The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-03 00:00:00

SKETCH Off NANA SAHIB.

((From Chambers' Journal.)
As we have no doubt that many of our readers would
be glad to be acquainted with the parentage and other
antecedents of the man -who bears this blood-stained
name, we propose, in the present article, to give a {brief
sketch of him.

Nana Sahib, Rajah of Bithoor—whose correct nudes
is Sree Mnot Dnoondoo Pnot—is the eldest son, by
adoption, of the late Badjee Rao, ex-Peishwa of the
Mabarat tas. _

For many years previous to his death Badiee Rao had
been a dethroned pensioner of the East India, Company.
When in the fulness of his power he had, as a native
prince, assisted the East India Company in their war
against Tippoo Sahib, the Tiger of Seriagapatato, AO, as
a reward for his so doing, the company, after years of
strife. with him—after negotiations and evictions, and
treaties, and violations of these treaties on their part—
contrived, in 1817, to get EON of his dominions. After
numerous and fierce conflicts, Badjee Rao, at the head
of 8,000 men, and with an advantageous post, was pre-
pared to do battle for the sovereignty of the Deccan ;
when Brigadier-Gen. Sir J. Malcolm, who commanded
the British army, sent a flag of truce to him, with pro-
posali f r a surrender.
The proposals made on the pare of Sir J. Malcolm
were, that Bv:jee Rao, the Peishwa of the Mahrattas,
should renounce his sovereignty altogether ; that he
should come within 24 hours, with his family and a
limited number of a'lherents and attendants, into the
British camp ; that they should there be received with
honour and respect ; that he should be located in the
holy city of Benares, or in some other sacred place in
Hindostan • that he should have a liberal pension from
the East India Company for himself and family ; that his
old and attached adherents should be provided for ; and
th,t the pension to be settled upon himself and family
should not be less than eight lees of rupees—that is,
80,000/, per annum.

After long and anxious deliberation with his prime
ministers and other great officers of State, the Peishwa
accepted these proposals—went with his family and ad-
herents into the British camp—and Bithoor was after-
wards assigned as his residence. The East India Com-
pany, with their usual grasping and illiberal spirit of
covetousness, were disp'eased with Sir John Malcolm
for his granting these terms. But they, and the Gover-
nor-General, Lord Hardinge, could not recede from
them ; and they took care to limit the stipulated allow-
ance to the smallest sum mentioned in the treaty—
namely, eight lacs of rupees, or 80,0001. per annum.
We have stated that the pension was to be conferred
upon Badjee Rao and his family. Now, before we pro-
ceed further, we must mention that, by the Hindoe
Shasters, or Scriptures, there is a fearful doom awarded
against those who die childless ; that doom is the being
1 consigned, after death, t) " a place called Put, a place
of horror, to which the manes of the childless are sup-
posed to go, there to be tormented with hunger and
thirst, for want of these oblations of fowl and libations
ef water, at proscribed periods, which it is the pious and
indeed indispensable duty of a living son to offer."
Such we the principles of the Hindoo religion with
regard to the want of natural male issue. Now the same
principles in order to remedy the defect, permit the
system of adoption where natural issue fails. It was in
accordance with this that Badjee Rao, in his old age,
finding himself naturally childless as to male issue, by
his will declared Nana Sahib to be his eldest son, heir,
snd representative.
In his day Badjee Rao, as chief of the powerful Mali.
ratta nation, had been a great sovereign. He survived
his downfall—exercising civil and criminal jurisdiction,
on a limited scale, at Bithoor—thirty-five years. On the
28th of January, 18‘1, he died.
No sooner we his death made officially known, than
Lord Dalhousie tabled a minute to the Council Board of
Calcutta, ruling that the pension, expressly guaranteed
to the great Badjee Rao and his family, should not be
continued to the latter. Nana Sahib, Badjes ItikO'n
widow, and the other members of his family, were na-
turally stricken with grief and terror. They saw them-
selves reduced to poverty. They had no other pecuniary
resource than some trifling sum which Badjee Rao bad
left behind him.
On the 24th June, 1811, Nana Sahib forwarded a
memorial to the Lieutenant Governor of the North-west
Provinces ef India on the subject. In reply, he was told
that the pension could not be continued, but a certain
tract of land would be his for life. The Commissioner of
tbheoeen never-
mat-Bithoor, a public officer of high rank and staoding„and
who knew the circumstances and claims of thezri-r
Peishwa's family, forwarded an urgent a p_ 1_
nor-General, of date Sept. 24, 1851, he 1_
:I'clation Was stir.
reprimand for so doing. His recomme _
...„ ‘
behalf ; but, in a letter from a secretary
matised as " uncalled for and nnwarrantabl
Nom Sahib ad-
After some further efforts in India,
Ldenhall-strest, in
dressed the Court of Directors, at
sGated the 29th of
England. His appeal to them wa
7 pm, 1853, the company sent back
Dec. 1852. - Company, the appeals of
In the eyes of the East India
Government in India, and the result
proo no
native princes of In The company appear to
tern of much conseol:- added to their dignity to have
have considered thatii princes waiting in their anterooms.
t seem to havfue
Nana Sahib o
twag was done. appeal
a severe
ear that Nana Sahib •
It would aPP , , with smooth and
tie Downers, unites superior abilities and- that to
9". .bilities he adds passions of the strongest d t
thee° a an mos
vindictive nature. His spirit is high, and him vehemence
of the most determined character. At the period of the
breaking out of the mutiny, which has rendered his
name infamous, be seems to have become a monomaniac
Somewheret -
the
,that advocates
o bo:
re
on the subject of what he believed to be his wrongs.
In the preceding sketch, subject, of course, to on.
reotion, we have endeavoured to state facts, not with h
view to advocating any cause, but simply for the
purpose of communicating to our readers information as
to some of the numerous causes which have led to the
dreadful events which have recently occurred in the
J- East.
*1 . _ - •

ROYAL COLLEGE OP SIIRGEONS.—The following gen-
tlemen, having undergone the necessary examinations
for the diploma, were admitted members of the College
at the meeting of the Court of Exanainers on the 31st
Messrs. Thelwetl Pike, Bucklebury, Berk-
shire ; Frederic Dighy, Mallon, Essex ; George Reed.
Portsmouth ; Edward Franey, Northampton ; Francis
Woodhouse Braine, Hen. East India Company's Ser-
vice;
James Dow Sainter, Macclesfield ; William
oinson Smyth, Royal Navy ; and John Fisher, Mau.
baster.