Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 13th February 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 5, No. 412, February 13, 1858.] T H E I, E ...

Page 5
Page 5
5 of 24

On this page

  • Text (3)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      No. 412, February 13, 1858.] T H E I, E ...

      No . 412 , February 13 , 1858 . ] T H E I , E A P E R . 149

      The Indian Revolt. —*— . . . Sir Colin C...

      THE INDIAN REVOLT . —*— . . . Sir Colin Campbell arrived at Furruckabad on the 3 rd of January , and was in communication with Colonel Seaton ' s column . The rebels had made an attack on the English forces under the Commander-iti-Chief on the 2 nd ; but , after a severe struggle , they were repulsed , with the loss of all their guns , seven or eight in number . In the evening , thev abandoned Furruckabad , leaving behind all their heavy artillery . The Ghr orkas , under Jung Bahadoor , took Gorruckpore on the 6 th of January . The enemy , though strongly entrenched , made but a feeble resistance . Seven guns were taken , and two hundred men killed . The loss was very trifling on the side of the Ghoorkas .

      All goes on well at the Alumbagh . General Outram ' 8 forces number four thousand men , and the peasantry are bringing supplies into the camp . Brigadier Walpole occupied Etawah on the 29 th of December . He proposed to proceed to Mynpoorie , and thence to join Sir Colin Campbell . The direct roads between Delhi and Calcutta are now open . The Chittagong mutineers have fled before an attack of the Sylhet Battalion near the frontier of Tipperah . They were pursued and overtaken , and many were killed . A bill lias been introduced into the Legislative Council at Calcutta for uniting the Meerut and Delhi divisions to the Punjab . The Lieutenant-Governorship is to be given to Sir John Lawrence . The Calcutta export markets , after undergoing some further depression , are again looking up .

      LORD CABSISO ' S POLICY WITH RESPECT TO THE REBELS . A Parliamentary paper was published last Saturday , containing a copy of a letter of Viscount Canning ( in Council ) , dated December 11 th , 1857 ( No . 144 ) , in defence of his' celebrated circular enjoining moderation and discrimination in the punishment of the revolted Sepoys . The alleged necessity for this course is based on the assertion that the powers given to special commissioners had been abused to such an extent that capital punishment was often inflicted for very trivial offences and on most imperfect evidence , and that in some

      districts the fact of a man being a Sepoy was enough to secure his execution . " Villages also had been devastated , and the inhabitants had flown in terror ; and this had happened at the commencement of the seed time for the autumnal harvest . On the promulgation of the circular , the villagers returned to their occupations . The Parliamentary paper also includes several ' enclosures . ' One of these is the petition of a Mr . Williams and others , praying for the establishment of martial law through the Presidency of Bengal ; and this is accompanied by the reply of the Secretary to the Indian Government , declining to accede to the request . In a minute of the Governor-General , we read : —

      " It is unquestionably necessary , in the first attempt to restore order in a district in which the civil authority has been entirely overthrown , to administer the law with siich promptitude and severity as will strike terror into the miiuls of the evil-disposed among the people , and will induce them by the fear of death to abstain from plunder , to restore stolen property , and to return to peaceful occupations . Hut this object once in a great degree attained , the punishment of crimes should be regulated with discrimination .

      " The continued administration of the law in its utmost severity , after the requisite impression has been made upon the rebellious and disorderly , and after order has been partially restored , would have the effect of exasperating the people , and would probably induce them to band together in large numbers for the protection of their livea , and with a view to retaliation—a result much to bo deprecated . It would greatly add to the difficulties of settling the country hereafter , if a spirit of animosity against their rulers wore engendered in the minds of the people , and if their feelings were embittered by the remembrance of needless bloodshed . The civil olficera in every district should endeavour , without condoning any liclnous offences or making any promises of

      pardon for such offences , to enc o urage all portions to return to tlioir usual occupations , and , punishing only such of the principal offenders as can be apprehended , to postpone as far as possible all minute inquiry into political olR'iK-08 until such time as the Government are in a position to deal with them in strength aftor thorough investigation . It may bo necessary , however , oven aftor a district is partially restored to order , to make ^ J 4 Sl !! iiL & J £ LL '!! lH . totimo of such persons , if any , who " may bo guiTty ^ fTierlcnifl buTrngcs against ^ rsoiTTrriTfoy porty , or wiio by stopping the

      be inculpated in the mutiny , causing exasperation in large communities not otherwise hostile to the Government . " We have felt , " says his Lordship , " that neither the Government of India nor any Government can -wisely punish in anger ; that punishment so dealt may terrify and crush for a season , but that with time and returning calm the acts of authority are reviewed , and that the Government which has punished blindly and revengefully will have lost its chief title to the respect of its subjects . We have felt that the course which , the Government of India may pursue at this crisis wil mainly influence the feelings with which , in time to come , the supremacy of England will be viewed , and the character of their rulers estimated by many millions of the Queen ' s subjects ; we have therefore avoided to ¦ weaken by any impatience of deliberate justice the claim ¦ which England has established to the respect and attachment of the well-affected natives of India . That numbers of these , of all classes , religions , and castes , have supported the Government with true loyalty is known to your Honourable Court . This loyalty it has been our study to confirm and encourage . "

      Special Letters From India. (From A Mili...

      SPECIAL LETTERS FROM INDIA . ( From a Military Correspondent ?) Nagpore , December , 1857 . The extensive distress and ruin among the most cultivated and influential classes , whose ideas descend and penetrate through every rank of Indian society , the rage , mortification , and consternation , produced by these repeated annexations , can neither be denied nor doubted by any one who has seen anything of life in India . Lord Dalhousie and his supporters have said , and will say again , that they never expected that the extension of British rule would be acceptable to the parasites of a N " ative Court , who fatten on its profusion and its corruption ; and the claims of the native military and official aristocracv " to a solid and permanent establishment under

      our revolutionary arrangements are usually dismissed , if they are ever taken into consideration at all , with , a rhetorical and objurgatory tirade , of which the political economy is as shortsighted and unsound as the language is flippant and unfeeling . A life tenure of their emoluments to sinecurists is generally considered as a remarkably liberal settlement ; while the titles to landed estates and to hereditary charges on the revenue are strictly and unrelentingly sifted . All prospects of employment in posts of high distinction and emolument are closed . All places of authority are filled by English officers , many of whom ( especially within the last ten years from the increasing numbers required ) are ignorant , inexperienced , and eminently unconciliatory in . their manners . Our Government takes all that it can , resumes landed estates and allowances of money , whenever

      it can find a plausible excuse , even from the occasional arbitrary acts of the native princes , to do so ; but gTants nothing , gives nothing ; so that the constant and certain tendency of our rule hitherto has been to level all social inequalities , till none are left between the dominant English and the peasantry , but a purely official class of upstart ministerial officers , trained in our courts , badly paid and corrupt , who in the ej'es of the natives represent the character and spirit of our Government , and in the eyes of our Government represent the character and spirit of the natives in general . For there are comparatively few of the English officials in India , who have any intercourse with any class of the natives except their own subordinates and tho suitors in tlioir courts and offices , and they form their opinion of the native character from what they hear and see .

      A native sovereign , with his locally recruited army and personal attendants , his religious , national , and family ceremonies and processions , and progresses through tho country , is a bountiful source of hereditary employment , of pride , amusement , and excitement to all ranks and classes . All thin ceases on an annexation , all public pomp , state , and general amusement cease , the sting and vivifying charm of life is gone , everything is doomed to settle down to a . dead , dull , and uniform level . Too little thought has been given to this consequence of our interference ; wo have sneered and mocked at the notion of natives feeling loyalty and affection for their ancient chieftains , though in every page

      of history , and in every event of tho present day , wo may soo that these sentiments have a most powerful influence , more powerful , perhaps , among Oriental nations than they 1 over wore among thoso of Europe . And , in a certain phase of civilization , in a certain stage of social development , these sentiments aro powors , which a wiso Government should know how to ovoko and liow to wield . AVc havo douo nothing to encourage feelings of loyalty and devotion for our Queen or for our Government : wo havo grossly outragod thoso feelings by our irH ^ mWroTTnenlll ^ now see tho row til I a in tho rebellion and attempted war of extermination of 1857 .

      Though despotic , the native Governments of India are truly patriarchal ; they discourage , more or lean , tho accumulation of private property—at least among tho personal followers of tho sovereign *—whoso traditional policy it is to havo oven tho most powerful of bis nobles

      dependent on him , and to retain complete control over their fortunes . For these reasons the native monarch , from immemorial custom , is heir-general to all his own relations , ministers , and courtiers ; but , on the other hand , he never fails to provide for the families of his deceased servants , with a liberality proportionate to the amount of the realization from their estates or hoarded wealth , while all the great civil offices and military commands are filled from these favoured classes who form , in fact , the native aristocracy . The native monarchs , doubtless , adopted this plan from jealousy of their nobles becoming too powerful , and for the same reason they frequently preferred to provide for their relations and

      courtiers by sinecure offices , annual money allowances , and . occasional presents , to granting them jagheers or landed estates . We cannot , of course , continue this barbarous irregular patriarchal system , but hitherto we have not sufficiently , in fact not at all , recognized the obligations imposed on us by its existence from time immemorial . In consequence of this system , an aristocracy has grown up , which we find in possession of all the power , wealth , and privileges of the annexed county , dependent on the will and favour of an absolute monarch , it is true , but protected by ancient custom , and by that universal public opinion , against which even an absolute monarch can seldom offend with impunity .

      Private accumulations have been discouraged , and generally appropriated at each succession * but the right to a perpetual provision for the family , and to the recognition of their dignity and rank , has ever been held sacred . Our rule works a complete revolution in their position and prospects , effectually closing to them their former career in the public service , and allowing to the stipendiary and sinecurist merely his actual emoluments for life , or , as ' a special case , ' for two or more lives , so that ruin and degradation are but postponed for a generation or two . Now , it appears to me , that the very fact of the obstacles offered to the accumulation of private property , serves to render the right to a perpetually hereditary stipend or sinecure much more powerful and indefeasible than it can ever be under a constitutional Government . And yet , in England , we have

      always given ample , frequently excessive , compensation on the abolition of sinecure offices and hereditary pensions . In India we have , as yet , offered no compensation to the higher classes , the most reflecting and most influential of the population , for the loss of rank , power , and wealth , for the utter ruin and desolation , in many cases , which the introduction of our system of Government brings upon them . Had we recognized the vested rights of all hereditary sinecurists and stipendiaries to a permanent provision under our rule , had we commuted their stipends and charges on the revenue , according to some equitable scale , into landed estates held by a well-secured title , we should have introduced an element of harmony and conservatism into our provinces , instead of degrading and exasperating the most hopeful and advanced classes of the nation , and converting them into beggars and conspirators .

      The Sepoys , therefore , for the last fifteen years , have heard loud execrations in every place of public resort against the grasping and greedy policy of their foreign , rulers ; they were taunted with being themselves the cause of the ruin of the county , alternately flattered and reproached ; they were told that their bayonets had alone enabled the Company to blot out the names of the most illustrious native monarchies , and to extinguish the -last remains of Indian glory . The Sepo 3 's were told that but for their overwhelming numbers and discipline the military power of the Aluhrattas of Gwalior would never have been destroyed , that they had now broken tho strength of the Sikhs , and that in a short time the Company would not have an opponent on tho continent of India , that not a Nabob or Kfijuh would be left to be deposed and plundered , and that then tho British Government would either discharge them all , or send them across the sea to- conquer tho countries of Burmab , Persia , Arabia , and Russia . And tho Sepoys were

      reminded that , after all their fidelity and warlike exploits , not a man from their ranks , not a man of their caste or race , was admitted to any exalted rank , wealth , or dignity ; that they were certainly paid regularly , but that in many points their little extra emoluments and allowances on active and foreign service had been cut down , and that while a few of them might expect to rise by seniority to the rank of jemadar or subadar , with about a quarter of the pay of an ensign just arrived from England , they could never hope to attain , or to see any man of their race attain , to tho rank and authority even of tho youngest English ensign . They were reminded that even tho miserable pensions allowed to thorn when worn out with long service had been reduced of lato yearn j that tho native princoH gave as good pay as tho Company , that , a man was never discharged for old ago from their service , but wan allowt'd to draw his pay and bo oxcumccI from all duty , and that tho ' soiifl b f" 6 ia"TrarWrfts ^ v " ofo ^ alw ' nys-enrolloil-

      "oii--thoirfuthor ' s death , oven though too young to do any actual service , oven though infuuts in anus . They wore aakod If , for such beggarly rewards as thoso offered by tho Company , for auoh contemptuous treatment ; of their bravest and best coinradon , they wore for over going to aid hi tho enslavement and degradation of tho wholo Hindoo race . They wore told that they wore them-

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 13, 1858, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13021858/page/5/