CANNING'S ROLL OF HONOUR.
IN a Minute, "regarding the services of civil officers and others during the Mutiny and Rebellion," the Governor-General of India has recorded "the names of those earnest devoted men by whose abilities, sound judgment, and unexampled labours the civil authority of the British Government has been upheld or re- established"; and he confidently claims for them from her Majesty's Government "the same respect, admiration, and grati- tude as have been so deservedly bestowed upon their fellow- labourers of the Army." It is right for the Chief of the Civil Service to put in the claim of these gallant gentlemen, and no doubt the Queen will bestow that distinctive notice upon the more prominent among them which is after all the most satisfac- tory reward. It cannot be said that the admiration and gratitude of the public have been withheld from the civil heroes. The names of many of them are as familiar in our mouths as household words. Their services, known and recorded from month to month, have made a deep impression on the minds of us all, and the whole nation is proud of the conduct of its sons in India. The civilian, in the terrible ordeal of 1857, showed the manhood of his race, and vindicated his right to rank with the founders of our Indian empire. There are names in Lord Canning's Roll of Honour which may be written by the side of Clive.
We could have wished that the Roll had been tied up with less ted tape ; that the civilians might have been grouped together more effectively and some inkling have been given of the nature of their services ; and that more justice had been done to those Englishmen who had no connexion with the Government. But we must take the record as we find it and be thankful ; remark- ing, however, that it is, imperfect since it tells us nothing of the services of the civilians in Bombay, Scinde, and Madras.
So far as he has gone Lord Canning has not been sparing of praise. Mr. Halliday, whose name stands first, "was the right hand of the Government for many months." The exertions of the Honourable J. P. Grant "contributed greatly to recall things to order." By his obstinate courage and perseverance Mr. Cracroft Wilson "saved more Christian lives than any man in India." The "firmness, calmness, and excellent judgment" of Mr. Frederick Gubbins at Benares were "most remarkable." The conduct of Lieutenant-Colonel Durand in Central India "was marked by great foresight and the soundest judgment." Sir Robert Hamil- ton accompanied Sir Hugh Rose, and "laid the groundwork of the pacification" of Central India. Of Captain Willoughby Os- borne, political agent at Rewah, an officer hitherto strangely over- looked, it is said that "few servants of the Government have laboured more courageously or successfully against difficulties of every kind to maintain the influence of the British Government, and to repress disloyalty, than this distinguished young officer." The "courage and good judgment" of Lieutenant-Colonel David- son, Resident at Hyderabad, shone conspicuously on more than one critical occasion. "Of what is due to Sir John Lawrence no man is ignorant. Through him Delhi fell ; and the Punjab, no longer a weakness, became a source of strength"; sentences, of course, intended to convey the highest praise, but unfortunately not intelligible, since it was because the Punjab was a source of strength that Delhi fell ; whereas the Governor-General would imply that the fall of Delhi removed a weakness from the Punjab, instead of the Punjab removing a weakness from Delhi. "Next, but not inferior to any man in his claim to the gratitude of his country, is Mr. Montgomery, the present Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab." Less could not have been said of this illustrious disciple of the Punjab school of statesmen. Major-General Birch, Military Secretary, gave up his days and nights with hearty zeal to the extraordinary press of labour, and performed his work with an ability and assiduity of which Lord Canning "cannot speak too highly." The performance of the duties that fell upon Mr. Edmonstone, Foreign Secretary, "has been exactly what might have been expected from [him by ?] those who knew the character of his former service."
These are the shining lights in Lord Canning's Minute; but there are scores of others whose names have been before the pub- lie in the unofficial Indian correspondence. There are Yule of Bhagulpore, Money of Op, Wake of Arrah, Reade of Agra, Wingfield of G-orruckpore, Alexander of Rohileund, Dunlop of Meerut, Hume of Etawah, Erskine of Bangor, Metcalfe of Delhi, Palmer of Bijnour, George Lawrence of Ajmere, Herbert Ed- wardes of Peshawur, Barnes of the Cis-Sutlej States, Ricketts of Loodianah, Cooper of ITmritsir, Van Cortlandt of Hurrianah ; and others who, as the Governor-General says, " for many months together carried their lives in their hand." But we miss the names of Robert Tucker of Farruckabad, slain at his post ; of Hodson, of Hodson's Horse, who held a civil office with the army before Delhi ; of Venables, who did good service north of the Lower Ganges; of Greathed, who died before Delhi ; of Kavanagh, who carried &tram's despatches through the Sepoy leaguer of Lucknow, and many more. But there is a fault of commission as well as of omission in the Minute. The Governor-General has not done justice to the Volunteers. Their names, the few mentioned, are mixed up with those of the servants of the Indian Government, and no distinct tribute is paid to their merits. The civil officers, Lord Canning admits, "have been worthily aided and rivalled by military officers on detached employ, and by many gentlemen not con- nected with the Government ; but it is due primarily to the officers of the Civil Service that the landmarks of British au- thority throughout the districts of the North-west Provinces were not overborne in the flood." Fully admitting the truth of this, and not desiring to detract in the slightest degree from the praise bestowed on the Indian civilians we contend that, under the cir- cumstances Lord Canning should have given the Volunteers a separate dace. As he had no claim upon them, so it behoved him to acknowledge the more conspicuously that they did their duty to their Queen and country who had a claim upon them. But we find in one place the names of Mr. Boyle, Mr. R. de Courcy, Mr. J. Cockburn, and Mr. J. Wemyss ; and in another the names of Mr. Dunne, Mr. Walewski, Mr. A. Walewski, Mr. Legge, Mr. D. Churcher, Mr. G. Jones, and the simple intimation that they rendered valuable services to which the Government had no claim.
There is something more painful than this. Among the most prominent of those upon whom the Government had no claim, and from whom they received invaluable aid, was Mr. Paterson Saun- ders. A large landholder in the Doab, Mr. Saunders made head against the mutineers from the outset, gave important informa- thM and sound advice to the Government ; with a score of sabres and revolvers he kept the whole district around Allyghur ; harassed the rebels so that they were compelled to move on ; engaged and defeated them in vastly superior numbers ; cut off their strag- glers; protected the magistrate of Allyghur for weeks when he was deserted, and brought him off in safety when surrounded by an overwhelming force. In short no man in that district, civilian or soldier, did better service. And how is he mentioned in the Roll of Honour edited by the Queen's Viceroy ? In this wise :
," Of gentlemen not in the covenanted service of the Indian Government, notice is claimed especially for Mr. P. Carnegy, Deputy-Collector of Joun- pore, Mr. P. Saunders, and Mr. A. Tonnochy. '
Would you not infer from this, that, as Mr. Paterson Saunders was not in the " covenanted" service, he was in the uncovenanted service ? You would never dream of his being a private English gentleman and Indian landholder, a type of the independent warriors who upheld the name of Englishmen in the most trying ordeal of our day ? The services of Mr. Paterson Saunders de- served a better acknowledgment from the hands of a Government which could not protect him from incurring heavy losses at the hands of the mutineers chased by our soldiers out of Delhi ; and we regret that the Queen's representative did not rise superior to routine in recording those services, and did not send forth a re- cord without the blot which we have described. We trust that the Home Government will remedy the defect, and that when it dispenses honours to the civil servants of India the name of Pater- son Saunders will not be omitted.
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