Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎459r] (42/238)

Lord Canning and Lord Milner.
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it was found that the old loyal Cape Colony had turned
against us, and was put under martial law! This war and
all its incidents have become household words throughout
the United Kingdom ; and as it has lasted longer, the
feeling is, I think, intenser than what was generated by the
Indian Mutiny, the latest great struggle of our Empire.
It is likely, therefore, that the policy, the methods, and the
tactics used in Africa, being so notorious, will be appealed
to as precedents in years to come, whenever we are at
arm’s length with a colony or encounter disturbances in
India. There is some danger that our Indian traditions
maybe forgotten or slighted. The Mutiny of 1857 is even
now growing dim to British eyes ; we remember the
massacres and the sieges, but the policy which overcame
the Sepoy Term used in English to refer to an Indian infantryman. Carries some derogatory connotations as sometimes used as a means of othering and emphasising race, colour, origins, or rank. army and prevented their revolt changing into a
general rebellion is passing out of mind—at any rate,
that policy, abundantly successful though it was, has
received barely a passing mention in the organs of public
opinion, since this disappointing war began above two
years ago. Such indifference to a great lesson in history
startles and surprises me for more reasons than one. The
policy applied in India, then, as now, chiefly associated with
Lord Canning, was fiercely debated there and at home. It
soon led to a petition from the Calcutta Europeans for his
recall ; it afterwards brought about the resignation of Lord
Ellenborough, and nearly destroyed the Cabinet of which
he was a member. Its immediate result was the speedy
re-establishment of our power in India, followed by a general
peace, carefully based on the goodwill of the natives, which
has endured to this day. Less happy than Lord Milner,
Canning had to bear the malice and censure of the
European settlers. Condemned by them for his mental
calm and merciful control, he was publicly rebuked by
Ellenborough for cruel treatment of the conquered rebels
of Oudh. But finis coronal opus: he stayed to see the war
over, grasping not at premature rewards ; and when, worn
out, he came home to die, he was crowned with an enduring