Skip to main content

Full text of "The Sepoy revolt; its causes and its consequences"

See other formats 


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  fellow1?"  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  alwajTs  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- 
mander-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  andr  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  wTas  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  future1. 

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  Cuddapahy 
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     0 

Rice  and  oil-seeds  mixed,  a  double  crop,  will  show  the 

following : — 

£   s.    d. 

Rent  and  interest 040 

Cultivation 0  10    0 

Proportion  of  annual  income      .         .         .140 


£1  18     0 
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     0     £    s.    d. 
The  profit  in  this  instance  being          .         .         .     3  17     0 

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     0 

gunny  bag 


Carriage  to  coast  per  cwt. 
Charges  @  10  per  cent. 
Freight  @  80s.  per  ton,  and  insurance 
London  charges      .... 


0  3 

1  8 
1  0 
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     0 

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    QUEEN5  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  rebellion1  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. 


LONDON  :  FABEINGDON  STREET. 

GEORGE   ROUTLEDGE    &    CO/S 

NEW  AND  CHEAP  EDITIONS 


tantefc  anir    )0jj»I»r 


To  be  obtained  "by  Order  of  all  Booksellers,  Home  or  Colonial. 

TRAVELS,    VGVAGEZS,    «kc. 

In  fcap.  8vo,  price  2s.  6d.  cloth  extra. 

npUEKEY.  By  THE  ROVING  ENGLISHMAN.  Being  Sketches 
-*•  from  Life,  partly  reprinted  from  "  Household  Words."  The  Eighth 
Thousand. 

"  This  work  forms  an  admirable  companion  to  the  *  Englishwoman's  Letters  from 
Bussia  ;'  possesses  an  especial  interest  at  the  present  time,  and  will  be  read  with. 
great  interest  and  advantage  to  all  who  either  intend  visiting  Turkey,  or  would  like 
to  become  better  acquainted  with  the  East." 

Fourth  Edition.     In  post  8vo,  price  6s.  cloth  lettered. 

npTJRKEY,  KUSSIA,  BLACK  SEA,  and  CIRCASSIA. 

•*-  By  Capt.  SPENCER.  Containing  many  Illustrations,  including 
Views  of  Odessa,  Sebastopol,  and  four  portraits  in  Colours  of  the 
Sultan,  the  Czar,  Schamyl,  and  a  Circassian  Lady.  With  a  map  of  the 
Seat  of  War. 

"  This  work  is  full  of  information.  Captain  Spencer  has  travelled  in  and  out, 
round  and  through  the  Turkish  empire.  He  speaks  the  language  of  the  country, 
and  enters  with  love  into  the  feelings  of  the  people.  A  safer  guide  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  find."  —  AthencBiim. 

In  1  vol.  post  8vo,  price  5s.  cloth  gilt. 

LANDS   OF   THE   SLAVE  AND    THE   FKEE  ;   or, 
Cuba,  the  United  States,  and  America.     By  the  Hon.  CHARLES 
MURRAY.     With  many  Illustrations. 

"  There  is  a  racy,  life-  warm  humour  about  the  author,  which  makes  the  current 
of  his  narrative  merry  and  musical  as  a  hill-side  brook.  We  would  only  advise  the 
reader  of  a  good  book  to  take  it  down  with  him  to  rural  or  sea-side  retreats.  And 
as  for  the  author,  we  will  say  of  him,  as  Falstaft'of  good  Master  Brook,  *  I  do  desire 
of  thee  a  better  acquaintance.5  "  —  Illustrated  London  News. 

In  small  post  8vo,  price  5s.  cloth  extra. 

IHE  BRIDLE  ROADS  OF  SPAIN.     By  —   CALEY, 

{.     Illustrated  with  Engravings  by  Lithography. 

"  This  work  tends  to  be  useful  to  travellers  and  Tourists  in  the  Peninsula.  It 
details  such  particulars  as  all  who  make  use  of  the  bridle  roads  in  Spain  will  find 
serviceable." 


T 


2  Cheap  Editions  of  Standard  and  Popular  Works. 

In  1  vol.  price  5s.  cloth  lettered. 

IT  ANSAS  ;  or,  Squatter  Life  and  Border  Warfare  in  t' 
J-V.  Far  West  By  T.  H.  GLADSTONE.  Reprinted  from  "T 
TSmes,  with  Additions  and  Corrections.  With  Two  Illustrations  a 
a  Map  irom  original  sources. 


LM  ii,r  u D  states  nave  in  no  degree  diminished  the  attracti 
ness  of  the  subject  of  Kansas;  and  to  such  persons  who  may  desire  to  acqu 
TOthout  much  trouble,  information  upon  some  of  the  more  prominent  fa 
of  the  unhappy  North  and  South  affrayf  we  commend  these  derfosKTof  one  I 
appeai-s  to  be  a  credible  witness  as  the  best  guide  we  yet  know/'—  Athenauw^ 

In  1  vol.  price  7s.  6d.  cloth  lettered. 

TTNPROTECTED  FEMALES  IN  NORWAY-  or  T: 

>      Pleasantest  Way  of  Travelling  there,  passing  through  Denm 
and  Sweden.     With  many  Woodcuts,  and  Three  Coloured  Illustratio 

in'tht  Sputrkling I°lum.e>  da8hedoff  b?  a  y°™S  dame,  artist  in  words,  in  colours, 

hts,   and  making  a  very  cascade  of  light,  fresh,  natural  talk  on  travel 

!ti??»  J^fli. ~.~°UrS'  tem)r8'  and  "Uoyments  of  the  fjelds  and  fiords  of 


''That  two  such  travellers  should  cross  the  desolate  Logne  Fjeld,  and  penetr 
^nS^S'  "T?  ?  ft      few  gentlemen,  have  ever  preceded  them,  is  a  fair  grow 

g^^^Sggrt-sfflsft5fi?^A±affi 

h,™  rtMnr,h.H     «  ^  Mark  Tapley'  treatment  of  the  asperities  of  foreign  travel 
'  woman.  — Times. 


In  1  vol.  post  8vo,  price  6s.  cloth  gilt. 
T  IPE  IN  CHINA.     By  Rev.  W.  C.  MILNE,  M.A.,  , 

'.  many /ears  Missionary  among  the  Chinese.  With  original  Ma 
of  Ningpo  Shangai,  China  Proper,  Inland  Trip  fromNingpo  to  Cantc 
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  having  some  actual  purpose,  can  do/ 

"i£rbc^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 


DAY  USE 

RTTLTIN  TO  DESK  FROM  trmCH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 


L.tti6  77 

4-S6J 


;  8" 


F£B  281970 


/u