JOHN NICHOLSON.* SOME years ago an official of the India
Office, who bad every opportunity of knowing, gave it as his opinion of the mtich-vexed question of competitive examination in the Civil Service that it made no difference whatever for the worse in the mettle of the men provided, because it made none in the quality of the Anglo-Saxon race. If it excluded an occasional Clive, as its opponents contended, it let in other
• The TAP of John Nicholson, Soldier and Adnitniftrator. Based on Private
sand Hitherto Unpubliehed Documents. By Captain Lionel J. Trotter. Landoll: John Murray.
possible Olives instead, with the advantage of a certain amount of the scholarship which softens the mind. Apart from the risings and disturbances which perplex the public ear, India has always been fertile, this authority would say, in crises which were never generally heard of beyond the bounds of the Indian Office, but none the less might imperil a province or shake an empire. Yet the man was constantly at hand, in the shape of some unknown young servant of the Crown, to take the matter up at his own risk and discretion, and fearless of consequence, to set the helm straight. He might not be heard of afterwards, but the thing was done. Lyall, since so well known, was in his young days, if we are not mistaken, the hero of some such an experience. John Nichol- son was one of the finest examples, upon a larger field, of the attainments of the race. His name has come down to us as that of the foremost hero of the terrible Mutiny, whose story in itself we have but small desire to read again. The horror is with the past, and let it rest there. Bat the character of "Brigadier-General John Nicholson, who led the assault at Delhi. but fell in the hour of victory mortally wounded, and died September 23, 1357, aged 35" (really 34), is one which, as a simple type of what we may call a soldier of the Old Testa- ment, the world seems never to tire of studying and admiring. He had the "iron mind and frame, the terrible courage, and the indomitable will" which are the characteristics of men of his stamp. His dealings with the native races had no hesita- tion or paltering about them, and the testimony of Sir Herbert Edwardes, Sir Arthur Roberts, and Sir Robert Montgomery, agrees about him to an extent which is rare enough to find. The Mutiny, according to the last, cost England in India her "two great men, Sir Henry Lawrence and John Nicholson
They had not, take them all in all, their equals in India Had Nicholson lived, he would as a commander have risen to the highest post. He had every quality necessary for a suc- cessful commander : energy, forethought, decision, good judgment, and courage of the highest order." "How grand, bow gracious a piece of handiwork he was," writes Sir Henry Edwardes of him in a more poetic tone. "It was a pleasure even to behold him. And then his nature—so fully equal to his frame! So undaunted, so noble, so tender, so good, so stern to evil, so single-minded, so generous, so heroic, so modest. I never saw another like him, and never expect to do so." "Foremost in all brave counsel," wrote John Becher to Lady Edwardes, "in all glorious audacity, in all that marked a brave soldier, so admirable was our dear friend, John Nicholson. His noble nature shone brighter and brighter through every cloud, bringing swift and sure punishments to rebellion, wherever it raised its front in the Punjab, carrying confidence and new vigour to the walls of Delhi, triumphant in the greatest fight that preceded the assault, the admiration of all the force. His genius foresaw the sure success ; his un- daunted courage carried the breach. He fell, the greatest hero we have had, loved and honoured through all India." "If ever there is a desperate deed to be done in India, John Nicholson is the man to do it," Edwardes said to Lord Canning; and the present position and popularity of Lord Roberts lend additional value to his verdict on Nicholson as a leader who "seemed always to know exactly what to do, and the best way to do it." On their first meeting he struck Roberts, who was intensely curious about the man whose influence on the frontier was so great that his word was law to the refractory tribes amongst whom he lived, as the bean-ideal of a soldier and a gentleman. He impressed him more profoundly than any one he ever met before or since, through a commanding and distinguished appearance which might be attributed to the dangerous position which he had to maintain. "Had I never seen Nicholson again," Lord Roberta added, "I might have thought that the feelings with which he inspired me were to some extent the result of my imagination, excited by the extraordinary stories I had heard of his power and influence; my admiration, however, was immensely strengthened when, a few weeks later, I served as his Staff officer, and had cpportunitiee of observing more closely his splendid military qualities, and the workings of his grand simple mind." And here we may quote an incident of which Roberts was a witness, as in itself curiously characteristic of the perennial Indian difficulty. The Rajah of Kapurthalla had placed in Jalandhar, where Nicholson was stationed at the time, a body of his own troops, and, as commissioner of the province, Major Lake was anxious to pay a compliment to the
Rajah's officers, whom Nicholson therefore consented to meet at a durbar in Lake's house. Lord Roberts tells us the rest :—
"General Mehtib Singh, a near relative of the Rajah, took his leave and, as senior in rank at the durbar, was walking out of the room first when I observed Nicholson stalk to the door, put him- self in front of Mehtib Singh, and, waving him back with an authoritative air, prevented him from leaving the room. The rest of the company then passed out, and when they had gone Nicholson said to Lake,—' Do you see that General Mehtib Singh has his shoes on ? ' Lake replied that he had noticed the fact, but tried to excuse it. Nicholson, however, speaking in Hindustani, said, There is no possible excuse for such an act of gross impertinence. Mehtlib Singh knows perfectly well that he would not venture to step on his own father's carpet, save bare- footed; and he has only committed this breach of etiquette to-day because he thinks we are not in a position to resent the insult, and that he can treat us as he would not have dared to do a month ago.' Mehtib Singh looked extremely foolish, and stammered put some kind of apology; but Nicholson was not to be appeased, and continued, 'If I were the last Englishman left in Jalandhar, you [addressing Mehtfil Singh] should not come into my room with your shoes on.' Then politely turning to Lake, he added,
hope the commissioner will now allow me to order you to take your shoes off and carry them out in your own hands, so that your followers may witness your discomfiture.' Itlehttib Singh, com- pletely cowed, meekly did as he was told."
This was Nicholson's last protest against the abandonment of Peehawur and the trans-Indus frontier, which had been ordered by Sir John Lawrence, and has since been made the ground for one of the many charges brought against the wisdom of his administration. For the great Governor- General did not win the same universal adherence as his brother Henry ; and Edwardes voted his proposal to be the "child of a panic," calling Peshawar, as he did, the "anchor of the Punjab." Nicholson and Edwardes, young, hopeful, and audacious, with their womankind safe far-away at home, could afford to be bolder than the elder man, broken under the mental and physical strain, and with his wife within the circle of ever-present danger. Nicholson had a stormy inter- view with Lawrence, but was able afterwards to express his return to gratitude and to a kindlier feeling. His action towards the impenitent Alehtttb Singh was, we are told, of the greatest value in its moral effect upon the people. Their manner at once changed, all disrespect vanished, and there was no more "swaggering about as if they con- sidered themselves masters of the situation." A whole chapter of history lies in that short story.
Captain Trotter's work has been well and lovingly done, and the story of Nicholson's career is full of interest and sug- gestiveness, and will be read as long as the history of that awful Mutiny of which it forms so conspicuous and so famous a part.
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