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    No . 412 , February 13 , 1858 . 1 THE LBAPBB . 149

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    THE INDIAN REVOLT . —?— - Sir Colin Cajipbkix 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-in-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 , tliev abandoned Furruckabad , leaving behind all their heavy artillery . The Gh < 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 ' s 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 Cliittagong mutineers have fled before an attack of tlie Sylhet Battalion near the frontier of Tipperah . They were pursued and overtaken , and many were killed . A bill has 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 .

    i , oki > canning ' s policy with respect to the KEBELS . A Parliamentary paper was published last Saturdaj ' , 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 : r—

    " 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 such promptitude and severity as will strike terror into the minds 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 . But this object once in a great degree attained , the punishment of crimes should be regulated with discrimination . " Tlie continued administration of the law in its utmost severity , after the requisite iinpression has been made upon the rebellious and disorderly , and after order has been partially restored , would have the effect of

    exasperating tlie . people , and would probably induce them to band together in largo numbers for the protection of their lives , and with a view to retaliation—a result much to be deprecated . It would greatly add to the difliculties of settling the country hereafter , if a spirit of animosity against their rulers were engendered in the minds of the people , and if their feelings were embittered by the remembrance of needless bloodshed . The civil officers in every district should endeavour , without condoning any heinous offences or making any promises of pardon for such offences , to encourage all persons to return to their usual occupations , and , punishing only

    such of the principal offenders aa can bo apprehended , to postpone as far aa possible all minute inquiry into political offences until such time as the Government are in a position to deul with them in strength after thorough investigation . It may be necessary , however , oven aftor a district is partially restored to order , to make ^ xatnples-froTn-timo-tO' -time-of-8 uoh « personsr lf . any ,-wl » o , may bo guilty of serious outrages against person or property , or who by stopping the duk , or injuring the electric telegraph , or otherwise , may endeavour to promote tho designs of those who arc waging war against the State " In other documents , tho Governor-General ( in Council ) opeaka of oxoeaaivo severity having boon exercised in tho punishment of poraona supposed to

    be inculpated in the mutiny , causing exasperation in large communities not otherwise hostile to the Government . ' We have felt , " says hi 3 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 aie 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 this crisis wil

    Government of India may pursue at mainly influence the feelings with winch , 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 an } - impatience of deliberate justice the claim which England has established to tlie respect and attachment of the well-aflfected 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 . "

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    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 tliat the extension of British rule would be acceptable to the parasites of a Native Court , who fatten on its profusion and its corruption ; and the claims of the native military and official aristocracy 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 emolumeut 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 grants nothing , gives nothing ; so that the constant and certain tendency of our rule hitherto has been to level all social inequalities , till none arc left between tlie dominant English and the peasantry , but a purely official class of ups tart ministerial otlicers , trained in our courts , badly paid and corrupt , who in the eyes of the natives represent the character and spirit of our Government , and in tho ej'es 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 tiio natives except their own subordinates and the suitors in their courts and offices , and they form their opinion of the native character from what they hear and see .

    A native sovereign , with his locnlJy 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 , amusoment , and excitement to all ranks anil classes . All this ceases on ai » annexation , all public pomp , state , and general amusement cease , the sting and vivifying charm of life is g ; one , 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 ; we have sneered and mocked at tho 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 hoc that these sontiincnta have u most powerful influence , more powerful , perhaps , among Oriental nations than they over were among those of Europe . And , in a certain phase of civilization , in a certain stage of social development , these sentiments are powors , which a wise Government should know how to evoice and how to wield . Wo have done nothing to encourage feel inga of loyalty and devotion for our Queen or for our Govorninontr ;^ -wo-httvo-groaslyT-outrogod ^ thoao _ fceling 8-, by _ our treatment of friendly princes and their families , and wo now see tho results in the rebellion anil attempted war of extermination of 1857 .

    Though despotic , tho native Governments of India aro truly putrlarchul ; they discourage , more or loss , tho accumulation of private property- —at loast among tho personal followers of tho sovereign— -whose traditional policy it la to have oven tho moat powerful of his 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 sj'Stem , an aristocracy has grown up , which we find in possession of all the power , wealth , and privileges of the annexed country , 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 yer , 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 then ) . 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 country , alternately flattered and reproached ; they were told that their bayonets had alone enabled tlie Company to blot out the names of the most illustrious native monarchies , and to extinguish the last remains of Indian ( jlory . The Sepoys were told that but for their overwhelming numbers and discipline tho military power of tlie blahruttaa of Gwalior would never'have been de .-troyed , that they had now broken the strength of the Sikhs , and that in a short time the Company would not have un opponent on the continent of India , that not a Nabob or . Rftjah would be left to be

    deposed and plundered , and that then the British Government would either discharge them all , or send them across the sea to conquer the countries of Burinah , Persia , Arabia , and Russia . And the Sepoys were reminded that , after all their fidelity and warlike exploits , not a man from their ranks , not a man of their canto or race , was admitted to any exalted rank , wealth , or dignity ; that they were certainly paid regularly , but thut in many points their little extra emoluments and allowances on active anil foreign service had been cut down , and thut while a few of them might expect to rise by seniority to the rank , of jemadar or aubadur , with about a quarter of the pay of an ensign just arrived from England , they could never hope to attain , or to eeo any man of thuir race attuin , to tho rank

    and authority even of tlic youngest Englinh ensign . They were reminded that oven tho miserable penwions allowed to them whon worn out with long service had been reduced of late ytsarn ; that the native princes gave aa good pay as tho Company , that a man wau never discharged for old ngu from tltoir service , but was allowed - tQ-di aw-hte ^> ay ^ ui » a _ ba . ^ Xji ; H . Hy ^^ tho sons of old servunta wuru always enrolled on their father ' s death , oven though too young to cio any actual service , oven though infunto in arms . Thoy woro auked if , for such beggarly rewards as thoso offered by tho Company , for such contemptuous treatment of thoir bravest and bout comrades , tliey wore for ovor going to aid in tho enaluvomcnt and degradation of tho whole Hindoo race . They were told that thoy wore them-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 13, 1858, page 149, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2230/page/5/