is the normal condition of the "garden of India" when regarded from the European point of view. To the Hindu, on the contrary, these are the incidental losses of the game which no one anticipates till they are experienced, and no one pities but the immediate relatives of the loser. On the other side, there is the pleasure of robbing, plundering, and cheating, in such diversified ways that few can be excluded from the chances of participation. There are waiting-maids, and worse than that, becoming queens,* and dying worth thousands of rupees; men of low birth and station rising to unheard of riches and power; singers and fiddlers ruling a kingdom; footpads and highwaymen growing into barons and earls. Above all, this is the state of things most agreeable to precedent and religious tradition. It is the Mahabharat in little the nearest approach which this Kali Yug can supply to the glorious days of Ramchunder. Never believe that all this is to be surrendered in exchange for the merely ideal advantages of justice, liberty, security, and order! No! the gallant Rajpoots (foul murderers of their female babes), and the "mild and sensible" Brahmins, who discoursed with primitive simplicity by the side of the British Resident's elephant-pretty panthers toying in the sun-are not the men to exchange all they hold dear in life for European abstractions. It is not so easy as some philanthropists imagine, to govern men for their own good. Human nature is " very far gone from

righteousness;" and in nations as well as in the individual heart, it takes a good battle to subdue it.

The die, however, is cast. Oude was annexed, and is now conquered. Wajid Ali may fiddle and make verses without remonstrance or interruption to the end of his days. His children may become "songsters," or learn a more respectable occupation; but there is an end of the Mohammedan usurpation in Coshala, and the "twice born" must bend their necks to another master. Happily there is no danger of the aen and kanoonmore terrible than robbers and taxgatherers. The "Rules and Regulations" by which English law-making scourges our older territories, have not gained admission into the later acquisitions. As long as these are excluded, Oude may be governed like the Punjaub, Nagpore, and Mysore, through its own institutions, modified and tempered by English administration, but not superseded in favour of a foreign and oppressive system. The first duty, however, is to restore order. The population must be disarmed. The strongholds of the zemindars and talookdars must be destroyed. The protection of the subject, like the defence of the kingdom, must be left to the ruling power; and Mussulmans, Brahmins, Rajpoots, and Byes, be made to learn the bitter lesson, more hateful, we suspect, than even the aen and kanoon, that where England plants her flag each may have his own faith before God, but ALL MEN ARE EQUAL IN THE EYE OF THE LAW!

THE first thought of the Chief Commissioner had been to insure the safety of the Punjab; the second was to recover Delhi. The whole European strength of the Punjab north of the Sutlej, being absorbed in the several stations, or in forming the Movable Column, the hill sanataria of Kussowlie, Subathoo, and Dugshai, each with its European regiment, alone remained available. On the morning of the 13th, a telegraphic message came from Sir John Lawrence to the authorities at Umballa, urging that all these regiments, viz., her Majesty's 75th, and the 1st and 2d Bengal Fusiliers, should be concentrated at Umballa, and with them the Nusseeree battalion (Goorkhas), from Jutogh near Simla. From these a picked brigade should be pushed down via Kurnal to Delhi; while a large portion of the European force from Meerut should also move on Delhi from the eastward, "so that" (to use the words of the Chief Commissioner himself) our troops can operate simultaneously from both sides of the Jumna. The city of Delhi and the Magazine must be recovered at once. The Puttiala Rajah should send one regiment to Thaneysur, and another to Loodiana." Such was the VOL LXXXIII.-NO. DXII.

message received by Mr Forsyth, then officiating as Deputy Commissioner at Umballa, on the 13th, bringing to him the welcome assurance that in the prompt energetic measures which he had already initiated during the absence of Mr Barnes (the commissioner of that division) at Kussowlie, he had only been anticipating Sir J. Lawrence's wishes.

In order to understand fully the condition of Umballa itself, and the steps which had been taken there, it is necessary to notice its position, and to take a brief review of the events which had occurred in that station during the two preceding months.

Umballa had been selected for a military cantonment, when Kurnal, for so many years our frontier station, was condemned for its unhealthiness, and when the suspicious attitude assumed by the Sikh Government, after the death of Runjeet Singh, rendered it necessary to support our advanced positions of Loodíana and Ferozepore on the banks of the Sutlej. The importance of this station is at once apparent. Lying on the edge of the vast plain of Sirhind, that battle-field where the supremacy of Northern India had been more than once contested, it became the centre

2 X

of administration, and acted as a salutary check over the various independent states around, who had, in 1809, thrown themselves under our protection to escape from the rapacious grasp of the "Lion of the Punjab." Here were several Sikh states, Puttiala, Jheend, and Nabba, still remaining, while many others had gradually disappeared-some by failure in succession, others by confiscation for treachery-and had been either annexed to our own territory, or assigned as rewards to states that had remained true during the Sutlej and Punjab campaigns. Besides these were the two small Mohammedan states of Jhujjur and Kurnal, also under our protection. Umballa was consequently regarded, in a military point of view, as a station of great importance, and had been originally designed to hold a large European force; but from certain natural disadvantages, such as want of water, and consequent scarcity of forage, it has lately been somewhat curtailed of its original proportions.* The force at Umballa now consisted of her Majesty's 9th Lancers, under Colonel Hope Grant; two troops of horse-artillery under Captains Turner and Money; the 4th Native Cavalry (Lancers), under Colonel Clayton; the 5th Native Infantry under Major Maitland; and the 60th Native Infantry under Colonel Drought; Sir H. Barnard was General of the division, and Colonel Halifax commanded the brigade.

This station had also been selected for one of the "depots of instruction in the use of the Enfield rifle ;" and Sepoys of all ranks, picked for general intelligence and effectiveness, were collected here from all the native infantry regiments around-among others were some of the 36th native infantry, which regiment had formed the escort of the Commander - inChief, General Anson, during the

latter part of his tour of inspection through the North-west Provinces, and were en route for Jullundhur.

The Commander-in-Chief, with the 36th Native Infantry as escort, arrived at Umballa in the middle of March. Two non-commissioned officers of the regiment, who were under instruction at the depot, immediately hastened out to the camp to meet their old comrades; but instead of the looked-for welcome, they were greeted with taunts and reproaches as having lost their caste by using the obnoxious cartridge. These two men, by name Kassee Ram Tewaree, a Havildar, and Jeeololl Doobee, a Naik, were both Brahmins; the indignity, therefore, was tenfold greater in their case; and, full of indignation and alarm, they returned to the depot and reported what had passed. It was at once looked on by all their brethren there as an earnest of what was in store for each and all of them on returning to their respective regiments; the insult was regarded as a general one, and the affair at once became serious. The Havildar and Naik proceeded to the house of Captain Martineau, the "Instructor" at the depot, and, with bursting hearts and tears in their eyes, told their tale of grief. That officer, from an experience of some fifteen years with his regiment, the 10th Native Infantry, of which he was for many years interpreter, saw, from the turn that matters had taken, what might be the issue of it; and the very next day (March 20th) made a demi-official representation of the case, stating his own opinion on the general question, to Captain S. Becher, Assistant Adjutant-General of the army.

"The affair," he said, "is lamentable, as it discloses the actual feelings of the whole of the native army; and I hasten to put you in possession of the information I have subsequently received on the subject, as

it is no longer possible to close our eyes to the present state of our Hindoostanee regiments.

"The rumour has been industriously propagated (how it first originated no native knows), that the rifle cartridges were purposely smeared with the mixture of cow's and pig's fat, with the express object of destroying caste; in fact, the weapon itself is nothing more or less than a Government missionary to convert the whole army to Christianity.

"That so absurd a rumour should meet with ready credence, indicates anything but a sound state of feeling on the part of our native soldiers. It is, however, generally credited, and Punchayuts have been formed in every corps, who have placed themselves in communication from Calcutta to Peshawur; and the army at large has come to the determination to regard as outcasts, and to expel from all communion, any men who, at any of the depots, use the cartridges at all. I find, also, that in many of the detachments here all intercourse with their corps is suspended; the men write from this, but receive no answers ; their comrades won't deign to notice them. They justly remark, with evident alarm, If a subahdar in the Commander-inChief's camp, and on duty as his personal escort, can taunt us with loss of caste, what kind of reception shall

we meet on our return to our own corps? No reward that Government can offer us is any equivalent to being regarded as outcasts by our comrades.""

Thus strongly did Captain Martineau represent the danger which he foresaw, from suffering this spirit of mistrust and disaffection to gain head.

The immediate result was, that on the morning of the 23d March, the Commander-in-Chief inspected the musketry depot, and had an address (prepared by himself the day before) translated and read to the men by Captain Martineau, assuring them that the rumour that the use of the cartridge had any ulterior object in

view, as affecting their caste, was altogether false. He also gave instructions that the practice of the native details should be suspended in that depot until further orders. Captain Martineau was further requested by General Anson to ascertain and report officially the effect which his address produced on the minds of the men.

We refrain, for the present, from presenting to the public this most full and lucid statement prepared by Captain Martineau, which, after expressing the feelings of the men, and stating his own views, winds up by earnestly soliciting the Commanderin-Chief to appoint a European court of inquiry to investigate the particular charge of the Havildar Kassee Ram Tewaree against the Subahdar, as, if substantiated, it would afford a very sure index to the real sentiments of the native mind."

Nothing could be more clear, nor, one would have thought, more convincing, than the reasoning, or more judicious than the suggestion offered by Captain Martineau. It was doomed, however, to be disregarded; the use of the cartridge by the natives was further suspended until the final decision of the Commander-in-Chief on the whole case.

That decision was not given until the 16th of April. The Havildar and Naik, who had been the subjects of that insult, because they saw in it but too clearly the reception which awaited them, and all their brethren of the depot, on returning to their regiments, and because, in the freshness of their indignation and wounded Brahminical pride at their imagined loss, they had reported the insult to their comrades, and to the officer of the depot-these men were told publicly, on a brigade parade, specially assembled, that their conduct in creating so much excitement at the depot, and inducing the men of other regiments to entertain apprehensions of being similarly taunted upon returning to their corps, was very reprehensible," and they were to be severely censure 1.*

Grâmees could never have lighted them without detection; and the question then became general, "Who but the Sepoys could be the culprits?

What might not a little consideration and sympathy at that moment have effected! It might have won the confidence of many a well-disposed Sepoy, and have thus elicited disclosures tending to avert or mitigate the impending crisis; but their mouths were stopped by this public rebuke of the first comrade who had ventured to speak out; and all were driven to make common cause with the disaffected, or, at least, to be passive and silent spectators of the approaching storm.

Nor was this all it was resolved that, coute que coute, the Sepoys should be compelled to fire the cartridges in defiance of their prejudices and their fears.* Accordingly, on the morning of April 17th, the Sepoys used the cartridge, and that night some thirty thousand rupees' worth of Government property was destroyed by fire!

This was but the prelude to many more. Fires became an almost nightly occurrence; suddenly, in the dead of night, flames would burst out in various parts of cantonments-here an officer's bungalow, there a portion of the native lines; at one time a Government godown (warehouse), at another a regimental hospital, was discovered to be on fire. Courts of inquiry were now instituted, but with no result. Grâmees (thatchers) were by some believed to be the sinners, indulging in a more than ordinary degree their propensity of making work for themselves by burning thatched roofs, which would require to be re-thatched; others these were, of course, cried down by the authorities as croakers and alarmists"regarded these nightly fires as a "running accompaniment" to the resumed target-practice, and recognised in them signs of increasing disaffection among the Sepoys. Suspicion gradually gained strength. Pickets of Sepoys were placed over their own lines and public buildings; and yet fires would break out where

In the end of April an important clue to the origin of these fires was discovered by means of a Sikh Sepoy, named Sham Singh, of the 5th Regiment, Native Infantry. He disclosed to Mr Forsyth that the great body of the Sepoys were in a highly indignant and excited state, under the apprehension that they were all to be compelled to use the offensive cartridges, to the peril of their caste; and that they had resolved that, whenever such an order should be issued, every bungalow in the station should be in flames! The Bazar Kotwal (or head bailiff) also reported that a Pundit had told him that, according to Hindoo astrological calculations, it was certain "blood would be shed" within a week, either in Delhi, Meerut, or Umballa. The details of the conspiracy were further discovered-that the 4th Light Cavalry were to seize the guns, and the heel-ropes of her Majesty's 9th Lancers were to be cut, and the horses let loose.

These disclosures were reported to the local authorities and to the Commander-in-Chief, but were discredited, and no notice was taken of them. To Sir J. Lawrence, however, to whom they were also reported, they appeared in a very different light; he attached much importance to them, and promised that the faithful Sikh should have promotion. To his mind the disaffection of the Sepoys already appeared a grave reality, to be watched, and, if possible, guarded against. Thus closed the month of April at Umballa.

With the month of May the aspect of affairs did not brighten. The reports from Lucknow were not without effect on the minds of the Sepoys. The arrest of the eighty-five troopers of the 3d Cavalry at Meerut added to the general excitement. On the