SEPOY REVOLT: NORTH WEST, CAWNPORE, LUCKNOW.
1857-58.
§1. Bengal and Lord Canning: General Neill's advance from Calcutta.
§2. Sacred city of Benares: Hindu population overawed. §3. Fortress
at Allahabad: treachery and massacre. §4. Cawnpore: extreme peril.
§5. Story of Nana Sahib. §6. European refuge in the barracks. §7.
Nana Sahib at Cawnpore: aspirations after Hindu sovereignty:
delusion of General Wheeler. §8. Mutiny and treachery: barracks
beleaguered by Nana Sahib. §9. First massacre at Cawnpore: massacre
at Jhansi. §10. Advance of General Havelock. §11. Second massacre
of women and children: the well. §12. Lucknow and Sir Henry
Lawrence: May and June. §13. Siege of British Residency at Lucknow:
July to September: death of Sir Henry Lawrence. §14. Havelock's
advance and retreat. §15. Advance of Havelock and Outram. §16.
Relief of Lucknow. §17. Sir Colin Campbell's advance: deliverance
of the garrison. §18. Mutiny of the Gwalior contingent: defeated.
§19. End of the mutiny and rebellion: causes.
[Sidenote: Surprises.]
The progress of events in Northern India, from the revolt at Delhi in
May to the capture of the city in September, was a mystery to every
Anglo-Indian. Many had foreseen that the Bengal army was in an evil way;
that Bengal sepoys had been pandered until the discipline of the army
had become dangerously loosened. But no one foresaw mutiny, murder, and
massacre. Every fresh budget of news was consequently a surprise which
baffled the oldest civilian and the most experienced general. There was
much angry controversy, and much bitter recrimination; but such obsolete
quarrelling may well be dropped into oblivion. The lessons which the
mutiny teaches are best gathered from a plain narrative of events, not
by conjectures as to plots and conspiracies which may have had no better
origin than those of Oates and Bedloe.
[Sidenote: British soldiers.]
§1. Whilst Mr. John Lawrence was sending Europeans and Sikhs from the
Punjab to reinforce the besiegers on the Ridge at Delhi, Lord Canning
was sending similar reinforcements from Bengal to Allahabad, to relieve
the beleaguered garrisons at Cawnpore and Lucknow, and to crush the
growing disaffection in Oudh. Immediately after the revolt at Delhi,
Lord Canning had sent telegrams and steamers to Madras and Bombay, to
Ceylon, Burma, and Singapore, to send to Calcutta every European soldier
that could be spared. Every local government responded to the call, and
Lord Elgin, who was at Singapore pushing on a war with China, sent two
British regiments, that were coming round the Cape, to the help of Lord
Canning. It was a noble sacrifice. Lord Elgin's heart was in the Chinese
war, but he felt as a Briton, that the suppression of a sepoy revolt in
India was of far more pressing importance to the British empire than
hostilities against China.
[Sidenote: Allahabad and Cawnpore.]
During the latter part of May, European soldiers were landed at
Calcutta, and sent in batches to Allahabad. At that time Lord Canning
was most anxious to relieve Sir Henry Lawrence at Lucknow. The railway
had been completed for a hundred miles from Calcutta. Accordingly the
soldiers were sent by railway from Calcutta, then by boats up the river
Ganges to Allahabad, at the junction of the Ganges and Jumna, about half
way between Calcutta and Delhi. From Allahabad they were sent a hundred
and twenty miles still further up the Ganges to the town of Cawnpore,
where the river formed a line of frontier between the North-West
Provinces and Oudh. It will be seen hereafter that only a few Europeans
reached Cawnpore, and that none of those sent up from Calcutta ever
reached Lucknow.
[Sidenote: Neill's advance.]
The British reinforcements were commanded by Colonel Neill, a Madras
officer who had served in the Crimean war, and was distinguished by
force of will. On one occasion the station-master at Calcutta proposed
sending away a railway train without the soldiers, because the latter
were delayed. To his utter surprise he was arrested by Neill, and kept
under a guard until every soldier had taken his seat. The incident is
trivial, but it tells the character of Neill.
[Sidenote: Delay at Benares.]
§2. Colonel Neill did not reach Allahabad for some days. He was detained
at Benares from the 4th to the 9th of June. This city, the Jerusalem of
the Brahmans, is situated on the river Ganges, about 420 miles above
Calcutta and eighty miles below Allahabad. It had a population of
300,000, mostly Hindus. The cantonment is two or three miles from the
city, and was occupied by a regiment of Bengal infantry, one of
irregular cavalry, and a Sikh regiment. There was no European force
whatever to keep the city and cantonment in check beyond thirty British
gunners, but this number would have been ample had there been no scare
about greased cartridges. No danger was to be apprehended from the civil
population of Benares. The sepoy regiments in the cantonment were the
only cause for alarm.
[Sidenote: Turbulence of the people.]
Yet the Hindu population of Benares had always been bigoted and
turbulent. During the persecuting reign of the Mogul Aurangzeb, in the
seventeenth century, the Hindus of the sacred city were kept down by
brute force, and compelled to pay the poll-tax levied on infidels,
whilst Mohammedan mosques were built on the ruins of Hindu temples.
Under the tolerant rule of the British, the Hindus had been more
contented, but there had been occasional fights between Hindus and
Mohammedans, especially at festival times. Moreover, the Hindus at
Benares were under the thumb of the Brahmans, and were more bigoted and
exacting under British rule than they had dared to be under Mohammedan
domination. A British magistrate, however, had generally kept the peace
in Benares with the help of Asiatic police, but occasionally he found it
necessary to call out a detachment of sepoys.
[Sidenote: Hostility of the Brahmans: stamped out by Gubbins.]
For many years the Brahmans at Benares utterly refused to have the
sacred city lighted or drained. They declared that lighting and drainage
were contrary to the Hindu religion, and the arguments of the British
magistrate to the contrary were a sheer waste of words. At last, in
1851, the British magistrate, a Mr. Frederic Gubbins, carried out these
municipal reforms in the teeth of a Hindu mob. Then followed a commotion
at Benares precisely similar to that which occurred at Madras in the
seventeenth century, when the British rulers endeavoured to reform the
sanitary condition of their city. The traders and bazaar dealers shut up
their shops, and refused to supply the cantonment with grain. Mr.
Gubbins was pelted and fired at, and fled for his life. He called out a
detachment of sepoys, arrested the ringleaders of the riot, and lodged
them in the jail. From that moment Mr. Gubbins was lord of Benares. He
rode through the city and ordered all the shops to be opened, and there
was no one to say him nay.
[Sidenote: British and Mogul rule.]
All this was of course very wrong. The Supreme Court at Calcutta, with
its bench of British judges, trained to respect the liberties of British
subjects, would have been aghast at such proceedings. But from the days
of Warren Hastings to those of Lord Canning, the Supreme Courts at
Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay were prevented by the Act of Parliament
passed in 1781 from interfering in any way with the administration of
the Company's servants outside the limits of the Presidency capitals. It
might, however, be added that the action of the British magistrate,
arbitrary and high-handed as it must appear to British readers, was mild
and merciful in comparison with Mogul severities. Under an imperious
ruler like Aurangzeb, trains of armed elephants were driven through the
masses in the streets, and trampled down all that came in their way,
until the crowd broke up and fled in terror at the carnage.
[Sidenote: Brave civilians.]
Right or wrong, the action of Mr. Gubbins in 1851 was remembered by the
people of Benares in 1857. Mr. Gubbins was by this time judge at
Benares, and a Mr. Lind was magistrate and collector. The Bengal sepoys
in the cantonment were disaffected, but there was no sign of
insurrection in the city. The British residents were in alarm, and it
was proposed to remove to the fortress of Chunar, on the other side of
the river Ganges, which was occupied by invalided British soldiers. But
Gubbins and Lind refused to desert their posts and abandon Benares.
Accordingly the other British residents resolved to stay likewise; and
it was arranged that in the event of a mutiny of the sepoys, they should
all take refuge on the roof of the treasury, about two miles from the
cantonment, which was guarded by Sikh soldiers.
[Sidenote: Mutiny at Benares: disasters.]
Colonel Neill arrived at Benares on the 4th of June. A detachment of
Europeans had been obtained from Her Majesty's 10th Foot, which was
posted at Dinapore, and preparations were being made for disarming the
Bengal sepoys. Neill joined in the work, but there were untoward
incidents. The Europeans were drawn out and the three guns were loaded.
The Bengal sepoys were ordered to lay down their arms, and some obeyed.
Suddenly, however, the whole regiment of sepoys took alarm and fired at
the Europeans. The gunners opened fire on the mutineers. The irregular
cavalry joined in the outbreak. The British officer in command of the
Sikh regiment was shot dead. The Sikhs were seized with panic and fired
on the Europeans. The gunners then discharged a volley of grape at the
Sikhs; and sepoys, irregular horse, and Sikhs fled in hot haste from the
cantonment, and dispersed in all directions over the surrounding
country.
[Sidenote: Loyalty of Sikhs and Hindus.]
This disaster might have sealed the fate of the Europeans at the
treasury. When the Sikh regiment at the cantonment was scattered by a
discharge of grape, the Sikh guards at the treasury might have revenged
the slaughter by firing at the Europeans on the roof. Fortunately Mr.
Gubbins was there, and so too was an old Sikh general, who had fought
against the British in the Sikh wars, and was residing at Benares under
surveillance, but had become reconciled to British supremacy. Both
Gubbins and the Sikh exile pointed out to the guards, that cannonading
the Sikhs at the cantonment must have been unpremeditated, and was
probably a misunderstanding or an accident. Had it been otherwise, the
Europeans at the treasury would never have placed themselves under the
protection of Sikh guards. This explanation satisfied the Sikh guards,
and the station was saved. It should be added that British authority was
nobly supported by the Raja of Benares and another Hindu gentleman of
high rank and influence.
[Sidenote: Allahabad: strategic importance.]
§3. Colonel Neill spent some days in driving the mutineers from the
neighbourhood of Benares, and then went on to Allahabad. On his arrival
he found the city in a state of insurrection and uproar, whilst the
Europeans were shut up in the fortress, and besieged by mutineers and
rebels. The city of Allahabad was situated, as already described, at the
junction of the Ganges and Jumna, in the centre of Northern India, and
about half-way between Calcutta and Delhi. It is the strongest fortress
between Calcutta and Agra. It commands the whole river communication
between Bengal, Oudh, and the North-West Provinces. It also commanded
the old trunk road between Calcutta and Delhi. In the treasury there was
£200,000 in silver. Yet, when the mutinies broke out in May, the station
and fortress were garrisoned entirely by Asiatics, namely, one Bengal
regiment, half a Sikh regiment, and a battery of sepoy artillery. There
were no European soldiers whatever at Allahabad, except the British
officers in command of the sepoys.
[Sidenote: Misplaced confidence.]
The colonel and officers of the Bengal sepoys had the most perfect
confidence in their men. They had always encouraged the sepoys in their
sports, and contributed toward the expenses. It was rumoured in the
newspapers that the sepoy regiment was disaffected, but the colonel
published an unqualified denial, and declared that the rumour was false
and malicious. The British residents at Allahabad were, however, by no
means satisfied with this denial. They were alarmed at the reports which
reached them of mutiny and murder elsewhere, and after the revolt at
Delhi, they complained that they were not sufficiently protected. But no
European soldiers were available, not even to garrison the important
fortress. Accordingly the British authorities tried to allay the public
fears by ordering up sixty-five European invalids from Chunar. Thus the
European garrison of the great fortress at Allahabad, which commanded
all communications between Bengal and the North-West, consisted for a
while of sixty-five invalids. Eventually 100 European non-combatants
formed themselves into a volunteer company, and helped to garrison the
place. Meanwhile, every batch of European soldiers that arrived from
Bengal was at once sent 120 miles further up the river Ganges to the
city of Cawnpore, the frontier station towards Oudh.
[Sidenote: Treachery.]
Allahabad was tranquil. In spite of the outbreak at Meerut, the revolt
at Delhi, and the reports of mutinies at other stations, all fear of
danger seemed to have passed away. On the 1st of June, the suspected
Bengal regiment volunteered to join the besieging force at Delhi. This
movement was at once accepted as a certain proof of the loyalty and
fidelity of the sepoys. The thanks of Lord Canning were sent by
telegraph to the officers and men, and news arrived at the same time
that the sepoys had mutinied at Benares, and were in full march to
Allahabad _en route_ for Delhi.
[Sidenote: Expected mutineers from Benares.]
Preparations were at once made for repulsing the rebels. The fortress
was garrisoned by sixty-five European invalids, 100 European volunteers,
600 Sikhs, and 100 sepoys of the faithful Bengal regiment. The guns of
the fortress were pointed to the Benares road. The only entrance to
Allahabad in that direction was by a bridge over the Jumna. Accordingly
two guns and two companies of the Bengal sepoys were ordered down to the
bridge to open fire upon the mutineers from Benares.
[Sidenote: Asiatic craft.]
On the 6th of June every European at Allahabad was expecting the
mutineers from Benares. In the afternoon the thanks of Lord Canning were
publicly read on the parade ground to the remaining companies of the
Bengal sepoys. The men cheered like Europeans, and when the regiment
fell out, the British officers shook hands with the sepoys. The mess
dinner in the evening was attended by every British officer at the
station who was not on duty elsewhere. At the mess table nothing was to
be heard but rejoicings and congratulations. The Bengal regiment at
Allahabad had proved its loyalty, and received the thanks of the
Governor-General. Eight young ensigns, mere boys, who had just arrived
from England, were present at this memorable dinner.
[Sidenote: Mutiny and massacre.]
Suddenly an alarm was sounded. No alarm was felt, however, because every
one thought that the rebels from Benares had reached the bridge. The
officers buckled on their swords, mounted their horses, and rode down to
their lines to call out the men. On reaching the parade ground they
were received by a volley of musketry from their own sepoys, the men
with whom they had shaken hands that very afternoon. The colonel managed
to escape to the fortress, but most of the officers were shot dead. At
the same time the sepoy guards at the mess house fell on the young
ensigns who had been left behind. The boys fought desperately for their
lives, but were overpowered by numbers and brutally murdered.
[Sidenote: Jumna bridge.]
By this time the sepoys at the bridge heard the firing in the
cantonment, and at once broke out in mutiny, and turned against their
officers. The British officers were taken by surprise and could do
nothing. Some were shot dead, but most of them plunged into the river
Jumna, and escaped by swimming to the fortress.
[Sidenote: Fortress at Allahabad.]
All this while the Fort at Allahabad was in imminent danger. There were
200 Europeans within the walls, but many were invalids, and nearly all
the others were volunteers. They had to deal with 400 doubtful Sikhs and
100 Bengal sepoys. They heard the sound of firing, and thought that the
rebels had arrived from Benares; but the blazing bungalows in the
cantonment soon told a very different story. The Bengal sepoys were
promptly disarmed and turned out of the fortress. The Sikhs were left to
do as they pleased. They soon began to plunder the European stores,
which private merchants had deposited in the Fort for safety; and they
sold the liquors to the European soldiers for small sums, so that
drunkenness soon added to the general terror and confusion. The result
was most lamentable. When British soldiers can buy excellent wines and
spirits at a few pence a bottle, they soon become drunk and incapable
and such was the state of affairs inside the fortress of Allahabad after
the mutiny of the 6th of June.
[Sidenote: Devilry.]
Meanwhile the horrible devilry outside the fortress was as murderous and
destructive as at Meerut. The whole station was mad with excitement and
riot. Houses were plundered and burnt. Women and children were tortured
and butchered. The jail was broken open and every prisoner released. The
sepoys plundered the treasury and divided the money amongst themselves,
and then dispersed to their several homes to place the silver in a place
of safety. But many suffered from their own folly. They were pursued by
the very miscreants who had been let out of the jail, and many were
savagely murdered and stripped of their ill-gotten treasures.
[Sidenote: Neill restores order.]
Three days afterwards Colonel Neill reached Allahabad with a detachment
of Europeans from Benares. He recovered the bridge, entered the
fortress, took over the command of the station, and soon put an end to
the drunkenness and disorder. He could not punish the Sikhs, for they
were the only Asiatic soldiery who were likely to prove faithful, whilst
the Bengal regiments were breaking out in mutiny on all sides.
Accordingly he stopped the drunkenness of the European soldiers by
buying up all the remaining liquors from the Sikhs, and making them over
to his commissariat officers. He then turned the Sikhs out of the Fort,
and encamped them without the walls but within range of the guns.
[Sidenote: Cawnpore advance stopped.]
§4. On the 30th of June Colonel Neill left Allahabad for Cawnpore with
400 Europeans, a regiment of Sikhs, and two squadrons of sepoy cavalry
on whom he could not depend. Three days afterwards he received a
terrible message from Sir Henry Lawrence at Lucknow. The sepoys had
mutinied at Cawnpore. A Mahratta Brahman, named Nana Sahib, had taken
possession of the town and cantonment with a large army of Mahratta
soldiers and rebel sepoys. The Europeans at Cawnpore had been closely
besieged by the enemy, but their fate was unknown. Neill, however, was
ordered not to advance unless he had two complete regiments of Europeans
under his command. Neill was therefore compelled to return to Allahabad,
and to halt there for the arrival of more Europeans from Bengal.
[Sidenote: Story of Cawnpore.]
The story of Cawnpore is the most heart-rending episode in the annals of
British India. In the earlier years of the century it had been the most
important military station in Northern India. It was from Cawnpore that
Lord Lake had started westward on his famous campaign against Sindia and
the French sepoy battalions, which ended in the capture of Delhi and the
deliverance of the Mogul from the Mahrattas. But the old glory had
departed from Cawnpore. For years the British government had been
concentrating its European strength at Meerut, Lahore, and Peshawar.
Cawnpore was stripped of all European soldiers, and nothing remained of
the British regiments that had once been quartered there, but some
half-ruined barracks and a hospital.
[Sidenote: General Wheeler.]
In 1857 four regiments of sepoys were cantoned at Cawnpore, namely,
three of infantry and one of light cavalry. But there was a large
trading community of Europeans and the mixed race known as Eurasians.
Moreover, there was a considerable number of ladies and children,
families of the British officers of the European regiment quartered at
Lucknow. The station at Cawnpore was commanded by General Sir Hugh
Wheeler, an old sepoy officer, who had served under Lord Lake, and was
present during the Afghan and Sikh wars. He had been fifty-four years in
India, and could thus look back upon a military career which began in
1803. He was familiar with sepoy ideas, feelings and aspirations. Yet
not even General Wheeler, with his long experiences, was able to provide
against such an unprecedented disaster as a mutiny of the Bengal army
against greased cartridges.
[Sidenote: Sore peril.]
Cawnpore is seated on the southern bank of the Ganges. It overlooks Oudh
on the east and the North-West Provinces on the south and west. It is
the vertex of an angle, fifty-five miles south-west from Lucknow, and
120 miles north-west from Allahabad. The European residents had been
greatly alarmed at the revolt at Delhi, for both the town and the
cantonment were absolutely at the mercy of the sepoys.
[Sidenote: Barracks and hospital.]
Sir Hugh Wheeler had anxiously watched the flood of mutiny which was
closing around him from the North-West Provinces, from Oudh, and from
Bengal. He was anxious to provide for the safety of the Europeans
without alarming the sepoys. Accordingly he repaired the old barracks
and hospital as a refuge for the Europeans, entrenched them as well as
he could, and stored up provisions for a siege. At the same time he
ordered the British officers to show confidence in the sepoys by
sleeping at the lines, and to spare no pains to keep the men staunch to
their colours.
[Sidenote: Ex-Peishwa at Bithoor.]
§5. About six miles to the northward of Cawnpore was a castellated
palace, at a place known as Bithoor. Here the ex-Peishwa of the
Mahrattas had been permitted to reside after his surrender to Sir John
Malcolm, in 1818. He was harmless, and like all Brahmans was resigned to
his fate. He lived like a king who had retired from business with an
ample fortune, and he indulged in every sensual pleasure which money
could command. He died in 1853 leaving no son, real or adopted.
[Sidenote: Nana Sahib.]
A boy was brought up in his household who was known as Nana Sahib. He
also was a Mahratta Brahman, the son of a dependant of the ex-Peishwa;
he was a favourite of the exiled prince and was treated as one of the
family. Accordingly, when the ex-Peishwa died in 1853, Nana Sahib boldly
asserted that he was an adopted son. The widow of the ex-Peishwa denied
the fact, and asserted her own claims to the property. The truth has
long ceased to be a matter of any consequence. Nana Sahib and the widow
appear to have come to some secret understanding. He was permitted to
inherit the castellated palace and grounds at Bithoor, as well as the
money savings which amounted to about half a million sterling, and had
been invested in government paper. He also provided for the widow in the
palace of Bithoor.
[Sidenote: Preposterous claims.]
Nana Sahib had thus obtained all that he could possibly have claimed had
he been adopted according to all the forms of Brahmanical law. But he
laid claim to a continuation of the pension of £80,000 a year, which had
been granted to the ex-Peishwa at the instance of Sir John Malcolm; and
Lord Dalhousie refused to take his pretensions into consideration. Nana
Sahib invented lies, which were plausible only to those who were not
familiar with the real circumstances. He declared that the ex-Peishwa
had surrendered his dominions on the understanding that the pension
should be granted to him and to his heirs for ever. But this falsehood
was contradicted by history, and no one gave it the slightest credence
except the enemies of the East India Company, or the opponents of Lord
Dalhousie's policy.
[Sidenote: Pertinacity.]
Nana Sahib was a genuine Mahratta, and would have persisted in forcing
his claims from time to time upon the British government if he had lived
for a hundred years. He was polite and smooth-tongued, flattering every
European of influence that came in his way, and ever boasting of his
loyalty to the British government. He professed to take the utmost
pleasure in the society of Europeans, and was noted for his
entertainments at Bithoor, to which he invited all the European society
at Cawnpore. He affected to live in state like a Hindu Raja; he kept six
guns for firing salutes, and entertained a large number of Mahratta
troops and followers. But he never forgot his claim to the pension. He
constantly harped upon the so-called injustice that deprived him of it;
and he employed agents both in India and Great Britain to urge the
British government to treat the pension as perpetual and hereditary.
[Sidenote: Cunning.]
When the Bengal sepoys began to express horror at the greased
cartridges, Nana Sahib denounced their folly in supposing that the
British government had planned the destruction of their religion. When
the news arrived of the outbreak at Meerut, he persuaded the civil
officials at Cawnpore to send their wives and other ladies to Bithoor
until the storm had blown over. He boasted that he could protect them
against any number of sepoys, and arrangements were actually made for
securing the ladies at Bithoor in the event of a mutiny. Later on, when
the revolt at Delhi had become common talk, the Nana proposed to
organise a body of 1,500 Mahrattas to take the sepoys by surprise, and
put them all to the sword, should they show the slightest symptom of
mutiny.
[Sidenote: Anxieties of the Europeans.]
By this time the anxiety of the Europeans at Cawnpore was becoming
intolerable. The ladies especially suffered severely. On any night a
signal might be given, and a mob of armed sepoys might be rushing about
like madmen, burning down bungalows and murdering the women and children
in their beds. All were yearning for the recapture of Delhi. Indeed,
every European in India felt that the plague of sepoy mutiny would never
be stayed until Delhi was once again in the hands of the British
government.
[Sidenote: Expected mutiny, 21st May.]
§6. On the 21st of May, Sir Hugh Wheeler received a distinct warning
that the sepoys were about to mutiny. He sent to all the European
residents at Cawnpore to repair towards evening to the empty barracks.
He despatched an express to Lucknow to beg Sir Henry Lawrence to spare
him two or three companies of the European regiment. He was alarmed for
the safety of the treasury, which was seven miles from the barracks
under the charge of sepoy guards. He attempted to remove the treasure to
the barracks, but the sepoys refused to part with it, declaring that
they could guard it where it was. Sir Hugh Wheeler was obliged to yield,
for he had no means at hand to coerce the sepoys; but he accepted the
offer of Nana Sahib to place a body of his Mahratta soldiers on guard
at the treasury. That very night 200 Mahratta soldiers, armed with
matchlocks and accompanied by two guns, were moved from Bithoor and
quartered at the treasury. The arrangements seem to have been made for
the convenience of the sepoys, rather than for the security of the
Europeans. The jail was close to the treasury, with its criminal
inmates; so too was the magazine which contained the military stores.
All three buildings were near the river Ganges on the road to Delhi.
[Sidenote: Horrible suspense.]
The confusion and terror which prevailed that night may be imagined.
Ladies and children were hurried from their homes, and huddled together
in the old hospital building. Guns were drawn up on each side. The
children were hushed off to sleep, but the ladies were too terrified to
close their eyes. Next morning eighty-four European soldiers arrived
from Lucknow and cheered the inmates of the hospital and barracks. But
during the week that followed, the suspense was almost beyond endurance.
One lady lost her reason, and all suffered from trials, privations,
exposure and alarms which cannot be described. Daily and hourly they
expected an insurrection of Asiatics who knew not how to pity or how to
spare. Some wished that the storm would burst upon them and put an end
to the harrowing anxiety that was eating into their souls. Amidst all
these dangers the British officers still slept at the sepoy lines.
[Sidenote: Hope.]
On the 31st of May, after a horrible night, the first instalment of
European reinforcements arrived from Bengal. Others appeared during the
two following days, and brought the joyful news that they were the
forerunners of several regiments; that European troops were pouring into
Calcutta from Madras, Burma and Ceylon, and were being hurried up by
river steamers, bullock trains and country carriages. Sir Hugh Wheeler
was so confident of being very shortly more than a match for the sepoys,
that with a chivalrous regard for the safety of Sir Henry Lawrence, he
sent a portion of his Europeans back to Lucknow.
[Sidenote: Sickening delay.]
Then followed the delays at Benares and Allahabad; the stoppage of
reinforcements; the hope deferred that maketh the heart sick. To crown
all, the Indian sun was burning fiercely on the barracks, and the hot
winds of June were blowing through the rooms. Many Europeans were
carried off by sickness, and their fate was almost to be envied, for
life itself was becoming intolerable. Had the Europeans been all men,
they might have cut their way to Agra, and forced a passage down the
river to Allahabad. But Sir Hugh Wheeler had 300 women and children on
his hands, and it was impossible to carry them away in the face of
sepoys and rebels. No other alternative was thought of for a moment. No
European could dream at such a crisis of leaving women and children to
the tender mercies of sepoys.
[Sidenote: Nana Sahib at Cawnpore.]
§7. All this while there were no suspicions of treachery as regards Nana
Sahib; yet in reality the Mahratta Brahman was moving about like an evil
spirit in disguise. To show his loyalty and attachment to the British,
he left his palace at Bithoor, and took up his quarters at a house
within the civil station at Cawnpore. His real purpose was to excite the
sepoys to revolt, but to prevent them from rushing off to Delhi, and
rallying round a Mohammedan sovereign. He was not a Mohammedan, but a
Hindu; besides that, he was a representative of Hindu sovereigns, the
extinct Mahratta Peishwas, who, according to his own views, were the
rightful rulers of India. In his secret heart he fondly dreamed of
upsetting British supremacy, and restoring the old days of Mahratta
anarchy, when the Brahman Peishwa ruled at Poona as the head of the
Mahratta confederacy, whilst his lieutenants, Sindia and Holkar,
plundered Hindustan in his name.
[Sidenote: Blindness of the Europeans.]
A more dangerous character than Nana Sahib never entered a British
cantonment in India. The civil officials and the army officers were
alike deceived. No one believed in his truth or honesty, but they
imagined that he was looking after his own interest with that
pertinacity which characterises Mahrattas. In other words, that he was
rendering ostentatious services in the hope of being rewarded with the
life pension of the deceased Peishwa.
[Sidenote: Unpopularity of Nana Sahib.]
But Nana Sahib encountered overwhelming difficulties from the outset.
Like all Mahratta Brahmans he had the highest opinion of his caste and
claims. Indeed his assumption was unbounded. But the Brahmans and
Rajputs of Oudh and the North-West Provinces, who formed the bulk of the
sepoy army of Bengal, were by no means inclined to accept a Mahratta
sovereign, unless they were highly paid for their allegiance. They were
prepared to make him their tool, and to tender him sham reverence, so
long as he was liberal with money and bangles of gold or silver; but
they had no more respect for the Mahratta, than the sepoys at Delhi had
for the Mogul Padishah.
[Sidenote: Secrecy and duplicity.]
Nana Sahib seems to have been more or less aware of this state of
affairs. He had entertained a large number of Mahratta soldiers
ostensibly to help the British to suppress the sepoys; just as the
ex-Peishwa had raised a Mahratta army in 1817 ostensibly to help the
British to suppress the Pindharis. Meanwhile Nana Sahib quietly sold out
the half million sterling which had been invested in government paper.
He had thus ample funds for carrying out his designs. But neither Nana
Sahib nor the sepoys betrayed the thoughts that were agitating their
brains. Secrecy and surprise, with the necessary element of duplicity,
are the main strength of Orientals.
[Sidenote: Mutiny of 4th June.]
§8. On the 4th of June, the very day that Neill reached Benares, Sir
Hugh Wheeler was warned that the sepoys were plotting mutiny and murder.
Accordingly he ordered the British officers to leave off sleeping at the
sepoy lines. That same night the sepoys broke out in mutiny. The cavalry
galloped off to the treasury and helped the Mahrattas to plunder it. The
British officers left the barracks and hastened to the lines, but were
fired upon by the sepoys. The rebels loaded a number of country carts
with plunder from the treasury and magazine, and then set off with all
speed to the first stage on the road to Delhi.
[Sidenote: Nana Sahib joins the sepoys.]
Nana Sahib accompanied the rebels, but implored them not to go to Delhi.
He swore that a large treasure was hidden away in the barracks, and
urged the sepoys to return and capture it, and slaughter all the
Feringhis. Asiatics will believe any stories of hidden treasure. The
sepoys were also told that enough guns and powder remained in the
magazine to enable them to storm the barracks with ease. Accordingly, on
the 6th of June, the sepoys returned to Cawnpore with Nana Sahib at
their head.
[Sidenote: Propitiates Mohammedans and Hindus.]
Nana Sahib now began to appear in his true colours. He pitched his camp
in the centre of the station and hoisted two standards, to conciliate
both Mohammedans and Hindus; namely, the green flag of Islam, and the
Hindu god Hanuman, the friend of Rama, the avatar of Vishnu. He sent a
body of horsemen into the town of Cawnpore to kill every European and
Christian they could find. He mounted some heavy guns and prepared to
assault the entrenched barracks.
[Sidenote: Bombardment of European barracks.]
Next morning, the 7th of June, Nana Sahib sent a letter to General
Wheeler threatening to attack the British garrison. Several guns began
to open fire on the barracks, and volleys of musketry were discharged
from all quarters. Meanwhile Nana Sahib was reinforced by mutineers from
Allahabad, by irregulars from Lucknow, by rebels from Oudh, and by armed
bands of brigands and blackguards from all the country round.
[Sidenote: Cruelty and cowardice.]
At this period Nana Sahib was guilty of cowardly malice and revolting
cruelty which appear incredible to Europeans. British refugees were
flying from mutinous sepoys; floating down the river Ganges in boats in
the hope of reaching Allahabad. They were arrested at Cawnpore, brought
before the inhuman Mahratta, and brutally murdered. Men, women, and
children were cut to pieces like cattle. The Europeans in the barracks
heard nothing of these butcheries, or the story of Cawnpore would have
had a different ending. But they knew enough to resist to the death
every assault of the enemy. The rebels, on their part, kept up a hot
fire, and made frequent rushes on the earthworks, but they never
ventured on hand-to-hand encounters. Their one solitary exploit was to
set fire to the hospital, and then, whilst the place was burning, and
every effort was being made to save the inmates, a mass of rebels tried
to storm the barracks. The assault, however, was a failure. The enemy
was driven back by the British guns, but many of the sick and wounded
Europeans perished in the flaming hospital.
[Sidenote: Parleying and perfidy.]
On the 24th and 25th of June there was some parleying. The British
garrison could hold out no longer. Provisions and stores were exhausted.
Nana Sahib was frightened and humiliated by the obstinate courage of the
British. Moreover he was yearning for the pomp and pleasure of
sovereignty. Under such circumstances he sent written messages to
General Wheeler by the hands of a woman. He solemnly swore that he would
provide boats for the passage of the whole of the beleaguered Europeans
down the Ganges to Allahabad, provided the British would surrender their
arms, and leave him in possession of the cannon, and of what remained in
the treasury and magazine. Few men of Indian experience would have
trusted in the good faith of Nana Sahib; but Sir Hugh Wheeler was bowed
down by the weight of years, and by the terrible responsibility of the
women and children, and in an evil hour he accepted the terms offered by
the false-hearted Mahratta.
[Sidenote: Massacre.]
§9. On the morning of the 27th of June, 450 Europeans left the barracks
and proceeded to the river side. The sick and wounded were carried in
palanquins; the women and children were placed on elephants and bullock
carts; the men went on foot. Forty boats were moored in the shallows of
the river, and the men waded through the water whilst the others were
carried to the boats. All were on board by nine o'clock, and the boats
were loosened from their moorings. A crowd of sepoys and rebels was
assembled on both banks of the river to witness the departure of the
Europeans. Suddenly a bugle was sounded. Volleys of musketry were fired
upon the boats, and shrieks of agony and terror rose from the hapless
passengers. Presently the thatched roofs of some of the boats caught
fire, and the flames rapidly spread as the boats were huddled together.
Many of the doomed passengers jumped overboard. One boat escaped down
the stream, but only four individuals survived to tell the story. Many
were shot dead or were drowned in the river. The rest were all dragged
ashore helpless and unarmed. The men were allowed a few moments to
prepare for death, and one of their number who had preserved a Prayer
Book, read a portion of the Liturgy. All the men were then shot dead by
volleys of musketry. The women and children, who escaped alive, to the
number of 125, were carried off and lodged in a building close to the
head-quarters of Nana Sahib.
[Sidenote: Triumph of Nana Sahib.]
That night there were great rejoicings in the station at Cawnpore. The
Mahratta Brahman was puffed up with his so-called victory over British
captives. Money and bangles were freely distributed to the murderers,
whilst salutes were fired from the cannon, and the whole station was
ablaze with fireworks and illuminations. The infamous Nana Sahib, the
last faint shadow of the Mahratta Brahmans who had once reigned at
Poona, was proclaimed conqueror of the British, and Peishwa of
Hindustan.
[Sidenote: Terrors.]
But the avenging furies were already at the heels of the Mahratta
Brahman. Neither drugs nor dancing girls could quiet his terrors. The
Mohammedan sepoys were already plotting his destruction; they wanted to
restore the reign of Islam, not to set up the idolatry which was
denounced in the Koran. The lavish distribution of treasures might
please them for a while, but would not satisfy them in the end.
Meanwhile, the Rajputs were ready enough to accept his rupees and
bangles, but they were his masters, and compelled him to do their
bidding. To crown his anxieties, a column of European soldiers was soon
on its way from Allahabad to avenge the slaughter of their countrymen at
Cawnpore, and to deliver British wives, mothers, and widows, together
with their helpless children, from the hands of the perjured destroyer.
[Sidenote: Massacre at Jhansi.]
That same month of June saw a like massacre at Jhansi, about 150 miles
to the south of Cawnpore, amidst the hills and jungles of Bundelkund.
British rule had been introduced, together with a garrison of Bengal
sepoys. The sepoys mutinied as they did elsewhere, and the Europeans, to
the number of fifty-five men, women, and children, took refuge in an old
fortress until the storm blew over. The sepoys could not capture the
fortress. The widow of the deceased chief sent them elephants and guns,
but they were of no avail. At last it was known that the provisions
within the fortress were exhausted. The widow and the sepoys solemnly
swore to conduct the besieged to another station, if they would only
lay down their arms. The terms were accepted; the besieged left the
fortress two by two, and were all seized, bound, and butchered without
further parley.
[Sidenote: General Havelock.]
§10. Early in July, General Havelock reached Allahabad with 1,000
Europeans and 200 Sikhs, and joined his forces with those of Colonel
Neill, and took the command. The one object of the expedition was to
relieve the British garrisons at Cawnpore and Lucknow, and to save the
women and children. Henry Havelock was short in stature, and spare in
form. He was a pale man of ascetic habits, who might have served in
Cromwell's Ironsides. He was a soldier to the backbone, but religious to
the verge of fanaticism. His whole life was devoted to fighting and
prayer. He thirsted for military glory and the conversion of Mohammedans
and Hindus. He had seen much service. He had distinguished himself in
the first Burma war and the first Afghan war, and had published clear
and able narratives of both campaigns. He had also distinguished himself
in the Gwalior war and the two Sikh wars; and he had just returned from
the Persian expedition, in which he had commanded a division. But the
straitness of his religious views had interfered with his promotion, and
the greater part of his life had been spent in regimental duty. He was
approaching the age when men usually retire from active service; but he
was destined, during the last few months of his career, to become famous
throughout the civilised world.
[Sidenote: Advance on Cawnpore.]
On the 7th of July General Havelock left Allahabad for Cawnpore with
less than 2,000 Europeans and Sikhs. By this time the slaughter of the
Europeans at Cawnpore was noised abroad, but there were still hopes of
saving the women and children. There was a march of 120 miles between
Allahabad and Cawnpore. An Indian sun glared down at intervals, but the
heat was moderated by heavy rains, which were equally deadly. Fever,
dysentery, and cholera, carried off more victims than the enemy's fire.
But men and officers were one and all animated by the same determined
spirit to be revenged on Nana Sahib and the rebels, and to save the
women and children at Cawnpore.
[Sidenote: Treachery of a deputy collector.]
At Futtehpore, about two-thirds of the way to Cawnpore, there had been a
sepoy mutiny, and civil rebellion, headed by a Mohammedan deputy
collector. The European residents had already sent their wives and
families to Allahabad, and when the outbreak took place they all escaped
on horseback save one. The exception was Mr. Robert Tucker, of the
Bengal civil service, the judge of the district, who refused to abandon
his post. The Asiatics, headed by the Mohammedan deputy-collector,
environed Mr. Tucker's house and overpowered him, but not until he had
slain sixteen men with his own hands. He was then brought to a mock
trial, at which the Mohammedan presided, and of course was condemned and
executed, and his head, hands, and feet held up for the inspection of
the rabble.
[Sidenote: Defeat of the Nana.]
When Nana Sahib was master of Cawnpore, he sent a large force of rebel
cavalry to Futtehpore, to defeat the European column, and if possible to
capture the fortress of Allahabad. But he was too late. Had the rebels
advanced against Allahabad before the outbreak, they might have captured
the fortress, and blocked out all reinforcements from Bengal. As it
was, they were utterly defeated and dispersed by Havelock's column.
[Sidenote: Execution of a murderer.]
After the battle the Mohammedan deputy-collector appeared to offer his
congratulations to General Havelock. To his intense surprise, he found
that his crime was known to the British authorities. He was arrested on
the spot, and within a brief interval he was tried, convicted, and
hanged for the murder of the British judge.
[Sidenote: Tragedy at Cawnpore.]
§11. Next day another rebel force was routed, and then followed a
crowning victory at Cawnpore. But now Havelock was too late. Maddened by
defeat, Nana Sahib had ordered the slaughter of the women and children,
and then had fled away in the hope of finding refuge at his castle at
Bithoor.
[Sidenote: The well.]
Never before had British soldiers beheld such a sight as met their eyes
at Cawnpore. Other fugitive women and children had been captured by Nana
Sahib, and 200 helpless beings had been imprisoned in the same building.
A veil may be thrown over their sufferings. Some of the poor ladies were
compelled to grind corn for the household of Nana Sahib, and they were
glad to do so, as it enabled them to bring back some flour for their
half-starved children. In this wretched plight, longing for relief but
despairing of succour, they had been suddenly attacked by sepoys and
rebels, and mercilessly hacked to pieces with swords and hatchets, and
then thrust into a well. Never, so long as a Briton remains in India,
will the ghastly well at Cawnpore be forgotten. Since then a Christian
church has been built over the well, and a marble angel is seen with
outspread wings, as if imploring forgiveness and mercy.
[Sidenote: Destruction of Bithoor.]
Havelock advanced to Bithoor, but Nana Sahib had fled into Oudh. At
Bithoor Havelock demolished the castle, and brought away the guns.
Within a few days he left General Neill at Cawnpore, and crossed the
Ganges into Oudh with a force of 1,500 Europeans and Sikhs, for the
relief of Lucknow.
[Sidenote: Lucknow: May to July.]
§12. It was now the middle of July, and it is necessary to glance at the
progress of affairs at Lucknow since the 3rd of May. On that day an
irregular corps of Oudh sepoys had threatened to murder its European
adjutant; but that same night a force of European soldiers and Bengal
sepoys marched against them. The mutineers surrendered their arms, and
then rushed off in a panic of terror towards Delhi. The Bengal sepoys
hotly pursued them, and arrested the ringleaders. But the scare at
greased cartridges was rankling in the breasts of these very Bengal
sepoys; and Sir Henry Lawrence had reason to fear that sooner or later
they would break out in mutiny like the Oudh Irregulars.
[Sidenote: Bengal sepoys rewarded.]
For the moment, however, the Bengal regulars had been overawed by the
prompt action of the Europeans. Accordingly Sir Henry Lawrence
determined on a public distribution of presents to the Asiatic officers
and sepoys who had distinguished themselves on the 3rd of May; and thus
to show that if the British government was prompt to punish mutiny, it
was equally prompt in rewarding faithful service.
[Sidenote: Durbar of 12th May.]
A grand durbar was held on the evening of the 12th of May. The whole of
the European civil and military residents at Lucknow, all the officers
and men of the Bengal regiments, and many Asiatic officials were
assembled on the lawn in front of the Residency. Carpets had been laid
down, and chairs arranged to form three sides of a square. Sir Henry
Lawrence entered, followed by his staff, and a large body of officers,
and took his seat at the head of the assemblage. Beside him were
deposited the trays of presents. Before, however, distributing the
rewards, he delivered a solemn and earnest speech in Hindustani.
[Sidenote: Speech of Sir Henry Lawrence.]
Sir Henry Lawrence reminded the Hindu sepoys that Mohammedan rulers had
never respected their religion, and had converted many Hindus to Islam
by forcing beef down their throats. He reminded the Mohammedan sepoys
that their religion had been cruelly persecuted by the Sikh rulers of
the Punjab. He reminded one and all that for a whole century the British
government had tolerated both Hinduism and Islam, and never interfered
with either. He dwelt on the power and resources of Great Britain, her
numerous ships and her exploits in the Russian war; and he declared that
within a few months she could assemble an army as large as that in the
Crimea in the vicinity of Lucknow. He urged all present to believe the
assurances of the British government, and he solemnly warned the sepoys
that if any of them became the dupes of fools or knaves, like the
mutineers at Berhampore and Barrackpore, the British would inflict such
a punishment as would be remembered for generations. The presents were
then distributed, and Sir Henry Lawrence shook hands with the
recipients.
[Sidenote: News of revolt at Delhi, 16th May.]
The speech and the rewards made a deep impression on the sepoys, but it
did not last. Four days later the news arrived of the revolt at Delhi,
and mischief was again brewing. Another fortnight passed away without
mutiny, and Sir Henry Lawrence gained time for making the necessary
preparations. He entrenched the Residency and adjoining buildings, and
collected large quantities of provisions and stores. Meanwhile the
Europeans in Lucknow, who were not serving as regimental officers, were
formed into a volunteer corps.
[Sidenote: General mutiny, 30th May.]
On the 30th of May in the middle of the night, about 2,000 sepoys of the
regular Bengal army broke out in mutiny at the cantonment on the
opposite side of the river. European officers were killed, and houses
were pillaged and burnt. Sir Henry Lawrence hurried across the river
with a company of Europeans and two guns, to protect the bridges and
prevent the mutineers from communicating with the disaffected population
of Lucknow. Presently the sepoys came rushing up to the bridges, but
were driven back by a volley of grape. They dispersed, but made no
attempt to reach Delhi. On the contrary, they halted at a place named
Sitapore, within the province of Oudh, where they remained several weeks
and did nothing.
[Sidenote: Proposed retreat to Cawnpore.]
Meanwhile the storm was gathering. Early in June news arrived of the
treachery of Nana Sahib at Cawnpore. General Wheeler wrote to Sir Henry
Lawrence imploring help and protection for the women and children in the
barracks. But Sir Henry Lawrence was in sore straits and could not spare
a European soldier. He had been authorised to withdraw from Oudh in case
of emergency, and possibly had he beat a retreat from Lucknow to
Cawnpore, he might have prevented the massacres. But the step would
have been more hazardous and desperate than the abandonment of Peshawar
by his brother John. No one anticipated massacre, and reinforcements of
Europeans from Bengal might reach Cawnpore at any moment, and stamp out
the mutiny and crush the Nana. Retreat from Oudh would not only have
involved the loss of a province, but imparted a fatal strength to mutiny
and murder from Bengal to the Punjab. The flag of Mohammedan revolt was
still floating over Delhi, and had it floated over Lucknow, the second
Mohammedan city in Hindustan, British prestige would have vanished for a
while from Northern India.
[Sidenote: Mutineers in the districts.]
In June mutiny and murder were running riot at different stations in
Oudh. At some places the atrocities committed on Europeans were
heart-rending. At one station there was an outbreak on a Sunday morning.
The sepoys rushed into the church during divine service and killed the
British magistrate and several officers. Some thirty Europeans,
including ladies and children, fled for their lives, and escaped to a
station named Mohamdi, where a detachment of Oudh irregulars were
quartered under the command of Captain Orr. The very sight of European
fugitives taking refuge at the station, drove the sepoys into rebellion.
Captain Orr assembled the Asiatic officers and appealed to their common
humanity. The men were moved to compassion. They crossed their arms on
the head of one of their comrades, and solemnly swore to conduct all the
Europeans in safety to another station.
[Sidenote: Massacre of Europeans.]
The convoy started at five o'clock in the evening; the men on foot or on
horseback, and the women and children in a carriage and baggage waggon.
Suddenly they found that they were pursued by sepoys. They did their
best to hasten on the carriage and waggon, but were soon overtaken and
surrounded. A gun was fired, a British officer was shot down, and then
followed a general massacre. Women and children were slaughtered with
infernal cruelty. A few fugitives escaped the slaughter, but were doomed
to privations and sufferings on which it is painful to dwell.
[Sidenote: Hostility at Lucknow.]
§13. The Residency at Lucknow was still a place of refuge, although it
might possibly be soon overwhelmed by numbers. No effort was spared by
the disaffected to stir up the city population against the British
authorities. Proclamations were posted from day to day on Hindu temples,
and Mohammedan mosques and palaces, calling upon the people to wage a
holy war against the Feringhi. Horrible effigies, dressed as British
officers and children, but without heads, were carried through the
streets by the rabble. Plots were discovered and individuals were
arrested, but British prestige was dying out with alarming rapidity, and
by the end of June British authority had little influence outside the
limits of the Residency at Lucknow.
[Sidenote: Disaster at Chinhut.]
On the 29th of June reports came in that an army of 6,000 rebels was
marching towards the British Residency, and that an advanced guard of
1,000 might be expected to arrive on the following morning. Sir Henry
Lawrence marched out to attack the advance guard, with 300 Europeans,
eleven guns, and about 300 Asiatics, including sepoy cavalry, and native
artillery drivers. There was treachery from the outset. Instead of an
advanced guard of 1,000, the whole body of insurgents was hidden in the
jungle behind the village of Chinhut, about six miles from the
Residency. As Sir Henry Lawrence approached he was met by a heavy fire
from a battery of guns posted in the village. The Europeans advanced;
the British guns returned the enemy's fire with great effect, and
victory was assured. At that moment the Asiatic artillery drivers turned
traitors, cut the traces, tumbled the guns into a ditch, and deserted to
the enemy. The 300 Europeans were thus left exposed to a terrible fire
and forced to beat a retreat. They were compelled to abandon their
killed and wounded, and only one hundred reached the Residency. Sir
Henry Lawrence was severely wounded, and worn out with fatigue and
despair, but was brought away on a gun-carriage.
[Sidenote: Defence of the Residency.]
The rebel army followed the Europeans. They reached the bridge which led
to the Residency, but were driven back by the fire of the British
batteries. They forded the river at another spot, and began to plunder
the wealthy quarter of Lucknow. This gave the British garrison breathing
time. They abandoned the cantonment on the opposite bank, and many of
the buildings near the Residency. Henceforth they contracted the area of
defence to the British Residency and a few houses within the Residency
enclosure.
[Sidenote: Residency besieged, 30th June.]
The siege of the British Residency soon began in right earnest. The
besieged within the enclosure numbered 500 British soldiers, 150 British
officers, 500 women and children, and some 300 or 400 sepoys who had
remained loyal. The besiegers soon numbered from 25,000 to 50,000
rebels. They environed the Residency enclosure with a circle of guns.
They kept up a heavy and continuous fire, and killed and wounded many of
the British garrison, but they could not capture a single position.
[Sidenote: Death of Sir Henry Lawrence, 4th July.]
On the second day of the siege Sir Henry Lawrence was mortally wounded
by the bursting of a shell. He died on the 4th of July, exhorting those
around him to entrench night and day, and to shut their ears against all
suggestions of surrender. Such was the terrible lesson which had been
taught to every European in India by the treacherous massacres at
Cawnpore.
[Sidenote: Dissension amongst the rebels.]
The besiegers increased in numbers with marvellous rapidity. They were
joined by all the rebel sepoys in Oudh; by the vassals of the talukdars,
who were mostly brigands; and by the scum of the population of Lucknow.
They were, however, at constant strife with each other; torn by quarrels
about religion, politics, or personal animosities. One prince was raised
to the throne and another was placed in command of the army, but their
authority was nominal. The rebels elected their own officers, and the
officers chose their own generals; but cowardice and insubordination
were rampant, and commanding officers often lost their lives in attempts
to uphold their short-lived dignities.
[Sidenote: Anarchy in the city.]
[Sidenote: Repulse of rebels, 21st July: news of Havelock.]
Meanwhile there was a reign of terror in the city of Lucknow. The
orderly and peaceful classes, which made up the bulk of the population,
were overwhelmed by taxes and exactions of all kinds; and bankers,
traders and other wealthy citizens, must have yearned for the
restoration of a rule under which life and property were always
respected.
At early morning, on the 21st of July, there was a general assault. The
batteries opened on the Residency from all sides. The sepoys advanced in
compact masses to the trenches, but were driven back by the fire of the
Europeans. The next day the struggle was renewed, but with the same
result. The British garrison, amidst all these toils and privations,
exulted in the conviction that they could repulse the assaults of the
rebel besiegers until help should arrive. That very night a faithful
sepoy got inside the Residency with the news that General Havelock had
compelled Nana Sahib to fly for his life, and had recaptured the city
and cantonment of Cawnpore.
[Sidenote: Havelock retreats.]
§14. Havelock failed to reach Lucknow. His brave little column worked
wonders. It scattered large armies of rebels by bayonet charges, but it
was rapidly reduced by three fatal diseases--fever, dysentery and
cholera. Havelock could not spare troops for keeping up his
communications with Cawnpore; he was compelled to carry his sick and
wounded with him, and he was losing fifty men a day. Before he had
fought his way a third of the distance, he was compelled with a heavy
heart to fall back on Cawnpore.
[Sidenote: Mutiny in Behar: defence of Arrah.]
Havelock reached Cawnpore just in time to save Neill from being
overwhelmed by rebel armies. European reinforcements from Bengal had
again been delayed by mutinies. At Patna there had been a Mohammedan
plot which was quashed at the outset by Mr. William Tayler, a Bengal
civilian. At Dinapore, ten miles west of Patna, three sepoy regiments
had mutinied. At Arrah, twenty-five miles still further to the west, a
large body of rebels had attacked and plundered the station; but
sixteen Europeans and fifty Sikhs defended a single house against 3,000
rebels for an entire week, when they were relieved by a detachment of
Europeans from Dinapore under the command of Major Vincent Eyre.
[Sidenote: European garrison at Lucknow.]
Meanwhile the suspense of the Europeans in the Residency at Lucknow was
becoming intense. The provisions were coarse and beginning to fail. Most
of the native servants and all the bakers had fled at the beginning of
the siege. Balls, bullets, and fragments of shells fell into every
dwelling-place; and ladies and children on beds of sickness were as much
exposed to the fire of the enemy as the soldiers in the trenches. There
was, however, no slackening on the part of the garrison. Every man in
the Residency worked in the trenches. Officers, soldiers, and civilians
were either returning the enemy's fire, or digging with spades and
pickaxes. The rains allayed the burning heat; but fever, dysentery, and
cholera carried off their victims. No one thought of capitulation.
Cawnpore had steeled every British heart. Husbands and fathers would
have slain their own wives and daughters, rather than they should have
fallen into the hands of the merciless besiegers.
[Sidenote: Delay of Havelock.]
All this while General Havelock was impatient to attempt a second
advance on Lucknow. His force was too small to fight a way through the
streets of the city into the Residency enclosure. Could the garrison
have cut their way out, he might possibly have convoyed the whole body
in safety to Cawnpore. But Brigadier Inglis, who commanded the garrison,
was hampered with 450 women and children. He had no carriage, and in any
case he was unwilling to abandon the guns and treasure. So Havelock and
Inglis were both compelled to await the arrival of further
reinforcements from Bengal.
[Sidenote: Advance of Havelock and Outram, September.]
§15. At last about the middle of September, a column of 3,000 troops was
formed at Cawnpore, of whom 2,700 were Europeans. General Sir James
Outram was sent from Calcutta to take the command, and Havelock must
have smarted at the supersession; but Outram, who was known as the
Bayard of India, chivalrously refused to supersede him. Accordingly the
column left Cawnpore under Havelock's command.
[Sidenote: Britons to the rescue.]
Never in British history had a more resolute or enthusiastic column of
soldiers taken the field. It was something for the crusaders to wrest
Jerusalem from the infidels. It was something to stand against
overwhelming numbers at Agincourt and Cressy. But Havelock and his men
had to rescue British women and children from the horrible fate that
befell the victims at Cawnpore; and neither shot nor shell, bullet nor
barricade, could have availed against British valour in such a cause.
[Sidenote: City and Residency.]
There was a five days' toilsome march from the Ganges at Cawnpore to the
city of Lucknow. Then a day's halt for rest. Then on the glorious 25th
of September, Havelock and his men fought their way into the city,
whilst Outram, with a sublime contempt for rebels, scorned to draw his
sword, and hammered about with a walking-stick. But the work was no
child's play. A rebel battery had to be carried with the bayonet. Then
the high street was reached, which led from the suburbs to the
Residency, but it was long and narrow. The British column might have
suffered heavily from barricades, or from a raking fire which might have
been opened from the houses on either side. Outram, however, was
familiar with the whole labyrinth of roads and lanes. He led the main
body through by-ways towards the Residency, whilst the high street was
closed by Highlanders and Sikhs. Towards evening a junction was formed,
and the united forces marched straight on to the Residency.
[Sidenote: Anxieties of the garrison.]
Throughout the whole day the beleaguered garrison in the Residency had
been anxious and bewildered. In the morning they heard the roar of
cannon in the distant suburbs. They beheld a mob of Asiatic fugitives
from the city--men, women, and children, with terrified sepoys in full
uniform all rushing to the bridges, or wading and swimming through the
river. The guns of the Residency opened fire, but the rebel batteries
responded with a storm of shot and shell. In the afternoon discharges of
musketry were heard; the fusillade drew nearer and nearer. Presently the
Europeans and Sikhs appeared on the scene with mounted officers in
front. Finally Havelock and Outram dismounted from their horses, and
were carried on the shoulders of their men through an embrasure into the
Residency.
[Sidenote: Cheers and tears.]
§16. Then arose ringing cheers which must have astonished the Hindu gods
on Mount Meru. The pent-up hearts of the half-starved garrison could
find no other way of giving vent to their emotions. From every pit,
trench, and battery, from behind sand-bags piled on shattered houses,
from the sick and wounded in the hospital, nothing was to be heard but
shouts and cries of welcome. The British soldiers who poured into the
Residency were equally moved. They had saved women and children from the
destroyer. Rough and bearded warriors shook hands with the ladies all
round. They took the children in their arms, kissed them and passed them
from one to the other; and with tears running down their cheeks, they
thanked God that all were rescued. But in the hour of gladness there was
a dash of sorrow. The gallant Neill had met with a glorious death in the
streets of Lucknow.
[Sidenote: Havelock's dilemma.]
Havelock and Outram had cut their way into the Residency, but the
question was how to get out again. It was comparatively easy to lead
enthusiastic battalions into a beleaguered fortress, but it was a very
different thing to convoy 400 women and children, 600 sick and wounded,
and a quarter of a million sterling in silver, through the narrow
streets of Lucknow exposed to the fire of swarms of rebels thirsting for
blood and rupees.
[Sidenote: Unexpected provisions.]
There was, however, no alternative. Provisions were exhausted. Suddenly
the commissariat discovered a vast stock of grain which had been
overlooked after the death of Sir Henry Lawrence. The problem was
solved. The oxen which dragged the guns, ammunition, and baggage of
Havelock's column would furnish the garrison with butcher's meat for
months. Accordingly it was determined to remain behind the defences of
the Residency enclosure until another European army advanced to the
conquest of Oudh.
[Sidenote: Sir James Outram in command.]
Sir James Outram was now chief commissioner of Oudh, and general in
command of the garrison. Many positions were wrested from the rebels,
and the area of defence was enlarged. The garrison was no longer in
daily peril, and it was felt that an avenging army of Europeans and
Sikhs would soon deliver them.
[Sidenote: Advance of Sir Colin Campbell, November.]
§17. Meanwhile, Sir Colin Campbell, one of the heroes in the Russian
war, had been appointed commander-in-chief of the Bengal army, in
succession to General Anson. He reached Calcutta in August, and prepared
for a second expedition against Lucknow. In October an army of 4,700
Europeans and thirty-two guns was assembled at Cawnpore. In November the
expedition set out for Lucknow, under the new commander-in-chief.[32] It
included a detachment of sailors from the _Shannon_ frigate, who had
brought their guns to bear upon the rebels, under the command of Captain
William Peel, a son of the illustrious Sir Robert. The sailors excited
the wonder of Asiatics, especially as it was reported that they had
fish-tails like tritons, and were harnessed to the guns.
[Sidenote: Deliverance: death of Havelock.]
Sir Colin Campbell did not attempt to drive the rebels out of the city
of Lucknow. His one object was to bring away the besieged from the
Residency. By Outram's advice he did not advance through streets or
by-ways, but made a detour through the palaces and other royal
buildings. After much hard fighting, he reached the Residency, and
brought away all the besieged at twenty-four hours' notice. The
besiegers were outwitted. They knew nothing of what was going on, and
continued to fire upon the Residency for hours after it had been
abandoned.
But again there was sadness. General Havelock lived long enough to
receive the cross of Knight Commander of the Bath, and died amidst the
tears of the women and children whom he had done his best to rescue.
[Sidenote: Gwalior rebels at Cawnpore.]
§18. Many a soldier grieved over the retirement from Lucknow, but the
retreat was a painful necessity. The Gwalior contingent, maintained by
Sindia under the treaty of 1843, had broken out in mutiny and joined the
forces of Nana Sahib. An army of 20,000 rebels advanced on Cawnpore,
defeated Brigadier Wyndham, who had been left in charge, and occupied
the town. Sir Colin Campbell shipped the precious convoy from Lucknow on
board a flotilla of steamers, and despatched them to Calcutta. He then
took the field, and drove the Gwalior rebels out of Cawnpore.
[Sidenote: Calcutta, 30th January, 1858.]
On the 30th of January, 1858, all the Europeans in Calcutta flocked to
the banks of the Hughly, to welcome the return of the besieged from
Lucknow; but when a procession of widows and orphans appeared in black
raiment, with pallid faces and emaciated forms, the acclamations of the
crowd died away in a deep and painful silence, and every eye was filled
with tears for the sufferings of the survivors of the beleaguered
garrison at Lucknow.
[Sidenote: Conclusion.]
§19. Here ends the story of the siege and relief of Lucknow. In 1858
Oudh was conquered, the rebellion was crushed, peace and order were
restored, and a compromise with the talukdars was effected on the
battle-field. The reconciliation of the people of Oudh with British rule
and supremacy will be noted in a future chapter.
[Sidenote: Causes of the revolt in Oudh.]
Greased cartridges were the cause of the sepoy mutinies of 1857, but
they were not the cause of the revolt in Oudh; and yet it was impossible
for the British government to postpone the deposition of the king of
Oudh or the annexation of the kingdom.
[Sidenote: Unheeded warnings.]
Oudh had been drifting into anarchy ever since it had been taken under
British protection. Every Governor-General from Lord Wellesley to Lord
Dalhousie had denounced the administration of Oudh as tyrannical,
oppressive, and corrupt. Every ruler of Oudh had been threatened in
turn; but as the Resident was warned not to interfere beyond tendering
advice, repeated threats were as unheeded as the old cry of "wolf." Sir
James Outram, the Bayard of India, and last British Resident at Lucknow,
summed up his views in the following words:--"I have always been the
upholder of native states as long as they retained a spark of vitality,
and we could recognise them without infringing our treaties or our
suzerain power. It is, therefore, most painful for me to have to
acknowledge that if we persist in maintaining this feeble and corrupt
dynasty, we shall be sacrificing the interests of ten millions of
individuals whom we are bound by treaty to protect by ensuring them a
good government, capable of defending the life and property of its
subjects."
[Sidenote: Feudatory states: mutinous contingents.]
The feudatory states of India which owe allegiance to the British
government displayed no sympathies with the Bengal sepoy, or with their
mutinies against greased cartridges. Some may have trimmed and wavered,
and were prepared to join the winning side. Contingent and subsidiary
forces caught the infatuation against greased cartridges, and revolted
against their British officers, and joined the mutineers. The Gwalior
contingent revolted, but Sindia remained loyal. Holkar's troops revolted
at Indore, and murdered every European they could find; and this could
scarcely have been a rebellion against greased cartridges.[33] But after
the lapse of a generation any suspicions of disloyalty that may linger
in the minds of those who are familiar with the history of the time, may
be dropped in oblivion.
FOOTNOTES:
[32] During the march, the 93d Highlanders suddenly stopped, broke
their ranks, and rushed off right and left like madmen. It was thought
that they were seized with a panic. It turned out that they were
flying from bees, who were swarming at their bare legs and stinging
like fury.
[33] For an interesting account of the state of affairs in Central
India during the mutinies of 1857, see _Life of Major-General Sir
Henry M. Durand_, by his Son. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1883. Sir Henry
Durand was Agent to the Governor-General for Central India, and
Resident at Indore, during the mutinies.
PART II.
THE BRITISH CROWN.
CHAPTER THE LAST.
CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT.
1858-1886.
§1. Awakening of the British Nation. §2. Government Education in
India: Toleration. §3. British Rule after the Mutiny: Legislative
Council of 1854 and Executive Council: Wrongs of Non-Official
Europeans. §4. Mr. James Wilson and his Income-Tax. §5. New
Legislative Council of 1861-62. §6. New High Court: proposed
District Courts. §7. Lord Canning leaves India. §8. Lord Elgin,
1862-63. §9. Sir John Lawrence, 1864-69: Governments of Madras and
Bombay: Migrations to Simla: Foreign Affairs. §10. Lord Lawrence
leaves India. §11. Lord Mayo, 1869-72. §12. Lord Northbrook,
1872-76: Royal visits to India. §13. Lord Lytton, 1876-80: Empress
Proclaimed. §14. Second Afghan War. §15. Political and Judicial
Schools. §16. Constitution of British India: proposed Reforms.
[Sidenote: Extinction of the East India Company.]
The great and grand East India Company was brought to a close after a
busy life of two centuries and a half, extending from the age of
Elizabeth to that of Victoria. It was still in a green old age, but
could not escape extinction. The story of mutiny and revolt raised a
storm in the British Isles which demanded the sacrifice of a victim, and
the Company was thrown overboard like another Jonah. In July, 1858,
India was transferred to the Crown by Act of Parliament. In the
following November proclamation was made throughout India that Her
Majesty Queen Victoria had assumed the direct government of her Eastern
empire. The Governor-General ceased to rule in the name of the East
India Company, and became Viceroy of India. The old Court of Directors,
which dated back to the Tudors, and the Board of Control, which dated
back to William Pitt the younger, were alike consigned to oblivion.
Henceforth India was managed by a Secretary of State in Council, and
Great Britain was an Asiatic power.
[Sidenote: Alarm and panic in Great Britain.]
§1. The sepoy mutinies awakened the British nation from the lethargy of
forty years. At one time it was aroused by the discovery that the East
India Company had acquired an empire larger than that of Napoleon; but
was soon immersed once more in its own insular concerns. The sepoy
revolt of 1857 stirred it up to its innermost depths. The alarms swelled
to a panic. Exeter Hall clamoured for the conversion of Hindus and
Mohammedans to Christianity. Some called aloud for vengeance on Delhi.
The inhabitants were to be slaughtered as David slaughtered the
Ammonites; the city was to be razed to the ground and its site sown with
salt. Others, more ignorant than either, denounced the East India
Company and Lord Dalhousie; demanded the restoration of British
territory to Asiatic rulers, and the abandonment of India to its ancient
superstition and stagnation.
[Sidenote: British ignorance.]
In the olden time India was only known to the bulk of the British nation
as a land of idol-worshippers, who burnt living widows with their dead
husbands, tortured themselves by swinging on hooks, thrust javelins
through their tongues, prostrated themselves beneath the wheels of
Juggernauth's car, and threw their dying and dead into the holy Ganges,
under a child-like faith that the safest way of going to heaven was by
water. Educated men knew that the greater part of India had been
previously conquered by Mohammedans, just as Syria and Persia were
conquered by Arabs and Turks. It was also known that Mohammedans hated
idolatry, broke down idols and pagodas, built mosques in their room, and
forced many Hindus to accept Islam. But few, excepting those who had
lived in India, knew anything of its affairs, or cared to know anything
about them, except when war was declared against Afghans, Sikhs, or
Burmese, or when Parliament was about to renew the charter of the late
East India Company.
[Sidenote: Missionary and educational movements.]
But the instincts of the British nation are generally healthy and
sensible. It subscribed largely to missionary societies, and was led by
flaming reports to expect the speedy conversion of Hindus and
Mohammedans. Such aspirations, however, were not to be realised. The
devout were obliged to wait and pray; the sensible urged the East India
Company to provide for the secular education of the masses. For
centuries the rising generation had learnt something of reading,
writing, and arithmetic from village schoolmasters, mostly Brahmans.
These hereditary schoolmasters taught the village boys from generation
to generation, in the same old-world fashion, with palm-leaves for
books, sanded boards and floors for writing lessons, and clay marbles
for working out little sums. Christian missionaries had established
schools from an early period, especially in Southern India; and to this
day nearly every Asiatic servant in the city of Madras can speak
English indifferently well. Meanwhile the East India Company had done
little or nothing for the education of the masses, nor indeed had much
been done by the British government for its own people in those
illiterate days.
[Sidenote: Government High Schools, 1841: Hindus and Mohammedans.]
§2. In 1841, when a British army was still at Cabul, the British
government established high schools at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay.
Hindu boys flocked to the new schools, but Mohammedans kept aloof. The
followers of the Prophet would not accept an education which rejected
the authority of Mohammed and the Koran. Meanwhile there was an
agitation for teaching the Bible in the government schools. Had it
succeeded, respectable Hindus would probably have followed the example
of the Mohammedans.
[Sidenote: State education, 1854.]
At last, in 1854, a State system of education was introduced, beginning
with primary schools and middle-class schools, and ending in British
colleges with professors and lecture-rooms. The whole system in every
presidency, and gradually in every province, was placed under the
control of a Director of Public Instruction. Grants in aid were made to
schools established by missionaries and others, according to the
educational results of their teaching. A University was established at
Calcutta, another at Madras, and a third at Bombay, for the conduct of
examinations and the granting of degrees. In a word, secular education
was proceeding on a liberal scale, and some Hindus, who took high
degrees, got appointments in the revenue and judicial departments,
whilst others entered the service of Asiatic rulers, and rose to the
rank of ministers.
[Sidenote: Bible teaching.]
Then followed the terrible sepoy mutinies, and wild cries from the
British Isles for teaching Christianity and the Bible in every
government institution. Had British statesmen yielded to the demand, the
general population would have felt that the rebel sepoys were in the
right; that they had fought, not from childish terror, but for the
defence of their religion and caste; that they were martyrs to their
faith, who had been crushed by the European red-coats to clear the way
for the conversion of helpless Hindus and Mohammedans who were without
arms.
[Sidenote: Toleration proclaimed, 1858.]
Fortunately, the Royal Proclamation of 1858 was drafted by a statesman
who felt that the machinery of government had no more to do with
religious movements than the machinery of workshops. It announced, in
clear and unmistakable language, that the British government had neither
the right nor the desire to interfere with the faith of its Asiatic
subjects, and the question of religious toleration in India was settled
for ever.
[Sidenote: Hostility of non-official Europeans.]
§3. The sepoy mutinies had paralysed the executive government of India.
To make matters worse, the non-official Europeans--the merchants,
bankers, planters, and lawyers--had been hostile to the government of
Lord Canning from the very beginning of the outbreak. The cause of this
collision is important. It suggested the necessity for future reforms.
It will be seen hereafter that something was done in this direction in
1861-62; but something else was undone, and further reforms are still
needed.
[Sidenote: Representation in the legislative council.]
The legislative assembly of 1854 has already been described as the
earliest germ of representative government in India. This was due to the
fact that in addition to the executive members of council, the
legislative chamber included four representative members, each one
chosen from the civil service of one or other of the four Presidencies;
also two judges of the old Supreme Court, who were not in the service of
the East India Company, but were appointed by the British Crown, and
were consequently independent legislators.
[Sidenote: Controlled by the executive.]
In every other respect, however, the executive government, including
Lord Canning and the members of his executive council, exercised supreme
control over the Indian legislature. They introduced what measures they
pleased. They excluded what measures they disliked. Being mostly Bengal
civilians, they were accused of ignoring the representative members from
Madras and Bombay, and Madras and Bombay had some ground of complaint.
No member of the legislative council of India had the power to introduce
a bill without the consent of the Indian executive; nor even had the
power, common to every member of the British parliament, to ask any
question as regards the acts of the executive.
[Sidenote: Class legislation.]
At this period there was a nondescript body in England known as the
"Indian Law Commissioners." These gentlemen prepared an act cut and
dried, and the Court of Directors sent it to India in 1857, and
recommended that it should be passed into law by the legislative council
of India. This act began with asserting the equality of Asiatics and
Europeans in the eyes of the law; but laid down a still more invidious
distinction between non-official and official Europeans. It proposed to
subject all non-official Europeans to the jurisdiction of Asiatic
magistrates, but to exempt from such jurisdiction all Europeans who were
members of the Indian civil service, or officers of the army or navy.
[Sidenote: Agitation and withdrawal.]
The first reading was followed by alarm and indignation. The press
thundered, outside orators raved in public meetings, and European
petitions against the bill poured in like a rushing stream. For a long
time not a single member of the legislative chamber raised a voice
against such vicious legislation. The Penal Code had not become law, and
judges and magistrates, whether European or Asiatic, administered the
law very much at their own discretion, by the light of "equity and good
conscience," and voluminous regulations. Then, again, the time was out
of joint for such an innovation. Mutiny and revolt were at work in the
upper provinces, and isolated European planters might soon be at the
mercy of Asiatic magistrates who sympathised with the rebels. At last,
however, Sir Arthur Buller, one of the ablest judges of the old Supreme
Court, rose from his seat in the legislative chamber, and virtually tore
the bill to shreds. From that day it was doomed. Bengali baboos vainly
petitioned the British government to pass the bill in all its integrity.
It perished in the maelstrom of the mutiny, and was then formally
withdrawn by the Court of Directors.
[Sidenote: Executive council remodelled.]
When the mutiny was over, Lord Canning remodelled the executive council
into the form of a cabinet. He divided the administration into six
branches, namely:--foreign, home, legislative, military, financial, and
public works. The Viceroy was the prime minister, who sat as president
of the council. He took charge of "foreign affairs." The other members
were ministers; each had charge of a separate department, and transacted
the bulk of its business. All important business, however, was
transacted by the whole cabinet of ministers, which held its regular
sittings at Government House, as it had done in the days when the
governor or president was only the head of a factory.
[Sidenote: Ministers and secretaries.]
The post of minister was not, and is not, doubled up with that of
secretary, except during the earlier years of the public works
department. In the present day there is a minister for every department.
Every minister transacts the business of his branch at his own house;
leaving the secretary and under-secretary to control the office of his
particular department, conduct the correspondence, and carry out orders.
[Sidenote: Mr. Wilson, Finance Minister, 1860.]
§4. In 1860 an English financier, the late Mr. James Wilson, was sent
out from England to put the Indian budget to rights. He was a famous man
in his day; a noted leader of the anti-corn law league, and had a large
reputation as a sound financier. He freely conferred with Calcutta
merchants and bankers, and so far poured oil on the troubled waters; but
in those days the merchants of Calcutta were as ignorant of India
outside the city of palaces as Mr. Wilson himself, who was sent out to
tax the people.
[Sidenote: Income-tax.]
Mr. Wilson quoted the laws of Manu in the legislative chamber, and
proposed an income-tax. It was not an ordinary tax on incomes above
400_l._ or 500_l._ per annum, with which India has since been burdened.
It included a tax on Asiatic incomes rising from eight shillings a week
to twenty shillings. It was as oppressive as the poll-tax which drove
Wat Tyler and Jack Cade into rebellion. But India was prostrate. British
red-coats were masters; and British financiers might do as they pleased.
[Sidenote: Protest of Sir Charles Trevelyan.]
Sir Charles Trevelyan was Governor of Madras and knew India well. He
protested against the tax and sent his protest to the newspapers. The
Viceroy and the Secretary of State were filled with wrath at an act of
insubordination which amounted to an appeal to the public opinion of
India against the ukase of the supreme government. Sir Charles Trevelyan
was removed from the government of Madras, but within two years he was
revenged. The obnoxious clause had filled 600,000 households with
weeping and wailing, in order to collect 350,000_l._, of which
100,000_l._ was spent on the work of collection. Accordingly the clause
was repealed.[34]
[Sidenote: Independent Judges.]
Later on, the two judges who sat in the legislative chamber were guilty
of a still more flagrant act of insubordination. Whilst 350,000_l._ was
exacted from 600,000 poor Asiatics in the shape of income-tax, the
Secretary of State for India overruled a previous decision of Lord
Dalhousie, and capitalised half a million sterling, in order to improve
the pensions of the descendants of Tippu! The controversy is obsolete;
the two judges ventured to question the justice of this measure, and the
heinous offence was punished in due course.
[Sidenote: Legislative council remodelled, 1861-62.]
§5. In 1861-62 the legislative council of India was reconstituted by act
of parliament. The two judges were excluded from the legislative
chamber, and European merchants, and Asiatics of wealth and influence,
were nominated in their room. The control of the executive was thus
stronger than ever, but it is doubtful whether the legislature has
profited by the change.
[Sidenote: Legislative councils at Madras, Bombay, and Bengal.]
Legislative councils, on a similar footing to that of India at Calcutta,
were granted to the governments of Madras and Bombay, as well as to the
Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. They include both European and Asiatic
members, who are nominated by the local government. They legislate on
purely local measures, such as port dues, hackney carriages, canal
tolls, and municipalities. They are, however, under the immediate
control of the executive, and have no power to make laws, or to initiate
legislation in the legislative council of India.
[Sidenote: New High Courts.]
[Sidenote: Judges in council.]
§6. A still more important measure was carried out at this period. A new
High Court of Justice was created at Calcutta, and also at Madras and
Bombay, by the amalgamation of the Supreme Court and Sudder, which had
been separate and rival courts ever since the days of Warren Hastings.
In other words, the barrister judges appointed by the British Crown, and
the civilian judges appointed by the Indian governments, sat together in
the new High Court. Moreover, as a crowning innovation, an Asiatic judge
was appointed to each High Court, to sit on the same bench as the
European judges. The amalgamation of the two courts is an epoch in
British rule in India. The coalition of barrister and civilian judges,
and the presence of an Asiatic judge on the same bench, enlarged and
strengthened the High Court. It was, however, unfortunate that a
European and an Asiatic judge did not also sit in the legislative
chambers. Such an addition would have converted the chambers into
schools of legislation. An Asiatic judge, who had graduated in the High
Court, would have taught something to his Asiatic colleagues in the
legislative council; whilst a European judge would have smoothed away
many of the asperities which have sprung up of late years between the
acts of the Indian executive and the rulings of the High Court.
[Sidenote: European and Asiatic magistrates.]
The mixed constitution of the High Courts might be extended with
advantage to the District Courts. If European and Asiatic judges sit on
the same bench, why not European and Asiatic magistrates,
deputy-magistrates, and subordinate judges? Such an amalgamation would
prove a school for Asiatic magistrates and judges; whilst the evil
spirit of race antagonism, which was raised by the unfortunate bill of
1857, and revived a few short years ago, would be allayed for ever.
[Sidenote: Lord Canning leaves India, 1862.]
§7. Lord Canning left India in March, 1862, and died in England the
following June. His administration had been more eventful than that of
any of his predecessors. At first he hesitated to crush the mutinies,
and was named "Clemency Canning"; but he never lost his nerve. After the
revolt at Delhi he rose to the occasion. Later on, non-official
Europeans, as well as officials, learned to respect "Clemency Canning,"
and his sudden death was felt by all as a loss to the nation as well as
to the empire.
[Sidenote: Lord Elgin, Viceroy, 1862-63.]
§8. Lord Elgin succeeded Lord Canning. He was a statesman of experience
and capacity, but cumbered with memories of China and Japan. Lord
Elgin's reign did not last two years. He died in November, 1863.
[Sidenote: Sir John Lawrence, 1864-69.]
§9. In those days of imperfect telegraphs, there was an interregnum of
two months. Meanwhile, Sir William Denison, Governor of Madras, acted as
provisional Governor-General. With great presence of mind, he sanctioned
all the measures which he had previously sent up from Madras for the
confirmation of the government of India. In January, 1864, Sir John
Lawrence landed at Calcutta as Viceroy and Governor-General.
[Sidenote: Sir William Denison at Madras.]
Sir William Denison returned to Madras. He is said to have been hostile
to competitive examinations, and anxious to govern Southern India
without the help of an executive council. But his ideas of government
were not in accord with those in power, and competitive examinations and
civilian members of council have remained to this day.
[Sidenote: Sir Bartle Frere at Bombay.]
At this period Sir Bartle Frere was Governor of Bombay. He was an
Anglo-Indian statesman of the first order, with capacity and experience
combined with diplomatic tact. He had done good service as commissioner
of Sind. Since then he had graduated in the Indian executive as Home
member of Lord Canning's cabinet. But, like many Indian civilians, he
was too self-reliant, and fell upon evil times when Indian experiences
could not help him.
[Sidenote: American war: cotton famine.]
Sir Bartle Frere was transferred from the cabinet at Calcutta to the
government of Bombay at the moment when war was raging between the
North and the South in the United States of America. A cotton famine
was starving Manchester, and Indian cotton rose from threepence a pound
to twenty pence. Bombay cultivators loaded their women with jewels, and
shod their cattle with silver shoes. The spirit of speculation was
rampant. Europeans and Asiatics, shrewd Scotchmen and cautious Parsis,
rushed blindly into the wildest gambling. Mushroom companies sprung up
in a single night like the prophet's gourd, and flourished like the
South Sea Bubble. Clerks and brokers woke up to find themselves
millionaires, and straightway plunged into still madder speculations,
dreaming, like Alnaschar, of estates as large as counties, of peerless
brides, and of seats in the House of Lords.
[Sidenote: Crash and panic.]
Suddenly the American war collapsed, and cargoes of cotton were hurried
from the States across the Atlantic. Prices fell to zero. There was joy
at Manchester, but weeping and wailing at Bombay. The Bombay Bank had
been drawn into the vortex of speculation, and loans had been advanced
on worthless shares. How far Sir Bartle Frere was implicated is a
disputed point; but the bank stopped payment, and Sir Bartle Frere lost
his chance of becoming Viceroy of India.
[Sidenote: Civilian experiences of John Lawrence.]
The Viceroyalty of Sir John Lawrence was altogether exceptional.[35]
Most Viceroys are noble peers, who land in India with parliamentary and
diplomatic experiences, but with no special knowledge of Asiatic
affairs, beyond what has been "crammed up" at the India Office during
the interval between acceptance of office and embarkation for Calcutta.
In 1864 Lord Lawrence knew more about India than any previous
Governor-General, Warren Hastings not excepted. He, and his foreign and
home secretaries, the late Sir Henry Durand and the late Sir Edward
Clive Bayley, were, perhaps, better versed in Indian history than any
other men of the time. Lord Lawrence had gone through the ordeal of the
mutiny with the salvation of the Empire in his hands. Since then he had
sat on the council of the Secretary of State at Westminster, and learnt
something of public opinion in the British Isles on Indian affairs.
[Sidenote: Yearly migrations to Simla.]
Lord Lawrence hated Bengal, and could not endure her depressing heats
and vapour-baths.[36] He was the first Governor-General who went every
year to Simla, and he was the first who took all his cabinet ministers
and secretaries with him. Old Anglo-Indians disliked these migrations,
and likened them to the progresses of the Great Mogul with a train of
lords and ladies, in tented palaces, escorted by hosts of soldiers and
camp-followers, from Agra to Lahore, or from Delhi to Cashmere. But the
migrations of the British government of India required no army of
escort, and entailed no expense or suffering on the masses. Railways
shortened the journeys; telegraphs prevented delays; and civilian
members of government, whose experiences had previously been cribbed and
cabined in Bengal, began to learn something of the upper provinces.
[Sidenote: Sir John Lawrence and Sir Henry Durand.]
Lord Lawrence, like his immediate predecessors, took the Foreign Office
under his special and immediate charge. At that time Colonel,
afterwards Major-General Sir Henry Durand, was foreign secretary to the
government of India. Both Lawrence and Durand were firm to the verge of
obstinacy, but Sir John was sometimes hasty and impetuous, whilst
Colonel Durand was solid and immovable.
[Sidenote: Foreign and political.]
The main business of the Foreign Office is that of supervision. It
directs all negotiations with the Asiatic states beyond the frontier,
such as Afghanistan, Cashmere, and Nipal. It controls all political
relations with the feudatory states of Rajputana and Central India,
which are carried on by British officers known as political agents and
assistants. In like manner it controls the political relations with
other courts, which are carried on by "Residents." It also overlooks the
administration in newly-acquired territories, which, like the Punjab,
are known as "non-regulation" provinces.[37]
[Sidenote: Afghanistan: death of Dost Mohammed Khan.]
The main question of the day was Afghanistan affairs. Dost Mohammed Khan
died in 1863, after a chequered life of war and intrigue, a labyrinth
which no one can unravel. He had driven his enemy Shah Shuja out of
Cabul; he had been robbed of the coveted valley of Peshawar by Runjeet
Singh; he had coquetted with Persia, Russia, and the British government.
He had abandoned his dominions on the advance of the British army in
1839-40; fled to Bokhara; then surrendered to Macnaghten; was sent to
Calcutta as a state prisoner; played at chess with the ladies at
Government House; and finally returned to Cabul. He seized the valley
of Peshawar during the second Sikh war. Finally he had become friends
with the British government, and made no attempt to take advantage of
the sepoy mutinies to recover Peshawar.
[Sidenote: Jacob _versus_ Esau.]
But old Dost Mohammed had a patriarchal weakness for youthful wives. He
had been beguiled by a blooming favourite into nominating her son as his
successor, to the exclusion of the first-born. It was nearly a case of
Jacob _versus_ Esau, and when the old man was gathered to his fathers,
the younger son and the first-born, with their respective partisans,
tried to settle the succession by force of arms. The British government
did not interfere, but left the brothers to fight on, until the elder
was carried off by death, and the younger, the late Shere Ali Khan,
gained the throne.
[Sidenote: Mysore.]
Mysore was another vexed question. Lord Wellesley had acquired Mysore by
the conquest of Tippu in 1799. He incorporated some provinces into the
Madras Presidency, but formed the remaining territory into a little
Hindu state, and placed a Hindu boy, a kinsman of the Raja who had been
supplanted by Hyder, on the throne of Mysore. The boy grew to be a man,
and turned out a worthless, extravagant, and oppressive ruler, deaf to
all remonstrances and warnings. His subjects rebelled against his
tyranny and exactions. Even Lord William Bentinck, a sentimental admirer
of Asiatic principalities, was disgusted with his conduct and deposed
him, and placed Mysore territory in charge of a British commissioner,
and brought it under British rule.