APPENDIX A.- General Statement, No. I., Statistical Return 1852-3 Letter from C. Raikes, Esq., Commissioner of Lahore, to H. Ricketts, Esq., Commissioner for the Re- UNIV. OF NOTES ON THE REVOLT &c. CHAPTER I. THE FIRST OUTBREAK. On the morning of the 11th May, 1857, I was seated in my library at Agra, quietly preparing for the labour of the day, when a slip of paper was placed on my table. I read as follows: "The Mofussilite Extra. "Agra, Monday, May 11, 1857. "A telegraphic message from Meerut* states that the troopers of the 3rd Cavalry have mutinied, setting fire to their own lines and several officers' bungalows, killing and wounding all European * Meerut is 131 miles north-west from Agra. There is a good cross road from Agra to Allygurh on the Grand Trunk road. The distance from Agra to Allygurh is 51 miles, and from Allygurh to Meerut, 80 miles. This telegraphic message was a private one, sent to some resident of Agra, who was about to start for Meerut, and was thus saved from probable destruction. 2 HO VIMU NOTES ON THE REVOLT, ETC. officers and soldiers they could find near their lines. "In a station like Meerut, with the 6th Dragoons, 60th Rifles, and European artillery, it may be presumed that the mutineers had a very short race of it. Further particulars have been sent for. "The Calcutta Government Gazette announces the disbanding of seven companies of the 34th Native Infantry. "Letters from Meerut state that the eighty-five troopers 3rd Cavalry have been tried. Those most to blame have been sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, others to five years. I felt, as may be supposed, the gravity of the event thus suddenly announced. It was the bursting of the thunder-cloud I had been long and anxiously watching; or rather, the mine so long charged had at last been sprung. The fabric of the Bengal army was tottering to ruin; to pull down with it the civil and political institutions which that army had for a hundred years supported. At noon the judges of the Sudder Court assembled as usual. Business went on according to rule. Cases were tried, pleadings heard, and decrees passed. But the mind of the European functionaries was, more or less, absent. That thirst for news from the distant scene of action, which became so distressing and lasted so long, had begun. Mr. Henry Byng Harington, for many years the ornament of our bench, had just resigned his seat. His carriages were packed for a short journey to the hill station of Missouri. His route lay viâ Meerut; and from Missouri he was to have proceeded at once to Calcutta, to take his place as member (for the North-Western provinces) of the Legislative Council of India. His journey was stopped; and I may here remark that, with rare public spirit and self-devotion, he subsequently determined, at the desire of the Lieutenant-Governor, Mr. Colvin, to remain in Agra, though strongly tempted to place himself and his family in comparative security, by proceeding, as in the ordinary course of duty he was bound to do, to join his appointment in Calcutta. His advice was often most valuable to us all; and I only express the sentiments of the community of Agra, when recording our obligations to Mr. Harington for sharing our dangers and privations with us. * The road down the country from Agra to Calcutta, viâ Mynpoorie and Cawnpore, was not closed to travellers for some days after the 11th May. |