INDIAN DISTRICTS DURING THE INTRODUCTORY. MORE than a quarter of a century has passed away since the power of Britain in the far East was shaken to its base. The great Native Army that had been formed by Clive in Bengal a hundred years before, and which, in combination with a small contingent of white troops, had carried the banner of England to Prome on one side and to Peshawar on another, had yielded to Prætorian pride, and had risen against its leaders and its employers in a murderous revolt. The titular "King of Dehli” had been drawn in as a nominal head, and held faded state among a turbulent host of pretended followers in the ruinous halls of his ancestors, the Mughal Emperors of Hindustan. The minor potentates looked on in anxious wonder, or gave a more or less effective support to their foreign allies, of whose ultimate triumph most of them had wisdom enough to entertain forebodings. Among the people there was much confusion; the criminal and lawless benefited by the weakness of the restraining power; the peaceable masses cowered in alarm, and provided as best they could for their own safety. In the words of an impartial observer, a month after the outbreak The situation might be summed up as follows:-Direct communication between Calcutta, Dehli, and the Panjab was completely interrupted, and the army before Dehli, little over 4,000 strong, was scarcely able to maintain its position. Its base of operations was the Panjab by the line of Ludiána. Sir J. Lawrence, with heroic devotion, despatched his European regiments to Dehli, but it was doubtful whether the besieging force would be able to remain before the city till their arrival.* It was in this situation that the qualities and the resources of each isolated representative of British power in Upper India were taxed and strained for a period, the end of which none of them could foresee. Some of these, not unnaturally, succumbed to the appalling problem of maintaining law and order, and protecting life and property, with untrustworthy instruments and against dangers of which no one knew the extent, but no one could possibly over-estimate the magnitude. It is a fact that in no such instance was peace preserved for moment after they left their stations. By far the majority, however, chose the better part, though they paid dearly for their devotion. As was remarked at the time by a civil officer who gave a splendid example of energy and daring in the administration of his own district, The civilians (superior civil officers) of this Presidency have suffered more severely than any other class of men in the country. There were, when the mutiny commenced, 153 present, about one-third of whom have been killed or wounded. Twenty-nine have been murdered, killed in action, or died of wounds; three died from cholera, or exposure on service, and several have been wounded the Gazettes take no notice of civilians' wounds.-[The Khakee Risullah, &c. By R. Wallace Dunlop, C.B. R. Bentley, 1858.] Nevertheless, these sufferings were not without fruit. Many of the districts were successfully defended and held by these extemporised leaders, whose ordinary professional duties did not go beyond holding trials, presiding at local boards, and the sort of work performed in England by the squires and parsons. M. de Valbezen, an impartial critic, calls attention to these "modest" services of the civilians (official and non-official it should be added), and gives deserved prominence to the defence of the * India and the English. By E. de Valbezen. Allen & Co., 1883, house at Arrah, though he unhappily deprives the magistrate, Mr. Hereward Wake, C.B., of his due credit by styling him "Mr. Walker.” In truth, these "magistrates" (taking the word in its Anglo-Indian sense, denoting the Prefects of Districts), for the most, had to work as military officers, and often as officers without men. Their staff consisted, for the most part, of their official assistants and a few planters—some, like Venables and Dunn, men of great resolution and energy. But of the rank and file little was to be expected. A few sepoys, of doubtful fidelity unless they were Sikhs or Gurkhas; a half-disciplined jail-guard, often in sympathy with the convicts in their charge; a handful of messengers, often faithful fellows, but with no discipline at all: such was the material with which the fiercest passions of thousands were to be stayed, and the occasional raids of disciplined mutineers to be encountered, on pain of loss of life and honour, and of disaster and disgrace to the State. |