other towns. Public men, who at one time would have denounced a standing Army as a costly nuisance, were foremost to praise the heroes of the Crimea. 66 They are the protectors of England," said Mr Roebuck, at the Sheffield banquet to the 4th Dragoon Guards; "they are the protectors of our glory, they are the protectors of our freedom. And here, now, is one striking instance that your institution affords of the thorough confidence we have in you, and in the institution to which you belong. We are not afraid of soldiers. We love you as brethren, and we know that you will protect us as such."

But the principal feature of the welcome given to the troops was unquestionably to be found in the reception they experienced from the Queen herself, the Court, and the crowds who assembled in Hyde Park in June, 1856, and at Aldershot in the ensuing month of August. Her Majesty not only reviewed the troops at the latter camp, but personally visited their huts; and at the end of the inspection addressed a select body of the assembled troops in these never-to-be-forgotten words:

"Officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers,-I wish personally to convey, through you, to the Regiments assembled here this day, my hearty welcome on your return to England in health and full efficiency. Say to them that I have watched anxiously over the difficulties and hardships which they have so nobly borne; that I have mourned with deep sorrow for the brave men who have fallen for their country; and that I have felt proud of that valour which, with their gallant Allies, they have displayed on every field. I thank God that your dangers are over, whilst the glory of your deeds remains. But I know that, should your services be again required, you will be animated with the same devotion which in the Crimea has rendered invincible." you

A material drawback upon the pleasure created by the appearance of the troops was the absence of the estimable nobleman, the distinguished friend of the Duke of Wellington, who had led them to the Crimea. Lord Raglan died in harness in 1855, overcome by illness and fatigue. His remains were brought to his native country, and interred with suitable dignity at Bristol. A handsome pension was continued to his widow and his heir, as appropriate marks of a nation's regret and gratitude.

It would swell this chapter to an inordinate size were the names of all who had deserved well of the country to be inserted, but it would be ungracious to omit that FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, who had been foremost among the "ministering angels" when pain and anguish wrung the brow" of the British soldier, was honoured as she

deserved to be by the nation and the Queen. Excellent and valuable as her self-sacrificing example had proved, it was not the limit of her utility and rare humanity. The hospitals of the whole country, as well as those of the British garrisons, borrowed lessons from her; and humane, gentle, and serviceable treatment superseded, in many cases, the slovenly neglect and persistent cruelty which had too long disgraced those institutions.

To the catalogue of good works for which Lord Panmure obtained credit during the years 185556 must now be added the establishment of a Land Transport Corps, to facilitate the carriage of the supplies and ammunition of the Army-a Corps afterwards converted into the Royal Military Train; the abolition of the Board of Ordnance, and the substitution of a separate superintendence of the manufacture of every description of Army matériel; the creation of a Medical Staff Corps, with all the appendages of ambulances and other resources for sick and wounded soldiers; the grant of sixpence per day extra to the men who had served in the Crimea; an increase to the pensions of the widows of Officers who had fallen in the field, or who might die within six months of the receipt of their wounds; the promotion of Officers while prisoners of war, if vacancies occurred in their absence; an improvement in the Retiring half-pay of Regimental Quartermasters, and the conferment of the rank of Captain upon that deserving class; the allotment to widows of the prices paid by deceased Officers for their several Commissions, and the promotion of Subalterns to the rank of Captain after one year's service in the Crimea, if they should have reached the top of the list of Lieutenants in that time.

A more liberal consideration of the deservings of the Army, and a more salutary change in many of the regulations which governed pensions and preferment, were never comprehended in the same space of time. The ways of Lord Panmure were those of pleasantness. Those of Lord Hardinge, the Commander-in-Chief, were not altogether so agreeable. It was his disagreeable office to have to visit with the heavy punishment of dismissal the indulgence of some junior Officers in the prohibited pastime of "practical joking." Several instances had disgraced the idle barrack life of certain Subalterns of a propensity to amuse themselves at the expense of their brother Officers by acts at once violent, indelicate, and offensive. Remonstrance and command were thrown away. Summary discharge from a Service to which it was an honour to belong was necessary as a preventive and an example.

Among the arrangements made by the French and English Governments in 1854, for neutralising Russian power in the East, was the occupation of

a

the capital of Greece. The kingdom was in a wretched state. The country was divided by factions, and impoverished by an attempt on the part of its feeble Government to maintain a standing Army; and, under the of sway German Prince who was neither feared nor respected by his Greek subjects, without money, credit, or power, it afforded a melancholy contrast to the days of its ancient greatness. The Court, the priests, and the people were blindly devoted to the Russians; Russian gold, Russian intrigue, Russian agents, were everywhere at work to excite the feelings of the nation against the Allies, and to encourage all classes to give what aid they could to the Russian cause. Hence the determination of the Allies to occupy the capital. The British Regiment first sent from Malta to the Piræus was the 97th. Six months later that Corps was relieved by the 3rd Buffs, who, in their turn, were displaced by the 91st Argyllshire Highlanders. The conduct of the Regiments was most exemplary. The utmost harmony, kind feelings, and even friendship were cultivated between the British and the French Officers and men, and ultimately the Greeks, who had received them on their arrival with dislike and mistrust, came to regard them with respect. "All marvelled at the admirable discipline, honesty, and good humour of the English soldiers, and at the quiet and courteous demeanour of their Officers."

CHAPTER XLI.

Death of Lord Hardinge-The Duke of Cambridge Commanding-in-Chief-War with Persia-The Purchase Question-Quarrel with China-Mutiny of the Native Army of India-How and by whom suppressed -Transfer of India to the Crown-Numerous Improvements in the Constitution and Establishment of the Army-Rifle Practice-The French desire War with England-Volunteer Movement-Breech-Loaders-The Army of Reserve-Progress of Volunteer Organisation.

The death of Lord Hardinge in 1856 once again leaving the bâton of the Commander-inChief vacant, the Queen conferred the responsible post upon her Royal cousin, the Duke of Cambridge. Educated in Germany during the ViceRoyalty of his father, the youth of the Duke had been passed much among soldiers, and he had acquired a passion for the Military profession. At an early period when his studies were complete he received a Commission in the British Army, and joined a Dragoon Regiment for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of the duties of his rank. Diligent in the discharge of his functions and evincing considerable aptitude for command, His Royal Highness was entrusted with the charge of the Dublin garrison, and in the capacious Phoenix

courage

Park had excellent opportunities of handling troops. From that position, as we have seen, he was removed to become Inspector-General of the British Cavalry. Subsequently proceeding to the Crimea, the Duke displayed the cool which had always been an attribute of his illustrious family, and in the care which he bestowed on the magnificent Division of the Guards placed under his command he manifested the possession of many qualifications for that higher trust which now devolved upon him. There was not a single voice raised against His Royal Highness's appointment to the Command-in-Chief, for though he was much younger than many of the Generals on the List, he was recommended by that independence of all Ministerial influence and professional ties which might have been wanting in any one under the rank of a Prince of the Blood Royal. And the modesty of his character was a guarantee that in all matters which might cause him embarrassment or anxiety he would consult those old Officers whose experience and integrity could be relied on.

One of the first duties of the Duke of Cambridge was to attend Her Majesty at the camp at Aldershot, and it became his pleasing office to issue the following General Order:

"Horse Guards, 5th August, 1856.

"The Queen, having completed the review of the Regiments which served in the Army in the East, has commanded His Royal Highness the General Commanding-in-Chief to welcome their return from that arduous service. Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to express her admiration of their good order and discipline.

"Victorious when opposed to the brave and enterprising enemy with whom it had to contend, the Army has earned the gratitude of the country.

"The patient endurance of evils inseparable from war, and an instinctive determination to overcome them, are characteristic of the British soldier; and the events of the war have proved that those national virtues have not degenerated during a long previous peace.

"The Queen deplores the loss of many of her best Officers and bravest men; but history will consecrate the ground before Sebastopol as the grave of heroes."

An overweening estimate of their own power and consequence, and a profound ignorance of the strength of European nations, are the characteristics of Oriental States generally, and to none does this observation more strictly apply than to Persia. In spite of the humiliation to which Russia has, at different times, subjected the Court of Teheran, the flatterers of the Schah-inSchah nourish his vanity by poetical narratives of the conquests achieved in an easterly direction

by his renowned ancestors. The deeds which placed the Mogul on the throne of Delhi, after the Ghuznivide had paved the way, are always present to the Persian imagination, and the hope continually revives that at some future period similar exploits will again extend the authority of the ruler of Iran beyond the Indus. On no other hypothesis, unless we add the results of Russian intrigue continually urging the Schah to the perpetration of follies, can the proceedings of 185556 be explained. In the terms of a convention entered into between the Persian Government and Colonel Justin Shiel, the British Minister at Teheran in 1853, the former party to the contract engaged not to send troops to Herat unless the Herat territory should be invaded by a foreign Army. Mr Murray went to Persia in 1854 as the British representative. He was in every

respect adapted to the office of Minister, but he could not manage to secure the regard of the principal Wuzeer. Insults were continually put upon him, and obstacles offered in every shape that Oriental ingenuity and religious fanaticism could devise. Mr Murray's self-respect would not allow of his continuing to hold office beyond the close of 1855. About the same time a rebellion broke out in Herat. Dost Mahomed, the ruler of Cabul, immediately advanced to Candahar. The integrity of the dominions to which he had been restored was menaced. It was advisable to be near the frontier. Persia made this very act a pretext for laying siege to Herat, and upon this occasion her operations were more successful than in 1838. The Herautees had no Pottinger to assist them in defending their capital. The Persians pretended that Dost Mahomed had acted at the instance of the British Government, and that, therefore, the treaty of 1853 was at an end. As nothing could be farther from the truth, an English war with Persia was inevitable, and a course of hostilities was at once decided upon. Taught by experience, the Government of Great Britain no longer dreamt of sending an Army through Scinde or the Punjaub. Those territories had become walls of defence. Persia was vulnerable and easy of access by a road nearer to India than Herat, and her shores had been well explored for seventy years. Accordingly it was determined to send a combined expedition to Bushire, and to penetrate the country from that port.

The expedition which left Bombay was placed under the command of Major-General Outram, of the East India Company's Army, who had distinguished himself in the fields of war and diplomacy, and of whom honourable mention has been made in an earlier page of this work. One of the divisions was headed by Colonel Henry Havelock; the other by Colonel Foster Stalker, of the Bombay Infantry. The force at General Outram's

disposal was necessarily, for the most part, composed of the Native Indian troops of the Bombay Presidency; but two Royal Regiments, the 64th and 78th Highlanders, formed the back-bone of the expedition, and to these were added a Regiment (the 3rd) of Bombay Native Cavalry. MajorGeneral Outram's first act was to take possession of the island of Karrack as a depot of stores, &c., and his next to land at a point twelve miles south of Bushire. The Persians were fully prepared for the visitation. To the warlike disposition inherent in the Moslem character, the Persian soldiers added some acquaintance with the tactics of European armies. Forty or fifty years previously a considerable number of British Officers had been sent to Persia by invitation from Abbas Mirza, the heir to the throne, for the purpose of instructing the Persian troops in the European system of warfare. Transmitted through succeeding years, the discipline thus introduced had become a feature of the Persian regular Army, and gave the King a certain confidence in his capability of resisting his British enemies.

Advancing to Bushire, Major-General Outram found the Persians entrenched. He attacked them with the bayonet, and the entrenchments were carried, but not without serious loss. Brigadier Stopford of the 64th, and Lieutenant-Colonel Malet of the Light Cavalry, together with two subalterns of the Line, were killed. At Khooshab another encounter took place, which was distinguished by a very rare and hazardous achievement. The 3rd Light Cavalry broke through a square of Persian Infantry. The Adjutant, Lieutenant Moore, sprang upon the bayonets and made a gap which dislocated the hitherto invincible formation. He was in great danger, but Lieutenant Malcolmson leapt into the square and bore him off.* Subsequently, on the retirement of Major-General Outram from Barajzoom, the Persians attacked him with 7,000 men, and were repulsed with great loss. Again at Mohummerah the General routed the enemy, while Captain Rennie, of the Indian Navy, assailed them at Ahwaz. After this punishment the Persians besought peace, and the troops returned to India early in 1857. MajorGeneral Outram and Colonel Havelock received each the Cross of a Knight Commander of the Bath, in recognition of the skill with which they had fulfilled the task entrusted to them.

As one of the experiences of the Crimean War a conviction had taken possession of the minds of many men in and out of Parlia ment, that the system of purchase under which the British Army was officered was in itself mischievous. The wealthy and incompetent took

*This unparalleled feat was recompensed with the Victoria Cross.

the pas of poorer and more efficient soldiers. Other considerations, however, entering into the subject, a Commission was appointed in 1856 to inquire whether any and what changes should be made in the system of purchase for first commissions; in the practice of advancement by purchase; and in the sale of commissions for purposes of retirement. It was desirable to ascertain what amount of prospective benefit would be assured by the change a change that could not be equitably effected excepting at a very heavy charge to the State.

Once again, cause of hostility, which ripened into an expedition of a retributory character, arose in China. The Chinese had seized the crew of a - vessel bearing the British flag, the Arrow (previously a lorcha or native craft), on the pretence that one of the men was a native pirate. The Consulate demanded restitution of the men, or, at all events, that they should be brought before him and the case examined. The authorities refused compliance with this demand, and war followed as a matter of course.

Affairs in India fixed public attention very seriously, and gave active employment to the Army, in 1857. It had been customary since 1783, when a Board of Commissioners was established as a control over the East India Company, to examine the operation of the charter of the Company every twenty years, and either enlarge its provisions or curtail the power and privileges of that gigantic monopoly. In 1813 the trade had been opened to India. In 1833 still greater inroads were made upon the vested rights of the Company. Previous to these and all other changes the House of Commons received evidence before committees specially appointed for its reception, and upon their report and the discussions which it elicited the terms of the renewable charter were arranged. When the Committee sat in 1832, a great many witnesses were examined upon the state and composition of the Native Army of India. The old East India Generals lauded its loyalty, its discipline, its bravery, and what Sir Charles Napier said twenty years later was in the mouths of the majority of the witnesses:

"The Indian Army when well commanded is indomitable; it is capable of subjugating all the countries between the Black and Yellow Seas.

The European Officers are all English, Irish, or Scotch gentlemen, whose honour and courage have created in their troops such an intrepid spirit as to render India secure against every evil from which an Army can protect a country."

Preface to Sir C. Napier's letter to Sir John Cam Hobhouse on the Baggage of the Indian Army.'

There were not, however, wanting keen and sagacious Officers who had attentively noticed certain alterations in the general bearing of the sepoy for some years previous to 1832, and these Officers warned the Government that the elements of danger were discernible in the Native Army. The discipline had relaxed. The bonds of personal attachment had been weakened. Down to 1824 there was much identity of feeling between the Regimental Officers and sepoys. They had served and suffered together for so many years that the sepoy often forgot the prescriptions of caste in his readiness to share with the European his privations and provisions; more readily he surrendered his own rations than consent to receive that of the European. Abhorrent as the touch of a Feringee's corpse might be to the orthodox Hindoo, the sepoy had been known to assist at the obsequies of his Officer. In fact, the affection of the sepoy for his commanders partook in some measure of the regard which he entertained for his blood relations. Hence, a Regiment was a kind of family affair; favourable to Military ends when the sepoy was called upon to fight side by side with the European. The immense accession of territory acquired by the East India Company, by the destruction of the Mahratta confederacy, rendered an augmentation of the Army to double its strength in 1824 indispensable. As a matter of justice to the Officers all were promoted, in the order of their seniority, to fill the vacancies in the new Regiments. This necessitated the removal of at least one-half the Captains and Subalterns to other Corps than those in which they had served, and thus the link was broken which united the sepoy to his Officer. The new comers were strangers to the men-had no sympathies with them. From that period, therefore, was to be dated a decline in the zeal of the native soldier. He began to look upon his connection with Jehan Companee Bahadoor (the term by which the East India Company was known to the sepoy) as a mere matter of rupees, annas, and pice; and from the mutiny at Barrackpore, at the commencement of the first Burmese war, down to the hour when Sir Charles Napier disbanded the 66th Bengal Native Infantry, discontent, sedition, and mutiny were, in a greater or lesser degree, rife in the Bengal Army. In a well-written and highlyinteresting memoir of Lieutenant-General Sir S. Ford Whittingham, written by his son, MajorGeneral F. Whittingham, C.B., there is a letter to Sir Samford's brother-in-law, dated September 20, 1824, before the Barrackpore mutiny, in which the following paragraph, denoting the rare prescience of the writer, occurs:

"The longer I stay in India the more I am convinced of the correct truth of all my former statements to you. 'The country hangs upon a thread' The

Similar sentiments were entertained by other distinguished men in India, though they did not find public expression until eight years subsequent to the mutiny, when a committee of the House of Commons received evidence on the propriety of renewing the East India Charter. Captain Turner Macan, an experienced Staff Officer, who had been Persian interpreter to five successive Commanders-in-Chief in India, said, with emphasis, "The rule of the English in India is much endangered by the Native Army-the danger is imminent;" and, he added, "the disaffection of the Native Army will be the cause, no doubt, of our losing our Eastern Empire, as its fidelity is the means by which we retain it." Sir Henry Russell, Resident for a long time at Hyderabad in the Deccan, thought "the greatest danger to the Empire was to be apprehended from the Native Army." Mr Holt Mackenzie, a very able fiscal Officer, and Secretary to the Supreme Government, held the same language :"the Bengal Native soldier," said he, "is attached to his pay and has personal regard for certain Officers, but his bigotry is intolerable: he is faithful, but not loyal." Mr Mackenzie further expressed his belief that there was "much prospective danger from the Native Army." Sir Theophilus Pritzler, Sir Jasper Nicolls, Sir Thomas Reynell, Sir Robert Scott-all experienced Generals-Colonel Salmond, the Secretary at the East India House, Colonel Greenhill, Colonel Dickson, Colonel Watson, who had been Adjutant-General of the Bengal Army, all held the same opinions. "Wisdom spoke out in the streets," but the East India Government treated all apprehensions as chimeras.

Individual cases of disrespect, disobedience, and insubordination were of every-day occur

rence.

Lord William Bentinck, partly influenced by a false humanity, and partly by a mistaken notion that the Service would become more popular if the old-fashioned punishments were abolished, discontinued flogging in the Native Army, and substituted the discharge of the offender and the extinction of his claim to a pension. The measure was acceptable to many who only desired an excuse for returning to their native villages, and, as Lord William had no power to prohibit flagellation in the British Army, the sepoy was indirectly taught to despise the gora-log (white soldiers) who had hitherto

been his examples in all that made him a useful servant to the State.

This was the condition of things in 1857, when nearly the whole Army burst into a rebellion unparalleled for the cruelty, atrocity, and treachery which characterised its progress and details.

The political and social causes of a revolt for which the Native Army was, as we have seen, ripe and impatient, may be related in a few words, though, together with the narrative of the event itself, they have properly engaged the pens of several able writers, none of whom, however, have treated the subject as fully and satisfactorily as Mr J. W. Kaye, Political Secretary of the India Office.

Condensed, the fons et origo mali of the rebellion may be traced remotely to feelings excited in 1824, subsequent to the abolition of the rite of suttee, and of the savage cruelties and follies attendant upon idol worship; the encouragement. given to missionary effort and the spread of the Gospel; the introduction of the English language in supercession of Persian into the public schools and courts of law; the establishment of a medical college, where the Hindoo was taught to use the dissecting knife; and the extinction of the authority of many lesser Native Chieftains. To these measures, all involving offences to caste, if not to the dictates of the religion of the people, were to be added more immediate causes of provocation. The King of Oude, whose intolerable government had been permitted long after he had habitually violated the conditions of the treaty which left him in possession of authority, was at last dethroned; the King of Delhi, a pensioner of the East India Company, had been apprised by Lord Dalhousie that his grandson could only be recognised as Heir Apparent to the title on condition that he retired from his palace-fort at Delhi, and took up his residence in the neighbourhood; and a regulation which perpetuated in the persons of the adopted heirs of sundry Princes and Chieftains the possession of territory, which was properly intended for their legitimate offspring only, was abolished. All these proceedings, which were as much dictated by suggestions of humanity towards the people living under the rule of degenerate Nawabs as by any desire for the aggrandisement of the revenue of the British Government, had diffused a spirit of discontent among the upper classes of Mahomedans and Hindoos, and a conspiracy was formed with the design of assassinating all the English in India, and restoring the government to the effete Mogul. To this end, a communication by means of cyphers and symbols was established throughout the country. The deposed monarchs were the heads of the diabolical plot, and a day in June-the centenary of the battle of Plassey, which first gave the