remarked in their reports of surprise at the absence ol natives of 
 
 tliese school-examinations upon the influence." — Benjal Hut karu, March 
 
 absence of the native gentry—^, g. : 14, ]853. 
 
186 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE 
 
 1818-56. his rule. And as he desired for the good of the people 
 to extend the territorial rule of Great Britain, so he 
 was eager also to extend her moral rule, and to make 
 those people subject to the powers of light rather 
 than of darkness. And so he strove mightily to ex- 
 tend among them the blessings of European civilisa- 
 tion, and the Priesthood stood aghast at the sight of 
 the new things, moral and material, by which they 
 were threatened. 
 
 Many and portentous were these menaces. Not 
 only was Government Education, in a more syste- 
 matised and pretentious shape than before, rapidly 
 extending its network over the whole male popula- 
 tion of the country, but even the fastnesses of the 
 female apartments were not secure against the intru- 
 sion of the new learning and new philosophy of the 
 West. Eno;land had be^-un to take account of its 
 short- comings, and, among all the reproaches heaped 
 upon the Company, none had been so loud or so 
 general as the cry that, whilst they spent millions on 
 AVar, they grudged hundreds for purposes of Edu- 
 cation. So, in obedience to this cry, instructions had 
 been sent out to India, directing larger, more com- 
 prehensive, more systematic measures for the instruc- 
 tion of the people, and authorising increased expendi- 
 ture upon them. Whilst great Universities were to 
 be established, under the immediate charge of the 
 Government, the more humble missionary institu- 
 tions were to be aided by grants of public money, 
 and no effort was to be spared that could conduce to 
 the spread of European knowledge. It was plain to 
 the comprehension of the guardians of Eastern learn- 
 ing, that what had been done to unlock the flood- 
 gates of the West, would soon appear to be as 
 nothing in comparison with the great tide of Euro- 
 
PROGRESS OF ENLIGHTENMENT. 187 
 
 pean civilisation which was about to be poured out 184.8-56. 
 upon them. 
 
 Most alarming of all were the endeavours made, Female Eda- 
 during Lord Dalhousie's administration, to penetrate ^^^^^"* 
 the Zenanawith our new learning and our new customs. 
 The English at the large Presidency towns began to 
 systematise their efforts for the emancipation of the 
 female mind from the utter ignorance which had been 
 its birthright, and the wives and daughters of the 
 white men began to aid in the work, cheered and en- 
 couraged by the sympathies of their sisters at home. 
 For the first time, the education of Hindoo and 
 Mahomedan females took, during the administration 
 of Lord Dalhousie, a substantial recognised shape. 
 Before it had been merely a manifestation of mis- 
 sionary zeal addressed to the conversion of a few 
 orphans and castaways. But now, if not the imme- 
 diate work of the Government in its corporate capacity, 
 it was the pet project and the especial charge of a Mr. Beihunc 
 member of the Government, and, on his death, passed 
 into the hands of the Governor- General himself, and 
 afterwards was adopted by the Company's Govern- 
 ment. Some years before, the Priesthood, secure in 
 the bigotry and intolerance of the heads of families, 
 mio^ht have lauo^hed these efforts to scorn. But now 
 young men, trained under English Professors, were 
 becoming fathers and masters, sensible of the great 
 want of enlightened female companionship, and ill- 
 disposed to yield obedience to the dogmas of the 
 Priests. So great, indeed, was this yearning after 
 something more attractive and more satisfying than 
 the inanity of the Zenana, that the courtesans of the 
 Calcutta Bazaars taught themselves to play on in- 
 struments, to sing songs, and to read poetry, that 
 thereby they might lure from the dreary environ- 
 
188 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1855-56. ments of their vapid homes the very flower of Young 
 Bengal. 
 Re-marriage About the Same time the wedge of another startling 
 of Hindoo innovation was beino; driven into the very heart of 
 
 VVlQOVVS. * '^ 
 
 Hindoo Society. Among the many cruel wrongs to 
 which the womanhood of the nation was subjected was 
 the institution which forbade a bereaved wife ever to 
 re-marry. The widow who did not burn was con- 
 demned to perpetual chastity. Nay, it has been 
 surmised that the burning inculcated in the old re- 
 ligious writings of the Hindoos was no other than 
 that which, centuries afterwards, the great Christian 
 teacher forbade, saying that it is better to marry than 
 to burn. Be this as it may, the re-marriage of Hindoo 
 widows was opposed both to the creeds and the 
 customs of the land. It was an evil and a cruel thing 
 itself, and the prolific source of other evils. Evil and 
 cruel would it have been in any country and under 
 any institutions, but w^here mere children are married, 
 often to men advanced in years, and are left widows, 
 in tender youth, when they have scarcely looked upon 
 their husbands, its cruelty is past counting. To the 
 more enlio^htened Hindoos, trained in our Enfrlish 
 colleges and schools, the evils of this prohibition were 
 so patent and so distressing, that they were fain to see 
 it abrogated by law. One of their number wrote a 
 clever treatise in defence of the re-marriage of widows, 
 and thousands signed a petition, in Avhich a belief 
 was expressed that perpetual widowhood was not en- 
 joined by the Hindoo scriptures. But the orthodox 
 party, strong in texts, greatly outnumbered, and, 
 judged by the standard of Hindooism, greatly out- 
 argued them. The Law and the Prophets were on 
 their side. It was plain that the innovation would 
 inflict another deadly blow on the old Hindoo law of 
 
PROGRESS OF ENLIGHTENMENT. 189 
 
 inheritance. Already had dire offence been given to 1855-56 
 the orthodoxy of the land by the removal of those 
 disabilities which forbade all who had forsaken their 
 ancestral faith to inherit ancestral property. A law 
 had been passed, declaring the abolition of " so much 
 of the old law or usage as inflicted on any person 
 forfeiture of rights or property, by reason of his or 
 her renouncing, or having been excluded from, the 
 communion of any religion." Against this the old 
 Hindoos had vehemently protested, not Avithout 
 threats, as a violation of the pledges given by the 
 British Government to the natives of India ; pledges, 
 they said, issued in an hour of weakness and revoked 
 in an hour of strength.* But Lord Dalhousie had 
 emphatically recorded his opinion " that it is the 
 duty of the State to keep in its own hands the right 
 of regulating succession to property," and the Act had 
 been passed. And now there was further authorita- 
 tive interference on the part of the State, for it was 
 proposed to bestow equal rights of inheritance on the 
 offspring of what the old-school Hindoos declared to 
 be an illicit, God-proscribed connexion. This, how- 
 ever, was but a part of the evil. Here was another step 
 towards the complete emancipation of woman ; and 
 Hindoo orthodoxy believed, or professed to believe, 
 that if widows were encouraged to marry new hus- 
 bands instead of burning with the corpses of the old, 
 
 * The Bengal Memorial said : changed into sullen submission to 
 " Your memorialists will not concecil tiieir will, and obedience to their 
 that from the moment the proposed power." The Madras Memorial 
 act becomes a part of the law appli- was couched in much stronger Ian- 
 cable to Hindoos, that confidence guage. It denounced the raeasure 
 which they hitherto felt in the pa- as a direct act of tyranny, and said 
 ternal character of their British that the British Government, "tread- 
 rulers will be most materially shaken, ing the path of oppression," "would 
 No outbreak, of course, is to be well deserve what it will assuredly 
 dreaded ; but the active spirit of fer- obtain — the hatred and detestation 
 vent loyalty to tiieir sovereign will be of the oppressed." 
 
190 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1855-5G. wives would be induced to make themselves widows 
 by poisoning or otherwise destroying their lords. It 
 was apprehended, too — and not altogether without 
 reason* — that the re-marriage of Hindoo widows 
 would soon be followed by a blow struck at Hindoo 
 polygamy, especially in its worst but most honoured 
 form of Kulinism ; and so the Brahmins, discomfited 
 and alarmed by these innovations, past, present, and 
 prospective, strove mightily to resist the tide, and 
 to turn the torrent of destruction back upon their 
 enemies.f 
 TbeHuilway Nor was it only by the innovations of moral 
 awd the Tele- pj^Qorress that the hierarchy of India were alarmed 
 
 graph. r o ^ J 
 
 and offended. The inroads and encroachments of 
 physical science were equally distasteful and dis- 
 quieting. A privileged race of men, who had been 
 held in veneration as the depositaries of all human 
 knowledge, were suddenly shown to be as feeble and 
 impotent as babes and sucklings. It was no mere 
 verbal demonstration ; the arrogant self-assertion of 
 the white man, which the Hindoo Priesthood could 
 contradict or explain away. There were no means of 
 contradicting or explaining away the railway cars, 
 
 * See the following passage of a cjuent desertion of them, was an in- 
 
 speech delivered by Mr. Barnes Pea- jury to society, and therefore that it 
 
 cock, in llie Legislative Council, should be illegal to do so. He" 
 
 July 19, 1S56: "There was a great (Mr. Peacock) "maintained that it 
 
 distinction between preventing a man was the duty of the Legislature, in 
 
 from doing that which his religion such a case, to prevent him from 
 
 directed him to do, and preveniing doing that which his religion merely 
 
 liim from doing that which his re- permitted, but did not command him 
 
 ligion merely allowed him to do. If to do." 
 
 a man were to say that liis religion f The " Bill to remove all legal 
 
 did not forbid polygamy, and there- obstacles to the marriage of Hindoo 
 
 fore that he might marry as many w^idows," though introduced and dis- 
 
 wives as he pleased, when it was cussed during the administration of 
 
 impossible for him to carry out the Lord Dalhousie, was not finally 
 
 contract of marriage, it would be no passed till after his retirement. It 
 
 interference with his religion for the received the assent of Lord Carning 
 
 Legislature to say that the marrving in July, 185G. 
 of a hundred wives, and the subse- 
 
MATERIAL PROGRESS. 191 
 
 whicli travelled, without horses or bullocks, at iKe 1848-50 
 rate of thirty miles an hour, or the electric wires, 
 which in a few minutes carried a message across the 
 breadth of a whole province. 
 
 These were facts that there was no gainsaying. He 
 who ran might read. The prodigious triumphs over 
 time and space achieved by these '^ fire- carriages " 
 and "lightning-posts," put to shame the wisdom of 
 the Brahmins, and seemed to indicate a command 
 over the supernatural agencies of the Unseen World, 
 such as the Pundits of the East could never attain or 
 simulate. They, who for their OAvn ends had im- 
 parted a sacred character to new inventions, and had 
 taught their disciples that all improvements in art 
 and science were derived from the Deity through 
 their especial intercession, and were to be inaugu- 
 rated with religious ceremonies attended with the 
 usual distribution of largesses to the priests, now 
 found that the white men could make the very ele- 
 ments their slaves, and call to their aid miraculous 
 powers undreamt of in the Brahminical philosophy. 
 Of what use was it any longer to endeavour to per- 
 suade the people that the new knowledge of the 
 West was only a bundle of shams and impostures, 
 when any man might see the train come in at a 
 given moment, and learn at Benares how many 
 pounds of flour were sold for the rupee that morn- 
 ino; in the bazaars of Delhi and Calcutta? 
 
 To the introduction into India of these mysterious 
 agencies the Hour and the Man were alike propi- 
 tious. When Lord Dalhousie went out to India, 
 England was just recovering from the effects of that 
 over-activity of speculation which had generated such 
 a disturbance of the whole financial system of tho 
 country. She had ceased to project lines of Railway 
 
192 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1848.56. between towns without Traffic, and through countries 
 without Population, and had subsided, after mucli 
 suffering, into a healthy state of reasonable enter- 
 prise, carefully estimating both her wants and her 
 resources. As President of the Board of Trade, 
 Dalhousie had enjoyed the best opportunities of ac- 
 quainting himself with the principles and with the 
 details of the great question of the day, at the one 
 central point to which all information converged, 
 and he had left England with the full determination, 
 God willing, not to leave the country of his adoption 
 until he had initiated the construction of great trunk- 
 roads of iron between all the great centres of Govern- 
 ment and of Commerce, and had traversed, at rail- 
 way speed, some at least of their first stages. A 
 little while before, the idea of an Indian railway had, 
 in the estimation of the greater number of English 
 residents, been something speculative and chimerical, 
 encouraged only by visionaries and enthusiasts. A 
 few far-seeing men, foremost among whom was Mac- 
 donald Stephenson, predicted their speedy establish- 
 ment, and with the general acceptance of the nation ; 
 but even after Dalhousie had put his hand to the 
 work, and the Company had responded to his efforts, 
 it was the more general belief that railway commu- 
 nication in India would be rather a concern of Go- 
 vernment, useful in the extreme for military pur- 
 poses, than a popular institution supplying a national 
 want. It was thought that Indolence, Avarice, and 
 Superstition would keep the natives of the country 
 from flocking to the Railway Station. But with 
 a keener appreciation of the inherent power of so 
 demonstrable a benefit to make its own way, even 
 a^rainst these moral obstructions, Dalhousie had full 
 faith in the result. He was right. The people now 
 
MATERIAL PROGRESS. 193 
 
 learnt to estimate at its full worth tlie great truth ^Siwfc 
 that Time is Money; and having so learned, they 
 were not to be deterred from profiting by it by 
 any tenderness of respect for the feelings of their 
 spiritual guides. 
 
 That the fire-carriage on the iron road was a heavy 
 blow to the Brahminical Priesthood is not to be 
 doubted. The lightning post, which sent invisible 
 letters through the air and brought back answers, 
 from incredible distances, in less time than an or- 
 dinary messenger could bring them from the next 
 street, was a still greater marvel and a still greater 
 disturbance. But it was less patent and obtrusive. 
 Tlie one is the natural complement of the other ; and 
 Dalhousie, aided by the genius of O'Shaughnessy, 
 had soon spread a network of electric wires across 
 the whole length and breadth of the country. It was 
 a wise thing to do ; a right thing to do ; but it was 
 alarming and ofi'ensive to the Brahminical mind. It 
 has been said, that as soon as we had demonstrated 
 that the earth is a sphere revolving on its axis, there 
 was an end to the superstitions of Hindooism. And 
 so there was — in argument, but not in fact. The 
 Brahminical teachers insisted that the new doctrines 
 of Western civilisation were mere specious inventions, 
 with no groundwork of eternal truth, and as their 
 disciples could not bring the test of their senses to 
 such inquiries as these, they succumbed to authority 
 rather than to reason, or perhaps lapsed into a state 
 of bewildering doubt. But material experiments, so 
 palpable and portentous that they might be seen at a 
 distance of many miles, convinced whilst they as- 
 tounded. The most ignorant and unreasoning of 
 men could see that the thing was done. They knew 
 that Brahminism had never done it. They saw plainly 
 
 o 
 
194 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1848-56. the fact that there were wonderful things in the world 
 which their own Priests could not teach them — of 
 which, indeed, with all their boasted wisdom, they 
 had never dreamt ; and from that time the Hindoo 
 Hierarchy lost half its power, for the People lost half 
 their faith. 
 Caste. But clear as was all this, and alarming as were the 
 prospects thus unfolded to the Pundits, there was 
 something more than this needed to disturb the 
 popular mind. Hindooism might be assailed; Hin- 
 dooism might be disproved ; and still men might go 
 about their daily business without a fear for the future 
 or a regret for the past. But there was something 
 about which they disturbed themselves much more 
 than about the abstract truths of their religion. The 
 great institution of Caste was an ever-present reality. 
 It entered into the commonest concerns of life. It was 
 intelligible to the meanest understanding. Every 
 man, woman, and child knew what a terrible thing it 
 would be to be cast out from the community of the 
 brotherhood, and condemned to live apart, abhorred 
 of men and forsaken by God. If, then, the people 
 could be taught that the English by some insidious 
 means purposed to defile the Hindoos, and to bring 
 them all to a dead level of one-caste or of no-caste, a 
 great rising of the Natives might sweep the Fo- 
 reigners into the sea. This was an obvious line of 
 policy; but it was not a policy for all times. It 
 needed opportunity for its successful development. 
 Equally patient and astute, the Brahmin was content 
 to bide his time rather than to risk anything by an 
 inopportune demonstration. The English were loud 
 in their professions of toleration, and commonly cau' 
 tious in their practice. Still it was only in the nature 
 of things that they should some day make a false step. 
 As the Brahmin thus lay in wait, eager for his 
 
PRISON DISCIPLINE. 195 
 
 opportunity to strike, he thought he espied, perhaps 1845-66. 
 in an unexpected quarter, a safe point of attack. It 
 required some monstrous invention, very suitable to The Messing 
 troubled times, but only to be circulated with success Gaols"^ "^ 
 after the popular mind, by previous excitement, had 
 been prepared to receive it, to give any colour of pro- 
 bability to a report that the Government had laid a 
 plot for the defilement of the whole mass of the 
 people. But there were certain classes with which 
 Government had a direct connexion, and whose bodies 
 and souls were in the immediate keeping of the State. 
 Among these were the inmates of our gaols. As 
 these people were necessarily dependent upon Govern- 
 ment for their daily food, it appeared to be easy, by 
 a well-devised system of Prison Discipline, either to 
 destroy the caste of the convicts or to starve them to 
 death. The old tolerant regulations allowed every 
 man to cater and to cook for himself. A money- 
 allowance was granted to him, and he turned it into 
 food after his own fashion. But this system was very 
 injurious to prison discipline. Men loitered over 
 their cooking and their eating and made excuses to 
 escape work. So the prisoners were divided into 
 messes, according to their several castes ; rations were 
 issued to them, and cooks were appointed to prepare 
 the daily meals at a stated hour of the day. If the 
 cook were of a lower caste than the eaters, the neces- 
 sary result was the contamination of the food and 
 loss of caste by the whole mess. The new system, 
 therefore, was one likely to be misunderstood and 
 easily to be misinterpreted. Here, then, waa one of 
 those openings which designing men were continually 
 on the alert to detect, and in a fitting hour it was 
 turned to account. Not merely the inmates of the 
 gaols, but ihe inhabitants of the towns in which pri- 
 
 o2 
 
196 THE AD^UNISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1845-5G. sons were located, were readily made to "believe that 
 it was the intention of the British Government to 
 destroy the caste of the prisoners, and forcibly to 
 convert them to Christianity. It mattered not whe- 
 ther Brahmin cooks had or had not, in the first in- 
 stance, been appointed. There might be a Brahmin 
 cook to-day ; and a low-caste man in his place to- 
 morrow. So the lie had some plausibility about it ; 
 and it went abroad that this assault upon the gaol- 
 birds was but the beginning of the end, and that by 
 a variety of different means the rehgions of the 
 country would soon be destroyed by the Government 
 of the Feringhees. 
 
 Reports of this kind commonly appear to be of 
 Hindoo origin; for they are calculated primarily 
 to alarm the minds of the people on the score 
 of the destruction of caste. But it seldom hap- 
 pens that they are not followed by some auxiliary 
 lies expressly designed for Mahomedan reception. 
 The Mahomedans had some especial grievances of 
 their own. The tendency of our educational mea- 
 sures, and the all-pervading Englishism with which 
 the country was threatened, was to lower the dignity 
 of Mahomedanism, and to deprive of their emoluments 
 many influential people of that intolerant faith. The 
 Moulavees were scarcely less alarmed by our innova- 
 tions than the Pundits. The Arabic of the one fared 
 no better than the Sanskrit of the other. The use 
 of the Persian language in our law courts was abo- 
 lished ; new tests for admission into the Public Service 
 cut down, if they did not wholly destroy, their 
 chances of official employment. There was a general 
 inclination to pare away the privileges and the per- 
 quisites of the principal Mahomedan seats of learning. 
 All the religious endowments of the great Calcutta 
 
MAHOMED AN ALARMS. 197 
 
 Madrissa were annihilated ; and the prevalence of the 1845-56. 
 English language, English learning, and English law, 
 made the Mahomedan doctors shrink into insignifi- 
 cance, whilst the resumption of rent-free tenures, 
 which, in many instances, grievously aiFected old 
 Mussulman families, roused their resentments more 
 than all the rest, and made them ripe for sedition. 
 A more active, a more enterprising, and a more in- 
 triguing race than the Hindoos, the latter knew well 
 the importance of associating them in any design 
 against the State.* So their animosities were stimu- 
 lated, and their sympathies were enlisted, by a report, 
 sedulously disseminated, to the effect that the British 
 Government were about to issue an edict prohibiting 
 circumcision, and compelling Mahomedan women to 
 go abroad unveiled. 
 
 Small chance would there have been of such a lie 
 as this fiinding a score of credulous Mussulmans to 
 believe it. if it had not been for the little grain of 
 truth that there was in the story of the messing- 
 system in the gaols. The innovation had been origi- 
 nated some years before Lord Dalhousie appeared 
 upon the scene. At first it had been introduced with 
 
 * It must be admitted, liowever, to the English language, have pro- 
 that it is a moot question, in many duced the greatest discontent and 
 instances, whether tlie first move- the bitterest animosity against our 
 ment were made by the Hindoos or government, finding that the en- 
 tile Mahomedans. Good authorities tbrcement of the messing-system in 
 sometimes incline to the latter sup- the gaols had produced a consider- 
 position. Take, for example, the fol- able sensation amongst the people, 
 lowing, which has reference to a se- were determined to improve the op- 
 ditious movement at Patna in the portunity, especially as our troops 
 cold season of 1845-46 : "From were weak in numbers, and we were 
 inquiries I have made," wrote Mr. supposed to be pressed in the North- 
 Dam.pier, Superintendent of Police West." Of the event to which this 
 in the Lower Provinces, " in every refers, more detailed mention will be 
 quarter, I am of opinion that the found in a subsequent chapter of this 
 Mahomedans of these parts, amongst work, in connexion with the attempt 
 whom the resumption of the Maa- then made to corrupt the regiments 
 fee Tenures, the new educational at Dinapore. 
 system, and the encouragement given 
 
198 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 184546. a discretion signifying a full knowledge of tlie lurking 
 danger ;* but, as time advanced, one experiment fol- 
 lowed another, and some of the old caution was 
 perhaps relaxed. So in many places the prisoners 
 broke into rebellion and violently resisted the pro- 
 posed change. Eager and excited, under the influ- 
 ence of a common alarm, the townspeople cheered 
 them on, and were ready to aid them, mth all their 
 might, in what they believed to be the defence of 
 their religion. At Shahabad, Sarun, Behar, and 
 Patna, there were serious disturbances, and at a later 
 1852. period, Benares, the very nursery and hotbed of 
 Hindooism, the cherished home of the Pundits, was 
 saved only by prudential concessions, ir.ow becoming 
 the scene of a sanguinary outbreak. 
 The Hindoo The experience thus gained of the extreme sensi- 
 ftndhis Lotah, ^^y^-i^ggg q£ ^]^g native mind, given up as it was to 
 
 gross delusions, does not appear to have borne the 
 fruit of increased caution and forbearance. For not 
 long afterwards another improvement in prison disci- 
 pline again stirred up revolt in the gaols ; and, for the 
 same reason as before, the people sided mth the con- 
 victs. A Hindoo, or a Hindooised Mahomedan, is 
 nothing without his Lotah. A Lotah is a metal 
 drinking-vessel, which he religiously guards against 
 defilement, and which he holds as a cherished posses- 
 sion when he has nothing else belonging to him in 
 the world. But a brass vessel may be put to other 
 uses than that of holding water. It may brain a 
 magistrate, f or flatten the face of a gaoler, and truly 
 
 * See Circular Orders of Lieu- offend tlie religious prejudices of the 
 
 tenant-Governor of the North-West people, or injure the future prospects 
 
 Provinces, July, 1841: — "Govern- of those who may be subjected to 
 
 mcnt are of opinion that these mea- temporary imprisonment." 
 sures ought not to be compulsorily f My earliest recollection of India 
 
 enforced, if there be any good ground is associated with the sensation 
 
 to believe that they will violate or created in Calcutta, in April, 1834, 
 
PRISON OUTBREAKS. 199 
 
 it was a formidable weapon in the hands of a despe- 1355. 
 rate man. So an attempt was made in some places 
 to deprive the prisoners of their lotahs, and to sub- 
 stitute earthenware vessels in their place. Here, 
 then, in the eyes of the people, was another insidious 
 attempt to convert prison discipline into a means of 
 religious persecution — another attempt covertly to 
 reduce them all to one caste. So the prisoners re- 
 sisted the experiment, and in more than one place 
 manifested their resentment with a fury which was 
 shared by the population of the towns. At Arrah 
 the excitement was so great that the guards were 
 ordered to fire upon the prisoners, and at MozuiFer- 
 pore, in Tirhoot, so formidable was the outburst of 
 popular indignation, that the magistrate, in grave 
 official language, described it as "a furious and alto- 
 gether unexpected outbreak on the part of the people 
 of the town and district in support and sympathy 
 w4th the prisoners." The rioters, it was said, '' in- 
 cluded almost all the inhabitants of the town, as well 
 as a vast number of ryots, who declared that they 
 would not go away until the lotahs were restored;" 
 and so great was the danger of the prisoners escaping, 
 of their plundering the Treasury and pillaging the 
 town, before the troops which had been sent for could 
 be brought up, that the civil authorities deemed it 
 expedient to pacify the insurgents by restoring the 
 lotahs to the people in the gaols. And this was not 
 held at the time to be a sudden outburst of rash and 
 misguided ignorance, but the deliberate work of some 
 of the rich native inhabitants of the town, and some 
 of the higher native functionaries of our Civil 
 Courts. 
 
 when Mr. Richardson, magistrate of Alipore gaol by a blow from a brasi 
 the 2-1 Pergunnahs, was killed in lotah. 
 
200 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 
 
 1856. It was clear, indeed, tliat the inflammability of the 
 
 native mind Avas continually increasing; and that 
 there were many influential persons, both Hindoo 
 and Mahomedan, running over with bitter resent- 
 ments against the English, who were eagerly awaiting 
 a favourable opportunity to set all these combustible 
 materials in a blaze. The gaol-business was an ex- 
 periment, and, as far as it went, a successful one. But 
 it was not by an outbreak of the convict population 
 that the overthrow of the English was to be accom- 
 plished. There was another class of men, equally 
 und<M' the control of the Government, wdiose cor- 
 ruption would far better repay the labours of tho 
 Modavees aud the Piinditi* 
 
THE SEPOY ARMY. 201 
 
 BOOK II.— THE SEPOY AEMY. 
 [1756—1856.] 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SEPOY AUMT OF THE COMPANY — ITS HISE AND PROGRESS— t!r£ 71 RST 
 MUTINY IN BENGAL — DETERIORATING INFLUENCES — DEGRirATION 0? 
 THE NATIVE OFFICER — THE REORGANISATION OF 1796 — PROG.IESS OF IN- 
 NOVATION—THE MUTINY OF VELLORE — LATER SIGNS OF DISAFFECTION- 
 CAUSES OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 Whilst tlie hearts of the Aristocracy and of the ^ 1856. 
 Priesthood of the country were thus turned against 
 the government of the English, there was a third ^ 
 great class, esteemed to be more powerful than all,' 
 whom it was believed that our policy had p^pitiated. 
 There was security in the thought that the Soldiery 
 were with us. It was the creed of English statesmen 
 that India had been won by the Sword, and must be 
 retained by the Sword. And so long as we held the 
 sword firmly in our hands, there was but little -ippre- 
 hension of any internal danger. The British power 
 in the East was fenced in and fortified by an army ^ 
 of three hundred thousand men. 
 
 A small part only of this Army was composed of 
 our own countrymen. Neither the manhood of Eng- 
 land nor the revenues of India could supply the 
 means of defending the country only with British 
 troops. A large majority of our fighting-men were, T . 
 therefore natives of India, trained, disciplined, and 
 
202 THE SEPOY ARMY — ^ITS RISE AKD PROGRESS. 
 
 1756-1856. equipped after the English fashion. We had first 
 learnt from the French the readiness with which the 
 " Moors" and the " Gentoos" could be made to adapt 
 themselves to the habits and forms of European war- 
 fare, and, for a hundred years, we had been im- 
 proving on the lesson. Little by little, the handful 
 of Blacks which had helped Robert Olive to win the 
 battle of Plassey had swollen into the dimensions of 
 a gigantic army. It had not grown with the growth 
 of the territory w^hich it was intended to defend ; 
 but still, nerved and strengthened by such European 
 regiments as the exigencies of the parent state could 
 spare for the service of the outlying dependency, it 
 "was deemed to be of sufficient extent to support the 
 Government which maintained it against all foreign 
 enmity and all intestine revolt. 
 
 It was, doubtless, a strange and hazardous experi- 
 ment upon the forbearance of these disciplined native 
 fighting- men, held only by the bondage of the Salt in 
 allegiance to a trading Company which had usurped 
 the authority of their Princes and reduced their 
 countrymen to subjection. But it was an experi- 
 ment which, at the date of the commencement of 
 this history, had stood the test of more than a cen- 
 tury of probation. The fidelity of the Native Army 
 ,- of India was an established article of our faith. Tried 
 in many severe conjunctures, it had seldom been 
 found wanting. The British Sepoy had faced death 
 without a fear, and encountered every kind of suf- 
 fering and privation without a murmur. Commanded 
 by officers whom he trusted and loved, though of 
 another colour and another creed, there was nothing, 
 it was said, which he w^ould not do, there was no- 
 thing which he would not endure. In an extremity 
 of hunger, he had spontaneously offered his scanty 
 
DALHGUSIE ON THE SEPOY ARJNIY. 20 
 
 food to sustain the robuster energies of his English 175G-185a 
 comrade. He had planted the colours of his regi- 
 ment on a spot which European valour and perse- 
 verance had failed to reach. He had subscribed 
 from his slender earnings to the support of our 
 European wars. He had cheerfully consented, when 
 he knew that his Government was in need, to forego 
 that regular receipt of pay, which is the very life- 
 blood of foreign service. History for a hundred 
 years had sparkled with examples of his noble 
 fidelity ; and there were few who did not believe, in 
 spite of some transitory aberrations, that he would be 
 true to the last line of the chapter. 
 
 If there were anything, therefore, to disturb the ^^^C. 
 mind of Lord Dalhousie when he laid down the reins 
 of government on that memorable spring morning, 
 the trouble which oppressed him was not the growth 
 of any mistrust of the fidelity of the Sepoy. " Hardly 
 any circumstance of his condition," he said, in his 
 Farewell Minute, " is in need of improvement." And 
 there were few who, reading this passage, the very 
 slenderness of which indicated a more settled faith in 
 the Sepoy than the most turgid sentences could have 
 expressed, did not feel the same assurance that in 
 that direction there was promise only of continued 
 repose. It was true that Asiatic armies were ever 
 prone to revolt — that we had seen Mahratta armies 
 and Sikh armies, Arab armies and Goorkha armies, 
 all the military races of India indeed, at some time 
 or other rising in mutiny against their Government, 
 and perhaps overthrowing it. But fifty years had 
 passed away since the minds of our British rulers had 
 been seriously disturbed by a fear of military revolt, 
 and that half century, it was believed, had brought 
 full conviction home to the understanding of the Sepoy 
 
204 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 1856. that the Company was a good and generous master, 
 whose colours it was a privilege to bear. Outwardly, 
 there was only a great calm ; and it was not thought 
 that beneath that smooth surface there were any 
 latent dangers peculiar to the times. The Sepoy was 
 esteemed to be " faithful to a proverb ;" and his 
 fidelity was the right arm of our strength. 
 
 Our first Sepoy levies were raised in the Southern 
 Peninsula, when the English and the French powers 
 were contending for the dominant influence in that 
 part of the country. They were few in number, and 
 at the outset commonly held in reserve to support 
 our European fighting -men. But, little by little, they 
 proved that they were worthy to be entrusted with 
 higher duties, and, once trusted, they went boldly to 
 the front. Under native commandants, for the most 
 part Mahomedans or high-caste Rajpoot Hindoos, but 
 disciplined and directed by the English captain, their 
 pride was flattered and their energies stimulated by 
 the victories they gained. How they fought in the 
 attack of Madura, how they fought in the defence of 
 Arcot, how they crossed bayonets, foot to foot, with 
 the best French troops at Cuddalore, historians have 
 delighted to tell. All the power and all the respon- 
 sibility, all the honours and rewards, were not then 
 monopolised by the English captains. Large bodies 
 of troops were sometimes despatched, on hazardous 
 enterprises, under the independent command of a 
 native leader, and it was not thought an ofi^ence to a 
 European soldier to send him to fight under a black 
 commandant. That black commandant was then a 
 great man, in spite of his colour. He rode on horse- 
 back at the head of his men, and a mounted stafi*- 
 
BIRTH OF THE BENGAL ARMY. 205 
 
 officer, a native adjutant, carried his commands to 1756-57. 
 the Soubahdars of the respective companies. And a 
 brave man or a skilful leader was honoured for his 
 bravery or his skill as much under the folds of a 
 turban as under a round hat. 
 
 When the great outrage of the Black Hole called The Benjral 
 Olive's retributory army to Bengal, the English had ^^^^^' 
 no Sepoy troops on the banks of the Hooghly. But 
 there were fourteen native battalions in Madras, 
 numbering in all ten thousand men, and Clive took 
 two of these with him, across the black water, to 
 Calcutta. Arrived there, and the first blow struck, 
 he began to raise native levies in the neighbourhood, 
 and a battalion of Bengal Sepoys fought at Plassey 
 side by side with their comrades from Madras. Eight 
 years after this victory, which placed the great pro- 
 vince of Bengal at our feet, the one battalion had 
 swollen into nineteen, each of a thousand strong. To 
 each battalion three English officers were appointed 
 — picked men from the English regiments.* The 
 native element was not so strong as in the Southern 
 Army ; but a good deal of substantive authority still 
 remained with the black officers. 
 
 And that the Bengal Sepoy was an excellent sol- 
 dier, was freely declared by men who had seen the 
 best troops of the European powers. Drilled and 
 disciplined in all essential points after the English 
 model, the native soldier was not called upon to 
 divest himself of all the distinctive attributes of his 
 race. Nothing that his creed abhorred or his caste 
 rejected was forced upon him by his Christian 
 masters. He lived apart, cooked apart, ate apart, 
 after the fashion of his tribe. No one grudged him 
 
 * In 1765, tlie number was iu- native commandant and ten Soubah- 
 creased to five. There were then a dars to each battalion. — Broome. 
 
206 THE SEPOY ARjyiY — ITS RISE AND PROGRESS 
 
 1757. his necklace, liis ear-rings, the caste-marks on his 
 forehead, or the beard which lay upon his breast. 
 He had no fear of being forcibly converted to the re- 
 ligion of the white men, for he could not see that the 
 white men had any religion to which they could 
 convert him. There was no interference from the 
 Adjutant- General's office, no paper government, no 
 perpetual reference to order-books bristling with in- 
 novations ; and so he was happy and contented, 
 obedient to the officers who commanded him, and 
 faithful to the Government he served. 
 
 His predominant sentiment, indeed, was fidelity to 
 his Salt, or, in other words, to the hand that fed him. 
 But if he thouo;ht that the hand was unrio-hteouslv 
 closed to withhold from him what he believed his due, 
 he showed himself to be most tenacious of his rights, 
 and he resolutely asserted them. This temper very 
 soon manifested itself. The Bengal Army was but 
 seven years old, when it first began to evince some 
 symptoms of a mutinous spirit. But in this instance 
 the contagion came from the Europeans. The white 
 troops had mutinied because the promise of a donation 
 to the Army from Meer Jaffier had halted on the Avay 
 to performance ; and when the money came, the Sepoys 
 followed their example, because they thought that they 
 were denied their rightful share of the Prize. They 
 had just ground of complaint in this instance, and 
 they were soothed by a reasonable concession.* But 
 the fire had not burnt itself out ; and before the close 
 of the year some regiments were again in rebellion. 
 One battalion seized and imprisoned its English officers, 
 and vowed that it would serve no more. It was one 
 of those childish ebullitions, of which we have since 
 
 * Whilst a private of tlie Euro- six. The share of the latter was 
 pean Army was to receive forty ru- afterwards fixed at twenty rupees, 
 pees, it was proposed to give a Sepoy 
 
BLOWN FROM THE GUNS 207 
 
 seeti so many in the Bengal Army. But it was plain 1764, 
 that the evil was a growing one, and to be arrested 
 with a strong hand. So twenty-four Sepoys were 
 tried, at Chuprah, by a drum-head Court-Martial, for 
 mutiny and desertion, found guilty, and ordered to be 
 blown away from the guns. 
 
 A century has passed since the order was carried 
 into execution, and many strange and terrible scenes 
 have been witnessed by the Sepoy Army ; but none 
 stranger or more terrible than this. The troops 
 were drawn up, European and Native, the guns were 
 loaded, and the prisoners led forth to suffer. Major 
 Hector Munro, the chief of the Bengal Army, super- 
 intended that dreadful punishment parade, and gave 
 the word of command for the first four of the criminals 
 to be tied up to the guns. The order was being 
 obeyed ; the men were being bound ; when four tall, 
 stately Grenadiers stepped forward from among the 
 condemned, and represented that as they had always 
 held the post of honour in life, it was due to them that 
 they should take precedence in death. The request 
 was granted ; a brief reprieve was given to the men 
 first led to execution ; the Grenadiers were tied to 
 the guns, and blown to pieces at the word of com- 
 mand. 
 
 Then all 1 jirough the Sepoy battalions on that ghastly 
 parade, there ran a murmur and a movement, and it 
 seemed that the black troops, who greatly outnum- 
 bered the white, were about to strike for the rescue of 
 their comrades. There were signs and sounds not to 
 be misunderstood ; so the officers of the native regi- 
 ments went to the front and told Munro that their 
 men were not to be trusted ; that the Sepoys had re- 
 solved not to suffer the execution to proceed. On the 
 issue of that reference depended the fate of the Bengal 
 Army. The English troops on that parade were few. 
 
208 THE SEPOY ARMY — ^ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 17C1. There was scarcely a man among them not moved to 
 tears by what he had seen ; but Munro knew thai 
 they could be trusted, and that they could defend the 
 guns, which once turned upon the natives would have 
 rendered victory certain. So he closed the Europeans 
 on to the battery ; the Grenadiers upon one side, the 
 Marines on the other, loaded the pieces with grape, 
 and sent the Sepoy officers back to their battalions. 
 This done, he gave the word of command to the native 
 regiments to ground arms. In the presence of those 
 loaded guns, and of the two lines of white troops 
 ready to fire upon them, to have disobeyed would 
 have been madness. They moved to the word of 
 command, laid down their arms, and when another 
 word of command was given, which sent the Sepoys 
 to a distance from their grounded muskets, and the 
 Europeans with the guns took ground on the inter- 
 vening space, the danger had passed away. The 
 native troops were now completely at Monro's mercy, 
 and the execution went on in their presence to its 
 dreadful close. Twenty men were blown away from 
 the guns at that parade. Four were reserved for 
 execution at another station, as a warning to other 
 regiments, which appeared to be mutinously disposed, 
 and six more, tried and sentenced at Bankepore, were 
 blown away at that place. Terrible as was this 
 example, it was the act of a merciful and humane 
 man, and Mercy and Humanity smiled sorroAvfully, 
 but approvingly, upon it. It taught the Sepoy Army 
 that no British soldier, black or white, can rebel 
 against the State without bringing down upon himself 
 fearful retribution, and by the sacrifice of a few 
 guilty forfeited lives checked the progress of a disease 
 which, if weakly sufi'ered to run its course, migiit; 
 have resulted in the slaughter of thousands. 
 
CLIVE AND THE BENGAL OFFICERS. 209 
 
 The lesson was not tlirown away. The Sepoy learnt 17 tt. 
 to respect the stern authority of the Law, and felt 
 that the Nemesis of this new Government of the 
 British was certain in its operations, and not to be 
 escaped. And the time soon came when his con- 
 stancy was tested, and found to have the ring of 
 the true metal. The European officers broke into 
 rebellion; but the natives did not falter in their Mutiny of il.i 
 allegiance. Conceiving themselves aggrieved by the omms. 
 withdrawal of the extraordinary allowances which 
 they had enjoyed in the field, the former determined 
 to remonstrate against the reduction, and to clamour 
 for what they called their rights. In each brigade 
 meetings were called, consultations were held, and 
 secret committees were formed, under the disguise of 
 Freemasons' Lodges. Headstrong and obstinate, the 
 officers swore to recover the double batta which had 
 been taken from them, or to resign the service in a 
 body. Large sums of money were subscribed, and 
 the Company's civilians contributed to the fund, which 
 was to enable their military brethren to resist the 
 authority of their common masters. It was a for- 
 midable conjuncture, and one to try the courage 
 even of a Clive. The orders of the Company were 
 peremptory ; and he was not a man to lower the au- 
 thority of Government by yielding to a threat. But 
 he could not disguise from himself that there were 
 contingencies which might compel him to make a 
 temporary concession to the insubordinates ; one was 
 an incursion of the Mahrattas,* the other the defection 
 of the Sepoys. Had the native soldic^rs sympathised 
 with and supported the English officers, the impetus 
 
 * "In case the Mahrattas should case, you liave authority to make 
 
 stiU appear to intend an invasion, terms with the officers of your bri- 
 
 or in case you apprehend a mutiny gade." — Lord Clive io Col. Smith, May 
 
 among the troops, but in no other 11, 1766. [See also following uote.l 
 
 V 
 
210 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 1766. thus given to the movement would have overborne 
 all power of resistance, and Government must have 
 succumbed to the crisis. In this emergency, Clivc 
 saw clearly the importance of securing " the fidelity 
 and attachment of the Soubahdars, or commanding 
 officers of the black troops," and he wrote urgently 
 to his lieutenants. Smith and Fletcher, instructing 
 them to attain this end. But the Sepoys had never 
 wavered. True to their colours, they were ready at 
 the word of command to fire on the white mutineers. 
 Assured of this, Clive felt that the danger was over — 
 felt that he could hold out against the mutiny of the 
 English officers, even though the European troops 
 should break into revolt.* 
 
 The founders of the Native Army had conceived 
 the idea of a force recruited from among the people 
 of the country, and commanded for the most part by 
 men of their o^vn race, but of higher social position 
 — men, in a word, of the master-class, accustomed to 
 exact obedience from their inferiors. But it was the 
 inevitable tendency of our increasing power in India 
 to oust the native functionary from his seat, or to lift 
 him from his saddle, that the white man might fix him- 
 self there, with all the remarkable tenacity of his race. 
 An Eno;lishman believes that he can do all thino;s 
 better than his neighbours, and, therefore, it was doubt- 
 
 * "The black Sepoy officers, as European battalion had got under 
 
 well as men, have given great proofs arms, and were preparing to leave 
 
 of fidelity and steadiness upon this the fort and follow their officers, and 
 
 occasion, and so long as they remain the artillery were about to do the 
 
 so, nothing is to be apprehended same, but the unexpected appear- 
 
 from the European soldiery, even if ance of tliis firm line of Sepoys, witli 
 
 they should be mutinously inclined." tlieir bayonets fixed and arms loaded, 
 
 — Clive to Smith, 3fayl5, 1700, 3fS. threw them into some confusion, of 
 
 Records. — Ttiey iiad just afforded a which Captain Smith took advan- 
 
 striking proof that they were pre- tage, and warned them, that if they 
 
 pared, if necessary, to fire upon the did not retire peaceably into their 
 
 Europeans. See Broome's History of barracks, he would tire iipou theai 
 
 the Bengal Army, vol. i. 589: "The al once." 
 
. DEGRADATION OF THE NATIVE OFFICER. 211 
 
 less with a sincere conviction of the good we were doing 17S4. 
 that we gradually took into our own hands the reins of 1/ 
 office, civil and military, and left only the drudgery 
 and the dirty work to be done by the people of the 
 soil. Whether, if we had fairly debated the ques- 
 tion, it Avould have appeared to us a safer and a Aviser 
 course to leave real military power in the hands of 
 men who might turn it against us, than to cast upon 
 the country a dangerous class of malcontents identi- 
 fying the rise of the British power with their own 
 degradation, it may now be difficult to determine.' 
 But any other result than that before us would have 
 been utterly at variance with the genius of the 
 English nation, and, theorise as we might, was not to 
 be expected. So it happened, in due course, that 
 the native officers, who had exercised real authority 
 in their battalions, who had enjoyed opportunities of 
 personal distinction, who had felt an honourable 
 pride in their position, were pushed aside by an in- 
 cursion of English gentlemen, who took all the sub- 
 stantive power into their hands, and left scarcely 
 more than the shadow of rank to the men whom 
 they had supplanted. An English subaltern was Increase of 
 appointed to every company, and the native officer oSfceis. 
 then began to collapse into something little better 
 than a name. 
 
 As the degradation of the native officer was thus 
 accomplished, the whole character of the Sepoy army 
 -svas changed. It ceased to be a profession in which, 
 men of high position, accustomed to command, ' ^ 
 might satisfy the aspirations and expend the ener- 
 gies of their lives. All distinctions were effaced. 
 The native service of the Company came down to a 
 dead level of common soldierino^, and risins: from the 
 ranks by a painfully slow process to merely nominal 
 
 p2 
 
21.2 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 1781-9G. command. There was employment for tlie many ; 
 there was no longer a career for the few. Thence- 
 forth, therefore, we dug out the materials of our 
 army from the lower strata of society, and the gentry 
 of the land, seeking military service, carried their 
 jambitions beyond the red line of the British frontier, 
 and offered their swords to the Princes of the Native 
 States. 
 
 But in those lower strata there were elementary 
 diversities of which in England we know nothing. 
 The lower orders amongst us are simply the lower 
 orders — all standino- too;ether on a common level 
 of social equality ; we recognise no distinctions 
 among them except in respect of the callings which 
 they follow. Thus one common soldier differs only 
 from another common soldier in the height of his 
 stature, or the breadth of his shoulders, or the steadi- 
 ness of his drill. But in India the great institution 
 
 Caste. of Caste — at once the most exclusive and the most 
 levelling system in the world — may clothe the filthiest, 
 feeblest mendicant with all the dignities and powers 
 of the proudest lord. So, in our native armj^, a 
 i Sepoy was not merely a Sepoy. He might be a Brah- 
 min, or he might be a Pariah ; and though they 
 might stand beside each other shoulder to shoulder, 
 foot to foot, on the parade-ground, there was as Avide 
 a gulf between them in the Lines, as in our own 
 country yawns between a dustman and a duke. 
 I In the Bengal Army the Sepoys were chiefly of 
 I high Caste. Deriving its name from the country in 
 which it was first raised, not from the people com- 
 posing it, it was recruited in the first instance from 
 among the floating population Avhich the Mahomedan 
 conquest had brought from the northern provinces — 
 from Rohilcund, from Oud(^ from the country be- 
 
CASTE IN THE ARMY. 216 
 
 tween the two rivers ; men of migratory habits, and 178l-9a 
 martial instincts, and sturdy frames, differing in ail 
 respects, mind and body, from the timid, feeble deni- 
 zens of Bengal. The Jat, the Rajpoot, and thel 
 priestly Brahmin, took service, with the Patan, under I 
 the great white chief, who had humbled the pride of i 
 Soorajah Dowlah. And as time advanced, and the 
 little local militia swelled into the bulk of a magnifi- 
 cent army, the aristocratic element was still dominant 
 in the Bengal Army. But the native troops off/ 
 Madras and Bombay were made up from more mixed / 
 and less dainty materials. There were men in the 
 ranks of those armies of all nations and of all castes, 
 and the more exclusive soon ceased from their exclu- 
 siveness, doins; thino;s which their brethren in the 
 Bengal Army shrunk from doings and solacing their 
 pride with the reflection that it was the " custom of 
 the country." Each system had its advocates. The 
 Bengal Sepoy, to the outward eye, w^as the finest 
 soldier; tallest, best-formed, and of the noblest pre- 
 sence. But he Avas less docile and serviceable than , 
 the Sepoy of the Southern and the Western Armies. | "^ 
 In the right mood there was no better soldier in the 
 world, but he was not always in the right mood ; and 
 the humours which he displayed were ever a source 
 of trouble to his commanders, and sometimes of dan- 
 ger to the State. 
 
 In an army so constituted, the transfer of all sub- The Sepo^ 
 stantive authority to a handful of alien officers ^®^^^* 
 might have been followed by a fatal collapse of the 
 whole system, but for one fortunate circumstance, 
 which sustained its vitality. The officers appointed 
 to command the Sepoy battalions were picked men ; 
 men chosen from the European regiments, not merely 
 as good soldiers, skilled in their professional duties. 
 
214 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 lYSJ-se. but as gentlemen of sound judgment and good 
 temper, acquainted with the languages and the 
 habits of the people of the country, and prone to 
 respect the prejudices of the soldiery. The command 
 of a native battalion was one of the highest objects 
 of ambition. It conferred large powers and often 
 great wealth upon the Sepoy officer ; and though 
 the system was one pregnant with abuses, which 
 we see clearly in these days, it contained that 
 great principle of cohesion which attached the Eng- 
 lish officer and the native soldier to each other — 
 cohesion, which the refinements of a later civilisation 
 were doomed rapidly to dissolve. 
 
 1700. It lasted out the century, but scarcely survived it.* 
 
 The English Sepoy- officer having become a great 
 substantive fact, not a mere excrescence upon the 
 general body of the English Army, it became ne- 
 cessary to define his position. He had many great 
 advantages, but he had not rank; and the Com- 
 pany's officer found himself continually superseded by 
 younger men in the King's army. Very reasonably, 
 if not always very temperately, he began then to 
 assert his rights ; and the result was an entire reor- 
 
 * That the national basis, which command of this party," says the 
 had originally distinguished the biographer, " went Ensign John 
 foundation of the Madras Army, did Malcolm. This was his first service ; 
 not very long survive the establish- and it was long remembered by 
 ment of the reformed system of Ben- others than the youthful hero liim- 
 gal, and that the native officers soon self. Wlien the detachment met the 
 lost the power and the dignity in prisoners' escort, a bright-faced, 
 which they had once rejoiced, may healthy English boy was seen by the 
 be gathered from an early incident in latter riding up to them on a rough 
 the Life of Sir John Malcolm. It pony. Dallas asked him after his 
 was in 1784, when an exchange of commanding officer. */am the corn- 
 prisoners with Tippoo had been ne- mandiug officer,' said young Mal- 
 gotiated, that a detachment of two colm." As Malcolm was born in 
 companies of Sepoys was sent out 1709, he must at this time have been 
 from our side of the Mysore frontier a boy of fifteen; yet he commanded 
 to meet the escort under Major a detachment of two companies of 
 Dallas conveying the English pri- Sepoys, and all the eld native officers 
 soners from Seringapatam. '* In attached to them. 
 
THE EEORGANISATION OF 1796. 215 
 
 ganisation of the Company's army, which greatly im- 1796 
 proved the status of its old officers and opened a door 
 for the employment of a large number of others. By the 
 regulations then framed, two battalions of Sepoys were 
 formed into one regiment, to which the same number 
 of officers were posted as to a regiment in the King's 
 army, and all took rank according to the date of 
 their commissions. It was believed that the increased 
 number of European officers would add to the effi- 
 ciency of the Native Army. But it was admitted, 
 even by those who had been most active in working 
 out the new scheme, that it did not develop all the 
 good results with which it was believed to be laden. 
 The little authority, the little dignity, which still 
 clung to the position of the native officers was then 
 altogether effaced by this new incursion of English 
 gentlemen ;* and the discontent, which had been 
 groAving up in the minds of the soldiery, began then 
 to bear bitter fruit. 
 
 But this was not all. The new regulations, which 
 so greatly improved the position of the Company's 
 officers, and in no respect more than in that of the 
 pensions which they were then permitted to enjoy, 
 held out great inducements to the older officers of the 
 Company's army to retire from active service, and to 
 spend the remainder of their days at home. ]\Iany of 
 the old commandants then prepared to leave the bat- 
 talions over which they had so long exercised paternal 
 authority, and to give up their places to stran- 
 gers. Not only was there a change of men, but a 
 change also of system. The English officer rose by 
 seniority to command. The principle of selection 
 
 * It was alleged to be an advan- would obviate the necessity of ever 
 lage of the new system that the m- sending out a detachment under 
 creased number of English officers native command. 
 
216 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 1796 was abandoned. And men, who could scarcely call 
 for a glass of water in the language of the countiy, or 
 define the difference between a Hindoo and a Ma- 
 homedan, found themselves invested with responsi- 
 bilities which ought to have devolved only on men of 
 large local experience and approved good judgment 
 and temper. 
 riie Mysore But the evil results of the change were not imme- 
 \l^ars!'''"''^^^ diately apparent. The last years of the eighteenth, and 
 the first years of the nineteenth century were years of 
 active Indian warfare. In the Mysore and in the Mah- 
 ratta countries the Sepoy had constant work, under 
 irreat <renerals whom he honoured and trusted : he 
 had strong faith in the destiny of the Company ; and 
 his pride was flattered by a succession of brilliant 
 victories. But it is after such wars as those of Harris, 
 Lake, and Wellesley, when a season of stagnation 
 succeeds a protracted period of excitement, that the 
 discipline of an army, whether in the East or in the 
 West, is subjected to its severest trials. All the 
 physical and moral properties which have so long 
 sustained it in high health and perfect efficiency then 
 seem to collapse; and the soldier, nerveless and 
 languid, readily succumbs to the deteriorating in- 
 fluences by which he is surrounded. And so it 
 w^as with the Sepoy after those exhausting wars. He 
 was in the state which, of all others, is most suscep- 
 tible of deleterious impressions. And, unhappily, 
 there was one especial source of annoyance and alarm 
 to irritate and disquiet him in the hour of peace. 
 Amidst the stern realities of active warfare, the Euro- 
 pean officer abjures the pedantries of the drill-sergeant 
 and the fopperies of the regimental tailor. He has no 
 time for small things ; no heart for trifles. It is 
 enough for him that his men are in a condition to 
 
DRESS AND DRILL. 217 
 
 fight battles and to win them. But in Peace he 1805. 
 sometimes shrivels into an Arbiter of Drill and Dress, 
 and worries in time the best of soldiers into malcon- 
 tents and mutineers. 
 
 And so it was that, after the fierce excitement of 
 the Mysore and Mahratta wars, there arose among our 
 English officers an ardour for military improvement ; 
 and the Sepoy, who had endured for years, without a 
 murmur, all kinds of hardships and privations, under 
 canvas and on the line of march, felt that life was less 
 endurable in cantonments than it had been in the 
 field, and was continually disturbing himself, in his 
 matted hut, about the new things that were being 
 forced upon him. All sorts of novelties were bristling 
 up in his path. He was to be drilled after a new 
 English fashion. He was to be dressed after a 
 new English fashion. He was to be shaved after . 
 a new English fashion. He was not smart enough 
 for the Martinets who had taken him in hand to 
 polish him up into an English soldier. They were 
 stripping him, indeed, of his distinctive Oriental cha- 
 racter ; and it was not long before he began to see in 
 these efibrts to Anglicise him something more than ' 
 the vexatious innovations and crude experiments of 
 European military reform. 
 
 To these annoyances and vexations the Madras Mutiny of 
 Army were especially subjected. Composed as were its ^^^^/^^ 
 battalions of men of different castes, and not in any 
 way governed by caste principles, they were held to be 
 peculiarly accessible to innovation; and, little by 
 little, all the old outward characteristics of the native 
 soldier were effaced, and new things, upon the most 
 approved European pattern, substituted in their place. 
 
218 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 1805-G. At last the Sepoy, forbidden to wear the distinguish- 
 ' ing marks of Caste on his forehead, stripped of his 
 
 - i ear-rings, to which, by ties ahke of vanity and super- 
 stition, he was fondly attached,* and ordered to shave 
 himself according to a regulation cut,f was put into 
 a stiif round hat, like a Pariah drummer's, with a flat 
 top, a leather cockade, and a standing feather. It was 
 no longer called a " turband ;" it was a hat or cap ; in 
 the language of the natives, a topi ; and a to^i-wallah^ 
 or hat-wearer, was in their phraseology a synonym 
 for a Feringhee or Christian. 
 
 The Sepoy is not logical, but he is credulous and 
 ' suspicious. It was not difficult to persuade him that 
 there were hidden meanino;s and occult desio^ns in all 
 this assimilation of the native soldier's dress to that of 
 the European fighting-man. The new hat was not 
 merely an emblem of Christianity, and therefore 
 possessed of a grave moral significance, but materially, 
 also, it was discovered to be an abomination. It Avas 
 ^ made in part of leather prepared from the skin of the 
 
 ^ ! unclean hog, or of the sacred cow, and was, therefore, 
 an ofience and a desecration alike to Mahomedan and 
 Hindoo. The former had no distinguishing marks of 
 caste to be rubbed ofi* on parade with a dirty stick, but 
 he venerated his beard and his ear-rings, and, under 
 the force of contact and example, he had developed 
 many strong generic resemblances to the caste- 
 observing Hindoo. The Mahomedan of India differs 
 
 * By the Mahomedan Sepoy the wear ear-rings when dressed in his 
 
 ear-ring was often worn as a charm, uniform; and it is further directed. 
 
 It was given to him at his birth, and tliat at all parades, and on all duties, 
 
 dedicated to some patron saint. every soldier of the battalion shall 
 
 f See the following, Para. 10, be clean-shaved on the chin. It is 
 
 Sec. 11, Standing Orders of Madras directed, also, that uniformity shall, 
 
 Army : " It is ordered by the Eegu- as far as is practicable, be preserved 
 
 lalions that a native soldier shall not in regard to the quantity and shape 
 
 mark iiis face to denote iiis caste, or of the hair on the upper lip." 
 
THE HINDOOISED MAHOMEDAN. 219 
 
 greatly in liis habits and his feelings from the Ma- 1306. 
 homedan of Central Asia or Arabia; he accommo- 
 dates himselfj in some sort, to the usages of the 
 country, and being thus readily acclimatised, he 
 strikes strong root in the soil. Christianity does not 
 differ more than Mahomedanism, doctrinally or ethi- 
 cally, from the religion of the Hindoos; but in 
 the one case there may be social fusion, in the 
 other it is impossible. Even in the former instance, 
 the fusion is imperfect, and there is in this partial 
 assimilation of races one of the chief elements of our 
 security in India. But the security derived from this 
 source is also imperfect ; and circumstances may at 
 any time, by an unfortunate coincidence, appeal to 
 the ethnical resemblances and the common instincts 
 of different nationalities, in such a manner as to excite 
 in both the same fears and to raise the same aspira- 
 tions, and so to cause all diversities to be for a time 
 forgotten. And such a coincidence appears now to 
 have arisen. Different races, moved by the sense of 
 a common danger, and roused by a common hope, 
 forgot their differences, and combined against a 
 common foe. 
 
 And so it happened that in the spring of 1806, the 
 Hindoo and Mahomedan Sepoy in the Southern 
 Peninsula of India were talking together, like caste- 
 brothers, about their grievances, and weaving plots 
 for their deliverance. It is partly by accident, partly 
 by design, that such plots ripen in the spring. By 
 accident, because relieved from cold- weather exercises, 
 parades, field-days, and inspections, the soldier has 
 more leisure to ruminate his wrongs, and more time 
 to discuss them. By design, because the coming heats 
 and rains paralyse the activities of the white man, and 
 are great gain to the native mutineer. In April and 
 
220 THE SEPOr ARMY — ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 JS06, May the English officer sees little of his men; his 
 visits to the Lines are few ; few are his appearance on 
 parade. He is languid and prostrate. The morning 
 and evening ride are as much as his energies can 
 compass. The Sepoy then, disencumbered of dress 
 and dismissed from drill, can afford to snatch some 
 hours from sleep to listen to any strange stories, told 
 by wandering mendicants, with the odour of sanctified 
 filth about them, and to discuss the most incredible 
 fables with all the gravity of settled belief There is 
 always more or less of this vain talk. It amuses the 
 Sepoy and for a while excites him with a visionary 
 prospect of higher rank and better pay, under some 
 new dispensation. But he is commonly content to 
 regard this promised time as a far-oif Hegira, and, as 
 he turns himself round on his charpoy for another 
 nap, he philosophically resolves in the mean while to 
 eat the Company's salt in peace, and to wait God's 
 pleasure in quietude and patience. 
 
 But there was at this time something more to excite 
 the imagination of the Sepoy in Southern India than 
 the ordinary vain talk of the Bazaars and the Lines. 
 The travelling fakeers were more busy with their in- 
 ventions ; the rumours which they carried from place 
 to place were more ominous ; the prophecies which 
 ,they recited were more significant of speedy fulfilment. 
 There was more point in the grotesque performances 
 of the puppet-shows — more meaning in the rude 
 ballads which were sung and the scraps of verse 
 which were cited. Strange writings were dropped by 
 unseen hands, and strange placards posted on the 
 walls. At all the large military stations in the 
 Carnatic and in the Deccan there was an uneasy feel- 
 ing as of something coming. There were manifold 
 si^-iis which seemed to indicate that the time to strike 
 
GRIEVANCES OF THE SEPOYS. 221 
 
 had arrived, and so the Sepoy began to take stock of 1806. 
 his grievances and to set before him all the benefits of 
 change. 
 
 The complaints of the Sepoy were many. If he 
 were to pass his whole life in the Company's service -J 
 and do what he might, he could not rise higher than 
 the rank of Soubahdar ; there had been times when 
 distinguished native soldiers had been appointed to 
 high and lucrative commands, and had faithfully done 
 their duty ; but those times had passed, and, instead of 
 being exalted, native officers were habitually degraded. 
 A Sepoy on duty always presented or carried arms to 
 an English officer, but an English soldier suffered a 
 native officer to pass by without a salute. Even an 
 English Sergeant commanded native officers of the 
 highest rank. On parade, the English officers made 
 mistakes, used the wrong words of command, then 
 threw the blame upon the Sepoys and reviled them. 
 Even native officers, who had grown grey in the 
 service, were publicly abused by European striplings. 
 On the line of march the native officers were com- 
 pelled to live in the same tents with the common 
 Sepoys, and had not, as in the armies of native 
 potentates, elephants or palanquins assigned to them 
 for their conveyance, how great soever the distance 
 which they were obliged to traverse. And if they rode 
 horses or ponies, purchased from their savings, the 
 English officer fro^vned at them as upstarts. ^'The 
 Sepoys of the Nizam and the Mahratta chiefs," they 
 said, " are better off than our Soubahdars and 
 Jemidars." Then it was urged that the Company's 
 officers took the Sepoys vast distances from their 
 homes, where they died in strange places, and that 
 their wives and children were left to beg their bread ; 
 that native Princes, when they conquered new 
 
222. THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 1.8C6 countries, gave grants of lands to distinguished 
 soldiers, but that the Company only gave them sweet 
 words ; that the concubines of the English gentlemen 
 were better paid than the native officers, and their 
 grooms and grass-cutters better than the native 
 soldiers ; that the English officers could import into 
 their Zenanas the most beautiful women in the 
 country, whilst the natives hardly dared look at the 
 slave-girls; and, to crown all, it was declared that 
 / / General Arthur Wellesley had ordered his wounded 
 Sepoys to be mercilessly shot to death. 
 
 Preposterous as v^cre some of the fables with which 
 this bill of indictment was crusted over, there was 
 doubtless beneath it a large substratum of truth. 
 But the alleged grievances were, for the most part, 
 chronic ailments which the Sepoy had been long 
 enduring, and miglit have endured still longer, pa- 
 tiently and silently, had they not culminated in 
 the great outrage of the round hat, with its auxiliary 
 vexations of the shorn beard, the effaced caste-marks, 
 and the despoiled ear-rings. Then, it was not diffi- 
 cult to teach him that this aggregation of wrongs 
 had become intolerable, and that the time had 
 come for him to strike a blow in defence of his 
 rio'hts. And the teacher was not far distant. The 
 great Mahomedan usurpation of Mysore had been 
 overthrown, but the representatives of the usurper 
 were still in the country. The family of the slain 
 Sultan were living in the fort of Vellore, as the 
 clients rather than the captives of the English, with 
 abundant wealth at their command, and a numerous 
 body of Mussulman attendants. But generous as 
 was the treatment they had received, and utterly at 
 variance with their own manner of dealing Avith 
 fallen enemies, they had not ceased to bewail the 
 
THE MYSORE PRINCES. 223 
 
 loss of the sovereign power whicli had passed from 1S0(5, 
 their House, or to hate the conquerors who had 
 unkinged them. In the luxurious idleness of Vel- 
 lore they dreamed of the recovery of their lost 
 empire. There was but one way to the attainment 
 of that cherished object, and that way was through 
 the corruption of the Sepoy. The time was pro- 
 pitious, and the work commenced. 
 
 It ought not to have been easy work, but so it 
 was. If there had been relations of confidence be- 
 tween the English officer and the native soldier, the 
 corruption of the latter would have been a task of 
 sore difficulty and danger ; but those relations were 
 not what they had been a few years before. It was 
 not that the officers themselves had deteriorated, but 
 that a new system had been introduced, which, greatly 
 improving their state and prospects, and, it may be 
 said, permanently increasing their efficiency as a 
 body, still caused some temporary relaxation of the 
 ties which bound them to the soldiery of the country. 
 The new regulations of 1796, it has been said, opened 
 out to the elder generation of officers a door by which 
 they might retire on advantageous terms from the 
 service. Some took their pensions at once ; but a 
 period of active warfare supervened, and many 
 veteran officers waited for the restoration of peace 
 to take advantage of the boon that was offisred. 
 They went ; and a new race of men, young and inex- 
 perienced, took their places. And so, for a time, the 
 Sepoy did not know his officer, nor the officer his 
 men ; they met almost as strangers on parade, and 
 there was little or no communion between them. It 
 was a transition-period of most untoward occurrence, 
 when so many other adverse influences were destroy- 
 ing the discipline of the army ; and, therefore, again 
 
224 THE SEPOY ARI^IY— ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 1805. I saj tlie hour was propitious, and the work of cor- 
 ruption commenced. 
 May 7, At the end of the first week of May, as Adjut;ant- 
 
 tiieliuiiny. General Agnew was rising from his work, in the 
 white heat of Fort St. George, there came tidings to 
 his office of general disaffection among the native 
 troops at Vellore. One battalion, at least, already had 
 broken into open mutiny. The chief of the Madras 
 army, Sir John Cradock, had retired for the even- 
 ing to his garden-house in the pleasant suburbs of 
 Madras, so Agnew drove out to see him with the im- 
 portant missive in his hand. A few days afterwards, 
 Cradock was posting to Vellore. Arrived there, he 
 found that there had been no exaggeration in the 
 reports which had been furnished to him, but that 
 more judicious treatment at the outset might have 
 allayed the excitement among the troops, and re- 
 stored the confidence of the Sepoy. So said a Court 
 of Inquiry ; so said the Commander-in-Chief. A 
 gentle sudorific, almost insensibly expelling the pent- 
 up humours, may suffice at the beginning, though 
 only much blood-letting can cure at the end. But 
 ailments of this kind, in the military body, seldom 
 reveal themselves in their full significance until the 
 time for gentle treatment is past. When Cradock 
 went to Vellore no mere explanations could repair 
 the mischief that had been done. The mutinous 
 troops were sent down to the Presidency, and others 
 substituted for them. Military discipline was vindi- 
 cated for the time by a court-martial, and two of the 
 ringleaders were sentenced to be — flogged. But the 
 infection still clung to Vellore. The whole native 
 garrison was tainted and corrupted. 
 
 Nor was it a mere local epidemic. At other military 
 stations in the Carnatic there was similar excitement. 
 
IXCAUTION OF GOVERNMENT. 225 
 
 Midnislil' nieetiTio:s were Leino; held in the Lines: ^^^ 
 oaths of secresy were being administered to the 
 Sepoys ; threats of the most terrible vengeance were 
 fulminated against any one daring to betray them. 
 The native officers took the lead, the men followed, 
 some roused to feelings of resentment, others huddling 
 together like sheep, under the influence of a vague 
 fear. In the bungalows of the English captains there 
 was but small knowledge of what was passing in the 
 Sepoys' Lines, and if there had been more, discretion 
 would probably have whispered that in such a case 
 " silence is gold." For when in the high places of 
 Government there is a general disinclination to believe 
 in the existence of danger, it is scarcely safe for men 
 of lowlier station to say or to do anything indicating 
 suspicion and alarm. 
 
 At Vellore, after the first immature demonstration, 
 there was a lull ; and the quietude had just the effect 
 that it was intended to have ; it disarmed the sus- 
 picion and suspended the vigilance of the English. 
 The most obvious precautions were neglected. Even 
 the significant fact that the first open manifestation 
 of disaffection had appeared under the shadow of the 
 asylum of the Mysore Princes, had not suggested any 
 special associations, or indicated the direction in which 
 the watchful eye of the British Government should 
 be turned. Nothing was done to strengthen the Eu- 
 ropean garrison of Yellore.* No pains were taken 
 to cut off the perilous intercourse which existed be- 
 
 * " That neither the Government Princes. No precautions seem to 
 
 nor the Commander-in-Chief enter- have been taken within the Eort, and 
 
 tained any serious apprehensions notwitlistanding the discontent ma- 
 
 from the agitation having first oc- nifested by the native troops, the 
 
 curred at Vellore, is obvious. Tlie garrison was still left with only four 
 
 battalion that most opposed the in- companies of Europeans." — Barr^ 
 
 nj^Ation was, indeed, ordered to Close to John Malcolm. Poonah, 
 
 Madras, but nothing was directed Aug. 12, 1806. MS. Correspondeme^ 
 indicative cf any jealousy of the 
 
226 THE SErOY APv^IY — ITS RISE AND PROGRE'SS. 
 
 1806. tween the native soldiery and the occupants of the 
 Palace. So the latter went about the Fort jeering 
 the Sepoys, and telling them that they would soon 
 be made Christians to a man. The different parts 
 of their uniform were curiously examined, amidst 
 shrugs and other expressive gestures, and significant 
 ^'Wah-wahs!" and vague hints that everything 
 about them in some way portended Christianity. 
 They looked at the Sepoy's stock, and said, "^'What 
 is this? It is leather! Well!" Then they would 
 look at his belt, and tell him that it made a cross 
 on his breast, and at the little implements of his 
 calling, the turnscrew and worm, suspended from it, 
 and say that they also were designed to fi:K the Chris- 
 tian's cross upon his person. But it was the round 
 hat that most of all was the object of the taunts and 
 warnings of the people from the Palace. " It only 
 needed this," they said, " to make you altogether a 
 Feringhee. Take care, or we shall soon all be made 
 Christians — Bazaar-people, Ryots, every one will be 
 compelled to wear the hat ; and then the whole 
 country will be ruined." Within the Fort, and out- 
 side the Fort, men of all kinds were talking about the 
 forcible conversion to Christianity which threatened 
 them ; and everywhere the round hat was spoken of 
 as the instrument by which the Caste of the Hindoo 
 was to be destroyed, and the faith of the Mussulman 
 desecrated and demolished. 
 
 But all this was little known to the officers of the 
 Vellore garrison, or, if known, was little heeded. So 
 unwilling, indeed, were they to believe that any 
 danger was brewing, that a Sepoy who told his 
 English officer that the regiments were on the eve of 
 revolt was put in irons as a madman. The native 
 officers declared that he deserved condign punish- 
 
OUTBREAK OF MUTINY. 227 
 
 merit for blackening the faces of his corps, and they IS05. 
 were readily believed. But the time soon came 
 when the prophecy of evil was verified, and the pro- 
 phet was exalted and rewarded. Deeply implicated as 
 he was said to be in the plot — a traitor first to the 
 English, and then to his own people — his name be- 
 came an offence and an abomination to the Army, 
 and the favour shown to him a source of the bitterest 
 resentment. "The disposition of the gentlemen of 
 the Company's service," they said, " and the nature 
 of their government, make a thief happy, and an 
 honest man afflicted."* 
 
 On the 10th of July the mine suddenly exploded. jY°^^'tc;o- 
 It was remembered afterwards that on the preceding 
 afternoon an unusual number of people had passed 
 into the Fort, some mounted and some on foot, 
 seemingly on no especial business ; all with an inso- 
 lent, braggart air, laughing and rollicking, making 
 mimic battle among themselves, and otherwise ex- 
 pressing a general expectancy of something coming. 
 It was remembered, too, that on that evening there 
 had been more than the common tendency of the 
 times to speak abusively of the English. The Adjutant 
 of a Sepoy regiment had been called, to his face, 
 by the vilest term of reproach contained in the lan- 
 guage of the country.! But it has been doubted 
 whether the day and hour of the outburst were those 
 fixed for the development of the plot. The con- 
 
 * From a paper in Tliiidostanee, dar. Tlie same ]\Iustapha Be^^, Sepoy, 
 
 transmitted to Adjutant-General Ag- was the man who gave the signal for 
 
 new from the Hyderabad Subsidiary revolt to the people at Vellore, and 
 
 Force : " In the affair at Vellore/' this is the man whom the Company 
 
 said the Sepoys, " when the mutiny have distinguished by their favour." 
 first commenced, it was on account f Unhappily it is one of the first 
 
 of Mustapha Beg ; and the gentle- words which the Englishman in 
 
 men of the Company's Government India learns to speak, and by which 
 
 liave bestowed upon him a revvard of many young officers, when displeased, 
 
 two thousand pagodas from the pub- habitually call their native servants, 
 lie treasury, with the rank of Soubali- 
 
 q2 
 
228 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 1S06. spirators, it is said, were not ripe for action. Two or 
 three days later, the first blow was to have been 
 struck, but that a Jemadar, inflamed with strong 
 drink, could not control the passionate haste within 
 him, and he precipitated the collision which it was the 
 policy of his party to defer.* Numbers thus suddenly 
 roused to action were unprepared to play their parts ; 
 and letters which had been written to disaffected 
 polygars and others in Mysore had not yet been de- 
 spatched. It was confidently believed that in a few 
 days ten thousand faithful adherents of the House of 
 Hyder would rally round the standard of the Mussul- 
 man Princes. All that was required of the Sepoys 
 was, that they should hold Vellore for a week. At 
 the end of that time it Avas believed that the whole 
 country would be in the hands of the insurgents. 
 The European garrison of Vellore, at this time, 
 His Majesty's consisted only of four companies of a Line regiment. 
 ^^ • To fall suddenly, in the dead of the night, on all who 
 
 might hapjoen to be on guard, to overpower them by 
 numbers, and then to murder the rest in their beds, 
 was apparently an easy task. Two hours after mid- 
 night the work commenced. The sentries were shot 
 down. The soldiers on main guard were killed as 
 they lay on their cots, and the white men in the 
 
 * In the private correspondence ing the native guard fell sick, that 
 
 of the time, it is stated that the day the Soubaiidar was also indisposed, 
 
 fixed for the outbreak was the 14tli. and that Jemadar Cossim Khan, one 
 
 It appeared, however, in the evi- of the most active of tlie mutineer?., 
 
 dence of the first Committee of In- was eager to go the grand rounds ; 
 
 quiry assembled at Vellore, that it and it is possible that this accident 
 
 was agreed that the first blow should helped to precipitate the crisis. On 
 
 be struck fifteen days after the the other hand, it is to be observed 
 
 Mysore standard, prepared in the that Major Armstrong, who had been 
 
 Palace, was ready to be hoisted, and absent from Vellore, and who re- 
 
 that thirteen days had then passed, turned on the night of the 10th, was 
 
 The story of the drunken Jemadar warned by people outside the Fort 
 
 appears in Madras Secret Letter, not to enter, as something was about 
 
 Sept. 30, 1S06. It happened, too, to happen, 
 tiiat the European ofiicer command- 
 
THE MASSACRE OF VELLOUE. 229 
 
 hospital AYeie ruthlessly butch erexl. There was then 1SC6. 
 a scene of unexampled confusion. Roused from their 
 beds by the unaccustomed sound of firing in tlie Fort, 
 the English officers went out to learn the cause of the 
 commotion, and many of them were shot down by the 
 mutineers in the first bewilderment of surprise. The 
 two senior officers of the garrison were among the 
 first who fell. On the threshold of his house, Fan- 
 court, who commanded the garrison, was warned, for 
 dear life's sake, not to come out, but answering with 
 the Englishman's favourite formula of '^ Never mind," 
 he made for the Main Guard, and was shot with the 
 ^' Fall in !" on his lips. Of the survivors two or 
 three made their Avay to the barracks, and took com- 
 mand of such of the Europeans as had escaped the 
 first murderous onslaught of the Sepoys. But it was 
 little that the most desperate resolution could do in 
 this extremity to stem the continually increasing tide 
 of furious hostility which threatened to overwhelm 
 them. It was no mere military revolt. The inmates 
 of the Palace were fraternising with the Sepoys. From 
 the apartments of the Princes went forth food to re- 
 fresh the weary bodies of the insurgents, and vast 
 promises to stimulate and sustain the energies of their 
 minds. One of the Princes, the third son of Tippoo, I*i'i"ce llolh^ 
 personally encouraged the leaders of the revolt. With 
 his own hands he erave them the sio-nificant bhetal-nut. 
 With his own lips he proclaimed the rewards to be 
 lavished upon the restorers of the Mahomedan dynasty. 
 And from his apartments a confidential servant was 
 seen to bring the tiger-striped standard of Mysore, 
 which, amidst vociferous cries of " Dheen I Dheen !" 
 was hoisted above the walls of the Palace. But the 
 family of the Sultan were soon forgotten. There was 
 no combination to aid their escape. The Sepoys at 
 
230 
 
 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 iSOG. iirst gave themselves up to the work of massacre. The 
 people from the Palace, following in their wake, 
 gorged themselves with the plunder of the white men, 
 and aided the mutineers without sharing their danger. 
 After a time the Sepoys betook themselves also to 
 plunder ; and the common object was forgotten under 
 the excitement of personal greed. The white women 
 in the Fort were spared. The tender mercies of the 
 wicked, with a refined cruelty, preserved them for a 
 worse fate than death. The people from the Palace 
 told the Sepoys not to kill them, as all the English 
 would be destroyed, and the Moormen might then 
 take them for wives.* 
 
 But whilst these terrible scenes were being en- 
 acted, and the sons of Tippoo were swelling with 
 the proud certainty of seeing the rule of the Sultan 
 again established in Mysore, retribution swift and 
 M ]or Coals, certain was overtaking the enterprise. An officer of 
 the English regiment, who happened to be on duty 
 outside the Fort, heard the firing, thoroughly appre- 
 hended the crisis, and, through the darkness of the 
 early morning, made his way to Arcot, to carry 
 thither the tidings of insurrection, and to summon 
 succours to the aid of the imperilled garrison. There 
 was a reo;iment of British Drao:oons at Arcot, under 
 the command of Colonel Gillespie. By seven o'clock 
 Coats had told his story. Fifteen minutes afterwards, 
 Gillespie, with a squadron of his regiment, was on his 
 way to Yellore. The rest were saddling and mount- 
 ing; the galloper-guns w^ere being horsed and lim- 
 bered ; and a squadron of Native Cavalry was re- 
 sponding to the trumpet-call with as much alacrity 
 
 The lOtli 
 Dia":oons. 
 
 * The massacre included fourteen ral officers and men grounded, some 
 officers and ninety - nine soldiers of the latter mortally, 
 killed. There were, moreover, seve- 
 
SUCCOURS FROM ARCOT. 231 
 
 as the Britisli Dragoons. The saving virtues of 18C0. 
 promptitude and preparation were never more con- 
 spicuously manifested. A little vacillation, a little 
 blundering, a little delay, the result of nothing being 
 ready when wanted, and all might have been lost. 
 Never had the sage precept of Hyder Ali, that the 
 English should keep their white soldiers like hunting- 
 leopards in cages, and slip them suddenly and fiercely 
 at the enemy, been wrought into practice with more 
 terrible effect, than now against the followers and 
 supporters of his descendants. 
 
 Once under the walls of Vellore, Gillespie was 
 eager to make his way into the Fort, that he might 
 rally the remnant of the European garrison and 
 secure the safe admission of his men. The outer 
 gates were open, but the last was closed, and in pos- 
 session of the enemy. There was no hope of forcing 
 it without the aid of the guns. But these were now 
 rapidly approaching. There were good officers with 
 the relieving force, to whom the conduct of external 
 operations might be safely entrusted; and Gillespie 
 longed to find him.self with the people whom he had 
 come to save. So, whilst preparations were being 
 made for the attack, he determined to ascend alone 
 the walls of the Fort. In default of ladders, the men 
 of the 69th let down a rope, and, amidst the shouts 
 of the delighted Europeans, he was drawn up, un- 
 hurt, to the crest of the ramparts, and took command 
 of the survivors of the unhappy force. Quickly 
 forming at the word of command, they came down 
 eagerly to the charge, and, cheered by the welcome 
 sound of the guns, which were now clamouring for 
 admission, and not to be denied, they kept the muti- 
 neers at a distance till the gates were forced; and 
 then the cavalry streamed in, and victory was easy. ' 
 
232 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS RISE AND 
 
 isotr. The retribution was terrible, and just. Hundreds fell 
 beneath the sabres of the Dragoons and of the native 
 horsemen, who emulated the ardour of their European 
 comrades. Hundreds escaped over the walls of the 
 Fort, or threw down their arms and cried for mercy. 
 But the excited troopers, who had seen Tippoo's 
 tiger-standard floating over the citadel of Vellore, 
 could not, after that hot morning-ride, believe that 
 they had done their work until they had destroyed 
 the " cubs." They were eager to be led into the 
 Palace, and there to inflict condign punishment on 
 those whom they believed to be the real instigators 
 of the butchery of their countrymen. For a moment 
 there was a doubt in Gillespie's mind ; but an appeal 
 from Colonel Marriott, in whose charge was the 
 Mysore famil}'-, removed it; and he put forth a re- 
 straining hand. He would not soil his victory with 
 any cruel reprisals. The members of Tippoo's family 
 were now at his mercy, and the mercy which he 
 showed them was that which the Christian soldier 
 delights to rain down upon the fallen and the help- 
 less.* 
 
 * Eor all tlie facts given in tlie that Mnjor Coats, 'u-lio was bearer of 
 text, I liave the authority of a mass the news, w^as outside the Fort at the 
 of official, semi-official, and private time of the outbreak. It is very 
 contemporary correspondence, wliich generally stated, too, that when 
 I have very carefully collated. In Gillespie wished to enter the Eort in 
 doing so, 1 have been compelled to advance of his men, as there were no 
 reject some personal incidents which ladders and no ropes, the survivors 
 have hitherto generally formed part of tlie 69th fastened their belts to- 
 of the narrative of the " Massacre gether, and thus drew him up the 
 of Vellore," but which, however walls. But I have before me two 
 serviceable they may be for purposes letters, signed " U. Gillespie," which 
 ot effective historical writing, are, I state that lie w^as. drawn up by a 
 am sorry to say, at best apocryphal, rope. Among the fictitious inci- 
 It has been said that the officer who dents of the mutiny may be men- 
 carried the tidings to Arcot escaped tioned the whole of the stories which 
 through a sally-port, and swam the tell of the foul murder of English 
 ditch of the Port so famous for the women, and the braining of little 
 number and size of its alligators, children before their mothers' eyes. 
 Sober official correspondence states 
 
PROGRESS OF DISAFFECTION. 233 
 
 But tlie storm had not expended itself in this fierce 1806. 
 convulsion. Taught by so stern a lesson, the Go- 
 vernment resolved that ^' all orders which might be 
 liable to the objection of affecting the usages of the 
 troops," should be abandoned. But the obnoxious 
 hats might have been burnt before the eyes of the 
 troops, and the caste-marks and ear-rings restored on 
 parade, in the presence of the Governor, the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, and all the magnates of the land; 
 and still a return to quietude and contentment might 
 have been far distant. Individual causes of anger 
 and bitterness might be removed, but still there would 
 remain, together with the mistrust they had engen- 
 dered, all the vague anxieties on the one side, and the 
 indefinite expectations on the other, which designing 
 men had excited in the minds of the soldiery.* Re- 
 bellion had been crushed for a time at its Head- 
 Quarters. The British flag floated again over Vel- 
 lore ; but there were other strong posts, which it had 
 been intended to seize, and efforts might yet be made 
 to establish revolt in other parts of the Southern 
 Peninsula. 
 
 Nor was it only in Mysore and the Carnatic that Hyderabad, 
 the spirit of disaffection was rife. In the Deccan, 
 also, it was manifesting itself in a manner which, for 
 a while, created serious alarm. At Hyderabad, the 
 capital of the Nizam's dominions, there was a high 
 
 * " The subversion of the British unaccountable impression has been 
 Empire in India by foreign invasion made upon the Sepoys, which has 
 and domestic revolt, seems to have been fomented by prophecies and 
 been the common theme of discourse predictions inducing a belief tliat 
 all over the country, and opinions wonderful changes are about to take 
 have generally 'prevailed that such a place, and that the Europeans are to 
 revolution was neither an enterprise be expelled from India." — General 
 of great difficulty, nor that the ac- Hai/ Macdowall. Nundydroog, Oct, 
 complishment of it was far distant. 31. MS. Corresj^ondence. 
 A most extraordinary and 
 
234 THE SErOY ARMY — ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 ISC6. tide of excitement. It was apprehended that the 
 native troops of the Subsidiary Force, encouraged 
 and aided by some of the chief people of this Maho- 
 medan State, if not by the Nizam himself, would 
 break out into revolt. They were wrought upon by 
 nearly the same influences as had destroyed the 
 loyalty of the troops in Mysore, with some peculiar 
 aggravations of their own. A new commanding 
 Colorel Moii- officer had recently been placed over them — a smart 
 disciplinarian of the most approved European pattern. 
 They had been worried and alarmed before his ar- 
 rival. Montresor s appearance soon made matters 
 -worse. Knowing little or nothing of the habits and 
 feelings of the people of the country, he enforced 
 the new orders with more than common strictness, 
 and supplemented them with some obnoxious regula- 
 tions of his own. An order had been issued just 
 before his arrival forbidding the Sepoy to leave his 
 Guard and to divest himself of his uniform during 
 his period of duty ; and now the new English com- 
 mandant prohibited the beating of taum-taums in the 
 bazaars. It was not seen that these prohibitions were, 
 in effect, orders that the Hindoo Sepoy should take no 
 sustenance on duty, and that there should be no mar- 
 riage and no funeral processions. When the disco- 
 very was made, the new local regulations were re- 
 scinded ; but it wa-s not possible to rescind the mis- 
 chief that was done. There was a profound convic- 
 tion among the Sepoys that it was the intention of 
 jthe English to destroy their caste, to break down 
 V [their religion, and forcibly to convert them to Chris- 
 • tianity. And all through the long straggling lines of 
 Hyderabad there was a continual buzz of alarm, and 
 the Sepoys were asking each other if they had heard 
 
CONDUCT OF THE NIZAM. 235 
 
 liow the English General, Wemyss Sahib, at Colombo, j 1806. 
 had marched his native soldiers to Church.* j 
 
 That the feeling of mingled fear and resentment, 
 which had taken possession of the minds of the sol- 
 diery, was much fomented by emissaries from the 
 city of Hyderabad, is not to be doubted. Many lead- 
 ing men, discontented and desperate, at all times 
 prone to intrigue and ripe for rebellion, looked 
 eagerly for a crisis out of which might have come 
 some profit to themselves. It is probable that they 
 were in communication with dependents of the House 
 of Tippoo. It is certain that they fostered the re- 
 sentments and stimulated the ambition of the native 
 officers, and that a programme of action had been 
 agreed upon, of which murder and massacre Avere the 
 prelude.f But happily the Nizam and his minister, 
 Meer Allum — the cAie in word, the other in spirit — 
 were true to the English alliance. Wisely, in that 
 conjuncture, did Sydenham confide all his troubles 
 to them. It is a sad necessity to be compelled to 
 communicate to a native Prince the belief of the 
 English Government that their troops are not to be 
 trusted. But concealment in such a case is impos- 
 sible, and any attempt to disguise the truth helps 
 
 * "It is astonishing how strong that "the native troops had been 
 
 and how general the impression was invited to desert their colours, to 
 
 of a systematic desif:jn to enforce the break out in open mutiny, and to 
 
 conversion of the Sepoys to Chris- murder their officers. It was in- 
 
 tianity. The men here heard, and tended that a commotion should have 
 
 talked of the late arrival of some taken place in the city at the moment 
 
 clergymen from England, and of the of the insurrection in cantonments; 
 
 story of General Wemyss marching that Meer Allum, and all those in 
 
 the Sepoys to church at Colombo." — the interests of the English, were to 
 
 Captam Thomas Sydenham {Resident be destroyed; that the Soubahdar 
 
 at Hyderabad) to Mr. Edmonstoiie, (Nizam) was to be confined, and 
 
 July 27, 1806. MS. Correspondence. Eeridoom Jah either made Dewan or 
 
 f Captain Sydenham wrote that, placed on the musnud, as circuni- 
 
 from the best information he could stances might suggest." — MS. Cor- 
 
 obtain at Hyderabad, it appeared respondence. 
 
236 THE SEPOY AKMY — ITS EISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 180G. others to exao:frorate and to distort it. The Nizam 
 knew all that had been going on, perhaps before the 
 British Resident had even a suspicion of it. Eager 
 for his support, and willing to raise the standard of 
 revolt in his name, the conspirators had conveyed to 
 him a written paper signifying their wishes. He did 
 not answer it. He did not give it to the Resident. 
 He simply waited and did nothing. It was not in 
 the nature of the man to do more. He knew the 
 power of the English ; but he secretly hated them, 
 and naturally shrank from opposing or betraying a 
 cause which appealed to him in the name of his reli- 
 gion. Perhaps it is hardly fair to expect from a 
 native Prince, under such conflicting circumstances, 
 more than this negative support. 
 
 The feeling among the native troops was so strong, 
 the danger appeared to be so imminent, that Mon- 
 tresor was besought by some old Sepoy officers not 
 to enforce the obnoxious regulations. But he replied 
 that he had been selected for that especial command 
 as a fitting agent for their enforcement, and how could 
 he turn his back upon his duty ? But when tidings 
 of the massacre at Vellore reached Hyderabad, he 
 saw at once that concession must be made to the pre- 
 judices of the Sepoy, and the orders were revoked in 
 July 22,1S06. anticipation of instructions from the Madras Govern- 
 ment. Still the troops were not satisfied. Having 
 gained one victory they determined to attempt an- 
 other. So they fell back upon the old grievance of 
 the leather stock, and the men of some of the batta- 
 lions, encouraged by their native officers, were seen 
 disencumbering themselves of this article of their 
 imiform on parade, and casting it contemptuously on 
 the ground. A display of vigour at the right time 
 crushed the mutiny era it was matured. On the 
 
ALARM AT NUNDYDROOG. 237 
 
 14th of August, the troops at Hyderabad were or- 1806. 
 dered under arms. The English regiment was H.M.'s 33rd 
 posted near the park of artillery, and the cavalry ^Sin^ent. 
 were drawn up en potence on both flanks. Then four 
 Soubahdars of Native Infantry, Avho were believed to 
 be the ringleaders in the mutinous movement, were 
 called to the front and marched off under a guard of 
 thirty Europeans and a company of Sepoys. Under 
 this escort they were sent to Masulipatam. This 
 movement had the best possible effect both in the 
 cantonment and the city. Mutiny was awe-struck ; 
 sedition was paralysed ; conciliatory explanations 
 and addresses, which had before failed, were now 
 crowned with success, and early in the folloAving 
 month Sydenham wrote from Hyderabad that every- 
 thing was " perfectly tranquil, both in the city and 
 the cantonments." " The Sepoys," it added, " ap- 
 pear cheerful and contented, and the Government 
 goes on with considerable vigour and regularity." 
 
 But ere long the anxieties of the Government 
 again turned towards the old quarter. It was clear 
 that, in the former domains of thcv Sultan, the fire, 
 though suppressed for a time, had not been extin- 
 guished. At Nundydroog, in the heart of the Nundjdroog 
 Mysore territory, there had been symptoms of un- 
 easiness from the commencement of the year. The 
 native troops were few ; but the fortress, built upon 
 a high scarped rock, was one of uncommon strength, 
 and, well defended, might have defied attack. In 
 itself, therefore, a coveted possession for the rebel 
 force, it was rendered doubly important by its 
 position. For it was within a night's march of 
 the great station of Bangalore, and the mutineers 
 from that post would have flocked to it as a 
 rallying-point and a stronghold, admirably suited 
 
238 THE SEPOY ARMY— ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 1806. for the Head- Quarters of Rebellion." The influences, 
 therefore, of which I have spoken — the fakeers, the 
 conjurors, the puppet-showmen, the propagators of 
 strange prophecies — were more than commonly opera- 
 tive in that direction, and had success attended the 
 iirst outbreak at Vellore, the Nundydroog garrison 
 would then have turned upon their officers, hoisted 
 the rebel flag on the walls of the Fort, and displa}'ed 
 signals which might have been seen at Bangalore. 
 But a season of suspended activity naturally followed 
 this failure ; and it was not until the month of Oc- 
 tober that they ventured to resolve on any open 
 demonstration. Then the Mahomedan and Hindoo 
 Sepoys feasted together, bound themselves by solemn 
 eno-aofements to act as brethren in a common cause, 
 and swore that they vv^ould rise against and massacre 
 their English officei's. 
 
 ^^^fi"^^' The day and the hour of the butchery were fixed. 
 The native soldiery had quietly sent their families out 
 of the Fort, and otherwise prepared for the struggle.f 
 Two hours before midnight on the 18th of October 
 the Sepoys were to have rushed upon their English 
 officers, and not left a white man living in the place. 
 
 C ipt. Baynes. But about eight o'clock on that evening an English 
 officer galloped up to the house of the Commandant 
 Cuppage, and told him that no time was to be lost ; 
 that the Sepoys were on the point of rising, and that 
 
 * Mark Wilks wrote to Barry themselves a strong post on wliich 
 Close, with reference to this move- to assemble in force. Cuppage's 
 ment at Nundydroog: "I do not garrison, though small, may have 
 know what to make of all this ; men had it in view to seize on Nundy- 
 who had any great combination in droog. Possessed of this strong post, 
 view could scaicely have any design the conspirators would have probably 
 to act on so small a scale." But assembled upon it in force, and pro- 
 Barry Close, taking a more compre- ceeded to act against us openly." — 
 hensive view, replied: "The great MS. Correspondence. 
 object of the Insurgents at Vellore f Colonel Cuppage to Barry Close 
 aeenis to have been to secure to — MS. Correspondence. 
 
ALARM AT PALLAMCOTTAII. 239 
 
 means of safety must at once be sought. Scarce had 1806. 
 the story been told, when an old and distmguished 
 native officer came breathless with the same intelli- 
 gence. There was no room for doubt ; no time for 
 delay. An express, calling for reinforcements, was 
 despatched to Bangalore; and the officers, selecting 
 one of their houses in the Pagoda-square, which 
 seemed best adapted to purposes of defence, took post 
 together and waited the issue. The night passed 
 without an attack ; and on the morrow afternoon 
 safety came in the shape of a squadron of Dragoons 
 from Bangalore. Colonel Davis had received the 
 tidings soon after daybreak, and by three o'clock his 
 troopers were clattering into Nundydroog. 
 
 November came, and with it came new troubles. PallamcottaiL 
 Far down the coast, not many leagues removed from 
 the southernmost part of the Peninsula, lies the station 
 of Pallamcottah. There Major Welsh, with six Euro- 
 pean officers under him, commanded a Sepoy battalion, 
 in which many relatives of the mutineers cut up at 
 Vellore were brooding over their loss of kindred. 
 Towards the end of the third week of the month, it 
 was believed that the Mahomedan Sepoys were about 
 to rise and to massacre all the Europeans in the place. 
 The story ran that, rejecting with contempt the idea 
 of banding themselves with the Hindoos, they had 
 met at a mosque and concerted their murderous plans. 
 Some buildings were to be fired in the cantonment to 
 draw the English officers from their homes. In the 
 confusion, the whole were to be slain, the Fort was to 
 be seized, and the rebel flag hoisted on the ramparts. 
 Scenting the plot, a Malabar-man went to the mosque 
 in disguise, and carried tidings of it to the English 
 Commandant. The danger appeared to be imminent, 
 and Welsh at once took his measures to avert it, 
 
240 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 Whatever may have been the judgment and discretion 
 of the man, his courage and determination were 
 conspicuous; and his comrades were of the same 
 temper. Assuming the bold, intrepid front, which 
 has so often been known to overawe multitudes, this 
 little handful of undaunted Englishmen seized and 
 confined thirteen native officers, and turned five 
 hundred Mussulman Sepoys out of the Fort. That 
 they were able to accomplish this, even with the sup- 
 port of the Hindoos, was declared to be a proof that 
 no desperate measures had really been designed. But 
 the premature explosion of a plot of this kind always 
 creates a panic. In a state of fear and surprise, men 
 are not capable of reasoning. There is a vague im- 
 pression that boldness presages power ; that there is 
 something behind the imposing front. A single man 
 has ere now routed a whole garrison. I am not sure, 
 therefore, that there was no danger, because it was so 
 easily trodden out. 
 
 Two days afterwards Colonel Dyce, who com- 
 manded the district of Tinnivelly, threw himself 
 into Pallamcottah ; assembled the Hindoo troops ; 
 told them that he had come there to maintain the 
 authority of the Company, or to die in the defence of 
 the colours which he had sworn to protect. He then 
 called upon those who were of the same mind to ap- 
 proach the British flag for the same purpose, but if 
 not, to depart in peace. They went up and took the 
 oath to a man, presented arms to the colours, gave 
 three unbidden cheers in earnest of their unshaken 
 loyalty, and fell in as on a muster-parade. 
 
 On the first appearance of danger, Welsh had 
 despatched a letter by a country-boat to Ceylon, call- 
 ing for European troops, and the call was responded 
 to with an alacrity beyond all praise. But so eifec- 
 
FATE OF MAJOR WELSX 241 
 
 tual were tlie measures ^vliicli liad been already 1806. 
 adopted, or so little of real danger had there been, 
 that when the succour which had been sent for 
 arrived from Trichinopoly, the alarm had passed, 
 and the work was done. 
 
 Told as I have told this story — a simple recital of 
 facts, as written down in contemporary correspondence 
 — it would appear to afford an instructive example of 
 the virtue of promptitude and vigour. But this is not 
 the only lesson to be learnt from it. It is more in- 
 structive still to note that Major Welsh was severely 
 condemned as an alarmist, the tendency of whose 
 precipitate action Avas to destroy confidence and to 
 create irritation. Another officer,* who, apprehend- 
 ing danger, had disarmed his regiment as a precau- 
 tion, was denounced with still greater vehemence. f 
 Apprehensions of this kind were, described as ^' dis- 
 graceful and groundless panics ;" and political officers 
 chuckled to think that it was proposed at Madras to 
 remove from their commands and to bring to Courts- 
 Martial the officers who had considered it their duty 
 not to wait to be attacked. J With these lessons before 
 
 * Lieutenant-Colonel Grant. and lie and Welsh ordered for Court- 
 
 f I find this fact recorded in the Martial. Both were honourably ac- 
 
 correspondence of the day with three quitted. 
 
 notes of exclamation : " With regard J Many years after the occurrence 
 
 to Colonel Grant," wrote Major of these events, Major, then Colonel 
 
 Wilks from Mysore, " it appears Welsh, published two volumes of 
 
 that he disarmed his troops simply Military Reminiscences. Turning to 
 
 as a measure of precaution ! ! ! Wlie- these for some account of the affair 
 
 ther we are in danger from our own at Pallamcottah, I was disappointed 
 
 misconduct, or from worse causes, to find only the following scanty 
 
 the danger is great. ... I conclude notice of it : " Towards tiie end of 
 
 that Chalmers will be sent to super- the year an event took place, which, 
 
 sede Grant, and Vesey to Pallamcot- althongii injurious to my own pros- 
 
 tah, and my best hope is that there pects and fortune, under the signal 
 
 will be found sufiicient grounds for "blessing of Providence terminated 
 
 turning Welsh and Grant out of the fortunately. Time has now spread 
 
 service, but this will not restore tlie his oblivious wings over the whole 
 
 confidence of the Sepoys." — M.S. occurrence, and I will not attempt 
 
 Correspondence. Grant's conduct was to remove the veil." 
 at once repudiated in a general order, 
 
 R 
 
bud, 
 
 242 THE SEPOY ARMY— ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 ISOO. us, we cannot wonder that men, in sucli conjunctures, 
 should hesitate to strike the blow which any one may 
 declare uncalled-for, and the wusdom of which no one 
 can prove — should pause to consider whether they are 
 more likely to develop the evil by an assertion of 
 strength, or to encourage its growth by the feebleness 
 of inaction.* 
 AVallajaha- But it was plain that, whatsoever might be the wisest 
 
 course in such a conjuncture, the Government of Lord 
 William Bentinck was all in favour of the milder and 
 more sedative mode of treatment. In remarkable 
 contrast to the manner in which the symptoms of 
 coming mutiny were grappled with at Pallamcottah 
 stands the story of Wallajahabad. Some of the earliest 
 signs of disaffection, on the score of the turban, had 
 manifested themselves at that place ; and Gillespie, 
 Avith his dragoons, had been despatclied thither at 
 the end of July, not without a murmur of discontent 
 at the thought of his "poor hard-worked fellows" 
 being sent to counteract what appeared to him a 
 doubtful danger. It Avas believed, however, that 
 the uneasiness had passed away, and for some 
 months there had been apparent tranquillity. But 
 in November the alarm began to revive ; and a 
 
 * The difficulties of tlie English severest censure, as weH as respon- 
 officer at that time were thus de- sible for liis own and the lives of his 
 scribed by a contemporary writer, in European officers. On liie contrary, 
 a passage which I have chanced upon if he took precautionary measures 
 since the above was written : " The lie was accused of creating unneces- 
 niassacre at Vellore had naturally sary distrust ; and equally censured 
 created a great degree of mistrust for being premature and not allow- 
 between the European officers and ing the mutiny to ^o en till satis- 
 the Sepoys throughout the Army ; factorily proved, when it would have 
 and the indecision of measures at been too late to prevent." — Stric- 
 Head-Quarters seemed further to tares on the present Government of 
 strengthen this mistrust. If an India, Sfc. In a Letter from an Officer 
 officer took no precautionary mca- resident on the spot. Triclinopotj^ 
 sures on receiving information of an 1807 ; London^ 1808. 
 intended plot, he was liable to the 
 
GOVERNMENT MEASURES. 243 
 
 detailed statement of various indications of a coming 1^0-3. 
 outbreak, drawn up by Major Hazlewood, was sent to 
 the authorities. On the mornino; of the 2nd of De- 
 cember the members of the Madras Government met 
 in Council. Hazlewood's statement was laid before 
 them and gravely discussed; but with no definite 
 result. The Council broke up without a decision, but 
 only to meet again, refreshed by the sea-breeze and 
 the evening ride. Then it was resolved that a discreet 
 officer, in the confidence of Government, should be 
 sent to Wallajahabad to inquire into and report on 
 the state of affairs ; and on the same evening Colonel 
 Munro, the Quartermaster- General, received his in- 
 structions, and prepared to depart. The event ap- 
 peared to justify this cautious line of action ; but 
 one shudders to think what might have happened at 
 Wallajahabad whilst Government were deliberating 
 over written statements of danger, and drafting in- 
 structions for a Staff-officer in the Council-Chamber 
 of Madras. 
 
 Six months had now passed since the Madras Go- Dec i^oo 
 vernment had been made acquainted with the state 
 of feeling in the Native Army, and understood that a 
 vague apprehension of the destruction of caste and of 
 "forcible conversion to Christianity" had been one 
 of the chief causes of the prevailing disquietude. 
 The obnoxious regulations had been abandoned, but 
 this was a concession obviously extorted from fear ; 
 and nothing had yet been done to reassure the 
 minds of the soldiery by a kindly paternal address 
 to them from the fountain-head of the local Govern- 
 ment. But at last Bentinck and his colleagues 
 awoke to a sense of the plain and palpable duty 
 which lay before them ; and at this Council of the 
 2nd of December a Proclamation was agreed upon, 
 
 K 2 
 
244: THE SErOY ARMY — ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 1806. and on the following day issued, wliich, translated 
 into the Hindostanee, the Tamul, and Telegoo dia- 
 lects, was sent to every native battalion in the Army, 
 with orders to commanding officers to make its con- 
 tents known to every native officer and Sepoy under 
 their command. After adverting to the extraordinary 
 agitation that had for some time prevailed in the 
 Coast Army, and the reports spread for malicious 
 purposes, by persons of evil intention, that it Avas the 
 design of the British Government to convert the 
 troops by forcible means to Christianity, the Procla- 
 mation proceeded to declare that the constant kind- 
 ness and liberality at all times shown to the Sepoy 
 should convince him of the happiness of his situation, 
 " greater than what the troops of any other part of 
 the world enjoy," and induce him to return to the 
 good conduct for which he had been distinguished in 
 the days of Law^rence and Coote, and " other re- 
 nowned heroes." If they would not, they would 
 learn that the British Government ^' is not less pre- 
 pared to punish the guilty than to protect and dis- 
 tinguish those w^ho are deserving of its favour." But 
 this was something more than the truth. The British 
 Government did not show^ itself, in this conjuncture, 
 to be '^prepared to punish the guilty" in a manner 
 proportionate to the measure of their offences. Lord 
 William Bentinck and his Councillors were all for 
 clemency. Sir John Cradock counselled the adoption 
 of more vigorous punitory measures, and the Supreme 
 Government were disposed to support the military 
 chief. Something of a compromise then ensued, the 
 result of which was a very moderate instalment of the 
 retribution which w^as justly due. A few only of the 
 most guilty of the murderers w^ere executed ; whilst 
 others, clearly convicted of taking part in the sangui- 
 
CAUSES OF THE MUTINY. 245 
 
 nary revolt, were merely dismissed the service. And 1806. 
 
 if it had not been for the overruling authority of the 
 
 Government at Calcutta — that is, of Sir George 
 
 Barlow, with Mr. Edmonstone at his elbow* — ^the 
 
 numbers of the assassin-battalions would not have 
 
 been erased from the Army List. But penal measures 
 
 did not end here. The higher tribunals of the Home 
 
 Government condemned the chief authorities of 
 
 Madras, and, justly or unjustly, the Governor, the 
 
 Commander-in-Chief, and the Adjutant- General, were 
 
 summarily removed from office. 
 
 The mutiny died out with the old year ; the active 1807. 
 
 danger was passed; but it left behind it a flood ^l^eged 
 
 ^ 1 . 1 . 1 TT Ti 1 •! causes of tUo 
 
 of bitter controversy which did not readily subside. Kevolt. 
 
 What was the cause of the revolt ? Whose fault was 
 it? Was it a mere military mutiny, the growth of 
 internal irritation, or was it a political movement 
 fomented by agitators from without ? The contro- 
 versialists on both sides were partly wrong and partly 
 right — wrong in their denials, right in their assertions. 
 It is difficult in such a case to put together in proper 
 sequence all the links of a great chain of events ter- 
 minating even in an incident of yesterday, so little do 
 we know of what is stirring in the occult heart of 
 native society. After a lapse of half a century it is 
 impossible. There is often in the Simultaneous, the 
 Coincidental, an apparent uniformity of tendency, 
 which simulates design, but which, so far as human 
 agency is concerned, is wholly fortuitous. We see 
 
 * Many years afterwards, Sir formed at Vellore." "His wise and 
 
 George Barlow gracefully acknow- steady counsel," added Barlow, " af- 
 
 ledged the valuable assistance which, forded me important aid and support 
 
 in this conjuncture, Mr. Edmonstone in carrying into effect the measures ' 
 
 had rendered to him, saying that his necessary for counteracting the im- 
 
 *' unshaken firmness and resolution pressions made by that alarming 
 
 in times of internal difficulty and event, wliich threatened the most 
 
 danger" were " signally displayed serious consequences to the security 
 
 on. the discovery of tlie coui>])iracy of our power." — MS. Documents. 
 
246 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 1807. this in the commonest concerns of life. We see it 
 in events affecting mightily the destinies of empires. 
 Under a pressure of concurrent annoyances and 
 vexations, men often cry out that there is a con- 
 spiracy against them, and the historical inquirer 
 often sees a conspiracy when in reality there is only 
 a coincidence. A great disaster, like the massacre at 
 Yellore, acts like iodine upon hidden writings in rice- 
 water. Suddenly is proclaimed to us in all its signifi- 
 cance what has long been written down on the page 
 of the Past, but which, for want of the revealing agent, 
 has hitherto lain illegibly before us. Doubtless, 
 many hidden things were disclosed to us at this time ; 
 but whether they were peculiar to the crisis or of a 
 normal character, at any period discernible, had we 
 taken proper steps to develop them, was matter of 
 grave dispute. The political officers, headed by Mark 
 Wilks;, the historian of Southern India, who was then 
 representing British interests in Mysore, laughed to 
 scorn the discoveries of the military officers, and 
 said that the things which they spoke of as so por- 
 tentous were in reality only phenomena of every-day 
 appearance, familiar to men acquainted with the feel- 
 ings and habits of the people. He derided all that 
 had been said about seditious conversations in the 
 Bazaars and the Lines, the wild prophecies and mys- 
 terious hints of wandering Fakeers, and the sugges- 
 tive devices of the puppet-shows.* There was nothing 
 in all this, he contended, of an exceptional character, 
 to be regarded as the harbingers of mutiny and mas- 
 sacre. And his arguments culminated in the chuckling 
 assertion that the military authorities had discovered 
 
 * There were two subjects whicli of the French over the English, the 
 
 the Kootpooilee • Wallahs extremely one intended to excite hatred, the 
 
 delighted to illustrate — tlie degrada- other contempt, iu the minds of the 
 
 tion of the Mogul, and the victories spectators. 
 
MILITARY ARGUMENTS. 247 
 
 a cabalistic document of a most treasonable character, ^^07. 
 wliicb appeared to their excited imaginations to be a 
 plan for partitioning the territory to be wrested from 
 the English, but which, in reality, was nothing more 
 portentous than the scribblement of the Dervish Bazee, 
 or "royal game of goose." 
 
 With equal confidence on the other hand, the mili- 
 tary authorities protested that the new regulations 
 had nothing to do with the mutiny — that it was alto- 
 gether, a political movement. The new cap, they 
 said, had been accepted and worn by the Sepoys. 
 Three representative men, types of the principal na- 
 tionalities composing the Coast Army, had signified 
 their satisfaction with the new head-dress, and one or 
 two regiments en masse had been paraded in it with- 
 out a murmur. The fact, they alleged, was that the 
 movement had emanated solely from the deposed 
 family of Tippoo Sultan ; that its object was to re- 
 store, in the first instance, the Mahomedan dynasty 
 in Southern India, and eventually to recover the 
 imperial throne for the Mogul. If proper precautions 
 had been taken by Government — if Tippoo's family, 
 eager for a taste of blood, had not been left to disport 
 themselves at will in Vellore — if they had not been 
 gorged mth money, and attended by countless Mus- 
 sulman followers eager to recover the posts and the pri- 
 vileges which they had lost, there would, said the mili- 
 tary leaders, have been no massacre and no mutiny 
 and, some said, not even a murmur of discontent; 
 But the military critic was as wrong as the political, 
 and for the same reason. Each was blinded by pro- 
 fessional interests and professional prejudices. Each 
 argued in self-defence. The truth, as it commonly 
 does in such cases, lay midway between the two 
 extremes. But for the intrigues of Tippoo's family 
 
248 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 1807. <;liere would have been no outbreak at that time, and 
 but for the new military regulations they might have 
 intrigued in vain. It so happened that the political 
 and military influences were adverse to us at the 
 same moment, and that from the conjuncture arose 
 the event known in history as the Massacre of 
 Vellore, but which was in reality a much more 
 extensive military combination, prevented only by 
 repeated local failures from swelling into the dimen- 
 sions of a general revolt of the Coast Army. 
 
 Nor is it to be forgotten that there was a third 
 party, which attributed the calamity less to political 
 and to military causes than to the general uneasiness, 
 which had taken possession of the native mind in con- 
 sequence of the supposed activity of Christian mis- 
 sionaries and of certain " missionary chaplains." The 
 dread of a general destruction of Caste and forcible 
 conversion to Christianity was not confined to the 
 Sepoys. The most preposterous stories were current 
 in the Bazaars. Among other wild fables, which took 
 firm hold of the popular mind, was one to the efi'ect 
 that the Company's officers had collected all the 
 newly-manufactured salt, had divided it into two 
 great heaps, and over one had sprinkled the blood of 
 hogs, and over the other the blood of cows; that 
 they had then sent it to be sold throughout the 
 country for the pollution and the desecration of 
 Mahomedans and Hindoos, that all mi^-ht be brouoht 
 to one caste and to one religion like the English. 
 AVhen this absurd story was circulated, some ceased 
 altogether to eat salt, and some purchased, at high 
 price, and carefully stored away, supplies of tlie neces- 
 sary article, guaranteed to have been in the Bazaars, 
 before the atrocious act of the Feringhees had been 
 committed. Another story was that the Collector of 
 
LYING RUMOURS. 249 
 
 Trincomalee had, under tlie orders of Government, 1S07. 
 laid the foundation of a Christian Church in his dis- 
 trict close to the great Pagoda of the Hindoos ; that 
 he had collected all the stone-cutters and builders in 
 the neighbourhood ; that he was taxing every house- 
 hold for the payment of the cost of the building; 
 that he had forbidden all ingress to the Pagoda, and 
 all worshipping of idols ; and that to all complaints 
 on the subject he had replied that there was nothing 
 extraordinary in what he was doing, as Government 
 had ordered a similar building to be erected in every 
 town and every village in the country. In India, 
 stories of this kind are readily believed. The grosser 
 the lie the more eagerly it is devoured.* They are 
 circulated by designing persons with a certainty that 
 they will not be lost. That the excitement of religious 
 alarm was the principal means by which the enemies 
 of the British Government hoped to accomplish their 
 objects is certain ; but if there had not been a foregone 
 determination to excite this alarm, nothing in the 
 actual progress of Christianity at that time would 
 have done it. A comparison, indeed, between the re- 
 ligious status of the English in India and the wild 
 stories of forcible conversion, which were then circu- 
 
 * Not immediately illustrating this sible despatch. It happened that 
 
 point of inquiry, but even more pre- the dead body of a native without a 
 
 posterous in itself than the rumours head was found near the Kesidency, 
 
 cited in the text, was a story which and that a drunken European artil- 
 
 was circulated at Hyderabad. It leryman, about the same time, at- 
 
 was stated that an oracle in a neii^li- tacked a native sentry at his post, 
 
 bouring Pagoda had declared that These facts gave new wings to the 
 
 there was considerable treasure at report, and such was the alarm that 
 
 the bottom of a well in the European the natives would not leave their 
 
 barracks, which was destined not to homes or work after dark, and it was 
 
 be discovered until a certain number reported both to the Nizam and his 
 
 of human heads liad been offered up minister that a hundred bodies witli- 
 
 to the tutelar deity of the place ; out heads were lying on the banks of 
 
 and that accordingly the European the Moose River. — Captain Si/den- 
 
 soldiers were sacrificing the neces- ham to the Government of India. MS, 
 
 sary number of victims with all pos- Records. 
 
Home Go- 
 vernment. 
 
 250 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 
 
 1SQ7. lated, seemed openly to give the lie to the maliguaiit 
 inventions of the enemy. There were no indications 
 on the part of Government of any especial concern for 
 the interests of Christianity, and among the officers of 
 the Army there were so few external signs of religion 
 that the Sepoys scarcely knew whether they owned 
 any faith at all.* But in a state of panic men do not 
 pause to reason ; and if at any time the doubt had 
 been suggested, it would have been astutely answered 
 that the English gentlemen cared only to destroy the 
 religions of the country, and to make the people all of 
 one or of no caste, in order that they might make 
 their soldiers and servants do everything they wished. 
 Views of tlie The authoritative judgment of a Special Commis- 
 sion appointed to investigate the causes of the out- 
 break confirmed the views of the more moderate sec- 
 tion of the community, which recognised, not one, 
 but many disturbing agencies ; and the Home Go- 
 vernment accepted the interpretation in a candid and 
 impartial spirit. That " the late innovations as to 
 the dress and appearance of the Sepoys were the 
 leading cause of the mutiny, and the other was the 
 residence of the family of the late Tippoo Sultan at 
 Vellore," was, doubtless, true as far as it went. But 
 the merchant-rulers of Leadenhall-street were dis- 
 posed to sound the lower depths of the difficulty. 
 Those were not days when the numerous urgent 
 claims of the Present imperatively forbad the elaborate 
 investigation of the Past. So the Directors began 
 seriously to consider what had been the more remote 
 predisposing causes of the almost general disaffisction 
 
 * Sir John Cradock said, after the melancholy trutli that so unfrequeiit 
 
 occurrence of these events, that are the religious observances of offi- 
 
 " from the total absence of religious cers doing duty with battalions, tliat 
 
 establishments in the interior of the the Sepoys have not, until very 
 
 country, from the habits of life pre- lately, discovered the nature of the 
 
 valent among military men, it is a religion professed by the EagiiiU." 
 
VIEWS OF THE COURT OF DIRECTORS. 2ol 
 
 of the Coast Army. And the " Chairs," in a mas- 1807. 
 terly letter to Mr. Dundas, freighted with the solid 
 intelligence of Charles Grant, declared their convic- 
 tion that the general decline of the fidelity of the 
 Army and of the attachment of the People to British 
 rule, was to be traced to the fact that a new class of 
 men, with little knowledge of India, little interest in 
 its inhabitants, and little toleration for their pre- 
 judices, had begun to monopolise the chief seats in the 
 Government and the chief posts in the Army; that 
 the annexations of Lord Wellesley had beggared the 
 old Mahomedan families, and had shaken the belief 
 of the people in British moderation and good faith ; 
 and that the whole tendency of the existing system 
 was to promote the intrusion of a rampant Eng- 
 lishism, and thus to widen the gulf between the 
 Rulers and the Ruled.* 
 
 * The Cliairman and Deputy- the President of the Board of Con 
 Chairman of the East India Com- trol (Mr. Dundas). — J/i^y 18, 1S07. 
 pany (Mr. Parrv and Mr. Grant) to MS. Rec:>rdi. 
 
252 THE SEPOY ARMT — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SUBSIDENCE OF ALAUM— THE SOLDIER IN ENGLAND AND IN INDIA— TUB 
 SEPOY AND HIS OEFICER — DETERIORATING INFLUENCES — THE DRAINAGE 
 OF THE STAFF — PROGRESS OF CENTRALISATION — THE REORGANISATION 
 OF 1824 — THE BARRACKPORE MUTINY — THE HALF-BATTA ORDER — ABO- 
 LITION OF CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. 
 
 180M809. It was not strano;e that for some time after the oc- 
 currence of these events in the Coast Army, the Eng- 
 lish in Southern India should have been possessed by 
 a common sense of anger, and that this feeling should 
 have spread to some other parts of the country. For 
 a while the white man saw a conspirator beneath the 
 folds of every turban, and a conspiracy in every 
 group of people talking by the wayside. In every 
 laugh there was an insult, and in every shrug there 
 was a menace. English officers pillowed their heads on 
 loaded fire-arms, and fondled the hilts of their swords 
 as they slept. But gradually they lived down the sen- 
 sitiveness that so distressed them. Other thoughts and 
 feelings took possession of the bungalow ; other sub- 
 jects were dominant in the mess-room. And ere long 
 a new grievance came to supersede an old danger ; 
 and the officers of the Madras Army forgot the rcbcl- 
 Mutin f ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ Sepoys as they incubated a rebellion of 
 Madras their o^vu. How the mutiny of the officers grew out 
 1809?^* of the mutiny of the men of the Coast Army, it 
 would not be difficult to show; but the chapter of 
 
BENEWAL OF CONFIDENCE. 253 
 
 Indian history which includes the former need not be 1807-1899. 
 re- written here. The objects for which the officers 
 contended were altogether remote from the interests 
 and sympathies of the Sepoys ; and although the 
 latter, in ignorance, might at first have followed their 
 commanders, it is not probable that they would have 
 continued to cast in their lot with the mutineers, after 
 the true character of the movement had been ex- 
 plained to them, and an appeal made to their fidelity 
 by the State. But they were not unobservant spec- 
 tators of that unseemly strife ; and the impression 
 made upon the Sepoy's mind by this spectacle of 
 disunion must have been of a most injurious kind. 
 There is nothing so essential to the permanence of 
 that Opinion, on which we so much rely, as a prevail- 
 ing sense that the English in India are not Many but 
 One. 
 
 Nor was it strange that, after these unfortunate 
 events, the fame of which went abroad throughout 
 the whole country, there should have been for a little 
 space less eagerness than before to enlist into the ser- 
 vice of the Company. But the reluctance passed 
 away under the soothing influence of time. In the 
 prompt and regular issue of pay, and in the pensions, 
 which had all the security of funded property, there 
 were attractions, unknown to Asiatic armies, not 
 easily to be resisted. And there were other privi- 
 leges, equally dear to the people of the country, which 
 lured them by thousands into the ranks of the Com- 
 pany's Army. As soon as his name was on the 
 muster-roll, the Sepoy, and through him all the 
 members of his family, passed under the special pro- 
 tection of the State. 
 
 It is difficult to conceive two conditions of life The English 
 more dissimilar in their social aspects than soldiering ° ^^^' 
 
254. THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1807-1809. in India and soldiering in England. In England, few 
 men enlist into the Army as an honourable profes- 
 sion, or seek it as an advantageous source of subsist- 
 ence. Few men enter it with any high hopes or any 
 p'.easurable emotions. The recruit has commonly 
 broken down as a civihan. Of ruined fortune and 
 bankrupt reputation, he is tempted, cheated, snared 
 into the x\rmy. Lying placards on the w^alls, lying 
 ^vords in the pot-house, the gaudy ribbons of Ser- 
 geant Kite, the drum and the fife and the strong 
 drink, captivate and enthral him when he is not 
 master of himself He has quarrelled with his sweet- 
 heart or robbed his employer. He has exhausted 
 the patience of his own people, and the outer world 
 has turned its back upon him. And so he goes for a 
 soldier. As soon as he has taken the shilling, he has 
 gone right out of the family circle and out of the 
 circle of civil life. He is a thousandth part of a 
 regiment of the Line. Perhaps he has changed his 
 name and stripped himself of his personal identity. 
 Anyhow, he is as one dead. Little more is heard 
 of him ; and unless it be some doting old mother, 
 who best loves the blackest sheep of the flock, nobody 
 much wishes to hear. It is often, indeed, no greater 
 I source of pride to an English family to knoAv that 
 one of its members is serving the Queen, in the ranks 
 of her Army, than to know that one is provided for, 
 as a convict, at the national expense. 
 The Indian But the native soldier of India was altogether of a 
 Soliier. different kind. When he became a soldier, he did 
 not cease to be a civilian. He severed no family 
 ties ; he abandoned no civil rights. He was not the 
 outcast, but the stay and the pride of his house. He 
 visited his home at stated times. He remitted to it 
 H large part of his pay. It was a decorous boast in 
 
HEREDITARY SOLDIERS. 255 
 
 many families that generation after generation had 1807-1809. 
 eaten the Company's salt. Often, indeed, in one 
 household you might see the Past, the Present, and 
 the Future of this coveted military service. There 
 was the ancient pensioner under the shade of the 
 banyan-tree in his native village, who had stories to 
 tell of Lawrence, Coote, and Medows ; of battles 
 fought with the French ; of the long war with Hyder 
 and the later struggles with his son. There was the 
 Sepoy, on furlough from active service, in the prime 
 of his life, who had his stories also to tell of " the 
 great Lord's brother," the younger Wellesley, of 
 Harris and Baird, perhaps of " Bikrum Sahib" and Abercrombie 
 Egypt, and how "Lick Sahib," the fine old man,"^^^"^'* 
 when provisions were scarce in the camp, had ridden 
 through the lines, eating dried pulse for his dinner. 
 And there was the bright-eyed, supple-limbed, quick- 
 witted boy, who looked forward with eager expect- 
 ancy to the time when he would be permitted to 
 take his father's place, and serve under some noted 
 leader. It was no fond delusion, no trick of our self- 
 love, to believe in such pictures as this. The Com- 
 pany's Sepoys had a genuine pride in their colours, 
 and the classes from which they were drawn rejoiced 
 in their connexion with the paramount State. It was 
 honourable service, sought by the very flower of the 
 people, and to be dismissed from it was a heavy 
 punishment and a sore disgrace. 
 
 Strong as were these ties, the people were bound 
 to the military service of the Company by the still 
 stronger ties of self-interest. For not only were the Civil privi- 
 Sepoys, as has been said, well cared-for as soldiers g^^^^ °^ ^'^® 
 — well paid and well pensioned — but, as civilians, 
 they had large privileges which others did not enjoy. 
 Many of them, belonging to the lesser yeomanry of 
 
256 THE SErOY AKMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1807-1809. the country, were possessors of, or shareholders in^ 
 small landed estates. And thus endoAved, they re- 
 joiced greatly in a regulation which gave the Sepoy 
 on furlough a right to be heard before other suitors 
 in our civil courts.* In a country whose people are 
 inordinately given to litigation, and where justice is 
 commonly slow-paced, this was so prodigious a boon, 
 that entrance to the service was often sought for the 
 express purpose of securing this valuable precedence, 
 and the soldier-member of the family thus became 
 the representative of his whole house. In this con- 
 nexion of the soldiery with hereditary rights in the 
 soil, there was an additional guarantee for his loyalty 
 and good conduct. He was not merely a soldier — a 
 component unit of number two company, third file 
 from the right; lie was an important member of 
 society, a distinct individuality in his native village 
 . no less than in his cantonment Lines. He i^etained 
 I his self-respect and the respect of others ; and had a 
 personal interest in the stability of the Government 
 under which his rights were secured. 
 
 And whilst these extraneous advantages were at- 
 tached to his position as a soldier of the Company, 
 there was nothing inherent in the service itself to 
 The Sepoy render it distasteful to him. His officers were aliens 
 Officel^ of another colour and another creed ; but the Hindoo 
 
 was accustomed to foreign supremacy, and the Ma- 
 homedan, profoundly impressed with the mutabilities 
 of fortune, bowed himself to the stern necessities of 
 fate. As long as the Sepoy respected the personal 
 
 * This was a part only of the Pavliamentary Committee of 1832, 
 
 civil privileges enjoyed by the native said that the withdrawal of these 
 
 soldier. A memorandum in the Ap- privileges had been regarded as an 
 
 pendix will show the full extent of especial grievance by the Sepoys — 
 
 the advantages conferred upon him but I have failed to discover that 
 
 by this class-legislation. Sir Jasper they ever were withdrawn. 
 KicoUs, in his evidence before the 
 
THE SEPOY AND lUS OFFICER. 257 
 
 qualities of the English officer, and the English officer lSO0-182f 
 felt a personal attachment for the Sepoy, the relations 
 between them were in no degree marred by any con- 
 siderations of difference of race. There was a stron^: 
 sense of comradeship between them, which atoned for 
 the absence of other ties. The accidental severance 
 of which I have spoken was but short-lived.* In that 
 first quarter of the present century, which saw so 
 much hard fio;htinor in the field, the heart of tlie 
 Sepoy officer again turned towards his men, and the 
 men looked up and clung to him with child-like con- 
 fidence and affection. To command a company, and, 
 in due course, a regiment of Sepoys, was still held to 
 be a worthy object of professional ambition. The 
 regiment, in those days, was the officer s home, whe- 
 ther in camp, or cantonment, or on the line of march. 
 There was but little looking beyond ; little hankering 
 to leave it. To interest himself in the daily concerns 
 of the Sepoys, to converse with them off parade, to 
 enter into their feelings, to contribute to their com- 
 forts, were duties, the performance of which occupied 
 his time, amused his mincl, and yielded as much 
 happiness to himself as it imparted to others. 
 There was, in truth, little to divert him from the 
 business of his profession or to raise up a barrier be- 
 tween him and his men. Intercourse with Europe 
 was rare and difficult. Neither the charms of Eng- 
 lish literature nor the attractions of English woman- 
 hood alienated his affections from the routine of 
 
 * There liad certainly' been, liefore Mr. Dundas, referred to above, tliis is 
 llie mutiny in Southern India, a very allej^ed to have been one of the re- 
 culpable want of kindly consideration mote causes of the mutiny. It is 
 on the part of our Enulish officers stated that the English had ceased, 
 for the native officers and men of the to offer ciiairs to their native officers 
 Sopoy army. In the letter, written when visited by thein, A favourab'*" 
 by tiie Chairman and Depiity-Ohair- reaction^ however, seems afterward* 
 man of the East India Company, to to have set iu. 
 
258 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1809-22. military life, and made its details dull and dreary m 
 liis sight. He had subdued his habits, and yeiy 
 much his way of thinking, to the Orientalism by 
 which he was surrounded. He was glad to welcome 
 the native officer to his bungalow, to learn from him 
 the news of the Lines and the gossip of the Bazaar, 
 and to tell him, in turn, what were the chances of an- 
 other campaign and to what new station the regiment 
 was likely to be moved at the approaching annual 
 Relief. If there were any complaints in the regi- 
 ment, the grievance was stated with freedom on the 
 one side, and listened to with interest on the other. 
 If the men were right, there was a remedy ; if they 
 were wrong, there was an explanation. The Sepoy 
 looked to his officer as to one who had both the 
 power and the will to dispense ample justice to him. 
 in every battalion, indeed, the men turned to their 
 commandant as the depository of all their griefs, and 
 the redresser of all their wrongs. They called him 
 their father, and he rejoiced to describe them as his 
 '^ babalogue" — his babes. 
 Progress of But in time the power was taken from him, and 
 with the power went also the will. A variety of 
 deteriorating circumstances occurred — some the in- 
 evitable growth of British progress in the East, and 
 some the results of ignorance, thoughtlessness, or 
 miscalculation on the part of the governing body. 
 The power of the English officer was curtailed and 
 his influence declined. The command of a regiment 
 had once been something more than a name. The 
 commanding-officer could promote his men, could 
 punish his men, could dress them and discipline them 
 as he pleased. The different battalions were called 
 after the commander who had first led them to vic- 
 tovVy and they rejoiced to be so distinguished. But, 
 
 Centralisa- 
 tion. 
 
RELAXATION OF OLD TIES. 259 
 
 little by little, this power, by the absorbing action of 1822-1835, 
 progressive centralisation, was taken out of his hands ; 
 and he who, supreme in his own little circle, had 
 been now a patriarch and now a despot, shrivelled 
 into the mouthpiece of the Adjutant- General's office 
 and the instrument of Head-quarters. The decisions 
 of the commanding officer were appealed against, and 
 frequently set aside. In the emphatic language of the 
 East, he was made to eat dirt in the presence of his 
 men. The Sepoy, then, ceased to look up to him as 
 the centre of his hopes and fears, and the command- 
 ing officer lost much of the interest which he before 
 took in his men, when he kncAV how much their 
 happiness and comfort depended upon his individual 
 acts, and how the discipline and good conduct of the 
 corps were the reflexion of his personal efficiency. 
 
 And it happened that, about the same time, new En^^and is 
 objects of interest sprung up to render more com- 
 plete the severance of the ties which had onc^ bound, 
 the English officer to the native soldier. The second 
 quarter of the nineteenth century in India was a 
 period of progressive reform. We reformed our Go- 
 vernment and we reformed ourselves. Increased 
 facilities of intercourse with Europe gave a more 
 European complexion to society. English news, Eng- 
 lish books, above all, English gentlewomen, made 
 their way freely and rapidly to India. The Over- 
 land Mail bringing news scarcely more than a month 
 old of the last new European revolution ; the book- 
 club yielding its stores of light literature as fresh as 
 is commonly obtained from circulating libraries at 
 home ; and an avatar of fair young English maidens, 
 with the bloom of the Western summer on their 
 cheeks, yielded attractions beside which the gossip of 
 the lines and the feeble garrulity of the old Soubahdar 
 
 \ 2 " 
 
260 THE SEPOY ATim'— ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1822-35. were very dreary and fatiguing. Little by little, the 
 Sepoy officer shook out the loose folds of his Ori- 
 entalism. Many had been wont, in the absence of other 
 female society, to solace themselves with the charms 
 of a dusky mate, and to spend much time in the re- 
 cesses of the Zenana. Bad as it was, when tried in 
 the crucible of Christian ethics, it was not without its 
 military advantages. The English officer, so mated, 
 learnt to speak the languages of the country, and to 
 understand the habits and feelings of the people ; and 
 he cherished a kindlier feeling for the native races 
 than he would have done if no such alliances had 
 been formed. But this custom passed away with the 
 cause that produced it. The English wife displaced 
 the native mistress. A new code of morals was recog- 
 nised ; and the Zenana was proscribed. With the ap- 
 .pearance of the English gentlewoman in the military 
 j cantonment there grew up a host of new interests 
 ^ 'and new excitements, and the regiment became a 
 bore. 
 Staff employ- AVliilst these influences were sensibly weakening 
 '"^^** the attachment which had existed between the native 
 
 soldier and his En^-lish officer, another deteriorating: 
 agent was at work with still more fatal effect. The 
 Staff was carrying off all the best officers, and un- 
 settling the rest. As the red line of British Empire 
 extended itself around new provinces, and the admi- 
 nistrative business of the State Avas thus largely in- 
 creased, there was a demand for more workmen than 
 the Civil Service could supply, and the military esta- 
 blishment of the Company was, therefore, indented 
 upon for officers to fill the numerous civil and poli- 
 tical posts thus opened out before them. Extensive 
 surveys were to be conducted, great public works 
 were to be executed, ncAv irregular regiments Avere to 
 
THE DRAINAGE OF THE STAFF. 261 
 
 be raised, and territories not made subject to the ] 822-35. 
 *' regulations" were, for the most part, to be adminis- 
 tered by military men. More lucrative, and held to 
 be more honourable than common regimental duty, 
 these appointments were eagerly coveted by the officers 
 of the Company's army. The temptation, indeed, 
 v/as great. The means of marrying, of providing for 
 a family, of securing a retreat to Europe before en- 
 feebled by years or broken down by disease, were 
 presented to the officer by this detached employment. 
 And if these natural feelings were not paramount, 
 there was the strong incentive of ambition or the 
 purer desire to enter upon a career of more a/:tive 
 utility. The number of officers with a regiment was 
 thus reduced ; but numbers are not strength, and 
 still fewer might have sufficed, if they had been a 
 chosen few. But of those who remained some lived 
 in a state of restless expectancy, others were sunk 
 in sullen despair. It was not easy to find a Sepoy 
 officer, pure and simple, with no aspirations beyond 
 his regiment, cheerful, content, indeed, proud of his 
 position. All that was gone. The officer ceased to 
 rejoice in his work, and the men saw his heart was 
 not with them. 
 
 There were some special circumstances, too, which 
 at this time — during the administrations of Lord 
 Amherst and Lord William Bentinck — tended to 
 aggravate these deteriorating influences both upon 
 the officers and the men of the Sepoy regiments. 
 Since the subsidence of the spirit of disaffection, 
 which had pervaded the Coast Army in 1806, there 
 had been no obtrusive manifestations of discontent in 
 the Sepoy's mind. He had done his duty faithfully 
 and gallantly in the great wars, which Lord Hastings 
 
262 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1822. had conducted to a triumphant issue ; but when peace 
 came again, he again, after a while, began to take 
 stock of his troubles and to listen to strange reports. 
 One more illustration may be drawn from Madras, 
 before the Bengal Army claims a monopoly of the 
 record. In the early spring of 1 822 . a paper was 
 dropped in the Cavalry Lines of Arcot, setting forth 
 MahoTTiedan that the followers of Mahome d, having been sub- 
 jected to the power of the English, suffered great 
 hardships — that being so subjected^ their prayers were 
 not acceptable to the Almighty, and that, therefore, 
 in great numbers they were dying of cholera morbus 
 — that the curse of God was upon them ; and that, 
 therefore, it behoved them to make a great eifort for 
 the sake of their religion. There were countless 
 Hindoos and Mussulmans between Arcot and Delhi. 
 But the Europeans being few, it would be easy to slay 
 the whole in one day. Let them but combine, and 
 the result would be certain. There was no time, it 
 said, to be lost. The English had taken all the 
 Jagheers and Inams of the people of the soil, and 
 '^ now they were about to deprive them of employment. 
 A number of European regiments had been called 
 for, and in the course of six months all the native 
 battalions would be disbanded. Let, then, the senior 
 Soubahdar of each regiment instruct the other Sou- 
 bahdars, and let them instruct the Jemadars, and so 
 on, till all the Sepoys were instructed, and the same 
 being done at Yellore, at Chittore, at Madras, and 
 other places, then, on a given signal, the whole 
 should rise on one day. The day fixed was Sunday, 
 the 17th of March. A Naick and ten Sepoys were 
 to proceed at midnight to the house of each Eu- 
 ropean, and kill him, without remorse, in his bed. 
 This done, the regiments would be placed under the 
 
GRIEVANCES OF THE SOLDIERY. 263 
 
 command of the native officers, and tlie Soubahdars 1822. 
 should have the pay of Colonels. It was always thus. 
 It is always thus. A little for the Faith, and all for 
 the Pocket. 
 
 From whomsoever this paper may have emanated, 
 the attempt to corrupt the Sepoys was a failure. It 
 was picked up in the Lines of the Sixth Cavalry, and 
 another nearly resembling it was dropped in the Lines 
 of the Eighth — but both were carried at once to the 
 commanding officer of the station. Colonel Foulis 
 took his measures with promptitude and vigour. He 
 assembled the regimental commanders, imparted to 
 them the contents of the paper, and desired them to 
 place themselves in communication with the native 
 officers whom they most trusted. Having done this, 
 he wrote to the commandants of the several stations 
 named in the paper. But they could see no signs of 
 disaffection ; and the appointed day passed by without 
 even an audible murmur of discontent. But not 
 many days afterwards, the_Governor of Madras re- Sir Thon.aa 
 ceived by the post a letter in Hindostanee, purporting 
 to come from the principal native officers and Sepoys^ 
 of the Army, setting forth the grievances under which 
 they suffered as a body. The complaint was that all 
 the wealth and all the honour went to the white 
 Sirdars, especially to the civilians, whilst for the 
 soldier there was nothing but labour and grief. " If 
 we Sepoys take a countr}^," they said, " by the sword, 
 these whore-son cowardly civil Sirdars enter that 
 country and rule over it, and in a short time till 
 their coffers with money and go to Europe — but if a 
 Sepoy labour all his life, he is not tive couries the 
 better." Under the Mahomedan Government, it had 
 been different, for when victories were gained, 
 Jagheers were given to the soldiers, and high offices 
 
 Munro. 
 
 V 
 
2G4 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1S22. distributed among them. But under the Company, 
 everything was given to the Civil Service. " A single 
 Collector's peon has an authority and greatness in the 
 country which cannot be expressed. But that peon 
 does not tight like a Sepoy." Such, in effect, was the 
 plaint of the native soldiery, as conveyed to Governor 
 Munro. It may have been the work of an individual, 
 as might have been also the papers picked up in the 
 lines of Arcot ; but it is certain that both documents 
 expressed sentiments which may be supposed at all 
 times to lie embedded in the Sepoy's mind, and which 
 need but little to bring them, fully developed, above 
 the surface.* 
 
 The relations between the English officer and the 
 native soldier were better then than they had been 
 sixteen years before. But these relations were sadly 
 Aveakened, and a heavy blow was given to the disci- 
 pline and efficiency of the Indian army, when, two 
 years later, the military establishments of the Three 
 
 The Rcorga- Presidencies were reorganised. Then every regiment 
 of two battalions became two separate regiments, and 
 the officers attached to the original corps were told off 
 alternately to its two parts — " all the odd or uneven 
 
 May 6, 1S24. numbers," said the General Order, "to the first, and 
 the even numbers to the second ;" by which process it 
 liappened that a large number of officers were detached 
 from the men with whom they had been associated 
 throughout many years of active service. The evil 
 of this Avas clearly seen at the time, and a feeble com- 
 promise was attempted. "It is not intended," said 
 the General Order, " that in carrying the present 
 orders into effect, officers should be permanently re- 
 moved from the particular battalion in which they 
 
 * It was to this event that Sir markable minute on the dangers of 
 Thomas Munro alluded in his re- a Free Press in India. 
 
WAR WITH BURMAU. 2Go 
 
 may long have served and wished to remahi, provided 1524:. 
 that by an interchange between officers standing the 
 same number of removes from promotion, each could 
 be retained in his particular battalion, and both 
 are willing 4:o make the exchange." In eiFect^ this 
 amounted to little or nothing, and a large number of 
 officers drifted away from the battalions in which 
 they had been reared from boyhood, and strangers 
 glided into their place. 
 
 Bad as at any time must have been such a change Tlie Burmese 
 as this, in its influence upon the morale of the Sepoy ^^* 
 army, the evil was greatly enhanced by falling upon 
 evil times. The best preservative, and the best re- 
 storative of military spirit and discipline, is commonly 
 a good stirring war. But the Sepoy, though not un- 
 willing to fight, was somewhat dainty and capricious 
 about his fighting-ground. A. battle-field in Hin- 
 dostan or the Deccan was to his taste ; but he was 
 disquieted by the thought of serving in strange 
 regions, of which he had heard only vague fables, 
 beyond inaccessible mountain -ranges, or still more 
 dreaded wildernesses of water. With the high-caste, 
 fastidious Bengal Sepoy the war with Burmah was 
 not, therefore, a popular war. The Madras Sepoy, 
 more cosmopolitan and less nice, took readily to the 
 transport vessel ; and a large part of the native force 
 was drawn from the Coast Army. But some Bengal 
 regiments were also needed to take part in the opera- 
 tions of the war, and then the system began to fail 
 us. To transport troops by sea from Calcutta to 
 Rangoon would have been an easy process. But the 
 Bengal Sepoy had enlisted only for service in coun- 
 tries to which he could march ; to take ship was not 
 in his bond. The regiments, therefore, were marched 
 to the frontier station of Chittagong, and there as- 
 
266 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1824. sembled for tlie landward invasion of the Burmese 
 country. 
 
 Without any apparent symptoms of discontent, 
 The iMutiny some corps had already marched, when, in October, the 
 pore.^^^^^ " incident occurred of which I am about to write, an in- 
 cident which created a most powerful sensation from 
 one end of India to the other, and tended greatly to 
 impair the loyalty and discipline of the Bengal Sepoy. 
 The Forty-seventh Regiment had been warned for 
 foreign service, and was waiting at Barrackpore, a 
 few miles from the Presidency, whilst preparations 
 were being made for its march in the cold weather. 
 To wait is often to repent. Inactive in cantonments 
 during the rainy season, and in daily intercourse 
 with the men of other regiments, who had been 
 warned for the same service, the Forty-seventh, unin^ 
 fluenced by any other external causes, would have 
 lost any ardour which might have possessed them 
 when first ordered to march against a barbarous 
 enemy who had insulted their flag. But it happened 
 that ominous tidings of disaster came to them from 
 the theatre of war The British troops had sustained 
 a disaster at Ramoo, the proportions of which had 
 been grossly exaggerated in the recital, and it was 
 believed that the Burmese, having cut up our batta- 
 lions, or driven them into the sea, were sweeping on 
 to the invasion of Bengal. The native newspapers 
 bristled with alarming announcements of how the 
 Commander-in-Chief had been killed in action and 
 the Governor-General had poisoned himself in de- 
 spair; and there was a belief throughout all the 
 loAver provinces of India that the rule of the Company 
 was coming to an end. The fidelity of the Sepoy 
 army requires the stimulus of continued success. 
 Nothing tries it so fatally as disaster. When, 
 
THE TROOPS AT BARRACKPORE. 267 
 
 therefore, news came that the war had opened with a 1S24. 
 great failure, humiliating to the British power, and 
 all kinds of strange stories relating to the difficulties 
 of the country to be traversed, the deadliness of the 
 climate to be endured, and the prowess of the enemy 
 to be encountered, forced their way into circulation 
 in the Bazaars and in the Lines, the willingness 
 which the Sepoys had once shown to take part in 
 the operations beyond the frontier began to subside, 
 and they were eager to find a pretext for refusing to 
 march on such hazardous service. And, unhappily, 
 one was soon found. There was a scarcity of avail- 
 able carriage-cattle for the movement of the troops. 
 Neither bullocks nor drivers were to be hired, and 
 fabulous prices were demanded from purchasers for 
 wretched starvelings not equal to a day's journey. 
 For the use of the regiments which had already 
 marched, Bengal had been well-nigh swept out, and 
 the reports which had since arrived rendered it diffi- 
 cult to persuade men voluntarily to accompany as 
 camp-followers an expedition fraught with such pecu* 
 liar perils. All the effi^rts of the Commissariat failed 
 to obtain the required supply of cattle ; and so the 
 Sepoys were told to supply themselves. In this con- 
 juncture, it would seem that a new lie was circulated 
 through the Lines of Barrackpore. It was said that 
 as the Bengal regiments could not, for want of cattle, 
 be marched to Chittagong, they would be put on 
 board ship and carried to Rangoon, across the Bay 
 of Bengal. Murmurs of discontent then developed 
 into oaths of resistance. The regiments warned for 
 service in Burmah met in nightly conclave, and 
 vowed not to cross the sea. 
 
 Still foremost in this movement, the Forty-seventh 
 Regiment was commanded by Colonel Cartwright. 
 
2 08 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1824. Rightly measuring the difficulty, and moved with 
 compassion for the Sepoy, who really had just ground 
 of complaint, he offered to provide cattle from his 
 private funds ; and all the refuse animals, either too 
 old or too young for service, were got together, and 
 the Government offered to advance money for their 
 purchase. But the terrible ban of " Too Late" w^as 
 written across these conciliatory measures. The re- 
 giment was already tainted with the ineradicable virus 
 of mutiny, which soon broke out on parade. The 
 Sepoys declared that they would not proceed to 
 Burmah by sea, and that they would not march 
 unless they w^ere guaranteed the increased allowances 
 known in the jargon of the East as " double batta." 
 This was on the 30th of October. On the 1st of 
 November, another parade was summoned. The be- 
 haviour of the Sepoys w^as worse than before — violent, 
 outrageous, not to be forgiven ; and they remained 
 masters of the situation throughout both the day and 
 night. Then the Commander-in-Chief appeared on 
 the scene. A hard, strict disciplinarian, wdth no 
 knowledge of the native army, and a bitter prejudice 
 against it, Sir Edward Paget w^as a man of the very 
 metal to tread dow^n insurrection with an iron heel, 
 regardless both of causes and of consequences. He 
 carried with him to Barrackpore tw^o European regi- 
 ments, a battery of European artillery, and a troop 
 of the Governor-General's Body-guard. Next morn- 
 ing the native regiments found themselves in the 
 presence of the English troops ; but still they did not 
 know the peril that awaited them, and, with a child- 
 like obstinacy, they were not to be moved from their 
 purpose of resistance. Some attempt w^as made at 
 explanation — some attempt at conciliation. But it 
 was feeble and ineffectual ; perhaps not understood. 
 
THE BAURACKPORE MASSACRE. 269 
 
 They were told, then, that they must consent to 182 A. 
 march, or to ground their arms. Still not seeing 
 the danger, for they were not told that the Artillery 
 guns Avere loaded with grape, and the gunners ready 
 to fire,* they refused to obey the word ; and so the 
 signal for slaughter Avas given. The guns opened 
 upon them. The mutineers Avere soon in panic flight. 
 Throwing aAvay their arms and accoutrements, they 
 made for the river. Some Avere shot doAvn ; some 
 were drowned. There Avas no attempt at battle. 
 None had been contemplated. The muskets Avith 
 Avhich the ground Avas strewn were found to be un • 
 loaded. 
 
 Then the formalities of the military law were called 
 in to aid the stern decisions of the grape-shot. Some 
 of the leading mutineers Avere convicted, and hanged ; 
 and the regiment was struck out of the Army List. 
 But this display of vigour, though it checked mutiny 
 for the time, tended only to soav broadcast the seeds 
 of future insubordinations. It created a bad moral 
 efl'ect throughout the Avhole of the Bengal army. 
 From Bazaar to Bazaar the ncAvs of the massacre ran 
 Avith a speed almost telegraphic. The regiments, 
 Avhich had already marched to the frontier, Avere dis- 
 cussing the evil tidings with mingled di^^may and dis- 
 gust before the intelligence, sent by special express, 
 had reached the ears of the British chiefs. "They 
 are your OAvn men whom you have been destroying," 
 said an old native officer; and he could not trust 
 himself to say more.f The Bengal regiments, Avith 1825. 
 the expeditionary force, had soon a grievance of 
 their oaa^, and the remembrance of this dark tragedy 
 
 * It is doubtful, indeed, wlietlier Burmese War." By T. C. Robertson 
 
 ihey knew that the guns were in the to whom was entrusted the political 
 
 rear of the European regiments. conduct of the war. 
 
 j- "Political Incidents of tiis first 
 
270 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1823. increased the bitterness with which they discussed it. 
 The high-caste men were writhing under an order 
 which, on the occupation of Arracan, condemned the 
 whole body of the soldiery to work, as labourers, in 
 the construction of their barracks and lines. The 
 English soldier fell to with a v/ill ; the Madras Sepoy 
 cheerfully followed his example. But the Bengal 
 soldier asked if Brahmins and Rajpoots were to be 
 treated like Coolies, and, for a while, there was an 
 apprehension that it might become necessary to make 
 another terrible example after the Barrackpore pat- 
 tern. But this was fortunately averted. General 
 Morrison called a parade, and addressed the recusants. 
 The speech, sensible and to the point, was translated 
 by Captain Phillips ; and so adnurable was his free 
 rendering of it, so perfect the manner in which he 
 clothed it with familiar language, making every word 
 carry a meaning, every sentence strike some chord of 
 sympathy in the Sepoy's breast, that when he had 
 done, the high-caste Hindostanees looked at each 
 other, understood what they read in their comrades' 
 faces, and forthwith stripped to their work. 
 
 Thus was an incipient mutiny checked by a few 
 telling words. And the sad event which had gone 
 before might have been averted also if there had 
 been as much tact and address as " promptitude and 
 decision." A few sentences of well-chosen, well-de- 
 livered Hindostanee, on tViat fatal November morning, 
 might have brought the Sepoys back to reason and 
 to loyalty. But they had the benefit of neither wise 
 counsel from within nor kindly exhortation from 
 without. Deprived, by the reconstruction of the 
 Army, of the officers whom they had long known and 
 trusted, they were more than ever in need of external 
 aid to brlnfr them back to a ridit state of feelino:. 
 
 v3 O O 
 
HALF-BATTA. 271 
 
 They wanted a General of Division, such as Malcohn 1825-35. 
 or Ochterlony, to reawaken their soldierly instincts — 
 their pride in their colours, their loyalty to their 
 Salt. But, instead of such judicious treatment as 
 would have shown them their own folly, as in a glass, 
 the martinets of the Horse Guards, stern in their 
 unsympathising ignorance, their ruthless prejudices, 
 had, in our own territories, at the very seat of go- 
 vernment, in the presence of no pressing danger, no 
 other lessons to teach, no other remedies to apply, 
 than those which were to be administered at the 
 bayonet's point and the cannon's mouth. 
 
 With the return of peace came ncAV disquietudes. Tlie Half- 
 A reign of Retrenchment commenced. Alarmed by 
 the expenses of their military establishments, the 
 Company sent out imperative orders for their reduc- 
 tion — orders more than once issued before, more than 
 once disobeyed. Blows of this kind commonly fall 
 upon the weakest — upon those least able to endure 
 them. So it happened that the condition of the re- 
 gimental officer having, by a variety of antecedent 
 circumstances, been shorn of well-nigh all its advan- 
 tages, was rendered still more grievous and intolerable 
 by the curtailment of his pecuniary allowances. An 
 order, known in military history as the Half-Batta 
 Order, was passed, by which all officers stationed 
 within ^ certain distance from the Presidency were 
 deprived of a large per-centage of their pay.* The 
 order excited the utmost dismay throughout the 
 Army ; but the discontent which it engendered vented 
 itself in words. Twice before the officers of the Com- 
 pany's army had resented similar encroachments, and 
 
 * Or, in strict professional Ian- former, which was small, was en- 
 
 guage, his allowances. The frross hanced by several substantial acces- 
 
 salary of an Indian officer was known sories, as tent age, house-rent, and 
 
 as his '*pay and allowances." Tlie batta, or field allowance. 
 
272 THE SEPOr ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1825-35 had been prepared to strike in defence of their asserted 
 rights. But this last bloAV did not rouse them to re- 
 bellion. Never before had justice and reason been so 
 clearly upon their side ; but, keenly as they felt their 
 wrongs, they did not threaten the Government they 
 served, but loyally protested against the treatment to 
 which they had been subjected. The humours of 
 which their memorials could not wholly relieve them, 
 a Press, virtually free, carried off like a great conduit. 
 The excitement expended itself in newspaper para- 
 graphs, and gradually subsided. But it left behind it 
 an after-growth of unanticipated evils. The little zeal 
 that was left in the regimental officer was thus crushed 
 out of him, and the Sepoy, who had watched the 
 decline, little by little, of the power once vested in 
 the English captain, now saw him injured and humi- 
 liated by his Government, without any power of 
 resistance ; saw that he was no longer under the 
 special protection of the State, and so lost all respect 
 for an instrument so feeble and so despised. 
 Abolition of And as though it were a laudable achievement 
 
 nj^shment."^''' ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^ '^^^ "^^^^'^ soldier of all fear of his 
 European officer, another order went forth during 
 the same interval of peace, abolishing the punishment 
 of the lash throughout the Sepoy army in India. So 
 little was he a drunkard and a ruffian, that it was a 
 rare spectacle to see a black soldier writhing under 
 the drummer's cat. But when the penalty, though 
 still retained in the European army, became illegal 
 and impossible among them, the native soldiery felt 
 that another blow was struck at military authority — 
 another tie of restraint unloosed. It was looked upon 
 less as a boon than as a concession — less as the growth 
 of our humanity than of our fear. So the Sepoy did 
 not love us bette*^- but held us a little more in con- 
 tempt. 
 
GENERAL DETERIORATION. 
 
 There were great diversities of sentiment upon this 18S2. 
 point, and some, whose opinions were entitled to 
 respect, believed in the wisdom of the measure. But 
 the weight of authority was against it,* and, some 
 ten years afterwards, Hardinge revived what Ben- 
 tinck had abolished. But even before the act of 
 abolition, by a variety of concurrent causes, the 
 character and the conduct of the Sepoy Army were 
 so impaired, that an officer who had served long 
 with them, and knew them well, declared, in his 
 evidence before a Committee of Parliament, that *' in 
 all the higher qualifications of soldiers, in devoted- 
 ness to the service, readiness for any duty they may 
 be called upon to perform, cheerfulness under priva- 
 tions, confidence and attachment to their officers, un- 
 hesitating and un calculating bravery in the field, 
 without regard either to the number or the character 
 of the enemy, the native soldier is allowed by all the 
 best-informed officers of the service, by those who 
 have most experience, and are best acquainted with 
 their character, to have infinitely deteriorated. "t 
 
 * Numerous illustrations might be 
 cited, but none more significant (ban 
 the following anecdote, told by Mr. 
 Ciiarles Raikes : " I recollect a con- 
 versation wliich I had in 1839 with 
 an old pensioned Soubahdar. I in- 
 quired of him how the measure would 
 work. He replied, that the abolition 
 of the punishment would induce some 
 classes to enter the Army wlio had 
 not done so before. *But, Sahib/ 
 
 said the old man, * Fouj-beh-durr 
 hofjya^ (The Army has ceased to 
 fear.)" Another native officer said : 
 " The English, to manage us rightly, 
 should hold the whip in one hand 
 and the nehtoys (sweetmeats) in the 
 other. You have dropped the whip, 
 and now hold out sweets to us in 
 botli hands." 
 
 f Evidence of Captain Macau ia 
 1832. 
 
274 THE SEPOY AEMV — ITS DECLINE, 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN — PERNICIOUS EFFECTS OF DEFEAT— THE AN- 
 NEXATION OF SCINDE — RESULTS OF EXTENSION OF EMPIRE— THE INDUS 
 ALLOWANCES — MUTINY OF THE THIRTY-FOURTH [SESIMENT — EMBARRASS- 
 MENTS OF GOVERNMENT— THE MARCH OF THE SIXTY' FOURTH — MUTINY 
 AT SHIKARPORE — DISAFFECTION IN THE MADRAS ARMY. 
 
 The War in Peace is never long-lived in India, and the Army 
 ^iTa'b.'^'^* was soon again in the bustle and excitement of active 
 service. There was a long war ; and, if it had been a 
 glorious one, it might have had a salutary effect upon 
 the disposition of the Sepoy. But when all his sol- 
 dierly qualities were thus, as it were, at the last gasp, 
 the War in Afghanistan came to teach him a new 
 lesson, and the worst, at that time, which he could 
 have been taught. He learnt then, for the first time, 
 that a British army is not invincible in the field; 
 that the great " Ikhbal," or Fortune, of the Company, 
 which had carried us gloriously through so many 
 great enterprises, might sometimes disastrously fail us ; 
 lie saw the proud colours of the British nation defiled 
 in the bloody snows of Afghanistan, and he believed 
 that our reign was hastening to a close. The charm 
 of a century of conquest was then broken. In all 
 parts of Upper India it was the talk of the Bazaars 
 that the tide of victory had turned against the Fe- 
 ringhees, and that they would soon be driven into 
 
THE AFGHAN WAR. 27 J 
 
 the sea. Then the Sikh arose and the Mahratta be- 1841-42. 
 stirred himself, rejoicing in our humiliation, and 
 eagerly watching the next move. Then it was that 
 those amongst us, who knew best what was seething 
 in the heart of Indian society, were "ashamed to 
 look a native in the face." The crisis was a perilous 
 one, and the most experienced Indian statesmen re- 
 garded it with dismay, not knowing what a day 
 might produce. They had no faith in our allies, no 1S42, 
 faith in our soldiery. An Army of Retribution, under 
 a wise and trusted leader, went forth to restore the 
 tarnished lustre of the British name ; but ominous 
 whispers soon came from his camp that that Army 
 was tainted — that the Sepoy regiments, no longer 
 assured and fortified by the sight of that ascendant 
 Star of Fortune which once had shone with so bright 
 and steady a light, shrunk from entering the passes 
 which had been the grave of so many of their com- 
 rades. It was too true. The Sikhs were tampering 
 with their fidelity. Brahmin emissaries were endea- 
 vouring to swear them on the Holy Water not to 
 advance at the word of the English commander. 
 Nightly meetings of delegates from the different re- 
 giments wxre being held; and, perhaps, we do not 
 even now know how great was the danger. But the 
 sound discretion and excellent tact of Pollock, aided 
 by the energies of Henry Lawrence and Richmond 
 Shakespear, brought the Sepoys to a better temper, 
 and, when the word was given, they entered the 
 dreaded passes, and, confiding in their leader, car- 
 ried victory with them up to the walls of the Afghan 
 capital. 
 
 The Sepoy did his duty well under Pollock. He 
 had done his duty well under Nott, who spoke with 
 admiration of his " beautiful regiments," and man- 
 
 T 2 
 
276 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1S43. fully resented any imputation cast upon tliem. And 
 when, after the British Army had been disentangled 
 from the defiles of Afghanistan, war was made against 
 the Ameers of Scinde, the Sepoy went gallantly to 
 the encounter with the fierce Belloochee fighting- 
 man, and Napier covered him with praise. Then 
 there was another war, and the native regiments of 
 the Company went bravely up the slopes of Maha- 
 rajpore, and turned not aside from the well-planted, 
 well-manned batteries of the turbulent Mahrattas. 
 But peace came, and with peace its dangers. Scinde 
 had become a British province, and the Sepoy, who 
 had helped to conquer, had no wish to garrison the 
 country. 
 I^psulfsofthe The direct and immediate result of well-nigh every 
 Sdride!^ annexation of Territory, by which our Indian empire 
 has been extended, may be clearly discerned in the 
 shattered discipline of the Sepoy Army. To extend 
 our empire without increasing our means of defence 
 was not theoretically unreasonable ; for it might 
 have been supposed that as the number of our enemies 
 was reduced by conquest and subjection, the necessity 
 for the maintenance of a great standing army was 
 diminished rather than increased. These annexations, 
 it was said, consolidated our own territories by eradi- 
 cating some native principality in the midst of them, 
 or else substituted one frontier, and perhaps a securer 
 one, for another. But the security of our empire lay 
 in the fidelity of our soldiery. To diminish the num- 
 ber of our enemies, and to extend the area of the 
 country to be occupied by our troops, was at the same 
 time to diminish the importance of the Sepoy, and to 
 render his service more irksome to him ; for it sent 
 him to strange places far away from his home, to do 
 the work of military Police. It frittered away in small 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF ANNEXATION. 277 
 
 detached bodies the limited European force at the dis- 1S43-44. 
 posal of the Indian Government, or massed large ones 
 on a distant frontier. This extension of territory, 
 indeed, whilst it made us more dependent upon our 
 native troops, made that dependence more hazardous. 
 The conversion of Scinde into a British province, by 
 which our long line of annexations was commenced, 
 had burnt this truth into our history before Lord 
 Dalhousie appeared upon the scene. For indeed it 
 was a sore trial to the Sepoy to be posted in a 
 dreary outlying graveyard of this kind, far away 
 from his home and his people — far beyond the limits 
 of the empire in which he had enlisted to serve. 
 And when it was proposed to take from him the 
 additional allowances, which had been issued to the 
 troops, on active service in an enemy's country, on 
 the plea that they had subsided into the occupation 
 of British cantonments, he resented this severe logic, 
 and rose against the retrenchment. He did not see 
 why, standing upon the same ground, he should not 
 receive the same pay, because the red line of the 
 British boundary had been extended by a flourish of 
 the pen, and the population of the country had by 
 the same magic process been converted into British 
 subjects ; and still less easily could he reconcile him- 
 self to the decision when he thought that the Sepoy 
 himself had contributed to bring about the result that 
 was so injurious to him ; that he had helped to win 
 a province for his employers, and, in return for this 
 good service, had been deprived of part of his pay. 
 In the old time, when the Company's troops con- ^' 
 quered a country, they had profited in many ways by| 
 the achievement, but now they were condemned to, 
 suffer as though gallantry were a crime. 
 
 In more than a camel-load of documents the story 
 
278 THE SEPOi: army — its decline. 
 
 1814. lies recorded ; but it must be briefly narrated hc^e 
 Mntinyof the ]n the mouth of February, 1844, Governor-General 
 11 y-ouri. j]iigi^}3Qj.Qygl^^ being then absent from his Council in 
 the Upper Provinces, received the disheartening in- 
 telligence that the Thirty-fourth Sepoy Regiment of 
 Bengal, which had been warned for service in Scinde, 
 had been halted at Ferozepore. It had refused to 
 enter our newly-acquired province, unless its services 
 Avere purchased by the grant of the additional allow- 
 ances given to the soldiery beyond the Indus in time 
 of war. The distressino^ character of the intellio^ence 
 was aggravated by many circumstances of time and 
 place. In a moment, Ellenborough's quick percep- 
 tions had grappled the whole portentous truth. Our 
 troops were mutinjang for pay, on the Punjab 
 frontier, almost in the presence of the disorderly 
 masses of Sikh troops, who, gorged with the donatives 
 they had forced from a weak Government, were then 
 dominating the empire. Other regiments were coming 
 up, on the same service, who might be expected to 
 follow the rebellious lead of the Thirty-fourth ; and 
 so EUenborough and Napier might have four^'^ them- 
 selves with "the province they had just conquered on 
 their hands, and no means of securing its military 
 occupation, wifhout destroying the authority of Go- 
 vernment by humiliating concessions. 
 
 In this conjuncture, the first thing that Ellen- 
 borough did was the best that could have been done. 
 He delegated to the Commander-in-Chief the full 
 powers of the Governor-General in Council for the 
 suppression of mutiny in the Army. But, how were 
 those powers to be exercised ? Doubt and perplexity, 
 and something nearly approaching consternation, per- 
 vaded Army Head-Quarters. The Seventh Bengal 
 Cavalry, on the line of march to the frontier, had 
 
PROGRESS OF MUTINY. 279 
 
 brolcen into open mutiny, and in spite of all the ef- 1S44. 
 forts of their officers, who had guaranteed to pay them 
 from their own funds the allowances they demanded, 
 the troopers had refused to obey the trumpet-call to 
 inarch, and were halted, therefore, sullen and obsti- 
 nate, in the neighbourhood of Ferozepore. Some 
 companies of Native Artillery had already refused 
 to march, and there were rumours of other resri- 
 ments beino; on the eve of declarino; their refusal. 
 The most obvious course, under such circumstances, 
 was to march the recusant regiments back to one or 
 more of the large stations, as Loodhianah and Meerut, . 
 where European troops were posted, and there to 
 disband them. But sinister whispers were abroad that 
 the sympathies of the Europeans, in this instance, were 
 with the native soldiery. One regiment of the Line, 
 it was reported, had openly declared that it would not 
 act against the Sepoys, who were demanding no more 
 than their rights. There were Sikh emissaries from 
 beyond the Sutlej doing their best to debauch the 
 Sepoys by offering both their sympathy and their 
 assistance. Dick, the General of Division, declared 
 his belief that an order to the mutineers to march 
 back for disbandment would not be obeyed ; and a 
 violent collision at such a time would have set the 
 whole frontier in a blaze. The project of disbandment 
 was, therefore, suspended ; and all the more readily, as 
 even at Head- Quarters there was a belief that, al- 
 though the recusant troops might have had no reason- 
 able ground of complaint, the actual state of the case 
 with respect to the Scinde pay and allowances had not 
 been properly explained to them.* 
 
 * Tlie extraordinary allowances — Indus in 1838, on their marcli to 
 
 the withdrawal of which iiad created Candaliar and Caubul. They were 
 
 all this ill feeling — were originally withdrawn from the troops in Scinde 
 
 granted when the troops crossed the early in 1840, when there seemed to 
 
280 THE SEPOY ARMY— ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1S44.. Uncondemned, the mutinous regiments were or- 
 
 dered back to the stations from which they had 
 marched, to await the result of a reference to the 
 Governor -General; and other corps, warned for 
 the Scinde service, came up to the frontier. Dick's 
 first and wisest impulse had been to halt the re- 
 giments marching to Ferozepore, in order that 
 they might not run the risk of contamination by 
 the tainted corps, or the corrupting influence of 
 the Sikhs. But, by some strange fatality, this judi- 
 cious measure had been revoked ; the regiments 
 marched to the frontier; and Dick's difficulties in- 
 Tlie Sixty- creased. The Sixty-ninth refused to embark, unless 
 Fourth^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ Indus allowances were guaranteed to them. 
 By the exertions of the officers, one-half of the regi- 
 ment was afterwards brought round to a sense of 
 their duty ; they loaded their carriage cattle, marched 
 to the banks of the river, and declared their willing- 
 ness to embark on the boats. They ought to have 
 been embarked at once with the colours of their 
 regiment. Their comrades would then have followed 
 them ; and other regiments, moved by the good ex- 
 ample, might also have asserted their fidelity. But the 
 golden opportunity was lost ; and all example was in 
 the way of evil. The Fourth Regiment, trusted over- 
 much by its commanders, followed the Sixty-ninth 
 into mutiny at Ferozepore, and such was the conduct 
 of the Sepoys, that Philip Goldney, a man of equal 
 courage and capacity, suddenly called to the scene 
 of tumult, drew upon one of the foremost oi the 
 mutineers, and a younger officer, moved to passion 
 
 be no lonj^er any extraordinary duties were restored; but tliey were afrain 
 
 to be performed by them. Wlien reduced from the 1st of July, 1843, 
 
 the insurrection broke out in Af- after the close of the war in Af^hau- 
 
 glianistan, and retributory opjerations istan and the conquest of Scinde. 
 were commenced, the allowances 
 
CONDUCT OF THE SIXTY-FOURTH. 281 
 
 by their violence, struck out with a bayonet, and 1S41.. 
 wounded two soldiers in the face. Those were days 
 when mutiny did not mean massacre, and the Sepoy 
 did not turn upon his officer. But neither regiment 
 would march. On many hard-fought fields Sir Robert 
 Dick had proved himself to be a good soldier, but 
 he was not equal to such a crisis as this : so Ellen- 
 borough at once ordered him to be cushioned in some 
 safer place. 
 
 In the mean while, aid to the embarrassed Govern- 
 ment was coming from an unexpected quarter. The 
 Sixty-fourth Regiment of Sepoys had formed part of TheSlxiy. 
 that unfortunate detachment known in history as 
 Wilde's Brigade, which had been sent, before Pollock's 
 arrival at Peshawur, to carry the Khybur Pass, with- 
 out guns and without provisions. It had afterwards 
 served with credit during the second Afghan cam- 
 paign, since the close of which it had been cantoned 
 at the frontier station of Loodhianah. The Sepoys 
 had manifested a strong reluctance to serve in Scinde, 
 and had addressed to the Adjutant- General more 
 than one uvzee^ or petition, couched in language of 
 complaint almost akin to mutiny. From Loodhianah 
 the regiment had been ordered down to Benares. 
 On the 15th of February it reached Umballah, then 
 become the Head-Quarters of the Sirhind division of 
 the Army, which General Fast, an old officer of the 
 Company's service, commanded. Well able to con- 
 verse in the language of the country, and knowing, 
 from long intercourse with them, the character and 
 feelings of the native soldiery. Fast believed that 
 something might still be done to bring the regiment 
 back to its allegiance. So he halted the Sixty- fourth 
 at Umballah, and summoned the native officers to his 
 presence. Questioned as to the disposition of the 
 
282 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1844. regiment, they one and all declared that the men had 
 never refused to march to Scinde ; that they were 
 still willing to march ; that only on the evening 
 before the native officers had severally ascertained 
 the fact from their respective companies; that the 
 matter of the allowances would not influence the 
 Sepoys ; and that the mutinous urzees had emanated 
 only from a few bad characters in the regiment ; 
 perhaps, it was added, from a Sepoy who had been 
 already dismissed. From these and other representa- 
 tions, it appeared to the General that the Sixty-fourth 
 really desired to wipe out the stain, which the urzees 
 had fixed upon their character, and, believing in this, 
 he recommended that they should be permitted to 
 march to Scinde. Under certain stringent conditions, 
 the Commander-in-Chief adopted the recommenda- 
 tion ; and so Moseley, with his Sepoys, again turned 
 ,his face towards the Indus. 
 
 The disposition of the regiment now seemed to be 
 so good ; it was marching with such apparent cheer- 
 fulness towards the dreaded regions, and setting so 
 good an example to others, that the Commander-in- 
 Chief was minded to stimulate its alacrity, and to 
 reward its returning fidelity, by a voluntary tender of 
 special pay and pension, and relaxations of the terms 
 of service.* The language of these instructions w^as 
 somewhat vague, and Moseley, eager to convey glad 
 
 * "In addition to the full or unhealthy, and under no clrcum- 
 
 marching batta always allowed to stances be kept in Scinde beyond 
 
 regiments serving in Scinde, still two years, while the indulgence of 
 
 liiglier advantages in regard to pay, furlough to visit their homes will, in 
 
 together with the benefits of the re- the latter case, be extended to the 
 
 gulated family pension to the heirs men in the proportion enjoyed by 
 
 of those who may die from disease corps located at stations within the 
 
 contracted on service." The com- British frontier." — \_The Adjutant- 
 
 manding officer was also instructed General to Colonel Moseley, March 
 
 "to make known to the corps that 15, 1844.] Scinde, however, had 
 
 it sliail be brought back to a station become a British "province," and 
 
 in the provinces in one year in the was "within the British frontier." 
 event of the ensning season proving 
 
COLONEL MOSELEY AND THE SIXTY-FOLTiin. 283 
 
 tidings to his men, turned the vagueness to account 1844. 
 by exaggerating the boon that was offered to them. 
 And so the error of Head-Quarters v/as made doubly 
 erroneous, and the Govern or- General was driven wild 
 by the blunder of the Commander-in-Chief. 
 
 Whatsoever Head-Quarters might have intended to 
 grant, was contingent upon the good conduct of the 
 regiment. But before the letter had been received by 
 Moseley, on the line of march, mutiny had again 
 broken out in the ranks of the Sixty-fourth. At 
 Moodkhee, now so famous in the annals of Indian 
 warfare, the regiment, not liking the route that had 
 been taken, assumed a threatening front, and at- 
 tempted to seize the colours.* The petulance of the 
 hour was suppressed, and next day the regiment re- 
 sumed its march. But transitory as was the out- 
 break, it was mutiny in one of its worst forms. 
 On the second day, the Colonel received, at Tibbee, 
 the letter from Head-Quarters, on the subject of 
 the additional alloAvances. The outbreak at Mood- 
 khee had converted it into an historical document, to 
 be quietly put aside for purposes of future record. It 
 was, indeed, a dead letter. The fatal words " too 
 late" were already written across the page. But 
 Moseley laid eager hands upon it, as a living reality, 
 for present uses. The Sixty -fourth was plainly in an 
 excitable state. It had mutinied once on tho march, 
 and, Avithout the application of some very powerful 
 sedative, it might mutiny again. The outbreak at 
 Moodkhee had not been reported to Head-Quarters. 
 It might pass into oblivion as an ugly dream of the 
 past ; and the future might be rendered peaceful and 
 prosperous by the letter of the Adjutant-General. So 
 
 * It was advisable to march the either coming from that province or 
 
 troops proceeding to Scinde along a stationed on the frontier ; and it was 
 
 rraite which would not bring them especially desirable to mask Teroze- 
 
 into contact with other regiments, pore. 
 
284 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1841. Moseley, having caused it to be translated into Hin- 
 dostanee, summoned a parade, and ordered it to be 
 read aloud to his men. 
 
 Tremendous as was this error — for it tendered to 
 the mutinous the reward intended only for the 
 faithful — its proportions were dwarfed bj the after- 
 conduct of the infatuated Colonel. He put a gloss 
 of his own on the Head-Quarters' letter, and told 
 the regiment that they would receive the old Indus 
 allowances given to Pollock's Army.* Upon which 
 they set up a shout of exultation. And then the 
 Sixty -fourth pursued its journey to Scinde. 
 
 The horrible mistake which had thus been com- 
 mitted soon began to bear bitter fruit. The inevitable 
 pay-day came ; and Moseley, like a man who has 
 silenced the clamorous demands of the Present 
 by drawing a forged bill upon the Future, now saw 
 his gigantic folly staring him in the face. The crisis 
 came at Shikarpore. The Indus war-allowances were 
 not forthcoming, and the Sixty-fourth refused in a 
 body to receive their legitimate pay. 
 George Hun- There was then, under Governor Napier, com- 
 manding the troops in Scinde, an old Sepoy officer, 
 familiarly and affectionately known, throughout the 
 Army as George Hunter. Of a fine presence, of a 
 kindly nature, and of a lively temperament, he led 
 all men captive by the sunny influences of his warm 
 heart and his flowing spirits ; whilst his manly courage 
 and resolution commanded a wider admiration and 
 respect. Of his conspicuous gallantry in action he 
 carried about with him the honourable insignia in an 
 arm maimed and mutilated by the crashing downward 
 blow of a Jat swordsman, as he was forcing one oi 
 
 * This was known among the Se- up the soldier's pay to twelve ru])ec3 
 pojs as " Pollock's Batta." It made a mouth. 
 
 tor. 
 
GEORGE HUNTER. 285 
 
 the gates of Bhurtpore. In the whole wide circle of 1841 
 the Army, there was scarcely one man whom the Sepoy 
 more loved and honoured ; scarcely one whose ap- 
 pearance on the scene at this moment could have had 
 a more auspicious aspect. But there are moods in 
 which we turn most angrily against those whom w^e 
 most love ; and General Hunter in this emergency 
 was as powerless as Colonel Moseley. 
 
 George Hunter was not a man to coquet with Mutiny of ih« 
 mutiny. He saw at a glance the magnitude of the ^^^'^^^ 
 occasion, and he was resolute not to encourage its 
 further growth by any inopportune delay. The short 
 twilight of the Indian summer was already nearly 
 spent when news reached him that the regiment had 
 refused to receive its pay. Instantly calling a parade, 
 he declared his intention of himself paying the troops. 
 Darkness had now fallen upon the scene ; but lamps 
 were lit, and the General commenced his w^ork. The 
 light company, as the one that had evinced the most 
 turbulent spirit, was called up first ; the Sepoys took 
 their pay to a man, and were dismissed to their Lines. 
 Of the company next called, four men had refused to 
 receive their pay, when Moseley went up to the 
 General, and told him that the wdiole regiment w^ould 
 take their money quietly, if disbursed to them by 
 their own officers. Hunter had once refused this, but 
 now he consented, and again the effort to flatter the 
 corps into discipline was miserably unsuccessful. No 
 sooner was this reluctant consent wrung from the 
 General, than the parade was broken up with a 
 tumultuous roar. Filling the air with shouts, some- 
 times shaped into words of derision and abuse, the 
 Sepoys flocked to their Lines. In vain Hunter ordered 
 them to fall in ; in vain he implored them to re- 
 membei that they were soldiers. They turned upon 
 
286 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1844. him with the declaration that they had been lured to 
 Scinde by a lie ; and when he still endeavoured to 
 restore order and discipline to the scattered rabble 
 into which the regiment had suddenly crumbled, they 
 threw stones and bricks at the fine old soldier and the 
 other officers who had gone to his aid. 
 
 Nothing more could be done on that night; so 
 Hunter went to his quarters, and waited anxiously for 
 the dawn. A morning parade had been previously 
 ordered, and when the General went to the ground, 
 he saw, to his exceeding joy, that the Sixty-fourth 
 were already drawn up — " as fine-looking and steady 
 a body of men," he said, " as he could wish to see." 
 No signs of disorder greeted him ; and as he inspected 
 company after company, calling upon all who had 
 complaints to make to come forward, the regiment 
 presei^ved its staid and orderly demeanour, and it 
 seemed as if a great shame held them all in inactivity 
 and silence.* Returning then to the head of the 
 column, drawn up left in front. Hunter proceeded to 
 resume the work which had been broken off so 
 uproariously on the preceding evening. Ten men of 
 one company refused their pay, but none others fol- 
 lowed their exam2:>le. All now seemed to be pro- 
 ceeding to a favourable issue ; and Hunter believed 
 that the favourable disposition which had begun to 
 show itself might be confirmed by a suitable address. 
 So he prepared himself to harangue them. 
 
 The ways of the Sepoy are as unaccountable as the 
 ways of a child. It is impossible to fix the limits of 
 his anger, or rightly to discern the point at which his 
 good temper has really returned. Unstable and in- 
 consistent, his conduct baffles all powers of human 
 
 ♦ Only one man came forward, and his complaint was that he had been 
 passed over in promotion. 
 
MUTINY OF THE SIXTY-FOURTH. wf 8T 
 
 comprehension. So it happened that just on the l^^** 
 seeming verge of success the ground crumbled away 
 under Hunter's feet. As each company had been 
 called up to receive its pay, the men had piled their 
 arms to the word of command. But when the word 
 was given to un-pile, there was an immediate shudder 
 of hesitation, which seemed to be caught by one 
 company from another, until it pervaded the whole 
 regiment. Each man seemed to read what was in 
 his neighbour's heart, and without any previous con- 
 cert, therefore, they clung to each other in their dis- 
 obedience. Three Grenadier Sepoys took their 
 muskets, and were promoted on the spot ; but not 
 another man followed their example. The regiment 
 had again become a rabble. Nothing now could 
 reduce them to order. 
 
 Until the blazing June sun was rising high in the 
 heavens, Hunter and the regimental officers remained 
 on the parade-ground, vainly endeavouring to per- 
 suade the Sepoys to return to their duty. They had 
 only one answer to give — their Colonel and their 
 Adjutant had promised them what they had not 
 received. If the General would guarantee them the 
 old Indus war-allowances, they would serve as good 
 soldiers ; if not, they wished to be discharged, and 
 return to their homes. All through the day, and all 
 through the night, without divesting themselves of 
 their uniform, without going to their Lines to cook 
 or to eat, the mutineers remained on the ground, 
 sauntering about in the neighbourhood of their piled 
 arms, and discussing their wrongs. 
 
 Day broke, and found them still on the ground. 
 But hunger and fatigue had begun to exhaust the 
 energies of their resistance, and when Hunter ap- 
 peared again on the scene, accompanied only by his 
 
288 THE SErOY AIl]\IY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 lU.^u aide-de-camp, and beat to arms, the men fell in, took 
 their muskets, and evinced some signs of contrition. 
 Then the General spoke to them, saying that he would 
 receive at his quarters a man from each company, and 
 hear what he had to say on the part of his comrades. 
 Satisfied with this promise, and being no longer irri- 
 tated by the presence of the officers who had deceived 
 them, the Sixty -fourth allowed the parade to be 
 quietly dismissed, and went to their Lines. At the 
 appointed hour, the delegates from the several regi- 
 ments waited on the General, and each man told the 
 same story of the deception that had been practised 
 upon the regiment. They had been promised " Ge- 
 neral Pollock's Batta," and the twelve rupees which 
 they had expected had dwindled down into eight. 
 
 With this evidence before him, the General re- 
 moved Colonel Moseley from the command of the 
 station and from the command of the regiment,* and 
 ordered the Sixty-fourth to march to Sukkur, on their 
 way back to our older provinces. It was an anxious 
 time; a hazardous march. So Hunter went with 
 them. But the hot stage of the fever had passed, and 
 the paroxysm seemed to have left them feeble and 
 June 25, sorc-spcut. Unresistingly they went to Sukkur, and 
 encamped iu the presence of European troops ; and 
 George Hunter, thanking God that the peril was over, 
 and that not a drop of blood had been shed, then 
 took upon himself the responsibility of pardoning 
 the regiment as a body, and bringing to punishment 
 only the worst of the individual offenders.f Such 
 moderation could hardly be misunderstood at a time 
 
 * Colonel Moseley was afterwards pital punishment, and the sentence 
 
 tried by court-martial, and cashiered, of death passed upon the others was 
 
 f Tiiirty-nine prisoners were sent commuted to imprisonment andhmxi 
 
 to trial, of whom one only was ac- labour for various terms, 
 quilted. Six were ordered for ca- 
 
 1844. 
 
DIFEICULTIES OF GOVERNMENT. 289 
 
 v^ulen tLere was present power to enforce the decrees i^** 
 of a sterner justice. So he addressed the regiment 
 on parade, told them that he pardoned all but the 
 leading mutineers, who would be tried by Court- 
 martial ; and he trusted that the mercy thus shown to 
 them would not be thrown away, that they would 
 repent of their misconduct and return to their alle- 
 giance. And perhaps the provocation which they 
 had received was ample warrant for the leniency of 
 their treatment.^ 
 
 But the embarrassments of the Government did not 
 end here. Whatsoever might be the punishment of 
 the offence, it could not afford a remedy for the evil. 
 The mutinous regiments might be disbanded, and 
 their ringleaders might be hanged by the neck, or 
 blown to atoms from the guns ; but still there would, 
 be no answer to the question of how was Scinde to 
 be garrisoned with British troops ? It had been the 
 design of the Government to employ only Bengal 
 regiments on that service, seeking aid in other 
 quarters from Madras. But the Bengal Army had 
 broken down under the experiment; and there was 
 small hope, after what had passed, of its ever being 
 induced, except by humiliating concessions, to look 
 that hated province in the face. There were, how- 
 ever, two other Presidencies, and two other Armies, 
 not so nice as Bengal ; and the defence of Scinde 
 might be entrusted to Bombay or Madras regiments. 
 If such had been the design in the first instance, it 
 might, under judicious management, have been suc- 
 
 * There is something very touch- the circumstances. "I never coujI 
 
 ing iu the humility which pervades write," he says at the end of one 
 
 the letters written at this time by letter, "and old age does not im- 
 
 ppCTj^e Hunter to Lord Ellenborough prove a man in any way, except, I 
 
 and Sir Charles Napier. He asks to trust, in seeing his own failings and 
 
 be pardoned for all short-comings, praj'ing for mercy." 
 in consideration of the difficulty of 
 
 U 
 
290 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1S43. cessfully carried into effect. But after such an ex 
 ample as had been set by the Bengal regiments, there 
 was small consolation to be drawn from the prospect 
 of loyal service to be rendered by their comrades. 
 Already, indeed, were there signs that the disposition 
 to strike for higher pay which had manifested itself 
 among the Bengal troops was not confined to the 
 Sepoys of that '^ pampered and petted" Army. The 
 Bombay regiments were untainted ;^ but a mutinous 
 spirit had again displayed itself among the native 
 soldiery of the Coast Army.f 
 Mutiny of the The first Symptom of this was in a Cavalry re- 
 Sixth Madras gii^gj^t at Jubbulpore. Among the results of an 
 extension of empire without a corresponding aug- 
 mentation of our military force, are frequent viola- 
 tions of old Presidential limits in the location of our 
 troops, which, however unobjectionable they may 
 appear at the Adjutant- General's office, are seldom 
 caiTied out without some disturbance of our military 
 system. It might seem to be of small consequence 
 whether the station at which a regiment was posted 
 were within the limits of one Presidency or another ; 
 but if a Madras regiment were called upon to serve 
 in the Bengal Presidency, or a Bombay regiment in 
 Madras, or any other departure from ordinary rule 
 were decreed, the Government was fortunate if it 
 were not seriously perplexed and embarrassed by the 
 results. Now, the Madras Army, though, as has been 
 
 * The Bombay Army was said at Infantry liad mutinied at Asseeghur 
 
 tliat time to have more duty on its and Mallegaum ; there had been a 
 
 hands than it could perform wilhout mutiny of the Madras troops at Se- 
 
 a severe strain, and the Bombay Go- cunderabad ; and the 2nd and 41st 
 
 vernment were clamouring for an Begiments had shown a bad spirit, 
 
 augmentation. when ordered to embark for China. 
 
 f There had been several recent The 3rd and 4th Native Cavalry 
 
 instances of extreme insubordination, regiments had also mutinied ; the 
 
 amounting, indeed, to mutiny, in the former in 1838, the latter in 1842. 
 Madras Army. The 52nd Native 
 
MUTINY OF THE MADRAS TROOPS. ?^91 
 
 said, more cosmopolitan and less nice than that of 1843. 
 Bengal, and not deterred by caste prejudices from 
 proceeding to strange places, suffered even more than 
 the Bengal troops from being ordered to distant 
 stations, because the family of the Madras soldier fol- 
 lowed his regiment, whilst the belongings of his 
 Bengal comrade remained in their native village. 
 The removal of the family from one station to an- 
 other was a sore trouble and a heavy expense to the 
 Madras Sepoy ; and whatever increased the distance 
 to be traversed was, therefore, a grievance to him. 
 
 To the Cavalry it was especially a grievance, for 
 the troopers were principally well-born Mahomedans, 
 and the rigid seclusion in which their women were 
 kept greatly increased the cost of their conveyance 
 from one station to another. The Sixth Cavalry had 
 been more than commonly harassed in this respect, 
 when, towards the close of 1843, just as they were 
 expecting to get their route for the favourite cavalry 
 station of Arcot, they received orders to march from 
 Kamptee to Jubbulpore, in the valley of the Ner- 
 budda. which, in consequence of the demand for 
 Bengal troops on the Indus, it had been necessary to 
 occupy with regiments from Madras. The sharp dis- 
 appointment, however, was in some measure miti- 
 gated by the assurance that the service on which 
 they were required was but temporary, and that they 
 would soon return within the proper limits of their 
 own Presidency. They went, therefore, leaving their 
 families behind them ; but when they reached Jub- 
 bulpore, they found that they were to be permanently 
 located there upon lower allowances than they had 
 expected, that they must send for their families from 
 Kamptee, and that their next march would be nine 
 hundred miles southward to Arcot. 
 
 u 2 
 
292 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1?43. Only by savings from tlieir pay at the higher rates 
 
 could the troopers hope to defray these extraordi- 
 nary expenses. On the lower rates of pay it was 
 impossible ; for the greater part of their earnings 
 Avas remitted for the support of their absent families, 
 and what remained was barely enough to keep toge- 
 ther body and soul. When, therefore, they found 
 that they were to receive these lower rates at Jubbul- 
 pore, they broke into open manifestations of discon- 
 tent, and bound themselves by oaths to stand by each 
 other whilst they resisted the unjust decree. The 
 ■first few days of December were, therefore, days of 
 sore vexation and disturbance to the officers of the 
 Sixth, and most of all to the Commandant, Major 
 Major Litcli- Litchfield, to whose want of personal sympathy with 
 • their sufferings the Sepoys, reasonably or unreason- 
 
 ably, attributed a great part of their affliction. The 
 conduct of the men was violent and outrageous. 
 They were with difficulty induced to saddle and 
 mount for exercise ; and when the trumpet sounded 
 for the canter, they loosened rein, urged their horses 
 forward at a dangerous pace, and raising the religious 
 war-crv of " Deen ! deen !" broke into tumultuous 
 disorder. Brought back to something like discipline, 
 the regiment was dismissed ; but throughout the day 
 the greatest excitement prevailed among them, and a 
 large body of troopers marched in a defiant manner 
 Capt. Byng. through the Lines to the tent of a favourite officer, 
 declaring that they would obey his orders, and serve 
 under him, and beseeching him to place himself at 
 their head. On the following day the excitement 
 had increased. The troop-officers went among their 
 men, endeavouring to pacify them. But they could 
 report nothing more satisfactory than that the 
 troopers were in a frantic state, and that if Litchfield 
 
MLTI^sY AT JUBBULPORE. 293 
 
 ventured on parade next morning the result would -^^3, 
 be fatal to him. 
 
 Undeterred by this, the Major would have held the 
 parade, but the Brigadier commanding the station, 
 to whom, in due course, all the circumstances were 
 reported, caused it to be countermanded, and an 
 Inspection Parade, under his own command, ordered 
 in its stead. To this the regiment sullenly responded ; 
 and when the Brigadier addressed them., saying that 
 he was willing to hear their complaints, many of the 
 men stepped forward and presented him with peti- 
 tions, which were given over to the troop-officers, to 
 be forwarded to him throuo^h the reo:ular official 
 channels. But, although it was plain that there was 
 a bitter feelino- of resentment ao:ainst Litchfield, no 
 act of violence was committed at that parade. And 
 it happened that before its dismissal a letter reached 
 the Brigadier announcing that the higher allowances 
 were to be given to the men ; and so the active danger 
 was passed. But the disturbance which had been 
 engendered did not soon pass away ; the Sepoys 
 remained sullen and discontented, and for some days 
 it appeared to the Brigadier not improbable that he 
 would be compelled to call the Infantry and the 
 Artillery to his assistance. But the Madras Army was 
 spared this calamity of bloodshed ; and after a little 
 while the regiment returned to the quiet and orderly 
 performance of its duty. 
 
 As the old year closed upon the scene of mutiny in iS43-ii> 
 the Madras Cavalry, so, very soon, the new year opened 
 upon a kindred incident in the Madras Infantry. When 
 it was found that the Bengal troops were reluctant to 
 serve, under the proposed terms, in the Scinde pro- 
 vince, and serious embarrassment was, thereby, likely 
 to be occasioned to the Supreme Government, the 
 
294 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1S4344.. Madras authorities, believing that the crisis was one 
 in which it behoved every one to do his best, promptly 
 and vigorously, for the salvation of the State, deter- 
 mined, on a requisition from the Government of 
 Bombay, to send two infantry regiments to Scinde.* 
 The Sepoys were to embark on board transport vessels 
 at Madras, to touch at Bombay, and thence to proceed 
 to Kurrachee. One of these regiments, the Forty- 
 seventh, was in orders for Moulmein, on the eastern 
 coast of the Bay of Bengal — a station at which, being 
 beyond Presidential limits, extra allowances, known 
 as field-batta and rations, were paid to the troops. 
 Ignorant, it would appear, of the Bengal regulations, 
 the Madras Government, represented by the Marquis 
 of Tweed ale, who held the double office of Governor 
 and Commander-in-Chief, guaranteed to the regiments 
 ordered to Scinde the allowances" received at Moul- 
 mein ; and under these conditions the Forty-seventh 
 embarked for Bombay. 
 JK'^^^^l^^^ Meanwhile, the Supreme Government had been 
 
 j\ladrasFo/rty- t » ■. r- i i-t n ^ ht i 
 
 seventh. advised 01 the unauthorised measures of the Madras 
 authorities. Chafing under such usurpation of the 
 powers and prerogatives of the Governor- General, 
 EUenborough sent orders for the detention of the 
 Madras regiment at Bombay, and it was disembarked 
 on its arrival, f There the Madras Sepoys learnt that 
 the advantages of foreign service, promised to them at 
 Madras, and on the faith of which they had set their 
 faces towards Scinde, were disallowed. The greater 
 part of their pay up to the end of March had already 
 
 * Sir Charles Napier had made an be stated that one detachment of 
 
 urgent call on Bombay, which, Bom- the regiment mutinied on board the 
 
 bay not being able to comply with it, Jo/m Line transport vessel ; but the 
 
 passed on to Madras. " discontent then manifested arose 
 
 f Intelligence of the change of from circumstances unconnected 
 
 destination was communicated to the with the after - causes of disafl'ec- 
 
 officers during the voyage. It should tion. 
 
MUTINY OF THE MADRAS FORTY -SEVENTH. 295 
 
 been disbursed to tbem, for tlie benefit of the families 1843-44. 
 whom they left behind, and now they found, in the 
 middle of February, that the scanty residue, on which 
 they had relied for their own support, was by these 
 retrenchments taken from them, and that, far away 
 from their homes, starvation stared them in the face. 
 It was not strange that they should have regarded 
 this as a cruel breach of faith ; and that they should 
 have resented it. They had been promised rations, 
 and they asked for them, and when they found they 
 were not likely to be supplied, they manifested their 
 discontent, after the wonted fashion, by breaking out Ych. 19 
 on parade. When the word of command was given for 1844. 
 them to march to their Lines, by fours from the left, 
 they stood fast. The word was repeated, but still 
 they stood fast ; and when the Adjutant rode up to 
 the leading section and asked the men if they had not 
 heard the word of command, they answered sullenly 
 that they had heard it; and when a Native officer 
 asked them why they did not move, they told him 
 that they wanted food, and that they would not stir 
 without it. 
 
 When the order to advance was again given, the 
 regiment moved off; but only to renew on the fol- 
 lowing morning the exhibition of disobedience and 
 discontent. Paraded before the General commanding 
 the garrison, the regiment soon evinced signs of being 
 in the same mood. After inspection, when the order 
 was given to march by companies to their respective 
 Lines, the Grenadiers stepped ofi^, but presently wavered 
 and halted ; and when their captain, having ordered 
 their arms, went off to report their conduct to the 
 commanding officer, they insisted on following him in 
 a body, declaring that if they then lost their chance 
 of representing their hard case to the General, thev 
 
296 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 U44.. might never find it again. Another company was 
 even more violent in its demands. When the word of 
 command was given to advance at the quick march, 
 a man from the ranks cried out, " Right about face," 
 and the whole company stood fast, as did other parts 
 of the column. Taken in the act of flagrant mutiny, 
 the Sepoy was disarmed, and sent to the guard, 
 whither the greater part of the company followed, 
 declaring that they also would go to the guard, that 
 they wanted rice, and must have it. 
 
 After a while order was restored. The General 
 addressed the European and Native officers, and told 
 them to assure the men, that any complaints advanced 
 in a soldierly manner would be inquired into and any 
 grievances redressed, but that such conduct as had 
 been displayed on parade could not be overlooked. The 
 regiment was then moved off to its Lines, some of the 
 ringleaders being carried off as prisoners ; and an ad- 
 vance of money, at first reluctantly received, stifled 
 the further progress of mutiny. Here, then, the story 
 may end. The Madras Army was not destined to 
 supply the want accruing from the defective loyalty 
 of Bengal. It broke down at a critical time ; but 
 only under such a weight of mismanagement as might 
 have crushed out the fidelity of the best mercenaries 
 in the world. 
 
 In these, as in instances above cited, by conflicts of 
 authority and variations of system, the Sepoy was 
 not unreasonably alarmed for the integrity of his pay ; 
 and although w^e may condemn the manner in which 
 he manifested his discontent, we must not think too 
 harshly of the tenacity with which he asserted his 
 rights. If an English soldier strikes for more pay, it is 
 in most cases only another name for more drink. He 
 seeks it, too often, as a means of personal indulgence. 
 
DISBANDMENT. 297 
 
 There is nothing to render less greedy his greed. But ^814. 
 the avarice of the Sepoy was purified by domestic 
 affection, by a tender regard for the interests of others, 
 and that strong feeling of family honour which in 
 India renders Poor Laws an useless institution. He 
 had so many dependents with whom to divide his 
 slender earnings, that any unexpected diminution of 
 his pay excited alarm lest those who were nearest and 
 dearest to him should in his absence be reduced to 
 want. The honour of his family was threatened ; 
 he chafed under the thought; and if he took un- 
 soldierly means of asserting his rights, we must re- 
 member the provocation, and not forget those pecu- 
 liarities of national sentiment which lighten the dark 
 colours in which all such resistance of authority pre- 
 sents itself to European eyes. 
 
 Eventually Bombay troops were sent to garrison Penal Mea 
 Scinde, and the province became a part of the Bombay 
 Presidency. But it is hard to say how much these 
 first abortive attempts to provide for its defence shook 
 the discipline of the Sepoy Army. For the evil was 
 one to which it was difficult to apply a remedy ; and 
 the authorities were greatly perplexed and at variance 
 one with another. The disbandment of a mutinous 
 regiment is, in such a case, the most obvious, as it is 
 the easiest measure, to which Government can resort ; 
 but it may often be unjust in itself and dangerous in 
 its results. It falls alike on the innocent and on the 
 guilty. It fills the country mth the materials of 
 which rebellions are made, or sends hundreds of our 
 best fighting-men, with all the lessons we have taught 
 them, into the enemy's ranks. To be efi*ective, it 
 should follow closely on the commission of the crime 
 which it is intended to punish ; but it can rarely bo 
 accomplished with this essential promptitude, for it is 
 
298 THE SEPOY ARLIY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 \Hi. only under certain favouring circumstances that an 
 order to reduce to penury and disgrace a thousand 
 trained soldiers can be carried out with safety to the 
 State. To delay the execution of the punishment is 
 outwardly to condone the offence. It was not strange, 
 therefore, that when the Thirty-fourth Infantry and 
 the Seventh Cavalry of Bengal mutinied on the 
 frontier, almost in the presence of the Sikh Army, 
 there should have been obstinate questionings at Head- 
 Quarters as to the expediency of disbandment on the 
 spot, or at some safer place remote from the scene of 
 their crimes. It was the opinion of Lord Ellen- 
 borough, at the time, that a regiment of Europeans 
 and a troop of European artillery should have been 
 summoned with all haste from Loodhianah to Feroze- 
 pore, and that, in presence of this force, the mutinous 
 corps should have been at once disbanded. But a 
 reference, it has been said, was made to Government, 
 and the mutinous regiments were marched down, 
 unsentenced, to Loodhianah and Meerut, there to 
 await the decision of supreme authority. The orders 
 given left some discretion with the Commander-in- 
 Chief. The Seventh Cavalry had not mutinied in a 
 body. The Native officers and nearly two hundred 
 troopers were true to their Salt. Discipline might, 
 therefore, be vindicated by ordinary processes of law 
 without involving the innocent and the guilty alike 
 in one common ruin. But the Thirty-fourth, Native 
 officers and Sepoys, Avere all tainted ; so, with every 
 mark of infamy, in the presence of all the troops, 
 European and Native, at Meerut, the regiment was 
 broken up, the British uniform was stripped from the 
 backs of the mutineers, and the number of the regi- 
 ment was erased from the Army List.* 
 
 * Two or three years afterwards of a new regiment, in no degree 
 the gap was filled up by the raising better than the old. 
 
DISBANDMENT. 299 
 
 Propinquity to an overawing European force re- 184*« 
 moves the chief difficulties which oppose themselves 
 to the sudden dissolution of a Native regiment. But 
 under no other circumstances is it to be counselled. 
 The question of disbandment, therefore, perplexed the 
 Madras authorities even more than those of Bengal. 
 To march a regiment, with arms in its hands, some 
 hundreds of miles across the country, to receive its 
 services, and perhaps to witness its repentance during 
 a period of many weeks, all that time concealing the 
 fate that is in store for it, and then having caged it in 
 a safe place, pinioned it, as it were, beyond all hope 
 of resistance, to visit it with all the terrors of a long- 
 hidden, long-delayed retribution, is altogether ab- 
 horrent to the generous nature of an English officer. 
 To have disbanded, for example, the Sixth Madras 
 Cavalry at Jubbulpore would have been cruel and 
 dangerous. To have marched it to Arcot in igno- 
 rance of its fate, would have been cruel and dastardly. 
 To have broken it up at Kamptee would have been 
 to incur, only in a less degree, the evil of both 
 courses. And nothing else appeared possible; for 
 it was not to be supposed that all those indignant 
 Mahomedans, men with whom revenge is a virtue, 
 would have quietly gone down, mounted on good 
 horses, and with sharpened sabres at their sides, in 
 full knowledge of their destiny, to the disgraceful 
 punishment awaiting them. With these considera- 
 tions before them, it was not strange that the Madras 
 authorities hesitated to carry out the comprehensive 
 penalty of disbandment, and that, as a choice of dif- 
 ficulties, it should have suffered many guilty men to 
 escape. 
 
 In this instance, Lord EUenborough was eager for 
 disbandment. He said that the conduct of the regi- 
 ment had been equally bad in itself and pernicious in 
 
300 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1844. its results, for that the disturbed state of Bundelkund 
 rendered it little short of mutiny before the enemy, 
 and it had disconcerted all the arrangements of his 
 Government for the general defence of the country. 
 But it was not his, either on principle or in practice, 
 to deal harshly with the errors and delusions of the 
 Native Army, and there were few men living who 
 had a more kindly appreciation of the good qualities 
 of the Sepoy, or who could more readily sympathise 
 with him. If he did not know precisely how to deal 
 with a mutiny of that Army ; if he could not, with 
 accurate calculation of the results, so apportion the 
 just measures of leniency and severity as in no case to 
 encourage by the one or to exasperate by the other, 
 he only failed where no one had yet succeeded, and 
 need not have blushed to find himself mortal. He 
 often said that a general mutiny of the Native Army 
 was the only real danger with which our empire in 
 India was threatened ; and he believed that the surest 
 means of maintaining the fidelity of the Sepoy was by 
 continually feeding his passion for military glory. In 
 this he was right. But the passion for military glory 
 cannot always be fed without injustice, and the evils 
 of conquest may be greater than its gains. He had 
 much faith, too, in the good efi*ect of stirring ad- 
 dresses, appealing to the imaginations of the soldiery, 
 and in the application of donatives promptly follow- 
 ing good service. And, although in working out his 
 theory he was sometimes impelled to practical ex- 
 pressions of it, which caused people to smile, as in 
 the famous Somnauth Proclamation, and in the dis- 
 S oreetmeats. tribution of the "favourite mehtoys' to the Sepoys 
 after the battle of Maharajpore, there was, doubtless, 
 sound philosophy at the bottom of it. But such light 
 as this only served to show more clearly the many 
 
DIFFICULTIES CF GOVERNIVIENT. 301 
 
 and great difficulties with wliicli the whole question 1S44. 
 of the Sepoy Army was beset, and to convince re- 
 flecting minds that, though human folly might ac- 
 celerate the break-down of the whole system, human 
 wisdom could not so fence it around with safeguards 
 as to give it permanent vitality and strength. 
 
 That the treatment to which the mutinies arisine: 
 out of the annexation of Scinde were subjected by the 
 Government of the day was nothing more than a 
 series of expedients is a fact, but one which may be 
 recorded without censure. The disbandment of one 
 regiment, the punishment of a few ringleaders in 
 others, the forgiveness of the rest ; the dismissal of an 
 officer or two for culpable mismanagement, and a 
 liberal issue of donatives to all who during the pre- 
 ceding year had either done well, or suffered much, in 
 the service of the State, were so many palliatives, born 
 of the moment, which did not touch the seat of the 
 disease, or contribute to the future healthy action of 
 the system. But there Avere circumstances, both 
 intrinsic and extrinsic, which seemed to forbid, on 
 grounds alike of justice and of policy, the application 
 of more vigorous remedies. The fact, indeed, that 
 the misconduct of the soldiery had, in a great measure, 
 been the direct growth of the injuries which they had 
 sustained at the hands of the Government, would 
 have made severity a crime. But it was no less cer- 
 tain that leniency was a blunder. If an Army once 
 finds that it can dictate to Government the amount 
 of its pay, there is an end to the controlling power of 
 the latter. What the State ought to have learnt from 
 this lesson was the paramount obligation which rested 
 upon it of clearly explaining to its troops all regula- 
 tions affecting their pay and allowances, and espe- 
 cially such as entailed upon them any loss of privileges 
 
?l-2 THE SEPOY AmiY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1544;. antecedently enjoyed. Under any circumstances a 
 reduction of pay is a delicate and hazardous opera- 
 tion. Even the loyalty of European officers is not 
 always proof against such a trial. But the absence of 
 explanation aggravates it, in the Sepoy's eyes, into a 
 breach of faith ; he believes that he is only asserting 
 his rights when he strikes for the restoration of that 
 of which he has been, in his own eyes unjustly, de- 
 prived ; and the Government then, perplexed in the 
 extreme, has only a choice of evib before it, and either 
 on the side of leniency or severity is too likely to go 
 lamentably wronc;. 
 
THE SIKH TTAE. 3"')S 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THB WAR ON THE SUTLEJ— THE PATNA CONSPIBACT — ATTEMPT TO COU 
 EUPT THE SEPOYS AT DINAPORE— THE OCCUPAIION OF THE PUNJajj— 
 ANNEXATION AND ITS EEFECTS — KEDUCTION 07 THE SEPOY's PAY — THE 
 MUTINIES AT RAWTJL PINDEE AND GOVINDGHUE — LOED DALHOUSIE AND 
 Sm CHABIiES NAPLEfi. 
 
 It was fortunate, perliaps, for tlie rulers of that day 1845. 
 tliat Peace was but of short duration, and that the 
 " passion for military glory" had again something to 
 feed upon. The Sikh Army, having risen against its 
 own leaders, was vapouring on the banks of the Sutlej, 
 and threatening to cross the British frontier. No 
 war could have been more welcome to the Sepoy than 
 a war with the Sikhs. For they were an insolent and 
 minacious race, and it was known that they had 
 talked of overrunning Hindostan, and pouring on to 
 the sack of Delhi and the pillage of Calcutta. They 
 took the first step, and the war commenced. 
 
 Whilst the Governor- General and the Commander- The Patna 
 in-Chief were at the head of the Army on the frontier, Conspiracy. 
 and all eyes were turned towards the scene of that 
 sanguinary conflict on the Sutlej, lower down, on the 
 banks of the Ganges, four hundred miles from Cal- 
 cutta, an incident was occurring, which, in quiet 
 times, might have made itself heard all over the 
 country, but which, lost in the din of battle in that 
 
304 THE SEPOr ARMY — ITS DECLINE, 
 
 .1845-46. momentous winter, gave only a local soun-l. Dis 
 coverj was made of an organised attempt to corrupt 
 the soldiery in the Lower Provinces. On Christmas 
 eve the magistrate of Patna received a letter from 
 Major Rowcroftj informing him that the Moonshee 
 of his regiment — the First Native Infantry — was in 
 treasonable correspondence with a rich and influ- 
 ential landholder in the neighbourhood, who had 
 been tampering with the allegiance of the Native 
 officers and Sepoys in the contiguous station of 
 Dinapore. 
 
 Of the truth of the story there was no doubt. To 
 what dimensions the conspiracy really extended, and 
 from what central point it radiated, is not knoA\m, 
 and now never will be known. It was a season of 
 considerable popular excitement, aggravated in the 
 neighbourhood of Patna by local causes, and eager 
 efforts had been made to prepare the people for 
 revolt. Reports had been for some time current to 
 the eifect that the British Government purposed to 
 destroy the caste of the Hindoos, and to abolish 
 ^lahomedanism by forbidding the initial ceremony 
 through which admission is obtained to the number 
 of the Faithful. And to this was added another lie, 
 scarcely less alarming, that the Purdah was also to 
 be prohibited, and that Mahomedan females of all 
 ranks were to be compelled to go about unveiled. 
 Stories of this kind, it has been observed, however 
 monstrous in themselves, are readily believed, if 
 there be but only a very little truth to give tliem 
 currency. The truth may be from within or it may 
 be from without. It may be direct proof or indirect 
 confirmation. It little matters so long as there is 
 something which men may see and judge for thei/i- 
 selves. There had been many exciting causes at this 
 
EXCITOIENT AT PATNA. 305 
 
 dine, to rouse tlie resentments and to stimulate the 1845-4'' 
 activities of the Moulavees and the Pundits, such a3 
 the new law of inheritance and the new educational 
 measures ; and now the introduction of the messing- 
 system into the gaols was a patent fact which all 
 might understand. It was an incident, moreover, of 
 untoward occurrence, that about this time, when de- 
 signing men were eagerly looking out for some false 
 move on the part of the Government, the Magistrate 
 of Patna, at the request of the Principal of the 
 College, alarmed the inhabitants of the city by insti- 
 tuting inquiries enabling him to form something of 
 a census of the population, showing their different 
 castes, professions, and employments — a movement 
 which was at once declared to be a part of the great 
 scheme of the Government for the forcible conversion 
 of the people. 
 
 But it was necessary that the soldiery should be 
 gained over by some alarming fiction of especial ap- 
 plication to the Sepoy himself. Already had indirect 
 agency been set at Avork for his corruption. He 
 found the lie in full leaf in his native village. When 
 he went on furlough, his relatives told liim that if he 
 did not make a stand for his religion he would soon 
 have to fight against his brethren and kinsmen.* 
 When he returned to his regiment he found that 
 every one was talking on the same subject, and that 
 it was currently believed that the introduction of the 
 messing-system into the gaols was to be followed by 
 its introduction into the Army, and that the Sepoy 
 was not much longer to be allowed to have uncon- 
 trolled dominion over his own cooking-pot. 
 
 * Some of tlie men of the "First but if you will not listen to us, we 
 
 Regiment told Major Rowcrofi: that will send 2000 juwans (young men) 
 
 the villagers had said, " Our village to oppose you.'^ 
 furnishes 500 men to your Army; 
 
 X 
 
306 THE SEPOY AKMY^ — ITS DECLLXE. 
 
 1815-lG. If, then, there had been nothing more than this, 
 the time would have been propitious, and plotters 
 might reasonably have thought that the opportunity 
 Avas ripe. But in that winter of 1845-46 a seditious 
 enterprise of this kind in the Lower Provinces was 
 favoured by the circumstances of the great war with 
 the Sikhs, which was drawing all the resources of the 
 Government to the North- Western frontier. There 
 was a vague belief that lakhs of Punjabee fighting- 
 men would soon be streaming over the country, and 
 that the English would be driven into the sea. Many, 
 then, with eager cupidity, bethought themselves of 
 gutting the opium godowns of Patna, where a million 
 and a half of Government property lay stored ; and 
 all the dangerous classes of the city v/ere ripe and 
 ready for pillage and for slaughter. A rising of the 
 Sepoys at such a time, or their acquiescence in a 
 rising of the people, might have been fatal to the 
 continued supremacy of Government in that part of 
 the country. The plotters scarcely hoped to accom- 
 plish more than the latter of these two means of 
 overthrowing the English. At all events, it was safer 
 to begin with the milder experiment on the fidelity 
 of the Sepoy. So delegates went about in the Lines 
 saying that the great King of Delhi had sent a con- 
 fidential agent to give a month's pay to every Native 
 officer and soldier in the regiments in order that if 
 any outbreak should occur in their part of the coun- 
 try they should not lift a hand in support of the 
 Government. All the landholders, and the culti- 
 vators, and the townspeople were ready, it was said, 
 to rise; and if the soldiery would only remain in- 
 active, the British power might be destroyed before it 
 could perpetrate the outrages by which it sought to 
 overturn the religions of the country. 
 
CONSPIRACY DETECTED. 307 
 
 A Jemadar of the First Regiment Keard tins story, 184546 
 gravely listened to all that was urged by the emissary 
 of sedition, and said that he would consider of the 
 matter.* Then he repeated all that had happened 
 to his commanding officer, and measures were soon 
 taken to test the reality of the plot. There was at 
 all events one substantial proof that the story was no 
 fiction. There was money counted out for the work of 
 corruption, and tied up in bags ready for immediate 
 delivery. It was agreed that the Jemadar and another 
 officer in Rowcroft's confidence should take the 
 money, and matters were soon conveniently arranged 
 so as to brino; about the disclosure. A detachment 
 of the regiment was about to proceed to Gya ; with 
 this went the two faitliful Jemadars. On the way 
 they met or were overtaken by two well-dressed 
 Mahomedans in an ecka, or native wheeled- carriage, 
 who gave them the money, saying that others had 
 taken it, and that larger supplies were forthcoming 
 for the same purpose. Nothing could stamp the 
 reality of the design more surely than this. Men are 
 in earnest when they part with their money. 
 
 Another Native officer of the First traitorously 
 took the corrupting coin, and a Moonshee of the 
 regiment was found to be deeply implicated in the 
 plot. But Rowcroft's opportune discovery of the 
 attempt to debauch his men, and the measures which 
 he wisely adopted, rendered the further efforts of the 
 conspirators utterly futile and hopeless. The military 
 offenders were soon in confinement ; the civil ma- 
 gistrate was tracking down the instigators of sedi- 
 tion ; and if no great success then attended the attempt 
 
 * The Jemadar was a Brahmin, the latter was adjutant of the regi- 
 by name Mootee-Missur. He had ment, and was greatly attached to 
 been pay-havildar to Rowcroft, when him. 
 
 X 2 
 
808 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 18454G. ^o bring tlie necks of tlie most guilty to the gallows, 
 it was sufficient for the public peace that the plot was 
 discovered. What the amount of real danger then 
 was it is difficult to determine. Two other Native 
 regiments at Dinapore were tampered with in like 
 manner, but the discovery of the plot in Rowcroft's 
 corps rendered other efforts abortive. Many great 
 names were used by the agents of sedition, but upon 
 what authority can only be conjectured. It was 
 stated that a royal mandate had come from the King 
 of Delhi ; that the Rajah of Nepaul w^as ready to 
 send a great army sweeping down to the plains ; and 
 again it was said that the Sikhs were the prime 
 movers of the plot.* All this can be only obscurely 
 shadowed on the page of history. But it is certain 
 that a scroll was found, described by a witness as 
 being many cubits long, on which the names of some 
 hundred of respectable inhabitants of Patna, Hindoos 
 and Mahomedans, were attached to a solemn decla- 
 ration binding them to die in defence of their reli- 
 gion, and that it was honestly believed by large 
 numbers of the educated no less than the ignorant 
 people of that part of the country, that the one 
 cherished object of the British Government was to 
 reduce all the people of India to the no-caste state of 
 the Feringhees. Of the reality of this belief there 
 was no doubt ; so a Proclamation was put forth by 
 the Governor of Bengal, declaring that as the Bri- 
 tish Government never had interfered, so the people 
 
 * The principal actor in the Patna fear of religious conversion, and en- 
 conspiracy was one Khojali Hassan couraging their determination to re- 
 Ali Khan. It seems that at the sist. He escaped for want of evi- 
 Sonepore Fair, a short time before, dence. There was also a wandering 
 he had appeared in great state, and bookseller, who, on the plea of sell- 
 received a considerable number of ingPersian volumes tothcMooubhees 
 influential people in his tent, with of regiments, readily gained access 
 the object of instilling into them a to them without exciting suspicion. 
 
CONQUEST OF THE PUNJAB. 309 
 
 might be assured that it never would interfere in any 1S45-45. 
 way with the religions of the country. 
 
 The Jemadar and the Moonshee of the First Regi- 
 ment, who had been seduced into traitorous courses, 
 were tried by court-martial, and sentenced to death, 
 with the usual reluctance manifested by a tribunal 
 composed only of Native officers.* But it was not 
 necessary to strike terror into the minds of an arm}^ 
 hovering on the brink of general mutiny ; so the sen- 
 tence was not carried out. Whatever danger there 
 may have been had passed away.f The victories of 
 Hardinge and Gough had a grand moral effect from 
 one end of the country to the other, for it had been 
 believed that the British were sore pressed, and that 
 their power would be shaken to the centre by this 
 collision with the Sikhs. Victory made all things 
 rio;lit ao^ain, and for a while we heard nothino; more 
 of mutiny or sedition. With intervals of comparative 
 repose, distinguished by an occupation of the Sikh 
 country, very flattering to the Sepoy's pride, and very 
 profitable to his purse, the operations which resulted 
 in the fall of the Sikh empire then lasted for more 
 than three years. The story has been told in the first 
 chapter of this work. The Punjab, like Scinde, was 
 turned by a stroke of the pen into a British province, 
 and the same difficulties bristled up in the path of 
 
 * Not long after the discovery of f It is stated in an interesting 
 
 this plot, Major E-owcroft was seized pamphlet, published by Mr. Stocque- 
 
 witli severe illness, not witliout sus- ler, in 1857, that it was said at Dina- 
 
 picion of poison, and obliged to pro- pore, after the discovery of this con- 
 
 ceed to England. Jemadar Mootee- spiracy, that although theEnglish had 
 
 Missur told him that on his return to ihenescaped, there would be, in 1857, 
 
 India, he would, doubtless, be able to when they had ruled a hundred years, 
 
 lay before the Major furtlier facts il- such a tomasha as the country liad 
 
 lustrativeof the extent of the conspi- never seen. I can find no trace of 
 
 racy. But when Rowcroft rejoined this in any contemporary documents, 
 
 the regiment both Mootee-Missur nor have my inquiries from officers 
 
 and the other faithful Jemadar were who were then at Dinapore enabled 
 
 dead. me to confirm the trutli of the story. 
 
310 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1S15-1G. the Annexer. The Sepoy, called to serve in the 
 Punjab, had no longer the privileges of foreign ser- 
 vice ; and, in spite of the lesson taught by the Scinde 
 annexation, be could not understand why the con- 
 quest of the country should be inaugurated by the 
 reduction of his pay. 
 
 Mutiny in ihe And SO the regiments in the Punjab at that time, 
 TsiO 50 ^^^ those which were moved across the Sutlej from 
 our older provinces, determined to refuse the reduced 
 rates, and to stand out boldly for the higher allow- 
 ances. All the regiments, suffering or soon to suffer 
 from the incidence of the reduction, took counsel with 
 each other, and promised mutual support. Delegates 
 from the several corps went about from station to 
 station, and letters were exchanged between those at 
 a distance. The first manifestation of open discontent 
 was at Rawul Pindee. There, one morning in July, 
 Sir Colin Campbell, a soldier of the highest promise, 
 already budding into fame — the " Avar-bred Sir Colin," 
 as Napier then called him — received the significant 
 
 July, 1819. intelligence that the Twenty-second Regiment had re- 
 fused to receive their pay. Outwardly, the Sepoys 
 were calm and respectful; but their calmness indi- 
 cated a sense of strength, and Campbell felt that all 
 the other Native regiments in the Punjab would pro- 
 bably follow their example. Such a combination at 
 any time and in any place would have been dan- 
 gerous and alarming ; but the peril was greatly aggra- 
 vated by the peculiar circumstances of the times. For 
 it had grown up in a newly-conquered country, 
 swarming with the disbanded fighting-men of the old 
 Sikh Army, and it was believed that our discontented 
 Sepoys, if they had once broken into rebellion, would 
 have soon found their ranks swollen by recruits from 
 the Kalsa soldiery, eager to profit by the crisis, and 
 
MUTINY IN THE PUNJAB. 311 
 
 again to strike for tlie recovery of their lost dominion. 1849 
 We had just seen the downfal of an empire precipi- 
 tated by the lawlessness of an army, driven onward 
 by the impulses of its greed ; and now it seemed as 
 though our own soldiery, having caught the con- 
 tagion, were clamouring for donatives, and that it re- 
 quired very careful steering to save us from being 
 wrecked upon the same rock. 
 
 Sir Charles Napier had, at that time, just appeared 
 upon the stage. He had hastened from Calcutta to 
 Simlah to meet the Governor- General, who was re- 
 freshing himself with the cool mountain air ; and 
 there the news reached him, not that one, but that 
 two regiments at Rawul Pindee had refused to take 
 their pay, and that there was every prospect of four 
 more regiments at Wuzeerabad, and two at the inter- 
 mediate station of Jhelum, following their example. 
 Then Dalhousie and Napier took counsel together, 
 with some of their staff-officers, and it was debated 
 whether it w^ould not be wise to strike a vigorous blow 
 at the incipient mutiny by disbanding the regiments 
 which had already refused to accept their pay. To 
 this course, proposed by Colonel Benson, an old officer 
 of the Company's service, held in deserved regard by 
 many successive Governors- General, Napier resolutely 
 objected, and Dalhousie concurred with the Chief. 
 Hoping for the best, but still prepared for the worst, 
 the old soldier instructed Campbell to point out to the 
 recusant regiments the folly and wickedness of their 
 course ; but he wrote privately to him that in the 
 event of their obduracy, he and other commanding 
 officers must bring the power of the European regi- 
 ments in the Punjab to bear upon the coercion of the 
 mutinous Sepoys. But before these letters arrived, 
 Campbell had tided over the difficulty. " The com- 
 
312 THE SEPOY ARm'— ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1310. binatlon amongst the men of the Thirteen tli and 
 Twenty-second Regiments," he wrote to Napier, on 
 the 26th of July, " gave way to fear on the 18th, the 
 day before your prescription for bringing them to 
 their senses was despatched from Simlah." The fact 
 is that, at that time, they were not ready ; they were 
 not strong enough for the resistance of authority ; 
 and they were not prepared to be the protomartyrs in 
 such a cause. There was a European regiment at 
 Rawul Pindee ; there were European regiments at 
 other stations not far removed ; and so it was held to 
 be a wiser course to wait until the new regiments 
 should arrive from the older provinces and unite with 
 them in the dangerous work of military rebellion. 
 
 That these regiments were prepared to resist was 
 soon too apparent. From Simlah, Napier proceeded 
 on a tour of inspection to the principal military 
 stations in the Northern Provinces of India ; and at 
 Delhi he found unmistakable signs of a confederation 
 of many regiments determined not to serve in the 
 Punjab except on the higher pay. One regiment 
 there, warned for service beyond the Sutlej, declared 
 its intention not to march ; but it was conciliated by 
 a liberal grant of furloughs, which had before been 
 withheld ; and it went on to its destination. Napier 
 believed that the spirit of disaffection was wide-spread. 
 He had heard ominous reports of twenty-four regi- 
 ments prepared to strike, and when he entered the 
 Punjab, he was not surprised to find that mutiny was 
 there only in a state of suspended activity, and that 
 at any moment it might burst out, all the more 
 furiously for this temporary suppression. 
 
 At Wuzeerabad it soon openly manifested itself. In 
 command of that station was one of the best soldiers 
 of the Company's service. At an early age John 
 
COLONEL IIEARSEY. 313 
 
 Hearsey had earned a name in History, as one of the 1849. 
 heroes of Seetabuldee, and thirty years of subsequent 
 service had thoroughly ripened his experience, so that 
 at this time he had perhaps as large a knowledge of 
 the Sepoy, of his temper, of his habits, of his language, 
 as any officer in the Native Army. With this large 
 knowledge dwelt also in him a large sympathy. It 
 commonly happened in those days that the man who 
 best knew the Sepoy best loved him ; and Hearsey, 
 who had seen how good a soldier he could be, before 
 the enemy, respected his good qualities, and looked 
 leniently on his bad. He believed that, with good 
 management, a Sepoy regiment might be kept, under 
 almost any circumstances, in the right temper, and he 
 had great faith in the magic efficacy of a good speech. 
 When, therefore, one of the regiments at Wuzeerabad 
 openly refused its pay, Hearsey drew up the men on 
 parade, and addressed them in language so touching, 
 so forcible, and so much to the point, that many hung 
 down their heads, ashamed of what they had done, 
 and some even shed tears of penitence. The pay v/as 
 then offered to them again. The first four men who 
 refused v/ere tried at once, and sentenced to imprison- 
 ment with hard labour. The whole brigade was then 
 turned out to see the sentence carried into effect 
 There were four Native regiments at Wuzeerabad ; 
 but there was also a Regiment of the Line and de- 
 tachments of European Artillery, Horse and Foot. In 
 the presence of this force, the convicted Sepoys were 
 manacled as felons and sent off to work on the roads. 
 After this, there were no more refusals ; the men took 
 their pay and did their work. 
 
 But discipline had not yet been fully vindicated. 
 Three ringleaders, who had been known to go from 
 company to company, instio:atin^ and fomenting re- 
 
314 THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE 
 
 18i9. bellioUj were tried by court-martial, and sentenced to 
 fourteen years' imprisonment. But Napier, who re- 
 garded in a far stronger light both the enormity of 
 the offence and the magnitude of the danger, ordered 
 a revision of the sentence, and death was recorded 
 against the culprits ; and against two others who 
 Avere tried for the same oifence by the same Court.* 
 Then justice was satisfied, and mercy might stretch 
 forth its hand. The sentence was commuted to trans- 
 January 25, portation for life. " In eternal exile," said Napier, in 
 
 1850. his general order to the troops, ^' they will expiate 
 their crimes. For ever separated from their country 
 and their relations, in a strange land beyond the seas, 
 they will linger out their miserable lives. It is a 
 change, but I do not consider it an amelioration of 
 their punishment. They will remain living examples 
 of the miserable fate which awaits traitors to their 
 colours." 
 
 But the spirit of disaffection was not suppressed, 
 though locally for a time it was subdued. It was de- 
 clared that the Post-ofhce runners laboured under 
 the weight of the Sepoys' letters, which were then 
 passing from cantonment to cantonment ; but a large 
 number of these letters were seized and examined, 
 and they were found to contain nothing on the sub- 
 ject of the allowances.! Napier, however, anticipated 
 a crisis, and was prepared for it. Taking post at 
 Peshawur, the extremest corner of our new Punjab 
 territory, where Avas a strong European force, he be- 
 lieved that he would ere long be compelled to sweep 
 down with the English regiments, picking up rein- 
 forcements as he went from station to station, and to 
 
 * ISir Charles Napier, in his In- f Sir Henry Lawrence, in Cal- 
 
 dian Misj^overnment, says tliat four cuita JReview, vol. xxii. The state- 
 
 Avere tried at first, and one alter- ment is made on the authority of 
 
 M'ards ; but tlie fact is as stated in Major W. Mayne, President of the 
 
 the text. Govindgliur Court of Enquiry. 
 
MUTINY OF THE SIXTY-SIXTH. 315 
 
 crusn a general rising of tlie Sepoy troops. And soon 1850. 
 it appeared to him that the crisis had come. The 
 Sixty-sixth Regiment broke into mutiny at Govind- 
 ghur. Bursting out, on parade, with vehement shouts 
 of disapprobation, they attempted to seize the gates 
 of the Fort, so as to cut off all communication with 
 the loyal troops outside the walls. There was no 
 European regiment at Govindghur, but the First 
 Native Cavalry, under Bradford, were faithful among 
 the faithless, and, aided by the cool courage of Mac- 
 donald, of the Sixty-sixth, they made good their en- 
 trance through the gate.* The Fort was saved. The 
 European officers were saved. And the guilty regi- 
 ment was doomed to a moral death. The Sixty-sixth 
 was struck out of the Army List. The men were dis- 
 banded in a body, and their colours given to a corps 
 of Goorkhas, from the hill- tracts of Nepaul, who were 
 known to be good soldiers, with no Brahminical 
 daintiness about them, and a general fidelity to their 
 Salt. 
 
 "When the Sixty-sixth was disbanded," says Sir 
 Charles Napier, " the mutiny ceased entirely. Why? 
 The Brahmins saw that the Goorkhas, another race, 
 could be brought into the ranks of the Company's 
 Army — a race dreaded, as more warlike than their 
 own. Their religious combination was by that one 
 stroke rendered abortive." But, far other causes 
 than this helped to subdue the spirit of disaffection 
 which was then ripening in the Punjab. The Sepoys 
 had struck for higher allowances than those which 
 had been granted to them by the strict letter of the 
 Regulations; but Napier thought, that however un- 
 soldierly, however culpable their conduct might be, 
 
 * All opportune blow from Mac- stalenient published by Sir H. Law* 
 donald's sword appears to have reuce in Calcutta Review, vol. xxii. 
 caused the gate to be opened. See 
 
316 
 
 THE SEPOY ARMY— ITS DECLINE. 
 
 ISoO. 
 
 DcilhoTisIe 
 and Napier. 
 
 some grounds of dissatisfaction existed. The change, 
 which the Sepoys resented, was declared by the Chies" 
 to be " impolitic and unjust ;" and, pending a reference 
 to Government, orders were issued for the payment 
 of compensation to the troops, on a higher scale than 
 that sanctioned by the latest regulations.* 
 
 Then arose that memorable conflict between Xapier 
 and Dalhousie, which ended in the resignation by the 
 former of an office Avhich many had predicted that 
 he could not long continue to hold. Both were men 
 of imperious temper, and a collision between them 
 was, from the first, clearly foreseen. When the Mili- 
 tar}^ Chief took upon himself to readjust the al- 
 lowances of the troops in the Punjab, the Civil Go- 
 
 * Tlie bare statement in the text 
 ■will suffice for the general reader, 
 but not", pcrhap?, for the professional 
 one. It may be stated, therefore, 
 that it had been for many years the 
 rule of the Indian Government, when- 
 ever the prices of the common arti- 
 cles of consumption used by the Na- 
 tive soldiery exceeded a certain fixed 
 price, to grant them compensation 
 proportionate to the additional cost of 
 supplies. This bounty seems first to 
 have been bestowed in the year 1821 
 on the Native troops serving in the 
 Western Provinces, and was limited 
 to the single article of ottali, or flour. 
 Whenever ottali was selling at less 
 tiian fifteeu seers (or thirty pounds) 
 the rupee, a proportionate compen- 
 sation was granted. But, subse- 
 quently, in 1844, the application of 
 this order was extended by Lord 
 Ellenborough, and compensation also 
 was granted to the Native troops 
 serving in Scinde, when certain minor 
 articles of consumption were selling 
 at a high price. In the following 
 year a new order relative to this 
 same subject of compensation-money 
 was issued by Lord llardinge, who 
 liad by this time succeeded to the 
 government. Instead of granting 
 
 a separate money-compensation for 
 each particular liigh-priced article of 
 consumption, all the several articles 
 were massed, and some being cheaper 
 than elsewhere, a general average 
 was struck. It was then officially 
 announced that thenceforth compen- 
 sation would be granted to the Se- 
 poys " whenever the price of pio- 
 visions, forming the Native soldier's 
 diet, should exceed 3 rupees and 8 
 annas, the aggregate of the rates 
 for the several articles laid down in 
 the General Orders of the 26th of 
 February, 1844." Whenever, in 
 other words, the Sepoy was unable 
 to obtain his daily rations at a cost 
 of 3 rupees 8 annas a month (which 
 cost was calculated in accordance 
 with the aggregate fixed rates of 
 the prices of provisions, beyond 
 which compensation, under the old 
 regulations, was granted for each 
 article), the excess was to be de- 
 frayed by the Government. The 
 regulation of 1845 was not so favour- 
 able to the troops as that of 1814, 
 and Sir Charles Napier, believing 
 that the application of the former 
 rule to the troops in the Punjab was a 
 mistake, directed the regulation of 
 1844 again to be brought into force, 
 
DALHOUSIE AND NAPIER. 317 
 
 vera or was at sea beyond the reacli of an official 1850. 
 reference. He returned to find Avhat had been done, 
 and he resented such an encroachment upon the pre- 
 rogative of the Government. Napier had justified 
 the exercise of an authority not constitutionally 
 belonging to his office, by the assertion that the 
 danger was pressing, and that action, in such an 
 emergency, did not admit delay. Dalhousie denied 
 the premises ; he insisted that there had been no 
 danger. " I cannot sufficiently express,'' he wrote, in 
 an elaborate Minute on Napier's proceedings, "the 
 astonishment with which I read, on the 26th of May, 
 the intimation then made to the Government by the 
 Commander-in-Chief, that in the month of January 
 last a mutinous spirit pervaded the army in the 
 Punjab, and that insubordination had risen so high 
 and spread so wide, as to impress his Excellency with 
 the belief that the Government of the country was 
 placed at that time in a position of ' great peril.' I 
 have carefully weighed the statements which his Ex- 
 cellency has advanced. I have examined ancAV the 
 records that bear on the state of public affairs at that 
 period, and I have well reflected upon all that has 
 passed. While I do not seek to question in any way 
 the sincerity of the convictions by which Sir Charles 
 Napier has been led to declare that the army was in 
 mutiny and the empire in danger, I, on my part, am 
 bound to say that my examination and reflection have 
 not lessened in any degree the incredulity with which 
 I first read the statements to which I have referred." 
 "There is no justification," continued his Lordship, 
 " for the cry that India was in danger. Free from all 
 threat of hostilities from without, and secure, through 
 the submission of its new subjects, from insurrection 
 within, the safety of India has never for one moment 
 
318 THE SEroY AraiY -its decline. 
 
 1850. been imperilled by the partial insubordination in the 
 ranks of its army. I have confronted the assertions 
 of the Commander-in-Chief on this head with undis- 
 puted facts, and with the authority of recorded do- 
 cuments, and my convictions strengthened by the 
 information which the Government commands, I 
 desire to record my entire dissent from the statement 
 that the army has been in mutiny, and the empire in 
 danger." 
 
 This was, doubtless, the popular view of the matter ; 
 and it was readily accepted at the time. What 
 amount of danger really existed was never known, 
 and now never will be known. Whatever it may 
 have been, it was tided over ; and the quietude that 
 followed this temporary explosion seemed to warrant 
 the confidence which the Governor- General had ex- 
 pressed. But Napier held to his opinion with as 
 much tenacity as Dalhousie. Nothing could shake 
 the belief of the old soldier that the exceptional course 
 he had adopted was justified by the exceptional cir- 
 cumstances of the times. Still he knew the duty of 
 obedience ; he knew that in a conflict between two 
 authorities the lower must yield to the higher, and 
 that he had no right to complain if the latter asserted 
 the power vested in him by the Law. " And I do not 
 complain," he emphatically added. But, strong in 
 his conviction of right, and master of himself, though 
 not of the situation, he felt that ho could retire with 
 dignity from a position which he could not hold with 
 profit to the State. And he did retire. On the 22nd 
 of May, he addressed a letter to the Horse- Guards, 
 requesting that the Duke of Wellington would obtain 
 her gracious Majesty's permission for him to resign 
 the chief command of the Indian Army. " And the 
 more so," he added, "as being now nearly seventy 
 
NAPIER'S RESIGNATION. 319 
 
 years of age — during the last ten years of which I 1850. 
 have gone through considerable fatigue of body and 
 mind, especially during the last year — my healtli 
 requires that relief from climate and business which 
 public service in India does not admit." 
 
 But there is no blame, in such a case, to be re- 
 corded against the Governor-General. When an old 
 and distinguished soldier — a warrior of high repute, 
 and a man of consummate ability — deliberately de- 
 clares that he regards the system under which he has 
 been called upon to command an army as a system at 
 once faulty and dangerous ; that he conceives the 
 power of the civil magistrate to be so absolute that 
 the arm of the chief soldier is paralysed ; and that, so 
 enervated and emasculated by restrictions imposed 
 upon him by law, he cannot wield the sword with 
 honour to himself or advantage to the State, and that, 
 therefore, he desires to lay it down, he utters words 
 which, whether he be right or wrong in his estimate 
 of what ought to be the just balance between the civil 
 and the military power, are honest, manly, dignified 
 words, and ought everywhere to be received with 
 respect. Few men had a better right than Sir Charles 
 Napier to criticise an Act of Parliament. He had a 
 right to think that the law was a bad law ; and he had 
 a right to say that it was bad. But the law, whether 
 good or bad, was not made by Lord Dalhousie, but 
 by the British Parliament. It was Dalhousie's busi- 
 ness to administer that law, and to maintain the au- 
 thority vested in him by the Imperial Legislature. Of 
 this Napier had no right to complain ; and he declared 
 that he did not complain. But the contest was on 
 every account an unseemly and an unfortunate one. 
 It was another and a culminating instance of that 
 excessive centralisation which weakened the authority 
 
320 THE SErOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1850 and degraded the character of the military arm, and 
 taught the soldiery that the greatest chief whom Eng- 
 land could send them Avas as much a subaltern of the 
 civil governor as the youngest ensign on the Army 
 List. 
 
 And it taught even more than this. It taught 
 thinking men, not for the first time, that even the 
 chief members of the Government were at war among 
 themselves, and the lesson shook their faith in the 
 stability of a power thus disunited, thus incoherent. 
 " I am now sixty years of age," wrote an intelligent 
 native official to Sir George Clerk. " I have heard 
 three sayings repeated by wise men, and I myself 
 have also found out, from my own experience, that 
 the sovereignty of the British Government will not 
 be overthrown save by the occurrence of three ob- 
 jectionable circumstances." And the first of these 
 circumstances he thus stated : " Formerlv the hio^h, 
 dignified Sahibs had no enmity among themselves, or 
 at least the people of India never came to know that 
 they had enmity. Now enmity exists among them, 
 and it is as well seen as the sun at noonday that they 
 calumniate and bear malice against each other."* 
 Such conflicts of authority are keenly watched and 
 volubly discussed ; and a significance is attached to 
 them out of all proportion to the importance with 
 which amorgst us like contentions are invested. The 
 natives of India know that we are few ; but they feel 
 that union makes us many. Seen to be at discord 
 among ourselves, we shrivel into our true propor- 
 tions, and it is believed that our power is beginning 
 to crumble and decay. 
 
 During the administration of Lord Ellenborough 
 (here had been disunion among the higher authorities, 
 arising out of nearly similar causes. The unauthorised 
 
 * MS. Correspondence, translated from the Persian, 
 
CONFLICTS or AUTHORITY. 321 
 
 promises given by the Commander-in-Chief to the ^^^^ 
 Native troops proceeding to Scinde had stirred the re- 
 sentment of the Governor-General, and his grave dis- 
 pleasure was excited by the zealous indiscretions of the 
 Madras Government. But he had studiously veiled 
 from the public eye the differences that had arisen. 
 There was nothing to which he Avas more keenly 
 alive than to the necessity, especially in troubled times, 
 of maintaining a show of union and co-operation in the 
 high places of Government. It was his hard fate at 
 last to be compelled, by the hat of a higher power, to 
 exhibit to the people of India, in his own person, the 
 very spectacle which he had striven to conceal from 
 them, and to declare, trumpet-tongued, that the Eng- 
 lish were vehemently contending among themselves. 
 But so long as he exercised the supreme control he 
 was careful not to reveal the local dissensions of the 
 Government, lest he should weaken the authority it 
 was so essential to uphold ; and little even is now 
 known of the strife that raged at the time, when the 
 great difficulty of garrisoning Scinde was filling the 
 minds of the rulers of the land. But the strife be- 
 tween Dalhousie and Napier was proclaimed, almost as 
 it wxre by beat of drum, in all the Lines and Bazaars 
 of the country ; and all men knew that the English, 
 who used so to cling to one another, that it seemed 
 that they thought with one strong brain and struck 
 with one strong arm, were now wasting their vigour 
 by warring among themselves, and in their disunion 
 ceasing to be formidable. 
 
 This was apparent to all men's eyes ; but the Sepoy 
 had his own particular lesson to learn, and did not 
 neglect it. How it happened that the bitter experi- 
 ence which the English Government had gained, on 
 the annexation of Scinde, made no impression upon 
 
 Y 
 
322 THE SErOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE. 
 
 1S50. tlie minds of those wliose duty it was to provide 
 against the recurrence of similar disasters, it is impos- 
 sible to explain. All we know is, that five years after 
 a misunderstanding between the Government and the 
 Army with respect to the rates of pay and allowance 
 to be disbursed to the Sepoy, in a newly-acquired 
 country, had driven into mutiny a large number of 
 Native regiments, and greatly perplexed the rulers of 
 the day, a similar conjuncture arose, and there was 
 a similar misunderstanding, with similar results.* The 
 Sepoy had not learnt to reconcile himself to the British 
 theory of Annexation, and so he resented it in the 
 Punjab as he had before resented it in Scinde. In the 
 latter country the excitement was far greater, and the 
 danger more serious, than in the former ; but in both 
 there was an outburst on the one side, and a concession 
 on the other. That was given to the mutinous soldier, 
 not without loss of character by Government, which 
 might before have been given to the loyal one with 
 befitting dignity and grace. When the emergenc}^ 
 arises, it is hard to say whether there be greater evil 
 in concession or in resistance. Napier thought the 
 
 * This uncertainty with respect take advantage of difficulties, not 
 
 to the pay and allowances of dif- an unnpire between man and man. 
 
 fercnt branches and dillerent ranks During the last thirty years, I have 
 
 of the Indian Army was emphatically seen much hardship on officers in 
 
 commented upon by Sir Henry Law- matters of accounts, and of the seve- 
 
 rence in an article bearing his name ral instances of discontent that I 
 
 in the Calcutta Review : " Of all have witnessed in the Native Army, 
 
 the wants of the Army, perhaps the all were more or less connected with 
 
 greatest want is a simple pay-code, pay, and in almost every instance 
 
 unmistakably showing the pay of the men only asked for what they 
 
 every rank, in each branch, under all were by existing rules entitled to. 
 
 circumstances. At present there Half a sheet of paper ought to show 
 
 are not three officers in the Bengal every soldier his rate of pay, by sea, 
 
 Army who could, with certainty, tell by land, on leave, on the staff, in 
 
 what they and the people under hospital, on duty, &c. There ought 
 
 them are entitled to in every position to be no doubt on the matter. At 
 
 in which they are liable to be placed. })resent there is great doubt, though 
 
 The Audit-office seldom affords help, there are volumes of Pay and Audit 
 
 7 1 is considered an enemy ready to Eegulations." 
 
DISREGARDED WARNINGS. 323 
 
 one thing, Dalhousie tliouglit the other; and each 1850. 
 had strong argument on his side. But both must 
 have bitterly regretted that the contingency was ever 
 suiFered to arise, that no one in authority, warned 
 by the lessons of the Past, had learnt to look at the 
 consequences of Annexation with a Sepoy's eyes, and 
 anticipated, by small concessions, the not irrational 
 expectations which, at a later stage developing into 
 demands, had all the force and significance of mutiny. 
 Had this been done ; had the Sepoy been told that in 
 consideration of increased distance from home, and 
 other circumstances rendering service in Scinde and. 
 the Punjab more irksome to him than in our older 
 provinces, certain especial advantages would be con- 
 ferred upon him — advantages which might have 
 been bestowed at small cost to the State — ^he would 
 have received the boon with gratitude, and ap- 
 plauded the justice of his masters ; but after he 
 had struck for it, he saw not their justice, but their 
 fear, in the concession, and he hugged the feeling of 
 power, which lessons such as these could not fail to 
 engender, 
 
324 THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF INDU. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CHAEACTEK, OF THE BENGAL SEPOY — CONFLICTING OPINIONS — CASTE— THE 
 SENIORITY SYSTEM — THE OFFICERTNG OF THE ARMY — REGULAR AND 
 IRREGULAR REGIMENTS— WANT OF EUROPEANS — THE CRIMEAN WAR — 
 INDIAN PUBLIC OPINION— SUMMAKY OF DETERIORATING INFLUENCES. 
 
 1S51.56. After this, there was again a season of quiet. The 
 remaining years of Lord Dalhousie's administration 
 passed away without any further military outbreaks 
 to disturb his rooted conviction of the fidelity of the 
 Sepoy. There were not wanting those who declared 
 that there was an ineradicable taint in the constitu- 
 tion of the Bengal Army, that it was rotten to the 
 very core. But the angry controversies which arose 
 — the solemn warnings on the one side, and the in- 
 dignant denials on the other — proved nothing more 
 than that among men, entitled to speak with authority 
 on the subject, there were vast diversities of opinion. 
 Much of this was attributed to class prejudices and 
 professional jealousies. One voice, very loud and 
 very earnest, pealing from the West, sustained for 
 years a continual remonstrance against the laxities of 
 the Bengal System. But Bengal resented the out- 
 rage. A genuine man, above all pettiness, John 
 Jacob, was declared to be the exponent only of 
 small Presidential envyings and heart-burnings. The 
 voice of Truth was proclaimed to be the voice of 
 
STATE OF THE BENGAL ARMY. 325 
 
 Bombay. And when officers of the Bengal Army 1S51-56. 
 wrote, as some did most wisely, of the evil symp- 
 toms which were manifesting themselves, and of the 
 dangers which appeared to be looming in the dis- 
 tance, they were denounced as dehlers of their own 
 nest, and as feeble-minded alarmists, to whose utter- 
 ances no heed should be given. There was a general 
 unwillingness to believe in the decay of discipline 
 throughout one of the finest armies of the world; 
 and in the absence of any outward signs of mischief, 
 we willingly consented not to look beneath the surface 
 for the virus of undeveloped disease. 
 
 There is nothing that is strange, and little that is 
 blamable in this. The Bengal Sepoy had evinced 
 signs of a froward, petulant nature, and he had, on 
 several occasions, broken out after a fashion which, 
 viewed by European military eyes, is criminality of 
 the deepest dye. But these aberrations were merely 
 a few dark spots upon a century of good service. It > 
 was not right that rare exceptions of this kind should 
 cancel in our minds all the noble acts of fidelity which 
 were chronicled in the history of our empire. Nor 
 was it to be forgotten that, in most instances, the 
 criminality of the Sepoy had been the direct growth 
 of some mismanagement on the part either of the ofii- 
 cers whom he followed or the Government which he 
 served. To have looked with suspicion on the Sepoy, 
 because from time to time some component parts of 
 our Army had done that, which the Armies of every 
 Native State had done, with their whole accumulated 
 strength, would have been equally unwise and unjust. 
 For although it might be said that the examples, 
 which those Native States afibrded, ought to have 
 taught us to beware of the destroying power of a 
 lawless soldiery, the English were justified In be- 
 
326 THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF INDIA. 
 
 1S51-56. lieving tlial there were special reasons why their own 
 mercenaries should not tread in the footsteps of the 
 Mahratta and Sikh Armies. They did not believe in 
 the love of the Sepoy ; but they believed in his fidelity 
 to his Pay. 
 Tliaracter of Whilst it was natural, and indeed commendable, 
 f.xe Sepoy. ^|^^^ ^j^^ remembrance of all the good service which 
 the Native soldiery had done for their English masters, 
 should have sustained our confidence in them as a 
 body, there was nothing in the individual character 
 of the Sepoy to subvert it. Even his outbreaks of 
 rebellion had recently partaken more of the naughti- 
 ness of the child than of the stern resolution of man- 
 hood. He had evinced a disposition, indeed, rather 
 to injure himself than to injure others ; and it was 
 not easy for those who knew him to believe that he 
 was capable of any violent and sanguinary excesses. 
 His character was made up of inconsistencies, but the 
 weaker and less dangerous qualities appeared to have 
 the preponderance ; and though we knew that they 
 made him a very difiicult person to manage, we did 
 not think that they made him a dangerous one. From 
 the time when, in the very infancy of the Sepoy Army, 
 a Madras soldier cut dov/n Mr. Haliburton, and was 
 immediately put to death by his own comrades, to the 
 day when Colin Mackenzie was well-nigh butchered at 
 Bolarum by troopers of his own brigade, there had 
 been ever and anon some murderous incidents to dis- 
 figure the Military History of our Indian Empire. * But 
 outrages of this kind are common to all armies ; and 
 there was no reason to regard them in any other light 
 ■than that of exceptional aberrations. It was not to 
 
 * See Williams's Bengal Army section on the Sepoy Army m Suther- 
 and Mackenzie's Narrative of ttie land's Sketches of the Native Statea 
 Mutiny at Bolarum ; compare also of India. 
 
CHARACTER OF THE BENGAL SEPOY. 327 
 
 be said tliat the Sepoy was a ruffian because he had 1S51-56. 
 done some ruffianly deeds. 
 
 He was, indeed, altogether a paradox. He was 
 made up of inconsistencies and contradictions. In his 
 character, qualities, so adverse as to be apparently 
 irreconcilable with each other, met together and em- 
 braced. He was simple and yet designing ; credulous 
 and easily deceived by others, and yet obstinately 
 tenacious of his own in-bred convictions ; now docile 
 as a child, and now hard and immovable in the stub- 
 bornness of his manhood. Abstemious and yet self- 
 indulgent, calm and yet impetuous, gentle and yet 
 cruel, he was indolent even to languor in his daily 
 life, and yet capable of being roused to acts of the 
 most desperate energy. Sometimes sportive, and 
 sometimes sullen, he was easily elevated and easily 
 depressed ; but he was for the most part of a cheerful 
 nature, and if you came suddenly upon him in the 
 Lines you were more likely to see him with a broad 
 grin upon his face than with any expression of 
 moroseness or discontent. But light-hearted as was 
 his general temperament, he would sometimes brood 
 over imaginary wrongs, and when a delusion once 
 entered his soul it clung to it with the subtle male- 
 volence of an ineradicable poison. 
 
 And this, as we now understand the matter, was 
 the most dangerous feature of his character. For his 
 gentler, more genial qualities sparkled upon the 
 surface and were readily appreciated, whilst all the 
 harsher and more forbidding traits lay dark and 
 disguised, and were not discernible in our ordinary 
 intercourse with him. There was outwardly, indeed, 
 very much to rivet the confidence of the European 
 officer, and very little to disturb it. It is true that 
 if we reasoned about it, it did not seem to be alto- 
 
328 THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF INDIA. 
 
 1851-56. gether reasonable to expect from the Sepoy any 
 strong affection for the alien officer who had usurped 
 all the high places of the Army, and who kept him 
 down in the dead level of the dust. But Englishmen 
 never reason about their position in the midst of a 
 community of strangers ; they take their popularity 
 for granted, and look for homage as a thing of course. 
 And that homage was yielded to the British officer, 
 not for his own sake, for the Sepoy hated his colour 
 and his creed, his unclean ways, and his domineering 
 manners ; but because he was an embodiment of 
 Success. It was one of the many inconsistencies of 
 which I have spoken, that though boastful and vain- 
 glorious beyond all example, the Native soldier of 
 India inwardly acknowledged that he owed to the 
 English officer the aliment which fed his passion for 
 glory and sustained his military pride. This, indeed, 
 was the link that bound class to class, and resisted 
 the dissolving power of many adverse influences. It 
 was this that moved the Sepoy to light up the tomb 
 of his old commanding officer ; it was this that moved 
 the veteran to salute the picture of the General under 
 . whom he had fought. But there was a show also 
 of other and gentler feelings, and there were instances 
 of strong personal attachment, of unsurpassed fidelity 
 and devotion, manifested in acts of charity and love. 
 You might see the Sepoy of many fights, watchful 
 and tender as a woman, beside the sick-bed of the 
 English officer, or playing with the pale-faced chil- 
 dren beneath the verandah of his captain's bungalow. 
 There was not an English gentlewoman in the 
 country who did not feel measureless security in the 
 thought that a guard of Sepoys watched her house, 
 or who would not have travelled, under such an 
 escort, across the whole length and breadth of the 
 
DEFECTS IN THE SYSTEM. 320 
 
 land. What was lurking beneath the fair surface we 1851-56. 
 knew not. We saw only the softer side of the 
 Sepoy's nature ; and there was nothing to make us 
 believe that there was danger in the coniidence which 
 we reposed in those outward signs of attachment to 
 our rule. 
 
 But whilst cherishing this not unreasonable con- Defects iuth 
 fidence in the general good character of the Sepoy, ^^*^"'' 
 the British Government might still have suffered 
 some doubts and misgivings to arise when they looked 
 into the details of the System. They might, it has 
 been urged, have believed in the soundness of the 
 whole, but admitted the defectiveness of parts, and 
 addressed themselves earnestly and deliberately to 
 the details of the great work of Army Reform. In- 
 stead of boasting that the condition of the Native 
 soldier left nothing to be desired, Lord Dalhousie, it 
 is said, ought to have looked beneath the surface, to 
 have probed all the vices of the existing system, and 
 to have striven with all his might to eradicate them. 
 Information was not wanting. " Officers of expe- 
 rience" were at all times ready to tell him what it 
 behoved him to do. But in the multitude of coun- 
 sellors there was inextricable confusion. As with the 
 whole, so with the parts. The forty years' experience 
 of one greybeard belied the forty years' experience 
 of another. And when the responsible ruler had 
 been almost persuaded to see a blot and to promise 
 to erase it, another adviser came, straightway de- 
 clared it to be a beauty, and besought him to leave it 
 as it was. Thus distracted by the conflicting judg- 
 ments of the best military critics, Dalhousie did, as 
 others had done before him ; he admitted that if he 
 had then for the first time to construct a Native 
 Army it would in some respects differ from that 
 
330 THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF INDIA. 
 
 1551-56. which he saw before him, the growth not of systems 
 and theories but of circumstances ; but that as it had 
 grown up, so on the whole it was better to leave it, 
 as Change is sometimes dangerous, and almost always 
 misunderstood. 
 
 That, indeed, there w^as no more difficult question 
 to understand than that of the Sepoy Army, was a 
 fact which must have been continually forced upon 
 the mind of the Governor- General, by the discordant 
 opinions which were pronounced on points vitally 
 affecting its fidelity and efficiency. Even on the 
 Ua^ie. great question of Caste, men differed. Some said it 
 was desirable that our Native regiments should be 
 composed mainly of high-caste men ; because in such 
 men were combined many of the best qualities, moral 
 and physical, which contribute to the formation of 
 an accomplished soldier. The high-caste man had a 
 bolder spirit, a purer professional pride, a finer frame, 
 and a more military bearing, than his countryman of 
 lower social rank. Other authorities contended that 
 the Native soldiery should be enlisted indiscriminately, 
 that no account should be taken of Caste distinctions, 
 and that the smaller the proportion of Brahmins and 
 Rajpoots in the service the better for the discipline 
 of the Army.* Comparisons were drawn between the 
 Bengal and the Bombay Armies. There was a strong 
 and not imnatural prejudice in favour of the Bengal 
 Sepoy ; for he was a fine, noble-looking fellow, and in 
 comparison with his comrades from the Southern and 
 Western Presidencies, was said to be quite a gentle- 
 man ; but there were those who alleged that he was 
 more a gentleman than a soldier ; and it was urged 
 that the normal state of the Bengal Army was Mutiny, 
 because in an Army so constituted Caste was ever 
 
 * For the statistics of Caste in the Sepoy Army, scu Appendix. 
 
HIGH CASTE AND LOW CASTE. 331 
 
 stronger than Discipline ; and the social institutions 1851-56. 
 of the Sepoy domineered over the necessities of the 
 State. 
 
 It was contended, for this reason, that the Bengal 
 Army required a larger infusion of low-caste men. 
 But it was alleged, on the other hand, that this very 
 mixture of castes tended to destroy the discipline of 
 which it was proposed to make it the preservative; 
 for that military rank was held to be nothing in com- 
 parison with Brahminical Elevation, and that the 
 Sepoy was often the "master of the officer."* To this 
 it was replied that the presumption of Caste was 
 favoured and fostered by the weakness and indul- 
 gence of the officers of the Bengal Army ; that, in the 
 armies of Madras and Bombay, Caste had found its 
 level ; that it had neither been antagonistic to good 
 service, nor injurious to internal discipline; that 
 high-caste men in those armies did cheerfully what 
 they refused to do in Bengal, and that low-caste 
 native officers met with all the respect from their 
 social superiors due to their superior military rank. 
 It was asserted, indeed, that Brahminism was arro- 
 gant and exacting in Bengal, because it saw that it 
 could play upon the fears of the English officers. To 
 this it was replied, that disregard Caste as we might, 
 we could never induce the natives to disregard it. 
 And then again the rejoinder was, that in the other 
 Presidencies we had taught them to disregard it, why, 
 then, might not the same lesson be taught in Bengal ? 
 The answer to this was, that men will often do in 
 other countries what they cannot be persuaded to do 
 
 * " I cannot conceive the pos- down to him with his forehead on 
 
 sibility of maintaining discipline in a the ground. I have seen this done, 
 
 corps where a low-caste non-com- The Sepoy thus treated is the master 
 
 missioned officer will, when he meets of the officer." — jEoidence of Mnjoi- 
 
 off duty a Brahmin Sepoy, crouch General Birch. 
 
332 THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF IlsDIA. 
 
 1851-50. in their own ; that high-caste Hindostanees enlisting 
 into the Bombay or Madras Armies were^ to a great 
 extent, cut off from the brotherhood, that they were 
 greatly outnumbered in their several regiments, that 
 it was convenient to conform to the custom of the 
 country, and that what he did in a foreign country 
 among strangers was little known at home. In a 
 word, when he took service in the Bombay Army, he 
 did what was done in Bombay ; just as among our- 
 selves, men who, fearful of losing caste, would on no 
 account be seen to enter a London hell, think nothing 
 of spending whole days in the gambling-rooms of 
 Homburg or Baden-Baden. 
 ^atlonalil:es. Of a kindred nature was the question hotly dis- 
 cussed, whether it were wiser to compose each regi- 
 ment of men of the same race, or to mix up different 
 races in the same corps. On the one hand, it was 
 alleged that the fusion of different nationalities had a 
 tendency to keep internal combinations in check ; but 
 that if men of one tribe were formed into separate re- 
 giments; if we had Patau regiments and Goorkha 
 regiments, Sikh regiments and Mahratta regiments, 
 facilities for mutinous combinations would be greatly 
 increased. On the other hand, it was contended that 
 the fusion of different tribes and castes in the several 
 regiments encouraged external combinations by im- 
 parting common interests to the whole Army ; that 
 if safety were to be sought in the antagonism of na- 
 tionalities, it was more likely to be attained by keep- 
 ing them apart than by fusing them into a hetero- 
 geneous mass ; that it was easier to keep one regiment 
 from following the example of another composed of 
 different materials, raised and stationed in a different 
 part of the country, than to keep one half of a regi- 
 ment from following the example of the other ; easier 
 
POINTS OF CONTROVERSY. ,S3.*5 
 
 io make men fight against tliose wliom they had never 1851-55. 
 seen, than against those with whom they had long 
 lived, if not in brotherhood of caste, at least in bro- 
 therhood of service. 
 
 Again, men discussed, with reference to this ques- Local and Ge. 
 tion of combination, the relative advantages and dis- ^^^^ fc>ervice. 
 advantages of localisation and distribution. Whilst 
 some contended that the different Sepoy regiments 
 should serve respectively only in certain parts of the 
 country, except under any peculiar exigencies of war 
 — in other words, that they should be assimilated as 
 much as possible to a sort of local militia — others 
 were in favour of the existing system, under which 
 there were periodical reliefs, and regiments marched 
 from one station to another, often many hundreds of 
 miles apart. On the one hand it was argued that 
 there was much danger in the local influence which 
 would be acquired by men long resident in the same 
 place, and that intrigues and plots, rendered perilous 
 by the fusion of the civil and military classes, might 
 result from this localisation ; and, on the other, it 
 was urged that it was far more dangerous to suffer 
 the Sepoy regiments to become extensively acquainted 
 with each other, for the men to form friendships, and 
 therefore to have correspondents in other corps, and 
 thus to afford them the means, in times of excitement, 
 of forming extensive combinations, and spreading, as 
 it were, a network of conspiracy over the whole face 
 of the country. Thus, again, men of wisdom and ex- 
 perience neutralised one another's judgments, and 
 from amongst so many conflicting opinions it was 
 impossible to evolve the truth. 
 
 It was a question also much debated whether the Families. 
 fidelity and efficiency of the Sepoy were best main- 
 tained by keeping him a; art from his family, or by 
 
334 THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF INDIA. 
 
 1851-55. suffering the wives, the children, and the dependents 
 of the soldier to attach themselves to his regiment, 
 and to follow his fortunes. The former was the system 
 in the Bengal Army; the latter, in the Army of 
 Madras, and partially in that of Bombay. Each sys 
 tem had its advocates ; each its special advantages. 
 The Bengal Sepoy visited his family at stated times, 
 and remitted to them a large part of his pay. If he 
 failed to do this he was a marked man in his reoi- 
 ment ; and, it was said, that the knowledge that if he 
 failed in his duty as a soldier, a report of liis miscon- 
 duct would surely reach his native village, and that 
 his face would be blackened before his kindred, kept 
 him in the strict path of his duty. The presence of 
 the Family led to much inconvenience and embar- 
 rassment, and the necessity of moving it from one 
 station to another, when the regiments were relieved, 
 strained the scanty resources of the Sepoy, and de- 
 veloped grievances out of which mutiny might arise.* 
 It was said, indeed, that there was " hardly a Native 
 regiment in the Bengal Army in which the twenty 
 drummers, who were Christians, and had . their 
 families with them, did not cause more trouble to 
 their onicers than the whole eight hundred Sepoys."f 
 On the other hand, it was urged that the presence of 
 the Family afforded the best guarantee for the fidelity 
 and good conduct of the Sepoy. His children were 
 hostages in our hands ; the honour of his women was 
 in our keeping. These were held to be safeguards 
 against mutiny and massacre. It was urged, too, 
 that the system tended more to keep them, as a race, 
 apart from the general mass of their countrymen ; 
 that the ties which bound them to the country were 
 
 * See the case of the Sixth f Sleeman on the Spirit of Disci- 
 Madras Cavalry, ante, page 291. pliue in the Native Arijiy, 
 
THE SENIORITY SYSTEM. 335 
 
 thus weakened, and tlieir interests more indissolubly 1S51 'jf^. 
 associated witli the State. They were less represen- 
 tative men than their brethren of the Bengal Army, 
 and more a part of the machinery of Government. 
 And so each system had its advocates, and each was 
 left to work itself out and develop its own results. 
 
 Great, also, was the difference of opinion with respect Promotion, 
 to Promotion. Some said that the Bengal Army was 
 destroyed by the Seniority system, which gave to every 
 Sepoy in the service an equal chance of rising to the 
 rank of a Commissioned Officer.* Others maintained 
 that this was the very sheet-anchor which enabled it 
 to resist all adverse influences. Strong arguments 
 were adduced, and great names were quoted upon 
 both sides. It was said that under such a system 
 there was no incentive to exertion ; that the men 
 were independent of their officers, that they had no 
 motive to earn the good opinion of their superiors, that 
 it was enouo^h for them to drowse throucrh a certain 
 number of years of service, to slide quietly into a 
 commission, and then to end their military lives in a 
 state of senile somnolence and apathy. The Native 
 officers of the Bengal Army were, therefore, for the 
 most part^ respectable, worn-out, feeble-minded old 
 men, with no influence in their regiments, and no de- 
 sire beyond that of saving themselves as much trouble 
 as possible, and keeping things as quiet as they could. 
 On the other hand, it was alleged that the seniority 
 system was the very prop and support of the Sepoy 
 service ; that all men were happy and contented, and 
 had some aliment of hope, so long as they felt that 
 nothing but their own misconduct could deprive them 
 of the right of succession to the highest grades of the 
 
 * To every regiment of Native dar-niajor, ten Soubahdais, and tea 
 infantrv were attached one Soubah- Jemadars. 
 
336 THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF INLIA. 
 
 •1-5G. Native Army. It was said that to pass over a man at 
 the head of the list, and to give promotion to others 
 of shorter service, would be to flood the regiments with 
 desperate malcontents, or else with sullen, broken- 
 spirited idlers. Whilst Henry Lawrence and John 
 Jacob were descanting on the evil of filling the com- 
 missioned ranks of the Sepoy Army with "poor old 
 wretches, feeble in body and imbecile in mind,"* 
 Charles Napier was peremptorily commanding that 
 " the fullest attention and consideration should inva- 
 riably be given to the claim of seniority in every 
 grade" of the Native Army, and William Sleeman 
 was asserting, not less emphatically, in his published 
 writings, that ''though we might have in every regi- 
 ment a few smarter Native officers, by disregarding 
 the rule of promotion than by adhering to it, we 
 should, in the diminution of good feeling towards 
 the European officers and the Government, lose a 
 thousand times more than we gained."f What won- 
 der, then, that Governor- General after Governor- Ge- 
 neral was perplexed and bewildered, and left things, 
 when he passed away from the scene, as he found 
 them on his first arrival. 
 
 * Views and Opinions of General was a good man, and had seen much 
 
 John Jacob, p. 120 ; compare also service. He had me taken into the 
 
 Sir Henry Lawrence's Essays, Mili- open air, and when T recovered he 
 
 tary and Political, p. 2-i et seq. told me that he would write to the 
 
 f Sleeman relates, that " an old Commander-in-Cliief and represent 
 
 Soubahdar, who had been at the my case. He did so immediately, 
 
 taking of the Isle of France, men- and I was promoted, and I have 
 
 lioned that when he was the senior since done my duty as Soubahdar for 
 
 Jemadar of his regiment, and a ten years.' " But, it may be asked, 
 
 vacancy liad occurred to bring him howf It must be borne in mind, 
 
 in as Soubahdar, he was sent for by too, that Sleeman speaks here of 
 
 his commanding officer, and told that the effect of supersession under a 
 
 by orders from Head-Quarters he Seniority system. Under a sv stem of 
 
 was to be passed over, on account of selection such results would not be 
 
 liis advanced age and supposed in- apparent, because there would not be 
 
 firmity. * I felt,' said the old man, the same disgrace iu beinir passed 
 
 * as if I had been struck by lightning, over. 
 and fell down dead. The Colonel 
 
OFFICERING OF THE ARMY. 337 
 
 Then, again, there were wide diversities of opinion 185l-^*;i 
 with respect to the European officering of regiments. Emopeay! 
 There were those who contended for the Irregular and ^^^^^^' 
 those who were loud in their praises of the Regular 
 system ; some who thought it better to attach to each 
 regiment a few select officers, as in the old times, 
 giving them some power and authority over their 
 men ; and others who believed it to be wiser to officer 
 the regiments after the later English system, like regi- 
 ments of the Line, with a large available surplus for 
 purposes of the General Staff, and to leave all the 
 centralised power and authority in the hands of the 
 Adjutant- General of the Army.* There was a con- 
 tinual cry, not always, it must be admitted, of the 
 most unselfish character, for " more officers ;" and 
 yet it was plain that the Irregular regiments, to 
 which only three or four picked officers were at- 
 tached, were in a perfect state of discipline in peace, 
 and capable of performing admirable service in war. 
 It was said that in action the Sepoys, losing their 
 officers, killed or carried wounded to the rear, lost 
 heart, and were soon panic-struck ; and that if officers 
 were so few, this contingency must often happen. To 
 this, however, it was replied, that if the Native 
 officers were of the right class, they would keep their 
 men together, and still do good service ; but if they 
 were worn-out imbeciles, or over-corpulent and scant 
 of breath, of course disorder and ruin must follow 
 the fall of the English officers. Then, hearing this, 
 the disputant on the other side would triumphanth 
 ask how many years' purchase our empire in India 
 were worth, if our Native officers were as efficient as 
 
 * A regiment of Native Infantry 5 ensigns. A few months after- 
 
 in March, 1856, was officered by 1 wards another captain and another 
 
 colonel, 1 lientenant-coionel, 1 ma- lieutenant were added to each regi- 
 
 jor, 6 captains, 10 lieutenants, and ment. 
 
338 THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF INDIA. 
 
 1S§1.56. ourselves. It was often argued, indeed, that our in- 
 structions might some day return to plague the in- 
 ventor ; that to make men qualified to lead our bat- 
 talions to battle against our enemies is to qualify 
 them to command troops to fight against ourselves. 
 But there were others, and chief among them Henry 
 Lawrence, who, taking a larger and more liberal view 
 of the question, contended that it was sound policy 
 to give to every man, European and Native, a motive 
 for exertion ; who declared that it was one of the 
 crying wants of our system that it afforded no outlet 
 for the energies of Native soldiers of superior courage 
 and ability, and urged that we could not expect to 
 have an efficient Native Army so long as we rigidly 
 maintained in it the theory of the Dead Level, and 
 purposely excluded every possible inducement to 
 superior exertion. 
 
 Nor less curious were the fundamental diversities 
 of opinion which manifested themselves, when think- 
 ing men began to consider whether the English in 
 India carried into their daily lives too much or too 
 little of their nationality. It was asserted on the one 
 side that the English officer was too stiff-necked and 
 exclusive, that he dwelt apart too much^ and subdued 
 himself too little to surrounding influences ; and on 
 the other side, that he fell too rapidly into Oriental 
 habits, and soon ceased to be, what it should have 
 been his ambition to remain to the last, a model of 
 an English Gentleman. It was urged by some that 
 increased facilities of intercourse with Europe ren- 
 dered men more dissatisfied with the ordinary en- 
 vironments of Eastern life and professional duty, 
 whilst others declared that one of the most serious 
 defects in the Indian Military System was the diffi- 
 culty with which the English officer obtained furlough 
 
DIVERSITIES OF OPINION. 339 
 
 to Europe.* The stringency of the Furlougli Regula- 1851-56. 
 tions had, however, been greatly relaxed during the 
 administration of Lord Dalhousie, and the establish- 
 ment of regular steam-communication between the 
 two countries had made the new rules practical 
 realities. But whatsoever increased intercourse with 
 Europe may have done to promote the application of 
 Western science to our Indian Military System, it did 
 not improve the regimental officer. It was contended 
 that he commonly returned to his duty with increased 
 distaste for cantonment life ; and that he obeyed the 
 mandate, " Let it be the fashion to be English," by 
 suffering a still greater estrangement to grow up 
 between him and the Native soldier. 
 
 Indeed, there was scarcely a single point, in the 
 whole wide range of topics connected with the great 
 subject of the efficiency of the Native Indian Army, 
 which did not raise a doubt and suggest a contro- 
 versy. And there was so much of demonstrable 
 truth in the assertions, and so much cogency in the 
 arguments adduced, on both sides, that in the eyes of 
 the looker-on it was commonly a drawn battle between 
 the two contending parties; and so, as it was the 
 easier and perhaps the safer course to leave things as 
 they were, the changes which Army Reformers so 
 earnestly advocated were practically rejected, and we 
 clung to evils which had grown up in the system 
 rather than we would incur the risk of instituting 
 others of our own. 
 
 But perplexing as were these practical details, there Intermixtura 
 was nothing so difficult of solution as the great doubt Troops?^^^" 
 which arose as to the amount of confidence in the 
 Sepoy Army which it was expedient outwardly to 
 manifest. It was said, upon the one hand, that any 
 
 * Views and Ojoinions of Brigadier-General John Jacob. 
 
340 THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF INDU. 
 
 1851.56. diminution of our confidence would be fatal to our 
 rule, and, on the other, that our confidence was lead- 
 ins^ us onward to destruction. Some said that the 
 Native Army should be narrowly watched, and held 
 in control by sufiicient bodies of European soldiery ; 
 others contended that we could commit no more fatal 
 mistake than that of betraying the least suspicion of 
 the Sepoy, and suggesting even a remote possibility 
 of one part of our Army ever being thrown into an- 
 tagonism to the other. This controversy was half a 
 century old. When, after the Massacre of Yellore, the 
 Madras Government urged upon the Supreme Autho- 
 rity in Bengal the expediency of sending some rein- 
 forcements of European troops to the Coast, the latter 
 refused to respond to the call, on the ground that 
 such a movement would betray a general want of 
 confidence in the Native Army, and might drive re- 
 giments still loyal into rebellion under an impulse of 
 fear. There was force in this argument, which will 
 be readily appreciated by all who understand the 
 character of the Sepoy Army ; and its cogency was 
 not diminished by the fact put forth by the Madras 
 Government that the European troops under their 
 command were fewer by two thousand men than 
 they had been before the recent large extension of 
 territory. But a great lesson was to be learnt from 
 the embarrassment which then arose ; a lesson which 
 ought to have been taken to the hearts of our rulers 
 from one generation to another. It was then clearly 
 revealed, not merely that " prevention is better than 
 cure," but that prevention may be possible when cure 
 is not ; that we may hold danger in check by quietly 
 anticipating it, but that, when it has arisen, the mea- 
 sures, to which we might have resorted before the 
 fact, caimot be pursued, after it, without increasing 
 
AMOUNT OF EUROPEAN FORCE. 341 
 
 the evil. If anything should teach us the wisdom of 1851-56. 
 never suffering our European force, even in the most 
 tranquil times, to decline below what we may call 
 " the athletic standard," it is the fact that, when the 
 times cease to be tranquil, we cannot suddenly raise it 
 to that standard without exciting alarm and creating 
 danger. 
 
 But this lesson was not learnt. Or, if Indian 
 statesmen ever took it to their hearts, it was remorse- 
 lessly repudiated in the Councils of the English 
 nation. Other considerations than those of the actual 
 requirements of our Indian Empire were suffered to 
 determine the amount of European strength to be 
 maintained on the Company's establishment. Stated 
 in round numbers, it may be said that the normal 
 state of things, for some years, had been that of an 
 Army of three hundred thousand men, of which forty 
 thousand were European troops.* Of these, roughly 
 calculated, about one-third were the local European 
 troops of the Company, raised exclusively for Indian 
 service; the rest were the men of royal regiments, 
 Horse and Foot, periodically relieved according to 
 the will of the Imperial Government, but paid out of 
 the Revenues of India. In the five years preceding the 
 departure of Lord Dalhousie from India, the strength 
 of the Company's European troops had been somewhat 
 increased, but the force which England lent to India 
 was considerably reduced. In 1852, there were 
 twenty-nine Royal regiments in the three Presidencies 
 of India, mustering twenty-eight thousand men; in 
 1856, there were twenty-four Royal regiments, mus- 
 tering twenty-three thousand men. During those 
 five years there had been a vast extension of empire ; 
 but the aggregate European strength was lower in 
 
 * For the details of the Native Army of India, see Tables in Appendix. 
 
342 THE MLITARY SYSTEM OF INDIA. 
 
 1851-56. 1856 than in 1852 by nearly three thousand men. 
 Between those two dates England had been engaged 
 in a great war, and she wanted her troops for Eu- 
 ropean service. 
 The Ciimean ^^ deceive ourselves, when we think that Euro- 
 ^ar- pean politics make no impression on the Indian Public. 
 
 The impression may be very vague and indistinct; 
 but ignorance is a magnifier of high power, and there 
 are never wanting a few designing men, with clearer 
 knowledge of the real state of things, to work upon 
 the haziness of popular conceptions, and to turn a 
 little grain of truth to account in generating a harvest 
 of lies. That a number of very preposterous stories 
 were industriously circulated, and greedily swallowed, 
 during the Crimean war, and that these stories all 
 pointed to the downfal of the British power, is not 
 to be doubted. It was freely declared that Russia 
 had conquered and annexed England, and that Queen 
 Victoria had fled and taken refuge with the Governor- 
 General of India. The fact that the war was with 
 Russia gave increased significance to these rumours ; 
 for there had long been a chronic belief that the Russ- 
 logue would some day or other contend with us for 
 the mastery of India ; that, coming down in immense 
 hordes from the North, and carrying with them the 
 intervening Mahomedan States, they would sweep us, 
 broken and humbled, into the sea. And it required 
 no great acuteness to perceive that if a popular insur- 
 rection in India were ever to be successful, it was when 
 the military resources of the empire were absorbed by 
 a great European war. It is at such times as these, 
 therefore, when there is always some disturbance of 
 the public mind, that especial care should be taken 
 to keep the European strength in India up to the 
 right athletic standard. But, in these very times, the 
 
DEFICIENCY OF EUROPEAN FORCE. 343 
 
 dependency is called upon to aid the empire, and lier 1851-56 
 European regiments are reluctantly given up at the 
 critical moment when she most desires to retain them. 
 "The idea broached in Parliament," said a Native 
 gentleman, " of drawing troops from India for the 
 Crimean War, took intelligent natives of India by sur- 
 prise." They saw plainly the folly of thus revealing 
 our weakness to the subject races ; for we could not 
 more loudly proclaim the inadequacy of our resources 
 than by denuding ourselves in one quarter of the 
 world in order that we might clothe ourselves more 
 sufficiently in another. 
 
 Nor was it this alone that, during the last years of 
 Lord Dalhousie's administration, " took intelligent 
 natives of India by surprise." They saw us increas- 
 ing our territory, in all directions, without increasing 
 our European force. There were those who argued 
 that territorial increase did not necessarily demand 
 increased means of defence, as it might be a change, 
 not an extension of frontier ; indeed, that the consoli- 
 dation of our empire, by diminishing the numbers of 
 our enemies, ought rather to be regarded as a reason 
 for the diminution of our military strength. And 
 this, in respect to our external enemies, it has already 
 been observed, was not untrue.* But our dangers were 
 from within, not from without ; and it was forgotten 
 that false friends might be more dangerous than open 
 enemies. The English in India were, indeed, con- 
 tinually in a state of siege, and the conquest of their 
 external enemies increased the perils of their position, 
 for it deprived them of those safety-valves which had 
 often before arrested a ruinous explosion. We were 
 far too sanguine in our estimates of the results of con- 
 quest or annexation. We saw everything as we wished 
 * Jnte, p. 276. 
 
344 THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF INDIA. 
 
 1851-56. to see it. We saw contentment in submission, loyalty 
 in quiescence ; and took our estimate of national sen- 
 timent from the feelings of a few interested individuals 
 who were making money by the change. But " intel- 
 ligent natives" seeing clearly our delusion, knowing 
 that we believed a lie, wondered greatly at our want 
 of wisdom in suffering vast tracts of territory, per- 
 haps only recently brought under British rule, to lie 
 naked and defenceless, without even a detachment of 
 English fighting men to guard the lives of the new 
 masters of the country. And little as we gave them 
 credit for sagacity in such matters, they touched the 
 very kernel of our danger with a needle's point, and 
 predicted that our confidence would destroy us. 
 
 It was fortunate that, when we conquered the 
 Punjab, it was impossible to forget that Afghanistan, 
 still festering with animosities and resentments born 
 of the recent invasion, lay contiguous to the frontier 
 of our new province. It was fortunate, too, that 
 Henry Lawrence, being a man of a quick imagina- 
 tion, could feel as a Sikh chief or a Sikh soldier would 
 feel under the new yoke of the Fcringhee, and could 
 therefore believe that we were not welcomed as de- 
 liverers from one end of the country to the other. 
 But it was not fortunate that the obvious necessity 
 of garrisoning this frontier Province with a strong 
 European force should have been practically regarded 
 as a reason for denudino; all the rest of India of Ens;- 
 lish troops. Acting in accordance with the old tradi- 
 tions, that the only danger with which our position 
 in India is threatened, is danger coming from the 
 North- West, we massed a large body of Europeans 
 in the Punjab, and scattered, at wide intervals, the 
 few remaining regiments at our disposal over other 
 parts of our extended dominions. Thus we visibly 
 
THE ANNEXATION OF OUDE. 345 
 
 became more and more dependent on our Native 1851-55. 
 Army; and it needed only the declaration of weak- 
 ness made, when England called on India for regi- 
 ments to take part in the Crimean war, to assure 
 " intelligent natives" that the boasted resources of 
 England were wholly insufficient to meet the demands 
 made upon them from different quarters, and that we 
 could only confront danger in one part of the world 
 by exposing ourselves to it in another.* 
 
 And this impression was strengthened by the fact Effects of the 
 that when Oude was annexed to our British terri- ^"^^^^^"'O" of 
 tories, although the province was thereby filled with 
 the disbanded soldiery of the destroyed Native Govern- 
 ment, and with a dangerous race of discontented 
 nobles, whom the revolution had stripped of their 
 privileges and despoiled of their wealth, the English 
 appeared not to possess the means of garrisoning with 
 European troops the country which they had thus 
 seized. As Oude was not a frontier province, there 
 was no necessity to mass troops there, as in the 
 Punjab, for purposes of external defence ; and the 
 English, emboldened by success, were stronger than 
 ever in their national egotism, and believed that, as 
 they could not be regarded in Oude in any other light 
 than that of deliverers, there was small need to make 
 provision against the possibility of internal disturb- 
 ance. They left the province, therefore, after annexa- 
 tion had been proclaimed, with only a small handful of 
 European fighting men ; and " intelligent natives" 
 were again surprised to see that the English gentlemen 
 were carrying out their new scheme of administra- 
 tion, to the ruin of almost every pre-existing interest 
 
 * It has been alleged, too, that the gent natives with the belief that we 
 
 subscriptions raised towards the sup- were as short of money as we were 
 
 port of the Patriotic Fund, during of men. 
 the Crimean War, impressed intelli- 
 
y 
 
 346 THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF INDIA. 
 
 1851-56. in the country, with as much confidence as if every 
 district of Oude were bristling with British bayonets. 
 They saw, too, that the English had absorbed one of 
 the last remaining Mahomedan States of India ; and 
 they felt that not only would this prodigious appro- 
 priation be regarded from one end of India to the 
 other as the precursor of new seizures, and that it 
 would thus greatly disturb the public mind, but that 
 the very class of men on whom we appeared to rely 
 for the continued security of our position were, of all 
 others, most likely to resent this act of aggression. 
 
 For the annexation of Oude had some results in- 
 jurious to the Sepoy. A very large portion of the 
 Bengal Army was drawn from that province. In 
 \ every village were the families of men who wore the 
 uniform and bore the arms of the English. Being for 
 the most part high-caste Hindoos, they might not 
 .have regarded the peaceful revolution by which a 
 .iMahomedan monarchy was destroyed with any strong 
 ^ ifeelings of national resentment ; and it is certain that 
 this extension of territory was not provocative of the 
 feelings of aversion and alarm with which they re- 
 garded those other seizures which had sent them to 
 rot in the charnel-house of Scinde, or to perish in 
 exile on the frontiers of Afghanistan. Their griefs 
 were of another kind. The old state of things had 
 suited them better. They had little sympathy, per- 
 haps, with Wajid Ali, and service in Oude brought 
 them nearer to their homes. But so long as it was a 
 foreign province, they derived certain special privi- 
 leges and advantages from their position as the 
 servants of the Company, and increased importance 
 in the eyes of the people of the province. They had, 
 indeed, been a favoured race, and as such the Sepoy 
 families had held up their heads above those of their 
 
PRIVILEGES OF THE OUDE SEPOYS. 347 
 
 countrymen who had no such bonds of privilege and 1851-56 
 protection to unite them to the Paramount State. 
 " The Sepoy," wrote the man who had studied the 
 character and probed the feelings of the Native more 
 deeply and philosophically perhaps than any of his 
 contemporaries — '' the Sepoy is not the man of con- 
 sequence he was. He dislikes annexations ; among 
 other reasons, because each new province added to 
 the Empire widens his sphere of service, and at the 
 same time decreases our foreign enemies and thereby 
 
 the Sepoy's importance The other day, an 
 
 Oude Sepoy of the Bombay Cavalry at Neemuch, 
 being asked if he liked annexation, replied, ^ No ; I 
 used to be a great man w^hen I went home. The best 
 in my village rose as I approached. Now the lowest 
 puff their pipes in my face.' "* Under the all-pre- 
 vailing lawlessness and misrule, which had so long 
 overridden the province, the English Sepoy, whatever 
 might be the wrongs of others, was always sure of a 
 full measure of justice on appeal to the British 
 Resident. If he himself were not, some member of 
 his family was, a small yeoman, with certain rights in 
 the land — rights which commonly among his country- 
 men were as much a source of trouble as a source of 
 pride — and in all the disputes and contentions in 
 which these interests involved him, he had the pro- 
 tection and assistance of the Resident, and right or 
 wrong carried his point. In the abstract it was, 
 doubtless, an evil state of things, for the Sepoys' 
 
 * Sir Henry Lawrence to Lord officer wliat we would do without 
 
 Canning, MS. Correspondence. I them. Another said, ' Now you have 
 
 may give here in a note the words got the Punjab, you will reduce the 
 
 omitted in the text, as bearing. Army.' A third remarked, when he 
 
 though not immediately, upon the heard that Scinde was to be joined 
 
 Oude question, and upon the general to the Bengal Presidency, ' Perhaps 
 
 subject of annexation : " Ten years there will be an order to join Lon- 
 
 ago, a Sepoy in the Punjab asked an don to Bengal." "* 
 
 > »> 
 
348 THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF INDIA. 
 
 1 851-56. privileges were often used as instruments of oppre- 
 sion, and were sometimes counterfeited with the heli 
 of an old regimental jacket and pair of boots, by mei 
 who had never gone right-face to the word of com- 
 mand. But for this very reason they were dearly 
 valued ; and when the Sepoys were thus brought 
 down by annexation to the dead level of British sub- 
 jects, when the Residency ceased to be, and all men 
 were equally under the protection of the Commis- 
 sioner, the Sepoy families, like all the other privileged 
 classes in Oude, learnt what the revolution had cost 
 them, and, wide apart as their several grievances lay 
 from each other, they joined hands with other sufferers 
 over a common grief. 
 
 Summary of Looldng, then, at the condition of the Native Army 
 ia^ilueuces!"° of India, and especially at the state of the Bengal re- 
 giments, as it was in the spring of 1856, we see that a 
 series of adverse circumstances, culminating in the 
 annexation of Oude, some influencing him from with- 
 out and some from Avithin, had weakened the attach- 
 ment of the Sepoy to his colours. We see that, whilst 
 the bonds of internal discipline were being relaxed, 
 external events, directly or indirectly affecting his 
 position, were exciting within him animosities and 
 discontents. We see that as he grew less faithful and 
 obedient, he grew also more presuming ; that whilst 
 he was less under the control of his officers and the 
 dominion of the State, he was more sensible of the 
 extent to which we were dependent upon his fidelity, 
 and therefore more capricious and exacting. He had 
 been neglected on the one hand, and pampered on the 
 other. As a soldier, he had in many ways dete- 
 riorated, but he was not to be regarded only as a 
 
STATE OF THE SEPOY'S MIND. 349 
 
 soldier. He was a representative man, the embodi- 1851-56 
 ment of feelings and opinions shared by large classes 
 of his countrymen, and circumstances might one day 
 render him their exponent. He had many opportu- 
 nities of becoming acquainted with passing events and 
 public opinion. He mixed in cantonments, or on 
 the line of march, with men of different classes and 
 different countries ; he corresponded with friends at a 
 distance ; he heard all the gossip of the Bazaars, and 
 he read, or heard others read, the strange mixture of 
 truth and falsehood contained in the Native news- 
 papers. He knew what were the measures of the 
 British Government, sometimes even what were its 
 intentions, and he interpretea their meanings, as men 
 are wont to do, who, credulous and suspicious, see in- 
 sidious designs and covert dangers in the most bene- 
 ficent acts. He had not the faculty to conceive that 
 the English were continually originating great changes 
 for the good of the people ; our theories of govern- 
 ment were beyond his understanding, and as he had 
 ceased to take counsel with his English officer, he was 
 given over to strange delusions, and believed the 
 most dangerous lies. 
 
 But in taking account of the effect produced upon 
 the Sepoy's mind by the political and social measures 
 of the British Government, we must not think only 
 of the direct action of these measures — of the soldier's 
 own reading of distant events, which might have had 
 no bearing upon his daily happiness, and which, there- 
 fore, in his selfishness he might have been content to 
 disregard. For he often read these things with other 
 men's eyes, and discerned them with other men's un- 
 derstandings. If the political and social revolutions, 
 of which I have written, did not affect him, they 
 affected others, wiser in their generation, more astute. 
 
350 THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF INDIA. 
 
 1851.56. more designing, who put upon everything that we 
 did the gloss best calculated to debauch the Sepoy's 
 mind, and to prepare him, at a given signal, for an 
 outburst of sudden madness. Childish, as he was, in 
 his faith, there was nothing easier than to make hinx 
 believe all kinds and conditions of fictions, not only 
 wild and grotesque in themselves, but in violent con- 
 tradiction of each other. He was as ready to believe 
 that the extension of our territory would throw him 
 out of employment, as that it would inflict upon him 
 double work. He did not choose between these two 
 extremes ; he accepted both, and took the one or the 
 other, as the humour pleased him. There were never 
 wanting; men to feed his imaofination with the kind of 
 aliment which pleased it best, and reason never came 
 to his aid to purge him of the results of this gross 
 feeding. 
 
 Many were the strange glosses which were given to 
 the acts of the British Government ; various were the 
 ingenious fictions woven with the purpose of un- 
 settling the minds and uprooting the fidelity of the 
 Sepoy. But diverse as they were in many respects, 
 there was a certain unity about them, for they all 
 tended to persuade him that our measures weve di- 
 rected to one common end, the destruction of Caste, 
 and the general introduction of Christianity into the 
 land. If we annexed a province, it was to facilitate 
 our proselytising operations, and to increase the num- 
 ber of our converts. Our resumption operations 
 were instituted for the purpose of destroying all the 
 religious endowments of the country. Our legislative 
 enactments were all tending to the same result, the 
 subversion of Hindooism and Mahomedanism. Our 
 educational measures were so many direct assaults 
 upon the religions of the country. Our penal system, 
 
CORRUPTING INFLUENCES. 351 
 
 according to their showing, disguised a monstrous 1851.56. 
 attempt to annihilate caste, by compelling men of all 
 denominations to feed together in the gaols. In the 
 Lines of every regiment there were men eager to tell 
 lies of this kind to the Sepoy, mingled with assurances 
 that the time was coming when the Feringhees would 
 be destroyed to a man ; when a new empire would 
 be established, and a new military system inaugu- 
 rated, under which the high rank and the higher pay 
 monopolised by the English would be transferred to 
 the people of the country. We know so little of what 
 is stirring in the depths of Indian society ; we dwell 
 so much apart from the people; we see so little of 
 them, except in full dress and on their best behaviour, 
 that perilous intrigues and desperate plots might be 
 woven, under the very shadow of our bungalows, 
 without our perceiving any symptoms of danger. But 
 still less can we discern that quiet under-current of 
 hostility which is continually flowing on without any 
 immediate or definite object, and which, if we could 
 discern it, would baffle all our efforts to trace it to its 
 source. But it does not the less exist because we are 
 ignorant of the form which it assumes, or the fount 
 from which it springs. The men, whose business it 
 was to corrupt the minds of our Sepoys, were, perhaps, 
 the agents of some of the old princely houses, which 
 we had destroyed,* or members of old baronial families 
 which we had brought to poverty and disgrace. They 
 were, perhaps, the emissaries of Brahminical Societies, 
 whose precepts we were turning into folly, and whose 
 power we were setting at naught. They were, perhaps, 
 mere visionaries and enthusiasts, moved only by their 
 
 * It was asserted at the time of Southern India, but that there was 
 
 the "Mutiny of Vellore," that not scarcely a regiment into which they 
 
 only were agents of the House of had not enlisted. 
 Tippoo busy in all the Lines of 
 
352 THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF INDIA. 
 
 1851-56. own disordered imaginations to proclaim tlie coming 
 of some new prophet or some fresh avatar of the Deity, 
 and the consequent downfal of Christian supremacy in 
 the East. But whatsoever the nature of their mission, 
 and whatsoever the guise they assumed, whether they 
 appeared in the Lines as passing travellers, as journey- 
 ing hawkers, as religious mendicants, or as wandering 
 puppet-showmen, the seed of sedition which they scat- 
 tered struck root in a soil well prepared to receive it 
 and waited only for the ripening sun of circumstaiijce 
 to develop a harvest of revolt. 
 
OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 353 
 
 BOOK III.— THE OUTBEEAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 [1856-1857.] 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DEPAUTURE OE LORD DALHOUSFE— HIS CHARACTER— THE QUESTION OF 
 SUCCESSION — ARKIVAL OF LORD CANNING — HIS EARLY CAREER — COM 
 MENCEMENT OF HIS ADMINISTRATION — HIS FELLOW - COUNCILLORS — 
 GENERAL LOW— MR. DORIN— MR. GRANT— MR. BARNES PEACOCK— THE 
 COMMANDER-IN-CHIEi . 
 
 When, on the last day of February, 1856, "the 1856. 
 Most Noble" the Marquis of Dalhousie placed the 
 Portfolio of the Indian Empire in the hands of his 
 successor, all men said that a great statesman and a 
 great ruler was about to depart from the land. The 
 praises that were bestowed upon him had been well 
 earned. He had given his life to the public service ; 
 and many feared, as they sorrowfully bade him fare- 
 well, that he had given it up for the public good. 
 
 He stood before men at that time as the very em- 
 bodiment of Success. Whatsoever he had attempted 
 to do he had done with his whole heart, and he had 
 perfected it without a failure or a flaw. The policy 
 which during those eventful eight years had been so 
 consistently maintained was emphatically his policy. 
 The success, therefore, was fairly his. No man had 
 ever stamped his individuality more clearly upon the 
 public measures of his times. There are periods when 
 the Government fades into an impersonality; when 
 
 2 k 
 
of Lord 
 Dalliousie. 
 
 354 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINV. 
 
 1856. men cease to associate its measures with the idea of 
 one dominant will. But during the reign then ended 
 we heard little of "the Government;" in every one's 
 mouth was the name of the individual Man. 
 Character And in this remarkable individual manhood there 
 
 was the very essence and concentration of the great 
 national manhood ; there was an intense Englishism 
 in him such as has seldom been equalled. It was the 
 Englishism, too, of the nineteenth century, and of 
 that particular epoch of the nineteenth century when 
 well-nigh every one had the word " progress" on his 
 lips, and stagnation was both disaster and disgrace. 
 A man of strong convictions and extraordinary 
 activity of mind, he laid fast hold of the one abstract 
 truth that English government, English laws, English 
 learning, English customs, and English manners, are 
 better than the government, the laws, the learning 
 the customs, and the manners of India ; and with all 
 the earnestness of his nature and all the strength of 
 his understanding he wrought out this great theory in 
 practice. He never doubted that it was good alike 
 for England and for India that the map of the 
 country which he had been sent to govern should 
 present one surface of Red. He was so sure of this, 
 he believed it so honestly, so conscientiously, that, 
 courageous and self-reliant as he was, he would have 
 carried out this policy to the end, if all the chief 
 officers and agents of his government had been 
 arrayed against him. But he commenced his career 
 at a time when the ablest of our public functionaries 
 in India, with a few notable exceptions, had forsaken 
 the traditions of the old school — the school of Mal- 
 colm, of Elph in stone, and of Metcalfe — and stood 
 eager and open-armed to embrace and press closely to 
 them the very doctrines of which they perceived in 
 
CHARACTER OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 355 
 
 Dalhousie so vigorous an exponent. He did not 1856. 
 found the school ; neither were his opinions moulded 
 in accordance with its tenets. He appeared among 
 them and placed himself at their head, just at the 
 very time when such a coming was needed to give 
 consistency to their faith, and uniformity to their 
 works. The coincidence had all the force of a dis- 
 pensation. No prophet ever had more devoted fol- 
 lowers. No king was ever more loyally served. For 
 the strong faith of his disciples made them strive 
 mightily to accomplish his will ; and he had in a rare 
 degree the faculty of developing in his agents the 
 very powers which were most essential to the fitting 
 accomplishment of his work. He did not create those 
 powers, for he found in his chief agents the instincts 
 and energies most essential to his purpose ; but he 
 fostered, he strengthened and directed them, so that 
 what might have run to weed and waste withou this 
 cherishing care, yielded under his culture, in ripe pro- 
 fusion, a harvest of desired results. 
 
 As his workmen were admirably suited to his work, 
 so also was the field, to which he was called, the one 
 best adapted to the exercise of his peculiar powers. 
 In no other part of our empire could his rare ad- 
 ministrative capacity have found such scope for de- 
 velopment. For he was of an imperious and despotic 
 nature, not submitting to control, and resenting oppo- 
 sition ; and in no situation could he have exercised a 
 larger measure of power in the face of so few consti- 
 tutional checks. His capacities required free exercise, 
 and it may be doubted whether they would have been 
 fully developed by anything short of this absolute 
 supremacy. But sustained and invigorated by a sense 
 of enormous power, he worked with all the energies 
 of a giant. And he was successful beyond all 
 
 ^ A 9 
 
 ^ A w 
 
356 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. example, so far as success is the full accomplishmeTit 
 of one's o^vn desires and intentions. But one fatal 
 defect in his character tainted the stream of his 
 policy at the source, and converted into brilliant 
 errors some of the most renowned of his achieve- 
 ments. No man who is not endowed with a compre- 
 hensive imagination can govern India with success. 
 Dalhousie had no imagination. Lacking the imagi- 
 native faculty, men, after long years of experience, 
 may come to understand the national character ; and 
 a man of lively imagination, without such experience, 
 may readily apprehend it after the intercourse of a 
 few weeks. But in neither way did Dalhousie ever 
 come to understand the genius of the people among 
 whom his lot was cast. He had but one idea of them 
 — an idea of a people habituated to the despotism of 
 a dominant race. He could not understand the 
 tenacity of affection with which they clung to their 
 old traditions. He could not sympathise with the 
 veneration which they felt for their ancient dynasties. 
 He could not appreciate their fidelity to the time- 
 honoured institutions and the immemorial usas^es of 
 the land. He had not the faculty to conceive that 
 men might like their own old ways of government, 
 with all their imperfections and corruptions about 
 them, better than our more refined systems. Arguing 
 all points with the preciseness of a Scotch logician, he 
 made no allowance for inveterate habits and ingrained 
 prejudices, and the scales of ignorance before men's 
 eyes which will not suffer them rightly to discern 
 between the good and the bad. He could not form a 
 true dramatic conception of the feelings with which 
 the representative of a long line of kings may be sup- 
 posed to regard the sudden extinction of his royal 
 house by the decree of a stranger and an infidel, or 
 
CHARACTER OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 357 
 
 the bitterness of spirit in which a greybeard chief, 1856. 
 whose family from generation to generation had 
 enjoyed ancestral powers and privileges, might con- 
 template his lot when suddenly reduced to poverty 
 and humiliation by an incursion of aliens of another 
 colour and another creed. He could not see with 
 other men's eyes ; or think with other men's brains ; 
 or feel with other men's hearts. With the charac- 
 teristic unimaginativeness of his race he could not for 
 a moment divest himself of his individuality, or con- 
 ceive the growth of ancestral pride and national 
 honour in other breasts than those of the Campbells 
 and the Ramsays. 
 
 And this egotism was cherished and sustained by 
 the prevailing sentiments of the new school of Indian 
 politicians, who, as I have said, laughed to scorn the 
 doctrines of the men who had built up the great 
 structure of our Indian Empire, and by the utterances 
 of a Press, which, with rare ability, expounded the 
 views of this school, and insisted upon the duty of 
 universal usurpation. Such, indeed, was the pre- 
 vailing tone of the majority, in all ranks from the 
 highest to the lowest, that any one who meekly ven- 
 tured to ask, " How would you like it yourself?" was 
 reproached in language little short of that which 
 might be fitly applied to a renegade or a traitor. To 
 suggest that in an Asiatic race there might be a spirit 
 of independence and a love of country, the manifes- 
 tations of which were honourable in themselves, how- 
 ever inconvenient to us, was commonly to evoke as 
 the very mildest result the imputation of being 
 "Anti-British," whilst sometimes the "true British 
 feeling" asserted itself in a less refined choice of 
 epithets, and those who ventured to sympathise in any 
 way with the people of the East were at once de- 
 
358 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856, nounced as " white niggers." Yet among these very 
 men, so intolerant of anything approaching the 
 assertion of a spirit of liberty by an Asiatic people, 
 there were some who could well appreciate and sym- 
 pathise with the aspirations of European bondsmen, 
 and could regard with admiration the struggles of 
 the Italian, the Switzer, or the Pole to liberate him- 
 self, by a sanguinary contest, from the yoke of the 
 usurper. But the sight of the dark skin sealed up 
 their sympathies. They contended not merely that 
 the love of country, that the spirit of liberty, as 
 cherished by European races, is in India wholly un- 
 known, but that Asiatic nations, and especially the 
 nations of India, have no right to judge what is best 
 for themselves ; no right to revolt against the bene- 
 hcence of a more civilised race of w^hite men, who 
 would think and act for them, and deprive them, for 
 their own good, of all their most cherished rights and 
 their most valued possessions. 
 
 So it happened that Lord Dalhousie's was a strong 
 Government ; strong in everything but its confor- 
 mity to the genius of the people. It was a Go- 
 vernment admirably conducted in accordance with 
 the most approved principles of European civilisation, 
 by men whose progressive tendencies carried them 
 hundreds of years in advance of the sluggish Asiatics, 
 whom they vainly endeavoured to bind to the chariot- 
 Avheels of their refined systems. There w^as every- 
 thing to give it complete success but the stubbornness 
 of the national mind. It failed, perhaps, only because 
 the people preferred darkness to light, folly to 
 wisdom. Of course the English gentlemen w^ere 
 right and the Asiatics lamentably wrong. But the 
 >>Tand scriptural warning against putting new wine 
 into old bottles Avas disregarded. The wine was good 
 
CHARACTER OF LORD DALHOUSIE. 359 
 
 wine, strong wine; wine to gladden the heart of ^^^^ 
 man. But poured into those old bottles it was sure, 
 sooner or later, to create a general explosion. They 
 forgot that there were two things necessary to suc- 
 cessful government : one, that the measures should be 
 good in themselves ; and the other, that they should be 
 suited to the condition of the recipients. Intent upon 
 the one, they forgot the other, and erred upon the 
 side of a progress too rapid and an Englishism too 
 refined. 
 
 But at the bottom of this great error were benign 
 intentions. Dalhousie and his lieutenants had a 
 strong and steadfast faith in the wisdom and bene- 
 volence of their measures, and strove alike for the 
 glory of the English nation and the welfare of the 
 Indian people. There was something grand and even 
 good in the very errors of such a man. For there 
 was no taint of baseness in them ; no sign of any- 
 thing sordid or self-seeking. He had given himself 
 up to the public service, resolute to do a great work, 
 and he rejoiced with a noble pride in the thought 
 that he left behind him a mightier empire than he 
 had found, that he had brought new countries and 
 strange nations under the sway of the British sceptre, 
 and sown the seeds of a great civilisation. To do 
 this, he had made unstinting sacrifice of leis-ire, ease, 
 comfort, health, and the dear love of wedded life, 
 and he carried home with him, in a shattered frame 
 and a torn heart, in the wreck of a manhood at its 
 very prime, mortal wounds nobly received in a great 
 and heroic encounter. 
 
 Great always is the interest which attaches to the 
 question of succession ; greatest of all when such a 
 ruler as Dalhousie retires from the scene. Who was 
 to take the place of this great and successful states- 
 
360 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 185C. man? Who was to carry out to its final issue the 
 grand policy which he had so brilliantly inaugurated ? 
 This was the question in all men's mouths as the old 
 year passed away and the new year dawned upon 
 India ; in some sort a remarkable year, for Avas it 
 not the centenary of the great disaster of the Black 
 Hole which had brought Olive's avenging army to 
 Bengal ? Ever at such times is there much talk of 
 the expected advent of some member of the English 
 Cabinet, some successful Colonial Governor, or some 
 great Lord little experienced in statesmanship, of 
 high lineage and dilapidated fortune. And so now 
 there was the wonted high tide of speculation and 
 conjecture, wild guesses and moonshine rumours of 
 all kinds, from dim possibilities to gigantic nonsenses, 
 until at last there came authentic tidings to India 
 that the choice had fallen on Her Majesty's Post- 
 master-General, one of the younger members of Lord 
 Palmerston's Cabinet. 
 
 Antecedents Scarcely within bounds of possibility was it, that, 
 Cauiiinf^. 1^1 ^^^ midst of SO great an epidemic of faith in Lord 
 Dalhousie, England could send forth a statesman to 
 succeed him, whom her Anglo-Indian sons would not 
 receive with ominous head-shakings, denoting grave 
 doubts and anxious misgivings. Another great man, 
 it was said, was needed to understand, to appreciate, 
 to maintain the policy of the hero whom they so glori- 
 fied. But they knew little or nothing of Viscount 
 Canning, except that he was the bearer of a great 
 1S22. name. Thirty-four years before, all England had 
 been talking about the acceptance of the Governor- 
 Generalship by this man's father. There were a 
 
EARLY CAREER OF LORD CANNING. 361 
 
 few, then, who, looking at the matter solely from 1856. 
 an Indian point of view, exulted in the thought that 
 one who had done such good service at the Board of 
 Control, and whose abilities were known to be of the 
 very highest order, was about to devote some of the 
 best years of his life to the government of our great 
 Eastern empire. There was another and a baser 
 few, who, festering with jealousies, and animosities, 
 and dishonourable fears, joyed most of all that they 
 should see his face no more for years, or perhaps for 
 ever. But the bulk of the English people deplored 
 his approaching departure from among them, because 
 they felt that the country had need of his services, 
 and could ill bear the loss of such a man. And it 
 was a relief to them when the sad close of Lord 
 Castlereagh's career brought George Canning back 
 from the visit, which was to have been his farewell, 
 to Liverpool, to take his place again in the great 
 Council of the nation. 
 
 Great, also, was the relief to George Canning 
 himself — great for many reasons ; the greatest, per- 
 haps, of all, that he was very happy in his family. 
 In the first year of the century he had married a 
 lady, endowed with a considerable share of the 
 world's Avealth, but with more of that better wealth 
 which the world cannot give ; the daughter and co- 
 heiress of an old general officer named Scott. No 
 man could have been happier in his domestic life; 
 and domestic happiness is domestic virtue. Blind to 
 the attractions of that Society in which he was so 
 pre-eminently formed to shine, he found measureless 
 delight in the companionship of his wife and children. 
 And as an Indian life is more or less a life of separa- 
 tion, it was now a joy to him to think that the brief 
 
362 
 
 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 Gloucester 
 
 J85G. vision of Government House, Calcutta, had been re- 
 placed by the returning realities of the English fire- 
 side.* 
 
 At this time the great statesman had a son in his 
 " °^' * tenth year, at school with Mr. Carmalt, of Putney, 
 on the banks of the Thames. He was the third son 
 born to George Canning ;f born during what w^as 
 perhaps the happiest period of his father's life, his 
 residence at Gloucester Lodge. This was the boy's 
 birthplace. Lying between Brompton and Kensing- 
 ton, it was at that time almost in the country. There 
 w^as not, perhaps, a pleasanter place near Town. It 
 had a strange, memorable history, too, and it was 
 among the notabilities of suburban London. In the 
 days of Ranelagh, it had been, under the name of 
 the Florida Gardens, a lesser rival to that fashionable 
 haunt ; and from this state, after an interval of de- 
 sertion and decay, it had developed into a royal 
 residence.^ The Duchess of Gloucester bought the 
 Gardens, built there a handsome Italian villa, lived 
 and died there, and, passing away, bequeathed her 
 interest in the estate to tlie Princess Sophia, who 
 sold it to Mr. Canning. And there, in this pleasant 
 umbrageous retreat, on the 14th of December, 1812, 
 was born the third son of George Canning, who, in 
 due course, w^as christened Charles John. 
 
 In 1822, as I have said, when George Canning 
 
 1807. 
 
 Tlie Putney 
 School. 
 
 * "The unsullied purity of Mr. 
 Cannino's domestic life," says his 
 last and pleasantest biographer, " and 
 
 t At this time Charles was the 
 second surviving son. The eldest, 
 George Charles, born in April, 1801, 
 
 his love of domestic pleasures (for died in March, 1820. The second 
 after liis marriage he seldom ex- brother was in the navy. 
 
 tended his intercourse with general 
 society beyond tliose occasions which 
 
 I See Bell's Life of Canning, 
 chapter x., which contains an ani- 
 
 his station rendered unavoidable), mated sketch of tlie early histoiy of 
 
 were rewarded by as much virtue Gloucester Lodge, and of the social 
 
 and devotion as ever graced the and domestic environments of the 
 
 home of an English statesman." — great statesman's residence there. 
 BeWs Life of Canning. 
 
EARLY CAREER OF LORD CANNING. 363 
 
 woke from his brief dream of Indian vice-regal power 1850. 
 to take the seals of the Foreign Office, this boy 
 Charles was under the scholastic care of Mr. Carmalt, 
 of Putney. In those days his establishment enjoyed 
 a great reputation. It was one of the largest and 
 best private schools in the neighbourhood of London, 
 perhaps in the whole kingdom, and as the sons of our 
 highest noblemen mingled there with those of our 
 middle-class gentry, not a bad half-way house to the 
 microcosm of Eton or Harrow. The impression which 
 Charles Canning made upon the minds of his school- 
 fellows was, on the whole, a favourable one. He was 
 not a boy of brilliant parts, or of any large popu- 
 larity ; but he was remembered long afterwards as 
 one who, in a quiet, unostentatious way, made it 
 manifest to ordinary observers that there was, in 
 schoolboy language, " something in him." One, 
 whose letter is now before me, and who was with 
 him for nearly two years in the same room at the 
 Putney school, remembered, after a lapse of more 
 than a third part of a century, the admiration with 
 which he then regarded young Canning's "youthful 
 indications of talent, and amiable and attractive 
 manners." 
 
 Two years after George Canning's surrender of the Etoa 
 Governor- Generalship, his son Charles left Mr. Car- 
 malt's and went to Eton. Eton was very proud of the 
 father's great reputation, and eager to embrace the 
 son ; for, verily, George Canning had been an Etonian 
 of Etonians, and had done as much, as a scholar and 
 a wit, to make Eton flourish, as any man of his age. 
 It was, perhaps, therefore, in a spirit of pure grati- 
 tude and veneration, and with no "hope of future 
 favours," that worthy Provost Goodall, than whom 
 perhaps no man ever had a keener appreciation botii 
 
364 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. of scholarship and of wit, on intimation made to him 
 that George Canning wished his son to be entered as 
 an oppidan, sent Mr. Chapman, one of the masters of 
 the school,* who had been selected as the boy's tutor, 
 to examine him at Gloucester Lodge. These exami- 
 nations, which determine the place in the school 
 which the boy is to take, are commonly held in the 
 tutor's house at Eton, not beneath the parental roof. 
 But the Minister's son was examined in his father's 
 library and in his father's presence at Gloucester 
 Lodge ; a double trial, it may be thought, of the 
 young student's nerve, and not provocative of a suc- 
 cessful display of scholarship. But it was success- 
 ful.! Charles Canning was declared to be fit for the 
 fourth form, and on the 4th of September, 1824, he 
 commenced his career. It is on record that he was 
 " sent up for good" for his proficiency in Latin verse. 
 It is on record, also, if the recording minister at 
 Eton does not kindly blot out such traces of boyish 
 error, that he was also sent up for bad ; in more cor- 
 rect Etonian phraseology, "in the bill," marked for 
 the flogging block. And it is traditional that the 
 avenging hand of Head-master Keate was sometimes 
 stayed by a tender reluctance to apply the birch to 
 the person of Secretary Canning's son. On the whole, 
 perhaps, it is historically true that, at Eton, he had 
 no very marked reputation of any kind. He was 
 good-looking, and a gentleman, which goes for some- 
 thing ; but I do not know that he was a great rower, 
 
 * Afterwards Bishop of Colombo; his proficiency, and tlie Bishop now 
 
 now retired. remembers the anxiety with which 
 
 f I am indebted for this incident the fatlier watched the essay of liis 
 
 to Sir Robert Phillimore, Queen's son, and the smile of approval wliich 
 
 Advocate. The memorandiim from jjreeted his reading of the rather dif- 
 
 which it is taken adds : " The well- licult transition, * Quos ego — sed 
 
 known description of the storm in motos,' &c., and the final *Not so 
 
 tiie first jEneid, ' Inteiea magno had/ which followed at the close of 
 
 niisceri murmure pontum,' &c., was the whole translation." 
 tlic passage chosen for the trial of 
 
EARLY CAREER OF LORD CANNING. 365 
 
 a great cricketer, or a great swimmer, or was in any 1856. 
 sense an athlete of the first water and the admira- 
 tion of his companions ; and, scholastically, it is re- 
 membered of him that he had '' a reputation rather 
 for intelligence, accuracy, and painstaking, than for 
 refined scholarship, or any remarkable powers of 
 composition." 
 
 But on passing away from Eton, the stature of his 
 mind was soon greatly enlarged. At the close of 
 1827, having risen to the Upper division of the fifth 
 form, he received the parting gifts of his school- 
 fellows ; and soon afterwards became the private 
 pupil of the Rev. John Shore, a nephew of Sir John 
 Shore, Governor-General of India, and known to a 
 later generation as Lord Teignmouth. This worthy 
 Christian gentleman and ripe scholar lived, but with- 
 out Church preferment, at Potton, a quiet little 
 market- town in Bedfordshire, receiving pupils there 
 of the better sort. Among the inmates of his house 
 was the grandson of the first Lord Harris, with whom 
 Charles Canning entered into bonds of friendship, 
 riveted at Oxford, strengthened in public life at 
 home, and again by strange coincidence in India, 
 and broken only by death. Here, doubtless, he 
 made great progress in scholarship. Perhaps the 
 death of his father, and the after-honours which August 8. 
 were conferred on the family, and, more than all, the ^^^^' 
 subsequent calamitous end of his elder brother,* 
 awakened within him a sense of the responsibilities 
 of his position, and roused him to new exertions. 
 Though born the third in succession of George Can- 
 ning's sons, he was now the eldest, the only one. He 
 and his sister alone survived. He was now the heir 
 to a peerage, sufiiciently, though not splendidly, en- 
 
 * William Pitt Cannin*:^, then a drowned while bathing at Madeira, 
 Ca{>tain in the llo^'al Navy, was in September, 1828. 
 
366 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1850. dowed, and there was a public career before him. 
 He applied himself to his books.* 
 Oxford. His next step was to the University. In Decem- 
 
 ber, 182j8, he was entered on the roll as a Student of 
 Christ Church, Oxford, as his father had been en- 
 tered just forty years before. Among the fore- 
 most of his fellow-students were Mr. Gladstone, Mr. 
 Bruce, and Mr. Robert Phillimore,f all of whom 
 lived to take parts, more or less prominent, in public 
 affairs. Among other members of the same distin- 
 guished house, at that time, was the young Lord 
 Lincoln, heir to the Dukedom of Newcastle, and the 
 representative of the great Scotch House of Ramsay, 
 ennobled by the Earldom of Dalhousie. But the 
 most intimate of all his associates was the present 
 Lord De Tabley, with whom he lived in the closest 
 bonds of friendship to the latest day of his life. By 
 him, and a few other chosen companions, he was 
 dearly loved and much respected ; but neither achiev- 
 ing nor seeking extensive popularity among his co- 
 temporaries, he was regarded by the outer University 
 world as a man of a reserved and distant manner, 
 and of a somewhat cold and unimpulsive tempera- 
 ment. The few in the inner circle knew that he was 
 not cold ; knew that he had a true loving heart, very 
 loyal and constant in its affections ; knew that in the 
 society of his familiar friends he had a pleasant, a 
 genial, and sometimes a playful manner, that he had 
 a fine scholarly taste, a fund of quiet humour, a keen 
 appreciation of character, and that he was all in all a 
 delightful companion. They had great hope, too, of 
 his future career, though he did not seem to be ambi- 
 
 * It need scarcely be indicated f The present (1864) Chancellor 
 
 that the widow of George Canning, of the Exchequer ; the late Lord 
 
 on his deatli, was created a Vis- Elgin, Governor-General of India; 
 
 countess, with remainder to his eldest and the present Queen's Advocate, 
 son. 
 
EARLY CAREER OF LORD CANNING. 367 
 
 tious; nay, rather, it appeared to those who closely 3856. 
 observed him, that he was haunted and held back by 
 the thought of his father's renown, and a diffidence of 
 his own capacity to maintain the glories of the name. 
 But, although he did not care to take part in the 
 proceedings of debating societies, and, apparently, 
 took small interest in the politics of the great world, 
 he was anxious that at least his University career 
 should do no dishonour to his lineage, and that if he 
 could not be a great statesman, he might not stain 
 the scholarly reputation enjoyed by two generations 
 of Cannings before him. He strove, therefore, and 
 with good results, to perfect himself in the classic 
 languages ; and even more assiduous were his endea- 
 vours to obtain a mastery over his own language. 
 At an early -age he acquired a thoroughly good Eng- 
 lish style ; not resonant or pretentious ; not splintery 
 or smart ; but pure, fluent, transparent, with tJie 
 meaning ever visible beneath it, as pebbles beneatti 
 the clearest stream. 
 
 His efforts bore good fruit. In 1831, he wrote a 
 Latin Prize Poem, on the " Captivity of Caractacus*"' 
 and recited it in the great hall of Christ Church, 
 standing beneath his father's picture.* And in the 
 
 * I am indebted for ibis to Sir in tbe prime of youth, recalling by 
 Robert Phillimore. I give the inci- his eminently handsome countenance 
 dent in his own words: "In the the noble features of the portrait, 
 year 1831, he won the Christ Church while repeating the classical prize 
 prize for Latin verse. Tiie subject poem, which would have gladdened 
 was ' Caractacus Captivus Romam in- his father's heart. Generally speak- 
 greditur.' The verses were, as usual, ing, the resident members of Ciirist 
 recited in the hall. It was a remark- Church alone compose the audience 
 able scene. In that magnificent when the prize poem is recited. But 
 banqueting-room are hung the por- on this occasion there was a stranger 
 traits of students w^ho have reflected present — tlie old faithful friend of 
 honour upon the House which reared Mr. Canning, his staunch political 
 them by the distinctions which tiiey adherent through life — Mr. Sturges 
 have won in after life. Underneath Bourne. He had travelled fro'Ji 
 the portrait of George Canning, the London for the purpose of witness- 
 recollection of whose brilliant career ing the first considerable achiev 
 and untimely end was still fresh in ment of the younger Canning." 
 the memory of men, stood the son, MS. Memorandum. 
 
368 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. Easter term of 1833 he took his degree, with high 
 honours : a first class in Classics, and a second in 
 Mathematics. He was then in his twenty-iirst year ; 
 and Parliament would soon be open to him. But he 
 was in no hurry to enter upon the realities of public 
 life. He was diffident of his oratorical powers ; he 
 was constitutionally shy ; and it did not appear to 
 him that the House of Commons was a theatre in 
 which he was ever likely to make a successful ap- 
 pearance. Moreover, he had other work in hand at 
 that time ; other yearnings to keep down any young 
 ambitions that might be mounting within him. Love 
 and courtship filled up a sweet interlude in his life, 
 as they do in the lives of most men whose story is 
 worth telling ; and, in due course, they bore the rich 
 fruit of happy wedlock. On the 5th of September, 
 1835, the Honourable Charles John Canning espoused 
 the Honourable Charlotte Stuart, eldest daughter of 
 Lord Stuart De Rothesay ; a lady of a serene and 
 gentle beauty, and many rare gifts of mind. 
 
 But, after a year of wedded life, he was prevailed 
 upon to enter Parliament; and in August, 1836, he 
 was returned for Warwick. In that month, however. 
 Parliament was prorogued ; and on its reassembling 
 at the commencement of the following year he was 
 content to be a silent member. His opportunities, 
 indeed, were very few, for his whole career in the 
 House of Commons extended over a period of little 
 more than six weeks. During the month of February 
 and the early part of March he attended in his place 
 with praiseworthy regularity.* But, on the 15th of 
 the latter month, his mother. Viscountess Canning, 
 died ; and, on the 24th of April, he took his seat in 
 the House of Lords. 
 
 * His nairie is to be found in all Government, but more frequently 
 the principal division lists. He voted w ith it. 
 sometimes against Lord Melbo-une's 
 
EARLY CAREER OF LORD CANNING. 369 
 
 For nearly twenty years lie sate in that House, 1S3G-56. 
 taking no very prominent part in the debates, but 
 doing his duty in a quiet, unostentatious Avay, and 
 gradually making for himself a reputation as a con- 
 scientious, painstaking young statesman, who might 
 some day do good service to his country and honour 
 to his great name. His political opinions, which 
 were shared by most of his distinguished cotempo- 
 raries at Christ Church, were charactei-ised by that 
 chastened liberalism which had found its chief ex- 
 ponent in Sir Robert Peel; and when, in 1841, that 
 great Parliamentary leader w^as invited to form a 
 Ministry, Lord Canning, Lord Lincoln, and Mr. 
 Gladstone were offered, and accepted, official seats. 
 The seals of the Foreign Office had been placed in 
 the hands of Lord Aberdeen. He had a high opi- 
 nion of, and a personal regard for. Lord Canning, 
 and there was no one whom the veteran statesman 
 wished so much to associate with himself in office as 
 George Canning's son. About the same time another 
 distinguished member of the House of Lords was also 
 moved by a strong desire to have the benefit of the 
 young statesman's official co-operation and personal 
 companionship. This was Lord Ellenborough, who, 
 on the formation of the Peel Ministry, had been ap- 
 pointed President of the Board of Control, but who 
 had subsequently been selected to succeed Lord Auck- 
 land as Governor-General of India. He offered to 
 take Canning with him in the capacity of Private 
 Secretary. 
 
 Creditable as this offer was to the discernment of 
 Lord Ellenborough, and made in perfect sincerity, it 
 was one little likely to be accepted by a man of high 
 social position, good political prospects, and a suffi- 
 cient supply of the world's wealth. Lord Canning 
 
 2b 
 
370 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 I836-5G, elected to remain in England, and entered official life 
 as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He 
 liked his work ; he did it well ; and he had the entire 
 confidence of his chief. But he did not take an active 
 part in the debates and discussions of the House of 
 Lords. The presence, in the same Chamber, of the 
 Chief of his Department relieved him from the re- 
 sponsibility of ministerial explanations and replies, 
 and his constitutional reserve forbade all unnecessary 
 displays. It was not, indeed, until the Session of 
 1846 found him in the office of Chief Commissioner 
 of Woods and Forests, that he took any prominent 
 part in the business of the House. If the position 
 which he then held afforded no opportunity for the 
 development of his powers either as an orator or a 
 debater, it kept him continually in Parliamentary 
 harness, and the training was of service to him. It 
 lasted, however, but a little time. At the end of 
 June, 184G, Sir Robert Peel and his colleagues re- 
 signed; and a Whig Cabinet was formed under the 
 leadership of Lord John Russell. 
 
 Lord Canning was then " in opposition ;" but, in 
 heart, he was a Liberal, and willing to support 
 liberal measures, without reference to the distinc- 
 tions of party. When, therefore, in May, 1848, 
 Lord Lansdowne moved the second reading of the 
 Jewish Disabilities Bill, Lord Canning was the first 
 to speak in support of it. He answered Lord Ellen- 
 borough, who had moved the amendment, and he 
 voted against all his old colleagues then in the Upper 
 House, with the exception of Lord Hardin ge. But 
 in 1850 he supported, in a speech displaying an entire 
 mastery of the subject, the resolution of Lord Derby 
 condemnatory of the Foreign Policy of Lord Pal- 
 merston ; and he spoke against the Ecclesiastical 
 Titles Bill, introduced by Lord John Russell. So 
 
EARLY CAREER OF LORD CANNING. o71 
 
 little, indeed, was he considered to be pledged to any 183G-5G. 
 party, that when the Russell Cabinet resigned in the 
 spring of 1851, and Lord Derby was invited to form 
 an administration, the great Conservative leader saw 
 no reason why he should not invite Canning to be- 
 come a member of it. The offer then made was a 
 tempting one, for it was the offer of a seat in the 
 Cabinet second in importance only to that of the 
 First Minister. To the son of Georo-e Cannincr it 
 was especially tempting, for it was the offer of the 
 seals of the Foreign Office. In that office the father 
 had built up his reputation, and the son had already 
 laid the foundation of an honourable career of states- 
 manship. It was the department which, above all 
 others. Lord Canning best knew and most desired. 
 He had served a long apprenticeship in it, and if his 
 humility suggested any doubts of his capacity to 
 direct its affairs, they must have been removed by 
 the manner in which he was invited to take their 
 direction. 
 
 The offer now made to him was made through his 
 old official chief, Lord Aberdeen, who pressed him to 
 accept it. But there were many grave considerations 
 which caused him to hesitate. He had sat for some 
 years on the same ministerial bench with Lord 
 Derby, but the latter had separated himself from his 
 party, and the cause of the disruption was the liberal 
 commercial policy of Sir Robert Peel, in favour of 
 which Canning had freely declared his opinions. He 
 had condemned the foreign policy of the Whig party ; 
 but, on the other hand, there were matters of home 
 government, in which his liberality was far in ad- 
 vance of the opinions of Lord Derby and his col- 
 leagues ; and, on the whole, he felt that lie could not 
 honestly and consistently support the Administration 
 
 2 B 2 
 
372 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1836-56. whicli he was invited to enter. He judged rightly, 
 and in such a case he judged wisely. Lord Derby 
 failed to construct a Ministry, and the Whigs re- 
 sumed office for another year. This was the turning- 
 point of Lord Canning s career ; and it is impossible 
 to say how different might have been the story which 
 I am now about to write, if these overtures had been 
 accepted. 
 
 In the following year, Lord Derby again endea- 
 voured, and with better success, to form a Ministry, 
 but its career was of brief duration. In November, 
 its place was tilled by an Administration under the 
 premiership of Lord Aberdeen, composed of the lead- 
 ino^ members of the Governments both of Sir Robert 
 Peel and Lord John RusselL In this Coalition 
 Ministry Lord Canning held the office of Postmaster- 
 General. Though held by many a distinguished 
 man, the post was not one to satisfy the desires of an 
 ambitious one. But he Avas not disappointed or dis- 
 couraged. He knew the difficulties which lay in the 
 path of his leader,* and he addressed himself cheer- 
 fully and assiduously to his work, with a steadfast 
 resolution to elevate the importance of the appoint- 
 ment he held, by doing in it the largest possible 
 amount of public good. In this office he had first 
 an opportunity of displaying that high conscientious 
 courage which bears up and steers right on, in spite 
 of the penalties and mortifications of temporary un- 
 popularit}^ What was wrong he endeavoured to set 
 right ; and knowing how much depended on the per- 
 sonal exertions of individual men, he strove, even 
 
 * In a " coalition ministry" there arranirpments then made the seals of 
 
 is necessarily an exceptional number the roicign Office fell, in the first 
 
 of claiinauts for the hij^lier offices iustauce, to Lord Jobu Russell, 
 with seats iii tlie Cabinet. In the 
 
. EARLY CAREER OF LORD CANNING. 373 
 
 at the expense of certain very clamorous vested inte- IS 36-50. 
 rests, to obtain the utmost possible amount of com- 
 petency for the performance of all the higher depart- 
 mental duties. During his administration of the 
 Post-office many important reforms were instituted, 
 and much progress made in good work already com- 
 menced. So effectually, indeed, had he mastered all 
 the complicated details of the department, that when 
 the Coalition Ministry Avas dissolv^ed and a new Go- 
 vernment formed under Lord Palmerston, the public 
 interests required that there should be no change at 
 the Post-office ; so Lord Canning was reappointed to 
 his old office, but with further acknowledgment of 
 his good services in the shape of a seat in the Cabinet. 
 But it was not ordered that he should hold the office 
 much longer. There was more stirring work in store 
 for him. His old friend and cotemporary, Lord Dal- 
 housie, was coming home from India, and it was 
 necessary that a new Govern or- General should be 
 appointed in his place. Practically the selection, in 
 such cases, was made by the Imperial Government, 
 but constitutionally the appointment emanated from 
 the East India Company. The President of the 
 Board of Control and the Chairman of the Court 
 of Directors commonly took counsel together, when 
 the Cabinet had chosen their man ; and then the 
 nomination was formally submitted to the Court. 
 There is always, in such cases, much internal doubt 
 and conflict among those with whom the selection 
 rests, and much speculation and discussion in the 
 outer world. It was believed in this instance, that 
 some member of the Ministry would be appointed ; 
 but people said in England, as they said in India, 
 that it would be no easy thing to find a fit successor 
 for Lord Dalhousie ; and when at last it transpired 
 
374 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1855-56. that the (choice had fallen on Lord Canning, men 
 shook their heads and asked each other whether there 
 was anything great about him but his name. In 
 Parliament the propriety of the appointment was 
 questioned by some noisy speakers, and there was a 
 general feeling in society that the appointment was 
 rather a mistake. But those who knew Lord Can- 
 ning — those especially who had worked with him — 
 knew that it was no mistake. They knew that there 
 was the stuff in him of which great administrators 
 are made. 
 Appointment On the first day of August a Court of Directors 
 iior-Generll- ' "^^^^ held at the India House, and Lord Canning was 
 bhip, 1855. introduced to take the accustomed oath. On the 
 evening of that day the Company gave, in honour of 
 their new servant, one of those magnificent enter- 
 tainments at which it was their wont to bid God- 
 speed to those who were going forth to do their work. 
 Those banquets were great facts and great oppor- 
 tunities. It was discovered soon afterwards that the 
 expenditure upon them was a profligate waste of the 
 public money. But the Government of a great em- 
 pire, spending nothing upon the splendid foppery of 
 a Court, was justified in thinking that, without 
 offence, it might thus do honour to its more distin- 
 guished servants, and that, not the turtle and the 
 venison, but the hospitality and the courtesy of the 
 Directors, thus publicly bestowed upon the men who 
 had done their work well in civil or miUtary life, 
 would find ample recompense in increased loyalty 
 and devotion, and more energetic service. Many a 
 gallant soldier and many a wise administrator carried 
 back with him to India the big card of the East 
 India Company inviting him to dinner at the London 
 Tavern, and religiously preserved it as one of ilu' 
 
THE FAREWELL BANQUET. 375 
 
 most cherished records of an honourable career. 1855-56. 
 There were many, too, who hoarded among their 
 dearest recollections the memory of the evening when 
 they saw, perhaps for the first and the last time, 
 England's greatest statesmen and warriors, and heard 
 them gravely discourse on the marvel and the miracle 
 of our Indian Empire. Nor was it a small thing 
 that a man selected to govern a magnificent de- 
 pendency beyond the seas, should thus, in the pre- 
 sence of his old and his new masters, and many of 
 his coadjutors in the great work before him, publicly 
 accept his commission, and declare to the people in 
 the West and in the East the principles which were 
 to regulate his conduct and to shape his career. The 
 words uttered on these occasions rose far above the 
 ordinary convivial level of after-dinner speeches. 
 There was a gravity and solemnity in them, appre- 
 ciated not merely by those who heard them spoken, 
 but by thousands also, to whom the Press conveyed 
 them, in the country which they most concerned; 
 and on the minds of the more intelligent Natives the 
 fact of this grand ceremonial of departure made a 
 deep impression, and elevated in their imaginations 
 the dignity of the coming ruler. 
 
 Seldom or never had this ceremonial assumed a 
 more imposing character than that which celebrated 
 the appointment of Lord Canning to the Governor- 
 Generalship of India. In the great Banqueting Hall 
 of the London Tavern were assembled on that 1st 
 of August many members of the Cabinet, including 
 among them some of Canning's dearest friends ; others 
 besides of his old companions and fellow-students; 
 and all the most distinguished of the servants of the 
 Company at that time in the country. Mr. Elliot 
 Macnaghten, Chairman of the East India Company^ 
 
376 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1855-6G. presided, and after dinner proposed the accustomed 
 toasts. It "svas natural and right that, when doing 
 honour to the newly-appointed Governor-General, the 
 speaker should pay a fitting tribute to the distin- 
 guished statesman who was then bringing his work 
 to a close ; it was natural and graceful that tribute 
 should be paid also to the worth of the elder Canning, 
 who had done India good service at home, and had 
 been selected to hold the great office abroad w^hich 
 his son was proceeding to fill ; but there was some- 
 thing to a comparatively untried man perilous in 
 such associations, and the younger Canning, with 
 instinctive modesty, shrunk from the invidious sug- 
 gestion. Perhaps there were some present who drew 
 comparisons, unfavourable to the son, between the 
 early careers of the two Cannings, which had entitled 
 them to this great distinction ; but when the younger 
 stood up to speak, every one was struck — the many 
 judging by busts and pictures, and the few recalling 
 the living likeness of George Canning — by his great 
 resemblance to his father. The singularly handsome 
 face, the intellectual countenance, and, above all, the 
 noble '' Canning brow," like a block of white marble, 
 bespoke no common capacity for empire, and gave 
 emphatic force to the words he uttered. He said, 
 after the usual expression of thanks for the kind 
 words spoken, and the kind reception accorded to 
 them, that the kindness which he had received had 
 not created any delusion in his mind, for w^hether he 
 contemplated the magnitude of the task that awaited 
 him, or the great achievements of the distinguished 
 men who had preceded him, he was painfully sensible 
 that the labourer was unequal to the great work that 
 had been entrusted to his hands. He was not 
 ashamed to confess that there were times when he 
 
THE FAREWELL BANQUET. 377 
 
 was tempted to shrink from the responsibility that 1855-56. 
 awaited him. But this feeling, he added, was not 
 inconsistent with his determination to devote all the 
 energies of his mind, every hour, nay, every minute 
 of his time, every thought and every inspiration, to 
 the discharge of the duties which he had that day ac- 
 cepted from the hands of the Company. There were, 
 however, other considerations, which had greatly re- 
 assured and encouraged him : " You have," he said, 
 turning to the Chairman, " assured me, this day, of 
 what you rightly describe as the generous confidence 
 and co-operation of the Court of Directors. I thank 
 you for that assurance, and I rely on it implicitly, 
 for I know that the body of which you are the head 
 are, wherever they bestow their confidence, no nig- 
 gards in supporting those who honestly and faith- 
 fully serve them." And then, not perhaps without a 
 knowledge of what, more than a quarter of a century 
 before, his father had said on a similar occasion,* he 
 added, " I feel that I can also rely on the cordial 
 support and sympathy of my noble friend at the head 
 of the Government, and of all those colleagues with 
 whom I have had the proud satisfaction of serving as 
 a Minister of the Crown, but, above all, I delight in 
 the co-operation — for on that I must daily and hourly 
 rely — of those two admirable bodies, the Civil Service 
 and the Army of India. I hardly know whether 
 there is any feature of our Government, any portion 
 of our institutions, upon which Englishmen may look 
 with more honest exultation than those two noble 
 
 * The occasion alluded to was the rope the existence of any monarchy 
 farewell banquet given by the East which, within a given time, has pro- 
 India Company to Sir John Malcolm, duced so many men of the fust 
 on his appointment to the govern- talents, in civil and military life, as 
 nient of Bombay. Then it was that India has first trained for herself, 
 George Canning said: "There can- and then given to their native 
 not be found in the history of Eu- country.'* 
 
378 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1855-56. branches of our Public Service. The men of those 
 branches have done much for the advancement of 
 India, and have sent forth from their ranks men who 
 were efficient in war and peace, in numbers of which 
 any monarchy in Europe might be proud, and w^ho 
 have rescued their countrymen from charges formerly, 
 and not unjustly, levelled against them of dealing 
 sometimes too harshly with those whom they were 
 bound to succour and protect. Sir, it is the posses- 
 sion of such men which enables you to exhibit a 
 spectacle unequalled in the world's history — that of 
 a hundred and fifty millions of people submitting in 
 peace and contentment, in a country teeming with 
 wealth, to the government of strangers and aliens." 
 
 Then, after a few more words on the high charac- 
 ter of the Services, and a brief declaration of the fact 
 that he assumed office " without a single promise or 
 pledge to any expectant," he proceeded with increased 
 gravity and solemnity of utterance, almost, indeed, 
 as one under the spell of prophecy : "I know not 
 what course events may take. I hope and pray that 
 we may not reach the extremity of war. I wish for 
 a peaceful time of office, but I cannot forget that in 
 our Indian Empire that greatest of all blessings de- 
 pends upon a greater variety of chances and a more 
 precarious tenure than in any other quarter of the 
 globe. We must not forget that in the sky of India, 
 serene as it is, a small cloud may arise, at first no 
 bigger than a man's hand, but which, growing larger 
 and larger, may at last threaten to burst, and over- 
 whelm us with ruin. What has happened once may 
 happen again. The disturbing causes have diminished 
 certainly, but they are not dispelled. We have still 
 discontented and heterogeneous peoples united under 
 our sway ; we have still neighbours before whom we 
 
THE FAREWELL BANQUET. 379 
 
 cannot altogetlier lay aside our watchfulness ; and we is 5 5 -5 5. 
 have a frontier configuration that renders it possible 
 that in any quarter, at any moment, causes of colli- 
 sion may arise. Besides, so intricate are our relatio: s 
 with some subsidiary states, that I doubt whether in 
 an empire so vast and so situated it is in the power 
 of the wisest Government, the most peaceful and the 
 most forbearing, to command peace. But if we can- 
 not command, we can at least deserve it, by taking 
 care that honour, good faith, and fair dealing are on 
 our side ; and then if, in spite of us, it should become 
 necessary to strike a blow, we can strike with a clear 
 conscience. With blows s-o dealt the struggle must 
 be short and the issue not doubtful. But I gladly 
 dismiss from my mind apprehensions that may not 
 be realised, and joyfully recognise a large arena of 
 peaceful usefulness, in which I. hope for your kind 
 assistance and co-operation." 
 
 Equally surprised were the few then present, who 
 were familiar with Lord Canning's parliamentary 
 utterances, and the many, who had never heard him 
 speak, but had been told that he was "no orator;" 
 for the speech which they now heard from his lips 
 was all that such a speech ought to have been. It was 
 impressive rather than impassioned ; slowly spoken, 
 with a deliberate gravity, every sentence making 
 itself felt, and every word making itself heard in the 
 farthest corners of that great Banqueting Hall. 
 There were few present in whose estimation the 
 speaker had not risen before he resumed his seat; 
 few present who did not, years afterwards, remember 
 with strong emotion that picture of the little cloud 
 rising in an unexpected quarter, and in time obscur- 
 ing the firmament and overshadowing the land. 
 Some, perhaps, thought also of another speech, thcxi 
 
380 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1855-56. delivered by a more practised speaker ; for the First 
 Minister of the Crowu, on that August evening, let 
 fall some memorable words. It was only in common 
 course that he should speak of the qualifications of 
 his colleague for the high office to which he had been 
 appointed ; only in common course that he should 
 I express his gratitude to the Company v>dio so mate- 
 (rially lightened the cares of the Sovereign and her 
 I Ministers. But when Lord Palmerston dwelt on 
 : " the sio;nificant fact that, whereas of old all civilisa- 
 I tion came from India, through Egypt, now we, who 
 were then barbarians, svere carrying back civilisation 
 and enlightenment to the parent source," and added, 
 " perhaps it might be our lot to confer on the count- 
 less millions of India a higher and a holier gift than 
 any real human knowledge; but that must be left 
 to the hands of time and the gradual improvement 
 of the people," he supplemented Lord Canning's pro- 
 phecy, though he knew it not, and pointed to the 
 quarter from which the little cloud was to arise. 
 
 But although Lord Canning had been sworn in at 
 the India House, and had stood before the magnates 
 of the land as Governor- General elect, he was still a 
 member of the Cabinet and her Majesty's Postmaster- 
 General. Parliament was prorogued on the 14th of 
 August, and in accordance with that wise official 
 usage, which recognises the necessity of holidays no 
 less for statesmen than for schoolboys, the Queen's 
 Ministers dispersed themselves over the country, and 
 Lord Canning went to Scotland. It had been settled 
 that he should receive from the hands of Lord Dal- 
 housie the reins of Indian Government on the 1st of 
 February, 1856, and his arrangements, involving a 
 short sojourn in Egypt, and visits to Ceylon, Bombay, 
 and Madras, had been made with a view to his arrival 
 
THE DATE OF SUCCESSION. 381 
 
 at Calcutta on that day. But at Dalhousie's own re- 1855-5G. 
 quest, his resignation was subsequently deferred to the 
 1st of March. When this request was first made to 
 him, Canning thought that the intention of the change 
 was simply to allow the old Governor-General more 
 time not only to consummate the annexation of Oude, 
 but to confront the first difiiculties of the revolution ; 
 and it appeared to him, thinking this, that the post- 
 ponement might be interpreted alike to his own and 
 to his predecessor s disadvantage. It might have been 
 said that the new Governor-General shrank from en- 
 countering the dangers of the position, or that the 
 measure was so distasteful to him, on the score of its 
 injustice, that he could not bring himself to put his 
 hand to the work Both assumptions would have 
 been utterly erroneous. The question of the Annexa - 
 tion of O ude had been a Cabinet question, and as a 
 member of the Cabinet, Lord Canning had given his 
 assent to the policy, which, after much discussion in 
 Leadenhall and in Downing-street, found final expres- 
 sion in the Court's despatch of the 1 9th of November. 
 The policy itself had been already determined, al-i 
 though the precise terms of the instructions to be sent 
 to the Government of India were still under conside- 
 ration, when Dalhousie's proposal reached him ; and 
 he was willing to accept all the responsibilities of the 
 measure. The proposed delay, therefore, did not at 
 first sight please him ; but when, from a later letter, 
 he learnt that Dalhousie required a few more weeks of 
 office, not for special, but for general purposes ; that 
 he needed time to gather up the ends of a large 
 number of administrative details, the case was altered, 
 and he assented, with the concurrence of the Court of 
 Directors, to the change.* 
 
 * " As long," he wrote to the Chairman, " as it turned upon Oude 
 
382 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 .855-56. A few days aftenvards, Lord Canning turned his 
 face again towards the South, to superintend the final 
 arrangements for his departure, and to take leave of 
 his friends. Thus the month of October and the 
 greater part of November were passed ; but not with- 
 out some study of Indian questions, some useful train- 
 ing for the great work upon which he was about to 
 enter. On the 21st of November he Avent by com- 
 mand to Windsor, accompanied by Lady Canning, 
 who was among her Majesty's cherished friends, and 
 on the 23rd returned to London, after taking final 
 leave of the Queen. Another day or two, and he had 
 commenced his overland journey to the East. From 
 the French capital he wrote, on the last day of No- 
 vember : "I intended to leave Paris this afternoon, 
 but I received notice in the morning that the Emperor 
 wished to see me to-morrow, so that it will be Tuesday 
 morning (December 4th) before we embark at Mar- 
 seilles. We still hope to reach Alexandria on the 
 10th." He arrived there, however, not before the 
 12th, and after a day's halt pushed on to Cairo, 
 where he was received and entertained magnificently 
 by orders of the Pacha, who was at that time absent 
 from his capital. 
 
 The party consisted of Lord and Lady Canning, 
 his nephew Lord Hubert de Burgh,* Captain Bou- 
 
 aloiip, I felt tliat lliere was some will be agreeable and convenient to 
 difficulty in makinir the change pro- iiim, and ])robably advantageous to 
 posed by Lord Dalhousie, and some the public interests. I hope, there- 
 risk of its intention being misrepre- fore, that you will feel no difficulty 
 sented to the disadvantage of both in complying with Lord Dalhousie's 
 of us. But it is now clear that for wish, by putting olf my succession 
 other reasons, apart from Oude, and until the day he names." — Lord 
 for the general winding up of the Ccnnnng to Mr. Macnaghtcn, Sep- 
 work on his hands, it will be a great tember 20, 1855.— Ji/S. Correspond- 
 help to him to have a month more ence. 
 
 time. These are his very words to * xVfterwards Lord Hubert Can- 
 ine ; and T cannot hesitate, so far as ning. 
 1 am concerned, to do that which 
 
LORD CANNING IN EGYPT. 883 
 
 verie, A.D.C., and Dr. Leckie. There was abundant 1855-53 
 time for an exploration of tlie wonders of Egypt, and, 
 as the fine climate of the country invited a protracted 
 sojourn there, it was arranged that some weeks should 
 be spent in pleasant and profitable excursions, and 
 that they should embark at Suez about the middle of 
 the month of January. "The Pacha was in Upper 
 Egypt until to-day," wrote Lord Canning to Mr. 
 Macnaghten, on the 17th of December, "when he 
 returned to this neighbourhood, I am to see him 
 to-morrow, and on the following day we set out on 
 our expedition up the Nile. Thanks to a steamer, 
 which the Pacha lends us, we shall be able to accom- 
 plish all we wish, and to embark on the Feroze imme- 
 diately upon its arrival at Suez, which, according to 
 a letter from Lord Dalhousie, that met me at Alex- 
 andria, will not be until close upon the 12th of 
 January. . . . The magnificence, not to say extrava- 
 gance, of our reception here far exceeds anything 
 that I had expected. I shall need to be very profuse 
 of my thanks to the Pacha to-morrow." 
 
 It would be pleasant to follow Lord Canning and 
 his family on their river-voyage, the grateful ex- 
 periences of Avhich he has himself recorded, but these 
 personal incidents have no connexion with the stern 
 story before me, and the temptation, therefore, to 
 enlarge upon them must be resisted. The programme 
 of his movements given in the above letter to the 
 Chairman of the Company, was realised with but 
 little departure from the original design. The Go- 
 vernor-General elect halted at Aden, where, under 
 the guidance of Brigadier Coghlan* — an officer of 
 the Company's Artillery, one of those excellent 
 
 * lA-fterwards Sir William Coalilan, K.C.B. 
 
o8i OUTBREAK OF TUE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. public servants who, partly in a military, partly 
 in a diplomatic capacity, represent great interests and 
 undertake great responsibilities in the East — Lord 
 Canning made his iirst acquaintance with the Sepo}- 
 Army of India. From Aden he steamed to Bombay, 
 where he arrived on the 28th of January, 1856, and 
 first planted his foot on Indian soil. " I found," he 
 wrote to Mr. Macnaghten on the 2nd of February, 
 *'that Lord Daihousie had given orders that I should 
 be received wdth the full honours of Governor-General 
 in possession ; and of course I did nothing to check or 
 escape from the demonstrations with which we were 
 met, though I did not desire or expect them. I have 
 been unceasingly busy for two-thirds of every twenty- 
 four hours since our arrival ; and by the 5th or 6th, 
 I hope to have seen nearly all that calls for ocular in- 
 spection in the city and its neighbourhood. We shall 
 then embark for Madras ; for I have given up all 
 thoughts of stopping at Ceylon, unless to coal, and 
 hope to arrive there on the 14th or 15th. I cannot 
 sufficiently congratulate myself on having come round 
 by this Presidency. It has shown me much that I 
 should not easily have learnt otherwise." It was a 
 disappointment to him that he had not time to visit 
 Ceylon, for his old Eton tutor. Chapman, had de- 
 veloped into Bishop of Colombo, and there would 
 have been a grand old Etonian pleasure, on both sides, 
 in talking over old times. But there was consolation 
 in the thought that his friend Lord Harris, his fellow- 
 pupil in the Bedfordshire market-town, was Governor 
 of Madras. In that presidency he spent a few plea- 
 sant days, sojourning at Guindy, and then on the 
 25th of February set out to face the realities of 
 Indian Government, and steamed up the Bay ot 
 Bengal. 
 
ARRIVAL OF LORD CANNING. 385 
 
 On tlie last day of February, Lord Canning dis- li^ebruarj 29, 
 embarked at Calcutta; and, proceeding to Govern- 
 ment House, at once took his oaths of office and his 
 seat in Council. It is the custom in such cases. No 
 time is left for any question to arise as to who is 
 Governor- General of India. So brief did the whole 
 operation appear to him, that he wrote home that he 
 had been sworn in and installed " within five minutes 
 lifter touching land." As his dignities and responsi- 
 bilities commenced at once, so did his work. At the 
 end of his first week of office, he wrote that such had 
 been the pressure of public business, that he had 
 found time only for " one look out of doors " since he 
 arrived. During that first week Lord Dalhousie 
 tarried in Calcutta, and the past and future of the 
 Government of India were discussed with interest, 
 the depths of which were stirred by varying circum- 
 stances, between those earnest-minded men ; the one 
 all readiness to teach, the other all eagerness to learn. 
 Dull and prosaic as its details often appear to Eng- 
 lishmen at a distance, it is difficult to describe the 
 living interest with which statesmen in India of all 
 classes, from the highest to the lowest, perpetually 
 regard their work. 
 
 No man ever undertook the office of Governor- First days (t 
 General of India under the impression that it would ^^ ^^^ 
 be a sinecure. But it is scarcely less true that no 
 man, whatever opinion he may have formed in Eng- 
 land, ever entered upon its duties without discover- 
 ing that he had greatly underrated the extent of its 
 labours. The current of work is so strong and so 
 continuous ; so many waters meet together to swell 
 the stream ; that at first even a strong man trying to 
 breast it may feel that he is in danger of being over- 
 whelmed. Time lessens the difficulty ; but at the 
 
 2c 
 
386 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1850. outset, the multiplicity of unfamiliar details distracts 
 and bewilders even the sharpest wit and the clearest 
 brain ; and the first result is apt to be a chaos. Box 
 after box is placed upon the Governor- General's 
 table ; and each box is crammed with papers rugged 
 with the names of strange men and stranger places, 
 and references to unknown events and incomprehen- 
 sible states of society. By some means or other, he 
 must master the antecedents of every case that comes 
 before him for decision ; and there are often very 
 intricate cases purposely left for his decision, that he 
 may not be embarrassed by the judgments of his pre- 
 decessor. Week after week goes by and little im- 
 pression is made upon this pile of work. " Another 
 fortnight is gone," wrote Lord Canning towards the 
 end of March, " and I am beginning to gather up by 
 slow degrees the threads of business, as it passes 
 before me ; but it is severe work to have to o^ive so 
 much time to the bygones of almost every question 
 that comes up ; and some weeks more must pass 
 before I shall feel myself abreast of current events.'* 
 There was a strong conscientiousness within the new 
 Governor- General which would not suffer him to 
 pass anything lightly over, and he endeavoured to 
 understand all that came before him even at the risk 
 of some inconvenient delays. 
 
 So he did not rush at his work ; but quietly con- 
 fronted it, and w^as in no haste to impress people with 
 a sense of the profundity of his wisdom, and the 
 greatness of his self-reliance. He knew that he had 
 much to learn, and he adopted the best means of 
 learning it ; for he invited all the chief agents of his 
 Government, scattered over the country, especially 
 those who were representing British interests at the 
 Native Courts, to correspond confidentially with him 
 
THE SUPREME COUNCIL. 387 
 
 on matters relating to their respective charges; an ^^56. 
 invitation which gave to every man thus addressed 
 full liberty to declare his sentiments and to expound 
 his views. And thus he escaped the danger on the 
 one hand of surrendering his own judgment, by suc- 
 cumbing to the influence of some two or three public 
 functionaries immediately attached to the Executive 
 Government, and, on the other, of the over-confident 
 exercise of a dominant self-will rejecting all external 
 aids, and refusing to walk by other men's experiences. 
 He knew that there was no roysl road to a knowledge 
 of India ; and he was well content that the first year 
 of his administration should be unostentatiousl}^ de- 
 voted to the great duty of learning his work. 
 
 There were able men, too, at his elbow to assist Tiie Council, 
 him to a correct knowledge of facts, and to the 
 formation of sound opinions. The Supreme Council 
 consisted at that time of General John Low, Mr. 
 Dorin, Mr. John Peter Grant, and Mr. Barnes Pea- 
 cock. Of the first I can say little in this place that General Lew; 
 has not been already said. The only charge laid 
 against him by the assailants of the Government was, 
 that he was well stricken in years. But, although 
 one who had fought beside Malcolm at Mehidpore, 
 and then not in his first youth, must have lost some 
 of the physical energy that animated him in his 
 prime, his intellect was unimpaired. Ceasing to be a 
 man of action, he had subsided gracefully into the 
 condition of a councillor, the Nestor of the Political 
 Service, a veteran without a stain. ISTo man had so 
 large an acquaintance with the Native Courts of 
 India ; no man knew the temper of the people better 
 than John Low. He could see with their eyes, and 
 speak with their tongues, and read with their under- 
 standings. And, therefore, he looked with some dis- 
 
 2 c 2 
 
388 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 ^5^^- may at the wide-spread Englishism of the Dalhousie 
 school, and sorrowfully regarded the gradual dying 
 out of the principles in which he had been nurtured 
 and trained, and to which, heedless of their unpopu- 
 larity, he clung with honest resolution to the last. 
 Dalhousie had too often disregarded his counsel ; but 
 he had always respected the man. And now Canning 
 equally admired the personal character of his col- 
 league, but was not equally minded to laugh his 
 principles to scorn. 
 
 Mr.Doriu. q£ ^^^ ^^^ Bengal civilians who sat in that 
 Council, it may be said that the one owed his posi- 
 tion there apparently to chance, the other to his un- 
 questionable abilities. Mr. Dorin was not a man of 
 
 1 great parts ; he was not a man of high character. If 
 
 he had any official reputation, it was in the capacity 
 of a financier ; and finance was at that time the 
 weakest point of our Government. He had limited 
 acquaintance with the country, and but small know- 
 ledge of the people. He had no earnestness ; no en- 
 thusiasm ; no energy. He had a genius for making 
 himself comfortable, and he had no superfluous ac- 
 tivities of head or heart to mar his success in that 
 particular direction. He had supported the policy 
 of Lord Dalhousie, and had recorded in his time 
 a number of minutes expressing in two emphatic 
 words, which saved trouble and gained favour, his 
 concurrence with the most noble the Govern or- Gene- 
 ral ; and now if the new ruler was not likely to 
 find in him a very serviceable colleague, there Avas 
 no greater chance of his being found a troublesome 
 one. 
 
 John Peter In John Grant the Governor-General might have 
 
 '^^^^' found both. He was many years younger than his 
 
 brother civilian, but he had done infinitely more 
 
 work. In him, with an indolent sleepy manner was 
 
JOHN PETER GRANT. 389 
 
 strangely combined extraordinary activity of mind. -iSSS, 
 He was one of the ablest public servants in the coun- 
 try. With some hereditary claim to distinction, he 
 had been marked out from the very commencement 
 of his career, no less by a favourable concurrence of 
 external circumstances than by his own inherent 
 qualifications, for the highest official success. No 
 young civilian in his novitiate ever carried upon 
 him so clearly and unmistakably the stamp of the 
 embryo Coimcillor, as John Grant. In some respects 
 this was a misfortune to him. His course was too 
 easy. He had found his way ; he had not been com- 
 pelled to make it. He had not been jostled by the 
 crowd ; he had seen little or none of the rough work 
 of Indian administration or Indian diplomacy. It 
 had been his lot, as it had been his choice, to spend 
 the greater part of his official life in close connexion 
 with the Head-Quarters of the Government; and, 
 therefore, his opportunities of independent action had 
 been few ; his personal acquaintance with the coun- 
 try and the people was not extensive ; and his work 
 had been chiefly upon paper. But as a member of 
 a powerful bureaucracy his value was conspicuous. 
 Quick in the mastery of facts, clear and precise in 
 their analytical arrangement, and gifted with more 
 than common powers of expression, he was admi- 
 rably fitted to discharge the duties of the Secretariat. 
 He was a dead hand at a report ; and if Government 
 were perplexed by any difficult questions, involving 
 a tangled mass of disordered financial accounts, or a 
 great conflict of authority mystifying the truth, he 
 was the man of all others to unravel the intricate or 
 to elucidate the obscure. Comparatively young in 
 years, but ripe in bureaucratic experience, he entered 
 the Supreme Council towards the close of Lord Dal- 
 housie's administration. But he had sat long enough 
 
390 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTI^v 
 
 1S56. at the Board to establish his independence. He ex- 
 pressed his opinions freely and fearlessly ; and his 
 minutes, when minute- writing was in vogue, were 
 commonly the best State papers recorded by the 
 Government of the day. Closely reasoned, forcibly 
 expressed, with here and there touches of quiet 
 humour or subdued sarcasm, they cut through any 
 sophistries put forth by his colleagues, with sharp in- 
 cisive logic, and clearly stated the points at issue 
 without disguises and evasions. On the whole, he 
 was a man of large and liberal views, the natural 
 manifestations of which were, perhaps, soinowhii-,." 
 straitened by an acquired official reserve ^ and no 
 one questioned the honesty of his intentions or the 
 integrity of his life. 
 nes Mr. Barnes Peacock was the fourth, and, as is 
 
 cocL commonly called, the " Law Member'^ of Council. 
 An English lawyer, appointed to aid the great work 
 of Indian legislation, he was a member of the Execu- 
 tive rather by sufferance than by right. In a limited 
 sense, he was supposed to represent the popular ele- 
 ment in the Council. There was no very violent 
 conflict of class-interests in those days. But so far 
 as such division existed at all, he was regarded as 
 the exponent of the views of the non-official Eng- 
 lishman and of the Europeanised Natives of the 
 large towns, whose interests are bound up with 
 our own. For the institution of the Company 
 he was believed to have no respect, and for the 
 exclusive system of Government by the Company's 
 servants no toleration. He had a clear head, an 
 acute understanding, but by no means a large mind. 
 Assiduous in the work of law-making, he was the 
 very soul of the Legislative Council ; and had he 
 confined his efforts to the work of moulding into 
 
BARNES PEACOCK. 391 
 
 draft-acts the ideas of other men, he would have 3856. 
 been an invaluable public servant. But he some- 
 times went beyond this; and, when he did so, he 
 commonly went wrong. For knowing little of the 
 people of India, and having only thoroughly English 
 notions of philanthropic reforms and legislative bene- 
 ficences, he would have taught the people better 
 manners with a rapidity for which they were not 
 prepared, if he had unrestrainedly followed out his 
 own ideas of social improvement. Indeed, he had 
 already threatened to limit the polygamies of the Na- 
 tives of India, and, doubtless, had a draft-act for the 
 purpose on the legislative anvil, when circumstances 
 arrested his career of reform. But, although it was 
 in the legislative department that his especial strength 
 lay, he did not confine himself to it. He grappled 
 manfully with all the varied details of the general 
 administration. There were times when his legal 
 penetration was of service in the disentanglement of 
 knotty questions of executive government, and he 
 sometimes recorded minutes distinguished by no com- 
 mon powers of special pleading. But, on the whole, this 
 laborious addiction to business was an encumbrance 
 and an embarrassment to the Ministry; and Lord Can- 
 ning had soon reason to complain of the conscientious 
 excesses of his colleague. A general disinclination to 
 take anything for granted impeded the progress of 
 business ; and the Governor- General, not without a 
 feeling of admiration for a defect that had its root 
 in honesty of purpose, endeavoured, and with good 
 success, to wean the law member from his habit of 
 mastering details which he was not expected to 
 imderstand, and keeping back business which it Avas 
 desirable to dispose of, whilst he was working up the 
 past history of a Native State, or calculating grain- 
 
392 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1S56. bags in a commissariat account. There, must have 
 been some inward promptings of self-knowledge in 
 Cannin2:'s own mind to assure him that this labo- 
 rious conscientiousness was a part of his o^vn nature ; 
 but he felt, at the same time, that his larger scope of 
 responsibility demanded from him a larger scope of 
 action, and that what was right in the Governor- 
 General was not therefore right in his departmental 
 colleague. 
 
 Such were the fellow-labourers with whom Lord 
 Canning was now about to prosecute the work of 
 Government. On the Avhole, the Council was not 
 badly constituted for ordinary purposes of adminis- 
 tration in quiet times. It contained, indeed, many 
 of the essential elements of a good Board. What it 
 most wanted was military knowledge ;' for General 
 Low, though an old soldier of the Madras Army, had 
 seen more of the Court than of the Camp ; and it 
 was rather in the diplomacies of the Native States 
 than in the conduct of warlike operations, or in the 
 details of military administration, that he had earned, 
 by hard service, the right to be accepted as an autho- 
 rity.* It was a constitutional fiction that, in an 
 Indian Council, the necessary amount of military 
 knowledge was supplied in the person of the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, who had a seat in it. The seat, 
 though legally occupied, was for the most part prac- 
 tically empty, for duty might not, and inclination 
 did not, keep the military chief at the Head-Quarters 
 of the Civil Government. But it happened that, 
 when Lord Canning arrived in India, he found 
 General Anson in Calcutta. And it was a pleasure 
 to him to see in the Indian capital a face that had 
 been familiar to him in the English. 
 
 * Sliortly after Lord Canning's land, but returned at the commence- 
 Jirriral, General Low went to Eni* ment of the cold weather (1856-57). 
 
GENERAL ANSON. »^93 
 
 The appointment of the Honourable George Anson 1^56- 
 to the chief command of the Indian Army took by 2uson!^ 
 surprise the English communities in the three Presi- 
 dencies, who had seen his name only in the Racing 
 Calendar, or in other records of the Turf. But there 
 was one thing at least to be said in his favour : he 
 was not an old man. It was not in the nature of 
 things, after a long European peace, that good service 
 should be found in the officers of the Queen's Army 
 unaccompanied by the weight of years. But the 
 scandal of imbecility had risen to such a height, the 
 military world had grown so sick of infirmity in high 
 places — of the blind, the lame, the deaf, the obesely 
 plethoric — that they Avere prepared to welcome almost 
 any one who could sit a horse, who could see from one 
 end to the other of a regiment in line, and hear the 
 report of a nine-pounder at a distance of a hundred 
 yards. There was nothing to be said against George 
 Anson on this score. He could hear and see ; he 
 could ride and walk. He was of a light spare figure, 
 well framed for active exercise; and his aspect was 
 that of a man who could " stand the climate." But 
 with all men who first brave that climate in the 
 maturity of life, there is a risk and an uncertainty ; 
 and appearances belied Anson's capabilities of re- 
 sistance. During the hot weather and rainy season 
 of 1856, the heats and damps of Bengal tried him 
 severely : and Lord Canning more than once wrote 
 home that his military colleague was reduced to a 
 skeleton, and had lost all his bodily strength and all 
 his buoyancy of spirit. But, at the same time, he 
 spoke of the Chief as one who had many excellent 
 points, both as an officer and as a man. The precise 
 limits of authority vested in the chief civil and mili- 
 tary functionaries are so ill defined, that, when the 
 powers of both are combined in one individual, it is 
 
394 
 
 OUTBREAK OF THE MLTINY. 
 
 1856. a mercy if he does not quarrel witli liimself. When 
 they are divided, as is commonly the case, a conflict 
 of authority is inevitable. And so at this time, the 
 Govern or- General and the Commander-in-Chief soon 
 came into official collision ; but it never grew into 
 personal strife between Lord Canning and General 
 Anson. The public prints hinted that there was a rup- 
 ture between them ; and the same story travelled home- 
 wards and penetrated Cannon-row. But the Civilian 
 wrote, that though there had been some special points 
 of difference between them, the temper of the Soldier 
 was so charming, and he was so thoroughly a gen- 
 tleman, that it was quite impossible to quarrel with 
 him. The inevitable antagonism of official interests 
 could not weaken the ties of personal regard ; and 
 when Anson, in the month of September, left Cal- 
 cutta on a tour of military inspection in the Upper 
 Provinces, he carried with him no kindlier wishes 
 than those which attended him warm from the heart 
 of the Governor-General.* 
 
 * What Lord Canning wrote about 
 General Anson is so honourable to 
 both, that it is quite a pleasure to 
 quote it. "We get on admirably 
 together," wrote the Governor-Gene- 
 ral in June. " His temper is charm- 
 ing, and I know no one whom T 
 should not be sorry to see substi- 
 tuted for him." And again, in Oc- 
 tober : " I am not surprised at the 
 report you mention that Anson and 
 1 do not get on well together, be- 
 cause such a rumour was current in 
 Calcutta two or three months ago, 
 and even found its way into the 
 newspapers. I believe it originated 
 in a difference between us on two 
 points ; one (of much interest to the 
 Indian Army), the power of the Com- 
 
 mander-in-Chief to withhold appli- 
 cations for furlough, transmitted 
 through him to the Governor-Gene- 
 ral in Council ; the other, an autho- 
 rity to exercise something very like 
 a veto upon the Governor-General's 
 selections of officers for civil and 
 political service. Upon both of which 
 I found it necessary to disallow his 
 pretensions. But neither these dis- 
 agreements, nor the reports to which 
 they gave rise, have for a moment 
 caused any misunderstanding or re- 
 serve between us. It would be very 
 difficult to quarrel with any one so 
 imperturbabiy good tempered, and 
 so thoroughly a gentleman." — MS, 
 Correspondence, 
 
TEi OUr-E ADMINISTRATION. 395 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Ll^ni' C/Jf^TT"{IG's FIB&1 YEAR — THE OTJDE COMMISSION — WAJID ALT AND 
 IHE EMBASSY TO ENGLAND — THE PERSIAN WAR — THE QUESTION OP 
 COMMAND — JAMES OUTEAM — CENTRAL-ASIAN POLICY — DOST MAHOMED — 
 JOHN LAWRENCE AND HERBERT EDWARDES AT PESHAWUR — HENRY 
 LAWRENCE IN LTJCKNOW. 
 
 "With tliese colleagues in the Council Chamber, and 1855. 
 with a staff of able, well- trained secretaries, of whom 
 I shall speak hereafter, in the several Departments, 
 the new Governor- General found the burden of his 
 work, though it pressed heavily upon him, in no way 
 galling or dispiriting. There are always small vexa- 
 tions and embarrassments ; incidental details, that will 
 not run smoothly in the administrative groove, but 
 grind and grate and have a stubborn obstructiveness • 
 about them. But the great sum-total of the business 
 before him wore an aspect cheerful and encourag- 
 ing. There was tranquillity in India. Outwardly, 
 it seemed that Lord Dalhousie had left only a 
 heritage of Peace. Even in Oude, just emerging The A dmiais- 
 from a revolution, there were external signs of general Oude." ° 
 quietude ; of contentment, or at least of submission ; 
 and of the satisfactory progress of the administra- 
 tion. But a new administrator was wanted. Outram 
 had done his work. He had been selected to fill the 
 office of Resident, and no man could have more be- 
 
396 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. comingly represented British interests at a corrupt 
 and profligate Court. In that capacity it had fallen 
 to his lot to accomplish ministerially the revolution 
 which had been decreed by the British Government. 
 But it was work that sickened him ; for although he 
 believed that it was the duty of the Paramount State 
 to rescue Oude from the anarchy by which it had so 
 long been rent, he was one whose political predilec- 
 tions were in favour of the maintenance of the Native 
 States, and he knew that much wrong had been done 
 to the Princes and Chiefs of India under the plea of 
 promoting the interests of the people. When the 
 Proclamation converted Oude into a British province, 
 the Resident became Chief Commissioner, and the 
 superintendence of the administration was the work 
 that then devolved upon him. But it was work that 
 Outram was not now destined to perform. His 
 health had broken down ; the hot season was coming 
 on apace ; and a voyage to England had been ur- 
 gently pressed upon him by his medical advisers. So 
 he sought permission to lay down the Portfolio for 
 a while, and asked the Governor-General to appoint 
 an officer to act for him in his absence. 
 
 It would have been comparatively easy to find a 
 successor suited to the work, if the appointment to 
 be disposed of had been a permanent one. But Lord 
 Canning had to find a man able to conduct the ad- 
 ministration at its most difficult stage, and yet willing 
 to forsake other important work for the brief tenure 
 of another's office. Outram said that there was one 
 man in whom both the ability and the will were to 
 be found. That man was Henry Ricketts, a Bengal 
 civilian of high repute, whose appointment was 
 pressed upon Lord Canning as the best that could be 
 made. But Ricketts was wanted for other work. 
 
HENRY LAWRENCE. 397 
 
 The authorities at home were clamouring for a reduc- 1856. 
 tion of expenditure ; and as retrenchment, public or 
 private, conmionly begins in the wrong place, a re- 
 vision of official salaries was to be one of the first 
 eiForts of our economy. So Mr. Ricketts had been 
 specially appointed to furnish a Report on the best 
 means of extracting from the officers of Government 
 the same amount of good public service for a less 
 amount of public money. Lord Canning shook his 
 head doubtfully at the experiment ; but Cannon-row 
 was urgent, and nothing Avas to be suffered to inter- 
 rupt the labours of the man who was to suggest the 
 means of increasing the financial prosperity of the. 
 Company by sapping out the energies of those upon 
 whom that prosperity mainly depended. 
 
 Whilst Outram and the Governor- General were 
 corresponding about this arrangement, another plan 
 for the temporary administration of Oude was sug- 
 gesting itself; but it nevf^ became more than a sug- 
 gestion. Ever since the dissolution of the Lahore 
 Board, Sir Henry Lawrence had held office as chief 
 of the Political Agency in Rajpootana. It was a 
 post of honour and responsibility ; but there was not 
 in the work to be done enough to satisfy so ardent 
 and so active a mind, and he had longed, during 
 that great struggle before Sebastopol, which he had 
 watched with eao;er interest from the beoinnino- to 
 show, when all the departments were breaking down, 
 what a rough-and-ready Indian Political might do to 
 help an army floundering miserably in a strange 
 land. But this field of adventure Avas closed ao^ainst 
 him. Peace was proclaimed : and Henry Lawrence, 
 who had studied well the history and the institutions 
 of Oude, and who had advocated the assumption of 
 the government, but not the annexation of the pro- 
 
398 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 ISoG. vince or the absorption of its revenues, thought tliat 
 he might do some good by superintending the ad- 
 ministration during the first year of our tenure. 
 There were many interests to be dealt with in that 
 conjuncture, which require! a strong but a gentle 
 hand to accommodate them to the great revolution 
 that had been accomplished, and he felt some appre- 
 hension lest civilian-government, harsh and precise, 
 should fortliAvith begin to systematise, in utter dis- 
 regard of the institutions and the usages of the 
 country, and should strike at once for a flourishing 
 balance-sheet. It was too little the fashion to sym- 
 pathise with the fallen fortunes of men ruined by 
 the dominant influence of the White Race. In the 
 chivalrous benevolence of the out-going Commis- 
 sioner, Henry Lawrence had full confidence. The 
 great-hearted compassion which Outram had shown 
 for the Ameers of Scinde, proclaimed the mercy and 
 the justice of the man. But a civilian of the new 
 school from the Regulation Provinces might bring 
 with him a colder heart and a sharper practice, and 
 might overbear all ancient rights and privileges in 
 pursuit of the favourite theory of the Dead Level. 
 Anxious to avert this, which he believed would be a 
 calamity alike to the people of Oude and to his own 
 government, Henry Lawrence ofl'ered to serve, during 
 the transition-period, in Outram's place ; and the first 
 misfortune that befel the ministry of Lord Canning 
 was that the letter, conveying the proposal, arrived a 
 little too late. A Commissioner had already been ap- 
 pointed. 
 The iN'ew The choice had fallen on Mr. Coverley Jackson, a 
 
 S!!^i!^^^' civilian from the North- West Provinces, an expert 
 revenue-oflicer, held in high esteem as a man of 
 ability, but more than suspected of some infirmity of 
 
COVERLET JACKSON. 399 
 
 temper. Aware of this notorious failing, but not 1S56. 
 deeming it sufficient to disqualify one otherwise so 
 well fitted for the post, Lord Canning accompanied 
 his offer of the appointment with a few words of 
 caution, frank but kindly, and Jackson in the same 
 spirit received the admonition, assuring the Governor- 
 General that it would be his earnest endeavour to 
 conciliate the good feelings of all who might be 
 officially connected with him, so far as might be con- 
 sistent with the claims of the public service and the 
 maintenance of the authority entrusted to him. But 
 he did not accomplish this ; and there is slight evi- 
 dence that he resolutely attempted it. It was an un- 
 toward occurrence that the man next in authority, 
 and the one with whom the circumstances of the 
 province brought him most frequently into official 
 communication, was as little able to control his 
 temper as Jackson himself Mr. Martin Gubbins, of 
 the Bengal Civil Service, was the Financial Commis- 
 sioner. Upon him devolved the immediate superin- 
 tendence of the revenue administration of our new 
 territory, whilst Mr. Ommaney, of the same service, 
 superintended the department of Justice. A man of 
 rare intelligence and sagacity, eager and energetic, 
 Martin Gubbins would have been a first-rate public 
 servant, if his utility had not been marred by a 
 contentious spirit. His angularities of temper were 
 continually bringing him into collision with others, 
 and his pertinacious self-assertion would not sufi'er 
 him, when once entangled in a controversy, ever to 
 detach himself from it. Of all men in the service he Jackson and 
 was the one least likely to work harmoniously with ^^^^^^^• 
 the Chief Commissioner. So it happened that, in a 
 very short time, they were in a state of violent an- 
 tagonism. "Whether, in the first instance, Jackson 
 
400 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 185C. overstrained liis autliority, and unwisely and unkindly 
 expressed his displeasure in language calculated to 
 excite irritation and resentment, or whether Gubbins 
 was the first to display an insubordinate spirit, and to 
 provoke the censure of his chief by the attempted 
 usurpation of his powers, it is of little importance 
 now to inquire. The sharp contention that grew up 
 between them was soon made known to the Governor- 
 General, who deplored and endeavoured to arrest it. 
 How wisely and calmly he conveyed to the Commis- 
 sioner an expression, less of his displeasure than of 
 his regret, his correspondence pleasantly illustrated.* 
 But no kindly counsel from Government House could 
 smoothe down the asperities of Jackson's temper. As 
 time advanced, the feud between him and Gubbins 
 greAv more bitter and more irreconcilable. In India, 
 a paper war once commenced lasts out many a mili- 
 tary campaign. There is something so exciting, so 
 absorbing in it, that even the best public servants 
 sometimes forget the public interests whilst they are 
 wasting their time and expending their energies in 
 personal conflicts and criminations. Had Coverley 
 Jackson taken half as much pains to see that the 
 pledges of the British Government were fulfilled, 
 and the annexation of Oude rendered as little ruinous 
 
 * Take, for example, the follow- of his duty, and is possessed of the 
 
 iiig : "Judginj:^ by my own expe- feelings and temper of a gentleman, 
 
 rience, I should say that in dealing the more simply Ids error is put be- 
 
 ^viIh public servants who have in- fore him, and the more plain and quiet 
 
 curred blame, everything is to be the reproof, the better ciiance there 
 
 gained by telling them their faults in is of his correcting himself readily 
 
 unmistakable language, plainly and and willingly, and that if we w^ish to 
 
 nakedly ; but that one's purpose get work done hereafter out of some 
 
 (their amendment) is rather defeated one whom it is necessary to rebuke, 
 
 than otherwise by the use of terms we ought to give him as little excuse 
 
 that sting them, or amplify their as possible (he will too often find 
 
 offences to them unnecessarily — even it where it is not given) for feeling 
 
 though all be done within the strict irritated against ourselves." —Zorc? 
 
 limits of truth and fact. I believe Canning to Mr. Cooerley Jackson, 
 
 that if a man has at bottom a sense July 7, 1856. — MS. Correspondence. 
 
THE KING OF OUDE. 401 
 
 as possible to all the chief people of the province, 1856. 
 as he did to convict his subordinates of official mis- 
 demeanours, it would have been better both for his 
 own character and for the character of the nation. 
 But whilst Jackson and Gubbins were in keen con- 
 tention with each other, covering reams of paper with 
 their charges and counter-charges and their vehement 
 self-assertions, the generous nature of the Governor- 
 General was grieved by complaints and remonstrances 
 from the King, who declared, or suffered it to be 
 declared for him, that the English officers in Luck- 
 now were inflicting grievous wrongs and indignities 
 upon him and upon his Family, seizing or destroying 
 his property, and humiliating the members and de- 
 pendents of his House. 
 
 It has been shown that Wajid Ali, when he sawMovcmenii 
 that all hope of saving his dominions from the great ^}^^^ ^^' 
 white hand that had been laid upon them had utterly 
 gone from him, had talked about travelling to Eng- 
 land and laying his sorrows at the foot of the Throne. 
 But, in truth, travelling to England, or to any other 
 place, was a thing rather to be whined about than 
 to be done, by one so destitute of all activities, 
 physical and mental, and it was almost certain that 
 he would hitch somewhere ; not improbably at the 
 tirst stage. And so he did. Halting not far from 
 Lucknow, the King awaited the on-coming of his 
 minister, Ali Nuckee Khan, a man not wanting in 
 activities of any kind, who had been detained at 
 the capital to aid in the ^' transfer of the Govern- 
 ment," out of w^hich he had been ousted. But after 
 a Avhile King and Minister, and other regal appen- 
 dages, male and female, moved on towards Calcutta 
 —the iirst stages by land ; then afterwards taking the 
 river-steamer, at a time of ^ear when there is ever a 
 
 2d 
 
402 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 scant supply of water for such travelling, they wpre 
 constrahied to go " round by the Sunderbunds," and 
 make a long and by no means a pleasant voyage to 
 the English capital ; of which necessity Lord Can- 
 ning shrewdly observed that it would give his Majesty 
 such a foretaste of life on board as would inevitably 
 drive out of him any lingering thought of the passage 
 across the black water to England. 
 
 And so it was. The King arrived at Calcutta when 
 the month of May had burnt itself half out, and was 
 soon domiciled in a house on the river-side, which had 
 erst been the suburban villa of an English Chief- 
 Justice. It was enough for him to see the steamers 
 smoking past him sea- wards; and to keep steadily 
 before him the conviction that for a man of his tastes 
 and habits, to take no account of his girth, Garden- 
 Reach was a more recommendable place than the Bay 
 of Bengal, the Red Sea, or the Mediterranean. But 
 still the pilgrimage to the foot of the Throne was to 
 be undertaken, not by but for the last of the Oude 
 Kings. Without any sacrifice of his personal ease, 
 or any abandonment of the delights of the Zenana, he 
 might enter a vicarious appearance at St. James's by 
 sending the chief members of his family — the nearest 
 of his kindred, in each stage and relation, before, 
 beside, and after him — liis mother, his brother, and 
 his son, with agents and ministers, black and white, 
 to plead against the seizure of his dominions. 
 
 There was one of the royal party with some sub- 
 stance of masculine vigour still left as God had given 
 it ; and that one Avas not the Heir-Apparent, or the 
 so-called General, or a born manhood of any kind, 
 but the Queen-Mother, who set the example of goin.<^ 
 across the dreary waste of black water and levoi sand 
 struight to tlie feet of the Queen of England. And 
 
THE OUDE MISSION. 403 
 
 they went, not scantily attended either, those three, 1856 
 like thieves in the night, embarking secretly in the 
 darkness, and taking Government House by surprise 
 with the report of the accomplished fact of their de- 
 parture. Not that Government House would have 
 opposed any obstacle to their going in broad daylight, 
 with drums beating and flags flying; but that the 
 steam-company, with an eye to business, thought it 
 better to make a secret of it ; such fellow-travellers, 
 according to European notions, not increasing the 
 comforts of the voyage. As to the Govern or- General, 
 all he could say was, " Let them go ;" pitying the 
 East India Company, thus compelled to receive such 
 troublesome visitors, but claiming for them kindly 
 and courteous treatment at the hands of the mag- 
 nates of Leadenhall. And so those representatives of 
 the exploded kingship of Oude went westward, Avith 
 vague but extensive ideas of a recovery past look- 
 ing for on this side of eternity, buoyed up and en- 
 couraged by men who well knew the hopelessness 
 of the endeavour. The *'case" was miserably mis- 
 managed. There was much internal strife, and 
 scarcely an attempt to strike out against the common 
 foe. The so-called " Mission" went to pieces and 
 rotted piecemeal. Not merely waste of treasure was 
 there, but waste of life. The Queen-Mother and the 
 Prince- General died, and were buried in the great 
 cemetery of Pere la Chaise. The Heir- Apparent, 
 money-bound and helpless, threw himself upon the 
 mercy of the enemy, borrowed from them half a lakh 
 of rupees, and was carried homewards, somewhat 
 dazed and bewildered as to the upshot or no upshot 
 of the whole affair, but with a prevailing sense of 
 escape and relief that it was all over. And the rest 
 of the luckless embassy went at last, leaving behind 
 
 2d 2 
 
the ex-Kiuj 
 
 404 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. them some scum of official trouble and mishap, an^ 
 some legal perplexities not readily soluble by any 
 " perfection of human reason" known in our English 
 courts. 
 Giievancesof Meanwhile, in the name of the King himself, 
 ministerial activities had not been wanting in India 
 to make substantial grievance, not so much of the 
 thing done (for that was left to the " Mission") as 
 of the manner of doing it, which had not been all 
 right. In the Humanities, wherein is included the 
 great art of letting down easily, good to be learnt 
 alike by Men and by Governments, w^e had not 
 taken first-class honours. Not without some red- 
 denings of shame is it to be recorded that the 
 wrongs inflicted upon the Princes of India in the 
 shape of territorial dispossessions and titular extinc- 
 tions had been sometimes supplemented by lesser 
 wrongs, more grievous to bear upon the one side and 
 less to be justified on the other. For there is some 
 dignity in great wrong, doing or sufi*ering ; and a 
 persuasion, in one case, not without sincerity at the 
 bottom, that wrong is right. But look at the matter 
 in what light we may, it can be nothing but miserable 
 wrong to make these dispossessions and extinctions, 
 which may be for the national good, the forerunners 
 of personal distresses and humiliations to individuals 
 thus dispossessed and extinguished. Yet men and, 
 redder shame still, feeble Zenana-bred women had 
 brought this charge against the strong Government of 
 the British, before the kingdom of Oude was marked 
 for extinction ; and now again the same complaint of 
 supplemental cruelties and indignities, more galling 
 than the one great wrong itself, went up from Wajid 
 Ali, or was uttered in his name. It was charged 
 against us that our officers had turned the stately 
 palaces of Lucknow into stalls and kennels, that 
 
GRIEVANCES OF THE OUDE FAMILY. 40o 
 
 delicate women, tlie daughters or the companions of 1B56. 
 Kings, had been sent adrift, homeless and helpless, 
 that treasure-houses had been violently broken open 
 and despoiled, that the private property of the royal 
 family had been sent to the hammer, and that other 
 vile things had been done very humiliating to the. 
 King's people, but far more disgraceful to our own. 
 
 Not only so disgraceful, but so injurious to us, so 
 great a blunder, indeed, would such conduct have 
 been, that all who had any hope of the restoration of 
 the Oude monarchy must have devoutly wished the 
 story to be true. There were those who had such 
 hope. How could it be hopeless, when it was re- 
 membered that the Sepoy Army of the Company wa?. 
 full of men whose homes were in Oude ; when it was 
 believed that the 2:reat flood of En dish rule was 
 sweeping away all existing interests, and destroying 
 all the influential classes alike in the great towns and 
 in the rural districts? The ministers and courtiers 
 of the King of Oude were at large in Calcutta anr*. 
 the neighbourhood, and might journey whithersoever 
 they pleased. Vast fields of intrigue were open before 
 them. The times were propitious. It was plain that 
 there was a feeling of inquietude in the native mind, 
 and that fear had engendered discontent. It was 
 certain that the British Government were weak, for 
 the country was stripped of European troops. The 
 good day might yet come. Meanwhile, it might be 
 something to spread abroad, truly or falsely, a story 
 to the efl'ect that the English, adding insult to injury, 
 had cruelly humiliated all the members of the Oude 
 family left behind in Lucknow. 
 
 In these stories of official cruelty Canning had 
 small faith. But the honour of his Government de- 
 manded that they should be inquired into and con- 
 tradicted, and he urged the Chief Commissioner at 
 
406 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 185G. once to investigate and report upon the charges put 
 lorth by the creatures of the King. But Jackson, 
 full of his own wrongs, failed to see the importance 
 of the task assigned to him, and his answ^ers were 
 unsatisfactory and apparently evasive. Privately 
 as well as publicly he was urged by the Governor- 
 General to address himself seriously to the work of 
 effacing from the nation the dishonour with which 
 the dependents of the old Court of Lucknow had 
 endeavoured to besmear the British name. But 
 the result was not what Lord Canning had sought, 
 not what he had expected. So at last, bitterly grieved 
 and disappointed by the manner m which his repre- 
 sentative had dealt with a subject, at once of so 
 delicate and so important a nature, the Governor- 
 General thus becom.mgiy poured lorth his indig- 
 Octoher 19, nation : "I will not conceal from you," he wrote to 
 Mr. Jackson, " my disappointment at the manner in 
 which from first to last you have treated this matter. 
 Instead of enabling the Government to answer dis- 
 tinctly and categorically every complaint which the 
 King has preferred, you have passed over unnoticed 
 some upon which you must have known that the 
 Government were without materials for reply. Upon 
 placing your answ^ers, now that all have been re- 
 ceived, side by side with the King's letters, I find 
 myself quite unable to say whether any buildings 
 such as he describes have been pulled down, and if 
 so. why ? — although one building, the Jelwa Khana, 
 had been especially mentioned to the King, as in 
 course of demolition — whether dogs or horses have 
 been quartered in the Chutter Munzil, and especially 
 whether a stoppage of the allowances to the King s 
 descendants has been threatened, a statement to this 
 effect being pointedly made in the King's letter of 
 the 14th of September You tell me that you have 
 
 1856. 
 
SHORT-COMINGS OF THE CHIEF COMiMISSIONER. 407 
 
 delayed your answers in order tliat they may be more 1S56. 
 complete. I can hardly think, therefore, that these 
 matters have escaped you, and yet I do not know 
 how otherwise to account for their being passed by. 
 Be this as it may, the result of your course of pro- 
 ceeding is that the Governor-General is placed in an 
 unbecoming, not to say humiliating position towards 
 the King of Oude. The King brings complaints, 
 which, whether true or false, are plain enough against 
 the officers of Government, and the Governor-Gene- 
 ral, after assuring the King that as soon as reference 
 shall have been made to the Chief Commissioner, 
 satisfactory explanation shall be given, and relying, 
 as he has a right to do, that that officer will obey 
 his instructions and do his duty, finds himself alto- 
 gether mistaken, and defeated upon points which, 
 however unworthy of notice they may appear to the 
 Chief Commissioner at Lucknow, cannot be slurred 
 over by the Government in Calcutta. It matters 
 nothing that these charges are instigated by dis- 
 reputable hangers-on of the King, or that they are 
 wholly or partly untrue, or even impossible. There 
 they are in black and white, and they must be 
 answered. It is surprising to me that you should 
 have failed to appreciate the necessity." 
 
 And it was surprising; but Coverley Jackson, at 
 that time, could scarcely appreci4ite any necessity save 
 that of riding roughshod over Gubbins and Ommaney, 
 and keeping them down to the right subordinate level. 
 How far these charges of cruel indifference to the feel- 
 ings of the Oude family were true, to what extent the 
 dependents of the late King were wronged and hu- 
 miliated, and the nobles of the land despoiled and 
 depressed ; how, indeed, the revolution affected all 
 existing interests, are subjects reserved for future in- 
 quiry. It would have been well if the Chief Conimis- 
 
408 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. sioncr had done as much to mollify these poor people 
 as to exasperate his own colleagues. But the temper 
 of the man was to the last degree arbitrary and ex- 
 acting, and Lord Canning, though with admirable 
 patience and moderation he strove to control the ex- 
 cesses of his agent, could not hold them in check. 
 Pointing to the great exemplar of John Lawrence, the 
 Oude administration having been constructed on the 
 Punjabce model, he showed that the reins of govern- 
 ment might be held with a firm and vigorous hand by 
 one not grasping at all departmental authority. But 
 these kindly teachings were in vain. The old strife 
 continued. Striking with one hand at Gubbins, and 
 with the other at Ommaney, the Chief Commissioner 
 was continually in an attitude of offence ; and the ad- 
 ministration was likely to be wrecked altogether upon 
 the lee-shore of these internal contentions. So, at 
 last, the Governor- General was forced upon the con- 
 viction that he had selected the wrong man to preside 
 in Oude, and that the sooner he could be removed 
 from it the better for the province. 
 
 The readiest means of effecting this, without any 
 public scandal or any recorded reproach injurious to 
 Jackson's career, was by the restoration of James 
 Outram to the post which the civilian had been hold- 
 ing for him. Very unfit, doubtless, was the "• officiating 
 Chief Commissioner" for that post ; but he had done 
 good service to the State, he had some commendable 
 points of character, and even at the bottom of his 
 proved incapacity for this particular office there might 
 be nothing Avorse than a distempered zeal. So Lord 
 Canning, in the exercise of what is called a " sound 
 discretion," as well as in obedience to the dictates of a 
 kind heart, sought to accomplish the end in view by 
 a return to the status ante in the natural order of 
 things, rather than by any violent supersession of his 
 
WAR WITH PERSIA. 409 
 
 unfortunate nominee. It was doubly a source, there- 1556. 
 fore, of satisfaction to him to learn that Outram, 
 whose shattered health at the time of his departure in 
 the spring had excited sad forebodings in the mind of 
 the Governor-General, now in the autumn declared 
 himself convalescent and about to return to his work. 
 But the work, the very thought of which had breathed 
 into the veins of the soldier-statesman new health, and 
 revived all his prostrate activities, was not administra- 
 tive business in Oude. It was altogether work of 
 another kind and in another place, far enough away 
 from the scene of all his former endeavours; work 
 the. account of which must be prefaced by some, 
 historical explanations. 
 
 Scarcely had Lord Canning taken his place in The rupturt 
 Government House, when the question of a war with ^^^^ '^^*' 
 Persia began to assume portentous dimensions. Truly, 
 it was not his concern. Ever since the days Avben, 
 nearly half a century before, there had been a strange 
 mad scramble for diplomatic supremacy in Persia be- 
 tween the delegates of the Governor-General and of 
 the Court of St. James's, the position of the Govern- 
 ment of India towards our Persian ]\Iission and our 
 Persian policy had been very indistinctly defined. The 
 financial responsibility of the Company had been at 
 all times assumed, and the executive assistance of the 
 Indian Government had been called for, when our re- 
 lations with that perfidious Court had been beset with 
 difficulties beyond the reach of diplomatic address. 
 But the political control had been vested in the Im- 
 perial Government, as represented by the Foreign 
 Office;* and the officers of the Mission had been 
 
 * Except during a brief interval ; delegated partially the nianaj^ement 
 that is, between the years 1826 and of atiairs to the Governor-General, 
 1835, wiieu the Kin^^'s Government only to resume it wholly agaiu. 
 
410 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. noDiinated by the Crown. Affairs were still in this 
 state when Lord Canning assumed the Government 
 of India, and found that Great Britain was rapidly 
 drifting into a war with Persia, which it would be his 
 duty to direct, and the resources for which must be 
 supplied from the country under his charge. 
 Herat. The difficulties, which now seemed to render war 
 
 inevitable, were chronic difficulties, which were fast 
 precipitating an acute attack of disease. They were 
 an after-growth of the great convulsion of 1838, which 
 had culminated in the war in Afghanistan. We had 
 tried to forget that hated country ; but there was a 
 Nemesis that forbade oblivion. It was an article of 
 our political faith that Herat must be an independent 
 principality, and we clung to it as if the very salvation 
 of our Indian Empire depended on the maintenance 
 of this doctrine. But there was nothing in the whole 
 range of Eastern politics so certain to engender con- 
 tinual tribulation, and at last to compel us to apostatise 
 in despair. The independence of Herat was a shadowy 
 idea ; it never could be a substantial reality. With 
 an Army of Occupation in Afghanistan, and with 
 British officers freely disbursing British gold at the 
 " crate of India," we had for a while maintained the 
 outward independence of the principality under Shah 
 Kamran of the Suddozye House of Caubul ; but even 
 then the minister, Yar Mahomed, was continually de- 
 clarino* that his heart was with Iran, and threatenino; 
 to throw himself into the arms of the Persian King. 
 When the British Army had evacuated Afghanistan, 
 the bold, unscrupulous minister, having soon relieved 
 himself of the nominal sovereignty of the Suddozye, 
 began to rule the country on his own account. And 
 he ruled it well : that is, he ruled it with vigour ; and 
 for some ten years, by astute diplomacy, the soul of 
 
TUE POLITICS OF HERAT. 41 1 
 
 which was a system of small concessions to Persia, 1^52. 
 which soothed her pride and averted great demands, 
 he governed the principality in peace, and maintained 
 its nominal integrity. But his son, Syud Mahomed, 
 who succeeded him, had none of the essentials of a 
 gTeat ruler. Plentifully endowed with his father s 
 wickedness, he lacked all his father's vigour. Trea- 
 cherous and unscrupulous, but feeble in the extreme, 
 he was ready, on the first appearance of danger, to 
 become a creature of the Persian Court. Persia 
 eagerly seized the opportunity; and again England 
 appeared upon the scene. 
 
 In the course of 1852, a Persian Army marched 
 upon Herat. Not, indeed, in open defiance ; not with 
 any avowed object of conquest ; but nominally, as a 
 powerful ally, to perform an olftce of friendship. On 
 the death of Yar Mahomed the affairs of the princi- 
 pality had fallen into confusion, and the Persian 
 Army went forth with the benevolent design of re- 
 storing them to order and prosperity. But the mask 
 was soon thrown aside. The real object of the expe- 
 dition proclaimed itself. Herat was declared to be an 
 appendage of the Persian monarchy. This was not 
 to be borne. To maintain the independence of Herat, 
 England a few years before had been prepared to 
 send her legions to the gates of the city. And now 
 Persia was destroying it by a trick. So, fortified by 
 instructions from Dov/ning-street, the British minister 
 resisted the outrage. On pain of an entire forfeiture 
 of the friendship of Great Britain, the Persian Govern- 
 ment were called upon to withdraw their army, and to 
 enter into a solemn covenant binding them to recog- 
 nise and respect the independence of Herat. There 
 were then the usual displays of trickery and evasive- 
 ness ; but overawed at last by the resolute bearing of 
 
412 OUTBREAR OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1353. the Britisli ininister, the required pledge was givei^ 
 and Persia bound herself to acknowledge the inde- 
 pendence which she was so eager to crush. But she 
 was sorely disturbed and irritated by our interference 
 with her schemes of ambition ; and thenceforth the 
 British Mission became an object of dislike and sus- 
 picion at Teheran ; and a rupture between the two 
 Courts was only a question of time. 
 
 The war in the Crimea delayed — it did not avert — 
 the inevitable crisis. The genius of Persia had then 
 free scope for exercise, and turned to the best account 
 its opportunities of double-dealing. Waiting the sen- 
 tence of the great Judge of Battles, she coquetted 
 Doth with Russia and with the Allies, and was ready 
 to sell her good offices to the stronger party, or in a 
 time of uncertainty to the higher bidder. But when 
 ihe Avar ceased, her importance was gone; she had 
 not been able to turn her position to account during 
 the day of strife, and when peace dawned again upon 
 Europe, she tried in vain to be admitted to the great 
 international Council, which made the work of re- 
 conciliation complete. Disappointed and offended, 
 perhaps, not thinking much of our boasted victory, 
 for Russia had been successful in Asiatic Turkey, and 
 Persia knew less about Sebastopol than about Kars, 
 she could see no profit in the English alliance. The 
 minister who then directed her affairs had no feeling 
 of affection for the British representative at her Court. 
 A strong personal prejudice, therefore, came in to 
 aggravate the national antipathy ; and before the end 
 of 1855, the Mission had been so grievously insulted 
 that Mr. Murray hauled down the British Flag, ^nd 
 set his face towards the Turkish frontier. 
 
 1S55. Into the details of this affair it is unnecessary to 
 
 enter. Another event occurred about the same time. 
 
DOST MAHOMED KHAN. 413 
 
 A rebellion broke out in Herat. Syud Mahomed was 18:>5. 
 killed. In his place was installed a member of the 
 old Suddozye House, a nephew of Shah Kamran, 
 Yusoof Khan by name, who had no peculiar qualifi- 
 cations for empire, but who could not be worse than 
 the man whom he had supplanted. A revolution of 
 this kind is so much in the common course of Afohan 
 history, that we need not seek to account for it by 
 any other than internal causes. But it was said that 
 it had been fomented by Persian intrigue ; and it is 
 certain that the Government of the Shah were eager 
 to profit by the crisis. The times were propitious. 
 There was in Central Asia at that time one great man, 
 whose movements were regarded at the Persian Court 
 with alarm not altogether feigned, though sometimes 
 exaggerated for a purpose. Ever since the British 
 had set the seal on their confession of gigantic failure 
 in Afghanistan by restoring Dost Mahomed to empire, 
 the energies and activities of the old Ameer had ex- 
 pended themselves on the consolidation of his former 
 dominions ; and now he was hot to extend them to 
 the westward. It was not merely an impulse of ambi- 
 tion. In part, at least, it was an instinct of self- 
 preservation. The pretensions of Persia were not 
 limited, and her encroachments were not likely to be 
 confined, to the principality of Herat. Already she 
 had established a dominant influence in Candahar, 
 and did not scruple to talk about her rights of 
 dominion. It was impossible for Dost Mahomed to 
 regard this Avith unconcern. That Persia had views 
 of extended influence, if not of actual conquest, in 
 Afghanistan was certain. She had proposed to the 
 Ameer himself to reduce the whole country to the 
 condition of a protected State. The time had now 
 come for him to put forth a mighty hand and a 
 
4 1 4 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1835. stretched-out arm for the maintenance of the inde- 
 pendence of Afghanistan. Kohun-dil-Khan, his half- 
 brother, the Chief of Candahar, died in the autumn 
 of 1855. Dost Mahomed had never trusted him ; and 
 his son was not to he trusted. So the Ameer, who 
 had no love for half-measures, annexed Candahar to 
 the kingdom of Caubul ; and the Persian Government 
 believed, or pretended to believe, that he included 
 Herat itself in his scheme of conquest. 
 
 He had at that time no such design. But it was a 
 favourite trick of Persia to justify her OAvn acts of 
 aggression by a reference to some alleged danger and 
 the necessity of self-preservation. So, seeing in the 
 internal state of Herat an encouraging opportunity, 
 and in the movements of Dost Mahomed a plausible 
 pretext for evading their obligations, the Government 
 of the Shah tore the convention of 1853 into shreds, 
 
 185G. and again marched an army upon Herat. But it met 
 with no welcome there. Alarmed by the movements 
 of the Caubul Ameer, and threatened with a counter- 
 revolution at home, the nominal ruler of Herat had 
 turned toAvards the Persians for assistance, but when 
 he found that the chief people of the place were op- 
 posed to such an alliance, and that a strong national 
 Sooneeism prevailed among them, he hoisted British 
 colours and invited Dost Mahomed to come to his aid. 
 The characteristic bad faith of the Suddozye Princes 
 was conspicuous in this wretched man. E[is own 
 people could not trust him. The Persians were in- 
 vesting the place, and it was feared that Yusoof Khan 
 would betray the city into their hands. It was easy, 
 therefore, to raise a party against him. So Eesa Khan, 
 the Deputy or Lieutenant-Governor of the place, caused 
 iiim to be seized, and sent him a prisoner into the 
 enemy's camp, with a letter declaring that he was of 
 
VIEWS OF LORD CANNING. 415 
 
 no use in Herat, and tliat the Persians might do with 1856. 
 him as they liked. 
 
 To this point events had progressed vi^hen Lord 
 Canning w^as called upon to address himself seriously 
 to the consideration of the troubled politics of Central 
 Asia. To the new Governor-General these complica- 
 tions were a source of no common anxiety, for he could 
 see clearly that England was drifting into war, and 
 that, however little he might have to do with it in its 
 origin and conception, its execution would be en- 
 trusted to him. There was a bitter flavour about the • 
 whole aifair that was distasteful in the extreme to the 
 Governor-General. " My hope of an accommodation," 
 he wrote to the President in August, "has almost 
 died out, and I contemplate the prospect of the in- 
 glorious and costly operations which lie before us 
 with more disgust than I can express."* He had 
 gone out, as others had gone before him, with an 
 avowed and a sincere desire for peace ; but warned 
 by their cruel disappointments, he had laid fast hold 
 in India of the resolution which he had formed in Eng- 
 land, and he was not by any adverse or any alluring 
 circumstances to be driven or enticed into uimecessary 
 w^ar. "Do not," he said, "be afraid of my being 
 unduly hasty to punish Persia. Unless the Shah 
 should steam up the Hooghly, with Murray swinging 
 at his yard-arm, I hope that we shall be able to keep 
 the peace until your instructions arrive."! And he 
 was anxious to avoid, not only aggressive measures 
 from the side of India, but any diplomatic entangle- 
 ments that might at some future time be a cause of 
 perplexity to his Government. The politics of Central 
 Asia he regarded with extreme aversion. Remember- 
 
 * Lord Camiinp^ fo Mr, Vernon f The same to the sarae, April 22, 
 Smith, August 8, 1856.— JfA^. 1856.-3/^. 
 
41 fi OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 185C. irig the fearful lessons of the Past, he determined nor. 
 of his own free will, to send a single man into Ai'ojhan- 
 istan ; and he resisted the promptings of Ministers al. 
 home, when it w^as suggested to him somewhat pre- 
 maturely that seasonable donatives might convert 
 Dost Mahomed into an eiFective ally, willing and 
 ready to apply a blister from the side of Candahar 
 AiifTust, And when, at a later period, instructions came from 
 England to supply the Ameer with arms and money 
 and authority w^as given to the Governor-General to 
 send a British Mission to Herat, he shrunk from 
 acting upon the latter suggestion. " I do not pur- 
 pose," he wrote, " to use the permission to send 
 British officers to Herat. We know much too little 
 of things there to justify this step, which would for 
 certain be full of risk. The place is hard pressed by 
 famine as w^ell as by the enemy. Our officers could 
 take with them no relief nor any promise of it, for w^e 
 are not going to march to Herat ourselves, and we 
 cannot afford to promise on the faith of the Ameer's 
 performances." 
 
 But unwilling as was Lord Canning to adopt the 
 measures, to which reference w^as made in these 
 letters, he could not maintain this policy of non- 
 interference in Afghanistan after the Home Govern- 
 ment had determined upon the declaration of war 
 against Persia. The year had scarcely dawned, when 
 such an upshot began to be discussed as something 
 of no very remote reality, and before Parliament had 
 broken up and her Majesty's Ministers had dispersed 
 for the autumn, the equipment of an expedition to 
 the Persian Gulf had been decreed. The orders from 
 Home were that all preparations should be made for 
 the despatch of a military and naval expedition from 
 
THE PERSIAN EXPEDITION. 417 
 
 Bombay to the Persian Gulf; but that pending the 1S56, 
 progress of some further diplomacies in Europe, 
 which might end in concessions,, no actual start 
 should be made. It was not until the end of Sep- 
 tember that her Majesty's Government, througli the 
 legal channel of tlie Secret Committee of the Court 
 of Directors of the East India Company, sent out 
 final instructions for the sailing of the expedition 
 and the commencement of the war.* On the even- 
 ing of the last day of October, these instructions 
 reached the Governor-General in Calcutta, and on the 
 following morning — day of evil omen, for eighteen November 
 years before it had delivered itself of the sad Afghan 
 manifesto — a proclamation of war was issued. On 
 the same day it was sent to Lord Elphinstone at 
 Bombay, and the General in command was charged 
 with instructions respecting the conduct of the expe- 
 dition, and ordered straightway to begin. 
 
 The question of the command of the expedition The question 
 had been one, which Lord Canning by no means ° ^°"^"^^'^' • 
 found it easy to solve. Many names had been sug- 
 gested to him, and among them that of General 
 Windham — "Windham of the Redan" — who had 
 performed feats of gallantry in the Crimea, and was 
 ready for hard service in any part of the world. 
 
 * The orders were, under date ning copies of Lord Clarendon's In- 
 
 July 22, 1856, that measures were structions to the British Consuls in 
 
 to be "immediaielj taken at Bom- Persia to withdraw from that coun- 
 
 bay for the preparation of an expe- try, and of a letter addressed by his 
 
 dition sufficiently powerful to occupy Lordship to the Commissioners for 
 
 tlie island of Karrack in the Persian the Affairs of India, "requiring that 
 
 Gulf, and the district of Bushire on the expedition, which will have been 
 
 the mainland; but the expedition is prepared, under ii^tructions of tlie 
 
 not to sail until further orders shall 22nd of July, shall, as soon as it caa 
 
 have beenreceivedfromthis country." be completed, proceed to its destina- 
 
 On the 26th of September the Secret tion in the Persian Gulf." 
 Committee forwarded to Lord Can- 
 
 2e 
 
418 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 But Lord Canning, whilst thoroughly appreciating 
 Windham's gallant services in the field, and knowing 
 well that his appointment would be " popular in Eng- 
 land," saw that there were strong reasons against it. 
 " In a mixed force of Queen's and Company's troops," 
 he said, "it is of great importance that there should 
 be a willing and earnest co-operation of all subordi- 
 nate officers with the Commander, and it is more 
 difficult to obtain this for a stranger than for one who 
 is known. The Commander should have some ac- 
 quaintance with the Indian Army, if he has to lead 
 a large force of it into an unknown and difficult 
 country. He should know something of its constitu- 
 tion, temper, and details — of what it can and what it 
 can not do. This would not be the case with Wind- 
 ham, fresh landed from England." And it is not to 
 be doubted that he was right. If the force had been 
 on a larger scale, the Commander-in-Chief himself 
 might perhaps have been placed at its head ; but Lord 
 Canning, with the highest possible opinion of General 
 Anson's fine temper, of the assiduity w^ith which he 
 had addressed himself to the business of his high 
 office, and the ability with which he had mastered its 
 details, had still some misgivings with respect to his 
 prejudices, and doubted whether he had not formed 
 certain conclusions unjust to the Company's Army. 
 
 On the whole, it was better, in any circumstances, 
 that an Indian officer should command; and Lord 
 Canning was resolute that such should be the arrange- 
 ment. But he had been somewhat perplexed at first 
 as to the choice to be made, and he had consulted 
 Sir John Lawrence, as the man of all others who, 
 not being by profession a soldier, had the finest 
 soldierly instincts and the keenest appreciation of th 
 essential qualities demanded for the command of s 
 
THE QUESTION OF COIVMAND. 419 
 
 an expedition. What the great Punjabee adminis- 185G. 
 trator said in reply was an utterance of good sense 
 and good feeling, the fulness of Avhich, however, was 
 not then as discernible as it now is, viewed by the 
 light of intervening history. About the answer to be 
 given there was no doubt ; but clearly there was some 
 difficulty. For the man whom of all men in India he 
 held to be best fitted for the work in hand was his 
 own brother. Sir Henry Lawrence ; and if he could Heury 
 go, accompanied by Colonel Sydney Cotton, all would I^^^^'^^^®^ 
 be well. " Cotton," ^vrote John Lawrence to the 
 Governor- General, " is one of the best officers I have 
 seen in India. He is a thorough soldier, loves his 
 profession, and has considerable administrative talent. 
 Of all the officers I have noted, with one exception, 
 Sydney Cotton is the best." But his experiences, 
 great as they were, had not lain in the line of diplo- 
 matic action, and, if it were necessary, as Lawrence 
 believed, to unite the political and the military au- 
 thority in the same person. Cotton, good soldier as he 
 was, might clearly lack some of the essential qualifi- 
 cations for the double office. So John Laivrence pro- 
 ceeded to say: "The man whom I would name for 
 the command of such an expedition is my brother 
 Henry. I can assure your lordship that I am not in 
 the slightest degree biased in his favour. He has 
 seen a good deal of service, having been in the first 
 Burmese war, in the second Afghan war, and in both 
 the Sutlej campaigns. He is not an officer of much 
 practical knowledge, except in his own branch (the 
 Artillery), and he is not fond of details. But, on the 
 other hand, he has great natural ability, immense 
 force of character, is very popular in his service, has 
 large political acumen, and much administrative 
 ability. I do not think that there is a military man 
 
 2 E>* 
 
420 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. in India who is his equal in these points. He is also 
 in possession of his full vigour, both of mind and 
 "body, and there is not a good soldier of the Bengal 
 Army, in the Punjab or perhaps in Upper India, but 
 would volunteer to serve under him. With him as 
 the Commander, and Sydney Cotton as the Second- 
 in-Command, the arrangement would be complete. 
 Cotton is master of all technical details of every ai'm 
 of the service, and devotes his entire energies and 
 thoughts to the welfare of his soldiers." 
 
 All this might have been misunderstood ; and a 
 little man, in such a case, would perhaps have hesi- 
 tated to recommend his brother ; but John Lawrence 
 knew that the advice was good, and that he was in- 
 capable of offering it if it had not been. " If I know 
 myself," he wrote, " I would revolt against such con- 
 duct." But though strong in the conviction that of 
 aU men living Henry Lawrence was the best suited to 
 the work in hand, he was loud in his praise of other 
 good officers, and had various plans to recommend, 
 any one of which might have a successful issue. If 
 Sydney Cotton were sent in command, it would be 
 well to associate with him such an officer as Herbert 
 Edwardes, in the character of political adviser. " But, 
 in such matters," said John Lawrence, "unity in 
 council and action is of the highest importance, and 
 a commander who unites the military and political 
 functions is most desirable. If your lordship does 
 not take my brother, and Outram is available, I 
 would be inclined to recommend him. I never met 
 this officer ; but he has a high reputation." And 
 John Jacob, as having much military ability and con- 
 siderable political experience, was a man not to be 
 overlooked in the account of available capacity for 
 such an enterprise. 
 
LORD ELPHINSTONE AND GENERAL STALKER. 421 
 
 But not only in Calcutta and in the Punjab was 1856» 
 this question of the command of the expedition being 
 considered. It was well pondered at Bombay and in 
 England, taking a shape eventually to overrule all 
 other decisions. The expedition was to sail from 
 Bombay, and all the arrangements for its organisation 
 and equipment were proceeding there. Lord Elphin- Lord 
 stone was Governor of that Presidency. Twenty years '^ ^''^^ ^^^ 
 before he had been Governor of Madras. At that time 
 he was young, and not so serious and sedate as some 
 people thought the head of a Government ought to 
 be. " We want a Governor," it was said, somewhat 
 bitterly, "and they send us a Guardsman ; we want 
 a statesman, and they send us a dancer." But he had 
 ripened into what these people wanted, and now with 
 a higher sense of the responsibilities of office, with 
 a keener pleasure in his work, and a statesmanlike 
 assiduity, for which the companions of his youth had 
 not given him credit, he was, a second time, ad- 
 ministering the affairs of an Indian Presidenc}^, and 
 busying himself with our external relations. The 
 troops to be despatched, in the first instance, to the 
 Persian Gulf were mainly Bombay troops, and it 
 seemed fitting that the choice of a Commander should 
 be made from the Bombay Army. If under stress 
 of circumstance the war should assume more im- 
 portant dimensions, and the military force be pro- 
 portionably extended, another selection might be 
 made. But meanwhile, Elphinstone was requested 
 to name some officer attached to his own Presidency, 
 in whom the troops of all arms would have common 
 confidence. So he named General Stalker, not with- 
 3ut a pang of regret that he could not select Colonel 
 Hancock — Hancock, the Adjutant -General of the 
 Bom])ay Army— -whom ill health was driving to Eng- 
 
422 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY 
 
 1856. land. Stalker was tlie senior of the available officers, 
 so there were no heart-burnings from supersession ; 
 he had seen much service, he was experienced in com- 
 mand, and it was believed that the appointment 
 would be both a popular and a safe one. "I hear 
 favourable accounts of his good sense and temper," 
 said Lord Canning ; " and that is what is wanted for 
 the service before him, which will require more of 
 patient and enduring than of brilliant qualities." 
 James So General Stalker was appointed to the command 
 
 of the expedition to the Persian Gulf. But whilst 
 these and other arrangements were being made in 
 India, in the belief that ere long they would be 
 merged into others of a more comprehensive cha- 
 racter, the question of the chief command was being 
 solved in England in a manner hardly anticipated 
 by the Governor- General. In the month of May he 
 had taken leave of Sir James Outram, with painful 
 misgivings raised in his mind by the sight of the Gene- 
 ral's shattered frame and feeble bearing. He had sus- 
 pected that the mischief was far greater than Outram 
 himself acknowledged or believed, and thought that 
 years must elapse before he would be fit again for 
 active service. And so thought all his friends in Eng- 
 land. He appeared among them as the wreck only of 
 the strong man who had left them a short time before ; 
 and they grieved to see the too visible signs of weak- 
 ness and suffering which every look and gesture af- 
 forded. The summer faded into autumn ; but there 
 was little change for the better apparent in his outer 
 aspect, when suddenly they were startled by the an- 
 nouncement that he was about forthwith to proceed 
 to the Persian Gulf and take command of the ex- 
 pedition. 
 
 Nobody knew, nobody knows, how it happened 
 
SIR JAMES OUTKAM. 423 
 
 that suddenly in this conjuncture, James Outram 1850. 
 shook off the incumbrances of disease, rose up from 
 the prostration of the sick-room, and stood erect, 
 active, robust before the world with the harness of 
 war on his back. It was the autumnal season, when 
 men scatter and disperse themselves in strange places, 
 and elude in a vagrant life the rumours of the distant 
 world ; so there were many friends who, having left 
 him at the summer's close a feeble invalid, were struck 
 with a strange surprise when, returned or returning 
 homewards, they were met by the news that Outram 
 had gone or Avas going to Persia to take command of 
 the invading force. The wonder soon gave place to 
 delight ; lor they knew that though he was moved by 
 strong ambitions, there was ever within him a sense 
 of duty still stronger, and that on no account would 
 he jeopardise the interests of the. State by taking upon 
 himself responsibilities which he had not full assurance 
 in his inmost self of his ample competence to dis- 
 charge. And so it was. The sound of the distant 
 strife had rekindled all his smouldering energies. 
 There was work to be done, and he felt that he could 
 do it. On the pleasant Brighton esplanade, saunter- 
 ing alone meditative, or perhaps in the stimulating 
 companionship of a stalwart friend and high func- 
 tionary, the Chairman of the Court of Directors of the Colonel 
 East India Company, Master of Masters, new hopes ^ ^^' 
 were wafred upon him with the sea-breezes, and his 
 step grew firmer, his carriage more erect, as with 
 strong assurance of support from Leadenhall-street, 
 he resolved to tender his services to her Majesty's 
 Government for employment in Persia with a joint 
 military and diplomatic command. 
 
 This was at the beginning of the last week or 
 October. On the 26th he wrote to Lord Canning 
 
424 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. that lie purposed returning to India by tlie mail of 
 the 20th of December, ^' having perfectly recovered 
 from the illness which drove him home." And he 
 added, ^' In the supposition that I may be more use- 
 fully employed with the army about to proceed to 
 Persia than necessary to your lordship in Oude, where 
 everything is progressing so satisfactorily, I have 
 offered my services to the President (of the Board of 
 Control), should it be deemed advisable to entrust to 
 me diplomatic powers in conjunction with the military 
 command, and I believe that, should your lordship be 
 disposed so to employ me, the home authorities would 
 not object. In that case your lordship's commands 
 would meet me at Aden, whence I would at once 
 proceed to Bombay."^ 
 
 This letter reached Calcutta on the 2nd December. 
 By the outgoing mail of the 8th, Lord Canning wrote 
 to Outram at Aden, rejoicing in his complete recovery, 
 ^' on every account, public and private," but question- 
 ing the policy of the Persian appointment. The ex- 
 pedition, he said, was not likely to increase in magni- 
 tude ; it was not probable that there would be any 
 operations beyond the seaboard during the winter, or 
 that any dijDlomatic action would be taken to call for 
 the employment of a high political functionary ; if, 
 indeed, overtures were to be made, they would most 
 probably be addressed through some friendly power to 
 London ; there would be little scope, therefore, for his 
 services with the Persian expedition, and it would be 
 better, therefore, that he should return to his old ap- 
 pointment. " Oude is completely tranquil," wrote Lord 
 Canning, "and generally prospering. Nevertheless, 
 
 * So full was Outram at this time advent of the happy day of release, 
 of the thought of his departure in that he dated this letter "Decem- 
 December, and so ca^-er for the ber" instead of October. 
 
APPOINTMENT TO THE PERSIAN COMMAND. 425 
 
 I shall be very glad to see you resume your command iS56, 
 there." The fact was that the Administration was by 
 this time plunged into such a bopeless condition of 
 internecine strife, that the Governor- General could 
 in no way see any outlet of escape from the per- 
 plexities besetting him except by the removal of 
 Chief-Commissioner Jackson ; and now here was the 
 opportunity, for which he had been waiting, to ac- 
 complish this end in an easy natural manner, without 
 any official scandal, or the infliction of any personal 
 pain. 
 
 But it was not to be so accomplished. Before the 
 end of November the question of Outram's command 
 of the Persian expedition had been fully discussed in 
 the English Cabinet. Downing-street had laid fast 
 hold of the idea, and pronounced its full satisfaction 
 with it. Her Majesty the Queen had stamped the 
 commission with the seal of her approbation, and the 
 public voice, with one accord, had proclaimed that a 
 good thing had been done, and that the right man 
 would soon be in the right place. That it was thus 
 virtually settled, past recal, went out, under the Pre- 
 sident's hand by the mail of the 26th of November, 
 and greeted Lord Canning with the new year. Tn 
 official language, however, of Court of Directors, or 
 Secret Committee thereof, it took the shape not of an 
 announcement of a thing done, but of a recommenda- 
 tion that it should be done ; for it was substantially an 
 interference with the prerogative of the Governor- 
 General, and was to be softened down so as in no wise 
 to give offence. But Lord Canning was not a man, 
 in such a case, to raise a question of privilege, or, 
 assured that it was, actually or presumedly, for the 
 official good, to shoot out any porcupine-quills from 
 his wounded official dignity. He took the interference 
 
426 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. in good part ; thanked the Chairman for the delicacy 
 with which it had been communicated, and promised 
 to give Outram his best support. He had doubted, 
 he said, whether Outram's health and strength would 
 be sufficient to bear the burdens that would be im- 
 posed upon him. ^'But the Queen's Government," 
 he continued, " and the Secret Committee have seen 
 him in recovered health, and if they are satisfied that 
 he is in a condition to undertake the labour and trial 
 of such a command, without risk to the interest con- 
 fided to him, I have no objection to make, nor any 
 wish to shake myself clear of responsibility." And 
 then, with a reference to a memorandum on the future 
 conduct of the campaign which Outram had drawn 
 up in England, the Governor- General added, " It is a 
 pleasure to me to declare that I have been greatly 
 struck by all that has proceeded from General Outram 
 in regard to future operations in Persia. I think his 
 plans excellent, prmdent for the present, and capable 
 of easy expansion hereafter, and the means which he 
 proposes for carrying them out for the most part well 
 suited. For everything that I have yet heard of his 
 proposals he shall have my cordial support." 
 
 1857. Whilst the first division of the expeditionary force 
 Central-Asian under Stalker was commencing operations with good 
 Policy. success in the Persian Gulf, the new year found 
 
 Outram at Bombay superintending the despatch of 
 the second. But it was not only by these move- 
 ments from the sea-board that an impression was 
 now to be made on the fears of the Court of Teheran. 
 Diplomacy was to do its work in the country which 
 lay between India and Persia. Reluctant as he had 
 been, in the earlier part of the year, to commit him- 
 self to any decided course of Central-Asian policy. 
 Lord Canning now began to discern more clearly 
 
CENTRAL-ASIAN POLICY. 427 
 
 tlie benefits that might arise from a friendly alliance 185P.. 
 with the Ameer of Caubul. There was no longer any 
 chance of a pacific solution of our difficulties. War 
 had been proclaimed. Herat had fallen. Dost Ma- 
 homed had put forth plentiful indications of a strong 
 desire for an English alliance ; and the English Go- 
 vernment at home appeared to be not unwilling to 
 meet his wishes. That some action must now be 
 taken in that direction was certain. Already had 
 arms and money been sent into Afghanistan ; but 
 with no specific undertaking on the one side or the 
 other, and it appeared desirable to put the matter 
 now upon a more secure and a more dignified footing 
 than that of temporary shifts and expedients. But 
 there were great diversities of opinion as to the shape 
 which should be taken by British action in the 
 Afghan countries. Lord Canning had always had at 
 least one clear conception about the matter ; that it 
 was better to do little than to do much, and wise not 
 to do that little a day sooner than was needed. The 
 terrible lessons which had been burnt into us fifteen 
 years before had lost none of their significance. The 
 warning voice was still sounding in our ears; the 
 saving hand was still beckoning us away from those 
 gloomy passes. It could never again enter into our 
 imaginations to conceive the idea of turning back the 
 tide of Russo-Persian invasion by making war against 
 the national will and the substantive Government of 
 the Afghans. But the monitions of the Past did not 
 stop there. They cautioned us against ever sending 
 a single British regiment across the Afghan frontier. 
 Neither the Prmces nor the People of Afghanistan 
 were to be trusted, if the memories of their ^vrongs 
 were to be reawakened within them by the presence 
 of that which had done them such orievous harm. 
 
428 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1S56. So, although among the schemes which were dis- 
 cussed, and in some military quarters advocated, was 
 the project of an auxiliary British force, acting in 
 close alliance with the Afghans, it was never for a 
 moment seriously entertained in the Council Cham- 
 ber. But to assail Persia in some measure from that 
 side, whilst we wxre operating upon the sea-board; 
 to recover Herat, and, at the same time, to occupy 
 some of the littoral provinces of the Persian Empire ; 
 was doubtless to put enormous pressure upon the 
 Shah, to hold him, as it were, in a vice, helpless and 
 ao-onised, and to extort from him all that we mioht 
 want. This, peradventure, might be done, by con- 
 tinuing to send British bayonets into Afghanistan, 
 but without, as of old, British valour to wield them ; 
 so many thousands of stands of arms, not so many 
 thousands of soldiers ; and British moi:ey, lakhs 
 upon lakhs, but no British hands to dispense it. In 
 a word, if we could manage successfully to subsidise 
 Dost Mahomed, and hold him, by the bonds of self- 
 interest, to a friendly covenant, ivhereby, whilst aid- 
 ing us he would aid himself, we might bring the war 
 much more rapidly to a conclusion than if no such 
 alliance were formed. 
 
 But there were strong doubts of the good faith of 
 Dost Mahomed. The wily old Ameer, it was said, 
 was waiting upon the shore of circumstance, willing 
 to sail in the same boat with us, if tide and stream 
 should be in our favour and a fair wind setting in 
 for success. For some time, there had been going on 
 between the Governor- General of India and the 
 Ruler of Caubul certain passages of diplomatic 
 coquetry, which had resulted rather in a promise 
 of a close alliance, a kind of indefinite betrothal, 
 than in the actual accomplishment of the fact. We 
 
BOST MAHOMED KHAN. 429 
 
 had condoned the oifence committed by the Ameer is to. 
 at the close of tke last war in the Punjab, when he 
 had sent some of his best troops, in the uniforms of 
 our own slaughtered soldiers, to aid the Sikhs in 
 their efforts to expel us ; and whilst Dalhousie was 
 still the ruler of India, an engagement of general Marcli 30, 
 amity had been negotiated by John Lawrence on the -'■^^^* 
 one side, and Hyder Khan on the other, between the 
 English and the Afghans. It was probably intended, 
 with a forecast of the coming rupture with Persia, 
 that this should in time be expanded into a more 
 definite treaty with Dost Mahomed ; and more than 
 two years before the occasion actually arose, the sub- 
 sidising of the Ameer loomed in the distance.* It 
 was an old idea. Mr. Henry Ellis had entertained 
 it ; Sir John M'Neill had entertained it ;f and if 
 Lord Auckland's Secretaries had allowed him to 
 entertain it, it is probable that the events of which I 
 am about to write would never have afforded me 
 a subject of History. In an hour of miserable in- 
 fatuation, we had played the perilous game of King- 
 making, and had forced an unpopular pageant upon 
 
 * It was talked of, indeed, before interference beyond tlie passes, and 
 
 the compact of 1855, but did not no backing of one party or an- 
 
 form a part of it. In 1854 (June 19), other." 
 
 Sir Henry Lawrence wrote to the f One passage in Sir John 
 autlior : " I fancy that we shall have M'Neill's early correspondence I 
 some sort of Treaty with Dost Ma- cannot help quoting. There is rare 
 homed, unless Lord Dalhousie over- prescience in it : " Dost Maliomed 
 reach himself by too great anxiety Kiian, with a little aid from us, 
 and by agreeing to pay him a sub- could be put in possession of both 
 sidy. If Persia attack Afghanistan, Candahar and Herat. I anxiously 
 the help we should give the latter hope that aid will not be with- 
 siiould be by attacking Persia from held. A loan of money would pro- 
 the Gulf. We should not send a bably enable him to do this, and 
 rupee or a man into Afghanistan, would give us a great hold upon 
 We should express readiness to for- him. . . . Until Dost Mahomed or 
 give and forget, to cry quits in some other Afghan shall have got 
 Afghan matters, and pledge our- both Candahar and Herat into his 
 selves to live as good neighbours in hands, our position here must con- 
 future j but there ought to be no tinue to be a false one." 
 
430 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. a reluctant people. Now, after bitter experience, we 
 were reverting to the first conception of our diplo- 
 matists ; but mild as comparatively the interference 
 was, it was held by some great authorities to be wiser 
 to leave Afghanistan and the Afghans altogether 
 alone. In spite of the present benefit to be derived 
 from applying in that quarter a blister to the side of 
 Persia, it might be better to suffer the old Ameer to 
 make the most of the crisis after his own fashion. 
 He would not fight our battles for us without sub- 
 stantial help ; but he might fight his own, and there 
 could be no time, for the extension of his dominion 
 to Herat, so opportune as that which saw Persia 
 entangled in a war with England. But Dost Ma- 
 homed had too clear a knowledge of the English, 
 and Afghan cupidity was too strong within him, to 
 sufi'er this gratuitous co-operation. He knew that, if 
 he waited, we should purchase his aid ; so he magni- 
 fied the difiiculties of the march to Herat, talked of 
 the deficiency of his resources, and otherwise pre- 
 tended that he lacked strength for a successful enter- 
 prise without continuous pecuniary aid from the 
 English. Whether, having received such assistance 
 from us, he would render efi*ectual service in return 
 for it, seemed to some of our Indian statesmen ex- 
 tremely doubtful, for there was the lowest possible 
 estimate in their minds of Afghan truth and Afghan 
 honour. There was the fear that the old Ameer 
 would set an extravagant price on his services, and 
 that by disappointing his expectations, if not scout- 
 ing his pretensions, we might inopportunely excite 
 his animosities against us. Some, indeed, thought 
 that he looked eagerly to the conjuncture as one that 
 might help him to realise his old day-dream, the 
 recovery of Peshawur. There was, in truth, no lack 
 
HERBERT EDWARDES. 431 
 
 of sagacity in these anticipations; but, perhaps, at 185C. 
 the bottom of them there lay too deep a distrust of 
 the personal character of the Ameer. He had, in all 
 candour it must be admitted, too much reason to 
 doubt the good faith of the English. He could 
 fathom the depths of our selfishness as well as we 
 could fathom the depths of his guile. In truth, there 
 were causes of mutual suspicion ; and little good was 
 likely to come from the distant fencing of diplomatic 
 correspondence. So at last it was resolved to test 
 the sincerity of the Ameer by inviting him to a con- 
 ference on the frontier. 
 
 At that time, Herbert Edwardes, he of whose Herbert 
 glorious youthful impulses I have spoken in the first 
 chapter of this work, was Commissioner of Peshawur. 
 He had grown, by good-service brevet, rather than 
 by the slow process of regimental promotion, from 
 Lieutenant to Lieutenant-Colonel. His career had 
 been a prosperous one, and its prosperity was well 
 deserved. The great reputation which he had gained 
 as an ambitious subaltern, brought down upon him 
 at one time a shower of small jealousies and detrac- 
 tions. He had been feasted and flattered in England, 
 and there were some who, doubtless, with a certain 
 self-consciousness of what would be likely to flow 
 from such adulations, said that his head was turned, 
 and that he had been overrated. But one, the noble 
 helpmate of a truly noble man, wrote to me at this Honoria 
 time, as one, however, not doubting, for I had like ^^^^^"°®' 
 faith, that Herbert Edwardes v^^as one of Nature's 
 true nobility, and that surely I should live to know 
 it. It was right. Under the Lawrences, Henry and 
 John, both of whom he dearly loved, he grew to be 
 one of the main pillars of the Punjabee Administra. 
 tion ; and now he was in charge of that part of the 
 
432 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1850. old dominions of Runjit Singh wliicli la}^ beyond 
 the Indus ; the Proconsulate of Peshawur. Planted 
 thus upon the frontier of Afghanistan, it was one of 
 his special duties to watch the progress of events in 
 that country, and duly to report upon them to the 
 higher authorities. Of direct diplomatic action there 
 liad been little or none ; but no one knew what a 
 day might produce, and it was ever t?lierefore among 
 the responsibilities of the Peshawur Commissioner to 
 be well versed in the politics of Caubul, and pre- 
 pared, in any conjuncture, to counsel the course to be 
 taken by the British Government. 
 
 For some time there had been much to observe 
 and much to report, and now" a conjuncture had 
 arisen, which seemed to require from us that we 
 should act. Persia was doing all that could be done 
 to enlist the sympathies of Central Asia on her side, 
 even in the far off regions of Bokhara and Kokund, 
 by sending abroad, as a proof of the dangers of Eng- 
 lish friendship, copies of the pro-Christian Firman 
 of the Sultan, which had been issued at the close of 
 the Russian war. It was fortunate, therefore, that at 
 this time the political animosities of the Afghans 
 were strongly excited against the Persians, for, per- 
 haps, under such pressure, the chronic sectarian jea- 
 lousies which kept the two nations apart might for a 
 while have been merged in a common religious 
 hatred of the Feringhees. A very little done, or left 
 undone on our part, to oifend the old Ameer, might 
 have lost to us for ever the only serviceable Mahome- 
 dan alliance that could have availed us in such a 
 crisis. To no man was the value of this alliance so 
 apparent as to Herbert Edwardes ; no man pressed 
 its importance so earnestly upon the Govern or- Gene- 
 ral. He believed that Dost Mahomed would respond 
 
IKVITATION TO DOST MAHOMED. 433 
 
 with pleasure to an invitation to meet on the 1S5 
 frontier of the two States a representative of the 
 British Government, and to discuss the terms of a 
 friendly alliance ; and he recommended that this in- 
 vitation should be sent to him. Reluctant as Lord 
 Canning had been in the earlier part of the year to 
 commit himself to any decided course of Afghan 
 policy, he now before the close of it, in the altered 
 circumstances that had arisen, yielded to this sug- 
 gestion, and afterwards, with that frankness which sat 
 so becomingly upon him, gracefully acknowledged 
 its wisdom, and thanked the suggester. 
 
 So Dost Mahomed was invited to a conference at 
 Peshawur. He was, if willing to meet the repre- 
 sentatives of the British Government, to discuss per- 
 sonally with them the terms of the alliance. Either 
 Sir John Lawrence, accompanied by Colonel Ed- 
 wardes, or Colonel Edwardes alone, as might be de- 
 termined between them, was to meet the old Ameer 
 on the frontier, to feel his pulse, and to prescribe 
 accordingly. It would have been a great oppor- 
 tunity for the younger man ; but Edwardes, to whom 
 the decision was left by Lawrence, for ever giving 
 the lie to all that had been charged against him on 
 the score of vanity and self-assertion, strongly urged 
 that the Mission should be headed by his beloved 
 Chief LaAvrence much doubting, however, whether 
 the Ameer would come, and little expecting a suc- 
 cessful issue if he should come, lauded the ma^-na- 
 nimity of his more sanguine friend, and prepared 
 himself with all the earnestness of his nature to prove 
 the groundlessness of his own anticipations of failure. 
 
 They were groundless. The Ameer accepted the 
 invitation, marched down with two of his sons, some 
 of his chosen counsellors, and a body of picked troops, 
 
 2f 
 
434 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 che frontier ; and on the first day of tlie new }ear 
 received in the Khybur Pass the first visit of the 
 British Commissioners. It was with no common in- 
 terest that Lawrence, Edwardes, Sydney Cotton, and 
 the other English ofiicers who accompanied them, 
 looked into the face of the old Ameer, whose white 
 beard and venerable aspect had, fifteen years before, 
 been so familiar to the eyes of the dwellers in Cal- 
 cutta, and who in his fallen fortunes, half-prisoner 
 and half-guest, had been a not unworthy object of 
 our sympathies. When, nearly half a century before, 
 the representatives of the British Government had 
 been received almost on the same spot by Shah 
 Soojah, they had found the Caubul ruler arrayed in 
 gorgeous apparel, his whole person a blaze of jewel- 
 lery, with the Koh-i-noor outshining it all ; but the 
 English gentlemen now saw before them only a hale 
 old man, very simply attired in a garment of the 
 coarse camel-hair of the country. They found him 
 lull of energy, full of sagacity ; courteous and friendly 
 in his outer manner ; glad to welcome them to his 
 camp, it was only a visit of ceremony ; repaid, two 
 days later, by the Ameer, who was received in the 
 grand English style near Peshawur. Our troops 
 formed a street more than a mile long, and after 
 the Durbar marched past the Ameer and his host in 
 review order. More than seven thousand British 
 fighting men were assembled there, and among them 
 were three complete European regiments, whose 
 steady discipline, and solidity, and fine soldierly 
 bearing, made a strong impression on the minds of 
 the Afghan visitors, from the aged Ameer himself to 
 the youngest trooper of his escort. 
 
 The formal interviews thus accomplished, the sn* 
 rious business of the conference commenced on the 
 
THE PESHAWUR CONFERENCES. 435 
 
 5tli of January. The Ameer had pitched his Camp IS57 
 at Jumrood, and there Lawrence and Edwardes 
 visited him, accompanied by Major Lumsden of the 
 Guides. Dost Mahomed, his sons standing behind 
 him, and a few chosen Sirdars on his left, opened the 
 discussions with a long exposition of the recent 
 struggles in Herat, and of the policy which he had 
 himself pursued. He had entertained no schemes of 
 conquest embracing that principality. The move- 
 ments which the Persians had thus pretended to in- 
 terpret were directed only towards Candahar. But 
 he frankly avowed his eager longing to recover 
 Herat ; and, please God and the English, he would 
 take it from the Persians. Swearing by Allah and 
 the Prophet that, from that time, he would be our 
 friend, let all the world be against him, he declared, 
 as his enthusiasm kindled, that let the English but 
 make a diversion in the Persian Gulf and supply him 
 with money and with arms, he would mine the walls 
 of Herat, blow up the towers, and take the place at 
 the point of the sword ; or raise such a flame in the 
 surrounding country as fairly to burn the Persians 
 out of it. The Toorcomans and the Usbegs would 
 rise at his bidding, and join against a common foe. 
 
 From that distant-frontier post, on the very out- 
 skirts of our empire, the telegraphic wires ran right 
 up to the vice-regal capital, and the Governor- Gene- 
 ral and the Chief Commissioner were corresponding 
 by the " lightning post" between Calcutta and Pesha- 
 wur. So it happened that whilst John Lawrence and 
 Dost Mahomed were in conference, a horseman gal- 
 loped up with a message from the former, despatched 
 on the preceding day. In it Lord Canning told 
 Lawrence that a reinforcement of five thousand men 
 would be sent as quickly as possible to the Persian 
 
 2f2 
 
436 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1857 Gulf; and that amongst the conditions of Peace with 
 Persia would be a stipulation that she should with- 
 draw her troops from Herat, and renounce for ever 
 her pretensions to interfere with Afghanistan. The 
 significant words, " You may make use of this," were 
 included in the message. But the time had not then 
 come for the best use to be made of it ; so John 
 Lawrence, reserving the rest for more opportune 
 disclosure, announced only that the reinforcements 
 were about to be despatched to the Gulf It was his 
 design, at that first meeting, to elicit the views and 
 intentions of the Ameer rather than to disclose those 
 of his own Government.* So, making no promises of 
 any kind, he indicated the difficulties that seemed to 
 lie in the way of the Afghan ruler, and asked for a 
 recital of the means and resources, by which they 
 were to be overcome, already at his disposal, and the 
 extent of the aid which he would require from the 
 English. But this was too momentous a question to 
 be answered, without much thought and calculation ; 
 so the Ameer, seeking time for deliberation, said that 
 he would unfold his views fully at the next meeting ; 
 and so the conference broke up for the day. 
 January 7, On the 7th, Dost Mahomed, attended by a few 
 chosen counsellors, visited the British Camp, and the 
 conferences were renewed in the Chief Commissioner's 
 tent. Pursuing the old process of drawing- out, John 
 Lawrence, at the outset, reminded the Ameer of his 
 
 * This course, though doubtless can contribute towards it, even whilst 
 
 the one that would have suggested it continues the same. For these 
 
 itself to John Lawrence's unaided reasons, it is necessary first that we 
 
 judgment, was expressly dictated by should know wliat he can do; and 
 
 Lord Canning, who had written on next, that we should come to a clear 
 
 the 2nd of December to the Chief understanding as to the conditions 
 
 Commissioner, saying, " It is not cer- upon which he shall receive aid in 
 
 tain that our object will continue the doing it. The meeting ought to clear 
 
 same as the Ameer's ; neither is it up the first point at once." — MS. 
 
 certain to what extent the Ameer Correapojidence. 
 
 1857. 
 
VIEWS OF THE AMEER. 437 
 
 promise to state fully liis views and intentions; but 1857. 
 it required some resolution and perseverance to keep 
 the old Afghan to this point, and it was not without 
 difficulty that the promised revelation was extorted 
 from him. At last he explained that, owing to the 
 state of the season, he could not commence his march 
 on Herat until after the expiration of a period of two 
 months ; grass and young grain would then be spring- 
 ing up, and with the aid of some not very elaborate 
 commissariat arrangements, he would be able to find 
 provisions for his troops ; that he proposed to march 
 one column from Balkh and another from Candahar. 
 The muster-roll of his troops showed some thirty-five 
 thousand men and sixty guns. These, he said, should 
 be raised to fifty thousand men with a hundred guns ; 
 four-fifths of the men and nearly the whole of the 
 guns should, he said, be moved upon Herat. " But," 
 he added, ^'if you say take more troops, I will take 
 more ; if you say less will suffice, I will take less. I 
 have given you my own opinion, but you Sahibs 
 know Persia best." But when pressed for a state- 
 ment of the amount of aid he would require, he said, 
 that on the morrow morning his son, Azim Jah, 
 would wait upon the English gentlemen with all the 
 required information in a digested form, in order that 
 they might judge for themselves. 
 
 So the conference broke up ; and on the following 
 day the Ameer s sons, accompanied by a few of his 
 ministers, waited upon John Lawrence, and laid 
 before him a detailed statement of the finances of 
 Afghanistan, and of the military resources of the 
 empire ; together with an estimate of the aid that 
 would be required from the English to enable the 
 Afghans to drive the Persians out of Herat, and to 
 hold their own against all comers. The aid that was 
 
438 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTIXY. 
 
 1S57. thus sought amounted in money to sixty-four lakhs 
 cf rupees a year, Avhilst the war lasted, and in muni- 
 tions to more than fifty guns, eight thousand stands of 
 small arms, and ammunition at discretion. It was more 
 than the English Government w^ere likely to be will- 
 ing to give, but not more than appeared really to be 
 wanted. The largeness of the demand, however, sug- 
 gested the idea of a less extensive enterprise ; and so 
 Lawrence asked what would be required to enable 
 the Afghans, abandoning all aggressive movements, 
 to hold their own, without danger of encroachments 
 from the westward. The question was not a welcome 
 one. The Afghans were hot for an advance on Herat, 
 if they were to sit do^vn within their own dominions, 
 the Persians would assuredly occupy Furrah. It was 
 for the English, of course, to decide upon the course 
 to be pursued, but it Avas more in accordance with 
 the genius and temper of the Afghans to take vigorous 
 action in advance. Still, however, John Lawrence 
 pressed for a statement of the requirements of the Af- 
 ghans if a strictly defensive policy were maintained. 
 The Sirdars could give no answer without consulting 
 the Ameer, so the conference broke up ; and next 
 day they returned with the statement that, in addi- 
 tion to what had already been supplied, four thou- 
 sand muskets Avould be required, and money to pay 
 eight thousand regular troops ; one-half to be em- 
 ployed in the Candahar country, and the other half 
 in Balkh. But still they were eager for the larger 
 enterprise ; and one of them whispered to Edwardes 
 that the enmity between the Afghans and the Persians 
 was not merely an affair of this world, for that 
 Sheeahs and Soonees must always hate each other in 
 the world to come. There was nothing more now 
 to be said. The Afghans, on their part, had made 
 
TELEGRAPHIC ACTION. 439 
 
 known their wishes ; and all the English gentlemen 1857. 
 could say in reply was, that they would at once com- 
 municate with their Government. 
 
 So the telegraphic wires were again set in motion, 
 and the substance of what had passed at the two last 
 meetings was communicated to the Governor-General 
 at Calcutta. Then there was doubt in the Council 
 Chamber. Would it be better to await detailed re- 
 ports from Peshawur by post, or at once to send 
 telegraphic instructions to Sir John Lawrence ? The 
 former course was determined upon, and a message 
 to that effect despatched to Peshawur. Lawrence 
 had sent in detailed reports of the meetings, and had 
 added to the last an expression of his ow^n views as to 
 what should be done. He recommended that as- 
 sistance on the larger scale, for the siege of Herat, 
 should not be given to Dost Mahomed, but that we 
 should give him the four thousand muskets that he 
 required, and an annual subsidy of twelve lakhs of 
 rupees, so long as England and Persia might be at 
 war with each other. But it did not seem to him to 
 be wise to await the slow process of correspondence 
 by letter. The Ameer was eager to depart ; and some 
 time must be necessarily occupied in the negotiation 
 of a formal agreement. So Lawrence telegraphed 
 the substance of his recommendation to Calcutta, 
 urged that nothing would be gained by awaiting his 
 more detailed reports, and asked permission to com- 
 municate to the Ameer the proposal which he thought 
 it best to make. To this a message was promptly 
 returned, saying : " You may tell the Ameer that 
 the terms are agreed to. Four thousand stand of 
 arms and twelve lakhs a year, whilst England is at 
 war with Persia. You ^vill proceed to arrange the 
 articles of agreement and report them by telegraph." 
 
440 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 15557. This message was despatched on the 13th of 
 
 January. On the following morning Lawrence and 
 Edwardes proceeded to Dost Mahomed's camp, and 
 unfolded to him the views and intentions of the 
 British Government. With less appearance of dis- 
 appointment than had been expected, the Ameer 
 assented to the abandonment of the expedition to 
 Herat, and accepted the modified proposal of the 
 English. But the despatch of a party of British 
 officers to Caubul, which was to form part of the 
 agreement, appeared to be distasteful to him. When 
 active offensive warfare against Persia had been con- 
 templated, he cherished the thought of their presence 
 with his troops; but now the state of affairs was 
 altered. The point, however, was one not to be 
 yielded. If the British were to give the subsidy, 
 they were entitled to see it rightly appropriated. 
 Then the Ameer lowered his tone, and said that he 
 was ready to do what was expedient ; and finally he 
 agreed to all that was proposed. But next day, when 
 his son Azim Khan, accompanied by other chiefs, 
 visited, according to agreement, the English Com- 
 missioners, to settle the precise terms of agreement, 
 the question of the Mission to Caubul was reopened. 
 It was urged that the appearance of British officers 
 at the Afghan capital might compromise the Ameer 
 either with his own people or with his English friends. 
 There would be danger in their path at Caubul ; but 
 at Candahar, threatened by the Persians, their pre- 
 sence would be better understood, and they might 
 abide in perfect security. Nearly fifteen years had 
 passed since our retributive Army had set its mark 
 upon the Afghan capital ; but still the hatred which 
 our usurpation had engendered was fresh in the 
 minds of the people, and Dost Mahomed knew that 
 
THE MISSION TO CMDAHAR. 441 
 
 there were those in Caubul whom he could not trust 1857. 
 within reach of an English throat. It was a sad 
 thought; and Lawrence could not but ask how the 
 alliance between the two nations could ever strike 
 deep root when in one country such suspicions and 
 animosities were never suffered to sleep. What the 
 English wanted was not a temporary alliance dic- 
 tated by an emergency of self-interest, but an en- 
 during friendship based upon mutual confidence and 
 respect. But Dost Mahomed knew the Afghans well, 
 and little wisdom would there have been in disre- 
 garding a warning which every Englishman's heart 
 must have told him was an utterance of the voice of 
 truth. So it was resolved that, although we should 
 claim, and duly record, our right to send British 
 officers to Caubul, as to other parts of Afghanistan, 
 yet that practically the Mission should, in the first 
 instance, proceed only to Candahar. It was better 
 than that our officers should be smuggled into the 
 capital, surrounded by the Ameer s troops, virtually 
 prisoners under the name of protected guests. There 
 was, at all events, some definite meaning in their 
 proceeding to the more western city, for it was a 
 better point from which to observe the movements of 
 the Persians. But what route were they to take ? 
 It was the Ameer's wish that the Mission should pro- 
 ceed by way of the Bolan Pass ; but this, although 
 the route by which Shah Soojah and the Army of 
 the Indus had marched into Afghanistan, was said to 
 be entering the country by a back door. It was, 
 therefore, finally determined that the Mission should 
 proceed by way of the Paiwar Pass,* an unexplored 
 
 * " It -was deemed advisable that been traversed by Europeans, and 
 
 the Mission should journey to Can- was consequently unknown ground, 
 
 dahar by the route of the Paiwar and full of interest to the British in 
 
 Pass, a road that had never before a military point of view, as being oue 
 
442 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1857. road, to Candaliar ; and that Major Henry Lumsden, 
 of the Guide corps, an officer of great courage and 
 capacity, versed in the politics of Afghanistan, who 
 had been marked from the first for the conduct of 
 this enterprise, should be placed at its head. His 
 brother, Lieutenant Peter Lumsden, was to accom- 
 pany him, and Mr. Henry Belle w was selected to 
 take medical charge of the Mission ; a post of more 
 importance than it appears to be in an official gazette, 
 for in such diplomacies as these the Medicine-chest 
 and the Lancet are often more serviceable than the 
 Portfolio and the Pen. 
 
 On the 26th of January, the Articles of Agree- 
 ment, having by the aid of the telegraph been ap- 
 proved by the Government at Calcutta, were ready 
 for seal and signature ; and a meeting for the con- 
 clusion of the compact was held in Dost Mahomed's 
 tent. In attendance on the Ameer were his son 
 Azim Khan and several of his chief counsellors, 
 whilst Lawrence, Edwardes, and Lumsden appeared 
 on behalf of the English. Written in Persian and 
 in English, the articles of agreement were read aloud 
 in Durbar. By these the Ameer engaged to maintain 
 a force of eighteen thousand men ; to allow British 
 officers to be stationed at Caubul, Candahar, or 
 Balkh, or wherever Afghan troops might be posted ; 
 to receive a Wakeel at Caubul, and to send one to 
 Calcutta ; and to communicate to the Government 
 of India any overtures that he might receive from 
 Persia and from the Allies of Persia during the war. 
 On their part, the English undertook, during the 
 continuance of hostilities, to pay to the Ameer a 
 monthly subsidy of a lakh of rupees, to send him 
 
 of the approaches by which an in- pire." — Bellew's Journal of a Politi' 
 vading force from the West mif^ht cal Mission to Afghanistan in 1857. 
 enter and attack their Indian Era- 
 
THE TREATY CONCLUDED. 443 
 
 four thousand stands of arms, and, as if the wrong 1857 
 done had been all against us, to forget and forgive 
 the past. It was explained that the British officers 
 would in the first instance proceed to Candahar ; and 
 with this assurance the Ameer was satisfied. So the 
 Articles of Agreement were signed and sealed. Then 
 came some discussion and some interchange of com- 
 pliments. A message from the Governor-General 
 had been received by telegraph, desiring Sir John 
 Lawrence to express to Dost Mahomed "the satisfac- 
 tion which he had derived from his frank dealing, 
 and from the clear understanding on which affairs 
 had been placed," together with the best wishes for 
 liis health and long life, and a word of regret that he 
 had not himself been able to meet the Ameer. The 
 message Avas now delivered and received with mani- 
 fest gratification. It would have delighted him, he 
 said, to meet Lord Canning, but he could not expect 
 his Lordship to take so long a journey to see him. 
 He had known two Governor-Generals, Lord Auck- 
 land and Lord Ellenborough, who had been kind to 
 him in old times ; he remembered also with gratitude 
 the kindness of two other English gentlemen, Mr. 
 Wilberforce Bird and Mr. Thoby Prinsep,* who had 
 paid him much attention in Calcutta. "And now," 
 he said, in conclusion, "I have made an alliance 
 with the British Government, and come what may, I 
 will keep it till death." And the promise thus given 
 was never broken. He was true to the English 
 alliance to the last. 
 
 On the following day a Durbar was held in the January 27, 
 Camp of the British Commissioner, and the chief ^^^^' 
 officers of the Ameer's suite attended to take their 
 leave of the English gentlemen. Dost Mahomed had 
 
 * Then members of the Supreme Council of India. 
 
444 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1857. excused himself on tlie plea of age and infirmity. 
 The visit to Peshawur, with its attendunt anxieties 
 and excitements, had visibly aifected the Ameers 
 health. The hale old man, who, three or four weeks 
 before, had spent hours in the saddle, and seemed to 
 be full of health and energy, had lost much of his 
 bodily vigour and his elasticity of spirit. A sharp 
 attack of gout had prostrated him; and he seemed 
 to be growing impatient under his protracted deten- 
 tion in Camp. So the conclusion of the Terms of 
 Agreement was a manifest relief to him ; and it was 
 with no common satisfaction that, on the day follow- 
 ing the Farewell Durbar, he set his face towards 
 Jellalabad, carrying with him, in bills on Caubul, 
 a lakh of rupees and some costly presents from the 
 British Government.* 
 
 Nor was the gratification experienced at this time 
 confined to the Ameer's camp. Lawrence and Ed- 
 wardes were well pleased to think that all had gone 
 off so smoothly ; that the friendship of the Afghans 
 had been secured at no very extravagant cost ; and 
 that, on the whole, although Dost Mahomed had not 
 obtained all that he had asked, he had taken his 
 departure tolerably well satisfied with the favourable 
 issue of the meeting. Lord Canning, too, was more 
 than well satisfied with the manner in which the 
 negotiations had been conducted, and with the ap- 
 parent result. He was one not stinting in free out- 
 spoken expressions of praise and gratitude to those 
 who did good service to his Government; and, both 
 
 * The only present made by the ing the "pins and needles" brought 
 
 Afgh can ruler to his allies consisted by Burnes, which had caused so much 
 
 of a batch of wretched horses, all of disappointment some twenty years 
 
 which, John Lawrence wrote, were before at Caubul, did not expect, on 
 
 spavined or worn out. The whole this occasion, to be the recipient of 
 
 were sold for not more than 100/. anything more valuable. 
 Perhaps Dost Mahomed, remember- 
 
THANKS OF THE GOVERXOR- GENERAL. 445 
 
 in public and private letters, lie cordially thanked 1857. 
 the Commissioners, even before their work was done, 
 for the admirable judgment and good tact which 
 they had displayed at the conferences ; giving an 
 especial word of thanks to Edwardes as the original 
 suggester of the meeting,* and, it might have been 
 added, the originator of the new policy which had 
 more recently been observed towards the Afghans. 
 To Major Lumsden he wrote, at the same time, a 
 letter of kindly encouragement and good advice, 
 cordially approving the selection, " not only from his 
 trust in Sir John Lawrence's judgment on such 
 matters, but from everything that the Governor- 
 General had been able to hear of Lumsden from 
 those who knew him." He knew the power of such 
 words ; as a statesman he felt assured that they 
 would bear good fruit ; but as a man he uttered 
 them from the kindness of his heart. 
 
 So Dost Mahomed set his face towards Caubul, and 
 Sir John Lawrence, after a month of administrative 
 journeying about the province, returned to Lahore. 
 It need be no subject of surprise if the latter, as he 
 went about his work^ thinking of all that had been 
 done at Peshawur, sometimes asked himself, What 
 good? and wished that the monthly lakh of rupees 
 to be expended on the Afghan Army were available 
 
 * "I must ask you," wrote Lord one. It would be a good thing if all 
 Canning to Colonel Edwardes on the diplomatic conferences were con- 
 19th of January, "to accept my best ducted so satisfactorily, and set forth 
 thanks for the part you have taken in aslucidly as these have been." All 
 the recent negotiations, and for their this was well deserved ; for the 
 satisfactory issue. I feel the more policy was emphatically Edwardes's 
 bound to do this, because the first policy ; he had been the first to re- 
 suggestion of a meeting came from commend, in Lord Dalhousie's time, 
 you ; and so far as I can judge from that we should try the eff'ect of trust- 
 the reports as yet received, and from ing the Afghans, and his recom- 
 the tone of the discussion shown in mendations had resulted in the ge- 
 them, I believe that the suggestion neral compact of 1S55. 
 has proved a very wise and useful 
 
446 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1S57. for the improvement of the province under his 
 charge ; for he had never liked the project from the 
 beginnino:. He had no faith in Dost Mahomed. He 
 had detected him in at least one palpable falsehood, 
 and the detection had excited in the Ameer no sense 
 of shame, but rather a feeling of admiration at the 
 clever incredulity of the Feringhees. The expulsion 
 of the Persians from Herat, or even the raising of the 
 Turcoman tribes, was, in Lawrence's opinion, so far 
 beyond the power of the Ameer, that he believed, on 
 the other hand, that the Persians would have little 
 difficulty in seizing Candahar. This belief in the 
 weakness of Dost Mahomed was based upon a some- 
 what exaggerated estimate of the disunion among 
 the chief people of the country. But even if the 
 Ameer had the power, Lawrence could not believe 
 that he had the will to serve the British ; and he 
 doubted, therefore, whether the subsidy would pro- 
 duce any tangible results. As to the question of the 
 future of Herat, it had never even approached a solu- 
 tion. Dost Mahomed had been assured that the 
 evacuation of the place by the Persians would be an 
 essential condition of peace; but he had not been 
 able to offer, without manifest doubt and hesitation, 
 any suggestion as to the best means of providing for 
 its future government. In truth, there was a lack of 
 available capacity in the direction in which it was 
 most natural that we should look for a new ruler. 
 When the Ameer was asked if there was any member 
 of Yar Mahomed's family to whom the government 
 could be entrusted, he replied that there was a 
 brother of Syud Mahomed, but that, if possible, he 
 was a greater reprobate and a greater fool than that 
 unlucky chief. Syud Mahomed, however, had left a 
 
THE FUTURE OF HERAT. 447 
 
 son, a boy of some ten years, in whose name a com- ISf?. 
 petent Wuzeer might administer the affairs of the 
 principality ; but a competent Wuzeer was not to be 
 found more readily than a competent Prince. The 
 future of Herat was, therefore, left to the develop- 
 ment of the Chapter of Accidents. In the mean 
 while. Lord Canning, though he had slowly come to 
 this point, believed that the subsidising of the Ameer * 
 was not a bad stroke of policy. It bound the Afghan 
 ruler by strong ties of self-interest to remain faithful 
 to the British Government. Even neutrality was 
 great gain at a time when Persia was doing her best 
 to raise a fervour of religious hatred against the 
 Eno^lish throughout all the countries of Central Asia. 
 The very knowledge, indeed, of the fact that Dost 
 Mahomed had gone doAvn to Peshawur to negotiate a 
 closer alliance with the British, must have had a 
 moral effect at Teheran by no means conducive to an 
 increased confidence in the Shah's powers of resist- 
 ance. Altogether, it was not an inefficacious, whilst 
 comparatively it was an inexpensive, mode of pressing 
 upon Persia from the side of Afghanistan. But whilst 
 he went thus far. Lord Canning was resolute to go 
 no farther. He had made up his mind that the in- 
 dependence of Herat could be written only on sand ; 
 that the waves of circumstance from one direction or 
 another must utterly efface it after a while ; and that 
 it would be wiser to abandon an effort that was so 
 fraught with tribulation, and so sure to result in 
 failure. Certain he was that nothing would ever in- 
 duce him to send a single regiment into Afghanistan 
 to maintain the integrity of a petty state, which 
 Nature seemed to have intended to be a part of 
 Persia or a part of Afghanistan, and which, as in a 
 
448 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1S57. national and religious sense It assuredly belonged ^.o 
 the latter, was certain, if left to itself, eventually to 
 fall into the right hands.* 
 
 The question Whilst thus. In this first month of the new year, 
 Commis-^ ^ Lord Canning was eagerly watching the progress of 
 sionership. liis foreign policy, he was grappling with the great 
 difficulty which beset his internal administration. 
 The question of the Persian command had been 
 settled; but it unsettled, by its solution, that other 
 question of the Oude Commissionership. It was 
 clearer than ever that Jackson must be removed ; but 
 it was no longer possible that his tenure of office 
 should come to a natural end and peacefully die out. 
 It was necessary to lay violent hands upon it, and 
 bring it to an ignominious close. The necessity was 
 painful to Lord Canning ; but the interests of the 
 State demanded it, and the Governor- General, in such 
 a case, properly overrode the man. Therefore, as 
 Outram could not quietly resume his old seat, another 
 officer was to be found to take the place of Commis- 
 sioner Jackson. Ample admissions were there of zeal 
 and ability, of assiduous devotion to public business, 
 of much good work well done in the province ; but 
 the tone and temper of the man, his contentious spirit, 
 his insolent treatment of his colleagues, were past bear- 
 
 * Dost Mahomed and his counsel- to place themselves in a better posi- 
 
 lors, during the conferences at Pesha- tion to demand from others a like 
 
 wur, frequently asserted that Persia observance of treaty obligations. It 
 
 had, on tiiis as on a former occasion, may be noted here, that the Ameer 
 
 been instigated and aided by Russia told Lawrence at Peshawur that he 
 
 to occupy Herat. I can discern no would show him the letter which 
 
 evidence of this. Prince Gortscha- the unfortunate Russian diplomatist, 
 
 koff assured Lord Granville at Mos- Viktevitch, had carried with him to 
 
 cow that the Russian minister at Caubul from the Government of the 
 
 leheran had urged the Persian Go- Czar. But he did not produce it 
 
 vernment to evacuate Herat, and so after all. 
 
THE OUDE COMMISSIONEESHIP. 4.49 
 
 ing ; and communication to that effect, with notice of 18&7r 
 appointment of a successor, was made to him in due 
 course. 
 
 The choice was an admirable one. It has been said 
 that in the spring of 1856, Sir Henry Lawrence had 
 offered his services to the Governor-General, to offi- 
 ciate as Chief Commissioner of Oude, in Outram's 
 absence^ and that the first disaster that befel Lord 
 Canning was that the offer was received too late.* 
 When Henry Lawrence found that it was so, he saw 
 at once the weak point of the arrangement, and an 
 idea struck him that if whilst the civil administration 
 of the province was placed in Jackson's hands, he 
 himself were vested with political and military au- 
 thority in Oude, all objects might be advantageously 
 secured. It was but a passing thought, a fleeting 
 suggestion; but it found expression in a letter ad- 
 dressed to the Governor- General, who said, " Two 
 Consuls and Two Tribunes have worked well enough 
 in old times, as we all know ; but Two Commissioners 
 at Lucknow would have been at a dead lock within a 
 month I could not have delayed for a day the send- 
 ing of a Third." A truth not to be disputed. So 
 Henry Lawrence had fallen back upon his duties 
 among those intractable Rajpoots ; grieving over their 
 degeneracy, striving mightily, but with no great success, 
 to evolve something of good out of their transition- 
 state, and at last admitting that the peace and security 
 we had given them had not yet much improved the 
 race. All through the year he had gone on, in his 
 old earnest, unstinting way, doing what he could, 
 through divers channels of beneficence, alike for the 
 Ancient Houses and the national Chivalries, whereof 
 History and Tradition had given such grand accounts. 
 
 * Ante, page 398. 
 
 2g 
 
450 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1857'. Biit often had he turned aside from the thought of 
 the Princes and the people by whom he was sur- 
 rounded to consider the general condition of our 
 empire in the East, and most of all our Military 
 System, wherein he discerned some rottenness, which 
 needed to be arrested lest the entire edifice should 
 some day become nothing but a prostrate ruin. 
 
 But as the new year approached, certain prompt- 
 ings of failing health inwardly admonished him 
 that it would be well to turn his face towards Eng- 
 land for a while ; and he had just communicated his 
 wishes upon this score to the Governor- General, when 
 there sprung up a great need for his services on a 
 new and more hopeful field of action. So the answer 
 that went back contained the expression of a hope 
 that he would reconsider his determination to go 
 home and accept the Chief Commissionership of Oude. 
 " There is no person in whose hands I Avould so gladly 
 January 19. ^nd confidently place the charge," wrote Lord Canning, 
 " and my only scruple in offering it to you is, that I 
 am proposing that which will interfere with the im- 
 mediate recruiting of your health. But I will not for 
 this refrain from executing my intention to do so, 
 which was formed many days before I received your 
 letter." And truly a most wise intention ; formed 
 without any doubts and misgivings upon his part, for 
 he knew the real character of the man ; but not with- 
 out some counsel against it, given in perfect honesty 
 and good faith by one honest and faithful to the core, 
 but under a false impression, an error afterwards 
 frankly admitted. Had the counsellors been many, 
 and all of the same singleness and sincerity, and the 
 same ripe experience, they could not have turned 
 Lord Canning from his good purpose, or shaken his 
 conviction that he was right. 
 
HENRY LAWRENCE. 451 
 
 The invitation reached Henry Lawrence at Nee- TS57. 
 much. It came to him, weak and dispirited as he 
 was, with all the renovating influence of a breath of 
 his native air. It was to him what the distant sound 
 of the Persian war had been to James Outram. It 
 made the blood course less languidly through his 
 veins. With such work as lay before him in Oude, he 
 could not be an invalid. The head-shakings of the 
 medical profession were nothing, if the practitioners 
 learned in physical symptoms took no account of the 
 action of the mind. It was the spirit, not the flesh, 
 that required rousing. Two great clouds, coming 
 from opposite directions, had overshadowed his life, 
 blighting both his honourable ambitions and his 
 domestic afi*ections ; a heavy disappointment followed 
 by a cruel loss. The black-edged paper on which he 
 ^vrote still spoke of the latter ; a certain sadness of 
 tone in all his allusions to his public life told how 
 fresli were the wounds of the former. "Annoyances 
 try me much more than work," he now wrote to Lord 
 Canning. " Work does not oppress me." He could 
 work at his desk, he said, for twelve or fifteen hours 
 at a time. He had just made a tour of Guzrat, riding 
 thirty or forty miles a day, sometimes being in the 
 saddle from morning to night, or from night to morn- 
 ing. " But," he added, " ever since I was so cavalierly 
 elbowed out of the Punjab, I have fretted even to the 
 injury of my health. Your lordship's handsome letter 
 has quite relieved my mind on that point; so I re- 
 peat that if, on this explanation, you think fit to send 
 me to Oude^ I am quite ready, and can be there 
 within twenty days of receiving your telegraphic 
 reply." 
 
 The substance of this letter was telegraphed to 
 Calcutta, and it brought back a telegraphic answer. 
 
 2 g2 
 
452 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 \S57. The convictions on both sides were so strong in 
 favour of the arrangement that it was not likely to 
 break down under any conditions or reservations on 
 either part ; and so it was settled that Henry Law- 
 rence should be Chief Commissioner of Oude. " I 
 am in great hopes," wrote Lord Canning, " that the 
 task being so thoroughly congenial to you, it will sit 
 more lightly upon you than, measured by its labour 
 alone, might be expected ; and as to my support, 
 you shall have it heartily. The field before you is a 
 noble one, full of interest and of opportunities for 
 good : and I look forward with the greatest con- 
 fidence to the results of your exertions in it." So 
 Henry Lawrence prepared himself to proceed to 
 Lucknow, and was soon on his way thither by easy 
 stages; for it was not desired that he should assume 
 ofiice before the middle of the following month. 
 Halting at Bhurfpore, wbere he took counsel with the 
 Political agent and the Engineer ofiicer, and did 
 much to give a right direction to their energies, he 
 proceeded thence to Agra, which was then the seat of 
 the Lieutenant-Governorship of the I^orth-Western 
 Provinces. It was vividly remembered afterwards by 
 . E. A. one old friend with whom he held sweet communion 
 '^ ^* at that time, that though his thoughts were pregnant 
 
 with many grave matters begotten of the great Con- 
 dition-of-India Question, and though he conversed of 
 many things and many men, there was nothing that 
 seemed to press more heavily on his mind than an 
 anxious, uncertain feeling with respect to the state of 
 the Sepoy Army. There were few civilians in the 
 service who knew the Native soldier so well as this 
 friend ; and as they talked over certain manifest signs 
 and symptoms, and narrated what they had seen and 
 heard, each saw plainly that there was a painful sense 
 
ARRIVAL OF LAWRENCE AT LUCIvNOW. 453 
 
 of comino; dano;er in tlie other's mind. For twelve 3857. 
 years Henry Lawrence had been publicly discoursing 
 of the defects of our Indian military system, and 
 emphatically indicating the dangers which might 
 some day overtake the State in the most terrible of 
 all shapes, an outburst of the Native Soldiery ;* and 
 he now playfully told his friend, but with more of 
 sadness than of pleasantry in his speech, that the 
 time was not far distant when the Sepoys would 
 hold him and the Lieutenant-Governor and other 
 " big Brahmins," as hostages in the Fort of Agra, 
 until all their demands were granted. 
 
 Still thinking much of this, and mindful that in 
 the province to which he was proceeding he would 
 stand on vantao:e-o:round for the clear discernment 
 of the real causes of the malady, Henry Lawrence 
 passed oh to Lucknow. And before day had broken 
 on the 20th of March, he had been received, at the 
 Residency, by the man whom he had come to sup- 
 plant. There must have been pain and embarrass- 
 ment on both sides in such a meeting. But before 
 he had broken his fast, the new Commissioner sat 
 down and wrote a letter to Lord Canning, saying 
 that he had had two hours' friendly conversation 
 with Mr. Jackson, who had received him alto- 
 gether " like a gentleman." He had found a long 
 and encouraging letter from the Governor- General 
 awaiting him on his arrival; and now he emphati- 
 cally replied, " With your lordship's cordial support I 
 
 * See Lawrence's Essays, re- may surely be expected from Na- 
 
 printed from the Calcutta Renew: tives. We shall be unwise to wait, 
 
 " How unmindful we have been tliat for sucli occasion. Come it will, un- 
 
 what occurred in the city of Caubul less anticipated. A Clive may not 
 
 may some day occur at Delhi, be then at hand." The emphatic 
 
 Meerut, or Bareilly" (paf:fe 51). italics are Lawrence's. Otlier pas- 
 
 Again : "What the European officers sages to tlie same effect might be 
 
 have repeatedly done {i.e. mutinied) cited. 
 
AU 
 
 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 I857. have no fear of success." His spirit rose as he thought 
 of the work before him. What that work was, what 
 he found done and what he found undone in the 
 province, when he assumed charge of his new office, 
 will be told in a subsequent page of this story. 
 
 %* No better opportunity than 
 this may be afforded for a note on 
 the opinions of Sir Henry Lawrence 
 with respect to the maintenance of 
 the Native States of India. Having 
 said elsewhere that he was on prin- 
 ciple opposed to the "Annexation 
 Policy," I recently elicited the fol- 
 lowing reply from a distinguished 
 writer in the Edinburgh Review : " A 
 writer so well informed as Mr. Kaye 
 need not have thus held on to the 
 skirts of a popular delusion. The 
 course which Sir Henry Lawrence 
 favoured in respect to Oude, by what- 
 ever name it may be called, is plain 
 enough. It is a course which, if 
 submitted to the ' Law OflBcers of the 
 Crown/ as a question of international 
 law, would, probably, receive from 
 these authorities some name harsher 
 than ' annexation.' " To this I think 
 it right to reply, that as any opinion 
 which I may have formed of the 
 sentiments, on this or any other sub- 
 ject, of Sir Henry Lawrence, has 
 been derived either from oral com- 
 munication with him or from his 
 letters to myself, I ought not to be 
 charged with " hanging on to the 
 skirts of a popular delusion." That 
 those sentiments were what I have 
 represented them to be, I have nume- 
 rous proofs in his own handwriting. 
 A single extract, however, from his 
 correspondence will suffice for all 
 purposes. Writing to me from Mount 
 Aboo on the 16th of July, 1856, with 
 reference to the office under the 
 Home Government of India which 
 
 had recently been conferred on me, 
 he said : " The appointment must be 
 one of the pleasantest, unless, indeed, 
 you feel as I do, that Government is 
 going too fast, and that we are losing 
 our good name among the Native 
 States. I confess that I do not like 
 the present system, and that I would 
 gladly give up salary to change to a 
 purely civil or military berth. When 
 I read the tirades of the Friend of 
 India, I half think myself (with many 
 better men, including Elphinstone, 
 Munro, and Clerk) a fool. The doc- 
 trine now is that it is wicked not to 
 knock down and plunder every Native 
 prince. My views are exactly what 
 they were when I wrote the articles 
 for you on the Mahrattas and on 
 Oude. My paper on Oude would 
 serve as a guide to present doings in 
 all points save the disposal of the 
 surplus revenue, which assuredly 
 ought to be spent in Oude. JNor, 
 indeed, do I think that we should 
 materially lose, or fail to gain thereby. 
 Is it nothing that we should make a 
 garden of the nursery of our Sepoys, 
 and open out the resources of a pro- 
 vince bordering for a thousand miles 
 on our old ones ? But I re- 
 peat, that my taste for politics is 
 gone. There is no confidence left in 
 the country ; and one does not feel 
 that the people about Government 
 House care one straw about one's 
 exertions on behalf of the Native 
 States." Surely, the trumpet here 
 ffives no " ""'*f""^^''" cAiiiin '* 
 
 \mcertain sound.' 
 
THE UTILE OWVD. 4C5 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 LORD CANNING AND THE NATIVE ABMY — THE CALL FOR " MORE OFFICERS" 
 — DREAD OF THE BLACK WATER — THE GENERAL SERVICE ENLISTMENT 
 ACT— ANXIETIES AND ALARMS — LORD CANNING AND THE MISSIONARY 
 CAUSE— PROSELYTISING OFFICERS — POLITICAL INQUIETUDES— THE PRO- 
 PHECY OF FIFTY-SEVEN. 
 
 The anxieties whicli Henry La\^renee carried with The little 
 him to Lucknow had then, for some weeks, been dis- January, 
 quieting the mind of the Governor-General. The old 1^57. 
 year had died out, apparently leaving to its successor 
 no greater troubles than those which were inseparable 
 from the Persian war ; but before the new year was 
 many days old, there arose upon the horizon that 
 little cloud no bigger than a man's hand, of which 
 Lord Canning, at the great Farewell Banquet of the 
 Company, had prophetically spoken. It might be 
 little; it might be much. It might be blown away 
 by a breath of wind ; or it might expand into terrific 
 dimensions, covering the whole heaven as with a pall. 
 Anyhow, it had an angry threatening aspect ; and 
 the looker-on, being no alarmist, might well wish it 
 away. 
 
 Memorable, and, doubtless, well remembered is it Retrospect 
 that, when Lord Dalhousie bade farewell to the cares ^ * 
 
456 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. of Indian Government, lie placed upon record an 
 opinion that the condition of the Native soldiery left 
 nothing to be desired. There was no reason why 
 Lord Canning, at the outset of his career, should not 
 take this assertion on trust ; no reason why he should 
 not hold to it for a while. He went out to India, 
 prepossessed in favour of " the faithful Sepo}^" He 
 had, doubtless, read the noble picture which, nearly 
 forty years before, his father had ch^awn of the fidelity 
 of the Native soldiery of the Company, unshaken by 
 threats, unallured by temptations.* There were no 
 flutterings of disquiet apparent on the surface to 
 raise anxious doubts and misgivings. But he had 
 not long taken up the reins of Government, when 
 the subject of the Native Army began to occupy his 
 thoughts and to afford matter for much grave corre- 
 spondence. The vast extension of territory which 
 had made famous the career of Lord Dalhousie had 
 not been followed by any corresponding extension of 
 the Agency by which all this new country was to be 
 administered. As so much more civil duty was to be 
 
 * As President of the Board of them from their allegiance, but his 
 Control, George Canning had moved, utmost arts were vaiu. The Native 
 in the House of Commons, the vote officers and soldiers came to the 
 of thanks to Lord Hastings's Army British Commanders with the proofs 
 for its service in the Second Mali- of these temptations in their hands, 
 ratta war, and in the course of his and renew^ed the pledges of their 
 speech had paid this fine tribute io attachment. One man, a non-com- 
 the Native Army: *'In doing jus- missioned officer, brought to his cap- 
 tice," he said, " to the bravery of tain the sum of 5000 rupees, which 
 the Native troops, I must not over- had been presented to him by the 
 look another virtue, their fidelity. Peishwah in person, as an earnest of 
 Many of the Bombay Army had been reward for desertion. The vengeance 
 recruited in the territories of the denounced by the Peishwah was not 
 Peishwah ; their property, their an unmeaning menace; it did, in 
 friends, their relatives, all that was many instances, fall lieavily on the 
 valuable and dear to them, were still relatives of those who resisted his 
 in that prince's power. Previously threats and his entreaties; but the 
 to the commencement of hostilities, effect was rather to exasperate than 
 the Peishwah had spared no pains to repress their ardour in the service 
 to seduce and corrupt these troops; to which they liad sworn to ad- 
 be abstained from no threats to force here." 
 
THE CALL FOR MOEE OFFICERS. 457 
 
 donG) it seemed, in strict logical sequence, that tliere 1850, 
 was an increased demand for civil servants, and that 
 this demand should have been supplied. But govern- 
 ment by the Civil Service of the Company was 
 costly ; and to have called for increased agency of 
 this kind would perhaps have supplied Leadenhall- 
 street with an argument against the profitableness of 
 annexation. Moreover, there was much rough work 
 to be done in our newly-acquired provinces, for 
 which, on the whole, perhaps, military administrators 
 were better suited than civilians. So the military 
 officer, as has before been said, was taken from his 
 regimental duties to share in the civil administration 
 of the country. Great had been, for this purpose, 
 the drain upon the Native regiments, before the 
 annexation of Oude. That event brought the as- 
 cendant evil to a climax ; and Lord Canning wrote 
 home that it had become necessary to add two 
 officers to each Native Infantry regiment and four 
 to the Europeans. " A request," he wrote, in the 
 early part of April, " for an addition to the number 
 of officers in each Infantry regiment — European and 
 Native — goes home by this mail. Four for each 
 European and two for each Native regiment are 
 asked. The application comes singly and in a bald 
 shape ; because the necessity of an immediate in- 
 crease is urgent, and because I have had no time to 
 go into the complicated questions of our military 
 wants generally." 
 
 There was, indeed, nothing more difficult to under- " More 
 stand aright than these military questions; difficult ° ^^^^' 
 to experienced statesmen : altogether embarrassing 
 and bewildering to a Governor in his novitiate. 
 Even this matter of " more officers," so smooth as it 
 appeared to be on the surface, when you came to 
 
458 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. gauge it, was found to contain a deposit of doubt 
 and conflict. It was held by some, avIio had studied 
 well all the deteriorating influences of which so much 
 has been said in these pages, that the cry for " more 
 oflicers" was one to be responded to with caution ; 
 that, indeed, the Native Army had already too many 
 oflicers ; and that now to increase their number 
 would be to increase one of the evils that had long 
 been impairing its efliciency. That Lord Canning, 
 fresh from England, should have taken the more 
 popular view of this want of oflicers, was natural; 
 and, indeed, it may be said that it was a plain com- 
 mon-sense view, not wanting in a certain kind of 
 logic. It had become a proverb that the English 
 officer was the Backbone of the Native regiment ; 
 and, assuredly, tlio administrative demands of our 
 new provinces had left these Native regiments, ac- 
 cording to the recognised reading, sadly enfeebled 
 and incapacitated. All that he now sought to do 
 was to restore them somewhat more nearly to their 
 normal condition. The remedy seemed to lie on the 
 surface, and straightway he exerted himself to supply 
 it. But, the theory of the Backbone accepted, it 
 was still possible that the vertebral column might be 
 weakened by having too many joints ; and therefore 
 it was said by a few thoughtful and experienced men, 
 emphatically by Sir George Clerk,* that there was 
 more danger in giving our Native regiments too 
 many English officers than in giving them too few ; 
 and for this reason, that being many t\\ey formed a 
 society apart and kept aloof from, their men, and 
 became altogether in their ways of life too European. 
 Doubts such as these, and from such a quarter, 
 brought clearly to Lord Canning's mind the fact that 
 
 * Then Secretary to the Board of Control. 
 
THE MILITARY DEFENCE OF PEGU. 45 D 
 
 the Native Army question was a very difficult one; 1856. 
 that it was almost impossible, indeed, whilst avoiding 
 one rock, to escape from steering upon another. But 
 the call for more officers had been made ; and, per- 
 haps, with no want of wisdom. For, although there 
 was profound truth in what was said about the evil 
 of too much Englishism in the Native Army, the 
 Regular Regiments of the Company had been formed 
 upon the European model, and the principle of com- 
 mand by many officers was a vital part of the system. 
 The Irregular system might have been better than 
 the Regular, but a Regular Regiment denuded of its 
 officers fulfilled the condition of neither. So the 
 Home Government recognised the want of more of- 
 ficers, and responded to the appeal. 
 
 Another, and still more important question, soon Evils of 
 came up for solution. The specific evils, which re- ^o^^-J^ion 
 suited from the extension of our dominions, varied in 
 accordance with the direction in which we had ex- 
 tended them. The acquisition of new territory on 
 the south-eastern coast had caused but little political 
 excitement in India ; but the very circumstance to 
 which we owed our exemption from evils of one 
 kind was the immediate source of another class of 
 evils. It has been said that the intervention of the 
 black waters of the Bay of Bengal cut off the sove- 
 reigns of Burmah from the brotherhood of the 
 Princes of the great continent of India, and made it 
 a matter of small concern whether we gained battles 
 or lost them in that part of the world.* But that 
 very black water made it difficult for us to garrison 
 the country which we had won. The new province Military de- 
 of Pegu had been brought administratively under fence of Pegu, 
 the Supreme Government of India, and in the first 
 
 * Jute, pp. 67-68. 
 
460 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. arrangements made for its military defence, the regi- 
 ments planted there had been drawn from the Bengal 
 Army. But the great bulk of that Army eschewed 
 Foreign service.* It was not part. of the conditions, 
 under which they had enlisted, that they should cross 
 the seas. The Sepoy, on taking service, sw^ore that 
 he would never forsake or abandon his colours, and. 
 that he w^ould march whithersoever he w^as directed, 
 whether wdthin or beyond the territories of the Com- 
 pany. Out of the seventy-four regiments composing 
 the Native Infantry of the Bengal Army, six only 
 were recruited for general service. When more Na- 
 tive troops had been required to take part in opera- 
 tions beyond the seas, it had been customary to call 
 
 uuteer for volunteers from the limited-service regiments. 
 
 ^^" There had been often a free response to this invita- 
 
 tion, and the volunteer corps had done their duty 
 well upon Foreign service. In the old times, indeed, 
 before the new organisation, they had in this respect 
 sho^vn signal devotion ; they had gone willingly to 
 remote places beyond the seas and cheerfully endured 
 all the miseries and privations of long and boisterous 
 
 1811. voyages. In one year, seven thousand Bengal Sepoys 
 had volunteered for service against the French in the 
 Mauritius and in Java ; and had served for many 
 years in those islands wdth unvarying fidelity and 
 good con duct, f But, even in those days, they had 
 
 * " The natives of India liave, tion, than at tlie zpal and attachment 
 
 generally speaking, a rooted dislike they liave often shown upon such 
 
 to the sea; and when we consider trfmg occasions."— Sir Jo/m3Ialcolm 
 
 the great privations and hardships in the (Quarterly Review, vol. xviii. 
 
 to which Hindoos of high caste are p. 399. 
 
 subject on a long voyage, during f The battalions thus formed were 
 
 which some of them, from prejudices the basis of the six general-service 
 
 of caste, subsist solely on parched regiments, in the kter organisation, 
 
 grain, we feel less surprised at the of which mention is made in the 
 
 occasional mutinies, which have been text, 
 caused by orders for tlieir eu)barka- 
 
CONDUCT OF THE THIRTY-EIGHTH. 4G1 
 
 been at times capricious ; and tlieir caprices, as time 1356. 
 advanced and their devotion to their officers dimi- 
 nished, had grown more frequent and more embar- 
 rassing.* The mutiny and massacre at Barrackpore 
 had risen out of the demands of the first Burmese 
 war, and the second war in those transmarine regions 
 had raised up a new crop of difficulties of the old 
 type. 
 
 A few sentences will tell all that need be told of 
 this last story: The Native troops employed in the 
 conquest of Pegu were either Madras troops or the 1852. 
 general-service regiments of the Bengal Army. But 
 reinforcements were needed, and so a call Avas to be 
 made for volunteers. The Thirty-eighth Native Re- Tlie Thitty. 
 giment was then at the Presidency. It had served ^^°' ^* 
 long and fought gallantly in Afghanistan, and it was 
 believed that it would follow its officers to any part 
 of the world. But when the day o£ trial came, the 
 result was a bitter disappointment. The Sepoys were 
 asked whether they would embark for Rangoon to 
 take part in the war, or for Arracan, there to relieve 
 a general-service regiment, which in that case would 
 be sent on to Burmah. Their reply was, that they 
 were willing to march anywhere, but that they 
 would not volunteer to cross the seas. Perfectly 
 respectful in their language, they were firm in their 
 refusal. Doubt and suspicion had taken possession 
 of their minds. How it happened I do not knoA\^, 
 but a belief was afterwards engendered among them, 
 that the English Government had a foul design to 
 entrap them, and that if they commenced the march 
 to the banks of the Irrawaddy, they would at a con- 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, writing in commanding officers, or from orders 
 
 1817-18, says, that all the mutinies given to go beyond the seas. See 
 
 in the Bengal Army up to that time article, aSove quoted^ in Qnarkrly 
 
 had arisen from the blunders of their Heview. 
 
462 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. venient point be taken to tlie sea-board and forcibly 
 compelled to embark. Lord Dalhousie, taking, there- 
 fore, the prudent rather than the vigorous view of 
 the situation, and availing himself of the advanced 
 state of the season as a plea for the adoption of the 
 feebler of the two courses before him, yielded to 
 these first symptoms of danger, and decreed that the 
 Thirty-eighth should be sent neither to Rangoon nor 
 to Arracan, but to the nearer and more inland 
 station of Dacca. And so nothing more was heard 
 for a time of the disaffection of the Bengal Army. 
 
 The Court of Directors of the East India Com- 
 pany, when this business was reported to them, saw 
 clearly that it had become difficult to carry on the 
 concerns of their vastly extended empire with one- 
 half of their Army, and that the more important half, 
 bound to render them only a restricted obedience ; 
 so they wrote out to the Governor- General that they 
 hoped soon to be put in possession of the " senti- 
 
 Octobcr 20, ments of his Government on the expediency of 
 adopting such a change in the terms of future enlist- 
 ments as might eventually relieve them from similar 
 embarrassments." But no action Avas taken during 
 the remaining years of Lord Dalhousie's administra- 
 tion, and Lord Canning found, on his accession, 
 that still but a twelfth part of the Bengal Army was 
 available for service beyond the seas. What then 
 
 I^eliefs for was to be douc, wlicn reliefs were required for Pegu ? 
 Even if the old professional ardour of the Sepoy had 
 been restored, the occasion was scarcely one on 
 which the Government could have called for volun- 
 teers. The formation of volunteer regiments had 
 been confined to periods of actual warfare ; and now 
 that we required them merely to garrison our acqui- 
 sitions in time of peace, the difficulty that confronted 
 
 Pecju. 
 
RELIEFS FOR PEGU. 4G3 
 
 Lord Canning was one not readily to be overcome. 1858. 
 He found at this time tliat of the six general-service 
 regiments three were then in Pegu. They had em- 
 barked on a specific understanding that they should 
 not be called upon to serve there for more than three 
 years, and, in the rainy season of 1856, two of the 
 three regiments were in their third year of trans- 
 marine service. In the early part of the following 
 year, therefore, a relief would be necessary ; but not 
 one of the other three regiments could be despatched ; 
 for they had all returned oidy a year or two before 
 from service in the same part of the country. It was 
 clear, therefore, that the Bengal Army could not pro- 
 vide the means of despatching the required reliefs by 
 water transport to Pegu. 
 
 So a question arose as to whether the relieving 
 regiments might not, according to their bond, be 
 marched to the Burmese coast. It was a circuitous 
 and toilsome journey, but it had been done, under 
 pressure of like difficulty, thirty years before, and 
 might yet be done again. But although the improve- 
 ment of the communications between the Hooghly 
 and the Irrawaddy was then being urged forward by 
 the Government, there was still a break on the line 
 from Chittagong to Akyab, of which our Engineers 
 could not give a sufficiently encouraging account to 
 satisfy the Governor-General that the relieving regi- 
 ments could be sent by land in the ensuing cold 
 season. ^' A part of the road," said Lord Canning, 
 ^' could* not be made passable for wheels by that time 
 without the addition of eight thousand labourers to 
 those already employed. If the use of wheeled car- 
 riages were abandoned, there would still remain en- 
 camping ground to be cleared on many parts of it ; 
 the jungle, which is already choking the tract, to be 
 
4G4 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1S56. removed ; preparation to be made for halting tlip. 
 men on tlie march ; wells to be dug, or water to be 
 stored, where none has yet been found ; and stations 
 and storehouses provided. Simple operations enough 
 in themselves, but which in this case would have to 
 be begun and completed, on two hundred miles of 
 road, betAveen the beginning of December, before 
 which no work on that coast can be attempted, and 
 February, when the troops must begin to pass over 
 the ground, the supply of labour, as well as its 
 quality, being very little trustworthy." " Obstacles 
 of this kind," continued the Governor-General, " have 
 been overcome again and again by the Sepoys of 
 Bengal in their marches, whenever it has been neces- 
 sary to do so ; but I am of opinion that it will be 
 better in the present instance to seek some other solu- 
 tion of the difficulty. And I believe that the one 
 most available is a recourse to the Madras Army." 
 Demar.ds oii And why not ? The Madras, or, as it was once 
 ArJ^^^'^^ called, the Coast Army, was enlisted for general 
 service. Posted in the Southern Peninsula, and to a 
 great extent along the sea-board, it was as readily 
 available for service on the other side of the Bay as 
 the Army in Lower Bengal. If the duty were un- 
 palatable, it could not, when diffused over fifty 
 regiments, press very heavily upon any individual 
 soldier. Besides, service of this kind had some com- 
 pensations of its own, and was not altogether to be 
 regarded as a grievance.* So it was thought that the 
 
 * It must not be supposed, how- when about to embark at Vizaga- 
 
 ever, that tlie Madras Army liad patara, and shot all but one or two, 
 
 always cheerfully accepted this ne- who had contrived to escape on 
 
 <?essity for going upon foreign ser- board the ship which was waiting to 
 
 vice. On several occasions they had receive the regiment. In a former 
 
 broken into mutiny on the eve of chapter I have given some later in- 
 
 embarkaiion. Once, towards the stances, and others might have been 
 
 close of the last century, they had cited. But there are some noble 
 
 risen upon their European officers, examples on record of ai.other kind, 
 
PROTEST OF THE MADRAS GOVERNMENT. 
 
 4G5 
 
 garrison of Pegu mlglit, for a time at least, be drawn 
 from the Madras Army. But ready as the solution 
 appeared to be, it was found that here also there was 
 some hard, gritty, insoluble matter at the bottom of 
 the scheme. The Madras Government, though not 
 unwilling to send troops to Pegu, as a temporary 
 arrangement, protested against being called upon to 
 supply a permanent garrison to that part of our 
 dominions. Such an arrano-ement w^ould brino; round 
 to every regiment a tour of service beyond the sea 
 once in every nine years, instead of once in twelve 
 years; it would render service in the Madras Army 
 unpopular ; make recruiting difficult among the 
 better class of Natives whom it was desired to enlist ; 
 and, inasmuch as every regiment lost much of its 
 morale on Foreign service, and took two or three 
 years to recover what was lost, the efficiency of the 
 Madras Army would be permanently deteriorated. 
 So Lord Canning turned his thoughts in another 
 
 1856. 
 
 and one adduced by Sir John Mal- 
 colm, in the article above quoted, 
 deserves to be recorded here, it" only 
 as an illustration of the influence for 
 good of a trusted commanding of- 
 ficer. Speaking of the services of 
 the Twenty-second Madras Regi- 
 ment, he says : " This fine corps was 
 commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel 
 James Oram, an officer not more 
 distinguished for his personal zeal 
 and gallantry than for a thorough 
 knowledge of the men under iiis 
 command, whose temper he had 
 completely preserved, at the same 
 time that lie had imparted to them 
 the highest perfection in their dress 
 and discipline. When he proposed 
 to his corps on parade to volunteer 
 for Manilla, they only requested 1o 
 know whether Colonel Oram would 
 go with them? The answer was, 
 'He would.' 'Will he stay with 
 us F' was the second questiou. The 
 
 2 
 
 reply was in the affirmative; the 
 whole corps exclaimed, * To Euro))e ! 
 — to Europe !' And the alacrity and 
 spirit with which they subsequently 
 embarked, showed that they would 
 as readily have gone to the shores of 
 the Atlantic as to an island of the 
 Eastern Ocean. Not a man of the 
 corps deserted, from the period they 
 volunteered for service until they 
 embarked; and such was the con- 
 tagion of their enthusiasm, that 
 several Sepoys who were missing 
 from one of the battalions in garri- 
 son at Madras, were found, wlien 
 the expedition returned, to have de- 
 serted to join the Twenty-second 
 under Colonel Oram. We state 
 this anecdote," adds Sir John Mal- 
 colm, " with a full impression of the 
 importance of the lesson it conveys. 
 It is through their affections alone 
 that such a class of men can well b« 
 commanded." 
 
 II 
 
Enlistment 
 Act. 
 
 466 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 185G. direction. Madras troops miglit be sent for tlie 
 The General nonce to Pegu, but the permanent defence of that 
 outlying province across the Bay must, it appeared 
 to him, be provided for by drawing, in some way^ 
 upon the Bengal Army. There was then lying, un- 
 responded to, among the Records of the Military 
 Department, that despatch of the Court of Directors 
 in which the Government of India had been uro^ed 
 to devise the means of relieving themselves from all 
 such em] arrassments by a change in the terms of 
 future enlistments. After much inward thought and 
 much consultation with others, he determined, there- 
 fore, to institute such a radical change in the con- 
 stitution of the Bengal Army as four years before 
 had been indicated by the Home Government. The 
 reform which he contemplated was to have only a 
 prospective effect. It was to touch no existing in- 
 terests; but to be applied prospectively to all who 
 might enlist into the military service of the State. 
 Thenceforth every recruit was to engage himself for 
 general service. There might be an alteration in 
 the form of the oath, or it might simply be left to the 
 European officer to explain to every recruit that he 
 had been enlisted for general service. Such had 
 been the custom with respect to the six general- 
 service regiments of the Bengal Army, and it had 
 been found to answer every requirement. An ex- 
 planatory order might be issued by the Governor- 
 General in Council, and then the military autho- 
 rities might follow up, in their own way, the blow 
 struck at the niceties of the old system. The Go- 
 vernor-General argued, with irresistible force, that 
 every Government should be master of its own 
 Army. He was, however, at that time, fresh from 
 England ; and he might be forgiven for not knowing 
 
THE GENERAL-SERVICE ENLISTMENT ACT. 4G7 
 
 how the Government could best make itself the issa. 
 master of such an Army as that with which he was 
 then dealing. But he would have had no legitimate 
 claim to forgiveness if he had failed to take counsel 
 with those among his constitutional advisers who 
 had spent all their adult lives in India, and who 
 were presumedly familiar with the feelings and opi- 
 nions of the people. He did take counsel with them ; 
 and they urged him to pursue this course. He who, 
 of all the Councillors, best knew the Native character, General Low. 
 was then in England ; but the ablest man amongst 
 them argued that there was no place like Calcutta Mr. J. P. 
 for shipping off a large military force, and that the ^^^^^' 
 Bay of Bengal had become an Indian Lake. It does 
 not seem that there was any one at Lord Canning's 
 elbow to tell him that, whatsoever might be the fa- 
 cilities of transport, the Bay of Bengal would still 
 be the black water, the salt water, in the thoughts 
 of the people from whom our recruits were to be 
 drav/n ; still regarded with mysterious awe, and re- 
 coiled from with unconquerable aversion. 
 
 So, on the 25th of July, 1856, a general order 
 was issued by the Government of India, declaring 
 that, thenceforth, they would not accept the service 
 of any Native recruit who would not, '* at the time 
 of his enlistment, distinctly undertake to serve be- 
 yond the sea, whether within the territories of the 
 Company or beyond them." In what light Lord 
 Canning regarded this important change, with what 
 arguments he supported the measures, may be ga- 
 thered from his correspondence. " You will see," 
 he wrote to the President of the India Board, '' that August 9, 
 
 1 Q r p 
 
 a General Order has been published putting an end 
 to the long-established, but most impolitic, embar- 
 rassing, and senseless practice of enlisting the Native 
 
 2 H 2 
 
468 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. Army of Bengal for limited service only ; the sole 
 exceptions being six regiments of Native Infantry, 
 which are recruited on the condition of serving any- 
 where, and the Artillery. It is marvellous that this 
 should have continued so long, and that the Govern- 
 ment of India should have tolerated, again and again, 
 having to beg for volunteers, when other Govern- 
 ments, including those of Madras and Bombay, would 
 have ordered their soldiers on their duty. It is the 
 more surprising, because no one can allege any rea- 
 son for conceding this unreasonable immunity to the 
 Bengal Sepoy. The difficulties of Caste furnish none 
 whatever, for the Bombay Army is recruited in great 
 part from the same classes and districts as that of 
 Bengal ; and even in the latter the best Brahmin in 
 the ranks does not scruple to set aside his prejudices, 
 whenever it suits him to do so. There seems to 
 have been a dim apprehension that there might be 
 risk in meddling with the fundamental conditions 
 upon which the bargain between the Army and the 
 Government has hitherto rested, and there are some 
 few alarmists on the present occasion, but I have seen 
 no reason to fear that the order will cause any bad 
 feeling in the Bengal Army. As it touches no exist- 
 ing rights, it could only do so by exciting apprehen- 
 sions that something more remains behind ; and, pro- 
 bably, this may prove to be the case, for whenever I 
 can propose a reduction in the numbers of the Bengal 
 Regiments, I shall endeavour to do so upon terms 
 that will give a preference of remaining in the ranks 
 to such men as may be willing to accept general 
 service. But this is no part of, and is not necessarily 
 connected with the present change ; moreover, as yet 
 Novembers, it is only in my own breast." And again, a few 
 months later, he wrote, with still greater confidence : 
 
 1856, 
 
THE GENERAL-SERVICE ENLISTMENT ACT. 409 
 
 '' Tliere is no fear of feelings of Caste being excited 185G. 
 by the new enlistment regulations in the Bengal 
 Army. No one will come under it otherwise than 
 voluntarily ; and the fact that a vast number of the 
 recruits who join the Bombay regiments come from 
 the same country, and are of the same caste, and 
 in every respect of the same condition with the bulk 
 of the Army in Bengal, proves that they do not, on 
 first entering the service, hold very closely to Caste 
 privileges. You are aware that the Bombay Army 
 is enlisted for general service without exception. The 
 only apprehension I have ever had (and that has 
 vanished) is, that the Sepoys already enlisted on the 
 old terms might suspect that it was a first step to- 
 wards breaking faith with them, and that on the first 
 necessity they might be compelled to cross the sea. 
 But there has been no sign of any such false alarm 
 on their part." 
 
 No signs truly apparent at Government House; 
 but many and great in the Native villages, and much 
 talk in the Lines and Bazaars. It was hardly right 
 even to say that there was no interference with exist- 
 ing interests. For the interest of the Sepoy in the 
 Bengal Army was an hereditary interest. If the Bri- 
 tish Government did not at once assume the right 
 to send him across the sea, it seemed certain that his 
 sons would be sent. There was an end, indeed, of 
 the exclusive privileges which the Bengal Sepoy had 
 so long enjoyed ; the service never could be hereafter 
 what it had been of old ; and all the old pride, there- 
 fore, with which the veteran had thought of his boys 
 succeeding him was now suddenly extinguished. Be- 
 sides, the efi'ect, he said, would be, that high-caste 
 men would shrink from entering the service, and 
 that, therefore, the vacant places of his brethren 
 
470 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. would be filled by men with whom he could have no 
 feeling of comradeship. And this was no imaginary 
 fear. No sooner had the order made its way through 
 the Provinces, than it became patent to all engaged 
 in the work of enlistment that the same high-caste 
 men as had before been readily recruited were no 
 longer pressing forward to enter the British service.* 
 As it was believed that we had too many Brahmins 
 and Rajpoots in the Bengal Army, this in itself 
 might have been no great evil. But it was of all 
 things the least likely that such an order should pass 
 into general circulation without being ignorantly 
 misunderstood by some, and designedly misinter- 
 preted by others. 
 Enlisfmenl of So it was soon said that the Eno;lish cfentlemen 
 • were trying to rid themselves of their old high-caste 
 
 Sepoys, and that soon the profession which had been 
 followed, with honourable pride, by generation after 
 generation of old soldier-families would not be open 
 to them. And this belief was greatly strengthened 
 by a rumour which went forth about the same time, 
 to the effect that Government had determined on 
 enlisting thirty thousand more Sikhs. The conquest 
 of the Punjab had placed at our disposal the services 
 of a warlike race, always eager to wear the uniform 
 of a successful ruler, for in their eyes success Avas 
 plunder. Less dainty in the choice of their battle- 
 
 * Take, in proof of tins, the fol- Infantry, in this place, said to me 
 lowing extract from a letter written last week that he had clearly ascer- 
 by Sir Henry Lawrence to Lord tained this fact : Mr. E. A. Keade, 
 Canning, on the 1st of May, 1857 : of the Sudder Board, who was for 
 " The General Service Enlistment years collector of Goruckpore, had 
 Oath is most distasteful, keeps many the General Service Order given to 
 out of the service, and frightens the him as a reason last year, when on 
 old Sepoys, who imagine that the his tour, by llajpoots, for not enter- 
 oaths of the young recruits affect ing the service. The salt water, he 
 the whole regiment. One of the told me, was the universal answer." 
 best captains of the 13th Native — MS. Correspondence. 
 
 J 
 
ENLISTMENT OF SIKHS. 471 
 
 fields, and not less brave or robust in battle, they 1S£6. 
 were tlie very kind of mercenaries that we wanted to 
 give new bone and sinew to the body of our Native 
 Army. Whether there were or were not, at this 
 time, a tendency to over-work this new and promising 
 recruiting-ground, it is certain that the old race of 
 Sepoys believed that we were designedly working it 
 to their injury and their overthrow. They gave 
 ready credence, therefore, to exaggerated rejDorts of 
 Sikh enlistments, and, coupling them with the New 
 General Service Order, leapt to the conclusion that 
 the English had done with the old Bengal Army, 
 and were about to substitute for it another that 
 would go anywhere and do anything, like coolies 
 and pariahs. 
 
 Moreover, there were not wanting those who were Effects of ilie 
 eager to persuade the Sepoys of the Bengal Army that UsTment 
 this new Act was another insidious attempt to de- Order, 
 stroy the Caste of the people, and to make men of all 
 creeds do the bidding of the English, by merging all 
 into the one faith of the Feringhee. It was another 
 link in the great chain of evidence which had been 
 artfully employed to convict the British Government 
 of the charge of aiming at the compulsory conversion 
 of the people. The season was most propitious. The 
 coming of Lord Canning had, by some strange pro- 
 cess of association which I find it impossible to trace, 
 been identified with certain alleged instructions from 
 England, emanating from the Queen herself in Coun- 
 cil, for the Christianis ation, by fai r^means or by foul, 
 of the great mass of the people ; and now one of the 
 first acts of his Government was to issue an order 
 making it compulsory on the Sepoy to take to the 
 transport vessel, to cross the black water, and to 
 serve in strange parts of the world, far away, per- 
 
472 
 
 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 ISoG. 
 
 Apprelicn- 
 sions and 
 ulurins. 
 
 u/ 
 
 haps, from all the emblems and observances of his 
 religion, among a people sacrilegious and unclean. 
 
 The native mind was, at this time, in a most sen- 
 sitive state, and easily wrought upon by suspicious 
 appearances. What these appearances were, has, in 
 some measure, been shown in former chapters of this 
 narrative. Even the Railway and the Electric Tele- 
 graph had been accounted as blows struck at the 
 religions of the country. Nor was this purely a 
 creation of the Native mind, an unaided conception 
 of the Priests or the People; for the missionaries 
 themselves had pleaded the recent material progress 
 of the English as an argument in favour of the adop- 
 tion by the inhabitants of India of one universal 
 
 ! religion. " The time appears to have come," they 
 said in an Address which was extensively circulated in 
 Bengal during the closing years of Lord Dalhousie's 
 administration, "when earnest consideration should 
 be given to the question, whether or not all men 
 should embrace the same system of religion. Rail- 
 ways, Steam-vessels, and the Electric Telegraph are 
 rapidly uniting all the nations of the earth. The 
 more they are brought together, the more certain 
 does the conclusion become that all have the same 
 wants, the same anxieties, and the same sorrows;" 
 and so on, with manifest endeavour to prove that 
 European civilisation was the forerunner of an in- 
 evitable absorption of all other faiths into the one 
 
 ■. faith of the White Ruler. This had gone forth, an 
 egregious Christian manifesto, not wanting in funda- 
 mental truth, or in certain abstract proprieties of 
 argument and diction, to " Educated Natives," es- 
 pecially to respectable Mahomedans in Government 
 employment, some of the leading Native functionaries 
 of Bengal. What might truly be the purport of it, 
 
f/ 
 
 MISSIONARY MANIFESTOES. 473 
 
 and whence it came, was not very clear at first ; but 1S56. 
 ere long it came to be accepted as a direct emanation 
 from Government, intended to invite the people to 
 apostatise from the religions of their fathers. And 
 such was the excitement that Commissioner Tayler, of 
 the great Patna division, wherein some disquietudes 
 had before arisen, mainly of the Mahomedan type, > 
 reported to Lieutenant-Governor Halliday that in-, 
 telligent natives, especially the better class of Moslems, 
 were " impressed with a full belief that Government 
 were immediately about to attempt the forcible con- 
 version of its subjects." It was added, that "a corre- 
 spondence on this head had for some time been 
 going on between native gentlemen in various parts 
 of the Lower Provinces;" and Lieutenant-Governor 
 Halliday saw so clearly that this was no impalpable 
 mare's-nest, no idle scum of an alarmist brain, that 
 he forthwith issued a sedative Proclamation ; which 
 sedative proclamation was speedily answered anony- 
 mously, but beyond doubt by an "intelligent native," 
 or conclave of "intelligent natives," clearly showing 
 by the inevitable logic of facts that if this notion of 
 a war ao^ainst the relioions of India had laid hold of 
 the national mind, the Government had by their own 
 measures given encouragement to the dangerous be- 
 lief. 
 
 Very obstinate, indeed, and hard to be removed, was 
 this belief; so hard, that the very efforts made to 
 efface it might only fiK more ineffaceably the 
 damaging impression on the native mind. For if the 
 wondering multitude did not think, there were a 
 crafty few ready to teach them, that if Government 
 designed, by foul means, to destroy the caste of the 
 people and the religions of the country, they would 
 not hesitate to make the issuing of a lying proclama- 
 
4 71 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1S5C. tion a part of tlie process. The conviction tliat it was 
 the deliberate design of the British Government, by 
 force or fraud, to attain this great object, was growing 
 stronger and stronger every month, when Lord Can- 
 ning arrived in India, and at once became, all unwit- 
 tingly, a special object of suspicion and alarm. The 
 lies which attended, perhaps preceded, his advent, 
 caused all his movements to be narrowly watched ; 
 and it began soon to be bruited abroad that he had 
 subscribed largely to missionary societies, and that 
 Lady Canning, who w^as known to be in the especial 
 confidence of the Queen, was intent on making great 
 personal exertions for the conversion of the women 
 of the country. 
 Lord Canning But there was no truth in all this. The Governor- 
 p'ous Socie-^" General had done no more than other Govern ors- 
 ^^t»' General had done before him. He had sent a dona- 
 
 tio n to the Bi ble Society, a society for the translation 
 of the Scriptures into the Oriental languages, and the 
 circulation of these new versions among tlie people. 
 But the translation of the Scriptures had been carried 
 on more than half a century before, in the College of 
 Fort William, under the especial patronage of Lord 
 Wellesley ; and Lord Wellesley's successor, during 
 whose reign the Calcutta Bible Society was esta- 
 blished, headed the list with a large subscrij^tion. 
 Lord Hastings, Lord William Bentinck, and Sir 
 Charles Metcalfe, had all contributed to the funds of 
 the society. But Lord Canning had also given a dona- 
 tion to the Baptist College at Serampore. What then ? 
 It had been established in 1818, under the auspices of 
 Lord Hastings, whose name had been published as 
 the "First Patron" of the Institution, and it had 
 received the support of subsequent Governors-Ge- 
 neral wUhout question or comment. Besides these 
 
LORD CANNING AND THE MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 475 
 
 donations, he had made a contribution to the support 1855. 
 of the excellent school of the Free Church Mission, 
 under the management of Dr. Duif, as Lord Dal- 
 housie had done before him. " I admit," he said, 
 " that the Head of the Government in India ought to 
 abstain from acts which may have the appearance of 
 an exercise of power, authority, solicitation, or per- 
 suasion towards inducing natives to change their 
 religion. But if it is contended that a school like 
 this, thoroughly catholic and liberal, open to students 
 of every creed, doing violence to none, and so con- 
 ducted as to disarm hostility and jealousy (the num- 
 ber of the Hindoo and Mussulman scholars shows 
 this), is not to have countenance and support from 
 the Governor-General because it is managed by mis- 
 sionaries, I join issue on that point. I am not pre- 
 pared to act upon that doctrine." 
 
 And what had Lady Canning done? She had 
 taken a true womanly interest in the education of 
 native female children. She had visited the female 
 schools of Calcutta in a quiet, unobtrusive way ; but 
 once only in each case, save with a notable exception 
 in favour of the Bethune Institution, which had been 
 taken by Lord Dalhousie under the special care of the 
 Government.* In this Lady Canning had taken some 
 observable interest. But as the Managing Committee 
 of the school was composed of high-caste Hindoo gen- 
 tlemen, there was assuredly no apparent necessity for 
 restraining her womanly instincts and shrinking into 
 apathy and indolence, as one regardless of the hap- 
 piness and the dignity of her sex. Whatsoever may 
 have been the zeal for the conversion of the Heathen 
 that pervaded Government House, there were no in- 
 discreet manifestations of it. There are times, how- 
 
 * Aite, page 1S7. 
 
476 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 185 G. ever, when no discretion can wliolly arrest the growth 
 of dangerous lies. A very little thing, in a season of 
 excitement, will invest a colourable falsehood with the 
 brightest hues of truth, and carry conviction to the 
 dazzled understanding of an ignorant people. The 
 sight of Lady Canning's carriage at the gates of the 
 Bethune school may have added, therefore, Heaven 
 only knows, some fresh tints to the picture of a caste- 
 destroying Government, which active-minded emis- 
 saries of evil were so eager to hang up in the public 
 places of the land. 
 Progress of It was not much ; perhaps, indeed, it was simply 
 ' nothing. But just at that time there was a movement, 
 urged on by John Grant and Barnes Peacock, in the 
 purest spirit of benevolence, for the rescue of the 
 women of India from the degradation in which they 
 were sunk. It happened — truly, it happened, for it 
 was wholly an accident — that one of the first mea- 
 sures, outwardly, of Lord Canning's Government was 
 the formal passing of the bill " to remove all legal 
 obstacles to the marriage of Hindoo widows," which 
 had been introduced, discussed, and virtually carried, 
 'during the administration of his predecessor.* And 
 this done, there was much said and written about the 
 restraints that were to be imposed on Hindoo poly- 
 gamy ; and every day the appearance of a Draft Act, 
 formidable in the extreme to Brahminism, was looked 
 for, with doubt and aversion, by the old orthodox 
 Hindoos. For they saw that in this, as in the matter 
 of Re-Marriage, some of their more free-thinking 
 countrymen, mostly of the younger generation, 
 moved by the teachings of the English, or by some 
 hope of gain, were beseeching Government to relieve 
 the nation from what they called the reproach of Ku- 
 
 * Ante, page 190. 
 
RESTRICTIONS ON POLYGAMY. 
 
 477 
 
 linisiD. And, at such a time, Orthodoxy, staggering 
 under blows given, and shrinking from blows to come, 
 looked aghast even at such small manifestations as 
 the visits of the wife of the Governor-General to the 
 Bethune female school. It was clear that the English, 
 with their overpowering love of rule, were about now 
 to regulate in India, after their own fashion, the 
 relations of the two sexes to each other.* 
 
 Lord Canning found this movement afoot ; he in 
 no wise instituted it. He found that Lord Dalhousie, 
 after an experience of many years, believed these 
 social reforms to be practicable and safe ; he found 
 that the ablest member of his Council, who had spent 
 all his adult life in India, was with all his heart and 
 soul eager for their promotion, and with all the 
 activity of his intellect promoting them. As to this 
 movement against Hindoo polygamy, which was in- 
 tended to prune down the evil, not wholly to eradi- 
 cate it, there was something, to his European under- 
 standing, grotesque in the notion of a Christian Legis- 
 lature recognising certain forms of polygamy, and 
 addressing itself only to the abuses of the system, as 
 though to Christian eyes it were not altogether an 
 abuse. But he could see plainly enough that only by 
 admitting such a compromise could the good thing be 
 done at all ; and seeing also the necessity of proceed- 
 ing warily with such a delicate operation, he was not 
 disposed, in the first instance, to do more than to feel 
 the pulse of the people. It would be wdse to delay 
 
 185G. 
 
 * Sir Henry Lawrence clearly 
 dibcenied the danger of tliis, and in 
 an article in the Calcutta Review, 
 written in 1856, pointed it out: "Of 
 Jute years," he wrote, "the wheels 
 of Government have been moving 
 very fast. Many native prejudices 
 have been shocked. ISIalives are 
 
 now threatened with the abolition of 
 polygamy. It would not be diificult 
 to twist this into an attack on Hin- 
 dooism. At any rate, the faster the 
 vessel glides, the more need, of cau- 
 tion, of watching the weather, the 
 rocks, and the shoals.'* 
 
478 
 
 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856. actual legislation until public opinion should have 
 been more unmistakably evoked.* 
 
 In the personal action of Lord Canning during 
 this year of his novitiate, in the promotion either of 
 the religious conversion or the social reformation of 
 the people, I can see no traces of intemperate zeal. 
 But it is not to be questioned that just at this time 
 there was a combination of many untoward circum- 
 stances to strengthen the belief, which had been 
 growing for some years, that the English Government 
 were bent upon bringing, by fair means or by foul, 
 all the nations of India under the single yoke of the 
 White Man's faith. Nor is it less certain that at such 
 a time the order for the enlistment of Native troops 
 for general service appeared to their unaided compre- 
 hensions, and was designedly declared by others, to be 
 a part of the scheme. There were those, indeed, who 
 
 * Lord Canning's opinions are so 
 clearly expressed in the following 
 passage, that it is right that his 
 words should be given : " It will, no 
 doubt, be a little staggering to find 
 ourselves drawing up a law by which, 
 although a horrible abuse of poly- 
 gamy will be checked, a very liberal 
 amount of it will be sanctioned, and 
 which must recognise as justifying it 
 reasons which we believe to be no 
 justification whatever. It may be 
 said that we shall only be enforcing 
 Hindoo law, and that we are con- 
 stantly doing tliis in many ways 
 which abstractedly we should not 
 approve. But 1 do not know that 
 we have any examples of laws of our 
 own making and wording, by which 
 anything so contrary to our convic- 
 tions of right and wrong as the 
 taking of a second wife, for the rea- 
 sons allowed by Menu (or at least 
 for eight of them out of ten), is de- 
 clared lawful. This, however, is a 
 matter of appearance and feeling 
 rather than of substance. Practically, 
 
 a monstrous horror would be put an 
 end to, and we might keep ourselves 
 straight even in appearance by mak- 
 ing it very clear in the preamble that 
 the act is passed at the desire of the 
 Hindoos to rescue their own law and 
 custom from a great abuse, and that 
 in no respect is it proposed to sub- 
 stitute English law for the laws of 
 
 that people Upon the whole, 
 
 I come, without hesitation, to the 
 conclusion that the movement ought 
 to be encouraged to our utmost, and 
 that the existence and strength of it 
 ought to be made generally known. 
 Tiie presentation of the petitions to 
 the Legislative Council, and their 
 publication, will effect this. How 
 soon the introduction of a bill should 
 follow, or how much time should be 
 given to seeing whether serious op- 
 position is evoked, I should like to 
 talk over with you some day, as also 
 the scope of the bill." — Lord Canning 
 to Mr. J. P. Grant, June 20, 1856. 
 MS. Correspondence, 
 
MISSIONARY COLONELS. 479 
 
 saw, or professed to see, in this matter, the very root 18^5. 
 of our cherished desire for the conversion of the 
 people It was said that we wished to bring them all 
 to our own faith in order that we might find them 
 willing to do our bidding in all parts of the world, 
 that they might shrink from no kind of work by sea 
 or by land, and even fight our battles in Europe ; for 
 it was plain that England had sad lack of fighting 
 men, or she would not have drawn upon India for 
 them during the Crimean war. In the art of what is 
 called "putting two and two together," there were 
 many intelligent natives by no means deficient, and 
 deeper and deeper the great suspicion struck root in 
 the popular mind. 
 
 There Avas another ugly symptom, too, at this 
 time, which greatly, in some particular quarters, 
 strengthened this impression of coming danger 
 among the Sepoys of the Bengal Army. There were I / 
 among the Euro£ean__officers of that army many j "^ 
 earnest-minded, zealou^ChristlajQS ; men whose hearts 
 were wrung by the sight of the vast mass of heathen- 
 dom around them, and who especially deplored the 
 darkness which brooded over their companions in 
 arms, their children in the service of the State, the 
 Sepoys who looked up to and obeyed them. Some, 
 in their conscientious prudence, grieved in silence, 
 and rendered unto Caesar the homage of a wise for- 
 bearance. Others, conscientiously imprudent, be- 
 lieved that it was their duty to render unto God the 
 just tribute of an apostolic activity. It was the creed 
 of these last that all men were alike to them, as havino; 
 souls to be saved, and that no external circumstances 
 affected their own inalienable right to do their great 
 Master's work. If under the pressure of these con- 
 victions they had changed the red coat for the black,^ 
 
480 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 H56. and the sword for the shepherd's crook, they would 
 have fairly earned the admiration of all good men. 
 But holding fast to the wages of the State, they went 
 about with the order-book in one hand and the Biblr 
 in the other ; and thus they did a great and grievous 
 wrong to the Government they professed to serve. To 
 what extent this missionary zeal pervaded our English 
 officers, it is not easy, with much precision, to declare. 
 But there were some of whose missionary zeal there 
 is now no remnant of a doubt — some who confessed, 
 nay, openly gloried in their proselytising endeavours. 
 O ne offi cer, jvvhojn 185^7 was commandant of a regi- 
 ment of Infantry, said vauntingly in that year : ''I 
 beg to state that during the last twenty years and 
 upwards, I have been in the habit of speaking to 
 natives of all classes, Sepoys and others, making no 
 distinction, since there is no respect of persons with 
 God, on the subject of our religion, in the highways, 
 cities, bazaars, and villages — not in the Lines and 
 reirimental Bazaars. I have done this from a convic- 
 tion that every converted Christian is expected, or 
 rather commanded, by the Scriptures to make known 
 the glad tidings of salvation to his lost fellow-crea- 
 tures. Our Saviour having offered himself up as a 
 sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, by which 
 alone salvation can be secured. He has directed that 
 this salvation should be freely offered to all without 
 exception." Again, in another letter, he wrote: "As 
 to the question whether I have endeavoured to con- 
 vert Sepoys and others to Christianity, I would 
 humbly reply that this has been my object, and I con- 
 ceive is the aim and end of every Christian who 
 speaks the word of God to another — merely that the 
 Lord would make him the happy instrument of con- 
 verting his neighbour to God, or, in other words, of 
 
COLONEL WIIELER'S MANIFESTO. 481 
 
 rescuing him from eternal destruction." " On mat- 
 ters ccnT*ected with rehgion," he added, *' I feel myself' 
 called upon to act in two capacities — ' to render unto 
 Caesar (or the Government) the things that are 
 Cffisar's, and to render unto God the things that are 
 God's.' Temporal matters and spiritual matters are 
 thus kept clearly under their respective heads. When 
 speaking, therefore, to a native on the subject of 
 religion, I am then acting in the capacity of a 
 Christian soldier under the authority of my heavenly 
 superior; whereas in temporal matters I act as a 
 general officer, under the authority and order of my 
 earthly superior."* Reading this, one does not know 
 whether more to admire the Christian courage of the 
 Avriter or to marvel at the strange moral blindness 
 which would not suffer him to see that he could not 
 serve both God and Mammon ; that ignoring the 
 known wishes and instructions of his temporal 
 master, he could not do his duty to his spiritual 
 Lord ; and that if in such a case the two services 
 were antagonistic to each other, it was his part, as a 
 Christian, to divest himself of his purchased alle- 
 giance to the less worthy Government, and to serve 
 the Other and the Higher without hindrance and 
 without reproach. He was not bound to continue to 
 follow such a calling, but whilst following it he was 
 bound to do his duty in that state of life to which 
 it had pleased God to call him. 
 
 Whilst all these disturbing influences were at 
 W'Ork, and on many accounts most actively in the 
 neighbourhood of Calcutta, there came from afar, 
 across the North-Western frontier, a current of poli- 
 tical agitation, w^hich was met by other streams of 
 
 * Lieuteaant-Colonel Wilder to Government, April 15, 1857.—Frmted 
 Paper9. 
 
 2 I 
 
 1856. 
 
482 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. . 
 
 1856, native origin, turgid also with troublous rumours. 
 The Persian Government, in best of times given to 
 treachery and trickery, even under the fairest outside 
 show of friendship, were not likely in such a con- 
 juncture as had arisen at the end of 1856, to let slip 
 any available means of damaging an enemy. Holding 
 fast to the maxim that " All is fair in war," they en- 
 deavoured, not unwisely after their kind, to raise 
 manifold excitements on our Northern frontier, and 
 somehow to "create a diversion." There might be 
 some inflammable materials stre^vn about, to which a 
 firebrand skilfully applied, or even a spark dropped 
 seemingly haphazard, might produce the desired 
 result of combustion. Truly it was worth a trial. In 
 spite of Sectarian differences something perhaps might 
 be done by an appeal to the common faith of the fol- 
 lowers of the Prophet. The King of Delhi, though 
 not much as a substantial fact, was a great and 
 potential name ; there was some vitality in the tradi- 
 tions which were attached to it and the associations 
 by which it was surrounded. The Mogul himself was 
 a Soonee, and the people of Delhi and its surround- 
 ings were mostly Soonees, and there was doubtless a 
 difficulty in this, but not one that might not be sur- 
 mounted. So Persia sent forth her emissaries noise- 
 lessly to the gates of the Imperial City, perhaps with 
 no very clear conception of what was to be done, but 
 with a general commission to do mischief to the 
 English. Mahomedans of all sects might be invited 
 to lay aside their doctrinal differences for a while and 
 to unite against a common enemy. There might be 
 great promises of the restoration of a magnificent 
 Mahomedan Empire ; and, as the least result of the 
 scattering of such seed, the minds of the people might 
 be unsettled, and something might come of it in good 
 
POLITICAL INQUIETUDES. 483L 
 
 time. A Proclamation was therefore prepared, and in 1855. 
 due course it found its way to the w^alls of Delhi, and 
 even displayed itself on the Jumma Musjid, or Great 
 Mosque. There were stories, too, in circulation to 
 the effect that the war on the shores of the Persian 
 Gulf was going cruelly against us. It was bruited 
 abroad, also, that though tlie English thought that 
 they had secured the friendship of Dost Mahomed, 
 the Ameer was really the friend and vassal of Persia, 
 and that the amity he had outwardly evinced towards 
 them was only a pretext for beguiling them to sur- 
 render Peshawur to the Afghans. 
 
 It was believed in Upper India that this was to 
 be done ; and it was reported also about the same 
 time that the English intended to compensate 
 themselves for this concession by annexing the 
 whole of Rajpootana. This last story was not one 
 of merely native acceptance. It had been set forth 
 prominently in some of the Anglo-Indian newspapers, 
 and unhappily there had been nothing in our past 
 treatment of the Native States of India to cause it 
 to be disbelieved. In the North-Western regions of 
 India disturbing rumours commonly assume a poli- 
 tical colour, whilst lower down in Bengal and Behar, 
 their complexion is more frequently of a religious 
 cast. The rumour of the coming absorption of these 
 ancient Hindoo principalities into the great new 
 Empire of the British was well contrived, not only 
 to excite the anxieties and resentments of the Raj- 
 poot races, but to generate further political mistrust 
 throughout all the remaining states of the country. 
 It was so mischievous a report that, when it reached 
 England and obtained further currency in our jour- 
 nals, even the Court of Directors of the East India 
 
 2x2. 
 
484 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1856 Company, the most reticent of all political bodies, 
 broke, as I have before said, through their habitual 
 reserve, and authoritatively contradicted it. 
 
 Seldom is it that the English themselves discern 
 the effects of these disquieting rumours upon the 
 minds of the people. In ordinary official language, 
 at this time, all was quiet in Upper India. But ever 
 and anon some friendly Mahomedan or Hindoo spoke 
 of certain significant symptoms of the unrest which 
 was not visible to the English eye ;* and vague re- 
 ports of some coming danger which no one could 
 define, reached our functionaries in the North- 
 West; and some at last began to awaken slowly to 
 the conviction that there Avere evil influences at 
 work to unsettle the national mind. The new year 
 dawned, and there was something suggestive in the 
 number of the year. In 1757 the English had est^- 
 blished their dominion in India by the conquest of 
 
 * Tlie old Afghan chief, Jan should be, 'Prevention better than 
 rislian Khan, who had followed our cure,' and that, with enemies at the 
 fortunes and received a pension from s^tCj we should take care to keep 
 tlie British Government, told Mr. the inmates of the house our friends. 
 Greathed, Commissioner at Cawn- He appeared quite relieved to re- 
 pore, in February, 1857, that these ceive my assurance that there was 
 rumours had produced a very bad no probability of either of the appre- 
 effect. A private note from that bended events coming to pass. It 
 officer to Mr. Colvin, the Lieule- would hardly have been worth while 
 nant-Governor, is worthy of citation to mention this incident, but that 
 in this place: "Jan Pishan Khan we so rarely receive any indication 
 paid me a visit a few days ago witli of the political gossip of the day 
 the special object of communicating among the native community ; and 
 his apprehensions on the present we may feel quite sure that Jan 
 state of political affairs in India. Fishan was actuated by fears for our 
 He brouglit several members of his welfare, and not by hopes of our 
 family, evidently to be witnesses of overthrow, when he gave credence 
 the interview, and prefaced his ad- to the reports. I am afraid the fre- 
 dress with a recitation of tlie fruit- quent reports of annexation in Raj- 
 less warnings he had given Sir Wm. pootana have agitated the public 
 MacNaghten of the course affairs mind and bred distrust among the 
 were taking in Cabul. His fears Rajpoots. It is a pity so many 
 for our safety rested on his belief years have elapsed since a Governor- 
 that we intended to give up Pesha- General had an opportunity of per- 
 wurto Dost Mahomed, and to annex sonally assuring them of their poli- 
 Rajpootana. He said our maxim tical safety." 
 
THE CExXTEXARY ITtOPlIECY. 485 
 
 Bengal. For a hundred years they had now, by the 185G. 
 progressive action of continued encroachments, been 
 spreading their paramount rule over the whole 
 country; and there were prophecies, said to be of 
 ancient date, which foretold the downfal of the Eng- 
 lish power at the end of this century of supremacy. 
 Ever in times of popular excitement are strange pro 
 phecies afloat in the social atmosphere. Whether 
 they are revivals of old predictions, or new inven- 
 tions designed to meet the requirements of the mo- 
 ment, it is often difficult even to conjecture.* But 
 whether old or new, whether uttered in good faith or 
 fraudulently manufactured, they seldom failed to 
 make an impression on the credulous minds of the 
 people. Coming upon them not as the growth of 
 human intelligence, but as the mysterious revelations 
 of an unseen power, they excited hopes and aspira- 
 tions, perhaps more vital and cogent from their very 
 vagueness. The religious element mingled largely 
 with the political, and the aliment which nourished 
 the fanaticism of believers fed also their ambition 
 and their cupidity. In the particular prophecy of 
 which men at this time were talking there was at 
 least something tangible, for it was a fact that the 
 first century of British rule was fast coming to an 
 end. This in itself was sufficient to administer 
 largely to the superstition and credulity of the people, 
 and it was certain, too, that the prediction based 
 upon it was not now heard for the first time. Lightly 
 heeded, when long years were to intervene before its 
 
 * It is certain, however, that the pointing to the downfal of the Eiij- 
 
 most preposterous claims to auti- lish at this time; in otlier words, 
 
 quitj are sometimes advanced on that our destruction had been pre- 
 
 tlieir belialf. Eor example, it was dieted many hundred years before 
 
 gravely stated in a leading Calcutta we had ever been seen in the 
 
 journal, that a propliecy had been country, or ever heard of by the 
 
 discovered, a thousand years old, people. 
 
4^o 
 
 OuTBlt£Ak ov I'm M'jrxi^r, 
 
 1856. possible realisation, now that the date of the pre- 
 diction had arrived, it took solemn and significani 
 shape in the memories of men, and the very excite- 
 ment that it engendered helped in time to bring 
 about its fulfilment.* 
 
 * Whether the prophecy was of 
 Hindoo or Maliomcdau orio-in is still 
 a moot question. The following, 
 from a memorandum furnished to me 
 by Mr. E. A. Reade, throws some 
 light on the subject and will be read 
 with no little interest : — " I do not 
 think I ever met one man in a hun- 
 dred that did not give the Mahome- 
 dans credit for this prediction. 1 
 fully believe that Ihe notion of 
 change after a century of tenure was 
 general, and I can testify with others 
 to have heard of the prediction at 
 least a quarter of a century pre- 
 viously. But call it a prediction or 
 supersitition, the credit of it must, 
 I think, be given to the Hindoos. 
 Tf we take tlie Hejra calendar, 1757 
 A.D. corresponds witii 1171 Hejra; 
 1857 A.D. with 1274 Hejra. Whereas 
 by the luni-solar vear of the Sunibut, 
 1757 A.D. is 1814 Sunibut, and 1857 
 A.D. 1914 Sumbut. I remember on 
 
 my remarking to a chowvey Brah- 
 min, whose loyalty was conspicuous 
 throughout the period (he was after- 
 terwards killed in action with the 
 rebels), soon after the battle of Oct. 
 11, 1857, that the Sumbut 1915 was 
 passing away without the fulfilment 
 of tlie centenary prophecy, that he 
 replied with some anxiety, there was 
 vet a remainder of the year, i.e. till 
 March 20, 1858 ; and before that 
 time, in 1832, the Subadar, a Te- 
 waree, of a cavalry regiment, in his 
 farewell to a brother of mine leaving 
 the service in ihat year, coolly tell- 
 ing him that in another twenty-five 
 years the Company's Raj would be 
 at an end, and the Hinduo Baj re- 
 stored. It certainly does not much 
 matter, but I think it is the safe 
 view to accept the tradition as of 
 Hindoo rather than Mahomedan 
 origin." 
 
THE RISING OF THE STORM. 4^7 
 
 risin; 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE NEW RIFLED MUSKET— THE STORY OF THE GREASED CARTRIDGS8— 
 DUM-DUM AND BARRACRPORE— EXCITEMENT IN THE NATIVE REGIMENTS 
 — EVENTS AT BERHAMPORE— MUTINY OF THE NINETEENTH REGIMENT 
 — CONDUCT OF COLONEL MITCHELL. 
 
 The new year dawned upon India witli a fair Jan., 1S57. 
 promise of continued tranquillity. But it was only a 
 few weeks old when tlie storm began to arise. It is The storm 
 in tlie cold weatlier that the British officer sees most 
 of the Sepoy, and best understands his temper. Com- 
 pany drills, and regimental parades, and brigade 
 exercises, are continually bringing him face to face 
 with his men, and he roams about Cantonments as he 
 cannot roam in the midst of the summer heats and 
 autumnal deluges. But this winter of 1856-57 had 
 nearly passed away, and he had seen no indications 
 of anything to disturb his settled faith in the fidelity 
 of the native soldier. There was outward serenity i 
 everywhere, and apparent cheerfulness and content, 
 when suddenly a cloud arose in an unexpected quar- 
 ter; and a tremendous danger, dimly seen at first, 
 began to expand into gigantic proportions. 
 
 For years the enemies of the English, all who had 
 been alarmed by our encroachments, all who had 
 suffered by our usurpations, all who had been shorn 
 
488 THE OUTBREAK OF TUE MUTINY. 
 
 1857. by our intervention of privileges and perquisites 
 which they had once enjoyed, and who saw before 
 them a still deeper degradation and a more absolute 
 ruin, had been seeking just such an opportunity as 
 now rose up suddenly before them. They had looked 
 for it in one direction ; they had looked for it in an- 
 other ; and more than once they thought that they 
 had found it. They thought that they had found 
 something, of which advantage might be taken to 
 persuade the Native soldiery that their Christian 
 masters purposed to defile their caste nnd to destroy 
 their religion. But the false steps, which we had 
 hitherto taken, had not been false enough to serve 
 the purposes of those wdio had songht to destroy the 
 British Government by means of a general revolt of 
 the Native Army. For half a century there had 
 been nothing of a sufficiently palpable and compre- 
 hensive character to alarm the whole Sepoy Army, 
 Mahomedan and Hindoo. But now, suddenly, a 
 story of most terrific import found its way into cir- 
 culation. It was stated that Government had manu- 
 factured cartridg: es, greased with animal fat, for the 
 use of the Native Army ; and the statement was not 
 a lie. 
 
 The old infantry musket, the venerable Brown 
 Bess of the British soldier, had been condemned as 
 a relic of barbarism, and it was wisely determined, 
 in the Indian as in the English Army, to supersede it 
 by the issue of an improved description of fire-arm, 
 with grooved bores, after the fashion of a rifle. Asa 
 ball from these new rifled muskets reached the enemy 
 at a much greater distance than the ammunition of 
 the old weapon, the Sepoy rejoiced in the advantage 
 which would thus be conferred upon him in battle, 
 •End lauded the Government for what he regarded as 
 
/ 
 
 THE GREASED CARTRIDGES. 489 
 
 a Sign both of tlie wisdom of his rulers and of their 1S67. 
 solicitude for his welfare. And when it was learnt 
 that depots had been established at three great mili- 
 tary stations for the instruction of the Sepoy in the 
 use of the new weapon, there was great talk in the 
 Lines about the wonderful European musket that 
 was to keep all comers at a distance. But, unhappily, 
 these rifled barrels could not be loaded without the 
 lubrication of the cartridge. And the voice of joy 
 and praise was suddenly changed into a wild cry of 
 grief and despair when it was bruited abroad that the, 
 cartridge, the end of which w^as to be bitten oif by 
 the Sepoy, was greased with the fat of the detested 
 swine of the Mahomedau, or the venerated cow of the 
 Hindoo. 
 
 How the truth first transpired has been often told. Story of the 
 Eight miles from Calcutta lies the military station of "^..^j.^^j^cg. 
 Dum-Dum. For many years it had been the head- 
 quarters of the Bengal Artillery. There all the many 
 distinguished oflicers of that distinguished corps had 
 learnt the rudiments of their profession, and many 
 had spent there the happiest years of their lives. But 
 it was suddenly discovered that it was not suited to 
 the purpose for which it w^as designed. The head- 
 quarters of the Artillery were removed to Meerut. 
 The red coat displaced the blue. The barracks and the 
 mess-house, and the officers' bungalows, were given 
 up to other occupants ; and buildings, which from 
 their very birth had held nothing but the appliances 
 of ordnance, were degraded into manufactories and 
 storehouses of small-arm ammunition. Thus, by a 
 mutation of fortune, when the Enfield Rifle began to 
 supersede Brown Bess, Dum-Dum became one of 
 three Cantonments at which the Government esta- 
 blished Schools of Musketry for instruction in the use 
 
400 THE outereat; of the i^iutiny. 
 
 1857. of the improved rifled weapon. Now, it happened 
 that, one day in January, a low-caste Lascar, or 
 magazine- man, meeting a high-caste Sepoy in the 
 Cantonment, asked him for a drink of water from 
 his lotah. The Brahmin at once replied with an 
 objection on the score of caste, and was tauntingly 
 told that caste was nothino;, that hio;h-caste and low- 
 caste would soon be all the same, as cartridges 
 smeared with beef-fat and hog's-lard were being made 
 for the Sepoys at the depots, and would soon be in 
 general use througho at the army.* 
 
 The Brahmin carried this story to his comrades, 
 and it was soon known to every Sepoy at the depot. 
 A shudder ran through the Lines. Each man to 
 whom the story was told caught the great fear from 
 his neighbour, and trembled at the thought of the 
 pollution that lay before him. The contamination 
 was to be brought to his very lips ; it was not merely 
 to be touched, it was to be eaten and absorbed into 
 his very being. It was so terrible a thing, that, if the 
 most malignant enemies of the British Government 
 had sat in conclave for years, and brought an excess 
 of devilish ingenuity to bear upon the invention of a 
 scheme framed with the design of alarming the Sepoy 
 mind from one end of India to the other, they could 
 not have devised a lie better suited to the purpose. 
 But now the English themselves had placed in the 
 hands of their enemies, not a fiction, but a fact of 
 tremendous significance, to be turned against them as 
 a deadly instrument of destruction. It was the very 
 thing that had been so long sought, and up to this 
 time sought in vain. It required no explanation. It 
 
 * No greased cartridges had been only in the rudiments of tlieir rifle- 
 issued at Dum-Dum. TJie Sepoys education, and bad not cume yet to 
 in the musketry school there were need the application of the grease. 
 
SPREAD OF EVIL TIDINGS. 491 
 
 needed no ingenious gloss to make the full force of 1S57. 
 the thing itself patent to the multitude. It was not 
 a suggestion, an inference, a probability ; but a de- 
 monstrative fact, so complete in its naked truth, that 
 no exaggeration could have helped it. Like the case 
 of the leathern head-dresses, which had convulsed 
 Southern India half a century before, it appealed to 
 the strongest fcffeg*' bnth of the Mahomedan ?ij»(T 
 the Hindoo ; bat though similar in kind, it was h.- 
 comparably more offensive in degree ; more insult- 
 ing, more appalling, more disgusting. 
 
 We know so little of Native Indian society beyond 
 its merest externals, the colour of the people's skins, 
 the form of their garments, the outer aspects of their 
 houses, that History, whilst it states broad results, 
 can often only surmise causes. But there are some 
 surmises which have little less than the force of 
 gospel. We feel what we cannot see, and have faith 
 in what we cannot prove. It is a fact, that there is a 
 certain description of news, which travels in India, 
 from one station to another, with a rapidity almost 
 electric. Before the days of the " lightning post," 
 there was sometimes intelligence in the Bazaars of the 
 Native dealers and the Lines of the Native soldiers, 
 especially if the news imported something disastrous 
 to the British, days before it reached, in any official 
 shape, the high functionaries of Government.* We 
 cannot trace the progress of these evil-tidings. The 
 Natives of India have an expressive saying, that " it 
 is in the air." It often happened that an uneasy feel- 
 
 * The news of the first outbreak Government House from any official 
 
 and massacre at Caubul, in 1841, quarter ; and the mutiny at Barrack- 
 
 and also of the subsequent destruc- pore was known by the Sepoys of the 
 
 tion of the British Army in the Pass, British force proceeding to Burmah 
 
 reached Calcutta through tlie Ba- before it reached the military and 
 
 zaars of Meerut and Kurnal some political chiefs by special express, 
 
 days before they found their way to See ante, p. 269. 
 
492 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1857. ing — an impression that something had happened, 
 though they " could not discern the shape thereof" — 
 pervaded men's minds, in obscure anticipation of the 
 news that was travellins; to^vards them in all its tan- 
 gible proportions. All along the line of road^ from 
 town to town, from village to village, were thousands 
 to whom the feet of those who brought the glad tidings 
 were beautiful and welcome. The British magistrate, 
 returning from his evening ride, was perhaps met on 
 the road near the Bazaar by a venerable Native on 
 an ambling pony — a Native respectable of aspect, 
 wdth white beard and whiter garments, who salaamed 
 to the English gentleman as he passed, and went on 
 his way freighted with intelligence refreshing to the 
 souls of those to whom it was to be communicated, 
 to be used with judgment and sent on with despatch. 
 This was but one of many costumes worn by the 
 messenger of evil. In whatsoever shape he passed, 
 there was nothing outwardly to distinguish him. 
 Next morning there was a sensation in the Bazaar, 
 and a vague excitement in the Sepoys' Lines. But 
 when rumours of disaster reached the houses of the 
 chief English officers, they were commonly discre- 
 dited. Their own letters were silent on the subject. 
 It was not likely to be true, they said, as they had 
 heard nothing about it. But it was true ; and the 
 news had travelled another hundred miles whilst the 
 white gentlemen, with bland scepticism, were shaking 
 their heads over the lies of the Bazaar. 
 
 It is difficult, in most cases, to surmise the agency 
 to whose interested efforts is to be attributed this 
 rapid circulation of evil tidings. But when the fact 
 of the greased cartridges became known, there were 
 two great motive powers, close at hand, to give an 
 immediate impulse to the promulgation of the story. 
 
DISSEMINATORS OF EVIL. 
 
 493 
 
 The political and the religious animosities, excited by 
 the recent measures of the English, were lying in 
 wait for an opportunity to vent themselves in action. 
 It happened at this time, that the enmities w^hich we 
 had most recently provoked had their head-quarters 
 in Calcutta. It happened, also, that these enmities 
 had their root partly in Hindooism, partly in Ma- 
 homedanism. There was the great Brahminical In- 
 stitution, the Doorma Soobha of Calcutta, whose 
 special function it was to preserve Hindooism pure 
 and simple in all its ancestral integrity, and, there- 
 fore, to resist the invasions and encroachments of the 
 English, by which it w^as continually threatened. 
 There were bygone injuries to revenge, and there 
 were coming dangers to repel. On the other side, 
 there was the deposed king-ship of Oude, with all its 
 perilous surroundings. Sunk in slothfulness and self- 
 indulgence, with little real care for anything beyond 
 the enjoyment of the moment, Wajid Ali himself may 
 have neither done nor suggested anything, in this 
 crisis, to turn to hostile account the fact of the greased 
 cartridges. But there were those about him with 
 keener eyes, and stronger wills, and more resolute ac- 
 tivities, who were not likely to suffer such an oppor- 
 tunity to escape. It needed no such special agencies 
 to propagate a story, which would have travelled, in 
 ordinary course of accidental tale-bearing, to the dif- 
 ferent stations in the neighbourhood of the capital. 
 But it was expedient in the eyes of our enemies that 
 it should at once be invested Avith all its terrors, and 
 the desired effect wrought upon the Sepoy's mind, be- 
 fore any one could be induced, by timely official ex- 
 planation, to believe that the outrage was an accident, 
 an oversight, a mistake. So, from the beginning, the 
 story went forth that the English, in prosecution of a 
 
 1857. 
 
 i/ 
 
494 OUTBKEAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 * 
 
 1857. long-clierished design, and under instructions from 
 the Queen in Council, had greased the Sepoys' car- 
 tridges with the fat of pigs and cows, for the express 
 purpose of defiling both Mahomedans and Hindoos. 
 
 On the banks of the Hooghly River, sixteen miles 
 from Calcutta by land, is the great military sta- 
 tion of Barrackpore. It was the head-quarters of 
 the Presidency division of the Army. There was 
 assembled the largest body of Native troops cantoned 
 in that part of India. Tliere, on the green slopes of 
 the river, stood, in a Avell- wooded park, the country- 
 seat of the Governor-General. Both in its social and 
 its military aspects it was the foremost Cantonment of 
 Bengal. As the sun declined on the opposite bank, 
 burnishing the stream with gold, and throwing into 
 dark relief the heavy masses of the native boats, the 
 park roads were alive with the equipages of the Eng- 
 lish residents. There visitors from Calcutta, escaping 
 for a while from the white glare and the dust-laden 
 atmosphere of the metropolis, consorted with the 
 families of the military officers ; and the neighbouring 
 villas of Titaghur sent forth their retired inmates to 
 join the throng of " eaters of the evening air." There 
 the young bride, for it was a rare place for honey- 
 moons, emerging from her seclusion, often looked out 
 upon the world for the first time in her new state. 
 There many a young ensign, scarcely less hopeful 
 and less exultant, wore for the first time the bridal 
 garments of his profession, and backed the capering 
 Arab that had consumed a large part of his worldly 
 wealth. It was a pleasant, a gay, a hospitable sta- 
 tion ; and there was not in all India a Cantonment 
 so largely known and frequented by the English, 
 lliere was scarcely an officer of the Bengal Army to 
 whom the name of Barrackpore did not suggest some 
 
: THE BARRACKPORE BRIGADE. 495 
 
 familiar associations, whilst to numbers of the non- 1S37. 
 military classes, whose occupations tied them to the 
 capital, it was, for long years, perhaps throughout 
 the whole of their money-getting career, the extreme 
 point to which their travels extended. 
 
 At Barrackpore, in the early part of 1857, were 
 stationed four Native Infantry regiments. There were 
 the Second Grenadiers* and the Forty-third, two of 
 the " beautiful regiments" which had helped General 
 Nott to hold Candahar against all comers, and had 
 afterwards gained new laurels in desperate conflict 
 with the Mahrattas and Sikhs. There was the Thirty- 
 fourth, an ill-omened number, for a few years before 
 it had been struck out of the Army List for mutiny,f 
 and a new regiment had been raised to fill the dis- 
 honourable gap. There also was the Seventieth, which 
 had rendered good service in the second Sikh war. 
 Three of these regiments had been recently stationed 
 in the Punjab, or on its frontier, and the Thirty 
 fourth had just come down from Lucknow. This 
 last regiment was commanded by Colonel S. G. 
 Wheler, who had but recently been posted to it 
 from another corps ; the Forty-third was under 
 Colonel J. D. Kennedy, whose tenure of command 
 had also been brief; whilst the Seventieth and the 
 wing of the Second were commanded by officers who 
 had graduated in those regiments, and were there- 
 fore well known to the men. The station was com- 
 manded by Brigadier Charles Grant ; and the General 
 of Division was that brave soldier and distinguished 
 officer, John Hearsey, of whose services I have al- 
 ready spoken in a previous chapter of this work. J 
 
 * A wing of this regiment was at J See Book IT. — Account of the 
 Ran egunge. Mutiny in the Punjab. 
 
 Ante, p. 298. 
 
49 G THE OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1857. On the 28th of January, Hearsey reported officially 
 
 to the iVdjutant- General's office that an ill-feeling was 
 ^'said to subsist in the minds of the Sepoys of the 
 regiments at Barrackpore." " A report," he said, 
 " has been spread by some designing persons, most 
 likely Brahmins, or agents of the religious Hindoo 
 party in Calcutta (I believe it is called the ^ Dharma 
 Sobha'), that the Sepoys are to be forced to embrace 
 the Christian faith." " Perhaps," he added, " those 
 Hindoos who are opposed to the marriage of widows 
 in Calcutta* are using underhand means to thwart 
 Government in abolishing the restraints lately re- 
 moved by law for the marriage of widows, and con- 
 ceive if they can make a party of the ignorant classes 
 in the ranks of the army believe their religion or 
 religious prejudices are eventually to be abolished by 
 force, and by force they are all to be made Christians, 
 and thus, by shaking their faith in Government, lose 
 the confidence of their officers by inducing Sepoys to 
 commit offences (such as incendiarism), so difficult to 
 put a stop to or prove, they will gain their object." 
 The story of the greased cartridges was by this time 
 in every mouth. There was not a Sepoy in the Lines 
 of Barrackpore who was not familiar with it. There 
 were few who did not believe that it was a deliberate 
 plot, on the part of the English, designed to break 
 down the caste of the Native soldier. And many 
 were persuaded that there was an ultimate design to 
 bring all men, along a common road of pollution, to 
 the unclean faith of the beef-devouring, swine-eating 
 Fcringhee, who had conquered their country and now 
 yearned to extirpate the creeds of their countrymen. 
 There was a time, perhaps, Avhen the Sepoy would 
 
 * The General, doubtless, meant who are oi)j)Oscd to the marriage of 
 to say, "those Hindoos in Calcutta widows." 
 
EXCITEMENT AT BAIiraCRPORE. 407 
 
 have carried the story to his commanding officer, and 1S57. 
 sought an explanation of it. Such confidences had 
 ceased to be a part of tlie rehitions between them. 
 But it was not the less manifest that the Native 
 soldiery at Barrackpore were boiling over with bitter 
 discontent. They had accepted not only the fact as 
 it came to them from Dum-Dum, but the accom- 
 panying lies which had been launched from Calcutta ; 
 and they soon began, after the lashion of their kind, 
 to make a public display of their wrath. It is their 
 wont in such cases to symbolise the irmer fires that 
 are consuming them by acts of material incendiarism. 
 No sooner is the Sepoy troubled in his mind, and 
 bent on resistance, than he begins covertly in the 
 night to set fire to some of the public buildings of 
 the place. Whether this is an ebullition of childish 
 anger — an outburst of irrepressible feeling in men 
 not yet ripe for more reasonable action ; or whether 
 it be intended as a signal, whether the fires are beacon- 
 fires lit up to warn others to be stirring, they are 
 seldom or never wanting in such conjunctures as this. 
 A few days after the story of the greased cartridges 
 first transpired at Dum-Dum, the telegraph station 
 at Barrackpore was burnt down. Then, night after 
 nio-ht, followed other fires. Burnino; arrows were shot 
 into the thatched roofs of officers' bungalows. It was 
 a trick learnt from the Sonthals, among whom the 
 Second Grenadiers had served ; and the fact that 
 similar fires, brought about by the same means, were 
 breaking out at Raneegunge, more than a hundred 
 miles away, stamped their complicity in the crime, 
 for one wing of the regiment was stationed there. 
 These incendiary fires were soon followed by noc- 
 turnal meetings. Men met each other with muffled 
 faces, and discussed, in excited language, the intole- 
 
 2 K 
 
at Berhani 
 pove 
 
 498 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1857. rable outrage whicli the British Government had 
 deliberately committed upon them. It is probable 
 that they were not all Sepoys who attended these 
 nightly musters. It is probable that they were not 
 all Sepoys who signed the letters that went forth 
 from the post-offices of Calcutta and Barrackpore, 
 calling upon the soldiery at all the principal stations of 
 the Bengal Army to resist the sacrilegious encroach- 
 ments of the English. All that is clearly known is, 
 that the meetings were held, that the letters were 
 sent ; and Cantonment after Cantonment fermented 
 with the story of the greased cartridges. 
 The mutiny A hundred miles from Barrackpore, to the north- 
 ward, on the banks of the river, lies the military station 
 of Berhampore. It was one well suited, by its position, 
 for the development of the desired results. For only 
 a few miles beyond it lay the city of Moorshedabad, 
 the home of the Newab Nazim of Bengal, the repre- 
 sentative of the line of Soubahdars, who, under the 
 Imperial Government, had once ruled that great 
 province. It was known that the Newab, who, 
 though stripped of his ancestral power, lived in a 
 palace with great wealth and titular dignity and the 
 surroundings of a Court, was rankling under a sense 
 of indignities put upon him by the British Govern- 
 ment, and that there Avere thousands in the city who 
 would have risen at the signal of one who, weak him- 
 self, was yet strong in the prestige of a great name. 
 At Berhampore, there were no European troops ; 
 there were none anvwhere near to it. A reo;iment 
 of Native Infantry, the Nineteenth, was stationed 
 there, with a corps of Irregular Cavalry, and a battery 
 of post guns manned by native gunners. It was not 
 difficult to see that if these troops were to rise agaiuv^t 
 their English officers, and the people of Moorshedabad 
 
THE THIRTY-FOURTH AT BERHAMPORE. 499 
 
 were to fraternise with them, in the name of the 1,857;. 
 Newab, all Bengal would soon be in a blaze. No 
 thoughts of this kind disturbed the minds of our 
 people, but the truth was very patent to the under- 
 standings of their enemies. 
 
 It happened, too, unfortunately at this time, that 
 the routine-action of the British Government favoured 
 the growth of the evil ; for w^hen the excitement was 
 great at Barrackpore, detachments went forth on 
 duty from the most disaffected regiments of all to 
 spread by personal intercourse the great contagion of 
 alarm. Firstly, a guard from the Thirty -fourth w^ent 
 upwards in charge of stud-horses ; and then, a week 
 later, another detachment from this regiment marched 
 in the same direction with a party of European con- 
 valescents. At Berhampore they were to be relieved 
 by men from the regiment there, and then to return 
 to their own head-quarters ; so that they had an 
 opportunity of communicatmg all that was going on 
 at Barrackpore to their comrades of the Nineteenth^ 
 of learning their sentiments and designs, and carry- 
 ing back to their own station, far more clearly and 
 unmistakably than could any correspondence by 
 letter, tidings of the state of feeling among the troops 
 at Berhampore, and the extent to which they were 
 prepared to resist the outrage of the greased car- 
 tridges. 
 
 When the men of the Thirty-fourth reached Ber- 
 hampore, their comrades of the Nineteenth received 
 them open-armed and open-mouthed. They were old 
 associates, for, not long before, they had been stationed 
 together at Lucknow ; and now the Nineteenth asked 
 eagerly what strange story was this that they had 
 heard from Barrackpore about the greasing of the 
 cartridges. It was not then a new story in the Lines 
 
 2 K 2 
 
500 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1857 of Berhampore, but was already two weeks old.* It 
 had been carried as quickly as the post or special 
 messenger could carry it from the one station to the 
 other, and it was soon afterwards in every man's 
 mouth. But it had wrought no immediate effect 
 upon the outer bearing of the Sepoys of the Nine- 
 teenth. The story was carried to the commanding 
 officer, who gave an assuring reply, saying that, if 
 there were any doubts in their minds, the men might 
 see for themselves the grease applied to their car- 
 tridges ; and so for a while the excitement was allayed. 
 But when the men of the Thirty-fourth went up from 
 Barrackpore and spoke of the feeling there — spoke of 
 the general belief among the Sepoys at the Presidency 
 that the Government deliberately designed to defile 
 them, and of the intended resistance to this foul and 
 fraudulent outrage — the Nineteenth listened to them 
 as to men speaking with high authority, for they 
 came from the very seat of Government, and were 
 not likely to err. So they took in the story as it was 
 told to them witli a comprehensive faith, and were 
 soon in that state of excitement and alarm which is 
 so often the prelude of dangerous revolt. 
 
 On the day after the arrival of the detachment 
 from Barrackpore, a parade of the Nineteenth was 
 Feb. 27. ordered for the following morning. It was an ordi- 
 nary parade, "accidental," meaning nothing. But it 
 was a parade "with blank ammunition," and a mean- 
 ing was found. There were in the morning no ap- 
 
 * The first detachment of the about, tliat Government intend to 
 
 Thirtv-fourih reached Berhampore make the Native Army use cow's fat 
 
 on tlie IStli of February, tlie second and pig's fat witli the ammunition 
 
 on the 25th. Colonel Mitcliell, for their new rifles?" It must have 
 
 writing on February IG, says, that reached Berhampore, therefore, either 
 
 about a fortnic^lit before a Brahmin by tlie post or by Cossid (messen- 
 
 Pav-Havildariiad asked iiim, " What ger) at the very beginning of the 
 
 is tliis story that everybody is talking month ol February. 
 
EXCITEMENT IX THE NINETEENTH. 501 
 
 parent signs of disaifection, but, before the evening 1857. 
 had passed away, Adjutant M 'Andrew carried to the 
 quarters of Colonel Mitchell a disquieting report, to 
 the eifect that there Avas great excitement in the 
 Lines ; that when their percussion-caps had been 
 served out to them for the morning's parade, the 
 men had refused to take them, and that they had 
 given as the ground of their refusal the strong sus- 
 picion they entertained that the cartridges had been 
 defiled. It was the custom not to distribute the 
 cartridges among the men before the morning of 
 parade ; but the general supply for the regiment had 
 been served out from the magazine, and, before being 
 stored away for the night, had been seen by some of 
 the Sepoys of the corps. Now, it happened that the 
 paper of which the cartridges were made was, to the 
 outward eye, of two different kinds, and, as the men 
 had heard that fresh supplies of ammunition had 
 been received from Calcutta in the course of the 
 month, they leapt at once to the conviction that new 
 cartridges of the dreaded kind had been purposely 
 mixed up with the old, and the panic that had been 
 growing upon them culminated in this belief.* 
 
 Upon receipt of this intelligence, Mitchell at once 
 started for the Lines, and summoned his native 
 officers to meet him in the front of the Quarter- 
 Guard. In such a conjuncture, a calm but resolute 
 demeanour, a few words of kindly explanation and of 
 solemn warning, as from one not speaking for himself 
 but for a benignant and a powerful Government, 
 might have done much to convince those Native 
 officers, and through them the Sepoys of the regi- 
 
 * The fact, however, was, that cutta, whieli consisted mainly of 
 there were no cartridges among the powder in barrels, 
 stores recently received from Cal- 
 
502 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1857. ment, that tliey had laid hold of a dangerous delu- 
 sion. But Mitchell spoke as one under the excite- 
 ment of anger, and he threatened rather than he 
 warned. He said that the cartridges had been made 
 up, a year before, by the regiment that had preceded 
 them in cantonments, that there was no reason for 
 their alarm, and that if, after this explanation, they 
 should refuse to take their ammunition, the regiment 
 would be sent to Burmah or to China, where the 
 men would die,* and that the severest punishment 
 would overtake every man known to have actively 
 resisted the orders of his Government. So the Native 
 officers went their wav, with no new confidence de- 
 rived from the words that had fallen from their 
 Colonel, but, on the other hand, strengthened in all 
 their old convictions of imminent danger to their 
 caste and their religion. He would not have spoken 
 so angrily, they argued, if mischief had not been in- 
 tended. They looked upon the irritation he displayed 
 as a proof that his sinister designs had been inoppor- 
 tunely discovered.! 
 
 Such was the logic of their fears. Colonel Mitchell 
 went to his home ; but as he drove thither through 
 the darkness of the night, with the Adjutant beside 
 him, he felt that there was danger in the air, and that 
 
 ■* After reading all the evidence &c. &c. ; for Mitcliell had denied it 
 that I can find tlirowinf? lip^ht upon on the 18th of March, saving, "I 
 this scene at the Quarter-Guard, I certainly did not make use of the ex- 
 am forced upon the conviction that- pressionabove quoted." — Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Mitchell did use some such Colonel Mitchell to Assistant-Adju- 
 words as these. Lord Canning was, iant-General. Published Papers. 
 liowever, under an erroneous im- f " He gave this order so angrily, 
 presslon when he wrote in his minute that we were convinced that the 
 of May 13, " The inconsiderate cartridges were greased, otherwise 
 threat, that if Ihe men did not re- he would not have spoken so." — 
 ceive their cartridges he Avould take Petition of the Nalioe Officers of 
 them to Burmah or to China, wliere the Nineteenth Regiment. Published 
 tiiey would die, which is not denied Papers. 
 by Lieutenant -Colonel Mitchell," 
 
MUTINY OF THE NINETEENTH. 503 
 
 something must be done to meet it. But what could 1*57. 
 be done? There were no white troops at Berham- 
 pore, and the Nineteenth Regiment composed the 
 bulk of the black soldiery. But there were a regi- 
 ment of Irregular Cavalry and a detachment of 
 Native Artillery, with guns, posted at the station, 
 and, as these dwelt apart from the Infantry, they 
 might not be tainted by the same disease. Weaker 
 in numbers, as compared with the Infantry, they had 
 a countervailing strength in their guns and horses. A 
 few rounds of grape, and a charge of Cavalry with 
 drawn sabres, might destroy a regiment of Foot be- 
 yond all further hope of resistance. Mitchell might 
 not have thought that things would come to this 
 pass ; it was his object to overawe, and, by over- 
 awing, to prevent the crisis. But, whatsoever his 
 thoughts at that time, he issued his orders that the 
 Cavalry and Artillery should be prepared to attend 
 the morning parade. 
 
 In India, men retire early to their rest, for they 
 seldom outsleep the dawn. It was little j^ast the hoar 
 of ten, therefore, when Mitchell, just having betaken 
 himself to his couch, heavy with thought of the 
 morrow's work, was startled by the sound of a strange 
 commotion from the direction of the Lines. There 
 w^as a beating of drums, and there were shoutings 
 from many voices, and a confused uproar, the mean- 
 ing of which it was impossible to misinterpret. 
 Plainly the Regiment had risen. Ever since the 
 Colonel's interview Avith the Native officers the ex- 
 citement had increased. It had transpired that the 
 Cavalry and Artillery had been ordered out. Sus- 
 picions of foul play then grcAV into assured convic- 
 tions, and the Regiment felt, to a man, that the 
 i^^reased cartridges were to be forced upon them at the 
 
504 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1S57. muzzle of our guns. A great panic had taken hold 
 of them, and it required but little to rouse them, in 
 an impulse of self-preservation, to resist the premedi- 
 tated outrage. How the signal was first given is not 
 clear ; it seldom is clear in such cases. A very little 
 would have done it. There was a common feeling of 
 some great danger, approaching through the darkness 
 of the night. Some raised a cry of "Fire!"; some, 
 again, said that the Cavalry were galloping down 
 upon them ; others thought that they heard in the 
 distance the clatter of the Artillery gun-wheels. Then 
 some one sounded the alarm, and there was a general 
 rush to the bells-of-arms. Men seized their muskets, 
 took forcible possession of the dreaded ammunition 
 stored for the morning parade, and loaded their 
 pieces in a bewilderment of uncertainty and fear. 
 
 Mitchell knew that the Regiment had risen, but he 
 did not know that it was Terror, rather than Revolt, 
 that stirred them ; and so hastily dressing himself, he 
 hurried off to bring down upon his men the very 
 danger the premature fear of which had generated all 
 this excitement in the Lines. Before any report of 
 the tumult had reached him from European or from 
 Native officers, he had made his way to the quarters 
 of the Cavalry Commandant, and ordered him at 
 once to have his troops in the saddle. Then like 
 orders were given for the Artillery guns, with all 
 serviceable ammunition, to be brought down to the 
 Infantry Lines. There was a considerable space to 
 be traversed, and the extreme darkness of the night 
 rendered the service difficult. But, after a while, the 
 Nineteenth heard the din of the approaching danger, 
 and this time with the fleshly ear ; saw the light of 
 gleaming torches which was guiding it on to their 
 destruction. But they stood there, not ripe for 
 
MEASURES OF COLONEL MITCHELL. 505 
 
 action, irresolute, panic-struck, as men waiting their 1857. 
 doom. There were many loaded muskets in their 
 hands, but not one was fired. 
 
 It was past midnight when Mitchell, having gathered 
 his European officers from their beds, came down 
 with the guns to the parade-ground, where Alexander 
 and his troopers had already arrived. The Infantry, 
 in undress, but armed and belted, were drawn up in 
 line, vaguely expectant of something to come, but in 
 no mood to provoke instant collision. A very little, 
 at such a time, would have precipitated it, for the ex- 
 citement of fear, in such circumstances, is more to be 
 dreaded than the bitterest resentments, and even if 
 the European officers had then moved forward in a 
 body, the movement would have been exaggerated by 
 the darkness into a hostile advance, and the Nine- 
 teenth, under an impulse of self-preservation, would 
 have fired upon them. What Mitchell did, therefore, 
 in the unfortunate conjuncture that had arisen, was 
 the best thing that could be done. He loaded the 
 guns, closed the Cavalry upon them, and sent the 
 Adjutant forward with instructions to have the call 
 sounded for an assembly of the Native officers. The 
 summons was obeyed. Again the Native officers 
 stood before their Colonel, and ao;ain there fell from 
 his lips words that sounded in their ears as words of 
 anger. What those words were, it is now impossible 
 to record with any certainty of their truth. The 
 Native officers believed that he said he would blow 
 every mutineer from a gun, although he should die 
 for it himself. They besought him not to be angry 
 and violent, and urged that the men were ignorant 
 and suspicious ; that they were impelled only by their 
 fears ; that believing the Cavalry and Artillery had 
 been brought down to destroy them, they were wild 
 
o06 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1^157. with excitement and incapable of reasoning, but that 
 if the Colonel would send back the troopers and the 
 guns, the men of the Regiment Avould soon lay down 
 their arms and return to their duty. 
 
 Then a great difficulty arose, which, in the darkness 
 and confusion of that February night, might have 
 perplexed a calmer brain than Mitchell's. That the 
 iNineteenth were rather panic-struck than mutinous, 
 was certain. It was nlain, too. that a mistake had 
 been committed in bringing down the Cavalry and 
 guns to overawe the Regiment. It would have been 
 wiser, in the first instance, to have used them only 
 for protective purposes, holding them in readiness the 
 Avhile to act on the offi^nsive in case of necessity. 
 But, as they had been brought down to the Infantry 
 Lines, it was difficult to withdraw them, until the 
 Nineteenth had given in their submission. The men, 
 however, required, as a condition of their submission, 
 that which Mitchell naturally desired should be re- 
 garded only as a consequence of it. Clinging fast to 
 the belief that violence was intended, they would not 
 have obeyed the order to lay doAvn their arms ; and 
 Mitchell could not be certain that the Native troopers 
 and gunners would fall upon their comrades at the 
 word of command. There was a dilemma, indeed, 
 from which it was difficult, if not impossible, to escape 
 with safety and with honour. As men are wont to 
 do in such extremities, he caught at a compromise. 
 He would withdraw the guns and the Cavalry, he 
 said, but he would hold a general parade in the 
 morning ; he commanded the station, and could order 
 out all branches of the service. But the Native officers 
 besought him not to do this, for the SejDoys, in such 
 a case, would believe only that the violence intended 
 to be done upon them was deferred for a few hours. 
 
THE COURT OF INQUIRY. ' 50f 
 
 So he consented at last to what they asked ; the 1857. 
 Cavahy and the guns were withdrawn, and the ge- 
 neral parade for the morning was countermanded. 
 Whether the Sepoys of the Nineteenth had shown 
 signs of penitence before this concession was made, 
 and had or had not begun to lay down their arms, is 
 a point of history enveloped in doubt. But it would 
 seem that the Native officers told Colonel Mitchell 
 that the men were lodging their arms, and that he 
 trusted to their honour. The real signal for their 
 submission was the retrocession of the torches. When 
 the Sepoys saw the lights disappearing from the 
 parade-ground, they knew that they were safe. 
 
 On the following morning the Regiment fell in, for 
 parade, without a symptom of insubordination. The 
 excitement of the hour had expended itself; and they 
 looked back upon their conduct with regret, and 
 looked forward to its consequences with alarm. 
 Though moved by nothing worse than idle fear, 
 they had rebelled against their officers and the State. 
 Assured of their contrition, and believing in their 
 fidelity, the former might perhaps have forgiven 
 them ; but it was not probable that the State would 
 forgive. A Court of Inquiry was assembled, and 
 during many days the evidence of European and 
 Native officers was taken respecting the circumstances 
 and causes of the outbreak ; but the men, though 
 clearly demonstrating their apprehensions by sleeping 
 round the bells-of-arms, continued to discharge their 
 duties without any new ebullitions ; and there was 
 no appearance of any hostile combinations, by which 
 the mutiny of a regiment might have been converted 
 into the rebellion of a province. Under the guid- 
 ance of Colonel George Macgregor, the Newab Nazim 
 of Bengal threw the weight of his influence into the 
 
508 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 ^857. scales on the side of order and peace ; and whatso- 
 ever might have been stirring in the hearts of the 
 Mussulman population of Moorshedabad, in the ab- 
 sence of any signal from their chief, they remained 
 or.twardly quiescent 
 
XCTIOX OF GOVEEXMEiNT. 509 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CAUSES OF DELIYED ACTIOX— THE GOVERNMENT AND THE DEPARTMENTS — 
 INVESTIGATION OF THE CARTRIDGE QUESTION — PROGRESS OP DISAFFEC- 
 TION AT BARRACKVORE — THE STORY OF MUNGUL PANDY — MUTINY OF THE 
 THIRTY-FOURTH— DISBANDMENT OF THE NINETEENTH. 
 
 In all countries, and under all forms of govern- 
 ment, the dangers which threaten the State, starting 
 in the darkness, make headway towards success 
 before they are clearly discerned by the rulers of the 
 land. Often so much of time and space is gained, 
 that the slow and complex action of authority can- 
 not overtake the mischief and intercept its further 
 progress. The peculiarities of our Anglo-Indian 
 Empire converted a probability into a certainty. 
 Difterences of race, differences of language, differ- 
 ences of religion, differences of customs, all indeed 
 that could make a great antagonism of sympathies 
 and of interests, severed the rulers and the ruled as 
 with a veil of ignorance and obscurity. We could 
 not see or hear with our own senses what was going 
 on, and there was seldom any one to tell us. When 
 by some accident the truth at last transpired, gene- 
 rally in some of the lower strata of the official soil, 
 much tmie was lost before it could make its way 
 
510 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 ^^5^'- upwards to the outer surface of that authority 
 whence action, which could no longer be preventive, 
 emanated in some shape of attempted suppression. 
 The great safeguard of sedition was to be found in 
 the slow processes of departmental correspondence 
 necessitated by a system of excessive centralisation. 
 When prompt and effectual action was demanded, 
 Routine called for pens and paper. A letter was 
 written where a blow ought to have been struck , 
 and the letter went, not to one who could act, but 
 Avas passed on to another stage of helplessness, and 
 then on to another, through all gradations, from the 
 subaltern's bungaloAV to the Government House. 
 
 The direction of the military affairs of our Indian 
 Empire was supposed to be coniided to the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief But there was a general power of 
 control in the Governor-General that made the trust 
 little more than nominal. So little were the limits 
 of authority prescribed by law, or even by usage, 
 that, it has already been observed, there was often 
 a conflict between the Civil and the Military Chiefs, 
 which in time ripened into a public scandal, or 
 subsided into a courteous compromise, according 
 to the particular temper of the litigants. Sensible 
 of his power, the Governor-General was naturally 
 anxious to leave all purely military matters in the 
 hands of the Commander-in-Chief; but in India it 
 was hard to say what were " purely military " 
 matters, when once the question emerged out of the 
 circle of administrative detail. As harmonious action 
 was constitutionally promoted by the bestowal upon 
 the Commander-in-Chief of a seat in Council, there 
 would have been little practical inconvenience in the 
 division of authority if the Civil and the Military 
 Chiefs had always been in the same place. But it 
 often happened that the Governor- General, with his 
 
THE DEPARTMENTS. 511 
 
 official machinery of the Military Secretary's office, 1857. 
 was at one end of the country, and the Commander- 
 in-Chief, with the Adjutant-General of the Army, at 
 the other. And so it happened in the early part of 
 1857. Lord Canning was at Calcutta. General Anson 
 was officially in the Upper Provinces ; personally he 
 was somewhere in Lower Bengal.* The Adjutant- 
 General was at Meerut. The Adjutant -General's 
 office was in Calcutta. The Inspector-General of 
 Ordnance was in Fort William. All these autho- 
 rities had something to do with the business of the 
 greased cartridges, and it was a necessity that out of 
 a system which combined a dispersed agency with a 
 centralised authority, there should have arisen some 
 injurious delay. 
 
 But the delay, thus doubly inevitable, arose rather 
 in this instance from the multiplicity of official 
 agencies, than from the distance at which they were 
 removed from each other. On the 22nd of January, 
 Lieutenant Wright, who commanded the detachment 
 of the Seventieth Sepoys at Dum-Dum, reported to 
 the commanding officer of the musketry depot the 
 story of the greased cartridges, and the excitement it 
 had produced. Major Bontein, on the folloAving day, 
 reported it to the commanding officer at Dum-Dum, 
 who forthwith passed it on to the General command- 
 ing the Presidency division at Barrackpore. On the 
 same day, General Hearsey forwarded the correspond- 
 ence to the Deputy- Adjutant-General, who remained 
 in charge of the office at Calcutta in the absence of 
 his chief. But though thus acting in accordance 
 with military regulations, he took the precaution to 
 
 * Just at this time General Anson Sepoys were in the first throes of 
 
 was coming down to Calcutta to their discontent ; but it does not 
 
 superintend the embarkation of his appear that the subject of the greased 
 
 wife for England. He must have cartridges then attracted his atteu- 
 
 been actually iu Calcutta when the tion. 
 
512 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1S57. add that he forwarded the correspondence " for im- 
 mediate submission to the Government of India, 
 through its Military Secretary," and suggested that 
 the Sepoys at the Rifle depot should be permitted to 
 grease their own cartridges. General Hearsey's letter 
 must have reached the Adjutant-General's office on 
 the 24th of January ; perhaps not till after office 
 hours. The following day Avas the Sabbath. The 
 letter of " immediate transmission" ^vas dated, there- 
 fore, on the 26th.* On the following day, the Go- 
 vernment of India, through its Military Secretary, 
 addressed a letter to the Adjutant-General's office 
 sanctioning Hearsey's suggestion. On the 28th, the 
 General received the official sanction, and at once 
 directed the concession to be made known to all the 
 regiments in Barrackpore. But it was too late. On 
 the previous day, a significant question had been put 
 by a Native officer on parade, as to whether any 
 orders had been received. The reply was necessarily 
 in the nes-ative. Had it not been for the interven- 
 tion of the Adjutant- General's office. General Hear- 
 sey might have received his reply four days before. 
 Whilst we w^ere corresponding, our enemies were act- 
 ing ; and so the lie went ahead of us apace. 
 
 Onward and onward it went, making its way 
 throughout Upper India with significant embellish- 
 ments, aided by the enemies of the British Govern- 
 ment, whilst that Government looked at the matter in 
 its naked reality, divested of all the outer crust of lies 
 which it had thus acquired. Confident of their own 
 good intentions, the English chiefs saw only an acci- 
 dent, an oversight, to be easily rectified and explained. 
 There did not seem to be anything dangerously irre- 
 
 * It is riglit that tliis should be tlie year sliould be consulted, that 
 borne in mind. In all cases of al- account may be taken of a dia non. 
 legrd (>ffici;il dfla\s tlio almauack of 
 
COLONEL BIRCH. 513 
 
 parable in it. But it was, doubtless, right that they 1^5' 
 should probe the matter to its very depths, and do 
 all that could be done to allay the inquietude in the 
 Sepoy's rnind. It was hardly to be expected that the 
 Governor- General, who at that time had been less 
 than a year in India, should see at once all the diffi- 
 culties of the position. But he had men of large ex- 
 perience at his elbow ; and it was wise to confide in 
 them. In such an emergency as had then arisen, the 
 Military Secretary to the Government of India was 
 the functionary whose especial duty it was to inform 
 and advise the Governor-General. That office was 
 represented by Colonel Richard Birch, an officer of 
 the Company's Army, who had served for many years 
 at the head of the Judge Advocate's department, and 
 was greatly esteemed as an able, clear-headed man of 
 business, of unstained reputation in private life. Lord 
 Dalhousie, no mean judge of character, had selected 
 him for this important office, and Lord Canning soon 
 recognised the wisdom of the choice. The Military 
 Secretary had no independent authority, but in such 
 a conjuncture as this much might be done to aid 
 and accelerate the movements of Government ; and 
 had he then sate down idly and waited the result, or 
 had he suffered any time to be lost whilst feebly 
 meditating action, a heavy weight of blame would 
 have descended upon him, past all hope of removal. 
 But when he heard that the detachments at Dum- 
 Dum were in a state of excitement, his first thouo:ht 
 was to ascertain the truth or the falsehood of the 
 alleged cause of alarm ; so he Avent at once to the 
 Chief cf the Ordnance Department to learn what 
 had been done. 
 
 At that time, the post of Inspector-General of Ord- 
 nance was held by Colonel Augustus Abbott, an Ar- 
 
 2l 
 
514 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1S57. tillery officer of high repute, who had earned a name 
 in history as one of the " Illustrious Garrison of Jel- 
 lalabad." liis first impression was, that some greased 
 cartridges had been issued to the Depot at Dum- 
 Dum ; and it was admitted that no inquiries had 
 been made into the natural history of the lubricating 
 material. But he was relieved from all anxiety on 
 this score by a visit from Major Bontein, the In- 
 structor, who asked Abbott to show him a greased 
 cartridge. The fact was, that though large numbers 
 had been manufactured, none had ever been issued to 
 the Native troops at Dum-Dum or any other station 
 in the Presidency Division.* The discovery, it was 
 thought, had been made in time to prevent the dan- 
 gerous consequences which might have resulted from 
 the oversight. It would be easy to cease altogether 
 from the use of the obnoxious fat ; easy to teU the 
 Sepoys that they might grease the cartridges after their 
 own fashion. The uneasiness, it was believed, would 
 soon pass away, under the influence of soothing expla- 
 nations. It was plain, however, that what had hap- 
 pened at Dum-Dum might happen at the other mili- 
 tary stations, where schools of musketry had been esta- 
 blished and the new rifles were being brought into use. 
 The regiments there would assuredly soon hear the 
 alarm-note pealing upwards from Bengal. But thougli 
 some time had been lost, the " lightning post" might 
 still overtake the letters or messages of the Sepoys 
 before they could reach Umballah and Sealkote. 
 
 So Birch, having thus clearly ascertained the real 
 fact of the greased cartridges, went at once to the 
 Governor-General, and asked his permission to take 
 
 * It sliould be stated t]iat miicli tlie amminiilion mamifactured tlicic 
 
 of the laboratory \Aork of tlie Ar- ^ns always sent to the Arsenal and 
 
 senal of Fort William was actually issued thence to the troops, 
 cairied on at I>''s>^)umi but that 
 
ORDERS TO THE RIFLE DEPOTS. 515 
 
 immediate steps to re-assure the minds of the Sepoys 1857. 
 at all the Musketry Depots. The permission was January 27 
 granted, and orders were forthwith sent to Dum- 
 Dum ; whilst the Electric Telegraph was set at work 
 to instruct the Adjutant-General of the Army, at 
 Mcerut, to issue all cartridges free from grease, and 
 to allow the Sepoys to apply with their own hands 
 whatever suitable mixture they might prefer. For, 
 at Meerut, a large manufacture of greased cartridges 
 was going on, without any fear of the results.* At 
 the same time he telegraphed to the commanding 
 officers of the Rifle Depots at Umballah and Sealkote, 
 not to use any of the greased cartridges that might 
 have been issued for service with the new rifles. It 
 Avas recommended, at the same time, by Birch and 
 Abbott, that a General Order should be published by 
 the Commander-in-Chief, settingforth that no greased 
 cartridges would be issued to the Sepoy troops, but 
 that every man would be permitted to lubricate his 
 own ammunition with any materials suitable to the 
 purpose. But plain as all this seemed to be, and 
 apparently unobjectionable, an objection was found 
 at Meerut to the course proposed in Calcutta; and 
 the Adjutant-General, when he received his message, 
 telegraphed back to the Military Secretary that Na- 
 tive troops had been using greased cartridges "for 
 some years," and the grease had been composed of 
 mutton-fat. " Will not," it was asked, " your in- 
 structions make the Sepoys suspicious about what 
 hitherto they have not hesitated to handle?" Fur- 
 ther orders were requested ; and, on the 29th of 
 January, a message went from Calcutta to the Head- 
 
 * Materials for 100,000 cartridges, Calcutta Arsenal to Meerut in Oc- 
 with implements of manufacture and tober, 1856. These were for the use 
 pattern cartridges, were sent from the of the Sixtietli Rifles. 
 
 2l2 
 
516 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1857. Quarters of the Army, stating that the existing prac- 
 tice of greasing cartridges might be continued, if the 
 materials were of mutton-fat and wax.* 
 
 Prompt measures having thus been taken to pre- 
 vent the issue of greased cartridges prepared in Cal- 
 cutta or Meerut to any Native troops — and with such 
 success that from first to last no such cartridges ever 
 were issued to themf — the authorities, perhaps a 
 little perplexed by this sudden explosion in a season 
 of all-prevailing quiet, began to inquire how it had 
 all happened. Not without some difficulty, for there 
 were apparent contradictions in the statements that 
 reached them, the whole history of the greased car- 
 tridges was at last disentangled. It was this. In 1853, 
 the authorities in England sent out to India some 
 boxes of greased cartridges. The lubricating mate- 
 rial was of different kinds ; but tallow entered largely 
 into the composition of it all. It was sent out, not 
 for service, but for experiment, in order that the 
 effect of the climate upon the cartridges thus greased 
 might be ascertained. But it did not wholly escape 
 our high military functionaries in India, that these 
 pTcased cartrido:es, if care were not taken to exclude 
 all obnoxious materials from their composition, could 
 not be served out to Native troops without risk of 
 serious danger. Colonel Henry Tucker was, at that 
 time, Adjutant-General of the Bengal Army, and he 
 
 * See the telef;;rams published in only grease used with the ammuui- 
 
 the papers laid before Parliament, tion of the old two-grooved rifles 
 
 I merely state the fact that such was a mixture of wax and oil ap- 
 
 n\essages were sent. But I have plied to the "patch." 
 
 found it impossible to reconcile the f This was officially declared by 
 
 assertion of the Adjutant-General, Government, and in perfect good 
 
 that cartridges smeared with mutton- faith. I believe, however, that some 
 
 fat had been in use, with the actual greased cartridges were served out 
 
 facts of the case, as given in the fol- to a Goorkha regiment, at their 
 
 lowing pages on the very hij;hest own request, 
 authority. I am assured that the 
 
COLONEL tucker's WARNINGS. 517 
 
 obtained the permission of tlie Commander-in-Chief 15 s 7. 
 to sound a note of warning on the subject. There 
 was in those days even a greater complication of 
 military authority than when Lord Canning presided 
 over the Government. There was an institution 
 called the Military Board, composed of certain ex- 
 officio members, one special salaried member, and a 
 Secretary who did the greater part of the work. 
 The trite adage that " Boards are Screens" was veri- 
 fied in this instance, if in no other, for responsibility 
 was effectually obscured. It fell within the range of 
 the Board's multifarious functions to direct the ex- 
 periments which were to be made with the greased 
 cartridges ; so Colonel Tucker, in due official course, 
 addressed a letter to the Secretary to the Military 
 Board on the subject of these experiments, adding, 
 " I am at the same time to communicate the Com- December 
 mander-in- Chief's opinion, that, unless it be known 
 that the grease employed in these cartridges is not of 
 a nature to offend or interfere Avith the prejudices of 
 caste, it will be expedient not to issue them for test 
 to Native corps, but to European soldiers only to be 
 carried in pouch." But it does not seem that this 
 warning had any efiect upon the Military Board.* 
 The ammunition to be tested was served out to Na- 
 tive Guards at Fort William, Cawnpore, and Ran- 
 
 * Colonel Tucker afterwards said Commander-in-Chief to address the 
 in a public journal, " I do not pre- Military Board, and for the Military 
 sume to say with whom specifically Board to address the Governor-Ge- 
 the blame of tliis most culpable neral. In this case, however, the 
 nepjlect may rest. Only investiga- correspondence never went further 
 tion can settle that point ; but I than the Military Board ; and it was 
 conceive that either the Military not until after the mutiny had broken 
 Secretary or the officer presiding in out, and Colonel (then Major-Ge- 
 chief over the Ordnance Department neral) Tucker had publicly referred 
 in Calcutta, is, one or both, the party to his neglected warnings, that the 
 implicated.'^ Investigation proves Military Secretary had any know- 
 that both officers were blameless, ledge oft he correspondence of ISaii. 
 The 1 outine in those days was for the 
 
518 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1S57. goon, who carried it in their pouches, and handed it 
 from man to man every time that the guard was 
 relieved. After being thus tested for many months, 
 . the cartridges were reported upon by Committees of 
 European officers drawn from T^ative Infantry Regi- 
 ments, and eventually sent back to England with 
 these reports. No objection was ever made by ihe 
 Sepoys to the handling of the cartridges, and none 
 were ever started by their regimental officers or by 
 the Committees. 
 
 The Sixtieth (Queen's) Rifles were at this time 
 serving in India, but the weapon which they used 
 was that known as the two-grooved rifle ; and the 
 ammunition consisted of a cartridge of powder only, 
 and, separate from this cartridge, a ball covered with 
 a ^' patch" of fine cloth, which was smeared with a 
 mixture of wax and oil. When rifle-companies were 
 raised in some of the Native regiments, this two- 
 grooved rifle was served out to them with the 
 ammunition above described, and no kind of objec- 
 tion was ever raised to its use.* The grease was 
 known to be harmless, and the paper of the car- 
 tridge was never suspected. But, in 1856, these two- 
 grooved rifles were condemned, and new Enfield rifles 
 issued to the Sixtieth, and also to some of the Com- 
 pany's European Infantry. The ammunition then, 
 in the first instance, supplied to them, consisted of 
 the residue of the greased cartridges sent from Eng- 
 land for experiment ; and whilst these w^ere being 
 used up, others of the same description, in accord- 
 ance with orders from England, were being made up 
 by the Ordnance Departments at Calcutta, at Dum- 
 Dum, and at Meerut. The mixture of wax and oil, 
 though it answered the purpose of lubrication at the 
 
 * See orders of 1847, given at p. 655 Addendum, 
 
MANUFACTUKE OF CARTRIDGES. 519 
 
 time of use, was not applicable to bundled cartridges, "ISo?. 
 because its greasing properties soon disappeared. So 
 the cartrido'es manufactured for tbe Eniield rifles 
 were to be smeared witli a mixture of stearine and 
 tallow. The Ordnance Department then indented for 
 tallow, without any specification of the nature of the 
 animal fat composing it ;* and, although no hog's- 
 lard was su]3plied, there is no question that some beef- 
 fat was used in the composition of the tallow. This 
 was, doubtless, an oversight, for it would have been 
 easy to enter into a contract for the supply of sheep 
 and goats' fat, to which there would not have been 
 the same objections ; but it would seem that the 
 Ordnance authorities had before them the fact that 
 they were making ammunition, primarily for the use 
 of the Sixtieth Rifles, in accordance with instruc- 
 tions that had been received from England. 
 
 It was true, then, that cartridges smeared with 
 obnoxious o-rease had been in course of manufacture 
 both at Fort William and at the Head-Quarters of 
 Artillery at ^leerut. It was true that, in October, 
 1856, large numbers of balled cartridges had been 
 sent up the country by steamer for the use of the 
 
 * It was a part of a contract for p ( F"'* '"lumuiiltloii pur- 
 
 " Petty Stores," to be supplied to ^^^^^^ • ■ '\ poses, 
 
 the Arsenal of Fort William for two Tallow off For greasing compo- 
 
 years, from the 15tli of August, the purest < sition for Minie 
 
 1856, entered into by Gungadhur kind. . . . (, rifle ammunition. 
 
 Banerjea and Co. The article is In subsequent indents tlie article is 
 
 described in the contract as "Grease, sometimes called "Grease,'* and 
 
 Tallow ;" and it was to be supplied sometimes " Tallow "— " Required 
 
 at tlie rate of two annas (or three- for Arsenal purposes." A circular 
 
 pence) a pound. From the Records was issued to the Department, dated 
 
 of the Inspector-General's office, it January 29th, 1857, directing tliat, 
 
 appears that after the contract, when applying tallow to articles 
 
 dated 16th of August, 1856, was which Native soldiers are required 
 
 concluded, Grease and Tallow were to handle, only the tallow of sheep 
 
 indented for separately at various or goats is to be employed, that of 
 
 times. In an indent on the Con- swine or cows being most carefully 
 
 tractor, dated September, 1856, the excluded, 
 following entries appear ; 
 
520 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1S57, Musketry Depots at Umballali and Sealkote.* But it 
 was not true that any had been issued to the Sepoy 
 regiments ; for the time had not yet come for the 
 detachments at the Musketry Depots to use any kind 
 of ammunition. These detachments had received the 
 Enfield rifle ; but they Avere merely learning its use ; 
 learning the construction and the properties of the 
 new weapon ; learning to take it to pieces and to put 
 it tocrether ao^ain ; learning the mode of takino- sio;ht 
 
 O CD ' o O o 
 
 and aim at difl'erent distances — processes which occu- 
 pied many weeks, and delayed the season of target 
 practice. Meanwhile, the old two-grooved rifles were 
 in full service with the rifle-companies ; and car- 
 tridges, as above described, with detached balls 
 greased with oil and wax, were in constant use for 
 practice-drill.f To these cartridges the Commander- 
 in-Chief referred, when he telegraphed to Calcutta 
 that greased cartridges had been long in use without 
 <^xciting any alarm. It was thought at Head-Quarters 
 that if attention were once called to the matter of the 
 greased cartridges, every Sepoy who had used the 
 . old "patches" would be filled with alarm. 
 
 But whether this surmise were right or whether 
 it were wrong, it is certain that the minds of the 
 Sepoys, first in one station, then in another, were al- 
 ready becoming overwhelmed by the great fear. The 
 lie had gone a-head of the truth. It is doubtful 
 whether any orders or proclamations could have ar- 
 
 * Tlie numbers were 22,500 for tacliments at the Rifle Depots. The 
 
 tlie TJniballah Depot, and 14,000 for former were wuh their regiments, 
 
 the Sealkote Depot, sent on the 23rd using the old two-grooved muskets ; 
 
 of October to Delhi, via Allahabad, the latter were detached from their 
 
 by steamer. regiments, learning the use of the 
 
 f It may be advantageous to Enfield rifle in the schools of nius- 
 
 caution the non-professional reader ketry at Dum-Dum, Umballali, and 
 
 against confounding the rifle-corn- Sealkote. 
 pauies here spoken of with the dc- 
 
CAUSES OF ALARM. 521 
 
 rested tlie feeling of alarm, wliicli was ruslniig, witli 1857. 
 the force of an electric current, from cantonment to 
 cantonment, and turning the hearts of the soldiery 
 against us. It was plain that a very dangerous de- 
 lusion had taken possession of them, and it was right 
 that everything reasonable should have been done 
 to expel it. But the Sepoys, at a very early stage, 
 were past all reasoning. It was not grease, animal 
 grease, alone that disturbed them. Grease of an ob- 
 noxious kind, for long years, had been applied by 
 Native hands to the wheels of gun-carriages and 
 waggons, and not even a murmur of discontent had 
 been heard. At Calcutta and at Meerut the greased 
 cartridges had been made up by Natives, and, at the 
 latter place, even Brahmin boys had been employed 
 in their manufacture. So it was thou2;ht that the 
 objection might be confined to the biting- off of the 
 end of the cartridge. It was true that the grease 
 was applied to the part farthest from that which 
 touched the lips of the soldier ; but in a hot climate 
 grease is rapidly absorbed, and there was a not un- 
 reasonable apprehension that it would insidiously 
 spread itself from one end to the other of the car- 
 tridge. So, on the recommendation of Major Bon- 
 tein, a change was introduced into the system of 
 Rifle drill, by which the process of pinching off by 
 the hand was substituted for biting off by the teeth. 
 Tliis was right, as far as it went ; but it could not 
 go far. The Sepoy was not satisfied. He argued 
 that he had been accustomed always to bite ofi* the 
 end of tlie cartridge, and that the force of this strong 
 habit would often bring it unwittingly to his lips, 
 especially in the excitement of active service. There 
 are times, doubtless, when both the Hindoo and the 
 Mahomedan have an elastic conscience. But there are 
 
522 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 1S57. seasons also when both r.re obdurate and uny.'eldhi^. 
 It might have been easy to persuade the Sepoys that 
 the British Government desired to place the matter 
 entirely in their own hands, and to leave them to 
 grease their cartrido;es and to use them after their 
 OAvn fashion ; but too many vague doubts and sus- 
 picions had been raised in past times, and too much 
 was being poisonously instilled into them in the pre- 
 sent, to suffer even a remnant of confidence to cling 
 to them in this conjuncture. To beat them back at 
 one point was only to make them take up their 
 ground more tenaciously at another. 
 Barrad'pore, " We have at Barrackpore," wrote General Hearsey 
 1857"^^^' in February, " been dwelling upon a mine ready for 
 explosion. I have been watching the feeling of the 
 Sepoys here for some time. Their minds have been 
 misled by some designing scoundrels, who have 
 mana2:ed to make them believe that their relio-ious 
 prejudices, their caste, is to be interfered with by Go- 
 vernment — that they are to be ^forced to become 
 Christians.' " But day after day passed, and though 
 itw^as manifest that there was an uneasy feeling in all 
 the regiments, and especially in the Second and Thirty- 
 fourth, there were no overt acts of insubordination. 
 Their commanding officers had explained to them 
 that Government had no such designs as were im- 
 puted to them ; but even when the Sepoys were as- 
 sured that no o-reased cartrido;es would ever be issued 
 to them, and that they might themselves lubricate 
 their ammunition with wax and oil, so deeply rooted 
 were the misgivings that had taken possession of their 
 minds, that they began to suspect that animal grease 
 had been used in the composition of the cartridge- 
 paper, and that the English were only abandoning 
 one trick to fall back upon another. There was a 
 
THE CARTRIDGE-PAPER. .523 
 
 glazed surface on the paper, Avhicli gave it a greasy jS57. 
 aspect, and favoured the growth of the suspicion ; and 
 when it w^as burnt, it flared " with a fizzing noise, 
 and smelt as if there was grease in it." So the sus- 
 picion soon grew into a certainty, and the fears of the 
 Sepoy waxed stronger and stronger every day. 
 
 This was especially apparent in the Second Grena- 
 diers ; so a Court of Inquiry was held to investigate 
 the matter. The paper was examined in Court, and 
 the Sepoys were called upon to state their objections. 
 This they did, with an obstinate adherence to their 
 belief that grease had been used in its composition. 
 When asked how this suspicion could be removed 
 from their minds, they answered that they could not 
 remove it — that there w^ere no means of removins: it, 
 except by substituting another kind of paper. So 
 Government resolved to submit the obnoxious paper 
 to a chemical test, and the Chemical Examiner re- 
 ported, after due investigation, that it had not been 
 greased or treated with any greasy or oily matter 
 during or since its manufacture ; that by operating 
 on a large quantity of paper he had been able to ex- 
 tract as much oil as could be discovered by the use of 
 a higher power of the microscope, but that the grease 
 was no more than might be contracted from the hands 
 of the workmen who had packed it.* But there was 
 little satisfaction even in this, for so obstinate was 
 the conviction that the English designed to pollute 
 the Sepoys, that a belief was gaining ground among 
 them that the paper was little more than " bladder." 
 The stiffness and transparency of it favoured this 
 suspicion, and they could not rid themselves of the 
 impression that it w^as an animal substance which 
 
 * Dr. M'Namara to the Inspector-General of Ordnance, Feb. 1\, 3857. 
 Published napers. 
 
o24 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 .toj. they were called upon to use. This was a far greater 
 difficulty than the other, for it affected not merely 
 the Rifle Depots, but the whole Native Army ; and 
 there was no possibility of grappling with it except 
 by ceasing altogether from musketry drill. If the 
 fear had been only a fear of the fat of cows and 
 swine, it might have been removed by the substitu- 
 tion of one grease for another ; or if the external 
 application of any kind of animal grease were ob- 
 jected to, oil and wax might be employed in its 
 place ; or if the touching of the unclean thing with 
 the lips were the grievance, the end of the greased 
 cartridge might be pinched off by the hand, and that 
 objection removed. But to this fear of the paper 
 used in all the cartridges issued to the Army, greased 
 or dry, there was practically no antidote that would 
 not have been both an admission and a concession, 
 very dangerous for Government to make. It re- 
 mained only that the English officer should persuade 
 the Sepoy that he was wrong. 
 
 There could hardly, in such a crisis, have been a 
 better man in command of the Division than General 
 Hearsey ; for he was one who steered wisely a middle 
 course between the troubled waters of alarm and the 
 dead calms of a placid sense of security. He had a 
 large-hearted sympathy with the Sepoys in their 
 affliction. He understood them thoroughly. He saw 
 that they were labouring under a great fear ; and he 
 was not one, in such a case, to think that the "black 
 fellows" had no right to suspect the designs of their 
 wdiite masters. He saw clearly what a tremendous 
 significance, in the ej^cs both of Mahomedans and 
 Hindoos, there was in this incident of the greased 
 cartridges, and he could not wonder at the mingled 
 feeling of terror and resentment that it had excited 
 
HEARSEY'S FIRST ADDRESS. 52 J 
 
 It was a case that in his opinion required kindly 1857. 
 treatment and delicate handling ; and he thought that 
 much might be done by considerate explanations to 
 restore confidence to their minds. So, en the after- 
 noon of Monday, the 9th of February, he paraded 
 the Brigade, and in a loud, manly voice, using good 
 vernacular Hindostanee, addressed the assembled 
 regiments. Earnestly and emphatically he explained 
 to them that they had laid hold of a foolish and a 
 dangerous delusion ; that neither the Government 
 which they served, nor the officers w^ho commanded 
 them, had ever thought for a moment of interfering 
 with their religious usages or depriving them of their 
 caste ; and that it was but an idle absurdity to believe 
 that they could by any means be forced to be 
 Christians. He told them "that the English were 
 Christians of the book — Protestants ; that they ad- 
 mitted no proselytes but those who, being adults, 
 could read and fully understand the precepts laid 
 doAvn therein ; that if they came and threw them- 
 selves down at our feet, imploring to be made Book 
 Christians, it could not be done ; they could not be 
 baptised until they had been examined in the truths of 
 the book, and proved themselves fully conversant with 
 them, and then they must, of their own good will 
 and accord, desire to become Christians before they 
 could be made so," He then asked them if they un- 
 derstood him ; they nodded their assent, and it ap- 
 peared both to the English and to the Native officers 
 that the Sepoys were well pleased Avith what they had 
 heard, and that a heaviness had passed away from 
 their minds.* 
 
 But the good effect of this address was but tran- March, 1SC7, 
 
 * General Hearsey to the Secretary to Government, Peb. 11, 1357. 
 - Pabliihed papsn. 
 
526 OUTBREAK OF TUE MUTINY. 
 
 1857. sitory; for when the troops at Barrackpore heard 
 what had been done by their comrades of the Nme- 
 teenth, there was great excitement among them, great 
 anxiety to know the result. It was plain that the 
 game had commenced in earnest, and that they might 
 soon be called upon to take a part in it. But it 
 would be well first to see what move would be made 
 by the Government ; what punishment would be in- 
 flicted upon the mutinous regiment at Berhampore. 
 Days passed, and days grew into weeks, but still the 
 Government appeared to be inactive. The Nineteenth 
 were quietly performing their duties, as if nothing 
 had happened. In the excited imaginations of the 
 Sepoys there was something ominous in this quietude. 
 They dimly apprehended the truth, and the obscurity 
 of their conceptions caused them marvellously to ex- 
 aggerate it. They believed that an overwhelming 
 European force, with Cavalry and Artillery, would 
 come suddenly upon them and destroy them.* 
 
 Their fears were exaggerated ; but they were not 
 wholly baseless. When the tidings of the mutiny at 
 Berhampore reached Calcutta, the Governor-General 
 saw at once that a great danger had been providen- 
 tially escaped ; but with the sense of present relief 
 came also a solemn sense of the magnitude of the 
 crisis. The little cloud was growing larger — growing 
 darker. Here was an act of overt mutiny, and from 
 the very cause of all the perilous excitement at Bar- 
 rackpore. The time had now come for the Govern- 
 
 * Take in illustration the follow- Howrah— that they had arrived in 
 
 ing from the Barrackpore corre- two ships, and were to come up here 
 
 spondence of the day: "The Drill during the Hoolee (festival) — that 
 
 Naick of my regiment came to me the men had not slept the previous 
 
 two days ago (March 8), and sai<l night in consequence of this re- 
 
 the report in the Lines was, that port." — Major Mattheics to Briya 
 
 tiicre were five thousand Europeans dier Grant. — MS. Corres_pondence, 
 assembled by the Government at 
 
AilRIVAL OF TUE EIGHTY-FOURTH. 527 
 
 ment to do sometliing to assert its authority, and to 1S^7. 
 strike terror into the minds of the soldiery. But 
 what was to be done ? It was easy to decree the dis- 
 bandment of the Nineteenth, but it was not easy to 
 accomplish it. There was but one European regiment H.M.'s53rd 
 along the Avhole line of country from Calcutta to 
 Dinapore, and one other at the lattet place, with a ii. M.'s. I D:: 
 large extent of country to protect. Only in the pre- ' 
 sence of an overawing European force could a thou- 
 sand armed Sepoys be suddenly consigned to penury 
 and disgrace, and neither of these regiments could be 
 moved to Berhampore without dangerously laying 
 bare other parts of the lower provinces. For a while, 
 therefore, the stern resolution of Government was 
 shrouded from the guilty regiment. But the punish- 
 ment was slowly overtaking them, though they knew 
 it not. A week after the commission of their offence. 
 Colonel Mitchell had received his orders to brino; 
 down the Nineteenth to Barrackpore to be disbanded, 
 and the spacious passenger- vessel Bentinck was steam- 
 ing across the Bay of Bengal, charged with a commis- 
 sion to bring back with all possible haste the Eighty- 
 fourth British regiment from Rangoon. The Eng- 
 lish officers at Barrackpore, even Hearsey himself, 
 Ivuew nothing of this, and laughed at the credulity 
 of the Sepoys, who believed, on the faith of their 
 own news from Calcutta, that this step had been 
 taken by the Government. But it soon became appa- 
 rent that the Native soldiery were better informed 
 than the Division Staff, for on the 20th of March 
 there was great rejoicing among the English resi- 
 dents in Calcutta and the neighbourhood at the 
 thought that the Bentinck had returned, and that suc- 
 coui's had arrived. 
 
 In the .mean while a state of sullen quietude ob- 'Marcli, 1S57 
 
528 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 March. 1S57 tained at Barrackpore. Still clinging to the belief 
 that the Government, detected in their first desio-n 
 to apply the grease of cows and pigs to the new 
 rifle cartridges, had purposely employed those mate- 
 rials in the manufacture of the cartridge-paper, the 
 Sepoys w^ent about their work under a prevailing sense 
 of an impending danger and the aggravation of a 
 great wrong.* It is probal)le that their fears were 
 stronger than their discontents. They believed that 
 their lives, and what w^as dearer to them even than 
 their lives, were in peril, and they saw no means of 
 escape except by obtaining the mastery over those 
 who threatened to brino; down such terrible calamities 
 upon them. To what extent this idea of overpower- 
 ing the Government had taken possession of the minds 
 of the soldiery, and how far it was ever shaped into 
 a definite scheme of action by those who were moved 
 against us by religious or political animosities, can 
 only be dimly conjectured. There was a belief in 
 Calcutta that a general rising of the Native troops 
 had been fixed for a particular night in March. It 
 happened that, at this time, the Maharajah Scindiah, 
 the greatest of the remaining Mahratta Piinces, w^as 
 on a visit to the English capital. No one then 
 charged, no one has since charged him, or his sa- 
 gacious minister, Dinkur Rao, with any complicity 
 in a plot hostile to the English. They Avere gratified 
 by the kind and hospitable reception which had been 
 extended to them by the Governor-General and all 
 the chief people of the Presidency, and were pleased 
 with everything they saw. But it happened that 
 
 * So great was llicir uneasiness, ral court-martial, of which he was 
 
 and so stronj^ were their suspicions, president, was in close eonsultalion 
 
 V!:iat it was believed that Colonel with the Governor-General respect- 
 
 "Wheler, who at that time went ing the forcible or fraudulent coiv 
 
 daily into Calcutta to attend a gene- version of the Sepoys, 
 
SCLNDUH AT CALCLTTA. 529 
 
 the Malirattii Prince invited all the principal English Marcli, lSi>7 
 gentlemen and ladies in Calcutta to a grand enter- 
 tainment on the 10th of March. The fete was to 
 have been given at the Botanical Gardens on the 
 opposite bank of the Hooghly river. It is said, that 
 when tlie English were thus occupied with the plea- 
 sure of the moment, and the vigilance of the chief 
 officers of Government was temporarily diverted, the 
 Sepoys, stimulated by the agents of the King of 
 Oude, were to have risen as one man, to have seized 
 the Fort and all the chief buildings of Calcutta, and 
 proclaimed war against the Feringhee. That tlie 
 idea of such a rising found entrance into the active 
 brains of some enemies of the British cai> hardly be 
 doubted ; but there is no proof that it ever took 
 practical shape as an organised conspiracy, whicli 
 would have had the result I have indicated if 
 nothing had occurred to frustrate the plot. But a 
 circumstance did occur, which some still regard as a 
 special interposition of Providence for the deliver- 
 ance of our people. Most unexpectedly, in the dry 
 season of the year, there was a heavy storm of rain 
 — one of those mighty tropical down-pourings Avhich 
 render all out-of-doors recreation wholly an impos- 
 sibility. So the great entertainment, which the 
 Maharajah of Gwalior was then to have given to 
 the English society of Calcutta, was postponed to 
 a more auspicious moment, and the evening of 
 the 10th of March passed over as quietly as its pre- 
 decessors. 
 
 Of this combination of the Native troops at the 
 Presidency there were, indeed, no visible signs. Out- 
 wardly it appeared that only the Second Grenadiers 
 were implicated in treasonable schemes. " The Forty- 
 
 2 M 
 
530 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 third," wrote Lord Canning to the Commander-in- 
 Chief, "have refused to join in a dinner or feast to 
 which the Second invited them ; and some of the 
 Seventieth have given up a Jemadar of the Second, 
 who came into their Lines and tried to persuade the 
 men not to bite the cartridges when the time for 
 using them should come, and to deter them from 
 finishing their huts, saying that there would soon be 
 a great stir at Barrackpore, and that their huts would 
 be burnt down."* Another sign of this apparent 
 isolation of the Second Grenadiers was afforded bv 
 an incident that occurred in Calcutta. The Native 
 Guards for the Fort and for the public buildings in the 
 city were furnished by the regiments at Barrackpore. 
 On the evening of the 10th of March a detachment 
 of the Second was in the Fort, and a Soubahdar's 
 guard from the Thirty-fourth was posted over the 
 Calcutta Mint. In the course of the evening, two 
 Sepoys from the Second presented themselves at the 
 ^uard-house and sought out the Soubahdar. He was 
 reading an order book by the light of a lam.p when 
 the men appeared before him. One of them then re- 
 presented that they had come from the Fort ; that the 
 Calcutta Militia were to join the Fort- Guards at mid- 
 night ; that the Governor-General was going up to 
 Barrackpore with all the Artillery from Dum-Dum ; 
 and that if the Soubahdar would march his guard 
 into the Fort and join their comrades there, they 
 might rise successfully against the Government.f 
 
 * March 15, 1S57. — MaS. Corre- ments liad ao;ieed tliat there was no 
 
 spondence. The Second and Eorty- harm in tlieir men dining together, 
 
 third had served togetlier at Can- The rel'iisal of the Forty-third was 
 
 daiiar, and were old friends. Tlie not intelligible to them. 
 
 proj)Osed dinner was to be given f Lord Canning to General Anson, 
 
 •-Inring the Hoolej festival, and the March 12, 1857. — MS. Correspond- 
 
 officers commanding the two regi- ence. 
 
CO:SSULTATIONS AT CALCUTTA. 531 
 
 This last was rather implied than expressed ; but the March, 1857. 
 meaning of the men was sufficiently clear ; so the 
 Soubahdar ordered them to be arrested. Next morn- 
 ing he sent them prisoners into Fort William ; and, 
 a few days afterwards, they were tried by a Native 
 Court-martial, found guilty, and sentenced to impri- 
 sonment for fourteen years. 
 
 This was a significant incident, but it was one, also, 
 which might be turned to some account ; so Hearsey 
 determined not to lose the opportunity. His former 
 speech to the Barrackpore troops had not accom- 
 plished all that was desired ; but it had at least been 
 partially successful, and he believed that something 
 might now be done by another address to the Brigade. 
 So he suo:o;ested to the Governor-General the ex- 
 pediency of such a course. On the 14th of March 
 they talked the matter over at Government House, 
 and Lord Canning assented to the proposal. But 
 before the day had worn out, some misgivings assailed 
 him, as to whether the General might not be carried 
 away, by the strength of his feelings and the fluency 
 of his speech, to say a little too much ; so after Hear- 
 sey had returned to Barrackpore, Lord Canning sent 
 a letter after him, recapitulating the results of the 
 morning conversation, " in order to prevent all mis- 
 takes." This letter reached Hearsey soon after sun- 
 rise on the following morning (it was Sunday), and he 
 at once replied to it, promising to take the greatest 
 care not to exceed his instructions. On the next day 
 the Native officers, who had been warned as members 
 of the Court-martial ordered to assemble for the trial 
 of the Sepoys of the Second, were to leave Barrack- 
 pore for Calcutta ; and the General thought it ad- 
 visable not to address the Brigade until after their de- 
 
 2 M 2" 
 
532 OLTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 MarcL, 1S57. parture.* So the order Avent forth for a general 
 parade of the troops at Barrackpore on the morning 
 of Tuesday, the 17th of March. 
 
 Ther(i was no little tact requisite, in such a con- 
 juncture, for the exact apportionment of the several 
 parts of the speech that was to be delivered. The 
 main object of it was to warn the troops against de- 
 signing persons, who were endeavouring to seduce 
 them from their allegiance ; but it was desirable, also, 
 to endeavour to pacify and reassure them, for it was 
 plain that they were overridden by a great terror, born 
 of the belief that the Government had sent for Euro- 
 pean troops of all arms with the intent of exterminating 
 the Brigade. In order thus to remove the dangerous 
 delusion which had taken possession of them, it was 
 necessary to speak of the designs of the Government 
 towards the mutinous Nineteenth — to show that retri- 
 bution was sure to overtake all whose guilt had been 
 proved, but that there was no thought of harming 
 those who had committed no overt acts of rebellion. 
 But it was not easy in such a case to avoid saying 
 either too much or too little. " I am afraid," wrote 
 Lord Canning to the General, '' that, however brief 
 your observations on that regiment (and they should, 
 I think, be very brief), you will find it a nice matter 
 to steer between excitino^ undue alarm and raising: 
 hopes which may be disappointed. But I feel sure 
 that you will master the difficulty, and I leave the 
 task in your hands with perfect confidence of the re- 
 
 * " I cannot address the Brigade Grenadiers must go from hence be- 
 
 uutil Tuesday morning, as the Native fore I do so. If tliey heard my ad- 
 
 coramissioned officers, wiio are to be dress to the men on parade, it might 
 
 members of the General Court-mar- bias them in tlieir judgment." — Gene- 
 
 tial to be convened at Calcutta for rol Hearsey to Lord Canning, March 
 
 the trial of the Sepoys of the Second 15, 1857. — ^^^S". Correspondence. 
 
HEARSEI'S SECOND ADDRESS. 533 
 
 suit."* He was thinking mainly of the effect to be March, 1SG7. 
 produced upon the minds of the Sepoys of the Nine- 
 teenth. He did not wish that the decision of Govern- 
 ment should be announced before the time of carrying 
 it into effect ; but Hearsey saw plainly that it was 
 better for the general pacification of the Brigade that 
 the haze through which the intentions of Government 
 appeared to the soldiery in such exaggerated dimen- 
 sions should be dispersed. " For if the men of this 
 Brigade/' he wrote to Lord Canning, " know before- 
 hand what is to take place, their minds will be made 
 easy, and they will be disabused of the false rumours 
 now spread about that it is the intention of the Go- 
 vernment to attack and destroy them by European 
 troops and Artillery. "f 
 
 It was truly a great thing, at that time, to remove 
 from the minds of the Barrackpore regiments the 
 great terror that held possession of them ; but the 
 Nineteenth had not then commenced its march from 
 Berhampore, and it is always a hazardous operation 
 to move a regiment, with sentence of disbandment 
 proclaimed against it, to the place of execution. These 
 considerations pressed heavily on Hearsey 's mind, 
 when, on the morning of the 17th of March, he rode 
 out to the parade-ground, and saw the Brigade drawn 
 up before him. There was much, however, when he 
 prepared to address them, of which there could be no 
 doubt. Most of all was it necessary to warn them of 
 the evil-minded and designing men who were leading 
 them astray ; so he began by telling them to beware 
 of such men, who were endeavouring to take the 
 
 * Lord Canninfi: to General Hear- f General Hearsey to Lord Can- 
 sey, March 14, m7.—3IS. Corre- ning, March 15, 1857.— i/^S. Corn- 
 ipondence, sj^oiideme. 
 
534 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 March 1857. bread from tlie mouths of good Sepoys by making 
 them the instruments of their schemes of sedition ; 
 then he spoke of the discontent still prevailing among 
 them with respect to the cartridge-paper, in which 
 they had never ceased to believe that animal fat had 
 been used. Then he began to explain to them, and 
 wisely, too, as he would explain to children, that the 
 glazed appearance of the paper was produced by the 
 starch employed in its composition, and that the very 
 best paper used by the Princes of the land had the 
 same smooth surface and shiny appearance. In 
 proof of this, he produced, from a bag of golden 
 tissue, a letter he had received, whilst serving in the 
 Punjab, from the Maharajah Gholab Sing of Cash- 
 mere, and, giving it to the Native officers, told them 
 to open it and to show it to their m.en, that they 
 might see that it was even more glossy than the 
 paper which they suspected. Having done this, he 
 asked them if they thought that a Dogra Brahmin or 
 Rajpoot, ever zealous in the protection of kine, would 
 use paper made as they suspected, and, after further 
 illustrations of the absurdity of their suspicions, told 
 them, that if they did not then believe him, they 
 should go to Serhampore and see the paper made for 
 themselves. Then approaching the more dangerous 
 subject of the Nineteenth, who had been led into 
 open mutiny by a belief in the falsehood of the defiled 
 paper, he said that the investigation of their conduct 
 had been laid before him as General of the Division, 
 and that he had forwarded it to Government, who 
 were exceedingly angry, and would, in his opinion, 
 order him to disband the reo:iment. That if he re- 
 ceived orders to that effect, all the troops within two 
 marches of the place — Infantry, Cavalry, and Ar- 
 tillery, European and Native — would be assembled 
 
hearsey's second address. 535 
 
 at Barrackpore to witness tlie disbandment, and that Marcli, 1S57 
 " the ceremony of striking the name and number of 
 the regiment from the list of the Army would be 
 carried out in exactly the same manner as the old 
 Thirty- fourth Regiment Avere disbanded at Meerut." 
 " I inform, you of this beforehand," added the Ge- 
 neral, " because your enemies are trying to make 
 you believe that European troops with Cavalry and 
 Artillery will be sent here suddenly to attack you ; 
 these, and such lies, are fabricated and rumoured 
 amongst you to cause trouble. But no European or 
 other troops will come to Barrackpore without my 
 orders, and I will give you all timely intelligence of 
 their coming." Then he told them that nothing had 
 been proved against them, and that therefore they 
 had nothing to fear ; that all their complaints would 
 be listened to by their officers ;. that their caste and 
 religious prejudices were safe under his protection, 
 and that any one who attempted to interfere with 
 them would meet with the severest punishment. 
 
 Having thus concluded, Hearsey deployed the 
 Brigade, opened out the ranks to double distance, 
 and rode through them, stopping to notice the men 
 who wore medals on their breasts, and asking them, 
 v/ith kindly interest, for what special services they 
 had been rewarded. The regiments were then dis- 
 missed, and went quietly to their Lines, pondering all 
 that they heard from their General. What they had 
 heard was, perhaps, a little more than the Governor- 
 General had intended them to hear ; and Lord Can- 
 ning, though he much admired and much trusted 
 the fine old ofl&cer, had not been wholly free from 
 alarm lest Hearsey should be carried away by his 
 feelings, and give vent to more than he had authority 
 for declaring. But, he added, ''it will be nothing 
 
536 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 March, 1857. Very iniscliievous even if lie should do so." And he 
 was right. Hearsey had intimated that Government 
 would disband the Nineteenth, and in this he ex- 
 ceeded his instructions. But it is not certain that 
 the Governor-General lamented the excess. He re- 
 garded the disbandment of the Nineteenth as a ne- 
 cessary, but " an odious business ;" and, perhaps, in 
 his inmost heart he was not sorry that he had thus 
 escaped the painful, and to a generous mind the 
 humiliating alternative of concealing from the regi- 
 ment the doom in store for it, until he was strong 
 enough to execute the sentence.* Indeed, he wrote 
 to the Commander-in-Chief, saying, " The Nineteenth 
 are inarching down steadily, and will reach Barrack- 
 pore on the morning of the 31st. They do not know 
 for certain that disbandment is to be their punish- 
 ment, and, upon the whole, I think it was better not 
 to tell them. But I admit that there were two sides 
 to that question." The safer course on one side, and 
 the manlier course on the other ; and between these 
 two the ruler and the man might well have oscillated. 
 That there was danger in the knowledge, is not to be 
 doubted. Hearsey had sought, by the partial revela- 
 tions that he had made, to soothe the troubled spirit 
 of the Barrackpore Brigade ; but it soon became 
 doubtful whether the knowledge they had gained 
 would not excite within them more dangerous feel- 
 ings than those which he had endeavoured to allay. 
 *' The regiments at Barrackpore, however, know it," 
 wrote Lord Canning, "or, at least, fully expect it, 
 and to-day it is confidently said in the Bazaars that 
 the Second Grenadiers and the Thirty-fourth intend 
 to protect the Nineteenth, and to join them in resist- 
 
 * Compare Book TL, page 297 et seq,; Considerations on the subject of 
 disbandment. 
 
SPREAD OF ALARM. 537 
 
 in^. This is leadino^ to alarms and suo;o;estions on Marcli 1857, 
 all sides. Colonel Abbott, of Ishapore, advises the 
 putting a gag upon the Native Press for a time. 
 Major Bontein recommends bringing the Nineteenth 
 to Calcutta instead of Barrackpore, and dealing with 
 them under the guns of the Fort, where they will have 
 no sympathisers within reach. Even Atkinson sug- 
 gests that Dum-Dum would be better than Barrack- 
 pore. I am not in any way moved from my first 
 intention, and nothing but the opinion of General 
 Hearsey, Avho has to execute the orders, that a change 
 of plan or place should be made, would dispose me to 
 do so. I do not think that he will give any sucli 
 opinion, and I hope that he will not." 
 
 No such opinion was given; but it was plain to 
 Hearsey, as the month of March wore to a close, that 
 the hopes which he had once entertained of the 
 speedy subsidence of the alarm which had taken 
 possession of the Sepoys were doomed to be disap- 
 pointed. For Avhen the troops at Barrackpore knew 
 that the Nineteenth were to be disbanded, and that 
 an English regiment had been brought across the 
 black water to execute the punishment, they be- 
 lieved, more hrmly than they had believed at the 
 beo;innin2: of the month, that other white re^^iments 
 were coming, and that the Government would force 
 them to use the obnoxious cartrido-es, or treat them 
 like their comrades that were marching down from 
 Berhampore to be disgraced. So the great terror 
 that Avas driving them into rebellion grew stronger 
 and stronger, and as from mouth to mouth passed 
 the significant words, " Gora-logue aya" — " the Eu- 
 ropeans have come" — their excited imaginations be- 
 held vessel after vessel pouring forth its legions of 
 English fighting-men, under a foregone design to 
 
538 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 March, 1 So 7. force them all to apostatise at the pomt of the 
 bayonet. 
 
 Mitchell had started with his doomed corps on the 
 20th of March, and was expected to reach Barrack- 
 pore at the end of the month. The behaviour of the 
 men of the Nineteenth, ever since the outburst that 
 had irretrievably committed them, had been orderly 
 and respectful, and they were marching steadily down 
 to the Presidencv, obedient to their En owlish officers. 
 On the 30th, they were at Barasut, eight miles from 
 Barrackpore, awaiting the orders of Government, 
 when news reached Mitchell to the effect that the 
 troops at the latter station were in a fever of excite- 
 ment, and that on the day before an officer had been 
 cut down on parade. 
 
 The story was too true. On the 29th of March — 
 it was a Sunday afternoon — there was more than 
 common excitement in the Lines of the Thirty -fourth, 
 for it was said that the Europeans had arrived. Fifty 
 men of the Fifty-third had come by Avater from Cal- 
 cutta, and were disembarking at the river-side. The 
 apprehensions of the Sepoys exaggerated this arrival, 
 and it w^as believed that the cantonment would soon 
 be swarming with English soldiers. On one man 
 especially this impression had fixed itself so strongly, 
 that, inflamed as he was by ha72g, which is to the 
 Sepoy what strong drink is to the European soldier, 
 he was no longer master of himself. He was a young- 
 man, named Mungul Pandy, a man of good cha- 
 racter, but of an excitable disposition, and seemingly 
 with some religious enthusiasm wrought upon by the 
 story of the greased cartridges. He had heard of the 
 arrival of the detachment of Europeans, and he be- 
 lieved that the dread-^d hour had come; that the 
 caste of the Sepoys was about to be destroyed. So, 
 
THE STORY OF MUNGUL PAXDY. 539 
 
 putting on his accoutrements and seizing liis musket, March, 1857 
 he went out from his hut, and, calling upon his com- 
 rades to follow him, if they did not wish to bite the 
 cartridges and become infidels, he took post in front 
 of the Quarter-Guard, and ordered a bugler to sound 
 the assembly. The order was not obeyed ; but, with 
 an insolent and threatening manner, Mungul Pandy 
 continued to stride up and down, and Y>^hen the 
 European sergeant-major went out, fired his piece at 
 him, and missed. 
 
 All this time the Native ofiicer and men of the 
 Thirty-fourth on duty at the Quarter-Guard saAV 
 what was o:oino: on, but did not move to arrest the 
 drugged fanatic who was so plainly bent upon mis- 
 chief. But hastening to the Adjutant's house, a 
 Native corporal reported what had occurred, and 
 Lieutenant Baugh, without a moment of unnecessary 
 delay, buckled on his sword, loaded his pistols, 
 mounted his horse, and galloped down to the Quarter- 
 Guard. He had just tightened rein, when Mungul 
 Pandy, hidden by the station gun in front of the 
 Guard, took aim and fired at the Adjutant ; but, 
 missing him, wounded his charger, and brought both 
 liorse and rider to the ground. Baugh then, dis- 
 entangling himself, took one of his pistols from the 
 holsters and fired at the Sepoy. The shot did not 
 take efi'ect, so he drew his sword and closed with 
 the man, who also had drawn his tulwar, and then 
 there was a sharp hand-to-hand conflict, in which 
 the odds were against the Sepoy, for the sergeant- 
 major came up and took part in the afi'ray. But 
 Mungul Pandy was a desperate man, and the strokes 
 of his tulwar fell heavily upon his assailants; and 
 he might, perhaps, have despatched them both, if a 
 Mahomedan Sepoy, of the Grenadier Company, named 
 
540 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 aid), 1S57. Sheikh Pultoo, had not seized the mutineer and 
 averted his blows. 
 
 All this passed at the distance of a few yards only 
 from the Quarter-Guard of the Thirty-fourth, where 
 a Jemadar and twenty men were on duty. The sound 
 of the firing had brought many others from the Lines, 
 and Sepoys in uniform and out of uniform crowded 
 around m a state of tumultuous excitement. But with 
 the exception of this Sheikh Pultoo, no man moved 
 to assist his officer ; no man moved to arrest the 
 criminal. Nor was their guilt only the guilt of 
 inaction. Some of the Sepoys of the Guard struck 
 the wounded officers on the ground with the butt- 
 ends of their muskets, and one fired his piece at 
 them ; and when Sheikh Pultoo called upon them to 
 arrest the mutineer, they abused him, and said that if 
 he did not release Mungul Pandy, they would shoot 
 him. But he held the desperate fanatic until Baugh 
 and the sergeant-major had escaped, and doubtless to 
 his fidelity they owed their lives. 
 
 Meanwhile, tidings of the tumult had reached the 
 quarters of General Hearsey. An orderly rushed into 
 the portico of his house and told him that the Brigade 
 had risen. His two sons, officers of the Sepoy Army, 
 were with him ; and now the three, having ordered 
 their horses to be saddled and brought round, put on 
 their uniform and accoutrements and prepared at once 
 to proceed to the scene of action. It seemed so pro- 
 bable that all the regiments had turned out in a 
 frenzy of alarm, that, whilst the horses were being 
 saddled, Hearsey wrote hasty notes, to be despatched 
 in case of need to the officers commanding the Euro- 
 peans at Chinsurah and Dum-Dum, calling upon 
 them to march down at once to his assistance. He 
 had just sealed them, when first the Adjutant of the 
 
THE SCENE AT THE QUARTER- GUARD. 541 
 
 Forty-third, smeared with the blood of the wounded March, 1857. 
 
 officers, and then the Commandant of the Regiment, 
 
 came up to report, in detail, what had happened. The 
 
 story then told him was a strange one ; for it seemed 
 
 not that the Brigade, but that a single Sepoy had 
 
 risen ^ and was setting the State at defiance. It is 
 
 hard to say whether the surprise or the indignation 
 
 of the gallant veteran were greater, when he asked 
 
 whether there was no one to shoot or to secure the 
 
 madman. But it was plain that no time was to be 
 
 lost. So, mounting their horses, Hearsey and his 
 
 sons galloped down to the parade-ground, and saw 
 
 for themselves what was passing. 
 
 There was a great crowd of Sepoys, mostly unarmed 
 and undressed, and there were several European 
 officers, some mounted and some on foot ; much con- 
 fusion and some consternation, but apparently no 
 action. Mungul Pandy, still master of the situation, 
 was pacing up and down, in front of the Quarter- 
 Guard, calling upon his comrades in vehement tones, 
 and with excited action, to follow his example, as the 
 Europeans were coming down upon them, and to die 
 bravely for their religion. But the crowd of Sepoys, 
 though none remembered at that moment that they 
 were servants of the State, none came forward to 
 support discipline and authority, were not ripe for 
 open mutiny ; and when Mungul Pandy reviled them 
 as cowards, who had first excited and then deserted 
 liim, they hung irresolutely back, clustering together 
 like sheep, and wondering what would happen next. 
 The arrival of the General solved the question. As 
 soon as he saw Mungul Pandy in front of the Quarter- 
 Guard, he rode towards it, accompanied by his sons 
 and by his Division-Staff, Major Ross, and when an 
 officer cried out to him to take care, as the mutineer's 
 
542 OUTBREAK OF TUE MUTINY. 
 
 Muicli, 1S57. musket was loaded, answered, " Damn liis musket/' 
 and rode on to do his duty. 
 
 Little inclination was there on the part of the 
 Jemadar and the men of the Guard to obey the 
 General's orders ; but the manner of Hearsey at that 
 moment was the manner of a man not to be denied ; 
 and supported by his sons, each of the gallant Three 
 with his hand upon his revolver, there was instant 
 death in disobedience. So the Jemadar and the 
 Guard, thus overawed, followed Hearsey and his sons 
 to the place where Mungul Pandy was striding about 
 menacingly with his musket in his hand. As they 
 approached the mutineer, John Hearsey cried out, 
 '' Father, he is taking aim at you." " If I fall, John," 
 said the General, "rush upon him and put him to 
 death." But Mungul Pandy did not fire upon 
 Hearsey ; he turned his weapon upon himself. He 
 saw that the game was up ; and so, placing the butt 
 of his musket on the ground, and the muzzle of the 
 piece to his breast, he discharged it by the pressure of 
 his foot, and fell burnt and wounded to the ground. 
 
 As he lay there convulsed and shivering, with his 
 blood-stained sword beneath him, the officers thought 
 that he was dying. But medical assistance came 
 promptly, the wound was examined and found to be 
 only superficial, so the wounded man was carried to 
 the Hospital; and then Hearsey rode among the 
 Sepoys, telling them, as he had often told them 
 before, that their alarms were groundless, that the 
 Government had no thought of interfering with their 
 religion, and that he saw with regret how lamentably 
 they had failed in their duty, in not arresting or 
 shooting down a man who had thus shown himself to 
 be a rebel and a murderer. They answered that 
 he was a madman, intoxicated to frenzy by bang. 
 
THE NINETEENTH. 543 
 
 ''And if so," said Hearsey, "why not have shot him March, 1S57. 
 
 down as you would have shot a mad elephant or a 
 
 mad dog, if he resisted you." Some answered that he 
 
 had a loaded musket. " What !" replied the General, 
 
 "are you afraid of a loaded musket?" They were 
 
 silent; and he dismissed them with scorn. It was 
 
 plain that they had ceased to be soldiers. 
 
 Hearsey returned to his quarters that Sabbath 
 evening, heavy with thought of the work before him. 
 He had received his orders to execute the sentence 
 that had been passed on the Nineteenth Re^rment. 
 That sentence had now been publicly proclaimed iii z 
 general order to the whole Army. On Tuesday morn- 
 ing, in the presence of all the troops, European and . 
 Native, at the Presidency, the Berhampore mutineers 
 were to be turned adrift on the world, destitute and 
 degraded ; and it was not to be doubted that they 
 would carry with them the Sympathies of their 
 comrades in all parts of the country. That there was 
 prospective danger in this was certain, for every dis- 
 banded Sepoy might have become an emissary of 
 evil ; but there was a great and present danger, far 
 too formidable in itself to suffer thoughts of the future 
 to prevail ; for it was probable that the Nineteenth 
 would resist their sentence, and that all the Native 
 troops at the Presidency would aid them in their re- 
 sistance. Some thought that the Barrackpore Brigade 
 would anticipate the event, and that on Monday there 
 would be a general rising of the Sepoys, and that the 
 officers and their families would be butchered by the 
 mutineers. The first blood had been shed. Mungul 
 Pandy was only the fugleman. So many of the 
 Enoflish ladies in Barrackpore left the cantonment 
 and sought safety for a while in Calcutta. But there 
 was no place at that time more secure than that 
 
5-14 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 AtarcQ, 1857. v.'liicli they had quitted; and they found tliat the 
 inmates of the asylum they had sought were as much 
 alarmed as themselves. 
 
 It has been said that, halted at Barasut on the 
 oOth of March, the Nineteenth learnt what had 
 happened on the preceding evening. The Thirty- 
 fourth had sent out their emissaries to meet their old 
 friends and comrades of Lucknow, to prompt them 
 to resistance, and to promise to cast in their own lot 
 with their brethren and to die for their religion. And 
 this, too, it is said, with murderous suggestions of a 
 general massacre of the white officers. But the Nine- 
 teenth shook their heads at the tempters. They had 
 expressed their sorrow for what had happened, and 
 they had implored that they might be suffered to 
 prove their loyalty by going on service to any part of 
 the world. They had never at heart been mutinous, 
 and they would not now rise against the Government 
 whose salt they had eaten and whose uniform they 
 had worn. But the bonds of a great sympathy re- 
 strained them from denouncing their comrades, so 
 they suffered in silence the tempters to return to 
 their own Lines. 
 
 Mnrdi 31, As the morning dawned upon them, obedient to 
 
 1Sj7. orders, they commenced the last march that they were 
 
 ])lsband- ^^cr to make as soldiers. Heavy-hearted, penitent, 
 
 i.icut of the cj^j^^ ^yij^l^ iiiQ remains of a great fear still clino;ino^ to 
 
 Ninetceuth. . . o o 
 
 them, they went to their doom. A mile from Barrack- 
 pore, Hearsey met them with his final orders, and 
 placing himself in front of the column, rode back with 
 them to the parade-ground which was to be the scene 
 of their disbandment. There all the available troops 
 in the Presidency division, European and Native, 
 v\^ere drawn up to receive them. Steadily they 
 mavched on to the ground which had been marked 
 
DISBANDMEiNT OF THE NINETEENTH. 545 
 
 out for them, and found themselves face to face with March, 1857. 
 the guns. If there had been any thought of resistance, 
 it would have passed away at the first sight of that 
 imposing array of white troops and the two field- 
 batteries which confronted them. But they had never 
 thought of anything but submission. Obedient, there- 
 fore, to the word of command, up to the last moment 
 of their military existence, they listened in silence to 
 the General's brief preliminary address, in silence to 
 the General Order of Government announcing the 
 sentence of disbandment ; without a murmur, opened 
 their ranks, piled their arms at the word of command 
 as though they had been on a common parade, and 
 then hung their belts upon their bayonets. The 
 colours of the regiment were then brought to the 
 front, and laid upon a rest composed of a little pile of 
 crossed muskets. It was an anxious moment, for 
 though the Nineteenth were penitent and submissive, 
 the temper of some of the other regiments, and espe- 
 cially of the Thirty -fourth, was not to be trusted ; 
 and for a while it was believed that the men, who two 
 days before had thrown off the mask, were prepared 
 to fire upon their officers. The rumour ran that 
 many of the Sepoys of that guilty regiment were on 
 parade with loaded muskets, and Hearsey was advised 
 to prove them by ordering the regiment to spring 
 ramrods. But he wisely rejected the advice, saying 
 that all was going well, and that lie would not mar 
 the effect of the peaceable disbandment of the regi- 
 ment by a movement that might excite a collision. 
 He was right. The work that he had in hand was 
 quietly completed. The men of the Nineteenth were 
 marched to a distance from their arms, and the pay 
 that was due to them brought out for disbursement. 
 They had now ceased to be soldiers ; but there was nc 
 
 2n 
 
'546 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 March, 1857. further degradation in store for them. Hearsey ad< 
 dressed them in tones of kindness, saying that though 
 the Government had decreed their summary dismissal, 
 their uniforms would not be stripped from their backs, 
 and that as a reward for their penitence and good 
 conduct on the march from Berhampore, they would 
 be provided at the public cost with carriage to convey 
 them to their homes. This kindness made a deep im- 
 pression upon them. Many of them lifted up their 
 voices, bewailing their fate and loudly declaring that 
 they would revenge themselves upon the Thirty-fourth, 
 who had tempted them to their undoing. One man, 
 apparently spokesman for his comrades, said, " Give 
 us back our arms for ten minutes before we go ; and 
 leave us alone with the Thirty-fourth to settle our 
 account with them."* 
 
 Whilst the men of what had once been the Nine- 
 teenth were being paid, Hearsey addressed the other 
 Native regiments on parade, very much as he had ad- 
 dressed them before ; but urging upon them the con- 
 sideration of the fact that the Nineteenth, in which 
 there were four hundred Brahmins and a hundred 
 and fifty Rajpoots, had been sent to their homes, and 
 were at liberty to visit what shrines they pleased, and 
 to worship where their fathers had worshipped before 
 them, as a proof that the report which had been 
 
 * Lord Canning's reasons for punislimeut is severe enouf^li witli- 
 
 sparingthem the deeper degradation out being made to gall and rankle, 
 
 are thus given in a letter to General It was for this reason that I did not 
 
 Anson : " I sent you a copy of the originally prescribe that the number 
 
 General Order yesterday. I have of the regiment should be removed 
 
 determined to omit the words which from the Army List, or that tlie men 
 
 require that the men shall be de- should be turned out of cantonment 
 
 prived 'of the uniform which they ignominiously, as was done in the 
 
 nave dishonoured.' Heavy as has case of the Thirty-fourth thirteen 
 
 been their crime — none heavier — it years ago. The abstaining from 
 
 IS not a mean or abject one : such as stripping their uniforms from them 
 
 refusing to march to a post of wiR be a further relaxation in the 
 
 danger ; and the substance of their same spirit." — MS. Correspondence. 
 
DISPERSION OF THE NINETEENTH. 547 
 
 circulated of the intention of Government to interfere Marcli, 1S57. 
 with their relio:ion was nothino; but a base falsehood. 
 The men listened attentively to what was said , and 
 when the time came for their dismissal, they went 
 quietly to their lines. It was nearly nine o'clock 
 before the men of the old Nineteenth had been paid 
 up ; and, under an European escort, were marched 
 out of Barrackpore. As they moved off, they cheered 
 the fine old soldier, whose duty it had been to dis- 
 band them, and wished him a long and a happy life ; 
 and he went to his house with a heart stirred to its 
 very depths with a compassionate sorrow, feeling 
 doubtless that it was the saddest morning's work he 
 had ever done, but thanking God that it had been 
 done so peacefully and with such perfect success. 
 
 2n2 
 
548 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINT. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE MONTH OP APRIL — PROGllESS OP ALARM — THE PANIC AT UMBALLAH— 
 
 GENERAL ANSOiS^'s ADDRESS EVENTS AT MEERUT — THE BONE-DUST 
 
 PLOUR— THE STORY OF THE CHUPATTIES— INTRIGUES OP THE NANA SAHIB 
 — APPAIRS AT LUCKNOW. 
 
 Bamckpore. NoT less thankful was Lord Canning, when tidings 
 ^^^ ' ^ * were brought to him at Calcutta that all had passed 
 off quietly at Barrackpore. He had sent one of his 
 Aides-de-camp, Captain Baring, to witness the dis- 
 bandment of the Nineteenth, and to bring back to 
 him, with all possible despatch, intelligence of the 
 events of the morning. And now that good news 
 had come, he telegraphed it at once to the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, and made it known throughout the 
 city, to the intense relief of many frightened resi- 
 dents, who had anticipated a general rising of the 
 Native troops, and the massacre of all the European 
 inhabitants. For the moment, at least, the danger 
 had passed; and a little breathing-time was per- 
 mitted to Government. Now that the disbandment 
 of the Nineteenth had been effected, and the men 
 Avere going quietly to their homes, there was leisure 
 to think of the far greater crime of the Thirty-fourth. 
 The case of Mungul Pandy, who had cut down his 
 of&cer, was one to raise no questionings. Nor, indeed, 
 could there be much doubt about the Jemadar of the 
 
THE THIRTY-FOURTH. 549 
 
 Guard, who had suffered such an outrage to be com- April, ] 857. 
 mitted before his eyes. The former was tried by 
 Court-martial on the 6th of April, and sentenced to 
 be hanged; and, on the 10th and 11th, the latter 
 was tried, ard sentenced to the same ignominious 
 death. On the 8th, Mungul Pandy paid the penalty 
 of his crime on the gallows, in the presence of all the 
 troops, at Barrackpore. But although without loss of 
 time the Jemadar was condemned to be hanged, the 
 execution lagged behind the sentence in a manner 
 that must have greatly marred the effect of the ex- 
 ample. A legal difficulty arose, which, for a while, 
 held retribution in restraint,* and the men of the 
 Brio;ade beo^an to think that Government lacked 
 the resolution to inflict condign punishment on the 
 offender. 
 
 JSTor was this the only apparent symptom of irreso- 
 lution. The Thirty-fourth had been more guilty than 
 the Nineteenth ; but punishment had not overtaken 
 it. The men still went about with their arms in 
 their hands ; and there was scarcely a European in 
 Barrackpore who believed that he was safe from 
 their violence. As officers returned at night from 
 their regimental messes, they thought that their own 
 Sepoys would fall upon them in the darkness, and 
 social intercourse after nightfall between the ladies 
 
 * "The execution of a Native oiE- Tlie delay was caused by the Com- 
 
 cer of his rank," wrote Lord Caiininic mander-iu-Cliief not havinj^ given 
 
 to the President of the Board of authority to General Hearsey, in 
 
 Control, " convicted by his brother his warrant, to carry out sentencos 
 
 officers, will have a most wholesome ao:ainst any but non-commissioned 
 
 effect. Such a thing is quite unpre- of&cers, and by an opinion utterly 
 
 cedeuted. There has been a delay erroneous of the Judge Advocate, 
 
 between the sentence and the exe- who is with the Commander-in-Chief, 
 
 cution which has vexed me, as it that the authority could not be given, 
 
 may give an appearance of hesitation Hence nearly a week was lost, and 
 
 to the proceedings Of Government, with it something of the sharpness 
 
 which would be mischievous, and of the example." — MS. Correspond- 
 
 which never has existed for a moment, edcc of Lord Canmny, 
 
550 OUTEKEAK OF THE MUTlJsT. 
 
 April, 1857. of the station was suspended.* All this was known 
 and deplored ; but it was felt, upon the other hand, 
 that if there were evil in delay, there was evil also in 
 any appearance of haste.f Mindful that the dis- 
 affection in the Sepoy regiments had its root in fear, 
 and believing that any undue severity would in- 
 crease their irritation, the Governor-General caused 
 all the circumstances of the excitement of the Thirty- 
 fourth to be sifted to the bottom, and hoped thereby 
 to elicit information which might guide him to a 
 right understanding of the matter. The regiment 
 once disbanded, there would be no hope of further 
 revelations. So all through the month of April their 
 doom was unpronounced. Courts of Inquiry were 
 being held for the purpose of ascertaining the general 
 temper of the regiment. It appeared that for some 
 time there had been a Avant of loyalty and good feel- 
 ing in the Thirty-fourth ; that Native officers and 
 Sepoys had been disrespectful in their manner to- 
 wards their Enolish officers ; and altoo^ether there had 
 been such a lack of discipline, that the officers, when 
 questioned, said that if the regiment had been or- 
 
 * It does not appear that any out- liasty measure of retribution, betray- 
 
 rages v.ero actually committed ; but ing animosity, or an unjust act of 
 
 one night a Sepoy appeared sud- severity, would confirm, instead of 
 
 denly in a threatening attitude be- allaying, the temper which is abroad, 
 
 fore a young officer, as lie was on Jt is not possible to say with confi- 
 
 his way home, upon which, being a dence what the causes are ; but with 
 
 stalwart and brave fellow, the Eng- the common herd there is a sincere 
 
 lish subaltern knocked him down. fear for their caste, and a conviction 
 
 t A little later the Governor-Gene- that this has been in danger from 
 
 ral wrote : "The mutinous spirit is the cartridges and other causes. This 
 
 not quelled here, and I feel no con- feeling is played upon by others from 
 
 fidence of being able to eradicate it outside, and, to some extent, \Aith 
 
 very speedily, although the outbreaks political objects. But, upon the 
 
 may be repressed easily. The spirit whole, political animosity does not 
 
 of disaifection, or rather of mistrust, go for much in the present move- 
 
 for it is more that, has spread fur- ment, and certainly does not actuate 
 
 ther than I thought six weeks ago, the Sepoys in the muss."— Lord Can- 
 
 but widely rather than deeply, and ning to Lord Elphinstone, May 6, 
 
 it requires very wary walking. A 1857. — MS. Correspondence, 
 
THE THIRTY-FOURTH. 551 
 
 dered on service tliey would have had little faith in April, 1857 
 the fidelity of the great bulk of the soldiery. And at 
 last an opinion was recorded to the effect that "the 
 Sikhs and Mussulmans of the Thirty-fourth Regi- 
 ment of Native Infantry were trustworthy soldiers of 
 the State, but that the Hindoos generally of that 
 corps were not to be trusted." So the Government 
 took into deliberate consideration the disbandment of 
 the regiment, with the exception of those officers and 
 soldiers who had been absent from Barracl^pore at 
 the time of the outrage of the 29th of March, or who 
 had at any time made practical demonstration of 
 their loyalty and fidelity to the State.* 
 
 But before judgment was pronounced and sen- 
 tence executed, there had been much in other parts 
 of the country to disturb the mind of the Governor- 
 General. He was a man of a hopeful nature, and 
 a courageous heart that never suffered him to exag- 
 gerate the dangers of the Future, or to look gloomily 
 at the situation of the Present ; but it was plain that 
 the little cloud which had arisen at the end of 
 January, was now, in the early part of April, rapidly 
 spreading itself over the entire firmament. Already 
 the sound of the thunder had been heard from dis- 
 tant stations beneath the shadow of the Himalayahs, 
 
 '-•'" Three companies of the TLirty- must be regarded as an additional 
 
 fourth had been on detachment duty proof of the external agency that 
 
 at Chittagong. No suspicion of dis- was, I beheve, at the beginning of 
 
 loyalty had attached to them, and 1857, employed to corrupt the Se- 
 
 M'hen they heard of what had passed poys at the Presidency. Tt is a cir- 
 
 at Barrackpore, they sent in a memo- cumstance also to be noticed, that the 
 
 rial, saying tliat they had heard with very Soubahdar of the Mint-Guard, 
 
 extreme regret of the disgraceful who had arrested the Sepovs of the 
 
 conduct of Mungul Pandy and the Second Grenadiers, was accused, ia 
 
 Guard; that they well knew that the course of the inquiry into the 
 
 the Government would not interfere conduct and temper of the Thirty- 
 
 with their religion; and that tiiey fourth, of being a prime mover of 
 
 would remain " faithful for ever." If sedition, 
 they were sincere, their sincerity 
 
552 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 Apfil, 1857. and it was little likely that, througliout tlie interven- 
 ing country, there was a single cantonment by which 
 the alarm had not been caught — a single Native regi- 
 ment in which the new rifle and the greased car- 
 tridges were not subjects of excited discussion. 
 Retrospect of The Head-quartcrs of the Army were at that time 
 Um^a^llali ^^ Umballah, at the foot of the great hills, a thou- 
 Maicli, 1857. sand miles from Calcutta. There General Anson 
 having returned from his hasty visit to Calcutta, was 
 meditating a speedy retreat to Simlah, when the un- 
 quiet spirit in the Native regiments forced itself 
 upon his attention. This station was one of the 
 Depots of Instruction, at which the use of the new 
 rifle was taught to representative men from the dif- 
 ferent regiments in that part of the country. These 
 men were picked soldiers, of more than common 
 aptitude and intelligence, under some of the best 
 Native ofticers in the service. The explanations of 
 their instructors seemed to have disarmed their sus- 
 picions, and they attended their instruction parades 
 without any sign of dissatisfaction. They had not 
 advanced so far in their drill as to require to use tlie 
 cartridges ; and, indeed, the new ammunition had 
 not yet been received from Meerut. But the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief believed that the men were satis- 
 fled, until a circumstance occurred which loudly pro- 
 claimed, and ought to have struck home to him the 
 conviction, that the great fear which had taken pos- 
 session of men's minds was too deeply seated to be 
 eradicated by any single measure of the Government, 
 and too widely spread to be removed by any local 
 orders. What solace was there in the assurance that 
 no cartridges lubricated with the obnoxious grease 
 had been, or ever would be, issued to them, if the 
 cartridge-paper used by them were unclean? and 
 
ALARM AT UMB ALLAH. 553 
 
 even if their own minds were cleansed of all foul Maidi, 1857. 
 suspicions, what did this avail, so long as their com- "^ ^ ^ • 
 rades in the several regiments to which they be- 
 longed believed them to be defiled, and were, there- 
 fore, casting them out from the brotherhood? 
 
 The Thirty-sixth Reghnent formed the escort of 
 the Commander-in-Chief There was a detachment 
 from it in the Rifle Depot ; and it happened that one 
 day, at the end of the third week of March, two non- 
 commissioned officers from this detachment visited 
 the regimental camp, and were publicly taunted by 
 a Soubahdar with having become Christians. They 
 carried back this story to the Depot, and one of 
 them, when he told it to Lieutenant Martineau, the 
 Instructor, cried like a child in his presence, said 
 that he was an outcast, and that the men of his 
 regiment had refused to eat with him. A man of 
 more than common quickness of intelligence and 
 depth of thought, Martineau saw at once the terrible 
 significance of this, and he pushed his inquiries 
 further among the men of the Depot. The result 
 left no doubt upon his mind, that in every detach- 
 ment there was the same strong feeling of terror, lest 
 having used the new greased cartridges, or having 
 been suspected of using them, they should become 
 outcasts from their regiments, and shunned by their 
 brethren on returning to their own villages. This 
 was no mere fancy. Already had the detachments 
 found their intercourse v/ith their regiments sus- 
 pended. They had written letters to their distant 
 comrades and received no answers ; and now they 
 asked, not without a great show of reason, " If a 
 Soubahdar in the Commander-in-Chief's camp, and 
 on duty as his personal escort, can taunt us with loss 
 of caste, what kind of reception shall we meet on our 
 
55i: OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 Marcli, 1S57. return to our own corps? No reward tliat Govern- 
 ment can offer us is any equivalent for being re- 
 garded as outcasts by our own comrades." Plainly, 
 then, it was Martineau's duty to communicate all 
 that he knew to the Commander-in-Chief, and being 
 his duty, he was not a man to shrink from doing it. 
 So he wrote at once to the Assistant- Adjutant-General, 
 Septimus Becher, and told his story — privately in 
 the first instance, but afterwards, at Becher's sug- 
 gestion, in an official letter. But already had the 
 Commander-in-Chief learnt also from other sources 
 the feeling of consternation that was pervading the 
 minds of the men of the Depot. On the 19th of 
 March the Soubahdar had insulted the men of the 
 detachment ; on the 20th, Martineau wrote his first 
 letter to Anson's Staff; on the morning of the 23rd 
 the Commander-in-Chief was to inspect the Rifle 
 Depot ; and on the previous evening a report reached 
 him that the men of the detachments wished to speak 
 to him, through their delegates, on parade. He de- 
 termined, therefore, to take the initiative, and to ad- 
 dress them. So, after the Inspection parade, he 
 formed the detachments into a hollow square, and 
 calling the Native officers to the front, within a short 
 distance of his Staff, began his oration to the troops. 
 He had not the advantage, which Hearsey enjoyed, 
 of being able to address them fluently in their owji 
 language. But, if his discourse was therefore less 
 impressive, it was not less clear ; for calling Mar- 
 tineau to his aid, Anson paused at the end of each 
 brief sentence, heard it translated into Hindostanee, 
 and asked if the men understood its import. It was 
 thus that he spoke to them : 
 
 Addressofthe "The Commander-in-Chief is desirous ot taking 
 
 Commander- • /> i i . n t i 
 
 ill-Chief. this opportunity ol addressing a lew words to the 
 
GENERAL ANSON'S ADDRESS. 555 
 
 }v'ative officers assembled at this Depot, wMcli has Marcli, 1857. 
 been formed for the instruction of the Army in the 
 use of the new Rifle. The Native officers have been 
 selected for this duty on account of their superior in- 
 telligence upon all matters connected with the service 
 to which they belong. The Commander-in-Chief 
 feels satisfied, therefore, that they will exercise that 
 intelligence, and employ the influence which their 
 positions warrant him in supposing they possess, for 
 the good of the men who are placed under their 
 authority, and for the advantage of the Army gene- 
 rally. In no way can this be more beneficially 
 proved than in disabusing their minds of any mis- 
 taken notion which they may have been led to enter- 
 tain respecting the intentions and orders of the Go- 
 vernment whom they have engaged to serve. The 
 introduction of a better arm has rendered it neces- 
 sary to adopt a different system of loading it, and an 
 improved description of cartridge. The Commander- 
 in-Chief finds that, on account of the appearance of 
 the paper used for the cartridges, and of the material 
 with which they are made up according to the pat- 
 terns sent from England, objections have been raised 
 to their use by Sepoys of various Religions and 
 Castes, and that endeavours have been made to in- 
 duce them to believe that it is the express object of 
 the Government to subvert their Religion and to sub- 
 ject them to the loss of Caste on which they set so 
 high a value. 
 
 " A moment's calm reflection must convince every 
 one how utterly groundless and how impossible it is 
 that there can be the slightest shadow of truth in 
 such a suspicion. In what manner or degree could 
 the Government gain by such a proceeding? Can 
 any one explain what could be the object of it? The 
 
556 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 March, 1857. Commander-in-Chief is sure tliat all will allow tliat 
 "^ ^ ^^* nothing has ever occurred to justify a suspicion that 
 the Government ever wished to coerce the r^atives of 
 India in matters of Religion, or to interfere unneces- 
 sarily with their Customs, or even with the cere- 
 monies which belong to their different Castes. 
 
 " The Commander-in-Chief regrets to hear that 
 there have been instances in the Army of the dis- 
 belief of the Sepoys in the assurances of their officers 
 that they would not be required to use cartridges 
 which were made of materials to which they could 
 reasonably object, and that they have acted in a 
 manner which must destroy all confidence in them 
 as soldiers, whose first duty is obedience to the Go- 
 vernment whom they serve, and to their superiors. 
 The Government will know how to deal with such 
 instances of insubordination, and the Commander- 
 in-Chief does not hesitate to say that they should be 
 visited with the severest punishment. 
 
 ^'But the object of the Commander-in-Chief is not 
 to threaten, and he hopes that it is unnecessary even 
 to point out to those whose breasts are decorated 
 with proofs of gallantry and good service, what is 
 their duty. He wishes simply to assure them, on 
 the honour of a soldier like themselves, that it has 
 never been, and never will be, the policy of the 
 Government of this great country to coerce either 
 those serving in the Army or the Natives of India in 
 their religious feelings, or to interfere with the cus- 
 toms of their Castes. He trusts to the Native officers 
 who are present here to make this known to their 
 respective regiments, and to exert themselves in 
 allaying the fears of those who may have been mo- 
 mentarily seduced from their duty by evil-disposed 
 persons. He is satisfied that they will do everything 
 
ALARM OF THE DETACHMENTS. 557 
 
 in their power to prevent the sliame which must fall March, 1857 
 upon all who are faithless to the colours under which ^^ ^ ^ • 
 they have sworn allegiance to the Government, and 
 that they will prove themselves deserving of the high 
 character which they have always hitherto main- 
 tained in this Army." 
 
 The Native officers in front, who alone, perhaps, 
 were enabled by their position to hear the address 
 of the Chief, listened attentively and with a respect- 
 ful demeanour to what was said ; and when the 
 parade was over, they expressed to Martineau, 
 through the medium of three of their body acting as 
 spokesmen, their high sense of the honour that had 
 been done to them by the condescension of His Ex- 
 cellency in addressing them on parade. But they 
 urged upon him that, although they did not them- 
 selves attribute to the Government any of the evil 
 designs referred to in that address, it was true that 
 for one man who disbelieved the story, there were 
 ten thousand who believed it ; that it was univer- 
 sally credited, not only in their regiments, but every- 
 where in their native villages ; and that, therefore, 
 although the men of the detachments were ready to 
 a man to use the cartridge when ordered, they de- 
 sired to represent, for the paternal consideration of 
 the Commander-in-Chief, the social consequences to 
 themselves of military obedience. They would be- 
 come outcasts for ever, shunned by their comrades, 
 and discarded by their families, and would thus 
 suffer for their obedience the most terrible punish- 
 ment that could be inflicted upon them upon this 
 side of the grave.* Martineau promised to repre- 
 
 * Lieutenant Martineau to Cap- of intelligence and fidelity thus be- 
 tain Septimus Becher. The writer comes to them the most fatal curse : 
 adds : " Their being selected as men they will obey the orders of their 
 
55S OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. - 
 
 ?.farch, 1857. sent all this to the Commander-in-Chief; and he 
 did so in an official letter, through the legitimaf 
 channel of the Adjutant- General's office. The matte 
 was weighing heavily upon Anson's mind. He saw 
 clearly what the difficulty was. " I have no doubt," 
 he wrote on that day to the Governor-General, "that 
 individually they (the men of the detachments) are 
 content, and that their own minds will be set at rest ; 
 but it is the manner in which they will be received 
 by their comrades, when they regain their regiments, 
 that weighs upon my mind." But what was to be 
 done? To remove from their minds all fear of the 
 greased cartridges was only to drive them upon an 
 equal fear of the greased paper, which it was still 
 more difficult to remove.* He had thought at one 
 time of breaking up the Depot, and sending back the 
 detachments to their regiments, on the ground of the 
 advanced state of the season ; but this Avould only, 
 
 military superiors, and socially perish to regard the greased cartridges, 
 through their instinct ol obedience, alleged to be smeared with cows' and 
 Thattlieirviews are not exaggerated, pigs' fat, more as the medium than 
 some knowledge of the native cha- as the original cause of this wide- 
 racter, and of the temper of the spread feeling of distrust that is 
 Native mind (non-military as well as spreading dissatisfaction to our rule, 
 military) at this present moment, and tending to alienate the fidelity 
 tend to convince me. The Asiatic of the Native Army." 
 mind is periodically prone to fits of * « I am not so much surprised," 
 religious panic; in this state, reason- wrote General Auson to Lord Can- 
 ing that would satisfy us is utterly ning on the 23rd of March, "at their 
 tlirown away upon them; their ima- objections to the cartridges, having 
 ginations run riot on preconceived seen them. 1 had no idea they con- 
 views, and often the more absurd they tained, or rather are smeared with, 
 are, the more tenaciously do they such a quantity of grease, which 
 cling to them. We are now pass- looks exactly like fat. After ram- 
 ing through one of these paroxysms, ming down the ball, the muzzle of 
 which we might safely disregard were the musket is covered with it. This, 
 not unfortunately the military ele- however, will, I imagine, not be the 
 ment mixed up in it. What the ex- case with those prepared according 
 citing causes are that at this present to the late instructions. But there 
 moment are operating on the Native are now misgivings about the paper, 
 mind, to an universal extent through- and I think it so desirable that they 
 out these provinces, I cannot dis- should be assured that no animal 
 cover; no Native can or will ofi'er grease is used in its manufacture, 
 any explanation, but 1 am disposed thiit a special report shall be made 
 
VIEWS OF LORD CANNING. 559' 
 
 he argued on reflection, be a cowardly staving-ofF of Marcli, 1857. 
 the question, so he determined merely to direct that "^"^^^^^^• 
 the drill instruction should not proceed to the point 
 of firing until a special report should have been re- 
 ceived from Meerut on the subject of the suspected 
 paper. 
 
 To Lord Canning, it appeared that any postpone- 
 ment of the target practice of the drill detachments 
 would be a mistake. It would be a concession to 
 unreasonable fears, which would look like an ad- 
 mission that there was reason in them; so, having 
 first telegraphed to Umballah the substance of his 
 letter, he wrote to General Anson, saying : '' I -^P^J^ *» 
 gather that you are not decidedly in favour of this 
 course, and certainly I am much opposed to it 
 myself. The men, it seems, have no objection of 
 their own to use the cartridges, but dread the 
 taunts of their comrades after they have rejoined. 
 These taunts will be founded, not on their having 
 handled unclean grease, for against that the whole 
 Army has been protected for many weeks past by 
 the late orders, but upon suspicions respecting the 
 paper Now, although in the matter of grease the 
 Government was in some degree in the wrong (not 
 having taken all the precaution that might have 
 been taken to exclude objectionable ingredients), in 
 
 to me on that head from I^feerut, would only be deferred till another 
 and until I receive an answer, and year, and I trust that the measures 
 am satisfied that no objectionable taken by the Government when the 
 material is used, no firinj^ at the objection was first made, and the 
 depots by the Sepoys will take place, example of the punishment of tiie 
 It would be easy to dismiss the de- Nineteenth Native Infantry, and of 
 tachments to their regiments with- the other delinquents of the Seven- 
 out any practice, on the ground that tieth, now being tried by a general 
 the hot weather is so advanced, and court-martial, will have the effect we 
 that very little progress could be desire." [It is probable that General 
 made, but I do not think that would Anson here referred to the trial of 
 be advisable. The question having the men of the Second Grenadiers.] 
 been raised, must be settled. It — MS. Correspondence, 
 
560 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 April, 1S57. the matter of paper it is entirely in the right. There 
 '^^ ^ *^ * is nothing offensive to the Caste of the Sepoys in the 
 paper ; they have no pretence for saying so. The 
 contrary has been proved ; and if we give way upon 
 this point I do not see where we can take our stand. 
 It may be, as you hope, that the detachments at 
 Umballah, being well-conditioned men, would not 
 consider a compliance with their request as a giving 
 way on the part of the Government, or as a victory 
 on their own part. But I fear it would be so with 
 their comrades in the regiments. When the detach- 
 ments return to their Head-quarters, they would 
 give an account of the concession they had obtained, 
 w^hich would inevitably, and not unreasonably, lead 
 to the suspicion that the Government is doubtful of 
 the right of its own case. It could hardly be other- 
 wise ; and if so, we should have increased our diffi- 
 culties for hereafter — for I have no faith in this 
 question dying away of itself during the idleness of 
 the hot season, unless it is grappled with at once. I 
 would, therefore, make the men proceed to use the 
 cartridges at practice. It will be no violence to 
 their own consciences, for they are satisfied that the 
 paper is harmless ; and it will, in my opinion, much 
 more effectually pave the way towards bringing their 
 several regiments to reason, whether the objections 
 thereto felt are sincere or not, than any postpone- 
 ment. Moreover, I do not think that we can quite 
 consistently take any other course after w^hat has 
 passed with the Nineteenth Regiment ; for, though 
 the climax of their crime was taking up arms, the 
 refusal of the cartridges has been declared to be the 
 beginning of the offence. Neither do I like the 
 thought of countenancing consultations and refe- 
 rences between the men of a regiment upon matters 
 
GENERAL ANSON AT SIMLAH. 561 
 
 m wMcli they have nothing to do but to obey ; and April, 1857*, 
 I fear that postponement would look like an acqui- ^ ^ ' 
 escence in such references." So it was determined 
 that there should be no cowardly postponement of 
 the evil day, and the detachments in the Musketry 
 Schools were ordered to proceed, under the new regu- 
 lations, to the end of their course of instruction.* 
 
 Whilst this letter was making its way to the foot 
 of the Hills, General Anson, whose health had been 
 severely tried, and who had long been looking 
 anxiously towards the cool, fresh slopes of the 
 Himalayahs, betook himself hopefully to Simlah. 
 That paradise of invalids, he wrote to the Governor- 
 General, was '' looking beautiful, and the climate 
 now quite perfect." " I heartily wish," he added, 
 " that you were here to benefit by it." But it was 
 not a time for the enjoyment of Himalayan delights. 
 At both ends of that long line of a thousand miles 
 between the great Presidency town and the foot of 
 the Hills there was that which, as the month ad- 
 vanced, must have sorely disquieted the minds of 
 the civil and military chiefs. There was the great 
 difficulty of the Thirty-fourth to disturb both the 
 Governor- General and the Commander-in-Chief; and 
 as time advanced, there came from other parts of the 
 country tidings which, if they did not help them to 
 fathom causes, brought more plainly before them the 
 probable consequences of this great panic in the 
 
 * The orders issued from the Ad- their officers were to reason with 
 
 jutaut-Generars office, in conse- them, cahnly in the first instance, 
 
 quence of this decision, were, that and if the Depot, after such an ap- 
 
 the detachments should proceed to peal to them, were to refuse to use 
 
 target practice, that they should the cartridges, more stringent mea- 
 
 choose and apply their own grease, sures were to be resorted to for the 
 
 and that they should pinch or tear enforcement of discipline. — See Letter 
 
 off the end of the cartridge with from Adjutant -General to General 
 
 their fingers. In the event of the Hearsey, in the Appendix. 
 men hesitating to use the cartridges, 
 
 2 
 
562 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 April, 1857. Sepoy Army. Those significant fires, which had pre- 
 "^ ^ ^^' lucled the outbreak at Barrackpore, were breaking 
 out at other stations. At Umballah especially, in 
 the middle of the month of April, they had become 
 frequent and alarming. The detachments in the 
 Musketry Schools were now proceeding steadily with 
 their target practice. They dipped their own cartridges 
 into a mixture of beeswax and ghee, and seemed to 
 be fully convinced and assured that no foul play was 
 intended against them. But they did not escape the 
 taunts of their comrades ; and the nightly fires in- 
 dicated the general excitement among the Native 
 soldiery. The European barracks, the commissariat 
 store-houses, the hospital, and the huts in the Lines, 
 night after night, burst out into mysterious confla- 
 gration. It was the belief at Head-Quarters that 
 these fires, made easy by the dry thatched roofs of 
 the buildings, were the work partly of the Sepoys 
 of the regiments stationed there, and partly of those 
 attached to the Musketry Depot. The former still 
 looked askance at the latter, believing that they 
 had been bought over by promises of promotion to 
 use the obnoxious cartridges, and, as a mark of 
 their indignation, set fire to the huts of the apos- 
 tates in their absence at drill. Upon this the men 
 of the IMusketry School retaliated, by firing the 
 Lines of the regimental Sepoys.* But the Courts of 
 Inquiry which were held to investigate the circum- 
 stances of these incendiary fires failed to elicit any 
 positive information ; for no one was willing to give 
 
 * "The night before last a fire- Native Infantry were fired, and five 
 
 ball was found ignited in the liut of huts, with all the men's property, 
 
 a Sepoy of the Tiftii Native Infantry, destroyed. This was clearly an act 
 
 The hut was empty, as the man is of retaliation, for incendiaries do not 
 
 attached to the School of Musketry, destroy themselves."— Genera} Bar- 
 
 and lives with them. On the foU nard to Lord Canning. April 24, 
 
 lowing night the Lines of the Sixtieih 1857. — MS. Correspondence, 
 
SIR HENRY BARNARD. 563 
 
 evidence, and notliing was done to put pressure upon April, 1S57. 
 witnesses to reveal the knowledge which they pos- °^ ^ ^ • 
 sessed. 
 
 At this time Sir Henry Barnard, an officer of sirHemj 
 good repute, who had served with distinction in the ^^^^^^■^• 
 Crimea, commanded the Sirhind Division of the 
 Army, in which Umballah was one of the chief sta- 
 tions. He was a man of high courage and activity, 
 eager for service, and though he had not been many 
 months in the country, he had begun to complain of 
 the dreadful listlessness of Indian life, and the ab- 
 sence of that constant work and responsibility which, 
 he said, had become a necessity to him. " Cannot 
 you find some tough job to put me to ? I will serve 
 you faithfully." Thus he wrote to Lord Canning in 
 the last week of April, seeing nothing before him at 
 that time but a retreat to Simlah " when the burn- 
 ing mania is over." Little thought he then of the 
 tough job in store for him — a job too tough for his 
 steel, good as was the temper of it. The Commander- 
 in-Chief wrote from Simlah that Barnard was learn- 
 ing his work. " It will take him some time," said 
 Anson, " to understand the Native character and 
 system." And no reproach to him either;* for 
 nothing was more beyond the ordinary comprehen- 
 sion of men, trained in schools of European warfare, 
 than Sepoy character in its normal state, except its 
 aberrations and eccent^cities. Anson had been two 
 years in India; bul he confessed that what was 
 passing at Umballah sorely puzzled him. " Strange," 
 he wrote to Lord Canning, " that the incendiaries 
 should never be detected. Every one is on the alert 
 
 * That Sir Henry Barnard thouf^lit dian military system, and the causes 
 much and wrote very sensibly of the of the prevailinj^ disaffection, 1 have 
 Sepoy Armv, the defects of our In- ample evidence in letters before me. 
 
 2o2 
 
564 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 April, 1S57. there ; but still no clue to trace the offenders." And, 
 Umballah. ^^^{^ ^^^ the end of the month, " We have not been 
 able to detect any of the incendiaries at Umballah. 
 This appears to me extraordinary ; but it shows how 
 close the combination is among the miscreants w^ho 
 have recourse to this mode of revenging what they 
 conceive to be their wrongs, and how great the dread 
 of retaliation to any one who would dare to become 
 an informer." It showed, too, how little power we 
 had of penetrating beneath the surface, and how 
 great was the mistrust of the English throughout all 
 classes of the Native soldiery. Let what might be 
 the hatred and dissension among themselves, a com- 
 mon feeling still stronger closed their hearts and 
 sealed their lips against their English officers. 
 Events at Day after day this fact became more and more 
 
 Meerut. apparent. To the most observant of our people it 
 seemed at first that, although the ministers and de- 
 pendents of the deposed Mahomedan ruler of Oude 
 might have been insidiously employed in the corrup- 
 tion of our Native soldiery, the alarm, and therefore 
 the discontent among the Sepoys, w^as for the most 
 part an emanation of Hindooism. The inquiries into 
 the state of the Thirty-fourth Regiment at Barrack- 
 pore had resulted in a belief that the Mahomedan 
 and Sikh soldiers w^ere true to their salt ; and so 
 strong was the impression that only the Hindoos of 
 the disbanded Nineteenth were really disaffected, 
 that, after the dispersion of the regiment, it was be- 
 lieved that the whole history of the mutiny, which 
 had ruined them, might be gathered from the Mus- 
 sulman Sepoys. But, although a sagacious civil 
 officer was put upon their track, and every effort 
 was made to elicit the desired information, the at- 
 tempt was altogether a failure. Whether these first 
 impressions were right or w^rong, whether the mutiny 
 
FIRST MUTINY IN THE CAVALRY. 5i)5 
 
 was, in its origin and inception, a Hindoo or a Ma- April, 1857. 
 homedan movement, will hereafter be a subject of 
 'iquiry. But, before the end of the month of April, 
 it must have been apparent to Lord Canning that 
 nothing was to be hoped from that antagonism of 
 the Asiatic races, Avhich had ever been regarded as 
 the main element of our strength and safety. Ma- 
 homedans and Hindoos were plainly united against 
 us. 
 
 From an unexpected quarter there soon came proof 
 of this union. As the new Enfield rifle had been the 
 outward and visible cause of the great fear that had 
 arisen in the minds of the soldiery, it was natural 
 that the anxieties of the Government should, in the 
 first instance, have been confined to the Native In- 
 fantry. In the Infantry Regiments a very large 
 majority of the men were Hindoos ; whilst in the 
 Cavalry the Mahomedan element was proportion- 
 ately much stronger.* But now there came from 
 Meerut strange news to the effect that a Cavalry 
 regiment had revolted. 
 
 To this station many unquiet thoughts had been 
 directed ; for it was one of the largest and most im- 
 portant in the whole range of our Indian territories. 
 There, troops of all arms, both European and Native, 
 were assembled. There, the Head-Quarters of the 
 Bengal Artillery were established. There, the Ord- 
 nance Commissariat were diligently employed, in the 
 Expense Magazine, on the manufacture of greased 
 cartridges. There, the English Riflemen of the 
 Sixtieth, not without some feelings of disgust, were 
 using the unsavory things. More than once there had 
 
 * Asarule, theMalmmedanswere ever, that in the Third Regiment of 
 
 better horsemen and more adroit Regular Cavah-y, which led off the 
 
 swordsmen than the Hindoos, and dance of death at Meerut, there 
 
 therefore they made more service- were an unusual number of Brah- 
 
 able troopers. It is stated, how- mins. 
 
5ij6 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTI^T. 
 
 April, 1S57. been reports that the Sepoys had risen at Meerut , 
 ^^^^ ' and that the Europeans had been let loose against 
 them. With vague but eager expectancy the Native 
 regiments at all the large stations in Upper India 
 were looking in that direction, as for a signal 
 which they knew would soon be discerned. Men 
 asked each other what was the news from Meerut, 
 and looked into the Native newspapers for the sug- 
 gestive heading ; for it was the cradle of all sorts of 
 strange and disturbing stories. In this month of April 
 its crowded Lines and busy Bazaars were stirred 
 by indefinite apprehensions of something coming. 
 Every day the excitement increased, for every day 
 some new story, intended to confirm the popular 
 belief in the base designs of the English, found its 
 way into circulation. The emissary of evil, who, in 
 some shape or other, was stalking across the countr\\ 
 was at Meerut in the guise of a wandering Fakeer, 
 or religious mendicant, riding on an elephant, with 
 many followers. That he was greatly disturbing the 
 minds of men was certain ; so the Police authorities 
 ordered him to depart. He moved; but it was be- 
 lieved that he went no farther than the Lines of one 
 of the Native regiments.* 
 
 In no place was the story of the greased cartridges 
 discussed with greater eagerness than at Meerut ; in 
 
 * Compare following passage in were moving about the country ap- 
 
 tlie Meerut Narrative of Mr. Wil- peared at Meerut in April, ostensibly 
 
 liams. Commissioner Pirst Division : as a fakeer, riding on an elephant 
 
 "All the rumours by which the with followers, and having with him 
 
 minds of tlie Native soldiers were horses and native carriages. The 
 
 prepared for revolt, were indus- frequent visits of the men of the 
 
 triously disseminated at Meerut, Native regiments to him attracted 
 
 especially those regarding the use of attention, and he was ordered, 
 
 polluting grease in the preparation of tlirough the pohce, to leave the 
 
 the new cartridges, and the mixture place ; he apparently complied, but, 
 
 of ground bones in flour, by which, it is said, he stayed some time in th-i? 
 
 it was said, Government desired to Lines of the 20th Native Infantry 
 
 destroy the religion of the people. — Unpublished Records. 
 One of the many emissaries who 
 
THE THIRD CAVALRY. 5G7 
 
 no place was there a more disturbing belief that this April, 1857. 
 was a part of a great scheme for the defilement of 
 he people. It was of little use to declare to them 
 that not a single soldier would ever be required to 
 use a cartridge greased by any one but himself, for 
 the crreasino; of the cartrid^-es was in their estimation 
 only one of many fraudulent devices, and every one 
 believed that the dry cartridges contained the ob- 
 noxious fat. So, in the beginning of the fourth week 
 of April, the excitement, which for many weeks had 
 been growing stronger and stronger, broke out into 
 an act of open mutiny. The troopers of the Third 
 Cavalry were the first to resist the orders of their 
 officers. They had no new weapons ; no new ammu- 
 nition. The only change introduced into their prac- 
 tice was that which substituted the pinching or tear- 
 ing off, for the biting off, the end of the cartridges 
 which they used with their carbines. This change 
 in the drill was to be explained to them on a parade 
 of the skirmishers of the regiment, which was to be 
 held on the morning of the 24th of April. On the 
 preceding evening a report ran through canton- 
 ments that the troopers would refuse to touch the 
 cartridges. The parade was held, and of ninety 
 men, to whom the ammunition was to have been 
 served out, only five obeyed the orders of their 
 officers. In vain Colonel Carmichael Smyth ex- 
 plained to them that the change had been introduced 
 from a kindly regard for their own scruples. They 
 were dogged and obdurate, and would not touch the 
 cartridges. So the parade was dismissed, and the 
 eighty-five troopers of the Third were ordered for 
 Court-martial. 
 
 All this made it manifest to Lord Cannins; that The story of 
 the worst suspicions were deeply rooted in the Sepoy bone?^^"^ 
 Army; and though he at all times maintained a 
 
568 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 April, 1857. calm and cheerful demeanour, lie thought much and 
 anxiously of the signs and symptoms of the troubled 
 spirit that was abroad. There were many indications 
 that these suspicions were not confined to the mili- 
 tary classes, but were disquieting also the general 
 community. Not only in Meerut, but also in many 
 other parts of the country, there was a belief that 
 the English designed to defile both Hindoos and 
 Mahomedans, by polluting with unclean matter the 
 daily food of the people. It has been shown that 
 a suspicion of a similar character was abroad at the 
 time of the Mutinv at Vellore.* Now the disturbino; 
 rumour, cunningly circulated, took many portentous 
 shapes. It was said that the ofiicers of the British 
 Government, under command from the Company and 
 the Queen, had mixed ground bones with the flour 
 and the salt sold in the Bazaars ; that they had 
 adulterated all the gheef with animal fat ; that bones 
 had been burnt with the common sugar of the 
 country ; and that not only bone-dust flour, but the 
 flesh of cows and pigs, had been thrown into the wells 
 to pollute the drinking water of the people. Of this 
 . great imaginary scheme of contamination the matter 
 of the greased cartridges was but a part, especially 
 addressed to one class of the community. All classes, 
 it was believed, were to be defiled at the same time ; 
 and the story ran that the "burra sahibs," or great 
 English lords, had commanded all the princes, nobles, 
 landholders, merchants, and cultivators of the land, 
 to feed together upon English bread. 
 
 Of these preposterous fables, the one which made 
 the strongest impression on the public mind was the 
 
 * Ante, page 248. It was llien f This is the ordinary grease used 
 
 said that the English had mixed the for cooking purposes Ihrougbout 
 
 blood of cows and pigs with all the India, 
 newly manufactured salt. 
 
THE BONE-DUST FLOUR. 569 
 
 story of tlie bone-dust flour. That it was current in April, 1857. 
 March at Barrackpore is certain.* In the early part 
 of April, a circumstance occurred which proved that 
 the panic had then spread to the Upper Provinces. 
 It happened that flour having risen to an exceptionally 
 high price at Cawnpore, certain dealers at Meerut 
 chartered a number of Government boats to carry a 
 large supply down the canal to the former place. 
 When the first instalment arrived, and was ofi'ered for 
 sale at a price considerably below that which had 
 previously ruled in the Bazaars, it found a ready 
 market ; but before the remainder reached Cawn- 
 pore, a story had been circulated to the efl'ect that the 
 grain had been ground in the canal mills, under Eu- 
 ropean supervision, and that the dust of cows' bones 
 had been mixed up with it, with the intention of 
 destroying the caste of all who should eat it. Such 
 a story as this, circulated in the Lines and the Mili- 
 tary Bazaars of Cawnpore, at once stopped the sale 
 of the Meerut flour. Not a Sepoy would touch it, 
 not a person of any kind would purchase it, cheap 
 as was the price at which it was obtainable in com- 
 parison with all the other supplies in the market. 
 Eapidly spread the alarm from one station to an- 
 other, and as tidings came of the arrival of imaginary 
 boat-loads or camel-loads of flour and bone-dust, men 
 threw away the bread that they were eating, and be- 
 
 * Tt was brought to the notice of as it was found. But History re- 
 General Hearsey by a native anony- joices in the preservation of sucli 
 mous letter, picked up at the gate of contemptible productions. I have 
 Major Matthews, who commanded given it entire in the Appendix, 
 the Forty-third. Tiie Major sent it to Tiiere are many such in my posses- 
 Hearsey's staff, describing it as " sad sion, but this is the earliest in date, 
 trash;" and Hearsey, in forwarding it and gives the most comprehensive 
 to the Military Secretary, expressed account of the rumours circulated 
 regret that the contemptible pro- by our enemies, 
 duction had not been burnt as soon 
 
570 
 
 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 Apvil, 1857. lieved themselves already defiled.* Whether, as some 
 said, this was a trick of the Cawnpore grain mer- 
 chants to keep up the price of flour, or whether the 
 story had been set afloat under the same influences 
 as those which had given so false a colouring to the 
 accident of the greased cartridges, and had asso- 
 ciated with all the other wild fictions of which I have 
 spoken, cannot with certainty be declared. But, 
 whatsoever the origin of the fable, it sunk deeply 
 into men's minds, and fixed there more ineradicably 
 than ever their belief in the stern resolution of the 
 Government to destroy the caste of the people by 
 fraudulently bringing, in one way or other, the un- 
 clean thing to their lips. 
 
 It fixed, too, more firmly than before in the mind 
 of Lord Canning, the belief that a great fear was 
 spreading itself among the people, and that there was 
 more dano;er in such a feelino; than in a o-reat hatred. 
 Thinking of this, he thought also of another strange 
 story that had come to him from the North- West, 
 and which even the most experienced men about him 
 were incompetent to explain. From village to vil- 
 lage, brought by one messenger and sent onward by 
 another, passed a mysterious token in the shape of 
 one of those flat cakes made from flour and water, 
 and forming the common bread of the people, which, 
 in their language, are called Chupatties. All that 
 was known about it was, that a messenger appeared, 
 gave the cake to the head man of one village, and re- 
 quested him to despatch it onward to the next ; and 
 
 * Colonel Baird Smith to Mr. of our stations, and Sepoys, private 
 
 Colvin — Mr. Martin Guhbins to the servants, Zemindars at tending Court, 
 
 same. " Once alarmed," wrote the have flung away their roti (bread) 
 
 latter, "they drink in the greatest on hearing tliat five camel-loads of 
 
 follies. Bone-dust attah alarm has bone-dust attah had readied the stu- 
 
 takenhold of men's minds at several iion."— MS. Correspondence. 
 
STORY OF THE CHUPATTIES. 571 
 
 tnat, in this way, it travelled from place to place ; no -'^P"^ 1S57. 
 one refusing, no one doubting, few even questioning, 
 in blind obedience to a necessity felt rather than 
 understood. After a while, this practice became 
 known to the functionaries of the English Govern- 
 ment, who thought much of it, or thought little of 
 it, according to their individual dispositions, and in- 
 terpreted it, in divers ways, according to the light 
 that was in them.* The greater number looked 
 upon it as a signal of w^arning and preparation, de- 
 signed to tell the people that something great and 
 portentous was about to happen, and to prompt 
 tnem to be ready for the crisis. One great autho- 
 riry wi'ote to the Govern or -General that he had been 
 toid that the chupatty was the symbol of men's food, 
 and that its circulation was intended to alarm and to 
 influence men's minds by indicating to them that 
 their means of subsistence would be taken from 
 them, and to tell them, therefore, to hold together. 
 Others, laughing to scorn this notion of the fiery 
 cross, saw in it only a common superstition of the 
 country. It w^as said that it was no unwonted thing 
 for a Hindoo, in Avhose family sickness had broken 
 out, to institute this transmission of chupatties, in the 
 belief that it would carry off the disease ; or for a 
 community, when the cholera or other pestilence 
 was raging, to betake themselves to a similar prac- 
 tice. Then, again, it w^as believed by others that the 
 cakes had been sent abroad by enemies of the British 
 Government, for the purpose of attaching to their 
 circulation another dangerous fiction, to the efi*ect 
 
 * Mr. Ford, Collector of Goor- vin, who issued circular orders on 
 
 gaon, first brought it to the notice the subject to all the local officers in 
 
 of the Lieutenant-Governor of the charge of districts. 
 North- Western Provinces, Mr. Col- 
 
572 
 
 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 April, 1857. that there was bone-dust in them, and that the Eng- 
 lish had resorted to this supplementary method of 
 defiling the people. Some, too, surmised that, by a 
 device sometimes used for other purposes,* seditious 
 lette rs were in this manner forwarded from village to 
 village, read by the village chief, again crusted over 
 with flour, and sent on in the shape of a chupatty, 
 to be broken by the next recipient. But whatsoever 
 the real history of the movement, it had doubtless 
 the effect of producing and keeping alive much 
 popular excitement in the districts through whicli 
 the cakes were transmitted ; and it may be said that 
 its action was too widely diffused, and that it lasted 
 for too long a time, to admit of a very ready adop- 
 tion of the theory that it was of an accidental cha- 
 racter, the growth only of domestic, or even of 
 municipal, anxieties.f Some saw in it much mean- 
 some saw none. Time has thrown no new 
 
 mg; 
 
 * In this manner communication 
 was sometimes held with the in- 
 mates of our gaols. See the " Re- 
 velations of an Orderly," by Pauuch- 
 kowree Khan : " Suppose a pri- 
 soner is confined under the bayonet 
 of Sepoys, he must be permitted to 
 eat bread. The preparer of food is 
 bribed, and a short note is put into 
 a chupatty, or a sentence is written 
 on a plate, and when the bread is 
 taken up the prisoner reads what is 
 written." 
 
 t Tlie circulation of the chupatties 
 commenced at the beginning of the 
 year. " The year 1857," writes Cap- 
 tain Keatinge, "opened in Nimar by 
 a general distribution of small cakes, 
 which were passed on from village to 
 village. The same, I. am aware, has 
 occurred all over Northern India, 
 and has been spoken of as having 
 been a signal for the disturbances 
 which took place later in the year. 
 At the time tliey appeared in Nimar, 
 they were everywhere brought from 
 
 the direction of Indore. That city 
 was at the time afflicted with a 
 severe visitation of cholera, and 
 numbers of inhabitants died daily. 
 It was at that time understood by 
 the people in Nimar, and is still be- 
 lieved, that the cakes of wheat were 
 despatched from Indore after the 
 perlbrmance over them of incanta- 
 tions that would ensure tlie pesti- 
 lence accompanying them. The cakes 
 did not come straight from North 
 to South, fur they were received at 
 Bujencghur, more tlian half way 
 between Indore and Gwalior, on the 
 9th of Pebruar}-, but had been dis- 
 tributed at Mundlaiser on the I2th 
 of January. This habit of passing 
 on holy and unholy things is not 
 unknown at Nimar. When small- 
 pox breaks out in a village, a goat 
 is procured, a cocoa-nut tied to 
 its neck, and it is taken by the 
 chowkeedar to the first village on 
 tlie road to Mundatta ; it is not 
 allowed to enter the town, but is 
 
POLITICAL INTRIGUES. 
 
 57B 
 
 light upon it. Opinions still widely differ. And all April, 1857. 
 that History can record with any certainty is, that 
 the bearers of these strange missives went from place 
 to place, and that ever as they went new excite- 
 ments were engendered, and vague expectations were 
 raised. 
 
 That in all this there was something more than Political 
 mere military disaffection was manifest to Lord '" "S^^s. 
 Canning ; but neither he nor his confidential ad- 
 visers could clearly discern what it was. He had a 
 general conception that evil-minded men, with strong 
 resentments to be gratified by the ruin of the British 
 Government, were sending forth their emissaries ; but, 
 with the exception of the ministers of the dethroned 
 King of Oude, whom he had suspected from the first,* 
 
 taken by a villager to the next 
 hamlet, and so passed on without 
 rest to its destination." This last 
 is the sciipturally recorded scape- 
 j^oat. With respect to the clnipatties, 
 consult also the report of Major 
 Erskine, Commissioner of the Saugor 
 and Nerbudda territories : " So far 
 back as January, 1857," he writes, 
 "small wheaten cakes (chupatties) 
 ■were. passed in a most mysterious 
 manner from village to village in 
 most of the districts, and, although 
 all took it as a signal that some- 
 thing was coming, nobody in the 
 division, I beheve, knew what it 
 portended, or whence it came, and 
 it appeared to have been little 
 thought about except that in the 
 money-market of Saugor it is said 
 to have had some slight effect in 
 bill transactions. 1 reported the 
 matter to Government at the time, 
 but even now it is a matter of doubt 
 if the signal was understood by any 
 one, or if it referred to the coming 
 rebellion, though such is now the 
 general opinion." I have thrown 
 together in the Appendix some fur- 
 ther facts and fancies illustrative of 
 this interesting subject of inquiry. 
 
 * In my mind there is no doubt 
 of the activity, at this time, of the 
 Oude people at Garden Reach. The 
 Sepoys at Barrackpore were induced 
 to believe that, if they broke away 
 from the English harness, they would 
 obtain more lucrative service under 
 the restored kingship of Oude. T 
 have before me some letters, origi- 
 nal and translated, of a Jemadar of 
 the Thirty-fourth Regiment, which 
 contain numerous allusions to the 
 Future of the Kind's service. Take 
 the following : " The Second Grena- 
 diers said, ill the beginning of April, 
 *We will go to our homes sooner 
 than bite the blank ammunition.' 
 The regiments were unanimous in 
 joining the King of Oude," " The 
 Soubahdars of the Quarter-Guard 
 said, * We have sided with the King 
 of Oude, but nothing has come of 
 it.' " " Ramshaee Lalla said, ' It 
 would have been well for us.' " This 
 also has its significance : " Soubah- 
 dar Muddeh Khan, Sirdar Khan, and 
 Ramshaee Lalla said, 'The Eering- 
 hee Beteechoots' (a vile term of op- 
 probrium) 'are unequalled in their 
 want of faith. The King of Luck- 
 now put down his arms, and the 
 
574 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 April, 1857. he could not individualise his suspicions. How was 
 he to know, how was any Englishman, shut up all 
 day long in his house, and having no more living 
 intercourse with the people than if they were clay 
 figures, to know what was passing beneath the sur- 
 face of Native society ? If anything were learnt at 
 that time to throAV light upon the sources of the 
 great events that were to happen, it was by merest 
 accident, and the full force of the revelation was 
 rarely discernible at the time. It was remembered 
 afterwards that, in the early part of this year, one 
 man, a Mahratta by race, a Brahmin by caste, of 
 whom something has already been recorded in this 
 narrative, was disj^laying, in his movements, an un- 
 wonted activity, which created surprise, but scarcely 
 aroused suspicion. This man was Dundoo Punt, 
 commonly known as the Njjia-Siihib, of Bhitoor — 
 the adopted son of the Peishwah, B adie^_JBao. He 
 was not given to distant journeyings ; indeed, he 
 was seldom seen beyond the limits of his own estate. 
 But in the early months of 1857, having visited 
 Calpee, he made a journey to Delhi, and, a little 
 later in the year, paid a visit to Lucknow. It was 
 in the middle of April that he started on this last 
 journey. On the 17th of that month, Mr. Morland, 
 then one of the Agra Judges, who shortly after the 
 Peishwah's death had been Commissioner at Bhitoor, 
 and who had endeavoured to rescue from resumption 
 a part of his pension, paid a visit to the Nana at that 
 
 Government have given him no al- General Hearsey, sendiiif]^ on the 
 
 lowance. We advised the Kini^ to correspondence to Government, said 
 
 put down his arms. The treachery that there was "much method in 
 
 of the Government is unrivalled.' " his supi)osed nmdness ;" and added, 
 
 Colonel Wheler said that the vi^riter that "much important information 
 
 of these letters appeared to be " af- on the whole cause and subject of 
 
 fected in the head." It will be re- this 5i(!^/305^^ Cartridge Mutiny might 
 
 membered that the Native officer he elicited from him." — MiS. Cone- 
 
 who reported the coming massacre spondence. 
 of Vellore was als" said to be mad. 
 
THE NANA SAHIB. 575 
 
 place. The wily Mussulman Agent, Azim-ooUali Khan, ^m^> "^557. 
 who had pleaded his cause in England, was with 
 Dundoo Punt when the English gentleman was an- 
 nounced, and they talked freely together, as friends 
 talk, no suspicion on the one side, and no appearance of 
 anything unwonted on the other. All was outwardly 
 smooth and smiling. The Mahratta was as profuse 
 as ever in his expressions of respect and esteem ; and 
 when Morland took his departure, the brother ot 
 Dundoo Punt told him that the Nana purposed to 
 return the visit of the Sahib next day at Cawnpore. 
 The next day happened to be Sunday, and Morland 
 was anxious, therefore, to decline the visit ; but the 
 Nana Sahib went to Cawnpore, and again sent Baba 
 Bhut to the English gentleman to propose an inter- 
 view. What he wished to say to the man who had 
 been kind to him will now never be known, for 
 Morland declined the meeting, on the plea that it 
 was the Sabbath, and expressed regret that the 
 Nana Sahib should have made the journey to no 
 purpose. To this the Brahmin replied, that his 
 brother was on his way to Lucknow to visit one 
 of the Newabs. There was something in all this 
 strange and surprising. An English nobleman, in 
 the course of three or four months, might visit all 
 the chief cities of Europe without any one taking 
 heed of the occurrence. But the nobility of India 
 are little given to travelling ; and the Nana Sahib 
 had rarely gone beyond the limits of Bhitoor.* 
 
 * A different statement has, I induced his adoptive father, Badjee 
 
 know, been made and commonly ac- Rao, to eschew it, namely, that a 
 
 cepted. It is the belief that the salute was not given to liim on 
 
 Nana Sahib was frequently to be entering the cantonment. The per- 
 
 seen at Cawnpore, riding or driving son generally known in Cawnpore 
 
 on the Mall, and mixing freely with as the " Nana" was not Dundoo 
 
 the European residents of the place. Punt, but Nana Nerain Rao, the 
 
 But the truth is, he eschewed eldest son of the ex-Peishwah's 
 
 Cawnpore, for the reason which chief adviser and manager, the Sou- 
 
576 
 
 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 April, 1S57. That, within so short a time, he should make these 
 three journeys, was a fact to excite speculation ; but 
 lie was held to be a quiet, inoffensive person, good 
 natured, perhaps somewhat dull, and manifestly not 
 of that kind of humanity of which conspirators are 
 made, so no political significance was attached to the 
 fact. What likelihood was there, at that time, that such 
 a man as Dundoo Punt, heavy and seemingly impas- 
 sive, who had for some years quietly accepted his po- 
 sition, and during that time done many acts of kind- 
 ness and hospitality to the English gentlemen, should 
 suddenly become a plotter against the State ? Had 
 any one then said that it behoved the Government to 
 mark the movements of that man, he would have 
 been laughed to scorn as an alarmist. We never 
 know in India how many are the waiters and the 
 watchers ; we never know at what moment our 
 enemies, sluggish in their hatreds as in all else, may 
 exact the payment of old scores which we have thought 
 were long ago forgotten. 
 
 , So Dundoo Punt, Nana Sahib, passed on, about 
 some business known to himself, utterly unknown to 
 '•European functionaries, to Calpee, on the banks of 
 • the Jumna, to the great imperial city of Delhi, and 
 to Lucknow, the capital of Oude. In the last of 
 these places, when the Nana arrived, Henry Law- 
 rence was dihgently, with his whole good heart, 
 striving to make right all that had gone wrong 
 during the time of his predecessor. But again the 
 handwriting on the wall traced those fatal words, 
 " Too late." If he had but gone to Lucknow when 
 he had first oflTered to go, how different would all 
 . have been ! It was on the 18th of April that the 
 Nana Sahib started on his journey to Lucknow. On 
 
 bahdar Ramcliunder Punt, who, after familiarity with many of the prin- 
 his master's death, resided at Cawn- cipal European residents, 
 pore, and was on terms of social 
 
STATi: OF LUCKXOW. 577 
 
 that day Henry Lawrence wrote a long letter to the April, ISc' 
 Governor-General, telling him that he had discerned ^^^"°^^- 
 sio^ns of dangerous coalitions between the re<rular 
 Sepoy regiments, the Irregulars taken into our service 
 from the old Oude Army, and the men of the Police 
 battalions ; symptoms also of intrigues on foot among 
 some of the chief people of the city. There Avere 
 many elements of trouble ; and now they were be- 
 ginning to develop themselves in a manner signifi- 
 cant of a general outburst of popular discontent. 
 " This city," wrote Henry Lawrence on that 18th of 
 April, " is said to contain some six or seven hundred 
 thousand souls, and does certainly contain many 
 thousands (twenty thousand, I was told yesterday) of 
 disbanded soldiers, and of hungry, nay starving, de- 
 pendents of the late Government. This very morn- 
 ing a clod was thrown at Mr. Ommaney (the Judicial 
 Commissioner), and another struck Major Anderson 
 (Chief Engineer) whilst in a buggy with myself. 
 . . . . The improvements in the city here go on 
 very fast — too fast and too roughly. Much discon- 
 tent has been caused by demolition of buildings, and 
 still more by threats of further similar measures ; 
 also regarding the seizure of religious and other 
 edifices, and plots of ground, as Huzool or Govern- 
 ment property. I have visited many of these places 
 and pacified parties, and prohibited any seiziu^e or 
 demolition without competent authority. The Re- 
 venue measures, though not as sweeping as repre- 
 sented by the writer whose letter your Lordship sent 
 me, have been unsatisfactory. The Talookhdars have, 
 I fear, been hardly dealt with ; at least, in the Fyza-^ 
 bad division some have lost half their villao'es, some 
 have lost all" Such stated here, in the hurried out- 
 line of a letter from the spot, to be dwelt upon more 
 
 2p 
 
578 
 
 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTI^T. 
 
 April, 1S57. 
 Luckuow. 
 
 ^J 
 
 J 
 
 t/ 
 
 in detail hereafter, was the condition of affairs which, 
 in the third week of April, the Nana Sahib found in 
 Lucknow. He could have scarcely wished for any 
 better materials from which to erect an edifice of re- 
 bellion. 
 
 By this Dundoo Punt, Nana Sahib — by all who 
 were festerinsr with resentments ao^ainst the Eno^lish 
 and malignantly biding their time, the annexation of 
 Oude had been welcomed as a material aid to the 
 success of their machinations. It was no sudden 
 born of the accident of the greased car- 
 ridges, that took the disappointed Brahmin and his 
 lahomedan friend to Lucknow in the spring of this 
 year of trouble. For months, for years indeed, ever 
 since the failure of the mission to England had been 
 apparent, they had been quietly spreading their net- 
 work of intrigue all over the country. From one 
 native Court to another native Court, from one ex- 
 tremity to another of the great continent of India, the 
 agents of the Nana Sahib J iad passed Avith overtures 
 and iuAdtations, discreeth', perhaps mysteriously, 
 worded, to Princes and Chiefs of different races and 
 religions, but most hopefully of all to the Mahrattas. 
 At the three great Mahratta families, the families of 
 the Rajah of Sattarah, of the Peishwah, of the 
 Boonsla, Lord Dalhousie had struck deadly blows. 
 In the Southern Mahratta country, indeed, it seemed 
 that Princes and Nobles were alike ripe for rebeUion. 
 It was a significant fact that the agents of the great 
 Sattarah and Poona families had been doing their 
 master's work in England about the same time, that 
 both had returned to India rank rebels, and that the 
 first year of Lord Canning's administration found 
 Rjjingo-Bapojee as active for evil in the South as 
 
 mn-oollah was in the North ; both able and unscru- 
 
INTRIGUES OF THE NANA SAHIB. 
 
 57i) 
 
 pulous men, and hating the English with a deadlier April. 185? 
 hatred for the very kindness that had been shown to ^^^^^'^^^^• 
 them. But it was not until the crown had been set 
 upon the annexations of Lord Dalhousie by the 
 seizure of Oude, that the Nana Sahib and his accom- 
 plices saw mvch prospect of success. That event was 
 the turning-point of their career of intrigue. What 
 had before been difficult was now made easy by this 
 last act of English usurpation. Not only were the 
 ministers of the King of Oude tampering with the 
 troops at the Presidency, and sowing dangerous lies 
 broad-cast over the length and breadth of the land, 
 but such was the impression made by the last of 
 our annexations, that men asked each other who was 
 safe, and what use was there in fidelity^ when so 
 faithful a friend and ally as the King of Oude was 
 stripped of his dominions by the Government whom 
 he had aided in its need. It is said that Princes and • 
 Chiefs, who had held back, then came forward, and 
 that the Nana Sahib began to receive answers to his 
 appeals.* But whatsoever may have been its effect in 
 
 (/ 
 
 * By those wlio systematically re- 
 ject Native evidence, all this may 
 be rea-arded as nothing but unsub- 
 stantial surmise. But there is no- 
 thing in my mind more cleaily sub- 
 stantiated than the complicity of the 
 i^aaa ^Sahib in \^ id£i^i"ead iiitrjgues 
 before the outbreako05e~niutiiiy. 
 The" (TUttL'uri'tmL ~tesXmKmj'~^t~wit - 
 nesses examined in parts of the 
 country widely distant from each 
 other takes this story altogether out 
 of the regions of the conjecturah I 
 speak only of the broad fact itself. 
 AV'ith regard to the statement in the 
 text, that the machinations of the 
 Nana Sahib were much assisted by 
 the annexation of Oude, I give the fol- 
 iowing, qiiuyitum valeat, from tlie evi- 
 dence of a Native emissary detained 
 and examined in Mysore, in January, 
 
 9 
 
 1858. After giving alist of numerous 
 princes and chiefs whom the Nana 
 had addressed, this man said : " The 
 Nana wrote at intervals, two or three 
 months previous to tlie annexation of 
 Oude. But at first he got no an- 
 swers. Nobody had any hope. After 
 tlie annexation he wrote still more, 
 and then the Soukars of Lucknow 
 joined in his views. Maun Singh, 
 who is the Chief of the Poorbeah, or 
 Poordusee, joined. Then the Sepoys 
 began to make tqjwiz (plans) among 
 themselves, and the Lucknow Sou- 
 kars supported them. Until Oude 
 was annexed. Nana Sahib did not get 
 answers from any one ; but when 
 that occurred, many began to take 
 courage and to answer him. The 
 plot among the Sepoys first took 
 place— the discontent about the 
 
 p 2 
 
,580 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 A?-i], 1857. remote places, it cannot be questioned that in the 
 condition of Oude itself after annexation there ^vas 
 that which must have gladdened the heart of every 
 plotter against the State. Such men as Dundoo Punt 
 and Azim-oollah Khan could not pass through the 
 streets of Lucknow without clearly seeing what was 
 coming. AVhat they saw and what they heard, 
 indeed, pleased them so greatly, that they assumed a 
 bold and swaggering demeanour, which attracted the 
 attention of the English functionaries to whom they 
 Avere introduced. For they made no secret of their 
 visit; but wxnt about openly in the public streets, 
 with numerous attendants, and even sought the pre- 
 sence of the Commissioner. The Nana said that he 
 had come only to see the sights of Lucknow ; so 
 Henry Lawrence received him kindly, and ordered 
 every attention to be shown, to him by the authorities 
 of the city. But his sojourn in Lucknow was brief, 
 and his departure sudden. He went without taking 
 leave of the English functionaries, saying that busi- 
 ness required his presence at Cawnpore. 
 
 p^reased cartridges. Then answers one of the Lucknow Soukars." The 
 
 began to pour in, Golab Siugli, of former part of this statement may be 
 
 J'.immoo, was the first to send an readily accepted _: tlio latter must be 
 
 ans'.vcr. Tie said that lie was ready received with caution. JTurtlier ex- 
 
 with men, money, and arms, and he tracts from this man's evidence wilj 
 
 sent money to Nana Sahib, throuo;h be found in the Appendix. 
 
THE MONTn OF JUT. , 581 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE MONTH fj.? JiL;\T — (riNKPt/iL fiUUYEY OP AFFATES — STATE OF rEELYKQ 
 AT THE RIFLE DEPOTS — THE RISING STORM IN OUDE — THE REVOLT AT 
 MEERUT— THE SEIZURE OP DELHI— MEASURES OF LORD CANNING— TUS 
 CALL FOR SUCCOURS. 
 
 The month of May, witli its iiery heat and glare, May, 'iS57 
 and its arid dust-charged winds, found Lord Can- 
 ning in Calcutta watching eagerly, but hopefully, the 
 progress of events, and the signs and symptoms of 
 the excitement engendered in men's minds by the 
 great lie which had been so insidiously propagated 
 among them. From the multitude of conflicting 
 statements and opinions which reached him from dif- 
 ferent quarters, it was difficult to extract the truth ; 
 but taking a comprehensive view of all that was 
 manifest to him, from the plains of Bengal to the 
 hills of the Himalayah, he could not discern in those 
 first days of May that the clouds were gathering 
 around him denser and blacker than before. If there 
 were any change, indeed, it was rather a change for 
 the brighter and the better. At Barrackpore there 
 had been no more overt acts of mutiny. The Native 
 regiments were doing their duty, sullenly perhaps, 
 but still quietly. At Dum-Dum the detachments in 
 tbe Rifle depot, under the new system of drill, were 
 proceeding to ball practice without any visible signs 
 of discontent. It was hoped, indeed, that the troops in 
 
582 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 2lay, 1S57. the immediate neighbourhood of Calcutta were yield- 
 ing to the explanations and assurances which had 
 been given to them, and sloAvly returning to reason. 
 At the Rifle depots also in the Upper Country the 
 drill was quietly proceeding. At Sealkote, the detach- 
 ments from the Native regiments in the Punjab, 
 Regular and Irregular, were firing the new pieces 
 without a murmur. Sir John Lawrence went to 
 that station, at the beginning of the month, "to see 
 the new School of Musketry, as well as to judge with 
 respect to the feeling among the Sepoys;" and he 
 wrote to Lord Canning that all were " highly pleased 
 with the new musket, and quite ready to adopt it 
 They already perceive how great an advantage it 
 will give them in mountain warfare." The officers 
 assured him that no bad feeling had been shown, and 
 he himself " could perceive no hesitation or reluctance 
 on the part of any of the Sepoys."* From Umballah, 
 General Barnard wrote on the first day of the month, 
 that he had reported to Head-Quarters that so far 
 from any insubordinate feeling existing at that place, 
 he had reason to be satisfied with tlie patience, zeal, 
 and activity that the men had shown on the severe 
 night-picket work necessitated by the incendiary 
 fires. " I have no reason," he added, '' to accuse the 
 Sepoy of causing these tires — no overt act has been 
 elicited, and no instance of insubordination has oc- 
 curred. The musket practice has been resumed with 
 apparent good will and zeal. I have frequently at- 
 tended it myself, and I will answer for it that no ill 
 feeling exists in these detachments. "f 
 
 Thus it was that, in the first days of May. there 
 
 * Sir John Lawrence to Lord f Sir H. Barnard to Lord Can- 
 Canning, Mav 4, ISoJ—MS. Corre- ning, May 1, l^ol.— MS. Cone" 
 sjpondence. spondence. 
 
SYMnoMS or a lull. 583 
 
 was apparent to the eyes of the Governor-General May, 1S57. 
 something like a lull ; and it seemed that at the Rifle 
 depots, which were the great central points of danger, 
 the difficulty had been tided over. From Meerut, 
 too, no fresh tidings of disturbance came. The men 
 of the Third Cavalry were being tried by Court- 
 martial ; and it did not appear that any of their 
 comrades were about to follow their insubordinate 
 example. There were circumstances that rendered 
 it probable that tlie motives which had driven these 
 men into mutiny were altogether of an exceptional 
 character. So Lord Canning, in the early part of 
 this month of Ma}^, was able to direct his thoughts 
 to all parts of the country, and to fix them on many 
 topics of Indian government and administration, 
 as calmly and as philosophically as in the quietest 
 of times. He was corresponding with Lord Elphin- 
 stone on the subject of the Treaty with Persia and 
 the Expenses of the War ; with Lieutenant-Governor 
 Colvin on Education Grants and Female Schools, and 
 the Delhi Succession — little thinkino; how that last 
 question would soon settle itself; with Major David- 
 son, the Resident at Hyderabad, about the recogni- 
 tion of a successor to the Nizam (his Highness being 
 nigh unto death from a surfeit of prawns) ; with Sir 
 Richmond Shakespear, Resident at Baroda, on the 
 Finances of the Guicowar ; and with Colonel Durand, 
 the Governor- General's Agent at Indore, about the 
 large amount of Native deposits in the Residency 
 Treasury. Hi deed, the current business of Govern- 
 ment was but little interrupted. There was no fear 
 in Government House. 
 
 But, althougli at this time the Governor-General 
 was cheerful and hopeful, and believed that the 
 clouds of trouble would soon, by God's providence, 
 
.084 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTLXY. 
 
 May, 1557. be dlspGrsGcl, he had some especial causes of anxiety. 
 The dawn of the month of May found the Thirty- 
 fourth Regiment at Barrackpore still awaiting its 
 sentence. The Jemadar of the Quarter-Guard, Issuree 
 Pandy, had been hanged on the 22nd of April, in 
 the presence of all the troops, at Barrackpore. He 
 had confessed his guilt on the scaffold, and with his 
 last breath had exhorted his comrades to be warned 
 by his example.* It was believed that this public 
 execution of a commissioned officer would liave a 
 salutary effect upon the whole Native Army. But 
 the punishment of one man, though that punishment 
 were death, could not wipe out the offence of the 
 reo^iment, or vindicate the authoritv of the Govern. 
 ment. The g;reat defect of Lord Cannino^, as a ruler 
 in troubled times, Avas an excess of conscientiousness. 
 The processes by which he arrived at a resolution 
 were slow, because at every stage some scruple of 
 honesty arose to impede and obstruct his conclusions. 
 On the score both of justice and of policy he doubted 
 whether the prompt disbandment of the Thirty- 
 fourth would be right. It was certain that some 
 companies were true to their colours, and he did not 
 clearly see that all the rest were faithless. He had 
 caused a searching inquiry to be made into the con- 
 dition of the regiment, and he had hoped, up to the 
 end of the third week of April, that all the require- 
 
 * There were many erroneous in this wretclied manner, or he may 
 
 versions at- the time" of Issuree receive the same punishment." This 
 
 Tandy's speech from the scaffold, is given on the authority of Colonel 
 
 The words which he uttered, lite- Mitchell of the Nineteenth, who 
 
 rally translated, were these: "Listen, brought the prisoner from the Quar- 
 
 Behaudur Sepoys. In such a manner ter-Guard of the Eift.y-third to the 
 
 do not let any one act! I have be- foot of the gallows, and whose own 
 
 liaved in such a rascally way to the ini[)ressions were conlirmed by the 
 
 Government, that I am about to re- three orderlies who accompanied 
 
 ceive my just punishment. There- him. 
 fore, let no Behaudur Sej)oy behave 
 
DISBANDMEXT OF THE TlimTY-FOURTII. 585 
 
 mcnts of the case might be satisfied by the dismissal May, 1S57 
 of some of the more patent offenders. But the weight 
 of military authority was strongly in favour of dis- 
 bandment. General Hearsey, at Barrackpore, was 
 fully convinced that no measure short of this would 
 produce the desired effect ; and General Anson wrote 
 earnestly from Simlah urging the expediency of such 
 a course. The whole question Avas fully and anxiously 
 discussed in Council ; and at last, on the 30th of 
 April, Lord Canning recorded a minute declaratory 
 of his opinion that no penalty less general than dis- 
 bandment " would meet the exigencies of the case, 
 or be effectual as an example." But even then there 
 were doubts with respect to the men who were to be 
 exempted from punishment, and not until the 4th of 
 May was the discussion exhausted and the order 
 given for the disbandment of the regiment.* 
 
 Two days afterwards, in the presence of all the Disbandment 
 troops at Barrackpore, of the detachments from Dum- fou\-th. ^^*^ 
 Dum, and of the Eighty -fourth (Queen's) from Chin- 
 surah, the seven companies of the Thirty-fourth, who 
 had witnessed the o-reat outrao^e of the 29th of March, 
 were drawn up, before the sun had risen, to receive 
 their sentence. There was to be no mitigation of 
 their punishment, as in the case of the Nineteenth ; 
 so when they laid down their arms, the uniforms 
 which they had disgraced were stripped from their 
 backs, and they were marched out of cantonments 
 under an escort of Europeans. And thus a second 
 time the number of the guilty Thirty-fourth was 
 erased from the Army List ; and five hundred more 
 
 * It is especially to be noted that should be exempted, as a faithful 
 
 a q^uestion arose as to whether the servant, or, on account of later reve- 
 
 Jemadar of the Mint-Guard, who lations, condemned as a traitor. The 
 
 liad apprehended the men of the decision was ultimately in his favour. 
 Second Grenadiers (ante, page 530), 
 
586 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 desperate men, principally Brahmins and Rajpoots, 
 were cast adrift upon the world to vfork out their 
 own schemes of vengeance. 
 ide. In the quarter to which a large number of them 
 
 made their way as the Nineteenth had made their 
 way before them — in Oude, the signs of approaching 
 trouble increased. To no place, from one end of 
 India to another, did the mind of the Governor- 
 General, in this conjuncture, turn, with more painful 
 interest, than to this newly-annexed province, the 
 nursery of the Bengal Army. Henry Lawrence's 
 letters to the Governor-General were wholly silent 
 on the subject of the Nana's visit to Lucknow. But 
 they spoke of much that pressed heavily on his 
 mind. Recognising so many causes of popular dis- 
 content in Oude, and knowing well how large a por- 
 tion of the Native Army was drawn from that pro- 
 vince, he could not, at such a time, regard without 
 much anxiety the demeanour of the Sepoys around 
 him. There was one regiment at Lucknow, whose 
 conduct, although it had been betrayed into no 
 overt act of insubordination, was of a suspicious, 
 almost of a threatening, character, and it seemed 
 desirable thai; it should be removed from the pro- 
 vince. There was no doubt that some of the 
 chief people of the city were tampering with its 
 alleoiance ; and much danoer mioht therefore be 
 averted if it could be removed to another station 
 beyond the limits of the pro\:.ice. The suggestion 
 was made, and Canning responded to it, giving full 
 authority to Henry Lawrence to move the tainted 
 regiment to Meerut. " Let the Commander-in-Chief 
 know," wrote the Governor-General, " if you find it 
 necessary to send it away ; but do not wait for any 
 
 further authority If you have regiments 
 
 that arc really untrustworthy, there must be no deli- 
 
, MUTINY AT LUCKXOW. 587 
 
 cacy in the matter." But before the letter sanction- May, 1857. 
 ing his proposal had arrived, Henry Lawrence had 
 thought long and deeply about the results of such a 
 measure ; and on the 1st of May he wrote to Lord 
 Canning, saying: "Unquestionably we should feel 
 better without the Forty-eighth, but I do not feel 
 confident that the feeling in the other regiments is 
 materially better ; and there is little doubt that the 
 Forty-eighth would not be improved by a move, 
 which is an important point of consideration in the 
 present general condition of the Army." He was 
 right ; the removal of a single regiment could not 
 benefit Oude, but it might do injury elsewhere by 
 tainting other parts of the Army. 
 
 That other components of the Oude force were Mutiny in Dk 
 equally disaffected was presently apparent. On the j.^"^ ^ ^^^°"" 
 2nd of May, Captain Carnegie, who was Magistrate 
 of the city of Lucknow, and who had the superin- 
 tendence of tlie Police — a man, described by his im- 
 mediate superior as " prudent and active, though so 
 quiet in manner, and implicitly to be relied upon" 
 — reported to Henry Lawrence that there had been 
 a strong demonstration against the cartridges in the 
 Seventh Regiment of Oude LTegulars. At first he 
 was fain to believe that the story might be exagge- 
 rated ; but there was soon undeniable evidence that 
 it was only too true. The regiment, which had been 
 in the King's service, was posted at a distance of 
 some seven miles from Lucknow. A fortnight before, 
 the recruits of the regiment had commenced practice 
 with ball-cartridge, and had done their duty without 
 any manifestations of discontent. But by the end of 
 the month it ^vas clear that the great fear, which was 
 travelling about the country, had taken possession of 
 their minds, and that they were on the very verge of 
 revolt. Whether they had been wrought upon by 
 
588 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 emissaries from the city, or whether any of the dis- 
 banded men of the Nineteenth had, by this time^ 
 found their way to Liicknow, is matter only of con- 
 jecture ;* but as the month of May dawned upon 
 them, they were ripe for rebelUon — not only them- 
 selves prepared to resist, but eager to incite others to 
 resistance. They had written a letter to the men of 
 the Forty-eighth, urging them to rise for their reli- 
 gion ; and no soothing explanations from their of- 
 ficers could induce them to shake off the mistrust 
 which had fastened upon them. On the second day 
 of the month the Brigadier rode out with his Staff 
 to the Lines of the Seventh, and found them " as 
 obstinate as ])ossible with regard to the cartridges, "f 
 Returning at nightfall to Lucknow, he wrote at once 
 to Lawrence, telling him the state of the regiment, 
 and adding, " I think myself that this affair has 
 ^•^'\y 3. been a long time brewing." The next morningj 
 brought with it no consolation. The Seventh were 
 in a worse state than before. They had been sullen 
 and obstinate on the preceding day. Now in a state 
 
 * It has been stated that both the Lord Canuiug, wlio, in a minute 
 
 Nineteenth and Thirty-fourth were written on the 10th of May, said: 
 
 stationed at Lucknow at the time of " It appears that tlie revised in- 
 
 annexation ; and it was believed that structions for the plaioon exercise, 
 
 they were there first infected with by which the biting of the cartridge 
 
 rebellion. Henry Lawrence wrote is dispensed with, had not come into 
 
 that he had ascertained that in tiie operation at Lucknow. Explana- 
 
 Nineteenth there must have beeu tion of this should be asked." But 
 
 nearly seven hundred Oude men. the time for explanation was past. 
 
 By tills time, they liad mostly found It was ascertained, however, that 
 
 their way back to their native pro- the new drill instructions were sent 
 
 vince. to the Oude Irregular force in the 
 
 t The official report said that middle of April, 
 the regiment "refused to bite the | So difficult is the attainment of 
 cartridges when ordered by its own perfect accuracy in an historical nar- 
 othcers, and again by the Brigadier." rative, that even Mr. Gubbins, whose 
 ]low it happened that, after the work on the Mutinies of Oude is the 
 change introduced into the drill, the best and salest authority extant, 
 Sepoys at Lucknow were ordered to says that these events, which he wit- 
 bite the carti'idge at all, it is impos- ]iessed himself, happened on Sunday, 
 eible to say. This did not escape the lOtli of May, 
 
DISARMING OF THE SEVENTH. 5S9 
 
 of fevcrisli excitement, violent, desperate, they as- May, 1S57 
 sinned a menacing attitude, and talked openly of ^ ^" 
 murdering their officers. It was obvious that a crisis 
 was approaching, and that no time was to be lost ; 
 so Henry Lawrence, when he heard that the regi- 
 ment was in this defiant and dangerous state, deter- 
 mined at once to disarm, and, if resisted, to destroy 
 it. On that evening he moved up an overwhelming 
 force of all arms to the parade-ground of the Seventh. 
 The day was far spent when he commenced the 
 march. " It was a ticklish matter," he wrote to Mr. 
 Colvin, ''taking the Forty-eighth down on Sunday 
 night; but I thought that they were safer in our 
 company than behind in cantonments. We had to 
 pass for two miles through the city ; indeed. Her 
 Majesty's Thirty-second had four miles of it. I there- 
 fore hesitated as to moving after ; but the moon was 
 in its third quarter; and the first blow is everything. 
 So off we started ; and concentrated from four 
 points, accomplishing the seven miles in about three 
 hours."* 
 
 The moon had risen, bright in an unclouded sky, 
 on that Sabbath evening, when Henry Lawrence, 
 accompanied by his Staff, appeared with the Brigade 
 before the Lines of the Seventh. The regiment was 
 drawn up on parade, in a state of vague uncertainty 
 and bewilderment, not knowing what would come of 
 this strange nocturnal assembly. But when they 
 saw the Europeans, the Cavalry and the guns, taking 
 irround in their front and on tlieir flanks, the Native 
 regiments being so placed as to destroy all hope of 
 their aiding their comrades, the mutineers knew that 
 their game was up, and that there would be death in 
 
 * Sir Henry Lawrence to Mr. Colvin, Lucknow, May 6, 1S57. — 
 M/S» Correspondence. 
 
590 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 further resistance. What might then have happened 
 if the course of events had not been determined by 
 an accident, cannot be distinctly declared. The mu- 
 tinous regiment had obeyed the word of command, 
 and some of the men had expressed contrition ; but 
 it happened that, by some mistake, an artilleryman 
 lighted a port-fire. The guns were pointed towards 
 the mutineers, and though Law^rence and his Staff 
 w^ere posted betAveen them and the Artillery, and 
 would probably have been swept away by the first 
 round, the Sepoys of the guilty regiment believed 
 that the battery was about to open upon them. A 
 panic then seized the Seventh. First one man, then 
 another, broke away from his comrades and fled, 
 throwing down his arms as he went in the over- 
 whelming consternation of the moment ; and pre- 
 sently great gaps appeared in the Line, and only a 
 remnant of the regiment Avas left to obey the orders 
 of the English officer. To these men, whilst the 
 Cavalry went in pursuit of the fugitives, Henry Law- 
 rence rode up ; and as they broke into exclamations 
 of " Jye Coompanee Behaudur Ko !" — '^ Victory to 
 the great Lord Company !" — ordered them to lay 
 down their arms, and to strip off their accoutrements. 
 They obeyed without hesitation ; and, an hour after 
 midnight, the Brigade had returned to Lucknow, 
 carrvins: with it all the arms of the Seventh, and 
 escortinsf, under o-uards of the same force, the men 
 who had so lately borne them. In the critical state 
 of the other Native regiments, it was not thought 
 wise to divide the Europeans. 
 
 Next day Henry Lawrence wrote to the Governor- 
 General, saying, "The coiijj is stated to have had 
 great effect in the city. But people go so far as to 
 tell me that the Forty-eighth last night abused the 
 
FIRES IN LUCKNOW. 591 
 
 Seventh for running away, and said, that if they May, 1857 
 had stood, the Forty-eighth would not have fired. I 
 don't believe one quarter of these reports." But, al- 
 though there is always, in seasons of great popular 
 excitement, a vast amount of exaggeration afloat, and 
 Henry Lawrence, therefore, received with caution the 
 stories that were brought to him, he was not one to 
 disregard the signs of the times, and to close his eyes 
 to the dangers that were surrounding him. As time 
 advanced, these signs increased in significance. Some 
 fifty of the ringleaders of the Seventh Irregulars 
 had been seized and confined, and a Court of In- 
 quiry had been assembled to investigate the causes of 
 the outbreak in that re2:iment. But little or nothin^: 
 had been elicited. As at Umballah, and other places, 
 the mouths of the Sepoys were sealed. They might 
 contend among themselves, but in their reticence, 
 when the English sought to probe their discontents, 
 they acted as one man. Words were not forthcoming, 
 but there was one form of expression, well known to 
 the Native soldiery in times of trouble, to which they 
 betook themselves, as they had before betaken them- 
 selves elsewhere, and thus gave utterance to the strong 
 feelings within them. On the 7th of May, the Lines 
 of the Forty-eighth were burnt down. The fire com- 
 menced in the hut of the Soubahdar who had given 
 up the seditious letter addressed by the Seventh Irre- 
 gulars to the men of his regiment. There could be 
 no doubt that it was the work of an incendiary. On 
 the following day, Lawrence visited the scene of the 
 conflagration, and found the men outwardly civil and 
 respectful in their demeanour, but heavy and down- 
 cast at the thought of their loss of property. It was 
 not easy to read the state of feeling which then ex- 
 isted in the Oude Army, so vague and varied was it ; 
 
592 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 but if any man could have rightly discerned if, 
 Henry Lawrence was that man. For he had free in- 
 tercourse with those who were most likely to be its 
 exponents, and had the gift, so rare among our 
 countrymen, of inspiring confidence in the breasts of 
 the people. After much communing with others and 
 Avith himself, he came to the conclusion that the 
 strongest feeling that held possession of the Sepoy's 
 mind was a great fear, that this fear had long been 
 growing upon him, and that it had only culminated 
 in his belief in the story of the greased cartridges.* 
 
 Of one of these conversations a record has been left 
 in Lawrence's handwriting. It is so significant of 
 the great fear that was then dominating the Army, 
 that I give the passage as it stands. " I had a con- 
 versation," he wrote to Lord Canning, on the 9th of 
 May, " Avith a Jemadar of the Oude Artillery for more 
 than an hour, and w^as startled by the dogged per- 
 sistence of the man, a Brahmin of about forty years 
 of age, of excellent character, in the belief that for ten 
 3^ears past Government has been engaged in measures 
 for the forcible, or rather fraudulent conversion of all 
 the Natives. His argument was, that as such was the 
 case, and that as we had made our w^ay through 
 India, won Bhurtpore, - Lahore, &c., by fraud, so 
 might it be possible that w^e mixed bone-dust wdth 
 the grain sold to the Hindoos. When I told him of 
 our power in Europe, how the Russian war had 
 quadrupled our Army in a year, and in another it 
 could, if necessary, have been interminably increased, 
 
 * One of the earliest indicatior.s by tlie Sepoys, and was believed to 
 
 of this alarm appeared at Lucknow, be a deliberate scheme to pollute 
 
 when an Assistaiit-Surfjeon in the them. Soon afterwards the house of 
 
 Hospital of the Fortv-eiohth inad- the doctor was burnt to the j^rounJ 
 
 rertently put a phial of medicine to by the Sepoys of his regiment, 
 ^is ',ips to test it. This was seen 
 
SY^IPTOMS OF DISCONTENT. 593 
 
 and that in the same way, in six months, any re- May, 1857. 
 quired number of Europeans could be brought to 
 India, and that, therefore, we are not at the mercy 
 of the Sepoys, he replied that he knew that we had 
 plenty of men and money, but that Europeans are 
 expensive, and that, therefore, we wished to take 
 Hindoos to sea to conquer the world for us. On my 
 remarking that the Sepoy, though a good soldier on 
 shore is a bad one at sea, by reason of his poor food, 
 ' That is just it,' was the rejoinder. ' You want us 
 all to eat what you like that we may be stronger, and 
 go everywhere.' He often repeated, ' I tell you what 
 everybody says.' But when I replied, 'Fools and 
 traitors may say so, but honest and sensible men can- 
 not think so,' he would not say that he himself did or 
 did not believe, but said, ' I tell you they are like 
 sheep; the leading one tumbles down, and all the 
 rest roll over him.' Such a man is very dangerous. 
 He has his full faculties, is a Brahmin, has served us 
 twenty years, knows our strength and our weakness, 
 and hates us thoroughly. It may be that he is only 
 more honest than his neighbours, but he is not the 
 less dangerous. On one only point did he give us 
 credit. I told him that in the year 1846, I had 
 rescued a hundred and fifty Native children, left by 
 our army in Caubul, and that instead of making them 
 Christians, I had restored them to their relations and 
 friends. ' Yes,' he replied, ' I remember well. I was 
 at Lahore.' On the other hand, he told me of our 
 making Christians of children purchased during 
 famines. I have spoken to many others, of all ranks, 
 during the last fortnight; most give us credit for 
 good intentions ; but here is a soldier of our own, 
 selected for promotion over the heads of others, 
 holding opinions that must make him at heart a 
 
 2 Q 
 
594 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 M^j, 1857. traitor." On the same day he wrote, in a similar 
 strain, to Mr. Colvin, concluding with a significant 
 hint to look well after the safety of the Forts in 
 Upper India.* 
 
 If these letters from the Chief Commissioner of 
 Oude had been read when written, they might have 
 suggested grave thoughts of impending danger ; but 
 Avhen they reached their destinations, they came only 
 as commentaries upon the past, faint and feeble as 
 seen by the glaring light of terrible realities. The 
 Governor- General and his colleagues in the Supreme 
 Council were discussing the conduct of the mutinous 
 Oude regiment, and the measure of punishment 
 which should be meted out to it. On the 10th of 
 May Lord Canning and Mr. Dorin recorded minutes 
 on the subject. The Governor-General declared for 
 disbandment. Eoused to a vigorous expression of 
 opinion by this last manifestation of a grooving evil, 
 the senior member of Council wrote — and wrote well 
 — " The sooner this epidemic of mutiny is put a stop 
 to the better. Mild measures won't do it. A severe 
 
 example is wanted I am convinced that 
 
 timely severity will be leniency in the long run." 
 On the same day, General Low recorded a minute, 
 in which he expressed an opinion that " probably the 
 main body of the regiment, in refusing to bite the 
 cartridge, did so refuse, not from any feeling of dis- 
 loyalty or disaffection towards the Government or 
 their officers, but from an unfeigned and sincere 
 dread that the act of biting them would involve a 
 serious injury to their caste." On the 11th, Mr. 
 
 * In the letter to Mr. Colvin, Sir ceal not only that he and all others 
 
 Henry Lawrence says that the Je- saw no absurdity in the ground-bones 
 
 madar " went over all our anti- atta belief, but that he considered 
 
 Hindoo acts of tlie last ten years, in- we were quite up to such a dodge.' 
 
 eluding Gaol-Messing, the General- — MS, Correspondence. 
 Service Oath, &c., and did not con- 
 
THE OUTBREAK AT MEERUT. . 595 
 
 Grant and Mr. Peacock placed on record tlieir opi- May, 1857. 
 nions, that it might be better to wait for fuller in- 
 formation before issuing the final orders of Govern- 
 ment. On the 12tL. the office-boxes were ao-ain 
 passing from house to house; but with the papers 
 then circulated, there went one, small in size, scanty 
 in words, but, although perhaps scarcely appreciated 
 at the time, of tremendous significance. "It is to 
 be hoped," wrote Mr. Dorin, "that the news from 
 Meerut (in the telegraphic message from Agra in this 
 box) is not true." But it was true ; yet, with all its 
 terrors, only a small part of the truth. 
 
 The little paper, then, on that 12th of May, tra- The outbrenK 
 veiling from house to house in the office-box, was ^J^^^Jo^^^s^^jr 
 a telegraphic message from Lieutenant-Governor 
 Colvin, announcing to Lord Canning that the great 
 military station of Meerut was in a blaze, that the 
 Cavalry had risen in a body, and that every Euro- 
 pean they had met had been slain by the insurgents. 
 There was something terribly significant in the very 
 form of this message. The Government at Agra had 
 received no official tidings of the events that had oc- 
 curred at Meerut. But a lady at the former place, 
 who had been about to pay a visit to her friends at 
 Meerut, had received a message from her niece, who 
 was sister of the postmaster there, warning her not 
 to attempt the journey, as the Cavalry had risen.* 
 
 * The following were the words find near the Lines. If aunt intends 
 
 of the message : "7l/«y 11, 1857. — starting to-morrow evening,, please 
 
 Last night, at nine o'clock, a tele- detain her from doing so, as the van 
 
 graph message was received here bj has been prevented from leaving the 
 
 a lady from her niece, sister of the station.' No later message has been 
 
 postmaster at Meerut, to the follow- received, and the communication by 
 
 ing effect : ' The Cavalry have risen, telegram has been interrupted ; how, 
 
 setting fire to their own houses and not known. Any intelligence which 
 
 several officers' houses, besides hav- may reach will be sent on imme- 
 
 ing killed and wounded all Euro- diately." — Published Correspondence. 
 
 pean officers and soldiers they could Parliamentary Papers. 
 
 2q2 
 
596 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 May, 1S57. This was tlie last message despatched. Before the 
 authorities could send intelligence of what had hap- 
 pened, the telegraph-wires were cut by the insur- 
 gents. 
 The week of The news, therefore, which now reached Agra, 
 
 e egrams. ^^^ ^^^^ thence communicated to Calcutta, was of a 
 vague, fragmentary character. Scattered facts welled 
 up from uncertain sources, and were passed on from 
 one station to another, suggestive rather than expres- 
 sive, always indicating something more terrible in the 
 background than the truth actually revealed. Not 
 till some time afterwards was the whole truth appa- 
 rent to the Governor-General, and therefore not 
 now do I fill up the outlines of the story. The 
 week that followed the 12th of May was a week of 
 telegrams. The electric wires were continually flash- 
 ing pregnant messages from North to South, and from 
 South to North. That the Sepoys at Meernt had 
 risen, was certain from the first. Then news came 
 that they held some part of the road between Meerut 
 and Delhi. Then, little by little, it transpired that 
 the Meerut mutineers had made their way in a body 
 to the Imperial City, and that the Delhi regiments 
 had fraternised with them. A messa^^fe from A2:ra, 
 despatched on the 14th, stated, on the authority of a 
 letter from the King of Delhi, that the town and fort 
 and his OAvn person were in possession of the insur- 
 gents ; and it was added that Fraser, the Commis- 
 sioner, and many other English gentlemen and ladies, 
 had been murdered. Then, at last, it became appa- 
 rent that the King himself had cast in his lot with 
 the insurgents, that the rebel standard had been 
 hoisted in the palace of the Mogul, that Englishmen 
 and Englishwomen had been ruthlessly massacred in 
 the streets of the city, and that the mutiny of a few 
 
THE SEIZURE OF DELHI. 597 
 
 regiments, by thus concentring at Delhi, was begin- May, 1857. 
 ning to simulate a national rebellion. 
 
 Never since, a century before, the foundation of our 
 great Indian Empire had been laid by the conquest of 
 Bengal, had such tidings as these been brought to 
 the council-chamber of the English ruler. The little 
 cloud no bigger than a man's hand, which had risen 
 in the first month of the new year, and had been 
 growing in its density and darkness until it had over- 
 shadowed the heavens, was now discharging its tem- 
 pestuous terrors upon us. There was little before 
 the eyes of Lord Canning but the one naked fact of . 
 the junction of the Meerut and Delhi troops, and the | ^ 
 proclamation of the restored empire of the Mogul. 
 With a feeling of wondering anxiety he awaited, 
 all through that terrible week in May, the details 
 which seemed as though they would never come, and 
 the explanations of all that seemed so inexplicable to 
 him. Most of all, he marvelled what our people had 
 been doing, or not doing in this conjuncture, that 
 such a post as Delhi, scarcely equalled in military, 
 wholly unequalled in political importance, should thus 
 in an hour have been wrested from their grasp. It 
 seemed incredible that with a regiment of British 
 Cavalry at Meerut, and the largest body of Artillery 
 in the country gathered there at its head-quarters, 
 such a catastrophe as this should have occurred. Was 
 there no one, he asked, to do with the Carabineers 
 and the Horse Artillery what Gillespie, half a century 
 before had done, with his Dragoons and galloper- 
 guns ? But if such were the result in places where 
 our English officers had Cavalry and Artillery to aid 
 them, how would it fare with them at stations where 
 no such help was to be had ? There was no hope 
 now that the conflagration would not spread from 
 
598 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 Mav, 1857. cantonment to cantonment ; no hope now that the 
 
 whole country would not soon be in a blaze. 
 Measures of So Canning arose, and with his still, calm face, 
 ning. confronted the dire calamity. A braver heart than 
 
 his never beat in a human breast. Happy was it for 
 the nation that in him, to whom its honour was con- 
 fided in that conjuncture, there was a resolute man- 
 liood of the finest, most enduring temper. Many 
 thoughts pressed upon him, but dominant over all 
 was a strong sense of the paramount duty of main- 
 taining before all men a serene aspect and a confident 
 demeanour. There was great work to be done, 
 nothing less than the salvation of an empire ; and 
 with a solemn sense of his responsibility, he girded 
 himself up for the conflict, knowing in hoAV great 
 a measure the deliverance of his countrymen de- 
 pended, under God's good providence, upon their 
 faith in his constancy and courage. He saw clearly 
 that there was a tremendous danger, and he knew 
 that the resources immediately at his command were 
 wholly insufficient to enable him to cope with it; 
 but even those who were nearest to his person never 
 saw him quail for a moment, as he calculated the 
 means and appliances of defence that could at once 
 be brought into action, and those which might be 
 summoned from a distance. 
 
 It was no time for lamentation ; else he might have 
 lamented that India, by a series of adverse circum- 
 stances, had been so stripped of European troops that 
 now the whole country, with the exception of the 
 frontier province of the Punjab, was lying naked and 
 defenceless, without means of raising any barriers of 
 resistance against the flood of rebellion that was 
 pouring over Hindostan. He had lifted up his voice 
 against the system, which placed it in the power 
 
SOURCES OF CONSOLATION* 599 
 
 of England, by giving to India either too mucli May, 1857 
 or too little of its manhood, to sacrifice the interests 
 of the dependency.* He had resisted, only a little 
 time before, an attempt to carry off some of the few 
 English regiments at his disposal, to take a part in 
 certain military operiitions against the Government 
 of China, with which India had no concern. It had 
 cost him much to send so many regiments to Persia ; 
 but that was a call to which he had been bound to 
 respond, and happily now the emergency was past. 
 All that he had said by way of warning had been 
 more than verified by the event ; but it was a time 
 for looking forward, not for looking back, so he 
 began to reckon up his available succours, and forth- 
 with to summon them to the capital. 
 
 In the midst of all his tribulation there were some 
 sources of unspeakable comfort. Whilst the clouds 
 were thickening above him, before the great out- 
 burst, he had learnt with joy and gratitude that the 
 war with Persia had been brought to a close. Outram 
 had done his work rapidly and well. I cannot now 
 pause to speak of his successes. What he did on the 
 shores of the Persian Gulf must be narrated in an- 
 other place. It is enough to say that Persia, alarmed 
 by our demonstrations on the coast, and anticipating 
 an advance into the interior of the country, thought 
 that negotiation was better than war, acceded to our 
 demands, and concluded, at Paris, a treaty with the 
 British Government. The expedition which had gone 
 
 * "The interests of India," he liere for the purpose of meeting 
 
 wrote on April 22nd, " do not always exigencies elsewhere. Such a dimi- 
 
 make themselves heard in England, nution was made in 1854 by with- 
 
 when other important matters are holding two regiments which have 
 
 uppermost; and I am opposed to not yet been given, although six 
 
 putting into the hands of the Go- regiments have been sent out of 
 
 vernment at home an increased India to Persia.*' — ATS. Correspond" 
 
 power to diminish our main strength ence of Lord Canning, 
 
600 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 M:.y, 1857. forth from Bombay, was, therefore, returning to that 
 Presidency; and a word from the Governor- Gene- 
 ral would summon it, as fast as steam could bring 
 it, to his aid. This was his first thought, when 
 the seizure of Delhi confirmed all his worst appre- 
 hensions of the perilous want of European troops. 
 Then, from these Persian succours, he turned with joy 
 and gratitude not less profound, to the thought that 
 English troops were speeding to China ; that the 
 arrogance and insolence of the Chinese Government 
 having provoked our chastisement, an expedition had 
 been fitted out under the conduct of a civil and a 
 military chief, and was then, perhaps, at the very 
 point of its journey at which it might most readily 
 be wrested from its original purpose, and diverted 
 into another and mere necessitous channel. Rightly 
 taking the measure of the two exigencies, and never 
 doubting for a moment what the great interests of 
 the nation demanded in that conjuncture, he pre- 
 sently determined to call these troops to his aid. The 
 chastisement of China could wait ; the salvation of 
 India could not ;* and so he resolved, even at the 
 risk of frustratino; the cherished desims of the Go- 
 vernment in England, to call upon Elgin and Ash- 
 burnham to suspend their operations, and to send 
 him the present help that he so much needed. It 
 
 * I did not tliink, when I wrote stopped at Singapore. Ych may 
 
 these words, that I had done more wait ; but Bengal, with its stretch 
 
 ihan express the natural feeling in of seven hundred and fifty miles 
 
 Lord Canning's breast at that time; from Barrackpore to Agra, guarded 
 
 but I have since found that he gave by nothing but the 10th Queen's, 
 
 utterance almost to the very words : cannot wait, if the flame should 
 
 "I have sent an officer," he wrote to spread. And who shallsay that it 
 
 the Commander-in-Chief, " to Galle will not ? No precaution against 
 
 by the mail to meet Ashburnham, such a contingency can be too 
 
 and I hope Elgin, with an earnest re- great."— j1/>y. Correspondence o/Lor"^ 
 
 quest for the first use of the regi- Canning. 
 nients bound to China, if they can be 
 
THE CALL FOR SUCCOLRS. 601 
 
 was a great responsibility, but he took it without a May, 1857 
 moment's hesitation on himself ; and he thanked 
 God, from the very depths of his heart, that by a 
 providential dispensation this succour, in the very 
 crisis of his necessities, had been placed within his 
 reach. 
 
 There were thus, in the peculiar circumstances of 
 the moment, some sources of consolation, some good 
 promise of relief over and above that which was to 
 be sought in the normal condition of the empire 
 under his charge. But it would take time to gather 
 up the strength of these Persian and Chinese expe- 
 ditions, and there were some available European 
 troops more nearly at hand. It was another happy 
 accident that at this time the Eighty -fourth Regiment, 
 which had been summoned from Pegu in March, was 
 still in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. The long- 
 delayed disbandment of the guilty companies of the 
 Thirty-fourth had not been carried into effect before 
 the 6th of May ; and the regiment had been de- 
 tained until after the execution of the sentence. It 
 seemed then that there was no further necessity for 
 its presence in Bengal, but the arrangements for its 
 return to Pegu were still incomplete, when the disas- 
 trous tidings from Upper India came to dissipate all 
 thought of its departure. From the quarter whence 
 it had come another Eno^lish reoiment mio-ht be 
 drawn. The Thirty-fifth was stationed partly at 
 Rangoon, partly at Moulmein ; and a steamer was de- 
 spatched to gather up the detachments and to bring 
 them with all speed to Calcutta. At the same time, 
 the telegraph carried to Madras a requisition to hold 
 the Forty-third Foot and the Madras Fusiliers ready 
 for immediate embarkation ; and a trusted officer 
 was sent on board the mail-steamer to Ceylon, with 
 
602 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 May, 1S57. an urgent request to the Governor to send him all 
 the European troops he could spare. 
 
 Whilst thus every effort was strained to bring Eu- 
 ropean troops from the southern and eastern coasts, 
 the Governor-General was intent also on the organisa- 
 tion of measures for the concentration of the strength 
 already at his disposal upon the points most exposed 
 to danger. With this object, every available river- 
 steamer was taken up for the conveyance of troops 
 to the Upper Provinces, and the quicker but more 
 limited means of locomotion afforded by wheeled car- 
 riages was resorted to for the conveyance of small 
 detachments into the interior. But it was not, in 
 the crisis of this first peril, from the South, but from 
 the North, that the stream of conquest was to be 
 poured down upon the great centre of rebellion. 
 It was not to be doubted that General Anson, whom 
 the news of the rising at Meerut and the seizure of 
 Delhi must have reached at Simlah as soon as it 
 reached Lord Canning at Calcutta, was doing all that 
 could be done to despatch troops to the seat of the 
 revolt. The telegraph, therefore, expressed only the 
 confidence of Government that the Commander-in- 
 Chief was bringing down to the plains the European 
 regiments on the hills. But the main reliance of the 
 Governor-General in this extremity was upon the 
 military resources of the Punjab. Though all the 
 rest of the empire was denuded of European troops, 
 there was no lack of this material strength in the 
 great frontier province conquered from the Sikhs. 
 Moreover, it was believed that the Sikhs themselves 
 would be eager to follow their English commanders 
 to the siege and pillage of the reno^vned city of the 
 Moguls. So, whilst a message went to Kurrachee, in 
 Scinde, directing the Commissioner to send an Eng- 
 lish regiment to the Punjab to replace any that it 
 
MEASURES OF DEFENCE. 603 
 
 might be found necessary to despatcli from that pro- May, 1S57. 
 vince to the Lower Provinces, another went to Mr. 
 Colvin, at Agra, saying, " Send word as quickly as 
 possible to Sir John Lawrence that he is to send 
 down such of the Punjab regiments and European 
 regiments as he can safely spare. Every exertion 
 must be made to regain Delhi, Every hour is of 
 importance. General Hewitt has been ordered to 
 press this on the Commander-in-Chief. If you find 
 it necessary, you may apply, in the Govern or- Gene- 
 ral's name, to the Rajah of Pateeala and the Rajah 
 of Jheend for troops." And he added, with that 
 union of kindliness and sagacity which made him at 
 all times liberal of his encouragement to his Lieute- 
 nants, " I thank you sincerely for what you have so 
 admirably done, and for your stout heart."* The 
 praise, too, was well deserved. Colvin, at that time, 
 had done all that could be done to help others at a 
 distance, and to maintain the confidence of those 
 around him, and he had strenuously exerted himself 
 to forward to the Governor- General, by telegraph 
 and by letter, all the tidings that had made their way 
 to Agra.f " I have fairly taken upon myself," he 
 wrote to Lord Canning on the 15th of May, "the 
 position of Commander-in-Chief here. The ar- 
 rangements are now on the point of completion, and 
 our position may be regarded as safe. There has 
 been a thorough co-operation and the most excellent 
 
 * In a letter to Mr. Vernon Smith praise." — MS. Correspondence of Lord 
 
 of about the same date, Lord Can- Canning. 
 
 ning says : " South of Delhi, Colvin f The importance of this service, 
 
 at Agra is enpjaced in keeping- the at a time when communication both 
 
 roads quiet, collecting troops from by Post and Telegraph was so greatly 
 
 Gwalior (Scindiah has come forward interrupted, can hardly be over-esti- 
 
 lojally), and encouraging his own mated. The Commander-in-Chief's 
 
 native garrison to fidelity. He is letters of the 14th and 16tli of May 
 
 confident of keeping them straight, did not reach Calcutta before the 
 
 and he deserves to succeed. His 7th of June, 
 courage and judgment are beyond 
 
604 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 May, 1857. spirit amongst us. Scindiah and Bhiirtpore will he 
 heartily with us against the new dynasty of the 
 House of Timour. I shall rouse the Rajpoot States 
 to arrest the flight of the mutineers westward, when 
 they are driven out of Delhi. The horrible murders, 
 you will see, have been chiefly by Mahomedan 
 troopers of the Third Cavalry. There must be a fit 
 and fearful expiation for such atrocities." 
 
 But for this fit and fearful expiation Lord Canning 
 knew too well that the time had not yet come. The 
 struggle now was for bare life. For this he had 
 done all that could be done, with the scanty means 
 at his own disposal. "The two points to which I 
 am straining," he wrote to the Indian Minister at 
 home, " are the hastening of the expulsion of the 
 rebels from Delhi, and the collection of Europeans 
 here to be pushed up the country." But not a day 
 was to be lost in summoning that ulterior aid, by 
 which not only was the safety of the empire to be 
 secured, but the honour of the nation vindicated by 
 the infliction of just retribution upon our enemies. 
 The succours from Bombay he was sure to obtain ; 
 and there was something exhilarating in the thought, 
 at a time when India had need of all her heroes, that 
 Outram would come with them. How difl'erent 
 would it have been if those regiments had been still 
 Arrest of tlie engaged in the Persian Gulf! But he could not cal- 
 tion"^ ^^"^ culate with the same amount of certainty upon the 
 succours from the Eastern seas ; he could not be 
 certain that Lord Elgin would respond to his appeal. 
 All that he could do was to throw the whole earnest- 
 ness of his nature into that appeal, and to take upon 
 himself the full responsibility of the diversion. So 
 he wrote officially, as the Govern or- General of India, 
 to Lord Elgin, and he wTote privately to him as an 
 
ARREST OF THE CHINA EXPEDITION. 605 
 
 old companion and friend. In the public letter, after May, is 5 7. 
 setting forth in emphatic language the dangers by 
 which our empire in India was surrounded, he con- 
 tinued : " I place the matter briefly before your Lord- 
 ship ; but I hope clearly enough to enable you to 
 come to a ready decision. I will add, that I am 
 anxious to bear the whole responsibility of all the 
 consequences of turning aside the troops from China 
 to India. But I beg your Lordship to believe that, 
 in saying this, I am not influenced by any thought 
 that whatever may be the course for which your 
 Lordship's wise judgment shall decide, you will need 
 any help from me in vindicating it to her Majesty's 
 Government." 
 
 More earnest and emphatic still was his private May 19, 1S5 7. 
 letter ; not a word of it should be omitted : " My 
 dear Elgin, — I wish I could give you a more cheerful 
 and acceptable greeting than you will find in the 
 letter by which this is accompanied. As it is, you 
 mil not bless me for it, but the case which I have 
 before me here is clear and strong. Our hold of 
 Bengal and the Upper Provinces depends upon the 
 turn of a word — a look. An indiscreet act or irri- 
 tating phrase from a foolish commanding officer at 
 the head of a mutinous or disafl'ected company, 
 may, whilst the present condition of things at Delhi 
 lasts, lead to a general rising of the Native troops in 
 the Lower Provinces, where we have no European 
 strength, and where an army in rebellion would have 
 everything its own way for weeks and months to 
 come. We have seen within the last few days what 
 that way would be. I cannot shut my eyes to the 
 danger, or to the urgent necessity under which I lie, 
 to collect every European that can carry arms and 
 aid to the Government of India in the event of such 
 
606 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 nXay, 1857. a crisis. I do not want aid to put down the Meerut 
 and Delhi rebels ; that will be done easily, as soon as 
 the European troops can converge upon Delhi, but 
 not sooner. Meanwhile, every hour of delay — un- 
 avoidable delay — is an encouragement to the dis- 
 affected troops in other parts ; and if any one of the 
 unwatched regiments on this side of Agra should 
 take heart and give the word, there is not a fort, or 
 cantonment, or station in the plains of the Ganges 
 that would not be in their hands in a fortnight. It 
 would be exactly the same in Oude. No help that 
 you could give me would make us safe against this, 
 because it cannot arrive in time. The critical mo- 
 ments are now, and for the next ten or twelve days to 
 come. If we pass through them without a spread of 
 the outbreak, I believe all will go well. If we do not, 
 the consequences will be so frightful, that any neglect 
 to obtain any possible accession of strength whereby 
 to shorten the duration of the reign of terror which 
 will ensue, would be a crime. If you send me troops, 
 they shall not be kept one hour longer than is abso- 
 ,^„ ^ Intel V needed. If you come with them yourself, vou 
 
 MS. Corre- " / ?? 
 
 sjjondence. shall be most heartily welcome." 
 
 With this letter went another to General Ashburn- 
 ham, who commanded the troops of the China expe- 
 dition ; and the steamer, which carried the bearer of 
 these important missives to Galle, bore also letters 
 from the Governor- General to the Chairman of the 
 Court of Directors and the President of the Board 
 of Control, calling upon them immediately to send 
 out reinforcements from England. '^Now let me 
 beg your attention and support," he wrote to Mr. 
 Mangles, 'Ho a proposal which goes to you by the 
 mail for the immediate raising of three European 
 regiments for Bengal. No sane man will doubt that 
 
MEASURES OF MORAL FORCE. 607 
 
 Hiuch of increase to our European force is wanted, May, Vjb? 
 and that the want should be supplied with as little 
 delay as possible is obvious from the present expo- 
 sure of our weak points. 1 do not ask for an aug- 
 mentation to the established number of Queen's 
 troops, because for permanent purposes I much prefer 
 an addition to the Company's Army ; and for the 
 exigencies of the moment no reinforcement, except 
 that of the China regiments, would avail. But I do 
 beg that you will move the Government to make up 
 the complement of Queen's troops, irrespectively of 
 those which now or hereafter may come to us from 
 China. Do not let the supply of the missing regi- ■ 
 
 ments depend upon the turn of affairs in China, but 
 let the gap be filled up at once."* In the same 
 strain he wrote to Mr. Vernon Smith, looking rather 
 to any aid that might be sent him from England, as 
 a means of preventing the recurrence of like disasters 
 in the future, than of combating those which had 
 already arisen. 
 
 Whilst the first efi'orts of the Governor-General Moral force 
 were thus directed towards the pressing duty of ex- 
 tinguishing, by sheer animal strength, the fires that 
 had been kindled in Upper India, he was endeavour- 
 ing also to prevent by moral means the flames from 
 spreading to parts of the country not yet in a blaze. 
 It was plain that a great fear, born of a terrible mis- 
 apprehension, was driving the soldiery to madness. 
 Might not something, then, be done — might not some 
 authoritative declaration be put forth by Govern- 
 ment, solemn and irresistible in its denials of the im- 
 puted treachery, to pacify men's minds, and to cast 
 out from them the foul suspicions which were turn- 
 ing loyal soldiers into rebels and murderers? It 
 
 * Lord Canning to Mr. Mangles, May 19, 1857. — MS. Correspmdence, 
 
608 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 May, 1S57. was true that they had been told this before by the 
 Governor- General, by the Commander-m- Chief, by 
 Generals of Division, and Regimental Commandants ; 
 but these appeals had been of local character and 
 limited influence, and it was thought that something 
 might yet be done by a general Proclamation ad- 
 dressed to the whole Army, and distributed through- 
 out the country. It was not doubted, that whatso- 
 ever might have been the external agencies employed 
 to keep alive this perilous excitement, there was at 
 the bottom of it, in the breasts of the Sepoys, a 
 deeply-rooted fear for the sanctity of their religion 
 and the purity of their caste. If they could once be 
 persuaded to believe that the British Government 
 had never meditated any injury or offence to the re- 
 ligious or social prejudices of the people, there might 
 be a return to quietude and to reason. It was wise, 
 at least, to make one more trial. So a Proclamation 
 was issued, setting forth that the Governor-General 
 knew that endeavours had been made to persuade 
 Hindoos and Mussulmans, both soldiers and civil sub- 
 jects, that their religion was openly as well as secretly 
 threatened by acts of the Government, who were be- 
 lieved to be seeking by various ways to entrap them 
 into loss of caste for purposes of their own ; but that 
 they had never yet deceived their subjects, and they 
 now, therefore, called upon all men to refuse their 
 belief to the seditious lies of designing traitors, who 
 were leading good men to their ruin. Translated 
 into the vernacular, this Proclamation was sent to 
 the military authorities to be distributed among the 
 soldiery in all parts of the country, whilst the words 
 of it were telegraphed to the Lieutenant-Governor at 
 Agra, with emphatic instructions to " disseminate it 
 in every town, village, bazaar, and serai." "It is 
 
REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS, G09 
 
 for the people as well as for the troops." It was yet May, 1S57 
 hoped that it might bear the good fruit of a return 
 to order and tranquillity.* 
 
 At the same time, it appeared tc the Governor- 
 General to be in the highest degree important to arm 
 the military authorities with new powers both for the 
 prompt reward of good and loyal soldiers, and the 
 prompt punishment of mutineers. The first might 
 be done by a simple order of the Government. The 
 latter required the interposition of the Legislature. 
 So an act was passed to facilitate the trial and punish- May 16. 
 ment of offences against the articles of war for the 
 Native Army, by which commanding officers of Divi- 
 sions, Brigades, and Stations, were authorised to as- 
 semble general and other Courts-martial, and to pro- 
 ceed to carry sentence into effect without reference 
 to Head-Quarters. In such an emergency as had 
 then arisen. Centralisation could not stand its ground. 
 So whilst incn^ased power was thus given to com- 
 manding officers to overavv-e rebellion, increased 
 power to encourage loyalty and good conduct was 
 delegated to them and to certain high civil and poli- 
 tical functionaries. They were empowered to pro- 
 mote Native soldiers and non-commissioned officers 
 on the scene of their good deeds, and to confer upon 
 
 * It has been often said that this the mutiny in the Madras Army, It 
 
 Proclamation, which will be found is, however, very doubtful whether 
 
 in the Appendix, ought to have been such manifestofis have any effect 
 
 issued at an earlier period. Colonel upon the Native mind, when once 
 
 Birch advised the Governor-General, any popular belief of the intentions 
 
 when the excited state of the Native of Government has taken fast hold 
 
 soldiery first became apparent, to of it. 1 have already observed, that 
 
 issue a proclamation of this kind, those who entertain a conviction 
 
 and Lord Canning afterwards frankly that the Government have formed a 
 
 expressed his regret that he had not deliberate design to trick the people 
 
 taken the advice of his military se- out of their rehgion, are not likely to 
 
 cretary. On turning back to page find any difficulty in believing that 
 
 243, the reader will perceive that a the issue of a lying proclamation is 
 
 similar delay in issuing a sedative a part of the plot, 
 proclamation occurred in 1806, after 
 
 2k 
 
610 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 May, 1857. them tlie " Order of Merit,"* " in order that the re- 
 ward for eminent gallantry, loyalty, and good con- 
 duct might be prompt, and might be conferred on 
 the soldier in the sight of his comrades." But no 
 proclamations and general orders — ^nothing that the 
 Legislature could decree or the Executive Govern- 
 ment publish — no words that men could utter, in 
 that extremity, could avail to arrest the fury of the 
 storm that was bursting over their head. It was too 
 late for words, for none would hear. It was left to 
 the English only to strike. 
 
 Thus Canning did all that could be done, and 
 waited for the issue — waited, fearfully and hopefully, 
 for tidings of new disasters in one direction, and of 
 coming succours from another. As he thus waited 
 and watched, and pondered new details of the great 
 rising, which every day added something to the 
 clearness and completeness of the story, there were 
 times when he felt in his inmost heart that there 
 were no better resources than a few brave hearts 
 and a few strong heads upon whose courage and 
 coolness he could rely. It must be said, sorrowfully, 
 and I would fain not say it, but History admits of no 
 such reservations, that Lord Canning felt bitterly 
 that, with some few honourable exceptions, the Eng- 
 lish officers at the Presidency were not giving him 
 the moral support which, in such a crisis, would have 
 been so grateful and refreshing to him, and for which 
 truly he had a right to look. It is impossible to 
 describe his mortification. Where he had hoped to 
 see strength he saw only weakness. Men whom he 
 thought to see sustaining and encouraging others by 
 
 * Authority in this latter respect Western Provinces, and to tlie Cliief 
 was confined to the Lieutenant- Commissioners in Oude and the 
 Governor of Bengal and the North- Punjab. 
 
DANGEROUS ALARMISTS. 611 
 
 tlieir own resolute bearing and their cheerfulness of May, I8f.7, 
 speech, went about from place to place infecting their 
 friends with their own despondency, and chilling the 
 hearts which they should have warmed by their ex- 
 ample. Such a spectacle as this was even more 
 painful than the tidings of disaster and death which 
 came huddling in from all parts of the country. 
 No one knew better, and no one more freely acknow- 
 ledged that the men of whom he complained were 
 " brave enough with swords by their sides." They 
 would have faced death for their country's good with 
 the courage of heroes and the constancy of martyrs ; 
 but strong as they would have been in deeds, they 
 were weak in words, and they went about as pro- 
 phets of evil, giving free utterance to all their 
 gloomiest anticipations, and thus spreading through 
 all the strata of English society at the capital the 
 alarm which a more confident demeanour in the 
 upper places might have arrested. And so strong 
 was Lord Canning's sense of the evil that had arisen, 
 and that might arise from this want of reserve, that 
 he wrote specially to the authorities in England to 
 receive with caution the stories that were likely to be 
 sent home in the private letters which the mail was 
 about to carry from Calcutta. 
 
 But the shame with which he beheld the failure of HarHs and 
 some of his countrymen at Calcutta, made him turn ^ "i-sione. 
 with the greater pride and the greater confidence 
 towards those who were nobly seconding his efibrts 
 from a distance. The Governors of Madras and of 
 Bombay, Harris and Elphinstone, had responded to 
 his appeals, and without any selfish thoughts of their 
 own wants, any heed of dangerous contingencies at 
 home, were sending him the succours he so much 
 needed ; and he was profoundly grateful for their 
 
 2 11 2 
 
G12 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 May, 1857. aid. The promptitude with which they responded to 
 the call for help was something almost marvellous. 
 The electric telegraph might fail us in some parts, but 
 in others it did its work well. On the 18th of May, 
 Canning knew that the Madras Fusiliers were already 
 embarking, and had thanked Harris by telegraph for 
 his " great expedition." On the 22nd he learnt that 
 the first instalment of the troops from Persia had 
 reached Bombay, and that a steamer had already 
 started for Calcutta with a wing of the Sixty-fourth 
 Queen's. The fire-ship was doing its work as well as 
 the lightning-post. 
 The Law- But although there was to the Governor-General 
 
 icnces. great consolation in the thought that he would lack 
 
 no material or moral support that Harris and Elphin- 
 stone could give him, it was, in a conjuncture so im- 
 minent, to the individual characters of men actually 
 confronting the dangers which threatened the empire, 
 that he looked with the most eager anxiety. And 
 there were no points to which he turned his eyes with 
 a keener interest than to those two great provinces, 
 the history of the annexation of which I have written 
 in the early part of this book, the great provinces of 
 the Punjab and of Oude. It was from Oude that so 
 large a part of the Bengal Army had been drawn ; 
 it was in Oude, the last of our acquisitions, that the 
 animosities and resentments born of the great revo- 
 lution we had accomplished Avere festeriDg most 
 freshly ; it was in Oude that we had to contend 
 with the reviving energies of a dynasty scarcely yet 
 extinct, and an aristocrac}^ in the first throes of its 
 humiliation. All this Lord Canning distinctly saw. 
 It was in the Punjab that all external dangers were 
 to be encountered ; it was from the Punjab that Delhi 
 was to be recovered. There was consolation in the 
 
THE LAWRENCES. 613 
 
 tliouglit that only a few months before the good May, 1857 
 offices of Dost Mahomed had been purchased in the 
 manner most likely to secm^e his neutrality. But 
 death might, any day, remove the old Ameer from 
 the scene ; there would, in such a case, be internal 
 convulsions, out of which would probably arise an 
 invasion of our frontier by one contending faction 
 or another: and, therefore, much as troops were 
 needed below, a still greater danger might be in- 
 curred by weakening the force on the frontier. In 
 other parts of the country there might be merely a 
 military mutiny; but in Oude and the Punjab the 
 Government was threatened with the horrors of a po- 
 pular rebellion, and the embarrassments of a foreign 
 war. 
 
 But if there were much trouble and anxiety in 
 these thoughts, they had their attendant consolations. 
 Let what might happen in Oude and the Punjab, the 
 Lawrences Vv^ere there. The Governor- General had 
 abundant faith in them both ; faith in their courage, 
 their constancy, their capacity for command ; but, 
 most of all, he trusted them because they coveted 
 responsibility. It is only from an innate sense of 
 strength that this desire proceeds ; only in obedience 
 to the unerring voice of Nature that strong men press 
 forward to grasp what weak men shrink from pos- 
 sessing. Knowing this, when, on the 16th of May, 
 Henry Lawrence telegraphed to the Governor-Ge- 
 neral, " Give me plenary military power in Oude ; 
 I will not use it unnecessarily," not a moment was 
 lost in flashing back the encouraging answer, " You 
 have full military powers. The Governor- General 
 will support you in everything that you think ne- 
 cessary." 
 
 With John Lawrence it was less easy to commu- 
 
614 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 Maj, 1857. nicate. A short time before tlie outbreak of the 
 mutiny, the Chief Commissioner of the Punjab, 
 whose health had been sorely tried by incessant work, 
 had proposed to the Govern or- General to occupy a 
 part of the approaching hot weather in a tour 
 through Cashmere, but Lord Canning, on political 
 grounds, had discouraged the proposal ; for Gholab 
 Singh lay dying, and it was believed that such a visit 
 to the dominions of the Maharajah would be asso- 
 ciated in men's minds with some ulterior project of 
 their annexation. John Lawrence, therefore, had 
 happily not gone to Cashmere. When the news of 
 the outbreak at Meerut reached the Punjab he was, 
 on his way to the Murree Hills, at Rawul-Pindee ; 
 and thence, having first telegraphed to them both, he 
 wrote, on the 13th of May, to the Governor- General 
 and the Commander-in-Chief, Nine days afterwards 
 Lord Canning received the missive which had been 
 addressed to him, together with a copy of the Commis- 
 sioner's earnest appeal to Anson to be up and doing. 
 In the former, Lawrence urged upon the Governor- 
 General the expediency of raising for immediate ser- 
 vice a large body of Sikh Irregulars. "Our European 
 force in India," he wrote, "is so small, that it may 
 gradually be worn down and destroyed. It is of the 
 highest importance, therefore, that we should increase 
 our Irregular troops. ... In the event of an emer- 
 gency, I should like to have power to raise as far as 
 one thousand Horse; I will not do this unless abso- 
 lutely necessary." Five days before this letter had 
 reached Calcutta, Lord Canning had telegraphed his 
 consent to the proposal, adding, " You will be sup- 
 ported in every measure that you think necessary for 
 safety." He was unstinting in his expressions of 
 confidence to those who deserved it. 
 
SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 615 
 
 Those were days when the best men stood upon the May, 1S57. 
 least ceremony, and if they had a suggestion to offer 
 to Government, offered it with the full assurance 
 that they were doing their duty, and would not be 
 charged with presumption. So General Hearsey, 
 when he learnt the news that had come from Meerut 
 and Delhi, had written to the Military Secretary to 
 urge the Government to call for troops from Madras 
 and Bombay and the Persian Gulf, and to arrest 
 the China expedition. So Henry Lawrence had 
 telegraphed to the Governor-General to get every 
 available European " from China, Ceylon, and else- 
 where, also all the Goorkhas from the Hills." So 
 Patrick Grant, the Commander-in-Chief at Madras, 
 had telegraphed to him to send a smft steamer at 
 once to intercept the China expedition ;* and John 
 Lawrence had sent a message setting forth these and 
 
 * There has been some discussion, forward on to you the whole of the 
 I believe, respeetinf^ the quarter troops intended for China. Whether 
 whence the suggestion to intercept China is coerced now, or months 
 the China troops first emanated, hence, is of no moment. The moral 
 I can see no reason to think that effect of such a force being brought 
 Lord Canning required any prompt- to the spot would be incalculable, 
 ing. But if the question is to be and be regarded as something mira- 
 solved by reference to a priority of culous and supernatural." At what 
 recorded date, it is, firstly, to Gene- precise moment Lord Canning first 
 ral Hearsey, and secondly to Sir determined to arrest the China ex- 
 Henry Lawrence, that the merit is pedition, is not apparent on the face 
 to be assigned. On the 15th of May, of the records; but on the 18th he 
 General Hearsey wrote to Colonel telegraphed to Agra: "I hope to 
 Birch, saying: "Send steamers to catch the regiments on their way to 
 meet and bring the European troops China." During the week imme- 
 now on their way to China (Hong- diately following the outbreak at 
 Kong) to Calcutta. Do not delay Meerut, Lord Canning scarcely re- 
 doing this." On the 16th of May, sorted to the post-office at all. The 
 Henry Lawrence telegraphed to Lord only letter that I can find is one to 
 Canning: " Get every European you General Anson, dated the 15th, in 
 can from China, Ceylon, and else- which he does not mention the in- 
 where." On the 17th, Sir Patrick tended arrest of the China troops; 
 Grant sent his message, more detailed but at that time he had received no 
 and emphatic : " I most earnestly re- detailed account of events at Meerut 
 commendthedespatchto Singapore of and Delhi, and scarcely knew the 
 the swiftest steamer obtainable, with extent of the evil with which he had 
 an epa-nest request to Lord Elgin to to contend. 
 
(ilO OUTBKEAK OF THE MUTDsT. 
 
 otlic^r means of meeting the crisis. For all these 
 suggestions Lord Canning was grateful; but it was 
 with much satisfaction, perhaps with some pride, that 
 when the detailed plans of the Chief Commissioner 
 of the Punjab were laid before him, he sent back a 
 message, through the Lieutenant-Governor of Agra, 
 saying, " Every precaution which your message sug- 
 gests has been taken long ago." 
 
 Then, every effort made, and every precaution 
 taken to save alike the Christian people and the great 
 empire committed to his care, there was an interval 
 of reflection ; and, Avith a feeling of solemn w^onder, 
 Canning dwelt upon the causes of all this tremen- 
 dous excitement, and asked himself whether it could 
 be only a military^mntiny that he was combating. 
 It did not seem as thouo-h the orio^in of such a com- 
 motion Avere to be found only in the unaided in- 
 stincts of the soldiery. It might be that the acti- 
 vities then discernible were purely military activi- 
 ties, but it did not follow that external influences 
 had not been at Avork to produce the state of mind 
 that was developing such terrible results. There 
 were even then some daAvning apprehensions that, 
 with the best possible intentions, grave mistakes might 
 have been committed in past years, and that the tree 
 of benignant error Avas noAV bearing bitter fruit. He 
 thought over all that had been done by his great 
 predecessor ; the countries that had been annexed to 
 the British Empire, the poAverful interests that had 
 suffered so grievously by our domination, the mani- 
 fold encroachments, material and moral, of English 
 muscle and English mind. Not at first did he per- 
 ceive all that Avas afterAA^ards made clear to him, for 
 at the time of Avhich I am noAv Avriting there Avere 
 many breaks in the great chain of postal and. tele- 
 
MUTINY OR REBELLION ? Gil 
 
 graphic communication, and it was not easy to form Mav, 1857. 
 a right conception of the actual situation of affairs in 
 the Upper Provinces. jBut he soon ceased to speak 
 of the mutiny, and called it a "rebellion" — a "re- 1 ^ 
 volt." Early in the year, he had felt disposed to 
 attach some importance to the idea of political causes, 
 but, as he wrote on more than one occasion, " not 
 much."* Now his uncertainty upon this point began 
 to disappear, and he wrote to the Indian Minister at 
 home that he had not a doubt that the rebellion had 
 been fomented " by Brahmins on religious pretences, 
 and by others for political motives. "t He saw, in- 
 deed, that for some years preceding the outbreak the 
 English in India, moved by the strong faith that was 
 in them, had striven, with a somewhat intemperate 
 zeal, to assimilate all things to their own modes of 
 thought, and that the Old Man had risen against the 
 New, and resented his ceaseless innovations. To this 
 pass had the self-assertions of the national character 
 brought us. The Indian Empire was in flames. But, 
 with a proud and noble confidence. Canning felt that 
 this great national character which had raised the 
 conflagration would, by God's blessing, ere long 
 trample it out. Even those whose despondency had 
 so pained him would, he knew, when called upon to 
 act, belie the weakness of their words by the bravery 
 of their deeds. Looking into the future, he saw the 
 fire spreading ; he saw the heathen raging furiously 
 against him, and a great army, trained in our own 
 
 * See note, ante, page 550. a proclamation, which goes to you 
 
 ■j- Writing also to the Chairman herewith, has been issued with a 
 
 of the Court of Directors (Mr. E,oss view of arresting the eviL But 
 
 Mangles), Lord Canning said : *' I political animosity goes for some- 
 
 liave learnt unmistakably that the thin^ among the causes, though it is 
 
 apprehension of some attempt upon not, in my opinion, a chief one.'* — 
 
 Caste is growing stronger, or at May 19, 1857. — MS. Correspond* 
 
 least is more sedulously spread, ence. 
 Mr. Colvin has found the same : and 
 
ei3 OUTBilEAK OF THi. MUTINY. 
 
 Maj, IS 57. schools of warfare, turning against us the lessons we 
 had taught them, stimulated by the Priesthood, en- 
 couraged, perhaps aided, by the nobles of the land, 
 and with all the resources of the country at their 
 command; but seeing this, he saw also something 
 
 beyond, grand in the distance ; he saw the manh 
 cf England going oui to meet it. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 CIVIL PEIVILEGES OF THE SEPOYS 
 
 [The following is the memorandum to which reference is 
 made at page 256 :] 
 
 " By the regulations in force for the administration of Civil 
 Justice, the Coiuts were prohibited from corresponding by 
 letter with parties in suits before them, or from receiving 
 pleadings or other applications in such cases except from the 
 parties or their authorised representatives. All causes were 
 required to be heard in the order in which they stood on the 
 file of the Court, and the laws which required the use of 
 stamped paper in judicial proceedings were very strict, smd 
 for a length of time of universal application. 
 
 " In all these respects a great change was made in the year 
 1816 in favour of the Bengal Sepoy. 
 
 "The regulation passed in that year made no change in 
 respect of claims originating in loans granted by a Native 
 officer or Sepoy, or in pecuniary transactions of a commercial 
 nature ; but in all other respects the position of the Native 
 soldier, as a party to a suit in a Court of Civil Justice, was 
 materially improved. 
 
 " If a Native soldier was desirous of mstituting a suit in any 
 Court, he had only to inform his commanding officer of his 
 intention, and to execute a deed authorising any member of 
 his family to appear and act for him. This document was to 
 
620 APPENDIX. 
 
 be sent by post by tlie commanding officer to tlie Judge of 
 the Court having jurisdiction in the matter, who was then re- 
 quired to take the necessary steps for giving information to 
 the party appointed to act for the applicant, and to afford 
 every facility for carrying on the cause. In like j7)anner, if 
 the Sepoy was the defendant in a case, the usual notice was 
 to be served upon him through his commanding officer, and 
 similar facilities were to be afforded to him in defending as in 
 prosecuting a case. If the Sepoy himself obtained furlough 
 for the purpose of instituting or defending a suit, he carried 
 with him a letter from his commanding officer to the Judge, 
 who was then requireri to hear th.^ ca?e without reference to 
 its order on the file, and to pass judgment in it with as little 
 delay as possible. 
 
 "No stamps were to be required, and if judgment went 
 against the Sepoy, and any land or rent property belonging 
 to him was attached in execution of the judgment, the Court 
 was required to postpone the sale of it for such period as 
 might appear reasonable for the purpose of affording the 
 Native soldier an opportunity of discharging the amount ad- 
 judged against him. 
 
 " In like manner, if any estate belonging to a Native soldier 
 became liable to sale for the recovery of an arrear of revenue, 
 information of the same w^as to be given to him through his 
 commanding officer, and every indulgence was to be shown to 
 liim before the last step of selling the estate was taken. 
 
 " By the same regulation, the sub-treasurer at the Presi- 
 dency, the collectors of land revenue, and the several pay- 
 masters in the Presidency of Fort William, including the pay- 
 masters serving beyond the territories of the East India Com- 
 pany, were authorised to grant bills payable h'c sight without 
 deduction of any kind, and at the usual rate of exchange, on 
 any other treasmy, for any sums which might be paid into 
 their respective treasuries on account of Native officers or 
 soldiers, who might be desirous of remitting money from one 
 part of the country to another." — MS, Memorandum. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 621 
 
 CASTE AND KACE IN THE SEPOY ARMY. 
 
 [The following statements, referred to at page 330, are 
 taken from the Appendix to the Report of the Royal Com- 
 mission on the organisation of the Indian Army. It will be 
 observed that the Bengal reports relate only to the remnant 
 of the Sepoy Army after the mutiny :] 
 
 ExTKACTS from the Official lleturn showing the Number, Caste, and 
 Country of the Native Officers and Soldiers of each Regiment, Regular 
 and Irregular, of each Presidency, confined to Regiments borne on the 
 Returns of eacli Army respectively; so far as can be stated from the 
 Records in this House. — East India House, Sept. 1858. 
 
 BENGAL. 
 
 Native Infantry, 7 Regiments, viz. : 21st, 31st, 47th, G5th, 66th, 70th, 
 
 and 73rd. 
 
 Native OrncEES. 
 
 Caste. 
 
 Maliomedans 25 
 
 Brahmins 52 
 
 Rajpoots 39 
 
 Hindus of inferior descrip- 
 tion 23 
 
 139 
 
 NON-COMMISSIONED, RaNK AND 
 
 File. 
 Caste. 
 
 Mahomedans 1,170 
 
 Brahmins 1,878 
 
 Kajpoots 2,637 
 
 Hindus of Inferior descrip- 
 tion 2,057 
 
 Sikhs and Punjaubees 54 
 
 7,796 
 
 IiiREGULAPv AND LocAL Infantey, 12 Regiments, viz. : Regiment of Khelat- 
 i-Ghilzie, Regiment of Eerozepore, Regiment of Loodianah, Simoor 
 Battalion, Keraaon Battalion, Nusseree Battalion, Hill Rangers, Assam 
 Light Infantry Battalion, Mhairwarrah Battalion, Sylhet Light Infantry 
 Battalion, Arracan Battalion, and Shekhawattee Battalion. 
 
 Native Officers. 
 
 Caste. 
 
 Mahomedans 38 
 
 Brahmins 23 
 
 Rajpoots 59 
 
 Hindus of inferior descrip- 
 tion 43 
 
 Sikhs 17 
 
 Hill men 16 
 
 Mughs 6 
 
 Burmese 1 
 
 Munniporees 1 
 
 204 
 
 Non-Commissioned, Rank 
 File. 
 Caste. 
 
 Mahomedans 
 
 Brahmins 
 
 Rajpoots 
 
 Hindus of inferior descrip- 
 tion ......*. 
 
 Sikhs 
 
 Hill men ,.... 
 
 Mughs 
 
 Burmese 
 
 Munniporees 
 
 Jhats 
 
 AND 
 
 1,18b 
 
 849 
 
 2,711 
 
 2,247 
 
 309 
 112 
 705 
 6 
 167 
 48 
 
 10,339 
 
622 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 MADRAS. 
 
 Native Cavalliy, 7 Regiments. 
 
 Native Officers. 
 
 Caste. 
 
 Mahomedans 68 
 
 Mahrattas 6 
 
 Rajpoots 3 
 
 Indo-Britous 
 
 NON-COMMISSIONED RaNK AND 
 
 File. 
 Caste. 
 
 Christians 32 
 
 Mahomedans 1,95 6 
 
 Rajpoots 90 
 
 Mahrattas 300 
 
 Other castes 2 
 
 ludo-Britous 159 
 
 2,539 
 
 Central Carnatic, Madras, 
 Vellore, &c 64 
 
 Southern Carnatic, Trichi- 
 nopoly 7 
 
 My sore? 3 
 
 Taujore, Madura, and Tinne- 
 velly 1 
 
 Ceded districts 2 
 
 11 
 
 Count)'!/. 
 
 Hindoostan 22 
 
 Northern Circars 67 
 
 Central Carnatic, Madras, 
 
 Vellore, &c 1,841 
 
 Southern Carnatic, Trichi- 
 
 nopoly 
 
 Baramahal - 
 
 Ceded districts 
 
 Mysore 
 
 Tanjore, Madura, htdi Tin- 
 
 nevelly 
 
 205 
 48 
 54 
 
 212 
 
 90 
 
 2,539 
 
 Native i5FA^'T^^.Y, 52 Regiments. 
 
 Native Officers. 
 
 Caste. 
 
 Christians 
 
 Mahomedans 
 
 Brahmins and Rajpoots... 
 
 Mahrattas 
 
 Telingas CGentoo) 
 
 Tamil. ...\ 
 
 Other castes 
 
 Indo-Britous 
 
 4 
 
 584 
 
 83 
 
 12 
 
 242 
 
 97 
 
 1,030 
 
 Country. 
 
 Hindoostan 51 
 
 Northern Circars 317 
 
 Central Carnatic, Madras, 
 
 Vellore, &c 239 
 
 Southern Carnatic, Trichi- 
 
 nopoly 177 
 
 Carried forward 784 
 
 N0N-C0MMISS10NE£r. RaNK AND 
 
 Pile. ' 
 Caste. 
 
 Christians 
 
 Mahomedans 
 
 Brahmins and Rajpoots... 
 
 Mahrattas 
 
 Telingas (Gentoo) 
 
 Tamil 
 
 Other castes 
 
 Indo-Britons ,^. 
 
 1,853 
 
 15,272 
 
 1,922 
 
 385 
 
 15,371 
 
 4,275 
 
 1,616 
 
 1,011 
 
 
 
 41,705 
 
 Cowitry. 
 Hindoostan, . ,... 
 Nortliern C'rcars 
 
 1,938 
 16,938 
 
 6,841 
 
 4,760 
 
 Central Carnatic, Madras, 
 Vellore, &c 
 
 Southern Carnatic 
 nopoly 
 
 Trichi- 
 
 Carried forward... 32,477 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 623 
 
 Country. 
 
 Brought forward... 784 
 
 Baramahal 29 
 
 Ceded districts 32 
 
 Mysore 59 
 
 Tanjore, Madura, and Tin- 
 
 nevelly 119 
 
 Deccan and Mahratta 7 
 
 1,030 
 
 Coimtry. 
 
 Brought forward.., 32,477 
 
 Baramahal 1,022 
 
 Ceded districts 1,705 
 
 Mysore 2,698 
 
 Tanjore, Madura, and Tin- 
 
 nevelly 3,617 
 
 Canara, Moulmein, Jaul- 
 
 nah, and Belgaum 28 
 
 Deccan and Mahratta 99 
 
 Portugal 1 
 
 Other parts 58 
 
 41,705 
 
 BOMBAY. 
 
 Native Cavaley, 3 Regiments. 
 
 Native Officers. 
 
 Caste. 
 
 Christians 1 
 
 Mahomedans 12 
 
 Brahmins and Bajpoots 9 
 
 Mahrattas i 
 
 Telingas (Gentoo) 
 
 Tamil 
 
 Other castes 12 
 
 Indo-Britons 1 
 
 36 
 
 NON-COMMISSIONED, RaNK AN1» 
 
 File. 
 Caste. 
 
 Ciiristians 66 
 
 Mahomedans 459 
 
 Brahmins and Rajpoots .... 252 
 
 Mahrattas 118 
 
 Telingas (Gentoo) 
 
 Tamil 
 
 Other castes 508 
 
 Indo-Britons 22 
 
 1,421 
 
 Hindoostan 29 
 
 Northern Circars 1 
 
 Central Carnatic, Madras, 
 
 Vellore, &c 2 
 
 Southern Carnatic, Trichi- 
 
 nopoly 
 
 Deccan 2 
 
 Concan. 1 
 
 Mysore 
 
 Tanjore, Madura, and Tinne- 
 
 velly 
 
 Bombay 1 
 
 36 
 
 Country. 
 
 Hindoostan 1,073 
 
 Northern Circars 21 
 
 Central, Carnatic, Madras, 
 
 Yellore, &c 30 
 
 Southern Carnatic, Trichi- 
 
 nopoly , 
 
 Deccan ... 125 
 
 Concan 114 
 
 Mysore 
 
 Tanjore, Madura, and Tin- 
 
 nevelly 
 
 Guzerat 14 
 
 Persia 1 
 
 Lisbon 4 
 
 Africa 2 
 
 Bombay 4 
 
 Punjab and Scinde 21 
 
 Cabool and AiFghanistau ... 15 
 
 Europe 1 
 
 1,425 
 
624 
 
 A-PPENDU. 
 
 Kative Tnfa-n^t-rt, 29 Recriments. 
 
 Native Officers. 
 
 Caste. 
 
 Christians 5 
 
 Mahomedans Hi 
 
 Brahmins and Rajpoots 188 
 
 Mahrattas 116 
 
 ... 6 
 ... 1 
 ... 3 
 ... 130 
 ... 
 ... 3 
 
 Telingas (Gentoo) ... 
 
 Tamil 
 
 Jews ., 
 
 Other castes , 
 
 Indo-Britons 
 
 Purwarrees 
 
 563 
 
 Country. 
 
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 Northern Circars 7 
 
 Central Carnatic, Madras, 
 
 Yellore, «S:c 37 
 
 Southern Carnatic, Trichi- 
 
 nopoly 13 
 
 Deccan 57 
 
 Concan 173 
 
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 563 
 
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 Mahrattas 7,980 
 
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 Tamil 55 
 
 Jews ... 12 
 
 Other castes 7,728 
 
 Indo-Britons 22 
 
 Purwarrees 170 
 
 Mochees 29 
 
 Sikhs 28 
 
 24,870 
 
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 Hindoostan 11,089 
 
 Northern Circars 135 
 
 Central Carnatic, Madras, 
 
 Yellore, &c 412 
 
 Southern Carnatic, Trichi- 
 
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 Deccan 1,820 
 
 Concan 10,878 
 
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 Tanjore, Madura, and Tin- 
 
 nevelly 33 
 
 jNIysore and Punjab 28 
 
 Guzerat SO 
 
 Scinde, Punjab, and Haj- 
 
 pootana 155 
 
 Europe 1 
 
 24,870 
 

 
 
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APPENDIX. i>2 
 
 [In Chapter I., Book HI., some extracts are given fi-om an 
 interesting memorandum furnished by Sir Kobert Phillimore, 
 which is now given in its integrity.] 
 
 MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY LIFE OF EARL CANNING. BY SIR 
 ROBERT PHILLIMORE, QUEEN's ADVOCATE. 
 
 " When young Canning was eleven years okl, his father took 
 the usual steps for procuring his admission to Eton, the scene 
 on which his own brilliant talents had given the first promise of 
 that future excellence which they afterwards so fully realised. 
 Mr. (afterwards Bishop) Chapman went, at the request of the 
 Provost, Dr. Goodall, in 1824, to Gloucester Lodge, and in 
 the presence of the great statesman examined his boy, in order 
 that there might be no doubt as to his fitness to be placed in 
 the upper school. The well-known description of the storm 
 in the First ^neid, ' Interea magno misceri murmure pon- 
 tum,' &c., was the passage chosen for the trial of his pro- 
 ficiency ; and the Bishop now remembers the anxiety witli 
 which the father watched the essay of his son, and the smile 
 of approval which greeted his rendering of the rather difficult 
 transition, ' Quos ego sed motos,' &c., and the final * not so 
 bad,' which followed at the close of the whole translation 
 
 "Young Canning was entered on the 4th September, 1824, 
 at the house ot' Mr. Chapman. According to the records of 
 the school, he was ^ plus vice simplici,' sent up ^ for good,* 
 the only distinction at that time attainable at Eton. His re- 
 putation, however, at school was rather for intelligence, accu- 
 racy, and painstaking than for refined scholarship, or any 
 remarkable powers of composition. The interval between 
 Eton and Oxford was passed with a private tutor, the Reverend 
 Thomas Shore, a nephew of Lord Teignmouth, who resided 
 at Potton, Bedfordshire, but who discharged no public func- 
 tions as a clergyman at that place. It is probable that he 
 derived great benefit from the tuition of Mr. Shore. While 
 under the care of this gentleman he formed an intimate friend- 
 ship with the eldest son of the late Lord Harris (afterwards a 
 contemporary at Christ Church), which continued without 
 intermission to the last hour of his life. By a singular turn 
 
 2 s2 
 
628 APPENDIX. 
 
 of for^ane, Earl Canning became Governor-General of India 
 while liis friend Lord Harris was Governor of Madras. Upon 
 the death o^ Mr. Canning in 1827, Mrs. Canning was created 
 a Viscountess, with remainder to her son. It was, neverthe- 
 less, wisely determined not to send young Canning to Oxford 
 as the son of a nobleman, but to obtain for him a studentship 
 of Christ Church, and thereby to place him in exactly the 
 same position at the University which his father had formerly 
 occupied. It appears that he was nominated by Dr. Pett, the 
 old friend and tutor of his father, and one of the canons of 
 Christ Church, as a student on the roll which was made up 
 December 24, 1827 ; but he was actually made a student by 
 tlie Dean in filling up a roll dated December 20, 1828, *in 
 return for Dr. Pett's nomination' having been given up (a 
 practice not unfrequent at that time) to the Dean ' in the last 
 roll.' 
 
 ' • Mr. Gladstone, Lord Elgin (then Mr. Bruce), Mr. Henry 
 Denison (a distinguished scholar j, and Sir Bobert Phillimore, 
 were, among others, brother students with him ; and in the 
 number of his contemporaries at Christ Church, who after- 
 wards became his colleagues in public life, were Lord Dal- 
 housie and the Duke of Newcastle. He lived chiefly with a 
 few intimate friends, among whom was Lord De Tabley, one 
 of his executors. To them his naturally happy and cheerful 
 temperament, his keen perception of character, his fund of 
 quiet humour, his accomplishments as a scholar, and, above 
 all, his loyal and affectionate heart, made him a delightful 
 companion. He was not generally popular, and to those 
 without his own immediate circle his manners were shy and 
 reserved. He took at that time no particular interest in 
 politics, and whether from a feeling that his father's great 
 name imposed upon him an arduous responsibility, or from 
 extreme sensitiveness to failure, did not then appear desirous 
 to embark upon that stormy ocean of public life on which he 
 afterwards so gallantly sailed and so nobly diedr 
 
 "Those who heard his speech at the banquet given to him 
 by the India House previous to his departure as Governor- 
 General, know that he could, when strongly urged, put forth 
 oratorical powers of a high order : but at Oxford^ as in after- 
 
APPENDIX. G29 
 
 life, he showed no natural aptitude or inclination for speaking 
 in public. His fastidious accuracy of language, his sensitive 
 and proud nature, and a certain physical difficulty, as well, 
 perhaps, as the ever-present recollection of his father's un- 
 rivalled success as a parliamentary chieftain, combined to 
 dissuade him from often attempting this particular path to 
 distinction. But at Christ Church he acquired, or matured 
 that command of pure English, and that excellent style which 
 in every letter or even note which he wrote excited just ad- 
 miration. 
 
 " In the year 1831 he won the Christ Church prize for Latin 
 verse. The subject was ' Caractacus captivus Romam ingre- 
 ditur.' The verses were as usual recited in the hall. It was 
 a remarkable scene. In that magnificent banqueting-room 
 are hung the portraits of students who have reflected honour 
 upon the House which reared them, by the distinctions which 
 they have won in after-life. 
 
 " Underneath the portrait of George Canning, the recollec- 
 tion of whose brilliant career and untimely end was still fresh 
 in the memory of men, stood the son in the prime of youth, 
 recalling, by his eminently handsome countenance, the noble 
 features of the portrait, while repeating the classical prize 
 poem which would have gladdened his father's heart. Gene- 
 rally speaking, the resident members of Christ Church alone 
 compose the audience when the prize is recited, but on this 
 occasion there was one stranger present — the old, faithful 
 friend of ^Ir. Canning, his staunch political adherent through 
 life, Mr. Sturges Bourne. He had travelled from London 
 for the express purpose of witnessing the first considerable 
 achievement of the younger Canning. 
 
 " He closed his career at the University with distinguished 
 success, obtaining, in Easter Term, 1833, a first-class in clas- 
 sical and a second-class in mathematical honours. He took 
 the degree of B.A. in the same year, but never proceeded to 
 tiie (leffree Ct M.A.'' — MS. Memorandum. 
 
630 APPENDIX. 
 
 FINAL ORDERS TO THE MUSKETRY SCHOOLS. 
 
 [The following is the letter referred to at page 561 — note:] 
 
 The Adjutant- General of tlie Army to Major-General Hearsey, 
 "Adjutant-General's Office, Simlali, April 13, 1857. 
 
 ^* Sir, — Eeferring to the telegraph message from this office 
 elated the 23rd ultimo (and your acknowledgments of the 
 25th idem), communicating the Commander-in-Chiefs orders 
 to postpone the target practice of the Native soldiers at the 
 Eifle Depot at Dum-Dum, pending further instructions from 
 this Department, I am now desired to request you will be good 
 enough to inform the officer commanding at Dum-Dum, and 
 through him the Depot authorities concerned, that the course 
 of instruction is to be completed by the Native details, and 
 that their target practice is to be commenced as soon as prac- 
 ticable after the Government General Order disbanding the 
 Nineteenth Eegimentof Native Infantry has been read to the 
 troops at the station, including the detachments of Native re- 
 giments at the Depot. 
 
 " 2. The grease for the cartridge is to be any unobjectionable 
 mixture which may be suited for the purpo'se, to be provided 
 by selected parties comprising all castes concerned, and is to 
 be applied by the men themselves. 
 
 " 3. The paper of which the cartridges are constructed 
 having been proved by chemical test, and otherwise, to be 
 perfectly free from grease, and in all respects unobjection- 
 able ; and all possible grounds for objection in regard to the 
 biting of the cartridge, and the nature of the grease to be 
 used, having been removed, it is not anticipated that the men 
 will hesitate to perform the target practice ; but, in the event 
 of any such unexpected result, the Commander-in-Chief de- 
 sires that their officers may be instructed to reason calmly 
 with them, pointing out the utter groundlessness for any 
 objection to the use of the cartridges now that biting the 
 end has been dispensed with, and the provision and applica- 
 tion of the necessary greasing material has been left to them- 
 sselves ; and, further, to assure them that any one who shall 
 
APPENDIX. 631 
 
 molest or taunt them on return to their corps, shall be visited 
 with severe punishment. 
 
 " 4. The officer commanding the Depot will be held respon- 
 sible that the above directions respecting the greasing mixture, 
 and those recently issued in regard to the new mode of load- 
 ing, are strictly observed. 
 
 " 5. If, notwithstanding all these precautions and coiisiderate 
 measures, any disinclination to use the cartridges shall be 
 manifested, the parties demurring are to be warned calmly 
 and patiently, but firmly, that a persistence in such unjusti- 
 fiable conduct will be viewed as disobedience of orders and in- 
 subordination, and treated accordingly, and in the event of 
 any individuals after such warning obstinately refusing to fire, 
 the officer commanding at Dum-Dum will at once place such 
 parties in arrest or confinement, according to the rank of the 
 offenders, and cause them to be tried by Court-Martial . 
 
 " 6. If, however, the entire Depot shall combinedly refuse to 
 fire, which is very improbable, the Commander-in-Chief, 
 under such circumstances, empowers you to place all the 
 Native officers in arrest pending his Excellency's further 
 orders, which you will immediately apply for ; to deprive the 
 non-commissioned officers and Sepoys of their arms and ac- 
 coutrements, and to pay them up and summarily discharge 
 them on the spot, excepting, of course, any ringleaders in 
 these latter grades or parties whose refusal may be accom- 
 panied by insolence or insubordination, who are to be placed 
 under arrest or confinement, in view of their being arraigned 
 before a District or General Court-Martial, as the case may 
 require. 
 
 " 7. This communication is to be considered purely confi- 
 dential, and his Excellency relies implicitly on your carrying 
 out the instructions it contains with the utmost caution and 
 discretion. 
 
 "I have the honour to be. Sir, 
 
 " Your most obedient servant, 
 
 " C. Chestek, Col. 
 " Adjt'Gen. of the Armyr 
 — MS, Records, 
 
632 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE CIIUPATTIES. 
 
 [It is stated at page 571 that Mr. Ford, Magistrate and 
 Collector of Goorgaon, was the first to call the attention of 
 the Government of the North-Western Provinces to this sub- 
 ject. His letter, addressed, in official course, to the Commis- 
 sioner of Delhi, is appended :] 
 
 " Goorgaon Magistracy, February 19, 1857. 
 
 " Sir, — I have tlia honour to inform you that a signal has 
 passed through numbers of the villages of this district, the 
 purport of w^hich has not yet transpired. 
 
 " The Chowkeydars of the villages bordering on those be- 
 longing to Mutra have received small baked cakes of atta, 
 with orders to distribute them generally through this district. 
 
 " A Chowkeydar, upon receiving one of these cakes, has had 
 five or six more prepared, and thus they have passed from 
 village to village ; so quickly has the order been executed, 
 that village after village has been served with this notice. 
 
 " This day, cakes of this description have arrived and been 
 
 distributed in the villages about Goorgaon, and an idea has 
 
 been industriously circulated that Government has given the 
 
 order. " W. Ford, Magistrate. 
 
 "To Simon Eraser, Esq., 
 
 " Coniniissioner, Dellii." 
 
 [In the course of the trial of the King of Delhi great pains 
 were taken to extract from the witnesses, both European and 
 Native, some explanation of the " Chupatty mystery ;" but 
 nothing satisfactory was elicited. The following opinions, 
 however, were recorded :] 
 
 From the Evidence of Jat MalU News-writer to the Lieutenant- 
 Governor. 
 
 " Q. Did you ever hear of the circulation of chupatties about 
 the country some months before the outbreak ; and if so, what 
 was supposed to be the meaning of this ? 
 
 A, Yes, I did hear of the circumstance. Some people said 
 that it was a propitiatory observance to avert some impending 
 
ArPENDix. 633 
 
 calamity ; others, that they were circulated by the Govern- 
 ment to signify that the population throughout the country 
 would be compelled to use the same food as the Christians, 
 and thus be deprived of their religion ; while others, again, 
 said that the chupatties were circulated to make it known that 
 Government was determined to force Christianity on the 
 country by interfering with their food, and intimation of it 
 was thus given that they might be prepared to resist the 
 attempt. 
 
 Q. Is sending such articles about the country a custom 
 among the Hindoos or Mussulmans ; and would the meaning 
 be at once understood without any accompanying explana- 
 tion ? 
 
 A. No, it is not by any means a custom ; I am fifty years 
 old, and never heard of such a thing before. 
 
 Q. Did you ever hear that any message was sent with the 
 chupatties ? 
 
 A, No ; I never heard of any. 
 
 Q. Were these chupatties chiefly circulated by Mahomedans 
 or Hindoos ? 
 
 A. They were circulated indiscriminately, without refer- 
 ence to either religion, among the peasantry of the country." 
 
 From the Evidence of Sir Theophilus Metcalfe. 
 
 " Q. Can you give the Court any information about the 
 chupatties which were circulated from village to village some 
 months before the outbreak ; and has it been ascertained how 
 they originated, or what was the purport of their being circu- 
 lated ? 
 
 A, There is nothing but conjecture regarding them, but 
 the first suggestion made by the Natives in reference to them 
 was, that they were thus sent about in connexion with some 
 sickness that prevailed ; but this was clearly an error, as I took 
 the trouble of ascertaining that these chupatties were never 
 sent into any Native States, but were confined always to Go- 
 vernment Adllages ; they were spread through only five villages 
 of the Delhi territory, when they were immediately stopped 
 by authority, and they never proceeded farther up-country. 
 
634 APPENDIX. 
 
 I sent for the men who had brouj^ht them from the district of 
 Bolundshuhr, and their apology for circulating them was that 
 they believed it to be done by order of the English Govern- 
 ment, that they had received them elsewhere, and had but 
 forwarded them on. I believe that the meaning of the 
 chupatties was not understood in the Delhi district ; but 
 originally they were to be taken to all those who partook of 
 one kind of food, connecting a body of men together in con- 
 tradistinction to those w^ho lived differently and had different 
 customs. I think these chupatties originated at Lucknow, 
 and were, no doubt, meant to sound a note of alarm and pre- 
 paration, giving warning to the people to stand by one another 
 on any danger menacing them." 
 
 From the Evidence of Chuni, News-icriter. 
 
 " Q. Do you recollect the circumstance of chupatties being 
 circulated from villaoe to villao^e ? 
 
 A . Yes, I remember hearing of it before the outbreak. 
 
 Q. Was the subject discussed in the Native newspapers ; 
 and if so, what was considered the meaning of it ? 
 
 A, Yes, it was alluded to, and it was supposed to portend 
 some coming disturbance, and was, moreover, understood as 
 implying an invitation to the whole population of the country 
 to unite for some secret object afterwards to be disclosed. 
 
 Q. Do you know whence these chupatties originated, or to 
 what quarter general opinion among the Natives attributed 
 them ? 
 
 A. I have no knowledge as to where they w^ere first started, 
 but it was generally supposed that they came from Kurnaul 
 and Paneeput." 
 
 From the Evidence of Captain Martineau. 
 
 " Q. Had you any conversation with these men {i. e. with the 
 men assembled at Umballah for musketry instruction) relative 
 to some chupatties that were circulated to different villages in 
 these districts before the outbreak ? 
 
APPENDIX. 635 
 
 A, Yes, I had frequent conversations with various Sepoys 
 on this subject. I asked them what they understood in re- 
 ference to them, and by whom they supposed that they w ere 
 circulated ; they described them to me as being in size and 
 shape like ship biscuits, and believed them to have been distri- 
 buted by order of Government through the medium of their 
 servants for the purpose of intimating to the people of Hin- 
 doostan that they should all be compelled to eat the same food, 
 and that was considered as a token that they should likewise 
 be compelled to embrace one faith, or, as they termed it, ' One 
 food and one faith.' 
 
 Q, As far as you could understand, was this idea generally 
 prevalent among all the Sepoys of the various detachments at 
 the Depot ? 
 
 A, It was prevalent, as far as I could judge, among all the 
 Sepoys of every regiment that furnished a detachment to the 
 Depot at Umballah. 
 
 Q, Was there any report of the Government having mixed 
 ground bones with flour for the purpose of having it distri- 
 buted to the Sepoys, and so destroying their caste ? 
 
 A, Yes, I heard of this in the month of March. It was 
 told me that all the flour retailed from the Government 
 Depots for the supply of troops on the march was so adul- 
 terated. 
 
 Q. Do you think the Sepoys generally firmly believed 
 this ? 
 
 A. I have seen correspondence from various men, which 
 the Sepoys of the Depot voluntarily placed in my hands, the 
 writers of which, themselves Sepoys, evidently believed that 
 such was the case. 
 
 Q. Did the Sepoys ever speak to you about any other cause 
 of complaint, or points on which they sought information ? 
 
 A, Their complaint, or rather fear, was this : they appre- 
 hended that Government was going forcibly to deprive them 
 of their caste. 
 
 Q. Did any of them ever speak about Government inter- 
 ference regarding the re-marriage of Hindoo widows ? 
 
 A, Yes, they alluded to that as an invasion of their social 
 rights." 
 
G36 APPENDIX. 
 
 From the Statement of Hakim Alisan Ullah, Confidential Phi)' 
 siciaii to the King of Delhi, 
 
 " Nobody can tell what was tlie object of the distribution of 
 the clmpatties. It is not known who first projected the plan. 
 All the people in the palace wondered what it could mean. I 
 had no conversation with the King on the subject; but others 
 talked in his presence about it, wondering what could be the 
 object. 
 
 " I consider that the chupatty affair probably originated with 
 tlie Native troops, and the distribution first commenced in 
 Oude. I also wondered what it was, but considered that it 
 implied something. 
 
 " I consider that the distribution of the chupatties first began 
 in Oude. 
 
 " It was the opinion of some that the Native troops had de- 
 signed these chupatties as emblematical of some particular 
 object. Others believed that there was some charm attached 
 to them, inasmuch as they were distributed unknown all over 
 the country, and without it being known who first originated 
 the idea, and whence they were first sent out. People also 
 believed that these chupatties w^ere the invention of some 
 adept in the secret arts, in order to preserve unpolluted the 
 religion of the country, which, it was reported, the Govern- 
 ment had proposed to themselves to subvert in two years." 
 
 [The following extracts from published works bear upon 
 the subject of inquiry. In the first, the preceding statement 
 that the circulation of the chupatties commenced in Oude, is 
 corroborated :] 
 
 " Some time in February, 1857, a curious occurrence took 
 place. It began on the confines of Oude. A Chowkeydar 
 ran up to another village with two chupatties. He ordered 
 his fellow-official to make ten more, and give two to each of 
 the five nearest village Chowkeydars with the same instruc- 
 tions. In a few hours the whole country was in a stir, from 
 Chowkeydars flying about with these cakes. The signal spread 
 
APPENDIX. 637 
 
 in all directions with wonderful celerity. The magistrates 
 tried to stop it, but, in spite of all they could do, it passed 
 along to the borders of the Punjab. There is reason to believe 
 that this was originated by some intriguers of the old Court of 
 Lucknow. Its import has not been satisfactorily explained, 
 and was probably not understood by many who helped it 
 along. But the same thing occurred in Behar and about 
 Jhansi in connexion with the discontent caused by the new 
 income-tax. It has been stated by a Native authority, pub- 
 lished by Mr. Russell of the Times (see Friend of India, March 
 10, 1859), that the first circulation of the chupatties was 
 made at the suggestion of a learned and holy pundit, who told 
 Rajah Madhoo Singh that the people would rise in rebellion 
 if it were done, and that the person in whose name the cakes 
 were sent would rule all India. This, however, is very doubt- 
 ful." — Siege of Delhi, by an Officer who served there. 
 
 "That remarkable and still unexplained passage through 
 Oude, and elsewhere, of the chupatty symbol, occurred early 
 in 1857, and, from the first movement of its advent into Oude, 
 spread with such amazing rapidity, that it was calculated ten 
 days more than sufficed for every village Chowkeydar in 
 Oude to have received the little bread-cake, and made and 
 passed on similar little bread-cakes to every village Ciiow- 
 keydar within the ordinary radius of his travels. The Natives 
 generally may have viewed this sign-manual flying through 
 their villages — so common a method amongst men in the early 
 stages of civilisation to warn all for either peace or war — as a 
 forerunner of some universal popular outbreak, but by whom 
 or with what class the standard of rebellion would be raised 
 certainly was not generally known." — Narrative of the Mutinies 
 in Oude^ compiled from Authentic Records, hi) Captain G, 
 Hutchinson, Military Secretary to the Chief Commisisione'^y 
 Oude, 
 
 " In the North- West Provinces it was discovered that 
 chupatties were being circulated throughout the countiy in 
 
638 APPENDIX. 
 
 a s«3mewhat mysterious manner.* The fact was duly re- 
 por:ed from various quarters ; inquiries were ordared to be 
 set on foot, but nothing further could be traced as to their 
 origin or object, and they were suffered to travel on from 
 village to village with little let or hindrance. Some fifty 
 years before a similar appearance in Central India had per- 
 plexed the authoritieSjt but no solution of the mystery had 
 been gained, and as nothing had then resulted from it, the 
 hope was grasped at that in the present instance also, if not 
 meaningless, it might prove equally harmless : it might be 
 some superstitious spell against disease, for cholera had 
 ravaged several districts during the previous autumn, or 
 against some impending calamity, for the whole country 
 teemed with forebodino-s of comino; trouble. At all events, 
 the idea w^as scouted of its having any political meaning ; 
 and far-seeing old Indians, who dared to look gravely on 
 the ^chupatty mystery,' were denounced as croakers." — The 
 Punjab and Dellii in 1857, hy the Rev. T, Cave-Browne^ Chap- 
 lain of the Punjab Moveable Column. 
 
 " The leaders and promoters of this great rebellion, whoever 
 they may have been, knew well the inflammable condition, 
 from these causes, of the rural society in the North-Western 
 Provinces, and they therefore sent among them the chupatties, 
 as a kind of fiery cross, to call them to action. The cakes 
 
 * One district officer, wlio saw a f Mr. Browne, in his very interest- 
 clmpatty-laden messenger arrive in iiig and trustworthy work, quotes, 
 a village, and observed him breaking as his authority i'or this, "Kaye's 
 iiis cake into pieces and distributing Life of Metcalfe;" but I have no 
 them among the men of the village, recollection of the statement, and I 
 asked what it meant ; he was told liave caused a dihgent search to be 
 that there was an old castom in made through tlie work, but with no 
 Hindoostan, that when their w«/«/^, or success. 1 remember, however, to 
 chief, required any service from his liave read in the papers ot Sir John 
 people, he adopted this mode to pre- Malcohn a statement to the effect 
 pare them for receiving his orders, that, at a time of political excitement, 
 and every one wlio partook of the chu- I believe just before the mutiny of 
 patties was held pledged to obey the the Coast Army in 1806, there had 
 order whenever it might come, and been a mysterious circuhiticn of 
 whatever it might be. "What was sugar. There was also, in 2818, a 
 the nature of the order in the pre- very perplexing distribution Ci cocoa- 
 sent case?" he asked. The answer, nuts in Central India; but it svibse- 
 nccompanied by a suspicious smile, quontly appeared to have been the re- 
 was, ** We don't know yet." suit of u mere accident. — J. W. K. 
 
APPENDIX. 689 
 
 passed witli the most amazing rapidity over the lenorth and 
 breadth of the land. Where they came from originally, it is 
 impossible to say, but I believe Barrackpore was the starting- 
 point, where large masses of mutinous Sepoys were congre- 
 gated. The chupatties entered my district from the adjoining 
 one of Shajehanpoor, a village watchman of that place giving 
 to the watchman of the nearest Budaon village two of the 
 cakes, with an injunction to make six fresh ones, retain two 
 for his own, and give the others to the watchman of the next 
 village, who would follow the same course, and continue the 
 manufacture and distribution. I truly believe that the rural 
 population of all classes, among whom these cakes spread, 
 were as ignorant as I was myself of their real object ; but it 
 was clear they were a secret sign to be on the alert, and the 
 minds of the people vv'ere through them kept watchful and 
 excited. As soon as the disturbances broke out at Meerut 
 and Delhi, the cakes explained themselves, and the people at 
 once perceived what was expected of them." — Personal Adven- 
 tures during the Indian Rebellion in Rohilcund, Futtehgliur^ 
 and Oude, by William Edioards, . Esq., B.C.S., Judge oj 
 Benares, and late Magistrate and Collector of Budaon, in 
 Rohilcund, 
 
 [Compare also the statement at page 647.] 
 
 THE BONE-DUST STORY. 
 
 [The following translations from Native letters and papers 
 show how general was the belief among the Sepoys in all 
 parts of the country that the Government had mixed ground 
 bones with the flour, and purposed to compel or to delude them 
 to eat it :] 
 
 Translation of an Anonymous Petition sent, in March, 1857, to 
 Major Matthews, commanding the 4:drd Regiment at Barrack- 
 pore, 
 
 " The representation of the whole station is this, that we will 
 not give up our religion. We serve for honour and religion ; 
 if we lose our religion, the Hindoo and Mahomedan religi^ms 
 
640 APPENDIA. 
 
 will be destroyed. If we live, what shall we do ? You are 
 the masters of the country. The Lord Sahib has given 
 orders, wliicli he has received from the Company, to all com- 
 manding officers to destroy the religion of the country. We 
 know tliis, as all things are being bought up by Government. 
 The officers in the Salt Department mix up bones with the 
 salt. The officer in charge of the ghee mixes up fat with it ; 
 this is well known. These are two matters. The third is 
 this : that the Sahib in charge of the sugar burns up bones 
 and mixes tliem in the syrup the sugar is made of ; this is 
 well known — all know it. The fourth is this : that in the 
 country the Burra Sahibs have ordered the Rajahs, Thakurs, 
 Zemindars, Mahajans, and Ryots, all to eat together, and 
 English bread has been sent to them ; this is well known. 
 And this is another affair, that throughout the country the 
 wives of respectable men, in fact, all classes of Hindoos, on 
 becoming widows, are to be married again ; this is known. 
 Therefore we consider ourselves as killed. You all obey the 
 orders of the Company, which we all know. But a king, or 
 any other one who acts unjustly, does not remain. 
 
 " With reference to the Sepoys, they are your servants ; but, 
 to destroy their caste, a council assembled and decided to give 
 them muskets and cartridges made up with greased paper to 
 bite ; this is also evident. We wish to represent this to the 
 General, that we do not approve of the new musket and 
 cartridge ; the Sepoys cannot use them. You are the masters 
 of the country ; if you will give us all our discharge we will 
 go away. The Native officers, Soubahdars, Jemadars, are all 
 good in the whole Brigade, except two, whose faces are like 
 pigs : the Soubahdar Major of the 70th Regiment, who is a 
 Christian, and Thakur Misser, Jemadar of the 43rd Regiment 
 Light Infantry. 
 
 " Whoever gets this letter must read it to the Major as it is 
 written. If he is a Hindoo and does not, his crime will be 
 equal to the slaughter of a lakh of cows ; and if a Mussul- 
 man, as though he had eaten pig ; and if a European, must 
 read it to the Native officers, and if he does not, his going to 
 church will be of no use, and be a crime. Thakur Misser 
 iias lost his religion. Chattrees are not to respect him. Brali- 
 
APPENDIX. 641 
 
 mins are not to salute or bless him. If they do, their crime 
 will be equal to the slaughter of a lakh of covvs. He is the 
 son of a Chumar. The Brahmin who hears this is not to 
 feed him ; if he does, his crime will be equal to the murdering 
 of a lakh of Brahmins or cows. 
 
 " May this letter be given to Major Matthew^s. Any one 
 who gets it is to give it, if he does not, and is a Hindoo, his 
 crime will be as the slaughter of a lakh of cows ; and if a 
 Mussulman, as if he had eaten pig ; and if he is an officer he 
 must give it." 
 
 Translation of a Letter from Inayut-Oolah Goolaotliee^ of 
 Boolundshulir, to his Brother Fyzool Hussaru Extra Assistant, 
 Rawul Pindee, 
 
 " The reason of my letters not reaching you is 
 
 this : that on the 12th of Ramyan, in Meerut ' Khas^ such a 
 fight occurred between the Native and European troops oi? 
 a point of religion as cannot be described. The foundatioi/ 
 of the quarrel was this : that thousands of maunds of atta 
 Avas taken into every ressalah and regiment; and with this 
 atta Avas mixed the ground bones of the cow and pig ; and 
 the cartridges were also made with the fat of the cow and pig. 
 The shopkeepers in the city were ordered to purchase " atta" 
 from Government and sell it in all the villages. It was 
 ordered by beat of drum that atta be not ground in any vil- 
 lage, and that in every district all the mills should be con- 
 fiscated to Government. It was also ordered that ten maunds 
 of atta be thrown into every well, kuchcha or pukka, in every 
 village and town. The troops at every station with one ac- 
 cord said, that if the troops at Meerut should receive the atta 
 and cartridges, they would receive them without objection. 
 A few European officers assembled at Meerut, and having 
 collected the officers of the pultun and ressalah, ordered 
 them to take the atta from the Government and to bite the 
 cartridges with the mouth. A few Sirdars objected to do 
 60 : but two, one a Hindoo and the other a Mussulman, bit 
 ihe cartrido'e with the mouth. A reward of one hundred 
 rwpees was immediately paid to both. The rest said that 
 
 2t 
 
642 APPENDIX. 
 
 they would consult each other during the night, and intimate 
 the result the next morning. There were about eighty-four 
 men. They were instantly sent to jail in irons. One among 
 them, a Syud, who was fasting, struck his head on the ground 
 and died. About two hours before sunset the troops girded 
 up their loins and killed all the European soldiers and officers 
 that were present. Only the Commissioner and the District 
 Officer escaped. The rest of the principal Europeans were 
 killed — women nor even children, all that were Em'opeans, 
 escaped. Afterwards they went to the jail. There was a 
 sentry at the gate, whom they asked to open it. The sentry 
 refused, upon w^hich a Sowar, who was a Syud, advanced, 
 and, with the name of God in his mouth, forced open the 
 gate with a kick. They then collected blacksmiths from the 
 city, and, taking them to the jail, unfettered several thousand 
 prisoners. Both the jails were broken through. Then they 
 went to and sacked the treasury. This state of things con- 
 tinued for two days. The people of the city of Meerut also 
 joined them, as also the Syuds of Ubdoollapoor, a village 
 near Meerut. The whole of the cantonment was fired ; not 
 a single bungalow escaped. The ^Dewanee Duftur' was 
 also burnt. On the third day they went away to Delhi ; 
 small bodies of them also scattered themselves in different dis- 
 tricts. Three days afterwards the troops at Umballah burnt 
 that cantonment and went away to Delhi. The Native troops 
 at Eoorkee also fired that station, and went over to Meerut. 
 The residue of the European troops, being joined by others, 
 demanded their arms from the Native soldiery, but they re- 
 fused. The European troops surrounded them with guns. 
 In a single volley forty of the Natives were killed, but the 
 latter in their turn sent sixty-five Gorahs to hell by a single 
 volley of their muskets. The Native troops then took their 
 way to Delhi. A few went to the village of Ubdoollapoor, 
 the Syuds of which place gave them refuge and consolation. 
 But secretly they sent a man and informed the Commis- 
 sioner, who proceeded with ten guns to Ubdoollapoor, and cut 
 off the road to Meerut and Delhi. Then the scoundrels 
 (Syuds of Ubdoollapoor) informed the refugees that they had 
 given them shelter, but that Government troops had arrived 
 
APPENDIX. 643 
 
 Tlie poor fellows then fled, but In their flight about fifteen or 
 twenty were killed and several wounded ; but they also killed 
 about forty men, and then went to Delhi. In short, from all 
 sides the Native troops assembled at Delhi and desired the 
 King to ascend the throne. His Majesty refused; but the 
 Sepoys said : ' Do you ascend the throne, else we shall cut 
 off your head and bury your body underneath the throne, and 
 place one from among ourselves on the throne.' They then 
 placed Shahzadah Jewan Bukht on the throne. They then 
 fired the Tuhseel stations at Ghazeeabad, Mooradnuggur, 
 Mooradabad, and Cawnpore, &c., and Thanas of the Badsh? 
 were located there. One month's pay has been distributed to 
 the troops by the King. The King also Avrote to the Eng- 
 lish, telling them tliat their troops, having been dissatisfied 
 with them, had come over to the Kino; and to take them 
 away. The English replied, that the King himself should 
 send them back. A Moulavee from Meerut and another from 
 some other place have gone over to Delhi with about six 
 thousand men to make religious war. The Royal mandates 
 were Issued to the different Rajahs to wait upon the King. 
 It Is said that the Rajah of Bullubgurh has waited upon his 
 Majesty with his troops ; and it Is also said that the King has 
 raised new troops, and has fixed the pay of the Foot soldier 
 at twelve rupees, and that of the Sowar at thirty rupees, per 
 mensem. I have sent a man to Delhi to ascertain the course 
 of events there ; when he comes back the real state of things 
 will be known. Traffic has ceased In several districts. The 
 Jats and Goojurs have commenced plundering, and news 
 arrives daily of the plundering of villages here and there. A 
 revolution has occurred In the whole country. ....." 
 
 '^ News from Meerut'^ — Translated from the '^ Soohah Sadik" 
 published at Madras. 
 
 " The same newspaper* tells us that In the Patau Bele 
 Camp, at Meerut, the same cartridges arrived, on account of 
 which the Barrackpore officers had earned a reputation, oii 
 
 * The Jami-Jamshid of Meerut. 
 
 2 T 2 
 
044 APPENDIX. 
 
 the 18tli or lOtli of the current month ; and the flour-boxes, 
 which had been pubhcly stated to contain hogs' bones mixed 
 up in them, also came. The order was that the men of the 
 regiment should purchase the flour. On this account no 
 one ate food, and refused to take the flour or the cartridges. 
 Though it is not right to suspect the Sirkars — as they have 
 nothing to do with religion — yet in this business there is no 
 doubt that, in the wisdom of Government, they have suddenly 
 withdrawn from kindly feeling towards the hearts of their 
 subjects. It is very lamentable. The sky kisses the earth 
 from grief." 
 
 THE NANA SAHIB AND AZIM-OOLLAH KHAN 
 
 [The visit of the Nana Sahib to Lucknow, in April, 1857, 
 referred to at page 576, is thus described by Mr. Martin 
 Gubbins in his history of the Mutinies in Oude :] 
 
 " I must here mention a visit which was made to Lucknow, 
 in April, by the Nana of Bithoor, whose subsequent treachery 
 and atrocities have given him a pre-eminence in infamy. He 
 came over on pretence of seeing the sights at Lucknow, ac- 
 companied by his younger brother and a numerous retinue, 
 bringing letters of introduction from a former Judge of 
 Cawnpore to Captain Hayes and to myself. He visited me, 
 and his manner was arrogant and presuming. To make a 
 show of dignity and importance, he brought six or seven fol- 
 lowers with him into the room, for whom chairs were de- 
 manded. One of these men was his notorious agent, Azim- 
 oollah. His younger brother was more pleasing in appearance 
 and demeanour. The Nana was introduced by me to Sir 
 Henry Lawrence, who received him kindly, and ordered the 
 authorities of the city to show him every attention. I subse- 
 quently met him parading through Lucknow w^ith a retinue 
 more than usually large. He had ]:i"/omised before leaving 
 Lucknow to make his final call on the Wednesday. On the 
 Monday, we received a message from him that urgent busi- 
 ness required his attendance at Cawnpore, and he left Luck- 
 now accordingly. At the time his conduct excited little atten- 
 
APPENDIX. 645 
 
 tion; but it was otherwise when affairs had assumed the 
 aspect which they did at Cawnpore by the 20th of May. 
 His demeanour at Lucknow and sudden departure to Cawn- 
 pore appeared exceedingly suspicious, and I brought it to the 
 notice of Sir Henry Lawrence. The Chief Commissioner 
 concurred in my suspicions, and by his authority I addressed 
 Sir Hugh Wheeler, cautioning him against the Nana, and 
 stating Sir Henry's belief that he was not to be depended on. 
 The warning was unhappily disregarded, and, on the 22nd of 
 May, a message was received stating that ^ two guns and 
 three hundred men, cavalry and infantry, furnished by the 
 Maharajah of Bithoor, came in this morning.' " 
 
 [At pages 579-80 (note) there is an extract from the evi- 
 dence of a Native emissary, taken by the Hon. H. B. Deve- 
 reux. Judicial Commissioner of Mysore. This man, Seetaram 
 Bawa by name, was very distinct and emphatic in his decla- 
 ration that the Nana Sahib had been, for some time before 
 the outbreak, stirring up this revolt against the English. The 
 following further passages from this man's evidence, whether 
 or not accepted as truth, will be read with interest :] 
 
 " Then Bajee Rao died at Bithoor. He left a widow and 
 an adopted son named Nana Sahib, who was always a worth- 
 less and not very clever fellow, and never would have been 
 anything but for the tuition of his Gooroo, Dassa Bawa (said 
 to have come from a place called Kalee Dhar, beyond 
 Kangra, this side of Jummoo). Three years ago, or per- 
 haps a month less. Nana Sahib gave the Gooroo, Dassa Bawa, 
 a sunnud, granting a five-lakh jaghir and five nachatras,* 
 because Dassa Bawa had told him that he would become as 
 powerful as the Peishwah had once been ; and the sunnud 
 was to take effect when he came into power. Dassa Bawa 
 then made a Hunooman horoscope of eight angles. Nana 
 then, after seven days of prayer, went to sleep on the horo- 
 scope, and Hunooman having revealed to him that he would 
 be victorious, he felt that the truth of the prediction had been 
 confirmed, and at once presented Dassa Bawa with twenty- 
 
 * Kettle-drums— marks of dignify. 
 
646 ArrENDix. 
 
 five tliousancl rupees' worth of jewels. Dassa Bawa then 
 w^ent to Nepaul, &c. Dassa Bawa is the person who has 
 helped and advised the Nana throughout. The Nana gives 
 him much monev. . . ." 
 
 '* Q. How and when were the Sepoys induced to join in the 
 revolt ? 
 
 A. Not before the annexation of Onde, but before the 
 affair of the greased cartridges, which was a mere pretext. 
 After that, Maun Singh sent four or five Poorbeahs to every 
 regiment in the service of the Company, and by their means 
 all communications took place. Even down at the French 
 Rocks there were men. They were able to enlist in the cause 
 the Poorbeahs, Hindostanees, and many Mussulmans, but in 
 no instance did they attempt to gain over the Tamil or Telegoo 
 Sepoys, or other Hindoos ot this side of India, for they knew 
 it would be useless. They eat differently, and do not inter- 
 marry. The Hindoos of the South have no sympathy with 
 those of the North, whereas the Mahomedans are united in 
 feeling throughout India. If a Hindoo is glad, nobody but 
 his own nearest people will sympathise ; but if a Mussulman 
 is glad, all Mussulmans rejoice. 
 
 Q. Explain what the plan of attack really was. 
 
 A, A night was to have been fixed on which, without risk- 
 ing anything, the whole of the European officers were to have 
 been killed, and the treasuries plundered. The magazines 
 were to have been taken possession of when possible, or else 
 blown up. But it was never intended to injure women or 
 children. Nearly/ all were of one mind in the different regi- 
 ments. It is not the Brahmins and great men that have de- 
 stroyed helpless children, women with child, and poor w^omen. 
 [He spoke this with great excitement.] It was the intention 
 to destroy your men, but it was villagers and savages who de- 
 stroyed your women and children, such as Maun Singh and 
 his Poorbeahs. Nana Sahib, though always a w^orthless fellow, 
 and nothing without Dassa Bawa, could never have ordered 
 tne massacre of the women and children. Had tiiey no 
 mothers or sisters ! Had thev no heart for them ! I heard 
 
APPENDIX. G47 
 
 of what happened with sorrow. We object to your raj. All 
 men have peace and freedom under it — such freedom as we 
 never enjoyed before — but we sorrow for our caste. I am 
 speaking of Brahmins. Brahmins love good food and ease. 
 The Company does not give it (muft) gratis, and we wish for 
 a return of that which will enable us to obtain it, or rather 
 place matters in such a position that we can obtain it. We 
 feel the pressure of your rule in this respect. Nana Sahib 
 wrote both to Gholab Singh and to Russia, and he got an 
 answer from Russia. In that answer he was told that no as- 
 sistance could be given him unless he could take and could 
 hold Delhi ; but that, if he could succeed in that, then assist- 
 ance would be given him to drive us from Calcutta. The 
 letter was sent to Jummoo, and forwarded on from thence by 
 the hands of the people who bring almonds and fruit. The 
 country beyond Jummoo is said to be pure Mussulman, but I 
 do not know anything about it. First, Gholab Singh joined, 
 and as soon as the union of the Mussulmans and Hindoos was 
 settled, several letters were sent to Russia. 
 
 Q. Can you explain anything about the chupatty cakes 
 which were passed over India before the insurrection ? 
 
 A. The cakes in question were a jadoo or charm, which 
 originated with Dassa Bawa, who told Nana Sahib that he 
 would make a jadoo, and, as far as these magic cakes should 
 be carried, so far should the people be on his side. He then 
 took the reed of the lotus, or rumul, called mukhana, and 
 made an idol of it. He then reduced the idol to very small 
 pills, and, having made an immense number of cakes, he put 
 a pillet in each, and, as far as the cakes were carried, so far 
 would the people determine to throw off the Company's raj. 
 None came as far as this country. 
 
 Q. What made Nana Sahib originate this conspiracy ? 
 
 A. The Company Sirkar placed all the treasure of his 
 father under attachment, and he wanted to gain possession of 
 it. The people about him urged him — the opportunity offered, 
 and he took advantage of it. 
 
 Q. How do you know all this ? 
 
 A. Every person, particularly every Brahmin, is well ac- 
 quainted with all this, and the fact of these letters having, 
 
G48 ArrENDix. 
 
 been written. Why, every Baboo in Calcutta knew of it.'' — 
 MS. Records, 
 
 [Many readers will smile at the statement tliat the Nana 
 Sahib was in correspondence with Russia, and received an 
 answer to his overtures. But, it is by no means improbable 
 that Azim-oollah Khan entered into communication with some 
 Russian officers, responsible or irresponsible, and it is cer- 
 tain that at the time of the Crimean war nothing could have 
 better served the interests of Russia than a revolt in India. 
 That Azim-oollah visited the Crimea, we know upon the 
 best possible authority — that of Mr. Russell, who has given, 
 in his '' Diary in India," the following interesting account of 
 his meeting with the Nana's agent in the trenches before 
 Sebastopol :] 
 
 " Whilst I am writing about it, I may as well relate an inci- 
 dent in connexion with one of the Nana's chief advisers, 
 which I mentioned to the Governor-General, who appeared 
 much struck with it. After the repulse of the allies in their 
 assault on Sebastopol, 18th June, an event closely followed 
 by the death of Lord Raglan and a cessation of any opera- 
 tions, except such as were connected with a renewed assault 
 upon the place, I went down for a few days to Constantinople, 
 and, whilst stopping at Misseri's Hotel, saw, on several occa- 
 sions, a handsome slim young man, of dark-olive complexion, 
 dressed in an Oriental costume which was new to me, and 
 covered with rings and finery. He spoke French and Eng- 
 lish, dined at the table dlwte^ and, as far as I could make out, 
 was an Indian Prince, who \^'as on his way back from the pro- 
 secution of an unsuccessful claim against the East India Com- 
 pany in London. He had made the acquaintance of Mr. 
 Doyne, who was going out to the Crimea as the superin- 
 tendent of Sir Joseph Paxton's Army Works Corps, and by 
 that gentleman he was introduced to me one fine summer s 
 evening, as we were smoking on the roof of the hotel. I did 
 not remember his name, but I recollect that he expressed 
 great anxiety about a passage to the Crimea, ' as,' said he, 
 ' I want to see this famous city, and those great Roostums — 
 the Russians — who have beaten French and English together. 
 
APPENDIX. 649 
 
 Indeed, he added that he was going to Calcutta, when the 
 news of the defeat of June 18th reached him at Malta, and 
 he was so excited by it that he resolved to go to Constanti- 
 nople, and endeavour thence to get a passage to Balaklava. 
 In the course of conversation he boasted a good deal of his 
 success in London society, and used the names of people of 
 rank very freely, which, combined with the tone of his re- 
 marks, induced me to regard him with suspicion, mingled, I 
 confess, with dislike. He not only mentioned his bonnes 
 fortunes^ but expressed a A^ery decided opinion that unless 
 women were restrained, as they were in the East, ' like moths 
 in candlelight, they will fly and get burned.' I never saw or 
 heard anything more of him till some weeks afterwards, when 
 a gentleman rode up to my hut at Cathcart's Hill, and sent 
 me in a note from Mr. Doyne, asking me to assist his friend 
 Azim-oollah Khan in visiting the trenches, and on going out 
 I recognised the Indian Prince. I had his horse put up, and 
 walked to the General's hut to get a pass for him. The sun 
 was within an hour of setting, and the Russian batteries had 
 just opened, as was their custom, to welcome our reliefs and 
 working-parties, so that shot came bounding up towards the 
 hill where our friend was standing, and a shell burst in the 
 air at apparently near proximity to his post. Some delay 
 took place ere I could get the pass, and when I w^ent with it I 
 found Azim-oollah had retreated inside the cemetery, and was 
 looking with marked interest at the fire of the Russian guns. 
 I told him what he w^as to do, and regretted my inability to 
 accompany him, as I was going out to dinner at a mess in the 
 Light Division. ' Oh,' said he, ' this is a beautiful place to 
 see from ; I can see everything, and, as it is late, I will ask 
 you to come some other day, and will watch here till it is 
 time to go home.' He said, laughingly, ' I think you will 
 never take that strong place ;' and in reply to me, when I 
 asked him to come to dine with me at my friend's, where I 
 was sure he would be welcome, he said, with a kind of sneer, 
 ^ Thank you, but recollect I am a good Maliomedan !' ' But,' 
 said I, ^you dined at Misseri's?' ^ Oh, yes: I was joking. 
 I am not such a fool as to believe in these foolish things. I 
 am of no relimon.' When I came home that nio-ht I found 
 
650 APPENDIX. 
 
 he was asleep in my camp-bed^ and my servant told me lie 
 had enjoyed my stores very freely. In the morning he was 
 up and off, ere I was awake. On my table I found a piece 
 of paper — ^Azim-oollah Khan presents his compliments to 
 Russell, Esquire, and begs to thank him most truly for his 
 kind attentions, for which I am most obliged.'' 
 
 " This fellow, as we all know, was the Nana's secretaiy, and 
 chief adviser in the massacres at Cawnpore. Now, is it not 
 curious enough that he should have felt such an interest to 
 see, with his own eyes, how matters were going on in the 
 Crimea? It would not be strange in a European to evince 
 such curiosity ; but in an Asiatic, of the non-military caste, it 
 certainly is. He saw the British army in a state of some de- 
 pression, and he formed, as I have since heard, a very un- 
 favourable opinion of its morale and physique^ in comparison 
 Avith that of the French. Let us remember, that soon after 
 his arrival in India he accompanied Nana Sahib to Lucknow, 
 where they remained some time, and are thought by those 
 who recollect their tone and demeanour, to have exhibited 
 considerable insolence and hauteur towards the Europeans 
 they met. Afterwards the worthy couple, on the pretence oi 
 a pilgrimage to the hills — a Hindoo and Mussulman joined in 
 a holy excursion ! — visited the military stations all along the 
 main trunk-road, and went as far as Umballah. It has been 
 suggested that their object in going to Simlah was to tamper 
 with the Goorkha regiment stationed in the hills ; but that, 
 finding on their arrival at Umballah a portion of the regiment 
 were in cantonments, they were unable to effect their pur- 
 pose with these men, and desisted from their proposed journey 
 on the plea of the cold weather. That the Nana's demeanour 
 towards us should have undergone a change at this time is 
 not at all wonderful ; for he had learned the irrevocable de- 
 termination of the authorities to refuse what he — and, let me 
 add, the majority of the millions of Hindoos who knew the 
 circumstances — considered to be his just rights as adopted 
 heir of the ex-Peishwah of the Mahrattas. When the great 
 villany was planned is not now ascertainable ; but it must be 
 remarked, as a piece of evidence in some degree adverse to 
 the supposition that Nana Sahib had successfully tampered 
 
APPENDIX. 651 
 
 with the troops at Cawnpore, tliat the latter did not evince 
 any design of making him their leader, nor did they hold any 
 communication with him on their revolt, and that they were 
 all marching off for Delhi when he and his creatures went to 
 tlieir camp, and by his representations, promises, and actual 
 disbursements, induced them to go back and assault Wheeler 
 in his feeble entrencliments." 
 
 [The statement in the above, that the Nana Sahib visited 
 Umballah in the spring of 1857, is new. Azim-oollah Khan 
 was certainly there ; for Captain Martineau, who had pre- 
 viously made acquaintance with him on board a steamer, on 
 his return to India, met him at that station in the early part 
 of the year, but was not aware that he accompanied the Nana.] 
 
 NATIVE VERSION OF THE BEGINNING OF THE MUTINY. 
 
 [The subjoined letter, the original of which fell into the 
 hands of the Pun jabee officials, is, on many accounts, curious 
 and interesting. It is important, too, as showing how general 
 was the belief that the whole army was to " take time" from 
 the Meerut Brigade. The statement in this letter may be 
 advantageously compared with what is said on the same sub- 
 ject in the letter at page 641 :] 
 
 From Nund Singh, Umritsur, to Sirdar Nelial Singh, Rawul 
 
 Pindee, 
 
 "June 10, 1857. 
 After compliments, — " You wrote to me to ascertain the 
 true circumstances connected with the cartridges. I have 
 made inquiries from different sources. The fact is this : 
 
 "Near Calcutta, five coss distant from it, there is a place 
 called Achanuk.* There is a Government cantonment at that 
 place. At that place a Hindostanee was drawing water out 
 of a well. A ^ Chumar' came in and asked the Hindostanee 
 
 * Barrack pore. 
 
652 ArrENDix. 
 
 to give him water to drink. The Hindostanee told him thai 
 he liad better go to some other place to drink water, 
 
 " ' How,' said the Hindostanee, ' can I give you water to 
 drink ? You are a " Chumar." '* 
 
 " Upon this words were exchanged between them. The 
 Chumar said : 
 
 " ' You do not give me water to drink, and affect to be so I'e- 
 ligious : and the fat of the cow and pig which I prepare with 
 my own hands you will bite off with your teeth.' 
 
 "These and similar words having been exchanged between 
 them, they came to blows. The other people, who had heard 
 the talk about the ' fat,' rescued the ' Chumar,' and made in- 
 quiries from him in a conciliatory manner. 
 
 " Then two men went along with him to that place,t which 
 was a little removed from the cantonment. There tliey saw 
 with their own eyes about fifty or sixty Chumars working and 
 putting on the fat of both the animals on the cartridges. 
 They returned from thence homewards, and described all to 
 the Soubahdars and other officers. 
 
 "It was agreed between them that they should remain silent 
 at the time, but refuse to receive the cartridges when they 
 should be given to them. 
 
 " ' It would then be proper to remonstrate. Let them (the 
 Government) be doing whatever they like in private. What 
 business have we to murmur % ' 
 
 " For this reason, for some time nothing broke out. About 
 two or one and a half months afterwards the regiment was 
 ordered to receive these cartridges, (and it was explained to 
 them) that, in the first place, the greased cartridges easily 
 went down into the musket ; and, secondly, they prevented 
 the musket from being affected by the damp. But as the 
 men already knew (all about them), they refused to receive 
 them. The European officers at that place (Barrackpore) 
 were very hot-tempered; therefore, in consequence of this 
 refusal a quarrel soon sprung up. Immediately the European 
 troops were brought out, and surrounded the regiment. The 
 latter were ordered to give up their arms. They replied: 
 
 * The lowest class amon;^- the f The place where cartiidges were 
 Hindoos, who work in leather. said to be made. 
 
AITENDIX. 653 
 
 Give us our pay and take away the arms.' The regiments 
 were then made to put down their arms, and they having re- 
 ceived their pay each went away to their home. All the 
 Sepoys in this country, at Kurnaul, Meerut, &c., were some 
 way or other related (to those of the disbanded regiments). 
 (The men of the latter) wrote to the former, telling them what 
 had occurred, and stated *that we have on this account 
 quitted the service, and have seen all with our own eyes. 
 We have written this to you for your information. If you 
 should receive these cartridges, intermarriage, and eating and 
 drinking in common, shall cease between yourselves and us.' 
 
 " When, at Dinapore, the cartridges were distributed by the 
 English, they were refused ; the men stated that ' Meerut is 
 the principal cantonment. Distribute the cartridges there 
 first of all, and we will take them afterwards.' 
 
 " The distribution of the cartridges having been ordered at 
 Meerut, and the men having been already acquainted with 
 the circumstances connected with them, refused to receive 
 them. But a company which was sent for to receive the 
 cartridges, not having obeyed the order, were placed in con- 
 finement by the European officers. Intelligence of this 
 having reached the rest of the troops, all attacked the jail, 
 and set at liberty the men of the company, and also the other 
 prisoners. The disturbance then grew high. 
 
 " At the very first, when the regiment at Achanuk (Barrack- 
 pore) was disbanded, a requisition was made to England for 
 twenty more European regiments. But these did not sail in 
 steamers, but are coming in other ships which sail with the 
 force of the wind. 
 
 " The truth appears to be, that the report of the fat being 
 used is not altogether untrue ; much is commonly made of a 
 little thing, but it cannot be that anything can be produced 
 from nothing. Is ever a tree produced without the seed? 
 It cannot be. And now that orders have been read to all the 
 regiments to the effect that these cartridges will not be served 
 out, and shall either be cut up or flooded, consider that the 
 very circumstance of such an order having been read, anni- 
 hilates the belief that there was nothing wrong in these 
 cartridgofi. 
 
654 APrENDIX. 
 
 " You are wise yourself ; the real foundation of this dis- 
 turbance is what I have described. But all things are known 
 J:o God only, who is omniscient." — MS, Records, 
 
 THE MAY PKOCLAMATIOX. 
 
 [The following is the proclamation referred to at page 608 :] 
 
 *' Port William, Home Department, May 36, 1S57. 
 " Proclamation, 
 
 " The Governor-General of India in Council has warned the 
 Army of Bengal, that the tales by which the men of certain 
 Kogiments have been led to suspect that offence to their Keli- 
 gion or injury to their Caste is meditated by the Government 
 of India, are malicious falsehoods. 
 
 " The Governor-General in Council has learnt that this sus- 
 picion continues to be propagated by designing and evil- 
 minded men, not only in the Army, but amongst other 
 classes of the people. 
 
 " He knows that endeavours are made to persuade Hindoos 
 and Mussulmans, Soldiers and Civil Subjects, that their reli- 
 gion is threatened secretl}^, as well as openly, by the acts of 
 the Government, and that the Government is seeking in 
 various ways to entrap them into a loss of Caste for purposes 
 of its own. 
 
 " Some have been already deceived and led astray by these 
 tales. 
 
 " Once more, then, the Governor-General in Council warns 
 all classes against the deceptions that are practised on them. 
 
 ^' The Government of India has invariably treated the reli- 
 gious feelings of all its subjects with careful respect. The 
 Governor-General in Council has declared that it will never 
 cease to do so. He now repeats that declaration, and he em- 
 phatically proclaims that the Government of India entertains 
 no design to interfere with their Religion or Caste, and that 
 nothing has been, or will be done by the Government to affect 
 
APPENDIX. 655 
 
 tlip free exercise of the observances of Religion or Caste by 
 every class of the people. 
 
 "The Government of India has never deceived its subjects, 
 therefore the Governor-General in Council now calls upon 
 them to refuse their belief to seditious lies. 
 
 " This notice is addressed to those who hitherto, by habitual 
 loyalty and orderly conduct, liave shown their attachment to 
 the Government, and a well-founded faith in its protection and 
 justice. 
 
 " The Governor-General in Council enjoins all such persons 
 to pause before they listen to false guides and traitors wlio 
 would lead them into danger and disgrace. 
 
 " By Order of the Governor-General of India in Council, 
 
 " Cecil Beadon, 
 "Secretary to the Government of Ind'a." 
 
 ADDENDUM. 
 
 AMMUNITION FOR TWO-GEOOVED RIFLES. 
 
 After the statement at pages 516-18, respecting the com- 
 position of the greasing materials used with the old two- 
 grooved rifles, was in type, I succeeded in tracing the ori- 
 ginal orders on the subject, drawn up by the Military Board 
 in 1847. The following is the material part of the Board's 
 Memorandum, approved by the Commander-in-Chief and the 
 Governor-General ; 
 
 " 1st. The ammunition of two-grooved rifles is to be pre- 
 pared as blank cartridge of three drachms of musketry pow- 
 der, in blue paper, made up in bundles of ten. 
 
 "2nd. The balls to be put up, five in a string, in small 
 cloth bags, with a greased patch of fine cloth — a portion car- 
 ried in a ball-bag attached to the girdle on the right side, and 
 the remainder in pouch. 
 
 " 3rd. Patches to be made of calico or long cloth, and 
 issued ready greased from magazines ; a portion of greasino; 
 composition will also be issued with the patches for the pur- 
 
8.56 ArPFNDlX. 
 
 pose of renewal when required., and instructions for its pre- 
 paration forwarded to magazine officers by the Militarv 
 Board." 
 
 [The following were the instructions issued in accordance 
 with this Memorandum :] 
 
 '' The mode of preparing the grease and applying it to the 
 cloth to be as follows : — To three pints of country linseed 
 oil, add one-fourth of a pound of beeswax, which mix by 
 melting the wax in a ladle, pouring the oil in and allowing it 
 to remain on the fire until the composition is thoroughly 
 melted. The cloth is then to be dipped in it until every part 
 is saturated, and held by one corner until the mixture ceases 
 \o run, after which it is to be laid out as smooth as possible 
 on a clean spot to cool. The above quantity of composition 
 will answer for three yards of long cloth, from which 1200 
 patches can be made." 
 
 [These instructions were approved by the Governor-General 
 (Lord Hardinge), in a letter from the Military Secretary to 
 the Adjutant-General, dated April 6, 1847. I can trace no 
 subsequent order cancelling the above ; and as I am assured 
 by the officer who held the post of Inspector-General of Ord- 
 nance during the administration of Lord Dalhousie and Lord 
 Canning that this composition continued in use up to 1857, I 
 cannot doubt that the impression at head-quarters that the 
 "patches" were greased with mutton fat was altogether a 
 mistake.] 
 
 £:np. or \\)L l 
 
£1 U/iab»iiieo U/aiaiogue 
 
 OF WORKS IN 
 
 GENERAL LITERATURE 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. 
 
 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.G. 
 
 91 AND 93 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, and 32 HORNBY ROAD, BOMBAY. 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Page 
 
 Abbott (Evelyn) - 
 
 - 2,13 
 
 (T. K.) - - 
 
 10 
 
 (E. A.) - - 
 
 10 
 
 Acland (A. H. D.) 
 
 2 
 
 Acton. (Eliza) 
 
 21 
 
 Acworth (H. A.) - 
 
 14 
 
 iEschylus - 
 
 13 
 
 Albemarle (Earl of) 
 
 8 
 
 Alden (W. L.) - 
 
 15 
 
 Allingham (W.) - 
 
 - 14. 22 
 
 Anstey (F.) - 
 
 15 
 
 Aristophanes 
 
 13 
 
 Aristotle 
 
 10 
 
 Armstrong (E.) - 
 
 2 
 
 (G. F. Savage) 
 
 14 
 
 OF 
 
 Page 
 
 - 10, 12 
 24 
 
 - 15. 20 
 
 AUTHORS. 
 
 5. 14, 22 
 15 
 
 6, 14, 20 
 
 2 
 
 6,8 
 
 8, 24 
 
 (E. J.) - - 
 
 Arnold, (E. Lester) 
 
 (Sir Edwin) - 
 
 (Dr. T.) - - 
 
 Ashley (W. J.) - 
 Astor (J. J.) - - 
 Atelier du Lys (Author of) 
 Babington (W. D.) - 
 Bacon - - - - 5 
 Bagehot (W.) - 5, 12 
 Bagwell (R.) 
 Bain (Alexander) - 
 Baker (James) 
 
 (Sir S. W.) - 
 
 Balfour (A.J.) 
 
 Ball (J. T.) - - - 2 I 
 
 Baring-Gould (Rev. S.) 22 
 Barnett (Rev. S. A. & Mrs.) 12 ' 
 Battye (Aubyn Trevor) 22 
 Baynes (T. S.) - - 22 
 Beaconsfield (Earl of) - 15 
 Beaufort (Duke of) - 8 j 
 
 Becker (Prof.) - - 13 j 
 Beesly (A. H.) - - 14 
 Bell (Mrs. Hugh)- - 14 I 
 Bent (J. Theodore) 
 Besant (Walter) - 
 Bickerdyke (J.) - 
 Bicknell (A. C.) - 
 Bird (R.) 
 
 Blackwell (Elizabeth) 
 Boase (C. W.) - 
 Boedder (B.) 
 Boulton (Helen M.) 
 Boyd (A. K. H.) 
 Brassey (Lady) - 
 
 (Lord) - - 2, 7, 8, 
 
 Bray (C. and Mrs.) 
 Bright (J. F.) - - 
 Broadfoot (W.) - 
 Buckle (H. T.) - 
 Bull(T.) 
 Burke (U. R.) 
 Burrows (Montagu) 
 Butler (E. A.) 
 
 (Samuel) 
 
 Camobell-Walker (A.)- 
 Cannan (E.) 
 Carmichael (J.) - 
 Chesnev (Sir G.) 
 Chisholm (G. G.) 
 Cholmondeley-Pennell (H.) 
 
 5, 22, 24 
 6 
 
 Davidson (W. L.) 
 De la Saussaye (C.) 
 Deland (Mrs.) 
 Dent (C. T.) 
 De Salis (Mrs.) - 
 De Tocqueville (A.) 
 Devas (C. S.) 
 Dickinson (G. L.) 
 DougalUL.)- 
 Dowell (S.) - 
 Doyle (A. Conan) 
 Ellis (J. H.) - 
 Ewald (H.) - 
 Falkener (E.) 
 Farnell (G. S.) - 
 Farrar (Dean) 
 Fitzpatrick (W. J.) 
 Fitzwygram (Sir F.) - 
 Ford(H.) - 
 Fowler (Edith H.) 
 Francis (Francis) 
 Freeman (Edward A.) - 
 Froude (James A.) 3, 5, 
 Furneaux (W.) 
 Gardiner (Samuel R.) - 
 Gerard (D. ) - - 
 
 Gibson (Hon. H.) 
 Gilkes (A. H.) - 
 Gleig (G. R.) 
 Goethe - - - - 
 Graham (P. A.) - 
 
 (G. F.)- - - 
 
 Grant (Sir A.) 
 Graves (R. P.) - 
 Green (T. Hill) - 
 Greville (C. C. F.) 
 Grev (Mrs. W.) - 
 Grove (F. C.) 
 
 (Mrs. Lilly) - 
 
 Gurney (Rev. A.)- 
 
 Gwilt (J.) - 
 
 Hagtjard (H. Rider) - 
 
 Halliwell-Phillipps (J.) 
 
 Harte (Bret) 
 
 Hartwig (G.) 
 
 HassaU (A.) . 
 
 Haweis (Rev. H. R.) - 
 
 Hawker (Col. Peter) - 
 
 Hayward (J. M.) - 
 
 Hearn (W. E.) - 
 
 Heathcote(J.M.&C. G.) 
 
 Helmholtz (Hermann von) 18 
 
 11, 12 
 
 3 
 15 
 12 
 16 
 9 
 3 
 9 
 13 
 
 12, 16 
 
 3 
 7 
 9 
 16 
 9 
 
 , 7, 16 
 17 
 
 3 
 16 
 
 9 
 16 
 
 6 
 14 
 
 Lecky (W. E. H.) 
 Lees (J. A.) - 
 Lejeune (General) 
 Lemon (Ida) 
 Leonard (A. G.) - 
 Lewes (G. H.) - 
 Lodge (H, C.) - 
 Loftie (W. J.) - 
 Longman (C. J.) - i 
 
 (F. W.) 
 
 (G. H.)- - - 
 
 Lubbock (Sir John) 
 Lyall (Edna) 
 Lyttelton (Hon. R. H.) 
 Lytton (Earl of) - 
 Macaulay (Lord) - 
 Macdonald (George) 
 Macfarren (Sir G. A 
 Mackail (J. W.) - ' - 
 Mackinnon (J.) 
 Macleod (H. D.) - 
 Macpherson (H. A.) - 
 Maher (M.) - 
 Malleson (Col. G. B.) - 
 Marbot (Baron de) 
 
 Page 
 
 4, 14 
 
 7.21 
 
 5 
 
 16 
 
 23 
 
 II 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 9.23 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 16 
 
 Marshman (J. C.) 
 Martineau (James) 
 
 14 
 
 4. 14, 21 
 
 24 
 
 I- 23 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 - 12, 21 
 
 9 
 II 
 3 
 6 
 5 
 24 
 9 
 16 
 19 
 
 Herbert (W. V.) 
 Hillier (G. Lacy) - 
 Hodgson (Shadworth H.) 
 Hornung (E. W.) 
 Hewitt (W.) 
 Hudson (W. H.) - 
 Hume (David) 
 Hunt (W.) - 
 Hutchinson (Horace G.) 
 
 14, 20 
 
 21, 23 
 16 
 
 Cicero 
 Clarke (R. F.) 
 Clegg(J. T.) - - 
 Clodd (Edward) - 
 Clutterbuck (W. J.) - 
 Cochrane (A.) 
 Comyn (L. N.) - 
 Conington (John) 
 Conybeare (W. J.) and 
 Howson (Dean) - 
 Cox (Harding) 
 Crake (A. D.) 
 Creiffhton (Bishop) 
 Curzon (Hon. G. N.) - 
 
 Ingelow (Jean) 
 James (C. A.) 
 Jefferies (Richard) 
 Jewett (S. O.) 
 Johnson (J. & J. H.) 
 Joyce (P. W.) 
 Justinian 
 Kalisch (M. M.) - 
 Kant (I.) - 
 Kaye (Sir J. W.) - 
 Kendall (May) - 
 KiUick (A. H.) - 
 Kitchin (G. W.) - 
 Knight (E. F.) - 
 Kbstlin (J.) - 
 Ladd (G. T.) 
 Lang (Andrew) 
 
 3, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 16, 19, 23 
 Lascelles (Hon. G.) - 8, 9 
 Laurie (S. S.) - - 23 
 
 31 
 
 3.7! 
 
 6! 
 
 Ill 
 
 Maskelyne (J. N.) 
 
 Matthews (B.) 
 
 Maunder (S.) 
 
 Max Miiller (F.) 11, 12, 23, 24 
 
 May (Sir T. Erskine) - 
 
 Meade (L. T.) 
 
 Melville (G. J. Whyte) 
 
 Merivale (Dean) - 
 
 Mill (James) 
 
 (John Stuart) 
 
 Milner (G.) - 
 Molesworth (Mrs.) 
 Montague (F. C.) 
 Moore (J. W.) - 
 Mosso (A.) - 
 Munk(W.) - 
 Murdoch (W. G.Burn) 
 Murray (R. F.) - 
 Nansen (F.) - 
 Nesbit (E.) - 
 O'Brien (W.) 
 Oliphant (Mrs.) - 
 Onslow (Earl of) - 
 Osbourne (L) 
 Palmer (A. H.) - 
 Parr (Mrs. Louisa) 
 Payn (James) 
 Payne-Gallwey (Sir R.) 
 Peary (Mrs. Josephine) 
 Peek(H.) - 
 Perring (Sir P., Bt.) - 
 Phillips (M.) 
 Phillipps-Wolley (C.) - 
 Piatt (S. & J.J.) - 
 Pole (W.) - - - 9 
 
 Pollock (W. H.) - - 8 
 
 Poole (W.H. and Mrs.) 22 
 Poore(G.V.) - - 23 
 Pritchett (R. T.) - - 8 
 
 Prince (Helen C.) - 16 
 Proctor (R. A.) - 9, 18, 23 
 Quillinan uVIrs.) - - 7 
 
 Quintana (A.) - - 16 
 Raine (James) 
 Ransome (Cyril) 
 Rhoades (J.) - 13, 15, 
 
 Rhoscomyl (O.) - - 17 
 Rich (A.) - - - 13 
 Richardson (Sir B. W.) 23 
 Richman (L B.) - - 4 
 
 Rickaby (John) - - 11 
 
 (Joseph) - - II 
 
 Ridley (Annie E.) - 5 
 
 Riley (J. W.) - - 15 
 
 II, 12 
 
 23 
 
 19, 20 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 II 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 15 
 
 7 
 15 
 
 4 
 16 
 
 8 
 17 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 16 
 
 8, 9 I 
 
 ^5 I 
 
 Page 
 
 - 12, 19 
 
 6, II, 13, 24 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 - 21, 23 
 
 9 
 
 -17, 
 
 Roget (Peter M.) 
 Romanes (G. J.) 
 Ronalds (A.) 
 Roosevelt (T.) 
 Rossetti (M. F.) 
 Saintsbury (G.) 
 Scott-Montagu (Hon. J.) 
 Seebohm (F.) 
 Selous (F. C.) 
 Sewell (Eliz. M.) - 
 Shakespeare 
 Shand (A. L) 
 Sharpe (R. R.) - 
 Shearman (M.) 
 Sheppard (Edgar) 
 Sinclair (A.) - 
 Smith (R. Bosworth) - 
 
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 Solovyoff(V. S.)- 
 Sophocles - - - 
 Soulsby (Lucy H.) 
 Stanlej' (Bishop) - 
 Steel (A. G.) 
 
 (J. H.) - - - 
 
 Stephen (Sir James) - 
 
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 Stephens (H. Morse) - 
 
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 Stevens (R. W.) - 
 
 Stevenson (R. L.) 
 
 Stock (St. George) 
 
 ' Stonehenge ' 
 
 Stuart-Wortley (A. J.) 
 
 Stubbs (J. W.) - 
 
 Sturgis (J.) - 
 
 Suffolk & Berkshire (Earl of) 8 
 
 Sullivan (Sir E.) - 
 
 Sully (James) 
 
 Sutherland (A. and G.) 
 
 Suttner (B. von) - 
 
 Swinburne (A. J.) 
 
 Symes (J. E.) 
 
 Tavlor (Meadows) 
 
 Thom (J. H.) 
 
 Thomson (Archbishop) 
 
 Todd (A.) - 
 
 Tovnbee (A.) 
 
 Trevelyan (Sir G. O.) - 
 
 Trollope (Anthony) 
 
 Tvndall (J.) - 
 
 Tvrrell (R. Y.) - 
 
 Upton (F. K. and Bertha) 
 
 Van Dyke (J. C.) - 
 
 Verne\- (Frances P. and 
 
 Margaret M.) - 
 Virgil - - - - 
 Wakeman (H. O.) 
 
 14 j Walford (Mrs.) - 
 24 I Walker (Jane H.) 
 
 8, 16 i Walpole (Spencer) 
 
 15 j Walsingham (Lord) 
 
 9 
 
 17 
 
 15 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 23 
 
 13 
 
 20 
 
 18 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 23 
 
 19 
 
 II 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 5.6 
 17 
 7 
 13 
 19 
 23 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 6,17 
 
 Vv'aher(J.) 
 
 Watson (A. E. T.) - 8, 9 
 
 Webb(Mr.and Mrs. Sidney) 12 
 
 Weir(R.) - - . 8 
 
 West (B. B.) 
 
 Weyman (Stanley) 
 
 Whately (Archbishop) 
 
 (E.Jane) - 
 
 Whishaw (F.J.) - 
 Wilcocks (J. C.) - 
 
 17,23 
 17 
 
 2 i Wilkins (G.)- 
 Willich (C. M.) - 
 Wolff (H.W.) - 
 Wood (J. G.) 
 Woodgate (W. B.) - 
 Wood-Martin (W. G.) 
 Wordsworth (Elizabeth) 
 Wylie (J. H.) 
 Youatt (W.) - 
 Zeller(E.) - 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Badminton Library (The) - - - 8 
 
 Biography, Personal Memoirs, &c. - 5 
 
 Children's Books ig 
 
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 History, Politics, Polity, Political 
 
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 Index of Authors . . . - i 
 
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 Mental, Moral, and Political Philo- 
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 Poetry and the Drama - - - 14 
 
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