Part 58

"The long autumn day was over, and we were in Delhi. But Delhi was, by no means, ours. Sixty-six officers and 1,100 men— nearly a third, that is, of the whole attacking force—had fallen; while, as yet, not a sixth part of the town was in our power. How many men, it might well be asked, would be left to us by the time that we had conquered the remainder? We held the line of ramparts which we had attacked and the portions of the city immediately adjoining, but nothing more. The Lahore Gate and the Magazine, the Jumma Musjid and the Palace, were still untouched, and were keeping up a heavy fire on our position. Worse than this, a large number of our troops had fallen victims to the temptation which, more formidable than themselves, our foes had left behind them, and were wallowing in a state of bestial intoxication. The enemy, meanwhile, had been able to maintain their position outside the town; and if only, at this supreme hour, a heaven-sent General had appeared amongst them, they might have attacked our camp, defended as it was mainly by the sick, and the maimed, and the halt. … Never, perhaps, in the history of the Mutiny were we in quite so perilous a position as on the night which followed our greatest military success. General Wilson, indeed, proposed, as might have been expected from a man in his enfeebled condition of mind and body, to withdraw the guns, to fall back on the camp and wait for reinforcements there; a step which, it is needless to point out, would have given us all the deadly work to do over again, even if our force should prove able to maintain itself on the Ridge till reinforcements came. But the urgent remonstrances of Baird Smith and others, by word of mouth; of Chamberlain, by letter; and, perhaps, also, the echoes which may have reached him from the tempest-tossed hero who lay chafing against his cruel destiny on his death-bed, and exclaimed in a wild paroxysm of passion, when he heard of the move which was in contemplation, 'Thank God, I have strength enough left to shoot that man,' turned the General once more from his purpose. On the following day, the 15th, vast quantities of the intoxicating drinks, which had wrought such havoc amongst our men, were destroyed by General Wilson's order, and the streets literally ran with rivers of beer, and wine, and brandy. Meanwhile, the troops were sleeping off their drunken debauch; and on the 16th active operations were resumed. On that day the Magazine was taken, and its vast stores of shot and shell, and of all the 'material' of war, fell once more into the hands of their proper owners. By sapping gradually from house to house we managed, for three days more, to avoid the street-fighting which, once and again, has proved so demoralising to Englishmen; and, slowly but surely, we pressed back the defenders into that ever-narrowing part of the city of which, fortunately for themselves, they still held the bolt-holes. Many of them had already begun, like rats, to quit the sinking vessel. And now the unarmed population of the city flocked in one continuous stream out of the open gates, hoping to save their lives, if nothing else, from our avenging swords. On the 19th, the palace of the Moguls, which had witnessed the last expiring flicker of life in an effete dynasty, and the cruel murder of English men, and women, and children, fell into our hands; and by Sunday, the 20th, the whole of the city—in large part already a city of the dead—was at our mercy. But what of the King himself and the Princes of the royal house? They had slunk off to the tomb of Humayoun, a huge building, almost a city in itself, some miles from the modern Delhi, and there, swayed this way and that, now by the bolder spirits of his army who pressed him to put himself at their head and fight it out to the death, as became the descendant of Tamerlane and Baber, now by the entreaties of his young wife, who was anxious chiefly for her own safety and that of her son, the heir of the Moguls; and now, again, by the plausible suggestions of a double-dyed traitor of his own house who was in Hodson's pay, and who, approaching the head of his family with a kiss of peace, was endeavoring to detain him where he was till he could hand him over to his employer and receive the price of blood, the poor old monarch dozed or fooled away the few hours of his sovereignty which remained, the hours which might still make or mar him, in paroxysms of imbecile vacillation and despair. The traitor gained the day, and Hodson, who could play the game of force as well as of fraud, and was an equal adept at either, learning from his craven-hearted tool that the King was prepared to surrender on the promise of his life, went to Wilson and obtained leave, on that condition, to bring him into Delhi. The errand, with such a promise tacked on to it, was only half to Hodson's taste. {1745} 'If I get into the Palace,' he had written in cool blood some days before, 'the house of Timour will not be worth five minutes' purchase, I ween.' … After two hours of bargaining for his own life and that of his queen and favourite son, the poor old Priam tottered forth and was taken back, in a bullock-cart, a prisoner, to his own city and Palace, and was there handed over to the civil authorities. But there were other members of the royal family, as Hodson knew well from his informants, also lurking in Humayoun's tomb. … With a hundred of his famous horse Hodson started for Humayoun's tomb, and, after three hours of negotiation, the three princes, two of them the sons, the other the grandson of the King, surrendered unconditionally into his hands. … Their arms were taken from them, and, escorted by some of his horsemen, they too were despatched in bullock-carts towards Delhi. With the rest of his horse, Hodson stayed behind to disarm the large and nerveless crowd, who, as sheep having no shepherd, and unable, in their paralysed condition, to see what the brute weight even of a flock of sheep might do by a sudden rush, were overawed by his resolute bearing. This done, he galloped after his prey and caught them up just before the cavalcade reached the walls of Delhi. He ordered the princes roughly to get out of the cart and strip,—for, even in his thirst for their blood, he had, as it would seem, an eye to the value of their outer clothes,—he ordered them into the cart again, he seized a carbine from one of his troopers, and then and there, with his own hand, shot them down deliberately one after the other. It was a stupid, cold-blooded, three-fold murder. … Had they been put upon their trial, disclosures of great importance as to the origin of the Mutiny could hardly fail to have been elicited. Their punishment would have been proportioned to their offence, and would have been meted out to them with all the patient majesty of offended law."

_R. B. Smith, Life of Lord Lawrence, volume 2, chapter 5._

ALSO IN: _Sir R. Temple, Lord Lawrence, chapter 7._

_Sir R. Temple, Men and Events of my Time in India, chapter 7._

_J. Cave-Brown, The Punjab and Delhi in 1857._

_G. B. Malleson, History of the Indian Mutiny, book 10, chapter 1 (volume 2)._

_Major Hodson, Twelve Years of a Soldier's Life in India, part 2: The Delhi Campaign._

INDIA: A. D. 1857-1858 (July-June). General Havelock's campaign. Sir Colin Campbell's. The Relief of Lucknow. Substantial suppression of the Mutiny.

"Meanwhile the greatest anxiety prevailed with regard to our countrymen and countrywomen at Lucknow and Cawnpore. The Indian government made every effort to relieve them; but the reinforcements which had been despatched from England and China came in slowly, and the demands made for assistance far exceeded the means at the disposal of the government. … The task of relieving the city was entrusted to the heroic General Havelock, who marched out with a mere handful of men, of whom only 1,400 were British soldiers, to encounter a large army and a whole country in rebellion. At Futtehpore, on the 12th of July, he defeated a vastly superior force, posted in a very strong position. After giving his men a day's rest, he advanced again on the 14th, and routed the enemy in two pitched battles. Next morning he renewed his advance, and with a force of less than 900 men attacked 5,000 strongly entrenched, and commanded by Nana Sahib. They were outmanœuvred, out-flanked, beaten and dispersed. But for this signal defeat they wreaked their vengeance on the unfortunate women and children who still remained at Cawnpore. On the very day on which the battle occurred, they were massacred under circumstances of cruelty over which we must throw a veil. The well of Cawnpore, in which their hacked and mutilated bodies were flung, presented a spectacle from which soldiers who had regarded unmoved the carnage of numerous battle-fields shrank with horror. Of all the atrocities perpetrated during this war, so fruitful in horrors, this was the most awful; and it was followed by a terrible retribution. It steeled the hearts, and lent a furious and fearless energy to the arms, of the British soldiery. Wherever they came, they gave no quarter to the mutineers; a few men often frantically attacked hundreds, frantically but vainly defending themselves; and never ceased till all had been bayoneted, or shot, or hewn in pieces. All those who could be shown to have been accomplices in the perpetration of the murders that had been committed were hung, or blown from the cannon's mouth. Though the intrepid Havelock was unable to save the women and children who had been imprisoned in Cawnpore, he pressed forward to Lucknow. But the force under his command was too small to enable him to drive off the enemy. Meanwhile Sir J. Outram, who was now returning from the Persian war, which had been brought to a successful conclusion, was sent to Oude as chief commissioner, with full civil and military power. This appointment was fully deserved; but it had the effect, probably not thought of by those who made it, of superseding Havelock just as he was about to achieve the crowning success of his rapid and glorious career. Outram, however, with a generosity which did him more real honour than a thousand victories would have conferred, wrote to Havelock to inform him that he intended to join him with adequate reinforcements; adding: 'To you shall be left the glory of relieving Lucknow, for which you have already struggled so much. I shall accompany you only in my civil capacity as commissioner, placing my military service at your disposal, should you please, and serving under you as a volunteer.' Thus Havelock, after gaining no fewer than twelve battles against forces far superior in numbers to the little band he originally led, was enabled at length, on the 25th of August, to preserve the civilians, the women, and children of Lucknow from the impending horrors of another massacre, which would no doubt have been as fearful as that of Cawnpore. The Highlanders were the first to enter, and were welcomed with grateful enthusiasm by those whom they had saved from a fate worse than death. However, the enemy, recovering from the panic which the arrival of Havelock and his troops had caused, renewed the siege. Sir Colin Campbell, who had assumed the command of the Indian army, had determined to march to the relief of Lucknow. He set out from Cawnpore on the 9th of November, but was obliged to wait till the 14th for reinforcements, which were on the way to join him, and which raised the force under his command to 5,000—a force numerically far inferior to that which it was to attack. {1746} On the 17th of November the relief of Lucknow was effected. The music of the Highland regiments, playing 'The Campbells are coming,' announced to their delighted countrymen inside the city that the commander-in-chief himself was with the relieving force. Little time, however, was allowed for congratulations and rejoicings. The ladies, the civilians, and the garrison were quietly withdrawn; the guns, which it was thought not desirable to remove, were burst; and a retreat effected, without affording the enemy the slightest suspicion of what was going on until some hours after the town had been evacuated by its defenders. The retreating force reached Dilhasha on the 24th, without having sustained any serious molestation. There the gallant Havelock sank under the trials and hardships to which he had been exposed, and yielded up the life which was instrumental in preserving so many others from the most terrible of deaths. While Sir Colin Campbell was engaged in effecting the relief of Lucknow, intelligence reached Cawnpore that a large hostile army was making towards it. General Windham, who commanded there, unacquainted with the number or the position of the approaching force, marched forth to meet it, in the hope that he should be able to rout and cut up the advanced guard before the main body of the enemy could come to its assistance. But in this expectation he was disappointed. Instead of having to deal with the van, he engaged with the whole rebel army, and his little force, assailed on all sides, was obliged to retire. He at once despatched a letter to the commander-in-chief, requesting him to hasten to his assistance; but it was intercepted by the enemy. Fortunately Sir Colin Campbell, though ignorant of the critical position of his subordinate, came up just at the moment when the danger was at its height. This was on the 28th of November. He was, however, in no haste to attack the foe, and was content for the present merely to hold them in check. His first care was for the safety of the civilians, the women, and the children, which was not secured till the 30th; and he continued to protect them till the 5th of December, when they were all safely lodged at Allahabad. The enemy, unaware of the motive of his seeming inaction, imputed it to fear, and became every day more confident and audacious. On the 6th he at length turned fiercely on them, completely defeated them, and seized their baggage; he then dispersed and drove away another large force, under the command of Nana Sahib, which was watching the engagement at a little distance. The army entered the residence of Nana Sahib at Bithoor, and took possession of much treasure, which had been concealed in a well. Nearly the whole of the enemy's artillery was captured; and the army, being overtaken as they were in the act of crossing into Oude, great numbers of them were destroyed. Of course, for the moment Lucknow, being no longer garrisoned, had fallen into the hands of the insurgents; but they were not long permitted to retain it. Strong reinforcements arrived, and the Indian government was enabled to send a force against Lucknow sufficient to overwhelm all resistance; and on the 15th of December this important city was in the undisputed possession of the British troops. This final recovery of the capital of Oude decided the reconquest of that country. A struggle was, indeed, maintained for some time longer; innumerable battles were fought; and the final subjugation of the country was effected in the month of June, 1858."

_W. N. Molesworth, History of England, 1830-1874, volume 3, chapter 2._

ALSO IN: _A. Forbes, Havelock, chapters 5-7._

_General Sir O. T. Burne, Clyde and Strathnairn._

_General Shadwell, Life of Colin Campbell, Lord Clyde, volume 1, chapter 11, and volume 2, chapters 1-18._

_T. Lowe, Central India during 1857-8._

INDIA: A. D. 1858. The Governor-General's Proclamation, Termination of the rule of the East India Company. The government transferred to the Crown.

"By a singular circumstance, when the mutiny was suppressed in 1858, the Governor-General, who in the previous year had been condemned for leniency which was thought ill-timed, was destined to receive censure for harshness which was declared unnecessary. On the eve of the fall of Lucknow, he drew up a proclamation confiscating the lands of all the great landowners in Oudh. Exceptions were, indeed, made to this sweeping decree. Landowners who could prove their loyalty were promised exemption from it, just as rebels who unconditionally surrendered, and whose hands were not stained with British blood, were offered pardon. There is no doubt that Canning, in drawing up this proclamation, relied on the exceptions which it contained, while there is equally no doubt that the critics who objected to it overlooked its parentheses. But its issue was made the basis of an attack which well-nigh proved fatal to the Governor-General's administration. The chances of party warfare had replaced Palmerston with Derby; and the Conservative minister had entrusted the Board of Control to the brilliant but erratic statesman who, fifteen years before, had astonished India with pageant and proclamation. … Ellenborough thought proper to condemn Canning's proclamation in a severe despatch, and to allow his censure to be made public. For a short time it seemed impossible that the Governor-General who had received such a despatch could continue his government. But the lapse of a few days showed that the minister who had framed the despatch, and not the Viceroy who had received it, was to suffer from the transaction. The public, recollecting the justice of Canning's rule, the mercy of his administration, almost unanimously considered that he should not have been hastily condemned for a document which, it was gradually evident, had only been imperfectly understood; and Ellenborough, to save his colleagues, volunteered to play the part of Jonah, and retired from the ministry. His retirement closes, in one sense, the history of the Indian Mutiny. But the transactions of the Mutiny had, almost for the first time, taught the public to consider the anomalies of Indian government. In the course of a hundred years a Company had been suffered to acquire an empire nearly ten times as large and as populous as Great Britain. It was true that the rule of the Company was in many respects nominal. The President of the Board of Control was the true head of the Indian Government, and spoke and acted through the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors. But this very circumstance only accentuated the anomaly. If the President of the Board of Control was in fact Indian minister, it was far simpler to make him Indian minister by name, and to do away with the clumsy expedient which alone enabled him to exercise his authority. {1747} Hence it was generally decided that the rule of the Company should cease, and that India should thenceforward become one of the possessions of the crown. … A great danger thus led to the removal of a great anomaly, and the vast Indian empire which Englishmen had won was thenceforward taken into a nation's keeping."

_S. Walpole, History of England from 1815, chapter 27 (volume 5)._

The act "for the better government of India," which was passed in the autumn of 1858, "provided that all the territories previously under the government of the East India Company were to be vested in her Majesty, and all the Company's powers to be exercised in her name. One of her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State was to have all the power previously exercised by the Company, or by the Board of Control. The Secretary was to be assisted by a Council of India, to consist of fifteen members, of whom seven were to be elected by the Court of Directors from their own body, and eight nominated by the Crown. The vacancies among the nominated were to be filled up by the Crown; those among the elected by the remaining members of the Council for a certain time, but afterward by the Secretary of State for India. The competitive principle for the Civil Service was extended in its application, and made thoroughly practical. The military and naval forces of the Company were to be deemed the forces of her Majesty. A clause was introduced declaring that, except for the purpose of preventing or repelling actual invasion of India, the Indian revenues should not, without the consent of both Houses of Parliament, be applicable to defray the expenses of any military operation carried on beyond the external frontiers of her Majesty's Indian possessions. Another clause enacted that whenever an order was sent to India directing the commencement of hostilities by her Majesty's forces there, the fact should be communicated to Parliament within three months, if Parliament were then sitting, or, if not, within one month after its next meeting. These clauses were heard of more than once in later days. The Viceroy and Governor-General was to be supreme in India, but was to be assisted by a Council. India now has nine provinces, each under its own civil government, and independent of the others, but all subordinate to the authority of the Viceroy. In accordance with this Act the government of the Company, the famed 'John Company,' formally ceased on September 1st, 1858; and the Queen was proclaimed throughout India in the following November, with Lord Canning for her first Viceroy."

_J. McCarthy, History of Our Own Times, chapter 36 (volume 3)._

ALSO IN: _Sir H. S. Cunningham, Earl Canning, chapters 7-9._

_Duke of Argyll, India Under Dalhousie and Canning._

INDIA: A. D. 1861. Institution of the Order of the Star of India.

See STAR OF INDIA.

INDIA: A. D. 1862-1876. Vice-regal administrations of Lords Lawrence, Mayo and Northbrook.

Lord Canning was succeeded as Viceroy by Lord Elgin, in 1862; but Elgin only lived until November, 1863, and his successor was Sir John Lawrence, the savior of the Punjab. "Sir John Lawrence's Viceroyalty was an uneventful time. Great natural calamities by famine and cyclone fell upon the country, which called forth the philanthropic energies of Government and people. Commerce passed through an unexampled crisis, taxing skill and foresight. But the political atmosphere was calm. With the exception of little frontier wars, wasteful of resources that were sorely needed, there was nothing to divert the Government from the prosecution of schemes for the improvement of the physical and moral condition of the people." Sir John Lawrence held the Viceroyalty until January, 1869, when he was succeeded by Lord Mayo and returned to England. He was raised, in that year, to the peerage, under the title of Baron Lawrence of Punjab and Grateley. He died ten years later.

_Sir C. Aitchison, Lord Lawrence, chapters 7-12._