Los Angeles herald., 1909-07-11


to THE governor and COM
pany of merchants of London trading
into the East Indies" That was done
by Queen Elizabeth on the last day of
the year 1900, seven years before the
first permanent English settlement was
made in North America. The second
was the battle of Plassey, fought on
June 2S, 1857, by Robert Give. The
third was the proclamation by Queen
Victoria on November l, 1858, assuming
the control of affairs in India for the
crown, and ending the rule of the COM
pany-which was the direct result of
the disastrous mutiny in the native
army which broke out the year before.
From the time the first charter was
granted until the battle of Plassey, the
English company confined itself to
trade, interfering in government only
by intrigue and bribery in the interests
of money getting. There had been wars
with the French and battles with ma
tives, but at every stage the English
company had carefully preserved the
semblance of complete submission To
the constituted government of the sec
tion or province in which they operated.
The war with France which started
in Europe and spread to North America
land India was fraught with great his
torical significance. 1t lost Canada to
the French and attached 1t to the Eng
llsh dominion. 1t brought George Wash
ington into popularity as military
man in the British colonies of America.
In India it brought about the inter-
necine strife in which rival native
chiefs espoused either the British or
the French cause and gave Give the
opportunity to crush the power of the
Nawab who ruled over Calcutta and
who was responsible for driving the
English from Calcutta. 1t was this
Nawab who locked 146 men in the
guardhouse of the English fort one
night, and the next morning there were
but twenty-three of them alive. His
tory acquits the Indian prince of de-
sign in the perpetration of that horror.
He did not know that Englishmen
would suffocate where Indians might
live. Yet the BLACK Hole of Calcutta
was the foundation of the British en-
pire in India.
After the battle of Plassey the Eng
lish company assumed the powers OF
sovereigns over a portion of what is
now Bengal, including the city of Cal
cutta. A pretender, backed by the
British, was raised to the Nawab's
throne and the government was nomin-
ally subject to the phantom emperor OF
Delhi, from which it obtained grants OF
power until the final overthrow of the
Mogul dynasty in 1857.
There were other wars with the
French, who were finally driven out OF
India, being permitted to retain only
the seaport of Pondicherry and a few
unimportant small towns, over which
they still preside. The Portuguese were
locked UP at Goa, the Dutch and Dan
ish were driven away from the conti-
nent and English supremacy was not
threatened from European powers by
sea after the era of Napoleon. The
Russian advance into central Asia be-
came a source of alarm in 1887, and
English soldiers in India ever since
have seen in nightmares the hideous
specter of "Adam-Zad, the man who
walks like a bear" The war between
Russia and Japan stopped for the time
the fear of a Russian invasion, but 1t
did not stop the British preparations
to meet it. And it gave rise to an
Asiatic sense of power which has given
the British even more trouble than the
| fear of the Russians.
The men who ruled the East India
company progressed from trading to
thieving, from thieving to universal
corruption, from universal corruption
to utter moral blindness. The work of
conquest was carried forward without
mercy or excuse. At length the COM
pany arrived at stage when it was
complete master of all India, holding
the so-called independent states TO
strict accountability. The company
had been reformed by parliament, held
| it's charter only at the will of the home
government and had almost entirely
submerged its commercial character in
its political activities. 1t maintained
an army and navy, paid for from the
revenues of the provinces which ii
governed and from the purses Of the
! independent states as well. 1t had
crushed the Sikhs, the last remaining
considerable military power among
the natives.
The government of the native state
of Oudh refused to submit to the Eng
lish WILT was a corrupt government
and the English were insisting upon
proper reforms-and was annexed by
the company. The rulers of the other
native states trembled. The Crimean
war had just been fought, and the
| Indians heard and believed that Eng
| lands power had been eclipsed and
that Russia would surely DESTROY the
British prestige. At that particular
time a new rifle was introduced in the
army. The new ammunition was in the
form of creased cartridges. The CO.
lossal error of greasing them with tai
low had been made. The COW is sacred
to the Hindus, and most of the Sepoy
army was made up of high caste Hin
dus. The Moslems were aroused by
the report that hogs fat had been used,