Page:Earl Canning.djvu/77

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
SEPOY DISCONTENT
71

Regiment was ultimately struck out of the Army List, the Sepoy had learned the mischievous lesson that insubordination might enjoy impunity and even effect its object.

The conquest of the Punjab once more raised the question of the extra allowance for foreign service. In 1849 two regiments of the Army of Occupation showed overt signs of discontent. A soldier of nerve and resolution was, happily, on the spot to meet the emergency. Sir Colin Campbell's mood was not encouraging to incipient mutineers, and the difficulty, for the moment, passed away.

In December of the same year General Hearsey, an officer destined a few years later to play a prominent part in the opening scene of the Mutiny, found himself confronted by a similar manifestation. In January of 1850 the 66th N.I. broke out at Govindgarh, the fort which dominated Amritsar, the sacred city of the Sikhs. The outbreak was promptly crushed by some native Cavalry which, luckily, stood firm. The guilty regiment was disbanded: its name was erased from the Army List, and its place taken by a regiment of Gúrkha Hill-men, whose military value was now beginning to be realised.

At this stage of the story a conflict of opinion between the Governor-General and the Commander-in-Chief tended to obscure the merits of the controversy, and to impede the application of remedial measures. Neither Lord Dalhousie nor Sir Charles Napier were men to sleep upon their rights. Napier, in a more