ment, making brilliant charges, one of which became memorable from the breaking of a square of disciplined Persian infantry by the 3rd Cavalry, and its almost entire destruction. The enemy did not wait the approach of the British infantry, but fled, leaving 700 dead on the field and many wounded. The force then returned to Bushire, having had only ten killed and sixty-two wounded in this spirited combat. Attack on Peace No further actions took place till March 26, when the strong fort and position of Mohamrah, situated on the Karoon Mohamrah. river, a branch of the Euphrates, were attacked by the fleet and army in combination. Here the Prince Khan Mirza, with a powerful force, had established his headquarters, and considerable resistance was anticipated. Beyond, however, sustaining s cannonade from the fort and batteries, which was quickly silenced by the ships, none was experienced; for the prince and his army were found to have abandoned the camp, and to be in full retreat. The final movement of the war was a small expedition sent up the Karoon on the 29th, under Commodore Rennie, who on April 1 found the Persians, about 7,000 strong, posted at Ahwáz. The latter again fled without attempting to dispute the advance, leaving their camp to be taken possession of, with all the stores it contained. Meanwhile, the preliminaries of a peace had been adjusted at Paris. The Shah again renounced all pretensions to ensues. Herát, and agreed to withdraw his troops from Afghanistan; and protection to British trade, and the continuance of the measures for the suppression of the slave trade, were also guaran teed. It is probable, however, that the attitude of Dost Mahomed, Friendly the ruler of Afghanistan, and his renewed connection negotiations with the Government of India, had contributed as Mahomed. much to the termination of the war as the actual attack upon the southern dominions of Persia. Early in January 1857, Sir John Lawrence, governor of the Punjab, had met Dost Mahomed by appointment near Peshawur. Old animosities were put aside by the Dost, who in the frankest good faith declared they were forgiven and forgotten, and that henceforth till his death he would be true to a nation who, in his exile, had treated him with respect and honour. But substantial advantages were guaranteed to him, in a subsidy of twelve lacs-120,000/a year so long as the war with Persia should last; 4,000 stand of arms were presented to him, and on his own part he engaged to maintain an army of 18,000 men. The speedy termination of the war afforded him no opportunity of meeting the Persians in the field; but there can be no doubt that a renewal of friendship with Dost Mahomed served the purposes of peace most materially. He with Dost was as good as his word, and to the day of his death his faith remained unquestioned and unbroken. The war with China, which began in the latter end of 1856, had little connection with India beyond the employ- war with ment there of troops of the Indian army, and it does China. not, therefore, belong to Indian history. It may be mentioned, however, that before the month of November, 1856, the forts at the entrance of the Canton river had been stormed and taken by the English fleet, Canton had been twice bombarded, and all the British factories had been burned in retaliation. Reinforcements were urgently applied for, and Lord Elgin was dispatched by the Ministry as special commissioner to the Chinese Government, to be followed by troops from England and from India. Those from India were in course of preparation, to be placed under the command of General Ashburnham; but they had happily not been dispatched when the occurrence of momentous events rendered the employment of eve European who could bear arms an imperative necessity which had not been foreseen, and against which there was but scanty provision. CHAPTER II. THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD CANNING (continued)-THE SEPOY MUTINY, 1857. Plassy. AT last had arrived the Hindoo 'Sumbut' 1914 (1857-58), the hundredth year after the battle of Plassy, when, on a The prediccertain conjunction of the planets, it had been declared tion of by astrologers, that the ráj, or reign, of the company, was to continue for a hundred years, but no more. It is impossible to overrate the effect of this strange prediction among a people who, ever credulous and superstitious in the last degree, look to astrological combinations for their guidance in every circumstance and action of life, and who will neither marry, make a bargain, set out on a journey, nor even have their nails pared or put on new clothes, without a favourable conjunction of the planets. Sumbut 1914, therefore, with its accompanying prognostications of dire events, of tumults, of wars, of pestilence and death-and above all, the cessation of the dominant power, agitated India in a most profound degree in all quarters. In every Hin- Hindoo doo almanac, the public recital of which, to every almanacs. village community in every part of India, forms part of the ceremony of the first day of the new year, the predictions of the year, made upon the aspects of the planets, are invariably declared. On this occasion, for the mysterious Sumbut 1914, along with the prophecies of good or bad fortune in crops and harvests or in trade, were mingled fatal auguries to ruling powers, which were believed as the infallible deductions of a hundred years before. The company's power had indeed as yet triumphed over all opposition, because it had kept faith with the people of India: and Mahratta, Mahomedan, and Sikh had alike succumbed to what it was hopeless to resist; but it was to cease. During the period preceding this Sumbut (1856-57), there had been a frightful visitation of cholera, which in strict accordance with prediction had swept away thousands and thousands of the people, and tremendous floods in Bengal had destroyed the industry of years. These were only indices of what was to come, and were recognised as earnests of the reality. Comparatively few Englishmen, perhaps, removed as most were, by their official or social position, from any but the most superficial acquaintance with native society, knew of these feelings, or if they did know, thought little of them. An astrological prediction, in their estimation, was but one of a series of idle superstitions prevalent among the natives, which had, and could have, no foundation in reality. Warnings. Mischievous reports. Early in the year 1857, many Englishmen were warned to be on their guard by native friends, sometimes anonymously, sometimes personally, and even adjured to retire from India, while they could do so in safety, or at least to send home their wives and children. Nothing decided could be elicited; and those who perhaps believed that all might not be so serene as the surface appeared to be, were scouted as alarmists, and becoming silent, patiently awaited the issue. Whether any such warnings reached the head of the Government at this early stage has never transpired; if they did, they were naturally treated with scorn, and thrown aside. At the latter end of February, however, or early in March, a very remarkable Mahratta letter or petition was received by Lord ElLord Elphin- phinstone, the governor of Bombay, which contained a solemn announcement of treason, accompanied by the enumeration of causes of general discontent, one of which was the proceedings of the Inám commission, or investigation into tenures of rent-free lands, and urging effectual and speedy reform. The paper was anonymous, and its author could not be discovered; but its style and purport could not be mistaken as a well-meant, and to all appearances well-founded, admonition and warning of evil to Letter to stone. come. It is impossible to attempt to describe the various rumours with which, as the people expressed themselves, the very air was filled. calumnies. Previous Nothing was too absurd to be believed, and there is not a work belonging to the period, and they have been published Disseminaalmost by scores, which does not teem with the de- tion of tails in every conceivable variety of form and matter. Those given in the first volume of Mr. Kaye's great and most interesting work on the 'Sepoy War,' and other histories of the time, so far from being exaggerated, do not adduce a tenth of the foul and mischievous calumnies that were disseminated broadcast through all quarters of India, and believed by the ignorant and credulous of all classes. From their tenor and sudden promulgation, it may be inferred that special agency was employed for the purpose. The princes of Dehly, from plots. time to time, in the years immediately preceding the The princes outbreak, had asked for leave to travel in India, and of Dehly. were allowed to do so freely and without suspicion of motive. One of them, afterwards active in the rebellion, visited Hyderabad, in the Deccan, where he was coldly received; but he journeyed leisurely through the provinces, obtaining hospitable reception from native princes and nobles, Hindoo and Mahomedan, wherever he went. Nor is there much doubt that these preparatory missions were intended to re-awaken loyalty to the throne of Dehly, and to secure adherents. In addition to these, though it is impossible to review the voluminous details, may be men- Intrigues at tioned intrigues between the King of Dehly and the Dehly. King of Persia, and the proclamations of the latter to the Mahomedans in India, which no doubt were widely disseminated, and of which a specimen was discovered during the Persian war. In all these, the queen, Zeenut Mahál, took an active part: and for some time before any mutiny or outbreak took place, the question of a revival of the Mahomedan empire had not only been actively and almost openly discussed in the palace of Dehly, but had caused very considerable excitement and uneasiness among the turbulent population of the city and of the districts around it. A great movement was expected; and it is more than probable that the revolt of the Sepoy army was, even then, the means looked to by the king and his partisans. The Nána Sahib of Bithoor, little suspected indeed, had been busy with plots, perhaps for years. In every province The Nána where latent disaffection existed, in the newly annexed Sahib. States, and in the Deccan, where the Brahmin progenitors of his family had held regal sway, his emissaries were actively employed, while his correspondence with foreign rulers was kept up without intermission. His agent to England, Azim Oolla Khan, a clever and utterly unscrupulous plotter, had returned to India after visiting the Crimea, and told to his master, and to the willing ears of his accomplices, exaggerated tales of England's weakness and humiliation, which were greedily believed and widely disseminated. England, it was declared, had exhausted all her resources; it was to India alone that she could look for assistance in the Russian war; and the country, already denuded of English troops, would be soon called upon to send more. Advantage muting. It may be doubtful whether any direct attempt had then been made, or was even in progress, to corrupt the Sepoys taken of the of the Bengal army. That perhaps, the general disaffeetion of the Sepoys being known, was left to the progress of events; for it must have been evident how small the chances of success would have been, had either the King of Dehly or the Nána, or both combined, attempted to rouse the people at large into rebellion by their own means, or their treasonable intrigues. Yet when the mutiny of the Sepoys broke out, the first rebel forces from Meerut marched directly upon Dehly, and joined the king, in the interval of a night only—a circumstance which could not have been fortuitous; and being joined by most of the subsequent mutineers, leads irresistibly to the conclusion that it was a preconceived and pre-arranged plan, to be carried out when matters were ripe. Instances of discontent and mutual combination against authority and discipline have already been mentioned in regard to the native troops of Bengal, which not only showed a latent feeling of strong disaffection to have been existent, but which only required the stimulus of some event to change into open rebellion. Nor was this long wanting. Of this condition of the people and of the native army the governor-general was necessarily ignorant. If he heard rumours, how was he, fresh from the peace and security of England, and from the quiet routine of a purely administrative office, to comprehend them? The Dalhousie and Napier controversy about the condition of the native army had passed away; and belief in the doubtful allegiance of the Sepoys did not extend to his councillors and his staff. Later, indeed, when Henry Lawrence told him what he knew, he might have wished he had understood it earlier; but in January 1857, even Lawrence himself would have denied any imminent danger. Lord Canning was a cold, impassive man, to whom few would have ventured to make known the public agitation at the close of 1856, and opening of 1857 and he may be entirely acquitted of the charge of not having made himself acquainted with, or not following up, if he did hear them, what were as yet mere intangible and confused rumours. Who could have ventured to tell believed by him that it was believed the very land itself was to be put in chains by the railway and the electric telegraph; The governorgeneral's position. What was the people. |