Recollections of a Military Life

by Sir John Adye

[52] Kaye's Sepoy War, 1865, vol. i.

[53] Rulers of India: Earl Canning, by Sir H.S. Cunningham, K.C.S.I.

[54] Shadwell, Life of Lord Clyde, ii. 419.

[CHAPTER XV]

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY

In May 1859 I left Calcutta, having been appointed to command the Royal Artillery in the Madras Presidency. Speaking generally, the affairs, both civil and military, of Southern India had remained for many years in a condition of comparative inaction and tranquillity. Indeed, ever since the great campaigns towards the close of the last century, ending with the fall of Seringapatam and the death of Tippoo Sahib, the tide of war had drifted away to the north-west, and the Madras army had thus been deprived of much active experience in the field. Fortunately, even the Mutiny had failed to entangle the southern native troops in its disastrous meshes. As a term, perhaps, of undeserved reproach, Madras was often called the benighted presidency. Shortly before my arrival a new Governor, Sir Charles Trevelyan had been appointed, and being a man of great energy and ability, soon succeeded in temporarily galvanising the administration into unwonted life and activity. His somewhat abnormal qualities were not, however, generally appreciated. One of his first efforts was to improve the sanitary condition of the large native city, which stretches for a mile or two along the flat, sandy, surf-beaten shore. During the latter years of the last century the city had been enclosed on its land front with a series of old bastions and curtains and a continuous stagnant ditch—works which were intended as a defence against the hordes of Mahrattas and Pindarees who were then in the habit of swooping down on our cities and settlements. But these hostile races had long ceased their swoopings and lootings, and the decaying fortifications were not only obsolete, but by their existence prevented a due circulation of light and air, and were highly insanitary. Sir Charles accordingly decided on their entire removal, and the conversion of the vacant space and of the ancient glacis into a People's Park. The idea was received with considerable scorn. Few people in Madras had ever heard of people's parks in those days. I, however, had the satisfaction of being present at the destruction by successive explosions of the old, useless bastions, and in my opinion the Governor conferred a great benefit on the city by his enlightened policy. More serious events, however, soon followed.

When the Mutiny came to an end, its financial bearings and the enormous expenditure incurred, not only on account of the large reinforcements from home, but also in the arrangements which had been necessary for the due prosecution of active operations all over the country, pressed heavily on the Government of India; and it became an urgent duty to meet the financial deficit, which amounted to several millions sterling. Amongst other measures it was decided to introduce an income tax. Sir Charles Trevelyan, backed by his council, protested against such a policy. In his opinion, an income tax, in the condition of the native feeling, was likely to revive dangerous discontent; further than this, he argued in successive despatches to Calcutta that, as the Mutiny was over, the proper way of meeting the deficit was by a reduction not only of the English reinforcements, but also by disbanding many of the new native regiments which had been hastily and temporarily raised during the crisis. Finding that his remonstrances were in vain, he at length published the entire correspondence in one of the Madras daily journals. As Governor of a presidency containing fifty millions of people, he considered it his duty that his views should be made public. The result was that in a few days he received a message by telegraph from Sir Charles Wood, the then Secretary of State for India, announcing his recall. Whether the Governor acted with due discretion in the measure he took to ensure publicity for his views, may be questioned; but, in my opinion, he was perfectly right in his main principle that, the crisis being over, the financial equilibrium could best be attained, not by unusual and obnoxious taxation, but by a reduction of the enormous military expenditure, the necessity for which had passed away, and which was eating up the resources of our empire in the East. His recall was a public misfortune.

Soon after my arrival in Madras I made the acquaintance of an old colonel, who had served many years in the country and was an excellent officer, but who, owing to absence of mind or partial loss of memory, had great difficulty in correctly remembering people's names. For instance, one morning he came into the club, and told us that he had just met Sir John Trelawney taking a walk in the park. As there was no one of that name in Madras we were rather puzzled, but on inquiry found he alluded to the Governor, Sir Charles Trevelyan. That was harmless enough, but on another occasion he fell into a more serious error. It occurred in the Neilgherries. There was a lady residing there, a Mrs. Coffin, the wife of a general officer. It is the fashion up in the hills for ladies to be carried about by coolies in a sort of sedan chair, called a tonjon. One afternoon, the general's wife was paying a visit to a neighbour, where she met the colonel, and on her rising to take leave the old officer jumped up, and, meaning to be extremely polite, said, 'Mrs. Tonjon, allow me to hand you to your coffin!'

Military service in the tropical climate of the Madras Presidency in time of peace, and with the thermometer never below 80 degrees, is not an exhilarating experience. There were no railways to speak of in those days, and no bridges over the rivers, so that during tours of inspection I had constantly to pass many weary days and nights in travelling hundreds of miles, along bad roads, over dusty plains, in what is called a bullock bandy, at the rate of two miles an hour, not including accidents, and probably without meeting a single Englishman. On one occasion, I went from Madras northwards by steamer along the coast to Masulipatam, on my way to the Deccan, and found the tomb of an old Dutch admiral, the inscription on it being as follows:

HIER LEYT BEGRA
VEN DEN. E. JACOB
DEDEL