Part 19 (2/2)
2. Baker's rifle (flint-lock).
3. Baker's rifle, with sword-bayonet.
4. Brunswick rifle (percussion).
5. Minie rifle (1851).
The above were all in use at the time of the Crimean War.]
This great convulsion is always referred to as the Indian Mutiny, because of the violent revolt of so many native regiments in the British service; but it was far more than a mutiny; it was an insurrection of the Indian races against the European conqueror, a common rising of Hindoo and Mahomedan against the Christian power. Disaffection to British rule had never ceased to smoulder: how should it, seeing that so many native rulers had been deposed, so many others placed in inglorious dependency or on pension? The misrule and oppression of these potentates had been forgotten by the people who once groaned under them, just as the Jacobites who shouted for ”the auld Stuarts back again” forgot what the people had endured under the Stuart kings. Dost Mahomed had shown an example how the Feringhi could be dealt with, and there were a thousand grievances against English officers and magistrates to be wiped out.
Lord Dalhousie had resigned the Governor-Generals.h.i.+p in March 1856, and his eight years of rule had been regulated by a policy of annexation.
Deeply penetrated with the capacity of the Indian races and their country for moral and material development, he perceived how fatal was the native system of rule to all progress. Consequently he was not rigidly scrupulous in every case about the precise justice of the means by which one princ.i.p.ality after another was added to the British dominions. The greatest happiness of the greatest number often involves disappointment and even direct injury to the few. Dalhousie vindicated his policy by the splendid energy he showed in making roads, railways, and telegraphs, in reducing taxation, and in general measures for the good of the people; but he undoubtedly left a feeling of soreness and resentment that only waited a fitting opportunity to take effect.
Out of this discontent arose a widespread conspiracy against British rule in the beginning of 1857. It is believed by some that the military rising was premature, and disconcerted the measures of those organising the general revolt. Be that as it may, the earliest overt acts of rebellion took place among the troops.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photographed from examples_} {_in the Tower Armouries._
THE RIFLES OF THE LATER YEARS OF HER MAJESTY'S REIGN.
6. Enfield long rifle (1853).
7. Snider-Enfield rifle (1864).
8. Martini-Henry rifle (1871).
9. Lee-Metford magazine rifle, with short sword-bayonet (the present regulation weapon).]
[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a Photograph_} {_by Thiele, Chancery Lane._
CYCLIST CORPS.
The value of the bicycle in actual warfare has yet to be proved; but, like the field telegraph and the military balloon, it has already taken its place in the equipment of European Armies. The Corps represented is the 2nd V.B. West Kent Regiment.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: _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.]
[Sidenote: Rising at Meerut.]
The effect of the Minie 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 Sat.u.r.day, 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. Next day, Sunday, the whole native garrison at Meerut, the largest military station in India, mutinied, killed several of their officers, ma.s.sacred 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 a.s.sumed 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 Lah.o.r.e, had been displayed at the Great Exhibition of 1851: the diamond might be gone beyond recall, but the tyranny of the Sikh Ameers had pa.s.sed 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, pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.s 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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _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 Bus.h.i.+re. 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.]
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