During the spring of 1858 the King of Delhi had been tried, convicted, and sentenced to banishment. It was clearly proved that he was guilty of rebellion and murder. The rebellion was patent: he had proclaimed himself Emperor of India. The murders were proved: it was shown that he gave express permission for the massacre of the forty-nine women and children whom he had in confinement, and that one of his sons took an active part in the foul work. The old man was fairly tried; had not Hodson, with the sanction of General Wilson, promised him life, he would have been hanged. As it was, he was banished to Burmah. Thus Mohamed Bahadoor Shah, the last of the Moguls, terminated the dynasty of Timour; and in the words of the Advocate-General, he was degraded by his crimes to a felon, and the long glories of a dynasty were effaced in a day.
PROCLAMATION OF THE QUEEN AS SOVEREIGN OF INDIA. (See p. [279].)
Before the trial of the king had come to an end, the rebel Nawab of Jhujhur and the rebel Rajah of Bulubgurh had been hanged; both having been proved to be accomplices of the king and participators in the rebellion. At the same time the Maharajah of Puttiala, the Rajahs of Jheend, Nabha, and Kuppoorthulla—all of whom had given unhesitating aid in men, money, and provisions, and who had taken the field in person—were amply rewarded by an increase of dignity and territory. Besides these several minor chiefs in the same district also received acknowledgments for their services. Thus, justice and political equity and expediency were alike satisfied. We showed those chiefs that in trusting to us they trusted not only to the strong, but to the just. By able and judicious measures Sir John Lawrence rapidly organised the territories over which he exercised unquestioned sway, and turned all the strength at his disposal to the promotion of the Imperial cause.
In another quarter the work to be done was of a different kind. The presence of such large masses of rebels in Oude led to great disturbance on the eastern frontier of that country. The marches and battles of Franks, and the progress of Jung Bahadoor had not crushed opposition, nor had the capture of Lucknow reduced Oude. It was in this extensive district that Colonel Rowcroft, with a small force of European and Ghoorka infantry, and Sotheby's Naval Brigade, chiefly sailors of the Pearl, and a mere handful of Bengal yeomanry cavalry, made head against an enemy who outnumbered them ten to one. It was to their exertions, aided by detachments from Dinapore, that Sarun was saved from invasion, and that the rebels could gain no footing in Azimghur and Goruckpore. Sometimes acting together; sometimes working in detachments; now repelling with heavy loss an attack; now beating up the enemy's quarters and shattering his masses, this energetic and much-enduring force did most admirable service. Throughout the year, and with unvarying fortune, our soldiers and sailors continued the combat, shielding the eastern provinces of Bengal, north of the Ganges.
During the hot months, also, Sir Hope Grant, justly styled indefatigable, had moved about Oude with a flying column, to prevent the enemy from establishing himself too strongly at any point. In June Sir Hope returned to Lucknow from one of these expeditions. He had received information that the Begum had collected an army at Nawabgunge Bara Bankee, the place selected for a rendezvous by the Oude regiments at the outbreak of the mutiny, and whence they advanced upon Chinhut and finally to Lucknow. Now Sir Hope Grant determined to attack them. He had with him about 4,000 men and eighteen guns. The enemy mustered 20,000 men and an unknown quantity of guns. They were routed from the field with a loss of 600 killed. One advantage of this action was seen in the great moral effect that it produced in the country north of the Goomtee.
The cause of the Oude rebels had grown desperate. They had lost their ablest leader, the famous Moulvie, who fell in a fight before a mean mud fort; and now, their largest force beaten at Nawabgunge, they began to see that they had little, indeed no, hope of winning the game. Yet, with a good deal of fortitude, the Oude chiefs held out, and there was yet to be a cold weather campaign before the conquest of Oude was complete. Hope Grant marched from his camp at Nawabgunge in July to Fyzabad, and drove off a body of the enemy who were besieging Maun Singh, the most powerful talookdar in those parts, and who now unhesitatingly rallied to our side. From Fyzabad he detached Brigadier Horsford, an excellent soldier, to Sultanpore, where he defeated the enemy; and, being reinforced by Grant himself, drove him from all his works and secured that part of the country. Thus the summer campaign ended. There were only two Oude armies of any strength at large. The Begum was on the north-east of the Gogra, between that river and the Raptee; and Bainie Madho, of Amethie, held Roy Bareilly and the country around south of the Goomtee, and between that river and the Sye. The Begum had an open line of retreat to the hills. Bainie Madho was supposed to be surrounded by our posts. When these two were defeated, Oude would be again in our possession.
Britain had not forgotten India. In 1857 she sent out thousands of troops, as in duty bound, to suppress the mutiny, and her patriot sons and daughters subscribed tens of thousands of pounds to relieve the sufferings of those who had fallen a prey to the merciless Sepoys. For the dead nothing could be done; for the living much—and much was done. Britain had been filled with horror, and her horror was succeeded by a rage that, for a time, overpowered every other feeling. In 1858 she sent more troops—nearly 30,000; but she did more. Her Legislature effected a grand reform in the Government of India, and a measure undertaken by Lord Palmerston was carried out, with great improvements, by Lord Derby. An Act was passed that abolished the rule of the East India Company and transferred the government of India to the Crown. Thenceforth, instead of a Board of Directors and a Board of Control, there were to be a Council of India, and a responsible Minister—a Secretary of State for India—through whom and by whom all business was to be transacted. The Company, which had endured so long and had been so mighty, ceased to have any political power and continued to exist solely because its machinery was required to look after certain pecuniary interests and distribute dividends upon East India Stock. As a matter of course the local European army was afterwards absorbed into and amalgamated with the Queen's army and the civil and military servants in India became servants of the Crown. This was an immense change, not only in name, but in principle; for thus India became virtually a part of Britain, and directly under the control of British Governments. On the passing of the Act a proclamation by the Queen in Council was addressed to the princes, chiefs and people of India, and sent to Lord Canning, who was appointed "first Viceroy and Governor-General," to administer the Government in the name and on behalf of Queen Victoria. This proclamation was received in the autumn of 1858, when Oude alone remained to be reconquered; and when Colin Campbell, then just raised to the peerage by the title of Lord Clyde, was preparing to overthrow the rebel hosts of the Begum and Nana Sahib. It was determined that before he marched into Oude the Queen's proclamation should be published; and Lord Clyde, all being in readiness on his part for action, went to Allahabad, at the end of October, to be present when the Governor-General solemnly published the proclamation. This was done on the 1st of November. A platform was erected near the fort. Lord Clyde and General Mansfield accompanied Lord Canning to this appointed spot, and there the first Viceroy read the document that created a revolution in the fundamental principles of Indian government. The ceremony, we are told, was tame and spiritless; but the fact behind it was one of the most solid and substantial in India. The pith of the proclamation was the transfer of power—the extinction of the Company Bahadoor. But it also went on to describe the spirit in which the Queen, through her Viceroy, would rule in the land.