afterwards taken advantage of by designing persons to compass their own ends; and that its proximate cause was the cartridge affair and nothing else. Sir John Lawrence has examined hundreds of letters on this subject from natives, both soldiers and civilians. He has, moreover, constantly conversed on the matter with natives of all classes; and he is satisfied that the general — indeed the universal — opinion in this part of India is to the above effect.'
The behaviour of the Sepoy regiments throughout was hardly reconcilable with the idea of a conspiracy. The 19th Native Infantry, who may be said to have led off the Mutiny at Berhampur, were obviously more frightened than rebellious; and, when their fright was over, would gladly, had they been allowed, have returned to their allegiance. Incendiarism — which was the almost invariable prelude of a military outbreak — is the act rather of men wishing to attract attention to their grievances than of members of a plot, whose object would be to escape notice. Again and again it was obvious that, up to the very moment of mutiny, it was uncertain, even with the men themselves, what line they would take, and that some accident — a word, a cry, a sudden alarm — turned the agitated and wavering multitude to the side of rebellion. Again and again mutinies took place under conditions which precluded the possibility of eventual success. Among the leaders of the movement there was no real agreement. The King had
