ings became the subject of acrimonious discussion, which was not closed till a much later period. He was replaced by Captain, now Colonel, Campbell, with greater success than before; and it may be hoped that the authority established over this wild race has led to an entire abandonment of the cruel rite; for it is many years since any detection of its commission has been reported, and the Khonds, by means of education, and nearer contact with a civilised power, have lost many distinctive features of their original savagery. CHAPTER XII. THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR CHARLES METCALFE AND LORD AUCKLAND, 1835 To 1837. the press. Ir was reserved for Sir Charles Metcalfe to withdraw the last Freedom of restrictions under which the press of India had laboured for so many years. During the incumbency of Lord William Bentinck, it had been virtually, if not actually, free from interference; but the old law was still in existence, and might at any time be resorted to by any ruler of its originator Mr. Adams's tone of mind. The public of Calcutta had submitted a memorial for the abolition of this law before the departure of the governor-general; but he had declined to interfere, and the solution of the question remained to his successor. Nor was it long held in abeyance. Supported cordially by Mr. Macaulay, the Act was passed in the month of September, 1835, and Sir Charles Metcalfe had the satisfaction to receive the grateful acknowledgements of all classes, European and native, upon the freedom he had now practically established. But the The measure measure raised a storm against him in the Court of disapproved Directors, for which he was not prepared. Of all the of Directors. traditional prejudices which had been longest in existence, the restriction upon the press was perhaps the most dearly cherished there. With all his liberal opinions, held by many to be extreme, Lord William Bentinck had declined to pass an Act which, without consultation or warning, had now become law, and was irrevocable; and the man whose policy at Hyderabad had been supported faithfully, even to a memorable and extreme collision with the Board of Control, was the author of to Sir Charles the so-esteemed deliberate indignity. The offence was unpardoned and unpardonable; and from thenceforth the long and eminent services of Sir Charles Metcalfe were virtually cancelled. The government of Madras, which he had been by the Court Consequences Metcalfe. The Act passed. led to expect, was curtly denied him: and as the presidency of Agra had been reduced, by an arrangement made in England, to a lieutenant-governorship, Sir Charles Metcalfe retired He retires from India in 1836, after an unbroken residence there from India, of thirty-six years. 'No man,' writes Mr. Kaye, his biographer, 'ever left India carrying with him so many lively regrets, and so many cordial good wishes from all classes of the com- and enters munity.' The remainder of his official life was passed the service in the employment of the Crown, and in the adminis- Crown. tration, successively, of Jamaica and Canada; and he eventually received the highest distinction that could be con- He is raised ferred upon him, in being raised to the peerage; but to the his connection with the company was never renewed, nor was any recognition made by the court of the faithful services of one of their most useful and most distinguished servants. of the peerage. Auckland The Black In succession to Lord William Bentinck, the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone was offered the post of governor-general; but he declined the honour, in consideration of the state of his health, and Lord Heytesbury was appointed. In consequence of a change of ministry, however, this nomination was Lord cancelled, and Lord Auckland dispatched to India, becomes who reached Calcutta on March 3, 1836. One of the governorfirst Acts passed by him, on May 9, provided that no person was to be considered exempt in civil suits from Act.' the jurisdiction of the native judges who had been established. This regulation, which affected Europeans, who had hitherto held the privilege of appeal to the supreme court, was vehemently opposed in India, and became the subject of much acrimonious discussion, under the appellation of the 'Black Act.' The question was transferred to England, and debated in Parliament, on a motion by Mr. Ward; but it was defeated, and the Act confirmed. the throne Variety of The first political question which Lord Auckland had to decide, was the succession to the throne of Oudh. The king, Succession to Nasir-ood-deen Hyder, died on July 7, 1837: he left no of Oudh. issue, and having been an only son, the right of succession was not a little involved. Saadut Ally, the claims. grandfather of the late king, had had ten sons; and the two elder being dead, the third, Nasir-ood-Dowlah, became heir according to Mahomedan law. It was asserted, however, by the chief Bégum, widow of the deceased, that her husband had adopted two boys during his life, one of whom had now become heir; and the queen-mother, as she may be styled, took measures to procure his succession by force of arms. Her retainers suddenly took posses Colonel Low's sion of the palace by forcible entry, and were followed by the Bégum, with her protégé, Moona Ján, and she immediately proclaimed the boy king and installed him. Colonel Low, who had reached the palace, protested against the act, and escaped with some difficulty; but the king to be, Nasir-ood-Dowlah, decided remained her prisoner. Colonel Low gave no time for conduct. the insurrection to gain head. Having summoned the queen-mother, he allowed her a quarter of an hour for a reply, at the end of which, as she was still defiant, the palace-gate was blown open by a gun, and the courtyard cleared of her adherents, with some loss to them, while the Bégum and Moona Ján were taken prisoners. Nasir-ood-Dowlah was then brought out of his apartments, and enthroned by Colonel Low, who placed the crown on the king's head with his own Nasir-oodDowlah enthroned and crowned. hands. On the announcement that the right of succession had fallen on him, Nasir-ood-Dowlah had been required by Colonel Low to execute a paper, by which he agreed to sign any new treaty that the governor-general may dictate.' Colonel Low's spirited conduct throughout the disturbance received the governorgeneral's 'high approbation,' but of the agreement he was not so certain. He would have been better pleased,' he wrote, 'if Colonel Low had not accepted the unconditional engagement of submissiveness which the new king has signed. . . . the expediency of obtaining from His Majesty the signature of a previous agreement is the only point on which he feels that difference of opinion may be entertained.' And in reference to the Oudh land's minute question at large, the whole of Lord Auckland's minute on Oudh. deserves perusal. Two other claimants to the throne subsequently appeared, and petitioned the Indian Government and the Court of Directors on the subject of succession; but the original decision was maintained. ... Lord Auck It will be remembered that, in the year 1819, the descendant of Sivajee, rescued from the imprisonment in which he and his family had been kept by the Péshwah, had been presented with the territory of his ancestor, and with Sattara as its capital. Here he had continued to reign, at first in an unobtrusive manner; but latterly, many acts of intrigue were brought home to him: attempts to tamper with the fidelity of native soldiers of the Bombay army were detected and it was evident that the naturally weak mind of the rajah was being inflated by adventurers of all descriptions. He was warned on several occasions, in a kindly and friendly spirit, but in vain; Case of the He is deposed. and on September 5, 1839, he was finally deposed, under a proclamation by the governor-general, and his brother received investiture as rajah in his room-but with no modification of the original treaty—and the ex-rajah was sent to reside at Benares. The folly and presumption of his conduct, the schemes by which he proposed to re-establish the Mahratta power, are unparalleled in the histories of such efforts in India, and are only accountable by the weakness of his own intellect and the unceasing intrigues of the unscrupulous Brahmins and women by whom he was surrounded and influenced. War between Afghans. Sterner and more extensive subjects than the insurrection at Lukhnow or the affairs of Sattara were now to occupy Lord Auckland's attention. Runjeet Singh had become the Sikhs and involved in a war with Dost Mahomed, ruler of Afghanistan. While Shah Soojah was occupied in an attempt to regain his dominions, Runjeet Singh had crossed the Indus, in 1835, and occupied the province of Pesháwur, up to the mouth of the Khyber pass; and about the same time he had assembled an army on the northern frontier of Sinde, with the view of attacking the Ameers, who, in nowise dismayed, prepared to meet the Sikhs. This quarrel was arranged by Colonel Pottinger, the political agent in Sinde; but that with the Afghans proceeded. Dost Mahomed, hoping to recover Pesháwur, caused a holy war to be preached against the Sikhs, and a large force descending the passes, appeared before Pesháwur. The agents of Runjeet Singh had, however, been at work, and on the desertion of Sooltan Mahomed from his brother, the whole Afghan army broke up and dispersed. Dost Mahomed now addressed himself to the governor- Dost Mahogeneral, who replied that he would send an officer to med applies discuss questions of commerce,' but he declined any governor interference with the affairs of the Punjab. Left to bis own resources, Dost Mahomed assembled another army, and sent it against Pesháwur, under his son, Akbur Khan, by whom, on April 30, 1837, the Sikh forces were completely defeated near Jumrood, at the entrance to the Khyber. The victory, however, was of little use, for Runjeet Singh sent heavy reinforcements to his army, and the Afghans were again driven into the passes. At that time, Lord Auckland's envoy, Lieutenant Burnes, Burnes at had reached Kabool, and his proceedings there must be Kabool. briefly reviewed, as they formed the basis of the Afghan war. to the general. CHAPTER XIII. THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD AUCKLAND-THE AFGHAN WAR, 1837 TO 1839. Burnes's mission to Dost Mahomed. merce. IN September 1837, Lieutenant Alexander Burnes reached Kabool as envoy from Lord Auckland to Dost Mahomed. The governor-general had not delayed the fulfilment of his promise to send an officer to discuss questions of comAfter his mission to Runjeet Singh, in 1831, Lieutenant Burnes had proceeded to Kabool, where he was hospitably entertained by Dost Mahomed, and thence travelled into Central Asia, as far as Bokhára, returning to Bombay by way of Persia; and his book of travels, soon afterwards published, is full of information in regard to countries then imperfectly known in England. No one better fitted for the deputation to Dost Mahomed could, therefore, have been found; for Lieutenant Burnes's acquaintance with the languages and the people of Central Asia and Persia was then unrivalled. He was received hospitably by the Ameer, with every demonstration of welcome, and a cominercial treaty was duly discussed; but it was evident from the first that this was a very secondary object in the Ameer's mind. He was chafing Dost Mahomed's under the loss of Pesháwur; and his whole endeavours opinions. were applied to regain it. The governor-general had certainly given him no room to hope for assistance; but, as communications among Eastern potentates usually represent one thing, and mean quite another, the Ameer perhaps concluded that Burnes's mission, openly in regard to trade, meant, in reality, the discussion of the politics of Afghanistan and the Punjâb. He had also discovered that a morbid dread of Russian influence existed in India; and he knew that the people, credulous and ignorant, had already become impressed with the possibility of Russian interference. Dost Mahomed, therefore, contrived to fill Burnes's mind with apprehension of Russian intrigue, which was confirmed by news from Persia; and on December 19, Vicovich. 1837, Captain Vicovich, an aide-de-camp of the Russian consul-general at Orenburgh, arrived at Kabool, with a letter from Count Simonich, the Russian ambassador at Tehran. Arrival of There was nothing definite in the letter; but the expressions, 'trust him with your secrets,' and 'I beg you will look opinion of upon him as myself, and take his words as if from me,' might mean a great deal. If Burnes had considered for Burnes's the mission. |