mode to prepare them for receiving his orders, and every one who partook of the chupatties was held pledged to obey the order whenever it might come, and whatever it might be." "What is the nature of the order in the present case," asked the officer, whereupon the emissary of the crusading Nana Sahib- for in all probability he, and no other, was at the bottom of the whole movement rejoined with a suspicious smile, "We don't know yet." There were, it appears, two precedents for this mysterious practice. In the papers of Sir John Malcolm, Mr. Kaye remembers that a statement occurs to the effect that in 1806, just before the mutiny of the Coast Army, there had been a mysterious circulation of sugar. In 1818, also, there was a distribution of cocoa nuts in Central India. article employed seems to signify nothing, the essence of the transaction being, as one Chuni, a news-writer, stated it during the trial of the King of Delhi, to "invite the whole population to unite for some secret object afterwards to be disclosed.” The The evidence is strong that Nana Sahib had been for some time before stirring up a revolt. A native emissary, whose testimony was taken by the Hon. H. B. Devereux, Judicial Com missioner of Mysore, de lared that Nana Sahib was always a worthlesstellow. Three years before he had consult ed Dassa Bawa as to his fortune, and given him rewards in consequence of the favourable result. Dassa Bawa had told him that he would be as powerful as the Peishwah had been, "Dassa Bawa then made a Hunooman horoscope of eight angles." Nana, after seven days of prayer, went to sleep on the horoscope, and Hunooman having revealed to him that he would be victorious, he felt that the truth of the prediction had been confirmed, and in the exaggeration of his feeling of gratitude, presented Dassa Bawa with twenty five thousand rupees worth of jewe "Dasa Bawa," added the informant, is the person who has advised the Nana throughout. There is no reason to disbeneve a story so probable. Certain it is, at all events, that when Nana visited Lucknow his plans were He came over," says the The Mutinies in Oude,” Jobins, “on pretence of seeing the spectacle at Lucknow, accompanied by his younger brother and a numerous retinue. He visited me, and his manner was arrogant and presuming. To make a show of dignity and importance, he brought six or seven followers with him into the room, for whom chairs were demanded." Sir Henry Lawrence had received the embryo rebel kindly, and ordered the authorities of the city to show him every attention. He paraded through Lucknow, with an unusually large attendance, in the most demonstrative fashion. Still his bearing excited no suspicion until after his sudden departure for Cawnpore, on pretence of urgent business, when it seemed advisable to warn Sir Hugh Wheeler against him. The warning, however, came too late. The Nana had determined during his visit to Lucknow that his opportunity was ripe, and made no delay in commencing his work by an act of infamous and horrid savagery without a parallel. With reference to his correspondence with Russia, Mr. Kaye states that it is by no means improbable that his diligent agent, Azim-oollah Khan, entered into communication with some Russian officers, “responsi ble or irresponsible." Mr. Russell has informed us that Azim-collah Khan visited the Crimea. It will be remembered that the author of the Diary in India" gives an account of his meeting with the Sepoy emissary in the trenches before Sebastopol. When Mr. Russell mentioned the matter to the Governor-General, “he was much struck with it." After the repulse of the Allies on the 18th of June, the slim and crafty oriental appeared at Constantinople. spoke English and French fluently. Having obtained a passage to the Crimea, he was found on a certain day, inside the cemetery, intently watching the fire of the Russian guns. Mr. Russell says further : He "This fellow, as we all know, was the Nana's secretary and chef adviser in the mas-acres at Cawnpore, Now is it not cu rious enough that he should have felt such an interest to see, with his own eyes, how matters were going on in the Crimea? It would not be strange in a Europan, but in an Asiatic, of the non-military caste, it certainly is Hea the British army in a stute if some depression, an i he formed, as I have since heard, a very unfavourable opinion of its morale and physique, in comparison with that of the French. Let us remember that soon after his arrival in India, he accompanied Nana Sahib to Lucknow, where they remained some time, and are thought, by those who recollect their tone and demeanour, to have exhibited considerable insolence and hauteur towards the Europeans they met. Afterwards, the worthy couple, on the pretence of a pilgrimage to the Hills-a Hindoo and Mussulman joined in a holy excursion!-visited the military stations all along the main trunkroad, and went as far as Umballah. [Mr. Russell is the sole authority, it appears, for the statement that Nana was at Umballah in the spring of 1857, but Azim-oollah Khan was certainly there.]" It is worthy of remark that when Azim-oollah Khan was in the Crimea, he openly declared himself "of no religion;" and it is very manifest that, to whatever use Nana and his confederate were able to turn the religious prejudices of the people, supposed to have been insulted by the European authorities, neither had the least respect for religious scruples. It is stated in the MS. Records, quoted by Mr. Kaye in his valuable and interesting appendix, that Nana Sahib wrote to Gholab Singh and to Russia, and got an answer from the latter to the effect that no assistance could be given him unless he took and held Delhi; but that, if he could so far succeed, aid would be forthcoming to drive the English from Calcutta. It is plain that the Indian authorities were entirely at fault with respect to the real source of danger. Whilst they were directing their exclusive attention to the question of the greased cartridges, they were totally unaware of the nature of the conspiracy, of which that incident was but an accidental part. Had they fathomed Nana Sahib early in the spring of 1857, and the movements of Azim-oollah Khan ought to have awakened suspicion, and had they simply laid both of these plotters by the heels together in some secure dungeon, there would have been no Indian Mutiny. With respect to this extraordinary man and unexampled criminal, and his designs and movements, Mr. Kaye records his own opinion, after a careful review of the evidence at which we have been briefly hinting, thus:"It was no sudden thought, born of the accident of the greased cartridges, that took the disappointed Brahmin and his VOL. LXV. – NO. CCCLXXXV. Mahomedan friend to Lucknow in the spring of this year of trouble. For months, for years, indeed, ever since the failure of the mission to England had been apparent, they had been quietly spreading their net-work of intrigue all over the country. From one native Court to another native Court, from one extremity to another of the great continent of India, the agents of the Nana Sahib had passed with overtures and invitations, discreetly, perhaps mysteriously, worded, to Princes and Chiefs of different races and religions, but most hopefully of all to the Mahrattas. At the three great Mahratta families, the families of the Rajah of Sattarah, of the Peishwah, of the Boonsla, Lord Dalhousie had struck deadly blows. In the Southern Mahratta country, indeed, it seemed that Princes and Nobles were alike ripe for rebellion. It was a signiticant fact that the agents of the great Sattarah and Poona families had been doing their master's work in England about the same time, that both had returned to India rank rebels, and that the first year of Lord Canning's administration found Rungo-Bapojee as active for evil in the South as Azim-oollah was in the North; both able and unscrupulous men, and hating the English with a deadlier hatred for the very kindness that had been shown to them. But it was not until the crown had been set upon the annexations of Lord Dalhousie by the seizure of Oude, that the Nana Sahib and his accomplices saw much prospect of success. That event was the turning-point of their career of intrigue. What had before been difficult was now made easy by this last act of English of the King of Oude tampering with the usurpation. Not only were the ministers troops at the Presidency, and sowing dangerous lies broad-cast over the length and breadth of the land, but such was the impression made by the last of our annexations, that men asked each other who was safe, and what use was there in fidelity, when so faithful a friend and ally as the King of Oude was stripped of his dominions by the Government whom he had aided in its need. It is said that Princes and Chiefs, who had held back, then came forward, and that the Nana Sahib began to receive answers to his appeals.” Mr. Kaye brings us down to the outbreak at Meerut; the junction of the Delhi troops with the insurgents; "the week of telegrams;" and the moment when the conviction came home so terribly to the GovernorGeneral's mind that all India was in flames. The outbreak at the military station at Meerut occurred on the 10th of May. In the words of the telegraphic message, which, sent by a 3 lady to her niece, to warn her not to set out from Agra for Meerut, was the first announcement of the event that reached the authorities:-"The cavalry had risen, setting fire to their own houses and several officers houses, besides having killed and wounded all European officers and soldiers they could find near the lines." Providentially this news was despatched before the insurgents had succeeded in cutting the telegraph wires and intercepting the communications. The subsequent intelligence that reached Agra was fragmental, exaggerated, and terribly alarming. From station to station the tidings sped until Calcutta was reached, and there the effect was tremendous. On the 14th it became known that the King of Delhi had thrown in his lot with the insurgents, after affecting for some days to be coerced by them, and had hoisted the rebel standard over his palace. The mutiny had become a rebellion, but not, in all probability, by any accidental consequence. The inference is forced on the student of the previous occurrences that the rising had been planned with care by men of sagacity and influence as well as remorseless cruelty of disposition and practised powers of deception. "Never,' says Mr. Kaye, since a cen tury before the foundation of our great Indian Empire had been laid by the conquest of Bengal, had such tidings as these been brought to the council chamber of the that seemed so inexpli a'le to him. Mat penw that the conflagrati n woull not spread from cantonment to cantonment no hope now that the wh le country would not soon be in a blaze,' Lord Canning seems after the stunning effects of the first accounts had been re covered from, to have promptly set himself to gather on his stru !' wa ^x« ., 'i fark before 1, ta Every thought himself at once of the Persian and send down -uch of the Purjab regimetta, with the European,' as he could safely spare Every exertion,' the message addi must be made to regain Delhi.' 'If you (id Lord Canning, in the letter to Colvin, at Agra) find it necessary, you may apN, in the Governor-General's name, to tha Rajah of Pattecola and the Rajah of Theer 1 We leave Canning, "with a st 1, The one i any man less daring and clearsighted than Lord Elgin, they might have failed of their purpose; and the credit of the consent was fully equal to that of the demand. Lord Canning's private letter to Lord Elgin is a more interesting, and in a historical point of view, more important document. Mr. Kaye prints it verbatim, and as it casts light on the character and relations of two very remarkable men, who behaved with equal energy and courage at a serious crisis, it cannot be passed over with a mere brief word of description. "My dear Elgin," he wrote, "I wish I could give you a more cheerful and acceptable greeting than you will find in the letter by which this is accompanied. As it is, you will not bless me for it, but the case which I have before me here is clear and strong. Our hold of Bengal and the Upper Provinces depends upon the turn of a word-a look. An indiscreet act or irritating phrase from a foolish commanding officer at the head of a mutinous or disaffected company, may, whilst the present condition of things, at Delhi, lasts, lead to a general rising of the native troops in the Lower Provinces, where we have no European strength, and where an army in rebellion would have everything its own way for weeks and months to come. We have seen within the last few days what that way would be. I cannot shut my eyes to the danger, or to the urgent neces sity under which I lie to collect every European that can carry arms and aid to the Government of India in the event of such a crisis. I do not want aid to put down the Meerut and Delhi rebels; that will be done easily as soon as the European troops can converge upon Delhi-but not sooner. Meanwhile, every hour of delay unavoidable delay-is an encouragement to the disaffected troops in other parts; and if any one of the unwatched regiments on this side of Agra should take heart, and give the word, there is not a fort, or cantonment, or station, in the plains of the Ganges that would not be in their hands in a fortnight. It would be exactly the same in Oude. No help that you could give me would make us safe against this, because it cannot arrive in time. The critical moments are come. well. now, and for the next ten or twelve days to If we pass through them without a spread of the outbreak, I believe all will go If we do not, the consequences will be so frightful, that any neglect to obtain any possible accession of strength whereby to shorten the duration of the reign of terror which will ensue, would be a crime. If you send me troops, they shall not be kept one hour lengr than is absolutely needed. If you come with them yourself, you shall be most heartily welcome." This letter was written on the 19th of May, four or five days after the junction of the Delhi and Meerut rebels. At the same time Lord Canning wrote home suggesting that at least three European regiments should be raised without a day's delay for Bengal, not, however, as an augmentation of the established number of the Queen's troops. The Governor-General having prepared his Proclamation before referred toa document singularly weak in construction, and glaringly out of date as issued on May 16, two days after the Delhi revolt--and having empowered the military authorities to reward native soldiers for their good deeds by instituting the "Order of Merit," had done but little positively to repress the rising, and yet had done, probably, all that any man could have done in his place. seconded at Calcutta. Mr. Kaye insists that he was badly Whilst he waited, and watched, and pondered, and trembled for the character of the next news, he had none to help him to bear the load of responsibility-to cheer the sinking, to animate the hopeful, and plan for the future. "It must be said, sorrowfully, and I would no such reservations, that Lord Canfain not say it, but History admits of ning felt bitterly, that, with some few honorable exceptions, the English officers at the Presidency were not giving him the moral support which, in such a crisis, would have been so grateful and refreshing to him, and for which truly he had a right to look." He was profoundly mortified. Where he ought to have found strength he met with a miserable timidity. "Men whom he thought to see sustaining and encouraging others by their own resolute bearing and their cheerfulness of speech, went about from place to place infecting their friends with their own despondency, and chilling the hearts which they should have warmed by their example." These men were not wanting battle-field, but they stalked about-in the bravery of the soldier in the prophets of evil, uttering the gloomiest anticipations, “and speaking through all the strata of English society at the capital the alarm which a more confi dent demeanor in the upper places might have arrested." Lord Canning's sense of the evil results of this gratuitous and craven despondeney was such that he wrote to Eng land cautioning the authorities against crediting the stories sent home in private letters, It appears clear that General Hearsey, an officer whose name will stand recorded in the first rank of those by whom India was saved, first proposed the bringing of the European troops from China; but Henry Lawrence made the same suggestion, and it must have occurred to many. It was the good fortune of England that she was still served in India at this crisis by brave spirits, despite the enfeebling effects of the New School policy men who did not hesitate, to take one illustration of their character, to telegraph to the Governor - General, as Henry Law rence did when the storm burst around him – “ Give me plenary military power in Oudh; I will not use it unnecessarily." Much in the same tone, John Lawrence at once asked liberty to raise, at his discretion, a force of Sikh Irregulars. The cause of England was maintained by giants in the principal provinces where the flames of revolt raged. Had weaker men occupied those posts, it is hard to say how much more d'thult the suppression of the revolt night not have proved; and if there is a moral written upon the story, in its earlier stage so far as the Historien brings us- it is that n thing compensates in emergencies for the want of force and decision of character, in combination with sagacity, moderation, and temper, in those to whom the nation has confided authority. It would be unfair to elese this review without adding that Mr. Kaye has acquitted himself nobly, and contributed to our historical literatu.e the first portion of a book winch hus countrymen will earnestly hope he may in due course be able to compiete in the excellent spirit in which he has begun. AN IRISH ACTRESS- ELIZABETH FARREN : WITH CONTEMPORANEOUS NOTICES THIS distinguished dughter of Thalia comedy, but was also singularly was one of the most elegant actresses happy in sentimental parts, inclining that ever trod the boards of a theatre, to the pathetic, such as Cecilia m the and, perhaps, the best representative "Chapter of Accidents,” In doing su of a fine lady-equal, if not superior the "Conscious Lovers," or Juni in that line, to Mrs. Oldfield," Mrs. in the "Rivals." Impassioned, heartWothngton, or Mrs. Abington Her rending tragedy was beyond Fer person was tail, and her bearing aris- reach. She stood before the pub je tocratic. She might have been pro- for twenty years, at the expiration of nounced a little too than by the adiar which time she retired from profes ers of beauty in its fall blown propor- sional lite, in the zenith of her pertions; that great connoisseur, George–sonal charms, with her reputation stil the Fourth, would certainly have thought so, juding by his well known mitterative requisites She had an expressive face and regular features; a powerful, though melow and feminine voice. Her education had been carefully attended to. Her pronunci ation was perfectly articulate, and her manner of spiking tree from ad approach to affeétation, provatie „alisin, or vulasty. Few laaits on the stage. 1.ve exercised this great quaaty with dera yard refinement. Se x vied it pay, fava ta' ar increasing, and was elevated to one of the noblest coronets in the peerage by her union with the tweitth Farl of Derby, on the sth of May, 1797. For thirty two years she insparted grace and dignity to the exaited posttion to which herabilities and amia'le qualities had so worthi's raised her. Eight actresses have thus attained high end postion by marry e Lavinia Entón, the or 2 nal Poly in the “Egzata Opera," became Da Less of B Hon. Ar tha - n. Countes of Peter ere |