[1849 A.D.] from Golconda to Delhi, where, in the year 1665, it was seen by the French traveller Tavernier, in the possession of Aurangzeb. Sometimes worn on the person of the Mughal emperors, sometimes adorning the famous peacock throne, this inestimable gem was safely preserved at Delhi until the invasion of Nadir Shah. Among the spoils of conquest which the Persian warrior carried back with him, in triumph, to Khorassan, and which have been variously estimated at from twenty to one hundred million pounds sterling, the Koh-i-nur was the most precious trophy. But it was destined to pass from Persia as quickly as that ephemeral supremacy in virtue of which it had been acquired. When the Persian conqueror was assassinated, in 1747, the Afghan chief, Ahmed Abdullah Shah, who had served under him as treasurer, on his return to Herat carried with him the treasure in his possession, including this diamond. It seemed as if the Koh-i-nur carried with it the sovereignty of Hindustan; for the conquests of Ahmed were as decisive as those of Nadir, and it was by his influence and assistance that the last emperor ascended the throne of the Mughals. With the overthrow of the Durani monarchy by the consolidated power of the Sikhs, under Ranjit Singh, the jewel passed to a new master. Shah Shuja, of Kabul, was the last chief of the Abdullah dynasty who possessed it. When Shah Shuja was a fugitive from Kabul, under the equivocal protection of the Sikh chief, Ranjit Singh put the shah under strict surveillance, and made a formal demand for the jewel. The Durani prince hesitated, prevaricated, temporised, and employed all the artifices of oriental diplomacy, but in vain. When first given to Shah Jahan, the Koh-i-nur was still uncut, weighing, it is said, in that rough state, nearly eight hundred carats, which were reduced by the unskilfulness of the artist to two hundred and seventy-nine, its present weight. It was cut by Hortensio Borgis, a Venetian, who, instead of receiving a compensation for his service, was fined ten thousand rupees for his wastefulness, by the enraged Mughal. In form it is "rose-cut," that is to say, it is cut to a point in a series of small faces, or "facets," without any tabular surface. The Koh-i-nur was seized by the British resident at Lahore, when first apprised of the outbreak at Multan. At the conclusion of the war it was taken to England, presented to the queen, and placed among the jewels of the crown.b INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS: THE SECOND BURMESE WAR (1849-1852 A.D.) After these bloody wars, the British Empire in the East enjoyed several years of undisturbed repose. All the outbreaks which had occurred subsequent to the Afghanistan disaster, every effort at independence which had been made, had led to overthrow and subjugation. The Sind amirs had tried it, and failed; the Gwalior people had tried it, and failed. Even the great and colossal power of the Sikhs had been overthrown; and after two desperate and bloody campaigns, their capital had been taken, their army disbanded, their kingdom incorporated with the all-conquering state. Struck with this astonishing series of victories immediately succeeding so dire a calamity, the inhabitants of the vast peninsula of Hindustan, for the time at least, abandoned the contest; and, submitting to the dominion of the British as the decree of providence, sought only to improve the advantages which the general establishment of internal peace afforded, and to improve the means of industry which its vast extent and powerful protection seemed to promise. The East India Company took advantage of this precious breathing-time [1851-1852 A.D.] from external war to afford every facility in their power to the development of the internal resources of their vast territories. Canals were dug or restored, roads made, railroads surveyed, and in part at least executed. The mind of Lord Dalhousie, essentially administrative, was ardently and successfully directed to these great objects. Then were projected, and in great part executed, those magnificent public works which have so completely effaced the well-known reproach cast by Mr. Burke upon the British administration in India, and which will bear a comparison with any in the world for greatness of conception and perfection of execution. The Taking of Fort Martaban This happy state of tranquillity was first broken in upon, in 1852, by a second rupture with the Burmese government, which arose from the pride and arrogance of a barbaric court, and their inconceivable ignorance of the strength of the power with which they were in close contact. So many cases of injury occurred in the course of the years 1851 and 1852, that the governor-general came to the conclusion that the law of nations had been violated, especially by the governor of Rangoon in his cruel and oppressive conduct to British subjects. The period allowed for accommodation having elapsed, an expedition was despatched under the command of General Godwin, an experienced officer, who had been engaged in the former war, to enforce redress. The expedition sailed for the mouth of the Irawadi on the 28th of March, the naval force being under the orders of RearAdmiral Austen. On the 5th of April the fort of Martaban, commanding one of the entrances of the river, was attacked, and the place carried, though garrisoned by five thousand of the best soldiers in the Burmese Empire. After this success the expedition proceeded up the Irawadi to Rangoon, which stands on the left bank of the principal branch of the river, about twenty miles from the sea. Hostilities were commenced by a general attack by the war-steamers on the enemy's flotilla and river defences; and in a few hours the former were all burned, and the latter levelled with the ground. The troops were then landed without further resistance, and advanced against the town. The garrison fled in confusion through the southern and western [1856 A.D.] gates, where they were met by the fire of the steamers, and obliged to seek safety by dispersing in the jungle. The immediate surrender of Rangoon was the result of this victory, which was soon followed by the submission of all the adjacent country. The stores, ammunition, and heavy guns were then landed, and placed in Rangoon, which was strengthened and garrisoned by a strong body of troops, it being the design of government to make it not only the base of present operations, but a permanent acquisition to the British Empire in the East. These precautions having been taken, the troops were again moved forward up the Irawadi. On the 19th they were before Bassein, where a strong mud-fort was stormed, after a desperate resistance. Martaban, the first conquest of the British, which was garrisoned only by a small native force, was soon after attacked by a large body of Burmese, but the assailants were repulsed with great slaughter. Encouraged by these successes, an expedition was fitted out early in July, under Captain Tarleton, to reconnoitre the river as far as Prome, which was taken. Offensive operations were resumed as soon as the return of the cool season rendered them practicable. On the 25th of September the troops were embarked at Rangoon, and they came in sight of Prome on the 9th of October, where they were shortly after landed. They immediately advanced, and made themselves masters of a fortified pagoda situated on an eminence which commanded the enemy's position. Upon this the Burmese evacuated the town in the night. This success was followed by the capture of Pegu, a large town about sixty miles from Rangoon (November 20th). This was followed by a proclamation from the governor-general, which, "in compensation for the past, and for better security for the future, proclaimed that the province of Pegu is now, and shall henceforth be, a portion of the British territories in the East." No further attempt was now made to disquiet the British in their newly acquired conquest, and unbroken peace reigned through their vast dominions from the mouths of the Indus to those of the Irawadi, and from Cape Comorin to the Himalaya snows. ANNEXATION OF OUDH (1856 A.D.) This period of tranquillity, during which Lord Dalhousie was incessantly occupied with his great projects of domestic improvement and social amelioration, was not even interrupted by an important event in the east of India. This was the annexation of Oudh, which, without any hostilities, was carried into effect by a simple resolution of the governor-general in council on March 17th, 1856. This powerful state, whose inhabitants were a nation of warriors, lies on the eastern bank of the Ganges, between Cawnpore and Nepal, embraces twenty-five thousand square miles of territory, and contained at the period of annexation five million inhabitants. It was, however, notorious that, though the kings of Oudh since that time had never failed in their duty to the British government, but, on the contrary, essentially served it on many occasions, yet they had scandalously violated the rights of their own subjects. The government of Lucknow, the capital, was perhaps the most corrupt and oppressive in the world, so far as its own people were concerned. Moved by the petitions of the unhappy sufferers under these exactions, and by the obvious discredit which they brought on the British government and connection, the governor-general in 1856 proposed a treaty to the king of Oudh, by which the sole and exclusive H. W.-VOL. XXII. M [1856-1857 A.D.] administration of the country was to be transferred to the East India Company, with the right to the whole state revenue, burdened with a due provision to the reigning family, who were to be allowed to retain their royal titles, and enjoy their palaces and parks at Lucknow. These terms, as might have been expected, having been rejected by the king, a proclamation was forthwith issued, declaring the kingdom incorporated with the dominions of the East India Company, and requiring all the inhabitants to yield obedience to their authority. The British forces immediately entered the country from Agra and Cawnpore, and took possession of the capital and whole territories without resistance. About the same time the territories of the rajah of Satara were incorporated with the British dominions; those of the rajah of Berar had already been absorbed in 1853; but these encroachments, being on inconsiderable native potentates, were made without opposition, and excited very little attention. Unhappily the ease with which this annexation was accomplished at the time misled the government as to the precautions necessary to secure this acquisition, and the representations of Lord Dalhousie on that subject remained without effect. Not a man of European race was added to the force in the country; Delhi, the great arsenal of northern India, was left exclusively in the hands of the native troops; and a few hundred British, and a few battalions of sepoys, formed the sole garrison of the most warlike and formidable people of eastern India. ALISON ON THE RULE OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY The war in the Punjab throws a bright light on those which preceded it in Gwalior and Sind, and vindicates Lord Ellenborough's administrations from the aspersions thrown upon it for the commencement of hostilities against these powers. Judging by the European standard, there can be no doubt that he was the aggressor on both those occasions; because, although the native powers were the first to engage in hostile acts, this had been rendered necessary by a course of encroachments on the part of the British. But it is now apparent that this was unavoidable. The opposite system was followed by the East India directors and Lord Hardinge, who forswore all hostile preparations against the Sikhs, and brought the Indian Empire to the brink of ruin, in order to avoid giving a pretext even for hostilities; and what was the consequence? Two terrible wars, in which the utmost hazard was incurred, and in which salvation was earned only by heroic efforts, and the shedding of torrents of blood. What would have been the fate of these wars if they had occurred when the British flank was threatened by the insurrection in Sind, and their communications cut off by the forces of Gwalior? In all probability India would have been lost. It was by anticipating the danger, and combating the hostile powers in succession, that the danger was averted and India saved. For this immense service the country was indebted to Lord Ellenborough; and, according to the usual course of human events, it is not the least conclusive proof of the reality of the obligation that the East India Company requited it by his recall. So strong is the desire for economy of their own money, however anxious to get that of others, and so invincible the repugnance to make costly preparations against future danger, in the great majority of men, that whoever attempts or recommends it is certain to incur present obloquy, and, if his opponents have the power to effect it, political downfall. But the same form of justification can scarcely be applied to the incorpora [1856-1857 A.D.] tion of Oudh. Unlike the warlike powers in the northwest of India, the government of Oudh had engaged in no hostile designs or preparations against that of Great Britain. Through all the changes of fortune for a half century, it had stood faithful by the British. Whatever faults it had committed, and they were many, had been directed against its own subjects, and related to matters of internal administration. Other grounds of justification in the case of Oudh must therefore be sought than that of hostility to Great Britain; and these are found by the defenders of the annexation in the fact that, by the treaty of 1801, there was expressly stipulated to the British government a right of interference, in the event of such internal mal-administration as was charged against the native authorities. As this encroachment was instrumental in bringing about the rebellion of 1857, and the terrible war which ended in the termination of the East India Company's rule in India, in conformity with the old Hindu prophecy, in the hundredth year after its foundation by the battle of Plassey, it is a fitting opportunity to consider what was the extent and magnitude of the empire which in that period - short in the lifetime of a nation had been formed by the energy and perseverance of the company, and the courage of the nation which aided them by its resources. India, then, contained, in 1858, when the direct rule of the East India Company was merged in that of the home government, 180,367,148 inhabitants, extending over 1,465,322 square miles. Of these, 131,990,881 were under the direct dominion of the East India Company, and 48,376,247 the inhabitants of the protected states. The revenue (gross) of this immense territory was £30,817,000, of which £17,109,000 was the land-tax, £5,195,000 drawn from the monopoly of opium, £2,631,000 from that of salt, and £2,106,000 from customs. The cost of collection was about £6,000,000; the charge of the army was £11,000,000 annually; the interest of debt in India £2,000,000; and £3,500,000 were remitted to Great Britain for charges payable at home, or interest on the debt due there. The annual deficit was on an average of the four years between 1854 and 1858, £1,500,000 annually; in the year ending April 30th, 1857, it was £1,981,062. The army amounted in the same month to 231,276 native troops, of whom 26,129 were cavalry, regular and irregular; 22,047 Europeans in the employment of the East India Company, of whom 6,585 were artillery; and the queen's troops in India before the revolt broke out were 31,800, all paid by the East India Company. The auxiliary troops, which the protected states were bound to furnish, were 32,211 more; in all, nearly 320,000 men. The public debt of India was £68,000,000, being somewhat more than twice its income. Nor had this empire been acquired by conquest over unwarlike or barbarous nations: for if the inhabitants of Bengal were a timid race, the Gurkhas, the Sikhs, the Afghans, the Mahrattas, and the inhabitants of Sind, rivalled the ancient Germans or Parthians in hardihood and valour; and in the great revolt of 1857 the East India Company encountered 120,000 soldiers, armed, instructed, and disciplined by themselves, and inferior to none in the contempt of death when animated by religious zeal. This empire embraced a greater number of inhabitants than that conquered in five centuries by the Roman legions; double the number subjugated by the Russian arms in two centuries; and more than triple those won for France by the energy of the Revolution and the victories of Napoleon! And this mighty empire, transcending any which has existed since the world began, had been acquired in one century by a pacific company, having its chief place of business fourteen thousand miles distant from the theatre of its conquests |