Sketches of rulers of India

George Devereux Oswell

Sujets

• Haidar Alî
• Auckland
• Elphinstone
• Tipu Sultan
• Canning
• Metcalfe
• Thomason
• Ranjît Singh
• Lawrence
• Wellesley
• Albuquerque
• Dalhousie
• Dupleix
• Nicholson
• Hastings
• Mayo
• India
• Biography
• Clive
• Munro
• Cornwallis
• Colvin
• Bentinck
• Bâbur
• Havelock
• Aurangzeb
• Hardinge
• Malcolm
• Clyde
• Madhava Râo Sindhia
• Akbar

Informations

• Publié par: les_archives_du_savoir
• Nombre de lectures: 22
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 11 Mo

Extrait

Ot>a>As
SKETCHES OF
OF INDIARULERS
VOL. I
THE ANDMUTINY ERA AFTER
• • •DALHOUSIE CANNING HENRY LAWRENCE CLYDE
•AND STRATHNAIRN LORD
• •MAYO NICHOLSON HAVELOCK
G. D. OSWELL
M.A. OXON.
PRINCIPAL OF RAJKUMAR CENTRAL INDIACOLLEGE, RAIPUH, PROVINCES,
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1908HENRY M.A.FROWDE,
THEPUBLISHES TO UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
LONDON, EDINBURGH
NEW YORK AND TORONTOINTRODUCTION
1 speak in the Iname of the whole whenEmpire say
that we the services rendereddeeply appreciate conspicuous
the survivors of the memorable Indian of 1857by Mutiny
and their comrades who have now underpassed away,
most circumstances and with a and antrying gallantry
endurance which were the under ofmeans, Providence,
the Indian from a Such wassaving Empire great peril.'
the of His thegracious message Majesty, King Emperor,
read to the that came for thegreat assemblage together
historic held to commemorate the Jubilee Yearbanquet
of the The of Lord sentIndia, Minto,Mutiny. Viceroy
'
a of wishes to the historicmessage hearty good gathering
of the Indian veterans whose services in the hourMutiny
of can never be '. the Com-peril Similarly,forgotten
mander-in-Chief of Forces inthe LordIndia, Kitchener,
'
Please the andcabled, convey hearty greetings good
wishes of the in India to the Veterans.Army Mutiny
Their deeds are not in thispast gallant forgotten Country.'
An Indian critic has all such com-recently pronounced
memorations to in bad hasbe taste. Herein he shown his
of their real to theignorance significance Englishman.
no means a on theThey by signify vainglorious spirit
of those who or take in them. Earlpart organize part
Roberts has revealed their real : what he hassignificance
said with to the monuments and memorials of theregard
illustrious is to such commemora-dead, equally applicable
'
tions as these : It has been that all outwardsuggested
of the should be that the monu-signs Mutiny obliterated,
ment on the be theandlevelled,Ridge picturesque
at Lucknow allowed to fall into ThisResidency decay.
view does not commend itself to me. These relics of thativ INTRODUCTION
tremendous are memorials of heroic servicesstruggle
Her Indian as well asperformed soldiers,by Majesty's
and the civilians who shared the duties andBritish, by
of the are valuable as remindersdangers Army. They
that we must allow tonever ourselves be lulled intoagain
fancied and above all stand assecurity, they warnings
that we should never do that can beanything possibly
the of India into for theirinterpreted by people disregard
various forms of A ofconsideration thereligion.' messages
and of the of theread, composition great assemblage
on the occasion of this historic commemora-present special
will reveal its It stands forth as ation, significance. recog-
nition of the work of the three services of thegreat Empire,
the Civil the and theService, Navy, Army.
The Civil Service has been well in therepresented persons
of the illustrious rulers whose careers have been briefly
sketched in the Lord Dalhousie andfollowing pages.
Lord have each their inMayo proper place any present-
ment of the era of the Indian It has sometimesMutiny.
been Lord Dalhousie that in his ofcharged against policy
andannexation towas be found one of theconquest moving
causes of the crisis that his successor was called toupon
meet. It well be considered what anmay opposite policy,
one of would have entailed in itslaisser-faire, consequences.
Most writers who have studied the of India toHistory
are that such a was boundany advantage, agreed mutiny
to come sooner or later. As far back as at a time1843,
when some of the were ofBengal Sepoys exhibiting signs
indeed actual Sirinsubordination, mutiny,approaching
with that which was ofoneHenry Lawrence, foresight
'
his most marked had written : Let Delhicharacteristics,
fall into the hands of a hostile and does saneforce, any
man doubt that hours would swell the hundredstwenty-four
of rebels into and in a weekthousands, every ploughshare
in the Delhi States would be turned into asword ? And
when a sufficient force had been which couldmustered,vINTRODUCTION
should we not thennot have been effected within a month,
Clive athave a more difficult to than Plassey,game play
have to strikeor at ? Should we notWellington Assaye
'
for Indian ? as hasanew our Delhi,Empire history
but to bedidrelated, fall, fortunately only recaptured
But Lord hadwithin a reasonable time. Canningfairly
terms offound it to write in almost similarnecessary
Lucknow : and he his Commanders theupon pressingurged
' '
of : he isits wrote,Every eye,'necessity recapture
it Oudh is not theas was Delhi.Oudh, onlyupon upon
which allof the the to theyrallying-place Sepoys, place
and the in which their own andlook, pros-by doings hopes
is arise or but it a there;pects fall, represents dynasty
of Oudh his own.' There had been a KingKing seeking
a notin Delhi : what if there had been merely seekingKing,
if therehis but in Lucknow ? Whatown, actually reigning
had a Bhonsla still on the throne of ;been, moreover, Nagpur
a at Jhansi : and a Sikh at Lahore ?Queen Maharajaruling
if had not been madeAnd what the Ruler of Afghanistan —Lord Dalhousiethe tactful treatment he received fromby
?that which his name in Persian a true friendsignifies,
Can the feudal that is still soany one, knowing spirit
in doubt that in such a case theIndia, prophecystrong
of andLawrence would have become true,Henry literally
in the ruled these Potentatesevery ploughshare regions by
would have been turned into a and not onesword, province
'
but the whole of India have beenalone, might engulphed
in a of have reeled backwelter blood and andconfusion,
' haveinto chaos ? would in the endPeace, doubtless,
but it would have been a that solitudearrived, peace only
with it. Lord Dalhousie's work of consolidationbrings
saved India from such a fate : and so it aboutbrought
a workwhen the crisis that did occur wasthat, overpassed,
theof reconstruction and not one of anewonly, laying
foundations of an before the Rulers of India.Empire, lay
And to Lord of administration andMayo's great giftsvi INTRODUCTION
conciliation it hiswas due that tins commencedwork, by
and was so success-Lawrence,great predecessors, Canning
'
that Indiawas once more startedfullyaccomplished, upon
its wondrous career of advance and \expansion Fittingly
findtherefore do these Dalhousie andRulers,great Mayo,
a in the of of the illustrious heroesplace gallery portraits
of the Era.Mutiny
The name that at once thinks of whenevery Englishman
the services of the to be mentioned is that ofcomeNavy
William Peel. The third son of Sir Robert Peel,Captain
he had won a name for himself beforealready distinguished
he his services at the of the Authori-placed disposal Military
ties in InIndia the crisis. the whetherCrimea,during great
hewas todefend the colours of the GrenadierGuardshelping
at or his ladder for the assault on theInkermann, carrying
or out of harm's a live shellRedan, calmly wayremoving
with fuse still that had fallen into the midst ofburning
the he was he was for hisguns serving, always conspicuous
and coolness : and was one of the firstcourage recipients
of the Victoria Cross. At an earlier of his likeperiod career,
of theother and adventurous membersmany intrepid
and of the VictorianServices, Civil, Naval,Military early
he had been smitten with the African Wanderlust,Era,
not for the mere sake of but fromwandering, however,
of able to do toa somethingphilanthropic hope being
ameliorate the condition of the and he had crossednegro,
the Nubian desert. He was on his to China with Lordway
of aton board in command H.M.S. Shannon, when,Elgin
the outbreak in India.he received the news ofSingapore,
It was not before he was on his to Calcutta.long way
He soon formed his Naval which at no timeBrigade,
and marched to the front withexceeded five hundred men,
recorded thathis of : and it has beenbattery heavy guns
thesehe and his men manoeuvred and handledhandy huge
as if were so Whereverguns they many light field-pieces.
the most there the thunder of Peel'swas severe,fighting