large as to yield the full rate of the guaranteed interest-five per cent.—in its first year. Soon after, other lines began working in the South: altogether, 1,360 miles were opened at this period, and 3,000 more were in course of completion. The great canals of the State were also beginning to be remunerative; though it should not be forgotten that financial profit was no more than a secondary object of these beneficent works. In all directions the country began to show that the havoc of the revolt and consequent calamities was at an end. The total commerce of India had risen from sixty millions in 1857 to eighty millions in 1861; a full half of the increase being due to Bombay and Karáchi; and the peasantry obtained a share of the enhanced prosperity caused by the exportation of cotton, jute, and tea. A foundation was made for the preservation of timber and the extension of plantations, which was soon to develop into the Forest Department, so long and ably directed by Dr. Brandis. The introduction of cinchonagrowing also dates from this period; twenty years later the profit had more than doubled the cost of the plantations. In the midst of these peaceful and beneficent exertions the Viceroy's noble life was rapidly wearing out. The dilatoriness, the apparent coldness, of his first period were forgotten by a public which had learned to do justice to his calm temper, his imperturbable sense of duty. But his strength was spent. In the month of March, 1862, he made over his charge to his old friend, James Bruce, Earl of Elgin, and went home, to die, a broken man, like his illustrious predecessor. [Same books as already cited in Sections 1, 2.] 288 CHAPTER XXI. THE NEW ERA. Section I: An unfinished career-Section 2: The great Civilian- SECTION 1.-Lord Elgin was a contemporary and friend of Dalhousie, Canning, and Harris; and was exactly fifty years of age when he accepted the burden of Indian Government. He had already governed Jamaica and Canada, in which colonies his tact and talent had given satisfaction to all. While on his way to China, in the character of plenipotentiary extraordinary, he halted at Singapore; and there, hearing of the outbreak of the Indian revolt, boldly took upon himself to divert the expedition, and take his troops up to Calcutta. The original mission, nevertheless, was only delayed for a short time; and its objects were obtained in the following year by the Treaty of Tien-tsin (26 June, 1858). In 1862 Elgin was rewarded by the Indian Viceroyship, the greatest post under the Crown in respect of trust and power. The minor governments passed into new hands about the same time, Madras being given to Sir Henry Ward-succeeded soon after by Sir William Denison, R.E.-and Bombay to Sir Bartle Frere; while Sir C. Beadon became Lieutenant of Bengal, as Mr. Edmonstone already was of the North-West Provinces; the administrative capital of the last-named being transferred from Agra to Allahabad. Mr. Laing laid down the office of Finance-member, which he had so ably held under the first Viceroy; and he was succeeded by Sir Charles Trevelyan. The policy of Canning's later years was continued by Elgin and his Council, although the recent promotions and changes had left but one old member in his place. The letters of Lord Elgin, which have been preserved and published, show how strongly the new Viceroy was impressed with the sense of continuity, and especially determined to avoid interference with Native States and the introduction of taxes to which the people were not accustomed. In this latter policy he was particularly sure of the support of his Finance Minister. Trevelyan was an old civilian of the Metcalfe School, wary and experienced ; he knew that the public mind was not sufficiently advanced to look upon taxation as anything but a form of rapacity: and he acted as if there were a tacit compact between rulers and people, that the traditional sources of revenue should be made sufficient for the services of the State.* Lord Elgin, like most Viceroys, kept the "Foreign" Department of the Government in his own hands and acted with justice and discretion in the one important affair that came up for decision. The aged Dost Muhamad, by turn enemy and friend, was bent on a hostile expedition to Herát, where the local Governor, Sultán Ján, was acting insubordinately: Elgin refused to be in any way party to such proceedings, and even withdrew his Native agent from Kábul for the time, lest the presence of such an official might give rise to misunderstandings or misrepresentations. The Dost soon after died-in May, 1863-and the Viceroy made arrangements for sending a Vakil to congratulate the new Amir. Three months earlier Lord Elgin set out for a tour in Northern India; no longer in the pompous and--to the The writer may state from his own experience that the up-country Natives of that period thought that the produce of the Income Tax went as tribute to England. "Take whatever is fitting, once and away, as a fine for the losses of the Mutiny; but do not punish us for ever: the often repeated comment. VOL. II. such was U people at least-oppressive manner of the past, when a swarm of camp-followers with herds of oxen, elephants, and camels, marked every march with devastation, but as a passenger by the East India Railway. At Benares, on the 7th, he held a formal Durbar; and at a dinner in the evening, showed that he was alive to the expensive nature of the present railway system, and looked forward to the introduction of purely private enterprise. On the 11th, the graves of the Cawnpore victims were consecrated by the Bishop of Calcutta, in the presence of Lord Elgin and a distinguished assemblage of Europeans; and the Viceregal party proceed by rail to Agra. Here was held a grand Durbar where, on the 17th, almost all the Chiefs of Central India and Rájputána appeared in full state. In medieval pomp the Ránas and Rájas gathered to the camp, mounted on elephants and escorted by squadrons of mounted men-at-arms; almost as in the days of the great Emperors. But not Akbar himself could have made them an address more full of dignified sympathy than what awaited them in the great Durbar tent of the British Viceroy. Speaking as the representative of their common Sovereign Lord Elgin assured his princely hearers of the profound interest felt in their concerns by the Queen, of which he exhorted them to show themselves worthy by acting in a similar spirit to their respective subjects. For his own part, added the Viceroy, he was ready to extend encouragement and friendship to all who laboured for the good of India. The speech was short, not on that account less welcome; and it was remarkable as striking the keynote of * Under the guarantee-system every shareholder had a certainty from the State of 5 per cent. ; and so good an investment proved fatal to economy. The East Indian line is believed to have been built at a rate equivalent to £16,000 a mile; and that in a country where unskilled labour is not paid much more than one-tenth of English wages. The whole cost of the six thousand miles of guaranteed lines was over ninety-five millions R.x. unity, in a manner more decided than theretofore it had been ever struck. On the 27th March, a final assembly was held at Ambala, where the Sikh chiefs and other Punjab notables were received; and thence the Viceroy proceeded to pass the hot season upon the green and breezy heights of Simla. While the Viceroy was engaged in these peaceful occupations another of those little clouds was rising, from which, in India, the political horizon has been so rarely free. To the north of Peshawar, between the Indus and the Jhelam rivers, a spur of the Hindu-Kush abuts on the British District of Hazara: it is known as Mahában (“great wood") and its summit attains a height of 7,400 ft. above sea-level. On the slope of this mountain was a place called Sitána, a nest of Muslim fanaticism ever since the days of Ránjit Sinh, and the subject of a small punitive expedition in 1858. Here had gathered the dregs of the Muhamadan ferment, sepoys escaped from the war, and irreconcilable Wahhábis; and here- precariously supplied with men and money from centres of disaffection in Hindustan a colony of fanatics was formed ready for an opportunity to carry war into British territory. The focus of the agitation was, however, traced to Patna, in the country subject to the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. In the course of an inquiry, held by Sir Herbert Edwardes, the extent of the mischief was found to be serious if not alarming and it became a question how to abolish the danger. Lord Elgin was naturally unwilling to stir up strife so near the road that led to the Afghán Amir's capital. On the other hand it was felt that a sharp decisive blow, struck at once, might avert the risks of a larger and more difficult undertaking hereafter. Accordingly, in the month of October, a British force of all arms, 6,000 strong, was sent into the mountains, under Sir Neville Chamberlain. The tribes unfortunately resented the intrusion and blocked the Ambaila Pass through which the advanced column |