epartment, and that
he was going to Lucknow for a month's holiday. He appeared to be a man
of over sixty years of age, but said he was only fifty-four, and that he
would retire from Government service next year. Of course I introduced
the subject of the Mutiny, and asked him where he had been at the time.
He stated that when the Mutiny broke out he was at school in Bareilly,
and that he was then a Mahommedan, but did not join in the rebellion;
that on the outbreak of the Mutiny, when all the Europeans were either
killed or fled from Bareilly, he had retired to his village near
Shahjehanpore, and remained there till order was re-established on the
advance of the English into Rohilcund in May, 1858, after Khan Bahadoor
Khan had reigned in Bareilly twelve months.

In course of conversation I asked my companion if he could give any
reason why it was that the whole rural population of Oude had joined the
urban population against the British in 1857, whereas on the south side
of the Ganges the villagers were in favour of the British, where they
were not overawed by the mutineers? He told me a strange thing, and that
was that he was fully convinced that the main reason why the village
population of Oude joined the city population of Lucknow was owing to
the oppression caused by our introduction of the opium-tax among the
people.

At first I misunderstood him, and thought I had come across an agent of
the Anti-Opium Society. "So you are against Government control of the
opium-cultivation and sale of the drug," I said. "By no means," he
answered. "I consider the tax on opium a most legitimate source of
revenue. What I mean is that although a just tax, it was a highly
obnoxious one to the citizens of Lucknow and the rural population of
Oude at the time of the Mutiny." He went on to state that although a
Christian convert from Mahommedanism and a strictly temperate man, he
had no sympathy with the anti-opium party; that he considered them a
most dangerous set of fanatics, who would set the whole country in
rebellion again before a twelve-month if they could get the Government
to adopt their narrow-minded views. Regarding 1857, he continued, and I
quote his exact words, as I noted them down immediately after I got to
the hotel:

"Under the rule of the Nawabs of Lucknow many taxes were imposed, which
were abolished by the British; but in their stead the opium-tax was
introduced, which was the most unpopular tax that could have be