*

to the events which were passing in necessary to provide for these, so as other parts of the Punjab. General to prevent, if possible, their doing

, Reid had moved down to Rawul any harm. The 35th Light Infantry, Pindee, that he might be in more and a wing of the 9th Light Cavalry, close and constant communication were attached to the Movable Column, with the Chief Commissioner. Thither where, under a large body of EuroBrigadier Chamberlain had preceded pean artillery and infantry, they were him, to regulate the movements of more likely to be kept quiet, while the column, to the command of which the 46th Native Infantry (of whom he had been appointed, with the rank Brigadier Brind, commanding at Sealof Brigadier-General.

kote, reported more favourably) were Nothing was occurring throughout left behind with the other wing of the Punjab that was not at once the cavalry to hold Sealkote. In the known to the Chief Commissioner; lower stations of the Punjab all was with every detail of the Peshawur apparently quiet. At Mooltan the disarming, and the mutiny at Now- 62d and 69th Native Infantry, with shera, the telegraphic wire had kept the 1st Irregular Cavalry (formerly him informed. The recall of H.M. known as Skinner's Horse), appeared 27th from the Movable Column to open to reason, and an examination strengthen the trans-Indus district, of the suspected cartridges by a comand to hold Attock, had rendered it mittee of native officers and others necessary to bring H.M. 52d Light from the three corps seemed to have Infantry from Sealkote to supply its satisfied them. At Jullundbur the place. Other portions of the column, Kuppoorthulla Rajah was behaving the Guides, and the troop of horse- nobly, keeping the city and district artillery from Peshawur, had been in perfect quiet, or rather seconding pushed on for Umballa ; therefore the efforts of the civil authorities. Dawes's troop horse - artillery and The state of the cantonments was Bourchier's battery were also sum- scarcely so satisfactory ; but of this moned from Sealkote to join the column en route at Wuzeerabad. Among the most cheering intimaThere were three native regiments, tions received by the Chief Commisalso, at Sealkote-the 9th Light sioner, at this time, was a letter from Cavalry, the 35th Light Infantry, the Maharajah of Puttiala (whose and 46th Native Infantry. It was conduct throughout has been above

more anon.

Three names,

suit or an alarm, there was perhaps a needless haste in punishing, and the friend and foe, or the innocent and guilty, were confounded; but for such acts the ministers of justice cannot be held responsible.

* The selection of this officer was made in the following manner : Brigadier Sydney Cotton, Brigadier Neville Chamberlain, and Colonel J. Nicholson. were submitted by Sir John Lawrence and General Reid for the consideration of General Anson, as men, any of whom would be well fitted to take command of the Movable Column. General Anson telegraphed back that he appointed Brigadier Chamberlain (subject to the confirmation of Government); and the rank of Brigadier-General was given him, to insure for him and the column under him an inde pendence of movement, as exigencies might arise. Without this, being in army rank junior to the officers commanding the several stations through which the column might pass, his movements were liable to be perpetually hampered ; for not a station could the column have entered without permission from the brigadier commanding; and once baving entered it, the column would have fallen under his command, and thus every plan might have been thwarted, and the very object for which the column was formed, frustrated. It was to avoid such a dilemma that the superior rank of Brigadier-General was conferred on Brigadier Chamberlain.

Long as this note is already, we trust the reader--and the subject of the note too —will forgive us for adding a few remarks on the antecedents of the officer thus selected by the Commander-in-Chief, as much was said, and perhaps more felt, at the time, respecting an appointment which gave two years of active service and Indian experience precedence over officers of higher rank regimentally in the corps that composed the column. Neville Bowles Chamberlain was a regimental captain only, of the 16th N.I. (grenadiers), but by brevet local rank“ Brigadier of the Punjab Irregular Force," and Honorary Aide-de-camp to the Governor-General. Within

all praise), forwarding a letter he had of our power and our welfare, to obey received from the King of Delhi, this summons without delay.” calling on the Maharajah to rally How welcome an assurance of the round the standard raised by his liege Maharajah's fealty was the transmislord.

sion of this letter to the Chief ComThe following is a translation of missioner! It told almost more than this remarkable document :

the noble way in which, at the first “To him of noble rank and lordly call, he hastened to the support of dignity, our own devoted vassal, Government, that he was true to the worthy of our confidence and favour, cause of England. The most wealthy the union of benevolence and high- and influential of all the Sikh Rajahs, mindedness, Nur Inder Singh, Baha- his conduct would doubtless influence dur, the Maharajah of Puttiala. the rest : he had openly avowed that “ Dated the 21st Ramazan.

he drew the sword for England; and

all the rest followed in his train. For "'My life is passing from my lips; come, then, that I may survive ;

not only did the Jheend Rajah throw For if I cease to be, what will become of himself with all his little army into

Thaneysur, ready to resist the first “Of the downfall of this Govern- surge of the tide of rebellion, should ment, and of the great revolutions in it roll upwards, and the Nabba Rajah

concentrate his forces for the prothe course of development, which are at the present being bruited about, you have said, the Kuppoorthulla Chief

tection of Loodiana, while, as have heard from the papers. Relying upon your well-proved devoted- dhur ; but many a minor Rajah and

was doing good service at Jullunness and loyalty towards this our own favour-bestoying family, you are

Sirdar, who had little to lose, and written to, that, with all possible which should dispossess England of

might gain much in a revolution speed, you present yourself at our Court, resembling that of Khusrau, liberally in support of Government,

the Punjab, came forward boldly and with a suitably-equipped force.

influenced greatly, no doubt, by the • This matter admits of no delay, for in example of the Maharajah of Puttithis extremity

ala. Rajah Tej Singh at once raised • There is neither plan of attack nor way of escape.'

a ressala (troop) of cavalry, as also

did Sirdar Shumshere Singh Sind“In such strait, therefore, it be- hanwalla : half a ressala was raised by hoves you, as you desire the increase Rajah Runbheer Singh Alloowalla ;

you ?'

we

:

a

two years of his landing in India, he found himself with his regiment in the heart of Affghanistan, where he soon distinguished himself; and on the commencement of the Cabul outbreak, was attached to the 1st Irregular Cavalry (Christie's Horee). Six wounds bear witness that in that campaign he bore no idle or inactive part. In acknowledgment of his services, he was appointed to the Governor-General's “ Body-Guard,” with which corps he was present at the battle of Maharajpore. Then came the Punjab campaign, which added Chillianwallah and Goojerat to the list of his battle-fields. Nor was the peace which ensued a season of ease or quiet to him ; "frontier service,” for which Gazettes and Army Lists have no place, but which has proved a nursery of so many a gallant soldier, and has given to India men like Edwardes, Nicholson, Lumsden, and many more, was Chamberlain's unceasing occupation. It was only at the close of 1856 that he was threading the defiles of the Koorum Pass, and crowning the heights, which gave him a sight of Guznee, and disclosed the third Pass, which connects Affghanistan with India. Later stilí - a few weeks only before the events of which we are writing—he was at the head of a small body of his tried “ Punjab Irregulars," storming the mountain-fastnesses of the Beloochee Bozdars, and teaching those hitherto untamed marauders that their fortresses were no longer impregnable, and that they could no longer carry on their raids along our frontier with impunity. Such was the officer selected by General Anson to command the Movable Column. His very name acted as a spell on the minds of the Irregulars; and his firmness, yet unassuming courteous manner, soon won the respect of the European portion of the column. Jealousy of such a man at such a crisis was surely too petty a feeling to have a place in the heart of any English officer.

and Rajah Jowahir Singh, though too in the Punjab Proper. What poor to raise and maintain any force, was passing during this time at instantly rallied round him some 700 Umballa must next be considerold retainers of his father's (Rajah ed; and how the same hand that Dhyan Singh, so long the powerful was moving the Punjab, made itfavourite of Runjeet Singh), and placed self felt at Umballa also. Although them at the disposal of Government. the hot weather was now coming on These were welcome tidings, daily com- in its fury, and was pronounced to ing in to show that what remained of be most prejudicial, if not fatal, to the old Sikh nobility, though crippled Sir John Lawrence; although he in resources and lowered in position, endured an amount of bodily sufferwere ready to throw the weight of ing which now and again drove him their influence into the scale of order. to his couch till the paroxysm had Old Gholab Singh, too, though sink- passed off, he still held on at Rawul ing into his grave, did not forget Pindee, spending days and nights in that the English had raised him from anxious labour that scarcely knew a petty hill Raj to the kingdom of cessation : there sat the civilian, with Cashmere, and was no sooner applied the General's sanction, moving regito than he placed some lakhs of ments from station to station as rupees in the Government treasury, emergency arose ; calling in levies and began to organise a large con- from the frontier tribes, whom he tingent to swell our ranks in the could best rely on; keeping up contime of need.

stant communication not only with All this looked well; the Sikhs every station in the Punjab, but also were clearly with us from policy, if with every native chief between the from no better motive. The Punjabee Ravee and the Jumna ; thus did he Jats, though they are a fine manly sway the whole Punjab. All eyes race, and make good soldiers, are not were turned to him; and could they constitutionally warlike, and seemed but have seen him (as the writer of little concerned in the stirring events these pages was permitted to do), around, except when the chance of surrounded by the kindred spirits

head-money for some fugitive he had gathered round him in Sepoy lured them away from their council, collected, energetic, cheerful, fields. The harvest was providen- while so many others were losing tially abundant, and they had ample head and heart, the most desponding occupation in storing it: but a month would have learned to be hopeful, later (ere the monsoon had set in, and the most timid would have bringing with it the second seed- renounced, or have endeavoured to time) it might be otherwise, as many conceal, his fears-so little becoming felt. At present in full employment, a man and a Christian, surrounded by they gave no signs of excitement or such signal proofs of God's Provi. disaffection.

dence. The frontier, however, became Anticipating by a single day the again rather disturbed. Rumours current of events, we here insert the there were of warlike preparations characteristic address of Sir John in the Swat Valley : these, neverthe- Lawrence to the Sepoys in the Punless, came to nothing, and the jab, which ushered in the month of seditious movements of a designing June. It might be wanting in some Moulvie along the lower hills, who of the more happy touches of his

soon caught and hung, had accomplished and lamented brother, no other effect than to produce but herein spoke the man. another change in the Movable

“FROM THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER OF THE Column: it had only crossed the

PUNJAB TO THE HINDOOSTANEE SOL. Chenab on the 29th of May, and

DIERS OF THE BENGAL ARMY. encamped at Wuzeerabad, when orders came to H. M. 24th Regi

“ Dated 1st June 1857. ment and the Kumaon Battalion of

“SEPOYS,—You will have heard that Goorkhas to hasten back to Jhelum many Sepoys and Sowars of the Bengal and Rawul Pindee.

army have proved faithless to their salt Thus ended the month of May at Meerut, at Delhi, and at Ferozepore.

was

66

Many at the latter place have been al- obedient, and the latter only long to ready punished. An army has assembled, take your place in the army. All will and is now close to Delhi, prepared to unite to crush you. Moreover, the punish the mutineers and insurgents who Sepoy can bave no conception of the have collected there.

power of England, Already from every Sepoys,- I warn and advise you to quarter English soldiers are pouring prove faithful to your salt, faithful to into India. the Government who have given your “You know well enough that the Britforefathers and you service for the last ish Government have never interfered hundred years ; faithful to that Govern- with your religion. Those who tell you ment who, both in cantonments and in the contrary, say it for their own base the field, has been careful of your wel. purposes. The Hindoo temple and the fare and interests ; and who, in your Mohammedan mosque have both been old age, has given you the means of respected by the English Government. living comfortably in your homes. It was but the other day that the Jumma Those who have studied history know Mosque at Labore, which had cost lakhs well that no army has ever been more of rupees, and which the Sikhs had conkindly treated than that of India.

verted into a magazine, was restored to “Those regiments which now remain the Mohammedans. faithful will receive the rewards due to “Sepoys,-My advice is that you obey their constancy. Those soldiers who your officers. Seize all those among fall away now will lose their service for yourselves who endeavour to mislead

It will be too late to lament here. you. Let not a few bad men be the after when the time has passed by ;- cause of your disgrace. If you have the now is the opportunity of proving your will, you can easily do this ; and Govloyalty and good faith. The British ernment will consider it a test of your Government will never want for native fidelity. Prove by your conduct that soldiers. In a month it might raise the loyalty of the Sepoy of Hindoostan 50,000 in the Punjab alone. If the Poor- has not degenerated from that of his beea’ Sepoy neglects the present day, it ancestors. will never return. There ample force

“ JOHN LAWRENCE, in the Punjab to crush all mutineers. The chiefs and people are loyal and

“ Chief Commissioner."

ever.

ITALY_OF THE ARTS THE CRADLE AND THE GRAVE.

ART was cradled in the sunny itself to metaphor-that the house south-in those latitudes where man for his dwelling, and the temple for found himself in Eden-where God his worship, should be dedicated to gave forth his revelations — where beauty? We have stood in the temheaven itself seems to touch the ple-citadel of Athens when the sunearth, clothe all things in beauty, shine danced upon the distant sea, and promise all high delight. The and moulded by light and shade the language of the earth seemed poetry, marble mountains into massive sculpand the work and the pastime of man ture. We have seen the same templebroke forth into art. The same sun mount glow in the sunset sky-faint which made the earth fertile in fruits into twilight and again stand forth made the imagination of man florid to command the plain, when the in flowers ; sunshine laughed within moon rose above the hills, and all his heart; the blue sky overhead be- was of so much beauty that, even in came the canopy to his thoughts, a nation's overthrow, nature still which he led as a shepherd his flocks lingered fondly in the chosen haunts to pasture in the plain--to gambol - weaving for her own delight a on the mountain-side- to rest be- poetry, and making out of daily life neath the shadow of a rock, or beside a beauteous art. In the further a shadowy stream. In the south, south, the sunny imagination of the existence becomes art; and yet that Arab pointed the arch, and reared art is nature. What wonder, then, the dome. The romance of the Arathat man should burst into song and bian Nights, cast into stone, became, dance—that his tongue should use when night was ended, like the

a

written words, an "entertainment” the land of Italy, after so great calasuited for the day. Imagination took mity and suffering, remains so far a heavenward flight in the minaret, unchanged. Mountain districts there and fancy, in its subtlety, wove arab- are, it is true, which are wildly tossed esques for mosque or harem, where and tortured as by tempests-symthe Arab, waiting upon Destiny, bols of the mob riot, and of that turcalled on the “name of God, the bulent sea of troubles which raged Compassionate, the Merciful,”, or, in the city life of the middle ages. where the victim of southern volup- Such bandit nature threw itself imtuousness, art, became his minister to petuously into art in the savage picenjoyment. Thus, in Egypt, the tropic tures of Salvator Rosa. For the sun, taking no delight in desert sands, most part, however, the land of Italy. wandered in search of a kindred fer- reposes in tranquil loveliness, as if tility, and found in the genius of man gladness, and not sorrow, had been an oasis which blossomed in the lotus the current of existence. To this and the lily.

hour the pictures of Claude live beBut it is specially in Italy that art fore the eye,—the clear blue skyhas seemed to us indigenous to the the tender distance--the wide plain soil. The dying glory has not yet or valley, fertile with wine and oilwholly faded from the sky. It is the river flowing gently through the true the sun has set, clouds gather midst -- and the gracefully-bending on the hills, and night settles in the ilex giving to the foreground the replain ; but the glory of the day is pose of shade, in which the peasant still remembered, and the twilight and his flocks find refuge from the hour which now steals so gently over heat of day. Claude, too, might have all things, mellows the turbulence of been but yesterday to this shore of active life into tenderness, as we Baiæ, so gently does the sea ripple watch over the expiring moments of on the sand-so tender and so pure is one too beautiful to live. The lover the far distance—so wholly do love of nature or art will do well never to and beauty still hold possession of miss a sunset, especially in Italy. In the landscape. Thus does the traItaly the setting of the sun is expres- veller find, whether by sunset or by sive of her sunken condition. The noonday—in the valley, by the sea, lengthening shadows, the rising mists, or by the mountain-side-how art in the confusion of distinct shapes and Italy arose into spontaneous birth. : outlines in the coming darkness- The genius of the people too is these, with the beauty of that vesper tempered by the aspect of this land hour, the hour of prayer and love, in which they live. Brilliant as the are all symbolic of Italy in her love- sky, yet tumultuous as the mounliness and decline. Then the travel- tain storm, their life has the beauty ler feels how Italy became the cradle of romance with its vicissitudes and of the arts. In Venice he has been plots.

Their land a poem, they gazing on the golden glories of Vero- themselves a picture—they live less nese in the Doge's Palace ; and at for the duties of life than to decorate sunset he mounts the Campanile of creation. Their costume is that of St Mark-sees the lagoons a molten the stage; their pose and bearing fire-the snows of the distant Alps that of the studio. To this people flushed with hectic red ; and in this art is no effort, and what in other triumph of colour he finds the origin lands is a forced product, in Italy is of that Venetian art which clothed thus seen as a spontaneous growth the earth and man in rainbow glory. and outburst. It is true that the fire Nations perish - art decays; yet which once burned with so much these sunset splendours, fleeting as splendour is now in its expiring they are with the passing moment, ashes; that the entire nation is are of all earth's passing shows the fallen and in all points degraded, most unchanging. The sunset of this and their art itself, once the greatest present hour is such a one as that of revivals, has in these days reached when first the Campanile of Torcello its last decadence. It is true that knolled the knell of parting day. It impulse, passion, and imagination,

, has often struck us with wonder that which are the soul and very elo

a