Sir Colin Campbell (now Lord Clyde) continued the campaign in Oude after the Fall of Lucknow, ably assisted by Jang Bahádur of Nepál, until that province was entirely subdued by the end of 1858. Sir Hugh Rose (afterwards Lord Strathnairn) was opposed to the last in Central India by the Ranee of Jhansi, a Princess of extraordinary character, who rode in battle like a modern Joan of Arc, and fell, sabre in hand, at the head of her troops. Tantia Topee, the former lieutenant of Nana, was the last to hold out, but at length he, too, was taken in April 1859, and hanged for his share in the horrors of Cawnpore.
It was not possible that such a convulsion should pass through the peninsula of Hindostan without shaking down everything that could be shaken in its institutions. |End of the East India Company’s Rule.| The English public—the average English Parliament man—knew of the existence of British rule in India, and could lay finger on Calcutta in the map. But that was about the utmost precise knowledge of Indian affairs possessed by most people, until attention was violently forced to them by the Great Mutiny. Then it dawned upon them that this mighty dominion was governed by the directors of a trading company, who exercised all the powers of empire, civil and military, deriving their authority from a charter signed by Queen Elizabeth. Various limitations and reforms, indeed, had been imposed by Parliament on “John Company”; still, the whole system had become an archaism, as uncertain in practice as it was indefensible in theory. The time for sweeping changes had come, not because the directors of the East India Company had abused their authority; but the safety of the Empire required that the Crown should enter now upon the heritage won by the commercial enterprise of its subjects. The Act for the better government of India was framed on a series of Resolutions laid before a Committee of the whole House, and became law in the autumn of 1858. It provided that the Administration of India should pass wholly out of the hands of the Company into those of the Queen, governing through a Secretary of State and a Council of fifteen, seven of whom were to be nominated by the Court of Directors and eight by the Crown. The Governor-General was made a Viceroy, the Indian Navy was discontinued, and the twenty-four European Regiments in the Company’s Service were amalgamated with the Royal army.
THE REGALIA.
1. Imperial State Crown, made for Queen Victoria, 1838. It contains the ruby given to Edward the Black Prince by the King of Castile, 1367, and 2,783 diamonds, besides pearls, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds.
2. The old Sceptre.
3. The Queen Consort’s Crown, made for Mary of Modena, Queen of James II.
4. Top of Salt Cellar used at Coronation banquet.
5. (In centre of picture.) Monde of the old Imperial Crown.
6 and 7. The Sceptre with the Cross, and the Orb, both made for the Coronation of Charles II.
8. St. Edward’s Crown, used at the Coronation of Queen Victoria.
The total value of the Regalia exceeds £3,000,000.
F. Winterhalter.]
HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS ROYAL AT THE TIME OF HER MARRIAGE.
Notice must be paid here to a happy event, which brought to a close the unpleasant feelings subsisting between the Courts of Great Britain and Prussia, owing to the unfriendly and insincere conduct of the King |Marriage of the Princess Royal.| of Prussia during the Crimean Campaign. On January 25, 1858, the Princess Royal was married in the Chapel Royal, St. James’s, to the Crown Prince of Prussia, who, in later years, bore such a distinguished part as the Emperor Frederick William of Germany.