India Under British Rule from the Foundation of the East India Company

by James Talboys Wheeler

Destruction of Bithoor.

Havelock advanced to Bithoor, but Nana Sahib had fled into Oudh. At Bithoor Havelock demolished the castle, and brought away the guns. Within a few days he left General Neill at Cawnpore, and crossed the Ganges into Oudh with a force of 1,500 Europeans and Sikhs, for the relief of Lucknow.

Lucknow: May to July.

§12. It was now the middle of July, and it is necessary to glance at the progress of affairs at Lucknow since the 3rd of May. On that day an irregular corps of Oudh sepoys had threatened to murder its European adjutant; but that same night a force of European soldiers and Bengal sepoys marched against them. The mutineers surrendered their arms, and then rushed off in a panic of terror towards Delhi. The Bengal sepoys hotly pursued them, and arrested the ringleaders. But the scare at greased cartridges was rankling in the breasts of these very Bengal sepoys; and Sir Henry Lawrence had reason to fear that sooner or later they would break out in mutiny like the Oudh Irregulars.

Bengal sepoys rewarded.

For the moment, however, the Bengal regulars had been overawed by the prompt action of the Europeans. Accordingly Sir Henry Lawrence determined on a public distribution of presents to the Asiatic officers and sepoys who had distinguished themselves on the 3rd of May; and thus to show that if the British government was prompt to punish mutiny, it was equally prompt in rewarding faithful service.

Durbar of 12th May.

A grand durbar was held on the evening of the 12th of May. The whole of the European civil and military residents at Lucknow, all the officers and men of the Bengal regiments, and many Asiatic officials were assembled on the lawn in front of the Residency. Carpets had been laid down, and chairs arranged to form three sides of a square. Sir Henry Lawrence entered, followed by his staff, and a large body of officers, and took his seat at the head of the assemblage. Beside him were deposited the trays of presents. Before, however, distributing the rewards, he delivered a solemn and earnest speech in Hindustani.

Speech of Sir Henry Lawrence.

Sir Henry Lawrence reminded the Hindu sepoys that Mohammedan rulers had never respected their religion, and had converted many Hindus to Islam by forcing beef down their throats. He reminded the Mohammedan sepoys that their religion had been cruelly persecuted by the Sikh rulers of the Punjab. He reminded one and all that for a whole century the British government had tolerated both Hinduism and Islam, and never interfered with either. He dwelt on the power and resources of Great Britain, her numerous ships and her exploits in the Russian war; and he declared that within a few months she could assemble an army as large as that in the Crimea in the vicinity of Lucknow. He urged all present to believe the assurances of the British government, and he solemnly warned the sepoys that if any of them became the dupes of fools or knaves, like the mutineers at Berhampore and Barrackpore, the British would inflict such a punishment as would be remembered for generations. The presents were then distributed, and Sir Henry Lawrence shook hands with the recipients.