le regiments of heroes became extinct, because there was
not sufficient administrative ability to convey the supplies to a
perishing army!

So wretched was the hospital service, that {164} to be sent there meant
death. Gangrene carried off four out of five. Men were dying at a
rate which would have extinguished the entire army in a year and a
half. It was Florence Nightingale who redeemed this national disgrace,
and brought order, care and healing into the camps.

When England recalls with pride the valor and the victories in the
Crimea, let her remember it was the _manhood in the ranks_ which
achieved it. When all was over, war had slain its thousands,--but
official incapacity its tens of thousands!

It was a costly victory: Russia was humiliated, was even shut out from
the waters of her own Black Sea, where she had hitherto been supreme.
To two million Turks was preserved the privilege of oppressing eight
million Christians; and for this,--twenty thousand British youth had
perished. But--the way to India was unobstructed!

England's career of conquest in India was not altogether of her own
seeking. As a neighboring province committed outrages upon its British
neighbors, it became necessary in self-defence to punish it; and such
{165} punishment, invariably led to its subjugation. In this way one
province after another was subdued, until finally in the absorption of
the Kingdom of Oude (1856) the natural boundary of the Himalaya
Mountains had been reached, and the conquest was complete. The little
trading company of British merchants had become an Empire, vast and
rich beyond the wildest dreams of romance.

The British rule was upon the whole beneficent. The condition of the
people was improved, and there was little dissatisfaction except among
the deposed native princes, who were naturally filled with hate and
bitterness. The large army required to hold such an amount of
territory, was to a great extent recruited from the native population,
the Sepoys, as they were called, making good soldiers.

In 1857 the King of the Oude and some of the native princes cunningly
devised a plan of undermining the British by means of their Sepoys, and
circumstances afforded a singular opportunity for carrying out their
design.

{166}

A new rifle had been adopted, which required a greased cartridge, for
which animal grease was used. The Sepoys were told this was a
deep-laid plot to overthrow their native religions