1. [1] The vast peninsula called by the westerns is as big as all Europe west of Russia, and includes as many differences of race, tongue, manners, civilisation, climate, and productions as Europe itself. Geographically it is divided into the Mountain district of the Himalayas, which cuts it off from Asia proper by a double wall of snow, the great plain of the North, or Hindostan, watered by the Ganges and Indus, and, south of the Vindhya Mountains, the southern table-land of the Deccan peninsula. [2] The oldest historical inhabitants were flat-nosed savages, whose descendants still remain in the wild hill tribes, some still in their ancient barbarism, but others settled down to peaceful life, and showing trustworthiness and bravery as soldiers. [3] Long before recorded history begins, North-west was invaded by a small body of fair-skinned Aryans, with both a vernacular and a sacred tongue (Sanskrit) akin to those of Europe, and enjoying a primitive civilisation of the same origin as our own.[4]  They enslaved many of their forerunners, and drove the rest into the hills and into the south, and, gradually civilising and blending with their dependants, there grew up the mixed but Aryan-speaking Hindu races of Northern and Western . The stationary civilisation which grew up in Aryan Hindostan was due to the growth of a rigid caste system, at once the social and religious basis of life, which built up impassable walls between the

"twice born"

"once born"

2. [5] The history of , helpless in its mild population and tempting with its fancied wealth, is a long series of foreign invasions, beginning with the Greeks under Alexander and his successors. Early in the eleventh century the all-conquering Mohammedans of Central Asia first crossed the mighty mountain wall and carved out kingdoms for themselves in the rich plains beyond. Besides bringing in an exclusive caste of ruling foreigners, who with their Persian speech and semi-Turkish semi-Arab civilisation were cut off very sharply from their subjects, they forced a large minority of the northwestern states and a majority of the lower Bengalis to turn to the faith of Islam. [6] A long series of conquests from Mahmud of Ghazni and Timur culminated in the invasion of Babar (the Lion) in , the founder of the Mogul (Mughal) Empire, which under his grandson Akbar the Great () became a mighty power ruling the vast plains of the north through a careful civil and military organisation, and raising a greater revenue from them than has ever since been drawn from the same districts. Under Jahangir () and Shah Jahan () the Empire continued to flourish, and extended its conquests to the Deccan. Aurangzeb () was the last great Mogul Emperor. But he wasted his strength in the vain effort to consolidate his rule in the south, and after his death the Empire fell asunder.

3. [7] A great Hindu revival had begun with the career of Sivaji, the leader of the warlike Marathas (), whose descendants soon fell into sloth and impotence as Rajas of Satara, leaving the real lordship of the people to the Peshwa, or hereditary prime minister, who ruled at Poona, over nearly all Southern , and extended his ravages as far north as the Punjab. But the hardy Afghans came to the help of the Mohammedans of , and internal dissensions broke up the unity of the Maratha power, though even in their decay they remained the greatest military influence in Central . The high Brahman Peshwa sank to be the local lord of Poona, and the titular head of a so called

"confederacy,"

4. [9] The degenerate lords of Delhi, after losing Afghan assistance became in turns dependent on the English and the Marathas. The Viceroys of the Moguls had now become for all real purposes sovereign chiefs. Beyond the Vindhyas the Nizam-ul-Mulkh (Regulator of the State), whose capital was Haidarabad, was nominally Subadhar or Viceroy of the Mogul Emperors in all Southern , but his power was circumscribed by the Bhonsla on the north, and the Hindu Rajas of Mysore, Trichinopoli, and a swarm of petty hill chieftains on the south. Even his own vassal, the Nawab of Arcot, lord of the Karnatik, acted quite independently of him. In the north the Nawabs were equally free to do what they would, but power easily dropped from their nerveless hands to any strong adventurer. It was thus that the Arcot and Bengal succession questions became, as we have seen, the occasions for the fierce rivalry of French and English, and the triumph of over Dupleix, which made the English Company the virtual ruler of Bengal. Higher up the Ganges ruled the Mohammedan Wazirs of Oudh. In the extreme north the Punjab became the possession of the Sikhs, a martial sect of reforming Hindu Puritans, who taught the unity of God and the duty of living a pure life, and rejected caste altogether. To their south the high- caste chieftains of Rajputana had been the first to lead the Hindu revolt against the Moguls.

The death of Aurangzeb began the confusion, which culminated in , when the defeat of the Marathas at Panipat by the Afghans, leagued with their Moslem brethren of , prevented the further growth of the Maratha power, though it was powerless to restore the tottering Mogul Empire. Everywhere were anarchy and confusion, warfare and brigandage. Population fell off, till

5. [10] Plassey and Wandewash gave the East Company a supremacy over Bengal and the Karnatik, but in no way enlarged their territorial possessions. For nearly forty more years the Governor of Madras ruled over little beyond the town and factories. The Governor of had not even an ascendency until the end of the century. Even in Bengal the only legal change was the grant by Mir Jafar of the zamindari or right of collecting the rents of the cultivators in the Twenty-four Parganas (the district round Calcutta), and where they were after the feudal subjects of himself, who received from the Emperor the jagir or military fief of the same district, an arrangement only ended after 's death.

[11] From to 's presence as Governor of the Calcutta factory ensured the keeping up of the English supremacy, but from to he was away in England. During this period the greedy officials sought only to turn the Company's position into a means of heaping up ill-gotten fortunes from the helpless Bengalis, and managed so badly that they drove the new Nawb Mir Kasim, son-in-law of Mir Jafar, to break with the Company. Mir Kasim now went to war, massacred 200 English at Patna, and formed an alliance with the Nawab Wazir of Oudh and Shah Alam, the new Emperor. But the English were still the stronger. In the Nawab was badly beaten at the decisive battle of Baxar, which laid not only Bengal, but Oudh and the Emperor himself, at the feet of the Company.

6. [12] In (now a peer) came back as Governor, and by giving the districts of Allahabad and Kora, which made up most of the Doab (the region between the Jumna and the Ganges), back to the Emperor, and restoring the Nawab Wazir to Oudh, he got ShAh Alam to grant the Company the Diwani or fiscal administration of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, though the Nizamat or criminal jurisdiction still remained with the puppet Nawab at Murshidabad. 's other great work was to stop the monstrous corruption which had resulted from every servant of the Company engaging in private trade and receiving presents from the natives. He compensated

[13] In died of his own hand. He was in person

"the largest of the middle size, his countenance inclined to sadness, and the heaviness of his brow imparted an unpleasing expression to his features. His words were few, and his manner with strangers reserved. Yet he won the confidence of men and gained admission to the heart, and among his intimates he had great pleasantry and jocoseness."

7. The Dual System lasted from to . In a terrible famine cut off a third of the population of Bengal, and the Company's finances fell into a sorry plight. This led the sluggish Directors in Leadenhall Street to complete their work as rulers. In they appointed Warren Governor of Bengal to give effect to their new resolution to

"stand forth as diwan, and to take upon themselves by the agency of their own servants the entire care and administration of the revenues."

Warren , born in , was sprung from a Worcestershire family of old descent, but of complete poverty, and, losing his father young, had been sent out to by an uncle. He soon got known as a hardworking

"thin, very grave, but in good health,"

" looking like a great man and not like a bad one,"

"eating no supper, going to bed at ten, abstaining wholly from wine, and dieting himself on pish-pash, bread and water, or an egg ;"

" wearing a plain suit of English broadcloth with no lace or embroidery."

8. [15] From to controlled the destinies of British . He abolished 's system, and by appointing European collectors to every district, establishing courts of justice and a police system, created the administrative system which has become one of the great glories of the British rule, and turned an Eastern despotism, exercised by Western merchants, into a stable, settled, and enlightened government. But he had to make Bengal pay, and found that his easiest way of getting money was by a brilliant foreign policy. He wisely cut down the enormous allowances of the Nawab, when he transferred the real government from Murshidabad to Calcutta. [16] Seeing that Shah Alam had now become a tool of the Marathas, he broke 's settlement of Allahabad and Kora to the Emperor, and for a vast sum allowed it to be occupied by the Wazir of Oudh, lending him British troops to put down in the ruthless Eastern way the brave resistance of the Rohillas, an Afghan brigand tribe that had lorded it brutally over the peasantry of the two provinces (). [17] He deprived Chait Singh, the vassal Raja of Benares, of his throne, on his resisting his demand to pay for a force of soldiers, and exacted an increased tribute from his nephew and successor (). [18] He charged the Begam or queen- mother of Oudh for abetting the Raja in his resistance, and extorted over a million from her (). Such acts shewed the vigour of his northern foreign

9. [19] No sordid money-seeking cares marred the policy of in Southern . He found the English power at a low ebb, both at and Madras. The Presidency had lagged far behind the other two, but was now seeking to bring its greatest neighbour under its influence by setting up a friendly candidate for the throne of the Peshwa. The result was the First Mardtha War, in which the forces were thoroughly beaten until sent the Bengal army to their help, and set matters right by the rapid conquest of Gujarat, and the storming of the isolated and strongly fortified rock of Gwalior. But the Peshwa was put off with a pension, and all the English won in the strife were the petty places of Salsette and Elephanta.

[20] Formidable troubles threatened the very existence of the Madras Presidency, where the dependent Nawabs of the Karnatik were still suffered to rule, and even to have a foreign policy of their own. The outbreak of the American revolt found the French making an active effort to win back their position in . With this object they joined hands with Haidar Ali, a mercenary leader, who had in made a prisoner of his old master the Hindu Raja of Mysore, and was shewing himself a crafty statesman and a born soldier and leader of men in his careful, persistent, and successful efforts to make Mysore the great power of Southern . Haidar was a tall, robust, strong, active man of fair and florid complexion, a bold horseman, a skilful swordsman, and an unrivalled shot. He was a Mohammedan, but tolerant and kindly to his Hindu subjects. He now overran the Karnatik, frightening the trembling Nawab into a doubtful policy, defeating the English troops, and wasting the country up to the very gates of Madras. [21] The Madras army could do little, and again came to the rescue. He sent the veteran Sir Eyre to Madras, and on 1st July the victor of Wandewash won the hard-fought battle of Porto Novo, which saved Madras, though it left Haidar Ali's power unbroken. The old soldier held his own till his death in , and his son and successor, Tipu Sultan, carried on the fight till . But if Haidar was

"born to create a state, Tipu was born to lose it."

"intellect was of an inferior order

[1772-1785.]

and his disposition wantonly cruel, deceitful, vicious and intractable."

The French proved but cautious and backward allies, and , though hampered by his subordinates, was able to cope with Tipu. The peace providing for the mutual restitution of conquests recognised the division of Southern between Mysore and the Company.

10. [22] The progress of the Company's sovereignty led Lord North to pass the Regulating Act, , the first intervention of the English State in the affairs of the Company. This turned the Governor of Bengal into the Governor-General of Bengal, and the chief ruler of the Company's possessions, with power to control the Governors of Madras and , provided him with a Council, and set up a Supreme Court of Justice at Calcutta.

[23]  was rightly nominated the first Governor- General. The most prominent member of the new Council was Philip Francis, an able but factious War- Office clerk, often suspected of being the author of the Junius letters. The first Chief-Justice was Sir Elijah Impey. [24]  as Chairman had only a casting vote, and Francis led the majority of his brethren in maliciously thwarting all his best-laid plans and most prudent schemes. The Bengalis thought ' power was gone, and his old enemy, the crafty and subtle Brahman financier Nand Komar (Nuncomar), plied the Council with tales, eagerly received, and lightly believed, of the Governor's illegal acts. In Nand Komar was tried, convicted, and hanged for forgery, an act in which Impey has been most unjustly accused of wresting the law to get rid of ' chief enemy. But bit by bit the opposition dropped off, and triumphed.

" My enemies,"

"sickened, died, and fled. I maintained my ground unchanged. Neither the health of my body nor the vigour of my mind for a moment deserted me."

" The valour of others acquired, I enlarged and gave shape and consistency to the dominion you hold there. Every division of official business which now exists in Bengal is of my formation."

11. [27] A new and better devised constitution for the Company's Dominion in was roughly sketched out by 's Bill, which became law in , and remained in force until . [28] Its leading principle was to draw a distinction between the Company as traders and the Company as rulers. Left to themselves to pursue their natural business, the Company was henceforwards checked and guided in its political acts by the Board of Control, a department of the Home Government. But the greater part of the initiative still rested with the Directors, and the Board, as a rule, only examined and ratified their acts. The result was that the effective Home Government of still rested with the Company, except in the spheres of war and diplomacy, where the power of starting plans lay with the Board of Control. But was still many months away from England, and just as it had been conquered by Indian agencies and Indian resources, so now its government had mostly to be carried on on the spot, and the whole Indian Executive, save the Commander-in-chief and King's troops lent to the Company, consisted of the servants of the Company, which had its own army, English and Sepoy, and its own navy as well as its own Civil Service. The Company still appointed even to the highest posts, but in those the Crown henceforth had a veto, and great English noblemen are henceforth as a rule appointed to the chief governorships.

12. [29] Lord , a painstaking though unlucky general, a careful and clear-headed politician, and a man of high and estimable character, now accepted the Governor-Generalship under the new system. Three great events mark his tenure of office, which completed and consummated the home and foreign policy of . They were the Permanent Settlement of Bengal, the reform of the Company's administration. and the second Mysore War.

The Permanent Settlement of Bengal, 1793.

From time beyond memory the soil of Bengal had been tilled and the land held by self-governing village communities, each under its head-man, who paid a heavy land-tax or rent to the State, which was in a way the final owner of the soil. The Mogul Emperors had intrusted the collection of the land-tax to a class called Zamindars, who were often old local chiefs, and whose office tended to become permanent and hereditary. The English now established a settlement of the lands of Bengal, Behar, and English Orissa (the rest belonged to Bhonsla), by which the Zamindar tax farmers were practically given the proprietorship of the lands they were responsible for, at a fixed rate of payment, which was now declared perpetual. It has been said that

Cornwallis

wished to set up a class of squires in Bengal; but, though the English system of private and individual ownership of land in large masses may have led him to disregard the less obtrusive rights of the peasant groups, holding the land in common as some of our Teutonic ancestors did before they came to Britain, yet the real motive which inspired him was the desire to get a fixed and certain revenue, and the notion that the wealthy Zamindars were easier to get hold of, and more likely to keep a con tract than the ignorant and numerous peasantry. But the Zamindars soon began to rack rent their new dependants, whose long standing customary rights only received a tardy and partial recognition in

1859

and

1885

. Far better was the rayatwari settlement of most of Madras when, early in the nineteenth century, the lands of the Nawabs of the Karnatik were annexed to the British dominions. This made the rayat, or peasant-cultivator, the proprietor of the soil, and not a grasping middle-man. But alike in north and south the old communal land tenure was changed into individual ownership after the English fashion. In

Bombay

a similar but simpler settlement was made to that of Madras. But the southern peasant often fell hopelessly into the hands of the village usurer, from whom he has been to some extent protected by recent legislation.

Sudder Courts

Cornwallis

separated the duties of collector and judge, and estab lished the Sudder criminal courts (Nizamat Sadr Adalat), which with the civil Sudder courts (Diwani Sadr Adalat) built up a system of jurisdiction over the Company's native sub jects, administered by civilians, covenanted servants of the Company. The old Hindu and Mohammedan laws relating to the family were respected.

Between in person carried on

13. [33] In , now a marquis, went back to England, leaving as his successor the able and experienced civilian Sir John Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth, who had been his chief adviser in carrying out the Permanent Settlement. [34] In Shore was replaced by the extremely able and brilliant Irish nobleman, Lord Mornington, afterwards Marquis , the friend of and the elder brother of Arthur , afterwards Duke of . Despite the inordinate self-esteem which led him to scorn the advice of others, Mornington proved one of the greatest, most resourceful and successful of Indian rulers. He came with a definite external policy of withstanding Revolutionary France, which now made its last great attempt to bring back the glories of Dupleix and Lally. French officers were now drilling the huge but undisciplined hordes of Sindhia and the Nizam. Tipu Sultan planted

" a tree of liberty"

" Citizen Tipu."

[35] Mornington saw that England's supremacy must be thoroughly established in . Despite all that had been done, our territorial possessions were, outside the Lower Ganges, very insignificant. The Marathas, with the puppet poet-emperor Shah Alam in their power, the Nizam of the Deccan, and Tipu, despite his recent defeat, were all powerful rivals. By direct annexations and by subsidiary treaties, which bound the native states which signed them to formal vassalage to the Company, Mornington sought to carry out his schemes of ascendency.

The Governor-General's success was brilliant. The treaty of Lucknow () secured for England the lower parts of the fertile Doab between the Ganges and Jumna along with Rohilkhand, and made the Nawab Wazir of Oudh acknowledge the English overlordship. Still earlier the Nizam had abandoned his French soldiers and sympathies,

[36] In Mornington' offered Tipu, who had provoked him by hostile acts, the alternative of war or a subsidiary treaty. The lord of Mysore accepted the former, so that the same year saw war renewed in Europe, Egypt, and Southern .

"Citizen Tipu"

General Harris besieged and stormed Seringapatam, and Tipu died a soldier's death at the gate of his citadel. His sons became respectable magistrates and citizens at Calcutta. His state, save some districts that went to the English and the Nizam, was handed over to the infant descendants of the Hindu Raja his father had deposed. Mornington now completed his successes by the complete annexation of the Karnatik, up to now still ruled by the Nawab of Arcot. The absorption of Tanjore completed the settlement of Southern . He had found the Presidency of Madras a scanty and scattered territory round the old factory of Fort St. George. He now extended it to almost its present limits. His services were recognised by the title of Marquis .

14. [37] The Marathas' power had received a great blow in the death of Madhaji Sindhia, who had built up a formidable kingdom in Central , extending as far northwards as Aligarh. They were now divided among themselves by internal factions. Holkar now drove the Peshwa out of Poona, and the fugitive Maratha chieftain concluded in the subsidiary Treaty of Bassein, by which he promised, if restored with English help, to become a vassal of the Company. But Sindhia and the Bhonsla were indignant that the old chief of the confederacy should turn traitor, and joined with Holkar in withstanding the invaders. The Second Maratha War was the result.

Wellesley

showed the greatest vigour. On the news of the rupture of the Treaty of Amiens reaching

India

, Pondicherri was taken, and the French troops there collected imprisoned. Arthur

Wellesley

, who had first shown in a subordinate position in the Mysore war his great qualities as a general, was made commander of a southern army, while General Lake operated northwards from the Doab. Both generals were brilliantly successful. On 23d September

1803

, Arthur

Wellesley

's little host of 4500 men defeated Sindhia's 30,000 at Assaye,

"the bloodiest battle for the numbers,"

he tells us,

"that he ever saw."

Sindhia now begged for a truce; but as it was found that his soldiers

were still fighting under the command of the yet unbeaten Bhonsla, his request was refused, and the English won a second and decisive victory at Argaum on 15th December.

" If we had had daylight an hour more,"

wrote

Wellesley

,

"not a man would have escaped."

Meanwhile Lake, who had opposed to him the mass of Sindhia's European-trained troops, had won great battles at Aligarh and Laswari, and captured Delhi and Agra, freeing Shah Alam, old, blind, and poor, from his long dependence on the Marathas, and exciting the enthusiasm of the Mohammedans of the north.

The result was that Sindhia and Bhonsla accepted subsidiary treaties, dismissed their French officers, and surrendered large slices of territory Sindhia gave up all his lands north of the Jumna to Shah Alam, henceforth ruling under English protection. The provinces of the north and north-west were joined with those previously ceded by Oudh in the separately administered

"Ceded and Conquered Provinces."

15. [38] A great cry was now raised against Wellesley and his subsidiary system by the same factious crew that had impeached and rejoiced over English defeats in France. The Directors were terribly alarmed at the responsibility and expected cost of the new system. Wellesley was rewarded by a cold recall, and in his old age was sent out a second time to satisfy the Whigs and the Economists by patching up peace on any terms and undoing the great achievements of his predecessor. But had only been a few weeks in when he succumbed to the dangers of the rainy season. [39] For the next two years, Sir , an insignificant civilian, ruled with little courage or skill, devoting himself mainly to financial details, but suffering Holkar to go unpunished for his contumacy. The mutiny of the Madras Sepoys at Vellore () was another proof of the decay of English energy. [40] In the Earl of Minto, a stronger ruler, was sent out, though still strictly committed by the Directors and the

16. [41] In more stirring times began with the governor- generalship of Lord Moira, the friend of the Prince Regent, and after Marquis of Hastings.

[42] In a fierce struggle was carried on in the Lower Himalayas with the brave Gurkhas of Nepal, who were a danger and a trouble to our northern frontier, which ended in the cession of large tracts of the vast hill country, where were soon to spring up such health-stations as Naini-tal and Simla, as refuges from the sweltering heats of the plain of the Ganges. [43] In a vast army was set on foot to stamp out the bands of Pindaris or freebooters, who from their strongholds in Malwa had long spread havoc throughout Central , and were politically formidable from the hardly concealed sympathy of the Maratha chieftains. [44] Their defeat was immediately followed by the rising of Holkar, the Peshwa, and the Bhonsla against the English. But the defeat of Holkar at Mehidpur soon brought their resistance to an end. The Peshwa was degraded with a pension, and sent to Bithur, near Cawnpore; his forfeited dominions swelled out the little Presidency to the dimensions of a great state. Two children were set up at Indore and Nagpur to reign under British protection. The Central Provinces of a later period now had their beginning in the territories taken from the Pindaris. The warlike chieftains of Rajputana now accepted the English overlordship. But more important even than these conquests was the establishment of peace and sound government in the regions so long devastated by Marathas and Pindaris.

17. [45] A long period now sets in, during which the frontiers of British were but little enlarged, though important dealings were entered into with great foreign states beyond the limits of English influence, such as Burma and Afghanistan, and a new departure was made in administration and internal improvements. The rule of Lord , nephew of the favourite of Chatham and conqueror of Canada, is mainly remarkable by the First

18. [47] The courageous, high-minded, and unaffected Lord William (younger son of the third Duke of Portland, Prime Minister in and ), who had been Governor of Madras during the stormy days of the mutiny at Vellore (), was the next Governor-General. His first work was to restore the finances, terribly disturbed by the vast expenses of the Burmese War. But his economies and his efforts to extend freedom of speech and writing, and to give greater facilities for entering the public service to the native races, aroused the class-feelings of the English civilians and officers, and nothing but the active support of the Directors and the Grey ministry enabled to carry through his policy. In he had the courage to put down the ancient Hindu custom of Sati(Suttee) or widow-burning, despite the outcry of Hindus and Anglo-Indians, who thought that a revolt would follow an attack on a long-cherished superstition. He also stamped out Thagi, and rooted out the brotherhoods of Thags (Thugs) or hereditary murderers, who had wandered over the country in disguise and made a trade of strangling. He removed the old restrictions on missionaries, and took off the disabilities imposed by the Company on native Christians. He encouraged steam navigation on the Ganges. In the Company's Charter was renewed on terms which fitted in with the liberal character of 's acts. The Company ceased to trade, and allowed Europeans to settle.

"Governor-General of Bengal"

"Governor-General of

India

."

"law-member"

" Ceded and Conquered Provinces"

" He abolished cruel rites: he effaced humiliating distinctions: he gave liberty to the expression of public opinion: his constant study was to elevate the intellectual and moral character of the nations committed to his charge."

19. [48] Sir ably ruled during the interregnum, which was at last ended by the nomination of Lord Auckland by the Ministry. It was now that the dread of Russian advance in Central Asia first seized upon Indian statesmen, and inspired Auckland to a policy which brought about the greatest disasters that have ever befallen the British arms in . [49] Russian agents had won over the Persians to their side and were now intriguing in Afghanistan, a mountainous country inhabited by scattered Aryan tribes of warlike and fanatical Mohammedans, who of old had been united under the Durani kings descended from Ahmed Shah, the victor of Panipat. But in the Durani line had been driven from Kabul and Kandahar, and only held its own with difficulty in western Herat. Dost Mohammed now usurped the throne of Kabul under the title of Amir. He was a man of graceful person, bold and frank manner, intelligent, brave, unscrupulous, and self-disciplined. His friendship was worth winning, but better terms turned him from the English to the Russian alliance. Auckland thereupon resolved to drive him out of his throne and restore Shah Shuja, his rival, then an exile in British . It was a task both dangerous and unnecessary, for the Sikh kingdom of the Punjab and the lands of the Amirs of Sind lay between the British Indian frontier and Afghnistan. These however were won over.

The Afghan War, 1839-1842.

In

1839

a British army marched through the Bolan Pass, captured Kandahar, stormed Ghazni, and finally took Kabul. Shah Shuja was restored, and Dost Mohammed surrendered in despair. But even the continuance of a strong army at Kabul could not secure the throne of the new ruler, and events soon showed the folly of Auckland's opinion that his restoration was pleasing to the Afghans. The tribes that held the passes between Kabul and the Sikh frontier cut off all communication between the garrison and

India

. Kabul itself rose in revolt, and Akbar Khan, Dost Mohammed's son, headed a general Afghan insurrection. The English leader, General Elphinstone, a kindly, popular old man, unable to walk from gout, and hardly able to ride, had neither energy nor spirit for his desperate work, and before long he accepted the promise of the Afghans to allow his retreat in safety. His panicstricken and disorganised army started from their illdefended cantonments on a difficult and dangerous journey through the defiles of the Khurd-Kabul and the Khaibar Pass to Peshawar. But Akbar would not, or more probably could not, keep his promise, and the fierce mountaineers, lining every height, shot down the unresisting fugitives as they dragged on in helpless disorder, suffering intensely from the icy cold and deep snows of the hard Afghan winter. As they grew weaker the hillmen laid aside their matchlocks and butchered the fugitives by the score with their long deadly knives. The women and children and the leaders surrendered themselves as hostages to Akbar Khan, who treated them kindly. But the ceaseless work of destruction went on against the followers and rank and file. On the morning of 13th January

1842

a sentry from the walls of Jalalabad saw a single white man clinging wearily to the neck of a wretched tired-out pony that could hardly drag him along. It was Brydon, the sole survivor of the army of 4500 men with its 12,000 followers that had marched out of Kabul a week before.

All through the winter Sale held out at Jalalabad, and Nott at Kandahar, the two Afghan posts still in British hands, for Ghazni had been recaptured and its garrison put to the sword. Next spring the new Governor-General, Lord Ellenborough, ordered General Pollock to

"evacuate Afghanistan through Kabul."

Enough was now done to show the Afghans the power of the British. Ghazni was again taken, and the gates of Sultan Mahmoud's tomb carried off as spoil to

India

. Akbar Khan was defeated before Kabul: the prisoners were rescued; and the English army hurried back through the scenes of last year's disaster to Peshawar. Shah Shuja had been murdered by his subjects, and Dost Mohammed, released from

India

, was restored to his old throne. The war had made no change save to show the Afghan both the power and the weakness of the British. A bombastic proclamation of Lord Ellenborough's brought a tragic war to a farcical close.

20. [51] Ellenborough continued Governor-General until . With all his vanity and love for vain show, he was a vigorous and active-minded man, bent on putting down abuses, and anxious for the credit of England. He now became involved in hostilities with the three Baluchi Amirs of Sind, the

"unhappy valley"

"Under a heavy fire,"

said Napier to his troops,

" you reached the bank of the river, where a hurl of shields, Sindian capped and turbaned heads, and flashing scimitars spread as a sea before you, 35,000 valiant Baluchis threatening you with destruction ! Then the hostile armies closed and clashed together. The dark chivalry of India burst as a thundercloud, and charging into the dry bed of the river drove the foe before them ! But the British shout of battle was echoed along the line. Lines of levelled charging bayonets gleamed through the smoke, and the well-fought field was your own."

Sind was now annexed to the Presidency, and Napier as its first Commissioner laid the basis of its future prosperity. In a new Gwalior war brought the infant Sindhia into greater dependence on his British overlords. But in the Directors recalled Ellenborough in spite of .

21. [52] Sir Henry (afterwards Lord) Hardinge, a Peninsular veteran, was the next Governor-General. [53] The great event of his rule was the First Sikh War of . In died Ranjit Singh, the

" Lion of the Punjab,"

"little, tottering, one-eyed man,"

In

1845

the Sikhs crossed the Sutlej into British territory. On December 18th, Sir Hugh Gough fought with and defeated them in a fierce struggle at Mudki. He then advanced against their fortified camp at Firozshahr, which he stormed with great loss. The Sikhs now recrossed the Sutlej, but before long they were again over the river. On 28th January

1846

Sir Harry Smith won the victory of Aliwal, and, joining forces with Gough his chief, the united army stormed and carried the Sikh entrenched camp at Sobraon on 10th February. Never were harder fought battles in

India

, and seldom had the English so nearly an equality of numbers as with their gallant enemy. But the struggle was now over. The capture of Sobraon opened the passage of the Sutlej to the victors, and the Sikhs, seeing their enemy in full march on Lahore, sent in their unwilling submission.

By the treaty which followed a tract of land was ceded to the British, a war indemnity paid, and the Sikh army

22. [54] From to was ruled by the Earl of Dalhousie, whose government proved more eventful than any since the days of Wellesley, both as regards extension of territory and internal progress. His first great difficulty was a great revolt in the Punjab. The high-spirited Sikhs had borne with the utmost impatience the loss of their independence, and cried violently against the treachery which, they thought, had undone the valour of their armies. [55] The murder of two officers, Agnew and Anderson, at Multan was the prelude to a general rising.

The English were not ready to fight in the hot season, and the Punjab fell away. On 13th January

1849

Gough fought the battle of Chilianwala, where the victorious march of the British force through the thick jungle was succeeded by the panic flight of the cavalry. The infantry bravely held their own, but our losses were terrible, and several guns and colours fell into Sikh hands. But on 22d February Gough won the decisive victory of Gujrat, though Dost Mohammed had come with his horsemen to help his old foes against the hated British.

[56] The Punjab was now annexed, and the energy of Dalhousie, well seconded by Henry and John Lawrence, built up the

" non-regulation system "

[57] In was fought the Second Burmese War, springing from the bad treatment of some of our merchants chants at Rangoon, and resulting in the annexation of Pegu or Lower Burma, including the great trading station of Rangoon.

More characteristic of Dalhousie's rule was the wholesale annexation of protected states. Disregarding as a solemn deceit the universally recognised Hindu custom of adoption, he laid down his famous

" doctrine of lapse,"

"Assigned Districts,"

[58] Dalhousie was as great in administration as in conquest. In Lower Burma, as in the Punjab, his new system marks an epoch. He established the Public Works Department, brought in canals, roads, cheap postage and telegraphs. He founded the Indian railway system. He completed the Ganges Canal. He opened up the Civil Service to the competition of all British subjects, without distinction of race. He furthered education and promoted trade and commerce. But though not much over forty, his health gave way amidst his strenuous labours in an Indian climate, and in he went home to die. His policy has been severely criticised, but his annexations sprang from no mere lust of conquest, but from the over- powering necessities of the situation. Some lack of imagination and want of sympathy for Oriental methods and ideals may have existed in his strong, stern, practical mind, and the swift rush of his reforms did not always sufficiently take into account the unconquerable conservatism of and the strength of local prejudice. His love of autocracy suffered no rivals, and his disagreement with Sir Charles Napier, the conqueror of Sind, who, sent out by as Commander-in-chief to retrieve the disaster of Chilianwala, and, finding the war ended, had busied himself with much-needed military reforms, led to Napier's retirement in disgust. But with all allowances Dalhousie remains among the greatest and most successful of Anglo-Indian statesmen.

23. [59] 

"If mischief ever comes in

India

,"

"it will come like a thundercloud."

"black water"

The Mutiny, 1857-59.

On 10th May

1857

the Sepoy force at Meerut rose, murdered their officers, opened the jails, and marched for Delhi, where the descendant of the Mogul Emperors still reigned in mock majesty over his vast and ill-governed palace. Nearly every garrison of Northern and Central

India

followed the example of Meerut. The revolt assumed its worst form in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, where the whole people, led by the wronged Talukdars, joined the revolted soldiers, and the English power was reduced to a few hard-beset garrisons, such as those in the Cantonments at Cawnpur and at the Residency of Lucknow, the capital of Oudh, under Henry Lawrence. The Mohammedan rebels hoped to revive the Mogul Empire. The Mulvi sought to restore the ancient monarchy of Oudh. The discontented Marathas made common cause with their old Mogul enemies. Nana Sahib declared himself the Peshwa, and headed the mutineers at Cawnpur, and the dispossessed Rani of Jhansi showed more than a man's courage in her efforts to win back her old dominions. The British Empire in

India

[1857-1875.]

seemed setting in fire and blood. But the Madras army, separated by language and tradition from the Bengal Sepoys, stood firm, and the tact of Governor Elphinstone saved

Bombay

from the imminent danger of a great Maratha rising. Holkar and Sindhia proved true as steel, though their own soldiers deserted them for the new Peshwa and the Rani of Jhansi. The Nizam, guided by his wise prime minister, Salar Jang, never swerved from his loyalty. Lower Bengal, though disturbed, remained for the most part in British hands. Nepal, controlled by the selfish but clear-sighted Jang Bahadur, lent valuable help to the English.

John Lawrence

sent all his officials to help Bengal, and by his sole personal influence kept the Punjab quiet, and was even able to enrol the warlike Sikhs, and sent them east with unheard-of rapidity under Nicholson, to pay off old scores on their Mohammedan oppressors by besieging Delhi. Amidst all the wild fear and cruel panic

Canning

never lost his head, and slowly but surely pushed up troops along the half-built railway to the front under General Havelock, a learned student of war, an enthusiastic soldier, and a pious Baptist. But on 27th June the Cawnpur garrison had surrendered. The men were treacherously shot down, as they were carried in boats down the Ganges, by Tantia Topi, the Nana's only able subordinate. The women and children were butchered in cold blood when the Nana heard of Havelock's advance. Two days later Havelock occupied Cawnpur, but it was not till 25th September that he was able to relieve Lucknow, where for nearly three months the Europeans had sustained the severest of sieges behind the rude walls of the Residency, Henry Lawrence being shot in one of the earliest attacks. Even after Havelock's arrival, the English forces were so small that the Mulvi practically renewed the siege. But the worst was now over. On 19th September Delhi was at length captured by the Punjab troops, amidst scenes of wild revenge and retaliation -the daring Hodson, a leader of irregular horse, capturing the restored Emperor's sons, who had been foremost in cruelty and treachery, and pistolling them with his own hands.

In October the new Commander-in-chief, Sir

Colin Campbell

(afterwards Lord Clyde), marched up from Calcutta, and rescued the Lucknow garrison in November after a hard fight. Havelock died soon after. In March

1858

Campbell finally took Lucknow town itself. Meanwhile Sir Hugh Rose started from

Bombay

, passed through Indore to Jhansi, and, after beating Tantia Topi in a pitched battle, captured on 5th April the stronghold of Maratha resistance. The daring Rani, however, won over the mutinous troops of Sindhia, and occupied Gwalior. But she soon fell in battle, leading on her forces to the fight, dressed as a man, and on 19th June Rose's Capture of Gwalior destroyed the last hopes of Maratha freedom. Tantia Topi was captured and put to death in April

1859

. Nina Sahib slunk away through Nepal and escaped. Before June

1858

Colin Campbell

extinguished the last embers of the revolt in Oudh, Rohilkhand, and Behar. The pluck, daring, skill, and tenacity of the English had won them the victory in the savage struggle, carried on with the ruthless ferocity of Eastern warfare, where quarter was neither asked nor given, and the Sepoy massacres of the early mutiny were amply atoned for when captured rebels, who could not be guarded by the handful of English troops, were hanged by the hundred in cold blood, or tied by scores to the mouths of cannon and blown to pieces.

24. [62] The mutiny sealed the fate of the East Company, whose political power by a strange anomaly had outlived its trading days. Though useful for checking the over-zeal of aggressive Viceroys by its uniform anxiety for an unadventurous and peaceful policy, it led in many ways to divided control, and prevented direct responsibility. In the Derby Ministry carried the Bill under which the great dependency has since been governed, despite the dignified protest of the Company.

By it-(1) The East

India

Company was dissolved. (2) The government of

India

was transferred to the Queen, acting through a Secretary of State for

India

, advised by an Indian Council of experts. (3) The local administration was put under a Viceroy, under whom all the Provinces of

India

, though still retaining their separate civil government, were to be placed. (4) The Company's European army was amalgamated with the Royal army, and its navy abolished. (5) The Board of Control was abolished. (6) By later Acts,

1861

, non-official members were added to the Viceroy's Council, and High Courts of Justice created by the amalgamation of the old Supreme and Sudder Courts.

25. [63]  appropriately became the First Viceroy under the new system, and on 1st November proclaimed the Queen's direct sovereignty in a great darbar at Allahabad. A new series of economical, financial, and legal reforms brought in happily the new state of things.

[64] In went home, dying within a month of his arrival in England. Lord Elgin now became Viceroy, but died in , when Sir John (afterwards Lord) Lawrence became the ruler of the Empire that more than any single man he had saved. [65]  During his government further annexations were severely discouraged, though in the Bhutan War involved a fresh extension of the frontier. In a terrible famine devastated Orissa. [66] Lord Mayo now became Viceroy, and set to work with great energy to extend public works and develop the material and commercial resources of . But his vast activity was prematurely cut off by his murder in the Andaman Islands, where he had gone on a visit to the convict settlement. [67] Lord Northbrook now governed from to . His administration was marked by great financial changes, and by the successful grappling with a threatened famine in Bengal in . In the Gaekwar was deposed for disloyalty

26. [68] Fresh troubles had long been brewing in Afghanistan. The death of Dost Mohammed was followed by sanguinary strife for his succession, but in his third son, Shir Ali, established himself as Amir, and in held an interview with Lord Mayo, who recognised his position but refused to support his efforts to win the succession for his favourite son, preferring, on Lawrence's principles, to leave Afghanistan to itself. Northbrook carried out the same policy, but a new school of Indian Governors had now grown up represented by Sir Bartle Frere and Sir Henry Rawlinson, who persuaded the Government that it was of the utmost importance that English residents should be maintained in the chief Afghan cities as the best means of counteracting the intrigues of Russia, now slowly but surely conquering the brigand states of Turkestan, and, like England, of necessity embarked on a career of Asiatic conquest. [69] On Northbrook's resignation sent Lord Lytton, a diplomatist, son of the brilliant and popular novelist, to to carry out the new ideas.

Afghan War, 1878-80.

Shir Ali suspected Lytton's offers of a temporary mission, and complaining that he had been wronged by the English, received a Russian embassy at Kabul, a step which gave some justification to the Viceroy's reiterated demands. The Amir's determined refusal brought about war, and

Disraeli

boasted that its object was a

"scientific frontier,"

that is the Bolan, the Kuram and the Khaiber, passes, rather than the valley of the Indus. In

1878

three armies overran Afghanistan, Shir All fled to die in Turkestan, and his son Yakub Khan signed the Treaty of Gandamak, which advanced the English frontier to the further sides of the passes, and allowed an English resident at Kabul (

1879

), receiving in return an English subsidy. But by surrendering to the English, Yakub Khan lost all hold of his subjects, who were above all things zealous for their independence. Within a few months a fanatical mob attacked the Residency, and murdered the envoy Sir Louis Cavagnari. General

Roberts

at once led a second invasion into Afghanistan, and in October occupied Kabul and deposed the Amir. But the Afghan chiefs held out at Ghazni, and Abdurrahman, a nephew and old rival of Shir All, now came upon the scene from his refuge in Central Asia, where he had learnt to value Russian support. A period of confusion and disorder set in. Rival chieftains fought for the Afghan throne, though all willingly combined against the English. In

1880

it was resolved to abandon Afghanistan, and a new treaty was made with Abdurrahman which quietly dropped

the offensive clauses of the treaty of Gandamak. But Abdurrahman's rival Ayub Khan, lord of Herat, and brother of the deposed Yakub, defeated General Burrows at Maiwand, near Kandahar. Before Afghanistan could be abandoned this disaster had to be avenged.

Roberts

's great march from Kabul to Kandahar led to the temporary defeat of Ayub. The English troops then withdrew. Afghanistan was now the prey of civil war between Ayub and Abdurrahman, but, after a hot struggle, Abdurrahman drove out his rival, and has since reigned as undisputed Amir. The only chance of a united Afghanistan, strong enough to prove an efficient barrier to Russia, would have been destroyed had the policy of interference been persisted in. But the hesitation in England between the two policies and their alternate prevalence was ominous as to the result of the growing influence of English party struggles in

India

.

27. [71] In Lytton had heralded the new forward policy by the proclamation of the Queen as Empress of at Delhi. In the very same year a severe famine cut off over 5,000,000 souls in Southern . In Lytton resigned with the Conservatives, and the Marquis of succeeded him as a Liberal Viceroy. Besides the abandonment of Afghanistan, 's government was marked by the restoration of Mysore to its native Raja, by unbroken peace and great internal changes. The miserable vernacular press was allowed a liberty that quickly became licence. Local self-government was widely extended, even to country districts, always to the disadvantage of local administration. Important steps were taken towards extending education, developing agriculture, and reforming the land revenue so as to secure the cultivator the fruits of his industry both against the state and the Zamindars.

[72] In Lord Dufferin succeeded . The great event of his government was the annexation of Upper Burma in , a step rendered necessary by the mad tyranny of King Thebau. [73] In Lord Dufferin returned to England, and was suc ceeded by the Marquis of Lansdowne.

28. [74] At the time of the Queen's Jubilee, British consisted of 235 Districts, each under a Collector- Magistrate (Regulation District) or Deputy Commissioner (Non-Regulation District). Except in Madras these Districts are grouped into Divisions under a Commissioner. The highest unit of government is the Province, including the old Presidencies of Madras and (each with a Governor sent from England, and a separate army and civil service of their own) and the other Provinces,

[1] India and its peoples.

[2] The Non-Aryans.

[3] The Aryans.

[4] The Hindu race.

[1] [1526-1761.]

[5] The Mohammedan rule.

[6] The Mogul Empire, 1526-1707.

[7] The Marathas, 1674-1761.

[8] The five Maratha states.

[9] India on the eve of the British Conquest.

[1] [1758-1774.]

[10] The English supremacy.

[11] The period of anarchy, 1760-1765.

[12] The Dual System, 1765-1772.

[13] Death and Character of Clive, 1774.

[1] [1772-1785.]

[14] Warren Hastings,1732-1818.

[15] Administration.

[16] Oudh.

[17] Benares.

[18] The Begam.

[19] The First Maratha War, 1778-82.

[20] Haidar Ali.

[21] The First Mysore War, 1778-84.

[22] Regulating Act, 1773.

[23] Hastings the First Governor-General of Bengal, 1774-85.

[24] Hastings and Francis, 1774-80.

[25] Impeachment of Hastings, 1786-95.

[26] His work.

[27] Pitt's India Bill, 1784.

[28] The Double Government, 1784-1858.

[29] Cornwallis Governor-General, 1786-93.

[32] Second Mysore War, 1790-92.

[33] Sir John Shore, 1793-98.

[34] The Marquis Wellesley, 1798-1805.

[35] The system of Subsidiary Treaties.

[1] [1799-1807.]

[36] Third Mysore War, 1799.

[37] Second Maratha War, 1802-4.

[38] Cornwallis' Second Government, 1805.

[39] Sir George Barlow, 1805-7.

[40] Lord Minto, 1807-13.

[1] [1814-1833.]

[41] The Marquis of Hastings, 1814-23.

[42] Nepal War, 1814-15.

[43] The Pindaris, 1817.

[44] Third Maratha War, 1817-18.

[45] Lord Amherst, 1823-28.

[46] First Burmese War, 1824-26.

[47] Lord William Bentinck, 1828-35.

[1] [1834-1843.]

[48] Lord Auckland, 1836-42.

[49] Afghanistan.

[51] Lord Ellenborough, 1842-44.

[1] [1843-1853.]

[52] Lord Hardinge, 1844-48.

[53] First Sikh War, 1845.

[54] Lord Dalhousie, 1848-56.

[55] Second Sikh War, 1848-49.

[56] Annexation of the Punjab, 1849.

[57] Second Burmese War, 1852.

[1] [1853-1857.]

[58] Dalhousie's civil administration.

[59] Earl Canning, 1856-62.

[60] Causes of the Mutiny.

[62] End of the India Company. India under the Crown, 1858.

[63] Lord Canning Viceroy, 1858-62.

[64] Lord Elgin, 1862-63.

[65] Sir John Lawrence, 1864-69.

[66] Lord Mayo, 1869-72.

[67] Lord Northbrook, 1872-76.

[1] [1868-1887.]

[68] Afghan troubles, 1868-78.

[69] Lord Lytton, 1876-80.

[71] Marquis of Ripon, 1880-84.

[72] Lord Dufferin, 1884-88.

[73] Marquis of Lansdowne, 1888.

[74] India in 1887.

[1] [1887.