India under the Crown, 1858-62. It fell to the lot of Lord Canning both to suppress the Mutiny, and to introduce the peaceful revolution which followed. It suffices to say that he preserved his equanimity unruffled in the darkest hours of peril, and that the strict impartiality of his conduct incurred alternate praise and blame from partisans of both sides. The epithet then scornfully applied to him of 'Clemency' Canning, is now remembered only to his honour. On 1st November 1858, at a grand darbár held at Allahábád, Queen's he sent forth the Royal Proclamation, which announced that proclama- the Queen had assumed the government of India. This Nov. 1858. document, which is, in the truest and noblest sense, the tion, Ist Magna Charta of the Indian people, proclaimed in eloquent words, the policy of justice and religious toleration; and granted an amnesty to all except those who had directly taken part in the murder of British subjects. Peace was proclaimed throughout India on the 8th July 1859. In the following cold weather, Lord Canning made a viceregal progress through the northern Provinces, to receive the homage of loyal princes and chiefs, and to guarantee to them the right of adoption. The suppression of the Mutiny increased the debt of India by about 40 millions sterling, and the military changes which ensued augmented the annual expenditure by about 10 millions. To grapple with this deficit, a distinguished Financial political economist and parliamentary financier, Mr. James reforms. Wilson, was sent out from England as financial member of Council. He reorganized the customs system, imposed an income tax and a licence duty, and created a State paper currency. He died in the midst of his splendid task; but his name still lives as that of the first and greatest finance minister of India. The Penal Code, originally drawn up by Macaulay in 1837, passed into law in 1860; together with Codes of Civil and Criminal Procedure in 1861.1 Legal reforms. Lord Elgin, 1862-63. Lord Lord Canning left India in March 1862, and died before he had been a month in England. His successor, Lord Elgin, only lived till November 1863. He expired at the Himalayan station of Dharmsálá, and there he lies buried. He was succeeded by Sir John Lawrence, the saviour of the Lawrence, Punjab. The chief incidents of his rule were the Bhután war, 1864-69. followed by the annexation of the Dwárs in 1864, and the terrible Orissa famine of 1866. In a later famine in Bundelkhand and Upper Hindustán in 1868-69, Lord Lawrence laid down the principle, for the first time in Indian history, that the officers of the Government would be held personally responsible 1 On the subject of Anglo-Indian Codification, see ante, fp. 124, 125. for taking every possible means to avert death by starvation. An inquiry was conducted into the status of the peasantry of Oudh, and an Act was passed with a view to securing them in their customary rights. After a period of fratricidal war among the sons of Dost Muhammad, the Afghán territories were concentrated in the hands of Sher Alí, and the latter was acknowledged as Amír by Lord Lawrence. A commercial crisis took place in 1866, which seriously threatened the young tea industry in Bengal, and caused widespread ruin in Bombay. Sir John Lawrence retired in January 1869, after having passed through every grade of Indian service, from an assistant magistracy to the viceroyalty. On his return to England, he was raised to the peerage. He died in 1879, and lies in Westminster Abbey. Mayo, 1869. reforms. Lord Mayo succeeded Lord Lawrence in 1869, and urged Lord on the material progress of India. The Ambálá darbár, 1869-72. at which Sher Ali was recognised as Amír of Afghánistán, Ambálá although in one sense the completion of what Lord Lawrence darbár, had begun, owed its success to Lord Mayo (1869). The visit of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh in 1869-70 gave great pleasure to the natives of India, and introduced a tone of personal loyalty into our relations with the feudatory princes. Lord Mayo reformed several of the great branches of Lord the administration, created an Agricultural Department, and Mayo's introduced the system of Provincial Finance. The impulse to Provincial local self-government given by the last measure has done finance. much, and will do more, to develop and husband the revenues of India, to quicken the sense of responsibility among the English administrators, and to awaken political life among the people. Lord Mayo also laid the foundation for the reform of the Salt Duties. He thus enabled his successors to abolish the old pernicious customs-lines which walled off Province Customsfrom Province, and strangled the trade between British India lines abolished. and the Feudatory States. He developed the material resources of the country by an immense extension of roads, railways, and canals. He carried out the beneficent system of Public Works which Lord Dalhousie had inaugurated. Lord Mayo's splendid vigour defied alike the climate and the vast tasks which he imposed on himself. He anxiously and laboriously studied with his own eyes the wants of the farthest Provinces of the empire. But his life of noble usefulness was Lord cut short by the hand of an assassin, in the convict settlement Mayo's of the Andaman Islands, in 1872. His successor was Lord Northbrook, whose ability found death, 1872. Lord Northbrook, 1872-76. Lord Lytton, 1876-80. The of India.' pre-eminent scope in the department of finance.1 During his viceroyalty, a famine which threatened Lower Bengal in 1874 was successfully obviated by a vast organization of State relief; the Marhattá Gáekwár of Baroda was dethroned in 1875 for misgovernment and disloyalty, but his dominions were continued to a nominated child of the family; and the Prince of Wales made a tour through the country in the cold weather of 1875-76. The presence of His Royal Highness evoked a passionate burst of loyalty never before known in the annals of British India. The feudatory chiefs and ruling houses of India felt for the first time that they were incorporated into the Empire of an ancient and a splendid dynasty. Lord Lytton followed Lord Northbrook in 1876. On January 1, 1877, Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India at a darbár Empress of unparalleled magnificence, held on the historic 'ridge' overlooking the ancient Mughal capital, Delhi. But while the princes and high officials of the country were flocking to this gorgeous scene, the shadow of famine was darkening over Southern India. Both the monsoons of 1876 had failed to Famine of bring their due supply of rain, and the season of 1877 was little 1877-78. better. This long-continued drought stretched from the Deccan to Cape Comorin, and subsequently invaded Northern India, causing a famine more widespread than any similar calamity since 1770. Despite vast importations of grain by sea and rail, despite the most strenuous exertions of the Government, which incurred a total expenditure on this account of II millions sterling, the loss of life from actual starvation and its attendant train of diseases was lamentable. The deaths from want of food, and from the diseases incident to a famine-stricken population, were estimated at 5 millions. In the autumn of 1878, the affairs of Afghánistán again forced themselves into notice. Sher Ali, the Amír, who had been hospitably entertained by Lord Mayo, was found to be favouring Russian intrigues. A British embassy was refused admittance to the country, while a Russian mission was received with honour. This led to a declaration of war. British armies advanced by three routes - the Khaibar (Khyber), the Kuram, and the Bolán; and without much. Afghán affairs, 1878-81. 1 It would be unsuitable for an officer of the Government to attempt anything beyond the barest summary of events in India since the death of Lord Mayo in 1872. The three Viceroys who have ruled during the past nine years are, happily, still living; their policy forms the subject of keen contemporary criticism; and the administrators, soldiers, and diplomatists who gave effect to that policy still hold possession of the scene. opposition occupied the inner entrances of the passes. Sher Alí fled to Afghán Turkistán, and there died. A treaty was entered into with his son, Yákub Khán, at Gandamak, by which the British frontier was advanced to the crests or farther sides of the passes, and a British officer was admitted to reside at Kábul. Within a few months the British Resident, Sir Louis Cavagnari, was treacherously attacked and massacred together with his escort, and a second war became necessary. Yakub Khán abdicated, and was deported to India. At this crisis of affairs, a general election in England resulted in a defeat of the Conservative Ministry. Lord Lytton resigned simultaneously with the Home Government, and the Marquis of Ripon was nominated as his successor in April 1880. Since then, a British brigade received a defeat between Kandahár and the Helmand river from the Herát troops of Ayub Khán; a defeat promptly and completely Marquis of retrieved by the brilliant march of General Sir Frederick 1880-81. Roberts from Kábul to Kandahár, and by the total rout of Ayub Khán's army on 1st September 1880. Abdurrahman Khán, the eldest male representative of the stock of Dost Muhammad, was recognised by us as Amír. The British forces retired from Kábul, leaving him, as our friend, in possession of the capital. The withdrawal of our troops from Kandahár was also effected. Soon afterwards Ayub Khán advanced with an army from Herát, defeated the Amir Abdurrahman's troops, and captured Kandahár. Abdurrahman marched south with his forces from Kábul, and completely routed Ayub Khán on 22d September, re-occupied Kandahár, and now reigns as undisputed Amír of Afghanistán (October 1881). The Native State of Mysore was replaced under its hereditary dynasty on the 25th March 1881. CHAPTER XIV. India in BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA. Control of THE Act of 1858, which transferred India from the Company State. His Court of Directors had been answerable to the shareholders, or Court of Proprietors, on the one hand, and, through the Board of Control, to the Sovereign and to Parliament on the Under the other. The Act of 1858 did away with these intermediary Crown. bodies between the Governor-General and the British Ministry. For the Court of Directors, the Court of Proprietors, and the Board of Control, it substituted a Secretary of State, aided by The Secre- a Council appointed by the Crown. The Secretary of State is tary of a Cabinet Minister, who comes into and goes out of office with the other members of the Ministry. His Council was originally appointed for life. They are now appointed for ten years only; but may be reappointed for another five years for special reasons. The Secretary of State rules in all ordinary matters through the majority of his Council. But in affairs of urgency, and in the questions which belong to the Secret Department, including political correspondence, he is not required to do so. The Viceroy or Governor-General is appointed by the Crown, and resides in India. His ordinary term of office is five years. Council in Office of Viceroy. Administration in India. The supreme authority in India is vested by a series of Acts of Parliament in the Viceroy or Governor-General-in-Council, subject to the control of the Secretary of State in England. 'Governor. Every executive order and every legislative statute runs General-in- in the name of the 'Governor-General-in-Council;' Council.' 1 Under 32 and 33 Vict. c. 97. but in 2 The chief of these Acts are 13 Geo. III. c. 63; 33 Geo. III. c. 52; 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 85; 21 and 22 Vict. c. 106; and 24 and 25 Vict. c. 67. 3 A style first authorized by 33 Geo. III. c. 52, sec. 39. |