it may sound) to form a similar fleet to attack the homes of those that dare to visit our shores unasked.

Then let us be prepared. It is not enough for our naval and military authorities to shirk the matter by saying that they do not consider it likely to be serious. The question is whether there is any sort of possibility of this mode of warfare developing into one of importance. If there is, it demands our most serious consideration, and the British taxpayer must put his hand in his pocket and provide the wherewithal to place us at least on a par with any foreign nation which attempts to form a large aerial fleet.

VOL. LXIV-No. 381

B. BADEN-POWELL.

3 G

INDIA UNDER CROWN GOVERNMENT,

1858-1908

It is now just fifty years since Lord Canning, on the 1st of November, 1858, in a grand durbar held at Allahabad, published the Royal Proclamation concerning the Act for the Better Government of India.' By this Act, only passed after acrimonious party discussion in Parliament, the Crown assumed the direct control of the vast empire gradually built up during two hundred and fifty years by the East India Company, which originally began its operations, in 1600, as a small body of merchant adventurers.

During Lord Dalhousie's governor-generalship, from 1848 to 1856, the territorial responsibilities connected with the already large British dominions in India were increased by the annexation of the Punjab in 1849, and of the central portion of Lower Burma in 1852, while Satara in 1849 and Jhansi and Nagpur in 1853 were escheated through lapse of natural heirs. Oudh, too, after many solemn warnings throughout long years of misrule, was annexed without a blow in February 1856, just before Lord Dalhousie left India.

Although peace seemed assured, Lord Canning, his successor, was somewhat apprehensive concerning trouble, for there was much latent discontent. Lord Dalhousie's policy of escheat on lapse of heirs and his annexation of Oudh had raised bitter animosity among the ruling classes; while the commencement of trunk railways and telegraph lines in 1853 had an unsettling effect upon the population generally, and upon the Bengal Army especially.

These feelings were wrought upon by the dethroned princes and those disappointed through escheat; and soon the cloud about which Lord Canning was apprehensive arose, and burst prematurely in the shape of a revolt of the native troops at Meerut on the 10th of May, 1857, whence it rapidly extended to the whole of the Bengal army. The high-caste Hindus forming the bulk of the Bengal army had always been troublesome, and had thrice before mutinied-at Patna in 1764, for increased pay and allowances; throughout Bengal in 1780, to avoid the sea voyage to Madras; and at Barrackpore in 1824, when they refused to go to Burma by sea. But the immediate

cause of this mutiny in 1857 was the issue of the then newly invented cartridges, which were greased with the fat of animals abhorrent to both Hindus and Mahomedans. It was purely a military uprising; but its suppression necessitated two and a half years of strenuous warfare; and in place of overwhelming us with ruin, it resulted in the abolition of the East India Company and the assumption of direct government by the Crown, whereby the British position was greatly strengthened.

The Mutiny furnished strong proof of the need for improving communications, and after the proclamation of peace throughout India on the 8th of July, 1859, railway construction was pushed on rapidly, while assurances were given to the loyal princes and rajahs that henceforth adopted heirs would be recognised and there should be no further escheat through lapse of natural heirs.

During the remainder of Lord Canning's viceroyalty, till March 1862, attention was given to improving the finances, which had been greatly damaged through the enormously heavy charges incurred during the mutiny; while judicial matters were improved by the introduction of the Civil Procedure Code in 1859, the Penal Code in 1860 (originally drafted by Macaulay in 1837), and the Criminal Procedure Code in 1861. And a step of the first importance was taken when the Indian army was re-organised on the recommendations of a Commission in 1859 (see page 796).

Lord Elgin, Canning's successor, who died in November 1863, worked hard during his short tenure of office, and with patient selfdenial adhered to his resolve that we must, for a time at least, walk in paths traced out for us by others.'

Sir John (afterwards Lord) Lawrence, who then went out as Viceroy, was a man cast in a different mould; and he had already the largest possible experience of Indian affairs. His chief aims were internal administrative improvements and the development of the natural resources of the country by railway extension and irrigation. He settled the long-pending disputes between the landowners and the peasantry in Oudh; he re-organised the Native Judicial Service; he created the Indian Forest Department; and he did much for sanitation and education. But, despite a rigid economy, which made him unpopular, he found himself hampered by financial difficulties through the revenue remaining stationary, while expenditure was constantly and inevitably increasing. These difficulties were aggravated by the Bhutan War in 1864, resulting in annexation, and by the great famine in Orissa and a serious commercial crisis in 1866, followed by further scarcity in Upper India in 1868. His foreign policy of masterly inactivity' in seeking to maintain the status quo by non-intervention in transfrontier affairs produced stormy criticism.

To Lord Mayo, who became Viceroy in January 1869, the dis

advantages and limitations of the 'masterly inactivity' policy were fully apparent. While he knew that active interference was dangerous, he saw the need of exercising' that moral influence which is inseparable from the strongest power in Asia.' Thus, when the Amir of Afghanistan came to a durbar at Ambala in March 1869, the Viceroy was unable to promise the subsidy and the support in every emergency which were asked for, though otherwise the meeting was satisfactory. And although he found himself forced into a Lushai expedition, to check tribal raids into Cachar, the wise frontier policy he adopted was thus summed up early in 1872:

I have frequently laid down what I believe to be the cardinal points of Anglo-Indian policy. They may be summed up in a few words. We should establish with our frontier States . . . intimate relations of friendship; we should make them feel that, though we are all-powerful, we desire to support their nationality; that when necessity arises we might assist them with money, armis, and even perhaps, in certain eventualities, with men. We could thus create in them outworks of our Empire. . . . Further, we should strenuously oppose any attempt to neutralise those territories in the European sense, or to sanction or invite the interference of any European power in their affairs.

With the feudatory princes in India he established cordial relations, and one of the fruits of this was the foundation of colleges at Ajmir and Kathiawar for the education of the sons of rajahs and nobles. These satisfactory signs of loyalty and friendship were strengthened by the visit of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, in 1869, when the native rulers and princes of India were first brought into direct personal touch with our royal family.

During Lord Mayo's viceroyalty, cut short by his assassination in February 1872, further advances were made in administrative reform and in developing the resources of India, while great financial improvements were also effected. He did much for agriculture, and his interest in railway extension and other public works led to his taking charge of the Public Works Department in addition to Foreign Affairs, always the special department of the Viceroy. To him was due the more rapid extension of railways through the adoption of the metre-gauge on all but the great trunk lines. But the chief event of his administration was the inception of a policy of local selfgovernment to relieve over-centralisation, already troublesome, by introducing a system of financial contracts establishing more definite relations between the Imperial and the Provincial Governments, which has been of great benefit to local administrations.

Lord Northbrook, who next held office from May 1872 to March 1876, endeavoured to effect further financial improvements; but his efforts were impeded by the deficiency caused through depreciation in the value of the rupee, owing to the demonetisation of silver in Europe after the Franco-German War, and through large outlay being incurred in relief works during the Lower Bengal famine of 1874.

Two very important political events happened, however, in 1875. The first of these was the deposition of the Gaekwar of Baroda for misrule, disloyalty, and attempts to poison the British Resident; and practical proof was then given of the sincerity of the declaration made in 1859 as to the abolition of escheat on lapse of direct heirs; for a young child, a distant relative of the deposed Gaekwar, was raised to the throne. And the other great event was the visit of the Prince of Wales, now his Majesty King Edward the Seventh, Emperor of India, during the cold season 1875-6, when the personal relations thus established greatly strengthened the loyalty of the native princes.

During Lord Lytton's viceroyalty, from April 1876 to April 1880, still more was done to strengthen by outward signs the ties uniting Britain and India. On the 1st of May 1876 Queen Victoria assumed the title of Empress of India; and on the 1st of January 1877 this assumption of title was proclaimed in a great durbar held at Delhi, the ancient capital of the Mogul emperors. And that the Indian army was a factor to be reckoned with in other parts of the British Empire was demonstrated by native troops being despatched to Malta and Cyprus in 1878, when war with Russia seemed imminent—an example that was followed during the Egyptian War of 1882, the Boer War in 1899, and the expeditions to China in 1900 and Somaliland in 1903.

Misfortunes, however, soon came. In 1876 the rains failed in southern India, and a great famine ensued, which extended in 1877-78 right across India into the Punjab, and necessitated relief measures costing eight million pounds. This financial strain was increased by the continual shrinkage in the value of the rupee, so that loans of 5,000,000l. had to be raised in 1877 and 1879, followed by much. larger loans later on. And just when this serious famine ended, India became embroiled in an Afghan war in 1878, through Shere Ali's intriguing with Russia, and refusing to receive a British envoy while cordially welcoming a Russian mission. Shere Ali fled before the invading force, and his son Yakub Khan was recognised as Amir under the treaty of Gandamak in May 1879. Possession was obtained of the three north-western mountain passes through which the invasion of India is possible, and thus a' scientific frontier' was acquired. But a weak point in the treaty was the stipulation that a British Resident should be received at Kabul; for in August 1879 the Resident and all his staff were massacred, and another war ensued. This resulted in Yakub Khan's deposition and the raising of Abdur Rahman, a descendant of Dost Mahomed, to the Amirship in March 1880-just when a general election in Britain drove the Conservative Cabinet from office and necessitated Lord Lytton's resignation. So far as internal administration was concerned, Lord Lytton extended Lord Mayo's decentralisation system, especially as regards financial matters concerning local Governments; and he abolished the inland customs