In the original edition of this work I attached to the fifth – in that styled the third – volume an account in detail of the events of the Mutiny in five civil districts. There was no special reason why five districts only should be selected, and my publishers yielded readily to a suggestion I made them that in this complete edition, a short sketch should be given of the occurrences in other civil stations in which mutiny was rampant. I have endeavoured to accomplish this task amid many difficulties, for during the ten years which have elapsed since the first edition appeared, many of the actors have been removed, leaving no journals and no record of the scenes through which they passed. The reader, however, will, I think, find in this volume much information, which, if not altogether new, is now, for the first time, allotted its proper place in a history of the Mutiny.
I have been specially glad to bring more prominently to notice the services of men whose splendid conduct had been more or less overshadowed, in the preceding volumes, by the glare of the military operations. Prominently amongst these I would mention the conduct of Major (now Sir Orfeur) Cavenagh, and of the late Mr. Samuel Wauchope, of the Civil Service, in Calcutta; of Mr. Frederick Gubbins, of Mr. Lind, and of Mr. Jenkinson, at Banaras; of Major Court at Allahabad; of Mr. Sherer at Kanhpur; of Mr. Wynyard at Gorakhpur; of Mr. Robert Spankie and of Mr. Robertson, at Saharanpur; of Mr. Dunlop at Mirath; of Mr. Thornhill at Mathura; of Mr. Allen and Mr. Cockburn in eastern Bengal; and of Mr. (afterwards Sir Bartle) Frere, in Sindh. There are many others, whose deeds, so far as I have been able to collate them, are recorded in this volume. My only fear is lest I should have omitted many details which, from the interest of the occurrences and from the long-suffering and gallantry of the actors,
ought to be recorded. I shall hope, if such should prove to be the case, to have an opportunity hereafter of remedying the short-coming.
I have thought it desirable, moreover, in justice to the splendid administration of British India by our countrymen, in the past and in the present, to add to this volume a sketch of the actual conduct in the most trying crisis India has experienced under British rule, of the several native chiefs who occupied semi-independent positions throughout the peninsula, under the protection of Great Britain. Many details giving ample evidence of their attachment to their overlord on the part of the chiefest among them have been given in preceding volumes. But I thought that a short survey of the conduct of those who, in central India, in Rajputana, in western and in southern India, had an opportunity, such as their ancestors at the beginning of the present century would have eagerly clutched at, of rooting out the sway of the western foreigner, would tell, more eloquently than a laboured defence, the secret of the success of the British rule. When the Mutiny broke out, not forty years had elapsed since the forces of Holkar had been ranged against the British at Mehidpur; and since the Peshwa had struck his last blow for independence. Not fourteen had passed since the troops of Sindhia encountered their final defeat at Maharajpur; not fifteen since Sindh had been conquered; not eight since the Sikhs had been arrayed against Lord Gough at Chilianwala and Gujrat. On each and all of these occasions, the successful blow struck by the British had been followed by a policy so lenient, so restorative, so inspiring of confidence in British justice, that when the Mutiny broke out, and the Sipahis, the landowners in the provinces of the North-West, the Talukdars of Oudh, and the King of Delhi, made common cause against the British, the latter found their strongest adherents in the Sindhia, whose ancestors had vowed their destruction; in the Sikhs, who had given them a very hard nut to crack in 1849-50; in the Rajputana, which they had rescued thirty-nine years before; in the Haidarabad, which, since the time of Clive, had never deviated from its fidelity; and in the Sindh, held together by the powerful grasp of Mr. Frere. These are facts more eloquent than words. No more complete justification for the presence in India of the foreign islanders, who base their tale on justice and toleration of the widest character, could possibly be given. Within fourteen years of the last war in
India south of the Satlaj, the Pretorians of the paramount power suddenly rose in revolt. The native princes, whom we had first conquered, then protected, far from making common cause with the revolters, hastened to huddle together round the scattered remnants of that paramount power, and aiding it with all their resources, helped to maintain it, until it should receive renewed strength from its island home. It is hard to say, indeed, how the British would have fared, if Sindhia – second in descent from the Sindhia who had fought Wellesley and Lake, and third from the Madhaji who died just as his plans for a Maratha Empire had ripened – had moved against us in June and July, 1857.
I would crave leave to add a few words regarding the spelling I adopted when writing of places in India. My system has been cavilled at by some, has been supported by others. I have been glad to find that whilst among the former are retired Indians, disinclined to break with the haphazard system dear to them from long connection, the modern school has ranged itself on my side. How, indeed, in this age of progress and enlightenment, could it be otherwise? I have simply spelt names as those names are written in the vernacular language of the country to which those names belong. It is the more necessary that this system should be adopted, as, in India, every name has a meaning, and that meaning would be utterly lost, if the no-system, originated by men ignorant of the native languages, and blindly accepted by their successors, were adhered to. I will add another reason for adopting the Indian nomenclature, which, to my mind, is unanswerable. That nomenclature is adopted now, with a few exceptions, which I regret, by the Government of India in its official Gazette. It is to a great extent adopted, with the same exceptions, by the press of India; and it is adopted by the Guide-Books and Gazetteers, which constitute the principal sources of information regarding the country to the tourist. In these days the number of tourists who visit India in the winter is increasing. Let us take the case of one or more of these intending travellers. Before starting on their tour they buy a Murray’s Handbook, and possibly a Forbes’s Guide to Conversation. Certainly, Murray’s Handbook is indispensable, for the descriptions, especially in the Handbook for Bengal, which includes the North-Western Provinces and Delhi, are just what the traveller requires. Probably he begins to read the Handbook before he sets out, or, certainly, on the
journey, and becomes familiarized with the names. Now, Captain Eastwick, who wrote Murray’s Handbook, is a very purist in the way of spelling. All his places are spelt as the natives write them. They are spelt so, likewise, in Forbes’s Manual, and in his dictionary; so, generally, though nut absolutely, in the new and revised edition of Thornton’s Gazetteer. When the traveller lands in India, and, speaking to natives, pronounces names and things as he has found them spelt in the Guide-Book he has studied, he finds he is understood. He sees, on the other bond, that the native can with difficulty comprehend those who pronounce native names as the adherents of the time-honoured, indeed, but utterly haphazard, system spell them. That system may, I am thankful to say, be numbered with the past. No published writer of the present day who has any knowledge of India and its people would dream of using it. It is dying out, and will shortly disappear. Future generations will wonder that a people who call themselves enlightened should have tolerated the barbarism so long.
In conclusion, I would with great respect lay the last volume of this work before the public as the concluding words of an attempt to describe, faithfully and without prejudice, the most marvellous episode of modern times. There had been nothing to equal it in the world’s history before. I repeat here, what I have said in a previous volume, that no harder task was ever suddenly thrown upon a nation than that cast upon the British in 1857. In achieving it, they literally “conquered the impossible”: that is, they performed a task which, I believe, no other people in the world. could have accomplished. They conquered, because, in the darkest hour, they never despaired; because, “believing in their own energies, they dared to be great.”
This collection transcribed by Chris Gage