The Sun.
London, England, 1827-03-23 00:00:00

It would be recollected, that the circumstances of our dispute
with the Burmese in 1824, required the assembling of a strong
force on our eastern frontier. For this purpose the 47th native
regiment was marched from Futtigur to Barrackpore, to be from
thence marched to Chittagong. The refusal of that regiment to
march had, it would be remembered, led to the destruction of 500
of their number in less than one hour. Now, there were tuo
questions to be considered in this case ; first, what was the cause
of this insubordination ; and, secondly, whether, before this des--
perate measure was resorted to, such means were adopted as were
calculated to bring the deluded men back to their duty by gentle
methods. The Hon. Member, after eulogizing the good conduct,
discipline, and bravery of the native troops, which he described
as in general very little inferior to our own, proceeded to observe,
that the 47th regiment had come down from Futtigur, a march
of 1,000 miles, without a single deserter, though it was known
that there existed at that time in the Bengal army a considerable
objection—a sort of religious dread of the service against the Bur-
mese. This fidelity to their corps was a proof of the good dis-
cipline that prevailed amongst them. They came down from Fut-
tigur, and were, as he had said, ordered to march to Chittagong.
Previous to that time, the desertion from some corps bad amount-
ed to 200 or 300 men—a strong proof of the general unwilling-
ness of the native troops to proceed on that uncertain and dan-
gerous service. It was in this state of things that the 47th regi-
ment was ordered to march from Barrackpore. On the 23d
of October, representations were made by the men to Colonel
Cartwright, their commanding officer, and by hint to the
Commander-in-Chief, stating, that it would be impossible for them
to move at the time appointed for their march, unless they were
supplied with the ordinary means of carriage and conveyance.—
Be that as it might, the regiment was told on the 30th of Octo-
ber, that it would not receive any additional means of carriage,
and that march it must. The annunciation of that order drove
the men to that state of insubordination, which afterwards led to
such lamentable consequences. He must now state to the House,
that in consequence of the difficulty of getting bullocks to convey
the materiel of the army to the Chittagong frontier, an order had
been signed by the Government to send all the bullocks to Cal-
cutta, that could be procured within 50 miles of it. This order
created such a rise in the price of bullocks, that it was impossible
to purchase them at any thing like the ordinary rate. The Go-
vernment finding that it had committed an error in refusing to
the troops the means of carriage which they had demanded,
came to a resolntion to allow to each regiment 2,000 or
3,000 rupees instead of it ; but at the time -the 47th
regiment was . ordered to march it could not have pro-
cured the necessary quantity of bullocks for 30,000 rupees.
Such being the state of things, the men declared, that unless their
grievances were examined into, they would not march upon the
service to which they were ordered. On the let of November,
the Commander-in-Chief, Sir E. Paget, thinking it necessary to
force this corps to march, proceeded with a strong force of artillery
and Europeans from fort William to Barrackpere. He (Mr.
Hume) admitted that when a mutiny broke out in a regiment, it
was necessary to put it down forthwith—he did not, therefore,
complain of the putting down this mutiny, but of the particular
manner in which it was put down. Here the Hon. Member
, described to the House, from a plan which he held in his hand,
the manner in which Sir E. Paget surrounded the 47th regiment
with an overwhelming force of Europeani and artillery, and entered
into various details of the military execution which he ordered to be
done upon it, on its refusal to surrender its arms ; but as the details
are already familiar to the public from the numerous discussions
which the Hon. Member has originated upon this subject at the
India--House, we decline troubling our readers with a repetition of
them. He contended that if the Commander-in-Chief had informed
the mutineers of the immense force which he had brought with
him from Calcutta, no persons would have lost their lives, except
such mutineers as he might have ordered for execution, in order
to intimidate those who survived them. As a proof that he was
correct in this notion, he referred to the notorious fact that these
troops had never either loaded or fired a musket, or exhibited the
slightest disposition to resist. He had heard that 400 or 500
' valuable soldiers had lost their lives in that melancholy carnage,
and he believed that he might say without the slightest exaggera-
-tion, that full SOO men had perished in it. A great degree of un-
certainty prevailed as to the number of men killed, owing to the
strict manner in which the Indian press had been prohibited from
taking any notice of the transaction. The "Hon. Member here
read a circular letter, which was sent by the Government to the
Editors of the different papers in India, forbidding them to men-
tion any fact or to make any comment upon any fact connected
with the mutiny at Barrackpore, until an official account of it had
been published by Government. In consequence of that circular,
all mention of it in the Indian journals was suppressed ; and there-
fore it was the more necessary that the country should receive
some official information respecting it from those who were corn-
peteut to afford it.. He had now given the House a short history
of the 'mutiny, and he- mat now inform .it that on the very
evening it was quelled, a court-martial was held, by which
40 persons were found guilty, and that on the next day, ano-
ther court-martial was held, by which a still larger num-
.bar .were. also, detzlared.. to be. implicated in the mutiny. Of
-these unfortunate • indiVidnals,- several. (v!e. did not catch the
exact number) were hung shortly afterwards .OU the' parade,
and as if to continue the remembrance of the transaction, were
hung, a thing till then unheard of in India, in chains, The re-
mainder had their sentence of death trausneuted to hard labour on
the roadsre-u transmutation which every Brahmin of high caste
considered a punishment more severe than death. He ought to
have informed the House, that when the regiment was ordered to
surrender and refused to obey that order, all the native officers
quitted their ranks and joined those of the Commander-in-Chief;
fknthoew
and yet, would the House believe it? On the 4th of November
mu-
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gtakenna en
tp c
struck without o
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oe
a general order was issued, in which it was stated that as the
was
ale knowledge ol
ifs t
:bac:de
the native officers discharged as unworthy the confidence of the
Government. He believed that that order would have had an ef-
fect upon the native army, of which it would have been impossible
to foresee the consequences, had not events taken a favourable turn
for British interests both in the West of India and elsewhere. He
contended that the loss of life which had taken place at Barrack-
pore in the first instance, and the indiscriminate punishment of the
innocent and guilty which had followed in the next, rendered an
inquiry into the whole transaction absolutely necessary by the
House. He was happy to find that the mode in which the native
troops had been treated, had not met the approbation of either the
Court of Directors or the Board of Controid. Report said, that
in consequence of orders which had been sent from this country,
the Brahmins, who had been sentenced to hard labour on the
roads, had been all pardoned. It did not appear to him that the
fault was with the Gdvernor-General, but with the Commander-
in-Chief, Sir E. Paget, who with the best feeling possible might
have been misled by those from whom he received his information,
and indeed it ti as requisite that the papers he asked for should be
granted, if it were only for the purpose of putting the conduct of
the Bengal Government in a proper light.
Mr. C. WYNN was-bound to allow that the Hon.
Member had, upon the whole, stated the case fairly. The Hon.
Member was not quite correct in his opinion as to what was the
cause of the mutiny. It arose, in a great measure, from the dis-
like which the troops had to march against the Burmese, whom
they believed to he more than mortal. The Hon. Member had
represented this mutiny as being one of the mildest nature, and
that the troops had merely refused to march ; but, in fact, the
mutiny was of a much more alarming description, the troops not
only violently carried away their colours, but forcibly drove their
officers from the parade. What the Hon. Member had observed
respecting the Commander-in Chief only showed that that gallant
officer had acted with the most laudable promptitude on that trying
occasion, in so speedily collecting together so strong a body of troops
to act against the mutineers ; nor, indeed, were there any means
left untried to make the insurgents fully sensible of their danger;
indeed, delegates from them were conducted through the lines, and
shown the extent of the force which was prepared to act against
them. Could any one say how far such a mutiny, if it had been al-
lowed to go on, might have spread ? The Hon. Member for
Montrose bad not made sufficient allowance for the difficult situa-
tion of the Commander in Chief. The loss also had been greatly
exaggerated ; it did not in reality exceed 160 or 180. Of the
140 convicted, only 12 had been executed ; the remainder had
beep sentenced to work in irons on the roads, which punishment
was by no means unusual, and had been undergone by many
persons of high caste; and indeed the very first proper opportu-
nity had been seized to remit the punishment of these last-men-
tioned persons, not merely in compliance with the orders which
had been sent out from the Government here, for such remission
lied been directed before those orders bad arrived. He had now,
he believed, gone over, as shortly as he was able, most of the
points in the Hon. Member's address which seemed worthy of
observation. All the other documents, consisting of the orders of
Governments had been published in the newspapers, and were
matters of public notoriety. On these grounds he felt it his duty
to oppose the motion.—(Hear, hear.)
Sir C. FORBES contended that the Report of the
Commission of Inquiry ought to be produced, in justice not only
to the Native Officers, but to the Commander-in-Chief, whose
character was implicated in the transaction. He regretted very
much that such harsh measures had been adopted at Barrackpore.
Our Empire in India must depend upon the affections, and not
upon the fears of the natives. The Hon. Member concluded by
declaring, brat he would never cease, as long as he had a seat in
that House, to urge the Present inquiry ; and that he thought it