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1856

SUCCESSFUL OPERATIONS

947

15. The Hospital at Scutari. 1855.-The sick were carried to a hospital at Scutari near Constantinople, but when they arrived there were no nurses to attend on them, and large numbers died. After a while Miss Florence Nightingale was sent out with other ladies to nurse the sick. It was the first time that women had been employed as nurses in war. Miss Nightingale soon reduced the disorder into order, made the place clean, and saw that the sufferers were skilfully tended. Good nursing at once told on the health of the men, and valuable lives were spared in consequence of the gentle help received.

16. The Palmerston Ministry. 1855. At home Englishmen looked on the misery in the Crimea with growing anger. They thought that some one was to blame, and as soon as Parliament met, the Government was forced to resign. Lord Palmerston became Prime Minister. It was known that his whole heart was in the war, and that he was a man of strong common sense and resolute character. Matters in the Crimea began to improve, principally because by that time English officials had begun, after numerous failures, to understand their duties.

17. The Fall of Sebastopol and the End of the War. 1855-1856. During the summer the siege of Sebastopol was pushed on. The British army was in good condition. The French troops were, however, more numerous, and occupied the positions from which the town could be most easily attacked. They had, too, a new commander, Marshal Pelissier, who was more strong-willed than Canrobert had been. The King of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel, joined the Allies, and in the battle of Trakir1 his troops took part with the French in driving back a fresh Russian onslaught. After various attempts a final attack on Sebastopol was made on September 8. The English failed to capture the Redan which was opposed to them, but the French stormed the Malakhoff Tower, and the whole of the fortifications were thereby rendered untenable. The Tzar Nicholas had died in the spring, and his successor, Alexander II., was now ready to make peace. The

[graphic]

The Victoria Cross: instituted in 1856.

1 Trakir is the Russian word for an inn.

Russian losses had been enormous, not merely in Sebastopol itself, but over the whole of the empire. There was scarcely a railway in Russia then, and hundreds of thousands of men had perished of fatigue in the long and exhausting marches. In March 1856 peace was made. The fortifications of Sebastopol were destroyed, and Russia promised not to have a fleet in the Black Sea or to re-fortify the town. The Russians abode by these terms as long as they were obliged to do so, and no longer. It was, however, long enough to give the Turks time to improve and strengthen their government if they had been capable of carrying out reforms of any kind.

18. India after Wellesley's Recall. 1805-1823.-British hostility to Russia had arisen chiefly from fear lest she should, by gaining possession of Constantinople, cut off the passage to India. Alarm on this score had not been of recent growth. Partly in consequence of a desire to win the attachment of the natives of India as a security against foreign aggression, successive governorsgeneral had, since Wellesley left India in 1805 (see p. 859), devoted themselves to improve the condition of the people, and had for some time abstained from war as much as possible. Their reluctance to appeal to arms had, however, encouraged bands of plunderers known as Pindarrees, supported by the Mahratta chiefs whose power Wellesley had curtailed, but who still retained their independence. In 1817 the Marquis of Hastings, at that time governor-general, began the third Mahratta War (see pp. 804, 859). The Peishwah (see p. 802) abdicated in favour of the British, and the other Mahratta chiefs were reduced to a condition of dependency, and gave no more shelter to robbers. Hastings completed Wellesley's work, by making the power of the East India Company absolutely predominant, and, after 1823, when he left India, there were, indeed, wars occasionally on a small scale, but for some years the chief feature of Indian history was its peaceful progress.

19. The North-Western Frontier. 1806-1835.—The suppression of internal disorder did not relieve the Government of India from anxiety lest increasing prosperity within should tempt invaders from without. Secured on the north by the lofty wall of the Himalayas, India, until the arrival of the British by sea, had always been invaded by enemies pouring across its north-western frontier from the passes of the highlands of Afghanistan ; and it was from the same quarter that danger was now feared. For some time, indeed, a sufficient bulwark had been erected by the estab

1835-1840

THE AFGHAN WAR

949

lishment in the Punjab-the land of the five rivers-of the Sikhs, a warlike people with a special religion, neither Mahomedan nor Hindoo. The Sikhs were strongly organised for military purposes under a capable ruler, Runjeet Singh, who had entered in 1806 into a treaty with the British which to the end of his life he faithfully observed. Under him the Sikhs covered the British territory from an attack through Afghanistan, much in the same way that in the time of Warren Hastings the Nawab of Oude had covered it against the attacks of the Mahrattas (see p. 802).

20. Russia and Afghanistan. 1835-1838. In 1835, when England and Russia were striving for the mastery at Constantinople (see p. 921), the two countries were necessarily thrown into opposition in Asia. In 1837 the Shah of Persia, who was under Russian influence, laid siege to Herat, on the eastern border of his own country. As Herat was on the road to India, Lord Auckland, the governor-general, took alarm, and, even before the siege was actually begun, sent an agent, Alexander Burnes, to Cabul to win over Dost Mahommed, the ruler of Afghanistan, to enter into an alliance with England against Persia, the ally of Russia. Burnes, knowing that soft words would not suffice to gain the heart of Dost Mahommed, offered him British aid in his own quarrels. Auckland, however, refused to carry out the engagement made by Burnes, on which Dost Mahommed, taking offence, allied himself with Russia. In 1838, Auckland sent an expedition to dethrone Dost Mahommed, and to replace him by Shah Soojah, an Afghan prince who had been living in exile in India. Before the expedition started the siege of Herat had been raised by the Persians, and there was, therefore, no longer any real excuse for an attack on the fierce and warlike Afghans.

21. The Invasion of Afghanistan. 1839-1842.-Nevertheless the British army entered Afghanistan in 1839, and, reaching Cabul in safety, placed Shah Soojah on the throne. In 1840, Dost Mahommed knowing that he could not carry on a successful resistance in the field, surrendered himself as a prisoner. So peaceful was the outlook that Sir William Macnaghten, who had charge of the political arrangements at Cabul, fancied that all danger was at an end. Suddenly, however, an insurrection broke out, and some of the British officers, amongst whom was Burnes, were murdered. Though the British were taken by surprise, they had still soldiers enough to attack the Afghans with every prospect of success, but General Elphinstone, who was in command, refused to run the risk. On this the Afghans became still more daring,

and, as food was growing short in the British cantonments, Macnaghten and Elphinstone offered to surrender the forts of Cabul to the enemy on condition of being supplied with provisions. Akbar Khan, a son of Dost Mahommed, invited Macnaghten to a conference and shot him dead with his own hand. The British officers then entered on a treaty with the murderer, who engaged to protect their army, if it would immediately return to India.

22. The Retreat from Cabul. 1842.-The retreat began on January 6, 1842. Snow and ice lay thickly on the passes over the lofty mountain ranges, which had to be climbed before the plains of India were reached. Akbar Khan did what he could to protect the retreating regiments, but he could not restrain his followers. Crowds of Afghans stationed themselves on the rocks which rose above the track, and shot down the fugitives. With the retreating soldiers were English ladies, some of them with children to care for. To save them from certain death they were surrendered to Akbar Khan, who promised to treat them kindly, and who, to his credit, kept his word. After five days' march, out of 14,500 men who left Cabul, no more than 4,000 remained alive. Each day the

butchery was renewed. On the morning of the eighth day only sixty-five were left, and this scanty remnant of a mighty host struggled on to reach Jellalabad in which there was a British garrison. Of these, sixty-four were slain on the way; after which the Afghans, believing that all their enemies had perished, returned in triumph. One Englishman, however, Dr. Brydon, who had lagged behind because both he and the pony on which he rode were too exhausted to keep up with the march, escaped their notice. Fainting and scarcely able to speak, he at last stumbled into Jellalabad, and told the tale of the great disaster.

23. Pollock's March to Cabul. 1842.--Jellalabad held out against all the Afghans who could be brought against it. Then General Pollock was sent to retrieve the honour of the British arms. He occupied Cabul, but he had to replace Dost Mahommed on the throne, and to content himself with recovering the British captives.

24. Conquest of Sindh. 1842.-Lord Ellenborough, who had succeeded Auckland as governor-general, coveted Sindh, because he wished to control the lower course of the Indus. He brought accusations of treachery against the Ameers who ruled it, some of which appear to have been based on forged letters. He then sent against the Ameers Sir Charles Napier, who, fighting against tremendous odds, defeated them at Meanee. Sindh was annexed,

1845-1849

THE SIKH WARS

951

and its inhabitants, being far better governed than before, rapidly became prosperous and contented.

25. The First Sikh War. 1845-1846.-Runjeet Singh (see p. 949), the lion of the Punjab,' as he was called, died in 1839. His succession was disputed, and the Government really fell into the hands of the Sikh army, which raised to power one competitor after another amidst scenes of bloodshed. The governor-general, Sir Henry Hardinge, himself a soldier, had succeeded Ellenborough in 1843. He was anxious to keep the peace, but the mutinous Sikh army was under no restraint, and on December 11, 1845, it crossed the Sutlej and poured into British territory. Never had a British army in India met antagonists so formidable. Yet in two fierce battles, at Ferozeshah and Moodkee, the invaders were repulsed by Sir Hugh Gough, the commander-in-chief. The Sikhs, however, were not disheartened. In January 1846, they

were again defeated by Sir Harry Smith at Aliwal, and finally on February 8, their entrenched camp at Sobraon, on the Sutlej, though defended by more powerful artillery than could be brought against them, was stormed by Gough. After these defeats, the Sikhs submitted, yielding the territory between the Sutlej and the Beas.

26. The Second Sikh War. 1848-1849.-In 1848 there was a second Sikh war. On January 13, 1849, Gough—now Lord Gough --met with a check at Chillianwalla, and Sir Charles Napier was sent out to succeed him as commander-in-chief. Before Napier arrived, Gough gained a decisive victory at Gujerat. On this the whole of the Punjab was annexed. Chiefly under the firm and kindly management of two brothers, Henry and John Lawrence, the Punjab was reduced to order and contentment, and the very Sikh soldiers who had been the most dangerous antagonists of the British Government were converted into its most unwavering supporters.

1848-1856.-When the

27. Lord Dalhousie's Administration. second Sikh war was being fought, Lord Dalhousie was the governor-general, and he continued to rule India for eight years, from 1848 to 1856. He was impressed with the advantages which would accrue to the native population by being brought under British rule, and he annexed one territory after another. In his time the Punjab, Sattara, Nagpoor, Lower Burmah, and finally Oude, were brought directly under British authority either by conquest or by the dethronement of the native princes. Lord Dalhousie's intentions were undoubtedly good, but he irritated an

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