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then questionable; and all men's thoughts were absorbed by the paramount interest of passing events. The eyes of the whole nation were straining into the far east, bent upon the progress of their countrymen; there was no sympathy, no patience for any matter not intimately connected with their condition, their sufferings, their heroism, their triumphs. To have craved a hearing at such a season for proposals of future reform, would have been impertinent folly; and, therefore, while lending my best aid to defeat the object of Lord Canning's Gagging Act, and striving to call the attention of the public to the true bearings of the crisis, I contented myself with such a hurried and brief sketch of the measures requisite for the regeneration of India, that even a friendly critic* has misunderstood my views, which, however, may be summed up in the single word-Justice.

Now, however, times are altered. The suppression of rebellion and restoration of order are a mere question of time; the representatives of the nation are about to deliberate on the future of India; and I conceive that one who has enjoyed the opportunities which I have, and gathered carefully the experience of sixteen years of active life in India, may usefully state his convictions, and pour forth his knowledge for the benefit of those, who, without similar advantages, will have to consider what the future policy of England towards India, and what the future government of India, shall be.

The greater portion of this present book will therefore be devoted to such topics; although I cannot admit the soundness of that advice which bids us not look back at all. How we are indeed to look forward with any prospect of utility or success, unless we first of all thoroughly understand the past; how we can safely apply a remedy unless we are first certain what is the evil; why in this particular instance we should voluntarily reject the teachings of history, I cannot understand. We cannot have too accurate a comprehension of the limits and character of the whole rebellion for if, as it has been persistently asserted, it is really a pure military mutiny, and nothing more, the measures to be adopted are abundantly clear, simple, and easy, If it were a national rebellion, in the sense of a general simultaneous rising of the entire population between the Himalayas and Cape

* " 'Athenæum," London.

Comorin, remedy might be hopeless; but fortunately it is not that, though it might have been. If it be a rebellion commenced indeed by the soldiery in fact, but the result of premeditation and secret conspiracy among men of the higher classes, who used the sepoys as mere tools—and if large bodies of the people have risen against us, then we may argue such a condition among them, and such latent general disaffection,* as requires the most delicate handling on the part of our statesmen and politicians.

That this last will be found to be the true character of the rebellion, I entertain not the slightest doubt; the proofs, indeed, all tend one way, however selfish interest, influence, and ignorance may struggle to conceal the fact, and divert attention to other directions. If we impose upon ourselves in this particular, or if we suffer ourselves to be imposed upon, the results may be most calamitous both for England and India; and I would, therefore, without attempting any detail, beg to point to some of the more prominent facts, which will be suggestive enough for those who choose to follow up the inquiry for themselves. And this leads me directly to my first topic, which cannot be altogether passed over, although it deals with the past, and my principal concern is with the future.†

* See L. Reid, Esq., House of Lords' Report, Question 2700.

+ I shall have to quote largely from Indian journals of acknowledged reputation in this country; and I crave an attentive perusal of these extracts, for I can assure my readers that the selections will amply repay their perusal. I know that it is a very common practice to skip such passages, and pass on to the original matter. The journals in question, too, may be but little known, or not known to the English public; but a little reflection will convince those who wish to master Indian topics, that they can scarcely go to a better source than the respectable journals of India, whose editors devote their entire time to the task of collecting trustworthy materials, digesting voluminous records, and placing valuable information before their subscribers in a readable shape. Depend upon it, that Indian journals are safer guides on Indian subjects than even the most brilliant of the home press. I might, at a very little outlay of time and labour, have presented all those valuable contributions in the shape of original matter. But whatever others may do, I cannot bring myself to filch or suck the brains of other men without acknowledgment; and as my object is to open up sources of information and reflection, I trust a too common prejudice will not operate to prevent the perusal of quoted as well as original matter.

CHAPTER II.

TOPIC 1ST.

I. What is the character of the Rebellion? II. What is its cause?

THESE two questions are intimately connected; for unless the rebellion was, in its origin, a mere military mutiny, which assumed a totally different character as the infection spread and its dimensions grew beyond the control of the mutineers, it is obvious that the character of the rebellion has been determined, and may be judged of by its cause. Those who assert that the outbreak is purely a military mutiny are bound to establish two points. They must shew that it is confined to the sepoys, for only they can be mutineers; and they must assign some satisfactory reason for the sepoys suddenly rushing into mutiny.

It may be said, and that plausibly, that the panic into which the sepoys were thrown by the fear of losing their caste and their religion, by being compelled to bite the obnoxious cartridges, affords such reason-that the sepoy is the creature of impulse, ignorant to a degree, and a mere unreasoning child on such matters. The mutiny at Vellore may be quoted; and it may be argued that the merest trifles, a change of an article of dress or the like, has heretofore proved sufficient to kindle the suspicions of native soldiery, and to hurry them into mutiny. I am very far from saying that this plea of the cartridge was a mere pretext, so far as the sepoys were concerned, in the first instance. I think it must be admitted that a real bonâ-fide alarm was excited in the mind of the sepoys, both Hindoo and Mussulman, by their belief that the new cartridges were compounded of the fat of pigs and bullocks. But this will not account for the conduct of those sepoys who mutinied at a period long subsequent to the outbreak of the rebellion, at isolated stations, after the

proclamation of the Government; after the repeated assurances of their officers; after the fact that the men were permitted to make up their own cartridges; after the withdrawal or non-issue of the articles objected to; and after mutiny had become hopeless from the success of British arms. The question still remains, by whom was this cry against the cartridges first raised; was it a mere accidental circumstance, or was it not a cry pitched on with the most consummate craft by conspirators, in whose hands the sepoys were mere tools and puppets?

Now the trial of the King of Delhi has disclosed the existence of a conspiracy long previous to the first outbreak of the rebellion. We find him not only in communication with numerous rajahs and chiefs, but actually sending emissaries to the Shah of Persia during the late Persian war, to obtain his aid towards the extirpation of the English. The Delhi proclamations, we know, were sent to Oude, and the puppet boy-king of Lucknow affected to act as the appointee of the great Mogul at Delhi. I will not press hard upon a fallen man, or assert that the King of Oude is implicated in the conspiracy, though we know that he was arrested suddenly in Calcutta, has been a close prisoner ever since, and it is asserted on good authority that the Government is in possession of convincing evidence of his complicity. But every man is presumed innocent until he is proved guilty; and I will not follow the example of a pamphleteer who has sketched out the whole plot of the conspiracy in the minutest detail, and shewn what share of territory each conspirator was to obtain, down even to the division of Calcutta itself. It is quite certain. that the sepoy regiments quartered in Delhi had, previous to the commencement of the Delhi mutinies, a good mutual understanding with the troops at Meerut; for when the troopers from that station galloped into the city of Delhi, the infantry at once opened out so as to expose their officers to the fire of the cavalry, who rode up and pistolled them one by one. The whole then proceeded to the palace, they paid their allegiance to the king, attacked the arsenal, murdered the Europeans, and seized the city. The whole work was far too systematically done

*It is surmised that the native officers from Delhi who went to Meerut to sit on the court martial of the cavalry troopers, there entered into the arrangements for the outbreak with the Meerut troops.

to permit of the supposition that it was the result of mere momentary impulse. An entire regiment does not so give up its officers to murder.

Previous to the outbreak, as well as subsequently, bands of fakeers or holy mendicants had been wandering over the country. They had been in some instances detected in tampering with the sepoys of the armies of Madras and Bombay. Whether the passage of the chupatties was a signal connected with the rebellion or not, I will not take upon myself to affirm, for I have not seen any sufficient evidence on the point ;* but, independently of that, the facts point to but one explanation of the cartridge-cry, namely, that it did not originate with the sepoys, but was selected with consummate tact and skill by those, who, behind the curtain, were casting about for a motive which should deeply stir both the Mussulman and Hindoo ranks of the Bengal army.

The outbreak at Meerut, caused as it was by the severity, and rendered successful by the imbecility, of the military authorities, was nevertheless a providential circumstance for us. The shell burst too soon. The plot was not quite ripe in all its parts. Could it have been kept without explosion until the Mohurrum, I doubt whether there would have been a European left alive in India to tell the tale of the revolution. That is the festival when fanaticism is most widely and most easily excited; the Hindoo Dusserah falls about the same time, and it is reported that this was the season fixed upon for the fulfilment of that prophecy respecting the termination of the British Raj, which was so well calculated to bring about its own verification.

The greased cartridge-cry was the spark which fired the train; but the train had been most carefully laid. And if this does not

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* The witness, Tut Mull, produced on the trial of the King of Delhi, so late as February 4th of this year, could give no explanation of this mysterious signal. He deposes as follows:I had heard the story of the circulation of chupatties throughout the country. I do not know what the signification of the chupatties was. I have never heard of any precedence among either Hindoo or Mussulman for such a deed. There were various meanings assigned by popular voice to the circumstance; some said they implied tampering with the religion of the people; some that it predicted that Government intended to interfere with their food. I do not know why such meanings were attached to the fact, but I know that they all had for their object poisoning the minds of the people against the Government."

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