The effect of the Minié rifle, carried by some of the Russian troops in the Crimea, had been so remarkable, that the British military authorities had decided that the day of “Brown Bess”—the smooth-bore musket—had gone by. In common with the rest of the forces, therefore, the Enfield rifle was served out to the Indian troops in 1856. Now the paper of the cartridges used in this weapon was greased, and the idea was industriously circulated among the Sepoys that the lubricant used was a mixture of the fat of cows and pigs—a most ingenious falsehood, if falsehood it were—a most unlucky fact, if fact it were—for the native troops were composed partly of Mahomedans, to whom, of all animals, the hog is most loathsome, and partly of Hindoos, by whom, of all animals, the cow is held most sacred. Falsehood or fact, the story served a sinister purpose, for although the issue of the objectionable cartridges was stopped in January, and Lord Canning, the Governor-General, issued a Proclamation in May to the Army of Bengal, declaring that the story of an intentional affront to religion and caste on the part of the Government was utterly groundless, the early months of 1857 witnessed repeated instances of military insubordination, and some of the native regiments had to be disbanded. On Saturday, May 9, eighty-five men of the Bengal Cavalry were sentenced at Meerut to long periods of imprisonment and hard labour for refusing to use the cartridges issued to them. |Rising at Meerut.| Next day, Sunday, the whole native garrison at Meerut, the largest military station in India, mutinied, killed several of their officers, massacred some Europeans, and breaking open the gaol, released their imprisoned comrades. The European troops at Meerut drove them out of their cantonments; but allowed the mutineers to march to Delhi, where the octogenarian representative of the Great Mogul still held his court as a subject of Queen Victoria and pensioner of the East India Company. This old man they proclaimed Emperor of India, and the military mutiny assumed at once the character of national rebellion. All the patriotism that had been outraged, all the aspirations that had been crushed, all the private interests that had suffered by Lord Dalhousie’s annexation of the Punjab, of Oude, of Sattara, and of Jhansi, found their outlet and opportunity in the mutiny of the garrison of Meerut. The great Koh-i-noor diamond, symbol of the sovereignty of Lahore, had been displayed at the Great Exhibition of 1851: the diamond might be gone beyond recall, but the tyranny of the Sikh Ameers had passed from memory also, and a resolute effort might restore them. There are known various modes of pre-historic telegraph. In the Scottish Highlands of old the fiery cross, passed from hamlet to hamlet, summoned the clansmen to arms; on the Borders the bale-fires leapt from height to height to rouse the land: not less sure and hardly less swift was the symbol of “chupatties,” little unleavened cakes, of which two were left with the head man of each village of Northern India on an appointed morning, with directions to make similar cakes and pass them on. When the standard of rebellion was hoisted on the citadel of Delhi, the train had been laid and all was in readiness for an explosion which should shatter to fragments British rule in India.
From a Photograph] [by Thiele, Chancery Lane.
“TROOPING THE COLOURS” ON HER MAJESTY’S BIRTHDAY.
The annual “trooping of the colours” of the Household Troops on the Horse Guards Parade is the prettiest military pageant to be seen nowadays in London.
Chevalier L. W. Desanges.] [In the Victoria Cross Gallery,
Crystal Palace.
THE BATTLE OF KOOSHAB, February 8, 1857.
The Persian War of 1856–1857 was undertaken to establish the independence of Afghanistan, and the Persians were defeated in an action at Kooshab, about forty-four miles from Bushire. When the 3rd Bombay Light Cavalry charged the enemy’s square, Lieut. Moore, who was foremost, leapt into the square and had his horse killed under him. Lieut. Malcolmson fought his way to his brother officer and rescued him. Both officers were awarded the Victoria Cross.
But there was one factor essential to making the convulsion complete, and that was the co-operation of the Sikhs—the most warlike population of India—the people who, only eight years before, had inflicted on British arms what we must be honest enough to own as the defeat of Chilianwalla. While the rebellion was spreading like wildfire through the whole of the rest of the North-West, and blazing through Oude into Lower Bengal, while regiment after regiment was rising, shooting its officers, and joining the native population in pillage and massacre of Christians, the Sikhs never wavered in fidelity to British rule. |Loyalty of the Sikhs.| That was what saved the British Indian Empire—that, and the way in which British officials behaved in the hour of trial.