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A D. 1757-1858.] RETROSPECT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 813

sessions, the field was clear for the exercise of all the virtues for which the Anglo-Saxon race has ever been celebrated. The consciousness of power, and the ennobling principle of self-reliance, made young lieutenants and peaceable civilians rise into law-givers and rulers of men. The Company grew, in spite of the common prejudices against mercantile pursuits as narrowing the heart and blunting the feelings of honour. There appeared men in the service of that Company who displayed Roman powers of government, and wider range of political views than any of the statesmen of Europe. From Clive to Wellington there arose a series of great commanders, and from Hastings to Canning a series of distinguished governors, such as the world had never seen. If unsuccess attended some of their later measures, the result should not be allowed to interfere with the grandeur of the conception or the method of execution. We had reverses against which no human wisdom could provide; a mutiny at Vellore in 1806, and the defeat and capture of an army, were atoned for by the triumphs that immediately ensued.

In 1839 Lord Auckland directed an expedition to Afghanistan, for a purpose which appeared to justify the expense and risk. It succeeded in the object it aimed at, and the northern gate of India seemed barred against Russian attack by the possession of Cabul. In the December of 1842 the disaster came. There was an old and valetudinarian general, an indiscreet envoy, and a discontented people. A rising took place, and retreat was resolved upon too late. The passes from that mountainous region into Hindostan were beset with enemies; the season was intolerably severe. French sufferings in the flight from Moscow were repeated on a smaller scale, but with more complete destruction. Twenty thousand men, women, and children, followers of the camp, perished along with nearly five thousand English soldiers, and every hearth in England was saddened by the news. Party feeling also ran high. Lord Auckland, a Whig, was

The

withdrawn; and Lord Ellenborough, a Tory, was installed in Calcutta. With a love of display and fondness for admiration which exposed him to ridicule, the new Governor-General had qualities of the highest kind. He burned to recover our old renown, and warmed every one in India with the same desire. Nobly served by the heroic Nott and Pollock, the honour of our flag was retrieved by a succession of victories, and our standard was planted once more in the capital of the Afghans; but with that retribution our efforts ceased. We evacuated the country, and contented ourselves with the level lands on the east of the Kyber Pass. Sir Charles Napier, after victories at Meeanè and Hyderabad, which recalled the marvels of Plassy and Assaye, attached the territory of Scinde to our dominion; and till the outbreak of the mutiny already described, in 1857, there seemed neither enemy nor rival from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin.

§ 25. Authority so great, a region so extensive, and military forces on such an imperial scale, seemed no longer fitted for the nominal rule of the Indian Company. It was resolved to unite the name of power to the reality, which had in effect resided for a long time in the government at home. The traditions of the humble days of widening trade and increasing dividends remained with the board in Leadenhall-street, after the decision of higher matters was taken out of their hands. The forms of authority still remained; and their seal was still attached to the commissions of the army, and the appointment of civil servants who were to rule over districts as large as kingdoms.

"The old order changeth, giving place to new,
For God fulfils himself in many ways;"

and after a debate in Parliament, the great deed was consummated in the transference of all the remaining power of the Company to the imperial crown. The successors of the early "Adventurers trading to the East," disappeared from history at the same time with the successor of Akbar and

A.D. 1857-1858.] LANDMARKS OF CHRONOLOGY.

815

Aurungzebe; and encouraging peaceful enterprise like the first, and governing a wider realm than owned the sway of those Eastern kings, Victoria assumed the sceptre over two hundred millions of additional subjects, and on the 2nd of August, 1858, became Empress of Hindostan.

A.D.

LANDMARKS OF CHRONOLOGY.

The different administrations of this reign are given at the head of the present chapter (p. 788).

1837. Accession of Queen Victoria.
Crowned in Westminster
Abbey, June 28, 1838

1838. Entire abolition of slavery in
the British colonies.
Insurrection in Canada.
1839. Aden, in Arabia, taken by a
British force.

1840. Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha. War between Great Britain and China.

1841. Union of Upper and Lower Canada.

1842. Advantageous treaty of peace with China, after the British had captured several of the Chinese ports.

1843. Opening of the Thames Tunnel.
Disruption of the Church of
Scotland.

The Ameers of Scinde totally
routed by the British under
General Sir Charles Napier.

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1853-55. England and France enter
into an alliance in defence of
and
Turkey,
declare war
against Russia. Invasion of
the Crimea; battle of Alma;
siege and capture of Sebas-
topol; battles of Balaclava
and Inkerman; capture and
destruction of Bomarsund in
the Baltic.

1854. The Crystal Palace at Syden-
ham opened by her Majesty.

1846. The Sikh army destroyed by 1855. Visit of the Emperor and Em

the British under Sir Hugh
Gough.

Famine in Ireland.

Repeal of the Corn-laws.

1848. French revolution, and expul-
sion of Louis-Philippe. Louis
Napoleon Bonaparte elected
President of France.
Chartist agitations.

1849. Insurrection of the Sikhs, and
their entire subjugation to
British rule.

press of the French to her Majesty Queen Victoria.

1856. Peace concluded with Russia by the treaty of Paris.

1857-58. Mutiny of the native troops in the Presidency of Bengal, which, after several sanguinary contests, is eventually subdued. The East India Company abolished, and the whole of the Indian territories subjected to British rule.

INDEX.

The details or leading events of each sovereign's reign, being given in the analysis
which precedes each chapter, are not recapitulated in the Index.

ABBEY CRAIG, 282

Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, the
Calvinistic divine, 520, 539.
Aberdeen, Earl of, his ministry of
1852-55, 788; superseded by Lord
Palmerston, 806.

Aboukir, French fleet defeated at, 762.
Abraham, battle on the heights of, 711.
Absolutism supported by the Church

and clergy, 539; decision of the
judges in favour of, 552.
Acre, St. Jean d', captured by
Richard I., 214; defended by Sir
Sidney Smith, 762.

Addington made Prime Minister, 762.
Adelaide, Queen, 778.

Adelais of Louvaine, 164.
Administrations of the reign of

George III., 760-2; of George
IV., 776; of William IV., 787; of
Victoria, 788, 799.

Adrian III., Pope, 179.
Afghanistan, English expedition to,

813; disastrous retreat from, ib.;
retributive vengeance inflicted on,
814.

Africa, trade with, promoted, 705.
Agincourt, battle of, 368, 369.
Agra, butcheries of, 811.
Agricola, his campaigns in Britain,
19; his high character, 20; defeats
the Caledonians, 23; sails round
the Orkneys, 24.
Aix-la-Chapelle, peace of, 630; treaty
of, 705; dissatisfaction with the
treaty, 709.
Aland Isles, 809.

Albemarle, Duke of (General Monk),

at the head of the Parliamentary
forces, 605; effects the restoration
of the Stuarts, 606; made Duke
of Albemarle, 610; fights the Dutch
at sea, 615.

Alberoni, the Spanish minister, 687.
Albert of Saxe-Coburg married to
Queen Victoria, 792.

Albinus, the Roman general, 25.
Alectus, 26.

Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, 163.
Alexander of Parma, the Spanish
general, 485.

Alexander III., King of Scotland,
married to Joan, the king's sister,
257; killed, 265.
Alexander III., Pope, 179, 186, 192;
his interference in the quarrel be-
tween Becket and the king, 194.
Alexander VI., the wicked pope, 420.
Alfred the Great, 54; his difficulties,
55; anecdotes of, 56; genius and
energy of, 59; death of, 76.
Algiers, bombardment of, 762.
"All the Talents," 743.
Alma, battle of the, 803..
Almanza, battle of, won by the
French, 674.

Alphege, Archbishop, 72.

Alba, Duke of, 481; the sanguinary
persecutor of Protestantism, 481.
Ambrosius, 36.

America, Philip of Spain's assumed
monopoly of, 488; colonization of,
705; war with, 758; naval contests
with, 758, 759.
American colonies, on the loss of the,
718; quarrel with, and its causes,
723, 724; rebellion and civil war,
725 et seq.; France enters into an
alliance with, 729; surrender of
Lord Cornwallis at York Town,
730; their independence acknow-
ledged, ib.

Amherst, General, 711.
Amiens, peace of, 741.
Amusements, popular, 519, 520.
Angles, 34.

INDEX.

Anglesey, slaughter of the Druids in,

17.

Anglo-Saxon and Danish territories,
56; their government and laws

56-58.

Anglo-Saxons, state of the Church

and clergy under the, 61; con-
dition of the, temp. Henry II. 173,

175.

Angus, Archibald Douglas, Earl of,

508.

Anjou ceded to the French, 381.
Anjou, Duke of, 499.

Anne, Princess, daughter of James II.,

644, 646; Queen of England, 667;
her reign, 667-681. (See Analysis,
667.)

Anne of Bohemia, 340; married to
Richard II., 340, 341.

Anne, wife of Richard III.; death of,

402.

Anne, Princess of Cleves, married to

Henry VIII., but repudiated, 445.
Anselm, Archbishop, his quarrel with
William II., 134; recalled by
Henry I., 141, 148.

Anson, Commodore, voyages of, 715.
Anti-Corn-law League, 793. (See
CORN-LAWS.)

Appropriation clause for applying
the surplus revenue of the Irish
Church, 786.

Aquitaine taken from the English,

382.

Aquitaine, Lord of, 321.

Argyle, Marquis of, heads the Cove-
nanters, 572; leader of the Pres-
byterians, 609; executed, ib.
Argyle, Duke of, leader of the Northern
rebels, 634; defeated and executed,
ib.

Arians burnt, 523.

Aristocracy, their power broken at
the period of the Tudors, 408 et seq.;
the ancient one destroyed, temp.
Edward VI., 453; state of the,
temp. James I., 517.

Armada of Spain for the invasion of
England, 488, 489; its utter defeat,
490.

"Armed Neutrality" of the maritime

States against England, 730; de-
stroyed by Nelson, 740.
Armour worn by the knights of the
fourteenth century, 338.
Army, the Commons assume autho-

817

rity over the, 566; mutiny of the,
577; resolves to maintain its su-
premacy, 602, 604, 605; feeling ex-
hibited by the, temp. James II., 644.
Arnold, General, 727.

Arteveldt, James Van, the citizen
leader of Ghent, 299; murder of,
305.

Arthur, the British king, 41.
Arthur, Prince, hereditary sovereign
of England, 228; murdered by
King Jolin, 230.

Arthur, Prince, son of Henry VII.,
married to Catherine of Spain, 420;
death of, ib.; his widow married to
Henry VIII., 425.

Artillery, first introduction of, 318.
Arts, Royal Academy of, established,

761.

Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury,
the bigoted persecutor, 365.
Ashburnham, General, 810.
Aske, Robert, originator of the "Pil-
grimage of Grace," executed, 443.
Assassins, tribe of, in the valleys of
the Lebanon, 217.

Asselin, son of Arthur, 119.
Atheists, punishment of, 491.
Atheling, title of, 85.

Athelstane, the Saxon king, 60; con-
federacy against him, ib.; his con-
quests, ib.

Athelwald, 66, 67.
Athol, Duke of, 673.
Atrebatii, the, 94 n.

Atterbury, Bishop, his plot in favour
of the Pretender, 691.
Aubrey de Vere, 164.

Auckland, Lord, his disastrous expe-
dition in Afghanistan, 813; is su-
perseded, 814.

Augustine's introduction of Chris-
tianity, 43; recognised as Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, ib.
Austerlitz, battle of, 743.
Australia, discovery of gold in, 797,

798.

Austria declares war against France,

749; contemporary sovereigns of,
763, 777, 788.

Avignon, the pope at, 312; rival
bishops of, 358.

Avisa of Gloucester, first wife of King

John, 229; her repudiation, ib.
Azoff, Sea of, naval operations in the,
807.

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