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^ rjrra- B I^IADBI. i [&&' 4ti fc Jajsva...
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THE MUSTER-ROLL OF INDIAN HEROISM. "We w...
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M. GRANEER DE CASSA&NA.O. Some twenty ye...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Indian Government And Indian Finance. Th...
mentation of our national deb * . The danger spaa bzKxnght upon us by the feeble adminis tration of the Indian G-overnmenty Its recurreace can only be prevented by a real and large improvement of that administration . Hero as the interest which the English taxpayer baa in the India G-overnxnent Bill .
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The Muster-Roll Of Indian Heroism. "We W...
THE MUSTER-ROLL OF INDIAN HEROISM . "We wait for the names of every English man . and woman engaged in the terrible defence of IiUcknoWj and every one will belong to our muster-roll of Indian heroism . That list should be engraven on a vast tablet , and placed where generations might read it . Scarcely does it seem that one was braver than another ^ who , indeed , can withhold the palm from any of the noble band cut off amidst that howling wilderness of war in the depths erf India ? During eighty-seven days and nights officers and men were upon duty ; they snatched short intervals of sleep at their guns ; they forgot all distinctions of rank ; they thought only of the trust that events had confided to them . Dearer than the blood of life was the duty of standing between the helpless and innocent , and the dreadful enemy without , that thirsted , not for victory alone , but for pollution and massacre . They were mot fighting for a fortress , but for the lives and honour of nineteen hundred women and children , and of the sick and wounded , at whom , the Sepoy tulwar would have struck as fiercely as on the field of battle . Thus the conflict was literally mortal , between combatants who could never be reconciled ; no truce or parley could be sounded , not the most solemn engagements , on tbe part of the besiegers , could be
trusted . There was nothing left but to repel them or die j and , looking calmly in the face of death , our countrymen stood in the breach until their agony became a triumph , and their determination invincible . " Women know not what they can be until these trials come . The troops were harassed by no shrieks of terror ; young English matrons and girls did not cower while the fire searched every corner of the Residency . Instead of
disheartening their defenders , they animated them , and that garrison might have been imagined one family . Soldiers and officers of all ranks descended into the mines , laboured at the removal of putrid carcases , stood on sentry with shouldered muskets , manned the guns , and handled the bayonets that tore such bloody chasms in the columns of the enemy whenever they assaulted the walls . Bpt these assaults were of a kind
unprecedented in the history of war . Lucknow was not a fort in possession of the English , besieged by an army W entrenchments . It was one fort encirled by many , a Malakoff amid a cluster of Redans , and these sheltered batteries were within pistol - shot . Thirty to one was the proportion between the hostile and the beleaguered . Jfive times they swept up to the works in immense multitudes , after opening breaches
and springing mines , and five times they were hurled back by the small battalions ranged at the . points of attack , as if giants had recoiled before magicians . Four times the __ garji ^ a . s ^ ed ,-andieft . a . deadlyjlmprint-, on the masses that hemmed them in . Thus nine hard-fought battles were won within eighty « Bi 6 ven days by those exhausted soldiers . But , within their walls , a dismal mortality spread . Three fatal diseases simultaneously conaumed them ; not even their hospital was out of . gun-range j every building in the 'JjeBide , a <) jr was liable to be crushed by the besieger * ' ftp © , And gallant men saw the bulleta itfoey had escaped now striking some
undaunted woman , now adding to the funeral roll of the war some unwearied child . Human nature made its highest effort in that frail fortress , - and something of divine fortitude made those English men and women so calm and patient . Shot and shell smote the roofs from the houses ; gradually the ruin , as it spread , drove the inmates together ; their losses multiplied ; for weeks
they knew not whether they might not have been left alone in India ; still , they fought for life and the flag upon their tower so nobly that cynicism itself , regarding these warriors and their wards , must melt into patriotic love , and bless them for the dangers they have passed , the valour with which they bore up under their long anguish , and the glory that beams from Iiucknow on the English name .
We wait for the muster-roll ; yet some names there are too brilliant not to be signalized . First , Lawbencb , a paladin , a glorious old soldier . Then Banks , who died in action , ' without a groan , ' after cheering the whole garrison by his masculine example . Next , Inglis , a true Knight of the Tower and Sword . The nation prays that he at least maybe spared from that ravaged field , to wear the honours he has won , and which opinion now claims for him from Parliament and the Crown . With him ranks James ,
who , wounded in the knee , would not lay down his arms for a day . Aitken led the native troops , and proved to them what an Englishman can be in battle . The enemy , rushing in thousands to the attack , met IiOUGHNAN , with a few gentlemen of the uncovenanted staff , a handful of European soldiers , and a few faithful Sepoys , and , retreating , broke before his deadly onset . Obk , Mjeoham , and Soppitt , regaining their feet after having been blown into the air , rushed at once into the engagement .
These , then , are the names of heroes . Of Outbam we need not now speak . Of HaveiiOOK we have spoken already , and if there be in any soldier ' s heart a pure ambition , we say that to be in history the peer of Have-IjOOK would be a nobler aspiration than that of emulating the stained and tyrannous glory of BONAPABTE . CoHN CAMPBELL must HOW be added to the splendid roll . He -has performed two magnificent achievements : —the final relief of the Lucknow garrison , and the defeat of the Gfwalior army . He has yet a vast work before him , but his reward should not be delayed . The example of Havelook warns us not to postpone the duty of gratitude . Weli / esley was raised many steps in
the peerage while absent , and upon resuming his seat in the House of Lords , beard four patents read , creating him successively Baron , Earl , Marquis , and Duke—Noble , MostNoble , and His Grace . With Campbell ' s name is associated that of G \ kam < i ? , who pursued the Gwalior fugitives , and that of Wilson , who fell at Cawnpore . Wind ham has preserved his reputation for audacity , and he never had any other reputation to lose . Here we break off , leaving the roll incomplete . There is something in this glow of martial virtue that reaches the heart , and forces every man to feel that he has ' some brother there . * Scarcely can family affection yearn more deeply to the dearest friend , than English national sympathy has yearned to plM © . a . wi » ath-on-H-AVBii * oOK-8--Iloman . -head .-All our consolation is , that , of the brave , many yet live to receive ow . r award , and that , of the dead , there are widows and orphans whom the commonwealth may cherish—the mother of Nicholson , the widows of N bill and Havelook , the orphans of Havjslook and La whence . Afcd when this tyranny is overpast over the graves of Lucknow shall rise a monument to svmboliae our gratitude , and record their glory ,
M. Graneer De Cassa&Na.O. Some Twenty Ye...
M . GRANEER DE CASSA & NA . O . Some twenty years ago M . Graoter de Cassignac aimed at reputation in the character of a Romantique of the most extravagant colour ; and with happy impertinence applied to Racine the epithet of polisson . Since that time his name , surrounded by a sort of noisy notoriety , has always been found among the adherents of triumphant causes . He has written with some power , but always in the same hard , aggressive style—for bis talent is less versatile than nis opinions- ^ -on an infinite variet y of topics . His services were early secured by the present Emperor when he was meditating the coup d' & at ; and , without knowing or caring what was the objeet of the conspiracy , he undertook to insult
and vituperate all friends of Parliamentary governraeut , and to prepare a portion of the public by his naturally coarse and artificially vehement style for the catastrophe that was to make Ms fortune . After the victory , as might have been expected , his language became more aggressive and ferocious stiff ; and no one can remember that disastrous period without remembering also the vulgar Io Pagans of M . Gbanier de Cassa & nac over the defeat of the lettered and enlightened classes , his glorification of matter , his audacious conclusion that France had thought too much , and should now feed and stupify itself , and cover its round bellv with food clotb , protect its feet with good shoes , and e thankful to Napoleon III . for his resolve to take all matters political , moral , and religious , under
his own special care . Well , six years have passed ; and M . GkaniejR de Cassagnac , pensioned in various ways , but perfectly forgotten by the world—except when , like a bad swimmer in a public bath , he cnose to make an awkward splash to attract attention away from more scientific and elegant performers—is pleased to come out as a Reformer in Literature . A reformer of course describes what he pretends to reform ; and we shall be able , therefore , to learn from M . Granier , who always signs himself ' Deputy to the Legislative Corps / what is the state of taste under the Empire which he boasts of
having assisted to establish . : " Perpetual soldier of order , after having helped to conquer the old enemy , we shall advance to meet the new one ; and shall wage against bad literature the war we have waged against bad politics . " He begins by boasting of the degraded state of the political press in France : "When the political press is strong ; power is feeble ; when writers pick up questions , Iklinisters have let them fall ; " and so on . M . Granier always speaks with lordly contempt of the literature that attempts to treat of public affairs ; and certainly his own experience is not of a nature to persuade him that it places a man very high in opinion . Without trenohincr too far on personal
ground , it is neoessary to inform the English public that whatever infiuenoe M . Grajmer ' s pen may exert is purely due to liis talent , and entirely unadulterated by esteem for his character . We may notice , by the way , that M . Gbanier indulges with more than usual extravagance in laudation of his country ' s literature at the expense of all others ; mentions that " Italy , England , Spain , and Germany have had their great men , whilst Franco has had great ages ; " that " elsewhere good books have been an aocident , whilst in France they are a tradition ; " and that " the admiration of all nations has conferred on France the royalty , of knowledge and of the lyre . " Tliis seems to be a claim of preeminence for France in the matter of poetry ; if so , it has at least the merit of novelty . All the rest is the inevitable trash with which writers who wish to be popular in France gorge their readers ; and
wo should not notice it were it not that M- Gsamibb declares , without explaining the reason , that what he says only refers to the past , and that now « sue * is the forgetfubiess of Art and of themselves into which Fronch writers have fallen , that letters oa » not long remain in their present track without arriving at an irremediable decay and a complete ruin . " He repeats this testimony in various forws : *« -There-i 3 "abundanoo ^ of- -workrneniT-autt-ooinpl « W ' laok of works . " Again s " Our works are composed by writers who have not tho time to wwfce . For a public which has not the time to read ; " and tho imprudent author , who cannot ooraposo whew ho does not abuse , goes on to point out the fcbsonoe of " observation , wjt , and orthography , " and to toil us that under tho Empire people skim through
books whilst in the hands of tho barber or the shoeblack , and would refuse to the poet the two sous they would give to the waiter . What otlier uesw * could wo expoot , M . Gbanibr , from the contempt
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 16, 1858, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16011858/page/14/
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