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Grant having been brought from Madras to command the Bengal army. Saw his general order or address to the troops (sepoys) of that Presidency. Besides being very clever and justly looked up to as the best officer of that army, his selection and nomination to the command was a wise and politic measure. He was considered by the Company's officers at home as the fittest man, and the only one possessing any influence with the Bengal sepoy. He has had his try with them and has signally failed. Had he not been sent for, and had the opportunity not been offered him, it would have been stated at home by all Indian authorities and admirers of the high-caste sepoy, that, if advantage had been taken of his influence and high reputation with the sepoys of his own army, the mutiny would have been stopped and the men called to a proper sense of their duty. Newspapers from India, and men from thence on their way home, told us here that many additional regiments of infantry, and some regular as well as irregular regiments of cavalry and some batteries of native artillery, had mutinied since Grant's arrival, showing that the disease was beyond the power of remedy or arrest by any officer of the Bengal army, or other authority of that Residency. It was wise and prudent on the part of the GovernorGeneral to have made the trial; for had he not done

1 Lieutenant-General Sir Patrick Grant, K.C.B., commanding the forces in the Madras Presidency-afterwards G.C.B. and G.C.M.G. ; now Governor of Chelsea Hospital.

1857.]

ARRIVAL IN INDIA.

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so, the scream would have been raised loud and general by all the officers of the Bengal army at home in blame of the omission, and to his nonemployment the continuance of the mutiny would have been ascribed.

"Intelligence from India very unfavourable. Delhi not only had not fallen, which did not surprise me, but little chance of it until reinforcements to a large amount had joined the force before the place. Accounts of additional regiments and battalions having mutinied."

"6th August, Point de Galle. -Heard of the death of Sir Henry Lawrence at Lucknow, from the effects of a wound; and of Sir Hugh Wheeler at Cawnpore-two of the very best officers for a difficulty to be found in any army. The first a rare person. I had always looked forward to his advice in all questions connected with the sepoys, and distribution of the army, after the mutinies should have been disposed of and order in some degree restored, as far as the defeat and the dispersion of the enemy, now in the field against us, had been effected; for he possessed, in my opinion, more enlarged and more sound views upon all Indian questions than any one I am acquainted with in India. Poor fellow! He was too noble and good a man to fall in a skirmish such as the one he engaged in."1

1 Sir H. Lawrence's death was caused by the explosion of a shell in the Residency two days after the affair at Chinhut.

On reaching Madras he was met by his old friend Balfour,1 at that time Inspector-General of Ordnance in the Madras Presidency, and taken by him to wait on Lord Harris, the Governor. During the drive, Sir Colin commented on the measures he proposed adopting for the repression of the mutiny. These views he repeated to Lord Harris, as well as to his old comrade and friend Marcus Beresford, acting as Commander-in-chief of the Madras Presidency. Before leaving Madras he showed Balfour a confidential memorandum of the operations he proposed to conduct. These comprised three separate movements, so as to combine the advance of two columns from the Madras and Bombay Presidencies respectively, in co-operation with the great central movement, which he proposed to direct in person.2

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Journal, August 13th, Government House, Calcutta.-Landed with General Grant, who came on board to see me. Waited on Lord Canning, who received me most kindly. His lordship invited me to Government House, with my military secretary, Major Alison. He informed me of the defection of three regiments at Dinapore; and, as I understood from Grant afterwards, the defection of these corps

1 Now General Sir George Balfour, K.C.B., R. Art., M.P., who had served in the Chinese Expedition with Sir Colin, and who had been the first consul appointed to Shanghae.

2 It so happened that Colonel Mansfield, when passing through London on his way to India to take up his post of chief of the staff, was consulted by the Government, and submitted to it a plan based on the same principles as that indicated by Sir Colin Campbell.

1857.]

CALCUTTA.

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and the trouble it occasioned, led to the sending of General Outram to Allahabad.

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Upon the

whole, I gathered from Grant that, until a force could be collected at Allahabad of sufficient amount-two or three or four regiments, with artillery, irrespective of the garrison necessary for the security of that place-he considered he would be more useful as Commander-in-chief here, than as the chief of an isolated point, the communications of which with Calcutta were cut off. I think so too; and, however annoying, here I must remain for the present."

CHAPTER XI.

ASSISTANCE AFFORDED BY SIR P. GRANT-REVIEW OF THE SITUATION -SIR COLIN COMMUNICATES WITH SIR JAS. OUTRAM AND HAVELOCK-EFFORTS TO PRESS FORWARD REINFORCEMENTS-PREPARATIONS FOR RECEPTION OF TROOPS AT CALCUTTA-LABOUR IN DESPATCHING THEM TO THE FRONT-BULLOCK-TRAIN-LETTERS TO SIR P. GRANT, SIR JOHN LAwrence, and general wilson— SIR COLIN CONGRATULATES GENERAL WILSON ON FALL OF DELHI -FIRST RELIEF OF LUCKNOW RESIDENCY-SIR JAS. OUTRAM'S POSITION-MARCH OF GREATHED'S COLUMN THROUGH THE DOAB -LETTER FROM SIR JOHN LAWRENCE-LETTER TO THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE-SIR COLIN LEAVES CALCUTTA-NARROW ESCAPE FROM CAPTURE REACHES CAWNPORE DIFFICULTIES OF THE SITUATION LETTER TO THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE LEAVES CAWNPORE MR KAVANAGH -PLAN OF ATTACK REVIEW OF RELIEVING FORCE.

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To find Sir Patrick Grant at Calcutta, and to learn. the progress and details of the mutiny from the lips of perhaps the highest authority in the country on all matters concerning the native army of Bengal, was a piece of good fortune of which Sir Colin eagerly availed himself. From this officer he received the most cordial assistance, and by means of a memorandum, containing the number and distribution of the disposable troops, as well as a detailed statement of the commissariat, ordnance, and trans

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