Towards the end of June, news of the most alarming nature came from India. It was that the native regiments had mutinied, and massacred in cold blood the English officers, their wives, and children. An order was immediately issued for twelve regiments of a thousand each, and four thousand five hundred recruits, to be added to the army already in India.
Although these reinforcements were to be sent, some doubt existed as to whether the trouble was really so serious as was at first represented. Before many days the government learned by telegraph that the mutiny was almost universal in Bengal, and that thirty thousand men had deserted from the army. Delhi was in possession of the mutineers, who had been driven into the city with considerable loss. They still continued to make a desperate resistance, and the city was to be assaulted immediately.
There was no longer room for doubt; the English government and the whole nation shuddered at the thought of what horrible deeds might be committed, should the mutiny become general throughout the country.
The death by cholera of the commander-in-chief for India had been announced by telegraph, and Lord Palmerston wrote to the queen proposing that Sir Colin Campbell should be sent out to take his place. This was agreed upon, and Sir Colin started the next day. Bad news continued to arrive from India, and Lord Canning wrote from Calcutta, urging the increase of English troops, as the only means of crushing anarchy and rebellion. But he knew the necessity for immediate action, and he could not wait for troops to come all the way from England; he therefore stopped those that were on their way to China, and pressed them into the service.
We need not detail the horrors of the Sepoy war nor the treachery of the never-to-be-forgotten fiend in human shape, Nana Sahib. It is enough for us to know that one post after another succumbed to English arms and English generalship, and the rebellion was finally stamped out.
This was a disastrous year in the commercial world; failure followed failure, not only of private firms, but of banks, and the difficulty was even greater in the United States than in Europe. Long years of prosperity had led to reckless speculation, which was supposed to be the chief cause of the trouble; but there were others besides.
A.D. 1858. The new year opened with preparations for the marriage of the princess royal. The court removed from Windsor to Buckingham Palace on the fifteenth of January, and by that time the guests who had been invited to attend the wedding had begun to arrive. By the nineteenth the palace was entirely filled. It contained besides the English royal family, the King of the Belgians with his sons, the Prince and Princess of Prussia, with their suites, and several princes and princesses.
