December 31st.—I met Clarendon last night, who talked about the Hanoverian jewel question; he said the Queen was very anxious to know Lord Lyndhurst's opinion upon the award, so last night I went to his house and asked him, telling him the reason why. He said he had no doubt the award was correct; that in their case the jewels were divided into two categories: first, those which came from George II. and were undoubtedly Hanoverian; and secondly, those which George III. had given Queen Charlotte. They had heard counsel on both sides, but neither side chose to produce the will of George III., which they never had before them, so they were in a difficulty about these latter stones. Tindal died the day they were to have met to draw up an award. He and Lyndhurst were agreed, Langdale doubted. Lyndhurst said he had no doubt if they had had King George III.'s will, which Wensleydale and his colleagues had before them, they should all three have agreed, and to the same award.
Clarendon complained of the recent pro-slavery articles in the 'Times,' and told Delane they were calculated to encourage the French in holding to their African operations. The French Government had told us that they must have labour, but they did not care if it was black or brown, and if we would undertake to find coolies for them in the same way as Mauritius is supplied, they would give up their scheme. Clarendon said this was fair enough, but it did not get rid of the difficulty, because it was impossible to get the coolies in sufficient numbers, and that our own Colonies, which were perishing for want of labour, would complain loudly, and not unjustly, if we brought the French into competition with them, thus enhancing the difficulty and the cost of supply to themselves. The probability then is that the French will go on, and that all other nations who have the same wants will follow their example, and we shall be reinvolved in endless remonstrances and squabbles under very disadvantageous circumstances.
January 1st.1858.—It is worth noticing that after a year of fine weather, of which nobody can recollect the like, this first day of the New Year has opened like one of a genial spring. This nearly unbroken course of wonderful weather for about nine or ten months gives rise to many speculations as to its cause, and no doubt there is some physical cause, although it has not yet been ascertained.
January 5th.—To-day the winter seems to have set in in earnest.
THE CONTEST IN INDIA.
January 7th.—Not many days ago the 'Times' concluded an article on the Indian war in these words (it was after describing the relief of the Residence at Lucknow by Sir Colin Campbell): 'thus ends the Indian Mutiny of 1857;' and to-day we have the news of Wyndham having been defeated by the Gwalior Force; of Sir Colin having been obliged to quit Lucknow, without having captured it, in order to repair this check (which he seems to have done very effectually) and deplorable event; of the death of Havelock, the hero of this war, who, after escaping unhurt through battle after battle, has succumbed to disease, not having lived long enough to know all that is said of him and all that has been done for him here. It is impossible not to feel the loss of this man as if he belonged to one individually, so deep is the interest which his gallantry and his brilliant career have excited in every heart.
Every account we receive only confirms the impression that this war will be a long and difficult affair, and if we are able by our military successes to put down all opposition and suppress the mutiny thoroughly, we shall have a still more difficult task to re-establish order and a quiet and regular government in the country, and this difficulty promises to be enormously increased by all that is passing here on the subject. Shaftesbury is stirring up all the fanaticism of the country, and clamouring for what he calls the emancipation of Christianity in India, and even the 'Times,' once celebrated for its strong sound sense and its fearless independence, is afraid to rebuke this nonsense, and endorses it by saying 'we have commited great errors,' but without explaining what it means, or giving any exemplification of the assertion. The real meaning, however, of the Exeter Hall clamour is, that we should commence as soon as we can a crusade against the religions of the natives of India, and attempt to force Christianity upon them. I begin to have the most dismal forebodings upon this Indian question. I continue indeed to believe that by dint of enormous exertions, by a vast expenditure of money, and sending out every man we can raise and make a soldier of, we shall sooner or later conquer the mutineers and suppress the rebellion, but I expect we shall lose our Indian Empire. I may possibly not live to see the catastrophe, but those who are twenty or may be ten years younger than I am in all probability will. All our legislation is conducting us to this end. We are taking this moment of war and confusion to revolutionize our Indian Empire and government, to root up all that the natives have been accustomed to regard with veneration, and to pronounce sentence of condemnation upon the only authority of which they know anything, and which has been the object of their fears and hopes, and sometimes of their attachment. The Government is about to hurry into this measure as if the existing system had been the cause of the present rebellion and conflict, and that the one they propose to substitute would be so much better and capable of repairing the mischief which the government of the Company has caused by its alleged mismanagement. I have no prejudice or partiality for the Company, but I believe any great change at this moment to be fraught with danger, and that the notion of improving the state of affairs by the abolition of what is called the double government is a mere delusion.[1]
[1] [The experience of nearly thirty years has proved that these gloomy forebodings were unfounded. The Government and the condition of the Indian Empire have undergone enormous changes in that interval of time, but upon the whole the suppression of the military revolt of 1857 has placed British authority in India upon a more secure basis, the loyalty of the native princes to the Crown has increased, the native population is more enlightened and more prosperous, and the dangers which may still threaten the British Empire in India are not those which struck the mind of Mr. Greville in 1858. He himself, however, soon changed his opinion. See entry of the 12th March, infra.]
January 16th.—I went to The Grange on Tuesday and returned yesterday morning, when I was met by the news of an attempted assassination of the Emperor Napoleon, whose escape seems to have been providential.
It is since I last wrote anything here that we have received the news from India of Wyndham's defeat at Cawnpore, and of Sir Colin's subsequent victory, but we are not yet informed of the details so as to be able to pass a judgement on these events, and upon Wyndham's conduct. It may be doubted, however, whether the small defeat in the one case is not more prejudicial than the considerable victory in the other is advantageous; and the inference to be derived from the whole is to my mind of a gloomy character, for I think unless we can manage to pour into India an unceasing stream of fresh troops for an indefinite period, we shall succumb in the contest by the mere weight of numbers, and the question is, whether we shall be able to do this, which seems to me exceedingly doubtful. The Government appear never to have been sufficiently alive to the danger and the difficulties of this warfare, and have contented themselves with going on leisurely and lazily, preparing reinforcements to be sent out from time to time, but have never thought it incumbent on them to make the extraordinary efforts that the case imperatively demands.