rely upon the fidelity of the native army. [of him. Sir Charles Napier, seven years Let the bayonets of the Sepoys bristle on ago, wrote of "losing India"-"after a deour side, and we are safe. structive collision between the European But, was it likely that the bayonets of regiments and a mutinous native army." the Sepoys would always bristle on our The collision we have now actually seen; side? We confess that it appeared to us but we have not lost India, nor are we about very likely that they would. The belief to lose it: we are simply about to inauguwas not at all a preposterous one. There rate a new system. was no discredit in credulity. No mightier Read by the light of recent events, the lever than self-interest moves the hearts and old system of holding India by the agency shapes the actions of men. It is true that of a native army, now appears to be a failIndian armies always mutiny. The Mah- ure; and, of course, it is declared that the ratta, the Sikh, the Patan, the Arab soldier, Government of the East India Company are lives in a chronic state of mutiny. But the responsible for this failure. The native Mahratta, the Sikh, the Patan, is always in soldier, who would, it is said, under good arrears of pay when the arrears are paid, management, have stood by us to the last, the mutiny ceases. In these days, on the has risen against his European officers, and other hand, the pay of the British Sepoy is turned our cantonments into shambles. never in arrears. It is liberal in amount; Therefore, it is argued, there must have regular in disbursement. The soldier has been mis-management. Only by some culnever had, and is never likely to have, so pable folly could such an element of strength good a master as "John Company." The be converted into weakness and danger. son follows the example of the father, and And this is, of course, supported by the enlists into the service of the British Gov-assertion that the present crisis has been ernment, well knowing that in youth, in steadily approaching, and that many have maturity, in old age, he insures a provision seen and have announced its approach. In for himself; that a certain number of years such a conjuncture, hasty verdicts and rash will see him in regular receipt of pay, and an uncertain number of years in regular receipt of pension. It is manifestly to his interest to uphold a state of things which secures him advantages never to be expected under any other government. There has always been good reason to believe that the natural tendency of the Indian soldier to revolt would be suppressed, in the person of the British Sepoy, by the conviction of the folly of the movement.

judgments were to be expected. The time has, perhaps, not yet come, for a calm, dispassionate, judicial consideration of the whole case. Already, in the absence of information, has much been written very vehemently on one side of the question. Little time does it take to acquire the materials of a virulent condemnation. It is quite sufficient that something has gone wrong, for people, with the least possible knowledge of that something, to denounce the Government unFrom this belief we may except those der whose hands the disaster has arisen, and small local and accidental mutinies, on ac- to cry frantically, "Down with it-delenda count of some order, real or supposed, con- est Carthago." This shout, as we have said, nected with the pay of the Sepoy. These has gone up already: condemnation has premutinies are little more than strikes for ceded inquiry. It is probable, however, that wages, not peculiar to military society. ere long there will be a reaction; at all They are limited to the locality of the events, there will be an inquiry-a grave, special grievance-are epidemic, but not solemn, and deliberate inquiry. In prospect contagious. The cause is of an exceptional of this we now write. Many difficult policharacter, and the result only "proves the tical problems will press for solution. We rule." So long as the Sepoy has nothing to do not, at this early period, declare ourcomplain of on the score of his pay, it has selves competent to solve them. On the been assumed that we may rely upon his fidelity. And so long as we may rely upon the fidelity of the Sepoy, it has been held that we may feel assured of the security of our Indian empire.

contrary, it is with much humility that we offer to our readers some considerations which may, perhaps, enable them, when the time comes, to approach the discussion in a proper judicial spirit.

So long, it has been said, "and no longer." We have already observed, that the But now it appears that this latter proposi- wonder is not that, once in a hundred years, tion is as likely to be falsified as the former. there should be such an outbreak as we now The Sepoy receives his pay and pension are deploring; but that such a disaster with the old regularity-but he is muti- should have occurred only once in a hundred nous; and we are now about to demonstrate years. "All government," it has been truly to the world that we can hold India in spite said, "is more or less an experiment. In

Indeed, we do not see how this inquiry can be entered into, in a proper spirit, unless we entirely divest our minds of the assumption that whatever may weaken our hold of India, is necessarily culpable. We hold it to be, on the other hand, the first principle of Indian government, that we are to do our best for the country and the people, without a thought of the effect that our measures will have on the duration of our empire in the East. If what we do be right in itself, it cannot be made wrong by the fact or the conjecture that it may be injurious to our own interests. Keeping this ever steadily in view, the reader will not misunderstand us. There are things which, if it were clearly shown that they had been the immediate and the sole cause of our recent disasters, we should never wish undone.

India it is especially an experiment, and it is one on a gigantic scale. We have been compelled to experimentalise on a foreign people not easy to understand-upon a people whose character and institutions are not only extremely dissimilar to our own, but so fenced in with exclusiveness, so bristling with all kinds of discouragements and denials, that it is difficult above all things to acquire that comprehensive knowledge of their feelings and opinions, which can alone enable us to adapt our legislation to their moral and physical requirements." In a word, we desire that it should be always remembered, that it is not easy to govern such a country as India; and that the wonder truly is, that the experiment has been attended by so few serious mistakes, not that it has been characterised by so many. Having anticipated this consideration, in It is our duty to enlighten and civilise the the earlier part of our article, we need say people. No fear of consequences should nothing more to bespeak general toleration ever deter us from the steadfast prosecution towards the errors of our Indian govern- of measures tending to wean the people from ment. We pass on, therefore, to another the cruel and degrading superstitions to and a very important point of inquiry. It which they have so long been given up, is extremely desirable that it should be well bound hand and foot, by a priesthood, whose considered in this conjuncture, whether the interest it is to perpetuate ignorance and present crisis is not the result of an over- barbarism. We do believe that what we anxiety to govern well, rather than of any have done for the people at large, has given culpable negligence and indifference-whe- dire offence to the Brahmans. At present ther, indeed, we have not done too much affairs are in a transition-state. The Brahrather than too little. Sir John Malcolm, mans feel that their influence is declining, who knew India and her people as well as and will decline still more, as the effects of any man who ever lived, was continually in- European education diffuse themselves more sisting upon the evils of precipitate reform. and more over the face of the country. But It was his opinion that great evil would re- they have still power to lead the people sult from over-governing the country-from astray, and especially that class--the soldiery attempting to do too much for the ameliora--which is least exposed to counteracting tion of the people. The government of the influences. That they have been busily emEast India Company has been perpetually ployed in disseminating a belief of the intenreproached for being so slow in the work of tion of the British Government to interfere, improvement. But we suspect that it will in a far more peremptory and decided manappear, on inquiry, that it has been not too ner, with the religion of the people, is a fact slow, but too rapid. And as the people of which is rarely questioned. They have, England at the present time-men of all classes and all interests-are crying out against the misgovernment out of which our disasters have arisen, it may be not undesirable to consider whether many of the circumstances which have contributed to evolve the present crisis, are not the results of their own incaution and impatience-the growth, indeed, directly or indirectly, of some clamour at home, some urgency for particular reforms. The progress may have been all in the right direction. The Parliament, and the relaxation of the once stringent the Platform, and the Press of Great Britain may all laave urged what is right; and the governm.ent of the East India Company may have been right in yielding to the pressure: but it does not follow that, because it was right, it was not dangerous.

doubtless, pointed to repeated measures of interference, of no great import, perhaps, when viewed singly, but alarming in their aggregation. The abolition of Suttee--the suppression of female infanticide—the pro hibition of the cruel ceremonies attending the Churruck Poojah--the modification of the Hindoo law of inheritance-the promotion of female education-the legalization of the marriage of Hindoo widows-the diminished endowment of religious institutions

rules interdictory of all, even indirect or constructive, encouragement of educational or missionary efforts for the evangelisation of the people, are, doubtless, all referred to as indications of the insidious endeavours of the Feringhees to break down the walls of

caste. A little thing will fill the cup of sus- medans appear to have been easily persuaded picion and alarm, to the brim. Nothing that some of the objectionable cartridges could answer the purpose better than the were greased with hog's lard. This was greased cartridges, of which we have heard probably a mere invention of the enemy. so much. Alone, the cartridges would not At all events, it appears that none of the have stirred a single company to revolt. cartridges from England had in them any of But, added to all these foregone manifesta- the grease of the unclean animal. Intelligible tions of our disregard of Hindoo supersti- as was the objection raised by the Hindoos tions, and coupled, moreover, with vague to tallow made of bullock's fat, it was for and mysterious rumours of some more open some time hoped and believed that the and undisguised assault to be committed movement was confined to the Hindoos. upon Hindooism, under the protection of an Later events, however, have shown the overwhelming European force, even a less fallacy of this hope. The Mussulmans have outrage than this might have made the their own special grievances. "The resump seething cauldron bubble over in rebellion. tion measures," says a recent well-informed We should be far better pleased if we writer,*" the discontinuance of the use of could bring ourselves to believe that re- Persian in the courts,-the attempted conligious alarm were not the main cause of version of the Calcutta Madrisa, an instituthis outbreak among the soldiery of Bengal. tion founded by Warren Hastings to educate But we cannot resist the conviction that the Moolavees, that is, doctors of Mohammedan Brahmans have wrought upon the fears and law, into a common English school,-the the prejudices of the military classes, by as- striking off from that establishment of all sailing them with stories, in which a vast officers whose service was religious, and the superstructure of falsehood is reared upon a introduction of such tests and conditions of basis of truth. If this "leprous distilment" admission to public employment as have had not been poured into their ears by the had the effect of excluding Mohammedans dominant class, they would never have ad- entirely from the courts and other public mitted a belief of the intention of the Gov-establishments, these and many similar obernment to use any other instrument than served results of the new principles adopted that of persuasion. We have heard it said by the ruling authorities, are quite enough that the delusion has been fostered by the to account for the alienation of this part of indiscreet zeal of some Christian ministers, the population. There needed very little who have preached God's word in military perversion of representation to induce the hospitals and military lines; and that some, Mohammedan Sepoy to believe, equally with not connected with the Christian ministry, the Hindoo, that the subversion of his reliservants of the Government, in some cases gion also was the object and aim of the regimental officers, have endeavoured, in government he was serving." He had his like manner, to win over the Sepoys to the own faith to defend, and in defence of it, truth. But the quiet, unobtrusive efforts who so violent and outrageous as a Mohamof individual men were not calculated to medan ? alarm the general body of the soldiery. It Assuming this to be the correct view of was the apprehension only of the interfer- the case that the revolt in Bengal has been ence of the State that could have raised such fostered by our interference with the relia wide spread feeling of dismay and resent-gious customs and privileges of the people, ment. And it demanded the agency of some or with laws and customs supposed to be active emissaries of evil to make the poison sanctioned by religion, does it, therefore, do its fatal work. The Brahmans have follow, that the government of the East Ingood reason to hate us. The tendency to all our ameliorative measures in India, is essentially anti-Brahmanical. The education of the people is alone sufficient to make them gnash their teeth in despair? The white man has come with his new truths; and the old errors of Hindooism must fall prostrate before them. What wonder, then, that the priestly and privliedged class should chafe at our presence, and desire to sweep us from the face of the land?

dia Company is culpable? If such is the inference, it is only right that it should be remembered that the blame is shared by a large body of the people of England. It was long a reproach to the East India Company, that they were too keenly alive to the dangers of such interference--that they sanctioned and sustained the cruel and idolatrous rites of Hindooism—and were altogether too tolerant of error. It was long declared to be a shame and a disgrace to a Christian government thus to shelve the re

We do not mean to affirm that the disaffection is limited to the Hindoos. But it appears that the open manifestation of dis"The Mutiny in Bengal: Its Causes and Corcontent originated with them. The Moham-rectives."-Allen's Indian Mail.

ligion of the Redeemer, and to appear open- the Indian Board, doubtless in obedience to ly as the friends and abettors of an abomin- popular outcry. But the propagation of able superstition. If, then, there be any the Christian religion is one thing, the extenblame in this matter, it is clear that there sion of secular education is another. The are thousands and tens of thousands of cul- latter, however, which is unquestionably the prits out of Leadenhall Street. But we duty of government, is as fatal to Brahmanhold that there is really no culpability any-ism as the former. In this, and in another where. As regards the government, it can- more enlarged sense, the education of the not be said that it has not respected the religious faiths of the people of India, because it has suppressed, or endeavoured to suppress, certain abominations, which were clearly breaches of the law of the land, and which were really not sanctioned by the national religion, although the priesthood, for their own purposes, made it to appear that they were divinely ordained.

people is dangerous. The "danger" is the loss of India. But we have never closed our eyes to the possibility of this result— and we believe that we have never been deterred from doing what is right by any fear of hastening the downfall of our empire.

Still, it may be said, that the proximate cause of the outbreak in Bengal, is to be found in certain lies disseminated, with a We concur entirely in the view of the malicious object, among the native soldiery; duty of government towards its native and that if the authorities in India and subjects in India, enunciated, some forty England had been duly acquainted with years by Sir John Malcolm, in a letter to the state of feeling in the army, they Dr. Marshman, the eminent missionary of might have anticipated and counteracted the Serampore. "Though most deeply impress- evil influences of those who have exerted ed," he wrote, "with the truth of the Christ- themselves, with too much success, to fan ian religion, and satisfied that were that the latent fires of disaffection into a blaze. only to be considered in a moral view, it There are, indeed, two distinct branches of would be found to have diffused more know- inquiry; the one, why the disaffection arose; ledge and happiness than any other faith the other, why, having arisen, it was not alman ever entertained; yet I do think, that layed by the European officers before it from the construction of our empire in In- broke out into acts of violence. If proper dia, referring both to the manner in which it relations had been maintained between the has been attained, and that in which it must Sepoy and his English officer, there would (according to my humble judgment) be pre- never have existed this dangerous delusion, served, that the English government in In-" that they should believe a lie." The Sepoy dia should never, directly or indirectly, in- is very credulous. There is, indeed, a childterfere in propagating the Christian religion. like simplicity in the readiness with which The pious missionary must be left unsup- he believes and ponders over the most abported by government or any of its officers, to pursue his labours; and I will add, that I should not only deem a contrary conduct a breach of faith to those nations whom we have conquered, more by our solemn pledges, given in words and acts, to respect their prejudices and maintain their religion, than by arms, but likely to fail in the object it sought to accomplish, and to expose us eventually to more serious dangers than we have ever yet known."

surd story. But he has far greater faith in the word of the white man than in that of his own people. A few words of explanation from an officer esteemed by the men under his command, will speedily remove a dangerous error rankling in the Sepoy's mind, and send him back to his lines a contented man and a good soldier. Fortified by the assurances of his captain, he will be proof against the designing falsehood of the emissary of evil. No one, knowing With such information as we have before how easily the Sepoy is alarmed, will doubt us, it does not appear that the government for a moment the effect which the greased of India has transgressed the principles cartridges may have had upon his mind, esenunciated in the above passage. If there pecially when interpreted to him by one be one act more than another which may be bent upon mischief. But no one knowing construed into an indirect support of prose- how docile and tractable he is, when properlytising efforts, it is in the admission of mis-ly managed by his European commander, sionary schools and colleges to the privi- will have any more doubt that this alarm lege of receiving, in common with other might have been easily dissipated by a few scholastic institutions, the benefits of grants words of timely explanation." in aid from the public purse. This measure Then, why were these words of timely exwas greatly approved at the time, as was planation not spoken? We desire not to be the whole scheme of education, launched understood as making any sweeping asserwhile Sir Charles Wood was President of tions. We do not say that in no case has a

statement been made on the subject of the the lines. If sinister rumours were afloat, cartridges, tending to allay the alarm and irri- they were communicated to the officer, who tation in the Sepoy's mind. It may have investigated their origin, and explained the been made in time; it may have been made circumstances in which they originated. too late; or it may not have been made at The native soldier then carried back to his all. We will assume the worst, although comrades words of comfort and assurance. we have no information to lead us to a The lie was strangled; the delusion vanishbelief in anything better. But it is imposed; the panic subsided; and men went to sible to resist the conviction that, in the parade with cheerful faces as before. greater number of cases, the explanation That this is not the case now, or, if ever was not offered; and that regiments have the case, is the exception, and not the rule, broken out into rebellion, because there is generally admitted. The Englishman in have not been intimate relations between the India has become more English-the officer Bengal Sepoy and the British officer. has become less a soldier. We no longer And why? Simply for this reason: that leave our country, with its religion, its manit has been the inevitable tendency of the ners, its literature, its domesticities behind social, the administrative, and the material us, when we set our faces towards Calcutta progress of the nineteenth century, to weaken or Bombay. We carry with us to the East the bonds between the Hindostanee soldier our civilization, our propriety, our old ideas and the European officer. Little by little, and associations, and, as far as possible, our the English in India have been more and old way of life. We do not cast off the

more un-Hindoo-ised by the growing civil- mother country, but still turn fondly toization of the West. In the old time, he wards it; and as increased facilities for comconformed himself, more or less, to the munication multiply around us, we hanker habits of the people. If he did nothing more and more after home. The English else, he conformed himself, with wonderful drawing-room has supplanted the native alacrity, to their vices. He might not Zenana. Instead of the dusky paramour, the adopt their religion, but he very soon forsook pale-faced English wife has become the comhis own. There were few Christian churches; panion of the officer's solitude, and the mother there were few Christian ministers; there of his children. A wide severance between were few Christian women. He, therefore, the conquered and the conquering races is soon ceased to worship, and he found his the result of this social change. Some may female companions among the women of the lament it-some may say that we have becountry. He lived in the Zenana. He par- come too English, and that a greater assimiticipated in the ceremonial festivities of the lation to the manners and customs of the people. He was all things to all men-now people, and a more thorough appreciation of a Hindoo, and now a Mussulman. He was their tone of thought, and a more enlarged a Sepoy officer; and content to be a Sepoy sympathy with their feelings, are absolutely officer. His regiment was his home. The necessary to insure our permanent occupanative officers were his brethren; the sol- tion of the country. But this is simply imdiers were his children. He spoke their possible. The change of which we speak is language- though, in all probability, he the inevitable result of the civilization of the could not read a single word. Reading, in- nineteenth century. We cannot Hindooise deed, was not part of his vocation. He, ourselves again, any more than the butterfly therefore, talked all the more. He was glad can return to the status ante of the grub. to converse with his native officers. The soo- We cannot demolish our Christian churches, bahdar or jemadar of his company was ever or burn our English books, or place a five welcome to his bungalow. He had always months' voyage between India and Great a kind word to say them; he seldom failed Britain. When we consider the atrocities to ask what was going on in the lines; and which have been inflicted during the last few what was the bazaar gup, or gossip. It is months upon delicate women and innocent the pleasure of the native officer to be com- children, it is not unreasonable to surmise municative. He is never slow to talk if he that there may be less willingness than hereis encouraged. He will not hoard up his tofore to transplant English ladies to so grievances if he can find a sympathising perilous a land; but even if this, as we listener; he will not hatch sedition in secret greatly doubt, were to be the permanent if he is encouraged to make a confidant of result of our recent disasters, there are other one who has any power to redress them. influences (not the least of these being the So, when he visited his officer in the olden progress of public opinion with respect to time, when Englishmen were content to be mere soldiers in India, he freely disclosed to him all that was done and was talked of in

religion and morality), which would prevent our again assuming the old loose garments which once we wore in true Hindostanee