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THE 
 
 INDIAN REBELLION: 
 
 ITS CAUSES AND RESULTS. 
 
 IN 
 
 ^ 0f f tttm 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 y/ 
 
 REV. ALEXANDER DUFF, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 CALCUTTA. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 
 No. 530 BROADWAY. 
 
 1858 . 
 
Edward 0. Jenkins, 
 yrtntrr anb Sterfotsper, 
 
 26 Feankfoet St. 
 
NOTE BY THE PUBLISHERS 
 
 OF THE LONDON EDITION. 
 
 The following letters were addressed to the 
 Rev. Dr. Tweedie, Convener of the Fi’ee Church 
 of Scotland’s Foreign Mission Committee, and, 
 being printed from time to time as soon as 
 each was received, they were not only perused 
 by many readers, but a very general desire was 
 expressed for their republication in a collective 
 form. To that desire the writer having kindly 
 assented, the series is now brought together 
 continuous and entire. 
 
 In passing through the press, it was impossi- 
 ble to secure for the work the benefit of the au- 
 thor’s revision ; but even with the most fastidi- 
 ous critic it is scarcely anticipated that any 
 apologies will be needful on that account ; 
 whilst the majority of readers will prefer these 
 Calcutta despatches just as they arrived, tense 
 with the emotions, and all aflame with the tid- 
 ings of that terrible season. It was at first 
 
 [iii] 
 
IV 
 
 NOTE BY THE PUBLISHERS. 
 
 believed bji- some that Dr. DuflF had exaggerated 
 the nature of the Indian crisis ; but each suc- 
 cessive mail has only proved that he had saga- 
 ciously estimated aright both the depth and the 
 diffusion of the revolt. 
 
 However rapidly the letters may have been 
 written, there is nothing hasty or extempore in 
 the views and opinions which they embody. 
 These are the ripe result of thirty years. The 
 statesman and the fair-minded Englishman will 
 value them as the deliberate judgment of one 
 who has possessed opportunities of observation 
 almost unequalled ; and to the Christian reader 
 they will carry peculiar weight, as the testimony 
 of one who has made life-long sacrifices for the 
 sake of the gospel in India, and who, in the 
 hands of the Most High, has been the means of 
 inaugurating a singularly promising and suc- 
 cessful scheme for India’s moral and spiritual 
 elevation. 
 
LETTER I. 
 
 Calcutta, 16th May, 1857. 
 
 My Dear Friend, — We are at this moment in 
 a crisis of jeopardy, such as has not occurred 
 since the awful catastrophe of the Black Hole 
 of Calcutta. 
 
 So long as the spirit of disaffection in the 
 native army, with its occasional outbreaks, was 
 only circulated about in whispers, I felt it better 
 not to allude to the subject; but now that it has 
 broken forth into so many open manifestations 
 of a daring character, I can scarcely remain 
 silent. 
 
 Without dwelling at present on the providen- 
 tial view of the case, I shall only advert to a 
 few of the facts. 
 
 At Barrackpore and Burhampore, about twelve 
 and two hundred miles respectively north of 
 Calcutta, the spirit of mutiny wildly exhibited 
 itself There have been one or two executions 
 in consequence, while 1500 men have been dis- 
 banded with disgrace. These, however, as 
 might have been expected, have betaken them- 
 selves to robbery and plunder ; only this morn- 
 ing the news have reached that Baneegunge, 
 1*- [5] 
 
6 
 
 DR, duff’s letters ON INDIA, 
 
 the important station of our farthest railway 
 terminus, has been attacked and plundered by 
 them. The universal feeling is, that such des- 
 peradoes have been far too leniently dealt with, 
 and that such mistaken leniency now recoils 
 upon us in plunder and bloodshed. 
 
 It is now certain that we narrowly escaped a 
 general massacre in Calcutta itself. There was 
 a deep laid plot or conspiracy — for which some 
 have undergone the penalty of death — to seize 
 on Fort-William and massacre all the Europeans. 
 The night chosen for the desperate attempt was 
 that on which the Maharajah of Gwalior, when 
 here, had invited the whole European com- 
 munity to an exhibition of fireworks, across the 
 river, at the Botanic Gardens. On that even- 
 ing, however, as if by a gracious interposition 
 of Providence, we were visited with a heavy 
 storm of thunder, lightning, and rain, so that the 
 grand entertainment of the Maharajah had to 
 be postponed. The European officers, therefore, 
 had not left the fort; and the object of the con- 
 spirators being thus defeated, was soon after- 
 wards brought to light, to the horror (jf all, and 
 the abounding thankfulness of such as acknow- 
 ledge the loving kindness of the Lord. 
 
 In Oude, what threatened to be a formidable 
 and disastrous mutiny, was lately put down 
 only by the prompt, decisive, and energetic 
 measures of the Chief Commissioner, Sir Henry 
 
LETTER I. 
 
 7 
 
 Lawrence, one of the bravest soldiers and most 
 philanthropic gentlemen in India. 
 
 From all the chief stations in the North-West, 
 intelligence of a mutinous spirit, manifesting it- 
 self in divers ways, has been dropping in upon 
 us for several weeks past. 
 
 But at this moment all interest is absorbed by 
 the two most prominent cases, at Meerut and 
 Delhi. At the former place, a cavalry regiment 
 openly mutinied. From seventy to eighty of 
 the ringleaders were tried and sentenced to 
 many years’ imprisonment, with hard work in 
 irons. But the whole station has been kept in 
 a state of fearful anxiety and suspense ; the 
 bungalows, or houses, of Europeans being, in 
 spite of every precaution, almost every night set 
 on fire, and the European officers of the cavahy 
 regiment being killed. 
 
 Moreover, two troops of the said regiment 
 started ofi" for Delhi, distant about forty-five 
 miles. On their way they roused the whole 
 populace by their machinations and lies, so that 
 all order and law being in abeyance, that dis- 
 trict is now a scene of indiscriminate plunder. 
 
 But what is most dismal of all, these mutinous 
 troops, on reaching Delhi, in which were thr<it 
 native, and no European regiments, were joined 
 by all the native troops. The fort, in conse- 
 (luence, with its arsenal, ammunition and treas- 
 ury, was seized, and is now in the hands of the 
 
8 
 
 DR. DCFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 rebels. The whole European community, civil 
 and military — men, women and children — have 
 been cruelly massacred ! and, to crown all, the 
 heir-apparent to the titular Emperor of Delhi, 
 the lineal successor of the Great Mogul, has 
 been proclaimed by the triumphant mutineers 
 as Emperor of India ! Such an event — one half 
 so disastrous — has not yet occurred in the his- 
 tory of British India. The great bulk of the 
 population of Delhi is Mohammedan, notoriously 
 fanatical, and notoriously hostile to our Govern- 
 ment. Delhi has a great name all over India, 
 as having been one of the greatest of the im- 
 perial cities of the Mogul sovereigns. At pre- 
 sent I cannot dwell on the subject. It is only 
 this day that the last and most fatal part of the 
 intelligence has reached Calcutta. It looks like 
 a summons to clothe ourselves in sackcloth. 
 Some must mourn over friends already gone, 
 and others over friends in imminent danger. 
 Our own beloved son is at Meerut. The Lord 
 alone is our refuge and our strength. — Yours, 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
LETTER II. 
 
 Calcutta, Forenoon, 18th May, 1867. 
 
 My Dear Frie.vd, — As the departure of the 
 steamer has been postponed till to-morrow morn- 
 ing, I am enabled to add a supplement to the 
 letter of heavy tidings which I despatched on 
 Saturday. 
 
 I am grieved to add that all the intelligence 
 since received from the North-West has only 
 tended to confirm the more material items. 
 There is only one which I beg you to modify. 
 On Saturday morning, the news which Govern- 
 ment (not private parties) had received was, that 
 all the Europeans at Delhi had been massacred. 
 Since then, more recent tidings lead us so far to 
 modify the all, and make it nearly all; not all 
 absolutely. A few are now known to have 
 escaped from the massacre — some six or seven in 
 all. It is just possible that, amid the terrible 
 confusion, a few more may yet cast up; though 
 of this there is no sanguine expectation here. 
 I fear, therefore, that I must report that “ nearly 
 all the Europeans at Delhi have been cruelly 
 massacred.” 
 
 That the mutineers are in possession of the 
 
 [9] 
 
10 
 
 DR. duff’s LETTER.S ON INDIA. 
 
 / 
 
 fort, the arsenal, magazine and treasury, with 
 half a million sterling of rupees in it, that they 
 have set up the heir-apparent of the titular 
 Emperor of Delhi, the lineal successor of the 
 Great Mogul, &c., &c., there can be no doubt at 
 all. Such a blow to the prestige of British power 
 and supremacy ha-s not yet been struck in the 
 whole history of British India. All Calcutta may 
 be said to be in sackcloth. The three or four 
 days’ panic during the crisis of the Sikh war was 
 nothing to this. Nearly half the native army is 
 in a state of secret or open mutiny, and the other 
 half known to be disaffected. But this is not all; 
 the populace generally is known to be more or 
 less disaffected. You see, then, how veiy serious 
 is the crisis. Nothing, nothing but some graci- 
 ous and signal interposition of the God of Provi- 
 dence seems competent now to save our empire 
 in India. And if there be a general rising, as 
 any day may be, the probability is, that not a 
 European life will anywhere escape the univer- 
 sal and indiscriminate massacre. But my own 
 hope is in the God of Providence. I have a 
 secret, confident persuasion that, though this 
 crisis has been permitted to humble and warn 
 us, our work in India has not yet been accom- 
 plished; and that, until it be accomplished, our 
 tenure of empire, however brittle, is secure. 
 
 Here it is seriously proposed, or suggested 
 that all the Europeans in Calcutta should be 
 
LETTER II. 
 
 11 
 
 immediately constituted into a local militia, for 
 the defence of life and property in Calcutta and 
 neighborhood. 
 
 Already it is known that the Mohammedans 
 have had several night meetings ; and when 
 the proclamation of the newly mutineer- 
 installed Emperor of Delhi comes to be gener- 
 ally known, no one can calculate on the result. 
 But, as I said, our trust is in the Lord. And 
 never before did I realize as now the literality 
 and sweetness of the Psalmist’s assurance : 
 “I laid me down and slept ; I awaked : for the 
 Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten 
 thousands of people, that have set themselves 
 against me round about. Arise, 0 Lord ; save 
 me, 0 my God !” Our son, Alexander, poor fel- 
 low, is at Meerut — the very centre and focus of 
 mutin}’ — and where already Europeans have 
 been massacred, though no names have yet 
 reached us. You may therefore imagine in 
 what a horrible state of suspense and anxiety 
 Mrs. Duff and myself now are. May the Lord 
 have mercy on him and us 1 
 
 Four, p.M. 
 
 P.S. — I have not closed this note till now, to 
 see if anything decisive should transpire dur- 
 ing the day. The flying rumors are endless, 
 and horribly exaggerated, as I fondly hope. 
 
12 
 
 DR. DDFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 But anything really trustworthy beyond what I 
 have narrated I have not been able to learn. 
 
 Benares, where your son is, has as yet been 
 free from actual mutiny ; though, doubtless, 
 disaffection is as rife there as elsewhere. 
 
 Humanly speaking, and under God, every- 
 thing will depend on our Government being 
 able promptly to re-take the fort of Delhi, 
 and inflict summary chastisement on the 
 mutineer-murderers there. The Governor of 
 Agra is much trusted in, from his firmness and 
 good sense ; and he reports that Agra is safe. 
 Oude, happily, is under Sir Henry Lawrence, 
 the most prompt and energetic ofiBcer perhaps 
 in the Company’s service. He has already 
 quashed mutiny there in a style which if our 
 Government had only imitated months ago, 
 there would have been an end of the wdiole 
 matter now. 
 
 The Maharajah of Gwalior, who was lately 
 in Calcutta, and there learnt our power, has at 
 once placed his whole army at tho disposal of 
 our Government, and his troops are now on their 
 march to Delhi. Pray for us, if haply we be in 
 the land of the living when this reaches you. — I 
 remain affectionately. 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
LETTER III. 
 
 Calcutta, 3d June, 1857. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — Since I last wrote, 
 the European mind here has been occupied ex- 
 clusively with the unprecedented mutinies in 
 the native army, which have broken out so 
 suddenly throughout the whole of Eastern and 
 Northern India. At every military station, from 
 Calcutta to Peshawur, through a distance of 
 1600 miles, a mutinous spirit has manifested 
 itself — hitherto kept in check, in most places, 
 by the extraordinary energy and wise precau- 
 tions of the civil and military authorities ; but 
 in others, such as Meerut and Delhi, Ferozepore 
 and Lucknow, breaking forth into a tempest of 
 massacre and blood. The whole country, as 
 you may well suppose, is in a state of the most 
 dreadful insecurity and alarm, while almost all 
 business has been at a stand-still. The fact of 
 Delhi, the renowned capital of the Mogul em- 
 pire, having now been, for upwards of three 
 weeks, in the undisturbed possession of the 
 murderous mutineers, has tended greatly to en- 
 hearten enemies, and paralyse the energies of 
 friends. 
 
 2 
 
 [13] 
 
DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 * 14 
 
 On the other hand, it does seem a marvellous 
 interposition of Providence, that the mutineers, 
 amounting at the outset to about 6000 trained 
 soldiers, should have remained at Delhi. Had 
 they, after massacring all the Europeans on 
 whom they could lay their hands, and plunder- 
 ing the city, only rushed on to Agra, as they did 
 from Meerut, the native regiments there, who 
 were ripe for revolt, would at once have joined 
 them — the Europeans would have been massa- 
 cred, and the city given up to pillage. Three 
 thousand desperadoes let loose from jail, with 
 thousands besides, would have swollen them 
 into a great army. Had they then, flushed with 
 booty, and reeking with blood, rushed onwards 
 to the great cities of Cawnpore, Allahabad, and 
 Benares, where there were no European soldiers, 
 and where the native regiments were known to 
 be mutinous to the very core, imagination 
 sickens at the thought of the awful scenes of 
 devastation, pollution, and murder which would 
 everywhere mark their desolating course. The 
 province of Oude would be sure to burst, vol- 
 cano-like, into one wide and universal conflagra- 
 tion. The cities of Ghazipore and Patna, which 
 for years have been in a state of chronic rebel- 
 lion, and others along the Ganges, would help 
 to swell the insurgent army into one of abso- 
 lutely resistless force. Nothing, nothing could 
 then prevent its reaching Calcutta. And if it 
 
LETTER III. 
 
 1.5 
 
 (lid so, the few surviving Europeans who could 
 betake themselves to the ships in the river, 
 would be literally driven into the sea, leaving 
 behind them a melancholy soil, strewn with the 
 bones, and drenched with the blood of thousands 
 of their slaughtered friends and countrymen ! 
 From such a fearful catastrophe, which might 
 have easily been realized, the Lord has, in great 
 mercy, for the present delivered us, by smiting 
 the Meerut and Dellii murderers with infatuated 
 blindness. Thus has he saved British India in 
 a way that pours contempt on the boasted skill, 
 foresight, and prowess of our statesmen and 
 warriors, in such a way as to constrain all God- 
 fearing people to exclaim, “ It is the doing of 
 the Lord, and wondrous in our eyes.” 
 
 Still, the immediate danger is far from over. 
 The accounts that come pouring in upon us 
 from all stations throughout Eastern and North- 
 ern India are uniformly of the same tenor ; — 
 native regiments, or large portions of native 
 regiments, showing a decidedly mutinous spirit, 
 and quite a readiness for open revolt ; and the 
 handful of Europeans everywhere putting them- 
 selves in the best attitude of defence which 
 their almost helpless and fearfully perilous 
 position can admit of. The substance of the 
 communications from all quarters might be com- 
 pendiously summed up in words like these : 
 
16 
 
 DK. DUFF’S LETTEES ON INDIA. 
 
 “We are seated on a mine, while the train that 
 is to fire it is already burning.” 
 
 Even here, in Calcutta, we had a week of in- 
 describable anxiety, and, for a few days, of 
 downright panic. 
 
 Now that the alarm has subsided, it is easy 
 to see that, as usual in all such cases, there 
 was much exaggeration. But to say, as some 
 of the greatest alarmists now pretend to sa3’, 
 when all immediate fear of outbreak is over, 
 that there never was any danger at all, is a 
 violent leap to the other extreme, which is as 
 untrue to the reality as the grossest exaggera- 
 tion. 
 
 There were four native regiments at Barrack- 
 pore, Fort-William, and the esplanade in front 
 of it, with another, newly arrived from Burmah, 
 known to he “ mutinous to the very core.” A 
 plan to burn the hospital at Barrackpore was 
 simply defeated by a very heavy fall of rain ; 
 and if that attempt had proved successful, it 
 was to be the signal for a general rise and 
 massacre, which would have opened like wild- 
 fire into the very heart of Calcutta, where there 
 were thousands eagerlj' ready for insurrection, 
 and plunder, and bloodshed. 
 
 The position of affairs was grave enough to 
 justify the Government in adopting every mea- 
 sure of precaution ; and to the energetic mea- 
 
LEITER III. 
 
 17 
 
 sures thus adopted, we owe, under God, our 
 deliverance from the fate of Meerut and Delhi. 
 
 The hundred and one rumors — rumors of 
 secret night meetings of the Mohammedans — 
 of fanatic devotees rousing the ignorant multi- 
 tude to rise up and murder the enemies of their 
 faith — of hundreds of disbanded sepoy muti- 
 neers in the native town panting for revenge — 
 of thousands of desperadoes from the neighbor- 
 ing districts swarming in the bazaars thirsting 
 for plunder — of numbers of the native police, 
 weak, cowed, and disafiected — of suspicioms- 
 looking characters prowling about the houses 
 of Europeans in the dark — of the insolence, and 
 strange glances, and mysterious whisperings 
 of native servants — of regiments on the plain 
 detected in treasonable correspondence with 
 those in the fort — of the personal danger of the 
 Governor-General, and of the Government House 
 being actually in possession of traitorous native 
 guards — of intercepted letters, said to specify 
 the plan to be adopted, and the very hour when 
 all Europeans were to be swept away in a 
 deluge of blood — these, and such like rumors, 
 some more or less exaggerated, and some, it 
 may be, wholly unfounded, but all in succession 
 momentarily believed, tended to raise the pub- 
 lic terror to fever heat. 
 
 Then, everywhere, the cessation of all busi- 
 ness, and the planning of actual measures of 
 2 * 
 
18 
 
 DR. DUFF’S LETTERS OX IXDIA. 
 
 self-defence— the precipitate rush and demand 
 for revolvers, bowie-knives, blunderbusses, bayo- 
 nets, swords, and every other sort of deadly 
 weapons — the meetings of British, French, 
 American, and other residents, offering their 
 services to Government as special constables or 
 volunteers for patrolling the streets — the loud 
 call to have all the British sailors in the river 
 formed into a police corps — tlm numbers sitting 
 up all night in their own houses, armed to the 
 teeth, to repel the expected assault or perish in 
 the attempt — the numbers more that abandoned 
 their houses altogether, and congregated with 
 others in central and more defensible posts, or 
 actually crowded on board the ships and steam- 
 ers in the river, seeking refuge from the nightly 
 expected attack ; and all these preparations and 
 precautionary doings, commingled with fresh 
 reports of bodies of mutineer sepoys in full 
 march, with abundant ammunition, on Calcutta, 
 which must speedily fall, Delhi-like, into their 
 hands— fresh reports of new' massacres, charac- 
 terized by the barbaric and horrible mutilation 
 of men, women, and children — all, all indicated 
 a scene of agitation, distress, alarm, and panic, 
 such as could ordinarily be realized only amid 
 the horrors of war, and such as no length of 
 time can ever efface from our memories. 
 
 Now that all is over for the present, it is easy 
 to smile ; but it is neither wise nor pious to pass 
 
LETTKR III. 
 
 19 
 
 the wliole off with a silly smile, or with the idle 
 bravado and only half-believed assertion, that 
 there never was any real ground for apprehend- 
 ing danger. The men — the stout-hearted British 
 men — who actually wont about from house to 
 house, in generous kindness, as they believed, 
 warning the inmates to be armed and ready for 
 an immediate tremendous explosion, may now 
 be more or less ashamed of their own extreme 
 incredulity, or, Jonah-like, chagrined at the fail- 
 ure of their prognostications. But the true and 
 moderate statement of the case is, that there 
 was good and solid ground for apprehending a 
 possible outbreak, and that the Lord was gra- 
 ciously pleased to avert it, through those very 
 preparations to which men were instantl}’^ and 
 simultaneously driven by the very greatness and 
 exaggeration of the alarm. 
 
 And here I merely note the fact, to the praise 
 and glory of God, that, though the mission-house 
 be absolutely unprotected, in the very heart of 
 the native city, far away from tlie European 
 quarter, I never dreamt of leaving it ; never 
 thought of getting musket and sword, or any 
 other weapon of defence ; never spoke of appre- 
 hended danger before the servants ; and never 
 asked them to be careful in locking the doors 
 and outer gate. I saj' this to the praise and 
 glory of God, as it was He that preserved my 
 partner and myself from all fear. “Unless the 
 
20 
 
 DE. DUFF’S LETTEKS OX IXDIA. 
 
 Lord the city keep, the watchmen watch in 
 vain,” was everlastingly on our lips. We felt 
 this as an absolute truth, and trusted in it. If 
 the countless multitudes around us were per- 
 mitted to rise up in hellish fury, what could all 
 our bolts and bai's, and weapons of defence 
 avail us ? Nothing, nothing ; all would be as 
 stubble before the consuming fire. On the 
 other hand, we knew and believed that if pur 
 hour was not come, the Lord was mighty to re- 
 strain the ragings of the people, and cause their 
 very wrath to praise Him. And so, during the 
 day, we were enabled to go about our ordinary 
 avocations without any alteration or change ; 
 and, in the evening, with simple absolute confi- 
 dence in Jehovah, the Good Shepherd of Israel, 
 to commit ourselves as usual to his guardian 
 care — His gracious tuition and defence — say- 
 ing, “ I laid me down and slept ; I awaked : for 
 the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of 
 ten thousands of people, that have set themseHes 
 against me round about. Arise, 0 Lord ; save 
 me, 0 my God. Surely it is in the midst of 
 such danger and alarms that trust in Jehovah, 
 as manifested in Christ, felt to be an unspeak- 
 ably rich and precious gift. 
 
 And it is not irrelevant to add, that besides 
 our own individual position in the midst of these 
 apprehended perils, we had special cause for 
 personal anxiety. Some of those who had been 
 
LETTER III. 
 
 21 
 
 butchered in the North-West, or whose liv^es 
 were in momentary jeopardy, were known and 
 esteemed by us. And then our own eldest son 
 was in Meerut on the evening of the awful 
 slaughter there, and more than once escaped by 
 a very miracle of Providence from the hands of 
 the savage murderers. What a call for new 
 songs of thanksgiving I But though he escaped 
 on that awful night, his life, with the lives of 
 others, still continued in imminent peril. And, 
 through the stoppage of the dak, or post, between 
 Agra and Meerut, we have received no tidings 
 whatever, direct or indirect, from or of him since 
 the 17th of last month. What can we do in 
 such circumstances, except commend him and 
 his imperilled associates to the tender mercies 
 of a good and gracious Almighty God and 
 Father in Christ Jesus ? 
 
 But I shall not enlarge on the subject any 
 further at present. Being in the midst of these 
 scenes, and while impressions are fresh in the 
 mind, I deemed it right briefly to depict our own 
 experiences. 
 
 Our mission work in all its branches, alike in 
 Calcutta and the country stations, continues to 
 go on without any interruption, though there is 
 a wild excitement abroad among all classes of 
 natives, which tends mightily to distract and 
 unsettle their minds. 
 
 I forget whether, by the former mail, I sent 
 
oo 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 you any notice of the ostensible cause of all this 
 fearful and wide-spread outbreak of the spirit 
 of mutiny. It is this : Our Government wished 
 to introduce the improved Enfield rifle among 
 the native troops. One of the ingredients in 
 preparing the cartridge in England is talloic, 
 which, of course, may be a mixture of hog's fat 
 and cow's fat — the abominations of the Mussul- 
 mans and Hindus. Well, orders were given at 
 three of our military stations to prepare car- 
 tridges according to the English prescription. 
 The sepoys took the alarm. When this became 
 known, orders were given to issue none of the 
 greasy cartridges ; and none were actually 
 issued. But the alarm was raised that the 
 Government intended, through these cartridges, 
 to break the caste of the sepoys, and thereby 
 forcibly convert them to Christianity. Hence 
 all this terrible outciy. But the belief is, that 
 some deep, designing men, taking advantage of 
 the superstition of the sepoys, invented these 
 falsehoods to lead them to rise and overthrow 
 the Government. — Yours affectionately, 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
LETTER IV. 
 
 Calcutta, 16th June, 1857. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — Since I last wrote, 
 things, instead of mending, have been getting 
 worse and worse. Almost every day has been 
 bringing us tidings from one quarter or another 
 of fresh outbreaks, with their accompanying 
 Itorrors and atrocities — incendiarism, pillage, 
 brutal violence and savage massacre. The 
 public journals will furnish you with abundant 
 details of the most harrowing description, 
 though many of the most loathsome and revolt- 
 ing kind have been purposel3' suppressed, to 
 spare the agonized feelings of distant mourning 
 friends. Eeally, if the demons of hell had been 
 let loose, with no restraint on their Satanic fuiy, 
 thej’^ could scarcely have exhibited villanies 
 and cruelties more worthy of the tenants of 
 Pandemonium. 
 
 The terrific outbreaks at Lucknow and Be- 
 nares were put down bj’ the almost superhuman 
 energy of the handful of British officers and 
 soldiers there, though not without the shedding 
 of British blood. At other places where there 
 were no British soldiers at all, the temporary 
 triumph of the rebels has been complete. At 
 
 [23] 
 
24 
 
 DR. dot’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 Allahabad only the fort has escaped, the native 
 regiments having openly mutinied, killed nearly 
 all their officers, and plundered or destroyed the 
 whole property of the British residents. Being 
 in military possession of the city, they have 
 been indulging in excesses, the nature and ex- 
 tent of which cannot yet be fully known ; but 
 some of the details autlientically brought to 
 light are truly heart-rending. One European 
 family they caught, and, having stripped father, 
 mother and children, they chopped off their toes 
 and fingers, tied them to trees, and burned them 
 alive! Their treatment of any European females 
 that have fallen into their hands has been too 
 hoi-rible to be expressed by me. Truly God’s 
 judgments are awfully abroad in this land now. 
 Oh, that its British inhabitants, at least, would 
 “ learn righteousness ! ” 
 
 In my last I stated the successive panics 
 which had seized the Christian inhabitants of 
 Calcutta, and how these had all subsided when 
 I wrote. Since then Calcutta has been in a 
 state of alarm far exceeding anything that had 
 gone before. While the atrocities in the North- 
 West were filling people’s minds with horror, 
 an alarm was raised last week, in consequence 
 of fresh symptoms of disaffection and mutiny 
 among the native poldiery in this neighborhood. 
 
 Our great infantry station, Barrackpore, lies 
 about twelve miles to the north of Calcutta, 
 
LETTER IV. 
 
 25 
 
 and on the same side of the river ; our artillery- 
 station, Dnm Dum, about four or five miles to 
 the north-east. To the south is Fort-William, 
 and beyond it the great Allepore jail, -with its 
 thousands of imprisoned desperadoes, guarded 
 by a regiment of native militia. Not far from 
 Allepore is Garden Reach, -where the ex-King 
 of Glide has been residing, with about a thou- 
 sand armed retainers, the Mussulman popula- 
 tion, generally armed also, breathing fanatical 
 vengeance on the “ infidels,” and praying in 
 their mosques for the success of the Delhi 
 rebels. Calcutta, being guarded by native 
 police only, in whom not a particle of confi- 
 dence can any longer be reposed, seemed to be 
 exposed on all sides to imminent perils, as 
 most of the European soldiers had been sent to 
 the North-West. In this extremity, and in the 
 midst of indescribable panic and alarm, the 
 Government began to enrol the European and 
 East Indian residents as volunteers, to patrol 
 the streets at night, &c., &c. Happily the 1 8th 
 Highlanders arrived during the week, and their 
 presence helped to act so far as a sedative. 
 Still, while the city was filled with armed 
 citizens, and surrounded on all sides with 
 armed soldiers, all known to be disaffected to 
 the very core, and waiting only for the signal 
 to burst upon the European population in a 
 tempest of massacre and blood, the feeling of 
 
26 
 
 DK. DUFF’S LETlEnS ON INDIA. 
 
 uneasiness and insecurity was intense. Many, 
 unable to withstand the pressure any longer, 
 went to pass the night in central places of ren- 
 dezvous ; numbers went into the fort ; and 
 numbers more actually went on board the ships 
 and steamers in the river. 
 
 On Sabbath (14th) the feeling of anxiety 
 rose to a perfect paroxysm. On Saturday night 
 the Brigadier at Barrackpore sent an express 
 to Government House to notify that, from 
 certain information which he had obtained, 
 there was to be a general rising of the sepoys 
 on Sabbath. Accordingly, before the Sabbath 
 dawned, all manner of vehicles were in requisi- 
 tion to convey all the available European 
 forces to Barrackpore and Hum Dum. Those 
 which had been sent to the north by railway on 
 Saturday were re-called by a telegraphic 
 message through the night. But the public 
 generally had not any distinct intelligence as 
 to the varied movements ; and even if they 
 had, there would be the uttermost uncertainty 
 as to the result. Accordingly, throughout the 
 whole Sabbath-day the wildest and most fear- 
 ful rumors were circulating in rapid succes- 
 sion. 
 
 The great roads from Barrackpore and Dum 
 Dum unite a tittle beyond Cornwallis Square, 
 and then pass througli it. D’ there were a rush 
 of murderous ruffians from these military 
 
LKTTiiK I\'. 
 
 27 
 
 stations, the European residents in that square 
 would have to encounter the first burst of their 
 diabolical fury. It so happened, therefore, that 
 some kind friends, interested in our welfare, 
 wrote to us at daybreak on Sabbath, pointing 
 out the danger, and urging the necessity of our 
 leaving the square. And before breakfast 
 some friends called in person, to urge the pro- 
 priety of this course. Still, I did not feel it 
 to be ray duty to yield to their expostulations. 
 There were others in the square besides my 
 partner and myself. , Near us is the Central 
 Female School of the Church of England, with 
 several lady teachers, and some twenty or thir- 
 ty boarders ; the Christian converts’ house, 
 with upwards of a dozen inmates ; our old 
 mission home, with its present occupants of 
 the Established Church ; in anotlier house an 
 English clergyman, with some native Christ- 
 ians ; and in another still, the Lady Superinten- 
 dent of the Bethune Government School, and 
 her assistants. If one must leave the square, 
 all ought to do so ; and I did not consider the 
 alarming intelligence sufficiently substantiated 
 to warrant me to propose to my neighbors a 
 universal abandonment of the square. So I 
 went on with all my ordinary Sabbath duties, 
 altogether in the ordinary way. 
 
 Almost all the ministers in Calcutta had ex- 
 postulatory letters sent them, dissuading them 
 
28 
 
 DE. duff’s LETTFKS ON INDIA. 
 
 from preaching in the forenoon, and protesting 
 against their attempting to do so in the even- 
 ing. And though, to their credit, no one, so far 
 as I have heard, yielded to the pressure, the 
 churches in the forenoon -wei'e half empty, and 
 in the evening nearlj' empty altogether. 
 
 On Sunday, at five p.m., the authorities, hack- 
 ed by the presence of British troops, proceeded 
 to disarm the sepoys at Barrackpore, Dum Dum, 
 and elsewhere. Through God’s great mercy, 
 the attempt proved successful. This, however, 
 was onl}’ known to a few connected with Gov- 
 ernment House and their friends, so that the 
 panic throughout Sunday night rose to an in- 
 conceivable height. With the exception of 
 another couple, Mrs. Duff and myself were the 
 only British residents in Cornwallis Square on 
 that night. Faith in Jehovah as our refuge and 
 strength led us to cling to our post ; and we 
 laid us down to sleep as usual ; and on Monday 
 morning my remark was, “ Well, I have not en- 
 joyed such a soft, sweet, refreshing rest for 
 weeks past.” Oh, how our hearts rose in ador- 
 ing gratitude to Him who is the Keeper of Is- 
 rael, and who slumbers not nor sleeps ! Then 
 we soon learnt the glad tidings that all the 
 armed sepoys had everywhere been successfully 
 disarmed ; and that, during the night, the ex- 
 King of Oude, with his treasonable courtiers, 
 were quietly arrested, and lodged as prisoners 
 of state in Fort-William. 
 
LETTER IV. 
 
 29 
 
 June 18. — From various parts of the country, 
 tidings of fresh atrocities continue to reach us. 
 Numbers of the mutineers who escaped, and of 
 disbanded scpoyS, are scouring the country in 
 all directions, committing the most fearful rav- 
 ages. The great highways are impassable ex- 
 cept to British troops, more especially in the 
 North-West. The telegraph lines have been 
 broken down, and the very posts cut to pieces, 
 in so many places, that all communication by 
 that boasted instrument of modern civilization 
 is at present at an end on this side of India. 
 Almost all business is at a stand, communica- 
 tions with the interior, both by land and water, 
 being so interrupted and insecure. The price 
 of rice and other articles of food has risen enor- 
 mously. At one time last week. Company’s 
 paper, or Government securities, fell to 40 per 
 cent. ! One feels as if amid the very throes of 
 the dissolution of empire I And yet my own 
 confidence that the Lord will mercifully inter- 
 pose for our deliverance remains unshaken. 
 
 As regards Calcutta, after the imminent dan- 
 ger from which we escaped on Sabbath was 
 known to be over, people’s agitated minds en- 
 joyed a temporary respite from alarm. On 
 Tuesday, however, fresh discoveries began to 
 be made, which clearly showed that if all went 
 to sleep, it would be on the brink of a volcano 
 ready for an eruption. The secret assemblages 
 3* 
 
30 
 
 DE. DUFF’S LETTERS OX IXDIA. 
 
 of the Mohammedans in different parts of the 
 city, often prolonged throughout the •whole 
 uight, and the vast quantities of gunpowder 
 and of arms of all descriptions sold to them at 
 high prices in the bazaars, would alone be 
 enough to re-awaken all our anxieties. And 
 then, for months back, there has been a con- 
 stantly augmenting under-current of mj’sterious 
 feeling and expectation connected with the 23d 
 June next, the centenary day of the battle of 
 Plassey, which first laid the foundation of our 
 empire in India. This celebrated battle — and 
 in its unparalleled consequences the most mo- 
 mentous, perhaps, in the annals of time — was 
 fought on the 23d June, 1757. And the impres- 
 sion has long taken strange possession of the 
 Indian mind — alike Hindu and Mohammedan — 
 that the “ Company’s Raj,” or empire, as they 
 call it, was to last exactly one hundred years ; 
 in other words, that at the end of a hundred 
 years from its commencement on the plains of 
 Plassey, it was destined suddenly to terminate 
 in a terrible overthrow. And in the minds of an 
 ignorant, superstitious, fanatical people, a strong 
 impression of this sort at last assumes the form 
 of an absolute, undoubted certainty; and there 
 can be no doubt whatever that a firm belief in 
 the doomed downfall of the British power about 
 this time has given a sharper edge to the mur- 
 derous determination of the sepoy mutineers, 
 
LETTER IV. 
 
 31 
 
 while it helps to account for the all but univer* 
 sality of their desperate designs. 
 
 The fall of Delhi — the once proud metropolis 
 of the Indian Mohammedan empire, where liter- 
 ally, in the language of Milton, 
 
 “ The gorgeous East, with richest hand. 
 
 Shower’d on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,” — 
 
 the fall of such a city into the hands of the mu- 
 tineers was a sad blow to the prestige of British 
 supremacy. Benai’es, the sacred metropolis of 
 Hinduism, was within a hair-breadth of falling 
 into their power ; indeed, its escape seemed 
 like a miraculous interposition of Providence. 
 An intelligent writer in that city, in a letter 
 dated the 14th inst., says : “ The more I look 
 on the past, the more I wonder at our pi’eserva- 
 tion. Had any mistake occurred — had a gun 
 missed fire, or had the villains done anything 
 but what they did — we should all have been 
 cut to a man, and the whole city would have 
 fallen into their hands.” And when we think 
 that all the British were saved from a cruel 
 dca'lh, and the city from destruction, by the 
 sudden and opportune arrival of a small com- 
 pany of only 180 British soldiers, with a com- 
 mander animated by the spirit and energy of a 
 Clive, the deliverance does seem markedly to 
 be the doing of the Lord, and marvellous in our 
 eyes. I know nothing comparable to it, except 
 
32 
 
 DE. DrFF'S LETTERS OX IXDIA. 
 
 some of the miraculous deliverances recorded in 
 the Old Testament historjL Still, in the estima- 
 tion of the natives, the all but desperate state 
 of our affairs at Benares has given a shock to 
 their confidence in the stability of British power 
 next to that of the fall of Delhi. 
 
 But, as the most conspicuous symbol of the 
 rise, progress, and supremacy of British power, 
 the eyes of all natives hav’e at all times been 
 turned towards Calcutta. Delhi was the capital 
 of Mohammedanism — Benares, of Hinduism; 
 but Calcutta is preeminently the capital of the 
 British. Originally a small, insignificant fishing 
 village, it was little else than an assemblage of 
 mud huts, the abodes of the native servants of 
 the East India Company’s Factory, when the bat- 
 tle of Blassey was fought, only a hundred years 
 ago ! It is therefore absolutely the growth of 
 British power and commercial industry. In fact, 
 by all learned and intelligent natives, it has all 
 along been regarded as a purely British city, in 
 the sense in which they regard Delhi a Moham- 
 medan and Benares a Hindu city. 
 
 If Delhi be a city of Mohammedan mosques, 
 and Benares of Hindu temples, Calcutta has 
 long been noted as a city of British palaces. 
 From all this it is easy to infer, if the actual 
 fall of Delhi, and the all but actual fall of Be- 
 nares, gave such a shock to the supremacy of 
 British power, how much more tremendous a 
 
LETTER IV. 
 
 33 
 
 shock the actual, or all but actual, fall of Cal- 
 cutta would give to it ! That it has already, 
 through God’s providence, escaped more than 
 one threatened fall, is now undoubted. And it 
 is matter of adoring gratitude, that there is now 
 a reasonable hope, through the same merciful 
 interposition, of its escaping a still more disas- 
 trous and consummating fall. It has been pre- 
 viously stated that early on Monday morning 
 the ex-King of Oude and his treasonable crew 
 were arrested and safely quartered in Fort- 
 William. Since then, various parties connected 
 with the Oude family, and other influential Mo- 
 hammedans, have been arrested ; and on them 
 have been found several important documents, 
 tending to throw light on the desperate plans 
 of treason which have been seriously projected. 
 Among others has been found a map of Calcutta, 
 so sketched out as to divide the whole of the 
 town into sections. A general rise was planned 
 to take place on the 23d instant — the anniver- 
 sary of the battle of Plassey. The city was to 
 be taken, and the “ Feringhi Kaffirs,” or British 
 and other Christian inhabitants, to be all mas- 
 sacred. Hereafter, parties who swore on the 
 Koran, and proved that they had taken an ac- 
 tive share in the butchery and pillage of the 
 Europeans, were to have certain sections of the 
 town allotted to them for their own special 
 benefit I 
 
34 
 
 DR. duff’s letters OX IXDIA. 
 
 All this, and much more of a similar sort, 
 having been thus timeously and providentially 
 revealed, the authorities have been aroused to 
 fresh energy, and the adoption of more effective 
 precautionary measures. Guns have been plant- 
 ed in some of the more dangerous neighborhoods, 
 as well as small companies of British troops. At 
 night the streets are perambulated by bodies of 
 armed horsemen. Places of rendezvous have 
 been appointed in case of a sudden outbreak in 
 any quarter. All Europeans who could not get 
 arms have been liberally supplied from the fort 
 arsenal. In fact, we have at this moment all 
 the strange and conflicting sensations of citizens 
 in a state of active siege, with this additional 
 aggravation, that while we are surrounded with 
 enemies from without, there are tens of thous- 
 ands of them prowling about in the very midst 
 of us. The result of all such energetic measures 
 may be, that, through God’s blessing, we shall 
 escape the intended extermination; and, if so, 
 then shall a new song of deliverance be put 
 into our lips, the Lord to magnify. 
 
 19^A, Fmir, p.m. — Two hours hence, and our 
 homeward steamer-mail closes; and, notwith- 
 standing the reported fall of Delhi, it will be in 
 all respects perhaps the heaviest that has ever 
 left India for the British shores. It is no longer 
 anxiety about the fate of a campaign or battle. 
 
LETTER IV, 
 
 35 
 
 but about the fate or possible loss of an empire, 
 and that, too, one of the mightiest and most 
 g'lorious under the sun. 
 
 This letter I kept open purposely till now, in 
 the hope of having to convey to you authentic 
 intelligence of the fall and re-capture of Delhi; 
 but, though there are endless rumors afloat on 
 the subject, and these, as to their main substance, 
 are believed, Government has not yet received 
 reliable intelligence regarding it. 
 
 The reports which, as to their substance, are 
 gaining credit, are to the effect that a great 
 battle was fought outside Delhi — which is a 
 fortified city — that the rebels were defeated and 
 driven into the town with great slaughter and 
 the loss of twenty-six guns ; and that afterwards 
 the city itself was taken, twenty or thirty thous- 
 and being slain, while the casualties among the 
 British were also very heavy. 
 
 This is the substance of the reports which have 
 gained ci’edence in circles usually the best in- 
 formed, and I give them merely as such. But 
 even success in such a warfare is beyond measure 
 deplorable. Oh, how ought our pi'ayers to bo 
 redoubled that the Lord might arise and grant 
 unto us a great deliverance I Well may we 
 repeat and say “ Amen ” to every confession and 
 petition in Daniel’s notable prayer ! For surely 
 we are in the midst of events the most humbling 
 and solemnizing. — Yours affectionately, 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
LETTEE V. 
 
 Calcutta, 24th June, 1857. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — The centenary day of 
 the battle of Plassey (23d instant), which laid 
 the foundation of our Indian empire, and which 
 native hopes and wishes, and astrological pre- 
 dictions, had long ago fixed on as the. last of 
 British sway, has passed by ; and, through God’s 
 overruling Providence, Calcutta is still the me- 
 tropolis of British India. But, alas ! throughout 
 the whole of the North-West provinces, all gov- 
 ernment is at present at an end. The apparently 
 settled peace and profound tranquillity which 
 were wont to reign throughout British India in 
 former years, once called forth from an intelli- 
 gent French traveller the somewhat irreverent 
 but striking remark, that the Government of 
 India was “ like the good deity : one does not 
 see it, but it is everywhere.” So calm, serene, 
 and ubiquitous did the power of British rule 
 then appear to be ! How changed the aspect 
 of things now ! 
 
 Throughout the whole of the North-West, 
 Government, instead of being in its regulating 
 power and influence everywhere., is, at this mo- 
 [ 36 ] 
 
LETTER V. 
 
 37 
 
 ment, literally “nowhere.^' Instead of peace and 
 tranquillity, security of life and property, under 
 its sovereign and benign sway, universal anar- 
 chy, turbulence, and ruin ! the military sta- 
 tions in possession of armed and blood-thirsty 
 mutineers ; the public treasures rifled ; the 
 habitations of the British residents plundered 
 and reduced to ashes ; numbers of British offi- 
 cers, with judges, magistrates, women and chil- 
 dren, butchered with revolting cruelties ; the 
 remanent portions of the British that have yet 
 escaped, cooped up in isolated spots, and closely 
 hemmed in by myriads that are thirsting for 
 their blood ; while bands of armed ruffians are 
 scouring over the country, bent on ravage, 
 plunder, and murder, striking terror and con- 
 sternation into the minds of millions of the 
 peacefully disposed ! ! This, so far from being 
 an exaggerated picture, is, I verily believe, but 
 a feeble, inadequate representation of the terri- 
 ble reality I 
 
 Every day still continues to bring us tidings 
 of fresh horrors. Formerly, of all life in India, 
 the safest was British life. Of this I have had 
 ample evidence in my own experience, having 
 travelled, not only through its most civilized 
 parts, but through some of its wildest regions, 
 solitary and alone, unprotected by aught save 
 the guardian care of a gracious Providence, 
 often for days, and sometimes for weeks, not 
 4 
 
38 
 
 DR. duff’s letters OX IXDIA. 
 
 seeing the face of a white man. But now, 
 change, revolution ! throughout the North- 
 West provinces, the earliest seat of Indian civi- 
 lization, the most insecure of all life is British 
 life. At this moment, British life, undefended 
 by walls and cannon, is not worth half a second’s 
 purchase ! 
 
 Almost all the greater and smaller military 
 stations have already become the scenes of re- 
 volt and massacre — Cawnpore, Sultanpore, and 
 others being now added to the number, with 
 their several catalogues of atrocities. Any 
 that have hitherto escaped, such as Patna and 
 Agra, have only done so through the providen- 
 tial presence of British troops, though each and 
 all, even of these, are the subjects of fearful 
 anxiety. The purely civil stations have also 
 shared the same fate. The small companies of 
 sepoys acting at these as guards of the treasu- 
 ries and court-houses, have been smitten with 
 the universal epidemic of treachery and thirst 
 for British blood. The accounts that reach us 
 from some of these stations are unspeakably 
 harrowing. At Futtehpore, for example, be- 
 tween Allahabad and Cawnpore, the native 
 deputy-magistrate, a Mohammedan, heading the 
 mutineers, attacked the British residents, who 
 for some days succeeded in defending them- 
 selves on the roof of a brick house. Most of 
 these, during the night, contrived to escape, one 
 
LETTER V. 
 
 39 
 
 at a time. The judge, Mr. Tucker, a truly 
 Christian man, who for years has devoted his 
 spare time, liis talents, his influence, and his 
 fortune, to the supplying of the educational and 
 religious wants of the people around, was the 
 last to quit his perilous post. At last, over- 
 powered — but not without dealing out heavy and 
 deadly blows to his brutfil assailants — he was 
 cruelly slaughtered, his head, hands, and feet 
 being cut off, and exhibited, all bleeding, to the 
 fanatical and murderous multitude ! And manj' 
 who had escaped the original massacre at dif- 
 ferent stations, after skulking about for days in 
 various hiding places, eventually perished, the 
 victims of exposure, fatigue, and want, or of 
 undressed wounds, or of the treachery of cow- 
 ardly .assassins. 
 
 Almost the only incident that has yet been 
 brought to light, amid these scenes of dark and 
 unbroken horror, is the fact that a poor wailing 
 British child, found exposed on the banks of the 
 Jumna, beyond Delhi, by a faquir, or religious 
 devotee, was taken up by him and brought to 
 Kurnaul, after being carefully nursed and 
 cherished for several days. The parents of the 
 poor infant were unknown, having in all proba- 
 bility been murdered in their attempted flight. 
 But once safely lodged in Kurnaul, through the 
 tender care of a dark heathen devotee, in whose 
 bosom the spark of natural humanity still glowed. 
 
40 
 
 DE. DUFF’S LETTEKS ON INDIA. 
 
 the child was soon caught up within the 
 circle of British and Christian sympathy, whose 
 special concern is for the poor, the needy, and 
 the destitute. 
 
 It is not easy to imagine or realize the 
 strangelj^ saddening and depressing influence 
 produced on the minds of all here by the daily 
 reports of the deplorable events now everywhere 
 occurring in the North-West. And what gives 
 intensity to the sadness is, that there is scarcely 
 any one amongst us who has not a father, 
 mother, brother, sister, a son, daughter, or some 
 other relative or friend, either already numbered 
 among the victims of atrocious massacre, or in 
 a position of imminent peril. To all this also has 
 to be added the succession of dangers through 
 which we ourselves have passed. All the re- 
 velations now made serve to show that these 
 dangers were in reality vastly greater than any 
 one at the time was fully aware of, or could 
 bring himself to believe. It is now clear, be- 
 yond all question, that between the 10th or 11th 
 March last and the 14th instant there were at 
 least four separate plots foi’med, that is, as some 
 one has expressed it, “ definite arrangements ap- 
 pointed to have effect at a specified datefi for the de- 
 struction of this city and the massacre of its 
 European inhabitants. By some apparently 
 fortuitous, but really providential incident, each 
 of these was timeously brought to light, and the 
 
LETTKR V. 
 
 41 
 
 murderous intentions of the conspirators frus- 
 trated. The last of the four was to have come 
 off on Sunday, 14th instant, and was, under God, 
 simply averted by a discovery opportunely made 
 by the Brigadier at Barrackpore on the night 
 preceding. This discovery led the Government 
 to concentrate, dui’ing the night and early on 
 the morning, all the available British troops at 
 Barrackpore, and, on that day, to disarm the 
 whole of the mutinous sepoys there, as well 
 as at Dum Bum and Calcutta. What the hor- 
 rors prepared for us wei’e, and from which we 
 escaped by so merciful an interposition of Provi- 
 dence, soon appeared, among other I’evelations, 
 from this, that when, after the disarming, the 
 sepoys’ huts were searched, they were found to 
 be filled with instruments of the most murderous 
 description: huge knives of various shapes, two- 
 handed swords, poniards and battle-axes — many 
 of the swords being serrated, and evidently 
 intended for the perpetration of tcrrlnring cruel- 
 ties on their European victims — cruelties over 
 which, in anticipation, these ruthless savages, 
 while fed and nurtured by the Government, had 
 doubtless fondly gloated 1 
 
 Scai’cely had these dangers passed away, 
 when a timely discovery of papers and maps in 
 possession of some arrested Mohammedans 
 brought to light the last and greatest of the 
 deeply designed plots against our property and 
 4 * 
 
42 
 
 DE. duff's LETTEES ON INDIA. 
 
 our lives. That was planned for Tuesday, the 
 23d instant, the centenary day of the victory of 
 Plassey, which laid the foundation of our mag- 
 nificent Indian empire. The effect of this dis- 
 covery was to arouse the Government and the 
 whole European community to make prepara- 
 tions, on the most extensive and effective scale, 
 to meet the threatened outbreak of exterminat- 
 ing violence. The British residents in this 
 square, being few in number, and at the same 
 time completely isolated and cut off by a large 
 distance from the European part of the city, 
 were peculiarly exposed to the first outburst on 
 the part of a fanatical and infuriated native 
 multitude. Accordingly, on Monday (22d), seve- 
 ral left the square, and went to their friends in 
 the city and elsewhere. My own resolution, 
 however, from the first was, after using all pro- 
 per means for obtaining protection from the 
 constituted authorities, to cling to my post, 
 casting myself and partner, in faith, on the 
 guardian care of the God of Providence. 
 
 At length tht day, the last and fatal day to 
 British penver in India, if the vaticinations so 
 long current among all classes of natives were 
 to be trusted, was ushered in amid ten thousand 
 anxieties, despite all the preparations that had 
 been made to meet it. What helped to heighten 
 these anxieties was, that, by a singular coinci- 
 dence, that happened also to be the great day 
 
LETTER V. 
 
 43 
 
 of the animal Hindu festival of the Ruth Jattra, 
 or pulling of the cars of Juggernath. Of these 
 cars, numbers of all sizes have been wont to be 
 pulled along the streets of Calcutta and its sub- 
 urbs. On these occasions, the entire latent 
 fanaticism of the Hindu community has been 
 usually elicited, when the attendant throngs, 
 raise and re-echo the loud shouts of “ Victory to 
 Juggernath; victory to the great Juggernath.” 
 The day and night, however, have now passed 
 away without any violent outrage anywhere 
 within the bounds of the city; and we are still 
 in the land of the living this morning, to cele- 
 brate anew Jehovah’s goodness. Doubtless the 
 knowledge of the vast preparations that were 
 made promptly to put down any insurrection 
 tended, under God, to prevent any, by paraly- 
 zing the hosts of conspirators under a convic- 
 tion of the utter hopelessness of success. More- 
 over, I eannot but note the fact, that our rainy 
 season, which has been somewhat later in com- 
 mencing this year, began to set in on Sunday, 
 21st inst., with a violent thunder-storm, since 
 ■which very heavy showers have continued to fall 
 in rapid succession, accompanied with violent 
 gusts of wind. These gusty tropical showers 
 rendered it particularly disagreeable for any 
 one to be out on our muddy and half-flooded 
 streets. The very elements thus seemed to con- 
 spire, along with the preparations on the part 
 
44 
 
 DR. duff’s letters OX INDIA. 
 
 of man, to defeat the counsels and purposes of 
 the wicked, by confining them to their own 
 secret haunts of treason, sedition, and medi- 
 tated massacre. 
 
 The only disturbance in the neighborhood 
 took place at Agarparah, about half-way be- 
 tween this and Barrackpore. On the afternoon 
 of Tuesday (23d), a body of between two and 
 three hundred Mussulmans rushed into the 
 Government and Missionary Schools, shouting 
 that the Company’s Eaj (or reign) was now’ at 
 an end, and ordering the teachers, on pain of 
 death, to destro}’ their English books, and teach 
 no more English in the schools, but only the 
 Koran. A violent affray with sticks, bamboos, 
 and bricks was the result ; but though a great 
 manj’ heads were broken, no lives were lost. 
 This was a fair indication of the spirit and de- 
 termination of Mohammedanism generally; and 
 clearly proves how little not only Christianity, 
 but even western civilization, has to expect 
 from its intolerance, were it once to acquire the 
 ascendancy in this land. 
 
 June 27. — Fresh rumors of every kind are 
 afloat respecting the re-capture of Delhi, but as 
 yet no reliable intelligence has reached the 
 Government on the subject. Meanw’hile, ac- 
 counts of new disasters — of sanguinary muti- 
 nies or attempts at mutiny — continue to pour in 
 
LETTER V. 
 
 45 
 
 upon us. There are also unpleasant indications 
 of the mutinous spirit having reached the Mad- 
 ras and Bombay Presidencies. The agents of 
 evil have at least penetrated into these ; though, 
 hitherto, their efforts have not been crowned 
 with much success. 
 
 The sufferings of those who escaped, in trying 
 to make their way to places of safety, have 
 been so severe, that under them many have 
 sunk. Let it be remembered that the season of 
 the year was the most adverse to British con- 
 stitutions. It was during the very height of 
 the hot season, when the hot winds rage in the 
 North-West with furnace heat, and the clouds 
 of small dust are absolutely suffocating. Hith- 
 erto, during this season, it has been usually 
 deemed rather hard to exist at all even within 
 doors, with all the appliances of well-watered 
 grassy frames outside, to moderate the heated 
 air as it passes through, and punkahs and ther- 
 mantidotes, on the principle of the fanning-mill, 
 in order to set the somewhat c-ooled air in mo- 
 tion. But now, as in the case of the fugitives 
 from Sultanpore in Oude, about a dozen gentle- 
 men, with a dozen ladies, and as many children, 
 had, for eight or ten days, to work their weary 
 way to Allahabad, through scorching heats, 
 subject to frightful exposures, and in constant 
 danger of falling into the hands of miscreants 
 thirsting for their blood. 
 
46 
 
 DK. DUFF’S UFTTEIIS ON INDIA. 
 
 One of the escaped from Fyzabad, in Oude, 
 writes: “On Monday last (8th inst.) I had, 
 with all the officers of the regiment, to run 
 away to save our lives. We got into an open 
 boat, and tried to work our way to Dinapore, 
 but we have been hunted like dogs, and have 
 been twice taken prisoners, and robbed of every- 
 thing we had. I have hardly a thing remain- 
 ing, excepting the shirt and trousers I have on, 
 and which I have not taken off for seven days.” 
 Another of the fugitives from the same place 
 furnishes some farther particulars : “We all,” 
 
 says he, “ got into several open boats. On 
 reaching a place ten miles below Fyzabad, we 
 met several hundreds of the mutineers encamp- 
 ed, who fired on us. Colonel Goldney advised 
 our pushing off to the opposite bank of the 
 Gogra. We got on an island among some 
 jhow (a species of grain) fields. The mutineers 
 got into dinghees (small boats), and followed 
 us. We made for the main boat from the 
 island ; Major Mills was drowned. The serjeant- 
 major. Lieutenant Bright, and I, were taken 
 prisoners, carried to the camp of the mutineers, 
 and brought before the subadar commanding 
 the rebels, who asked us who we were, &c. 
 Two men then stepped out and shot the serjeant- 
 major and Lieutenant Bright. I was rescued 
 by an artilleryman, hid in a serai, and sent off 
 in disguise. While we were talking with the 
 
LErriiR V. 
 
 47 
 
 subadar, a immbei’ of the sepoys went to the 
 remainder of our party. We lieard firing across 
 the river ; the sepoys returned, and reported 
 they had killed Colonel Goldney and six other 
 officers, and that three had escaped. At Tanda 
 I heard that Mr. Fitzgerald, clerk in the Deputy 
 Commissioner’s office, and Overseer Serjeant 
 Hunt, who were escorting some families to Alla- 
 habad, were killed, and the women and children 
 also murdered. I don’t know what has become 
 of the officers who were in the boats left behind 
 us at Fyzabad.” 
 
 An eye-witness to the brutal conduct of the 
 mutinous sepoys at Allahabad, and who himself 
 had a narrow escape from their ruthless hands, 
 thus writes ; “ A next-door English neighbor 
 
 of mine was visited one night by a gang of 
 upwards of two dozen sepoys, fully equipped 
 with destructive arms. On the hue and cry 
 being given,. I went up to the terrace of my 
 house, and saw with my own eyes the rascals 
 cutting into two an infant hoy of two or three years 
 of age, while flaying with his mother ; next, they 
 hacked into pieces the lady; and subsequently, 
 most shockingly and horridly, the husband'^ The 
 writer made his escape by a back-door, and, by 
 means of a bamboo, he managed to cross the 
 Ganges, and make his way through multiplied 
 difficulties to Benares. 
 
 Affecting evidences of the villanies that have 
 
48 
 
 DR. duff’s letters OX INDIA. 
 
 been practised are ever and anon casting up. 
 The other day, in tlie neighborhood of Benares, 
 a detachment of Europeans fell in with twenty- 
 one sepoys in disguise, who wished to pass them- 
 selves olf as foor villagers that had been looted, 
 that is, plundered. On searching their persons, 
 however, each of them had about seventy rupees 
 in cash, besides gold and silver jewels covered with 
 blood, showing but too clearly the brutal way in 
 which they must have been taken off our poor 
 murdered countrywomen. 
 
 At one of the stations, a lady, in panic terror, 
 had hidden herself in an obscure corner of the 
 house. Through a chink or crevice in the par- 
 tition she saw the bleeding head of one of her 
 children rolled as a ball across the floor ; and 
 on emerging from her hiding place, beheld the 
 fragments of another scattered about ! 
 
 Here is another variety of incident in the ter- 
 rible tragedy now enacting in the North-West, 
 as related by an ejm-witness : An ofiicer and 
 
 his wife were attacked by many sowars, or mu- 
 tineers of native cavalry. The brave ofiicer 
 singly shot dead seven of them on the spot, and 
 at last was overcome by a number of the rebels. 
 Instead, however, of allowing himself to be dis- 
 graced by the scoundrels, under the pressure 
 of the awful emergency, he first killed his wife 
 and then pnt an end to his own life! 
 
 Similar as to its main object was another 
 
LETTER V. 
 
 49 
 
 case, of which certain information lias reached 
 us. A small party of gentlemen, with a young 
 lady lately resident in Calcutta, and well known 
 to some of us, effected their escape to an isolated 
 house, where they were hard pressed by the 
 ferocious mutineers. In case of their being 
 eventually overpowered by numbers, thej" en- 
 tered into a mutual though dismal agreement, 
 to kill the lady to save her from the brutal outrages 
 of the murderers, and then to sell their own lives as 
 dearly as they could ! 
 
 The troops at Seetapore, in Northern Oude, 
 after the bloody butchery they had committed 
 there, proceeded towards Muhumdie. They met 
 on the road the refugees from Shahjehanpore, 
 and the civil officers of Muhumdie, fleeing from 
 the latter place ; all of whom they deliberately 
 slaughtered, save one. Captain Orr, who wit- 
 nessed the horrible scene. 
 
 June 29. — Still no cessation of heavy tidings 
 from the North-West. In one of our journals 
 to-day appears the letter of a correspondent at 
 Allahabad, who, after stating that the destruc- 
 tion of property there was total, thus proceeds : 
 “ Did the report reach you of the massacre of 
 the Futtchghur fugitives ? It passed in atrocity 
 all that has hitherto been perpetrated. A large 
 body of Europeans, men, women, and children, 
 in several boats, left Futtehghur for this ; they 
 5 
 
50 
 
 DR. DUFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 were all the non-military residents of the place. 
 On arrival at Bithoor (near Cawnpore), the 
 Nana Sahib fired on them with the artillery the 
 Government allowed him to keep. One round 
 
 shot struck poor Mrs. , and killed her on 
 
 the spot. The boats were then boarded, and 
 the inmates landed and dragged to the parade- 
 ground at Cawnpore, where they were first fired 
 at, and then literally hacked to pieces with tvlwars^ 
 or axe-like swords. 
 
 July 1. — To-day news have reached us of the 
 whole of the native troops having risen at Ba- 
 reilly, the largest station in Rohilcund. They 
 first of all took possession of the guns, and then 
 set at liberty 3000 prisoners in the jail, who laid 
 the station in ruins. Many of the British officers 
 and other residents, it is supposed, made their 
 escape. 
 
 Indeed it may be added, that from every sta- 
 tion where as yet there has not been actual 
 mutiny, the handful of Europeans who have not 
 been able to escape are living in hourly expec- 
 tation of an attack. 
 
 July 2. — At an early period of this deplorable 
 rebellion I was led — from the analog}' of the 
 Vellore mutiny, as well as various minute cir- 
 cumstances which had come within my own 
 cognizance — to infer that the cartridge affair 
 
LETTER V. 
 
 51 
 
 and its alleged caste-breaking tendencies were 
 a mere shallow but plausible pretext in the 
 hands of evil minded, designing men, and that 
 the real originating cause of the whole mischief 
 would be found of a purely political character. 
 To this persuasion I gave free expression at a 
 time when few were prepared to entertain it. 
 Every disclosure, however, which of late has 
 been made, goes to demonstrate that it has been 
 the result of a long-concocted Mohammedan 
 conspiracy against the supremacy and rule of 
 Great Britain in India. 
 
 Information received from arrested spies and 
 papers found in their possession serves to im- 
 plicate the ex-King of Oude, and especially his 
 Prime Minister, the Nawab Ali Nukhi Khan — 
 one of tlie cleverest and wiliest of Asiatic in- 
 triguers. Indeed, it is said that since his im- 
 prisonment in Fort-William, the latter openly 
 avows that he has had a principal share in con- 
 triving and working out the deeply-laid plot, 
 and that he glories in having done so, adding 
 that he has woven a web around the British 
 Government which it will not disentangle for 
 many a day. 
 
 To all appearance the titular Emperor of Delhi 
 and members of his family have also been deeply 
 implicated in the dark and foul conspiracy. In 
 time the whole truth may gradually be unfolded. 
 MeanwhHe, gleams of light like the following 
 
DR. DUFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 52 
 
 shoot out upon the subject. An officer who 
 escaped from Fyzabad states that, in a conver- 
 sation with the subadar of his own regiment, 
 the latter said, “ As you are going away for 
 ever, I will tell you all about our plans. We 
 halt at F^'zabad five days, and march via Darri- 
 abad upon Lucknow,where we expect to be joined 
 by the people of the citj’. Proclamations have 
 been received from the King of Delhi, informing 
 all that he is once more on the throne of his 
 fathers, and calling on the whole army to join 
 his standard. Rajah Maun Sing has been ap- 
 pointed Commander-in-Chief in Oude.” The 
 subadar farther added : “ You English have 
 been a long time in India, but you know little 
 of us. We have nothing to do with Wajid Ali 
 (the ex-King of Oude) or any of his relations. 
 The kings of Lucknow were made by you ; the 
 only ruler in India empowered to give sunnuds 
 (titles to kingship) is the Emperor of Delhi ; he 
 never made a King of Oude, and it is from him 
 only that we shall receive our orders.” 
 
 July 3. — For the last two or three weeks, no 
 communication has reached this Government 
 from the Governor of Agra. Already some of 
 the fugitives from the North-West have arrived 
 in Calcutta ; and their oral accounts more than 
 confirm the distressing accounts which from time 
 to time have appeared in our public journals. 
 
LETTER V. 
 
 53 
 
 The condition of the North-West is, according 
 to the testimony of these respectable eye-wit- 
 nesses, beyond measure deplorable. It seems 
 to be one universal scene of violence, depreda- 
 tion, and plunder — no Government, with its 
 wholesome restraints, anywhere — no adminis- 
 tration of justice — no control of police author- 
 ity — no collection of revenue — no traffic — no 
 buying or selling — every man’s hand uplifted 
 against his neighbor — might being right, the 
 strongest is for the moment the sovereign 
 power ! Oh ! what need of humiliation before 
 God I What need of the prayers of God’s peo- 
 ple ! Oh, for the penitential spirit of Nehemiah 
 and Daniel of old, and their gift of copious and 
 appropriate utterance I Truly the floods of the 
 ungodly “ have lifted up their voice ; the floods 
 have lifted up their waves.” What, then, can 
 be our consolation ? What but that of the 
 Psalmist, “ The Lord on high is mightier than 
 the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty 
 waves of the sea.” 
 
 Under much pressure and sorrow of spirit, I 
 remain, yours very affectionatelj’’, 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
 5 * 
 
LETTER VI. 
 
 Calcutta, 7th July, 1857. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — Alas, alas I the work 
 of savage butchery still progresses in this dis- 
 tracted land. Not a day passes without some 
 addition, from one quarter or another, to the 
 black catalogue of treachery and murder. This 
 very day Government have received intelli- 
 gence of one of the foulest tragedies connected 
 with this awful rebellion. At Cawnpore, one of 
 the largest military stations in Northern India, 
 a mutinous spirit had earlj^ manifested itself 
 among the native soldiery, and there were no 
 European troops whatever to keep it in check, 
 except about fifty men who had latterly been 
 sent by Sir Henry Lawrence from Lucknow. 
 But there was one man there whose spirit, ener- 
 gy, and fertility of resource were equal to a 
 number of ordinary regiments — the brave and 
 skilful veteran. Sir Hugh Wheeler. By his as- 
 tonishing vigor and promptitude of action, he 
 succeeded in keeping in abeyance the mutinous 
 spirit of three or four thousand armed men. At 
 the same time, with the forecasting prudence of 
 a wise general, he began to prepare timeously 
 [54] 
 
LETTER VI. 
 
 for the worst, by forming a small entrenched 
 camp, to which ladies, children, and other help- 
 less persons, with provisions, were removed, 
 while most of tlie British officers took up their 
 abode either in or near it. 
 
 At last the long-expected rising took place. 
 The mutineers went deliberately to work, ac- 
 cording to the prescribed plan followed in other 
 quarters. They broke open the jail and liber- 
 ated the prisoners ; they plundered the public 
 treasury ; they pillaged and set fire to the bun- 
 galows of the officers and other British resi- 
 dents, killing all indiscriminately who had not 
 effected their escape to the entrenched camp. 
 
 There Sir Hugh and his small handful with 
 undaunted courage held their position against 
 the most tremendous odds, repelling every at- 
 tack of the thousands by whom they were sur- 
 rounded with heavy loss to the rebels. These 
 were at last joined by thousands more of the 
 mutineers from Sultanporc, Seetapore, and other 
 places in Oude, with guns. The conflict now 
 became terrific, exemplifying, on the part of the 
 British, the very spirit and determination of old 
 Greece at Thermopylm. The soul of the brave 
 old chief, in particular, only rose, by the accu- 
 mulating pressure of difficulty, into grander 
 heroism. To the last he maintained a hearty 
 cheerfulness, declaring that he could hold out 
 for two or three weeks against any numbers. A 
 
5G 
 
 DR. duff’s letters OX IXDIA. 
 
 mysterious and overruling Providence, however, 
 had decreed it otherwise : the veteran warrior, 
 whose very presence exhilarated and inspirited 
 all around, at last fell, mortally wounded, and 
 with him also several other of the subordinate 
 leaders. 
 
 With the fall of the chief and some of his 
 right-hand men, the remainder of the little band 
 seem to have been smitten with a sense of the 
 utter hopelessness of prolonged resistance. 
 They did not, they could not, know that relief 
 was so near at hand, — that the gallant Colonel 
 Neil, who had already saved Benares and the 
 fortress of Allahabad with his Madras Fusiliers, 
 was within two or three days’ march of them. 
 Had this been known to them, they would 
 doubtless have striven to hold out during these 
 two or three days ; and, to all human appear- 
 ance, with success. But, ignorant of the ap- 
 proaching relief, and assailed by the q-ies and 
 tears of helpless women and children, they 
 were induced, in an evil hour, to entertain the 
 overtures made to them by a man who had al- 
 ready been guilty of treachery and murder. 
 
 This man was Nana Sahib, the adopted son 
 of the late Bajee Row, the ex-Peishwa, or last 
 head of the Mahratta confederacy, who, for the 
 long period of nearly forty years, resided at 
 Benares, enjoying the munificent pension of 
 £80,000 a year. This Nana Sahib was allowed. 
 
LElTEIt VI. 
 
 57 
 
 by the bounty of the British Government, to oc- 
 cupy a small fort at Bithoor, not far from Cawn- 
 pore. Till within the last few months this man 
 was wont to profess the greatest delight in Eu- 
 ropean society, to go out with British officers on 
 shooting excursions, and to invite them to fetes 
 at his residence. And yet, the moment that 
 fortune seems to frown on British interests, he 
 turns round, and, with Asiatic treachery, delib- 
 erately plans the destruction of the very men 
 whom he had so often, in the spirit of apparent- 
 ly cordial friendship, feted and feasted. 
 
 On Sunday, the 28tli June, this man, with 
 consummate hj^pocrisy, of his own accord sent 
 overtures to our beleaguered countrymen — then 
 bereft of their heroic chieftain — swearing, “ upon 
 the water of the Ganges, and all the oaths most 
 binding on a Hindu, that if the garrison would 
 trust to him and surrender, the lives of all would 
 be spared, and they should be put into boats and 
 sent down to Allahabad.” Under the influence 
 of some infatuating blindness, that garrison that 
 might have possibly held out till relief arrived, 
 was induced to trust in these oily professions, 
 and surrender. Agreeably' to the terms of the 
 treaty, they were put into boats, with provi- 
 sions, and other necessaries and comforts But 
 mark the conduct of the perfidious fiend in hu- 
 man form ! No sooner had the boats reached 
 the middle of the river, than tl)Gir pworn pro- 
 
58 
 
 DK, DUFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 tector gave himself a preconcerted signal, and 
 guns, which had been laid for the purpose, were 
 opened upon them from the Cawnpore bank ! 
 yea, and when our poor wretched countrymen 
 tried to escape, by crossing to the Oude side of 
 the river, they found that arrangements had 
 been made there too for their reception ; for 
 there, such of them as were enabled to land 
 were instantaneously' cut to pieces by cavalry 
 that had been sent across for the purpose. In 
 this way nearly the whole party', according to 
 the Government report, consisting of several 
 hundreds, mostly helpless women and children, 
 were destroyed ! such of the women and chil- 
 dren as were not killed, being reserved proba- 
 bly as hostages. Only one boat escaped, which 
 was pursued for miles ; and when overtaken, 
 all in it were taken back to the camp of the 
 mutineers, and there shot, or cruelly torn to 
 
 PIECES ! 
 
 July 10. — Throughout all ages the Asiatic has 
 been noted for his duplicity, cunning, hypocrisy, 
 treachery ; and coupled with this — and, indeed, 
 as necessary for excelling in this accomplish- 
 ment of Jesuitism — his capacity of secresy and 
 concealment. But in vain will the annals even of 
 Asia be ransacked for examples of artful, refined, 
 consummate duplicity', surpassing those which 
 have been exhibited throughout the recent mu- 
 
l.ETTER VI. 
 
 59 
 
 tinies. lu almost every instance, the sepoys 
 succeeded in concealing tlieir Igng-concocted 
 and deep-laid murderous designs from the most 
 vigilant officers to the very last ; yea, and in not 
 only concealing them, but in masking them 
 ynder the most flaming professions of attach- 
 ment and loyal t 3 ^ The case of the 6th Native 
 Infantry at Allahabad is thus recorded, as the 
 result of authentic information, bj- one of our 
 Calcutta journals ; “ It appears that after the 
 
 officers of the regiment first left the lines, a 
 subadar paid a visit to Lieutenant Slaines, the 
 interpreter, and expostulated with him, in the 
 name of the regiment, upon the want of confi- 
 dence which they had displayed. ‘Come to us,’ 
 ho said, ‘ we are faithful, we love our good mas- 
 ters, we will protect you, but it gives us pain 
 to see you suspect us.’ Slaines, and his wife, 
 who was present at the interview, were melted 
 even to tears at the simple eloquence of the man 
 whom they had insulted, as well as his fellows, 
 by their unworthy suspicions. There was but 
 one course left to take, to return to the bosom 
 of the regiment, to throw themselves upon the 
 hearts of the men ; and this course they resolved 
 to adopt, persuading the other officers of the 
 regiment and their families to follow their ex- 
 ample. 
 
 “When they returned to the regiment, the 
 scene which awaited them touched the hearts 
 
60 
 
 DR. duff’s LETTKRS ON INDIA. 
 
 of all present. The men whom they had sus- 
 pected, in a moment of narrow-minded appre- 
 hension, were found drawn up to receive their 
 officers, and welcomed them with three hearty 
 English cheers. The native officers, unable to 
 control their feelings, which swelled high, and 
 sent their ■warm Asiatic blood coursing in their 
 veins, in defiance of all cold rules of decorum 
 and hollow military observances, gave vent to 
 the natural and simple emotions of their brave 
 hearts. They flung themselves round the necks 
 of their European officers who had so gener- 
 ously atoned for their cruel suspicions, and 
 kissed them on both cheeks. The reconciliation 
 was complete, confidence w'as happily restored, 
 and that same night the native officers and men rose 
 and proceeded to the work of massacre / ! ” 
 
 Tliis is the regiment which some time before 
 had professed such extra zeal and loyalty, that 
 they enthusiastically pled to be allowed to pro- 
 ceed to Delhi to punish the mutineers, of -wdiose 
 treacherous and cruel conduct they spoke with 
 vehement detestation. In order still further to 
 •prove their loyalty, they again and again de- 
 livered up spies, tvdio had come to spread sedi- 
 tion amongst them. So completely was the 
 veracity of their professions confided in, that 
 Lord Canning sent them a special letter of 
 thanks, which was publicly read to them on 
 parade on a certain evening at six o’clock ; and 
 
I.ETTEll VI. 
 
 61 
 
 the reading of which elicited three hearty cheers 
 for the Company. On that very evening, at nine 
 o'clock, a gentleman on the ramparts of the fort, 
 observing a rocket go up, said to the magistrate 
 near him, “What’s that?” “Oh,” said the 
 latter, “ it is only a marriage.” But, lo I another 
 rocket followed. It was the signal agreed on 
 by the '‘staunch and loyal 6/A;” when the mess- 
 house was attacked, and seventeen out of tho 
 twenty unarmed, confiding officers assembled 
 there were instantaneously butchered in cold 
 blood, their shrieks being heard at a considera- 
 ble distance. The colonel of the regiment, who, 
 up to the last, laughed at the idea of precau- 
 tionary measures being necessary, and who 
 would not believe that his men would mutinj’ 
 until the balls flew through his hat and sleeves, 
 contrived to escape to the fort with his life. 
 Then commenced tho work of plunder and de- 
 vastation ; the destruction of property through- 
 out the town and its vicinity being most com- 
 plete, the bungalows in the cantonments, and all 
 the British residences being soon in a blaze, the 
 new railway station, with its buildings, and 
 machinery, and carriages, the extensive Ameri- 
 can mission-press premises and schools, all laid 
 waste ; the public treasury, bank, and store- 
 houses pillaged ; in short, within a few days 
 the whole city of Allahabad, containing 120,000 
 inhabitants, was not only sacked and I'avagedj 
 6 
 
G2 
 
 DR. DUFP\S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 but literally reduced to one vast mass of ruins 
 and ashes ! 
 
 July 15. — The case of Jhansi, tlie capital of 
 a petty State in Bundelcund, to the west of 
 Allahabad, is one of the most deplorable. The 
 sepoys having mutinied, some of the officers ef- 
 fected their escape, and others were killed. But 
 the major part of the Europeans, to the number 
 of fifty-five, inclusive of the ladies and children, 
 got possession of the fort, and for several days 
 kept good their position — the ladies assisting 
 the gentlemen in cooking for them, sending 
 them refreshments, casting bullets, &c. Though 
 beginning to be much straitened for want of 
 provisions, they still held out, until at last the 
 mutineers, assisted with guns and elephants by 
 the Rani or Cjueen, succeeded in effecting an 
 entrance at one of the gates. Then did the 
 proverbial faithlessness of Asiatics receive a 
 fresh illustration. The gentlemen — some of 
 whom were famous marksmen, one of them 
 having killed no less than twenty-five of the 
 rebels with his own hand — were solemnly pro- 
 mised, that if they laid down their arms, and 
 gave themselves up quietly, the lives of all 
 would be spared. Unfortunately for themselves, 
 their wives and little ones, they were induced 
 to listen to these promises, and come out. No 
 sooner had they done so, than they were tied in 
 
LETTER VI, 
 
 63 
 
 a long line between some trees, and had their 
 heads struck off I Such ladies as had children 
 were doomed to see them cut in halves before 
 their own turn came ! Then followed scenes of 
 dishonor and torture too hideous to bo narrated ! 
 these murderous savages, like the tigers which 
 inhabit their jungles, seemingly delighting to 
 play with their victims before despatching them! 
 
 In other cases, where father and mother have 
 been killed, and little children have made an 
 olfort to run away, they had been caught and 
 thrown into the flames of the burning houses ! 
 Such cruelties, outraging, as they do, every law 
 of humanity, are earning for the perpetrators 
 universal execration. 
 
 In another well-authenticated case, the Euro- 
 pean servant of a mess was seized and slowly 
 cut up into small pieces, and portions of his flesh 
 forced down the throats of his ch ildren, before they 
 were themselves cruelly destroyed 1 Even the 
 native servants of the same. mess were “ marked” 
 by the brutal mutineers, by having their hands, 
 and ears, and noses cut off 1 
 
 Elsewhere the sepoys took up living children 
 by the legs, with the heads hanging downwards, 
 and tore them up in two. In one instance, four 
 children of one family were thus barbarously 
 torn up before the eyes of their father and 
 mother, who themselves were soon afterwards 
 shockingly abused and butchered. Indeed, I 
 
64 
 
 DE. DrFF’S LETTERS OX INDIA. 
 
 know nothing in history comparable to these 
 atrocities, except those perpetrated by the 
 “bloody Piedmontese” on the Waldensian wit- 
 nesses. 
 
 July 18. — To-day authentic tidings have 
 reached us from Indore of the infamous treach- 
 ery of Holkar, the descendant of the celebrated 
 Mahratta chief of that name, against whom the 
 Duke of Wellington fought. He professed the 
 utmost friendship towards the British Govern- 
 ment, and the British Eesident, Colonel Durand. 
 When symptoms of disalfection began to ap- 
 pear among the native troops of the British 
 contingent, Holkar, in his extra-loyalty, sent a 
 portion of his own artillery to guard the Resi- 
 dency. All of a sudden, on the morning of the 
 1st instant, when all were quite unprepared, the 
 artillery turned round, opened fire, and poured 
 rounds of grape into the edifice which they had 
 ostensibly been appointed to defend 1 The sur- 
 prise was complete. By a miracle of Providence, 
 Colonel Durand succeeded in drawing off all 
 the officers, ladies, and children — though sorely 
 harassed and pursued — to Sehore, distant about 
 a hundred miles. But whether any of them may 
 ultimately escape alive, is wrapped up in pain- 
 ful uncertainty — the whole of Central India 
 being now, like the North-West, one wide-spread 
 scene of anarchy, rapine, and blood. 
 
 July 20. — Heavier and heavier tidings of woe ! 
 
LETTER VI. 
 
 65 
 
 About a week ago it was known that Sir Ilenry 
 Lawrence — whose defence of Lucknow with a 
 mere handful, amid the rage of hostile m 3 'riads, 
 has been the admiration of all India — had gone 
 out to attack a vast body of armed rebels ; that 
 his notice force, with characteristic treachery’, 
 had turned round upon him at the commencement 
 of the fight — and that, with his two hundred 
 Europeans, he had to cut his way back, with 
 Spartan daring, to the Residency. It was also 
 known that, on that occasion, the bravo leader 
 was severely wounded ; and two daj^s ago, in- 
 telligence reached us, which, alas I has since 
 been confirmed, that on the 4th instant he sunk 
 under the effects of his wounds. What shall I 
 say ? It is impossible for me to express the 
 grief of heart which I feel in thus recording the 
 death of Sir Henry Lawrence. In his character 
 were singularly blended the heroic chivalry of 
 the old Greek, and the inflexible sternness of 
 the old Roman, in happy combination with the 
 tenderness of a patriarch, and the benevolence 
 of the Christian philanthropist. In him the 
 native army, through whose murderous treach- 
 ery he prematurely fell, has lost its greatest 
 benefactor ; while the girls’ and boys’ schools, 
 founded by his munificence on the heights of 
 the Himalaya, of Mount Aboo, and of the Nil- 
 giris, must testify through coming ages to the 
 depth and liveliness of his interest in the wel- 
 6 * 
 
66 
 
 DE. duff’s LETTEKS ON INDIA. 
 
 fare of the British soldier’s family in this burn- 
 ing foreign clime. I mourn over him as a 
 personal friend, one whose friendship resembled 
 more what we sometimes meet with in romance 
 rather than in actual everyday life. I mourn 
 over him as one of the truest, sincerest, and 
 most liberal supporters of our Calcutta mission. 
 I mourn over him as the heaviest loss which 
 British India could possibly sustain in the very 
 midst of the most terrible crisis of her history. 
 The only counterpoise to all this heavy bud- 
 get of calamities is the fact, that a small 
 column of Europeans which marched under 
 General Havelock fi-om Allahabad, after routing 
 the rebels at Futtehpore and other places, 
 recaptured Cawnpore on the 16th instant. 
 There, the rebel army, commanded by Nana 
 Sahib in person, after a vigoi’ous defence, was 
 totally defeated. It was found, however, to the 
 horror of our brave men, that all the captive 
 British women and children, whom it was sup- 
 posed that Nana Sahib had been reserving as 
 hostages, had been barbarously murdered by him 
 before the engagement ! A gleam of hope now 
 opens upon us, that General Havelock and his 
 dauntless little force will be able to fight their 
 way to Lucknow, in time to save the garrison 
 there — of wliich the late Sir Henry Lawrence 
 was the life and soul — from a similar terrible 
 fate to that of Cawnpore. 
 
LETTEIl VI. 
 
 6 
 
 The reports about tlie fall of Delhi, which, 
 coming from so many difl’erent quarters, were 
 universally credited, turn out to have been pre- 
 mature. In the neighborhood and under the 
 walls of the doomed city there were several 
 severe combats, in which hundreds of the mur- 
 derous mutineers were slain ; and these had 
 been exaggerated by native reports into the 
 fall and capture of the city itself. That long 
 anxiously looked-for event, however, has not yet 
 been officially announced. In the absence of 
 authentic intelligence, the long delay is on all 
 hands felt to be inexplicable. It is this unex- 
 pected delay which has doubtless enheartened 
 the disaffected everywhere, and filled them with 
 bright visions of reconqucst and reestablished 
 dominion. 
 
 Early next month commences the grand annual 
 Mohammedan festival of the Mohurrum, during 
 which, even in ordinary times, the followers of 
 the False Prophet often exhibit outbursts of un- 
 controllable fanaticism. This year, as you may 
 suppose, this season of Mussulman excitement 
 is looked forward to with unwonted anxiety all 
 over India. Already at Patna, one of the largest 
 cities on the Ganges, where the Mohammedans 
 abound, discovery has been made of a plot to 
 massacre all the Europeans in that quarter, on 
 one of their great festival days in August. 
 Documents were seized which amply proved 
 
C8 
 
 IJU. duff’s LETTFKS ox IXJ)IA. 
 
 that money for this end had been plentifully sup- 
 plied by one of the wealthiest Mohammedan 
 bankers in India ; and in tliese it was urged 
 that the rising should be simultaneous on the 
 same day all over the land. This timeous dis- 
 covery may truly be regarded as preeminently 
 providential ; since, by putting all our authori- 
 ties doubly on the alert, the vigor of their pre- 
 cautions may, under God, prove the means of 
 averting the threatened catastrophe. Pray, 
 pray that, amid these outpoured judgments of a 
 righteous and offended God, the British people, 
 whether at home or in India, may learn the les- 
 sons which they are designed to inculcate. 
 
 Yours ever affectionately, 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
LETTER VII. 
 
 Calcutta, 21st July, 1857. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — Authentic details have 
 now reached izs from various quarters respect- 
 ing the awful tragedy at Bareilly, the capital 
 of Rohilcund. The latter name will at once re- 
 call to remembi’ance the most disgraceful inci- 
 dent in the life of Warren Hastings. For filthy 
 lucre, British troops were hired to slaughter the 
 brave Rohillas. Of that foul transaction have 
 we ever repented as a people and nation ? 
 And may wo not now be smarting under the 
 retributive judgments of that holy and jealous 
 God who declares that he will “ visit the ini- 
 quity of the fathers upon the children unto the 
 third and fourth generation of them that hate 
 Him ? ” 
 
 After the outbreak at Meerut and Delhi, all 
 the officers at Bareilly, civil and military, took 
 the precaution of sending their wives and chil- 
 dren to the neighboring hill-station of Nynee 
 Tab Still, up to the very day before the out- 
 break, their letters contained little else than ac- 
 counts of the quiet behavior of the sepoys, with 
 expressions of hope that ere long the district 
 
 [69] 
 
70 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 and place would be sufficiently quiet to allow 
 of ladies returning ! Everything was done 
 which Asiatic cunning and treachery could 
 achieve for lulling to sleep all suspicion. The 
 Mohammedan chief, Khan Bahadur, the Nawab 
 of the city — a pensioner of the British Govern- 
 ment, which treated him with the greatest 
 generosity — by vaiuous spontaneous services, 
 strove to establish confidence in his attachment 
 and loyalty. Only the day before the mutiny, 
 the sepoys asked several officers to recall their 
 wives and families from the hills, appealing to 
 the perfect quietness which prevailed; and, even 
 to the last moment, swearing that they would 
 protect their officers, if need be, unto death! It 
 turned out, however, that at the very time when 
 these earnest professions were being made, men 
 lay concealed under a bridge so as to murder 
 their commanding officer, while others were 
 told off to surround the officers’ houses, and 
 others still, posted on the roads, so as to waylay 
 and intercept any fugitives! 
 
 On Sunday, 31st May, at eleven a.jl, a gun 
 was fired, and at that signal the regiments rose 
 en masse, and commenced firing into all the 
 houses of the European residents. Of these a 
 goodly number succeeded most marvellously in 
 effecting their escape ; many, however, were 
 instantaneously slaughtered. The professedly 
 “ loyal” Khan Bahadur was proclaimed “ King 
 
LETl'ER VII. 
 
 71 
 
 of Rohilcund.” And his first proclamation was a 
 denouncing of the penalty of death on any 
 natives who should be found sheltering British 
 men, women, and children! And such of the 
 officers, civil and military, with their Christian 
 assistants, and two women and children, who 
 had escaped murder on the first outbreak, were 
 dragged forth from their places of concealment 
 before the “ new King,” and by him formally 
 sentenced to death. 
 
 Bareilly is in the centre of a large district, 
 containing between three and four millions of 
 inhabitants, among whom, until the present 
 year, a Christian missionary had never been 
 located. A few months ago, the Rev. Mr. But- 
 ler, a minister of the American Episcopal 
 Methodists, came out to establish a new mission 
 in India. Mr. Butler is an admirable man, a 
 man of high talents and shining piety, who en- 
 deared himself to all here who were privileged to 
 make his acquaintance. As he expected to be 
 soon followed by a jiowerful staff of assistants 
 from America, he was strongly recommended to 
 plant his new mission in Bareilly. From his 
 name not having yet appeared in any list of 
 killed or missing, we are hopeful that he, and his 
 wife, and children succeeded in reaching Nynec 
 Tal * A small body of native Christians, 
 
 * Dr. Duffs hopes, we are happy to state, have been realized, for in 
 the WUneft9 of September 12, there was published a Icnfjthened ex- 
 
72 
 
 DR. duff’s letters OX IXDIA. 
 
 gathered out by a native catechist, who had 
 been supported by the British residents, has been 
 destroyed. The spirit of the Mohammedan has 
 always been known by the few who studied it 
 to be more intensely autichristian than that of 
 heathenism itself. Many, however, cherished 
 the delusion that, under the combined influences 
 of European civilization, it was now changed 
 and mollified. I never believed this myself. I 
 always regarded the apparent change as merely 
 the result of external repression, that is, of 
 necessity. Of the sad truth of this view of the 
 case the present rebellion has furnished the 
 most memorable illustrations. Kindness, con- 
 ciliation, benefits conferred, all have gone for 
 nothing. The moment the external restraint has 
 been removed, the old spirit, which exulted in 
 the merit of sending the souls of infidels to the 
 abyss of hell, has burst forth with uncontrollable 
 fury. 
 
 August 1. — The Cawnpore tragedy turns out to 
 have been, in extent and atrocity, the most 
 awful of all the terrible tragedies recently en- 
 acted in the North-West. It is now certain that 
 not fewer than six or seven hundred men, women, 
 and children have fallen in it! The suflerings, 
 physical and mental, which most of these must 
 have endured for weeks, from the enemy’s shot, 
 
 tract from alerter of Mr. Butler’s, dated from Nynee Tal, which place 
 be and his family had safely reached 
 
LETTER VII. 
 
 73 
 
 exposure to the sun, scarcity of provisions, sick- 
 ness of every kind, racking suspense and 
 anxiety, imagination itself can never realize. 
 In my former account, it was stated that the 
 monster Nana Sahib had reserved a number of 
 women and children, who had escaped the fearful 
 massacre in the boats, and that these he had 
 barbarously massacred the day before General 
 Havelock defeated him in battle and recaptured 
 Cawnpore. On the evening of the 15th July, 
 these, as it now appears from a written memo- 
 randum found on the spot, to the number of 197, 
 were taken to the house where the unfortunate 
 men who had been taken from the boats were 
 previously murdered, and there the whole of 
 them were savagely butchered, and many of the 
 mangled bodies thrown into a deep well. The 
 building in which the massacre took place is 
 described as looking like a horrid slaughter- 
 house. A gentleman avIio saw it, writes to say, 
 “ Let your imagination conceive of the horrible 
 what it may, and it must still fall immeasurably 
 short of the reality.” Surely God is visiting^ our 
 people in this land in hot displeasure; surely our 
 sins have found us out. What need, then, of 
 great searchings of heart, and lowliest contri- 
 tion of spirit, and burning confessions of guilt, 
 before God, if haply lie turn away the fierceness 
 of His anger. Still, nothing can palliate, far 
 less justify, the crimes of the cruel murderers of 
 7 • 
 
1 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 defenceless wora-en and innocent children. Ac- 
 cordingly, General Neill, by the last accounts, 
 “ was compelling all the high-caste Brahmins he 
 could capture among the guilty sepoys, to collect 
 the bloody clothes of the victims, and wash up the 
 blood from the floor, a European soldier stand- 
 ing over each man with a ‘ cat-o’-nine-tails,’ and 
 administering it with vigor whenever he relaxed 
 in his exertions. The wretches having been 
 subjected to this degradation, which of course 
 includes loss of caste, are then hanged one 
 after another.” 
 
 Many isolated incidents connected with this 
 wholesale butchery of a very affecting descrip- 
 tion have come to light. Here is one : — After 
 the British had been shut up in their entrench- 
 ment, an English lady arrived with her child- 
 ren — fugitives from some neighboring station. 
 Her husband had been murdered on the road. 
 The poor helpless widow implored Nana Sahib 
 for life ; but he ordered them all to be taken 
 out to the plain and killed ! On the way, the 
 children complained of the sun ; and the mother 
 requested that they might be taken under some 
 trees. But even that request was denied her. 
 Brought like so many felons to the open plain, 
 the mother and children were tied together, and 
 deliberately shot, with the exception of the 
 youngest, who was seen crawling over the dead 
 bodies, and feeling them, and asking why they 
 
LKITEK VII. 
 
 75 
 
 had fallen down, and gone to sleep in the snn ! 
 At last a cruel trooper came, and dashed out 
 the brains of this little one ! The very recital 
 of such horrors makes one’s blood curdle in the 
 veins. What a picture might a skillful artist 
 form out of this scene — a picture which, might 
 portray to men’s senses the cruelties of heathen- 
 ism, and proclaim aloud the necessity for the 
 regenerating, humanizing influences of the gos- 
 pel of grace and salvation ! 
 
 August 4. — This terrible rebellion, I grieve to 
 say, so far from being arrested, is spreading 
 with rapid strides. At Hazaribag, in the neigh- 
 borhood of the hill tribes on the North-West 
 frontier of Bengal — at Segowlie, to the east of 
 the Ganges, and other smaller stations — there 
 have been risings and massacres. At one of 
 these, the doctor, his wife, and child were burnt 
 alive in their own house ! and the head of the 
 commanding officer was carried off by the rebels 
 in triumph, to be presented as a trophy to their 
 king ! And then, within the last few days, the 
 mutiny at Dinapore — one of the most distress- 
 ing of all — because, humanly speaking, it 
 might have been easily prevented. In plain 
 truth, it must be laid at the door of the proud 
 incompetency and mismanagement of the old 
 General in command. Dinapore is the great 
 military station which commanded Patna, where 
 
70 
 
 I)K. duff’s letters ox ixdia. 
 
 a large proportion of the population is Moham- 
 medan, and of a character so turbulent as to 
 have often given much anxiety and uneasiness 
 even in ordinary years. There was a British 
 regiment there, and the forces for the upper 
 provinces were constantly passing up in steam- 
 ers. The three native infantry regiments and 
 native cavalry were known to be thoroughly 
 disaflFected and mutinous. And the cry from all 
 quarters for weeks past was, that they should 
 be disarmed ; and this measure, which could 
 have easily been effected, was first recommend- 
 ed to the General in command by Government, 
 and last of all positively ordered. But the busi- 
 ness was gone about so clumsily and dilatorily, 
 that the whole of the native sepoys escaped 
 with arms and ammunition, untouched and un- 
 pursued, to spread the terrible work of incendiar- 
 ism, plunder, and massacre, over the surround- 
 ing districts. Numbers have proceeded up the 
 right bank of the Sone river ; tlie rest have 
 crossed the Ganges, where they have been joined 
 by a disaffected Hindu Eajah, who has brought 
 with him thousands of armed men. The ac- 
 counts of their destructive proceedings which 
 have alreadj' reached us are truly appalling ; 
 and we are trembling lest still worse may soon 
 reach us. It really looks as if judgments as 
 sore as the plagues of Egjqrt were let loose on 
 this devoted land. Already has the sword, one 
 
LETTER VII. 
 
 77 
 
 of God’s great plagues, been let loose upon it ; 
 and already there are ominous forebodings of 
 a famine ; and if a famine, then the pestilence ! 
 
 Meanwhile, we cannot be too grateful to God 
 for our exemption in Calcutta from actual out- 
 break. There has been no end of alarm and 
 panic. For some time the authorities looked on 
 with something like infatuated blindness and 
 indifference. At last, they have been fairly 
 aroused. The discovery of plot after plot, for a 
 general rise of the natives and massacre of tlie 
 Europeans — the recently detected design of sixty 
 sworn desperadoes to enter Fort -William by 
 scaling ladders in the night, murder the guards, 
 and rescue the ex-King of Oiide — the ascertain- 
 ed fact that, within the last two months, tens of 
 thousands of muskets and other arms have been 
 sold to Mohammedans and other natives — the 
 presentment of tlie Grand Jury, and a memorial 
 from the Christian inhabitants, imploring tlie 
 Government to disarm the native population — 
 these and many other circumstances combined, 
 at last roused our authorities to action. And as 
 on Saturday last commenced the Mohammedan 
 festival of the Bukra Eed, to last for three days, 
 strong parties of Britisli troops, with picquets 
 of volunteers, were posted all over the town. 
 We had forty British soldiers in Cornwallis 
 Square, who found quarters in our old Institu- 
 tion, while the officer in command was our guest. 
 I* 
 
78 
 
 DK. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 In the Mohammedan quarter some cannon were 
 also planted. The preparations were so com- 
 plete, that any attempt at a successful rise was 
 felt to be impracticable ; and so, by God’s great 
 goodness, the festival has passed over witliout 
 disturbance or bloodshed. But the Mohurrum 
 is approaching ; and to it all are looking with 
 gloomiest apprehensions. But our trust is in 
 the Lord, who hitherto has so wonderfully inter- 
 posed for our deliverance. 
 
 August 8. — To-day our mail closes, and it is 
 lamentable to thiidc that the curtain of our dire 
 calamities has not yet begun fairly to rise. At 
 the conclusion of my letter by the last mail, I 
 stated that a gleam of hope flashed upon us from 
 General Havelock’s distinguished success in 
 repeatedly defeating the rebels and recapturing 
 Cawnpore. From fliat place the General pro- 
 ceeded to Bithoor, the fortress of the arch-traitor 
 Nana Sahib, distant about twelve miles, took 
 it, dismantled it, and burned the palace. There- 
 after, he crossed the Ganges at Cawnpore, for 
 the relief of the small and sorely beleagured 
 garrison at Lucknow, which, since the fall of 
 its heroic chief. Sir Henry Lawrence, was known 
 to be reduced to the greatest straits. The dis- 
 tance being about fifty miles, the General wished 
 to push on rapidly, and, if possible, carry away 
 all the survivors, leaving the reconquest of Oude 
 
LETTER VII. 
 
 79 
 
 till the cold season. After marcliing twelve miles, 
 his force — only about 1500 strong — fell in with 
 a body of 13,000 rebels, strongly posted, with 
 swamps on either side. After a sharp encoun- 
 ter, the enemy was routed with the loss of 
 fifteen brass guns. The General then pushed 
 forwards, but without tents, and with little bag- 
 gage. As he advanced, this being the height 
 of the rainy season, the whole country was found 
 under water. E.xposure to the sun and rain, 
 fatigue, the want of shelter and proper food, 
 soon began to produce the usual effects. Fever, 
 dysentery, cholera, broke out, committing such 
 fearful ravages on his little force, and that, too, 
 in the face of an enemy outnumbering them 
 tenfold, that the General was compelled to halt 
 in his triumphant progress. And the fear now 
 is that he must fall back on Cawnpore, and leave 
 the Lucknow garrison to its dismal fate. Many, 
 however, are still sanguine that he will be able 
 to push on — his men being inspired with almost 
 superhuman energy, awakened by the brutal 
 atrocities which have been perpetrated by the 
 mutineers and their fiendish associates. Let us 
 trust and pray that this more sanguine e.xpecta- 
 tion of the success of General Havelock’s small 
 but intrepid force may be fully realized. 
 
 Meanwhile, we have every reason to fear that 
 the city of Agra has fallen into the hands of 
 the mutineers. The Governor, with the British 
 
80 
 
 I)R. DUFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 and Christian inhabitants generally, have retired 
 into the fort built by the great Akbar, where 
 they can hold out for some time. All the bun- 
 galows in the cantonments and civil lines have 
 been plundered and destroyed ; while the city 
 itself has been mercilessly ravaged. Still our 
 trust is in the Lord. The pride and arrogancy 
 of our people and nation needed to be humbled. 
 And if, as a people and nation, we do return to 
 the Lord with lowly, broken, and contrite spirits, 
 He who is ever merciful and gracious may with- 
 draw the strokes of his sore indignation. 
 
 Amid our personal sorrows and hoiTor at the 
 barbarities of the misguided sepoys and their 
 allies, we, as Christians, have much need to 
 watch our own spirits, lest the longing for retri- 
 bution may swallow up the feeling of mercy.' 
 Already we begin to perceive here a recoil and 
 reaction against the natives generally. But, as 
 Christians, ought we not to lay it to heai’t, that 
 the men who have been guilty of such outrages 
 against humanity have been so just because 
 they never, never came under the regenerating, 
 softening, mellowing influences of the gospel 
 of grace and salvation ? And their diabolical 
 conduct, instead of being an argument against 
 further labor and liberality in attempting to 
 evangelize this land, ought to furnish one of 
 the most powerful arguments in favor of en- 
 hanced labor and liberality. — Yours ever affec- 
 tionately, Alexander Duff. 
 
LETTER VIII. 
 
 Calcutta, 14th August, 1867. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — Last evening the 
 Southampton mail of the 4th of July was de- 
 livered here. From home communications now 
 received, I find that the information which I for- 
 warded in May last, relative to the state of 
 things here, has appeared to some as too gloomy, 
 and to others really, though unintentionally, ex- 
 aggerated. The frightful succession of calami- 
 ties ever since will, I doubt not, long ere now 
 have satisfied these friends that my information 
 was but too correct, as my anticipations have 
 been but too sadly verified. In crises like the 
 present there are generally two great parties, 
 both of whom may be equally mistaken, the 
 alarmist and panic party, and the peace and 
 security party. Through calm trust and confi- 
 dence in God, I strove not to allow myself to be 
 carried away by the former, while a knowledge 
 of native feeling towards our Government, as 
 well as of native machinations, derived from 
 various and peculiar sources, happily prevented 
 me from cradling myself to rest amid the fond 
 delusions of the latter. Pardon me for saying 
 
 [81] 
 
82 
 
 DR. DUFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 this much, as I say it only in the way of self- 
 vindication. 
 
 No wonder though many people at home, and 
 especially retired Indians, who knew the feeling 
 of unbounded awe or fear entertained bj" natives 
 generally towards the British, could not at first 
 bring themselves to believe in the reality or 
 extent of the calamities impending over us. 
 Even here men were slow of belief. But, as 
 usually happens in all such cases, the slowest 
 of all were the public authorities. For a long 
 time they made comparativelj" light of the whole 
 matter. On the 25fA of Blay last, the Secretary 
 of the Home Department officially informed the 
 inhabitants of Calcutta, in answer to loyal ad- 
 dresses tendering aid and personal service, that 
 “ the mischief caused by a passing and groundless 
 panic had already been arrested; that there was 
 every reason to hope that in the course of a few 
 days tranquillity and confidence would be restored 
 throughout the Presidency.” With what singu- 
 lar emphasis this official statement and these 
 official expectations have been falsified by the 
 terrible events of the last three months, need 
 not now be shewn. The falsification of them 
 by the events is as conspicuous in India as the 
 mid-day sun in its own translucent firmament. 
 
 Up to the very hour of revolt and plunder, 
 conflagration, and massacre, every station since 
 lost to us was officially pronounced to be “safe;” 
 
LETTER VIII. 
 
 83 
 
 aud every regiment officially pronounced to be 
 “ staunch and loyal'’’ until at last the very sound 
 of the words “ safe,” “ staunch,” and “ loyal,” has 
 come to be nauseated and dreaded by the British 
 communitj', as they would nauseate and dread the 
 hiss of the most venomous species of serpents. 
 And no wonder ! Such numberless examples of 
 smooth hypocrisy in the impenetrable conceal- 
 ment of treasonable plots, and of diabolical 
 treacheiy and murderous design masked under 
 the most ardent professions of friendship to 
 officers and loyalty to the State, probablj' no 
 country or age could furnish within so brief a 
 space of time. The officers who usually were 
 among the first to fall were those who had seem- 
 ingly gained the strongest hold of the affections 
 of their men ; who had most entirely identified 
 their interests with their own ; who looked on 
 them as children and companions, rather than 
 as dependents ; who actually shared in their 
 sports, and indulged them in every way consist- 
 ent with discipline, and who reposed in them a 
 confidence so absolute and unshaken, that they 
 would not and could not believe in the possi- 
 bility of their mutinying, until the moment when 
 the loud shout of rebellion resounded from the 
 ranks, and they themselves were shot, or bar- 
 barously cut to pieces. 
 
 It has also almost invariably happened that 
 those regiments, or companies of regiments, 
 
84 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 that were deemed most worthy of trust, were 
 those who played the deepest and deadliest 
 game of treachery. Indeed, their perfidy seemed 
 to be in the inverse ratio of the trust reposed in 
 them. Witness the “ staunch and royal” regi- 
 ment at Umballa, which, at its own earnest 
 solicitation, marched with the British troops to 
 inflict summary vengeance on the Delhi muti- 
 neers ! Why, in one of the very first encoun- 
 ters with the rebels, they suddenly turned round, 
 and, joining the enemy, fiercely assaulted the 
 British in the rear. 
 
 Witness the ‘‘ staunch and lojml” regiments 
 of the Kotah contingent, that were summoned 
 to Agra to aid in its defence, and who were 
 deemed so trustworthy that they were employed 
 as guards at the Government House, and at the 
 great jail with its four thousand desperadoes ! 
 When, on the approach of the mutineer army 
 from Central India, they were sent out to occupy 
 a position to intercept them, instead of so doing, 
 they instantly joined the mighty force with which 
 a few hundreds of British were left to contend. 
 
 Witness, again, the collected remnants — the 
 “ staunch and loyal” remnants — of the dispersed 
 mutineer regiments at Lucknow, whom Sir 
 Henry Lawrence had so fondly caressed and 
 loaded with honors and pecuniary rewards for 
 their supposed fidelity to the British Crown ! 
 When, with these and only two hundred British 
 
LETTER VIII. 
 
 85 
 
 soldiers, he made one of the most daring and 
 best planned sorties on record against a host of 
 about fourleen thousand armed men, the caressed 
 honored, and rewarded “ loyals,” after a mo- 
 mentary show of bravery, abruptly wlieeled 
 round, and, joining tlie army of traitors, perfid- 
 iously fought against their noble chief and 
 benefactor, with his handful of British ! Sir 
 Henry, in cutting his way back, with his intrepid 
 little baud, received a wound which in a few 
 days proved mortal, and thus deprived India, in 
 the hour of her sore travail, of the greatest, 
 wisest, and most generous of her statesmen, 
 warriors, and philanthropists. 
 
 August n. — The native troops at the great 
 military station of Dinapore, near Patna, having 
 recently revolted, the wave of rebellion was not 
 long in spreading in every direction. Across 
 the Ganges from Patna, and eastward to the 
 foot of the IIiinala3'a, most of the smaller sta- 
 tions have fallen. At Bhagulpore, to the south 
 of Patna, the irregular cavalry, who were 
 believed to be extra “ staunch,” have mutinied. 
 Stretching from Patna on the Ganges, to the 
 South-West, G}'^ah has fallen, and farther to the 
 South-West, Ilazaribagh, and all the smaller 
 stations on to Miduapore, about a hundred miles 
 due west of Calcutta. In other words, the 
 whole of the great province of Behar, with 
 8 
 
8G 
 
 DK. DUFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 something; more, has now to be added to the 
 rebellious provinces of the North-West ; and 
 lower Bengal is encompassed and girdled in 
 with a belt of general and open rebellion. One 
 consequence of all this is, that for several days 
 past all postal communication whatsoever with 
 the North-West has been entirely cut off. For 
 more than two months the whole region to the 
 north of Allahabad has been very nearly a terra 
 incognita to us, until lately, when Havelock’s 
 force opened the way to Cawnpore. For many 
 weeks the Supreme Government has not been 
 able to obtain any direct communication from 
 the Governor of Agra ; and never any at all 
 from the commander of the forces before Delhi. 
 Any scraps of intelligence that have reached 
 us from that, and other quarters in the north- 
 west, have usually come via Lahore and Bom- 
 bay ! But now, Behar having risen, the grand 
 trunk road beyond Raneegunge (about 120 
 miles to the north of Calcutta) is in pos.session 
 of the rebels ; so that for several days no letters 
 whatever have reached us, or aii 3 ' telegraphic 
 communications from Benares, Allahabad, or 
 any other important place beyond the Bengal 
 frontier. Thus slowljq but sureljq has the crim- 
 soned tide of rebellion been rolling down upon 
 us, and the boundary of India approaching a 
 dangerous proximit 5 ’^ to the metropolis of British 
 India ! 
 
LETTER VIII. 
 
 87 
 
 20^A. — Postal communication with the North- 
 West has again, to some extent, been re-opened. 
 The general aspect of things there, tljougli 
 strangely chequered, begins to look less dismal. 
 General Havelock, after fighting two battles, 
 has been compelled to fall back on Gawnporo, 
 without having been able to relieve the sorely 
 beleaguered garrison of Lucknow. Since the 
 desperate battle was fought near Agra, the 
 Governor and all the Europeans, East Indians, 
 and native Christians, to the number of four or 
 five thousand, have been holding out in the fort. 
 At Delhi there has been almost daily fighting, 
 with an occasional battle, though the city and 
 fort had not fallen on the 30th ultimo. Since 
 the 27th June we had not received a scrap of 
 intelligence from our son, who joined the force 
 before Delhi, until last evening, when a note 
 reached us, dated 16th July, via Lahore and 
 Bomhay — which is pretty much as if a note 
 from Paris reached Madrid via Berlin and Con- 
 stantinople ! This incident alone may serve to 
 throw some light on the desperate state of things 
 in the North-West. From first to last, several 
 thousands of the mutineers have been slain 
 before the walls of Delhi ; while thousands more 
 have been wounded. To all the mutineers in 
 the North-West and Central India, Delhi was 
 the grand centre of attraction. The city is 
 about seven miles in circumference ; our troops 
 
88 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 were nevei' numerous enough to invest it ; and 
 so constant relays of mutineers have been en- 
 abled to enter it, and fill up the gaps made by 
 the daily encounters with the British force. 
 This, with other reasons, may serve to account 
 for the long delaj' in its re capture. 
 
 Many fresh details have now reached us re- 
 specting the awful massacres at Cawnpore, 
 Futtehghur, and Bareilly, &c. But as these 
 will doubtless appear in the jiublic journals, I 
 need not dwell on the soul-lacerating subject. 
 The numbers alone that cruelly perished utterly 
 appal one. At Bareilly, between 60 and 70 ; at 
 Futtehghur, between 100 and 200 ; at Cawn- 
 pore, between 600 and 700 ! including military 
 ofiBcers, civilians, merchants, clerks, &c., with 
 women and children. But the barbarities con- 
 nected with these massacres are what fill the 
 soul with horror. At Bareilly, a gentleman, 
 with nine of his family — wife, sons, daughters, 
 and a brother — were all thrown into a well 
 alive, and then stoned to death while strug- 
 gling for life in the water ! At one of the out 
 stations in Oude the people were surrounded 
 while at church, and there butchered and bay- 
 oneted in cold blood ! At Cawnpore, when the 
 inhuman savages returned to the dreadful 
 slaughter-house, for the purpose of removing 
 the dead bodies, they found a few wounded 
 ladies and a child who were still alire, and threw 
 
LETTEK Till. 
 
 89 
 
 them into a well along with the dead ! Many 
 even of the natives who happened to be specta- 
 tors of the unparalleled butchery could not re- 
 frain from shedding tears when relating' the 
 details to some of our countrymen now in pos- 
 session of Cawnpore. It seemed to them as if 
 the cries, shrieks, and agonies of the poor ladies 
 were still ringing in their ears ! And certainly, 
 when henceforward an expressive term is 
 wanted to denote the very climax of human 
 suffering and horror, the “ hlack-hoW^ of Calcutta 
 must yield its long-sustained preeminence to 
 the incomparably more terrible “ slaughter- 
 house'^ of Cawnpore. 
 
 I cannot pass from Bareilly without referring 
 to the death of Mr. Robertson, the Judge there. 
 I have to mourn in bitterness of spirit over one 
 who was a noble-minded Christian man, a dearly- 
 beloved personal friend, and one of the most 
 generous supporters of our Calcutta mission. 
 My heart, torn and lacerated, bleeds at the very 
 thought of such an end of such a man. The only 
 consolation is, that “ precious in the sight of 
 the Lord is the death of his saints.” 
 
 22J. — Yesterday, a petition, signed by almost 
 all the respectable and influential European in- 
 habitants of Calcutta, was presented to the Gov- 
 ernor-General, setting forth that the petitioners, 
 “ viewing with deep sorrow and alarm the ca- 
 8 * 
 
90 
 
 DK. DUFF'S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 lamities that have overtaken Britisli India, and 
 the consequent disturbed state of the country, 
 felt the painful conviction forced on their minds 
 that it was not improbable tliat disturbances 
 might soon extend in all their horrors over the 
 3"et quiet portions of Bengal, even to Calcutta 
 itself that, having “ no confidence whatever 
 in the native police either of Calcutta or of the 
 Mofussli, but, on the contrary, distrusting them 
 in toto," and urging tlieir opinion tliat “ the Ex- 
 ecutive civil authorities do not now command 
 sufficient dread to prevent, and are not suffi- 
 ciently powerful to quell, a disturbance of any 
 magnitude,” — they “ respectfully, but most ear- 
 nestl}', pray that his Lordship in Council would 
 be pleased to ordain that martial law he at once 
 proclaimed throughout the Bengal Presidency." 
 Such a petition sufficiently indicates the feeling 
 that is still predominant in the minds of the 
 most intelligent members of the European com- 
 munity of this city ; by far the largest in any 
 city of Asia. 
 
 Those who live at a distance from the central 
 craters and surging elements of this tremendous 
 rebellion may pronounce the jtidgment of the 
 European community of Calcutta an alarmist 
 view of the subject. Apart altogether from the 
 smouldering spirit of discontent which is known 
 to be so widely diffused, and which only awaits 
 the seasonable opportunity for successful mani- 
 
LETTER VIII. 
 
 91 
 
 festation, let any one try candidly to realize tlie 
 actually existing evil in all its portentous extent 
 and magnitude. 
 
 Look at the numbers of armed men — accus- 
 tomed to military organization and discipline, 
 and equipped with all the munitions of war — 
 that have already broken out into actual mutiny 
 and revolt! about«'a*<y regiments of infantry;y?i;e 
 or six of light cavalry ; ten of irregular cavalry ; 
 six battalions of artillery ; nine light field batte- 
 ries ; the Malwah contingent ; and the Gwalior 
 contingent, consisting of seven infantry regi- 
 ments, four companies of artilleiy, and two of 
 cavalry ; with the sappers and miners at Eoor- 
 kee, &c. I Besides these, ticenty regiments of 
 infantry have been disarmed, with several of 
 cavalry and artillery, when on the eve of break- 
 ing out into open rebellion — including the very 
 body-guard of the Governor-General. Add to 
 all this mighty host upwards of twenty thousand 
 desperadoes, let loose from the different jails ; 
 and more than five times twenty-thousand Bud- 
 mashes, as they arc called, or “ bad characters 
 by habit and repute.” Think of these myriads 
 scouring the country at large, ravenous for 
 blood and plunder ! 
 
 Or, take the map of India, and look at the 
 extent of country that has been the scene of 
 actual mutinies. Beginning with the far north, 
 in the Punjaub, wo have Peshawur and Jhelum ; 
 
92 
 
 DR. DUFF’S LETTERS OX INDIA. 
 
 southward, Nowshera, JuUunder, and Sealkote ; 
 crossing the Sutlej, Ferozcpore, Hamirpore, 
 Phillur, and Ludiaua ; emerging from Sirhind 
 to the west, we have Ilansey, Sirsa, and 
 Ilissar ; then the great cities of Meerut, Delhi, 
 and Agra, with Muttra, Allyghur, Bhulund- 
 shuhur, Etawah Mynpoorie, and Moradahad ; 
 along the Ganges, before its junction with the 
 Jumna, we have Futtehghur, Cawnpore, Futteh- 
 pore, and Allahabad ; to the north-east, Bareilly 
 in Rohilcund. In the kingdom of Oude, 
 Lucknow, Shajehanporc, Scetapore, Sultanpore, 
 Fyzabad, with Durriabad, Secrora, and Yonda. 
 Southward from Oude and eastward, we have 
 Benares, Assimghur, Juanpore, Goruckpore, 
 Segowlie, Dinapore, Bhagulpore ; and running 
 to the south-west from Bhagulpore through 
 Behar, and skirting Bengal, w'e have Gyah, 
 Hazaribagh, Ranchi, Purruha, Chota Nagpore, 
 and Chyabassy, with many other places ripe 
 and ready for a rise at the falling of the feeblest 
 spark. In Central India we have Mhow, 
 Indore, Neemuch, Nusserabad, Assinghur, 
 Saugor, Jubbulpore, Nowgong, Bunda, Jhansi, 
 Gwalior, Angur, Seepru, &c. 
 
 Let any one, I say, endowed with ordinary 
 common sense, consult his map for all these 
 places, that have been already the scenes of 
 bloody mutinies and ruthless ravages — let him 
 with these connect in imagination the myriads 
 
LICTTEK Vlll. 
 
 93 
 
 of relentless miscreants that are everywhere 
 diffusing the horrors of incendiarism, massacre, 
 and plunder — and then let him tell me whether 
 language can adequately express the terrible- 
 ness of the picture that presents itself to the 
 startled mental vision ! 
 
 It is not, surelj', by making light of such a 
 state of things, after the fashion of some of our 
 jaunty statesmen and light-headed journalists, 
 that we can expect to arrest the mighty torrent 
 of evil that is now rolling in fire and blood over 
 the plains of India. No ; it is by fairly 
 acknowledging the evil in all its naked extent 
 and magnitude ; by searching out and confess- 
 ing those sins, alike personal, social, and 
 national, that have provoked Jehovah to pour 
 out upon us of His righteous judgments- and 
 plagues ; by returning unto the Lord, with 
 penitent and contrite hearts, resolutely bent, 
 through grace, on bringing forth “ fruits meet 
 for repentance and by praying for a blessing 
 on the means employed for the repression of 
 wild and wanton rebellion, and the restoration 
 of settled government, with its tranquillity, 
 order, and prosperity. 
 
 At present everything seems to be against us. 
 We have still about two months of the rainy 
 season before us, and those usually the dead- 
 liest in the whole year. We have not enough 
 of British troops to ensure the maintenance 
 
94 
 
 DK. duff’s letters ON INDIA, 
 
 of central places still in our possession — not 
 enough to relieve some of our sorely be- 
 leaguered garrisons ; and we cannot expect 
 enough for two or tliree months yet to come. 
 AVhat may befall India in the interval the Lord 
 alone knows ; but surely there is a loud, loud 
 call for God’s people to be everywhere on their 
 knees before the Lord, if haply He may inter- 
 pose for our deliverance. — Yours affection- 
 ately, 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
 P.S. — Our mail closes to-day ; and up to the 
 present hour (4 p.m.) nothing that I am aware 
 of has transpired to indicate that deliverance 
 is anywhere at hand. The arrival of Sir Colin 
 Campbell by last steamer took us all by sur- 
 prise, and inspired universal confidence and 
 joy, as his name has long been a synonym of 
 wisdom, decision, and energy. But, alas ! 
 where are the troops ? Nearly the whole of the 
 Bengal army is in a state of defiant rebellion, 
 and nearly the whole of the remainder dis- 
 armed. The small body of British troops is 
 scattered in handfuls over the isolated places 
 still in our possession — handfuls acting, except 
 in one or two cases, purely on the defensive, 
 and bravely keeping at bay mjwiads of armed 
 and infuriated men. 
 
LETTEK VIII. 
 
 95 
 
 TIio Mohurnm, the most fanatical of all 
 Mohammedan festivals, commenced last even- 
 ing. Tlie papers are tilled with letters from all 
 parts of the countiy, giving expression to the 
 most doleful apprehensions. Even officials in 
 the interior have written to say that they dread 
 a rise of the Mohammedans against the Christ- 
 ians in every part of Bengal. Our prayer is 
 to the Most High, that He may avert so fell a 
 catastrophe 1 But the universality of the fear 
 is an index to the present extraordinary posi- 
 tion of our affairs. For the defence of Calcutta 
 great preparations have been made ; companies 
 of British soldiers and volunteers, with guns, 
 &c., are planted in suitable places. Our square 
 is one of these. But, notwithstanding all this, 
 there is an irrepressible tremulousness abroad 
 in men’s minds. The scores of fugitives that 
 have escaped the massacres in the North-West, 
 with their tales of horror, help to diffuse an 
 undefinable feeling of anguish and foreboding. 
 A house in this square is filled with these fugi- 
 tives ; some of them have their nervous system 
 fairly shattered, and they seem as if still shiv- 
 ering with terror. The father, mother, and 
 brother of one of them were all savagely 
 butchered at Jhansi ! Pray, pray for us ! 
 
 A. D. 
 
LETTEE IX. 
 
 Calcutta, 26th August, 1857. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — Some of our public 
 journalists are now beginning bitterly to regret 
 that in the month of May last they were led, 
 though with the most commendable motives, to 
 “ place our position in the most favorable light, 
 and give an encouraging view of the state of 
 affairs, which they now see clearly they were 
 not justified in doing.” They regret this 
 because their statements, in conjunction with 
 tlie assuring communications from Government, 
 must have helped to lull statesmen at home, 
 and the British public generally, into a tem- 
 porary state of false security, and unfounded 
 hope. From the Southampton mail of the 4th 
 July last, it would seem as if the great bulk 
 of the British people then labored under some 
 species of hallucination respecting the real 
 condition of affairs here — expecting that their 
 next tidings would be of the re-capture of 
 Delhi, and the effectual annihilation of the spirit 
 of mutiny and revolt by means of the Indian force 
 at the disposal of Government. Out of such a 
 dream how violently and painful must they 
 [96] 
 
LETTER IX. 
 
 97 
 
 have been awakened by successive mails ever 
 since — each carrying its fresh burden of woes 
 across the great waters ! Of the re-capture 
 of Delhi no certain intelligence has yet reached 
 us. The great city of Agra is in the hands of 
 the rebels ; while the Governor of the North- 
 West provinces, with the British residents, are 
 helplessly shut up in the fort. The intrepid 
 garrison of Lucknow, on which the eyes of all 
 India are now intensely fixed — which occupies 
 the only spot now possessed by the British in 
 the whole kingdom of Oude, and which, inspired 
 b}' the genius of its late heroic chief, has, with- 
 out a fort, held out so marvellously and so long 
 against armed myriads — has not yet been 
 relieved ! But it is needless to dilate ; our 
 entire present position furnishes a strange com- 
 mentary on the hallucination in which, in the 
 early part of July, the inhabitants of the British 
 isles were led unhappily to indulge. 
 
 While there were doubtless many auxiliary 
 influences at work, every day makes it clearer 
 to all out here that the tremendous rebellion, in 
 the throes of which we still are, has been the 
 result of a long concocted Mohammedan con- 
 spiracy against the British power, with a view 
 to reestablish the old Mogul dynasty instead. 
 It has also been long suspected that Russian 
 spies, under various guises, have been success- 
 fully at work in inflaming the bigotry of the 
 9 
 
98 
 
 DK. DUFF'S UilTEKS ON INDIA. 
 
 Mussulman and tlie prejudices of the high-caste 
 Hindu. Some disclosures are said to have been 
 made, which may some day throw light on this 
 Russian treachery. Rersia, too, under the in- 
 spiration of Russia, has also been long suspected 
 of having her agents of mischief among the 
 Mohammedan princes of India. The fact that 
 most of the Mohammedans of Hindustan agree 
 with the Persians in following the Shia system 
 of Islamism has tended to strengthen the suspi- 
 cion. And to-day one of our best-informed jour- 
 nals positively announces that “ the Government 
 of Bombay has transmitted to the Supreme 
 Government of India certain Persian documents 
 addressed to the Khan of Kelat (on the borders 
 of the Punjaub), asking him to give his assist- 
 ance to the mutineers in expelling the British 
 power.” 
 
 We are now advancing into the middle of the 
 Mohurrum. As yet everj’thing is going on 
 quietly. Still men’s minds are more or less un- 
 easj"; even the stoutest hearted are not without 
 their apprehensions; various occurrences tend to 
 keep these alive. For example, on Saturday last, 
 the first day of the Mohurrum, General Hearsay 
 at Barrackpore, where there are upwards of 3000 
 disarmed sepoys, was led to expect a disturbance 
 of some kind. Accordingly, in the course of the 
 day, he sent to Calcutta for a company of 
 British troops, which was instantly sent up in 
 
LETTER IX. 
 
 99 
 
 a steamer. The result was, that on Saturday 
 night, or rather early on Sunday morning, there 
 was a general panic at the station, somewhat 
 similar to what occurred in June. Even in Cal- 
 cutta it was considered prudent on Sunday to 
 double the guards throughout the city. It now 
 turns out that the sepoys wore told to expect a 
 boat load of arms near a neighboring ghaut or 
 landing-place on the river; that their plan was 
 “ to fire the European barracks, all of which are 
 thatched, and in the confusion to seize the arms 
 and artillery guns, and then sally forth on their 
 work of destruction; after which, as the usual 
 accompaniment of such deeds, they were to pro- 
 ceed to Alipore jail (close to Calcutta), and 
 release the prisoners there!” While plans of 
 this description are constantly brewing in the 
 midst of us, you may readily imagine the sort 
 of fermentation that is kept up in the public 
 mind. And then the endless sinister reports — 
 many of them not only exaggerated, but in- 
 vented, by interested parties — that are con- 
 stantly floating about and momentarily believed, 
 or at least not disbelieved, from want of counter 
 evidence, tend to feed and perpetuate a mental 
 excitement of a peculiar and painful kind. 
 
 September 1. — Yesterday was the last and 
 greatest day of the most fanatical of Moham- 
 medan festivals — the Mohurrum. Though some 
 
100 
 
 DK. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 of tlie broadest streets were, at times, blocked 
 up and rendered quite impassable by proces- 
 sions which teemed with numbers under the 
 wildest excitement, and though throughout the 
 day the most extravagant rumors were afloat 
 respecting assemblages of armed Mohammedans 
 in the neighboring district of Baraset, preparing 
 to rush upon the city in aid of their co-religion- 
 ists, so complete and effective were the precau- 
 tions taken by the authorities, that no disturb- 
 ance whatever has occurred in any part of the 
 town. For this we cannot be too thankful to 
 the God of Providence. Calcutta is the Paris 
 of Bengal and of Eastern India generally, as 
 regards British interests and influences, and any 
 serious disturbance there would tell far more 
 fatally against British supremacy and power 
 than the capture by the insurgents of Delhi, or 
 Agra, or Benares, or all these put together. 
 Calcutta is a city purely of British growth, and, 
 in the eyes of the natives, the standing monu- 
 ment and symbol of British ascendancy in the 
 East. Hence the paramont importance of its 
 not becoming the scene of outrage and violence. 
 Hitherto the Lord has graciousl3^ blessed the 
 means for its preservation. All our anxietj' 
 now is, to hear how the Mohurrum has passed 
 in the interior, where preparations to meet it 
 were of necessity far less complete than in the 
 metropolis. 
 
LETTER IX. 
 
 101 
 
 Seplemher 5. — So far as wc liave yet been 
 able to learn, the Moliurrum appears to have 
 g'one off everywhere without any serious dis- 
 turbance or great disaster. For so signal a 
 inercj'' we cannot be too thankful to God, who 
 has so graciously interposed in our behalf. In 
 other respects, the general aspect of affairs con- 
 tinues to be very much what it was ten daj's 
 ago. There have been no fresh mutinies, witli 
 their attendant horrors, because, in truth, almost 
 every regiment and company of native infantry, 
 cavalry, and artillery, has already either muti- 
 nied or been disarmed. In a word, very nearly 
 the whole of the Bengal native army is up 
 against us in armed rebellion or disarmed spirit 
 of revolt. When the Southampton mail of the 
 20th July left, it would seem that the delusion 
 was cherished in high places that the tens of 
 thousands who had openly mutinied had thrown 
 down their arms and simply deserted, quietly 
 retiring to their own villages, or escaping for 
 safety to the jungles ! That some few may have 
 done so is undoubted. But that by far the 
 greater part retained their arms and put them- 
 selves in martial array, under commanders of 
 their own, against the British forces and autho- 
 rities, is equally undoubted. And they are at 
 this moment actual masters of the whole of the 
 North-Western territories beyond the few iso- 
 9* 
 
102 
 
 DR. duff's letters OX IXDIA. 
 
 lated spots that are actually occupied and con- 
 trolled by British troops. 
 
 Within the last three months, a goodly num- 
 ber of British troops have been landed here from 
 Madras, Ceylon, Bombay, Burmah, and China. 
 But as yet, these have been able to do but little 
 more than save Calcutta, Moorshedabad, Mong- 
 hyr, Bhungulpore, Patna, Gliazipore, Benares, 
 and other cities along the Ganges, from threat- 
 ened destruction, prevent the fortress of Alla- 
 habad from falling into the hands of the rebels, 
 and re-capture Cawnpore. For all this we can- 
 not be sufiBciently grateful to the God of Provi- 
 dence ; since, without the opportune arrival of 
 these troops, all the cities now named, with 
 many others, would long ere now have been a 
 prey to the plunder, conflagration, and massacre 
 of blood-thirsty mutineers. 
 
 But while at all the principal stations things 
 may be said for the last two or three weeks to 
 have been at a standstill, the British simply 
 holding their own, and the rebels holding theirs ; 
 it is difficult to conceive the progress and reign 
 of anarchy throughout the vast districts sur- 
 rounding these stations. 
 
 That in different places intelligent zemindars 
 and rajahs, who came to know our power and 
 resources, have continued as yet faithful in 
 their allegiance, is a matter for congratulation. 
 
i,ktti:r IX. 
 
 103 
 
 But that iu many places zemindars and rajahs 
 liave scornfully thrown off all allegiance, and 
 are up in arms, proclaiming their own indepen- 
 dence, and committing depredations on their 
 neighbors in all directions, is now beyond all 
 question. In tin's way we have now a King of 
 Kohilcund, a King of Shahabad, with many 
 others. In other cases, such as the town and 
 district of Gorruckpore, recently abandoned by 
 the British autliorities, a Mohammedan chief 
 has been set up as Nazim or governor, in the 
 name of the recently installed Emperor of Delhi. 
 In short, the reign of confusion and ruin through- 
 out these vast North-Western regions seems to 
 be almost complete. 
 
 As regards the feelings of the great masses 
 of the people towards the British Government, 
 the most contradictory statements have been 
 put forth. Here, as elsewhere, extremes wdll 
 be found wrong. That there ever was anything 
 like affection or loyal attachment^ in any true 
 sense of these terms, on the part of any con- 
 siderable portion of the native population to- 
 wards the British power, is what no one who 
 really knows them could honestly aver. Indi- 
 vidual natives have become attached to indi- 
 vidual Britons. Of the truth of this statement 
 even the recent sanguinary mutinies have fur- 
 nished some conspicuous examples. But such 
 isolated facts can prove nothing as to the feel- 
 
104 
 
 I>K. DUFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 ings generally prevalent with respect to the 
 British and their power. On the first subjuga- 
 tion or annexation of a province, the laboring 
 classes, under a fresh sense of the manifold 
 tyrannies, exactions, and disorders from which 
 tliey are delivered, usuallj'' express satisfaction 
 and delight. But as the first generation dies 
 out, and another rises up, knowing nothing hut 
 the even, steady, continuous demands of the 
 Britisli authorities — demands which they cannot 
 evade, as they often might amid the weakness 
 and turbulence of native rule — they are apt to 
 settle down into a state of necessitated acqui- 
 escence, or sullen indifference, or latent disaf- 
 fection and discontent, often secretly sighing 
 for a change of rulers, that might give them 
 some chance of helping or bettering themselves. 
 Such I believe to be the general condition of 
 the people of India, as regards their feelings 
 towards the British and their Government. 
 And such being their condition, any one might 
 anticipate the evolution of conduct which they 
 might be expected to exhibit in the midst of 
 a rebellion, with what must appear to their 
 minds its doubtful issues. The quieter and more 
 thoughtful spirits, under dread of ultimate retri- 
 bution, would hold back, or perhaps show favor 
 or kindness to such Britons as came in their 
 way. The bolder, more resolute, and more im- 
 petuous spirits, on the other hand, would at once 
 
LETTER IX. 
 
 105 
 
 be ready to sound a jubilee of triumph over the 
 downfall of the British power, and equally 
 ready to display the insolence of triumph over 
 helpless and fugitive Britons. And this I be- 
 lieve to be a tolerably exact picture of the state 
 of feeling and conduct among the native popu- 
 lation in the North-West and Central Indian 
 territories towards the British and their rule. 
 
 After escaping from the murderous hands of 
 mutineers, British gentlemen and ladies have, 
 in particular instances, experienced kindness at 
 the hands of the common villagers ; but in far 
 the greater number of instances they have ex- 
 perienced quite the reverse. On this account 
 they have been constantly compelled to shun 
 the villages altogether, and betake themselves 
 to jungles and pathless forests, exposed to the 
 attacks of boasts of prey, and to manifold pri- 
 vations, the narration of which makes one 
 almost shudder. And among the murders ever 
 and anon reported in our public journals, how 
 often do we find this entry opposite a name, 
 “ Killed by the villagers !'' One of a volunteer 
 expedition, which lately went out into the dis- 
 trict of Meerut, writes that it was “evident as 
 they went along that the whole country was 
 up,” adding, that “on reaching Rerote, vihich 
 city was considered friendly to us, they were 
 at once received by a friendly salute of thirty 
 matchlocks in their faces !” Authentic notifica- 
 
106 
 
 DR. DUFF’S LETTERS OX INDIA. 
 
 tions of a somewhat similar kind have also 
 reached ns from other places. A medical gentle- 
 man, who has recently published an elaborate 
 account of the escape of himself, with other 
 gentlemen, ladies, and children — amounting in 
 all to twenty-seven in number — Ji-om Augur, in 
 Central India, testifies that “ every villager was 
 uncivil, and that the smile of respectful submis- 
 sion with which the European officer was wont 
 to be greeted, was displaced by an angry scowl 
 and haughty air towards the despicable Ferin- 
 ghee, whose raj (or reign) was at an end.” 
 Throughout their twelve daj’s’ wanderings, they 
 continued to encounter the most terrible hard- 
 ships and dangers from the hatred, incivility, 
 and contempt of the villagers. This very day, 
 in one of our public journals, a gentleman, long 
 resident in the interior, thus writes : “ I have 
 
 lost all my property ; but my principal object is, 
 to impress upon my countrymen (to convince 
 the Government of this truth seems hopeless) 
 the utter and most virulent hatred the natives 
 have evinced throughout this outbreak, both to 
 our Government and Europeans generally. In 
 every instance where troops have mutinied, they 
 have been joined by the inhabitants, not only 
 of the bazaars, but of the towns and villages 
 adjacent, who not only assisted the sepoys in 
 burning, looting (plundering), and destroying 
 Government property, and that of the European 
 
LETTEU IX. 
 
 107 
 
 settlers, and all Christians, and in killing any of 
 them they conld ; but after the departure of the 
 mutineers, continued tlie devastation, and com- 
 pleted it. I am a very long resident in this 
 country, and having been in a position to hear 
 the true sentiments of the natives (who neitlier 
 feared me nor required anything from me) to- 
 wards our Government and ourselves, I have 
 been long aware of their hatred towards both, 
 and that opportunity alone was wanted to dis- 
 play it as they have now done ; and where it 
 has not been shewn, rest assured it is only from 
 fear or interest, and when they did not recognize 
 opportunity." 
 
 Now, in the face of these, and scores of other 
 substantially' similar statements from all parts 
 of tlie North-West and Central India, what be- 
 comes of the lullaby declarations of those who 
 would fain persuade the British public that no- 
 where among the general civic or rural popula- 
 tion of India docs there exist any feeling of ill- 
 will, or discontent, or disaffection, towards the 
 British or their Government ? All such unquali- 
 lied declarations I do most solemnly regard as 
 a gigantic (I do not say wilful) imposition on 
 the British people — an imposition which, if not 
 timeously exposed or abandoned, is sure to 
 prove as fatal to the reestablishment and per- 
 petuity of British supremacy, as it is in itself 
 gigantic. If the seeds of a deadly disease are 
 
108 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 lurking, though it may be but partially devel- 
 oped, in the very vitals of the constitution, and 
 if the existence of these, in spite of obvious 
 symptoms and ivarnings, be deliberately ig- 
 nored, what can we expect, except that, one day 
 or other, they will break forth into a raging 
 virulence, which all the art of the most skilful 
 physician can neither mitigate nor arrest ? 
 
 It is but right, therefore, that the British 
 people should be jealously on their guard 
 against the fair-weather representations of men 
 high in office — men who from personal inter- 
 course know nothing of native sentiment 
 beyond the glozing lies of a few fawning 
 sycophants — men who, from motives of political 
 partizanship and personal self-interest, are 
 sorely tempted to mistake the apparent calm 
 on the upper surface for peace, contentment, 
 and loyaltjL It is but right that the British 
 people to whom the God of Providence has so 
 mj'steriously intrusted the sovereignty of this 
 vast Indian empire, should know the real state 
 of native feeling towards us and our power, 
 that they may insist on a searching scrutiny 
 into the causes which may have superinduced it, 
 and detecting the causes, may demand, as with 
 a voice of thunder, some commensurate remedy. 
 Their own character, their reputation for 
 philanthropy and justice among the nations, 
 and, above all, their own sense of stewardship 
 
LEITEK IX. 
 
 109 
 
 and accountability to the great God for the 
 amazing trust committed to them — all chal- 
 lenge them to a speedy and authoritative inter- 
 position in this terrific crisis of their paramount 
 power in Asia. If they refrain, the certainty 
 is, that though our gallant soldiers may, at the 
 cost of torrents of human blood, effect and 
 enforce an apparent pacification, there will not 
 be introduced the elements of a permanent 
 peace. Measures will be devised which, by 
 their inadequacy and unadaptcdness — 
 
 “ Can only skin and film the ulcerous part. 
 
 While rank corruption, mining all within. 
 
 Infects unseen.” 
 
 Railways, and telegraphs, and irrigating 
 canals, and other material improvements, 
 alone will not do. Mere secular education, 
 sharpening the intellect, and leaving the 
 heart a prey to all the foulest passions and 
 most wayward impulses, will not do. Mere 
 legislation, which, in humanely prohibiting 
 cruel rites and barbarous usages, goes greatly 
 a-head of the darkened intelligence of the 
 people, will not do. New settlements of the 
 revenue, and landed tenures, however equitable 
 in themselves, alone w'ill not do. Ameliorations 
 in the present monstrous system of police and 
 corrupting machinery of law courts, however 
 advantageous, alone will not suffice. A radical 
 10 
 
110 
 
 DR. duff's LETTER.S OX IXDIA. 
 
 organic change in the structure of Government, 
 such as would transfer it exclusively to the 
 Crown, would not, could not, of itself furnish 
 an adequate cure for our deep-seated maladies. 
 
 No, no ! Perhaps the present earthquake 
 shock which has passed over Indian society, 
 upheaving and tearing- to shreds some of the 
 noblest monuments of material civilization, as 
 well as the most improved expedients of legis- 
 lative and administrative wisdom, has been per- 
 mitted, to prove that all merely human plans 
 and systems whatsoever, that exclude the life- 
 awakening, elevating, purifying doctrines of 
 gospel grace and salvation, have impotence 
 and failure stamped on their wrinkled brows. 
 Let, then, the Christian people of the highly- 
 favored British isles, in their heaven-conferred 
 prerogative, rise up, and, resistless as the ocean 
 in its mighty swell, let them decree, in the name 
 of Him that liveth for ever and ever, that hence- 
 forward those commissioned by them to rule 
 over and administer justice to the millions of 
 this land shall not dare, in their public acts and 
 proclamations, practically to ignore or scorn- 
 full}- repudiate the veiy name and faith of Jesus, 
 while they foster and honor the degrading 
 superstitions of Brahma and Mohammed. Let 
 the British Churches, at the same time, arise 
 and resolve, at whatever cost of self-denial, to 
 grapple in rigdit earnest, as they have never 
 
I,KTTKR IX. 
 
 Ill 
 
 yet done, with the stupendous work of supplant- 
 ing the three thousand years’ consolidated em- 
 pire of Satan in these vast realms, by the estab- 
 lishment of Messiah’s reign. Then, instead of 
 the fiendish howl, with its attendant rapine, 
 and conflagration, and massacre, we shall have 
 millennial songs of gratitude and praise from 
 the hearts and lips of ransomed myriads. Who 
 can tell but that lie who “ rides in the whirl- 
 wind and directs the storm” may graciously 
 overrule our present terrible calamities for the 
 hastening on of this glorious consummation ? — 
 “ Amen,” let us respond, “ Yea, and amen.” — 
 Yours ever affectionately, 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
LETTER X. 
 
 Calcutta, 19th September, 1857. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — No decisive blow has 
 yet anywhere been struck, fitted to arrest the 
 progress of rebellion. The utmost that can be 
 said is, that the rebels have gained no marked 
 advantage during the last fortnight, though 
 sundry new districts, such as Assam, have fallen 
 from their allegiance ; and some of the surviv- 
 ing regiments, or companies of regiments, have 
 exhibited signs of disaffection or open mutiny. 
 
 And, what is most grievous of all, and what 
 pains me more than I can express in saying it, 
 is, that our Government seems of late to be 
 smitten with something like fatuity and suicidal 
 weakness. At the outset of the rebellion some 
 really vigorous measures were adopted, which 
 tended to enhearten all truly loyal subjects, 
 and to paralyze the hopes and energies of the 
 treacherous foe. But our more recent legisla- 
 tive enactments and appointments have gone 
 far to neutralize the effect of these earlier 
 measures, inspiriting our enemies as much as 
 they have dispirited our friends. I shall not 
 now at least enter into the details that would 
 [ 112 ] 
 
LETTER X. 
 
 113 
 
 amply corroborate what I luive now said, as I 
 feel the subject to be at once distasteful and 
 distressing. But having felt warranted, in com- 
 mon with most others here, to write in a very 
 different strain four months ago, I deem it 
 simply right that, under our altered circumstan- 
 ces, I should record my sorrowful conviction, 
 that the judgment lately pronounced by one of 
 the soberest of our journalists is scarcely too 
 severe when he s.ays, “ Indeed, if we consider 
 Englishmen in this country to be represented 
 by the enactments of their Government, we 
 should suppose that not only were they unin- 
 terested spectators, but that they actually sym- 
 pathized witli the rebellion.” 
 
 The only cheering feature in the affairs of 
 the last dreary fortnight is, that the small hand- 
 fuls of sorely beleaguered British in divers 
 places have been wondrously enabled to keep 
 their ground in the face of hostile and exaspe- 
 rated myriads. Is not this, amid such an 
 outpouring of judgments, to be hailed as a 
 token of good from the Lord ? Is it not a proof 
 that, in the midst of deserved wrath. He is still 
 remembering mercy ? Wliy have these handfuls 
 of British men not been swallowed up outright, 
 like so many molehills of sand amid the tumul- 
 tuous roar of waters ? Who endowed them 
 with the will, the determination, the persever- 
 ance, the unshaken nerve, the sleepless, daunt- 
 
114 
 
 DR. DUFF’.S letters ON INDIA. 
 
 less energy ? If ever “ the doing of the Lord” 
 was patently visible to all eyes, surely it is 
 here. But, alas ! an unbelieving world will 
 not, cannot recognize it. It is therefore all the 
 more incumbent on Christ’s faithful followers to 
 do so. In all history I know no spectacle more 
 absolutely astonishing than that presented by 
 Lucknow during the last three months. There 
 being no fortress there, the late lamented Sir 
 Henry Lawrence — in whom the heroism of an- 
 cient chivalry was singularly combined with 
 the benevolence of Christian philanthropy — 
 when he saw danger impending, suddenly threw 
 up some entrenchments ai'ound the Residency 
 House, and thither removed the handful of 
 British troops, together with all the Christian 
 men, women, and children then in the neighbor- 
 hood ; grain of all sorts being, at the same 
 time, with happy forethought, purchased and 
 stocked, fuel piled, commissariat and other 
 stores collected and laid in. Soon was the 
 rapidly entrenched Residency House surrounded 
 by about twenty thousand disciplined sepoy troops, 
 with all the munitions of war ; assisted by at 
 least twenty tlumsand more of the armed followers 
 of rebel rajahs, and more than twice twenty 
 thousand desperadoes and club-men from the 
 jails and villages — all abundantly supplied with 
 provisions by the Mohammedan nobles, and 
 wealthy merchants. Speedily were trenches 
 10 * 
 
i,i;tteu X. 
 
 115 
 
 opened by the rebels round the Residency, and 
 a continuous fire of guns and musketry kept 
 up ; wliile, ever and anon, combined attacks 
 were made upon it by the whole body of insur- 
 gents, and as often heroically repelled. At last, 
 the mighty chief — Sir Henry — fell, a martyr to 
 his own fearless daring ; but not before — alike 
 by words and deeds — he had succeeded in trans- 
 fusing somewhat of the matchless energy of his 
 own great soul into the souls of all around him. 
 And right nobly have his intrepid followers 
 carried out his dying request — which was to 
 perish amid the ruins of the Residency House, 
 rather than surrender themselves to faithless, 
 ruthless men, who, in defiance of the most 
 solemn vows, would delight in subjecting them 
 to dishonor, lingering torture, and an ignomin- 
 ious death. Surely if this illustrious garrison 
 should eventually be saved, or even if, at the 
 eleventh hour, it should be doomed, martyr-like, 
 to perish, surely a spot ennobled by so marvel- 
 lous a defence ought to be for ever sacred in 
 tlie eyes of Britons ; and a monumental fort— a 
 Lawrenceghur — erected over it, with a Christian 
 churcli, to commemorate the name and the 
 achievements of its late peerless chief. 
 
 But while things remain inucli as they were 
 as regards the position of the British through- 
 out this vast Presidency, an intestine war is 
 raging with fearful virulence among the natives 
 
116 
 
 DR. duff's LETTI:R.S ox INDIA. 
 
 themselves, in the Xorth-West and Central India 
 jirovinces. The strong’ arm of authority and 
 restraint being removed, all the elements of 
 ■wildest disorder are let loose. A terrible -work 
 of plunder and devastation seems everywhere 
 to be carried on. While the g-reat bulk of 
 mutinous sepoj’s are congregated in armies — 
 here standing a siege, there carr}’ing on an- 
 other, and elsewhere fighting pitched battles 
 with our British generals and soldiers — numbers 
 of them, with twenty or thirty thousand crimi- 
 nals liberated from jail, and myriads more of 
 habit and repute thieves and villains, are scour- 
 ing the country in all directions. While many 
 of the populace in cities, and of the common 
 ryots or agricultural population, are passive and 
 apathetic — scarcely knowing, and not at all 
 caring, who their supreme rulers may be, so long 
 as their immemorial habits, manners, customs, 
 and usages are not violently interfered ■with — it 
 cannot be doubted that numbers of both classes 
 are disaffected or actively' hostile to the British 
 and their Government. A gentleman of long 
 experience in Tirhoot writes : “ There is a 
 
 strong sympathy with the mutineers throughout 
 the countiy ; every success or fresh rising of the 
 mutineers was marked here with a look of satis- 
 faction. Not one among the numerous zemin- 
 dars with whom I have conversations either 
 expresses sympathy for the Govenment, or will 
 
I.KTTEK X. 
 
 117 
 
 give a single hint as to the reason of tlie risings, 
 although I am perfectly convinced that all the 
 better informed ones were perfectly aware of 
 what was to happen ! ” An intelligent gentle- 
 man at Agra, writing of the state of things 
 when the British were obliged to abandon the 
 city and retire into the fort, says ; “ The popu- 
 lace was all in arms, and there was nothing but 
 plundering, bloodshed, and burning and de- 
 stroying bungalows and public offices. In 
 plundering, most of the Hindustanis (z. e., up- 
 country Hindus) joined the Mohammedans. The 
 Mohammedans to a man arc against the British 
 Government, and three-fourths of the Hindus- 
 tanis.” In narratives that are constantly reach- 
 ing us from individuals that have escaped, we 
 read that, amid occasional and solitarj' acts of 
 kindness, they were most frequently mocked, 
 abused, insulted, and ill-treated by the villagers, 
 even when already stripped of everything, so 
 as to offer no temptation to acts of personal vio- 
 lence. Even poor harmless females — scorched 
 and blistered by exposure to a burning sun, 
 half-dead from hunger and fatigue, aye, and half- 
 distracted from being suddenly made childless 
 and husbandless — have often met with little 
 mercy at the hands of villagers. In many places, 
 too, from lust of plunder, villagers are up in 
 arms against villagers ; while the native police, 
 instead of attempting to maintain or establish 
 
118 
 
 PR. duff’s letters on INDIA. 
 
 order, are everywhere swelling tlie hosts of ruf- 
 fians that are bent on pillage. While many 
 rajahs and zemindars have hitherto remained 
 oatensUhy faithful to the British Crown, others 
 have been set up as chiefs by the mutineers, or 
 have raised the standard of their own indepen- 
 dence, or have proclaimed allegiance to the re- 
 cently-installed Sovereign of Delhi. In Oude 
 many of the chiefs are in open rebellion. The 
 Eani of Jhansi. after aiding in the massacre of 
 all the British there, has raised a body of 14,000 
 men, with twenty guns. The Jaloun Chief has 
 raised a body of about 12,000. Kuwar Singh 
 of Shahabad, between the Sone and Benares, 
 has a vast body of rebel followers — variously 
 estimated from 20,000 to 40,000 — now hanging 
 threateningly over Mirzapore, one of the grand- 
 est emporiums of trade in the North-West, and 
 where the British are now shut up within an en- 
 trenchment. The Chief of Secundra Rao, with 
 a body of cavalry and infantry, has taken pos- 
 session of Coel and Allyghur, between Agra and 
 Delhi, and proclaimed himself suhadar, or gov- 
 ernor, for the king of Delhi, of all the country 
 between these towns and Allahabad, that is, the 
 whole Doab, or country between the Jumna and 
 the Ganges — collecting the revenue due to our 
 Government, and exercising other prerogatives 
 of royaltj' ! 
 
 From these and other facts of a similar kind 
 
LETTEK X. 
 
 119 
 
 — some of them formerly mentioned — how ut- 
 terly erroneous and misleading must appear 
 some of the representations in lionie journals, 
 from the Times downwards ? Wliat becomes of 
 the oft-reiterated assertion — “ It is a military 
 revolt, and nothing more ? ” or of the assertion 
 — “ The Bengal army has ceased to exist,” when, 
 tliough it has ceased to exist as our army, it 
 continues in reality to exist as our deadliest 
 enemy ? or of such declarations as these — “The 
 entire non-military population, from Cape Como- 
 rin to the Himalayas, have stood aloof from the 
 movement” — “Not a man has stirred” — “The 
 chiefs of upper India vie with each other in 
 tendering to Government their assurances of 
 support and attachment?” Unqualified state- 
 ments of this description — so violently rvide of 
 the truth — cannot fail to prove mischievous, by 
 lulling the rulers and people of Great Britain 
 into a false security, and a security as fatal as 
 it is false. 
 
 And if such be the disorganized, unsettled, 
 lawless condition of the North - West now — 
 when the country is, for the most part, impass- 
 ible, from the plains being turned into marshes, 
 and the loamy soil into ^fielding softness like 
 that of the quicksand — when the driest summer 
 brooks are swollen into torrents, and the larger 
 streams into mighty, rushing, outspreading 
 floods — what, unless God in mercy interpose for 
 
120 
 
 DK. DL'FF'S LETIHRS ON INDIA. 
 
 our deliverance, may we not expect to be the 
 possible state of things two or three months 
 lienee, when the countr.v will be completely 
 dried up, and its now saturated soil turned into 
 an iron pavement — when the torrents will 
 wholly disappear, and the mightiest rivers be 
 all but lost in their own sands — when the pres- 
 ent outstanding crops shall be cut, gathered in, 
 and safely garnered, and the seeds of the next 
 spring harvest fairly committed to the bosom of 
 the earth — when the whole military and demi- 
 military population of the North-West will thus 
 be set free to buckle on their armour, and go 
 forth, like their renowned ancestors in days of 
 old, on e.xpeditions of plunder, conflagration, 
 murder, and kingdom-taking ? 
 
 I do not write thus as an alarmist. Far from 
 it ; for my own trust in the Lord has never 
 wavered ; nor my confidence that, after hum- 
 bling us with deserved judgments. He will rise 
 and scatter His and our enemies. But I do 
 write to warn the ignorant, at home and else- 
 where, against possible dangers, difiBculties, and 
 delays in the reestablishment of peace, order, 
 and tranquillity, which, not anticipated or sea- 
 sonably provided for, might excite, in the event 
 of disappointment, unreasonable apprehension 
 and alarm. 
 
 22ii. — To-day our regular mail closes ; and, I 
 
LETTER X. 
 
 121 
 
 fear, must leave without any intelligence of a 
 positively re-assuring kind. On the contrary, 
 there is an abundance of wild and ugly, though, 
 I fondly hope, unauthenticated, rumors flying 
 about, respecting Lucknow, Agra, and other 
 places. 
 
 Another of our great men has fallen a victim 
 to the ceaseless anxieties and fatigues of his 
 high and arduous position — the Honorable Mr. 
 Colvin, Governor of the North-West Provinces, 
 lie was a man of great talents, ripe experience, 
 excellent administrative powers, and, withal, a 
 sincere and liberal friend to native education 
 and Christian missions. Next to Sir Henry 
 Lawrence, his loss will be most felt. 
 
 It is now nearly four months since — from the 
 many and independent channels through which 
 the intelligence reached us — it was believed 
 that Delhi had been recaptured. Indeed, early 
 in June the Supreme Government here actually 
 reported to the Home Government its confident 
 assurance that the fall of Delhi would be an- 
 nounced in a few days; but even now there is 
 no intelligence of its fall I The prodigious diffi- 
 culties in the way had not at first been suffi- 
 ciently appreciated ; first the hot season, and 
 then the rainy season, the want of carriage, 
 and, above all, the want of European troops. 
 But that delay in the re-capture of Delhi has 
 proved more fatal to British interests than most 
 11 
 
122 
 
 DE. dike’s LKTTEES ON INDIA. 
 
 people at home can well understand. This arises 
 from the peculiar importance attached to the 
 city mnative estimation. To it even the Hindus 
 look with feelings of admiration and awe. Their 
 own mythological legends refer to the glories 
 of an ancient Delhi long before it was destroyed 
 and rebuilt by the sovereigns of the house of 
 Timur. The Mohammedans throughout India 
 look upon the present or modern Delhi with feel- 
 ings akin to idolatrous homage. It is, in their 
 eyes, the grand standing monument of their 
 former supremacy — the metropolis which, two 
 or three centuries ago, outshone in brilliancy 
 every other in the known world — where, literally 
 the gorgeous East, with an exuberance unrival- 
 led before or since, “ shorvered o’er her kings 
 barbaric pearl and gold.” The fact of the most 
 magnificent of the palaces of the great Moguls 
 being still there — with the famous marble hall, in 
 which once stood the matchless peacock throne, 
 and which is even now inlaid with richest flow- 
 ertry of gems, and engraven with the memora- 
 ble Arabic inscription, “ if there be a heaven 
 upon earth, it is here, it is here” — would alone 
 be enough to inflame the Mohammedan imagi- 
 nation. But the additional fact that the lineal 
 successor of their mightiest monarchs — Akbar 
 and Jehanguire, Shahjehan and Aurungzebe — 
 being the hereditary occupant of that very pal- 
 ace, bearing also the titles, and having the 
 
LETTER X. 
 
 123 
 
 honors of titular Emperor of India personallj'- 
 accorded to him — has united to stimulate and 
 perpetuate in every Mohammedan mind, the 
 certain expectation that, some day or other, all 
 the glories of their ancient dynasty would be 
 revived. Yea, we know that in this very ex- 
 pectation they have for generations been revel- 
 ling witli fondest delight and, in connection with 
 it, daily offering their most fervent prayers. 
 Hence their universal shout of exultation when 
 the imperial city and palace fell into the hands 
 of those whose battle-cry was, “ Down with the 
 British, and up with the paramount power of 
 Islam.” Hence, also the peculiaritj^ of import- 
 ance which, at an earlier period, would have 
 been attached, alike by friend and foe, to the 
 re-capture of Delhi ! 
 
 Next in importance to Delhi is the other great 
 capital of the Moguls — Agra — with its celebrat- 
 ed mosques and mausoleums, and Taj Mahal, 
 the most exquisitely beautiful edifice in the 
 whole world. For the last two months the city 
 itself has been in possession of the rebels, and 
 has been sacked, plundered, and dreadfully de- 
 stroyed. The British, shut up in the fort, are 
 now seriously threatened by a fresh army of ten 
 or twelve thousand mutineers, with guns, mor- 
 tars, and howitzers from Gwalior — the gather- 
 ings of the rebel forces of Scindia and Holkar, 
 together with the British contingents through- 
 
124 
 
 DE. duff’s LETIEKS ON INDIA. 
 
 out their dominions ; or, if these pass by the 
 fort of Agra, the probability is that they will 
 seize on and occupj' the famous mud fort of 
 Bhurtpore, which has heretofore successfully 
 stood sieges from British armies, ere sepoys had 
 learned to he faithless to their salt. The Eajah 
 Golab Singh of Cashmere being dead, it is now 
 credibly reported that the whole country is up in 
 arms against his successor — a rebellion which, 
 in the present state of things, may seriously 
 affect the Punjaub. Altogether, at this moment, 
 the dark cloud in the North-West, so far from 
 dispersing, seems thickening in gloom. But 
 British troops are now beginning to arrive 
 almost daily, and a month hence the cold season 
 will partly set in. So we live in fond hope that 
 the Lord, in answer to the many prayers of His 
 people in India and in Britain, will interpose 
 for our deliverance. 
 
 In Calcutta there has been more prayer dur- 
 ing the last four mouths than probablj^ in any 
 four years preceding. The Lord’s judgments are 
 seen visibly poured upon us as a people. And 
 all that know their Bibles confess that it is on 
 account of our own sins, the sins of our rulers, 
 and the sins of our fathers — never sufficiently 
 repented of nor forsaken. 
 
 The venerable and truly pious Bishop of Cal- 
 cutta has been congruously taking the lead and 
 setting the example in all holy exercises in 
 
LETTER X. 
 
 125 
 
 public and in private. One evening he invited 
 all ministers of all evangelical denominations 
 in Calcutta to his palace, to unite in social prayer 
 and praise. He repeatedly besought Loi’d C.an- 
 ning to appoint a day for humiliation and prayer 
 for all India. But the Governor-General as re- 
 peatedly refused to comply. A memorial from 
 the Christian inhabitants of Calcutta was at last 
 addressed to his Lordship on the subject ; and 
 though a proclamation was, in consequence, 
 issued, I grieve to add that it is of a nature to 
 give little satisfaction. It ignores Christ and 
 Christianity altogether — invites simply all 
 “ faithful subjects of the British Crown,” &c., 
 i.e. Mohammedans, Hindus, &c., (who still profess 
 fidelity to the British Crown) as well as Chris- 
 tians. This is sad and saddening, since, instead 
 of honoring, it insults Jehovah, the one living 
 and true God. Oh I pray for us. Yours afiec- 
 tionately, Alexander Duff. 
 
 P. S. — 24#A September . — The departure of the 
 regular mail having been postponed for two 
 days, I am enabled to add a few lines. Still 
 nothing decisive from the North-West. Luck- 
 now was still holding out on the 15th ; on the 
 19th, report from Cawnpore that the troops for 
 the relief of Lucknow had crossed the river that 
 morning without opposition, skirmishing only 
 with advanced posts. From Delhi no news later 
 11 >^ 
 
126 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 than the 5th ; the expected siege train had then 
 arrived with much ammunition, the King being 
 described as in consternation, and the soldiers 
 taunting liim with his inability to pay them, 
 ■while the wealthy citizens were loudly com- 
 plaining of their excesses. 
 
 Hitherto, all out here have been so thoroughly 
 engrossed with means and measures — urgently 
 demanded for the prevention of fresh outbreaks, 
 and the putting down of old ones — that there 
 has been little time or inclination for investi- 
 gating or speculating on the causes of this ter- 
 rible rebellion. When the time comes for search- 
 ing, retrospective inquiry, the antecedent or 
 preparatory causes must be carefully distin- 
 guished from the immediately impelling one. 
 The former were manifold — arising from the 
 constitution of the Bengal army, which has hith- 
 erto consisted chiefly of high caste natives, Brah- 
 mins and Rajpoots — from the constant drafting 
 of the ablest and more experienced officers for 
 civil employ — from the curtailment or diminu- 
 tion of privileges in connection with the annex- 
 ation of Oude, of which a vast proportion of the 
 sepoys were natives — with many other minor 
 ones, to which it is needlessly now more partic- 
 ularly to refer. The more immediate one will 
 be found mainly of Mohammedan origin — the 
 result of a long-concocted Mohammedan con- 
 spiracy for the destruction of the British and 
 
I.ETTEU X. 
 
 127 
 
 the reestablishment of the Mogul dynasty. The 
 ex-King of Oude, and his Prime Minister, Ali 
 Nukhi Khan, and other councillors, appear to 
 have been the chief instigators of the revolt be- 
 hind the scenes. The cartridge affair was only 
 adroitly seized on by them as a plausible pretext 
 for working on the superstitious fears and pre- 
 judices of the ignorant sepoys. That manoeuvre 
 having succeeded, offers next began to bo made 
 more directly addressed to their covetousness. 
 Of this, the evidence is now of a cumulative 
 nature. Here is a specimen. The hallowing is 
 a lately intercepted letter from the Delhi and 
 Oude sepoys to the disarmed native brigade at 
 Barrackpore : “ Oh, ye warriors, greeting I We 
 expected great things from you, as the nose of 
 the army ; but jmu gave up your arms without 
 fighting. However, it is not too late to retrieve 
 your characters ; it is true, 5 mu have no arms ; 
 but hasten up, and Ram (one of the incarnations 
 of Vishnu, celebrated in the Ramayan, whose 
 earthly kingdom was the ancient Ayodhya, or 
 modern Oude) will give you arms. You \vill, 
 each sepoy, get twelve rupees per month, and two 
 hundred highas (about seventy English acres) 
 of land. The King of Delhi has ordained that 
 no more cows shall be killed in the land ; he 
 sends salaams, and says the enemy outside 
 numbers 10,000. After we have conquered 
 them, we shall come to Calcutta, and try if the 
 Feringhees can fight.” 
 
128 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 A gentleman from General Havelock’s camp 
 writes that “ the King and Ali Nukhi Khan’s 
 not coming up, as was ‘promised and fully expect- 
 ed^' has tended greatly to disconcert and per- 
 plex the mutineers. This shows how providen- 
 tial the arrest and confinement of these prime 
 movers of rebellion has proved. A. D. 
 
LETTER XI. 
 
 Calcutta, 1st October, 1857. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — For the last week we 
 have been kept in a state of distressing excite- 
 ment by the strangely-mingled tidings from the 
 North-West and Central India. The native 
 regiments at Nagode, to the west of Allahabad, 
 and at Jubbulpore, on the Nerbudda — regiments 
 which had so long stood out in apparent fidelity 
 and loyalty to our Government — have at last 
 mutinied. Further westward, towards Indore, 
 a chief has been assembling a large army of 
 30,000 or 40,000 followers. At Kurrachee a 
 mutiny has been suppressed when ripe for out- 
 break. The combined Gwalior, Indore, and 
 other troops have, at no great distance, been 
 hanging threateningly on Agra. The army of 
 the Kewah Rajah has practically flung him 
 aside, and turned against us. The Dinapore 
 mutineers, with hosts of followers, have been 
 alarming Allahabad, now almost denuded of 
 European soldiers. A rumor has been preva- 
 lent at Nagpore that the neighboring chiefs are 
 much disaffected ; danger is apprehended ; and 
 the residents there and at Kamptee are hourly 
 
 [129] 
 
130 
 
 DR. duff’s LliTrEIlS OX INDIA. 
 
 expecting to be called into the Seetabuldee fort. 
 Endless rumors are afloat of disaffection and 
 risings in other places — too manj' to be enumer- 
 ated. Cashmere, and Cabul, and Hyderabad in 
 Scinde, with other distant places, are beginning 
 to cast portentous shadows into the already 
 darkened scene of rebellion and strife. And 
 then, nearer to ourselves, the province of Behar, 
 of which Patna is the capital, is known to be in 
 a very critical state indeed ; while some of the 
 measures adopted by our Government to pacify 
 a Mohammedan population, traitorous to the 
 very core, are almost universally felt to be like 
 the throwing of oil on the smouldering brands, 
 th at are ready in a moment to burst into a blaz- 
 ing conflagration. But I shall not enlarge on 
 the dark side of the picture, with its endless 
 terrible details of anarchy and violence, plunder 
 and bloodshed — thankful to God that there is 
 now a bright side to relieve our weary, sickened 
 eye. About a fortnight ago Havelock’s recruit- 
 ed force again re-crossed the Ganges at Cawn- 
 pore for the relief of Lucknow. They speedily 
 carried everything before them, to within four- 
 teen miles of that city. There they heard the 
 guns of the poor beleaguered garrison, and fired 
 a royal salute with their 24-pounders, to cheer 
 the hearts of the besieged with the hope of early 
 deliverance. Indeed, in one or two daj's more 
 it was confidently expected that the relieving 
 
LETTER XI. 
 
 131 
 
 force would be in possession of Lucknow, But, 
 strange to say, tlicugh the telegraph be now 
 open from this to Cawnpore— and Cawnpore is 
 only fifty miles from Lucknow — for nearly a 
 week nut a particle of intelligence has reached 
 us from Havelock’s army ! What has become 
 of it ? What has been the fate of the noble 
 garrison, whose heroic defence of a scarcely 
 tenable position, for so many months, in the face 
 of such tremendous odds, has excited the won- 
 der and rivetted the admiration of all India ? 
 Oh ! the agony of suspense now experienced by 
 hundreds here, who have fathers or mothers, 
 brothers or sisters, sons or daughters, dear 
 friends or acquaintances there. Every forenoon 
 Government House is beset with crowds of 
 anxious inquirers. But as yet no answer ; all 
 is grim and dreary silence. Of course, as might 
 be anticipated, the most gloomj' and sinister re- 
 ports are in busy circulation. The most hopeful 
 view of the case is, that Lucknow has been 
 relieved ; but that the rebels, still abounding* in 
 numbers, have got into the rear of our army and 
 taken possession of the road by which it ad- 
 vanced from Cawnpore, thus cutting off all com- 
 munication. If this be the case, it is not doubted 
 that our brave armj'’, with the relieved garrison, 
 will be able to fight its way back again. Still, 
 who can tell what additional loss of life such an 
 operation may entail ? 
 
132 
 
 DR. DUFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 On Saturday last (26th ult.), the very daj' on 
 which the mail steamer finally left the river, 
 tidings reached of the assault and storming of 
 the northern half of Dellii — of the seizure of the 
 magazine with its stores — of the complete rout 
 of the rebels — of the flight of numbers of them 
 from the city — and of the confinement of about 
 three thousand of them in the palace, where, 
 with the King, they were determined to fight it 
 out to the last. It was simply added that the 
 fighting had been desperate — that the casualties 
 in killed and wounded on our side were very 
 heavy — and that the enemy’s own guns had 
 been turned, and were, with our own, in full 
 play upon the palace, which could not hold out 
 beyond two or three days The palace, I may 
 note in passing, is itself a prodigious edifice, or 
 rather vast cluster of edifices, on the right bank 
 of the Jumna, surrounded, except on the river 
 side, by a lofty wall, fifty or sixty feet in height, 
 and about a mile in circumference. 
 
 Well, to-day the consummating message 
 has reached Government by telegraph from 
 Cawnpore, in these curt but emphatic terms ; 
 “ Delhi is entirely ours. God save the Queen ! 
 Strong column in pursuit.” This brief but sig- 
 nificant message, together with the pi’evious 
 ones, must, as you may readily suppose, have 
 thrown strangely conflicting currents of joy and 
 sadness into the heart of a community already 
 
LETTER XI. 
 
 133 
 
 painfully agitated by the doubtful fate of Luck- 
 now, and the disastrous rumors fi’om other quar- 
 ters — joy, at the final re-capture of the great 
 stronghold of the rebels, the continued possession 
 of which tlirew a halo of glory and triumph over 
 their cause in the eyes of the millions of India — 
 sadness', at the uncertain fate of hundreds of 
 beloved relatives and friends who may be found 
 among the slain. Verily, it is a time for joining 
 “ trembling with our mirth.” It is a time in 
 which we have to sing of “mercy and of judg- 
 ment.” Jehovah’s right arm, with its glittering 
 sword of justice, has swiftly descended upon 
 us ; but in His great goodness we have not been 
 wholly consumed. And in the midst of deserved 
 wrath He is remembering undeserved mercy 
 this day. 
 
 October 2. — To-day a brief telegraphic mes- 
 sage from Cawnpore has announced at last the 
 relief of the Lucknow garrison by General Have- 
 lock’s force. There must, however, have been 
 desperate fighting, as the message reports four 
 hundred killed and wounded, and among the 
 former. General Neill, the brave Madras officer 
 who saved Benares and the fortress of Allaha- 
 bad. He had, by Ids own deeds since he arrived 
 amongst us — deeds indicative of soldierly quali- 
 ties of the very highest order — become a uni- 
 versal favorite. And this day I verily believe 
 12 
 
134 
 
 DK. duff’s LFTTERS OX INDIA. 
 
 thatliis death will be mourned over by the whole 
 of our Calcutta community, like that of a per- 
 sonal friend. Indeed, it is heartrending to think 
 of the loss of valuable lives already occasioned 
 by tills deplorable sepoj' rebellion ; The late 
 Commander-in-Chief, General Anson ; Sir II. 
 Barnard, the Honorable Mr. Colvin, Governor 
 of the North-West ; Sir Hugh Wheeler ; Sir 
 Henry Lawrence; and now General Neill, with 
 many, many more, over whose untimely end 
 India is now shedding the silent tear of heart- 
 felt sorrow. But if we are only humbled under 
 these successive strokes of the red arm of a 
 righteous and offended God, and prove the 
 reality of our humiliation by bringing forth 
 “ fruits meet for repentance,” we shall yet be 
 privileged to exchange our tears of sorrow for 
 those of holy joy and adoring thankfulness to 
 the Lord God omnipotent that reigneth. 
 
 Throughout the last four awful months, while 
 deploring the savage butcheries* enacted in 
 the North-West, we have been led repeatedh' to 
 wonder and praise God on account of the all 
 but miraculous escape of so many. And now, 
 
 ♦ This very day, authentic details have reached us from Agra of the 
 shocking murder of thirt>j-tico men and women in that city, who were 
 left outside when the British residents bolted into the fort on the even- 
 ing of 5th July. One had his head cut off and publicly cxpo.sed, and 
 his body dragged through the streets ! The dead body of another, after 
 being brutally mangled, was thrown down a well, and his wife's lii-iiig 
 body pitched down on the top of it ! One lady was burnt to death 1 
 Among the murdered were Major Jacob of Scindig's service, and Profes- 
 sor Hubbard of tlie Government Agrg College. 
 
LK’ITEK XI. 
 
 135 
 
 what a signal providence in the case of Luck- 
 now! The relieving force, after repeated at- 
 tempts, failures, and suceesses, at last reached 
 the garrison just in time to save it from utter 
 destruction. A further delay of half a day, or 
 even an hour or two, might have proved fatal I 
 An after examination showed that two mines, 
 all ready for loading, had been run far under the 
 chief defensive works, which, if sprung, must 
 have placed the garrison at the mercy of the 
 rebels! Veril}^, man’s extremity is the hour of 
 God’s opportunity. Shall we, then, not praise 
 Him for this signal deliverance of so many hun- 
 dred’s of our sore-beleaguered countrymen, wo- 
 men, and children ? 
 
 October 6. — From the fragmentary way in 
 which details have been reaching us, it is im- 
 possible to ascertain with absolute accuracy the 
 number of British Christians that have met with 
 an untimely end in the midst of the present 
 awful whirlwind of fire and blood. One thing 
 is certain, that, at the lowest calculation, the 
 number cannot be under thirteen hundred. Of 
 that number, about two hundred and forty have 
 been British military officers — about a tenth of 
 the officers of the Bengal army. Great as is 
 this number, the marvel is that, amid such 
 terrific scenes, it has been so small. I now 
 speak of those who have been actually masr 
 
136 
 
 DR. duff’s letters OX INDIA. 
 
 sacred, and not of those who have fallen in open 
 battle with the enemy. The rest of the 1300 
 consists of civil servants of the East India Com- 
 pany, assistants in government offices, bankers, 
 traders, agents, and ladies. 
 
 The number also includes four chaplains and 
 ten male missionaries with their wives. Of the 
 latter ten, two, belonging to the Propagation 
 Society, fell at Cawnpore, and three at Delhi; 
 four, of the American Presbyterian Mission, at 
 Futtehghur; and one, of the Established Church 
 of Scotland, at Sealkote, in the Punjaub. 
 
 The destruction of mission property in the 
 North-West has been immense. At upwards of 
 twenty stations there has been much devastation, 
 and at some of them total ruin. The mission 
 bungalow residences, the schools, the churches 
 or chapels, the libraries and stores of books, 
 have been completely destroyed. The extensive 
 printing presses of the American Mission at 
 Allahabad, and of the Church of England Mis- 
 sionary Society at Agra, with the founts of types, 
 and Bible, and tract, and school-book deposi- 
 tories — the accumulated results of the know- 
 ledge, experience and toil of many a devoted 
 spirit for many years — have all disappeared. 
 In pecuniary value alone, the aggregate of mis- 
 sion property thus wantonly and wickedly de- 
 molished and swept away cannot, at the lowest 
 estimate, be reckoned under seventy thousand 
 
LETTER XI. 
 
 137 
 
 'pounds. But if the Lord in mercy rouse the 
 Christian heart of Britain and America, the 
 seventy thousand will soon be replaced by more 
 than seven times seventy. And in this way 
 may a glorious exemplification be furnished to 
 the whole of nominal Christendom and actual 
 Heathendom of the Divine principle of over- 
 coming evil with good. Oh that British and 
 American Christians would be shaken by this 
 earthquake out of the drowsiness of the past, 
 with its meagre drowsy action ! Now, if ever, 
 is the golden opportunity. When the Prince of 
 Darkness, through his emissaries, brought the 
 Lord of glory to an ignominious death on Cal- 
 vary’s cross, little recked he that, instead of ex- 
 tinguishing, he was only establishing and for 
 ever glorifying His name and cause on earth. 
 So, with similar short-sighted policy now, he 
 may have stirred up his heathen emissaries to 
 imbue their hands in the blood of the heralds of 
 the cross, plunder and lay waste their property, 
 and annihilate their Bible stores, in the hope of 
 thereby exterminating the Redeemer’s name 
 and cause from this vast land, in which for 
 thousands of years he has exercised undisputed 
 sovereignty over its teeming myriads. But if 
 Christians are true in their professed loyalty to 
 their Saviour-King, they will turn this policy of 
 the arch-enemy into foolishness and irretrievable 
 defeat. They will now arise and come forth 
 12 * 
 
138 
 
 DR. duff’s LETTF.RS ON INDIA. 
 
 ■with twice redoubled energy, and more than 
 twice redoubled liberalit}' — energy and liber- 
 alitj’ sustained by a Abraham-like faith and a 
 wrestling Jacob-like praj’er — and if they do so, 
 Satan’s long-consolidated dominion in India will 
 soon be w’reuched from his tyrant grasp and 
 converted into a glorious province of Immanuel’s 
 universal empire! 
 
 To prevent all misconception w'ith reference 
 to missionaries, it ought to be emphatically 
 noted that nowliae has any special enmity 07- 
 hostility been 7iianfested towards them by the 
 inutineers. Far from it. Such of them as fell in 
 the way of the rebels -were simply' dealt with 
 precisely in the same way as all other Europeans 
 were dealt ■with. Thej^ belonged to the govern- 
 ing class, and, as such, must be destroyed, to 
 make way for the reestablishment of the old 
 native Mohammedan dynasty. The same actuat- 
 ing motive led to the destruction of native 
 Christians and all others who were friendly or 
 supposed tobe friendly to the British Government. 
 In this way it is known that many of the natives 
 of Bengal, ■who, from their superior English 
 education, were employed in Government offices 
 in the Xorth-lVest, and were believed to be 
 favorable to the continuance of our rule, were 
 made to suffer severely both in life and propertju 
 Some of them ■were sadly mutilated after the 
 approved Mohammedan fashion, by having their 
 
I.EITEU XI. 
 
 139 
 
 noses slit up and cars cut off ; while others, 
 amid exposures and sufferings, had to effect the 
 same hair-breadth escapes as the Europeans. 
 In short, I feel more than ever persuaded of the 
 reality of the conviction which I entertained 
 from the very first, that this monster rebellion 
 has been mainly of a -political, and but very 
 subordinate! y of a religious character, and that 
 the grand proximate agency in exciting it was 
 a treasonable Mohammedan influence brought 
 skilfully to bear on a soil prepared for its action 
 by many concurring antecedent causes of dis- 
 affection and discontent. Brahminical and other 
 influences had doubtless their share in it, but 
 the preponderant central element has been of 
 Mohammedan origin, directed to the I’ealizatiou 
 of the long-cherished dynastic designs of Mo- 
 hammedan ambition. 
 
 By the natives generally, no special animosity 
 has been exhibited towards the missionaries or 
 their doings. The very contrary is the fact. 
 On this subject the editor of the Calcutta Chris- 
 tian Intelligencer, a clergyman of the Church of 
 England, has been able to bear emphatic testi- 
 mony. “ If any European,” says he “ is respect- 
 ed and trusted bj^ the natives at present, it is 
 the missionary. All the influence of public offi- 
 cers and their agents at Benares could not succeed 
 in procuring supplies for the troops and others 
 from the country round; but a missionary well 
 
140 DR. DUFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 knoicn to the people is now going round the villages 
 and getting in supplies for the public service * 
 The missionaries and their families are living, 
 at that and some other stations, at some distance 
 from the other residents and from the means of 
 defence, and are surrounded by the people on 
 every side. How remarkable is this state of 
 things I The Government, who have always 
 fondled and favored superstition and idolatry, are 
 accused of an underhand design to cheat the people 
 into Christianity ; and the missionaries, who have 
 always openly and, boldly, but still kindly and 
 affectionately, denounced all idolatrous abomina- 
 tions, and invited their deluded votaries to embraee 
 the gospel of Christ for their salvation — they are 
 understood by the people ; and if any Europeans 
 are trusted, the missionaries are at j^resent.” 
 
 The gratif3’ing incident recorded here of the 
 Benares missionary at once reminds us of the 
 case of the celebrated Schwartz, who, when the 
 agents of the Madras Government utterly failed 
 in their attempts, bj^ his personal influence with 
 the people succeeded in obtaining the most 
 abundant supplies for the British arnn’. The 
 case of Peshau'ur, the remotest and most criti- 
 cally situated of all the Punjaub stations, is most 
 remarkable and instructive. The Mohammedan 
 population of that citj’ is singularly fanatical. 
 The city is encompassed with hill tribes as dar- 
 
 * This was written about two months ago. 
 
LETTER XI. 
 
 141 
 
 irig as they are fanatical. The first British 
 Political Resident there, after the conquest of 
 tlic Punjaub, full of antiquated antichristian 
 fears, declared that so long as he lived there 
 should not be a Christian mission beyond the 
 Indus. Subsequently, the Resident was assas- 
 sinated by a Mohammedan fanatic. Uis suc- 
 cessor was the famous Major Edwardes, of 
 Mooltan celebrity, a man who, happily, fears 
 God and loves the Saviour and Ilis cause. When 
 it was proposed to establish a mission at Pesha- 
 wur, he at once fearlessly headed it, and openly 
 declared, in substance, that the Christianization 
 of India ought to be regarded as the ultimate 
 end of our continued possession of it. At the 
 outbreak of the great rebellion, nearly the whole 
 of the native regiments (eight in number) at the 
 station showed symptoms of disafiection and 
 mutiny. Most of them had to be disarmed ; and 
 one of them has since been cut to pieces. In 
 the midst of these frightful internal troubles, 
 and surrounded on all sides with a fiercely 
 fanatical people, what were the missionaries to 
 do? If they were even called on by the authori- 
 ties to pause for a season, no one could have 
 been much surprised. But no ; Sir John Law- 
 rence, the Chief Commissioner, and Mr. Mont- 
 gomery, the Judicial Commissioner, of the Pun- 
 jaub, in reference to them, in substance replied, 
 “ Let the preaching and other missionary ope- 
 
142 
 
 DE. duff's letters OX INDIA. 
 
 rations by no means be suspended.” Oli, how 
 true the saying’, “Them that lionor me I will 
 honor !” At Peshaiviir, amidst almost unparal- 
 leled difficulties, the British have been able to 
 hold their own ; the Punjaub has been pre- 
 served in tranquillity ; and not only so, but has 
 been able to furnish nearly all the troops that 
 have now so triumphantly re-captured Delhi ! 
 Are not these suggestive facts ? Indeed, it is 
 scarcely too much to say, that it is the Punjaub 
 which has mainly saved our Indian empire. 
 
 October 8. — To-day our mail closes. The fact, 
 the unspeakably gratifjdng fact, of the noble 
 garrison of Lucknow having been successfully 
 relieved by Havelock’s force, has already been 
 stated ; and I was in hopes that ere the mail 
 closed particulars would have reached us. As 
 yet, however, none have been received. The 
 relieving force had to plough its way through a 
 sea of rebellion ; and, as they advanced, the 
 waves closed again behind them ; so that all 
 communication has been cut off until they plough 
 their way back again through the same tumul- 
 tuous clement. The Lord in mercy grant that 
 it may be speedily ! — Yours ever affectionately, 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
LETTER XII. 
 
 Calcutta, 19th October, 1857. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie,- — It is no longer :i 
 mere liypcrbole to say that the native army of 
 Bengal has ceased to exist. That vast bod}', 
 consisting of regulars and irregulars, infantry, 
 cavalry, and artillery, and numbering upwards 
 of 100,000 men has been, with the exception of 
 two regiments, entirely dissolved. By far the 
 greater portion of it is still in open and sangui- 
 nary revolt. The remaining portion, which has 
 been disarmed, has for the most part been 
 obtrusively exhibiting signs of hatred and dis- 
 affection. Fresh plots and machinations have 
 been so rife amongst them, that the services of 
 a goodly number of European soldiers have 
 been required in watching them night and day, 
 as so many suspected felons. 
 
 Of the two regiments who have not as yet 
 openly mutinied, one is at Saugor on the Ner- 
 budda, and the other at the remote station of 
 Julpigori, East Bengal. As regards the former, 
 sinister rumors have of late been flying about. 
 As regards the latter, it has been, from its 
 situation, hitherto free from temptation. But 
 
 [143] 
 
144 
 
 DR. duff’s letters OX INDIA. 
 
 after the many examples wliich avc liave already 
 had of unsurpassed perfidy’, of consummate 
 ability in masking, under a show of fidelity and 
 loyaltj', the most rebellious and murderous 
 designs, and of matchless facility in exchanging 
 the attitude of bland and respectful soldierly 
 obeisance for that of unrelenting savage assas- 
 sins, no one who respects his own reputation 
 for mental sanity would vouch for a day’s con- 
 tinuance of the “ staunchness and trustworthi- 
 ness” of a single Bengal sepoy. 
 
 It is only within the last few days that two 
 companies of the 32d Bengal Native Infantry, 
 at Deoghur, in Behar, hitherto considered the 
 most loyal of the loyal, suddenly rose up, mur- 
 dered several of tlieir officers, together with 
 the Assistant-Commissioner, and are now in a 
 state of open revolt. How baffling to all calcu- 
 lations of ordinary prudence or sagacity ! 
 Not long ago, these very men cheerfully turned 
 out, and actually fired upon a body of mutinous 
 irregular cavalry ! No wonder though the 
 most implicit faith was placed in their profes- 
 sions of fidelity to the Government. And what 
 adds to the moral anomalj^ is, that their com- 
 manding officer — towards whom they had mani- 
 fested the strongest personal attachment, 
 because of his uniform kind indulgence and 
 unbounded confidence in them — was the first 
 victim of their murderous outbreak ! Or, if 
 
LETTER XII. 
 
 145 
 
 anytliiiig could add one atom more to the 
 remarkableness of the phenomenon, it is that 
 the rising and open revolt took place after they 
 had heard of the downfall of Delhi, the capture 
 of the King, and the slaughter and complete 
 dispersion of the rebels I The spirit of revolt 
 has thus spread and diffused itself like a raging 
 epidemic, overleaping all ordinary barriers, and 
 setting at defiance all ordinary laws. Only this 
 very day, a friend, who has just received a let- 
 ter from a correspondent at Jubbulpore on the 
 Nerbudda, assures me that the announcement 
 of the fall of Delhi in that quarter, so far from 
 assuaging, has only exasperated the spirit of 
 rebellion. And if the rebels, on being driven 
 from the open plains of the Jumna and the 
 Ganges, once betake themselves to the rolling 
 hills, vast forests, and all but interminable jung- 
 les of Central India, we may soon have a war 
 on our hands similar to that of the Pindarries, 
 which, in the time of the Marquis of Hastings, 
 taxed the whole resources of British India to 
 bring it to a decisive close. 
 
 Even now, from the rebels being scattered 
 over so vast an extent of country, something 
 like a desultory, indecisivm, guerilla warfare is 
 being carried on. Wherever any body of our 
 troops has fairly come in contact with the muti- 
 neers, the result has never yet been doubtful. 
 Some signal successes, though on a compara- 
 13 
 
146 
 
 DR. DUFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 lively small scale, have in different quarters 
 been already achieved, of which the public 
 journals will give you ample details. On the 
 other hand, rebellion continues still to spread 
 in different quarters. It is oidj’ the other day 
 that a prisoner for life at Hazaribagh, on the 
 north-west frontier of Bengal, but liberated 
 when the mutiny took place at that station, pro- 
 ceeded with one or two thousand armed men to 
 Sumbulpore, on the south-west frontier, on the 
 old route between Calcutta and Bombay. Hav- 
 ing entered the town unresisted, he proceeded 
 to the Hindu temple, and, after performing wor- 
 ship and offering sacrifices there, went next to 
 the late Rajah’s fort, placed himself on the 
 Guddi, or throne, proclaimed himself King, and 
 made all preparations for defence, if assailed 
 or resisted by others. So far as we can learn, 
 the Europeans contrived to make their escape ; 
 so that this new Rajah, Sunder Shah, has not 
 been privileged to inaugurate his short-lived 
 dynasty with libations of their blood. Other 
 rajahs along the western frontier have been 
 acting most treasonably ; and some of them, 
 such as the Porahatman, near Chybassah, pro- 
 claiming their independence, with complete 
 temporary success. 
 
 All these, and other similar facts, tend to 
 show what the latent feelings of the natives 
 towards the British Government have all along 
 
LETTER XII. 
 
 147 
 
 been ; or, at least, the feelings of numbers of 
 them belonging to all classes. And when the 
 tendency, on the part of authorities here and at 
 home, seems to be to hush up matters as far as 
 possible, and make comparatively light of symp- 
 toms the gravest and most ominous, setting 
 forth all that is favorable to us in the boldest 
 relief, and either wholly suppressing or minimiz- 
 ing the importance of all that is adverse, it is 
 proper that the British people should not be 
 deluded, but have their eyes fairly opened to 
 the prodigious work that is before them, in the 
 satisfactory pacification of the now totally disor- 
 ganized provinces of Northern and Central 
 India. The disasters of the last five months 
 came upon us in such rapid and bewildering 
 succession, and with such resistless hurricane- 
 like force, that many sank almost into the very 
 depths of despair. But the re-capture of Delhi, 
 the relief of Lucknow, and minor successes 
 elsewhere, have so suddenly elevated their 
 spirits, that they are now, apt to leap to the 
 other extreme of exultation, and conclude that 
 the battle has been fought and the victory 
 gained. Than this I cannot well conceive a 
 more egregious delusion. And to dissipate it, 
 by all lawful means, I reckon to be a duty to 
 ourselves, to our country, to India, and to our 
 God. 
 
 It is from no feeling of despondency or alarm 
 
148 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 that I thus write, Quite the reverse. Never, 
 even for a single moment, have I desponded. 
 From the very first, when the lurid clouds, sur- 
 charged with the red lightning and thunder of 
 Jehovah’s judgments, seemed hanging over our 
 heads, and ready to burst upon us with desolat- 
 ing fury, my faith in the ultimate destiny of 
 British India was never for an instant shaken. 
 I felt fortified with an intense persuasion that, 
 after visiting us with well-merited chastisements 
 for our past sins and negligences, and after we 
 ourselves had been sufficiently humbled under a 
 burning sense of our guiltiness and shame, and 
 had resolved with lowly, penitent, and broken 
 hearts to return unto the Lord with “ full pur- 
 pose of, and endeavor after new obedience,” 
 Jehovah would look out upon us through the 
 fiery cloud of suspended judgments, and once 
 more gladden us with the smiles of His gracious 
 countenance. And this is my intense persuasion 
 still ; tliough I am grieved to add that, either 
 in Britain or in India, I have not yet perceived 
 convincing signs of our being sufficiently hum- 
 bled as a people and nation. There is a loud cry 
 for the visitation of retributive justice on the 
 hosts of unpardonable murderers, and a loud 
 and honest wail of sympathy with the agonized 
 friends of the murdered, as well as surviving 
 sufferers. And all this is right, thoroughly right 
 and Christian, in its way. But any hope of an 
 
LEITER XII. 
 
 149 
 
 accelerated removal of deserved judgment, and 
 an accelerated restoration of settled peace and 
 tranquillity, would be vastly enhanced were I 
 to see our people and nation prostrated in the 
 dust before a holy God ; and then, sincerely and 
 truly, and not feignedly, like the Jews of old, 
 in those hypocritical fastings and humiliations 
 which were an abomination to the Lord, confess- 
 ing our past sins of omission and commission to- 
 wards poor benighted, superstition-ridden India, 
 and resolving that, in the amendment of the future, 
 ample reparation shall he made for the crimes and 
 negligence of the past. 
 
 Various individual members of our British 
 community here have been laboring to bring 
 about such a state of things amongst us, but 
 hitherto with very inadequate success. vVt the 
 head of these must in justice be named that 
 truly venerable and apostolic man, the Bishop 
 of Calcutta, a man on whom age has conferred 
 the spiritual sagacity of a seer, in blessed union 
 with the mellow piety of a ripened saint — a man 
 in whose character a noble lion-like fortitude in 
 the advocacy of pure evangelical truth is now 
 beautifully blended and harmonized with a lamb- 
 like demeanour in the whole of his personal 
 conduct. From the very first he exerted his 
 great influence with all classes in exciting them 
 to a spirit of humiliation and prayer before God. 
 He held two public services on week-days in his 
 13 * 
 
150 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 own cathedral, on both which occasions he 
 preached, though now in his eightieth year, two 
 vigorous and appropriate sennous, which have 
 since been publislied. lie invited to social 
 prayer and supplication, in his own house, the 
 ministers of all churches and denominations, 
 himself presiding, patriarch-like, and asking 
 others to share with him in the devotional exer- 
 cises. He made repeated private personal appli- 
 cations to the Governor-General, entreating liim 
 to appoint a special day for humiliation and 
 prayer — but, with sorrow I have to add, alto- 
 gether in vain. At last a public meeting of 
 Christian inhabitants was held, and a memorial 
 on the subject, addressed to Lord Canning, 
 agreed to, and numerously and respectably 
 signed. The response to this memorial was the 
 issue of a proclamation by the Governor-General 
 in Council, which sadly disappointed all God- 
 fearing people, and added another to the many 
 recent acts of our higher authorities, which have 
 tended, unhappily, to lower them in the estima- 
 tion of the general Christian community of this 
 place. The appointment of a ioeek-day was de- 
 clined, though the same papier which published 
 this proclamation announced the closing of all 
 Government offices for about ten days in honor of 
 the most celebrated of our idolatrous festivals, the 
 Durga Puja. But this was not the worst feature 
 of it. As if afraid or ashamed to allude to the 
 
LEITEIl XII, 
 
 1.51 
 
 existence of the only true religion — that on 
 whose origination, and maintenance, and out- 
 spreading, the energies of the Godhead are em- 
 barked — no reference whatever was made in it 
 to Christ, or Christianity, or Christians. On the 
 contrary, the invitation was to “all loyal sub- 
 jects of the British Crown” to offer “ supplication 
 to Almighty God,” and to “implore a blessing 
 on all measures taken for the repression of re- 
 bellion and crime.” Now, as the framers of this 
 document are known to believe, whether right 
 or wrong, that there are still millions of Moham- 
 medans and millions of Hindus, together with 
 numbers of otlier classes. Sheiks, Parsees, &c., 
 who are “ loyal subjects of the British Crown,” it 
 was keenly felt that the proclamation, thus pur- 
 posely confounding Christians with Mohamme- 
 dans, Hindus, Sheiks, Parsees, &c., and calling 
 on all of these, and all alike, to unite in suppli- 
 cation to Almighty God, put the most notable 
 stigma and dishonor on the one living and true 
 God, the Triune Jehovah of the Bible. All the 
 false religionists now named, with many more, 
 do recognize a supreme god, which they desig- 
 nate almighty. Even all the polytheistic sec- 
 taries of India acknowledge Brahma as their 
 supreme god ; aye, and the exclusive votaries of 
 Shiva, Vishnu, &c., exalt their own favorite god 
 into the Supreme, and ascribe unto him all the 
 attributes of the Supreme. Thus to lower and 
 
152 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 degrade “ the High and the Holy One,” who is 
 a “jealous God,” unto the level of the false 
 gods of Hinduism, and the herds of gods be- 
 longing to all the other Pagan and Antichris- 
 tiam'sTws of India, and that, too, by a professedly 
 Christian Government, was considered, and 
 justly considered, by all right-thinking Chris- 
 tian men as a crowning or consummating sin, 
 instead of being a return to God and to righteous- 
 ness. So that this proclamation, instead of tend- 
 ing to remove guilt, was rather calculated to 
 add to the antecedent guilt, or charge of irre- 
 ligiousness, which has been so often laid at the 
 door of our Indian Government. It was felt 
 that, whatever might have been the design or 
 intention of its framers, it could not but practi- 
 cally and in effect reflect insult and dishonor 
 on the God of Heaven, and thus, instead of de- 
 precating his wrath, provoke fresh visitations 
 of His sore displeasure. At a special meeting 
 of the Free Church Presbytery, summoned to 
 consider it, it was unanimously agreed that, 
 while cordially approving of the heads of Chris- 
 tian States inviting their Christian subjects to 
 humble themselves in confession, prayer, and sup- 
 plication before God, we could not consistently 
 respond to a proclamation conceived, framed, 
 and worded as this one had been. The Presby- 
 tery at the same time appointed a special hu- 
 miliation service, to be held on Sunday, 25th 
 
LETTER XII. 
 
 153 
 
 inst., and requested me to conduct it. Some of 
 the other bodies also felt themselves constrained 
 to adopt a somewhat similar course, and already 
 have public prayer-meetings been held in most 
 of our Calcutta churches. 
 
 Many persons, in their heedlessness or inexpe- 
 rience, thought that we had put far too wide a 
 construction on the official document now com- 
 mented on. But we have had manifold proofs 
 that we have in nowise been mistaken in our 
 interpretation of it. This moment a paper lies 
 before me, containing an extract from a Bom- 
 bay journal, in these terms, that, ‘‘ in accordance 
 with the Governor General’s invilatimt, the Ma- 
 hajuns and the Hindu community in general have 
 resolved to observe Sunday next, the 4th inst., as 
 a day of humiliation and ■prayer at the Moomba- 
 darie temple^ &c. 
 
 All this tends to convince us more and more, 
 that we have not, in this land at least, reached 
 the true point of humbling ourselves as a Christ- 
 ian people and nation before the great Jehovah, 
 whose first and authoritative command, solemnly 
 proclaiming the absolute e.xclusiveness and one- 
 ness of His supreme Deity, is, “Thou shalthave 
 no other gods before me.” What I fear is, that w'e 
 have not yet, as a Christian people and nation, 
 in any approximate measure, taken up the bur- 
 den of Daniel, when he “ set his face unto the 
 Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications. 
 
154 
 
 DE. duff’s LEITERS ON INDIA. 
 
 ■with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes,” and 
 that we have not yet, like him, made full and 
 heart-rending confession, saying, “We have 
 sinned and have committed iniquity, and have 
 done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by de- 
 parting from thy precepts and from thy judg- 
 ments.” And until we do this, I feel as if the 
 memorable words of Isaiah were sounding in 
 our ears, “ For all this anger is not turned 
 away, and his hand is stretched out still ; for 
 the people turneth not unto Him that smiteth 
 them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts.” 
 Still, my faith in the ultimate issue is in no 
 way shaken — not because of any worthiness in 
 us, or any confidence in the sagacity of our 
 counsels or the prowess of our arms, but be- 
 cause of God's manifest purposes of mercy to poor 
 distracted India, through the instrumentality of 
 Christian Protestant Britain. That as a nation 
 we have been negligent in the discharge of our 
 great trust, and that as a people we have, in 
 manifold ways, grievously sinned against God 
 in this land, is undoubted. Hence the success- 
 ive visitations of Jehovah’s displeasure, in 
 former as well as present times. His judgments 
 are now abroad amongst us, that thereby we 
 may be made to learn and to return to right- 
 eousness and the paths of dutiful obedience. 
 If this be the issue of them, the great object 
 for which they have been sent will have been 
 
LETTER XII. 
 
 155 
 
 gained. And if so, happy will it be for Britain 
 — unspeakably happy for bleeding, ransacked, 
 devastated India. 
 
 From the chequered events of the last few 
 months may we not, without presumption, infer 
 that the Lord has still mercy in store for us ? 
 Our people, scattered in mere handfuls at great 
 distances from each other, over a vast territory, 
 of more than a thousand miles in breadth, and 
 at least fifteen hundred in length, assailed by a 
 revolted disciplined army of a hundred thou- 
 sand men, and surrounded by a population of 
 nearly a hundred millions, the greater part of 
 them, to say the least, indifierent to our fate, 
 and millions of them, yes, literally millions of 
 them, positively hostile ! Surely, surely, may 
 we exclaim, “ It is of the Lord’s mercies that 
 we are not consumed ! If it had not been the 
 Lord who was on our side, when men rose up 
 against us, then they had swallowed us up 
 quick, when their wrath was kindled against 
 us ! ” That so many should have fallen by the 
 hands of foul and treacherous assassins, is be- 
 yond measure distressing ; but the real wonder 
 — the wonder of wonders — is, that any one at 
 all should have been alive this day to “sing of 
 mercy” as well as of “ judgment.” That there 
 have been so many instances of fatuous miscal- 
 culation and mistake on the part of the enemy, 
 as well as of their counsels being turned into 
 
156 
 
 DR. duff’s LEITEKS ON INDIA. 
 
 foolishness, is also very notable. That amid so 
 many exasperated myriads, having so prodig- 
 ious a stake at issue as that of life and property, 
 and empire, no man of towering genius, such as 
 India has heretofore supplied — no Sevajee, no 
 Hyder Ali, no Runjit Singh — should have arisen, 
 capable of combining and concentrating the 
 scattered elements of rebellion, and bringing 
 them to bear down with a sweeping tornado 
 force on the exposed and all but helpless hand- 
 fuls of British — is surely something more than 
 notable. The escapes, too, of individuals, as 
 well as of small companies of fugitives, have 
 been almost miraculous. The energy also which 
 has, in so many cases, been exhibited by single 
 men, not less than by small assemblages of 
 men, rises positively into the sublime of hero- 
 ism. I speak not now of men in commanding 
 positions, such as General Neill and Sir Henry 
 Lawrence, but of more ordinary men in less 
 conspicuous circumstances. It is only the other 
 day that in Rewah, an independent State that 
 lies between Mirzapore and the Saugor territo- 
 ries on the Nerbudda, the most of the Rajah’s 
 troops revolted, and went otf to join a vast body 
 of rebels under Kuwar Singh, who threatened 
 to visit his country with fire and sword on his 
 way into Central India. The people were seized 
 with panic ; the Rajah himself went to Captain 
 Osborne, the political agent, and begged him 
 
LETTER XII. 
 
 157 
 
 to leave the territory, as he could not protect 
 him or the other British officers for an hour. 
 Having already sent off his own zenana, he told 
 the city people to send away their wives, as he 
 could not protect them ; and away he went to a 
 distant fort. The agent, knowing well that on 
 his preventing the host of armed rebels from 
 passing through the Rewah State depended the 
 safety of Nagode, Jubbulpore, Bundelkund, and 
 the Saugor and Nerbudda territories, resolved, 
 with something like a martyr spirit, to stand 
 by his strangel}’^ critical post to the very last. 
 Though unwell at the time, and scarcely able to 
 move, his spirit rose to the height of Spartan 
 energy, while it seemed partly to inspire and 
 partly to overawe all around him. Fertile in 
 expedients, as well as brave, he roused the rural 
 population by sending amongst them numbers 
 of agents to rehearse in their hearing the mub 
 tiplied atrocities committed by the rebels else- 
 where. He even procured one or two sufferers 
 from their brutality, sent them out as a specta- 
 cle among the people, and so worked upon their 
 fears to such an extent, that at last they all 
 united in declaring that they would oppose the 
 passage of the rebel army. Tidings of all this 
 having reached the traitor-leader of that army, 
 he deemed it prudent to pause in his onw'ard 
 career, and eventually to withdraw it altogether, 
 and pass away in another direction. Thus, for 
 14 
 
158 
 
 DK. duff's LEITEKS OX INDIA. 
 
 a time at least, lias Central India been saved — 
 the handfuls of our poor beleaguered country- 
 men, with their wives and children in different 
 stations there, have been saved — by the indom- 
 itable energy, the admirable tact and sagacity, 
 of a single man ! 
 
 With other examples on a great scale the 
 British public must by this time be quite famil- 
 iar : How less than two hundred British men, 
 though confronted by three native regiments, 
 backed by myriads of desperadoes, saved Be- 
 nares ! How less than two hundred worn-out 
 British invalids held the fortress of Allahabad 
 for several days against five thousand rebels, 
 armed with all the munitions of war ! How, at 
 Cawnpore, for upwards of twenty days, a few 
 hundred British men, though encumbered with 
 numbers of helpless women and children, held a 
 small open entrenched camp, protected only by 
 an earthen breastwork of four feet, against a 
 rebel army of ten thousand, provided with heavy 
 guns, and at last only fell through the most re- 
 volting treacheiy ! How, at Lucknow, a few 
 hundred British men, similarly encumbered with 
 women and children, held, for three months, a 
 suddenly extemporized entrenchment, against 
 an army of at least fifty thousand, backed by an 
 armed and furiously hostile population of mil- 
 lions, until at last relieved by a force itself not 
 much exceeding two thousand men ! My per- 
 
I.ETTEU XII. 
 
 159 
 
 suasion is, that neither the Iiistory of Greece 
 nor of Eome, of France nor of England, or any 
 other realm under the sun, can present examples 
 of more chivalrous daring, more determined 
 courage, or more heroic endurance, amid accu- 
 mulated dangers, trials, and sufferings, than 
 may be found in the history of the British in 
 India during the last five eventful months. Oh 
 that, as a people, we would view and use these, 
 not as fuel to fan the flame of an impious na- 
 tional pride, but as signs of good from a patient 
 and long-suffering God — gracious tokens that 
 He has not yet left or forsaken us, as we, through 
 our manifold sins and provocations, so justly 
 deserved — providential beckonings to allure us 
 to return to Him, through the aid of whose right 
 arm alone our countrymen have been enabled to 
 “ do so valiantly ; ” and who, if we are only 
 faithful to the great trust committ.ed to us, can 
 cause us to become “ a praise and a glory,” not 
 in India only, but through the whole earth. 
 
 October 22. — In the foregoing statements I was 
 led to advert to the many marvellous escapes, 
 alike of individuals and of whole communities. 
 Nothing in this respect can well be more re- 
 markable than the repeated deliverances of our 
 Indian metropolis. And since the foregoing 
 was written, authentic accounts have reached 
 us of the singular escape of the British residents 
 
160 
 
 DE. DUFF’S LETTEKS OX INDIA. 
 
 at Agra. Surrounded on all sides with muti- 
 nous troops and a rebellious population, the 
 situation of the British at Agra was from the 
 very first critical in the extreme. What added 
 to the danger was, that after the massacres at 
 Meerut and Delhi, the magistrate, smitten with 
 that infatuation which had seized so many of 
 our authorities, persisted in raising and arming 
 an almost exclusively Mussulman police force for 
 the protection of the city. “ The command of 
 this force,” writes an intelligent resident on the 
 spot, “ was given to a man generally believed 
 to be a traitor, and who eventually proved to 
 be so. Arms, ammunition, and even some guns, 
 were taken from the magazine, and issued under 
 
 the orders of Mr. D , the magistrate, princi- 
 
 jially, if not entirely, to Mussulmans ; and the 
 fear and terror thus caused amongst all the well- 
 disposed was quite beyond belief. Every trust- 
 worthy account received since our entry into 
 the fort has only confirmed the conviction that 
 was previously entertained of the little confi- 
 dence that could be placed in Mr. D ’s police. 
 
 It has been proved bc 3 'ond a doubt that the 
 Neemuch mutineers came here at their instiga- 
 tion ; that their chiefs visited the sepoys' camp on 
 the morning of the action (5th Julj'); and had ar- 
 ranged for a combined attack that night, which it 
 was hoped would end in the destruction of the Euro- 
 pean troops and inhabitants, and the seizure of the 
 
I,f:TTEU XII. 
 
 161 
 
 fort, which was known at that time to he imperfectly 
 
 guarded. Mr. D had informed his people 
 
 that the troops would not be moved out to at- 
 tack the mutineers if they approached the sta- 
 tion ; and the arrangements of the latter with 
 the police were made on the strength of that 
 assurance. Brigadier Polwhele’s sudden resolve 
 to meet the mutineers upset their plans ; but the 
 police nevei’theless did their utmost to assist 
 their worthj^ allies. Many buildings were in a 
 blaze before the return of the troops from the 
 action, and Europeans were even shot by them, 
 when proceeding from their residences to the 
 fort. Not a single attempt was made by them 
 to check or resist these outrages ; and there is 
 no doubt they encouraged and shared in them 
 as far as was in their power. Had they been 
 joined previous to the return of the troops by 
 the Mewatties and Budmashes (habit and repute 
 desperadoes) of the surrounding villages, there 
 is no saying what would have been the result. 
 Of course, the great body of them, with their 
 worthy chief, have since disappeared, taking 
 their wives with them.” On a review of all the 
 circumstances of the case, the excellent writer’s 
 conclusion is, that “their safety was due far 
 more to the mercies of Providence than to the 
 prudence or arrangements of the authorities.” 
 The sudden resolve of Brigadier Pol whole to 
 act differently from lohat had been previously 
 U* 
 
162 
 
 DK. duff’s I,KTTKI:S on INDIA. 
 
 determined on, saved the British residents from 
 the cmnhined night attack which had been so 
 cunningly arranged, and thus saved them from 
 a massacre similar to that at Meerut and Delhi. 
 Whence that sudden resolve I The Brigadier 
 himself, in all probability, could scarcely tell. 
 But we know from whom cometh down every 
 good thought, every wise resolution. To 
 Him, then, be the praise and the glory. Had 
 tlie British then been massacred and the fort 
 taken, how different would have been the state 
 of things in the North-West now! Bad as they 
 are, they would assuredly, in that case, be 
 vastly worse. That fort, in the hands of the 
 British, kept at bay myriads of armed and tur- 
 bulent rebels; had it then fallen into the hands 
 of the enemy, these myriads would have been 
 set loose on Delhi, or Lucknow, or Allahabad. 
 And if so what must have been the fate of our 
 countrymen at these places, before effectual 
 re-inforcements would have arrived ! But, 
 though the Lord, in righteousness, had brought 
 us very low, it was not His purpose to suffer us 
 to be exterminated from Northern India. Our 
 extremity was the hour of Ilis opportunity; and 
 hence, by the sudden and unexpected resolve of one 
 man He saved us ! 
 
 That all the British and other residents in the 
 military cantonments and civil lines were utterly 
 destroyed, w’as previously known. And now 
 
i.KTTKi: .\ir. 
 
 -163 
 
 the writer already quoted declares that the 
 “ whole city of Agra, with the exception of the 
 fort, may he said no longer to exist. It is a chaos 
 of ruins, a large portion of it having been levelled 
 to the ground.” Who can imagine the amount 
 of vice, and crime, and physical suffering which 
 such devastation implies! 
 
 To-day the homeward mail closes; but since 
 the last left, nothing very notable or decisive 
 has transpired. A few more smaller outbreaks 
 have just been announced. A detachment of 
 native soldiers at Burhast, in the Rajmahal hills, 
 mutinied on the 18th, and another at Rampore 
 Ilaut, in the same hills, about the same time, 
 but appear to have gone off harming no one. 
 A portion of irregular cavalry has mutinied near 
 Esa Kheyle, on the Indus. The communication 
 between Mooltan and Lahore had been com- 
 pletely cut off about the end of last month 
 by the surrounding tribes, who had risen and 
 commenced plundering, though the station of 
 Mooltan itself continued quiet. On the other 
 hand, in Behar and other places, small bodies of 
 rebels have been encountered and defeated, 
 while the flying column from Delhi, has pursued 
 and beaten the fugitive mutineers at Allyghur 
 and the neighborhood of Agra, and is soon ex- 
 pected to reach Futtehghur and Cawnpore; and 
 greatly is it wanted there. For since the last 
 mail left, no intelligence whatever has reached 
 
164 
 
 DR. DI FF'S LEITKItS OX IXDIA. 
 
 US from the relieving force at Lucknow, which 
 now seems sadly to stand in need of being itself 
 relieved, as it is surrounded by myriads of armed 
 rebels, and all communication cut off, not only 
 withCawnpore, but even with the reserve guard, 
 three miles outside the city, at the garden of 
 Alumbagh. But our trust is, that He who has 
 so wonderfully delivered hitherto, will signally 
 interpose for further deliverance still. — Yours 
 ever affectionately. 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
LETTER XIII. 
 
 Calcutta, 31st October, 1857. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — Well does it become 
 us to take up the Psalmist’s words, “ I will slug 
 of mercy and of judgment,” or the responsive 
 words of the Apostle, “ Behold the goodness and 
 the severity of God I ” The holy severity of a 
 justly otfended God has been manifested in out- 
 poured judgments on this sinful land; but the 
 merciful goodness of a gracious God has been 
 as signally manifested in abounding and un- 
 deserved mercies. That the judgments have 
 not been without mixture — that they have been 
 so tempei’ed with mingled mercies — is an in- 
 fallible token from the Lord that He has not yet 
 finally cast us off as a people, who have hope- 
 lessly abused their great trust and neglected 
 their solemn responsibilities. Of late years the 
 strokes of Divine chastisement have been fre- 
 quent and heavy; this last one has been the 
 heaviest of all — a sure sign that the former ones 
 had not been improved as they ought to have 
 been, by humiliation and a return to righteous- 
 ness. God, in mercy, therefore, grant that the 
 present one maj’ be so improved ! If not, how 
 
 [165] 
 
166 
 
 DR. DUFF’S LETTERS OX INDIA. 
 
 know we but it may be the last 1 How know 
 we but that Jehovah, offended by our incorri- 
 gible obstinacy' in forsaking and provoking Him 
 to anger, may give us up as hopeless, saying, 
 “ Why should ye be stricken any more ? ” Let, 
 then, heartfelt confession ioxpast sins, as well as 
 present, alike personal, social and national, be 
 made without ceasing, accompanied by fervent 
 prayer and supplication, bj' God’s people every- 
 where; if, haply, the Lord maybe pleased to 
 remove from us these terrible rebukings of His 
 anger, and chastenings of His hot displeasure I 
 In referring in my last to the subject of provi- 
 dential deliverances, I noticed the case of Agra 
 on the 5th July. Then, also, it was stated that 
 Colonel Greathed’s flying column from Delhi had 
 rendered signal service at Agra. This was on 
 the 10th inst. It is now only that we fully 
 know how signally providential that service 
 was. For weeks, the Neemuch and Gwalior 
 rebels who had crossed the Chumbul hung 
 threateningly on Agra. The issue proved that 
 they had concocted a well-arranged plan for its 
 destruction. Their design was suddenly to sur- 
 prise the militia which had been posted at some 
 little distance outside the fort. They reckoned, 
 as a matter of course, that the Europeans regi- 
 ment battery in the fort would instantly rush 
 out to the rescue of the militia ; and that, in 
 the confusion consequent on the sudden surprise. 
 
LETTKK XIII. 
 
 1G7 
 
 they would attack the Government force at 
 great disadvantage. Moreover, they had ar- 
 ranged with the Mewatties and Budmashes, 
 dilferent classes of Mohaininedau and Hindu 
 desperadoes in the neighborhood, for a comhined 
 attack on the 7-ear of our troops token they left 
 the fort. Had this plan been carried out — and 
 it was vciy nearly being so — the fort, stripped 
 of its brave defenders, might have fallen an 
 easy prey into their hands. How, then, was the 
 execution of the skilfully contrived plan de- 
 feated ? 
 
 Knowing that the rebels were approaching 
 Agra from the west, in great force, and with 
 heavy guns, the British commander of the fort 
 sent an express, on the evening of the 9th, to 
 Colonel Greathed, who, with his flying column, 
 happened to be at Hattrass, about thirty miles 
 to the north-east of Agra. Instantly the column 
 started, marching all night, the entire distance 
 of thirty miles, and reaching the parade ground 
 at Agra between nine and ten o’clock on the 
 morning of the 10th, thoroughly jaded and 
 exhausted, as may well be supposed. About 
 eleven a.m., while breakfast was preparing, and 
 the men were cleaning and resting themselves 
 after their long march, and many of them 
 sauntering about half-dressed, suddenly and un- 
 expectedly a fire was opened upon them from 
 some guns which had been brought to bear on 
 
168 
 
 DR. DUFF’S LETTERS OX IXDIA. 
 
 tlie camp without being observed ! and a large 
 body of cavalry at the same moment charged 
 one of the troops of horse artillery’, cut down 
 the g'unners, who were endeavoring to load one 
 of their guns, and, capturing, held it for a few 
 seconds in actual possession! Jaded, exhausted, 
 and surprised though our men were, speedily 
 did they form and fall upon the rebels. Their 
 charge, as usual, was irresistible ; and soon did 
 the enemy, though four or five times more nume- 
 rous, betake himself to flight, our brave fellows 
 pursuing and driving them headlong for ten or 
 twelve miles beyond the river Khari, capturing 
 guns, baggage, ammunition, and treasure 1 
 
 At first the attack of the rebels was most 
 fierce and determined ; because, owing to the 
 rapidity of Colonel Greathed’s march, they had 
 no idea of the arrival of his column. They soon 
 found their mistake ; and so, in literal verifica- 
 tion of the Scripture saying, into the trap which 
 they had so adroitly laid for others, they were 
 made to fall helplessly themselves. What a 
 deliverance for Agra ! That fearfully long 
 night’s march saved it ! A few hours later, and 
 it might have been lost, and all massacred ! 
 “Was it not the Lord’s doing, and wondrous in 
 our eyes ?” 
 
 All the accounts which now have reached us 
 conspire in proving that, among the most signal 
 evidences of a favoring Providence ought to be 
 
LETTKU XIII. 
 
 1G9 
 
 ranked tlie imiuterrupted siege and final capture 
 of Delhi. 
 
 Tliere, humanly speaking, everything was 
 against us. The odds were indeed far more 
 tremendous than anj^ at the outset, whether 
 rulers or ruled, could well have conceived. The 
 season of the year itself presented the most 
 formidable difficulty. It was at the very height 
 of our Indian summer, wlien the atmosphere 
 glowed with a furnace heat, that the tornado 
 of rebellion burst upon us. Hitherto it has 
 been assumed as a matter-of-course fact, that 
 during such a season it is impossible for British 
 troops to keep the field ; or, if attempted, tliat 
 inevitable destruction must follow. Doubtless 
 this had entered into the calculations of the 
 conspirators. Then, again, the Government 
 was utterly unprepared ; it had been taken ut- 
 terly by surprise. By a coup de main the enemy 
 got possession of the largest and strongest 
 fortified city in India, a city with perhaps the 
 largest, and at one time the most gorgeous, 
 palace in the world, and a titular Emperor for 
 its tenant, around whose person clustered the 
 most brilliant memories of past magnificence 
 and triumph. The inhabitants of the city 
 within, and of the neighboring country all 
 around, were, almost to a man, enthusiastically 
 in favor of the cause of the rebel mutineers. 
 Provisions they had in abundance, though their 
 15 
 
170 
 
 DR. duff’s LEITERS ON INDIA. 
 
 numbers increased to thirty or forty thousand. 
 Money, too, was plentiful, as the contents of 
 scores of provincial treasuries were conveyed 
 to the Imperial Exchequer. Nor did they lack 
 guns or ai!imunition ; for, after the siege, the 
 number of guns taken exceeded two hundred, 
 many of them of large calibre, eighteen and 
 twenty-four pounders ; while lacs, or hundreds 
 of thousands, of percussion-caps, barrels of gun- 
 powder without end, shot and shell enough to 
 last a two years’ siege, fell into the hands of 
 the victors. And though their ranks were con- 
 stantly mown down, the loss was instantly more 
 than replenished by thousands flushed with the 
 spoils of their former masters, reeking with 
 their blood, and all but delirious with the intoxi- 
 cation of a temporary triumph, and with the 
 bright visions of future glory. 
 
 On the other side, what had we ? A few 
 thousands at the utmost, of whom a minority 
 only were British — the rest, a miscellany of 
 Sheiks, Gurkhas, and other nondescript natives 
 from the Punjaub hills. The British, poor fellows ! 
 alike ofiBcers and men, obliged to make forced 
 marches, such as British were never called upon 
 continuously to make before, in an Indian sum- 
 mer — often without tents, and in many cases 
 almost without carriage of any description. 
 But, though decimated by sun-stroke and chol- 
 era, they never fainted nor flagged. Then fol- 
 
LETTER XIII. 
 
 171 
 
 lowed the drenching rains of a tropical wet 
 season, with their endless train of dysenteries 
 and fevers. But, as in the Crimea, the spirit of 
 officers and men seemed impervious to the most 
 noxious and depressing influences. They proved 
 that at the call of duty — the call of their country 
 — they could dare to march and fight under the 
 fiercest rays of a torrid sun, or amid the gales 
 and water-spouts of an Indian rainy season. On 
 reaching their camping-ground before Delhi, 
 they found themselves amid the aslies of the 
 conflagration which had laid waste the bunga- 
 lows and property of the former British resi- 
 dents. There their difficulties were enormous. 
 Unable to watch but a small part of a walled 
 city of seven or eight miles in circumference — 
 obliged to keep open their communications with 
 the rear, which swarmed with a hostile popula- 
 tion — for months provided only with guns of 
 comparatively small calibre, which would make 
 no impression on the walls of the imperial city 
 — watched and reported on by native traitors 
 that overran the camp — kept on the alert both 
 day and night by a vigilant and persevering 
 enemy which almost incessantly attacked them 
 from one quarter or another — they still main- 
 tained their ground — repulsing every assault 
 with the most determined energy. At last, on 
 the 14th of September, when it became their turn 
 to act on the aggressive, it has been declared 
 
m 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 on authority that — owing to losses from sun- 
 stroke, disease, and wounds — “ the besiegers 
 had not 2000 British infantry fit for duty, and 
 not more than 4500 infantry altogether.” And 
 yet, with this handful, after six days of hard 
 fighting- with myriads of armed desperadoes, 
 who knew that their livms were forfeited, the 
 imperial city was taken, and not a rebel left 
 alive in it. “ History,” remarks one of our pub- 
 lic journalists, “history perliaps will do justice 
 to the unsurpassed and unsurpassable devotion 
 and energy of our brave countrymen, and will 
 admit that the courage, the exertions, and the 
 endurance of the British array before Delhi has 
 a parallel only in the heroic struggle before 
 Sebastopol, to which we do not hesitate to com- 
 pare the contest which has just now been 
 brought to an end.” Verily, the battle is the 
 Lord’s. Ought we not, then, in all this, humbly 
 and adoringly to recognize the hand of Him 
 who is King and Governor among the nations ? 
 For who endowed our brave countrymen with 
 those varied heroic qualities which enabled them 
 to contend so enduriugly with such fearful odds, 
 and, in the end, to be crowned with so decisive 
 a victory ? Had they fainted, or partially yielded, 
 or even temporarily retreated — a course which 
 at one time was deemed bj^ all competent judges 
 here as an inevitable necessity, how would the 
 flame of rebellion have been fanned throughout 
 
LETTER XIII. 
 
 173 
 
 all India, perhaps to exterminating violence ? 
 Even now, so utterly incredible does the final 
 triumphant achievement appear to the native 
 mind, that, up to this hour, the majority actually 
 treat it with tlie derision of incredulity. Every 
 day, however, will bring in fresli evidence of 
 the reality. And as that gradually grows upon 
 the mind, the im{)ression of the sheer, utter 
 hopelessness of the rebel cause will acquire 
 fresh force and vividness too. So that ultimately 
 the story of the siege and capture of Delhi will 
 prove one of the stablest pillars of the British 
 power and empire in India ! While thanking 
 God, then, for so marvellous a victory, let us 
 pray that it may be improved, for the uses for 
 which “ the Prince of all the kings of the earth” 
 has designed it. Let us pray that, with the 
 humiliation of national pride and heartfelt con- 
 fession of national sin, there may be a resolute 
 determination on our part as a Christian people 
 and nation to rise to the height of realizing our 
 awfully solemn and responsible trust, and dis- 
 charging our manifold debt of justice to India. 
 
 In various parts there have been various 
 minor successes against the rebels. But at this 
 moment the interest of all India is rivetted on 
 Lucknow. The heroic garrison there was saved, 
 towards the end of last month, by Havelock’s 
 force ; and since then no reliable information 
 has been received from the relieving force itself, 
 15 * 
 
174 
 
 DE. DUFF’S LETTEES ON INDIA. 
 
 SO completely has it been shut up within the 
 city of Lucknow, and beleaguered by myriads of 
 armed rebels. But the movable column from 
 Delhi and other troops are now concentrating at 
 Cawnpore — the Governor-General being re- 
 solved that there shall be no more dispersion 
 of force until Lucknow be thoroughly settled. 
 This grand object, it is hoped, may be realized 
 in the course of next week. The Lord in mercy 
 grant that our hopes may be realized I Yours 
 affectionately, 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
LETTER XIV. 
 
 Calcutta, 7th November, 1857. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — Situated as I have 
 been, in the providence of God, in tlie very focus, 
 if not of actual insurrection, yet assuredly of 
 those mutinous influences which have converted 
 the recently peaceful valley of the Ganges into 
 so terrible a scene of conflagration and massacre, 
 rapine and blood, I have deemed it to be my duty 
 to send you by every mail a statement of lead- 
 ing facts as tliey fell within my own cognizance, 
 or a selection of such facts as appeared to be 
 best authenticated, from amid the hugely- 
 tangled mass of reports, exaggerated rumors, 
 and palpable falsifications. In only one or two 
 instances has subsequent information tended 
 even to modify any of these statements. One 
 of these is the case of Sir Hugh Wheeler at 
 Cawnporc. All the first accounts that reached 
 Government and private individuals went to 
 show that the brave old man had not only been 
 mortally wounded, but dead, before the fatal 
 capitulation. It now turns out that he had only 
 been greatly disabled, not actually dead. But 
 every account goes to prove that, from want of 
 
 [175J 
 
176 
 
 DR. duff’s letters OX IXDIA. 
 
 food, waut of water, disease, wounds, exposure 
 to a cloudless blazing sun, incessant watchful- 
 ness, fighting, fatigue, and anxiety, the heroic 
 but wretched occupants of that wretched en- 
 trenchment had been reduced to a condition of 
 indescribable and inconceivable misery and 
 helplessness ; and that their holding out as they 
 did, in the face of such incalculable odds, must 
 ever be reckoned among the most memorable 
 achievements of ancient or modern warfare. 
 
 The only other case worth noting is that of 
 Indore, in Central India. The expression which 
 I was led to apply to the conduct of Holkar was 
 founded on information conveyed to me in a let- 
 ter just received from an old friend of mine, one 
 of the British officers at Indore, who himself so 
 narrowly escaped massacre. Ilis clear impres- 
 sion — and he stated to me the grounds of his 
 impression— was, that though Ilolkar stood os- 
 tensibly in the foreground, masked in professions 
 of friendship, his influence was really felt behind 
 the scenes, pulling the wires of treachery and 
 treason. The attack on the Residency, however, 
 having failed as regarded the intended destruc- 
 tion of its inmates, through the masterly retreat 
 of Colonel Durand, the belief was that the wily 
 chief, in the genuine Mahratta style, disclaiming 
 all share in the secret treachery, found it politic 
 to make a parade of his loyalty. In the absence 
 of investigation and legal evidence, it was 
 
LETTER XIV. 
 
 177 
 
 equally politic on the part of our Government, 
 and especially in so desperately critical a state 
 of affairs, to accept of the professions of loyalty, 
 and deal with the chief accordingly. Of late 
 we have had so many instances of the rapid 
 transition from loyalty to treason, and from 
 treason back to loyalty again, that one need be 
 staggered at nothing in this line, however ap- 
 parently incredible to the British mind, with its 
 higher tone of morality. But any one who care- 
 fully studies Baron Macaulaj^’s account of some 
 of the courtiers that surrounded William of 
 Orange in an age which had been utterly de- 
 moralized by the Court of Charles II., may prob- 
 ably find examples of treachery and treason as 
 consummately unprincipled as any even which 
 Mahratta history can supply. 
 
 The real fact is — and the sooner the British 
 people come thoroughly to understand this the 
 better — the real fact is, that of loyalty to the 
 British Crown, in any genuine sense of that 
 term, there is, except in rare individual cases, 
 very little to be found among the people of India. 
 I mean, of course, loj'alty in the sense of attach- 
 ment, fidelity, or resolute adherence to the per- 
 son or cause of a sovereign, especially in times 
 of revolt or revolution. On this, as on all other 
 subjects, there have been extreme, statements that 
 are equally wide of the truth. No one generali- 
 zation, on cither side, can possibly portray tlie 
 
178 
 
 DR. duff’s LETl'EKS ON INDIA. 
 
 reality, when that reality is not simple, but 
 mixed — not homogeneous, but vastly hetero- 
 geneous. Briefly, the case may be thus stated, 
 with some approximation to the truth. 
 
 The great bulk of the rural and naturally 
 pacific population of Bengal, and several other 
 provinces of India, if not violently interfered 
 with in their ordinary domestic and social rou- 
 tine, are totally apathetic on the subject of their 
 supreme rulers — caring little or nothing as to 
 who they may be, whether native or foreign. 
 Naturally they are neither loyal nor disloyal — 
 neither love nor hate the British Government. 
 Of late years, the cruelties of zemindars, the 
 police, and the harpy - myrmidons about our 
 courts of justice — all of whom they consider as 
 the agents of Government — have tended to gen- 
 erate feelings of discontent and disaffection, 
 among numbers at least, towards the Govern- 
 ment which employs or tolerates such agents. 
 But the introduction of a really improved and 
 equitable system, which curbed and restrained 
 the zemindars and police in their endless and 
 nameless tyrannies, and administered cheap and 
 easy justice in simple and summary forms, suited 
 to the wants and necessities of the people, 
 would at once produce among them feelings, if 
 not of loyalty in any high or noble sense, yet 
 certainly of quietness, contentment, and uncom- 
 plaining acquiescence. It is for the introduc- 
 
LETrEK XIV. 
 
 179 
 
 tion of such a system that the missionaries 
 memorialized Parliament a twelvemonth ago, 
 when their apprehensions of prevalent disaffec- 
 tion were scouted by ignorant and self-sufficient 
 officials both at home and abroad. The last six 
 months have served amply to test the relative 
 accuracy of the knowledge of these respective 
 parties. 
 
 The case is totally different with the rural 
 population of the North-West and Central India. 
 These, for the most part, are naturally as war- 
 like in their dispositions and habits as ours in 
 Bengal and elsewhere is pacific. With them 
 the sword, and rapine, and violence, are the 
 most delightful pastime. They therefore dislike 
 our Government, not because it is British, but 
 simply because it is strong ; just as they would 
 positively dislike any other, whether native or 
 foreign, which, being equally strong, would be 
 equally capable of controlling their lawless pre- 
 datory tendencies. For the last generation or 
 two, they have been kept in a peaceful state ; 
 and this state of necessitated peacefulness has 
 too often been mistaken for satisfaction with 
 our rule and its enforced order and tranquillity. 
 No measures having been devised for the effect- 
 ual eradication of the spirit of restlessness and 
 turbulence, it was simply kept down by a force 
 of repression ; and the instant the repressive 
 influence was relaxed or removed, as has re- 
 
180 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 centlj" been done through the revolt of the native 
 army, the old spirit of lawlessness and misrule 
 awoke into a manifestation of terrible energy. 
 Men are everywhere rioting in the excess of 
 license, which they mistake for liberty'. Unwill- 
 ing to brook the restraints of lawful government, 
 their hands are uplifted against it, that they 
 may be all the more free to uplift them against 
 one another. Whoever will carefully study the 
 state of things in the Highlands of Scotland up- 
 wards of a century ago, before the ancient 
 spirit of the proud chieftains and their clans 
 was fairly broken by the battle of Culloden, and 
 the measures of uncompromising severity which 
 followed it, maj' understand something of the 
 still unbroken state of feeling and practice in 
 Northern and Central India. A •preliminary mea- 
 sure — heretofore, in our over-confidence neg- 
 lected — towards the ultimate pacification of 
 these vast regions must be the universal dis- 
 armament of the people, sternly and rigorously 
 carried out. With their peculiar tempers, here- 
 ditary usages and traditions, rehearsed in tlie 
 songs of their bards, the continued possession 
 of arms is a perpetual temptation and provoca- 
 tive to social turbulence and rebellion. But no 
 measures, however wise or beneficial, can for 
 many a year cordially reconcile such a people 
 to the Paramount Power that restrains them. 
 Indeed, in the end, it will be found that the 
 
LETTER XIV. 
 
 181 
 
 grand and only effectual Pacificator and Recon- 
 ciler, after all, is the gospel of grace and salva- 
 tion, as it has already proved amid the wildest 
 glens and remotest solitudes of the Highlands 
 and Islands of Scotland. 
 
 Apart from botli these classes, or ratlicr rural 
 masses, of the Hindu family, the members of 
 the Brahminical race occupy a positi'-n of their 
 own, a position which, in the main, is, and cannot 
 but be hostile to the British Government. They 
 feel keenly that their craft is in danger, that the 
 very existence of a Government like ours cannot 
 but endanger it in a hundred ways. The guar- 
 dians and priests of temples do not find any 
 longer the same profuse largesses pouring in 
 upon them from “ the pow’ers that be,” as in the 
 palmy days of Hindu royalty. The learned 
 Brahmins do not find their profound scholarship 
 conferring on them the same preeminence of 
 social dignity and personal consequence as in 
 the olden times. The cultivators of legal and 
 political science, knowing, from their great 
 legislator Menu, that they, and they alone, ought 
 to bo the administrators of law, and the respon- 
 sible advisers and counsellors of rulers, now 
 find themselves hurled down from the firmament 
 of State-craft altogether, their former power, 
 wealth, and influence gradually melting away, 
 like the snows of their own Himalayas, before 
 Ihe ascendant fervor of the summer sun 1 And 
 If) 
 
182 
 
 DR. duff’s LEITEKS ON INDIA. 
 
 all the sectioDS of this lordly, aristocratic, domi- 
 neering race feel themselves sadly humiliated 
 by the equity of the British Government in per- 
 emptorily refusing to acknowledge many of 
 those personal distinctions, those social and 
 civil immunities, privileges, and exemptions, 
 which, as conceded by their own Shastras, raised 
 them to a transcendent superiority above their 
 fellow-creatures. All this, and much more, so 
 mortifying to their towering pride of caste, natu- 
 rally tends to beget ill-will, disalfection, or even 
 inveterate hostility towards our Government, 
 with their long train of seditious plottings and 
 secret intrigues. And no improvements of a 
 general kind, connected with the marvellous pro- 
 cesses of modern civilization, can possibly recon- 
 cile them, as a class, to a Government whose 
 onward course and action must necessarily be 
 antagonistic to their highest, most peculiar, and 
 most cherished pretensions. Christianity, with 
 its new and glorious heritage of blessings, and 
 that alone, can adequately fill up the dreary 
 vacuum which our Government has directly and 
 indirectly produced in the once plentifully re- 
 plenished domains of old Brahminisrn. 
 
 As for the countless nondescript tribes that 
 roam up and down, in a state of barbaric inde- 
 pendence, through the mountain ranges and vast 
 forests and jungles within the bounds of our 
 Indian empire, they cannot, for the most part, 
 
LETTER XIV. 
 
 183 
 
 be said either to love or hate our Government. 
 Of it the greater part can scarcely have any 
 knowledge ; as with it they never have had any 
 direct dealings. In instances where the experi- 
 ment has been fairly tried, such as those of 
 Cleveland and the Bhagulpore hill-people, Col- 
 onel Dixon and the Mairs, General Outram and 
 the Bheels, it has been proved with what com- 
 parative ease some of the most uncivilized and 
 predatory tribes have been reduced to order, 
 obedience, and apparent contentment with our 
 rule — all through the adoption and pursuit of 
 kindly, conciliatory measures, wisely contrived 
 and skilfully adapted to their extremely pecu- 
 liar circumstances. It is only in rare cases like 
 those of the Coles and Khonds, some twenty 
 years ago, and more recently of the Sontals, 
 where, driven into despair by the encroach- 
 ments, oppressions, and exactions of their greedy 
 and relentless Hindu neighbors, they have been 
 goaded into open insurrection against the Para- 
 mount Power. 
 
 Segregated from the Hindu and all other Indian 
 races, and standing out in sullen and gloomy 
 isolation from them all are the Mohammedans — 
 exceeding in number the entire population of 
 the British Isles. Numbers of them still retain 
 and exhibit much of the innate vigor and energy 
 which they have derived from the blood of the 
 Affghans, Tartars, and Moguls. Their faith not 
 
184 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 less than their descent, has tended to confer on 
 them a character of sternness and intractability. 
 First the conquerors, and for many years the 
 sorereigTi rulers of Hindustan, their minds are 
 naturally filled with visions of past g'lory, and 
 traditions of the magnificence of their empire. 
 Fegarding the British as the destroyers of their 
 power, the supplanters of their imperial dynasty, 
 they cannot, and do not as a class, contemplate 
 our sovereignty with any feelings of attachment 
 or loyaltj*. On the contrary, hating us on 
 religious grounds, as they hate all other Kaffirs, 
 or unbelievers in the faith of Islam, they addi- 
 tionally detest us, on political grounds, as in 
 their eyes the usurpers of their throne and 
 scepti-e, the subverters of that absolute dominion 
 which they once wielded over these gorgeous 
 realms. Accordingly, as I was led some time 
 ago to remark in a communication elsewhere, 
 the Mohammedans, as a race, have for the last 
 hundred years not ceased to pray, alike pri- 
 vately in their houses and publicly in their 
 mosques throughout India, for the prosperity 
 of the house of Timur or Tamerlane, whose lineal 
 representative is the titular Emperor of Delhi. 
 But the prosperity of the house of Timur, in 
 their estimation, undoubtedly implies neither 
 more nor less than the downfall of the British 
 power, and the reestablishment of their own 
 instead. In their case, therefore, disafiection 
 
LETTER XIV. 
 
 185 
 
 towards the British Government, with an in- 
 tense longing for its speedy overthrow, is sedu- 
 lously nurtured as a sort of sacred duty which 
 the}' owe alike to their faith and the memory of 
 their ancestors. Consequently, no measures, 
 however conciliatory or advantageous to them, 
 on the part of our Government, can ever render 
 them, as a class, well affected or loyal towards 
 the British Crown. Nothing, nothing short of 
 complete political ascendancy will ever satisfy 
 them, so long as they resolutely adhere to the 
 faith and traditions of Islam. Besides the private 
 and public prayers already alluded to for the 
 prosperity of the house of Timur, there have 
 been circulating, for many years past, among 
 the Mohammedans, what they reckon 'prophecies 
 connected with the same subject. These, like 
 the predictions in Virgil’s ..Bneid, or Milton’s 
 Paradise Lost, have of course been written sub- 
 sequent to the events Avhich they profess to 
 foretell; but by an ignorant, bigoted, and pre- 
 judiced race like that of the great bulk of the 
 Mohammedans in India, productions of this sort 
 are accounted veritable prophecies. The original 
 of one of these, in Persian, through the agency 
 of an intelligent Hindu friend, is now in my 
 possession. It purports to have been indited by a 
 great saint who flourished before the age of Ti- 
 mur. After adverting to his reign, and alluding 
 by name to his principal successors, and their dis- 
 1(V^ 
 
186 DR. DLKF’S LElTKIiS ON INDIA. 
 
 tinguishing characteristics, and glancing some- 
 what enigmatically at the period of the battle of 
 Plassey, without actually naming that event, it 
 thus proceeds: “Thereafter the Nazarenes shall 
 possess the whole of Hindustan, where, for a 
 century, they shall supremely reign; and, during 
 their time, when tyranny shall become predomi- 
 nant, the King of the West shall come forth for 
 their destruction. Between these there shall be 
 many great battles, which shall occasion much 
 sacrifice of life, and the King of the West shall 
 ultimately gain the victory by the strength of 
 the sword of Hind, which shall crush down the 
 followers of Jesus. The power of Islam shall 
 then remain in the ascendant for forty years in 
 Hind. After this you shall see that Dujjul* 
 shall come forth from Ispahan and reign. To 
 put an end to the Dujjul’s reign, Jesus and 
 Mendhyf shall come,” &c. 
 
 Any one who will try calmly to realize these 
 things — the hatred which the Mohammedans 
 bear towards us as Kafirs, and the special hatred 
 which they entertain towards us as British Kaf- 
 firs, who wield what they reckon a usurped poli- 
 
 * The Koran says that a man of the name of Dujjul will appear at 
 Ispahan, who wili arrogate to himself the attributes of the Supreme 
 Being, and establish a sect of his own. 
 
 t The Koran is understood to say that this Mendhy is the twelfth 
 Imam, or regular successor of Mohammed, who is yet to come, and for 
 whose coming the Mohammedans are still looking ont with anxious 
 expectation. 
 
LETTEK XIV. 
 
 187 
 
 tical ascendancy over the vast realm where they 
 once reigned supreme — and all this, coupled 
 with daily prayers, in private and public, for our 
 overthrow, together with popular vaticinations 
 relative to the present as the foredoomed period 
 of our overthrow — cannot but perceive what a 
 soil was prepared in the general Mohammedan 
 mind for designing intriguers, in which to plant 
 the standard of treason and revolt against the 
 British Crown. At the same time, the feelings 
 of discontent and disaffection long gathering and 
 brooding in the mind of the Brahminical race, 
 and their wishes and expectations relative to a 
 release from their present humiliating position, 
 by the destruction of the power that has degra- 
 ded them — all happening to chime in harmony 
 with the aspirations of the Mohammedans — one 
 may see how both parties, under the hallucina- 
 tion of blinding self-interest, were ready tempo- 
 rarily to compromise their radical and irrecon- 
 cilable differences, for the sake of accomplishing 
 an intensely desired common object. And what 
 but Christianity can furnish anything like a com- 
 mensurate counterpoise to the bitterly regretted 
 loss of their earthly power, and dignity, and 
 renown ? 
 
 In all that has been said, I have been refer- 
 ring to great sections of the Indian popula- 
 tion in the gross. Amongst them all, there are 
 
188 
 
 DR. duff's letters OX IXDIA. 
 
 exceptions, Tvitli differences varying in kind and 
 degree. 
 
 Numbers of our Bengali population still con- 
 tinue to view the whole business with some- 
 thing like unreasoning indifference. They can 
 scarce!}' be said to be either loyal or disloyal, 
 while discontent lurks deeply in the hearts of 
 millions. 
 
 Many, it cannot be doubted, are at the same 
 time well enough disposed towards our rule ; 
 though, to talk of atlachmmt would only tend to 
 mislead. Even in the North-West and Central 
 India, though villagers in general have shown 
 hostility, others have manifested good-will. And 
 in all parts of India, and amid all sections of the 
 population, individual rajahs, zemindars, and 
 others, have — either from self-interest, or from 
 an intelligent apprehension of our vast resources, 
 or in some cases from a sense of obligation for 
 jjast favors received — exhibited a zealous devo- 
 tion to our cause. In this honorable minority 
 may be found Brahmins, Mohammedans, and 
 Rajputs. But if anything like real loyalty be 
 found anywhere, it is in the great commercial 
 cities of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay. In 
 these localities, many, many have risen, under 
 our protective system, from downright poverty 
 to affluence, from a condition of insignificance 
 and obscurity to one of personal dignity and 
 
LETTER XIV. 
 
 185> 
 
 higli social status. These naturally look with 
 favor on our Government ; and do sincerely 
 desire its continuance, at least until such time 
 as they can muster wisdom, and practical expe- 
 rience, and strength enough to warrant them in 
 assuming the administration of affairs them- 
 selves. Tlie only body of natives in India who, 
 tliroughont the present terrible crisis, have, on 
 principle and from conscience, displayed without 
 any known c.xception, devoted loyally towards 
 the Britisli Crown, is the body of native Chris- 
 tians connected xvitli every evangelical church and 
 communion. 
 
 November 9. — Our mail, which was to have 
 finally closed on the Ith, has been postponed 
 till to-day, chiefly in hope of hearing something 
 satisfactory from Lucknow. Strange to say, 
 that for five or six weeks not a particle of au- 
 thentic intelligence reached us from the reliev- 
 ing force and relieved garrison of that city — so 
 completely had they been hemmed in on all sides 
 by encompassing myriads. In the absence of 
 such intelligence, we had almost every day a 
 fresh crop of sinister rumors, many of them so 
 circumstanti.'il in their details as for a moment 
 to stagger even those whom experience had 
 rendered most sceptical. You may therefore 
 imagine into what a fever of anxiety the public 
 mind here had risen ; since, apart I'rom all ex- 
 
190 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 aggerating rumors, the situation of our brave 
 countrymen, with the hundreds of helpless wo- 
 men and children, could not but be regarded as 
 critical in the extreme. The city, as jmu know 
 is on the right bank of the river Gumj>ti — one of 
 the great feeders of the Ganges — about fifty 
 miles from Cawnpore on the west. The British 
 Residency House, which had been suddenly en- 
 trenched and put into a state of defence by the 
 genius of the late Sir Henry Lawrence, may, in 
 a rough way, be said to be situate about the 
 middle of the city, but nearer the river than the 
 Cawnpore side. Immediately in front of the 
 Residency, or between it and the river, is a 
 comparatively open or unoccupied space of 
 seven or eight hundred yards in breadth. The 
 city was known to be entirely in possession of 
 the rebels, and every house along the streets 
 leading to the Residency converted into a tem- 
 porary fort, bristling with armed men. Of ac- 
 tually trained soldiers it has been computed that 
 there could not be fewer than forty or fifty thou- 
 sand there ; with perhaps twice that number of 
 the armed retainers of insurgent rajahs and 
 zemindars. For, be it remembered, that Oude 
 was the grand nursery of our Bengal native 
 army — that the whole population is military and 
 possessed of arms — that, besides the thousands 
 of sepoys who had recently revolted, there were 
 thousands, if not tens of thousands, who, after 
 
serving their time with our army, had retired on 
 pensions — and that, at the time of the annex- 
 ation, the Supreme Council of India, though 
 strongly urged to the measure by the Lucknow 
 authorities, refused to disarm the population, as had 
 been done so successfully, and with such tri- 
 umphant results, in the Punjaub. Of the grounds 
 of this refusal I shall say no more than that they 
 were worthy of the reign of what has been sig- 
 nificantly styled “ red-tapeisin.” And now, in 
 the fact that our poor beleaguered, isolated 
 countrymen have to contend with an armed in- 
 stead of a disarmed multitude on all sides, we 
 are doomed to reap its bitter fruits ! And oh, 
 how bitter ! But all this may serve to account for 
 the extraordinary difficulties which our undaun- 
 ted little force has all along had to encounter. 
 
 Well, as is already known, about the end of 
 September last that brave little force fought its 
 way through the streets of Lucknow, amid hos- 
 tile myriads, to the Residency, and relieved the 
 garrison when on the very eve of being anni- 
 hilated. But the desperateness of the struggle 
 must appear from the fearfulness of the loss on 
 our side, some six or seven hundred soldiers 
 killed and wounded, and almost fifty officers ! 
 among the latter, Major-General Sir James Out- 
 ram — ball wound through the right arm. To 
 attempt to force their way back again would be 
 to encounter the same tempest of resistance. 
 
192 
 
 DR. DUFF’S LEITFKS OX INDIA. 
 
 accompanied with similar, if not greater loss, 
 in which case their number would be so dimin- 
 ished that the}’ must be entirely cut off. Be- 
 sides, in the attempt to return, they would be 
 encumbered with hundreds of helpless women 
 and children, most, if not all of whom would in- 
 evitably perish. All this may readily explain 
 the cause of the absolute dearth of intelligence 
 for so long a period from the occupants of the 
 sorely beleaguered residency of Lucknow. But 
 what their trials, their hardships, their suffer- 
 ings, must have been, during that awful period 
 from sickness, exposure, want of provisions, and 
 the deadly onslaughts of an exasperated multi- 
 tudinous fee, imagination is baffled and humanity 
 shudders in attempting to realize. 
 
 As the movable column from Delhi, with 
 additional troops from the south, had crossed 
 the Ganges at Cawnpore, it was hoped that to- 
 day tidings might arrive of the second relief of 
 Lucknow. This morning, however, no authentic 
 intelligence has come to hand. In the' absence 
 of such I may here state, that an officer, long in 
 Government employ, has told me that, should 
 the enormous body of armed rebels in Lucknow 
 continue in possession of the city. Sir Colin 
 Campbell had an original plan of his own for 
 drawing off the environed garrison without ma- 
 terial loss. He proposes to cross the river by a 
 pontoon bridge, suddenly thrown over it, several 
 
miles below the city ; to march op on the left 
 bank, opposite to tlie Residency ; there to plant 
 two batteries commanding its two flanks, and 
 throw a pontoon bridge across to enable the in- 
 mates of the garrison to effect their escape int(-» 
 his camp. Once safely arrived there, the city 
 can be dealt with according to its deserts. 
 Shoidd this plan succeed — and many a prayer 
 is now offered to the God of Providence that it 
 may — the blessings of hundreds and of thou- 
 sands, here and at home, will descend on the 
 head of Sir Colin. 
 
 Having mentioned the name of this brave- 
 hearted Scottish warrior, I cannot but allude to 
 a remarkable providential escape which he him- 
 self experienced, about ten days ago, on his 
 way from this to Benares. Sir Colin and his 
 staff, unaccompanied by any escort, in the neigh- 
 borhood of tlie river Sone, came suddenly on 
 two companies of the mutinied 32d, who had 
 recently killed their own officers. They were 
 then in the act of crossing the trunk road, with 
 fourteen elephants, two guns, and a small body 
 of sowars, or irregular native cavalry. Sir 
 Colin’s garry, or travelling carriage, was ahead 
 of all the others ; and although the native 
 coachman warned him of the danger, he still 
 pushed on, till an aide-de-camp directed his at- 
 tention to the mutineers crossing the road at a 
 distance of nut more than fire hundred yards. 
 
 It 
 
194 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 At first the Chief would not go back, but got on 
 the top of his garry with a glass ; and only 
 when he saw some cavalry sent to cut off his 
 retreat did he think it proper to stop. Had they 
 been a few hundred yards farther on, the whole 
 j)arty must have been cut off to a man, since having 
 no escort, the odds opposed to them was so 
 tremendous as to render effectual resistance 
 impossible. As it was, their coming up, with 
 such apparent boldness, so very near to the 
 rebels, evidently soon impressed the latter with 
 the conviction that Sir Colin and his party 
 formed only the advanced guard of an avenging 
 column ; and so, after a little hesitation, they 
 made off as fast as they could, elephants, guns, 
 and all, while Sir Colin and his staff instantly 
 turned back and retraced their steps for ten 
 miles, till they came up with a bullock-train 
 party of soldiers. What a narrow escape ! 
 What a providential interposition ! A few min- 
 utes sooner, and the brave Sir Colin, with his 
 whole staff, would have been ignominiously 
 butchered 1 What, then, of poor distracted 
 British India I Who can venture to estimate 
 the extent of calamity which might result from 
 the announcement throughout all the rebel hosts 
 of the capture of such a prize ! May we not, 
 then, hail a personal escape so remarkable, as 
 the token of an overruling Providence ; that he 
 who was thus marvellously delivered himself is 
 
LEITER XIV. 
 
 195 
 
 destined to be the instrument of signal deliver- 
 ances to others, and an agent, in the hands of a 
 gracious God, for restoring order and tranquil- 
 lity to this sadly convulsed and sorely scourged 
 land ? 
 
 The full dispatch from General Wilson, con- 
 cerning the final capture of Delhi, reached this 
 Government about a week ago ; but it was only 
 this morning that it was published here. As it 
 is sure to be reprinted at home, and perused wdth 
 thrilling interest, I need say no more than that, 
 much as we have been hearing all along of the 
 astonishing prowess of our troops, the half had 
 not been told us. Men who are no mean judges 
 in such matters unite in declaring that, con- 
 sidering the astounding difficulties in the way, 
 nothing within the whole range of military war- 
 fare can well surpass the examples of indomi- 
 table perseverance, the undaunted valor, and 
 the heroic courage, to be found in this official 
 but heart-stirring narrative of the achievements 
 of our countrymen before the walls of the now 
 captured and devastated imperial city of the 
 Great Mogul. Yours affectionately, 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
LETTEK XV. 
 
 Calcutta, 20th November, 1857. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — In my last, so far as 
 the narrow limits of a letter could well admit, I 
 endeavored to set forth the true state of the 
 case, as regards the feelings of the Indian pop- 
 ulation towards us and our rule. But the sub- 
 ject is of such vital and practical importance, 
 that I must be excused for returning to it. 
 
 It is proper, then, with emphasis to re-assert 
 that no single categorical expression can accur- 
 ately represent the reality : the reality is not 
 simple but multiplex ; and in stating it, you 
 must distinguish between large classes or masses 
 that are widely divergent. In India there is no 
 actual nationality, even as there is no real pa- 
 triotism. It is a congeries of heterogeneous 
 races, difiering from each other in tastes and 
 likings, domestic and social usages, mental and 
 moral habitudes, physical qualities and pursuits, 
 religious ideas and practices, as mucli as the 
 old Scotch Highlanders differ from Anglo-Saxon 
 Lowlanders, or the Papal Irish from both ; or 
 fully as much as the Spanish, Italian, French, 
 [196] 
 
I.K1TER XV. 
 
 197 
 
 German, and Scandinavian races from each 
 other. 
 
 To any candid and reflecting mind, the verj' 
 statement of this fact may suffice to indicate 
 tliat there must be a great diversity in the mani- 
 festation of native feeling towards us and our 
 Government. To assert, as some have done, 
 that the hundred and eighty millions of India 
 positively hate us, is an extreme as far removed 
 from the truth, as the opposite assertion, that 
 these hundred and eighty millions are cordially 
 attached to our sway. As usual in all such 
 cases, the truth lies somewhere in the middle 
 between these extremes. Let us try to discover 
 what that middle is. 
 
 1. Besides many of the wild tribes that roam 
 over our hilly regions and trackless forests, 
 there are, in all likelihood, tens of millions of 
 the ryots or cultivator’s and village artisans of 
 India, who must be ranked in the class of Indif- 
 ferents ; since of them it cannot be truthfully 
 said they either positively love or positively hate 
 us. Like their predecessor’s and ancestors from 
 time immemorial, these are wonderfully little 
 concerned with changes of government. Such 
 changes chiefly affect ambitious rulers, with 
 their court minions and harpy-like host of 
 official myrmidons. But, throughout all ages, 
 the great bulk of the peasairtry have bcerr 
 accustomed to be trampled on and mercilessly 
 
 n* 
 
J98 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 fleeced — experiencing fully as much of the 
 curses as of the blessings of power. So that 
 to them it seemed a matter of indifference 
 whether the paramount Power were Patan, 
 Tartar or Mogul, Brahminical or British. For, 
 however unnatural, it is nevertheless true, that 
 natives — whether themselves the actual rulers, 
 or only the ministers and agents of foi’eign 
 rulers — have at all times been the most inexor- 
 able oppressors of natives. When themselves 
 the rulers, they were, for the most part, tyrants 
 over down-trodden vassals ; when themselves 
 subjects in offlce, they have generally, in cruelty 
 and rapacity, exceeded their foreign masters. 
 And of all such tyrants, the Brahmins usually 
 abused their power the most ; as if by bribing 
 the gods with ceremonies and offerings, any ini- 
 quities, however aggravated, could at once be 
 obliterated ! While, therefore, numbers of the 
 common peasantry may be more or less discon- 
 tented — as numbers must always have been — 
 with the Sircar, or Supreme Government, with- 
 out very well knowing who or what the present 
 Sircar is, through the exactions and oppressions 
 of the Government native agents, there are 
 doubtless numbers more, living in a state of 
 profoundest apathy, because living in a state of 
 serfdom, which has been perpetuated and grown 
 into a law and habit of nature, through the 
 changelessness of successive generations — nei- 
 
LETTER XV. 
 
 199 
 
 ther knowing nor caring anything about the 
 Sircar. Of the collector, judge, or magistrate 
 of the district, they may have heard or known 
 something in the course of a lifetime. But there, 
 their experience and knowledge ordinarily ter- 
 minate. Of the name, or even existence, of the 
 Governor-General of India, or their Sovereign 
 Lady Queen Victoria, they may never have 
 heard at all. Nor is such ignorance and con- 
 sequent indifference on the part of degraded, 
 uncivilized multitudes, to be mucli wondered at, 
 when it is remembered that the Naneab Suraj- 
 ud-Dowla, who fought with Clive at Plassey, 
 was frequently heard to say, “ he did not im- 
 agine there were ten thousand men in all Freng- 
 istan ” — meaning Europe ! 
 
 2. Among all classes there are individuals — 
 and among some classes many more proportion- 
 ally than among others — who have fairly 
 emerged from this state of brutish apathy and 
 indifference. From instincts of self-interest, 
 or an intelligent apprehension of our power, or 
 even willingness to benefit them, there are indi- 
 viduals of every caste and race who may be 
 said, in a loose and general way, to be reconciled, 
 if nut attached, to our sway. These will be 
 found chiefly among the trading and commercial 
 orders of our large cities — particulaidy Calcutta, 
 Madras, and Bombay. In the last of these, the 
 Parsis, as a class, have always been spoken of 
 
200 
 
 DK. duff’s LFTrERS ON INDIA. 
 
 as notoriously favorable to our rule ; but these, 
 though genuine -Orientals, are, equally with 
 ourselves, strangers and foreigners on the soil 
 of India. 
 
 3. As to lovers of us or our rule, in anj^ true 
 sense of the terin, probably there are none 
 among any class, except the comparatively 
 small body of professing native Christians. In 
 them, participation in the transcendent benefits 
 of a common and glorious faith has overcome 
 the antipathies generated by foreignness of race 
 and the humiliation of conquest, and merged 
 all in the love and fellowship of Christian bro- 
 therhood. The reality of their good-will and 
 affection towards us, and to their credit it ought 
 to be specially noted, has, in various waj's, 
 been made manifest throughout the progress of 
 the recent awful rebellion. No sooner did the 
 intelligence reach Calcutta of the massacres at 
 Meerut and Delhi, than the educated native 
 Christians of all denominations met in our Insti- 
 tution, and drew up a truly loyal and admirable 
 address to the Governor-General. A similar 
 address was also forwarded from the large 
 body of native Christians in the district of 
 Krishnaghur ; offering, at the same time, any 
 assistance in their power with their carts or 
 bullocks, &c. The native Christians at Chota 
 Nagpore, a hilly district, offered their personal 
 services as police guards, or in any other ca- 
 
I.EITER XV. 
 
 201 
 
 pacity. Tlic native Christians in the district of 
 Burrisal, East Bengal, were ready, if called on, 
 or accepted, to form a local military corps for 
 the defence of tliat quarter. The magistrate of 
 Tipperah, a zillah still farther to the east, and 
 still in a state of great insecurity, sent the 
 other day to one of the Dacca missionaries an 
 earnest requisition for a hundred and fifty native 
 Christians for defensive purposes, as the only 
 class of natives in whose loyalty and attach- 
 ment to us any real confidence could be placed. 
 The individual who gave information to the 
 authorities at Patna, which led to the discovery 
 and defeat of a desperate Mohammedan plot to 
 massacre all the Europeans at that station, was 
 a native Christian. But enough. Theory and 
 practice alike concur in proving, that to increase 
 and multiply the number of native Christians, 
 is to increase and multiply the only class of 
 truly staunch and loyal native subjects of the 
 British Crown among the teeming millions of 
 India. 
 
 4. If our lovers be few, our haters also are 
 many ! If the former are to be reckoned up by 
 units, the latter may be counted by myriads. 
 Still, far from including the tvhole, I cannot be- 
 lieve that they include an^'thing like one half oi 
 the Indian population. As formerly indicated, 
 our haters are to be found chiefly among the 
 Mohammedans, Brahmins, Kajputs, and other 
 
202 
 
 DE. DUFF’S UETTEKS ON INDIA. 
 
 armed and turbulent classes of Northern and 
 Central India. For the reasons assigned in my 
 last, a large proportion of all these classes, so 
 long as they remain genuine Mohammedans and 
 Hindus, cannot but dislike, or even hate, us and 
 our rule — do or attempt what we may for their 
 temporal welfare. Our rule, merely as the rule 
 of Christian foreigners, though conducted on 
 principles of angelic perfection and purity, 
 would be a standing grievance and unforgivable 
 offence. Many, accordingly, do hate us with a 
 cordial hatred. Amongst these are the rajahs 
 and nawabs, the nobles, the chiefs, the priests, 
 and the warriors, whose absolute supremacy in 
 civil, military, and religious affairs, has been 
 subverted or weakened, restrained within nar- 
 row bounds, or contracted into dwarfish dimen- 
 sions. It could not be expected of human nature 
 in any of its forms, or in any clime — and least 
 of all of unregenerated heathen nature, in an 
 Indian clime — that a change so radical, affect- 
 ing so directly the official power, the material 
 interests, the personal dignity, the social rank, 
 the political influence, of so many, would be 
 submitted to with unmurmuring acquiescence. 
 The mere fact of a forcible conquest, together 
 with the systematic restraint and all-pervading 
 regularity of our rule, not only reducing all to 
 a condition of comparative insignificance and 
 powerlessness, but what is to them more intoler- 
 
LETTER XV. 
 
 203 
 
 able still, a condition of repression and com- 
 pulsory rest, were enough to awaken and per- 
 petuate feelings of exasperation and intensest 
 hate. Is it therefore anything to be greatly 
 wondered at, that Mohammedan conquerors, 
 superseded in the high places of power — Hindu 
 rajahs or petty sovereigns, reduced to little 
 more than the rank of titled nobles or large 
 landed proprietors — Brahmins and Manlavis, 
 stripped of many of their proud pretensions and 
 super-eminent personal immunities — military 
 chiefs, and other functionaries, who, as leaders 
 of armies, or governors of provinces, were wont 
 to exercise summary authority, and gorge them- 
 selves with unlimited spoil — together with all 
 subordinate agents, who found profit, pride, or 
 glory in acting as the executors of their arbi- 
 ti’ary will — should find a common interest in 
 plotting for the overthrow of a race of conquer- 
 ors who had not only thus brought them down 
 to a state of obscurity and impotence, but 
 threatened, by its strong and rigid system of 
 administration, for ever to keep them there ? 
 
 5. Accordingly, that it was in this quarter 
 and direction that the true originating cause of 
 the great rebellion was to be found, was, from 
 the very first, my own conviction, a conviction 
 then shared by few, and, when first propounded, 
 met, on the part of many, with the scowl of in- 
 credulitjn The greased cartridges, and all 
 
204 
 
 DK. duff’s LE'rrFKS ox IXWA. 
 
 other alleged proximate causes connected with 
 caste and religion, I could not but regard as the 
 mearest and flimsiest pretexts, cunningly con- 
 trived and adroitly put forth by deeplj^-design- 
 ing traitors behind the scenes. In other words, 
 from the first I could not but regard and pro- 
 nounce the mutiny and rebellion as the result 
 of a political conspiracy in which Mohammedan 
 chiefs and intriguers would be found the prime 
 movers, Brahmins and other high-caste Hindus 
 their willing auxiliaries, and the great mass of 
 the sepoys their sj’mpathizing confreres, in the 
 first instance, but their duped instruments at 
 last. For the sake of truth, and the future of 
 India, I do therefore rejoice that a similar con- 
 viction is beginning to take firm root among 
 the leaders of public opinion at home. In an 
 influential London journal brought out by last 
 mail, it is strongly asserted that “ the rebellion 
 and mutiny we have witnessed were not an 
 efibrt to avenge wrongs or to throw off oppres- 
 sion,” but, “ beyond question a political conspi- 
 racy engendered by princely ambition and min- 
 isterial intrigue, baffled and discontented, and 
 seeking to recover a position and an arena for 
 activity.” 
 
 Let this assertion as to the primal originating 
 cause of the great rebellion — and I believe it 
 to be substantial!}' the very truth on the sub- 
 ject — firmly seize the British mind, and it will 
 
I.EITKK XV. 
 
 205 
 
 wonderfully facilitate future inquiries, and direct 
 to the discovery and application of right reme- 
 dial measures. 
 
 Assuredly, as far as the Government is con- 
 cerned, the sepoys had no personal wrongs or 
 grievances to complain of. On the contrary, as 
 tlie wliole world now knows, they were treated 
 with a kindness, indulgence, and forbearance 
 which greatly exceeded the bounds of prudence. 
 Their pay and pensions were more liberal than 
 those of any other military service in any land ; 
 their failures in duty and breaches of discipline 
 were visited with a leniency which almost tempt- 
 ed to insubordination ; their very superstitions 
 were ostentatiously respected ; their caste pre- 
 judices flattered and cherished ; their childish 
 freaks and follies borne with and humored to 
 the uttermost. Verily, as regards the Govern- 
 ment against which they have so perfidiously 
 risen, these petted, pampered, praetorian bands, 
 filled with insolence and self-conceit, had noth- 
 ing to complain of. Neither, so far as the pre- 
 sent Government is concerned, had the armed 
 populace in Northern and Central India, who 
 have swelled the ranks of the mutineers and 
 rebels, any intolerable oppressions to complain 
 of.* Oil the contrary, these Northern provinces, 
 under the admirable revenue settlement of the 
 
 * Here I do not include the case of Oude, which must be judged of 
 on its own merits. 
 
 18 
 
20G 
 
 DR. duff’s LFTTFRS OX IXDIA. 
 
 late Mr. Bird, and the not less admirable admin- 
 istration of the late Mr. Thomason, and his suc- 
 cessor, were certainly pointed at for the last 
 dozen years, as exhibiting a model of good gov- 
 ernment, and a spectacle of apparent satisfac- 
 tion and prosperity on the part of the people. 
 But, notwithstanding all this, it is now but too 
 evident that the whole was wrapped up in a 
 mantle of illusion. 
 
 When we were very naturally buoying our- 
 selves with the imagination that our rule must 
 be popular with the masses, because, under its 
 steady and even-handed procedure, individual 
 and social rights were more respected, life and 
 propei'ty, and the fruits of industry, more secure, 
 than they had ever been before, we as naturally 
 forgot that there were numbers spread over the 
 whole of these provinces, the sentiments of 
 whose hearts, if they found vent in articulate 
 utterance, would run somewhat in this strain; 
 “ Even admitting all that you allege in your 
 own favor, there is still something so dull, 
 dreary, and monotonous in the iron uniformitj’^ 
 of your sway, that we rather long for the stir 
 and excitement of the olden times. Doubtless 
 we were then constantly liable to become the 
 victims of rapine and plunder; but, as a counter- 
 poise to that, we had an equal chance of self- 
 aggrandizement, by similar means, in our turn. 
 True also, the exactions and demands of native 
 
LE'ITKK XV. 
 
 207 
 
 princes were often ruinously oppressive ; but 
 then, we had it often in our power, by artifice 
 or resistance, to evade them, while there is no 
 escape from the clenching gripe of your system 
 of taxation. To speak the plain trutli, we sigh 
 for the return of the good old times, despite all 
 their anarchy and misrule.” 
 
 Thus, while under our strong rule, order 
 everywhere prevailed— all open lawlessness and 
 predatory violence being kept in check by an 
 ubiquitous and resistless power — the grand mis- 
 take lay in identifying universal order with 
 universal peace. Order, external order, every- 
 where; but, alas, nowhere real solid, satisfying, 
 internal peace I It was only enforced, not 
 voluntary, order — superinduced quietude, not 
 spontaneous repose — necessitated submission to 
 the dominance of an overmastering power, not 
 a cheerful, willing accord in its rightful autho- 
 rity. Perhaps an intelligent apprehension of 
 the strangely mixed state of things in France 
 now, where there is order, but no settled, endur- 
 ing peace, might help the good people at home 
 in their attempt to comprehend the mixed state 
 of things in Northern and Central India before 
 the outbreak of the great rebellion. 
 
 In the Bengal army, from its being composed 
 chiefly of Brahmins, Mussulmans, Rajputs, and 
 other high-caste Hindus, there have always 
 been thousands of latent mutineers. Among the 
 
208 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 Indian people, and especially the Mussulmans, 
 the Brahmins, the Rajputs, and armed classes 
 in the Xorth-West, there have always been tens 
 of thousands of latent rebels — the native army 
 keeping in check tlie rebels, and the British 
 bayonets keeping in check the mutineers ! In 
 short, there has always been abundance of the 
 raw material of mutiny and rebellion spread 
 over the country, needing only the carefully 
 applied spark to ignite the whole into com- 
 bustion and explosion. 
 
 To say, then, with the Times and a certain 
 class of home politicians, that the present revolt 
 is a purely military one and nothing more, is an 
 egregious mistake, and as mischievous as it is 
 egregious. To say, on the other hand, with the 
 Press and another class of home politicians, 
 that the rebellion is a national one, in any true 
 sense of the word national, is a mistake just as 
 egregious, and scarcely less mischievous. In 
 realitj' it is a revolt or rebellion of the Moham- 
 medan, Brahmin, Rajput, and other fraternizing 
 sepoys, plus the whole shoal of political intrigu- 
 ers connected with the fallen dynasties, roj’al- 
 ties, and chieftianships of Mohammedanism and 
 Hinduism, together with the armed classes, 
 which constitute so large a proportion, though 
 probably not the majorit}*, of the population of 
 Northern and Central India. This armed popu- 
 lar'e of full-grown men, accustomed to wield all 
 
LKTTEK XV. 
 
 209 
 
 sorts of arms from earliest youth, one of the 
 most sober and best-informed of our local jour- 
 nalists estimates, at the very least, at three 
 millions! Here, then, is our real enemy! — the 
 enemy that will have to be subdued, pacified, 
 and turned into orderly subjects, even after the 
 army of a hundred thousand murderous mutin- 
 eers has been literally annihilated. Success- 
 fully to achieve so glorious a pacification, will 
 certainly tax the wisdom and energies of our 
 highest statesmen. One indispensable prelimi- 
 nary measure, as stated in my last, must be a 
 stern and relentless disarmament of the restless, 
 turbulent, and warrior classes throughout the 
 whole of Northern and Central India. On this 
 subject, for the sake of India itself, and its on- 
 ward amelioration, all puling, maudlin, senti- 
 mentalism ought to be scathed and scouted with 
 unpityiug scorn. A demand from the mighty 
 British people for the immediate and universal 
 disarming of the whole of the dangerous classes 
 of India, ought to reach our shores, in a voice, 
 if not as loud, at least as effective, as that of ten 
 thousand thunders I As a Scottish Highlander, I 
 know how bitter was the act which disarmed 
 the clans after the decisive battle of Culloden ; 
 but as a Christian man I feel how necessary 
 that apparently despotic act was for the subse- 
 quent evangelization of the Highlands, and how 
 thoroughly it was justified by its blessed re- 
 18 * 
 
210 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA, 
 
 suits ! When, at Lucknow or elsewhere, our 
 Indian Culloden has been fought and won, 
 under our brave Highland chief. Sir Colin Camp- 
 bell, let us at once follow up the victoiy by uni- 
 versally disarming the people. And while the 
 civil power, in its own department, proceeds to 
 the adoption and establishment of healing 
 measures, let the Protestant Churches of Great 
 Britain, America, and Germany, pour in upon 
 the chafed and parched soil the waters of life 
 and salvation; and India may soon become the 
 Lord’s! Then may we rest assured that, in the 
 fulness of her spiritual blessings, evangelized 
 India will be ready to forgive and forget the 
 roughness of the discipline through which they 
 may have been gained. 
 
 Nov. 21. — The departure of our mail, which 
 was to have closed to-day, has been postponed 
 to the 24th, in consequence of the news from 
 Lucknow. For nearly two months no direct in- 
 telligence had reached us from the force under 
 Generals Outrara and Havelock ; which, after 
 relieving the distressed garrison, when on the 
 very eve of being utterly destroyed, became 
 itself so beleaguered as to stand in need of 
 being relieved. After a week of awful suspense, 
 during which little else was known except that 
 there was a great deal of desperate fighting in 
 the suburbs of liucknow, a short telegraphic 
 
LETTER XV. 
 
 211 
 
 message has come to hand this morning, an- 
 nouncing the junction of the forces under the 
 Commander-in-Chief and those under Generals 
 Outram and Havelock ; which, in other words, 
 is an announcement of the capture of Lucknow, 
 and final deliverance of the sorely environed 
 garrison there. Still, there are many sadly pal- 
 pitating hearts amongst us. We have simply 
 heard of victory ; but, oh, the intense anxiety 
 of the questionings on all sides ! Will mj' father, 
 my husband, my brother, my son, or my friend, 
 be found in the bead-roll of death ? These sug- 
 gestive expressions in the short telegram — 
 “Very strong position carried by assault;” 
 “ carried after a severe struggle ; ” “ carried 
 after one of the severest fights ever witnessed” 
 — will fill Calcutta this day with many a sore 
 heart, many a sobbing utterance, many a rueful 
 countenance. And I confess, in penning these 
 ominous words, when I think of the many dear 
 friends and personal acquaintances who were ex- 
 posed in the terrific conflicts of successive days 
 around and within the doomed city, the tears — 
 nature’s involuntary tribute at the thought of 
 bereaved friendship — arc trickling down my 
 cheeks. Oh that the Lord may graciously have 
 compassion on the many fatherless, husbandless, 
 brotherless, sonless sorrowers who may be 
 amongst us this day ! 
 
 IWi. — To-day our mail closes ; and the Intel- 
 
212 
 
 DR. duff’s UEITERS OX INDIA. 
 
 ligeiice which it convej's is of a chequered char- 
 acter. Successes tlicre Iiave been in diiferent 
 quarters against the rebels. But these, for the 
 most part, have been of so desultory a nature 
 as to issue in no decisive result. However 
 strange it may appear to the people at home, it 
 is nevertheless true that there are tens of thou- 
 sands of natives in Calcutta, and probably mil- 
 lions throughout the Gangetic valley, who will 
 not believe that Delhi has been captured by the 
 British forces. The sepoys that lately mutinied 
 and killed their officers at Deoghur, in Behar, 
 went off to Delhi, believing it still to be in the 
 hands of their comrades ! The contingent that 
 mutinied at Kotah in Central India, and killed 
 the excellent Colonel Burton and his sons, did so 
 avowedly because they declared that their com- 
 mander had imposed a lie upon them, in order- 
 ing a salute to be fired in honor of the re-cap- 
 ture of Delhi ! and off they went triumphantly 
 to the imperial city, believing that the repre- 
 sentative of the Great Mogul was still upon the 
 throne ! Never for a moment doubting the ulti- 
 mate success of the British arms in extinguish- 
 ing the rebellion, I all along had an intense 
 persuasion that the task would be found a vastly 
 more difficult one than sanguine-minded men, 
 ignorant of the real peculiarities of the case, 
 were willing to suppose. 
 
 Even now the state of things at Lucknow is 
 
I.ETTEU XV. 
 
 213 
 
 causing no small anxiety to the sober-minded 
 here. True, the garrison has been relieved a 
 second time ; but at what a cost ! The casual- 
 ties, so far as known to this Government, have 
 now been published. They include the “ Com- 
 mander-in-Chief,” his “military secretary,” and 
 one of his “aides-de-camp,” all “wounded.” 
 As 3’et, however, we know not the full extent of 
 the casualties ; but one thing we do know, that 
 notwithstanding the dail}^ accessions to the 
 British force, the communications between Cawn- 
 pore and Lucknow have again and again been 
 interrupted. Only a few days ago, the Euro- 
 pean director of the telegraph and his assis- 
 tants were found murdered on the road ! 
 
 In past times God has not been honored and 
 acknowledged by our rulers and people as He 
 ought. On the contrary, his name has by them 
 been blasphemed among the heathen ; while 
 heathenism, in many of its most obnoxious 
 forms, has been openly, yea, ostentatiously, 
 countenanced. Only the otlier day, a gentle- 
 man, who had it from the officer that witnessed 
 the spectacle, told me that a late Governor- 
 General, in his tour through the Upper Prov- 
 inces, visited a celebrated shrine of Hindu Idola- 
 try, took off his shoes in honor of it, as holy 
 ground, and with his own hands deposited a bag 
 of several hundred rupees before the Idol ! On 
 such a scene the supreme rulers at home would 
 
214 
 
 DR. duff's letters ON INDIA. 
 
 look with complacency. And yet, w'hen the 
 present Governor-General subscribes to a re- 
 lig'ious Christian institution, he is told authori- 
 tatively in the House of Lords that his doing so 
 unfitted him for supreme rule in India ! Need 
 we wonder that the Lord has a controversy 
 with us as a people and nation ? As a nation 
 we deserved to be smitten : the stroke of judg- 
 ment has fallen ; and for all this His anger is 
 not turned away, but His hand is stretched out 
 still. Yours ever affectionately, 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
LETTER XVI. 
 
 Calcutta, 8th December, 1857. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — The wave of rebellion, 
 slowly rolling on from the North-West, has now 
 completed its line of circumvallation round 
 Lower Bengal. The three companies of sepoys 
 in charge of the treasury, jail, &c., at Chitta- 
 gong, the capital of the district of that name, at 
 the south-eastern extremity of Bengal, round 
 the head of the bay, have at last mutinied. The 
 circumstances are suggestive. These men had 
 so long continued — to all appearance — “ staunch 
 and loyal,” that even the most sceptical were 
 beginning to think sepoy faithfulness not abso- 
 lutely impossible. In proof of their fidelity, 
 they forwarded a petition not long ago to Gov- 
 ernment, begging to be allowed to remain where 
 they were for another year, as the time of their 
 removal, in the ordinary course of I’otation, was 
 nigh at hand. The Government, in cheerfull}' 
 acceding to their request, sent also a letter com- 
 plimenting them on the excellence of their conduct. 
 This letter reached tlicm on Sunday, 15th No- 
 vember, and on the evening of Wednesday the 
 18th, about 11 p.m., they suddenly rose in open 
 
 [215] 
 
21G DH. dj ff’s i.irnKKS ox ixdia. 
 
 mutiny, and promptly went to work after the 
 most approved and stereotyped fasliion! 
 
 First of all they rush to the houses of the Eu- 
 ropeans, civil and military, bent on the destruc- 
 tion of their inmates. Happily these, with a 
 single exception, escaped the intended massa- 
 cre by a hurried flight, mostly in their night- 
 clothes — some on board ships, others into boats 
 up the river, and others still into the neighboring 
 jungles. The Civil Commissioner, who had con- 
 cealed himself in the compound or court-yard of 
 his house, distinctly heard the mutineers asking 
 for him. Next they set Are to their own lines ; 
 killing the native jailor, they liberated the con- 
 victs ; blew up the magazine ; robbed the treas- 
 ury. Having then bestowed bountiful largesses 
 on the mosques, and loaded the Company’s ele- 
 phants with their plunder, they marched north- 
 ward in the direction of Tipperah, with the 
 blessings of the faquirs, exclaiming — “ We have 
 obtained our utmost wish, but have not suc- 
 ceeded in killing the Feringhee dogs.” 
 
 Immediately on the report of the mutiny reach- 
 ing Dacca, the next principal station to the 
 north-west, it was resolved to attempt to disarm 
 the two companies of sepoj’s and small body of 
 native artillerymen located there. The non- 
 combatants having been lodged in the house 
 which had been fortified in anticipation of such 
 a contingency, the sailors, who had been sent 
 
LKITEK XVI. 
 
 217 
 
 from Calcutta at a time when no British soldiers 
 could be spared, proceeded to the lines to en- 
 force the order for disarmament. The men were 
 evidently well prepared ; as the sailors, headed 
 b3’ the authorities, wei’e at once received with 
 volleys of musketry and showers of grape. A 
 stubborn fight ensued, in which two or three of 
 the seamen were killed, and several wounded. 
 But British pluck and bravery, as usual, though 
 against heavy odds, won the day. After a re- 
 sistless charge, the guns and magazine were 
 got possession of ; and the sepoys, fairly beaten, 
 took to flight, leaving behind them about forty 
 killed and many wounded. One correspondent 
 from the place writes — “ Had it not been for 
 our handful of marines, who fought right gal- 
 lantly, w'here would we have been now?” And 
 another, “ Had the sepoys here overpowered 
 our seamen, who were scarcely ninety in num- 
 ber, perhaps w’C should not have been alive at 
 this time. But God has been very merciful, and to 
 Him we would render our most earnest thanks.” 
 Proceeding northward, the Dacca and Chitta- 
 gong mutineers have, as might be expected, 
 been plundering, right and left, as they went 
 along, spreading panic and consternation 
 through the surrounding districts. If not speed- 
 ily arrested in their depredatory career, there is 
 no calculating the amount of mischief which 
 they may effect, or the extent to which the 
 19 
 
218 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON* INDIA. 
 
 sparks of rebellion may ignite the combustible 
 materials all around. Soon after the tidings 
 reached Calcutta, a steamer was dispatched to 
 that quarter with four hundred men. Had this 
 measure been adopted a few weeks earlier, it 
 would almost to a certainty have prevented any 
 outbreak of the mutinous spirit at Chittagong 
 and Dacca, and saved the loss of our prestige 
 in regions which bring us into perilous proximi- 
 ty w'ith Burmah and its unfriendly frontier 
 tribes. But our authorities continued, unhappi- 
 I3* and blindly, to trust in the fidelity of the 
 “ staunch and loyal” sepoys, though thoroughly 
 distrusted by all besides. And so it has been 
 very much all along. And hence “ too late” or 
 “ insufiScient” may well be said to have been 
 the leading characteristics of most of our pub- 
 lic measures. We trust, however, that a brighter 
 day will soon dawn upon us. 
 
 While the extreme east of Bengal has thus 
 at last become the scene of mutiny and anarchy, 
 the extreme west continues to be in a very 
 troubled state. Sumbulpore is still in the hands 
 of the rebel chief who seized it some time ago ; 
 and between that and Cuttack on the south, 
 some European medical officers have recently 
 been murdered in attempting to pass from one 
 station to the other. The condition of the 
 whole of Behar, bounding Bengal on the north, 
 is still very unsettled. 
 
LETTER XVr. 
 
 219 
 
 In ordinary times such a state of thing’s all 
 around Bengal would be fraught with stirring 
 interest. But even here, in the centre of such 
 encompassing troubles, all interest in them has 
 been well-nigh swallowed up b}' the more 
 absorbing interest in the greater events now 
 trans[)iring in the North-West, particularly at 
 Cawnpore and Lucknow. Of those I need say 
 little, as the public journals Avill convey to you 
 all that we know about them. Full details of 
 any of the vast and complicated operations 
 have not yet reached our authorities. As yet, 
 therefore, we know little beyond the leading 
 facts. These, however, are of a momentous 
 character. At Lucknow, Sir Colin Campbell, 
 forcing his way through masses of highly defen- 
 sible buildings, occupied by enemies ton or 
 twenty times outnumbering his own men, ene- 
 mies, too, fighting behind stone walls, and 
 firing from loop-holed houses, with every advan- 
 tage which a strong position and local know- 
 ledge could supply, succeeded in releasing tlie 
 garrison, which, with starvation inside, and 
 death and treachery all around, had held out 
 for six months, in the face of hostile myriads ! 
 Leaving behind him a division under Sir James 
 Outram, Sir Colin next conducted six hundred 
 helpless women and children, with two thousand 
 sick and wounded, through a country literally 
 swarming with armed foes, and safely landed 
 
•220 
 
 DK. DLFF’S letters ON INDIA. 
 
 them at Cawnpore. Taking it all in all, this is 
 an achievement which the most experienced 
 here consider as greatly outrivalling any of Sir 
 Colin’s feats on the Alma or at Balaklava. 
 
 It was on the evening of November 28th that 
 Sir Colin reached Cawnpore, and he did not 
 reach it an hour too soon. On the preceding 
 day the Gwalior contingent, increased by other 
 levies of mutineers, to the number of twelve or 
 fifteen thousand, with a splendid park of artil- 
 lery, compelled the small British force to retire 
 wdthin the entrenchments, and burned their 
 camp, with its two or three thousand tents — 
 itself no small disaster at such a time ! The 
 arrival of Sir Colin and his force, which guarded 
 the convo}’^ from Lucknow, soon changed, as we 
 now learn, the aspect of things. 
 
 But the anarchical state of the country may 
 be inferred from this, that the communications 
 between Cawnpore and Lucknow were so inter- 
 rupted, that for a whole week not a word reached 
 Calcutta from Sir Colin’s camp. Of what tran- 
 spired between the d^iy on which he relieved 
 the Lucknow garrison and the day of his arrival 
 at Cawnpore nothing whatever was known here. 
 So you may readilj'^ imagine the state of anxious 
 suspense in which all here were kept. Again, 
 from the 1st inst. until this morning (8th) no- 
 thing whatever was heard of the proceedings at 
 Cawnpore, so completely had the commuuica- 
 
LETTER XVI. 
 
 221 
 
 tions been interrupted between Cawnpore and 
 Allahabad. Again, you may readily imagine 
 the state of fearful suspense in which we have 
 been kept for the last seven days ; more espe- 
 ciallj'^ as, in the absence of all authentic intelli- 
 gence, the spirits of evil were abroad with their 
 legion of wildly - exaggerated and disastrous 
 rumors. 
 
 This morning, however, thanks be to God, 
 our minds have been relieved of a distressing 
 burden by the twofold intelligence, first, that 
 the ladies and children of the Lucknow garrison 
 have safely reached Allahabad, whence we may 
 expect them soon to proceed by steamers to 
 Calcutta ; and second, that the brave Sir Colin — 
 having finally completed his arrangements for 
 putting the remainder of the sick and wounded, 
 numbering nearly nine hundred, in safety — the 
 day before yesterday (6th), attacked and routed 
 the Gwalior contingent and its allies, capturing 
 sixteen guns, with immense quantities of ammu- 
 nition, grain, bullocks, and the whole baggage 
 of the force ! Verily, many a voice of thanks- 
 giving, flowing from many a grateful heart, will 
 be heard this morning in tlie dwellings of this 
 great metropolis. Remembering the case of 
 Moses, who was praying on the hill when the 
 armies of Israel were fighting in the vale below, 
 I may note the pleasing coincidence, that while 
 the battle of Cawnpore was raging on Sabbath 
 19 ’*' 
 
222 
 
 Dll. duff’s LE'rrEKS ox IXDIA. 
 
 forenoon, the people of God, assembled in all 
 our sanctuaries or mounts of devotion, were 
 engaged in fervent prayer for the success of 
 our noble commanders and heroic men. And 
 Sir Colin reports that his loss was “ insignifi- 
 cant” — only one officer being reported as killed. 
 
 There is, however, nothing like unmingled joy 
 to be found in such a world of lights and shadows 
 as ours. The relief of Lucknow and the victory 
 of Cawnpore are, in themselves, joyous events. 
 But the former was accomplished at the cost of 
 scores of officers and hundreds of men, killed and 
 wounded, bringing sorrow and bereavement into 
 the bosom of many a family circle. And amongst 
 the killed we have now to reckon one whose 
 death will be felt as a national loss. At the 
 the close of my last letter, I found myself writ- 
 ing under an uncontrollable impulse of sadness, 
 at the bare thought of the friends or acquaint- 
 ances (then unknown) who might or must have 
 fallen amid the terrific conflicts at Lucknow. It 
 now turns out that the foreboding or presenti- 
 ment under the influence of which I then labored 
 was not illusive. For, at the very time I was 
 writing, another of our immortal leaders. Gene- 
 ral Havelock, was expiring from fatigue and 
 wounds, in the midst of those whom his own in- 
 trepid bravery had relieved. I knew him per- 
 sonally, having been privileged to make his 
 acquaintance many years ago, under the hospi- 
 
LETTER XVI. 
 
 223 
 
 table roof of the late revered Dr. Marshnian, of 
 Serampoi’e, whose son-iii-law he was. Some- 
 what stern and reserved he was in manner, yet 
 you could not be long in his presence without 
 finding that he was a man who feared God, and 
 that, fearing God, he feared nought else besides. 
 It was this holy reverential fear of God tliat 
 was the real source of his undaunted courage 
 in the discharge of duty, at whatever peril to 
 life or fortune. His, in this respect, was the 
 genuine spirit of the old English Puritan, the 
 very spirit of Oliver Cromwell and his compeers. 
 And the tendency was to turn the British sol- 
 diers, under his exclusive moulding, into a pha- 
 lanx of modern Ironsides. He was the first of 
 our Generals who distinctly recognized the 
 hand of God in his surprising victories over 
 the mighty host of rebel mutineers. “ By the 
 blessing of God, I have captured Cawnpore,” 
 were the first words of his memorable tele- 
 graphic dispatch from that scene of one of the 
 strangest and bloodiest tragedies ever enacted on 
 the stage of time. Faithful as a patriot warrior 
 to his earthly sovereign, he lived to receive from 
 her gracious Majesty a first instalment of honor 
 and reward, and to hear how a grateful country 
 had hailed his great services with unbounded 
 admiration and applause. But faithful also as 
 a soldier of the Cross to his Sovereign in the 
 skies, he has now gone to receive a far greater 
 
224 
 
 DR. DUFF’S LETTERS OX IXDIA. 
 
 honor, and inherit a vastly nobler recompense 
 of reward. He has gone, ripe in grace, to fruc- 
 tify in glory ! What a transition ! From the 
 confused noise of battle, to the hallelujahs of 
 angels ! From garments rolled in blood, to the 
 pure white robes of the redeemed in Immanuel’s 
 Land ! 
 
 December 10. — The mail which closes to-day 
 will carrj’^ to the British shores intelligence of 
 a cheering and re-assuring character. But I 
 almost tremble lest it inspire the general mind 
 with far too favorable impressions of the pro- 
 gress that has been made in suppressing this 
 dire rebellion. Deeply thankful do we feel to a 
 gracious, overruling Providence, that things 
 have not been worse than they are ; that there 
 have been already great achievements and great 
 deliverances ; that great cities like Calcutta, 
 Benares, Patna, and many more, once threatened 
 with all but inevitable destruction, have been 
 mercifully saved ; that the important fortresses 
 of Allahabad and Agra was almost miraculously 
 delivered from the enemy’s grasp ; that central 
 stations like Jubbulpore, Saugor, and others, 
 still sorely beleaguered, have hitherto been able 
 to hold out ; that Delhi, the imperial city and 
 focus of the mutinies, has been re-captured, 
 Lucknow finally relieved, and Cawnpore twice 
 re-taken ; and that so many notable victories 
 
LETTER XVI. 
 
 225 
 
 have already crowned the unrivalled prowess 
 of our gallant soldiers. 
 
 But, notwithstanding all these successes, we 
 who live out hero, with no interests to serve 
 but those of truth and righteousness, and eyes 
 uudimmed with the haze of red-tapist ofiScialism, 
 feel intensely that comparatively little has yet 
 been done towards an effectual suppression of 
 the rebellion. To many this may sound a very 
 disheartening statement ; and it is an invidious 
 and ungracious office to attempt to force it on 
 the notice of those who are unwilling to believe 
 in the possibility of a prolonged struggle. But 
 to the really conscientious there is but one 
 course open ; and that is, to tell what is the 
 naked truth on the subject. 
 
 The fall of Delhi has not been attended with 
 the effect which would have been produced had 
 it fallen at the outset. However incredible it 
 may appear to people at home, it is nevertheless 
 true, that letters from all quarters assure us 
 that multitudes of the natives will not believe 
 that it has yet been re-captured by us. It is 
 the policy of all inimical to our sway — and their 
 name is legion — to encourage scepticism on the 
 subject to the uttermost ; yea, and to fabricate 
 and circulate the wildest and most exaggerated 
 stories about the defeat of the British in every 
 encounter with the sepoys. Even the almost 
 daily arrival of so many troops does not inspire 
 
220 DK. duff’s LEITEKS OX IXDIA. 
 
 the terror which was anticipated. Those who 
 reside along the grand trunk road, when thej' 
 see such numbers of red coats constantly pass- 
 ing, have been heard to exclaim, “ Ah, we have 
 touched a hornet’s nest, and lo, the result !” — 
 or, “ The sea is spawning soldiers to help her 
 children.” But the multitudes, who have not 
 witnessed the imposing spectacle with their own 
 eyes, when they hear of the landing of such 
 numbers from the ships, are made to believe 
 that the actual strength of the force is not in- 
 creased ; that the same men are landed, re- 
 shipped, and landed again and again, merely 
 for deception and show ! It ought also to be 
 kept in remembrance, that while at every 
 station occupied by British troops there is tol- 
 erable order, the reports from one and all of 
 them are to the effect that, at very short 
 distances from them, yea, in their immediate 
 neighborhood, civil and militaiy authority alike 
 is quite nil; that internecine war prevails, and 
 lawless anarchy reigns supreme ; atrocious 
 crimes and robberies being the order of the 
 day ! At some small stations, not far from the 
 central ones, where order was supposed to be 
 restored, accounts have reached of the Thannas 
 and Jehsilis, the police offices and local trea- 
 sures, being plundered by the villagers ! Even 
 in the vicinity of Delhi, weeks after we were 
 undisputed masters of the city, what was the 
 
LEITEK XVI. 
 
 227 
 
 state of things ? All around, within a short 
 r-adius of a few miles, there were, and still are, 
 “ a host of fortified villages with a wide ditch 
 and high mud bank, swarming with thousands 
 ot‘ budmashes (or habit and repute ruffians) from 
 the city, and wounded sepoys.” As an instance 
 of the state of the neighborhood of Delhi, in 
 consequence of the existence of these nests of 
 hornets, we may mention, that the camels of 
 Coke’s regiment were out foraging about two 
 miles from the city, when a parly of villagers 
 attacked the guard, wounding one, and were 
 carrying off the camels, when they were rescued 
 by a party of horse under an officer, out on 
 escort duty. Nothing was done to punish the 
 villagers. None of our people could approach 
 those villages without the certainty of being 
 fired on ; and this, weeks after a shot had been 
 fired at Delhi ! But, as a counterpoise to such 
 statements, it has been asked. Did not the in- 
 habitants of Agra celebrate the downfall of 
 Delhi by an illumination of their houses ? Yes, 
 they did, we reply ; but in circumstances whicli 
 convict them of consummate hypocrisy. This 
 exhibition of mock sympathy with us only took 
 place after the rebel hosts — which vauntingly 
 boasted that they w’onld blow the Agra fort to 
 pieces, and not leave a Feringhee alive in it — 
 had been fairly routed and dispersed by 
 Greathed’s column from Delhi ! Then, when 
 
228 
 
 DK. duff's LElTFliS OX INDIA. 
 
 the British ascendancy was again paramount in 
 the city, the illumination took place in honor of 
 the Delhi triumphs. But that the whole affair 
 was a piece of hollow mockery, appears incon- 
 testable from the fact that these after-illumina- 
 tors of their houses not only knew of the near 
 and stealthy approach of the ten thousand 
 Gwalior and other rebels, but, on the evening 
 before they so suddenly attacked the British 
 cantonments, actually sent out to them quanti- 
 ties of sweetmeats, and other means of regale- 
 ment ; while not a native in Agra offered to aid 
 the British, or even furnish them with so much as 
 a hint of the approach of the rebels. These, and 
 facts of a similar kind, ought assuredly to open 
 the eyes of the most sceptically blind as to the 
 latent feelings of a large proportion at least of 
 the general populace towards us. 
 
 And yet, in the face of these, and all similar 
 facts, there are those at home and abroad in 
 high places, who still infatuatedly cling to the 
 delusion that it is an exclusively “ military 
 revolt” with which we have to deal ; that we 
 have “ a secure place and solid foundation in 
 the confidence and good-will of the people,” and 
 that “ the mutineers have not the confidence or 
 sympathy of the general population.” At the 
 risk of being accounted a prophet of ill omen, I 
 must solemnly protest against the mischievous- 
 ness of so deadly a delusion. This is not 
 
LKITER XVI. 
 
 229 
 
 merely to underrate tlie gravity, it is positively 
 to mistake the nature of the present momentous 
 crisis. And if its very nature, not less than 
 magnitude, he entirely mistaken, how can we 
 expect the adoption of measures commensurate 
 with its present exigencies or prospective out- 
 goings ? Why, if it had been a “ merely mili- 
 tary mutiny,” in tlie midst of an unsympathiz- 
 ing, unaiding populace, a few decisive victories, 
 such as we have already had, might quash it; or, 
 as the phrase goes, “ stamp it out.” But, so far 
 from being quashed or “ stamped out,” it seems 
 still as rampant, and, in some respects, more 
 wide-spread and formidable than over. And it 
 is the fact that it is not a mere “ military revolt,” 
 but a rebellion — a revolution— which alone can 
 account for the little progress hitherto made in 
 extinguishing it, and, at the same time, pre- 
 cludes any reasonable hope of its early complete 
 suppression. That it is a rebellion, and a 
 rebellion, too, of no recent or mushroom growth, 
 every fresh revelation tends more and more to 
 confirm; and a rebellion long and deliberately 
 concocted — a rebellion which has been able to 
 array the Hindu and Mohammedan in an un- 
 natural confederacy — a rebellion which is now 
 manifestly nurtured and sustained by the whole 
 population of Oudc, and, directly or indirectly, 
 sympathized with and assisted by well nigh 
 half that of the neighboring provinces — is not 
 20 
 
230 
 
 DK. duff’s LEUTERS OX INDIA. 
 
 to be put down by a few victories over nuiti- 
 nons sepoys, however decisive or brilliant. 
 
 To earn for the present revolt the designation 
 of “ rebellion,” it is surely not necessary that 
 tlie entire mass of the people should liave risen 
 in active hostility against us. We talk of the 
 rebellion of “Forty-five” in our own land, 
 thougli oidy a section of the general population 
 actually took up arms — known, however, to be 
 sympathized with by numbers of partisans 
 throughout the land. And is not the sway of 
 the rebels at this moment vastly firmer and 
 more extensive in Northern and Central India, 
 than ever w^as that of Prince Charles and his 
 followers throughout the British isles ? 
 
 That there is, even in Northern and Central 
 India, an ordinarily quiet, simple industrious 
 race, who, if left alone, would live on, under 
 under any paramount power, in profoundest 
 apathy and unconcern, is what I have hereto- 
 fore, again and again, asserted. But, from the 
 first, it was strangely forgotten by many of our 
 officials and leaders of public opinion, at home 
 and abroad, that, throughout our Northern and 
 Central Provinces, there are whole tribes of 
 banditti, professional robbers and murderers — 
 hosts of hudmashes, ever ready for any work of 
 violence and rapine — endless discontented chiefs 
 with crowds of retainers, the descendants of 
 marauders who, in their day, founded petty 
 
I.ETTER XVI. 
 
 231 
 
 thrones and principalities — and that all of these, 
 together with the multitudinous armed populace, 
 long kept in check or under repression by the 
 strong hand of a rigliteous Government, the 
 mutiny at once released and turned adrift, as 
 surging elements of mischief, to scour and 
 scourge a desolated land. 
 
 Even by those who were not altogether incog- 
 nizant of the peculiar constitution of native 
 society, it has been strangely forgotten how 
 vast a proportion of the general population in 
 Northern and Central India consist of those very 
 elements of mischief which have now been let 
 loose, freely to follow their predatory instincts, 
 and issue forth to mingle in the sanguinary fray. 
 Aye, and it has been strangely overlooked how, in 
 such a general 7ndee of auai’chy, the active or 
 passive sympathies of numbers of the ordinarily 
 peaceable and industrious population must of 
 necessity be excited in favor of the rebels, and 
 against us — leading them readily to supply the 
 former with provisions and information, while 
 provisions are reluctantly doled out to us, and 
 useful information never — thus greatly augment- 
 ing our difficulty in defeating their desperate en- 
 terprises, and rendering the task of quelling’ 
 rebellion a far more formidable one than the 
 persevering assertors of a mere military revolt 
 can be prepared to anticipate. 
 
 That there is a “ military revolt” is, alas ! far 
 
232 
 
 DK. duff’s LETTEKS OX INDIA. 
 
 too conspicuously written in characters of lire 
 and blood through all the military stations of 
 Northern and Central India. But what all the 
 friends and advocates of right measures for the 
 restoration of settled peace and order must per- 
 sist in reiterating is, that it is more than a mere 
 “military mutiny;” that, from the very outset, 
 it has been gradually’ assuming more and more 
 the character of “ a rebellion” — a rebellion, on 
 the part of vast multitudes beyond the sepoy 
 army, against British supremacy and sove- 
 reignty — and that our real contest never was 
 wholly, and now less than ever, with mutinous 
 sepoys. Had we only sepoys for our foes, the 
 country might soon be pacified. But, having far 
 worse enemies than the sepoys to overcome — 
 even anarchy or utter lawlessness, the extinc- 
 tion of rule and authority, the dissolution of or- 
 ganized society, and the hereditary taste for war 
 and rapine, on the part of millions, which has 
 been evoked and exasperated by a very plethora 
 of indulgence — we may expect the patience, the 
 disinterestedness, and the energy of Christian 
 principle to be taxed to the uttermost before the 
 tremendous conflict shall issue in a solid and 
 satisfactory peace. 
 
 The representation now given I do believe to 
 be, in its leading features, the only true one. 
 And if men were seriously to reflect, it is the 
 only one that can adequately account for the 
 
LETTER XVI. 
 
 233 
 
 phenomena of the unparalleled struggle which 
 has been carried on for months past. Never 
 has the enemy been met without being routed, 
 scattered, and his guns taken ; but though con- 
 stantly beaten, he evermore rallies, and appears 
 again ready for a fresh encounter. No sooner 
 is one city taken or another relieved, than some 
 other one is threatened. No sooner is one dis- 
 trict pronounced safe through the influx of Brit- 
 ish troops, than another is disturbed and con- 
 vulsed. No sooner is a highway re-opened 
 between places of importance, than it is again 
 closed, and all communication, for a season, cut 
 olf. No sooner are the mutineers and rebels 
 scoured out of one locality, than they re-appear, 
 with double or treble force, in another. No 
 sooner does a movable column force its way 
 through hostile ranks, than these re-occupy the 
 territory behind it. All gaps in the numbers of 
 the foe seem to be instantaneously filled up; and 
 no permanent clearance or impression appears 
 anywhere to be made. The passage of our brave 
 little armies through these swarming myriads, 
 instead of leaving the deep traces of a mighty 
 ploughshare through a roughened field, seems 
 more to resemble that of the eagle through the 
 elastic air, or a stately vessel through the un- 
 furrowed ocean. 
 
 Surely facts like these ought at length to open 
 the eyes of incredulous politicians and dreamy 
 20 * 
 
234 
 
 DR. DUFF’.S REITERS ON INDIA. 
 
 speculators to the dire reality of the condition 
 of things with wliich we have to deal, and the 
 prodigious magnitude of the task of subjugation 
 and reconstruction that lies before us. I say 
 not this under the influence of any depression, 
 but rather of buoyant liopefulness. Believing, 
 as I have always done, that the God of Provi- 
 dence has given India to Britain for the accom- 
 plishment of noblest, divinest ends ; believing 
 that the present calamities are righteous judg- 
 ments on account of our culpable negligence in 
 fulfilling the glorious trust committed to us ; 
 believing, at the same time, that our nation, 
 with all its shortcomings, had enough of Chris- 
 tian people to cause it, under the breath of Je- 
 hovah’s Spirit, to awake, arise, kiss the rod, 
 repent, and return to God in the path of appointed 
 duty. I never for a moment doubted our ulti- 
 mate success in re-establishing the British power 
 on a grander and firmer pedestal than ever 
 throughout these vast dominions. Even during 
 those awful nights of panic-terror, when, looking 
 at the radiance of the setting sun, one did not 
 know but its morning beams might be reflected 
 from his dishonored blood, the uppermost assur- 
 ance in my own mind was, that were Calcutta^ 
 the most conspicuous monument of the ascen- 
 dancy of Great Britian in the East, burnt to the 
 ground, and her sons and daughters buried amid 
 its glaring ashes, such a catastrophe wmuld only 
 
LETTER XVI. 
 
 235 
 
 cause a mightier vibration to thrill through the 
 heart of the British people, and rouse them to 
 exertions for the reconquest and evangelization 
 of India such as the world has never witnessed 
 before. And this impression of the ultimate 
 issue is now more confirmed than ever, by the 
 greatly improved tone of the speeches of your 
 public men, and especially by the lofty evan- 
 gelistic strain of your humiliation-day services. 
 But, here I must pause. — Yours ever affection- 
 ately, 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
 P.S. — The official report which this mail will 
 convey of the three months’ siege of Lucknow, 
 will, I am sure, be perused with thrilling inter- 
 est throughout the British isles. Truly has the 
 Governor-General in Council declared that 
 “there does not stand recorded in the annals of 
 war an achievement more truly heroic than the 
 defence of the Residency of Lucknow.” The 
 narrative, in its simple, graphic faithfulness, 
 seems to read like a grand heroic poem or 
 modern Iliad. Never perhaps before has there 
 been such a condensed embodiment of the un- 
 rivalled energy and daring, the undaunted and 
 sustained courage, tlie untiring and indomitable 
 perseverance, of British men, in the face of 
 disadvantages so utterly appalling, odds so liter- 
 ally overwhelming. And what intensifies our 
 
23G 
 
 DK. DUFF’S LETTERS OX IXDIA. 
 
 interest as Christians in the narrative is, that 
 its brave-hearted author distinctl}'^ recognizes 
 “ the blessing of God” as tliat winch alone 
 enabled himself and his intrepid band of war- 
 riors so long and so successfully to sustain so 
 desperate a struggle. Surely the country, 
 whose noble sons the God of battles has so 
 highly favored and honored in the face of a 
 whole world of spectators, is not yet done with 
 India. Xo ! We have been sorely humiliated 
 as a nation on account of our manifold sins and 
 shortcomings. But this is the Lord’s way, to 
 humble his people in order that they may be 
 made capable of bearing to be exalted. Let us 
 only be faithful to our God, and lie will render 
 us still the instruments of highest blessing to 
 the benighted millions of this sorely-distracted 
 laud. As surely as the British banners, after 
 perhaps the most terrific struggle on record, 
 were made to wave triumphantly over the shat- 
 tered relics of the Eesidency of Lucknow, so 
 surely will the banners of the Cross, after a 
 correspondingly desperate contest with the An- 
 tichristian powers and principalities of earth 
 and hell, be one day made to wave in triumph, 
 and that, too, through British agency, over the 
 downfall of the Crescent, and the ruins of the 
 mightiest fabric of idolatry and superstition 
 under the sun. 
 
 A. D. 
 
LETTER XVII. 
 
 Calcutta, 24tli December, 1857. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — This mail will convey 
 further accotmts of successes gained over the 
 rebels in different parts of India. For these we 
 cannot be too thankful to a gracious superin- 
 tending Providence. The nature of these suc- 
 cesses, and the vastness of the field over which 
 they range, ought to open people’s eyes at home 
 to the real magnitude of tlie contest in which 
 we are now engaged. Everywhere we read of 
 “ hard fighting,” “ desperate fighting,” “ sevei’C 
 struggles,” or “ masterly retreats,” on the part 
 of the rebels. Wlien routed and dispersed, 
 they have hitherto contrived soon to re-appear 
 in threatening bodies in some other quarter, 
 being aided and abetted by the active or pas- 
 sive assistance of numbers at least of the vil- 
 lagers. And as to the vastness of the field, one 
 has only to cast one’s eye over a good map, and 
 note the scenes of Colonel Durand’s recent suc- 
 cessful operations at Mhow, Dhar, and Mundes- 
 sor, to the west and north of Indore, in the 
 great province of Mulwa, Central India ; then, 
 at the scenes of Brigadier Showers’ equally 
 
 [237] 
 
•238 
 
 DR. duff’s letters OX INDIA. 
 
 successful operations at Kurnoul, and other 
 places to the west and north of Delhi ; then at 
 the great heart of all our troubles, Oude, with 
 its adjacent provinces, where our brave Com- 
 mander-in-Chief has of late been adding to his 
 immortal laurels ; and, lastly, run along Jub- 
 bulpore, Saugor, and other stations iii the Xer- 
 bndda territories, where our countrymen are 
 still helplessly hemmed in on all sides ; or 
 around the western, northern, and eastern front- 
 iers of Bengal, where bands of mutineers and 
 rebels are scouring the country, plundering the 
 villages, and perpetuating a chronic state of 
 consternation and panic, one has only calmly 
 to survey all this, to be impressed with a deep 
 sense of the greatness of the work that is 
 before us, ere we can look for the complete res- 
 toration of .tranquillity and order. And surely 
 it is right that the greatness and difficulty of the 
 undertaking should ever be kept distinctly in 
 view, not for the purpose of daunting men’s 
 spirits, or of shaking their confidence in the 
 ultimate result, but of rousing them to commen- 
 surate efibrts, and so rendering that result at 
 once more speedy and more sure. 
 
 And here I cannot help noting, with gratitude 
 to the great Overruler of all events, how, when 
 men’s hearts were beginning to fail, one has 
 been raised up whose recent exploits have 
 tended suddenly, and in an astonishing degree. 
 
LETTER XVII. 
 
 239 
 
 to re-assure out minds — exploits which stand out 
 in striking contrast with some of the feeble, in- 
 adequate, or inapposite measures of the civil 
 authorities. That man is Sir Colin Campbell. 
 For brilliant dash and daring all are ready to 
 give him the amplest credit ; but scarcely was 
 any one prepared for such an exhibition of some 
 of tlie very highest qualities of generalship as 
 lie has lately furnished — at once falsifying the 
 forebodings of foes, and surpassing the expec- 
 tations of friends. The consummate skill with 
 which the relief of Lucknow, in the face of the 
 most stupendous difficulties, was planned, and 
 the masterly tact aiid_ precision with which it 
 was so successfully executed, have inspired all 
 classes with unbounded admiration and con- 
 fidence. It is now universally felt here that the 
 presence of such a man, in such a crisis, is 
 worth more than half an army. And the preva- 
 lence of such a feeling as it regards the army, 
 the British community, and the natives at large, 
 is itself more than half the victoiy. Our prayer 
 to God therefore is, that a life so invaluable to 
 British India may be saved from the smitings 
 of the sun by day or the moon by night, from 
 the enginery of deadly foes, or the pestilence 
 that walketh silently and invisibly through the 
 circling firrnament. 
 
 We are all the more thankful for the advent 
 of such a man amongst us, when we see how a 
 
240 
 
 DR. DUFF’.S LEITEKS ON INDIA. 
 
 general of Crimean celebrity has already, by 
 one grand stroke of militaiy imprudence, dashed 
 in pieces his reputation as “the hero of the 
 Redan.” Doubtless his position at Cawnpore 
 was a difficult one. The Gwalior contingent 
 had so long threatened to cross the Jumna and 
 visit that city, without carrjdng the threat into 
 execution that, in the extreme imperfection of 
 our “ intelligence department,” when the cry of 
 their actually coming was at last raised, men 
 might be disposed to treat it very much like the 
 boy’s cry of “ wolf, wolf,” in the well-known 
 fable. And when they did make their appear- 
 ance at last, at the time most favorable to them, 
 when the main bulk of our little army was ab- 
 sent with its Chief at Lucknow, few would have 
 been prepared for the advent of so mighty a 
 force as that of twenty thousand men perfectly or- 
 ganized and disciplined, with forty or fifty guns, 
 and all military stores in amplest profusion — 
 and that, too, upwards of two months after the 
 fall of Delhi ! But surelj'^ the very fact of such 
 a vast armed force being able to assemble so 
 many months afterwards on the very scene of 
 Havelock’s triumphs ; to re-capture and hold 
 possession for several days of the city of Cawn- 
 pore ; to seize on and destroy the camp of three 
 British regiments, driving the British troops 
 pell-mell into the entrenchments, where, had it 
 not been for the seasonable arrival of the Chief 
 
LETTEK XVII. 
 
 241 
 
 with re-inforcements from Lucknow, the most 
 fatal catastrophe might speedily have ensued ; 
 surely such a fact alone ought to satisfy tlie 
 Britisli people that the task of “ stamping out” 
 the rebellion is a more formidable one than 
 many were willing to imagine or believe.! 
 
 Tin's 1 say with all the greater emphasis, be- 
 cause, judging from the lively and deep impres- 
 sion produced at home by the announcement of 
 the fall of Delhi, it is to be feared that a speed- 
 ier issue in the way of final triumph was antici- 
 pated than the facts of the case, if better appre- 
 hended, could warrant. Doubtless, had Delhi 
 been carried by a amjp de wain, within a few 
 days, or even weeks, of the outbreak of the 
 revolt, the moral effect of its early and swift 
 re-capture would in all probability have stunned 
 and paralyzed the traitor-mutineers and their 
 rebel associates throughout India. But the ru- 
 mor of its fall was so often heralded and so often 
 falsified, and it stood out so stoutly and so long, 
 that the belief in its impregnable strength gradu- 
 ally gained ground, and became as imbedded 
 in the general native mind, and apparently as 
 irremovable, as the gigantic hulk of a man-of- 
 war when fairly sunk in the cpiicksands. Ac- 
 cordingly, when the imperial city did fall, the 
 moral effect was not only not immense, but in 
 reality scarcely perceptible on the surface of 
 native society, just because the proclamation 
 21 
 
242 
 
 DR. DI FF'S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 of it was by millions received, not only with 
 doubt, but downright incredulity. Yea, up to 
 this very hour, thousands and tens of thousands 
 of natives even in the city of Calcutta cannot, 
 or will not, believe that Delhi has really fallen. 
 The report of its fall they coolly declare to be 
 an iu)position on the part of Government and 
 the English newspapers. Such is a character- 
 istic specimen of the state of mind of the singu- 
 lar people with whom we have to do. Of course, 
 the more enlightened portion know and believe 
 as we do on the subject : I now speak of the 
 more unintelligent masses, whom wily traitors 
 have an interest in deluding. 
 
 Well do I remember the inveterate prevalency 
 of a similar disbelief with reference to the de- 
 feat of the Sikhs by the British in the campaigns 
 of the Sutlej. Such was the popular persuasion 
 as to the utter invincibilitj' of the Sikh power, 
 that, even after the sanguinary battles of Mudki, 
 Ferozshah, Aliwal, and Sobraon, and the mili- 
 tary possession of Labor by the British army, 
 the natives generally would not believe that the 
 Sikh invincibles were fairly routed and over- 
 come. This it was which determined the late 
 Lord Hardinge to order the t%vo hundred and 
 fifty captured Sikh guns to be conducted in 
 stately procession for twelve hvn^red miles, from 
 the banks of the Sutlej to Calcutta. Stopping 
 at every principal city or town along the whole 
 
LETTER XVII. 
 
 243 
 
 of the Gangctic valley they were drawn up and 
 arranged with military pomp for the inspection 
 of the inhabitants. The novel proceeding, erro- 
 neously viewed as a mere vain ostentatious 
 parade, was treated with shouts of derision by 
 the heedless and inexperienced ; but by those 
 who had a keener insight into native habits of 
 thought and feeling, there was discerned, in its 
 adaptation of means to an end, one of the 
 special characteristics of practical wisdom. 
 The main object contemplated was answered. 
 
 the time the guns were received with mili- 
 tary honors on the plain in front of Fort Wil- 
 liam, Calcutta, the actual sight of them had di.s- 
 sipated the scepticism of millions. All doubt 
 as to Sikh vincibility and British supremacy 
 was dissipated for ever. Of course, a captured 
 city cannot be dealt with in the same way as 
 captured guns ; but were the palace of the Great 
 Moguls, which recently witnessed the brutal 
 slaughter of our countrymen and countryw'omen, 
 and served for many a day as the burning focus 
 of treason and rebellion to all the disaffected 
 throughout the provinces, to be razed to the 
 ground, and were the famous Dewan khas, or 
 hall of audience, with its celebrated inscription, 
 to be carefully taken to pieces, removed to Cal- 
 cutta, and thence conveyed to London, nothing 
 perhaps could more infallibly impress on the 
 fatalized mind of India the absolute assurance 
 
244 
 
 DK. duff’s LFTTFiiS OX 1>DIA. 
 
 that the seat of imperial grandeur and supreme 
 dominion had at length been transferred from 
 the banks of the Jumna to the banks of the 
 Thames. Then farewell to any further rebel- 
 lions on any imposing scale in our day ! 
 
 Having on former occasions dwelt so much 
 on the magnitude and difficulties of the task 
 before us, not with a view to alarm or discour- 
 age, since of the ultimate result I never enter- 
 tained the slightest doubt, but with the opposite 
 view of preventing, if possible, the great alarm 
 and discouragement of after disappointment— 
 and finding the subject to be a somewhat dis- 
 tasteful one, 1 shall refrain from any further re- 
 marks now. In all that has been written I have 
 aimed at rigid and discriminating faithfulness. 
 Eschev/iug all mere political or blinding parti- 
 sanship of any kind, and desiring to see tilings, 
 not in the light of fond wishes or ardent hopes, 
 but in the light of reality and truth, my repre- 
 sentations of the state of things could not fail 
 to give umbrage, now to the out-and-out adhe- 
 rents of one party, and tlien to the out-and-out 
 adherents of another. Tliis I cannot help. With 
 me truth and rcalit}' are far beyond the objects 
 of any mere partisanship, connected with eitlicr 
 Church or State. Having been over the greater 
 part of India — having endeavored to penetrate 
 beneath the smooth upper surface of things, 
 which is as often deceitful to the eye of the 
 
LETTER XVII. 
 
 245 
 
 superficial observer as was that “ deep Serbonian 
 bog, where armies wliole have sunk,”— I have 
 of necessity gathered impressions, the grounds 
 and aggregate force of which I cannot ade- 
 quately communicate to the inexperienced. Siiu- 
 ated also here in the centre of official intelli- 
 gence, meeting with refugees from all parts of 
 the disturbed districts, and holding converse 
 with natives who have their correspondents 
 throughout the Northern and Central Provinces, 
 I may have very naturally formed conclusions 
 with which many at a distance may be unable 
 to sympathize. 
 
 As regards individuals, I have on principle 
 abstained from naming any, except when I have 
 had something good to say of them. Of the 
 present head of the Glovernment I have written 
 in strong terms, where his measures were such 
 that I could conscientiously do so. This I can 
 truly say, that I believe no Governor-General 
 ever came to India with a more sincerely honest 
 desire to do what he could towards the material 
 improvement of the country, and the intellectual 
 and social advancement of the people. His con- 
 duct relative to the admission of the evidences 
 of revealed religion into the examinations for 
 degrees in our Indian universities was alto- 
 gether admirable. In the subject of native fe- 
 male education, and the re-marriage of Hindu 
 widows — thousands of whom are mere children 
 21 * 
 
246 
 
 DK. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 — ^he took the profoundest interest. For months 
 before the outbreak of the mutinies, he was 
 laboring to secure full and accurate information 
 relative to tlie exposure of the sick on the banks 
 of the Ganges and the monstrous system of 
 Kulin polygamy, with a prospective view to 
 possible legislative measures. Ilis manly bear- 
 ing and pi’ompt energy, after tidings had reached 
 of the awful massacres at Meerut and Delhi, 
 gained for him at the time general admiration. 
 And if, in the subsequent course and progress 
 of the great rebellion, measures have been pro- 
 posed and adopted, with at least his sanction — 
 measures which, to most of the non-government 
 British residents here, appeared incommensurate 
 with the requirements of the terrible exigency — 
 still, I could not join in the hue and cry raised 
 against him — could be no party to the memorial 
 for his recall — because I felt that sufficient 
 allowance had not been made for the unexpected 
 novelty and extraordinary difficulties of his 
 position — difficulties more than enough to try 
 the nerves of a Clive or Warren Hastings. Had 
 not all incipient projects of an ameliorative char- 
 acter been suddenly arrested by the -volcanic 
 eruption which has upheaved the very founda- 
 tions of the long established order of things, my 
 decided impression was, and still is, that he 
 would have proved one of the most useful and 
 successful peace-governors which India ever 
 
LETTER XVII. 
 
 247 
 
 had. And in a crisis so very peculiar, if not 
 unprecedented, it is undoubtedly easier to find 
 fault with the doings of one man, than to point 
 unerringly to another who could have steered 
 the vessel of State with less damage through 
 the breakers. 
 
 But whilst the proceedings of individuals, 
 especially in situations of great and complicated 
 embarrassment, ought to be treated with the 
 utmost possible leniency and forbearance, little 
 favor need be shown to persistence in a wrong 
 or mistaken policy. Now, it is the old “ tradi- 
 tional policy” of the Home and Foreign Indian 
 Government, and the system of action which 
 has naturally sprung out of it, under which we 
 have been really groaning. Perhaps the most 
 distinguishing quality of “ the policy” has been 
 its shrinking dread, if not actual repudiation of 
 Christianity, and its co-relative pandering to 
 heathenisli prejudices ; while the unworthy 
 system of which it is the parent has been partly 
 nurtured and consolidated by the past exclusive- 
 ness and high predominance of the civil service, 
 with the peculiar airs and habitudes of thought, 
 feeling, and action, which such exclusiveness 
 and predominanee could not fail to generate. 
 But such a representation of the policy and the 
 system does not in any way impeach the per- 
 sonal honor or integrity of the men who are its 
 chief hereditary upholders. Far from it. On 
 
248 
 
 DR. duff’s I.ErrERS ox INDIA. 
 
 every fitting occasion have I cordially testified 
 to the undisputed claim of the civil service, as 
 a class, to the possession of these qualities. 
 There have, too, at all times been individual 
 members of the service preeminently noted for 
 meekness, gentleness, and amiableness of dis- 
 position; men who have nobly risen above its 
 caste-conventionalities, distinctive usages, and 
 marked tendencies to over-weening conceit and 
 overbearing arrogance. Still, the system, as a 
 whole, both as regards its own intrinsic nature 
 and intrinsic working and development, is 
 generally felt out here to be very much what 
 I so freely and bluntly characterized it in a 
 previous communication. And it is from the 
 shackles of this system that all independent 
 minds, for the sake of India and the cause of 
 truth and righteousness, are sighing for deliv- 
 erance. 
 
 As a recent exemplification of the nature and 
 working of the “traditional policy,” I may here 
 refer to the case of the Sontals. After the late 
 calamitous insurrection of these barbarous 
 tribes, a scheme for civilizing them by means of 
 Christian and secular education was said to be 
 suggested by the Civil Commissioner of Bha- 
 gulpore. But, by whomsoever suggested, cer- 
 tain it is that the Local Committee of the 
 Church Missionary Societ}^ (with the eventual 
 full approval of the Home Committee) came 
 
LETTER XVII. 
 
 249 
 
 forward and offered to Government to undertake 
 the work on certain reasonable conditions. The 
 leading features of the scheme were, that the 
 Society would appoint a missionary, whose 
 chief business would be to superintend the 
 working of the whole, his salary to be paid by 
 the Society, and travelling expenses by the 
 Government ; that two inspecting masters, 
 chosen by the Home Committee, should be sent 
 from England, and subordinate teachers ap- 
 pointed bj' the Local Committee, their salaries 
 to be paid by Government, &c. The amount of 
 secular instruction was allowed to be fixed by 
 the “ Director of Education and the schools 
 were to be open at all times to Government in- 
 spection. In short, on condition of the Govern- 
 ment’s bearing the main part of the pecuniary 
 expenditure, the Society undertook the manage- 
 ment and direction of a comprehensive scheme 
 of religious, secular, and industrial education 
 for the barbarous Sontals. 
 
 It is but justice to Mr. Halliday, Governor of 
 Bengal, to state, that he fully approved of the 
 scheme, and strongly recommended it to the 
 Supreme Government. And it is but justice to 
 Lord Canning to state, that he took a most 
 liberal view of the case, and recorded his entire 
 approbation of the measure, giving -it as judg- 
 ment that it differed in degree only, not in kind, 
 from grants already made to individual mission- 
 
250 
 
 DK. duff’s I^EITERS ON INDIA. 
 
 aries under the celebrated educational dispatch 
 of 19th Julj', 1854, and that the proposed grant- 
 in-aid to a missionary body iox the secular educa- 
 tion of an uncivilized tribe v/as a wise and legit- 
 imate application of the principle of that 
 dispatch, seeing that Government was in no 
 way to interfere with the religious instruction 
 given. This approval of the head of the Indian 
 Government is dated 28th November, 1856. On 
 the 22d July, last (1857), a dispatch was 
 forwarded from the Court of Directors, formally 
 and decidedly disapproving of the whole scheme. 
 That dispatch is the very embodiment of the 
 “traditional policy” of the India House. Ac- 
 cording to the Court, the Sontals do not exclu- 
 sively occupy separate regions or tracts of coun- 
 try, so as to form isolated communities locally 
 separated, as well as socially distinct, from the 
 Hindu and Mussulman populations. They are, 
 on the contrary, employed freely by zemindars, 
 and speculators in land of all classes, for jungle 
 cleai’ance and for other agricultural purposes, 
 and are thus often located in close vicinity with 
 wmll-inhabited towns and villages, and mix with 
 the general population in many of the relations 
 and concerns of life. The Court, therefore, did 
 not feel that, in dealing with the Sontals, they 
 were “ exempt from the necessity of maintain- 
 ing that cautious line of proceedings which they 
 ought always to deem essential in establish- 
 
LKITEK XVII. 
 
 251 
 
 ments founded or supported by Government for 
 the education of the people of India.” Thus, 
 although they by no means objected to the 
 amount of expenditure proposed for the purpose 
 of civilizing and instructing the Sontals, tliey 
 could “ not improve that part of the scheme 
 which identified the Government with measures 
 prosecuted by the missionaries, and so expose 
 the arrangement to the risk of perverted mis- 
 construction.” The Church Missionary Society 
 was entitled to all confidence ; but tlie Court 
 must “ adhere to the conviction that it would 
 be altogether opposed to the rules to take any 
 steps wdiich might have the appearance of unit- 
 ing the Government with such a Society, in mea- 
 sures having the aim of converting any class of the 
 population to Christianity P The Court, there- 
 fore, directed that a scheme “ should be prepar- 
 ed for affording to the inhabitants of the Sontal 
 districts the means of education through the 
 agency of Government officers, who must be 
 strictly enjoined to abstain fom any attempts to 
 introduce religious subjects in any form. 
 
 After the receipt of so peremptory an order, 
 tlie Local Government liad no alternative but to 
 request the Civil Commissioner of the districts 
 concerned to prepare a new and revised scheme 
 of education for the barbarous Sontals. The 
 Commissioner happens to be a man of singularly 
 independent spirit. And among well-informed 
 
252 
 
 DK. DUFF’S LEITFES O^' IXDIA. 
 
 circles here, he is understood to have in sub- 
 stance replied, that he neither would nor could 
 prepare another scheme ; that tlie present dis- 
 turbed state of the districts rendered the intro- 
 duction of any scheme utterly impracticable ; 
 and that, by the time that peace and order were 
 restored, he lioped a new policy would be inaug- 
 urated, w’hich would no longer exhibit us as 
 cowards in the eyes of man, and traitors in the 
 eyes of God. 
 
 On this characteristic illustration of the 
 “ traditional policy” I shall make no comment 
 beyond remarking, that what adds emphasis to 
 the whole is, that whatever may be alleged or 
 pretended in the case of the civilized Hindu 
 and Mussulman races on the score of treaties 
 and such like, nothing of the sort can, by the 
 utmost stretch of ingenuity, be alleged or pre- 
 tended as an extenuation or excuse in the case 
 of the uncivilized Sontals. 
 
 By last mail we learn that the alleged con- 
 duct of the honorable Mr. Grant, acting Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor of the Central Provinces, had 
 attracted a good share of public attention. 
 Some, we perceive, have affirmed that he was 
 appointed expressly to control the military 
 authorities ; and that, in reality, he had ordered 
 one hundred and fifty of the Cawnpore muti- 
 neers to be liberated ; while others have as 
 stoutly maintained that his own judgment was 
 
LETTKK XVII. 
 
 253 
 
 adverse to such iuterference, and that, in point 
 of fact, he had never so interfered at all. Now, 
 the truth, as usually happens, seems to lie in- 
 termediately between these extremes. So far 
 as we can learn, he never ordered one hundred 
 and fifty mutineers to be liberated ; but that he 
 did, to a certain extent, interfere with the mili- 
 tary authorities, is believed to be undoubted. 
 
 With the British community his appointment 
 from the first was an unpopular one. His ante- 
 cedents were against him. The real or supposed 
 imperiousness and haughtiness of his personal 
 demeanor had created against him not a little 
 enmity and ill-will. At tlie time of the annexa- 
 tion of Oude also, one portion of his conduct 
 was exposed to grave censure. The Lucknow 
 authorities urgently pressed on the Supreme 
 Government the expediency, and even necessity, 
 of disarming the whole population of Oude, as 
 had been done so successfully, and with such 
 salutary effect, in the Punjaub. This politically 
 wise measure was negatived by the Supreme 
 Council ; and Mr. Grant was understood to be 
 one of the members who stoutly opposed it, on 
 the technical ground that, as the people were 
 not a conquered people, we had no legal right to 
 or warrant to disarm them ! — as if a Supremo 
 Legislative Council could not make any mea- 
 sure legal which might be deemed really neces- 
 sary for the maiiitonance of social order and 
 22 
 
254 
 
 DK. duff’s letters OS ISDIA. 
 
 the preservation of the public peace ! Some of 
 his proceedings also, after reaching Benares — 
 such as the appointment of several native Mo- 
 hammedan judges to stations which were then, 
 and still are, in the hands of the insurgents — 
 were little calculated to allay previous suspi- 
 cion and distrust. 
 
 General Neill, on the other hand, was a man 
 who enjoyed the unbounded confidence of the 
 Britisli community, because of his firmness in 
 decision and promptitude in execution ; and, 
 above all, because of the instinctive sagacity 
 which he had so often shown in doing the right 
 thing, at the right time, and in the right waj*. 
 Being left in full military charge of Cawnpore 
 and its neighborhood, he had immediately before 
 his very ej’es the unparalleled horrors of its 
 slaughter-house — the pools of curdled blood — the 
 clotted ringlets of hair and torn shreds of rai- 
 ment which once adorned the persons of British 
 matrons and maidens — the shoes and other red- 
 spotted memorials of little children, who had 
 been savagely hurled into the well with the 
 mangled carcases of their poor motliers ! In 
 the view of such horrid butcheries. General 
 Neill, though naturally a mild, gentle, quiet, 
 inoffensive man, seems to have irresistibly felt 
 that an -exhibition of stern justice was impera- 
 tively demanded. His Scottish Bible-training 
 had taught him that justice was as absolute an 
 
LETTER XVII. 
 
 255 
 
 attribute of Deity as mercy— that magistracy 
 was “ an ordinance of God,” and expressly de- 
 signed to be a “ terror to evil-doers.” His sen- 
 timents appeared to harmonize with those of 
 Lord Palmerston, who is reported to have said 
 that “ to punisli the guilty adequately exceeded 
 the powers of any civilized man ; as the atroci- 
 ties which had been committed were sucli as to 
 be imagined and perpetrated only by demons 
 sallying forth from the lowest depths of hell I” — 
 with those of Lord Shaftesbury, who “ called 
 aloud for strict, stern justice on the miscreants 
 who deluged our towns with the blood of women 
 and children — declaring the exaction of such 
 justice essential, not only for the maintenance 
 of our tenure of India, but to the future safety 
 of the natives themselves — and with those of 
 the American ambassador, who solemnly aver- 
 red, that “ the crimes were such as to constitute 
 their perpetrators what pirates arc — what can- 
 nibals in the Feejee Islands are — enemies of the 
 human race, and meriting from the whole of the 
 human race summary and peremptory extirpa- 
 tion.” Dismissing, therefore, from his mind all 
 thoughts of harmful lenitjq all feelings of maud- 
 lin sentimental pity, he sternly grasped the 
 sword of retributive justice ; and, as “ the minis- 
 ter of God, who ought not to bear the sword in 
 vain — a revenger to execute wrath on them that 
 did evil ” — (Rom. xiii. 4)— he resolved to strike 
 
256 
 
 DK. DUFF’S LFTTKKS 0^' IFIDIA. 
 
 terror into the souls of the evil-doers and their 
 miscreant sympathizers. Nor did he regard it 
 as torture or crueltj', in the ordinary sense of 
 these terms, to cause murderers who were still 
 reeking with the gore of innocent women and 
 children, to wipe up a portion of the blood which 
 they had no scruples of conscience or of caste in 
 so profusely shedding. Neither, may I add, 
 need any enlightened Christian shrink from 
 avowing that he has felt no special indignation 
 at a procedure so unwonted in such strangely 
 unwonted circumstances. 
 
 Well, Mr. Grant took it upon him, from what- 
 ever motives, as civil governor, to address a 
 communication to General Neill on the subject 
 of his proceedings as military chief. The pre- 
 cise terms of the document have not been pub- 
 lished. But at the time, it was understood to 
 be in the way of questioning the General’s war- 
 rant for such proceedings, of finding fault with 
 his acts of summary justice, and of requesting 
 a reference in future to the civil authorities ; on 
 which the General was understood to have re- 
 plied in the way of repudiating all such inter- 
 ference on the part of Mr. Grant, reminding the 
 latter that the district was under military law, 
 and that the Act of Council distinctly author- 
 ized the military authorities to deal summarily 
 with offenders, and recommending his reprover 
 to attend to his own business, while he would 
 
LETTER XVII. 
 
 257 
 
 to his. Such, at least, is the version of the 
 matter which has been current among the best- 
 informed parties in this metropolis. And after 
 what has been already said, I need scarcely add, 
 that the approving sympatliies of the British 
 community generally have hitherto been very 
 decidedly with General Neill ; while all are 
 cheerfully ready to attribute to Mr. Grant the 
 very best intentions, and to render due hom- 
 age to his groat mental ability and energy of 
 character. 
 
 For upwards of a fortnight no official intel- 
 ligence from the Oommander-in-Chief’s camp has 
 been made public ; and very little of a private 
 nature. The Chief is understood to be waiting 
 till he can organize an army of 30,000 or 40,000 
 men — including some 15,000 of the new Sikh 
 levies from the Punjaub — for the successful in- 
 vasion and conquest of Oude alone! This shows 
 what his impression must be of the magnitude 
 and difficulties of the task still before him, 
 though one-half of our cold weather is already 
 ended. Nevertheless, by God’s blessing, sooner 
 or later victory is sure. 
 
 If the tidings of our Indian mutinies, with 
 their panics and disasters, have tended to con- 
 vulse British society at home, the tidings 
 brought us by last mail of your home com- 
 mercial panics and failures have tended to 
 agitate and distress our Indian mercantile com- 
 22 * 
 
258 
 
 DE. DUFF’S LETTERS OX IXDIA. 
 
 munitj'. It looks as if we were not yet suflS- 
 ciently humbled under the successive strokes of 
 Jehovah’s outpoured judgments. Verily, He 
 will not be mocked. Here, the savage conduct 
 of the mutineers and their native sympathizers 
 was from the first made a pretext for withhold- 
 ing much of the wonted aid from all educational 
 and directly evangelistic operations, instead of 
 being, as it ought to have been, an additional 
 reason, of mightiest potency, for vastly aug- 
 menting all former contributions. And what 
 was thus unrighteously withheld from God and 
 His great cause on earth, seems now to be 
 threatened with annihilation in the gulf of a 
 general bankruptcy. Verily, “there is that 
 scattereth and yet increaseth ; and there is that 
 withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to 
 poverty.” 
 
 Surely the signs of the times are more signifi- 
 cant than ever ! Yours ever affectionately, 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
LETTER XVIII. 
 
 Calcutta, 4th January, 1858. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — Our regular mail does 
 not close till Friday, 8tli ; but as I expect to 
 be absent from Calcutta for at least a fortnight, 
 I purpose writing a few lines now relative to 
 the present aspect of affairs. 
 
 From the Southampton mail of 20th Novem- 
 ber, which reached us a few days ago, it would 
 appear that a verj^ general impression prevailed 
 at home, that with the re-capture of Delhi and 
 the relief of Lucknow the great rebellion was 
 well-nigh ended ; that further organized resist- 
 ance was scarcely to be anticipated ; that the 
 rebels were utterly dispirited and paralyzed ; 
 and that little else remained for the vast rein- 
 forcements from home than to hunt them down 
 as fugitives from justice, and consign the shat- 
 tered and scattered fragments of them to the 
 dust of annihilation. Some months ago, at the 
 risk of being rated as an alarmist, and the cher- 
 isher of morbid and gloomy views, I ventured 
 solemnly to warn against all such fond imagin- 
 ations and eager over-sanguine hopes. I did 
 so, not in the spirit of gloomy alarm, but of 
 truth and faithfulness. I did so, because, hav- 
 
 [259] 
 
260 
 
 I)K. DI'FF’s LFTITEKS ON INDIA. 
 
 ing’ good reason for believing tliat all these 
 eager expectations of an immediate, speedy, and 
 triumphant issue of the great contest would 
 prove delusive. I wished to do my little all 
 towards obviating the disastrous effects of the 
 re-action usually consequent on disappointment. 
 
 And have not events amplj’ justified me in 
 the course pursued ? At home, in the early 
 part of November, the rebels were represented, 
 by at least a very large and influential portion 
 of the public press, as scattered, pursued, and 
 incapable of an^’ farther organized resistance ! 
 Towards the end of November, the Commander- 
 in-Chief had to encounter, according to his own 
 estimate, an organized force of fifty thousand 
 fighting men at Lucknow, besides an endless 
 rabble of partially armed followers, plentifullj" 
 supplied with all the munitions of war ! All 
 that he could effect, by the most masterly" tactics 
 and the most brilliant feats of arms, was to 
 draw off intact the sorely- beleaguered garrison, 
 leaving the British Residency and entire city of 
 Lucknow in the absolute possession of the rebel 
 army ! And the last reliable account from that 
 quarter is, that the rebels are busilj" employed 
 in repairing the entrenchments evacuated by 
 the British, and have not fewer than twenty-seven 
 thousand men at work on them. Again, in the 
 first week of December, the Commander-in-Chief 
 had to encounter at Cawnpore another organized 
 
LKTTKll X\'HI. 
 
 261 
 
 army of rebels, that had recently crossed the 
 Jumna from the west, estimated by himself at 
 twenty Jive thousand, with fifty guns. After a 
 sharp conllict, this large army was happil}' 
 routed, dispersed, and driven beyond the Jumna 
 again, with the loss of its guns and ammunition. 
 Still, the greater part of the men themselves 
 escaped ; and the history of the last six months 
 proves that the military stores in possession of 
 the rebels are immense, and seemingl}^ inex- 
 haustible, while there is apparently no end of 
 their varied artillery. 
 
 For the last mouth there has been a perfect 
 lull and pause in the active operations of Sir 
 Colin Campbell. He has been compelled to re- 
 main at Cawnpore, simply engaged in re-organ- 
 izing his central force, and waiting for fresh 
 recruits. This may sur[>risc the people at home, 
 who overlook the fact that already several of 
 the British regiments have been reduced to 
 fragments by climate, exposure, sickness, fa- 
 tigue, and battle, and at the same time forget 
 the territorial amplitude of the regions over 
 which the rebellion has spread, and the neces- 
 sary slowness of the transport of troops, guns, 
 and ammunition in a country where we have 
 little more than a hundred and fifty miles of 
 railway. Tliink of moving an army, with all its 
 appliances, from Land’s End to John O’Groat’s 
 House a century ago ; and it may give some 
 
262 
 
 DR. duff’s LEFTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 faint conception of the difficulty of moving an 
 army and its stores by land from Calcutta to 
 the capital of Oude now ! And, at this season 
 of the year, the river route to Allahabad is 
 slow, circuitous, and extremely uncertain. This 
 is a difficulty in the overcoming of which suffi- 
 cient allowance has not always been made for 
 our rulers and generals. 
 
 Meanwhile, it is an unspeakable consolation, 
 that for some weeks past the rebellion has not 
 been enlarging its boundaries ; that, on the con- 
 trary, the rebels, in different and far distant 
 quarters, have met with decided reverses. The 
 last mail sent home intelligence of the discom- 
 fiture of the Joudpore legion beyond Delhi, and 
 of the rebel army in Malwa, Central India, under 
 the able conduct of Colonel Durand. And this 
 out-going mail will convey the farther intelli- 
 gence of the defeat and dispersion of the Chitta- 
 gong and Dacca rebels, who were spreading 
 consternation and committing great ravages 
 along the eastern frontier of Bengal ; of the 
 defeat of a large body of Oude rebels near 
 Myrwa, in the Sarun district, about fifty miles 
 to the north-west of Chupprah ; and of another 
 lai-ge body of rebels at Puttiala, about forty 
 miles to the north-west of Futtehghur, by Colo- 
 nel Seaton, who was on his way with a detach- 
 ment from Delhi to Cawnpore. All these are 
 unmistakable signs that the great wave of 
 
LETTER XVIII, 
 
 263 
 
 rebellion has fairly spent the strength of its 
 aggressive fury — that its outspreading career 
 of desolation has been arrested bj' the Almighty 
 fiat, in connection with the prompt and energetic 
 use of means — “ Hitherto shalt thou come, and 
 no further.” Still, in its rebound back again in 
 broken fragments, many a smaller barque will 
 be wrecked ; and the great central, gurgling 
 maelstrom —Oude — has scarcely yet been reach- 
 ed, far less quieted. 
 
 Thither, however, all is tending now for a last 
 desperate struggle. The British legions and 
 their auxiliaries are fast closing in upon it on 
 all sides. Jung Bahadur and his Gurkahs arc 
 coming down upon it from the north-east, in the 
 direction of Gorruckpore, wdiich is still in the 
 hands of the rebels ; Colonel Franks, with a 
 British column, is approaching it from the south, 
 in the direction of Juanporc and Azimghur ; 
 Chamberlain and the new Sikh levies are be- 
 lieved to be nearing it from the north-west, in 
 the direction of Bareilly ; while the Commander- 
 in-Chief himself is concentrating his principal 
 force in the west, in the direction of Cawnpore. 
 When all may be ready for the grand attack 
 none here can tell, except perhaps the Governor- 
 General and his Council. Sir Colin is as prudent 
 a man as he is brave. With entire self-control 
 he keeps his plans very much to himself, and 
 quietly makes his preparations, till the decisive 
 
264 
 
 DR. duff’s LlCriRRS OX IXDIA. 
 
 moment for action comes ; and then, down he 
 comes with a blow so tremendous as scarcely to 
 need a second. This, at least, has been his way 
 hitherto ; and all have now such unbounded 
 confidence in him, that, in his apparent inaction, 
 they only see the sure precursor of some sudden, 
 swift, resistless, thunderbolt stroke. You may 
 expect then ere long some mighty, though per- 
 haps far from consummating, doings in Oude. 
 For, when Lucknow is fairly wrenched from the 
 grasp of the rebels, and the eddying eye of tlie 
 whirlpool thus fairly closed, you may see the 
 broken waves I’ecoil and dash oft’ though with 
 greatly diminished power of mischief, in all di- 
 rections over a revolted and rebellious territory. 
 Then there may follow a critical period of twelve 
 months or more for Northern and Central India. 
 The enemy being as powerful in cavalry as we 
 are at present weak, may, Pindarie-like, with a 
 swiftness of locomotion with which we cannot 
 now cope, disperse in small bodies over the land, 
 carrying rapine, massacre, and conflagration in 
 their train. Then there are the seqiidci of the 
 great rebellion, which we have much reason to 
 dread, even after not oidy its neck, but its very 
 heart, is broken. For, let it not be forgotten, as 
 I have I’epeatedly on former occasions tried to 
 point out, that, besides multitudes of active and 
 passive sympathizers with the sepoy rebels, 
 there are evcryvvdiere great numbers of a rest- 
 
LETTEIl XVIII. 
 
 265 
 
 less armed populace, whose spirit, traditions, 
 and profession are military, ever ready to join 
 with them and swell their ranks, and, indeed, 
 are almost sure to do so wherever the arm of 
 the British Government is found relaxed or re- 
 moved altogether. 
 
 Still, of the ultimate issue I never once for a 
 single moment doubted. This I have reiterated 
 almost to very nauseousness. But my hope 
 has not sprung from any desire or attempt to 
 minimize the amount of danger on the one hand, 
 or maximize the amount of preparation to beat 
 it down on the other. No ! But solely from my 
 unshaken persuasion that the God of Providence 
 has, in a strange way, given us India in trust 
 for the accomplishment of His grand evangeliz- 
 ing designs concerning it. In the discharge of 
 this solemn trust, we, as a people and nation, 
 have been shamefully, criminally negligent. 
 Hence it is, mainly, though bj^ no means exclu- 
 sively, that the Lord has admonished ns in the 
 way of sore judgments. We have been brought 
 to the very brink of tlie precipice ; the gulf 
 of destruction has jmwned terrifically beneath 
 us ; India has been within a very hair’s-breadth 
 of being severed from our unfaithful grasp for 
 ever ; but having, as a people and nation, when 
 brought into the very depths of trouble, and all 
 but inevitable ruin, in some measure humbled 
 ourselves before the Lord, and cried unto Hivi 
 23 
 
266 
 
 DK. duff's letters ON INDIA. 
 
 in our trouble, He has been graciously pleased 
 so far to deliver us from our distresses, yea, out 
 of the verj^ darkness and shadow of death. 
 And now, when manifestly about to grant us a 
 new lease of India, He, in condescending mercy, 
 appears thus, in effect, to address us : ‘‘ On you, 
 as a people and nation, I have bestowed the 
 treasures of gospel knowledge and grace, as 
 well as the treasures of earthly substance, to- 
 gether with territorial dominion, beyond those 
 bestowed on any other realm in the Old World. 
 My purpose in so doing lias been to constitute 
 you the almoner of my bounties of providence 
 and grace to the many kingdoms and peoples 
 which now have been made to acknowledge 
 your sovereign sway. For this end was India 
 committed in trust to j’ou ; but having proved 
 faithless to your great commission, I was about 
 punitivelj" to tear it from you in a way of igno- 
 miny and shame. Having, however, bowed be- 
 fore me in contrition for the past, with resolu- 
 tions of amendment for the future, I propose to 
 try your fidelity by restoring it to you once 
 more, with a view to your realizing under the 
 ministration and aid of my Holy Spirit, the 
 great object of the everlasting covenant, even 
 the subversion of Satan’s empire, and the es- 
 tablishment of the Messiah’s kingdom instead. 
 Be again faithless to your great commission, 
 and you have now had your last warning ; when 
 
LETTER XVIII. 
 
 267 
 
 next visited in my hot displeasure, it will be in 
 the way of exterminating judgment. Be faith- 
 ful henceforth to your great commission, and 
 your tenure of India, as a material dominion, is 
 sure, until it can become a source of immeasur- 
 ably greater benefit to you as a spiritual pos- 
 session, redeemed from the bondage of its idols, 
 its falsities, and lies.” God, in mercy, grant 
 that the salutary monition may be joyously and 
 effectively responded to ; and that the future 
 may make ample reparation for the sins and 
 shortcomings of the past I 
 
 Are these sentiments, or are they not, in ac- 
 cordance with Scripture ? Are these words, or 
 are they not, the words of truth and soberness ? 
 If so, why should they be regarded as need- 
 lessly gloomy and cheerless ? Whatever they 
 may appear to others, to my own mind they are 
 the very sheet-anchor of hopeful and joyous 
 anticipation for the future. As a nation, we 
 have openly admitted and avowedly" confessed 
 that the calamities wdiich have overtaken us are 
 judgments from God, on account of the sins 
 and criminal negligence of the past. Now, 
 surely the wound, the bruise, of judgment does 
 not consist merely in the awful massacres of our 
 unoffending countrymen, women, and children ; 
 but also, and very specially, in the deap-seated- 
 ness, malignity, and extent of that rebellion, 
 which has so nearly cost us the most magnifi- 
 
268 
 
 DR. DCFK's i.trji;ns ox ixdia. 
 
 cent viceroyaltj' under the sun, and the effectual 
 quelling of which must involve the shedding of 
 such fresh torrents of human blood. Xow, in 
 the severity and extent of the Divine judgment, 
 ought we not to behold something like a measure 
 of the Divine estimate of our sins as the pro- 
 curing cause ? To make light, therefore, of the 
 judgment, in its wide-embracing comprehen- 
 siveness, or make it appear less than it really 
 is, must be to make comparatively light of our 
 own sins, or make them appear less than they 
 really are in the sight of God. And if so, how 
 can we be duly penitent before Him ? And if 
 not duly penitent, how can we expect the wound 
 to be properly healed ? or how can we be duly 
 grateful for the greatness of deliverance ? They 
 who feel that their sins are many, and have 
 been forgiven much, can alone love much ; and 
 they who know that they have been helplessly 
 in the veiy depths of trouble and distress, can 
 alone truh' rejoice in their salvation. Let us, 
 then, strive to realize the whole of our calamity — 
 massacres, rebellion and all, with the antecedent 
 sins which have led to them— in its utmost am- 
 plitude and bounds, that our contrition may be 
 the deeper ; our gratitude for unmerited deliver- 
 ance the greater ; our hope, from the very mag- 
 nitude of the Divine favor, the brighter ; our 
 joy, in contemplation of our new lease of the 
 empire, the purer and more ecstatic. 
 
LiaTEK XVIII. 
 
 2G9 
 
 Mucli of the eiToiieousiiess of the estimate 
 formed at home relative to the facility of crush- 
 ing' the rebellion has arisen from persisting in 
 tlie first-formed conception of it as a jmrehj 
 military revolt. But whatever it may have 
 been at the outset, nothing is more certain than 
 that it soon extended far beyond the ranks of 
 the sepoys. To what extent it affected the 
 general population in the Xorth-West and Cen- 
 tral India, it was my endeavor on former occa- 
 sions to point out — the object having been to 
 show that it was neither an exclusive military 
 revolt on the one hand nor yet a rebellion of the 
 whole population on the other. As this is a 
 subject which still appears to be but imperfectly 
 understood by many at homo, it affords me much 
 satisfaction to be able to quote a passage from 
 the last number of the Friend of India, which 
 briefly and substantially expresses the view of 
 the case which I have so often tried to represent 
 as alone the accurate one: “ The revolt has ceased 
 to progress, though its spirit has settled down 
 on whole provinces. It breaks out now and then 
 wherever the fear of Europeans is not main- 
 tained by a large and active military force. It 
 results occasionally in the murder of those re- 
 siding in unprotected stations, or travelling 
 through new districts. Thus in the Punjaub it 
 has been found necessary to prohibit officers 
 from travelling down the Sutlej rivers, and the 
 23* 
 
270 
 
 DE. duff’s LEITEKS ON INDIA. 
 
 garrison at Agra do not deem it expedient to 
 wander far from the town. As late as the 15th 
 November, Mr. Yates and his family, with the 
 exception of one daughter, were murdered with- 
 in twent}' miles of Agra. They had thought 
 that it would be safe to return to their factory, 
 but were surprised by the Joudpore legion, and 
 beaten to death. Mr. Phillip, the magistrate of 
 Agra, a very short time since, nearly lost two 
 field-pieces. He had set out with a small escort 
 to join a party of horse who had been dispatched 
 to expel some rebels from a fort at Futtyabad. 
 The whole party narrowly escaped being cut off 
 hy the villagers. It may thus be politic to ad- 
 mit that, in those districts, the inhabitants of 
 which had perfect cognizance, and were in many 
 cases, eye-witnesses of the indignities suffered 
 by Europeans, are to a man inclined to the 
 rebels. Such an admission saves us from two 
 absurdities — the one supposing the revolt to be 
 now purely military, and the other assuming 
 that we have arrayed against us the population 
 of the whole of India — the one the official idea, 
 and the other held perhaps by none except Mr. 
 Malcolm Lewin.” 
 
 The last mail brought us notifications of the 
 honors conferred by her Majesty on some of the 
 leading actors in stemming the great rebellion, 
 such as Wilson of Delhi, Havelock and Neill of 
 Lucknow. All here rejoice in the conferring of 
 
LEri'EK XVIII. 
 
 271 
 
 these honors on heroes wlio jeoparded their lives 
 in their country’s cause, and two of whom have 
 fallen victims on the high places of the field ; 
 but in their name and example they have left a 
 precious legacy and a tower of strength. There 
 is, however, a very general feeling of disappoint- 
 ment at the meagreness of the new honor con- 
 ferred on Sir John Lawrence, unless, indeed, the 
 present be considered a mere first instalment of 
 what is in reserve for him. Ilis really preemi- 
 nent services do not as yet seem to be ade- 
 quately apprehended or appreciated at home. 
 Relative to these a local journalist has given 
 the following just and compendious statement ; 
 “Sir John Lawrence, with few European 
 troops, and the largest division of the native 
 army, met the great rebellion face to face, drove 
 it back, and annihilated its authors. Without 
 money or orders, he raised a loan on his own 
 responsibility, and in three months created an 
 army of 40,000 men. No man knew better than 
 Sir John Lawrence the critical position of the 
 Punjaub, but he knew also that Delhi must be 
 taken, and he accepted the danger, roused the 
 old Khalsa spirit as far as it was safe, struck 
 the key-note of tlie national pride in his order 
 giving the Punjaub to Punjaubis, and saved not 
 only his own province but Bombay. And when 
 on that terrible week in the end of August the 
 balance swung slowly back, and it seemed that 
 
272 
 
 DR. DUFF’S LFlTliUS ON INDIA. 
 
 once again Providence had declared against the 
 empire, he alone stood firm. His last regular 
 Sikh regiment was dispatched to Delhi, and 
 the chief stood alone surrounded by new levies 
 and a quaking population. He supplied tlie 
 generals with troops and ammunition for the 
 siege, filled all vacancies and all arrears, kept 
 all communications open, restrained the frontier 
 tribes to an unwonted quietude, found his merits 
 acknowledged by the Government of India, and 
 yet receives only an honor wdiich has no attri- 
 bute of permanence.” Now, I believe that I 
 express the general mind of the European com- 
 munity out here, when I say, that if the man 
 who laid tlie foundation of British dominion in 
 India became Baron Clive of Plassej^ the man 
 who, within the last six months, has virtually 
 saved an empire — more extensive far than the 
 daring imagination of a Clive ventured to 
 grasp, and his sober reason actually pronounced 
 it madness to attempt to create — has nobly 
 earned the title of Baron Lawrence of Lahore, 
 a title which it is hoped he will yet live to re- 
 ceive and enjoy. Not that I attach any peculiar 
 value to mere earthly titles; they are in them- 
 selves, and weighed in the balance of eternity, 
 little better than glittering gew-gaws, or the 
 evanescent transp'arencies of a dissolving view. 
 Nevertheless, on the equitable principle of giv- 
 ing to Cassar the things that are Caesar’s, and 
 
LEITER XVIII. 
 
 273 
 
 rendering honor to whom honor is due, if it be 
 legitimate to bestow them at all, they ought to 
 be conferred on the most worthy. Now, at this 
 moment there is not within the bounds of our 
 British Indian empire a more deserving subject 
 of the British Crown, nor one whose transcendent 
 services to the State more justly entitle him to 
 the highest favor of a gracious sovereign, than 
 Sir John Lawrence, the Chief Commissioner of 
 the Punjaub. 
 
 The year 1851 opened upon us with incipient 
 symptoms of disaffection and mutiny in certain 
 portions of the Bengal army. The year 1858 
 has opened upon us with nearly the whole of 
 that once redoubted army — after having com- 
 mitted atrocities that have made the ears of the 
 whole civilized world to tingle — fiercely and 
 defiantlj' arrayed in a life-and-death struggle 
 against us. Even now, the hosts on both sides 
 are silently and sullenly, and with the pent-up 
 energies of mutual hate and wrath, mustering 
 for a final conflict. That conflict, when it does 
 come, may be expected to be a tremendous one. 
 Still, no one who understands the subject at all 
 can, as regards the ultimate issue, entertain the 
 reasonable shadow of a doubt. It is the Lord 
 who, in a strange way, and for the accomplish- 
 ment of one of the noblest of ends, even that 
 of the evangelization of its people, gave India 
 to Britain. It is the Lord who, on account of 
 
274 
 
 DK. duff’s LiriTFK.S OX IXDIA. 
 
 our culpable misimprovemeut of the awful trust, 
 iu His sore displeasure, suffered India to be 
 nearly lost to us. And it is the Lord who alone 
 can effectually restore it. And my firm persua- 
 sion ever has been, and is now, that, after hav- 
 ing, by a prolongation of judgment and disaster, 
 constrained us, in some adequate degree, to 
 acknowledge the real extent of our criminality 
 and danger. He will restore India once more to 
 us on probationary trial ; in other words, will 
 re-commit to our hands, for careful culture, the 
 most extraordinary wilderness within the whole 
 realms of heathenism, but destined one day to 
 become one of the most glorious vineyards of 
 that renovated earth where truth and righteous- 
 ness shall for ever dwell. Oh for the needful 
 wisdom to devise the right new policy, origi- 
 nate the right new plans, inaugurate the right 
 new institutions ! Oh for the needful faith and 
 faithfulness to carry these on in a course of 
 development ever forward — ever progressive 1 
 Yours ever affectionately. 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
LETTER XIX. 
 
 SuKSAQOR, North op Calcutta, 
 21st January, 1858. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — As the regular mail 
 will have left before I return to Calcutta, I pro- 
 pose writing shortly' from this retired spot. 
 
 Of the course and progress of events con- 
 nected with the suppression of the great rebel- 
 lion, the public journals will sufficiently apprize 
 you. The fact that, two or three months ago, 
 Greathed’s column opened the way from Delhi 
 to Cawnpore, and that two months afterwards, 
 Beaton’s column had to open the way anew by 
 fighting two or three battles, might help to open 
 the eyes of people at home to the real state of 
 things in Northern India. But of that, and the 
 fact that Allahabad has been threatened by a 
 rebel army of some thirteen thousand, as also 
 the fact that the Commander-in-Chief had to en- 
 counter some severe contests before he could 
 re-occupy Futtehghur, where a Mohammedan 
 Nawab had set up for king — collecting revenue 
 and administering justice in his own wild way 
 — I shall say nothing more now. Jung Bahadur, 
 the Nepaulese chief, as our ally, with his Gurk- 
 has has occupied, after some fighting, Gorruck- 
 
 [276] 
 
2T6 
 
 DE. duff's LFiTFES ON INDIA. 
 
 pore, to the east of Oude — dispersing the forces 
 of the self-installed pseudo-ruler of that place. 
 A column has advanced from Benares towards 
 the south of Oude, which has gained some sig- 
 nal advantage over the rebels. And when the 
 Commander-in-Chief has cleared the Caw’upore, 
 Futtehghur, and other northern districts, of the 
 organized hosts of the enemy, the probability 
 is that there will be a combined movement from 
 all sides on the doomed capital of Oude, which, 
 since the re-capture of Delhi, has become the 
 grand rendezvous of the mutineers and rebels. 
 And unless Providence interpose in some utterly 
 unanticipated way, the struggle there may be 
 expected to be the most tremendous one that 
 has yet occurred. 
 
 It surely cannot be any longer concealed or* 
 denied, that the grand original mistake of our 
 Government w*as, in regarding tlie revolt as a 
 partial and purely military one ; and that the 
 grand subsequent mistake lay in persisting in 
 the original one so long. Connected with this 
 mistake has been wdiat has been somewhat in- 
 felicitously termed “ the policy of conciliation,” 
 but in reality the polity of undue concession to 
 native feelings and prejudices. From the com- 
 bined influence of both these causes sprung 
 some, if not all, of those measures which, by the 
 great majority of Europeans iu this country, 
 have been pronounced as unsuited to, or incom- 
 
LETTER XIX. 
 
 277 
 
 mensurate with the great emergency. I impute 
 no wrong raotiv’es, no sinister intentions, to any 
 one. On the contrary, I am persuaded that 
 Lord Canning and his counsellors acted from 
 the purest motives and the very best intentions. 
 But the traditional policy hitherto pursued by 
 the Home and Indian Government was fitted to 
 produce and perpetuate a slate of mind which at 
 first could see nothing in the revolt but a partial 
 and purely military outbreak, and no more 
 likely way of putting it down than the adoption 
 of measures supposed capable of conciliating 
 native prejudices. 
 
 It was too long overlooked, that there were 
 at all times busily at work myriads of intriguers 
 connected with fallen dynasties and depressed 
 nobilities ; that throughout Northern and Cen- 
 tral India, in particular, there were literally 
 millions of an armed populace, of varied non- 
 descript sects and designations, belonging alike 
 to the Hindu and Mohammedan races, to whom 
 anarchy was life and enjoyment, and settled 
 order an intolerable nuisance, while there 
 were millions more whose passive, if not active 
 sympathies, would be sure to be with native 
 anarchists and rebels, rather than with foreign 
 exactors of revenue. Those servants of the 
 East India Company who had mingled most 
 freely, familiarly, and confidentially with all 
 classes of the natives, obtained long ago shrewd 
 24 
 
278 
 
 DR. duff’s letters OX INDIA. 
 
 glimpses of insight into the real state of native 
 feeling towards their British conquerors. Of 
 this description were the late Sir Henry Law- 
 rence, Sir S. Sleeraan, and Sir John Malcolm. 
 The former two I have heard express themselves 
 very freely on the subject. And there is a pas- 
 sage in a speech delivered by Sir John Malcolm 
 vpivards of thirty years ago, in a debate at the 
 India House, which, viewed in connexion with 
 recent events, is singularly significant. After 
 remarking that “ even the instructed classes of 
 natives have a hostile feeling towards us, which 
 was not likely to decrease from the necessity 
 they were under of concealing it,” he thus pro- 
 ceeds : “ My attention has been, during the 
 last five-and-twenty years, particularly directed 
 to this dangerous species of secret war carried 
 on against our authority, which is always car- 
 ried on by numerous though unseen hands. 
 The spirit is kept up by letters, by exaggerated 
 reports, and by pretended prophecies. When 
 the time appears favorable, from the occurrence 
 of misfortune to our arms, or from mutinj^ in 
 our troops, circular letters and proclamations 
 are dispersed over the country with a celerity 
 that is incredible. Such documents are read 
 with avidit}'. The English are depicted as 
 usurpers of low caste, and as tyrants, who have 
 sought India only to degrade them, to rob them 
 of their wealth, and subvert their usages and 
 
LETTER XIX. 
 
 279 
 
 religion. The native soldiers are always ap- 
 pealed to, and the advice to them is, in all in- 
 stances I have met with, -the same — ‘ Your 
 European tyrants are few in number, murder 
 them I’” But from them, as so apt to excite 
 discordant feelings, I may be excused for mo- 
 mentarily turning aside to another subject, 
 which is well fitted to mellow and subdue. 
 
 On the morning of the day when I last wrote 
 (6th January), the mortal remains of Bishop 
 Wilson were consigned to the tomb, amid the 
 sorrowing regrets of the whole of the leal-heart- 
 ed Protestant community of Calcutta. It is not 
 for me to attempt to delineate the character and 
 labors of such a man. And yet I should be 
 false to my own convictions, and a traitor to the 
 great cause of the communion and brotherhood 
 of saints, were I to pass over in silence the de- 
 parture from amongst us of such a “ master in 
 Israel.” 
 
 When he arrived here a quarter of a century 
 ago, he was in the very zenith of his powers of 
 active usefulness. And, certainly, few men 
 have toiled more, or to more good purpose. 
 Naturally endowed with great energies cf mind 
 and body — energies, in his case, happily sancti- 
 fied and consecrated exclusively to the promotion 
 of God’s glory — he kept all around him in a 
 state of constant friction and glow. About his 
 manner of speech and action there were some 
 
280 
 
 DE. duff’s LEITFKS 0*\' INDIA. 
 
 peculiarities, and even eccentricities, which 
 might have proved fatal to the credit and influ- 
 ence of a less ordinary man ; but in him, like 
 the somewhat corresponding qualities in Row- 
 land Hill, of whom he was said to be a great 
 admirer, if not partial imitator, these served 
 only to impart a certain spicy zest to all his 
 appearances, alike public and private. 
 
 While fondly and conscientiously attached to 
 the government and discipline of his own 
 Church, he had a large catholic heart, which 
 eagerly embraced and sympathized with what- 
 ever was really good, holy, or excellent in the 
 membership of any other. Of this trait or 
 feature in his renewed nature, one characteristic 
 exemplification now occurs to me. About the 
 end of July, 1847, shortly after tidings of the 
 sudden death of Dr. Chalmers had reached us, 
 I happened to visit a poor countryman of ours, 
 who had been confined to the great jail for debt. 
 On my return from jail, passing the new cathe- 
 dral, w’hich wms at no great distance from it, 
 and seeing the door of it open, I turned aside 
 to have a look at the interior. There, unex- 
 pectedly, I encountered the Bishop himself, and 
 his excellent chaplain, Mr. Pratt, now Arch- 
 deacon of Calcutta. The Bishop, saluting me 
 in his own usual frank and hearty wmy, took 
 me by the arm, and, walking up and down for a 
 little, making a few friendly inquiries, he sud- 
 
LK'ITEK XIX. 
 
 281 
 
 denly stopped, and with much feeling addressed 
 me as follows : “Ah, dear friend, what a loss 
 has your Church, and not your Church onlj', but 
 the whole Christian world, sustained in the 
 death of that great and good man. Dr. Chalmers! 
 llow singular, that the Lord should be pleased 
 to leave me behind, who am three years older 
 than he was ! Is it not a warning to me to be 
 ready ? Dr. Chalmers was a man whom I not 
 only admired, but loved. 1 have all his works 
 in my library, and have not only read, but 
 studied them. And what think you ? I myself 
 once became a Dissenter in order to hear him 
 preach. That is, I rushed with the crowd to a 
 Dissenting chapel in London. And, though it 
 is thirty years ago, I never think of that won- 
 derful sermon without feeling the thrill of it 
 here still,’’ — laying his hand on his heart — “and 
 I seem as if I felt it now.” 
 
 But the most distinguishing peculiarity of his 
 character, and that which constituted the real 
 secret and fountainhead of its catholicity, inde- 
 fatigable laboriousness, glowing warmth, and 
 athletic force, was his remarkably vivid appre- 
 hension of and resolute adherence to the doc- 
 trines of pure primitive apostolic Christianity. 
 On the fundamental Pauline doctrine of “justi- 
 fication through faith alone, without the works 
 of the law,” never did Luther’s own trumpet 
 give a clearer or more certain sound. On the 
 24 * 
 
282 
 
 DR. DUFF’S LETl'ERS ON INDIA. 
 
 sovereignty of Divine grace in salvation, so 
 glorifying to God and so humbling to man, 
 Augustine, Calvin, and Knox would have hailed 
 his utterances as those of a kindred spirit. 
 Pelagianism, in all its forms, by repudiating the 
 inherent depravity of human nature, and the 
 consequent necessity of the Holy Spirit’s regene- 
 rating power, was the object of his special 
 abhorrence. On Socinianism, under its varied 
 Proteus-like modifications, which, by denying 
 the Lord that bought us with His own atoning 
 blood, would degrade the Eternal Word, the 
 Son of God, the brightness of His Father’s 
 glory, into a mere creature, and so reduce 
 Christianity to the baldness and the barrenness 
 of at best a mystic Mohammedanism or aesthetic 
 Deism, he was wont to cast the most withering 
 frown. Into the aiiti-scriptural character of 
 Popery no Reformer had a more penetrating 
 insight, or with intenser aversion denounced its 
 malignant, soul-destroying tendencies. In mod- 
 ern Tractarianism, with its patristic and high- 
 sounding mediseval pretensions, he, from the 
 very first, was led to discern the verj' germ and 
 rudiment of tlie whole Popish sj’stera ; or, as 
 that noble champion of Protestantism, Captain 
 Gordon, late M.P. for Dundalk, once, with rare 
 felicity, termed it "the tadpole of Popery;" and 
 hence the frequency and veliemence, the sever- 
 ity and success, of his exposures of it. For his 
 
LETTER XIX. 
 
 283 
 
 emineut services in this department alone, not 
 his own Church or otlier Churches in India only, 
 but all the Reformed Churches throughout the 
 world, owe him an everlasting debt of gratitude. 
 But without enlarging any farther, as my heart 
 would prompt me, I may compendiously express 
 my own conception of his character as a Chris- 
 tian man and evangelical bishop, by asserting 
 my firm persuasion that, had his lot been cast 
 in less favored times, he would, for “ the testi- 
 mony of Jesus,” have been found marching 
 joyfully to the stake, in company with Ridley, 
 Latimer, and Cranmer, and, by the fires of his 
 own martyrdom, helping to light up that torch 
 of evangelism in England which all the powers 
 of darkness never can extinguish. 
 
 Besides his services in the cause of Christ 
 generally, those which he rendered to the cause 
 of missions must ever be conspicuous. The 
 evangelization of the world at large, and of In- 
 dia in particular, was ever uppermost in his 
 heart as a subject of prayer and exhortation. 
 Under this head, perhaps his most notable 
 achievement was the authoritative repudiation 
 and ejection of the caste system from the native 
 Churches of Southern India. Ilis task was all 
 the more difficult from its having been tolerated 
 in modified forms by Schwartz and his asso- 
 ciates, and treated and connived at as a civit 
 rather than a religious institution by the gentle 
 
284 
 
 DR. DUFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 Heber and his successors in the Indian Episco- 
 pate. But the principle of caste being evil and 
 heathenish to the very core, and entering into 
 the very essence of Ilinduisin, did not fail, how- 
 ever guarded and fenced, gradually to issue in 
 intolerable practical abuses. With these Bishop 
 Wilson was called upon, at an early period of 
 his career, officially to grapple. And it re- 
 dounds to his eternal credit that he did so in a 
 Josiah-like style. Having fairly mastered the 
 subject, and satisfied himself of its utterly anti- 
 christian character, he proposed no mere half- 
 measures — no merely modifying limitary regu- 
 lations. No ; his firm and resolute decree was, 
 that the system must be extirpated, root and 
 branch, from the membership of the native 
 Churches, or the membership of the native 
 Churches must be ejected from their bosom, 
 until they heartily abjured and flung out the 
 evil thing from among them. This decree swept 
 through the Churches like the blast of a hurri- 
 cane through an ancient forest. All that was 
 crazy with age, or gnawed into cankers, or 
 crusted with the moss of rottenness, fell before 
 it. But the cause of truth and righteousness 
 was all the better for the clearance. And the 
 future sons and daughters of India’s expurga- 
 ted Churches will rise up to bless the memory 
 of Bishop Wilson. 
 
 But I must bring this meagre notice to a 
 
LETTER XIX. 
 
 285 
 
 close. Ill the days of liis greatest vigor Bishop 
 Wilson blazed like a sun in our Christian firma- 
 ment ; but, like a tropical sun in the meridian, 
 while he always illumined, he was apt at times 
 to scorch. In his decline he shone like a sun 
 still ; aye, and like the natural sun, he not only 
 seemed, but really was, “ larger at his setting.” 
 But. oh, with what inefi’ably mild and mellow 
 lustre he did shine ! No words of mine can con- 
 vey' any adequate idea of his firm and faithful, 
 yet soft and tenderly affectionate disposition — 
 his ripe and rich, yet simple, childlike piety. 
 All the loyalty of his spirit towards God, and 
 all the sjunpathies of his heart towards man, 
 were powerfully awakened by our recent judg- 
 ments and disasters. Under them he seemed to 
 feel and speak asaNehemiah or a Daniel would 
 have felt and spoken. When, not very long 
 ago, ho last called at our house, in his own 
 easy, friendly, familiar way, never can I forget 
 the simple earnestness with which he again and 
 again declared that he felt that the great work 
 of the remainder of his days would bo to do 
 what ho could in bringing his people, in connec- 
 tion with the present awful condition of India, 
 to a state of heart-felt humiliation and praj’or. 
 And in this high and holy vocation he assidu- 
 ously labored, and not without good fruit, to the 
 very end. But the Master whom he so loved 
 and served on earth lias now called him to no- 
 
28G 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 blor services in the realms above. And now 
 that he is gone, the fervent prayer of God’s peo- 
 ple in behalf of poor, distracted, bleeding India, 
 should be, that his mantle may fall on his suc- 
 cessor, aye, and a double portion of his Elijah- 
 like spirit. 
 
 In tlie stillness which reigns around us in this 
 quiet rural district, a quietness which, con- 
 trasted with the ceaseless din and bustle of 
 Calcutta, with its annual commerce of twenty 
 millions sterling, seems quite Sabbath -like ; 
 there is something wonderfully congenial with 
 the feelings and reflections which such an event 
 is so well calculated to awaken. This is the 
 period of the j'ear when all the ordinary opera- 
 tions of husbandry are suspended. The time 
 has not come for the reaping of the cold-season 
 crops ; and the rich clayey mould of the exten- 
 sive fields not under crops has, under the cloud- 
 less, showerless, copper sky of the last three or 
 four months, been baked into something like 
 unburnt brick, so that no wooden anchor-shaped 
 plough, in the hands of a lean emaciated ryot, 
 and drawn by two bare-ribbed bullocks, is any- 
 where seen scratching the surface. The fisher- 
 man, with his hand-nets along the banks, or 
 long nets across the river, is busily plying his 
 A'oeation, whether by night or by day ; but his 
 is a singularly noiseless one. Beyond tlie occa- 
 sional harsh creaking of the rough rustic carts. 
 
LETTER XIX. 
 
 287 
 
 conveying along roadless tracks their loads of 
 grass and straw to the river’s side, to be there 
 piled into stacks on bamboo frames laid across 
 two side-long boats, and thns floated down to 
 tlie great metropolis, there is little to break in 
 on the prevailing silence, save what is con- 
 nected with tlie superstitions and idolatries of 
 the people. Here the ear may at times be 
 assailed by the loud death-wail of professional 
 mourners, who marvellonslj" dramatize the plain- 
 tiveness of agonized nature. There, at yonder 
 rural ghats, consisting of steps rudely cut out 
 of the hardened muddy banks, may every morn- 
 ing be hoard the confused lium of voices, pro- 
 ceeding from the mixed multitudes engaged in 
 their ablutions and prayers. Here, as the 
 shadows of evening close in on our brief twi- 
 light, one’s spirits may be jarred by the disso- 
 nant sounds of instrumental music and song, 
 emanating from heathen temjdes embosomed 
 among groves of noblest foliage and stateliest 
 growth. And there, at tlie dismal spots for the 
 exposure of the dying and burning of the dead, 
 close to the waters of the desecrated Ganges, 
 may at all times be heard, amid volumes of 
 smoke, the horrid growl of the pariah dogs and 
 hoarse croak of the ravenous vulture, fiercely 
 contending for the mutilated, half-consumed re- 
 mains of poor humanity. Amid the most gor- 
 geous scenes of extcunal nature in these orient 
 
288 
 
 DR. duff's letters ON INDIA. 
 
 climes, one is constantly reminded of Heber’s 
 simple but expressive words, “ Where every 
 prospect pleases, and only man is vile.” Verily, 
 heathenism has done its work in making man 
 “vile” in Bengal, which, from the exuberance 
 of its pi'oducts, and inexhaustible fertility, the 
 Mohammedan rulers, even in their official docu- 
 ments, were wont to style “ the paradise of king- 
 doms.” And to the vitiating influences of hea- 
 thenism must be added the cruel tyranny and 
 oppression of man, diverselj* exhibited through 
 long ages. Phj'sically, as well as morally and 
 religiously, the great mass of the Bengal ryots 
 or peasantry is strangely degraded. Instead 
 of light-hearted joyousness, there is for the most 
 part, about them the look of dejection and 
 melancholy. The real truth is, that, as a race, 
 they are ground down into the dust by oppres- 
 sors on all sides. The rural police is worse 
 than none ; the courts of justice are practically 
 closed against them ; the sj’stem of sub-letting, 
 and sub, sub, sub, sub-letting, each sub-letter 
 of course making his own profit, drains out of 
 them all but the few rags that barely cover 
 their nakedness ; and the twenty-five or more 
 per cent, of the Mahajan, or native money- 
 lender, on money borrowed to meet the exac- 
 tions of the landholder, crushes them inextrica- 
 bly under a load of debt. Hence want and 
 semi-starvation in the midst of plenty, and a 
 
LETTJill XIX. 
 
 289 
 
 darkness of ignorance that may be felt, clinched 
 by a hand of unimpressible apathy. Among 
 these ryots there are multitudes even now who 
 neither know nor care aught about the terrible 
 w'ar that is now raging in the North-West. But 
 on this large subject I must refrain from saying 
 more at present. — Yours ever affectionately, 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
 25 
 
LETTER XX. 
 
 MEETING OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 
 
 Calcutta, 20th February, 1858. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — The Southampton mail 
 of the 4th January, wliich arrived a few days 
 ago, among other items of intelligence brings 
 us a report of a meeting of the Court of Pro- 
 prietors of the East India Company, at which 
 the present aspect of affairs in India was dis- 
 cussed. With the extreme views of parties on 
 either side, I have no sympathy whatever. To 
 say, with some, that the entire population of In- 
 dia is either disaffected or rebellious, is an 
 extreme of error on the one side ; to say, with 
 others, that the entire population of India is well- 
 affected and loyal, with the exception of the 
 mutinous sepoys, is just as violent an extreme 
 of error on the other. Having on former occa- 
 sions stated what I still believe to be the true 
 medium view of the subject, I need not enlarge 
 upon it now. Only I may add emphaticalh’, 
 that conversations with military, civil, and med- 
 ical officers from Central and Northern India, 
 sinoe my former letters were dispatched, tend 
 to strengthen and confirm me in the persuasion 
 that I represented the actual reality of things 
 [290] 
 
I.E’ITER XX. 
 
 291 
 
 with as near an approximation to truth, as the 
 huge, tangled, and many-sided complexities of 
 the subject can well admit. 
 
 At the meeting now alluded to, a gentleman, 
 for whom personally I entertain, from past ob- 
 servation and experience, very high respect, 
 was led into a line of argument which, to us 
 who live on the spot, appears in no other light 
 than a garish bead-roll of transparent fallacies. 
 Ilis argument, with the whole of the illustrative 
 facts designed to support it. simpl}' amounts to 
 this, that in such and such provinces, districts, 
 or cities, there was no actual outbreak of popu- 
 lar violence, no insurrectionary movement of 
 the people against the constituted authorities, 
 and, consequently, that in these provinces, dis- 
 tricts, and cities, there existed no feeling of dis- 
 affection towards our Government ! A more 
 thorough logical non sequitur I never met with. 
 Ever}' one who is not positively and hopelessly 
 blind knows that in hundreds and thousands of 
 places where, through precautionary and other 
 measures, and special overrulings of Providence, 
 no actual outbreak occurred, there was much 
 discontent, much display of treasonable and re- 
 bellious feeling, and much real dread and appre- 
 hension on the part of the authorities. 
 
 * The speaker in triumph remarks, “ Yet neither 
 at Chittagong nor Dacca, nor, indeed, any other 
 of these stations, except Dinapore, had there 
 
292 
 
 DR. DL'FF’S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 been an insurrection ! ” — and, at the very time 
 he was speaking, insurrection had actually 
 broken out at Chittagong and Dacca ! and the 
 mutineers and rebels were spreading devasta- 
 tion and ruin through the neighboring districts! 
 Such is but one specimen of the reply which 
 facts have given to the speaker’s glowing and 
 triumphant confutation ! 
 
 Not less unhappj' is he in his reference to the 
 memorial of missionaries, which, about a year 
 and a half ago, declared that a feeling of dis- 
 satisfaction to a considerable extent prevailed 
 among the people of Bengal — his conclusion 
 being, that the absence, for the most part, of 
 any outbreak of insurrectionai'y violence proved 
 the non-existence of any such feeling. In the 
 name of notorious truth and fact, in the name 
 of justice to the people of Bengal, I must re- 
 pudiate such an inference as illusory, and, if 
 persisted in by our high authorities, as sure to 
 lead to ultimate mischief and danger to our 
 empire. It was not as enemies, but as true and 
 staunch friends, alike of the people and of Bri- 
 tish sovereignty, that the missionaries felt them- 
 selves bound to testify to what Mey heard with 
 their own ears and saw with their own eyes ! It 
 was in order that the knowledge of the fact 
 might lead to an investigation of the inciting 
 causes, and the timeous adoption of wisely- 
 remedial measures. It was as British patriots 
 
LETTER XX. 
 
 293 
 
 and Christian philanthropists, that they deemed 
 it a duty to sound the note of warning, even at 
 the risk of being for a season misunderstood, 
 hooted, ridiculed, or calumniated. And what 
 was begun from a sense of duty towards God 
 and man will not be desisted from, despite the 
 frowns of those who, for the time, may be 
 wdelding the thunders and the lightnings of 
 imperial power. 
 
 The real truth is, that the people of Bengal 
 are proverbially passive, with a capacity for 
 enduring wrongs without resistance more won- 
 derful than that of the Russian serf or American 
 slave. But even witn such a people there may 
 be a limit beyond which wrongs rnaj’ not be 
 tolerated. That there is a feeling of discontent, 
 more or less definite in its nature and producing 
 causes, very widely diffused, no one who mingles 
 freely with the people can possibly deny. This 
 is a feeling, however, which Government officials 
 are usually the very last to discover or to be- 
 lieve. Their object very naturally is, to have 
 it proclaimed that all is quiet — all right ; that 
 all arc contented, all satisfied, all happy ; since 
 such a state of things would redound to their 
 own credit, flatter their self-complacency, and 
 earn for them at once promotion and renown. 
 And even if they wish honestly, from personal 
 observation, to know the true state of native 
 feeling, the distance between the members of 
 25 * 
 
294 
 
 DR. DL'FF’S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 the Civil Service and tlie degraded, cowering 
 masses around them, is so great and overawiiig, 
 that they seldom or never can sufficiently under- 
 stand it. And thus it happens that many a man 
 has risen to the dignity of a member of the 
 Supreme Council, without knowing anything 
 aright of the mental, social, and physical con- 
 dition of the multitudes for whom he is to legis- 
 late — their Avants, their grievances, their ways 
 of thinking, and feeling, and suffering. Those 
 alone with ivliom they ordinarily come in con- 
 tact are native officers, native zemindars, and 
 other, natives of respectability. From their 
 intercourse and conversation with these, they 
 are apt to form their impressions of the rest — 
 forgetting that these have a deep interest in 
 concealing from their British superiors the real 
 condition and feelings of the masses, who may 
 be the victims of their own cruel exactions and 
 oppressions. 
 
 Thus also it happens that a disaffected feeling 
 towards the British Government, of a kind more 
 or less definite, has been graduallj' growing- 
 even among the timid and passive inhabitants 
 of Bengal. And yet, Avhen any of the British 
 residents who really know the people, from con- 
 stant and familiar converse with them, and who, 
 at the same time, are conscientiously among the 
 most loyal subjects of the British Crown, try to 
 enlighten the Government on the subject, they 
 
LETl'ER XX. 
 
 295 
 
 only get cold rebuffs or insolent rebukes for 
 their pains. It was, as already stated, their 
 sympathy witli the oppressed millions of Bengal, 
 and their feeling of hopelessness as to the pos- 
 sibility of obtaining any redress elsewhere, that 
 led a body of disinterested men, some time ago, 
 to appeal for a commission of inquiry, to the 
 justice of the British Parliament. And it is 
 their intense persuasion still, that if matters be 
 not properly rectified in time, the people, finding 
 the burden of their wrongs to be intolerable, 
 may one day suddenly rise cn masse, and take 
 the redress of grievances into their own hands. 
 It is in deprecation of the scenes of violence and 
 bloodshed that must in such an eventuality en- 
 sue, that all who liave the best interests of India 
 and of Great Britain sincerely at heart would 
 unite in beseeching the Supreme Government to 
 break through the drowsy routine of old formal- 
 ism, and address itself in right earnest to the 
 great and glorious work of effective reform. 
 
 At present, the position of Government, or its 
 apparent aspect towards the people at large, is 
 deplorable in the extreme. With, it may be, 
 the kindest and most equitable intentions on its 
 part, the Government, too much and too often, 
 appears towards them in the attitude of a severe, 
 unrighteous, and inexorable t^nuint. They have 
 no direct way of knowing the mind of their 
 rulers, the motives by which they are actuated. 
 
29G 
 
 DR. duff’s LE'ITFRS OS INDIA. 
 
 or the objects of rectitude and beneOcence which 
 they may contemplate. They can only judge of 
 them through the conduct and proceedings of 
 men who may be clothed more or less with 
 Government authority, and with whom all their 
 practical dealings must be carried on. The 
 native police, for example, are indescribablj' 
 treacherous and cruel ; these are the servants 
 of Government, and for their acts of cruelty and 
 oppression the Government, of course, gets the 
 credit. The native officers that sw'arm about 
 magistrates, judges, collectors, and courts of 
 justice, are indescribably venal and corrupt ; 
 they are the servants of Government, or Govern- 
 ment officials ; and for all their dark deeds of 
 falsity, perjury, and bribe-taking, the Govern- 
 ment, in popular estimation, is held responsible. 
 The zemindars, as a class, are indescribably 
 avaricious and oppressive ; they are upheld by 
 Government in the exercise of rights that bear 
 w'ith extreme harshness on the w'retched peas- 
 antry, and of all their extortionate exactions 
 and other deeds of violence, the blame is almost 
 universally imputed to the Gov'ernment. Why, 
 then, should not the Government, for its owui 
 sake, and for the sake of an outraged but pa- 
 tient and enduring people, interpose at once, 
 and with a high hand, to terminate such a 
 doubly disastrous state of things ? Instead of 
 patching up a false and fatal peace — instead of 
 
LKTIER XX. 
 
 297 
 
 silencing the ciy of millions for redress by a 
 volley of contemptuous and derisive but idle 
 scorn — why should they not truthfully admit 
 that things are just what they are ; and then, 
 with the straightforwardness of Christian hon- 
 esty, and the manliness of British energy, strive, 
 with the nerve and grasp of high statesmanship, 
 to remodel the police, the courts, the zemindary 
 system ? Thus proving themselves to be the 
 best and truest friends, alike of landholder and 
 people, why should they not earn for themselves 
 renown instead of infamy — a character for jus- 
 tice and benevolence, instead of a reputation 
 for tyranny and wrong ? It is surely time that 
 we should be done with the shams and tricker- 
 ies of mere statecraft ; and that all should unite 
 in inaugurating a new reign of good sense and 
 good feeling, with truth and righteousness for 
 the pillars of its throne, and kindliness and 
 good-will to men for its overshadowing canopy. 
 
 Again, reference was made by the speakers 
 to certain native chiefs, who, tn outward ap- 
 pearance, have proved faithful. Who ever 
 doubted or denied tlie fact ? But the fallacy of 
 the reference lies in this, that it is made in such 
 a way as*to imply or insinuate that all native 
 chiefs have proved faithful, than which nothing 
 can be more contrary to the reality. Such a 
 suppression of the true, as every moralist can 
 tell, is tantamount to an assertion of the false, 
 
298 
 
 DK. duff’s LETTEHS ON INDIA. 
 
 He who referred so vaiinting-ly to the apparent 
 fidelity of certain chiefs — as if these were only 
 specimens of the whole class— must have known 
 at the very time that many others had become 
 rebels, heading vast hordes, not of mutinous 
 sepoys, but of armed retainers. Of these, seve- 
 ral, alike Hindu rajahs and Mohammedan na- 
 wabs, have already been seized and executed, 
 w'hile others are still abroad, setting our autho- 
 rity at defiance. The other day, when Sir Hugh 
 Rose was on his way to the relief of Saugor, he 
 attacked the fort of Katghur, one of the strong- 
 est in Bundelkund. By whom was it held ? 
 Not by mutinous sepoys, but by three or four 
 Hindu and Mohammedan chiefs, at the head of 
 a powerful body of desperate followers. For 
 six days and nights Sir Hugh kept up a constant 
 fire on its walls; at last, when a practicable 
 breach was effected, and an assault was about 
 to be made, it was found that the fort was sud- 
 denly evacuated — all having escaped by a sub- 
 terranean passage! The existence of this pas- 
 sage, though unknown to Sir Hugh’s force, must 
 have been well known to every native in the 
 neighborhood. And yet not one manifested 
 loyalty enough to disclose the fact to ftie British 
 chief. Does not a fact like this significantly 
 show on whose side the hearts and wishes of 
 the citizens and peasantry were ? And yet we 
 are told that the recent revolt was nothing but 
 a military mutiny! 
 
LETTER XX. 
 
 299 
 
 Again, Suraj-a-jung, the minister of the 
 Nizam of Hyderabad in the Dekhan, hastened to 
 a mosqne, and arrested a fanatic who was incit- 
 ing the people to insurrection; and it is asked 
 in triumph. Did that show any feeling of lios- 
 tility towards the English Government ? Cer- 
 taiidy not on the part of the minister. But what 
 has that to do with disproving the main allega- 
 tion as to hostility on tlie part of numbers at 
 least of the people ? Plainly nothing at all. 
 The minister, like the late Reschid Pacha of 
 Constantinople, happens to be a wise man, who 
 has a clear apprehension of the power and re- 
 sources of the British Government; and to him, 
 humanly speaking, we are maiidy indebted for 
 the prevention of an outbreak or popular insur- 
 rection at Hyderabad and the Dekhan gene- 
 rally, where every well-informed man in India 
 knows that, at one time, a general insurrection- 
 ary outbreak seemed all but inevitable. But, 
 according to the speaker’s logic, because, by 
 the personal influence and repressive measures 
 of one man, endowed with a master-spirit, an 
 actual outbreak w'as prevented when all the 
 elements were ready for explosion, no elements 
 for rebellious explosion ever existed ! 
 
 The allusion to the districts around Delhi — to 
 their settling down into a state of order, and 
 paying their revenue without irregularity or 
 deduction — is perhaps the most unfortunate of 
 
300 
 
 DK. duff’s LEITEKS OX IXDIA. 
 
 all, when almost every one here knows how 
 British forces had to go out and crush and 
 destroy village after village of armed rebels, to 
 compel others to pay the revenue, until, when 
 it was felt that further resistance was impos- 
 sible, the inhabitants made a virtue of necessity, 
 and continued to give what was due. And their 
 doing so, in such circumstances, is characterized 
 by the epithets of “gladness and spontaneous- 
 ness !” That many of the quieter and better 
 disposed of the villagers did so contentedly I 
 have no doubt; but that all of them, as is insinu- 
 ated, or rather broadly asserted, did so gladly 
 and spontaneously, is just as true as that all the 
 citizens of Paris at this moment gladly and 
 spontaneously recognize and render homage to 
 the Emperor ! 
 
 As if to pour contempt on the oft-reiterated 
 allegation that the revolt was nothing but a 
 military mutiny, look at the state of things in 
 the North-West, as lately expounded by Mr. 
 Harrington, in his place, as member of the 
 Legislative Council of India. During the 
 months of anarchy and disorder, when the whole 
 country, beyond the limits of the few stations 
 occupied by handfuls of British, was exempt 
 from the control of all law, civil and military, 
 the native inhabitants, not the sepoy mutineers, 
 set about adjusting matters according to their 
 own ideas and tastes. Among other things. 
 
LETTER XX. 
 
 301 
 
 Mr. Harrington stated, that since the breaking 
 out of the mutiny in May last, there had been a 
 considerable unauthorized disturbance of pos- 
 session of land and other real property in the 
 North-West Provinces. “ Indeed,” said he, “ to 
 such an extent had this been the case, that in 
 one of the districts through which he had 
 passed in his recent journey from Agra to Cal- 
 cutta, he had been informed that during the 
 comparatively short interval that had elapsed, 
 nearly one-half of the zillah (equivalent to a 
 large English county) had changed hands.” 
 How was this ? It was in direct subversion of 
 the legal rights which had been guaranteed in 
 connection with our compulsory sale of land in 
 satisfaction of revenue and other money decrees. 
 The parties whose possession had been thus 
 forcibly disturbed had been “ chiefly persons 
 who had acquired their title to the property at 
 public sales, held either for the recovery of 
 Government revenue, or in execution of the 
 decrees of our civil courts. The persons by 
 whom they had been dispossessed had been, for 
 the most part, the old or former owners, whoso 
 proprietary right had thus become extinguished.” 
 These persons, imagining, from the extinction 
 of all civil and military authority, that “our 
 rule was drawing to a close, and that, in all 
 ptobability, it would soon cease altogether, 
 took advantage of the temporary sqspension of 
 26 
 
302 
 
 DR. DVFF’S letters ON INDIA. 
 
 authority to eject the parties -whom we had put 
 iu legal possession of the property, which for- 
 merly belonged to themselves, and had reestab- 
 lished their own possession therein. In manj' 
 instances the ouster had been attended with 
 great personal violence.” But the dispossession 
 of our legally installed proprietors having been 
 once effected, it would appear that in almost all 
 cases the ryot-tenants cheerfully paid their 
 rents to the dispossessors, as being the old pro- 
 prietors, or descendants of the old proprietors, 
 whom our vigorous and summary sales for satis- 
 faction of revenue claims, <fec., had deprived of 
 their ancestral estates. Surely there are some 
 lessons of singular significance which our 
 statesmen might derive from all this I And 
 now that public order and tranquillity are 
 being gradually reestablished, Mr. Harrington 
 has introduced a new legislative measure to 
 enable our legally constituted proprietors sum- 
 marily to recover the properties of which, during 
 the reign of anarchy, they have been dispos- 
 sessed, since the attempt to recover their rights 
 by regular action in our civil courts would occa- 
 sion “ great and vexatious delay.” Here, then, 
 by the public confession of one of our Indian 
 legislators, during the last few months of gene- 
 ral lawlessness in the North-West, we find a 
 very large proportion, in many extensive dis- 
 tricts amounting to nearh’ one-half, of landed 
 
LETTER XX. 
 
 303 
 
 and other real property, violently seized and 
 alienated from the owners who, under our ad- 
 ministration, had paid down the purchase price, 
 and been invested with legal titles ! that is, 
 violently alienated from our legally constituted 
 proprietors and transferred to others whose 
 legal titles Iiad previously been by us extin- 
 guished ! alienated and transferred, too, not 
 by mutinous sepoys, but by the heads of vil- 
 lages and villagers themselves, under the full 
 persuasion that our reign was at an end ! the 
 new proprietors and their ryot-tenants, in abso- 
 lute contempt of our laws and authority, cor- 
 dially cooperating in the alienation and transfer 1 
 And yet we are assured, on high official authori- 
 ty, that during these doleful months of riot and 
 rapine, there has been nothing, nothing in the 
 North-Western Provinces and elsewhere, but 
 an exclusively military mutiny ! Verily, the ex- 
 travagance of official legerdemain, or the cre- 
 dulity of official hallucination, seems to recog- 
 nize no limits I 
 
 Once more, allusion was made by the speaker 
 to the province of Behar, and to its people, as a 
 military, manly, self-reliant race. And because 
 of the fidelity exhibited in a few special cases, 
 the inference, as in other similar cases, is in- 
 tended illegitimately to be drawn, that the whole 
 of the inhabitants were loyal to the British swajn 
 Such an inference astounds me ftilly more than 
 
304 
 
 DR. duff’s LFTTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 any of the rest. All Calcutta knows with what 
 trembling anxiety we were looking out, day 
 after day, for the intelligence from Behar ; and 
 how all, except a few blinded officials, knew that 
 Behar generally was ripe for revolt, and was 
 saved mainly through the energetic but irregu- 
 lar extra-routine measures of one man. That 
 man — as all Europeans in the Company’s service 
 and out of it, except the members of a small 
 clique that shall be nameless, that is, all Eu- 
 ropeans in Behar, are ready to testify, and, 
 indeed, have testified — is Mr. W. Tajder, the 
 Civil Commissioner of tlie province. Let us then 
 attend to the testimony of this high-spirited, 
 high-talented officer. 
 
 “ Patna,” saj’s he, “ Patna, the capital of the 
 province of Behar, as is notorious, has for many 
 years been regarded as the principal seat of dis- 
 loyalty and intrigue. Ten years ago, a deep-laid 
 plot was discovered in the city, which included many of 
 the infiuential people. Tlie town contains an im- 
 mense Mohammedan population. When first the 
 mutiny broke out at Meerut and Delhi, the most 
 serious alarm was entertained for Patna. The 
 opium agent, Mr. Garret, and the lamented Dr. 
 Lj’ell, made strong and frequent representations 
 to the Government and the General commanding 
 the division, on the subject. Mr. Farquharson, 
 the Judge, wrote to propose that we should be 
 prepared to leave the place on the first alarm, 
 
LETTER XX. 
 
 305 
 
 and put ourselves under the protection of the 
 guns and English soldiers at Dinapore. Every 
 letter I received spoke of the danger appre- 
 hended at Patna — all believed that if Patna went, 
 the whole jJrovince would follow. Anonymous let- 
 ters and petitions came to mo every day, speak- 
 ing of plots, conspiracies, and traitors ; no one 
 knew wliom to trust, or whom to fear ; the great 
 sect of the Wahabees, numbering some thou- 
 sands between Patna and Dinapore, were ob- 
 served to bo unusually busy ; private meetings 
 were held at night at mosques, and in private 
 houses ; all was uncertainty , suspicion, and fear. 
 The inward consciousness of danger, not the less 
 alarming because not distinctly understood, per- 
 vaded all hearts. A great city, a large Cliris- 
 tian population, and a noble province, were in 
 my hands, to save or to lose.” 
 
 Sucli is the picture, drawn on the spot, by the 
 ofiBcer entrusted with the onerous task of pre- 
 serving peace and order in the great city of 
 Patna and province of Bchar. Need I say how 
 very different the reality was from the imagi- 
 native picture so complacently drawn by the 
 magnate on the banks of the Thames ! But 
 with the candor of an honest and brave soul, 
 Mr. Commissioner Tayler does not scruple to 
 toll us, that “ when the intelligence of the dis- 
 tant mutinies was first received, he himself for 
 a short time hoped it might prove to be a merely 
 26 * 
 
306 
 
 DK. duff's letters OJf IXDIA. 
 
 partial and military revolt, and that the con- 
 tagion might not spread to the people or citizens 
 of Patna ; but that circumstances very shortly 
 afterwards occurred which induced liim to alter 
 his opinion.” At tlie same time, he positively 
 testifies, that “ the dangers whicli existed, and 
 which subsequent events proved to be real, \vere 
 slighted or ignored by the Governor of Bengal, 
 m opposition to reason, fact, and evidence." And 
 it is doubtless the “ peace, peace, when there 
 was no peace,” spirit of the latter which in- 
 spired the potentate of Leadenhall Street. 
 
 Amongst other weighty matters, Mr. Tayler 
 states that he wrote demi-ofiScially to the Gov- 
 ernor of Bengal, telling liim that he “knew that 
 the 5th Cavalry were in a state of mutiny, pre- 
 pared to vise when the opportunity suited them, 
 and begged that they might be disarmed with- 
 out delay.” The answer was, that “ some other 
 officers trusted them, and that the Government 
 could not afford to lose anything in the shape of 
 cavalry until their absence was proved to be pi'e- 
 ferable to their presence ! ” as if such proof is 
 ever given till the remedy is too late ! Shortly 
 afterwards the trusted 5th Cavab-y rose, at- 
 tacked Gya, defeated the Sikhs under Captain 
 Rattray, dashed into the town, liberated the 
 prisoners, subsequently ravaged the district, 
 and went off in triumph to join Kooer Singh I 
 
 Again, Mr. Tayler reported what he says was 
 
LETTER XX. 
 
 307 
 
 known “ to every man, woman, and child in 
 Bchar,” viz., that the three native regiments at 
 Dinapore, a few miles from Patna, had resolved 
 openly to mutiny. To this the reply of the Gov- 
 ernor of Ikmgal was — “ I cannot satisfy myself 
 that Patna is in any danger. It is tnconceii-able 
 that the native regiments at Dinapore should mu- 
 tiny in the face of the European troops !" Though 
 what was thus inconceivable to the Governor 
 had already actually happened at Meerut and 
 Lucknow, and soon afterwards, with disastrous 
 results, at Dinapore itself ! 
 
 Indeed, as Mr. Tayler tells us, the mutiny was 
 first planned for Itli June, and intimation was 
 sent to him by the military authorities, that a 
 disturbance was expected. All the Christians, 
 in consequence, assembled at his house, and 
 preparations were made for defence. While 
 they were thus congregated, two letters from 
 the regiments were intercepted, addressed to 
 the men of the police local battalion, telling them 
 “ that all had agreed tliat they were coming 
 down towards Patna, and begging the guards 
 to take the treasure (amounting to twenty lacs, 
 or .£200,000), and meet them.” The design hav- 
 ing been discovered at Dinapore, and great 
 efforts having been made by the officers, the 
 mutiny was staved off at that time by a hair’s- 
 breadth. 
 
 From that date Mr. Tayler tells us that “ his 
 
308 
 
 DR. DIKF'S LETTKKS OX INDIA. 
 
 own eyes were fully opened.” The fact of a 
 cominnnication having been carried on between 
 the regiments and the local police guards was 
 palpable. He also soon found that “ constant 
 intercourse was kept up between the two sta- 
 tions, Patna and Dinapore and he “plainly 
 perceived, after some secret observation and 
 inquiry, that serious mischief was brewing un- 
 der an nnrufSed surface.” Then it was that, 
 “ after carefully pondering the several sources 
 of danger, after weighing and comparing the 
 information brought to him from various 
 sources,” he resolved “ to adopt a series of co- 
 ercive measures which would anticipate and 
 nullify any movement that might be contempla- 
 ted, and draw the teeth of the disloyal before 
 they had opportunity to bite.” These mea- 
 sures are thus compendiously summarized by 
 Mr. Tayler himself : “ The city was disarmed ; 
 the dangerous and disaffected were rendered 
 powerless ; the people were compelled to keep 
 in their houses after nine o’clock at night ; con- 
 spiracies were detected and baffled ; an attempt 
 to raise the city failed ; the chief criminals were 
 hanged or imprisoned ; the villains of the town 
 fled in terror ; so that when the day of the mu- 
 tiny arrived — it was intended, should be the 
 signal for a concerted outbreak — the entire city of 
 Patna was unmoved, except by fear.” All these 
 prompt and vigorous, and, under God, success- 
 
LErrER XX. 
 
 309 
 
 ful measures, he assures us, were adopted solely 
 “ on bis own conviction of what was right,” and 
 “z’w offosition to the Governor's views!" And yet 
 these were the measures wliich, according to 
 the universal testimony borne by all the British 
 residents, saved Patna and Behar from the hor- 
 rors of insurrection, massacre, and rapine. For, 
 adds he with emphasis, “ had I adopted the 
 Governor’s views, making nought of tlie danger, 
 and slighting past experience, I should have 
 folded my hands, satisfied with the report from 
 the magistrate and the police that all was well. 
 The plots of AH Kurirn, Pir AH Khan, and otlier 
 conspirators, would have been matured ; the 
 cooperation of the disaffected townsfolk and the 
 native guards would have been obtained ; the 
 people would have kept their arms, and enjoj^ed 
 unrestricted liberty at niglit ; time would have 
 been allowed for the sepoys and the citizens to 
 adjust their difference of opinion as to the par- 
 ticular day of the week on which we were all to he mur- 
 dered — the townsfolk, as confessed by several of 
 the detected conspirators, wishing to clear us 
 out on a Friday, and the sepoys on a Sunday ; 
 and when the day of mutiny came, Cawnpore, 
 Jhansi, and Shahjehanpore might have been out- 
 rivalled by the tragedy of Patna.” 
 
 Surely the man who could display such pene- 
 trating sagacity, such confident self-reliance, 
 and such fearlessness of all personal conse- 
 
310 
 
 DR. DUFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 quences, as to assume all responsibility, and, 
 in so terrible a crisis, boldly act on his own 
 paramount convictions of duty, in opposition to 
 the avowed policy and expressed views of his 
 civil superior, and, by so acting, succeeded, un- 
 der God, in saving the great city of Patna, and 
 important province of Behar, from the horrors 
 of insurrectionary violence — can be no ordinary 
 character, and must be held entitled to no ordi- 
 nary reward. If ever man earned the honors 
 of British knighthood at the hands of his Sove- 
 reign, that man is Commissioner Tayler. And 
 yet, it is mortifying to add that, at the very 
 time when he was hailed by all competent wit- 
 nesses, with united voice, as, under Providence, 
 the protector of Patna and the saviour of Behar, 
 the Governor of Bengal was pleased to seize 
 on a supposed error of judgment in one single 
 particular, and employ it as a pretext for re- 
 moving him with disgrace from the exalted 
 station in which he had rendered sucli moment- 
 ous services to India and the British Crown ; 
 the real ground of the dismissal being, as he 
 himself has declared, “ the obvious, if not the 
 avowed, antagonism between his policy and the 
 policy of the Government, in dealing with the 
 events of the present crisis.” 
 
 Trusting that the justice-loving and gen- 
 erous-hearted people of Great Britain will, 
 through their representatives in parliament. 
 
LEm'ER XX. 
 
 311 
 
 demand satisfaction for the ill treatinont of so 
 faithful and distinguished a public officer, I 
 proceed to remark that the matured and deliber- 
 ate opinions of a man of such sagacity and 
 enlarged experience ought to outweigh, in sub- 
 stantive value, a hundredfold the opinions of 
 merely theoretical, inexperienced politicians at 
 home. Wliat, then, are Mr. Tayler’s sober and 
 decided opinions respecting the real nature of 
 the rebellion which has been so fiercely raging 
 through so many of the fairest of our Indian 
 provinces ? Here they arc, expressed in brief, 
 terse, unmistakable terms : “ Whatever victo- 
 
 ries,” says he, “ may be achieved in the field 
 by the strength of our bayonets, the strategy 
 of our leaders, or the indomitable valor of our 
 brave soldiers, there is a greater victory and 
 more permanent triumph to be looked for, with- 
 out which the gain of a battle, or the defeat of 
 a foe, however brilliant or decisive, will be of 
 little use — a triumph with which the whole 
 future of this great country — the true interests 
 both of England and India— are indissolubly 
 united. For the achievement of that victory, it 
 is, above all things, necessary that we should 
 first see the truth, and then manfully meet and 
 grapple with it ; that all our measures should be 
 conducted on principles ruled and directed by 
 that truth ; and that in the light of it, as a sure 
 guide, we should deal with the nation under 
 
312 
 
 DR. DLFF'S LEITERS ON INDIA. 
 
 our rule, resolutely and righteously, as in the 
 fear of God, trusting to Him for the issue. 
 
 “ What this truth is, I may, I think, venture 
 to say, is patent to all thinking men who have 
 ej’es to see and ears to hear ; and may thus bo 
 briefly stated : Firstly, That the present out- 
 break is no military revolt alone, no soldier ynu- 
 tiny, no mere rising of an army. It is the issue 
 of a long-meditated and deeply-laid scheme, the 
 deliberate purpose of which was the extermina- 
 tion of the whole Christian 7-ace, the overthrow of 
 the British Government, and the reestablishment 
 of Moslem rule. Secondly, That the army, bought 
 over by bribes and promises, and moved by the 
 fears and fanatieism of the sepoys on religious 
 points, has been the instrument used for the ac- 
 complishment of this large purpose of treachery 
 and extermination. All the reasons so frequently 
 assigned for its revolt — the paucity of officers, 
 the relaxation of discipline, and such like mat- 
 ters — being merely secondary causes, which, 
 though important in themselves, as rendering 
 the seductio7i of the regiments more easy, have 
 yet nothing to do with the origin or 2 ^urpose of 
 the insurrection. Thirdly, That the Mohamme- 
 dans are those who, as a body, have originated 
 the scheme, have brought it to maturity, and 
 have secretly, and with marvellous cunning and 
 consummate adroitness, pulled the strings, and 
 set the puppets in motion. These I conceive to 
 
u:tter XX. 
 
 313 
 
 be the main facts of this great truth ; facts 
 which, if I mistake not, are daily becoming 
 more patent, at least to the observing few.” 
 These views of the real nature and character 
 of the great rebellion, so recently expressed by 
 Commissioner Tayler as the final result of all 
 his observation and experience, are substan- 
 tially the very same to which I was led to give 
 expression so far back as May last. They are 
 views which, in the main, have been corrobo- 
 rated by many subsequent disclosiu’es. Even 
 within the last few days, they seem to acquire 
 considerable confirmation from the proceedings 
 at the trial of the ex-King of Delhi, now in pro- 
 gress. Among other documents, the translation 
 of a letter, dated 24th March, addressed to the 
 late Mr. Colvin, Governor of the North-Western 
 Provinces, was read, disclosing the fact that, 
 as far hack as a year and, a-half ago, secret emis- 
 saries were sent hy the now ex-King of Delhi to 
 Persia, through the agency of one Mohammed 
 Ilussun Uskiri, the main object of which was evi- 
 dently to obtain assistance to comjdete the over- 
 throw of the British poxcer in India. The perusal 
 of the letter, which bears both the Delhi and the 
 Agra post-mark, excited considerable sensation 
 in the court, &c., &c. But as the trial is not 
 yet ended, and the reports of it which have 
 hitherto reached us are somewhat meagre, it is 
 not expedient to refer to it at greater length 
 27 
 
314 
 
 DR. DUFF’S LETTERS OX IXDIA. 
 
 now. Meanwhile, let all that has now been ad- 
 vanced be candidly pondered, and I trust it will 
 be found to contain a suflBcient counterpoise to 
 the one-sided statements and plausible fallacies 
 recently announced with such an air of oracular 
 dogmatism from the chair of the East India 
 Company in Leadenhall Street. 
 
 It is no small matter that is involved in the 
 difference between what I maj^ designate as tht 
 open-eyed policy and Oie shut-eyed policy. 
 
 The latter, or shut-eyed policy, by turning away 
 from and shunning the truth, merelj^ because it 
 is unpalatable to official taste, humiliating to offi- 
 cial pride, or discreditable to official manage- 
 ment, would, in its easy selfishness, skim lightly 
 along the surface, and satisfy itself with isolated 
 snatches of loyalty and thin semblances of secu- 
 rity. It would fain cover over the wounds, 
 bruises, and putrifying soi'es that rankle so 
 foully beneath, with the slenderest film of seem- 
 ing healedness. And, thus rocking itself to 
 rest amid dreams of fancied safety, would com- 
 placently slumber on, confessing no faults, 
 learning no lessons, and originating no real re- 
 forms, until some day suddenly aroused by the 
 crash and rebound of a more terrific explosion 
 than that which has recently replenished the 
 land with tears, and agonies, and blood. 
 
 The former, or open-eyed policy, seeking su- 
 premely the glory of God and the good of man, 
 
LETTER XX. 
 
 315 
 
 would begin with confession of past errors and 
 sins, past mistakes and shortcomings; and then, 
 jnercing beneath the deceitful upper surface, 
 would searchingly explore the whole lazar-house 
 of loathsome maladies, for the express purpose of 
 devising and applying appropriate remedies. 
 Reversing the blinded and blinding regime oi the 
 past, it would, without a single atom of intoler- 
 ance or persecution, studiously eschew the 
 slightest patronage of heathen shrines or their 
 idol-tenants, fixedly resolved, on high princi- 
 ple, “ to taste not, touch not, handle not,” 
 the “accursed thing.” Instead of fondling and 
 fostering caste-usages, it would simply ignore 
 its existence altogether, by authoritatively [)1Y)- 
 claiming that, in the future selection of candi- 
 dates for all Government situations, civil, mili- 
 tary, naval, police, judicial, and fiscal, mental 
 and moral qualifications, with aptitude for the 
 business, alone would bo considered or attended 
 to. As one means of giving practical eflbct to 
 such a proclamation, it would, in formally 
 registering the parties chosen, record only their 
 names, and not, as for the most part hitherto the 
 particular caste to which they belonged, and in 
 which they might be arrogantly priding them- 
 selves. Mental qualifications and aptitude for 
 office being nearly or wholly ecjual, it would, 
 contrary to the practice of the past, give decided 
 preference to those who were, not of the highest 
 
ol() DU. duff’s letters ox INDIA. 
 
 caste, but of the highest moral character, and 
 whose religious jirincigles furnished the hest 
 guarantee for an enlightened and healthy conscience 
 in the discharge of duty. In its treatment of 
 races, so greatlj' diverse as those which are now 
 under British rule in India — -including all ex- 
 tremes, from the cowering, timid Bengali to the 
 manly, warlike Rajput, or tierce, intractable 
 Mohammedan — from the intelligent and philan- 
 thropic Anglo-Saxon Christian, to the ignorant 
 and revengeful demi-savage Cole, Khond, or 
 Sonthal — it would shun the actual inequalities 
 of a spurious equalizing liberalism, b}'^ carefully 
 studying its peculiar idiosyncrasies, and adapt- 
 ing its varied measures accordingly. More 
 especially in its treatment of the Mohammedans, 
 who, while “ feeding on our bounty, and fawn- 
 ing on our persons — impelled by personal 
 hatred, national antagonism, the impulses of 
 fanaticism, and the direct precepts of their 
 religion ” — could deliberately plan and merci- 
 lessly carry out schemes of unparalleled atrocity, 
 it would hold “ no paltry, hesitating parley, 
 no cowardly, half-hearted compromise.” To- 
 wards all it would maintain an attitude, not of 
 tjTanny, or haughtiness, or selfish indifference, 
 or of equally selfish and degrading concession, 
 but of even-handed and righteous dominancy, 
 tempered with the influence of kindliness, good- 
 will, and self-denying charih*. yibove all, with- 
 
LETTER XX. 
 
 317 
 
 out violating in the smallest degree that liberty 
 of conscience and freedom of worship which has 
 uniformly been conceded to our native fellow- 
 subjects, and without permitting or sanctioning 
 any approach to proselytism by force or fraud, 
 it would — while no longer tolerating the hu- 
 miliating homage which has too often been 
 rendered to the idolatries and caste-prejudices 
 of old heathendom — solemnly and for ever ab- 
 jure the otBcial supercilious contejnpt which has 
 too often been cast on the glorious and one 
 only divine faith of old Christendom ; yea, and 
 not only so, but strenuously employ all legiti- 
 mate means for the universal diffusion of its 
 awakening, enlivening, renovating principles 
 throughout the myriad masses of this benighted 
 land. 
 
 But, even when a better policy shall be de- 
 vised and adopted, it cannot be disguised that 
 there will be stupendous difficulties in the way 
 of 'practically carryhig it out. Where are the 
 fitting instruments or agents to be found, suffi- 
 cient in number, and in possession of the right 
 qualky ? To most of the functionaries brought 
 up under the bias and tincture of “the old tra- 
 ditional policy,” the proverb of “putting new 
 wine into old bottles ” may not unaptly be ap- 
 plied. Even now, when the land is still reeking 
 with the blood of thousands untimely slain, and 
 still ringing with the noise of marches, sieges, 
 27 * 
 
318 
 
 DK. duff’s LETTEES ON INDIA. 
 
 storming assaults, and sanguinary battles, we 
 constantly hear of a lamentable return, in many 
 quarters, to the old ofiicial propensities and 
 ways. Already, in some well-known cases, have 
 wily sycophantish Mohammedans, who played 
 no minor part in the tragedy of rebellion, been 
 restored to places of trust I Already have the 
 leanings towards an obtrusive countenance of 
 caste been deplorably manifested. Of this a 
 striking instance recently occurred, which took 
 us all by surprise. When the notoriously insub- 
 ordinate 70th native infantry at Barrackpore, 
 which has been kept from open mutiny solely 
 by the overawing presence of British troops, 
 at length condescended to consent to proceed 
 to China, the Government officials requested a 
 deputation of their own number to visit the ship, 
 and see that the tanks for water and all other ar- 
 rangements were in accordance with the rules 
 and usages of caste ! The men themselves are 
 credibly reported to have declared that such a 
 visitation was unnecessary ; since, after all that 
 had occurred, they would trust their gracious 
 masters. Nevertheless, the old school and un- 
 changed officials insisted that they should satisfy 
 themselves by actual inspection. 
 
 What could be expected from such servile 
 truckling to caste, but that the men should be 
 swollen with fresh gusts of vanity and self-con- 
 ceit ? And so it has turned out. The other 
 
LETl’EK XX. 
 
 319 
 
 day, the letter of a correspondent at Singapore 
 was published in one of our local journals, from 
 which the following is an extract : “The scoun- 
 drels were noisy and insolent continually ; but 
 the climax of insolence was almost amusing. 
 They made a request, in a most insolent manner, 
 that the dinner should not he brought aft. for the 
 officers from the galley to the cuddy, as the steam 
 or gravy from the dishes might he em2>tied over 
 them, and take away their caste ! To the aston- 
 ishment of the commander of the transport, in- 
 stead of such insolence being put down, as he 
 had been used to see in the British armj", the 
 olEcers of the regiment temporized and soothed 
 them, with Suhar, haha, logue, durust hoga (Pa- 
 tience, children, it will be all put right); and 
 actually asked the captain if it could not be 
 remedied. lie evidently was hugely disgusted, 
 and replied. Nothing easier, gentlemen, if you 
 wish it ; we will change places ; let these hahas 
 take up your quarters in the after-cabin, and 
 we will mess in the pig styes in the forecastle. 
 This bluff reply shut them up for the time ; 
 whether anything else as absurd has occurred, 
 you may perhaps hear.” 
 
 A better or more intelligible illustration could 
 not perhaps be furnished to the British people 
 of what is meant by caste-prejudice — of the 
 nature and mode of its practical working — of 
 the insolence, insubordination, and indiscipline 
 
320 
 
 DU. duff’s LETTFUS ox INDIA. 
 
 which it necessarily tends to generate — and of 
 the timid and slavish submission to its prepos- 
 tei’ous claims by British officials of the old 
 school. But its recurrence at this late hour 
 painfully raises the question, How can the mili- 
 tary and other Government officials, imbued 
 with such a spirit of caste-d^erence, be fitted to 
 become the proper agents in inaugurating the 
 new and improved policy which, it is to be 
 hoped, the people of Great Britain will, with a 
 voice, if not as loud, at least as resistless, as 
 ten thousand thunders, insist on demanding ? 
 
 It is not by any great or bold measure of 
 legislation that the timid unchristian policy pur- 
 sued by the Indian Government is manifested 
 to the world ; but by a hundred little pettj’, 
 peddling acts, which but too clearly exhibit its 
 predominant leanings and tendencies. To the 
 instances given in a former letter I may now 
 add one or two more. 
 
 In recently appointing additional chaplains 
 to the augmented British army in India, the 
 Court of Directors conclude their dispatch to 
 the Governor-General in Council with this em- 
 phatic caution : “ The gentlemen appointed to 
 these duties should be specially warned against 
 any interference with the religion of the natives.'' 
 
 The authorities at Belgaurn, in the Dekhan, 
 declined to reward a native police officer, named 
 Mutu, who saved the province from insurrec- 
 
LETTER XX. 
 
 yril 
 
 tionary outbreak. And why ? Because it turned 
 out that he was a Christian ! And auy reward 
 to him, it was thought, might excite native preju- 
 dices. 
 
 Again, Mr. Mason, the able missionary at 
 Tounghn, in Burma, proposed to Government to 
 enlist the Christian Karens into a police battalion. 
 The offer was rejected, as consent would, it was 
 alleged, establish an invidious distinction I” 
 
 Once more, towards the east of Bengal, in the 
 district of Burrisal, considerable numbers of the 
 peasantry have of late years embraced Chris- 
 tianity, or put themselves under Christian in- 
 struction. That whole region being peculiarly 
 defenceless, and no confldence being reposed in 
 the native police, the judge, magistrate, and 
 other civilians, turning to the native Christians 
 as the only reliable and trustworthy class of the 
 native community, formed about two liundred 
 of them into a temporary police corps, for the 
 protection of life and property. They then ap- 
 plied to the Governor of Bengal for his formal 
 sanction, as also for some suitable pecuniary 
 remuneration to the newly-formed corps, so long 
 as they were retained on public duty. But, true 
 to the instincts of the “ traditional policy,” the 
 Governor repudiated the enlistment of such a 
 body of men at all in the public service, and re- 
 fused any remuneration. The formation and 
 payment of a police corps of native Christians 
 
322 
 
 DE. DUFF’S LETIEKS ON INDIA. 
 
 by the State would bo apt to prove ofi’eusive to 
 the feelings of Mohammedans and Hindus ! But 
 so imminent were the perils which appeared to 
 hang over the district, especially during tlie 
 paroxysm of our terrible crisis, that the judge and 
 his civilian compeers were but too glad to retain 
 the native Christian police force for two or tln-ee 
 months at their own private expense. Wliat a 
 commentary does all this furnish on the suicidal 
 infatuating influence of the genuine old Indian 
 policy ! And what significant evidence of the 
 real value of an enlarging native Christian com- 
 munity, even as regards the continued welfare 
 and stability of the British empire in India I 
 In a recently published letter from Mr. John 
 Marshrnan, the original projector, and for many 
 years the able and talented editor, of the Friend 
 of India — a man who knows perhaps more of 
 Indian afl’airs generally than any other British 
 subject ; a man, moreover, wdio never was accu- 
 sed of the slightest tincture of hostility towards 
 the Indian Government or any of its members — 
 we find this emphatic utterance : “ The refusal 
 of the Government of India to accept the ser- 
 vices of the Kishnagur Christians in the hour 
 of need, on the ground that they were Christians, has 
 been reprobated throughout the country. Per- 
 haps no one circumstance has done, or is doing, 
 so much damage to the Government of Bengal 
 as the course pursued in regard to a treatise on 
 
LETTEK XX. 
 
 323 
 
 geography, published by the Deys (native Hin- 
 dus), at Serampore, which was offered for the 
 patronage of Government, and referred for their 
 opinion to some Pandits, wlio said that it con- 
 tained assertions directly opposed to the Hindu 
 creed; upon which the Government rijused to 
 encourage it ! And what Government can stand 
 the odium of being represented as truckling, 
 through mere timidity, to the idolatrous preju- 
 dices of the Hindus, to such a degree as to dis- 
 courage a treatise on geography, because it 
 aflirmed that the earth moved round the sun, in- 
 stead of stating, according to the Puranic sys- 
 tem, that it rested on a tortoise ? I wish you 
 could impress on the Government and its offi- 
 cers that they are on the brink of a precipice, so 
 far as their own characters are concerned ; that 
 it behooves them to act with the utmost courage, 
 to exchange timidity for confidence, and never 
 to forget that it is no longer sufficient for them 
 to rest satisfied if their conduct is approved of 
 in Leadenhall Street.” 
 
 Again, with reference to the unpopular ap- 
 pointment, as Deputy Commissioner of Patna, 
 of Amir AH — a Mohammedan attorney in Cal- 
 cutta, the paid agent and servant of many of 
 the Patna malcontents, and more especially the 
 close ally and confidential adviser of the well- 
 known Luft Ali Khan, a wealthy banker at 
 Patna, a man of notoriously had character, who 
 
324 
 
 I)K. duff’s LEITERS ON INDIA. 
 
 was arrested and tried on a charge of harbor- 
 ing a mutineer, and two of whose household ser- 
 vants were proved to have been actively con- 
 cerned in the brutal murder of Dr. Lyell, and 
 were hanged in consequence — Mr. Marshman 
 thus writes : “ The appointment is unequivo- 
 
 cally and universally condemned. I have had 
 circumstances related to me which, if brought 
 forward, would scarcely leave the Government 
 of Bengal a leg to stand on. It appears, after 
 all, that he did nothing to pacify Behar. But 
 the very idea of endeavoring to keep the peace 
 among the Mohammedan malcontents, by en- 
 listing the services of a Mohammedan pleader, 
 and not by means of our troops, is considered 
 so utterly derogatory to our national character 
 as to admit of no palliation. The deference 
 paid to the Mohammedan turban by the rulers 
 of British India, from the time when we de- 
 throned the Mohammedans, and incurred their 
 unquenchable hate, is one of the most unac- 
 countable idiosyncrasies of the last hundred 
 years. It seems as strong at the present time 
 as in the durbar days of Warren Hastings : 
 stronger after the revolt than before it.” 
 
 Surely, then, in devising a new and better 
 policy for India, it behooves the British people 
 to ask themselves the question. Who are to be 
 the fitting agents employed in introducing it ? 
 Is Lord Shaftesbury prepared to become Gov- 
 
LETl’ER XX, 
 
 325 
 
 ernor-Geiieral ? Is the home Government pre- 
 pared to nominate him ? And if so, are tlie 
 Arthur Kinnairds, Dunlops, and other enlight- 
 ened advocates of tlie new policy prepared to 
 accompany him as his advisers, and the ex- 
 ecutors of his high behests ? Are the really 
 Christian capitalists of Great Britain prepared 
 to come out, and not only stimulate the natives 
 by their enterprise, but elevate and ennoble 
 them by their pure, upright, consistent example? 
 Are the young and really Christian lawyers 
 and political aspirants of Great Britain pre- 
 pared to come and act in carrying out the 
 prodigious reforms that are required throughout 
 the whole of our judicial, magisterial, and fiscal 
 machinery ? Are the really Christian young 
 preachers of Great Britain prepared to come, 
 and, with the living voice giving utterance to 
 the breathings of gracious souls, help in trans- 
 fusing a vitalizing inlluence through the dead 
 and utterly inert masses of this great land? 
 Are the really Christian young educators of 
 Great Britain prepared to come, and, with un- 
 conquerable patience and perseverance, buffet 
 the all but insuperable difSculties connected 
 with the “ godly up-bringing ” of the millions 
 of juveniles now literally rotting in the charnel- 
 houses of a rampant heathenism ? Are the 
 really Christian possessors of wealth in Great 
 28 
 
326 
 
 DE. duff’s LETTEES ON INDIA. 
 
 Britain prepared to stoop from the loftiness of 
 luxurious reg'alement, and stint and deny them- 
 selves for the sake of bringing to a glorious 
 consummation the new and improved Christian 
 policy of British India ? 
 
 These, and questions like these, ought to be 
 fervently asked on their bended knees before 
 God, by all the disciples of Christ, and true 
 friends of India in this the hour of her sore 
 travail. And if no way be found to a satisfac- 
 tory reply, let their heads droop, their hands 
 hang down, and their tongue cleave to the roof 
 of their mouth ! Foi’, what is the practical use 
 of merely proclaiming that the Indian Govern- 
 ment should advertize itself Christian ; and de- 
 manding that the entire administrative machin- 
 ery of Government shall be Christian ; and in- 
 sisting upon it tliat all education shall hence- 
 forth be Christian — with many other Christian- 
 izing measures besides — if the living agents are 
 wanting, commensuratehj to carry out the whole 
 into actual realization ? But let us liope that the 
 question will be put in right earnest, and that 
 satisfying replies may be found in the rush of 
 really Christian candidates to occupy every 
 diversity of position in the momentous enter- 
 prize of regenerating idolatrous, superstition- 
 ridden India. Let us, in short, hope that mighty 
 words may soon fructify into mighty deeds, and 
 
LETTKR XX. 
 
 327 
 
 mighty promises into mighty performances ; 
 and then, by God’s blessing, may we look for 
 such a harvest as this world has not yet seen I 
 
 Monday, 22d. — For some weeks past our 
 journals have been teeming with notices of 
 minor skirmishes and engagements with the 
 rebels, along the eastern and western frontiers 
 of Bengal, in Northern Behar, and in Central 
 India, as also with notices of the vast prepara- 
 tions for the final attack on Lucknow. 
 
 The mention of Lucknow brings to mind what 
 was designated “ an interesting incident in the 
 first relief,” which appeared in the Witness of 
 16th December, extracted from a Paris paper. 
 The statement, as purporting to be given by the 
 Frenchman, has been pronounced by parties 
 who were in the residency at the time, a highly- 
 colored romance, having, however, a certainfoun- 
 dation in fact. The simple and unadorned fact it- 
 self is so highly characteristic, and so creditable 
 to the kindly feelings of our brave Highlanders, 
 that I may give it as supplied by an intelligent 
 gentleman who actually witnessed the scene. 
 “ The first," says he, “ who rushed in were some 
 Highlanders out of breath, covered with the 
 dust and smoke of battle. They at once rushed 
 to the ladies, and shook hands with them again 
 and again, took up the children, and passed 
 them about from one to another — crying and 
 
328 
 
 DE. DUFF’S LEITEES ON INDIA. 
 
 sobbing, and the scene of joy was beyond all 
 description.” There seems no end to the anec- 
 dotes which we hear connected with that most 
 wonderful siege and deliverance. The gentle- 
 men already referred to declares that the en- 
 gineers calculated that during the first fortnight 
 of the siege seventy balls a second, daj' and 
 night, were sent into the Residency. After the 
 first fortnight, there was not literally a minute 
 in which some balls were not sent in. How they 
 survived is indeed a matter of astonishment. 
 During Havelock’s first advance, when the gar- 
 rison was daily expecting his near approach, it 
 rained with tropical copiousness incessantly for 
 two days. This immense fall, by swelling the 
 torrents and inundating the country, helped to 
 necessitate his falling back on Cawnpore. Then, 
 for a little, the hearts of many in the apparently 
 doomed Residency sunk into a momentary des- 
 pair. But note tlie overruling of Providence I 
 It was afterwards discovered that the rebels had 
 laid several mines that were nearly ready for 
 explosion, when the rains descended, filled up 
 the mines, and tlius saved the garrison ! 
 
 On the morning of the 3d inst., the fort of 
 Saugor, on the Xerbudda, was at last relieved 
 by the force under Sir Hugh Rose. From its 
 remoteness in Central India, and from its not 
 being closely besieged and unceasingly assailed, 
 like the Residency at Lucknow, it of late at- 
 
LETTER XX. 
 
 329 
 
 tracted little attention. At any other, time in 
 our history its condition would have occupied 
 and absorbed the public. For the last seven 
 weary and anxious months, upwards of four 
 hundred Europeans, of whom at least one hun- 
 dred and ninety were women and children, have 
 been shut up in it, with the entire population all 
 around it in a state of rebellion, and threatened 
 everlasting'ly with an assault from armed mas- 
 ses of the enemy. What added to the anxiety 
 of all here was, that the fort was known to be 
 a weak one, which could not hold out long 
 against the play of heavy guns if brouglit to 
 bear upon it. From its known weakness and 
 exposedness to the violence of a multitudinous 
 foe, its relief must be regarded as another of 
 the marvels of providential deliverance so sig- 
 nally realized during the few last awfully event- 
 ful months. 
 
 A few days ago, some four thousand of the 
 rebels were defeated and dispersed at Buheri, in 
 Northern India, and several guns captured. On 
 the Itth inst., the fort of Rhotas^hur was at 
 last taken possession of by our troops. This 
 fort lies on the west of the district of Shahabad, 
 between the river Sone and Benares — Arrah, 
 first the scene of tragic disaster and ultimately 
 of glorious victory, lying to the east of the 
 same district. The position of Rhotasghur, 
 which figures alike in Hindu and Mohammedan 
 28 * 
 
330 
 
 DE. duff's LETTEES OX IXDIA. 
 
 history, is most commanding, and might be 
 rendered impregnable. It stands at the height 
 of 1000 feet, on a spur or promontory of the 
 hills that shoot out from Central India, and 
 there look down abruptly on the great plain of 
 the Ganges, with the river Sone running under 
 a vast precipice on one side of it, and another 
 river washing it on the other side, before its 
 junction with the Sone; wdiile on the third side 
 is a deep ravine, clothed with impenetrable 
 forests and jungles — the only available access 
 to it being by a narrow pathway along a steep 
 acclivity of about two miles. It is now in a 
 shattered and ruinous condition, with only the 
 remains of vast battlements, temples, and 
 palaces. Since the outbreak of the great re- 
 bellion, it has been occupied by Umer Singh 
 and other rebel chiefs, with their hordes of 
 armed followers, as a central rendezvous; and 
 from it parties have ever and anon been sent 
 forth to scour the country, and especially to 
 plunder and cut the telegraph wires along the 
 Grand Trunk which passes within sight of it. 
 Besides the dispersion of the rebel hosts congre- 
 gated there, its possession at length by our 
 troops is of no small importance, as regards the 
 keeping open the line of communication between 
 Calcutta and Benares. 
 
 Our regular mail closes to-day, and by it we 
 had hoped that tidings would have been trans- 
 
LETTER XX. 
 
 331 
 
 mitted of the final fall of Lucknow. But it is 
 now understood that the grand attack will not 
 be made before the 27th inst., the Commander- 
 in-Chief having deferred operations till Brigadier 
 Franks and Jung Bahadur’s columns from the 
 east and south-east be in proper position to co- 
 operate in surrounding the city, and thus pre- 
 venting the enemy’s escape. By that time a 
 force of 50,000 — one half British — with 250 
 guns, many of them of the largest calibre, will 
 be before and around the devoted city. The 
 result must be either total destruction or uncon- 
 ditional surrender. — Yours affectionately, 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 ox CASTE. 
 
 Calcutta, 6th ilarch, 1858. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — The subject of caste 
 is a tremendous one. The more thoroughly 
 any one studies it, the more intensely docs the 
 conviction grow upon him that it very mucli 
 resembles a tangled wilderness without a path- 
 way, a boundless labyrinth without a clew. 
 But as events in Providence have now too clearly 
 shown that something must be done with it, I 
 lately drew up a brief statement, which, on 
 Tuesday last, was submitted to the Calcutta 
 Missionary Conference. In now forwarding it 
 to you, with a few expansions rather than ad- 
 ditions, it affords me sincere satisfaction to be 
 enabled to add, that having obtained the entire 
 concurrence of the Conference, it is now to be 
 regarded as going home with the weight and 
 authority which ought to attach to the sanction 
 of that learned and influential body. It is as 
 follows: 
 
 The recent disasters which have befallen our 
 Indian empire, while attracting and engrossing 
 the attention of the whole civilized world, have 
 tended to shed new light on the momentous evil 
 [332] 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 333 
 
 of pandering or truckling to the prejudices and 
 pretensions of caste. 
 
 The importance and necessity of inaugurating 
 an entirely new line of policy, and of recon- 
 structing our whole Governmental machinery — 
 legislative, executive, and administrative — hav- 
 ing been violently agitated, the question has 
 been raised with some degree of vehemence, 
 “ What are we to do with, caste ? Hoio are we 
 frncticalhj to deal with it ?” 
 
 On tliis subject, as on most others, which 
 have awakened or inflamed the sympathies or 
 antipathies of men, extreme opinions have been 
 enunciated. • 
 
 Rome would regard caste, or the division of 
 society into separate and well-defined masses, 
 as purely secular and civil in its origin, design, 
 and purpose, and would be disposed to put 
 down with the high hand of imperial authority, 
 many at least, if not all, of its peculiar usages, 
 as the embodiments of mere insolent arrogance 
 and domineering pride. 
 
 Others, again, would regard caste as so pre- 
 eminently sacred and divine in the eyes of the 
 people, that, so far from intermeddling with it, 
 they would, on the score of liberty of conscience, 
 not merely tolerate but cherish it. 
 
 Without taking up or combating the argu- 
 ments of either party, it is deemed better to 
 attempt briefly to set forth what we conceive to 
 
334 
 
 DK. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 be the predominant native view on the subject 
 of caste, and to suggest the best way of practi- 
 cally dealing with it under a new system of 
 things. 
 
 First, then, from the study of Hindu works on 
 the subject, from the observation for many years 
 of its modes of working, and from repeated 
 conversations with intelligent natives concern- 
 ing it, we have no doubt at all that, in the 
 Hindu conception of it, caste involves distinc- 
 tions, not of secular occupation or of civil con- 
 dition only, but distinctions of a sacred and 
 religious kind — distinctions neither arbitrarily 
 imposed by mere human power, nor casually 
 assumed as the result of social contract or con- 
 ventional usage, but distinctions absolutely 
 radical and fundamental in the very nature and 
 constitution of man. 
 
 All this is necessarily implied in the ancient 
 and well-known account of the origin of caste, 
 which declares that, at the time of creation, the 
 highest, or Brahmin caste, proceeded from 
 Brahma’s mouth ; the Kshatriya, or warrior 
 caste, from his arms; the Vaisya, or industrial 
 caste, from his loins ; and the Sudra, or servile 
 caste, from his feet. For whatever may be 
 alleged bj^ ns against the literal reception of 
 this genealogy, nothing is more certain than 
 that it has from earliest ages sunk deep into 
 the inner convictions of the national mind of 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 33r) 
 
 India, and up to this hour continues powerful!}' 
 to appeal to, and more or less influence, the re- 
 ligious consciousness of individuals and whole 
 classes. 
 
 In other words, though the different castes 
 may now to superficial observers appear under 
 the exterior aspect of merely natural social dis- 
 tinctions, and though connected with these 
 there may be much in the way of superadded 
 usage or custom that is purely civil in our sense 
 of the term, no one who has studied the sub- 
 ject to any purpose can have failed to discover 
 that, in the theory of caste as unfolded in writ- 
 ings, that are universally reputed sacred and 
 divine, and in the belief of the most authorita- 
 tive expounders of these writings, a religious 
 doctrine lies at the root of it ; that caste, as 
 regards its essential nature, is not a merely 
 human or capriciously superinduced distinction, 
 but a positively divine and primarily created 
 distinction, being itself originally derived from 
 a divine fountain-head, its peculiar riglits and 
 privileges conferred and firmly established by 
 divine power — its peculiar duties, personal and 
 social, civil and sacred, enjoined by divine au- 
 tliority, and the whole closely guarded and 
 upheld by the unalterable sanctions of divine 
 law. 
 
 Coincident with this theory and belief is the 
 ordinance which decrees that the distinctions 
 
336 
 
 DR. DCTF’S letters OX INDIA. 
 
 of caste can be transmitted by hereditary de- 
 scent, and successively derived from hirth alone; 
 that it is utterly untransferable from one class 
 to another ; that it cannot be gained as a re- 
 ward for merit, however transcendaut, or be- 
 stowed as an honorary title or rank by the 
 most powerful monarch, and that, being dis- 
 tinct in its origin, and incommunicable as to its 
 intrinsic qualities, it is designed to be preserved 
 inviolate through this life, and to regulate the 
 destinies of departed spirits in the life to come. 
 
 It is difficult, if not impossible, for Europeans 
 — even for those living in India — fully to under- 
 stand the feelings, mental habitudes, and prin- 
 ciples which have given birth to, and still main- 
 tain the distinctions of caste. Perhaps an 
 illustration from natural history may serve as 
 a convenient means of giving a popular idea 
 of the matter. As birds, beasts, fishes, and 
 other tribes of animated being are divided into 
 genera or orders, which must have sprung from 
 so many different originals, so, in the Hindu 
 conception of it, the race of man was, from the 
 very beginning, divided by the Creator himself 
 into four genera orders or castes, \x\\\c\iA\A spring 
 from an equal number of diflerent originals. In 
 our belief, founded on authentic revelation, all 
 the race-lines of the human family, however 
 widely dissimilar or divergent now, if traced 
 backwards, would be found to converge towards 
 
leti'eh XXI. 
 
 337 
 
 and ultimately meet in a single primordial stock 
 or procreative centre ; but, in the belief of the 
 Hindus, founded on what to them is a revela- 
 tion, all the race-lines of the human family, if 
 traced backwards, would be found, not to con- 
 verge towards a common point, but to run •par- 
 allel, and ultimately terminate in distinct and 
 independent stocks or centres of production. 
 
 Accordingly, as in the case of animals, not- 
 withstanding the similarities of shape, instincts, 
 and habits, the great families of birds, beasts, 
 and fishes are composed of a number of diflerent 
 genera, and these again of multiplied species, 
 which are easily distinguished by learned natu- 
 ralists, though they may be more or less con- 
 founded by the ignorant ; so, notwithstanding 
 the resemblances of bodily shape, and apparent 
 mental and moral attributes, the great family 
 of man, in the opinion of the Hindus, is made 
 up of different genera and species, each as 
 essentially distinct from the rest as one genus or 
 species of birds, beasts, or fishes is from another. 
 Each such genus of man constitutes what is 
 reckoned one of the four primeval castes ; and 
 each such species one of the subsequent divi- 
 sions or subdivisions, which now amount to 
 many hundreds. However closely different 
 birds, beasts, and fishes may resemble each 
 other in outward appi'arance and gc.neral char- 
 acteristics, each Tdnd will keep itself distinct 
 
338 
 
 DK. DCFF’S LETTERS OX INDIA. 
 
 by its food, its habits, and its sympathies ; will 
 associate and congenialize with those of its own 
 kind, in preference and to the exclusion of 
 others. It would be monstrous if tlie members 
 of one genus would cease to resemble and unite 
 with the members of its own genus, and mix 
 with and adopt the distinguishing marks and 
 habits of another. It would be strange indeed 
 were the lion to graze like the ox, or the ox to 
 slay its prey like the lion. The special capa- 
 bilities also of service to be derived from any 
 particular genus or species of animals cannot 
 be transferred to another. A sheep or an ox, 
 for example, cannot be made to answer the 
 the same purpose as a horse. It would be un- 
 natural to expect tliat an ox should carry a 
 rider as' swiftly as a horse can, and wrong to 
 make the attempt to train him for the race- 
 course. 
 
 Ideas somewhat akin to these seem to-forni 
 the groundwork in the Hindu mind of the preva- 
 lent notions of caste, and may help to account 
 for the fact, that the points considered most 
 essential in caste are food and its preparation, 
 intermarriage within the same caste only, 
 hereditary occupation, and a peculiar sj-mpathy 
 with the whole caste, which, taking the form of 
 imitativeness, leads an individual Hindu to 
 follow the example of his caste, just as a sheep 
 or a wild pigeon follows the example of the 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 339 
 
 flock.* These ideas also may so far explain the 
 ground of the local variations observable in the 
 customs and usages of the same caste. In ont; 
 place a Hindu will consent to do what in another 
 he woidd peremptorily refuse to do, simply 
 because in the former he is countenanced by 
 the example of his brethren, and not in tlie 
 latter ; just as a flock of sheep or pigeons may, 
 from accidental causes, somewhat vary its 
 habits or movements in different localities. 
 These ideas also seem to account for the 
 supreme contempt with which a high caste 
 Brahmin usually looks down on individuals of 
 low caste or no caste, as if they really were not 
 human beings at all. Before any of these, the 
 lordly Brahmin will expose his person in ways 
 utterly shameless, and contrary to all proper 
 notions of decency. His defence, if expostulated 
 with, will in substance be, “ What I would there 
 be any harm in thus exposing yourself before 
 cats, dogs, or cattle ? And don’t you know 
 that these low caste or no caste people are mere 
 animals V These ideas further show how to a 
 Hindu every violation of caste presents itself 
 in the light of a hateful sin against nature. 
 The raven in the fable who assumed the plumes 
 of the peacock appears ridiculous to Europeans ; 
 and if the peacock made an attem|3t to pass 
 
 * This mysterious sympathy, generated by caste, lias probably had 
 much to do with the late rapid but secret spread of disaffection and 
 mutiny among the sepoys. 
 
310 
 
 DR. duff’s letters OX INDIA. 
 
 himself olf for a raven, he would appear still 
 more ridiculous. That fable, however, gives 
 only a very inadequate idea of the kind of im- 
 pression which the violation of caste produces 
 upon a pure Hindu of the old traditional school. 
 The impression is rather somewhat analogous 
 to that which would be made upon us by an at- 
 tempt on the part of a man to become a woman, 
 or of a woman to become a man. And lastly, 
 the prevalence of these ideas may serve to ac- 
 count for the peculiarly abominable nature of 
 the sin which, according to Hindu notions of 
 morality, attaches to intermarriages between 
 different castes, as well as for the dread of fa- 
 miliar contact with Europeans, who are regard- 
 ed as the offspring of such foul marriages, and 
 consequent!}' Mcchchas, or wholly unclean.'^ 
 Theoretically, and at a distance, plausible, 
 and to all appearance resistless objections may 
 be urged against the accuracy, validity, and 
 force of the whole of this representation. But 
 all to no purpose. Among the millions of Hin- 
 dostan it were strange if bold, reckless, scepti- 
 
 * If it did not go beyond the scope of the present paper, it would be 
 easy to show how these feelings of caste extend eyen to religion. The 
 Hindus think that Hinduism, like a dark skin, is the natural concomi- 
 tant of their race ; and Christianity, like their fair skin, the insepara- 
 ble concomitant of the European races. And hence they conclude, 
 that although the latter in \tsc\f were even allowed to be a better re- 
 ligion than the former, yet it can be no more meant for them than 
 white feathers are intended for the raven, or the great and strong 
 squared scales of the crocodile for a lap-dog, or the slender horns of a 
 stag for a buffalo 1 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 341 
 
 cal, or indifferent professors did not ever and 
 anon arise, to repudiate the anti-social dogma, 
 and fling aside, in whole or in part, the cramp- 
 ing shackles of caste. It were passing strange 
 if, in the course of thirty centuries, over so wide 
 a region, teeming with such countless myriads, 
 there were not sundiy departures from the 
 rigidity of caste rules, and sundry abatements 
 or relaxations of its exclusive spirit. But, in 
 the vast multitudinous ocean-like stream of 
 mind rolling on from age to aige, and ever- in- 
 creasing in magnitude and swell as it rolls 
 along, all these exceptions arrest not, interrupt 
 not, the mighty flow, but appear as little else 
 than a few scarcely perceptible disturbing rip- 
 ples on the surface. 
 
 It is in vain therefore for us to plead — and 
 our appeal is not to speculators and theorists at 
 the other ends of the earth, but to those who 
 are living amongst and have striven to make 
 themselves conversant with the inner w'orkings 
 of the Hindu mind, and the outer habits of the 
 Hindu life — it is in vain, we say, for us to plead, 
 as some have done, in opposition to the despotic 
 claims and aristocratic pretensions of caste, that, 
 judging from the analogy of the. old Egyptian 
 and other races, the narrative which gravely 
 asserts that the different castes joroceeded full- 
 formed from different parts of Brahma, the Cre- 
 ator, must be a gross enough myth, or vulgar, 
 20 * 
 
342 
 
 I)R. DUFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA, 
 
 whimsical allegory, and not a recital of actual 
 matter of fact at all ; and that in India, as in 
 other ancient countries, distinctions of caste 
 may have gradually arisen as the natural result 
 of division of labor or variation of profession, 
 aided, perhaps, by differences of race, and con- 
 tingencies of conquest, and not as the instan- 
 taneous product of a Divine ordination. 
 
 It is in vain to plead, in corroboration of this 
 more rational view of the subject, that the 7iiost 
 ancient portion of the four Vedas — the Mantras, 
 or prayers, hymns, and liturgic formulai of the 
 Rig- Veda — makes no distinct mention of the 
 four castes at all ; that, in not one of the first 
 four books already published, being the half of 
 the whole, is the word Sudra to be so much as 
 once met with ; that the term Vaisya, the desig- 
 nation of the third caste, is not to be found, but 
 only its root or rudiment, vis, which is applied 
 as a synonym for men or people in general; that 
 Kshatriya, the designation of the second caste, 
 is only to be found once, and is there used to 
 denote, not a class or race, but simply the im- 
 
 * The aggregate assemblage of these Is termed the SanMta, in con- 
 tradistinction to the Brahmana, or collection of rules for the applica- 
 tion of the Mantras, with other kindred compositions, which the 
 greatest Orientalist of the age— Professor Hayman Nelson of Oxford — 
 has pronounced to have not “ the slightest claim to be regarded as the 
 counterpart and contemporary of the Sanhita, as an integral portion 
 of the original Veda.” So that the Sanhita of the Eig-Veda is indis- 
 putably the most ancient portion of indisputably the most ancient of 
 the Hindu sacred writings. 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 343 
 
 mediate dependant of a rajah ; and that, though 
 the denomination BraJunin not unfreqnently oc- 
 curs, its specific application may be question- 
 able: “ Cortaiidy,” as Professor Wilson remarks, 
 
 “ in no sense indicating any exclusive privilege, or 
 implying a Brahmin Iny caste as distinguished 
 from that of other castesT 
 
 It is in vain to plead that all this marked 
 absence, in the most ancient portion of the most 
 ancient Hindu books, of appropriate appellations 
 of absolutely distinct and divinely ordained 
 classes of men, is a reasonable and weighty 
 argument against the recognition or existence 
 of the orders to which they belong at the time 
 when these books were written. 
 
 It is in vain to plead that in these most an- 
 cient portions of the Vedas, instead of the four 
 castes or classes, which begin to appear in the 
 later Brahmana, and figure so conspicuously in 
 the Institutes of Manu, the heroic poems of the 
 Mahabharat and Kamayan, and throughout the 
 whole vast pile of Pouranee and Tantric litera- 
 ture, there arc but two races distinctly named 
 and constantly alliuled to, viz., the Aryas and 
 Dttsyns, the former being evidently the more 
 civilized and conquering race, described as 
 coming from the north, white conqilexioned, 
 wcalUiy, respectable and religious ; the latter 
 being manifestly the indigenous or conquered 
 race, characterized as dark complexioned, bar- 
 
344 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 barian, addicted to robbery and plunder, and 
 impious disturbers of the sacred rites of their 
 more enlightened but intrusive neighbors. 
 
 It is in vain to plead tliat the strong line of 
 demarcation, originally drawn by alleged divine 
 authority between the first three castes several- 
 ly, and especially between all of these and the 
 fourth, has, iu innumerable ways, been violently 
 traversed and broken in upon ; so that the Mil- 
 tonic dance of chaotic atoms might not inaptly 
 represent the resulting seemingly complex and 
 inextricable confusion. 
 
 It is in vain, for example, to plead that, if 
 ever the four great castes existed in their integ- 
 rity, they have long since ceased to do so ; that, 
 while all have more or less degenerated, some 
 have completely disappeared — their place being 
 supplied by hundreds of new ones, arising from 
 forbidden mixtures or schismatic separations ; 
 that, of the fourth, or Sudra caste, it is doubtful 
 whether any really pure specimens are any- 
 where to be found, the whole having become 
 blended with the hybrid or nondescript classes; 
 that the Vaisyas, or third caste, have notoriously 
 dropped out of distinctive existence ; that it is 
 debatable whether the Kshatriya or second 
 caste, are truly represented by the Rajputs and 
 other military tribes of Xorthern and Central 
 India ; that even the first caste has not only 
 lost its proper unity, but much of its affected 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 345 
 
 purity too — the southern Brahmins holding in 
 contempt those from the north, and not even 
 admitting them to the honor of eating in their 
 houses ; while the northern Bralimins as proudly 
 resent and reciprocate the contemptuous feel- 
 ings of their confreres of the south ; yea, the 
 Brahmins of the same province, such as those 
 of Bengal, splitting up into several srenis or 
 species, that will neither intermarry nor ex- 
 change hospitalities, and each sreni or species 
 into so many sub-species, that may exchange hos- 
 pitalities, but will not freely intermarry. 
 
 It is in vain to plead that the supereminent 
 prerogatives and exclusive privileges of the 
 Brahmins no longer exist ; that they are not 
 what the supposed divine theory of their origin 
 prescribes and demands, the chief of all created 
 beings, the real potentates of the land, by being 
 the sole councillors of the Sovereign, the sole 
 judges, the sole magistrates, the sole expositors 
 of divine law ; that their peisons and property 
 are no longer inviolable, the former exempt 
 from exile and death, and the latter from con- 
 fiscation and revenual dues ; that their own 
 offences are no longer treated with a lenity 
 which amounts to actual impunity, while the 
 most trivial offences against them are visited 
 with severities as cruel as they are extraordi- 
 nary — such as slitting up the tongue that would 
 abuse them, dropping hot oil into the mouth that 
 
346 
 
 DR. DUFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 would venture to advise them, pouring melted 
 lead into the ear that would so much as listen 
 to any reproaches against them, thrusting a red 
 hot iron from beliind into the Sudra who would 
 recline on their seat, and hewing off the hands 
 and the feet that would push against them ; and 
 lastly, that the curse of the Brahmin, who, 
 “ whether learned or ignorant, is a powerful 
 divinity,” — the cui’se, which was wont to be a 
 source of terror, desolation, and misery to the 
 celestials, not less than the inhabitants of earth, 
 has now become to many an object of supreme 
 indifference or derisive scorn. 
 
 It is in vain to plead that the distinctive occu- 
 pations and professions assigned to the original 
 castes, and intended to be strictly hereditary — 
 as at once cliaracteristic badges and perpetual 
 conservators of their relative position and 
 rank in the creation — have long ere now been 
 strangely blended and confounded ; that the 
 limitations, once imposed with so much stern 
 solemnity, far from being rigorously upheld, 
 have given way to an almost unrestrained lati- 
 tude ; that royalty, for instance, so far from 
 being restricted to the KsJtatriya or military 
 class, has even from earliest times been chiefly 
 in the hands of other castes — all the greater 
 princes of India, the Salivahanas of former and 
 the Holkars and Scindias of later times being 
 Sudras, and the Peishwa a Brahmin ; that the 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 347 
 
 base born have, in numberless instances, en- 
 tered unchallenged on the special profession of 
 the twice born — S.udras becoming merchants, 
 landlords, soldiers, and scholars, while poor 
 Brahmins actually stoop to discharge the menial 
 office of cooks to wealthy Sudras ; that even 
 the profession which was reserved to the Brah- 
 mins as their peculiar and incommunicable priv- 
 ilege, and guarded by the most awful sanc- 
 tions, has been openly usurped by others — the 
 Brahmins, who ought to be the sole depositories 
 of divine knowdedge, and the exclusive teachers 
 of the Vedas, having lost that monopoly, while 
 Sudras, who ought to be put to death for read- 
 ing these most sacred of the Hindu writings, are 
 referred to by some of the Shastras with com- 
 mendation for their distinguished knowledge, 
 not merely of the Mimangsa, Sankhya, and Vai- 
 sheshik philosophies, but even of the Vedas 
 themselves. 
 
 It is in vain to plead with the learned Budd- 
 hist Pandit Ashwaghosh, that caste-birth theory 
 of the Brahmana of the Vedas and other ac- 
 credited Shastras, is flatly contradicted by other 
 equally accredited Shastras ; that it is contra- 
 dicted by such constantly reiterated announce- 
 ments as these ; That a Brahman falls instantly 
 from his caste if he eats flesh ; and, in three 
 days, becomes a Sudra by dealing in shell-lac, 
 salt, or milk ; and, more generally, that it is 
 
348 
 
 DE. duff’s LETTEKS OX INDIA, 
 
 coutradicted by all that is affirmed of the loss or 
 forfeiture of caste that is entailed by transgres 
 sions of special rules respecting social inter- 
 course, food, or intermarriages — transgressions 
 which are alleged not merely to sully its purit 3 ', 
 impair its integrity, and subvert the ends of its 
 institution, but to destroy it altogether ! since, 
 if birth-caste were what constituted a Brahmin, 
 Kshatriya, Vaisya, or Sudra, it could not be 
 wholly lost, being in that case inherent and in- 
 defeasible. For, as has been pointedly asked. 
 How could a horse, though never so bad a one, 
 ever become a pig ? 
 
 It is in vain for us to plead that it is contra- 
 dicted by other Shastra announcements which im- 
 port that it is superior excellence which constitutes 
 a Brahmin. Of this description are the fol- 
 lowing, culled from the Mahabharat and other 
 Shastras ; “ When a man is void of selfishness 
 
 and pride, free from attachment and covetous- 
 ness, emancipated from anger and envj', the 
 gods themselves acknowledge him to be a Brah- 
 min.” Again, “ Caste is not regarded by the 
 gods, but rather those virtues that promote uni- 
 versal happiness ; and even an out-cast, if he 
 possesses these, is owned bj" the7n to be a Brah- 
 min.” Again, “He who has excellency of dis- 
 position and purity of conduct, even though a 
 Sudra, may become a Brahmin.” Once more, 
 “A Brahmin is not such bv" descent, or birth, or 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 349 
 
 by works of merit ; and if a Chundal or out- 
 caste but practice the duties of his position, he 
 is a Brahmin. Tliis entire world was formerly 
 overspread by men of one caste ; till, from the 
 varieties of occupation and profession, a dis- 
 tinction of four castes or classes came into use. 
 All are alike born of women, and mortal ; all 
 subject to the same necessities of nature ; all 
 possessed of the same senses, intelligence, and 
 passions, exorcised on the same objects. Where- 
 fore, excellency of disposition or character, and 
 the virtues, alone constitute the true Brahmin. 
 The Sudra, if possessed of a virtuous disposi- 
 tion and excellent qualities, becomes a Brahmin; 
 while the Brahmin by birth, if he be destitute 
 of goodness, and neglect the duties proper to 
 his station, is even inferior to a Sudra.” 
 
 It is in vain to plead that, in strict accordance 
 with these Shastra authorities, which all go to 
 prove that caste by birth or descent is not ne- 
 cessary to Brahminhood, we have, in the Mahab- 
 harat, expressly recorded examples of “ hunters, 
 forest -deer, and ruddy geese of the Manasa 
 lake, in the Himalaya mountains,” becoming 
 learned Brahmins ; that, in the Smriti and other 
 Shastras, it is expressly asserted of certain re- 
 nowned sages, who are universall}' accounted to 
 have been true Brahmins, that one was the ofl- 
 spring of a female elephant, and that the owl 
 was the mother of another ; that one arose from 
 30 
 
350 
 
 DK. duff’s LETTEES OX IXDIA. 
 
 the Agasii flower, and that another sprang from 
 a plant of the Kuslia grass ; that one was born 
 of a tawny monkey-motlier, and that another 
 had his birth from an earthen water-pot ; that 
 one was produced from the dust, and that an- 
 other was the son of a female partridge ; and 
 lastly, that men born of Sudrani low-caste, 
 and even of Chundalini out-caste mothers, be- 
 came Brahmins and celestial sages by the force 
 of religious austerities alone.* 
 
 It is in vain for us to plead that, in these and 
 many other ways, Shastra stoutly contradicts 
 Shastra, and divine ordinance is pitched directly 
 against divine ordinance ; that rules and regu- 
 lations the most sacred and binding have been 
 
 * Here, in passing, it may be noted, that while the great hulk of the 
 Hindus swallow all these and other similar fictions in their grossest 
 literality, without a question and without a doubt, a few of the more 
 thoughtful try variously to account for them. Some content them- 
 selves with saying, that, as a good ox is in its way as valuable as a good 
 horse, and as its place would not be supplied by the latter, so a man of 
 low caste who truly upholds the real nature of his caste, or who per- 
 forms extraordinary austerities, is, in his own way, as valuable and 
 virtuous as one of the higher caste may be. 
 
 Or they simply say, that informer ages there were these ex.amples of 
 individuals miraculously transformed or promoted from a lower to a 
 higher caste; but that such miracles afford no rule for the ordinary 
 conduct of men. 
 
 Or taking advantage of the doctrine of metempsychosis, they pro- 
 fess to believe that virtuous men of lower castes may, in some future 
 birth, be exalted again os men of higher castes! And many of the 
 miraculous cases of transformation just referred to are by them 
 though subject to this explanation, that the same human soul which in 
 one birth inhabited the body of a low cast man, in a later birth dwelt 
 in the body of a high caste man. but that the trifling circumstance of 
 his death and transmigration has been passed over in silence for the 
 sake of brevity ! 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 351 
 
 modified, changed, or abandoned altogether, 
 while others of untraceable origin and authority 
 have gradually and silently been substituted 
 instead ; that a thousand divinely prescribed 
 rites, forms, and usages have fallen into total 
 desuetude, while a thousand others of uncertain 
 parentage have, with an elastic capriciousness, 
 sprung up in their place ; that a thousand 
 things are consequently now done, in connection 
 with caste, which, according to the strict tenor 
 and object of its constitution, ought not to be 
 done, while a thousand things are left undone 
 which assuredly ought to be done ; yea, that to 
 such an extent has all this been carried,* that 
 comparatively few even of the Brahminical 
 order, if rigidly tested by the old fundamental 
 principles of caste, could anywhere make good 
 their title to caste-purity. 
 
 It is vain, however, to plead all these and a 
 hundred other anomalies, improbabilities, incon- 
 sistencies, self-conflicting and mutuallj' destruc- 
 tive contrarieties ; as if thereby we had suc- 
 ceeded ill demolishing the citadel of caste, and 
 
 * Hindus, when pressed on the subject, usually satisfy themselves 
 with saying that, though they can quote no S?iaf<tra authority for 
 present usages different from those which the old Shastras prescribed, 
 it is to be presumed that they must have some RitsJii or Muni^ i. e. 
 holy inspired sage for their author. Manu himself says that “inime 
 morial usage is tra.nscendant law.” The case of the Romanists, who 
 insist on their being the only true Christians, in spite of their almost 
 infinite departures from the teachings and practices of the apostles, 
 may help the European thinker somewhat better to understand the 
 present subject. 
 
352 
 
 DE. DUFF’S LETTEES ON INDIA. 
 
 razing it to its very foundations ! Vain, pre- 
 posterously vain expectation — if ever fondly or 
 seriously clierishcd ! The concrete vitality of 
 caste has outlived them all, and now shoots 
 into well-nigh as ponderous branches, with a 
 prodigious increase of miner ones, and laden 
 with as baleful fruit as in the golden age of 
 Hinduism ! No matter though the old castes 
 should be split up into fiercely discordant sects, 
 and these should be further divided and sub- 
 divided without number and without end. No 
 matter though some of them should evanish 
 out of existence altogether, and others should 
 be multiplied a hundredfold. No matter though 
 old rules and regulations, old forms and usages, 
 should be changed or wholly flung aside for 
 new ones. The spirit of caste never dies / Ra- 
 ther, like a bird dropping its moulted feathers, 
 or a snake its worn-out slough, the spirit of 
 caste, in laying aside old embodiments with 
 their abolescent appendages, seems only to 
 renew the vigor of its youth ; and, entering, as 
 by a species. of transmigration into new caste- 
 combinations,* new sects, new forms, new usa- 
 
 * This extraordinary peculiarity of the spirit of caste is strikingly 
 illustrated hy the fact, that even the masses of out-castes soon aggre- 
 gate into new and varying castes, and even out castes from these into 
 others still; that resident Jews and .Mohammedans soon heeome 
 infected with the spirit of caste and addicted to many of its practices; 
 yea, and that the spirit of caste has entered into, and tainted, and 
 well-nigh destroyed, many of tlie native Christian Churches with the 
 deadliest poison of its heathenism. 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 353 
 
 ges, seem to animate them all with the breath 
 of a new life, and fire them with the energy of 
 a new being ! 
 
 Clearly, then, the spirit of caste onglit to be 
 distinguished from its outward modes and 
 accessories. These may vary and be ever-vary- 
 ing, from the whims of waywardness, or the 
 caprices of fashion or of power, from the weari- 
 ness of monotonous repetition, or the tear and 
 wear of corroding time. But the fact of the 
 spirit of caste itself remaining unchanged and 
 unchangeable amid every variety of change in 
 its outward modes of manifestation, would seem 
 to indicate that it is not of an arbitrary or acci- 
 dental nature, but is rather a necessary form of 
 the inner life of society, and especially Oriental 
 society, in its earliest anti-historical stage of 
 development. This is the stage of society in 
 which matter is confounded with spirit, and the 
 powers of nature, inspiring sentiments of won- 
 der and awe, are mysteriously communed with 
 by priests and poets, who thus become arrayed 
 with the sacredness of earthly divinities — the 
 stage of society in which real mental freedom 
 has not been gained, and supposed revelations 
 from the gods supersede that energy and 
 activity of the speculative and practical reason, 
 the exercise of which might have emancipated 
 the subject masses from their servile degrada- 
 tion — the stage of society in which doctrines and 
 30 * 
 
354 
 
 DR. duff’s letters OX IXDIA. 
 
 principles, hastily conceived and capriciously 
 assumed, readih’ present themselves in natural 
 buddings and sproutingsof myths and symbols, 
 which, understood literally, and accepted unin- 
 quiringly, as realities, are soon tinged with the 
 colors of fancy, and diversified by the workings 
 of an unbridled imagination, into a thousand 
 fantastic shapes. Xow in India, different in this 
 respect in its destiny from that of Egypt and other 
 ancient realms, this stage of societj’, after being 
 stereotyped, wonld seem to have actually de- 
 scended to our times, fundamentally unmodified 
 amid the dynastic revolutions of thirty centuries, 
 with all its characteristic impulses of feeling, 
 trains of thought, and sequence of ideas, so 
 utterly incapable of being comprehended by us 
 who have been born and brought up under the 
 moulding influences of a nobler civilization and 
 a purer faith.* 
 
 But, be all this as it may, what we have 
 practically to deal with is the fact, tliat such is 
 
 ♦ At an early period of my sojourn in India, I was led to note the 
 remarkable resemblance between the state of the Hindu mind now 
 with regard to myths and legends, and that of the Grecian mind in the 
 age of Hesiod and Homer, and to remark that the best illustration 
 which the European could have of the pecuMar nature of the former, 
 would he found from his study and realization of the latter. Since that 
 time the earliest or anti-historic condition of the Grecian mind has 
 been portrayed with a masterly hand by Mr. Grote. in the first volume 
 of his history ; and I can only say that, mutotis mutandis, the salient 
 points of his portraiture would singularly represent what was the 
 generic condition of the Hindu mind in the ages of Homer and Manu, 
 and what it still continues to be after the lapse of three thousand 
 years. 
 
LEITER XXI. 
 
 355 
 
 the constitution of the genuine Hindu mind now, 
 that, so far from being disconcerted by discrep- 
 ancies and self-contradictions which would 
 overwhelm and annihilate any intelligent Euro- 
 pean antagonist, it can, with an all-devomdng 
 credulity, complacently swallow them all, how- 
 ever they abound in number or exceed in magni- 
 tude. All the wild and dream-like incongruities 
 which have already been pointed out as attach- 
 ing to the established theory and belief in caste 
 will be found to weigh no more with it than the 
 impalpable dust in the balance. The real fact 
 is, that the whole of Hinduism, from beginning 
 to end, is a huge congeries of falsities and lies, 
 of harsh antitheses and immiscible ingredients, 
 of fruitless variations, and stark staring inco- 
 herencies. It begins with a divine unity, so 
 purely abstract, so utterly devoid of all qualities 
 and attributes, physical, intellectual, or moral, 
 that the definition of it might almost as well 
 apply to infinite space or infinite time. It ends 
 with a rabble-route of deities. 
 
 “ Abominable, unutterable, and worse 
 Than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived, 
 Gorgons, and hydras and chimeras dire.” 
 
 The gulf or illimitable deep between these 
 two opposite poles of error is replenished with 
 a wild chaos of endlessly diversified antagonisms 
 
356 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 in character and action, in chance and change, 
 in incident and legend — the strangest and most 
 incongruous jumble of idealism and realism, 
 spiritualism and materialism, theism, pantheism, 
 and atheism, which look more like the phantas- 
 magoria of a feverish, delirious dream, than the 
 sober realities of rational existence, or the veri- 
 table delineations of the historic or philosophic 
 muse. Such being the strange nature of Hindu- 
 ism generally, we may cease to wonder why 
 the spirit and practice of caste, despite a load 
 of anomalies that would have crushed and 
 shattered to pieces any other system in any 
 other land, still continue so tenaciously to hold 
 their ground, and to exercise so apparently an 
 undiminished sway over tens of millions of the 
 benighted, bowed down, superstition-ridden 
 people of India. 
 
 What, then, is to be done? or can anything 
 be done by a professedlj' Christian Government 
 towards mitigating or eventually abolishing 
 the evil ? 
 
 Many, looking at the fact, which to a certain 
 extent must be admitted to be true, that Euro- 
 peans in general have too much allowed them- 
 selves to be imposed upon by the plausible alle- 
 gations of natives concerning the rules and 
 requirements of caste — allegations too often cun- 
 ningly devised merely to furnish a ready excuse 
 for declining any duties that might be incon- 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 357 
 
 venient or disagreeable, would propose a search- 
 ing investigation into the whole subject, with 
 the view of ascertaining what the rules of caste 
 really arc, and what its supposed divinely im- 
 perative requirements. 
 
 This point being once authoritatively settled, 
 it is thought that we might then be enabled to 
 discriminate between what constituted an actual 
 and what a fictitious violation of caste, and so 
 shaped our own conduct towards it with unerr- 
 ing precision, without any risk of offending 
 prejudice or wounding conscience, or unneces- 
 sarily scarifying the religious feelings of the 
 people. 
 
 But supposing such an end to be expedient, 
 we must hold any investigation capable of fur- 
 nishing the requisite data to be impracticable. 
 So violent and so varied have been the devia- 
 tions of caste usages and customs from those 
 prescribed by the ancient Shastras — so widely 
 divergent, anomalous, and contradictory are the 
 prescriptions in the Shastras themselves ; so 
 strangely diversified are the current interpreta- 
 tions and applications of important ])assages, 
 and the degrees of deference attached to antag- 
 onistic autliorities ; so singularly capricious 
 are the variations in the observance of its rules 
 in difl’erent branches of tlie same generic family, 
 and by the same class divisions and subdivisions 
 in diflerent localities, that the piercing sagacity 
 
358 
 
 DR. DUFF’S I.ETl'EKS ON INDIA. 
 
 of an ffidipus and the patient philosophy of a 
 Bacon, would be alike at fault in arriving at 
 any definite or satisfactory conclusion. 
 
 The proposed investigation, tl,ien, is utterly 
 impracticable. But, even were it otherwise, 
 we must hold the end to be wholly inexpedient. 
 For, supposing we could definitely fi.x the 
 boundaries between violative and non-violative 
 caste customs and usages, and be thereby en- 
 abled to mould and fashion our conduct towards 
 it accordingly — slighting the latter, and scru- 
 pulously attending’ to the former — would not 
 such a course of action place ns, as a professed- 
 ly Christian Government, in a false position ? 
 AVould it not be virtually to acknowledge, or 
 rather directly to sanction, all that is religiously 
 most odious in caste ? However specious our 
 representation of the matter, would it not, in 
 the estimation of the natives, be lending our 
 countenance and authority .to that which we 
 professed to believe to be a lie against God the 
 Creator, and a lie against the authoritative 
 revelation of His Holy Word ? Would we not 
 thus be committed to the sinister policy of up- 
 holding much at least of what we know to be 
 wrong in itself and injurious in its effects? 
 For, in point of fact, has not caste, even in the 
 judgment of many of the more candid of its 
 iavorers and palliators, tended, in all ages, un- 
 der all changes of djmasty, and amid circum 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 359 
 
 stances the most diverse, to cramp and paralyze 
 the vigor of the mental faculties — to retard, if 
 not wholly obstruct, the progress of civilization, 
 to arrest and freeze up the genial current of 
 benevolent feeling, and saturate the whole soul 
 with an isolating, accursed selfishness — to ex- 
 tinguish every spark of true patriotism, and 
 quench all zeal in the promotion of joint enter- 
 prises of public utility — to banish alike the 
 conception and reality of human duties and 
 virtues, or duties and virtues pertaining to 
 man, as man ; to defeat the ends of truth and 
 righteousness between man and man, and aid 
 and abet the notorious national habits of cruel- 
 ty and perjury : to form and consolidate, as by 
 the spell of a free-masonry, those harpy-like 
 fraternities of religious mendicants, and other 
 unproductive classes, that gorge themselves on 
 the very life-blood of the industrious throughout 
 the land — to facilitate the associated aggrega- 
 tion of Dakoits, Thugs, and other desperate 
 confederacies for tlie commission of deadly 
 crimes ; to foster and encourage secret cabals, 
 plots, and conspiracies, that may burst forth in 
 a tempest of conllagration and rapine, massacre 
 and blood ; to externalize all morality, convert- 
 ing it into a ceaseless round of forms, rites, and 
 ceremonies, the most puerile, unmeaning, and 
 degrading ; thus practically annihilating all 
 moral distinctions, leaving the people witliout a 
 
360 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 conscience, and the universe without a God or 
 Righteous Moral Governor ? 
 
 Are we, then, prepared knowingly to incur 
 all this tremendous guilt ? And yet incur it 
 we must, if we voluntarily assume the ofBce 
 and encounter the task of attempting to bring 
 caste within even the most moderate dimen- 
 sions, and reduce it to the reputedly divine 
 standard of the Shastras ; or, what is the same 
 thing, if we attempt merely to limit its claims, 
 curb its pretensions, and regulate its usages — 
 deciding which we shall own and permit as 
 lawful, and which we shall disown and forbid 
 as unlawful ! 
 
 We cannot with safety, credit, or consisten- 
 cj, pursue such a regulating middle course ; 
 since to attempt to regulate, whether it be to 
 adjust by rule or subject to rules, is surely to 
 ratify and confirm the thing regulated — to give 
 it at once validity and authority. And, in the 
 case of caste, what would this be, but, as a 
 Christian Government, formally to sanction a 
 vast deal of what we know to be false and mis- 
 chievous, derogatory to the honor of God, and 
 subversive of the best interests of man ; and, 
 consequently, with a bold and impious audacity, 
 to assume all the guilt that is involved in it ? 
 
 We could not, like the nominally Christian 
 rulers of a former generation, regulate the 
 forms and ceremonies of the Hindu temple 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 361 
 
 worship, without plainly infringing the letter 
 and spirit of the first table of the Decalogue. 
 
 W e could not, as the British Government once 
 did, regulate the rite of Suttee, or widow-burn- 
 ing, so as to restrict it to cases of purely spon- 
 taneous self-devotion, without sanctioning pal- 
 pable transgressions of the fifth and sixth com- 
 mandments. 
 
 We could not, like the old Hindu legislators, 
 or the modern Parisian and other Continental 
 authorities, undertake to regulate houses of 
 infamy and wages of iniquity, without seem- 
 ingly countenancing systematized infractions 
 of the seventh commandment. 
 
 We could not, like the Indian rajahs and petty 
 chiefs, regulate the proceedings of professional 
 robber bands, without manifestly conniving at 
 the open violation of the eighth commandment. 
 
 We could not, like the Hindu Shastras, regu- 
 late the instances of legitimate and illegitimate 
 lying, with reference to particular castes and 
 contemplated benefits, without lending our sanc- 
 tion to many positive violations of the ninth 
 commandment. 
 
 We could not, like the former European Pow- 
 ers, regulate the odious slave-trade, without 
 setting at open defiance the tenth, and almost 
 every other commandment of the second table 
 of the moral law. 
 
 In like manner, we could not attempt to regu- 
 31 
 
362 
 
 DR. DUFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA. 
 
 late caste, with its heathenish usages and cus- 
 toms, without, in reality, conceding the truth of 
 what flatly contradicts the clearest dictates of 
 Jehovah’s holy oracles, offers the most fatal 
 obstacles to the humbling lessons of the gospel, 
 and stoutly contravenes the purposes of heaven, 
 in working out the regeneration and ultimately 
 ensuring the manifested brotlierhood of univer- 
 sal man. 
 
 And let it not be attempted to set aside or 
 weaken the force of this conclusion on the os- 
 tensible ground of its being one-sided, or of the 
 nature of a special pleading. We are not igno- 
 rant of what has been advanced in favor of 
 caste, alike by natives and Europeans. But 
 after having carefully pondered the whole mat- 
 ter, we have no hesitation whatever in saying, 
 that to set up any or all of its alleged benefits 
 as a counterpoise to its real, manifold, and ter- 
 rible evils, is neither better nor wiser than it 
 would be to throw a mole-hill into one scale 
 of the balance, as a fitting counterpoise to the 
 Alps, tlie Andes, or the Himalayas, in the 
 other ! 
 
 What, then, is to be done ivith caste ? After 
 all that has now been stated, and much more to 
 the same effect that might be adduced, it would 
 seem that, as a Christian Government, we are 
 shut up to but one consistent and ptracticabl e line 
 of action — even tliat of solemnly resolving to have 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 3(i3 
 
 nothing whatever to do with caste, to wash our 
 hands in innocency concerning it, and,, in every 
 possible way, simply to ignore its existence alto- 
 gether. 
 
 Not that we would urge an exterminating 
 crusade against caste or its peculiar usages ; 
 far, very far from it. Let there be no direct or 
 violent attack, by the arm of secular power, on 
 it or any of its usages. So long as our native 
 fellow-subjects are in darkness, and know and 
 feel, and believe no better, let them retain and 
 freely practice what usages and customs they 
 please, so far as these do not interfere with the 
 ]>eace and order of society, or openly trench on 
 the grand fundamental laws of general morality. 
 But, while we would studiously abstain from all 
 forcible or sinister means of inducing or com- 
 pelling them to tear asunder and cast away the 
 encumbering fetters of caste, let us be scrupu- 
 lously careful, both in word and deed, to refrain 
 from aught that would confound bare tolerance 
 with favoring approbation — simple liberty of 
 conscience with formal sanction of law. 
 
 Instead of fencing round caste, as heretofore, 
 with favors and prerogatives, let us, by practi- 
 cally not recognizing it at all, denude it of all 
 special favors and prerogatives. Instead of 
 scouting, as formerly, the most ordinary claims 
 of religious toleration — instead of fawning on 
 Mohammedans and high-caste Hindus, and in- 
 
364 
 
 DK. duff’s LETl'EKS ON INDIA. 
 
 flicting the grossest stigma and injustice on all 
 bearing the Christian name, declaring the for- 
 mer alone to be eligible to all offices of respect- 
 ability, emolument, and trust — civil and mili- 
 tary — and ignominionslj'^ extruding the latter 
 by prohibitory regulations ; yea, and when 
 any of the laws on the subject may have been 
 relaxed, modified, or annulled — instead of still 
 throwing, as in times past, all possible encour- 
 agements in the way of the former, and all 
 imaginable discouragements in the way of the 
 latter — let us henceforth proclaim it to all India 
 and the world, that in future we are, as a Gov- 
 ernment, to have nothing whatever to do with 
 caste, as such — that we are to ask no questions 
 concerning it — that we are to look to the highest 
 qualifications for the particular business in view, 
 and to these alone, as the determining elements 
 in the selection of candidates. Let us honestly 
 act out the spirit and intent of such a procla- 
 mation, by practically proving to India and the 
 world, that whosoever brings the most eminent 
 qualifications into the labor market throughout 
 every department — military, judicial, fiscal, po- 
 lice, or educational — must thereby ensure a 
 decided preference, and fetch the highest price. 
 And let it further be made to be felt, that men- 
 tal attainments original and acquired, as well 
 as official aptitude actual or potential, being 
 equal, he will be the object of choice whose 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 3G5 
 
 moral character, not in the Hindu ceremonial 
 sense, but in the true European or Cliristian 
 sense, is best establislicd ; or whose openly 
 avowed and consistently professed moral and 
 relin^ious principles may furnish the surest guar- 
 antee for uprightness and conscientiousness in 
 the discharge of duty. 
 
 In actually carrying out such an ordinance, 
 let it be decreed that in registering the names of 
 successful candidates, their proper names alone, 
 and not, as most frequently hitherto, their caste 
 be officially recorded; or if, in addition to the 
 bare name, there be columns for place of nativ- 
 ity, seminary of education, or an}' other item of 
 identification, let it still be peremptorily forbid- 
 den to have any separate column for caste* 
 
 In these several ways, let caste, without any 
 violent or fi)i'cible interference, be simply and 
 absolutely ignored by our Christian Government 
 in connexion with the hundreds of thousands of 
 offices at its disposal throughout every branch 
 of the public service, and the effect will, in time, 
 be found vastly to exceed the apparent small- 
 ness and simplicity of the means. The mere 
 fact of such universal and continuous non-recog- 
 nition of caste by the paramount and sovereign 
 power will silently operate on the Asiatic mind 
 
 ♦ This l8 meant to apply exclusively to the registering of the names 
 of successful candidates for office; and is not designed to extend to 
 registers connected with general tUitiHtictiJ purposes. 
 
 31 *= 
 
366 
 
 DR. duff’s LEITERS ON INDIA. 
 
 as by a slow but steady process of attrition ; and, 
 along with other and more potent influences, will 
 eventually succeed in reducing its once lofty 
 and proud pretensions into something like a 
 fluent, or constantly diminishing and finally 
 evanescent, quantity. 
 
 Besides its simplicity and practicability, the 
 grand advantage of adopting such a course is, 
 that it obviously involves no violence to reli- 
 gious scruple — no restraint on liberty' of con- 
 science. The real nature of every particular 
 service, its requisitions, its peculiarities, its 
 advantages and disadvantages, must be well 
 known. Every man who thinks himself quali- 
 fied is free to offer himself as a candidate. There 
 is no compulsion, direct or indirect. Only, if 
 any one does enter on any special line of service, 
 he must be prepared faithfullj’^ to discharge all 
 duties associated with it, and bear with, or con- 
 form to, all its resulting accessories and in- 
 separable concomitants. Let him be made as- 
 suredly to understand that, having once been 
 admitted into any post or office, from the lowest 
 to the highest, no excuse for the non-perform- 
 ance of any of the duties properly connected 
 therewith, on the score of interference with 
 caste, or any other usages whatsoever, will for 
 a moment be listened to or tolerated. Of the 
 nature of any such interference, real or sup- 
 posed, he himself is left to be the sole and 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 367 
 
 indisputable judge. If he has settled it in his 
 own mind, previous to engagement, that the 
 discharge of the required duties is compatible 
 with what he considers as the maintenance of 
 caste-purity, good and well ; but if otherwise, 
 then he has only to hold back, and not bring 
 himself within the fatal circle of temptation, to 
 stain or tarnish it by contact with aught that is 
 weakly or credulously imagined to be polluting. 
 
 What has been here suggested as the proper 
 practical course to be pursued accords substan- 
 tially with the recent order of Sir John Law- 
 rence in the Punjaub. “The system of caste,” 
 says that noble document, “ can no longer be 
 permitted to rule in our services. Soldiers and 
 Government servants of every class, must be 
 entertained for their merits, irrespective of 
 creed, caste, or class. The native Christians 
 as a body have, with rare exceptions, been set 
 aside. I know not one in tlie Punjaub (to our 
 disgrace be it said) in any employment under 
 Government. A proposition to embody these in 
 the public service six months ago would have 
 been received with coldness ; but a change- has 
 come, and I believe there are a few who will 
 not eagerly employ those native Cliristians com- 
 petent to fill appointments. I consider I sliould 
 be wanting in my duty at this crisis if I did not 
 endeavor to secure a portion of the numerous 
 appointments in the judicial department to na- 
 
368 
 
 DR,' duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 tive Christians ; and I shall be happy (as far as 
 I can) to advance their interests, equally with 
 those of the Mohammedan and Hindu candi- 
 dates. Their future promotion must depend on 
 their own merits. I shall therefore feel obliged 
 by each missionary favoring me with a list of 
 the native Christians belonging to them, who, in 
 their opinion, are fit for the public service.” 
 
 AVhat is now required is, that an order, some- 
 what similar to this in its spirit, scope, and lead- 
 ing object, but still more comprehensive in its 
 range, and explicit in its terms, should be au- 
 thoritatively promulgated for all India. 
 
 The case of jail discipline is the only one not 
 included in the preceding remarks. But though 
 in some respects peculiar, it ought to form no 
 exception from the general rule of action now 
 laid down. That in times past, caste, notwith- 
 standing some partial attempts at reform, has 
 been basely and indecently succumbed to in our 
 Indian jails, is as lamentabl3' humiliating as it 
 is true. To prevent contamination, the prison- 
 ers have been allowed to purchase their own ar- 
 ticles of diet, to cook and partake of their own 
 food separately, to drink exclusively from their 
 own lotas or brazen cups, &c. — in sliort, to prac- 
 tice and preserve inviolate all the minutiae and 
 mummeries of the caste system. The other day 
 the editor of the Christian Intelligencer, a cler- 
 g3’man of the Church of England, stated that he 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 369 
 
 himself had witnessed, about a year ago, a cul- 
 pable piece of truckling to caste in one of the 
 great central jails of the North-West. Accom- 
 panied by a large party, he visited the jail in 
 question. In one of the cells or rooms was a 
 large circular platform made of wood. On this 
 platform two men were busily engaged knead- 
 ing bread. A little girl, one of the party, acci- 
 dentally touched this flatfonn with her foot. She 
 did not touch the meal, or go within a yard of 
 the men. But they at once became insolent, re- 
 fused to prepare the bread, and complained to 
 the governor of the jail. The governor ordered 
 all the meal to he thrown away and fresh to he 
 given ! The governor, poor man, could not help 
 liirnself. He said if he had not yielded, there 
 would have been a rebellion in the jail, and he 
 had no force at hand to repress a rebellion 1 
 That caste usages should be obsequiously 
 yielded to in the case of otherwise well-behaved 
 citizens, is bad enough ; but that these should 
 be so unworthily submitted to in the case of 
 felons or condemned criminals, must surely be 
 pronounced the very climax of sinful weakness I 
 Verily, it is high time that caste should be offi- 
 cially ignored in jail, as well as everywhere else; 
 that the whole of the old system of caste regu- 
 lation should everywhere cease. Under it jail 
 imprisonment, so far from being dreaded, has 
 become a bed of luxurious repose to tens of 
 
370 
 
 DR. DI FF’S I.E'ITERS ON INDIA. 
 
 thousands of evil-doing, indolent Asiatics. Let 
 it cease, and jail imprisonment will soon become 
 what it ought ever to be, an object of real ter- 
 ror, fitted, not, as now, to encourage, but to 
 scare away from the commission of crime. 
 Lender it, that is accounted sin which is no sin, 
 and that as no sin which is most heinous in the 
 sight of a holy God. Let it cease, and we at 
 least shall no longer be guiltj' of fostering the 
 fatal delusion that caste is character ; that a 
 rigorous attention to its external observances 
 alone constitutes respectabilitj’ ; and that, 
 whereas the contact of a little girl with the 
 very platform on which convict food is prepared 
 must defile the criminal, Ij'ing, perjurj', theft, 
 and murder, occasion no defilement at all ! 
 
 It were foreign to the purpose of this paper 
 to refer to the modes in which private individu- 
 als, in their domestic and social economy, ought 
 to deal with caste. Suffice it to say, that the 
 grand principle of ignoring it to the uttermost is 
 as applicable to them as to the Government. It 
 behooves us all, however, to remember that 
 though this ignoring, consistently, and univer- 
 sally acted out, may, and indeed, must, help 
 somewhat to abate its noxious influence, it can- 
 not of itself wholly eradicate it. Ah, no ! It 
 is too old, too inveterate, too deeply seated, too 
 widely extended in its ramifications to give way 
 to any power that is merely human. It reaches 
 
LK'rrEK XXI. 
 
 371 
 
 to the unborn child ; it directs the nursing of 
 tlie infant ; it shapes the training of youth ; it 
 regulates the actions of manhood ; it settles the 
 attributes of old age. It enters into and modi- 
 fies every relationship of life ; it moulds and 
 gives complexion to every department of socie- 
 ty. Food, and raiment, and exercise, and the 
 verj' functions of nature, must obey its sover- 
 eign voice. With every personal habit, every 
 domestic usage, every social custom, it is in- 
 separably interwoven. From the cradle to the 
 funeral pile, it sits like a presiding genius at 
 the helm, guiding, directing, determining every 
 movement of the inner and the outer man. 
 Beyond the ashes of the funeral pile, it follows 
 tlic disembodied spirit to “ the world of shades.” 
 and fixes its destiny there. It communicates 
 itself to all the parts of a living idolatry ; chains 
 each in an unchangeable position ; and cements 
 the whole into one close and rock-like body. 
 
 What then can exorcise this Demon Spirit of 
 caste ? Nothing, nothing but the mighty power 
 of the Spirit of God, cjuickening, renewing, and 
 sanctifying the whole Hindu soul 1 It is grace, 
 and not argument — regeneration of nature, and 
 not any improved policy of Government — in a 
 word, the gospel, the everlasting gospel, and 
 that alone, savingly brought home by the energy 
 of Jehovah’s Spirit, that can effectually root out 
 and destroy the gigantic evil. And it is the 
 
372 
 
 DE. duff's LETTEES ON INDIA. 
 
 same energy, in working through the same gos- 
 pel of grace and salvation, that can and will 
 root out and destroy the other monster evil 
 under which India still groans — Idolatry, with 
 its grim satellite Superstition. 
 
 As caste and idolatry sprang up together from 
 the same rank soil of old nature — growing with 
 each other’s growth, and strengthening with 
 each other’s strength — luxuriating in mutual 
 embrace and mysterious wedlock for untold 
 ages— flinging abroad their arms, “branching so 
 broad and long” as to smite the whole land with 
 the blight of their portentous shadow — both are 
 destined to fall together. The same cause will 
 inevitably prove the ruin of both. The same 
 light of sound knowledge, human and divine, 
 accompanied by the grace of God’s Spirit, wdll 
 expose the utter folly and irrationality of idol- 
 atry and superstition, and, at one and the same 
 time, lay bare the cruelty and injustice of that 
 strange, half-natural, half-artificial caste system 
 which has done so much to uphold them. Then 
 v.ill the stupendous fabric of idolatry be seen 
 falling down like Dagou before the Ark of the 
 living God ; while the antisocial tyrannous 
 dominion of caste will be resented, abhorred, 
 and trampled under foot with an indignation 
 not lessened by the reflection that, over ages 
 and generations without number, it hath already 
 swayed undisturbed the sceptre of a ruthless dos- 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 373 
 
 potism, which ground men down to the condi- 
 tion of irrationals, and strove to keep them 
 there with the rigor of a merciless necessity. 
 
 Oh that the Protestant Churches of Britain, 
 America, and the European Continent would 
 awake and arise to the responsibilities of pres- 
 ent duty, the height of present opportunity ! 
 What triumphs might we then, under God ex- 
 pect to accrue to the Redeemer’s cause in India ! 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 32 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
LETTER XXII. 
 
 Calcutta, 9th March, 1858. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — In a communication 
 dispatched about a month ago by the unfor- 
 tunate Ava, now wrecked on the rocks near 
 Trincomalee, oIF Ce 3 'lon, I was led to remark, 
 that the earnest discussions at home had won- 
 derfully quickened the sensibilities of our Indian 
 rulers. To the illustrations then furnished I 
 have now to add another. In my last [which 
 appeared in the Witness of Wednesday the 7th 
 April] I quoted a passage Irom a letter which 
 Mr. Marshman had addressed to the Friend of 
 India, relative to a Bengali class-book on geog- 
 raphy, in which the conduct of the Indian Gov- 
 ernment was reflected on. In one of our daily 
 journals appeared, on the 27th February, an 
 elaborate explanatory minute on the subject, by 
 no less a personage than the Governor of Ben- 
 gal, together with an equally elaborate “ Note,” 
 by Mr. Buckland, Junior Secretary to the Ben- 
 gal Government. Having already adverted to 
 the matter, I think it just to furnish the sub- 
 stance of the explanation. 
 
 As regards the Governor himself, it is but 
 [374] 
 
LEITEK XXII. 
 
 375 
 
 right to state that his defence is a complete one. 
 He knew nothing whatever of the transaction. 
 The Secretary does not escape so well. At the 
 outset he states that the “ Lieutenant-Governor 
 is aware that in the enormous mass of corres- 
 pondence which passes through the Bengal 
 office, it is customary for the secretaries to dis- 
 pose of many cases of mere routine or slight 
 importance, or in which the Secretary has reason 
 to be sure of the opinion of the Lieutenant- 
 Governor, and can therefore state it with confi- 
 dence.” The leading facts of the case were the 
 following : “A native publisher at Serampore, 
 Srinath Dey, applied to Mr. Buckland to secure 
 the Governor’s patronage to certain vernacular 
 works, including a geography. These were 
 handed over to Pundit Ishwur Chunder Bidj'- 
 asaugor, Principal of the Sanscrit College, for 
 a Report. The Report, when given in, contain- 
 ed this passage : “As regards the last book — 
 the Companion to Geography — I beg to observe, 
 that the remarks made in the preceding para- 
 graph with reference to the style of the books 
 on the electric telegrapli and railways apply 
 equally to this work. There u, in addition, 
 another serious objection to this booh ; in several 
 places it reflects on the notions on the subjects as 
 inculcated in the religious books of the Hindus. 
 I cannot therefore recommend its adoption as a 
 class-book.” 
 
376 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 A copy of the Pundit’s Report was sent to 
 the publisher, who, on the 15th of December 
 last, again thus addressed the Secretaiy ; “ I 
 have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of 
 your letter of the 9th ultimo, conveying the re- 
 fusal of the Government to take any copies of 
 my ‘ Geography in Bengali.’ I presume to re- 
 quest that the Government of Bengal will re- 
 consider the matter. The argument olfered 
 against the book is by Pundit Ishwur Chunder 
 Bidyasaugor. He says it is contrary to the Shas- 
 tras. Is it desired that the school geography 
 should be in consonanee with the Shastras ? — 
 should speak of six seas of milk, place Benares 
 in the centre of the earth, and put the earth itself 
 on a tortoise's hack T' Tlie imputation liere so 
 distinctly thrown out hj' the native publisher, it 
 is admitted, never was repudiated,. Hence, 
 doubtless, the influence of Lord Shaftesbury, Mr. 
 Marshrnan, and others. But, tbough the Gov- 
 ernment, as such, must be held to be guiltless 
 in this matter, one result, as the Friend of India 
 has justly remarked, of the controversy is “ to 
 demonstrate the utter unfitness of natives for 
 the higher educational ofSces. A man who, 
 like Ishwur Chunder, can assign the Shastras 
 as the reason for rejecting a geographj^ is, by 
 incurable mental prejudice unfit for his position. 
 This is precisely the evil of which the English 
 public complains. Xohody accuses English- 
 
LETTER XXII. 
 
 377 
 
 men of believing these absurdities, but the 
 Governments of India have always had a tenden- 
 cy to submit their own consciences to native dicta- 
 tion in the matter.'” 
 
 It was only the other day that the Lahore 
 Chronicle brought us the following divisional 
 order, issued at Multan, 20th September, 1857 : 
 “No. 459. — The 69th regiment, N.I., have 
 permission to hold their usual ‘ Nishanka-puja’ 
 to-day, this being the Dussera Festival. The 
 procession, with the band and colors, will march 
 round their own lines about five o’clock p.m. 
 The European ojficer of the day will be present 
 with the men.” 
 
 By the editor it is added, that “ two officers of 
 the Q9th regiment N.I. attended this military dis- 
 play, and were decorated with garlands of flowers. 
 The corps was disarmed early in June, and the 
 subadar major and ten other men were blown 
 away from guns for mutiny.” 
 
 Facts like these tend to show how much 
 reason there is still to watch the conduct of our 
 Indian Governments and their subordinates in 
 their practical dealing's with idolatry. The 
 office, therefore, assumed by the Societies re- 
 cently formed in Edinburgh and London is not 
 likely, for many a day, to prove a sinecure one. 
 There is still a great deal more to be done than 
 most people seem to bo aware of, in completely 
 severing tlie connection of our Government with 
 32* 
 
378 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 the mosques, and saintly tombs, and idolatious 
 shrines of India. Even in Bengal, our hands 
 are by no means so clear as had been imagined. 
 In Jessore, to the east of Calcutta; in Gya, 
 Behar; in Tirhut and Purnea, northern Bengal; 
 in many places in the North-Western Provinces 
 — facts have come to light which will demand 
 serious attention. But to these, at present, I 
 cannot more particularly advert. 
 
 JUOGERNATH. 
 
 The grand fact to which I now desire to draw 
 special notice is, the final settlement of the long 
 outstanding question of our once odious connec- 
 tion with the celebrated temple of Juggernath in 
 Orissa. The other day, a deed was drawn up 
 and signed by the Governor of Bengal, which 
 finally disposes of the whole subject. The fol- 
 lowing extract from this de^d clearly sets forth 
 tlie nature of the terms of this long wished-for 
 adjustment: 
 
 1. Whereas it has for many years been the desire of 
 Government that its connection with the temple of Jugger- 
 nath should cease entirely and for ever, and, in pursuance 
 of such desire, various measures have at different times been 
 taken for the severance of such connection ; and whereas it 
 has been considered necessary, for the purpose of completing 
 the said desire of Government, tliat tlie money allowance 
 now annually paid from the treasury of Pooree should bo 
 commuted for an equivalent in land, the following recital of 
 
I.inTEK XXII. 
 
 379 
 
 the measures referred to, and the orders of Government in 
 respect to the said commutation, is hereby recorded : 
 
 2. Previous to the enactment of Act X. of 1840, the ex- 
 penses of the temple, averaging about Rs. 53,000 per annum, 
 were paid by the Government, who levied a tax on pilgrims, 
 and was also in possession of the former endowments of the 
 temple, which had gradually been reduced soon after the 
 conquest of the province of Orissa in 1803. 
 
 3. By the act in question, the pilgrim-tax was abolished, 
 and the management of the affairs of the temple made over 
 to the Rajah of Khoordah for the time being — the annual 
 payments on account of its expenses being continued as 
 before. 
 
 4. In 1843 the e.state of Sast.'iees Haz'ireemehal, yielding 
 an annual revenue of Rs. 17,420, and which was tlie la.st 
 remaining portion of the landed endowment of the temple at 
 the time of the acquisition of the province in 1803, was made 
 over to the Rajah of Khoordah, as superintendent of the 
 temple, and the annual money payment by Government was 
 henceforth reduced to Rs. 35,738, 7, 0. 
 
 5. In 1 845, on an investigation into the nature of the pay- 
 ments to the Juggernath temple, it was proved that 23,321 
 rupees represented partly certain assignments of revenue 
 granted by former Rajahs of Berar, and constituting, there- 
 fore, an endowment; and partly certain Sayer duties, formerly 
 collected on behalf of the temple, and on account of which 
 compensation was due, in the same way as to the other land- 
 holders of the province ; while the balance was merely a 
 donation, which the Government was not bound to continue 
 the payment of, especially as the pilgrim-tax had been 
 abolished. It was therefore decided that the annual pay- 
 ment should be reduced to 23,321 rupees, being the amount 
 of the resumed endowment and compensation for Sayer re- 
 ferred to. 
 
 6. In 1856, owing to the culpable neglect of the supenn- 
 teudent of the temple, it was found necessary, for the protec- 
 
380 
 
 BR. BUFF’S I.ETTF.RS ON INBIA. 
 
 tion of the pilgrims, to appoint a police establishment, at an 
 annual expense of 6804 rupees, which, being deducted from 
 the annual payment by Government, this latter became re- 
 duced to 16,517 rupees. 
 
 7. The Government has now decided on making no more 
 annual payments, after the close of the present Umlee year, 
 1Q64, but to transfer, from the commencement of 1265 Umlee, 
 certain lands yielding an equivalent to the sum of 16,517 
 rupees. 
 
 8. No inquiry will hereafter be made by any of the officers 
 of Government, under any circumstances whatever, regard- 
 ing alleged injury to the crops or to the land by drought, 
 inundation, or other cause. 
 
 9. The lands thus transferred are to be made over to the 
 Rajah of Khoordah. as superintendent of the temple of Jug- 
 gemath, to be held by him in trust for the temple, and also 
 by his successors, so long as they shall continue to hold the 
 said office of superintendent. 
 
 10. In accordance with the orders of Government, the fol- 
 lowing lands belonging to the e.state called Killah Khoordah, 
 the property of Government, are now transferred for the pur- 
 poses mentioned: 
 
 Sadder Jumma. 
 
 1. Whole of Zillah Tupping . . Rs. 
 
 14,327 
 
 1 
 
 3i 
 
 2. Out of Zillah Ramessur the follow- 
 
 
 
 
 ing three villages: 
 
 
 
 
 (1.) Gur Mantuo, 
 
 740 
 
 1 
 
 lOJ 
 
 (2.) Gur Purrichal, 
 
 1,612 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 (3.) Mavazeat Madliubpore, 
 
 147 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 16,827 
 
 4 
 
 10| 
 
 The total Sudder Jumma, according to a settlement recently 
 made, being Rs. 16,827 4 lOJ, being an increase over the 
 present annual pa}'ment of 310 4 10|, which is granted in 
 consideration. 
 
LETTER XXII. 
 
 381 
 
 Isc, Of the average annual losses from inundation in Zillah 
 Tupping, being Rs. 104 9 4. 
 
 2d, Of the Sudder expenses of collection, being Rs. 17 a 
 month, or per annum, Rs. 204. 
 
 3d, Of the difference being a fractional one, viz., 1 11 6|. 
 
 11. Tlieso lauds having been recently settled, and engage- 
 ments entered into with the Surburakurs and tenantry, any 
 interference therewith will be illegal; no one can be ousted 
 so long as rent is paid according to such engagements, and no 
 increased rent can be demanded. 
 
 12. The engagements referred to are recorded in two 
 registry books, one of which will be made over to the 
 Rajah 6f Khoordah, on Ins requiring it from the Collector of 
 Pooree. 
 
 13. And it is hereby declared that from the time of the 
 transfer of the said lands, the Government have no further 
 connection, direct or indirect, with the affairs of the temple 
 of Juggernath, its management, revenue.s, or otherwise. And 
 that the Rajah of Khoordah, in his capacity of superintend- 
 ent, is solely responsible for the due application of its revenue, 
 and the due administration of its affairs. 
 
 It is possible that at home this final settle- 
 ment may not be considered as in all respects 
 satisfactory. Tlie giving over of certain lands 
 for the use of the temple has a somewhat ugly 
 and unpleasant look about it. And it would be 
 really unpleasant and sinful, were it of the 
 nature of an original endowment, or merely 
 gratuitous donation. But the aspect of the case 
 is wholly altered, when it is remembered that it 
 is purely and simply of the nature of a restitu- 
 tion. It is no part of the duty of Christian in- 
 
382 
 
 DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 dividnals or Christian Governments to be rob- 
 befs of heathen temples or of temple lands. All 
 Governments are but the guardians of property 
 — whether public or private — not the dictator- 
 judges of the use to which it ought to be ap- 
 plied. When our Government, by right of con- 
 quest, took possession of the province of Orissa, 
 the right and proper course would have been to 
 have nothing whatever to do with Juggernath, 
 its temple, or its temple lands ; -but to let the 
 superintendent and the priests manage their 
 own affairs, and deal with their endowments 
 just as they pleased. Our Government, how- 
 ever, acting under a different policy, was led, 
 in an evil hour, to assume all the obligations 
 which had been previously discharged by the 
 heathen rulers. 
 
 On the part of the latter it was very natural 
 and congruous that they should confer donations, 
 bestow lands, and, in order to increase the eclat 
 of the temple, to undertake the management of 
 its affairs. On the part of a Christian Govern- 
 ment such a course was unnatural, incongruous, 
 and altogether wrong. Yet such was the course 
 pursued by our Government. The temple lands 
 and other endowments were taken possession 
 of, and better managed than they would have 
 been by the priests themselves for the benefit 
 of the temple ; and a sum equal to their esti- 
 mated value was annually paid out of the pub- 
 
LETTER XXII. 
 
 383 
 
 lie treasury. The great object now has been to 
 retrace these false steps ; and, where land or 
 other endowments had been absorbed into the 
 general revenues of the State, to restore these, 
 when known, or their equivalent, when un- 
 known, to the superintendents and priests, 
 leaving these hereafter to do vrith them as they 
 please. 
 
 The case of Juggernath is only a typo of 
 what was formerly done, on a great scale, 
 throughout the Madras and Bombay Presiden- 
 cies. There, in many instances, money pay- 
 ments, in lieu of absorbed endowments, con- 
 tinue still to be paid out of the public treasury. 
 Let the British people insist on these being all 
 ended ; if in no other way, by an arrangement 
 similar to what has now been consummated in 
 the case of Juggernath — making, however, a 
 clear distinction between bona fide landed and 
 other endowments, and the voluntary donations 
 of former heathen princes. 
 
 GENERAL NEAVS. 
 
 Turning now briefly to other matters. Last 
 week our Calcutta community was visited with 
 two unexpected shocks. On Monday evening a 
 telegram from Madras announced the wreck of 
 the steamer “Ava,” with the 10th February 
 mails on board, near Trincomalee, Ceylon ; the 
 
384 
 
 DR. DUFF'S LETIFRS ON INDIA. 
 
 passengers all saved ; bnt the mails all lost ! 
 As the public journals are sure to give you all 
 the particulars that can be known to us, I need 
 refer no further to this ^ad disaster. Oulj^ this 
 I must say, that, as many of the passengers 
 consisted of ladies and officers belonging to the 
 heroic garrison of Lucknow — most of them 
 sicklj% and several wounded — our very hearts 
 are bleeding with sj'mpathy in their behalf — 
 exposed as they have thus been so unexpectedly 
 to fresh sufferings. May a gracious God and 
 Father sanctify these successive strokes of 
 ^affliction for the benefit of their precious souls ! 
 
 Again, on Tuesda}’ evening, a telegram from 
 Barrackpore announced that numbers of the 
 disarmed sepoys were “ bolting” ; that their 
 destination was supposed to be Calcutta, and 
 that it would be well to keep a sharp look-out. 
 Accordingly, the whole of the volunteer corps 
 were roused — many of them out of bed — cen- 
 tral posts were occupied, and picquets planted 
 in different directions all night. Happily, no 
 disturbance took place. The arrest of a Rajah, 
 who had recently arrived here, aud in whose 
 house some five hundred muskets were found, 
 with the imprisonment of some other natives, 
 may be said to have been the chief issue of the 
 alarm. The occurrence of such an alarm, how- 
 ever, after all the triumphs and victories already 
 achieved, may well be regarded as a sure 
 
LETTER XXII. 
 
 385 
 
 indication of the sadly unsettled state of our 
 affairs. 
 
 Since our last mail left, several actions have 
 been fought in the North-West, and several im- 
 portant blows struck. On Sir James Outram’s 
 camp repeated attacks have been made, which 
 have all been repelled with comparatively little 
 loss to us, and veiy heavy loss to the enemy. 
 On one of these occasions, it is said that “ the 
 sepoys fought as they have not fought before, 
 throwing themselves flat on the ground, and 
 cutting furiously at tlie legs of the Europeans.” 
 On another occasion, it is said that they “charged 
 repeatedly, displaying a courage and persever- 
 ance which took the camp by surprise.” Not- 
 withstanding reported desertions, the numbers 
 of the enemy are declared to be not perceptibly 
 diminished. On the 25th ultimo they had to all 
 appearance thirty thousand men actually en- 
 gaged ; so that “the evidence in favor of a 
 desperate struggle for Lucknow appears to 
 strengthen daily.” 
 
 Two forts below Fyzabad, on the Gogra, 
 about eighty miles east of Lucknow, defended 
 by 4000 men, were recently attacked, and car- 
 ried by the naval brigade under Capt. Sotheby 
 — the garrison retreating towards Lucknow. 
 
 On the 23d ult., at Meahgunge, which lies to 
 the south-west of the road between Oawnpore 
 and Lucknow, General Hope Grant defeated a 
 33 
 
386 
 
 DK. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 body of eight thousand rebels, killing five hun- 
 dred, and capturing four guns. Of this armed 
 host, it was noted that not above a thousand 
 were sepoys. 
 
 But among the most brilliant successes of the 
 war must be noted a series of operations con- 
 ducted by General Franks, between the 19th 
 and 23d ultimo, not far from Sultanpore, on the 
 Gumti, upwards of a hundred miles to the south 
 of Lucknow. After various skilful manoeuvres 
 and partial actions. General Franks, with a 
 force of onlj’ 2500 Europeans and 3000 Nepau- 
 lese, attacked and defeated an army of 25,000, 
 with 1100 cavalry and twenty-five guns, killing 
 1800 men, among whom were several of the 
 leaders, and taking twenty guns, with the whole 
 of the camp, baggage, ammunition, and mate- 
 rials ! Of this armed host, it was noted that 
 only 5000 were sepoys. Surely, as a local 
 journalist has well remarked, “ it is no small 
 proof of the magnitude of this revolt that ac- 
 tions like these are simply episodes in the great 
 drama.” 
 
 Elsewhere, too, there are sad evidences of the 
 apparently undirninished power and resources 
 of the rebels. About a fortnight ago, the con- 
 voy from Agra, consisting of ladies and chil- 
 dren, with their escort, when a few miles from 
 Cawnpore, on the way to Allahabad, were has- 
 tily ordered back to the former place. And 
 
LETTER XXII. 
 
 387 
 
 why ? Because it was timeoiisly discovered 
 that Nenah Sahib, with a strong force, had 
 closely followed and watched them ; longing, 
 doubtless, for the opportunity to gloat over an- 
 other massacre of Oawnpore ! It has norv, 
 however, been announced that the convoy has 
 reached Allahabad in safety. 
 
 People have been wondering at the long 
 delay of the Commander-in-Chiers advance from 
 Cawnpore to Lucknow. Various plausible con- 
 jectures have been offered on the subject — most 
 of them probably having some few grains, more 
 or loss of truth in them. But the chief reason, 
 as currently believed in the best informed cir- 
 cles here, is this : At Calpee, on the Jumna, at 
 
 no great distance west from Cawnpore, the 
 Gwalior and other rebels have been re-assem- 
 bling in great force. Spies have been caught 
 with letters on their persons, asking informa- 
 tion of certain individuals at Cawnpore of the 
 exact state of our force at that place at {)resent, 
 and what it is likely to be when the great bulk 
 of our troops are engaged at Lucknow. From 
 all this the inference has been, that another 
 attack on Cawmpore is seriously contemplated 
 when our troops are before the doomed city. 
 And as it would be a fatal mistake to expose 
 Cawnpore to the repetition of a similar disaster 
 to what befel it when Sir Colin was at Lucknow 
 before, the prevailing belief is, that he has been 
 
388 
 
 DR. duff’s LEITERS ON INDIA. 
 
 Kept back until Cawnpovc and his rear gener- 
 ally could be properl}' secured. For this purpose 
 he has been looking to the force under Sir 
 Uugh Rose from Central India. Were that 
 force enabled to reach the neighborhood of Cal- 
 pee on tlie Jumna, and deal with the rebel hosts 
 there, Sir Colin would advance with the most 
 perfect confidence. But Sir Hugh’s force has 
 been retarded in its progress by the double dif- 
 ficulty in obtaining carriage and provisions. 
 Hence one main cause of Sir Colin’s long deten- 
 tion at Cawnpore. Meanwhile, fresh troops 
 have been reaching Cawnpore from the south ; 
 so that at last the Chief has ventured to leave 
 it for Lucknow. There he arrived on the 1st 
 instant. A letter of the 2d, just received from 
 the camp, describes in glowing terms the im- 
 posing appearance of the British forces as they 
 passed Sir James Outram’s camp. Already, by 
 telegraph, we have learnt that the first, grand 
 station in advance — the Dil-Kusha — has been 
 occupied, having been taken after a sharp con- 
 flict on the 3d. You will probably have abun- 
 dance of maps of Lucknow and its neighbor- 
 hood. If so, by referring to one of them you 
 will readily understand the position of the 
 British force, when I state that heavy picquets 
 of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, are to form 
 a chain of posts between Dil-Kusha and Alum- 
 bagh, on the one side ; that on the other side 
 
LElTEIt XXII. 
 
 389 
 
 of Dil-Kusha, and between it and the Martin- 
 iere, an entrenccd camp with ditch and breast- 
 work is to be formed, with two other lines from 
 the Martiniere and Dil-Knsha down to the river 
 (}nmti ; and that a bridge is to be constructed 
 over tlie river, to enable the British to form a 
 junction witli Jung Bahadur, and make a 
 stoop on any troops that may endeavor to leave 
 the city to oppose his advance. 
 
 Such is the substance of the latest intelligence 
 that has }'et re,ached us from the great central 
 seat of military operations. IIow we long fur 
 some decisive blow ! We are now on the very 
 edge of the hot season, and onr oflicers and men 
 will soon be exposed to a foe far more terrible 
 than all the Imsts of the rebels. ^lay the Lord 
 in mercy interpose, as in times past, for our de- 
 liverance ! 
 
 This morning it is credibly reported that the 
 miscreant Nena Sahib has joined the large body 
 of Calpee rebels, and is meditating a move on 
 the Dekhan, in the hope of rousing the Mahrat- 
 tas, among whom disaffection to a very large 
 extent is known to prevail. It is also credibly 
 stated that Kotah, in Central India, situated on 
 the Chumbul, about one hundred and fifty miles 
 S. E. from the city of Ajmir, is likely soon to 
 become the scene of deadly strife. The fort 
 and surrounding position are very strong and 
 difficult of approach. The city, the entrances 
 33 * 
 
390 
 
 DR. duff’s I.inTERS OX INDIA. 
 
 to which are protected hy double gateway's, 
 and the walls covered by an outer ditch, cut 
 out of the solid rock, is now garrisoned by some 
 seveti or eight thousand rebels, with more than a 
 hundred guns ! The Kajah jirofesses fidelity to 
 the British, but declares himself unable to expel 
 the rebels. A strong division is now on its way 
 against the place. What a comment does all 
 this furnish on the London papers which ven- 
 tured to declare, three or four months ago, that 
 the great rebellion wms then at an end ! — Yours 
 ever affectionately, 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
LETTER XXIII. 
 
 Calcutta, 13th March, IS.IS. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — To-day there is a mail 
 via Bombay. By it I send a few lines to report 
 progress. 
 
 On the 5th instant the naval brigade, which 
 went up the river Gogra to Fyzabad on the 
 eastern frontier of Oude, did, in conjunction 
 with a body of Ghoorkas or Nepaulese, gain a 
 victory over an army of rebels estimated at 20, 
 000, with sixteen guns, dispersing this great 
 host, capturing eight of the guns witli all their 
 ammunition, and killing three or four hundred 
 of the men. The rebels were headed by 
 Mahomined Ilossein, who had set himself up as 
 king at Gooruckpore. 
 
 In Central India Sir Hugh Rose (wlio lately 
 relieved Saugor on the Nerbudda), enabled at 
 last to move, forced a pass named in the tele- 
 gram “ Midnapore,” vigorously defended by four 
 or five thousand rebels, of whom only six or 
 seven hundi'ed were sepoys. This success gives 
 Sir Hugh command of the country to Jliansi — 
 the scene of one of the most horrid of all our 
 recent tragedies. 
 
 [ 391 ] 
 
393 
 
 DK. duff’s letters ON INDIA. 
 
 But all interest is now absorbed in Lucknow, 
 where the Cominander-in-Chief is making grad- 
 ual but decided progress again'st the multiplied 
 defences of the enemy. On the 6tli Sir James 
 Outram’s division crossed the Gumti, and, after 
 driving away the enemy, took up a position 
 across the Fyzabad road. On the 7th the rebels 
 came out in considerable force, and were repuls- 
 ed. The only casualty reported on our side is 
 that of Major Percy Smith, of the 2d Dragoon 
 Guards, killed. Sir Hope Grant then made a 
 wide sweep wdth cavalry and horse artillery to 
 the north-east, through the old British canton- 
 ments. On the 9th Sir James Outram’s attack 
 on the Kaiserbagh, or Budshah Bagh, or King’s 
 Gardens, was perfectly successful. No casual- 
 ties reported ; all that the telegram says is, 
 “ Loss on our side veiy trifling.” On the 10th 
 Sir Colin Campbell made another move towards 
 the devoted or doomed city, by occupying what 
 is called “Banks-house,” and taking up an 
 intended position in its front. 
 
 By looking at a map of Lucknow, which 
 stands on the western side of the Gumti, it will 
 at once appear that the city, by the 10th inst., 
 was very nearly completely surrounded by our 
 troops. Alumbagh is- on its west side, nearly 
 opposite the centre, on the way to Cawnpore. 
 The King’s Gardens is nearly opposite its cen- 
 tre, across the river on the east side. And all 
 
LEITEK XXIII. 
 
 393 
 
 around, from Alumbagh to the King’s Gardens, 
 by way of Dilkusha and Martiniere, is now a 
 living wall of Britisli troops. By the 10th inst. 
 it was only on the northern side that any means 
 of escape could be found. And probably by 
 this time that quarter also is closed in. If so, 
 the terrible work of destruction will have com- 
 menced in earnest ; and there seems no alterna- 
 tive between absolute extermination or uncon- 
 ditional surrender. 
 
 It is now that, in such a case, one begins to 
 realize the fact that righteousness is as positive 
 an attribute in the Godhead as mercy, and that 
 retributive justice has its claims as sui’ely as 
 compassion ; that the world is really under a 
 moral government ; and tliat, however great 
 the clemency, and long-suftering of the Supreme 
 Moral Governor, sooner or later the thunderbolt 
 of His righteous vengeance will smite into the 
 dust guilty cities and nations. More than once 
 I have alluded to Lucknow as perhaps the wick- 
 edest city in India. Apart altogetlier from re- 
 cent mutinies and massacres, it was, in strictest 
 literality, a very Sodom and Gomorrah of ini- 
 quity. The hard-won earnings of ground-down 
 and tortured ryots and villagers, the spoils of 
 cruelly ravaged districts and provinces, were 
 there consumed on monstrosities of wickedness 
 and vice which might almost put Pandemonium 
 itself to the blush. .\nd it now looks as if the 
 
394 
 
 DR. duff’s LEITEKS ON INDIA. 
 
 prophetic cry ouce raised over guilty Babylon 
 may soon be raised over the guilty capital of 
 Oude, “ How is Lucknow become a desolation 
 among the nations ?” 
 
 I would not be surprised, however, if a whole 
 host of puling, artistic sentimentalists would 
 raise a doleful lamentation over the downfall of 
 Lucknow. For there, as at Rome, the arts of 
 painting, statuary, and architecture, flourished 
 alongside of abominations worthy only of the 
 bottomless abyss. It was a city of palaces, 
 mosques, mausoleums, and magnificent gate- 
 ways, adorned by all that could be achieved by 
 the most consummate skill of Oriental painters, 
 architects, and statuaries. Mohammedanism, 
 in this respect, has done for the East what 
 Romanism has done for the world. Both have 
 carried the arts of regaling and luxuriating the 
 senses to probably' the highest perfection attain- 
 able on earth ; while both have in equal pro- 
 portion succeeded in drying up the fountains of 
 spirituality, and in banishing the very concep- 
 tion of the need of it from men’s minds. 
 
 The only other city in India wdiich, for aggra- 
 vated wickedness and vice, could be named 
 along with Lucknow, is Delhi — both essentially 
 Mohammedan, and both scourged as no other 
 cities in India have yet been in our day. And 
 when I think of the monstrous systems — theo- 
 retical and practical — which the public edifices 
 
LEri'KIt XXIII. 
 
 395 
 
 of both have symbolized and tended to perpetu- 
 ate, much as I have admired their outward 
 beauty and gorgeousness, I confess that I could 
 gaze at the ruins of them all without one feel- 
 ing of regret. It is surely high time that the 
 moral and the spiritual should gain the ascend- 
 ency in men’s minds, over the sensible and the 
 physical ; and that no degree of merely sensible 
 and physical beauty should be allowed to atone 
 for the absence or annihilation of the moral, the 
 spiritual, the divine. 
 
 There is another respect in which I have often 
 been struck with the parallelism between Popery 
 and Mohammedanism ; and that is, the fasci- 
 nating spell which both appear to exercise over 
 the souls of numbers who are not the votaries 
 of either. Each seems to carry a cup of sorce- 
 ries, wherewith to entice, subdue, and intoxicate 
 the worldlings of all creeds and nations. Our 
 Indian rulers and their subordinates have hith- 
 erto, for the Tnost part, acted towards Moham- 
 medans as if under some secret bewitching influ- 
 ence from their system. And have not British 
 rulers at home acted a like part towards Ko- 
 manists, as if under the fascination of some spell 
 emanating from their S3’stem ? Both are viru- 
 lently antichristian sj’stems ; and j’et profess- 
 edly Christian men have succumbed to both, as 
 to some rnj'sterious powers of enchantment. 
 Repeatedly, and through various channels, I 
 
396 
 
 UK. duff’s Lim’KKS ON INDIA. 
 
 have endeavored to draw attention to the fact, 
 that of late years the Government patronage of 
 Popery in India has been stealthily on the in- 
 crease. Of late it has been announced here, 
 that in certain quarters Government has assisted 
 in building Popish chapels — that Popish chap- 
 lains have been sent out from England at sala- 
 ries of Ks. 150 per month — and that, in addition 
 to their ordinary pay, there is to be a special 
 allowance of Es. 5 per day, for the e.xtra e.\- 
 penses of living and moving, whenever they 
 may be serving with troops in the field. 
 
 Now, there is little consistency in raising the 
 hue and cry in Great Britain about the truckling 
 Indian rulers to Brahminism and Mohammedan- 
 ism, if British rulers at home are to be allowed 
 with impunity to exhibit the same truckling to 
 Popery amongst us. Why should not Lord 
 Shaftesbury, or Mr. Kinnaird, or some other 
 independent Member of either House of Parlia- 
 ment, ask for returns on this subject, that the 
 British public may at least know what is really 
 doing in Iheir name ? Yours ever afi'ectionatoly. 
 
 Alexander Dufk. 
 
LETTER XXIV. 
 
 Calcutta, 16th March, 1858. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedte, — As an ra:<m steamer 
 is to be dispatclicd to-day with mail and pas- 
 sengers, I write a few lines to note the continu- 
 ed progress of operations at Lucknow. 1 pre- 
 sume, that long ere now, good maps of the city 
 and environs are rife at home. To those wlio 
 possess such, all will be plain; otherwise, verbal 
 descriptions must be more or less unintelligible. 
 
 Still, on the 11th, Sir James Outram’s force, 
 which is on the left or-castern bank of the Gumti, 
 pushed his advance as far as the Iron Bridge, to 
 the north of the Residency. There he estab- 
 lished his batteries, so as to enfilade some of the 
 enemy’s works, and to command the Stone 
 Bridge, which lies still farther up the river to 
 the north. The escape of the enemy from the 
 city by either of the bridges was thus cut off. 
 On the western side, or right side, of the river, 
 on which the city is situate, Sir Colin, on the 
 afternoon of the 11th, made another advance. 
 After a verj' heav^' cannonade, another of the 
 large palaces usually known by the name of “the 
 Begum,” which had been turned into a fort, was 
 carried by storm. This achievement was effected 
 mainly by a brigade of the 93d Highlanders. 
 
 The telegran) which conveyed intelligence of 
 these successful operations made no mention of 
 casualties. It was only added that Jung Ba- 
 34 [3971 
 
398 
 
 DR. duff's LKITERS ON INDIA. 
 
 liadur, with his Gourkha force, was to move 
 close to the canal on the morning of the 11th ; 
 and was expected to take an active part in the 
 subsequent operations. The canal crosses tlie 
 road from Cawnpore, a little beyond Alumbagh, 
 and between it and the city. 
 
 At 9 A.ii., on the morning of the 14th, a breach 
 having been effected in the Imamibarrali, which 
 adjoins the walled enclosure of the Kaiserbagh 
 Palace, in which the king used to reside, it was 
 carried by storm ; and the troops, following 
 close on the retiring enemj', entered and took 
 complete possession of the Palace. Sir James 
 Oiitram was then ordered to cross the Iron 
 Bridge, which lies considerably to the north- 
 west of the palace, beyond the British Resi- 
 dency, and press the enemj’ from that quarter. 
 The telegram which announced these further 
 operations made no mention of casualties. The 
 general belief is that they have been conqjara- 
 tivelj' few. One great object with the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief seems to be, by giving full 
 scope to his artillery, to save the precious lives 
 of his men as much as possible ; and, for this 
 end, to sacrifice, if need be, the eclat which ever 
 accompanies ra{>id movements and brilliant ex- 
 ecution. Surely, in following a course so pru- 
 dent and humane, our brave chief deserves well 
 of his country. The ultimate issue will not be 
 the less sure or the less triumphant. 
 
LEITEK XXIV. 
 
 399 
 
 ntk . — In my last, I stated that the city was so 
 invested on the west, south, and east, as to pre- 
 vent all escape of the rebels. The onl}' part 
 open to them was the north or north-west, in the 
 direction of Roliilcund. That quarter, though 
 not invested, was watclied by Brigadier Camp- 
 bell. After tlie fall of tlie Kaiserbagh, on 
 whose defence the enemy liad securely calcu- 
 lated, as by far their strongest position, it was 
 reported that they began to stream out of the 
 city in vast numbers. Accordingly, at 2 a.m., 
 on Monday morning, 15th, Brigadier Campbell 
 started in pursuit of them ; while General Hope 
 Grant advanced towards Sitapore, in the direct 
 road to Rohilcund, with the view of intercept- 
 ing fugitives who may be turned off by Briga- 
 dier Campbell’s movements. This is the tele- 
 graphic intelligence received here yesterday 
 from head-quarters, Lucknow, of date, 15th inst. 
 
 Of casualties we have as yet received no 
 proper account. Only Captain Macdonald, of 
 the 93d Highlanders, twm officers of the Rifles, 
 and one of the Naval Brigade, are reported as 
 killed ; and Captain Taylor, of the Engineers, 
 and Captain Peel, as wounded. 
 
 From the nature of Sir Colin’s tactics, the 
 general impression is, that the number of casu- 
 alties will be found very small compared with 
 the difficulties, the magnitude, and the decis- 
 iveness of his operations. — Yours aflectionately, 
 
 Ar.EXAN'nEit Duff. 
 
LETTER XXV. 
 
 Calcutta, 22d March, 1858. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — Lucknow has fallen ! 
 On Friday, 19th instant, the British flag waved 
 in triumph over the last stronghold of the rebel 
 army there ! Such, in brief, is the important 
 intelligence which this mail will convey to the 
 British isles. 
 
 Without a good map of Lucknow and its 
 vicinity it will be impossible properlj’^ to under- 
 stand the nature and variety of the vast and 
 successful operations all around the doomed 
 city. 
 
 The city itself, as must now be generally 
 known, is situate on the western, or rather 
 south-western side of the Gumti — since the gen- 
 eral course of that river, one of the feeders of 
 the Ganges, is from north-west to south-east. 
 
 Its population has been variously estimated 
 from 300,000 up to 500,000. Like most Oriental 
 cities, it covers a space of ground which in Eu- 
 rope would be regarded as disproportionally 
 large even for such an aggregate of inhabit- 
 ants. 
 
 It was one of the sacred cities of the Hindus, 
 
 [400] 
 
LETTER XXV. 
 
 401 
 
 until desecrated by the insolent Tandalisin of 
 the Mussulman — having been founded, as they 
 believe, by Lackshman, brother of 11am, the 
 hero of their great epic the llamayan — founded, 
 too, on the very site of the famous forest Naimi- 
 shi, where in ancient times sixty thousand Munis 
 or Hindu saints are said to have performed the 
 most austere penances. 
 
 At present the city, like Edinburgh, in reality 
 consists of an old and a new town. 
 
 The new town lies along the river board for 
 four or five miles, and owes its origan to the Xa- 
 wab Asoph ud Dowla, who, in 1178, removed 
 his seat of government from Fyzabad, on the 
 Gogra, about eighty miles to the east — that 
 same Fyzabad occupying ground near to the old 
 ruins of Oude or Ayadhya, the celebrated capi- 
 tal of Ram, already referred to. 
 
 This new town naturally divides itself into 
 two parts, the northern and the southern ; sepa- 
 rated from each other by the British Residency, 
 with its extensive range of office buildings and 
 gardens, and a native bazaar, abutting from the 
 old town upon the river. 
 
 Tlie northern division, which is purely Oriental 
 in its style of architecture, consists chiefly of 
 jialaces, mosques, mausoleums, and Imambar- 
 rios, erected by the founder Asoph ud Dowla. 
 The Imambarry, with its lofty gateway, is one 
 of the noblest piles of architecture anywhere to 
 
402 
 
 DR. duff’s Llim'KRS OX INDIA. 
 
 be found. In it lie tlie remains of its royal 
 founder, in a gorgeous hall, which is constantly 
 illumined with a profusion of wax tapers, the 
 tomb itself being strewed with flowers and 
 covered with rich bread of barley from Mecca ; 
 officiating priests being in attendance day and 
 night, chanting verses from the Koran. Of this 
 edifice with its mosque and gateways one travel- 
 ler of note remarks that, “from the brilliant 
 white of the composition, and the minute deli- 
 cacy of the workmanship, an enthusiast might 
 suppose that genii had been the artificers.” 
 
 The southern division of the new town was 
 built chiefly by^ the Nawab Suadit Ali, the bro- 
 ther and successor of Asoph ud Dowla. Com- 
 mencing near the British Residency', a broad 
 street, terminated at both ends by a magnificent 
 gatewaj', runs through its centre ; a continu- 
 ation of which street leads on, in the form of a 
 broad road, through the p.arks of the Dilkusha, 
 and between mosques and other palaces, to 
 “ Constantia,” or the “ Martiniere,” as it is now 
 called. This extraordinary edifice, which formed 
 the great outwork of the rebels in that quarter, 
 was built by the French adventurer. General 
 Claude Martin, of the King of Glide’s service, 
 at a cost of c£150,000, and was by him left, witli 
 a large sum of money, as an endowed educa- 
 tional institution. It has been truthfully de- 
 scribed as “a strange, fantastical building, of 
 
LETTER XXV. 
 
 403 
 
 every species of architecture, and adorned with 
 minute stucco fretwork, enormous lions, witli 
 lamps instead of eyes, mandarins and ladies 
 with shaking heads, and all the gods and god- 
 desses of heathen mythology.” 
 
 On the right hand of this broad street and 
 road leading from the British Residency lie the 
 Begum’s palace, the Dilkusha, with many 
 mosques; mausoleums, and Imambarries, stables 
 of the royal elephants, &c., &c. On the left 
 hand of the street, and between it and the river, 
 lie the late King’s Palace, with its numerous 
 open arcades, gardens, marble reservoirs, and 
 ever-sh’eaming fountains — so luxuriously re- 
 freshing amid the heat, and glare, and dust of 
 a blazing atmosphere. Besides the palace, there 
 are other notable buildings with wide spaces 
 around, adorned with innumerable pieces of 
 statuary — the Observatory, tlie King’s Library, 
 the Menagerie, the Palace for viewing the wild 
 sports, with many others — and parks well 
 stocked with deer, antelopes, and peacocks. 
 
 The old town lies back from the river, behind 
 the new town, wdiere the inhabitants are 
 crowded in narrow streets and den-like abodes, 
 a perfect contrast to the palaces and park-like 
 spaces of the new town. 
 
 Altogether, taking a survey of the ancient 
 and modern city, it is a survey of contrasts. 
 Looking at the city as a whole, it is a strange 
 
404 
 
 DK. duff’s letters OX INDIA. 
 
 compound of the meanly lilthy, and the gor- 
 geously magnificent. Here, the e3'e is nauseated 
 ■with the ragged straw or leaf}' roofs, and the 
 dingy mud walls or torn-matted sides of miser- 
 able huts ; there, regaled with an endless pro- 
 fusi./n of “ gilded cupolas and pinnacles, turrets, 
 minarets, and arches, so thickly interspersed 
 with the richest tropical foliage as to realize 
 tlie most fantastic visions of Oriental splendor.” 
 
 On the eastern, or left bank of the river, were 
 the king’s gardens, the royal stables, and the 
 British cantonments. Across the river, a little 
 to the north of tlie British Residency, is the iron 
 bridge ; at some distance further to the north, 
 and not far from the great Imambarry, is the 
 stone bridge. 
 
 The great road from Cawnpore on the west 
 entered the old town, so as to run up, nearly in 
 a straight line through its centre, to the British 
 Residency ; along this road and street pro- 
 ceeded General Havelock’s relieving force, the 
 Alumbagh being on the same road, some two 
 or three miles outside the city. And it was 
 along the broad street and road leading from 
 the Residency southward to “ Constantia,” that 
 Sir Colin Campbell’s relieving force in Xovem- 
 ber last advanced towards the garrison. 
 
 In continuation of former notices, I now pro- 
 ceed briefly to record Sir Colin’s final operations 
 against Lucknow. 
 
LEri'EK XXV. 
 
 405 
 
 On the 16th, Sir James Oiitram, having secured 
 the iron and stone bridges, re-crossed tlic river, 
 advanced and occupied the Muchi Phawan or 
 fort, whicli had been blown up and abandoneil 
 by Sir Henry Lawrence at the commencement 
 of the siege of the Residency, as also the great 
 Imarnbarry, both of which are in the northern 
 division of modern Lucknow. The resistance 
 is said to have been slight, compared with that 
 of the previous daj'. On the night of the 16th 
 a Ghoorka division seized the enemy’s position 
 in front of Aluinbagh, and between it and the 
 city. On the 11 th the Commander-in-Chief re- 
 ported that his advances were being gradually 
 pushed on all sides of the line occupied by the 
 British troops, and that “ vast numbers of men, 
 armed and unarmed, were evacuating the city 
 bj" the only outlet they possessed, to the north.” 
 
 As a result, probably of these operations, it 
 was reported that the rebels had again cnteied 
 the district of Futtehghur, to the North-West, 
 and that the Nana, with the chief rebels, were 
 at Shahjehanpore. 
 
 The rebels who had crossed the Jumna, in the 
 neighborhood of Calpcc, with the view, as was 
 supposed, of attacking Cawnpore, are reported 
 to have rccrosscd the river to the districts on 
 its right or western bank. The successes at 
 Lucknow had probably made them fear lest, by 
 the time they reached Cawnpore, the conqueror 
 
406 
 
 r>U. duff’s LKITEKS OX INDIA. 
 
 of Lucknow would once more be down upon 
 them. 
 
 On the 18th a message from Sir Colin an- 
 nounced that on that day the British troops 
 ■were “ in possession of the greater part of the 
 city; that “tlie inhabitants had fled the city, 
 and were in the neighboring villages ; that the 
 “ Musa Bagh, the last post held by the enemy, 
 was expected to fall next day, an attack having 
 been organized.” 
 
 Intelligence from Lucknow, under date the 
 19th, was received here on Saturday the 20th, to 
 the eflTect that “ the last post held by the enemy 
 fell 0)1 that day ; that the cavalry had a most 
 successful pursuit, capturing his remaining 
 guns ; that Mrs. Orr and Miss Jackson, who had 
 long been missing, wei’e saved ; that the city 
 was tiien completely in possession of our troops ; 
 that one hundred and seventeen guns had been 
 already collected, and that the enemy was in 
 flight towai’ds the North- West.” 
 
 A later message of the same date has reached, 
 adding, however, nothing material to the pre- 
 ceding. It concludes by stating that “ arrange- 
 ments were being made for the withdrawal of 
 part of the troops from the city, and the Com- 
 mandcr-in Chief was engaged in deciding on 
 the details of the future ganuson, and in the 
 selection of a proper military position.” 
 
 Sir Colin’s tactics have thus proved most 
 
LEITER XXV. 
 
 407 
 
 successful. People, in their ignorance ajid im- 
 patience, were grumbling at his apparent slow- 
 ness. But the wary old chief knew well what 
 he was about — maintained throughout a dogged 
 reticence — and left his secret to be guessed at. 
 Meanwhile he was making his plans and adjust- 
 ing his complicated arrangements with consum- 
 mate skill ; while, with untiring energy, he was 
 concentrating his forces and munitions of war 
 on the last great stronghold of the rebels. All 
 this, too, he was adroitly accomplishing in such 
 a way as to save, as far as possible, the country 
 at large from the scourge of their hated pres- 
 ence. And thus, when at last the hour of ter- 
 rible co!iflict arrived, the chief’s object was to 
 make his artillery play the principal part, so as 
 to save his own men. In this he has succeeded 
 to the admiration of all. For though, as yet, wo 
 have no full or authentic account of casualties, 
 it is known that, on the British side, these have 
 been astonishingly few, when we consider the 
 extent and magnitude of the operations which 
 have been carried on. Entrenchment after en- 
 trenchment of the most formidable description, 
 with endless batteries, had to be assailed ; 
 every extensive edifice, whether mosque or 
 palace, had been converted into a fort, which 
 had to be stormed; broad deep ditches filled 
 with water, ran round many of them, whicli had 
 to be crossed. But the heavy artillery made such 
 
408 
 
 PK. duff's UETTEKS ox INDIA. 
 
 liavoc that, in eveiy instance our brave soldiers 
 succeeded in their storming assault, with com- 
 paratively little loss to themselves, wliile the 
 ditches, filled to the brim with the bodies of the 
 dead sepoys, testified to the havoc made on the 
 ranks of tlie enemy. 
 
 Captain Ilodson, the captor of the ex-King of 
 Delhi, is among the killed. 
 
 Let it not be imagined, however, that with 
 the fall of Lucknow the rebel army is totally 
 annihilated. Straggling parties of the insurg- 
 ents may, in all directions, give trouble, while 
 the main body may j-et make more than one 
 determined stand before the foe is altogether 
 stricken down to the dust. But where they may 
 next rally, whether in the direction of Eohilcund 
 to the north or across the Jumna in Bundelcund, 
 to the west, is as yet uncertain. Now, however, 
 the back-bone of the great rebellion may be 
 considered as fairly broken. 
 
 It is also expected that the Rajah Maun Singh 
 and other great zemindars of Oude, who became 
 rebels as much from necessity as inclination, 
 may now tender their submission, and that con- 
 ciliatory terms will be offered to them. — Yours 
 affectionately, 
 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
 THE END. 
 
’-VR 
 
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