May 25

Raee, June 2

seems willing enough to give me work to do and I am willing enough to do it. The European troops arrived this morning (I sent a telegraph message to say so); and the Rajah of Jheend, with his men, last night. I have offered to clear the road and open the communication to Meerut and Delhi with the Rajah's horse. If the chief will consent, I think I am sure of success. It is believed that nothing has occurred at Agra. The Punjaub all quiet up to last night; as long as that is the case we shall do. With God and our Saxon arms to aid us I have firm faith in the result.

I wrote this morning a few hurried lines to keep you from anxiety. I was too tired to do more; the continued night work had wearied me out, and when I got back from here at half-past six this morning I was fairly dead beat. Poor Charlie Thomason is with me. I am happy to have been in some measure instrumental in getting him in in safety by offering a heavy sum to the villagers. He had been wandering about in the jungles, with several other refugees, for days without food or shelter. I am deeply grieved for him, poor fellow! The state of panic at Meerut was shocking; all the ladies shut up in an inclosed barrack, and their husbands sleeping in the men's barracks for safety and never going beyond the sentries.

Colonel Hope commands. The Meerut folks have had another fight (on the 31st) with the Delhi mutineers, and again beaten them; but this constant exposure is very trying to Europeans. I wish we were moving nearer Delhi more rapidly, as all now depends on our quickly disposing of this mighty sore. I wish from my heart we had Sir Henry Lawrence here; he is the man for the crisis. We are all in high spirits; only eager to get at the villains who have committed atrocities which make the blood run cold but to think of. I trust the retribution will be short, sharp, and decisive.

Another batch of half-starved, half-naked Europeans, men, women, and children (a deputy collector and his family), were brought into camp to-day, after wandering twenty-three days in the jungle.

I wrote you a few hurried lines on the field of battle yester- Camp before day, to say that we had beaten the enemy and driven them Delhi, June 9 back five miles into Delhi. How grateful rest was after such a morning! The Guides came in to-day, and it would have done your heart good to see the welcome they gave me, cheering and shouting and crowding round me like frantic creatures. ... The enemy are at least four or five times our strength, and their numbers tell when we come near them, despite their want of discipline. They are splendid artillerymen, however, and actually beat ours in accuracy of fire. .

We were to have taken Delhi by assault last night, but a June 13 "mistake of orders" as to the right time of bringing the troops to the rendezvous, prevented its execution. I am much annoyed and disappointed at our plan not having been carried out, because I am confident it would have been successful. The rebels were cowed, and perfectly ignorant of any intention of so bold a stroke on our part as an assault; the surprise would have done everything. I am very vexed, though the general is most kind and considerate in trying to soothe my disappointment; too kind, indeed, or he would not so readily have pardoned those whose fault it is that we are still outside Delhi.

The rebels came out again this morning in considerable June 23 force, with the avowed intention of attacking us on all sides. They have been frustrated, however, save on one point, and firing is still going on. They do little more than annoy us, and the only great evil they cause is the keeping our men out for hours in this scorching heat. The worst of all is that we can do but little harm to them, as they are well under cover. The rascals most forward to-day are the Jullundar troops, who ought never to have been allowed to join the king of the rebels here at Delhi; why they were not pursued and cut up is at present a mystery, but indignation is strong in camp against those who suffered their escape.

An amusing story is told apropos of the fight this morning. A rascally Pandy, thinking all was over, put his head out of the window of one of the houses in the shade of which a few Europeans and Goorkhas were resting. One of the latter jumped

July 25

up, laid hold of the rebel by his hair, and with one chop of his "kookrie" took off his head. Atkinson should make a sketch of this for the Illustrated News. . .

There is much that is disappointing and disgusting to a man who feels that more might have been done, but I comfort myself with the thought that history (if Russell, not Macaulay, writes it) will do justice to the constancy and fortitude of the handful of Englishmen who have for so many weeks — months, I may say of desperate weather, amid the greatest toil and hardship, resisted and finally defeated the worst and most strenuous exertions of an entire army and a whole nation in arms an army trained by ourselves, and supplied with all but exhaustless munitions of war, laid up by ourselves for the maintenance of our empire. I venture to aver that no other nation in the world would have remained here, or avoided defeat had they attempted to do so.

The delay as yet has been both morally and politically bad in many ways, and the results are already beginning to be manifest, but in the end it will increase our prestige and the moral effects of our power. A nation which could conquer a country like the Panjaub so recently with an Hindostanee army, and then turn the energies of the conquered Sikhs to subdue the very army by which they were tamed; which could fight out a position like Peshawur for years in the very teeth of the Afghan tribes, and then, when suddenly deprived of the regiments which effected this, could unhesitatingly employ those very tribes to disarm and quell those regiments when in mutiny a nation which could do this is destined indeed to rule the world; and the races of Asia must succumb. This is a proud feeling, and nerves one's arm in many a time of difficulty and danger, as much almost as the conviction that we must conquer, or worse than death awaits us.

The intelligence of Sir H. Wheeler's destruction came to us from too true a source to be doubted, it was in dear Sir Henry Lawrence's own handwriting, and has been confirmed, alas, too surely. All we do not know is whether the women and children were massacred with the men. . .

One of my news letters reports that eighteen women are in Nana Sahib, prison under the care of Nana Sahib (Bajee Rao Peishwar's the betrayer of the English adopted son), who attacked Cawnpore. You must remember at Cawnpore at the artillery review a very "swell" looking native gentleman, accompanied by another educated native, who spoke French and other European languages and was talking a good deal to Alfred Light. Well, this was the identical Nana Sahib who has done all this, and who must even at that very time have been meditating the treachery, if not the murders.

When the storm of the mutiny was over the queen announced her pardon of the rebels and the final transfer of India from the East India Company to the crown of England, in the following proclamation.

Queen Victo

Victoria, by the grace of God of the United Kingdom of 436. ProclaGreat Britain and Ireland, and of the Colonies and Depend- mation of encies thereof in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Austra- ria to the lasia, Queen, Defender of the Faith.

Whereas, for divers weighty reasons, we have resolved, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal and commons, in parliament assembled, to take upon ourselves the government of the territories in India, heretofore administered in trust for us by the Honorable East India Company.

Now, therefore, we do by these presents notify and declare that, by the advice and consent aforesaid, we have taken upon ourselves the said government; and we hereby call upon all our subjects within the said territories to be faithful, and to bear true allegiance to us, our heirs and successors, and to submit themselves to the authority of those whom we may hereafter from time to time see fit to appoint to administer the government of our said territories in our name and on our behalf.

We hereby announce to the native princes of India, that all treaties and engagements made with them by or under the authority of the Honorable East India Company are by us accepted, and will be scrupulously maintained, and we look for the like observance on their part.

people of India (1858)

Religious freedom

Amnesty

We desire no extension of our present territorial possessions; and, while we will permit no aggression upon our dominions or our rights to be attempted with impunity, we shall sanction no encroachment on those of others. We shall respect the rights, dignity, and honour of native princes as our own; and we desire that they, as well as our own subjects, should enjoy that prosperity and that social advancement which can only be secured by internal peace and good government.

We hold ourselves bound to the natives of our Indian territories by the same obligations of duty which bind us to our other subjects, and those obligations, by the blessing of Almighty God, we shall faithfully and conscientiously fulfill.

Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of Christianity, and acknowledging with gratitude the solace of religion, we disclaim alike the right and the desire to impose our convictions on any of our subjects. We declare it to be our royal will and pleasure that none be in anywise favoured, none molested or disquieted, by reason of their religious faith or observances, but that all shall alike enjoy the equal and impartial protection of the law; and we do strictly charge and enjoin all those who may be in authority under us that they abstain from all interference with the religious belief or worship of any of our subjects on pain of our highest displeasure..

And it is our further will that, as far as may be, our subjects, of whatever race or creed, be freely and impartially admitted to offices in our service, the duties of which they may be qualified by their education, ability, and integrity, duly to discharge.

Our clemency will be extended to all offenders, save and except those who have been or shall be convicted of having directly taken part in the murder of British subjects. With regard to such the demands of justice forbid the exercise of mercy.

To those who have willingly given asylum to murderers, knowing them to be such, or who may have acted as leaders or instigators in revolt, their lives alone can be guaranteed; but in apportioning the penalty due to such persons, full consideration will be given to the circumstances under which they have