THE FOURTEENTH. WAR : MUTINY IN INDIA, 29 



remembered, commenced, carried on, and concluded without 

 Parliament having an opportunity to pronounce an opinion on its 

 necessity, justice, or expediency. 



THE FOURTEENTH WAR: MUTINY IN INDIA. 



1857- 



One of the most appalling catastrophes, appalling in its ferocity 

 and its unspeakable horrors, which has marked the reign of Queen 

 Victoria, and which must be numbered amongst the Wars of Her 

 Majesty's Reign, was the terrible Mutiny in India in 1857. 



For some years previously, ominous mutterings of discontent had 

 been h eard in the Indian Army, and Sir Charles Napier, during his 

 military Command, did his utmost to convince the authorities that 

 they were sleeping on a thin crust of a volcano, which might at any 

 moment explode into a tremendous conflagration. 



Various were the reasons assigned for the grave apprehension 

 which threatened to undermine the foundation of English rule in India, 

 chiefly diplomatic and military^the recent annexation of Oude, the 

 interfe rence with the Hindoo system of religion, and the objection 

 felt by the native soldiery to greased cartridges; these and other 

 causes combined to organise the blackest conspiracy and treason 

 against English rule. 



A deaf ear was turned to these warnings, and even signs of mutiny 

 in the Native Regiments in Bengal were treated very lightly ; when, 

 suddenly, the alarming tidings arrived, on Sunday, loth May, 1857, 

 that Regiment after Regiment had risen in mutiny ; that more than 

 30,000 men were in revolt ; that Delhi, the ancient Capital of the 

 Moguls, was in possession of the rebels, who had massacred all the 

 Europ eans, and proclaimed the descendant of the Great Mogul as their 

 King. 



It was at Meerut that the tiger-like ferocity of the Sepoy soldiery 

 was displayed. They fired upon their officers, killed their loyal 

 comrades, broke open the gaol and massacred the European in- 

 habitants. Having done all this, they marched, or rather rushed — 

 for Delhi, burst into the city, swarmed into the precincts of the 



