Chapter V: Progress of India and the Colonies (1)

(Since 1815).

(1) COLONIAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

(Canada).

1. The French Canadians, after the conquest of their country by the British, were turned into loyal citizens of the empire by being left in the enjoyment of their own language, laws, and religion. Even when our American colonies rose in rebellion, they remained true to the British Crown. The same feeling of loyalty led many of the American colonists themselves to throw in their lot with the old country. They banded themselves together as the _United Empire Loyalists_, and fought on the side of Britain rather than help their fellow-colonists to rend the empire.

2. On the conclusion of the war that gave the American colonies their independence (1783), thousands of the "Loyalists" came streaming across the Canadian frontier, leaving behind them the bulk of their property, and forced to starve and struggle for years before they could carve comfortable homes out of the Canadian forests. Many of them migrated to Nova Scotia, others found rest in the beautiful valley of the St. John river, and founded the province of New Brunswick, whilst others toiled up the St. Lawrence to create the fertile and busy province of Ontario, thus building up a British colony in Upper Canada by the side of the old French colony in Lower Canada.

3. The inrush of loyalist refugees from the lost colonies was followed by a large immigration from the mother-country, and especially from Scotland. Of the Scotch peasants who emigrated many came from the same district, and held together in the new country. On the downfall of Napoleon the tide of emigration flowed more strongly than ever. We hear of four hundred discharged Irish soldiers coming over in a body with their old regimental officers at their head, and forming a regular military camp in the backwoods, till their united efforts had cut out the roads and fields, and built the houses required for the settlement. We find, in fact, that a large proportion of the early settlers were old soldiers, and they handled the pruning-hook none the worse for having once handled the sword. While the silence of the desert spread over the barren moors and hillsides of Scotland and Ireland, the Canadian woods were ringing with the settler's axe.

4. Emigration to Canada has gone on ever since, though at a slower rate than in those early years when 160,000 emigrants landed on Canadian soil in the space of four years. One of the most interesting experiments in Canadian emigration has been made in our own day. During the last ten or a dozen years about ten thousand picked boys and girls, from the homes of the "National Waifs' Association," have been settled by Dr. Barnardo on a large estate in Manitoba, or placed out as labourers and servants on Canadian farms, with the happiest results.

5. Canada has not seen much war since the days of Wolfe, though she has not been left wholly at peace. During the great French war a dispute arose between Britain and the United States, which foolishly led to a half-hearted war between the two nations, and to the invasion of Canada by American troops. After three campaigns, in which the British and French Canadians fought side by side, the war ended without the loss of an inch of their territory. The only result was, to create a feeling of mutual sympathy and respect between the two races that shared Canada between them.

6. However, as time went on, and new emigrants came pouring in, the Canadian form of government, which had well served its purpose for some years, began to encumber the young limbs of a nation so rapidly growing. The fact is, time always works changes, and nations pass through stages--childhood, youth, and manhood--as well as individuals. Thus constant changes are required in the machinery of government to keep pace with the changing circumstances and varying wants of a people. In the year that Queen Victoria came to the throne (1837), all Canada was discontented, and the lower province on the eve of rebellion, which actually broke out a little later. The rebels, however, were easily put down, and the leaders were soon either in prison or exile.

7. The Home Government in this crisis acted wisely and promptly. They sent over Lord Durham with the olive branch of peace, and directed him to ascertain the cause of the rebellion, and to find out remedies. He reported that the root of the whole mischief was to be found in the Constitution under which the people were governed. The Canadians elected men to form an "Assembly," like our House of Commons, and though these men were free to express the wishes of the people, they had no power to make the ministers and officials of the Government give effect to them. They were expected to vote funds for the public service, but they could not call the ministers to account if they misspent the money.

8. At Lord Durham's suggestion all this was changed. The governor-general was henceforth to employ as his ministers such men as had the confidence of the "Assembly," and the ministers were to be responsible to that House for the advice they gave the governor-general, and for the way in which the public revenue was spent. The first Canadian Parliament, under the new regulations, met in 1841, and from this year we date the self-government of the British colonies.

9. What was done now for Canada became in due time the rule for the other colonies in which men of our race have chiefly settled. All in turn, as they became capable of self-government, were entrusted with the power to mark out their own course, and to manage their own affairs in their own way. By this system of government full play is given to local opinions and feelings, the laws are framed by the colonists themselves, through their representatives, and the public affairs of the whole colony are managed by ministers who have obtained the confidence and esteem of its inhabitants. Moreover, the same system of self-government in respect to local affairs is usually extended to every town and district in the colony. Thus the principle of self-government is brought home to the door of each colonist, whenever circumstances admit. This is the secret of England's success in keeping her world-wide empire peaceful and contented, under the protection of one flag, and in allegiance to one sovereign.

(2) BIRTH OF A NATION

(Canada).

1. The new era that smiled on Canada with the grant of self-government, in 1841, was marked by a rapid growth of the population. So great was the number of emigrants who came flocking into the country that in the next quarter-century the population nearly trebled itself. Canada at that time, it must be remembered, was but a shred of the vast expanse that reddens the map of North America to-day. The settled part included the two provinces now called Quebec and Ontario, the three provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, and the island of Newfoundland. The whole of the remainder--known as the great "North-West"--was, until 1870, the happy hunting-ground of the "Hudson Bay Company."

2. It is true that the Company did not, as did that great hunter, William the Conqueror, turn a peopled country into an uninhabited wilderness, but they took good care that the vast wilderness in their possession should not become a country inhabited by white men. Their whole territory was nothing but a vast game preserve from which all settlers were warned off. The red man was looked upon with favour, for he was as the game-keeper who trapped the fur-bearing animals and brought their skins to exchange for their masters' goods. Dotted over the Company's wide domains stood the log or stone forts where the furs were collected, and where lived one of the Company's factors--usually a Scotsman--to trade with the Indians. Around the fort no village was allowed to spring up. Some idea may be formed of the solitary life led by the factor, when we are told that the postman only visited him once a year.

3. The Company made enormous profits, for the goods they supplied to the Indians cost a mere trifle compared with the value of the furs they received in exchange. For a long time the nation, at home, was kept in the dark, not only as to the profits of the fur trade, but as to the real nature of the country from which the fur was obtained. The people, in fact, supposed that the fur country was an irreclaimable wilderness in which no white settlers could possibly make a living. At length it became known that in the great "North-West" there were immense prairies (over which roamed herds of buffalo) that would yield, if cultivated, rich crops of the finest wheat. When this discovery was made the country was thrown open to settlers (1870), and the province of Manitoba soon became the granary of Canada.

4. Another discovery had already led to the colonizing of British Columbia, the country beyond the Rocky Mountains. This was the discovery of gold (1858). The Indians, canoeing down the river Fraser, brought with them quantities of the precious metal which they had found along the river-bed. The men who had ransacked California for gold now rushed to the new gold country. The hardships they had to encounter were appalling.

5. At the season when the miners flocked into Columbia the water in the rivers was at its highest, and the sand-bars in which they hoped to find gold were hidden deep beneath its surface. The rivers themselves flowed through gloomy gorges, along which not even a mule could make its way. All provisions had to be carried on men's backs, and before a mule-track could be cut the miners were reduced to a diet of wild berries. Hundreds of miles had to be traversed before the rich Cariboo district was reached, where nuggets could be picked up in an old river-bed. News of this "find" brought men into the country so much faster than flour that all were reduced to the verge of starvation. The same thing has occurred in our own day, still further north, in the district of Klondyke.

6. Gold is a powerful magnet. It is one of the best colonizing agents known. What hardships will not men face to fill their pockets with gold! Wherever gold is to be picked up, there thousands of adventurers soon gather, and if the country is suitable for a colony thousands of settlers remain. Thus British Columbia owes its position as a colony, in the first place, to the gold-nuggets sown in the sands of its river-beds.

7. Attached to British Columbia is the island of Vancouver, and here also a discovery was made, which has much enhanced its value and attracted colonists. A settlement had already been made at Victoria on its southern shores, when, one day, came some Indians from the northern part of the island, and entering a smithy were surprised to find a fire of coals. When told that the fuel had been brought thousands of miles across the sea, they were much amused, as there was any quantity, they said, of the same sort of "black stone" on that very island. And so it proved. At the present time, indeed, the output amounts to one million tons a year.

8. Canada now extended over a region nearly the size of Europe, embracing besides the old provinces in the east, British Columbia in the far west, Manitoba in the centre, and the unsettled lands of the great "North-West." The next thing was to knit together the various provinces and out of them to make one great nation. This was made possible by the Confederation Act of 1867. By this Act the _Dominion of Canada_ came into being, with a constitution, settling the terms on which the different provinces could unite. In less than seven years all the Canadian provinces, except Newfoundland, consented to join. Thus a new nation was born on the great American continent.

9. By the new constitution each province continues to manage its own local affairs, whilst all matters of national concern are brought before the Dominion Parliament. This parliament consists of an Upper House styled the Senate, and a Lower House called the House of Commons. The former is composed of life-members nominated by the Crown, the latter of members elected by the people, and having full control of the public purse. The Sovereign is represented by the governor-general, appointed by the Crown, and no laws are valid without his consent.

10. To avoid all jealousy between the province of Ontario and that of Quebec, neither of their capitals was selected as the seat of the national or federal government. That honour was given to the little town of Ottawa, situated on their common border. Ottawa has now grown into an important city, and in its Houses of Parliament possesses two of the finest edifices on the continent of America.

(3) PROMISE OF NATIONAL GREATNESS

(Canada).

1. With the union of the Canadian provinces into the _Dominion of Canada_, a new nation sprang into existence (1867). As no nation deserves to be free unless it can defend itself when attacked, Canada at once took steps for guarding her existence. A law was passed requiring every able-bodied man between sixteen and sixty to enrol himself for the defence of the Dominion, and to prepare for that duty by spending a certain number of days each year in drill and rifle-shooting.

2. Though Canada is a distinct nation, with her destiny in her own hands, either to make or mar, she is, at the same time, a member of the great British Empire. This connection obliges her to make no treaty with a foreign power without the consent of the British Government; but as a set-off, it entitles her in time of danger to the powerful assistance of the British army and navy. And, as we have seen in the great Boer war, Canada is willing, on her part, to come to the aid of the mother-country in the time of stress and strain. No more gallant men than her sons have fought in that war and it is a great satisfaction to England to know that the support she has received from Canada has been freely rendered by Canadians of French origin as well as by those of British descent. Thus the defeated foe of Wolfe's day has, by just treatment, been turned into the loyal friend of to-day.

3. After providing for her defence Canada's next care was to bring the different provinces into touch with each other. By means of a wonderful network of waterways, a person can go through the length and breadth of the land almost entirely by water. But this mode of travelling is slow and difficult. Steps were, therefore, taken by the Dominion Parliament to bind the different provinces together by means of a line of rails. What a gigantic task lay before them! The distance to be crossed between the two oceans was no less than 3000 miles, a distance so great that it would take an ordinary train, going day and night, almost a week to accomplish the journey.

4. The task, however, was completed in five years. The Canadian Pacific Railway, as it is called, was begun in 1880 and finished in 1885. Thus the Dominion of Canada, which now stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, is linked together by the iron road, and its most distant parts brought into easy communication with each other by rail and wire. To British Columbia and Manitoba, in particular, such a line meant everything. It afforded settlers easy access to the interior and gave an outlet to the markets for the produce of their farms. And to the mother-country also this railway is of great value as an important link in the chain that binds together the various parts of the British Empire. Mails from England to the Far East are now carried by way of Canada more quickly than by any other route. Troops may be transported from Liverpool to Hong Kong in less than thirty days.

5. Canada has everything required to make a nation great and prosperous. Her various provinces have each their own special character and productions. _Nova Scotia_, for instance, is the great coal-cellar of the eastern provinces, and it stands first in the whole Dominion for its fisheries; whilst the supply of wood-pulp for making paper is almost unlimited.

6. The province of _Quebec_ was formerly a vast forest, and the lumber trade is still its most important industry. Its inhabitants are chiefly of French origin, and they still cling to the language and customs of their ancestors. The French Canadian does not seem to move with the stream of time. He is content to smoke his home-grown tobacco and to get his sugar from the sap of the maple. He wears a strong "home-spun" cloth, spun and woven at his own fire-side; in fact, he is content to go on as his fathers before him. The people of _Ontario_ are strikingly different. They are mostly of British origin and are always pushing on, trying to make what is good still better. Their fruit orchards, vineyards, and dairy-farms are a growing source of wealth, and a great surprise to those who have thought of Canada as the land of ice and snow. Canadian butter and cheese are now largely exported; in 1900, for example, about twenty million pounds of butter and 200 million pounds of cheese were sent abroad.

7. On entering _Manitoba_, the central province, the traveller finds himself in a new world. Here are vast plains presenting in summer the appearance of a sea of waving corn. The farms are immense, all so different from our English farms with their small fields and hedge-rows. Think of a farm where the furrows are four miles long and as straight as an arrow! Continuing westward we come to the slope of the Rocky Mountains which are specially adapted to the raising of cattle. This is the "ranch" country of Canada, where the horses and cattle range wild, and as a rule manage to provide for themselves both in winter and summer.

8. Of _British Columbia_, on the western side of the Rockies, we have already spoken as rich in gold and coal. This province is also valuable for its timber and salmon. If you buy a tin of preserved salmon, you will be almost sure to find that it has come from this colony. So plentiful are the salmon in this part of Canada that at times they swarm up the rivers like a shoal of herrings on the coast of Cornwall.

9. Canada, then, it will be seen is bountifully supplied by nature with all she needs to make her the land of plenty. She has been styled "Our Lady of the Snows," and it must be admitted that the Canadian climate is very cold in winter, and that the snow lies on the ground for some months over most of the country. The snow, however, is really one of the boons of nature: protecting the ground from extreme frosts, bridging the streams, converting rough tracts into the smoothest of roads, and turning with the warm breath of spring into water to moisten the ground for the upspringing crops.

10. Canada's great want is men of the right stamp to turn the gifts of nature to account, and these will come in time. She has now five millions of people, but could well support ten times as many. She possesses every element essential to national greatness, both in the character of her people and the wealth of her resources. The fisheries of her maritime provinces, the timber of her ancient forests, the granaries of the prairie region, the ranches of the Rockies, and the treasures of her mines, together with her intricate network of water-ways--all combine to give Canada the promise of an honoured place among the great nations of the world, and to make us proud to remember that she is a staunch and loyal friend to the British name and nation.

(4) "THE GOOD OF THE GOVERNED"

(India).

1. We have already seen how Clive laid the foundations of British rule in India, how Warren Hastings tightened our hold on the country, and how the Marquess Wellesley reduced the native princes to a state of dependence, and made the British the real masters of India. To establish a firm and just rule, and to save India from anarchy and its people from oppression, were all that the early rulers of India could attempt. But with the appointment of Lord Bentinck as governor-general, in 1828, our rule began to have a higher aim, and that was to build British greatness upon Indian happiness.

2. Of his many services to India, two stand out conspicuously: one was the rooting out of the _Thugs_, who made the robbing and murdering of travellers a pious duty, thinking that such acts would win them the favour of the dread goddess Kali. An old French traveller speaks of them as "the cunningest robbers in the world, who use a certain slip, with a running noose, which they can cast so deftly about a man's neck, that they strangle him in a trice." No person whom they attacked ever escaped to tell the tale. They went in bands disguised as travellers or rich merchants, and always carried tools for digging the graves of their victims. After each successful attack, offerings were made in the temples of the goddess. Within six years nearly all the members of this strange profession were hanged or placed in safe custody for life.

3. A still greater service, perhaps, was the putting an end to the custom of _suttee_. When any Hindu died, his widow was expected, in some parts of India, to accompany him to the next world by throwing herself into his funeral pile, and perishing in the flames. So common was the practice that in a single year, in Bengal alone, seven hundred widows were burnt alive. To this day the country is, in certain districts, thickly dotted with little white pillars, each in memory of a _suttee_. Lord Bentinck made a proclamation declaring that henceforth all who took part in a _suttee_ would be held guilty of murder.

4. When Bentinck's seven years of office were over, a statue was erected to his memory with this inscription:

To
William Cavendish Bentinck,
WHO INFUSED INTO ORIENTAL DESPOTISM THE SPIRIT
OF BRITISH FREEDOM;
WHO NEVER FORGOT THAT THE END OF GOVERNMENT IS
THE HAPPINESS OF THE GOVERNED.

5. We pass on to the next great landmark in the story of British rule in India. This was the governor-generalship of the Earl of Dalhousie, who ruled India between 1848 and 1856. Though he added to the empire more territory than any other British ruler in India, before or since, he did it all for the good of India as well as for the greatness of Britain. Believing that rulers exist only for the good of the governed, he made it his great aim to do away with abuses, to redress wrongs, to deal even-handed justice all round, and to promote the happiness of the people under his care.

6. It may seem strange that Dalhousie, whose great maxim was "the good of the governed" should have done so much to extend the British Empire in India. This was partly due to the fact that wars were forced on him, and partly to the fact that he believed that people were better off under British rule than any other. This consideration led him to take advantage of every opportunity to substitute British rule for that of a native prince. When, for instance, a native ruler died without offspring, instead of allowing his adopted son, as was the custom in India, to succeed him, Dalhousie annexed the territory thus left kingless.

7. Our governor-general also dethroned unworthy rulers, including the King of Oudh, whose realm was naturally the fairest province of all India. It may be remembered that in all the dependent states a British official resided at court to give his advice, and to watch over British interests. The British resident at Lucknow, the capital of Oudh, reported to Dalhousie that under its native ruler, Oudh knew neither law nor justice, that "great crimes stain almost every acre of land in his dominions." The strong, he said, everywhere preyed upon the weak, and what might be the garden of India was fast becoming a wilderness, whilst the king amused himself in the company of fiddlers, singers, buffoons, and dancing girls. After a solemn warning, and a reprieve of five years, the corrupt monarch was deposed and his kingdom added to our Indian Empire.

8. During Dalhousie's rule much was done to bring the different parts of this great empire into closer touch with each other. A cheap uniform postage was introduced, by which a letter could be sent from one end of India to the other for half an anna, about three farthings. A short railway was laid down as an experiment, and it proved highly successful. The new mode of travelling rose at once into favour with the natives of India. They soon saw the advantage of cheap travelling at the rate of twenty or thirty miles an hour in carriages drawn by the "English fire-horse."

9. Lord Dalhousie then drew up a scheme for laying down 4000 miles of rails between the great centres of population and the seats of government. And he succeeded in getting the necessary capital for this vast undertaking by offering it to public companies with the guarantee, on the part of the Indian Government, of a fair profit on their outlay. So great was the success of this scheme that in the course of the next quarter-century £100,000,000 were spent on Indian railways.

10. It would not be easy to overrate the importance of railways in this vast country, in the interests both of Britain and India. They form so many iron bands to unite the scattered provinces under British rule, and to enable our military forces to be sent speedily to any threatened quarter. They also serve to bring supplies to districts suffering from famine, whereas in former times it often happened that people in one part of India were dying for want of the food that was stored up in rich abundance in some distant part. The advantages that the railways offer to trade are still more important. "Great tracts," wrote Dalhousie, "are teeming with produce they cannot dispose of. Others are scantily bearing what they would carry in abundance, if only it could be conveyed whither it is needed.... Ships from every part of the world crowd our ports in search of produce which we have, or could obtain in the interior, but which at present we cannot profitably fetch to them." So great an impulse was given to trade in the course of the seven years of Lord Dalhousie's rule, that the export of raw cotton was doubled and that of grain increased threefold, whilst the total annual exports rose from thirteen millions to twenty-three.

11. The great viceroy also, meanwhile, set in action a scheme for binding all India together by a network of telegraph wires. In the last two years of his rule, no less than 4000 miles of electric telegraph were put in working order. The difficulties to be overcome were very great. The wires had to be carried on bamboo poles, or on pillars of stone and iron, over broad swamps and rocky wastes, through dense and deadly jungles, up wild mountain steeps, across deep gorges, and seventy large rivers. And all this had to be done in spite of the depredations of white ants, wild beasts, and half-civilised men. A famous writer thus describes the difficulties the engineers had to contend with:

12. "His posts had to pass through jungles, where wild beasts used them for scratching-stations, and savages stole them for firewood and rafters for huts. Inquisitive monkeys spoiled the work by dragging the wires into festoons, or dangling an ill-conducting tail from wire to wire. Crows, kites, and fishing-eagles made roosting-places of the wires in numbers so great as to bring them to the ground; though once or twice a flash of lightning, striking a wet wire, would strew the ground with the carcases of the feathered trespassers by dozens. The white ant nibbled galleries in the posts, and the porcupine burrowed under them."

13. It is owing to the telegraph that all India is held under the control of the governor-general. The wires are as the nerves that pass through the whole body of India and terminate, as it were, in his hands. By their means the latest news reaches him from every part of India, and by the same means he flashes back his commands. In the great mutiny that broke out, at the close of Dalhousie's term of office, it was the telegraph that saved us from many a disaster. "It is that accursed string that strangles us," exclaimed a mutineer pointing to the telegraph wire as he was led out to execution.

(5) SPOILS OF VICTORY

(India).

1. The story of India cannot be told without frequent reference to war. Though the Marquis of Dalhousie was so much occupied, as we have seen, with the arts of peace, he was obliged to wage more than one great war. On landing at Calcutta (1848) he was told by the last governor-general that so far as human foresight could predict, "it would not be necessary to fire a gun in India for seven years to come." Yet, within a twelvemonth, the whole scene was changed.

2. The Punjab, or Land of the Five Rivers, was inhabited by the Sikhs, a brave and warlike people. They had already fought desperately for the mastery of India and had been defeated. A British army had marched into Lahore, their capital, and dictated terms of peace, by which the Sikhs were left under the rule of a native prince, but required to receive a British officer at the royal court and to be guided by his advice. Dalhousie had scarcely been in office six months when the Punjab was all aflame again, and he found himself compelled to renew the war. "I have wished for peace," he said, "I have striven for it. But untaught by experience, the Sikh nation has called for war, and on my word, sirs, they shall have it with a vengeance."

3. The work that lay before the British army was a terribly difficult one. After a trying campaign in which we came near defeat, the two armies met for a decisive encounter at Gujerat. It ended in the rout of the Sikhs, who fled in dismay, leaving behind them most of their guns and standards, their ammunition, stores, and tents. The defeated troops were never allowed to rally, and within three weeks the last gun had been abandoned and the last soldier had laid down his arms. The Sikhs cheerfully owned themselves beaten, and heard with delight that their Afghan allies "had ridden down through their hills like lions and ran back into them like dogs."

4. The conquest of the Punjab was followed by its annexation. The Sikhs were informed that they must henceforth regard themselves as British subjects, and the Land of the Five Rivers as a part of British India. Two famous brothers, Henry and John Lawrence, were appointed to set things in order in this great province and to establish a firm and just government. The Sikh soldiers readily took service under our flag. They were proud to be enlisted in the regiments that had so well beaten them. Forts were built to defend the new frontier, the taxes were lightened and made more even, canals were cut, roads laid out, criminals punished, and honest labour protected; in fact, in a few short years the latest British conquest became the best managed, the most contented, and the most loyal of all the British provinces in India.

5. Three years after the annexation of the Punjab, war broke out at the opposite end of the Indian Empire, in what was then called Further India. It is known as the _Second Burmese War_ (1852). Burma was at that time under the rule of an upstart king, whore throne was at Ava. He seems to have been as ignorant and arrogant as the King of Ava in the First Burmese War (1824), who on being requested by the governor-general of India to withdraw his troops from Assam, which they had invaded, ordered his commander-in-chief to proceed to Calcutta, arrest the governor-general, and bring him to Ava, bound in golden fetters, for execution. As a result of that First Burmese War Assam had been added to the empire. It now forms the great tea-plantation of India.

6. The spoils of the Second Burmese War were still more valuable. The most brilliant feat of arms in that war was the storming of Rangoon. The Burmese troops held the city and pagoda of Rangoon with 18,000 men; the British could only bring one-third that number to the attack. Among the Burmese were the picked guards known as "The Immortals of the Golden Country," whose military oath compelled them to conquer or die at their posts. The courage of the ordinary troops was also insured, as their women and children were fastened up at the back of the fort to incite the valour of their husbands, sons, and brothers. But all to no purpose. The headlong rush of our troops, and the fierce cheer with which they came on, seemed to take the heart out of the defenders, and when the storming party entered at one gate the garrison fled by the opposite one, the brave Immortals in their gilt lacquer accoutrements leading the way.

7. Before the end of the year the whole of Lower Burma was at our disposal. As the people of that province everywhere greeted us as friends, and besought us to deliver them from the tyranny of their king, there was good reason to believe that it could be held by a small number of troops. It was, accordingly, annexed to our Indian Empire. Rangoon has become one of the great ports of the empire. In thirty years its population increased fifteen-fold, and its trade grew in the same proportion. The rest of Burma was annexed as the result of another war some years later.

8. The British India which Lord Dalhousie left to his successor was more than one-third larger than the India of which he had received charge seven years before. The great changes which he had made produced a spirit of unrest among the inhabitants. The native princes naturally felt their thrones insecure; the introduction of railways and telegraphs was to the old-fashioned native a sign that a new era had begun, and that old customs were giving place to new; whilst many began to fear that even their religion was in danger of being supplanted.

9. Lord Canning, the next governor-general, seems to have seen signs of the coming upheaval; for on taking office, he said at the send-off banquet in London, "We must not forget that in the sky of India, serene as it is, a small cloud may arise, at first no bigger than a man's hand, but which growing bigger and bigger may at last threaten to overwhelm us with ruin." He knew that the same instrument that we had used to help us to conquer India might be turned against ourselves. And what made our position the more serious was the fact that the Sepoys in our army--who constituted that instrument--were five times as numerous as our own troops, and that the native gunners outnumbered ours by two to one.

10. On reaching India, Lord Canning heard the first muttering of the storm which threatened to drive the British out of India. There had long been a prophecy among the natives that British rule would come to an end at the close of a hundred years from its commencement. The fateful year (1857) had now come, and with it came the great mutiny of our Sepoy regiments. England, in her hour of danger, has never lacked brave and patriotic sons to defend and maintain her cause, and never has this been more conspicuously the case than in the _Sepoy Mutiny_.

(6) DEEDS OF HEROISM

(India).

1. The Sepoy Mutiny had its centre at Delhi, where lived the old emperor in great state and luxury, but without a vestige of power or authority. The mutineers placed this shadow of an emperor at their head, making him their centre of union, and his sovereignty a cause to fight for. The great powder-magazine within the city was luckily in British hands. Of the garrison in charge of it were two British officers, who, at the sacrifice of their own lives, applied a torch to the powder, and in a moment the building, with hundreds of Sepoy mutineers, was sent flying into the air.

2. There were two circumstances which in the most providential manner enabled our countrymen to hold their own until succour reached them from England. These were the loyalty of the Sikhs, who had recently been conquered, and the passage across the seas of British troops on their way to China. These troops were intercepted at Cape Town and Singapore, and diverted to India. The Sikhs threw in their lot with their conquerors, and fought like lions for them throughout the Mutiny. A few weeks after the first outbreak, a combined British and Sikh force arrived at Delhi. Our men posted themselves on a commanding ridge outside the city, and held it against all comers, whilst waiting for reinforcements.

3. Sir John Lawrence was straining every nerve to collect forces in the Punjab, and to push them on, with all speed, to Delhi; whilst his brother, Sir Henry Lawrence, was rendering a service, scarcely less valuable, at Lucknow. Forewarned by telegraph, he made every preparation for defence within his power before the rebels in the city heard of the outbreak. He brought all the Europeans within the "Residency," as the government buildings were called, and stocked it well with provisions and ammunition. Lawrence himself was mortally wounded, near the beginning of the siege, by the bursting of a shell that crashed into his room, where he was writing at table. When dying he desired that on his tomb should be engraven:

HERE LIES
Henry Lawrence
WHO TRIED TO DO HIS DUTY.

4. The siege of Lucknow is one of the most memorable in our history. We may well be proud of the splendid stand which a small band of our countrymen made here, in the presence of their wives and children, against myriads of the enemy, who were kept in check for nearly three terrible months, until relief came.

5. All this time the eyes of India and Great Britain were earnestly fixed on Delhi. It was there all felt the question was being fought out, who should be masters of India. For three weary months our men had to cling to their position on the ridge, outside the city, before obtaining guns sufficiently heavy to begin the siege. Great was the joy in the British camp when the guns arrived, and with them General Nicholson, known alike to friend and foe for his daring valour. All were eager to follow where he led.

6. After a bombardment of three days, two great breaches in the walls opened the way for the assault, and an entrance at each breach was made at the point of the bayonet, but whilst leading on his men the gallant Nicholson was slain. Of the many daring deeds performed that day the most memorable was the perilous exploit of blowing up the Cashmere gate, to make a third entrance for our troops. A small band of heroic men volunteered to place bags of powder under the gate, and to take the risk of being shot or blown up in the attempt.

7. "I placed my bag," said Sergeant Smith, "and then at a great risk reached Carmichael's bag (for he was killed), and having placed it in position with my own, arranged the fuse for the explosion, and reported all ready to Lieutenant Salkeld, who held a quick-match. In stooping down to light the quick-match, he was shot, but in falling had the presence of mind to hold it to me. Burgess was next him and took it. I told him to keep cool and fire the charge. He turned round and said, 'It won't go off, sir; it has gone out, sir.' I gave him a box of lucifers, and, as he took them, he let them fall into my hand, he being shot through the body at that moment. I was then left alone, and was proceeding to strike a light, when the fuse went off in my face, the light not having gone out as we thought. I took up my gun and jumped into the ditch but before I had reached the ground the charge went off, and filled the ditch with smoke." Before the smoke cleared away our troops were through the gateway.

8. But though the entrance to the city was gained the work had only begun. Every street and public building had been fortified, and had to be won by steady and continuous fighting. It was not until the sixth day that our men had fought their way to the palace in the heart of the city. When the British flag waved over the palace, all felt that the neck of the rebellion was broken, and that our Indian Empire was saved. The old emperor was sent as a state prisoner to Rangoon, where he died in 1862, being buried in the night-time near his bungalow, so that no native might know the resting-place of the last of the emperors.

9. Three days after the fall of Delhi, General Havelock reached the Residency at Lucknow, after fighting half a dozen battles on the road and forcing his way through streets lined with armed rebels. We can imagine the kind of welcome the troops received on their arrival. "In a moment," writes a lady, one of the survivors of the garrison, "big, rough-bearded soldiers were seizing the little children out of our arms, kissing them with tears rolling down their cheeks, and thanking God that they had come in time." They had come in time to save the women and children from falling into the enemy's hands, but not in sufficient numbers to remove them.

10. For final deliverance they had to wait nearly two months longer, until the arrival of the Commander-in-chief, Sir Colin Campbell, at the head of a small army of 5,000 men. It is interesting to know that Lieutenant Roberts, now Field-Marshal Lord Roberts, was an officer in the relieving force, and gave proof of his daring spirit, as the troops fought their way through the city, by hoisting the British flag, amid a shower of bullets, on the tower of a fort they had captured. Sir Colin now turned his arms against every city in revolt, and before the end of the following year (1858), the embers of the rebellion were finally stamped out.

(7) BRITISH RULE ON A NEW FOOTING

(India).

1. As soon as peace was restored to India, after the Mutiny, a proclamation, at Calcutta, declared that the governing power of the East India Company was abolished, and that henceforth the sovereign of England would be the immediate ruler of India. In this proclamation, which may be regarded as the Magna Charta of the people of India, it was announced, in the name of the queen, that we desire no further extension of territory in India, but that what we had got we intended to hold; that we would respect the rights, dignity, and honour of the native princes; that we would in every way endeavour to further the interests of the people, and in no way interfere with their religious convictions.

2. The title of _Empress of India_ was not assumed until some years later. But the assumption of that title, and the change in the form of government, as stated in the proclamation, gave great satisfaction to the princes and people of India. Our Indian government acquired new dignity in their eyes, and our rule became more acceptable, since they could now regard themselves as fellow-subjects with ourselves of the same personal sovereign. They had now distinct promises on which they could rely, for they knew by experience that their English masters would feel themselves bound by their own words. Nothing is more gratifying to our national pride than the reliance thus placed on the pledged word of our Government. "It is certain," says a great Polish writer, in reference to the Boer war, "that if King Edward VII. guaranteed to the Boers, with his royal word, the enjoyment of their liberty and laws, not an Englishman would be found throughout the gigantic British Empire, who would not burn with shame if the royal promise were broken."

3. The improved state of feeling among the people of India, in consequence of the changes which had been made, and the distinct promises they had received, showed itself very clearly, when, a few years later, the Prince of Wales--now King Edward VII.--paid a visit to India as the representative of Queen Victoria. His progress through the land called forth a succession of brilliant demonstrations--cities, temples, and palaces, being illuminated in his honour. All the princes and rajahs of India vied with each other in the magnificence of their trappings and the splendour of their welcome. And when at last the Prince set sail for England, the ship was laden with numerous memorials and presents of great variety, value, and interest. The proclamation in the following year of the queen's new title, as Empress of India, tended to draw still closer the ties of love and loyalty between Her Majesty and her Indian subjects.

4. Sweeping changes were made in our Indian army at the close of the Mutiny. That army now contains only two natives to one European, and the artillery is kept almost entirely in the hands of British soldiers. Many wars have occurred in India since it came under the British crown, but they have all been wars on her borders, keeping strife and danger far removed from every home in India. They have been wars to preserve internal peace, and to strengthen our frontiers, especially on the borders of Afghanistan, the only quarter from which an invading army could approach India except by sea.

5. But the chief enemy we have had to fight in India since the days of the Mutiny is famine, which has been known to carry off in a single year five millions of people. This calamity has arisen not from want of food in India, but from the difficulty of transporting it to the distressed districts. As famine in India is caused by an insufficient rainfall, great works have been executed to store water in vast tanks or lakes--for instance, by damming up the outlet of some mountain valley--and to cut canals for carrying water to the crops suffering from drought. Great engineering works have been taken in hand to keep the great rivers in bounds, and to prevent their waters in time of flood from rushing with ruin and havoc over the land.

6. If the British were to abandon India to-morrow they would leave behind them a grand memorial of their works for the good of the country, in their schools and colleges, their telegraphs, railways, roads, bridges, canals, reservoirs, and river embankments. People who have only seen such things in our own island-home, have no conception of the great scale on which such works have been carried out in a large country like India--a country as large as all Europe, leaving out Russia--where the rivers are immense, and subject to terrible floods from the down-pouring tropical rains which fall most copiously on the southern slopes of the Himalayas.

7. It is true that we do not give India the same kind of government we give Canada and Australia. We are obliged to govern India, not according to the notions of the natives, but according to our own. We take care, however, to keep order and see justice done, not only in the provinces under direct British rule, but also in the dependent states, which occupy about two-fifths of the country, and contain one-fourth of the population. There are no less than seven hundred of these states, great and small; none of them may make alliance with any other state except Britain; each of them must admit a British resident, who keeps an eye on its government. If any prince, after repeated warnings, fails to reform, he is replaced by another native, for Britain annexes no longer. On the other hand, a prince who does his duty and governs wisely, receives from the Emperor some mark of distinction or titular honour, nowhere in the world more valued than in India.

8. It will be seen then that our government of India is despotic, like that of a schoolmaster, who makes his own laws and administers them for the good of his scholars. There is, however, this difference. In India, the natives themselves are admitted to a large share in the administration of the laws and in the service of the state, an arrangement tending to keep the educated natives contented and to train them for the work of self-government.

9. On the whole, it may be said with truth that there is nothing more wonderful in the history of the world than that, under the flag of these two little islands, there should have grown up the greatest and most beneficent despotism that the world has sees. The very face of the country has changed; pestiferous swamps have been drained, and are now fertile lands with healthy cities. Wide tracts of jungle, the secure refuge of evil beasts, have been reclaimed. The great rivers are now brought under control; canals receive their surplus waters, and instead of causing desolation, bring fertilizing streams to a thirsty land. Railroads transport corn and rice through tunnels cut in the mountains, and across mighty rivers, to distant famine-stricken districts. In short, the story of India's progress under British rule is one of which we may well be proud.

10. The advantage, however, has not been all on one side. The connection with India has brought, and still brings, much grist to our own mill. It provides high salaries for about eight hundred of our most competent countrymen, acting as governors, magistrates, and high state officials; it offers employment for our engineers and land surveyors; it serves as an excellent training-ground for our officers and soldiers; and, above all, it opens up a splendid trade to our merchants and manufacturers. Were India to fall into the hands of a foreign power, like Russia, our merchants would probably find themselves, if not shut out entirely from the markets of India, much hampered in doing a profitable business. But with the government in our own hands we can make such regulations as tend to the mutual advantage of the two countries. So flourishing is the trade between them now that its annual value amounts to more than £50,000,000.

11. Such being the mutual advantages to India and Britain of our rule in that great country, it would be an indelible stain on our name and nation, if through indifference, or negligence, or faint-heartedness, we were to lose an empire built up by so much genius and heroism under the controlling hand of an unseen Power.

"We sailed wherever ship could sail,
We founded many a mighty state;
Pray God our greatness may not fail
Thro' craven fears of being great."

(8) BARS TO PROGRESS

(Australia).

1. To measure the progress that has been made by our kinsmen in Australia, we must know something of the country in its natural condition, and of the special difficulties they have had to contend with. One of these difficulties was of our own making, and that was the landing there of shiploads of our worst criminals, many of whom fled to the "bush," and preyed upon the lonely settlers, or committed outrages upon the natives, who naturally tried to take revenge upon any white men that came in their way.

2. The plants found in Australia by the early explorers had, with few exceptions, never been seen in any other parts of the world. Strange to say, no wheat or any other cereal grew there, and but few fruits or vegetables fit for human food, although both soil and climate are in many parts so favourable to their growth that, since their introduction, they have thriven as well as in most countries.