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to overrate either the usefulness of its institutions or the munificent liberality with which they are supported, while the untiring and successful efforts of the Maharaja himself to promote the prosperity of the State and the happiness and welfare of his subjects are beyord all praise.' 5

When I was at Jeypore I assisted the Maharaja in inaugurating a monument to my predecessor, Lord Mayo, and in opening a public hospital built in his honour. Although it was then three years since his assassination, the Maharaja could not speak of Lord Mayo without tears in his eyes-one of the many instances of the affection which was deservedly felt for him by the princes of India. The Maharaja during the mutiny placed the whole of his forces at the disposal of the British Government, and he exerted himself in the most praiseworthy manner for the relief of the terrible distress which was caused by a famine which devastated Rajputana in 1868. When I was Viceroy he was a member of the Legislative Council of India, and on several occasions I was greatly indebted to him for advice and assistance.

This short account of the Maharaja of Jeypore will give you some idea of the kind of men who have ruled the States of Rajputana. The time is rapidly approaching when the native princes, both in Rajputana and in other parts of India, will be acquainted with the English language. When Lord Mayo was at Ajmere in 1870 he suggested to the princes and chiefs the foundation of a college where their sons might receive a good education. gestion was warmly taken up, and 60,000l. was almost immediately subscribed for the purpose. I had the satisfaction of seeing this institution-which bears the appropriate name of the Mayo College --opened, and several of the young princes and chiefs of Rajputana among the pupils.6

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I might mention other Rajputs of distinction besides the Maharaja of Jeypore, but time will only permit me to recall to my recollection for a few moments the handsome presence of the Maharaja of Vizianagram, who was of the same race, although he lived partly on his property in the Presidency of Madras, and partly at the holy city of Benares. This enlightened nobleman was one of the foremost in advancing the welfare of his fellow-countrymen, and he was especially remarkable for his endeavours to reduce the great expense which they are in the habit of devoting to the marriage ceremonies of their daughters-a custom productive of most serious evil; as well as for his encouragement of female education.

You must not suppose that because I have brought before you

5 Report on the Political Administration of the Rajputana States, 1873-74. Calcutta, 1875.

The young Raja of Ulwar was the first pupil. He was followed by the youngest brother of the Maharaja of Jodhpoor, and the Rana of Jhallawur. The Rajkumar College and the Talukdari School at Ahmedabad are doing good work in the same direction on the Bombay side of India.

prominently the native princes of Rajputana that those of other races and religions are not worthy of equal praise. The late Rao of Cutch zealously seconded Sir Bartle Frere's efforts to suppress the slave trade in Zanzibar, where many of his subjects reside. The great Mahratta States of Gwalior and Indore are now governed upon enlightened principles. The internal administration of the Nizam's territory by Sir Salar Jung has been highly successful. The small Mussulman States of Central India and the Sikh principalities of the Punjab are not behindhand either in their material progress or in their loyalty to the British Government. The late Raja of Travancore, a State which lies at the southern extremity of the Indian peninsula, was a most enlightened ruler, and he was ably assisted by native statesmen, especially by Sir Madava Rao, a native of Madras, who, after having been for some time the minister of the Maharaja of Indore, was chosen by me to administer the State of Baroda during the minority of the young prince, and has amply justified my selection by the success of his administration during the last five years. Other native statesmen have done signal service in the improvement of the administration of the different native States. I may mention Sir Dinkar Rao in Gwalior, Huzrut Nur Khan, commonly called the Khan Sahib, in Jowra, Mir Shahamut Ali in Rutlam, Pundit Mumphool in Ulwur, and Nawab Sir Faiz Ali Khan in Kotah.

The importance of the Independent States under the protection of the British Government will be appreciated when I tell you that, large and small together, they number between four and five hundred. A short account of their rulers fills a large book, while our treaty relations with them are contained in eight goodly volumes. Some of these States are as large as Great Britain, and their population together amounts to more than fifty millions of people.

I will now ask you to direct your attention to her Majesty's subjects in India, and first to the native army of the Queen. I should rather have said armies, for from the enrolment of the first sepoy, now more than one hundred and thirty years ago, the armies of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay have had a separate and distinct existence, constitution, and esprit de corps.

Sir John Malcolm, a distinguished Indian statesman and soldier, wrote many years ago an interesting sketch of the history of the native armies. I shall freely make use of this undoubted and excellent authority in bringing before you some of the occasions upon which in former days those armies have performed feats which deserve to be recorded along with the most gallant achievements of the British army.

To begin with the army of Madras. At the battle of Assaye, which ranks among the hardest-fought victories of Wellington,' to quote Sir John Malcolm's words, the British dragoons, when making their extremest efforts, saw their Asiatic fellow-soldiers keep pace for pace and blow for blow.' So much for the cavalry of the Madras army. Sir John Malcolm gives an interesting anecdote of

the Madras Native Infantry. The 1st battalion of the 8th Regiment was a favourite with the Duke. They were with him on every service; the men used to call themselves Wellesley's battalion,' and their conduct supported the proud title they had assumed. staff officer after the battle of Assaye saw a number of the Mussulmans of this battalion assembled for a funeral. He asked whom they were about to inter; they mentioned the names of five commissioned and non-commissioned officers of a very distinguished family in the corps. 'We are going to put these brothers into one grave,' said one of the party. The officer, who was well acquainted with the individuals, was about to offer some consolation to the survivors, when he was stopped by one of the men. There is no occasion,' he said, for such feelings or expressions; these men were sepoys, they have died in the performance of their duty; the Government they served will protect their children, who will soon fill the ranks they lately occupied.'

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There is no dearth of instances of the gallantry of the Bengal army in old times. The conduct of the 2nd battalion of the 12th Regiment,' says Sir John Malcolm, may be taken as an example of the spirit that animated the whole. It was associated at the battle of Laswarree with the 76th Regiment, and shared in the praise which Lord Lake bestowed on the "handful of heroes," as he emphatically termed the men whose great exertions decided that battle. But all its former deeds were outdone at the siege of Bhurtpore. On the first storm of that fortress this corps lost 150 officers and men killed and wounded, and did not retire till the last. On the third attack, when joined with the 1st battalion of the same regiment (amounting together to 800 men), it became the admiration of the whole army. The 2nd battalion on this occasion not only drove back the enemy, who had made a sally to attack the trenches, but effected a lodgment, and planted its colours on one of the bastions of the fort. Unfortunately this work was cut off by a deep ditch from the body of the place; and after the attack had failed the regiment was ordered to retire, which they did reluctantly, with the loss of 7 officers and 350 men killed and wounded, being nearly half the number they had carried into action.'

The Native troops of Bombay have distinguished themselves as conspicuously as their comrades of Bengal and Madras. I will mention one instance, and I have chosen it principally because the regiment concerned is one of those which were present at the disastrous engagement of Maiwand, near Candahar. I trust that the full particulars, when we receive them, will show that at least the 2nd Bombay Grenadiers did not disgrace the traditions of the corps. I take this story from Grant Duff's History of the Mahrattas.' 7 At ten o'clock on the morning of New Year's Day, 1818, 500 rank and file of the 2nd battalion of the 1st Regiment of Bombay Native

7 Vol. iii. p. 432.

Infantry, supported by two six-pounders manned by twenty-four Europeans of the Madras Artillery, and accompanied by 300 irregular horse, the whole under the command of Captain Francis Staunton, after a long night march, reached some high ground above a village called Korygaom, on the Bema river, where Captain Staunton unexpectedly found the whole of the Mahratta horse, about 25,000 strong, on the opposite side of the river, which was nearly dry, and afforded no protection to his small force. He at once took post in the village and made the best arrangements in his power for its defence. Most of the Mahratta infantry was in advance, but they were immediately recalled, and three bodies, of 600 picked men in each, many of them being Arabs, who are most formidable soldiers, advanced under cover of the river, supported by two guns, to storm the village. A continued shower of rockets was at the same time poured into it, and many of the houses were set on fire. The enemy soon gained possession of a strong square inclosure, commanding most of the streets, from whence they could not be dislodged. The village was surrounded by horse and foot, and all access to the river cut off. Captain Staunton was destitute of provisions, and his detachment, already fatigued by a long night march, under a burning sun, without food or water, began a struggle as trying as ever was maintained by the British in India. Every foot of ground was disputed,' several streets were taken and retaken, as well as a small temple where three of the officers were lying wounded. The men who continued the conflict were fainting, or nearly frantic from the dreadful privation of water. Lieutenant Chisholm, the officer commanding the artillery, being killed, the enemy, encouraged by this circumstance, rushed upon one of the guns and took it. Lieutenant Thomas Pattison, adjutant of the infantry battalion, lying mortally wounded, being shot through the body, no sooner heard that the gun was taken, than getting up he called to the grenadiers "once more to follow him," and, seizing a musket by the muzzle, rushed into the middle of the Arabs, striking them down right and left, until a second ball through the body completely disabled him. Lieutenant Pattison had been nobly seconded; the sepoys, thus led, were irresistible; the gun was retaken, and the dead Arabs, literally lying above each other, proved how desperately it had been defended.' Captain Staunton and two other officers, who alone remained fit for duty, continued the defence with the most determined valour till the evening, when their situation appeared to be hopeless; but the enemy, either exhausted by the resistance they had experienced, or fearing the approach of reinforcements, retired in the course of the night.

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To commemorate this glorious defence, a monument, which may still be seen, was erected by Government, recording the names of those who fell. The corps was made Grenadiers, as their 1st battalion had been for the defence of Mangalore, and Korygaom' became one of the mottoes of the regiment which was afterwards formed from the 2nd battalion.

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It will probably occur to some of those whom I am addressing that, as I have recounted the noble deeds of the native armies of India, I should say something at least of the great Indian Mutiny. I shall not discuss the causes of that mutiny. I am content to quote the sentiments which were expressed after it was subdued by one of the most gallant of the officers who took part in the struggle. Sir James Outram, the Bayard of India, when his last illness was near at hand, and he was forced to receive in his own room a deputation, headed by the Duke of Argyll, who were desirous of expressing their appreciation of his services, used, in thanking them, these words, which may well be treasured as a precious legacy by his fellow-countrymen, especially by those of them who serve the Queen in India: If to anything in myself I owe such success as I may have attained, it is mainly to this-that throughout my career I have loved the people of India, regarded their country as my home, and made their weal my first object. And though my last service in the field was against the comrades of my old associates, the madness of a moment has not obliterated from my mind the fidelity of a century, and I can still love and still believe.'&

It must not be forgotten that when the madness of a moment' struck the mass of the Bengal army, the native troops raised in the Punjab under Edwardes and Nicholson, supported by the courage and the wisdom which have made the name of John Lawrence dear to his fellow-countrymen, gave-at a most critical moment-assistance and support, without which the struggle before Delhi might have had a very different result. And in the memorable siege of the Residency of Lucknow, in which the thoughts of every Englishman were absorbed during many weary months of suspense, faithful native soldiers shared all the privations and all the dangers of the British garrison.

When the Prince of Wales visited India, the survivors of that gallant band assembled at Lucknow to pay their homage to the son of their sovereign. It was a touching scene-many of them appeared in their old uniforms, and Sir George Couper, who himself, although a civilian, had taken a prominent part in the defence, addressing the Prince, said: The behaviour of the sepoys of Lucknow was simply without parallel in the history of the world. Under Clive, at Arcot, sepoys underwent great privations for their European comrades; but their fidelity was not tested like that of the men who resisted the adjurations of their brethren, comrades and castemen, not fifty yards off, calling them by name to desert the alien and infidel.' Anyone who has visited, as I have, the scene of this glorious defence, will agree with me that there was no exaggeration in his language. In the same war of the Mutiny, many faithful native soldiers distinguished themselves as much in attacks upon their rebellious comrades and countrymen as did the garrison which defended Lucknow. The native regiments

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Life of Sir James Outram, by Sir F. Goldsmid, vol. ii. p. 372.

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