A RUN THROUGH KATIIIAWAR. 279 



came over these relationships. Political and military 

 officers of all kinds became less and less in sympathy 

 with the people of the country. Our representation 

 in India had developed into a bureaucratic officialdom 

 which could only uphold its position by pampering 

 the sepoys, and the system of pampering them could 

 only be kept up by appointing incompetent officers to 

 the command of regiments. Hence came the great 

 crash of the Indian Mutiny, when what might have 

 been a good servant became a destroying master. 

 The dreadful events of that time might, and ought 

 to, have given us a complete and satisfactory hold 

 upon India ; but that could only have been achieved 

 by throwing to the winds the traditions and habits of 

 a close and incompetent officialdom. Men like Have- 

 lock and Neil, after being snubbed all their previous 

 lives, were gladly taken advantage of and used up in 

 the suppression of the Mutiny, but no real change 

 occurred in the conduct of affairs. On the contrary, 

 a still more fatal step was made than the pampering 

 of the sepoys, and one proceeding from the same 

 motives and the same incompetence. Such haste was 

 made in confirming the zemindars of Oudh in their 

 possessions, in passing a general indemnity, and in 

 opening up Government service to Hindus and Mu- 

 hammadans, that inevitably a general impression was 

 created that we were acting from fear, and that the 

 atrocities of the Mutiny had compelled us to adopt 

 these measures. An enormous mistake had been 



