the country will show that the labor has been, and is now, almost superhuman.

The history of the Sepoy mutiny is marked with some extraordinary phenomena. The vast extent of country overrun by it, and, considering the difficulty of communication, the rapidity with which it spread; the unanimity manifested in engaging in it; the marked interpositions of Providence in behalf of the British; the hair breadth escapes from destruction, and the immense successes gained by mere handfuls of men, form, it is believed, a series of events unparalleled in the annals of warfare. It was in January, 1857, that the first signs of disaffection appeared. In March this was so marked that some of the worst regiments were disarmed.

Then for a little all seemed calm. But the fearful storm was thickening along the northern horizon, every station seemed infected, and though no blood was shed, the firing of buildings, and the night meetings of the soldiers, showed that the leaven was at work. On the 10th of May, the first fearful blow of fury fell on Meerut. The day before some eighty sepoys had been imprisoned for refusing to use the new cartridges. Fired with rage, on that fatal morning, as one man their comrades rose upon the English officers, murdered them and their wives and children in the face of a strong body of English troops, and by sunrise were on the march for Delhi, only forty miles distant. Greater folly, blindness, and incapacity, than the officer commanding here manifested, have not marred the military history of India. The eighty imprisoned men were not properly guarded. No precautions were taken against a demonstration in their favor. And, after their work of blood, the rebels were not intercepted as they might have been, by a prompt and vigorous movement. And finally some ten hours were permitted to pass, before the English troops were sent in pursuit, and then they were safely sheltered behind the walls of Delhi. Thus, at the very outset, did the mutineers obtain possession of the great treasury and arsenal of the Bengal Presidency. Emboldened by the fact that they had accomplished so much in contempt of a considerable English force, they proclaimed a descendant of the Mogul, king of Delhi,

who issued proclamations to the neighboring Rajahs, calling on them to join his standard, and sent messengers to the Punjaub sepoys. These also immediately prepared to revolt, and but for the telegraph, all the arsenals of that newly conquered province would have fallen into the hands of the mutineers, and their power been established. Southward, as far as Hyderabad, all the Mahratta country rose to greet them; and though Holkar and Nizam were able to restrain their private troops, the Gwalior contingent, numbering ten thousand of the best disciplined and accoutred native soldiers in India, marched to join one of their generals, Nena Sahib. This monster, with head quarters at Cawnpore, was hanging along the southern bank of the Ganges, murdering all the whites he could seize, and gathering his forces for a final swoop upon the English. The dark cloud of revolt also lowered along the Ghauts mountains. The Bombay sepoys seemed ripe for rebellion; and but for the opportune arrival of foreign aid, which overawed them, the scenes of Meerut and Cawnpore would doubtless have been re-enacted there. As it was, several regiments from the northern part of that presidency marched to the ranks of the mutineers. Thus in the short space of two months they had obtained possession of Oude, Agrah, Allahabad, Berar, and Delhi; while Bengal, the Punjaub, Bombay, and the Mahratta country had been just saved to the English, and one hundred thousand well disciplined troops were in bloody revolt against those who had a little before been their leaders. We have remarked, that the Punjaub was saved; and the sagacious measures by which, with the blessing of Providence, this result was secured, and the important part which its hardy Sikhs, and immense military stores, played in the subjugation of the rebels, are worthy of more than the passing notice we can give them. The events of the 10th and 11th of May at Meerut and Delhi were immediately telegraphed to Ferozepore, Lahore, and Peshawur. Instantly, the most prompt measures were taken to prevent a like catastrophe there. Suspected regiments were marched about on fictitious errands. In Peshawur the post office was put under espionage; and the particulars of the plot ascer

tained from opened letters. Consider the danger of this post and see in this the likeness of the others. But ten days elapsed from the time that an account of the first outbreaks was received, and the day set for the rising. Not till the 21st was it certainly known that the 22d was the day fixed. And finally, just one week before was the time originally set, but for some unknown cause there had been a delay. Had it not been for this delay, or had the commanding officers hesitated to give full credence to the evidence before them, and take the most decided measures for safety, the English would have been murdered to a man, the mountain tribes would have joined the rebels, and with all those immense stores at hand and no force to attack their rear, they would have swept on, an ever increasing host, till they sat down before the walls of the "City of Palaces." But the commanders at Peshawur prepared prompt measures in secret council, and when, on the morning of the 22d, the sepoys marched out to parade, they found themselves facing loaded cannon, and frowning English. troops. So being completely at the mercy of their officers, they moodily stacked their arms.

Not less remarkable was the preservation of Phillour; which not only contained vast military stores, but was, from its position, called "the Key of the Punjaub." This fort was occupied by only eight Englishmen and a company of native infantry, who were close confederates of the conspirators. Early on the 12th, a messenger started from Jullundhur, with telegraphic apparatus to bring the lines, which were near by, into connection with the fort. He gave the officers their first intimation of danger. Not a moment was to be lost, yet suspicion must not be aroused; for they were entirely at the mercy of the sepoys. In a few hours the apparatus was fairly at work within the walls; and then came the news that a body of troops were hastening to their delivery. How to keep the fort through the night, was now the question. The gates were closed. A loaded cannon was planted to sweep the gateway, and the port fire was kept burning. Thus prepared as best they could be, they watched for the dawn. Ere it came, the gates had joyfully opened to the little band of one hundred

and fifty who forced their way from Jullundhur, and the fort was safe. Only two days more, and it would have been the rebel rendezvous of the Punjaub. Other and more soul stirring, though not more important events, must remain unnoticed. We would fain tell of the heroism of Havelock, in throwing himself, with his little band, into Lucknow; of the forced march to its relief of Sir Colin Campbell, with but five thousand men, all told, under a burning sun, over a dusty plain, with a cloud of hostile natives hanging on his skirts; of the fierce battles fought before he could cut a path, for that weary garrison, through the midst of eighty thousand sepoys; of the fearful hazards, and the insignificant incidents, which gave him the victory; of that anxious retreat, in which so many sick, and wounded, and women, and babes, must be guarded by so few men; of that brilliant battle, by which the Gwalior contingent was dispersed; of the capture of Delhi, and of a hundred prodigies, which, whether performed by single persons or bodies of troops, seem more like the stories of the Arabian Nights, than like realities of our day. But we must pass them all by. Other topics demand our pen.

The belief has obtained very generally, and received the most powerful official support, that the revolt was a mere military mutiny, with which the people had little or no sympathy. Colonel Edwards and other prominent officers of the Punjaub have stated facts, observed in that province, which certainly give a good degree of plausibility to the opinion. But there is other testimony, from eye witnesses in other provinces, of a directly opposite tenor. Indophilus writes to the London Times, from the Mahratta country, that though the people bowed to the presence of English troops, yet when these were passed, they rose again, like "grain after a storm." He speaks of these fierce mountaineers, as almost unanimously hostile to the English, and it has been generally acknowledged, that but for the faithful firmness of their princes, Holkar and Nizam, the whole of central India would have been lost. For had these princes chosen to head the rebellion, as they were besought to do, instead of risking their lives for the safety of those officers residing with them, supported by troops of such warlike spirit, and thor

ough discipline, as the Gwalior contingent, and their own retainers, and sheltered by the security of their mountain fastnesses, they might have founded an empire, which no force that the English could have brought against it, would have endangered. The same writer also states, that more land has been cultivated, than for a long time before, and that the peasants have labored with extraordinary diligence, incited by the hope that "the Company's Raj was ended." But in other provinces a like feeling predominated. While a few petty Rajahs remained faithful, and furnished arms and men to assist in subduing the rebels, a large majority throughout the revolted territory led their followers to the support of the king of Delhi. When the English were marching through the country, they could obtain no information concerning the movements of the enemy from the natives, although these were perfectly conversant with their position. When fugitives were hastening to some place of safety, they were insulted with taunts and revilings, and even beaten, as they passed through the villages. In large portions of some provinces it has been found impossible, even after the complete dispersion of the rebels, to gather the taxes or obtain any recognition of English authority. Moreover it is the aristocracy who have been immediately engaged in the conspiracy; Brahmins who are sacred in the eyes of the people, and Rajahs whose families have enjoyed wealth and rank for centuries. How natural then, that their rule should be preferred, and their leadership followed! They may have been avaricious and oppressive sometimes; but any people will cheerfully bear much injustice from a ruler of their own blood and kin, rather than enjoy freedom under a foreign dominion. For when did the world ever see a nation choosing men of a strange language and customs to govern it? And what but fear and degradation compels one hundred and fifty millions of people to acknowledge the supremacy of those with whom the lowest ryot considers it a disgrace to eat? It has been said that a majority of the people never heard of the governor-general. True; yet there is not a peasant who frames his bamboo hut on the smallest patch of soil, but knows that he pays rent therefor to a foreign power. And when we remember