_Sketch of the career of His Excellency General Jung Bahadoor, Prime
Minister of Nepaul_.
It will be necessary before commencing an account of the career of Jung
Bahadoor to describe the state in which the political affairs of Nepaul
were when his ambition and daring prompted him to play so important a
part in its government. Cool, courageous, and an adept in all arts of
intrigue, he possessed every qualification necessary to render a man
successful in the East, where native courts are incessantly torn asunder
by rival factions, and scenes of violence and bloodshed are the result of
plots and counterplots, as each party becomes for the time predominant,
and its leading man assumes the office of premier, to be soon after
deprived of his short-lived greatness by a successful conspiracy of the
opposing party. These in their turn share the same fate, the King and
country remaining passive spectators of the struggles between the
opposing factions. They are indeed uninteresting to the King, for he is
only too delighted to get any one to take the cares of government off his
shoulders, and considers his prerogative to consist in enjoying himself
as much as possible. They are equally uninteresting to the country, for
these violent dissensions do not arise upon questions of policy, in any
way affecting its government. Ministerial explanations are never asked
for nor given in the East. The power of the prime minister is absolute
till he is shot, when it becomes unnecessary to question the expediency
of his measures, and the people are only interested to this extent, that,
generally speaking, the longer a premier can maintain his position, by so
much is their prosperity increased.
The two rival factions in Nepaul were the Pandees and Thapas, and in the
early part of this century the reins of government were held by one of
the most enlightened men that ever attained to the position of prime
minister. Bheem Singh Thapa has left behind him numerous monuments of
his greatness, calculating, like Napoleon, that his fame would last at
least as long as they did. For an unusual number of years did this able
minister retain the management of affairs. He was ultimately placed in
confinement, on the charge of being accessory to the murder of the
Rajah's children by poison. His enemies resorted to an ingenious, though
cruel device, to rid themselves altogether of so dreaded a rival. Knowing
his high spirit and keen sense of honour, they spread the report that the
sanctity of his Zenana had been violated by the soldiery, which so
exasperated him that he committed suicide, and was found in his cell with
his throat cut from ear to ear; this occurred in the year 1839. His
property was of course confiscated, and the greater part of his family
banished. His successor, Ram Singh Pandee, did not long enjoy his ill-
gotten power, for, having been discovered intriguing against the British
with the ministers of other native courts, he was removed at the
representations of our government. Mahtabar Singh, a nephew of the
former prime minister, Bheem Singh Thapa, had meantime ingratiated
himself with the Ranee (Queen), and through her influence succeeded in
getting himself appointed to the vacant post of premier--when, as was to
be expected, his first act was to decapitate his predecessor, and as many
of the Pandee's family as possible.
The brother of Mahtabar Singh was a kazi, commanding a portion of the
army stationed on the north-west frontier of Nepaul, and the second of
his eight sons was Jung Bahadoor, then a subadar, or ensign. The
independent spirit which the young man had manifested from a boy led him
into frequent scrapes with the old kazi, and he used to escape the
punishments which they entailed by absconding altogether, and remaining
absent until he thought his father's wrath had subsided, or until, as was
oftener the case, his own resources were expended. These, however, he
usually found means to replenish by his expertness at all games of chance
with cards and dice, and early in life he became an accomplished gambler.
He was moreover a great favourite amongst the soldiers, as well from his
readiness to join them in any wild scheme, as from his skill in all manly
exercises and accomplishments. At last the young officer, impatient of
being under command, decided upon a bolder step than a mere temporary
absence without leave, and thinking, no doubt, that it was a duty he owed
to society to improve himself as much as possible by seeing the world, he
walked across the Nepaul frontier into Upper India, and profitably
employed his time by turning his powers of observation to account,
thereby gaining considerable insight into the mode of government and
resources of our Indian possessions.
After a time his own resources became so greatly diminished that he was
obliged to return, trusting to his powers of acting the repentant
prodigal to avert the torrent of his father's wrath. The breach of
discipline which he had committed was as readily overlooked in Nepaul as
it would have been in other more civilised countries, when the offender
has good interest to back him; and promotion to the command of a company
was given him as the reward of his services while ensign. About this
period Jung Bahadoor received the intelligence of the advancement of his
uncle, Mahtabar Singh, to the office of prime minister. So fine a chance
for an adventurous spirit to push his fortune at court was not to be
lost, and once more bidding adieu to the dull out-station at which he was
posted, to the constraint of discipline and to the grumblings of the old
martinet, his father, he followed the example of many great men before
him, and betook himself to the capital, thinking it the only place in
which his talents could be appreciated. Here he possessed frequent
opportunities of displaying that aptitude for intrigue to which he mainly
owes his present position, coupled as it was with a daring that hesitated
not at the performance of any act which his keen perception and subtle
understanding pointed out as necessary for the advancement of his own
interests. Jung soon after accompanied a secret mission to Benares, to
meet one from the north-west, with the view of organising a war against
the British. The vigilance of our authorities, however, discovered the
existence of this conspiracy, and Jung, together with his compatriots,
was ignominiously taken back to his own frontier, and there liberated. On
his return to the capital he led much the same life as before, dabbling
not a little in politics; and the ambitious views which now began to
actuate him rendered him obnoxious to the young prince, then a mere boy
of eighteen, who, nevertheless, seemed to share with his father a portion
of the executive. Indeed it was difficult to say in whom the sovereign
authority rested; for the Ranee, or wife of the old King, had, with the
assistance of Mahtabar Singh, the prime minister, gained a great
influence over the mind of the monarch, who seems to have become nearly
imbecile.
It was perhaps the near relationship of Jung to the Prime Minister that
brought upon him the ill-will of the Prince, who treated him with the
most unmitigated animosity, and used every means in his power
surreptitiously to destroy him. On one occasion he ordered him to cross
a flooded mountain torrent on horseback, and when he had reached the
middle of the current, which was so furiously rapid that his horse could
with difficulty keep his footing, the young Prince suddenly called him
back, hoping that, in the act of turning, the force of the stream would
overpower both horse and rider. This danger Jung escaped, owing to his
great nerve and presence of mind. In relating this anecdote he seemed to
think that his life had been in more imminent peril than on any other
occasion; though the following struck me as being a much more hazardous
exploit. After the affair of the torrent the Prince was no longer at any
pains to conceal his designs upon the life of the young adventurer, and
that life being of no particular value to any one but Jung himself, it
was a matter of perfect indifference to anybody and everybody whether the
Prince amused himself by sacrificing Jung to his own dislikes or not. It
is by no means an uncommon mode of execution in Nepaul to throw the
unfortunate victim down a well: Jung had often thought that it was
entirely the fault of the aforesaid victim if he did not come up again
alive and unhurt. In order to prove the matter satisfactorily, and also
be prepared for any case of future emergency, he practised the art of
jumping down wells, and finally perfected himself therein. When,
therefore, he heard that it was the intention of the Prince to throw him
down a well, he was in no way dismayed, and only made one last request,
in a very desponding tone, which was, that an exception might be made in
his favour as regarded the being cast down, and that he might be
permitted to throw himself down. This was so reasonable a request that
it was at once granted; and, surrounded by a large concourse of
people--the Prince himself being present by way of a morning's
recreation--Jung repaired to the well, where, divesting himself of all
superfluous articles of clothing, and looking very much as if he were
bidding adieu for ever to the happy valley of Nepaul, he crossed his
legs, and, jumping boldly down, was lost to the view of the prince and
nobles, a dull splash alone testifying to his arrival at the bottom.
Fortunately for Jung there was plenty of water--a fact of which most
probably he was well aware--and there were, moreover, many chinks and
crannies in the porous stone of which the well was built; so, having
learnt his lesson, Jung clung dextrously to the side of the well until
midnight, when his friends, who had been previously apprized of the part
they were to perform, came and rescued him from his uncomfortable
position, and secreted him until affairs took such a turn as rendered it
safe for Jung Bahadoor to resuscitate himself. Such was the adventure of
the well, which, marvellous as it may appear, was gravely related to me
by his Excellency, who would have been very much scandalised if I had
doubted it, which of course I did not.
While in a story-telling mood, I may as well relate an account that was
given me of the manner in which Jung distinguished himself on one
occasion with a musk elephant. The story is interesting, as it was by
such daring feats that he won for himself the reputation of being the
most undaunted sportsman in Nepaul. The elephant in question had been
for some time the terror of the neighbourhood, nor was any one found
hardy enough to attempt the capture of the rabid monster. At last, so
notorious became his destruction of life and property that Jung heard of
it, and at once determined to encounter him. The animal was in the habit
of passing along the narrow street of a village in the course of his
nocturnal depredations. One night Jung posted himself on the roof of a
low outhouse, and, as the huge brute walked under the roof, made a
vigorous leap, which landed him on the neck of the elephant, and, in
spite of all the efforts of the infuriated animal, there he maintained
his position until he succeeded in blindfolding him with a cloth, and in
securing him to a tree, amidst the shouts of the populace. Lest this
story should seem too improbable to be credited, it may be remarked that
a musk elephant is often, as was the case in this instance, a tame one,
which at a particular season becomes rabid, and, breaking loose, is the
terror of the neighbourhood until recaptured.
During this eventful period in Jung Bahadoor's life, his uncle, Mahtabar
Singh, continued to administer the affairs of government with tolerable
success; but the Ranee, to whom he was beholden for the position he
occupied, turned the influence she had thus obtained over him to a bad
account, and this gallant soldier and popular minister ultimately became
distrusted and feared by his own friends, with whom the Ranee was no
favourite. This unprincipled woman ill repaid the devotion of her
minister, for, on his refusing to comply with her request that he should
put to death some of her personal enemies, she became at once his
implacable foe, and ruthlessly resolved upon the destruction of her
hitherto devoted ally. Thus Mahtabar Singh found himself alienated from
and distrusted by his own faction, while he was abandoned by his former
patroness, for whose favour he had sacrificed their adherence. The Ranee
did not hesitate to apply to this very party for assistance in the
furtherance of her nefarious design, and the prime minister was doomed to
fall a victim to his own indecision by the hands of his favourite nephew.
One night, about eleven o'clock, a messenger came from the palace to
inform him that his services were required by their Majesties--for the
Queen had always kept up a semblance of friendship with him. Without the
slightest suspicion he repaired to the palace, but scarcely had he
ascended the great staircase, and was entering the room in which their
Majesties were seated, when the report of a pistol rung through the room;
the fatal bullet pierced the heart of the gallant old man, who staggered
forward, and fell at the feet of the wretched woman who had been the
instigator of the cruel murder.
It is difficult to say what were the motives that prompted Jung Bahadoor
to the perpetration of this detestable act, of which he always speaks now
in terms of the deepest regret, but asserts that it was an act of
necessity, from which there was no escaping. The plea which he
invariably uses when referring to the catastrophe is, that either his
life or his uncle's must have been sacrificed, and he naturally preferred
that it should be the latter. However that may be, the immediate effect
was, the formation of a new ministry, in which Jung held office in the
capacity of commander-in-chief. The premier, Guggun Singh, was
associated with two colleagues. A year had hardly elapsed before Guggun
Singh was shot while sitting in his own room. This occurred in the year
1846; a sirdar was taken up on suspicion of having committed this murder,
and Abiman Singh, one of the premier's colleagues, was ordered by the
Queen to put him to death; as, however, the Rajah would not sanction the
execution, Abiman Singh refused to obey the command--a proceeding on his
part which seems to have raised a suspicion in the mind of Jung that he
had been concerned in the assassination. This suspicion he communicated
to Futteh Jung, the other colleague of the late prime minister,
suggesting that Abiman Singh and the sirdar already in custody should be
forthwith executed, and Futteh Jung installed as prime minister. Futteh
Jung, however, refused to accede to so strong a measure; and Jung, who
was not of a nature to be thwarted in his plans, determined upon
temporarily depriving him of his liberty, in order to enable him to put
the design into execution himself.
He had no sooner decided upon his line of conduct than he displayed the
utmost resolution in carrying it out. On the same night, and while at
the palace, the suspicions which Jung already entertained were confirmed
by his observing that Abiman Singh ordered his men to load. It was no
time for hesitation. The two colleagues, with many of their adherents,
were assembled in the large hall, where the Queen, in a highly-excited
state, was insisting upon an immediate disclosure of the murderer of
Guggun Singh, who was supposed to have been her paramour. At this moment
Jung gave the signal for the seizure of Futteh Jung. The attempt was no
sooner made than his son, Karak Bikram Sah, imagining that his father's
life was at stake, rushed forward to save him, and seizing a kukri, had
already dealt Bum Bahadoor a severe blow, when he was cut down by Dere
Shum Shere Bahadoor, then a youth of sixteen or seventeen.
Futteh Jung, vowing vengeance on the murderers of his son, sprang forward
to avenge his death, and in another moment Bum Bahadoor, already
seriously wounded, would have fallen at his feet, when the report of a
rifle rang through the hall, and the timely bullet sped by the hand of
Jung Bahadoor laid the gallant father by the side of his no less gallant
son.
Thus Jung's _coup d'etat_ had taken rather a different turn from what he
had intended; the die, however, was cast, and everything depended upon
his coolness and decision in the trying circumstances in which he was
placed. Though he may have felt that his life was in most imminent
peril, it is difficult to conceive how any man could attain to such a
pitch of cool desperation as to enact the scene which closed this
frightful tragedy. There still confronted him fourteen of the nobles
whose leader had been slain before their eyes, and who thirsted for
vengeance; but the appearance at his side of that faithful body-guard, on
whose fidelity the safety of the minister has more than once depended,
precluded them from seizing the murderer of their chief. It was but too
clear to those unhappy men what was to be the last act of this tragedy.
Jung received the rifle from the hand of the man next him, and levelled
it at the foremost of the little band. Fourteen times did that fatal
report ring through the hall as one by one the rifles were handed to one
who would trust no eye but his own, and at each shot another noble lay
stretched on the ground. Abiman Singh alone escaped the deadly aim; he
managed to reach the door, but there he was cut almost in two by the
sword of Krishn Bahadoor.
Thus, in a few moments, and by his own hand, had Jung rid himself of
those whom he most feared. In that one room lay the corpses of the
highest nobles of the land, shrouded by the dense smoke still hanging in
the confined atmosphere, as if to hide the horrors of a tragedy that
would not bear the light of day. The massacre now went on in all parts
of the building. One hundred and fifty sirdars perished on that eventful
night, and the panic was wide-spread and general. Before day had dawned
Jung Bahadoor had been appointed prime minister of Nepaul, and had placed
guards over the arsenal, treasury, and palace.
In the morning the troops were all drawn up on parade; before them were
placed, in a ghastly heap, the bodies of their late commanders, to which
Jung pointed, as he assured the army that it would find in him all that
it had ever found in them, and he consoled many of the officers in a
great measure for the loss they had just sustained by granting them
immediate promotion. It seems as easy for a daring adventurer to gain
the affections of an army in India as in Europe, and Jung found no
difficulty in reconciling his Ghorkas to a change of commanders, and they
have ever since professed the greatest devotion to his person.
The utmost caution was now necessary on the part of the new premier, who
was obliged still to be on his guard, lest the partisans of those whom he
had massacred should succeed in organizing a conspiracy against his life;
a sirdar was put to death simply because he had a private audience with
the King. Circumstances soon showed that Jung had good reason to feel
the insecurity of his position. The two elder Princes, sons of a former
Queen, had been for some time in confinement, and the Ranee now attempted
to induce Jung to put them to death, in order to secure the throne for
one of her own sons. This he positively refused to do, and his refusal
brought upon him the wrath of this vindictive woman, whose vengeance had
already been so signally wreaked on his uncle by his own instrumentality.
He had not played so prominent a part on that occasion without profiting
by the lesson he had learnt; and knowing well the character of the woman
with whom he had to deal, he took care to obtain accurate intelligence of
all that transpired at court.
Information soon reached him that a plot was formed against his life, and
that the post of premier had already been promised to his intended
murderer, as a reward for so dangerous a service. Once more the command,
which had proved so fatal to Mahtabar Singh, issued from the palace,
desiring the immediate attendance of the minister; the messenger was the
very man at whose hand Jung was to meet his doom. He had scarcely
delivered his treacherous message, when he was struck to the ground by
one of the attendants of the prime minister. Jung then proceeded on his
way to the palace, where he at once demanded of the Rajah to be dismissed
from office, or to be furnished with authority to order the destruction
of all the enemies of the heir-apparent. The King could not refuse to
grant the authority demanded; and it was no sooner granted than Jung
seized and beheaded all the adherents of the conspirator.
As the Ranee herself was the most inveterate enemy of the young Prince,
the Rajah's order was at once carried into effect against her, and, to
her infinite astonishment, she was informed by Jung that she was to leave
Nepaul immediately, accompanied by her two sons. It was of no use to
resist the successful young adventurer, whose indomitable courage and
good fortune had triumphed over the plots and intrigues of his enemies,
and who thus saw himself freed from every obstacle to his quiet
possession of the government.
The Rajah accompanied the Queen to Benares. Meantime the heir-apparent
was raised to the throne, and the whole administrative power vested in
his minister.
Upon hearing of the installation of his son as Rajah, the old Monarch
seemed to evince, for the first and last time in his life, some little
interest in proceedings by which he himself was so seriously affected,
and the result was a feeble determination not to relinquish his throne
without a final struggle. Urged to this course probably by the
persuasions of the ambitious and disappointed Ranee, he collected a few
followers, and crossed the southern frontier of Nepaul. Jung, however,
had received timely notice of his intention, and the luckless King had no
sooner encamped in the Nepaul dominions, than he was surprised at night
by the troops of the minister, and his small forces utterly routed, four
or five hundred remaining killed or wounded upon the field. The Rajah
himself was taken prisoner, and placed in confinement by the dutiful son
who now occupies the throne, and who sometimes allows him, on grand
occasions, to take his seat upon it next to himself.
The vacillating conduct of the imbecile old man throughout his whole
reign, the apathy with which he was contented to remain a passive
spectator of those bloody dramas of which his court was for so long a
period the theatre, deprive him of all claim to commiseration in his
present degraded position, which, in fact, is the natural result of his
indifference to the game so eagerly played by the contending parties, and
of which the stake was his own throne.
If, on the other hand, in a country where common humanity, and, still
more, every kind of principle, is unknown, daring and intrepid conduct
merits a reward, Jung has fairly earned for himself the position he now
holds; and though his path to greatness has been deluged with the blood
of the bravest nobles of the land, it must be admitted that the peace and
prosperity which Nepaul now enjoys would never have been possessed by her
while distracted and convulsed by the struggles of hostile factions; and
much less would she ever have experienced the blessings of an enlightened
administration, if these struggles had not resulted in the elevation of
General Jung Bahadoor to the office of prime minister.
And now, for the first time in the history of Nepaul, the Durbar was to a
certain extent united; internal machinations were no longer to be feared;
and the country was ruled over by different members of that family, the
elevation of which was due to one of their own number, who possessed
sufficient daring and resolution to execute the bold, though unscrupulous
schemes his undoubted genius had conceived.
Such was the rapid rise to power at the early age of thirty of General
Jung Bahadoor, the Nepaulese ambassador to England, who would have been
invested with a deeper interest than the mere colour of his face or
brilliancy of his diamonds entitled him to, had the British public known
the foregoing particulars of his eventful career. But, perhaps, it was
as well for him that they did not, since our occidental notions as to the
legitimate method of carrying political measures might have altogether
excluded him from the favour of those who delighted to honour him during
his visit to England; but, in extenuation of his conduct, it must be
remembered that the mode employed by him of gaining power is the common
one in his country, and that his early training had induced a disregard
of life and recklessness of consequences; for he is not, I am convinced,
naturally cruel. Impetuous and thoughtless, he has many generous and
noble qualities; and in a companionship of two months I discovered so
many estimable traits in him, that I could not help making allowances for
the defects in a character entirely self-formed by one ignorant of all
moral responsibilities, the half-tamed son of an almost totally
uncivilised country.
And while thus unreservedly relating his history, I do so in the belief
that he has no desire to conceal what, in his own mind and that of his
countrymen, is not regarded as crime, since I have frequently heard him
refer, with all the simplicity of conscious innocence, to many of the
facts I have related, and for some of which he himself is my authority.
Having thus given a short account of the previous career of this
remarkable man, a few words on his present position and future prospects
may not be uninteresting, the more so as he purposes, since he has
visited the courts of Europe, to become an enlightened ruler of his
countrymen.