CO 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
O)/ . /?& 
 
 4fMW09lUfo/ j0# (^ 
 
 K xiHK 
 
SUSTAV E.STECHERTl 
 
 
 
 
 | 
 
 ft 
 
 
 
 
 
 
THE REBELLION 
 
 INDIA: 
 
 HOW TO PREVENT ANOTHER, 
 
 JOHN BRUCE NOETON 
 
 ! I 
 
 " Certe id firmissimum longe imperium est quo obedientes gaudent." 
 
 LIVY, 1. viii. c. 13. 
 
 " Nihil est quod adhuc de republica putem dictum, et quo possim longius 
 progredi, nisi sit confirmatum, non modo falsum esse illud, sine injurft non 
 posse, sed hoc verissimum, sine summa justitiarempublicam regi non posse. "- 
 
 CICERO, Fragm. de Rep. 1. ii. 
 
 LONDON : 
 RICHARDSON BROTHERS, 23, CORNHILL, E.G. 
 
 1857. 
 
 [The Right of Translation is reserved.'] 
 

 3, CORNHILI., E,C. 
 
 HEHRV - * e 
 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 FORBID to make any comment in India on the 
 startling events now passing before my eyes, forbid 
 even to make any enquiry into the causes of the 
 rebellion, I turn in common, no doubt, with many 
 others to England, where the liberty of the Press 
 is not yet shackled. 
 
 I state a fact. It is not rny intention here to 
 discuss the merits of the Gagging Act. From many 
 quarters abundant strictures will pour in on that 
 subject.* The only point of view in which I wish 
 
 * The Calcutta journals expect to enlist the indignation of 
 the English Press in their cause, as though it were a common 
 cause. To me, such an event seems problematical. It seems 
 to me almost impossible to predict what view will be taken of 
 this measure by the Press in England. The danger is so im- 
 minent and overwhelming, and there is so prevalent a general 
 idea that the English Press of India is licentious and scurrilous ; 
 it has been so assidiously branded as " lying," " rascally," 
 and the like, that perhaps the Press and public at home may 
 not regard the attack in its true light. They may regard it in 
 some measure as necessary and merited, and there will be 
 poured in from a hundred quarters, statements which may seem 
 to justify Lord Canning's Act. Be it remembered, however, 
 that these representations proceed from the very parties who 
 have everything to gain by the suppression of the liberty of the 
 Press. 
 
 A 2 
 
 512824 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 to present it, is to warn the people of England 
 against being misled by this most iniquitous device 
 for blinding them. I utterly deny that Lord 
 Canning has shown any sufficient reason for his 
 indiscriminate application of one and the same 
 measure to the loyal English, and the treasonous 
 Native Press. As well might we confound the power 
 of Printing-house-square with the filth of Holy well- 
 street. Lord Canning expressly says, that " poison 
 " has been poured into the minds of the people by a 
 " portion of the Native Press, within the last few 
 " weeks." " It is to this quarter then," he con- 
 tinues, " that I direct the attention of the members 
 " of the Legislative Council." He expressly exone- 
 rates the European Press. He says, " the remarks 
 u / have made against the Native Press, I do not 
 " direct against the European Press ; " he gives 
 credit to the " many able and intelligent men who 
 " conduct the newspaper Press in this country, for 
 " the feeling they have shown at this period ; " and 
 forthwith, with an inconceivable logic, proceeds to 
 say that he can draw no line of demarcation between 
 the European and the Native Press, and at once 
 confounds liberty and license, loyalty and treason, in 
 one common catastrophe ! 
 
 Now I warn my fellow-countrymen in England 
 against being deluded by this feeble sophistry, Let 
 them depend upon it, that this attack upon the 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 Press is in reality intended to screen the cowardice 
 and incapacity of the real authors of the revolution. 
 Lord Canning's arm may have dealt the blow, but 
 there is a power behind which directed the arm. It 
 is not that the crisis necessitated the measure; but 
 that the crisis has been seized as the fittest moment 
 for striking a long meditated blow at the Press, and 
 gratifying a grudge of ancient standing. Political 
 capital has been made out of the bloodshed in the 
 North-West. The arm of the law was amply strong 
 enough before the Gagging Act to meet the alleged 
 evil : and the best proof is, that Mr. Beadon, since 
 the passing of the Act, has prosecuted certain Native 
 papers for treasonable writings published before. A 
 public prosecution would at any time have been 
 sufficient to curb the unbridled license of the Native 
 Press. On Lord Canning's own shewing, it would 
 have sufficed to legislate for the Native Press. If 
 the intention had been merely to provide against the 
 chance of injudicious statements, or erroneous infor- 
 mation, finding their way to the public ear during a 
 season of great excitement, the institution of a cen- 
 sorship would have met the object. Prevention is 
 better than cure. But if it was sought to stifle all 
 inquiry and all comment, then the measures of the 
 supreme Government were admirably adapted to- 
 wards accomplishing such a consummation. The 
 Act itself is sweeping and indefinite enough : but the 
 
 A 3 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 real sting of the transaction lies in the conditions, 
 since notified, on which licenses to printing presses 
 will be granted. The first is as follows ; 
 
 1. " That no book, newspaper, pamphlet, or 
 " other work printed at such press, or with such 
 " materials or articles, shall contain any observa- 
 " tions or statements, impugning the motives or 
 " designs of the British Government, either in 
 " England or India, or in any way tending to 
 ." bring the said Government into hatred or con- 
 " tempt, to excite disaffection or unlawful resistance 
 " to its orders, or to weaken its lawful authority, 
 " or the lawful authority of its civil or military 
 " servants." 
 
 Under this the Government, and the very lowest 
 of its civil and military servants, enjoy perfect 
 immunity and impunity. Such acts as those 
 of Mr. Thomas can no more be commented on : 
 and Mr. Thomas's conduct is venial in comparison 
 with many other illegalities) which are at this 
 moment running their career. Any attempt to 
 trace the causes of the rebellion to the wicked, 
 foolish policy of the past few years; to show how 
 the hesitation of military men, the incapacity of 
 civilians, has precipitated an unavoidable event; 
 how the Commissariat reforms of Lord Dalhousie 
 have paralyzed our arm at the moment we would 
 put it forth to suppress insurrection; every sug* 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 gestion for the future guidance of our rule, may 
 be construed without warning or notice into an 
 offence punishable by a fine of 5,000 rupees, im- 
 prisonment for two years, the seizure of a trades- 
 man's entire stock in trade, in short, total ruin; 
 this at the discretion of the magistrate such 
 magistrates as obtain in India! The other con- 
 ditions are these: 
 
 2. " That no such book, pamphlet, newspaper, 
 " or other work shall contain observations or state- 
 " ments , having a tendency to create alarm or 
 " suspicion among the Native population of any 
 " intended interference by Government with their 
 " religious opinions and observances. 
 
 3. " That no such book, pamphlet, newspaper, 
 " or other work, shall contain observations having 
 " a tendency to weaken the friendship towards the 
 " British Government of Native Princes, Chiefs, 
 " or States in dependence upon, or alliance with it. 
 
 u The above conditions apply equally to original 
 " matter, and to matter copied from other publica- 
 " tions." 
 
 The third is of course expressly intended to 
 prevent any allusion whatsoever to our shameless 
 usurpation of our neighbour's property a cause 
 which I, for one, believe lies at the very root of 
 the rebellion. 
 
 Further, as these conditions extend to extracts 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 as well as original matter, no discussion in par- 
 liament on any Indian subject, no comment in 
 any London journal, unless indeed laudatory of 
 the Company, can be copied into an Indian news- 
 paper under pain of the like penalties. 
 
 Even in France the Press has its three warnings. 
 In Austria, despotism is not so despotic as it is in 
 India. Our gag is a garotte. 
 
 Freedom of speech having been stifled, the 
 Government can put forth what accounts it pleases, 
 uncontradicted, unobserved upon ; and I venture to 
 predict that every effort, both here and in England, 
 will be made to divert public inquiry from the true 
 sources of our misfortune. The mutiny will be 
 purely military ; it might have been crushed at its 
 outbreak at Meerut, but for the strange inactivity 
 of the military officer there in command. The 
 people will have taken no part in the insurrection. 
 The rebellion will have strengthened our power. 
 The Civil Government has deserved well of its 
 country. It is but one step further, a step in the 
 right direction, many will deem it, after having 
 "deprived the Press of any power of reply, to attribute 
 the origin of the war partially, and by degrees 
 mainly, to its unbridled license. This calumny, 
 indeed, false as it is foul,* has already been heard. 
 
 * The Friend of India has had its independence suppressed ; 
 its Editor has resigned ; a gentleman in the employ of Govern- 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 Correspondents in several journals have openly 
 asserted it ; the sycophant throng echo the cry in the 
 salons of our Government House ; by and bye the chorus 
 will swell into a diapason of scurrilous, lying abuse.* 
 
 ment now edits it ; and it is thus that the Government carries 
 out the gagging principle. It stops the mouths of others, but 
 having now identified itself with journalism, it may in its own 
 organ say what it likes ! The Friend of India has been crushed 
 for writing in favour of annexation and proselytism. The 
 Athenccum is branded as seditious for having steadily written 
 against both these lines of policy. 
 
 * Scarcely was the ink of this sentence dry ere my predictions 
 began to be verified. There is a dead set against the Press in 
 general, and against some obnoxious journals in particular. In 
 this Presidency the Athenaeum is singled out for attack. 
 Anonymous charges have been preferred against it in the 
 Spectator, for having incited mutiny by certain articles which 
 have appeared on military matters during the past three years. 
 These articles excited great attention. They were directed to 
 the correction of a gross wrong done to a meritorious body of 
 officers in respect to their promotions. They were temperately 
 and ably written, with a thorough knowledge of the subject. 
 They received the sanction of the late Commander-in- Chief. 
 At the very time they were appearing, an intimation was 
 received by me, from indisputable authority, that the Governor- 
 General regarded the Athenceum as the ablest paper in India. 
 They drew the attention of the Home Authorities to the state of 
 the question, and had a main share in procuring for some 
 hundred officers a recognition of their undoubted rights. Such 
 are the articles which are now assailed as calculated to excite 
 mutiny in the Madras army! Lord Harris was, till lately, 
 a warm admirer of the Athenceum. His lordship personally 
 assured me that he admitted its ability and its utility ; though 
 he could not agree in the tone or the opinions of all the articles ; 
 that he had no wish to see its utility circumscribed. This 
 was at a time when his lordship had the unvarying support 
 of the Athenceum ; and no man was ever borne with more 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 I bid the English public, then, call to mind Lord 
 Canning's own exoneration of the Anglo-Indian 
 Press. If this insidious policy prevails, the people 
 of England will be most thoroughly hoodwinked and 
 deceived. The real causes of the rebellion will 
 have been kept out of sight. Our wretched 
 administration of a theoretically good system of 
 government will be perpetuated ; opportunity will 
 have been thrown aside. Our giant warning neg- 
 lected, India will be handed over without a re- 
 monstrance to those who have most signally, most 
 fearfully proved themselves drivellers and imbeciles 
 we shall relapse for a while into our old career, 
 and then will come the closing scene, sudden as 
 
 patiently than his lordship by the Press. But he was somewhat 
 roughly handled with reference to his share in the annexation 
 of the Carnatic and Tanjore. This no doubt is treason in India, 
 though a voice even from the Board of Control assured me that 
 he who should write down annexation and centralization would 
 be a second Hampden. The Athenceum has excited powerful 
 odiums. It has exposed not any particular species of cant, but 
 cant as a species ; it has plainly called a spade a spade, and 
 indulged in an awkward knack of going at once to the gist of the 
 matter in hand, without respect to persons, fear, favour, or 
 affection, reward or hope thereof. For this our gentility vote it 
 low-toned. Some little high and mighty officials have left India 
 with a determination to make it a personal request to the Times, 
 forsooth, to write down the Athenceum! and I am quite prepared 
 to hear the most lavish abuse bestowed upon the journal, now 
 that it cannot reply to such accusations. Fortunately its 
 columns remain ; the matter therein, and the mode of handling 
 it, speak for themselves, and afford the best refutation of the 
 calumny. 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 the present, but far more complete the loss of our 
 Indian Empire, the massacre of every Englishman 
 in India, when no one will be left to tell the tale. 
 
 So far as my ability extends, an effort shall be 
 made to counteract the result of the Gagging Act. 
 I will at least point out to the English public 
 topics calling for their most serious consideration. 
 The true path of investigation shall be opened out to 
 them. With them will lie the responsibility of 
 following it up, or turning aside from it. 
 
 The following pages have been jotted down con- 
 temporaneously with the progress of the rebellion, 
 which will account for an occasional want of ar- 
 rangement. They would probably under no circum- 
 stance have appeared even in England, certainly 
 not in India, until men's minds had recovered their 
 equilibrium and eqaniniity until the cause of order 
 was secure ; but now that an attempt is made by 
 the highest authorities to stifle inquiry, these sheets 
 cannot too soon be communicated to the people of 
 England : because unless independent men will come 
 forward, it is certain that nobody else will. The 
 Indian Government, the Civil Service, the Court of 
 Directors, the Board of Control, have everything to 
 gain by secrecy ; they have everything to lose by 
 publicity. By gagging the Press, the Indian 
 Government has secured to itself the entire occupa- 
 tion of the public ear. It can put forward what it 
 
xii PREFACE. 
 
 pleases, keep back what it pleases, alter what it 
 pleases, mystify what it pleases. 
 
 " Truth," said the first Lord Napier, " can hardly 
 u be obtained, to the disadvantage of powerful men, 
 " when such men are the sources of the information 
 " on which the cause is to be judged." 
 
 What sort of information, how full, how accurate, 
 how arranged, is likely to reach England from those 
 in authority ? let the papers on Sir Charles Napier's 
 case laid before the Great Duke testify, upon which 
 even that clear intellect and sound judgment 
 came to the conclusion that there had been no 
 mutiny at Wuzzeerabad in 1849 ! 
 
 Let me, in conclusion, offer one remark which I 
 think is fairly justifiable. If what appears in these 
 pages be assailed as prejudiced exaggeration, let my 
 credit at least derive whatever strength is due to it 
 from the fact, that no single statement which I have 
 ever yet put forward, however startling and incre- 
 dible, whether it appeared in the exposure of the 
 administration of justice in Southern India, in the 
 representation of the condition of the Madras Pre- 
 sidency, or in the Torture Report, has been shown to 
 be untrue, or even incorrect. 
 
THE 
 
 REBELLION IN INDIA. 
 
 WRITING in the early part of 1854, to the Eight 
 Honourable Robert Lowe, then Joint Secretary of 
 the Board of Control, on the condition of the Presi- 
 dency of Madras, I concluded a few prefatory words 
 as follows : " A letter read in the House of Commons 
 u said, ' Woe be to India if the present crisis is 
 " allowed to slip by unimproved;' but I say, Woe be 
 " to England, for it cannot be too emphatically im- 
 " pressed upon the people of England at large, that 
 " this question of India is to them, properly con- 
 " sidered, the one great question of the age. They 
 " may not so see it now ; may we act with such pru- 
 u dence, benevolence, and justice, that they may not 
 u be forced so to acknowledge it hereafter." 
 
 A man who has studied history and observes the 
 events of his time with ordinary intelligence, may 
 perhaps claim a capacity for political prediction, 
 without laying himself open to Voltaire's charge of 
 being either an impostor or a madman: I am not 
 
 B 
 
one lightly to adopt the opinions of others ; lightly 
 to form, or lightly to express, my own : what I wrote 
 then was as clear and true to my own apprehension 
 as it is now ; though it was not forced upon me by 
 any extraordinary events, but formed in times com- 
 paratively well adapted for calm consideration. But, 
 perhaps, now that the same truth is thrust forward 
 in a more startling and authoritative form ; now that 
 it is written in the blood of our murdered country- 
 men in India, illustrated by rebellion, and illumin- 
 ated by the conflagrations at Meerut and Delhi, and 
 Lucknow, and Allahabad, the people of England 
 may be induced to concentrate their attention upon 
 a matter of such vital importance ; to investigate 
 the foundations of the assertion, and deliberate upon 
 the best means of remedy for the past and preven- 
 tion for the future. 
 
 There has been of late years, it is true, a steadily 
 but slowly increasing interest in Indian affairs on 
 the part of Englishmen in England : but still India 
 is comparatively little known, and little cared for. 
 An Indian question is still, as Lord Monteagle called 
 it, the " dinner bell " of Parliament. An Indian 
 Budget is explained to empty benches ; a lamentable / 
 ignorance and most culpable indifference on Indian 
 affairs generally prevail among the masses ; but the ; 
 present crisis must, one would think, rivet general ; 
 attention upon the position of Indian affairs. I 
 " Nemo observat lunam nisi laborantem, tune urbes 
 " conclamant, tune pro se quisque supers titione vana 
 " trepidat. Hsec tamen non annotamus quamcliu 
 " ordo servatur. Si quid turbatuni est, aut prater 
 
" consuetudinem emicuit, spectamus, interrogamus. 
 " ostendimus." 
 
 There will be eagerness and excitement enough 
 roused by a rebellion which ordinary forethought 
 during times of dull peace and every day routine 
 must assuredly have foreseen, and might probably 
 have prevented. There will be more alarm in Eng- 
 land than even in India ; and already many will 
 have rushed to the false conclusion that our empire 
 in India is lost. Not that the present moment is 
 the one of all others which a wise choice would select 
 for discussing matters, the excitement attending 
 which has not yet subsided. But India's extremity 
 is the reformers' opportunity; if we do not strike at 
 once, while the iron is hot, we shall have missed our 
 chance of planting a telling blow; for it is to be 
 feared that the public mind will soon relapse into its 
 wonted apathy, either from a carelessness for that 
 which has ceased to be novel, or because it will have 
 been lulled by interested misrepresentations and 
 assurances into a false security, through a feeling 
 that the danger is past. This it is which induces 
 me once again to come forward, and endeavour to 
 impress upon the public mind the conviction, that 
 this Indian problem is, properly considered, the sub- 
 ject of the age to England. The solemn question, 
 which we cannot longer blink or put aside until 
 some more convenient season, is simply this, Shall 
 we throw away or shall we preserve our Indian 
 Empire ? 
 
 I do not say, because I do not believe, that it is 
 lost; and I cannot too deeply condemn the character 
 
 B 2 
 
of an unnecessary alarmist; but I do say that our 
 general policy in India, for the last few years espe- 
 cially, has been tending to bring about such a con- 
 summation ; and that if it be persevered in if peo- 
 ple will not investigate the true causes, and all the 
 causes which may have helped to lead to the present 
 insurrection with its attendant horrors ; if they will 
 allow themselves to be led aside from the proper 
 course of inquiry, or to be lulled again into security 
 and forgetfulness, by assertions that the evil was 
 merely temporary and local, and that all spirit of 
 disaffection has been extinguished then I say that 
 we shall lose our hold on India, and that the horrors 
 we have just witnessed are as child's play to the 
 general massacre which will accompany the closing 
 scene. 
 
 When the present rebellion has been suppressed 
 (I write while it is still unchecked) and its imme- 
 diate authors punished, I doubt not we shall be told 
 that such outbursts visit India periodically ; that we 
 are stronger than ever, since the Native soldiery has 
 seen the hopelessness of revolt. Historical precedents 
 of former dangers, which threatened our empire with 
 ruin, and which have been averted, will be quoted. 
 It will be asserted, that the origin of the present 
 crisis is purely military disaffection, such as that 
 which formerly led to the mutiny at Vellore, or all 
 but broke out among even the European officers of 
 the Indian army in Olive's time. It will be de- 
 clared to be entirely isolated from the people; that 
 the masses took no share in it, and that it does not 
 afford any proof, indeed scarcely leads to any in- 
 
ference, that the people at large are disaffected. 
 Indeed the apathy of the people to the events passing 
 among them will be cited as a convincing proof that 
 the Government is in the main popular; and thus 
 the rebellion will be vouched as a test both of our 
 strength and our popularity. Those remedies, it 
 will be said, are sufficient, which seek to improve the 
 condition of the Native army, or by the increase of 
 the European regiments, to counterpoise and over- 
 awe the turbulent Native troops. These and the 
 like lines of argument will be sedulously put forth, 
 because they flatter the vanity and screen the incom- 
 petence of our Indian civil administration. Indeed 
 this drivelling cry, which, if it prevails now, will cost 
 us our empire hereafter, has been already raised. 
 Only a day or two ago, a civilian, high in office and 
 of high repute, was heard expressing precisely the 
 views which I have suggested, as he twitted a mili- 
 tary officer with the outbreak of the sepoys, and 
 contrasted military insubordination and military ad- 
 ministration with civil administration and the quiet 
 of the people ; and with many these assertions will 
 prevail. 
 
 The conduct of some of the villagers towards the 
 European fugitives in the neighbourhood of Delhi, 
 the ready assistance afforded by the Eajahs of 
 Puttialah, Bhurtpoor, and Gwalior, may be regarded 
 by some as signs that the rebellion is confined to the 
 troops and those immediately influenced by them; 
 but when was any revolution in India brought 
 about by the people not of the military classes, 
 though it may be presumed that we shall not readily 
 
6 
 
 admit that the people at large had more reason to be 
 contented with their former rule than our own? It 
 is not that disaffection exists only in the army ; the 
 true difference is, that with the army disaffection is 
 organized; among the people at large it has no ex- 
 pression, because it has no organization. The ex- 
 tent to which the people have participated in the 
 rebellion cannot yet be ascertained. At first, the 
 Government bulletins staunchly declared that the 
 " people were with us to a man;" but that cry has 
 long since ceased. It is, of course, good policy for 
 the Government to endeavour to persuade districts 
 yet peaceful of the truth of such an important fact ; 
 but I, for one, would no more pin my entire faith to 
 such representations from such a quarter, than I 
 would trust the Roman account of the Carthagi- 
 nians, or the man's painting of the lion. There is 
 no doubt that civil emissaries have been tampering 
 in various quarters with military virtue. The Irre- 
 gular Cavalry in the North- West has been burning 
 the villages in the neighbourhood of which the tele- 
 graphic wires have been cut. I have seen many 
 accounts which speak but ill of the temper of the 
 people; and even while I write, a letter comes to 
 hand from Mr. Fischer, than whom no man on this 
 side of India more thoroughly knows the people. 
 He writes : " I have been asked my opinion, and I 
 " think it was for Government, as to the state of the 
 " feelings of the Natives in these parts towards 
 " Government; and I replied that the people gene- 
 " rally were disaffected, and that they had too much 
 "cause for it; indeed, that there was disaffection 
 
" enough in the land for half-a-dozen rebellions, but 
 :t that the community was composed of so many 
 " diverse and discordant castes and creeds, that they 
 " could not unite against the common enemy : that 
 " our strength lay in this condition of the country, 
 " and in no merit of Government." 
 
 Sir Thomas Munro long since pointed out how 
 very little we really know of the feelings of the 
 Natives, and I question whether time has given us 
 any deeper insight. The line of separation between 
 the European and the Native is far more marked 
 now than formerly. In our vanity and assumed 
 superiority we utterly deceive ourselves. We assert 
 that the Natives esteem us, and regard the change 
 from Native to European rule as a blessing. We 
 forget the antipathy between the Orientals and the 
 European ; we overlook the jealousy natural towards 
 a conquering and superior race. " It would be well 
 " for us," writes an Indian authority, " if we 
 " governed the country as well as Ackbar." When 
 Heber asked an intelligent Native if he would wish 
 to become subject to British rule, the reply was, 
 " Of all misfortunes keep me from that." We have 
 levelled all ambition, all distinctions; we have de- 
 stroyed the nobility and the gentry; we have substi- 
 tuted a nation of Peons and Eyots. Every com- 
 manding officer of a regiment deludes himself into 
 the fatal mistake that his corps is loyal; that him 
 at least the sepoys love. The 6th and 25th Regi- 
 ments were stated to be mutinously disposed ; 
 the officers wrote to the libellous journals, indig- 
 nantly asseverating the fidelity of these two corps. 
 
8 
 
 The former was publicly thanked by the Governor- 
 General. The poor deluded officers are only con- 
 vinced of their mistake when the soldiers turn round 
 upon them and rend them, shooting them down and 
 mutilating their half dead bodies with a terrible 
 ferocity. An officer writing from Neemuch to the 
 Telegraph and Courier says, " I have been many 
 " years with my regiment; I have lived among the 
 u men, marched over the length and breadth of the 
 " land with them ; I have fought with them, trusted 
 u them, respected them, cared for them, treated 
 " them with kindness and consideration always, 
 u attended to all their wants; redressed, as far as 
 " lay in my power, their grievances; and yet these 
 "'men have been hatching treason against the State 
 " for months perhaps years : while coming to me 
 " and in daily intercourse with me, they have been 
 " treacherously plotting against my life, and with 
 u the foulest and blackest ingratitude I ever heard 
 u or read of, they sent me away with such a shower 
 " of bullets over my head as I never had before 
 " except at Chillianwalla ; and not content with 
 " this, they burnt my house to the ground, and leave 
 " me and my family beggars." 
 
 I have moved myself much among all classes, and 
 claim to know something of the disposition of the 
 people. True, they may have exaggerated their 
 statements somewhat to me, and I take what I have 
 heard with caution; but the impression conveyed to 
 my own mind is, though I do not go so far as some 
 of my friends, that the people do not regard us with 
 anything approximating to affection, not even with 
 
the esteem which the vanity of many prompts them 
 to believe. There are no doubt instances now occur- 
 ing of protection afforded to our fugitive country- 
 men by Zemindars and others ; but the instances 
 seem equally frequent, when the villagers thrust them 
 forth and bid them pass on. Out of ten Thaseeldars 
 in the Meerut district, but one has stood faithful to 
 his post : and the efforts of the civilians to stem the 
 force of the torrent of insurrection, if any have been 
 made, have been too feeble even to attract a mo- 
 ment's notice. The whole civil administration has 
 been struck down and paralyzed at a single blow. 
 Where are the police and the constabulary, if any 
 exist? What body has any civilian been able to 
 organize? Who has stood by them? What check 
 have they offered to the insurgents ? What influence 
 over the people have they shown? What vestige of 
 power in the cause of order have they left? I do 
 not say that they have not done their duty to the 
 best of their ability, as gallant English gentlemen; 
 but Metcalfe's assertions have been once more proved 
 true : " When the storm begins to roar," says he, 
 " the civil power, and all semblance of the existence 
 " of a government, are instantly swept away by the 
 " torrent." Their authority has fallen from them, 
 and is scattered on the ground like water. They 
 have been forced to seek protection within the pale 
 of the British bayonets. On what spot beyond the 
 shadow of those bayonets, since the present outbreak, 
 has civil authority been found strong enough to 
 stand alone? What agricultural population has it 
 rallied in defence of order? Suppose that a similar 
 
10 
 
 military insurrection had occurred in England, how 
 many magistrates would have been able to raise local 
 corps of the sturdy rustics, the soiled artizans and 
 mechanics of the towns ! How great would have 
 been the contrast ! The civil authority of India has 
 thoroughly broken down on the first moment of peril 
 and trial. 
 
 How far the English Government deserves well of 
 the people, how far it commands the respect of the 
 people, what are probably the feelings of the great 
 body towards us, whether they prefer our govern- 
 ment to those which have preceded it, I shall find an 
 opportunity hereafter of considering. What I wish 
 to guard against in the outset is, the false impression 
 which I am perfectly confident it will be industri- 
 ously endeavoured to produce, so soon as order is 
 restored, that the condition of the people, as a body, 
 has nothing whatever to do with the rebellion ; that 
 they are perfectly contented with the present dis- 
 pensation ; and that the insurrection was purely 
 military. 
 
 But in discussing the present situation of affairs, 
 it would be the height of folly to limit enquiry to 
 the state of the army, when there may be lurking 
 among us exciting causes of far more great and 
 general dangers than that which we have not yet 
 escaped. It behoves us to regard the present out- 
 break as a warning. Thankful that the spirit of 
 rebellion has scarcely touched the Presidencies of 
 Madras and Bombay, and that rebellion itself has 
 been crushed, we must then not only trace out all 
 the causes which have immediately led to the out- 
 
11 
 
 break, but, if we are wise, review our own position 
 in India, and become familiar with all that may 
 hereafter threaten our empire with peril or destruc- 
 tion. But little faith is due to specific and panacea. 
 All practical politics are necessarily tentative and 
 experimental ; but it is expedient to listen to all 
 expositions of the condition of our affairs, and all 
 attempts to account for that condition, come they 
 from what quarter they may ; as well as to consider 
 all suggested remedies, so as to select that which is 
 apparently the best. 
 
 Now there is a passage in Sir George Cornewall 
 Lewis's work on Politics which strikes me as singu- 
 larly applicable on the present occasion. 
 
 It is as follows : 
 
 44 In the first place, then, it is a sound maxim of 
 " political, not less than of medical therapeutics, that 
 44 all specifics for a malady are suspicious, while 
 44 panacseas are to be absolutely rejected. The phy- 
 " sician is taught, that he must not only understand 
 " the general nature of diseases, but that he must 
 44 study the peculiarities of his patient's case, both as 
 " respects the origin and symptoms of his malady, 
 44 and also his constitutional state of body. His 
 44 remedies are to be applied so as to remove the 
 44 cause of the disease, and restore the patient to 
 44 health ; for which purpose he is to observe the 
 44 symptoms, and hence to form his plan of treat- 
 " ment. The circumstances in the patient's condi- 
 44 tion to which rational medicine looks, and from 
 44 which plans of treatment can be properly drawn, 
 44 are described as being four in number 1* Very 
 
12 
 
 4 
 
 u remote causes, which only predispose the body to 
 " disease. 2. Remote exciting causes, which induce 
 u the disease. 3. The proximate cause. 4. The 
 " signs or symptoms of the disease, and the different 
 " states of the patient. These maxims may be 
 " transferred, with little alteration, to the conduct of 
 u the politician. When a political evil exists he 
 " must examine its causes and symptoms, and form 
 " his plan of treatment accordingly ; he must distin- 
 " guish the predisposing causes from the positive 
 " direct causes which lead to it; and these, again, 
 " from the occasion, or accidental cause, from which 
 " it immediately springs. He must likewise observe 
 " the effects which are symptomatic of its operation. 
 " Thus, if an insurrection or popular disturbance 
 u occurs in any country, its outbreak at the p&rti- 
 " cular time and place may be owing to some casual 
 u occurrence, of little moment in itself. This, how- 
 " ever, is the immediate exciting cause. The clispo- 
 " sition to disturbance may further be owing to some 
 " special causes of local mal- -administration ; for ex- 
 " ample, to some tax, or other fiscal burden to which 
 " the people are subject. These may be the remote 
 u exciting causes. Lastly, there may be a certain 
 " state of the people with respect to their ignorance, 
 " the relations of social classes, their historical recol- 
 " lections, or some similar permanent phenomena, 
 " which may predispose them to violent outbreaks. 
 " When the disturbance has occurred, it will produce 
 " certain consequences, symptomatic of its influ- 
 " ence, which the practical politician must carefully 
 " watch." 
 
13 
 
 Let us follow this method of investigation. It is 
 not my intention to write any history of the rebel- 
 lion. We shall have ample accounts of the horrible 
 particulars from the personal memoirs, the private 
 letters, and published stories of the surviving 
 Europeans, and the connected accounts for which 
 they will doubtless furnish materials conjointly with 
 official records. Then shall be chronicled a glorious 
 though a mournful page in England's annals; for 
 never have her sons and her daughters shown, re- 
 spectively, more devotion to duty, or calmer forti- 
 tude. Then shall be read of many perilous escapes; 
 many a hero falling at his post ; many a lady sharing 
 the duties of defence, or inspiring confidence by her 
 noble calmness, or her uncomplaining bearing of the 
 hardships of flight and hunger. Then shall many 
 an act of the noblest courage come to light; and 
 many a name of those who have fallen be illustrated 
 by the history of his death. Finnis, who charged up 
 to his regiment only to receive his death wound. 
 Piele, who would not leave without his colours. 
 Willoughby, who blew up the magazine at Delhi. 
 Fletcher Hayes, the accomplished and the brave, 
 the scholar-soldier. Young Hutchison, than whom 
 England has not a nobler character amid a host of 
 equals. Then shall the gallant independence of 
 Neill, the stern determination of Lawrence, the un- 
 flagging marches, the fiery charges of Colburn be 
 rehearsed, and England will at least have the melan- 
 choly pride of knowing that her offspring of to-day 
 are as the offspring of her former generations, gallant 
 in life, devoted in their death. But not for me is 
 
14 
 
 such a task. I must turn to the political aspect of 
 the lesson. 
 
 The signs or symptoms are clear enough. They 
 are those of a wide-spread disaffection ; a hatred not 
 of obnoxious individuals who have given offence to 
 their immediate inferiors ; not a class feeling of the 
 soldiery against their officers ; but a general an- 
 tipathy to the European race, which exhibits itself 
 in the indiscriminate slaughter of women and chil- 
 dren, as well as men, without reference to age, 
 occupation, or station, attended by a savage ferocity 
 aiming at total extermination. The Cavalry muti- 
 neers from Meerut, as they marched through the 
 streets of Delhi, refused to plunder: they declared 
 they came for life, not loot. Blood was their object, 
 and they pointed to the marks of the fetters on their 
 legs, as their reason and their justification. Do not 
 let the fatal mistake in our diagnosis be committed 
 of fancying, that this outbreak is merely the local ex- 
 hibition of discontent on the part of a few disaffected 
 regiments. It will be found to extend from one end 
 of Bengal to the other, and probably to embrace 
 all classes, civil as well as military. It leaps from 
 one distant point to another almost simultaneously. 
 Thus the same post brings intelligence of risings 
 at Sattarah, at Nagpore, at Jhansi. Its origin is 
 partly, if not principally, political. The answer of 
 the sepoys to their officers at Neemuch may show us 
 that. The dying speech of the traitor at Sattarah 
 shows us that. Within three little months 50,000 
 soldiers have turned rebels ! 
 
 The following is an imperfect list, but full, as far 
 
15 
 
 as it can yet be ascertained of the sepoys who have 
 become rebels. It represents a force of about 50,000 
 men : 
 
 19th Rt. N. I. Disbanded at Barrackpore, April 3rd. 
 
 7th Rt. Oude Irregulars, Mutinied at Lucknow, May 1st. 
 
 34th Rt. N. I. 7 Companies at Lucknow, May 5th. 
 
 3rd Rt. Lt. Cy. Mutinied at Meerut, May 10th. 
 
 llth Rt. N. I. Mutinied at Meerut, May 10th. 
 
 20th Rt, N. I. Mutinied at Meerut, May 10th. 
 
 38th Rt. N. I. Mutinied at Delhi, May llth. 
 
 54th Rt, N. I. Mutinied at Delhi, May llth. 
 
 74th Rt. N. I. Mutinied at Delhi, May llth. 
 
 3rd Company 7th Batt. Arty. Mutinied at Delhi, May llth. 
 The Sappers and Miners, about half the Corps, 
 
 Mutinied at Meerut, May 13th. 
 
 45th Rt. N. I. Mutinied at Ferozepore, May 13th. 
 
 57th Rt. N. I. Mutinied at Ferozepore, May 13th. 
 The Sappers and Miners (300 men) Mutinied at 
 
 Roorke, May 18th. 
 
 9th Rt. N. I. Mutinied at Allygurh, May 23rd. 
 
 5th Rt. N. I. Mutinied at Umballah, 
 60th Rt, N. I. Mutinied at Umballah, 
 55th Rt. N. I. Mutinied at Murdaun, 
 
 44th Rt. N. I. Mutinied at Agra, May 31st. 
 
 67th Rt. N. I. Mutinied at Agra, May 31st. 
 
 3rd Rt. N. I. Mutinied at Phillour, May 26th. 
 
 7th Rt. Lt. Cy. Mutinied at Lucknow (2 troops) May 30th. 
 
 13th Rt. N. I. (part only) Mutinied at Lucknow, May 30th. 
 
 48th Rt. N. I. Mutinied at Lucknow, May 30th. 
 
 71st Rt. N. I. Mutinied at Lucknow, May 30th. 
 
 15th Rt. N. I. Mutinied at Nusseerabad, May 28th. 
 
 30th Rt. N. I. Mutinied at Nusseerabad, May 25th. 
 
 72nd Rt. N. I. Mutinied at Neemuch, June 3rd. 
 
 24th Rt. N. I. Disarmed at Peshawur, May 22nd. 
 
 27th Rt. N. I. Disarmed at Peshawur, May 22nd. 
 
 51st Rt. N. I. Disarmed at Peshawur, May 22nd. 
 
 5th Rt. Lt. Cy. Disarmed at Peshawur, May 22nd, 
 
 16th Rt. N. I. Disarmed at Meean Meer, May 14th. 
 
1C 
 
 26th Rt. N, I. Disarmed at Meean Meer, May 14th. 
 
 49th Rt. N. I. Disarmed at Meean Meer, May 14th. 
 
 8th Lt. Cy. Disarmed at Meean Meer, May 15th. 
 
 7th Gwalior Infantry Mutinied at Neemuch, June 3rd. 
 
 Artillery June 3rd. 
 Bhurtpore Levies Mutinied near Neemuch about 
 
 the beginning of June. 
 
 12th N. I. Mutinied at Jhansi, June 5th. 
 
 Artillery June 5th. 
 
 30th N. I. (one company) Mutinied at Jeypore, June 3rd. 
 
 37th N. I. Mutinied at Benares, June 4th. 
 Loodianah Regiment of Sikhs Mutinied at Benares, June 4th. 
 
 6th N. I. Mutinied at Allahabad, June 6th. 
 70th N. I., and all the native troops at Barrackpore 
 
 and Calcutta Disarmed, June 14th. 
 
 N. I. Regts. Disarmed at Mooltan, June 10th. 
 
 Hurrianah Light Infantry Mutinied at Jhansi, May 29th. 
 
 Troops at Jhansi Mutinied about May 29th. 
 
 64th N. I. Disbanded at Shukbuddur, June 3rd. 
 28th N. I. Mutinied at Shajehanpur about the 
 
 middle of June. 
 
 1st Nizam's Cavalry Mutinied at Aurungabad, May 23rd. 
 
 21st N. I. Disarmed at Peshawur, May 22nd. 
 
 1st N. I. Mutinied at Cawnpore, June 5th. 
 
 56th N. I. June 5th. 
 
 2nd Lt. Cy. June 5th. 
 
 22nd N. I. Mutinied at Fyzabad about June 8th. 
 
 1st N. I. Mutinied at Cawnpore, June 
 
 2nd N. I. Disarmed at Barrackpore, June 14th. 
 
 6th N. I. Mutinied at Allahabad, June 4th. 
 
 10th N. I. Mutinied at Futtyghur, June. 
 
 17th N. I. Mutinied at Azimghur, June 3rd. 
 
 18th N. I. Mutinied at Bareilly, June. 
 
 22nd N. I. Mutinied at Fyzabad, June 9th. 
 
 28th N. I. Mutinied at Shajehanpur, June 22nd. 
 
 29th N. I. Mutinied at Moradabad, June. 
 
 37th N. I. Mutinied at Benares June 4th. 
 
 41st N. I. Mutinied at Seetapore June. 
 
 43rd N. I. Disarmed at Barrackpore, June 14th. 
 
17 
 
 53rd N. I. Mutinied at Cawnporo, June- 
 
 56th N. I. Mutinied at Cawnpore, June. 
 
 68th N. I. Mutinied at Bareilly, June. 
 
 70th N. I. Disarmed at Barrackpore, June 14th. 
 
 1st L. C. Mutinied at Neemuch, June 3rd. 
 
 2nd L. C. Mutinied at Cawnpore, June 3rd. 
 Malwa Contingent Mutinied near Neemuch about 
 
 the beginning of June. 
 
 17th N. I. Mutinied at Azimgurh, June 3rd. 
 
 But all honour to the armies of Madras and 
 Bombay; they seem staunch; and the few clamours 
 that have been heard from the former have ori- 
 ginated from the mismanagement of the authorities, 
 and the complaints seem rational, if not justifiable, in 
 the shape in which they were put forward. 
 
 At Bangalore, where I am now writing, a Native, 
 well acquainted with the spirit and feelings of his 
 countrymen, has declared that but for the presence of 
 the European troops, there would not be a European 
 alive in the station within a week. At Madras the 
 ball on the Queen's Birth-day was danced out with 
 the guard of honor (a European guard of H.M. 43rd) 
 keeping watch over the merry makers, each man 
 with twenty rounds of ball cartridge in his pouch. 
 Since then, our Government has had a panic from 
 Triplicate; fear only is said to keep the Mussulmen 
 down : their brethren in Poonah have publicly offered 
 up prayers for the success of the Native arms at 
 Delhi and Meerut. If Oude was really ever a source 
 of danger to us from the example which its internal 
 condition afforded to its immediate neighbours, our 
 policy has now constituted it a magazine full of 
 inflammable materials in the very centre of our 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 territories, and those who best know the disposition 
 of the natives of that kingdom towards us, do not 
 hesitate to state that we are invariably regarded 
 witli feelings of bitter hatred. Lucknow has been in 
 flames, and there Lawrence can do no more than 
 hold his own. Glide is in an entire state of revolt. 
 The Governor of the N.W. Provinces has officially de- 
 clared the same with regard to his territories. Benares, 
 Allahabad, Nusseerabad Neemuch, Simlah, and many 
 other places, have become the scenes of mutiny and 
 outbreaks. It is impossible to limit the cause of 
 outbreak to the offended religious prejudices of any 
 particular caste. Mussulmen as well as Hindus, 
 have turned rebels. Seikhs and Goorkhas have 
 proved unloyal; irregulars as well as regulars, 
 cavalry as well as infantry, sappers and miners, and 
 artillery, all have been swept into the vortex of 
 rebellion. No dependence can ever again be placed 
 on the Indian army which has thus been faithless to 
 its salt. So long as that army was faithful to us 
 we were secure ; but when it has turned against us, 
 " Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? " The rebellion is 
 wide-spread and contagious. It shows signs of combi- 
 nation. It draws all religions as to a common centre. 
 It has probably one common origin. It is truculent 
 and exterminating; pitiless in its barbarity. It must 
 be no ordinary frame of mind, no ordinary sense of 
 wrong, which can so have banded men together in so 
 desperate an undertaking. 
 
 Such are the symptoms. The proximate or alleged 
 proximate cause, is that of the greased cartridges. It 
 is no doubt matter of the gravest inquiry, whether 
 
19 
 
 there is really a deep seated belief on the minds of 
 the sepoys that we are attempting to destroy their 
 caste by forcing them to pollute their lips with 
 the fat of bullocks; and the Natives are so easily 
 worked upon and credulous, especially in matters 
 connected with their religion or their caste, that it is 
 not at all improbable that this distrust of the new 
 cartridges was not at the outset a mere pretext, but 
 that a real excitement on the point has been brought 
 about, partly by the carefully disseminated insinua- 
 tions of designing agitators who skilfully hit upon a 
 topic of alarm, which all could appreciate ; partly by 
 that species of infection or contagious panic which 
 runs occasionally through large bodies. It may be 
 the spark which has set fire to the train, but unques- 
 tionably the train existed before; I believe there is 
 no one so weak as to fancy, that had there been no 
 greased cartridges there would have been no re- 
 bellion. Sooner or later, and for some assigned 
 cause of grievance or other, similar events would 
 have occurred; and we may dismiss at once the 
 opinion that the substitution of vegetable oils for 
 animal fat will suffice to restore confidence to the 
 soldiery, and prevent dissatisfaction for the future. 
 It is impossible any longer to attribute the revolt of 
 regiment after regiment to this cause. For fifty 
 years the rifle companies of our Native regiments 
 have used 'greased cartridges without a murmur. 
 The obnoxious cartridge can have been served out to 
 very few regiments, if any. In Lucknow the men 
 declared they were prepared not only to bite, but to 
 eat them, if the Company commanded. The real 
 
 c2 
 
20 
 
 nature of- the grease used has been carefully ex- 
 plained to every regiment in the service : there has 
 been no effort to insist upon the further issue and 
 use of the obnoxious material. The Governor-Ge- 
 neral has publicly proclaimed the absence of any 
 intention on the part of Government to interfere ^ 
 with the religion of the soldiery. The rebel cavalry 
 at Delhi indeed expressly declared that their motives 
 for massacre was revenge for the insult offered them 
 by placing fetters on their legs. Regiments, of 
 whose loyalty there was no previous question, and 
 who had given no sign of disaffection, suddenly 
 turned over to the rebels against whom they were 
 brought. Here again it is not a question of grease I 
 which leads to rebellion; but the natural antipathy 
 of race ; the sympathy with those of their own creed 
 and country, when the moment comes for making a 
 choice between the ties of allegiance, and those of 
 blood; between the stranger and brother. Fatal to 
 us is the moment of that electric touch of nature 
 which makes them kin. Unquestionably the causes 
 of discontent which exist in the Native army lie 
 far deeper: they must be thoroughly probed and 
 searched. 
 
 Possibly the u General Service Order," which com- 
 pels every recruit for the future to enlist for foreign 
 as well as home service, may be thought by some 
 sufficient to account for the discontent of the Bengal 
 army. The Bengal regiments, it is well known, are 
 averse to crossing the sea. It clashes with their 
 caste prejudices; and many a high caste sepoy who 
 had looked to his children and their children follow- 
 
21 
 
 ing liis own profession of arms, thus finds them 
 suddenly cut off from an ancestral means of liveli- 
 hood: and this may have pre-disposed the whole 
 army to listen to the counsels of the designing and 
 seditious. 
 
 The General Service Order 1012 of 1856, pub- 
 lished on the 25th July, 1856, touched upon a most 
 delicate matter, one not to be handled without a 
 thorough knowledge of the Bengal soldier, and the 
 feelings of the Natives in general. Lord Dalhousie 
 had not ventured, amid his many changes, to pro- 
 mulgate so hazardous a change. Yet Lord Canning, 
 raw to the country, within three months after his 
 taking the reins of government, rushed in, where 
 Lord Dalhousie had feared to tread. He might have 
 otherwise remembered the mutinous spirit of the 
 Bengal sepoys in the last century, when ordered on 
 foreign service to Madras: their conduct in 1816 at 
 Java during the expedition under Auchmuty : their 
 conduct in Burin ah, in the first Burmese war in 
 1824; above all, the recent refusal of the 38th 
 regiment to embark for Burmah in Lord Dalhousie's 
 reign, an epoch which may be marked as the starting 
 point of the present rebellion. Of this anon. 
 
 The order was uncalled for at the present moment, 
 because we have eighty-one regiments of the Madras 
 and Bombay armies, available for foreign service. It 
 was unwise, because it struck at the very root of the 
 Bengal sepoys contents. It would introduce some 
 thirty or forty recruits a year into each regiment, 
 enlisted on terms which the old soldiers would regard 
 as derogatory to their rights, and which would ne- 
 
22 
 
 cessarily lead to constant bickerings, recriminations, 
 internal dissensions, in regiments composed of two 
 such discordant classes, as the old and new soldiers 
 must in the course of some six or eight years become. 
 Unless, therefore, the Government was quite sure 
 that it was strong enough to put down any disaffec- 
 tion which so unpalatable an order was certain to 
 call forth, its promulgation should have been at any 
 rate deferred. But at that moment we had a 
 miserably small European force in the country : and 
 I can only regard this measure as another instance of 
 that "blind infatuation, and inflated self sufficiency, 
 which has taught us to regard our position in India 
 as impregnable, and utterly to ignore the possi- 
 bility of any existence, either of dissatisfaction at 
 our most distasteful and unjust measures, or of power 
 on the part of any portion of our Native subjects, 
 military or civil, to resist or resent even what they 
 might view with the most sullen indignation. 
 
 If grievances are really found to exist, they must 
 be redressed; if the constitution of the army is 
 defective, it must be altered; if the old loyal spirit of 
 the sepoy has been shaken, it must be re-established; 
 if we have Prcetorian bands among us, they must be 
 coerced ; but these are questions of detail which may 
 be well left for the consideration of the highest 
 military authorities ; they are not matters on which I 
 feel inclined to dwell, or could usefully do so, had I 
 the inclination. Suffice it briefly to point out that 
 the augmentation of our armies not having kept pace 
 with the increase of our territories, the Native troops 
 have now much heavier labour to perform than had 
 
23 
 
 their forefathers; that they are cut up into small 
 detachments, and generally do police rather than 
 military duties;* that their pay has remained sta- 
 tionary while provisions and carriage have gradually 
 risen in price, and that there will be found on inquiry 
 many causes sufficiently accounting for the disaffec- 
 tion of the present soldiery. Thus the necessities of 
 the civil administration of the State have almost 
 denuded the regiments of their officers a fatal 
 mistake, if the cordial spirit of mutual reliance and 
 esteem between officers and men is essential to dis- 
 cipline and confidence ; and if a thorough supervision 
 of the men's comforts and knowledge of their cha- 
 racters, and a candid representation of their wants 
 and wishes, be thought instrumental towards engen- 
 dering and promoting a spirit of content, affection, 
 and respect. Witli the present skeleton staff of 
 officers doing duty with each regiment, this is phy- 
 sically impossible : the few officers present on parade 
 could not do all this important duty even if they 
 would; but it is to be feared, that the few regi- 
 mental officers who have not obtained- staff appoint- 
 ments, the "Refuse," as a distinguished member of 
 their own body has unjustly called them, get through 
 their duties listlessly and superficially, partly from a 
 sense of the hoplessness of otherwise discharging it, 
 partly from a spirit of indifference produced by con- 
 
 * "Between the 1st January and the 31st Octoberjof the 
 following year," says Sir Charles Napier, " of the Bengal Army 
 25,916 Infantry, and 3,364 Cavalry, total 29,080 soldiers, were 
 furnished for treasure escorts alone, exclusive of all other civil 
 duties." 
 
24 
 
 trasting what they consider their own ill luck with 
 the good fortune of their contemporaries on staff 
 employ. The Regiment is not looked upon as what 
 it ought to be a man's home. The first effort, the 
 first wish of the cadet is, either by interest or study, 
 to get away from regimental duty to the more agree- 
 able labours of a comparatively independent charge. 
 And the effect, upon the character of the privates 
 may easily be conceived. " Military officers," writes 
 Lord Dalhousie, in his Retrospective Minute, u have 
 " been withdrawn for this purpose from the regi- 
 " mental duties in the Artillery and in the Line in 
 " large and unprecedented numbers. 
 
 " The expedient is advantageous to the present 
 il interests of the officers, and it affords a material 
 " relief to the present necessities of the Government. 
 " But there seems good reason for apprehending 
 u that it will, after a time, prove deeply injurious to 
 " the military efficiency of the army. It is to be 
 " hoped, therefore, that the experiment will be 
 " treated on all hands as a temporary one." Lord 
 Dalhousie omits to mention how many officers he 
 withdrew from the regular army to officer his irre- 
 gular forces ; and this eking out the wants of civil 
 administration at the expense of the efficiency of the 
 army, though perhaps an immediate relief to the 
 State, was but robbing Peter to pay Paul; or 
 sewing on to one end of the blanket what was cut 
 off from the other, under the pleasant self-delusion 
 that the blanket was thereby made to do double duty. 
 
 So with regard to the Native officer. He is a 
 very different personage from what he was in the 
 
days of Olive. Then the cadet of some old family 
 marched into the head-quarters of the regiment 
 about to be formed at the head of a hundred of his 
 retainers. He became at once an officer. He was 
 familiar with his European superior, the regimental 
 duties were performed by him, he was constantly in 
 the battle field ; so great was the trust reposed in 
 him, so large the actual amount of duty he per- 
 formed, that Munro thought one European officer 
 sufficient for a company. Now, all this has changed. 
 We have destroyed the class from which the Native 
 officer was drawn. He is now a poor, old, decrepit 
 creature, not rising from the ranks until he is 
 scarcely fit for any thing but superannuation. Fre- 
 quently he owes his promotion to favouritism and the 
 influence of his officer, with whom he has ingratiated 
 himself, rather than to any aptitude or merit of his 
 own. He is no longer the leader and superior of the 
 common soldiery ; there is no clannish feeling in his 
 favour. He is taken from their ranks, he is of the 
 same quality as themselves; and onee raised to the 
 grade of an officer, his promotion goesHby seniority. 
 There is no longer the old bond of union between 
 the European and the Native officer. They are not 
 drawn together by common dangers in the field : the 
 one springs from the English gentry; the other is no 
 longer his equal in birth, in age, in pay, in tempera- 
 ment, but is drawn from an altogether inferior class 
 of society ; and the consequence is that there exists 
 another community of feeling or of interests.* 
 
 * Sir Charles Napier gives a very different account of the 
 status of the Native officer in the Madras army. But Sir 
 
26 
 
 So again, take the Madras army for an example. 
 With a very trifling increase to its strength, it has 
 now twice the extent of territory to guard. Out 
 of a total of fifty-two regiments, seventeen are on 
 foreign service. 
 
 The remaining corps have to discharge the entire 
 military duties of the Presidency. The result is 
 that their work has terribly increased. Their tour 
 for foreign duty comes round three times as rapidly 
 as formerly ; the long marches from station to station 
 leave scarcely a moment's breathing time. The 
 men are plunged into debt by building houses at 
 new stations, and by paying for carriage for their 
 wives and families. One regiment, for instance, has 
 had within the last few years to build houses and 
 huts at no fewer than three stations : they have ac- 
 complished long marches ; and on their return lately 
 from Burmah, the men have had to pay sixty rupees 
 per cart, to bring their wives and families from Bur- 
 hampore to Vellore, a distance of 700 miles. I do 
 not select this corps as particularly unlucky; it is 
 but a fair average specimen of what is going on 
 everywhere. The 17th Regiment might have been 
 just as well spoken of; so might the 34th. The 
 result is that the men are deeply embarrassed. A 
 sepoy on seven rupees a month, who has to pay fifty 
 or sixty rupees for his wife's cart once in every two 
 or three years, is unavoidably plunged in debt. He 
 must borrow at exorbitant interest from the money- 
 Charles had no personal acquaintance with the Madrassees, 
 He never landed at Madras, and must have written upon hear- 
 say information. 
 
27 
 
 lender, and before he can reclaim the past, the 
 " route" comes for a fresh march to far distant can- 
 tonments, and hurries him into fresh difficulties. 
 
 Then the character of the duties performed by the 
 army is essentially changed. They are seldom led 
 to battle and victory, as of yore; they are separated 
 in small detachments, scattered over the face of the 
 country, an entire regiment seldom meeting on 
 parade. They form treasure parties, jail guards; 
 they are, in fact, degraded from the functions of an 
 army to those of an armed police; and this constant 
 separation of a regiment into small fractional parts 
 destroys its unity and esprit de corps. 
 
 These are among the first causes of discontent, 
 and they admit of easy remedy. There are others 
 less apparent, which have made the Bengal army a 
 Praetorian band, not to be trusted, striving for mas- 
 tery, determined to rule or die. Thirty thousand 
 Goorkas, Sir C. Napier tells us, are necessary to 
 coerce the pampered Bengal sepoy. True, Lord 
 Dalhousie declared that Napier was -libelling the 
 Bengal army : which of the two was the' most far- 
 sighted, let recent events decide. Probably it will 
 be found necessary to reorganize our army and our 
 military system. The institution of a staff corps, 
 or if that measure, as many military men assert, is 
 not practicable in the Indian Army something tan- 
 tamount to it, whether by a system of " seconding," 
 or otherwise keeping up the full complement of 
 European regimental officers, becomes essential, if 
 the regiments are to be efficiently officered, The 
 retention of a far larger number of Europeans, and, 
 
28 
 
 as 1 would suggest, of East Indians, in the service of 
 the Company, will be one very palpable measure. 
 
 Never again will it be wise to denude India of 
 troops to such an extent as has lately been the case. 
 The capital of the Presidency of Fort St. George 
 has, at this moment, but a wing of H.M.'s 43rd 
 and a few artillerymen to guard it. At Cawnpore, 
 there appear to be about twenty Europeans, and a 
 single gun is placed in position to protect the tele- 
 graph station ! Probably the troops will be hereafter 
 much more massed in cantonments, and their duties 
 be more purely of a military character, even if our 
 Government itself does not for many years to come 
 assume the same characteristic ; for the events of the 
 two last months have thrown back the cause of civil 
 progress for half a century at least. We must not 
 place too much reliance on the increase of power 
 which the electric telegraph and the railway place in 
 our hands. It has been asserted, indeed, that when 
 these machines were complete, we might even dispense 
 with a part of our present military establishments ; 
 but late events prove that, although the electric 
 telegraph and railway no doubt vastly increase our 
 means for rapid communication and concentration 
 against a foreign enemy, they aiford us no safeguard 
 against a domestic foe suddenly springing up among 
 ourselves. So long as the Native army is faithful, 
 we can direct their movements with a rapidity un- 
 known before : the moment they become disaffected, 
 the wires are sure to be cut, and the rail broken up ; 
 so that we may trust to a broken reed, if, in our 
 reliance on these forces, we neglect our ordinary 
 
29 
 
 roads : certainly we cannot reduce our army on ac- 
 count of the introduction of these appliances of 
 modern science. 
 
 Some other facts are apparent enough even to a 
 non-military observer. 
 
 In the first place, the ablest of our Indian soldiers 
 and statesmen have ever been alive to the fact, that 
 the chief danger to our empire lay, not in foreign 
 invasion, but in the revolt of our own armies, and 
 the antipathies of our own subjects. A gentleman 
 once observed to Sir C. Metcalfe, that we had now so 
 mastered all around, that there was no one left to 
 contend with us. Sir Charles shook his head. 
 " Why," replied his friend, " if any enemy arises 
 " against us, he must spring up out of the ground." 
 " You have said it," was the retort of the sagacious 
 statesman. The selections of Sir C. Metcalfe's 
 papers, made by Mr. Kaye, are full of similar fore- 
 bodings. Sir Charles Metcalfe was one of the ablest 
 of English statesmen; one of the most experienced 
 of our Indian rulers. Mr. Kaye's name' stamps his 
 views with an India House authority. Let us 
 peruse a few. 
 
 " Our empire in India has arisen from the supe-0 
 " riority of our military prowess. Its stability rests 4 
 " entirely on the same foundation. Let this founda- 
 " tion be removed, and the fabric must fall to the 
 " ground. Let this foundation be in the least 
 " shaken, and the fabric must totter. Whatever 
 " delusions may prevail in England respecting the 
 " security to be derived from the affections of our 
 " Indian subjects, and a character for moderation 
 
30 
 
 " and forbearance with foreign native states, it will 
 " probably be admitted in India that our power de- 
 " pends solely on our military superiority. 
 
 " Yet there is reason to apprehend that our com- 
 " parative superiority is in some measure dimi- 
 " nished, in consequence of the general increase of 
 " discipline, experience, skill, and confidence, on the 
 " part of the military of India." 
 
 Again : 
 
 " Our situation in India has always been preca- 
 " rious. It is still precarious, not less so perhaps at 
 " the present moment, by the fault of the system 
 " prescribed by Government at home, than at any 
 " former period. We are still a handful of Europe- 
 " ans governing an immense empire without any 
 "firm hold on the country, having warlike and 
 " powerful enemies on all our frontiers, and the 
 " spirit of disaffection dormant, but rooted univer- 
 " sally among our subjects. 
 
 " That insuperable separation which exists be- 
 " tween us and our subjects, renders it necessary to 
 " keep them in subjection by the presence of a niili- 
 " tary force, and impossible to repose confidence in 
 " their affection or fidelity for assistance in the 
 " defence of our territories. 
 
 " It may be observed that the tried services and 
 "devotion of our Native army furnish a proof to the 
 " contrary of the preceding assertion. Our Native 
 " army is certainly a phenomenon, the more so as 
 " there is no heartfelt attachment to our government 
 " on the part of our Native troops. They are, in 
 " general, excellent soldiers, attached to regular pay, 
 
31 
 
 <; and possessing a good notion of the duty of fidelity 
 " to the power which gives them "bread. There is 
 " no reason to apprehend their general defection as 
 " long as we continue tolerably successful. But if 
 " the tide of fortune ever turn decidedly against us, 
 " and any power rise up able to give good pay regu- 
 u larly, and aware of the use to which such an 
 " instrument may be applied, there will then be a 
 " general proof afforded of that want of attachment 
 " in our Native army, of which at present numbers 
 " of persons are not convinced" 
 
 Again : 
 
 " We are to appearance more powerful in India 
 " now than we ever were. Nevertheless, our down- 
 " fall may be short work. When it commences it 
 " will probably be rapid, and the world will wonder 
 " more at the suddenness with which our immense 
 " Indian empire may vanish, than it has done at the 
 " surprising conquest that we have achieved. Jhe 
 " cause of this precariousness is, that our power 
 " does not rest on actual strength, but on impres- 
 " sion. Our whole real strength consists in the few 
 " European regiments, speaking comparatively, that 
 " are scattered singly over the vast space of subju- 
 " gated India. That is the only portion of our 
 " soldiery whose hearts are with us, and whose con- 
 " stancy can be relied on in the hour of trial. All 
 " our Native establishments, military or civil, are 
 " the followers of fortune; they serve us for their 
 " livelihood, and generally serve us well. From a 
 " sense of what is due to the hand that feeds them, 
 " which is one of the virtues that they most extol, 
 
32 
 
 " they may often display fidelity under trying cir- 
 " cumstances; but in their inward feelings they par- 
 " take more or less of the universal disaffection 
 " which prevails against us, not from bad govern- 
 " ment, but from natural and irresistible antipathy; 
 " and were the wind to change to use a native ex- 
 " pression and to set in steadily against us, we 
 " could not expect that their sense of honour, al- 
 " though there might be splendid instances of devo- 
 " tion, would keep the mass on our side in opposition 
 " to the common feeling which, with one view, might 
 " for a time unite all India from one end to the 
 " other." 
 
 Again : 
 
 " Our greatest danger is not from a Russian inva- 
 " sion, but from the fading of the impression of our 
 " invincibility from the minds of the Native inha- 
 " bitants of India. The disaffection which would 
 " willingly root us out exists abundantly ; the con- 
 " currence of circumstances sufficient to call it into 
 " general action may at any time happen. 
 
 u Our government is not a national government 
 " that can rely on the affections of its subjects for 
 u defence against foreign invasions. It is the curse 
 " of a government over a conquered country that it 
 " cannot trust the people. Our subjects are internal 
 " enemies, ready at least for change, if not ripe for 
 " insurrection ; the best affected are passive votaries 
 " of fate. We can retain our dominion only by a 
 " large military establishment ; and without a con- 
 " siderable force of British troops the fidelity of our 
 " Native army could not be relied on. 
 
" Our danger does not lie in the military force 
 " alone of Native states, but in the spirit by which 
 " they are actuated towards us ; and still more in 
 " the spirit of our subjects, from one end of India to 
 " the other. We have no hold on their affections ; 
 " more than that, disaffection is universal. So that 
 " what to a power supported by the affections of its 
 " subjects would be a slight disaster, might to us be 
 " an irreparable calamity. The little reverse which 
 " we met with at Ramoo in the Burmah war, 
 " sounded throughout India like our repulse at the 
 " first siege of Bhurtpore, magnified and exagge- 
 " rated as if it had been our death knell." 
 
 Again : 
 
 " I have noticed these circumstances at the risk 
 " of repeating what I have probably said more than 
 " once on former occasions, because the prevalent 
 " disaffection of our subjects, the uncertainty under 
 " which we hold any part of our Indian possessions, 
 " without the presence or immediate vicinity of a 
 u military force; the utter inability of our civil esta- 
 " blishments to stem the torrent of insurrection ; their 
 "^consternation and hopelessness when it begins to 
 " roar, constitute in reality the greatest of our 
 " dangers in India; without which a Russian inva- 
 " sion, or any other invasion, might, I doubt not, be 
 " successfully met and repulsed. The authority of 
 " the late Governor- General in deriding internal dis- 
 " affection and insurrection, as if they were quite 
 " contemptible, must have great weight, the more be- 
 " cause it will be gratifying to our rulers to see such 
 " opinions supported by such authority. Differing 
 
 I) 
 
34 
 
 " totally from those opinions, I think it necessary to 
 " appeal to facts of recent occurrence. What hap- 
 " pened in the Barasut, Kamglmr, and Jungul Mehel 
 " districts, may happen in any other part of our 
 " country, without any other cause than the disaf- 
 " fection already existing everywhere. 
 
 " Internal insurrection, therefore, is one of the 
 u greatest of our dangers, or, rather, becomes so 
 " when the means of quelling it are at a distance. 
 " It is easy to decide it, because insurgents may not 
 " have the horse, foot, and artillery of a regular 
 " army ; but it becomes serious if we have not those 
 " materials at hand. Nothing can be a stronger 
 " proof of our weakness in the absence of a military 
 " force, even when it is not far removed, than the 
 " history of such insurrections as have occurred. 
 " The civil power and all semblance of the existence 
 " of our government are instantly swept away by the 
 " torrent." 
 
 These extracts are of singular significance at the 
 present moment, both as having been written long 
 before the present events, and as proceeding from 
 one of the greatest and best informed among Indian 
 statesmen. There is one other passage which I 
 would quote from the same authority. It is a com- 
 mon observation that our empire in India is one 
 purely founded on opinion. Sir Charles Metcalfe 
 thus forcibly analyzes the truth : 
 
 " Some say that our empire in India rests on 
 " opinion, others on main force. It in fact depends 
 " on both. We could not keep the country by 
 " opinion if we had not a considerable force ; and no 
 
35 
 
 " force that we could pay would be sufficient if it 
 :c were not aided by the opinion of our invincibility, 
 " Our force does not operate so much by its actual 
 " strength as by the impression which it produces, 
 " and that impression is the opinion by which we 
 " hold India." 
 
 Opinion may be the wider basis of the two : but it 
 would fall to-morrow if unsupported by our arms. 
 
 Plus nominis honor 
 Quam tuns ensis aget. 
 
 Especially has the Bengal army been regarded as 
 the source of danger. Its composition, the greater 
 number of high caste men and Brahmins in its ranks, 
 the repeated refusal of various regiments to embark 
 on foreign service, the whole history of the mutinies 
 u passive respectful mutinies" Sir Charles Napier 
 calls them, at Eawul Pindee and Wuzurabad in 
 1849, when thirty sepoy Battalions were implicated, 
 though Lord Dalhousie, when the danger was past, 
 called the whole affair " a farce ; " all these things 
 lead us to look on the out-break of mutiny among the 
 ranks of the Bengal army without surprize. They 
 may teach us too that Sir Charles Napier by his wise 
 measures saved the empire in 1849 from a mutiny 
 which has been only postponed. Lord Dalhousie in 
 his famous Minute reviewing his whole administra- 
 tion states indeed, that " the position of the Native 
 " soldier in India has long been such as to leave 
 " hardly any circumstance of his condition in need of 
 " improvement," and he called Sir Charles Napier 
 the calumniator of the Indian army for his having 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 asserted then there was a mutiny. But now, it is 
 curious to see that all the Indian Journals, even 
 those formerly most favourable to Lord Dalhousie, 
 are full of quotations from Napier, who is declared to 
 be little short of a prophet. Napier expressly says 
 that " Mutiny with the sepoys is the most formidable 
 " danger menacing our Indian Empire." And 
 again, " The ablest and most experienced civil and 
 " military servants of the East India Company con- 
 " sider mutiny as one of the greatest, if not the 
 " greatest danger threatening India ; a danger also 
 " that may come unexpectedly, and, if the first symp- 
 " toms be not carefully treated, with a power to 
 " shake Leadenhall." 
 
 But it is very far from true that the condition of 
 the sepoy is such as scarcely to admit of improve- 
 ment : and the condition of the army becomes neces- 
 sarily the next subject for enquiry, since it is 
 obviously there that we are likely to find one of the 
 predisposing causes to revolt. I have already par- 
 tially alluded to this subject, in adverting to the 
 paucity of European regimental officers : the altered 
 character and position of the Native officer ; the 
 quality of duties now performed by the soldiers ; the 
 increase of their fatigues, and their expenses. To 
 these I would now add the following. 
 
 Of late years the European soldier in India has 
 been greatly improved in position ; * his pay, rations, 
 tentage in the field, barracks, punka-pullers, followers 
 in quarters, boxes for holding the kit of himself and 
 
 * See Lord Dalhousie's Minute, 150165. 
 
37 
 
 family in cantonment, and canvass bags for the field, 
 all have been granted, improved, or increased ; his 
 marches are made as rarely as possible ; fine healthy 
 cantonments in the coolest hill stations are selected 
 for him in preference to hot barracks in the plains ; 
 his comforts are all cared for ; convalescents and 
 recruits are looked after ; annuities to soldiers as well 
 as good conduct pay granted ; but in all that time 
 nothing has been done for the Native soldier. 
 
 Yery far am I from implying that more has been 
 done for the European troops than the interests of 
 Government or their own merits justified ; I merely 
 desire to show the great contrast between the care of 
 Government for that part of the Forces and of the 
 Native army. 
 
 With the sepoy it has been different. 
 
 While his pay has remained stationary, his ex- 
 penses have increased, both by the higher price of 
 provisions and the more numerous and much longer 
 marches he has now to perform. Formerly a regi- 
 ment had at least six months' notice of its intended 
 march. The sepoys had time to make their prepara- 
 tions, and they marched on to some neighbouring 
 station, comparatively near. Now the order for the 
 march comes in suddenly, and the sepoy is hustled off 
 on a route of some four or even seven hundred miles. 
 Nor does the sepoys' pay bear the same relative 
 value to the present earnings of the mass of the 
 people as in former years. 
 
 The employment of a soldier was then deemed 
 honorable and ranked high in social opinion ; the 
 parties so employed enjoying a good standing in 
 
38 
 
 social position and worldly wealth as compared with 
 the masses ; now, the many public employments 
 given in our Courts of Justice, in the Revenue, and 
 Government Offices, and in the Public Works, have 
 all elevated another class of a less dominant caste far 
 above the sepoy in position and emoluments. 
 
 The only boon to the sepoy which I can call to 
 mind is the Order of British India, but it has been so 
 arranged, that a decoration which would be useful, if 
 worn by the Native officer with his corps, is generally 
 by the time of its bestowal, made the inducement for 
 the Native officer to take his pension and retire to 
 his native village. Thither he carries with him the 
 prize which accompanies the decoration the money 
 allowance. Hence it happens that many Native 
 officers linger on long after they ought to retire, in 
 hopes of receiving the decoration and allowance, and 
 when they do get it, they immediately leave the 
 regiment, and all the useful influence of this valuable 
 boon goes with them. 
 
 There has been a vast quantity of useless tinkering 
 with the soldiers' pay, clothing, rations, flogging, 
 the alterations in the articles of war, pensions for 
 wounds, compensation for dearness of provisions, 
 money rations, rations without money, all wretch- 
 edly carried out, and invariably with a niggardly 
 spirit: guard duty has been severe and incessant; 
 personal escorts, treasure escorts, and jail guards 
 multiplied; frequent absences from the provinces; 
 withdrawal of right to have civil cases heard by the 
 courts in priority. 
 
 The military administration of India, instead of 
 
39 
 
 being simple, is complicated, disjointed, and con- 
 fused ; instead of being vigorous, it is weak, vacil- 
 lating, and ill-informed even in general matters, and 
 lamentably ignorant in those minute details in which 
 the Central Government so unwisely meddles. 
 
 The organization and sub-divisions into which the 
 component parts of the army are formed, are irregu- 
 lar and contradictory The three Indian forces are 
 by Act of Parliament designated by the name of 
 the presidencies in which they serve ; the army of 
 the presidency of Fort William, being usually styled 
 the Bengal army, and belonging to the Government of 
 that name. When the late Charter Act constituted 
 Bengal a distinct Government, the control over that 
 portion of the armed force of India ought to have 
 gone to the newly-appointed Lieutenant-Governor of 
 Bengal, just as the control of the armies of Madras 
 and Bombay belonging to the local Governments of 
 those presidencies ; but jealousy of authority pre- 
 vailed, and the command of this army was retained in 
 the hands of the Governor- General of India. 
 
 No inconvenience would have resulted from the 
 other arrangements, as the Bengal army would have 
 been as much at the command of the Government of 
 India as ever. Indeed, at this present time, there 
 is a very large portion of the troops of the Madras 
 and Bombay presidencies immediately under the 
 direct control of the Government of India, as far as 
 respects their positions as military bodies. The dis- 
 advantage of the Governor- General retaining the 
 immediate and direct control over the army of 
 Bengal, has been that the Governor-General of India 
 
40 
 
 luiving all the vast civil concerns of this great 
 Empire to care for, has also directed the most petty 
 and unimportant matters connected with the welfare 
 of a great army. Lord Dalhousie's temperament led 
 him to supervise the most minute details of ordinary 
 routine, and the result was such as might have been 
 expected. 
 
 Let the past military management be looked into, 
 to prove the utter folly of this administration. Dila- 
 toriness, supineness, indifference, ignorance, and 
 errors of deep import, have been the characteristic of 
 the military system of India. Let the financial 
 statement of the military Auditor- General of Bengal, 
 Madras, and Bombay, as sent home for the past five 
 years, be returned to the House of Commons uninuti- 
 lated. Then the people of England will see the 
 remarkable division of forces, subsidiary forces, Pun- 
 jaub irregulars, Nizam's contingent, Nagpore irregu- 
 lar force, Oude force, local infantry, an innumerable 
 host all holding direct and immediate allegiance to 
 the man, the Governor-General, without the inter- 
 ventions of the Commander-in-Chief. Let a search- 
 ing, honest investigation be instituted, and the 
 true condition of the Bengal army will be dis- 
 covered. Then it will appear that it has for 
 years been the dominant body in the country : 
 that the most extraordinary concessions have been 
 made to its tyranny by the authorities ; that the 
 head caste man in the regiment, and not the com- 
 manding officer, has really been in command. That 
 tli is very representation and others of a similar 
 character have been in vain forwarded officially to 
 
41 
 
 the superior authorities ; that they have known and 
 ignored the mutinous state of the troops whom they 
 feared and gulled. At Mooltan, when the Bengallees 
 according to their privileges declined to work in the 
 trenches, the cost of the hired labour to perform 
 this work, was, in accordance with a standing order, 
 directed to be stopped out of their pay. The men 
 refused to permit this, and the officers actually paid 
 the money out of their own pockets to hush the 
 matter up! With such an army as that of Bengal, 
 mutiny was a necessity. It was a mere question of 
 time. The moment must have come in its history, as 
 in the history of all such bodies, when it must 
 either subdue the State it professed to serve, or be 
 subdued. The policy of Lord Dalhousie has pre- 
 cipitated the event, it is true; but the event itself 
 was nevertheless certain. 
 
 Those officers who were aware of the condition of 
 the army and neglected to report it, are under a 
 heavy responsibility ; so are those at head quarters 
 who have put aside such representations as reached 
 them ; so is Lord Dalhousie, whose despotic monopoly 
 of power prevented many an honest man from making 
 representations, which he knew would be unattended 
 to, and call down displeasure on himself. Major 
 Bird. I see, has publicly stated at Manchester, that 
 the Company's troops had declared their readiness to 
 join the King of Oude, if he would resist the spolia- 
 tion of his kingdom. On what authority was this 
 statement made ? Was it known to others ? Was 
 any representation of this conveyed to head quarters? 
 AVas any notice taken of it ? 
 
42 
 
 Further, the jealousy evinced by the late Governor- 
 General, Lord Dalhousie, towards the exercise of 
 power by the Conimander-in- Chief, and his resolute 
 determination to concentrate in his own hands the 
 whole authority, military and civil, of all India, led 
 him to deny to one and all in high office the right to 
 exercise any authority by virtue of the office, except 
 such as it pleased him to yield. Thus he refused 
 such a man as Sir Charles Napier the right to ex- 
 ercise any independent action or discretion however 
 trifling even in a crisis fraught with danger to the 
 Empire, on the plea that the Governor- General pos- 
 sessed the priority of all talent and information. 
 The plea was not, however, well founded, for men 
 with a glimmering perception of what was coming 
 were afraid to speak out. It was common talk, 
 universally accepted, that no man in India could 
 without danger to his individual prospects either 
 oppose Lord Dalhousie, or make known to him 
 unpleasant truths. From the commencement of our 
 power up to this lord's government, though we exer- 
 cised despotic power over the people, yet the Euro- 
 pean functionaries were allowed a liberty of speech 
 and writing, and a certain independence of thought; 
 and thus from the many minds, all interested in Eng- 
 land's prosperity, truth and good suggestions readied 
 the Government ; but under Lord Dalhousie's admin- 
 istration, no man or body of men, however high in 
 rank or power, good in intention, sound in views, 
 dared to give expression to ideas opposed to those held 
 by his lordship. Especially was this the case after the 
 overthrow of Sir Charles Napier, and thus that mono- 
 
43 
 
 poly of power which was mistaken fur strength, was 
 in reality the cause of fatal weakness : it struck 
 down all independence even of thought, much more 
 of action. It disgusted the honest and the able, and 
 kept them aloof in a moody silence. It brought 
 forward the pliant and the courtier. It repressed 
 the communication of valuable, though unpalatable 
 information, and led to the neglect of essential 
 measures, and to the introduction of futile measures 
 based upon an ignorance of the actual state of the 
 soldiery, or upon half information, which necessarily 
 led even the clearest intellect to mistaken conclusions. 
 Lord Dalhousie listened to those who flattered him 
 by prophesying smooth things. This, and his 
 lordship's love of temporarily relieving the State 
 by a show of economy, probably led to that 
 most fatal of his measures of army improvement, 
 the breaking up of the Commissariat Department. 
 " The substitution of hired cattle," his lordship 
 writes,* " for the use of the Government, in lieu of 
 " animals bred and maintained by the Government 
 " itself, was a change hardly less important than that 
 " which has just been noted. Though the measure 
 u is described in a single sentence, it has given a large 
 " permanent saving to Government, while it has pre- 
 " served full efficiency in the public carriage of the 
 " army." 
 
 So far from this being the case, I have just read 
 a letter from an officer with the late Commaiider-in- 
 Chief at the time of his death, stating that it was 
 
 * A Minute, par. 160. 
 
44 
 
 utterly impossible to move sooner against Delhi, 
 from there being not a camel or beast of burthen 
 procurable. How much " permanent saving" this 
 sacrifice of our means of moving our forces at a 
 critical moment has effected, may be calculated by 
 our present loss of life and treasure. The HurJcaru 
 has the following pertinent remarks upon this sub- 
 ject : 
 
 " LORD DALHOUSIE AND COMMISSARIAT. If the 
 " advance upon Delhi has been delayed principally 
 " or even partly by want of carriage, this forms 
 u another indictment in the heavy charges we have 
 " to bring against Lord Dalhousie. That nobleman, 
 " some three or four years ago, set himself to work 
 " to reform the Commissariat Department. It is 
 u probable that at the time he was in want of 
 " money, either for the conversion of the Five per 
 " Cents., for the Burmese war, or to swell his ba- 
 " lances, for, we believe, his reform of the Commis- 
 " sariat, although heralded with much pomp and 
 " parade, resolved itself into an order to do away 
 " with the breeding establishment at Hissar, and to 
 " sell off the whole stock of Government camels on 
 " hand. A contract was at the same time entered 
 u into with Lalla Joteepersad to keep up a certain 
 " number of hired animals ready for service. The 
 " sale of the Government stock doubtless brought in 
 " a considerable amount of ready money, but what 
 " has been the practical result of the reform? Why, 
 " that at a most critical period the most critical 
 4i season of our rule in India our troops, for the 
 " first time in history, have been unable to inflict 
 
45 
 
 " prompt punishment upon mutineers, and all for 
 " want of carriage ! 
 
 " This is a sample of the penny-wise and pound- 
 " foolish policy of the man who, undoubtedly, pro- 
 " yoked the present crisis." 
 
 That Lord Dalhousie's administration was sup- 
 ported by many, if not a large majority of the 
 Europeans in India, is undoubted ; but this is simply 
 saying that men are selfish, and seek after the 
 loaves and fishes so plentifully at the command of a 
 Governor- General : but there is a considerable num- 
 ber of Europeans who regard his lordship's career 
 in a very different light as one, during which a 
 greater amount of evil has been done to our real 
 power in India, more destruction of the independent 
 English feeling by his lordship's despotism, than 
 during any former government. 
 
 With reference to future military measures of 
 reform, the following seem most prominently worthy 
 of consideration. 
 
 1st. The distribution of our army on a totally 
 different plan from that of the single station and 
 detachment plan now in vogue, by which our forces 
 are, as Sir C. Napier says, scattered over the country 
 as by a pepper-box. The grouping of our forces in 
 large bodies at sundry principal cantonment stations 
 has, I believe, been lately recommended by the pre- 
 sent military authorities. It has the sanction of 
 Sir C. Napier and Sir C. Metcalfe ; but it involves 
 necessarily an entire reorganization of our police, 
 upon whom must then fall all the civil duties of 
 
46 
 
 treasure and jail guards, and other fatigue duties, 
 now discharged by the army. 
 
 2nd. The introduction of some fresh element into 
 the Native ranks, to counterpoise the influence of 
 the Brahmins and men of caste. It is thus that 
 able journal the Plicenix describes the influence of 
 the Brahmins in the army of Bengal : 
 
 " It is in the army, however, that the Brahmin is 
 " most mischievous, that his propensities for intrigue 
 " become most dangerously developed. Our Native 
 " regiments are crowded with Brahmins. They 
 " preponderate in most corps above all other castes. 
 " Orders prohibiting their enlistment have hitherto 
 " been next to useless. They enlist under false 
 " names, professing to be of other castes; assured 
 " that the presence of shoals of their kinsmen will 
 " secure them, after enlistment, from recognition as 
 " Brahmins by the other sepoys. The mischief those 
 " priest-soldiers do is incalculable. They are at the 
 u bottom of every plot, the components of every 
 " punchayet; as they will, so must all others do. 
 " Their numbers and their priestly influence give 
 " them, in some degree, the command of the corps. 
 " Europeans unacquainted with the internal struc- 
 " ture of the Bengal Native regiments, can have but 
 " the faintest notion of the influence for evil the 
 " Brahmins of a regiment of Native infantry have 
 " it in their power to wield. It is, indeed, difficult 
 " to convey a correct idea of the bad influence these 
 " bodies of priests can exercise, when inclination or 
 " interests lead them to disaffection. Ireland, in a 
 
47 
 
 " state of semi-rebellion, garrisoned by regiments, 
 u three-fourths of the men of which were Roman 
 " Catholics, would not furnish an ample illustration ! 
 " If our readers can, however, fancy three-fourths of 
 " those Irish Catholic soldiers to be men invested 
 " with Jesuitical influence over their fellows nay, 
 " really Jesuits they will realize a picture that 
 " comes something near the mark. Is it wonderful 
 " that an army so organized should sooner or later 
 " mutiny not merely mutiny, but boldly essay the 
 " destruction of British Indian rule? The wonder 
 " is, that it has not long before attempted what 
 "it is now trying to achieve. Until late years, 
 " however, any attempt of the kind must have 
 " seemed hopeless." 
 
 That we must henceforth continue to keep a far 
 larger European force than hitherto in India for 
 many years to come, seems unquestionable. But 
 though such regiments would, under a system of 
 cantonments, be quartered with Native regiments, 
 they would still be perfectly distinct from them. 
 Various propositions have from time to time been 
 made, with reference to the source whence new blood 
 may be infused into our Indian ranks. Lord Wil- 
 liam Bentinck proposed Malays; Sir Charles Napier 
 advocated Goorkas : a proposition has lately appeared 
 to enlist Africans; another suggests the addition of 
 European companies to every Native regiment. This 
 last would, at any rate, seem inexpedient. The 
 European and the Native may forego their prejudices 
 in seasons of pressing, common danger, as happened 
 between the 13th Queen's and the 35th B.L.I. 
 
48 
 
 during the siege of Jellalabad ; but the latter brave 
 regiment was spurned by the Bengal regiments for 
 even such conduct, and there is little prospect of 
 coalescence between the European and Native soldier. 
 The former despises the latter as a "nigger;" the 
 latter regards the former as a beef-eating, outcast 
 Pariah. They have no community of language, 
 thought, or habits; and the presence of the Euro- 
 peans would afford no safeguard against the preva- 
 lence of sedition, the influence of punchayets, and 
 the like, among the Native ranks. There is, however, 
 another class admirably adapted for "our purpose, a 
 class whom we are bound to support, though it has 
 hitherto been too much the custom to despise them 
 I speak of the East Indians. This rapidly increasing 
 class is like the bat in the fable, between the birds 
 and beasts; they are outcasts on either hand. They 
 are miserably poor ; they have contracted habits of 
 early, improvident marriages, and produce families for 
 whom they find it impossible to provide. Hence, we 
 see plenty of emaciated specimens of humanity 
 among them. But in all those instances in which 
 good food and wholesome air have been allowed to 
 operate, the East Indian frame becomes developed, 
 and the individual is a stout, stalwart man. They 
 speak English and one Native language, often more, 
 indifferently ; they are, with respect to habits of life, 
 rather assimilated to their Asiatic than the European 
 side of origin; there is a substratum variety in their 
 composition, on which would naturally rise a proper 
 esprit de corps. They would harmonize with the 
 Native soldiery. As it is, they compose the bands 
 
49 
 
 the drummers, buglers, and fifers of our army. 
 From their knowledge of Native habits and lan- 
 guage, they would act as a constant police upon the 
 Native sepoys, who could scarcely by any possibility 
 carry on intrigue in the presence of such a detective ; 
 whilst the pride of British ancestry would ever 
 render the East Indian loyal to the English interests, 
 which they would identify with their own. The 
 East India Company has been frequently urged to 
 avail itself of this source for recruiting its army 
 hitherto without success. It is a fact that East 
 Indians, unable to enter the Company's army, have 
 sailed to England, and there enlisted in the Queen's 
 forces. Any number required might be recruited at 
 a short notice; and, while effectually serving our- 
 selves, we should be doing bare justice to a race 
 whose claim to our care we have been only too tardy 
 in acknowledging. 
 
 3rd. The occupation of the country by a far 
 greater number of British troops. That we must 
 have many additional regiments from England quar- 
 tered continually in India seems very certain. Whe- 
 ther England can spare a sufficient number seems 
 problematical, looking to the vast territories she has 
 to defend, and the increasing difficulty in finding 
 recruits. Under these circumstances we must cast 
 about to supply our wants by other means. One 
 seems feasible, and well worthy of consideration; I 
 allude to the plantation of military European colo- 
 nies on our numerous healthy hills. What a power 
 should we have in 5,000 British military colonists 
 on the Neilgherries, trained to arms, nursed to cli- 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 mate, centrically placed, ready to descend by good 
 roads, at an hour's notice, on any of the plains 
 around, where their services might be required ! A 
 proposal of this nature has been started by Major 
 Andrew Crawford of the Bombay army, and I take 
 the following from a review on his work in the 
 columns of the Athenaeum : 
 
 " British India contains 840,000 square miles. 
 " Her population has been variously estimated at 
 " from one to two hundred millions. She is guarded 
 u by 260,000 combatants, of whom 41,475 are 
 " European troops ; but she has no reserve, no 
 " militia, no conscription whatever. The extent of 
 " continental Europe westward of Russia is about 
 " the same as the extent of British India. The 
 " population may be about the same too. But the 
 " former supports 1,234,000 regular troops, whilst 
 " the latter, as we have just seen, is guarded by 
 " only 260,000 ! Yet, is this limited army contented 
 " and happy ? Is even the commissioned rank satis- 
 "fied?" Major Crawford replies in the negative. 
 " Promotion is slow; regimental employment is dis- 
 " tasteful; brevet rank is unequally distributed. 
 " The average age of the whole body of general 
 " officers is about seventy-two. Yet these gentlemen, 
 " seldom possessed of viridis senectus, are borne in 
 " the strength of the army. Nor is there less stag- 
 " nation as the grades descend lower. Eegimental 
 " colonels and majors are generally called to their 
 " appointments at the respective ages of fifty -three 
 " and forty-eight years, and after the respective 
 " lengths of service of thirty-six and thirty-two 
 
51 
 
 :c years. Nor does the brevet rank give satisfaction. 
 " Commissaries, paymasters, and judge-advocates, 
 " have honours conferred upon them as lavishly as 
 " upon officers who have passed through the ordeal 
 " of fire. These honours, scattered without discri- 
 " mination, are deprived of half their value, and the 
 ;c whole of their justice. The soldier, the sepoy, and 
 " the officer, are at present alike uneasy, and alike 
 " desirous of reform. 
 
 " What then does Major Crawford propose? Why 
 44 something not unlike the plan of industrial armies 
 " put forward by Charles Fourier, the Phalansterian. 
 c What a grand amount of labour is locked up in 
 c the Indian army ! What magnificent public works 
 44 are ill-provided with labourers ! Yet in the ranks 
 44 of our Indian army we possess an amount of labour 
 44 which is represented by a money value of at least 
 44 7,500,000 rupees a year. We could spare up- 
 " wards of 70,000 native infantry throughout the 
 44 three presidencies, for works similar to those ex- 
 44 ecuted by the Eoman legionaries roads, bridges, 
 " canals, dams, tanks, harbours, and piers. In the 
 " Indian army there is some 30,000 artillery and 
 " cavalry, but these could not be employed like the 
 " infantry in indiscriminate labours. Their cattle 
 "is in number 35,564. The forage for it costs 
 " 3,912,040 rupees annually. Therefore, this artil- 
 " lery and cavalry should be colonized on the Aus- 
 " trian and Russian system, and be made to produce 
 " subsistence for themselves and their horses. By 
 44 means of both these working systems, Government 
 " would save 1,141,204 annually. Prince Eugene 
 
 E2 
 
52 
 
 " started and carried out the latter system in Aus- 
 " tria : and 45,000 men now form a colonized cordon 
 " of troops along the Turkish frontier, at posts 50 
 " miles apart, in a line 800 miles in length. Eussia, 
 " admiring and imitating the example of Austria, 
 " has now an establishment of 98,260 men, 71,210 
 " horses, and 152 guns, all supported by military 
 " labour. They are among the best corps of the 
 " Eussian army." 
 
 Our hills are healthy and well adapted for farm- 
 ing. They grow wheat and other cereals, and there 
 is ample room for any number of men we may choose 
 to locate upon them. Apparently some such scheme 
 might be effected at a positive saving to Govern- 
 ment. But beyond glancing at the suggestion itself, 
 I profess myself unequal to consider it in detail. 
 
 4th. By some scheme or other a full working com- 
 plement of English officers must be kept up, with 
 every regiment of service. Whether this is to be 
 brought about by a staff corps, or some other device, 
 it is not my province to determine ; but that it must 
 be done, somehow or other, I think will be admitted 
 by those who consider the necessary consequences of 
 such an under-officering of corps, as a perusal of the 
 army lists of the various presidencies discloses. 
 
 5th. The command of corps must only be en- 
 trusted to men who can efficiently perform their 
 duty : men in the prime of life, or, at least, a hale 
 and green old age ; not men effete from senility, dis- 
 ease, or the effects of long residence in India; who 
 cannot sit a horse, or hear a volley fired close to 
 their ears, or speak audibly a word of command, or 
 
53 
 
 distinguish between a stone or a stockade at thirty 
 paces distance. Of these poor old gentlemen the 
 army must be weeded ; they have seen their day, 
 and done their duty well in their time no doubt. 
 By quicker promotion, by stronger inducements to 
 retire, let them be gently compelled to seek home 
 and repose, with all those honours which should 
 attend old age ; but, at all events, let them not con- 
 tinue to impair the efficiency of our military arm, 
 while younger, abler, fitter instruments, are ready at 
 hand at a moment's notice. 
 
 6th. The question of elevating the position and 
 quality of the native officer demands attention. 
 
 7th. The just grievances of the sepoy call for 
 inquiry and redress. On all these points I would 
 venture to recommend a perusal of " Malcolm's 
 Political History," and " White's Considerations on 
 the State of British India." 
 
 One remark only I would venture to make here ; a 
 hope that after victory has crowned our arms, we 
 may not tarnish our success by any unnecessary 
 bloodshed. The rebels have put themselves out of 
 the pale of quarter by their own inhuman atrocities. 
 Let those who meet us in battle pay the penalty of 
 their crimes by death upon the spot. But after the 
 battle is over, may we remember mercy. There are, 
 I know, many strong-minded persons among us who 
 counsel utter extermination. " The rule," writes 
 " Macaulay, " by which a prince ought after rebel- 
 " lion to be guided in selecting the rebels for punish- 
 " ment, is perfectly obvious. The ring-leaders, the 
 " men of rank, fortune, and education, whose powers 
 
54 
 
 " and whose artifices have led the multitude into 
 " error, are the proper objects of severity. The 
 " deluded populace, when once the slaughter on the 
 " field of battle is over, can scarcely be treated too 
 " leniently." 
 
 True, the majority here are military who are 
 guilty of the military crime of mutiny, as well as 
 the civil crime of rebellion. They are doubly trai- 
 tors; but, as Napier has observed, we cannot deal 
 with thirty thousand men as we would with a single 
 or a few mutineers ; and it is to be hoped that the 
 policy of Gamillus rather than Pontius may prevail 
 in our councils on the present occasion. 
 
 The further consideration of the treatment of the 
 army I must leave to military authorities. I must 
 apologize and crave forbearance indeed for having 
 even said so much on a topic with which I am not 
 professionally acquainted; but it was impossible with 
 such a subject as the present before me, to pass in 
 silence over any of those causes which may have pre- 
 disposed men to revolt; but it is rather with the 
 more remote and very remote exciting causes which 
 I have to do; and these it is, which I desire to bring 
 prominently under notice, because they are apt to 
 elude observation, or to be denied; and it is impos- 
 sible to devise the proper remedies, if the circle of 
 our inquiries does not include within its circum- 
 ference all the causes, remote as well as immediate, 
 that may have led to a malady, which if not checked, 
 will prove speedily fatal. 
 
 I do not say that these causes may be traced back 
 in a regular series, each accounting for, and pro- 
 
55 
 
 ducing the other. By asserting this, I should fall 
 into the fallacy, or at least I should certainly be so 
 accused, of enlisting every possible event into the 
 service of a preconceived theory, and the foregone 
 conclusion of a mere party writer. 
 
 What I say is, that we must bring under review 
 every cause which seems likely to endanger our 
 empire for the future ; whether or not they shall be 
 thought to be more or less connected or altogether 
 unconnected with the recent rebellion. On this 
 point opinions may differ. Some may see in every 
 one of the topics which I am about to bring forward, 
 only so many reasons accounting for the late revolt: 
 others may deny the relation of cause and effect 
 between them and that event. Whichever view be 
 right, it is nevertheless prudent, if not imperative on 
 us, to investigate them all. 
 
 The first is the general tone of feeling that the 
 people of Ijidia entertained towards us. The most 
 prejudiced, narrow-minded, short-sighted civilian of 
 the old school, would scarcely venture at the present 
 day to assert that our rule is loved by the Natives, 
 or that they look to us with feelings of affection. 
 
 Let the reader refer back to the prohetic expres- 
 sions, the repeated warnings, the statesmanlike con- 
 victions of Sir Charles Metcalfe. Nothing indeed is 
 more remarkable than the blindness of the general 
 run of civilians to the actual feelings of the people. 
 They are so puffed up with an overweening idea of 
 their own excellence, that they cannot believe the 
 people disaffected under their superintendence ; they 
 are so wedded to the perfections of the Indian Go- 
 
56 
 
 vernment, that they cannot conceive it distasteful to 
 the people. They make no allowance for the exis- 
 tence among the Natives of those feelings which 
 actuate themselves. They cannot believe that the 
 Natives look with reverence, or affection, or respect to 
 old institutions, old associations, old names, old 
 dynasties. They look only to what they conclude 
 their system ought to produce: they listen to the 
 reports of their Sheristadars and Thasildars; the 
 supple Bengalee is little likely to bring forward what 
 shall prove humbling to " master's " pride, or incur 
 the loss of "master's favor;" they ignore the neces- 
 sary consequences of such an administration of justice 
 and police as obtains throughout India. They glance 
 only at the superficial state of the country ; and even 
 in their recent official dispatch in reply to the Bengal 
 Missionaries' Memorial, written so lately as the llth 
 March last, I find the following passage : " We 
 " observe with great satisfaction that the Lieutenant- 
 " Governor expresses his absolute dissent from the 
 " statement made, doubtless in perfect good faith, 
 " that the people exhibit a spirit of sullen discontent 
 kt on account of the miseries ascribed to them, or that 
 " there exists among them that bitter hatred to the 
 u Government, which has filled the memorialists, as 
 " they declare, with alarm as well as sorrow." 
 
 I believe the following will be found to be some- 
 thing near the truth of the matter. There is indis- 
 putably a very large and influential population who 
 hate us cordially. First of all, in daring as in bit- 
 terness, I would place the Mohamedans, who pursue 
 us with a double hatred, both as Kaffirs to be exter- 
 
57 
 
 minated on account of our religion, and as the race 
 which has toppled them from their palaces and super- 
 seded them in the empire of the East. Next are the 
 Brahmins, who, without the same intense religious 
 prejudices, or the same open audacity of purpose, 
 have nevertheless not marked their ascendancy over 
 the millions who pass away from their hands without a 
 deep animosity ; nor is the effect of their revenge less 
 formidable, because it exhibits itself in wily intrigue, 
 in tampering with the soldiery, and underhand sedi- 
 tion, rather than in open violence. So again the 
 high castes view us askance. Their importance is 
 lost, they no longer fatten on the revenues of the 
 country, or thrive by the oppression of the masses ; a 
 task, which so far as it is permitted at all, we have 
 ourselves monopolized. The great Zemindars and 
 other landholders, whose estates have passed from 
 them, and such of their retainers as look back with 
 regret to the feudal ancestral hall, nurse a bitter 
 grudge against the English. The old landed aris- 
 tocracy, as a body, are angry at us for having broken 
 down the privileges which they misused. But there 
 anything like hatred or jealousy stops. The great 
 bulk of the people, the ryots and cultivators of the soil 
 are better off under our government, than any of its 
 predecessors. Our policy is all in their favor. We have 
 released them, at least in the Presidency of Madras, 
 from the thraldom of their lords, who governed 
 them ruthlessly ; we have done much to level the dis- 
 tinctions of caste, and to raise the Pariah to a higher 
 social platform. We have striven to educate the 
 lowest, rather than to keep knowledge locked up 
 
58 
 
 exclusively in the breasts of the fortunate few. Our 
 intentions have been excellent ; we have marred them 
 in performance; and the discontent of the masses 
 is not levelled at the Government as a Govern- 
 ment, but at the constant interference with their 
 agricultural operations, which our mistaken revenue 
 practice has most unnecessarily introduced, the feeble- 
 ness of the administration of justice which envelopes 
 the land in a cloud of litigation, and the corruption of 
 the police, which leads to false charges and extortion 
 on the one hand, while it is perfectly powerless to 
 protect life and property from crimes of violence on 
 the other. The natives have enough in all conscience 
 to make them grumble, but their discontent is neither 
 dangerous in its character, nor directed to the over- 
 throw of the State. Were their condition at once 
 bettered, as it very easily might be, by the introduc- 
 tion of those measures which have already been 
 sanctioned as admitted essentials, they would speedily 
 rise in prosperity, and become one of the happiest 
 and most contented people in the world. I, for one, 
 believe that the future has this in store for India, if 
 our rule obtains ; I believe that Madras, so assiduously 
 declared to be " benighted," is far in advance of any 
 other part of India, in respect to that social change 
 to which I have alluded. "We have here three dis- 
 tinct classes, the ryot, the merchant, and the Govern- 
 ment official. At present all are in a transition state. 
 The Thasildar has enormous powers of working good 
 or harm : when education has raised the character of 
 this class, their influences for good will vastly pre- 
 dominate. By lowering our heavy demands on the 
 
59 
 
 agricultural class, and opening up communications 
 for the purposes of traffic, we shall enrich the ryot 
 and the merchant. In these three classes we have 
 the germs of our future landed gentry, our merchant 
 princes, and our ruling class. We have latterly 
 shocked the prejudices of all by our repeated instances 
 of flagrant bad faith in our respective treaty breaches 
 with the native sovereigns of India; we have rudely 
 staggered their belief in our honesty, and done what 
 in us lay to alarm and alienate all classes. It may 
 seem paradoxical, and I confess, I feel it difficult how 
 to reconcile my statement of belief in discontent on 
 the part of the masses with the admission that our 
 Government is an improvement upon any form which 
 has preceeded it. Perhaps the difficulty is created 
 by forgetting that though our predecessors' adminis- 
 tration may have been worse than our own, it does 
 not follow that our own is good. It may still be 
 practically bad. This is but an illustration of Ben- 
 tham's fallacy of false consolation by which the 
 wretched condition of a people is complacently 
 contrasted with one which is more wretched. It is 
 not by what we have done, but by what we have left 
 undone, that our claims to praise or blame must be 
 decided. And it is in this direction, that our errors 
 lie. We have governed too much for ourselves, too 
 little for the people. Till very lately our primary 
 object has been to extract revenue out of them, and 
 they groan under a host of comparatively petty evils, 
 the sum of which is large indeed, and ample enough 
 to engender discontent and disaffection. Perhaps the j 
 
GO 
 
 following remarks of Sir C. Metcalfe, may help to 
 elucidate this seeming contradiction. He says : 
 
 " Persons unacquainted with our position in India 
 " might throw in our teeth, that this disaffection is 
 " the consequence of bad government, and many 
 " among us, connecting the two ideas together, are 
 " reluctant to credit the existence of general disaffec- 
 " tion. But this feeling is quite natural without any 
 " mis-government. Instead of being excited by our 
 " misrule, it is, I believe, in a great degree, mollified 
 " by our good government. It exists, because the 
 " domination of strangers in every respect strangers 
 " in country, in colour, in dress, in manners, in 
 " habits, in religion, must be odious. It is less 
 " active than it might be, because it is evident to all 
 " that we endeavour to govern well, and that what- 
 " ever harm our government does, proceeds from 
 " ignorance or mistake, and not from any wilful in- 
 " justice or oppression." 
 
 It is not possible to conceive a greater calamity to 
 the people of India, than the present dissolution of 
 the bands between them and us. Pen cannot de- 
 scribe, heart cannot conceive the misery in store for 
 the natives of India, if every European were massa- 
 cred to morrow, and they handed over to their own 
 devices. Internecine war, anarchy such as the world 
 has not witnessed, would follow our destruction. 
 There is no man strong enough, or wise enough, or 
 good enough, among them, to reconstruct a Govern- 
 ment ; and it would be one universal scene of pillage 
 and devastation throughout the country. As Tacitus 
 
61 
 
 writes of the Gauls : " Pulsis Romanis, quid aliud 
 quam bella inter se gentium existent?" 
 
 But they reflect not on these consequences, 
 apparent as they are to us. It is a trite remark that 
 our own government in India is one emphatically of 
 opinion. Macaulay has enshrined the power of an 
 Englishman's " yea, yea " " nay, nay " in one of his 
 epigrammatic sentences. The sepoy who once eat 
 the Company's salt knew that his pay would be 
 punctual ; his pension during old age, or the support 
 of his family in event of his death in battle, ensured. 
 The ryot, though we wrung his hard-earned rupees 
 out of him, felt that he enjoyed a degree of security 
 to which his ancestors were strangers. He was no 
 longer subject to the predatory incursions of the 
 Pindarees or Mahratta horse. He believed that as a 
 general principle, a love of justice and fair dealing 
 characterized the Englishmen set over him, however 
 distant or patronizing the former might be. Kings 
 confided in us, and gave up real power which they 
 could not preserve, upon the faith of treaties which 
 they fondly flattered themselves would at least leave 
 royal dignity and a princely revenue to their heirs 
 and successors so long, as in their own phrase, 
 "the sun and moon endured." They watched us 
 attempting to punish crimes of violence with the 
 strong hand of the law, and endeavouring to ad- 
 minister civil justice amid the forgeries and perjuries 
 which beset us at every step of a suit. Added to 
 this, they were dumbfounded and stupified at the 
 wondrous success of our arms : they regarded us 
 
62 
 
 with a childlike admiration : they looked up to us as 
 beings of a superior order, as the Mexicans and 
 Peruvians looked on the followers of Cortez and 
 Pizarro. Custom has somewhat marred our reputa- 
 tion ; long familiarity has diminished our terrors ; 
 we have taught them the art of war by which we 
 conquered their forefathers ; as we every day 
 approach nearer to them, they see us more and more 
 distinctly. Those whom they mistook for gods, they 
 discover to be mere men ; education is beginning to 
 enable them to judge us by a more rational standard, 
 Minuit praesentia famam. May it not all end in the 
 contempt of Caliban for Trinculo ! 
 
 More true than ever is it at the present day that 
 any government of ours in India must be one of opi- 
 nion. When the Natives have once discovered their 
 own strength, all attempts on our part at mere phy- 
 sical coercion are manifestly impracticable. We can 
 never be but as a mere handful of strangers, when 
 compared with the swarming millions of our subjects. 
 When once combination among them becomes fea- 
 sible, and a determination to combine is persevered 
 in, the greater force must prevail over the lesser. 
 When a hundred million combine, writes Sir Charles 
 Napier, the game is up. And therefore, if we are 
 to perpetuate our empire, we must eifect it, not 
 through physical force, but by such acts of justice, 
 prudence, and benevolence, as may reconcile the 
 Natives to our rule ; make them regard us as bene- 
 factors, or rather as a portion of themselves ; render 
 ourselves so useful to them, that our presence shall 
 
63 
 
 be a continued necessity, at least until they are 
 themselves fitted to take their own government 
 peacefully and powerfully into their own hands. 
 
 Our practical policy, as it appears to me, is 
 diametrically opposed to all this. India is at this 
 moment in a transition state; it is so by our own 
 acts and measures ; and yet we ignore the fact, and 
 treat the Natives as though every thing was station- 
 ary. It was, no doubt, a perception of this truth 
 which induced Lord Ellenborough boldly to proclaim 
 that the spread of education is incompatible with the 
 security of our empire in India. And so, no doubt 
 it is, if we will cling to our old practice of despotic 
 power ; not so, however, if we are prepared to 
 modify our principles of government to the altered 
 condition of the people. Education is spreading ; 
 opinion is springing up ; judgment is forming ; and 
 yet we seek to deal with the people as though they 
 were the utterly ignorant, powerless, timid, child-like 
 population, whom we conquered a hundred years 
 ago. They are treading fast upon our kibes, and 
 we seek to keep them socially and politically at as 
 great a distance from ourselves as ever. 
 
 Publicity is becoming every day less and less 
 avoidable, and we would persevere in lines of action 
 which could only be successful from the privacy of 
 their perpetration. We dream that the spoliation of 
 a kingdom, the reduction of a royal family to the 
 miserable dependency of pensioners, the most open 
 treaty breach, the absorption of vast estates, equal 
 in size to an English county, can now be carried on 
 with as complete impunity, attract as little notice, 
 
64 
 
 and cause as little discussion as at a period when 
 there was not a public journal and scarce a printing 
 press in India. We fancy that people do not see our 
 short comings in all the objects of good government, 
 education, policy, and justice. We have given the 
 people a standard whereby to measure us, and we are 
 weak enough to suppose they will not use it. Let 
 the sceptical study the leading articles in the Hindu 
 Patriot, written by a Brahmin with a spirit, a 
 degree of reflection and acuteness which would do 
 honor to any journalism in the world. Our govern- 
 ment has always been one of opinion ; but there is this 
 dinstiction between the present and past. Formerly 
 it was a false opinion, compounded of ignorance and 
 fear : now it is a true opinion, compounded of 
 knowlege and reflection ; or, at least, it is every day 
 more and more nearly approximating to a true 
 opinion, to which it must come at last. And this 
 leaves us necessarily but one path to follow, that 
 of truth and justice, on which alone we can preserve, 
 in the opinion of the Natives, a character which will 
 induce them to give us their voluntary, cheerful, and 
 loyal support. 
 
 And it is precisely in proportion as we have of 
 late years departed from these principles, that the 
 belief of the Natives in our good faith and honesty 
 of intention has been most lamentably shaken ; for I 
 conscientiously believe that the last eight years call 
 it at once the period of Lord Dalhousie's rule, and 
 the policy of aggression, spoliation, and confiscation 
 which characterized his lordship's administration 
 under the Yankee euphemism of " Annexation" have 
 
65 
 
 done more to loosen our hold upon the respect of the 
 Natives, than a century of previous efforts to rivet 
 and enchain it. These eight years honestly, if 
 unostentatiously, employed in the introduction of 
 the necessary measures of domestic reform; in 
 strengthening the administration of justice, for in- 
 stance ; in purging the police ; in revising the rates 
 and principles of assessment ; in settling, on a satis- 
 factory basis, the scheme of general education ; in 
 carrying out a complete revenue survey, and so 
 improving the condition of our old possessions, 
 instead of in coveting and grasping new$ would, 
 indeed, have consolidated our power, and with his 
 lordship's great aptitude for business, unflagging 
 powers of labour, and clearness of intellect, the 
 happiest results might have been, nay, must have 
 been, produced. But, unfortunately, consolidation 
 was assumed to consist of usurping every square 
 acre of land, for the occupation of which a pretext 
 could be found. Our dominions would thus become 
 more compact, and our power more uniform and 
 substantial : whereas in reality every fresh acquisi- 
 tion was but a fresh element of weakness, both as it 
 necessitated the spreading of our already insufficient 
 agency, civil and military, over an ever extend- 
 ing area; and as the singular audacity of our bad 
 faith, when treaty after treaty came to be regarded 
 as so much old waste parchment, caused us to be 
 regarded more and more with suspicion and distrust 
 by the great body of the people. It is this accursed 
 " Annexation " system which will probably be found 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 to be one of the principal, if not the principal, cause 
 of the present rebellion. 
 
 Time, place, and opportunity befitting, I will 
 pledge myself to prove that our various acts of 
 annexation are one and all contrary to law, the 
 construction of treaties, the facts of the particular 
 case, the law of nations, and the principles of 
 honour, honesty, and good faith. It would take up 
 far too much space were I to enter into a thorough 
 elucidation of the demerits of the confiscation of the 
 respective territories and thrones of Sattarah, Surat, 
 Nagpore, Oude, Tanjore, and the Carnatic. But I 
 must briefly trace the outlines of the principal fea- 
 tures of these cases, and the principles which were 
 violated in carrying out the work of what Mr. Leoni 
 Levi, a dry statistical compiler, can find no other 
 word for than " spoliation." 
 
 I beg particular attention may be paid to the 
 dissection of these cases, supported as all my asser- 
 tions are by authentic official documents ; because it 
 is only by a thorough understanding of the whole 
 facts, that the wickedness and folly of the annexation 
 policy can be realized by the English public. 
 
 Let us first see what are the general principles by 
 which the East India Company professes to be guided 
 in such cases. 
 
 The Sattarah Blue Book furnishes us with the pro- 
 fessed general principle. 
 
 There we find a general principle laid down by 
 Lord Auckland and his colleagues, to " persevere in 
 " the one clear and direct course *of abandoning no 
 
67 
 
 "just and honourable accession of territory or re- 
 " venue; while all existing claims of right are, at the 
 " same time, scrupulously respected;" a fair and 
 open line of policy with which nobody can quarrel. 
 Lord Dalhousie indorses the above as follows : " I 
 " take this fitting occasion of recording my strong 
 " and deliberate opinion that in the exercise of a wise 
 " and sound policy, the British Government is bound 
 " not to put aside or to neglect such rightful oppor- 
 " tunities of acquiring territory or revenue, as may 
 " from time to time present themselves, whether they 
 " arise from the lapse of subordinate States by the 
 " failure of all heirs of every description whatsoever, 
 " or from the failure of heirs natural, when the suc- 
 " cession can be sustained only by the sanction of 
 " Government being given to the ceremony of adop- 
 " tion, according to Hindu Law." 
 
 " The Government," he continues, " is bound in 
 " duty as well as policy to act on every such occasion 
 " with the purest integrity, and in the most scru- 
 " pulous observance of good faith : where even a 
 " shadow of doubt can be shown, the claim should be 
 " at once abandoned.' 11 
 
 These views are entirely in accordance with the 
 expressed sentiments of the Court of Directors. In 
 their Political Letter to the Bombay Government 
 dated llth June (No. 8), 1834 they write as follows : 
 
 " Whenever the tenure of the estate, and the 
 " custom of previous Governments are such that the 
 " refusal of your permission to adopt would be con- 
 " sidered an act of hardness, still more when it would 
 " be considered an injury, the permission should be 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 " given ; but otherwise not, unless as a reward 
 " merited either by special services or by general 
 " fidelity and good conduct, and especially by a good 
 w administration of the jagheer. It is your duty, 
 " we add, not to violate any express or construe- 
 u tive right, nor to defeat any just expectation, but 
 " when your refusal to recognise an adoption would 
 " not have any such effect, we are not disposed to 
 " renounce the prospective claims of Government, 
 " unless when the -chief, or family, in whom the 
 " renunciation is solicited, may have deserved reward 
 " at our hands, and when this mode of conferring it 
 " is the most eligible in respect of the interests of all 
 " parties, including both the Government and the 
 " individuals of the jagheer.' 7 
 
 Let us now see how these principles were applied in 
 the case of the Rajah of Sattarah. Dying, he had 
 adopted a son in the presence of the Residency 
 surgeon. The Governor of Bombay had strongly 
 minuted in favour of the recognition of the adopted 
 son as Rajah. Mr. Willoughby asserted that the 
 Company by a variety of rights, as successor to the 
 Mogul, as suzerain, and lord paramount, had a 
 right of veto on the adoption, so far as concerned suc- 
 cession to the Raj. Mr. Holt Mackenzie has con- 
 clusively shown the fallacy of this opinion. Mr. 
 Willoughby seems to have been equally fortunate on 
 this occasion, as on that to which he alludes in his 
 late letter published in the Times, in convincing Lord 
 Dalhousie that his reasoning was conclusive : though 
 it may be thought not a very difficult task to convince 
 a man already persuaded. Lord Dalhousie decided 
 
69 
 
 against the succession. The matter came before the 
 Court of Directors. Mr. Henry St. George Tucker. 
 Mr. Shepherd, Major Oliphant, the Honourable W. L. 
 Melville, and General Caulfield wrote separate Mi- 
 nutes, in which they fully exposed the utter untena- 
 bility of the legal plea of a power of confirmation as 
 lord paramount ; and also deprecated the annexation 
 on the score of expediency asserted by Lord Dal- 
 housie. Mr. Mangles minuted in favour of the an- 
 nexation. Nine other Directors expressed their 
 general concurrence in the views of Mr. Mangles. I 
 would here quote a passage from Mr. Kaye's selection 
 of Lord Metcalfe's papers on the law of adoption : 
 
 " The question is, whether chiefs and princes, not 
 " having heirs of the body, have a right to adopt a 
 " successor, to the exclusion of collateral heirs, or 
 " of the supposed reversionary rights of the paramount 
 " power, and whether the British Government is 
 " bound to acknowledge the adoption. 
 
 " In the disposal of this question there is a wide dif- 
 " ference between sovereign princes and jagheerdars, 
 " between those in possession of hereditary sovereign- 
 " ties in their own right, and those who hold grants 
 " of land on public revenue, by gift from a sovereign 
 " or paramount power. 
 
 " Those who are sovereign princes in their own 
 " right, and of the Hindoo religion, have, by Hindoo 
 " law, a right to adopt, to the exclusion of collateral 
 " heirs, or of the supposed reversionary right of the 
 " paramount power; the latter, in fact, in such cases, 
 " having no real existence, except in the case of 
 " absolute want of heirs ; and even then the right is 
 
70 
 
 lt only assumed in virtue of power, for it would 
 " probably be more consistent with right that the 
 " people of the States so situated should elect a 
 " sovereign for themselves. 
 
 " In the case, therefore, of Hindoo sovereign 
 " princes, I should say that, on failure of heirs male 
 " of the body, they have a right to adopt, to the 
 " exclusion of collateral heirs, and that the British 
 " Government is bound to acknowledge the adoption, 
 " provided that it be regular, and not in violation of 
 " Hindoo law." 
 
 To this I would add my own humble testimony that 
 the above exposition of the law is indubitably sound. 
 
 Now I would ask, if this was not a case in which 
 Lord Dalhousie's dictum, that " whenever a shadow 
 " of doubt can be shown, the claim should at once be 
 " abandoned," ought to have been applied, where was 
 such a case to be found? Here were Sir George Clerk, 
 the Governor of Bombay, and five of the Court of 
 Directors one way of thinking ; the Governor-General, 
 the rest of the Council of Bombay, and nine of the 
 Court of Directors, of another way of thinking. 
 Those who take the trouble of reading the respective 
 arguments, will, I think, not have much difficulty in 
 deciding that those against the annexation are the 
 most forcible. Here, too, was Sir C. Metcalfe's 
 express authority, and I will venture to add the 
 authority of any lawyer on Pundit, whose opinion 
 it might have been thought worth while to ask. 
 But the benefit of the doubt was not given ; and the 
 practice of the Company was, as usual, in direct op- 
 position to its professions. 
 
71 
 
 But it may be thought that the rule of the late 
 Rajah was so disastrous, that political expediency 
 required our taking his country, even if we stretched 
 the law a point in so doing. So far from this, how- 
 ever, we have the testimony of Sir G. Clerk undis- 
 puted by any of his colleagues or Lord Dalhousie, 
 that the Rajah's rule had been most excellent, his 
 people happy, and his country flourishing. Was not 
 this a case, then, for the application of the Court of 
 Directors' principle of foregoing their privilege, when 
 the head of the family might have, " deserved reward 
 u at our hands?" 
 
 Not at all : Lord Dalhousie thus meets that objec- 
 tion : 
 
 " I am unable to admit the force of the argument 
 u advanced by Sir G. Clerk, for its continuance, 
 " which is founded on the happy and prosperous con- 
 " dition of the state, and the just and praiseworthy 
 " government of the late Raja, 
 
 " These, indeed, would be strong arguments for its 
 " continuance, if the late Raja were yet alive, or if it 
 " could be shown that the excellence of his adminis- 
 " tration arose, not from his own personal qualities, 
 " but from the nature of the institutions of the State, 
 " by which the disposition of the Sovereign would 
 " always be guarded or compelled into an observance 
 " of the rules of good government. 
 
 " But if the excellence of his government proceeded 
 " only from the excellence of his own disposition, I 
 " find in that fact no argument for the continuance of 
 " his sovereignty to others, whose dispositions may 
 u differ widely from those so happily displayed by 
 
72 
 
 " his Highness, and whose administrations may be as 
 " conspicuous for oppression and misrule as that of 
 " Shreemunt Maharaj has been for wisdom and 
 u mildness." 
 
 Further ; there can be no question but that at the 
 date of the treaty, the contracting parties never con- 
 templated the exclusion of adopted heirs, which is the 
 common custom over all India. If a man has no 
 son, his religion compels him to adopt one, since it is 
 only through the ceremonies and offerings of the son, 
 that the soul of the father can be released from Put : 
 which seems to be the heathen Purgatory. The 
 adopted son stands to his adoptive father precisely in 
 the same relation as though he were begotten. He 
 succeeds to every hereditary right, precisely in the 
 same way as though he were a naturally born son ; 
 and it is altogether contrary to good faith, to 
 import into a treaty, by implication, terms of limita- 
 tion which it does not expressly contain. Had the 
 intention of the contracting parties been to confine 
 the treaty to any particular class of heirs, apt terms 
 would have been used ; and we should have found 
 the treaty to run, not with " heirs," but " natural 
 " heirs," "heirs of the body," "heirs male," or the like. 
 
 Indeed the East India Company craves the appli- 
 cation of this rule of construction to themselves, in 
 their Petition to the House of Lords against the 
 Surat Treaty Bill, in Ali Moorad's case. Therein 
 they write as follows : 
 
 " Your Petitioners desire that any pecuniary 
 " engagements to which they are bound by treaty, 
 u should be fulfilled as exactly as pecuniary con- 
 
73 
 
 " tracts between man and man ; but your Peti- 
 " tioners insist that in construing a treaty, the deter- 
 " mination of what those pecuniary engagements 
 1C really are materially depends on the consideration 
 " of the public and political relations existing 
 " between the contracting parties at the time of the 
 u treaty. To exclude such considerations would lead 
 " to an erroneous construction of the engagements 
 " involved in the treaty" 
 
 Sir G. Clerk forcibly refers to this principle of 
 construction, one which Grotius has luminously 
 insisted on, but which indeed requires no authority, 
 since it rests on every man's perception of common 
 honesty. " In a matter such as this question of re- 
 " sumption of a territory," writes Sir G. Clerk, 
 " recovered by us, and restored to an ancient dynasty, 
 u I would observe, that we are morally bound to give 
 " some consideration to the sense in which we in- 
 " duced or permitted the other party to understand 
 " the terms of a mutual agreement. Whatever we 
 " intend in favour of an ally in perpetuity, when 
 " executing a treaty with him on that basis, by that 
 " we ought to abide in our relations with his succes- 
 " sors, until he proves himself unworthy . We should 
 " look for escheats, not from such a source as the 
 " doubtful meaning of the stipulations of an agree- 
 " ment, but from the incorrigible misconduct of 
 " allies when thrown back, as they should be, on the 
 " responsibilities of the sovereign rights relinquished 
 " to them ; rendering punishment in such cases 
 u signal and salutary, by abstaining from half 
 " measures, such as largely pensioning or managing 
 
74 
 
 u for the delinquent, or substituting his child, wife, 
 " or minister." 
 
 But Lord Dalhousie was not the man to be turned 
 from his prey by any such consideration. He is 
 silent as to this argument of Sir G. Clerk : but he 
 will not admit that the decision is to be governed by 
 a reference to the condition of affairs at the date of 
 the execution of the Treaty, but by expediency, with 
 reference to affairs as they stand now. 
 
 The Athenaeum thus writes : 
 
 " But Lord Dalhousie, in his Naboth's-vineyard- 
 " view of the matter, argues as follows : ' How- 
 u ever wise the policy may have been which led to 
 u the creation of the State of Sattarah in 1819, and 
 " however strong the reasons which induced the 
 u government at that period to establish anew a Mah- 
 " ratta State on that side of India, I venture to 
 " think that the same reasons do not exist for its con* 
 " tinuance now. The power of the Mahrattas at 
 " that period, still formidable, is no longer a source 
 " of anxiety to us; the territories of the Peishwa 
 " have for thirty years remained tranquilly in our 
 " possession ; the supremacy of the British Govern- 
 " ment has, year by year, become more firmly 
 " established ; Scindia and Holkar have, in the 
 a course of events, been effectually reduced to harm- 
 " lessness, and there is now no reason, as there 
 " formerly was, to apprehend the formation of alarm- 
 " ing confederacies among Mahratta chiefs, nor any 
 " necessity for maintaining, as a counterpoise, the 
 " nominal sovereignty of the house of Seevajee.'" 
 
 " The territories," says Lord Dalhousie, arguing 
 
75 
 
 for their annexation, " lie in the very heart of our 
 " own possessions. They are interposed between the 
 " two principal military stations in the Presidency of 
 u Bombay, and are at least calculated, in the hands 
 u of an independent sovereign, to form an obstacle 
 " to safe communication and combined military 
 " movement. The district is fertile, and the reve* 
 " nues productive. The population, accustomed for 
 " some time to regular and peaceful government" 
 (the late Rajah's, mark you!), " are tranquil them- 
 " selves, and prepared for the regular government 
 " our possession of the territory would give." 
 
 Such is the history of the annexation of Sattarah, 
 the first in order, though not in baseness, of the 
 many spoliations of native princes which followed 
 during Lord Dalhousie's reign. It may seem extra- 
 ordinary that any man would pursue a system of 
 plunder in his public capacity, from the bare thought 
 of which he would shrink in his private capacity. 
 Sir George Lewis, perhaps, solves the difficulty, and 
 explains and reconciles the paradoxical discrepancy.* 
 " A nation, represented by its Government, may have 
 " a collective character, independent of the cha- 
 " racter of any of its citizens, and this character 
 "may appear in its acts at successive periods of 
 " time ; a Government may, for example, be faithless 
 " in its public engagements, though the persons com- 
 " posing that Government may be honourable in 
 " their private transactions. A false morality re- 
 " specting national interests and patriotism may in- 
 
 * 2 Pol., p. 108. 
 
76 
 
 " duce persons to resort to means on behalf of their 
 " country which they would scorn to use for them- 
 " selves." But Lord Dalhousie was a very strong- 
 minded man ; he held a very decided opinion as to 
 the policy of " consolidating" our empire by " ab- 
 " sorbing" all the States within it as opportunity 
 arose : he had a fatal facility of penmanship which 
 was his worst enemy; being skilled to make the 
 worse appear the better reasoning, no scruple of con- 
 science ever turned him from what he considered the 
 firm discharge of his duty ; or, if he ever felt a 
 " kind of remorse," it was of that fleeting kind of 
 " holy humour" which the professional -gentleman 
 who " annexed" Clarence, in Shakespeare's play of 
 " Richard the Third," tells us " was wont to hold 
 " him but while one could count twenty ; " and thus, 
 though Lord Dalhousie had several times to furnish 
 forth totally contradictory reasons for the same 
 policy, he never was without a reason sufficient for 
 the nonce to justify his conduct to himself and his 
 masters his admirers and dependents at any rate; 
 nor was any obstacle so formidable that he was not 
 prepared, to use his own phrase to General Outram, 
 to " face" it. 
 
 Here is his lordship's creed : 
 
 u There may be a conflict of opinion as to the 
 " advantage or the propriety of extending our al- 
 " ready vast possessions beyond their present limits. 
 "No man can more sincerely deprecate than I do, 
 " any extension of the frontiers of our territories 
 " which can be avoided, or which may not become 
 " indispensably necessary, from considerations of our 
 
77 
 
 " own safety, and of the maintenance of the tran- 
 " quillity of our provinces. But I cannot conceive 
 " it possible for any one to dispute the policy of 
 " taking advantage of every just opportunity which 
 " presents itself, for consolidating the territories 
 " that already belong to us, by taking possession of 
 " States which may lapse in the midst of them ; for 
 " thus getting rid of these petty intervening princi- 
 " palities, which may be made a means of annoyance, 
 " but which can never, I venture to think, be a 
 " source of strength; for adding to the resources of 
 " the public treasury, and for extending the uniform 
 " application of our system of government to those 
 " whose best interests, we believe, will be promoted 
 " thereby." 
 
 This is the key to the whole of his lordship's 
 " consolidation" policy. He may have persuaded 
 himself that our rule was such a blessing, that it 
 ought, at all hazards, to be imposed upon the entire 
 people; and thus, as all things appear yellow to a 
 man in the jaundice, every opportunity seemed 
 " just," which presented itself to his lordship. It is 
 a pursuance of this policy, which has done more to 
 loosen our hold upon India than all our other actions 
 put together. We have thereby destroyed the Native 
 belief in our good faith from one end of India to the 
 other; we have alarmed the few remaining princes 
 for the safety of their thrones and their revenues; 
 we have stirred up the angry passions of the soldiery, 
 who are making a final stand against the annihila- 
 tion of their ancient dynasties. But for the robbery 
 I can call it by no other name of Oude, probably 
 
78 
 
 we should have had no rebellion. It is thence, as 
 Sir C. Napier says, that the Bengal army is chiefly 
 mounted. It is there, says Sir James Outram, that 
 every family has at least one member in the Bengal 
 army. Do these facts give us any insight into the 
 origin of the rebellion? With another policy, should 
 we not have had the support of Oude instead of a 
 rebellion at Lucknow, if, indeed, any rebellion could 
 ever have broken out. Who are . our supporters at 
 the present moment? The Rajahs whom we have 
 spared! It is thus that the Mofussilite speaks of 
 the Maharaja of Scindia: 
 
 " We had occasion in a former issue to notice the 
 " admirable system of administration introduced by 
 " his Highness the Maharaja of Scindia into the ter- 
 " ritories of Scindia, which are fortunate enough to 
 " own him as their prince, and hope to continue our 
 " notice in an early issue. In the perfect quiet 
 " which has reigned throughout them during the 
 " past month of mutiny and plunder, we can gain a 
 " glimpse of the strength of his Highness' govern- 
 " ment, and the esteem in which it is regarded by 
 " his subjects. It is no small credit to the Maha- 
 " raja's statesmanship, that, in the short space of a 
 " few years, he should have established such perfect 
 " order and organization throughout extensive pro- 
 " vinces, in which anarchy and insubordination pre- 
 " viously prevailed; that, in spite of mutinies and 
 " insurrections in adjacent quarters, not an instance 
 '* of a dacoitee, even, has been reported in them. 
 
 " In the prompt and generous manner in which 
 " he has tendered assistance to the British Govern- 
 
79 
 
 " me'nt, the Maharaja has set an example to all 
 " Native princes. On hearing of the disturbances 
 " at Delhi, at the risk of the safety of his own capital, 
 " he at once forwarded the choice troops of his body- 
 " guard, whose drill and efficiency had been his espe- 
 " cial care, to the seat of the North-west government 
 " at Agra ; and at the same time made liberal offers 
 " of a further reinforcement. Afterwards, when in- 
 " triguing villains, at the instigation of the scoun- 
 " drels who have mutinied in our provinces, endea- 
 " voured to sow distrust between the faithful sepoys 
 " of the Gwalior contingent and their officers, and 
 " in the prosecution of their vile plot, did not hesi- 
 " tate to tamper, even, with his Highness 7 name, 
 " the Maharaja at once offered an asylum to the 
 " European ladies and children; and, by removing 
 " them to his own place, and surrounding them with 
 " his own troops, proclaimed in the most marked 
 " and public manner the determination he had taken 
 " to stand or fall by the British Government. By 
 " this act he has effectually baffled the designs of 
 " any intriguers who may have hoped to seduce our 
 " troops from their allegiance by employing his 
 " name. 
 
 " In the course the Maharaja has taken at this 
 " crisis, it is difficult to pronounce, whether the 
 " greater credit be due to his generosity or to his 
 " foresight. A less generous prince might have re- 
 " mained neutral; a less sagacious one might have 
 " declared for the cause of anarchy. To Scindia is 
 " due not only the credit of doing more than his 
 " duty to the British Government, but the sagacity 
 
80 
 
 " to perceive the inevitable result of the present dis- 
 " turbances. At a time when many weaker and less 
 " experienced minds see, in the disaffection of some 
 " of our sepoys, the downfall of our power; the Ma- 
 " haraja can perceive its re-establishment on a firmer 
 " basis than before. While others may think each 
 " petty station burnt, or each European officer trea- 
 " cherously murdered, a victory over the British; 
 u Scindia can see, that to destroy is not to construct, 
 " and that though mutineers can do much damage 
 " now, they cannot but fail in the work of consolida- 
 " tion hereafter. While others think they see our 
 " weakness in the paucity of European troops ; the 
 " Maharaja, enlightened by travel, knows well our 
 " unbounded resources. He has seen the shipping 
 " of Calcutta, and knows, that if every European 
 " regiment in India were blown into the air, treble 
 " their number would be sent from England to take 
 " their places within six months. He knows it is 
 " only ignorance of our resources which gives despe- 
 " ration to the arms of our mutinous sepoys." 
 
 We have destroyed the only remaining stages for 
 the ambitious to play their parts on; we have re- 
 duced the families of sovereigns to the miserable 
 condition of pensioners; we have thrown their de- 
 scendants and dependants by thousands penniless 
 upon the world; we have frittered away the Native 
 nobility and gentry; the classes destined to rise on 
 their ruin have not yet emerged from obscurity ; the 
 mercantile class, though important in point of 
 wealth, are numerically scanty; the great body of 
 the people consist of ryots and revenue servants, 
 
81 
 
 or, as one of the Madras civilians designated them 
 in the Torture Report, " the oppressors and the 
 oppressed:" and every act of " annexation" and 
 " consolidation " has only added to our embarrassed 
 poverty and our weakness. 
 
 As to Lord Dalhousie's not conceiving it possible 
 that any one can dispute the policy of " consolida- 
 " tion, " let us see what opinion Mr. Henry St. 
 George Tucker holds : 
 
 " Those," says he, " who are eager for the exten- 
 " sion of our territory, flatter themselves that we 
 " are extending our power as a necessary conse- 
 " quence; but the annexation of a principality to 
 " our gigantic empire may, in my opinion, become 
 " the source of weakness by impairing our moral in- 
 " fluence over our native subjects. I remonstrated 
 " against the annexation (I am disposed to call it 
 " confiscation) of Colaba, the ancient seat of the 
 " Argria family, to which the allusion has been made 
 " in the Bombay minutes ; and, far from having seen 
 " reason to modify or recall the opinion recorded by 
 " me on that proceeding, I have availed myself of 
 " every suitable occasion to enforce my conviction 
 ic that a more mischievous policy could not be pur- 
 " sued than that which would engross the whole ter- 
 u ritory of India, and annihilate the small remnant 
 " of the native aristocracy. There are persons who 
 " fancy that landed possessions in India cannot be 
 " successfully administrated by native agency. In 
 " disproof of this notion, I would point to the Ram- 
 " poor Jagheer in Rohilcund, which was a perfect 
 " garden when I saw it long ago, and which still re- 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 " mains, I believe, in a state of the highest agricul- 
 " tural prosperity. Nay, I would point to the 
 " principality of Sattara, which appears to have been 
 " most successfully administered both by the ex- 
 " Rajah, Purtap Sing, and his brother and successor 
 " the late Rajah, Appah Sahib, who have done more 
 " for the improvement of the country than our Go- 
 " vernment can pretend to have done in any part of 
 " its territory." 
 
 To this may be added the testimony of such men 
 as the Duke of Wellington, Sir Thomas Munro, Sir 
 John Malcolm, Sir Charles Metcalfe, Sir Henry 
 Russell, Mount Stuart Elphinstone, Lord Auckland, 
 Sir Charles Napier, General Briggs, the Honourable 
 Mr. Melville, Mr. Shepherd, and Lord Ellenborough 
 no mean names in the catalogue of Indian authori- 
 ties. " We are lords paramount, and our policy is 
 " to acquire as direct a sovereignty over the 717,000 
 " square miles still possessed by native princes, as 
 " we already have over the other half of India." 
 That is the key note of Lord Dalhousie's aggressive 
 policy. Let us listen to the emphatic convictions of 
 some of the great men whose names I have quoted. 
 They are too important to be omitted. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington writes : 
 
 " In my opinion, the extension of our territory 
 " and influence has been greater than our means. 
 " Besides, we have added to the number and descrip- 
 " tion of our enemies, by depriving of employment 
 " those who heretofore found it in the service of 
 " Tippoo and of the Nizam. Wherever we spread 
 " ourselves, particularly if we aggrandize ourselves 
 
83 
 
 u at the expense of the Mahrattas, we increase this 
 " evil; we throw out of employment and means of 
 " subsistence all who have hitherto managed the 
 " revenue, commanded or served in the armies, or 
 " have plundered the country. These people become 
 " additional enemies, at the same time that by the 
 " extension of our territory our means of supporting 
 " our government and of defending ourselves are 
 " proportionally decreased." 
 
 Sir Thomas Munro writes : 
 
 " Even if all India could be brought under the 
 u British dominion, it is very questionable whether 
 " such a change, either as it regards the natives or 
 " ourselves ought to be desired. One effect of such 
 " a conquest would be, that the Indian army, having 
 i4 no longer any warlike neighbours to combat, 
 " would gradually lose its military habits and disci- 
 " pline, and that the native troops would have leisure 
 " to feel their own strength, and, for want of other 
 " employment, to turn it against their European 
 " masters. But even if we could be secured against 
 u every internal commotion, and could retain the 
 " country quietly in subjection, I doubt much if the 
 " condition of the people would be better than under 
 " their native princes. The strength of the British 
 " Government enables it to put down every rebellion, 
 " to repel every foreign invasion, and to give to its 
 " subjects a degree of protection which those of 
 " no native power enjoy. Its laws and institutions 
 " also afford them a security from domestic oppres- 
 " sion unknown in those states ; but these advantages 
 " are dearly bought. They are purchased by the 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 " sacrifice of independence, of national character, 
 " and of whatever renders a people respectable. 
 " The natives of the British provinces may, without 
 " fear, pursue their different occupations, as traders, 
 " meerassadars, or husbandmen, and enjoy the fruits 
 u of their labour in tranquillity ; but none of them 
 " can aspire to anything beyond this mere animal 
 " state of thriving in peace : none of them can look 
 " forward to any share in the legislation, or civil or 
 u military government of their country. It is from 
 " men who either hold, or who are eligible to public 
 " office, that natives take their character ; where no 
 " such men exist, there can be no energy in any 
 " other class of the community. The effect of this 
 " state of things is observable in all the British 
 " provinces, whose inhabitants are certainly the 
 " most abject race in India. No elevation of char- 
 " acter can be expected among men, who, in the 
 " military lines, cannot attain to any rank above 
 " that of Subadar (Captain), where they are as 
 " much below an (English) ensign as an ensign is 
 " below the Commander-in- Chief ; and who, in the 
 " civil line, can hope for nothing beyond some petty 
 " judicial or revenue office, in which they may by 
 " corrupt means make up for their slender salary. 
 " The consequence, therefore, of the conquest of 
 u India by the British arms would be, in place of 
 " raising, to debase the whole people. There is, per- 
 " haps, no example of any conquest, in which the 
 " natives have been so completely excluded from all 
 u share of the government of their country as 
 " British India. Among all the disorders of the 
 
85 
 
 u native states, the field is open for every man to 
 " raise himself; and hence, among them, there is a 
 " spirit of emulation, of restless enterprise, and inde- 
 " pendence, far preferable to the servility of our 
 " Indian subjects. The existence of independent 
 " native states is also useful in drawing off the 
 " turbulent and disaffected among our native troops." 
 
 Sir John Malcolm writes : 
 
 " I am decidedly of opinion that the tranquillity, 
 u not to say the security of our vast Oriental pos- 
 " sessions is involved in the preservation of the 
 " native principalities which are dependent upon us 
 " for protection. These are also so obviously at our 
 " mercy, so entirely within our grasp, that besides 
 " the other and great benefits which we derive from 
 " those alliances, their co-existence with our rule is 
 " of itself a source of political strength, the value of 
 " which will never be known till it is lost. They 
 " show the possibility of a native state subsisting 
 u even in the heart of our own territories, and their 
 " condition mitigates in some degree the bad 
 " effects of that too general impression, that our 
 " sovereignty is incompatible with the maintenance 
 " of native princes and chiefs * * * 
 " I am further convinced, that though our revenue 
 " may increase, the permanence of our power will be 
 " hazarded in proportion as the territories of native 
 " princes and chiefs fall under our direct rule. Con- 
 " sidering as I do, from all my experience, that it is 
 " now our policy to maintain as long as we can all 
 " native states now existing, and through them, and 
 " by other means to support and maintain native 
 
86 
 
 " chiefs and an aristocracy throughout the Empire of 
 " India, I do think that every means should be 
 " used to avert what I should consider as one of the 
 " greatest calamities, in a political point of view, 
 " that could arise to our empire, viz., the whole of 
 " India becoming subject to our direct rule. There 
 " are none of the chiefs who can venture to contend 
 " against us in the field. They are incapable, from 
 " their actual condition, of any dangerous combina- 
 "' tions with each other, and they absorb many 
 " elements of sedition and rebellion. It is further to 
 " be observed on this part of the subject, that the 
 " respect which the natives give to men of high 
 " birth, with claims upon their allegiance, contributes 
 " greatly to the preservation of the general peace. 
 " Such afford an example to their countrymen of 
 " submission to the rule of foreigners they check 
 "the rise of those bold military adventurers, with 
 " which India has, and ever will abound, but who 
 " will never have the field widely open to their enter- 
 " prises, until our impolicy has annihilated, or suf- 
 " fered to die of their own act, those high princes 
 " and chiefs, who, though diminished in power, have 
 " still the hereditary attachment and obedience of mil- 
 " lions of those classes, who are from habits and 
 " courage alike suited to maintain or to disturb the 
 " public peace." 
 
 Sir Henry Eussell writes : 
 
 " The danger that we have most to dread in 
 " India lies entirely at home. A well conducted re- 
 " bellion of our native subjects, or an extensive disaf- 
 " fection of our native troops, is the event by which 
 
87 
 
 " our power is most likely to be shaken ; and the 
 " sphere of this danger is necessarily enlarged by 
 " every enlargement of our territory. The increase 
 " of our subjects, and still more of our native troops, 
 "is an increase not of our strength, but of our 
 44 weakness ; between them and us, there never can 
 44 be community of feeling. We must always con- 
 i4 tinue foreigners, and the object of that jealousy 
 44 and dislike which a foreign rule never ceases to 
 " excite." 
 
 Mr. Elphinstone writes : 
 
 44 It appears to me to be our interest as well as our 
 " duty, to use every means to preserve the allied 
 " governments ; it is also our interest to keep up the 
 44 number of independent powers : their territories 
 " afford a refuge to all those whose habits of war, 
 " intrigue, or depredation, make them incapable of 
 44 remaining quiet in ours ; and the contrast of our 
 44 Government has a favourable effect on our sub- 
 44 jects, who, while they feel the evils they are 
 44 actually exposed to, are apt to forget the greater 
 44 ones from which they have been delivered. If the 
 44 existence of independent powers gives occasional 
 44 employment to our armies, it is far from being a 
 44 disadvantage." 
 
 Lord Ellenborough says : 
 
 44 Our Government is at the head of a system 
 44 composed of native states, and I would avoid 
 44 taking what are called rightful occasions of appro- 
 " priating the territories of native states ; on the 
 44 contrary, I should be disposed, as far as I could, to 
 44 maintain the native states ; and I am satisfied 
 
" that the maintenance of the native states, and 
 " the giving to the subjects of those states the con- 
 c ' viction that they were considered permanent parts 
 44 of the general Government of India, would mate- 
 " rially strengthen our authority. I feel satisfied 
 " that I never stood so strong with my own army 
 " as when I was surrounded by native princes 
 " they like to see respect shown to their native 
 " princes. These princes are sovereigns of one-third 
 " of the population of Hindostan ; and with refer- 
 " ence to the future condition of the country, it 
 " becomes more, important to give them confidence 
 " that no systematic attempt will be made to take 
 " advantage of the failures of heirs to confiscate 
 " their property, or to injure in any respect those 
 " sovereigns in the position they at present occupy." 
 
 Mr. Shepherd, writes: 
 
 u Throughout the short period of the wonderful 
 " rise of the British power in India, our Governments 
 " have adopted generally a system of decided con- 
 " ciliation towards the native princes, chiefs, and 
 " people. The former were found the best instru- 
 " ments for conciliating towards us the good will of 
 " their subjects. We managed generally so to com- 
 " bine their interest with our own, that they soon per- 
 " ceived that the success of our government proved 
 " the best source of benefit to themselves, and thus 
 " they became in a manner constituent elements of 
 " our system of government. The language of Mr. 
 " Elphinstone was, that the British Government is 
 " uniformly anxious to promote the prosperity of its 
 " adherents, it being a maxim of its policy that the 
 
89 
 
 u interests of such persons should be as dear to it as 
 " its own. 
 
 " I attribute to this system the first and more 
 " early co-operation of the natives generally in our 
 " progress. A perseverance in the same course of 
 " moderation and forbearance, a cautious abstaining 
 " from interference with the native religion, a scru- 
 u pulous regard to the maintenance of our honour 
 " and good faith, an impartial administration of 
 " justice, and, in fact, the general kind and benevolent 
 " treatment of all classes, did not fail to win the con- 
 u fidence of the people at large. An immense native 
 " army, second to none in efficiency and discipline, 
 " and whose attachment and fidelity have stood the 
 " test of no ordinary temptations, has also been the 
 " fruits of this system. And, at length, we have the 
 " amazing spectacle of a vast country, consisting of 
 " 600,000 square miles, and containing upwards of 
 "one hundred millions of inhabitants, governed 
 " through the medium of a handful of Englishmen. 
 
 " May it not be fairly questioned, whether a 
 " system of universal conquest and assumption of 
 " territory, would have been equally successful ? and 
 " if so, whether it is prudent, even were it just, to 
 " deviate from this successful course? I am the last 
 " person to wish to derogate from the importance of 
 " c British bayonets' in India; without them we 
 " could have neither 'gained, nor retained, our mag- 
 " nificent empire. I am, however, equally persuaded 
 " that a bare dependence upon physical force, either 
 " in early or later times, although it might no doubt 
 " have maintained the security of our factories on 
 
90 
 
 " the coast, and fully vindicated our national power, 
 " yet, under it, the civilizing influences of the British 
 " rule could never have been extended, and the range 
 " of our cannon must have continued to be the 
 " boundaries of our territory." 
 
 General Briggs writes : 
 
 " If you do away with the right of adoption with 
 " respect to the princes of India, the next question 
 " will be, whether in the case of estates which you 
 " yourselves have conferred on officers for their ser- 
 " vices, or upon other individuals for their merits, 
 " they should be allowed to adopt. Here you are 
 " treading on delicate ground. If you are to do 
 " away with the right of individuals to adopt, you 
 " will shake the faith of the people of India ; you will 
 " influence that opinion which has hitherto main- 
 " tained you in your power ; and that influence will 
 " thrill through your army; and you will find some 
 " day, as Lord Metcalfe more than once said, ' we 
 " shall rise some morning, and hear of a conflagra- 
 " tion throughout the whole empire of India, such as 
 " a few Europeans amongst millions will not be able 
 " to extinguish.' Your army is derived from the 
 " peasantry of the country, who have rights, and if 
 " those rights are infringed upon, you will no longer 
 " have to depend on the fidelity of that army. You 
 " have a native army of 250,000 men to support 
 " your power, and it is on the fidelity of that army 
 " your power rests. But you may rely on it, if you 
 " infringe the institutions of the people of India, that 
 " army will sympathise with them ; for they are part 
 " of the population ; and in every infringement you 
 
91 
 
 u may make upon the rights of individuals, you in- 
 " fringe upon the rights of men, who are either them- 
 " selves in the army, or upon their sons, their 
 " fathers, or their relatives. Let the fidelity of 
 " your army be shaken, and your power is gone." 
 
 In 1842, Lord Auckland writes: 
 
 " I would at once put aside any reference to the 
 " prerogatives claimed and exercised by the Emperor 
 u of Delhi, or of any supposed rights which, it has 
 " been thought, might be assumed by us, because 
 " they were habitually enforced by those sovereigns, 
 "or by others, who have at different times held 
 " supreme rule within the various .provinces of the 
 " empire. I would look only to the terms and spirit 
 " of the treaties or engagements which we have 
 ic formed with the several states of India and bring 
 " forward no other demand than such as, in reference 
 " to those engagements, may be indisputably con- 
 " sistent with good faith." 
 
 Again, when an attempt was made to deprive the 
 Eajah of Oorcha of his rights, as an independent 
 prince, on similar grounds, Lord Auckland, rejecting 
 the flimsy pretences, thus grasped the substance of 
 justice : 
 
 " I cannot for a moment admit the doctrine, that 
 " because the view of policy upon which we may 
 " have formed engagements with native princes may 
 u have been by circumstances materially altered, we 
 " are not to act scrupulously up to the terms and 
 " spirit of those engagements." 
 
 Lord Metcalfe went even further : for he argued 
 that even in a casus omissus, native law and prac- 
 
92 
 
 tice, and neither our supremacy nor our power, 
 ought to prevail : 
 
 " Where there is a total failure of heirs, it is pro- 
 " bably more consistent with right that the people 
 u should elect a sovereign, than that the principality 
 " should relapse to the paramount state, that state, 
 " in fact, having no rights in such a case but what 
 " it assumes by virtue of its power." 
 
 Lord Dalhousie, however, writes the author of a 
 pamphlet called " The Native States," has reversed 
 this sound policy. According to him, our supre- 
 macy, wherever an apology or an excuse can be 
 raised, has to over-ride our treaties, has to interpret 
 their language, and to decide all their difficulties. 
 
 " By these annexations, however," writes the 
 pamphleteer, " a large body of Englishmen do, no 
 u doubt, gain. Patronage is increased, employment 
 " is increased, salaries are increased; at the cost, 
 " however, of the general revenues, and to their im- 
 " poverishment." " Five native states," writes Mr. 
 Sullivan, " have fallen within the last ten years. 
 "If we put on one side of the account what the 
 " natives have gained by the few offices that have 
 " been lately opened to them, with what they have 
 " lost by the extermination of these states, we shall 
 " find the net loss to be immense; and what the 
 "" native loses, the Englishman gains. Upon the 
 " extermination of a native state, an Englishman 
 " takes the place of the sovereign, under the name 
 " of commissioner ; three or four of his associates 
 " displace as many dozen of the native official aris- 
 " tocracy, while some hundreds of our troops take 
 
93 
 
 u the place of the many thousands that every native 
 " chief supports. The little court disappears trade 
 " languishes the capital decays the people are 
 " impoverished the Englishman flourishes, and acts 
 u like a sponge, drawing up riches from the banks of 
 " the Ganges, and squeezing them down upon the 
 " banks of the Thames. Nor is this all. Native 
 u princes and their courts not only encourage native 
 :t trade and native arts, but under them, and be- 
 " cause of their very weakness, public spirit and 
 " opinion flourishes : all that constitutes the life of a 
 " people is strengthened; and though the govern- 
 " ment may occasionally be oppressive, heavier far is 
 " the yoke of our institutions." 
 
 A few civilians, indeed, uphold the contrary doc- 
 trine. Mr. Toby Prinsep traces our financial em- 
 barrassments to our not being masters of the entire 
 area of India. Mr. Campbell looks upon every in- 
 dependent prince much as an heir-expectant regards 
 some bed-ridden uncle, whose shameless lingering 
 keeps him unjustly out of the fair heritage of his 
 broad acres. " It is only in this way" (annexation), 
 he writes, " that we can hope gradually to extin- 
 " guish the native states, which consume so large a 
 " portion of the revenues of the country ! " As though 
 they were not their own. In the same spirit the 
 Court of Directors in their despatch on Tanjore 
 affairs, say they will not create a right " for the sole 
 " purpose of perpetuating a titular principality at a 
 great cost to the public revenue /" that revenue being 
 the portion which the Rajah reserved for himself and 
 his family when he ceded to the Company the fair 
 
94 
 
 kingdom of Tanjore, the " garden of Southern 
 India," whence they have ever since drawn fifty 
 lakhs a year! To those who take this view we 
 would suggest the following considerations, taken 
 from a pamphlet entitled " The Native States." 
 
 1st. Considerations for our own safety, arising, 
 in the judgment of the eminent authorities already 
 quoted, from the maintenance of the authority of our 
 native allies. 
 
 2nd. The limited and restricted character of our 
 supremacy, and the tendency which an avowal of our 
 intention to disregard those limitations and restric- 
 tions has to degenerate our government to one of 
 mere unlicensed and uncontrolled power and force. 
 
 3rd. The moral advantages of a strict adherence 
 to good faith, of a generous interpretation of treaties, 
 and of a liberal course of policy towards our inferiors. 
 
 4th. The risk, as experience warns us, that we 
 run of only increasing our financial difficulties by 
 extensions of our territories. 
 
 5th. The magnitude of the task of adding to our 
 dominions a greater area than that we already rule. 
 
 6th, The evil effects which the immense extension 
 of patronage at home, consequent on the further 
 employment of European agency in our new acquisi- 
 tions, may produce by increasing the power of home 
 authorities. 
 
 7th. The danger to England as well as to India 
 which a successful resistance in any one case may 
 originate and produce. 
 
 8th. The injustice, the slaughter, and the cost of 
 pursuing such a policy. 
 
95 
 
 9th. The hopelessness of promoting the improve- 
 ment and happiness either of our old or our new 
 territories by such means. 
 
 Whatever "conflict of opinion" there may be 
 regarding the policy of annexation, when there is a 
 bond fide title to the territory, I apprehend, to use 
 Lord Dalhousie's own words, that there can be no 
 dispute as to the impolicy as well as wickedness of 
 annexing territory when there is NOT really a lapse ; 
 when we can only create one by the most glaring bad 
 faith, and a perverted construction of treaties which 
 the Friend of India derides as " antiquated parch- 
 " ments, " to the amazement and disgust of the 
 Natives, and at the cost of our own character for 
 honest dealing and a reverence for our word. Re- 
 venue is the object ; it is the old story : 
 
 Si possis, recte, si non, quocunque modo, rem. 
 
 And the more I ponder on the subject, the more 
 clearly comes home to me the conviction that this 
 accursed, grasping annexation policy has paved the 
 way for the rebellion now raging in the heart of our 
 empire. 
 
 As one kingdom after another fell, a sullen 
 silent discontent spread wider and wider over the 
 native mind. The fall of Oude filled up the measure 
 of indignation. At the slaughter of Neemuch, when 
 the officers said to their native troops (says the 
 Bombay Times), " You have eaten the Company's 
 " salt, why are you not faithful to it ? " The answer, 
 as the sepoys shot down and bayonet ted them, was, 
 
9G 
 
 " You Banchats ! have you been faithful to the King 
 " of Oude ?" Does that not give us a glimmering of 
 the truth ? See how rebellion, the moment it 
 extended beyond the focal centre of Bengal, leaps 
 from point to point, where our annexation policy has 
 usurped the sovereignty. Almost simultaneously we 
 hear of insurrection at Nagpore, at Sattara, at 
 Jhansi, and the fear of it at Triplicane, far apart and 
 unconnected as those localities are from one another. 
 Peruse the dying speech of the traitor at Sattara, as 
 we call him hero and martyr as the people regard 
 him, and as we should ourselves regard him, were the 
 fable narrated of ourselves and invading Russians 
 and reflect, whether his brief address to his country- 
 men does not throw light upon the feelings which 
 prompted the rising at Sattara. The following is the 
 account furnished to the Bombay Telegraph by an 
 eye-witness : 
 
 " SATTARA, 19TH JUNE, 1857. Seventy men of 
 " the 14th Dragoons, and 100 of the 3rd Europeans 
 " have arrived. The former occupy the camp 
 " hospital, and the latter the engineers' workshops. 
 " The field service detachment S. M. I. Horse 
 " marches in to-morrow. Several arrests have been 
 " made ; the ringleaders are being brought in priso: 
 - " almost daily. The gallows-tree has hard work 
 " awaiting it. Its services were put in requisition this 
 " morning. Not being myself a lover of death 
 " scenes, I was not present at the rebel Putta- 
 " wallah's execution, but the following is a true 
 u account of the whole affair. At a quarter to seven 
 
" the prisoner, escorted by an European ollicer and 
 u forty men of the f:iilliful l^Jiul Kogimont N. I., 
 u marched into the enclosure surrounding the scaf- 
 >4 fold. Tlu* preliminaries of striking offtho fetters, 
 l * reading the donth warrant, &e., &c., being gone 
 ;t through, the prisoner having previously asked 
 " a native olliror of tho local corps to look after his 
 " children, to which request he received a very dis- 
 " tunt reply in a bold, fearless manner mounted the 
 " drop and during the process of adjusting the noose 
 " and pinioning, he, in a loud linn voice, addressed 
 kt tin 1 crowd in the following words (my informant 
 11 knows Maharatta. as well as English) : 
 
 u Listen, all ! As the English people hurled the 
 u l\<ij<th from liis throne, in like manner do you drive 
 " them oat of the country. This is murder. I am 
 u illegally condemned, and have not been tried by 
 "judge or jury. This example is made to frighten 
 " you, but be not alarmed. Sons of Brahmins, Maha- 
 " rattas, and Musselmen, revolt! Sons of Christians, 
 " look to yourselves ! " 
 
 The next kingdom that fell was that of Nagpore; 
 and here it may be worthy of remark, that Lord 
 Dalhonsie does not consider such petty events as the 
 lapse of Nagpore, the Carnatic, and Tanjore, " of 
 " sulVioient importance to find a place in tho para- 
 " graphs allotted to the foreign relations of the 
 " I lononrahle Company ;" though he condescends to 
 admit that they " are not unworthy of note." 
 With regard to Nagpore, I have but little to say. 
 Through mismanagement on the part of the family 
 their rights have never been fairly placed before the 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 public; but we contrived, on the death of the Kajah, 
 to commit an act of meanness, which, I will undertake 
 to say, there is not a native in India who cannot ap- 
 preciate. We seized, and sold by public auction at 
 Calcutta, the jewels valued at some crore of rupees, 
 which under any circumstances should have been 
 scrupulously handed over to the family: and I am 
 inclined to think that by this single act of petty 
 larceny villainy we have covered ourselves with 
 more ignominy in the eyes of the Natives than by 
 any other which can be pitted against it. The 
 following passage from Lord Dalhousie's writings 
 strikes the key-note of our policy with regard to 
 Nagpore. 
 
 Lord Dalhousie tells us in the thirty-second pa- 
 ragraph of his minute on the case, to be found in the 
 " Eajah of BerarV parliamentary return, pages 33 
 and 34, that "the essential interest of England 
 " requires that the territory of Nagpore should pass 
 " under the British Government; for the possession 
 " of Nagpore will materially aid in supplying a 
 " want, upon the secure supply of which much of 
 " the manufacturing prosperity of England depends. " 
 And so cotton stuffed the ears of Justice, who is 
 deaf as well as blind. 
 
 The next in order is the confiscation of the 
 Carnatic, and almost simultaneously, the annexation 
 of Tanjore. I shall examine these cases separately ; 
 but I must pause here to remark that Lord Harris, 
 according to the statement of the President of the 
 Board of Control, in his place in Parliament, and 
 according to the Court's Despatch on Tanjore, coin- 
 
99 
 
 cided with Lord Dalhousie in recommending the 
 abolition both of Musnud and of Raj : a fact ever 
 to be deplored by his friends and admirers. There 
 are those in Madras, who, contrasting his govern- 
 ment in Madras with his reputation gained in 
 Trinidad their great anticipations with his com- 
 paratively little performance assert, that fitness for 
 the management of an island, not bigger than one 
 of our collectorates, is no criterion of capacity for 
 the government of such a presidency as that of 
 Madras, and they quote the words applied by 
 Tacitus to Galba, " omnium consensu capax imperil, 
 nisi imperasset;" but such men are forgetful of the 
 utter powerlessness of a Madras Governor for good, 
 and his total dependence upon the supreme Go- 
 vernment in Calcutta. Lord Harris was selected 
 for his supposed peculiar fitness for the task of 
 remedying the proved ill condition of the people of 
 this presidency. My belief is that, had he not 
 been bound hand and foot by the supreme Go- 
 vernment, he would have effected the object of his 
 mission. But ere this, he has learnt how very dif- 
 ferent is the position of a Governor of Madras from 
 anything he had been led to expect; how his 
 council could thwart, and mislead him; how the 
 supreme Government could render nugatory all his 
 best-considered projects for reform. Lord Harris' 
 papers on the Revenue Assessment deserved a more 
 honorable reception than a year's repose in Mr. 
 John Peter Grant's official despatch-box, whence they 
 were dragged by the late General Anson, on his ar- 
 rival at Calcutta. His lordship's conception of a 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 system of canals, immediately on his arrival in this 
 country ; his prompt measures for lowering the assess- 
 ment in those localities, where it is proved to press 
 too heavily : and his liberal extension of public works, 
 though defeated by the supreme Government, demand 
 commendation, and command respect. Far as I am 
 from going along with Lord Harris in all his mea- 
 sures, I believe him to have sincerely at heart the 
 good of the people, and to have actually sown the seed 
 of much that will hereafter prove beneficial to the 
 country. His lordship will hereafter claim to be 
 judged of by the several papers which he has written, 
 and the measures which he has proposed during his 
 incumbency of office : and as he has originated little 
 or nothing, but adopted the well-considered sugges- 
 tions of the reformers, thoroughly discussed before his 
 accession to power, his appeal will be triumphant. 
 No one can doubt the general excellence of his inten- 
 tions, or his straight-forwardness of purpose, or the 
 kindness of his heart : but he stands almost isolated ; 
 he has not a friend of any strength of judgment about 
 him, on whom he can rely; it is said that even in 
 matters wherein he might express an independent 
 opinion, he has followed in the wake of the Governor- 
 General; and I confess, it appears to me that he 
 has missed an opportunity, such as occurs but once 
 in a man's life, of raising his character to the very 
 highest, for honesty, determination, and foresight. 
 Far be it from me to insinuate that in any recom- 
 mendation which he may have made, his lordship did 
 not write in unison with his own convictions. But 
 Lord Dalhousie was at hand. The stronger mind 
 
101 
 
 perhaps drew after it the weaker, and Lord Harris 
 may have hastily coincided with the decisive opinions 
 of his superior. 
 
 I have heard it stated by some of his lordship's 
 friends, that he claims an independence of action in 
 the advice which he gave concerning the Carnatic 
 and Tanjore. If this be so, by all means let him 
 have the full credit and merit of his counsel. What 
 I feel is, that Lord Harris may not have had before 
 him the full legal merits of these cases at the time 
 he wrote. He may have been very forcibly im- 
 pressed with the general desirability of bringing 
 these dependent States under our own immediate 
 government, and have trusted somewhat too much 
 to the representations of various papers placed before 
 him. It is his lordship's practice, far more than has 
 hitherto obtained, to refer every question involving 
 a point of law to the law officers of the Company. 
 I cannot ascertain that any such necessary pre- 
 caution was taken in either of these cases, notwith- 
 standing they involved such important matters as 
 the construction of treaties, and questions of Hindoo 
 and Mahomedan law of succession. If, instead of 
 falling in with the current of Lord Dalhousie's 
 policy, and drifting along with it, Lord Harris had 
 taken his stand upon the solemn footing of justice 
 and good faith; had he manfully yet temperately 
 declared that however desirable it might be to " con- 
 " solidate" our dominions, the preservation of our 
 character for good faith was dearer to us far ;* had 
 
 * " I would," wrote the Duke of Wellington, to his brother, 
 the Marquis of Wellesley, " I would sacrifice Gvvalior, or every 
 
102 
 
 he pointed out how our construction of treaties in 
 our own favour, contrary to the intention of the con- 
 tracting parties, and the facts of the case, did not 
 give us even that miserable pecuniary gain looked 
 for from it, but which was nothing in comparison 
 with the loss of honour and reputation in the eyes 
 of the Natives, entailed on us by our acts ; had he 
 shown the danger of further persistence in such 
 courses; had he predicted, as he might, the events 
 of the present day, as the necessary consequences of 
 our misconduct; then, although he might not have 
 prevented the completion of the confiscation, he 
 would at this very moment have been regarded as 
 the first among the statesmen of the day, and might 
 now have appealed to his advice, as that which, if 
 followed, would have afforded us the best chance of 
 escaping the perils on which we have now struck, 
 the horrors which are now floating before us " like a 
 " phantasma or a hideous dream." Even as a matter 
 of policy, let alone honesty, I fancy the Government 
 would at the present moment give a good deal to 
 have acknowledged the Nabob of the Carnatic; at 
 least the only danger which has been apprehended in 
 Madras has been from the disaffected Mussulmen in- 
 habitants of Triplicane, angry at the degradation of 
 their prince, and poverty-struck by the withdrawal 
 of his resources. 
 
 " other frontier in India, ten times over, in order to preserve 
 " our character for scrupulous good faith." " What," he 
 asked, " brought me successfully through the last campaign, 
 " but strict adherence to British good faith ; and what success 
 " could I hope for in any future operations, if I were to tarnish 
 " that faith." 
 
103 
 
 Let us now briefly consider the case of the Nabob 
 of the Carnatic. This prince died leaving no child. 
 His paternal uncle, Prince Azeem Jah, beyond all 
 question was, and is, ' by the Mahomedan law, his 
 heir and successor to the Musnud. He had been 
 Naib-i-Mooklear (or regent) during the long mino- 
 rity of his nephew, the late nabob. On several 
 occasions the Court of Directors had officially recog- 
 nized him in writing as next heir to the Musnud. 
 
 Lord Dalhousie gives the following pithy reasons 
 for declaring the nawabship " in abeyance," a some- 
 what equivocal term : 
 
 " As the treaty, by which the Musnud of the Car- 
 " natic was conferred on his highness' predecessor 
 " was purely a personal one, as the nabob had left 
 " no male heir, and as both he and his family had 
 u disreputably abused the dignity of their position, 
 " and the large share of the public revenue which 
 " had been allotted to them, the Court of Directors 
 " had been advised to place the title of nabob in 
 " abeyance, granting fitting pensions to the several 
 " members of the Carnatic family." 
 
 The reasons assigned, it will be observed, are 
 threefold : 
 
 1st. That the treaty was exclusively a personal 
 one. 
 
 2nd. That the nabob left no male heir. 
 
 3rd. That he and his family had disreputably 
 abused their dignity and their revenue. 
 
 Of these, the second was subsequently withdrawn 
 in Parliament, where it was admitted that the nabob 
 had left an heir, his uncle the Prince Azeem Jah. I 
 
104 
 
 am bound to suppose that the original statement was 
 an oversight. 
 
 The third ground is also false in point of fact. I 
 have lived fifteen years in Madras ; I was present at 
 the installation of the late nabob, and have been 
 here ever since: he has lived, like many other 
 eastern princes, a life of sensuality and extrava- 
 gance. But so far as the European population are 
 concerned, I do not believe he was ever heard of; 
 and I have no hesitation in asserting, that foolish 
 and improvident as the young man was, his conduct 
 has never been of a quality approximating to what 
 would justify such a punishment as this inflicted on 
 him and his heirs. Indeed, we might just as rea- 
 sonably have refused to allow the heirs of George 
 the Fourth to succeed him on account of his irre- 
 gular habits and his extravagance. And if titles 
 can be taken away, revenues confiscated, and con- 
 tracts treated as so much waste paper, on account of 
 a disreputable abuse of dignity or a state of indebt- 
 edness, I know not what Lord Steyne in private life 
 would be safe : whether vice, or mere abstraction of 
 knockers by night, is to deprive a peer of his peerage 
 and his estates, or how far a man may exceed his 
 income before he and his heirs may be liable to such 
 a penalty. 
 
 Here it will be observed that the family is ousted 
 by the assertion that there is no male heir. In the 
 Sattara case, there was no natural heir; in the 
 Tanjore case, no heir at all. Now this may be very 
 ingenious, but it is a species of ingenuity which is 
 rather to be shunned than courted by honest men. 
 
105 
 
 But the excuse is idle and childish, and it would be 
 equally idle and childish to pursue it further. This, 
 however, remains to be said, that for all the excesses 
 of the late nabob's life the East India Company is 
 responsible. He was under their care from his earliest 
 infancy, and it was their bounden duty to have 
 attended to his education morally and intellectually. 
 But nothing was done. He was handed over to the 
 offices of panders and parasites, perhaps from a desire 
 that effeminacy and precocious indulgence might cut 
 short a life which stood between the Company and 
 the enjoyment of the Musnud. He was neither of 
 bad parts nor of bad disposition; and had he been 
 only moderately educated, his presence at Madras 
 might have entailed great benefits upon the people, 
 especially the Mussulman population. 
 
 The other ground is utterly untenable in law. I 
 presume that Lord Dalhousie terms the treaty " an 
 " exclusively personal one," because it was made 
 only with the former reigning nabob, not with his 
 " heirs and successors." But any lawyer would have 
 told Lord Dalhousie that these words are not essen- 
 tial, and that the character of a treaty must depend 
 upon its objects. 
 
 " But if a contract is made with a king," says 
 Grotius, " it is not therefore presently to be reputed 
 " personal; for, as it is well observed by Pedius and 
 " Ulpian, the person is often inserted in the contract, 
 " not that the contract is personal, but to shew by 
 " whom the contract was made. If it be added to 
 " the treaty, that it shall stand for ever, or that it 
 " is made for the good of the kingdom, or with him 
 
106 
 
 u and his successors, or if it be for such a limited 
 " time, it will from hence fully appear that the 
 " treaty is real. But when the conjectures are equal 
 " on both sides, all that we have to do is to conclude 
 u that those treaties which are favourable are real, 
 " and that the odious are personal. Treaties made 
 " for the preservation of peace and commerce are 
 " favorable ; nor are these for ever always odious as 
 u some think, but such as are entered into for 
 " mutual defence come nearer the favourable; or 
 " offensive nearer the odious and burdensome." 
 
 In the present case, the treaty was for public 
 objects ; it purports to provide for mutual defence 
 against enemies ; it is to secure perpetual friendship, 
 and the like : several descents have been lost since, 
 and several heirs have succeeded under it to the 
 Musnud, with the recognition of the East India Com- 
 pany, without any fresh treaty being entered into. 
 
 It is true that the Company proposes to pension 
 the various members of the family, which puts one 
 strongly in mind of the gallantry of Claud Du Val, 
 who would give back a watch or a trinket out of the 
 property he had plundered, to the pretty demoiselle 
 who danced a Coranto with him on the moon-lit 
 green. But the members of the nabob's family know 
 well what this promise of pensions means. A large 
 body of Carnatic stipendiaries have already their 
 agent in London representing their grievances. On 
 each death the pension is somewhat reduced; so that 
 as the family become larger, their means of subsis- 
 tence becomes smaller, and by this process of 
 whittling, the pension becomes " fine by degrees, and 
 
107 
 
 u beautifully less," until in the fourth or fifth genera- 
 tion the unfortunate descendants of royalty are left 
 beggars and paupers in the land where their fathers 
 were once supreme. 
 
 I may add, that bad as is the act itself of depriving 
 the lawful heir of his rights, the arrangements for 
 carrying it out were, if possible, worse. Nothing 
 could exceed the feebleness and bungling which have 
 characterized the whole affair. A commission has 
 been appointed to inquire into the late nabob's debts, 
 but no act has yet been passed investing them with 
 the necessary powers. The greatest discontent pre- // 
 vails, and the gravest injustice is being done. 
 
 The Tanjore case is, if possible, more iniquitous 
 still ; but as I am counsel for the Ranee de Jure, I 
 shall allude as cursorily as I can to her case, lest I 
 should be thought to write as an advocate. 
 
 There, the treaty was with the rajah, "his heirs 
 " and successors." The last rajah died without a 
 son by birth or adoption, but leaving two daughters, 
 one married, the other unmarried, and an infant by 
 a deceased wife, and also sixteen other widows. 
 
 Lord Dalhousie pithily disposes of this kingdom as 
 follows : 
 
 " Very shortly after the death of the Nawab of the 
 " Carnatic, the Rajah of Tanjore deceased. He left 
 " no son, and no male heir, direct or indirect, who 
 " bore his name. The Honourable Court was there- 
 " fore advised to resume the large stipend which the 
 " rajah had enjoyed, as a lapse to the government, 
 u pensions being granted to the members of the 
 " family, as in all similar cases." 
 
108 
 
 Here it will be observed that the family is ousted 
 by the assertion that there is no male heir, but the 
 treaty contains no such limitation, its terms are 
 general. 
 
 " The faith of treaties is basely prostituted," 
 writes Yattel, " by studying to couch them in vague 
 " or equivocal terms, to introduce ambiguous ex- 
 " pressions, to revive subjects of dispute, to overreach 
 " those with whom we treat, and out-do them in 
 " cunning and duplicity. Let the man who excels 
 " in these acts boast of his happy talents, and esteem 
 " himself a keen negotiator ; but reason and the 
 " sacred law of nature will class him as far beneath 
 " a vulgar cheat as the majesty of kings is exalted 
 " above private persons. True diplomatic skill con- 
 " sists in guarding against imposition, not in prac- 
 " tising it." 
 
 The treaty, as I have said, was not limited to 
 heirs male; the expression is simply "heirs;" and 
 unless the Hindoo law and custom exclude the acces- 
 sion of females, they are just as entitled as males to 
 all the benefits of the treaty. 
 
 The Eesident reported very strongly to the Madras 
 Government in favour of maintaining the Eaj, and 
 placing the youngest daughter on the throne. Here 
 he was no doubt mistaken in law, for the senior 
 widow is by the Hindoo law the heir, and so long as 
 there is a widow, the daughter cannot succeed, though 
 she is not incapacitated by reason. In his letter of 
 6th November, 1855, he writes as follows : 
 
 " Yakojee, the first Mahrattah Rajah of Tanjore, 
 " had three sons, who each reigned in succession ; the 
 
109 
 
 " third son, Tookojee had four sons, and was suc- 
 " ceeded by the third. Bavasahib, as the eldest two 
 " were not born in wedlock ; Bavasahib had no 
 " children, and, on his death, in 1737, he was sue- 
 " ceeded on the Musnud by the widow Soojan-boyee- 
 " Sahib. I am informed that similar successions 
 " took place at the latter end of the last century to 
 u the Musnud of Sattara : Taradyeesahib, widow of 
 " Maharajah Sahoorajah of Sattara and daughter of 
 " Soanjee Mohitay Humbeeroyee and Kolapoor, 
 u Doorgadyee Sahib, widow of Maharajah Sumb- 
 " hajee, Rajah of Kolapoor, and daughter of Suntajee 
 " Momohtary Humbeeroyee, Teeja Ayee Sahib, 
 " widow of the above, and daughter of Nasreekur 
 " Sinday : but for this I have no record to refer to."* 
 
 * In the Bill filed by Kamachi Bhyu, the senior widow of 
 the rajah, a statement was introduced framed upon this infor- 
 mation and the Company interrogated as to the fact. In their 
 answer they set up a totally distinct state of facts. The 
 Resident who professes to have drawn his facts from records 
 before him, clearly states that Soojan Bee succeeded her husband 
 in the regular course, and that the usurpation of the jungle 
 rajah was after her death. But this would not suit the Com- 
 pany, and they therefore sent down to the new Resident at Tan- 
 jore, who furnished them with a new state of facts, I presume 
 from new records. The Company now states that Soojan Bee's 
 husband was a usurper, a fact nowhere mentioned in the 
 Sattara Blue Book pedigree. That he left a nephew, Appoo 
 Sahib, never before heard of, who was his legal heir, that 
 Soojan Bee was put on the Musnud by a revolution, and that 
 she was deposed by another, by the jungle rajah, aided by 
 troops from Fort St. David. 
 
 How these two official accounts can be reconciled it is hard 
 to see. The object, however, of the answer is transparent; the 
 fact that Soojan Bee actually reigned cannot be got over. It is 
 
110 
 
 Now, he herein clearly pointed out the fact that 
 Hindoo females were capable of reigning; although all 
 the cases he quoted happened to be those of widows, 
 not daughters. Lord Ellenbrough, I see, derided the 
 idea of a female succession, in the case of Ali Borad ; 
 and though his lordship may be right with regard to 
 Mahomedans, and subordinate appointments, such as 
 that of nabobs, who, according to theory, hold only for 
 life ; or of the Nizam, who again was an appointee of 
 the Mogul; yet I find one instance of a Mahomedan 
 queen in Brigg's history. There can be no doubt that 
 there is nothing analogous to the Salic law among the 
 Hindoos ; and that in the case of independent Hindoo 
 sovereigns, such as were the Eajahs of Tanjore, 
 the kingdom descends by inheritance, and not by ap- 
 pointment. If other instances of Hindoo widows 
 succeeding their husbands be wanted, Indian history 
 is full of them. There is the well known case of 
 Toolsaja Bhayee, though she reigned as regent during 
 the infancy of an adopted son. There is the case of 
 
 an ugly precedent against those who assert that a female cannot 
 reign ; and the effect therefore is to be got lid of by a side 
 wind. Lord Hardwick said, in the case of the Nabob of the 
 Carnatic against the E. I Company, the answer was that of a 
 corporation, and not upon oath : truth, therefore was not to be 
 expected in it. The remark is happy, and its application to the 
 .present case easy. The genealogical trees admitted by the 
 answer to be in the possession of the Government were moved 
 for. The motion was won of course. The Company's solicitor 
 who had attended the summons before the judge, was not ashamed 
 to argue as a reason against these productions, that if the tree 
 should show that a Ranee had reigned, it might place the 
 Government in a very disagreeable predicament, nay, perhaps 
 lead to a civil war ! 
 
Ill 
 
 Thara Bhayee, who reigned at Kolapoor from 1761 
 to 1772, though, as regent for an adopted son, she 
 signed a treaty with the British as Maharajah in 
 1766. There is the illustrious example, Ahlia 
 Bhayee, who reigned in her own right, whose 
 character Malcolm has drawn, and whose memory 
 even yet lives in the affections of the Mahratta 
 people. 
 
 There was the Eanee of Gurra, Doorgawatty, " as 
 " celebrated for her beauty as good sense," * who op- 
 posed Asuf Khan, with an army of fifteen hundred 
 elephants, and eight thousand horse, and who, 
 when she was wounded by an arrow in the eye, 
 stabbed herself with a dagger snatched from the 
 girdle of the Mahout, rather than be taken prisoner. 
 There is the queen of Trichinopoly with whom Orme 
 opens his history ; she who succeeded her husband, 
 and who defended her city against Chunda Sahib, 
 till beguiled by his oaths and professions, she admitted 
 him within the walls, fell in love with him, was 
 deceived, and thrown into prison, where she died of 
 grief. But the Resident's report of a female sovereign 
 in this very family, Soojan Bee, must set this point at 
 rest. Nevertheless, the Court of Directors, acting 
 upon the unanimous recommendation of Lords Dal- 
 housie and Harris, thus summarily disposed of the 
 matter : 
 
 " To our Governor- General of India in Council : 
 
 " We now reply to your letter in the Foreign 
 
 " Department, dated 22nd January (No. 12.), 1856, 
 
 * Malcolm. 
 
112 
 
 " and to the political letters from the head governor, 
 " dated the 9th of November (No. 15.), and the 
 " 22nd November (No. 17.), 1855, reporting the 
 " death of Sewajee, the titular Eajah of Tanjore, and 
 " the opinions of your Government, and of the 
 " Madras Government, respecting the consequence 
 " which should follow that event. 
 
 " The Eajah died without leaving a son by birth, 
 " or adoption. He was himself the only son of his 
 " father, the Eajah Serfojee, with whom the treaty 
 " of 1799 was concluded, and Serfojee was only the 
 " adopted son of his predecessor, Eajah Fooljajee ; 
 " consequently there cannot be any male claimant to 
 " the dignity, claiming through a male. But the 
 " Eajah has left two daughters, the younger of whom 
 " (the elder being disqualified by ill health) Mr. 
 " Forbes, the Eesident, proposed to the Madras Go- 
 " vernor, to recognize as successor to the titular 
 " dignity. 
 
 " By no taw or usage, however, has the daughter 
 " of a Hindoo Eajah any right of succession to the 
 " Eaj, and it is entirely out of the question that we 
 " should create such a right, for the sole purpose of 
 " perpetuating a titular principality, at a great cost 
 " to the public revenue.* 
 
 " We agree in the unanimous opinion of your Go- 
 " vernor, and the Governor of Madras, that the 
 " dignity of Eajah of Tanjore is extinct." 
 
 It is remarkable how this Despatch avoids the case 
 
 * As though the revenue belonged to the Company, and not 
 to the Rajah. 
 
113 
 
 of the widow, and jumps from the case of an adopted 
 son, to that of the daughter ! It is remarkable too 
 that no less than three times do the Directors repeat 
 the word " titular," as though that were any reason 
 for a breach of treaty ! An article in the Athenceum 
 thus dwells upon this subject : 
 
 " The next striking feature in this production is 
 " the anxiety with which the writer insists upon the 
 " dignity being merely ' titular.' Twice in the 
 " short passage is this epithet crammed in, and we 
 ct remember that when a member of the House of 
 " Commons, last session, made inquiry as to the 
 " threatened measure of destruction impending over 
 " one of the doomed principalities, the India House 
 " authorities thought it quite sufficient answer, to 
 " state that the dignity was 'merely titular,' as if, 
 " forsooth, that could liberate us from our solemn en- 
 " gagements, and was in itself ample justification of 
 " the most palpable and dishonest breach of faith, 
 " and violation of treaties. Is it pretended that the 
 " dignity is one whit more ' merely titular ' now, 
 " than at the moment when the treaty was signed? 
 " If so, let the alteration, its date and character, be 
 " pointed out. What we really promised and bound 
 " ourselves to, was to uphold this 'titular dignity' 
 " intact, with all its privileges and emoluments, so 
 " long as a particular description of persons the 
 "heirs of him with whom we signed the treaty 
 " would be found to fill it. And though the dignity 
 " may be ' titular,' are the solid pecuniary obliga- 
 " tions, which, by that same treaty, we pledged our- 
 u selves inviolably to perform, of the same unsub- 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 44 stantial character; are they, or were they ever, 
 44 4 merely titular,' and are we not solemnly bound in 
 44 honour and faith, in justice, nay, in very decency, 
 44 to fulfil them scrupulously, and to the uttermost 
 " farthing, so long as the dignity, however c titular,' 
 44 itself exists ? These are questions which must be de- 
 44 cided by plain common sense, and with reference to 
 44 those common principles of honesty and fair dealing 
 " which lie at the very foundation of human society, 
 44 and without an observance of which that society 
 44 must forthwith suffer entire dissolution. No casuis- 
 41 try, however subtle no sophistry, however acute, 
 44 can get rid of this contract on the mere plea, that 
 44 the party with whom we made it reserved only a 
 44 titular dignity ; and it is not worth while to waste 
 44 words upon the matter; our readers might well sus- 
 44 pect us of very little respect for their understanding, 
 44 if we insisted further upon so clear a point." 
 
 I can myself testify to the fashion in which this 
 order was carried out. A company of sepoys was 
 marched suddenly into the palace ; the whole of the 
 property, real and personal, seized; the Company's 
 seals put upon all the jewels, and other valuables; 
 the soldiery were disarmed, and in the most offensive 
 way; the private estate of the Kajah's mother, of the 
 estimated value of three lakhs a year was sequestered, 
 and still remains so ; the occupier of every piece of 
 land in the district, which had at any time belonged to 
 a former rajah, was turned out of his possession, and 
 bid come before the Commissioner, who constituted 
 himself judge, to establish a title to his satisfaction; 
 the whole of the people, dependent for their existence 
 
115 
 
 upon the expenditure of the Eaj revenues among 
 them, were suddenly panic-struck at the prospect of 
 being thrown out of employ; and in a week the Com- 
 pany succeeded in converting Tanjore from the most 
 respectful, contented place in our dominions, into a 
 hot-bed of sullen disaffection . The people venerate 
 the Raj ; and it would have been good policy in us to 
 have paid something if necessary, " quieta non mo- 
 vere." The very sepoys have refused to receive their 
 pensions. Karnatchee Bhoyee, the senior widow, and 
 Ranee de jure, has filed a bill in the Supreme Court, 
 for the recovery of the personal private estate of her 
 late husband; she has obtained an injunction against 
 the Company, to restrain them from parting with the 
 property, in itself a humiliation ; her claim to the Raj 
 will be shortly contested in England, when I will 
 guarantee a thorough ventilation of the whole of this 
 extremely ugly case. 
 
 Here I would content myself with making the 
 few following remarks. First; as to the general 
 policy and justice of maintaining the Raj, the Resi- 
 dent thus touchingiy writes to Government: 
 
 " The Government will decide on the justice of this 
 " daughter's claim, and on the policy of maintaining 
 " the Raj. In considering the question, they will 
 " not lose sight of the manner in which we became 
 " possessed of Tanjore; it is not a conquered coun- 
 " try ; its acquisition never cost the British Govern- 
 " inent the life of a single soldier, nor the value of a 
 " single rupee ; the cry of the orphan was never 
 " heard, nor was the tear of a widow ever shed, 
 " when the rule of the country passed from the 
 
 I 2 
 
116 
 
 " rajah to the hands of our Government. In the 
 " fifty years during which we have held possession, 
 " we have, in round numbers, drawn from it a total 
 " revenue of no less than twenty crores, or as many 
 " millions sterling. Neither Surfojee nor Servajee 
 u ever offered the smallest hindrance to our peace- 
 " able settlement of the country, or in any degree 
 " whatever departed from the strictest adherence to 
 " the treaty ; truly it deserves consideration how the 
 " Government shall act towards the last descendant 
 " of a royal line, to a daughter of those who, when 
 " their aid was needed, were always our firm allies. 
 
 " But the matter must be looked at also as it con- 
 " cerns ourselves.* In 1829, when yielding to the 
 
 * A word here on Residents the most pestilent form of an 
 Indian official. From the moment that Lord Wellesley subsi- 
 dised his Native allies, their fall was certain, however slow. 
 The foundation of their independence was sapped. In the 
 commencement, the Resident at the court of a Native prince 
 was an officer of high importance. He had to watch carefully 
 against intrigues with other powers hostile to the British 
 interests. His was a diplomatic duty; he stood the medium of 
 communication between the Court to whom he was accredited, 
 and the Company whose deputed servant he was. But as the 
 power of the Native sovereign crumbled insensibly away, the 
 Resident imperceptibly encroached upon the proper bounds of 
 his authority. Instead of being merely the servant of the Com- 
 pany, he ultimately became master of the Native sovereign. 
 As the latter dwindled more and more into dependence, he 
 crouched more and more submissively before the ambassador, 
 on whose representations of his conduct to the Company he 
 fancied the stability of his titular princedom to depend. He 
 never rose to a tone of manly independence ; he was too timid 
 to remonstrate : the will of the Resident became law : till at 
 last an entire right of control was claimed over the most 
 
117 
 
 " earnest remonstrance of the Rajah Surfojee against 
 " the intended abolition of the Resident's office, the 
 " Governor, Mr. Lushington, recorded a Minute in 
 " which he spoke of the obligation which should re- 
 " strain us from any measure affecting our present 
 " prosperous relations with the people of the fruitful 
 " country of Tanjore and it is impossible to doubt 
 " that the now prosperous condition of the district 
 u would be very greatly aifected by the sudden with- 
 " drawal of a circulation amounting to about eleven 
 " lacs a year. So great diminution of the expendi- 
 " ture within the province must certainly lead to a 
 " difficulty in realizing the revenue; it is a small 
 " tract of land from which to raise fifty lacs a year, 
 " and it cannot be a matter of indifference to the 
 " producers whether more than a fifth of the revenue 
 " be spent among them or not." 
 
 Secondly ; as to the special fitness of her Highness 
 Kamatchee Bhoyee to succeed to the throne, on account 
 of her personal qualifications, the Resident, on the 
 
 trifling items of expenditure. A rajah could not buy a fowling- 
 piece without the sanction and approval of the Resident. 
 Hence the presence of the Resident was a continual source of 
 irritation and annoyance to the royal family; whilst on the other 
 hand the Resident grew more and more arrogant, until his ori- 
 ginal and true character was totally forgotten. He is now a 
 sort of Cerberus, uniting the three separate functions of spy, 
 jailor, and dry-nurse. His principal characteristic is the most 
 overweening fanciful idea of his own importance. I have seen 
 a letter from one of these worthies, in which he distributes his 
 approbation and disapprobation of the various members of the 
 royal family with a condescension truly imperial ; though the 
 inflation led one to fear for the writer the fate of the frog in the 
 fable, who puffed himself out until he burst. 
 
118 
 
 occasion of his leaving Tanjore for a seat in the 
 Revenue Board at Madras, wrote a letter to her, 
 most highly complimenting her on her conduct 
 during a season of temptation and intrigue.* 
 
 Oude, as it is the last, so it is the most scandalous 
 and the most fatal of all our aggressions. There the 
 meanest subterfuges had to be practised to bring about 
 our object. There we were dragged through the 
 greatest quantity of mud; there we excited the most 
 powerful odium ; there we are at this moment feeling 
 most bitterly the actual effect of our wickedness. 
 
 This case is likely to be so thoroughly exposed in 
 England, that it is superfluous here to do more than 
 glance at the principal facts. My own impression is 
 that this affair had long been plotting. The appear- 
 ance of the " Life of an Eastern Prince" to which 
 the author did not affix his name, but which was 
 cooked up by a literary hack at that particular 
 time, was a singular coincidence. The memoranda 
 appear to have been some twenty years old : why 
 were they hawked up just as Oude was to be seized? 
 The writer appears to me nearly as bad as those he 
 paints; he was probably some low adventurer; his 
 book is full of lies, which any acquaintance with the 
 East suffices to detect : the whole of the evidence in 
 the Blue Book is, to my mind, most suspicious, and 
 
 * I am unable to set out the terms of this letter. It was 
 simply read to the Ranee by one of the Durbar. I applied to 
 the Madras Government, as her agent, for a copy. The Madras 
 Government saw no objection, but left the matter to the Resi- 
 dent who had returned to Tanjore as Commissioner. That 
 gentleman refused me a copy. Kamatchee Bhoyee had in the 
 interim determined to assert her rights. . 
 
119 
 
 cooked for a special object. A similar catalogue of 
 crimes might easily be prepared in many of our own 
 districts into which a commission was sent.* There 
 is not a pretence for saying that the people of Oude 
 ever threw themselves upon us for protection from a 
 government, the ills of which they could no longer 
 bear; it is not even asserted, that I can find, that 
 the existence of Oude in the centre of our own do- 
 minions was a nuisance, and an example likely to 
 spread into our possessions: we simply constituted 
 ourselves judges of what was good for the people, 
 and the duty of their sovereign ; we claimed a right 
 which has no legal existence, of interfering in the 
 internal administration of an ally's country, to make 
 its government square with what we consider it 
 should be ; we do in India precisely what we will not 
 allow Russia to do in Europe. We make ourselves 
 the mock and scoff of all the European Powers, even 
 down to King Bomba, for our palpable, transparent 
 violation in the East of principles by which we 
 profess to be guided in the West; 
 
 Desinit in piscem mulier formosa superne ; 
 
 and having resolved upon the accomplishment of the 
 robbery at all risks, we set about carrying it out 
 
 * Mr. Halliday, the Lieutenant- Governor of Bengal, in a 
 recent Minute, thus writes: " The administration of justice is 
 " nowhere alleged to be worse in Oude than it is within our 
 " own districts ; and it could not be possible, in the most bar- 
 " barous country in the world, to discover anything more atro- 
 " cious as a system, than is laid open in the recent report of 
 " the commissioners appointed to inquire into the practice of 
 " torture in the territories of Madras." ! 1 1 
 
120 
 
 without any scruple or delicacy as to the measures 
 which it entailed. We send General Outram of all 
 men in the world; upon whom all this seems to 
 have fallen like an avenging Nemesis, the Scindian 
 Bayard, the hectoring champion of the despoiled 
 Ameers* with orders to get up sufficient evidence 
 for a pretext of attack. The " office" is given to a 
 
 * To the student of the East India Company's character, 
 the career of Sir James Outram is not less instructive than that 
 of Sir Charles Napier. It affords an admirable illustration of 
 what awaits those who will do the Company's bidding, be it 
 what it may; as that of Napier shews what will be the result 
 of their displeasure. The two men could scarcely be placed in 
 more complete antagonism. A Plutarch would delight to draw 
 their parallel. Sir James Outram vilified Sir Charles Napier in 
 the public prints; in vain the latter tried to bring him to a 
 court-martial; he was too powerfully protected. The fourth 
 volume of " Napier's Life" throws a singular light on this 
 affair. Sir James does the dirty work in Oude with the most 
 cheerful alacrity ; he is rewarded with the command of the 
 Persian expedition. What he might have done, if there had 
 been an opportunity, I cannot say; but the most fulsome paeans 
 have been sung over the most trumpery affairs there. He 
 j sopardized his army by an expedition into the interior for no 
 sensible object, and was only extricated by the darkness of the 
 night and the faint-heartedness of the enemy from a most 
 perilous position. The Times can be worked into comparing with 
 Sevastopol, Mohammerah, a mere fort with sixteen guns, eight 
 of which were honeycombed, and none of which ever fired a 
 shot after the troops landed ! and the Illustrated London Neivs 
 can be hoaxed into inserting a spirited drawing of a charge 
 which never took place, save in the imagination of the artist. 
 The most flaming order has just been published by the Go- 
 vernor-General, and the fortunate Outram, with all Napier's 
 charges against him yet unanswered, is, it is said, named Pro- 
 visional Member of Council a graceful compliment to the 
 army, which it will doubtless appreciate. 
 
121 
 
 few British officers in the king's pay, who send in 
 secret, exparte statements, which the king and his 
 ministers have no opportunity of meeting, and the 
 first scene is complete. 
 
 It was determined to take the kingdom into our own 
 keeping for ever. But a treaty, that of 1837, stood 
 in the way. Thereby it was provided, that in event 
 of any such contingency as had now arisen, we were 
 to take the kingdom into our temporary charge. 
 How was this to be got over ? Why, the best way 
 was to declare that there was no such treaty; and 
 tliis was accordingly done. True, it had appeared 
 among treaties officially returned to Parliament (Lord 
 Dalhousie felt that this was " embarrassing"), but 
 then it was through the blundering stupidity of a 
 clerk ! In all Lord Dalhousie's allusions to the inter- 
 views and correspondence between Lords W. Ben- 
 tinck and Hardinge with the King of Oude, he has 
 distinctly given it to be understood that these noble- 
 men gave the king timely warning of the extent of 
 penalty to which he would be liable by a persistence 
 in bad government, namely, that he and his heirs 
 would lose the kingdom for ever. But Lord William 
 Ben thick's Minute shews how utterly opposed he 
 was to such a measure; and Lord Hardinge's letter 
 distinctly refers to the treaty of 1837 as a valid, 
 existing treaty, on which he warned the king he was 
 prepared to act. He writes thus : 
 
 " And in the deed of treaty of the year 1837, it 
 " is stated, that c It is become well known to the 
 " public that the violations of such an important 
 " agreement, and neglect in so essential a matter 
 
122 
 
 cc stipulated in the aforesaid treaty, which by no 
 " means becomes a ruler of the country, have repeat- 
 " edly occurred on the part of the former rulers of 
 " Oude, so much so that blame on that account has 
 " been attached even to the functionaries belonging 
 " to the Government of the Honourable British Com- 
 " pany, to the effect that what was just and proper 
 " has not been done towards the subjects of the ter- 
 " ritory of Oude.' And in the seventh article of this 
 " treaty it is specified, that his Highness the King of 
 u Oude should immediately set about and cordially 
 " attend, conjointly with the Political Resident, to 
 " the affairs relative to the improvement of the 
 " police, and the organization of a system of admi- 
 u nistration of civil justice, and the collection of 
 " revenue in the territory of Oude, i and should your 
 " highness not be pleased to act, which God forbid, 
 " according to the advice and counsel of the Govern- 
 " uient of the Honourable British Company, or of 
 " the Political Resident, and should maladministra- 
 " tion, perfidy, and open tyranny and oppression, 
 " which are so destructive and ruinous to the sub- 
 " jects at any time, take place in the territory of 
 " Oude, the Government of the British Company 
 " shall be at liberty to appoint and depute officers of 
 ." its own, for such a period as it may deem neces- 
 " sary, for the settlement of any portion of the terri- 
 " tory wherein the malpractices above alluded to may 
 " have occurred; and in that case, after receiving 
 " allowance for the whole expenditure, whatever sum 
 44 of money may remain as balance shall be delivered 
 " into the royal treasury/ And this deed of treaty. 
 
123 
 
 " ratified in the year 1837, is an extension of the 
 u deed of treaty of the year 1801 ; as, in the deed, 
 " besides the power of interference by the British 
 " Government, its resolution to interfere, when neces- 
 " sary, for the good management of the territories 
 " is specified." 
 
 The period of probation is then stated. The king 
 is to be allowed two years to put his dominions in 
 order ; should he fail to do this, the following is the 
 nature of the penalty, with the example of Nagpore 
 cited as to its efficacy : 
 
 u And your royal highness may rest assured that 
 " any measures which the British Government may 
 " determine upon for the removal of the malprac- 
 u tices, shall not in the least degree be detrimental 
 " to the rights of your royal highness, nor at all 
 " degrading to your dignity; what I have now re- 
 " solved upon, may be tried as an experiment for a 
 " short time. The British Government shall, to the 
 " utmost of its power, protect the subjects, without 
 " abolishing the authority of the king, and, as far as 
 " possible, without altering the ancient usages. Al- 
 " though the adoption of these measures is very diffi- 
 " cult, yet the accomplishment thereof chiefly depends 
 " upon your royal highness aiding and assisting, with 
 " your heart and soul, the Madaraul Mohem and the 
 " Political Resident, and adopting such measures as 
 " will produce beneficial results ; for instance, I 
 " relate an example of this: the dominion of Nag- 
 " pore having been properly managed on behalf of 
 " the British Government, was afterwards made over 
 " to the proprietors of the country, and the results 
 
124 
 
 " were the preservation of the rights and interests of 
 " the chief ruler, and the increase of revenue as well 
 " as the comforts of the tenants and subjects." 
 
 How shamelessly was the true character of Lord 
 Hardinge's letter perverted. The fact was that the 
 treaty, though ratified by the king, had never re- 
 ceived the consent of. the Directors. Their non- 
 ratification, as to certain clauses only, had been com- 
 municated to the king : he was never informed of 
 the non-ratification of the remainder. On the con- 
 trary, Lord Hardinge, as appears by his letter, 
 treated with the king on the basis that the other 
 clauses were valid and subsisting. Under these cir- 
 cumstances it is quite clear, in law and in good 
 sense, that those clauses are living and operative; 
 and that the Company cannot escape their efficacy 
 on any such pretext as that, for the first time, put 
 forward for them by their unscrupulous lieutenant. 
 
 Let us see what Grotius says as to the effect of 
 silence : 
 
 " In the next place," he writes, " we should know 
 " whether there has been anything on the part of the 
 u sovereign, besides bare silence; for silence alone is 
 " not enough to prove a consent without some thing 
 " or deed, which probably would not have been, if 
 " that agreement had not been approved of. But, if 
 " any such acts happen, which cannot probably be 
 " referred to another cause, then it may justly be 
 " supposed to be ratified." 
 
 What was Lord Hardinge's letter? 
 
 Lord Dalhousie felt the difficulty ; but the job was to 
 be done " per fas aut nefas," and he says to General 
 
125 
 
 Outram, there is no better way of meeting the dif- 
 ficulty than by facing it ! 
 
 He writes as follows : 
 
 " It is very probable that the king, in the course 
 " of the discussions which will take place with the 
 " Eesident, may refer to the treaty negotiated with 
 " his predecessor, in the year. 1837. 
 
 u The Eesident is aware that that treaty was not 
 " continued in force, having been annulled by the 
 " Court of Directors so soon as it was received in 
 " England. The Eesident is further aware that, 
 " although the King of Oude was informed at that 
 " time, that certain provisions of the treaty of 1837, 
 " respecting an increased military force, would not be 
 u carried into effect, the entire abrogation of the 
 " treaty by the Court of Directors was never com- 
 u municated to his Majesty. 
 
 u The effect of this reserve, and want of full 
 u communication, is felt to be embarrassing. It is 
 u the more embarrassing, that the cancelled instru- 
 u ment was still included in a volume of treaties 
 u which was published, in 1845, by the authority 
 " of Government. There is no better way of en- 
 " countering this difficulty than by meeting it full 
 " in the face ! 
 
 " If the king should allude to the treaty of 1837, 
 u and should ask why, if further measures are neces- 
 u sary in relation to the administration of Oude, the 
 " large powers which are given to the British Govern- 
 u ment by the said treaty should not now be put in 
 " force, his Majesty must be informed that the treaty 
 " has had no existence, since it was communicated to 
 
126 
 
 " the Court of Directors, by whom it was wholly 
 " annulled. His Majesty will be reminded that the 
 " Court of Lucknow was informed at the time, that 
 " certain articles of the treaty of 1837, by which the 
 u payment of an additional military force was im- 
 " posed upon the king, were to be set aside. It 
 " must be presumed, that it was not thought neces- 
 " sary at that time to make any communication to 
 " his Majesty regarding those articles of the treaty 
 " which were not of immediate operation; and that a 
 u subsequent communication was inadvertently neg- 
 " lected. The Resident will be at liberty to state 
 " that the Governor-General in Council regrets that 
 " any such neglect should have taken place, even 
 u inadvertently." 
 
 This latter suggestion was certainly very con- 
 siderate and handsome on the part of Lord Dalhousie, 
 and no doubt likely to prove very consoling and 
 satisfactory to the king. 
 
 The proclamation, after setting forth a long cata- 
 logue of misgovernment, proceeds entirely upon the 
 right of interfering in the internal administration of 
 the kingdom for the protection of the people, who, be 
 it remembered, had made no appeal to us. 
 
 Only a very short time before, when the Resident 
 at Hyderabad had recommended, as a temporary 
 measure, the assumption of some of the provinces of 
 that kingdom, Lord Dalhousie thus wrote : 
 
 " Whether it would not be for the mutual advan- 
 " tage of the Government of India, and of the sub- 
 " jects of the Nizam, that his territories should be 
 " transferred to other hands; whether that event 
 
127 
 
 44 might not, even now, if it were desired, by some 
 ' means be brought to pass; whether at some time 
 " the state of Hyderabad will not become a portion 
 44 of the British Empire in India, are questions which 
 44 I refuse to entertain. 
 
 44 I refuse to entertain them, because we acknow- 
 44 ledge the Nizam as an independent prince. We 
 44 have bound ourselves by treaty to shield him from 
 44 an enemy, and we have guaranteed to him the 
 44 exercise over his own subjects, of his own sole and 
 44 absolute authority. The British Government there- 
 44 fore cannot honestly entertain, and has never en- 
 44 tertained, any intention of open aggression on the 
 44 independence of this prince. It nourishes no secret 
 44 invidious design of standing aloof, whilst his country 
 44 is fast crumbling under the weight of his own in- 
 44 capacity and folly. 
 
 44 But so long as the alleged evils of his highness' s 
 44 government are confined within his own limits, 
 44 the Government of India must observe religiously 
 4 * the obligations of its own good faith. It has no 
 "just right to enter upon a system of direct inter- 
 " ference in the internal affairs of his highnesses 
 44 kingdom, which is explicitly forbidden by the po- 
 44 sitive stipulations of treaty, which would be utterly 
 44 repugnant to the wishes of the Sovereign, ur ally, 
 44 and is unsought by the people over whom he 
 44 rules." 
 
 From this it is apparent how completely Lord 
 Dalhousie was the creature of expediency ; how 
 he could turn round upon himself as the occasion 
 suited; how unscrupulous he was in the means by 
 
128 
 
 which he carried out the policy which he had pre- 
 determined. 
 
 Let it be remembered that the kings of Oude had 
 lent us many millions of money in the hour of distress, 
 and that Lord Dalhousie thus paints their relations to 
 us, and the picture will be about as black and com- 
 plete as possible : 
 
 " The rulers of Oude, however unfaithful they may 
 " have been to the trust confided to them however 
 " gross may have been their neglect, however 
 " grievous their misgovernment of the people com- 
 " mitted to their charge have yet ever been faithful 
 " and true in their adherence to the British power. 
 " No wavering friendship has ever been laid to their 
 " charge. Tliey have long acknowledged our power, 
 u have submitted without a murmur to our supre- 
 " macy, and have aided us as best they could in 
 u the hour of our utmost need. 11 
 
 Lord Dalhousie appears to have been uncommonly 
 anxious to complete the spoliation of Oude personally, 
 before the arrival of his successor. After despatching 
 his general letter on the subject to the Court of 
 Directors on the 18th June, 1855, he writes them a 
 short note on the 3rd of July, modestly suggesting 
 that perhaps his eight years' experience might have 
 made him the fittest instrument for completing the 
 work, and submitting to their good will and pleasure. 
 Now the Court of Directors, in any matter which 
 concerns appropriation of other people's property, are 
 as eager as the bandit in " Gil Bias," who says to 
 Scipio, wondering at the weight of the portmanteau 
 on his shoulders " Apprenez que lorsqu'il s'agit 
 
129 
 
 " cVenlever le bien d'autrui, j'emporterai 1'arche de 
 " Noe." 
 
 " They lap suggestions as a cat laps milk." Upon 
 this hint, therefore, they spake, and forthwith Oiide 
 ceased to be. An army was gathered silently around 
 the devoted kingdom. Entreaties, menaces, bribes 
 were offered to induce the king to sign the treaty, 
 but in vain : he refused this cup of degradation. 
 His demeanour was calm and dignified. "I will 
 " throw myself at the feet of the queen," he said; and 
 his kingdom was taken from him. His people were 
 governed by the commanding force into silent sub- 
 mission ; and with that blind superficial vanity which 
 has induced us to believe that we have only to will a 
 thing arid it is done, the subjection of the kingdom 
 was deemed complete : Lord Dalhousie was flattered 
 to the skies for the masterly way in which he had 
 compassed so important a revolution without blood- 
 shed. The " Commissioner " and his myrmidons 
 stepped at once into their respective offices, and com- 
 menced operations, as though they had been familiar 
 with the task all their lives. The people meanwhile 
 made no sign their sullen anger was mistaken for a 
 thankful acceptance of the new dispensation. All 
 the elements of danger all the smouldering fires 
 ready to burst forth without a moment's warning 
 were overlooked or despised; no extraordinary mea- 
 sures of precaution were taken ; the reported fact that 
 40,000 men in the ranks of the British army were 
 enlisted from Oude, and that they represented the 
 feelings of 400,000 souls in that kingdom, was for- 
 gotten, and with a confiding simplicity, truly charm- 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 ing, Lord Dalhousie welcomed Lord Canning on his 
 arrival at Calcutta with the first flashed message of 
 the electric telegraph just completed between the two 
 kingdoms as the Emperor of France might tender a 
 bouquet to his empress " All is quiet in Oude." 
 
 It is the custom of Lord Dalhousie's admirers to 
 compare his reign with that of Lord Wellesley. No 
 analogy can be more faulty, flattering as it may be 
 to the vanity of the eulogized. Lord Wellesley 
 arrived in India at a time when it was a question who 
 were to be its rulers the Europeans or the great 
 Native powers. They had arms in their hands, they 
 must be subdued or subdue; the struggle was sure to 
 be a hard one. They were enemies of the most 
 formidable character. His weapon was the warrior's 
 sword. Lord Dalhousie made a bloodless onslaught 
 upon titular princes powerless, and our friends. 
 His weapon was the pettifogging special pleader's 
 pen. Lord Wellesley foresaw every danger; pro- 
 vided for every contingency. Lord Dalhousie lulled 
 himself into the falsest security ; he took no thought 
 for the most obvious elements of peril. I take 
 the following striking observations from the 
 Athenceum : 
 
 " The annexation of Oude was a consequence of 
 " the report on the state of the country, by Sir James 
 " Outram, Resident at Lucknow. But there were 
 " other things, which, if not antecedents, should at 
 " least have been consequences, of that report. Had 
 " a statesman like Lord Wellesley been at the helm 
 " of affairs, they would undoubtedly have been so : 
 " for Lord Wellesley was a man who took a clear and 
 
131 
 
 " comprehensive view of all the circumstances, pos- 
 " sible as well as patent, which should attend a 
 " measure. He neglected no precaution : he threw 
 " away no chance. He was as ambitious as any 
 " Governor- General that ever ruled in India; but he 
 " never suffered his vaulting ambition to overleap 
 " itself, and leave, in its flight, a train of evils 
 " behind. The plans by which he carried out his 
 u measures were reflections of his comprehensive 
 " mind. They were probably as complete as any 
 " human contrivance could be ; and it will be ad- 
 " mitted that whatever he was suffered to carry out 
 " to his premeditated conclusion, fell into its place 
 " with as few disadvantages to the political and 
 " social state of Indian society, as any radical opera- 
 " tion could well be attended with. 
 
 " We are speaking of the means, not the morale, of 
 " a measure. Whether it was right, or whether it 
 " was wrong, for Lord Wellesley to make war upon 
 " Tippoo, is not the question here. But the destruc- 
 u tion of that sovereign was admirably compassed. 
 " Every difficulty was foreseen, and every exigency 
 " met; and the dynasty of Tippoo was plucked up, 
 " flung aside, and replaced by a new arrangement 
 " which fitted into its place as if it had been there 
 " untouched from the days of Vishnu. 
 
 " There are, however, minds, and those of no 
 " inferior order, which, when they fix a greedy eye 
 " upon an object, utterly lose sight of the difficulties 
 " with which it is surrounded. This, however, is not 
 " courage ; but narrowness of view, incapacity, 
 " monomania. 
 
 K2 
 
132 
 
 " We all knew Lord Dalhousie's peculiar pro- 
 " pensity it was that of annexation ; but beyond 
 " the glory of the acquisition of territory, and 
 " beyond the prestige of covering them with extrava- 
 " gant public works of questionable utility, his lord- 
 " ship heeded little of consequences. The relations 
 " of the new conquest with the old possessions, and 
 " the effect of its addition to the British territories 
 " upon the minds of the people within and without 
 " it, were questions which never seem to have occur- 
 " red to him. He did not stop to consider in what 
 " light the transaction might appear to the people of 
 " India. Eager for fame and honours, and confident 
 " in his resources, his vision gloated only upon the 
 " coveted prize, and many circumstances of serious 
 " moment escaped his observation altogether. 
 
 " In the case of Oude, this blindness, neglect, 
 " monomania, call it what you will, is most 
 u strikingly apparent. The mistrustful and ex- 
 " ci table population of India, and especially of the 
 " North West Provinces, required to have their 
 " suspicions appeased, and their prejudices quieted, 
 " by permanent and striking examples of British 
 " good faith, honour, and generosity. The King of 
 " Oude, in the eyes of the whole Northern population 
 " of our empire, was a living monument of British 
 " magnanimity and self denial. His kingdom was 
 " the richest province possessed by any native prince 
 u federated under the British Government. It was 
 " entirely surrounded by the resistless waves of the 
 u British power. And yet, for fifty years, such had 
 " been the honour of the Government of India, that 
 
133 
 
 " it had not only abstained from invading the pre- 
 " rogatives of the sovereign of Oude, but had abso- 
 " lutely condescended on several pressing occasions 
 " to borrow money of him. But it is not our inten- 
 " tion here to criticise the abstract right or wrong of 
 " the annexation of Oude, or the Imperial advantages 
 " or disadvantages of the policy of consolidation. 
 " What we mean to insist upon is this: that the 
 " measure was carried out in the most reckless man- 
 " ner, and that most important circumstances con- 
 " nected with it were entirely overlooked. In Lord 
 " Dalhousie's opinion, all that was necessary was 
 " simply to march a small body of troops to Luck- 
 " now, and issue the fiat of annexation. This done, 
 " everything, it was supposed, would go on in an 
 " easy, plain-sailing manner. The inhabitants might 
 " not be satisfied ; the Zemindars might grumble a 
 " little in their forts ; the Budmashes might frown 
 " and swagger in the bazaar ; but what of that ? 
 " The power of the British is invincible, and her 
 " armies could, if ft were necessary, defeat ten 
 " thousand times as many traitors as might be ex- 
 " pected to exist in Oude. 
 
 " There was here, however, a consideration, not a 
 " slight one, which escaped his lordship. Could his 
 u army be depended upon ? Was there any tendency 
 " to disaffection within the ranks ? If these ques- 
 " tions could not be answered in the affirmative, it 
 " was little use to brag about the strength and invin- 
 " cibleness of the British empire. But Lord Dal- 
 u housie did not even take the trouble to put them 
 " to himself. The annexation of Oude was his last 
 
134 
 
 " act. The army of Bengal he left unaltered. He 
 " did not even let fall an expression that any altera- 
 " tion in it was required. What he did say, sug- 
 " gested the reverse. He left India, and declared 
 " her to be at peace without and within. 
 
 " Yet nothing might have been plainer to him 
 " than that the elements of great danger were stored 
 " up in the ranks of the Bengal army. He had, he 
 " declared, read with the utmost attention the report 
 " of Sir James Outram, on the state of Oude. Yet 
 " in his measures for the annexation of that country, 
 " he recklessly ignored the following paragraph : 
 " c Every agricultural family in Oude, perhaps with- 
 " out exception, besides many of other occupations, 
 u sends one of its members into the British army.' 
 u The number of Oude sepoys in our service was 
 " estimated by Colonel Sleeman at 40,000 ; and he 
 u thought that the relatives they represent might 
 " probably amount to ten times that number, or 
 u nearly one-tenth of the entire population of Oude. 
 " This fact, well known to everyone, and here deli- 
 " berately stated in one of the nfost important 
 " documents ever presented to him, made not the 
 " slightest impression on Lord Dalhousie. No pre- 
 " cautions were taken in consequence. Supposing 
 " the people of the territories of an Indian prince to 
 u be attached to their Nawab and no one possessing 
 " experience doubts the fact the annexation of 
 " Oude, broad-cast the seeds of disaffection in nearly 
 " every regiment in the Bengal service. Yet this 
 " fact, so important, so open, so unmistakeable, 
 " escaped the sagacity which was rewarded by news- 
 
135 
 
 u paper and Parliamentary ovations and a pension of 
 " 5,000 a year. c The eminently practical ' states^ 
 " man was utterly unconscious, or profoundly reck- 
 " less, of the consequences that might issue from his 
 " act. The sepoys enlisted from Oude were left in 
 " their respective corps, there to conspire, rebel, and 
 " murder. It would have been no great stretch of 
 " statesmanship to have drafted them off into sepa- 
 u rate regiments, and brigaded them in provinces of 
 " the empire far distant from Oude, and far away 
 " from the turbulent population of the North West 
 " Provinces. The Emperor of Austria is too wise to 
 " garrison Hungary with Hungarians : yet Hunga- 
 " rians are very different to Oriental assassins under 
 " the influence of bang and superstition. We do not 
 " say that the annexation of Oude is the cause of the 
 " rebellion and all the detestable murders that have 
 " accompanied it; but we believe it had its full share 
 u in these horrible transactions, and we are certain 
 " that it was carried out in reckless defiance of the 
 " most ordinary prudence, and the most obvious 
 u consequences." 
 
 The retainers and admirers of Lord Dalhousie 
 obtained fat places just as he was resigning the vice- 
 royal dignity ; and his lordship no doubt con- 
 gratulated himself in secret on having brought his 
 government to a conclusion by so every way appro- 
 priate an act as the appropriation of another king- 
 dom. He left the empire "in peace without and 
 " within," and with the comfortable assurance that, 
 looking round the whole political horizon, he thought 
 it might be " safely said that there seems no quarter 
 
136 
 
 " from which formidable war can reasonably be 
 " apprehended at present." 
 
 Tins, with Oude smouldering in the centre of a 
 disaffected Brahminical soldiery largely recruited 
 from its bosom ! why if Lord Ellenborough had treated 
 Gwalior in the same way, at this moment we should 
 probably have lost our hold in India, nay, perhaps 
 have had all our throats cut: though, as a gentle- 
 man in high office told me, that was a merely personal 
 question, and would not prevent our country 
 revenging our death and retaking India; not per- 
 haps so easy a task as it was formerly, for we have 
 taught the sepoys the art of war and the science of 
 great guns, nor would officers be wanting from Eussia 
 or elsewhere to direct their battalions against our 
 re-occupying force. 
 
 Lord Ellenborough gave the Gwalior man a good 
 hiding, and left him with an assurance, that if he did 
 not behave himself he would get a second and im- 
 proved edition of the same work. In our extremity 
 he is now our statmchest friend. Should we not have 
 had also the assistance of the King of Oude, if we 
 had not deposed him? 
 
 There is another Indian statesman, whose name is 
 inseparably connected with Oude. Warren Hastings 
 on his return to England, was gibbetted on a parlia- 
 mentary impeachment, and the slow torture was pro- 
 longed for years. Lord Dalhousie has a coronet, and 
 a pension of 5,000 a year. How different are men's 
 lots : 
 
 Illc crucem sceleris pretium tulit, hie diadema ! 
 
 I have detailed these cases at some length, because 
 
137 
 
 it is desirable that their leading features should be 
 thoroughly known; for though I do not ask others to 
 share this opinion with me, I conceive that they have 
 had no small share in causing the suspicion with which 
 we are now universally regarded. Does any one sup- 
 pose that these things can be done without being ob- 
 served by the people at large; or that they are 
 entirely indifferent to them? I do not mean to 
 say, that there exists any patriotic feeling in 
 favor of all the various thrones, such as would 
 cause the people to rise in their defence ; but 
 that they view these acts with the greatest dis- 
 satisfaction is certain. Thousands, whose very 
 existence depended upon the expenditure of the 
 royal revenues among them, have been suddenly 
 cast adrift on the world: men, whose forefathers 
 had for a century found military service with the 
 various rajahs, and who looked forward to a similar 
 support for their children, find themselves suddenly 
 disbanded; some, it is true, pensioned; but others cast 
 on the world, without a trade or profession to fall 
 back upon. The jewellers, the goldsmiths, the gar- 
 deners, the flower-sellers, all those for whom the 
 habits of an eastern court found remunerative em- 
 ployment, have lost their livelihood. The dependents 
 and servants are in the same predicament ; and each 
 sees only ruin and starvation staring him in the 
 face ! 
 
 Do the few remaining kings and princes not ob- 
 serve these acts with trembling and alarm? Why the 
 distant King of Candahar reproached Dost Mahomed 
 for his folly in having entered into a treaty with us, 
 
138 
 
 and pointed out what must sooner or later be his fate 
 from the condition into which all who had entered 
 into obligations with us had fallen ! Is it not natural 
 to suppose that those who have fallen, and those who 
 fear they are about to fall, have their emissaries and 
 their correspondents in various parts of the country ; 
 the one endeavouring to recover what has been taken 
 away, the others to prevent a similar contingency? 
 I make little doubt that in Oude, and among 
 the Bengal troops, this has been the case to a 
 very considerable extent; and the following extracts 
 from Indian Journals bear closely on this point. I 
 quote from the Athenceum : 
 
 u The following is an extract from a private letter 
 received from a gentleman of tried abilities and 
 long experience in the Northern provinces of the 
 Empire : 
 
 " ' The general disaffection towards the British 
 " Government which prevails throughout the country 
 a has nothing to do with caste or religious prejudices. 
 u The objection to the cartridges was a mere pretence 
 u for the outbreak, which was premeditated, and for 
 " which Mahomedans and Hindoos were equally pre- 
 " pared. The real origin and cause of that disaffec- 
 u tion has been political misgovernment, and the 
 " unscrupulous annexation policy which has charac- 
 " terized Lord Dalhousie's administration, and which 
 u has been approved and rewarded with a pension at 
 " home. It is a gross error or perversion of truth to 
 " affirm that our rule and our system of government 
 " is preferred by natives of rank, and influence in 
 " India, to that of their own princes. It cannot be 
 
139 
 
 " doubted that the deposition of the King of Oude 
 " and the annexation of his territory has caused 
 " great discontent in that province, of which most 
 " of our Sepoys are inhabitants, and where their 
 " families reside; but in utter disregard of the 
 u feelings, wishes, and interests, of the inhabitants of 
 " countries annexed, and in violation of every prin- 
 " ciple of justice and good faith, the chief object of 
 " Lord Dalhousie's Government has been the annihi- 
 " lation of every native state, wherever an op- 
 " portunity offered, or any plausible pretext. As 
 u regards Oude, it was the mal-administration of the 
 " king; but the present state of the British territories 
 u appears no less to demand a more efficient Govern- 
 a raent. What but political misgovernment has pro- 
 " duced the discontents that are said to prevail on 
 u the part of the Mahomedan population in and near 
 " Madras. The causes of that disaffection is well 
 " known to the inhabitants of that presidency. What 
 " but political misgovernment and injustice has 
 " caused so many appeals to England from the 
 " acts and proceedings of the Indian Government ! 
 u There was a time when it was declared to be con- 
 " trary to the honor and interests of the British 
 " Government, to seek the extension of our Eastern 
 " dominions : but for some years past annexation 
 " has been the main object of the Government, and it 
 u will ere long be seen how far extension of territory 
 u has been productive of increase of revenue, or the 
 " preservation of the peace and good order of the 
 u country.' 
 
 " .Seemingly coincident with the views expressed 
 
140 
 
 " in the above letter," writes the Athen&uw, " arc 
 " the following hints from a sepoy, regarding the 
 " probable causes which have led to the present 
 u mutiny, and which are furnished to the Lahore 
 " Chronicle by a correspondent of that journal " : 
 
 " c Well, So-and-so, what do you think of the 
 " doings at Delhi, and Meerut, and other places,' I 
 " remarked to a fine Goorka of my corps, a man who 
 " has served nineteen years, an escaped prisoner 
 " from Cabul, where he was made a Mussulman of? 
 " ' Sahib/ said he, looking round to see there was no 
 " one near, ' I've served in different regiments, and 
 " among Poorbeeahs, before I was transferred to 
 " this, and I've heard the Poorbeeahs of this regi- 
 " ment talking. Cartridges have nothing do with 
 " it, that's only buhana ; * listen, Sahib : the first 
 " thing that alarmed and made them suspicious was 
 " the order to enlist 200 Seikhs and Punjabees into 
 u each line regiment ; they then, thinking that 
 " foreign enlistment would not end with only 200 
 u men per regiment, began to fear that the day was 
 u coming when they were no longer to be cocks of 
 " the walk, and also, when they were no longer to be 
 " in the majority, and suit their own pleasure about 
 " going on foreign service. At the top of this came 
 " the hookum, swearing in for general service all 
 " recruits. All this has been burning into their 
 " souls, and the annexation of Oude has brought 
 u things to a* climax.' c What has Oude annexed to 
 " do with it,' I exclaimed; 4 when I was with my 
 
 * A pretext. 
 
141 
 
 " own regiment, the men appeared to like the idea.' 
 " i True, Sahib,' was the reply, c they liked it at 
 " first, for they thought you paid them to conquer, 
 u keep, and tax other countries, but that you would 
 u not exact tax to any amount from the country 
 u where they came from, from their families, but 
 " they found the difference; that instead of being 
 " better, they are worse off than before; that they, 
 u the lordly Brahmins and Rajpoots cannot lord it as 
 u they expected; that their Bhaees in the Nawabee 
 u song couldn't dumka the Nawab, and live free as 
 " they did before; in short, that they like not the 
 u fraternity and equality of our law in Oude. Then, 
 " Sahib, you forget it is no longer a Mussulman 
 " Nawab now at Lucknow, and the faithful are now 
 " small, also. As regards the inhabitants of Delhi 
 " raising their heads, are not the inhabitants of both 
 ci cities, as well as the cities themselves, brothers 
 " and sisters, as regards the Mahoniedan portions ? 
 " Put these together, and form your own conclu- 
 u sions, Sahib,' * was the cautious wind-up. In the 
 u same way, Mr. Editor, form your own opinion of 
 u the Sepoy's yarn." 
 
 The transmission of the cakes has never been 
 satisfactorily explained. The signal, whatever it 
 was, passed across the country with the rapidity 
 of the Bearded Flame in " Agamemnon," or the Fiery 
 Cross in the " Lady of the Lake." It argues combina- 
 tion and secrecy, and a widely-spread mutual under- 
 
 * Subsequent events seem now pointing conclusively to the 
 annexation of Oude, as the real cause of the rebellion. 
 
142 
 
 standing ; and I believe it will be found to have 
 emanated from others than the sepoys. 
 
 But the evil by no means stops here : the same 
 all-absorbing policy has been extended downwards 
 from rank to rank, to the dregs of the people ; and 
 over every acre of land in the kingdom.* We have 
 not contented ourselves with sweeping in the terri- 
 tories of potentates ; we have grasped the possessions 
 
 * NANA SAHEB. No idea can be formed as yet of the utter 
 state of disorganization which prevails in the Upper Provinces. 
 Trade is wholly destroyed, the public highways everywhere 
 overrun by thieves, the dispossessed Zemindars in nearly all the 
 villages have emerged into daylight, and ousted their successors. 
 Scores of petty Rajahs have proclaimed their independence, and 
 make up for defects of title by ceaseless activity in the work of 
 robbery and murder. Of all the villains engaged in those con- 
 genial pursuits, Nana Saheb would appear to be the most blood- 
 thirsty. This man is the adopted son of the late ex-Peishwa, 
 Bajee Rao, and as such laid claim to the reversion of his enor- 
 mous pension ; but the Government overruled his pretensions, 
 and he is now reaping the harvest of his revenge. He has or- 
 ganized a corps of assassins, and not a day passes in which 
 some poor hunted European is not brought in, and literally 
 hacked to pieces. His last act of butchery was of wholesale 
 character, and it is a pity that he has not a thousand lives to 
 make expiation for it. An alarm had broken out, causelessly 
 as it seems, at Futtyghur, and 132 persons, men, women, and 
 children, in fifty boats left that place for Allahabad, but none 
 of them reached their destination. They had advanced as far 
 as Bhitoor, when Nana Saheb first fired upon them, and then 
 pursued them in dhingies. The boats were boarded, and their 
 occupants landed and dragged to the parade ground at Cawn- 
 pore. There they were huddled into a heap and fired at, but 
 the work of destruction proving too slow, the wretches closed 
 in with their tulwars and hacked them to death. Friend of 
 India, July 2. 
 
143 
 
 of Polygars and Zemindars, whenever a plausible j 
 opportunity of applying the doctrine of " escheat " 
 has presented itself. Thus we have quite destroyed 
 the Polygars in the South, and nearly extinguished 
 the Zemindars in the Northern Circars. Sometimes 
 we succeed to a childless widow ; sometimes we sell 
 up a thriftless noble who has fallen into arrears; 
 sometimes we take his estates into nursing, and our 
 management is so splendid, that after a season they 
 have to be brought to the hammer, and the Company 
 purchases them in at the nominal upset price. Such 
 was the lot of Luchmepully N aidoo, the great Vasoo- 
 reddy Zemindar. After twenty years of litigation 
 to establish his title to his paternal estate, he was 
 successful, only to find that in the interim the Com- 
 pany, who had taken his acres into their own keep- 
 ing, had purchased his broad lands, perhaps as large 
 as an English county, at a nominal price of 500 
 rupees; the sale being ordered, partly on account of 
 the accumulation of arrears into which the estate 
 had fallen during the Company's incumbency, partly 
 on account of arrears accrued through the mis- 
 management of the defendant, to whom, the Zemin- 
 dary had been delivered by the Sudder, without any 
 security, in spite of express regulation and the well- 
 known practice of the Court! The Company, in 
 their " benevolence," as they call it, allow Luchme- 
 pully a small pension, and either from distaste for 
 further litigation, or from inability to find the neces- 
 sary funds, he seems to have subsided into passive 
 acquiescence with what he cannot help. Such acts 
 as this are little calculated to engender any good 
 
144 
 
 feeling towards us. The connections of these Zemin- 
 dars ramify widely among the people. Many of 
 their poorer relatives and dependents are to be found 
 in the army, and the tidings which they hear at a 
 distance, of the fall of the family house, whether it 
 be through the slow grinding of the Eevenue process 
 in Madras, or the swifter crushing of the Civil Courts 
 in the North- West, are not likely to allay any dis- 
 affection already existing from other causes. But 
 we do not stop even with the Zemindars. There is 
 in every district a large class, who, for good services, 
 or other causes, have received grants of rent-free 
 lands. In many instances parties claim as Enam- 
 dars, who have really no other title than that of long 
 possession ; and it may seem very plausible that such 
 parties should be ousted, or made to contribute 
 towards the general expenses of Government.* But 
 it is surely bad policy to seek to disturb parties, who, 
 although they can produce no grant to establish their 
 original title, have nevertheless acquired a title to 
 the land by long possession. Yet such is our course : 
 in Bellary we are now striving to enquire into the 
 titles of Eriamdars ; a measure recommended by Sir 
 Thomas Munro thirty years ago; practicable proba- 
 bly then, but most unjust now, after thirty years 
 undisturbed possession. And it is thus that the 
 Enam Commission in Bombay is spoken of. I ex- 
 cerpt from the Athenceum : 
 
 " The Madras Government on a recent occasion, 
 
 * This might easily be done, to a great extent, by making 
 them pay for Government water whenever supplied to them. 
 
145 
 
 " in ordering that a number of Enamclars should be 
 " converted into life-pensioners, the Enams being 
 " resumed, trusted that no considerable period would 
 " elapse before they were in a position to set on 
 " foot the investigation of Enam tenures generally 
 " throughout the Presidency. 
 
 " Upon the subject of the Bombay Enams, the 
 " Poona Observer, just received, has the following 
 " communication from an c able public servant : ' 
 
 " ' With reference to the insurrection in the 
 " North-West Provinces, and the disaffected state of 
 " parties in this part of the country, don't you think 
 " that the Enam Commission might, for a time at 
 " least, suspend its operations? You cannot imagine 
 " how very unpopular this Commission is, nor indeed 
 " can any one who does not only move about the 
 " country, but have free intercourse with the people. 
 " It was only the other day that a Brahmin called 
 " the head of the Enam Commission an Awatar; and 
 " being curious to know of what god he was consi- 
 " dered an incarnation, was at once told that he was 
 " the personification not of a god but of a demon a 
 " rakshis ! The words were brought out with much 
 " feeling, and many who were standing by partook 
 " of the spirit in which they were uttered. I believe 
 " the results of the enquiries made by the Enam 
 " Commission fall heaviest on the Brahmins; and, 
 " considering that since we sent the Peishwah to end 
 " his days on the banks of the Holy Gunga, they 
 " have been deprived of many sources of emolument 
 " and peculiar privileges, it cannot be wondered at 
 " that they feel very keenly the additional loss of 
 
146 
 
 44 the Enams they have hitherto enjoyed. It is to be 
 " hoped that the insurrectionary spirit will not reach 
 44 Western India; but if it does, you may depend 
 44 that those who have suffered by the operations of 
 44 the Enana Commission will be the first to fan the 
 44 flame of rebellion. It has often occurred to me 
 u that it was extremely impolitic to allow the opera- 
 44 tions of this Commission to extend over so large a 
 44 tract of country as they now do, inasmuch as how- 
 44 ever justly carried on, it was natural they would 
 44 create disaffection wherever they went. Had the 
 44 work been carried on Talooka by Talooka, the 
 44 wide-spread disaffection regarding it would not be 
 44 in existence, and we should have no cause for 
 44 apprehension, however slight. Owing to the pre- 
 44 sent method of carrying on the work, not a single 
 44 Talooka is, I believe, finished, so that not only 
 44 those whose Enams have already been confiscated, 
 44 but those Enamdars who have the confiscation of 
 44 their Enams in anticipation are equally disaffected 
 44 in all the Talookas.' " 
 
 Now, if we reflect upon the necessary consequences 
 of this vast universal effort to make ourselves the 
 sole landlords of the soil, we cannot but come to the 
 conclusion that there is ample cause for the general 
 disaffection of the people. 
 
 One consideration the history of these annexations 
 must surely force upon us: the necessity of forth- 
 with erecting a tribunal before which these disputed 
 questions of construction of treaties and titles may 
 be impartially decided, At present, that construc- 
 tion is put upon the treaty in each case as it arises, 
 
147 
 
 which best suits the interest of the East India Com- 
 pany. They are all-powerful : the other contracting 
 parties are entirely helpless and powerless. They 
 cannot dispute a construction, to which they do not 
 agree, by the only appeal left between really inde- 
 pendent sovereigns or states, the ultima ratio regum, 
 an appeal to arms. They petition Government; the 
 Court of Directors. Some of the wealthier despatch 
 emissaries to England, where they are bewildered by 
 the difficulty of obtaining a hearing. Parliament is 
 occasionally reached by some of the boldest and most 
 fortunate. But Parliament is an unsatisfactory tri- 
 bunal in such cases. The right is ever liable to 
 succumb before India House interest, or Ministerial 
 influence. A question of pure law is made a party 
 question, and the wrong once perpetrated, must be 
 supported at all hazards. Last year it was asserted 
 by Ministers in Parliament, that the India House 
 and the Board of Control were both desirous of sub- 
 mitting Ali Moorad's case to the Judicial Committee 
 of the Privy Council ; but that the best legal autho- 
 rity had decided that this could not be done, even 
 under the large powers of discretionary reference 
 vested in Her Majesty by the Judicial Committee of 
 the Privy Council Act, I presume because there was 
 no suit, touching the matter, pending before the 
 Judicial Committee. But I think it cannot be dis- 
 puted that the Judicial Committee is of all other 
 bodies the tribunal best qualified for hearing and 
 determining the questions between the Company and 
 the princes whom they have plundered. The Judi- 
 cial Committee of the Privy Council comprises not 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 only all the highest legal names in England, but all 
 those of the retired Indian judges who have most 
 distinguished themselves in the East. The tribunal 
 is familiar with Indian questions. A Bar, contain- 
 ing several barristers of great Indian experience and 
 success, as well as the first lawyers in England, 
 practices before it. The questions to be raised are 
 purely those of law and justice ; construction of 
 treaties, and points of Hindoo law, make up the 
 whole dispute, so far as the expediency of obtaining 
 more extensive territory, &c., is not concerned. The 
 matter would thus be discussed purely on legal 
 grounds; the decision could not be biassed by any 
 party or political influence; and whatever the judg- 
 ment in any particular case might be, it would give 
 satisfaction to all parties, at least it would leave no 
 just room for complaint by either. I would suggest, 
 therefore, that this measure be at once adopted ; for 
 we should thus cut off at the very root one great 
 cause, perhaps the greatest cause, of disaffection 
 among our Indian subjects. 
 
 I have already shewn how the annexation policy is 
 a source of weakness instead of strength, by its com- 
 pelling us to spread an already insufficient civil 
 agency over vastly extended territories, and to de- 
 nude our regiments of their European officers, in 
 order to eke out the scanty supply of instruments 
 for civil administration; as well as by the feelings 
 which it has engendered in the minds of the people. 
 That those feelings exist, will not, I am sure, be matter 
 of dispute. But I appeal to the testimony of Met- 
 calfe; though with him I agree that the quality of 
 
149 
 
 our laws, compared with those which foreran them, 
 has perhaps mollified its character. I do not assert 
 that our Government is altogether bad ; such an 
 intolerable evil that the people will not bear the 
 yoke. It is its comparative mildness which has 
 made them bear the yoke so patiently and so long. 
 I find a singular confirmation of my belief in an 
 official report, in 1834, on the " Disposition of the 
 u Inhabitants of the Madras Presidency :" 
 
 " The moderation and justice of our laws must be 
 " expected, eventually, to act beneficially on all our 
 " subjects, but more especially on the Ryots and 
 " poorer classes, who, whilst enjoying protection from 
 " oppression and moderate taxation, are peaceable 
 " and obedient under any Government granting such 
 " freedom; but, unacquainted with their habits and 
 " feelings, and ignorant of the action of our laws 
 " from our intercourse with them being so limited 
 " and so formal, their sentiments and designs are 
 " alike unknown to us, and require us, in conse- 
 u quence, to be more or less on our guard against 
 " those sudden disturbances which are created, and 
 u require to be suppressed in a manner peculiar to 
 " India. Experience shews how often commotions 
 " in India have arisen from causes the most trivial ; 
 " in what a remarkable manner such insurrections 
 " have increased by the overpowering of even a small 
 " detachment of military; and how rapidly such 
 " success has extended the disaffected feelings over a 
 u great extent of country ; and we ought, therefore, to 
 " distrust appearances of tranquillity, and be prepared 
 
150 
 
 " to act with promptitude to crush the conspiracies 
 " at once with overwhelming power, ere the conta- 
 " gion can be spread." 
 
 I could myself furnish abundant instances of the 
 existence of such feeling from my own personal in- 
 tercourse with the Natives of all classes. Only yes- 
 terday, a body of Soucars went to a French mer- 
 chant of great consideration, and, because he was a 
 foreigner, they opened out in a style which they 
 never would have used in the presence of an En- 
 glishman. 
 
 It is but a few weeks ago since I was positively 
 startled by the vehemence and passion of a Native 
 gentleman, the interpreter of the Supreme Court, 
 a person of rare acquirements speaking, reading, 
 and writing some sixteen languages a man of great 
 power of thought, wealthy, and now a member of 
 the University Senate. This gentleman, during the 
 retirement of the judges, when the conversation at 
 the bar table chanced to turn on the condition of the 
 Natives, dashed his clenched fist down, and, suiting 
 the action to the word, exclaimed, " I would lay 
 " down my head to-morrow, if I knew that thereby 
 " I could raise my countrymen from the corpse-like 
 " torpor, social and political, in which they are all 
 "sunk!" 
 
 What the condition of the people is in Madras, 
 the Torture Report and the disclosures of the state 
 of administration of justice sufficiently declare. 
 What it is in Bengal, and how far such a state of 
 society is compatible with internal peace, let the 
 
151 
 
 petition of the missionaries of Bengal to the Go- 
 vernor-General testify.* Let this document also 
 serve to decide whether the condition of Oude is 
 worse than that of Bengal. I find a precis of this 
 document ready to my hand in the article on Lord 
 Dalhousie's Minutes in the New Quarterly: 
 
 44 The document," writes the reviewer, " is pub- 
 44 lished in extenso in Allen's Indian Mail of the 
 44 31st of October last, a paper under the patronage 
 44 of the Directors, and therefore of excellent au- 
 44 thority in a case which tells against them so deeply 
 " as this does. The missionaries begin by stating 
 44 that they are in the habit of meeting monthly for 
 " conference concerning such matters as relate to 
 u the progress of the gospel in India, and that they 
 44 have frequently and carefully considered at their 
 u meetings the social as well as the spiritual con- 
 44 dition of the people, adding, that they have had 
 44 many opportunities of judging, both from personal 
 44 observation and from intercourse with residents in 
 44 the interior, what that condition really is. They 
 44 go on to say that if they believed that the people 
 44 were suffering from no evils but such as are being 
 44 removed, or that their moral character was the 
 44 sole cause of their calamities, they would not come 
 44 forward to address the Government on the subject; 
 44 but they say that they have long entertained the 
 44 conviction that the circumstances of the case call 
 44 on them to overcome all repugnance to bearing 
 
 * I see, by the last mail, that it has been moved for in the 
 House of Commons, 
 
152 
 
 " their public testimony on behalf of the people, 
 " and they say that, with that view, they presented 
 " a petition to both Houses of Parliament prior to 
 " the inquiry into Indian affairs in 1852. 
 
 " In that petition they quote themselves as stating 
 " that there is a vast amount of social disorganiza- 
 " tion and suffering in the whole country that 
 " many evils with which the Government, as such, has 
 " to contend, are on the increase; that in many dis- 
 " tricts of Bengal, neither life nor property is secure ; 
 " that gang robberies of the most daring character 
 " are perpetrated annually in. great numbers with 
 " impunity, and that there are constant scenes of 
 " violence in contentions respecting disputed boun- 
 " daries between the owners of landed estates. That 
 " the radical cause of these evils is, ' the inefficiency 
 " of the police and judicial system,' that the sole pro- 
 u tec tion of the public peace in many places is a body 
 " of policemen, called village Chowkeydars, who are, 
 " in fact, the ministers of the most powerful of their 
 " neighbours rather than the protectors of the peo- 
 " pie that the body of peace officers paid directly 
 " by the State will, on inquiry, be found to be entirely 
 " insufficient for the great districts for which they 
 " are provided; but that, few as they are, they will 
 " also be found to be oppressors of the people 
 " that the records of the Criminal Courts, and the 
 " experience of every resident in the districts of 
 " Bengal, will bear testimony to the facts, that no 
 " confidence can be placed in the police force, either 
 " the regular force or the village Chowkeydars that 
 " it is their practice to extort confessions by torture; 
 
153 
 
 " and that while they are powerless to resist the 
 " gangs of organized burglars or dacoits, they are 
 u corrupt enough to connive at their atrocities. 
 
 " The missionaries go on to say, that a strict and 
 " searching inquiry into the state of the rural popu- 
 " lation of Bengal would lead to the conclusion that 
 " they commonly live in a state of poverty and 
 " wretchedness, produced principally by the present 
 " system of landed tenures, and the extortion of the 
 u Zemindars, aggravated by the inefficiency and 
 u cruelties of the peace officers, who are paid by 
 " the Chowkeydaree tax, or by Government. That 
 " a well organised police, with a more extensive and 
 " more effective judicial system, would do much to 
 u check the outrages which arise from disputes 
 " about land; but that, from the want of a complete 
 " survey of the estates of the country, of a regis- 
 " tration act to settle titles, and of laws to obviate 
 " the infinite mischief of the universal system of 
 " secret trusts, there is so much uncertainty about 
 " the landed tenures and boundaries in Bengal, that 
 " capitalists generally dread to purchase such pro- 
 " perty, and those who do, too frequently keep 
 " bodies of armed clubmen, to take and keep by force 
 u the extent of land to which they deem themselves 
 " entitled. Between contending proprietors, amidst 
 " scenes of constant conflict, and a prey to the cor- 
 " ruption and the oppression of the police, the 
 " tenant is reduced, not merely to beggary, but also 
 " in many cases to a state of the most abject and 
 " pitiable servitude. The memorialists then add, 
 " that a separate petition was presented to Parlia* 
 
154 
 
 " ment in 1853, signed by 1,800 Christian inhabi- 
 u tants of Bengal, in which they stated that the 
 " police of the lower provinces totally fails, as 
 u respects the prevention of crimes, apprehension of 
 " offenders, and protection of life and property, but 
 " it is become an engine of oppression, and a great 
 " cause of the corruption of the people : that torture 
 " is believed to be extensively practised on persons 
 " under accusation ; and that all the evil passions 
 " are brought into play, and ingenuities of all 
 " kinds, both by people and police, are resorted to ; 
 " and they add, that this petition also bore strong 
 " and emphatic testimony to the wretched condition 
 " of the people, and the unsatisfactory state of the 
 " judicial system. 
 
 " The memorialists proceed to observe, that they 
 " noticed with extreme regret, that the Parlia- 
 " mentary inquiry into Indian affairs was brought to 
 " a close before this subject of the social condition of 
 " the people was opened. 
 
 u It may be thought that we have quoted enough 
 " from this document to show the real character of 
 " Lord Dalhousie's administration, which, while an- 
 " nexing countries on every side on the plea of 
 " rescuing the people from the alleged oppressions 
 " of Native princes, could leave such atrocities to 
 u be practised openly within his own government 
 " from first to last, without, as far as appears to the 
 " public, one single effort to redress. The memo- 
 u rialists, indeed, admit as some excuse for him, the 
 u pressure of many other urgent subjects, which had 
 " prevented his applying his powerful and vigorous 
 
155 
 
 44 mind to the social condition of the people of 
 u Bengal ; as if any other subject could be of more 
 44 urgent obligation on him than the fulfilment of 
 ct this, the first duty of a ruler, to those whom Pro- 
 44 vidence had placed under his care: and as if he 
 " did not alike deprive himself of all moral right, 
 " and of all reasonable colour, to interfere with other 
 " crowned heads on the score of their alleged mis- 
 44 government, when such was the disgraceful state 
 " of the provinces under his own more immediate 
 44 sway. "We see much alleged by him in his minutes 
 44 of the vast superiority of our own system ; but 
 44 there are few persons who will credit the state- 
 u ment in the face of such facts as these. We have 
 44 not come to the end of the memorial, but we have 
 44 given a pretty good specimen of it ; and we shall 
 44 be much surprised if, before we finish with it, 
 44 there be not thought to be quite as much of real 
 u and proved mismanagement in our own provinces 
 " as, if all the tales in the 4 Oude Blue Book " were 
 u true, could be charged against Oude. 
 
 44 To go on with this memorial. The missionaries 
 44 say that, since the last Parliamentary inquiry, in 
 " 1853, into the affairs of India, closed, many cir- 
 44 cumstances and many recent publications have 
 44 deepened their conviction, that the social condition 
 44 of Bengal is deplorable in the extreme, and that 
 44 the representations in their then petition fall short 
 44 of the truth. They notice that, in a minute by the 
 44 Lieutenant-Governor (Mr. Halliday) himself on 
 44 the police and criminal justice in Bengal, it is 
 44 admitted that, for a long series of years, complaints 
 
156 
 
 u have been handed down from administration to 
 " administration regarding the badness of the police 
 " under the Government of Bengal, and as yet very 
 " little has been done to improve it : that throughout 
 " the length and breadth of the country, the strong 
 " prey almost universally upon the weak, and power 
 " is too commonly valued only as it can be turned 
 " into money ; that it is a lamentable, but unques- 
 " tionable fact that the rural police, its position, 
 " character, and stability as a public institution, 
 " have in the lower provinces deteriorated during the 
 " last twenty years ; that the criminal judicatories 
 " certainly do not command the confidence of the 
 u people ; that whether right or wrong, the general 
 " Native opinion is, certainly, that the administra- 
 " tion of criminal justice is little better than a 
 " lottery, in which, however, the best chances are 
 " with the criminal; and this is also very much the 
 " opinion of the European community; that a very 
 " small proportion of heinous offenders are ever 
 " brought to trial, and that it now appears that half 
 " of those brought to trial are sure to be acquitted ; 
 " and that peculiar and accidental circumstances, 
 " partly temporary and partly arising out of the 
 " constitution of the civil service, have at this 
 u moment made the inexperienced condition of the 
 u magistracy more observable than it ever has been 
 u before, while it seems certain that the evil, during 
 " several successive years, is likely very seriously to 
 " increase. 
 
 " The missionaries proceed to observe that they 
 u attach great weight to these remarkable and impor- 
 
157 
 
 " tant declarations, extracted by them from the 
 
 " local Governor's minute, and then go on to add 
 
 " some more home truths of their own. They say 
 
 " that the poor despair of obtaining redress, even 
 
 " against the greatest wrong that may be inflicted 
 
 " on them ; and that they have reason to believe 
 
 " that a spirit of sullen discontent prevails even now 
 
 " among the rural population, from an impression 
 
 " that Government is indifferent to their sufferings. 
 
 " That they feel themselves bound to declare that 
 
 " they view with alarm, as well as sorrow, the con- 
 
 " tinuance of evils which they have so long deplored, 
 
 " and the effects of which are seen in the denioraliza- 
 
 " tion and the sufferings of the people; and that 
 
 " they believe that measures of relief can with safety 
 
 u be delayed no longer, as, from the information 
 
 " they have acquired, they fear that the discontent 
 
 " of the rural population is daily increasing, and 
 
 " that a bitter feeling of hatred is being engendered 
 
 " in their minds. Finally, the memorialists pray 
 
 u that a commission may be appointed, consisting of 
 
 " men of independent minds, unbiassed by official 
 
 " or local prejudices, to institute a searching inquiry 
 
 " into all that now affects the condition of the popu- 
 
 " lation. Such is the picture drawn of Bengal under 
 
 " Lord Dalhousie's vice-royalty ; and drawn, be it 
 
 u remembered, not by powerful foreigners, wanting 
 
 u but a pretext for armed interference, but by a body 
 
 " of Christian missionaries of every denomination, 
 
 " members of the Church Missionary Society, of the 
 
 " London Missionary Society, of the Established 
 
 " Church of Scotland, of the Free Church of Scotland, 
 
158 
 
 44 and of the Baptist Mission. Nor, indeed, are the 
 44 missionaries, who give so powerful a testimony to 
 44 Lord Dalhousie's neglect of the social sufferings of 
 44 the people under his rule, inimical witnesses, so 
 44 their evidence cannot be impeached on this account. 
 44 In many respects they appear to be highly favour- 
 44 able to him, and express a hope that, now that he 
 44 has leisure, his special attention may be directed 
 44 to the lamentable condition of the peasantry of 
 44 Bengal." 
 
 So much for the social condition of that Presidency. 
 
 There is however one very enticing view of the 
 subject of annexation, most assiduously put forward- 
 its s. d. side. It is constantly urged that an- 
 nexation pays. Lord Dalhousie says so. The Friend 
 of India says so. The accounts are so made out 
 as to say so. The India House says so. All 
 their supporters, and all Lord Dalhousie's friends 
 and advisers, echo the cry; and the world at large, 
 without understanding the subject, or taking the 
 trouble to enquire into the truth, joins in the chorus 
 and believes its truth. This view of the matter is no 
 doubt one particularly convincing to our mercantile- 
 minded nation; and the conviction that the policy 
 pays, might well serve to cover a multitude of its 
 sins. But the following extract from a petition pre- 
 sented to Parliament by the late Mr. Hume, (a 
 gentleman especially well qualified to judge of such 
 matters,) and other proprietors of India stock, may 
 perhaps exhibit the matter in rather a startling light; 
 may arrest the attention and excite the doubts of 
 those who have taken for true all they have heard 
 
159 
 
 upon the credit of others, without ever investigating 
 the matter for themselves : 
 
 " The Financial results of Indian annexations from 
 " 1765 to 1853. 
 
 " To the Honorable the Commons of the United 
 ;c Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in Par- 
 " liament assembled. The Petition of the under- 
 " signed Proprietors of East India stock, and other 
 " persons, British subjects, interested in the welfare 
 " and good Government of India ; 
 
 " Sheweth, That from the year 1765 to the year 
 " 1792 the limits of the British territory in India 
 " remained almost stationary; that in the year 
 " 1793, the revenues of British India amounted to 
 " 8,276,770, the charges to 6,066,924, so that 
 " the territory then yielded a surplus revenue of 
 " 2,209,846, whilst the territorial debt amounted 
 " only to 7,129,934. 
 
 " That between the years 1793 and 1813, large 
 " additions were made to that territory. 
 
 " That in the latter year (1813), the gross 
 " revenues of India amounted to 16,764,700, 
 " the charges to 16,899,362, shewing an excess 
 " of charges over revenue of 134,362 : that the 
 " debt in this period of twenty years had increased 
 "from 7,129,934 to 26,970,786; or to nearly 
 " four times its original amount. 
 
 " That the Committee of the House of Commons 
 " on Indian affairs, which sat in 1832, reported to 
 " your Honorable House, that up to that period, the 
 " gross charges of the Indian territory had aug- 
 " mented in a greater proportion than the revenues. 
 
160 
 
 " That in the year 1833 twenty years after 1813- 
 " the revenues amounted to 13,680,165, the charges 
 " to 13,630,767, shewing a surplus of revenue of 
 " 49,398, but which surplus was partly derived from 
 " the sale of the Company's commercial assets in India. 
 
 " That on the 1st of April, 1834, the debt 
 " amounted to 29,832,299. 
 
 " That on the 1st of April, 1849 fifteen years 
 " after when the whole of Hindostan had been 
 " brought under our sway, the revenues of India 
 " amounted to 18,227,350, the charges to 
 " 19,700,465, shewing an excess of charges over 
 " revenue of 1,473,115, while the debt had swollen 
 " to 48,124,119. 
 
 " That from the year 1839-40 to 1849-50, 
 " the total charges of India were 183,369,266, 
 " the total receipts 168,622,144, shewing an 
 " excess of charges over receipts, during those ten 
 "years, of 14,747,062. 
 
 " That in 1839, the debt of India amounted 
 "to 32,269,178; in. 1849, at the end of the 
 "next ten years, it amounted to 48,124,119, 
 " and that the debt has since increased, and is 
 " at this moment increasing. 
 
 " That the revenues of India amounted, in 1839, 
 " to 14,549,262; in 1849, to 18,227,350, shewing 
 " that in this decennial period the debt has increased 
 " several times as fast as the revenue." 
 
 But in 1856 Lord Dalhousie professes that he has 
 by his annexations increased the revenues of the 
 Company by four millions sterling a year. In his 
 retrospective minute he writes thus : 
 
161 
 
 " By tlie several territorial acquisitions which 
 " have just been enumerated, a revenue of not less 
 " than 4,000,000 sterling has been added to the 
 " annual income of the Indian Empire : 
 
 " Punjaub 1,500,000 
 
 " Pegu (1856) 270,000 
 
 " Nagpore (less tribute) . . 410,000 
 
 " Oude 1,450,000 
 
 " Sattara 150,000 
 
 " Thanue 50,000 
 
 " Hyderabad 500,000 
 
 4,330,000 
 
 u Stated in general terms, the revenues of India 
 " have increased from 26,000,000 in 1847-8 to 
 " 30,000,000 in 1854-5, and the income of the 
 " present year, exclusive of Oude, has been estimated 
 " at the same amount of 30,000,000 sterling." 
 
 What are the revenues for 1857 and 1858 
 estimated at? what are they likely to realize? 
 
 Now it is a very easy plan to make even the most 
 bankrupt concern, which has any returns at all, 
 appear flourishing and paying, by exhibiting only the 
 gross returns, without any deduction on account of 
 charges, losses, or any other account on the debit 
 side; and this is precisely the course which Lord 
 Dalhousie has adopted. He takes, for instance, 
 Pegu, a country without a population; he throws 
 vast sums of money into it, for the purpose of roads 
 and other public- works; and, without making 
 allowance for the expenditure, claims credit for all 
 the factitious prosperity suddenly excited. He gar- 
 ni 
 
162 
 
 risons it with seventeen regiments of Madras troops, 
 without which force it would probably not be retained 
 for six months; and allows the charge of all this 
 military force to be debited, not against Pegu, but 
 against Madras: and by this process, while the 
 older territory is made to exhibit a deficiency, the 
 newly annexed territory is made to exhibit a surplus. 
 Sir Erskine Perry thus exposed this fallacy in the 
 House of Commons : 
 
 " Lord Dalhousie stated that the territorial 
 " acquisitions added to our Indian Empire during 
 " his vice-royalty had increased the revenue by a 
 " sum of 4,000,000 a year. But the noble lord 
 " only gave the gross receipts, and said nothing about 
 " the expenditure. Thus the revenue of the Punjaub 
 " was set down at 1,500,000, whereas there was a 
 u real deficiency on that territory of 59,000. So, 
 " again, the revenues of Sattara were stated to be 
 u 180,000, but there was really a deficiency of 
 " 22,000. The income of Nagpore was said to be 
 " 410,000; its real amount was 100,000. The 
 " same remark applied to the noble lord's statements 
 " with regard to the revenue from opium. The 
 " noble lord said it had increased from 2,730,000 
 " in 1847-8 to 4,700,000 in 1854-5; but deducting 
 <c the increased costs of its collection, the net amount 
 " derived from that tax was only 2,945,000." 
 
 This may seem almost incredible; but Indian 
 finance is only another name for Indian juggling; 
 and Sir C. Trevelyan has stamped Indian accounts 
 with their proper character. The real facts are now 
 thoroughly probed in the able article in the New 
 
163 
 
 Quarterly Review, whence I extract the follow- 
 ing: 
 
 " Nagpore, we are told in the minute, brings us 
 "an addition of 450,000 yearly; but in the 
 " Parliamentary accounts it is estimated at 400,000 
 11 only, from which the former tribute of 80,000, 
 " now lost to us, is to be deducted, leaving only 
 " 320,000 in all. It needs no ghost to tell us how 
 " completely our establishments there will absorb 
 '' this trifling sum. Oudc is said in the minute 
 " to bring us 1,450,000, though as yet it has 
 " brought us nothing; and though it only brought 
 " the king half the amount, a sum that will at best 
 " barely cover the additional expense we shall be 
 " compelled to incur there. Finally, Sattara is 
 " set down in the minute as giving us an addition of 
 "150,000 per annum; while the Parliamentary 
 u accounts show that its charges amount to above 
 " 260,000, or nearly double the sum for which Lord 
 44 Dalhousie takes credit. What the petty state of 
 " Jhansi brings we know not, as it is not specified in 
 u the Parliamentary accounts; his lordship tells us 
 " that it brings us 50,000. But after what we 
 1 have seen of his calculations, in regard to other 
 " seizures, we shall take leave to doubt whether it 
 " really brings us any surplus whatever beyond that 
 " large surplus we are laying up for ourselves, of 
 " universal hatred, distrust, and desire to throw off 
 " a yoke so onerous. What does a late mail from 
 " India bring us but deep mutterings from Oude, and 
 " the news that placards declaring death to the 
 " English, as the most faithless of rulers have been 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 " stuck up in all the principal mosques of Madras? 
 " These symptoms may, and we dare say will, 
 " evaporate in smoke; but still they show the fire 
 ' ' smouldering beneath the surface, and which is not 
 " less intense, if we are to believe the missionaries, 
 " whose memorial we quoted, throughout the oldest 
 " of our possessions Bengal. 
 
 " The last of the great annexations mentioned in 
 " the minute are the Hyderabad districts ; but these 
 " go for nothing on either side ; it being a part of 
 " the treaty under which we obtained them, that all 
 " surplus revenue shall be paid to the Nizam after 
 " his debt to us and the charges of management are 
 " paid. 
 
 " We shall now proceed to examine the annexa- 
 u tion policy of Lord Dalhousie, the only point 
 " it remains for us to analyse in the vice-regal reign. 
 " We have not room to enter into the question at 
 " length ; but we may succeed, at any rate, in 
 " indicating the path of inquiry to those who may 
 u be desirous of going into it more deeply than 
 " accords with the necessarily brief notice of a 
 " review. The first point to be considered, in regard 
 " to the territorial acquisitions made by Lord 
 " Dalhousie, is the financial aspect of the question, 
 " and that we have already solved in a general way 
 " in our financial summary. So far from there 
 " being any visible result in the shape of pecuniary 
 " profit derived from them, we have shewn the whole 
 " increase of revenue, in the period of Lord Dalhousie's 
 " government, to be actually less, by a considerable 
 " amount, than the sum which he gives as increase 
 
1G5 
 
 " in the opium revenue alone. Then, again, if we 
 " go into particulars, we find this fact at every turn 
 " confirmed. For instance, his lordship tells us that 
 " the Punjaub annexation has brought an increase to 
 " the Indian revenue of 1,500,000 ; while the Parlia- 
 " mentary accounts estimate a deficit for the last year 
 " given of 59,000 sterling. Yet all the military 
 " charges, except the pay of local troops, are 
 " excluded, and these must amount to many hundred 
 " thousand more. Again, Lord Dalhousie tells us 
 " that the gain on Pegu is 220,000; but we find 
 " from the Parliamentary accounts that its whole 
 " revenue in the last year given, of actual collections, 
 " was only 80,000, and its expenses 160,000, or 
 " double the collections, exclusive of all the military 
 " and marine charges occasioned by it, and which 
 " have added so largely to the drafts on Madras and 
 " Bengal. What these charges may amount to 
 " exactly we know not; but the military, civil, and 
 " political, and marine charges in those presidencies, 
 " have increased since the taking of Burmah (and 
 u no doubt to a considerable extent in consequence of 
 " it) by more than 1,500,000 per annum." And, 
 again, the fallaciousness of the statement is thus 
 further exposed : 
 
 " Lord Dalhousie tells us in the 19th, 20th, and 
 l ' 21st paragraphs of his minute, that by his 
 " territorial acquisition he raised the revenue of 
 " India from twenty-six to thirty millions sterling; 
 " and that the opium revenue increased from 
 " 2,730,000 to 4,700,000 during his vice-regal 
 " reign. But, referring to the Parliamentary 
 
166 
 
 " account, we find that the gross revenue of India 
 " for the last year in which the accounts had been 
 " completed, 1853-4, was less than 27,000,000, 
 " instead of 30,000,000, as stated in the minute, 
 " including costs of collection, and every other 
 " preliminary charge. And we see from the same 
 " documents that, while the net revenue of India for 
 44 the year 1846-7, the year immediately preceding 
 " Lord Dalhousie's advent, was 18,653,000 sterling; 
 " it was, in the year 1853-4, only 20,328,000, 
 " shewing a difference in the whole of merely 
 " 1,678,000, instead of a difference of 4,000,000 
 44 annexations, and nearly 2,000,000 from opium, 
 u as the minute avers. In fact, the Parliamentary 
 " accounts establish incontestably a total absence of 
 44 all the alleged profits on territorial acquisitions; 
 u the whole increase on a comparison of the two 
 44 years leaving exactly 292,000 less than the 
 u increase which Lord Dalhousie, in the above-quoted 
 44 paragraphs, tells us to have occurred in the opium 
 44 revenue alone ! Then, again, as to charges : the 
 44 charges in 1846-7, the year before Lord Dalhousie's 
 " advent, were only 19,624,000, and the deficit 
 44 was only 971,000, though there was in that year 
 44 an unusual amount expended in war charges, it 
 44 being the year in which were fought the battles of 
 " Moodkee, Ferozeshah, Aliwal, and Sobraon. In 
 44 1853-4, though India was at peace with all the 
 44 world, the charges amounted to 22,373,000, and 
 44 there was a deficit of 2,044,000 besides. Nor 
 44 is this all, for the same accounts shew that there 
 " was an addition made to the Indian debt of 
 
167 
 
 " 8,354,000 sterling, within the period of Lord 
 " Dalhousie's government. Thus, not only has all 
 " the money obtained by annexation been swallowed 
 " up completely, but a vast addition has been made 
 " to our debt and charges, and annual deficit 
 " besides." 
 
 It is by such jugglery as this that annexation is 
 made to appear to pay, for Madras supplies troops 
 for garrisoning other countries, the subsidies for which 
 are carried to the credit of the Supreme Govern- 
 ment; the cost of garrisoning these countries is not 
 set off against their revenues or subsidies, but suf- 
 fered to fall on the revenues of Madras. The fol- 
 lowing table will shew that Madras, besides fifty 
 lukhs a year, her annual quota to the Imperial ex- 
 penses, is thus charged 1,225,759 a year for a 
 charge which ought to be borne by other countries : 
 
 Charges borne by the Madras Presidency for Troops stationed in 
 other Territories, the revenues of which are credited to other 
 Indian Governments. 
 
 
 ^Half a company of Golun- 
 dauze 
 
 Per Annum. 
 
 
 
 3,500 
 
 -| 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 Cuttack . . ^ 
 
 One regiment of Native 
 
 27,696 
 
 
 ^ 31,196 
 
 
 r One troop of Horse Artil- 
 lery . 
 
 17,749 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 One regiment of Light 
 Cavalry (Native) 
 
 48,000 
 
 
 
 Nagpore . . < 
 
 Half a battalion of Eu- 
 ropean Artillery ...... 
 
 18,000 
 
 
 > 194,533 
 
 
 Four regiments of Native 
 Infantry 
 
 110,784 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 Carried forward . , 
 
 
 
 225,729 
 
168 
 
 Straits of 
 Malacca. 
 
 Shalapoor . . 
 Pegu . . . . < 
 
 Add, for mis 
 according 
 Parliament 
 outlay . . . 
 
 Brought forward. . 
 
 Per Annum. 
 
 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 225,729 
 
 I 50,696 
 48,000 
 
 > 552,352 
 
 ^One company of European 
 Artillery 
 
 9,000 
 14,000 
 
 27,696 
 48,000 
 
 45,000 
 
 165,000 
 332,352 
 
 10,000 
 
 Two ditto of Golundauze . 
 Three regiments of Native 
 ^ Infantry 
 
 One regiment of Light 
 Cavalry (Native) 
 
 'Five European companies 
 and two Horse Field 
 Batteries of Artillery . , 
 Three regiments of Eu- 
 ropean Infantry 
 
 Twelve ditto Native ditto. 
 Three companies of Sap- 
 pers . 
 
 Total . , 
 
 
 876,777 
 
 219,194 
 73,000 
 43,888 
 12,900 
 
 cellaneous military charges, 
 to statements laid before 
 , one-fourth of the total 
 
 
 Add, for Cc 
 total outla] 
 Add, for cosl 
 total outlaw 
 Add, for Me 
 tieth of tol 
 
 unmissariat, one-twelfth of 
 r 
 
 
 of Staff, one-twentieth of 
 
 7 
 
 
 dical Department, one-six- 
 al outlay 
 
 
 Grand Total . . 
 
 
 1,225,759 
 
 
 
 And yet when the Madras journals point this out, 
 they are told by the Friend of India, the quasi- 
 government organ of Calcutta, that they are con- 
 tending for mere local interests; that they should 
 discuss subjects of general bearing, and not bring 
 forward parochial squabbles. 
 
 Such is the fashion in which annexation pays 
 pecuniarily. How it " pays" in other respects, let 
 the present rebellion satisfy us. 
 
169 
 
 Let it not, however, be thought that all men have 
 been blinded to what was about to happen. Madras 
 did not respond to the Calcutta call for a statue of 
 Lord Dalhousie. The Athenceum has had no former 
 praise to swallow; it has been stedfast in its measure 
 of Lord Dalhousie's policy. It is thus that this 
 journal wound up its articles on Oude : 
 
 " The remainder of this history needs not to be 
 " told. We know how the head conspirators were 
 " rewarded; how Dalhousie received 5,000 a year; 
 u how Outran! was made a K.C.B. But surely if 
 " retributive justice exists in the world, a terrible 
 " result, sooner or later, will accrue somewhere for 
 " the false, wicked, cowardly, traitorous annexation 
 " of Oude." 
 
 In England, some few, at any rate, have foreseen 
 the necessary result of such acts. It is thus that 
 Mr. Dickinson, in his pamphlet on the " Bureaucratic 
 u Government of India," after exposing the policy of 
 annexation, warns his countrymen : 
 
 " I cannot help warning my countrymen that if 
 " they stand by, and look quietly on, while this poli- 
 " tical martyrdom is once more consummated, their 
 " consenting unto the deed will leave a heavy debt 
 " of vengeance against them, not only on earth but 
 " in heaven ; it will provoke that retributive justice 
 " which frequently allows an individual to escape, 
 " but never, never fails to overtake a nation. Let 
 " them weigh this well before they say, on our heads 
 " and on our children's be it ! It is true, that we 
 u have an overwhelming mercenary army, and the 
 " word is passed, no danger above the horizon ; but 
 
170 
 
 " some may be coming ; and in history we are 
 " always wise after the event ; and when it is too 
 " late, when the bolt has fallen, and the penalty has 
 '' been paid, then for the first time do politicians see 
 " why a Government based on injustice and bad 
 " faith could not stand : and what innumerable con- 
 " sequences of its own wrong-doing were all the 
 " while undermining its power. God forbid that we 
 " should be wise too late in India !" 
 
 The able writer in the Quarterly Review thus 
 concludes his terrible articles : 
 
 " Of all Lord Dalhousie's extensions of the 
 " Empire, the only one that is really beneficial was 
 " the final conquest of the Punjaub, though that is 
 " only beneficial in a military, and not in a financial, 
 " sense. By not obtaining the cession by treaty of 
 " Pegu, he has left our future tenure of it open to all 
 " that doubt and uncertainty which attach to pos- 
 " sessions seized, but not confined to the captor 
 " afterwards by cession, under the rules and prin- 
 u ciples of international law. The other annexations 
 " made by him can give no strength to the Empire ; 
 " for whatever political or military advantages they 
 11 possessed were ours already, the sovereigns having 
 " long since been reduced to the positions of ciphers 
 " dependent on our will. In a pecuniary sense, these 
 " confiscations will not more than repay the costs of 
 " their management, even if they do that, while the 
 u outrage on all the established laws of succession, 
 " and the gross violations of treaties that have been 
 " involved in the seizure of them, have spread 
 ' ' throughout all India the deepest feelings of distrust 
 
171 
 
 " arid discontent. It may be that the laws which 
 " sanction the continuance of a throne, or of a 
 " private heritage by adoption, may appear absurd 
 " to Lord Dalhousie, but it is the fixed law of India 
 " from time immemorial ; and nothing could be 
 " more solemn and more binding than the pledges of 
 " our Government to the Natives, that their laws and 
 " customs should ever be respected and observed. 
 " To a man more deeply read in history than his 
 u lordship appears to be, there is nothing very 
 " wonderful, after all, in this very simple law. 
 u Among the Romans it existed, as it did among 
 u the Hindoos ; and among them, too, the adopted 
 " son, whether of a private citizen or of an emperor, 
 " acquired at once all the rights and became subject 
 u to all the duties of a natural heir. Nor in cases 
 
 ' where our own crown has appeared likely to be 
 4; disputed, has the precaution been neglected of 
 " allowing of an adopted heir. It was for this 
 " reason that our Eighth Henry was specially em- 
 " powered by Parliament to name his successor: and 
 " in this, the 19th century, a similar measure has, 
 " for a similar purpose, been sanctioned by the legis- 
 " lature of France. There, too, of all the evils that 
 " can happen, the greatest is thought, as among the 
 
 ; Hindoos, to be that of a disputed succession ; and 
 " there, too, the Emperor Napoleon the Third has, in 
 " the event of dying without issue (male), the pri- 
 " vilege accorded to him of nominating a successor to 
 u the throne. 
 
 " While such have been the fruits within our 
 Empire of a policy at once so ignorant and so sordid, 
 
172 
 
 " the frontier on which we are told to rely as a bar- 
 u rier against Russia has been brought into a state 
 " of hatred and detestation of us, which never will 
 " die out. Perpetual raids, perpetual plunderings, 
 " perpetual village burning, are the work of our 
 " soldiers there, and all against men whose real 
 " crime consists in refusing to pay dues to us for 
 u their barren holdings from which their ancestors 
 u from time immemorial had been exempt. Nothing 
 " seemed too cruel for us, as nothing was too mean 
 " under this new plan for making India pay. To 
 " curtail enormous and wasteful salaries would have 
 u been unpopular with the Europeans ; but there are 
 " no representatives, either in Parliament or in the 
 " direction of the hill tribes on the frontier, or of the 
 " widowed ladies of Sattara and Nagpore. A truly 
 " great government would have spurned the driblets 
 u procurable from such sources ; it was the fate of 
 " Lord Dalhousie to turn to such means for re- 
 " plenishing an empty treasury, and after all to fail. 
 " His lordship has been compared by his flatterers to 
 " Lord Wellesley, and it is said that the idea is 
 " greatly encouraged by himself ; but what acts was 
 u Lord Wellesley ever guilty of that could deserve 
 " any comparison with deeds like these ? Lord 
 " Wellesley went to India when we were a weak 
 " power there ; he boldly faced the Native princes in 
 " the plenitude of their arrogance, and, aided by a 
 " Wellington and a Lake, he subdued them. Lord 
 " Dalhousie went to India when every Native prince 
 " was at our feet; and, saving in the case of the 
 " Sikh insurrection, ignoble indeed were the spoils 
 
173 
 
 " lie won. Mud and musqnitoes were his chief 
 " enemies in Burmah; women and children were his 
 " prey at Sattara and Nagpore. A being weaker 
 " than a woman graced his triumphal car in Oude. 
 " Lord Wellesley attacked the Native powers because 
 " they were too powerful for our peace ; Lord Dal- 
 " housie seized Sattara, as he tells us in his minute, 
 " because the Mahrattas were no longer to be dreaded, 
 " and so the annexation might be safely made. Lord 
 cc Wellesley was Alexander of Macedon, conquering 
 " the then known world ; Lord Dalhousie was Alex- 
 " ander's successor in the third generation, supposing 
 " his Empire to have remained undivided ; con- 
 " fiscating the pensions and provinces, and poor 
 " remains of power that the conqueror had left. 
 " Lord Wellesley left the Indian Empire consoli- 
 " dated, its greatness established ; and our name for 
 " generosity after victory only equalled by that for 
 " reckless daring in war. In what state Lord Dal- 
 u housie left India, these pages, and those of the 
 " more independent of the Indian journals declare 
 "as do the crowds of Indians now to be seen in 
 " London on every side, who have come to petition 
 " the throne of England against his acts. Eunjeet 
 " Sing, his lordship tells us, was most satisfied with 
 " those of his governors, against whom there were 
 " many complaints ; and the criterion is not a bad 
 " one, either in the east or in the west. If the 
 " petitions of these people be fairly listened to, and 
 " reparation afforded them, where, on a careful 
 " investigation of the facts, it shall be seen that 
 " injustice has been done, all may yet be well. But 
 
174 
 
 " if England is to claim that infallibility for the acts 
 " of her public servants in India, which she refuses 
 " rightly to accord to those of her public servants 
 " here, then we may rely on it, that new com- 
 " binations will arise there to combat her power, and 
 u that she, too, will sink from the excesses of her 
 " despotism, as the Empire of so many other nations 
 u there has sunk before her. It should be remem-l 
 " bered, that we treated the Affghans with similai 
 u contempt till we were rudely taught to know thei: 
 u power ; and it were well, before we drive all India' 
 " to desperation, to reflect that we are in numbers to 
 u the Natives but as one in five thousand, and that 
 " every Native of India is accustomed to the use of 1 
 " arms from his childhood upwards. They are a 
 u people whom justice, and generosity, and good 
 " faith may for centuries hold in subjection : but 
 u those are the worst enemies of England who 
 " endeavour to rule them on the principles of greedy 
 " rapacity, pursued from first to last by Lord 
 " Dalhousie." 
 
 Will Lord Dalhousie's statue ever now tower over 
 Calcutta ? 
 
 I have no hesitation in expressing my solemn 
 conviction, shared by many an able man of my 
 acquaintance, that the eight years of Lord Dalhousie's 
 government have been the most fatal to our supremacy 
 that have yet been recorded on the page of history. 
 Had he employed his time in really consolidating our 
 power by attention to our internal condition, by 
 introducing the reforms into the army pointed out by 
 Sir C. Napier; by reforming the administration of 
 
175 
 
 justice, by reorganizing an effective police throughout 
 the length and breadth of the land; by inquiring 
 into the amount of the assessment, pushing on 
 revenue surveys, and lowering the demand where too 
 high; had he matured plans for education, and 
 fostered that great cause with half the zeal he served 
 his own ambition, he might perchance have less 
 dazzled men for the moment with the meteoric 
 brightness of his career, but he would have earned a 
 more lasting and a nobler reputation. He would 
 have left India really at peace within and without, 
 the people contented with our government, and 
 prospering under its sway. No doubt we shall have 
 the brilliancy of the electric telegraph and the railway 
 flashed across our eyes ; but I say that these measures 
 were none of Lord Dalhousie's originating, but were 
 forced upon him by the pressure of public opinion; 
 and both were measures calculated immeasurably to 
 increase the centralizing power of government, as 
 well as to benefit the people. His lordship's decision 
 has, however, fettered us with a system of railways 
 which is now generally admitted to be unsuited to 
 the wants of the country. Colonel Arthur Cotton's 
 principle of speed in completing the iron way, not speed 
 of travelling upon it when completed, is now seen to 
 be the correct view; too late, however, as we have 
 bound us down to the " idol speed." In education, 
 Lord Dalliousie did nothing. The scheme came out 
 ready cut and dry from home. It was not one of 
 those exciting subjects, which would attract his 
 energies. He was employed in the great works of 
 annexation, consolidation, and centralization. By the 
 
176 
 
 last he reduced all men to silence, save those pliant 
 instruments who would be content to echo his senti- 
 ments, and lay before him only such information as 
 was likely to prove palatable. But for this, would 
 Lord Dalhousie ever have pursued the infatuated 
 course he did towards the 38th Bengal Infantry, 
 when they refused to proceed on foreign service to 
 Burmah? He yielded to them; and from that 
 moment mutiny may be said to have been sanc- 
 tioned, and its future outburst certain. The final 
 catastrophe was merely from that moment a ques- 
 tion of time. Other acts of his lordship have- 
 precipitated it; but, sooner or later, it must have 
 come. It is thus that the Hurkaru treats the 
 subject : 
 
 " Our readers will not forget that Lord Dalhousie 
 " was the first Governor- General who succumbed to 
 " mutineers. When the 38th N. I. (the corps which 
 " raised the cry of mutiny in Delhi) refused to go to 
 " Burmah, Lord Dalhousie gave in; from that 
 " instant the feeling of the sepoys, in all probability, 
 " underwent a change towards their masters. That 
 " act was sufficient to demoralise an army; who can 
 " say that it did not do so ? 
 
 u It has been the fashion in certain circles to abuse 
 u Lord Ellenborough. But, whatever might have 
 " been his faults, he never allowed himself to be 
 " conquered by mutineers. There are many in India 
 " who recollect that when the 4th and 64th Regiment 
 " refused to go to Scinde, they did not meet with the 
 " same mild treatment as the 38th when they 
 " declined to go to Burmah. The difference of 
 
177 
 
 " conduct on the two occasions showed the difference 
 >c between the two men. Lord Ellenborough com- 
 " pelled the sepoys to carry out his order : the sepoys 
 " compelled Lord Dalhousie to put up with their 
 '' resolves. The one saved India, the other brought 
 " it to the verge of ruin. 
 
 " But our late Governor-General was not content 
 c with that. As we have shown above, he not only 
 " sowed the seeds of mutiny, but he took away all 
 " power of motion. By selling the camels, he 
 " succeeded in squaring his balances, and in making 
 :; the army powerless for any sudden emergency ! 
 " Napoleon, when he was maligned by the titled 
 " miscreants of Europe, exclaimed, 4 Posterity will do 
 " me justice ! ' and he was right. Lord Dalhousie, 
 " too, notwithstanding the flattery which was heaped 
 " upon him by his courtiers, may be well assured that 
 " justice too will be meted out to him." 
 
 Though Lord Dalhousie gave in to the mutineers, 
 he marked his displeasure of their conduct by a side 
 wind. He sent them to Dacca, the Sierra Leone of 
 India; and when they had lost 300 men, he sent 
 them to recruit at Cawnpore, where the gaps in their 
 ranks were to be filled up by the inhabitants of the 
 neighbouring kingdom of Oude. It is thus that the 
 Dacca News describes the event : 
 
 " The Friend of India advocates despotism, as the 
 " mode of government best suited to Orientals. Let 
 " him listen to the history of the effects of an order 
 " of Lord Dalhousie's, and then tell us if he con- 
 " tinues of the same opinion. At the commencement 
 " of the Burmese war, Lord Dalhousie was led to 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 " believe that the 38th regiment of Native Light 
 " Infantry, then at Barackpore, would volunteer to 
 " cross the Kala Pawnee, and serve in Burmah. 
 " The regiment was asked to do so, and refused. 
 " Lord Dalhousie then determined that it should be 
 " punished, and ordered it to march to Dacca, the 
 " cantonments of which, from long neglect, had 
 " become the most unhealthy in Bengal. The usual 
 " way of sending a regiment to Dacca is by water ; 
 " but to mark his lordship's displeasure, the 38th 
 " was ordered to march by Jessore and Furreedpore, 
 "districts quite unaccustomed to the passage of 
 " troops. There is no road, scarcely even a foot- 
 " path, beyond Jessore, about half the distance. The 
 " country is highly cultivated. The march, therefore, 
 " was one continued trespass for about eighty miles; 
 " orders were issued to the collectors to prepare 
 " rations for the troops. The collectors directed 
 " their Nazirs to take the usual steps to procure 
 " rations, and these gentlemen rejoiced in the 
 " prospect of securing, if judiciously managed, a 
 " competency on which they might retire, when too old 
 " to fulfil the ordinary duties of their appointments, 
 " or when they might happen to lose the favour of 
 u their European superiors. The country was given 
 " up to them to plunder, and they well knew how to 
 "make the most of it. Ryots of our own, living 
 u 40 miles distant from the line of march, were 
 " seized and forced to contribute to the purse of the 
 " Nazir their little stock of ghee and rice. But 
 " there were rivers to be crossed, the Pudda, the 
 " Delassery, and the Booree Gunga* The Ghat 
 
179 
 
 " Manjees were ordered to provide boats. They 
 " seized every boat for 50 miles around, releasing 
 " those who paid well. There was not a boat to be 
 " had for purposes of commerce. The boatmen hid 
 " or sank their boats till the storm was passed. The 
 14 usual supply of boats was not forth -coming for 
 " months. At last the regiment arrived, and a finer 
 " set of men we never saw. In a few months fever 
 " had done its work. They were sufficiently 
 " punished even to have satisfied Lord Dalhousie. 
 " In three months the whole regiment passed three 
 " times through the hospital ; and at last, when their 
 " young adjutant died, a firing party could scarcely be 
 " mustered from the whole of the companies to do 
 " the last honours to their officer. The muskets 
 " with which they fired were brought to the burial 
 " ground, from cantonments a distance of about half 
 " a mile, on hackeries. The men were too weak to 
 " carry them. But the consequences of Lord 
 " Dalhousie's ill temper did not end here. He 
 u determined that he should never again be placed 
 u in a like situation, and that it should be possible to 
 " march troops to Burmah from Bengal. He 
 " therefore ordered the construction of the Dacca 
 " and Arracan road; a road passing through pestilen- 
 " tial jungles ; a road which, expensive in construction, 
 " will be much more so in maintenance, for the jungle 
 " grows on it yearly, and there will be no traffic to 
 u keep it down, for it can never compete with the 
 " Megna and the sea as a means of carriage. Plow 
 " does the Friend like our story of the effects of one 
 " despotic act? If he is not yet convinced, we have 
 
 N 2 
 
180 
 
 " several more for him." Dacca News, July 5, 
 1856. 
 
 Who in the army, after the fall of Napier, would 
 dare to act on his own responsibility, even at the 
 most critical moment? Yes; one lieutenant on de- 
 tachment in Pegu hung a party whom he caught in 
 his camp, on the idea that he was a spy. Lord 
 Dalhousie, after bringing Mr. Proctor to a court- 
 martial on a charge of murder, of which he was 
 acquitted, dismissed him from his staff appointment, 
 and this finished the paralysis of the army. With 
 an almost feminine jealousy of power, he was not 
 content with grasping the reins of government; his 
 fingers must gather up the minutest threads ; he 
 would examine all details of every proposition, how- 
 ever trifling. He claimed to decide with something 
 akin to intuition, superior to all the experience of 
 local knowledge. Thus matters of importance were 
 deferred by the supreme Government from absolute 
 want of time ; thus business was slurred over, in 
 order to its despatch; thus good suggestions were 
 rejected, and unwise projects sanctioned, from a mis- 
 conception of their respective merits. Thus reforms 
 were denied the subordinate Governments, on one 
 pretext or another; partly from requisition for more 
 information, partly from an arrogant assumption of 
 knowledge superior to that of the local authorities on 
 the spot. The Governors and others were disgusted 
 at the rejection of their well-considered plans, occa- 
 sionally in language irritating or insulting ; they 
 disliked naturally to forward further propositions 
 which would only entail upon them fresh snubbing, 
 
181 
 
 and thus everything in the shape of necessary reform 
 was at a stand still. I will give but one instance of 
 the quality of supervision which the supreme Govern- 
 ment claims to exercise over the subordinate Govern- 
 ments. In the educational department, the pettiest 
 details must be submitted for sanction to the supreme 
 Government ; but the following extract from the 
 Records of the Madras Government must suffice : 
 
 " On the 28th January last, the Madras Govern- 
 " ment applied to the supreme Government for its 
 " sanction to certain proposed establishments for the 
 " management of the Soopah and Yellapoor Talooks 
 " of the district of Canara. The establishments con- 
 " sisted of Tasildar, Sheristadar, Goomastahs, Moon- 
 " shees, Eecord Keepers, Duffadars, Peons, Sweepers, 
 " &c., and involved a total increase of 298 rupees per 
 " mensem. The Madras Government proposed to raise 
 " the pay of one Moonshee from six rupees to seven 
 " rupees; of another, from six rupees to eight ru- 
 " pees ; and of another, from eight rupees to twelve 
 " rupees; but to this increase the supreme Govern- 
 " ment refused sanction, as also to an increase of one 
 " rupee each per month proposed to be made to two 
 " sweepers." 
 
 What is the use of a Governor and Council, if 
 they are riot competent to decide such questions as 
 these? I am very far from saying that centraliza- 
 tion of a certain quality, and to a certain extent, is 
 not necessary. There must be some supreme ulti- 
 mate authority, beyond all doubt : but the system of 
 centralization at present obtaining, begins at the 
 wrong end. It arises from a jealousy of power, 
 
182 
 
 which will permit nothing which it does not ori- 
 ginate. The true principle of application of cen- 
 tralization would be, to hold the subordinate Govern- 
 ments ultimately responsible; to sanction approved 
 schemes of reform and public works ; to leave the 
 carrying out of these schemes to the local Govern- 
 ments ; and to watch narrowly the way in which 
 they had executed their duties. Then the subordi- 
 nates would work under a due sense of their respon- 
 sibility; they would take care that no crude projects 
 were submitted, and that all the work undertaken 
 was effectively done. As it is, the local Govern- 
 ments are freed, practically, from responsibility ; for 
 the moment a measure is sanctioned, their responsi- 
 bility ends. It may be advisable to alter the form 
 of Government in Madras and Bombay; to do away 
 with the expensive pageant of a Governor and Coun- 
 cil, and to substitute a Lieu tenant- Governor, as in 
 the North- West provinces and elsewhere. Not that 
 this change would work any good, unless really capa- 
 ble and experienced men be chosen for the office of 
 Lieutenant-Governor. We must then seek out such 
 men as Thomason, or Metcalfe, if they are to be 
 found; for I should no more dream of strengthening 
 a naturally feeble Governor, by disembarrassing him 
 of his two members of Council, than I should hope to 
 cure a lame man by depriving him of his crutches. 
 
 The point of view in which this system of cen- 
 tralization affects the present subject of discussion, is 
 the impediment which it has proved to necessary 
 substantial reforms. The condition of the people is 
 now comparatively well understood ; the remedies 
 
183 
 
 are pretty unanimously agreed on ; but nothing has 
 "been done, and nothing will be done, so long as the 
 jealousy of the centralizing spirit is paramount; and 
 thus the causes of discontent and disaffection at work 
 among the people are permitted to operate and 
 spread without check or cure. This consideration 
 it is which has induced me to dwell upon centraliza- 
 tion in the present disquisition. And here I would 
 beg to repeat that I am very far from making a 
 sweeping assertion that our Government in India is 
 altogether bad. On the contrary, it has very much 
 that is good in it; and in theory and intention it is 
 an infinite improvement upon any that has preceded 
 it. Especially during the past few years has an im- 
 pulse been given, by pressure from without, to its 
 development of measures, which, if only carried out 
 in their integrity, judiciously and prudently, must 
 ultimately render the condition of its subjects nearly 
 all that can be desired. It is against the lets and 
 hindrances to practical activity that I direct my 
 censures ; that spirit of jealous centralization which 
 overrules the conclusions of local experience; that 
 system of continual reference which ever encourages 
 procrastination ; that " double " machinery, complex 
 and antiquated, which may well be laid aside for an 
 improved instrument, at once more simple arid more 
 efficient. 
 
 We have got our Government in India at last into 
 the right grooves ; it remains to remove all the ob- 
 stacles to its more rapid progress, and to apply 
 continuous force to ensure its perpetual motion. 
 What these obstructions are it is easy to indicate. 
 
184 
 
 They are the impediments which everywhere exist 
 to the decent administration of justice; a topic 
 which embraces a wide sphere of fact and observa- 
 tion, and which it is not my intention to enter 
 upon with any particularity now. The civil ser- 
 vice has the exclusive possession of the bench in 
 the Mofussil, to the exclusion of trained profes- 
 sional men. The absurdities and the monstrosities 
 which this state of things calls forth daily over the 
 whole land, render life and property insecure, and 
 prevent the influx of English skill and capital 
 into the interior, for the development of the re- 
 sources of the country. That law can be adminis- 
 tered in such a manner as to create confidence in 
 the Natives, is found by the recent petitions to 
 Parliament from the Natives of all these presi- 
 dencies, in which they record their unanimous 
 satisfaction with the system of law and its admi- 
 nistrations, obtaining at the several capitals. The 
 basis of the civil service has been what is called 
 " widened," by throwing open its entrance to com- 
 petition. But the boon is rather one to the public 
 of England than to the public of India, since no 
 line of demarcation has been drawn between the 
 revenue and judicial branches; no special training 
 made essential for the former branch. It was here 
 that the remedy was wanting; and yet things are 
 left just as they were. It becomes a question now, 
 whether the shortest, the surest, perhaps the only 
 way, of meeting an evil which has grown beyond 
 all bounds, is not by at once placing professionally 
 educated men upon the Mofussil bench. This 
 
185 
 
 seems to me to be the real cause of the animosity 
 lately displayed by the indigo planters and others 
 in Bengal to the scheme of amalgamating the 
 Courts, and creating a procedure whereby all men 
 should stand equal in the eye of the law. It is 
 not for the existence of any privilege or exemption 
 itself so much that the British subjects in India 
 contend, as for the protection of their life, liberty, 
 and property, which they say would be imperilled 
 by their being compelled to submit to such tribu- 
 nals as exist in the Mofussil, where the European 
 judge is ignorant, and the Native judge is both 
 ignorant and malicious. Certainly there is much 
 truth in this; present events, wherein rebellion is 
 headed by Native judicial officers, and the fana- 
 ticism and exterminating spirit, as well as the dia- 
 bolical cruelty which we have witnessed, may well 
 cause alarm at the thought even of the possibility 
 of being tried by such men; and when we reflect 
 on the ease with which false charges and false 
 testimony are brought forward, and the inability of 
 the European appellate courts to grapple with 
 falsehood which has passed current with the courts 
 of original jurisdiction, we cannot but admit that 
 there is much force in the statements and argu- 
 ments of the Bengal planters and the inhabitants 
 of Calcutta. The opposition which has been raised 
 to what are called the Black Acts has had the 
 effect, however, of tying up reform altogether. A 
 peg whereon to hang an excuse for delay has been 
 thus afforded, and advantage has been at once 
 taken of it; whereas the true remedy consists not 
 
186 
 
 in handing over the country any longer to amateur 
 judges, but in causing the law to be administered 
 by stronger hands. This, I am aware, goes to the 
 root of exclusive civilianism ; and it is sure to 
 meet with determined opposition; but the question 
 really now has come to this: Can an exclusive 
 service be any longer maintained with safety to 
 our empire in India? Is it not necessary to avail 
 ourselves of practical experience and skilled pro- 
 fessional labour, in order to secure such an admi- 
 nistration of civil government as shall at any rate 
 afford a reasonable prima facie probability that the 
 Natives will be content with it, and that the 
 English capitalist will no longer fear to risk his 
 capital in the interior, where contracts cannot be 
 enforced, except at an expense, and after a delay, 
 which render it more prudent to refrain from mer- 
 cantile operations than to embark in them. I am 
 aware that the new " Cotton Association " has a 
 timid dislike of being thought to aim at any 
 reform in India: but I am perfectly well assured 
 that neither they nor any one else can look to the 
 development of this country's resources, until the 
 administration of the law, including the organiza- 
 tion of the police, is placed upon an entirely new 
 footing. 
 
 There is one other great measure of Lord Dal- 
 housie's which must be examined, because I feel 
 satisfied that it has been the source of wide spread, if 
 not universal, discontent; I allude to his financial 
 policy his lordship's conversion of the Five per 
 Cent. Loan into a Four per Cent. Debt. This measure 
 
187 
 
 has been much vaunted, and Lord Dalhousie appears 
 to plume himself on having thereby saved the State 
 300,000 a year. The following account of the 
 transaction, taken from the article in the New Quar- 
 terly, fully and accurately represents the facts of the 
 case : " There remains to us to remark upon Lord 
 " Dalhousie's conversion, 1853-54, of the Indian 
 " Five per Cent, into a Four per Cent. Debt. By 
 " this measure, he tells us, he saved 300,000 per 
 " annum to the Company, in the shape of difference 
 " in interest, and he adds, that the measure was one 
 " politic and successful in itself. The facts of the 
 " case we shall briefly detail, and equally briefly ex- 
 " hibit its results. In 1853, it was generally sup- 
 " posed that the marquis would shortly return to 
 " England, his term of office having expired, and 
 " also a portion of the additional year for which it 
 " was understood he had been requested by the Go- 
 " vernment at home to stay. Nothing, of course, was 
 u more natural, under the circumstances, than that he 
 " should desire to create so fair an impression on the 
 " minds of the people here, in regard to the results 
 " of his administration, as such a reduction was cal- 
 " culated to give; and if the reduction had been the 
 " legitimate fruit of his success, in dealing with the 
 " finances of India, it would have been impossible for 
 " any one to complain. As events afterwards proved, 
 " this was not the case. The whole thing rested on 
 " a fabulous foundation, and the consequence has 
 " been the creation, among the monied classes of 
 " India, of great, and we fear permanent, distrust. It 
 " is impossible to say how much of the creation of the 
 
188 
 
 " false impression, under which the conversion was 
 " assented to by the stock-holders, is attributable to 
 u the generally supposed organs of Lord Dalhousie, 
 44 and how much to Lord Dalhousie himself; but the 
 " story of the affair which we shall give, is a very 
 44 simple one, and we think it an accurate account of 
 44 what occurred. 
 
 44 The marquis having expressed himself in public 
 44 documents as very sanguine regarding the financial 
 44 results of his annexation and other measures, though 
 44 not probably more so than he really felt, the jour- 
 44 nals generally assumed to be the organs of the 
 44 Government in India at once took up the cry. 
 44 India was stated to be in a state of the highest 
 44 financial prosperity, and the surplus revenue ac- 
 44 cruing ffrom the annexations and public works was 
 44 to make the 4 emb arras de rich esses ' the only 
 44 embarrassment the Indian exchequer was ever likely 
 44 again to feel. Four per cent, was the highest 
 44 amount a Government so circumstanced could ever 
 44 consent to pay for money; and allowing the con- 
 44 version at that rate was proclaimed to be a 
 4 ' favour, the terms to the public generally being 
 44 fixed for the present at only three-and-a-half per 
 44 cent., even at that rate it was only prepared to 
 44 borrow money, to be expended on remunerative 
 44 public works its own requirements being amply 
 44 provided for under any events almost that could 
 44 occur. This tale, oft repeated, had its effect upon 
 44 the Indian public, and that effect was heightened 
 44 by the parading before its eyes the great amount 
 44 of cash balances in the Indian treasuries at the 
 
189 
 
 :c time. By the uninitiated there were supposed to 
 " be vast hoards lying in the vaults at Calcutta, in the 
 " same way as one reads of the millions in the vaults 
 " of the Bank of England. They were not aware 
 " that it was simply the sum total of all the cash ba- 
 " lances shown to be due at the date on all the 
 " accounts of the collecting, and all the disbursing 
 " officers of the East India Company, from the 
 " Himalayas to Cape Comorin, and from Prince 
 " of Wales' Island to Aden, and the Persian Gulf; 
 u that it embraced the whole funds for the payment 
 " of all the civil, military, marine, and commissariat 
 " charges of the empire, during the remainder of the 
 " year, and the pay of every servant of the State, 
 " from the Governor-General downwards, for the same 
 " period of time; and that it also embraced all sums 
 " already due on the public accounts of all kinds, but 
 " which, at the moment when the balance was struck, 
 " had not been actually issued and paid away. In 
 u short, that it was the aggregate of all the money in 
 " hand, in every treasury, for the current expenses 
 " during the year of the whole Indian empire, the 
 " disposition of every farthing of which had been 
 " already anticipated, and not one penny of which 
 " could have been diverted to the paying off the debt 
 u without the certainty of bankruptcy to the State. 
 
 " The talk of such a sum of totals scattered every- 
 " where, as being available for the purpose for which 
 u it was paraded, was about equivalent to the 
 " treating as available for a similar purpose the 
 " aggregate of all the cash balances in the hands, 
 " at this moment, of every collector, paymaster, 
 
190 
 
 " commissariat-officer, and other disbursing func- 
 " tionary, throughout the whole British and Colonial 
 " empire. The best proof of the true financial state 
 " of India, at the time when the conversion was 
 " effected, will be found by an analysis of the 
 " Parliamentary accounts of that year, and which 
 " were this year published. It will be seen from 
 " these, that in that very year, instead of Lord 
 " Dalhousie's being really in a position to pay off 
 " anything, he increased the public debt by upwards 
 " of 241,000 (having in the previous year added 
 " to it above 1,000,000) ; that in addition to this, he 
 " forestalled the sums applicable to the ensuing year, 
 " by reducing the annual cash-balance above a 
 " 1,000,000, and that besides there was a deficit on 
 " the year of above 2,000,000 sterling. As a matter 
 " of course, therefore, he had almost immediately 
 " afterwards to appeal to the public for a loan 
 " of 2,500,000, and he then found the reaction 
 " so great, that he could only borrow this at five 
 " per cent, with a fourteen years' guarantee against 
 u reduction. Even on those terms there was a dif- 
 " ficulty in obtaining subscriptions, so great as to 
 " have been only overcome, if private accounts are to 
 " be credited, by personal applications, by our public 
 " functionaries, to native capitalists, of a most un- 
 " usual and most humiliating description. On this 
 " latter point, of course, we can only speak by hear- 
 " say ; but the difficulty found in filling up the loan, 
 " and the fact of a guarantee against reduction 
 " having been given, are matters of notoriety, and 
 " probably a similar guarantee will henceforth become 
 
191 
 
 " a sine qua non in the eyes of our native capitalists. 
 " The last news from India is confirmatory of our 
 " view of the incalculable damage done to credit by 
 " the transaction; for now, too, a loan has again 
 " been opened by the Government, and again it is 
 u placed in the humiliating position of being unable 
 " within any reasonable time to fill it. If the 
 " reducing Indian credit to this low ebb is to be 
 " politic and successful, then indeed has the operation 
 " of 1853-54 been the most politic and successful 
 " measure that was ever taken." 
 
 Had there been really an overflow of cash in 
 the public treasury, no doubt it could not have 
 been more wisely applied than in the reduction 
 of the public debt; but the transaction was little 
 more than a transfer from one loan into another, 
 and it is confidently asserted, that had the holders of 
 five per cent, paper insisted upon cash payments, the 
 measure must have fallen through] for want of funds. 
 The thirteen crores of rupees in the public treasuries 
 have melted away like morning mists, and no one has 
 yet been able to trace what has become of them. 
 But the measure caused the greatest lightness in the 
 money market, and much personal private distress. 
 Scarcely any gain has actually been made, since the 
 Government has again been forced to borrow at five 
 per cent. ; while the public creditor is a heavy loser, 
 in many instances, to an extent of twenty -five per 
 cent. Further, the loss falls on charities, on widows 
 and orphans, whose little all is in the funds: and the 
 constant uncertainty which has since prevailed, con- 
 sequent upon the Three-and-a-half per Cent. Loan, 
 
192 
 
 the Four, the Four-and-a-half, and now again the 
 Five per Cent. Loan, has sown suspicion among all 
 the monetary classes in India. Of all tampering, 
 tampering with the public credit is the most dan- 
 gerous ; and the extraordinary fluctuations in the 
 money market which have followed Lord Dalhousie's 
 great financial measure, have created a deep-seated 
 distrust of us and our honesty in the Native mind. 
 
 Another topic worthy of the deepest consideration 
 at the present moment one which we are all too apt 
 to overlook is the mighty change which is passing 
 over the Native mind. The Native at this very time 
 is in a transition state; we are too apt to ignore the 
 fact, and seek to treat him as though he were sta- 
 tionary. As we held ourselves towards him in the days 
 of our earliest relation, so we do now; or rather we 
 regard him with less kindliness of feeling, and more 
 hauteur than in the early days of our acquaintance- 
 ship. The gulf that separates the European and the 
 Native has not beei\bridged over ; if anything, it has 
 widened. Intercourse is neither so frequent nor so 
 friendly between us at the present day as in the old 
 times of Munro or Ani. Now, I think it behoves us 
 to recognise this truth, and comport ourselves ac- 
 cordingly : and I will not apologise for introducing 
 here an extract from some observations which I made 
 on this subject, at the late anniversary of Pacheap- 
 pah's charities, before the outbreak of the rebellion. 
 Alluding to this matter, I said : 
 
 u I have never shrunk from exposing to the Natives 
 " what I conceive to be their faults and their defi- 
 " ciencies, though it has brought upon me no little 
 
193 
 
 " odium. I will not now shrink, even at a similar 
 " risk, from telling the European portion of our 
 " society what it behoves them at the present crisis 
 " to be doing. 
 
 " I say crisis advisedly. For I believe we are in a 
 " crisis. A change, mighty and spreading, is taking 
 " place before our eyes in the Native mind and cha- 
 " racter at this very moment. Its evidences are so 
 " plain and palpable, that he who runs may read 
 u them. The writing is displayed for us on the wall 
 " in characters of fire ; woe be to us, if we shut our 
 " eyes to the warning. 
 
 " We are teaching the people to think: are we 
 " prepared to carry out our act to its legitimate 
 " necessary consequences? If not, far better were 
 a it, with the boldness of Lord Ellenborough, to 
 " avow at once, that the spread of education is in- 
 li compatible with the maintenance of British rule 
 " in India. Shall we ignore the change, or honestly 
 " accept it, and its responsibilities? Is there any 
 " one among us so infatuated, as to dream that after 
 " we have taught the Natives to think, they will re- 
 " frain from exercising their newly acquired power ? 
 " The very charm of novelty alone would suffice to 
 " insure its exercise. 
 
 " We teach them principles of morality : are we in- 
 " fatuated enough to imagine that they are not 
 " questioning the reasoning on which we support a 
 u declaration of war against a foreign state, or the ap- 
 " propriation of the territories of our neighbours, or 
 " that construction of old treaties which somehow 
 " ever interprets them to our own advantage? We 
 
 o 
 
194 
 
 " inculcate in them the principles of jurisprudence : 
 " do we suppose that they cannot spy out the naked- 
 " ness of our present administration of justice, and 
 " the mockery of our police? 
 
 " We imbue them with a knowledge of political 
 " science : shall we not expect to find them struggling 
 " to assert their political rights, urging, as they have 
 " already done, their claim to the abolition of all class 
 " privileges, demanding that all men shall stand 
 " equal before the law, requiring to be admitted to 
 " an ever increasing share in the administration of 
 " the country, pressing their admission to political 
 " freedom, and a representative system which shall 
 " give them the hold of their own purse strings? 
 
 " Let him who doubts these things, look to the 
 " increasing number of newspaper readers among 
 " the Native community; let him look to the cha- 
 " racter of the Native Press, so unbridled in its 
 " violence that a Bengal journal has advocated its 
 " suppression. This alone necessitates the further 
 " spread of education. ' A little knowledge is a 
 " dangerous thing.' It is the crudity of their 
 " knowledge which renders the Natives violent in 
 " their political opinions. We must teach them 
 t wisdom, as well as mere knowledge, and thus 
 " correct the imperfection of their views. Above 
 " all, let us look to the late Native meeting in 
 " Calcutta, in support of the principle of what is 
 " termed the Black Act. Who that reads the speeches 
 " there made, can doubt that the Native mind has 
 u undergone a mighty change; that it has learned 
 " to think, and in European modes of thought; 
 
195 
 
 " that it sees clearly what are the rights of the 
 " citizen, and is able to enforce them with arguments 
 " eloquent and conclusive? 
 
 " In the old days which are past, the people 
 " obeyed us in their ignorance, because they regarded 
 " us as beings of a superior order, and crouched 
 " before us as clothed with an irresistible power. 
 " They crouched and cowered before us. Omne 
 " ignotum pro magnifico. But it is the tendency 
 " of familiarity to lessen wonder, even where it 
 " does not engender contempt; and we have edu- 
 " cated the people, so as to enable them to judge us 
 " by a more correct standard. It is more true 
 " now than ever, that our empire is founded upon 
 <; opinion. But there is this distinction: formerly, 
 "it was a false opinion ; now, it is a true one : for- 
 tl merly, opinion was the result of erroneous impres- 
 " sions; now, it is founded upon more correct data: 
 " formerly, it was based on ignorance; now, it is 
 " founded on knowledge. Those whom they took 
 <c for gods, as the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians 
 " mistook Cortez and Pizarro, they now find to 
 " be men like themselves, their superiors it is 
 " true, but still errant, fallible men. 
 
 " They will weigh our every act; and it behoves 
 " us well to be circumspect as to the quality of 
 " our every action. We must accept the truth 
 " that the country is to be governed by us for 
 " the sake of the people, and not of ourselves. 
 " We must drop the habit of regarding ourselves as 
 " mere exiles, whose first object should be to escape 
 " from a disagreable climate with the greatest pos- 
 
 o 2 
 
196 
 
 " sible amount of the people's money in the shortest 
 " possible time. We must look upon the land, as 
 " that of our adoption; and each of us, according to 
 " his means and opportunities, must help on the 
 '" welfare of the Natives, in that station of life 
 " to which it has pleased God to call him. 
 
 " We cannot ignore the fact of the change which 
 " our own educational measures have brought about. 
 " It remains, then, to accommodate ourselves to the 
 " consequence of our own policy. 
 
 " We must recognise the right of the Natives to 
 " political advancement, as they fit themselves for 
 <; employment; and the measures which are about to 
 u be sanctioned by the Legislative Council, founded 
 u upon the recommendations of your lordship's Go- 
 " vernment, for the larger employ of the Native 
 " agency in the civil and judicial administrations of 
 " the country, ought to be cheerfully accepted as a 
 " proof of the sincerity of the British Government to 
 " elevate the Native, and admit him to an increasing 
 " participation in political duties, in proportion as he 
 " shall prove his fitness for political duties by his 
 " advance in education. 
 
 " But we must go further ; we must admit them 
 u socially to our conversational circles. They are 
 " not to be regarded as an inferior race, unworthy of, 
 " and unfitted for, polite society. They have, of 
 " course, their peculiarities and mauvaise honte ; 
 " perhaps we also have our peculiarities in their 
 " eyes ; but it is by the constant collision of friendly 
 " intercommunications that the angles of difference 
 " are broken oif and polished down ; and it is worthy 
 
197 
 
 " of consideration whether the era has not arrived 
 :c for striving to establish friendships between our- 
 " selves and the educated Natives ? There are few 
 ic people, however repulsive their natural antipathies, 
 '' who do not soon come to esteem each other when 
 " familiarity has been established between them. 
 " We may learn much from them as well as teach." 
 
 Nor must we overlook the vastly increased power 
 of the Press. As a whole, the Press of India is con- 
 ducted with singular ability ; and it is astonishing to 
 mark the giant strides with which it has advanced 
 within the last few years. It discusses all topics 
 with an ability which, looking back a few years, was 
 scarcely to be anticipated. The Press of Madras is 
 not, I am proud to believe, last in the race. The 
 existence of a free Press is incompatible with a des- 
 potism, however paternal.* 
 
 * After this was written came forth the Gagging Act ! but I 
 will let the passage stand, because it may hereafter serve to 
 mark my conviction that the Press will ultimately prevail in the 
 struggle which Lord Canning has called into existence, or 
 rather his civilian advisers, if the statements in the Calcutta 
 papers are worthy of credit. It is not my purpose now to dis- 
 cuss either the necessity or the propriety of the Act. It has 
 thrown back India fifty years, and raised the most fatal bar to 
 the influx of European capitalists and enterprise into this 
 country. The only protection against the giant injustice in the 
 provinces has been destroyed ; magistrates may now ride rough- 
 shod over the land ; no man will be fool enough with his eyes 
 open to invest his money, or risk his independence in localities 
 where folly, or stupidity, or vanity, or pique may at any moment 
 ruin him, without a chance of his injury being heard of. While 
 I write, I know of three cases now pending in different parts of 
 this Presidency, in any one of which the acts of the official 
 
198 
 
 It is too late now to dream of gagging the Indian 
 Press, or fettering it with a censorship; and the 
 Government must gradually be modified to meet the 
 principles of liberal, constitutional self-government 
 which are being now generated. If we retain India, 
 a representative form of Government must sooner or 
 later be introduced. The thin end of the wedge is 
 already inserted ; a commencement has been made 
 by calling representatives of Madras and Bombay, 
 and the North West Provinces, into the Legislative 
 
 would necessitate immediate dismissal, but which here call for 
 no public remark from Government. In one, a judge has been 
 guilty of little short of felony in order to obtain possession of 
 the whole of a man's papers after his conviction. In another, a 
 magistrate broke forcibly into a woman's house in order to 
 obtain a deposition from her ; and the third is of a somewhat 
 similar quality, only with circumstances of aggravation. Let 
 Manchester look to the liberty of the Indian Press, if it looks 
 to the development of the cotton growing capabilities of this 
 country ! 
 
 Lord Canning seems to have thought he had not enough 
 work on his hands even with the rebellion. That conflagration, 
 one would have thought, might have been sufficient for the sea- 
 son : but he must light the candle at both ends, and have his 
 death-struggle with the Press as well as with the people. 
 
 I have watched with much interest the rapid spread of 
 calumny against the Anglo-Indian Press since the Act. First, 
 Lord Canning exonerates the English portion of the Press : he 
 limits his charge against the Native Press to the " last few 
 "weeks." But now charges have been preferred against the 
 English Press of sedition during the last three years, in one 
 quarter during the last ten years in another. Since then, 
 Sir T. Munro's well known minute has been quoted, and created 
 a deep impression. The object of this is to show that rebellion 
 is a necessary consequence of a free Press, and was from its 
 
199 
 
 Council, arid, however cautiously, the principle will 
 have to be extended. 
 
 We must be more than ever on our guard against 
 introducing any measure which the Natives may con- 
 ceive, however erroneously, is aimed at their conver- 
 sion. It appears to me that a most grave error has 
 been committed in this Presidency by appointing 
 clergymen inspectors of schools under the newly 
 organized system of Government education. I can 
 scarcely conceive a measure more calculated to alarm 
 and offend the ignorant Natives in the Provinces. 
 They are sure to connect the labour of such 
 inspectors with covert attempts upon their religion. 
 We thwart our own object, and create unnecessary 
 alarm in the people at one and the same time. 
 With the same view I would draw attention to the 
 
 very institution. Sir T. Munro is regarded as a seer, and is 
 declared to have prophesied every thing that has come to pass. 
 With the unreflecting and the interested, this is convincing 
 enough ; but there is not a shadow of evidence of any complicity 
 on the part of the Press. The rebellion has arisen from other 
 causes, and seeks other objects than those which Munro feared 
 must be instilled into the minds of the soldiery through the 
 Press. There was a free Press, and there is a rebellion. There 
 is a river at Macedon, and a river at Monmouth ; but what is 
 the connection between them ? The rebellion has arisen from 
 the avarice of the Government, which usurped friendly king- 
 doms per fas aut nefas the cowardice of the Government which 
 truckled for years to the Bengal army ; the rash confidence of 
 the Government which took no precaution against the effects of 
 the resentment the deadly hatred which its spoliations and per- 
 fidy were sure to excite in the bosoms of the wronged. Not the 
 comments of a free Press, but the act of the Indian Govern- 
 ment have called forth rebellion. 
 
200 
 
 necessity of placing the administration of the Pagoda 
 funds under some responsible management. For 
 many years the Pagoda funds were administered by 
 the Government to the satisfaction of all parties. 
 But in the year 1843 it was determined that the 
 Government ought not to take upon itself any duties 
 connected with the religion of the " heathen." The 
 management of those vast interests was given over 
 to the people, without any care being ' taken for 
 protecting the funds from misappropriation. From 
 that moment up to the present time, peculation has 
 been going on. The Pagoda funds are entirely at 
 the mercy of the respective managers; the people 
 have no checlt over their expenditure; in every 
 village there are two sects of Brahmins the 
 Yadagalas and the Tangulas. Some Pagodas have 
 fallen under the management of the one sect, some 
 under that of the other. In every case the sect out 
 of power is at daggers drawn with the sect which 
 has the management. Accusations are constantly 
 brought before the magistracy ; riots continually 
 apprehended. Civil suits are instituted, too, by dis- 
 puted rights, and every community is split up into 
 furious dissensions. The Madras Association has 
 brought this subject to the notice of Parliament in 
 one of its petitions, and prayed the reasonable relief 
 of a legislative Act, vesting the management of the 
 funds in a central body of trustees ; liberally offering 
 at the same time to devote the surplus funds to the 
 cause of secular education. If we wish to compose 
 religious hatred, and let the people live in peace, we 
 should grant this prayer. 
 
201 
 
 We are far too apt, in our anxiety to introduce 
 measures which we feel certain must result in the 
 good of the community, to overlook their probable 
 effect upon the suspicion of the people at large. We 
 listen to the assurances of the poor educated Natives 
 at the Presidency towns, who go with us, and see the 
 aim and scope of the proposed changes, and we 
 mistake their voice for that of the whole nation. 
 When once suspicion is aroused, measures, which at 
 any other season might be introduced without ob- 
 servation, are looked askance at; and it is thus that 
 a vernacular paper seditiously stirs up the Natives 
 by a reference to our late acts, legalizing the marriage 
 of widows, and entitling converts to inherit : 
 
 " The Christians, in the first place, ought to have 
 " considered the reasons for which the Sepoys have 
 " mutinied. The Christians have not gone that way ; 
 "but, though they are born of Hindoo families, they 
 " are yet ready to drink the blood of Hindoos. The 
 " Sepoys have mutinied for three reasons. 1st, Hindoo 
 " widow marriage. 2nd, That which has never 
 u happened during the time of any Kajah has become 
 " a legislative fact with the British Government; it 
 u lias been curiously enough made a law by the British 
 " Government that sons, notwithstanding they leave 
 " the religion of their fathers, should be entitled to 
 " inherit their property. 3rd, Biting of the cartridges 
 " by which the Sepoys lose their caste. Still have 
 " Government insisted upon this being done. The 
 " Sepoys refused to do so, and were disbanded. Are 
 " not these three reasons sufficient enough to irritate 
 " them. They got angry and took Delhi. Agra and 
 
202 
 
 * 
 
 " Cawnpore have ceased to be, and it is uncertain 
 " when Benares, Mirzapore, and other stations are to 
 " be plundered. Allyghur is taken. They have 
 " plundered 30 lacs of rupees from the Collectorate at 
 " Sultanpore, where a Zillah was established for the 
 " government of Oude, and taken that city, and cut 
 " down the white men and women whom they could 
 " find. The Sepoys, having heard that the Puttiallah 
 " and Sindia Eajahs will assist the British Govern- 
 " merit witli their forces, have determined to take 
 c their dominions from them by violence." 
 
 So in our Education Minute we made a very / 
 unnecessary parade of the intentions to allow 
 Missionary Schools to share in the benefits of grants 
 in aid; a fair and proper plan enough, but which 
 might just as well have been effected without 
 proclaiming our purpose. What mischief such acts 
 as those of fanatics like Maclean and Wheeler pro- 
 duce, it is impossible to calculate. 
 
 I need scarcely point to the absolute necessity of 
 immediate measures for the improvement of the 
 administration of justice, and the introduction of a 
 police, who shall not be a source of terror to the 
 people they are supposed to protect. What must be 
 the social condition of the people under such a 
 system of justice and police as now obtains, let the 
 Torture Report, the Bengal Missionaries Petition, and 
 the exposures made of the quality of the judges 
 attest. It has been universally admitted that the 
 most extensive reforms are necessary; the fact 
 remains that nothing has been done. With respect 
 to the administration of justice, it is true that we 
 
 ' 
 
203 
 
 are shortly promised the introduction of simple codes 
 of civil and criminal procedure, which will sweep 
 away a mass of unintelligible nonsense and puerility, 
 which has been accumulating for half a century. 
 
 We are further threatened with Macaulay's Code, 
 a body of law which deals so largely with the 
 intention with which acts are committed, that it is 
 not too much to say, only a highly qualified English 
 Bench of professional judges could correct its tendency 
 to produce oppressions the most grave, and impunity 
 the most ridiculous. Entrusted to such a body as 
 the lay Mofussil Bench, European and Native, its 
 consequences may be disastrous.* A vast step has 
 
 * A4 To give an idea of the quality of our highest Courts of 
 Appeal, I would quote two cases, one from the Sudder of 
 Bengal, the other from the Sudder of Bombay. True, I have 
 quoted these before ; but they cannot be too often brought 
 under notice, I regard them as the " leading cases on the 
 " effect of consent, and the doctrine of intention; " illustrations 
 of the two legal maxims, " Consensus tollit errorem ; " and 
 " Xon culpa, nisi mens sit rea." 
 
 " The first case is extracted from the Bombay Telegraph and 
 " Courier of the 20th January last. 
 " The case was this : 
 
 " Poolchund Nulchund, by caste a Banian, was charged with 
 wilful murder, with having made three of his children 
 (Duvalu and Goslub, daughters, and Ambaram, a son) drink 
 bhang, and when the children were intoxicated, placed them 
 on a pile of wood, and set fire to the wood, whereby the 
 children were burnt to death. The case was tried by Mr. 
 Frere. The prisoner was found guilty. The sentence was as 
 follows : ' You, Poolchund Nulchund, being found guilty of 
 murder, the sentence of the Court upon you is, that you be 
 imprisoned in solitary confinement for eighteen months, and that 
 you be tic ice floyyed, receiving each time twenty-five stripes, 
 
204 
 
 been taken in the proposition to divest the British 
 subject of his privileges, and to submit him to the 
 same tribunal as the Native. It is obvious that so 
 long as the law compels a party accused of crime, his 
 
 " once on the commencement of the execution of this sentence, 
 " and once on your release from gaol ! ! ! ' 
 
 " In handing up the case for confirmation of the sentence to 
 " the Sudder, Mr. Frere observes : ' The only difficult feature 
 " presented in this case is the punishment that ought to be 
 " awarded. The convict pleads guilty, and there is no doubt of 
 " his having committed the murders with which he stands 
 " charged, and also having attempted suicide. It is never even 
 " suggested that he was deranged ; and the crimes he has com- 
 " mitted appear to have been caused by a kind of religious 
 ' fanaticism alone. 
 
 " * A sentence of death would have been no punishment to 
 *' the prisoner, nor would the execution of it have served as an 
 " example to others if others could be found likely to commit 
 " a similar crime. Nor did transportation appear to me a more 
 " fitting sentence to pass than death. I, however, thought that 
 " actual, not mere nominal flogging, and a long period of 
 " solitary confinement, in which the prisoner's health as well as 
 " his own life would be taken care of, would have a more 
 *' salutary effect upon the prisoner, as w r ell as the public, than 
 " any other sentence I could pass.' 
 
 " The case was considered in the Sudder on the 23rd of 
 " December, 1852, before Messrs. Legeyt, Grant, and Warden. 
 
 " Mr. Warden, in his minute, observes, on the * exculpatory 
 " circumstances' urged by the prisoner in his confessions, which 
 " are, 'that the destruction of his children and the attempt to 
 " destroy himself, were the solemnization of a religious rite 
 " performed on a day when a passage to heaven was believed to 
 " be open to all who died on that day, and ivith the consent 
 " of such children as were old enough to express a consent? 
 " whence, says Mr. Warden, ' it is to be deduced, that he believed 
 " the third, had he been old enough, would have consented also, 
 " and that the father consented on the child's behalf'' ! ! ! 
 
205 
 
 and all the witnesses on both sides, to 
 appear before the supreme Court at a distance it 
 may be of a thousand miles, the European enjoys 
 practically an impunity for all offences, except those 
 
 " ' Mr. Legeyt thinks the case ought to be sent back for 
 " inquiry as to the prisoner's state of mind.' 
 
 " Mr. Grant argues as follows : ' The sessions judge has 
 " undoubtedly embarrassed the Court. He has forgotten that 
 " punishment is not intended to be malicious. If the culprit 
 " courted death and received it from justice, the latter would 
 " have been saved from the imputation of being biassed, by the 
 " presumed devices of the culprit. The sentence is unquestion- 
 " ably an inadequate one ; but it is considered also an unsuitable 
 " one, because the effect of solitary confinement upon such a 
 " mind would probably be insanity. If, then, solitary imprison - 
 " ment will drive Poolchund mad, would not transportation be 
 " a mitigation ? ' 
 
 " Such is the Bombay case. 
 
 " The Calcutta case is this : It is taken from the Englishman 
 " of the 16th March, 1853. 
 
 " Nurst Jerghia was tried by Mr. Garstin, the sessions judge 
 " of Sarum, for the murder of an infant named Tughroo, aged 
 " four months. 
 
 " The facts are as follow : On the 22nd of December last, 
 " the prisoner desired the prosecutrix, her sister-in-law, the 
 " mother of the child, to take some rice to her brother in the 
 " fields. She did so ; leaving the infant in prisoner's charge. 
 " On her return she found the child in the prisoner's arms much 
 " scratched, and swollen about the neck. The child died at 
 " eight o'clock on the eve of the same day. The prisoner 
 " admitted that she had squeezed the child's throat, and that it 
 " was her fate to destroy it. The evidence of a surgeon 
 " showed that the child had died by pressure, strangulation. 
 " The prisoner's father-in-law deposed to the women having 
 " had frequent quarrels, and to the prisoner's threatening to 
 " kill the child if the mother did not leave the house. 
 
 " The Mahommedan law officer was for acquittal. Mr. 
 
206 , 
 
 of the deepest dye. The Natives feel this grievance 
 deeply, and they are now fully awake to its injustice. 
 The great increase of Europeans in the provinces, 
 owing to the railways, the telegraph, and the spread 
 of private enterprize, necessitates a change in the 
 law. The privileged class, as might be expected, has 
 clamoured loudly against the change ; but their most 
 powerful arguments have been directed, not against 
 the substantive measure itself, but against the hard- 
 ship of having their lives and liberties submitted to 
 judges of such a quality as now occupy the provincial 
 bench. 
 
 In 1853 I was somewhat successful in showing 
 the English public what the quality of the incum- 
 bents of the Mpfussil Bench really was. I can only 
 
 11 Garstin differing from him, the case was referred to the 
 " Sudder. 
 
 " Mr. Dunbar, of the Sudder, observes as follows : ' Con- 
 " sidering the ease with which she might have completed her 
 " purpose, had her intention been to kill the child, I think it 
 " reasonable to infer she meant nothing more than to do such 
 " hurt to the child as would seriously alarm the mother, and 
 " compel her to leave the house. The depositions of the 
 " medical officer show that the congestion of the organs caused 
 " by the strangulation was greater than so young a child could 
 " bear. It is to be inferred from this, that if the child had been 
 11 older, or the strangulation somewhat less, death would probably 
 " not have ensued. The prisoner could not of course be aware of 
 " the exact degree of violence which she could use without danger 
 " to life, and therefore probably injured the child to a greater 
 " extent than she contemplated. Giving her the benefit of the 
 " doubts ivhich fairly arise in this case,' &c. 
 
 When these two cases have been successfully capped, I 
 shall be happy to furnish my antagonists with more work 
 of a still tougher description. 
 
207 
 
 say that not a single measure has been taken since 
 tli at time to improve it, and the crop of idiotcies 
 daily impugned in the Sudder is as plentiful as ever. 
 We have had the basis of the civil service indeed 
 widened, as it is called, but there has been, no line of 
 demarcation drawn between the revenue and judicial 
 departments : no special training introduced to qua- 
 lify for the latter. A civilian, without any judicial 
 experience, may at the present day, just as in 1853, 
 be pitchforked on to the judicial bench, especially if he 
 happen to have at all incurred the displeasure of 
 Government in the revenue line. Only within the 
 last few months has an instance precisely in point 
 occurred in this presidency. A gentleman, for some 
 twenty years in the revenue department, has sud- 
 denly been made civil and session judge over one of 
 our most important districts, and, as he is troubled 
 with a conscience, I have reason to believe that he 
 bitterly deplores his own unavoidable deficiency. It 
 would be too much to expect that the interests of 
 the people, over whose welfare he presides, should 
 have been consulted ; and this proves that the system 
 which prevailed in 1853, remains unaltered to the 
 present day. The institution of a professorship of 
 law has given an opportunity for raising up a 
 decently educated body of Vakeels, but some time 
 must elapse before their services are available to the 
 public ; still longer before their influence can make 
 itself felt. Meanwhile, as if actuated by an incon- 
 ceivable folly, we are acting with reference to this 
 body just as we have with reference to our railroads. 
 In a rude, poor country, where we should work with 
 
208 
 
 the instruments most ready to hand, we cannot be 
 satisfied until we have tools of the most finished 
 workmanship. Thus, we have a first-class railway, 
 crawling daudlingly across the country, with a capa- 
 city for speed which it can never use, laid down at a 
 cost which almost precludes the chance of a profitable 
 return, instead of an inferior machine, which might 
 have already stretched from coast to coast, and per- 
 mitted the masses to make use of it for the purpose 
 of locomotion. So with respect to our pleaders. 
 We have at present a body of utterly ignorant, if 
 not utterly unscrupulous, Vakeels, filling our courts. 
 We might, if so disposed, supersede them by a class 
 of men acquainted with the principles of law, and 
 actuated by principles of professional honour: but 
 no ; we must not suffer these men to take their 
 diploma in law until they shall have taken a degree 
 in arts, to obtain which, three years must be spent 
 at the University : a period which few, if any, of the 
 law pupils can afford. 
 
 So with respect to the police. Their character 
 was fully exposed by the Torture Report. I select 
 the following picture of them from many others : 
 
 " The police," says Mr. Saalfelt,* " has become the 
 " bane and pest of society, the terror of the coni- 
 " rnunity, and the origin of half the misery and 
 " discontent that exist among the subjects of 
 " Government. Corruption and bribery reign 
 " paramount throughout the whole establishment ; 
 " violent torture and cruelty are their chief 
 
 * Torture Report, Appendix, 8. No. 6. 
 
209 
 
 " instruments for detecting crime, implicating inno- 
 " cence, or extorting money. Robberies are daily 
 " or nightly committed (and not unfrequently 
 " with their connivance), certain suspicious char- 
 " acters are taken up and conveyed to some 
 " secluded spot far out of the reach of witnesses, 
 " where every species of cruelty is exercised upon 
 " them ; if guilty, the crime is invariably confessed, 
 " and stolen property discovered ; but a tempting 
 " bribe soon releases them from custody. Should 
 " they persist in avowing their innocence, relief from 
 " suffering is promised by criminating some wealthy 
 (t individual, and in the agony of despair he is 
 " pointed to as the receiver of stolen goods. In his 
 " turn he is compelled to part with his hard-earned 
 " coin to avert the impending danger. Even the 
 " party robbed does not escape the clutching grasp 
 " of the heartless peon and duffadar ; he is 
 " threatened with being torn from his house, 
 " dragged to the Cutcherry, and detained there for 
 " days or weeks to the actual detriment of his trade 
 " or livelihood, unless he point out the supposed 
 " thieves : the dread of, or aversion to, the Cutcherry 
 " is so great, that the owner would sooner disavow 
 " the stolen article, and disclaim all knowledge of 
 " the property, though his name be found written 
 " upon it in broad characters." 
 
 The remedy proposed was the immediate and 
 total separation of police and magisterial authority 
 from the revenue functions of the civilians and 
 present Native police. Lord Harris expressed sur- 
 prise, shame, and indignation at the disclosures of the 
 
 P 
 
210 
 
 Torture Report. He was not prepared to o the 
 whole length of depriving the civilians of magisterial 
 authority ; but he was prepared at once to separate 
 the revenue and police functions. A scheme was 
 prepared for a detective and preventive police, some- 
 what, I believe, upon the Irish plan. The Court of 
 Directors admitted the case proved, and admitted the 
 propriety of the remedy. The supreme Govern- 
 ment has shelved the whole proposition indefinitely ; 
 and after two years from the date of the Torture 
 Report we are precisely where we then were, so far 
 as anything having been done is concerned. Can 
 the people be well affected towards us ? Can they 
 be contented among themselves ? Are they even 
 secure in life and property ? Are they enjoying that 
 good government, to secure which they pay their 
 heavy tribute to the State ? Have they not just 
 cause for their murmurs ? Could anything else be 
 expected from them ? 
 
 And why is it that nothing has been done ? 
 
 Aye, but this leads me to what some may regard 
 as another of the " remotely predisposing causes " of 
 late events in our diagnosis of the case ; but which, 
 for my own part, I will not avouch to be connected or 
 unconnected with the rebellion : suffice it, that I call 
 attention to the actual existence of the evil, and 
 invite a consideration both of the facts and the deduc- 
 tions which may be made from them. I say, then, 
 that at the root of the entire evil lies the Double 
 Government in England. But for this, I do not 
 believe that such iniquities as the annexations of our 
 neighbouring territories, such open breaches of faith, 
 
211 
 
 could be committed. But for this, there would 
 be some hope of redress for the parties who feel 
 themselves aggrieved. But for this, there would not 
 be interposed such monstrous delay between the 
 recognition of an evil and its remedy or removal. 
 So long as "Leadenhall" is allowed to exist, will 
 there be an obstruction to all sound reform which 
 can be avoided or deferred. If we look to the 
 Directors' public despatches everything will seem 
 progressing admirably ; but Macaulay has taught us 
 how little confidence can be reposed in the paper pro- 
 fessions of the Court. In his life of Warren Hastings 
 occurs the following passage : 
 
 " One thing, indeed, is to be said in excuse for 
 " him. The pressure applied to him by his 
 u employers at home was such as only the highest 
 " virtue could have withstood, such as left him no 
 " choice except to commit great wrongs, or to resign 
 " his high post, and with that post all his hopes of 
 " fortune and distinction. The Directors, it is true, 
 " never enjoined or applauded any crime. Far from 
 " it. Whoever examines their letters written at 
 " that time will find there many just and humane 
 " sentiments, many excellent precepts, in short, an 
 " admirable code of political ethics. But every ex- 
 " hortation is modified or nullified by a demand for 
 " money. 4 Govern leniently, and send more money ; 
 " practise strict justice and moderation towards 
 " neighbouring powers, and send more money ; ' this 
 " is, in truth, the sum of almost all the instructions 
 " that Hastings ever received from home. Now 
 " these instructions, being interpreted, mean simply, 
 
 P 2 
 
212 
 
 " i Be the father and the oppressor of the people, be 
 " just and unjust, moderate and rapacious.' The 
 " Directors dealt with India, as the church, in the 
 " good old times, dealt with a heretic. They 
 " delivered the victim over to the executioners, with 
 " an earnest request that all possible tenderness 
 " might be shown. We by no means accuse or 
 " suspect those who framed these despatches of 
 " hypocrisy. It is probable that, writing 15,000 
 " miles from the place where their orders were to be 
 " carried into effect, they never perceived the gross 
 " inconsistency of which they were guilty. But the 
 " inconsistency was at once manifested to their Lieu- 
 " tenant at Calcutta, who, with an empty treasury, 
 " with an unpaid army, with his own salary often in 
 " arrear, with deficient crops, with Government 
 u tenants daily running away, was called upon to 
 " remit home another half million without fail. 
 " Hastings saw that it was absolutely necessary for 
 " him to disregard either the moral discourses or the 
 " pecuniary requisitions of his employers. Being 
 " forced to disobey them in something, he had to 
 " consider what kind of disobedience they would 
 " most readily pardon ; and he correctly judged that 
 " the safest course would be to neglect the sermons, 
 " and to find the rupees." 
 
 This is equally true at the present day. The 
 " Code of Political Ethics" has had many benevo- 
 lent additions since Warren Hastings' time, but any 
 measure which necessitates an increased outlay may 
 very safely be deferred by the Governor- General, 
 either by further reference, or on the plea of want of 
 
213 
 
 finances, without his incurring the displeasure of his 
 " loving friends," however they may inculcate the 
 necessity of immediate action. The Civil Service 
 has little power of union or combination for the pur- 
 pose of joint defence ; but they possess a vast amount 
 of " vis inertias," a power of passive resistance ; and, 
 both at home and abroad, I firmly believe there is as 
 little disposition as ever there was to cut down the 
 exclusive class privileges of the self-styled " aris- 
 " tocracy " of India. Measures which deprive the 
 civilians of any of their powers are naturally dis- 
 tasteful to them. 
 
 By the last mail I received a copy of the 
 Directors' Despatch on the System of Police in the 
 Bengal Presidency, moved for by Mr. Kinnaird. 
 Let Members of Parliament peruse that document. 
 They will see that it is a complete unreserved admis- 
 sion of the whole case alleged against the Police ; yet 
 the same post brought a letter to a friend of mine, 
 in which the writer states, that he had just met a 
 Madras civilian on furlough, who assured him that 
 the statements which reached England were all 
 highly exaggerated. It is thus that one line is 
 taken in public, another in private ; and again, let 
 the Police Despatch be contrasted with the Despatch 
 on the Memorial of the Bengal Missionaries, called 
 for by Mr. Danby Seymour. There, though the 
 evils are not denied, they are not admitted ; and the 
 excellent men who asked for a Commission of Inquiry 
 are sneered at for not chanting the praises of 
 Government. 
 
 If the police and magisterial duties of the revenue 
 
214 
 
 officers be taken away, they fear, though most 
 mistakenly as it appears to me, that they will be left 
 mere Collectors of Revenue, and that they may suffer 
 in position, in privilege, and in pay. If the Mofnssil 
 Bench be thrown open to competition, and the suc- 
 cessful practitioner at the Bar, be he European or 
 Native, may look to elevation to the Bench, another 
 " huge half-moon, a monstrous can tie out" is taken 
 from their employment by the disagreeable inter- 
 lopers who come cranking in ; and the civilian looks 
 forward with dismay to the day when he may have 
 to address the swart occupant of his former bench 
 in the words of lago : 
 
 " The lusty Moor hath jumped into my seat." 
 
 The feeling is natural, necessary, and pardonable ; 
 but it should not be permitted to stand in the way of 
 needful reform. 
 
 So again, the India House leans towards the pro- 
 tection of the interests of the civilians ; and in pro- 
 portion as the field of patronage has become more 
 contracted, are their efforts concentrated in defending 
 the strip yet left. So long, therefore, as the Court 
 of Directors' existence is prolonged, may we look for 
 continued delays in the execution of measures which 
 have their nominal sanction and approval. Not a 
 single measure of reform, that I am aware of, has 
 been the spontaneous suggestion of the Directors : all 
 the beneficial measures, public works, education, and 
 the like, lately introduced, have been forced upon 
 them from out of doors, wrung out of them by the 
 pressure of public opinion. 
 
 But the evils of Double Government lie far deeper 
 
215 
 
 than in mere passive resistance, or the tacit con- 
 nivance at procrastination above adverted to. 
 
 Its evils are its unnecessary costliness, its cum- 
 brousness, and its freedom from responsibility. It 
 has outlived the objects for which it was instituted. 
 Its cost is as follows, taken from Parliamentary 
 returns called for by Mr. Seymour in 1856 : 
 
 Board of Control 29,421 
 
 Salaries of Directors of East 
 
 India Company 7,569 
 
 Contingent expenses, including 
 
 coals, candles, &c , . . 32,063 
 
 Salaries of 94,387 
 
 Law charges 10,468 
 
 Total 173,908 
 
 A fair round sum for the home administration of 
 India out of the revenue drawn from the Ryot, 
 every allowance being made for sums squandered in 
 unproductive guzzling and banquets to Governors 
 and Commanders-in-chief about to sail ; occasions for 
 after-dinner platitudes, and a deal of preaching what 
 is never practised : a goodly margin also being taken 
 for the performance of a vast mass of utterly useless 
 labour to search, arrange, abstract, &c., the shiploads 
 of despatches and documents which are sent from 
 India in quadruplicate. There is a Commissioner 
 at present at work in India to revise the salaries of 
 the Civil Service, with a view to ascertain what 
 reductions can be made, what sinecures abolished, 
 what superfluous duties omitted, how labour can be 
 
216 
 
 economised, and outlay saved. Surely these are days 
 when retrenchment as well as charity had better 
 begin at home; and there is ample room and verge 
 enough in the figures I have quoted for the practical 
 application of frugality combined with far greater 
 efficiency than has ever hitherto obtained. 
 
 It is the most costly piece of machinery that ever 
 was invented. The item of Sundries alone (32,000) 
 exceeds the total charge of the home Government 
 of all the colonies, 25,000 ! Double Government is 
 indeed a misnomer, since the Court of Directors has 
 no real power : it is a Government carried on by a 
 double agency, by which work and despatches are mul- 
 tiplied, mystification and perplexity encouraged and 
 rendered easy, and all chances of redress for alleged 
 injuries and grievances defeated ; and from the facility 
 with which inquiry is shifted from one quarter to the 
 other, resulting in a practical irresponsibility. 
 
 That the Board of Control, or rather the 
 President of the Board of Control, monopolises all 
 the real power, I believe will not be denied, except 
 by the tottering Directors themselves. In 1852 
 Lord Derby, then Prime Minister, told the House of 
 Lords that, " In the Board of Control, practically 
 " speaking, the whole administration of the affairs of 
 " India rests." Lord Ellenborough said, " I know 
 " that when / was at the Board of Control, I 
 " administered the government. There is no doubt 
 " about that." Mr. Dundas said, " Without the 
 " whole powers of Government the Board of Control 
 " would be a nugatory institution." Lord Grenville 
 said, u The whole authority of the Government was 
 
217 
 
 " actually committed to the Board, and the carrying 
 " on the Government in the name of the Company 
 " was only what the Company had done themselves 
 u in the case of the Indian princes, whose rule they 
 " had superseded." Mill, the historian of India, 
 says, " The real, sole, governing power in India is the 
 " Board of Control; and it only makes use of the 
 " Court of Directors as an instrument, as a subordi- 
 " nate office for the management of details and the 
 " preparation of business for the cognizance of the 
 " superior power." Three years elapsed before the 
 Directors were officially informed of the cause of the 
 Affghan war. Lord Broughton says, "/ ordered 
 u that war." The last instance is that of the Persian 
 war. What share the Directors have in the Govern- 
 ment, what " balance of power" they actually 
 constitute, what " sifting and revision of measures," 
 what bringing to bear of two sets of independent 
 minds upon each single topic our double form of 
 government secures, let the following letter from the 
 Court of Directors to the President of the Board of 
 Control vouch : 
 
 " East India House, Oct. 22, 1856. 
 
 " SIR, In reference to the expedition for foreign 
 " service, preparing at Bombay, under the orders (it 
 " is presumed) of Her Majesty's Government, com- 
 " municated through the Secret Committee, we are 
 " requested by the Court of Directors to suggest, 
 " for the consideration of the Board, how far it 
 " may be just and proper to subject India to the 
 " whole of the charges consequent on those orders. 
 
218 
 
 " 2. In the absence of all information of the causes 
 " and objects of the expedition, the Conrt cannot 
 " themselves form a judgment upon the subject; but, 
 a recollecting the correspondence which passed, re- 
 " garding the expenses of the AiFghan war, the Court 
 " submit that, simultaneously with the expedition, it 
 " should be decided how the expenses are to be 
 " borne. That was not done when the expedition to 
 " AiFghanistan was undertaken, and it is probably 
 " owing to that omission that India has been exclu- 
 " sively charged with the very heavy burden of that 
 " war, notwithstanding the applications repeatedly 
 " made by the Court, which, though not admitted, 
 " have never in principle been rejected by her 
 " Majesty's Government. "We have, &c., 
 
 (Signed) " W. H. SYKES, 
 
 " Ross D. MANGLES." 
 
 But the Court of Drectors is powerful for evil, if 
 it is powerless for good. They have always turned 
 upon their best advisers. They insulted and ma- 
 ligned Lord Ellenborough and Sir Charles Napier, 
 the two men whose counsels and intended reforms in 
 the civil and military departments of administration, 
 if attended to, would have saved the country from its 
 present frightful state. Did it support Sir Charles 
 Napier, in Lord Dalhousie's quarrel with him? Did 
 it stifle inquiry, or call for investigation? Did it 
 listen to the warning, that the Bengal army was 
 mutinous, and that immediate measures were neces- 
 sary for its reform, and the safety of the empire, or 
 
219 
 
 did it side at once with its Governor- General, the 
 whole course of whose aggrandizing policy was so 
 entirely in consonance with its own wishes? Did it 
 not rest satisfied with the assurance of Lord Dal- 
 housie, that Sir Charles Napier was the calumniator 
 of the Indian army ; that his apprehensions of mutiny 
 were unfounded; that the recent outbreak was a 
 " farce;" that there was peace, "within and with- 
 u out;" that the condition of the Native soldier 
 was such as to leave little for improvement? 
 
 The opportunity of repaying an ancient grudge 
 against the conqueror of Scinde, who had been 
 forced upon them by the nation at a moment of 
 critical danger, was far too tempting to be thrown 
 aside; especially as the same opportunity enabled 
 them to shower fresh distinction on their brilliant 
 petted servant, the Governor- General. But for the 
 prejudices of the Board of Directors, the necessary 
 measures with regard to military administration 
 might have been taken, probably would have been 
 taken. And thus it will ever be again. What 
 becomes of the boasted aid which the experience 
 of the Court of Directors brings to the Board 
 of Control, in its ignorance of Indian affairs ? What 
 could the President of the Board of Control 
 know of the real condition of the Indian army, 
 its wants and acquirements, from his own per- 
 sonal acquaintance with the subject? To lean upon 
 the prejudices of such a body as the Directors is to 
 trust to a broken reed, destined to pierce the side of 
 the confiding. Since the charter of William the 
 Fourth, in 1833, the character of the East India 
 
220 
 
 Company has been totally altered. They are no 
 longer sovereign lords of the soil; they are mere 
 trustees for the Crown. Where the power is, there 
 also should be the name, and the undivided res- 
 ponsibility. The Double Government is emphatically 
 a sham. The Directors are but a cloak for the irres- 
 ponsible despotism of the minister. The reasons for 
 which the Board of Control was constituted have 
 expired with the altered state of circumstances. 
 " But when the reason of old establishments," 
 writes Burke, a is gone, it is absurd to preserve 
 " nothing, but the name of them." The Govern- 
 ment has long been practically, if not in theory, 
 that of Her Majesty. Why is Her Majesty veiled 
 from her Indian subjects, by a body which, in the 
 language of Mill, is a mere "instrument, a subordinate 
 " office for the management of details, and the 
 u preparation of business for the cognizance of 
 " the superior power?" 
 
 What valid reason can possibly be assigned for 
 the longer maintenance of the Court of Directors 
 as a separate body? In no other country in the 
 world than England, could an empty form have 
 been so long preserved, after its uses and objects 
 had passed away. The Company was originally a 
 mere joint-stock corporation of traders. For such 
 purposes their constitution was perhaps well adapted. 
 The magnitude of their concern justified a Proprietory 
 and Directory ; but when a wonderful series of events 
 had converted the pedlars into princes, what like- 
 lihood was there, that a mere mercantile body 
 should exhibit the qualities necessary for the 
 
221 
 
 statesmanlike conduct of an empire? They have 
 lived on from hand to mouth. By a system of 
 secrecy and mystification they have contrived to 
 keep all knowledge, and all the weight deriveable 
 from authority, to themselves; and have persuaded 
 the public that any intermeddling with their func- 
 tions, their peculiar experience and ample know- 
 ledge, would assuredly prove highly detrimental, 
 if not dangerous or fatal, to our empire in the 
 East; and now that by pursuing the wicked, foolish 
 policy of annexation they have brought the empire 
 to the very verge of extermination, who shall say 
 that these trustees have not been guilty, grossly 
 guilty, of a breach of their sacred trust? Through 
 the instrumentality of the able men who have 
 wielded power in India we have hitherto floated 
 on the top of the stream; but the tide of fortune 
 turns, and the policy of one man may plunge us 
 into a vortex, whence escape is hopeless. 
 
 That the Directors of such an empire as India, 
 extensive as all Europe, should be chosen by a pro- 
 prietory body of elderly spinsters, and retired ship- 
 captains, and city bankers, seems almost incredible. 
 That the best men from India should decline to be 
 dragged through the filth which such a canvass 
 implies, is only to be expected. What the Court of 
 Proprietors really is, the public has sickened at 
 learning by the reports of the meetings of its Court, 
 when vituperation and rant on one side, contemptuous 
 indifference on the other, mark an assembly of 
 those whom Burke calls, " vulgar politicians." It 
 
222 
 
 is thus he describes them in the bitterness of his 
 scorn : 
 
 " The tribe of vulgar politicians are the lowest of 
 44 our species. There is no trade so vile and 
 44 mechanical, as government in their hands. Virtue 
 " is not their habit. They are out of themselves in 
 44 any course of conduct recommended only by con- 
 u science and glory. A large, liberal, and pros- 
 44 pective view of the interest of states, passes with 
 44 them for romance, and the principles that recom- 
 44 mend it, for the wanderings of a disordered imagina. 
 44 tion. The calculators compute them out of their 
 44 senses. The jesters and buffoons shame them out 
 44 of everything grand and elevated. Littleness in 
 44 object and in means, to them appears soundness 
 44 and sobriety.'' 
 
 Surely the time has at last arrived when the 
 Court of Directors must be snuffed out. Shorn of 
 their patronage, possessing only the shadow of power, 
 the weakness of senility alone can induce them to 
 linger a little longer on the scene. They are effete 
 and useless. They consume a very large sum annu- 
 ally, drawn from the pocket of the Ryot, without 
 conferring any corresponding benefit upon him. 
 Indeed, they stand between him and good, between 
 him and redress for evil. They serve to mystify and 
 perplex, as he, who in Parliament has had occasion 
 to study their accounts, or call for returns of papers, 
 knows to his amazement. They serve to shield the 
 minister from responsibility, and to rid him of the 
 importunate suitors who beset his door. Does any 
 
223 
 
 one think that all the Native princes, and men for- 
 merly of substance, now in London, with their 
 various petitions, have come across the ocean in 
 spite of caste, habit, and prejudice, without a mighty 
 sense of wrong impelling them ? They are no mere 
 pleasure-seekers, or sight- seers. They have come 
 over, each with his charge of robbery and spoliation 
 against the Company; fondly believing that justice 
 is to be found among the people of England, but 
 finding, to his amazement, that between the India 
 House and the Board of Control he can never reach 
 it by any appeal. Double Government is here per- 
 fect in its duplicity. He is bandied backwards and 
 forwards from Leadenhall-street to Cannon-row; he 
 can fix responsibility upon neither. He returns 
 home at last, heart-broken and bewildered, to sit 
 himself down a ruined man ; one who tells all people 
 that justice is as much a myth and a phantom in 
 England as in India. But we shall again be pes- 
 tered with the declaration that India, under the 
 Directors, has at least been better governed than the 
 Colonies. I utterly deny it. The Government of 
 the Colonies may have been bad, but it has not been 
 worse than that of India. Qui procumbit humi, 
 non habet unde cadat. The Colonies, at least, have 
 English laws and English trained judges to admi- 
 nister them. They have, at least, a police who are 
 not a gang of robbers and torturers. Our policy 
 with respect to the Colonies may have been mis- 
 taken; but they have always had among them the 
 elements of domestic good government, such as India 
 never enjoyed. The Colonies have now risen to the 
 
224 
 
 stage of representative government in the progress 
 of political development. In India we are still theo- 
 retically and practically a Despotism.* Education 
 may have been neglected in both. In India, its \ 
 commencement, as a comprehensive Government ' 
 measure, dates from last year. The real explanation 
 of this cry lies in the superior ability which the ; 
 Colonists possess for making their grievances heard. 
 There is indeed a dumbness of despair ; but it is not ! 
 that which has repressed the voice of Indian com- 
 plaint. Could one tithe, one-twentieth, one-hun- 
 dredth part of the petitions for redress, which 
 annually find their way into the council chambers of 
 our presidencies, be translated home, we should leave 
 but small room for any wish on the part of the 
 Directors to compare the amount of Indian and 
 Colonial complaints. 
 
 There is scarcely an individual in India who has 
 not, or fancies he has not, some great grievance for 
 redress. Either his Enam has been resumed by the 
 Company ; or he has been ruined by a suit-at-law ; or 
 he has been tortured by the police; or he has been 
 worried with false charges, sometimes amounting to 
 the capital crime of murder; or the magistrate has 
 hauled him up out of spite, and imprisoned him, or 
 broken into his domicile, or vexatiously made him 
 find security ; or he has been ruined by gang robbers, 
 and can find no redress ; or his property has been 
 confiscated for the services of State, his bullocks and 
 carts seized for the use of some marching regiment, 
 
 * We are positively retrograding. We have burked the 
 freedom of the Press. 
 
225 
 
 and gone on a tour, whence the probability is that 
 they will never return ; or he has performed work, or > 
 supplied materials for Government, and cannot get 
 his accounts settled ; or he has been driven to labour 
 compulsorily on some public work ; * or the collector 
 has summarily given up his land to another, leaving^ 
 him to the slow torture of a " regular suit;" or he is 
 in hot- water with his Pagoda people, and has no/ 
 tribunal to appeal to ; f or the Sheristadar or Tha- , 
 sildar has played him some scurvy trick; or he hasi 
 been unjustly convicted by the criminal courts, with- j 
 out, or even against, evidence. In short, the budget; 
 of complaints is full of proofs of an administration of I 
 affairs, feeble almost to inanition. I could give a 1 
 hundred cases from my own experience, drawn from* 
 
 * An Act has been prepared for legalizing compulsory labour 
 in case of tank or cover breach, and settling a rate of remune- 
 ration. Some such enactment seems positively necessary in a 
 country like this, where irrigation works are so numerous, and 
 so much is at stake in their preservation. I heard an amusing 
 instance of compulsory labour when I was in Tanjore. A tank 
 was suddenly breached by a deluge of rain, and much damage 
 would have been unavoidably done to the crops, but for the 
 presence of mind of the Thasildar, who placed the villagers in 
 the breach, shoulder to shoulder, and filled in the interstices 
 of this human wall with wattle and dub, till other materials 
 could be supplied for repairing the embankment ! Surely the 
 Thasildar must have been some university-bred plagiarist of 
 Shakespeare 
 
 " This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present wall." 
 f I was lately engaged in an appeal in the Sudder, against 
 a decree in a provincial court, in which the judge refused to 
 entertain a claim to blow a trumpet during a procession, for the 
 discharge of which office he had a yearly salary, because the 
 judge thought it was a case of conscience ! 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 all classes, and every rank of life, from the Prince 
 dethroned by treaty-breach, down to the pauper 
 Ryot wandering penniless over the country. Let 
 one suffice ; not selected because it presents any 
 features of peculiarity, but because it is the latest 
 which has come to my notice, if I except a few 
 idiotcies, in the shape of decisions of judges and 
 magistrates, which I found awaiting me on my 
 return to Madras, for appeal to the Sudder Adalut : 
 
 Going up to Bangalore the other day, I occupied 
 the coupe in one of the railway carriages to Vellore. 
 A Native, who, for aught his appearance betokened, 
 might have been a master bricklayer or carpenter, 
 came up to me on the platform, and asked if I had 
 any objection to his sharing the coupe with me. Of 
 course, I was only too glad of a companion; especi- 
 ally as a first-class Native passenger is somewhat of 
 a " rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cygno " 
 and I speculated on his possible history. We soon 
 entered into conversation, and the following is the 
 sum of his story which he told me : " I am going to 
 " spend Sunday at my village-house, where I have 
 " an estate of about 2000 acres. This is an Enam 
 " bestowed on my father, who was a meritorious 
 " servant of the Company. On my brother's death 
 u the Government resumed the land, but the Court 
 " of Directors ordered it to be restored to me and my 
 " son. It is not all cultivated, and lately the engi- 
 " neers have been making some alterations in the 
 " channels, which have diminished the quantity of 
 u water in the tank, and I am not able to cultivate now 
 " so large a portion as formerly. I have also a Mootah 
 
227 
 
 44 in Masulipatam. It is twenty miles long, by so 
 44 many broad. I and my father were eighteen years 
 44 in litigation to obtain possession of this Zemindary. 
 44 The collector was very much opposed to my 
 " getting it, and threw every obstacle in his power 
 44 in my way. At last, the Sudder Court decided in 
 44 my favour : but it was not until after great delay 
 " that the Masulipatam authorities put me in pos- 
 44 session, and the Sudder had to issue sundry pre- 
 " cepts before the revenue authorities would obey. 
 44 No sooner was I in possession, than I found 
 44 another suit filed against me* in the Masulipatam 
 " Court, by the Company, denying the right of the 
 44 last Mootadar, a Hindoo widow, to alienate the 
 44 property as against them, to whom, they say, but 
 44 for such alienation, the estate would have lapsed by 
 " escheat. Thus, I find myself launched on a fresh 
 44 sea of litigation. Heaven knows if I shall ever 
 44 reach the shore. From the moment I have been 
 44 in possession I have met with the most extraordi- 
 44 nary opposition. The Thasildar and the very 
 44 peons know that the collector and the judge are 
 44 ill-disposed to my claim. Rumours are circulated 
 44 that I shall very soon be turned out, and though I 
 44 have paid my kist regularly I have never been 
 44 able to get a receipt from the revenue authorities 
 44 for a single instalment. My manager and agents 
 44 have been most shamefully used. The manager, 
 
 * Singularly enough, I had myself advised this suit whilst I 
 held the office of Government Pleader. The extent of the 
 power of a Hindu widow to alienate her estate is still a moot 
 point. 
 
 Q2 
 
228 
 
 u who I believe is a respectable and known to be a 
 " useful man, together with many others, has been 
 " charged with murder by the police authorities. 
 " The whole charge is utterly false. The others 
 " were imprisoned. My manager was so alarmed 
 " that he made his escape, giving out that he was 
 " gone on a pilgrimage to a holy place. The rest 
 u were tried by the judge, and they were all con- 
 u victed, and recommended to be hanged. When 
 " the case reached the Sudder, the Court directed 
 " the release of all the prisoners. The Sudder said 
 " there was not a tittle of trustworthy evidence in 
 " the case, and that it was clearly a conspiracy. 
 " Thereupon my manager returned. He was forth- 
 " with arrested, and the charge against him pro- 
 " ceeded with. Several of the witnesses on the 
 " former trial were now brought forward. They 
 " declared that their former statements were false, 
 " that they had been tampered with by the police, 
 " and instigated to give false evidence. The widow 
 " of the man alleged to have been murdered was 
 u among them. It was found impossible to convict 
 " the accused. But he was imprisoned and dis- 
 " graced. The criminal judge, determined, if pos- 
 " sible, to ruin my man, wrote to the Sudder, to 
 u know if the depositions taken in the former case 
 " should be used against him. (These were behind 
 " the back of the prisoner, and many of the depo- 
 " nents had declared them to be false.) The Sudder 
 " replied that it was preposterous. The Masuli- 
 " patam authorities are determined to take security 
 tc from my manager, as though there were a case of 
 
229 
 
 u moral guilt or strong suspicion against him. He 
 " is a ruined and degraded man. I don't know what 
 " to do. If I take him back I shall only be sub- 
 " jected to further annoyance and machinations; yet 
 " he has always been a good servant to me, and I 
 " believe him honest." 
 
 The tale may seem incredible to people in 
 England ; but to me, the features were not at all 
 remarkable. I have heard many such, varied only in 
 detail, the general outline being the same. The 
 gentleman promised me the whole of the papers, and 
 I hope they will arrive before this is despatched, so 
 that I may verify his statements ; but I see no 
 reason to doubt their general correctness ! 
 
 Now let it be remembered that there are cases 
 like this all over the country. Can the people be 
 contented ? Can they regard our Government with 
 esteem, or even with respect ? Are not materials of 
 a most inflammable nature piled up everywhere ? 
 May not general disaffection still exist, although at 
 present it be smouldering ? 
 
 I would now briefly trace the progress of the efforts 
 which are pursued by those who try to obtain 
 redress for a grievance. An Enam, for instance, has 
 been resumed. The party ejected petitions the col- 
 lector who has just ousted him. His petition is 
 endorsed with a refusal to interfere, and returned to 
 him. He travels up to Madras, and presents a petition 
 to the Kevenue Board, who either decline to interfere, 
 or remit him to the collector. He petitions the Govern- 
 ment, who follow the same course. Perhaps in ex- 
 treme cases, they direct the collector to report fully 
 
230 
 
 on the matter. He is the party who has passed the 
 decision. He supports his original view by e very- 
 argument in his power. The petitioner never sees 
 this report, which is a confidential communication 
 between the Government and its subordinate. The 
 Government minutes that the explanation offered by 
 the collector is perfectly satisfactory, and declines to 
 interfere. Perhaps the petitioner renews his at- 
 tempts. He is referred to the Government endorse- 
 ment of previous date. He has perhaps been hanging 
 about Madras some two or three years during this 
 process ; he has expended all his means ; he has been 
 fooled by designing petition-writers in Madras who 
 have wrung him of his last rupee under the false 
 assurances of their influence with people in high 
 places. But when the farce has been played out, he 
 returns to his native village, or goes and hangs 
 himself, or throws himself down a well, and is never 
 heard of again. The number of petitions annually 
 forwarded in this way, and thus annually disposed of, 
 is enormous. The only limit to them is the utter 
 hopelessness of success. The whole petitioning 
 system is a vast delusion and mockery. I have 
 traced the great majority of petitioners to the con- 
 clusion of their attempts ; some few forwarded their 
 memorial "m triplicate" through the Government to 
 the supreme Government, and, after that, to the 
 Court of Directors and the Board of Control the 
 " Double Government" at home. The Indian Govern- 
 ment gives it a friendly kick in passing it forward ; 
 and, after a due interval, it is returned with an 
 intimation, that the matter having been thoroughly 
 
231 
 
 sifted by the authorities in India, the Board of 
 Directors sees no reason to interfere. Let us now 
 suppose that the memorialist is a dethroned prince, or 
 a great zemindar. In such a case, an agent may be 
 dispatched to England after the whole of the above 
 process has been tried and failed, or the injured 
 party may go in person to throw himself, as he 
 hopes, at the feet of Her Majesty, there to claim a 
 speedy justice. On his arrival in London he visits 
 the Court of Directors, and is referred to the Board 
 of Control. The Board of Control refers him back 
 again to the Court of Directors. All this very 
 courteously, it is true : but he soon finds out that 
 there is no chance of a hearing, much less of redress, 
 in either of those quarters. He obtains an intro- 
 duction to some Member of Parliament. A question 
 is asked in the House, which elicits an ambiguous or 
 oracular reply. Papers are moved for, and if they 
 are not garbled or mutilated, a tale of the gravest 
 injustice, petty larceny, and villany, is disclosed 
 The flimsy pretexts of setting aside the plainest treaty 
 are seen to have been suggested in India, and held 
 satisfactory and conclusive in England. A debate 
 ensues before some forty members. India House 
 influence, Board of Control influence, ministerial in- 
 fluence is brought to bear upon the question. A burst 
 of virtuous indignation escapes from any Director 
 who may have a seat in Parliament : Mr. Mangles 
 and others assure the House that, in their time, 
 Indian Government was perfect, and they have no 
 reason to believe it has deteriorated since ; and the 
 whole thing ends in smoke. An effort is then made 
 
232 
 
 to get the matter referred to the Privy Council. A 
 minister, it may be the Duke of Argyll or Mr. Vernon 
 Smith, assures the country that the Indian Govern- 
 ment is only too anxious to lay the dispute before 
 that tribunal, but that the highest legal authority 
 has declared it extra vires. Then, as a last effort of 
 despair, a Bill is brought in, to give the party his 
 rights. It is carried by a triumphant majority in a 
 really large House of Commons. But the Lords very 
 summarily kick it out. It is a private bill. It is 
 unconstitutional, it is highly unprecedented and 
 dangerous. Next Session a question is asked the 
 President of the Board of Control touching the 
 whereabouts of the unfortunate prince call him Ali 
 Moorad. In the recess, the India House hacks, 
 and the journals which they can influence, have been 
 industriously spreading reports of the utter unten- 
 ableness of the claim, coupled with assurances that it 
 is likely to be adjusted to the satisfaction of all 
 parties by a compromise at the India House. The 
 President of the Board of Control, however, has 
 nearly forgotten the existence of the individual. He 
 really does not know whether he is in England ; he 
 thinks he has been remitted to the Governor- General 
 in India for a final settlement of his claims ! 
 
 Now this is a counterpart of the course pursued in 
 India. There, the general principle is laid down 
 never to take a kingdom or a property where there is 
 a " shadow of a doubt ;" where the former incumbent 
 " deserves well " of the Company, &c. ; but every 
 case that arises is found to be one to which the 
 general rule -does not apply ; and that in the teeth of 
 
233 
 
 the most conclusive facts. The kingdom is seized. 
 So in England, the general profession is a desire to 
 do justice to every claimant. But in each special 
 case, all conceivable delays and obstacles are thrown 
 in his way, every possible objection shewn, and he 
 never does get justice. All this shakes our power in 
 India where it has no root ; we destroy the affections 
 of the people, and we are set down as a nation of 
 liars and robbers. 
 
 Now I say, that neither the original seizure nor the 
 final denial of justice could take place were it not for 
 the Double Government. 
 
 That is the root of the evil. If we had a Govern- 
 ment acting publicly instead of secretly ; if there were 
 room for fair investigation instead of mystification'; 
 if the Government were restrained by a sense of its 
 responsibility, and if it were immediately responsible 
 to Parliament for all its acts, these deeds of spoliation 
 could never have been attempted. Neither would 
 redress be altogether hopeless, and its pursuit that 
 mockery and delusion which it now is under the 
 irresponsible despotism of the Double Government. 
 But for the Double Government, let me ask, would it 
 have been possible to stifle inquiry before the Par- 
 liamentary Committees in 1852 ? With a minister 
 decently responsible to Parliament, and no India 
 House influence on the back stairs, would not all the 
 subjects of proposed inquiry have been thoroughly 
 sifted ? Would Lord John Russell ever have stood 
 upon the " finality " of that superficial investigation 
 which took place, and have left untouched the most 
 important subjects the administration of justice, and 
 
234 
 
 the condition of the people? Why if those topics had 
 been sifted, such a state of things would have been 
 necessarily exposed as might perhaps have led to 
 measures sufficient to have prevented the present 
 rebellion. Look at the disclosures of the adminis- 
 tration of justice in Southern India ; look at the 
 Torture Eeport ; look at the Bengal Missionary 
 Petition. They will give some notion of what 
 might be expected to have come out, if these subjects 
 had been opened. But after a hasty inquiry into 
 some few out of the many topics laid down for 
 search at starting, the Committees were suddenly 
 closed, after the India House had polled its witnesses 
 on the spot, and before the people of India could send 
 their witnesses into the field. It was as though the 
 sheriff should declare the polling booths at an election 
 closed at twelve o'clock in the day instead of at the 
 pre-appointed hour. 
 
 But for the Double Government, could the Eeport 
 of the Law Eeform Commissioners, such men as 
 Sir John Jervis and Sir John Eomilly, and the others 
 who composed the Committee, have been shelved, a 
 dead letter up to the present moment ? But for the 
 Double Government, could the President of the 
 Board of Control, in the year 1857, have made the 
 following vague reply to an inquiry as to the course 
 of Indian reform : 
 
 " As the subject was one of great importance, and 
 " one on which much difference of opinion existed, he 
 " sent out all the proceedings of the commission to 
 " India, with the request that the proposed mode of 
 " procedure and penal code suggested by them should 
 
235 
 
 " be carried through the Legislative Council in the 
 " form of Acts. With regard to the amalgamation of 
 u the Supreme Court and the Sudder Court, he 
 u believed it would require an Act of the Imperial 
 " Parliament, on account of the Admiralty jurisdic- 
 " tion. It was, moreover, a point on which great 
 u difference of opinion existed. The petition which 
 " the honourable and learned gentleman had pre- 
 " sented that evening advocated a different view 
 " from that entertained by him ; and as the question 
 " was extremely complicated, he thought it could be 
 " better discussed in India ; but as soon as he 
 " received the report of the decision arrived at, 
 u he assured the honourable and learned gentleman 
 >c that there should be no delay on his part in carry - 
 " ing out the views of the Legislative Council." 
 
 But for Double Government, is it possible that the 
 cotton growing capabilities of India would not ere 
 this have been developed, and the water communica- 
 tion with the great cotton growing districts of Berar 
 and Xagpore have been opened that cotton district, 
 the fertility of which prompted Lord Dalhousie to 
 break faith with the Sovereigns of Nagpore, and to 
 spoil them of their kingdom ? Would the great 
 Godavery not have been opened ? Would the Friend of 
 India, in two lines, have dared to assert, that the 
 scheme for the improvement of the Godavery was 
 impracticable, in the teeth of Lieut. Haig's numerous 
 reports, and at the very moment when a friend of 
 mine was bringing cotton down by it from Chanda to 
 Coringa ; and when the same gentleman, after 
 proving the success of the experiment, has made 
 
236 
 
 arrangements, single handed, for carrying down 
 10,000 bales by the river this very year? But for 
 Double Government, should we have had the Times 
 writing the tissue of sophistry which appeared in its 
 columns on the 16th of May, with reference to the 
 principles on which India must be governed, and the 
 impossibility of Europeans ever successfully employ- 
 ing their capital in developing the resources of the 
 country ? 
 
 Would not that powerful organ, in possession of 
 the most accurate information and perfect know- 
 ledge, instead of thus, perhaps unconsciously, 
 furthering the policy of the India House, have been 
 enlisted unequivocally on the side of those who, by a 
 strong system of judicial administration, would invite 
 English capital and enterprize into India, as the 
 surest source of prosperity to the Natives? Would 
 it not, while making the humiliating confession that 
 Englishmen, in search of profitable employment or 
 investment, will seek Sierra Leone rather than India, 
 have stated the true causes of this indisputable and 
 disreputable fact? Would the Times ever have 
 written its insulting libel of the 10th June on the 
 regimental officers of the Indian army, some of whom 
 have been foully murdered, others died nobly at their 
 posts, while the survivors are at this very moment 
 reconquering the empire we have all but lost? 
 Would it have dared to assert that the surviving 
 officers of all regiments which have mutinied should 
 be placed on half pay as a punishment and example ? 
 or would it not have traced events to their true 
 causes, cast blame on the proper shoulders, and 
 
237 
 
 denounced the accursed lust of dominion, the 
 tampering with religious prejudices, the infatuated 
 monopoly of power, aimed at by centralization, as the 
 source and origin of rebellion? 
 
 The Double Government must cease. It has 
 endangered our Indian Empire, and will eventually 
 destroy it, if permitted to continue its career. What 
 shall we substitute in its stead? Fox's principle of 
 a single Chamber for India was certainly preferable 
 to Pitt's scheme of control, notwithstanding the out- 
 cry raised against it at the time. After seventy 
 years we can look back calmly to the merits of the 
 respective schemes. The one, too, has been tried, 
 and found to have failed; nor do the dangers 
 anticipated to the nation and the constitution from 
 the vast amount of patronage which it was asserted 
 Fox's scheme would throw into the hands of the 
 minister of the day, any longer exist. Nor is there 
 now any cause for alarm, lest ministerial influence 
 should send out to India for its government those 
 useless younger branches and offshoots of the 
 aristocracy, who, it is said, have filled all offices in 
 the colonies : men whose only claim to employment 
 lay in their utter unfitness for success in any other 
 profession of life. I know not whether this is a true 
 picture of what has occurred in the colonies. It is 
 constantly started as a fatal objection by civilians "in 
 India. But the patronage has been taken away from 
 the Government. It is now open to candidates of all 
 grades of life, and of all qualities of intellect, and of 
 all conditions of education. The civil and the 
 medical services are already open. The military may 
 
238 
 
 easily be made so. There is no danger to the 
 liberties of England from the patronage which a 
 change in Double Government would throw into 
 the hands of the minister of the day. That is a 
 bugbear of which no man need stand in awe. 
 
 What then shall we substitute? Shall we transfer 
 all power to the Board of Control? God forbid. 
 The system which by any accident can place the 
 control of Indian Government in the hands I 
 say it with all respect, but with the most painful 
 conviction of such gentlemen as Sir Charles Wood 
 and Mr. Yernon Smith, must be radically wrong and 
 rotten at the core. The only possible argument in 
 favour of the continuance of the Board of Control, 
 its power of nomination over the raw material of 
 experience supplied from the quarter of Leadenhall 
 Street, would be cut from under it by the extinction 
 of the Court of Directors. Neither of these statesmen 
 would, I fancy, lay claim to any personal experience 
 of Indian affairs at the date of their respective 
 acceptance of office, and our Indian Empire is a 
 jewel of somewhat too great value for submission to 
 mere experiment. Neither of the gentlemen I have 
 named are remarkable, I believe like the old Gallic 
 kings, who stood superior by the head and shoulders 
 to the common herd for that overawing intellect 
 which, if it does not supply the want of practical 
 experience, at least blinds men to the defect. There 
 must be nothing left to accident or chance, or at 
 least as little as possible. In introducing a change 
 we must take the best guarantee and security we can 
 get for the probability of a really good and efficient 
 
239 
 
 Government; and I believe we approach nearer to 
 this in proportion to the publicity and responsibility 
 under which the tenants of office act. 
 
 Let there be a single Chamber for the Government 
 of India. Let its composition include all the 
 elements of theoretical statesmanship and practical 
 experience. Let the best heads that England and 
 India can furnish be seen around its board. Let 
 the principal members of the Ministry be members 
 ex-officio. Let those of the retired Indian Civil and 
 Military Services who have won the most dis- 
 tinguished reputation be their colleagues. Let some 
 of the independent professions, men who have 
 acquired fame and fortune in India, be associated 
 with them. Let their deliberations be as public as 
 is consistent with safety ; let their ordinary transac- 
 tions be communicated to the Press ; let them be 
 immediately responsible to Parliament; and we shall 
 have a really efficient Government for India. Into 
 the details of such a plan I do not propose to enter 
 in a paper already run to an unexpected length. 
 Suffice it to have chalked out a general scheme which 
 seems to secure, to the greatest practical extent, all 
 the advantages derivable from a combination of 
 political wisdom and time-won experience. 
 
 Such seems to be the best means of governing 
 India. True, it is an experiment, but so are all 
 political measures. Their success is always pro- 
 blematical ; we may not achieve success, but we may 
 do more deserve it. Constituted as things are at 
 present, I can only say that we reverse this order 
 we may obtain success, but we do not deserve it. 
 
240 
 
 If that great sham, the Double Government, be 
 abolished, and a single Chamber or Council for India 
 be substituted, let us call things by their right names. 
 Let us have no longer the real authority in one 
 quarter, the nominal in another. The Government 
 of India is in reality that of Her Majesty the Queen. 
 Why should it be administered any longer in the 
 name of the Company? why should not the name 
 be where the strength lies ? why is the Queen to be 
 veiled from a hundred and fifty millions of her 
 subjects, yet faithful and loyal, if they could throw 
 themselves at her feet, not repressed by the inter- 
 vention of a phantom which forbids their approach 
 to the throne? why should not the native bask in 
 the sunshine of royalty, in common with every other 
 dependency of the Crown, rather than be chilled by 
 the " cold shade" of the Company? The Queen's 
 name is a tower of strength ; the critical moment has 
 arrived for using it. In the formula of the old 
 French monarchy, let the Indian Company be 
 arrested " au par de roi." Let the Government of 
 India be carried on directly, and ostensibly, and 
 avowedly in the name of the Queen. This measure 
 would afford us the easiest solution for the great 
 financial embarrassment which must necessarily stare 
 us in the face after the rebellion shall have been put 
 down. Vast sums have been plundered, vast sums 
 dissipated in the unproductive outlay necessary for 
 suppressing the rebels. Society will have been 
 disorganized over a vast breadth of country, cultiva- 
 tion neglected, labour idle. There must, therefore, 
 be not only an actual deficiency in our treasu es, 
 
241 
 
 but the certain prospect of a deficient revenue for the 
 current year. The Friend of India estimates it at 
 3,000,000 sterling. Probably it will exceed that. 
 Company's paper is selling at 42 per cent, discount; 
 money will not be procurable in India at 7 per cent. 
 With the Government carried on in the name of the 
 Queen, and a Parliamentary guarantee, 10,000,000 
 sterling might be raised on England with ease at 
 5 per cent; and the Gordian knot, which we could 
 with difficulty untie, may thus be cut. I believe, too, 
 that this measure of governing in the name of 
 Her Majesty would go farther to re-establish our 
 power than any other which can be named. It 
 would, at any rate, give us pause and breathing 
 time. The people of India have a thorough distrust 
 of the Company, thanks to long misrule and the 
 crowning policy of Lord Dalhousie. In the abolition 
 of the Company's Government they would see, 
 rightly or wrongly, a recognition of its having 
 abused its trust ; they would believe that sympathy 
 was felt in England for their condition ; they would 
 hope that under the new regime a totally different 
 system would prevail ; that the policy of further 
 annexation would be abandoned; that treaties, and 
 grants, and promises would be respected; that there 
 would be a chance for the introduction of decent 
 administration of justice, an escape from eternal 
 litigation, and the chicanery and oppression of the 
 army of revenue and police peons. They would 
 have their expectations most forcibly arrested ; every 
 man would be a-gape and a -tip toe to see what first 
 measure signalized the accession of the new Govern- 
 
242 
 
 merit; new in name, and, if we are not infatuated, 
 new in practice. 
 
 If the Queen were to inaugurate Her Majesty's 
 taking the reins of government into her own hands 
 by some great signal act of justice, which all men 
 could understand, and none could help seeing, such 
 as the restitution to their thrones of those deposed 
 sovereigns whose right and title might be shewn 
 to be indisputable, I believe that all India would 
 rejoice from one extremity to the other, and that 
 at the same time that it decreed a bare act of justice, 
 it would re-establish the shaken allegiance of the 
 masses throughout the land. 
 
 But some such act must only be the forerunner of 
 real, radical, social reforms. We might rest awhile 
 on the credit and prestige of such an act. Perhaps 
 this wisest of policies may be impossible, if the Com- 
 pany's rule is to be continued. Then the recognition 
 of the despoiled princes might be regarded as a con- 
 cession arising from our fears: and it would be 
 whispered that this at any rate was one of the first 
 fruits of the rebellion. Coming from the Company, it 
 would be regarded with suspicion, and miss its effect. 
 Coming from the Crown, it would not be so much re- 
 garded as a mere act of royal grace and favour, as 
 the necessary consequence of the complaints and 
 wrongs of the injured having at last reached the 
 royal ear, and the primal source of the fountain- 
 justice. 
 
 Such an act would be one of policy, as well as 
 justice. Indeed, of its twofold motives, the former 
 might predominate. We should in the first instance 
 
243 
 
 umnistakeably arrest attention, and confirm a waver- 
 ing faith. We must gain time for the introduction of 
 those measures which will make India one of the 
 most flourishing kingdoms of the world, and its 
 people one of the richest and most contented. 
 But woe be unto us if we idle away the time 
 thus gained : if we do not at once set ourselves in 
 earnest to those great reforms, the necessity of which 
 has been proved and demonstrated, and admitted 
 over and over again, but which have never yet been 
 carried into execution. Instead of a restless ambi- 
 tion to be ever extending our boundaries, or swallow- 
 ing the independent kingdoms which each extension 
 brings within our circumference, let us display the 
 most scrupulous good faith to our old allies, in the 
 midst of us ; let us study to render life and property 
 secure by the organization of a trustworthy and 
 efficient police; let us press forward those public 
 works, which will create material prosperity both 
 by the creation of produce, and the opening up 
 of communications for its carriage to home markets 
 or ports for foreign export ; let us revise our demands 
 upon the cultivators of the soil, the great body of 
 the people, and wherever those demands are found 
 to press too heavily, reduce them ; let us render men's 
 titles secure by an accurate survey of their land 
 and registration of deeds; let us exercise economy 
 in the Government, in order that we may have 
 a larger portion of our annual revenues to expend 
 upon the wants of the people, and the country ; let 
 us push on the great cause of education, whence alone 
 we can now raise an aristocracy in the place of that 
 
244 
 
 landed aristocracy which has been destroyed; let 
 us gradually advance the Natives to places of 
 responsible and lucrative employment, and an ever 
 increasing share in political importance, giving 
 them thus a deeper and a deeper stake in the 
 stability of the Government ; let us gradually pave 
 the way to representative institutions, treading, 
 it is true, cautiously, but ever onward, and with 
 a well understood and settled purpose ; let us render 
 ourselves, by our whole course of action, ever more 
 and more independent of our army as the sole 
 means of our maintenance of power; above all, 
 let us purify . and strengthen our judicial admi- 
 nistration. There can be no happiness, no prosperity 
 for a people, where a feeble judiciary involves all 
 alike in the meshes of inextricable, interminable 
 litigation; where false charges brought by enmity 
 and supported by perjury and forgery, even though 
 such charges hazard the life of the accused,* are as 
 likely of success as the most righteous cause ever 
 brought into a court of justice. But these reforms, 
 and a host of others which might-swell the catalogue, 
 must now be introduced rapidly, or it may be too late. 
 
 Vidi ego quod primum fuerat sanabile vulnus, 
 
 Dilatum longse damna dedisse morse. 
 
 * See the case related in these pages, by the passenger in 
 the railway-train. 
 
 &ICHARDSON BROTHERS, Printers* 23, Cornhill, E.G. 
 
I 
 
 - 
 
RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 
 
 202 Main Library 
 
 LOAN PERIOD 1 
 HOME USE 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 
 
 Renewals and Recharges may be made 4 days prior to the due date. 
 
 Books may be Renewed by calling 642-3405 
 
 DUE AS STAMPED BELOW 
 
 
 
 
 JA:: 2H996 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 RECEIVED 
 
 
 
 DEC 091995 
 
 
 
 CIRCULATION DEPT 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - '- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 FORM NO. DD6 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY 
 BERKELEY, CA 94720 
 
 
YC A 1 087 
 
 U.C.BERKELEY LIBRARIES 
 
 512824 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
m 
 
 mnH9i&HM 
 
 '^r^i .^?&'^-- : ' f ."s