Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎460v] (45/238)

258 Lord Canning and Lord Milner.
of India to supply troops for South Africa, is as serious a
matter now as it was then. In 1856 more British regiments
were sent away to Persia, so that when the Mutiny began
there was only one European battalion left in the 750 miles
which lie between Barrackpur and Agra, and only one
within 100 miles radius of the fortress of Allahabad. With
the kingdom of Oudh, which we had annexed and occupied
about fourteen months before, 25,000 square miles and
5,000,000 of inhabitants had passed from their native prince
to the Queen. Here was a new and heavy responsibility
to be faced with a reduced British force. The Directors
of the East India Company exulted that this conquest had
been made “ without the expense of a drop of blood, and
almost without a murmur.” They treated the acquiescence
of the natives as evidence that no attachment existed to the
old Government. It was known, however, that Oudh con
tained 60,000 men of the native king’s disbanded army,
while its warlike people supplied most of our own rank and
file, every peasant household sending one member at least to
enlist under the Company’s flag. Canning, as we have
seen, did what he could to make the annexation effective ;
but with vast increases of territory he was forced, as Lord
Curzon is now, to hold India with a smaller European force,
a state of things which is soon known and noted in all the
bazaars.
In times of danger and excitement there are always some
who wish to dictate to the responsible authorities. Such
were the Europeans in Calcutta. Soon after the outbreak
at Meerut, on May 10, 1857, Lord Canning called his
Parliament together and passed a series of Acts for the
prompt punishment of mutiny, rebellion, and lawless crimes,
and these new laws were put in force in the Mofussil of
Bengal. The Calcutta people demanded that martial law
should be applied to that capital and port. Lord Canning
refused so to do on the ground that there was not the
smallest inclination to disaffection on the part of the in
habitants. He recognised the distinction which our ancient