DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Duke University Libraries https://archive.org/details/progresspresents01mart_0 J Airs' Vdtul .Vu •"•«.. M Isndtn Samp** l ( '. 41. l.iutifatr II,// THE ROGRESS AND PRESENT STATE BRITISH INDIA. A MANUAL FOR GENERAL USE, ) ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS, FURNISHED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF HER MAJESTY’S SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA. BY MONTGOMERY MARTIN, )R OP ‘ HISTORY OF THE BRITISH COLONIES,’ ‘ INDIAN EMPIRE,’ ‘ CHINA,’ ETC. LONDON: AMFSON LOW, SON, & CO., 47, LUDGATE HILL. 1862. The right of Translation is reserved. i ;iod the drain on India was never less than three million 1 Irling per annum ; for more than a quarter of a century it fl jiged from four to six million, and it is now estimated at i; i million pounds per annum. This large addition to the )i [ctifying capital of Britain is obtained without any cost or u rifice. India defrays all the charges of her government !a home and abroad, including the heavy item of military it tection; on which account two hundred thous^- ’ Vlll INTRODUCTION. trained troops are maintained, and are available for sent in any part of the East. It is no small advantage to England that her educab middle classes, whose numbers are rapidly increasing, fine India scope for honourable ambition and personal enterpr with remunerative employment for skill and industry. Another point remains to be noticed: & large fu accrues annually in Great Britain and Ireland from 1 unspent surplus of private incomes. This has been variou! estimated at from twenty to thirty million sterling, and is e J seeking a fair rate of interest. Millions of these savings hk been lost in South American, Spanish and other loans, i in bubble or fraudulent enterprises. It is of the highest i portance that safe investment be available for this capii which is otherwise wasted and lost, to the injury of 1 national resources. India for many years would absorb the spare money of England, which would be safe under gc government, and yield a fair return. But on the quest of good government everything hinges. We must not agi forget tli at if the possession of India be fraught with maj benefits, it is also attended with peril and responsibili While accepting the one we cannot escape the other. Circumstances have at length led (or driven) us into 1 right path; just principles are being brought into actio and the old system of oppression and exaction appears to -Never had a nation a clearer opportunity than England, in which all the interest lies INTRODUCTION. IX doing that which is right, and where nothing but injury can result from doing wrong. I have faith in the reality of Christian doctrines; that their practice brings wisdom unto rulers ; and that without such teaching all human policy and statecraft is folly. There |has been much talk of evangelising India; but the justice, he mercy, the charity, the unselfishness which lies at the pase, and is the very core of a Christian government, have mtil recently been wanting. Happily the exercise of these [ualities is being understood as not antagonistic to, but aseparable from, successful administration; and there is 1 eason to hope that Parliament and public opinion are learn- .1 ag to recognise the primary duty and even the political I xpediency of Justice to India. ) I :o sti igi | ma i i to 1 cti( to :ki ( x ) British Settlements and Territorial Acquisitions in India, from 1856. (Irrespective of tlie Native States of Cochin, Travancore and others, where Indian princes sit on the Gadi or Musnud, assi controlled by officers of the British Government.) When acquired Name of Territory. Situation. From whom acquired. A Squ, 1612 Surat*. Guzerat—West Coast. The Mogul Emperor, Jehanglieer. Factor 1625 Armegaun . East or Coro¬ mandel Coast. Naig (or local chief) Damerla V encatadri. Facton (12 gi 1639 Madras (Fort St. George, Coromandel Hindoo Rajah of Factor^ built 1640). Coast. Chandergherry. coast 1661 1640 Bombay Island Hooghly .( West Coast Bengal — Left King of Portugal .. Armec 1696 Chuttanutty and Cali-< hank of Hoogk- Local authorities and | cotta villages. ( ly river. > Aurungzebe. j Hoogl 1698 Calcutta, or Fort Wil¬ liam. Near Hooghly. ) ' inlanc 1691 Fort St. David, or Teg- napatam. Coromandel Coast. Native Prince Town. 1755 Gheriah, or Yiziadroog From Pirates .. Small 1756 Bancoot, now Fort Vic¬ toria. Malabar Coast From Pirates .. 1757 Twenty-four Pergunnas Bengal Malabar Coast Nabob of Bengal ... Angria, a maritime Chief. C A towi 1759 Masulipatam, &c. Eastern Coast Nizam of Hydra bad 1760 Burdwan, Midnapore, and Chittagong. Bengal .. Nabob of Bengal and Shah Alum. c 1765 Bengal, Behar, Orissa Hindoostan .. Emp. Shah Alum .. Ilf 1763 Chingleput. Carnatic .. Nabob of Carnatic .. 1766 The Northern Circars N.E. Coast .. The Nizam If 1775 Benares . N.W. Provinces Vizier of Oule 1776 Island of Salsette .. Bombay .. Mahrattas 1778 Nagore (a town) .. S. Coromandel Coast. Rajah of Tanjore .. 1778 Guntoor Circar .. East Coast The Nizam 1786 Pulo Penang Island .. St. of Malacca King of Queda 1792 Malabar, Dindigul, Sa¬ lem, Baramahl, &c. Southern India, or the Deccan. Tippoo Sultan 1' 1799 Seringapatam, Coimba- toor, Canara, Wynaad. Southern India Tippoo Sultan 1 1799 Tanjore . Carnatic .. Rajah of Tanjore .. 1800 Balaghaut districts Southern India The Nizam 2 1801 The Carnatic Southern India Nabob of the Carnatic 3 1801 Kohilcund, the Lower Doab, Allahabad, Cawn- poor, &c. N.W. Provinces The Vizier of Oude 1 1802 Districts in Bundelcund and Gujerat. Central India Peishwah Bajee Rao 1803 Cuttack and Balasore ,. Bengal .. Rajah of Berar 1803 Delhi Territory, Agra, Upper Doab, Merut, Aligliur, &c. N.W. Provinces Dowlut Rao Sindia < * Faria y Souza says there was an English factory here in 1601. The Mogul Emperor granted permission to settle at Surat in 1612, when Captain Best formed the factory, left ten persons there, i ;hc purchase of goods. Trading factories were also established at Calicut (1616) and other places oi toast, by permission of the Zamorin of Calicut and other native rulers. BRITISH TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS. XI Vhen juired Name of Territory. Situation. From whom acquired. Area in Square Mile6. 80.5 4815 •■'817 -817 1-818 818 818 818 820 821 «22 124 125 126 32 34 35 36 36 38 .10 Hi t] hi ii w 13 15 Districts in Gujerat Kumaon, part of Terai Saugor, Dharwar, &c. Ahmedabad (Farm of) Gandeisb, &c. Ajmeer. Poona, Concan, South Mahratta Country. Nerbudda Districts Southern Concan Coast Bairseah Districts in Beejapoor Singapoor . Malacca . Assam, Arracan, Tavoy, Yea, Tenasserim, &c. Mysoor. Coorg . Jynteea. Loodiana . Ferozpoor . Some of Protected Hill States. Jaloun. Kurnoul . Kythul. Kolaba. Sinde . Towns of Serampore and Tranquebar. Julluudur Doab .. Part of Protected Sikh States. Sattara .. Punjab .. Jeitpoor Sumbhulpoor Bughatf Sikhim (part) Pegu Odeipore Kbyrpoor (part) Territory of Tularam Senaputtee. Nagpoor, or Berar JhansiJ. Boodawul . Oude . Western India N.W. Provinces Central India .. Guzerat Southern India Rajpootana Western Coast of the Deccan. Central India Tho Deccan .. Malwa The Deccan .. Sts. of Malacca Malay Peninsula East Coast of Bay of Bengal. Deccan Western Ghauts Cossya Hills .. Cis Sutlej Cis-Sutlej Cis-Sutlej Bundeleund .. Deccan .. Sirhind West Coast .. Western India Bengal and Tan- jore. Punjab .. Deccan .. N.W. India .. Bundlecund .. S.W. Hindoostan Hill States N.E. India .. S.E. India Hindoostan Sinde North Cachar Central India Bundlecund .. Candeish Hindoostan .. The Guicowar of Ba- roda. Nepaul Rajah.. Peishwah Bajee Rao The Guicowar Mulliar Rao Holcar Dowlut Rao Sindia Peishwah Bajee Rao Rajah of Berar or Nagpoor. Rajah of Sawunt Wurree. Rajah of Dhar The Nizam Rajah of Johore The Dutch King of Ava .. Rajah of Mysoor Rajah of Coorg Rajah of Jynteea Annexed Annexed. Annexed.* Annexed. Rajah of Kurnool Annexed Annexed Ameers of Sindo King of Denmark. The Seiks. Annexed. Annexed .. The Sikhs Annexed .. Annexed .. Annexed .. Rajah of Sikhim The Burmese Annexed Ameer Ali Morad From the Rajah Annexed .. Annexed .. Annexed .. King of Oude . 1,375 8,214 19,178 4,400 12,078 2,029 8,950 15,800 900 456 10,078 275 1,000 79,007 30,086 2,116 725 2,643 516 318 63,599 11,000 93,275 165 4,693 30 1,670 32,250 2,306 5,412 2,160 76,432 2,532 50 27,000 iW \nnexed’’ must be taken to signify assumption by the British of the territory on the death of the Rajah and lure of direct male heirs; the right of adoption by the sovereign or selection by the people being denied, (turned to the family of Omeid Sing, the late li.ijah. ven to Sindia the Maharajah of Gwalior in 1861. BRITISH INDIA. CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL SKETCH.* The earliest information obtained in Europe of the condition of India was derived from the narratives of Greek historians regarding— The Macedonian Invasion .— B.c. 327 to 325. Alexander crossed the Indus, at Attock, by a bridge of boats. After overcoming the resistance offered by a Hindoo prince, bearing the family name of Poms, whose capital was Canouj, on the Ganges, the Macedonian monarch penetrated as far as the junction of the Beas with the Sutlej. His army would proceed no further, and he was compelled to retire. A fleet under Nearchus sailed from the Indus on a voyage of dis¬ covery to the Persian Gulf, while Alexander marched home¬ wards through Beloocliistan, along the coast where, according to tradition, the Assyrian invaders of India under Semiramis, and the Persians under Cyrus, had perished almost to a man. This expedition was followed by a rapid increase of commerce, the products and manufactures of India being exchanged for the coined gold and silver of Europe, but of * The authorities for this Historical Sketch will be found in the History of india, from the Invasion of Alexander to the Close of the Mutiny and Rebellion n 1859, given in the ‘Indian Empire,’ vols. i. and ii., by the author of the >resent work. B 2 ARAB CONQUESTS AND HOUSE OF GHUZNEE. Chap. the internal history of the country little is known unt Moslem writers recount the Conquests of the Arab Empire .— A.D. 664 to 750. The first Mohammedan invaders appeared at Mooltan i 664. In 711, Sinde was occupied by the troops of tl: Caliph Walid ; but the Arabs made no further conquests, an were expelled from Sinde in 750 by the Rajpoot tribe < Sumera. No incursions were made into India by the Mohan medans for the next two hundred and fifty years, and ver little is known of the history of India during that period. House of Gliuznee .— a.d. 1001 to 1167. The first permanent establishment of Mohammedan powe in India was made by Sultan Mahmood, the ruler of a srnal newly-founded state, called Ghuznee, after its capital, situate in the heart of the Suliman mountains. Mahmood mad numerous expeditions into India in the years 1001 to 102i captured Delhi, Canouj, and other chief cities, and in h: character of an iconoclast destroyed many Hindoo templei carrying off among his booty the famous sandal-wood gat( of the temple of Somnauth in Guzerat, which eight hundre years later were taken by British troops from Ghuznee, an replaced at Somnauth by order of the Governor-Genera Lord Ellenborough. The Punjab, from its vicinity to Ghuznee, was place under a regular Mohammedan administration; and about th commencement of the eleventh century the seat of goveri ment was changed from Ghuznee to Lahore, the capital ( the Punjab. The House of Ghuznee became extinct i 1186; but another Mohammedan dynasty (the House < Ghor) took possession of the Punjab, and from that perio Mohammedan power marched on in India with steady aggre sion, the Hindoo principalities falling one by one, each aft( a desperate struggle, until only a few preserved their ind< TAP. I. EARLY MOSLEM DYNASTIES. 3 mdence either in Hindoostan Proper—that is, India north the Vindhya mountains and the Nerbudda; or in the eccan—the country south of that range and river, j It was not, however, a single dynasty, but many different , id co-existent sovereignties, which effected, in the course of D nturies, the Mohammedan conquest of India. Slave Kings of Delhi .— a.d. 1206 to 1288. 111 Shahab-oo-deen, the last of the Ghor princes, conquered 1 elhi, and placed it in charge of Kootb-oo-Deen a Turki ive, who, when his patron was slain by the Gukkurs, as- med sovereign power. Altamsh succeeded to the throne in 1211, and reduced the '■ eater part of Hindoostan Proper. During his reign Sinde M Mooltan were ravaged by the fierce Mogul, Ghengis Khan. :e i ,(] The Khiljis .— a.d. 1288 to 1412. i : A Tartar tribe, long settled among the Afghans, gave liiigs to Delhi from 1288 to 1321, when the House of Toglilak e is founded by the governor of the Punjab, who was the son fna Turki slave by an Indian mother. The reign of the last e the Toghlak kings was marked by the invasion of Timur inb Tartar or Tamerlane, who sacked and ‘looted’ Delhi, ra 1 1397, massacred an immense number of its inhabitants, 1 carried off a multitude of men and women into slavery. ie nur caused himself to be proclaimed Emperor of India, tl p took permanent possession of the Punjab only. fi The House of Lodi. —a.d. 1412 to 1526. j [ Patan dynasty ruled Delhi from 1412 to 1421, when , | succession was interrupted by three brothers, Seyeds (or ,: ( cendants of Mohammed), but reverted to Behlol Lodi in rj '0, and remained in his family until it was seized by I ier, the virtual founder of the long and brilliant line of ;( ] Ishahs or Emperors, the last of whom, expelled from Delhi 858, yet lingers in exile in Tonglioo. b 2 4 THE MOGUL EMPERORS OP INDIA. Chai The Great Moguls or House of Timur .— A.D. 1526 to 170" Baber, after ruling Cabool for twenty-two years, invadl Hindoostan, of which he claimed possession in right of ' ancestor Timur; and, having seized on Delhi, Agra, a other cities, employed himself in consolidating his usurp; dominions until his death in 1530. Humayun, his son a successor, was driven into exile, in 1542, by Patan or Afgli chiefs. After a series of vicissitudes and romantic adventui Humayun regained possession of the throne in 1555; l died from a fall on the terrace of the Delhi palace, in 155 and was succeeded by his only child, the famous Akber, w reigned for nearly half a century, being nearly the who time contemporary with Queen Elizabeth. Jehangeer, the son of Akber by a -Rajpoot princess, t cended the throne in 1605, and was succeeded in 1627 his son Shah Jehan, who was also of Hindoo descent by 1 mother’s side. Aurungzebe usurped the imperial authority in 1658, ii prisoning his father, and slaying his brothers. During 1 long reign the Mogul empire reached and passed its culn nating point of greatness and prosperity. He destroyed t" last of the independent Mohammedan kingdoms in the Decce and alienated the affections of the Hindoos, by a spirit ! bigotry which contrasted forcibly with the tolerance whi characterised the other Indian princes of his house. T] Eajpoots, Seiks and Jats revolted against him in Hindoosta In Southern India the Mahrattas, under their chief Sevajc formed themselves into a powerful state ; and Aurungzebe, his last campaign against them, in extreme old age, narrow escaped dying their prisoner. From this period, 1707, the empire rapidly fell to deca and the various provinces were erected into independe states by usurping governors, or fought for by Hindoo Mohammedan adventurers, whose claims, however founde State of British India, in the Year 1859-60.*' To face p. v. Military Strength. Maritime Commerce with all Foreign Shipping and Tonnage with all Foreign or PVTttttkocks or Provinces under Number Arc* in Square Miles. Population. to each Square Mile. Gross Revenues. Taxation per Head. Europeans. Natives. Police Force. Merchandise and 'Treasure. Arrivals. Departures. Imports. Exports. Total. Number of Ships Tonnage. Number of Ships. Tonnage. £. d. Number. Number. Number. £■ £. £■ Bengal, Dollar. Ac. 280,200 41.49S,60S 148 12,803,214 6 2 7,977 9,379 23,468 20,251,377 12,516,429 32,767,806 751 534,862 870 631,963 North-West Provinces .. 110,493 30,110,097 25S 5,705,691 3 9 13,568 13,085 24,616 1 Inland Pro vinces Punjab, including Delhi 100,400 14,794,611 147 3,064,733 4 1 IS,296 22,113 24,991 J Madias. 128,551 23,127,S55 180 6,550,9S0 5 8 6,157 22,869 22,500 3,000,846 2,492,156 5,493,002 2,011 310,090 2,889 412,166 Bombov. 83,340 10,141,918 121 6,821,964 13 5 11,749 23,519 18,200 9,534,781 13,388,013 22,922,794f 882 393,972 830 423,218 Sinde . 54,403 1,795,594 33 455,700 5 0 1,524 3,978 4,244 368,878 105,261 474,139 223 41,159 182 28,872 ! -Tories under the iin- mediate control of the government of India:— Oude . 27,890 8,071,075 2S9 1,255,978 3 1 5,518 2,722 8,640 \ Berar or Nagpoor .. 71,834 4,343,163 60 417,866 1 11 1,659 3,407 6,561 Inland Pro vinces Hydrabad assigned 1 Districts .. .. / 16 f 5G6 1,100,328 66 296,172 5 4 3,989 4,077 2,256 j Pegu . Temisserim And Mar-) 32,454 34.S38 1,024,885 333,833 31 497,532 9 8 2,231 6,824 5,111 395,936 118,389 514,325 93 34,830 113 40,019 taban./ 9 109,217 6 6 238 3,052 1,100 70,285 268,960 339,245 130 37,289 143 51,149 Coorg . 2,110 118,464 56 26,368 4 5 no returns ) Bairseah. 456 not known 8,875 no returns Inland Pro vinces Mvsore. 27,000 3,822,053 141 958,460 5 0 2,507 4,795 not given I Total .. .. 976,547 140,282,484 144 38,972,750 5 6 75,413 119,820 1141,687 33,622,103 28,889,208 62,511,311 4,090 1,352,202 5,027 1,587,387 Other Native States under i 190,135 16,173,209 the government of India f 85 Total .. 1,160,682 156,455,693 134 Add to gross revenues. receipts from other sources.'! 607,176 1,673 9,011 Military in other parts of India. against which area and population cannot be shown j Total revenues of India .. £ 39,579,926 77,086 128,831 Total Military in India. m I ■' ' ' >m= 1° h n _-’.ind of a later date. f Commerce of Bombay for the Year 1860-61: imports, 18,626,3012.; exports, 19,480,0392.; total, 38,106,3402. - 1 L ' : f -' -"' - ,:r column of Police show an approximate of what the force was in 1859. At present the Police system in India is being thoroughly and completely reorganised. I. ORIGIN OF EAST INDIA COMPANY. 5 i usually decided by the sword. Such was the state of India a the East India Company took those first steps, which i ended in placing the sceptre of a mightier empire than Mogul ever ruled in the hand of the Queen of England. Portuguese and Dutch Settlements in Lidia. a.d. 1497 to 1600. evious to the discovery of the mariner’s compass in 1497, Venetians and Genoese were the most extensive traders the East of the European nations. The Portuguese )polised the commerce for the greater part of the next red years, and employed the Dutch as carriers; but i war broke out between the two nations the Dutch id the stronger, and supplanted the Portuguese in their m trade and chief settlements. igin and Proceedings of English East India Company. a.d. 1600 to 1698. i the closing day of the sixteenth century Queen Elizabeth d the original charter of the East India Company, and 02 their first ships appeared in the Indian seas. 1615 Sir Thomas Roe arrived at the court of Jehangeer, ifter long delay obtained certain trading privileges for lompany. An independent Hindoo prince, the Zamorin lidicut, had already protected them in the formation of 'ies on the Malabar coast, and these were all placed under Ibntrol of the Presidency established at Surat. 1 1625 a piece of ground was obtained at Armegaun, from jlaig or local chief, and a factory built thereon, which in i was described as being defended by twelve pieces of In, and twenty-eight factors and soldiers. In 1640 the y was removed to Madras, where Fort St. George was ■d by permission of the Hindoo sovereign of the country, ty prince of ancient descent, the Rajah of Chandragiri. 53 Madras was raised to the rank of a Presidency. About 6 PERSIAN INVASION, 1738. fi the same time a licence to trade throughout the [ Empire, without payment of custom dues except at was granted to the Company by Shah Jehan, at the iq of Mr. Boughton a surgeon of one of the East Indian: return for medical service rendered to the Emperor’s faji daughter. Eactories were immediately established at Hpi and other places in Bengal. In 1668 the Island of Bombay, which had been gip Charles the Second as the dowry of the Infanta of Pop was transferred by the King to the Company, and inj] the seat of government was removed there from Sural 1698 the English obtained leave from Prince Azim, a the grandsons of Aurungzebe, who commanded the army in Bengal, to purchase the territory on which Ce now stands, and to exercise justiciary authority ov< ; English and Native inhabitants. The Persian Invasion. —a.d. 1738. The Persian invasion under Nadir Shah hastened th of the Mogul Empire. He sacked Delhi, and is said tc| slaughtered thirty thousand of its inhabitants and carri thirty millions in money, besides bullion and jewels, from the people by torture. Cabool and Sinde were an| to Persia. The ravages of the Persians were confined to doostan, and their departure was hastened by fear c Mahrattas then ably ruled by Bajee Bao, the second ( usurping Peishwas or First Ministers who governed at ! in the name of the descendants of Sevajee, who lived as t| sovereigns at Sattara. At this time Bajee Bao and hisl manders, Puar, Holcar and Sindia, who after his death fol principalities, exacted a part of the revenues under the| of Chout or Surdeshmooki (a fourth or a tenth) from al every state in India. Ali Verdi Khan, the Mogul go\| of Bengal, resisted their demands, and as a means of de t against the common enemy, permitted the English to f«.J CONTEST BETWEEN ENGLISH AND FRENCH. . I. 7 ch round Calcutta, seven miles in extent, wliick still bears name of tbe Makratta ditck. General History .— a.d. 1745 to 1761. ke declaration of war between England and France gave to hostilities in tbe Madras Presidency ; but tranquillity preserved in Bengal by tbe determination of Ali Verdi h. qe Peace of Aix-la-Cbapelle, in 1748, took away tbe pre- 1 for war between tbe rival Companies in India; but the 'rels of native princes offered remunerative employment heir troops, and by taking part with different candidates •he sovereignty of tbe Carnatic, tbe French and English a brought into hostility with each other. Tbe French yraised native levies and disciplined them at Poncbcberry e European manner. Tbe English followed their example, n tbe successful defence of Arcot by Clive in 1751, tbe as manifested extraordinary courage and devotion. Up i is time tbe French bad been in tbe ascendant, but tkence- totrd the English gained increasing advantage, until in m 1 Dupleix, tbe French Governor-General, was recalled in . ice, and a treaty of peace concluded, which left Mo¬ an hed Ah, tbe English candidate, Nabob of tbe Carnatic. t( 3 war which ruined Dupleix made tbe fortune of Clive, ' had come to India as a “ -writer ” or clerk, and bad, in on with other factors and agents, been compelled to lay it tbe pen and handle tbe musket in defence of tbe Com¬ as I; goods. The military abilities of Clive gained him a lii lission and rapid promotion. He was governor of Fort i fid’s (Madras) when Surajab Dowlali, having succeeded ndfather Ali Verdi Khan, as governor or Subabdar of , besieged and took Calcutta on tbe 20tk June, 1756. lienee to a hasty general order for then- safe keeping, lole of the captives, one hundred and forty-six in to It, were thrust by tbe guards into the small garrison s BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA, 1757. C prison, known as the Black Hole, and in the morning, • | an order for their removal came from Surajah Dowlah, i twenty-three survivors crept forth from amid heaps of festl corpses. The tidings of the fall of Calcutta and the tragedy by vi it had been followed, excited the fiercest resentment at Ms An expedition was fitted out, with Clive in command o land forces, and Admiral Watson of the naval portion, eutta was recovered; Hooghly, the chief port of Su;i Dowlah stormed and sacked, and the Avar was being cs on by Clive and Watson with great vigour, when tidirj the renewal of hostilities between England and France it advisable to come to terms with the Subahdar, to pr his forming an alliance with the French. A large sum paid by the Subahdar in compensation for the outrages mitted at Calcutta, and the correspondence between hin Clive assumed a most confidential tone. Admiral W captured Chandernagore, and Clive strove to persuade Su Dowlah to co-operate with him in expelling the French India. But the attempt was fruitless. The Subahds membered his grandfather’s policy of keeping European : in check by using one against the other, and he now strc temporize in his own feeble fashion by intriguing with parties. Clive, who Avas as complete a master of the art of mulation as of Avar, retaliated by conspiring with Meer Ji the Subahdar’s commander-in-chief. The last of a Ion of deceptions Avas played at Plassy, where Clive anc Nabob met in hostile array on the 23rd of June, 1757. 4 It Avas for some time doubtful Avhich side Meer Ji meant to betray ; at length he decided against his nut who seeing himself abandoned by half his army, fled froi't field of battle, but was captured and slain by order of 'I Jaffier’s son Meeran, who perished shortly afterwards I stroke of lightning. Meer Jaffier was placed on the musn-l 1 . I. EUROPEAN AND NATIVE STRIFE. 9 gal by the English, but they were from this time the actual rs of that province, as well as of Behar and Orissa, ifter the downfall of Surajah Dowlah, the French com- Lder, Count Lally, formed an alliance against the English l Hyder Ali, a Mohammedan adventurer, who had usurped K chief authority in the Hindoo state of Mysoor, but the ■peration of Hyder Ali was broken off at a critical moment Dccurrences which obliged him to return in all haste to |oor. Pondicherry was besieged by Colonel Eyre Coote, (lured in January 1761, and its fortifications razed to the And. Lally returned to France to die on the scaffold; the jkch Company was soon afterwards abolished, and that ibn never acquired territorial importance in India. : v hile the French and English were struggling for ascen- •ty in the Carnatic, the Afghans and Mahrattas were ling for supremacy in Hiudoostan. In 1754, Delhi was ted by the Doorani and other Afghan tribes, under I ied the Doorani chief who founded the kingdom of lahar. In 1759, Ahmed Shah invaded India for the fourth . The Mahrattas met him on the plains of Paniput, and j defeated with such heavy slaughter that they were le to regain their previous height of prosperity and power, th conquerors, worn out by a long and harassing campaign, led India without attempting to follow up their victory, of „] Progress of East India Company. —A.D. 1764 to 1773. ■ L e battle of Buxar was fought in 1764 with Shuja in ah, the usurping Vizier of Oude. Shuja Dowlah was ted, and the Mogul Emperor Shah Alum, who had been I aally the master but really the prisoner of the Vizier, si d himself under British protection, and subsequently fn rrned the Company in their possession of Bengal, Behar, of jdrissa, by conferring on them the Collectorate or per- mli d Dewannee of those provinces with a stipulation for the ms ent by the Company to the Emperor of two hundred 10 TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS BY CLIYE. CbI and sixty thousand pounds per annum, as a first charg'd the revenues of Bengal. The reverence felt throughout I ll for imperial grants made this arrangement of important! the East India Company, and the manner in which i repudiated this and other conditions guaranteed to} unfortunate Shah Alum, was quite unjustifiable. The i extenuation is to be found in the financial difficulties wj attended the Company throughout its entire career. The expectations raised by Clive of the prosperity w would follow the territorial acquisitions of the Company, so far from being fulfilled, that it was found on this! subsequent occasions, that increase of revenue was al invariably attended with more than commensurate inci of expenditure; the cost of government by Europeans, growth of a standing army in each Presidency, and c sources of legitimate or illegitimate expense, swallowin all the anticipated surplus, and leaving nothing for development of the resources of the country or even fo maintenance of roads, canals, and other public works structed by Native rulers. The terrible famine of 1769-70, by which, accordiri Warren Hastings, Bengal, Behar, and Orissa lost half 1 inhabitants, created much excitement in England, and| Company were blamed for the misgovernment and exto which had aggravated if not caused the calamity, and espec for the oppressive measures by which they strove to kee the revenues. Notwithstanding their involvments, the y< dividends of the Company from 1766 to 1772 averaged el If per cent., in the latter year they reached twelve and a half cent., while the bonded debt of Bengal had increase! one million seven hundred thousand pounds. The Com f appealed to Parliament to save them from bankruptcy. H result of a prolonged inquiry was the first direct connett of the English Government with the management of Ir'lf affairs. By the Begulating Act passed in 1773, a Gove I P. I. GOVERNMENT CONNEXION WITH E. I. COMPANY. 11 (aeral was appointed to preside over Bengal, and ex- lise a certain control over the Presidencies of Madras and mbay, which were maintained by the revenues of the agal Presidency. The servants of the Crown and of the inpany were prohibited, under heavy penalties, from rate trading, or receiving gifts from the Natives, and the fcimum of the legal rate of interest was fixed at twelve i cent, per annum. Administration of Warren Hastings .— a.d. 1773 to 1785. barren Hastings, the first Governor-General, was already 'ihe head of the Bengal administration when the Eegu- tig Act came into operation, and with it a council of four ubers, the majority of whom (including Philip Francis, (supposed author of ‘Junius’) strongly denounced the past tesures of Hastings, and especially the Benares Treaty iiluded with Shuja Dowlah. (By one article in this treaty, Hastings sold to the Vizier of le the provinces of Corah and Allahabad, which rightfully luged to the Emperor Shah Alum, who was at this time less at Delhi in the hands of the Mahrattas; and by (her, he hired out British troops for the expulsion of the lias from Rohilcund, of which country Shuja Dowlah ed possession. The excuse offered for these proceedings he emptiness of the Company’s coffers, but the council ot scruple to accuse Hastings of having replenished his by the same arrangement. The charge of private st was also brought against Hastings in connexion proceedings subsequently adopted by him for relieving jinancial embarrassments of the Company, particularly regard to the tyranny by which the Rajah of Benares driven to rebellion by the demand of an enormous [bution, and then deposed; and the cruel means led to extort money from the Begums of Oude. mode of though few attempted to justify Hastings’ 12 WARREN HASTINGS AND HYDER ALI. Cm obtaining supplies, none could withhold their admiratioi the energy with which he overcame some of the gret dangers, both internal and external, which ever menaced existence of British power in India. In 1782, he descr: the Indian administration as burdened with an exhau treasury; an accumulating debt; a system charged expensive establishments, and precluded by the multii of dependents and the curse of patronage from reformat: a government debilitated by the various habits of invete licentiousness; a country oppressed by private rapacity ; deprived of its vital resources by the enormous quantitie current specie annually exported in the remittance of pri fortunes; by an impoverished commerce and by the ei maintenance of the Presidencies of Madras and Bombay, the last or greatest of his difficulties, Hastings named “ a actual or depending in every quarter, and with every p( of Ilindoostan.” In fact, the intestine strife, aggression cupidity of the Madras and Bombay authorities, had le> the formation of a confederacy of Native states, whose point of union was enmity to the English. Hyder Ali and another powerful Mussulman sovereign ol south of India known as the Nizam of the Deccan, hadur for the first time with each other and with their mutual foes Mahrattas. There were many French officers in the My army, and the renewal of European war opened up to Fr an opportunity of regaining her power in India at the moi when England had least means of guarding her distant po sions. A French fleet was known to have sailed for Indian seas. The prospect of the onslaught of Hyder thus reinforced by Native and European allies, turned torpor of the Madras authorities into panic. They appe to Hastings, who acted with equal energy and judgrr" He suspended the incapable and venal Governor of Ma placed the conduct of the war in the hands of the veterai Eyre Coote, drew off the Mahrattas from the confedej Lp. I. CORNWALLIS ADMINISTRATION. 13 h Hyder Ali, and dispatched troops and treasure with such inaptitude that they reached the seat of war before the nected French squadron. The victory of Porto Novo, A by Coote, in 1781, was a severe check to Hyder Ali, to died in the following year; and his son and successor 'qioo Sultan was restrained in his proceedings against the Iglisli by the withdrawal of the French troops who had :ie to his aid, hut were recalled by their government on ) restoration of peace with England. ilany officers, however, took service with Tippoo Sultan c the Nizam, and afterwards exercised a dangerous influ- ;ne against the English, though, for the time, the peril was vircome. Hastings was everywhere triumphant, in the oacil as well as in the field. The councillors who had aosed and denounced him were gone, General Clavering t dead; and Francis, who had been wounded by Hastings in duel, had returned to England, where he employed liim- 1 in preparing the way for the impeachment, which was light forward against the ex-Governor-General on his fvul in 1785. The trial lasted seven years. It ended, as iht have been expected from its length, in an acquittal; the expenses it involved, together with his extravagance, 1 Hastings an absolute pauper until the Company came s relief with a pension and afterwards with donations to . his frequently recurring difficulties, aili 1784 the Board of Control was formed by Mr. Pitt as a |i tier check on the East India Company. Marquis Cornwallis .— a.d. 1786 to 1793. lord Cornwallis united in his own person the powers of rnor-General and Commander-in-Chief, and was success- n both capacities. His internal administration was led first by the establishment of a fixed land-rent lighout Bengal, on the sound principle of ensuring to Natives the fee-simple of the soil; and secondly, by the cition of a judicial system to protect life and property. 14 TEIGNMOUTH AND WELLESLEY ADMINISTRATIONS. Cha Tippoo Sultan’s inyasion of Travancore, a state un i British protection, occasioned the renewal of war v Mysoor. Lord Cornwallis in co-operation with the Nn and the Mahrattas, with the Rajah of Coorg and other ini princes, inarched against Seringapatam the capital of Mys in 1792, and there dictated terms to the Sultan, who compelled to purchase peace by the cession of half kingdom. Sir John Shore. —a.d. 1793 to 1798. Sir John Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth, was selec to succeed Lord Cornwallis, on account of his pacific dis. sition, rectitude, and financial ability. The continua of peace was, however, of brief duration. It was evid that Tippoo Sultan was only waiting an opportunity , renewing hostility with the English; preparations w therefore made for another war with Mysoor, and th together with other causes, compelled the Governor-Geni to open the Treasury for a loan bearing twelve per c interest. Notwithstanding the high character of the ad nistrator, his four years’ rule ended with an exhausted treasi an increasing debt, and an impending war. Marquis Wellesley. —a.d. 1798 to 1805. Lord Mornington, better known as Marquis Welles arrived in India in 1798, accompanied by his your brother Henry (afterwards Lord Cowley), as his prh secretary. Colonel Wellesley (afterwards Duke of Wellijj ton) had been above a year in India with the 33rd regimtjj, and thus the remarkable talents of the three brothers v brought to bear on the intricate questions of Indian policj ti is The immediate danger arose from the hostility of Tip Sultan, who was entering into various alliances, offensive defensive, against the English. Tippoo, besides intrig! * See ‘ Wellesley Despatches,’ in five vols., edited by the author of present work. I. TIPPOO SULTAN SLAIN, 1799. 15 i native Indian powers, had expressed his desire to perate with Zemaun Shah of Afghanistan (the successor he fierce Doorani conqueror of Paniput), for the invasion i ( violated his treaty with England by sending an embassy ne French Governor of the Mauritius, and receiving such diaries as that island could furnish. The Governor- ;eral vainly remonstrated with the Sultan on his breach nth, but could get nothing from him but false or prevari- tig replies. The result was the renewal of war with Mysoor. iigapatam was taken in May 1799, and Tippoo Sultan p. The Hindoo dynasty, displaced by Hyder Ali, was jlred to their capital of Mysoor, with a revenue exceeding i of the ancient Hindoo kingdom. The family of Tippoo ■munificently provided for. The fortress, city, and island hringapatam remained in the hands of the English. The h authority was vested in Colonel Wellesley, who was also ted commander of the army above the Ghauts. No k functionary ever worked more cordially and effec- with a Native coadjutor than Arthur Wellesley with jah, the minister of the boy-Rajah of Mysoor, and their 3 was evidenced by the rapid extension of public works e unexampled prosperity which prevailed tlnoughout the y. It was in the six years spent in the arduous civil ilitary duties of this position that the abilities for rule of ;1 Wellesley were manifested and trained. His justice icuracy (which was a part of his justice), his untiring ry and singular power of attending to detail without sight of leading principles, were as useful in esta- ig a new administration as in organising an army.* vern men was his natural vocation, but his strongest trifr * Wellington Despatches,’ first edition, by Colonel Gurwood, vols. i. ii. | ‘ Supplementary Despatches of the Duke of Wellington, edited by 16 THE WELLESLEY SUBSIDIARY SYSTEM. Ch 1 efforts were always and everywhere for peace; and evei in actual war he maintained a consideration for the welfai ol the people of the country and a respect for their chiefs, w j enabled him to be at once a subjugator and a pacificator. His Indian campaigns were fit forerunners of his Peninsj career. The principal of them were undertaken against n Mahratta chieftains, Sindia, Holcar, and the Rajah of Be t and the battle of Assaye in 1803 was one of the if remarkable of the victories by which the enemy was red i to sue for peace. The Bengal army, under the commaii! Lord Lake, was brilliantly successful in Northern Ii The battle of Laswaree gave to England the command Agra and Delhi, and the unfortunate emperor who had ! blinded by a Roliilla chief and re-captured by Sindia, J gladly placed himself under British protection. The fortress of Bhurtpoor alone resisted repeated attf] and its Rajah was allowed to purchase peace by the payij of two hundred thousand pounds. The other chief events during the administration of ,\ Wellesley were the assumption of Tanjore, the Carnatic, the city of Surat; and the extension of what was termet Subsidiary system, namely, the subsidising of British ti| for the protection of Native states. This measure: Governor-General believed would prolong the existent 1 the protected Native states and regulate the balance of p< while it established the supremacy of England over the part of the Indian Peninsula. Under his rule it would bably have done all this, but unfortunately his whole p was for a time misunderstood. He returned to Englai find himself threatened with impeachment, and his pledg protective alliance were violated by the adoption of a intervention policy, which, though fan- sounding, involve' abandonment of the weaker powers to the will of the stro I{ especially in the case of the Rajpoot princes, whose adhei f to the British had drawn on them the anger of the Mahr; j . I. CORNWALLIS AND BARLOW ADMINISTRATIONS. 17 Marquis Cornwallis .— a.d. 1805 to 1806. ml Cornwallis returned to India in failing health. By lecease the chief authority devolved upon the senior .iber of council, Sir George Barlow, who had promptly ided Lord Wellesley’s system as conducive to the peace Mia; hut who now readily embraced the new theory of (East India Directors in the avowed expectation that the we states would, in consequence of the peace policy, 2 ge in intestine strife which would prevent them from dering with the English. The Kajah of Jeypoor and its remonstrated forcibly against the faithlessness of mg them unprotected against Sindia, and Lord Lake was jjsgusted by the breach of treaties which he had been timental in forming, that he resigned his command and lined to England. [ 1806 a sepoy mutiny took place at Vellore, where the if Tippoo Sultan resided as state prisoners, caused partly e machinations of the princes and their adherents, and by some most ill-advised regulations requiring the e soldiers to shave their chins and lips, remove the mark ste from their foreheads, and wear what they termed a aped turban. e mutiny was put down, the obnoxious orders repealed, ir John Cradock recalled for having issued them. The if Tippoo were removed from Vellore to Bengal with ished allowances, and the Native troops became again ful and obedient. Earl of Minto. —a.d. 1806 to 1813. d Minto arrived in India strongly inpressed in favour of jt tbn-intervention policy, but he soon saw reason to revert ®i more generous system of Lord Wellesley. Sir George Tv’s withdrawal of protection from the petty chiefs south if Sutlej had tempted Runjeet Sing the Rajah of Lahore, nd his conquests on the left bank of that river. The IS PINDARRIES SUPPRESSED BY LORD HASTINGS. Cl{ menaced chiefs were, therefore, again taken under British ■( tection and a permanent military station formed at Loodi: a In 1809 an adventurer named Ameer Khan, at the he* o large numbers of armed banditti called Pindarries, inv el the territories of the Rajah of Berar, and Lord Minto a compelled to interfere for his defence. In 1810, permanent possession was taken of the Mauri] as a means of securing the fleets of the East India Com : against French aggression. The Goorkalese, a tribe who gained possession of the valley of Nepaul, had comm ; serious aggressions on chiefs who as British feudatories ; clearly entitled to protection. Lord Minto, immediately b his return to England, demanded from Nepaul the surre of Bhootwal, a border district of Oude. Marquis of Hastings .— a.d. 1813 to 1823. Lord Moira, afterwards Marquis of Hastings, receive unsatisfactory reply from the court of Katmandoo to demand of his predecessor, and after much fruitless neg tion commenced a war which terminated in the com defeat of the Gloorkas; the restoration of the usurped tricts, and the cession of the province of Kumaon, witi chief part of the Terai, a fertile but unhealthy tract siti at the base of the Himalaya. The suppression of the Pindarries was Lord Hastings’ and greatest work. Ameer Khan was bought off with ( leaders; and the remainder were hunted down separa till Cheetoo, the most famous of them, was devoured by a in a jungle in 1818 ; after which catastrophe the remaind these once formidable and ferocious bands dispersed,' were no longer distinguishable from the general popuk The deposition of the Peishwa Bajee Rao, the nominal 1 1 of the Mahratta confederacy, was the result of a serif proceedings in which he strove to cope by diplomacy ag' : overwhelming force. By the treaty of Poona in 1816, he 1 DOWNFALL OF MAHRATTA POWER. 19 f p. I. need from an independent position to a state of vassalage. 1 1817 he went to war with the English, but was defeated, tl compelled to resign every remaining political right, and : ire into private life, with an allowance of eighty thousand ends a-year. Bithoor, near Cawnpoor, was the place ap- cuted for his residence. The Bajah of Sattara, being set ■t; by the downfall of the Peishwa, threw himself upon l.tisli protection and was placed on the gadi or Hindoo lone of Sattara, the capital of his ancestor Sevajee. me year 1817 was memorable for the famine and cholera yvhich India was ravaged. In ten days the army under icd Hastings on the banks of the Nerbudda was decimated. Earl Amherst .— a.d. 1823 to 1827. 'he administration of Lord Amherst commenced, in 1823, ii a Burmese war, which had been long impending. The aggie was fierce, costly, and protracted; but at its close i> King of Ava agreed to pay the English a million ster- t and to receive a British resident at his court. He like- ceded Arracan and Tenasserim, and renounced all claim pi a Assam, Jynteea, Cachar, and Munnipoor. fi ll 1826 the famous Jat fortress of Bhurtpoor was captured sil Lord Combermere, from the hands of a usurping chief. l 1827, Lord Amherst repaired to Simla, on the lower is [);e of the Himalaya, which from that time became the ith |urite retreat of the chief military and civil officers from pa: eheat and insalubrity of Calcutta and other places. Lord William BentincJc .— a.d. 1825 to 1828. brd William Bentinck’s administration was marked by jy measures of internal reform. The extirpation of the ;s and Phansigars, gangs of murderers and thieves, was carried through; Suttee or the suicide of widows, was dden; the ban was removed which had rendered Native 20 ANNEXATION OF COOEG, 1834. Ch'I, converts to Christianity outlaws ; and Natives were ernph ij in offices from which they had been previously debarred. 1 The establishment of the “ overland route,” by way of jj R ed Sea, Egypt, and the Mediterranean, shortened the tnil between England and India; and the navigation of « Ganges by steam-vessels was proved practicable. DoJ batta allowances were abolished in the Bengal army. The deposition of the Rajah of Coorg and the annexani of the principality were caused by vague allegations broil against him by his sister and her husband. The brave m i taineers rallied round their hereditary chief, and were rij to die in his cause; but the Rajah refused to fight agi 1 the powerful allies of his ancestors, and surrendered witliij family, unconditionally. He came to England in 185 i* the hope of obtaining the restitution of 85,000/., investecl the Coorg family in the Government funds, and died, v still a state prisoner, in London, 1859, worn out by the de and disappointments which attended the prosecution ! suit on the success of which the comfortable maintenanu his wives, children, and numerous relatives depended. Earl of Auckland. —a.d. 1835 to 1842. The chief event in the administration of Lord Auck was the Afghan war, which originated in the unjustif interference of the Calcutta government with the affai Afghanistan. The siege of Herat by the Shah of Persia e by Russian officers, was viewed with great uneasiness, fortress being regarded as the key of Afghanistan. Mohammed, the ruler of Cabool, was desired to form no nexion with Russia. His reply was deemed unsatisfact whereupon, without waiting for the termination of the f (which being unsuccessful left Herat independent), Auckland formed a treaty with Runjeet Sing to depose L Dost, and replace an exile named Shah Soojah in the cor which twenty years before had witnessed his expulsion. 5 t p. I. INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN, 1830. 21 This project was carried into effect after the occupation of ?eral fortresses. Shah Soojali was triumphantly installed \ British troops in the Balia Hissar, or palace-citadel of wool, in 1839. Dost Mohammed surrendered in the fol- ) ing year; but the temper of the people, and especially of b haughty chiefs of the various Afghan tribes, continued so 5 actory that it was found needful to support Shah Soojah j the presence of a body of European and Native troops, c to aid by large contributions the scanty revenues of liiool, which, small as they were, had to be collected by re of arms. Sir William Macnaghten, the British envoy, knew that the lit India Directors would not long choose to pay a million n a quarter per annum to preserve their nominee at hiool; and he strove to diminish the expenditure by with- riving or lessening the allowances paid to certain Khilji biers for guarding the passes against marauding tribes. 1 experiment was hazardous. Shah Soojah pointed out the s tement thus created ; but Macnaghten exultingly declared i the noses of the chiefs had been brought to the grind- file, and that all was still from Dan to Beersheba. he murder of Sir Alexander Burnes, with his brother and 1 [her officer, although accounted for by the provocation n by the profligate conduct of the chief victim,* was also ; arning of the state of public feeling. It soon became B ent even to Macnaghten that, as the reinforcements of and money, asked for by him from Lord Auckland, did arrive, no course remained but to obtain honourable terms evacuate Afghanistan. Unfortunately .Macnaghten and military leaders, old General Elphinstone and Brigadier ton, differed in their views of the policy to be pursued, and lixteen thousand troops (European and Native) frittered r their resources in the straggling cantonments, till the er of Macnaghten, in the course of the negotiations, Kaye’s ‘War in Afghanistan,’ i. G15. 99 FATAL RETREAT FROM CABOOL, 1842. Cua brought matters to a crisis, and a treaty was concluded, which the English pledged themselves to surrender the f still held by them, including Ghuznee and Jellalabad replace Dost Mohammed on the throne ; and pay a ransoc one hundred and forty thousand pounds in return for beasts of burden necessary for their retreat to Hindoostan, On the 6th of January, 1842, with deep snow on ground, the fatal retreat commenced. It was from the : too irregular to be called a march. The predatory tr: swarmed forth to harass the invaders. The Khiljis crow the heights of the Koord Cabool pass, and three thousand f tives perished there. The Englishwomen who accompai the troops traversed the pass uninjured, except Lady Sale received a bullet in her arm; but it was so evident • they could not long endure the perils and privations of retreat, that the ladies with their husbands and children v given over to the protection of Akber Khan, the favor son of Dost Mohammed, by whom they were honour; treated and finally surrendered to the British Governm On the 10th of January the ill-fated force was interce] in a narrow gorge on the road to Jellalabad, and 1 numbers, including a mass of sepoys and camp-followers, \ hewn down by Afghan knives. On the 12th, the remaii of the troops having forced their way with the bayonet to Jugdulluck Pass, found their passage obstructed by a b; cade of trees and bushes, and themselves a prey to “ jezails,” or long rifles, of the foe. A single European, Brydon, succeeded in escaping to Jellalabad, and annout to Sir Robert Sale and his small garrison the total destruc of the British army. Lord Auckland quitted India in following month, leaving on record a minute which she that the Afghan war had already necessitated an expendi of eight million sterling. At its conclusion, the war is to have cost three times that sum,* and to have occasit Arnold’s ‘ Administration of Marquis of Dalliousie,’ i. 13. CABOOL RECAPTURED AND EVACUATED. 23 lL I. f “ more irreparable damage by destroying the prestige of vicibility which had attended the British army. Earl of EllenborougJi .— a.d. 1842 to 1844. bon after the Earl of Ellenborough succeeded to the nan administration the fortress of Ghuznee was surrendered Colonel Palmer to the Afghans, but Candahar and Jella- bjd were held by Nott and Sale until they were relieved r British reinforcements. Ghuznee was retaken by the riish and destroyed by fire. Jellalabad, Candahar, Khelat- Jilji (between Candahar and Ghuznee), Ali Musjid, and hr fortresses were destroyed, and the “ army of retri- ibn” proceeded to Cabool, where the city was sacked, the r.id Bazaar and the Mosque razed to the ground, and ( the famous “ Hundred gardens ” fell before the fury of C3 whom Lord Brougham denounced as our “ incendiary earals.” The barbarism of these proceedings was rendered enore remarkable by the manifesto issued by Lord Ellen- ugh, in which he ordered the evacuation of Afghanistan, icknowledged the error committed in its invasion. Shah rh had been murdered at Cabool after the departure and Si; acre of the British force, and Dost Mohammed was now fired to return and occupy the vacant throne. -ie conquest of Sinde, which was effected in 1843, has termed “ the tail of the Afghan war.” Some connection iied between these events, inasmuch as the navigation of iver Indus was insisted upon by the English, as a means aching the Cabool valley, and latent hostility arose in pquence with the Ameers or rulers of Shade. But a com- on of the contradictory accounts given by Sir Charles or and Sir James (then Colonel) Outram,* the British ent, shows that the quarrel was forced upon the Ameers. Sinde war, by which the East India Company gained a te province and the Indus for a boundary, entailed a * See Napier's ‘ Sinde,’ and Outram’s ‘ Commentary.’ 24 SINDE ANNEXED—FIRST SEIK WAR, 1844. Ce.i] heavy expenditure, which their finances could ill bear, lie booty taken by the army at Hyderabad after the battl ot Meanee was enormous. Sir Charles Napier, who had c nel out to India with an empty purse, obtained 70,000?. p ;e.j money; a circumstance which manifestly influenced his opi on regarding what he styled that “very advantageous, usji and humane piece of rascality,”* the seizure of Sinde. Sir Henry Hardinge. —a.d. 1844 to 1848. Lord Ellenborough was superseded by Sir Henry Hardly whose attention was diverted from the promotion of pi works by the outbreak of war on the north-western fron The murder of Kurruck Sing the son and successor of Rum Sing, had been followed by a state of disorganization thro ;U out the Punjab, and the only point on which the Seik faclni agreed was in enmity to the English. Preparations made at Lahore for the passage of the Sutlej by a Seik a:jiy, The Governor-General hastened to meet the foe, and, v6i the Seiks crossed the river, the Commander-in-Chief, SirEi Gough marched against them, and in December 1845 defeel them at Moodkee. Sir Harry Smith gained a victory at Ala in January 1845. The Seik entrenchments at Ferozepoor « carried in February, after a battle in which the Govenr General and the Commander-in-Chief fought side by and the Seiks were driven over their bridge of boats aos the Sutlej by the British, who dictated terms of peace ben! the walls of Lahore. The independence of the Pua ceased, although the boy-prince Dhuleep Sing was recogre as Maharajah. A British resident and British troops stationed at Lahore. The protected or cis-Sutlej states annexed, as well as the Jullundur Doab, including li Himalayan valleys of the Spitee and Peenee, which broil Tartars for the first time under direct British rule Alpine region between the Beas and the Sutlej was j ‘Life of Sir Charles Napier, by Sir William Napier,’ ii. 155. IP. I. DALHOUSIE ADMINISTRATION, 1848. 25 ten, and a fine was levied to meet tlie expenditure of the r. But the Lahore treasury was exhausted, and Golab ig, an adventurer who had become governor of Cashmeer i the Jummoo territory, was permitted to assume sove- gnty on payment of the deficient sum. Lord Hardiuge’s rtive in making this arrangement was probably the ex- asted state of the European troops, whom four pitched sties had reduced to three thousand men; otherwise, uembering the antecedents of the lovely and salubrious Eley which had formed the favourite retreat of the Great Iguls, and the importance of its position at the entrance to Ldoostan, it would hardly have been left in the hands of a in who had few pretensions to its possession except his Madly attitude and power of becoming a troublesome foe. Marquis of Dalhousie. —a.d. 1848 to 1855. he Marquis of Dalhousie became Governor-General of La in 1848. The Seik treaty was not carried out, and wared to have been agreed to by tlxe Lahore durbar (or rrninent) as a means of gaming time. Ranee Chunda (mother of Dhuleep Sing conspired with the chief Seik vrs or nobles against the English; but before her plans A n matured circumstances occurred which renewed the war Ire either party was able to carry it on with vigour. joltan, the capital of the province of that name, occu- 'la position of great commercial importance. The strength fortress and the wealth of its bazaars attracted foreign ers from the time of Alexander the Macedonian to of Runjeet the Seik. At the death of Runjeet the !SS and province were ruled by a chief whose subordi- l to the Lahore court was almost nominal. Upon his his son the Dewan Moolraj was recognised as his suc- and a nuzzurana or present demanded in return. " :l W, aj promised to pay eighteen lacs of rupees (one hundred 155, l ighty thousand pounds) just before the outbreak of the 26 DEW AN MOOLRAJ OF MOOLTAN. Ciu I first Seik war. He came to Lahore in 1846 under «e guarantee of Sir John Lawrence, and, after paying the str¬ iated sum, was compelled to assent to the surrender of a ] ri of his province, and to pledge himself to the payment nineteen lacs yearly on account of the remainder, le Dewan was besides alarmed at the intended introduction English courts of justice into Mooltan, which, by their ccly and tedious proceedings, inspired the natives with avers n, He spoke of resigning Mooltan on condition of receivira jagheer in exchange, but was told that his resignation r stj be unconditional, and his accounts for ten years woulc oj called for. “How can I produce my father’s papers?” aa the reply; “ the ants have eaten them, or if the ants be left any, they are useless for your purpose. I am in m hands.” The answer was natural enough in the son of a ai who had exercised an almost irresponsible despotism u:| Kunjeet Sing—a rider who, like Hyder Ali, found a not9 stick sufficient for his accounts. But the British resin! (Currie), who acted on behalf of the Seik council, const9 the despair of Moolraj into resignation,* and informed in that a Seik sirdar and an English political agent woull) sent to relieve him from the charge of Mooltan. Med returned to his fortress a ruined man; inquisition int< 1# past as well as insignificance for the future was before il He was in failing health, and harassed by domestic as wt I: political trials. In April 1848 a new governor, Khan Sing, was sell the British authority at Lahore to Mooltan, with two yj Englishmen, Vans Agnew and Lieutenant Anderson, ai i Goorka escort of five hundred horse. On entering!: fortress a sepoy rushed at Vans Agnew, and wounded il - and Lieutenant Anderson was cut down by some trooJ ; but Khan Sing and the Goorka escort took up the woil * Arnold’s ‘ Administration of Marquis of Dalhousie,’ i. 66. t. I. VANS AGNEW AND ANDERSON KILLED, 1848. 27 i and carried them to the Eedgah, a Mohammedan place Worship, where, in the evening, they were deserted by the f part of their guards, broken in upon by a city mob, | beheaded by a Muzubbee—or member of a caste of tapers and executioners. “ We are not the last of the rlish,” said Vans Agnew, as he sat by the couch of lerson, holding his hand, and waiting for death, he murderers took the heads of the officers and flung si at the feet of Moolraj. The die was cast, and, with sation and disgust, he accepted the crime and its conse- itces. Khan Sing was bidden by the infuriated people to rr back to Lahore the boy (Yans Agnew) he had brought pvern Mooltan men. When the bodies were flung aside he rabble, they were taken up by some Afghan mer¬ its, who, acting with the concurrence of Moolraj, wrapped remains in silken shawls, and buried them at the Eedgah, t the custom, as they said, of England. 1'e first intelligence of the catastrophe was conveyed in a I lled note, written by poor Agnew when lying wounded e Eedgah, to General Cortlandt, once in the service of Met Sing, but subsequently a most able and faithful Inlander in the British army. The note was received by iLSilenant Edwardes on the 22nd of April. By his prompti- jemd the exertions of Cortlandt, backed by two thousand vD levies were raised, and the spread of revolt to some checked. But the delay in sending troops from head- ?rs gave time for Moolraj to strengthen his position, ar became general; many of the Seik sirdars declared t us, and the views of Kanee Cliunda were so evident i tiljo avoid the excitement of a public trial, she was pri- conveyed to Benares. Mooltan was ineffectually be- by General Whisk at intervals from September 1848 p end of the year. In November a stratagem was d to (of a letter written as from General Whish), ‘ deprived Moolraj of the co-operation of Shere Sing, 2S ANNEXATION OF THE PUNJAB, 1849. Ch . ] (the reputed son of Runjeet Sing), who quitted Mooltan all head of five thousand men and twenty guns. The weaki »| garrison still held out, and on the last day of Decerei made a sortie against the besiegers which was repelled tl great loss by the new levies headed by Sir Henry Lawn's who had returned from England and just joined the cuj The town was captured early in January, and on the !ni of that month the garrison surrendered unconditior li Moolraj—who was, in fact, the head of the Seik cause, hi by far the ablest man engaged in it—tore himself away « his chiefs and adherents, who clung to him and fell ai feet with expressions of passionate devotion. Nor wer< European troops unmoved when the chief, with his id figure and dignified bearing, issued alone from the fortre U had held so bravely, and rode on his splendidly-caparhej Arab to the British camp, where he learned his prof (and eventual) sentence of transportation, the idea of q unnerved him for the first time, and drew from hir'j entreaty for any other doom, even immediate and disgra death. Ten days before the fall of Mooltan a fierce battle( fought at Cliillianwallah between the British under G-ougli and a powerful Seik force under Shere Sing, valour and still more the popularity of the Command ii Chief partially atoned for the defective plan on whi<| acted, but the doubtful victory was attended with heavj of life, and with a disastrous panic among the cavalry, battle of Goojerat was, however, admirably planned! fought out by Lord Gough, who, on the 21st of Feb j ranged his force of twenty-five thousand men against forty thousand of the enemy (including one thousanl hundred Afghan horse from Cabool), and by a d( victory brought the second Seik war to a triumphan elusion. The chief sirdars surrendered, and the Puny annexed to British India, a pension of large amount THE KOH-I-NOOE. 2D . I. ;ited to Dkuleep Sing, kis motlier, and otker members of 3X-royal family. 'ke “Koh-i-Noor” diamond, of wkiek Eunjeet Sing kad • oiled tke unfortunate Skak Soojak, fell into tke kands ke conquerors, and was sent to England, wkere it is a portion of tke Britisk regalia. Tkis famous gem is lifted to be tke identical diamond possessed by Kama, r of Anga, one of tke keroes of tke Maka Bkarat, or war, wkiek took place in tke fourteentk century B.c. Arnold states tkat a baneful influence is attacked to tke vl by Hindoo tradition, and ke cites instances of tke mis- 1 nes of its alleged wearers, including Yicramaditya, rajah Jalwa, tke Emperor Humayun, and Nadir Skak, who, on 3 ill-render of Delhi, saw tke “ Mountain of Light ” gleam- n tke head of tke conquered Mogul Mohammed Skak, immediately changed turbans with him in pledge of iilskip. No authority is quoted by Mr. Arnold for kis •cut of tke descent of the gem, and many important are wanting in kis statement. For instance, Humayun, in exile in Persia, was compelled by Skak Takmasp to ruder to him a diamond of incalculable value, which robably tke one captured at Agra (see ‘ Memoirs of yun’), and there were other famous gems taken by nt invaders from Delhi. Tke possession of tke British c-i-Noor” can be clearly traced from Nadir Skak and i-fated successors until tke exiled Shall Soojak reluc- l| surrendered tke jewel to Eunjeet Sing, by whom i worn without any ill effects. Its next wearers were ee successors of Eunjeet, of whom one died of poison, ond was shot on the throne with tke “ Kok-i-Noor ” on n, and tke third (Dkuleep Sing) was deposed. Still, 3nt deaths are the rule rather than tke exception with 1 princes, tke tradition which connects tke retention reign power with tkis imperial gem is far more in mce with its adventures than any supposition of inhe- 30 PEGU, SATTARA, AND JHANSI ANNEXED. Cn'.' rent ill-luck; for tlie list of its possessors (if Mr. Am d account be correct) must have included Akber, Shah Jui Aurungzebe, and “ the crowned Dacoit ” Ennjeet Sing. ; In 1S52 a second Burmese war, occasioned by the lit thorised proceedings of the Burmese and British subordir ;ei resulted in the capture of Bangoon, the capital of Pegu in. the permanent occupation of that province. The numerous annexations of Lord Dalhousie were fci most part carried out in violation of the rights conferred! the law of adoption, an ancient and venerated Hindoo rdi nance. Cattara had been the scene of a cruel injustit 13 the part of the Bombay authorities, who in 1839 depose till excellent reigning prince, and placed his intriguing an iis solute half-brother on the throne, under rigid super’s w On the death of this man in 1848 without male heir thj principality was annexed on the plea of lapse, and greta citement and dissatisfaction were caused by this step to 11 J the suppression of the remaining Native states. In May 1853 the Nizam of Hyderabad was forced tilsil render to the East India Company about a third of his J tories in payment of arrears due for the compulsory al tenance of a British contingent. The Kajah of Jhansi (a small Mahratta state in Bill cund) died in November 1853, having written on his 0 bed a letter to the Governor-General, entreating thl adopted child might be accepted as his successor, and tl I Kanee Lakshmi Bye might officiate as regent, accord:'' the custom of the country. The British agent, in forwJ this appeal, bore witness to the fidelity of the Jhansi Ga t ment to the English, as having been maintained 11 circumstances of considerable temptation; and he desil l the Kanee as being “ highly respected and esteemed 1 “ fully capable of doing justice to such a charge.” A no new thing among the Hindoos for a woman td ; rule, and no sovereign ever governed more successful!! L NAGPOOR ANNEXED, 1853; OUDE, 1856. 31 P. I. s excellent Mahratta princess, Ahaliya Bye, of Indore.* rd Dalhousie did not, however, listen to these arguments, acted in this case as he had done in others. The dis¬ jointed Kanee, a young, beautiful, and resolute woman, ,ie a vow of vengeance, and kept it. die kingdom of Nagpoor or Berar was annexed on the rnd of failure of legal heirs, as were other minor States ; ; the greatest of Lord Dalhousie’s appropriations was per¬ iled just before he left India, by the deposition of the ig of Oude, and the annexation of that country on the [(i of its misgoverned and disorganised condition, he East India Company entirely concurred in the policy ’ he Governor-General, and congratulated themselves on it acquisition of twenty-five thousand square miles of terri- a, containing five million of inhabitants, “ without the ex¬ ult ture of a drop of blood, and almost without a murmur.” t h Company did not then foresee the torrents of English it Indian blood which were to be poured forth before the pmacy of England should be established in Oude; and edid not choose to hear the murmurs which gave warning J|e coming struggle. lie cardinal error of Lord Dalhousie was that he governed d. for the Company, and looked at every question from liljueadenhall Street point of view. Overworked,—writing, i vis said of him at Lahore, sixty minutes to the hour, in ,,Iterance or vindication of his policy,—lie thought only of lUdgment the Directors and the British public would unce on his conduct, and entirely overlooked the lulation of grievances pent up in the Native mind, and ]■■;; onsequences which would ensue should the immense ( il army, itself little more than a local militia, turn „ im' Sir John Malcolm’s ‘ Central India,’ vol. i. ijide Blue Book for 1856,’ p. 28S. The annexations of Lord Dalhousie ribed at length in the introductory chapter to the Mutiny, given in esitll .jlian Empire,’ vol. ii. 32 TREATMENT OF THE GREAT MOGUL, 1856. Cha I. against the British Government, and the sepoys r frater];e with their countrymen and co-religionists. In the absorpt n of Native states Lord Dalhousie acted with the full comr- rence of the Directors, but in the arbitrary extinction of h 3 - ditary titles, and in crushing the Native aristocracy, he via further and faster than his employers cared to follow him. ij His treatment of the aged representative of the Git Moguls was inexcusable, and excited in the breasts of le Mohammedans of Delhi vindictive feelings, which bore i it during the Mutiny in the massacre of the Europeans, '] real power, except in the narrow limits of the city and : j trict of Delhi, had been taken from the Mogul, but he as still prayed for under the title of Emperor in the mosquffi India; and although the Calcutta government styled it “ King of Delhi,” the relics of his original position as suze ! ii of the East India Company remained in so far that he wfl receive the Governor-General only as an inferior, and in last English captain of the palace-guard, when summoned the royal presence, approached barefoot, and with other sd of extreme respect, up to May 1857. On the death of the heir-apparent in 1849, Lord Dalhd recommended “ the suppression of the House of Timur wn ever the old king should die.” The Directors conseii but so unwillingly, that another heir-apparent was recogi at Calcutta, on the hard condition that on his accessid the titular sovereignty he should quit the palace at D and receive the Governor-General on terms of equality. I In 1856 the heir-apparent died of cholera, and j excitement arose on the re-opened question of succei The position of the royal family was one of poverty and nl fication. Within the palace walls there was a populate 1 above five thousand persons, of whom three thousand we the blood royal. Their numbers had increased until pension allotted for their sustenance was insufficient toi cure them regular food. The Calcutta Government, acti 1 iP. I. DELHI LEFT WITHOUT EUROPEAN TROOPS. 33 ,)ir trustees, hedged them in with restrictions, forbade their fering the sendee of the army or the state, and made no ort whatever either for their moral or physical welfare. \,e ignorance and sensuality of the “ Sullateen,” as the ynger members of the family were called, became a bye- Rrd with the English; but the reproach came badly from 1 mouth of those who were open to a countercharge of eish neglect for having taken no pains to educate or uphold , amily, the care of which was in fact accepted by the Inpany with the Sunnuds or Charter which conferred on tm the large revenues of Bengal. 'he most powerful representative of the East India Com- try put the finishing stroke to a long series of injuries when 16 decreed the expulsion of the Moguls from their hereditary x ie, and waited for the death of the old king, to sweep away h. few prerogatives which remained, without holding out n gleam of hope to cheer and encourage the princes to lead E * etter life, or even making a useful career possible to i. Yet Lord Dalhousie had so little fear of their heryas to leave Delhi garrisoned with only Native troops, c id with a capacious magazine, and abundant munitions i jar, in charge of a few officers, who with their families were Blpported by a single British soldier. There can be no :>t that among the despised “ Sullateen ” there were men, jee Feroze Shah for instance, who, had they been treated generosity or even justice, trained in the English ce, and educated in the knowledge of British resources, id have held Delhi for us and fought on our side as usly as any of the rajahs whose states had happily not merged in the whirlpool of annexation, his internal proceedings Lord Dalhousie proved an admir- admiuistrator. The force of his intellect, his remarkable jl/ide for business, energy, and unflagging industry had given pwerful stimulus to progress in India. In the famous ipte in which he summed up the leading events of his INDIA IN 1856. CHi I, 34 eight years’ rule, he adverted to his labours for the establ ]• ment of railways at the Three Presidencies and in Sinde if telegraphic communications between the chief cities, of dh ,p and uniform postage, improved means of transit, and reck d import duties. Lord Dalhousie deserves great credit )i what he accomplished, because, fettered by the Director if| was nest to impossible to get anything at all done for o n India. The fatigue and anxiety he there underwent a bably contributed to the sudden prostration which folio d his return to England, and ended in his death, at the vy time when Ins counsel was most desired on Indian poll even by those who strongly disapproved his annexation o- ceedings. Had he been spared in physical and me a vigour, none would have appreciated more thoroughly te wonderful change made in our entire India system, orwatcl more approvingly the operations of a fostering and libil government, than the late gifted Marquis of Dalhousie. Viscount Canning. —a.d. 1856 to 1862, When Viscount Canning became Governor-General I is was considered to be profoundly tranquil. A small mine; saw reason for anxiety in the disorganisation and discoml caused by the recent rapid series of annexations, in the numn of aristocratic families reduced to poverty by the breali up of Native courts, and the masses of armed men dispel over the country by the disbandment of Native armies. I excessive poverty of the labouring class everywhere, andii terrible famines which periodically recurred, were the die consequences of the want of proper means of transit i irrigation, and of the scanty encouragement which ifl Governor-General could give to commerce and agriculf while burdened with the charge of numerous new provinces! revenue of which could not (under the old system) be mac 1 1 defray their own expenditure, and which were maintained H the surplus income of Bengal, with some help from Bony TYRANNICAL PROCEEDINGS IN OUDE, 1856. 35 P. I. Madras. The Punjab, at the time of its acquisi- i, was justly viewed as a province requiring the greatest j for its retention. Picked men were sent to govern it, •usted with extraordinary powers, and funds to an extent or provided in any other case were spent in its settlement. : two Lawrences were at first associated in its rule, but it 3 impossible that they should long work together. The :i civilian, John Lawrence, was supported in his views by rl Dalhousie; and Sir Henry left a province where, it (finned, people were occasionally hanged on no (Letter nority than an open note from an assistant-commis- )fir to a deputy expressing his opinion that they were liy. r Jie subjugation of the Punjab was carried out with quiet it unflinching severity, and notwithstanding the dissent qied by the resignation of some leading officials and the isusfactory nature of the financial results, it was resolved it the same system in operation in Oude. The experi- J was made with means, both in soldiers, civilians, and y, very inferior to those employed in the Punjab, ly incompetent functionaries were appointed to pro- u :e judgment upon the landed rights of the talookdars or e proprietors in Oude, and Lord Canning has subse- Sijly admitted the injustice of their decisions. The ial commissioner (Martin Gubbins) testifies to the t of British officials as having aggravated the suffer- >f the nobility and gentry, and he describes ladies lildren never before seen outside the zenana, as having )e used “to go out at night and beg their bread.”t ' i princesses of Oude were treated with cruel indignity. |h it is “ a far cry ” to Downing Street, their com- 1 reached the ear of Lord Stanley, who demanded an ition of the assertion that they had been rudely U jm-Regulation Provinces of India,’ Fraser’s Magazine, March, 18G2. Pjrtin Gubbins, ‘Mutinies in Oudh,’ p. 70. 02 36 COMMENCEMENT OF THE MUTINY. Ch , driven from their recognised home. The Indian got n- ment tardily acknowledged* that the Chief CommissicT, Mr. Coverley Jackson, had expelled the royal inmates oi he Chutter Munzil palace and taken possession of it himself ’or which act he had been censured by the Governor-Gener ic council, and the palace restored to the ladies. This adm'ed grievance is probably one of many others which may acquit for the bitter hatred afterwards shown by the adherents ml domestic servants of the Oude family, as well as by the La of the Lucknow citizens, to the English at the Eesidenc; Sir Henry Lawrence pointed out, at an early stage of ro ceedings in Oude, the numerous jungle forts and guns o chiefs as a special source of danger in the event of revolt. 3i$ remonstrances were unheeded until the peril could no lqei be overlooked ; then, at the end of March 1857, when i ou to seek in England the restoration of a frame breaking under hard work, anxiety of mind, and grief of heart fc loss of a beloved wife, he stayed his steps, at the uei request of Lord Canning, and went to Lucknow, there td himself too late to avert the calamity of which he had \ given warning, and to die its victim. The Mutiny. In January, 1857, the little cloud which heralded mighty storm was clearly visible. It appeared in ai expected quarter. Since the days of Clive the Native' had been increasing until it numbered nearly three hull thousand men, while the European force was about five thousand. The faith of the English community,* civil and military, in the loyalty of the sepoys wd bounded; only one thing, it was believed, could drive J to even passive mutiny—namely, interference with Mil custom or Hindoo caste. A solitary instance, perhaj i * Despatch of Lorrl Stanley, 13th October, 1858, and Eeply of Lc ( ning, 25th November, 1S59. Pari. Papers, Commons, 12 July, 18G1. I k-_- ^p. I. CASTE. IN THE BENGAL ARMY, 1856 . 37 sonal vengeance might occur, but organized, active revolt '5 out of the question. That women and children should i deemed in danger from the Natives was unheard of. hopean ladies were in the habit of travelling hundreds of 2 es, guarded by Natives only, and no instance was on ird of then- having sustained any injury. Caste, however, t been much talked of during late years; it was considered ) mpede the efficiency of the Bengal troops; and among i ly attempts made to check its influence, the most important i an order issued by the commander-in-chief, General Anson, 1 1856, by which all recruits were required to swear i they would go by sea or land wherever their services liht be desired. This at once excluded the conscien- 03 Brahminist from the army. A sea voyage is in itself aidden by his creed; and he can only preserve caste by luring severe privations in his food, while both Hindoos n Mussulmans must abstain from the frequent ablutions to h h creed, custom, and climate alike impel them. •eneral Anson was a man of active habits, strong pre¬ fixes, and no military experience either European or icm. He introduced several minor measures which the 3gal troops viewed as intended to pave the way for the otion of their religious privileges and even vested rights, /fairs were in this state of growing intolerance of caste on 3 tart of the officers, and timid distrust on the part of the pcs, when orders were given to instruct the army in the 3 : ,f the Minie rifle. Three years before, when the change pisket was first proposed, and some rifle ammunition sent Ilia, Adjutant-General Tucker had warned the Govern- "m that “in the greasing composition nothing should be wsvhich could possibly offend the caste or religious pre- Ts of the natives.” * S' such precaution was taken: the grease was supplied by Letter of Major-General Tucker to the ‘ Times,’ 1857. 38 THE GREASED CARTRIDGES. Ca l a contractor, without any special orders as to the mate] 1 to be used ; and the filthy cartridges were offered to Mob > medans, many of whom actually chose death rather t ld pollute their lips with them ; and to Brahminists, who c< Id not do so without irrevocably losing caste—that is, being t* lawed and excommunicated in this life and the next. The first greased cartridges made in India were prep; ;d with tallow. One of the Native workmen employed at ip Dum Dum arsenal taunted a sepoy with the impending in grace. “You will soon lose your caste,” he said; “youre to be made to bite cartridges covered with the fat of pigs id: cows.” This speech made a deep impression. As earlai January 1857, the commanding officer at Barrackpoor, AI, .r- General Hearsey, represented to Government the extrema, citement of the sepoys, and repeatedly urged that they sh Id be allowed to prepare their own bullet-patches. Finding remonstrances unheeded, he became only the more urnl that no further time should be lost; for he added, “ Wei dwelling on a mine ready for explosion.” At length the Governor-General in Council wrote to Gen Anson, who was enjoying the cool breezes of Simla, for u instructions regarding the rifle practice; but the Gem could not be made to see the danger, and persisted in reft) any concession, to what he termed the “beastly prejudice' of the natives, until the time for conciliation was I Before the formal withdrawal of the cartridges and the re I tation of his past system were promulgated, the mine) exploded, the Bengal army was for the most part disbal |. or in revolt, and many British stations besieged or in rail The first outbreak occurred at Berhampoor, on the Gal on the 26th February, upon the refusal of the 19th Bi! Infantry to receive the suspected ammunition. * ‘Crisis in the Punjab,’ by Frederick Cooper, Deputy Commissio? j Umritsur, p. 37. MUNGUL PANDY—FIRST BLOOD SHED. 39 T. I. Che colonel strove to compel the men, telling them that hey persevered in their refusal, he would take them to I'mali or China, where, through hardship, they would all i It was known that Lord Dalhousie had punished ] refusal of the 3Sth Bengal Infantry to march to Bur- li by sending the regiment by land to Dacca, where the itonments were very bad, and the loss of life proportion- - y heavy. Still the 19th refused the cartridges. Their Fence was very severe. The corps was disbanded ; and when i men, after strong appeals for mercy, could obtain no Te¬ nsion of their sentence, they dispersed sadly, but quietly, n never appear to have taken any part in the subsequent slllion. The men of the 34th Bengal Infantry had been n instigators of the resolve of the 19th. They were at ■a - ackpoor; and incendiary fires and night meetings gave, i ii almost every later instance, warning of discontent, k first blood was shed on the 29th March, 1857, on the a-ackpoor parade, by a fanatic named Mungul Pandy, who, :'t ■ wounding his adjutant, strove to commit suicide, and iceeded in inflicting upon himself a severe injury. He was ceuted in April. ieanwhile the cartridge question was discussed throughout e Bengal army; and a vague fear gained ground daily le native mind, which verged upon the madness of panic. . *ude it was believed that the British government had scVed, not only on depriving the sepoys but the Natives meral of their caste, by mixing immense quantities of dust with the flour sold in the bazaars; and it needed il'ie influence of Sir Henry Lawrence to gain a hearing elcntradiction of these rumours. But he laboured strenu- t'cll , and succeeded in so far as to prevent an outbreak in ic long after other localities, where much less cause ‘ 3volt existed, had become scenes of bloodshed and jc.tion. 40 CRISIS AT MEERUT, SUNDAY, lOTH MAY, 1857. Cm I Meerut. The crisis came at Meerut, a large cantonment, thirty- -o miles from Delhi. The proportion of European troops 1 'e was very large. There were one thousand eight hundred id sixty-three men, exclusive of sappers and miners, to o thousand nine hundred and twelve Natives; the reasoffhr this large number of Europeans being to keep in check le garrison at Delhi, which was exclusively composed of Na/e troops, under European and Native officers. The skirmishers of the 3rd Native Cavalry were orded to use the new cartridges. Five consented. Eighty m refused, were tried by court-martial for mutiny, found guy, and sentenced to work in gangs on the roads as felons i||l term of years. Major Harriott, Deputy Judge-Advocate at the trial, w Id hear no testimony in favour of the accused; he wrote 1 friend that night, “ The court is over, and those fellows Ifd got ten years apiece. You will hear of no more mutinies I On the 9th Maya memorable punishment parade was Id, and the mutineers, who were all Mohammedans of high faiyi were heavily ironed and shackled. These proceedings ch pied three hours. That night and the following day, Sunra were spent by the Native troops in discussing the miserli- condition of their comrades and their own fears and grievail ■ Many drugged themselves with bhang, and towards the il t of evening service the excitement became very great, wl I rumour got abroad that the 60th Rifles (Europeans), 111 parading for church, were about to seize the arms and hi of the 3rd Native Cavalry, and turn the men adrift, ad i: 19th Native Infantry had been treated. The panic soon became general. The majority oft 1 Native troops rose in open mutiny; the imprisoned trotj - were released and their fetters broken off. A body oit 3rd Cavalry flung themselves on their horses, galloped ft k: £p. I. PANIC, MUTINY AND MASSACRE. 41 il, released the captive troopers, struck off their fetters, ) bore them away in triumph. At the same time twelve ;dred other prisoners were set at liberty. It was now the i l of the Europeans to be panic-struck, and in this single jance throughout the mutiny they were, with few excep- 33 , paralysed with terror and amazement. There was no *ting at all. With every reason to be on their guard r nst a probable outbreak, the military authorities suffered uaselves to be surprised by the unpremeditated and sudden 3i g of the Native troops, and then no commanding officer a found to head the eighteen hundred Europeans, with K,. Natives as remained faithful, and lead them at once fmst the mutineers. No resistance was offered : sepoys, city lie, and released convicts were left to their own devices. :neral rush was made by the Europeans to the artillery hoi, a large and easily defensible enclosure, with lines of ti'icks. Colonel Finnis was shot dead while trying to reason it the mutineers; and his own men, who had been staunch ) o that moment, placed their other officers in safety and e joined the mutineers. The bazaar people and camp li vers swarmed forth. Bands of thieves began murdering (blundering in all directions: the Native cantonments were t n fire and the houses of the officers rifled and burned* mi officers behaved admirably. Captain Craigie, for in- uqe, succeeded in keeping together his troop of the 3rd it'e Cavalry during nearly the entire night, leaving his fein her home in the Native lines under the protection f]ir Native troopers. In all about forty Europeans were :r: ced at Meerut, through the incapacity of the officials. [f loes not appear at what hour the telegraphic communi¬ n'. with Delhi was broken off; but the news was conveyed A ra as late as nine in the evening by a private message take postmaster’s sister, to prevent her aunt from starting Nerut. When it became known that the mutineers had IE the road to Delhi, Captain Kosser, of the Carabineers, 42 MEERUT AUTHORITIES SACRIFICE DELHI. Cii . I, asked permission to follow tliem with cavalry and guns,* c at least to ride to Delhi and warn the unprotected Europe! sj but his offers were refused, and there is no evidence at either Hewitt, Archdale Wilson, or any leader raadoo so much as a suggestion on behalf of the city, which 10 Meerut station had been specially formed to protect, el membering what was done elsewhere by a handful of troops, id even by single civilians, it is marvellous to read of the Meut people gazing at the moon and wondering what would bill, “ our Christian brethren in Delhi on the coming morn, ’ 0/1 less happy than ourselves, had no faithful and friendly ob ropean battalions to shield them from the bloodthirsty of the sepoys.” t One of those battalions might have sod Delhi, by forestalling the thirty troopers who are said to Iti revolutionized India; but the blundering severity which » voked the outbreak was paralleled by the selfish apathy w ik made no effort to put it down, or to stretch out a liar W warn or succour a neighbouring community. The faloli Delhi, with all its miserable consequences, political and sci| was the immediate result of the misconduct at Meerut. Delhi. At daybreak on Monday, May 11th, no one in D ii, European or Native, appears to have had any idea of at had occurred at Meerut. Shortly after the morning pai| about thirty of the 3rd Cavalry crossed the river Juil by the bridge of boats, entered Delhi unopposed, by on its seven gates, and murdered a European connected with! telegraph office. The troopers, reinforced by about a huc| . other Meerut mutineers, marched to the palace. The gi , offered no opposition, and several Europeans were massa { in the court-yard. The King wrote a letter immediate!! Agra, narrating the mutiny and massacre, and descrij himself as powerless in the hands of the sepoys; and his l * Raikes’ ‘ Revolt,’ p. 13. f Rev. Mr. Rotton’8 ‘ Siege of Delhi,' j DELHI—MUTINY AND MASSACRE. 43 p. i. lication was the first account received from Delhi either tgra or Calcutta. he Delhi sepoys for many hours kept aloof from the ('rut mutineers. Neither party had a plan or a leader. 3 first thing they did, after throwing off the authority of i was even contemplated by the Meerut authorities. At n o’clock Lieutenant Willoughby and his companions, te holding out to the last anticipating succour, found e irsenal no longer defensible, and fired the trains laid ladiness. Two of the Europeans perished; the others 3} through the smoking ruins and escaped by the sally- rtim the river face. Lieutenant Willoughby did not reach Wit, and is supposed to have been killed near the river n un Nearly a thousand of the Natives who surrounded i lagazine or lived in the adjacent streets are said to have 3ikilled by the explosion; but the destruction of arms s |r more partial than was at first hoped. I||i Europeans in the tower fled from Delhi at about six loc, some in carriages or carts, and others on foot. The jc ty made their way to Meerut, Agra, or Kurnoul; but e 1 were killed on the road. Those who remained hidden I lhi were nearly all dragged forth and slain: men, 44 DEATH OF GENERAL ANSON, JUNE 1857. Cl >. women, and children, even those who had taken refug j the palace, were indiscriminately massacred. While the great change from “passive and respeci] mutiny to active, defiant, revolt was taking place, Ge it Anson was absent on a shooting excursion out of reac c the telegraph among the hills near Simla. He had erred grievously, hut he was a brave man, anche the danger in a spirit, which, if shown at Meerut, might ivi saved Delhi. Convinced at last of the fatal impolicy c M past proceedings, the General issued an immediate ord< foi the public withdrawal of the offensive cartridges, couch ii language intended to soothe and conciliate the Native trojj but, as has been stated, before this proclamation coul be circulated, the greater part of the Bengal army had cisej to exist. He held a council of war, and desired to el forward instantly for the re-capture of Delhi; but thereat no commissariat, there were no camels, no provisions, nij single medicine chest available. Yet Anson rightly juja that every day, nay every hour, that the Imperial cit re¬ mained in the power of the mutineers, was multiplying A resources; they were besides gaining confidence, and leaii^ the value of the munitions of war with which Delhira abundantly stored. Of the Umballah council, not one man lived to se< the capture of the city. General Anson died of cholera at ill noul on the 27th June; his successor General Ban! Brigadier Halifax, and Colonel Mowatt fell victims til same disease; and Colonel Chester was killed in action, l The British army encamped before Delhi on the 8 June. Strengthened by reinforcements of men and me raised in the Punjab by Sir John Lawrence, from the 1 ditary foes of the Delhi Mohammedans, and aided btl devoted fidelity of several Native princes, the British! t their ground for many weary months. Their numbers i cpiite insufficient to blockade the city, into which mutJ ?. I. DELHI—SIEGE AND CAPTURE. 45 intents from different stations were constantly flocking, i bringing supplies of all descriptions, including the con- ;,s of the numerous military and civil treasuries of the sions plundered in various parts of Hindoostan. The King re repeated overtures to the British, and the Queen Zeenat aal was extremely anxious to obtain terms for the life of King, and for their young son; but her proposals were jcted, it having been well ascertained, at an early period 1 ie siege, from the reports of spies and in other ways, that (King and Queen had really no power to procure the aender of the city. iirly in September the last British reinforcements arrived, uthe Delhi sepoys, among whom the want of leaders had n been manifest, began to abandon the city in large ubers. By the 12th September, two practicable breaches tcbeen effected, and the storm of the outworks commenced i |ie following morning. The British loss in killed, wounded, icmissing, was two thousand one hundred and fifty-seven ihpeans, and one thousand six hundred and eighty-six ites. Among the lives lost was that of Brigadier-General icblson, the “ first soldier in India.” * I rd Dalhousie, impressed by Nicholson’s conduct in the mb, called him a “ tower of strength,” and so he proved Jelhi. He led the storm of the city, conducted the first t:al movements to a successful issue, and then fell near ■ibahore gate, shot through the body. He lingered for l l ays, and, during intervals of mortal agony, was still ; ie o counsel General Wilson on the course to be pursued, t thstanding his reserved and silent habit, his warm Irish ii|r won the affections of those who served with and under a, is completely as his talents and modesty secured their il|u. On the 23rd it was whispered throughout the camp ;ii lolson is dead!” and Europeans and Natives, soldiers ahH l * Russell, ‘ Times, - ‘20th August, 1858. 4G SURRENDER OF KING AND QUEEN OF DELHI. C)f and civilians, lamented their common loss. The ler n officials lowered into a grave, near the Lahore gate. :li stalwart frame which had been a little while before desc >ei as “ fit for an army or a people to behold.” Some per na friends had previously cut from his head two or three o In curls which climate and a life of hardship had already ti iei from black to grey, although he was but five-and-thirty at old ; and the Seiks, as they bent over his grave, mourm ii characteristic manner for the chief, “ the tramp of whose ar horse could be heard a mile off.” The King with Zeenat Mahal, and their son, fled thin mausoleum of the Emperor Humayun, called the Iott Minar, several miles from Delhi, a strong and defei blf structure ; but they gave themselves up to Captain Hilj on receiving a pledge of personal safety. Three of the liei Delhi princes subsequently surrendered from the same ] m after two hours’ negotiation, carried on through a memboi the royal family, whose intervention was procured bytffl promise of his life. What assurances were given to the pi ca to induce them to surrender does not appear in the ac ii given by Hodson and his sole European companion, ej tenant Macdowell. But that some promise, direct or inchcj must have been made, is evident from the fact of these pi (whose family and creed were sufficient vouchers for iei personal courage) being persuaded into separating themsij from three thousand armed adherents, and giving themfVfl up to the custody of two English officers and one hunt Seik troopers, instead of massacring the Hodson party! then joining the Begum of Oude, Khan Bahadur of Bail or other insurgent leaders. On leaving the tomb the princes saluted Hodson 11 remarked that their conduct would of course be investill in the proper court. He bowed assent. Then, not with; n ing the vehement opposition of the faithful Mohammdi the princes went away with Hodson and the Seiks I' I. THE DELHI PRINCES SHOT BY HODSON. 47 ;h” or covered vehicle drawn by bullocks. The Moham- m soldiers, in obedience to the orders of their unfor¬ te masters, did not attempt to follow them ; but when the reached within a mile of Delhi, a mob gathered round the 1, and seemed disposed to attempt a rescue. Whereupon irding to Lieutenant Macdowell) Hodson made the princes md, and after seizing their arms, compelled them to [) and get into the cart; he then shot them with his own , >»* i ptain Hodson’s vexation at being compelled by General bn to make over to the prize agents a considerable •1m of the property taken by him from the persons of the i and princes, was forcibly expressed. His passion for * ” was notorious. In Europe his conduct was stigmatized t/ms rarely applicable to a British officer, as that of an ictioner who looked sharply after his perquisites, and ped his victims before slaughtering them—“ pour ne pas ele butin.” t hides the princes slain by Hodson, many others surren- e