THE 
 
 SEPOY EEYOLT: 
 
 Its &mm & its 
 
 BY HENRY MEAD. 
 
 LONDON: 
 G. ROUTLEDGE & CO., FARRINGDON STREET. 
 
 NEW YORK: 18, BEEKMAN STREET. 
 
 1858. 
 
 [The Author reserves the right of Translation.'} 
 

 
 
 V 
 
 LOXDOK : 
 
 SAVJLL AKD EDWARDS, PHINTZB8, 
 CHANDOS STUKET. 
 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 IN the following pages I have condensed, to the best of 
 my ability, the results of ten years' labour in the busy 
 tields of Indian journalism. My opportunities of acquir- 
 ing a knowledge of political and social affairs have been 
 great ; it is for the public to decide if I have made good 
 use of them. 
 
 Were my book to be written over again, I should like 
 to deepen the colours in which some pictures of Indian 
 life have been painted ; but the experience which enables 
 a man to write on the subject of Eastern government, 
 tends to blunt his sympathies, and in some degree to 
 injure his moral sense. Torture and lawlessness, and the 
 perpetual suffering of millions, are so familiar to me, that 
 I am conscious of not feeling as I ought to do when wrong 
 is done to individuals and nations. The man who lives 
 in the vicinity of the undertaker and boiler-maker, is not 
 likely to join in the agitation against barrel-organs and 
 street cries. 
 
 There is a malady common to savages in certain parts 
 of the world, which is termed " earth-hunger." It pro- 
 vokes an incessant craving for clay, a species of food which 
 fails to satisfy the appetite, and which impairs the power 
 of digestion. The East India Company have laboured 
 under its influence for a century [past ; and as yet the 
 A2 
 
IV PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 disease shows no signs of abatement. A recent mail in- 
 formed us that 25,000 acres, in the districts recently- 
 assigned by the Nizam, had this season been thrown out 
 of cultivation j and current advices express the satisfac- 
 tion of the Indian Government at the prospect of new 
 confiscations. In Madras, Bombay, and the Punjaub, for 
 every acre that is cultivated, at least three remain un- 
 tilled j and still we continue to make nobles landless, and 
 to increase the sum total of Asiatic misery. 
 
 If Heaven had not a great work for us to do in the 
 East, the cruelty, the oppression, and the measureless folly 
 of our rule would before this have produced its natural 
 fruits, and we should have been cast out from India, a 
 scorn and example to the nations. We have been heavily 
 punished, and there is yet a fearful blow to be endured ; 
 but after awhile we shall comprehend the nature of our 
 responsibilities, and try to fulfil them. England's diffi- 
 culty is England's opportunity. If we are wise hence- 
 forth in dealing with India, the well of Cawnpore will so 
 fertilize the land, that every corner of it will yield a crop 
 of blessings* 
 
 H. M. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 THE task of preparing another issue of this work, affords 
 me the opportunity of thanking the public, and of setting 
 myself right, if possible, with certain of the critics who 
 have reviewed it. And first as to a matter entirely per- 
 sonal and apart from the merits of the publication. It is 
 insisted that I am a " martyr," and, as such, that I natu- 
 rally display all the heat and inconsistency of an injured 
 person. Now, the martyrs of whom I read when a child, 
 were said to be persons who suffered for truth's sake^ 
 of whom the world was not worthy. Later in life, the 
 martyrs whom I saw and talked with, were folks who em- 
 ployed a small capital of conscience to great temporal 
 advantage, and at this moment, in my own person as a 
 representative martyr, I meet in some quarters with much 
 sympathy and little credence. It is thought sufficient to 
 say that I have been wronged as an Indian journalist, to 
 destroy belief in a portion of my statements as an English 
 author. At the risk of being found less interesting in 
 future, I beg to reiterate in these pages what I have taken 
 every reasonable opportunity of saying elsewhere, that 
 the Government of India has not damaged me to the 
 extent of a shilling, either in purse or prospects. I had 
 renounced newspaper editing for nearly two years, when 
 in April last I took temporary charge of the Friend of 
 India, with the distinct understanding that its gifted 
 editor would return from England in September, and set 
 
2 PKEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 me free to mind my own business. To save the property 
 from threatened ruin, I placed it in the hands of his 
 friends two months earlier, and they insisted on paying 
 the stipulated allowance for my services up to the date of 
 my leaving Calcutta. I hope, as an Eastern backwoods- 
 man, to return for a season to the jungles of Pegu, with 
 the consciousness that my last appearance as a journalist, 
 and my first as a political agitator, will not prove unplea- 
 sant to my friends, nor without service to the public. 
 
 But it is also said that I am a partisan ; that my 
 animus against Lord Canning and the Indian Government 
 is violent, and betrays itself in every chapter. The fact, I 
 submit, is a reason for calling upon me for proof, but 
 not for discrediting my statements. No one is more 
 alive than myself to the importance of 'conciliating the 
 favourable opinion of society in this case, but the vehe- 
 mence found in my book is not simulated, and I cannot 
 prevent its outbreak. In common with thousands of my 
 countrymen, I recognise in the East India Company the 
 power that has hindered alike the happiness of India and 
 the prosperity of England ; and in Lord Canning, the 
 ruler who is responsible for the massacre of Cawnpore 
 and the protracted horrors of Lucknow. The ease and 
 completeness with which troops were moved up from 
 Calcutta to the frontiers of Oude in November, show how 
 easy it would have been to relieve Wheeler and Lawrence 
 in June. Human life is still precious, and national pres- 
 tige is still worth preserving ; and the Governor-General 
 who was unable to guard either, is not too heavily pu- 
 nished when a writer paints his public character and 
 denounces his public conduct. Lord Canning may implore 
 in vain from this generation, and from posterity, the mercy 
 of oblivion. 
 
 A steadfast opponent of the corporation of Leadenhall- 
 street, I am proud of the long roll of eminent men whom 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 6 
 
 they have given to the country, and if my vote could 
 have availed for the purpose, one of their servants, the 
 gallant NEIL, should have commanded the Indian army, 
 and another, Sir JOHN LAWRENCE, should have governed 
 the Indian empire. But we want India for all the 
 English; not only for the NEILS and LAWRENCES, but 
 for all their schoolfellows for the men who fight amongst 
 the snows as well as beneath the tropics. It is the 
 nation's heritage, and every man has a right to share in 
 it. The clay is at hand when the work will be thought 
 more of than the workman. The deep ploughing pro- 
 duces the richest crops, the deep mining the costliest ores, 
 the deep sea nets the greatest take of fishes. We shall 
 grow more aristocratic as a people when we have more 
 great men to be proud of, and more conservative when 
 all classes of the community owe more of privileges and 
 comfort to our institutions. 
 
 To the charge of being "inconsistent" I would say 
 that the critics who make it have not cared to study the 
 whole Indian question. I know that absorption of the 
 remaining native dynasties will inevitably take place in 
 the fulness of time ; but that is no reason why the East 
 India Company should anticipate the course of events. 
 To contemplate the sure succession of a certain individual 
 to an estate is not to justify him in making away with 
 the incumbent. The fact that the subjects of the King 
 of Oude are really interested in the triumph of our arms, 
 co- exists with another fact, that eighteen millions of souls 
 in Madras have only a penny a week each to subsist upon, 
 and the two do not clash together. The Government in 
 these days will tax the ryots of Oude as they have taxed 
 Pegu and the Punjaub, and the population of the latter 
 provinces are almost to a man in our favour. 
 
 I have only another word to say with regard to a taunt, 
 that, like the rest of the Anglo-Indian public on the 
 
4 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 subject of the Sepoy revolt, I was " wise after the event." 
 The news of the outbreak at Meerut was published in 
 Calcutta on the 16th May, and three days afterwards the 
 Friend of India said that we were " literally without a 
 native army," that we should "have to re-conquer Bengal," 
 and that the East India Company's knell was to be heard 
 " over the rattle of musketry and the sound of tom-toms." 
 Two out of the three predictions have been already ful- 
 filled, and the accomplishment of the third is not far 
 distant. 
 
 H. M. 
 
 London, April 5tk, 1858. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Illusion. The Reality. Military Defences. Cooking Ac- 
 counts. Pretensions of Caste. Lord Dalhousie and his Policy 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Government of India. Sketches of leading Statesmen. 
 Strange Unanimity of Unfitness 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Composition of the Indian Armies. Caste Prejudices of the 
 Brahmin. Causes of the Revolt. Condition of Oude . . 27 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Story of the greased Cartridges. Government warned, but 
 uselessly, of the Growth of Disaffection. The Berhampore 
 Outbreak 49 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Outbreak at Meerut. The March to Delhi. Mr. Colvin's 
 Despatches, Government keeping back Intelligence . . . 71 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Stateof the Defences of Bengal. The Government urged to obtain 
 Reinforcements. Available Resources. Facility of relieving 
 Cawnpore and Lucknow. Jung Bahador and the Ghoerkas . 81 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The March on Delhi. The Defence of the Magazine. The 
 Great Mogul and his Court. Narratives of the Capture and 
 Condition of the City 89 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Siege of Delhi. Want of Guns. Defective Intelligence. 
 Unwise Clemency. The Rebel Proclamation. Lord Can- 
 ning's waste Papers 104 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The First Troubles in Oude. Weak Behaviour of Govern- 
 ment. Revolt of the entire Army of the Province. Compara- 
 tive Mildness of the Rebels 113 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Revolt of Benares. Panic amongst the Sikhs. Defenceless 
 State of Allahabad. Mutiny of the 6th N.I. The Siege and 
 Massacre of Cawnpore 124 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Outbreak in Rohilcund. Ingratitude and Hatred of the 
 Sepoys and Populace. Strange Conduct of the 10th N.I. . 138 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A convincing Orator. Mr. Colvin's Proclamation and Death. 
 Mutinies in Rajpootana 148 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Administration of the Punjaub. Lord Canning and Sir 
 John Lawrence. The Organization of the Sikhs 156 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Gwalior Rising. Contradictory Conduct of the Mussulman 
 Cavalry. Holkar and his Contingents. The Revolt at Mliow 
 and Indore 161 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Revolt at Diriapore. Refusal of Government to disarm the 
 Sepoys. General Lloyd; his Tastes and Sympathies . . .170 
 
CONTENTS. 7 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Indian Press. Its Isolation, and natural Antagonism to 
 the Indian Government. Hypocrisy of its Assailants. Lord 
 Canning and Mr. Mangles. The Gagging Act. Apathy of 
 the Public at Home 181 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The End of the great Company. The Financial Difficulty. 
 Importance of an immediate Assumption of Government by 
 the Crown. Native Princes and their Rights 191 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The Nobles and Jaghiredars of India. Their Wrongs and 
 miserable Condition. The Inquisition in Bombay. Case of 
 the Nawab of Woodiagherry. Proposed Remedy . . . .212 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Responsibility for Conquest. Republican Notions of the 
 Rights of Mankind. The fighting Instinct universal in all 
 Classes. Value of American Lessons. The Rights of Con- 
 quest and the Claims of the Conquered 220 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The Religious Question. Noble Lords upon Christian Rulers. 
 The Despotism of Knowledge. The wise and good Man 
 always a Missionary. False Ideas of Native Hostility to 
 Christianity 237 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Torture in the North-west. How States are "protected." 
 Examples of Indian Justice 243 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 State Education in India almost wholly confined to the Upper 
 Classes. Mistaken Notions as to its Results. Purely secular 
 Character of the Instruction. The Field for Christian Effort 279 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Tendency of the Native Mind to Imitation. Value to England 
 and India of an Extended System of Education 284 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Land Revenues of India. Explanations of the various 
 Modes of levying Taxes on the Soil. The Zemindars and the 
 Police of Bengal. Failure of the Village Communities in the 
 North-west 295 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The Ryotwarry System in Madras. Melancholy Results of a 
 Century of Rule. The hopeless Poverty of all Classes . . 305 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Socialist Doctrines of Lord Harris and the East India Com- 
 pany. Gradual Decay of every Form of national or class 
 Prosperity. The future Aristocracy of the East . . . .312 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 The levelling Character of the Company's Rule. Their Influence 
 purely destructive. The Rajah and the Yeoman equally 
 ruined, without Profit to the Government 321 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 The Condition of the Madras Ryot described by Authority. 
 Folly of attempting to invest Capital in that Presidency . . 331 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 The Remedy. Impossibility of raising more Revenue under the 
 present System of Government. Difficulty of obtaining cor- 
 rect Information. Cost of Cultivation and profitable Culture. 
 Overthrow of the Slave-holding Interest. The Balance of 
 Trade 336 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Political Changes required. Necessity for throwing India open 
 to all the Queen's Subjects. Organization of a Staff Corps. 
 Monopoly of the Civil Service at an End 350 
 
 APPENDIX. (A.) The Gagging Act. The Firstfruits of the Act 359 
 (B.) Addition to Chapter X 377 
 
THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ILLUSION. THE REALITY. MILITARY DEFENCES. COOKING 
 ACCOUNTS. PRETENSIONS OP CASTE. LORD DALHOUSIE AND HIS 
 POLICY. 
 
 IN the course of an article on the disturbed state of feel- 
 ing in the native army, the Times of the 19th of May, 
 1857, had the following : 
 
 " Now that the whole of India has been thoroughly 
 subdued, and that from Afghanistan to the borders of 
 Siam there is no power which even aspires to oppose us, 
 we may be humane while we are politic, and be content 
 to punish disobedience by loss of pay and pension, with- 
 out a resort to artillery or a charge of the bayonet. It is 
 reassuring, moreover, that the Mussulman, the Sikh, the 
 Ghoorka, has no share in the prejudices of the Hindoo. 
 The Government may always count on the votaries of 
 Islam for support in any tumult arising from the teaching 
 of an idolatrous creed. Still we could wish to see a 
 larger number of European troops at hand on such an 
 occasion. Our Indian empire is not what it was, and yet 
 the number of white regiments remains pretty nearly 
 stationary. Within the last fifteen years we have an- 
 nexed Scinde, and the Punjaub, and Pegu, not to speak 
 of Oude and half-a-dozen protected or tributary districts. 
 The cares and duties of the army are therefore largely in- 
 creased. Although the European force is costly and 
 sickly although every man sent out is said to cost 100, 
 and many are only sent out to be laid, before long, in the 
 
10 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 barrack cemeteiy yet we must not shrink from the 
 duties which our situation necessitates. We have con- 
 quered India by British hands, and by them it must be 
 retained. Nothing will render the improvement of the 
 country so difficult, nothing will so unsettle the minds of 
 a people easy to be impressed, and likely to find evil ad- 
 visers to impress them, as the suspicion that there is any 
 weakness in us. The belief that on any point, whether 
 ten miles or one thousand miles away, the authority of 
 England can be overthrown for a day by Asiatics of any 
 race or creed, will go far to nullify all our character of 
 superiority, and all the authority of civilization." 
 
 When this extract was first read in India, rebellion was 
 triumphant in the Sepoy army over the length and 
 breadth of Bengal, from the farthest corner of Peshawur 
 to the hills of Cuttack. The flame of insurrection had 
 been leaping from post to post throughout the vast extent 
 of country still nominally under British rule, until it had 
 become a point of honour to rebel with men who had no 
 previous thought of disloyalty ; who urged, in reply to 
 kind words and remonstrances, that they were bound to 
 do what all the rest of the Sepoys were doing. Away up 
 to the hills of Xopaul, along the wide plains of the North- 
 west, on through the Puujaub, and over the wastes of 
 Central India, the flag of revolt was flying, the mutineers 
 gaining strength and boldness with every hour. More 
 than 60,000 men, who had been trained to fight by the 
 side of English soldiers, were eagerly availing themselves 
 of every chance to murder the wives and little ones of 
 their defenceless officers and comrades in arms. They had 
 plundered more than a million sterling from the public 
 treasuries ; captured hundreds of guns ; they were in pos- 
 session of numerous places of strength ; they had won 
 intrenchments vainly defended for weeks by one of the 
 most gallant veterans in the service, and after admitting 
 the garrison to terms, had murdered man, woman, and 
 child. A wall as of fire impassable cut off communication 
 between Upper and Lower Bengal ; trade was at a stand- ' 
 still, and the hopes of the best and bravest soldiers dared 
 not soar beyond the possibility of holding the ground 
 covered by their encampment. Relief was certain, but it 
 
THE CONSOLATION OF TAX-PAYERS. 11 
 
 seemed far distant. Vengeance was the cry that rose 
 from every lip, but no sound of thunder was heard on the 
 horizon. The labours of the giants had disappeared. Six 
 weeks had sufficed to undo the work of a century. 
 
 Men in Calcutta ask of each other, What will they say 
 of this in England "? And the answer is, that our country- 
 men will take comfort in the thought, so consoling to a 
 certain class of prodigals, that India has been royally 
 spent, and that all have had a share in dissipating the 
 rich inheritance. The people's House of Commons have 
 scarcely ever bestowed a thought on Hindostan. Cabinets, 
 whether Whig or Tory, have sent out men to rule over us 
 just as faction or family interest ordained. The favourite 
 of the Army has seldom had a chance against the favourite 
 of the Court ; and hence it is that, at the close of a 
 century, we have to begin a new career in the East, with- 
 out money and without friends, backed only by our strong 
 right hand and indomitable hearts. Be it so ; the work 
 will be done, though the task is heavy : the labourer ask- 
 ing only for a competent overseer. 
 
 Had the apprehension to which the Times gave cur- 
 rency been entertained a few months back in the proper 
 quarter, either the mutinies would have never commenced, 
 or have never been successful. The following statement 
 of the means of defence in the shape of European regi- 
 ments provided for India, and our new possessions to the 
 eastward of the Bay of Bengal, will show how little 
 danger has been apprehended from internal foes or out- 
 ward aggression during the last three years. 
 
 1854. 1855. 1856. 
 
 Agra .... 8th Foot. Ditto. 3rd Eur. 
 
 Allahabad . . None. None. 6th Drag. 
 
 Burmah . . . j JJ^J* Ditto. 35th. 
 
 Chinsrah | ' ' 35th ' 98tb ' 35th ' 3rd Eur - 53rd 
 
 Cawnpore . . None. None. 1st Eur. 
 
 Dugshan . . . 53rd. Ditto. 1st Eur. 
 
 Dinapore . . . 3rd Eur. None. 10th. 
 
 Ferozepore . . 70th. Ditto. 61st. 
 
 Jullundm- . . COth. Ditto. 8th. 
 
 Kussowlie . . 32nd. Ditto. 75th. 
 
 Lahore . . . 10th. 10th, 81st. 81st. 
 
12 
 
 THE SEPOY 
 
 REVOLT. 
 
 
 1854. 
 
 1855. 
 
 Lucknow . . 
 
 . None. 
 
 None. 
 
 Meerut . . . 
 
 J 14th Drag. 
 
 52nd. 
 
 
 ( 81st. 
 
 
 Nowshera . 
 
 None. 
 
 None. 
 
 Peshawur 
 
 75th. 
 
 87th. 
 
 Rawul Pin dee 
 
 87th. 
 
 75th. 
 
 Sealkote . . 
 
 24th, 27th. " 
 
 27th. 
 
 Subathoo . . 
 
 52nd. 
 
 None. 
 
 Umballah . . 
 
 9th Lan. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 Wuzeerabad . 
 
 61st. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 Ordered home 
 
 22nd, 96th. 
 
 None. 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 ( 2 Cavalry. 
 ( 21 Infantry. 
 
 1 Cavalry. 
 18 Infantry. 
 
 1856. 
 32nd. 
 
 60th. 
 
 27th. 
 
 87th, 70th. 
 24th. 
 None. 
 2nd Eur. 
 Ditto. 
 None. 
 None. 
 
 2 Cavalry. 
 18 Infantry. 
 
 From the above, it will be seen that in December, 
 1854, before the annexation of Oude took place, we had 
 three more European regiments than we had when the 
 rebellion occurred. Of the English troops serving in the 
 country, it is considered that seven regiments should be 
 always stationed in the Punjaub, two in Burmah, one at 
 Calcutta, one at Dinapore, one at Agra, and one at 
 Meerut. This leaves us a balance of five regiments ; but 
 some of these are in absolute need of their customary rest 
 in the hills, so that our whole moveable force is actually 
 reduced to, say, three regiments. Of course, as in the in- 
 stance of the advance upon Delhi, a strong division can 
 be improvised at a few days' notice ; but the case is very 
 much like that of the citizen who abandons his house and 
 property to combat rebels in a different quarter of the 
 city. He cannot fight the enemy and protect his own 
 valuables as well. If Sepoys mutiny, or the rabble rises 
 at our great stations, there is not much to prevent them 
 from working their will for a season. Luck may serve 
 us as on many previous occasions. Those who have old 
 scores to settle with us may lack means or courage to im- 
 prove the tempting opportunity; but there is no counting 
 upon what is really before us in the way of work, and for 
 our means we have to thank both the Home and Indian 
 Governments that they were scarcely adequate to the 
 ordinary requirements of a state of profound peace. We 
 had eighteen European infantry regiments, giving perhaps 
 a total of fifteen thousand effectives, to occupy and defend 
 
HOW INDIA WAS CARED FOR. 13 
 
 the whole country from Peshawur to Kangoon, a line of 
 sixteen hundred miles in length, with a population of not 
 less than eighty millions, including three countries re- 
 cently conquered the Punjaub, Pegu, and Oude. An 
 outbreak surprised us with no European regiments at 
 Benares, Allahabad, Cawnpore, Furruckabad, Bareilly, 
 Fyzabad, or Delhi ; none at Dacca, Berhampore, or 
 Patna. Calcutta was protected by a single wing of the 
 53rd, whilst five native regiments lay fourteen miles off 
 in a state of disaffection, and the Commander-in- Chief 
 was shooting in the hills. We met the emergency by 
 withdrawing three regiments from Burmah one of them 
 belonging to Madras and so perilling Pegu ; by claiming 
 two more Madras regiments, and so leaving that Govern- 
 ment with only four European corps for the protection 
 of its widely extended line of defence ; by begging help 
 from Ceylon, which not many years ago was itself in a 
 state of rebellion ; and by stopping the expedition to 
 China. At this moment we have but one regiment in 
 Pegu, with 110 John Lawrence to serve in lieu of horse 
 and foot, and only a couple of thousand British bayonets 
 in the country of the Sikhs. It is said that Lord Dal- 
 housie, just before his departure, applied for more Euro- 
 pean troops. If so, he failed to obtain them, but never- 
 theless carried out his intention of annexing Oude, the 
 Cabinet at home approving of his policy, but neglecting 
 to give him the means of sustaining it. To the Board of 
 Control and the Court of Directors we owe the insuffi- 
 ciency of the army, but the blame must not be laid wholly 
 at the door of the Ministry. To the best of their ability 
 our military chiefs have made the worst of the means at 
 fcheir disposal. Of the old and worn-out men they make 
 generals of division and brigadiers ; of the able and 
 adventurous, administrators of civil affairs. Of course 
 there are men in the highest departments of the army 
 who are still able and vigorous; but, of the five major- 
 generals of the Company's service in command of divisions, 
 the youngest has been fifty years a commissioned officer. 
 Of four brigadiers commanding field forces, the junior has 
 been thirty-seven years in the service, and the oldest 
 forty-nine. Of our most distinguished soldiers, such men 
 
 B 
 
14 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 as Chamberlain, Coke, Hodgson, and Lunisden are allowed 
 to grow old in minor posts on the frontier, whilst others 
 no less capable of doing the State service are shelved in 
 political employ. Why should we be hard then upon 
 General Hewitt for allowing the mutineers to escape at 
 Meerut ? Another Elphinstone, it is happy for us that 
 he was not in command at another Cabul. We owe him 
 and his incapacity to the system. Had he been only ten 
 years younger, he might have been as active as General 
 Gomm, and we dare say quite as useful to the country. 
 
 Lord Dalhousie quitted the shores of India in October, 
 1856. Before he reached home, he composed a State 
 paper, in which the whole of his policy during eight years' 
 occupation of the Government was reviewed and justified, 
 and in the main the public were disposed at that time to 
 adopt liis own estimate of the results of his administration. 
 He had done some harsh things, and had stooped to petty 
 reprisals upon personal enemies, or upon men who had 
 dared to exhibit an unpalatable independence. He was not 
 above the suspicion of having connived at jobs in favour 
 of his relatives and dependents ; but when his faults were 
 -all summed up and charged with the heavy interest which 
 the world adds in all cases where it has to deal with truly 
 able men, it was asserted that his merits far outweighed 
 his defects. He had dominated over all classes as much 
 over the civilian as the soldier. He had borne down all 
 enmity from without, and claimed to have exacted respect 
 from within. It was said that he had given up the whole of 
 his talents and time to the public service ; that he 
 thought like a statesman, and worked like a secretary ; 
 that he had added two fair provinces to the dominions of 
 Britain, and extinguished a crying evil in the annexation 
 of Oude ; that he had spent the best years of his life 
 amongst the people of India, and was now going home 
 only to die. 
 
 But the truth must be told with regard to his conquests. 
 Perhaps they were made, in the first place, for the honour 
 of his country ; but it was the nature of Lord Dalhousie 
 'to make a policy that he was proud of, personal to him- 
 self, and after awhile he became interested more from 
 egotism than right feeling, more as an individual than as 
 
PLAYING WITH FIGURES. 15 
 
 i Governor-General, in the prosperity of his new acquisi- 
 tions. Prudence would have dictated that, with the in- 
 crease of territories, the increase of physical strength 
 should have gone hand in hand; for if the addition of 
 100,000 square miles of country required no extra troops 
 to guard it, it followed as a matter of course that the 
 previous military expenditure had been needlessly lavish. 
 The mode adopted by the late Governor-General to make 
 the Punjaub and Pegu appear self-supporting, was the not 
 very dignified process of " cooking accounts," by debiting 
 the whole military charge of the troops occupying these 
 provinces to the Bengal and Madras Presidencies. He 
 had pandered skilfully to the weakness of our countrymen, 
 for wherever it is possible to combine the merchant's love 
 of gain with the soldier's desire of distinction, the rule of 
 force is sure to dominate. The English are a Christian 
 nation, but they trust to the civilizing influences of com- 
 merce, rather than of creeds, and acknowledge a " mission" 
 to teach the Bible wherever the sword can find a ready 
 and profitable entrance. No one doubted the ability of 
 the British Government to retain a permanent hold of 
 Aifghanistan, had they chosen to put forth the strength of 
 the empire, but it was abandoned because it would not 
 pay to be constantly fighting with the inhabitants. Had 
 the latter been Bengalees or Cashmerians, it is quite cer- 
 tain that, whatever opinions might be entertained at home 
 with regard to our right of interference on behalf of Shah 
 Soojah, the majority of statesmen would have decided 
 that, having once advanced, we could not retreat with 
 safety to the rest of the Queen's dominions in the East. 
 
 Scinde was acquired by means not more nefarious than 
 those which have given us possession of half our Indian 
 Empire, but the gain was dubious at best, and the con- 
 queror was unpopular at the India House. So it was re- 
 solved to set down the province in the annual accounts at 
 its true commercial value, and there is no saying what 
 point a constant deficiency of revenue as compared 
 with expenditure in this instance may not have given 
 to the harangues of parliamentary orators, Avho think 
 that the career of conquest ought to be put an end to. 
 The Court of Directors have always deplored the achieve- 
 
16 THE SEPOY KEVOLT. 
 
 Bient in question, as a merchant would annually sigh over 
 a branch of business which he was obliged to maintain at 
 a certain loss. 
 
 If the wars which gave us Pegu and the Pnnjaub were 
 shown to be as unproductive as those which planted the 
 British flag at Cabul and Hydrabad, it is quite certain 
 that the Court of Directors would no more honour Lord 
 Dalhousie than they honoured Sir Charles Napier, and 
 that in like manner the legislature would denounce his 
 evident passion for extending the boundaries of our rule 
 as strongly as they assailed Lord Auckland on the score of 
 a similar policy. The sole advantage which the marquis 
 has over the earl is in the superior commercial results ; 
 but that is sufficient to convert aggression into beneficence, 
 censure into glory. In the one case, blood has been trans- 
 muted into gold ; in the other, it was poured out on a 
 ban-en soil, and bore no harvest save that of unavailing 
 tears. 
 
 And it is not merely that the insane passion for terri- 
 torial extension is nourished by the deception resorted to ; 
 but it inflicts gross injustice on the inhabitants of the old 
 Presidencies. It is felt to be but right that the available 
 Indian surplus should be laid out in works of improve- 
 ment ; but when the distribution comes to be considered, 
 the districts that contribute the most to the fund will, of 
 course, put forward claims to the largest portion of outlay. 
 There is no part of our Eastern empire where profitable 
 employment cannot be found for all the sums that Go- 
 vernment and private capitalists combined are ever likely 
 to furnish : so that on no decent pretence could the sur- 
 plus taxation of the Punjaub be appropriated to public 
 works in Madras. Each part of India, then, is vitally 
 interested in guarding against attempts to saddle it with 
 the payment of charges that ought to be defrayed by 
 another portion of territory. "What would Middlesex say 
 if it were compelled to pay, in addition to its own share 
 of war taxes, the quota that ought to be contributed by 
 Scotland] How would our notions of equity be out- 
 raged, if a law were passed which compelled poor labourers 
 in Dorsetshire to defray the costs of a rural police in 
 Somersetshire ? Yet in neither case would more injustice 
 
GLORY THAT YIELDS NO PROFIT. 17 
 
 be done than was perpetrated by Lord Dalhousie for the 
 benefit of his pet provinces. 
 
 It is not requisite that we should enter into arguments 
 to show the necessity of debiting each part of the British 
 dominions in the East with the cost of the troops employed 
 in it, so long as the revenue and expenditure of each pro- 
 vince is kept distinct. The English public acknowledges 
 the justice of the arrangement in the case of Scinde. 
 Taking, then, the annual cost of the 40,000 troops sta- 
 tioned in the Punjaub at 531. for each European, and 2SL 
 for each native soldier, an estimate which does not include 
 the expense incurred on account of the Commanders-in- 
 Chief and the army-staff, we find the whole amounts to 
 upwards of a million sterling ! Not an item of this charge 
 was allowed to appear in the accounts furnished to Par- 
 liament, the whole of the burden being thrown on the 
 other Presidencies ; and though the Madras Government 
 earnestly protested from time to time against being sad- 
 dled with the military charges of Pegu, the districts as- 
 signed by the Nizam, the Saugor and Nerbudda territories, 
 and the Straits Settlements, their remonstrances were of 
 no avail. Wherever a surplus revenue could be obtained, 
 it was paid, of course, into the Bengal treasury ; where a 
 deficit occurred, as in the case of Burmah and the country 
 of the five rivers, Bengal or Madras made things appear 
 pleasant. Meanwhile the Sepoys of the former Presi- 
 dency complained that they were harassed by long 
 marches, sent far away over the sea in one direction, and 
 in another, beyond the confines of Hindostan, where they 
 must expect to live in perpetual conflict with tribes of 
 men who surpassed them in physical power and daring. 
 A feeling compounded of the weariness that possessed the 
 Greeks of Alexander when they arrived from the path of 
 the setting sun on the banks of the Jhelum, and of the 
 insolence of the Boman Praetorians, filled their minds, and 
 the far-sighted Napier warned the Government that the 
 fidelity of the Indian host was not to be relied on. They 
 had come to despise authority, and felt themselves to be 
 objects of dread to their nominal masters, who anxiously 
 availed themselves of every chance pretext for enlarging 
 their immunities, and increasing their store of comforts. 
 
18 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 The system under which they held together had grown 
 utterly unsuited to the maintenance of discipline ; age, 
 and not merit, constituted the only claim to promotion ; 
 strength of will and vigour of brain were of no use to the 
 man who could not show gray hairs and an increasing 
 stomach. The guards were relieved weekly, and when the 
 Brahmin was not on sentry, he took off his uniform, tied 
 a native cloth round his loins, and took his ease like any 
 Sybarite. Before he could cook his food, he must undergo 
 ablutions and say his prayers ; and if the shadow of a Sudra 
 or of a commanding officer was projected upon his brass 
 lotah or his heap of rice, the food and the utensil became 
 accursed. 
 
 The Mussulman Khitmutgar, who performs his daily 
 devotions before the shrine of the prophet, will bring the 
 flesh of the unclean beast from the kitchen, whe7*e it has 
 been boiled by the Mahomedan cook, and place it on the 
 table before the infidel, his master ; the punka-wallah will 
 fan the flies away from the joint of beef; the bearer will 
 throw away dirty water, though each of them in doing so 
 commits an offence against the prejudices of caste. A pros- 
 pect of good pay on the one hand, and a life of hardship 
 on the other, has sufficient weight with them to overcome 
 religious scruples, and if successive Governments had been 
 as firm with the Bengal Sepoy as necessity has obliged us 
 to be with our domestics, we should have heard nothing 
 of greased cartridges at the present moment, or of the 
 thousand insolent requirements of caste in times past. 
 
 Those who are acquainted with the inner life of the 
 Brahmins know that the bonds which they would fain 
 persuade Europeans are harder than adamant, and dearer 
 to them than life itself, are in realit} r but feeble strands, 
 which they break and reunite at will. We have tried to 
 ignore the differences of nature's creating ; we have made 
 a law of kindness which is only observed by ourselves, 
 and petted the dark-skinned mercenary to the top of his 
 bent, whilst soldiers of our own kith and kin have been 
 left to find a refuge for their heads, or food for their 
 families, as they best might. As usual, we have for- 
 gotten that charity properly begins at home, and, as 
 usual, have had our reward. 
 
A GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE. 19 
 
 And Lord Dalhousie is to be blamed for something 
 more than wilful blindness to the state of the native 
 army. He would ill deserve the credit which the world 
 gives him for sagacity if he had not foreseen the necessity 
 for a large addition to the European force ; and it is no 
 good defence of his reputation to allege, as may perhaps 
 be clone, that he urged the Court of Directors and the 
 Board of Control to send out reinforcements. Placed as 
 he was with the public opinion of England and India at 
 his back, and for a long while standing out amongst the 
 politicians of his time as the only man who could govern 
 India, he might have carried out his policy in spite of 
 all opposition ; but his heart was in the balance-sheet of 
 his administration. He cared more for results which 
 were favourable to his personal reputation, than for 
 strengthening the defences of the empire. He passed 
 away from the scene of his labours, and, following his 
 footsteps, we discern the shadows of the Company's Raj, 
 the mastership of the Brahmin, and the phantoms of 
 want and misery which, for a century past, have kept in 
 the wake of the conquerors of British India. We have 
 a terrible loss to repair, a mighty vengeance to inflict; 
 but when the twofold work is done, the brightest days of 
 the East will follow. Let us have fair play for the ener- 
 gies of England, and the desert places of Hindostan shall 
 flourish and blossom like the rose. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. SKETCHES OF LEADING STATESMEN. 
 STKANGE UNANIMITY OF UNFITNESS. 
 
 IN an evil hour for the country, Lord Canning was ap- 
 pointed to succeed the Marquis of Dalhousie. Such a 
 choice could only have been made under the supposition 
 that government in India was so purely a matter of 
 routine, that it was not of the least moment who oc- 
 cupied the vice-regal palace in Calcutta, and took the 
 wages of chief ruler. He had been more than twenty 
 years in the House of Peers, and had never exhibited a 
 sign of the capacity for empire. The impression which 
 
20 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 he left on the minds of men who transacted business 
 with him was that of plaintive imbecility. He could 
 never acquire experience, and he had no insight into 
 character. One man's opinion was as good to him as 
 that of another. He took counsel from all, and received 
 help from none. The last man that encountered him on 
 his way to the council-chamber had him as a prey. He 
 was haunted with the idea that the secretaries were sup- 
 posed really to govern India ; and in order to disabuse 
 the public mind of that belief he would occasionally 
 reverse a conclusion which they had adopted for the best 
 of reasons, or substitute in the wording of a despatch 
 the term expedient in lieu of "necessary." An honest, 
 courageous English gentleman, he only wanted breadth 
 of understanding and the power of reliance. He would 
 have ruled with credit to himself, but the secret of how 
 to manage wisely was never disclosed to him. 
 
 The Supreme Government of India is earned on by 
 two councils, the first of which, with the assistance of 
 the Secretaries, forms the Indian Ministry. The Execu- 
 tive Council consists of the Commander-in-Chief for the 
 time being, who takes his seat, when in Calcutta, as an 
 extraordinary member, and four ordinary members ; at 
 present Messrs. Doiin, Peacock, Grant, and General Low. 
 Mr. Dorin is Vice- President, and what is familiarly termed 
 the Indian Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 
 The Legislative Council is composed of seven members, 
 each Presidency having its representative. Mr. Dorin is 
 Vice-President, Mr. D. Elliot sits for Madras, Mr. Le 
 Geyt for Bombay, Mr. Currie for Bengal, Mr. Harrington 
 for the North-west Provinces. The Chief Justice and 
 Sir Arthur Buller are assumed to represent the law and 
 the general public. 
 
 The Honourable Mr. Dorin had been thirty-six years 
 in India. He had achieved reputation as the presumed 
 author of the financial measures which reflected so much 
 discredit on the closing years of Lord Dalhousie's ad- 
 ministration. Versed in statistics and skilful in the use 
 of figures, he would always acquit himself successfully in 
 times when there was a surplus revenue, a contented 
 population, and a reign of peace. So long as the quali- 
 
MEMBERS OF THE INDIAN MINISTRY. 21 
 
 ties which made up the model official were sufficient to 
 uphold his prestige, Mr. Dorm took high rank ; but, like 
 his honourable masters, he has fallen on evil days. The 
 clay has come in contact with the brass, to the infinite 
 damage of the former. 
 
 Of General Low it is almost sufficient to say, that he 
 had been fifty- three years in the service. He was known 
 throughout India as a kind-hearted honourable man, ripe 
 in knowledge of the native character, and friendly to the 
 support of Asiatic dynasties. He was opposed to the 
 annexation of Nagpore, and looked with no friendly eye 
 on the absorption of Oude. His heart was with the 
 memories of the past, and his mind too feeble to sus- 
 tain the anxieties of State policy. Had his faculties 
 answered to his will, a vast amount of evil would have 
 been averted. 
 
 The Honourable Mr. J. P. Grant was a civilian of 
 thirty years' standing. He belonged to a family dis- 
 tinguished for obstructive ability, and, like some other 
 men, enjoyed a reputation which always outran his actual 
 performances. People valued him more for what he was 
 thought capable of doing, than for what he had done. 
 His stock of political capital, if small at first, had never 
 been diminished, though it would seem that the interest 
 could never be sufficient to maintain him. Thoroughly 
 schooled in forms and precedents, he walked by rules 
 which he seemed to despise, and obtained credit for 
 having the most liberal ideas, whilst no one could point 
 to acts which justified such a belief. Under Lord Dal- 
 housie, he would have been an accession to the strength 
 of Government; but acting with Lord Canning, he was 
 attracted by the vast bulk of mediocrity, and gravitated 
 to the dull level of his colleagues. He might really have 
 possessed great capacity, which he was too indolent to 
 exhibit to the world. 
 
 The guiding spirit in the Legislative Council, and who 
 exercised, we believe, no small influence as well in the 
 Executive, was the Honourable Mr. Barnes Peacock. This 
 gentleman, a barrister-at-law, became famous at the period 
 of Mr. O' Council's trial, when, to the bewilderment of 
 statesmen and judges, he found out a flaw in the proceed- 
 
22 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 ings, which being duly commented upon through hundreds 
 of hours and thousands of pages, led to the liberation of 
 the arch-agitator. From that hour the fortune of Mr. 
 Peacock was achieved : he was at once acknowledged as 
 the first of special pleaders, the great master of quibbles. 
 His mind was a perfect microscope, incapable of taking 
 large views of the simplest and nearest objects, but making 
 all small things appear large. His precise knowledge of 
 the framework of legislation, and undeniable skill in the 
 more recondite mysteries of jurisprudence, gave him, as 
 a matter of course, commanding influence over his col- 
 leagues, who looked up to him with the same feelings of 
 respect that a martial volunteer feels for the accomplished 
 veteran who has seen unlimited service, and knows how 
 to make disposition of an army. Mr. Peacock was trans- 
 ferred in the decline of life from the Courts of West- 
 minster to make law for the vast population of British 
 India, composed of a hundred nations, all differing from 
 each other. We owe it to him that the Black Acts have 
 almost been promulgated, a calamity from which we have 
 been at least temporarily relieved by the scarcely greater 
 evil of rebellion. Had the plans of the Court of Direc- 
 tors been carried out, the Hindoos and Mussulmans might 
 have inaugurated the revolt by the previous imprisonment, 
 according to law, of every Englishman of wealth or influ- 
 ence in the country. Meanwhile Mr. Peacock earned his 
 salary by the quantity, if not by the quality, of his labours, 
 and scarcely a Saturday passed over, on which he did not 
 come down with a draft, which was made law in about 
 forty minutes. Of the rest of his colleagues in the Le- 
 gislative Council, it is needless to say anything. The 
 Queen's judges seldom or never cared to interfere against 
 the will of the Government, and no one thought of hold- 
 ing Messrs. Currie and Le Geyt responsible for what was 
 enacted. 
 
 Next, perhaps, to the Governor-Greneral, the Secretaries 
 take the most important part in the work of administra- 
 tion. It is their duty to rough-hew the business about 
 to be brought before the supreme authority ; to abstract 
 cases and reports, hunt up whatever has been done pre- 
 viously on the subject, and suggest what ought to be done 
 
THE GOVERNMENT SECRETARIES. 23 
 
 on the current occasion. Such an office, of necessity, 
 gives its holder great power, and where the head of the 
 Government and Secretary understand the true require- 
 ments of their position, and have no desire to go beyond 
 it, the aid of the latter is almost invaluable. The task of 
 all others the most irksome and wearying, is that of 
 searching for acts and precedents ; whence it follows that, 
 if the Secretary can instil a feeling of reliance upon his 
 industry, impartiality, and judgment, he is enabled to in- 
 fluence most of the acts of Government. Under an idle 
 viceroy he is all powerful j under a foolish one, who has 
 not the capacity to understand the affairs submitted for 
 his decision, he may be unreasonably snubbed, and un- 
 wisely meddled with, but in the main he will have his 
 own way. It is of much importance, then, to the interests 
 of British India, that the persons who fill those respect- 
 able posts should be men of good capacity and enlarged 
 experience. 
 
 The Secretaries of the Indian Government are Mr. 
 Cecil Beadon, Home Department, Mr. G. F. Edmonstone, 
 Foreign, and Col. B. J. H. Birch, C. B., Secretary in the 
 Military Department. The two first named were intel- 
 lectual and painstaking, supposed to be always capable of 
 giving good advice, and we should hope equally disposed 
 to offer it. They had an intimate acquaintance with the 
 machinery of administration, and as workers up of the 
 raw material of government could hardly be superseded 
 with advantage to the State. How far they are respon- 
 sible for the present state of affairs is a matter that we 
 need not inquire into, seeing that the onus, if any, is 
 cheerfully taken by their superiors. No such thing as 
 resignation is ever contemplated by an Indian placeman 
 when balked in the attempt to carry out his views. He 
 has no public to appeal to who will do justice between 
 him and his opponents. He is a part of the machinery, 
 which, if worn out or broken, can at once be replaced, and 
 when thrown aside is forgotten by all men. The fact of 
 no responsibility serves the civilian in lieu of a conscience. 
 He advances no interest, public or private, by refusing to 
 execute an order of which he disapproves, or renouncing 
 the service when the policy of his masters offends his 
 
24 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 moral sense. In our clays Sir Charles Napier afforded the 
 only instance of a voluntary surrender of rank and dignity 
 in obedience to the promptings of insulted ieeling, and he 
 was a Queen's officer, said to be avaricious, and known to 
 have an inordinate fondness for power. It has been 
 thought a matter of wonderment that Indian politicians, 
 who have acquired the widest reputation in that country, 
 fail without a single exception on the theatre of home 
 politics ; but does not the fact of their moral subjugation 
 furnish a key to the mystery ? 
 
 There is but little to remark on the subject of Col. 
 Birch. The public which extols the ability of Messrs. 
 Beadon and Edmonstone have no unjust predilections, 
 and their verdict must be taken as impartial in both 
 instances. 
 
 In a lottery there are sometimes two chances, one for 
 the highest and one for the lowest throw ; and in the 
 struggle for high office and consideration, the Military 
 Secretary had made a cast below which it was impossible 
 to score. But he held on to his salary of more than 
 4000 per annum, with a tenacity of purpose that indi- 
 cated considerable strength of character. Of the Bengal 
 army as it existed, he knew nothing : he was barely con- 
 scions of the fact of the rebellion, and utterly ignorant of 
 the causes that led to it ; but his task is ended, and he lias 
 3iad his wages. The Indian army has abolished itself, and 
 Col. Birch will soon have to follow its example. 
 
 The Honourable Mr. Halliday was Lieut. -Governor of 
 Bengal. Mr. Halliday was a man who had a right to 
 consider himself aggrieved if any class of politicians spoke 
 ill of him. He was in the habit of denouncing with great 
 force abuses which, by some fatalit}^, never grew less 
 under his immediate rule. The Indian reformer quoted 
 his evidence, and the old civilian cited his practice. His 
 theories suggested freedom, and his policy upheld tyranny. 
 He had written against " boy magistrates," and against 
 the fearful iniquities perpetrated by thp police ; but 
 no youthful member of the civil service lacks employment 
 in Bengal ; no darogah, or chief constable, cares more, in 
 consequence, for the liberty of the subject. In July last 
 Mr. Halliday announced to the deputy-magistrate of 
 
THE DEPUTY AT HIS WITS END. 25 
 
 Serampore, an Armenian gentleman who was content to 
 do at half-price the work of a covenanted officer, that he 
 should remove him from that station in consequence of 
 proved unfitness. There had been a holy fair at Seram- 
 j>ore, at which 80,000 pilgrims were present. It com- 
 menced on the -anniversary of Plassey, and lasted for a 
 week. The disarmed regiments at Barrackpore, on the 
 opposite bank of the river, were in a highly excited state, 
 and two or three men had been put to death for urging 
 thorn to mutiny. A general rising was expected, and at 
 the earnest request of the inhabitants, the deputy-magi s- 
 trute wrote to the brigadier at Barrackpore for the aid of 
 a few Europeans whilst the fair lasted ; whereas he should 
 have applied in the first instance to the magistrate, who 
 lived at Hooghly. The magistrate would have written to 
 the commissioner of the division ; the commissioner of the 
 division would have forwarded the request to the brigadier ; 
 the brigadier in due course would address the general 
 commanding at Barrackpore, who would write to the 
 military secretary; who, if he took the responsibility upon 
 himself, would tell the general to order the brigadier to 
 instruct the commanding officer of a certain regiment to 
 send a detachment across the river, at the same time 
 taking care that the commissioner, the magistrate, and 
 the deputy all had the opportunity of corresponding 
 again with each other on the subject. When the humbled 
 official meekly remarked that before all the above for- 
 malities were gone through every European might be 
 murdered, Mr. Halliday replied, " Well ! and what is that 
 to you ]" to which the deputy was obliged of course to 
 say, " Oh, nothing, sir," at the same time backing out of 
 the Presence. 
 
 Mr. Halliday had a strong dislike to the press, his anti- 
 pathy being as reasonable as that of a child who hates the 
 fire because it has had the misfortune to burn its fingers. 
 He was foolish enough to enter into a public controversy 
 with the private secretary of Lord Dalhousie, who was un- 
 accountably permitted by that nobleman to impugn the 
 veracity of the Lieut-Governor. Mr. Halliday was one 
 of the chief promoters of the act which gagged the Indian 
 journals, and took care to make use of the power with 
 
26 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 which the law invested him. At the date of the revolt 
 he was not popular with any class of the Anglo-Indian 
 community, the members of his own service not excluded. 
 
 The Governor of Madras was the son of the man who 
 took Seringapatam. Lord Harris was polished, bene- 
 volent, and replete with a melancholy grace of person 
 and demeanour ; the kind of nobleman that a respectable 
 solicitor likes to have always on hand, for taking the chair 
 at public meetings, and reflecting credit on joint-stock 
 enterprises. He rather loved all mankind than other- 
 wise ; but if he had a dislike, it was to Roman Catholics, 
 and people who made a noise about things. Nature 
 had given him a liberal disposition, Christianity had made 
 him a socialist, circumstances had converted him into a 
 warm supporter of bureaucracy. He loved sincerity, and 
 was always to be influenced by the counsels of conscien- 
 tious persons. No trouble was too great which promised 
 to afford relief to oppressed multitudes ; no odium was 
 too formidable to be encountered in the discharge of duty. 
 He originated the famous Torture commission, and wrote 
 a long minute against the liberty of the press. He was 
 opposed to the private ownership of land in Madras, and 
 set on foot a survey of the soil, which will be completed 
 in about thirty-six years, if nothing occurs to interrupt 
 the work. His politics in August last were anti-Mahorne- 
 dan, but liable, of course, to modification. 
 
 Lord Elphinstone, who, about twenty years since, was 
 Governor of Madras, was the Governor of Bombay at the 
 time of the revolt. Whilst at the former Presidency his 
 hospitality and love of gaiety were remarkable ; but if he 
 had any chance of distinguishing himself at Bombay, it 
 was suffered to pass unimproved. 
 
 The North-west Provinces were under the rule of 
 Lieut. -Governor the Hon. J. R. Colvin, a distinguished 
 member of the civil service, Mr. Colvin commenced his 
 public life as the private secretary of Lord Auckland, was 
 afterwards commissioner of the Tenasserim provinces, and 
 Sudder Judge, being promoted from the latter post to his 
 present appointment. He was not fortunate in his mode 
 of dealing with the mutiny, and died on the 9th day of 
 September last. 
 
THE ASIATIC PEIESTS AS SOLDIERS. 27 
 
 It was with such tools, good and bad, that the govern- 
 ment of India had to be carried on from January, 1857, 
 until such time as the good genius of England should decree 
 otherwise. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 COMPOSITION OP THE INDIAN ARMIES. CASTE PREJUDICES OF THE 
 BRAHMIN. CAUSES OF THE REVOLT. CONDITION OF OUDE. 
 
 THE military force in India comprises four distinct armies, 
 made up of the Queen's regiments, and the separate armies 
 of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay. The services of the 
 Bengal troops are rarely required beyond the limits of 
 their own Presidency ; but it has occasionally happened^ 
 that special emergency has demanded their aid, which 
 Las never been accorded without much dissatisfaction, 
 and in some instances the outbreak of mutiny. The sea 
 Kalapawnee, or blackwater is an object of special 
 dread to them, involving damage to their caste and im- 
 pairing their efficiency as soldiers, since their religion 
 will not allow them to cook food on board ship, but 
 compels them to live on dry pulse, sugar, and stagnant 
 water. According to the strict rule of their faith, no 
 Brahmin can be a soldier, since the law forbids them to 
 take life ; but they overlook this vital principle for the 
 sake of pay and profit. The cow is a sacred animal in 
 their estimation, but they consent to wear shoes made of 
 leather rather than march barefoot, and have no objection 
 to relax the observance of any article of devout profes- 
 sion, whenever it stands in the way of repose or rupees. 
 Tall and handsomely made, with a love of idleness and 
 display which makes up in no slight degree the character 
 of a model soldier, they are to outward appearance the 
 beau ideal of a warrior race. The rules of the service 
 provide that only a limited number of Brahmins, put of 
 the thousand men- composing the regiment, shall be enter- 
 tained ; but it seldom happens that less than two-thirds 
 are really borne on the muster-roll, their custom being to 
 enrol themselves as Rajpoots or Chettryas, which they 
 may do with impunity, the Brahmin being permitted to 
 
28 THE SEPOY EEVOLT. 
 
 take up and lay down his caste at pleasure. Where they 
 are really religious, their conscientious scruples interfere 
 with the performance of half the duties which a soldier 
 should perform ; and where otherwise, their idleness and 
 insolence make them even worse servants of the State. 
 They must live and mess by themselves, 110 man of any 
 inferior caste being allowed to come within a certain dis- 
 tance of their cooking-places, lest the wind should sweep 
 the taint of his pollution across the food intended to 
 nourish the stomachs of the twice-born. The strength 
 of discipline is materially impaired by the reverence 
 which the chief native commissioned officer entertains 
 for the rawest recruit who may happen to be a member 
 of the priestly class. The feeling in this respect is 
 exactly analogous to that which most London tradesmen 
 would entertain with regard to the son of a nobleman, 
 whom poverty or eccentricity might compel to serve 
 behind the counter. Whilst regiments belonging to tlio 
 other Presidencies will cheerfully take spade and pick- 
 fix e, and work when occasion calls for their services, the 
 Bengal Brahmin would rather submit to any incon- 
 venience than contaminate his hands with the m^rks of 
 labour. He is never more, but often less, than a fighting 
 man, who has been pampered till, as was natural to an 
 Asiatic under such circumstances, he lapsed into rebellion. 
 Happily, he has now abolished himself, and his family 
 traditions of pay and pension, enjoyed from father to sou 
 for generations, are brought to a close. 
 
 The nominal proportion of the various castes, as borne 
 on the books of the 34th Regiment, N.I., may be taken 
 as a fair index to the composition of the whole Bengal 
 army, it being always understood of men entered as 
 Eajpoots and Chettryas, that numbers belong in reality 
 to the superior class. The roll on the occasion of the 
 disbandment stood as follows : 
 
 Brahmins 335 
 
 Chettryas 237 
 
 Lower Caste Hindoos 231 
 
 Christians ....... 12 
 
 Mussulmans 200 
 
 Sikhs 74 
 
 Total , 1089 
 
SOLDIEKLY QUALITIES OF THE SIKHS. 29 
 
 The orders of Government provide for the enlistment 
 of 200 Sikhs in every regiment, and had the instruction 
 always been complied with, it might have fared better 
 with the army at large. The Sikh is a born soldier, 
 caring nothing whatever for caste, save in the instance 
 0f a veneration for the cow, and anxious above all things 
 to uphold his reputation as a genuine fighter. In the 
 field he is a match for any two or more Hindoos, and 
 prides himself upon his near resemblance to the Euro- 
 pean, whose prowess he regards with dread and admira- 
 tion. He messes with the rest of his comrades, cooks 
 with them at a common fireplace, eats pork and drinks 
 rum like an Anglo-Saxon, and will handle with equal 
 relish the musket and the pioneer's axe : but then he is 
 independent, and lacks the cringing spirit which too 
 many of our countrymen are fond of. He refuses to 
 cut his beard, and does not look seemly in the ranks 
 amongst the neat, smooth-shaved Brahmins, and so he 
 has got to be disliked by adjutants and commanding 
 officers, snubbed when offering himself for service, and 
 looked down upon if entertained, instead of being cared 
 for and led to identify himself with the feelings and 
 interests of the dominant race. Then his sect is dying 
 out in the Punjaub, and the spirit of the Khalsa no 
 longer lives in the sons of the men who shook our 
 power at Ferozeshah and Moodkee, and needed but the 
 aid of honest men as leaders to come to death grips with 
 us in the rice-fields of Bengal. With but one partial 
 exception, they have stood true to us throughout the 
 present troubles when embodied in separate corps, but 
 have been too weak to withstand the united influence 
 pf Brahmin and Mussulman. They despise the Hindoo 
 and hate the Mussulman, and we believe may be safely 
 trusted under wise restrictions for the future. 
 
 The Mahomedan element in the ranks of the native 
 army has hitherto been looked upon as a counterpoise to 
 the power of the Hindoos, but recent events have shown 
 how thoroughly they can fraternize with the latter when 
 ihe object is to destroy a common foe. There is nothing 
 /of the ennobling qualities which dignify the creed of the 
 Prophet in the persons of Turks and Arabs to be found 
 
 c 
 
30 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 in the Mussulmans of India. Brutally ignorant and 
 superstitious, they have engrafted the idolatry of Asia 
 upon the tenets of the Koran, and look upon all Euro- 
 peans as being infidels and unclean, whom it is a duty to 
 slay whenever occasion serves. The bitter hatred with 
 which Orangemen and Roman Catholics used to regard 
 each other in Ireland has its intensified type in the feel- 
 ing entertained towards us by the whole Mussulman race. 
 Fierce antipathy to our creed, intense loathing of our 
 persons, and never-ceasing dread of English valour and 
 ability, make up the impression which is stamped on the 
 minds of their children in early infancy, and deepens 
 with every year of growth. We are a perpetual barrier 
 in their path in whatever direction their footsteps tend. 
 We will not let them win heaven by slaughtering Kafirs, 
 enjoy liberty by oppressing Hindoos, or achieve wealth 
 by plundering whoever is too weak to offer resistance. 
 Prophet, king, and noble, we are the enemies of all, and 
 the time is come when the Faithful perceive a chance of 
 avenging themselves. Here and there a man may be 
 heard of who, from interest, or through taking a more 
 enlarged view of public affairs, supports the English 
 Government; but the vast majority of all classes detest 
 us with a fervour which blood hardly suffices to allay. 
 
 The Madras and Bombay Sepoy armies, though com- 
 posed of men far inferior in appearance to the Bengal 
 regiments, are yet infinitely more efficient as soldiers, 
 because caste has little or no weight with them. They 
 will go anywhere and perform every part of a soldier's 
 duty, as cheerfully as Europeans. A large proportion of 
 the Madras regiments are composed of low-caste Hin- 
 doos, with whom no scruples on the score of religion 
 weigh against the performance of duty. In the Southern 
 Presidency the families of the men always accompany 
 them, a custom which, however inconvenient in general, 
 and at times productive of dissatisfaction, affords an 
 almost certain guarantee for the fidelity of the men. 
 Their sons, as they grow up, hang about the lines and the 
 officers' quarters, pick up a modicum of English, eagerly 
 avail themselves of every opening to play at servants or 
 soldiers, and by the time they arrive at manhood, or the 
 
COMPARISON OF BENGAL AND MADRAS SEPOYS. 31 
 
 age at which they are permitted to "be taken on the 
 strength of the corps, have been thoroughly identified 
 with it. A certain number of them are enlisted under 
 the denomination of " recruit boys," and the sons of 
 Sepoys who have died in battle or on foreign service 
 receive a monthly allowance. Throughout the native 
 Indian army, the nearest relative of the soldier killed in 
 action or who dies abroad is pensioned. 
 
 It is hardly to be expected that men, however honest 
 and high-minded, should be found willing to denounce 
 the evils of a system from which they derive the means of 
 existence ; but never have Bengal and Madras troops 
 been brigaded together, that dislike and dissension have 
 not sprung up on the part both of officers and men. The 
 Bengal officer, proud of the magnificent appearance of his 
 troops, experienced, as his eye glanced along the line on 
 parade, the feeling with which a man of wealth contem- 
 plates the aristocratic air of his butler, and the glorious 
 calves of his footman. By the side of the small, meagre 
 Madrassee, mean in look, and low in moral estimation, 
 the Brahmin or Rajpoot from Oude suggested a com- 
 parison between the high-blooded racer and the drudg- 
 ing hack ; and if war was not another name for work 
 such as tasks the highest capacity both of body and will, 
 the superiority would be real as well as apparent. But 
 the comparison which holds good on the review-ground 
 halts in the trenches, on the nightly bivouac, or the 
 guarded post. The Madrassee will handle a spade as 
 readily as a musket. He eats and sleeps in his uniform 
 when on guard, crosses the sea without a murmur, and 
 cooks his food wherever he can obtain fire and water. 
 The handsome high-caste Brahmin lords it over him as 
 naturally as a member of the peerage dominates over a 
 Sheffield radical, and he avenges himself much after the 
 Yorkshire fashion, by vaunting his more useful gifts, 
 He can walk further, shoot straighter, and fight better, 
 according to Madras traditions, and we are not sure that 
 the boast is ill-founded. " Who will follow a damned 
 black fellow 1 ?" was the exclamation of a little Madras 
 Sepoy, as he dashed into the open in the face of a wither- 
 ing fire. The implied sense of degradation and conscious- 
 c2 
 
32 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 ness of bravery were shared in, perhaps, by the great 
 majority of his comrades. 
 
 Nearly a third of the Bombay army is made up of 
 Poorbeah Brahmins : from one to two hundred men in 
 each regiment are Mussulmans, and the remainder is 
 composed of low-caste Hindoos with a sprinkling of Jews. 
 The high-caste Sepoys are of course as factiously disposed 
 as their brethren in Bengal, and it is more than probable 
 that, but for the occurrence of the war with Persia, which 
 drew away so large a portion of the western army, and 
 their subsequent employment in small detachments scat- 
 tered over the whole of the Presidency, they would have 
 followed in a great measure the example of Bengal. He 
 would be a bold man who would venture to risk much 
 that he cared to lose on the fidelity at this moment of any 
 portion of the Sepoy army. 
 
 For Sepoys, as well as for English soldiers, discipline 
 must always have a certain force ; and before habits of 
 obedience, however slight, could be broken, and advan- 
 tages dearly prized be put to hazard, a powerful influence 
 must have long been at work. The sense of individual 
 wrong, the hope of individual gain, or a feeling of sym- 
 pathy for the victims of oppression, may in any part of 
 Europe turn the soldier into a rebel ; but we may put 
 the latter motive wholly aside where the Bengal Sepoys 
 are concerned. These men ever have been, and will con- 
 tinue to be, the willing tools of power, no matter how it 
 was acquired, or in what way it was exercised. They 
 have no regard for deposed Kajahs, no pity for tortured 
 ryots. The word patriotism has no place in their vocabu- 
 lary. The leopard may refuse for a time to hunt for its 
 former master, but not from any kindly feeling towards 
 the helpless deer. It might be hard for us to make out 
 a claim to be considered the friends of the Indian peasant, 
 but the Sepoy is his hereditary enemy, in whose eyes the 
 gains of industry are always a lawful prey. 
 "The origin of the mutiny must be ascribed to various 
 causes : the want of discipline in the Bengal army, and 
 the general contempt entertained by the Sepoys for 
 authority ; the absence of all power on the part of 
 commanding officers to reward or punish; the greased 
 
CAUSES OF THE REVOLT. 33 
 
 cartridges, and the annexation of Oude. The spread of dis- 
 affection was owing to the marvellous imbecility of 
 Government in Calcutta, and the supineness of the Board 
 of Control. The fire raged unchecked amongst the dry 
 wood, and at last attacked the green. 
 
 The notoriously relaxed state of military discipline 
 forbids the idea that ill-usage has anything to do with the 
 revolt. The general regulations for the government of 
 the army have been so constantly modified of late years 
 in favour of the Sepoy, that scarcely a trace of subordina- 
 tion remained in practice, and but little of it in theory. 
 Commanding officers had gradually been deprived of the 
 power of interfering, except in cases of extremity ; and 
 from head quarters came the constant admonition to 
 treat him tenderly and with exceeding care. There may 
 of course be isolated instances of regimental hardship, but 
 we are now dealing with an army of mutineers, and it is 
 beyond possibility that military grievances should be 
 heavy or general. And were it otherwise in a few iso- 
 lated instances, the cause is not sufficient to explain the 
 recklessness of consequences and fiendish barbarities of 
 the mutineers. So far from having given these men 
 cause of deadly hatred, we had gone into the opposite ex- 
 treme. We have never read a more touching passage 
 than the following, in which an officer writing from 
 Neemuch details his latest experience of Sepoy gratitude : 
 
 " I have been many years with my regiment ; I have 
 lived among the men, marched over the length and breadth 
 of the land with them ; I have fought with them, trusted 
 them, respected them, cared for them, treated them with 
 kindness and consideration always, attended to all their 
 wants, redressed as far as lay in my power their griev- 
 ances ; and yet these men have been hatching treason 
 against the State for months perhaps years. While 
 coming to me and in daily intercourse with me, they have 
 been treacherously plotting against my life, and with the 
 foulest and blackest ingratitude I ever heard or read of, 
 they sent me away with such a shower of bullets over my 
 head as I never had before except at Chillian walla ; and 
 not content with this, they burnt my house to the ground, 
 and leave me and my family beggars." 
 
34 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 We have not space to dwell upon the interior economy 
 of the Sepoy ranks in Bengal, but crowds of instances 
 might be cited in proof of the laxity of military rule 
 which prevailed amongst them ; and, to show the little 
 account that was made latterly of commanding officers, 
 we need only cite the minute of Lord Canning on the 
 subject of the Divisional Order issued by Major-General 
 Hearsey, on the 5th of April last, announcing the pro- 
 motion to the rank of havildar of Sepoy Shaik Phuttoo, 
 of the 34th N.I., who, to use the words of Government, 
 " gallantly defended his officer against the murderous 
 attack of the mutineer Mungul Pandy." His lordship 
 goes 011 to remark, " It is not in the power of the Major- 
 General commanding the division to make this promotion, 
 which can proceed only from the Government of India, and 
 therefore should not have appeared in a Divisional Order 
 without the sanction of the Government." The officer 
 thus reprimanded has attained all but the highest rank 
 in the service, which he entered before Lord Canning was 
 born ; and his offence was that he had elevated to the 
 rank of sergeant a man whose merit consisted in this, 
 that he had hindered individual murder, and perhaps 
 stayed for a season the mutiny of a regiment. We are 
 also cognizant of a case, wherein the commandant of an 
 irregular corps tried for a whole twelvemonth to get a 
 man, who had saved his life in action, promoted to the 
 rank of naick or corporal, and was obliged to give up the 
 attempt in the end. The officer in command of a corps 
 cannot advance a Sepoy to the lowest grade of promotion, 
 or sentence a non-commissioned officer to an hour's drill. 
 He is only like the private, a portion of the military 
 machine, and not its motive power. He cannot mark 
 his dislikes or show his sense of merit. One man is made 
 the same to him as another, and it is scarcely to be won- 
 dered at that in the day of trial he was found to have in- 
 spired but little respect, and to have no influence. The 
 Asiatic never rates a man as above the rank accorded to 
 him by their common superiors. 
 
 Of the officers of the Indian army in all the Presiden- 
 cies a full moiety are absent from their regiments. There 
 is one Bengal corps without a single captain, and six that 
 
THE SYSTEM OP STAFF APPOINTMENTS. 35 
 
 have but one each. The battalion of artillery commanded 
 by the late Sir Henry Lawrence only musters three 
 officers for duty, two of whom are lieutenants. Two hun- 
 dred and forty-one officers at the head of the Bengal list 
 average forty years' service each ; two hundred and forty- 
 two at the bottom count but nineteen months and have 
 been with their regiments less than a year each. Of the 
 absentees, two hundred and twelve are in civil or political 
 employ. 
 
 It is a defective system which leaves an average of only 
 twelve officers present with their regiments out of a nomi- 
 nal complement of twenty-six, and which makes the corps 
 a penal settlement ; but it is not without its advantages, 
 and has certainly had no share in causing the mutinies. 
 There are very few men who display at an early age the 
 ability that is found to be so valuable in the East, and 
 hence it is of much importance to have a wide field from 
 which to select the men that are required for the various 
 posts unsuited to the habits or the expectations of the civil 
 service. A military or medical man is only too happy if, 
 at the end of ten years' service, he can draw 800 rupees 
 monthly, when the civilian will decline an appointment 
 below 1500 or 2000. Every office in Pegu is adminis- 
 tered by military men, and their law is not much worse 
 than that of the ordinary judicial department. If sitting 
 011 the bench were like sitting in the saddle, and the ad- 
 ministration of justice were a kind of fighting, we should 
 perhaps hear of the distinction between regular and irre- 
 gular judges, the real difference being a matter of uniform. 
 So far as the junior officers are concerned, we can reco- 
 gnise no benefit to discipline from their performance of 
 regimental duties. They can alter nothing and influence 
 nothing. They dare not enter a Sepoy's hut or even walk 
 down the lines at his feeding time. What little authority 
 was permitted by army head quarters the commanding 
 officer naturally engrossed, and the subaltern found him- 
 self in all respects a veritable cipher. And beyond the 
 range of regimental duty, what sympathy could there pos- 
 sibly be between himself and the native soldier, whether 
 Sepoy or subadar ? The latter had risen from the ranks, 
 and, if a Brahmin, was in five cases out of six unable to 
 
36 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 read his own sacred books. A quarter of a century back 
 a state of things somewhat different prevailed. There 
 might have been seen at that time, in the officers' quar- 
 ters, a native female occupying the position of mistress of 
 the household ; the future Olive sitting on the floor in the 
 loosest of garments, eating pillau with his fingers ; Sepoys 
 coming to and fro with gifts of sweetmeats to their little 
 nephews and nieces, or bearing nuzzurs and petitions to 
 the " Bebee sahib" for pardon or promotion. Under such 
 circumstances there could have been no conspiracy hatched 
 of which the European would be ignorant. He had iden- 
 tified himself with native interests, albeit of the baser 
 sort, and was a brother in feeling, if not in features. But 
 should we sigh for a return of the days, which a few old 
 Indians still mourn? Should we exchange the task of 
 raising the Hindoo to the European, for the easier one of 
 lowering ourselves to the Asiatic level? Happily, the 
 growth of Christian feeling has left no alternative in the 
 matter. The officer must continue to comport himself as a 
 gentleman, even at the cost of allowing the Sepoy to for- 
 get that he is a soldier. 
 
 We have a change to propose with regard to the present 
 mode of officering the army and making staff appoint- 
 ments, but must for the present pass on to the considera- 
 tion of the greased cartridge question. In spite of all that 
 has happened of late years to make a state of disaffection 
 chronic on the part of the Bengal Sepoys, in spite of the 
 general enlistment order and the annexation of Oude, we 
 are firmly of opinion that the rebellion would never have 
 occurred, but for the introduction of a grievance which 
 united all classes in a bond of deadly and needful enmity 
 towards us. There was but one subject which concerned 
 all ranks and embraced all interests, and the men to whom 
 the destinies of India were intrusted made the worst of it. 
 It is scarcely credible that the Directors of the East India 
 Company should have deliberately sanctioned a measure 
 which was as certain to cause rebellion as the issue of a 
 decree of extermination. A child playing with gunpow- 
 der is a sight of terror only ; but here were the rulers of 
 a mighty empire carefully carrying the torch to the maga- 
 zine with no purpose of causing explosion. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF THE GREASED CARTRIDGE. 37 
 
 The Enfield rifle was not introduced into the Indian 
 army until a recent period; but in November, 1853, we 
 are told by Colonel Birch, the present Military Secretary 
 to the Indian Government, that the Court of Directors 
 sent out to India, at the request of the Board of Ord- 
 nance, a supply of greased cartridges, which they desired 
 to submit to the test of climate. " The cartridges were 
 greased in England in four ways, with common grease, 
 laboratory grease, Belgian grease, and Hoffman's grease, 
 and in each there was a mixture of creosote and to- 
 bacco." The cartridges, placed in waggons, in maga- 
 zines, and the soldiers' pouches, were under trial m 
 Cawnpore, Rangoon, and Calcutta, until June, 1854, 
 when, it is stated, they were sent back to England, and 
 reported upon. The Adjutant-General, Colonel Tucker, 
 addressed the Military Secretary on the subject, pointing 
 out the mischief that would ensue if the Sepoys took it 
 into their heads that they would have to handle sub- 
 stances the touch of which was defilement; but no heed 
 was given to his representations. It was nobody's official 
 business to take notice of such matters. When the wind 
 was low and the sky cloudless, why speak of precautions 
 , against danger? - 
 
 So much pains have been taken by the Indian Govern- 
 ment to disavow all connexion with missionary efforts, 
 that the most bigoted and ignorant of Hindoos could 
 hardly suspect them of even a leaning towards Chris- 
 tianity. Piety has never been popular with the Court 
 of Directors, who are not in all respects an inconsistent 
 body of rulers ; but it has strangely enough happened 
 that the Sepoys have been enabled, as they fancy, to 
 discern a political motive of vast weight and influence 
 for the destruction of caste, both in the case of Hindoos 
 ) and Mussulmans. It will be recollected that during the 
 Russian war the Government were frequently counselled 
 in the public prints to make the Indian army available- 
 in the struggle. Sometimes it was suggested that regi- 
 ments should be sent to the colonies to relieve the 
 Queen's troops, and on other occasions that cavalry and 
 artillery should be landed in the Crimea, the one arm. 
 to take outpost duties, and the guns to be brigaded with 
 
38 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 the royal artillery. By degrees the notion took root that 
 the Russians would be victorious unless the Sepoys could 
 be made use of in Europe, the latter result involving of 
 course the previous annihilation of caste. The Persian 
 war and the outbreak at Canton deepened the prevailing 
 impression that Sepoy aid was indispensable in localities 
 where they must starve or eat forbidden food ; and 
 Government being furnished with this powerful reason, 
 it was not loDg before the subtle Asiatic intellect dis- 
 covered the supposed method by which they sought to 
 accomplish their object. The employment of force was 
 out of the question, and neither bribes nor persuasion 
 would induce the devout masses to pollute themselves. 
 It was necessary to keep the design strictly secret, and 
 to carry it out in every station and camp as simul- 
 taneously as possible. The production of a new rifle, 
 involving the use of a new style of cartridge, afforded 
 the very means requisite for the success of the plot. It 
 was dipped in cow's grease for the Hindoos, and pork 
 fat for Mussulmans. Every man must bite it before 
 loading; and once his lips had touched the paper, his 
 honour was gone for ever, and he was the bond-slave of 
 Government, degraded in this life and ruined in the next. 
 The ignorant masses were frantic with rage and fear, and 
 there were not wanting men willing and able to turn 
 their madness to the account of worthless princes. These 
 latter took counsel together, and summing up the chances 
 of mutiny, found the Bengal Sepoy master of the situa- 
 tion. 
 
 It is more than probable that under a commander-in- 
 chief who knew his duty and took care to perform it, the 
 signs of discontent would have been confined to a small 
 area. The Sepoys would have allowed the explanations 
 of Government their due weight, and in time have owned 
 the folly of their suspicions; but matters of late had 
 come to such a pass, that it was the fact of mutiny, and 
 not the pretext for it, that they cared about. They had 
 become so insubordinate that outbreak was inevitable ; 
 only what would have been a slight emeufe under Sir 
 Charles Napier's regime, to be repressed on the spot with 
 merciless vigour, became under Sir George Anson a mill- 
 
A GREAT ADMINISTRATIVE BLUNDER. 39 
 
 tary rebellion of such dimensions as to threaten the safety 
 of our Eastern empire. 
 
 Naturalists have a story of a horse who once overcame 
 a lion in single combat, and ever afterwards was untame- 
 able. Luckily for equestrians the fact is unknown to 
 horses in general, but otherwise we might hear of a great 
 many successful mutinies on the part of those useful 
 quadrupeds. When the 38th Regiment refused to embark 
 for Burmah, and escaped without punishment, the horse 
 overcame the lion, and the lesson has not been forgotten. 
 Government in that case committed the fatal error of 
 omitting to enforce obedience to its mandates, on the 
 ground that the order ought not to have been issued. 
 The Sepoy, allowed to choose for himself as to what por- 
 tion of the commands of his superior shall be obeyed, is 
 naturally led one day to take a step in advance and refuse 
 to own any mastership whatever. A Government can 
 commit no breach of faith to its soldiers so mischievous 
 as that which it commits to the public when it allows a 
 command to be disregarded. Had the order to the 38th 
 to go to Burmah never been issued, or never disobeyed, it 
 is not likely that at this moment their lives would be for- 
 feited to justice. 
 
 A narrative of the introduction of the greased car- 
 tridges would occupy too much space in these pages. They 
 were greased with a composition made of five parts tallow 
 and five parts wax and stearine, and were sent out last 
 year with the Enfield rifles by the Court of Directors. 
 It is believed that none of them got into the hands of the 
 Sepoys at the various schools of instruction ; but it hap- 
 pened that the cartridges prepared in India for the new 
 rifle were made of paper greased also at the ends, and 
 having a shiny appearance, which was supposed to be pro- 
 duced by the use of grease in its composition ; and, to 
 quote the words of the Inspector- General of Ordnance, 
 " no extraordinary care appears to have been taken to 
 ensure the absence of any objectionable fat." Whether 
 the rumour was invented for political objects, or was 
 merely one of the thousand bazaar reports that owe their 
 origin to the mere love of lying, it is impossible to say; 
 but it got abroad that it was by the aid of the new car- 
 
40 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 tridge that the Government designed to make Christians 
 of the native army. The news spread like wildfire over 
 the face of the land. On the 23rd of January the first 
 report on the subject was made to Government, and in 
 little more than a month afterwards the 19th Regiment 
 had mutinied, and the Bengal army was converted into a 
 rabble. 
 
 Detach credibility from a lie in England, and, however 
 huge its proportions, it is as harmless as a snake deprived 
 of its fangs. But in India, if you draw the teeth, the 
 virus often remains, and is active and venomous as ever. 
 The Asiatic considers words as mere breath. If a thing 
 is worth having, it is worth lying for. If deceit is the 
 only coinage in which your biddings will be taken, or if 
 it is the cheaper currency, why make your payments in 
 it by all means, and swear if need be to the genuine ring 
 of the metal. Given a desire on the part of the English 
 Government to destroy caste, and it was certain that they 
 would set about the way to gratify it. It was the habit 
 of the Feringhee to compass his ends by force, that 
 method being most facile to him ; but if the " Zubber- 
 dustee" mode was either impossible or impolitic, surely 
 he would not hesitate to employ fraud rather than let the 
 design fail ? The Government would of course repudiate 
 any such intention, else how could they carry out the 
 scheme ? The more they were distrusted, the more anxious 
 they would naturally be to do away with unfavourable 
 impressions. They would make speeches, get books 
 written, despatch circulars and proclamations, and try by 
 every artifice to lull the nation into a sense of security. 
 It was only by such a line of proceeding that the great 
 object could be gained, and the English were not accus- 
 tomed to fail. All the protestations and assurances, then, 
 of the Govern or- General and his chief officers concerning 
 the cartridges went for nothing. The question presented 
 for Asiatic consideration was simply as follows : Was 
 there a plot to make all the Sepoys break caste uncon- 
 sciously 1 and the query being answered in the affirma- 
 tive, the disclaimers were not worth a moment's notice. 
 
 The thousand men sent adrift at Barrackpore, had at 
 least on an average five persons dependent upon each of 
 
SEPOY LOGIC AND ITS DEDUCTIONS. 41 
 
 them for the means of existence. What did they think 
 of themselves, and what was thought of them by their 
 relatives 1 Were they fools or martyrs ? had they flung 
 away their birthright, receiving no mess of pottage? or 
 were they the champions of the gods on whose side the 
 deities might be expected to fight in the day of battle ? 
 The answer is easily divined. They called themselves the 
 victims of principle, and spread everywhere the story of 
 their sufferings for conscience' sake. Their wives and 
 fathers in the villages of Oude were content to forego 
 their share of pay and pension, when the Sepoy had been 
 obliged to choose between rebellion and apostacy. The 
 disbanded men told how otta, in which bone-dust was 
 mixed, had been served out by Government as rations, 
 and how magistrates, under threats of the lash and gibbet, 
 Jiad compelled prisoners in many of the jails to eat pork 
 and cow's flesh. In several stations otta was refused by 
 the troops, and they encouraged each other to stand firm 
 if Government, as was intended, should persist in the 
 attack upon their religion. Everywhere the fuel was 
 gathered into heaps, and the torch was at hand to light 
 up the conflagration. 
 
 And if the mutiny of the 19th was defended as a reli- 
 gious act, it was equally clear that, as a military offence, 
 the Government held it in such light estimation that 
 honest Hindoos need not care for the consequences of 
 revolt. They might hold what erroneous opinions they 
 pleased with regard to the designs of superior authority ; 
 but they knew as well as the more enlightened English- 
 man that the crime of refusing to bite a cartridge was as 
 great as that of a disobedience of orders to storm a for- 
 tress. The course of the Government was as clear as their 
 own. The issue to be decided was one of life or death, 
 and it had gone against the Sepoy. Government had won 
 the game and demanded the stakes. A slight incident 
 will show what the losers must have thought of the wisdom 
 of their antagonists. 
 
 Tidings of the Berhampore outbreak and its conse- 
 quences had travelled all over India in the month of 
 April, and reached amongst other places a remote corner 
 of Oude, where two outlying companies of irregular 
 
42 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 infantry were stationed, under the command of a young 
 and popular officer. It was his duty to read out the 
 general order of disbandment to the men of his detach- 
 ment, but when he came to the passage where the sen- 
 tence was promulgated, they burst out into a universal 
 shout of "Wah, wah, is that all ? Why, if we had 
 mutinied in the Nawab's service, we should have been 
 blown from guns, or had our heads cut off and stuck up 
 over the city." In the evening the subadar came to the 
 quarters of the commanding officer and said, " Is it really 
 true, sahib, that the 19th have been paid up and sent 
 away without punishment ?" The reply was of course in 
 the affirmative, on which he rose and took leave, but not 
 before assuring the lieutenant that the result would be 
 disastrous to the British rule. The young officer had 
 some further talk with his subordinate, and before going 
 to bed he sat down and wrote a letter to his father in 
 Calcutta, in which he predicted that within two months 
 from that date there would be mutiny from Calcutta to 
 Peshawur. All that he had to guide him in coming to 
 such a conclusion was an appreciation of native character, 
 a knowledge of general disaffection throughout the army, 
 and the example of an act of deplorable weakness on the 
 part of the executive in dealing with the first experiment 
 of revolt. Pity that the subaltern in Oude and the coun- 
 cillors in Government-house had not previously changed 
 places. 
 
 Neglect and incapacity have produced their unwhole- 
 some fruit in every portion of our Indian empire ; but in 
 no quarter was the example of supineness more glaring 
 than in that of the newly acquired province of Oude. 
 The quarrel between the deposed monarch and the East 
 India Company partakes of the nature of all other strife, 
 neither side is wholly right nor wholly wrong ; but it re- 
 quires more study of the subject than politicians generally 
 care to give to such cases to enable a member of the 
 Queen's Government or of Parliament to find out how 
 the scale of justice inclines. If a man cares for the strict 
 interpretation of treaties, for the separation of motives 
 pecuniary and patriotic \ if he looks upon a solemn agree- 
 ment to uphold a throne as an undertaking to be carried 
 
THE ANNEXATION" OF OUDE. 43 
 
 out at any time, without reference to the happiness of 
 subject masses, he is bound to pronounce against the de- 
 thronement of the king of Oude. And if the rigid 
 moralist would have paused before deposing him on the 
 sole ground that he governed his people unwisely, the 
 statesman would have hesitated for politic reasons. It is 
 well known that the profession of arms is subject to the 
 same unchanging rules that govern all other kinds of 
 employment in India, wherever circumstances do not 
 interfere with its operation. In addition to the 40,000 
 men with which the province furnished our army, the 
 king's forces, at the time the country was annexed, 
 amounted to 60,000, and the troops employed by the 
 nobility and zemindars were quite as numerous. To 
 these men the musket and bayonet were heir-looms, the 
 service was their natural inheritance. They counted them- 
 selves the aristocracy of the land, the actual lords of the 
 soil. The country was in a chronic state of warfare ; the 
 tax-gatherer was always a Sepoy, the landlord a feudal 
 chieftain, who paid taxes only when forced to do so by 
 the employment of superior physical force, and the peasant 
 was always a partisan and slave. The country had been 
 for generations the paradise of adventurers, the Alsatia 
 of India, the nursing-place and sanctuary of scoundrelism, 
 such as is without a parallel on earth. When the fiat of 
 Lord Dalhousie went forth, there were left standing in 
 the country 246 forts, mounting 436 guns, and having 
 8000 gunners to work them. We took into our service 
 about 12,000 of the regular forces and 500 artillery men ; 
 and the rest, with arms in their hands, were sent adrift 
 to seek their fortune. Surveyors were sent throughout 
 the length and breadth of the land ; new laws were intro- 
 duced, and a new scale of taxation laid down ; and then, 
 having sold off the horses and elephants, dismissed the 
 dancing -girls, and put all the king's foppery up to public 
 auction, we left part of a solitary European regiment and 
 two companies of artillery to keep a country so tenanted 
 in good order. It was supposed that British rule would 
 yield an instantaneous crop of blessings, which all men 
 could behold, and which they were sure to be thankful for. 
 And if the happiness of the masses was the object alone 
 
44 THE SEPOY KEVOLT. 
 
 to be secured, such a belief would not have been without 
 foundation. Men who have traversed Oude from one end 
 to the other since the Company's Raj has been established, 
 and whose testimony may be relied on, agree in stating 
 that everywhere the peasants were delighted with the 
 change ; and they had a right to express such opinions, 
 for under the native dynasty their lot was one of unmiti- 
 gated wretchedness. The exact measure of profit sufficient 
 to enable them to carry on cultivation had long been 
 ascertained by the Zemindars. The sum total of their 
 worldly wealth was known to the value of a pice, and 
 beyond what was needful to enable them to till the soil 
 and keep body and soul together, they were not permitted 
 to indulge the appetites of the flesh or the desires of the 
 soul. Their lot was that of stereotyped wretchedness ; 
 they had never heard of luxury, and stood daily face to 
 face with starvation. The man who possessed the smallest 
 superfluity looked upon his neighbours as being in conse- 
 quence his natural enemies. 
 
 When the Company's Sepoy came home on furlough, he 
 shut up his house at night ; unwound from the folds of his 
 cloth the ornaments of silver or gold which he had ma- 
 naged to purchase during his absence, and placing them 
 on his wife, contemplated his treasures with stealthy rap- 
 ture ; but he took care that the sight should never be 
 witnessed by others, and on the morning of his departure 
 the valuables were hidden in the ground, to be brought 
 forth again only on the occasion of his next visit. An 
 example of the style in which revenue was wont to be 
 collected in Oude is to be found in the following narrative 
 furnished to the present writer by a native correspondent 
 of the Delhi Gazette in 1850. The comments that follow 
 appeared at the same time, and are worth reprinting as a 
 sample of opinions entertained by an English editor on 
 the subject of Oude, long before Lord Dalhousie contem- 
 plated annexation : 
 
 " ' The collection of the revenue of the districts of 
 Daowrayrah and of Eesanugger, situated in the northern 
 portion of Oude, was, from the commencement of the pre- 
 sent Fusli year, made over by the JSTazim of the Khyrabad 
 Elaka (in which are to be found both the districts above 
 
COLLECTING THE KING'S TAXES. 45' 
 
 mentioned) to the care of Lieutenant P. Orr. The Rajah 
 of Eesanugger had, for some time past, shown himself 
 most reluctant to pay the portion of revenue due by him 
 to the Oude Government. After many unsuccessful ex- 
 postulations on the subject, Lieutenant P. Orr determined 
 on having a final interview with the Rajah before request- 
 ing the Nazim to have recourse to more stringent measures 
 and with this intention he met the Rajah in a kutcherry 
 hut, situated in a mango tope, close under the bastions of 
 the fort of Eesanugger. The Rajah was accompanied by 
 his brother-in-law, his dewan, his vakeel, &c., and escorted 
 by about two hundred armed followers. Lieutenant Orr 
 had with him but a few men of his own corps, H.M.'s 
 1st Light Infantry Battalion, In the discussion which 
 ensued the Rajah's vakeel made use of most insolent 
 language, and was requested by Lieutenant Orr to leave 
 the kutcherry ; he did so, and shortly afterwards the Rajah 
 himself wished to withdraw without coming to any final 
 settlement as regarding the payment of money due. Lieu- 
 tenant Orr again urged on him the necessity of fulfilling 
 his engagement, but the Rajah seemed bent on leaving 
 the kutcherry, and had, in fact, risen from his chair, when 
 Lieutenant Orr seized him by the arm with the intention, 
 of detaining him, until he should come to terms. The 
 Rajah's brother-in-law and dewan now drew their swords, 
 and the latter struck Lieutenant Orr, inflicting a severe 
 wound on the right shoulder. Seeing the hostile aspect 
 affairs had taken, Lieutenant Orr felt his only chance of 
 life was to cling to the Rajah, whose followers, apprehen- 
 sive of wounding their master, feared to strike home. A 
 fearful struggle now ensued ; the Rajah's brother-in-law 
 inflicting a second wound of about seven inches on the 
 right thigh. Lieutenant Orr's jemadar, Rajonath Singh, 
 and a havildar, Ram Singh, took part in the affray and 
 behaved extremely well ; the former with one blow of his 
 sword struck off the head of the Rajah's brother-in-law, 
 and the havildar, seizing a formidable tulwar, made right 
 good use of it, cutting down the dewan and two others. 
 Lieutenant Orr, though covered with wounds, still retained 
 his hold on the Rajah, until, receiving a violent sword 
 cut on the head, he fell stunned. The Rajah immediately 
 
 D 
 
46 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 rose, and, himself wounded (by whom it is not known), 
 was carried off by his followers to his fort. Lieutenant 
 Orr shortly afterwards regaining his senses, and thinking 
 the scoundrels would return after seeing the Eajah safe 
 in his fort, rose and reeled a few yards out of the 
 kutcherry, ordering his servant to place him on a bed 
 and carry him off as speedily as possible. Most fortu- 
 nately did he thus act ; for no sooner had he abandoned 
 the place than the guns from the fort bastions opened 
 out, and grape was fired at the kutcheny : by this two 
 of Lieutenant Orr s men fell. To the grape succeeded 
 round shot. Scarcely had his few men placed their 
 officer on the bed and oominenced their retreat, when a 
 strong gang of fellows armed with matchlocks issued from 
 the fort, and commenced following up Lieutenant Orr's 
 small party. Still that officer preserved his presence of 
 rnind, though faint and sick from the great loss of blood, 
 and suffering fearfully from the jolting of the bed and the 
 great heat of the sun (it was now about ten o'clock A.M.). 
 When hard pressed by the villains, he ordered his small 
 party to stand and return the fire. He thus gained a 
 little time, which his servants took advantage of by hur- 
 rying on with their burden as speedily as possible. Se- 
 veral times was this manoeuvre had recourse to, and for 
 three mortal hours did this retreat last, the enemy fol- 
 lowing up, and all the villagers on the road presenting 
 too hostile an appearance to allow of any hope of refuge. 
 Once, indeed, so close was the poor fellow pursued, that, 
 fearing he had no chance of life otherwise than by mount- 
 ing his horse, he, with supernatural strength, left the 
 charpoy and actually rode a short distance ; but again 
 staggering in his seat, he was obliged to abandon his 
 horse, and submit again to be placed on the charpoy. 
 Fortunately, one of the villains had during this momen- 
 tary halt fallen, struck dead by a ball from one of the 
 muskets of Orr's escort, and this event caused them to 
 pause and thus allow our harassed party to gain ground. 
 At last Orr, with wonderful presence of mind, steering 
 his course through the fields, avoiding all villages, gained 
 the village of Kuttowlee, belonging to the Rajah of Mul- 
 labpore ; and here a community of Gooshaen fuqueers 
 
A NARROW ESCAPE. 47 
 
 received him, and to the number of about 300 (others 
 from the adjacent villages having joined) turned out, and 
 gallantly opposed the Eesanugger men, who, not daring 
 to attack them on the territory of a rival Rajah, at last 
 retraced their steps. The Gooshaens now turned their 
 attention to the wounded officer, whose state then may 
 be more easily imagined than described seven very 
 severe, and three slight wounds I They immediately re- 
 lieved the burning thirst under which he was suffering, 
 and sewed up his wounds, applying their own remedies 
 none the worse for being so simple ! Two whole days 
 and nights did they attend on him with the greatest care 
 and solicitude ; and on the third day the native re- 
 gimental doctor reached from the head-quarters of the 
 corps and co-operated with them. Lieutenant Orr is still 
 at Kuttowlee. being in too weak a sta,te for removal to 
 better quarters. His health and wounds, I am happy to 
 say, are improving, and soon, I trust, he will be able, if 
 not to resume his duties, at least to be entered on the 
 convalescent list. 
 
 " { Such, sir. is a succinct account of this most sad 
 affair. Lieutenant Orr's escape has been a miraculous 
 one one in which we cannot but recognise the hand of 
 a kind and overruling Providence ! I may add, the brave 
 jemadar was severely wounded on the left shoulder, and 
 also a small fragment of his skull shattered ; but I am 
 glad to say he is recovering fast. The Rajah has aban- 
 doned his fort and district; the former is occupied by 
 men of Captain Barlow's corps, to which belongs Lieu- 
 tenant Orr. 
 
 " ' It is useless making any comments on the vile and 
 treacherous conduct of the Rajah's people. It is one of 
 the many sad episodes in the daily history of this most 
 unfortunate country !' 
 
 " Thus far our correspondent ; but much as we sympa- 
 thize with Lieutenant Orr and his gallant Sepoys, whose 
 valour is so graphically detailed in the above narrative, 
 we cannot hope for better results from the degrading part 
 which English officers are found willing to perform in the 
 territories of this king of fiddlers and females of the 
 household. They are compelled to assist in his quarrels, 
 
48 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 no matter whether the service expected be the enforce- 
 ment of an unjust claim or the destruction of a band 
 of thieves. They are bound to work with the worst 
 of tools, often for the accomplishment of the worst of 
 ends. The ancient process of levying tithe in Ireland 
 was safe and pleasant as compared with the mode of col- 
 lecting rent in Oude. If European officers are to execute 
 the work of the king's Government, allow them to do the 
 business after their own fashion, and ensure a state of peace, 
 by making resistance an act of insanity. Some thirty- 
 five years since a Company's officer was sent to gather in 
 the rent of his majesty of Oude, and he demanded a cer- 
 tain sum from a zemindar, who was alwaj T s accustomed to 
 stand a siege before he paid his tax. The agent selected, 
 however, on this occasion, was a man in the habit of 
 achieving his objects by the speediest methods, and he 
 assured the debtor, that if he injured one of his 
 men, he would carry his fort by escalade, and put 
 every living soul to the sword. The zemindar 
 laughed at his communication, and forthwith knocked 
 over two or three Sepoys by a well directed-fire. But 
 he had not so well calculated his means of defence as 
 his range of practice. In a very short time the place 
 was surrounded, and the threat fulfilled to the letter. 
 The vengeance was worthy of Cromwell, but it was per- 
 haps an act of mercy, for the district in which it waa 
 inflicted was converted into the quietest and most pro- 
 ductive portion of the royal territory. We do not advo- 
 cate such terrible measures of repression now-a-days, for 
 we grudge every rupee that is gathered for the support of 
 a Government which is a curse to millions, and an advan- 
 tage to none but the basest of mankind. What we con- 
 tend for is, that our countrymen should either govern 
 Oude or abandon its rulers to their fate. As it is, we 
 are powerless for good, and unwilling accomplices in evil. 
 We do infinite and perpetual wrong, because some of our 
 nation in times past made treaties which it is immoral to 
 observe. When the doctrine which prevails in Europe, 
 that the good of the people is the first, and, indeed, the 
 only end of government, shall be applied to the worn-out 
 dynasties of Hindostan, we may expect to see Oude and 
 
THE DARK CLOUD 1ST THE HORIZON". 49 
 
 its king receive the justice to which they are entitled at 
 the hands of the British authorities." 
 
 When Oude is re-conquered, which will be accomplished 
 with much more difficulty than is counted upon, we may 
 rely upon it that no trouble will be found in reducing the 
 ryots to order. We may hear occasionally in the interim 
 of plundering on their part, since a sta,te of warfare is the 
 normal condition of the country, and the men who have 
 hitherto had nothing to do with rupees but hand them 
 over to a landlord and to fight in his quarrel from January 
 to December, are scarcely likely to forego the tempting 
 opportunity of doing a little business for themselves. 
 But when soldier and cultivator have been alike disarmed, 
 and security is once more established, the ryot will not 
 hesitate to prefer the safety of life, the chance of acquir- 
 ing property, and the certainty of obtaining more justice 
 than he could hope for at the hands of the rulers of his 
 own race. We know that, in some districts at least, the 
 assessment has been lowered to one-fourth the amount 
 exacted under the king's rule, and it is most likely that 
 the reduction has been universal. The progress of events 
 has made it impossible that the dynasty of Wajid Ally 
 should ever be restored ; and, were it otherwise, we should 
 earnestly deprecate such a result, for the sake of the toil- 
 ing millions. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE STOEY OP THE GREASED CARTRIDGES. GOVERNMENT WARNED, 
 BUT USELESSLY, OF THE GROWTH OF DISAFFECTION. THE BER- 
 HAMPORE OUTBREAK. 
 
 IT is not possible that hurricanes should occur in the so- 
 cial or physical world without giving timely warning of 
 their growth. To sagacious minds, the tokens of great 
 impending changes always exhibit themselves. Unluckily 
 for the people of Calcutta, they had no handbook of 
 storms to guide the politician ; no barometer to note the 
 changes in public feeling ; but still the uneasy feeling pre- 
 vailed, which denotes that important disturbance is about 
 to take place. There was a vague inquietude in the 
 
50 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 bazaar a belief that all was not sound, in the minds of 
 Englishmen unconnected with the services ; every class, 
 except the members of the governing body, was impressed 
 with a foreboding of evil. No one, however, without the 
 pale of authority dreamt of the magnitude of the dangers 
 by which we were about to be assailed ; and inside that 
 potent circle not a soul had gained an inkling of the com- 
 ing horrors. The ship of the State was struck by a white 
 squall, with every sail set and not a man at his post to 
 warn the crew of their peril. 
 
 On the 22nd of January 1857, Captain Wright, of the 
 70th N.L, brought to the notice of Major Bontein, com- 
 manding the dep6t of musketry at Dum-Duni, the fact 
 that there was " a very unpleasant feeling among the na- 
 tive soldiers who were at the depot for instruction, regard- 
 ing the grease used in preparing the cartridges, some evil- 
 disposed person having spread a report that it consisted of 
 a mixture of the fat of pigs and cows." Captain Wright 
 added, " The belief in this respect has been strengthened 
 by the behaviour of a classic attached to the magazine, 
 who, I am told, asked a Sepoy of the 2nd Grenadiers to 
 supply him with water from his lotah ; the Sepoy refused, 
 observing he was not aware of what caste the man was ; 
 theclassie immediately rejoined, ' You will soon lose your 
 caste, as ere long you will have to bite cartridges covered 
 with the fat of pigs and cows,' or words to that effect. 
 Some of the depot men, in conversing with me on the 
 subject last night, said that the report had spread through- 
 out India, and when they go to their homes their friends 
 will refuse to eat with them. I assured them (believing 
 it to be the case) that the grease used is composed of 
 mutton fat and wax ; to which they replied, ' It may be 
 so, but our friends will not believe it : let us obtain the 
 ingredients from the bazaar, and make it up ourselves ; 
 we shall then know what is used, and be able to assure 
 our fellow soldiers and others that there is nothing in it 
 prohibited by our caste.' " 
 
 Major Bontein wrote next day to the station staff ad- 
 jutant, forwarding the above report. A rumour to the 
 same effect had attracted his attention for some days pre- 
 viously, but he had not thought it a matter of importance. 
 
THE GREASED CARTRIDGES. 51 
 
 On receipt of Captain Wright's letter, he paraded all the 
 native portion of the depot, and called for any complaint 
 the men might wish to prefer. At least two-thirds of the 
 detachment immediately stepped to the front, including 
 all the native commissioned officers. In a manner per- 
 fectly respectful, they very distinctly stated their objec- 
 tion to the present method of preparing cartridges for the 
 new rifle musket : the mixture employed for greasing 
 cartridges was opposed to their religious feeling, and as a 
 remedy they begged to suggest the employment of wax 
 and oil, in such proportion as in their opinion would an- 
 swer the purpose required. 
 
 General Hearsey, commanding at Dum-Dum, was the 
 next link in the usual chain of communication ; and he 
 appreciated the gravity of the matter, losing not an hour 
 in addressing the Deputy Adjutant-General on the sub- 
 ject. "It will be hard," he wrote, " most difficult, to 
 eradicate this impression from the minds of the native 
 soldiers, who are always suspiciously disposed when any 
 change of this sort affecting themselves is introduced/' 
 As a remedy for the misunderstanding, General Hearsey 
 proposed that authority should be given for obtaining 
 from the bazaar whatever ingredients were necessary for 
 the preparation of the bullet patch, which the Sepoys 
 themselves should be allowed to make up. 
 
 The Deputy Adjutant-General took three days to con 
 over the affair, and then sent the correspondence to the 
 Military Secretary, who answered, on the 27th January, 
 that the Governor-General in council had adopted General 
 Hearsey's suggestion, which might be carried out as well 
 at Umballah and Sealkote, if the men wished it. The 
 Inspector-General of Ordnance was applied to for informa- 
 tion as to what the composition used in the arsenal for 
 greasing the cartridges of the rifle muskets consisted of, 
 " whether mutton fat was or is used, and if there are any 
 means adopted for ensuring the fat of sheep and goats only 
 being used ; also, whether it is possible that the fat of 
 bullocks and pigs may have been employed in preparing 
 the ammunition for the new rifled muskets which has 
 been recently made up in the arsenal." The reply was, 
 that the grease used was a mixture of tallow and beeswax, 
 
52 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 in accordance with the instructions of the Court of Di- 
 rectors ; that the tallow was supplied by a contractor ; 
 but that " no extraordinary precaution appears to have 
 been taken to ensure the absence of any objectionable fat." 
 The first ammunition made in the arsenal was intended 
 for the 60th Rifles, and it was probable that some of this 
 was issued to the depot at Duni-Dum. The Inspector- 
 General regretted that " ammunition was not prepared 
 expressly for the practice depot, without any grease at all," 
 but the subject did not "occur to him." He recom- 
 mended that the Home Government should be requested 
 not to send out any more made ammunition for the En- 
 field rifles. 
 
 On the 28th January General Hearsey again addressed 
 the Government on the subject of the greased cartridges. 
 He believed that members of the orthodox Brahminical 
 party had first spread the report that the Sepoys were to 
 be forced to embrace the Christian faith, and that on this 
 report was grafted, as an overt act to cause them to lose 
 caste, the distributing amongst them ball cartridges for 
 the new Enfield rifle, that had the paper forming them 
 greased with the fat of cows and pigs. The general con- 
 nected the rumours in question with the nightly acts of 
 incendiarism that had begun to take place in various 
 quarters. He thought the object of the fires was to ob- 
 tain the support of a party of the ignorant classes in the 
 ranks of the army. Parades had been held of the four 
 regiments at Barrackpore ; and their commanding officers 
 had declared their men to be " perfectly satisfied." Colo- 
 nel Wheeler, of the 34th, was told by his native officers 
 and men that they were satisfied ; but one native officer 
 respectfully asked if any orders had been received respect- 
 ing the new Enfield cartridges. Ten days afterwards 
 General Hearsey, in forwarding the proceedings of a court 
 of inquiry assembled to ascertain the " cause of their 
 continued objections to the paper of which the new rifle 
 cartridges were composed," wrote as follows : " A perusal 
 of the several statements and opinions recorded in these 
 proceedings clearly establishes, in my judgment, that a 
 most unreasonable and unfounded suspicion has unfortu- 
 nately taken possession of the minds of all the native 
 
INCENDIARY FIRES. 53 
 
 officers and Sepoys at this station, that grease or fat is 
 used in the composition of this cartridge paper ; and this 
 foolish idea is now so rooted in them, that it would, I am 
 of opinion, be both idle and unwise even to attempt its 
 removal. I would accordingly beg leave to recommend, 
 for the consideration of Government, the expediency (if 
 practicable) of ordering this rifle ammunition to be made 
 up of the same description of paper which has been, 
 hitherto employed in the magazines for the preparation 
 of the common musket cartridge, by which means this 
 groundless suspicion and objection could be at once dis- 
 posed of." 
 
 On the same day that General Hearsey stated his con- 
 viction that the idea of forcible conversion was so rooted 
 in the minds of the native soldiers, that it would be 
 " both idle and unwise even to attempt its removal," the Go- 
 vernment addressed the Court of Directors in a despatch 
 wherein it was stated that " the men were appeased on 
 being assured that the matter would be duly represented ;" 
 and again, that " they appear to be perfectly satisfied that 
 there existed no intention of interfering with their caste. 5 * 
 On the 8th April the Court of Directors were " gratified 
 to learn that the matter has been fully explained to the 
 men at Barrackpore and Dum-Dtim, and that they appear 
 perfectly satisfied that there existed no intention of in* 
 terfering with their caste ;" and on the same day the Go- 
 vernment of India addressed the Court of Directors, 
 detailing the mutiny and disbandment of the 19th Regi- 
 ment, who had refused to take the cartridges " in conse- 
 quence of the reports in circulation that the paper of 
 which they were made was greased with the fat of cows 
 and pigs." 
 
 General Hearsey wrote to Government on the llth of 
 February that they had been dwelling at Barrackpore " on 
 a mine ready for explosion." His belief was based on a 
 series of facts, which were duly set forth in his statement. 
 The taunt of the classic already alluded to had sunk 
 deeply into the minds of the Sepoys, Fires had taken 
 place at Raneegunge and Barrackpore, the combustibles 
 used being Santal arrows, which fixed suspicion on the 
 2nd Grenadiers, who had recently been stationed in that 
 
54 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 district. A Sepoy of good character had reported to his 
 officer that there was to be a meeting of the men belong- 
 ing to all the regiments a night or two back, in continua- 
 tion of a* previous one, at which the Sepoys were to dis- 
 cuss the measures proper to be taken to prevent Govern- 
 ment from destroying their religion. On the 10th 
 February, a native lieutenant deposed before a European 
 court of inquiry, that on the night of the 5th instant 
 Sepoys had come to him and made him go with them to 
 the parade ground, where he saw a great crowd of men 
 assembled, with their heads tied up in cloths, so as to 
 expose only a portion of the face. They asked him to 
 join in a rising to take place next night, when they pro- 
 posed to kill all the Europeans, plunder the station, and 
 go where they liked. General Hearsey stated that he 
 had the regiments paraded on the 9th February, and 
 impressed upon them the absurdity of their conduct. He 
 pointed out to Government that there was great danger 
 in having a brigade of four or five native corps so close 
 to the capital, and went on to remark, " You will perceive 
 in all this business the native officers were of 110 use ; in 
 fact, they are afraid of their men, and dare not act : all 
 they do is to hold themselves aloof, and expect by so 
 doing they will escape censure as not actively implicated. 
 'This has always occurred on such occasions, and will con- 
 'tinue to the end of our sovereignty in India. Well might 
 Sir C. Metcalfe say, ' that he expected to awake some fine 
 morning, and find that India had been lost to the English 
 crown.' " 
 
 The day after the above was despatched, General Hear- 
 sey again wrote, to say that a native doctor had heard a 
 Sepoy of the 2nd Grenadiers tell another native that a 
 messenger had been sent by his regiment to Diiiapore, and 
 to the 19th N.I., asking if they would join in raising a 
 disturbance. Search was made for the messenger, but he 
 was not found ; and after a few days things appeared to 
 have settled down into something like calmness ; the 
 Sepoys were allowed to make up their own cartridges, and 
 a new method of loading was adopted, by which the men 
 -broke the cartridge instead of biting it, whilst the officers 
 were " confidentially" instructed to stop short of loading 
 
THE MUTINY OP THE 19TH. 55 
 
 in the drill, and in this way the ulcer, destined so soon to 
 eat into the vitals of the body politic, was supposed to be 
 healed up for the present. 
 
 Matters continued without change till the night of the 
 19th February, when the call to arms was heard in the 
 lines of the 19th N.I. at Berhampore, and the men rapidly 
 breaking open the kotes in which the arms were kept, 
 seized their muskets, and with loud shouts assembled as if 
 on parade. A great many of them loaded, and when the 
 occurrence is studied by the light of after transactions, it 
 seems almost marvellous that the outbreak should have 
 been got under without bloodshed. There was not a 
 European soldier in the place. Moorshedabad, where the 
 descendant of Suraj-oo-Dowlah, who had lost Bengal just 
 a century before, resides, a city containing not less than a 
 hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, was distant but 
 five miles, and any amount of sympathy and perhaps of 
 aid might have been expected from its fanatic Mahomedan 
 population. The regiments at Barrackpore had invited 
 the 19th to co-operate with them, and a detachment of 
 the 34th sent on duty to Berhampore still lingered at the 
 station, waiting it was supposed for the news that the 
 work of mutiny had been commenced. On the report of 
 the disturbance being made to him, the commanding 
 officer, Col. Mitchell, ordered out the Irregular Cavalry, 
 consisting of 180 men, and two guns, manned each by 12 
 Golundauz or native gunners. The mutinous troops were 
 asked why they had paraded without orders, and replied 
 that they were told Europeans were being brought to 
 murder them, because they objected to receive the car- 
 tridge. Col. Mitchell expostulated with them on their 
 conduct, and ordered them to lay down their arms, which 
 after much hesitation they agreed to do, provided the guns 
 and cavalry were withdrawn. The latter were kept on 
 the ground until the greater portion of the regiment had 
 replaced the muskets in the kotes, and then, on the 
 assurance of the officers that the remainder were following 
 their example, but feared they might be set upon when 
 deprived of the means of defence, the artillery and troopers 
 were ordered to return to their quarters, and after four 
 hours of anxious suspense, quiet was restored. The next 
 
56 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 day a parade was held, and the native officers with a few- 
 Sepoys were invited to inspect and test the cartridges. 
 Water was used as a test, and one kind of paper being 
 more highly glazed than the rest, as shown in imbibing 
 moisture, was decided to contain fat of some kind. The 
 glazed cartridges were put aside in deference to their pre- 
 judices, and they were told that no attempts would be 
 made to compel their use of them. A report was made 
 of the whole affair to superior authority, and the regiment 
 continued to perform its duties as usual with ordinary 
 regularity. 
 
 When the behaviour of the 19th was made known at 
 Calcutta, Lord Canning resolved to make a signal example 
 of the mutineers. The steamer Oriental was ordered 
 down to Rangoon, to bring up H.M.'s 84th, and it was 
 thought that a sentence of disbandrnent, carried out in 
 the case of the entire regiment, would put an effectual 
 stop to the progress of disaffection. But the resolve was 
 bruited abroad. There were nearly 4000 Sepoys brigaded 
 at Barrackpore and in Fort William, and though H.M.'s 
 53rd with a European battery would have made short 
 work of them in a conflict, what was there to hinder the 
 success of a rising, judiciously planned and carried out 
 simultaneously at both stations? There were neither 
 Europeans nor guns at Barrackpore. If the telegraph 
 wires were cut and the roads taken possession of, they 
 could march down to Calcutta without a soul being aware 
 of the movement, and at the moment that their comrades 
 in the fort assailed the Europeans, they could attempt a 
 surprise from without with every chance of success. By 
 a strange laxity of rule which deserves the most severe 
 reprobation, the pouches of the native soldiery are only 
 examined by their officers twice a week, and of course, 
 except upon these occasions, they may use their cartridges 
 without any fear of detection. We believe that in almost 
 every instance where the Sepoys have had cause to dread 
 punishment, or were waiting for the signal to mutiny, 
 their muskets if examined would have been found loaded. 
 There would have been no difficulty then in every armed 
 native shooting his fellow soldier on duty, without awaken- 
 ing suspicion or affording the opportunity of resistance. 
 
THE FIRST SHEDDING OF BLOOD. 57 
 
 Now that we can look back and sum up the incentives to 
 rebellion, we feel abundant cause to rejoice that these 
 men, with arms in their hands and treason in their hearts, 
 could not find a leader, or muster up courage sufficient to 
 strike a blow which must have proved fatal. 
 
 Perhaps no actual conspiracy was formed to carry out 
 a plan of assault such as has been suggested, but it is 
 certain that an understanding, involving an attack upon 
 Fort William and the murder of the European officers 
 generally, was come to. The order to the 19th "N.I. to 
 march down to Barrackpore hastened the necessity for 
 action, and the 34th sent the men of that corps a mes- 
 sage, urging them to slaughter their officers on the road, 
 in which case they would be ready to effect a junction at 
 Barrackpore, and try conclusions with the Government. 
 Their overtures might perhaps have been successful, but 
 Col. Mitchell took the precaution of making an unexpected 
 lialt within fourteen miles of Barrackpore, and sending 
 for the native officers, kept them at his quarters for some 
 hours, the time chosen for the durbar being that supposed 
 to be fixed upon for the mutiny. Baffled by those simple 
 but efficacious measures, the 19th were unable to transmit 
 the expected signal to Barrackpore, and the rest of the 
 conspirators were afraid to begin without it. But Mungul 
 Pandy, a Sepoy of the 34th, was not to be balked of the 
 pleasure he had anticipated in shedding the blood of the 
 Feringhees. Housed to frenzy by the copious use of 
 bhang, he seized his musket, and rushed upon the parade 
 ground on the afternoon of Sunday the 29th of March, 
 calling upon his comrades to come forward and fight for 
 their religion. The serjeant-major of the regiment came 
 up at the time, and the fellow deliberately fired at him 
 but missed. The quarter-guard, consisting of nineteen 
 men of the same regiment, turned out to witness the 
 scene, but without exhibiting the smallest intention of 
 affording assistance. Whilst the struggle was going on 
 the adjutant made his appearance, and Mungul Pandy, 
 having carefully reloaded his musket, fired a second time, 
 and shot the adjutant's horse. A hand-to-hand fight now 
 ensued, the Sepoy hacking with his sword at both officers, 
 whilst numbers of men belonging to the regiment, who 
 
58 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 had gathered round the spot, attacked them from behind 
 with the butt-ends of their muskets, repeating their blows 
 whilst the latter lay on the ground. The strife would 
 have soon been over, had not Major-General Hearsey 
 galloped up, and ordered the guard to move forward to 
 the rescue. The fellows hesitated to obey, on which the 
 General drew a revolver, and pointing at them, repeated 
 his commands, when they slowly advanced and rescued 
 the bleeding and insensible men. The jemadar, a high- 
 caste Brahmin, who had ordered them not to stir from 
 their post, was, with the rest of the guard, placed in close 
 arrest; and on the night following, the 19th Regiment, 
 weary with their march of fourteen miles, arrived at the 
 station. Next day they were disbanded with expressions 
 of regret on the part of the General commanding the 
 brigade, and apparently a little compunction on the side 
 of the Governor-General, who thought he would strike 
 terror by such an act to the hearts of their co-religionists. 
 Supported by H.M.'s 84th Eegiment and a wing of the 
 53rd, two troops of artillery, and the Body-guard, General 
 Hearsey pronounced the sentence contained in the fol- 
 lowing order : 
 
 "The 19th Eegiment N.I. has been brought to the 
 head quarters of the Presidency Division, to receive, in 
 the presence of the troops there assembled, the decision 
 of the Governor-General in Council upon the offence of 
 which it has been guilty. 
 
 "On the 26th of February the 19th Regiment N.I. 
 was ordered to parade on the following morning for exer- 
 cise, with fifteen rounds of blank ammunition for each man. 
 
 " The only blank ammunition in store was some which 
 had been made up by the 7th N.I., the regiment pre- 
 ceding the 19th Regiment at Berhampore, and which had 
 been left at that station on the departure of the 7th Regi- 
 ment. This ammunition had been used by the recruits of 
 ^the 19th Regiment up to the date above mentioned. 
 
 " When the quantity of ammunition required for the 
 following morning was taken to the lines, it appears that 
 the men objected to the paper of which the cartridges 
 were made, as being of two colours ; and when the pay 
 havildars assembled the men to issue the percussion caps, 
 
THE OFFICIAL BILL OF INDICTMENT. 59 
 
 they refused to receive them, saying that they had doubts 
 about the cartridges. 
 
 " The men have since stated, in a petition addressed to 
 the Major-General commanding the Presidency Division, 
 that for more than two months they had heard rumours 
 of new cartridges having been made at Calcutta, on the 
 paper of which the fat of bullocks and pigs had been 
 spread, and of its being the intention of the Government 
 to coerce the men to bite these cartridges ; and that 
 therefore they were afraid for their religion. They admit 
 that assurance given them by the Colonel of their regi- 
 ment satisfied them that this would not be the case; 
 adding, nevertheless, that when on the 26th of February 
 they perceived the cartridges to be of two kinds, they 
 were convinced that one kind was greased, and therefore 
 refused them. 
 
 "The Commanding Officer, on hearing of the refusal, 
 went to the lines, assembled the native commissioned and 
 non-commissioned officers, and explained that the car- 
 tridges were unobjectionable, and had been left at Berham- 
 pore by the 7th Regiment. He instructed them to inform 
 their men that the cartridges would be served out in the 
 morning by the officers commanding companies, and that 
 any man who refused to take them would be tried by a 
 Court Martial and punished. 
 
 " This occurred at eight o'clock in the evening. 
 
 " Between ten and eleven o'clock a rush was made by 
 the Sepoys to the bells of arms ; the doors were forced 
 open ; the men took possession of their arms and accoutre- 
 ments, and carried them to their lines. 
 
 "On learning what had occurred, Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Mitchell ordered out the llth B/egiment of Irregular 
 Cavalry and the post guns. 
 
 " When the Cavalry reached the parade, the men of 
 the 19th Regiment rushed out of their lines with their 
 arms, shouting, and assembled near to the bells of arms, 
 where many loaded their muskets. 
 
 " Upon Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell and the European 
 officers approaching the men, they were warned not to go 
 on, or the men would fire. 
 
 " The native officers were assembled, and Lieutenant- 
 
60 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 Colonel Mitchell, after addressing the men, directed the 
 officers to separate the companies, and to require them to 
 give up their arms. 
 
 " The men hesitated at first, but eventually gave up 
 their arms and retired to their lines. 
 
 " These are the principal features of the outbreak at 
 Berhampore on the 26th of February. 
 
 "The men of the 19th Regiment have refused obe- 
 dience to their European officers. They have seized arms 
 with violence. They have assembled, in a body, to resist 
 the authority of their Commander. 
 
 "The regiment has been guilty of open and defiant 
 mutiny. 
 
 " It is no excuse for this offence to say, as had been 
 said in the before-mentioned petition of the native officers 
 and men of the regiment, that they were afraid for their 
 religion, and that they apprehended violence to themselves. 
 
 " It is no atonement ot it to declare, as they have therein 
 declared, that they are ready to fight for their Government 
 in the field, when they have disobeyed and insulted that 
 Government in the persons of its officers, and have ex- 
 pressed no contrition for their heavy offences. 
 
 "Neither the 19th Regiment, nor any regiment in the 
 service of the Government of India, nor any Sepoy, 
 Hindoo, or Mussulman, has reason to pretend that the 
 Government has shown, directly or indirectly, a desire to 
 interfere with the religion of its troops. 
 
 " It has been the unvarying rule of the Government of 
 India to treat the religious feelings of all its servants, of 
 every creed, with careful respect ; and to representations 
 or complaints put forward in a dutiful and becoming 
 spirit, whether upon this, or upon any other subject, it 
 has never turned a deaf ear. 
 
 " But the Government of India expects to receive, in re- 
 turn for this treatment, the confidence of those who serve it. 
 
 " From its soldiers of every rank and race it will, at all 
 times and in all circumstances, enforce unhesitating obe- 
 dience. They have sworn to give it, and the Governor- 
 General in Council will never cease to exact it. To no 
 men who prefer complaints with arms in their hands will 
 he ever listen. 
 
THE LOSERS PAYING THE STAKES. 61 
 
 "Had the Sepoys of the 19th Regiment confided in 
 their Government, and believed their commanding officer, 
 instead of crediting the idle stories with which false and 
 evil-minded men have deceived them, their religious 
 scruples would still have remained inviolate, and them- 
 selves would still be, as they have hitherto been, faithful 
 soldiers, trusted by the State, and laying up for future 
 years all the rewards of a long and honourable service. 
 
 " But the Governor- General in Council can no longer 
 have any confidence in this regiment, which has disgraced 
 its name, and has lost all claim to consideration and in- 
 dulgence. 
 
 " It is therefore the order of the Governor-General in 
 Council, that the 19th Regiment N.I. be now disbanded; 
 that the native commissioned and non-commissioned 
 officers and privates be discharged from the army of 
 Bengal ; that this be done at the head-quarters of the 
 Presidency Division in the presence of every available 
 corps within two days' march of the station ; that the 
 regiment be paraded for the purpose ; and that each man, 
 after being deprived of his arms, shall receive his arrears 
 of pay and be required to withdraw from the cantonment. 
 
 " The European officers of the regiment will remain at 
 Barrackpore until orders for their disposal shall be re- 
 ceived from his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief. 
 
 " This order is to be read at the head of every regiment, 
 troop, and company in the service." 
 
 The arms were piled, the colours deposited, and the 19th 
 N.I. was erased from the army list. 
 
 It is difficult to say how far the disbanded soldiers 
 really went in heart with the promoters of insurrection, 
 but before scattering themselves over the face of the land 
 they asked to be allowed one of two favours, either to be 
 re-enlisted for general service, or failing that request, to be 
 allowed the use of their arms for half an hour, and brought 
 face to face with the 34th, in which latter case they pro- 
 mised to avenge th6 quarrel of the Government as well as 
 their own. Perhaps their anger was felt against the men 
 who had brought them into temptation without having 
 had the courage to share their offence, rather than against 
 the evil advisers who had lured them to an act of folly. 
 
 E 
 
62 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 Some alarm was entertained lest they should plunder the 
 villages on their way up-country, but they seem to have 
 conducted themselves peaceably. Many got employment 
 as durwans, or gate-keepers, and a few were entertained by 
 magistrates, for whom they have since done efficient service 
 in the capture of fugitive mutineers. Hundreds died of 
 cholera by the way-side, and a large proportion went into 
 the service of the Nawaub of Moorshedabad. It has not 
 been ascertained if any of the 19th have been found in the 
 ranks of the existing rebel army. 
 
 It took five weeks from the date of the occurrence last 
 mentioned to enable the Government at Calcutta to make 
 up their minds as to what they should do with the 34th. 
 The Commander-in-Chief was far away in the recesses of 
 the Himalayas, and justice must neither seem hurried nor 
 cruel. In the interval, Mungul Pandy and the jemadar 
 of the guard had been tried and hung, the former glorying 
 in his crimes to the latest moment, and asserting that he 
 was about to suffer for the good of religion. Two Sepoys 
 had also been transported as accomplices in a plot for 
 capturing the fort, and a native officer of the same regi- 
 ment, the 70th N.I., was dismissed the service for treason- 
 able practices. In the Executive Council Mr. J. P. Grant 
 appears to have been prepared to inflict capital punish- 
 ment, in the case at least of the quarter-guard of the 19th ; 
 but if so, the milder counsels of the Governor-General 
 secured a majority in favour of merely sending them about 
 their business. Lord Canning had a notion, which it 
 took two months of terrible experience to conquer, that 
 disbanding was a fearful punishment to the Indian Sepoy, 
 accustomed as he is to rely absolutely on the Government 
 for his own subsistence and that of his family in manhood 
 and old age. It was no use pointing out to him that 
 these men had committed the worst offence known to the 
 military code ; that they were mutineers in fact and 
 murderers in intention, saved only by their intense 
 cowardice from finishing a work which they undertook 
 con amore. He had got it fixed in his mind that a 
 mutiny was a mere strife of discontented labourers, which 
 a little coercion, a little persuasion, and much talk upon 
 the folly of the proceeding were sure to put down. It 
 
THE RULE OF HAP-HAZARD. 63 
 
 wa,s true he might recognise a difference between the 
 Bengal Sepoy and the Manchester spinner, to the great 
 advantage however of the former, seeing that he kept his 
 tools and received his wages when on strike, whilst the 
 latter was entirely disbanded with very little chance of 
 re-enlistment. At one moment it appears to have been 
 thought advisable to overlook the conduct of the regiment 
 altogether. The Oriental, which was supposed to be lying 
 at Madras, was twice telegraphed for to convey the 84th 
 back to Burmah, and but for the accident that sent her 
 across to Rangoon, the capital would have been left as before, 
 with only the wing of a European regiment. It is hard 
 to say what might have occurred had either the steamer 
 been available when applied for, or the reports of growing 
 disaffection become less frequent. Fortunately neither 
 contingency occurred. The Government were roused to 
 a partial sense of duty, and on the 6th of May the whole 
 of the disposable troops in and around Calcutta were con- 
 centrated at Barrackpore, to carry out the order for dis- 
 banding such officers and men of the 34th N.I. as were 
 present in the lines on the 29th March, when Adjutant 
 Baugh was wounded. At daylight two sides of a square 
 were formed by ELM.'s 53rd and 84th, the 2nd, 43rd, and 
 70th 1ST. I., two squadrons of cavalry, consisting of the 
 Body-guard and the llth Irregulars, and a light field 
 battery with six guns. When the line was formed, seven, 
 companies of the 34th, about four hundred strong, were 
 halted in front of the guns ; the order for disbandment 
 was read out by the interpreter, Lieut. Chamier, and after 
 a few energetic remarks upon the enormity of their offence, 
 General Hearsey commanded them to pile their arms and 
 strip off the uniform which they had disgraced. Of course 
 they obeyed without a moment's hesitation. The work of 
 paying up their arrears was then commenced, and in two 
 hours the disorderly Sepoys, now converted into an orderly 
 mob, were marched off to Pulta Ghaut for conveyance to 
 Chinsurah, the grenadiers of the 84th and a portion of the 
 Body-guard attending their footsteps. When they left 
 their lines, order had been taken for sending their families 
 and baggage on to Chinsurah. Instructions were given, 
 to the various police authorities to hinder them from 
 
 E2 
 
64 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 crossing the river, and it was hoped that the public had 
 heard the last of the second mutiny of the 34th B.N.I. 
 
 The following order appeared next day in the Govern- 
 ment Gazette : 
 
 " Fort William, 4th May. On the 29th of March a 
 Sepoy of the 34th Regiment of Native Infantry, stationed 
 at Barrackpore, armed himself with a loaded musket and 
 sword, advanced upon the parade ground in front of his 
 lines, and, after conducting himself in a violent and muti- 
 nous manner, and calling upon the men of the regiment 
 to come forth and to join him in resisting lawful authority, 
 attacked and wounded the adjutant and sergeant-major 
 f his regiment, who approached to restrain him. 
 
 " This man has been tried, condemned, and hanged. 
 
 " On the same occasion the native officer, a jemadar in 
 eommand of the quarter-guard of the 34th Regiment 
 Native Infantry, refused to obey his superior, by whom 
 he was ordered to seize the above-mentioned Sepoy. 
 
 " After being tried by a court of native commissioned 
 officers, this man, himself a commissioned officer, has paid 
 the penalty of his mutiny by the same ignominious death. 
 
 " But these men were not the sole offenders upon that 
 occasion. 
 
 " The Governor- General in Council laments to say that 
 the conduct of the native commissioned and non-com- 
 missioned officers and men of the 34th Regiment who 
 were then present, has been shown to be such as to destroy 
 his confidence in them as soldiers of the State, and to call 
 for severe and exemplary punishment. 
 
 " The mutinous Sepoy was permitted to parade himself 
 insolently before his assembled comrades, using menaces 
 and threatening gestures against his officers without an 
 attempt on the part of any to control him. 
 
 " No such attempt was made even when he had de- 
 liberately fired at the sergeant-major of the regiment 
 
 " None was made when, upon the appearance of the 
 adjutant, Lieutenant Baugh, and after having reloaded 
 the nmsket unmolested, the mutineer discharged it at 
 that officer and shot his horse. 
 
 " When the horse fell, not a sign of assistance to 
 Lieutenant Baugh was given either by the quarter- 
 
DESERVED REPROACHES. 65 
 
 guard or by the Sepoys not on duty, although this took 
 place within ten paces of the guard. 
 
 " During the hand-to-hand conflict which followed be- 
 tween the mutineer and Lieutenant Baugh, supported by 
 Sergeant-Major Hewson, the men collected at the lines in 
 undress looked on passively; others in uniform and on 
 duty joined in the struggle ; but it was to take part 
 against their officers, whom they attacked with the butts 
 of their muskets, striking down the sergeant-major from 
 behind, and repeating the blows as he lay on the ground. 
 
 " The Governor-General in Council deeply regrets that, 
 of the ruffians who perpetrated this cowardly act, the 
 only one who was identified has escaped his punishment 
 by desertion. 
 
 " There was, however, one amongst those who stood by, 
 who set an honourable example to his comrades. Sheik 
 Pultoo Sepoy (now havildar), of the Grenadier company, 
 obeyed the call of his officer for assistance unhesitatingly. 
 He was wounded in the endeavour to protect Lieutenant 
 Baugh from the mutineer, and did all that an unarmed 
 man could do to seize the criminal. His conduct was 
 that of a faithful and brave soldier. 
 
 " When the adjutant, maimed and bleeding, was re- 
 tiring from the conflict, he passed the lines of his regi- 
 ment and reproached the men assembled there with 
 having allowed their officer to be cut down before their 
 eyes without offering to assist him ; they made no reply, 
 but turned their backs and moved sullenly away. 
 
 " For the failure of the quarter-guard to do its duty, 
 the jemadar who commanded it has already paid the last 
 penalty of death. In this guard, consisting of twenty 
 Sepoys, there were four who desired to act against the 
 mutineer, but their jemadar restrained them ; and when 
 eventually the order to advance upon the criminal was 
 given by superior authority, the majority yielded obedience 
 reluctantly. 
 
 " Upon a review of these facts and of all the circum- 
 stances connected with them, it is but too clear to the 
 Governor-General in Council that a spirit of disloyalty 
 prevails in those companies of the 34th Regiment Native 
 Infantry which are stationed at the head-quarters of the 
 
66 THE SEPOY EEVOLT. 
 
 Presidency Division. Silent spectators of a long con- 
 tinued act of insolent mutiny, they have made no en- 
 deavour to suppress it, and have thereby become liable 
 themselves to the punishment of mutineers. The Go- 
 vernor-General in Council can no longer put trust in 
 them, and he rejects their services from this time forward. 
 " Therefore, it is the order of the Governor-General in 
 Council that the native commissioned and non-commis- 
 sioned officers and men of the seven companies of the 
 34th Regiment Native Infantry, now quartered at Bar- 
 rackpore, be disbanded and dismissed from the army of 
 Bengal, with the following exceptions in favour of those 
 who in the course of recent events have given the 
 Governor-General in Council good reason to believe in 
 
 their fidelity to their officers and to the Government : 
 * * * * * # 
 
 " There remains one point which the Governor- General 
 in Council desires to notice. 
 
 " The Sepoy, who was the chief actor in the disgraceful 
 scene of the 29th of March, called upon his comrades to 
 come to his support for the reason that their religion was 
 in danger, and that they were about to be compelled to 
 use cartridges, the use of which would do injury to their 
 caste ; and from the words in which he addressed the 
 Sepoys it is to be inferred that many of them shared this 
 opinion with him. 
 
 " The Governor-General in Council has recently had 
 occasion to remind the army of Bengal that the Govern- 
 ment of India has never interfered to constrain its 
 soldiers in matters affecting their religious faith. He 
 has declared that the Government of India never will do 
 so, and he has a right to expect that this declaration shall 
 give confidence to all who have been deceived and led 
 astray. 
 
 " But whatever may be the deceptions or evil counsels 
 to which others have been exposed, the native officers and 
 men of the 34th Regiment Native Infantry have no ex- 
 cuse for misapprehension on this subject. Not many 
 weeks previously to the 29th of March it had been ex- 
 plained to that regiment first by their own command- 
 ing officer, and subsequently by the major-general com- 
 
SAYING TOO MUCH. 67 
 
 manding the division that their fears for religion were 
 groundless. It was carefully and clearly shown to them, 
 that the cartridges which they would be called upon to 
 use contained nothing which could do violence to their 
 religious scruples. If, after receiving these assurances, 
 the Sepoys of the 34th Regiment, or of any other regi- 
 ment, still refuse to place trust in their officers and in 
 the Government, and still allow suspicions to take root 
 in their minds, and to grow into disaffection, insubordi- 
 nation, and mutiny, the fault is their own, and their 
 punishment will be upon their own heads. That it will 
 be a sharp and certain punishment the Governor-General 
 in Council warns them." 
 
 It is no insignificant branch of the art of governing, 
 which teaches the right use of language with reference 
 to compositions intended for the eye of the public. The 
 vagueness and want of meaning charged against royal 
 speeches and ministerial statements in general, give those 
 utterances their chief value ; to say nothing now, is to 
 leave you the opportunity of saying anything hereafter. 
 When the case is thoroughly stated, and the argument 
 has been heard in support of it, the matter in question 
 is remitted to the sole cognizance of the jury, and the 
 ruler, who is always defendant, lies at their mercy. 
 
 The Governor-General forgot the lessons of State-craft 
 when he penned the above General Order. It was far 
 too explicit to be successful. It vindicated the mildness 
 rather than the wisdom of the executive ; it showed the 
 necessity for adopting a stern policy, and how very far 
 the fulfilment halted behind the purpose. The physician 
 details all the symptoms of a terrible disease and gives it 
 its right name. He knows the exact state of the patient; 
 he declares that violent remedies must be resorted to, and 
 winds up by prescribing fresh air, low diet, and an absti- 
 nence from labour, as a cure for the malady, and a panacea 
 against infection. In the above narrative, nothing is 
 omitted that could make the story of the mutiny more 
 effective. The universal complicity, the common blood- 
 thirstiness, the cruelty, and the cowardice are exhibited 
 in the strongest light. But for the Governor-General 
 the public would not have known how deep was the 
 
68 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 offence of these men against law and humanity, and it 
 is much to be regretted that the intellect, which could 
 so clearly portray the crime, had not in this instance been 
 ioinecl with the strength of will that should have decreed 
 its proper punishment. 
 
 The position of the Governor-General is, however, with 
 regard to military affairs, a very anomalous one. If he 
 exercises the independent jurisdiction which the law has 
 vested in him, his situation is much like that of the 
 captain of a ship who supersedes the pilot. He may 
 have the best possible reasons for the step, but, if the 
 vessel is lost, the insurance is vitiated, and, under any 
 circumstances, he must expect to be blamed by the pilot 
 interest. On the first report of disaffection in Bengal, 
 it was the duty of the Commander-in-Chief to hasten to 
 Calcutta, and initiate the measures to be taken. Ease 
 and comfort are needful as well as pleasant in that 
 climate, and no one grudges such enjoyment to the 
 seniors of the service ; but emergency sometimes calls 
 on the old as well as the young, and the head of the 
 Indian army is not entitled to claim exemption from 
 the common lot of soldiers. We hope we are not doing 
 injustice to the memory of General Anson in imputing 
 the delay that occurred in dealing out what was called 
 " severe punishment " to the mutineers, to his personal 
 inactivity. We should indeed be sorry to hear that it 
 was owing to his deliberate counsels. 
 
 Pickpockets who have left us the story of their lives, 
 have recorded the feelings of terror with which the entry 
 of a police-officer into a den of thieves is regarded. He 
 is a common foe, and to a certain extent they are all in- 
 terested in preventing the capture of an offender, but it is 
 rare in the extreme that resistance is offered. The thief- 
 taker's warrant represents the whole authority of the 
 courts of justice ; his truncheon symbolizes all the physical 
 force of the country. The criminal who is "wanted," 
 surrenders, not to the individual, whom a single blow 
 might dispose of, but to the law, which is enduring and 
 resistless. 'Had Government, instead of waiting till a 
 force of Europeans numerically superior to the mutinous 
 regiments could assemble, organized, at the first moment 
 
INCAPABLE OFFICIALS. 
 
 of outbreak, a moveable column, consisting of a single corps 
 of English troops, a battery of guns, and such cavalry as 
 were available, they might have disarmed and punished 
 treason wherever it dared to lift its head. If authority 
 can only maintain itself by opposing man to man, it should 
 abdicate with as little delay as possible. 
 
 Delay and comparative impunity for crime had much 
 to do with the wide-spread growth of mutiny ; but it is 
 something to know that the whole military system in 
 Bengal is at an end. So long as the Brahmin dominated 
 in its ranks, so long might we expect to hear of plots 
 and disaffection, by means of their results. A native 
 officer of the 34th was complaining of his hard fate in 
 being ruined for a revolt in which he had no share. He 
 was reminded that he must have known what was going 
 on in the ranks ; and at once he admitted that such was 
 the case, but asked, in turn, how it was supposed he ought 
 to have acted 1 Had he reported the facts, the Brahmins 
 would most likely have murdered him, and, at any rate, 
 they would have brought forward hundreds of witnesses 
 to swear that he was either perjured or insane. There 
 was no denying the force of this plea ; the poor wretch 
 vowed that he was a martyr to our system, and we incline 
 to believe him. 
 
 An army has often been likened to a machine, and we 
 wish the comparison were thoroughly accepted. When 
 your engine goes wrong, it is found needful to have at hand 
 a man who understands every portion of it. Being able 
 to place his hand on the defective spot, he knows exactly 
 what is required in the way of reparation, and how to set 
 about the work. But we never, except by chance, have 
 a capable engineer in the person of the exalted official, who 
 has to guide the vast and powerful mechanism that holds 
 the soil and collects the revenues of India. It is hard to 
 divine in most cases the cause of his appointment, harder 
 still to justify the fact of it. It is a miserable thing to/ 
 say that the State gains by the idleness of a Commander- 
 in-Chief ; and yet in most cases all ranks of the community 
 would join in wishing that he would fold his hands, and 
 only open them to clutch what ought to be the recompense 
 of zeal, intellect, and energy. 
 
70 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 Show that your highest office might be a sinecure, and 
 ought never to task the body and brain, of the man who 
 fills it, and every general who is old or constitutionally 
 indolent will naturally imitate the example of his chief. 
 Wherever duty can be delegated, it will be done, if at all, 
 by deputy. The general of the division will rely on the 
 colonel, who will rely on his officers, who in turn will 
 rely on native subordinates, who of late could not rely 
 on their men. If the world would only stop for us, so 
 that we could all grow old together, what a pleasant state 
 of things might ensue : but it refuses to halt for a moment ; 
 it declines to accept age and idleness in lieu of vigour and 
 industry, however highly recommended to do so. And as 
 we cannot conquer the necessity, we had better submit to 
 it quietly. (Clearly enough, the Indian army requires 
 better guidance, and it will be wise to provide at once the 
 indispensable material. 
 
 The way to make men invincible is to place them in a 
 situation where they must gain the victory in order to 
 save their lives ; and if we made military rank the sole 
 reward of the Indian officer, it would soon be found that 
 he would both love and adorn his noble profession. But 
 so long as he finds the great prizes of his career in the 
 ranks of the civil' service, it is not likely that he will take 
 a pride in soldiership. He cannot fail to observe that his 
 superiors in general seem to lay it down as a maxim, that 
 lie is wisest who does the least work, and he the most 
 to be envied who gets the highest pay. It would ill beseem 
 him to ignore their example, and he imitates it. The day 
 comes when the Sepoy fancies that he discerns an injury 
 to his religion, or feels more than the usual strain upon 
 his loyalty. He refuses to recognise the authority of one 
 who is scarcely known to him, or to listen to a voice that 
 has never spoken kindly in his ear ; and the result is 
 mutiny and ruin on the one hand, disappointment and 
 shame on the other. We hold that rebellion can never 
 break out amongst a people, unless their rulers are greatly 
 in fault ; and we are equally convinced that mutiny 
 would never show itself in a regiment, where the officers 
 knew their duty, and performed it. 
 
PUNISHMENT OF THE REBELS. 71 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 THE OUTBREAK AT MEERUT. THE MARCH 'TO DELHI. MR. COLVIN'S 
 DESPATCHES. GOVERNMENT KEEPING BACK INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 ON the 8th of May the new cartridges were offered to the 
 3rd Cavalry. They refused to accept them, and on the 
 following day eighty-five of the mutineers were tried by 
 court-martial, and eighty of them sentenced to be impri- 
 soned for ten years with hard labour, and the remaining 
 five for six years. The offence had been grappled with 
 vigorously, and the display of force for the purpose of 
 carrying out the punishment was sufficiently imposing. 
 The Carabineers, 60th Rifles, the llth and 20th Regts. 
 N.I., a light field battery, together with the Horse Artil- 
 lery and the mutinous regiment, were drawn up on the 
 parade ground, and the prisoners were brought forward, 
 stripped of their uniform, and ironed on the spot. The 
 majority of them uttered loud cries of rage and despair, 
 and great agitation was evinced by the native soldiery ; 
 but no attempt at resistance was made, and the criminals 
 were marched off the ground under a strong guard, and 
 lodged in jail. It is reasonable to suppose that, for the 
 next thirty-two hours, they showed no signs of an inten- 
 tion to revolt, for not a single precaution was taken by 
 the authorities, though nothing would have been easier 
 than to have rendered mutiny impossible. The custom of 
 hutting the Sepoys would seem designed for the express 
 purpose of isolating them from outward control. Each 
 caste has its own quarter, and none- but Brahmins can 
 know what occurs in the Brahminical portion of the can- 
 tonment, where the low-caste man is not allowed to enter 
 except upon duty. There is no doubt that during the 
 night of the llth the whole plan of the rising was ma- 
 tured ; but the bare design implied in them a too well 
 founded reliance upon the incapacity of the general com- 
 manding, or a degree of daring which could only be the 
 result of fanaticism wrought up to the pitch of madness. 
 They were scarcely a match, numerically speaking, for the 
 European troops, and had never been taught that against 
 odds of two to one the Gora logue had failed to be victo- 
 
72 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 rious. There were in "the station two troops of European 
 horse artillery, together with a field battery, whilst they 
 were wholly destitute of guns. The Dragoons could have 
 fairly ridden down a couple of native cavalry regiments, 
 and the 60th Rifles were at least a match for 2000 Sepoys. 
 With such a prospect of speedy annihilation before them, 
 they rose at six o'clock on Sunday afternoon, and set the 
 first example of rebellion and murder. The sound of the 
 church-going bell was soon mingled with the roaring of 
 flames, the wild shouts of revenge and unavailing shrieks 
 for mercy. Whilst a party of the 3rd Cavalry rushed to 
 the jail, and liberated without the slightest difficulty 
 their comrades and the whole of the prisoners in confine- 
 ment, the rest were galloping about, cutting down their 
 officers and such other Europeans as came in their way. 
 Torches were everywhere applied to the bungalows ; the 
 ruffians from the jail and the thieves of the bazaar rushed 
 into every house; and, whilst some slaughtered the in- 
 mates with circumstances of shocking barbarity, the 
 others plundered whatever they could lay hold of, and 
 wrecked such valuables as they were unable to carry away. 
 For two hours the work of butchery and burning con- 
 tinued, though the authorities had it in their power to 
 have cut up within that time every living soul of the 
 mutineers. Whether the apathy, which it is more pain- 
 ful to contemplate than the scenes of bloodshed, was the 
 result of fear or imbecility, we have not the means of 
 judging ; and part of the vengeance invoked upon General 
 JHewett ought to fall on the heads of those who are respon- 
 sible for the appointment to such an important post of an 
 old man of seventy years and upwards. When the work 
 of destruction had been completed, and every English man, 
 woman, and child whom they could lay hold of were mur- 
 dered, the rebels prepared to leave the station, and were 
 allowed to do so without hindrance. They took the Delhi 
 road, and went on their way rejoicing ; when at last the 
 Dragoons and Rifles made their appearance and shot down 
 a few without in any way impeding the march of the rest. 
 Their place of refuge was forty miles distant, the highway 
 was level as a bowling-green the whole way, and they had 
 to cross two rivers to get into Delhi. A few guns placed 
 
THE COST OP SENILITY IN HIGH PLACES. 73 
 
 on the road, a forced march of the Rifles, and smart gallop 
 of the cavalry, would have placed the British force in a 
 position to effect their total annihilation. The mischief at 
 Meerut had been done ; the safety of the station was past 
 praying for; and what had 2000 of her Majesty's choice 
 troops to do but to plant themselves in the path of the 
 bloodthirsty traitors and trample out the mutiny, so lar at 
 least as they were concerned ? But the chance, which 
 many a gallant heart must have prayed for all that night 
 in agony of spirit, was allowed to pass away, and the 
 cowardice or folly of a single man has entailed the slaughter 
 of countless thousands, and put to hazard the fairest domi- 
 nion that ever the sun shone upon. There is no punishment 
 great enough for such weakness, and we had better let it 
 rest under the shield of ignominy and universal execration. 
 
 For weeks afterwards the wrecks of what had once been 
 beautiful women and stalwart men straggled daily into 
 the station, adding fresh stock to the stories of horror and 
 disaster. The mutilated remains of the murdered were 
 collected and decently disposed of, and a sense of the pro- 
 priety of retribution began to dawn on the minds of the 
 authorities. Some of the assassins were arrested and 
 hung, and hopes were whispered abroad that in a few days 
 ample justice would be done on the mutineers. , Tidings 
 of the outbreak were sent off to the Commander-in-Chief, 
 who, however, could not be found for some time, having 
 gone on a shooting excursion amongst the hills, and for 
 the next three weeks no direct intelligence of his move- 
 ments was received at Calcutta. He reached Umballa 
 on the 18th of May, with the European regiment from 
 Sealkote, Dughsi, and Kussowlie, and pushed on to Kur- 
 naul, but halted for guns and carriage accommodation. 
 Neither artillery nor beasts of burden were to be had at 
 the head -quarters of the Queen's forces. 
 
 General Anson had sadly neglected his duty as Com- 
 ma nder-in-Chief of the Bengal army in the evil days that 
 he had fallen upon, but the spirit of a brave soldier was 
 strong within him, and he proposed to move on Delhi at 
 once, without waiting for reinforcements. The guns 
 might follow, as he '-nought ; but it was pointed out to 
 him. that there was no commissariat, no camels, not a 
 
74 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 day's allowance of provisions for troops in the field. Well ! 
 he would supply his men in the villages on the route, and 
 make the military chests serve in lieu of gomastahs and 
 baggage- waggons. Such unwonted energy might have 
 borne down opposition ; but another reason for delay was 
 urged. There was not a single medicine chest available : 
 that objection was insurmountable, and the general bowed 
 to the influence of the military secretary. He remained 
 at Kurnaul till the 27th of May, and then succumbed to 
 a mightier influence, dying of cholera after a few hours* 
 illness. 
 
 On the llth of May Mr. Colvin telegraphed to Govern- 
 ment that a message had been received at Agra, at nine P.M. 
 the preceding evening, from the niece of the postmaster, 
 to the following effect : " The cavalry have risen, setting 
 fire to their own houses, and several officers' houses, be- 
 sides having killed and wounded all European soldiers 
 and officers they could find near their lines." On the 
 12th, the Lieutenant-Governor telegraphed that the 3rd 
 Cavalry mutineers had been released, that guns were 
 heard all the night of the 10th and morning of the llth. 
 A young Sepoy, with his arms and a cavalry troop horse, 
 travelling down, it was believed, to acquaint other regi- 
 ments with the mutiny, had been arrested, and the Delhi 
 road was in possession of the mutineers; the villagers 
 had risen between Meerut and Haupper. The next day 
 Mr. Colvin urged that the troops from Persia should be 
 ordered to Calcutta, and sent up-country at once. He 
 stated that the villagers between Agra and Meerut robbed 
 and ill-used all passengers, that men of the llth and 20th 
 Regiments were apprehended at Allyghur, but "were 
 obstinately silent as to what has occurred." He suggested 
 the use of irregular cavalry in clearing the roads in the 
 disturbed districts. 
 
 On the 13th, Government telegraphed to Meerut to 
 know what had taken place, and on the same day Mr. 
 Colvin received a letter from that station, dated May 1 2th. 
 A detachment of carabineers might have easily escorted 
 a mail to Agra in twenty-four hours after the occurrence 
 of the outbreak, the distance being only fifty-six miles ; 
 but neither the faculties of the general commanding nor 
 
LIFTING UP THE CURTAIN. 75 
 
 those of the commissioner of the division were equal to 
 such an effort. On the 14th, Mr. Cdvin informed Lord 
 Canning that he had received a letter from the king; 
 that the town and fort of Delhi and his own person were 
 in the hands of the insurgent regiments stationed there, 
 who had joined a hundred of the Meerut mutineers, and 
 opened the gates. The commissioner and his assistant, as 
 well as Miss Jennings, were reported to be killed. Mr. 
 Colvin recommended the proclamation of martial law, and 
 to show the state of feeling amongst the Sepoys about 
 English designs against their caste, he enclosed the extract 
 of a letter received that day from the collector of Muttra, 
 who wrote, " I have just heard what makes me doubtful 
 of the fidelity of our Sepoy guard here. The subadar told 
 one of the clerks to-day that he was convinced the Go- 
 vernment intended to take their caste, and had for that 
 purpose mixed ground bones in their flour." Scindiah had 
 offered the services of his body-guard, and a battery of 
 guns, which the Lieutenant-Governor proposed to accept 
 " for a short time only," remarking in his message, " though 
 we really do not want more troops." 
 
 On the following day, the 1 5th of May, the Lieutenant- 
 Governor announced that thirty Europeans had been 
 massacred, that all the troops had fraternized and pro- 
 claimed the heir-apparent king, and were apparently 
 organizing a regular Government, their supposed policy 
 being to " annex all the adjoining districts to their newly- 
 acquired kingdom." They were not likely, therefore, to 
 abandon Delhi, and would probably strengthen themselves. 
 They had secured, perhaps, 500,000?. Bhurtpore and 
 Gwalior were giving us hearty aid. The native regiments 
 in Agra were weak in numbers ; and, said Mr. Colvin, 
 " whatever their feelings may be, they are not likely to 
 rise of themselves without any other support. We do 
 not, therefore, show distrust of them. I have every con- 
 fidence that they will all be put to rights in a few days." 
 On the same day Mr. Colvin sent another message as fol- 
 lows : " I have had a very satisfactory review of the 
 troops this morning. I had previously ascertained, from 
 undoubted authority of natives of confidence of all classes, 
 that a deep and genuine conviction, however absurd, has 
 
76 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 seized the minds of the Sepoys of the army generally, that 
 the Government is steadily bent on making them lose 
 caste by handling impure things. Men of their own creed, 
 trusted by them, were sent by me into their lines, and the 
 most distinct assurances given them on the subject. I 
 spoke to the same effect at the parade, and the men said 
 this was all they wanted to be certain of. I believe that 
 under -the present circumstances the men are now staunch. 
 If mutineers approach in any force it is our determination 
 to move out the brigade and fight them. We shall go 
 with the brigade : a reinforcement of a battery of guns, 
 and some of the contingent cavalry, will be here from 
 Gwalior the morning after to-morrow. It is most ear- 
 nestly recommended, from the result of present experience, 
 that a proclamation to the army be at once issued by the 
 Supreme Government, saying, if it be so thought fit, that 
 the Lieutenant-Governor, North-west Provinces, has in- 
 formed them that he has found a gross misconception to 
 be prevalent ; that, being so informed, it at once declares 
 to its faithful troops that ifc would in every manner respect 
 and protect their feelings and usages of religion and caste, 
 as it has always scrupulously protected them ; that it de- 
 clares the notions which have got abroad on the point to be 
 an utter delusion, propagated by some designing persons 
 to mislead good soldiers; and the army may remain 
 thoroughly satisfied that no attempt whatever will be 
 made in any way to hinder in the least their religious 
 rites and practices. Armed with a simple and direct as- 
 surance of this kind, it would rapidly, I think, quiet the 
 minds of the troops. An inducement, too, is wanted for 
 not joining the mutineers and for leaving them. I am in 
 the thick of it, and know what is wanted. I earnestly beg 
 this to strengthen me." 
 
 Up to this date an apology may be suggested for the 
 conduct of Lord Canning. He had been but fourteen 
 months in the country, and there are powerful minds that 
 are slow to receive new impressions. His colleagues in 
 the executive, with one exception, were men of ripe Indian 
 experience, the picked statesmen of the entire civil service. 
 In the Legislative Council he had the advantage of the 
 advice of her Majesty's judges, and they had all been 
 
THE REMEDY FOR REVOLT. 77 
 
 unanimous in support of the measures that were adopted. 
 To risk the chance of being wrong in company with his 
 council was a safer course than to aim at being right in 
 opposition to their opinions. 
 
 But what shall we say of the policy which, after the 
 receipt of Mr. Colvin's message, still trusted the native 
 army ? Blindness is no proper name for it, for there 
 were sounds as well as sights, the trumpets of alarm in the 
 ear as well as the handwriting on the wall. To give 
 point to General Hearsey's opinion, that argument and 
 remonstrance were hopeless, two regiments had been dis- 
 banded, seven were in open rebellion, many others had 
 been tampered with, and " a deep and genuine conviction, 
 had seized the minds of the Sepoys generally, that Govern* 
 ment were steadily bent on making them lose caste." But 
 Lord Canning was in no hurry to ^ict, and saw no occa- 
 sion to take a gloomy view of affairs. Lord Elphinstone 
 telegraphed, on the 17th of May, that he could at once 
 despatch a steamer to Suez, which would be in time to 
 catch the French steamer of the 9th of June at Alex- 
 andria, and thought that an officer sent off at once in a 
 swift vessel might even overtake the mail that left Bom- 
 bay on the 13th. The Governor-General answered that 
 he was not desirous of sending to England by an earlier 
 opportunity than the mail of the 18th of May from Cal- 
 cutta. Time was of course required for earnest consulta- 
 tion by the members of Government, and the result of 
 their deliberations was a communication to the Court of 
 Directors, dated the 19th of May, giving the first intima- 
 tion of the revolt, and embodying the following suggestions 
 of a remedy : " The necessity for an increase of the sub- 
 stantial strength of the army on the Bengal establishment, 
 that is to say, of the European troops upon this establish- 
 ment, has been long apparent to us ; but the necessity of 
 refraining from any material increase to the charges of 
 the military department, in the present state of our 
 finances, has prevented us hitherto from moving your 
 Honourable Court in this matter. The late untoward 
 occurrences at Berhampore, Fort William, Barrackpore, 
 and Lucknow, crowned by the shocking and alarming 
 events of the past week at Meerut and Delhi, and taken 
 
 P 
 
78 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 in connexion with the knowledge we have lately acquired 
 of the dangerous state of feeling in the Bengal native 
 army generally, strange, and, at present, unaccountable as 
 it is, have convinced us of the urgent necessity of not 
 merely a positive increase of our European strength, but 
 of a material increase in the proportion which our Euro- 
 pean troops bear to the native regular troops on the esta- 
 blishment. We are of opinion that the latter is now the 
 more pressing necessity of the two. 
 
 " We believe that all these objects, political, military, 
 and financial, will be immediately attained in a very 
 material degree by taking advantage of the present oppor- 
 tunity in the manner we have now the honour respectfully 
 to propose ; and we see no other way in which all the same 
 objects can be attained in any degree, now or prospectively. 
 We recommend that the six native regiments, which are 
 in effect no longer in existence, should not be replaced, 
 whereby the establishment of regular native infantry would 
 be reduced to sixty-eight regiments ; and that the Euro- 
 pean officers of these late regiments should be used to 
 officer three regiments of Europeans to be added to your 
 establishment at this Presidency. 
 
 " We confidently affirm that the Government will be 
 much stronger, in respect of all important internal and 
 external purposes, with three additional European regi- 
 ments of the established strength, than it would be by 
 embodying six native regiments of the established strength ; 
 and we anticipate no inconvenience in respect of minor 
 objects, in time of peace and tranquillity, from the conse- 
 quent numerical reduction of regular troops. Indeed, the 
 financial result of the measure, if carried out as we propose, 
 will leave a considerable surplus available, if it should be 
 thought fit so to employ it, for an augmentation of 
 irregulars, who, for all such minor objects, are much 
 better, as well as much cheaper, than regulars of any 
 description." 
 
 We have here at least one example on the part of Lord 
 Canning of a sense of the fitness of things. It was certainly 
 not worth while to send a special messenger with such a 
 very ordinary communication as the above. As the 
 emergency for European soldiers could wait until the 
 
BREAKING THE NEWS. 79 
 
 Court of Directors had made up their minds to empower 
 the recruiting sergeant at home to act, the delay of a mail 
 on this side was of no moment whatever. The reader 
 will now be at no loss to understand the grounds on 
 which, when the news of the outbreak reached England, 
 the ministry and Mr. Mangles expressed their high admi- 
 ration of his lordship's firmness and capacity. When 
 did a nobleman acquit himself more ably than this Gover- 
 nor-General, who could afford to take such a hopeful 
 view of a troublesome affair ? When was mutiny made 
 so pleasant to the Court of Directors ? They would, 
 positively gain money by it ! No blame was imputed to 
 them for the parsimony which had left the country so 
 truly defenceless ; no reproaches were directed against 
 the folly which had sanctioned and sent out the greased 
 cartridges. There are doctors who, on system, make the 
 most nauseous medicine taste pleasant ; and Lord Canning 
 has gained their secret, though in this case he has prac- 
 tised it to the imminent danger of his patient. 
 
 With the same dislike to diminish the amount of human 
 happiness which dictated the tone and substance of his 
 correspondence with the Court of Directors, Lord Canning 
 withheld from the people of Calcutta the intelligence of 
 the Meerut and Delhi massacres, which reached the news- 
 papers as a mere rumour on the 14th of May. The native 
 merchants had full particulars the day previous, as a matter 
 of course. On the 15th the Hurkaru said : "We hear 
 that some bad news was received from Meerut by the 
 Military Secretary to Government the 3rd Cavalry had 
 mutinied and murdered their officers." " There is also a 
 report that the troops at Delhi have also risen, and, after 
 having overcome the Europeans, had taken possession of 
 the fort. It is to be hoped that this is a mere rumour, 
 but we have heard it on sufficient authority to justify 
 publication." 
 
 The Englishman was instructed to contradict this the 
 next morning, which it did in the following terms : 
 "We can authoritatively contradict the statement in 
 yesterday's Hurkaru that a report of the murder of the 
 officers of the 3rd Cavalry has reached the Secretary to 
 Government in the Military Department, No such 
 F2 
 
80 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 report has been received. Alarming reports were in cir- 
 culation yesterday as to the state of affairs in Meerut and 
 Delhi. We published all that was certain, believing there 
 must be great exaggeration in the rest. We are now in- 
 formed that all was tranquil at Meerut on the 12th instant. 
 The Cantonment and Treasury all right, and the troops 
 quite ready to meet any attack. The interruption to the 
 communication was caused by the refractory troopers of 
 the 3rd Cavalry, who had fled from Meerut, and their 
 villages being on the road, they persuaded their friends to 
 join them, and it is feared that some of their officers have 
 been killed. 
 
 " At Delhi there had been disturbances, and a party of 
 the marauders got possession of the fort, as it is called 
 not a place of any strength. Two European gentlemen 
 have been murdered, but we refrain from mentioning 
 names till more positive information reaches us." 
 
 The same journal came out in its evening edition with 
 " authentic particulars from Government." 
 
 " There has been a rising of some of the native troops 
 at Delhi, some Europeans have been killed, but the names 
 and number not known. Meerut is quiet, and the troops 
 are ready. European regiments are on the march from 
 the hills." 
 
 The admission, on the 1 6th of May, that " there had 
 been disturbances at Delhi," and the statement, that the 
 losses at Meerut were the work of those men of the 3rd 
 Cavalry who had fled from that place, reads oddly enough, 
 when we call to mind that Lord Canning knew, at the 
 time he allowed this information to be furnished, that six 
 thousand men had revolted and proclaimed a king. The 
 concealment of intelligence grew afterwards into a habit, 
 and gave the natives a handle for inculcating all kinds of 
 false rumours. When these inventions were met by denial 
 on the part of Europeans, the Bengalee would reply, " The 
 Government know that what we say is true, only they 
 don't choose to make the thing public." The rejoinder 
 was always felt to be unanswerable, for the authorities 
 had sole control of the telegraph, and daily experience 
 showed how unwilling they were that the whole truth 
 should be known by their countrymen. It was not long 
 
WEAKNESS OF OUK MEANS OF DEFENCE. 81 
 
 after the outbreak of insurrection that the English popu- 
 lation, having to choose only between the tales of the 
 bazaar and the bulletins of Government, gave the largest 
 credence to the former. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 STATE OP THE DEFENCES OF BENGAL. THE GOVERNMENT URGED TO 
 OBTAIN REINFORCEMENTS. AVAILABLE RESOURCES. FACILITY OF 
 RELIEVING CAWNPORE AND LUCKNOW. JUNG BAHADOR AND THE 
 GHOORKAS. 
 
 AMONGST the causes of the mutiny should be ranked, as 
 well, the notorious weakness of our means of defence at 
 the outset, and the ease with which revenge and plunder 
 were to be obtained at the subsequent stages of the revolt. 
 On the 10th of May there was not a single European 
 soldier at Delhi, Allahabad, or Cawnpore. Benares was 
 hurriedly reinforced by a company and a half of the 10th, 
 and General Wheeler obtained the aid of two companies 
 of the 32nd from Lucknow, which he sent back again on. 
 the arrival at Cawnpore of a detachment of the 84th. At 
 army head-quarters, as we have seen, there were neither 
 commissariat nor medical stores. At Meerut, on the 18th 
 of May, the commanding officer reported that the rein- 
 forcement for the army of Delhi must stand fast for the 
 want of carriage. At Allahabad there were guns in abun- 
 dance, but no men to work them ; Benares was wholly 
 without fortifications, and had only half a bullock-battery ; 
 Barrackpore had to depend upon sailors to man the six 
 guns sent up there from Calcutta, when the safety of the 
 capital was threatened. Often, during the months of 
 June and July, were the English prompted to thank their 
 stars that the rebels had neither a leader nor a plan of 
 action, but blundered almost as much as the Supreme 
 Government ; for, had it been otherwise, every living 
 soul in Bengal would have perished, or been forced to 
 abandon the country. 
 
 If we admit that Lord Canning, after a residence of 
 fourteen months in the country, could not be expected to 
 detect the signs of weakness, which all men now unite in. 
 
02 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 deploring, and that the warnings of General Hearsey, and 
 the occurrences in the 19th and 3 4th regiments, were not 
 grave enough to induce fears for the safety of the empire, 
 the question of competency on the part of the Indian 
 Government is restricted to a single inquiry : Did the 
 Governor-General use all possible exertions to obtain 
 more troops, and make the best use of them when they 
 arrived ? 
 
 The first portion of the query must be answered in the 
 affirmative. No means were left untried to collect rein- 
 forcements of English soldiers from the various stations in 
 the Indian and China seas ; but the credit of suggesting 
 such vigorous measures must not be allowed to rest with 
 the Calcutta authorities, to whom it has hitherto been as- 
 signed. On the 13th of May Mr. Colvin telegraphed to 
 Lord Canning as follows : 
 
 u It will, no doubt, have been already thought of, but 
 I cannot do harm in suggesting that the force returning 
 from the Persian Gulf, or a considerable portion of it, be 
 summoned in straight to Calcutta, and thence sent up the 
 country. Necessarily it will give a powerful moveable 
 force free from local influences, and have an excellent 
 effect in showing that the Government has large means, 
 independent of the usual army here." 
 
 On the 16th Sir Henry Lawrence telegraphed from 
 Lucknow : " All is quiet here, but affairs are critical ; 
 get every European you can from China, Ceylon, and else- 
 where ; also, all the Ghoorkas from the hills j time is 
 everything." 
 
 Lord Elphin stone offered, on the 17th, a regiment of 
 Beloochees, and the 1st Bombay Europeans, both of which 
 were accepted. On the same date Sir John Lawrence pro- 
 posed to embody 5000 men from the corps of Police and 
 Guides in the Punjaub, and to raise 1000 more if neces- 
 sary, both of which suggestions were adopted. The mes- 
 sage of Lord Canning to the Governor of Bombay was 
 dated May 16th, and is as follows : 
 
 " Two of the three European regiments which are re- 
 turning from Persia are urgently wanted in Bengal. If 
 they are sent from Bombay to Kurrachee, will they find 
 conveyance up the Indus ? Are they coming from Bushire 
 
DOING JUSTICE TO MEKIT. 83 
 
 in steam or sailing transports ? Let me know immedi- 
 ately whether General Ashburnham is going to Madras." 
 
 On the 17th the Governor-General asked Lord Elphin- 
 stone if he could send a steamer to Galle, to bring troops 
 from thence to Calcutta; and the Fusiliers at Madras 
 were called for on the 1 6th of May, after the receipt of 
 the message from Sir Henry Lawrence. We have thus 
 the whole of the reinforcements accounted for, and in no 
 single instance is the merit of having called them to 
 Bengal to be ascribed to the Supreme Government. 
 
 The question of the wise employment of means is 
 equally capable of solution. 
 
 At the outbreak of the mutiny there were in Calcutta, 
 and the adjoining stations of Dum-Dum and Barrack- 
 pore, two regiments of European infantry, the 53rd and 
 84th, mustering about 1700 effective men. These, with 
 the 10th at Dinapore, and a company of artillery in Fort 
 William, comprised the whole English force between the 
 capital and Agra, 900 miles distant. The native corps 
 consisted of the 2nd Grenadiers, 43rd and 70th N.I., the 
 Calcutta militia, and the remnant of the 34th, in all 4000 
 men, stationed within the limits of the Presidency divi- 
 sion. At Berhampore there was the 63rd N.I. ; at Dina- 
 pore, the 7th, 8th, and 40th, together with a regiment of 
 irregular cavalry. Benares was occupied by the 37th 
 and the Loodianah regiment of Sikhs. The 6th were at 
 Allahabad ; the 65th at Ghazepore; the 2nd Cavalry, 1st 
 and 53rd N.I., at Cawnpore. The total available force of 
 Europeans throughout this great extent of country was 
 not more than 2500, against 14,000 native troops ; vast 
 odds as seen upon paper, but not sufficient to alarm a man 
 of energy and decision as to the result of a struggle for 
 the mastery. 
 
 A thousand English volunteer infantry, 400 cavalry, 
 and 1500 sailors, were at the disposal of Government a 
 week after the revolt became known. It only needed the 
 utterance of a few words of ordinary sympathy and encou- 
 ragement to draw out the entire available European popu- 
 lation : no great price to pay for such service as they were 
 able and willing to perform ; but small as was the esti- 
 mated cost, Lord Canning grudged it. It was not until 
 
84 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 the 12th of June that he consented to the enrolment of a 
 volunteer corps ; and only then, after much misgiving as 
 to the propriety of showing special favour to any particular 
 class of the population. The use that might have been 
 made of such auxiliaries was pointed out at the time with 
 sufficient clearness ; but at this moment we can see that 
 it would have been literally invaluable. 
 
 The waters of the Ganges do not rise until the latter 
 end of June ; and it would have been scarcely advisable 
 to push troops up by that route, so long as there was a 
 prospect that the vessels might get aground. The railway 
 and the road offered the greatest facilities for the transit 
 of men, guns, and stores ; and both were in the best con- 
 dition. The line was opened to Raneegunge, a distance of 
 120 miles from Calcutta ; and up to that point there was 
 no difficulty in sending a couple of regiments by a single 
 train. Whilst the volunteers were learning how to load 
 and fire, and the merchant seamen were being instructed 
 in the use of artillery, Government might have placed 
 on the road from the terminus to Cawnpore a line of sta- 
 tions for horses and bullocks at intervals of five miles, 
 guarded, if necessary, by posts of armed men ; the studs 
 at Buxar and Ghazepore, the streets and the course of 
 Calcutta, could have supplied any number of horses. There 
 were 1600 siege bullocks at Allahabad, and 600 at Cawn- 
 pore ; carriages and commissariat stores of all kinds might 
 have been collected for the use of a division with seven 
 days' hard work ; and had Government only consented to 
 do just a fortnight beforehand what they were coerced to 
 do on the 14th of June, they might have had, on the first 
 day of that month, a force of 2000 Europeans at Ranee- 
 gunge, fully equipped with guns and stores ; the infantry 
 capable of being pushed on at the rate of 120 miles a day, 
 and the artillery, drawn by horses, elephants, and bullocks 
 in turns, following at a speed of two miles an hour, day 
 and night. The Madras Fusiliers had arrived, 830 strong. 
 The disbanded native troops could have been kept easily 
 in check by a detachment of 300 men at Barrackpore and 
 200 in Fort William, in addition to the volunteers and 
 seamen ; and by the 8th of June, at latest, a column of 
 1500 men would have reached Cawnpore ; the guns, 
 
WATCHING THE TIDE RUN OUT. 50 
 
 escorted by half a wing, arriving seven days afterwards. 
 The 10th, after having disarmed the native regiments at 
 Dinapore, could have spared 200 men for Benares, and the 
 same number might have been detached from the column 
 as it passed through Allahabad. The attack upon Sir 
 Hugh Wheeler was not made until the 4th of June, and 
 only succeeded on the 27th ; and we have only to recall 
 the narrative of Havelock's raid to infer the result of a 
 march made six weeks, earlier. 
 
 The Englishman has said that there were two stamps 
 in the Calcutta post-office, one marked "insufficient," and 
 the other " too late f and that one or the other ought to 
 have been impressed upon every act of the Indian Go- 
 vernment. The arrangements suggested in the previous 
 paragraph were partially carried out when it was too 
 late ; when the veteran Wheeler with all his force and 
 their precious charge slept in their bloody shrouds ; when 
 the wives and children of the gallant 32nd had all been 
 massacred, and the gentle and gifted Lawrence had 
 perished miserably by the hand of a traitor. The volun- 
 teers were allowed to enrol themselves on the 12th of 
 June, and the native troops in Calcutta and Barrackpore 
 were disarmed on the 14th of that month. The Fusi- 
 liers, despatched in relays of twelve, fourteen, and on 
 one occasion of eight men, arrived at Allahabad in the 
 last days of June, when the 1600 bullocks offered by the 
 commissariat on the 27th of May were all dispersed, and 
 there was not a beast of burden or chest of medicine to 
 be had. On the 24th of May Lord Canning telegraphed 
 to Sir Henry Lawrence : " It is impossible to place a 
 wing of Europeans at Cawnpore in less than twenty-five 
 days. The Government dawk and the dawk companies 
 are fully engaged in carrying a company of the 84th to 
 Benares, at the rate of eighteen men a day. The entire 
 regiment of the Fusiliers, about 900 strong, cannot be ex- 
 pected at Benares in less than nineteen or twenty days." The 
 plea of impossibility was not to be gainsaid, and hence it 
 occurred that General Havelock started from Allahabad 
 the day after the death of Sir Henry Lawrence ; twice 
 essayed to relieve Lucknow ; and twice returned, unable, 
 from numerical weakness, to accomplish the object. But 
 
86 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 the success obtained satisfied tlie minds of the autho- 
 rities. Every petty detachment reached its destination. 
 Benares was saved by a reinforcement of forty men; 
 Allahabad had been preserved by seventy decayed Euro- 
 pean gunners. The people at home would overlook the 
 neglect of prevention, when they heard of the rapidity 
 of the cure ; the chance of a relapse not being taken 
 into consideration. 
 
 Each of the large towns enumerated is situated oil 
 the banks of the Ganges or Jumna, the former stream 
 being navigable at all seasons for vessels of light draught 
 as far as Dinapore. There were hundreds of cargo boats 
 at Calcutta, which, furnished with mat roofs and partially 
 decked over, would have earned each a large gun, and the 
 men to work it. Steamers, of which there were numbers 
 available, would have towed them to Dinapore, where 
 they might have waited till the rivers rose, and then, 
 either by sailing and rowing, or tugged by steam, they 
 could have got up to the walls of Delhi. If it were 
 thought advisable to ascend the Jumna in the first of 
 the rains, the armament and stores could have been 
 transferred to boats built expressly for the navigation, 
 which are always to be found waiting at Benares and 
 Ghazepore for their upward cargoes at that season of the 
 year. These vessels, long, low, and heavily built, carry 
 forty tons on a draught of eighteen inches, and are ad- 
 mirably fitted to serve as gunboats. The notion of 
 taking advantage of the facilities afforded by steamers 
 and small armed vessels for attacking towns situated on 
 the banks of navigable rivers, appears to have been sug- 
 gested in an official way to Lord Canning early in August, 
 when it was settled that Captain Peel should ascend the 
 Ganges with a force of men and guns; but there were 
 difficulties in the way which required long deliberation, 
 and Captain Peel started when it was too late in the 
 season, and hence had to relinquish the main object of 
 the enterprise. There is an old maxim which recom- 
 mends that you should never put forth your hand with- 
 out being sure that you can draw it back again. The 
 Indian Government appear to value the advice, and 
 always to have acted upon it. 
 
DOING ALL THINGS IN ORDER. 87 
 
 The column of 1500, arriving at Cawnpore in the 
 second week in June, could have been reinforced on the 
 25th of that month by at least 4000 men, even if a regi- 
 ment had been left behind to strengthen Calcutta. The 
 64th, 78th, and a company of the Madras Artillery, in all 
 nearly 1900 men, arrived at Fort William between the 
 1st and 10th of June. The 37th from Ceylon, with a 
 company of the Royal Artillery, the 29th and 35th from 
 Pegu, reached almost at the same time. The rebels in 
 heart at Calcutta wrote to their friends in the north- 
 west, that " the sea was throwing up soldiers every day ;'* 
 and the slightest knowledge of the Oriental character 
 would have suggested the propriety of benefiting by 
 their natural tendency to exaggeration. Had the regi- 
 ments, after a day's rest, been marched in each case to 
 the wide plain near the fort, and there, with all the pomp 
 and circumstance that could have been devised, been put 
 through the evolutions of a sham fight, the story of their 
 numbers and warlike appearance, magnified tenfold, would 
 have spread over the whole country. But the rulers of 
 British India have no idea of dramatic effect ; and except 
 when the occupants of carriages on the course stood up 
 as one man to cheer a passing troop-ship, and, with full 
 hearts, felt that they ought to be uncovered in the pre- 
 sence of the rudest soldier that wore the livery of Eng- 
 land, the gallant men passed on to their work of toil, 
 perhaps to sickness and death, with no sign of reco- 
 gnition from the Government they came to serve. Want 
 of food, bad lodgings, and pitiless exposure waited upon 
 them till they got clear of Calcutta. 
 
 The 5th and 90th arrived early in July, and two 
 Madras regiments in August ; yet Lucknow was not re- 
 lieved, but only strengthened on the 20th of October. 
 The elements of a force with which a Napier would 
 have undertaken to traverse the length and breadth of 
 the land, were scattered over the country, shattered in 
 brilliant but useless actions, worn down by incessant 
 toil, or decimated by disease and lack of sustenance and 
 shelter. God's curse lies heavy on the nations when it 
 takes the form of pestilence or famine ; but it is never, 
 perhaps, so deadly and terrible as when, in time of trial, 
 
THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 it visits the people with a Government such as that which 
 is presided over by Viscount Canning. 
 
 But there was still another means of saving the brave 
 and helpless of Cawnpore and Lucknow, apart from the 
 march of Europeans to their aid. At the outbreak of the 
 mutiny Jung Bahador, the virtual ruler of Nepaul, offered 
 the use of his army, and the services of 3000 were ac- 
 cepted. The best men of the Nepaulese forces were 
 picked out for the expedition; and the daring little 
 Ghoorkas, elated to the highest pitch at the prospect of 
 fighting by the side of the English, and plundering the 
 hoards of the hated Sepoys, came down from their hills 
 by forced marches, and expected to be in Oude about the 
 15th of June. Though the prime troops of Nepaul, they 
 were the ugliest and dirtiest of warriors, not much amen- 
 able to discipline, nor fond of temperance in eating or 
 drinking ; but the Sikh, who cares nothing for Brahmin 
 and Mussulman, shrinks with dismay from a conflict with 
 the Ghoorka. They were a match in this case for more 
 than 10,000 Sepoys ; and had they been permitted to join 
 Sir Henry Lawrence at Lucknow, he would have raised 
 the siege in twenty-four hours after their arrival, and then, 
 clearing a road to the Ganges, have crossed over to Cawn- 
 pore and liberated Sir Hugh Wheeler. But the blight 
 of Calcutta was upon all concerned. When the Ghoorkas 
 had passed through the deadly jungle that surrounds 
 the base of their hills, Jung Bahador received a despatch 
 from Lord Canning, requesting that they might be recalled, 
 as their services could be dispensed with. They went 
 back to Katmandoo, heavy-hearted, and suffering greatly 
 from sickness, which broke out amongst them on their 
 return march ; but had scarce reached the capital, when 
 another despatch came from Lord Canning, asking Jung 
 Bahador to send them back again to Oude, where they 
 were now wanted. They left Katmandoo for the second 
 time on the 29th of June, two days after the massacre at 
 Cawnpore; and only arrived in the British territory, 
 much reduced by disease and death, when Sir Henry Law- 
 rence had been dead for a fortnight. There are widows 
 and orphans who have more need to complain than Jung 
 Bahador j but that chieftain considers that he has been ill 
 
THE MUTINEERS IN DELHI. 89 
 
 used in the matter ; and writing to his friend Mr. Hodg- 
 son, late of the Bengal Civil Service, a narrative of the 
 affair, he wound up with the exclamation, " You see how 
 I am treated. How do you expect to keep India with 
 such rulers as these V 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HE MARCH ON DELHI. THE DEFENCE OF THE MAGAZINE. THE 
 GREAT MOGUL AND HIS COURT. NARRATIVES OF THE CAPTURE AND 
 CONDITION OF THE CITY. 
 
 WE left the Meerut mutineers on the night of the 1 Oth 
 of May, encamped on the road to Delhi. They made 
 good use of their time, performing the distance, thirty-six 
 miles, before noon the following day. They met several 
 Europeans on the road travelling in dawk carriages, who 
 were of course slaughtered ; and then hastening into the 
 city, the rebels set about their separate tasks of seducing 
 the men of the regiments stationed there, calling out the 
 thieves to plunder, and murdering every European that 
 could be laid hold of. Hiding furiously through the can- 
 tonment, the men of the 3rd Cavalry sought everywhere 
 for the officers, in whose faces they discharged their pis- 
 tols with shouts of savage triumph. The city was full of 
 munitions of war ; though, with a blind reliance upon 
 destiny, for which our race have only the excuse that they 
 believe in the Providence which watches over fools and 
 madmen, no Europeans have been stationed in Delhi for 
 many years. 
 
 The arsenal contained three siege trains and vast stores 
 of warlike material, the loss of which has been felt severely 
 by the troops of the avenging army ; but the rebels were 
 not permitted to reap all the benefits of Government 
 supineness. The magazine held a vast quantity of powder 
 and warlike stores, and they hastened to it in the hope of 
 a speedy capture ; but its little garrison of nine men were 
 of the true English mould, and the rebels obtained nothing 
 in the end but a speedy entrance into the Indian paradise. 
 Some days after the loss of Delhi, Lieutenant Willoughby, 
 the officer in charge of the magazine, made his appearance 
 
90 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 at Meerut, blackened with gunpowder, and sinking rapidly 
 from the effects of wounds and exhaustion ; and it was 
 then learned that he had blown up the place to prevent it 
 falling into the hands of the mutineers. He died soon 
 afterwards, and it was thought that the story ol his gal- 
 lant conduct would never be told ; but, after an extraor- 
 dinary delay, the Government published a despatch from 
 Lieutenant Forrest, from which it appears that, on the 
 first alarm of the outbreak, he hastened to the magazine, 
 together with Messrs. Buckley, Shaw, Scully, and Crow, 
 warrant officers, and Sergeants Edwards and Stewart. 
 What followed had better be told in his own words. 
 
 " On Sir Theophilus Metcalfe alighting from his buggy, 
 Lieutenant Willoughby and I accompanied him to the 
 small bastion on the river face, which commanded a full 
 view of the bridge, from which we could distinctly see the 
 mutineers marching in open column headed by the cavalry ; 
 and the Delhi side of the bridge was already in the pos- 
 session of a body of cavalry. On Sir Theophilus Metcalfe 
 observing this, he proceeded with Lieutenant Willoughby 
 to see if the city gate was closed against the mutineers. 
 However, this step was needless, as the mutineers were 
 admitted directly to the palace, through which they passed 
 cheering. On Lieutenant Willoughby's return to the 
 magazine, the gates of the magazine were closed and bar- 
 ricaded, and every possible arrangement that could be 
 made was at once commenced on. Inside the gate lead- 
 ing to the park were placed two 6-pounders, double 
 charged with grape, one under acting sub-conductor Crow 
 and Sergeant Stewart, with the lighted matches in their 
 hands, and with orders that, if any attempt was made to 
 force that gate, both guns were to be fired at once, and 
 they were to fall back on that part of the magazine in 
 which Lieutenant Willoughby and I were posted. The 
 principal gate of the magazine was similarly defended by 
 two guns, with the chevaux-de-frise laid down on the in- 
 side. For the further defence of this gate and the maga- 
 zine in its vicinity, there were two 6-pounders so placed 
 that either would command the gate and a small bastion 
 in its vicinity. Within sixty yards of the gate and in 
 front of the office, and commanding two cross-roads, were 
 
THE LIONS AT BAY. 91 
 
 three 6-pounders and one 24 -pounder howitzer, which 
 could be so managed as to act upon any part of the maga- 
 zine in that neighbourhood. After all these guns and 
 howitzers had been placed in the several positions above- 
 named, they were loaded with double charges of grape. 
 The next step taken was to place arms in the hands of 
 the native establishment, which they most reluctantly 
 received, and appeared to be in a state not only of excite- 
 ment, but also of insubordination, as they refused to obey 
 any orders issued by the Europeans, particularly the Mus- 
 sulman portion of the establishment. After the above 
 arrangements had been made, a train was laid by con- 
 ductors Buckley, Scully, and Sergeant Stewart, ready to 
 be fired by a preconcerted signal, which was that of con- 
 ductor Buckley raising his hat from his head, on the order 
 being given by Lieutenant Willoughby. The train was 
 fired by conductor Scully, but not until such time as the 
 last round from the howitzers had been fired. So soon as the 
 above arrangements had been made, guards from the palace 
 came and demanded the possession of the magazine in the 
 name of the King of Delhi, to which no reply was given. 
 " Immediately after this, the subadar of the guard on 
 duty at the magazine informed Lieutenant Willoughby 
 and me that the King of Delhi had sent down word to 
 the mutineers that he would without delay send scaling- 
 ladders from the palace for the purpose of scaling the 
 walls, and which shortly after arrived. On the ladders 
 being erected against the wall, the whole of our native 
 establishment deserted us by climbing up the sloped 
 sheds on the inside of the magazine, and descending the 
 ladders on the outside, after which the enemy appeared in 
 great numbers on the top of the walls, and on whom we 
 kept up an incessant fire of grape, every round of which 
 told well, as long as a single round remained. Previous 
 to the natives deserting us, they hid the priming pouches ; 
 and one man in particular, Kurreembuksh, a durwan, ap- 
 peared to keep up a constant communication with the 
 enemy on the outside, and keep them informed of our 
 situation. Lieutenant Willoughby was so annoyed at 
 this man's conduct, that he gave me an order to shoot 
 him, should he again approach the gate. 
 
02 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 IC Lieutenant Raynor, with the other Europeans, did 
 everything that possibly could be done for the defence of 
 the magazine ; and where ali have behaved so bravely, it 
 is almost impossible for me to point out any particular 
 individual. However, I am in duty bound to bring to 
 the notice of Government the gallantry of conductors 
 Buckley and Scully on this trying occasion. The former, 
 assisted only by myself, loaded and fired in rapid succes- 
 sion the several guns above detailed, firing at least four 
 rounds from each gun, and with the same steadiness as if 
 standing on parade, although the enemy were then some 
 hundreds in number, and kept up a continual fire of mus- 
 ketry on us, within forty or fifty yards. After firing the 
 last round, conductor Buckley received a musket-ball in 
 his arm, above the elbow, which has since been extracted 
 here. I at the same time was struck in the left hand by 
 two musket-balls, which disabled me for the time. It was 
 at this critical moment that Lieutenant Willoughby gave 
 the order for firing the magazine, which was at once re- 
 sponded to by conductor Scully firing the several trains. 
 Indeed, from the very commencement, he evinced his 
 gallantry by volunteering his services for blowing up the 
 magazine, and remained true to his trust to the last 
 moment. As soon as the explosion took place, such as 
 escaped from beneath the ruins and none escaped unhurt 
 retreated through the sally-port on the river face. 
 Lieutenant Willoughby and I succeeding in reaching the 
 Cashmere Gate. What became of the other parties it is 
 impossible for me to say. Lieutenant Raynor and con- 
 ductor Buckley have escaped to this station. Severe in- 
 disposition prevented my sending in this report sooner." 
 
 It is little more than half a century since Lord Lake, 
 whilst engaged in a campaign against the Mahrattas, en- 
 camped near the city of Delhi, and, making his way into 
 the palace, found there the representative of the royal 
 house of Timor, in the person of an aged man, poor, help- 
 less, and blind, the plaything of fortune, the prize by turns 
 of numerous adventurers. His ancesters had by the law 
 of force at one time acquired the dominion of all India, 
 and the rule which had raised them to the pinnacle of 
 greatness had sunk him to the lowest depths of abasement. 
 
THE HOUSE OF TAMERLANE. 93 
 
 He had lived to see the dominions over which he had 
 himself reigned, the prize of successive conquerors, his 
 wealth scattered, his wives dishonoured, and had reached 
 the climax of human misery when a brutal soldier scooped 
 his eyes out with a dagger, and left him without the hope 
 of better days. The English general seated him again in 
 the chair of royalty, and, in return for a parchment gift 
 of the countries which he had won and intended to keep 
 by the sword, allotted to him the first rank in the long 
 line of mockery kings that once reigned, but now who 
 merely live, in India. In public and private, the Padshah, 
 as he is called, received the signs of homage which were 
 considered to belong to his pre-eminent station. He has 
 never forgiven the English since a Governor-General in- 
 sisted upon having a chair in his presence ; and, until 
 recently, the agent of the latter, when vouchsafed the 
 honour of an audience, addressed him with folded hands, 
 in the attitude of supplication. He never received letters, 
 only petitions ; and conferred an exalted favour on the 
 Government of British India by accepting a monthly 
 present of 80,000 rupees. Merely as a mark of excessive 
 condescension, he tacitly sanctioned all our acts, withdrew 
 his royal approbation from each and all of our native 
 enemies, and fired salutes upon every occasion of a victory 
 achieved by our troops. Hitherto, it would have been 
 impossible to have found a royal ally more courteously 
 disposed ; and, we believe, it never entered the brain of the 
 most suspicious diplomatist, that the treaties between the 
 Great Mogul and the Honourable Company were in any 
 danger of being violated by his Majesty. To sweep away 
 the house of Tamerlane would not have added one jot to 
 our power. Outside the walls of his palace, the King of 
 Delhi, as he was termed, had no more authority than the 
 meanest of those whom he had been taught to consider 
 his born vassals ; but within that enclosure his will was 
 fate, and there were 12,000 persons who lived subject to 
 it. The universal voice of society ascribed to this popu- 
 lation the habitual practice of crimes of which the very 
 existence is unknown at home, except to the few who 
 form the core of the corrupt civilization of great cities. 
 Its princes lived without dignity, and its female aristo- 
 
 G 
 
94 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 cracy contrived to exist without honour. The physical 
 type of manhood was debased, whilst the intellectual 
 qualifications of both sexes, with one or two exceptions, 
 did not reach even the Mahomedan standard of merit, 
 perhaps the lowest in the scale of modern humanity. 
 
 But a " Light of the World" could not exist even in 
 these days without experiencing earthly troubles. His 
 Majesty had no fear of Mahratta daggers, and his pension 
 was paid far more punctually than were the revenues of 
 his ancestors. Domestic troubles were more burdensome, 
 perhaps, to his effulgent shoulders than would be the cares 
 of the universe, and there were no less than 1200 little 
 lights which radiated upon him from all parts of Hindos- 
 tan, and required a great deal of oil to keep them burn- 
 ing. It was no uncommon thing for one of this celestial 
 race to be obliged to live on fifty shillings a month, but 
 in no case did he forget the dignity of his birth. A Mus- 
 sulman is obliged to settle a dowry upon his wife, and a 
 member of the Soolatun never endows her with less than 
 50,000 Their sole occupation was confined to playing 
 on the Indian lute, and singing the King's verses. Too 
 proud to work with their hands, too ignorant to be useful 
 with their heads, they would have been content to con- 
 tinue for generations to come in their late miserable con- 
 dition forlorn mortals, empty alike in pocket and sto- 
 mach, in heart and brain, and conscious only of the pos- 
 session of unsatisfied appetites. The evil had not escaped 
 the notice of Government, who felt that they must pull 
 down the nest, if they would have the young brood fly 
 abroad. When the title of the late heir-apparent was 
 recognised, it was arranged that, on the death of the late 
 occupant of the musnud, the palace should be evacuated, 
 and the family residence fixed at what is now the king's 
 country seat, situated about twelve miles from Delhi. His 
 Majesty consented to the terms with much reluctance, 
 and, his son dying before him, perhaps he felt morally 
 released from the bond. He has had his own little quar- 
 rels with his despised protectors on the usual score of 
 accounts ; but it is likely that all outstanding claims from, 
 the llth May last will find speedy adjustment. 
 
THE SYMBOL CONVERTED INTO A REALITY. 9t> 
 
 In spite of the utter subjection in which the Padshah 
 lived for well nigh a hundred years, the Mussulmans still 
 continued to regard him as being the fountain of honour, 
 the rightful monarch of Hindostan. This belief is easily- 
 accounted for, since, with the exception of the princes of 
 Kajpootana and a few insignificant rajahs, there are no 
 dynasties which can lay claim to a much greater antiquity 
 than that of the British rule in the East ; whilst, again, 
 there is hardly a single monarch who has not at some time 
 sworn fealty to the house of Tamerlane, and received in- 
 vestiture at its hands. The Mogul is the only person to 
 whom the Mahomedans can look up as their natural head. 
 The founders of the royal houses of the Deccan, Carnatic, 
 and Oude, of Holkar and Scindiah, were the deputies and 
 servants of his ancestors. His divine right to universal 
 dominion still exists ; only in the East, as elsewhere, 
 Toryism, however sincere, is seldom able to bring the law 
 and the fact into complete harmony. Nothing was more 
 natural than the proclamation by Mussulmans of the 
 Delhi Raj when they fancied they saw a chance of throw- 
 ing off the English yoke ; but a rebellion requires some- 
 thing more than a name to make it successful, and the 
 adherents of the new rulers have not failed to recognise 
 the fact. They used the King of Oude as they have used 
 the credulous Hindoo. The deposed prince has vast 
 hoards of money, and unbounded influence amongst the 
 Sepoys ; and hence, when it became possible to employ 
 the pretensions of the Padshah, the wrongs of the King 
 of Oude, and the superstition of the Hindoos, a confede- 
 racy was created, the strength of which we have scarcely 
 yet ascertained. Meanwhile the king of the Sepoys' 
 choice has shown himself worthy of his Tartar progenitors. 
 At an early date of the mutinies he caused letters to be 
 sent to various regiments, requesting them to seize the 
 treasuries and loot all they could find, bringing, in every 
 case, the plunder to his royal receiving-house. Favour 
 and twenty-four shillings per month would reward the 
 obedient Sepoy ; punishment sure, but not specified, was 
 to overtake him who elected to remain honest. Some of 
 his Majesty's ancestors were emphatically the greatest 
 G2 
 
96 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 thieves in the world, and their descendant has availed 
 himself of this the only opportunity he has had of pur- 
 suing the family vocation. 
 
 The complicity of the Sepoy King of Delhi in the rebel- 
 lion was evident from the first moment of alarm. The 
 corps that commenced the revolt were Mussulmans almost 
 to a man ; and the place of their destination, with the 
 nature of the welcome that would be given to them, was 
 not for an instant in doubt. They made for the palace at 
 once on entering the city, the king having it in his power 
 to shut the gates against them, without any danger to his 
 own personal household. The mutineers would not have 
 dared to shed blood within those sacred precincts without 
 his previous authority to do so ; and had he chosen to give 
 shelter to the helpless fugitives who implored his protec- 
 tion, not a finger would have been lifted against them. It 
 rested with him to give the word which would have con- 
 verted the revolt to a mere strife between men of oppos- 
 ing races Sepoy against European, Mussulman and Brah- 
 min against Christianity and civilization ; but the descen- 
 dant of Tamerlane inherited the ancestral thirst for blood, 
 and thought, perhaps, like a chief of pirates, it was neces- 
 sary to make forgiveness hopeless. Ladies and others who 
 had sought shelter in the palace were dragged before him, 
 their captors asking what should be done with them. The 
 royal answer, " Do what you like to them," was of course 
 a sentence of death ; and the brief reign of the heir-ap- 
 parent, whom his majesty gave them as a sovereign, was 
 inaugurated with the blood of English women and chil- 
 dren whose lives had wrought him no harm, and whose 
 death could yield him no profit. Later still the last of 
 the Great Moguls issued a decree of extermination against 
 the Sikhs as well as the hated Feringhee, and in both 
 cases committed what politicians say is worse than moral 
 guilt a deplorable blunder. For every drop of the inno- 
 cent blood spilt at Delhi and .elsewhere, a tide has poured 
 from the veins of his adherents ; and the act of H.M.'s 5th 
 Fusiliers, who scratched a crucifix on their bayonets, and, 
 kissing the weapon, swore to wash out the mark in the 
 hearts' blood of the rebels, only embodied the feelings of 
 every man of British extraction. To win back our losses and 
 
A NATIVE WRITER ON THE REBELLION. 97 
 
 vindicate our ancient reputation, were felt to be but small 
 matters. The cry was for vengeance, full and complete ; 
 and nothing short of that will satisfy our countrymen. 
 
 Narratives of what took place after the mutineers got 
 possession of Delhi have been furnished by native writers, 
 whose habit of chronicling minute facts gives great value 
 to their descriptions of passing events. We subjoin trans- 
 lations of two Hindoo letters, which throw great light 
 upon the state of feeling in the city at the time of the re- 
 volt, and show how little reason there is to suspect that 
 the commercial and trading classes had anything to do 
 with it. The extract now given is from a communication 
 to the Eajah of Jheend by his newswriter in Delhi, dated 
 May 17th, six days after the arrival of the mutineers : 
 
 "On the 16th Ramzan, on Sunday, eighty -five sowars 
 of the cavalry were sentenced to imprisonment at Meerut. 
 The regiments proceeded to the gaol, and released the pri- 
 soners, and took them away, slaying the European sen- 
 tries : they then set fire to the houses in the lines, and 
 slew old and young. Some 300 Europeans and natives 
 were killed in the conflict ; some cavalry and a regiment 
 of infantry have arrived at Delhi. Mr. Eraser and some 
 other gentlemen went with some sowars to quell the dis- 
 turbance : the cavalry attacked and killed all the Euro- 
 peans, and then went down to cantonments, and burnt 
 the artillery and infantry lines, and the blackguards of the 
 city looted the shops. In the afternoon the sowars offered 
 their services to the king, and said they would place him 
 on the throne, and that he should take the opportunity, 
 and give up to them his guns and magazine. What they 
 required, he did. He promised, and gave up his son to 
 them. They attacked the Government magazine, when 
 they knocked down the wall of the magazine, which caused 
 much injury to the people. There were, many Europeans 
 killed ; in short, only those of the English who concealed 
 themselves escaped, but none others. The king has ap- 
 pointed one Meer Nawab as kotwal. The whole place is- 
 in disturbance. The king has sent his son to inspire con- 
 fidence, but the ill-disposed are plundering everywhere. 
 The king has encamped outside the city with six regi- 
 ments ; he is old. The officials are those of a worn-out 
 
'98 THE SEPOY KEVOLT. 
 
 Government. The Jahgeerdars, in deference to the Eng- 
 lish, have not girded their loins. There are no arrange- 
 ments for any provision, much less for anything else. The 
 Sepoys are ready to give their lives, and to take the lives 
 of others. To-day, Wednesday, some fifty odd Europeans, 
 who had secreted themselves, were killed. They are hunt- 
 ing for more, and if any be found they will be killed. If 
 they have escaped, so much the better. It is like the 
 atrocities of Nadir Shah. On Tuesday the king rode 
 through the city, and encouraged the people to throw open 
 their shops ; but the people would not be comforted ; many 
 shops have been deserted. The civilization of fifty-three 
 years has been destroyed in three hours ; good men have 
 been plundered, scoundrels enriched. A regiment has 
 come from Allyghur ; they have not spared their officers. 
 Three regiments and one battery of artillery of Delhi, two 
 regiments and 500 troops from Meerut, and a regiment 
 from Allyghur, are now in Delhi. All the magazine has 
 been placed in the fort. The king has summoned dif- 
 ferent principal men of Delhi to make arrangements j they 
 have pleaded sickness and incompetency, and sowars have 
 been despatched to Utwur and Jaipoor. It remains to 
 be seen what will come of it. The Delhi people have 
 fallen into difficulties : God's will be done. This has been 
 composed with care, and in a spirit of loyalty. The state 
 of the people is not to be described. They are alive, but 
 they despair of their lives. There is no cure for such a 
 curse. The Sepoys are without a leader." 
 
 The story of the second eye-witness is even more cir- 
 cumstantial, the writer having had opportunities of wit- 
 nessing all that occurred in the place from the commence- 
 ment of the outbreak. 
 
 "On the morning of the llth instant we were pro- 
 ceeding in a bhylee from Delhi to Mussoorie, and after 
 we had crossed the bridge of boats and had proceeded 
 200 yards we were met by eighteen troopers with drawn 
 swords; they asked us who we were? We replied, 
 1 Pilgrims proceeding to Hurdwar.' They desired us to 
 turn back to Delhi, or they would murder us j we ac- 
 cordingly returned. On arriving at the bridge of boats, 
 the troopers plundered the toll-chest ; and a regiment of 
 
AUTHORITY AT A DISCOUNT. 99 
 
 Sepoys crossed the bridge and entered the city, after 
 having killed a European whom they met on the bridge. 
 The regiment had crossed, but the troopers were on the 
 other side of the river, when the boatmen broke the 
 bridge ; the troopers crossed the river on horseback, and 
 entered the city by the Delhi gate, and cantered up to 
 the Ungooree Baugh (under the palace), to murder the 
 
 * Burra Saheb.' The kotwal, on hearing of this, sent 
 word to Mr. Simon Fraser, the commissioner, who imme- 
 diately ordered the records of his office to be removed 
 into the city, and, getting into a buggy, with a double- 
 barrelled gun loaded, with two orderly horsemen, pro- 
 ceeded towards the mutineers. The troopers advanced 
 upon him ; Mr. Fraser fired, and shot one dead through 
 the head, and with the second barrel killed a trooper's 
 horse j he then got out of the buggy, and entered the 
 palace at the 'Summun Boorj, 5 closing the gate, and pro- 
 ceeded to the Lahore gate of the palace, and there called 
 out to the subadar on duty to close the gate (i.e., the 
 palace-guard gate), which he immediately did. A trooper 
 then rode up, and called out to the subadar to open the 
 gate. He asked, Who are you 1 ' and on his replying, 
 ' We are troopers from Meerut,' the subadar observed, 
 'Where are the other troopers?' The man replied, 'In 
 the Ungooree Baugh;' when the subadar desired the 
 troopers to bring them all, that he would open the gate, 
 and on their arrival did so, when all the troopers entered 
 the palace. 
 
 " Mr. Simon Fraser and Captain Douglas, the com- 
 mandant of the Palace Guards, called out to the subadar, 
 
 * What treachery is this? Desire your men to load' (an 
 entire company, if not more, was on duty at the palace 
 guard gate). The subadar abused the commissioner, de- 
 siring him to go away ; on hearing which both Mr. Fraser 
 and Captain Douglas left the quarters, and ran towards 
 the interior of the palace, and were pursued by the 
 troopers, one of whom fired a pistol at Mr. Fraser, on 
 which he staggered and leant against a wall ; when 
 another trooper went up, and with a sword severed his 
 head from his body at a single blow, and also in a similar 
 manner killed Captain Douglas, the commandant of the 
 
100 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 palace, and then proceeded to the king's hall of audience, 
 where they killed two more Europeans, and then pro- 
 ceeded to Durreeougunge, and set fire to all the houses 
 there. Another regiment of Sepoys arrived into the city, 
 and desired all the budmashes to plunder the houses, 
 since they (the mutineers) considered it ' huram,' and 
 would nob condescend to touch the booty themselves. 
 The troopers then murdered five gentlemen and three 
 ladies in Durreeougunge, and the remainder took shelter 
 in the Kishunghur Raja's house. They then came to the 
 Delhi bank, set fire to it, and killed five gentlemen ; they 
 then went up to the kotwalee, desiring the budmashes to 
 commence plundering ; on hearing which the kotwal 
 absconded, and took no steps to protect the people, and 
 even allowed the kotwalee to be plundered. The muti- 
 neers then came to the late CoL Skinner's house, which 
 they did not touch, but set fire to all the houses in the 
 vicinity of the church, killing all the gentlemen, ladies, 
 and children therein. 
 
 " After this five troopers galloped to the cantonments, 
 and on their approach all the Sepoys set fire to their 
 officers' houses, murdering all the gentlemen, ladies, and 
 children they could find in cantonments ; the remainder 
 of the troopers proceeded to the magazine in the city. 
 On their approach four officers were standing before the 
 magazine gate, which they closed, and from inside fired 
 two shots at the troopers, and then set fire to the maga- 
 zine : aD the four officers, and upwards of a thousand men 
 of the city, were blown up with the magazine. Two regi- 
 ments from the Delhi cantonments joined the mutineers 
 at the Delhi kotwalee, and commenced plundering the 
 city. The two Delhi regiments then went and encamped 
 near the Ellenborough tank before the palace. A guard 
 was sent to the Kishunghur Raja's house, on suspicion of 
 his having given refuge to Europeans. Upwards of 
 thirty-four Europeans (men, women, and children) were 
 concealed in the house. The mutineers set fire to the 
 house, and it kept burning all day and night ; but the 
 Europeans were safe in the i tykhana.' The next morn- 
 ing the troopers brought two guns from the magazine, 
 and kept firing at the house all day, but without effect. 
 
ATROCITIES OF THE MUTINEERS. 101 
 
 They then took to plundering the city in every direction* 
 The late Colonel Skinner's house, which the mutineers 
 did not touch, was regularly plundered by the scamps of 
 Delhi. On the 13th the mutineers again attacked the 
 Europeans that had taken shelter in the Kishunghur 
 Raja's house. The Europeans commenced to fire, and 
 shot thirty of the mutineers ; but on their ammunition 
 and supplies being out, thirty Europeans came out, and 
 four remained in the ' tykhana.' The heir-apparent now 
 rode up to the house, and begged the mutineers would 
 deliver them into his custody, and that he would take 
 care of them ; however, paying no attention to what he 
 said, they put all the Europeans to death. Mr. George 
 Skinner, his wife, and children had taken refuge in the 
 palace ; spies gave information ; they were seized, taken 
 to the kotwalee, and there most cruelly put to death. 
 Dr. Chimmun Lall, the sub-assistant surgeon, was also 
 killed at the dispensary. For three days the dead bodies 
 were not removed, and on the fourth day the mutineers 
 caused them all to be thrown into the river. 
 
 " The mutineers then asked the king either to give them 
 two months' pay, or their daily rations. The king sum- 
 moned all the shroffs and mahajuns, telling them if they 
 did not meet the demands of the mutineers they would 
 all be murdered ; on which the shroffs agreed to give 
 them dall rotee for twenty days, adding, they could not 
 afford more. The mutineers replied, ' We have deter- 
 mined to die ; how can we eat dall rotee for the few days 
 we have to live in this world V Whereupon the king 
 ordered four annas a day. The mutineers have placed 
 two guns on each gate in the city, and have brought a 
 thousand maunds of gunpowder from the cantonment 
 magazine, and have taken possession of all the shot and 
 shell in the city magazine. Supplies have been stopped, 
 and everything becoming exceedingly dear, viz., attah 
 thirteen seers, wheat eighteen seers, ghee o'ne and a half 
 seers, &c. All the neighbouring villages are up and 
 plundering : the king has accordingly burnt five Goojur 
 villages. The late Col. Skinner's house at Balaspore has 
 also been plundered. After plundering Delhi, 200 
 troopers proceeded to Goorgaon, and set fire to the houses, 
 
102 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 murdered the collector, and plundered the treasury, 
 bringing away 7 lakhs 84,000 rupees ; and, with the 
 Delhi treasury, the mutineers have in their possession 
 21 lakhs 84,000 rupees, which is kept in the palace, 
 guarded by them and the king's troops. The troopers 
 have also advanced towards Allyghur and Agra, with the 
 intention of persuading the troops there to join them and 
 set fire to houses and murder all the Europeans there. 
 At Delhi there are three regiments, one from Meerut and 
 two of the Delhi regiments, and two hundred troopers ; 
 the rest have all proceeded towards Allyghur and Agra. 
 The great banker, Lutchmee Chund Sett, from feeding 
 the mutineers daily, has saved his firm from sharing 
 the fate of the others, and is the only shroff who has not 
 been plundered." 
 
 We think that a careful perusal of the above narratives 
 will strengthen the theory that there was no plot to create 
 a rebellion, but that the outbreak was the result of a 
 sudden impulse, hardened into purpose and plan by the 
 sense of general disaffection. The relatives and adherents 
 of the Delhi family were spread all over the country, and 
 had tampered, no doubt, with the major part of the Mus- 
 sulman Sepoys, urging them to seize the first favour- 
 able opportunity to rise for the recovery of their ancient 
 dominions. They would say that, although the Padshah 
 was too old to place himself at the head of such an enter- 
 prise, his son was willing to be declared their king and 
 leader ; and that the enormous military arsenals and com- 
 mercial wealth of Delhi, totally undefended by European 
 troops, would give them such a start at the outset of a 
 rebellion, that they might reasonably expect the adhesion 
 of all the surrounding country. Still, however, it is un- 
 likely that the revolt would have happened but for the 
 local grievance of the greased cartridges. The Meerut 
 rebels knew that the heir- apparent was not a soldier, and 
 they had never heard that rebellion had prospered against 
 the British power. The most sanguine spirit could 
 scarcely expect to have escaped alive from the cantonment 
 where 2000 English soldiers, guns, cavalry, and infantry 
 were brigaded. And when, beyond their wildest hopes, 
 they reached Delhi, the same sense of impending doom 
 
THE BOND OF A COMMON IMPULSE. 103 
 
 weighed upon them. They talked of themselves as men 
 who had fulfilled a sacred duty at the certain cost of 
 speedy extinction. They thought, with all the English, 
 that a very short time must witness the capture of the 
 city, when, of course, they would be annihilated to a man ; 
 and murmured at having nothing better than " dall 
 rotee" to feed upon for the few days that remained to 
 them. " Let us," they said, in the emphatic language of 
 Scripture, " eat and drink, for to-morrow we* die." 
 
 The cries of a mob, hotly engaged in the work of 
 destruction, are the heart's genuine utterances. There is 
 no deceit in impulse no mode of artifice, by which you 
 can employ the tiger instincts in an unnatural way. The 
 shout of the Mussulman troopers was " Deen, deen L" a 
 word of fear equally to Hindoo and Christian under ordi- 
 nary circumstances. It was the battle-cry of Mahomed 
 of Ghuznee and Nadir Shah, and had been heard over the 
 din of falling pagodas and the death-shrieks of thousands 
 of Hindoo worshippers in many a dark cycle of Eastern 
 history. To suppose that Mahomedan soldiers would 
 raise it now, merely to excite the Hindoo Sepoys to join 
 them against the Feringhees, is as reasonable as to believe 
 that the officers of an English army 'would, if Ireland 
 were invaded by a foreign power, seek to animate the 
 loyalty of the Roman Catholic population by marching 
 through the villages with shouts of " Down with the 
 Pope and the priests I" The Mussulman, in this instance, 
 roused the Hindoo to aid him in warding off an evil 
 which threatened both equally. They had a common 
 cause to defend, and coalesced as a matter of course, just 
 as Archbishops Sumner and M'Hale would unite if 
 Christianity were in the last stage of peril. That the 
 rebels are using cartridges against us, which they chose 
 rather to mutiny than accept at the outset, is no argument 
 against their foolish sincerity of belief. Once get the con- 
 viction firmly established in your mind that your servant 
 intends to murder you in your sleep, and you are likely 
 enough to seize him when he enters the chamber on an 
 errand of service. The mistake may be discovered, but 
 the distrust remains. In the identical case of the car- 
 tridges actually in use, the Sepoys might see cause to 
 
104 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 alter their first impressions ; but, after all, their forcible 
 conversion was only a matter of time and opportunity. 
 The majority of them, at this moment, think that their 
 religion was in imminent danger ; and if they regret the 
 past, it will be that they have not made a wise use of 
 their chances of salvation. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE SIEGE OP DELHI. WANT OP GUNS. DEFECTIVE INTELLIGENCE. 
 UNWISE CLEMENCY. THE REBEL PROCLAMATION. LORD CANNING'S 
 WASTE PAPERS. 
 
 ON the death of General Anson the command of the army 
 devolved on the senior officer present, General Sir H. 
 Barnard, K.C.B. This officer had served in the Crimea 
 as chief of the staff under Lord Raglan, and was fully 
 entitled, we suppose, to whatever honours had been con- 
 ferred upon him in consequence of that appointment. His 
 march from Umballa was a rapid one ; but the immediate 
 result was not unlike that of a workman who proceeds in 
 haste to his task, and then has to sit down and wait for 
 his tools. The troops arrived before Delhi on the 8th 
 June ; but the siege train had not come up, and when it 
 reached the camp a close examination of the means of 
 attack disclosed the fact that there were no men to work 
 the guns. Two modes of assault were open to General 
 Barnard. He could in half an hour have made a breach 
 in the walls of Delhi sufficient to admit of the passage of 
 any number of troops ; or, before proceeding to storm, he 
 might batter the place with shot and shell, till king, 
 mutineers, and inhabitants were buried in the ruins. The 
 public, of course, were not aware of the obstacles that 
 stood in the way of the latter course, and the least hopeful 
 minds looked upon it as a matter of certainty that the 
 place would be taken in a fortnight after our army sat 
 down before it. This sanguine view of matters was en- 
 couraged by the conduct of Government, who promulgated 
 from time to time stories of the capture of Delhi, some- 
 times gleaned from a newspaper, at other times from 
 
THE OLD STOEY OF TOO MUCH HEART. 105 
 
 private messages; and once, on the 12th of June, from 
 " a great banker at Indore." 
 
 But the day rolled by without bringing the event 
 prayed for by so many thousands, and at last an anecdote 
 oozed out through the columns of a Bombay journal 
 which justified a very humble estimate of General Bar- 
 nard's fitness. The general, it appears, had ordered a 
 parade of the forces before leaving Umballa, at which 
 the 5th and 60th N.I. showed unmistakeable signs of 
 mutiny. The tale of their disaffection reached Calcutta, 
 and it was said that, on their refusal to obey orders, they 
 had been cut to pieces. Granted the fact of the revolt, 
 and there was nothing more likely than the infliction of 
 the subsequent punishment ; for the insolence and daring 
 could know no bounds which did not hesitate to defy a 
 British officer at the head of four or five thousand English 
 soldiers. It turned out, however, that the crime had 
 been committed, and was pardoned. The general soothed 
 the malcontents into good humour, and hushed up the 
 matter so far as they were concerned. 
 
 The sequel may be imagined : the 5th were left behind 
 to do garrison duty, but the 60th marched under British 
 protection to Delhi, and reached the rebel fortress 
 stronger in men, and richer in pocket, than if they had 
 been simply dismissed the service, like so many thousands 
 of their countrymen, and left to get to Delhi as they best 
 could. We have not heard whether they ever fired a 
 shot on our side ; but if so, they took the earliest oppor- 
 tunity of apologizing for the mistake by going over in a 
 body to the rebels, and heading, a day or two afterwards, 
 one of the fiercest assaults made on our position. 
 
 People who knew nothing of the science of war, except 
 so far as common sense teaches its rudiments, recognised 
 in this fatal facility of pardoning, and its consequences, a 
 melancholy likeness between the Governor-General and 
 the Commander-in-Chief. With Lord Canning in Cal- 
 cutta, and Sir Henry Barnard at Delhi, the prospect of a 
 speedy termination to the rebellion seemed gloomy in the 
 extreme. 
 
 It took twenty-six days to bring the main army from 
 (Jmballa, and the auxiliary force from Meerut, before the 
 
106 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 walls of Delhi. The Guides accomplished the longer 
 inarch in three days; the rebels performed the shorter 
 distance in eighteen hours. The men literally pined with 
 impatience to get at the enemy; but there were no guns, 
 no artillerymen, no commissariat, and no medicine chest. 
 They were held fast, as if labouring under nightmare, 
 with the Government of India clutching at their throats. 
 The rebels swarmed up at leisure from all parts of the 
 country as to a safe asylum. They kept the roads open 
 for themselves, but entirely closed to the British authori- 
 ties, and went and came at discretion. In time, the 
 mastiffs arrived, and watched the movements of the tiger. 
 The artillery followed after a season, and at some interval 
 of space the gunners. The labour commenced: the tides 
 of life began to ebb and flow in the British camp : battles 
 were won daily, but the siege never progressed : reinforce- 
 ments continually arrived, but the army grew no stronger. 
 Death was fed sparingly, but the table was always spread. 
 General succeeded general, and engineers followed each 
 other in the direction of the attack, with the rapidity 
 of the changes in a pantomime, and still the batteries 
 remained at almost extreme range, and the enemy came 
 out to fight us almost daily on our own ground. General 
 Barnard had taken the place of General Anson ; General 
 Heed superseded the former by right of seniority. Gene- 
 ral Barnard was restored to the command by order of the 
 Supreme Government ; General Barnard died, and General 
 Reed again x took the command of the force, to be again 
 superseded in favour of General Wilson. Three or four 
 chief engineers had been appointed, and at one time the 
 direction of siege operations was vested in a lieutenant of 
 artillery. Fighting became at last the soldiers' daily 
 work, from the performance of which neither wages nor 
 profit were expected. The Government grew tired of an- 
 nouncing the fall of Delhi, and were content to hear occa- 
 sionally from remote quarters that sickness, the sun, and 
 the sword had not absorbed more than the total of the rein- 
 forcements sent from time to time. The natives pro- 
 claimed all over the country that we had at last met more 
 than our match. -With the aid of our Sepoys we had cap- 
 tured the impregnable Bhurtpore, but fighting against 
 
AN IMPERIAL AFFIDAVIT. 107 
 
 them we could not take the almost defenceless city of 
 Delhi. The " so-called fort, a place of no strength," as the 
 military secretary phrased it, had resisted all the might 
 of the Company Bahadoor : who could doubt that the Haj 
 had passed away from it for ever 1 
 
 In the latter part of May, his Majesty of Delhi circu- 
 lated the following proclamation in all directions. It was 
 published by a Mahomedan paper in Calcutta, and, by 
 means of religious mendicants and other agencies, dis-. 
 persed over the whole country : 
 
 " Be it known to all the Hindoos and Mahomedans, 
 the subjects and servants on the part of the officers of the 
 English forces stationed at Delhi and Meerut, that all the 
 Europeans are united in this point first, to deprive the 
 army of their religion ; and then, by the force of strong 
 measures, to Christianize all the subjects. In fact, it is 
 the absolute orders of the Governor-General to serve out 
 cartridges made up with swine and beef fat. If there be 
 10,000 who resist this, to blow them up; if 50,000, to 
 disband them. 
 
 " For this reason we have, merely for the sake of the 
 faith, concerted with all the subjects, and have not left 
 one infidel of this place alive ; and have constituted the 
 Emperor of Delhi upon this engagement, that whichever 
 of the troops will slaughter all their European officers, 
 and pledge allegiance to him, shall always receive double 
 salary. Hundreds of cannon and immense treasure have 
 come to hand j it is therefore requisite that all who 
 find it difficult to become Christians, and all subjects, 
 will unite cordially with the army, take courage, and not 
 leave the seed of these devils in any place. 
 
 " All the expenditure that may be incurred by the 
 subjects in furnishing supplies to the army, they will take 
 receipts for the same from the officers of the army, and 
 retain them by themselves they will receive double price 
 from the Emperor. Whoever will at this time give way 
 to pusillanimity, and allow himself to be overreached by 
 these deceivers, and depend upon their word, will experi- 
 ence the fruits of their submission, like the inhabitants of 
 Lucknow. It is therefore necessary that all Hindoos and 
 Mahomedans should be of one mind in this struggle, and 
 
10S THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 make arrangements for their preservation with the advice 
 of some creditable persons. Wherever the arrangement 
 shall be good, and with whomsoever the subjects shall be 
 pleased, those individuals shall be placed in high offices 
 in those places. 
 
 " And to circulate copies of this proclamation in every 
 place, as far as it may be possible, be not understood to be 
 less than a stroke of the sword. That this proclamation 
 be stuck up at a conspicuous place, in order that all 
 Hindoos and Mahomedans may become apprised and be 
 prepared. If the infidels now become mild, it is merely 
 an expedient to save their lives. Whoever will be deluded 
 by their frauds, he will repent. Our reign continues. 
 Thirty rupees to a mounted, and ten rupees to a foot 
 soldier, will be the salary of the new servants of Delhi." 
 
 The proclamation summed up the entire argument in 
 favour of mutiny. It was the work of a rnan who tho- 
 roughly understood the Asiatic character, and appealed to 
 all the subject masses. Our rule was about to be distin- 
 guished by the practice of an iniquity as comprehensive 
 as if we had poisoned all the rivers and wells, or infected 
 the universal air. Hitherto, the worst of Governments 
 had spared the great bulk of the people, from the impossi- 
 bility of reaching them ; but there was no man so poor or 
 insignificant as to escape terrible loss at the hands of the 
 English, if we were allowed to carry out our meditated 
 design. We " were all united on the point," and " the 
 orders " of the " Governor- General " were " absolute." 
 The people had the " Emperor's " word for the fact, and 
 his wisdom had devised the best method of averting the 
 threatened calamity. He had killed all the conspirators 
 within reach, and recommended all who cared to preserve 
 their faith to follow his imperial example, and " not leave 
 the seed of those devils in any place," Double pay was 
 to be the never-ending reward of those who murdered 
 their officers ; unavailing regret would perpetually haunt 
 those reprobates who were foolish enough to give credence 
 to our promises. If we were " mild," it was " merely an 
 expedient to save our lives." We had shown, in the case 
 of Lucknow, what we thought of pledges. 
 
 Whilst the monarch of the Sepoys de facto was taking 
 
A PREACHER WITHOUT AN AUDIENCE. 109 
 
 the short cut to the hearts and understandings of his 
 new subjects, the ruler de jure was complacently issuing 
 proclamations, which were read only by the few, and 
 listened to by none. A manifesto was put forth warning 
 all classes against the deceptions that were practised on 
 them, and asserting that the Government of India had 
 invariably treated the religious feelings of all its subjects 
 with careful respect. The Governor-General in Council 
 had declared that it would never cease to do so. He 
 now repeated that declaration, and emphatically pro- 
 claimed that the Government of India entertained no de- 
 sire to interfere with their religion or caste, and that no- 
 thing had been or would be done by the Government to 
 affect the free exercise of the observances of religion or 
 caste by every class of the people. 
 
 " The Government of India," said Lord Canning, " has 
 never deceived its subjects :" therefore the Governor- 
 General in Council now called upon them " to refuse their 
 belief to such seditious -lies." This paternal remonstrance 
 was expected to effect much good. No Sepoy can blame 
 the Governor-General for being precipitate to condemn or 
 stern to punish. Rebels with arms in their hands would 
 hardly expect to be reasoned with, and treated as erring 
 mortals, whose morals were to be mended by argument 
 and admonition, and the Asiatic mind failed to imagine 
 the real drift of the document. They saw in it a mere 
 confession of weakness. If the Government had the 
 power to act, they would never have condescended to dis- 
 cuss the question of the folly of disaffection. With them 
 the time had gone by for talking and writing ; and it 
 would have been well for England and India both, had 
 Lord Canning either possessed the usual sagacity of Eng- 
 lishmen or the never-failing cunning of the Asiatic. In 
 either case he would have given a single emphatic denial 
 to the rumour of intended interference with the native 
 religions, and spoken out the rest of his mind in salvoes 
 of great guns and volleys of musketry. Something more 
 tangible than words was offered to the men who remained 
 true to their salt. A list of functionaries was published, 
 who were empowered even to bestow commissions in the 
 Company's service for deeds of valour and fidelity ; and 
 
110 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 every officer in charge of a detachment was authorized to 
 promote deserving Sepoys to the non-commissioned grades. 
 Great crimes might and did go unpunished ; but the 
 smallest act performed in the cause of law and order was 
 certain to find approval and reward. 
 
 Only a month had passed away since the officer highest 
 in rank at Barrackpore had been censured by Govern- 
 ment for promoting a most deserving Sepoy to the rank of 
 sergeant ; and now General Hearsey could bestow com- 
 missions, and officers in command of detachments were 
 empowered to conter the non-commissioned grades. So 
 long as the Sepoy was orderly and obedient he was un- 
 noticed by the State, but when he became turbulent and 
 unruly his merits were acknowledged Whatever the 
 Government dreaded they were willing to conciliate ; the 
 geueral order made no mention of the Queen's troops, be- 
 cause their fidelity was unquestionable. Being in fear for 
 our lives, we had become " mild," and were trying to 
 " overreach" the Sepoys. The Padshah had warned the 
 people that attempts would be made to deceive them, and 
 advised them not to put trust in the faithless Feringhee. 
 It was in this sense that the natives interpreted what 
 Lord Canning considered a master-stroke of policy. He 
 spoke of clemency and gratitude, which they translated 
 as meaning weakness and attempted corruption. About 
 the same time he was obliged to repeal an order which had 
 been issued, empowering all general officers, and officers com- 
 manding stations, to appoint courts-martial, composed of not 
 less than five native officers, for the trial and instant punish- 
 ment of any offence which in their judgments required 
 to be punished without delay. It was felt to be too bad 
 to call upon the subadars and jemadars of the army to up- 
 hold Sepoy loyalty under existing circumstances. It was 
 patent to the Governor-General, as well as to the rest oi 
 the world, that the native officers in each regiment could 
 not by possibility be ignorant of what was going forward 
 amongst the men ; and that if, with their commissions and 
 lives at stake, not a man amongst them could be induced 
 to tell what he knew, it was the wildest folly to suppose 
 that they would have found by court-martial their accom- 
 plices guilty of treason. It has been Lord Canning's 
 
NO FEAR FOR CALCUTTA. Ill 
 
 misfortune throughout his brief Indian career to be in- 
 capable of distinguishing between Europeans and natives ; 
 but the Legislative Council in this instance corrected his 
 error, and passed an act by virtue of which the court- 
 martial might be composed of European officers alone, if 
 the officer commanding thought proper. Some weeks 
 afterwards, when our prospects seemed hopeless to native 
 eyes, his lordship thought proper to recall the powers he 
 had unconditionally vested in the civil authorities, for 
 reasons which have not met the approbation of the think- 
 ing portion of society. 
 
 Of course, with a thousand stories floating about of 
 mischief and murder, the popular feeling in Calcutta took 
 the shape of an alwm for the safety of the capital. The 
 public journals advocated the formation of volunteer 
 corps, and the Trades Association went up to Government 
 on the 20th of May, offering " every assistance in their 
 power towards the preservation of order and the protec- 
 tion of the Christian community of Calcutta, either by 
 serving as special constables or otherwise in such manner 
 as may appear most desirable to Government, and at the 
 same time suggesting to Government that their services 
 should be availed of in some manner, as they deemed the 
 present crisis a most serious one, and one in which every 
 available means should be brought into action for the 
 suppression of possible riot and insurrection." In con- 
 veying the above offer to the authorities, the secretary 
 of the association described it in his letter " as a copy of 
 proceedings and resolutions held on the subject of the 
 present disaffection evinced by the Sepoy regiments 
 throughout India," a remark which his lordship took 
 instant pains to repudiate. The Trades Association was 
 thanked, and advised to register their names at the office 
 of the Commissioner of Police, who would write to them 
 if their services were required. " But," said Lord Can- 
 ning, " the Governor-General in Council desired to assure 
 the Calcutta Trades Association that he has no apprehen- 
 sion whatever of riot, insurrection, or disturbance amongst 
 any class of the population of Calcutta ; and that if, un- 
 fortunately, any should occur, the means of crushing it 
 utterly, and at once, are at hand. 
 H 2 
 
112 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 " The Governor-General in Council begs the members 
 of the association to believe that he is not on this account 
 less thankful to them for the ready and spontaneous tender 
 of their aid. Nothing gives greater strength to a Govern- 
 ment in a large community than the cordial support and 
 co-operation of the influential classes represented by the 
 Calcutta Trades Association. 
 
 " The Governor-General in Council is sorry to see that, 
 in the letter of the secretary of the association, it is as- 
 sumed that disaffection has been evinced by the Sepoy 
 regiments throughout India. His lordship in Council 
 would greatly regret that such an impression should go 
 abroad. Not only is it certain to lead to exaggerated 
 fears amongst the civil population of the country at large, 
 but, without speaking of the armies of Madras and Bom- 
 bay, it is not just as regards the army of Bengal. There 
 are in the army of this Presidency many soldiers and many 
 regiments who have stood firm against evil example and 
 wicked counsels, and who at this moment are giving un- 
 questionable proof of their attachment to the Govern- 
 ment, and of their abhorrence of the atrocious crimes 
 which have lately been perpetrated in the North-west 
 Provinces. 
 
 " It is the earnest desire of the Governor-General in 
 Council that honourable and true-hearted soldiers, whose 
 good name he is bound to protect, and of whose fidelity 
 he is confident, should not be included in a condemnation 
 of rebels and murderers." 
 
 When this reply was given, the mutiny, so far as Go- 
 vernment information went, was confined to the six 
 regiments at Delhi and Meerut, and the abortive attempt 
 of the 7th Oude Irregulars. A month afterwards, and 
 Lord Canning had to inform the Court of Directors that 
 half the Bengal army were in open rebellion ; had to in- 
 form the Trades Association that he would gladly accept 
 their offered aid ; had to guard the Mint and Treasury 
 with Europeans, and exhibit to all the world that he was 
 unable to see any of the signs of the times, and had been 
 labouring, however unconsciously, as much to discourage 
 the loyal subjects of her Majesty as to afford heart of 
 grace to their enemies. Again, on the 25th. of May, Mr. 
 
THE ttlSIXG IN OUDE. 113 
 
 Cecil Beadon replied to the address of the French inha- 
 bitants of Calcutta as follows : " The Governor-General 
 in Council desires me to return his sincere acknowledg- 
 ments for your address of the 23rd instant, in which you 
 evince your attachment to her Majesty the Queen by 
 placing your services at the disposal of the Government for 
 the common safety, in consequence of the partial revolt of 
 some of the native regiments in the North-west Provinces. 
 " His lordship in Council regards this expression of 
 the sentiments of tfee French community with lively 
 satisfaction, and feels assured that, in case of necessity, 
 their sympathy with the British Government and their 
 active co-operation in the cause of order may be entirely 
 relied on ; but he trusts there will be no occasion to call 
 for their services. Everything is quiet within 600 miles 
 of the capital. The mischief caused by a passing and 
 groundless panic has already been arrested, and there is 
 every reason to hope that, in the course of a few days, 
 tranquillity and confidence will be restored throughout the 
 Presidency." 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE FIRST TROUBLES IN OUDE. WEAK BEHAVIOUR OP GOVERNMENT. 
 
 REVOLT OF THE ENTIRE ARMY OF THE PROVINCE. COMPARATIVE 
 MILDNESS OF THE REBELS. 
 
 THE force in Oude at the commencement of the outbreak 
 consisted of the following troops : H.M.'s 32nd, a troop of 
 Horse Artillery, two companies of Foot ditto, the 7th Light 
 Cavalry, seven regiments of Native Infantry, three field 
 batteries of the Oude Irregular Force, three regiments of 
 Oude Irregular Cavalry, ten regiments of Oude Irregulat 
 Infantry, and three ditto of Police ; in all about 900 
 Europeans and 22,000 natives. The last revolted almost 
 in a body ; but it is noticeable that the irregulars, who 
 had but lately taken service with us, were far less blood- 
 thirsty than the troops of the Bengal army. If, as natives 
 of Oude, they had grievances peculiar to themselves, 
 their conduct as mutineers certainly betrayed no special 
 signs of it. 
 
114 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 On the 2nd of May the 7th Oude Regiment, stationed 
 about seven miles from Lucknow, refused to bite the car- 
 tridge when ordered to do so by the officer commanding ; 
 and again when the order was repeated by the brigadier. 
 The next day the corps showed signs of mutiny in an un- 
 mistakeable way, and measures were at once taken to deal 
 with it. A field battery, a wing of H.M.\s 32nd, and 
 several regiments of native cavalry and infantry marched 
 against it. and the disaffected troops were drawn up in 
 columns facing the guns. They expressed sorrow for 
 what had occurred, and asked for forgiveness, at the same 
 time giving up two prisoners and offering to surrender 
 forty more ; but when the port-fires were lighted, they 
 imagined that the strong measures usually adopted against 
 mutiny in the king's time were about to be employed, 
 and, throwing down their arms, fled for their lives. They 
 were pursued, and a number taken prisoners ; but 110 
 blood was shed, and the runaways came back to their 
 lines at night, and were told on the following day that 
 Government would be asked to disband the corps, but 
 that the innocent men might be re-enlisted. When the 
 matter came before Government for consideration, 
 Lord Canning proposed that the disbandment should be 
 real to whatever length it might be carried. He disliked 
 discharging men one day to take them back the next, 
 and would therefore keep the good soldiers, and get rid 
 of the bad characters. Mr. Dorm was of opinion that 
 disbandment was not a sufficient punishment. "The 
 sooner," he wrote, " this epidemic of mutiny is put a stop 
 to, the better. Mild measures wont do it. A severe 
 example is wanted. It is little or no punishment to a 
 Local on five rupees monthly pay to be disbanded in his 
 own country. In many instances, it might be a conve- 
 nience to him than otherwise. I would rather try the 
 whole of the men concerned for mutiny, and punish them 
 with the utmost rigour of military law. I am convinced 
 that timely severity will be leniency in the long run." 
 
 Mr. Dorin was of opinion that no corps mutinies that 
 is well commanded. General Low thought it probable 
 that the main body, in refusing to bite the cartridges, did 
 so refuse, not from any feeling of disloyalty or disaffeo 
 
COUNCIL PUTTING THEIR HEADS TOGETHER. 115 
 
 tion towards the Government or their officers, but from 
 an unfeigned and sincere dread, owing to their belief in, 
 the late rumours about the construction of those car- 
 tridges, that the act of biting them would involve a serious 
 injury to their caste and to their future respectability of 
 character. In short, that if they were to bite these car- 
 tridges they would be guilty of a heinous sin in a religious 
 point of view. 
 
 He would try the ringleaders by court-martial, and dis- 
 band the main body of the regiment ; and " if it came to 
 light that want of zeal, good judgment, or short-comings 
 of any kind had been evinced by European officers, he 
 would have them punished with the utmost rigour." This 
 last sentence was in allusion to the fact that the drill in- 
 structions by which biting the cartridge was dispensed 
 with had not been brought into operation at Lucknow. 
 
 Mr. Grant penned a very voluminous minute on the 
 subject. He thought it very likely that the men had 
 been influenced by an unfeigned dread of losing caste, 
 engendered by the stories which had been running like 
 wildfire through the country. " Sepoys," he went on to 
 say, " are in many respects very much like children \ and 
 acts which, on the part of European soldiers, would be 
 blackest disloyalty, may have a very different significance 
 when done by these credulous and inconsiderate, but gene- 
 rally not ill-disposed, beings. These men, taken from the 
 late Oude army, can have learned as yet little of the 
 vigour of British discipline ; and although there can be 
 no doubt that the cartridges which they refused to bite 
 were not the new cartridges for the Eiifield musket, which, 
 by reason of the very culpable conduct of the Ordnance 
 Department, have caused all this excitement, yet it may 
 be presumed that they were the first cartridges that these 
 men were ever required to bite in their lives." 
 
 Mr. Grant's remedy for the evil shown in this case was 
 to suspend the order for disbandment till there had been 
 time for making a full inquiry into all the circumstances. 
 He thought the " dismissal of the bad characters, with 
 the triai by court-martial of a few of the worst men a 
 month hence," was the best plan to adopt ; but four weeks 
 after the date of his minute the honourable member would 
 

 116 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 be disposed to look on the mutiny, which consisted only 
 in refusing to bite the cartridges and then runniog away, 
 as a military act which deserved commendation rather 
 than otherwise. 
 
 When the despatch-box came round again, Lord Can- 
 ning wrote a minute, in which he said : " 1 know no 
 instance in which the punishment of any individual 
 could, with unquestionable justice, have been made more 
 severe ; and I am not disposed to distrust the efficacy of 
 the measures because the present ferment, in running its 
 course over the land, after being checked in the Presi- 
 dency, has shown itself in Oude and in the North-west. 
 I would meet it everywhere with the same deliberately 
 measured punishments picking out the leaders and pro- 
 minent offenders, wherever this is possible, for the severest 
 penalties of military law visiting the common herd 
 with disbandment, bub carefully exempting those whose 
 fidelity, innocence, or, perhaps, timely repentance, is 
 proved. This has been the course hitherto pursued, and 
 I earnestly recommend that it be adhered to steadily." 
 The rest of the council concurred; but Mr. Dorin, in 
 whose mind misgivings had sprung up, said there would 
 " seem to be more in the present case than has yet tran- 
 spired. It is to be hoped that the news from Meerut (in 
 the telegraph message from Agra in this box) is not true." 
 The knell of the Great Company had tolled, and his ear 
 caught the faint sounds that were soon to reverberate 
 throughout the universe. The straw on the surface of 
 events, he was guiltless of having caused the tide. 
 
 After the fall of Delhi, it was universally felt that if 
 the mutiny spread it would be in the direction of Oude, 
 where the irregular force, lately in the service of the 
 king, might be expected to rise against us to a man. Sir 
 Henry Lawrence, the Chief Commissioner of the Pro- 
 vince, asked for " plenary powers," as soon as the intelli- 
 gence reached Lucknow, and obtained them. He was 
 made Brigadier- General, which enabled him to assume 
 the direction of military affairs, and commenced to fortify 
 himself against accidents. But his anxiety was fbr Alla- 
 habad, Benares, and Cawnpore, with regard to which he 
 was constantly communicating with the Government. On 
 
THE SEPOYS AT THEIR LABOUR OF LOVE. 117 
 
 the 20th of May lie telegraphed, "All very well at Luck- 
 now and in the district. Our position is now very strong. 
 In case of necessity no fears are entertained." On the 
 23rd he announced that he had secured his magazine 
 stores, and had ten days' supplies for 500 men. He had 
 30 guns and 100 Europeans in a fortified post called the 
 Muchee Baun, and 291 Europeans with a European bat- 
 tery in cantonments, and was safe except from external 
 influences. All his dread was for Cawnpore, and he tele- 
 graphed without ceasing to spare no expense in sending 
 up Europeans to reinforce the place. On the 29th he 
 intimated that there was great uneasiness, and that tran- 
 quillity could not be maintained much longer at Lucknow, 
 except Delhi were captured. On the 30th he received 
 back the fifty Europeans that had been lent to Sir Hugh 
 Wheeler, and the next day the troops broke out in mutiny. 
 During the last days of May he was constantly assured 
 by his spies each night that the troops intended to rise 
 that evening, and each morning of course showed that the 
 tale was unfounded. The sentries, however, were doubled, 
 and every precaution taken to avoid surprise, and such 
 was the effect produced by the admirable nature of the 
 arrangements and the well-founded reliance on the skill 
 and bravery of the Chief Commissioner, that the people 
 began to think there would be no mutiny after all, and 
 the authorities at Calcutta would have backed the opinion 
 freely. But on the night of the 30th May firing was 
 heard in the lines of the 71st N.I., and it was evident 
 that the tragedy had begun. From every quarter of the 
 native encampments the fire of musketry rained hotter 
 and hotter; bungalows were seen blazing in all directions, 
 and officers, galloping here and there with such irregular 
 cavalry as they could muster, were seen engaged hand-to- 
 harid with the mutineers, or trying to persuade their men. 
 to remain true to their salt. The Brigadier, Col. Hands- 
 combe, a brave old soldier, who had served at the capture 
 of Ghaznee during the campaigns in Affghanistan, and 
 been present in all the desperate battles of the first Sikh 
 war, was shot as he rode up to the lines in the hope of 
 being able to persuade the tigers who had already tasted 
 blood not to thirst for more of it. Lieut. Grant, son of 
 
118 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 the Commander-in-Chief of Madras, was killed at his 
 picket. The rebels charged his men, who turned and fied, 
 and one of them shot the poor youth, who tottered into 
 the guard-house, and was hidden by the subadar under 
 his charpoy. The ruffians returned to the place, and were 
 told that he had got away, but; a scoundrelly havildar of 
 the guard pointed out his hiding-place, and it is need- 
 less to say lie was murdered with circumstances of savage 
 cruelty. The firing continued throughout the night, 
 the mutineers receiving occasional reinforcements from the 
 ranks of the 71st, 13th, and 48th N.I., but being unable 
 to make the smallest impression on the weak body opposed 
 to them. At daybreak they had traversed the length of 
 the encampments, the whole of which was in a blaze, and 
 had set fire to the lines of the 7th Cavalry, nearly the 
 entire of whom then turned and made common cause with 
 th( Retracing their steps, they made a show of 
 
 giving battle to Sir H. Lawrence ; but a few round shot 
 from the artillery sent them flying in all directions, and he 
 returned to cantonments with a hundred prisoners, having 
 chased the rebels till the sun became too hot to continue 
 the pursuit. During the next thirty-four days he remained 
 cooped up in Lucknow, the circle of fire gradually closing 
 round him, and his tone of correspondence slowly chang- 
 ing from a sense of complete security to that of utter hope- 
 lessness. It seemed so impossible, both to the world out- 
 side and to himself, that he could be left in Lucknow to 
 perish. Surely Delhi would fall, and aid would come from 
 Calcutta. With a European regiment in addition to his 
 own force, he believed he could reconquer Oude, and, after 
 the marvels performed by our troops, we can hardly ven- 
 ture to doubt that lie would have forced a way through 
 all opposition. But the vital error which pervaded all 
 our military operations was the attempt to hold fortresses 
 instead of merely looking to the saving of lives. Lord 
 Canning had made it a war of posts. He woiild give up 
 nothing, and yet could defend nothing. At the outset, 
 Meerut and Agra might have put down the insurrection, 
 even after the mutineers had possession of Delhi, if the 
 Government had only disarmed the Sepoys, trusted the 
 defence of the women and children to volunteer guards, 
 
A NOBLE LIFE WASTED. 119 
 
 and made forced marches on the rebel capital. Again, 
 had Luckiiow been given up for the time, Wheeler and 
 Lawrence combined could have held their own at Cawn- 
 pore. and we should have been spared the worst of the 
 Indian tragedies. The junction of the two detachments, 
 the easy advance of Neill with a flying column in June, or 
 the aid of the Ghoorkas, each or any, would have sufficed, 
 in all human probability, to save us bitter and unavailing 
 regret. But it was fated to be otherwise, ISTo succour 
 came through all the weary June, and on the 2nd of July 
 Sir Henry Lawrence inarched out against the mutineers 
 with nearly all his force. He reasoned that, if the native 
 troops were staunch, he might even succeed in raising the 
 siege ; and if they joined the rebels, he should have so 
 many less of useless mouths to feed from his slender stock 
 of provisions. The event justified his fears. The traitors, 
 artillery and infantry, turned upon him as soon as they 
 got well outside the defences, and it was with difficulty 
 that he got back to cover, seriously wounded, and with 
 heavy loss to his little band, who, however, by springing 
 a mine, blew up a great number of the enemy. On reach- 
 ing his quarters he sat down and wrote to Government, 
 detailing the particulars of the action and the perilous 
 state of affairs, but making no mention of his own hurt. 
 Two days afterwards he died, to the infinite loss of the 
 public service, and the sorrow of all ranks of Englishmen. 
 The 17th N.I., stationed at Goruckpore, and the 22nd 
 at Fyzabad, agreed to rise at an early date ; but the latter 
 resisted the solicitations of the 17th either to kill their own 
 officers or send them away on the road by which it was 
 arranged that the 17th should march on Fyzabad. A 
 company of the latter was sent to Azimgurh with 50,000?. 
 in silver, and on arriving at that place they killed a couple 
 of their officers, marched into the lines, and there being 
 joined by the rest of the regiment, they plundered the 
 treasury, containing, we believe, about 70,000?. in addi- 
 tion, and then broke away for Fyzabad, slaughtering, as ~a 
 matter of course, every European who came in their way. 
 Their approach to that station was duly announced, and on 
 the night of the 8th June a couple of guns fired by the 
 6th Oude Irregular Infantry warned the Sepoys of the 
 
120 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 22nd that the time had arrived for fulfilling their contract. 
 For several nights previous Major Mills, commanding the 
 battery with Lieutenants Currie and Perceval, had slept 
 at the quarter-guard with their guns in readiness ; and 
 Colonel Lennox, commanding the 22nd N.I., slept amongst 
 his men. On hearing the alarm, Major Mills started off 
 to the battery.; but the company of Sepoys which had 
 been placed to flank the guns closed round the field-pieces, 
 and, presenting their bayonets, refused to allow any of 
 the artillery to approach. It was then considered useless 
 to stay any longer, and the officers assembled and sent for 
 boats. The rebels were divided into two parties the 
 Mussulmans, who wished to slaughter all the Europeans, 
 and the Hindoos, who inclined to moderate counsels. 
 Ultimately the advice of the latter prevailed, and the mu- 
 tineers not only assisted in providing them with the means 
 of transport, but made them a donation of Us. 900, the 
 money being taken from the regimental chest. When the 
 officers tried to induce them to pause, they answered re- 
 spectfully that the Company's raj was at an end. That 
 the subadar major of the corps had been appointed to the 
 command of the station, and that each regiment had chosen 
 its own colonel. The subadar major, willing to do all 
 things in order, requested the late colonel of the 22nd to 
 produce his dress-uniform coat, and, having tried it on in 
 his presence, observed, " it would fit very well if let out a 
 little underneath the arms." The property of all belong- 
 ing to the station was of course looted, but nothing was 
 taken of much value, except by arrangement with the 
 owners. An officer's wife, who was rich enough to possess 
 a handsome service of plate, was requested by her butler 
 to give it to him : somebody, he said, must have it, and he, 
 as chief servant, was best entitled. Discussing the state 
 of affairs with his mistress, he said he knew that the rebels 
 could only hold the country while the rains lasted : with 
 the cold weather, the Europeans would of course return 
 as conquerors ; but in the meantime they would have 
 plenty of loot and European lives. Mutiny carried on 
 after this fashion is perhaps less unpleasant than exciting, 
 and there are extant notes of various conversations with 
 .the chiefs of the mutineers at Fyzabad. One of the 
 
A MILITARY POLITICIAN. 121 
 
 officers states that, in a conversation with a subadar of 
 his regiment, the latter said, " As you are going away for 
 ever, I will tell yon all about our plans. We halt at 
 Fyzabad five days, and march vid Dvuniabad upon Luck- 
 now, where we expect to be joined by the people of the 
 city." He added, " proclamations have been received from 
 the King of Delhi, informing all that he is once more on 
 the throne of his fathers, and calling upon the whole army 
 to join his standard. Also that Rajah Maun Singh, under 
 whose guardianship the ladies at Fyzabad placed them- 
 selves, had been appointed Commander-in-Chief in Oude." 
 The subadar further said, " You English have been a long 
 time in India, but you know little of us. We have 
 nothing to do with Wajeed Ali or any of his relations ; 
 the kings of Lucknow were made by you. The only ruler 
 in India empowered to give sunnuds is the King of Delhi ; 
 he never made a King of Oude, and it is from him only 
 that we shall receive our orders." 
 
 When the whole of the European officers had stepped 
 into the boats, the station resumed its usual aspect. The 
 subadar major, as chief of the station, drove about in .the 
 late commanding officer's carriage, and each sable hero, pro- 
 moted after this summary fashion to be captain or lieu- 
 tenant, annexed the cattle and vehicle of his predecessor; 
 the rule of entail was pursued, the estates going with the 
 title. The band played nightly at mess for them, the 
 extra pay of the musicians being defrayed from, the Com- 
 pany's treasury. Guards were planted and parades ordered 
 as usual, and perhaps the Sepoy would have been puzzled 
 to tell what he had gained by the change of masters. The 
 fugitives started for Dinapore in several boats, but there 
 appears to have been a sad want of concert between them. 
 They were numerous enough to have made a stout resis- 
 tance had they kept together ; but they left at various 
 times, and lost the advantage of company and counsel. 
 The majority of the hapless souls were killed, some by the 
 revolted troops, and others by the villagers, and the nar- 
 ratives of the escape of those who survived teem with 
 examples of exquisite suffering and unexpected succour. 
 The Rajah Maun Singh, whom the English had imprisoned 
 and the King of Delhi had promoted, showed himself a 
 
122 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 fast friend to our race, and not only made advances of 
 money to various officers, but repeatedly supplied escorts 
 to bring them to a place of safety, much against the will 
 of his own adherents, who seldom omitted to taunt them 
 with their failure in the attempt to destroy the native 
 religion. 
 
 At Sultanpore the 15th Irregulars gave notice to their 
 commanding officer, Colonel Fisher, that they intended to 
 mutiny, in company with the 12th N.I. and Oude Police 
 Corps. The colonel was one of the most popular mem- 
 bers of a service in which all commanding officers who 
 succeed arc favourites with their men. Above all native 
 troops, the fidelity of the Irregulars would have been 
 vouched for ; and above all commanding officers, " Sain 
 Fisher," as he was popularly termed, would have been 
 voted the last man to lose his corps by mutiny. A lieu- 
 tenant only in H.M.'s 29th, he had won his rank of 
 brevet lieutenant-colonel three years since by dint of 
 desperate bravery. The record of his services shows that 
 he was present through all the Affghanistan campaigns 
 in 1842, the occupation of Cabul,and capture of Istaliif ; 
 in the battles of the Sutlej in 1845-6, where he was 
 severely wounded, and in the second Punjaub war. All 
 these dangers he had passed through, and was now to die 
 by the hands of miserable traitors. Finding that his ex- 
 postulations were of no avail with his men, he turned 
 sorrowfully away from the groups he had been address- 
 ing, and rode in front of the 6th Oude Locals, who were 
 breaking up, with loud shouts to seize the Treasury. A 
 volley saluted his arrival, and he fell riddled with balls, 
 but survived to be carried off in a palanquin, in which it 
 is said he was finally killed by his own men, who cut up 
 their second in command, Captain Gibbings, and frater- 
 nized with the rest of the mutineers. Messrs. Black and 
 Strogan, civilians, took refuge in a native house, but were 
 turned out, and also cut down. Captain Bunbury, com- 
 manding the 6th Oude Locals, had taken the precaution 
 to have a boat in readiness, and, hastily pushing off, es- 
 caped the fate of many of his brother officers and friends. 
 
 Another popular officer who fell by the hands of the 
 rebels was Lieutenant Joseph Clarke, second in command 
 
THE RULE OF VENGEANCE. 123 
 
 of the 3rd Oude Irregulars. He had distinguished him- 
 self by killing the notorious Fuzil Ali, a dacoit, who had 
 set at defiance for years the police and the troops of the 
 King of Oude, and had at last displayed his indifference 
 to consequences by the murder of a Bengal civilian. 
 Lieutenant Clarke was stationed at an outlying post dur- 
 ing the mutiny, and the tidings of defection throughout 
 the province reached him before his men got to hear of 
 it. As a matter of course, he knew they would vise as 
 soon as they received the news, and his first care, there- 
 fore, was to send off his brother officer at the station, 
 with the women and children, to a place of safety. That 
 done, he waited quietly till the Sepoys came forward, and 
 said they must follow the example of the rest of the 
 regiment. They went on to assure him that they would 
 not allow a hair of his head to be harmed, and that of 
 course he could take what things he pleased away with 
 him. The parting was arranged in the most amicable 
 manner, and Lieutenant Clarke, with a couple of servants, 
 who remained by him, started off to the nearest station 
 of Europeans. On their way down they were crossing 
 the Gogra, when they saw, on the opposite bank, a regi- 
 ment of infantry, and, looking back to the shore they had 
 just quitted, a squadron of cavalry was observed occupying 
 the river's edge, and effectually cutting off their retreat. 
 There was no help for it but to go forward, and in a few 
 minutes they were surrounded by the rebels. The native 
 commanding officer merely inquired his name, and ordered 
 a dozen men to take him out and shoot him. The ser- 
 vants threw themselves on their faces, and, with passion- 
 ate tears, implored his life. They spoke of his bravery 
 in battle and unvarying kindness of heart, and how loath 
 the corps were to part with him. The rebel leader gave 
 his assent to all that was said in his prisoner's favour. 
 He, too, had heard of " Clarke Sahib," and would have 
 been glad to save him, but the English were killing every 
 black man who fought against them, and his orders were 
 to retaliate in every instance. The poor young lieu- 
 tenant knew that his doom was fixed, and made no ap- 
 peal himself to move their compassion. He only begged 
 that his sword and medal might be sent to his father, and 
 
124 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 that he might die a soldier's death. His captor promised 
 compliance with his request, and was as good as his word. 
 He took the life which he considered forfeit, and went on 
 his way of evil. The sword and medal were safely de- 
 livered, and perhaps, before this, the executioners have 
 joined their victim. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE REVOLT OP BENARES. PANIC AMONGST THE SIKHS. DEFENCE- 
 LESS STATE OP ALLAHABAD. MUTINY OF THE 6TH N.I. THE SIEGE 
 
 AND MASSACRE OF CAWNPORE. 
 
 ONE evening about the latter end of May a river steamer, 
 filled with soldiers belonging to the 1st Madras Fusiliers, 
 arrived alongside the railway wharf at Calcutta. They 
 had been sent for in great haste from Madras, and were 
 now on their way to Benares. The night train to Ranee- 
 gunge, distance 120 miles from Calcutta, was just about 
 to start ; and one of the officials told Colonel Neill, the 
 commanding officer, that unless he could get his men on 
 shore in two or three minutes, it would start without 
 them. The reply of Colonel Neill was an order for a file 
 of men to take his informant into custody. The man 
 shouted for assistance ; and the stokers, guard, and station- 
 master crowded round to see what was the matter, and 
 were each in turn stuck up against the wall with a couple 
 of bearded red-coats standing sentry over them. The 
 colonel next took possession of the engine, and by this 
 series of strong measures delayed the departure of the 
 train until the whole of his men were safely stowed away 
 in the carriages. The occurrence furnished a great deal 
 of amusing gossip in Calcutta ; and there were men who 
 saw in this act of Colonel Neill indications of a vigour 
 and decision of purpose to which they had hitherto been 
 unaccustomed. The Friend of India said, " We would 
 back that servant of the Company as being equal to a 
 case of emergency." But no one knew the real value 
 of this example of Zubberdustee, the phrase for small 
 tyrannies, till some weeks after, when it was found that 
 the safety of the fort and city of Benares was entirely 
 
THE WAVES ASSAILING THE BOCK. 125 
 
 owing to the stoppage of tlie railway train. Colonel 
 Neill arrived at Benares just as the mutinous elements 
 in the fort had drawn to a state of fusion. The native 
 corps consisted of the 37th N.I., the Loodianah Sikhs, 
 and the 13fch Irregular Cavalry, opposed to which there 
 were only three guns of Major Olphert's battery, 150 of 
 H.M.'s 10th, and a detachment of forty Madras Fusiliers. 
 It had transpired that the 37th N.I. intended to rise on 
 the night of the 4th June ; and the authorities took their 
 measures accordingly. A parade was ordered at five 
 o'clock for the purpose of disarming them, the whole of 
 the troops being in attendance. Brigadier Ponsonby 
 commanded the station, his appointment a short time 
 previous having been the subject of much heartburning 
 in the Bengal army, and of a reference from the Supreme 
 Council to General An son as to the reasons for it. 
 Luckily for himself, but hardly so for the public and the 
 service, the brigadier fell ill when the moment for decisive 
 action arrived ; and the command then devolved upon 
 Colonel Gordon, of the Sikh regiment, who was in turn 
 superseded by Colonel Neill in the course of the after- 
 noon of the 4th. At first there seemed no cause for 
 apprehending resistance on the part of the 37th ; a por- 
 tion of them appeared on the parade without arms, ac- 
 cording to order ; but one or two companies were piling 
 their muskets, when a few men of the corps opened fire on 
 their officers. The rest followed their example ; and the 
 fight commenced in earnest. The Sikhs were counted 
 upon as being loyal ; but they were seized with an unac- 
 countable impulse, and poured in a volley upon the Euro- 
 peans. The little band sustained the English reputation. 
 Eighteen or twenty rounds of grape were delivered from 
 each gun in the course of a few minutes, a crashing dis- 
 charge saluting the Sikhs as three times in succession 
 they dashed up to the muzzles. The Irregulars ranged 
 themselves on the side of the mutineers, and the boldest 
 spirit might well have shrunk from that unequal contest ; 
 but native daring, with the advantage of ten to one in 
 numbers, quailed before the indomitable courage of the 
 English. Lieutenant-Colonel Spottiswoode, of the 37th, 
 took a couple of port-fires, and set fire to the Sepoy lines ; 
 
126 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 and the wind being strong at the time, the hiding-places 
 of the mutineers were speedily in a blaze. In a few 
 minutes the affair was over, and the men of the three 
 regiments were swarming out of the fort in crowds, with 
 the loss of 100 killed and 200 wounded, the casualties on 
 our side amounting only to eight. Major Guise, of the 
 13th Irregulars, was murdered by one of his own men 
 while he was hastening to the parade ; and two officers, 
 Ensigns Chapman and Hayter, were severely wounded. 
 During the mutiny a portion of the Irregular Cavalry and 
 Sikhs stood firm; and next day 250 of the latter, and a 
 considerable number of the cavalry, returned to the fort 
 and begged to be forgiven. Their statement was that 
 they had acted in supposed fear of their lives, and had 
 not the slightest intention of disobeying orders. The 
 excuse was accepted ; and the Loodianah regiment, like 
 the rest of the Sikhs, have since done good service and 
 performed all that could be expected from brave and 
 loyal soldiers. A company of them were on guard over 
 the collectors' cutcherry, where the families of the Euro- 
 peans had taken refuge, and the treasure was kept but 
 Soorut Singh, one of the prisoners taken by us in the 
 last Punjaub campaign, went amongst them and per- 
 suaded them not to rise in mutiny, which they were 
 strongly inclined to do on hearing that their bhaees had 
 been so severely dealt with. A reward of Us. 10,000 
 was distributed amongst them for their behaviour on this 
 occasion ; and by dint of unlimited hangings and other 
 measures of a quieting character, Colonel Neill contrived 
 in two or three days to dissipate all fears for the safety 
 of Benares. Whilst he was engaged in the work of 
 pacification, the Government, true to its instinct of con- 
 founding time and place, sent orders to him to push on 
 to Allahabad ; but the reply conveyed by telegraph was, 
 "Can't move wanted here." Lord Canning needed 
 somebody who could think for himself and the Govern- 
 ment as well ; and in Colonel Neill he found the requi- 
 site individual. We shall find him afterwards performing 
 for Allahabad services almost as signal as he had ren- 
 dered at Benares. 
 
 The mutiny at Jaunpore was the result of the mis- 
 
MUTINY BY MISTAKE. 127 
 
 understanding which had so nearly proved fatal to our 
 gallant countrymen at Benares. A couple of the Sikhs, 
 who had seen their countrymen mowed down by the 
 volleys of grape, reached the station and informed the 
 guard of 150 men how the English had dealt with them. 
 This intelligence, added to the exhortations of the fugitive 
 sowars, who came crowding in to Jaunpore, turned the 
 hearts of the Sikh detachment, who fired upon their officer, 
 Lieut. Mara, while he was standing in the verandah of 
 his house, and mortally wounded him. The station was 
 up and the Europeans crowded to the cutcherry, for a 
 planter fresh from the rout of Benares hastily rode in 
 and told what had occurred. The handful of Europeans 
 barricaded themselves in the house of Lieut. Mara, and 
 expected nothing but instant death ; but the Sikhs were 
 evidently not thirsting after blood. They contented 
 themselves by firing a few shots through the windows, 
 and then made off to plunder the treasury, and were seen 
 no more. The magistrate, Mr. Cuppage, was shot as he 
 was returning from visiting the jail-guard, and Mr. 
 Thriepland and his wife were murdered the next day by 
 the sowars, under circumstances of great brutality. The 
 country was all up in arms on the instant, and some of 
 the zemindars threatened their people that if they con- 
 cealed a Feringhee their own lives should pay the forfeit. 
 The suppression of the mutiny at Benares, however, had 
 the effect of staying the progress of revolt in that quarter ; 
 and an aspiring Hindoo, who one afternoon proclaimed 
 himself independent, and set up his banner as Rajah of 
 Jaunpore, came the following morning to the head of the 
 relieving party from Benares, and made his salaam. The 
 Sikhs, in conjunction with the 37th, carried away the whole 
 of the treasure ; but it has not been stated that, as a proof 
 of their loyalty, they brought it all back again. 
 
 Some two or three days after the news had arrived in 
 Calcutta of the Meerut outbreak, the attention of Go- 
 vernment was drawn to the state of Allahabad. This 
 city, which is situated at the confluence of the Ganges and 
 Jumna, is considered the key of the Lower Provinces. 
 The inhabitants, amounting to about 75,000, are made 
 up chiefly of Mussulmans, priestly Brahmins, and reli- 
 i 2 
 
128 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 gious mendicants. The arsenal, situated in the fort, is 
 one of the largest in India, having arras for about 
 40,000 men, and numerous cannon. Under a wise 
 administration, such a place would be rightly looked upon, 
 as a post of strength and importance j but a fort can 
 scarcely be called impregnable that has no gunners to 
 defend it, and at the period in question there was not a 
 single artilleryman in Allahabad. 
 
 The steps to be taken under the circumstances formed 
 the subject of anxious debate at Government House. 
 Benares could afford no help, having only men enough to 
 work a single battery; and Cawnpore was distant twelve 
 marches. The native troops in the fort numbered about 
 00 men, of whom 500 were Sikhs, and the remainder 
 belonged to the 6th N.I., the rest of the latter regiment 
 being quartered in cantonments. With the exception of 
 the magazine staff, there was not a single European soldier 
 in the place. The treasury offered a tempting prize; 
 and what would the Court of Directors and the world at 
 home say, if fortress, guns, arsenal, and money were 
 lost under such circumstances ? The Governor-General 
 acknowledged the magnitude of the danger; the Mili- 
 tary Secretary saw no means of arresting it. Nowhere 
 could help be looked for, except at the cost of sacrifices 
 not to be thought of. The Supreme Council had no 
 suggestions to make, and the official conclave was broken 
 up in despair, when it occurred to a non-military gentle- 
 man that he had seen, when going up the Ganges some 
 years back, European artillerymen belonging to the 
 veteran battalion at Chunar, a place less than sixty miles 
 from Allahabad. The Military Secretary was informed of 
 this feat of memory, and poured out his blessings on the 
 wondrous head which contained such a store of knowledge. 
 The valuable reminiscence was communicated forthwith 
 to Lord Canning, who recognised its importance ; and on 
 the 19th of May sixty-nine old veterans, the youngest of 
 whom was probably not less than fifty years of age, were 
 hurried off in a steamer under Captain Haslewood, and 
 arrived in due course at Allahabad. Their guns, on the 
 night of the mutiny, saved the fort and all that it con- 
 tained ; and for three weeks the dilapidated old soldiers 
 
SEPOY HEADINGS OF THE WORD FIDELITY. 129 
 
 manned their batteries every night, thus justifying our 
 countrymen at home, who occasionally adopt phrases 
 which imply a belief that the English empire in India 
 owes more to good fortune than to ability for its con- 
 tinuance. 
 
 On the afternoon of the 6th of June a parade of the 
 6th 1ST. I., who had volunteered to fight the Delhi muti- 
 neers, was ordered, for the purpose of reading out to the 
 men the General Order of Lord Canning, conveying his 
 thanks for their loyalty and good feeling. When the 
 paper was finished the Sepoys gave three cheers ; and in 
 less than four hours afterwards they had murdered seven- 
 teen officers, and all the women and children they could 
 find, and marched off to Delhi, the band playing "God 
 save the Queen." 
 
 The commanding officer, Colonel Simpson, had exercised 
 all his authority and powers of argument to persuade his 
 subalterns and the public that the men were what they 
 pretended tc be ; and hence the amount of loss sustained. 
 Perhaps he scarcely thanks destiny for having preserved 
 his own life and that of his family under such circum- 
 stances ; but it was not the fault of his faithful Sepoys 
 that his name has not been erased from the Army List. 
 He was saluted, like the rest, with a perfect storm of 
 bullets, but managed to get into the fort unhurt. Mean- 
 time the officer in command there acted with promptitude 
 and decision. The guard at the main gate was composed 
 of eighty men of the 6th, who of course longed to give 
 entrance to their rebel comrades ; but a detachment with, 
 two guns were sent to guard the bridge of boats until a 
 couple of 6-pounders could be brought up to the main, 
 gate and loaded with grape-shot ; and then, the veterans 
 facing them with port-fires lighted, they were summoned 
 to give up their arms. At first they hesitated ; but an 
 intimation from Captain Haslewood that only a few mo- 
 ments' grace would be allowed them, had the desired 
 effect. They laid down their muskets, and marched out 
 to join in the work of destruction. Thanks to the energy 
 of this invalid captain and of the unattached Lieutenant 
 Brayser, in command of the Ferozepore Sikhs, not a soul 
 inside the fort was injured. They had taken the precau- 
 
130 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 tion of closing the gates against egress for the last two 
 days ; and it was well they did so, for the rebels at" 
 Benares had sent a man to inform the Sikhs how their 
 countrymen of the Loodianah corps had been shot down 
 by Colonel Neill, and had he gained admittance there is 
 but little doubt that they would have joined the mutineers, 
 and thus insured the destruction of all of European blood. 
 We hope that, when justice is administered to our brave 
 defenders, the service of these gallant men will meet 
 reward as well as appreciation. 
 
 For miles around Allahabad the country during the 
 next two or three days presented nothing but scenes of 
 devastation. Every house belonging to the English resi- 
 dents was burnt or gutted, and property to an enormous 
 amount destroyed. What the city thieves and r Sepoys 
 left was looted by the Europeans and Sikhs, who appa- 
 rently could recognise no difference between friend and 
 foe in this respect. The work of destruction was carried 
 on with impunity under the very guns of the fort ; and 
 supplies which would have enabled General Havelock to 
 reach Cawnpore a week earlier, were utterly destroyed or 
 scattered. There were 1600 siege bullocks belonging to 
 the commissariat available on the 27th of May ; and on 
 the 20th of June the Military Secretary was obliged to 
 write to the officer commanding at Benares to do his ut- 
 most to collect carriage for Havelock's force ; 150 bullocks 
 would be required, which must be taken off the road 
 where they were employed at that time in assisting the 
 bullock train. The valuable godowns of the India Gene- 
 ral Steam Navigation Company were thoroughly sacked ; 
 and costly furniture, of no value to the plunderers, was 
 smashed to pieces for the mere love of mischief. These 
 did for private what the enemy had done for public pro- 
 perty. Drunkenness was all but universal, and riot 
 reigned supreme. The Sikhs, having no taste for cham- 
 pagne or wine in general, sold all they could lay hands 
 on, at prices varying from threepence to eighteenpence a 
 bottle ; but the brandy they seized for regimental use. 
 Whatever was unsuited to their appetite was parted with 
 for the merest trifle ; but, except for edibles, there were 
 no buyers, and the losses which had ruined many persons 
 
THE WORTH OF A SINGLE HEAD. 131 
 
 benefited none. The works of the railway were almost 
 ^entirely destroyed for many miles. The rebels tore up 
 the rails, burnt the stations, and, fearing to approach the 
 locomotives, lest they should "go off" and blow them up, 
 they fired iiito.them from a safe distance till the engines 
 were battered to pieces. The " lightning dawk," as a work 
 of magic and mischief, was especially the object of rage 
 and hatred. This state of things lasted till the llth of 
 June, when Colonel Neill arrived from Benares with half 
 the Madras Fusiliers, and all classes of men felt that a 
 master had been placed over them. His first act was to 
 adopt sanitary measures in the fort, where cholera was 
 raging to that extent that fifty persons had died in a 
 single day ; and the result was so successful as to enable 
 him to dismiss from his mind the dread of a lengthened 
 pestilence. A couple of hours were given for the restora- 
 tion of plundered property, after which persons found 
 with any portion ,of such in their possession were to be 
 incontinently hung. 
 
 The authorities had very wisely passed Colonel Simp- 
 son over; and his successor had full opportunities for 
 carrying out his daring and energetic plans. The next 
 morning at daybreak he opened fire with shot and shell on 
 a portion of the city suburbs where the worst and most 
 turbulent Brahmins resided. At the same time a body 
 of fifty Fusiliers, three companies of the Sikhs, a few of 
 the 13th Irregulars, and a number of volunteers, railway 
 men and others, marched into the open country. About 
 two thousand of the rebels, under the command of a 
 fanatic Moulvie, had strongly entrenched themselves and 
 held the garrison in siege since the night of the 6th. 
 Seeing the small band of Europeans, they hastily left 
 cover ; but at five hundred yards a volley from fifty En- 
 field rifles carried dismay into their ranks. They ad- 
 vanced a little nearer, and received a second discharge, 
 after which they turned and fled back again, the assailants 
 being prevented only from storming their position by the 
 heavy fire of the guns inside. The rebel Sepoys had ex- 
 hausted all their cartridges, and had cut the telegraph 
 wires into slugs, the peculiar sound of which rather tried 
 the nerves of some of our brave Irregulars. Finding it 
 
132 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 hopeless to assault the rebel works, the small force slowly- 
 retired, inflicting as much mischief in the retreat as in 
 the advance. All this while the volunteers had been 
 doing their portion of the combined work in the most 
 satisfactory manner ; and it is hard to say whether as 
 incendiaries or soldiers their services were most useful. 
 In an incredibly short time they had set fire to the whole 
 of the disaffected portion of the town, and destroyed some 
 hundreds of the enemy, fighting their way back to the 
 fort without the loss of a single man. For the next four- 
 days advantage was taken of the cool hours in the morn- 
 ing and evening to harass the rebels, until the Moulvie 
 found that .the place was too hot to hold him, and made oft 
 with his forces. His nephew was taken prisoner by the 
 Sikhs, who had been wrought up to the utmost exaspera- 
 tion by cruelties committed on two or three of their 
 comrades who had strayed into the town. T,hey brought 
 the captive into the fort, when the fellow made a snatch 
 at an officer's sword, with the intention of cutting him 
 down. This was provocation enough to induce his captors 
 to set at nought the rules of war ; and they literally 
 trampled him to death. 
 
 Up and down the line of road from Allahabad, the gallows 
 and the musket were employed from morning to night. 
 Reinforcements, as they hastened to join the garrison, 
 were continually halted for the purpose of dispersing 
 bands of marauders, the prisoners taken having merely the 
 advantage of an hour's extra existence. 
 
 The philosophic native merchants of Calcutta, who may 
 be supposed to know what style of policy is most likely to 
 overawe their countrymen in this emergency, have been 
 heard quietly to observe "that four lacs of people must 
 be killed, after which there will be peace and security as 
 heretofore." There is a large margin of human life as yet 
 to be. drawn upon before the slain number four hundred 
 thousand ; but we are bound to say that our countrymen 
 are lessening it as industriously as possible. 
 
 Fbr several days previous to the outbreak at Cawnpore 
 the Sepoys were evidently unsettled and ripe for mischief. 
 Bungalows were occasionally burnt ; and threats of mutiny 
 became so rife in the bazaar, that many of the Europeans 
 
A TIGER OF TASTE AND SENTIMENT. 133 
 
 left the station. The merchants and shopkeepers, How- 
 over, remained, with a few exceptions, to watch over their 
 property; and the place contained a large number of 
 women and children belonging to the families of officers 
 and soldiers serving in Lucknow or tip-country, stations. 
 General Wheeler was warned of his danger, arid took such 
 steps to meet it as were in his power. 
 
 Within two or three miles of Cawnpore stood the fort 
 and palace of JSTana Sahib, the Rajah of Bhitoor, the 
 adopted son of the late Bajee Rao, the ex-Peishwa of the 
 Mahrattas. This man -had tried to obtain, on the death 
 of his adoptive parent, the reversion of the enormous 
 pension which the latter received from the British Go- 
 vernment, and the continuance in his person of the jaghi re 
 of Bhitoor. His request has been rejected and though, 
 the enormous wealth left by Bajee Rao, amounting to 
 more than four millions sterling, placed him amongst the 
 first nobles in the country, he conceived a deadly hatred, 
 in consequence, to the British. Having received an Eng- 
 lish education, he was a frequent visitor at the tables of 
 Europeans of rank, and was in the habit of entertaining 
 them in turn at Bhitoor. With the usual craft of his 
 tribe, he was most profuse in his professions of. sympathy 
 and friendship at a time when he had made up his mind 
 to earn for himself the reputation of being the most blood- 
 thirsty enemy of our race ; and so far did he impose upon 
 General Wheeler, that the latter, thinking the treasury 
 somewhat unsafe under the care of Sepoys, applied 'to him 
 for a guard for its protection. This desire was promptly, 
 complied with ; and a detachment of the Nana's troops, 
 consisting of two guns and two hundred nujeebs armed 
 with matchlocks, were stationed as a guard over the treasury. 
 The Sepoys had previously refused to allow the general to 
 remove the treasure to the intrench ments, assuring him 
 that he need not be apprehensive of an attack upon it by 
 the Budmashes of the surrounding country, as they would 
 defend it with their lives. Declarations of loyalty on the 
 part of Sepoy regiments have been construed by experience 
 to imply a settled intention to rebel at the first favourable 
 moment ; but if poor Sir Hugh Wheeler read the cha- 
 racter of his men truly, the knowledge could be of no 
 
134 THE SEPOY KEVOLT. 
 
 s. .vrice to him. He had but two companies of Europeans 
 M ml eight guns, was short of provisions, and hampered 
 \\ ith the presence of a helpless multitude. He took, then, 
 in good part the refusal of the Sepoys to give up the 
 treasure to the collector, and, looking about for such 
 means of defence as were at hand, sat down to await the 
 Doming of what might be in store for him. He was not 
 kept long in suspense. On the morning of the 5th of 
 June the whole of the native troops broke out in open 
 mutiny. They began by burning their lines, and then 
 made for the cutcherry where the treasure was. one of the 
 regiments staying behind to hold Sir Hugh Wheeler in 
 check, and prevent him from sending assistance to the 
 collector. After awhile the treasure, amounting to 
 170,000^., was packed on elephants and carts, the reserve 
 came up, and about mklday the whole force, together 
 with the nujeebs and the Nana Sahib's two guns, moved 
 off in the direction of Delhi. Up to this time they had 
 committed no act of violence, and it would appear that 
 the Nan a had first meditated a rapid retreat with his 
 plunder to a place of safety ; but if so, he soon changed 
 his mind, and returned next morning to Cawnpore, halt- 
 ing within two miles of the intrenchments. His own 
 force was now increased to 600 men with four guns ; and 
 the whole body of the mutineers ranged themselves under 
 his authority. Detachments of cavalry were sent into 
 the town and cantonments to slay all the Europeans, 
 East Indians, and native converts, and set fire to the 
 place. The wind was blowing furiously at the time ; and 
 when the houses were fired a few moments sufficed to set 
 the whole in a blaze. The noise of the wind, the roaring 
 of the fire, the wild cries of the mutineers maddened with 
 excitement and raging for blood, these, mingled with oaths 
 and prayers and shrieks of anguish, formed an atmosphere 
 of devilry which few of our countrymen would wish to 
 breathe again. A few of the residents fought with the 
 fury of despair ; but they were a handful against many 
 thousands of enemies, and silence gradually settled over 
 the place which a few hours previously was fair and 
 flourishing. 
 
 The Nana proclaimed himself by beat of drum sovereign 
 
THE PREY IN THE TOILS. 135 
 
 of the Mahrattas, and planted two standards, one for Ma- 
 homed and the other for Huneyman, the monkey god of 
 the Hindoos. Some 2000 Mussulmans repaired to the 
 former ; but only a few Budmashes took service under the 
 latter. Their next step was to proceed to the palace of 
 the Nawab of Cawnpore, wh9 was suspected of being well 
 affected towards the Europeans. The gates were blown, 
 open with cannon, the palace thoroughly ransacked, and 
 the nawab made prisoner; after which they took up a posi- 
 tion in front of the intrenchments, and began to cannonade 
 Sir Hugh Wheeler. But one feeble gun was able to reply 
 to the increasing weight of artillery daily brought against 
 the beleaguered garrison ; but every time that the rebels 
 attempted an assault, they were invariably beaten back 
 with heavy slaughter. The heroic band daily expected 
 relief, and fought as if the safety of the empire depended 
 on their individual bravery. 
 
 Whilst the main body of the Nana's troops closed round 
 the intrenchments, and cut off every avenue of escape, the 
 Nana Sahib whetted his hopes of revenge by daily morsels 
 of pleasant taste and flavour. He was accustomed to send 
 out parties in the district to search for Europeans ; and 
 when these were brought in, no matter what their age or 
 sex, the boon of speedy death was never granted. 
 
 An English lady with her children had been captured by 
 his bloodhounds, and was led into his presence. Her 
 husband had been murdered on the road, and she implored 
 the Nana for life ; but the ruffian ordered them all to be 
 taken to the maidan and killed. On the way the children 
 complained of the sun, and the lady requested they might 
 be taken under the shade of some trees ; but no attention 
 was paid to her, and after a time she and her children 
 were tied together and shot, with the exception of the 
 youngest, who was crawling over the bodies, and feeling 
 them, and asking them why they had fallen down in the 
 sun. The poor infant was at last killed by a trooper. 
 
 To cut off nose and ears, and hang them as necklaces 
 on his poor miserable victims, was one of the mildest 
 punishments inflicted by this gentle and highly educated 
 Hindoo, who, if sufficient time had been allowed him, 
 would have no doubt invented over again all the modes of 
 
136 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 ancient and modern cruelty. Amongst other strokes of 
 his good fortune was the arrest of a band of fugitives, 
 numbering about 126 souls, who were making their way 
 from Futtyghur in boats on the Ganges. He compelled 
 them to come on shore, promising, as usual, protection for 
 life and property, and, when they were collected together, 
 ordered his men to commence the work of slaughter. The 
 women and children were despatched with swords and 
 spears, the men were ranged in line, with a bamboo run- 
 ning along the whole extent and passing through each 
 man's arms, which were tied behind his back. The 
 troopers then rode round them and taunted their victims, 
 reviling them with the grossest abuse, and gloating over 
 the tortures they were about to inflict. When weary of 
 vituperation, one of them would discharge a pistol in the 
 face of a captive, whose shattered head would droop to the 
 right or left, the body meanwhile being kept upright, and 
 the blood and brains bespattering his living neighbours. 
 The next person selected for slaughter would perhaps be 
 four or five paces distant ; and in this way the fiends con- 
 trived to prolong for several hours the horrible contact of 
 the dead and the living. Not a soul escaped ; and the 
 Nana Sahib thanked the gods of the Hindoos for the sign 
 of favour bestowed upon him. 
 
 For twenty- two weary days the little garrison held their 
 own, full of heart and hope. It was impossible to believe 
 that aid would not come before the hour when the last 
 round should have been fired, and the last ration of food 
 consumed. Lucknow was but fifty miles off; and Law- 
 rence might give up the almost hopeless task of preserving 
 it, and bring a reinforcement sufficient to raise the siege. 
 Delhi, it was thought, must have fallen within a few days 
 after our troops appeared before it ; and the first rumour 
 of the approach of the victorious column would scatter the 
 Mahratta and his followers to all points of the compass. 
 Allahabad was but 120 miles distant; and the tramp of 
 British soldiers would be heard some glorious night, hur- 
 rying forward to the rescue. Yain hopes ! The days 
 went and came, and brought no help ; and one morning 
 towards the close of June men whispered to each other 
 in Calcutta that the struggle had terminated, and none 
 
NIGHT AND SILENCE CLOSING AROUND. 137 
 
 were left to tell the tale. The news was carried to Go- 
 vernment, who at first affected incredulity, though it 
 afterwards turned out in this, as in other cases, that they 
 were fully informed of the catastrophe, but shrank from 
 revealing it to the public. For the next ten days we were 
 taunted by expectations, continually renewed, that the re- 
 port would be found untrue, until, on the morning of the 
 7th of July, Lord Canning permitted the following notice 
 to appear in the Calcutta papers : " Allahabad, July 5th. 
 Colonel Neill reports that he had received a note, dated 
 night ot the 4th, from Major Kenaud, of the Madras 
 Fusiliers, commanding the advance column sent towards 
 Cawnpore, that he had sent men into that place, who re- 
 ported on their return that, in consequence of Sir Hugh 
 Wheeler being shot through the leg, and afterwards mor- 
 tally, the force had accepted the proffer of safety made by 
 the JSTana Sahib and the mutineers. The JSTana allowed 
 them to get into boats, with all they had, and three and a 
 half lacs of rupees ; that after getting them in boats fire 
 was opened on them from the bank, and all were destroyed. 
 One boat got away ten miles down the river, was pursued, 
 brought back, and all in her taken back into barracks and 
 shot. One old lady was alive on the 3rd, at Futtehpore." 
 
 Later intelligence furnished some particulars of the last 
 days of the ill-fated garrison. The fire of the enemy was 
 kept up for fourteen days and nights without inter- 
 mission. 
 
 Nunjour Tewarree, a Sepoy belonging to the 1st N.I., 
 was at Banda with his regiment when the mutiny broke 
 out, and he saved the lives of a clerk and his wife, named 
 Duncan. Subsequently he marched with his regiment to 
 Cawnpore, and falling under suspicion on account of his 
 liking for the English, he was confined by Nana Sahib in the 
 same house with the Europeans. His account of the de- 
 struction of the party brought back from the boats should 
 never be perused by those who have the power of in- 
 fluencing the fate of the rebels who may be captured by 
 our troops. To our mind, the story of the Roman sena- 
 tors, sitting at the close of their long lives, each in his 
 post of honour, waiting for the stab of the approaching 
 barbarian, has far less of the heroism of self-sacrifice than 
 
138 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 the example of those English women at Cawnpore, who, 
 clasping their husbands tenderly, sat ready, with white 
 lips and still hearts, to share with them the first moments 
 of the life beyond the grave. 
 
 Relief was sent at last, but too late. The fiery Neill, 
 having quelled mutiny at Benares and punished it at Alla- 
 habad, chafed impatiently till a force of men, properly 
 equipped, could be got together for the relief of Cawnpore, 
 but he was not allowed in this instance to follow the im- 
 pulse of his daring nature. Colonel Havelock had arrived 
 in Calcutta, and the rules of the service would not allow 
 a junior officer to be at the head of an enterprise, however 
 fit he might be to carry it to a successful conclusion. 
 Time was lost to enable Colonel Havelock to join at Alla- 
 habad, and on his arrival there a further delay of some 
 days occurred consequent on the receipt of news that 
 Cawnpore had fallen. There were reports of serious mis- 
 understandings between the two officers, but these were 
 got over. Both Havelock and Neill were made brigadier- 
 generals, and the first division of the force, under the 
 command of the former, left Allahabad on the 2nd July, 
 the day on which General Wheeler was murdered and Sir 
 Henry Lawrence mortally wounded. 
 
 _ iv/(,J 
 
 _ 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE OUTBREAK IN ROHILCUNB. INGRATITUDE AND HATRED OP THE 
 
 SEPOYS AND POPULACE. STRANGE CONDUCT OP THE 10lH NATIVE 
 INFANTRY. 
 
 THE revolt of the troops stationed in Rohilcund was dis- 
 tinguished by instances of singular baseness and treachery. 
 The force consisted of the 8th Irregular Cavalry, 16th and 
 68th N.I., 6th company 8th battalion Native Foot Artil- 
 lery, and No. 15 Light Horse Field Battery, stationed at 
 Bareilly ; a detail of Native Foot Artillery, and the 29th 
 Native Infantry, at Moradabad ; the 28th Native Infantry, 
 and a detail of Native Artillery, at Shahjehanpore ; the 
 66th Ghoorkas, and the 3rd company 8th battalion Native 
 Artillery, at Alrmich ; the whole amounting to about six 
 
THE TIGERS COUCHAIST. 130 
 
 thousand men. Of these, all but the Ghoorkas at Almorah 
 rebelled on the 30th and 31st of May. 
 
 The news of the outbreaks at Meerut and Delhi caused, 
 of course, great excitement amongst the Sepoys in every 
 station throughout India; and Bareilly, which is only 
 152 miles from the first-named place, felt the full force of 
 the mutinous wave. The 8th Irregulars were nearly all 
 Pathans from the neighbourhood of Delhi, and caught 
 the infection at once j but still the authorities were con- 
 vinced that, should the service of the troops be required, 
 they "would act as good and loyal soldiers." Brigadier 
 Sibbald wrote to Calcutta on the 23rd of May that they 
 "were labouring under a great depression of spirits, 
 caused by the fear of some heavy punishment they 
 imagined Government was about to inflict upon them." 
 He remarked that no open act of theirs had rendered 
 them liable to punishment ; and at a general parade ad- 
 dressed them on the subject, spoke of the good and sus- 
 tained intentions of Government towards them, and 
 begged of them to dismiss from their minds the causeless 
 dread that pervaded them. The brigade received these 
 assurances with the greatest apparent satisfaction. The 
 native officers told him that they had " commenced a new 
 life," and in the fulness of his heart he added in a post- 
 script to his despatch, " I cannot say too much in praise 
 of the 8th Irregular Cavalry ; their conduct is beyond 
 praise, and I should feel much gratified should Govern- 
 ment consider them worthy of their thanks." The Go- 
 vernment did thank them. Mr. Colvin authorized the 
 brigadier to assure them publicly, that " nothing that had 
 happened since the commencement of the recent agitation 
 had at all shaken his solid confidence in their fidelity and 
 good conduct." He was glad that the strength of the 
 cavalry had been increased, and wished to know what 
 officers and men could be recommended for promotion. 
 The despatch was sent off in due course, and twenty-four 
 hours afterwards, 'whilst the Sunday chimes were ringing, 
 the brigadier was lying heedless in the sun, shot through 
 the heart by the very men whose welfare he was so 
 anxious to promote. 
 
 The European officers, with one exception, shared 
 
140 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 unanimously in the confidence felt by the brigadier, until 
 the very moment of the outbreak. It was but of little 
 use for military men to encourage misgivings, for they 
 were tied to the stake, and must wait till the signal was 
 given for their massacre. The Sepoys took every pre- 
 caution that they could think of, both to avoid giving 
 alarm and to increase the number of their victims. 
 When they had laid all their plans, and placed men 
 under a bridge to murder such of the English as might 
 chance to pass that way, had blocked up the Futteghur 
 road, and told off two companies to surround the house 
 of the commanding officer of the GSth, they spoke to 
 their officers about bringing back the women and chil- 
 dren who had been sent to the hills on the first symptoms 
 of discontent being visible. All was quiet now, they said, 
 and signs of distrust injured the good name of the regi- 
 ment ! There were not, however, wanting some who 
 were faithful to their oaths. The havildar-inajor of the 
 CSth was sent by the subadar-major on the 29th of May 
 to inform Colonel Troup, his commanding officer, that, 
 whilst bathing in the river that morning, the men of the 
 18th and 68th had sworn to rise at two o'clock that day, 
 -and murder their officers. The Commissioner of Rohil- 
 cund, Mr. Alexander, had news to the same effect, and all 
 the Europeans in the station were duly warned of their 
 danger. The cavalry were assembled ; they seemed ap- 
 parently well affected, and the day passed over without 
 any disturbance. The next day Colonel Troup was in- 
 formed that the troopers had sworn not to act against the 
 artillery and infantry, but that they would not harm, nor 
 raise their hand against any European. Still his tidings 
 and his apprehensions were ridiculed. The commanding 
 officer of the artillery was certain that there was no 
 cause to doubt his men, though he wr.s told that his 
 pay-havildar had addressed a letter to tl, -j 18th and GSth, 
 calling upon them in the most vugent terms to rise and 
 murder their officers. If they neglected this sacred duty, 
 the writer said, the Hindoos were to consider that they 
 had eaten beef, and the Mussulmans that they had tasted 
 pork. "With equal blindness, Major Pearson, command- 
 ing the 18th N.L, asserted, at eight A.M. on the 31st, that 
 
GOVERNMENT BLINDNESS AGAIN. 141 
 
 his men " were all right, and that he had every confidence 
 in them." At eleven o'clock he had shared the fate of 
 Brigadier Sibbald. 
 
 Neither the Government at Calcutta nor Mr. Colvin 
 saw any mischief in allowing thousands of disbanded 
 soldiers to wander about the country. It was so much 
 money saved in the monthly pay accounts, and the ap- 
 pearance of the men in the stations and villages, instead 
 of being an incentive to mutiny, would be a warning 
 against the consequences of it. The fugitives from other 
 corps passed through Bareilly in great numbers just 
 before the outbreak, and influenced the minds of the 
 men by all kinds of stories with reference to the in- 
 tended destruction of caste, and the advance of Euro- 
 pean troops to destroy all who refused to obey. These 
 rumours were confirmed by the Sepoys of the Bareilly 
 regiments on their return from furlough about the same 
 time, and at last a rising* was determined upon. On the 
 Sunday morning appointed for the revolt the Sepoys 
 abstained from going to bathe as usual, on the avowed 
 plea that they would be wanted in their lines at eleven 
 o'clock, and precisely at that hour a gun was fired by 
 the artillery, and the whole of the cantonment was at 
 once in arms. The guns were turned on the officers' 
 houses, and the Sepoys spread themselves in skirmishing 
 order with the view of hindering the escape of any 
 whom they had marked for slaughter. The sentry over 
 the mess-room of the 18th fired at the officer whom he 
 had just saluted. Those who were fortunate enough to 
 make their way to the cavalry lines thought they were 
 safe ; and after a time spent in deliberation, during which 
 the work of murder and destruction was going on, it was 
 decided that they should make their way to the hill 
 station of Nynee Tal, distant about ninety miles. The 
 cavalry accompanied them for some miles, and then, 
 asked to be allowed to turn and charge the mutineers. 
 Permission was given as a matter of course, and under 
 the command of Captain Mackenzie they rode back till 
 they reached the rebels, who had a gun and a green flag. 
 They were ordered to charge, but the sight of the symbol 
 of their faith was too much for their lingering feelings of 
 
 K 
 
142 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 loyalty. They halted and began to murmur, ending the 
 parley by turning their horses' heads and ranging them- 
 selves on the side of the mutineers. The gun was now 
 brought to bear on the little group that still closed round 
 their officers, and they were told to ride for their lives, a 
 suggestion which they were not slow in obeying. When 
 the mutiny was complete, an artillery subadar was made 
 comuiander-in-chief of Rohilcund, and a rajah was found 
 in the person of a retired company's judge, Khan Baha- 
 door. This man, who was in receipt of a considerable 
 pension, turned to account, like the Sepoys, the know- 
 ledge he had obtained whilst in the service of Govern- 
 ment. He seized Messrs. Raikes and Robertson, the 
 judges of Bareilly, and having tried them in due form, 
 had them found guilty of heinous offences, and hung. 
 The same fate was inflicted on Mr. Wyatt, the deputy 
 collector, author of " Panch Kouri Khan," the Indian 
 Gil Bias, and upon many others. 
 
 The 19th rose at Shahjehanpore on the same day, and 
 surrounding the church whilst divine service was being 
 performed, they butchered the greater part of the congre- 
 gation, and murdered the remainder in the course of their 
 flight from the station. The 29th, at Mooradabad, re- 
 mained quiet till the 3rd June, and then followed in the 
 wake of rebellion. They had previously done excellent 
 service against the mutineers throughout the district, but 
 the cause of the Sepoys liad become national, and they 
 were bound to support it. A little while, and they would 
 neither have pay nor plunder ; the sahib logue would be 
 driven out of the country, and rational Sepoys would 
 enjoy their wealth. Actuated, then, by considerations of 
 religion and rupees, they made for the treasury on the 
 morning in question, but finding only 25,000, they were 
 about to blow the treasurer away from a gun, when the 
 judge and the collector interfered. Balked of their 
 plunder and prey at the same moment, the Sepoys were 
 fiirious. They presented their muskets at the two civi- 
 lians, and would have shot them, had not two native 
 officers rushed forward and reminded them that they had 
 sworn on the Ganges water not to touch a hair on the 
 her.cl of any European. The sanctity of the oath was 
 
A SAFE COMMANDER. 143 
 
 sullenly admitted, and the Sepoys retired with their booty, 
 giving the residents two hours to leave the station. A 
 detachment of the 8th Irregulars formed part of the troops 
 at Mooradabad, but these, instead of imitating the example 
 of the rest of the regiment, mounted, and rode off with the 
 civilians and ladies to Nynee Tal. The officers of the 
 29th were afterwards escorted by a part of the regiment 
 to the same station, not a man being injured in any way. 
 
 The Bareilly mutineers were six weeks on their way to 
 Delhi. They made for the Ganges at Gurmuckteser, but 
 the river was swollen, and they had to wait for the means 
 of crossing. They had with them 700 carts laden with 
 treasure, the plunder of all the treasuries of Rohilcund, 
 and twelve miles off lay more than a thousand English 
 soldiers, but under the orders of General Hewitt. It is 
 said that an officer offered to prevent them from crossing, 
 if the general would only give him fifty men ; but that 
 would have left only eleven hundred and fifty for the de- 
 fence of the station against the bad characters of the 
 surrounding country, and the gallant chief felt that he 
 could not run such a risk. After staying some days at 
 the Ghaut, one of the rebels swam across, and seized a 
 small boat. By the aid of the party whom he ferried 
 over, two more boats were gained, and the three sufficed 
 to transport the whole three thousand men, with their 
 wealth and stores. The work was done leisurely, there 
 being no need to hurry the operation. 
 
 In no instance, perhaps, has the waywardness and in- 
 explicable nature of the Bengal Sepoys been more fully 
 exhibited than in the case of the 10th "N.I., stationed at 
 Futtyghur. Children in impulse and tigers at heart, 
 swayed by a breath and deaf to the most exciting appeals, 
 we find them at one moment standing up for their officers 
 against all comers, and willing to incur all risks in their 
 behalf ; and at the next, without an atom of provocation, 
 readily joining to murder them and their helpless little ones. 
 
 The following striking narrative from the pen of a cor- 
 respondent of the Mofussilite will enable our readers to 
 gain an idea of the labour and anxiety requisite to keep 
 a " stanch " regiment in the right path. The conclusion 
 of the story, which we supply from other sources, is no 
 
144 THE SEPOY HE VOLT. 
 
 less tragical than that of a score of other episodes of Sepoy 
 fidelity : 
 
 " All was right at Futtyghur up to the 3rd June. The 
 residents were much alarmed, and many had provided 
 boats in which to slip away after the regiment had muti- 
 nied and were looting the place, which they appeared to 
 think an inevitable event. The slightest rumours were 
 believed, and repeated with additions, and as the news 
 reached of mutiny at Lucknow and massacre at Shahjehan- 
 pore, the panic was at its height, and many families 
 slept in their boats on the evening of the 1st and 2nd. 
 On the afternoon of the 3rd information was received of 
 the arrival of a party of insurgents at Goosaingunge, where 
 they burnt the Dak bungalow and the house of the Teh- 
 seeldar. The civil residents all rushed to the boats. 
 CJolonel Smith and the officers of the 10th N.I. went into 
 the lines to be with their men, and resolved not to leave 
 them a moment. The roads were blocked up with hacke- 
 ries, &c., and the regiment was ready to turn out, and 
 proceed to any point at which danger might appear. The 
 night passed over quietly. When the sun rose, the station 
 was deserted, and the fleet of boats was gone. About 
 twelve P.M. a village was seen burning on the other side of 
 the river, and the natives say that then were the anchors 
 weighed and the sails shaken out to the wind. It was 
 necessary to make arrangements for the care of public 
 property. The treasury, with two and a half lacs, was 
 taken care of and removed to the fort. The clothing 
 agency, containing stores of cloth worth several lacs of 
 rupees, was looked after, as well as the jail, containing 
 upwards of a thousand prisoners. News came in during 
 the day that the mutineers had advanced about six miles 
 towards Futtyghur ; but on hearing that the ' old Duffels,' 
 who are looked upon almost as infidels for having volun- 
 teered to proceed to Burmah, were anxious t to look them 
 in the face,' they turned off towards Chilbranow for Delhi. 
 The treasure was conveyed to the fort about nine A.M., 
 when, from some misunderstanding, contrary orders, or 
 something, we cannot tell what, there was a little distur- 
 bance in the lines, and down rushed a party to bring it 
 back vi et armis, the officers accompanying, trying ix> 
 
THE SEPOY MANAGING HIS OWN AFFAIRS. 145 
 
 restrain them. Colonel Smith had ridden down with the 
 treasure ; when he saw the excited state of the men, he 
 very wisely gave way ; they merely said, they would pro- 
 tect it and the regimental colours in the open air, but 
 would not be cooped up in a fort. All went back, men, 
 officers, and treasure, without any mischief having been 
 done, but not without creating alarm, as we shall see pre- 
 sently. It had been arranged between the magistrate 
 and colonel that the men should have an advance of pay, 
 but Monday and Tuesday having been native holidays, 
 they had not received it. 
 
 " Captain Vibart, of the 2nd Light Cavalry, who was 
 on his way from the hills to Cawnpore, volunteered his 
 services to Colonel Smith, and he was put in charge of 
 the treasury and jail. The business of getting an advance 
 of pay gave employment to the minds of the men, and 
 when they were a little quiet the colonel mounted a ros- 
 trum, and addressed them on their conduct in the morning. 
 The old Sepoys hung their heads with shame, and laid 
 the blame on the young lads of the regiment. All pro- 
 mised nothing of the kind should occur again. Towards 
 afternoon the men were once more shaken, by discovering 
 that during the tamasha in the morning no less than four 
 of their officers had disappeared, deserted their posts in 
 the hour of danger, when the commanding officer required 
 all the assistance which could be rendered to him. The 
 Sepoys became suspicious of being deserted by all their 
 officers, and watched their movements like cats watching 
 mice. Everything was done to reassure them ; the officers 
 walked about and talked. Some of the ladies drove on to 
 the parade, to show that they were not gone with the 
 fleet, and the men became satisfied once more. Had this 
 regiment behaved ill, it would have been caused by the 
 civilians deserting their posts ; and that they were kept 
 quiet was entirely through the admirable coolness, tact, 
 and discretion shown by Colonel Smith, and the fact of 
 the officers having never left their men for a moment 
 since Wednesday evening. We have had alarms and re- 
 ports without end, but through the blessing of God, all 
 is quiet ; and if He gives quietness, who then can make 
 trouble ? We expected that the budmashes, from across 
 
146 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 the river and the neighbouring villages and the city, 
 would take advantage of the unprotected state of the 
 station, and fire the bungalows. Nothing of the kind 
 has occurred. A few things from Maharajah Dhuleep 
 Sing's estate have been plundered, as the park-ranger 
 bolted, leaving everything to its fate ; and we have sus- 
 tained an irreparable loss in our poet, who is gone we 
 know not where. Perhaps our fugitive may turn up in 
 time at Cawnpore, and they may be glad to hear through 
 your columns that their property is, up to the present 
 moment, all safe. We have had no Daks in for several 
 days, and know nothing of what is going on in the neigh- 
 bouring stations. 
 
 " June 6th. All right. Sepoys this morning, of their 
 own accord, on the parade, swore on Gunga Panee and 
 Koran respectively to be true to their salt, never to 
 desert their four colours, and to protect the officers who 
 have been faithful to them with their lives. 
 
 " The names of the four officers have been removed 
 from the rolls of the regiment, as being f absent without 
 leave.' A considerable quantity of the Maharajah's pro- 
 perty has been found in the possession of his mootsuddie ; 
 he stole the property, and then reported that the place 
 had been looted by the Sepoys. Six P.M., all quiet. The 
 old Sepoys have come to an understanding with the 
 young hands, informing them that, if they do anything 
 to injure the character and name of the regiment, they 
 will themselves shoot the youngsters without ceremony. 
 
 "Sunday passed over quietly. Heard that some of 
 the fugitives had taken refuge with Hurdeo Buxsh, a 
 zemindar of Kussowra, and that the rest had gone on to 
 Cawnpore. 
 
 " Monday morning, 8th. The prisoners have refused 
 for several nights to be locked up. Many have got rid 
 of their irons, and some of the worst characters were 
 exciting the rest to resist authority. They pulled down 
 some brickwork, and were pelting the Sepoys, when 
 Captain Vibart went down. He told them to go into 
 their sleeping-cells, or he would make them. They 
 begged him to try it on, saluted him with a shower of 
 bricks, and called down blessings on himself and family 
 
THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER. 147 
 
 in the native fashion. The Sepoys fired; and after com- 
 pelling them to take refuge inside, they brought out the 
 ringleaders and shot them. Two were under sentence of 
 death and the object was attained at the smallest pos- 
 sible expenditure of life : only sixteen killed ; but these 
 were the greatest budmashes in the gaol. The prisoners 
 are all quiet, submitting to be re-ironed; happy, and 
 looking as if nothing had occurred. The Sepoys were as 
 obedient as a well-ordered family. They fired when 
 ordered, ceased firing when bidden, and would have shot 
 every prisoner there at the command of their officer. 
 
 "Jail continues quiet. We are all, Sepoys, officers, 
 ladies, and children, in good health and spirits, and are 
 truly grateful to God for all his late mercies vouchsafed 
 to us." 
 
 Ten days after the last entry in the above journal, the 
 faithful 10th had joined the 40th. Many of them, after 
 sharing the plunder of the regimental-chest and the 
 treasury, went to their homes, but a part of both regi- 
 ments united in an attack upon the entrenchment in 
 which the Europeans took refuge. For eight days the 
 little band of Englishmen fought without an hour's in- 
 termission, and had they continued the defence their 
 lives would probably have been saved, as they had 
 thoroughly cowed their assailants, whose ammunition 
 also failed ; but want of rest and the loss of their best 
 men disheartened them, and on the night of the 4th of 
 July they left the fort and dropped down the river. 
 Their flight was perceived, and the enemy followed in 
 large boats. Numbers were killed by the fire of the 
 rebels, or drowned in the attempt to escape ; but the 
 bulk of the party got away, and were induced by the 
 promises of Nana Sahib to land at Bhitoor. We have 
 already chronicled their fate in one of the darkest pages 
 of the catalogue of Hindoo iniquity. 
 
 i /I 
 
148 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A CONVINCING ORATOR. MR. COLVIN'S PROCLAMATION AND DEATH. 
 MUTINIES IN RAJPOOTANA. 
 
 THE 9th N.I., stationed at Allyghur, about thirty miles 
 south of Delhi, revolted on the 19th of May. They had 
 been tempted to rise by a religious mendicant ; but two 
 of the men to whom he addressed himself took him pri- 
 soner, and carried him before the commanding officer, 
 who ordered a court-martial to sit upon him instantly. 
 The proofs of guilt were clear, and the sentence of death 
 was ordered to be carried out next morning. At the 
 appointed time the regiment paraded, and the criminal 
 was brought out and hung, no man appearing to feel 
 aggrieved at his fate ; but before they were marched off 
 the ground the rifle company, which had just been re- 
 lieved from the outpost of Bolundshur, made their appear- 
 ance, and a Brahmin Sepoy, stepping out from the ranks, 
 began to harangue his comrades on their cowardly wicked- 
 ness in having betrayed to death a holy man, who came 
 to save them from disgrace in this world and eternal 
 perdition in the next. Some commanding officers would, 
 perhaps, have shot the incendiary on the spot ; but in 
 this case the fighting priest was allowed to finish his speech, 
 and when he had made an end the whole corps were 
 converted to his way of thinking. They seized the 
 treasury, broke open the jail, and ordered all their 
 officers to decamp instantly on pain of death, doing, 
 however, no bodily harm to any of them. The next that 
 was heard of them was communicated from Delhi, where 
 the regimental number of the 9th was found on the bodies 
 of some of the most daring assailants of the British army. 
 The regiments stationed at Agra were the 3rd Europeans, 
 and the 44th and 67th N.I. The Lieutenant- Governor, 
 writing on the 22nd of May, was of opinion that things 
 would remain quiet in the capital of the North-west, 
 though he believed that if they were left to themselves, or 
 were to meet with the mutineers, the Sepoys would sym- 
 pathize, and unite themselves with the revolt. There had 
 been a great deal of excitement amongst them, and they 
 
THE MACHINE GIVING WAY. 149 
 
 had undoubtedly been inflamed by a deep distrust of our 
 purpose. " The general scope of the notion by which 
 they have been influenced," said Mr. Colvin, " may be ex- 
 pressed in the remarks of one of them, a Hindoo, Tewarree 
 Brahmin, to the effect that ' men were created of different 
 faiths, and that the notion attributed to us of having but 
 one religion, because we had now but one uninterrupted 
 dominion throughout India, was a tyrannical and impious 
 one.' " Mr. Colvin, who saw even clearer than General 
 Hearsey the character of the prevailing delusion, enter- 
 tained a different opinion from that of the gallant officer 
 with regard to the possibility of eradicating it. He held 
 a parade of the troops on the 13th of May, and spoke to 
 them in a familiar way several times afterwards upon the 
 subject of the mania that had seized them, and offered to 
 give discharges to any who were still dissatisfied on the 
 subject. " They all at the moment" declared themselves 
 content with the explanations given, but little impression 
 was made upon them in reality, as was shown eight days 
 afterwards, when a company of each regiment rose at 
 Muttra, thirty-six miles from Agra, murdered their officers, 
 burnt the cantonments, and plundered the treasury of 
 70,000?. This occurrence put an end of course to any 
 doubts concerning the course that ought to be pursued ; 
 and next day the two regiments were assembled on the 
 parade-ground at Agra and disarmed, an indignity to 
 which they submitted with great reluctance. Mr. Colvin 
 was weak enough to grant furloughs to such as chose to 
 ask for them, which of course included the whole body. 
 Three days' march brought them to Delhi, where there 
 were arms in abundance, so that the saving of two thou- 
 sand muskets was all that could be claimed for the cause 
 of law and order. 
 
 This appears to have been the last public service that 
 Mr. Colvin performed. Under the pressure of a great 
 emergency, which he saw no means of meeting, his ener- 
 gies gave way, and he ceased to influence the character of 
 public events. He took no pains to keep open a commu- 
 nication with Delhi, which could have been easily arranged 
 for, or to knit together the severed strands of authority 
 in any portion of the extensive country under his care. 
 
]50 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 He felt deeply the censure cast upon him by Lord Can- 
 ning for issuing his famous proclamation of pardon to the 
 mutineers ; but if he erred on the side of mercy, his policy 
 had at least this advantage over that of Lord Canning, 
 that it was suggested fourteen days, and not three months, 
 after the first outbreak of rebellion. On the 24th of May 
 lie wrote : " On the mode of dealing with the mutineers, 
 I would strenuously oppose general severity towards all. 
 Such a course would, as we are unanimously convinced by 
 a knowledge of the feelings of the people, acquired 
 amongst them from a variety of sources, estrange the 
 remainder of the army. Hope, I am firmly convinced, 
 should be held out to all those who were not ringleaders 
 or actively concerned in murder and violence. Many are 
 in the rebels' ranks because they could not get away ; 
 many certainly thought we were tricking them out of 
 their caste ; and this opinion is held, however unwisely, 
 by the mass of the population, and even by some of the 
 more intelligent classes. Never was delusion more widi; 
 or deep. Many of the best soldiers in the army, amongst 
 others, of its most faithful section, the Irregular Cavalry, 
 show a marked reluctance to engage in a war against men 
 whom they believe to have been misled on the point of 
 religious honour. A tone of general menace would, I 
 am persuaded, be wrong. The Commander-in-Chief 
 should, in my view, be authorized to act upon the above 
 line of policy ; and, where means of escape are thus open 
 to those who can be admitted to mercy, the remnant will 
 be considered obstinate traitors, even by their own country- 
 men, who will have no hesitation in aiding against them. 
 I request the earliest answer to this message. The subject 
 is of vital and pressing importance." 
 
 The following day Mr. Colvin, alarmed by the defection 
 of a part of the 1st Gwalior Cavalry, his only effective 
 horse, whose flight to Delhi " severely complicated his 
 position," impressed by his knowledge of native feelings, 
 and " supported by the unanimous opinion of all officers 
 of experience" in Agra, took upon himself to issue the 
 following proclamation, "under the belief that severity 
 would be useless, and with the view of giving a favour- 
 able turn to the feelings of the Sepoys who had not as yet 
 
A DISTINCTION WITHOUT A DIFFERENCE. 151 
 
 entered against us." A weighty reason was the total dis- 
 solution of order, and the loss of any means of control in 
 every district. His latest letter from Meerut was seven 
 days old, and he had not received a line from General 
 Anson. 
 
 "Soldiers engaged in the late disturbances, who are 
 desirous of going to their own homes, and who give up 
 their arms at the nearest Government civil or military 
 post and retiie quietly, shall be permitted to do so 
 unmolested. 
 
 "Many faithful soldiers have been driven into resis- 
 tance to Government only because they were in the ranks 
 and could not escape from them, and because they really 
 thought their feelings of religion and honour injured by 
 the measures of Government. This feeling was wholly a 
 mistake, but it acted on men's minds. A proclamation of 
 the Governor-General now issued is perfectly explicit, and 
 will remove all doubt on these points. Every evil-minded 
 instigator in the disturbance, and those guilty of heinous 
 crimes against private persons, shall be punished. All 
 those who appear in arms against the Government after 
 this notification is known, shall be treated as open 
 enemies." 
 
 The Governor-General telegraphed the next day to 
 stop the issue of the proclamation and do everything to 
 check its operation, except in the cases of those who 
 might have already taken advantage of it. An improved, 
 proclamation was substituted, consisting of a preamble 
 and three paragraphs, as follows : " The Governor- 
 General of India in Council considers that the proclama- 
 tion issued at Agra on the 25th instant, and addressed to 
 those soldiers who have been engaged in the late disturb- 
 ances, might be so interpreted as to lead many who have 
 been guilty of the most atrocious crimes to expect that 
 they will be allowed to escape unpunished. Therefore, to 
 avoid all risk of such misinterpretation, that proclamation 
 is annulled by the Governor-General in Council, who 
 declares as follows : 
 
 " Every soldier of a regiment which, although it has 
 deserted its post, has not committed outrages, will receive 
 free pardon, if he immediately deliver up his arms to the 
 
152 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 civil or military authority, and if no heinous crimes be 
 shown to have been perpetrated by himself personally. 
 
 " This offer of free and unconditional pardon cannot 
 be extended to those regiments which have killed or 
 wounded their officers or other persons, or which have 
 been concerned in the commission of cruel outrages. The 
 men of such regiments must submit themselves uncon- 
 ditionally to the authority and justice of the Government 
 of India. 
 
 " All who before the promulgation of this present pro- 
 clamation may have availed themselves of the offer con- 
 tained in the proclamation issued at Agra on the 25th 
 instant, will enjoy the full and unreserved benefit thereof." 
 
 In his reply to this message, Mr. Colvin begged that 
 the preamble of the amended proclamation might be 
 omitted, on the plea that openly to undo any public act 
 of his, where really no substantial change was made, as 
 in this case, would fatally shake his power for good. 
 " His time," he said, " was torn by a thousand distrac- 
 tions," and he could not always frame his words as per- 
 fectly as he could wish. The request was acceded to, and 
 a mere notification made at the end of the new proclama- 
 tion that all former offers of pardon by local authorities 
 were cancelled ; but, as it turned out, both announce- 
 ments were only waste paper. Not a man ever came for- 
 ward to claim the benefit of the greater or the lesser act 
 of grace. Two months later, Lord Canning, when he had 
 exhausted the utility of hanging and blowing away from 
 guns, tried his sole hand at conciliation, and was not more 
 successful than Mr. Colvin had been. It was his lot never 
 to excite gratitude or fear. 
 
 The framework of society in the North-west fell to 
 pieces, and men held life and land by the law of the 
 strongest. The zemindars and the village communities, 
 who had been dispossessed of their estates or holdings by 
 civil suits, entered again into possession. Old feuds were 
 recollected and avenged. Old landmarks were every- 
 where obliterated. Settlements and title-deeds, the record 
 of the decree and the property which it represented, were 
 swept away. Government had no existence, and order 
 no rallying-point. The ruler of thirty millions of souls 
 
DEATH OF MR. COLVIN. 153 
 
 had no voice for good or evil, except within the boundaries 
 of Agra, and those were soon to be contracted to the nar- 
 rowest space. After leading for some weeks a harassed 
 life in the city, and virtually losing a battle without the 
 walls, Mr. Colvin saw the jail opened and its population 
 of three thousand let loose over the country, the canton- 
 ment burnt, and the town sacked ; and then, betaking 
 himself to the fort, was doubtless glad when death came 
 and brought oblivion of the world's troubles. He died 
 on the 9th of September last, loved and respected as an 
 individual, but not missed as a statesman. 
 
 The 15th and 30th N.I. mutinied at Nusseerabad on 
 the 28th of May. They were counted amongst the most 
 faithful soldiers of the State, and there was not an officer 
 with them who would not have vouched for their honesty 
 tinder any circumstances. That quality had been often 
 praised by their superiors ; but it was not of a very 
 durable kind, seeing that the two corps rose in rebellion 
 a fortnight after the news of the Delhi outbreak had been 
 received at the station. The 15th were the first to com- 
 mence, and seized the guns, which were charged by the 
 1st Bombay Lancers, but without effect. Four officers of 
 the latter were killed and wounded, but none of the men 
 a fact which can only be accounted for under the idea 
 that it was understood that the cavalry should not take 
 the guns, and that the Sepoys should not fire on the horse- 
 men. After the 15th had been firing at their officers for 
 a couple of hours, and had burnt the cantonment and 
 threatened to attack the 30th, whom they adjured by 
 every sacred tie to fight for their religion, the latter got 
 tired of holding out, and took part in the revolt. The 
 colonel summone-1 the European and native officers to the 
 front, and the latur beg.v3d of them to fly with all haste. 
 There was no other course to pursue ; and the Europeans 
 made off to Beawr, where some of the 30th came a few 
 days afterwards and laid down their arms. When the 
 officers left, the villagers made their appearance in armed 
 gangs, and plundered the station. The two regiments, 
 with six guns, subsequently made their way to Delhi. 
 
 The Neemuch brigade mutinied on the 3rd of June. 
 They consisted of the 4th troop, 1st brigade of Native 
 
154 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 Horse Artillery, the left wing of the 1st Cavalry, 72nd 
 N.I., and the 7th Regiment of the Gwalior Contingent. 
 For some days the force had been in a state of great agi- 
 tation ; and the people in the bazaar fled in crowds on the 
 30th, believing that the Sepoys had risen. Their fears 
 were, however, quieted ; and Colonel Abbott, commanding 
 the 72nd, held a durbar on the 2nd of June, which was 
 attended by all the officers of the native regiments. In 
 answer to his remonstrances, they assured him that the 
 effervescence had entirely subsided and that all were per- 
 fectly quiet, including the artillery, who had repacked the 
 ammunition which they took out of the limbers that 
 morning. They were dismissed with injunctions to take 
 care of their men ; but, at eleven o'clock the next morn- 
 ing, the signal-guns were fired, and in a very short time 
 the cantonment was in flames. The Sepoys closed round 
 the officers and their families, who were advised to go into 
 the house of a jemadar in the lines, with a view, as they 
 afterwards thought, of keeping them together till the word 
 was given to murder them ; but one of the native officers 
 came into the place, from which he turned them out, and 
 told them to hasten away for their lives. They took the 
 advice, and, accompanied by a handful of faithful men, 
 reached a place of safety. The rebels joined the Nnsseer- 
 abad troops, and carried the guns and the treasure to 
 Delhi. 
 
 At Nagpore a plot, which had been in agitation for three 
 months, for the murder of every European in the station, 
 was discovered just as it was about to be carried into exe- 
 cution. The conspirators had organized all the details of 
 the rising, and posted the men who were to carry out the 
 design. 
 
 One of the Rissalah, the authors of the plot, had been 
 sent to endeavour to induce the 1st N.I. to join them ; 
 but they, true to their salt, resisted the temptation, seized 
 and confined the tempter, and spread the alarm. The ring- 
 leaders were instantly apprised of the discovery, and two 
 of them hastened to the houses of the European officers to 
 give the alarm, hoping by this stratagem to elude detec- 
 tion. The alarm was given on the night of the 13th of 
 June, and the massacre was to have commenced an hour 
 
NIPPED IN THE BUD. 155 
 
 or two afterwards. Of course, immediate steps were taken 
 to guard against the consequences of an. attack. The 32nd 
 jST.L, which had marched to Kamptee, together with de- 
 tachments of artillery and cavalry, was recalled. The 
 arsenal, which contained an immense quantity of arms and 
 warlike stores, was guarded by only fifty Madras Sepoys, 
 who were now strengthened, and guns, double-shotted with 
 canister, were placed in position. Thirty thousand pounds 
 of powder were destroyed, to prevent its falling into the 
 hands of the insurgents. The Seetabuldee hill, which the 
 Commissioner had wished to dismantle, was hastily occu- 
 pied ; and its guns, commanding the city as well as the 
 treasury and arsenal, overawed the conspirators, who had 
 counted upon finding the Europeans an easy prey. So 
 confident were they of success, that they had allotted 
 amongst themselves the wives of their intended victims, 
 and settled the proportion in which the treasure, amount- 
 ing to about 150,000, should be distributed. On the 
 17th of June the irregulars were disarmed without re- 
 sistance ; and a proclamation was issued, ordering the 
 inhabitants to give up their arms within five days. More 
 troops arrived at the station soon afterwards, and the 
 leaders were tried and hung, not a hand being raised in 
 their behalf, though there could be no doubt that they 
 had the sympathies of nearly the entire population. No 
 further attempt at revolt was made in the capital of 
 Nagpore. 
 
 At Saugor the 3rd Irregular, 31st and 42nd N.I., were 
 stationed under the command of Brigadier Sage. He had 
 a company of European artillery, and a number of officers, 
 unable of course to make any effectual resistance. On the 
 29th of June the brigadier moved into the fort with his 
 guns and the whole of the European population. The 
 native soldiery took advantage of the absence of control 
 to loot the treasury and cantonments. The brigadier was 
 too weak to go out and attack them, and was afraid that 
 if he fired from the fort the walls would fail down from 
 the concussion. In this emergency he called in all the 
 officers, the Sepoys of the 31st loudly complaining of the 
 desertion of their natural leaders. They said they were 
 desirous of doing their duty, and gave the most signal 
 
156 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 proof to that effect by attacking the 42nd ten days after- 
 wards. Not an officer of the corps was present ; but with 
 the aid of forty troopers who remained faithful, and four 
 Englishmen, who joined them and brought some chupras- 
 / sies to assist, the 31st utterly routed the rest of the rebels, 
 . inflicting great loss upon them, and captured a large gun 
 and some elephants, which they gave up to the authorities. 
 The Sepoy character is inexplicable enough at all times, 
 but here was a new phase of it. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OP THE PUNJAUB. LORD CANNING AND SIR JOHN 
 LAWRENCE. THE ORGANIZATION OP THE SIKHS. 
 
 THE difference between Lord Canning and Sir John Law- 
 rence lies simply in this, that the one never succeeded, 
 and the other never failed, in anything he undertook. 
 The contrast of the two men exhibits something marvel- 
 lous. But for Sir John Lawrence, Delhi would not have 
 been taken ; but for Lord Canning, Cawnpore would not 
 have fallen. The one creates means, the other only dissi- 
 pates them. The one finds everything within his own 
 brain, the other can glean nothing from the whole out- 
 side world. 
 
 At the time of the Meerut revolt there were eight 
 British and twenty-five native regiments in the Punjaub. 
 The former were nearly all sent on to Delhi, the latter 
 entirely broken up or disarmed, and not above a dozen 
 European lives have been taken by mutineers except in 
 fair fight with our countrymen. 
 
 Three days after the outbreak at Meerut the 45th and 
 57th N.I. rose in mutiny at Ferozepore. They had pre- 
 viously avowed their determination not to use any more 
 of the cartridges, and the news of what had occurred found 
 them ready to be up and doing in imitation of their gal- 
 lant black brethren ; but happily there was no second 
 General Hewitt to be dealt with on this occasion. The 
 signs of insubordination had not escaped the notice of the 
 military chiefs, who wisely prepared at once for the worst. 
 There was only one corps of Europeans in the station, 
 
THE RIGHT WAY OF PACIFICATION. 157 
 
 H.M 's 61st; but this, with the European artillery, was 
 quite sufficient to vindicate the claims of justice. As a 
 preliminary step, the wives and children of Europeans were 
 ordered into the entrenched magazine ; and this being done, 
 the two regiments were paraded and ordered to march to 
 their respective cantonments. They refused to obey, and 
 made for the magazine, a company of the 57th N.I., on 
 duty inside, throwing over ladders and ropes to assist them 
 in scaling the outer walls. Three hundred of the rebels 
 made their way to the interior, and with loud shouts 
 rushed to the ordnance stores ; but a company of the 
 Queen's troops stood in the way. A detachment of five 
 files fired, and knocked over six of the assailants ; and the 
 remainder required no second reason for getting out of 
 harm's way. They next tried to get in the rear of the 
 little band, but with no better success, and were soon 
 flying in all directions. Now and then clusters of the 
 Sepoys outside would be seen crawling on the top of the 
 walls like beetles, but only to be brushed away with the 
 butt- ends of the European muskets. The party inside, 
 who had invited their appearance, were of course disgusted 
 with this summary mode of extinguishing a plot that had 
 cost some trouble in hatching, and prepared to do battle 
 with the delighted Englishmen ; but the sight of the 
 levelled muskets, backed by Lieut. Angelo's two guns 
 loaded with grape, quelled their ardour, and they promptly 
 flung down their arms and were marched out. Before the 
 night set in the contest was over ; the magazines of the 
 mutineers were blown up by the artillery. The 57th were 
 entirely disarmed, and 200 of the 45th sent in their arms 
 and colours. The next day the rebels avenged themselves 
 by recommencing the task of burning the bungalows ; but 
 that was soon put a stop to. The 10th Cavalry, who stood 
 firm throughout the affair, and the 61st, cut them up in 
 all directions. The country round about Ferozepore is a 
 level plain for many miles, and afforded no cover to im- 
 pede the pursuers. For weeks after the occurrence of the 
 mutiny fugitives from the 45th were either killed daily, 
 or brought in to meet the scarcely less inevitable doom. 
 The last notice in connexion with the above corps is that 
 of a general parade being ordered at Ferozepore, when 
 
158 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 twenty-four mutineers were brought out to undergo the 
 punishment for their crime. Twelve of them purchased 
 life by consenting to give information against their accom- 
 plices ; and of the remaining moiety, two were hanged, 
 and the rest blown away from guns. A few of the rebels, 
 no doubt, made their way to Delhi ; but between the 
 Queen's troops and the 45th and 57th KI. the balance of 
 mischief inflicted was vastly on the side of the former. 
 
 At Mean Meer, where the 16th, 26th, and 40th KL, 
 with the 8th Cavalry, plotted to murder the Europeans 
 and obtain possession of the fort, the plan of operations 
 for their defeat was carried out whilst the wives and 
 daughters of the good folks of Lahore were enjoying 
 themselves at a ball. Europeans were marched down to 
 the fort instead of the expected native relief ; the guards 
 were turned out and disarmed, and the rest of the bewil- 
 dered conspirators were deprived of the means of doing 
 mischief before they could realize the fact that their plot 
 had got wind. At Peshawur Colonel Edwards disarmed 
 the 21st, 24th, 27th, 51st KL, and the 5th Cavalry, 
 without a drop of blood shed. The 55th mutinied, and 
 took possession of Murdaun, which they were soon glad 
 to evacuate. A hundred of them, flying to the Swat hills 
 for protection against the proselytizing English, Avere 
 compensated by being forcibly converted to Mussulmans 
 at the hands of their humorous entertainers. The revolt 
 of the 3rd 1ST. I. at Phillour completed the catalogue of 
 Sepoy crime in the Punjaub for the month of May, and 
 up to that period not a single European had been mur- 
 dered. 
 
 June opened in the Punjaub with the revolt of the 64th 
 at Peshawur, who were disarmed without difficulty, the 
 good work being followed by the disarming of the 62nd 
 and 69th at Mooltan. The Jullunder force, consisting of 
 the 36th and 61st KL and the 6th Cavalry, rose on the 
 8th of June. At Phillour they were joined by the 3rd 
 KL, and the united force made off to Delhi by forced 
 marches. Brigadier Johnstone, commanding at Jullunder, 
 left the station after the rebels quitted it, and took the 
 same road ; but it would be wrong to say that he pur- 
 sued them. He made slow marches, whilst they went at 
 
SEARCHING BUT NOT WISHING TO FIND. 15 D 
 
 the top of their speed. He was able to miss his way 
 once or twice, and finally ceased to go in the same direc- 
 tion. After a day or two the mutineers turned towards 
 Delhi, the Europeans went back to their posts, and Bri- 
 gadier Johnstone retired to the hills to take the repose 
 that was needful for him. Mr. Ricketts, of the civil 
 service, attacked the rebel column with a few Sikhs and 
 newly-raised levies, but could only exhibit on a small 
 scale the effect that might have been produced by vigorous 
 measures on the part of the brigadier. The fugitives held 
 on their way with unabated speed, and finally reached Delhi. 
 Whilst the Sepoys of the Barrackpore division were 
 offering their red coats for sale in the streets of Calcutta 
 opposite the very windows of Government House, and 
 were deserting unmolested in batches, Sir John Lawrence 
 was blowing their fellow-soldiers away from guns for no 
 heavier offence. He adopted, at the very outset, the line of 
 policy which has made his name as famous amongst the 
 people of England as it had hitherto been famous amongst 
 the Indian nations. No trust in professions of loyalty, 
 no mercy for signs of disaffection, were the axioms which 
 he had laid down for the guidance of his subordinates. 
 He knew that the Hindostanees were not to be relied 
 upon, and that the British troops were far too few even 
 to hold the Funjaub in the face of a rebel population in 
 arms. The only course then was to call upon the Sikhs 
 and exhibit to them an enemy whom they despised as 
 well as hated. Fierce as was the animosity with which 
 the soldiers of Runjeet Singh regarded the terrible race 
 who had scattered to the winds their hopes of universal 
 mastery in Hindostan, they regarded the Brahmin and 
 Rajpoot Sepoys with a far deeper antipathy. The Sikh 
 felt that these men, who for bravery and endurance were 
 not to be compared with himself, were the natural aristo- 
 cracy of his race, who looked upon himself as an unclean 
 thing and he hated them, as democrats hate a scornful 
 noble, as sectarians in religion hate each other. The 
 value of such antagonism was soon developed. When 
 the 55th mutinied, the whole regiment were of course 
 deprived of their arms ; but the Sikh recruits, only a 
 hundred in number, offered to fight the rest of the corps, 
 L 2 
 
160 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 if the officers would let them have their muskets back 
 again. They were immediately reinstated, and from that 
 .hour to the present there has been no cause to regret the 
 reliance placed on Sikh fidelity. The occupation of hunt- 
 ing down Sepoys in the Punjaub or elsewhere has, to be 
 sure, been a profitable one. Where the mutineer had 
 shared in the plunder of the treasuries, he paid his heirs 
 and executors liberally enough for their trouble of killing ; 
 ^tfhen he had merely broken bounds and went off to join 
 the main body, the Government gave 51. for him if caught 
 with arms, and half that sum if captured without them : 
 and the King of Delhi was silly enough to aid our policy 
 by inflicting cruel tortures on the Sikhs who fell into his 
 hands. Some of these were sent into General Barnard's 
 camp, frightfully mutilated, as a challenge and a warning 
 to the inhabitants of the Punjaub. The Sikhs, who feel 
 as one man, swore to have vengeance ; and they have 
 kept their oaths. 
 
 The 10th Irregulars were disarmed at Nowshera on 
 the 26th of June. Their arms and horses, the latter their 
 own property, were taken from them, and, under a guard 
 of levies, they were dismissed to their homes, remorseful 
 and ruined. At Jheluni the 14th were summoned to 
 lay down their arms, but resisted and fought desperately, 
 inflicting a heavy loss upon the detachment of Europeans 
 who attacked them. They were, however, driven out of 
 the station, and cut to pieces in a great measure by the 
 people of the country ; but very few finding their way to 
 the rebel head-quarters. The mutiny of the 46th at 
 Sealkote was more signally punished. The corps rose as 
 if by an uncontrollable impulse, killed the Brigadier- 
 Colonel Brind and some other officers, and took to flight. 
 On the 12th July they were encountered by the moveable 
 column under Brigadier Nicholson, routed after a short 
 engagement, and compelled to betake themselves to an 
 island in the Ravee, from which they escaped only to be 
 hunted to death by the armed Sikhs or the eager population 
 of the district. The corps was literally exterminated. 
 
 The mutiny of the 10th Cavalry at Peshawur, on the 
 10th of August, was the last instance of rebellion in the 
 Punjaub. They killed a single officer, and wounded two 
 
TOO LATE TO BE WELCOME. 161 
 
 or three European soldiers, and got away, after some loss, 
 to Delhi, where it is said they were but coldly received ; 
 for they had killed, during the time they remained loyal, 
 more of their own countrymen than they could expect to 
 slaughter of the English in future, let their prowess be 
 ever so great. A force intended to be augmented to 
 30,000, and composed of two-fifths Sikhs, one-fifth hill 
 races, and two-fifths Mahornedans, Punjaubees, and Pa- 
 thans, now occupies the place of the Bengal regiments, 
 and as yet the result of the experiment has been eminently 
 successful. Of all those public servants who in this ge- 
 neration have deserved well of their country, not one 
 man ranks truly higher than the Chief Commissioner of 
 the Punjaub. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE GWALIOR RISING. CONTRADICTORY CONDUCT OP THE MUSSULMAN 
 CAVALRY. HOLKAR AND HIS CONTINGENTS. THE REVOLT AT MHOW 
 AND INDORE. 
 
 THE Mahratta states of Gwalior and Indore are each 
 bound by treaty to support a body of troops officered 
 from, the Company's army, and under the sole orders of 
 the British residents at their respective courts. Scindiah's 
 Contingent consists of five companies of artillery with 
 thirty guns, two regiments of cavalry, and seven of in- 
 fantry, in all about seven thousand three hundred men. 
 Holkar's Contingent is made up of two companies of 
 artillery with twelve guns, a thousand cavalry, and fifteen 
 hundred infantry. The material of which these troops 
 were composed differed in no respect from that of the 
 Bengal army. The men were recruited from the same 
 districts, wore the same uniform, and were disciplined 
 exactly like the regular forces. The Government perhaps 
 relied upon them as a check to the insubordination of 
 their own proper forces, but in the time of trial it was 
 found that the Contingents were neither more loyal nor 
 the reverse, neither more bloodthirsty nor kind-hearted 
 than the ordinary Sepoy. That they have hitherto been 
 so little heard of arises we believe from the fact, that 
 
162 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 their nominal masters have not been able to make up their 
 minds whether to declare for or against us. The dread of 
 losing their dominions in case we are successful in putting 
 down the rebellion, has of course considerable weight with 
 them; but then, on the other hand, the Government of 
 India has taken such pains to make that result appear 
 unlikely, that we could hardly blame them if they made 
 their selection finally in favour of independence. To a 
 Mahratta the prospect of turmoil and plunder must be 
 almost irresistible ; and even when brought up, as Scindiah 
 and Holkar have been, at the feet of the Honourable 
 Company, he must feel as the young pet tiger feels when 
 a flock of chickens first falls in his way. Holkar, we 
 believe, has hitherto done his best to uphold the con- 
 nexion of Indore with the British, but it is no secret that 
 tempting offers had been made to him to place himself at 
 the head of the Mahrattas, and convert them once more 
 into the dominant race. Scindiah's own troops have 
 already fraternized with the Contingent, and having no 
 apparent means of enforcing even the observance of neu- 
 trality towards the British, he will perhaps either abdi- 
 cate or go with the stream. It will be a fortunate thing 
 for him if he can postpone his decision till Christmas 
 next, as by that time he will find no difficulty in deciding 
 where his interest lies. 
 
 The Gwalior Contingent was paraded on the 17th of 
 May to hear the Governor-General's proclamation, which, 
 we are told by one who was present, was read to them 
 most impressively by Brigadier Ramsay, who took the 
 same opportunity of addressing the troops. This he did 
 most clearly and pointedly, conveying as distinctly as 
 words could convey it to the minds of native soldiery 
 the utter absurdity of the rumours that the British 
 Government wished to interfere with native caste or 
 native religion in any shape or form. The speech was 
 well delivered by a man well acquainted with the native 
 language, and had a most excellent effect. 
 
 A day previous to the mutiny a number of houses were 
 set on fire, and though the Sepoys readily lent a hand in 
 conveying the furniture to a place of safety, their tone 
 and bearing showed plainly what might be expected from 
 
MAHRATTA IDEAS OF SPORT. 163 
 
 them when the needful incentive to revolt should be sup- 
 plied. There were Europeans of course on the spot, and 
 a Sepoy talking to them said, " You have come to see to- 
 day's sport, but to-morrow you will behold a different kind 
 of fun." The remark was significant, and had its effect 
 on the minds of the hearers ; but they could only sit with 
 hands folded, and wait the course of events. The next 
 day was Sunday, the favourite day for mutiny, and, as 
 threatened, the Sepoys got up their " tamasha." Towards 
 nightfall a bugle sounded, and the troops turned out on 
 parade, and when the officers made their appearance they 
 were assailed. A party made for the brigadier's quar- 
 ters, and with loud shouts called upon him to come forth, 
 but a faithful Sepoy had anticipated them. This man. 
 rushing into the house laid hands on him, and hurried 
 him out of the compound to a place of safety : the muti- 
 neers, baulked in this instance of their prey, avenged 
 themselves by setting fire to the bungalows, and carrying 
 away the whole of the property. Another officer wag 
 roused out of bed by his guard, and one of them coming 
 up quietly said, "Sahib, fly; all is lost." As the man, 
 walked away the rest of the guard came up, and said, 
 "The houses are on fire, shall we loadT The officer 
 replied that it was useless to load muskets to put out a 
 fire, on which they marched back to the guard -house; 
 but watching them through the window, he saw the whole 
 of them deliberately loading, and felt that it was time to 
 get away. A couple of shots were fired at him, and he 
 turned to escape in another direction, but only succeeded 
 in getting into a place of shelter by running under fire 
 from the whole guard. By this time the whole station 
 was in an uproar ; men, women, and children were flying 
 from all quarters towards the Rajah's palace, whilst the 
 rebels were eagerly searching the houses in cantonments 
 for victims. Upwards of twenty-seven persons were 
 murdered, but the thirst for blood was not universal. 
 Several instances occurred where pains were taken to pre- 
 serve life ; in one case three Sepoys saved a lady and her 
 children by conveying them to, the roof of a house, where 
 they remained whilst the search was going on for them 
 below, and then escaped when the mutineers had quitted 
 
164 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 the premises. The survivors were sent forward next day 
 to Agra, under an escort furnished by Scindiah ; but they 
 had only gone a short distance when a sowar rode up to 
 say that there was mutiny in the durbar, on which the 
 escort turned back again. The poor fugitives, footsore 
 and bleeding, trudged on over beds of kunkur and through 
 thorny ravines till they reached the jaghire of a friendly 
 rajah, who sent a few sowars with orders to see them safe 
 to Agra. They reached that place at last, after being 
 in hourly danger from the men of the escort, who ridi- 
 culed and abused them every step of the way. 
 
 The rest of the Contingent at Neemuch, Augur, Sepree, 
 and Sultanpore mutinied soon after the revolt of head 
 quarters. The 7th were the last to join the rebels at 
 Neemuch. They guarded the treasure for twenty-four 
 hours, but at the end of that time the Horse Artillery 
 approached to attack them : they saw the station in 
 flames, and felt themselves powerless to resist the rebels 
 or to help their officers. The subadar ordered the gates 
 of the fort to be thrown open, and the 7th marched out 
 to join the Bengal Sepoys. Before the crowd of muti- 
 neers approached they induced their officers to seek safety 
 in flight, and many of them accompanied the fugitives 
 for a considerable distance, showing genuine grief for what 
 had taken place. But the conduct of the 7th, though it 
 exhibited as much good feeling as we had a right to ex- 
 pect, was not to be compared to that of the 1st Irregular 
 Cavalry, upwards of 200 of whom, under Lieutenant 
 Cockburn, marched out of Gwalior on the 13th of June 
 at an hour's notice. They knew what had taken place at 
 Meerut and Delhi, and that they were called upon to 
 fight if need be on the side of Government ; but without 
 a murmur, they marched twenty-seven miles a day for 
 seven days in succession ; no slight task in the North- 
 west of India at that season of the year. They reached 
 Allyghur a few hours before the mutiny of the 9th N.I. 
 took place, and not being led against the rebels, it is hard 
 to say what their conduct would have been if brought 
 into actual conflict with their co-religionists. They 
 escorted, however, all the officers, women, and children to 
 Hatrass in safety. Two days after they arrived at that 
 
PATIENCE WOKN OUT AT LAST. 165 
 
 place a hundred of the party mounted their horses to 
 desert, and called upon the rest of the detachment to 
 join them, and fight for their religion. If they refused, 
 they were false to the prophet, and would be beggars for 
 the rest of their days. Neither persuasion nor menace 
 had any effect, and friends of long standing and relatives 
 shook hands and parted, the one moiety to slaughter the 
 Feringhees, and the other remaining to protect them, and 
 punish their enemies. For weeks afterwards the faithful 
 few remained and performed the most essential service to 
 the State, of which the following is only a single in- 
 stance. A party of five hundred villagers had got to- 
 gether about three miles from Hatrass, where they had 
 been robbing and murdering all passengers, and Lieu- 
 tenant Cockburn resolved to attack them. He put four 
 men in a covered bullock-cart, such as is used for convey- 
 ing respectable females, and sent them on ahead of his 
 party of forty troopers, who dodged amongst the trees so 
 as to be out of sight. Of course when the marauders 
 saw the bullock-cart they made a dash at it, and lifting 
 up the curtains received the contents of four carbines 
 from the supposed ladies. This was followed by a charge 
 from the troopers in ambush, who rode at the insurgents, 
 and cut down fifty of them, without injury to a man on 
 their own side. The surprise was complete, and the 
 neighbourhood was cleared at once of the entire band of 
 rebels. On the day following they rescued upwards of 
 twenty Europeans from a village where they had been 
 kept in confinement, and continued to perform the like 
 services, until Asiatic nature could hold out no longer 
 against the inducements to join the cause of the Bengal 
 army, when they made their way to the main body of 
 their countrymen. Such examples, which might be mul- 
 tiplied to almost any extent, shows beyond all question 
 that there never was any plot, even amongst the Mussul- 
 mans, to rise against the English Government. Each 
 man found at last a reason to his liking for mutiny and 
 murder, but assuredly there was neither a unity of feeling 
 nor a common purpose amongst them at the outset of the 
 insurrection. 
 
 Holkar's troops remained steady through the whole of 
 
166 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 the month of June, and it was thought that reliance 
 could be placed upon their loyalty ; but on the morning 
 of the 1st of July a couple of guns passed rapidly through 
 the cantonments of Mhow. The circumstance created 
 some excitement amongst the officers, more especially as 
 heavy firing had been heard previously in the direction 
 of Indore ; but queries as to their destination were soon 
 set at rest, intelligence being received from the Resident, 
 Colonel Durand, that the Contingent was in mutiny and 
 had attacked the Residency. Colonel Platt, commanding 
 the station, was requested to despatch a battery of guns 
 immediately to assist in putting down the revolt, which 
 he did> at the same time ordering Captain Brooke to take 
 a detachment of Light Cavalry and two companies of 
 infantry, and bring back the fugitive artillery. Captain 
 Brooke soon returned with the two guns, but reported 
 that he had been obliged to shoot one of the gunners, 
 who attempted to open fire on his party. A few minutes 
 after his return the battery that had been despatched to 
 Indore came back, an express having met it on the road 
 with counter orders. Colonel Durand had considered it 
 expedient to abandon the Residency, and retire on Sehore. 
 There was nothing then to be done but to provide for the 
 safety of the cantonment. Patrols and pickets were ap- 
 pointed, and in the evening the officers sat down to mess 
 as usual, but not in their own bungalows ; the example 
 of the 6th at Allahabad was before them, and the caution 
 was not a vain one, for the mess-house was on fire shortly 
 afterwards, and most likely the intention of their men 
 was to murder them as they were trying to escape from 
 the building. In the lines the men had been talking 
 about the hard fate of the King of Oude, and of the 
 trooper who had been shot by Captain Brooke ; and their 
 officers, finding how ticklish matters stood, were going 
 about amongst them, and trying to sooth them into good 
 humour. Lieutenant Martin was conversing with some 
 men of the cavalry, who were loud in their expressions of 
 fidelity to the Government, when a shot was heard, and 
 the trooper whose professions of loyalty had been most 
 vociferous suddenly wheeled round, and fired at his 
 officer's head : the fellow missed, and Martin, putting 
 
THE RESULT OF MISPLACED CONFIDENCE. 167 
 
 spurs to liis horse, galloped for his life, the guard giving 
 him a parting volley as he passed their post. Colonel 
 Platt had been warned of the intended rising, but a reli- 
 ance upon what he had done for the regiment, and belief 
 in the assertions of the leading men, who told him that 
 it was only a few turbulent spirits who were disaffected, 
 made him blind to the plainest signs of impending mutiny. 
 That evening a trooper had warned his officer not to ap- 
 pear in the lines, and a coolie reported that a Sepoy had 
 asked him to join in the outbreak, which was to take 
 place at ten o'clock. But neither Colonel Platt nor 
 Major Harris, commanding the 1st Cavalry, would listen 
 to statements against their faithful soldiers, and both paid 
 for their incredulity with their lives. When the firing 
 from the lines became general the officers galloped off 
 under a shower of bullets, went to the arsenal, and dis- 
 armed and turned out the native guard, armed themselves 
 with muskets, and manned two bastions of the fort. Ad- 
 jutant Fagan, of the 23rd, had ridden up to the quarter- 
 guard of his regiment and ordered the Sepoys to turn 
 out, but their reply was a shower of musketry. Colonel 
 Platt ordered out the artillery, and insisted upon the ad- 
 jutant returning back with him to the lines, not being 
 able to realize to his imagination that his men were 
 traitors. Neither of them came back again ; they were 
 hacked to pieces, together with Major Harris, who was 
 found next morning lying dead by the side of his horse. 
 Lieutenant Dent and Dr. Thornton had narrow escapes ; 
 the former had been with the cavalry picket on the In- 
 dore road, and when the firing commenced his men re- 
 mounted their horses, and were about marching to canton- 
 ment, when three troopers rode up, one of whom dis- 
 charged a pistol at him j his guard, who might have shot 
 him. with the greatest ease at any moment during the 
 previous hour, now shouted out, " Kill him, kill him." 
 The speed of his horse saved him from a second attack, 
 which might not have been so harmless. Dr. Thornton 
 had been concealed in a drain all night, affording not the 
 first example of hunted fugitives who have been saved 
 from death during the rebellion by taking advantage of 
 the Hindoo superstition with regard to these places. 
 
168 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 Lieutenant Simpson owed his life to two of his men, who 
 remained with him all night in the bazaar. The next 
 morning they asked permission to look for some of their 
 things in the lines, and returned to join the rebels. Had 
 the outbreak been delayed an hour all the officers might 
 have been easily murdered in their beds, and the fort per- 
 haps captured : the women and children had been sent 
 there the previous day, and it was five o'clock upon the 
 evening of the mutiny before Captain Hungerford, com- 
 manding the artillery, could persuade Colonel Platt to 
 allow him to move his guns into the fort. Upon such 
 slight incidents rested the lives of the whole body of Eu- 
 ropeans at Mhow. 
 
 The morning after the mutiny found the station entirely 
 deserted ; the rebels had moved off in a body in the direc- 
 tion of Lucknow, but some of the Maharajah's men re- 
 turned, and were taken again into pay. It appears that 
 the rascals had quarrelled about the division of spoil ; the 
 Bengal renegades asserted that the Contingent had no 
 right to share in the loot taken in the regular way from 
 the Company. For some days previous to the outbreak 
 reports of disaffection had been floating about, to the great 
 scandal of the regiment and their officers. On the 4th of 
 June a man of the 23rd came running into the cavalry 
 lines with a story that the artillery were coming down to 
 blow them away; the native officer on duty arrested him, 
 and his " comrades " called for his punishment. Nothing 
 could be more satisfactory, especially when it was borne 
 in mind that, at the morning parade on the 6th, the 
 different companies to a man, through their own officers, 
 petitioned Colonel Platt to accept their offer of fighting 
 against the mutineers at Delhi. The colonel thanked 
 the men, and promised to report to Government their 
 tender of services. An officer, narrating the latter fact to 
 a newspaper, properly remarked, " This does not look like 
 mutiny." 
 
 The Bhopal Contingent, stationed at Indore, mutinied 
 in concert with the Mhow force : they consisted of a bat- 
 tery of six guns, four troops of cavalry, numbering 2oO 
 sabres, and eight companies of infantry, amounting to 
 700 men. In addition to this force there were the Malwa 
 
A LEADER WITHOUT FOLLOWERS. 169 
 
 Bheels, consisting of 250 men, and two companies of 
 infantry belonging to the Meliidpore Contingent. The 
 outbreak scarcely seems to have been concocted by any 
 portion of the Indore troops. Contrary to the usual state 
 of feeling, the cavalry were well affected in the main, but 
 they were disliked and suspected by the infantry and 
 artillery ; a portion of the latter, under Holkar's officers, 
 being stationed at the opium godowns, in which two com- 
 panies of the Maharajah's infantry were lodged. On the 
 morning of the 1st Holkar's guns opened the ball by 
 firing a volley of grape into the square where the horses 
 of the Bhopal cavalry were picketed, and the infantry 
 assembled and began firing at the officers. There were 
 two guns at the Residency, which replied to the muti- 
 neers j and if the Bheels, who were staunch enough, could 
 have been persuaded to fight, the former would have most 
 likely got the worst of it. But they were afraid to stir 
 in advance, and could not be persuaded to remain in a 
 post of danger. Colonel Travers, commanding the force, 
 did all that a loyal soldier could accomplish, but the in- 
 surgents were too powerful for him. At the head of only 
 five troopers he charged the Bhopal artillery and rode 
 into the battery, the gunners lying down under their 
 guns. Had half a troop been at his back he would have 
 captured the battery ; but though the charge gave time 
 for the horsemen to come up and form in position, they 
 appeared bewildered, and galloped wildly about the sta- 
 tion, neither receiving nor doing harm. An officer went 
 to the treasury, where the infantry, to support the Resi- 
 dency guns, were posted, but was told that if he did not 
 go away they would shoot him. It soon became apparent 
 that fighting was hopeless : the artillery, unsupported, 
 could make no effectual resistance ; more guns were coming 
 up from the city, and the rabble were assembling in great 
 numbers, so that there was nothing left but to retreat. 
 Colonel Durand gave a reluctant order to that effect, and 
 the small body of Europeans moved off, the ladies seated 
 on the gun-carriages, a small party of Sikh cavalry, 
 which had remained neutral, covering the flanks, the two 
 9 -pounders bringing up the rear, and the Bheels following 
 in marching order. A few round shots were fired at 
 
170 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 them, but the mutineers were too glad to get them 
 quickly out of the way, that they might more safely carry 
 out their schemes of plunder. After the departure of the 
 English they quitted the Residency, carried off 95,000, and 
 joining next day the mutineers at Mhow, the whole body 
 marched off towards Agra, after having murdered thirty- 
 five Europeans, men, women, and children. The fugitives 
 got safely to Hoosingabad after seven days' travelling. 
 
 Of the horrible tortures inflicted on our countrymen, 
 and their families, both in Central India and elsewhere, 
 we dare not trust ourselves to speak ; but the imagina- 
 tion which can paint the worst of torments that revenge 
 and malice can devise, will attain to the best idea of the 
 realized atrocities. And in many cases it fared as bad 
 with those who escaped the first burst of rebel ferocity. 
 The troops marching on Delhi from Umballa could have 
 found their way without a guide by the mutilated frag- 
 ments that met their gaze on each few miles of road. At 
 one place they came across a band of plunderers, amongst 
 whom was a fellow having the dress of an European lady 
 tied round his body. He was seized with his companions, 
 and marched on in the rear of the column, which a short 
 distance in advance came upon the body of the murdered 
 woman from whom he had taken the spoil. A few paces 
 further, and the boots of a child apparently about ten 
 years old were found, with the feet in them, the legs 
 having been cut off just about the ankles. In the above 
 instance it was felt to be a small measure of atonement 
 which the hanging of the murderer afforded. The private 
 soldier yearned for a retaliation, and his better-taught 
 officer could scarcely refrain from sharing his feelings and 
 affording the opportunity of gratifying them. 
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 THE EEVOLT AT DINAPORE. REFUSAL OF GOVERNMENT TO DISARM THE 
 SEPOYS. GENERAL LLOYD ; HIS TASTES AND SYMPATHIES. 
 
 THE force at Dinapore consisted of six guns; H.M.'s 10th 
 and two companies of the 37th ; the 7th, 8th, and 40th KL 
 The Sepoys were about three to one as compared with the 
 
FONDLING THE DUSKY PETS. 171 
 
 English ; but had it been thought advisable to reduce the 
 odds before attempting o disarm the native regiments, 
 there were numerous opportunities of doing so during the 
 months of June and July, when reinforcements of Queen's 
 troops were passing the city almost daily. But in Dina- 
 pore, as elsewhere, argument and entreaty were of no 
 avail against the policy of illusion. Always blundering 
 at leisure and always obliged to repent in haste, the 
 Government insisted that the Sepoys were "staunch," 
 and pooh-poohed each attempt to get things made safe. 
 Upon the fidelity of those men depended vast interests, 
 public and private. The opium godowns, the treasur}^ of 
 Patna, and the indigo works of Behar, would most likely 
 be looted and destroyed by successful mutineers. Why 
 should such risks be incurred when there was not a 
 shadow of benefit to be gained thereby? Why care to 
 keep in a condition of fighting efficiency soldiers who had 
 to be themselves guarded by fighters still braver and 
 more skilful? Why? because Lord Canning had told 
 the Home Government that the " panic" was not only 
 "groundless," but temporary; that , he could put it down 
 without great difficulty, and had no fear for the army en 
 masse. And hence the Calcutta merchants, a deputation 
 of whom waited upon him in July to beg that the Sepoys 
 at Dinapore might be disarmed, were coldly told that 
 their apprehensions were not shared in by the autho- 
 rities, who were satisfied with regard to the trustworthi- 
 ness of the native corps. A statesman weighing the 
 comparative value of evidence would have taken time to 
 consider whether the reports of two or three officials, 
 who, if they were no better informed than the majority 
 of their class, looked at the outer world only through the 
 spectacles of their native subordinates, ought to outweigh 
 the remonstrances of men whose very means of reputable 
 existence were perhaps staked on the correctness of their 
 information and their ability to turn it to good account. 
 Not less than a million sterling has been advanced this 
 season in Calcutta on the standing crops of indigo in Behar ; 
 and surely those who had embarked so much property, 
 under the belief that their ventures were safe from the 
 hand of violence, might consider themselves entitled to 
 
172 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 consideration. It was not as if compliance with their 
 request entailed loss upon the Government or disgrace 
 to the Sepoy. Twelve hundred British troops, whose 
 presence elsewhere would have been invaluable, were de- 
 tained at the station on the sole ground that the native 
 corps could neither be left to take care of Dinapore nor 
 sent to perform duty elsewhere. They were of no use as 
 soldiers; and as for the sentimental part of the question, 
 so many thousands who had been lauded as " staunch to 
 the backbone" had become traitors and murderers so 
 many hundreds who had been specially praised by the 
 Governor-General had been compelled to give up their 
 arms under the pressure of British bayonets that the 
 Dinapore Sepoys might have found sufficient consolation 
 for their loss of the means of doing mischief. But the 
 cause of mutiny has derived more support from Govern- 
 ment House, in Calcutta, than from the royal palace of 
 Delhi: of all Indian potentates, Lord Canning has been 
 the most efficient ally of the Great Mogul. 
 
 General Lloyd, the brigadier commanding at Dinapore, 
 is an officer of fifty-four years' standing, a twelvemonth 
 older than General Hewitt ; but, neither in that respect 
 nor any other point of personal merit, had he the advan- 
 tage of his imbecile junior. Asa matter of duty, no less 
 than as the utterance of an article of belief, General Lloyd 
 sent constant assurances to Calcutta of the " staunchness" 
 of his men ; but towards the end of July he appears to 
 have had misgivings on the subject, and at last, on the 
 24th of that month, he issued orders to have the percussion- 
 caps taken out of the magazine which was under the care 
 of the Sepoys. This was done in the early morning, but 
 not without signs of mutiny on their part. The 8th 
 made a kind of rush towards the tumbril in which the 
 caps were removed, but drew back before they reached it, 
 and retired, shouting, to their lines. It might have been 
 supposed that, having shown distrust to such an extent, 
 the general would have scarcely thought it worth while to 
 consult the feelings of his Sepoys with regard to subse- 
 quent movements ; but no one can map out the course 
 that is likely to be pursued in cases of emergency by 
 Bengal brigadiers of seventy and upwards. General 
 
WASTING THE QUEEN'S AMMUNITION. 173 
 
 Lloyd told the native officers to collect the fifteen rounds 
 of ammunition in the pouches of the men, and, leaving 
 a quantity of ball ammunition in the magazine, he sent 
 word to the Sepoys that he would allow them till four P.M. 
 to consider whether they would give up the building 
 quietly, ordered an afternoon parade, and then went to- 
 enjoy himself on board the steamer. General and Sepoys 
 profited by the opportunity to accomplish their hearts' 
 desires. The former took his daily siesta and slumbered 
 quietly; and the latter, assembling in regiments, hastily 
 filled their pouches with ammunition, removed their 
 families, and deliberately prepared for the march to Delhi. 
 The European pickets noticed the movement in their 
 lines, and the 10th and 37th, together with the artillery, 
 were immediately under arms ; but the general was no- 
 where to be found ; and the second in command was absent 
 looking for him. A number of the officers of the Sepoy 
 regiments went down to their lines, in the vain hope of 
 quieting their men : however, they were there but a short 
 time when the Sepoys began firing at them ; even the 
 loyal 40th blazed away at every European they saw. 
 The sick men that were in the 10th hospital, and the 
 guard; mounted on the roof, and immediately opened fire 
 on the mutineers, who now began to fly in every direction. 
 Fortunately none of the native infantry officers were 
 touched, though several of them had very narrow escapes. 
 The 10th then advanced with the battery of artillery, the 
 whole covered by about a hundred men of the 37th foot, 
 who were en route to Benares and armed with new Enfield 
 rifles. By the time they got to the native parade-ground, 
 the mutineers had got almost beyond range ; but the guns 
 opened on them with round shot, and the Enfield rifles 
 were also plied ; but few, if any, were touched. They fled 
 at the first discharge, and never attempted to rally. The 
 only person hurt was a man of the 37th, who was wounded 
 accidentally by a comrade* The lines were then fired by 
 the Europeans, and the camp followers and others gutted 
 the huts in a very short time. The mutineers left nearly 
 everything they had behind them ; and had there been 
 but a hundred dragoons in the station they might have 
 cut the fugitives to pieces. 
 
 ar 
 
174: THE SEPOY EEVOLT. 
 
 The rebels had to cross a deep nullah, and did it 
 leisurely enough ; but orders came to act before the day 
 was over, and they had scarcely got out of range before 
 the guns opened upon them with round shot, and mate- 
 rially quickened their movements, if 110 further results 
 were obtained. Once across the nullah, the Sepoys sat 
 down in some mango topes and rested themselves, firing 
 at intervals upon the Europeans. Groups of the fugitives 
 amused themselves in this manner till two P.M. next day, 
 and decamped ultimately without injury. We cannot 
 help admiring the reliance on destiny which enabled three 
 regiments of Sepoys, with only a scanty supply of ammu- 
 nition, to beard 1000 English soldiers in this style, men 
 who longed to be at them, and who would scarcely, if 
 allowed to fight, have left a soul of them alive. Had the 
 affair been the consequence of previous arrangement, it 
 could not have been managed more harmlessly. The 
 Sepoys fired on their officers, but hit nobody. On an 
 officer of the 40th addressing an old acquaintance, who 
 aimed at him in the most deliberate style, the latter ex- 
 claimed, " Yes, Sahib, what else would you have ?" What 
 else, indeed, under the guidance of the Lloyds and others 
 whom it is needless to mention ? 
 
 When the Sepoys left Dinapore they made their way to 
 Arrah, a place about fourteen miles off. The three corps 
 were in hail of the station till three o'clock on Sunday 
 morning the 26th, but no effort was made to pursue them. 
 There were plenty of elephants which could have carried 
 a detachment out in pursuit, and driven the miscreants 
 beyond Arrah or dispersed them but no move was made. 
 Sunday passed, and the rebels reached Muneer (about 
 twelve miles 011 the Arrah road), stayed to plunder and 
 burn, the railway engineer's houses, <fec., still without any 
 hindrance from Dinapore. Monday passed, and though it 
 was known where the mutineers were, still the idea of 
 pursuit or of saving Arrah was never entertained by the 
 general. Having neither guns nor cavalry, they might 
 liave been pursued and overtaken without difficulty; but 
 it took General Lloyd two whole days to recover his 
 senses, and not a man was moved till the evening of the 
 27th, when a hundred and ninety of the 37th started in 
 
THE MIDNIGHT AMBUSH. 175 
 
 the Hoorungotta steamer to the relief of the handful of 
 Europeans besieged at Arrah. After proceeding some 
 distance the vessel grounded, and they remained fast till 
 midday of the 29th, when the Bombay steamer came up 
 with 150 men of the 10th and 70 Sikhs, and took the 37th 
 on board. The whole force, now amounting to 400 men, 
 disembarked about twelve miles from Arrah about four 
 P.M., and commenced their march on that place. On 
 their way they were informed that the enemy had evacu- 
 ated Arrah a falsehood which unhappily prompted 
 Captain Dunbar, who commanded the force, to push on, 
 though the night was growing very dark and ihey were 
 ignorant of the road. Eager to wipe out the discredit 
 attaching to the Europeans for allowing the mutineers to 
 escape, and holding his enemy in contempt, he thought of 
 nothing but getting over the ground, and marched 
 without picket or advanced guard to the edge of a mango 
 tope, where the rebels were planted in ambush. A 
 crashing fire from both sides of the road was the first 
 intimation of the presence of an enemy, and before any 
 measures could be taken to extricate the force, volley 
 after volley was poured into them, throwing the men into 
 inextricable confusion. Unable to advance or retreat, 
 afraid of firing lest they should hit their own comrades, 
 and totally bewildered as to the whereabouts of the foe, 
 our brave fellows remained the whole night mere helpless 
 targets. When the morning dawned order was restored, 
 and about half the number that had left Dinapore closed up, 
 shoulder to shoulder, and began their retreat. In this 
 movement no lack of military skill was exhibited. Skir- 
 mishers covered the retiring column, and made a stand 
 whenever it was possible ; but the Sepoys followed them 
 up, taking advantage of every spot of cover ; and all the 
 wounded unable to march were left behind to be ruth- 
 lessly slaughtered. The survivors succeeded in reaching 
 Dinapore at noon, their appearance adding to the dismay 
 of the station, and to the bewilderment of the wretched 
 general, who lost no further time in going on the sick list. 
 Amongst the list of killed were : Captain Dunbar, H.M.'s 
 10th ; Ensign Erskine, ditto; Lieut. Sale, H.M.'s 39th; 
 Lieutenants Ingilby and Anderson, 7th and 22nd B.N.L 
 
 M2 
 
176 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 Volunteers ; mate of steamer, ditto ; railway engineer, 
 ditto ; and about 150 men ; hardly one of the rest escap- 
 ing untouched. The rebels, about two thousand strong, 
 with some small guns which had been supplied by a neigh- 
 bouring rajah, pursued them to the very edge of the can- 
 tonments, though their own ammunition was so scant 
 that they were obliged to lire buttons and stones. It was 
 something for them to boast of that they had routed a 
 British force, and killed or wounded nearly the whole of 
 them, with a loss to themselves of only half-a-dozen men. 
 Of course it was everywhere expected that the little 
 band at Arrah would now be overwhelmed before aid 
 could reach them from other quarters ; but, however un- 
 lucky the chances that have superinduced a Johnstone 
 upon a Hewitt, and a Lloyd on a Johnstone, the present 
 crisis has shown that the officers of the Sepoy army have 
 amongst them men who are equal to any emergency. 
 Tidings of the perilous condition of Arrah reached Major 
 Vincent Eyre at Buxar ; and, knowing from experience 
 in Affghanistan what mischief might be wrought by the 
 delay and incompetence of a worn-out general, he started 
 at once for the place with 150 of H.M.'s oth Fusiliers and 
 three guns. He found the party whom he came to relieve 
 still holding out against the whole force of the enemy. 
 There were but fifteen Europeans in all, civilians, railway 
 staff, and indigo planters, with fifty of Rattray's Sikhs. 
 They had knocked over no less than fifty of the rebels 
 without the loss of a man to themselves. When the be- 
 siegers attempted to mine, they ran a countermine : their 
 water fell short, and they sank a well : provisions failed, 
 and they made a sortie, coming back laden with proven- 
 der. The advance of Major Eyre was made just in the 
 nick of time. He attacked the rebels as soon as he could 
 get within range, and utterly dispersed them. The siege 
 was of course raised at once, and the garrison liberated. 
 They had nothing but the preservation of life to be thank- 
 ful for, since the mutineers had burnt or plundered all the 
 houses and property, public and private, on their route 
 from Dinapore. The whole of the railway works and 
 bungalows on both sides of the Soane had been destroyed, 
 and what the Sepoy spared the liberated convicts wrecked. 
 
ALARM FOR THE OPIUM GODOWNS. 177 
 
 The cost iii blood and treasure of the outbreak at Dina- 
 pore cannot be summed up for many months to come ; 
 but it will be enormous, and has been incurred solely that 
 an elderly brigadier might have time to eat his luncheon 
 in quiet. 
 
 The mutiny at Dinapore paralysed for awhile the ener- 
 gies of all classes of our countrymen in the fertile province 
 of Behar. The ruin, of the vast interests scattered over 
 the country appeared imminent, and the authorities 
 thought only of securing safety by abandoning their sta- 
 tions. The Commissioner of Patna, Mr. Tayler, who had, 
 up to this time, displayed great activity and courage, 
 ordered all the civilians to come in at once to Dinapore. 
 He was obeyed in every case but that of the collector of 
 Gya, Mr. Alonzo Money, who refused to abandon the 
 treasury under his charge, containing a large sum, and 
 ultimately brought it in to Dinapore under charge of a 
 company of H.M.'s 37th. There was valid cause for 
 alarm : the troops from Dinapore three regiments of 
 infantry, with the greater portion of the 12th Irregulars 
 and many thousands of liberated convicts were spread 
 over the face of the country; and there was not for a 
 season, except in Dinapore, a single European between 
 Benares and Kaneegunge, the latter place distant but 120 
 miles from Calcutta. Patna with its opium godowns, con- 
 taining perhaps poison to the value of 2,000,000. sterling, 
 was distant but two hours' march ; the Mahomedans of 
 Bankipore, one of the city suburbs, would have been only 
 too happy to join in the work of plunder ; and if it were 
 sacked, the commissariat supplies for the force at Allaha- 
 bad would be cut off. Patna was defended solely by 
 Jvattray's Sikhs without guns ; and, if that was captured, 
 Dinapore must surrender, leaving Calcutta without any 
 channel of communication between Bengal and the North- 
 west. Had the rebels in their exodus shown as much 
 skill as daring, they would have been masters of Patna 
 and had the whole of Behar at their mercy before General 
 Lloyd had got back his recollections. 
 
 We have no heart to chronicle the massacre of Jhansi, 
 and no space to devote to the outbreaks in Madras and 
 Bombay. It must suffice to say, that at Nagode and 
 
378 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 Jubbulpore the 50th and *)2nd imitated at a late period 
 the example of mutiny, and completed the defection of the 
 Bengal army. 
 
 Marvellous are the ways by which Providence works 
 out its ends. The leopard that we have trained to hunt 
 for us has turned upon his master, whilst the poor dumb 
 beasts of burden, who are cruelly oppressed, bear their 
 heavy loads in silence. Had the Sepoys not rebelled, the 
 wrongs of India might have gone on accumulating until 
 God grew utterly weary of us ; and had the ryots risen at 
 this time there would have been no future for us in the 
 East. As it is, we can atone as a nation for the past. We 
 have no apology to offer to the Brahmin, no injustice to 
 own in the case of the Sepoy ; but to ruined noble and 
 miserable peasant we acknowledge a debt of repentance,, 
 and trust that the first instalment of it may be paid with- 
 out an hour's delay. 
 
 For twenty-one weeks, counting from the first receipt 
 of intelligence of the Meerut revolt, the Government of 
 India was on its trial. It was subjected to a strain which 
 tested every joint and searched every flaw, and the result 
 was most disastrous. Not a bolt remained in its place, 
 not a rivet but was started, not an inch of surface but was 
 found to be decayed and rotten. It disclosed neither the 
 wisdom that could foresee danger nor the strength that 
 could overcome it. 
 
 If the order of things could have been reversed, and the 
 last acts of the Government made their first, matters 
 would have now worn a very different aspect. They have 
 done all that could be desired, but not at the right times. 
 Volunteers were enrolled, troops massed, enterprises un- 
 dertaken, and foreign aid enlisted, but all at the wrong 
 seasons. Calcutta was wisely left to the chief care of the 
 civic force and the navy, but not until the rebel fires had 
 blazed out in a dozen stations, and it was seen that the 
 Sepoy army had transferred its allegiance. " Too late !" 
 was inscribed on the banner of the Ghoorkas, when for the 
 second time they turned their faces towards Lucknow ; 
 "too late !" was graven on the lids of the empty chests in 
 the treasury, when a loan was called for, and a second bid 
 was made for the hoards of the capitalist ; " too late !" was 
 
WITHOUT MEANS AND MONEY. 179 
 
 shouted* by the public when the order was given to disarm, 
 the regiments at Dinapore ; " too late !'' was shrieked from, 
 the well at Cawnpore ; " too late I" was echoed by the 
 breeze that swept over the battlements of Lucknow. We 
 saw in those days the story of Sisyphus enacted. The 
 ceaseless striving, and the sure defeat ; the hand con- 
 stantly striking, but the foe still remaining in front ; the 
 feet always marching, but the goal as far off as ever ; the 
 Sibyl's price paid, but the book of fate not forthcoming. 
 It seemed as if a single faculty had swallowed up every 
 other quality of national greatness. Never did English 
 courage shine out so gloriously, never was English want of 
 capacity so thoroughly displayed. We were giants in the 
 field and dwarfs in the council. Our soldiers surpassed in. 
 heroism all who had gone before them ; their rulers tran- 
 scended all previous notions of weakness and imbecility. 
 
 The least glimmer of good sense is sufficient to light a 
 Government to a knowledge of the fact that it must have 
 money, but the Calcutta authorities were wanting even in, 
 the instinct of pecuniary self-defence. It was not until 
 the 20th of July, when the cause of order seemed almost 
 hopeless, that they thought of taking means to supply 
 themselves with funds. Lord Dalhousie and the present 
 administration of India had inflicted a fatal blow to 
 public credit in 1855 by reducing the interest of a 
 large portion of the Indian debt to four per cent. ; open- 
 ing a loan at three and a half per cent., on the plea that 
 the rate of interest in future would not rule above that 
 figure; and crowning a series of financial measures by 
 announcing a Public Works Loan at five per cent., all 
 within the space of a few months. It was said to be a 
 clever stroke of policy ; it turned out to be a sorry trick. 
 The four per cents, went down to a heavy discount, 
 and great numbers of natives, who had invested in the 
 stock at par, found themselves stripped of a large portion 
 of their capital. The press took up the subject, and 
 showed beyond all question that the term " Public Works 
 Loan" was a mere pretence. The Government wanted 
 money to carry on the current business of the State, and 
 so far from having a surplus on hand when they an- 
 nounced the first reduction, sufficient to pay off the 
 
180 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 whole of the bondholders, they would have been obliged 
 to suspend the operation had a large number disbelieved 
 their professions and demanded cash. Hence the attempt 
 to raise large sums during a period of general alarm, 
 with such memories fresh in men's minds, was a perilous 
 experiment, but with the exercise of ordinary sagacity it 
 would have succeeded. With the fact patent to all men 
 that money was daily growing dearer, and that doubts as 
 to the continuance of our rule would soon more than 
 neutralize the tendency to invest in Government securi- 
 ties natural to a period of general stagnation in trade, 
 they should have advertised a six per cent, loan, and 
 taken the four per cents, at par value, to the extent of 
 half the sum subscribed. The money received into the 
 treasury would then have cost seven per cent., but the 
 announcement would have caused a rush of contributors, 
 and, by adding to the number and interest of the public 
 creditors, have served to strengthen our hold of the 
 country. But the idea of giving a bonus of two per 
 cent, to the fundholders, on condition of their doubling 
 their stake in the permanence of English rule, was not to 
 be thought of, and the Government proposed a five per 
 cent, loan, the subscribers having the option of paying 
 one-half in four per cents, at par. Two months earlier 
 the scheme would have answered, and it had been pressed 
 on the Government, of course without success ; but now 
 it failed, and the worst of the matter was that every 
 person had the means of finding out the result. If the 
 loan were popular, capitalists, who were not holders of 
 four per cents., or who wished to speculate, would come 
 into the market, and the price of that stock would go up. 
 In this instance the quotations sank lower, and the 
 sagacious men who could have helped the State in its sore 
 need saw that their time had come, and that the Govern- 
 ment must increase their biddings. A week after the 
 first announcement a second notice appeared, to the 
 effect that forty per cent, of the new subscriptions would 
 be taken in the three and a half per cents. ; but the tide 
 ran out whilst the financiers were sitting on the banks of 
 the stream counting the cost of getting their loan afloat. 
 Every step taken was too late ; the money power fol- 
 
CONSISTENT TO THE LAST. 181 
 
 lowed the military power ; when Government ceased to 
 command the obedience of the soldier it ceased to possess 
 the confidence of the citizen. The physical force melted 
 away, and moral influence could never at any time be 
 said to exist. It was only in dealing with English rights 
 that the Government felt it was still a power in the land. 
 It sought compensation for defeat and measureless in- 
 dignity, and found it in trampling on the press and im- 
 prisoning the King of Oude. The victims were equally 
 lofty, but not equally helpless. Lord Dalhousie is safe 
 from the ex-monarch, but his successor, in destroying 
 the liberty of printing in India, has wrought the over- 
 throw of the more powerful dominion of the East India 
 Company. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE INDIAN PRESS. ITS ISOLATION, AND NATURAL ANTAGONISM TO 
 
 THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT.- HYPOCRISY OP ITS ASSAILANTS. LORD 
 
 CANNING AND MR. MANGLES. THE GAGGING ACT. APATHY OP THE 
 PUBLIC AT HOME. 
 
 THERE is no sadder proof of the hopeless ignorance of 
 our countrymen upon all matters of Eastern politics 
 than that afforded by the restraints imposed on the 
 Indian press. They have consented to look upon it as 
 a mere engine of mischief, a force inimical to the proper 
 influence of Government and the true welfare of the 
 people. They would have resented as a national insult 
 an attempt to gag the Times during the war in the 
 Crimea, and yet how much more needful was it to have 
 had a free press hi the great dependency where bad go- 
 vernment has well nigh lost us an empire, and incoin- 
 petency sits supreme ? What would have been the bare 
 money's worth to the nation of a dozen leading articles 
 disclosing at the outset of the insurrection the real state 
 of affairs ? Our home journals furnish many a country 
 gentleman, and many a leading politician, with argu- 
 ments as well as facts ; but the Times cannot help 
 Mr. Yernon Smith, nor tell the public that which it 
 wants to know about India. Yet the nation which 
 would not trust ministerial capacity nor believe minis- 
 
182 <THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 terial statements during the campaign before Sebastopol, 
 is content to trust Lord Canning, and to believe in the 
 bulletins of Colonel Birch. In the one case it demanded 
 more light than the press, the parliament, and the 
 London Gazette could throw upon the state of affairs; 
 in the other, it is satisfied to see the few tapers ex- 
 tinguished which enabled it at least to discern the sur- 
 rounding darkness. 
 
 " But surely," it will be said, " the press of India is 
 licentious in its strictures and low in point of morals, or 
 else it is strangely belied." Perhaps it is, but at any rate 
 it must be assumed to suit the wants of its public. If 
 it contemns authority, the members of the service main- 
 tain the libellers ; if it is depraved in taste, they take no 
 care to screen the examples from the notice of their wives 
 and daughters. Being gentlemen all, they must care for 
 decency, yet they voluntarily pay for its opposite ; they 
 cannot like what is low, and yet no one will cater for the 
 gratification of their better impulses. And the vicious 
 journalism has not even the attraction of low prices. 
 If the editor is to be bought cheaply, his paper is a dear 
 commodity. Brain and soul are perhaps reasonable 
 enough, but types and paper inflict a heavy tax upon 
 moderate incomes. 
 
 There are three daily papers in Calcutta : the English 
 man, Hurkaru, and P/icenix. The Friend of India and 
 the Dacca News are published weekly, making a total of 
 five separate publications for Bengal. In the North-west 
 Provinces there are the Delhi Gazette and the Mofms- 
 silite; in the Punjaub, the Lahore Chronicle ; in Scinde, 
 the Kossid. Bombay has three daily papers, the Times, 
 Gazette, and Telegraph, together with the Guardian and 
 the Poona Observer. Madras has but one daily journal, 
 the Spectator ; and three, the Athenceum, Examiner, and 
 Crescent, published every other day. The Bangalore 
 Herald completes the list of Indian newspapers, and 
 amongst all these journals there is not one that gives 
 even general support to the Government, and is spoken 
 well of by the Indian authorities. The fact tells for 
 something more than the hostility of the press : it shows 
 that advocacy of the ruling policy will not find a paying 
 
IMITATING THE DEAF ADDER. 183' 
 
 audience. At least six out of seven of the whole body 
 of subscribers are in the Company's service; and in India, 
 as elsewhere, the readers determine the policy of the 
 paper. The wares, we take it, are made for the market. 
 
 A selection might be made in England of journals 
 which advocate principles that are considered in some 
 quarters subversive of the well-being of society. Every 
 interest that pays can get itself recognised, and whatever 
 is worth supporting is worth attacking, so that in time 
 each has its enrolled corps of assailants and defenders; 
 but in India there is no scope for antagonism of intel- 
 lect, and journalism languishes under the influence of 
 enforced unanimity, so far as public affairs are con- 
 cerned. The press is always railing at Government, 
 because it is the sole representative of the rights of 
 humanity, and stands in lieu of a people and a parlia- 
 ment. Civilians and soldiers dare not meddle in politics, 
 and merchants are too busy making money to interfere ; 
 but God has given each of these men a conscience, and 
 they contend by proxy against the wrongs of the country. 
 An old writer avers that, if an infant child were left to 
 itself, it would be found after the lapse of a few years 
 speaking Hebrew. We are not sure that the language 
 of the Jews is the natural speech of mankind, but are 
 quite certain that, to the unfettered journalist in India, 
 abuse of the Company and its rule is a necessity of his 
 existence. 
 
 It is somewhat superfluous to dwell upon the advan- 
 tages of a free press in England, but if the right of free 
 utterance is needful in a country where every man knows 
 his rights, and most persons are able to maintain them, 
 how much more are we bound to uphold it in India, where 
 Government, from the very necessity of things, must be 
 despotic ; where the law is administered by men who have 
 had no judicial training ; where millions of public money 
 are expended in works over which the State can exercise 
 no real control ; where there is no public opinion, no force 
 of any kind to interpose between authority and the people? 
 If our countrymen would make up their minds to cut 
 India adrift, if they felt no interest in its growth, no re- 
 morse for its misery, and no responsibility for its general 
 
184 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 welfare, their indifference to the liberty of the press would 
 be rational enough ; but whilst they hold to the East as 
 they would to Kent or Cornwall, their conduct is inex- 
 cusable. They insist upon making laws for India, and 
 cut off from the legislature the sources of information. 
 They would gladly extend the operations of trade and 
 commerce, and yet lock up the knowledge of Indian re- 
 sources. They would like to improve the spirit and the 
 details of legislation, and yet destroy the only antagonism 
 to the existing order e f things that is at the same time 
 useful and harmless. 
 
 For proof of the respectable character and eminent 
 ability of the Indian journals, we refer to their columns ; 
 for argument as to their utility, we need only appeal to 
 the English common sense. The great plea, however, in. 
 favour of the Gagging Act passed by the Indian Govern- 
 ment, rests upon the fact of the revolt. It is said that 
 the liberty of the press is incompatible with a state of in- 
 surrection. Freedom of publication was dangerous to the 
 well-being of the State, and had to be suppressed in con- 
 sequence for a season. 
 
 If the above plea is made out, it is evident that com- 
 plaint on the part of the Indian press is idle, and redress 
 for their declared grievance quite out of the question. If 
 the newspapers have been damaged for the public good, 
 they must put up with their losses, and hush their outcries. 
 We are content to rest their case upon the completeness 
 with which this assertion on the part of the Government 
 can be met and refuted. 
 
 A journal contains only news and opinions. Indiscre- 
 tion, or the desire to steal a march on rival prints, might 
 occasionally induce an editor to publish information which 
 ought to be withheld; and we know of one instance 
 where the garrulity of the members of the Government 
 allowed a secret to escape, which was published to the 
 possible detriment of the public service. But there is no 
 other example on record, and the pretence that rebellion 
 would suffer in the intelligence department by the 
 gagging of the press, was either foolish or dishonest. 
 Every department of the public service, every branch of 
 business, is throughout India virtually in the hands of 
 
STOPPING UP THE LEAK WITH PUTTY. 185 
 
 natives, who are cognizant of all that transpires in the 
 Government offices, or the counting-houses of the mer- 
 chants. They knew to an ounce the weight of powder in 
 every magazine, the number and calibre of our guns, what 
 means of defence we had, and how we proposed to increase 
 them. The treasuries, the arsenals, the whole public cor- 
 respondence were in their hands : pains and patience, 
 with the occasional expenditure of a few rupees, would 
 put an inquirer in possession of every fact that he wished 
 to know, or gain him an inkling of whatever was going 
 forward. The natives are always taking stock of us : the 
 writer knows your resources and those of your correspon- 
 dents, the servants watch your conversation, and treasure 
 up what they suppose to be your secrets. Such knowledge 
 may be found useful some day, and it costs nothing to 
 preserve. The Government employe knows the butler or 
 the valet of the official under whom he serves ; the one 
 copies despatches, and the other hears remarks made in 
 familiar intercourse, and both of them are acquainted 
 with persons who can turn information to account. And 
 then as to their machinery for transmitting intelligence ! 
 it was perfect before our forefathers understood the art 
 of writing. It is only in the use of the " lightning dawk" 
 that we surpass them, and all our working signallers are 
 native. Every man of rank has his newswriter in the 
 capital, and his reporter in the nearest English station. 
 The native merchants employ their own messengers : there 
 are 2000 runners always travelling between Calcutta and 
 the Upper Provinces. The last resolution of the Execu- 
 tive Council, the names of the guests at a dinner-party, 
 the particulars of a shipment, the number of troops in a 
 garrison all are at your service if you are concerned to 
 learn such matters. To an Englishman who knows the 
 East, the assertion that it was needful to restrict the free- 
 dom of the press, in order to prevent the circulation of 
 certain items of news amongst the people, appears not 
 merely in the light of an untruth ; he knows that it is 
 hypocritical as well as false, and that the men who made 
 it knew in their hearts that they were inflicting needless 
 oppression upon the public in India, and wilfully deceiving 
 the public at home. 
 
186 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 And then with regard to the publication of opinions ! 
 What shall we say of the legislature which gags the score 
 of editors who write in India, and are amenable to its 
 laws and its social influences, and leaves free, as a matter 
 of necessity, the hundreds of busy pens that are at work 
 on the subject of India and its government at home 1 
 that bullies the Friend of India, and is obliged to tolerate 
 the Sepoy articles of the Dublin Nation, and the glad 
 homilies of the Paris Univers ? Surely its experience in 
 opium smuggling might have taught a lesson in this re- 
 spect, if one were needed. It was of little use that the 
 Emperor of China blocked up two or three ports, if the 
 rest of the seaboard were left open.. The drug was in re- 
 quest, the Company were there to sell, and the poison 
 was circulated through every vein of the body politic, 
 without the slightest difficulty. 
 
 At the same time that the Indian Government were 
 threatening the press with suppression, for expressing 
 hopes that Christianity might reign, supreme in Bengal a 
 hundred years hence, Mr. Mangles, the chairman of the 
 Court of .Directors, was telling the House of Commons 
 that the East India Company held the country under 
 Providence for the propagation of the gospel. Whilst 
 Indian newspapers were forbidden to speak in disparaging 
 or doubting terms of native princes, to impugn the 
 motives and designs of Government, or to bring into con- 
 tempt any of its officers, the columns of the home journals 
 were converted into a kind of French Flanders, where 
 every man, whether friend or foe of the existing order of 
 things, was allowed to fight his own battles. Every 
 phase of the religious question, every plausible theory 
 of the causes of revolt, was ventilated in the Times. 
 Clemency and coercion for the rebels ; absorption or resti- 
 tution for the native dynasties and nobles ; contempt or 
 admiration for the actual as well as the nominal rulers in 
 India, were all suggested at once. On " mail nights " a 
 score of dusky faces might be seen in the hall of the 
 General Post-Office in St. Martin's-le-Grand, one perhaps 
 sending out to his principal or chief a file of papers in 
 which Mr. Spurgeon preached against the toleration of 
 Hindooism, and the editor of the Morning Post wrote 
 
IGNORING THE NECESSITY FOR BRAINS. 187 
 
 against the continuance of native dominion : whilst an 
 Irish journal howled with delight over our difficulties, and 
 a French writer recognised in the rebellion God's judg- 
 ment upon us as a wicked nation. Another would be 
 posting a speech in the House of Commons against the 
 inhuman practice of blowing away rebels from guns ; a 
 score of articles against Lord Canning and the existence 
 of the Company, and paragraphs of unmeasured contempt 
 for every member of the Indian administration. What- 
 ever men might be disposed to say in ignorance or anger, 
 under the influence of fear or the promptings of self- 
 interest, was allowed to be said without hesitation in 
 speeches, sermons, letters, and leading articles. India 
 was the universal topic ; its affairs came home to the 
 business of many, to the bosoms of all. 
 
 And the Gagging Act was an injury to the feelings, as 
 well as an insult to the patriotism of the English in India. 
 When the revolt broke out, the sense of a common cala- 
 mity seemed to inspire journalists with a common pur- 
 pose, so far as the Government was in question. One and 
 all they supported Lord Canning to the full extent of 
 their ability, and far beyond the limits suggested by their 
 consciences. The Council was known to be impracticable, 
 the Commander -in-Chief was feared to be deficient in the 
 required ability for the crisis ; but the Governor-General 
 had the power of uncontrolled action, and the public tried 
 to believe that he would exert it. Credit was given to 
 him for every sign of vigour, silence was observed with 
 reference to obvious defects of policy ; but the sham broke 
 down at last, the empty bag could not be made to stand 
 upright. When weeks rolled on, and it was seen that 
 Government were without a policy or a plan, that they 
 were content to depend for information from the seat of 
 i war to the chances of the day, and the agency of remote 
 newspapers and stock-jobbers ; when danger was ridiculed, 
 loyal offers put coldly aside, and natives of influence, who 
 could not possibly be ignorant of the rebel designs, were 
 soothed and caressed, the general patience gave way, and the 
 newspapers echoed faintly the universal discontent. But 
 as no one could foresee how much of suffering and dis- 
 grace there were in store for us, so no one dreamed of 
 
188 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 setting on foot a systematic opposition to the measures of 
 Government. Never was a community more willing to 
 submit to absolute control. They felt the full need of 
 guidance, and would only have been too happy to obey a 
 dictator who could give the help of which all classes were 
 in want. They were soon to feel that Government had a 
 heel, if it had no head ; that it was content to be feared, 
 well knowing that it could not possibly be respected. 
 
 On the 13th June Lord Canning went into the Council 
 Chamber, and in a speech of half-an -hour's duration pro- 
 posed a Gagging Act, to be applied to all Indian news- 
 papers, European and native. He was obliged to own that 
 the English journals had exhibited no signs of disloyalty 
 to her Majesty's dominion ; but the reason he was in- 
 structed to assign for classing them with her enemies was, 
 that he had read articles which might, if perverted by 
 translation, have a very mischievous effect. The Legisla- 
 tive Council saw, with the Governor-General, that there 
 was no difference between European and Asiatic pens, and 
 by a parity of reasoning it might be said, no distinction 
 between European and Sepoy bayonets. But the law- 
 givers made the proper allowance in fact, if not in theory. 
 It was right to disarm the English journalist, who was 
 certain, if tolerated, to pull down the Company's Govern- 
 ment ; and right to strengthen the British soldier, who 
 would fight just now to preserve it. The Bill passed 
 through the second and third stages in ten minutes, and 
 Lord Canning assented to it with unwashed hands. Not 
 a man of those present had a word of objection to offer to 
 the measure. They went home, and rejoiced that, by a 
 vigorous effort, they had got rid ot responsibility ; and 
 each feeling like the person who, being worried by his 
 tailor, gave an acceptance for the amount of his bill, and 
 exclaimed, as he threw down the pen, " There, thank God, 
 the fellow's paid at last !" 
 
 At midnight on the 17th June, four days after the 
 press law was enacted, the Commissioner of Police in 
 Calcutta, with a strong force, well armed, sallied out to 
 make a seizure of three native presses. No resistance 
 was offered, and next day the culprits, two Mussulmans 
 and one Hindoo, were brought before the chief magistrate, 
 
LAWYERS SETTING SOCIETY ON ITS LEGS. 189 
 
 and on tlie information of the Secretary of the Home De- 
 partment, Mr. Beadon, and other witnesses, committed 
 for trial, on charges of having published seditious libels. 
 In due course, bills of indictment were offered to the 
 grand jury, and the puisne judge of the Queen's Court, 
 Sir Arthur Buller, spoke a column and a half of news- 
 paper type against the Doorbin and the Sooltan el Akbar, 
 charged with having reprinted the proclamation of the 
 King of Delhi, that document which every English journal 
 republished in the next issue after it came to hand. Judges 
 eminent for their learning, ability, and high moral worth, 
 had in other times seconded the acts of arbitrary power ; 
 and his lordship saw no reason why judicial functionaries 
 of that class alone should be reckoned, in trying times, as 
 the friends of Government. He charged then heavily for 
 true bills, and the grand jury found them, and hence 
 brought the matter fairly to issue. But when the trial 
 came off Lord Canning shrank from the contest which 
 he had invited. The Advocate-General had gone to 
 Madras to defend the Government in an action brought 
 against them for withholding the property of the Ranees 
 of Tanjore ; and the junior counsel came into court, and 
 entered into a compromise in the cases of the two Mus- 
 sulmans. But the case of the Bengalee was proceeded 
 with. Three libels were charged against the defendant ; 
 and it was proved that he had taken the first of these to 
 the Home Secretary in person, as evidence of the respect- 
 ability of his paper, and on the strength of it asked to be 
 allowed to have the Government orders to publish. The 
 Secretary gave directions that the paper should be taken 
 in at the office, and successive numbers were regularly re- 
 ceived and filed. Three leading articles were picked out 
 by the Under- Secretary, on which Lord Canning, it was 
 sho\v~n, ordered a prosecution to be founded. The most 
 virulent of these was a statement that the Governor- 
 General had his Venetian blinds regularly drawn down at 
 nine P.M. for fear of the Sepoys, to whom he now gave 
 sweet words, which they refused to care for. The upshot of 
 the case may be imagined. The jury, composed chiefly of 
 East Indians men as unlikely, under ordinary circum- 
 stances, to give a verdict against Government as twelve 
 
190 THE SEPOY EEVOLT. 
 
 " Castle tradesmen" acquitted the defendant without he- 
 sitation ; and no more was heard of prosecutions under the 
 common law for libel and sedition. It was known to 
 every man in Calcutta that the violent tone of the native 
 press had been brought especially to the notice of the 
 Home Secretary months before the breaking out of the 
 revolt, and that he had then wisely let it pass unnoticed. 
 "No man knew better than Mr. Beadon that treason 
 amongst natives was not hatched by leading articles, the 
 rebels being as much influenced by Calcutta newspapers 
 as Welsh miners are by the Quarterly Review. He knew 
 that in their private intercourse with each ther the 
 natural wealth of the Eastern languages was all too poor 
 to express the contempt or hatred with which men of in- 
 fluence regard us ; and that as to the mass, they were not 
 able to read or meditate. Our true policy was, to take 
 no heed of that which we could scarcely punish, to be 
 deaf to scurrility, and scornful of threatening. When the 
 Marquis Wellesley rode through Benares, a Brahmin 
 reviled him in the name of all the gods of India, and re- 
 ceived, by way of punishment, the lowliest of reverences 
 from the proudest of viceroys. 
 
 What kind of writing it is that the Indian Government 
 punishes, we have shown in the Appendix to this book ; 
 but the working out of the Act is another matter again. 
 At Akyab, where 150,000 tons of shipping annually take 
 their departure, the mercantile houses find it convenient 
 to prepare lithographed circulars containing shipping 
 lists, the price of the great staple of Arracan, and specu- 
 lations with regard to crops, present and future. No one 
 knows what amount of contempt might be expressed for 
 Government in those enigmatical phrases, with which the 
 commercial class puzzle, and perhaps sometimes delude, 
 the community at large ; and hence, to guard against such 
 a contingency, Major Yerner, who represents law, justice 
 and revenue in those parts, refused to license the stones, 
 and the whole rice literature of Arracan was extinguished 
 at a blow. The order will be a source of great annoyance 
 to merchants in the busy season, when they require every 
 available hand in the godowns, rather than in the count- 
 ing-houses ; but our countrymen are very quiet on the 
 
A SORE SUBJECT FOR THE ANGLO-SAXO^T. 191 
 
 subject. There are Dutch and French houses at Akyab, 
 and the Englishman would rather not allude to the topic. 
 
 The military authority who presides over the destinies 
 of Pegu has improved upon the law. Pending the orders 
 of the Governor-General, he has permitted the proprietor 
 of the Rangoon Chronicle to receive an " ad interim 
 order of protection" for the publication of his newspaper, 
 but requires that every article of news or comment on 
 the mutinies shall be submitted to the acting magistrate, 
 a lieutenant of the Madras artillery, previous to publica- 
 tion. The editor chafes at the condition, and chooses, 
 rather than comply with it, that his subscribers should 
 be without any intelligence on the subject which fills all 
 minds and engrosses all attention. 
 
 Englishmen who have cast their lot in the East feel, 
 perhaps, more acutely at this moment the indifference of 
 their countrymen to the continuance of the Gagging Act, 
 than the wrong inflicted upon them by the East India 
 Company in imposing it. They could not believe that 
 tyranny so senseless would be tolerated for an hour at 
 home. They thought that, even for the sake of their own 
 enlightenment, legislators and editors would uphold the 
 freedom of the Indian press. Had the Times, which 
 leads captive the mind of the English nation, been worthy 
 of its influence, or true to its high vocation, the fetters 
 would have been removed before the iron had eaten into 
 the flesh. But perhaps it has taken the proper course ; 
 the leading journal of the world writes for freemen, and 
 the Anglo-Indian population never deserved that proud 
 title. Let us change the subject, the prisoners may 
 escape when the jail is battered down, and the crowbars 
 and sledge-hammers are being got ready. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE END OF THE GREAT COMPANY. THE FINANCIAL DIFFICULTY. 
 IMPORTANCE OF AN IMMEDIATE ASSUMPTION OF GOVERNMENT BY 
 THE CROWN. NATIVE PRINCES AND THEIR RIGHTS. 
 
 THE goodly ship that in the mid-watch of the night goes 
 down suddenly, when the crew are either asleep or lying 
 listlessly on the deck gazing at the stars, is a type of the 
 
 N 2 
 
192 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 government of the East India Company. Leadenhall- 
 street has foundered in deep water, and left only a spar or 
 two floating on the surface. The catastrophe is complete, 
 but we can hardly realize the fact of it. Power 'and 
 prestige, the headship of great armies, and the control of 
 illimitable resources, all gone in three short months ! 
 helplessness and insolvency taking the places of the 
 strength that seemed invincible, and the wealth supposed 
 to be exhaustless ! The events seem to belong to the 
 world of dreams. To be a crowned king one clay and a 
 fugitive the next, is no uncommon destiny in this gene- 
 ration ; but in the case of the East India Company, we 
 have not only a dynasty deposed, but a dominion shat- 
 tered to pieces. The Raj and the Rajahs are equally at 
 an end. With the blessing of heaven we shall reconquer 
 India, but it will be only by the aid of the Queen's troops, 
 brought over in the Queen's ships, and paid out of the 
 revenues of England. Even if it were possible, or 
 thought desirable, to revive the late order of things, with 
 as few modifications as need be, there is no quarter in 
 India to which we can look for the means of carrying on 
 the Government. The latest Parliamentary returns show 
 an average annual excess of expenditure, as compared 
 with income, for the last three years, of 1,574,758^. ; and 
 the estimate for 1856-7 provides for an expected defi- 
 ciency of nearly two millions. Out of the total land 
 revenues, 4,753,1 251. is contributed by the North-west 
 Provinces, of which we hold at this moment as much 
 ground only as is covered by the guns of our European 
 troops. Vegetation after the rains is scarcely more rapid 
 than the growth of prosperity under favourable circum- 
 stances in the East ; but it will take some years to fill up 
 the gaps in the population, to rebuild the factories, replace 
 the capital destroyed, and efface the marks of the present 
 war and the coming famine. When we take into account 
 the wide area of ravage and the ruthless character of the 
 contest, the universal unsettling of men's minds and the 
 blocking up of so many channels of trade, it will be con- 
 ceded that we take a very moderate estimate of the 
 damage to the pecuniary interests of Government when 
 we set down the loss of revenue from present sources, for 
 
ESTABLISHING A NEW FIRM. 193 
 
 some years to come, at four millions sterling. Here, 
 then, is a deficit of six millions sterling, in relation to 
 the ordinary scale of expenditure it being taken for 
 granted that opium will continue to furnish sixteen per 
 cent, of the gross income. 
 
 But it is not only on one side of the account that the 
 Indian balance-sheet will show a different result in future. 
 The cost of reconquest will make an enormous addition 
 to the burthens of the country. The fifty thousand addi- 
 tional troops just sent out may not be all required three 
 years hence ; but no prudent statesman would recom- 
 mend that less than half that number should form the 
 permanent increase to the strength of the European army 
 in Bengal and the Upper Provinces. Under the head of 
 irregular soldiers or armed police, a force equal in num- 
 ber to that of the late army must be kept up ; and looking 
 at the great advance all over the country in the cost of 
 living, it is not likely that less than the Sepoy's rate of 
 pay and allowances will attract good men to the service. 
 The cost of maintaining twenty-five thousand Europeans 
 will be upwards of a million and a quarter per annum, 
 making, with the interest of the new loan, a total annual 
 deficit of eight millions sterling. 
 
 The loan required by the Indian Government will not 
 be less than fifteen millions. The winter harvest in the 
 North-west will be totally lost ; and the spring crops will 
 not produce enough for the subsistence of the people, 
 even if our arms are so successful as to leave the culti- 
 vator at peace by the end of January next. The zemin- 
 dars of Bengal will of course be called upon for their rent 
 as usual, though, if the Lower Provinces were harried to 
 any great extent, we could hardly put up their estates to 
 auction for non-payment. Two-thirds of the ordinary 
 customs' receipts at Calcutta may be looked upon as lost 
 for the present year : the damage done to the East Indian 
 Hailway is estimated at a million, and the loss by the 
 plunder of treasures at a million and a half. There are 
 the stores and public buildings destroyed by the Sepoys 
 to be replaced, and new barracks to be built for the 
 Queen's troops. Five millions will be required for trans- 
 port charges, every soldier costing, all charges being taken 
 
194 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 into account, a hundred pounds from Chatham to Calcutta. 
 The deduction that must be made from the revenues of 
 Madras, Bombay, and the Punjaub, the increased cost of 
 the army, and the expense of carrying on the war, we have 
 not attempted to estimate ; but in the above enumeration 
 we have accounted for twelve and a half millions. 
 
 The overthrow of the Company's rule has long been felt 
 to be only a question of time. It could not possibly have 
 survived many years longer ; but the Sepoys have simpli- 
 fied the labours of orators and journalists. The imme- 
 diate proclamation of the Queen's Government throughout 
 India would be worth fifty thousand men on the side of 
 law and order. Of the princes and nobles who have 
 taken up arms against us, there is not a man but is fully 
 conscious of the overwhelming might of England, and 
 who is not impressed, in the main, with a belief in the 
 desire of the imperial authority to do justice to the people 
 of Hindostan. Only by such a change can we safely 
 temper justice with mercy. An amnesty on the part of 
 the East India Company, however narrow in its provi- 
 sions or distant in date, would be attributed to fear. The 
 fighting class would have no respect for the Government 
 which they had once overturned; the native capitalists 
 would never forget that, even in Calcutta, the bonds of 
 the public debt had been almost unsaleable at 25 per cent, 
 discount. The trading millions would shrink from em- 
 barking their means in ventures beyond the reach of their 
 own supervision and control ; the servants of the State 
 would have no reliance on the permanence of their means 
 of livelihood. Ever in the minds of all men would sur- 
 vive the memory of past events, and the thought that 
 what had been might be again. 
 
 But if we look upon government by the East India 
 Company as an impossibility in the future, are we pre- 
 pared to show that the Queen's servants can rule Hindostan 
 in a way that will give content to the natives, and entail 
 no loss on the imperial exchequer? The chance of another 
 rebellion, or the steady recurrence of a deficit, would not 
 be tolerated in England. The time has arrived when we 
 must either assume the direct responsibility of the Govern- 
 ment, or abandon the country altogether. If we refuse 
 
THE WORK THAT LIES BEFORE US. 195 
 
 to let go our hold of the glorious East, we shall be answer- 
 able in the sight of the world for its welfare. Its poverty 
 will accuse, its sufferings will shame us. We must pay 
 its debts and insure its safety. The screens, both moral 
 and physical, have been rudely torn away ; substitution 
 is at an end, and we stand face to face with the Hindoo 
 and Mussulman, accountable henceforth for every act and 
 deed of our countrymen. 
 
 In gauging the feelings with which we are regarded by 
 the people of India, we may divide the latter into two 
 classes those who, under any regime, must yield up the 
 greater portion of their earnings to the ruling power; 
 and those who, by the force of position or prestige, might 
 hope in a great measure to escape taxation. The ryots 
 would generally vote for us ; because, although our system 
 of land revenue is oppressive in the extreme, it displays a 
 blind rapacity which frequently misses its aim. The 
 native zemindar knows how to work the screw to a 
 terrible nicety, and takes care that every portion of ex- 
 tractable surface is exposed to its action. TJnder his eye 
 there is no such thing as " concealed cultivation," no pos- 
 sibility of bribing the revenue officer to furnish false 
 measurements of fields or make untrue estimates of the 
 harvest. He has no sympathy with the sons of toil : the 
 ryot is one of his beasts of burden, no more having 
 thews and sinews that are the property for the time being 
 of his employers, and a soul that it rests with himself to 
 get saved if he pleases. When we hear of the peasants 
 helping the insurgents to rob and murder, it may be taken, 
 for granted that they are avenging some local quarrel or 
 fighting for the livelihood of which the insurrection has 
 deprived them. Our rule has been cruel and unjust, but 
 in setting up native domination the working masses know 
 that their condition would not be made more tolerable. 
 They care much for religion, but nothing for rajahs, except 
 in isolated instances. If we conferred upon them again, 
 the blessings of peace, and would be content to take only 
 a fair share of the produce of their land, they might not 
 be disposed to pray for our welfare, but they would cer- 
 tainly never aid in expelling us from the country. 
 
 The rajahs and nobles frate us as men hate evil destiny. 
 
196 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 They are the food for which we have always an appetite ; 
 each counts upon his destruction as a thing certain to 
 follow sooner or later ; and it is not to be wondered at if 
 the fiery spirits amongst them should long for a chance 
 of winning honour and safety by joining the ranks of our 
 open enemies. As applicable to jaghiredars and princes, 
 we have laid down a code of rules which embraces every 
 case of ownership or succession. If a Mussulman pleads 
 that his rent-free estate was given to him a century and 
 a half ago in perpetuity, he is told that it was notoriously 
 the custom of the Mogul monarch s to resume such grants 
 at will, no matter though his title-deeds show that the 
 land was alienated from the State for ever. Our Govern- 
 ment, then, being inheritors of the sovereign rights exer- 
 cised by former emperors, are entitled to treat him as his 
 predecessors would have done. In dealing with such 
 claims we prefer to rank as Mussulman rulers, the practice 
 of civilized States and the precepts of Christianity not 
 being applicable to the circumstances. Where the slice 
 of country in question was possessed by a Hindoo who 
 has left no heirs of his body, we disallow the adoption of 
 a son, because, being an English Government, we can 
 recognise no such law of inheritance. The fact, adduced 
 by friends, relatives, and neighbours, that the defunct was 
 obliged to adopt a son for the sake of his soul's happiness 
 in the next world, which said heir by immemorial custom 
 had forfeited all natural rights and could now only claim 
 under his adoptive parent, is of course acknowledged ; 
 but the claimants are told that the supposed necessity 
 does not exist. We know as Christians that the welfare 
 of spirits is nowise dependent upon the mode in which 
 their property when in the flesh is distributed. The late 
 owner can show no equitable right tha-t can be affected 
 by the scheme of succession ; and his pretended descen- 
 dant has no legal claim. If the deceased had been a 
 Christian noble, living in England, he might have made a 
 will and left his estates to the sweeper of a crossing ; but, 
 as a Hindoo subject of her Majesty, he has no such privi- 
 lege. The one may bequeath his lands to a stranger who 
 has corrupted his disposition through life, and who may 
 dishonour his memory after death. The other is not per- 
 
THE RESIDUARY LEGATEE. 197 
 
 mitted to purchase with his wealth, after the customs of 
 his faith, the inheritance of heaven. 
 
 The sovereigns of what are called Independent States 
 live in a state of abject dependence upon the will of the 
 British agency at their various courts. The whole func- 
 tions of Government are in most cases exercised by the 
 Resident, in fact, if not in appearance ; and the titular 
 monarch sighs in vain for the personal freedom enjoyed 
 by his subjects. To know the character of his rule, and 
 the seeming tendencies of his disposition, it is sufficient to 
 have a knowledge of the capacity and likings of the 
 British representative. Thus General Cullen is a savant, 
 and the Rajah of Travancore builds an observatory and 
 maintains men of science ; the Resident of Indore is a 
 person of elegant tastes, and the Maharajah surrounds 
 himself with articles of vertu. The durbar surgeon at the 
 Mysore court, who fulfils the duties of Government agent, 
 is passionately fond of the sports of the turf, and the 
 Rajah keeps a large stud of horses, gives gold cups and 
 heavy purses at races, wears top-boots, and has pictures of 
 the "great events" of past and present days. These are 
 all Hindoo princes ; but the Mussulmans are not so various 
 and flexible in their tastes. The latter shut themselves 
 up in their zenanas, the home of their infancy, manhood, 
 and old age, and pass their time in occupations such as 
 Englishmen scarcely care to inquire about. As pious 
 Mahomedans, they detest us for the sake of the Prophet ; 
 as monarchs, whether good or bad, they hate us for reasons 
 of their own. 
 
 Whether the next generation of Englishmen interfere 
 or otherwise with the existence of native dynasties, is a 
 matter which scarcely concerns us at this moment. It 
 will be the fault of Eastern princes alone if their domi- 
 nion does not last our time; but what concerns every 
 man of us at this moment is the necessity of giving free- 
 dom to native sovereigns, and the means of existence to- 
 native nobles. At every court our influence is paramount, 
 and we use it neither for the rajah's power nor for the 
 people's benefit. The example of the King of Oude is 
 just in point. We had made treaties with his ancestors 
 without the slightest stipulation as to the character of 
 
198 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 their rule. We had profited more by their vices than by 
 their virtues. We knew that the hoards of treasure 
 which more than once afforded us assistance, of which we 
 stood in great need, were wrung from the tears and blood 
 of miserable peasants ; and yet we spoke not of his mis- 
 government, except to contrast it with our own beneficent 
 system of rule. We waited in the case of the " sick man" 
 of the East till his complaint was past remedy. We 
 entered his palace as undertakers, and not as physicians. 
 As guardians to an improvident heir, we winked at ex- 
 cesses which could not but lead to ruin ; and when the 
 estates were hopelessly involved, we took possession with 
 the view of administering the property for the benefit of 
 the tenants at large. 
 
 It will be admitted that such policy is not over-credi- 
 table to the English reputation amongst Asiatic princes, 
 while it is cruel in the extreme to their subjects. We 
 ought to make tyranny as rare as treason, and do our best 
 to secure the perpetuity of native dynasties by making 
 bad government on their part impossible. The change 
 would hardly interrupt for a day the natural process of 
 absorption, and we need hardly say how much it would 
 conduce to the happiness of millions who have no protec- 
 tors save Heaven and the Honourable Company. 
 
 The worth of the last-named influence is not much in 
 the case of the State of Travancore, one of the naturally 
 richest tracts of India, and under the nominal rule of an 
 independent Hindoo Rajah. The Resident at the Court of 
 Trevandrum has occupied the post for many years ; and 
 his wondrous power of floatation has kept him on the 
 surface, though a dozen hurricanes of public wrath have 
 spent all their force upon him. Nine years since, the 
 Madras Athenaeum bent itself steadily to the task of pro- 
 curing redress for the wrongs of Travancore, and employed 
 to that end every weapon within reach. The facts of the 
 administration of public affairs were almost too horrible 
 for recital ; the causes of the misgovernment could only 
 be darkly hinted at ; but they were laid bare so far as a 
 sense of loathing and a regard for decency permitted ex- 
 planation. There was no shrinking from responsibility ; 
 the law of libel was transgressed a score of times, under 
 
THE LABOUR OF SISYPHUS. 199 
 
 the belief that if the aid of the courts of justice were in- 
 voked, the journalist would establish a claim to the grati- 
 tude of his countrymen. The public, after awhile, got 
 over the usual dislike to the occurrence of constant at- 
 tacks on the conduct of a single official, and joined heartily 
 in the hope that the Government would compel the Resi- 
 dent either to prosecute the newspaper by indictment or 
 resign his appointment. But striving and sympathy were 
 equally unless. They were only potent enough to pro- 
 cure an order for the abolition of slavery, which existed 
 in its most frightful form throughout Travancore. But the 
 attempt to purify the courts of justice, to soften down the 
 social scandals which disgraced the British name, to re- 
 form the police, to abolish torture, and to call out the re- 
 sources of the country, were wholly fruitless. The Rajah 
 of a subordinate principality on the coast tried his best to 
 strengthen the hands of the seekers after justice. He told 
 the Madras Government how he had been refused permis- 
 sion by the Resident to dismiss his minister, though the 
 latter had supplanted him in the affections of one of his 
 wives ; but the authorities at Madras treated the com- 
 plaint as a question of internal administration, with which 
 they ought not to interfere. In the end, the Resident ef- 
 fectually wore out the perseverance, if he could not shake 
 the purpose of his assailant, and the harvest of misrule 
 grew without ripening. 
 
 In the abstract, it appears singular that so much toil 
 should be requisite to redress the wrongs of society, in any 
 quarter of the globe. The spider feels at once an injury 
 done to the remotest filament of its web, and starts on the 
 instant to repair it. A man suffers inconvenience from 
 the smallest pain, and is anxious to get rid of it as soon 
 as possible. But in the case of a community oppressed 
 by a bad Government, it is ever a task of the utmost diffi- 
 culty to get reparation for the mischief inflicted. A year 
 would probably elapse before the Supreme authority would 
 take notice of the state of things in Travancore. A period 
 of equal duration would then be wasted in debating the 
 matter ; and under the most favourable circumstances, it 
 must be many years before a mere popular outcry in India 
 can force itself upon the attention of the Court of Directors. 
 
200 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 It is this long and inevitable delay between the vindication 
 of a right and the hour of its acknowledgment, which para- 
 lyses the efforts of Indian reformers. The opportunity is 
 lost, or the inclination to strive for it suffers diminution. 
 The hand grows stiff, or the heart grows cold ; and as no 
 institutions are founded for the progressive emancipation 
 of the people, the last philanthropist finds that he must 
 not only tread in the footsteps, but also do over again the 
 work of his predecessor. So far as the government of the 
 country is concerned, it would appear that the last cen- 
 tury has done little or nothing for the improvement of 
 its character. It is still a matter of chance as to whether 
 the most responsible posts are filled by a man of talent or 
 an imbecile, a Christian or a tyrant ; and when the ruling 
 authority is vested in the hands of one who is unfit to 
 exercise it, no checks exist to mitigate the hardships of 
 its most oppressive exercise. A British Resident at Tra- 
 vancore is at this moment more independent of control, 
 more absolutely the disposer of life and fortune, than the 
 Prime Minister of Great Britain ; and it is a knowledge 
 of this debasing fact which might prompt him to defy 
 alike the efforts of public writers, and the indignant re- 
 monstrances of an outraged people. 
 
 The following list of the tortures current in Travan- 
 core was prepared, in 1848, by an English gentleman of 
 the highest respectability, at that time, and for many 
 years previous, residing in the country. It will be seen 
 that the operator had an extensive choice in his modes of 
 treatment, and could deal with any kind of subject, in any 
 locality. Some of the kinds of torture were constantly 
 practised, others with less frequency ; but there were a few 
 of the Government servants who had learnt the whole sys- 
 tem, and could apply any example of persuasive treatment 
 that might be required. Beating hardly comes under the 
 head of torture, though the Burmese method of laying the 
 patient down on his face, and kneading his back with the 
 elbows of a strong man, approaches very near to it. Our 
 catalogue should commence with racking the arms back- 
 wards with cords tightened with increasing severity. 
 While the arms are thus tied, bearing down the neck by a 
 heavy weight pressing on the nape. In several ways 
 
PERSUASIVE INFLUENCES. 201 
 
 wrenching various parts of the body, even to the disloca- 
 tion of bones. Using an instrument called the " kitti," 
 formed by two sticks connected by a loose joint at one 
 end, which serves as a fulcrum, the two sticks being levers 
 between which the fingers, &c., are squeezed , the degree 
 of tightness is not limited, but increasing according to the 
 nature of the case, and the will of the torturer. Whipping 
 with a. species of stinging-nettle. Tying two women to- 
 gether by their long hair, and suspending a weight on that 
 hair between them. Using a long iron rod, with rings 
 which slide on it, each one fitted to contain a leg ; when 
 these are filled, pulling the rod with violence, through a 
 hole in the wall or wooden frame, by one end, so that all 
 the legs are jammed up together at the other end. Sus- 
 pending by the hands on a pole, for a lengthened time. It 
 is not needful to tie the hands together ; they can be con- 
 stituted self-suspenders in this manner : while holding 
 the hands in front with the palms inwards, towards the 
 chest, and the fingers extended, turn them inward, and 
 then lock them one in the other, so that the ends of the 
 fingers on one hand rest in the palm of the other ; 
 then a pole passed across them inside will suspend the 
 body, its pressure preventing the fingers from slipping out. 
 While suspended in this manner, lighting a fire beneath 
 the victim. Adding to his sufferings by throwing the 
 strongest red pepper on the fire, so that its severely pun- 
 gent fumes assail his eyes, nose, and throat. Shutting up 
 in a close room, and then smoking the sufferer. Apply- 
 ing hot pincers, and that to parts of the body which cannot 
 be mentioned. Enclosing a number of pinching beetles 
 in half a cocoa-nut shell, and tying it over the navel, so 
 that the horrid sensation of digging into the bowels is in- 
 flicted. Rubbing the arm from the wrist to the elbow with 
 salt and sand, then applying longitudinally a number of 
 eekil, or ribs of the cocoa-nut leaf, and tying them on 
 firmly ; then forcibly drawing them out one by one, the 
 finer end first, so that each one, by its own increasing 
 thickness, and aided by the salt underneath, cuts burn- 
 iiigly into the flesh, and leaves its smarting sting. 
 
 The first impression on the reader's mind will perhaps 
 be, that the members who were in office at Madras ten 
 
202 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 years since were culpably remiss in not causing inquiry 
 to be made into such dreadful practices as the above ; but 
 let him be reasonable. Two years since, the report of the 
 Madras Torture Commission was put into the hands of 
 the whole English public ; and what has come of it ? 
 What party do the ten members of Parliament belong to 
 who have taken the pains to read it 1 Men who live in 
 India have lost the power of being moved by the recital 
 of such atrocities ; and those who sit at home at ease 
 need the occurrence of a rebellion to induce them to give 
 even a passing thought to the subject. 
 
 If the princes of India have not made common cause 
 against us, the fact is in no degree owing to the kindness 
 of the treatment which they receive from the hands of 
 the Government. A species of surveillance is exercised 
 over them, compounded of the watchfulness exercised 
 with regard to a lunatic and to a dangerous State prisoner. 
 No European can visit them without permission of the 
 Company's agent. We have known a medical man denied 
 access to the Nabob of the Carnatic, who, it was said, 
 expressed a wish to see him upon unimportant matters. 
 None of them dare correspond openly with England, and 
 they take especial care to do nothing that can possibly 
 offend their keepers. The pupils of Dotheboys Hall 
 would willingly tell the story of their wrongs when away 
 from school ; but the poor souls whom we dignify with 
 the titles of " Maharajah," and " Highness," scarcely dare 
 utter their complaints, even in the recesses of their 
 zenanas. The Rajah of Mysore sent an agent to the 
 editor of a Madras newspaper, about four years since, 
 with an earnest request that some articles should be in- 
 serted, with a view to procure the removal of an English 
 officer attached to the Presidency. The agent was re- 
 minded that the Rajah had the power of refusing to re- 
 ceive the gentleman in question. " Oh, he dare not do 
 that," was the reply. "Well, but," rejoined the editor, 
 " will the Rajah, if he is referred to on the subject of the 
 charges, support and justify them ?" " Why, no," said 
 the ambassador. " You see, the Rajah will be obliged to 
 say that they are all lies, if the Resident asks him ; and 
 that is the reason why he wants the paper to take up his 
 
ADDRESS FROM THE DEAD-LETTER OFFICE. 203 
 
 case." In theory, the Rajah of Mysore is at least master 
 of his court ; in practice, he is scarcely on a level with his 
 humblest retainer. The rights of sovereignty and the 
 rights of manhood have both departed from him. 
 
 And it is not alone the " mockery kings" that expiate 
 in bondage the crime of their weakness. It is no secret 
 that Holkar, who might if he had chosen have been at this 
 moment at the head of a hundred thousand Mahrattas, 
 has been addressed, since the late outbreak at Indore, 
 both by the officiating Resident and the officer in com- 
 mand at Mhow, in a style which would have driven any 
 proud or passionate man into open insurrection. The 
 servants of the Government, which is powerless to pre- 
 vent the deeds of Cawnpore and Delhi, tell the Mahratta 
 chieftain that he is responsible for the conduct of his 
 troops, and they require explanations for the use of the 
 Governor-General, which they warn Holkar are very 
 likely to be thought unsatisfactory. If the maharajah is 
 very sensible or very timid, no harm may come of this 
 mode of treating the master of armed multitudes, at such 
 a critical season as the present. But we usually rely on 
 our right hand to cancel the mistakes of the brain. 
 Holkar would thrive none the better for having a good 
 cause of battle, and we trust that he will continue to sit 
 and wait, like the rest of us, for better times. 
 
 Five years since, Lord Dalhousie threatened the King 
 of Ava that he would dismember his dominions if he re- 
 fused to pay the sum of 90, at which sum his lordship 
 assessed the damage that had been sustained by certain 
 merchants at the hands of the Burmese ; but a hundred 
 and sixty years ago one of his predecessors, Nathaniel 
 Higginson, Esq., addressed the lord of the white elephant 
 as follows : " To his Imperiall Majesty, who blesseth the 
 noble city of Ava with his prescence, Emperour of em- 
 perours, and excelling the kings of the East and of the 
 West in glory and honour, the clear firmament of virtue, 
 the fountain of justice, the perfection of wisdom, the 
 lord of charity, and protector of the distressed : The first 
 mover in the sphere of greatness, president in council, 
 victorious in warr ; who feareth none and is feared by 
 all : centre of the treasures of the earth, and of the sea, 
 
204 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 ]ord proprietor of gold and silver, ruby's, amber and all 
 precious Jewells, favoured by Heaven, and honoured by 
 men, whose brightness slimes through the world as the 
 light of the sun, and whose great name will be preserved 
 in perpetual memory." The paragon of princes has as 
 many titles now as formerly, and his notions of greatness 
 are no doubt equally justified by facts ; but the balance of 
 power has been strangely altered, and the nobleman who 
 now sits in Nathaniel's chair expresses his admiration in 
 less glowing language. Talk about the smooth adulation 
 of shopkeepers, what draper's "assistant" ever conde- 
 scended, in order to sell his wares, to such abasement as 
 the Governor of Fort St. George, who goes on to say : 
 " The fame of so glorious an emperour, the lord of power 
 and riches, being spread through the whole earth, all na- 
 tions resort to view the splendour of your greatness, and 
 with your Majesty's subjects to partake of the blessings 
 which God Almighty hath bestowed upon your kingdoms 
 above all others ; your Majesty has been pleased to grant 
 your especial 1 favours to the Honourable English Com- 
 pany, whose servant I am ; and now send to present be- 
 fore the footstool of your throne a few toys, as an ac- 
 knowledgment of your Majesty's goodness ; which I beg 
 your Majesty to accept ; and to vouchsafe an audience to 
 my servants, and a gracious answer to my petition. 
 
 " I humbly pray your Majesty's fountain of goodness 
 to continue your wonted favours to the Right Honour- 
 able English Company, and to permit our factors to buy 
 and sell, in such commoditys, and under such priviledges, 
 as your royall bounty shall please to grant ; and allow us 
 such conveniencys as are necessary for the repair of shipps, 
 whereby I shall be encouraged to send my shipps yearly 
 to your Majesty's port, having orders from the Honour- 
 able Company to send shipps and factors into all parts of 
 India, when their service requires it, and pray your Ma- 
 jesty to give me leave to send a factor, next monsoon, to 
 reside at Syrian." 
 
 When the renowned Turpin wished the bishop's coach- 
 man to come to a halt, it is said that 
 
 Dick put a couple of balls in his nob, 
 And perwailed on him to stop. 
 
DOCTORS COMMONS IN THE EAST. 205 
 
 "We invite attention to the passage in the following 
 paragraph, where a kindred act on the part of the King 
 of Ava is told in language equally soft and graceful. The 
 guileless Nathaniel treats piracy as a pleasant hospitality, 
 and thanks his majesty for robbery and murder. 
 
 " About three years agoe I ordered Bartholomew Kodri- 
 gues, master of a small sloop called fit. Anthony and 
 St. Nicholas, to go from Acheen to Bengali, laden with 
 divers commodity's ; while I was expecting to hear from 
 my factors in Bengali of her arrival there, the ship that 
 came hither the last year from Syrian, brought me advice 
 that the said sloop was fortunately arrived within your 
 Majesty's kingdoms, and calling there for wood and 
 water, your officers not knowing who she belonged to, 
 ' had taken care, by your Majesty's order, for the safe keep- 
 ing the sloop and cargoe, which great favour I thought 
 myself obliged to acknowledge, and therefore by the first 
 opportunity sent your Majesty a letter of thanks, with a 
 small present, by a shipp that went last year from hence 
 for Syrian : but unfortunately lost by the ignorance of 
 the pilott. I have now sent this by my factors Edward 
 Fleet wood and James Lesly, and humbly pray your Ma- 
 jesty to cause Bartholomew Rodrigues and his people, and 
 that sloop and cargo, to be delivered to my said factors ; 
 who have orders to bring all to me ; and fearing the sloop 
 may be imcapable of going to sea, I have sent a ship to 
 bring away the cargoe and men." 
 
 The devout humility of honourable John, when in hisf 
 teens, is well shown in the remaining paragraphs of this- 
 unique epistle. 
 
 " Several Englishmen, who, in former years, have been 
 in your Majesty's kingdoms, and have obtained liberty of 
 returning, doe declare the greatness of your Majesty's- 
 glory. If there be any now remaining under the misfor-' 
 tune of captivity, I humbly beg your Majesty will please- 
 to grant their liberty, that they may spread the fame of 
 your Majesty's splendid greatness ; from the rising sun to 
 the setting sun. 
 
 " Adrian Tilbury, a merchant of this place, was my 
 servant for many years. He made a voyage from hence 
 to Mortavan, and there dyed. His widow hath acquainted 
 
206 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 me that your Majesty's governours have, according to the 
 usuall justice of your Majesty's laws, secured his estate, 
 being a stranger. I humbly pray your Majesty will be 
 pleased to order the same to be delivered to my factors, 
 for the use of his widow and orphan. 
 
 " I humbly pray your Majesty to permit the speedy 
 repair and return of the ship which I now send, and that 
 my factors may be permitted to return by the same ship 
 this monsoon. And if your Majesty will grant me leave 
 to build a small ship or two, I will send my people next 
 year for that purpose. 
 
 " Your Majesty's most humble and devoted servant, 
 
 "NAT. HIGGINSON. 
 
 "Dated in Fort St. George, the 10th Sept., 1695." 
 
 If the golden-footed monarch can boast of a family 
 library, it is possible that he sometimes recreates himself 
 with the perusal of a document which shows how, a cen- 
 tury and a half ago, our fathers "ate dirt" in the pre- 
 sence of his ancestors. Nor was the crawling, pedlar- 
 like style in which we went to work to get in the small 
 end of the wedge, at all a matter of mere verbal degra- 
 dation in the presence of royalty. What would our 
 modern commodores and high civilians say, if the present 
 Governor of Madras sent them on an embassy to Burmah, 
 with the following instructions : 
 
 " If you receive any affront, or injury, from any native, 
 you must not revenge it by any means : if it be of such a 
 nature as you think requires satisfaction, you must apply 
 yourselves to the Government, who will do you right ; 
 and your prudence must direct you to avoid the offering 
 an} r affront, or injury, to the natives, for they are exces- 
 sive proud, and will not bear it ; but will either seek an 
 opportunity of revenge, or complain to the Government ; 
 one imprudent action of that nature may give you a great 
 deal of trouble, and overthrow your whole business. At 
 your first arrival at Syrian, inform yourselves in the cus- 
 tom of the country relating to strangers." 
 
 There appears to have been no need for uneasiness as 
 to the possible effect of Mr. Fleetwood's high spirit. All 
 his thoughts were directed towards accomplishing the 
 
BOBBING AKOUKD. 207 
 
 object of his mission, and getting as much, as possible in 
 return for the governor's present. We have heard in 
 what order Commodore Lambert presented his credentials, 
 as plenipotentiary for the marquis ; let us note how the 
 like ceremony was performed for the merchant by his 
 countrymen a hundred and sixty years since. Mr. Eleet- 
 wood is describing the manner of his reception. 
 
 " When we came to the garden gate, where the king 
 was, we alighted, where we were met by one of the ovi- 
 dores, who was there, ready to conduct me in, and to 
 direct me in the manner of approaching the king here 
 I took the letter from Mr. King, and stayed almost a 
 quarter of an hour before the gates were opened, when 
 we fell down upon our knees and made three bows, which 
 done, we entered the garden, the present following ; and 
 having gone about half way from the gate to the place 
 where the king was seated, we made three bows again as 
 before ; when we were gott within fifteen yards of the 
 king we made three bows again, as we had done before, 
 and were ordered to sit down ; after we were sat down, 
 the king ordered the ovidore to receive the letter, and 
 about half a quarter of an hour after asked me the three 
 usual questions : viz., how long I had been in my passage 
 from Madrass to his port of Syrian ? how many days from 
 Syrian to A va ? and, at -my departure from Madras, if I 
 had left my governour in good health? I told his Majesty 
 that I had been about thirty days in my passage from 
 Madrass to Syrian ; about forty-two days from Syrian to 
 Ava j and that at my departure from Madrass (thanks to 
 God) I had left my governour in good health, supplicating 
 the Divine power for the continuation of his Majesty's 
 health and happiness. After this I sat about half a quar- 
 ter of an hour longer, and then was dismissed." 
 
 Counsellor Phillips wept for Courvoisier, and Serjeant 
 Wilkins cried on behalf of Mr. Hamshay, but the tears of 
 the lawyers were not half so affecting as the prayers of 
 the governor. Now-a-days, instead of " supplicating 
 the Divine power" for the welfare of kings, we pray for 
 their territories, and usually get what we piously ask for. 
 
 We may have, as a people, opposite opinions as to the 
 propriety of modifying or abrogating certain forms of 
 o 2 
 
208 THE SEPOY KEVOLT. 
 
 agreement between the Indian Government and the worn- 
 out despots who continue to increase the sum of mortal 
 evil ; but nothing that can be said for or against such, 
 measures can possibly do more than retard their sure 
 effect. Absorption will take place, whether we wish it 
 or not : it is in the order of things ; the handwriting is 
 on the wall, in a language familiar to all, and which he 
 who runs may read. It is fated that in time the remain- 
 ing Mussulman and Hindoo dynasties shall be subverted 
 at least for a season, and in those cases where the main- 
 tenance of a puppet sovereignty involves the perpetual 
 misgovernment of millions we would fain aid the work 
 of extinction. 
 
 It is true that treaties exist, by which we are cove- 
 nanted to uphold the existing framework of power ; but 
 we deny, with the British Parliament and with the peo- 
 ple of every European nation, that one generation has 
 the power of binding all the future races of mankind. 
 And there is this broad and never-to-be-forgotten distinc- 
 tion between the agreements made with native princes 
 and those which are entered into by the potentates of the 
 Western world. In the one set of instances they are 
 personal only, whilst the other are national, or. at the 
 worst, broadly political. An arrangement in the one 
 case is made with the individual, in the other with the 
 State. The people are not known in India. They are 
 the payers of taxes, the veritable slaves of the soil or the 
 loom ; but there is no power in the masses, and neither 
 right nor justice, except such as can be won by force. 
 To think that the overthrow of any particular sovereignty 
 to-morrow would offend the patriotic prejudices of the 
 multitude, as folks are apt to imagine at home, is to fall 
 into a grievous mistake. Provide for the ruler and his 
 court as pensioners of the State, and the change would not 
 cause a murmur of disaffection, but, on the contrary, be 
 hailed as the greatest of blessings. 
 
 It has been held by writers of great influence, that we 
 are responsible " before God and man" for the govern- 
 ment of the whole of India, and that, in refraining to ap- 
 propriate the whole of its revenues out of a foolish regard 
 for the " letter of treaties," we make " a scandalous mis- 
 
THE EQUITY OF TREATIES. 209 
 
 use of those opportunities which Providence has given us." 
 This declaration of rights and duties is at least compre- 
 hensive enough, and if acted upon would put an end to a 
 great deal of bribing and petitioning on the part of native 
 supplicants, for what is still considered in some quarters 
 bare justice. 
 
 If Providence would sanction our seizure of the reve- 
 nues of Hyderabad, where a monarch de facto still exer- 
 cises an admitted right to do what he likes with his own, 
 its approval may be certainly counted upon for the stop- 
 page of the pensions now paid to deposed princes and 
 dispossessed proprietors of estates. We take ^t that the 
 Nizam has a better claim to his revenue than the Nabob 
 of Moorshedabad has to his annual allowance ; and if the 
 one is a camel which we \ are prepared to swallow, the 
 other is not a gnat to be strained at. Since the magni- 
 tude of the payment made constitutes the reason for re- 
 pudiating the treaty by which it is secured, it must be 
 frankly owned that an honorarium amounting to 160,000. 
 a year cannot be left out of the category of sins against 
 Providence. 
 
 The least gifted amongst us may become acquainted 
 with the events which. Heaven permits, but the very 
 wisest cannot distinguish all those which it looks upon 
 with approbation. The only guide to our researches on 
 this important point is a certain volume which in. theory is 
 supposed to lay down rules for the conduct of nations as 
 well as individuals. A contract made by a community in 
 one hemisphere with a people residing in another, through 
 the rulers or representatives of both, is as binding as an 
 agreement concluded between individuals. The English 
 Government, in its relation to the people of India, 
 stands precisely in the position of a strong man, who 
 had forcibly possessed himself of the management of an 
 estate, giving bonds at the outset of his usurpation for 
 the payment of perpetual annuities to the parties pre- 
 viously exercising the rights of ownership. Now, ad- 
 mitting that there was no redress for the wrongful entry 
 upon the land, or that the persons ousted had renounced 
 their claims, the obligations imposed upon the holder 
 would be restricted to the duty of seeing that the soil was 
 
210 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 properly cultivated, the tenants amply cared for, and the 
 rent-charges duly paid. If the estate produced less than, 
 was sufficient to pay the expenses, it is clear that no sur- 
 plus would be left for the annuitants, who would lose all 
 the benefits recited in their various securities, without 
 having more grounds of complaint against the manager 
 than a merchant has against a shipowner, when the cargo 
 which he counts upon is lost at sea. But if the admi- 
 nistrator of the property had taken under the head of 
 necessary expenses more than the reasonable costs of 
 management ; if he had ruined some farms by a system 
 of rack-rents, and suffered others to go out of cultivation 
 by neglect of repairs, and inattention to the reasonable 
 wants of the peasantry; whilst at the same time his own 
 private expenditure was most lavish and uncalled-for, a 
 Court of Equity would doubtless afford relief to the bond- 
 owners, and, if need be, appoint a receiver of rents for 
 the general benefit. Upon the same principle, if the 
 Indian Government is able to show that, in spite of the 
 utmost care and frugality, the income of the State is not 
 sujfficient to discharge the whole of its obligations, the 
 treaties made from time to time with various parties 
 must remain suspended. Putting out of sight the ques- 
 tion as to the duty of making ourselves responsible for 
 acts that we are unable to perform, it is clear that one 
 class of obligations may have a weightier significance as 
 compared with another. It is more binding on us to pro- 
 mote the prosperity of the toiling ryot than to feed the 
 luxury of a deposed prince, who would most probably, but 
 for our career of conquest, have been reduced by some 
 one amongst his own countrymen, long ere this, to a state 
 of destitution. But if we have agreed to do both things, 
 to cherish the worker and maintain as well the useless 
 drone, the force of our duty is only to be measured by 
 the extent of our means. In either case performance 
 must equally wait on promise. We are no more justified 
 in refusing to continue the payment of subsidies, because 
 they are applied to no good purpose and are inconvenient 
 to be raised, than in declining, as private individuals, to 
 discharge a debt justly due to a miser, or to furnish the 
 means for reckless profligacy to the worthless scion of an 
 
GIVING EFFECT TO THE BOXD. 211 
 
 ancient house. It was beyond all question a foolish policy 
 which dictated the majority of our stipulations with the 
 native princes of India, but hardly more unwise than, 
 that which prompted the twenty years' war with France, 
 and entailed upon Great Britain a debt of some six hun- 
 dred millions sterling. Few venture to justify the con- 
 duct of our rulers during that period, which has be- 
 queathed a burden that will be felt by our native posterity, 
 but the man who talks of applying a sponge to the list 
 of national creditors is looked upon as a public enemy. 
 It was wrong to contract the debt, and it was very in- 
 convenient to discharge it ; but the obligation is clear, and 
 until the means of fulfilment are wanting, we are bound 
 in the sight of the universe to comply with its terms, 
 both in the letter and the spirit. 
 
 The dogmas frequently uttered with regard to the uses 
 of Oriental revolutions, and the extent of our rights as 
 lords paramount of India, are miserably unsound and 
 hardly specious. To contend that a nation is benefited 
 by the frequent recurrence of civil wars and foreign 
 invasions, terminating in a change of dynasty, is as rea- 
 sonable as it would be to assert that a man's life was best 
 preserved by the periodical accession of disorders which 
 should bring him each time to the verge of the grave. 
 As to our dormant claims, under the plea of being lords 
 paramount of the entire country, it is hard to say what 
 these may amount to, since the extent has never yet been 
 defined by any competent authority; but we venture to 
 assert that they stop short of a title to the whole of the 
 revenues collected at present by the various independent 
 and protected States. We have taken a great deal, and 
 may possibly obtain more ; but are very properly chary 
 of putting forward the doctrine of abstract right. If we 
 are entitled to claim the revenues of every district, we 
 are bound as well to distribute universally the blessings 
 of internal peace and good government. In India, as 
 elsewhere, property has its duties as well as its rights ; 
 and if we do not fulfil the one, we have no title at all 
 to the other. If our dignity as lords paramount is ex- 
 pected to bring us solid advantages, let us show that we 
 are willing to make a proper return for them. In those 
 
THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 parts of Hindostaii arid the Deccan where th'e worst 
 occupation is that of honest industry, the most powerless 
 office that of the minister of justice, and the greatest 
 enemy of the public the absolute monarch, a very slender 
 amount of coin will satisfy the just demands of the Bri- 
 tish Government on the score of tribute. The ultimate 
 absorption of every native State is, perhaps, merely a 
 question of time. They are always weak and prone to 
 give opportunities for being despoiled : we are always 
 strong, and usually found willing to take advantage of our 
 good fortune. But these are reasons why the work of 
 years should not be precipitated. With destiny on our 
 side, we may be surely content to await the appointed 
 hour. It is enough to acquire riches and glory whilst 
 we are advancing the cause of civilization and true 
 religion, without acting so as to raise doubts with 
 regard to the honesty of our motives and the reality of 
 our mission. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE NOBLES AND JAGHIREDARS OP INDIA. THEIR WRONGS AND MISER- 
 ABLE CONDITION. THE INQUISITION IN BOMBAY. CASE OP TUB NA- 
 
 WAB OP WOODIAGHERRY. PROPOSED REMEDY. 
 
 Bur besides the inheritors of empty kingships, there is 
 the numerous and daily increasing class of their families 
 and those of their chief retainers, who are yoked to us 
 by bonds which they have neither the energy nor the 
 means to sever, nor we the honesty and wisdom to make 
 pleasant or profitable. The family and adherents of the 
 Great Mogul, of the house of Tippoo Sahib, and of the 
 late Nabob of the Carnatic, would alone make a goodly 
 army, at least in point of numbers ; and we know not how 
 many thousands of able-bodied men are vitally interested 
 in the overthrow of our dominion, by which alone they 
 can hope to retain the means of existence. During the 
 half century that we have had control over the destinies 
 of the members of the three great families alluded to, 
 "whilst we have been steadily encroaching on the fund set 
 apart originally for their maintenance, we have done 
 Slothing whatever in the way of training their children, 
 
PLUNDER WITHOUT PROFIT. 213 
 
 or affording them the opportunities of employment. There 
 is no opening for them in the army except as private 
 soldiers ; no room for them on the bench except they 
 mingle with the mass of witnesses that haunt our courts, 
 and are content to crawl upwards, all dirt and servility. 
 Without land they cannot live by agriculture, and without 
 capital they cannot embark in trade. Not a year passes 
 over which does not make large additions to the stock of 
 misery and discontent, in the shape of disinherited heirs 
 who have licked the dust in vain for the chance of being 
 allowed to retain the estate or the pension enjoyed by 
 their fathers. In Bengal and Madras the work of re- 
 trenchment is well nigh over, and aristocratic pauperism 
 is as wretchedly fed and clothed as need be j but in Bom- 
 bay, at this moment, a commission is sitting, which has 
 been in existence since 1843, charged to inquire into the 
 validity of all titles to rent-free lands held in hereditary 
 occupation. The total claims in the southern Mahratta 
 country up to the date of a Parliamentary return, issued 
 on the 28th of August last, amounted to upwards of 
 108,000, and less than 7000 decisions had been given in 
 the course of the fourteen years past. This leaves more 
 than 100,000 claims standing over, which at the same 
 rate will be settled A.D. 2058. The gain in revenue 
 from the resumptions is 15,846?. per annum at present, 
 and a further sum of 27,000?. after the lapse of one, two, 
 or three lives. The cost of the survey was, perhaps, 
 100,000?. in cash, and how much in good will and loyalty? 
 
 The case of the jaghiredars of the Carnatic, most of 
 whom are related to the family of the late nabob, may be 
 taken as an example of the wrongs inflicted generally 
 throughout India upon men of their class. 
 
 A thousand arguments might be adduced to show the 
 impolicy and cruelty of the conduct pursued towards the 
 Mahomedan nobility of Madras, but they can afford to 
 rest their case upon the ground of admitted rights. Their 
 dignities and estates were created in the most valid way 
 by the Mussulman sovereigns of the Carnatic, and have 
 been publicly and officially recognised by the English 
 Government times out of mind. In the treaty which was 
 made by the Marquis Cornwallis with Mahomed Ally, the 
 
214 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 possessions of the jaghiredars were declared exempt from 
 interference, even in the worst extremity. The rights of 
 the sovereign power, which extended over all the rest of 
 the country, were barred with respect to their estates. 
 In the third article of the treaty it was stipulated " that 
 in the event of war breaking out in the Carnatic and 
 countries appertaining to either party, and dependent on 
 the Carnatic, or contiguous thereto " for the better pro- 
 secution of it, and as long as it should last "the Company 
 should possess full authority over the Carnatic, except 
 the jaghires belonging to the family of the said nabob, 
 amounting to star pagodas 213,911, which on condition of 
 the good behaviour of the jaghiredars of the said jaghires, 
 and of their fidelity to the said nabob, and to the said 
 Company, shall be continued to them, subject to the 
 pleasure of the said nabob only." 
 
 No clearer proof can be required to show that the jag- 
 hires were perfect alienations from the property of the 
 State, which could not be made subject to the provisions 
 of a treaty between sovereign powers. Mahomed Ally 
 himself renounced all legal claim, and he could not share 
 or transfer that of which he was not in possession or ex- 
 pectancy. It is true the words " subject to the pleasure 
 of the said nabob only," serve to indicate the possibility of 
 his resumption of grants made in perpetuity ; but the law 
 of his country and religion would not justify him in so 
 doing ; and the European inheritors of his throne were 
 not able to vindicate a wider range of lawless power. 
 Oaths might be broken, and all the conditions of trust 
 between monarch and subject openly violated, but the 
 wrong would be palpable to earth and heaven. And 
 there is this marked distinction to be drawn between the 
 examples of native and British violence, where the Indian 
 aristocracy are in question, that in the one case the class 
 rarely suffers by the loss of the individual. The aggre- 
 gate wealth is not diminished ; what is taken from the 
 disgraced favourite is given to his successor ; and the 
 caprice which ruins a man to-day, may restore him with 
 added possessions to-morrow. But the water which the 
 English ruler diverts from the stream is never restored to 
 the fountain, or distilled in clew over the surrounding 
 
THE GRADATIONS OF GIFTS. 215 
 
 country. It is carried away to fertilize a foreign soil. 
 Under Christian sway, the ryot and the noble are tending 
 to the same result of lowest poverty, only the one has 
 nearly reached the firm ground of ultimate wretchedness, 
 whilst the other has still the rags and the recollection of 
 better days clinging to his mind and person. 
 
 The jaghiredars of the Carnatic place great reliance upon 
 the abstract validity of their titles, and the repeated pro- 
 clamations in which the British Government pledged 
 itself to respect them ; but there is extant a paper, which 
 shows what the very administration that subverted the 
 dynasty of Mahomed Ally thought of their claims. It is 
 a report from the Board of Revenue " On the Jaghires in 
 the Carnatic," dated 26th March, 1802, only eight months 
 after the annexation of the country. The writer, Mr. 
 Falconer, after narrating the difficulties which stood in 
 the way of getting at a thorough knowledge of the subject, 
 gives the results of his investigation of the titles by which 
 ninety-five persons held their estates. Most of the holders, 
 he remarks, had a " plurality," and many of them a multi- 
 tude of Suniids. After proving that the united annual value 
 amounted to nearly five and a half lakhs of pagodas, he 
 says, " The jaghires may be arranged into three classes. 
 
 " The first class comprises the Altumgha tenures, of 
 which the deed of gift expressly and emphatically de- 
 scribes them to be hereditary." The reporter enumerates 
 the various individuals included in the first rank, and goes 
 on to say : 
 
 " The second class comprises those which had originally 
 been conferred by padshahi grants, or grants so termed : 
 and which, though not specified to be hereditary, have 
 nevertheless been suffered to remain in the hands of the 
 original grantee (the extent of the jaghire being sometimes 
 curtailed), until the death of the late nabob. This class 
 being generally killadars, were expected originally to per- 
 form military service as such, and the jaghires were 
 bestowed to defray their personal expenses, and those of 
 their garrisons. They latterly however became sinecures." 
 
 At the head of the list of jaghiredars of the second class 
 stands the name of Syed Abbas Khan, of Woodiagherry, 
 who held, under various Suniids, the most ancient bearing 
 
216 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 the seal of the Soubahs of the Deccan. For five genera- 
 tions the estate had been in the possession of the same 
 family. It yielded 10,OOOZ. per annum ; and they had 
 independent jurisdiction within its limits. In 1839 the 
 holder of the estate was an old bedridden man who had 
 lost the use of his limbs for twenty years. Such a condi- 
 tion of physical impotence is unfavourable to the nurture 
 of ambitious hopes ; and it will be reasonably concluded 
 that a petty Indian raj all, who had conceived the design, 
 of making himself master of the Carnatic, must possess 
 many rare gifts both of body and mind. The poor jag- 
 hiredar in question had never been suspected of genius or 
 insanity ; but, at the time we speak of, the collector of 
 Xellore took it into his head that lie intended to carve 
 out for himself an independent kingdom. The merit of 
 the discovery, though ascribed to the collector, is claimed 
 by a moonshee, who has since had his deserts, and upon the 
 representation of the former to the Government of the day, 
 a commission, consisting of a single individual, was ap- 
 pointed to take evidence in the case ; and the result of it 
 lies before us. It is our earnest hope to have it laid some 
 day on the table of a committee of the House of Commons, 
 as a sample of the machinery by which men obnoxious on 
 account of their wealth are ruined in India. It is the 
 hearsay scandal of menials and policemen anxious to con- 
 ciliate the minister of justice. It is so worthless that 
 disgust at the open villany of the swearers is neutralized 
 by the contempt for the intellect which could accept it as 
 the revelations of honest men. There was not a single 
 question put in the way of cross-examination. It was 
 assumed from first to last that the witnesses knew all 
 that they had to say, and had come prepared to say it. 
 
 The nawab begged for a hearing. He said it would be 
 a, boon for which he should feel ever grateful if they would 
 allow him to confront his accusers. His request was 
 denied : such a form was thought needless in the way of 
 helping the collector and commissioner to a knowledge of 
 the truth. People who are averse to toil look with natural 
 reluctance upon the prospect of labours overthrown ; and 
 had the nawab been heard, according to the fashion that 
 prevails in the civilized world, a new hypothesis of guilt 
 
THE REWARD OF TREASOX. 217" 
 
 would have been required to ensure his deposition. So 
 they gave him, in answer, a message delivered by the 
 officer of a Sepoy guard, and sent him in custody to Cbin- 
 gleput, where a broken heart finished his career. His 
 estate was confiscated, and a pension of a hundred rupees 
 a month granted by the charitable clemency of the Govern- 
 ment to two of the surviving sons. The net profit on the 
 transaction is 67601. per annum. We have heard of the 
 gain of godliness ; but here are undeniable proofs of the 
 gain of guilt. 
 
 For examples of broken faith, violated laws, and 
 systematic oppression, the Government of India is able 
 to challenge the universe. In the main, things are done 
 very quietly in that part of the world. We hear of the 
 decay of a district only when a civil servant is sus- 
 pended. A member of the Madras Board of Revenue 
 is imprisoned in the common jail for perjury ; and forth- 
 with the public ear is filled with stories of how justice 
 had been put up to sale for many years past, and the 
 practice of corruption universally known, if not openly 
 avowed. The people are timid and ignorant. They are 
 afraid to clamour for redress, and know not where it is 
 to be obtained for the asking. The press is deficient in a 
 knowledge of facts, and the Government officials, with but 
 few exceptions, are a band of brothers. 
 
 Mr. Falconer closes his catalogue of grants of the 
 above description with the remark that " these were 
 conferred for services performed by the ancestors of the 
 present claimants, who were all descended from families 
 of some distinction." 
 
 " The third class," says Mr. Falconer, " comprises all 
 other jaghires, which may be considered as life grants 
 merely; or tenures depending on the goodwill of the 
 donor." In the course of his inquiries, the reporter dis- 
 covered that " a tract of territory, to the amount of 
 168,806 star pagodas," in addition to the recognised 
 estates, "had been granted in jaghire tenure, but by the 
 death of the occupants, or other circumstances, had re- 
 verted to the State." We draw attention to the reasons 
 which Mr. Falconer assigns for this concealment. 
 
 "It is natural to suppose that these escheats would 
 
218 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 Lave been re-annexed to the khalisah or State lands. 
 They however retained their denomination of jaghires, 
 and were kept under a distinct management, the re- 
 venues being remitted to the exchequer's general trea- 
 sury. The policy of this may be traced to the immunity 
 provided for the jaghire lands of the family in the event 
 of the Company assuming the country, and the advantage 
 of reserving as large a proportion as possible of their 
 resources from the peril of eventual sequestration." 
 
 The poor jaghiredars had laid up for the rainy day 
 which they dreaded was in store for them ; but no man 
 in that generation knew the full force of the storm, and 
 that half a century would elapse before its worst ravages 
 would be felt. Lord Olive and his councillors and revenue 
 officers never intended that their policy should be in- 
 terpreted as a series of covert and cruel confiscations, or 
 they would not have left on record these damning 
 proofs of their wilful dishonesty. The document from 
 which we have quoted was not intended for the public, 
 and is not only conclusive as to the rights of the jaghire- 
 dars, but it affords the most convincing evidence of their 
 full recognition by the British Government. 
 
 It suited the policy of the Company, when they an- 
 nexed the Carnatic, to take the jaghires into their pos- 
 session with few exceptions, and grant pensions in lieu of 
 them. The lands were freehold, and of course the allow- 
 ance should have been hereditary; but, after the lapse of 
 a few years, the Government found it inconvenient to 
 continue such heavy and perpetual burdens on the re- 
 sources of the State. So they began to talk of the 
 annuity being only granted for the lives of the existing 
 incumbents, whose children must look to the bounty of 
 the ruling power. When the lapse occurred, half the 
 rate of pension was paid, as being all to which the family 
 were entitled " under the orders of Government." Un- 
 ruly or ill-treated members applied occasionally to the 
 agent for assistance or justice, and by degrees a practice 
 grew up of dividing the allowance heretofore paid to the 
 head of the family into a certain number of shares, the 
 amount of each being fixed by the agent, in conjunction 
 perhaps with one or two Mussulman officials. As time 
 
AN ARISTOCRACY IN RAGS. 219 
 
 wore on the recipients grew more numerous, and the 
 rupees were diminished. There were descendants of 
 nobility living perhaps on forty shillings a month, and 
 allowances were divided until some of those high-born 
 people had but a couple of shillings weekly to subsist 
 upon. And all this while there were millions of acres 
 of land lying waste in Madras, with no prospect of being 
 "brought into cultivation under the Company's rule. That 
 which had not enriched us had made them miserable. 
 
 Our remedy for this state of things is the universal 
 recognition of all titles to land for which even bare 
 colourable testimony can be adduced; the return of jag- 
 hires instead of the payment of pensions, and the im- 
 position of an income-tax in all cases of rent-free lands. 
 If posterity has no claim upon jaghiredars, it will be 
 admitted that jaghiredars have 110 claim on posterity; 
 and since they cannot do without government, we must 
 make them pay at least a share of the cost of it. The 
 measure of a Government's requirements must be the 
 measure of its income ; and whatever expectations a 
 man may have been led to form with regard to the small- 
 ness of the sums that he would have to pay in taxes, it 
 is clear that the State can take no heed of them. 
 
 Of the right of Government to impose an income-tax 
 on State pensioners and holders of rent-free lands, there 
 cannot be the smallest question ; and if a legacy duty 
 were added, the heirs of those persons would not be a 
 whit worse off than the Englishman who is taxed from 
 Ms cradle to his grave. If the Nabob of Moorshedabad 
 were compelled to return some 10,000 to the treasury of 
 Calcutta, we, who uphold the necessity for paying his 
 pension whilst there are funds sufficient to furnish it, 
 should not say that he was hardly dealt with. Three 
 years ago the British landowner or merchant paid seven 
 per cent, upon their several incomes in the shape of 
 direct taxation, exclusive of imposts upon every article 
 of consumption or needful appliance : and looking at the 
 almost perfect exemption from fiscal charge which is 
 enjoyed by the titular sovereigns and nobles of India, 
 we assert that an income and property-tax of ten per 
 cent, would not be an unreasonable compensation to the 
 
220 THE SEFOY REVOLT. 
 
 State for the peculiar privileges that are bestowed upon 
 them. 
 
 There are various opinions as to the proper mode of 
 our future Dealings with the princes of India, but there 
 can only be one opinion as to the propriety of making a 
 change in the state of our existing relations with them. 
 We have indicated the course that in our judgment 
 ought to be pursued, having a due regard to the mitiga- 
 tion of Indian burthens and the care of English honour. 
 We would maintain unimpaired the substantial portions 
 of every treaty, but abrogate without scruple those 
 stipulations which acknowledge rights and titles of 
 which not a vestige actually remains. The heir of a 
 deposed dynasty should rank in the first class of Eastern 
 nobles, thus faring better than the Bourbons of our time, 
 and they should be treated as an English Parliament 
 would treat the English aristocracy. The period has 
 arrived when we are bound to legislate on general prin- 
 ciples for this numerous class of persons, and we trust 
 that the nature of the enactments will not expose us to 
 the reproach of mankind. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR CONQUEST. REPUBLICAN NOTIONS OP THE 
 
 EIGHTS OP MANKIND. THE FIGHTING INSTINCT UNIVERSAL IN ALL 
 
 CLASSES. VALUE OF AMERICAN LESSONS. THE RIGHTS OP CONQUEST 
 AND THE CLAIMS OF THE CONQUERED. 
 
 WE are half tempted to smile at the earnestness with 
 which some of our countrymen in the East repudiate the 
 charge of being favourable to the farther extension of the 
 Anglo-Indian Empire. The blame of conquest must rest 
 somewhere, but they prefer that it should be ascribed to 
 some score or so of men who from time to time have held 
 the reins of Government. It follows of course that these 
 rulers did not represent the views or embody the passions 
 of the British people. The latter were pacific and just, 
 and would not have held a single acre of the soil in abso- 
 lute possession, had they been consulted on the matter. 
 They are the receivers of stolen property, but they did not 
 authorize the theft. The robbers, from the days of Olive 
 
TU QUOQUE. 221 
 
 to tliose of Gough, have been feted and rewarded at home 
 on account of their spoils, but it was not the nation that 
 honoured them. A few guilty aristocrats in Downing- 
 street and grocers at Leadenhall-street are at the bottom, 
 of the whole matter. 
 
 It is hard to say what might have been the aspect of 
 affairs at this moment had every man in England, for the 
 last century, been referred to for his vote on all public 
 occasions ; but we are afraid that our countrymen might 
 have appeared less wise, and scarcely more honest. Two 
 centuries ago a few of them emigrated to the Far West, and 
 laid the foundation of a mighty dominion in peace and 
 justice. Their descendants invented a form of govern- 
 ment for themselves ; they abjured kingship, prelacy, and 
 hereditary rank and title, and set up, as the sole rule and 
 standard of authority, the sovereignty of the people. 
 Well ! do the republicans regard the rights of their neigh- 
 bours ? Are they better in this respect than the nomi- 
 nees of our aristocracy ? The Red Indians will not reply 
 in the affirmative, nor the millions of domestic slaves, nor 
 the Mexicans, nor the Spaniards, nor the weak with whom 
 they have come in contact in any part of the world. The 
 nominal heads of the Government have sanctioned aggres- 
 sive wars as readily as the " legitimate" powers of Europe ; 
 ind when there are no State plans of hostility to be carried 
 out, Jonathan gets up an invasion in shares, as you would 
 a joint-stock bank, and starts off to annex Central America 
 as a private speculation. If conquest is as bad as robbery 
 from the person, the Americans are worse than the Spar- 
 tans of old, for they steal universally, with no pretence of 
 a moral end in view. 
 
 Do we justify aggressive wars then ? 3STo ! for they are 
 clearly opposed to the genius and precepts of Christianity ; 
 but we look upon them as the natural fruits of civiliza- 
 tion of the vices or the strength, whichever you please 
 to term it, of the whole European race. As well say to 
 the fire, do not burn the stubble, as to the Englishman, do 
 not subject the Asiatic if you come in contact with him. 
 Their intercourse is sure to end in the mastership of the 
 former ; but the result is not the consequence of a dogma 
 it is the effect of an instinct. The natives will not 
 
 p 
 
222 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 adopt our religion, because they are convinced that it is not 
 so good as their own. They have no relish for our literature 
 or music, but in the depths of their hearts they acknow- 
 ledge the controlling force of the white man. The belief 
 is mutual, for the meekest professor of the Gospel feels 
 that he condescends when he treats the Asiatic as a 
 " brother." We have only to bear in mind the additional 
 fact that, even amongst missionaries, there is a per-centage 
 of worldly-mindedness, and the theoretical fairness, with 
 which some folk contend we ought to treat the dusky 
 tribes, is seen to be past praying for. 
 
 Were the nations to turn honest, there would be a very 
 extensive exchange of valuables : and unless they make full 
 restitution, the sense of abstract right will still be out- 
 raged. Who shall define the just claims of separate juris- 
 dictions ? Can England retain even the Channel Islands ? 
 We doubt it ; for the sea is her natural boundary. She 
 tas no right to Ireland, and ought to poll the Welsh and 
 the North Britons, to ascertain if they are willing to obey 
 the Queen. As for the kingdoms of the Continent, we 
 are at a loss to conceive upon what ground, except that of 
 universal popular agreement, their just limits could be 
 marked out. They have stolen from each other little or 
 much, according to the strength of their opportunities. 
 Not a gem in any diadem but has been obtained as ques- 
 tionably as the last bright ornament of the British Crown, 
 for which her Royal Majesty neglected to reward the 
 captors. 
 
 We are aware that the members of the Peace Society 
 are ready with a method of solving the difficulty which 
 stands in our way. They wish England to turn over a 
 new leaf, and give up entirely the military occupation of 
 foreign parts. 
 
 We are to work, write, and pray for all the world, but 
 to fight with nobody, white or black. The national faith 
 should inculcate the sole duty of providing for the greatest 
 happiness of the greatest number; the common creed 
 should consist of a single article, that it is proper to buy 
 in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market. In the 
 latter sentence lurks the error of the theory. Justice be- 
 tween man and man requires that there should be no 
 
THE BUMP OF COMB ATI VENESS. 223 
 
 advantage taken of poverty or ignorance. The fair day's 
 work should always be rewarded by the fair day's wages, 
 and the buyer of an article should never be asked to pay 
 more than its intrinsic worth. If capital be allowed on 
 the one hand to take advantage of the necessities of labour, 
 and the workmen, on the other, are permitted to combine 
 whenever they see a chance of forcing a higher rate of 
 payment, we can only recognise in such a state of things 
 the alternate struggles and triumphs of contending ene- 
 mies. Honesty and good feeling are out of the question. 
 The law which rules is the right of the strongest, and the 
 Society of Friends is not a whit less belligerent than the 
 Board of Control. 
 
 All over the world there is a never-ceasing contest for 
 mastery, and it will not begin to be ended in our time, 
 unless we are near the latter days. In the century which 
 has witnessed the triumph of Mormonism and other kin- 
 dred impostures, we ought not to feel surprised at the 
 efforts of the Peace Society. The doctrine that all men 
 are mad upon some point or other would seem to derive 
 confirmation from the speeches and writings of the leaders 
 of the anti-fighting association. It may be very proper 
 to form a league for the extirpation of a single political 
 evil ; but why should we combine with such labour and 
 cost for the vindication of a single moral precept 1 Why 
 not organize for the purpose of making all men veritable 
 Christians, instead of the mere advocates of peace, which 
 only forms a single clause in the Divine code ? It has 
 been well observed that the pursuit of riches is as strongly 
 denounced in Scripture as the levying of war; but unless 
 the principle of selfishness can be eradicated from the 
 human heart, and the pure love of mankind implanted in 
 its stead, what hope is there of hindering men from mak- 
 ing war upon their fellows'? Less than the universal 
 practice of Christianity will not suffice to destroy the 
 belligerent feeling ; and if innumerable teachers have only 
 succeeded, after the lapse of eighteen hundred years, with 
 a small portion of the children of men, what prospect of 
 usefulness is there in store for the Peace Society 1 
 
 No doubt it is abhorrent to the best feelings of hu- 
 manity that soldiers should wish for an opportunity of 
 
224 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 slaughtering their fellow creatures, and of turning as much 
 of this beautiful earth as their feet can traverse into a 
 howling wilderness ; but when a class of men profit by 
 the misery of others, we must expect them to rejoice in 
 the spread of evil. Ask the lawyer if the absence of liti- 
 gation amongst a civilized people is not a cheering sign of 
 progress, and he will reply in the affirmative ; but for all 
 that, if his bag be empty of briefs, he will curse his hard 
 lot. A rich client and a long suit are the chief sources of 
 his happiness. As a member of the human family he 
 would rejoice at the cessation of strife, but as an advocate 
 he must live by his profession, arid is anxious to gain 
 reputation. Just so with the physician, whose vocation it 
 is to cure diseases. He will do his utmost to alleviate the 
 ills which flesh is heir to, but it would task his philosophy 
 to bear with patience a universal freedom from sickness. 
 Is it not then unreasonable to expect that a soldier should 
 obey a nobler class of impulses, and look upon his occupa- 
 tion as being designed for the benefit of the mass and not 
 of the individual? We talk to him of the "God of 
 battles," consecrate the flag under which he serves, and 
 teach him to look to renown and the death of his seniors 
 as the only roads to the enjoyment of a quiet competence 
 in old age ; and, in spite of those incentives, he is to up- 
 hold the dogmas of universal brotherhood whilst the rest 
 of the world are fighting with brain and heart eacli man 
 trying to wrest an advantage from his fellow and keep it 
 for his own especial use. Competition is the soul of trade, 
 almost the sole spring and source of human effort, yet 
 what is it but a state of perpetual antagonism of interests ? 
 To say nothing of the indifference as to the welfare of 
 others, which is the necessary consequence of such a state 
 of things, the business of life is so carried 011 that the 
 prosperity of one man must be built mainly upon the ill for- 
 tune of others. But little of the trade of a thriving shop- 
 keeper is created out of nothing. If customers crowd in 
 upon him, it is at the expense of his fellow tradesmen ; 
 but who complains of him for doing his best to make 
 money 2 Who says it is criminal in the merchant prince 
 to absorb the small speculator 1 in the successful advocate 
 to overshadow and keep in the background numbers as 
 
THE WORLD A BATTLE-FIELD. 22-5 
 
 well educated as himself, and as keenly desirous of fame 
 and profit ? 
 
 These members of the Peace Society, dealers in mer- 
 chandise and money ! is there one of them who will part 
 with his wares for less than the market value 1 or, in other 
 words, for less than the highest price that opportunity 
 enables him to demand '? Surely not, and yet each great 
 advance in the nominal worth of commodities is to many 
 productive of mischief, to some of absolute ruin. We 
 recollect when Cajeput oil was declared to be a specific for 
 the cholera, at that time raging in England : there was 
 but one holder of the drug in the kingdom, and he stood 
 out till the price advanced from. 9d. an ounce to 30s. 
 Here was a profit of four thousand per cent, made upon an 
 article which Christianity would have prompted him to 
 vend at the rate at which it bestows the highest of all 
 gifts without money and without price. But the world 
 had no blame for the transaction ; it was a lucky hit 
 the reward of mercantile shrewdness and sagacity. It 
 is not likely that the fortunate individual was a Quaker ; 
 but at any rate there was no reason why he should not 
 have been an active member of the Peace Society, and set 
 forth on platforms and in newspapers the blessings of 
 universal brotherhood. 
 
 For one short year, if we could sum up the killed and 
 wounded in the daily battles of our countrymen with each 
 other, the sum of misery inflicted in the course of a cam- 
 paign would appear very small in proportion. To slaughter 
 a man, it is not absolutely needful to encounter him with 
 wrathful brow and armed hands. Dry up by whatever 
 means the source of his income, and he is as effectually 
 disposed of as if he were laid face upwards on a field of 
 slain. Shylock, when told that his existence would be 
 spared but that all his estate was confiscated, spurns the 
 partial clemency, and exclaims : 
 
 Nay, take my life and all, pardon not that : 
 You take my house, when you do take the prop 
 That doth sustain my house ; you take my life, 
 When you do take the means whereby I live. 
 
 We wish that the Anglo-Indian were colonist as well 
 as conqueror. It is an evil thing for the people of India 
 
226 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 that he leaves his household gods and his sympathies behind 
 liiui in the land of his fathers. Had he chosen to take 
 root in the Indian soil fifty years ago, we should by this 
 time have had railways in some districts, and good roads 
 everywhere. We should have supplied England with 
 cotton, and been independent of the law commission in the 
 matter of legislation. Stores of exhaustless wealth, which 
 now lie unheeded, would have been opened up ; duties, 
 which are now only getting faintly recognised, would have 
 been the practice of men in authority ; and, in short, the 
 India of the twentieth century would have been realized 
 at this moment. A plentiful crop of heroisms may always 
 be raised on the spot which a man inhabits, to console 
 Kim for the fading memories of his distant birthplace. It 
 is but ninety years since the inhabitants of America only 
 shared in the glories of Britain ; and now they have a roll 
 of chivalry, on which are inscribed the names of deathless 
 men, the product of the Western world ; they have a 
 growing literature, and a dominion which is every hour 
 enlarging its wide boundaries. Had the " pilgrim fathers" 
 taught their children to look upon the land of their birth 
 as a place of exile, in which they were to cherish above 
 all things the memories of the past, it is more than likely 
 that Washington would have died a retired officer in the 
 royal army, and the affairs of New York and Pennsyl- 
 vania been administered just now by Mr. Labouchere and 
 the Colonial Office. 
 
 Ask the physiologist of nations what it is that prompts 
 our schemes of foreign conquest ; and he will answer, " a 
 restless love of acquisition." We would pour the world's 
 wealth into a goblet, and drink it off at a draught. We 
 would anticipate the course of time, and enjoy, in our 
 generation, the treasures of futurity ; but in the instance 
 of our Indian dominion, we seemed to have gained with- 
 out any desire to enjoy the usual fruits. Whenever we 
 have encountered opposition, our track has been like that 
 of the desolating lava ; but, like that molten wave, we 
 have congealed to stone when the strength of the fire-birth 
 is expended. The wealth which we acquire is obtained 
 by the exercise of the commonest appliances of labour ; 
 the exertions which we make are the result not of great 
 
GOING WESTWARD TO SCHOOL. 227 
 
 thoughts or of noble emotions, but are prompted by the 
 mere animal instinct of self-preservation. The land is 
 teeming with wealth which we never use, and apparently 
 never covet for the simple reason, that we are ignorant 
 of its existence. Two hundred millions of human souls 
 wait' patiently, from father to son, for deliverance from 
 mental and moral bondage ; and we, who might almost 
 be gods in our distribution of blessings, feel that we have 
 performed our duty if we always rank a little above the 
 fallen angels. 
 
 Every man is conscious of having at various times re- 
 ceived new impressions, such as have totally altered his 
 views and feelings upon particular subjects. The profound 
 thinker can trace in his own mind the constant action of 
 change, and follow in their proper sequence the influences 
 which have moulded his opinions ; and the mass of the 
 people, though they do not consider these matters curi- 
 ously, become aware at certain periods that a new light 
 has dawned upon them. When feudalism was forced to 
 acknowledge that the tiller of the ground was not a 
 divinely-appointed slave when priests were led to own 
 that their mission was to convert heretics, and not to 
 burn them when the source of political power was de- 
 clared to reside in the people when the bonds of com- 
 merce were loosened and the entire freedom of international 
 intercourse finally asserted, our English kindred saw they 
 were about to open fresh chapters of history. They have 
 taught themselves and the world some of the noblest 
 lessons ; but for the present it seems that they must put 
 off the pedagogue and go to school again. The Americans 
 have set them a few exercises, which we hope will soon 
 be learned and extended by the pupils. 
 
 We do not owe to our Transatlantic friends any im- 
 proved ideas of religion, morals, or freedom. We are con- 
 tent with our monarchy, our church, and our share of 
 liberty ; but we have to thank them for the most decisive 
 proofs of the omnipotence of common sense. They have 
 shown us the monstrous absurdity of the rule of Red Tape, 
 and the folly of allowing a Government to regulate the 
 social arrangements of a nation. Their progress is the 
 most wonderful in the annals of the world, because they 
 
228 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 have hindered it from being interfered with. As soon as 
 they have satisfied themselves that a thing ought to be 
 done, they go and do it. The men who resolve are the 
 men who execute. There is no waiting for sanction, or 
 presentation of humble petitions to persons who are most 
 likely known to be profoundly incompetent to give any 
 opinion, much less an authoritative one, on the matter. 
 The notion that a useful scheme could be set aside at the 
 mere will of a State servant is incomprehensible to them. 
 They would as soon think of allowing the veto of the 
 Emperor of China. The Yankee, who has so much in 
 common with ourselves, looks at politico-social questions 
 from a totally different point of view. He judges the 
 acts of Government by the same criterion that he would 
 judge the conduct of a body of traders. They ought to 
 accomplish whatever lies in the compass of their ability, 
 and in the cheapest and most satisfactory manner. The 
 fool ought neither to be trusted nor rewarded ; and the 
 idler should be punished without mercy. Now, take an 
 Englishman who happens to be both merchant and East 
 India director, watch his conduct in both capacities, and 
 you will note his application of two different rules to cir- 
 cumstances which are precisely alike. As a merchant he 
 will only employ men to do the tasks they are fit for, and 
 has proper notions of responsibility and power. He will 
 not, as a member of a railway board, ask Mr. Stephenson 
 to submit his plans to the approval and control of the 
 secretary's department ; but as a director of the East 
 India Company, he insists that Colonel Cotton shall 
 obey the Madras Revenue Board, the Governor, and the 
 authorities in Bengal. Tell him as a merchant that his 
 workmen, whom he is bound to take care of, are many of 
 them starving, but that, if he merely gives the word, 
 abundant employment can be found for them, and his 
 own income thereby largely increased, and see how 
 readily his humanity and interest will dovetail in each 
 other ; but in his capacity of manager at Leadenhall- 
 street such considerations are mostly disregarded. Why 
 questions of a purely social kind should be dealt with so 
 differently is what brother Jonathan cannot comprehend. 
 If we had the " 'cutest" of all Yankees in Bombay or 
 
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN. 229 
 
 Madras at this moment, we should find it utterly im- 
 possible to make him understand why we keep up Go- 
 vernors and Councils under present circumstances why 
 certain men in certain offices, who merely sign a few 
 papers in the course of a week, are paid higher wages 
 than English judges in. Westminster Hall why the roads 
 in the interior are impassable and the cities unsewered. 
 He would ask us if we approved of such a state of 
 things ; and being answered in the negative, and farther- 
 more assured that the power, wealth, and information at 
 the disposal of the State were unbounded, he would 
 emphatically tell us we were " the darndest fools in all 
 creation." And it is difficult to say how the imputation 
 could be got rid of. 
 
 If India had been only for the last ten years an 
 appanage of the United States, all its capabilities would 
 be known by this time, and most of them improved to the 
 utmost. Wherever iron could be laid down or water 
 made to flow with advantage, railways and canals would 
 be made. In every town a Yankee trader would be found 
 selling idols, and a Yankee missionary giving away Bibles. 
 Spittoons and a Senate would be introduced into Calcutta. 
 A House of Representatives would be located somewhere 
 on the Strand ; and colonels at the head of commission 
 houses would, hold forth therein on the blessings of liberty 
 and cheap rule. If resistless energy and never-failing 
 shrewdness were the highest national gifts, it would be a- 
 glorious day for the East if it passed under the dominion 
 of the younger branch of the Anglo-Saxons. 
 
 But something more than profound selfishness on the 
 part of the governing class is requisite to promote the 
 well-being of subject millions. The American admits no 
 rivalry of interest, and tolerates no admixture of races. 
 No gifts of nature or position can, in his estimation, atone 
 for a darker skin. He is the Western Brahmin, and looks 
 upon all Asiatics as men of a lower order of being. We 
 will content ourselves, then, with wishing that our coun- 
 trymen may adopt American modes of performing public 
 duties, but retain their own standard of social rights. We 
 would ask Jonathan to show us how to deal with our 
 courts of directors and legislative councils, but decline to- 
 
230 THE SEPOY BEVOLT. 
 
 take his advice as to the proper treatment of the dusky 
 millions. 
 
 It cannot be denied that the natives lost rather than 
 gained by the last change in the government of India. 
 In theory, they stand upon the same footing with the 
 Europeans ; but who does not see that now and hence- 
 forth the latter will continue to engross for a time all the 
 higher posts in the government of the country? The 
 necessity of being educated in England, and of standing a 
 competition with the whole body of the English educated 
 youth, is iatal to the hopes of the Hindoo student, how- 
 ever naturally gifted, and though left entirely free to 
 enter the lists as a candidate for the rich prizes of the 
 civil service. It is true that hitherto the Company have 
 fil ways acted as though there had been no recognition of 
 the equal right of all the Queen's subjects to aspire to 
 high employment in the service of the State. We have 
 no natives on the bench of the Zillah Courts, or dark- 
 skinned engineers. Policy shuts them out from high 
 command in the army ; and interest has effectually pre- 
 vented them from effecting an entrance into the ranks of 
 the civil branch. But there was a change which appeared 
 to effect all that coidd be desired. The monopoly of office 
 was utterly overthrown ; all distinctions of caste were 
 abolished ; rank and wealth were to be the sure rewards 
 of the ablest. You cannot find a flaw in the scheme 
 which is to ransack all the broad dominions of Britain in 
 search of the most gifted intellects, and which gives to the 
 service of the public the concentrated talent of the whole 
 array of nations which own the sovereignty of Queen 
 Victoria. And yet, the direct exclusion, by name, of the 
 natives of India could not have hindered their advance- 
 ment in the way of self-government more completely than 
 this liberal measure. In the race which is thrown open to 
 half the world, they will never be the victors. They might 
 have extorted, under the old system, some concessions 
 from the remorse and shame of the Indian Government ; 
 but, in future, they can hope nothing from the justice of 
 the examiners at home. The latter are bound to select 
 the best-instructed of the youth that offer to undergo the 
 ordeal ; and how can the poor Asiatic, weighed down with 
 
CRABS AND GOLDEN PIPPINS. 231 
 
 the prejudices of caste, and forced to unlearn, by way of a 
 commencement, the foolishness of his previous lifetime, 
 pass through the furnace with triumph ? It is a pity that 
 those to whom the guidance of afiairs were entrusted should 
 not have had the courage to stand on the great truth 
 which lies at the bottom of all this contradictory legisla- 
 tion for India. The Asiatic can never occupy the same 
 platform with the European ; and it is a cruel mockery to 
 teach him to the contrary. So long as the value of his 
 learning and capacity is tested by an Eastern standard, he 
 may obtain, in reputation at least, the full measure of 
 their worth ; but when opposed to Western ability, he 
 fails as much in the comparison of mental as of bodily 
 power. The law that affected to put the two races on a 
 level would be at variance with the decrees of nature, 
 which has ordained that there should be an eternal wall 
 of separation between them. The time has again come 
 round in which India must be legislated for ; but we pro- 
 test beforehand against any attempt to establish equality 
 by Act of Parliament, in the teeth of the wiser legislation 
 of Providence. There is a great debt owing to India, of 
 which it is time to commence at least the payment of the 
 first instalment ; but those who would tender, for that 
 purpose, a declaration of equal rights on the part of Hin- 
 doos and Englishmen, and practically enforce it, would 
 create a balance on the other side, which would have to 
 be adjusted again in an inconvenient way. The cry of 
 " Justice to India," will receive various interpretations ; 
 but no honest politician can lend the slightest countenance 
 to the notion which appears to be uppermost in the minds 
 of leading Hindoos, that English institutions can be esta- 
 blished in that part of the Queen's dominions, or that the 
 country can be governed by and for the people. We 
 may as well attempt to assimilate the natural productions 
 of the two hemispheres, as strive to naturalize in the East 
 the growth of Anglo-Saxon civilization. Even where the 
 soil is fitted for its reception, the tree of liberty will not 
 flourish as a transplanted root. It must be raised from, 
 the seed, and not the graft. Instead of being inaugurated 
 with pomp and ceremony, its silent up-springing must be 
 watched and tended by anxious generations, ready at all 
 
232 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 times to water it with blood and tears. India created, 
 thousands of years since, her own peculiar system of 
 civilized existence. It is worn out, and now wants replac- 
 ing ; but the new law must grow out of the old you 
 cannot change the national character. The Hindoo is 
 always a " man ;" but he will never be a " brother," in the 
 sense which implies an identity of feelings and interests 
 with the Englishman. 
 
 If the native reformers had the option to-morrow, they 
 would reject the British constitution as a model. What 
 they ask is, to be allowed to pick out a bit here and there ; 
 to have the means of being on an equal footing with 
 Europeans, at the same time that they preserved their 
 . own class privileges to the fullest extent. They would 
 like a House of Lords composed of Brahmins, and a House 
 of Commons to which Sudras might be admitted; but if 
 a barber's son claimed to lead the first, and the child of 
 an apostate was appointed to rule the second, they would 
 forego all the benefits of legislative authority rather than 
 acknowledge them as superiors. The keystone of British 
 freedom is the equality of all men beneath the law, whereas 
 the fundamental principle of Hindooism is the irreversible 
 subordination of classes. To the Englishman, the past 
 and present teaches the grand lesson of the people's sove- 
 reignty. To the Brahmin, the voice of Deity ever incul- 
 cates the right of despotism on the one hand, and the 
 duty of obedience on the other. Before the smallest frag- 
 ment of a true representation is found in India, the exist- 
 ence of caste must be wholly annihilated. 
 
 And if it is vain to expect that the country can be 
 governed by the native aristocracy, it is equally idle to 
 imagine that it will be ruled by foreigners, for the popu- 
 lation at large. As well may the servant expect to be 
 allowed to labour for his own profit instead of his master's. 
 The English exercise sway from purely selfish motives; 
 and if Heaven so ordains it that we are made the instru- 
 ments of good, the merit is not to be ascribed to us. 
 Every member of the alien race will try and extract as 
 much individual profit as he can honestly obtain. To 
 sow where they have not reaped, is the privilege of con- 
 querors throughout all time. But, in addition to the 
 
SETTING OUT TASKS. 233 
 
 good of which, we are unconscious instruments, we are 
 willing, as a body, to soften the inevitable evils of dominion 
 over a strange land. We niust have money we will not 
 part with power: but if the one can be raised with less 
 of suffering to the people, and the other may be exerted 
 to better results, there is abundant inclination on the part 
 of the English people at home to make such changes as 
 are requisite for both ends. It is usually admitted that 
 inordinate taxation is injurious to the Government as 
 well as to the community, and that a defective adminis- 
 tration of justice is a scandal to all those who have autho- 
 rity to effect its reformation. 
 
 The revision and abatement of taxation, the cheapening 
 of law, which costs so much of the poor man's time, the 
 legal education of judges, and the universal boon of 
 English teaching these are the objects for which native 
 associations might exert themselves with effect, and to 
 which we should like to see them voluntarily restricted. 
 Their neglect of the great social questions tells most 
 unfavourably on the interests of their countrymen. If 
 some of their complaints are voted unreasonable, it will 
 be concluded that no grievance has been forgotten. When 
 the patient appears unconscious of suffering, the State 
 physicians will hardly act on the diagnosis of disease 
 drawn up by one who will be set down as an over-zealous 
 friend. 
 
 It frequently happens, however, that whole races, as 
 well as individuals, are unmindful of their true interests, 
 in which case it is the more imperative that they should 
 be cared for by the rest of the world. It is the lot of 
 society in the East to be moulded into new forms in spite 
 of itself; to have freedom thrust upon it, and knowledge 
 made a conquering power. Never in the history of man- 
 kind did a nation take such pains to subvert its own 
 dominion, as the English have taken to destroy their 
 empire over the goodly regions of Hindostan, 
 
 We can sum up at this moment all the results of at- 
 tempts which may be made by the natives of India to 
 extort political privileges; but it would be hard to say 
 what might not be gained for the country, if they would 
 daguerreotype the face of the land, and present in colo urs 
 
234 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 its worn and melancholy features. We can at best only 
 give a profile they could furnish a full portrait, and 
 attest its fidelity. 
 
 The Baboos of Bengal, the Chetties and Moodeliars of 
 Madras, claim to be entitled to equal privileges with the 
 Englishman; but they have to learn that, although free- 
 dom has no geographical limits, and the gift of liberty is 
 a heirloom of all others the most precious, it must never 
 be bestowed on those who would cut off the entail. To- 
 entitle themselves to be joined with the Englishman, and 
 allowed to share in his privileges, they must adopt the 
 covenant which binds him to look on the whole human 
 race with sympathy. To the members of that undivided 
 family freedom is a property in common, and to claim 
 the right of enjoying is to acknowledge the obligation to 
 share it. But will the sticklers for caste accept the 
 liberty they demand on those equitable terms] Will 
 they allow the barber's son to preside over their legisla- 
 tive chamber, and see without murmur a pariah promoted 
 to the highest offices? We are afraid that it is not in 
 that spirit they would recognise the uses of power. They 
 would exercise it not as trustees, bound to act for the 
 common benefit, but as the members of a sect claiming 
 the right of exclusive enjoyment and the opportunity of 
 persecution for conscience' sake. They wish to get pos- 
 session of freedom that they may assassinate her. In 
 proportion as their licence is extended, the just privileges 
 of others must be abridged. The consistent assertors of 
 equal rights demand in the same breath that they may 
 stand on a level with the English Christian, and be 
 allowed to trample the Hindoo believer under their feet. 
 We are to confer upon them the giant's strength, with 
 the full knowledge that they intend to use it as tyran- 
 nously as a giant. 
 
 Under the heads of civilization, literature, and com- 
 merce, our countrymen are not justly chargeable with 
 having diminished the sum total of Hindoo blessings. If 
 it is said that Suttee, Infanticide, and Thuggee, are amongst 
 the comforts of civilization, it will be allowable to charge 
 us with Vandalism; but the Churruck Poojah is still left 
 to console the devotees of the East. Every year they 
 
SUMMING UP THE GAINS. 235 
 
 hang up, without molestation from the authorities, a dozen. 
 or so of civilized persons, who rejoice in the polished 
 pastime of revolving round a huge pole by means of iron 
 hooks passed through their quivering flesh. Not a temple 
 has been thrown down by the English, not a single deity 
 removed by proclamation from the calendar. They are at 
 liberty to practise any of the arts for which their fore- 
 fathers were famous, as well as those for which the Euro- 
 pean is renowned. In literature they have not lost Menu, 
 but they have gained Milton. They can study their own 
 shastras as well as our sciences, and read Shakspeare 
 along with the Yedas and Puranas. As for commerce, 
 our friends the Baboos, Moodeliars, and Chetties will 
 hardly pretend that their fathers' sons have anything to 
 complain of on that score. They are at liberty to tradr 
 with all the world, and when they have counted their 
 gains, may rely on being permitted to keep them. They 
 are fast making India an unprofitable place of residence 
 for the British merchant, and might, if they chose, en- 
 tirely monopolize the commerce of the country. The 
 noble has become a pauper, the ryot barely contrives to 
 keep body arid soul together; but in every part of India 
 the native trader thrives and fattens. It is he who gathers 
 up the crumbs that fall from the Company's table, and 
 gleans in the fields which have been ravaged by the col- 
 lector and his locust brood. Our government and laws 
 have been, and continue to be, full of evil; but they will 
 certainly sustain a comparison with those of the native 
 sovereigns to whose annals we can point with any degree 
 of historic certainty. We know little about what was 
 said and done in the remote periods of history ; but the 
 forefathers of the present generation can hardly be said 
 to have experienced the qualified happiness which the 
 Greek poet ascribed to his ancestors under the rule of 
 Miltiades, when he sang 
 
 Our tyrants then 
 Were still at least our countrymen. 
 
 They lived and suffered under the changing rule of despo- 
 tism. In one generation the Hindoo rajah killed pigs in 
 the sacred places of the Mahomedans j and in the next, 
 
236 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 the descendants of the Arabian slaughtered cows on the 
 hallowed floors of the pagoda. Life and property were 
 the toys of authority, and liberty a blessing equally un- 
 known to monarch and to slave. 
 
 Englishmen who have a proper sense of their responsi- 
 bility to God and mankind, feel that they have not done 
 justice to India ; but the ruler who wishes to escape cen- 
 sure is only too glad to institute a comparison between 
 the acts of his own government and those of his native 
 predecessors. To come to modern times, there are men 
 now living in the territory of Mysore who remember 
 Tippoo Sahib, and have paid obedience to the heir of the 
 ancient Hindoo dynasty who was set up in his room : if 
 their suffrages could be taken, they would not be inclined 
 to vote in favour of native sovereigns, however orthodox 
 in their practice of idolatry or sincere in their profession 
 of respect for Allah and the Prophet. 
 
 For the people of India, the down-trodden masses for 
 the beggared rajah whose patrimonial estate has been 
 wrested from him for the Brahmin who sighs over the 
 decay of a religion which, in his heart, he believes to be 
 of divine origin we can feel respect and sympathy ; but 
 we have not much regard for the majority of Hindoo 
 politicians, who talk of wrongs which they have not suf- 
 fered, and aspire to the enjoyment of privileges to which 
 they have as yet no rightful claims. Let them first earn 
 a title to freedom, and understand the uses to which they 
 would be bound to apply it. When they are of the same 
 heart and mind with the Anglo-Saxon, they may be 
 allowed to share in the fruits of his centuries of toil, and 
 labour with him in the great field of human improvement. 
 The terms of the partnership may be arranged with our 
 descendants. 
 
 Though daily losing ground amongst their own people, 
 the advocates of caste are still a power in India ; but 
 what share can they have in the triumphs of European, 
 civilization ? They would retain the old forms of society, 
 the ancient exclusiveness of rank. They would still 
 punish heresy as a crime, and make belief a fixity. We, 
 on the contrary, wrestle daily with the few remaining bar- 
 riers that remain on the social highway. It is long since 
 
STANDING UP FOR FAIR DIVISION. 237 
 
 the peasant was shown how he might rise to be a noble ; 
 ages ago, the poverty-stricken scholar learned to tread the 
 path which led to the highest seats in the tabernacle. We 
 have made the expression of thought as free as the thought 
 itself. We have introduced the horny-handed craftsman 
 to the saloons of greatness, and everywhere proclaimed 
 the universal brotherhood of mankind. How then can 
 we sympathize with those who seek to perpetuate social 
 and religious distinctions of the most intolerant class, 
 who would press down the lowly, and set up again the 
 broken images of pride and power ? The Englishman 
 who fights, in the same ranks with the champions of caste, 
 the opponents of the lex loci, is a traitor to his name and 
 birthplace, who will meet with no respect and obtain no 
 support amongst his own countrymen. For every social 
 hardship which presses on the people of India unfairly, 
 for every act of administration which sets at nought their 
 just rights, thousands of disinterested men at home will 
 be found willing to provide a remedy, or set up a shout of 
 execration ; but the great dogmas of civil and religious 
 liberty claim respect equally in Calcutta and London. 
 We must uphold them in every clime under the sun where 
 our influence has penetrated. They will flourish under 
 every kind of temperature, and dispense enjoyment to 
 every class of mortals. When we have taught the people 
 of India as much as we know ourselves of the nature and 
 extent of political rights, we shall have accomplished the 
 most glorious part of our mission. As soon as they have 
 learnt that lesson, we may feel less apprehensive as to the 
 future of the East. The natives will know their own 
 wants and the means of supplying them. The collector and 
 the Brahmin may do their worst, in the face of an enlight- 
 ened public, 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION. NOBLE LORDS UPON CHRISTIAN RULERS.- 
 THE DESPOTISM OF KNOWLEDGE. THE WISE AND GOOD MAN ALWA1:- 
 A MISSIONARY. FALSE IDEAS OF NATIVE HOSTILITY TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 IN the House of Lords, on the 9th of June last, Lord 
 Ellenborough spoke on the subject of the disaffection in 
 
238 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 the Bengal army. The former Governor-General of India 
 said, in the course of his speech, " I can scarcely believe 
 it now to be true, though I saw it distinctly stated in the 
 papers, that the Governor-General himself, Lord Canning, 
 subscribed largely to a Missionary Society, which has for 
 its object the conversion of the natives. I deem that fact 
 of these subscriptions of Lord Canning, the Governor- 
 General of India, to societies having for their object the 
 conversion of the natives, if it be true, to be one of the 
 most dangerous things that could possibly have happened 
 to the security of our Government in India." The Pre- 
 sident of the Council, the Marquis of Lansdowne, followed 
 Lord Ellenborough, and said that, " having the strongest 
 public and private friendship for Lord Canning, he was 
 yet prepared to state that if by any error or mistake in 
 judgment, which he did not believe, and he would not 
 believe without proof, Lord Canning had so acted as to 
 give countenance to such belief as the noble earl inferred, 
 he would no longer deserve to be continued in his office 
 as Governor-General of India (hear, hear)." 
 
 It is held in substance by his lordship and those who 
 agree with him, that a small body of men have no right 
 to endeavour the subversion of an ancient faith which 
 fills and satisfies the mind of a nation ; but if this rule of 
 action be correct, Sir James Brooke was not warranted in 
 putting down head-hunting in Sarawak. The Dyaks had 
 practised it from time immemorial. It was, at the same 
 time, a religious duty and a custom of chivalry. They 
 believed that it brought increase of riches as well as 
 honour. The English civilizer murdered, then, the man 
 who was put to death by a virtual ex post facto law for 
 only abiding by the law of his priests, and the traditions 
 of his fathers. And the like measure of disapproval 
 must be awarded to every man who has suppressed foreign 
 customs alien to his own preconceived notions, no matter 
 whether cannibalism, human sacrifices, or self-immolation. 
 It will only be necessary to prove, what no one will 
 attempt to deny, that the said customs were agreeable to 
 the habits and feelings of the people ; and forthwith it is 
 .made a crime to disturb them. According to this doc- 
 
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF INTELLECT. 239 
 
 trine, civilization could only be advanced by supernatural 
 meaus, and the idea of superior wisdom is absurd. 
 
 It is surely not necessary to employ argument to show 
 the folly of idol- worship, or the miserable vices of the 
 Hindoo character in a national point of view. Those 
 who sneer at Christianity will hardly vaunt, as a proof of 
 their better appreciation of the ideas most worthy of 
 man's homage, their own reverence for Hindoo symbols 
 of divine power. The hatred of priestcraft, the recogni- 
 tion of the universal rights of mankind, and the acknow- 
 ledgment of the just superiority of great powers no 
 matter in what station of life the possessor may be found 
 are altogether incompatible with the support of Brah- 
 mins and the advocacy of the division of castes ; nor will 
 any man uphold the superior advantages of Indian pro- 
 gress, unless he is prepared to deny the uses of knowledge 
 and the benefits of science. Such a man must avow his 
 desire to roll back the tide of time, and wholly erase the 
 fairest pages of the world's history. 
 
 We repudiate then altogether the idea that the Hindoos 
 are competent to offer valid opposition to the march of 
 European ideas in religion or science, just as we would 
 the resistance of a child to the projects of the matured 
 intellect. The fact of an enlightened Englishman ration- 
 ally espousing the cause of Hindoo hatred to innovation, 
 is not capable of belief. Such a man can no more in his 
 heart uphold the doctrines of native theology, or the 
 follies of native pretensions to science, than he can prefer 
 the bullock-tracks to the railway, or the tappal to the 
 electric telegraph. We claim the right, by virtue of 
 superior power, acquired from the incessant exercise of all 
 the faculties of mind and body, to pronounce upon the value 
 of mental efforts, and map out the course of the nation's 
 travel upon the great highway of human improvement. 
 
 But then comes the question, how far are men, in their 
 individual capacity, bound to spread abroad the superior 
 knowledge which has been imparted to them ? In physi- 
 cal affairs the question is easy of solution. The man who 
 by chance discovers a remedy for a disease hitherto deemed 
 incurable, and which annually swept off great numbers of 
 
240 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 the population, would be deemed a public enemy if he 
 confined the secret to his own breast. The fate of almost 
 every discoverer reflects but little honour upon his con- 
 temporaries. Opposition, contempt, and obscurity ne- 
 glect in the market-place and homage in the tomb make 
 up the common lot of the world's greatest benefactors ; but, 
 could Jenner have foreseen with the clearness of prophetic 
 vision that he should have been spurned as a quack, and 
 treated as a cheat, alike by the men of his own profession 
 and the untaught public, would that knowledge have jus- 
 tified him in the estimation of posterity in withholding 
 his glorious discovery of vaccination ? According to the 
 magnitude of a gift, just so is the extent of our obligation 
 to share its blessings with others. He who knows most, 
 must work hardest. The knowledge which is not com- 
 municated loses nearly all its inherent value. And if 
 such is the case with regard to mere temporal affairs, how 
 much stronger is the obligation in spiritual matters ! The 
 man who would cure an aching finger, or as a matter of 
 duty increase the enjoyments of the passing hour, would 
 hardly deem himself justified in withholding the know- 
 ledge of immortality. 
 
 We hold that the Government of India have no right 
 whatever to interfere with the private missionary efforts 
 of their highest officers, and that the natives have no cause 
 to complain, so long as these efforts are not backed by the 
 coercive power of the State. The employment of force 
 defeats its own object, and is, besides, wholly unchristian; 
 but what restrictions can the Court of Directors really 
 place upon the efforts of their servants to disseminate the 
 light of a purer faith ? Granted, that they could prohibit 
 a governor-general or a secretary from appearing upon a 
 missionary platform, they could not prevent them from 
 subscribing for the maintenance of a Schwartz or a Carey ; 
 they could not, without imminent danger to their own 
 miserable and narrow interests, hinder them from found- 
 ing Christian schools, or from exhibiting, in a thousand 
 ways, the force of Christian example. And what, on the 
 other hand, should induce any man, holding in his heart 
 the inevitable belief that truth will always prevail, to 
 hinder the conflict of the opposing principles of reason 
 
FORCING THE REMEDY ON THE PATIENT. 241 
 
 and folly ? We absolutely deny the right of the State to 
 prohibit any man, however high or humble his station, 
 from doing his utmost to obtain, with the weapons of 
 mind, victory for his own peculiar opinions. We give 
 toleration to all creeds, and equal external power to all 
 forms of belief. It is as competent to the Hindoo as to 
 the European to battle with pen and tongue in defence of 
 his faith ; and this claim of liberty, which is held to be 
 undeniable in the case of the humblest, we cannot surely 
 withhold from the highest in the State. A ground of 
 complaint exists when the power which is held in trust 
 for the common benefit of the community is exerted to 
 forward the objects of a few. To say that the apparent 
 bias of members of the ruling authority, exhibited only in 
 speech or writing, is held to be equivalent to a demand of 
 obedience, is to declare the absolute slavishness of the 
 multitude an inference which would most probably be 
 repudiated by those who uphold what are called the rights 
 of the Hindoo. 
 
 Upon these broad grounds, then, that the opposition 
 offered to the growth of European thought is not rational, 
 and that the State has no right whatever to proscribe the 
 moral influence of truth, or even of error, if we may be 
 pardoned the seeming paradox, we hold that the Hindoos 
 have no just ground of complaint when the peaceable sub- 
 version of their religion is contemplated, and that the offi- 
 cers of Government are entitled to exert themselves to pro- 
 mote missionary objects, on all occasions, in. their private 
 -capacity. As servants of the State, they are bound to protect 
 3.11 ; as heirs of immortality, they are bound to enlighten all. 
 
 There are questions upon which the laws and opinions 
 of the Hindoos ought not to have any weight whatever. 
 If an innovation sought to be made is in accordance with 
 the true interests of civilization (and of that the dominant 
 race only are qualified to judge), we are authorized to 
 carry it into effect. On what other grounds can we jus- 
 tify our forcible interference with so many cherished cus- 
 toms and religious duties ? The Rajpoot thought it was 
 for the benefit of his race that female infants should be 
 murdered. The Khond believed that the blessing of 
 Heaven would attend him if he offered up human sacrifices. 
 
242 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 The Hindoo widow anticipated a glorious hereafter, if she 
 were permitted to burn with her dead husband. Well, 
 our people converted all these meritorious acts into crimes. 
 They debarred heaven from, the widow. They exposed 
 the Khond to famine and pestilence. They punished in- 
 fanticide with the penalty of murder. Whence did they 
 get authority to do this 1 not from the Shasters or the 
 lips of Brahmins. Not from Rajahs or the native com- 
 monalty. They walked by the light, and acted by the 
 force of civilization. They imposed humanity and liberty 
 upon the ignorant and weak. There was no waiting for 
 the national sanction. If darkness were not better than 
 light, the natives would bless them by and by ; and mean- 
 time they were prepared to encounter all the consequences 
 of hatred and misunderstanding. 
 
 The priests and teachers of the Hindoos regard us with 
 a feeling which is not to be conciliated by any act of 
 apostacy on the part of our rulers. They care nothing 
 about the subscriptions of the Governor-General in aid of 
 religious societies, or the preaching of the Gospel. It is 
 our civilization, and not our Christianity, that they dread ; 
 not the doctrine that the Saviour died for all men, but 
 the teaching of the fact that the earth is round. Banish on 
 the morrow all who take an interest in the spread of the 
 glad tidings ; pull down the pulpits and scatter the con- 
 gregations, and so long as a school remained open, or a 
 Hindoo child recollected the first lessons in geography, we 
 should fail to satisfy them. Wherever our footsteps pene- 
 trate, tlje pundit finds that his income lessens and his in- 
 fluence withers. His defeats are not to be measured by 
 our victories. The deist is a rebel to Hindooism, though 
 he refuses to fight under the Christian banner. Young 
 Bengal is not gained by the missionary ; but he is lost to 
 the Brahmin. 
 
 Let no man of our race harbour the foolish thought 
 that the example of the Emperor Julian might well be 
 imitated by our chief ruler in India, or that we can win 
 the affection of the orthodox Hindoo by hindering the 
 growth of Christianity. From the highest to the lowest, 
 they will gladly tolerate us if we will only consent to 
 tolerate them. They have not sought the life of the mis- 
 
A WORTHY ALLY. 24:3- 
 
 sionary or the holdings of the planter. They wish to re- 
 tain their lands and religion, and believe in their hearts 
 that we intend to deprive them of both by violence. Let 
 us give them assurance to the contrary, and our Sovereign 
 will have no firmer allies than the princes of Hindostan, no 
 subjects more peaceful than the Brahmin and his followers.. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 TORTURE IN THE NOKTH-WEST. HOW STATES AKE "PROTECTED." 
 EXAMPLES OF INDIAN JUSTICE. 
 
 IN dealing with the subjects of Indian law and police, one 
 cannot help giving way to occasional bursts of uncon- 
 trollable laughter. You are obliged to indulge either in 
 cursing or cachinnation, and the latter is the more harm- 
 less, if the less satisfying, mode of venting your feelings. 
 The tyranny is so unrestrained, the illegality so out- 
 rageous, as to be really comic. Neither are matched by 
 any species of rule under the sun. We are not going to 
 quote examples from the report of the Madras Torture 
 Commission, which is three years old, nor from Mr. 
 Halliday's minute on the condition of the police in Bengal, 
 but will begin with citing instances from a Parliamentary 
 return ordered by the House of Commons on the 22nd of 
 June last, nine days after the Gagging Act was passed in 
 Calcutta. The public must please not to murmur, if we 
 ask them to turn back with us at the end of a few pages. 
 
 Amongst the chief allies of the British Government is 
 the Rajah of Puttialah. The territories of this prince, 
 who is a Sikh, form a portion of what are called the 
 " Protected States," and are situated on the south side of 
 the Sutlej. When the rebellion broke out, Lord Canning 
 called upon him for assistance ; and he met the claim 
 halfway, sending his troops amongst the very first rein- 
 forcements to Delhi, and affording, by word and deed, the 
 greatest proof of zeal and friendship. It is reported, on 
 good authority, that he has lent the Government of the 
 Punjaub large sums ; and it is more than likely that if, 
 instead of aiding us, he had raised the standard of the 
 Khalsa, and called on the Sikhs to make a second fight 
 for their independence, he would have been joined by 
 
244 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 thousands of the men who are now fighting on our side, 
 and whose numbers and bravery enabled us to capture 
 Delhi. How needful it has always been to avoid giving 
 this influential chief just ground for offence, is a point 
 that need not be dwelt upon. 
 
 Among the list of civilians attached to the North-west 
 Provinces, is Mr. Henry Brereton. This gentleman has 
 been fourteen years in the service, and in April, 1854, 
 and for some time previously, was Deputy-Commissioner, 
 in charge of the Loodianah district. He is described by 
 Sir John Lawrence as being a man of vigorous ability. 
 In October, 1854, certain native petitions were addressed 
 to the Chief Commissioner, complaining against some pro- 
 ceedings in the criminal department, and making various 
 statements, which he ordered to be inquired into. The 
 result was a report from Mr. Barnes, superintendent of 
 the Cis-Sutlej States, the greater portion of which we 
 must give in that gentleman's own words. After stating 
 his arrival in Loodianah in November, Mr. Barnes pro- 
 ceeds as follows : " Before your communication, I had 
 visited the jail, in company with the Deputy-Commis- 
 sioner. I had found all the wards crowded with pri- 
 soners, some of whom, for want of accommodation, were 
 placed in tents. I was surrounded by men who com- 
 plained loudly of the means by which they had been 
 arrested and confined. I had also heard that Mr. Brere- 
 ton maintained informers, some on a fixed salary, who 
 were always with him, and some on special duty, 
 who were only in occasional employ. I heard also nume- 
 rous complaints against Moosahib Khan, and his brother 
 Futteh Jung ; and petitions from zemindars of Jugraon, 
 belonging to castes who have not a good name, had been 
 presented to me, complaining of the police measures 
 adopted by the acting tehsildar, Moosahib Khan. Deedar 
 Sing and Lukh Sing declare that their houses were 
 searched last May, on suspicion of being concerned in the 
 Koop robbery case, but that none of the stolen property 
 was found therein. Nevertheless, all the valuable articles 
 found in their houses were carried off to the cutcherry, 
 and still lie there. The property was paraded in the 
 bazaar, and people were invited to inspect and claim it, if 
 
REWARDING A LOYAL SUBJECT. 245 
 
 their own ; but no man has appeared to identify the pro- 
 perty. The search was instituted at the instance of a 
 prisoner in the jail, who had a cause of enmity with these 
 sahookars, and with the Sirdar of Kuneitch, whose house 
 was simultaneously searched. There appeared to me no 
 sufficient grounds why they were subjected to this indig- 
 nity, nor any reason why their lawful property has been 
 so long withheld from them. 
 
 " On the same information, the house of Sirdar Chim- 
 mun Sing, of Kuneitch, a jageerdar of this district, was 
 searched. On the 29th April last Mr. Brereton commis- 
 sioned Futteh Jung Khan Perwanah Navees, the brother 
 of Moosahib Khan, to undertake this duty. The Sirdar 
 came into Loodianah, and, at my request, has furnished a 
 narrative under his own seal of all that occurred. He is 
 a respectable native gentleman, and has always borne a 
 good character. He has the testimony of Lieutenant 
 Lake, then assistant agent at Loodianah, that he behaved 
 with great loyalty in the campaign of 1845-6. One 
 evening, late in April last, Futteh Jung Khan came with 
 a posse of sowars and footmen to his residence. The 
 Sirdar was treated with great violence ; and shortly after 
 the Deputy-Commissioner himself made his appearance, 
 and began the search. The floors were all dug up, and, 
 according to the Sirdar, his houses at Raepoor were 
 thrown down. All the property found was carried away ; 
 he mentions also that eight respectable zemindars of the 
 village were seized at the same time. They were imme- 
 diately placed in irons, and made over to Futteh Jung 
 Khan. Three months they were kept in arrest, and sub- 
 jected to treatment which he ' cannot describe.' These 
 eight men were also sent for ; they are Jats, and I believe 
 perfectly innocent of this crime ; they were severally sub- 
 jected to torture, and kept in confinement in Futteh 
 Jung's own house, which is in a secluded part of the city. 
 The hair of the head (they are Sikhs) was tied to their 
 leg irons ; wooden pegs were driven into the joints of their 
 elbows and other sensitive parts. Others were merely 
 bound tightly and beaten with fists, so that no marks 
 might remain. I inspected two men, Ham Ditta and 
 Dittoo ; they bear large scars on their elbows, and on 
 
246 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 other parts of their arms. The cicatrix in each wound 
 is recent ; and they all solemnly state that these pegs were 
 forcibly inserted, so as to lacerate the flesh. The man 
 who operated in all these cases was a wretch called Allah 
 Buksh, a servant belonging to Futteh Jung. Ham Ditta 
 and Dittoo were so severely wounded with these pegs, that 
 they were sent to the jail hospital, and were cured there. 
 
 " Eventually, although there was nothing whatever 
 against them except the malicious statement of a convict, 
 all these men were required to furnish heavy securities of 
 200 rupees each, and they were not released till these 
 securities were produced. 
 
 " After I had taken these depositions I went to the 
 Hawalut, where I found fifty-seven men under confine- 
 ment. In one case of robbery of 8700 rupees, at Rae- 
 poor, six men and women were under arrest. Some of 
 these were arrested in August last, and some in September 
 last ; yet in two instances only had the defence been taken. 
 The other four did not know on what grounds they had 
 been seized. They had not been called upon for their 
 defence, and had been in Hawalut for many weeks. The 
 arrests were made by Futteh Jung, on the information of 
 a single ' Goindah.' Dewa Sing, one of the prisoners, 
 declares he was tortured by Futteh Jung into a partial 
 confession. On his testimony, Hurnam Singh, a Jat of 
 the Puttialah territory, near Thaneysm, was seized, and 
 also Roopa, his mother. Hurnam declares that he was 
 confined at Futteh Jung's quarters in the city. A tent- 
 peg was driven into his anus, and eventually he was sent 
 to hospital ; he was never confronted with his accuser, 
 nor was his defence even taken. I found him in the jail 
 hospital ; and he appears a young Jat, with a countenance 
 that does not indicate crime. There is no proof against 
 him. His mother, E-oopa, states that Futteh Jung and 
 Allah Buksh, and a third man, seized her at her home in 
 Puttialah, and wanted to strip her. They placed her 
 under an August sun, and gave her nothing to drink. 
 Futteh Jung tied a bag of filth over her mouth and nose, 
 and endeavoured to get her to confess. Roopa also de- 
 clares that her house at Puttialah was dug down in the 
 search for stolen property, none of which was discovered. 
 
AGENCY FOR THE COLLECTION OF DEBTS. 
 
 247 
 
 Money found concealed there, belonging to herself, was 
 appropriated by Futteh Jung. 
 
 " Boodh Sing, Jat, made a partial confession in this case. 
 He declares it was extorted from him by false representa- 
 tions and torture. His statement is that Kheema, an in- 
 former, and Sheik Chimd, a burkundaz in disguise, came 
 to his house. He entertained them. A month after, Futteh 
 Jung came to his village, placed a guard round his house, 
 dug up the floors and walls, and destroyed it. He him- 
 self was absent, but was seized shortly afterwards. Red 
 pepper was stuffed in his nose, and a peg driven into his 
 anus. In his agony he was induced to make a false con- 
 fession. He has been under confinement since 27th July; 
 but no order has been passed in his case. He lent out 
 money to his neighbours, and the list of his debtors was 
 seized by Futteh Jung, who realized and appropriated 
 the money. The two men who confessed partially have 
 had their statements taken down. The other four were 
 cast into prison; they have never seen their accusers, nor 
 have their defences been written. They do not all state 
 that they were tortured. Hurnam Sing and Hoopa state 
 that torture was employed against them in vain; the 
 other two simply state that they were arrested, the reasons 
 thereof they know not. I found two men under arrest 
 on a charge cf highway robbery, value 48 rupees ; there is 
 no proof whatever against them. The extra assistant re- 
 commended their release on the 29th October last, but 
 they are still in custody. There were two persons seized 
 by Ahmed Yar Khan, of the same party as Futteh Jung; 
 their offence is alleged bad livelihood. Ahmed Yar is not 
 a police-officer; he holds an unauthorized appointment as 
 1 provider of supplies' to troops marching; he seized 
 these two men on 12th October last, a month ago; they 
 are in strict arrest; no proof has appeared against them, 
 and their defence has not been taken. I found also four 
 men arrested since 7th August last, at the instance of art 
 informer called Mootsuddie, on the charge of false coin- 
 ing; there is no proof whatever against them, and no 
 defences have been recorded, although these men have 
 been under arrest three months. There are other instances 
 of injudicious arrests and illegal treatment among the per- 
 
548 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 sons in the Hawalut, but I have noticed only those cases 
 in which mention was made of Futteh Jung and Ahmed 
 Yar Khan, or in which the circumstances were more 
 flagrant than in others. 
 
 " There were six men in the Hawalut at the city Kot- 
 wallee. Some of these had been there several weeks, none 
 less than twenty days, and their defence had not been 
 recorded. While I was visiting the jail four men com- 
 plained to me of Futteh Jung and Ahmed Yar Khan, and 
 I took their depositions; they are imprisoned for no spe- 
 cific crime, but for alleged bad livelihood. Two of these 
 men are subjects of foreign States arrested by Futteh Jung ; 
 and a third is a resident of Dhurm Kote, Zillah Feroze- 
 pore. Their arrest and confinement in the Loodianah 
 jail on such charges is unjustifiable. Futteh Jung and 
 Ahmed Yar appear to have had a commission to rove in 
 foreign territory. They were at Maleir Kotta, Puttialah, 
 and Nabha, at different periods from last January till the 
 present time. Futteh Jung is perwanah navees in the 
 Fouzdarry office. Ahmed Yar was specially employed 
 in the Koop robbery case on your recommendation, sug- 
 gesting that a special party should be deputed to investi- 
 gate the particulars of this crime. No clue whatever has 
 been obtained, and the establishment sanctioned was dis- 
 charged on the 30th September last; subsequent arrests 
 made by Ahmed Yar were entirely illegal, as he had no 
 police powers whatever." 
 
 These are the particulars of the cases represented to 
 the Chief Commissioner in which these men have been 
 employed. Allowing for some exaggeration, I feel con- 
 vinced that Futteh Jung Khan has held almost unlimited 
 power, which he has grossly and most cruelly abused. 
 Holding a subordinate appointment in the Fouzdarry 
 office, he has been commissioned by Mr. Brereton to inves- 
 tigate crimes, with permission almost to do what he liked, 
 to go where he pleased, and to arrest any one upon whom 
 his suspicions might fall ; he has also been allowed to hold 
 a separate court as it were, prisoners having been kept 
 for weeks at his quarters ; and, as he was directly inte- 
 rested in eliciting confessions, I most firmly believe that 
 he exercised great oppression for this object, particularly 
 
AMIABLE TRAITS OF CHAEACTER. 249 
 
 in the instance of the zemindars of Kuneitch; I am con- 
 vinced that the wounds their bodies show were caused by 
 the torture he applied. During his long sojourns in 
 foreign territory it is reasonable to suppose, as alleged by 
 the victims, that such a man, armed with such power, 
 committed many atrocities and levied much money. The 
 chiefs themselves did not complain; it is not etiquette to 
 mention such matters, and oppression might proceed to 
 almost any length before the Commissioner would hear of 
 it from the chiefs themselves. Futteh Jung Khan entered 
 the district with Mr. Brereton; he had accompanied him 
 for some years; he is own brother to Moosahib Khan, and 
 is a villain of the deepest die. Ahmed Yar Khan is one 
 of the same clique, but he is no relation to the other two ; 
 there are complaints against him, but he appears to be 
 milder and more humane than Futteh Jung. I have no 
 doubt he has extorted much money in his long forays into 
 foreign territory; but he was not so active nor so cruel 
 in torture as Futteh Jung : he should simply be dismissed 
 from employ, a light punishment for the numerous crimes 
 he has doubtless committed. There have been many com- 
 plaints preferred against Moosahib Khan for the surveil- 
 lance he has imposed upon certain villages in his jurisdic- 
 tion, supposed to have a bad name. The means employed 
 to prevent the occurrence of crime are very harsh, and the 
 remedy appears far worse than the evil. A burkundaz is 
 stationed in every suspected village; he is ordered to 
 assemble every man, woman, and child residing therein 
 three times a day. A fourth " parade," as the people call 
 it, is taken about eleven at night ; any person found ab- 
 sent from these roll-calls is fined two rupees, ten annas, and 
 on a repetition of the offence he is fined twenty- five rupees. 
 Moosahib Khan admits the truth of this account, and 
 gives as his authority the verbal orders of the Deputy- 
 Commissioner. He states that on the second offence, not 
 a fine, but a recognisance of twenty-five rupees is taken. 
 If so, the first fault is punished more severely than the 
 second, which seems unlikely. These villages are in- 
 habited by a race called Harnees, and one or two by 
 communities of men called Rajpoots. They are the pro- 
 prietors of mouzahs, paying revenue to Government, and, 
 
250 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 as far as I know, bear a terrible character. Many of 
 them are in the service of the Rajah of Kupoorthulla, and 
 hold high rank on his establishment. Admitting, how- 
 ever, that the race generally is predatory, I think so in- 
 discriminate and severe a system. as that enforced by Mr. 
 Brereton and Moosahib Khan is quite indefensible ; a 
 people might be driven into rebellion by measures like 
 these. Harnees, like other men, have legitimate calls 
 upon their time which oblige them to leave their homes : 
 to interdict them, and to deprive them entirely of their 
 liberty, is a measure far exceeding the exigencies of the 
 case. Besides, to place a single burkundaz in that posi- 
 tion, with leave to compel the attendance of every soul 
 four times within twenty-four hours, is to give him a 
 licence to bully, extort, and plunder at his discretion. 
 Mr. Brereton is actuated by undoubted zeal ; he pursues a 
 system which he thinks will suppress crime, and be for- 
 midable only to the worst of mankind. But his judgment 
 is entirely defective. In order to punish and prevent crime, 
 he creates a hundred evils, which in my opinion cause more 
 mischief than the offences he would put down. In his pur- 
 suits after the ducoits of the Koop robbery he has seized nu- 
 merous persons quite innocent of the crime. He has allowed 
 men like Futteh Jung to roam over the protected States 
 without control ; he has alarmed the respectable section 
 of the people by the injudicious and causeless searches he 
 has instituted for stolen property ; and, lastly, he has been 
 entirely deceived in the character of his agents, who have 
 robbed, and tortured, and bullied guiltless men in his name. 
 Another phase in Mr. Brereton's system is, his depen- 
 dance upon spies. To hear Mr. Brereton himself speak 
 on the subject one is impressed with a belief that he is 
 fully aware of the abuses and evils to which a reliance on 
 such sources will lead. Yet he has three informers con- 
 stantly about him. I may say they are domesticated in 
 his house ; they live in his compound, and act occasion- 
 ally as private servants. Their names are Mootsuddie, 
 Shurfoo, and Jowahir. Mootsuddie has seized several 
 persons, and many unjustly; he has received rewards, 
 and all three draw fixed salaries from Government. They 
 are soucars, and, I believe, coiners of false coin ; they 
 
THE NARRATIVE TRANSLATED. 251 
 
 should be remanded to the Thuggee department, and re- 
 moved from this district without loss of time. 
 
 I have heard numerous complaints against these men, 
 and especially against Mootsuddie. 
 
 I forgot to mention in the body of the letter, that no 
 less than eighty men have been apprehended since the 
 commencement of the year on the charge of " bud- 
 raashee." Of these, thirty have given in their sureties, 
 and have been allowed to return to their houses ; but 
 fifty men still remain in jail on this charge. I am en- 
 gaged in looking over the records of their cases. In 
 many instances, I have found that the accused have been 
 thrown into jail on the bare report of the thaunahdar. 
 There is no proof whatever against them, and yet they 
 have been imprisoned in default of heavy security, far be- 
 yond their means, for one year. They are all in irons, 
 although the law as construed by the Sudr Nizamut ex- 
 pressly forbids this aggravation of their punishment. In 
 the neighbouring zillah of Ferozepore, with the same ag- 
 gregate of prisoners, and within the same time, viz., 1st 
 January to 31st October, with much the same population 
 and the same amount of crime, the district officer has 
 arrested only five men ; and yet in Loodianah eighty men 
 have been seized. This fact alone indicates the indiscri- 
 minate severity with which Mr. Brereton employs the 
 means at his disposal for the criminal administration of 
 his district. 
 
 We have reproduced the exact words of the report in 
 this instance, because it would have been impossible to 
 obtain credence for any other form of statement in which 
 such facts might be embodied. The knock at the portals 
 of the English ear must be an official one, or the truth 
 will not be allowed an entrance. Let us try to realize in 
 a more familiar way the state of things which prevailed 
 in Loodianah three years since. The Emperor Napoleon 
 is not the chief of a " protected State," and is bound to 
 take care of himself, but he is a neighbour and ally. He 
 has helped us in our wars like the Rajah of Puttialah, 
 and gives shelter to a portion of our rascaldom. The 
 magistrate of Dover had a character for vigorous ability, 
 and deserved it. Spies served him at table, and informers 
 
252 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 followed his footsteps wherever he moved. The head of 
 the latter was the magistrate's copying-clerk, " a villain 
 of the deepest dye," coiner by profession, and thief by the 
 accident of his position. A respectable inhabitant of 
 Dover complained that the people living in the same 
 street with him " could not sleep at night for the cries of 
 his victims." At times he would have the latter operated 
 upon under his own immediate inspection, and in one in- 
 stance he arrested eight respectable tenant farmers, took 
 them to his own house, and tortured them for a period of 
 three months, the men being totally guiltless of crime 
 and accused only by a convict. Bankers, retired officers, 
 and landed proprietors, whoever had money, were liable 
 to be seized without a warrant, thrown into jail, and 
 their assets collected for the benefit of the clerk afore- 
 said. In all the villages near Folkestone he ordered his 
 brother, who was a police inspector, to station a police- 
 man, who assembled the whole population, man, woman, 
 and child, three times a day during daylight, and again 
 at ten o'clock at night, the fine for absence being five 
 shillings and threepence, the sum of three weeks' wages. 
 Whenever he required change of air, or wanted to 
 make up the price of some little property that he had 
 set his mind on, he w T as accustomed to run over to Paris 
 and invigorate himself in health and pocket. An elderly 
 French lady deposed that he knocked her house down, and 
 stole the money that she had concealed on the premises. 
 He placed her in the sun with the thermometer at 125, 
 kept her without water, and tied a bag of filth over her 
 inouth. Her son was taken to the clerk's house in Paris, 
 and tortured so horribly, that they were obliged to send 
 him to the hospital. A third brother, having no official 
 appointment whatever, roved about Calais, and ran across 
 into Belgium or Germany " without control." Owing to 
 the disregard of " rules regarding returns and reports, 
 supervision on the part of superior authority became im- 
 possible ; as the detectives worked only on verbal 
 orders, or no orders at all, they eluded all the usual 
 checks ; no one knows the number of arrests they made 
 and did not report, and the amount of property they 
 seized, and did not account for." Neither the Emperor, 
 
WEAKNESS WHICH EXCITES SYMPATHY. 253 
 
 the magistrates of Antwerp, or the burgomasters of Brus- 
 sels ever complained. The Dover official and his robber 
 retinue might have gone to any length before our Govern- 
 ment would hear of it from those gentlemen. " It is not 
 etiquette to mention such matters." 
 
 India is still the land of romance, but men who have 
 resided there for years and are familiar with its social life 
 feel, on reading the story of Mr. Brereton, much as a boy 
 who lays down the book of The Arabian Nights , to 
 take up a report of the performances of Mr. Anderson. 
 Sir John Lawrence, who knew that the detailed iniqui- 
 ties might only be a tithe of what had been perpetrated 
 under Mr. Brereton's authority, was " sorry to declare his 
 opinion that a mere warning cannot be depended upon to 
 prevent any future recurrence of these evils under Mr*. 
 Brereton's administration. He seems possessed with a 
 species of infatuation in regard to the use of espionage, 
 the employment of personal attaches, and the application, 
 of indiscriminate severity ; from this vicious system ex- 
 perience does not seem to deter him, nor advice dissuade. 
 It will be observed from the papers, that some of the 
 very employe's now arraigned had attracted some kind of 
 notice in connexion with Mr. Brereton at various periods 
 and places. The late Board had reason to fear that lat- 
 terly these abuses had even crept into the Thuggee depart- 
 ment ; of these suspicions Mr. Brereton was made fully 
 aware ; indeed, a circular was afterwards issued on the 
 subject. These circumstances, however, seem to have left 
 but a transient impression on Mr. Brereton's mind, and 
 the same men who, as he himself says, have followed him 
 for years, are now figuring in the present report. The 
 Chief Commissioner considers that some mark of the se- 
 vere displeasure of Government is necessary, which may 
 operate as a stern lesson to Mr. Brereton, and may serve 
 to keep his judgment straight in these matters for the 
 future. Moreover, the Chief Commissioner would submit, 
 that when great faults are clearly brought home to an 
 officer, some example is called for to vindicate the admi- 
 nistration before the people, and to preserve it pure from 
 the like scandal hereafter. The Chief Commissioner would 
 further be disposed to suggest, that after what has oc- 
 
254 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 curred Mr. Brereton is not suited for employment in the 
 Punjaub. That officer needs more supervision than can 
 well be given by any of our commissioners, whose duties 
 are so numerous. In the older provinces there are judges 
 to supervise and restrain as well as commissioners. It has 
 been suggested that Mr. Brereton should be appointed to 
 some station which forms the head-quarters of a commis- 
 sionership. But there are many practical difficulties in 
 this course. Such stations usually require the best offi- 
 cers ; and there are usually reasons why those districts 
 should continue to be held by their present incumbents. 
 Indeed, with this very view of securing supervision, the 
 Chief Commissioner had contemplated transferring Mr. 
 Brereton from Loodianah to Lahore ; but waived this in- 
 tention in consequence of the judicial commissioner urg- 
 ing that this officer's peculiar system would be particu- 
 larly mischievous at the capital, as calculated to irritate 
 and distress a large city population. If Mr. Brereton 
 should remain in the Punjaub, it will be undesirable, 
 after all that has happened, that he should reassume 
 charge of Loodianah." 
 
 Sir John Lawrence felt towards Mr. Brereton as an 
 ^English overseer feels towards a troublesome pauper. He 
 was anxious to get him carted into the adjoining parish, 
 and cared nothing about the trouble he might give the 
 next board of guardians that had to deal with him. But 
 Lord Dalhousie, to whom the papers in the affair were 
 transmitted in due course, objected to this method of 
 getting rid of the difficulty of " how to punish a civilian." 
 " The Commissioner," said the Governor-General, " has 
 suggested no specific measure ; but he casually hints that 
 he wishes that Mr. Brereton should no longer be employed 
 in the Punjaub. I cannot accede to this wish. The faults and 
 irregularities of Mr. Brereton have n o partic ular heinousness 
 in the Punjaub. They would be open to the same degree 
 of objection if committed anywhere else in the Indian 
 territories. If Mr. Breretou is unfit to be employed in 
 the Punjaub, he is equally unfit to be employed in the 
 North- west Provinces. I should object to his being sent 
 back to those Provinces. I do not consider it fit that the 
 rest of the Presidency of Bengal should be used as a pre- 
 
LORD DALHOUSIE'S OPINION. 255 
 
 serve, whence very many of the best men have been 
 drafted to the Punjaub, and that it should be made use 
 of also as a penal district, to which every offending officer 
 in the Punjaub should be immediately transferred." 
 Lord Dalhousie pronounced upon the case as follows : 
 " I am of opinion that the Government of India, consis- 
 tently with a due regard to its own character arid to the 
 protection which it owes to those who are placed under 
 its charge, cannot consent to leave in Mr. Brereton's 
 hands the power which he has so grievously abused. I 
 am of opinion that Mr. Brereton cannot, for the present, 
 be fitly entrusted with the authority of a Deputy-Commis- 
 sioner j that he ought to be removed from that grade to 
 the grade of a first-class assistant ; and that he ought not 
 to be restored to the grade of a Deputy-Commissioner, or 
 to any corresponding authority, until his conduct shall 
 have satisfied his superiors that he better appreciates the 
 responsibility of a British officer in this country, and can 
 better use the civil powers with which he has heretofore 
 been entrusted." 
 
 The case had still to go before the Court of Directors, 
 and the consummate tact with which they managed it 
 was worthy of their reputation in the East. In an un- 
 wise moment Sir James Hogg, standing counsel for the 
 Company in the House of Commons, had allowed his 
 sympathies to get the better of his judgment, and know- 
 ing that torture had never been sanctioned by the 
 Government, he went to the length of asserting that 
 it was wholly unknown in India. The lapsus was 
 most unfortunate ; the enemies of the Company per- 
 suaded Lord Harris, the Governor of Madras, to ap- 
 point a commission of inquiry, and the subject was 
 busily agitated at the very time that Mr. Barnes made 
 his report. The Torture Commission did not send in its 
 report till the loth of April, 1855, and it would have 
 been madness to let it be known in the previous January, 
 that in the territory recently acquired from the Sikhs 
 torture was so common that its application by men having 
 no authority to make arrests disturbed the nightly sleep 
 of quiet inhabitants ; whilst hope of redress was so 
 idle, that the people never complained to Mr. Brereton 
 
256 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 on the subject. What would Parliament say if they 
 heard of the atrocious outrages perpetrated on the sub- 
 jects of foreign States by servants of the Government 
 that annexed Chide? If this state of things prevailed 
 in the country of the warlike Sikhs, what might be 
 reasonably assumed with regard to the treatment of 
 the cowardly Bengalee, and the do\vn-trodden peasantry 
 of Madras 1 " Hush ! gentlemen of the chairs and com- 
 mittees ; let the sleeping dog lie : tide over the perilous 
 time, and remember that you have to be ' astonished 
 and pained' when the Torture Commission makes its 
 ' statement." 
 
 Eighteen months after the date of Mr. Barnes's re- 
 port, the Court of Directors addressed the Grovernor- 
 General in Council on the subject. They approved of 
 the decision by which Mr. Brereton had been removed 
 from the grade of Deputy-Commissioner to that of as- 
 sistant, " not to be promoted until his superiors are 
 satisfied of his being fit to be entrusted with higher 
 authority." Their delay in pronouncing on the matter 
 was, it may be inferred, the result of their having " hesi- 
 tated whether official misconduct so glaring, and the 
 cause of so much injury and suffering, ought to be 
 visited with a punishment less severe than dismissal 
 from the public service." The directors go on to say 
 " Mr. Brereton's superiors acquit him of any knowledge 
 of the cruelties which were inflicted by the worthless 
 agents whom he employed. We observe his assurance, 
 ' So utterly was I in ignorance of the truth, that even to 
 the last I could not realize the fact that any atrocities 
 had been committed. When the veil was once lifted 
 from my eyes, I perceived at once the whole occurrence, 
 and need hardly observe the distress of mind and horror 
 which I have suffered at the bare thought of being, how- 
 ever unconsciously, the cause of misery to others ;' and 
 are of opinion that, however much, therefore, Mr. Brere- 
 ton is condemned for acts in excess and in abuse of legal 
 authority, both on his own part and on that of the un- 
 principled agents in whom he placed a blind and unlimited 
 confidence, we are nevertheless persuaded that he fully 
 participates in the abhorrence with which acts of wilful 
 cruelty and oppression are regarded by the European 
 
PAYING WAGES. 257 
 
 officers of Government in India. Under this impression, 
 we are induced to refrain from carrying the punishment 
 of Mr. Brereton's misconduct further than you have done. 
 We desire, however, that you will inform Mr. Brereton 
 that any similar misconduct will result in his immediate 
 dismissal from the public service." To show that they 
 were in earnest, the directors pointed out that the doctor 
 of the Loodianah jail had two of Mr. Brereton's victims 
 under his care for two months in a private room, their 
 injuries arising from torture. The doctor must have 
 seen the wounds and ascertained how they were inflicted. 
 Why did he not report the facts ? They desired that his 
 conduct, and that of everybody in the jail at all con- 
 cerned, should be made the subject of general inquiry. 
 
 Mr. Brereton took his furlough and went home, re- 
 ceiving of course the usual allowance paid to a civilian in 
 England. At the end of three years from the date of 
 " leaving the pilot " he will come back, and find no diffi- 
 culty in satisfying his superiors that he is fit to be en- 
 trusted again with power ; so that the entire measure of 
 his punishment will be the amount of salary that he lost 
 whilst under suspension. Futteh Jung was sentenced to 
 eight years' imprisonment, and his brother was dismissed 
 from Government employment, and their victims were 
 compensated out of the public treasury for their sufferings 
 by torture. The Loodianah jailer, who received the pri- 
 soners with only a verbal order, and the doctor who 
 attended them, were " warned," and at the end of two and 
 a half years the whole matter was rounded off. The 
 Puttialah Jats will perhaps exhibit their scars to match 
 those which their countrymen may show who fought 
 for us before Delhi, and the rest of the late prisoners 
 will of course pray for the continuance of the Company's 
 Eaj. 
 
 There are now thirty thousand Sikhs in the service of 
 the East India Company. We believe they will be true 
 to their salt ; but when the disciples of Nanuk meet in 
 the sacred city of Umriosur, there will not be wanting, 
 amongst the stories of English greatness and Sikh courage, 
 narratives of the cruel mode in which we have occasionally 
 dealt with the rich noble and the humble retainer. We have 
 seen how Sikhs have been treated in the Punjaub : let us 
 
258 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 now tell of the way in which law has been administered 
 to them in the North-west. 
 
 Some forty-eight years ago, a Brahmin from Saharun- 
 poor made his appearance at the Court of Runjeet Singh. 
 He was of handsome person and winning address, and 
 accomplished as most Brahmins are in the arts of pleasing. 
 His religion stood in the way of his advancement, but not 
 for long. Khoushal Singh became a Sikh, and in time 
 rose to be Jemadar of the Deoree, or Lord of the Entry, 
 the virtual prime minister of the Punjaub. His two 
 brothers hastened to share his fortunes, and rose to offices 
 of distinction. One of them had a son named Tej Singh, 
 the traitor who sold his country to the British in the first 
 Sikh campaign ; the other is represented by a boy of whom 
 more will be said in season. 
 
 The influence of Khoushal Singh lasted for many years, 
 during which time he amassed enormous wealth ; but a 
 youth, named Goolab Singh, was one day accepted as a 
 recruit in his regiment of horse, who soon caught the eye of 
 the Maharajah, and rapidly mounted the ladder of ad- 
 vancement. He, too, called his relatives about him, and 
 the Rajpoot faction in time gained paramount sway. 
 Khoushal Singh sank quietly into a subordinate position ; 
 but it was not until the life of his master was drawing 
 visibly to an end that he began to put in practice a 
 long-meditated resolution of transporting his family and 
 riches into the British territory. He fixed one portion of 
 his household at Hurdwar, and commenced building a 
 magnificent palace at Ekree, near Sirdhana, in the Meerut 
 district. The house was built under the superintendence 
 of an Italian architect, Signor Reghelini, who had designed 
 the cathedra, and the Begum Sumroo's palace at Sird- 
 hana ; and when finished, it was inhabited by the favourite 
 wife of Khoushal Singh, and the two wives of his eldest 
 son, Kishen Singh, for whom the chief part of his wealth 
 was intended. Treasure to the amount of 300,000 was 
 said to be deposited in the vaults at Ekree, in gold mohurs, 
 ingots, and jewels. The money for building the Ekree 
 palace was entirely disbursed by Motee Ram, a Hindu of 
 the writer caste, who, during the lifetime of Khoushal 
 Singh, managed his domestic affairs. At that place he 
 
RESPONSIBILITY WITHOUT POWER. 259 
 
 paid the pensions and salaries of all the servants, and was 
 even entrusted with the superintendence of the house- 
 hold ; the females of the family being authorized to enter 
 the zenana, and see that matters were properly conducted 
 in the absence of the lord. Dewan Kour, the wife of 
 Khoushal Singh, with her daughters-in-law, received their 
 allowances at his hand, and, in every respect, Motee Ram 
 acted as the representative of the head of the family. 
 
 Khoushal Singh died in 1844, and his son Kishen 
 Singh, then at Lahore, performed the funeral ceremonies of 
 his parent, and claimed the property. But the troubles 
 in. the Punjaub hindered him from coming to take posses- 
 sion. On the application of Motee Ram, who was con- 
 firmed in his position of steward, he sent down a reinforce- 
 ment to the Sikh guard at Ekree, from the retainers of 
 the family at Lahore, with orders that they were to obey 
 his cousin, a boy of twelve or thirteen, and Motee Ram. 
 The force now amounted to nineteen men, under the com- 
 mand of Jemadar Kyroddeen, a Mahomedan of good family, 
 and a zealous adherent of the house of Khoushal Singh. 
 
 In the latter end of 1844 the magistrate and collector 
 of Meerut was informed that there were two parties con- 
 tending for the right of possession at Ekree the one 
 representing the interests of Kishen Singh, and the other 
 being a Brahmin of Deobund, named Bhugwan Singh, 
 who married a daughter of Khoushal Singh's, by Dewan 
 Kour. Motee Ram gave in a petition, and claimed pro- 
 tection, which was opposed by a counter-petition from the 
 widow, who affirmed that she wished to be placed under 
 the guardianship of her son-in-law. The magistrate or- 
 dered the Kotwal of Sirdhana to inquire into the facts of 
 the case. He did so, and reported that the family of 
 Motee Ram were living in the house, as they had done 
 for years past, and that there had been no breach of the 
 peace. 
 
 Here was a case for the sole intervention of the civil 
 tribunal, but the nature of rights and the claims of juris- 
 diction are sometimes confounded in courts which claim 
 to be ruled by equity and conscience, rather than by 
 statutes and precedents. The matter was again brought 
 before the magistrate, who bound both parties, under 
 
260 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 heavy recognizances, not to go near the house ; but on re- 
 ference to the judge, Mr. Begbie, that functionary decided 
 that the order should be relaxed in favour of Bhugwan 
 Singh, who it was considered had a right, in consequence 
 of his near relationship, to visit the widow and offer her 
 advice and consolation. As for Motee Ram, he was de- 
 barred from all access, and induced to beg that he might 
 be formally released from his responsibility. " Since it is 
 the pleasure of the Sirkar" such was the purport of his 
 petition " that I should not be allowed to look after my 
 master's property, let Bhugwan Singh, or the servants of 
 the Great Company, come and take an inventory of every- 
 thing, and give me a receipt for it. How else shall I 
 look my master in the face, when his wealth, which he left 
 in my care, is carried away and ruined ?" 
 
 Does not the reader already divine how affairs will ter- 
 minate ? Some thirty lakhs are in dispute ; the rival 
 claimants are a Brahmin residing close at hand, the other 
 an unknown Sikh at Lahore, who is represented by a 
 writer and a boy, and who will soon be a national enemy 
 of the British ! The contest is carried on in an obscure 
 corner of the East, where journalism has no influence, and 
 public opinion is unknown. We feel that the defeat of 
 Motee Ram is certain, but no one can guess the fate which 
 is in store for him. 
 
 A word or two of necessary digression at this point of 
 the narrative. Fourteen years since the collectorate of 
 Meerut had a very bad reputation, as any one may find 
 out who will take the trouble to read the reports upon 
 the civil and criminal administration of justice in the 
 North-west at the period in question. It was declared 
 that more fraudulent suits were instituted in that district 
 than in any other. Great numbers of persons were 
 arrested, and subsequently dismissed without apparent 
 cause; and the highest authorities debated upon the most 
 effectual means of enforcing the execution of the decrees 
 of the civil courts, which in the Meerut district were little 
 better than waste paper in most instances. A man might 
 get his verdict, but to realize the fruits of it was alto- 
 gether another matter. If the law had favoured the 
 plaintiff, the fact was a good reason why the native offi- 
 cials should favour the defendant, except, indeed, the 
 
PICKING A WAY THROUGH THE BOG. 261 
 
 former could show better reasons than he dared to produce 
 in court for being allowed to get execution. Hence the 
 course of justice was impeded, and a host of evils en- 
 couraged j the growing prosperity of the Omlah being the 
 only signs that any class of men in a zillah, containing a 
 population of nearly a million of souls, were reaping 
 benefit from the mode in which it was governed. 
 
 The native officers in the district were remarkably 
 unanimous, and strictly co-operative in carrying on their 
 business. There were thirty-four who belonged to a single 
 family, the head of which, a Kajpoot, some few genera- 
 tions back embraced the Mahomedan faith, to which 
 his descendants have since adhered. A Hindu proverb 
 has immortalized a striking trait of the family character ; 
 the treachery of a Kumbo is set down as a fact which the 
 Asiatic world may take for granted. At the time we 
 speak of, they held every post of importance at Meerut. 
 
 The magistrate and collector was very fond of society, 
 and society in turn was very fond of him. In the hot 
 seasons he was an invaluable acquisition to the sporting 
 circles at Simla and Mussouri, inasmuch as he played for 
 large sums, which he always lost and always paid. No 
 one ever suspected him of unfair play, since the longer he 
 sat at table, and the higher the stakes were raised, the 
 more money he had to pay at settling time. Folks pitied 
 his ill-fortune; but since somebody must lose, it was 
 agreed on all sides that the lot could not fall upon one 
 who was likely to bear it with more good temper, and 
 repair it with greater facility. 
 
 We must now pick our way over a very difficult bit of 
 ground, which requires to be trodden with much care and 
 circumspection. In May, 1851, a small band of prisoners 
 might have been seen on the road from Agra to Meerut. 
 Their guards were strictly enjoined to prevent them hold- 
 ing communication with any person whatever, and, to that 
 end, they closed up round them at meal times, and dili- 
 gently watched them as they slept. One of the criminals 
 was a Hindoo of mature age, with a broken and dejected 
 air, who seemed to have abandoned all hope of change. 
 The other was a fine-looking, courtier-like man, whom 
 chains and a felon's garb had not robbed of a natural 
 grace and dignity. They were Motee Earn and Kyroddeen, 
 
262 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 who liadbeen sent for from the Agra jail to give evidence 
 in the inquiry then pending, and the object of the jealous 
 precautions observed during the journey was to satisfy 
 the mind of the Commissioner that they had not been in- 
 structed or informed in any way as to how they should 
 act, or what was expected from them. 
 
 The testimony on which the collector and magistrate's 
 conduct was sifted, must be taken just for what it is 
 worth. It charged two of the Kumbos with corruption, 
 and we had better not say what else it pretended to show. 
 Motee Ram was declared to have given one of these men 
 10,000 rupees, and a promissory note for 40,000 rupees, 
 on condition of being allowed to hold Ekree, which coming 
 to the ears of Bhugwan Singh, that shrewd individual, 
 who knew the influence of ready cash, offered half a lakh 
 down, which was accepted. Most likely there is not a 
 word of truth in either case. What follows is beyond the 
 reach of doubt and cavil. 
 
 Some days after the judge had decided that Bhugwan 
 Singh had leave to visit the house at Ekree, word was 
 brought to Motee Ram that the treasure was in the course 
 of removal to Deobund, and would soon be entirely car- 
 ried away. As stated beforehand, his request to be fur- 
 nished with a receipt for the delivery of the property to 
 the magistrate or Bhugwan Singh had not been complied 
 with, and in an unlucky moment he addressed himself to 
 Kyroddeen and the Sikh guard, and asked if they intended 
 to prove unfaithful to their salt by allowing their mas- 
 ter's property to be made away with 1 The Sepoys re- 
 plied that of course they would obey the orders of himself 
 and Dabee Sehaee ; on which the whole party marched 
 over to Ekree, and finding the entrance defended by the 
 servants of Bhugwan Singh, forced their way in, one man 
 being wounded in the scuffle. The ejected faction has- 
 tened to give the alarm that a band of dacoits had stormed 
 and held possession of the house ; but first they took the 
 precaution to lock the outer doors on the declared ruffians, 
 a proceeding which evinced a great deal of reliance on the 
 mildness of their demeanour to the inmates of the zenana, 
 and an equally anxious wish to take care of their persons 
 till the arrival of assistance from without. 
 
STRETCHING A POINT. 263 
 
 The entrance into Ekree was effected about nine P.M., 
 and soon after daylight the following morning a portion of 
 the police battalion, under Captain Chiene, and a large body 
 of men, headed by the magistrate, reached the spot, which 
 is twelve miles from Meerut. Captain Chiene, who inarched 
 with an advanced guard, and all due military precaution, 
 was surprised, on coming up, to see Motee Ram at one of 
 the verandahs. " What are you doing there T said the 
 captain. " I ani taking care of the house," replied Motee 
 Ram ; " but Bhugwan Singh's people have locked us in.'* 
 There is reason to believe that the captain was puzzled 
 what to make of the matter ; but he summoned the party 
 inside to surrender, and the doors being unfastened, 
 twenty men, each armed with a musket and sword, came 
 out, and fell in as prisoners, in regular rank and file. 
 Motee Ram, and the child, Dabee Sehaee, were also seized, 
 and the captives being marched some distance out of the 
 village, were seated on the ground and searched. In the 
 sand near them were found some articles of jewellery, said 
 to have been taken from Ekree. The Sepoys denied all 
 knowledge of them ; but of course they were not believed. 
 They proved that, on entering the house, they had placed 
 guards over the apartments of the females and the trea- 
 sury, and found that the latter contained only 25,000 
 rupees. Perhaps they urged that robbers, after having 
 had the opportunity of ransacking houses, were always 
 anxious to make their escape; whilst, if they found that 
 hopeless, and knew that a force was coming to capture 
 them, they would take care that none of the plunder should 
 be found on them. What their line of argument really 
 was we cannot say ; but in due time they were committed 
 to the sessions, and sentenced by Mr. Begbie, as dacoits, to 
 periods of imprisonment varying from fourteen to ten 
 years, in the Agra jail. Here is the definition of the 
 offence with which they were charged : " Dacoity : rob- 
 bery by open violence ; any person or persons who in 
 the day or night go forth with any offensive weapons, or 
 in a gang, with or without an offensive weapon, with the 
 criminal intent of committing a robbery." 
 
 Thus those poor foreigners, the Sikh Sepoys, for their 
 fidelity to their master, were punished as burglars. Their 
 
264 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 sole duty in this life was to render obedience to the man 
 who fed them. What did they know of decrees of ejection, 
 and bonds of recognizance 1 Their chiefs said to them, 
 " Go," and they had gone. They did the work which they 
 had covenanted to perform, and their English judge esti- 
 mated and rewarded it. 
 
 It was an effective way of terminating a lawsuit and 
 creating a title. To charge Motee Ram, the original 
 " man in possession," with the offence of dacoity ; with 
 stealing that which, in the eye of the law, was his own 
 property ! Mr. Begbie scorned the aid of John Doe and 
 Richard Roe. His law was as swift as that of Judge 
 Lynch, and almost as much to be venerated. 
 
 Years rolled away, many of the Sepoys died, and the 
 rest might have been seen grinding otta daily, with fetters 
 on each limb. Dabee Sehaee, who was released on account 
 of his tender age, lives at Hurdwar. His uncle, Kishen 
 Singh, died in 1850; and in the attempt to have the case 
 re-opened, Dabee Sehaee brought forward the evidence 
 that we have detailed. Tej Singh, the present head of 
 the family, enjoyed the reward of having given Lord 
 Hardinge a victory, and a step in the peerage, and was 
 not likely to trouble himself with the fate of the poor 
 retainers of his house. But at last Motee Ram and 
 Kyroddeen were released. The collector died a judge ; 
 Bhugwaii Singh bought a zemindary, and no one was 
 greatly discontented, except it might be the people who 
 are too low, or Providence which is too high, to interfere 
 in such matters. 
 
 Our next illustration is drawn from the Madras Presi- 
 dency. It contains a greater variety of incident, and shows 
 how powerless even the Privy Council and the Queen are 
 to enforce the doing of justice in India. 
 
 The northern districts of Madras bear a marked resem- 
 blance to the Highlands of Scotland, both in physical 
 conformation and the social condition of the people, as 
 both existed a hundred years since. The head men were 
 feudal chiefs owning large tracts of land partially re- 
 claimed, and paying but a nominal tax to the sovereign 
 power. When the English found their way to this remote 
 part of the country, they thought it advisable to deal 
 
A NABOB OF THE OLDEN TIME. 265 
 
 liberally with the petty rulers of the Northern Circars, 
 both from the difficulty of coercing them, and the unpro- 
 fitable results of severe measures. They settled the land- 
 tax, therefore, at sixty per cent, of the nett income realized, 
 and allowed the landholders to levy certain petty dues 
 and customs. The latter were afterwards abolished, but 
 the revenue demand was unaltered, sunnuds having been 
 given to the zemindars at the outset of our connexion 
 with them, in confirmation of those granted by the pre- 
 vious rulers of the country. 
 
 Amongst the most distinguished of those great landed 
 proprietors was Yencatreddy Naidoo, the Rajah of Vasa- 
 reddy. His estates stretched for more than a hundred 
 miles along the fertile banks of the Kistnah, and con- 
 sisted of many hundred villages swarming with inhabi- 
 tants, and rich in every kind of tropical cultivation. 
 His father and himself had helped the English in their 
 attempt to get a footing in the country, and of all their 
 tenants, none paid so well and regularly. There were 
 frightful famines in Guiitoor and other northern districts 
 in 1791 and 1802, arising in a great measure from the 
 total neglect by Government of the tanks and water- 
 courses built by former possessors of the land ; a great 
 fall in prices occurred in 1796-7, and in 1816 the Pindar- 
 ries swept like a combined whirlwind and pestilence over 
 the whole face of the land, but the Rajah paid up in all 
 cases the full revenue claim of 68,000/. per annum, and 
 this in spite of the most lavish personal outlay during 
 his whole lifetime. He had built palaces and pagodas 
 without number, and spared no cost in the way of buying 
 power in this life, and a title to heaven in the next. The 
 Nizam gave him the title of Munnay Sultan in exchange 
 for an offering of 35,000?. Bajee Rao, the ex-Peishwa of 
 the Mahrattas, took his money and gave compliments in 
 return. He weighed himself once against gold, and twice 
 against silver, and each time emptied the scales into the 
 yawning pockets of the Brahmins. He maintained the 
 largest following, purchased the most devout prayers and 
 the most beautiful wives, and at his death died the pos- 
 sessor of wide-spread fame, and of half a million in hard 
 cash. It was needful to dwell upon this example of Eastern 
 
266 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 wealth and extravagance, that the reader might realize 
 the full significance of what is about to follow. 
 
 The Rajah Vencatreddy died in 1815, and his son, who 
 succeeded to the estates, lived ten years, during which 
 time the greater portion of the half million in money dis- 
 appeared. Rajah Jugganatha left two wives and two 
 adopted sons. The one, Lutchmeputty Naidoo, who was 
 first chosen, was a child of only six years ; the other, 
 Ramanadha Baboo, had reached the age when, according 
 to Hindoo law, he might enter into the possession of pro- 
 perty. The wives, who had procured the respective 
 adoptions, took, of course, separate sides : a lawsuit was 
 commenced in 1829, and pending its settlement the Govern- 
 ment officers took possession of the land. In other words, 
 the estates were put into Chancery, only that, in Madras, 
 it is the Board of Revenue that appoint the receiver. In 
 this case the property passed under the control of the 
 authorities, not only unincumbered, but with a surplus of 
 nearly 50,00 0. in the public treasury. 
 
 If vultures have any sense of gratitude for fat carcases 
 vouchsafed to them, we may infer that the revenue officers 
 thanked the gods for this glorious opportunity of plunder. 
 The tenures of subordinate posts in the districts where the 
 estates lay became materially shortened. The hungry 
 Brahmins came from all quarters, fed, grew fat, and dropped 
 off, to make room for friends and relations, all keen of 
 appetite, and skilled in tearing \ip the corpus, from which 
 law and industry, the life and soul, had departed. No 
 more was heard of surplus revenue, and the estates soon 
 ceased to yield even the amount of the Government tax. 
 The reserved fund was attacked, and vanished almost in 
 an instant. It was a race against litigation, which might 
 possibly be terminated at any moment, when the lands 
 would revert to the management of the proprietor. To 
 guard against the consequences of such a calamity was the 
 ceaseless occupation of the collector's establishment. 
 
 The result of the suit in the Company's Court was fa- 
 vourable to the pretensions of Ramanadha Baboo, who was 
 declared the lawful heir to the zemindary, and petitioned 
 to be put in possession. But the guardians of Lutchme- 
 putty had appealed to the king in council, and a law, 
 
SECOND THOUGHTS BEST. 267 
 
 passed by the imperial legislature, specially provided for 
 such cases. Either the appellant or the respondent might 
 have the management of the estates, on giving full security 
 for the satisfaction of the final decree. It was but fair 
 that Ramanadha should have the control of the property ; 
 but since the decision of the highest tribunal might be 
 against him, when he would be liable for every shilling of 
 profit that he had received, he must place in the hands of 
 the Court the most complete security for the amount of 
 surplus rent. In answer to an application, the Sudder 
 Court fixed the security at the sum of 25,000. per annum. 
 The finding of such an amount at the end of every 
 twelvemonth suited neither the means nor the inclinations 
 of Ramanadha, but a shrewd man in the East is seldom at 
 a loss how to get over such a difficulty, when in such a 
 position. The Court's decree had given him possession of 
 the personal property of Jugganatha, and he could raise 
 money without trouble. At this crisis of his fortunes he 
 sent a sum of 17,000 to the Presidency, and soon after it 
 reached the capital instructed his vakeel to renew his ap- 
 plication for possession without giving security. In the 
 teeth of the clear letter and spirit of the law, and of the 
 Court's previous decision, it seemed little else than an im- 
 pertinence to the judges and a waste of money to the 
 client ; but, strange to say, the Sudder reversed their pre- 
 vious conclusion, and in spite of King's and Company's law 
 they now decided that Ramanadha should have the estates. 
 Nothing, it must be understood, is ever considered to be 
 finally settled in the Company's highest Court. The judges, 
 some of whom, perhaps, have never sat on a bench of jus- 
 tice until the day when they were placed at the head of 
 the civil and criminal jurisdiction over the teeming mil- 
 lions of Hindostan, are enlightened enough not to care 
 for precedents. It was no matter for wonderment, there- 
 fore, in Madras or Bengal, that a " final order" should be 
 reconsidered and reversed ; but in this instance it was 
 thought to be rather stretching a point to set aside an 
 Act of Parliament which was in accordance with the 
 simplest principles of equity. However, that was a mere 
 matter of opinion, nothing more ! 
 
 The interests of Lutchmeputty were considerably da- 
 
268 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 maged by this last decision. Hitherto, Ramanadha had a 
 common cause with himself in guarding against the spoli- 
 ation of the estates ; but henceforth the latter would only 
 seek to make a purse for himself, so as to be independent 
 of the final disposition of the property. The Sudder Court, 
 in assigning reasons for allowing him to get possession, 
 said no security was required, because the zemindar's pro- 
 fits had disappeared, whilst, as to the Government revenue, 
 the public officers would of course take care to realize that 
 as it fell due. The reckless dishonesty of this statement 
 was patent to themselves, and to all who were acquainted 
 with the revenue system of Madras. The regulations gave, 
 to be sure, the most ample powers for the recovery of the 
 State dues, either by the immediate seizure and confine- 
 ment of the defaulter, the sale of personal property, or the 
 attachment of the land ; but, owing to the frightful pres- 
 sure of the Government demand, it was found expedient, 
 in the case of all settled estates, to take what could be had 
 from the zemindar, and allow the arrears to accumulate at 
 twelve per cent, interest. Ramanadha, it was known, 
 would exact all that he could get from the ryots, and hand 
 over as little as the collector's people would consent to 
 take. The goose had merely changed hands ; the mode of 
 obtaining the golden eggs was the same under the rule of 
 either party. 
 
 The assigned reasons of the Sudder Court for its last 
 order gave Lutchmeputty, of course, a right to come for- 
 ward at any time, if he could show that they were not con- 
 sistent with the state of the facts. This privilege he 
 availed himself of by frequent remonstrances, until at last 
 the judges were worried into addressing a letter to the 
 Revenue Board, in which they asked whether it was true, 
 as the appellant repeatedly asserted, that Ramanadha was 
 wasting the property for his own gain ? The public de- 
 partments in question are located four miles apart, but it 
 took seventeen months to get an answer to this communi- 
 cation. At the end of that period the Revenue Board 
 replied, that all which had been alleged on the subject was 
 quite true. The estates were now heavily indebted on 
 account of arrears, and they had just given an order to 
 attach the zemindary. 
 
HELP IN THE DISTANCE. 269 
 
 It is but a small leap from the frying-pan into the fire. 
 The collector's men were again in possession, and there 
 were still some good pickings on the bones. The Govern- 
 ment authorities had first swallowed up the 50,000. a 
 year that used to find its way into the pockets of the 
 zemindar, next they got rid of the balance in the treasury, 
 and thirdly they accumulated a debt of 140,000. for ar- 
 rears. Ramanadha's addition to the latter reached 76,000?., 
 so that at the time of the second attachment the en- 
 tire arrears standing against the estate amounted to 
 216,000. The stone had now got to the middle of the 
 descent, and was sure to reach the bottom. 
 
 In 1842 the Court of Directors were induced to make 
 one of those benevolent interpositions in favour of their 
 Indian subjects which read to such advantage in Blue 
 Books and speeches in Parliament. They wished to save 
 from utter ruin those fine old families whose estates were 
 now hopelessly involved, mainly, of course, through their 
 own dissipated course of life and want of business habits, 
 but owing, perhaps, in a small degree, to hard times and 
 a very little of undue pressure on the part of the local 
 government. The Madras authorities were directed to 
 call on the zemindars to surrender their title-deeds, so as 
 to enable Government to deal with the estates as effec- 
 tually as if they had been acquired at public auction. The 
 collectors were then to set on foot a detailed survey of 
 each property, to execute works of irrigation and general 
 improvement, and finally to make liberal agreements with 
 the cultivators before giving back possession to the owners. 
 Attributing in some degree the depressed condition of the 
 estates to the frequent changes of management, arising 
 from the constant transfer of collectors from one district 
 to another, they proposed that these gentlemen should be 
 tempted, by the offer of higher salaries, to remain in their 
 appointment. The zemindars were to have a suitable 
 allowance, and the discharge of their private debts should 
 be left to the discretion of the authorities. 
 
 The Government of Madras handed the above instruc- 
 tions to the Board of Revenue, and the latter passed them 
 on to the collector, directing that " Mr. Stokes should, in 
 the first instance, ascertain from the zemindars whether 
 
 s 
 
270 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 they are willing to surrender their estates on the terms 
 proposed by the Honourable Court, which he should take 
 especial care to have explained to them ; and," said the 
 Board, with a touch of grim humour, " considering the 
 alternative, the application is not likely to be refused." 
 Karnanadha Baboo did, however, hold out for a time ; but 
 on being threatened with a sale he gave up his title-deeds, 
 received a pension of 12001. a year, and waited, with the 
 rest of the Guntoor landholders, for the good times which 
 the Honourable Company had in store for them. 
 
 The collector received the instructions of the Board, and 
 acted thereupon as the Company's servants have been in 
 the habit of proceeding since the days of Warren Hastings 
 with regard to similar documents. He filed them, and 
 took no further notice. Whenever he drew the increased 
 allowance suggested as the proper compensation for the 
 increased labour imposed upon him ; when the zemindars 
 sent in their quarterly petitions; when he saw the cattle 
 of the peasantry dying in the beds of the dry water- 
 courses; or passed in his palanquin through the roofless 
 and deserted villages, he might possibly think of his duty 
 of promoting works of irrigation of giving comfort to 
 the ryot, and restoring wealth to the ruined noble; but 
 such reflections would only have a temporary effect. The 
 district must send forward its usual quota of revenue, and 
 those who left him without a surplus were answerable for 
 the neglect of public works and the breach of private 
 obligations. And hence it was that the zemindaries pro- 
 gressed from bad to worse for four years longer. No 
 single step had been taken in the path chalked out in 
 1 S-1 2 ; and at last the Marquis of T weeddale, a pious, 
 conscientious governor, gave his consent to the absolute 
 sale of the estates. There was no one near him who had 
 cared to say that Government had already obtained pos- 
 session of the lands as absolutely as if they had acquired 
 them by purchase; that improvements could be made 
 neither cheaper nor better by a change of title ; and that, 
 above all, the estates had been surrendered on the express 
 condition that they should be given back. Such conside- 
 rations concerned no one in office, and so the Vasareddy 
 zemindary in Guntoor, the debt upon it increased by the 
 
COMING IK SIGHT OP LAND. 271 
 
 sum of 38,000 since the title-deeds and responsibility 
 had been transferred to the State, was put up to auction, 
 in 1846, and bought by the Government for 500. Now 
 they had got rid of the rival Rajahs and their claims, and 
 could see their way in the matter of making paying im- 
 provements. 
 
 All this time the appeal to the King in Council was 
 pending. The papers had gone home in 1832, and four- 
 teen years had elapsed without the slightest notice being 
 taken of the matter. There were no witnesses to be 
 examined, and the lower courts had taken care to exact 
 the deposit of what was considered a sufficient sum to 
 cover costs. But the East India Company were not con- 
 cerned in the settlement of such causes, and what could 
 women and children in India know of the way to proceed ? 
 What would a Leicestershire squire of the old school be 
 likely to make of a suit which must be carried on in a 
 strange tongue, in courts sitting fifteen thousand miles 
 off? Perhaps the Yasareddy appeal might have been 
 unheard at this moment, had not Lord Brougham, with 
 that practical sagacity which has made him so truly 
 famous, discerned a mode of redressing one of the evils 
 of Indian administration of justice. A bill was passed 
 compelling the Company to prosecute all such appeals as 
 were then on hand, and making provision for the proper 
 disposal of such cases in future. Under the provisions of 
 this Act, the Yasareddy suit was brought to a hearing 
 before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 
 1848. The decision of the Sudder Court was reversed, 
 and Lutchmeputty Naidoo declared sole heir to the entire 
 zemindary. 
 
 There was much feasting in the halls of Lutchmeputty 
 Naidoo, now a man of twenty-three, when the Queen's 
 decree was made known. Old ryots thought of the days 
 of Yencatreddy, and believed that they might come round 
 again, and his friends lauded the justice of the Queen's 
 courts, where a man's rights could only rest in abeyance 
 for a season. In due course, Lutchmeputty presented a 
 petition to the Sudder Court, and, filing the decree of the 
 Privy Council, prayed to be put in possession. The 
 judges took the matter into consideration, and, reciting 
 s 2 
 
272 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 in their proceedings the absolute title now vesting in the 
 petitioner to the property left by Jugganatha, they decided 
 to collect the costs of the appeal in the first instance. The 
 Company's bill for bringing the case to hearing amounted 
 to 32,000., which they required to be paid as a prelimi- 
 nary measure. The securities deposited in the first 
 instance might realize perhaps, with interest, 10,000, and 
 he had now to find the balance. The Rajah, though rich 
 in parchments, had no cash, and the judge of the district 
 where he resided was instructed to seize his horses, ele- 
 phants, and whatever personal property could be laid hold 
 of. Lutchmeputty remonstrated against a proceeding 
 which seemed to imply that he was rather worse off than 
 before, and had made a heavy loss by being declared the 
 heir to 50,000 a year. The judge consented to stay the 
 sale of his household gear for a short time, but asked 
 what hu wanted with elephants and their trappings ? 
 They were only for rich men, and he was not of that class. 
 
 The lapse of another month enlightened the landless 
 Rajah to the true worth of the decree for which 32,000. 
 had been charged. When the Company's Courts had sold 
 him up entirely, he was told that there was nothing to be 
 handed over to him. The Government had bought his 
 Guntoor estates two years back, and as for the Masulipa- 
 tani villages, he might have them upon payment of the 
 arrears, amounting to 280,000. Neither oyster nor 
 shell came into his possession. The Revenue Board cared 
 nothing for the decree of the Privy Council, of which he 
 should have speedy proof. It declared him the sole owner 
 of the estates, and nothing could divest him of that title 
 short of new legal proceedings, or of his own act of aliena- 
 tion. The decree was filed in the Sudder Court in 
 October, 1848 ; and in April, 1849, the Board put up to 
 auction the Masulipatam property, as the estates of Ra- 
 inanadha Baboo, and bought it as such on behalf of 
 Government. There ! let him tell that to the Queen and 
 the Judicial Committee. 
 
 It was told to the Queen and the Judicial Committee ; 
 and in July, 1854, the members of that august body, 
 after hearing the Rajah's petition, which perhaps startled 
 them somewhat, recommended her Majesty to make 
 
A CONSOLING IDEA. 273 
 
 -another order for putting Lutchmeputty in possession. 
 The second mandate was issued, and it was now thought 
 justice would be done at last. Two hundred pounds 
 more were spent in getting the matter argued in the 
 Sudder Court, which finally dismissed the petition for 
 execution of the Queen's decree, and told the Rajah that, 
 if he wanted the estates, he must begin by filing suits 
 against the Company in the Zillah Courts. There must 
 be a suit for each estate, and a third for the sum originally 
 deposited in the treasury. The first sheet of paper used 
 in each cause would cost 100, and each separate page of 
 the proceedings would cost four shillings. In time the 
 cases would come to the Sudder in appeal, when the same 
 expense would be incurred over again ; and, at last, it 
 would be appealed to the Privy Council, when the Rajah 
 must deposit in hard cash security for the full amount of 
 the estimated costs. Lutchmeputty, who is a fine speci- 
 men of the Hindoo gentleman, still occasionally visits 
 Madras, vaguely fancying that changes of ministry in 
 England might help him ; but he has given up that hope 
 since the last appointment of a secretary to the Board of 
 Control. In reply one day to a remark of condolence, he 
 said, " You think it is a hard case ? I can assure you 
 that there are a hundred stories much worse than mine." 
 We have spoken of suits and suitors ; let us now speak 
 of judges. The highest judicial tribunal under the Com- 
 pany's government is called the Sudder Adawlut on the 
 civil, and Sudder Nizamut on the criminal, side. It con- 
 sists of three judges, who sit regularly, and a member of 
 Council, who is ex officio, and only takes his seat on very 
 rare occasions. Every civil cause, except the very lowest, 
 may come in appeal before the court, and every criminal 
 sentence passed by a judge or magistrate is reviewed as a 
 matter of course. It has the privilege of enhancing as 
 well as mitigating punishment, and can order a man to be 
 hanged whom the judge below only considered deserving 
 of transportation, or it may release him unconditionally. 
 A single judge sitting on either side of the court has the 
 same power as if the whole were present. If the entire 
 .authority of the courts of assize throughout England were 
 vested in the Court of Queen's Bench, the judges would 
 
274 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 have no wider jurisdiction than is exercised by the Sudder 
 Courts in India. 
 
 Exactly ten years since the Marquis of Tweeddale, 
 then Governor of Madras, suspended the three judges of 
 the Sudder Court in that Presidency, and the Court of 
 Directors, on being appealed to, made the removal perma- 
 nent. Of course the circumstance excited much local 
 comment, and gave rise to a lengthened correspondence 
 between the Government and the judges ; but when the 
 latter had spoken their minds with regard to the conduct 
 of Lord Tweeddale, they proceeded to give their opinions 
 of each other. The first judge, speaking of the third, 
 asked the Court of Directors as follows : " Why should 
 the responsibility of such an appointment, which placed 
 the disposal of landed and other property, and of sums of 
 money unlimited in value and amount, together with the 
 powers of life and death, in the hands of an incompetent 
 person or, to speak more correctly, why should the results 
 of such an appointment, and which, as evinced by the 
 memorial, followed as a matter of course, attach in any 
 way, direct or indirect, by inference or otherwise, to your 
 memorialist?" Of the second judge, the same weighty 
 authority wrote, that " he was in a state which had pro- 
 strated his judgment to a degree subversive of official 
 usefulness ;" and the third judge wrote of the first, that 
 he was " a canting hypocrite, a pitiful scoundrel held in 
 the lowest repute, and incapable of adhering to the truth 
 in any statement, verbal or written." We have tried to 
 fancy what the public would say in England if Sir 
 Samuel Coleridge drew such a pen-and-ink portrait of 
 Lord Campbell ; but the imagination refuses to compass 
 it. In Madras the statement scarcely provoked notice ; 
 it seemed to be in accordance with the system of things ; 
 a little too violent, perhaps ; but then allowance must be 
 made for excited feelings. Any astonishment that a 
 stranger might have felt on the subject would have been 
 mitigated a few months afterwards, when a member of 
 the Board of Revenue, who had repeatedly officiated for 
 months as a Sudder judge, was sentenced by the Queen's 
 Court to six months' imprisonment for the crime of 
 perjury. 
 
EMPLOYING STRANGE WORKMEN. 275 
 
 The fool, the firebrand, and the judge denounced by 
 his colleague as something worse, had sat on the highest 
 seats of justice for years ; and, if what they said of each 
 other were true, what an amount of mischief and misery 
 they must have wrought amongst twenty-three millions 
 of people ! Yet neither in their cases, nor in that of the 
 official who was so terribly punished, did the Government 
 ever think of interfering to check the scandal, of the 
 existence of which they could not possibly be ignorant. 
 The judges were removed because they had quarrelled 
 with the local authorities, and not on the score of their 
 proved untitness for office. They were degraded as civi- 
 lians, but not as judiciaries ; for being insubordinate, and 
 not for being destitute alike of wisdom and self-respect. 
 Too bad at last for Lord Tweeddale, they had always been 
 good enough for the people. 
 
 A similar result was exhibited in Bombay, where, in 
 1853, Lord Falkland removed two of the Sudder judges 
 on account of comments made upon their private cha- 
 racters in a Bombay newspaper. Had the welfare of the 
 public or the purity of the judicial bench been objects of 
 the smallest regard, the Government would have saved 
 themselves much pain and the service much discredit. 
 Men asked why it was that a measure, which ought to 
 have originated with the highest authority, was allowed 
 to become the work of a journalist 1 It was honestly 
 enough avowed that the articles in the newspaper formed 
 the grounds upon which the judges had been deposed from 
 their high places ; but the editor neither created the 
 public scandal nor intensified it, so far as Bombay was 
 concerned. He merely related to persons at a distance 
 facts which everybody in the Western Presidency were 
 long acquainted with. It was impossible not to see that 
 the judges were in reality punished, not for indebtedness, 
 immorality, or for exposing the Sudder Court to the 
 chances of contempt and suspicion, but for having been 
 written about in a public journal. Whatever of actual 
 mischief resulted from their conduct existed indepen- 
 dently of newspaper comments. All the circumstances 
 which had been treated as a bar to their continued em- 
 ployment as dispensers of justice, must have been cur- 
 
276 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 rently talked of in English drawing-rooms and native 
 bazaars long before the Gazette dared to allude to them. 
 It was an error, in fact, to assert that the scandal grew 
 out of the leading articles, as it was a blundering policy 
 to let people see that the press took better care of the 
 public interests than the Government. If the judges 
 were innocent of offences which deserved so severe a 
 punishment, no difficulty in the way of convicting their 
 slanderers could justify the Government in disgracing 
 them ; and if they were guilty, it should not have been 
 left to a private individual to ordain and ensure their 
 downfall. 
 
 The Court of Directors approved in each instance of the 
 removal of the judges ; but the latter had to be provided 
 for in future, and it is in the mode of caring for them that 
 we detect the true character of Indian rule. Of the 
 Madras officials, two had served their time, and accepted 
 retiring pensions; but the third judge had no desire to 
 leave the service, and, by prescription, the Government 
 were bound to give him a salary equal to that which he 
 had last enjoyed. There were no posts, except in the 
 Revenue Board, to which such a rate of income was at- 
 tached ; and, under any kind of administration, it was 
 thought indispensable to have none but clever men in that 
 department. It was needful, then, to secure the main 
 object in view, that he should go into the judicial line 
 again, and so they gave him a sessions judgeship, and, in 
 due time, his decisions came up to the Sudder Court to 
 be reviewed by the men whom he had reviewed five or 
 six years beforehand. One of these decisions concerned 
 the right of certain parties to a piece of ground. Wit- 
 nesses for the plaintiffs deposed that to their knowledge 
 the ground sued for had been in the possession of the 
 claimants' ancestors, on which the moonsiff gave it in their 
 favour. The defendants appealed to the judge. They 
 said these witnesses are all men of middle age, and it is 
 proved beyond doubt that we have held possession against 
 one part of the family claiming for sixty, and against the 
 other for forty years how can they speak, except from 
 hearsay? The judge saw no force in such a statement, 
 and affirmed the judgment, observing that " the decision 
 
THE ABUSE THAT HAS NO ADVOCATES. 277 
 
 of the district moonsiff had been based on the evidence 
 adduced, and that the Court cannot discover any sub- 
 stantial reason advanced against it in the appeal to ques- 
 tion its correctness." It was nothing that what the wit- 
 nesses swore to happened before they were born, nor did 
 he stop to consider a plea based on the adverse possession 
 for at least forty years by the defendants, though but a 
 month before the Government defeated a suit against 
 themselves by pleading the Statute of Limitations ! 
 
 On a second occasion, the Sudder judge then extant 
 said, of his predecessor's verdict, that " he was wrong oil 
 every point of law save one, and that was immaterial." 
 
 We might multiply to utter weariness examples of the 
 thorough degradation of law and justice in India, and the 
 chances would still be, that every man who has resided for 
 a few years in the country could, from his own experience, 
 tell of some instance more strange and grotesque. There 
 are differences of opinion with regard to every topic of 
 Eastern reform, except upon the subject of the Company's 
 judicial system. It provokes no discussion, since it has no 
 defenders. It is incapable of improvement, and therefore 
 no one suggests plans of amelioration. Young men, when 
 they are placed on the Bench, have had no opportunities 
 of acquiring a knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence ; 
 and persons of mature age find common sense a guide suf- 
 ficiently reliable to serve in lieu of law, statute or common. 
 It was one of the oldest judges in Madras who fined a 
 man 5,5001. for bringing a civil suit, which the Sudder 
 Court afterwards decided in his favour ; and it was the 
 civilian who is called the ablest man on the Bench who 
 gave validity to a Papal bull, and decided that his Holi- 
 ness had dominion in India. 
 
 The reforms needed are, the appointment of trained 
 lawyers to sit as judges, and the use of English as the 
 language of the courts. If the choice to be made lay be- 
 tween retaining as judges the men who at least knew the 
 language of the country, in preference to replacing them 
 by men who only knew the law, we should still advocate 
 the change, because it is infinitely better that the j udge 
 should be able to give a sound decision, than that the 
 suitor should understand the words in which he pro- 
 
278 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 nounced it. But it is not true that in the majority of 
 cases the judges know the language of the district over 
 which they preside. In Bengal and the North-west the 
 greater number may be able to converse with their She- 
 ristadars, but of the dialects familiar to the people they 
 know next to nothing ; whilst in Bombay and Madras no 
 heed is taken of such a test of fitness. The civilian who 
 speaks Mahratta is perhaps promoted to a judicial post 
 in the Guzerattee country. The apt scholar in Tamil is 
 appointed to a court where people only speak Telogoo. 
 We happen to know an instance where the utter ignorance 
 on the part of the judge of even the rudiments of the 
 native tongue was apologized for by the plea that " the 
 defect was of no consequence, since he was as deaf as a 
 post." He was thought no worse of by the rest of his 
 judicial contemporaries, and for the best of reasons. 
 
 Of course it would be better that a judge should know 
 the native languages, but there is not the slightest ground 
 for supposing that the barrister whose whole life is de- 
 voted to the legal profession will be less anxious to fit 
 himself in every respect for the discharge of his duties 
 than the civilian, who may be taken any day from the 
 Bench to the Revenue Board, sent over the country with 
 a roving commission, or comfortably lodged in the secre- 
 tariat. The one man shines or fails as a judge, and is 
 always exposed to the severe criticism of the legal profes- 
 sion : the other scarcely knows the meaning of the term 
 "responsibility;" is sure of pay, and careless of censure. 
 He accepts the office which binds him to dispose of 
 human life and liberty as a labourer would undertake 
 a new job, trusting that in time he may learn to handle 
 his tools well, and get accustomed to the work placed 
 before him. 
 
 If provision be made for the settlement of small disputes 
 by native punchayets, and the right of appeal is abridged 
 to the limits which regulate it in England, we shall be 
 quite content to know that the suitor in the superior 
 courts is obliged to have the judge's English translated to 
 him in future, as he is now compelled to get translations 
 of his Hindostaiii or Tamil. There are few of us in Eng- 
 land who care to comprehend the meaning of what is said 
 
INEFFICIENCY OF NATIVE EDUCATION. 279 
 
 on our behalf in a court of justice. We take law as we 
 take physic, a nauseous draught, about the composition, of 
 which we had better not be too curious. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 STATE EDUCATION IN INDIA ALMOST WHOLLY CONFINED TO THE UPPER 
 CLASSES. MISTAKEN NOTIONS AS TO ITS RESULTS. PURELY SECULAR 
 CHARACTER OP THE INSTRUCTION. THE FIELD FOR CHRISTIAN 
 EFFORT. 
 
 THE Court of Directors, in a letter to the Madras Go- 
 vernment of the year 1833, observe: "The improve- 
 ments in education which effectually contribute to elevate 
 the moral and intellectual condition of a people are those 
 which concern the education of the higher classes, of 
 those persons possessing leisure and influence over the 
 minds of their countrymen. You are moreover ac- 
 quainted with our anxious desire to have at our disposal 
 a body of natives, qualified by their habits and acquire- 
 ments to take a larger share and occupy higher stations 
 in the civil administration than has hitherto been the 
 practice under the Indian Governments. The measures 
 for education which have been adopted or planned at 
 your Presidency have no tendency to produce such per- 
 sons." They subsequently add : " We consider this as 
 the scope to which all your endeavours with respect to 
 the education of the natives should refer." In another 
 letter of the Court, quoted by Lord Auckland in his 
 minute of 24th November, 1839, they observe : "That, 
 with a view to the moral and intellectual improvement 
 of the people, the great primary object is the extension, 
 among those who have leisure or advanced study, of the 
 most complete education in our power. By raising the 
 standard of instruction among these classes, we should 
 eventually produce a much greater and more beneficial 
 change in the ideas and feelings of the community than 
 we can hope to produce by acting more directly on the 
 more numerous masses." 
 
 We entirely concur in the objects sought to be ob- 
 tained by the Court of Directors, but utterly deny the 
 wisdom of the mode by which they seek to achieve them. 
 
280 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 Upon what grounds is it asserted that the best way to 
 advance the moral and intellectual welfare of the people 
 is to raise the standard of instruction amongst the higher 
 classes ? The history of the past affords no warranty for 
 it. The universities of England are nearly five hundred 
 years old ; in every age they produced distinguished 
 men : but did the enjoyment of these facilities for learn- 
 ing elevate the morals and intellects of the people ? 
 Why, it seems but yesterday when women were burned 
 for witchcraft ; and at this moment there are millions of 
 people in England and Wales wholly unable to read the 
 letters of the alphabet. So strange a doctrine we have 
 not heard for many years ; and yet it has survived 
 through the journey from Leadenhall-street to India, 
 and has still some signs of life remaining in it ! There 
 is not a writer whose vocation is to deal with the exist- 
 ing questions of morals and politics, who does not believe 
 that, so far from its being necessary to retrace our steps, 
 we must march forward on the great highway to change 
 with accelerated speed. And what is it that has so en- 
 tirely altered the aspect of the thinking and acting 
 world ? Is it the greater spread of knowledge amongst 
 the higher classes, or the greater intensity of moral feel- 
 ing amongst them ? Are there more well- educated per- 
 sons in their ranks than at any former period ; so that, 
 observing the close connexion which has always existed 
 between the increase of their knowledge and the pro- 
 gressive amelioration of the people, we can say that the 
 latter are better off because the former are more wisely 
 instructed ? A glorious argument this for aristocracy, 
 were it only tenable. To show the growth of the 
 national happiness, it would only be necessary to refer 
 to the number of pupils at the colleges, and the lists of 
 academic degrees. Each wrangler would be accounted 
 <i national benefactor ; and the existence of deans and 
 proctors would be associated, like the game-laws and 
 the ten-pound franchise, with the best interests of the 
 Constitution. 
 
 Man} 7 - ages have elapsed since peculiar resources were 
 -afforded to the Brahmins ; but the most considerate cos- 
 mopolite would hesitate to enroll them amongst the 
 
THE FLUID THAT WILL ONLY ASCEND. 281 
 
 benefactors of the world. They boast of vast stores of 
 ancient learning. They have amassed great riches, and 
 been invested with unbounded power ; but to what good 
 end ? They have cherished the most degrading supersti- 
 tions, and practised the most shameless impostures. They 
 have arrogated to themselves the possession and enjoy- 
 ment of the rarest gifts of fortune, and perpetuated the 
 most revolting system known to the world. It is only 
 from a diminution of their abused power that we can 
 hope to accomplish the great work of national regenera- 
 tion. Amongst the various arguments by which the Go- 
 vernment have from time to time advocated their favourite 
 plan, they have never once appealed to examples furnished 
 in the history either of the past or the present. 
 
 They have bought scholars who, it is thought, would in 
 time vend learning " without money and without price." 
 "If we can only inspire the love of knowledge in the 
 minds of the superior classes, the results will be, it is 
 contended, a higher standard of morals in the cases of 
 the individuals, a larger amount of affection for the 
 British Government, and an unconquerable desire to 
 spread amongst their own countrymen the intellectual 
 blessings which they have received." We have never 
 heard of philosophy more benevolent and more Utopian. 
 It is proposed by men who witness the wondrous changes 
 brought about in the Western world, purely by the 
 agency of popular knowledge, to redress the defects of 
 the two hundred millions of India by giving superior 
 education to the superior classes, and to them only. It 
 is admitted that the attempt to implant religious feelings 
 would be wholly abortive ; and yet it is thought that, 
 by making the few more powerful, the welfare of the 
 many will be cared for ! We expect that the result of 
 our system of intercourse and Government will be to 
 pull down, in a great measure, the religious superiority 
 of the higher class ; but we propose to make atonement 
 by setting up fresh claims on their behalf, which shall at 
 all times be backed by our authority ! We will give 
 them strength of intellect without the soft humanities of 
 religion ! When they have renounced the gods of their 
 fathers, whilst disbelieving the faith of the stranger 
 
282 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 when they are armed with exclusive privileges, and own 
 no tie binding them to their humble fellow men we 
 expect that they will surpass ourselves in moderation, 
 and form an aristocracy of worth such as the world in 
 every age has vainly sighed for. 
 
 Power instinctively knows its rights, and always re- 
 conciles the assertion of them with abstract notions of 
 justice ; but it never originates the knowledge of its 
 duties. Whilst learning was confined to the upper 
 classes at home, they governed for their own sakes. 
 When the folios of literature gave way to the octavos, 
 and the author was patronized by the bookseller instead 
 of the nobleman, opinion questioned the theory that 
 Heaven had intended one law for the rich and another 
 for the poor ; but when the last change had been effected, 
 and the flying sheets, which uttered the noblest thoughts 
 of great men, were read by the labourer at his fireside, 
 then it was that the revolution of power was accom- 
 plished, and the solemn truth proclaimed that all men 
 were equal in the sight of the law, and that all authority 
 should be exercised only for the benefit of the multitude. 
 The learning of the few has enlarged the bounds of 
 human speculation and refined the manners of its vota- 
 ries ; but the crude knowledge of the masses, rude and 
 imperfect as it is, has added to the empire of truth and 
 brightened the prospects of the future 1 . 
 
 We ask the friends of Indian universities to favour us 
 with a single example of the truth of their theory from 
 the instances which have already fallen within the scope 
 of their experience. They have educated many children 
 of wealthy men, and have been the means of advancing 
 very materially the worldly prospects of some of their 
 pupils; but what contribution have these made to the 
 great work of regenerating their fellow men? How have 
 they begun to act upon the masses ? Have any of them 
 formed classes at their own homes, or elsewhere, for the 
 instruction of their less fortunate or less wise country- 
 men? Or have they kept their knowledge to them- 
 selves, as a personal gift not to be soiled by contact with 
 the ignorant vulgar? Have they in any way shown 
 themselves anxious to advance the general interests and 
 
BEGGAKS OF A SUPERIOR ORDER. 283 
 
 repay philanthropy with patriotism ? Have the few in- 
 telligent heads of Hindoo families, as they grew more 
 and more acquainted with the nature of the disinterested 
 exertions made in their behalf, given any help to the 
 good cause ? Has any party amongst the natives, rich or 
 poor, urged on the scheme ? That they are not in- 
 different to the necessity of offering opposition to the 
 success of missionary effort in the cause of education, we 
 admit. But five years since the middle classes of the 
 great district of Bellary forwarded a petition to the 
 Madras Government, which discloses fully their notions 
 of what a national education should be, and what is the 
 nature of their expectations from the State. The peti- 
 tioners say: "We deem it proper here to notice that 
 our schools at Bellary, being founded by the respectable 
 portion of our community, are adapted for the higher 
 classes ; and, consequently, admission is given therein, 
 not only to Hindoo youths, but also to the children 
 of respectable families of the Mahomedan population. 
 Having schools of our own, we scarcely have any con- 
 nexion with the school recently established by the 
 mission at Bellary, in which the lowest classes form 
 the majority of the pupils ; and neither do we wish to 
 have any concern whatever therewith." 
 
 This, it must be known, is an extract from a letter 
 requiring the assistance of the Government. The "re- 
 spectable portion of the community" at Bellary have main- 
 tained their own schools for eight years ; but hearing that 
 at Madras 10,000. is annually expended in the great 
 cause of teaching the higher classes, they naturally desire 
 to be placed on an equal footing. Education of itself 
 is good, but education for nothing is better. They are 
 proud of the fact, and allege it as a recommendation, that 
 they have no connexion with the lower classes ; but they 
 are not above begging. They will part with their inde- 
 pendence, but not with their rupees. They are the low- 
 liest servants of the Government, but they will not tole- 
 rate the acquisition of knowledge by their own countrymen. 
 Let the State, which is upheld by all, found schools and 
 support them out of the common funds, but in the recep- 
 tion of scholars only consider the " respectable portion of 
 
THE SEPOY KEVOLT. 
 
 the community," and adopt free teaching to the higher 
 classes ! We have asked for an illustration on the other 
 side of the question, but will manage to make shift with 
 the present for want of a better. 
 
 It is not well that the existing system should be upheld. 
 An age may, perhaps, elapse before the light of a better 
 faith sheds its equal rays over the land ; for after the 
 demolition of a creed there is a time during which the 
 ruins must cumber the soil, and, until those are cleared 
 away, the task of the restorer cannot be commenced ; but 
 the action of political and social wrongs is never for a. 
 moment intermitted. The unjust rule and the frequent 
 privation are felt equally by the Christian and the idola- 
 ter; and though we may fail to teach the natives the 
 truths of our theology, we may easily acquaint them with 
 the nature of our legislation. Our object should be to 
 protect them against the better knowledge of their own 
 countrymen, who charge upon British authority their 
 own acts of monstrous oppression. We want to see the 
 Hindoo armed by his knowledge against the assaults of 
 power, and made as impervious to an illegal act as the 
 European or East Indian. We cannot teach him Socrates 
 and Shakspeare ; but we can make him acquainted with 
 the powers of native officials, and instruct him in the 
 method of procuring redress for injustice. We may fail, 
 for some generations to come, in making him a moralist, 
 patriot, or Christian ; but we may convert him into a 
 contented subject : we can train his selfishness in the 
 right direction, and enable him to curb the exercise of 
 inimical power by showing him the secret of his own. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 TENDENCY OF THE NATIVE MIND TO IMITATION. VALUE TO ENGLAND 
 AND INDIA OF AN EXTENDED SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 
 
 AMOXGST great multitudes of people the elements of 
 strength are invariably found more or less abundantly, 
 and it only requires skilful management to evolve them. 
 Granted that the natives of India are averse to change, 
 and therefore indifferent to the acquisition of foreign 
 
LAYING THE FOUNDATION'S. 285 
 
 knowledge, they are also imbued with the most intense 
 love of wealth, and their avarice will always overcome 
 their apathy. Show them by palpable evidence that they 
 can get more power and profit by adopting European 
 modes of action make it plain to them that change will 
 produce the most beneficial results and they will not 
 hesitate to follow the example of the Western world. 
 Their faculty of imitation is proverbial for its excellence 
 and wherever the means of advantage have been fairly 
 exhibited to them, they show no lack of inclination to 
 avail themselves of opportunity. It is a mistake to sup- 
 pose that their conservatism is the result of inaptitude or 
 indifference. They follow the ways of their fathers be- 
 cause they believe in their sufficient excellence. They are 
 incapable of originating new ideas ; and hitherto it has 
 not been thought worth the while of those having means 
 and authority to teach them the absurdity of existing 
 modes of thought and action. In ten years a judicious 
 scheme of national education would effect an almost entire 
 revolution in the habits and condition of the people. In- 
 stead of adapting instruction to the use of the higher 
 classes, we would address it to the capacities and selfish- 
 ness of the multitude. A board of competent persona 
 should be formed in each Presidency, to whom ought to 
 be confided the tasks of rendering into the vernacular lan- 
 guages the simplest forms of European knowledge. To 
 the agriculturists should be distributed tracts showing the 
 best methods of increasing the riches of the soil. To the 
 workers in metals and manufactures, the most approved 
 processes of labour ought to be explained. Each trade 
 and branch of industry should be furnished with the in- 
 formation best calculated to increase the worth of the 
 various products of industry ; and when it was once 
 thoroughly understood that the land could be rendered 
 more fertile, the sources of employment more abundant, 
 and the general value of all articles greatly increased, we 
 might easily depend upon the strength of the selfish im- 
 pulse in urging forward the great work of improvement. 
 Within the reach of all persons, and clothed in the very 
 simplest garb, should be placed the knowledge which it 
 most concerned them to obtain j and to each and all we 
 
 T 
 
286 THE SEPOY EEVOLT. 
 
 would afford the means of arriving at a correct under- 
 standing of the relative powers and duties of the various 
 officers entrusted with the work of administering the go- 
 vernment of the country. It would be absurd to attach 
 as much value to the influence of publicity in India as is 
 properly awarded to it in England, and we do not expect 
 that Asiatics would be as prompt as our own countrymen 
 to resist the arbitrary exercise of authority ; but by de- 
 grees a feeling of opposition to injustice at all times 
 existing in a latent state would be brought into action, 
 and, at the very worst, the sins of actual commission only 
 would be charged upon the British Government. We 
 have no belief whatever in the patriotism of the Hindoos, 
 and therefore think it unwise to place any reliance upon 
 the supposed good intentions of the superior classes ; but 
 perhaps the surest guarantee of good government in any 
 country whatever is the consciousness, on the part of the 
 rulers, that the people are acquainted with the nature and 
 extent of their own privileges. As it is the interest of 
 the many to be well governed, it naturally follows that 
 the best way to keep rulers honest is to array the instincts 
 of the masses in opposition to the corrupt impulses of the 
 few. When oppression becomes dangerous to the chief 
 actors in the work, a great advance in the march of liberty 
 is gained ; but if it is made almost impossible, it is astonish- 
 ing what service is rendered to the cause of public virtue. 
 
 A great incidental advantage would also accrue from the 
 performance of this work of national education. Whilst 
 teaching the lessons of European civilization, we might our- 
 selves acquire a knowledge of Indian resources. Perhaps 
 no race of conquerors ever occupied, for so long a time, a 
 vast territory with so little advantage, in the way of adding 
 to their own stock of information. The English character, 
 in this respect, offers the strangest contradictious. In all 
 other parts of the globe we rake the depths of the sea and 
 shore in quest of the riclies which in India we refuse to 
 scrape off the surface with our nails. 
 
 At home the art of the chemist is employed to conquer, 
 by the most refined combinations of capital and skill, the 
 difficulties of nature. In India, where the most costly 
 products might be created at the expense of a little time 
 
TURNING KNOWLEDGE INTO NUTRIMENT. 287 
 
 and knowledge, the outlay is often considered too great. 
 We are the most skilful artisans in the world, but our 
 tool-chests are invariably left at home. We complete our 
 education in the land of the setting sun, and think life 
 too short to make any additions to our stock of knowledge 
 when we have quitted its shores for the East. 
 
 The world has never yet seen an example of a well- 
 governed people becoming vicious and insubordinate, and 
 we have no fear that the Hindoos would prove an excep- 
 tion to the rule. There are opportunities given to the 
 humblest classes in Britain which the people of India 
 have never been permitted to hope for, but to the use of 
 which they could never be insensible, whilst wealth, and 
 fame, and power have charms which are worth struggling 
 for. It should be our policy to assimilate, in this respect, 
 the condition of all British subjects to give ambition 
 the hopes of advancement, enterprise the means of employ- 
 ment, and talent of every kind the opportunity of growth, 
 in whatever part of the soil its roots are found implanted. 
 A future in which these objects should be realized is 
 not shut out from the Indian vision ; but to render it 
 possible it is requisite that the education we propose to 
 impart should not be confined to the superior classes. 
 
 It is not supposed by the present heads of the univer- 
 sities that the study of knowledge for its own sake, however 
 great the opportunities afforded for its acquisition, can 
 prove an incentive strong enough in the minds of the 
 native youth to induce them to enrol themselves as 
 scholars. This circumstance, considered by itself, pro- 
 vokes some mortifying reflections, but it also gives rise to 
 some serious inconveniences, which in a great measure 
 detract from the utility of educational projects. It is all 
 very well to hold out as an incessant bribe the prospect 
 of Government pay, as a reward for the inhalation of the 
 weakest portion of Locke, Bacon, Pin nock, and other 
 kindred spirits ; but there is such a thing as over-cram- 
 ming public offices, as well as scholars ; added to which, 
 the aspiring alumni, who have scraped away some portion 
 of the shell of knowledge, and written essays almost as 
 good as new, are prone to institute comparisons between 
 their salaries of thirty and forty rupees as writers, and the 
 
 T2 
 
288 THE SEPOY HE VOLT. 
 
 huge sums melted by men, their superiors, as they are 
 willing to admit, in all things except intellectual culture. 
 They have been taught that the tree of knowledge always 
 bears fruit of a kind sufficient to satisfy the most craving 
 appetite ; and they find that, like the famous apples of 
 the Dead Sea, though pleasant to the sight, it turns to 
 ashes in the mouth. Men are ever prone to consider 
 themselves undervalued and underpaid ; and it seems 
 strange to imagine that a system of culture which sets up 
 material benefit as the chief, nay, almost the sole reward 
 of exertion, whilst the means of satisfying the hope are so 
 notoriously small, should be thought likely to increase the 
 amount of affection entertained for the present rulers of 
 the country. We believe that, so far from having brought 
 about this desirable result, it has prompted those who 
 have been trained under its influence to reason in the 
 spirit of the worst philosophy upon the curses of refine- 
 ment and the evils of intellectual superiority. 
 
 We are not weak enough to separate the wish for learn- 
 ing from the desire of ultimate benefit, nor to seek to 
 hinder the educated portion of the Hindoo community 
 from reaping the just reward of superior ability ; but, in- 
 stead of drafting them in crowds to the public offices, 
 there to waste existence in fruitless repinings and object- 
 less efforts, they should be taught to combine the love of 
 gain with feelings of a higher and worthier cast. We 
 would have the colleges changed into great normal schools, 
 and the students ^trained for the work of teaching their 
 countrymen throughout the length and breadth of the 
 land. The first step in the great work of general educa- 
 tion must evidently be the training of a body of competent 
 teachers ; but it is altogether out of the question to sup- 
 pose that European agency can be employed, except upon 
 the most limited scale. A great plan which, beginning 
 with the establishment of village schools, after a compe- 
 tent body of teachers had been formed, would afford the 
 opportunity of filtrating the native intellect till the rarest 
 products were found in a university, would command the 
 cordial support of all classes. It is a question by no means 
 decided, whether the instruction now afforded in the 
 highest schools is really the best calculated to advance the 
 
PREPARING THE YEAST FOR LEAVENING. 289 
 
 mental or moral condition of the pupils ; but, putting this 
 aside, as a needless subject of discussion, it is clear that 
 the results obtained are not worth the cost, either in the 
 estimation of Europeans or Hindoos. In no country in 
 the world do class interests and class prejudices obtain so 
 much as in India ; and it is the plain duty of a Govern- 
 ment which is paid by all, and which exists nominally for 
 the benefit of all, to bring to bear in their fullest force all 
 the levelling principles of education. It should be the 
 especial duty of our people to afford equal facilities to all 
 ranks. They ought, above all other things, to proclaim 
 the republicanism of knowledge, and that Nature makes 
 no distinction of castes in bestowing her gifts of intellect 
 and beauty. So far is such an idea from obtaining accep- 
 tation, that we believe it has never been enunciated by 
 the supporters of the existing state of things. The 
 scholars of the universities are at this moment almost ex- 
 clusively composed of the superior classes, and above one- 
 half of them are remunerated in hard coin for their at- 
 tendance. The one fact telling somewhat against the 
 catholicity of the system, and the other militating as 
 strongly against the feeble belief in its popularity. 
 
 The establishment of boards of English and native pro- 
 fessors, who should be instructed to prepare for universal 
 distribution elementary tracts, conveying the wisdom of 
 Europe in the language of the East, would be the first 
 step in the right direction. Unless we anticipate that the 
 impoverished Hindoo, to whom the progress of the world 
 is all a mystery, should make greater advances in mental 
 study than the nations amongst whom knowledge has 
 grown up from infancy to maturity, we cannot expect 
 that our language and literature will become extensively 
 familiar to him. What the dead languages are to our 
 own countrymen, our own tongue is to the Indian ; and 
 how few of the former are familiar with them ! To the 
 few who enjoy great opportunities or are prompted by 
 strong inclination, the obstacles in the way of gaining even 
 an ordinary acquaintance with the higher branches of 
 study may not prove insuperable ; but we shall have 
 done much if, in the course of the next fifty years, we can 
 . succeed in imparting even the rudest outlines of know- 
 
290 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 ledge to the dusky masses. To make any sensible pro- 
 gress, however, it will be necessary to begin in another 
 direction, and look upon a university, not as a starting- 
 point, but as a final halting-place the goal of the best 
 and wisest amongst two hundred millions of human beings. 
 
 We have not lost sight of the fact that the point at 
 issue is not what should be the character of a truly 
 national scheme, but what is the best use to which the 
 limited resources at the command of the Government shall 
 be applied. We do not oppose colleges, but we more 
 strongly advocate village schools. The best interests of a 
 community require that each of its members should be 
 educated to the top of his bent ; but if we are to choose 
 between the system whith turns out annually, at an enor- 
 mous cost, a half dozen " practically" uneducated " pro- 
 ficients," whose intellects add nothing to the general stock 
 of knowledge, and whose cultivated moral sense has scarcely, 
 in each Presidency, produced a Christian in theory or a 
 patriot in practice, and the system which should teach the 
 masses the great simple truths which lie at the very foun- 
 dation of all human learning ! why, we have no hesita- 
 tion in coming to a conclusion on the subject. So far as 
 eleemosynary aid extends, we would rather bestow it in 
 teaching twelve ryots the truths which our English boys 
 become acquainted with in the nursery, than in the vain 
 endeavour to impart European wisdom or modes of 
 thought to members of the upper class. We are not 
 dealing with a question upon which freedom of choice is 
 permitted ; we have only a poor alternative a little for 
 the many of that which is surely useful, or much for the 
 few of that which often neither benefits nor adorns. 
 
 Had we proposed that the State education now given 
 should be abolished in favour of a plan which gave instruc- 
 tion in mechanical vocations, we should have been pre- 
 pared to defend the suggestion. We contend that hitherto 
 the Government have not succeeded in making even a 
 fraction of the population, morally or intellectually, wiser, 
 and we see no encouragement to hope for a different con- 
 clusion in times to come. Amongst the alurnni of the 
 universities, past and present, are to be found the greatest 
 sticklers for caste, the bitterest haters of Christianity, the 
 
SURFACE-PLOUGHING EVERYWHERE. 291 
 
 most prejudiced and exclusive, in short, of the Hindoo 
 population. Are we then to care for the upholding of 
 such a system of " national education as this T Would it 
 not be a thousand times better to advance the national 
 welfare of the masses, in the rear of which ever advances 
 the incalculable blessings of an improved morality and 
 general enlightenment ? 
 
 We are weary of reference to the regenerating influence 
 of Socrates, Milton, and mathematics. W^hat we seek is 
 to cultivate amongst this people the existence and know- 
 ledge of Power. Instead of aiding the Brahmin and the 
 upper classes generally, we want to raise a counterpoise 
 to their baneful influence to defend the Hindoo against 
 the assaults of the native aristocracy. If we saw any 
 signs, however remote, of the growth of patriotic feeling 
 amongst the higher ranks, we might be content to witness, 
 for a few years longer, the further trial of the present ex- 
 periment ; but so far from inducing a better feeling to- 
 wards their destitute and low-caste countrymen, the 
 instruction which they imbibe seems only to sharpen the 
 natural appetite for the power to exert oppression. It is 
 universally admitted, by those who have studied the sta- 
 tistics of crime, that education has the happiest effect in 
 diminishing the amount of evil ; but it is not necessary to 
 impart the higher branches of study to realize the moral 
 benefits of training. The ability to translate Euripides, 
 or master the hardships of the differential calculus, affords 
 no superior guarantee for the moral worth of its possessor. 
 The harvest of piety to be reaped at the university is not 
 more abundant than that which the despised grammar- 
 schools afford ; and hence, until it is universally held that 
 the State is equally bound to maintain policemen and 
 schoolmasters, no case can be established, either in favour 
 of universities or Protestant colleges. We know that the 
 immortal part of one man is as precious as that of another 
 in the sight of Heaven ; and the good behaviour of the 
 many ought to be infinitely more valuable to the State 
 than the mere intellectual superiority of the few. The 
 moral value of education lies in the first few lessons, and 
 not in the recondite truths of learning. Teach a whole 
 people to read, and cheapen all access to knowledge, and 
 
292 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 the consequences will be visible in the decay of gaols and 
 the increase of churches ; but found colleges and sneer at 
 grammar-schools and village tuition, and you will have 
 the pedant at the top of your pyramid of society, and a 
 broad basis of crime at the bottom. 
 
 It must not be supposed that we are hostile, or even 
 indifferent, to the existence of the highest seminaries of 
 learning ; but we have to deal practically with a question 
 of comparisons. Here is a little money to be laid out 
 upon national education, in the way most conducive to the 
 public benefit ; and how can the end be best achieved ? 
 Our opponents contend that, by training a few youths in 
 the knowledge of the highest branches of human wisdom, 
 we are creating a force which, in time, will penetrate to 
 the remotest parts of the body politic. We, on the con- 
 trary, argue, not that their wish is improper or their ma- 
 chinery intrinsically useless, but that they are pursuing 
 the wrong path and embracing the smaller instead of the 
 greater good. It is certain that the principle of evil is 
 active in all minds, and requires repression ; hence the 
 necessity of universal education : but it is not true, either 
 that moral beauty resides in the mysterious depths of na- 
 ture, or that, to induce a youth to exert for the public 
 good some rare faculty with which he may be gifted, it is 
 necessary to found universities at the public expense. 
 Whatever genius resides in him may be developed in a 
 grammar-school ; if the innate power is there, it will be 
 seen to defy obstruction, rather than require forcing. If 
 all men could receive such a measure of education as is 
 afforded at grammar-schools, the question as to the exis- 
 tence of " mute inglorious Miltons" would be set at rest for 
 ever. A cursory examination would show that few authors 
 of prize poems and gainers of mathematical prizes have 
 made for themselves places in the world's estimation, in 
 comparison with the host of men who obtain their know- 
 ledge from the parish pedagogue, and earn their living by 
 the sweat of their daily toils. 
 
 It is no more just to call upon the State to found uni- 
 versities than to demand that it should support workshops, 
 rice depots, and fever hospitals in every locality. Labour 
 is good, and rice not to be despised, but the task of pro- 
 
MAKING AN ELECTION. 293 
 
 viding either of them is not the duty of a Government ; and 
 we should not incur the odium of being thought indifferent 
 to human welfare, were we to resist the proposal of looking 
 to the State for due supplies. The very restricted task 
 which we would impose upon the guardians of the com- 
 munity is perhaps open to challenge on the part of those 
 who contend that, of all aids to happiness, self-help is the 
 most efficacious ; but we are disposed to make an excep- 
 tion in this instance to an otherwise valuable rule. The 
 masses do not understand the value of education ; and 
 where the knowledge of its uses and the will to improve it 
 exist, the means are often wanting ; it becomes therefore 
 a duty on the part of the Government to provide that, so 
 far as their power extends, the task appointed to every 
 human soul, of working out with Heaven's help its own 
 regeneration, shall not be left undone for want of the 
 necessary tools. But it is not in the universities that the 
 manufacture of implements can be carried on successfully ; 
 and we are not therefore concerned, so far as Government 
 grants are required, to prolong the existence of the one 
 or help the other into being. As the brick-and-mortar 
 results of extended education, we should rejoice in their 
 prosperity ; but as a portion of the means whereby know- 
 ledge may be universally spread abroad, our judgment 
 honestly refuses to acquiesce in their propriety. 
 
 On the great subject of religious teaching, we must do 
 justice to the Indian Government. It hinders no man 
 from teaching and preaching Christianity. It does not 
 seek to plant its foot within the circle of missionary 
 influence. It merely adds to the list of State obligations 
 a duty hitherto imperfectly recognised ; and as Hindoos, 
 Mussulmans, Jews, and Christians, have always been 
 declared equally entitled to the benefits of civilized govern- 
 ment, it has resolved to give all classes the advantage of 
 that training which is deemed requisite to fit them to 
 discharge their several duties to society. It holds that 
 worldly knowledge is good, though religion is better, and 
 that an educated heathen is better than an ignorant one, 
 just as an educated Christian is better than one who knows 
 nothing but theology, and perhaps but little of that. It 
 cannot, if it would, coerce men's consciences, but it can 
 
294 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 inform their intellects and refine their manners. It looks 
 upon the Khoud as being lower in the scale of humanity 
 than the Brahmin, and the latter again as inferior to the 
 schoolboy who understands astronomy and the use of the 
 globes. It recognises God's handwriting on every leaf 
 and wave ; in the caverns of the earth and the motions of 
 the stars, as well as in the inspired volume ; and leaving 
 to the ministers of religion their appointed tasks, claims 
 to work only a portion of the machinery by which the 
 Almighty deigns to reveal His wisdom and goodness to 
 mankind. The founders of our faith, whose example we 
 ought to follow, preached everywhere, and to all people, 
 the sublime truths of religion ; but they never levied 
 taxes for the support of their mission, and had no doubts 
 as to the right solution of much that is classed by ourselves 
 amongst the mysteries which pass human understanding. 
 
 The precepts and the doctrines of Christianity have 
 remained unchanged for nearly two thousand years, but 
 the interpretation of them is different in every age. At 
 this moment the wisest and best of men are to be found 
 professing opposite creeds, and drawing from the plainest 
 texts irreconcileable inferences. Some of the highest dig- 
 nitaries of our Church are warm friends of secular educa- 
 tion, whilst others believe that when you teach the Bible 
 you teach everything ; that learning and intellect, strength 
 and prosperity, are the results of Bible training ; that to 
 know all which can be known, and enjoy all that can be 
 gained in the temporal world, it is only necessary to read 
 and obey ; to meditate in silence, and reap all the fruits 
 of industry. 
 
 A union between the State and the missionary is not 
 possible ; antagonism, real or apparent, is not wise ; but 
 what should prevent the friends of Christian knowledge 
 from taking over the whole of the existing Government 
 machinery of education, and making the Bible a class- 
 book in every school ? Government might retain the 
 colleges for the study of medicine and civil engineering, 
 and fulfil all the functions performed for the British Isles 
 by the Royal Society of Arts. It might enhance in many 
 ways the social welfare of the people, and direct the aims 
 of the trained intellect, whilst abandoning to the care of 
 
A QUESTION OF SOLEMN IMPORT. 295 
 
 the missionary the interests of literature and religion. It 
 would thus give in native estimation full value for taxa- 
 tion, and, by tolerating all religions, secure in time the 
 supremacy of a solitary creed, the triumph of the highest 
 and holiest interests of mankind. 
 
 The entire nett sum paid by Government in India for 
 the maintenance of colleges and schools is in round num- 
 bers about 120,000. per annum; bub under missionary 
 supervision perhaps half that sum would suffice. The 
 latest returns give a total of 14,319 scholars receiving in- 
 struction in the State schools of Bengal, at a cost, after 
 deducting school-fees and the sums received for the sale- 
 of books, of more than 50,000, or 4J. 10s. each. We do 
 not think the average cost of tuition is less than that sum 
 in the other Presidencies, and it is for the missionary 
 societies to say whether they will undertake the contract 
 at a lower rate, with Bible instruction included. The 
 English public need have no fears on the score of slack 
 attendance at missionary schools, or of the growth of a 
 feeling hostile to missionary effort. In 1853 there were 
 two thousand pupils receiving daily instruction in three 
 missionary schools at Madras. Not fifty of the number 
 were of low-caste origin. Many of the boys came in car- 
 riages, and each and all had to read a portion of the Scrip- 
 tures daily. Is it worth adding, say, another 100,000^ 
 to the income of missionary societies to secure the like 
 results in the case of rich or poor, Brahmin or Mussul- 
 man, in eveiy quarter of the East ? That is the question 
 for the consideration of the Christian people of England. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIY. 
 
 THE LAND REVENUES OF INDIA. EXPLANATIONS OF THE VARIOUS 
 
 3IODES OF LEVYING TAXES ON THE SOIL. THE ZEMINDARS AND THE 
 
 POLICE OF BENGAL. FAILURE ^OF THE VILLAGE COMMUNITIES IN 
 THE NORTH-WEST. 
 
 AND now we have to consider the gravest portion of this 
 subject. Can we make India pay? It has been shown 
 that the East India Company would be unable to conduct 
 the future government of the country, were it only on 
 
296 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 the score of financial difficulties ; and we should fare no 
 better under the Imperial rule, if the system of taxation 
 were not wholly revolutionized. Nothing more can be 
 had from land, nothing from salt, nothing from opium. 
 And we see no prospect of reducing expenditure whilst 
 the present need for the supremacy of force continues to 
 exist. Under the present system, we cannot do without 
 the bayonets of Europeans, the honesty of the civilians, 
 or the numbers of the revenue officers; and hence we 
 must continue to maintain an enormous army, pay high 
 salaries, and support a countless multitude of native 
 subordinates. Our income is derived, not from surplus 
 profits, but from capital ; not from luxuries, but from the 
 poorest necessaries. It is the product of sin and tears. 
 
 The Chairman of the Court of Directors told the 
 House of Commons, on the anniversary of the battle of 
 Plassey, that " there was a cuckoo cry about the miserable 
 condition of the people. It was said that the people 
 were so miserably poor that they could not develop their 
 resources ; but how did that assertion agree with the fact 
 that the balance was always against us, and that we were 
 always under the necessity of exporting silver for what 
 we received (hear) ? The truth was, the manufacturers 
 of Manchester were altogether careless about Indian 
 tastes and fancies ; but if they would not give themselves 
 any concern about the wishes of the people, they must 
 not expect them to become customers (hear, hear)." 
 
 We must not be angry with Mr. Mangles, or with the 
 members of Parliament who cheered him. The one 
 spoke and the others applauded according to their convic- 
 tions, and it is a positive gain to the cause of good govern- 
 ment when men in high places give vent to their real 
 views and feelings. But light is not more opposed to 
 darkness than the statements of the Chairman of the 
 Court of Directors to honest truth. We hope that he is 
 only ignorant; blindness from whatever cause is bad 
 enough in the case of a man so placed, but we will not 
 assume that it is wilful, an example of social malingering. 
 
 Of the entire revenues of India, amounting in round 
 numbers to 29,000,000^. per annum, 16,000,000^. is de- 
 rived from the rent of land, Government being at the 
 
COLLECTION OF LAND RENT. 297 
 
 same time sovereign and landowner. The land rent is 
 collected under three different fiscal systems : The Per- 
 petual Settlement, which prevails only in Bengal; the 
 Village Partnerships, which obtain in the Punjaub, 
 Sciride, and a part of Bombay; and the Hyotwarry, under 
 which nearly the whole of the Madras and a portion of 
 the Bombay tax is collected. The perpetual settlement 
 had its origin in 1793, when the Marquis Cornwallis 
 fixed in perpetuity the annual rent payable by the pre- 
 sumed owners of the soil. The village partnerships 
 sprang out of the desire of the authorities in the North- 
 west Provinces to keep up what was considered the old 
 framework of village society. Tracts of land were sur- 
 veyed and leased to certain castes, or persons having 
 what was thought the right of occupation. The rent 
 was fixed latterly for a term of thirty years, and each 
 member of the partnership was bound to pay his share of 
 a defaulting member's proper contribution. The ryot- 
 warry, as its name implies, was a form of holding direct 
 from Government. The cultivator paid at the close of 
 the official year for the land he had in possession, and re- 
 newed, relinquished, or altered his holding at pleasure. 
 The tenure was a yearly tenancy, to be undisturbed so 
 long as the peasant paid the rate agreed upon. 
 
 In spite of what our Government has chosen to assume, 
 it is an undeniable fact that, in every part of India, land 
 under cultivation was in the private ownership of some 
 one or other previous to the English conquest. Where 
 violence and general insecurity prevailed, there would of 
 course be frequent mutations of property. The estates 
 of the nobles would experience the consequences of their 
 changing fortunes; and the village communities, made 
 up of what we should call peasant-yeomen, were occa- 
 sionally scattered abroad, but always to reappear and 
 unite when the wave of ruin had subsided. The land 
 furnished nearly the whole of the State's revenue ; and 
 the tax was raised or lowered, paid or evaded, .according 
 to the character of the ruling power and the dexterity of 
 the agricultural interest. To simplify the collection of 
 the Government dues, a class of agents was created all 
 over the country, called Zemindars literally, landmen, 
 
208 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 not landlords who received all the tax, and paid it into 
 the public treasury, less their commission, which was 
 usually fixed at about 40 per cent. It is the tendency of 
 all official employment in India to perpetuate itself, and, 
 in the course of time, the zemindar claimed and was 
 allowed a vested right, as permanent as that of the owner 
 of the soil. It was to these men that Lord Cornwallis, in 
 1793, made over the whole territory of Beiigal, rent-free 
 estates excepted, which they were to hold for ever on 
 payment of the tax then existing. The outcry against 
 this act has never been intermitted ; but the civilian 
 condemns it because it excludes the Government from any 
 share in the growing value of the soil, the just cause of 
 complaint being that the rights of the proprietors were 
 entirely sacrificed by the law. If the ownership had 
 still remained with the cultivator, it would have been of 
 no moment to him that Government had agreed to give 
 the zemindar 40 per cent, of the amount which the former 
 was obliged to pay; but what happened was this the 
 zemindars complained to the Government that they could 
 not gather in the rents unless they were vested with 
 summary powers of imprisonment and distraint, which 
 were granted ; and from that hour to the present the ryot 
 has remained in a state of hopeless slavery. The law took 
 no note of under-tenures or leasehold rights. If the rent 
 due by the zemindar was not paid at sundown on the ap- 
 pointed day, the estate was sold, and the buyer received it 
 clear of all claims. The default of the proprietor was 
 ruinous to all beneath him, and that law is unaltered at 
 this moment. Of course every estate was purged at once 
 of village proprietors ; and though there is hardly a 
 holding which is not let and sublet many times over, the 
 speculation involves risks which none but a Bengalee 
 would undertake. English planters strive of course in 
 all cases to obtain an independent footing on the soil ; 
 but the task is a hard one, and neither money nor cudgels, 
 which are the influences next in potency throughout 
 Bengal, will at times suffice to uphold them. 
 
 Take the case of a public common, or a public orchard, 
 if the latter could exist in England, and either would 
 bear an exact resemblance to the condition of the Bengal 
 
THE POOH ASS WITH TWO MASTERS. 299 
 
 ryot. Cattle would nip tlie herbage almost before the 
 blades reached the surface of the soil ; children would 
 gather the apples before they were ripe. The fear lest 
 others should appropriate exclusively what each man feels 
 he has a right to share in, effectually hinders growth and 
 maturity in the case of the grass and the fruit ; and just so 
 with the miserable Bengalee under the common owner- 
 ship of the zemindars and policemen. The one does his 
 best to prevent the growth of property, the other is always 
 on the watch to detect the signs of it. The peasantry 
 are born and die in debt ; somebody owns them from the 
 cradle to the grave ; and what matter for the colour of 
 the master's skin or the nature of his profession] With 
 the rich soil at their feet, and the burning sun over head, 
 possessing nimble fingers and willing hearts, the ryots 
 have all the elements of a prosperous strength ; but 
 faculty lies within them, like the vigour of a man who is 
 worn down to the last stage of weakness by famine. The 
 nourishing food and the refreshing drink are spread out 
 only a short mile from the spot where he lies, and yet he 
 must die of hunger, from sheer inability to crawl the dis- 
 tance. No one has an interest in the ryot, except for his 
 performance of tasks for their benefit. The missionary 
 would clothe him in righteousness for the next world, 
 but is obliged to leave him in rags during his stay in the 
 visible portion of the universe. In this state of existence 
 he has literally no friends, and is so drained of manhood 
 as to have few or no enmities. Since the harrow and the 
 roller must pass over him, why should he care who guides 
 and drives them ? 
 
 To award the ryot the very smallest share of the wealth 
 derived from the soil, is the never-ceasing object of the 
 zemindar ; and when he has reaped all that he can in that 
 field, the police come in and pick up the scattered ears. 
 They are ready at any moment to convert a murder into 
 a case of cholera, or a death by disease into an atrocious 
 homicide. They will tie up and torture, without hesita- 
 tion, a whole village, for the sake of a few rupees. It is 
 a matter of mere chance whether they make the subject 
 to be operated upon a culprit or a witness, and there is 
 scarcely any difference in the consequences. Crime cannot 
 
300 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 be detected, if the criminal is willing to pay; innocence 
 cannot escape, if it is poor, and believed to have the means 
 of bribing. Upon such a subject declamation is so facile, 
 and therefore so suspicious, that it is necessary to quote 
 authority for the character of two important classes of 
 Hindoos. Here is what the present Lieutenant-Governor 
 of Bengal, Mr. Halliday, says of the police and the magis- 
 trates appointed to watch over and dispense justice to 
 forty millions of people. " For a long series of years, 
 complaints have been handed down from administration 
 to administration, regarding the badness of the Mofussil 
 Police under the Government of Bengal, and as yet very 
 little has been done to improve it ;" that, " throughout 
 the length and breadth of the country, the strong prey 
 almost universally upon the weak, and power is but too 
 commonly valued only as it can be turned into money ;" 
 that " it is a lamentable but unquestionable fact, that the 
 rural police, its position, character, and stability as a pub- 
 lic institution, have, in the Lower Provinces, deteriorated 
 during the last twenty years;" that "the criminal judi- 
 catories certainly do not command the confidence of the 
 people ;" that, " whether right or wrong, the general 
 native opinion is certainly that the administration of cri- 
 minal justice is little better than a lottery in which, 
 however, the best chances are with the criminal and 
 this is also very much the opinion of the European Mo- 
 fussil community ;" that " a very small portion of heinous 
 offenders are ever brought to trial ;" that " it now appears 
 that half of those brought to trial are sure to be ac- 
 quitted;" and that "peculiar and accidental circumstances, 
 partly temporary and partly arising out of the constitu- 
 tion of the Civil Service, have, at this moment, made the 
 inexperienced condition of the magistracy more observable 
 than it has ever been before ; while it seems certain that 
 the evil during several successive years is likely very 
 seriously to increase." 
 
 The missionaries, speaking of the Bengal zemindars, in 
 their petition to the House of Commons presented last 
 session, say " It is manifest that the tenants suffer from a 
 lax administration of laws passed for their protection ; that 
 they are oppressed by the execution of other laws, which 
 
THE REGIMEN THAT CUKES CORPULENCY. 301 
 
 arm the zemindars with excessive power ; that they do 
 not share with the zemindars in the advantages derived 
 from the development of the resources of the country ; that 
 the profits thus monopolized by the zemindars are already 
 incalculably valuable ; and that, year after year, the con- 
 dition of the tenants appears more and more pitiable and 
 hopeless. Other evils increase the wretchedness of the 
 condition to which a tenant is thus reduced. The village 
 chowkeydars are the servants of his landlord ; the govern- 
 ment police are corrupt, and he cannot vie with his land- 
 lord in purchasing their favour; the courts of justice are 
 dilatory and expensive, and are often far distant from his 
 abode, so that he has no hope of redress for the most cruel 
 wrongs ; and he is frequently implicated in affrays respect- 
 ing disputed boundaries in which he has not the slightest 
 personal interest. Ignorant of his rights, uneducated, sub- 
 dued by oppression, accustomed to penury, and sometimes 
 reduced to destitution, the cultivator of the soil, in many 
 parts of this Presidency, derives little benefit from the 
 British rule beyond protection from Mahratta invasions. 
 
 The area of Bengal is 149,000 square miles, or 97,000,000 
 of acres, and on the productive surface of 64,000,000 of 
 acres the taxation amounts but to a fraction more than Is. 
 per acre, the total paid to Government being 3,333,150?. 
 The value of the exports for 1856-7 was not less than 
 18,000,OOQZ. sterling ; and, as very little of skilled labour 
 enters into the price of Bengal produce, it may be esti- 
 mated that at least 16,000,000?. is represented by ra\r 
 material. Calcutta, however, is the principal outlet for the 
 seaboard exports of the North-west, and perhaps it will 
 only be fair to add to the Government demand on account 
 of the total shipments, 25 per cent, of the land-tax paid 
 by the latter territories. This will bring up the revenue 
 of the whole of Bengal and a fourth of Upper India to 
 4,500,000?., which is about 28 per cent, of the worth of 
 raw produce exported. The rent of land leased by the 
 zemindars varies from 8s. to 14s. per acre, averaging per- 
 haps 1 Os. Wages, over the whole country, average, for an 
 able-bodied ryot, not more than Is. a week ; and we have 
 been assured by the head of a firm in Calcutta, having 
 extensive dealings with the interior, that in some portions 
 
 U 
 
302 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 of Tirhoot, where the great indigo factories are situated, 
 twenty-seven men had been contented to work the entire 
 day for 2s. 
 
 In the North-west Provinces, which cover an area of 
 72,000 square miles, without including the non-regulation 
 districts, the Bengal system was everywhere adopted on 
 the country first coming into our possession; but subse- 
 quently the talookdar, or Government agent, was com- 
 pelled to show his title, and where that was found to be 
 defective he was set aside, and the village proprietors 
 treated with alone. A broad distinction was, however, 
 always preserved between the mode of dealing with the 
 cultivators in Northern and Southern India. The sum to 
 be paid as rent being defined, Government, under the 
 ryotwarry system, took the whole of it, as a private indi- 
 vidual would have done ; but in the North-west no less 
 than 38 per cent, was set apart, 20 per cent, of which was 
 returned to the proprietors, and 18 per cent, to the talook- 
 dar. But it sometimes occurred that the latter was pro- 
 prietor as well as Government agent, in which case he 
 received 30 per cent, of the nett rental ; and in cases 
 where the Government collected the rents which he had 
 a right to realize they paid him a commission of 22^ per 
 cent, free of all risks and charges. In broad terms, it 
 may be stated that the Government returned, all over 
 the country, one-third of the nett rental to those in whom 
 the right of cultivation and the right of collecting the 
 tax were vested. 
 
 Of course, under such a system, land grew very valuable; 
 and though it was never so difficult to purchase estates in 
 the North-west as in Bengal, owing to various social 
 causes, the soil never lacked eager buyers. But whilst 
 the village settlement favoured the views of capitalists 
 and traders, who availed themselves of every opportunity 
 of buying out or ejecting by force of law the village pro- 
 prietors, it was not calculated to secure the great aim of 
 its founders. The scheme was unsound in its essence, as 
 every attempt must be to regulate by law arrangements 
 which depend for success on the exercise of free-will and 
 the indulgence or restraint of passions. 
 
 If an English Parliament were to attempt to restore 
 
THE HOUSE OF CARDS. 303 
 
 the ancient guilds and corporations, on the ground that 
 in old times they were the nurseries of trade and the 
 strongholds of liberty, it would not commit a greater 
 mistake than that which the Government of India fell 
 into in this respect. No doubt, in the turbulent centu- 
 ries, when the tillers of the soil suffered almost equally 
 from the ravages of the foreigner and the protection of 
 their lawful chiefs when the distinctions of caste were 
 rigidly observed, and the village boundaries were the 
 peasant's horizon it was good to establish and maintain 
 brotherhoods of labour; there was a common interest to 
 support and a common danger to repel : but when peace 
 is the natural inheritance of the ryot, and the bonds of 
 prejudice are falling from every limb, why should we 
 yoke him in these new fetters'? why seek to restrain the 
 course of free effort, and map out by authority the tasks 
 that he shall perform and the way that he must go? We 
 may be sure that the instincts of selfishness are wiser in 
 these matters than the dictates of authority. Long before 
 the outbreak of the rebellion it was visible that the scheme 
 was crumbling to ruin. In the North-west the suits to 
 obtain possession of lands were continually on the increase, 
 and every decision against the right of a shareholder was 
 scarcely less hurtful to his copartners than a judgment 
 against the property of a merchant would be to the firm 
 of which he might chance to be a member. The author 
 of Modern India is so impressed with the gravity of 
 this result that he deprecates the application of the law 
 of sale to landed property in the Punjaub. The system 
 will not stand the wear and tear of litigation ; the muta- 
 tion of proprietors is everywhere fatal to it. If the culti- 
 vator indulges in the natural desire for selling, mortgaging, 
 or devising, except amongst the limited circle of his co- 
 proprietors, the law must refuse to give validity to his 
 acts, or the fabric of society, which has been built up at 
 so much cost, will avowedly tumble to pieces ! 
 
 As affecting the existence of village communities, the 
 North-west system entirely failed; but, as regards the 
 general public,' the objections to it were, the perpetual 
 interference of the Government officers, its cost to the 
 Government and to the people, and the inefficiency of the 
 u 2 
 
304 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 tenure as a means of developing the resources of the 
 country. If a man took new land, which could be very 
 seldom obtained of late, he had only a term of thirty 
 years to count upon ; but in general the lease of property 
 available for a new comer would not have more than 
 fifteen years to run : and who would undertake extensive 
 works, build factories, or make great embankments, with 
 the knowledge that at the end of his lease Government 
 would assess the rent for the next term upon the current 
 value of the property ] The interest of the tenant, during 
 the last years of his term, tended in the way of deprecia- 
 tion and not of improvement. The system was for a time 
 much better for the interests of the cultivator than either 
 the perpetual settlement or the ryotwarry, because it gave 
 him a share of the rent ; but in the long run he found it 
 impossible to remain suspended between the condition of 
 a capitalist and that of a mere labourer. Extravagance 
 and bad seasons worked* his sure ruin : and when this 
 happens, and he is ousted by the decree of a court, " his 
 enmity," according to Mr. Thomason, late Lieutenant- 
 Governor of the North-west, " is transferred from the 
 individual to the State. He feels that there is no hope 
 for him but in the downfall of the system. He becomes 
 ns much a disaffected man as though he had been ruined 
 by some direct act of the Government." Without any 
 idea of showing the unsoundness of the system, Mr. Thoma- 
 son, in the next paragraph of the paper from which the 
 above quotation is taken, tells us that " it is not many 
 years ago that an insurrection was occasioned in Ramghur 
 and the Cole country from the unrestrained operations of 
 the courts of justice. The Government perceived the evil, 
 and at once, by excluding the regulations, put a check on 
 the obnoxious proceedings." The Coles evidently knew 
 how to deal with the Honourable Company : but a system 
 which requires the occasional suspension of laws and the 
 shutting up of courts of justice could hardly advance the 
 welfare of any people, whether civilized or barbarous. 
 
 The poverty of the Bengal ryot is not to be attributed 
 to the direct action of the East India Government, who 
 are responsible only for so much of the misery that pre- 
 vails amongst the forty millions inhabiting the great Gan- 
 
SOCIAL KEFORM NEEDED. 305 
 
 getic valley as may be traced to the appointment of those 
 whom the Deputy -Governor of Bengal terms " boy magis- 
 trates," to the nomination of inefficient judges, and the 
 support of the police. To ascertain the true character of 
 the Company's government, we must turn to that portion 
 of their dominions where their influence, both social and 
 political, has been absolute for a hundred years past, 
 where there is no middleman to intercept the profits of 
 the cultivator, where peace has been uninterrupted, and 
 obedience has never failed. The condition of Madras is 
 the true touchstone of the value of that Government 
 which, according to Mr. Mangles, needs no teaching to 
 understand its duties and no additional incentive to per- 
 form them. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM IN 3IADRAS. MELANCHOLY RESULTS OP A 
 CENTURY OF RULE. THE HOPELESS POVERTY OP ALL CLASSES. 
 
 IN a Parliamentary paper, dated May, 1857, there is printed 
 a copy of a despatch from Lord Harris, the Governor of 
 Madras, upon the proposed general survey and assessment 
 of that Presidency. " Much has been published of late," 
 says his lordship, "respecting the unsatisfactory state of 
 this Presidency, of the poverty of the inhabitants, of the 
 hopeless position in which they are placed, and of the 
 exorbitant taxation; and all this misery has been stated 
 to be the result of British misgovernment. I have serious 
 doubts of the correctness of these assertions. That the 
 majority of the cultivators of the soil are poor is certainly 
 true ; but that is almost certain to be the case where the 
 .soil is divided into innumerable small holdings, each 
 insufficient to provide for the most ordinary wants of a 
 family of the lowest class. 
 
 " That the position of the ryots is not very hopeful, 
 may be attributed to many circumstances; but I am in- 
 clined to think that their depressed condition is as much 
 the result of moral as of economic causes. 
 
 " That the taxation which they have to pay is excessive 
 may, in some instances, be the case; but I cannot allow 
 
306 THE SEPOY KEVOLT. 
 
 that the amount of public funds contributed by the Pre- 
 sidency is exorbitant. Neither am I prepared to admit 
 that the state of the country, generally, is deteriorating. 
 I believe, on the contrary, from all I can leam, that there 
 is a marked improvement in many districts, though pro- 
 bably not to the extent which might have been attained 
 had circumstances permitted more active measures for 
 improvements on an extensive scale to have been under- 
 taken by the Government. 
 
 " That the general state of the country has not become 
 less prosperous is sufficiently shown by this one fact 
 that, though remission of taxation has been made to some 
 extent within the last few years, the general income has 
 not diminished.'* 
 
 The views enunciated by his lordship in the above 
 passages were shared by his colleagues in the Govern- 
 ment; they have been approved of by the Court of Direc- 
 tors ; and we propose to examine and test their real value. 
 
 In dealing with the great social questions of India, the 
 inquirer is materially aided by the simple and permanent 
 character of Eastern life. The tides of nature and of 
 human existence flow in the channels which were worn 
 for them in remote ages. Whatever was true of a thou- 
 sand years past, is almost literally true of the present 
 day. A change of masters, a little more wealth or poverty, 
 and you have all that mark, for the teeming millions of 
 Hindostan, the progress of time. Now, as heretofore, 
 the records of the tax-gatherer furnish an index to the 
 state of the nation : when we know what is paid to the 
 Government, it is easy to find out what has been earned 
 by the people. 
 
 This absence of complexity in the business of life, which 
 is characteristic of every part of the country, is especially 
 so in Madras, where government, trade, and tillage are all 
 carried on upon a scheme of first principles as naked as 
 need be. In that highly favoured Presidency there are 
 neither nobles nor landlords; the priests are maintained 
 on the voluntary system; and for every acre of cultivable 
 land under the ryot, there are five or six lying fallow. In 
 other words, it is an Eden of the mind, with many thou- 
 sands of good angels keeping watch inside the boundaries. 
 
BOILED DOWN TO NOTHING. 307 
 
 Such an innumerable multitude of persons many of 
 them able, and most of them, honest have written in 
 praise of the Revenue system of Madras, that were it not 
 for the reflection that the Corn and Navigation Laws 
 have been repealed scarce ten years since, we should be 
 tempted to doubt the accuracy of returns and the evidence 
 of the senses. Still it could hardly escape observation, 
 that whether the Government of the day was painstaking 
 or otherwise, whether the " Board " had ruled in favour 
 of zemindars or direct holdings, the upshot to all con- 
 cerned was the same. The ill wind blew nobody good. 
 The superstructure of society gave way and was over- 
 turned, without in the least relieving the foundations. 
 Where the zemindars were absorbed, the district yielded 
 no more profit to Government, frequently less ; whilst the 
 wages of labour and the prospects of employment were 
 decreased as well. The class disappeared, and with them 
 vanished not only pomp and extravagance of living, but 
 the means whereby their state had been upheld. The 
 hut and the starved bullock took the places of the palace 
 and the elephant. The rich man became a beggar, and 
 the ryot remained a slave. The working of the machinery 
 is rather different now, since there are no more wealthy 
 proprietors to be amalgamated. The fire must needs go 
 out when the fuel is exhausted. Poverty must be allowed 
 to live, because it is required to toil; but, truly speaking, 
 no other reason can be assigned as the cause which has 
 hindered the depopulation of the Southern Presidency. 
 
 In the last report of the Madras Government, the 
 inhabitants are set down as amounting to nearly twenty- 
 three millions, three-fourths of whom are engaged in agri- 
 cultural pursuits. At the usual rate of five persons to a 
 family, this gives, say, three and a quarter millions of 
 able-bodied ryots ; and since the peasant's wife works as 
 hard as her husband, and the children are put to labour 
 as soon as they can crawl, we shall be far within the mark 
 when we assume that the work of two labourers is done 
 by each family of five persons. We have then six and a 
 half millions of workers diligently toiling on the land, 
 and more than ten millions depending for food upon their 
 exertions. Now what do they earn from January to 
 
308 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 December 1 Never was problem more easily solved, and 
 never did the result of a few simple figures so put to 
 shame the working of a Christian Government. The 
 official estimate of Land Revenue for 1856-7 gave a total 
 under three and a half millions sterling ; and we have to 
 find out what proportion of the gross produce of the land 
 is represented in that sum. Colonel Baird Smith says, 
 that in Tanjore, the most favoured district in the Pre- 
 sidency, the Government share is two-fifths of the gross 
 produce. 
 
 We doubt if in any part of Madras the amount actually 
 taken by the servants of the State is less than one-half ; 
 and know, from personal investigation, that over the 
 greater portion of the country the tax swallows up two- 
 thirds. But let us take Tanjore as the standard by which 
 the impost is assessed, and the entire value of the cultiva- 
 tion is shown to be eight and three quarters millions. If 
 no portion of the above sum were taken by Government 
 if the crops grew spontaneously, and the reaping were 
 done by fairies the sum to be divided amongst the 
 people would not amount, for each household, to five shil- 
 lings monthly. But, inasmuch as the Government in their 
 mildest mood take two-fifths, and the cost of cultivation, 
 excluding labour, cannot be set down at less than one- 
 fifth, we have for distribution amongst the people as many 
 pounds sterling as there are heads of families, or about 
 half that sum as the annual wages of each labourer. Did 
 the bitterest denunciation of the Company's rule ever 
 reach the accusing height of these simple facts ] Think 
 of it, conquering countrymen of ours ! Fivepence a week 
 for the joint labour of man, wife, and children, or two 
 shillings and a penny in the currency of London and 
 Liverpool, where money is said to be worth only a fifth of 
 what it will buy in India ; in the shape, however, of food 
 and shelter only ! What interest can Manchester have 
 in the living or dying of any conceivable number of 
 fathers of families, whose incomes are but twenty shillings 
 yearly ? They do their best to encourage British trade, 
 for they consume of yarn, cotton, wool, and piece goods, 
 imported from all quarters, as much as amounts to two- 
 pence per head per annum. Our friends at home can judge 
 
TREADING UPON NUGGETS. 309 
 
 for themselves how far that sum will go in the purchase 
 of their wares, and may form a lively idea of what the 
 seventeen millions have to spare for food, education, and 
 pastime, when they can afford to lay out on their ward- 
 robes just twopence a year. 
 
 There are upwards of ninety millions of acres in Madras, 
 and, including rent-free lands, not above twenty per cent, 
 of the whole area is cultivated. Indigo, sugar, cotton, 
 oil-seeds, and coffee grow to perfection ; but they are only 
 produced by fits and starts, as the agents of exporters come 
 forward with advances and select the crop to be sown. 
 Excellent raw sugar can be laid down at the sea-board for 
 8s. 6d. per cwt. ; cotton gives a capital return when the 
 grower obtains 2d. per pound. It is said that 70,000 
 niaunds of indigo will be shipped this year ; and to the 
 production of oils there is literally no limit. And for 
 every ounce of produce there are eager buyers ; and if the 
 field were increased twenty times over no portion of it 
 would be left on hand. Yet this is the land of which the 
 richest tracts lie waste ; which furnishes the Honourable 
 John Peter Grant with the following illustration when 
 combating the arguments of the Calcutta missionaries : 
 " There are no such contentions and affrays about land in 
 Madras, as are justly complained of by the memorialists 
 here. But this is not due to a good police and judicial 
 administration, a survey and registration, or the absence 
 of a zemindary system in the greater part of that Presi- 
 dency ; it is due to the fact that in most Madras districts 
 land is valueless by reason of the revenue system there in 
 force ; the contentions there being when a ryot is forced 
 not to give up, but to take land." Mr. Grant might have 
 stated his instance even more forcibly. Thousands of men 
 labour on the public works, and prefer leaving the acres 
 untouched for which they are obliged to pay rent, expe- 
 rience having taught them to select the least of two evils. 
 And under present circumstances there is not the most 
 remote chance of the waste lands being taken up, for emi- 
 gration absorbs more than the annual increase of the 
 population. The labour that might find such profitable 
 returns at home is drafted off to a dozen ready markets. 
 The man who should raise sugar on his own plot of ground, 
 
310 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 is only too glad to hire himself out to the planter in Mau- 
 ritius. Wealth lies at his feet, yet he is obliged to ex- 
 patriate himself to procure the means of existence. 
 
 And if ancient zemindar and modern ryot have been 
 equally ruined by the operation of the Madras system, it 
 has not proved in the least favourable to European enter- 
 prise. No great amount of capital has, perhaps, been sunk 
 in agricultural or manufacturing operations ; but whatever 
 has been ventured has either been lost entirely, or is so 
 unproductive that the parties concerned would gladly re- 
 treat were it possible to do so without sacrificing all. We 
 are not aware of a single instance where a European has 
 gone home with a competence achieved by planting or 
 manufacturing operations. The attractions of more than 
 a thousand miles of sea-board, and of a climate suited to 
 the growth of every kind of tropical vegetation, would 
 inevitably draw capitalists to settle in Madras, were it not 
 that the long catalogue of disastrous results warns them 
 off a coast which is fatal alike to all the producing classes. 
 
 Even if an energetic man can overcome the natural jea- 
 lousy of the authorities, who look upon him as an enemy 
 to the ryots and the Government in virtue of his position 
 if he can contrive to do without roads, and has no neces- 
 sity for law his ultimate defeat is certain. The weight 
 of bad seasons falls upon him, though he may not rent a 
 single acre. It is his money in that case that pays the 
 tax ; for though remissions are sanctioned by Government, 
 they are granted not on account of the ryot's loss, but in 
 view of his inability to pay. Like the Borderer of old, the 
 collector says to the planter, "Thou shalt want, ere I 
 want ;" and unhappily for the latter, the raid is always 
 resistless. What death is to life, the Government demand 
 is to capital ; it swallows up all, sooner or later. 
 
 As a consequence of this state of things, the prepara- 
 tion of raw produce for the European market is, with the 
 most trifling exceptions, left wholly to the natives, whose 
 will and poverty combine to make them prefer an inferior 
 and adulterated, to a good and therefore costly article. 
 They are able to make indigo as good as the finest Bengal 
 sorts ; but the great bulk of the Madras production is 
 wretched stuff, much of it mere clay veneered with the 
 
GOING DOWN THE HILL. 311 
 
 real drug. The greater part of their sugar comes to 
 market in such a state that the pumps of the vessels in 
 which it is shipped are often choked with the drainings of 
 the cargo, the loss from deliquescence being usually ten 
 per cent. Cotton is wetted, and mixed with rubbish and 
 stones. Oils are mixed without scruple, often to the 
 serious detriment of the buyer, though the adulteration 
 increases the seller's profit perhaps by the poorest trifle* 
 These facts will explain the cause of the standing inferio- 
 rity of Madras products in the markets of Europe, and 
 help to show how it was that the mere increase last year 
 in the exports of Bengal amounted to forty-two per cent, 
 of the whole trade of the former Presidency. 
 
 We contemplate, in the case of Madras, a population 
 whose growth has been everywhere obstructed, which is 
 always miserable, always decrepid, neither wiser, nor 
 stronger, nor wealthier than it was a century since, but, 
 on the contrary, more weak, more ignorant, more poverty- 
 stricken ; a population which declines in everything ; 
 which is losing its hold of an ancient religion, without 
 adopting a new creed in the place of it, since the pagodas 
 are destroyed faster than new chapels are built. The 
 Hindoo schoolmaster is usually extinguished, not sup- 
 planted. The traditions of national prosperity are dying 
 out ; the consciousness of power which was always suffi- 
 cient to avenge tyranny in the past, if it could not render 
 it impossible in the future, is no longer entertained. 
 Where else on the face of the globe shall we find peaceful 
 millions so cruelly dealt with 1 
 
 Growth is the necessity of nations. In numbers, in 
 knowledge, in material prosperity, a people must inevitably 
 increase in every generation. Not more surely do the 
 houses of the dead outnumber those of the living, than 
 the evidences of past labour overshadow those of the 
 present. But in Madras the only surplus is that of the 
 Government revenue. Nature and industry in all else 
 are but barely equal to the requirements of present exis- 
 tence. The country teems with mineral wealth, but there 
 is not a mine sunk in it ; the mechanical dexterity of the 
 natives is not to be surpassed, but there is not a single 
 factory the property of native capitalists. The sugar is 
 
312 THE SEPOY KEVOLT. 
 
 crushed by wooden mills, and drained in earthen pots. 
 The rice is ground by hand, the cotton cleaned by the 
 rudest of all machines, the indigo prepared by the cheap- 
 est instead of by the best process. The increase of popu- 
 lation, instead of augmenting the general wealth, is felt 
 to be an evil ; and thousands of the hardiest and ablest 
 men annually expatriate themselves to countries where, 
 inferior natural advantages being turned to better account, 
 their labour enriches their masters, and secures a compe- 
 tency for themselves. The ryot, who would gladly stay 
 at home to cultivate his ancestral fields, leaves the rich 
 sugar soil untilled, and wends his way to the coast, where 
 a discriminating Government has kindly provided machi- 
 nery for putting his industry in motion. In the course of 
 time he finds himself in a distant island, engaged by a 
 master, who has had to compete for his services, at three 
 times the rate of wages he would have been content to 
 receive at home. He still makes sugar, only now by the 
 aid of the most costly appliances. He learns that God's 
 rain and sunshine, and man's careful toil, are all valuable, 
 if rightly understood and dealt with. 
 
 We have all need of Heaven's help ; but if any class of 
 mortals more than another require their eyes to be couched, 
 their ears to be opened, and their hearts to be softened, it 
 is surely those who administer the affairs of the Indian 
 Government. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 SOCIALIST DOCTRINES OP LORD HARRIS AND THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 
 GRADUAL DECAY OP EVERY FORM OP NATIONAL OR CLASS PROS- 
 PERITY. THE FUTURE ARISTOCRACY OP THE EAST. 
 
 LORD HARRIS has a doubt as to whether the burdens of 
 the peasantry have been fairly distributed ; but without 
 discussing at this moment the relative incidence of taxa- 
 tion in various districts, we assert without hesitation that, 
 in all the ryotwarry talooks, it is imposed solely with re- 
 ference to the amount that can be obtained from the peo- 
 ple. In every other part of the world the cultivator 
 benefits by the natural or social advantages of his posi- 
 
COLD COMFORT AT THE BEST. 313 
 
 tion. Land which is well watered by running streams, 
 or which is in the vicinity of great markets, brings a 
 larger profit to the farmer as well as to the proprietor ; 
 but in Madras all the profit goes to the Government, the 
 risk only falls to the lot of the ryot. Whether he culti- 
 vates largely or otherwise whether he grows sugar, 
 indigo, or dry grains the result is precisely the same. 
 The State leaves him but the barest subsistence. If he 
 digs in North Arcot, he pays forty shillings an acre, be- 
 cause produce fetches a high price as compared with the 
 inaccessible villages of the interior. If the land yields a 
 double crop, he is taxed twice over; if it is poor in 
 quality, his own gain is not the less in reality. If bad 
 harvests occur, remissions are made, not on account of his 
 loss, but in consideration of his inability to pay. When 
 a country is ravaged by invaders, the poor rejoice in their 
 immunity from mischief; when famine rages in Madras, 
 the ryot thanks his gods that ruin has long since done its 
 worst by him. 
 
 In no other country can the condition of the people be 
 described in a few generalizing sentences. Everywhere 
 else there are diverse orders of society, with opposite in- 
 terests and varying fortunes ; sources of wealth which 
 are hidden from curiosity ; armories of strength that 
 only require to be properly handled to save or regenerate 
 the life of nations. But in Madras, the story of the 
 merits of the Government and the misery of the popula- 
 tion fills less than a dozen lines of narrative. The native 
 aristocracy have been extinguished, and their revenues 
 lost equally to the rulers and the multitude. The native 
 manufacturers are ruined, and no corresponding increase 
 has taken place in the consumption of foreign goods. 
 Not a fourth of the cultivable land is taken up for tillage, 
 and yet 20,000 men annually leave these shores to seek 
 employment on a foreign soil. The taxation of all kinds, 
 and the landlord's rent, amounts but to five shillings per 
 head ; and yet the surplus production of twenty-three 
 millions is but two shillings and sevenpence, and the im- 
 ports but one shilling and sixpence each person. The 
 exports of the slave state of Brazil amounted, in 1852, 
 to upwards of eight millions sterling. Madras, with a 
 
314 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 population three times as great, never produces a third of 
 the amount. 
 
 Railways, roads, and canals will not cure the evil, and 
 we should be sorry to see it made more bearable. What 
 we require is an abstinence on the part of Government 
 from interference with the operations of agriculture, as 
 absolute as that which they are compelled to observe with 
 regard to the workings of trade. A man should be as 
 free to buy and sell land as to deal with any ordinary 
 chattel. The belief that it is to the advantage both of 
 the State and the public that the soil should be declared 
 the property of the former, is one of the most fatal errors 
 that ever prevailed. Does any one believe that if the 
 British rulers had been compelled, from the outset of their 
 career of conquest, to levy taxation by the ordinary me- 
 thods, Madras would be now in its present miserable state 
 of poverty and degradation ? Is it credible that from the 
 industry of twenty-three millions of souls, living under a 
 tropical sun, and raising, almost without effort, the costliest 
 products of the world, a sum of five and a half millions 
 stiTling but one-tenth of the taxation of Great Britain 
 coul^L not be raised without difficulty ? The statistics 
 of Crown colonies and of slave States furnish the best 
 answer to such a query ! 
 
 The Governor of Madras is a member of the British 
 Peerage, an estated noble who has a " place" and a rent- 
 roll which we suppose he would not wish to have dimi- 
 nished. Yet we find him, in the forty-fifth year of his 
 age and the fourth year of his Governorship of Madras, 
 addressing the grave bankers and landlords who sit in 
 Leadenhall-street as follows : 
 
 " I consider that the land of a country belongs to the 
 Government de facto, and should be held by it, and should 
 be distributed by it amongst the population in such a 
 manner as is likely to cause it to be most beneficially 
 cultivated, both as regards the interests of the cultivators 
 and of the whole community. There may be, and we 
 know there are, many hindrances to this principle being 
 even openly allowed, much more to its being fully carried 
 out in all countries ; but in those cases wherein the op- 
 portunity is afforded of starting from first principles, it 
 
THE INDIAN PKOCRUSTES. 315 
 
 should not be neglected. I think this opportunity exists 
 in the ryotwarry districts of this country." 
 
 It will not do to identify the Anglo-Indian Conservative, 
 Lord Harris, with a member of the upper or middle classes 
 of England who wishes to maintain the aristocracy as an 
 institution, nor with a Birmingham Radical who would 
 destroy the House of Peers and abolish hereditary titles. 
 The principles which he advocates are neither more nor 
 less than socialism : his apostle and teacher is M. Proudhon, 
 who advanced in Europe the theory that Lord Harris 
 enunciated, and which his honourable masters have re- 
 duced to practice in Southern India for a period beyond 
 the memory of the oldest man living. 
 
 A hundred years since we found an aristocracy existing 
 in every part of the East. They were not more en- 
 lightened, perhaps, than the nobility of England in the 
 days of the Plantagenets ; not more moral than the 
 courtiers of Charles II., or those of Louis XV. ; not more 
 thrifty than certain model peers ; in fact, not more 
 loveable or useful, in the main, than the highest classes of 
 Europe have shown themselves to be in ancient or 
 modern history. But the Indian aristocracy oppressed 
 and governed, attained wealth and lavished it, fought and 
 intrigued as passion prompted or ability served, and so 
 satisfied what the majority of people, even in these en- 
 lightened days, are prone to term " a real social and poli- 
 tical want." As a governing class, the remorseless English 
 heel has long since trampled them out of existence. So 
 far from realizing the European ideal of a ruling minority, 
 which makes laws by prescriptive authority, fills the 
 highest posts in Church and State, and influences the 
 public weal without regard to considerations of fitness or 
 respectability, they have been reduced to a state of abject 
 dependence. The parish constable would feel himself 
 degraded were he made to change stations with the rajah. 
 Every private soldier in the Queen's service has the pro- 
 spect of a higher destiny before him than the head of the 
 noblest Asiatic family. The title which adorns the 
 beggar, and the phrases of respect that greet the ears of 
 the slave, are all that remain to the descendants of the 
 masters of the East. 
 
316 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 We recognise and sanction the penalties of weakness. 
 There are no political rights for the nation which has 
 suffered itself to be vanquished, except those allowed by 
 the grace of the victors. But the question with which 
 we have to deal is one apart from politics it is the light 
 of the State to confiscate the wealth of the upper classes 
 upon no pretext of crime or proof of public utility. 
 
 We know of no right which a Government has to pre- 
 vent the growth of large estates, which does not as readily 
 apply to the creation of small ones. We can think of no 
 reason that can be urged against allowing a man to become 
 the owner of half a county, which may not just as forcibly 
 be applied to his acquisition of a score of acres. Our 
 Indian socialists, with the same objects in view as their 
 co-thinkers in Europe, have not had the sagacity to per- 
 ceive, or the boldness to cany out, their principles to the 
 full extent. The latter recognised and acted upon the 
 dogma, that property, to be interfered with, must be de- 
 clared altogether illegal and opposed to the best interests 
 of the community. They saw that the rule must be made 
 universal ; that accumulations in every form, and to what- 
 ever extent, must be made subject to the same law of inter- 
 ference. Men must be allowed to keep all or nothing. If 
 individual action were allowed, no limits could be set to it. 
 
 For the last thirty years the British Government in 
 India have been steadily uprooting the landed gentry of 
 the country, on the sole ground of their inutility. They 
 are no worse than the common run of aristocracy; on the 
 contrary, are much better ;. but it is said society can do 
 without them. They neither grow the rice nor milk the 
 cows. The young children are taught, if taught at all, 
 without their assistance ; and old men go down to their 
 graves with a sound persuasion that it is God's blessing, 
 and not the zemindar's, to which they were always in- 
 debted for food and health. No one can question the 
 justice of premises that have grown axiomatic in Europe, 
 but the difficulty to be reconciled is the opposite cha- 
 racter of the conclusions which are drawn from them. 
 Human nature in the East has its shades of variance, but 
 hardly affords such contradictions as are implied in the 
 policy of the Honourable Company. 
 
CARTING AWAY RUBBISH. 317 
 
 Why should the supreme authority, having most at 
 heart the greatest possible welfare of the greatest possible 
 number, care to maintain a class whose members are 
 sometimes dissolute, sometimes tyrannical, sometimes 
 idiotic, and in almost every case mere burdens on the in- 
 dustry of the people 1 
 
 Why should so large a portion of the stream of wealth 
 be diverted to flow over those barren sands which yield 
 neither herbage nor flowers'? No one is able to give 
 satisfactory answers to such queries on paper ; and so 
 the socialists in these parts have it all their own way. 
 They have set up a standard of bare utility, and would 
 compel all men to pass under it. He that refuses to work 
 shall not be suffered to eat. The only poor which a Go- 
 vernment can recognise is the present generation of 
 princes and nobles, who may be allowed to receive out- 
 door relief for a season. 
 
 The first member of the Madras Council was for three 
 years at the head of a revolutionary tribunal in the 
 Northern Circars, and in that capacity he destroyed more 
 ancient families and confiscated more estates than any 
 member of the National Convention could boast of having 
 ruined in his day of republican triumph. Now, if M. 
 Proudhoii were to claim him as a zealous practical dis- 
 ciple, would Mr. Elliot give him the kiss of fraternity? 
 He could hardly help doing so, for the Frenchman would 
 assail him with remonstrances something like what fol- 
 low: 
 
 " Fellow- worshipper of the great mystery of the right 
 of nations ! you acknowledge with myself the claim of 
 the producers of wealth to its full enjoyment, less the 
 cost of cheap and good government. The study of the 
 past has led us both to the only rational conclusion. Your 
 rajahs are the exact counterparts of our grand seigneurs ; 
 your zemindars are our farmers-general ; the Indian ryot 
 is the very image of Jacques Bonhomme. Our common 
 object is the abolition of all middlemen. We would have 
 but one class of rights those which spring from th# 
 exercise of industry; and but one kind of power that 
 which is necessary for the public safety. You have no 
 peers, no chamber of deputies, no aristocracy; but only 
 
 x 
 
318 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 the ryot at one end, and an executive of retired trades- 
 men at the other. Go on and prosper, in the name of 
 the friends of a regenerated world !" 
 
 We should not agree with M. Proudhon in the above 
 tribute of praise, but confess that we do not see how the 
 zealous champions of the Company can avoid being iden- 
 tified with the advocates of democratic equality. If you 
 pull down all above, it does not follow that you must 
 elevate all who are below ; and there is not, to our mind, 
 a single reason for the overthrow of the landed gentry in 
 India which would not apply with tenfold force in the 
 case of England. Is it that they are a heavy drain upon 
 the productive resources of the country? Why, the 
 rental of real property at home is more than all the 
 annual profits of trades and professions. 
 
 There are three noblemen whose united incomes amount 
 to more than a million sterling a year, and hundreds may 
 be counted who receive at least a tenth of that sum. But 
 the Indian aristocrat is useless ; his proper place is occu- 
 pied by another ; the community are able to do without 
 him, and should therefore cease to pay a double rate for 
 the services of which it stands in need. Well, what does 
 the Marquis of Westminster or his " order" do for our 
 countrymen, that the latter need care to support " Co- 
 rinthian pillars" that require so much gilding? The 
 weaving and ploughing would go on just as well if they 
 were all banished to dig in Australia. Their castles are 
 no longer places of shelter for helpless serfs and burghers. 
 They are no longer relied upon for security against foreign 
 invasion and domestic plunder. It is not they who in- 
 vent steam-ploughs and reaping-machines, and make 
 pathways for the spirit of man over and around the globe. 
 Manchester asks no assistance from lords or ladies to fulfil 
 its mission of making cloth for all mankind. Birmingham 
 is wholly plebeian ; Liverpool essentially low. Every 
 great interest is cared for by busy brains and willing 
 hands, who work from necessity and not from choice ; and 
 of the amateur labourers, the most distinguished are men. 
 of humble note. The agriculturist relies much on Mechi, 
 the owner of the " toy-shop," and parson Huxtable, and 
 half suspects that his landlord is a worse enemy than 
 
THE WORM THAT IS ALWAYS BUSY. 319 
 
 Cobden. Why maintain, then, a set of drones at such a 
 frightful cost ? If the landlords' rent throughout England 
 were confiscated, it would pay all the taxes, and leave a 
 large surplus to defray the expense of national education. 
 In India rent is devoted entirely to public objects. If 
 you abolish your landed gentry here, where wealth is 
 scarce, learning confined to a few, and dignified employ- 
 ment almost wholly engrossed by a race of foreigners, how 
 much more readily ought you to vote for the destruction 
 of aristocracy at home, where property, knowledge, and 
 industry are all independent of its aid ! To our thinking, 
 the civil servant who would hand over all the soil of 
 India to Government and the peasants, ought to take his 
 place, when in England, amongst the Cuffeys and O'Con- 
 nors. He should have no thought of the danger of dislo- 
 cating society, after having uprooted "houses" to whose 
 antiquity the Norman baron is a creature of yesterday. 
 For the reckless extravagance of the zemindar he can find 
 parallel examples in the condition of half the peerage. 
 The gaming-table and the Opera do the work of ruin as 
 effectually as the overgrown suwarry and the dancing-girls 
 of the East. For the tyrannical interference with ryots, 
 of which so much is said, he will find kindred illustrations 
 in the conduct of men who avow that they will " do what 
 they like with their own ;" and when the race of folly is 
 at an end the collector steps in to manage the zemindary, 
 and the solicitor to nurse his lordship's estate. The 
 rajah goes on a pilgrimage, and the peer travels on the 
 continent. In the next generation the evil will reappear ; 
 the vice is in the blood. Your only remedy is to compel 
 the spendthrift to live on sixpence a day and earn it. 
 
 But in proportion as our Government are destroying 
 the landed proprietors, they are calling into existence the 
 class of rich native traders, who will be the future aristo- 
 cracy of the East. So would democracy at home foster 
 the progress of the bourgeoisie. If the House of Lords 
 were voted useless and dangerous, and all the property of 
 the peerage confiscated to-morrow, the cotton-spinners and 
 growers would undergo, perhaps in still greater numbers, 
 the process of transmutation into gentlemen entitled to sit 
 at home at ease. And there is this striking difference 
 
320 THE SEPOY EEVOLT. 
 
 between the class of new men in the two countries that 
 whereas the native shopkeeper merely changes from young 
 Hunks to old Hunks, and will cheat for pice after he has 
 accumulated a fortune, the Englishman marches abreast 
 of his destiny, and outwardly, at least, becomes the livery 
 of greatness. The father of the first Sir Eobert Peel wore 
 a patched coat and wooden shoes his grandson was a 
 member of the Privy Council before he reached the age of 
 thirty, and at his death his family had intermarried with 
 the noblest of the land. We sneer at the aristocracy of 
 wealth in enlightened Britain, and have many a bitter 
 word for cotton lords and rich parvenus, but what could 
 be said for the bunneahs and soucars of India as samples 
 of the " best and bravest" of the country 1 Will they 
 command the respect of the people ? Can they create that 
 sentiment of veneration which an aristocracy ought to in- 
 spire, and wanting which they are fated to suffer speedy 
 extinction ? We fear the answers must be in the negative. 
 
 We look with dismay on a system of rule which is 
 wholly destructive, and which, if successful, will leave 
 two hundred millions of human beings without a religion, 
 without an aristocracy, and with but the scantiest por- 
 tion of wealth. We are undermining at the same 
 moment every part of the social edifice. The priest, 
 the noble, and the rich man of whatever denomination, 
 are threatened with the same fate. The great ends of 
 civilized teaching are the filling of the pockets, the 
 heart, and the head ; but the masters of India neglect 
 two-thirds of their duty, and perform the rest in a very 
 unsatisfactory manner. 
 
 For the effects of Godless colleges a cure will be found 
 at last in the strong necessity of belief. When Hin- 
 dooism has been thoroughly wrecked, and the ruins are 
 cleared away, a nobler creed will spring up in its room ; 
 but with the Brahmin degraded from his high place, and 
 the zemindar lost in the ranks of the peasantry, where 
 will the nation find the materials to build up an aris- 
 tocracy ? It will not always consent, as now, to find its 
 masters and guides in the youth of the Civil Service. 
 It will yearn for the excellence of home growth, and 
 the lordship that is not a sign of servitude ; and Heaven 
 
THE DESTRUCTIVES OF LEADENHALL. 321 
 
 forgive us for having done our best to render the craving 
 a hopeless one. 
 
 Men who have studied natural phenomena tell us that, 
 if all the earth were levelled and made smooth as a lawn, 
 the uniformity would be purchased at the price of per- 
 petual barrenness hereafter. It is the mountains and 
 forests that bring down the fertilizing rains ; and so 
 they counsel that the tall trees should be suffered to 
 remain for the sake of the indirect good to be derived 
 from them. In like manner we would urge that the 
 axe should be withdrawn from the roots of the few re- 
 maining specimens of native aristocracy. If they do 
 not yield the best of fruits, they serve to invite the 
 refreshing showers. Let the levelling process cease for 
 awhile, till we note the tendency of our wayward 
 experiment. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIL 
 
 THE LEVELLING CHARACTER OP THE COMPANY'S RULE. THEIR INFLU- 
 ENCE PURELY DESTRUCTIVE. THE RAJAH AND THE YEOMAN EQUALLY 
 RUINED, WITHOUT ^PROFIT TO THE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 WE acquit the opponents of property in India of any 
 design to uproot the foundations of society. It is their 
 misfortune to apprehend but rarely the consequences of 
 their policy. Civilians who have been all their lifetime 
 engaged in annihilating every interest interposed betwixt 
 the State and the cultivators of the soil, would deem it an 
 insult to be classed with the lowest order of democrats in 
 Europe. They will each go home in due season, and, if 
 fortunate, either inherit or purchase estates, which they 
 will bequeath to their children in the full assurance that 
 the Legislature will permit their lands to pass unchallenged 
 to the latest posterity. The fate which they have decreed 
 to Hindoo and Mussulman will not descend on he heads 
 of their own children the public welfare in Great Britain 
 not being so well cared for. 
 
 But let us ignore principles, and deal merely with the 
 question of profit. The socialist only advocates the de- 
 struction of private rights, in order to increase the sum 
 total of the general happiness ; and we will not suppose 
 
322 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 that he would willingly destroy the native zemindar, to- 
 whom, wealth and the importance that it brings are natu- 
 rally very dear, unless he felt assured that his ruin would 
 be a blessing to the community. We are content to- 
 narrow the discussion to this single point, and to give up 
 the case of the ancient landholders, if it can be shown 
 that their loss has been a gain to others. 
 
 With the facts patent to the world that in Cuddapah y 
 Bellary, and Guntoor, three of the naturally richest dis- 
 tricts in the Madras Presidency, land is wholly unsaleable, 
 whilst in Chingleput it is only worth six months' pur- 
 chase ; we shall take it for granted that the ryot is not 
 richer now than he was fifty years since. Proof to that 
 ettect has already been furnished, and we shall content 
 ourselves with disclosing the results of the overthrow of 
 the zemindary system, so far as Government, the universal 
 landlord, is concerned. 
 
 The permanent settlement was made in 1802, and 
 founded on the basis that 30 and in some cases 40 
 per cent, of the rental should be allowed to the zemindars. 
 If we may believe Mr. Walter Elliot, whose authority in 
 such cases must be entitled to great weiglft, the landowners 
 took care to exact even a more liberal allowance for them- 
 selves, by means of false measurements, and the use of 
 corrupt artifices. We have not been able to get the 
 revenue returns for the twelve years immediately follow- 
 ing the settlement of the proprietary estates ; but, from 
 1814 to 1818, the average yearly revenue in pounds ster- 
 ling was 3,339,666, the last year of the series being that 
 in which the ryotwarry system was first introduced. The 
 subsequent collections are as follows : 
 
 1819 to 1824 3,285,592 
 
 1825 to 1829 3,291,832 
 
 1830 to 1834 2,996,999 
 
 1835 to 1839 3,124,530 
 
 1840 to 1844 3,259,948 
 
 1845 to 1849 3,528,022 
 
 1850 to 1853 3,579,231 
 
 We should of course be fully justified in taking the 
 average of the thirty-five years during which the ryot- 
 warry system has been in operation, and comparing them 
 with the five years ending in 1818; but we elect the 
 
APPEALING TO COCKER. 323 
 
 mode of comparison that gives the largest share of advan- 
 tage to our opponents, and test the results of the latest by 
 those of the earliest period. 
 
 From 1814 to 1818 the annual revenue was 3,339,666 
 From 1850 to 1853 3,579,231 
 
 Increase . . . 239,565 
 
 Let us now see how this increase has been obtained, and 
 whether any portion of it is owing to ithe absorption of 
 the zemindars. 
 
 Since 1814 the revenue of the single district of Tanjore 
 has been raised by upwards of 150,000?. Kurnool, an- 
 nexed in 1844, yields a surplus of 85,000?. Various 
 works of irrigation executed since 1836 give an annual 
 revenue of 40,000?. ; so that whilst the income of 1853 
 only exceeds that of 1814 by 
 
 239,565 
 The sums due to the above sources amount to 270,000 
 
 Showing an annual loss of . 30, 435 
 
 If we take the increase of population as equivalent to 
 that of Ireland 12^ per cent, in ten years we have an 
 addition of forty in the hundred to the number of workers 
 and consumers, a loss of from 30 to 40 per cent, to the 
 zemindars, and a decline in the four most prosperous 
 years in the sum realized by Government ! We chal- 
 lenge the world to match the mournful picture ! 
 
 The Company has always estimated its successful col- 
 lectors above jurists and men of science, and yet in this 
 department its failure is notorious, simply because it has 
 always ignored the lessons of civilization. 
 
 Neither of the great modes of settlement, the zemindary, 
 village, or ryotwarry, has succeeded, nor can possibly do 
 so, for in no case are the natural laws which affect the 
 distribution of property allowed to have free action. The 
 zemindar is over-taxed and always hampered by the inter- 
 ference of the Government officers. The village cultivator 
 is a member of a compulsory partnership, which is not 
 founded upon stable grounds ; and the Madras ryot is a 
 beggar and a slave, who can never be a capitalist or an 
 honest man. And the various systems react upon the 
 
324 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 rulers. They damage public as well as private morals. 
 If the people have no sense of obligations, the Govern- 
 ment has no regard for rights. The one cheats like a 
 bondsman, and the other oppresses like a despot who 
 owns no law but his own will ; and if we may trust 
 public despatches and speeches in Parliament, the onus of 
 the admitted failure of the zemindary system rests entirely 
 with the rajahs and the bad seasons. It is shared between 
 Providence and the proprietors, sometimes in equal pro- 
 portion, but the responsibility generally varying according 
 to the nature of the object to be served, and the position 
 of the writers or speakers. Some useful information on 
 the subject is to be found in a return made by the India 
 House to an order of the House of Lords in May, 1852, 
 which states the case on behalf of the Government. 
 
 In 1802 settlements were made on the zemindary 
 tenure to the amount of 1,079,250Z. Of these estates, 
 five belonged to ancient families, who shared between 
 them the district of Guntoor, and paid 122,548Z. The 
 amounts thus specified formed two-thirds of the nett 
 rental, which must therefore have reached 1,539,675 
 on the total zemindary settlement, and 1S4,822. in the 
 case of Guntoor. There is no reason to believe that the tax 
 then imposed was based upon a wrong calculation of the 
 gross produce of the estates, for in 1813-14-15 the posses- 
 sions of the Yasareddy family, amounting to 383 villages 
 in that district, yielded an average revenue of 83,230, 
 from which deducting the Government tax of 54,730^., the 
 remainder, or landlord's profit, is shown to be 28,500 
 
 The Guntoor estates have all, without exception, passed 
 into the hands of the Company ; and whereas we are 
 assured, on the authority of the first member of the Board 
 of Revenue, that they once produced magnificent incomes 
 to their proprietors, the Parliamentary return shows that 
 the present revenue is only 70 per cent, of the amount 
 fixed by the permanent assessment in 1802. 
 
 In other words, the Government, standing in the place 
 of the landholders, receives no more than the share of 
 profit taken by the latter after the tax was paid, so that 
 the zemindaries yield less by upwards of a million sterling 
 than they did fifty years ago. The barbaric pomp that 
 
THE PHAEISEES OF POLITICS. 325 
 
 disgusted the collector so much has passed away, and the 
 heirs of the ancient chieftains of the Northern Circars may 
 be seen occasionally hanging round the doors of the 
 Revenue Board Office, waiting with anxious looks for 
 permission to present begging petitions. And who has 
 benefited by their destruction ? Not the Government, as 
 we have seen ; not new men who have come forward to 
 occupy their places, for their lands do not bring by a third 
 the amount of tax fixed upon them, and have therefore no 
 value in the market ; not the ryots, for they are amongst 
 the most wretched in the Company's dominions. The 
 wealth thus coveted, and which nature so liberally ren- 
 dered up to despised natives, is lost as absolutely as if it 
 had never been realized. The test of the superior excellence 
 of the Company's rule will ill bear such a commentary. 
 
 But we have yet to see the cause of this vast deteriora- 
 tion in the resources of a district. A paternal Govern- 
 ment which knows its duty, and has ample means to fulfil 
 it, waits for more than fifty- eight years before it under- 
 takes a work of proved necessity till it kills off, in one 
 famine out of many, five times the number of British 
 that perished at Waterloo, and curses the land with 
 barrenness : this Government, at the end of a few after 
 years, when the bones of the dead have been gathered 
 into heaps, and the sites of ruined village's are over- 
 grown, sternly taunts the proprietors of Guntoor with 
 neglect of the duties that belonged to their position ! 
 Poor wretches ! they have paid the penalty of their im- 
 providence. Their debt has been liquidated ; but 
 justice has still to enforce, either in this world or the 
 next, its heavier claim on the East India Company. 
 
 Upon their plea of exemption, that of their superior 
 management of the zemindaries as compared with the 
 results of Government rule, we have but to cite a single 
 instance, which is commented upon at length in another 
 portion of this volume. For twenty-five years the re- 
 venue authorities held possession of those estates which 
 Vencatreddy Naidoo, the Rajah of "Vasareddy, bequeathed 
 to his descendants. They came into the hands of the col- 
 . lector without a rupee of liability, and at the end of that 
 time they were saddled with arrears due to the Govern- 
 
326 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 ment, and created by its own acts, to the extent of no less 
 than 460,OOOZ., exclusive of interest. From 1790 to 
 1815, the period of his death, Vencatreddy held posses- 
 sion ; the records of Government tell how he feasted and 
 revelled, and what store of wealth he gave away. The 
 wise and strong English Government took this property 
 into its care, in trust for the lawful owner. It erected 
 neither temples nor palaces ; it made no pilgrimages, and 
 gave away no hundredweights of gold and silver ; and 
 when called on to surrender its charge, instead of having 
 half a million sterling to hand over to the heir, it handed 
 him its own little bill for a trifle more than that amount, 
 or 588,666Z. 
 
 As compared with the balance-sheet of Vencatreddy 
 Naidoo, the accounts of Government management showed 
 a loss of more than 108 lacs, or 1,080,000^. sterling, in the 
 case of a single zemindary, to say nothing of the ruin in- 
 flicted on the ryots and the country. 
 
 Of course if rajahs will keep elephants, maintain large 
 folio wings, make presents to nautch girls, and take no 
 heed of their affairs, they must expect that Government 
 will sell them up and utterly extinguish their pretensions 
 to lordships and honours. If the folks in authority at 
 home had had the honesty to do their duty like the East 
 India Company, there would have been no House of Lords, 
 nor great landed gentry in England, by this time. Where 
 the heir came into possession at a ripe age and succeeded 
 to an encumbered estate, a few years of heavy taxation 
 and loose living would bring the property to the hammer. 
 Where he was an infant, out of debt, and the title was 
 litigated, they could take the estates into their own 
 management by way of nursing and protecting them, as 
 in the case of the Vasareddy estates. It would come to 
 the same thing in the end. So, if you please, we will 
 say nothing against the policy which the Company has 
 pursued, and the Queen's Government ought to have 
 imitated, save this, that had the landlord's profit been 
 abolished at home, somebody would have been the better 
 for it. The Company have pursued the right course, and, 
 as is often the case in this strange world, their virtue has, 
 been an unprofitable one. 
 
SADDLED WITH BAD BAEGAINS. 327 
 
 But it is not alone the great families that have been 
 steadily rooted out of their ancient places. The class of 
 mootahdars or " gentlemen farmers," as men of a corre- 
 sponding rank would be called in England, have shared 
 the fate of poligars and rajahs. In 1803 twenty-six 
 small estates in R-ajahmundry were put up for sale, and 
 bought from Government for 33,494?. Forty years 
 afterwards not a single acre remained in the possession 
 of the original holders or their descendants. " They 
 had not been more fortunate," says the Parliamentary 
 Report from which the facts are taken, "than the 
 thirteen ancient zemindars" of Rajahmundry, of whose 
 possessions only one-sixth remained in 1843. Purchase- 
 money, working capital, the produce of mortgages, all 
 had been swallowed up by the inexorable landlord, and 
 still the demand was not satisfied. As the last efforts of 
 despair, the resources of nature were anticipated. The 
 soil, tasked beyond its strength, refused to yield its 
 treasures to the cultivator ; and in fifty-one estates, re- 
 purchased by Government up to the close of 1843, in 
 Rajahmundry, the resources of the villages had decreased 
 upwards of 40 per cent, per annum. Government, it 
 will be seen, never exceeded its just demands, but these 
 unfortunately happened to be 407. in the hundred more 
 than the land could pay. Nobody could say that they 
 confiscated the estates ; they only asked for their own ; 
 but to get that, it was necessary that the mootahdars 
 should be sacrificed, as their betters before them had 
 been that the pucka-house and the bullock-coach should 
 follow the palace and the elephants, and nothing but the 
 mud hut of the ryot be left to cumber the ground. 
 
 There is a story told of a man who sold his dog when- 
 ever he required money, the sagacious animal always 
 finding its way back to his old master, a little lean 
 perhaps and tired on some occasions, but only wanting 
 rest and food to get into flesh and look as well as ever. 
 It is likely the dog's master had been in the service of the 
 Company, and had studied the operation of the zemindary 
 settlement. 
 
 The marvellous increase that has taken place in the 
 value of Eastern exports during the last three years has 
 
328 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 revolutionized to some extent the commerce of Madras, 
 and of every other part of the world with which we have 
 dealings. There is now a small balance in favour of the 
 Presidency that is to say, more money and goods are 
 brought in than are sent out of the country. The value 
 of the imports for the year ending 30th of April last was 
 3,645,057?. 4s., including treasure ; against 3,358,9 651. 10s., 
 the value of the merchandize and treasure exported. But 
 to see how the revenue system of Madras has operated on 
 the well-being of the country, we must look to the records 
 of past years, and watch the gradual drain of capital into 
 the coffers of the State. 
 
 During the eighteen years from 1834 to 1852, both in- 
 clusive, the exports from Madras amounted to 25,506,197?. 
 12s., in round numbers about 1,400,000?. per annum. The 
 imports in the same period reached only 14,439,449?. 6s., 
 or 800,000?. per annum. We naturally look for the 
 balance under the head of treasure imported ; but, strange 
 to say, more money was sent out of the country than was 
 brought into it, and in the list of exports we have not 
 included the precious metals. Still dealing with the same 
 period of time, we find that 3,338,810?. 10s. was shipped 
 from Madras in the shape of treasure, and but 3,190,767?. 
 10s. brought back again. The total of money and mer- 
 chandize put on board, or sent across the frontier by land, 
 was 28,445,008?. 2s., and the total imports 17,630,217?. 4s. 
 A sum, then, of 11,214,798?. 18s. is wholly unaccounted 
 for; and if we allow the merchant a profit of 10 per cent, 
 on exports, we shall find that for every two-shillings' 
 worth sent out of the country, whether in the shape of 
 produce, manufactures, or the precious metals, but thirteen 
 pence halfpenny came back again. But the value sent 
 forward and the traders' profit must return to Madras 
 through some channel or other. The London banker 
 would remit to his correspondents the amount which the 
 latter had advanced on bills of lading, either by paying 
 their drafts upon him in cash, making advances on goods 
 shipped to them in return, or remitting bullion. Every 
 merchant or agent who received money's worth, had to 
 pay for it in some shape or other ; but there was one firm 
 that neither paid money nor sent out a shilling's worth of 
 
COST OF THE SLEEPING PARTNER. 329 
 
 goods, who yet demanded and received every year the 
 seven annas in the rupee that we have found missing. In 
 the four years ending 1851, the East India Company 
 carried off from the Southern Presidency nearly 2,470,000 
 of coined money, exclusive of the sums raised by advances 
 on goods and the sale of bills. In 1851-2 they shipped 
 from Madras 651,200Z. ? and obtained money on bills to 
 the extent of 303,OOOZ. If this sum be added to the im- 
 ports of that year, the whole will amount to 2,854,965. 
 10s., against a total export of 2,670,444 8s. merchandize 
 and treasure in 1850-1, and gives Madras back the worth 
 of its ventures and a profit of more than 7 per cent. 
 
 No one will quarrel with us for saying that the above 
 statistics are strange and melancholy beyond all concep- 
 tion. Here is an English Government, which takes all 
 the State tax and all the landlord's profit upon 140,000 
 square miles ; which exists in perfect peace ; and yet is 
 obliged, in order to defray its expenses, to seize and carry 
 off half the surplus profits of twenty-three millions of 
 souls ! The Madras ryot, growing the most valuable pro- 
 ducts of agriculture ; the native manufacturer, with his 
 curious examples of patient industry; and the European 
 capitalist, sugar-refiner, indigo-maker, and cotton-grower 
 each and all surrounded with illimitable space for ex- 
 pansion and improvement pay 5s. a head in taxes ; create, 
 as the combined product of their daily lives, a surplus of 3s. 
 yearly, and consume of imported goods as much as amounts 
 to Is. 9d. each person ! The negroes of Africa are wealthier 
 by far than the Madras Hindoo ; the beggars of Europe 
 are better customers to the rest of mankind. 
 
 There is hardly a fact more thoroughly recognised than 
 that of the successful competition of English mill- 
 owners with the cotton manufacturers of the East. The 
 most prosaic of statists is apt to warm into enthusiasm when 
 dilating on the wondrous results of that union of energy, 
 skill, and capital which has enabled the costly workman 
 of Lancashire to supplant the exquisite fabrics of Dacca, 
 and undersell the labour which considers 2d. a fair day's 
 wages for a fair day's work. We are constantly reminded 
 that the art of weaving had its rise in India, and that the 
 term " calico" is derived from Calicut, a town in Madras. 
 
330 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 It is not our present business to discuss the question, 
 whether Madras derives as much comparative benefit from 
 imported cottons as England is said to do from foreign 
 corn ; but that the substitution of Manchester goods for 
 those of native make is an advantage to the bulk of the 
 community, cannot be denied. With all the willingness 
 of the labouring class to encounter any amount of risk 
 And fatigue in the hope of procuring profitable employ- 
 ment, there is no increase in the number of weavers. The 
 very lowest rate of wages is still too high for the man 
 who has to compete with the work of the iron fingers 
 that never tire, and can be multiplied to any extent. 
 The use of English thread or cloth is only limited by the 
 means of the consumers. 
 
 We stipulate beforehand against any expressions of in- 
 credulity with regard to the fact we are about to disclose. 
 Disbelief would be natural, but not proper. This is a 
 land of wonders ; and the story of the Indian Govern- 
 ment, and of the real condition of the people, is of all 
 others the most difficult of comprehension. But it is 
 nevertheless true that the whole extent of cotton-twist 
 and manufactured goods, printed and plain, imported into 
 the Madras territories, by sea and land, amounts but to 2d. 
 per head. 
 
 We have searched for a proper standard of comparison, 
 but without success. The Crown colonies within the 
 tropics, which are said to be wretchedly governed as con- 
 trasted with the countries under the sway of the East 
 India Company, are so small in comparison with Madras, 
 that the disproportion is ludicrous. Ceylon and Mauritius 
 receive about a third more than the total imports of Madras, 
 -and pay about one-eighth of its revenue. We prefer, 
 therefore, to quote the South American States, where the 
 ]S"egro works for a bare maintenance, where the rulers 
 have never been trained for the duties of government, and 
 the hunter wears a dress of deer-skin, and seldom requires 
 the aid of the dhobie. Our authority is the Parliamentary 
 return of " British cotton manufactured goods exported 
 in the year 1851," from which it appears that Brazil and 
 nine South American Republics, having in the whole a 
 population of less than twenty-two millions, took more 
 
FACTS FOR MANCHESTER FOLKS. 331 
 
 than four millions' worth of manufactures, or a trine less 
 than four shillings per head. One can account for slight 
 discrepancies in the working of human institutions, but 
 how the slaves and niestijos of South America should be 
 able to purchase of one single class of English manufac- 
 tures twenty-four times as much as the free, enlightened, 
 and happily-guided Hindus, is a problem which we ask 
 the public at large to assist us in solving. It is not com- 
 patible with any notion of honesty and wisdom on the 
 part of the governors, or of any comfort on the side of the 
 people. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE CONDITION OP THE MADRAS RYOT DESCRIBED BY AUTHORITY. 
 
 FOLLY OF ATTEMPTING TO INVEST CAPITAL IN THAT PRESIDENCY. 
 
 IT requires thirty-seven thousand men to collect the 
 revenue of Madras, or more than three-fourths of the 
 whole force of the fifty-two regiments composing the 
 native infantry of the southern army. The cost of main- 
 taining them is close upon half a million sterling, a sum. 
 which, if rateably distributed, gives about fourteen shil- 
 lings a month to each individual employed. It is of course 
 hard to say how much is contributed by the country in 
 addition. Folks who pretend to have accurate informa- 
 tion on these points assert that the rupee obtained from 
 the ryot is always divided into two equal parts, one going 
 into the general treasury, and the other remaining in the 
 pouch of the subordinate tax-gatherer ; but the estimate 
 is most likely exaggerated. Where the knavery is greatest, 
 and where poverty is most utter and desolate, the native 
 tax-gatherer will reap the greatest harvest ; he will be 
 bribed heavily for allowing the rich man to cheat and the 
 poor man to live. 
 
 The state of things disclosed in the foregoing pages 
 might still be thought reconcileable with the existence of a 
 race of peasant-farmers elevated above the sphere of labour- 
 ing wretchedness but such is not the case. The present 
 Secretary for Government in the Revenue Department, 
 Mr. Bourdillon, published a pamphlet in 1852, in which 
 he showed, from the official list of holdings for the revenue 
 
332 THE SEPOY KEVOLT. 
 
 year 1848-49, that out of 1,071^,588, the total number of 
 leases, excluding joint holdings in the fourteen principal 
 ryotwarry districts, no fewer than 589,932, being con- 
 siderably more than half, were under 20s. per annum each, 
 averaging in fact only a small fraction above 8s. each : 
 201,065 were for amounts ranging from 20s. to 406?., 
 averaging less than 28s. 6d. ; 97,891 ranged between 40s. 
 and 60s., averaging 49s. 6d. In other words, nearly 
 900,000 leases out of a total of less than 1,100,000 were 
 for amounts under 60s., and averaging less than 19s. 6d. 
 per annum. 
 
 Upon the general condition of the people, Mr. Bour- 
 dillon remarks as follows : 
 
 " Now it may certainly be said of almost the whole of 
 the ryots paying even the highest of these sums, and 
 even of many holding to a much larger amount, that they 
 are always in poverty, and generally in debt. Perhaps 
 one of this class obtains a small sum out of the Govern- 
 ment advances for cultivation ; but even if he does, the 
 trouble that he has to take, and the time he loses in getting 
 it, as well as the deduction to which he is liable, render 
 this a questionable gain. For the rest of his wants he is 
 dependent on the bazarman. To him his crops are gene- 
 rally hypothecated before they are reaped ; and it is he 
 who redeems them from the possession of the village 
 watcher, by pledging himself for the payment of the 
 kist. These transactions pass without any written en- 
 gagements or memoranda between the parties, and the 
 only evidence is the chetty's own accounts. In general 
 there is an adjustment of the accounts once a year, but 
 sometimes not for several years. In all these accounts 
 interest is charged on the advances made to the ryot on 
 the balance against him. The rate of interest varies with 
 the circumstances of the case and the necessities of the 
 borrower ; it is probably seldom or never less than 12 
 per cent, per annum, and not often above 24 per cent. 
 Of course the poorest and most necessitous ryots have to 
 pay the highest. 
 
 " A ryot of this class of course lives from hand to mouth ; 
 he rarely sees money, except that obtained from the 
 chetty to pay his kist ; the exchanges in the out villages 
 
DEBTOR TO ENGLISH CHRISTIANITY. 333 
 
 are very few, and they are usually conducted by barter. 
 His ploughing cattle are wretched animals not worth 
 more than from three and a half to six rupees each (seven 
 to twelve shillings), and those, perhaps, not his own, 
 because not paid for. His rude and feeble plough costs, 
 when new, no more than two or three shillings ; and all 
 the rest of his few agricultural implements are equally 
 primitive and inefficient. His dwelling is a hut of mud 
 walls and thatched roof, far ruder, smaller, and more 
 dilapidated than those of the better classes of ryots above 
 spoken of, and still more destitute, if possible, of anything 
 that can be called furniture. His food, and that of his 
 family, is partly thin porridge made of the meal of grain 
 boiled in water, and partly boiled rice with a little condi- 
 ment ; and generally the only vessels for cooking and 
 eating from are of the coarsest earthenware, much inferior 
 in grain to a good tile or brick in England, and unglazed. 
 Brass vessels, though not wholly unknown among this 
 class, are rare. As to anything like education or mental 
 culture, they are wholly destitute of it. Even among the 
 more wealthy ryots, and indeed among all ranks through- 
 out the country, with the few and rare exceptions where 
 there is a missionary school, the whole education consists in 
 learning to read and write, with a little arithmetic. The 
 only books read are foolish and trifling, not to add im- 
 moral, legends. There is no true knowledge communicated 
 even on matters of physical science, or any useful training 
 of the mind." 
 
 When we look on the Indian ryot, we see one upon 
 whom man's curse presses harder than the Deity's; when 
 we contemplate the Madras Government, which, if it has 
 not helped to make him what he is, takes care to keep 
 him in the wretchedness which he inherits from his fore- 
 fathers, we are led to wonder at the combination of cir- 
 cumstances which confers authority, and prompts obe- 
 dience. Why the man who works and creates good 
 should pine in misery, whilst the useless member of 
 society, the drag on the wheels of time, receives wealth 
 and honour, is a strange and humbling mystery. 
 
 At present, with the aid of a little concealed cultivation, 
 a few prayers and entreaties, occasional sore bones, much 
 
 Y 
 
334: THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 lying and chronic abjectness of soul, the ryot manages to 
 live ; but the way of it is unknown to himself, and un- 
 happily as well to the good people of England. 
 
 Wide as is the range of the English dominion in the 
 East, various and exceptional as are the modes of raising 
 revenue, costly and desirable as are the products raised 
 within its borders, it is beyond all doubt that, under the 
 present system of taxation, the public revenue can obtain 
 no increase. A vast addition everywhere to the breadth 
 of land cultivated, would add both to rent and customs ; 
 but the soil of Bengal has been sold in fee simple. Bom- 
 bay, settled mainly on the ryot worry basis, must, in the 
 nature of things, pass from bad to worse. In Madras, the 
 annual emigration more than balances the natural increase 
 of the population. In the North-west, the village system 
 is tumbling to pieces, and the land revenue has for years 
 been stationary. Only one-fourth of the Punjaub is culti- 
 vated ; the country requires outlets for trade, and recent 
 events have drawn away a large portion of the male popu- 
 lation for military service. 
 
 There are many millions of acres of the finest land in 
 the world lying fallow in Pegu since the days, perhaps, 
 when first upheaved above the waters ; but the country 
 lacks population, having only a million of souls through- 
 out its whole extent of 30,000 square miles. Not one- 
 fifth of the cultivable area of British India is turned to 
 account ; and yet the limits of cultivation appear to have 
 been reached. God has made the land fertile ; but man 
 has reversed his decree, and consigned it to hopeless 
 sterility. 
 
 Where is the remedy ? Under the Company, or the 
 Company's Government, there is none to be hoped for. 
 The most cursory examination might have satisfied the 
 Court of Directors, any time within the last quarter of a 
 century, that the sole cause of the vast and permanent 
 prosperity of Bengal is the perpetual settlement which 
 they never cease to denounce and lament. The commerce 
 of India has increased from two and a half millions in 
 1813, to sixty -five millions in 1856-7, and there is no 
 limit to its further expansion. Crowds of the native 
 landholders and merchants accumulate princely fortunes ; 
 
CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. 335 
 
 and maiiy a fair estate in England and Scotland has grown 
 up from the savings of the few years' labour at the desk 
 or by the side of the indigo vats. There is no lack of the 
 enterprise which would achieve results as favourable else- 
 where. Calcutta is not the best outlet for trade, nor 
 Bengal the only rich soil : the land is everywhere in 
 India, the men and the capital are waiting at home ; and 
 why are they not brought together 1 
 
 The answer is ; simply because, beyond the limits of the 
 Bengal Presidency, there is no permanency of tenure. In. 
 the North-west Provinces and Bombay, the settlement is 
 made for a short term ; in Madras and Pegu, the tenancy 
 is only yearly. In the Gis and Trans-Sutlej States, leases 
 are given for twenty or thirty years \ in the Punjaub 
 proper the term is ten years, with a promise that it may 
 be further prolonged. The tenant is in the situation of a 
 leaseholder whose property does not absolutely pass away 
 from him at the end of his term, but which may be 
 assessed at a rate which amounts to virtual confiscation. 
 He may then be called upon to pay, not merely an en- 
 hanced rate for the soil, but an assessment upon the full 
 value of his improvements. The capital that lie has sunk 
 becomes a part of the fixed property of the landlord ; and 
 lie must either abandon it, or pay what is demanded of 
 him. Such a state of things is never contemplated in the 
 theory of the Court of Directors. They profess to see 
 nothing which can possibly prevent the employment of 
 British capital in any part of India, though we have 
 shown that four-fifths of the cultivable area of Madras 
 lies waste, and is not likely to experience change. The 
 fact of its fertility, the extent of its mineral resources, the 
 general excellence of the climate, the almost perfect 
 security of property from violence, are generally known ; 
 yet moneyed men forbear to build mills or dig mines, or 
 become great landholders. 
 
 The opportunities seem tempting, the facilities are 
 perfect ; why do not people avail themselves of the chance 
 of getting rich without much trouble '? Simply because 
 the Company's system is a perpetual lion, in the path of 
 the settler. What is his energy, however great, in the 
 midst of universal wretchedness and apathy 1 What can 
 
336 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 his example effect, when there are none to imitate it? 
 What marvels can his wealth exhibit, when all around are 
 poor to destitution ? To take land in his own person and 
 improve it, would be to court certain defeat. If he 
 quarrelled with a collector, his rent would probably be 
 raised, and his plans of amelioration thwarted in every 
 possible way. If he offended the great man's subordinates, 
 he might count upon being harassed by scores of false 
 suits, and exposed to a thousand losses and humiliations. 
 On the other hand, if he merely sat down and gave out 
 that he was willing to purchase produce, his task would 
 be easy enough for the first twelve months, after which 
 difficulties would occur. He could not obtain a measure 
 of rice or a cake of indigo without previously making 
 advances; or, in other words, taking a mortgage upon 
 Providence, with only one signature to the bond. If the 
 next season turned out favourable, he would get back a 
 portion of his money, and perhaps make a fair profit upon 
 it, but a goodly balance would remain to be accounted for; 
 next year, if bad harvests occurred, he must make up his 
 mind to get a new set of books, and begin with fresh 
 accounts and altered expectations. If he perseveres for 
 some years, he finds it profitable to maintain a native 
 lawyer at a fixed salary, and keep a staff of permanent 
 witnesses. The occupation is neither pious nor profitable; 
 and the most enduring and reckless speedily become 
 tired of it. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 THE REMEDY. IMPOSSIBILITY OF RAISING MORE REVENUE UNDER THE 
 PRESENT SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT. DIFFICULTY OF OBTAINING COR- 
 RECT INFORMATION. COST OF CULTIVATION AND PROFITABLE CUL- 
 TURE. OVERTHROW OF THE SLAVE-HOLDING INTEREST. THE BALANCE 
 OF TRADE. 
 
 THE task that we have to perform is the changing of a 
 rebellious into a contented people, of a deficient into a 
 surplus revenue, to abolish the slave-trade and slavery, 
 and enable England to be the mistress of her own destiny. 
 The work seems heavy enough ; but harder labour has 
 been undertaken by Englishmen before now for less 
 
THE TASK BEFORE US. 337 
 
 wages than can be paid in this case and with the cer- 
 tainty of no eventual profits. 
 
 Let us thoroughly comprehend our present position. 
 India must be held by the English, that is a point about 
 which no discussion can be tolerated; but by no State 
 device can we equalize, under the present system of 
 taxation, its income and expenditure. If we could re- 
 store to-morrow the land, the loyalty, and the fixed 
 capital that have been destroyed, still with the necessity for 
 keeping up an additional force of twenty-five thousand 
 Europeans, the annual deficit would amount to some 
 millions, with no prospect whatever of a change for the 
 better. 
 
 The only fiscal resource as yet untried is a property and 
 income-tax ; but it would utterly fail, owing to the in- 
 superable difficulties in the way of getting at the know- 
 ledge of what your supposed rich man possesses. On in- 
 quiry, his land would be found nominally in the hands 
 of a score of holders, his Company's paper all mortgaged 
 for advances. He would bury his coin, and hide his 
 securities \ and all that we should gain by the attempt to 
 make income contribute to the State, would be measure- 
 less ill-will from the only class that now wish for the con- 
 tinuance of our rule. The Hindoo and Mussulman method 
 of accusing a man of riches, and torturing him into con- 
 fession, is the sole mode of raising direct taxation in the 
 East ; and our civilization objects to it. 
 
 We must increase our deficit if we would vastly aug- 
 ment our surplus. We must lay out English capital if 
 we would have English profits. We must look upon 
 India as a great joint-stock property, of which all the 
 Queen's subjects are entitled to have a share. We have 
 but to yoke sun, soil, and human efforts together, and in 
 hopefulness of heart and brain wait the outturn. 
 
 We have done nothing whatever for Bengal, except to 
 bestow the land in perpetuity at a fixed rate of taxation. 
 We have steadily opposed the settlement of Europeans, 
 and upheld the worst judicial and police system in the 
 known world ; and yet the sole fact that the zemindar 
 holds his property in fee simple, at a mere nomiual rent, 
 has made the soil so valuable, that estates are scarcely 
 
338 THE SEPOY BE VOLT. 
 
 ever to be obtained by OUT countrymen on any terms, 
 whilst the export tonnage has increased twelvefold within 
 the last sixty years. The land-rent on the cultivated area 
 only amounts to a shilling per acre ; and the zemindar at 
 least obtains six times that amount. The ryot on the 
 average gets a shilling a week : and the native traders 
 make enormous gains. Bengal wants an Encumbered 
 Estates Act, and a law of Tenant Right ; and then, with 
 English judges and a reasonably honest police, we discern 
 no limit to the growth of trade and prosperity. As 
 matters stand, the soil of Bengal is far too valuable. The 
 zemindar lords it in reality over all the trading interests 
 of India, and has the English merchant and the native 
 peasant equally underfoot. We want a counterpoise in 
 the shape of an increase in the labourers' earnings, and of 
 a value given to land elsewhere. We are equally con- 
 cerned in cheapening the cost of produce ; and raiding the 
 rate of wages. 
 
 have seen that, after paying the Government land- 
 t-ix and the cost of cultivation, the five and a half mil- 
 lions of Madras families engaged in agricultural employ- 
 ment have only one shilling and eightpence per month 
 each to subsist upon. We want to raise that sum to ten 
 shillings, a range of income beyond their wildest dreams, 
 which would give them seven millions sterling to lay out 
 in the purchase of our manufactures, and still leave a con- 
 siderable surplus for extravagance or hoarding. Four 
 shillings monthly suffice to maintain a household in riotous 
 profusion, so far as food is concerned ; and after laying 
 out forty shillings in imports, the ry ot would have a yearly 
 balance of one- third more than his present total income. 
 
 We propose to effect this change by reducing the land- 
 tax over the whole of India to two shillings per acre, and 
 selling the fee simple of it for twenty shillings. We 
 should then be better off in the matter of revenue than 
 the colonies of the Crown, where the land is disposed of 
 outright for a pound an acre. There should be no dis- 
 tinction of soils recognised, the object being to induce a 
 rush for investment, and so draw out the hoards of the 
 capitalist. Land held in proprietary right would of course 
 only pay the annual assessment, the owners, if their title 
 
HOW TO CREATE A NEW CALIFORNIA. 339 
 
 was clear, standing in the same category with the new 
 purchasers. Works of irrigation should be kept up under 
 the supervision of trusts, as in England we maintain the 
 turnpike roads and other corporate conveniences, the Go- 
 vernment selling or leasing such as they have hitherto 
 maintained. Roads and canals should be made and re- 
 paired at the cost of the country, rates being levied for 
 that purpose, and the inhabitants encouraged to look to 
 the proper application of the funds. 
 
 The cultivator should in every case have, during twelve 
 months, the right of pre-emption in the purchase of the 
 land actually held by him under tillage, on paying the five 
 per cent, which Government would gain by closing at 
 once with the offer to buy. At the end of that period no 
 further impediment should be offered to the entrance of 
 the capitalist, whose co-operation in the work is a matter 
 of the utmost importance. The ryot would find plenty of 
 favourable localities in which to labour whilst earning the 
 small sum requisite to make him a landed proprietor. 
 
 The cost of the reduction would be, in the case of 
 Madras, taking the assessed area at fourteen millions of 
 acres, just two millions sterling. In Bombay it is diffi- 
 cult to say what the exact sum would reach ; but a mil- 
 lion and a half would cover it. The North-western 
 deficiency would be nil as yet ; Nagpore, Oude, the Pun- 
 jaub, and Pegu only pay in the aggregate 1,655,000, and 
 are scarcely assessed at three shillings per acre. An al- 
 lowance of a million is ample in the instances of the 
 countries alluded to, which brings up the total reduction 
 to four and a half millions. 
 
 With regard to the North-west there is the certainty 
 that in the new arrangements for taking land, necessary 
 in consequence of the numerous confiscations that must 
 ensue from the rebellion, and the destruction of title- 
 deeds and records, most men would prefer to receive the 
 fee simple of their holdings, and pay a reduced scale of 
 taxation, instead of re-entering under the old system of a 
 terminable lease, subject to an enhanced rental at each 
 renewal. Whenever this occurred, Government would 
 only be selling one-third of their annual rent at twenty 
 years' purchase ; but if the tenant elected to remain on 
 
340 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 the old tooting, of course the terms of the agreement 
 must be carried out. It is not likely that extensive pur- 
 chases would be made, for a time, by the ryots in Oude 
 or Pegu ; but in the old Presidencies and the Punjaub, we 
 calculate that every rupee would be drawn from the 
 earth for the purpose of being laid out in the purchase of 
 land. It is almost the only mode in which men of capi- 
 tal can turn their savings to account ; and once assured, 
 as they soon will be, of the permanence of our rule, we 
 shall see land as scarce and valuable in all parts of India 
 as it is now in Bengal, and as it was but lately in the 
 North-west Provinces. There will be an end to emigra- 
 tion after the first six months of the new system of land 
 tenures. 
 
 Less than 40,000,000 of acres additional brought into 
 cultivation would make up the whole deficiency of re- 
 venue ; for at least 1,000,000. sterling would be saved 
 in the reduction of revenue establishments. Madras, in 
 proportion to its population, should have 30,000,000 of 
 acres under tillage ; and many thousands of disbanded 
 Sepoys and Government servants of all kinds will be 
 available for field labour in 1858. Crowds of ryots 
 would flock in from all the native States, anxious to 
 share in the blessings of the new rule ; and every man 
 would have a real interest in the preservation of law and 
 order. We hardly expect to create a Paradise on the 
 site of what is now Pandemonium ; but at any rate we 
 should succeed in making happiness a possibility, and put 
 future revolt utterly out of the question. 
 
 And now to come to the question in which the two 
 hemispheres are vitally interested the prospect of get- 
 ting cheap and abundant supplies of cotton, sugar, and 
 other tropical produce. It is beyond all doubt that India 
 can grow any kind as well as any quantity of cotton. 
 Every variety of climate, every degree of moisture, is to 
 be found within her ample borders. Sugar, silk, tea, 
 seeds, rice, and wheat can be raised to the full level of 
 the demand for them, if that reached to the exclusion of 
 Southern America and the Slave Islands from the mar- 
 kets of Europe. Let us weigh a few agricultural and 
 financial facts, and then make the fitting comparisons. 
 
CROSS ROADS AND CROSS PURPOSES. 341 
 
 A man and his family can do the work of two la- 
 bourers, and they will be rich if in the receipt of 61. per 
 annum. They can cultivate with ease five acres of land, 
 growing, say, one acre of sugar-cane, one of cotton, and 
 three of rice or oil-seeds. To avoid the chance of error, 
 we will take each acre separately, both for cost, product, 
 and outturn of cultivation. 
 
 We must premise by saying that the difficulty of ob- 
 taining reliable information for general use upon ques- 
 tions of Indian social economy is as great as that which 
 stands in the way of acquiring political knowledge. An 
 Anglo-Indian, who fancies that he thoroughly understands 
 the state of affairs in the East, stumbles perhaps upon a 
 body of evidence upon Indian topics which utterly con- 
 founds him. He vows honestly, on being questioned, 
 that the secretary to Government is not such a person as 
 is represented by the witnesses, that he is incapable of 
 doing anything so foolish or tyrannical as the act ascribed 
 to him. The army, instead of being discontented, and in 
 a state of disorganization, is well satisfied, and in the 
 highest state of efficiency. The land-tax is by no means 
 oppressive ; the collectors have nothing to say to the 
 standing crops. The Sudder Court has a couple of able 
 judges in it ; and the English functionaries in the lower 
 tribunals are not all ignorant of law, as would seem to be 
 inferred. The indignant critic goes on, perhaps, till out 
 of breath and scant of charity, and then discovers that 
 the testimony impugned relates to Bombay or Madras, 
 whilst his own experience is wholly confined to Bengal. 
 The machinery of government is nearly alike in construc- 
 tion, and the parts are called by the same names a ryot 
 in Bengal is identified with the class of ryots all over the 
 surface of the English dominions ; but in other respects 
 the Company's servants and subjects in one Presidency 
 know as little of each other as Spaniards know of French- 
 men, and transact the business of their lives in entirely 
 different ways. The diversity tells heavily against the 
 interests of the people when questions have to be decided 
 at home which demand, for their wise settlement, the 
 attention of more than a single individual. There is at 
 this moment but one man in the East India direction 
 
342 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 who can pretend to the slightest knowledge of Madras 
 affairs ; and he is a general who retired from the country 
 some years since. Men who have achieved reputation as 
 able administrators in one part of the East will honestly 
 admit their ignorance of the state of things which prevails 
 elsewhere ; and how should it be otherwise, if their plea 
 of a special aptitude for the performance of their own 
 proper tasks is a valid one ? The languages spoken, the 
 methods of raising taxation, the habits and manners of 
 the natives, are all peculiar to each great section of the 
 Queen's Eastern possessions, and require, on the part of 
 the Englishman, facilities for learning, and an interest in 
 rightly understanding them. Take from the Court of 
 Last Appeal the elements which are either hurtful or 
 innocuous in the way of arriving at a just decision, and, 
 when your body of Directors is dwindled down to a soli- 
 tary person, add the influence of the fact that he has been 
 several years away from India, and only knew it as an 
 official ; and the conclusion must be, that great things as 
 well as small ones are left to the rule of thumb. The 
 persons charged to decide upon matters of vital concern- 
 ment to India may have the will to do justice in most 
 cases ; but it is beyond their power to administer it, if 
 knowledge of the subject is requisite for that purpose. 
 
 In assigning credence to official statements, equal care 
 must be taken to ascertain the character of the facts upon 
 which they are based. The mode in which averages are 
 struck is one of the most fruitful sources of erroneous im- 
 pressions. In preparing statements on the incidence of 
 taxation, the Indian authorities adopt a principle which 
 gives results that are as correct as those of a process 
 which, adding the wages of half-a-dozen farm-labourers to 
 the rental of the Duke of Bedford, would make out that 
 each had an income of 30,000 per annum. The Madras 
 statists put down the area of cultivation in that Presidency 
 at twenty millions of acres, and show that the tax only 
 amounts to 3s. 6d. per acre, whilst, according to the state- 
 ments of the Revenue Board, sugar in Madras is not cul- 
 tivated, "in general," on lands assessed below 2 Is. or 
 above 48s. per acre ; the plain English of which is, that 
 the collector takes care that sugar land shall not pay less 
 
GETTING AT THE NUGGETS. 343 
 
 than the smaller amount ; and the range of prices in the 
 English market forbids attempts on the part of the ryot 
 to raise it under the higher scale of taxation. It is a 
 positive fact, that in 1832 the tax imposed upon sugar 
 lands varied in Tinnivelly from 13s. to SI. 3s. 6d. The 
 Government have, within the last twelvemonth, reduced 
 the assessment in Bellary with regard to five classes of 
 land, fixing the highest at 18s., and the lowest at 1 5s. per 
 acre. Facts tending to the same result crop out with 
 reference to the North-western Provinces. The average 
 of taxation, which, according to Thornton's Gazetteer, is 
 3s. 3d. on the total assessed area, gives no clue to the real 
 extent of the Government demand, which, as in all other 
 parts of India not permanently settled, was merely regu- 
 lated by the ability of the cultivator to pay. Take from 
 the North-west system its distinguishing characteristics,, 
 of a return of one- third of the gross produce to the 
 holders of the proprietary right and the granting of thirty 
 years' leases, and it would be found scarcely to differ in 
 essentials from the ryotwarry, which the advocates of the 
 former condemn and repudiate. 
 
 An acre of land will grow, with careful irrigation, 
 200 Ibs. of clean cotton and a ton of oil-seeds. The cost 
 of cultivation will be as follows : 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Rent and interest of purchase money .040 
 Seed, hire of bullocks, and cost of water .0140 
 Proportion of annual income . . .140 
 
 220 
 And the outturn will be 
 
 200 Ibs. of clean cotton @ 2d. per Ib. . 1 13 4 
 One ton of oil- seeds @ 4s. per cwt. .400 
 
 5 13 4 s. d. 
 Profit on the cultivation of one acre . . . 3 11 4 
 
 Sugar cultivation will yield the following result : 
 
 *. d. 
 
 Rent and interest . . . . .040 
 Cost of cultivation and water . . .100 
 Proportion of annual income . . .140 
 
 280 
 
344 THE SEPOY KEVOLT. 
 
 The product in this case, single crop, will be 
 
 1500 Ibs. of ordinary Madras sugar @ 8s. s. d. 
 per cwt. . . . . . .540 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Profit upon one acre . . . . . 2 16 
 
 Rice and oil-seeds mixed, a double crop, will show the 
 
 following : 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Rent and interest 040 
 
 Cultivation 10 
 
 Proportion of annual income . . .140 
 
 1 18 
 And the outturn will be 
 
 *. d. 
 
 Clean rice, 10 cwt. @ 3s. 6d. per cwt. . 1150 
 Oil-seeds, 1 ton @ 4s. per cwt. . .400 
 
 5 15 s. d. 
 The profit in this instance being . . . 3 17 
 
 Implicit reliance may be placed on the above figures, 
 which show, in round numbers, a profit of more than 31. 
 per acre upon the four articles of produce cultivated, after 
 the ryots' income has been deducted. Cotton grown in 
 the North-western Provinces has yielded as much as 
 380 Ibs. to the acre; sugar raised in Madras has given 
 considerably over two tons. The experience of a China- 
 man would put these statistics to shame, as affording 
 proof of what might be made from such an area of soil ; 
 and in due time we shall have India as well irrigated, 
 and almost as densely peopled, as the Celestial Empire. 
 The difference between barrenness and the most glorious 
 fertility is merely a question of water; and between 
 wretchedness and prosperity, a matter of low rent and 
 permanent tenure. 
 
 Let us now see what would be the cost of the above 
 commodities to the people of Europe, allowing for all 
 charges incurred, and profits expected. If we assume 
 that the produce is raised at an average distance of 200 
 miles from the port of shipment, and the cost of carriage 
 is 2d. per ton per mile, we shall surely cover all the 
 expenses of transit. The cotton and the grain of Pegu 
 
PROFITS OF THE PARTNERSHIP. 345 
 
 will not cost a tenth part of that amount ; and along the 
 1600 miles of seaboard belonging to the Madras Presi- 
 dency, there is land enough to supply all the requirements 
 of England far within the limits now assigned. But 
 we are content to let the figures stand; they show as 
 follows: 
 
 Cotton. d. 
 
 Cost of raw material per Ib. . , . . .2 
 
 Carriage to the coast 
 
 Baling and screwing 
 
 Shipping charges 
 
 Freights @ 20s. per bale of 500 Ibs. 
 
 01 
 
 0| 
 
 04 
 
 Insurance and other charges 
 
 Cost in Liverpool on shipper's account per Ib. . 3c^ 
 We assert, without hesitation, that at the above rate, 
 and under the conditions laid down, any quantity of 
 excellent cotton can be produced in India and Pegu, 
 yielding the profit stated to the growers. 
 
 Sugar. 8. d. 
 
 Cost of raw material per cwt. . 8 
 
 gunny bag 
 
 Carriage to coast per cwt. 
 Charges @ 10 per cent. 
 Freight @ 80s. per ton, and insurance 
 London charges .... 
 
 3 
 
 1 8 
 1 
 4 6 
 1 6 
 
 Cost to sell without profit or loss . . . 16 11 
 
 Rice. s. d. 
 
 Cost of clean rice per cwt. . . . . .36 
 
 Gunny bag and shipping . . . . .10 
 
 Freight @ 80s. per ton 40 
 
 Insurance and London charges, average . .13 
 
 Cost to the shipper . . . . . .99 
 
 Oil Seeds. s. d. 
 
 Cost of mustard or gingelly per quarter . .0190 
 Gunny bag, insurance, and shipping charges .046 
 
 Freight @ 90s. per ton 126 
 
 London charges . . . . .040 
 
 Cost to the shipper 2 10 
 
 On the 7th of November last, under great depression 
 
346 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 <s, Madras native sugar averaged in bond 'los. 6<; 
 in 'July the same quality was worth 37s. The lowest 
 rate would give the merchant a profit of more than 61. 
 per ton; and at what maybe called, under the present 
 state of things, the natural value, he would realize at 
 least double that amount, or more than a hundred and 
 seventy per cent, on his outlay of capital. Adopt at 
 once our proposed scale of taxation in Madras ; and despite 
 the want of roads and machinery for crushing the cane, 
 sugar could be made at a profit to the grower when the 
 native merchant only obtained from the shipper 5s. 6d. 
 per cwt., which would reduce the cost of the article, laid 
 down in London, to 14s. 5d. 
 
 Madras cotton was quoted at Liverpool on the 7th of 
 November at 4fd. The advance of a farthing in the 
 price of cotton adds a million sterling to the outlay of 
 the manufacturers ; but what would be the gain when we 
 could not only import cotton of the present quality at an 
 aggregate reduction of 5,000,000/., but suit at the same 
 rate all the requirements of the spinner? It needs but a 
 glance at the samples on view at the India House, to 
 convince the public that water and tendance only are 
 requisite to raise from the indigenous seed nearly all the 
 varieties of cotton now in use. Three years of English 
 culture would set the question of Indian sufficiency in 
 this respect at rest for ever. 
 
 How cheaply rice can be grown, and how pleasant 
 annexation may be made to a people who as yet scarcely 
 know us except as traders, may be ascertained from a 
 glance at the present condition of the inhabitants of the 
 eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal, as compared with 
 what it was under the rule of the Burmese. The taxation 
 fixed by the Court of Ava consisted of an impost of about 
 ten shillings sterling levied on each homestead, and an equal 
 amount charged upon each yoke of buffaloes, in lieu of 
 land-rent. Our Government has retained the capitation- 
 rax, but has substituted for the charge on cattle a land- 
 tax of two, three, and four shillings an acre, according to 
 the quality of soil. The aggregate sum now levied is hardly 
 greater than the regular taxation fixed by the Burmese ; 
 but, whereas the hundred baskets of table rice, weighing 
 
THE WEAKNESS OF WEALTH. 347 
 
 7400 Ibs., formerly sold at Rangoon for 18s. on the ave- 
 rage, the same quantity now realizes 51. 
 
 It would pay us well, as a nation, to dispense entirely 
 with taxes in the case of a people who would consent to 
 give us rice at threepence per cwt. We compensated the 
 Hughs of Arracan and the Karens of Pegu for the loss of 
 their independence, if they ever had or cared to preserve 
 such a gift, and might safely go to a popular election in 
 that part of the world on the question of the maintenance 
 of British sovereignty. 
 
 The objects that we have kept steadily in view, apart 
 from the improvement of the condition of the ryot, are 
 the incentives to the employment of capital in the culti- 
 vation of land, and a vast increase of production. As 
 matters now stand, every mill that is built tends to make 
 cotton dearer; for, toil as it may, production cannot 
 overtake consumption. The buyers increase faster than 
 the sellers ; and so long as that is the case, it is hopeless 
 to expect a diminution in the price of the raw material. 
 The manufacturer is obliged to pay far more than the 
 worth of the inferior article, because he cannot get 
 enough of the better sort. Every advance in the price 
 of American cotton, which the grower improves to the 
 best of his ability, is a bounty to the Asiatic agriculturist, 
 who will make no change in his modes of culture or 
 dressing if he can help it. The Englishman is obliged to 
 take the adulterated stuff, whether he likes it or not, 
 simply because that, bad as it is, it is better than nothing. 
 The effect of high prices in the home market for East 
 India produce tends more to change the nature of the 
 cultivation, than to increase the breadth or improve the 
 quality. Cotton lands are made to grow sugar, or vice 
 versa. Advances are made by the native traders to the 
 ryots during the time that high rates rule in Europe ; 
 and the article is delivered perhaps at a period of 
 great depression, when value has been forced down 
 below its natural level. All trading under such cir- 
 cumstances partakes more or less of a gambling cha- 
 racter ; and the European merchant is mainly the 
 loser. If demand is active, buyers compete with 
 each other, and prices go up enormously; and if it 
 
348 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 flags, the native middleman has made so much profit by 
 his previous transactions, and lives at such a trifling cost, 
 that he can afford to hold on, and wait till the necessity 
 for fulfilling charters, or of finding freights for vessels 
 consigned on commission, compels the English house to 
 buy on the native's terms, as an alternative preferable to 
 that of sending ships away in ballast. In Calcutta, where 
 the supply is enormous, and the native merchants are 
 more acquainted with the true principles of commerce, the 
 latter state of things can scarcely prevail ; but it is quite 
 common at Akyab or Rangoon for merchants to be forced 
 to pay a great deal more than the real market value of 
 grain, because the first holders, being few in number, and 
 very wealthy, are enabled to keep back supplies till the 
 ships' laying days have run out, when the merchant is 
 either obliged to surrender at discretion, or lose the full 
 amount of freight. That mischievous power is, of course, 
 at an end when the proper balance between supply and 
 demand is obtained, and commerce can be carried on to 
 the mutual benefit of all parties engaged. 
 
 The result of imparting a high value to cultivation 
 will be, of course, to improve the quality as well as to 
 increase the quantity of all Eastern products. English- 
 men will grow cotton, sugar, and rice as they now grow 
 indigo, and with the same good effects. Care and con- 
 tinual irrigation will entirely change the character of the 
 great staples ; and capitalists will be encouraged to make 
 advances when they are sure of obtaining what they have 
 bargained for. The grower would never want a market ; 
 the shipowner would never lack a freight ; and the mer- 
 chant might count upon always realizing a profit. 
 
 The profit of more than three pounds per acre, allowed 
 everywhere to the proprietors of the soil, will doubtless 
 be objected to in some quarters ; but we hold that, if the 
 production of raw material can be doubled or quadrupled, 
 no amount of gain should be grudged to the men who ac- 
 complish it. We can never cheapen produce, so long as 
 the demand is greater than the supply. The cup must be 
 filled in the first instance ; and what runs over goes to 
 the share of the public. When the existing vacuum is 
 entirely filled up, the next ounce tells in favour of the 
 
SLAVERY ABOLISHED IN TWO WORLDS. 349 
 
 buyer. From getting the same rate of prices as the 
 owners of slave labour, the Indian grower would be gra- 
 dually brought into competition with the former. After 
 awhile a struggle would commence as to which interest, 
 that of free or servile labour, should supply the world's 
 markets ; and the contest must of necessity terminate on 
 the side of civilization. No efforts of slavery could avail 
 against the countless millions of willing labourers, happy 
 in the enjoyment of family earnings amounting to four- 
 pence-halfpenny a day, Sundays excluded. What they 
 now want in the way of useful knowledge, will be im- 
 parted to them. No men are more industrious or more 
 desirous to earn money. We have only to show them 
 how a competency is to be realized, and they are sure to 
 achieve it. 
 
 Until the world can stumble on another India, or we 
 are false to ourselves and our forefathers, we shall be 
 able, under the new social system, to occupy the foremost 
 place amongst the nations, in reality as well as in appear- 
 ance. At this moment our condition resembles that of 
 the Hindoo universe, which is supported on a snake, 
 which rests on a tortoise, which latter rests upon nothing. 
 Our prosperity has no solid foundation. It could scarcely 
 exist, and perhaps we should scarcely care to uphold it, if 
 national independence were wrenched from it; and so 
 long as we are dependent on a single foreign nation for 
 the means whereby alone millions of our best citizens are 
 enabled to exist, we cannot be said to be actually masters 
 of our own fate. There is a choice left to us. In a period 
 of hostility, which may one day overtake us, we must cast 
 our lot either with the beggar or the slave; but the 
 alternative is not a pleasant one. 
 
 Members of Parliament and directors in Leadenhall- 
 street ask what becomes of the immense supplies of bullion 
 that go forward by every mail to India; and the question 
 is easily answered. The average value of Indian exports 
 is doubled ; but the ryot gets little or none of the increase, 
 and rain and sunshine cost no more to the grower than of 
 old. Such portion of the middleman's profit as he can 
 employ with advantage in extending production, is directed 
 to that end ; and after he has clothed himself according 
 
350 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 to the custom of his tribe, and decked his wife with 
 jewels, the rest returns to the soil from whence it origi- 
 nally came. He has no opera to subscribe to, no turf to 
 patronise, no wine- merchant's or milliner's bills to pay. 
 His sons' education may cost him perhaps twenty pounds 
 a year, if his family is numerous. His daughters' accom- 
 plishments are taught, from first to last, in what we should 
 term the nursery. He makes and spends money, lives, 
 and is buried after the fashion of his fathers. 
 
 Level the houses of our Manchester operatives, and let 
 each family reside in a mud hut, with a grass mat for bed 
 and bedding, a couple of three-legged stools for furniture, 
 and for cooking utensils an earthen pot. For clothing, let 
 the worker have a cotton rag round his waist, for food a 
 handful of the cheapest grain let himself, his wife and 
 family exist from infancy to old age without comfort, 
 knowledge, or religion without a sense of decency or a 
 hope of amelioration more than is possessed by the beasts 
 that perish; and then, if the work of his hands brought 
 the same price as now in the world's markets, and the 
 mill- owners spent each but a hundred a year, we should 
 have no trouble in finding out why gold and silver were 
 more largely imported, and where the greater portion 
 went to. Do we wish to restore what a certain section 
 of political economists call " the balance of trade" in favour 
 of England? We have only to give the Indian ryot an 
 equal interest with the Manchester spinners in the fruit 
 of his labour. To contend that the former has no desire 
 to be well fed and clothed, that his wife has no love of 
 finery, and his children no capacity for instruction, is to 
 mock common sense, and despise the responsibilities of 
 civilization. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 POLITICAL CHANGES REQUIRED. NECESSITY FOR THROWING INDIA OPEN 
 
 TO ALL THE QUEEN 5 S SUBJECTS. ORGANIZATION OF A STAFF CORPS. 
 
 MONOPOLY OF THE CIVIL SERVICE AT AN END. 
 
 LET us have the right to buy lands anywhere in India, 
 and with lawyers for judges, and Englishmen for zemin- 
 dars, we should take little heed as to the composition of 
 
THE RIGHT MEN WANTED. 351 
 
 the governing power. That portion of the Anglo-Indian 
 population which has the largest amount of interest in 
 the well-being of the country, only cares to interfere in 
 public affairs for self-defence ; but, from the nature of 
 things, Government in the East has so much to do with 
 social questions, and has done its work so badly, that men, 
 who would as soon think of meddling with State matters 
 in Calcutta as of neglecting their business for parish poli- 
 tics at home, have been obliged to come forward and agi- 
 tate for a total change in the system of rule. Their aims 
 are solely directed to the advancement of the English in 
 India ; but inasmuch as they cannot benefit their own im- 
 portant class without at the same time serving the in- 
 terests of the people, they deserve the support of the home 
 public. 
 
 In dealing with this great matter we put classes and 
 cliques equally aside. We have no respect for the Indian 
 Government because its members belong to the middle 
 ranks, and no abstract dislike to the wider influence of the 
 imperial authority on the score that it is usually exercised 
 by titled persons. It is said with justice that appoint- 
 ments made by the ministry of the day are rarely bestowed 
 with reference to the capacity of the individual promoted ; 
 but there is no reason to suppose that in the selection of 
 candidates for the highest offices the Court of Directors 
 are a whit more considerate ; and it is not always that 
 lucky indiscretions protect the public from the conse- 
 quences of unwise partiality. Fools and firebrands have 
 sat in the highest seats before now, and will do so again, 
 whether the choice of selection rest with the Crown or 
 the Company. One day your ablest man is a soldier, and 
 the grey-headed civilian a type of imbecility. The next 
 you are called upon to admire a Dalhousie or a Thomason, 
 the choice of each and all being equally the result of acci- 
 dent. It is the merest chance whether the Commander- 
 in-Chief is a Napier or a Godwin ; fate and the exigencies 
 of party dominate over all. 
 
 Even if we could obtain a guarantee that the ablest 
 
 member of the services should always be at the head of 
 
 the Government, it would by no means follow that we 
 
 should witness the adoption of a liberal and enlightened 
 
 z 2 
 
352 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 policy. Long residence in India narrows the understand- 
 ing and strengthens the prejudices of a man, however 
 gifted he may be by nature. Obliged to enact the despot 
 for the better part of his lifetime, he becomes incapable 
 at last of identifying himself with the broad principles of 
 popular progress. He has never been accustomed to deal 
 with the rights of the people ; the good and the evil that 
 he has done have proceeded from his own volition, or the 
 mandate of his superiors. Remonstrance displeases and 
 opposition provokes him. He abhors publicity, and chafes 
 at the strictures of the press. We know members of the 
 service to whom none of these objections apply, who 
 sympathize with every plan of improvement, and would 
 make Government, instead of being, as it is. the mystery 
 of quacks, a thing to be understood and reverenced. But 
 they are sadly few in number, and labour under the dis- 
 ability of not being admired in high places. 
 
 No one can deny the soundness of the axiom, that it is 
 for the general good that the ablest man should always be 
 appointed to office, without reference to the class he be- 
 longed to ; and all we contend for is, that no body of men, 
 however well selected, shall be allowed to monopolize the 
 government of an empire. 
 
 At forty years of age, a man of good character may 
 enter the church, the law, or the army. Bishops, chief- 
 justices, and generals of approved ability, have commenced 
 even later in life the career in which they were destined 
 to be famous ; and why should not similar facilities for 
 the exercise of genius, learning, and enterprise be afforded 
 in the Civil Service of India 1 No one expects that the 
 outsider should be planted at once in the front ranks. It 
 is only governors that are made out of the purely raw 
 material ; but just as you allow a Wilde to exchange his 
 profession of attorney for that of advocate, which chance 
 shall, in due time, enable him to become Lord Chancellor 
 just as a Graham, sorrowing for the loss of his wife, is 
 permitted to become an ensign at fifty, and afterwards 
 Lord Lynedoch, the victor of Barossa should a capable 
 man be suffered to make his way to an Indian judgeship. 
 Providence, which has not made ability the sole pro- 
 duct of a single country, or the attribute of a particular 
 
THE WAY TO DO THE WOKK. 353 
 
 class, punishes, in the prevalence of foolish counsels, the 
 attempt to support such a monopoly as that of the East 
 India Company. Of course, there will be many to point 
 out the dangers of such a policy, but only a few years 
 since it was as vigorously contended that the interests of 
 India and England were intimately bound up with the 
 Company's trading system. If tea was bought by any 
 other than covenanted servants, and carried home by any 
 other than Company's vessels, you might enrich a few 
 grasping speculators, but it would be at the expense of 
 British supremacy in the East. 
 
 Since that change was effected which the ablest ser- 
 vants of the East India Company, including Sir Thomas 
 Munro and Sir Charles Metcalfe, so much deprecated, the 
 Indian trade has increased from two and a half millions 
 annually to sixty millions ; and there is reason to suppose 
 that, by opening up the service to the competition of the 
 whole empire, men as well as youths, the profit in politics 
 will be as great as the benefits in commerce. In India, 
 a,t this moment, there are scores of first-rate men available 
 for the public service, of all classes and colours \ and why 
 should the State be denied the benefit of their labours 1 
 We have no objection to the maintenance of the present 
 system of recruiting the ranks of the Civil Service ; but 
 it does not exhaust the stock of ability, and in many in- 
 stances fails to disclose the presence of it. The dunce at 
 school often turns out a successful administrator, and the 
 winner of the prize at the examinations a poor bookworm. 
 There is work to be done in India, such as mere scholar- 
 ship can hardly forward. The tasks are various, and let 
 us, if such are to be found, everywhere entrust them to 
 fitting hands. 
 
 It is rank cowardice on the part of the public to give 
 way to the fear of making the minister of the day too 
 powerful. Such an objection to the overthrow of the 
 India House was valid enough when Parliament was a 
 close assembly ruled by class influences, and the news- 
 paper was made up of advertisements and gossip. If the 
 nation is true to itself, why should it dread a lord ? If 
 men are too idle to qualify themselves to pronounce a just 
 verdict on the conduct of those placed above them, or too 
 
354 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 timid or dishonest to say what they know ought to be 
 said, no scheme that the wit of mortals can devise will 
 obtain for them the blessings of good government. Under 
 any system of rule, the fool will creep into the post of 
 honour, and the knave will get to be trusted, unless a 
 never-ceasing watch is maintained by the people. Let us 
 cast our lines everywhere, on the surface, and in the 
 depths of society, and take for public use the best of the 
 haul. The capable man will need to be looked after as 
 well as his opposite ; but the one in that case is sure to 
 achieve good, the other can only be kept from doing harm. 
 
 The late change, by which entrance into the Civil Ser- 
 vice was made the prize for competition amongst the 
 pupils of the great seminaries of learning, was a great 
 step in advance of that system which maintained a dozen 
 families for the sole purpose of raising the future gover- 
 nors of the East, and left the general public dependent on 
 female sterility. But another great reform is needed. 
 We require, as well, that appointments in the army should 
 be thrown open to all the adventurous and able. Let 
 Government take a fourth of the whole number of nomi- 
 nations, to be dealt with as human infirmity may suggest, 
 and let us bestow the rest upon the most deserving appli- 
 cant for military distinction. 
 
 The employment of more European agents in India 
 will be a necessity under the new system of rule. There 
 will be less work for the politician, but more for the 
 magistrate and overseer. When the civilian has nothing 
 to do with law, and the collector merely sits in his 
 Cutcherry to regulate the receipt of revenue, the labour 
 of governing will be materially simplified, and officials 
 will be sufficiently paid at half their present rates of 
 income. We shall find in the army a large reserve of 
 practical ability ; and can at any time lay our hands 
 upon men who have been acclimatized, and obtained a 
 certain knowledge of the country. Their constant sense 
 of the impossibility of achieving civil distinction without 
 much study, would call forth whatever of faculty they 
 had within them. The boatman who would contend in 
 the race takes care that his oar shall never be ]ong out of; 
 the water. 
 
FITTING THE PEGS IN PROPER HOLES. 355 
 
 A list should be opened in London, wherein every 
 young man amongst the Queen's subjects, who had passed 
 a preliminary examination, should be permitted to inscribe 
 his name. At stated seasons a number of candidates 
 should be drawn by ballot, and examined as to their 
 proficiency in the course of study laid down, the most 
 competent being selected to receive commissions. On 
 arriving in India they should be posted to regiments, 
 and made to do duty for not less than two years, at the 
 end of which time they would be eligible for staff employ- 
 ment, on passing in the language of the district in which 
 they were to labour. We would do away with the 
 present evil of taking an officer from his regiment, to 
 spend the prime of his days in staff duties, and sending 
 him back to command the corps when both intellect and 
 activity were either gone altogether or greatly deteriorated. 
 At the end of three years the absentee should elect to 
 remain on the staff, or go back to his regiment. If he 
 chose the former, his place should be filled up by the 
 junior next in succession, and henceforth his military 
 rank would be purely nominal. He should be styled 
 Captain or Major when he would have attained those 
 grades in the corps ; but if obliged to leave the stan^ 
 either from sickness or incapacity, he should never be 
 allowed to return to the army. Whatever interest he 
 could make should only be available to get him returned 
 to civil employment. If he was unfit, either morally or 
 intellectually, for the one set of tasks, he should not be 
 declared good enough for the performance of the other. 
 Under such a system men who had interest enough to 
 get appointed, would hesitate as to their use of it, and 
 take more heed of their conduct when they had abandoned 
 the worse paid but surer position of a subaltern in the 
 army. Officers who had no friends to push them forward, 
 or who had a love for the military profession, would 
 rejoice in the appointment of a senior to the staff 
 Every such case would be as profitable to their interests 
 as a death-vacancy, and far more pleasant, we would hope, 
 to their feelings. They would rejoice at what is now 
 considered usually a hardship, and often an insult to them. 
 Those who did the work of soldiering would get its 
 
356 THE SEPOY KEVOLT. 
 
 rewards ; and we should have no more instances of men, 
 after spending a lifetime in civil employment, and in the 
 receipt of high pay, coming back to command their corps 
 over the heads of majors who had never left their regi- 
 ments, or received more than mere army allowances. 
 Both classes would be greatly benefited by being restricted 
 to the choice of a profession, and secured in the enjoy- 
 ment of the privileges which properly belong to it. 
 
 But whilst we hold out this immense boon to the 
 middle classes, who find it so difficult to get employment 
 for their younger branches whilst we provide for a large 
 accession to the stock of available administrative ability, 
 and do away with the heart-burnings which now prevail 
 in the army we must not ignore the existence of in- 
 digenous capacity in the East. There are crowds of men 
 European, East Indian, and native who seek em- 
 ployment, and can exhibit proofs of fitness for it ; and we 
 must remember, too, that whilst the home-bred candidate 
 for office has all the world before him wherein to pick out 
 a sphere for exertion, those men are restricted to the 
 opportunities afforded in the place of their birth. A 
 great many of them actually perform the tasks for which 
 civilians draw high salaries, and some possess an aptitude 
 for work which defies rivalry. We would allow them in 
 all cases to come in and prove their claims to share in 
 whatever was held out as the reward of proved fitness in 
 India, and abolish altogether the prevailing distinction 
 between covenanted and uncovenanted employment. The 
 men appointed at home should always have work and 
 pay ; but we would do away at once, and for ever, with 
 the system which makes certain offices the sole heritage 
 of those who hold civil or military commissions. It is 
 not difficult to detect the interest which such persons have 
 in the continuance of the present monopoly ; but what 
 compensates the public for its existence ? If the official 
 at the head of financial affairs is totally ignorant of all 
 that he should know, it is surely no set-off against a de- 
 ranged money-market and a damaged state of public 
 credit, to show that he is a member of the Civil Service, 
 and not a mere adventurer, East Indian, or native, se- 
 lected only because he possessed knowledge and ability. 
 
SPECIMENS FOR THE MUSEUM. 357 
 
 In Ceylon, seven years since, the Queen's Advocate, and 
 member of the Legislative Council by virtue of his posi- 
 tion, was a gentleman of the darkest shade of colour, yet 
 no one grumbled at an appointment which in this case 
 was filled by the ablest man in the island. If East 
 Indians can collect customs in Rangoon and elsewhere, 
 why should they not do so in Bengal and Madras'? If 
 adventurers are good enough to be Deputy-Commis- 
 sioners on rare occasions in Pegu and the Punjaub, why 
 should they be kept in general upon a lower scale of pay, 
 and taught that the rich prizes of the service are exclu- 
 sively for those who have received their appointments at 
 home ? If one man is set to do certain tasks, and 
 steadily and ably gets through them, upon no principle of 
 fairness to tbe individual or advantage to the public can 
 we withhold from him the rate of remuneration which is 
 given to others employed in like manner. 
 
 The system of promotion in the navy bears some re- 
 semblance to the state of things which prevails in the 
 East : but though a lieutenant is often allowed to grow 
 grey in the Queen's service, he is never made to believe 
 that a positive class inferiority is the cause of his being 
 passed over for promotion. He accounts himself as good 
 a gentleman as the post-captain, and never regards his 
 own elevation as a sheer impossibility. Were it other- 
 wise, the nation might raise an outcry, and the efficiency 
 of the fleet would be in danger; but the injustice which 
 would not be tolerated for a moment in the one hemi- 
 sphere is universally inflicted in the other. The civil and 
 military servants of the East India Company form literally 
 two castes, who, by virtue of their covenants or com mis- 
 sions, engross, to the absolute exclusion of all other 
 Englishmen, all the dignified and lucrative offices in the 
 East. The wife of the high civilian may look down upon 
 the family of the military man as being " trash from the 
 fort;" but both unite in the feeling of unmeasured con- 
 tempt for all without the pale of privilege. And they 
 have a right to be proud of their position as matters are 
 managed and worth estimated in that part of the world; 
 for, let the emergency be ever so great, or the stock of 
 capacity ever so small, no " uncovenanted" person has a 
 
358 THE SEPOY REVOLT. 
 
 chance of holding high rank even for an hour. If he is 
 thrust in, like a handful of tow, to stop a leak which 
 would otherwise speedily send the ship to the bottom, 
 every one knows that he is but a temporary plug, to be 
 thrown aside at the first convenient moment. 
 
 This state of things will of course be abolished under 
 the Queen's Government; it could only exist under a cor- 
 poration like the East India Company, and makes the 
 cost and the result of ruling exhibit very different results 
 from what ought to be produced. Some men find it hard 
 enough to bear with the existence of an aristocracy ; but 
 merit in every quarter of the globe can find an entrance 
 into the ranks of the nobility. It was reserved for a 
 knot of merchants to establish a system of exclusiveness 
 such as the world never saw before, and is not likely to 
 witness again. 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 (A.) 
 THE GAGGING ACT. 
 
 From the CALCUTTA GAZETTE. 
 
 Legislative Council, 13th June, 1857. 
 
 THE following Act, passed by the Legislative Council of India, received 
 the assent of the Right Honourable the Governor-General this day, and is- 
 hereby promulgated for general information. 
 
 ACT No. XV. OF 1857. 
 
 " An Act to regulate the Establishment of Printing Presses, and to re- 
 strain in certain Cases the Circulation of Printed Books and Papers." 
 
 Whereas it is expedient to prohibit the keeping or using of printing- 
 presses, types, or other materials for printing, in any part of the territories 
 in the possession and under the government of the East India Company, 
 except with the previous sanction and license of Government, and under 
 suitable provisions to guard against abuse ; and whereas it may be deemed 
 proper to prohibit the circulation, within the said territories, of newspapers, 
 books, or other printed papers of a particular description : It is enacted as 
 follows : 
 
 I. No person shall keep any printing-press or types, or other materials or 
 articles for printing, without having obtained the previous sanction and li- 
 cense for that purpose of the Governor-General of India in Council, or of 
 the Executive Government of the Presidency in which such printing-press, 
 types, or other materials or articles for printing are intended to be kept or 
 used, or of such other person or persons as the Governor-General of India 
 in Council may authorize to grant such sanction or license ; and any per- 
 son who shall keep or use any printing-press, or types, or other materials or 
 articles for printing, without having obtained such licenses, shall be liable, 
 on conviction before a magistrate, to a fine not exceeding five thousand 
 rupees*, or to imprisonment not exceeding two years, or to both. 
 
 II. If any person shall keep or use any printing-press, or types, or other 
 materials or articles for printing, without such sanction or licenses aforesaid,, 
 any magistrate, within whose jurisdiction the same may be found, may seize 
 the same, or cause them to be seized, together with any books or printed 
 papers found on the premises ; and shall dispose of the same as the Gover- 
 nor-General of India in Council, or the Executive Government of any Pre- 
 sidency, or such other person as the Governor-General in Council shall 
 authorize in that behalf, may direct ; and it shall be lawful for any magis- 
 trate to issue a search-warrant for the entry and search of any house,, 
 building, or other place, in which he may have reason to believe that any 
 such unlicensed printing-press, types, or other materials or articles for 
 printing are kept or used. 
 
 * 5001. 
 
360 APPENDIX. 
 
 III. Whenever any person or persons shall be desirous of keeping or 
 using any printing-press, or types, or other materials or articles for printing, 
 he or they shall apply by writing to the magistrate within whose jurisdic- 
 tion he proposes to keep or use such press or other such materials or articles 
 as aforesaid, or to such other persons as the Governor-General in Council, 
 or the Executive Government of the Presidency, or such other person as 
 the Governor-General in Council shall authorize in that behalf, may ap- 
 point for that purpose. The application shall specify the name, profession, 
 and place of abode of the proprietor or proprietors of such printing-press, 
 types, or other materials or articles for printing, and of the person or per- 
 sons who is or are intended to use the same, and the place where such 
 printing-press, types, or other materials or articles for printing are intended 
 to be used; and such application shall be verified by the oath, affirmation, 
 or solemn declaration of the proprietors and persons intending to keep or 
 use such printing-press, types, or other materials or articles for printing, or 
 sucli of them as the magistrate or other person to whom the application 
 shall be made shall direct: and any person wilfully making a false oath, 
 affirmation or declaration shall be deemed guilty of perjury. 
 
 IV. The magistrate shall forward a copy of such application to the 
 Governor-General in Council, or to the Executive Government of the Pre- 
 sidency, or to such other person as may be authorized to grant the license ; 
 and the said Governor-General in Council, or such Executive Government, 
 or other person as aforesaid, may at his or their discretion grant such 
 license subject to such conditions (if any) as he or they may think fit, and 
 may also at any time revoke the same. 
 
 V. If any person or persons shall keep or use, or cause or allow to be 
 kept or used, any such printing-press, types, or other materials or articles 
 for printing, contrary to the conditions upon which the license may have 
 been granted, or after notice of the revocation of such license shall have 
 been given to, or left for, him or them at the place at which the printing- 
 press shall have been established, he or they shall be subject to the same 
 penalties as if no such license had been granted; and such printing-press, 
 types, and other materials or articles for printing may be seized and dis- 
 posed of in the manner prescribed in Section II. of this Act. 
 
 VI. All books and other papers, printed at a press licensed under this 
 Act, shall have printed legibly thereon the name of the printer and of the 
 publisher, and the place of the printing and publication thereof; and a copy 
 of every such book or printed paper shall be immediately forwarded to the 
 magistrate or to such other person as the Government or other persons 
 granting the license may direct ; and every person who shall print or pub- 
 lish any book or paper otherwise than in conformity with this provision, or 
 who shall neglect to forward a copy of such book or paper in manner here- 
 inbefore directed, unless specially exempted therefrom by the Governor- 
 General in Council, or other person granting the license, shall be liable, on 
 conviction before a magistrate, to a fine not exceeding one thousand rupees, 
 and in default of payment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six 
 calendar months. 
 
 VII. The Governor-General of India in Council, or the Executive Go- 
 vernment of any Presidency, may, by order to be published in the Govern- 
 ment Gazette, prohibit the publication or circulation, within the said 
 territories, or the territories subject to the said Government, or within any 
 particular part of the said territories, of any particular newspaper, book, or 
 other printed paper, or any newspaper of any particular description, 
 whether printed within the said territories or not ; and whoever, after such 
 prohibition, shall knowingly import, publish, or circulate, or cause to be 
 imported, published, or circulated, any such book or paper, shall be liable 
 
THE GAGGING ACT. 361 
 
 for every such offence, on conviction before a magistrate, to a fine not ex- 
 ceeding five thousand rupees, or to imprisonment not exceeding two years, 
 or to both ; and every such book or paper shall be seized and forfeited. 
 
 VIII. The word "printing" shall include lithographing. The word 
 " magistrate " shall include a person exercising the powers of a magistrate, 
 and also a justice of the peace ; and every person hereby made punishable 
 by a justice of the peace may be punishable upon summary conviction. 
 
 IX. Nothing in this Act shall exempt any person from complying with 
 the provisions of Act XI. of 1845. 
 
 X. No person shall be prosecuted for any offence against the provisions 
 of this Act within fourteen days after the passing of the Act, without an 
 order of the Governor-General in Council or the Executive Government of 
 the Presidency in which the offence shall be committed, or the person 
 authorized under the provisions of this Act to grant licenses. 
 
 XI. This Act shall continue in force for one year. 
 
 W. MORGAN, 
 Clerk of the Council. 
 
 From the CALCUTTA GAZETTE Extraordinary, Saturday, 20th June, 1857. 
 
 NOTIFICATION. 
 
 Fort William, Home Department, 18th June, 1857. 
 
 With reference to the provisions of Act No, XV. of 1857, it is hereby 
 notified that applications for licenses to keep or use any printing-press, or 
 types, or other materials or articles for printing within the town of Calcutta, 
 are to be made to the commissioner of police. 
 
 The Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal is authorized to grant licenses under 
 the said Act, and to appoint any person or persons to receive applications 
 for such licenses in any part of the Lower Provinces of the Presidency of 
 Bengal except the town of Calcutta. 
 
 The Lieutenant-Governor of the North-western Provinces is authorized to 
 grant licenses under the said Act, and to appoint any person or persons 
 to receive such applications in any part of the North-western Provinces of 
 the Presidency of Bengal. 
 
 The Governor of the Straits Settlements, the Chief Commissioners of the 
 Punjaub and Oude, and the Commissioners of Mysore, Coorg, Nagpore, Pegu, 
 and the Tenasserim and Martaban provinces, are authorized severally to 
 appoint any person or persons to receive such applications within the pro- 
 vinces, districts, and settlements under their control. 
 
 The conditions upon which licenses to keep or use any printing-press, or 
 types, or other materials or articles for printing, will ordinarily be granted, 
 are as follows : 
 
 1. That no book, newspaper, pamphlet, or other work printed at such 
 press, or with such materials or articles, shall contain any observations or 
 statements impugning the motives or designs of the British Government, 
 either in England or India, or in any way tending to bring the said Govern- 
 ment into hatred or contempt, to excite disaffection or unlawful resistance 
 to its orders, or to weaken its lawful authority, or the lawful authority of 
 its civil or military servants. 
 
 2. That no such book, pamphlet, newspaper, or other work shall contain 
 observations or statements having a tendency to create alarm or suspicion 
 among the native population of any intended interference by Government 
 with their religious opinions and observances. 
 
 3. That no such book, pamphlet, newspaper, or other work shall contain 
 observations having a tendency to weaken the friendship towards the 
 British Government of native princes, chiefs, or States in dependence upon 
 or alliance with it. 
 
362 APPENDIX. 
 
 The above conditions apply equally to original matter, and to matter 
 copied from other publications. 
 
 A copy of every book, pamphlet, newspaper, or other work published 
 in the town of Calcutta is to be immediately forwarded to the commissioner 
 of police. 
 
 By order of the Right Hon. the Governor-General in Council. 
 
 CECIL BEADON, 
 Secretary to the Government of India. 
 
 THE FIRST FRUITS OF THE ACT. 
 
 From the SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF BENGAL, to J. C. MURRAY, 
 ESQ., Printer and Publisher of the " Friend of India:'' 
 
 Dated Fort William, 29th June, 1857. 
 
 Sir, I am directed to forward for your information the accompanying 
 copy of a letter No. 1202, dated 29th of June, 1857, from the Secretary to 
 the Government of India in the Home Department relative to an article 
 which appeared in your paper of the 25th instant. 
 
 I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 Your most obedient Servant, 
 
 A. R. YOUNG, 
 Secretary to the Government of Bengal. 
 
 No. 1202. 
 
 From CECIL BEADON, ESQ., Secretary to the Government of India, to 
 A. R. YOUNG, ESQ., Secretary to the Government of Bengal. 
 
 Dated the 29th June, 1857. 
 
 Sir, The attention of the Governor-General in Council has been given 
 to the first leading article, headed " The Centenary of Plassey," which ap- 
 peared in the Friend of India of the 25th inst., and especially to the two 
 last paragraphs, which, in the judgment of his lordship in Council, are 
 fraught with mischief and calculated at the present time to spread disaffec- 
 tion towards the British Government, both among its native subjects and 
 among dependent and allied States. 
 
 The article in question infringes every one of the three conditions upon 
 which licenses to keep a printing-press are now to be granted. It tends 
 to excite disaifection towards the British Government amongst great 
 masses of the people ; it tends to create alarm and suspicion among the 
 Hindoo and Mahomedan population of intended interference by Govern- 
 ment with their religion ; and it tends to weaken the friendship towards 
 the Government of native princes, chiefs, and States in dependence upon 
 and alliance with it. 
 
 Whatever the intentions of the writer may have been, the tendency of 
 the article is as above described, and the publication of such remarks, even 
 if innocent and admissible in ordinary times, is now, under the critical 
 circumstances which rendered the passing of Act No." 15 of 1S57 necessary, 
 most dangerous not only to the Government, but to the lives of all Euro- 
 peans in the Provinces not living under the close protection of British 
 bayonets. 
 
 I am directed, therefore, to request that, with the permission of the Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor, the views of the Government of India may be communi- 
 cated to the Publisher of the Friend of India, and that he may be warned 
 that the repetition of remarks of this dangerous nature will be followed by 
 the withdrawal of his license, 
 
 The Governor-General in Council has no intention of interfering with 
 
THE GAGGING ACT. 363 
 
 the fair discussion of public measures, but he cannot now permit the circu- 
 lation in India of writings so framed as to excite popular disaffection. 
 I have, &c., (Signed) C. BEADON, 
 
 Council Chamber, 29th June, 1857. Secretary to the Government of India. 
 (True Copy.) A. R. YOUNG, 
 
 Secretary to the Government of Bengal. 
 
 From the FRIEND OF INDIA, June 2oth. 
 
 THE CENTENARY OF PLASSEY. 
 
 We have glided into the second centenary of English rule in India, and 
 Hindus and Mussulmans who study the mysteries of fate are well nigh in 
 despair. The stars and scriptures told them that on Monday last we had 
 completed our allotted term of mastership, when the strength which had 
 hitherto been resistless, the courage that never faltered, would pass away, 
 and we should become in turn the easy prey of our vassals. The favour of 
 the gods is not a perpetual gift, and though sire and son have witnessed 
 so often what must to them appear supernatural results, it was but reason- 
 able to suppose that our store of miracles would be exhausted at last. We 
 share with them the belief in hidden influences, only what they look upon 
 as being natural and common-place, is to us the domain of the marvellous. 
 It is easy to understand how we gained power, and wealth, and glory at 
 the commencement of the cycle, but hard beyond measure to find out how 
 we have lost all three at its close. When you can succeed in realizing to the 
 imagination the most foolish thing, the most improbable thing, and the 
 most timid thing, and have blended all these together, and multiplied 
 them, and worked them into what is called a policy, you may perhaps 
 get some clue to the solution of the problem ; but all other modes of induc- 
 tion will hopelessly fail. 
 
 The qualities of mind which enable a man to accumulate wealth are 
 often those which hinder him from making a proper use of it. It was 
 necessary, for the conquest of Hindustan, that the East India Company 
 should exist, for it is only the intense greediness of traders that could 
 have won for us the sovereignty of the country. The enemies of the Com- 
 pany's rule assert that they made and broke. treaties, planned and fought 
 battles, for the mere love of gain. Whateyer degree of interference with 
 private or public rights was needful for the purpose of collecting revenue, 
 received instant and eager sanction ; whatever concerned merely the wel- 
 fare of Asiatic souls, or the social interests of the great body of English- 
 men and Hindus, was either coldly ignored or bitterly assailed. They im- 
 ported for their own use the might of civilization, but never cared to 
 exhibit to the nations its beneficent features. Wealth embodied all the 
 attributes of their good deity, to whom was rendered with cheerful devo- 
 tion the homage of heart and brain. The evil principle was symbolized by 
 power, and where they failed to vanquish they fell down and worshipped. 
 Without a spark of patriotic feeling, they set on the brow of England a gem 
 of priceless value ; without care for Christianity, they paved.the way for 
 the overthrow of idolatry. Be it so, but the evil which they wrought has 
 well nigh passed away ; the good of which they have been the not uncon- 
 scious instruments will go on multiplying for ever. 
 
 A hundred years is but a small point in the lifetime of a nation. It 
 may be a period of sowing or of reaping the harvest, of giant labours 
 such as shall influence the destiny of remote generations, or of utter 
 folding of the hands to sleep. We found India destitute of invention and 
 enterprise ; ignorant of liberty, and of the blessings of peace. We have 
 placed her face to face with the forces of our civilization, and have yet to 
 see if there are no subtle invigorating influences that can be transmitted 
 
364 APPENDIX. 
 
 through her aged frame. We have given her liberty such as she has not 
 enjoyed for centuries, and never save by brief and long-interrupted 
 snatches. The Hindu stands upon the same platform with the English- 
 man, shares equal privileges with him, and challenges for himself as great 
 a measure of the protection and immunities accorded by the State. He 
 has no political enemies, and his grievances are all social. There is much 
 to be remedied within, but without, all is quiet and secure. If he has a 
 new part to play in the world's history, the stage is clear for him, and 
 there is an audience ready to sympathize and applaud. Whatever he has 
 in him of creative ability may find easy vent and ready acceptance. We 
 have swept away the obstacles which stood in the path of intellect and 
 courage; it rests only with Nature and himself whether he achieves 
 success or otherwise. A second Sevajee is happily impossible, but another 
 Luther would find an easier task than that which was imposed upon the 
 monk of Wittenberg. The inventor, the author, the man of science will 
 meet ready welcome and sure reward. We spread out before the dormant 
 Asiatic soul all the mental treasures of the West, and feel only too happy 
 in being allowed to distribute them. 
 
 It is a great crime in some instances to trample out a nationality ; to 
 strangle in infancy what might have grown up to be one of the fairest 
 births of Time ; but, except in the case of the Sikhs, there is no example of 
 the kind to be alleged against our countrymen. The Mussulman power 
 was effete long before the battle of Plassey, and such as Clive found the 
 Mahomedans in the days of Surajah Dowlah, we encounter them in the 
 time of the deposed King of Oude. Cruel, sensual, and intolerant, they are 
 unfit to rule, and unwilling to serve. Claiming to exercise sway as of 
 Divine right, and yet destitute of every gift with which Nature has en- 
 dowed the races meant by destiny to dominate over the world, they fell by 
 necessity under the power of a nation replete with energy and resolution, 
 and loathe with all the bitterness of bate the infidels who have subdued 
 them. They will never tolerate our gifts or forgive our supremacy. We 
 may load them with blessings, but the reward will be curses. We stand 
 between them and a fancied earthly paradise, and are not classed in their 
 list of good angels. 
 
 The Mahrattas have none of the elements of greatness in their character, 
 and, speaking in the interests of the dusky millions, we do not regret 
 Assye, Deeg, and Maharajpore ; but it is otherwise with regard to the 
 Sikhs, who, had they flourished as we have seen them two centuries back, 
 or never come in contact with the might of England, would perhaps have 
 uprooted the tenets of Hindu and Mussulman, and breathed a new spirit 
 into the followers of Mahomed and Brahma. Humanity, however, will be 
 content with their overthrow. The Bible is a better book than the Grunth, 
 and Christianity is superior to the Khalsa. Regenerated Hinduism might 
 have obtained a new lease of existence, but it would have gained nothing 
 in morals, and effected but little for human happiness. Its sole gain 
 would have been power, and the example of universal destruction. 
 
 It may also be alleged against us that we have deposed the kings, and 
 ruined the nobles of India ; but why should the world sigh over that result ? 
 Monarchs who always took the wages, but seldom performed the work, of 
 Government, and aristocrats who looked upon authority as a personal 
 right, and have never been able to comprehend what is meant by the 
 sovereignty of the people, are surely better out of the way. No English- 
 man in these days deplores the wars of the Roses, and would like to see 
 the Cliffords and Warwicks restored again to life. France bears with 
 calmness the loss of her old nobility ; Europe at large makes steady con- 
 tributions to the list of kings out of employment. Had princes and 
 
THE GAGGING ACT. 365 
 
 rajahs in Hindustan been worth conserving, they would have retained their 
 titles and power. The class speedily dies out in the natural course of mor- 
 tality, and it is not for the benefit of society that it should be renewed. 
 
 Array the evil against the acknowledged good; weigh the broken 
 pledges, the ruined families, the impoverished ryots, the imperfect justice, 
 against the missionary and the schoolmaster, the railway and the steam- 
 engine, the abolition of Suttee, and the destruction of the Thugs, and 
 declare in which scale the balance lies ! For every anna that we have 
 taken from the noble we have returned a rupee to the trader. We have 
 saved more lives in peace than we have sacrificed in war. We have com- 
 mitted many blunders and crimes ; wrought evil by premeditation and 
 good by instinct ; but when all is summed up, the award must be in our 
 favour. And with the passing away of the present cloud, there will dawn 
 a brighter day both for England and India. We shall strengthen at the 
 same time our hold upon the soil and upon the hearts of the people ; 
 tighten the bonds of conquest and of mutual interest. The land must 
 be thrown open to the capital and enterprise of Europe ; the ryot lifted 
 by degrees out of his misery, and made to feel that he is a man if not a 
 brother;* and everywhere Heaven's gifts of climate and circumstance made 
 the most of. The first centenary of Plassey was ushered in by the revolt 
 of the native army, the second may be celebrated in Bengal by a respected 
 Government, and a Christian population. 
 
 The Madras Athenceum was '* warned," and the Bangalore Herald sup- 
 pressed, for reprinting the above article before the Government notification, 
 appeared. The latter journal was afterwards allowed to reappear on con- 
 dition of the editor being dismissed. 
 
 No. 329. 
 From tJie SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF BENGAL to J. C. MURRAY, 
 
 ESQ., printer and publisher of the " Friend of India," Serarnpore. 
 Sir, I am directed by the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal to forward 
 for your information the accompanying copy of a letter from the Secretary 
 to the Government of India in the Home Department, No. 54, dated the 
 3rd inst., relative to the article which appeared in your paper of the 2nd 
 idem, headed " The First Warning." 
 
 I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient Servant, 
 
 A. K. YOUNG, 
 Fort William, 3rd July, 1857. Secretary to the Government of India. 
 
 NO. 54. 
 From C. BEADON, ESQ., Secretary to the Government of India, to A. B. 
 
 YOUNG, ESQ., Secretary to the Government of Bengal. 
 
 Sir, In consequence of the article which appeared in the Friend of 
 India of the 2nd inst., headed " The First Warning," the Governor hi 
 Council would have felt it necessary to direct the revocation of the license 
 which had been granted to the publisher of that paper. His lordship in 
 Council only abstains from adopting this course in consequence of an assur- 
 ance he has received on the part of the representatives of the absent pro- 
 prietor, that the newspaper shall, during his absence, be carried on so as to 
 avoid all cause of complaint, and within the terms of the license. 
 
 The Governor-General in Council desires me to request that this may be 
 conveyed to the publisher. 
 
 I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient Servant, 
 
 CECIL BEADON, 
 
 Secretary to the Government of India. 
 Council Chamber, the 3rd of July, 1857. 
 A A 
 
366 APPENDIX. 
 
 !'/< >ni the FRIEND OF INDIA, July ind. 
 
 THE FIRST WARNING. 
 
 Lord Canning lias done us the honour to select the Friend of India as 
 the subject of his fii>t experiment under the Gagging Act. We are, it 
 appears, an impf-riinu in impc-rio, studied by the native masses, watched with 
 anxiety by Moollah and Brahmin, stronger than the East India Company. 
 We have only to insert a couple of paragraphs, and the rebellion 1 broadens 
 and deepens. The chief priests amongst Hindoos and Mussulmans tremble 
 for the safety of their creeds, and allied and dependent princes, looking 
 upon their treaties as so much waste paper, turn a deaf ear to Governor- 
 General and Ke.-ident, and prepare to array their fighting men against the 
 Sirkar Bahadoor. Say that our power is complimented at the expense of 
 our patriotism, yet what journalist could resist the temptations that beset 
 us ? What would even the Times give to possess such vast means of doing 
 mischief? Who else is there of all the tribe of editors that has authority 
 over a hundred and liity millions of souls, that stirs equally the ryot in his 
 hut, the devotee in his temple, and the ruler on his throne ? A few words, 
 and we can subvert the allegiance of the people. The servants of the sacred 
 shrines, dear to all races of Asiatics, seek their destiny in these columns ; 
 wherever the English soldier is absent, we hold the lives of Europeans in 
 the hollow of our hand. So says Lord Canning, and we may not question 
 the truth of his statement. Here is the Governor-General's opinion of an 
 article in our last which we dare only refer to, except for home purposes. 
 ******* 
 
 If we were on our defence in a trial for libel, we should be allowed to 
 reprint the obnoxious paragraphs ; but it will be sufficient to say that they 
 occurred in the course of a rapid sketch of the results of a century of 
 British occupation, and formed the best apology that we were able to make 
 for the East India Company. We had to speak of a policy which has swept 
 away monarchies and aristocracies in all parts of the land, as if they cum- 
 bered the earth ; a policy which \ore its firstfruits in 1757, and its latest just 
 a century afterwards. We advocated it as has been the habit of this journal 
 for a score of years, and, however prepared for hostilities on the part of the 
 present administration, we certainly never expected that the grounds of 
 indictment would be found in the first leading article of our last issue. We 
 have no objection to recant one of the obnoxious paragraphs, but must 
 -land by the hope expressed in the other. We will say, if required, that 
 from Suraj ool Dowlah to the King of Oude, the princes of India have been 
 vilely dealt with ; but we cannot forego the pleasing vision that in 1957 a 
 Christian people may live happily under a respected Government. 
 
 But what is the use of beating about the bush, and assailing us under 
 false pretences ? Our fault is no question of orthodoxy, or want of sym- 
 pathy with mockery kings. It is that, whilst doing our utmost to keep eyes 
 and ears closed to much that we were bound to receive, we were forced to 
 denounce the vacillation of purpose, the utter want of organization, and the 
 wretched crop of results which have given such a melancholy character to 
 the proceedings of Government since the commencement of the mutinies. 
 We had to choose between the utterance of unpleasant censures or a dis- 
 honest silence. Between saying what, in the interest of England, it were 
 traitorous to suppress, and what it was for the reputation of a few high 
 officials should never have been written. The time had come when it was 
 needful to take a side, and without hesitation we fell into the imperial ranks. 
 As it turns out, we had not counted the cost, but such as our course seemed 
 to entail we were willing to defray. On the score of public support we have 
 no martyrdom to boast of, having gained a hundred and eleven subscribers 
 gince the 1st May, after allowing for all the deaths and withdrawals. 
 
THE GAGGING ACT. 367 
 
 We venture to say that there is not a man in Calcutta, or elsewhere, who 
 will put upon the excepted paragraphs the construction which Lord Can- 
 ning has chosen to fix on them, or who will adopt any other conclusion 
 than the palpable one, that it is thought more desirable to gag the Friend 
 of India at once, than to waste time in finding a sufficient reason for the 
 act. But we submit to his lordship the following matter for consideration. 
 The people of all classes, who are said to read and study this journal, 
 know as a matter of course that it has always been the advocate of an- 
 nexation and of Christianity. But all of a sudden it is silent upon those 
 important topics. The shrewd Asiatic need not ask the reason, for he can 
 see for himself that the Government has interfered to prevent their discus- 
 sion ; but he will carry the inquiry a step further, and ask what it is that 
 has prompted the interference. If they intend to reverse the policy of 
 their predecessors, why let them reinstate Kings, restore Jagheers, and 
 deport Missionaries. But if they are not repentant, but merely timid ; if 
 they do not abjure the acts, but only shrink from enduring the conse- 
 quences ; why what a dullard he must be, to be duped into inaction by such 
 shallow artifices ! Either we advocate what is always injurious to the body 
 politic, or it is the poorest cowardice to coerce us into silence. No man, 
 Mussulman or Hindu, if he has half the brains that the Governor-General 
 allots to him, can fail to recognise in this open tabooing of subjects hitherto 
 left free for comment, the newest and most damning proof of the mistrust, 
 which the Government entertains of the allies and native subjects of the 
 Crown of England and the Honourable Company. 
 
 Three weeks since, Lord Canning had the sympathy and support of every 
 man of European birth or parentage. To-day there are not half-a-dozen 
 who would lift up their hands in his favour. But why should he do for 
 himself what he has failed to do for England ? Why care to retain per- 
 sonal when public reputation is irrecoverably gone ? When the goodly 
 ship goes down with all her rich freight on board, it is better that the cap- 
 tain should exhibit no anxiety to save his cabin furniture. 
 
 And now a word as to the policy of this journal say for the next three 
 months. We have no intention of testing the ability of Government to put 
 down a rebellion at Serampore. To-day is the last of our independence, 
 and we will not write under compulsion, or invite, for interests which have 
 been created by industry and intellect exerted for a quarter of a century, 
 the ruin which it will now cost Lord Canning nothing to decree. We 
 accept the situation that is made for us, and take leave of political discus- 
 sion till the times mend. 
 
 THE DACCA NEWS "WARNED." 
 No. 393. 
 
 To A. FORBES, ESQ. 
 
 Dacca. 
 
 Sir, I have the honour to forward herewith a copy of a letter, No. 456, 
 dated the 7th instant, from the Secretary to the Government of Bengal, re- 
 ferring to an article published in the Dacca News of the 1st instant, and 
 headed " The Tenure of Land by Europeans in India." 
 I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 Your most obedient Servant, 
 
 C. F. CARNAC, 
 
 Foujdary Adawlut, Zfflah of Dacca, Officiating Magistrate, 
 
 the 10th August, 1857. 
 
 AA2 
 
368 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. 456. 
 
 From the SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF BENGAL to tfa 
 MAGISTRATE OF DACCA. 
 
 Dated Fort William, the 7th August, 1857. 
 
 Sir, The attention of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal has been given 
 to an article in the Dacca Hews of the 1st instant, headed " The Tenure of 
 Land by Europeans in India," which, in his honour's judgment, manifestly 
 infringes the conditions on which the license to the publisher of that paper 
 was granted. I am directed, therefore, to request that you will warn the 
 publisher that a second infringement of these conditions on his part will 
 compel the Lieutenant-Governor to withdraw his licence. 
 
 I have, &c., 
 (Signed) A. K. YOUNG, 
 
 Seci Government of Bengal. 
 
 (Copy.) " 0. F. CAHNAC, 
 
 Officiating Magistrate. 
 
 From the DACCA NEWS. Avfjnat \.<i. 
 
 THE TENURE OF LAND BY iUlUM'EANS 1> INDIA. 
 
 Mr. Ewart has moved in the I louse of Commons for a return showing on 
 what tenure land is allowed to be held by Europeans in India, whether in 
 fee simple, for life or lives, or for years ; and if so, for what terms of years, 
 and whether renewable on payment of fines or otherwise. As we may 
 expect that the Court of Directors, which first denied that it had received 
 a copy of Mr. Halliday's police minute, and then furnished, as the police 
 minute, a minute which was not the police minute as we may expect 
 that Court to <rive a false return to Mr. E wart's motion, we shall give a 
 return of our own, us to the terms on which Europeans hold land in the 
 perpetually settled districts. But before doing so we would remind our 
 readers, that the Perpetual Settlement is a bargain entered into between 
 Lord Cornwallis on the part of the British Government, and for which he 
 staked the good faith of England not of the Court of Directors, or the 
 " Company Bahadoor," for that is nil and the landholders, that as long 
 as they paid a certain rent to the Government they were to enjoy in per- 
 petuity the possession of the lands contained within certain boundaries 
 specified in the books compiled at the time of the settlement by the various 
 collectors, and which had been sanctioned with regard to each particular 
 district by the Government. This is the theory of the Perpetual Settle- 
 ment. The practice has been very different, especially with regard to 
 Europeans, who about twenty years ago were allowed to hold land on the 
 same terms as natives. The practice is as follows : 
 
 A European is allowed to hold lands as long as these lands do not 
 excite the concupiscence of the Government of the East India Company, 
 administered by a Civil Service whose salaries depend upon the amount of 
 revenue that can be realized, per fas aut ncfas, from the country. Ex- 
 ample : Mr. George Lamb, a gentleman well known for many years in the 
 Dacca district, purchased an estate called Chur Doopooriah, paying, under 
 the aforesaid Perpetual Settlement, a rent to Government of two hundred 
 and ninety odd rupees. By the encroachment of a large and rapid river, 
 the whole of this estate was carried away. Mr. Lamb, aware, from long 
 observation of the oscillations of the rivers in Bengal, that the land would 
 re-form, continued to fulfil his part of the bargain entered into with the 
 Government that is, to pay the revenue during eight or ten years, while 
 the estate in question formed a part of the bed of the river, which is from 
 four to five miles broad. He of course expected that, when the river 
 
THE GAGGING ACT. 369 
 
 retired, he would be allowed to take possession of the lands re-formed. 
 There is a law, however, in connexion with the Settlement, which states, 
 that if an island is thrown up in the channel of a navigable river, it becomes 
 the property of the Government ; and this law is perfectly just, for it pre- 
 supposes the drying up of the river a circumstance of frequent occurrence 
 in Bengal and the formation of land on a spot which had not been included 
 in the Perpetual Settlement, as there was no land existing there at that 
 time. There is also another law very useful in preventing disputes, which 
 is to the effect, that lands which are formed by the retiring of rivers from 
 one bank and their Encroachment on the other, are to belong to the pro- 
 prietor on to whose lands they form. In the case before us, when the river 
 was retiring, the Government in the first place took possession of the dry 
 land, which first appeared as an island ; and then of all the lands successively 
 emerging from the river, as formations on to the island, the property of 
 Government. Mr. Lamb, up to the present date, hoping against hope that 
 justice may be done to him, pays the Perpetual Settlement Revenue for 
 Chur Doopooriah, though he is not in possession, nor has had for the last 
 twelve or fourteen years a single bigah of land belonging to this estate. 
 The Collector receives the rents without a murmur, though we believe the 
 Commissioner of Revenue has ordered him to strike the very name of the 
 estate off the books. The case, moreover, was five times decided in Mr. 
 Lamb's favour by the judges of the Company itself; and only gained by 
 them when they had succeeded, after a number of years, in packing a 
 bench. We would refer the curious with regard to this case to our supple- 
 ment of the 19th of July, 1857. 
 
 A European is allowed to hold lands as long as these lands do not excite 
 the concupiscence of any native ; for, if any native should desire to possess 
 them, they will certainly be decreed to him by the judges of the East 
 India Company, who find none so impracticable a.i European owners of 
 land. Example : Mr. G. Lamb purchased, at a sale for arrears of revenue, 
 from the East India Company, an estate, said to comprise within its 
 boundaries certain specified villages. A native about the same time pur- 
 chased an adjoining estate. Mr. Lamb, from information gathered from 
 the collector's books, brought a suit for certain villages in the possession 
 of the native, as belonging to his estate. The native brought a cross suit 
 claiming villages of the value of Rs. 1500 a-year against Mr. Lamb. Mr. 
 Lamb lost his suit. The suit of the native was decreed in his favour, 
 giving him villages producing Rs. 6000 a-year, instead of Rs. 1500, which 
 he had sued for. The document on which the Sudcler decreed against Mr. 
 Lamb was a forgery. It purported to be one of the original papers of the 
 Decennial Settlement (on which the Perpetual Settlement was founded) of 
 Zillah Tipperah. Mr. Lamb proved that the whole of that settlement was 
 made in Arcot rupees, while this paper was summed up in Sicca rupees. 
 The Sudder Dewany Adawlut,the Supreme Civil Court of Bengal, decided 
 that the word " Sicca" meant" current," and might apply to any rupee. 
 They themselves were, at the time of this decision, receiving their salaries 
 in Sicca rupees of more than 6i per cent, greater value than the Company's 
 rupee, and would have repudiated with scorn the proposition of being paid 
 in the Company's rupees. 
 
 A European is to be prevented from becoming the possessor of land at 
 any cost whatever. Example: While the last-mentioned case was 
 passing through the courts, Mr. Lamb's opponent got deeply into debt, and 
 his creditors put up his estate for sale. Mr. Lamb was willing to purchase 
 peace at any price, and therefore bid a large sum for this estate, which 
 comprised the disputed lands. Mr. Lamb purchased the estate in his 
 wife's name, in order to avoid, as he thought, all disputes. Mrs. Lamb, on 
 
370 APPENDIX. 
 
 becoming purchaser, sued for possession of the estate, but was nonsuited in 
 the Superior Court, the Sudder, on the ground that she, as an English or 
 Scotch woman, could not sue in her own name, but must be joined by her 
 husband. We have got the best authority for saying that this is not good 
 English law ; but supposing it were, there was nothing on the record to show 
 that Mrs. Lamb was either an English or a Scotch woman. She might have 
 been of any other race, among many of whom the Armenians, Mussul- 
 manecs and Hindoos, for instance married women may possess property 
 apart from their husbands. The objection was not taken in any of the 
 pleadings, and we submit that the appellate court had no power to take it 
 up but there was an Englishman or Scotchman, well known in their pri- 
 vate capacities to the judges on the bench to be such, to be prevented from 
 possessing lands. The case was therefore nonsuited. On this decision being 
 given, Mr. Lamb brought a fresh suit, joining himself with his wife. The 
 same objection would not serve now ; but Mr. Lamb lost his case in the 
 appellate court on account of an alleged irregularity in the sale, an irregu- 
 larity for which no one was responsible but the court which sold, and there- 
 fore Mr. Lamb was punished be it observed, that Mr. Lamb gained every 
 one of these cases in the courts of first instance. It was only when they 
 were appealed to the Sudder, when they were taken down to Calcutta, 
 where Civil Servicism is rampant, where the necessity of keeping the inter- 
 loper from gaining a footing in the land is fully appreciated it was only 
 in Calcutta that he lost them. We could adduce many a case where the 
 same gentleman, who, unfortunately for himself, had a desire to become a 
 landed proprietor, and to improve his lands by introducing the culture of 
 various crops unknown in this part of India, had decree after decree given 
 against him in the Civil Courts ; many of them so absurd, that they gave 
 rise to fresh lawsuits in the vain endeavour to have them executed. We 
 could bring instances of parallel cases, where natives only were concerned, 
 where decrees were given in their favour, which would have made Mr. 
 Lamb's fortune had the same law we shall not desecrate the name of 
 justice by applying it to any of the dicta of the Sudder been dealt out to 
 him. But the interloper was there. He was to be put down. If he had 
 not been put down, he might have had the presumption to grow cotton ; 
 and by supplying Liverpool with that material, to have made the English 
 people take as great an interest in, and become as well acquainted with, the 
 affairs of India as they are with those of America. 
 
 However long a European may have been in possession of land, every 
 means to the endangering of the salvation of the judges themselves is to be 
 used to oust him from possession, and to give it to a native, with which class 
 the Civil Service believed, till lately perhaps, they could do anything. This 
 is an error on the part of the Court Service. Since Reg. II. of 1819, and 
 the Public Works Loan, the native believes that there are no depths so low 
 to which the Company Bahadoor cannot descend, so long as they have 
 power on their side. The Englishman confesses that the Government is 
 " awful dodgy," but cannot believe that the men whom he knows well, and 
 knows to be tolerably honest in their private transactions, could be guilty 
 of the rascalities which have been committed under the aforesaid regulation. 
 But we are running away from our subject, which is that, however long a 
 European may have possessed land, he must be ousted somehow or another. 
 Example : Messrs. Lamb and Wise, two gentlemen settled in the Dacca 
 district, learned from their attorneys that an estate was to be sold by the 
 collector, at the instance of the owner's creditors. They agreed to bid for 
 the estate, and to purchase it together. The estate was put up for sale, and 
 they bought it. Though many objections were raised to the manner in 
 which the sale was made, &c., by the late proprietors, at the time of and im- 
 
THE GAGGING ACT. 371 
 
 mediately after the sale, they were all overruled by the courts. Messrs. 
 Lamb and Wise were put in possession, and continued in possession for 
 eleven years eleven months and odd days. If the twelve years had passed, 
 their title would have been secured by prescription. But before the twelve 
 years had expired a suit was brought to upset the sale, on the ground that 
 the law prescribed that notice of sale should be affixed in ten places. It 
 had been so in nine, but there was a doubt with regard to the tenth, whether 
 the place where it was affixed was situated on certain lands or not. The 
 case came on in the local courts, and was decided in favour of Messrs. Lamb 
 and Wise. It was appealed to the Sudder, where it was, as a matter of 
 course, decided against the interlopers by two judges out of three decided, 
 we have almost the highest legal authority in India for saying, against the 
 common-sense interpretation of the law. But what can be expected from 
 judges who have absolutely no legal training, and who consider the inter- 
 loper as a being who has no right to be in India ! 
 
 Such are a few we solemnly affirm a very few of the instances we can 
 give to Mr. Ewart of the tenures on which lands are allowed to be held by 
 Europeans in India. Were we to unfold a half one third of what we 
 know, we should be scorned as unjust traducers of the Civil Service of the 
 Honourable the East India Company. Fortunately we can prove every 
 word we have said from the decisions of the Sudder Dewany Adawlut Lord 
 Canning must have wondered why his proclamations were so little believed. 
 It is long as the evidence of every independent man will prove since the 
 assertions of the Government of this country have been believed by its 
 subjects. 
 
 THE BENGAL HURKARU SUPPRESSED. 
 
 The Hurfcaru, the oldest journal in India, was suppressed on the 18th of 
 September, on account of the appearance, in different issues of the paper, of 
 the following three articles : 
 
 From the BENGAL HURKARU. 
 
 " The steamer which arrived on the 10th instant brought us the Times of 
 6th August, which contains a leader beginning, 'There are some acts of 
 atrocity so abominable that they will not even bear narration ;' and ending, 
 ' Let it be known that England will support the officers who may be charged 
 with the duty of suppressing this mutiny, and of inflicting condign punish- 
 ment upon the bloodthirsty mutineers, however terrible may be the measures* 
 which they may see fit to adopt.' 
 
 " The article in the Times from which the above quotations are made 
 should be re-published by Government, circulated to all civil and military 
 authorities in substitution of Cecil Beadon's proclamation, dated 31st 
 July, published in your paper of 2nd instant ; and the article from the 
 Times should be read also to every regiment in India, instead of Sir James 
 Outram's order about the 10th regiment. Little did the Times know of 
 Indian officials when he wrote * Nothing more injudicious than Mr. 
 Colvin's proclamation can be conceived.' 
 
 " What will the Thunderer say when he sees Cecil Beadon's proclama- 
 tion, and Sir James Outram's order from Dinapore ? and that the latter has 
 since that order been reappointed Commissioner in Oude, besides com- 
 manding the Dinapore and Cawnpore divisions, thus superseding Havelock 
 and Neill? The latter is unquestionably the man who ought to have 
 been appointed Chief Commissioner in Oude, for the energy he has dis- 
 played from the time he confined the railway people here, to the time he 
 hanged the Brahmins at Cawnpore. 
 
372 APPENDIX. 
 
 " 'J'he imbeciles are not all out of England yet, however ; the board of 
 control has Vernon Smith, and the war department has Lord Panmure. 
 "Witness the answer of the latter, through his organ in the Commons, to 
 Colonel North's question on the 5th August, ' Why it was that the 
 Government were only sending 140 men to reinforce the artillery in India, 
 when the number required to bring that force up to its war complement 
 was 223 ?' Answer by Sir John Ilamsden, ' vide Times of 6th August' : 
 
 44 * .Sir J. Ilamsden said that the artillery force was put under orders 
 for India, the same as the other troops, in compliance with a requisition 
 of the East India Company ; and the total force of artillery which they 
 had asked for would be made up by the particular number which had been 
 sent' (hear! hear:). 
 
 " That is, the artillery force was rendered inefficient before its de- 
 parture for India, by reducing it even under the war complement required 
 in Europe, that certain figures sent in by the East India Company might 
 correspond with other figures in the estimates prepared at the war 
 department ! 
 
 " With such a specimen of the way things are conducted in that 
 department, can any one be surprised that we meet with disasters, from 
 the ruinous effects of which to the nation nothing saves us but the devoted 
 courage of our soldiers and sailors? yet these are the men whose feelings 
 are being trifled with by old women in India. 
 
 " The cavalry horses in the Crimea were starved because Sir Charles 
 Trevelyan, at his desk in London, thought he could there form a more 
 correct estimate of the forage required than the commissary-general on 
 the spot could do and now we are to have the artillery sent out in tin 
 inefficient state because Vernon Smith and tJie chair think that the war 
 complement, which experienced artillery officers have laid down us 
 necessary in Europe, is too large for a fine climate like India, where they 
 no doubt suppose ready-made artillerymen grow in the Eose Gardens!" 
 
 From the BENGAL HURKARU. 
 THE FRIEND OF II1NDOSTAN AND THE STATE-GRINDER. 
 
 AFTER GEORGE CANNING. 
 
 
 
 (The F. of H. represented by the Chairman of the Court of Directors, and the 
 8. Cf. by a noble lord.) 
 
 F. OF H. 
 
 Needy State-grinder, whither are you going ? 
 You're quite gone astray, your wheel is out of order. 
 There's a row blowing up your actions are all rotten, 
 So are your speeches ! 
 
 Weary State-grinder, little do those rascals 
 Who with their holdings hunt down all their rulers 
 Think what hard work 'tis, crying all day, " Eed tape, 
 Red tape for ever !" 
 
 Tell me, State-grinder, how came you hi this plight ? 
 Did the Supreme Court lay its hands upon you H 
 Was it the chief, or editor of journal, 
 
 Or some low planter ? 
 
 Was it some judge, for acting without Queen's law ? 
 Rancorous chief, for keeping down his service ? 
 Editor vicious, crying up the people, 
 
 Brought you in this fix ? 
 
THS GAGGING ACT. 373 
 
 (Have you not read the minute of Sir Thomas ?) 
 
 Sparks of resentment smoulder in my headpiece, x 
 
 Beady to blow up as soon as you have told your 
 Most wretched story. 
 
 S. G. 
 
 Story ! God bless you ! I have none to tell, sir, 
 Only one day, I, talking in the council, 
 Gagged the free press, and then made that J. P. Grant 
 Gen'ral Obstructor ! 
 
 Campbell was sent out, for to take me into 
 
 His command ; they took me before the Commons ; 
 
 Public opinion then put me in the 
 
 Pound as a donkey ! 
 
 I should be glad to drink your honour's health in 
 A small pension, if you will kindly give it ; 
 But for my part I never more will meddle 
 
 With Hindostan, sir. 
 
 F. OP H. 
 
 I give thee pension ! I will see thee d d first 
 Man whom we trusted, like so many asses ; 
 Taunted and jeered at, made no end of fun of 
 Impotent failure ! 
 
 (Kicks Ike State-grinder, overturns his wheel, and exit in a transport of official 
 agony and lost hopes.) 
 
 From the BENGAL- HURKARU. 
 
 All India is eagerly watching the progress of public opinion at home, the 
 eventual declaration of which will decide the future policy of the Govern- 
 ment. Our rulers are being put upon their trial, while a jury composed 
 of many millions are weighing the evidence, preparatory to laying their 
 heads together for the consideration of the verdict. 
 
 There are many good, honest, simple people in Calcutta, who are both 
 surprised and disappointed that popular indignation has not boiled up to a 
 higher pitch. They are astounded at finding that Lord Canning has not been 
 already ordered home in irons, and that Mr. Beadon has not been sentenced 
 to be tarred and feathered and ridden upon a rail, previously to being 
 placed in some extremely uncovenanted appointment, under a native supe- 
 rior. We are very far from saying that these proceedings would not be 
 appropriate in the cases in question, but we would say to our enthusiastic 
 friends : My dear sirs, you are too impatient. All in good time. Public 
 opinion is not a mere dramatic performance, got up to make the Overland 
 papers exciting, for your pleasure. It is a real earnest process, which takes 
 time for its development, which must be expected to " drag" in dramatic 
 language now and then ; which will not always produce startling effects 
 at the most desirable moment ; which keeps one waiting a long time be- 
 tween the acts, with nothing but " apples and oranges and a bill of the 
 play " to fall back upon ; but for all that there can be no rational doubt 
 that the conclusion will find virtue triumphant, and that the villains of the 
 piece will meet with their just doom. But we would add to our enthu- 
 siastic friends what more can you expect? What more would you have 
 at the present moment ? Have you not heard through private letters that 
 the windows of the directors' town houses are by no means safe, and that 
 any one of the Honourable Court showing himself at Bath or Cheltenham, 
 or elsewhere where Anglo-Indianism most abides, would meet with a recep- 
 tion from the mob compared to which that of Marshal Haynau by the 
 brewers was courteous and flattering ? Do you not know that the Duke of 
 
374 APPENDIX. 
 
 Cambridge was heard to say that he should soon have the Indian army 
 under his command ? Are you not aware that the mode of communication 
 adopted by the Government of the Crown towards the Government of the 
 Court, at home, has already become savage and dictatorial to an extent that 
 six months ago would have aroused Leadenskull-street to a fury of resis- 
 tance ? Do you not see that the comparative satisfaction which has been 
 manifested at the mode of meeting the mutinies has been founded upon 
 want of knowledge of the real facts of the case ? Is it not obvious to the 
 stupidest fellow among you that, where our rulers have been praised, they 
 have been praised for doing what they have left undone, or for not doing 
 that which they have done most thoroughly and completely ? If her 
 Majesty's Government approve eventually of the conduct of these gentle- 
 men, they will have to do so not merely at the cost of their consistency 
 which they will care no more about than any other Government but at 
 the cost of their offices, which they will not be disposed to part witli for 
 such an incidental consideration as Mr. Halliday, or such a matter of 
 detail as Mr. Beadon to say nothing of one or two others of the same 
 stamp, and a higher functionary whom they have dragged into the same 
 boat. 
 
 We ask the sanguine persons to whom we have addressed the above, 
 what more they would have for the present ? To us it seems that Parlia- 
 ment and the public at home have made immense progress towards a 
 proper view of the question. In the House of Lords, the Earl of Ellen- 
 borough and the Marquis of Clanricarde have 'addressed themselves to it 
 with profound knowledge and sagacity. In the Commons, Mr. Disraeli 
 has made one of the most masterly and statesmanlike speeches that he 
 has ever made in his life ; and the question has been met by all who 
 took part in its discussion with a high appreciation of its importance. 
 The press has done its work well, and has been steadily drifting in the 
 right direction, to a position which the Times has taken up with a decision 
 and energy which sufficiently show that the voice of the country is on 
 the same side. Throughout the discussion, both in Parliament and the 
 press, it is to the honour of all engaged in it that no party feeling has 
 been shown, however much may have been felt in some quarters. The 
 utmost consideration has been manifested for the local government under 
 the difficult circumstances in which they were placed, and no signs of 
 any personal prejudice have been made apparent. Even the Press and 
 the Examiner, the two mo<t systematic opponents of the Company's 
 Government, have handled Lord Canning as tenderly as if he was a baby, 
 and have let Messrs. Beadon and Halliday alone with a magnanimity which 
 is almost beyond belief, and suggests the suspicion that those usually well- 
 informed journals have not yet acquainted themselves with the fact that 
 there are such persons in existence. 
 
 In the meantime, the accused are awaiting the verdict which is to de- 
 cide their official fate, in a highly characteristic manner, such as we see 
 described in the London police reports as " treating the charge with the 
 utmost levity," or " evincing a hardened indifference to the situation in 
 which they were placed, that was painful to behold." But among these 
 it is only just to remark that the most elevated personage stands out in 
 honourable relief. His grand calmness under the ordeal is comparable to 
 nothing but the demeanour of Miss Madeleine Smith, in similarly trying 
 circumstances, which elicited the wonder and admiration of the rapt 
 people of Glasgow. Let us hope that the omen is a good one, and, for 
 the sake of an illustrious name, and as good intentions as have ever 
 paved India or any other place, that the charges which have been 
 brought against the individual in question will be " not proven." 
 
THE GAGGING ACT. 375 
 
 THE ACT IMPROVED UPON IN PEGU. 
 
 To the PROPRIETOR OF THE RANGOON CHRONICLE AND PEGU 
 GAZETTE PRESS. 
 
 Rangoon. 
 
 Sir, I am permitted by the Commissioner of Pegu and Governor- 
 General's agent to inform you, that in the event of your wishing to publish 
 any articles concerning the affairs connected with the rebellion in Bengal 
 in your journal, you are, before doing so, to submit them to me for ap- 
 proval. Without such previous submission, you are not to publish such 
 accounts or articles, whether original or extracted : this will be an especial 
 condition of the ad interim protection being continued to you. 
 I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 Your most obedient Servant, 
 
 GEO. DANGERFIELD, 
 Officiating Magistrate of Rangoon. 
 Rangoon Magistrate's Office, the oth August, 1857. 
 
 The proprietor appealed to the Commissioner, and received the following 
 reply : 
 
 To R. GODFREE, ESQ., Proprietor of the RANGOON CHRONICLE PRESS. 
 
 Rangoon. 
 
 Sir, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter to the 
 address of the Commissioner and Governor-General's agent for Pegu, for- 
 warding a letter from the magistrate of Rangoon, herewith returned. 
 
 In granting an ad interim for protection in publishing the Rangoon 
 Chronicle, pending the receipt of orders from the Supreme Government on 
 your application for a license, the Commissioner and Governor-General's 
 agent has assumed a power not strictly vested in him by the law, and has 
 in a measure, and for a time, made himself responsible for what is pub- 
 lished in that paper ; but he refuses to accept the responsibility unless 
 upon such conditions as will, he trusts, justify him in having incurred it 
 with the Government he has the honour to serve. 
 
 I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 HORACE A. BROWNE, 
 
 Extra- Assistant to the Commissioner of Pegu. 
 Rangoon Commissioner's Office, 7th August, 1857. 
 
 THE FIRST ATTACK ON THE LONDON JOURNALS. 
 
 The following letter has been addressed by the Magistrate of Poona to 
 the Government of Bombay : 
 
 Judicial Department, Bombay Castle, 23rd of September, 1857. 
 
 Sir, In the Times newspaper of last Thursday, the editor stated that 
 a detachment of the 2nd Bombay Light Cavalry had mutinied at Deesa, 
 and had been destroyed by her Majesty's 83rd Regiment at that station ; 
 and in last Monday's paper there is an article extracted from the English 
 paper, the Press, the publication of which is calculated to have a very per- 
 nicious effect at the present time. 
 
 I am therefore desired by the Right Honourable the Governor in Council 
 to request that you will be good enough to warn the editors of English and 
 
376 APPENDIX. 
 
 native newspapers within your jurisdiction against republishing the articles 
 in question. 
 
 I have, &c., 
 
 (Signed) H. L. ANDERSON, 
 To the Magistrate of Poona. Secretary to Government. 
 
 MADRAS A STEP IN ADVANCE. 
 
 No. 1106. 
 met from the, MINUTES or CONSULTATION. 
 
 Public Department, dated 10th August, 1857. 
 
 The attention of the Right Honourable the Governor-General in Council 
 has been drawn to an article in th< Enmiticr newspaper of the Gth inst., 
 copying a false statement from the Ilurkaru, regarding a supposed inten- 
 tion to remove the Government agent at Cliepauk, and reflecting on that 
 officer's official conduct. 
 
 Government resolve to notify to the proprietors of that newspaper that 
 this is a violation of the terms on which they hold their license, and that 
 their license will be withdrawn on the appearance of any similar article. 
 (True Copy.) E. MALTBY, 
 
 Acting Chief Secretary. 
 
 From the. MADRAS EXAMINER, quoted from the HURKARU. 
 
 The Madras Government, we understand, lias recommended to the 
 Supreme Government the immediate removal of Dr. Balfour from the Go- 
 vernment agency at Chepauk, for alleged acts of oppression. 
 
(B.) 
 ADDITION TO CHAPTEK X. 
 
 THEN commenced that series of marches and battles to 
 which the annals of warfare afford no parallel. A hand- 
 ful of English soldiers, defying equally sun and sickness 
 and the sword, forced their way to Cawnpore, and there, 
 resting for a few days to gather up women's tresses 
 dabbled in blood, and distribute them as charms against 
 mercy or fear, pushed on to the gates of Lucknow ; twice 
 returning baffled, but neither broken nor dispirited, and 
 at last winning their way to their captive countrymen. 
 Those men, brought up amidst snow and ice, fought in 
 the solar blaze as if they had been nurtured on the sands 
 of Africa. They had no more rest than a swimming out 
 at sea ; no chance of life, except by struggling per- 
 petually ; the day's march usually ended with a general 
 action. The bivouac was almost invariably on a field of 
 battle. Cholera and dysentery raged in their ranks, but 
 the majority had no leisure to spare for being sick or 
 weary. They had time only to fight and die. 
 
 For well nigh six months the garrison of Lucknow 
 were held in siege by an army variously estimated at 
 from fifty to a hundred thousand men. At the end of 
 June, Sir Henry Lawrence calculated that they could only 
 hold out for three weeks from that date, and in no quarter 
 of India would man's life or woman's honour, in the 
 capital of Oude, been thought worth an hour's purchase 
 in the month of August. Yet the bulk of the defenders 
 lived, as men have been known to survive on a plank on 
 the ocean, with patient sharks always following in their 
 wake. It was not so much a siege as a hand-to-hand 
 fight, perpetually renewed. The foes met face to face 
 above and below ground. The muzzles of the guns nearly 
 touched each other. A few sandbags, planks, and old 
 
378 APPENDIX. 
 
 boxes were in some places the sole fortifications, the 
 effort at defence appearing as hopeless as if Hollanders 
 should try to repair a breach in their dykes with a few 
 handfuls of tow. Had England still been in spiritual 
 alliance with the Pope, masses would have been 
 offered up in every cathedral for the souls of the garrison 
 of Lucknow. The world has only known, since the 
 stoiy of their endurance has been published, the power 
 of heroism and the tenacity of human existence. That 
 narrative of strife and suffering has dispelled for ever the 
 illusion as to the identity of race in the case of the Euro- 
 pean and Asiatic. It shows that Englishmen are beings 
 made of a superior clay, gifted with the power and instinct 
 of mastery over the dusky tribes of the East. On an 
 occasion where the faculties and force of all concerned 
 were brought into play and tested to the uttermost, the 
 Hindoo never rose to the level of his opportunities, 
 whilst our countrymen moulded events to their own 
 advantage, and converted mischance into triumph. Their 
 example has assured Europe that civilization has not im- 
 paired the courage or the strength of men and women in 
 these days, and it has tunght the people of Asia, that if 
 they would obtain the redress of wrongs, or satisfy a thirst 
 for vengeance, it is impossible to accomplish either end by 
 rising in arms against us. We hope that henceforth our 
 rule may be such as to foster in the native mind a love of 
 English domination ; but if the remainder of the nine- 
 teenth century passes away without the occurrence of an- 
 other Indian insurrection, the historian will not fail to 
 attribute the happy result, in a great measure, to the 
 effect of the resistless raids of Havelock, the genius of 
 Sir Colin Campbell, and the superhuman fortitude and 
 bravery of Inglis and the rest of the garrison of Lucknow. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 from Sketches by the Author. 
 
 ' Next to Mr. Fortune we should feel inclined to place Mr. Milne- like B 
 Fortune he entered into the homes and daily life of the people, in a manner wh 
 sZctoto?* SpC g e '"^ ^d havin g some actual purpose, can do/ 
 
 "ir bc ^ ok wWcl1 for clearness and copiousness of its information on China 
 multifarious contents, its 'sun pictures' of scenery, men, and makers 'in the'la 
 of the sages' is unique-more to be relied upon than Hue's for its truthfSnessVa 
 more comprehensive in its range than Fortune's." Nonconformist. 
 
 In 1 vol. post 8vo, price 5s. cloth ; or 5s. 6d. gilt edges. 
 POREST LIFE; A FISHERMAN'S SKETCHES OF No_, 
 - 1 - AND SWEDEN. By the Rev. HENRY NEWLAND, Author of "T 
 Erne and its Legends and its Fly-fishing." With Eiffht large Illusti 
 tions. The Second Edition. 
 
 "The author's motive in the above work is to convey as much real information 
 the subjects treated on as he could compass; his descriptions are, therefore, r, 
 descriptions, his anecdotes real anecdotes. The incidents of the storv did aetua 
 happen. His instruction* in the art of fly-fishing, and the hydros *>- ~ f ^~ - : - 
 arfi th rps.iito nf v,; own experience, and the fairy le 
 
 LONDON: GEOKGE EOTJTLEDGB & CO., FABKINGDON STRZJSI 
 

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