220

CAMPAIGN OF SIR ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL-PEACE.

[1825.

universally fled from their villages. The Birmese, however, did not advance. The British had taken some important places of the Birman territory, and Maha Bandoola was recalled by the Lord of the White Elephant for the defence of his Golden Empire. In December Maha Bandoola brought sixty thousand fighting men to make one overwhelming attack upon Rangoon. For seven days there was severe fighting. The Birmese troops were repeatedly driven from their stockades, and at last, when they advanced on the 7th of December for a grand attack on the great pagoda, they were driven back into their entrenchments, and after severe fighting were chased into the jungle.

The rainy monIn the middle of great battles, in

In February, 1825, Sir Archibald Campbell began to move up the Irawaddi into the interior of the Birman empire. As part of his force advanced to attack the formidable works of Donoopew, they were repulsed, and the retreat was so precipitate that the wounded men were not carried off. The barbarity in warfare of the Birmese was notorious. These unfortunate men were all crucified, and their bodies sent floating down the river upon rafts. On the 25th of March sir Archibald Campbell undertook the siege of Donoopew. For a week there had been an incessant fire from our mortars and rockets, and the breaching batteries were about to be opened, when two Lascars, who had been taken prisoners, came to the camp, and said that the chiefs and all the Birmese army had fled, for that Maha Bandoola had been killed the day before by one of our shells. By the possession of Donoopew the navigation of the Irawaddi became wholly under our command. The army continued to advance, and Prome was occupied at the end of April. soon now set in, and there was a suspension of operations. November and beginning of December there were two the latter of which the Birmese were thoroughly discomfited. Overtures of peace were now made, but their object was only to gain time. At the beginning of 1826 there was severe fighting as the British advanced towards Ava. Repeated defeats and the approach of a conquering army compelled the king really to sue for peace when the British had reached Yandaboo, only fortyfive miles from the capital. He had previously refused to ratify preliminaries which had been concluded on the 3rd of January, in announcing which event to her friends at home, lady Amherst described herself" in the highest state of exultation and joy." The vigorous operations of sir Archibald Campbell, who had defeated a large army styled "The Retrievers of the King's glory," had finally compelled the treaty of Yandaboo, which was signed on the 24th of February. By this treaty the king of Ava agreed to renounce all claims upon the principality of Assam and its dependencies; to cede in perpetuity the conquered provinces of Aracan, of Yeh, of Tavoy, of Mergui, and of Tenasserim; and to pay the sum of one crore of rupees towards the expenses of the war. He further agreed that accredited British ministers

should be allowed to reside at Ava; that an accredited Birmese minister should reside at Calcutta; and that free trade to British subjects should be allowed in the Birmese dominions.

The fierce conflict of two years on the banks of the Irawaddi presented a memorable example of that courage and endurance which eventually overcomes dangers and difficulties apparently insuperable. It has been truly said by an officer engaged in this war, "Perhaps there are few instances on record

Lord Colchester's "Diary," vol. iii. p. 430.

1825.]

BOMBARDMENT AND CAPTURE OF BHURTPORE.

221

in the history of any nation of a mere handful of men, with constitutions broken down by many months of previous disease and privation, forcing their way in the face of such difficulties, and through a wilderness hitherto untrodden by Europeans, to the distance of five hundred miles from the spot where they originally disembarked, and ultimately dictating a peace within three days' march of the enemy's capital."* During these land operations, with all this bravery and fortitude of the little army, it would have been impossible to succeed without the active co-operation of a flotilla on the rivers. The naval assistance thus rendered is memorable for "the employment of a power then for the first time introduced into war-steam. The steam-vessel had been very useful, not merely in carrying on communications with despatch but in overcoming formidable resistance." t

During the last year of the Birmese war the East India Company became engaged in a new conflict, for the purpose of protecting a native prince, with whom we were in alliance, against an usurper. The Rajah of Bhurtpore, before his death at the beginning of 1825, had declared his son to be his successor, and had included him in the treaty of alliance with the Company. The nephew of the deceased prince raised a revolt against this succession. Many of the native princes looked on anxiously to see if the British, with the Birmese war on their hands, would put forth any strength to maintain one of their devoted adherents. In the streets of Delhi the populace had shouted, "The rule of the Company is at an end." The prince who had been expelled had been assured by sir David Ochterlony that he should be supported. Lord Amherst was at first for non-interference. He knew that Bhurtpore had been deemed impregnable; and he might fear that, now occupied with an enormous force by the usurping Rajah, the same ill fortune might befall an attack upon the place as had befallen lord Lake in 1805, when he was beaten from the city by the Jauts, who had ever since regarded themselves as invincible. The Commander-in-Chief in India, lord Combermere, in his Peninsular experience as sir Stapleton Cotton, had seen what war was in its most difficult operations, and he could not despair of taking an Indian fortress when he recollected the terrible sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz. He had just come to India to succeed sir Edward Paget in the chief command. The duke of Wellington described his old companion-in-arms as having lost no time in joining the army on his arrival in India, and as having travelled upwards of a thousand miles in ten days, in order that he might begin the operations at a proper season. "He had commenced those operations," says the duke, "carried them on with that vigour and activity which insured their success, and had closed them by a military feat which had never been surpassed by any army upon any occasion." Lord Combermere, upon his arrival before Bhurtpore, addressed a letter to the usurper, requesting him to send out the women and children, who should have safe-conduct. This humane request was not

acceded to. On the 23rd of November the bombardment commenced. On the morning of the 18th of January the assault began at the signal given by the explosion of a mine, which utterly destroyed the whole of the salient

P. 325.

Lieut. -Col. Alexander M. Tulloch, quoted in Mac Farlane's "Our Indian Empire," vol. ii.

Mr. Wynn, in debate on Vote of Thanks to the Army, "Hansard," vol. xvii. col. 668. "Hansard," vol. xvii. col. 771.

222

THE PRESS IN INDIA.

[1818-1826. angle of the fortress. Our troops rushed in at the breaches. In two hours the whole rampart, though obstinately defended, was in our possession, and early in the afternoon the citadel surrendered. The formidable works of Bhurtpore were afterwards destroyed; the rightful prince was reinstated; and the people returned to their allegiance. The rapid and decided success of lord Combermere dissipated the fears which bishop Heber had expressed to his friends at home at the beginning of the siege. He thought that should lord Combermere fail, "all Northern and Western India, every man who owns a sword and can buy or steal a horse, will be up against us, less from disliking us than in the hope of booty."

In

Before concluding this notice of the affairs of India during the administration of three governors-general, we must advert to a matter of important controversy-the regulation of the Press in India. The first newspaper published under the rule of the Company was one established at Calcutta in 1781. Other newspapers were set up during the next twenty years. 1799, under the administration of the marquess Wellesley, regulations were issued for the newspaper press, the most important of which was that no paper should be published until it had been previously inspected by the Secretary to the government, or by a person duly authorized by him. The penalty for contravening these regulations was immediate embarkation for Europe. Mr. James Mill, in his "History of British India," describes the Indian press as a great nuisance, in its indecorous attacks upon private life, and its ignorant censures of public measures, to control which lord Wellesley's regulations were framed. In 1818 the marquess of Hastings promulgated new regulations, which did not attempt to establish a censorship, but prohibited animadversions on proceedings in England connected with the government of India; discussions on the political transactions of local administration; private scandal; and disquisitions having a tendency to create alarm amongst the natives as to the probability of any interference with their religious opinions or ceremonies. In 1816 Mr. James Silk Buckingham, who had obtained a licence to reside in Calcutta, purchased the copyright of two of the newspapers published there, and amalgamated them under the title of "The Calcutta Journal." Although the marquess of Hastings had abolished the censorship previous to publication, he had established a tribunal whose business it was to watch the statements and opinions of the Indian newspaper press, and to give to their conductors that sort of warning with which we are familiar enough in the control of the press in a neighbouring country. In India a neglect of such warnings would be followed by the deportation of the offending proprietor, if not by a total suppression of the journal in which he had embarked his property. Mr. Buckingham, according to a statement of Dr. Phillimore in the House of Commons, received three such warnings previous to the marquess of Hastings resigning his administration, one of which, in 1822, was called for by his offence in traducing the government of India respecting the kingdom of Oude.* Mr. Adam, during the interval in which he administered the government previous to the arrival of lord Amherst, took a very summary mode to put an end to the freedom of Mr. Buckingham's strictures upon Indian affairs, and

"Hansard," vol. xv. col. 1013.

1826.]

THE CASE OF MR. BUCKINGHAM.

223

especially of a freedom most obnoxious to the authorities-the disposal of their patronage. The appointment by Mr. Adam of a Scotch clergyman, the head of the Presbyterian establishment in India, to the lucrative agency through which the government was supplied with stationery, called forth the animadversions of "The Calcutta Journal." Mr. Adam immediately annulled Mr. Buckingham's licence to remain in India, adding the threat that if he were found in the country after two months he should be sent to England as a prisoner. Mr. Buckingham transferred his paper to a Britishborn subject of the name of Arnot. At the period of lord Amherst's arrival, by a series of arbitrary proceedings the deportation of Mr. Arnot was effected; "The Calcutta Journal" suppressed; and its circulation merged in a Calcutta newspaper, over which the government had efficient control by its appointment of an editor. Mr. Buckingham,-who long made England resound with the story of his wrongs, and who was in some degree recompensed by a large public subscription,-appealed to the Privy Council against the regulations of the Bengal government on the subject of the Press. The East India Company contended before the Privy Council, as Dr. Phillimore contended in his place in Parliament in 1826: "When the House considered the vast importance of our possessions in India, and the delicate tie by which they were held—that a handful of Europeans exercised supreme sway over many millions of the native people, and that our empire was maintained by opinion alone they must see that if the same freedom of discussion were allowed to prevail in that country as we enjoyed in this, and if individuals were permitted to traduce the government through the means of the press, it would be impossible to retain the power which this country held in India."* Nevertheless, lord Amherst adopted a different policy with regard to the Press, which was undoubtedly the most prudent, as it was the most dignified. He had made one mistake on this subject upon his first arrival in India, seduced, it is alleged, by evil counsels. "Ever after, while his lordship was present in Calcutta to protect it, the Press enjoyed a freedom unknown to it for forty-four years, and experience showed, as it had done before, that that freedom was as safe as it was beneficial."+ Mr. Elphinstone, in a conversation with bishop Heber, whilst maintaining the inconvenience and even danger of unrestricted political discussion, "acknowledged that the dangers ascribed to a free press in India had been exaggerated."

In the history of British India up to this period, we find very few traces of any effort on the part of the government to call forth the material resources of the Peninsula; to supply by new appliances of modern science the decay of the ancient works by which lands were irrigated and famine prevented; to bring distant places into correspondence by roads and improved navigation. The all-absorbing business of conquest prevented any marked attention to the improvement of the native cultivation of the soil, or of the communications by which produce could be conveyed from the producer to the consumer. The Company was indeed very solicitous about the growth of opium, its great source of revenue, but it did little for the cultivation of cotton, the British demand for which would have formed a sufficient

224

MATERIAL PROGRESS OF BRITISH INDIA.

[1826. excitement to its growth and preparation for market by improved processes. Some efforts in this direction were however made by the East India Company. As early as 1788 they distributed amongst the natives seeds from different cotton-growing countries. In 1813 they brought an American to teach the people how to cultivate the cotton-plant, and they imported American gins for cleaning the wool. Small progress was made in carrying forward such improvements. The cultivation of cotton, of the sugar cane, of the hempplant, and of the cereals, would be always restricted to the local demand, as long as roads and water communications were neglected by the authorities which governed the country. Lord William Bentinck succeeded lord Amherst as Governor-General, and until his administration the roads of the country consisted of little more than native wheel-tracks. "Above Allahabad, and in various other parts, so recently as the year 1830, a regiment proceeding in course of relief from one station to another, had to be preceded by a native guide." *

'Companion to the Almanac, 1857."