order. Lord Canning's general arrangements, on the first outbreak of the Mutiny at Meerut, were admitted to have been made with praiseworthy expedition. Without an hour's delay he had summoned aid from every available quarter — Madras, Bombay, Ceylon, Lord Elgin and General Ashburnham on their way, with several English regiments, to China. But the Calcutta Volunteers' offer of their services had not been received with corresponding alacrity. Lord Canning now explained how matters really stood. The original offer. May 20th, to serve 'as special constables or otherwise' had been forthwith accepted. On June 12th, when it was ascertained that service as special constables was distasteful, and that there was a general wish that a Volunteer Corps should be enrolled, this measure also was adopted. The Volunteers had been informed, and truly informed, that 'there was no apprehension of disturbance in Calcutta, and that if, unfortunately, any disturbance should occur, the means of crushing it utterly were at hand.' Valuable, accordingly, as had been the assistance of the Volunteers, especially in inspiring confidence in the European and Eurasian population, it could not be conceded that Calcutta had ever been threatened, or that the safety of the city had been owing to the 800 Volunteers, ultimately enrolled, or that their numbers would, as the petition alleged, have been four or five times as great but for the supposed discouragement, offered by the Government in the first instance.
