NICHOLSON, Jonu, British general, one of the most distinguished of the later school of Indian soldiers, was born in Dublin, Dec. 11, 1821. His father, a physician of con siderable reputation in that city, died when the boy had just completed his 8th year. By his mother, a woman of strong sense and much practical piety, lie was carefully edu cated; and from her he seems to hare inherited or imbibed a certain religious gravity and earnestness of character which was early noted in him, and continued,to distinguish him through life. Through the influence of her brother, Sir James Weir Hogg, au Indian cadetship was obtained for him; at the age of 16, he arrived in Calcutta, and was soon after posted to the 21st native Bengal infantry, then stationed at Ferozepore. In 1840, his regiment was ordered to Ghizni in Afghanistan, where two years after, in the disastrous insurrection which avenged our occupation of the country, it was compelled to surrender to the enemy. After a time of miserable captivity, he regained his liberty, and joined the relieving army under gem Pollock, to be saddened immediately after by death, in action, of, his brother Alexander. A period of inactivity ensued, during which he was stationed at Meerut, doing duty as adjt. of his regiment. On the breaking out of the Sikh war in 1845. he served in the campaign on the Sutlej, and was present at the battle of Ferozeshah, though, as attached to the commissariat department, without special opportunity of distinguishing himself. After the cessation of the war, through the recommendation of col. (afterwards sir Henry) Lawrence, Nicholson. now a 'lent, was appointed assistant to the resident at the conquered capital, Lahore, and thus fairly transferred to the political branch of the service, in which most of his future time was passed. But shortly, with the outbreak of the Sikh rebellion in 1848, there came an interlude of military activity, in which he greatly distingnished himself. To Nicholson's daring and promptitude was due the preservation to us of the important fortress of Attock; and soon after, his success at the Margulla pass, in intercepting and defeating a large body of the insurgents, brought his name prominently before the world. Throughout the struggle which followed, he rendered important service; and at
the great battles of Chillianwalla and Gujerat successively, he earned the special appro 1%1 of lord Gough, to wtioni, he was immediately attached.
, The Pe njaleMon*,61101;7 becoctie proVince, caps: Nicholson was appointed deputy-commissioner under the Lahore board, of which sir Henry Lawrence was presi dent. He had now been newly ten years in India; his strength was somewhat shaken by arduous service, and various illnesses which from time to time had assailed him; and above all, he was anxious to visit and console his widowed mother, then prostrated by the death in India, by an accident, of William, his younger brother. In 1850, accord ingly, he took his furlough, and returned home, taking Constantinople en route, and visiting, with an eye to professional instruction, the capitals of all the great military powers of the continent. On his return to India, he was again appointed by Lawrence a deputy-commissioner in the Punjab, and fOr five years subsequently his work lay among the, savage tribes of the frontier. His success in bringing them under thorough subjection to law and order, was something marvellous; and such were the impressions of fear and reverence wrought by the force aqd massive personalty of the man, that he became among these rude populations, under the title of " Nikkul Seyn," the object of a curious kind of hero-worship. So far was this carried, that a sect actual]; arose, of Nikkul-Seynees, who consecrated him as their Guru (or spiritual guide), and persisted— despite of severe flogging's regularly inflicted by the worthy man, indisposed to accept divine honors—in falling at his feet, and making him an object of express adoration.