Lucknow

On January 26, 1775, Shuja-ud-daulah died and was succeeded by his son, Asaf-ud-daulah. The majority of the council at Calcutta considered all the treaties made with Shuja-ud-daulah as purely personal, and consequently in valid on the death of one of the contracting parties. They therefore resolved to make a heavier bargain with his suc cessor, and Philip Francis, who had denounced Hastings for " letting out British troops for hire to the Vizier," deter mined to increase the amount that the Nawab had to pay for them. Hastings expressed an opinion that the present subsidy was sufficient and that it ought not to be in creased. " I doubt," he stated, " whether a larger sum would in reality prove a gain to the Company." It was however resolved that an increase of the subsidy be de manded from the Nawab to make it equal to the expenses of the troops. Thus we find the statesman, who has been branded as a violator of treaties and the oppressor of natives by extortions and exactions, doing his utmost to prevent his colleagues from extorting any concession from a native prince inconsistent with a former treaty.' A fresh treaty was extracted from the Nawab : the subsidy was raised ; all arrears due by his father were to be paid by him, and he was forced to cede to the Company the province of Benares, valued at more than two hundred thousand pounds a year. The burden imposed upon the Nawab by the Francis Junto, and his own extravagant debauchery, first led to the internal confusion and financial straits which became chronic in Oude. To his wild expenditure Lucknow however owes some of her finest buildings—the Imambara, the Rumi Darwaza, the Char Bagh, and the Residency. He was an incompetent ruler, but his liberality and munificence won the hearts of his subjects. In 1797 Asuf-ud-daulah died and his putative son being put aside by Sir John Shore, then Governor-General, his brother, S'adat Ali, was placed on the Musnud. A fresh treaty was made between him and Sir John Shore. The fort of Allahabad was handed over to the British Government, and in return the Company agreed to maintain not less than ten thousand troops in Oude. If at any time however the force amounted to more than thirteen thousand or less than eight thousand, an in creased subsidy was to be paid or a decrease allowed accord ingly. Soon after the treaty was signed, Lord Mornington, afterwards Marquess Wellesley, became Governor-General. Among the dangers which threatened India at that time was the invasion of Zaman Shah, the reigning sovereign of Afghanistan. The Mahrattas refused to enter into an offen sive alliance with the Governor-General. The ruler of Oude our buffer state—was totally incapable of resisting an invader. The English Commander-in-Chief reported that, while the danger of an invasion was great, the Nawab's army was not only a heavy drain on his finances but a real and formidable danger to the British Government. " Towards the close of 1799," writes the Duke of Wellington, in a memorandum on his brother's Government of India, " the Governor-General, acting under the treaty of his predecessor, called upon the Nawab of Oude to dismiss his expensive, useless, and dangerous troops and to fill their places by increased numbers of the Company's troops." The King evaded the demand, and delayed, but after many difficulties, arrangements were made for introducing into his territories 3,00o additional troops at his expense. A reform of the Civil administration was also pressed on the Nawab. He now declared that he was not able to pay the subsidy, and Lord Wellesley determined to place it on the basis of territorial security. After a long negotiation a fresh treaty was signed on November 10, 18o1, " by which in commutation for subsidy and for the perpetual defence of his country," the Nawab ceded Rohilcund, the Lower Doab, between the Ganges and the Jumna, and a large extent of country between the Ganges and the river Gogra down to Benares. The two former were, as Wellington says, his frontier provinces towards the Mahrattas, the Sikhs and the Afghans ; the latter state bordered upon the dominion of the Company. The policy of Wellesley with regard to Oude has been warmly criticized. But a dispassionate study of the State documents clearly shows that while he acted for the safety of India he acted at the same time with due regard to the faith of existing treaties and what was due to the people and sovereign of Oude. It would have been better for the people if he could have annexed the kingdom. The condition of the country rapidly grew worse. Thirty years after Wellesley's treaty the Court of Directors remarked " it was the British Govern ment which, by a systematic suppression of all attempts at resistance, had prolonged the misrule, which became per manent when the short-sightedness and rapacity of a semi barbarous Government was armed with the military strength of a civilized one." Lord William Bentinck, who had tra velled through the country and represented to the East India Court its desolation and decay, was authorized to assume at once the government if it were necessary. But the Governor-General was a man of singular moderation, and unfortunately for the people of Oude he did not avail him self of the permission granted him. He merely informed the King of the instructions he had received, and stated that their execution would be suspended in the hope of his adopting the necessary reforms. It was a vain hope. The character of the Nawab Nasir-ud-din was stained with every vice, and his life was consumed in low debauchery. The King's barber was the greatest man of the court. " His influence was far greater than that of the native Prime Minister." He had come out to Calcutta as a cabin-boy. Having been brought up a hairdresser in London, he had left his ship on arriving in Calcutta to resume his old busi ness. Making some money he took to going up the river with European merchandise for sale. Arrived at Lucknow he delighted the King by the way he curled his hair. " Honours and wealth were showered upon the lucky coiffeur. He was given a title of nobility. Sofraz Khan (" the illustrious chief ") was his new name, and men bowed to him in Oude. " The power of the barber waxed daily greater. His pride increased with his power ; and no limits were set to the caprices and wild pranks of despotic authority and reckless depravity combined. The scenes which oc curred in the palace were whispered over India. His majesty might one hour be seen in a state of drunken nudity with his boon companions and the low menial who was his chief confidant ; at another, he would parade the streets of Lucknow, drunk at midday, driving one of his own elephants. All decency and propriety were banished from the court." On the night of July 7, 1837, Nasir ud-din died, and the chief Begum attempted to place on the Musnud his putative son, Munna Jan. " During the twelve hours' tumult that ensued, the Resident, his suite, and the rightful heir to the throne, were all in the hands of an infuriated mob. Armed soldiers with lighted torches and lighted matchlocks in their hands, held possession of the palace, stalked throughout its premises, and spared no threats against the British authorities, if they did not assent to the installation of their creature, Munna Jan. The nearest succour had to come five miles from the cantonment. Five companies of Sepoys, with four guns, however, soon arrived. The Resident managed to join his friends. He then gave the insurgents one quarter of an hour's grace. When that had expired, the guns opened, and a few rounds of grape were thrown into the disorderly mass, who thronged the palace and its enclosures. Morning dawned on an altered scene ; the rioters had succumbed or dispersed ; the dead were removed ; the palace was cleared out ; and by ten o'clock in the forenoon, the aged, infirm, and trembling heir to the crown was seated on the throne that, at midnight, had been occupied by the usurper. The Resident placed the crown on the new King's head, and the event was announced to the people of Lucknow by the very guns which a few hours before had carried death and con sternation among the Oude soldiery." The new sovereign, Muhammad Ali Khan, was a respectable old man who made some earnest efforts to improve his kingdom. But the

period of improvement was most brief. He was succeeded by his son, Amjad Ali, a man of frivolous disposition, who would not attend to business or to any advice. On his death in February, 1847, Wajid Ali, "the last and, with the exception of Nasir-ud-din, perhaps the most despicable of his line, mounted the throne." In November, 1847, Lord Hardinge visited Lucknow, and administered to Wajid Ali the same rebuke and the same warning which had been ad dressed to his predecessors. He was told that if a marked improvement were not visible in two years the Company would assume the government of Oude. Not two years, but nine years, rolled on, and no improvement was made in the Government. Then on February 13, 1856, the Province of Oude was annexed on the righteous ground that " the British Government would be guilty in the sight of God and man, if it were any longer to aid in sustaining by its counten ance an administration fraught with evil to millions." The country was constituted into a chief Commissionership, and the first efforts of British Administration were guided by the tender and generous hands of Sir James Outram. But his health unfortunately broke down under the heavy strain of work, and in April, 1856, he was obliged to resign the rule of the province and return to England. Outram's succes sor, in attempting with the most laudable intentions to in troduce into the new province the Revenue administration of the elder districts, alienated all the great landlords and inspired general discontent and misgiving. Lord Canning, having become to a certain degree aware of the feeling which had spread through the province, sent Henry Lawrence to Oude that he might conciliate the hearts of the inhabitants by his justice and tact ; but it was too late. The object for which he had been sent was in a fair way of accomplishment when the great storm burst, and Henry Lawrence knew that upon his success or failure depended the vital interests of the Empire. And from the first Overt act of mutiny on May 3, 1857, to the hour of his death, there was nothing left undone by Henry Lawrence to stem the tide of revolt and to maintain the British authority. It was the courage and steadfastness with which he had inspired all around him, and the wise precautions which he had taken with regard to the supplies and food, which enabled the heroic garrison of Lucknow to baffle all the efforts of their enemy.

The Residency entrenchments, in which Henry Lawrence concentrated his small force, covered almost sixty acres of ground, and consisted of a number of detached houses, public edifices, outhouses, and casual buildings, netted to gether and welded by ditches, parapets, stockades and batteries into one consentaneous whole of resistance. On the summit of the plateau stood the Residency proper, the official residence of the Chief Commissioner, a lofty build ing three stories high, not without grace and dignity. A superb portico gave a considerable degree of grandeur to the eastern entrance, and a wide and lofty colonnaded verandah extended along the western front. Near the Residency stood another large pile of building called the Banqueting Hall, where large and spacious apartments had been built for state receptions. Passing through the Bailey Guard Gate, now riddled with bullets, we come to a ruined building, and in one of the rooms a notice informs us, " Here Sir H. Lawrence died." This ruined building was the extensive one-storied house, occupied by Dr. Fayrer, the Residency Surgeon. Here many ladies found a hospitable shelter, and it had the advantage of having underground rooms to which they could retire when the fire of the enemy became heavy. Along the flat roof were placed sandbags, and sheltered by them our men were able to return the fire of the foe. The post was commanded by Captain Weston and Dr. Fayrer, a keen sportsman and a first-rate shot. It was on the second day of the siege, while Henry Lawrence was discussing with Captain Wilson, the Deputy-Assistant Adjutant-General, a memorandum as to how the rations were to be distributed, that a shell entered his apartment in the Residency, burst, and gave him a mortal wound. As the Residency had be come a special target for the enemy they removed the wounded man to Dr. Fayrer's house, which was more sheltered from their artillery. They laid him in the northern veran dah. A consultation was held, and the medical men decided that even amputation at the hip joint offered no hope of saving life ; nothing could be done but to alleviate suffer ing. The rebels had learned what had occurred, and whither the chief had been removed, and they smote t he house with a smashing fire. " As his time drew near, Sir Henry asked to receive the Lord's Supper ; and in the verandah, with the shells hissing through the air, and the pillars crashing to the stroke of the bullets, the holy rite was performed. When it was ended, with a calm fortitude which excited the admiration of those about him, he ap pointed his successor, and gave detailed instructions as to the conduct of the defence. He earnestly exhorted them to preserve internal tranquillity, to economize their ammunition and the supplies, to protect the women and children from all evil, to exert themselves indefatigably to rouse and sus tain the spirit of the garrison, never to treat with the enemy, and on on account to surrender. He expressed his wishes with regard to his children, sending loving mes sages to them. The children of the British soldiers, who had been the special object of his charity, he recommended to the care of his country. His fancy then reverted to the happy days of his own childhood spent with his mother. He spoke often of the devoted wife who had gone before him, and he repeated the sacred texts which had been their guide and their comfort. In the hour of rebellion there came home to him, whose heart was full of compassion and charity for all humanity, the words inscribed on her tomb : ' To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against Him.' He expressed a wish to he buried without any fuss ' and to be laid in the same grave as the British soldier ; and lie desired that no epitaph should be placed on his tomb, but this : ' Here lies Henry Lawrence, who tried to do his duty. May God have mercy on him.' " Directly below Fayrer's house we find on the east front a pillar with " Financial Post " written on it. It is the first of a series of pillars which mark the different important posts held by the garrison. Here stood the Financial Com missioner's office, a large two-storied house, the enclosure wall of which formed a part of our line of defence. It was commanded with great ability by Captain Saunders, 18th Native Infantry. A little to the west of the " Financial Post " we come to " Sago's Post," where stood the house of Mrs. Sago, the mistress of a charity school. It was a small low building, the enclosing walls and grounds of which were abandoned and the defence confined to the house itself. A narrow passage, to traverse which proved fatal to many during the siege, led up to the Judicial Commissioner's office, a large two-storied building situated on high ground. Here the outer wall, owing to the slope of the ground, had to be abandoned, and a strong barricade of fascines and earth constructed. This important position, which was greatly exposed to the enemy's fire from the east, was com manded by Captain Germon, 13th Native Infantry. Next to the Judicial Commissioner's office came " Captain Ander son's Post." This was a small house, situated on rising ground, and formed the south-eastern angle of our position. When the Residency was being put in a state of defence, the wall of the enclosure round the house was thrown down, and a stockade erected in its place. Within the stockade was a ditch ; then came a mound about five feet high ; then another deep ditch with pointed bamboos placed at the bot tom. Having the enemy only a few yards from the house on the left, and in front, it was one of the most exposed outworks of the whole Residency position. Below it, and communi cating with it by a hole in the wall, was the Cawnpore Battery. Captain Anderson has left a graphic description of the desperate assaults which those who held it had to repel.