comrades, stood at bay in different
parts of the land surrounded by hundreds of pitiless miscreants, tigers
in human shape thirsting for their blood? And can pen describe the
nameless horrors of the time--gently nurtured ladies outraged and
slain before the eyes of their husbands, children and helpless infants
slaughtered--a very Golgotha of butchery, as all know who have read of
the Well of Cawnpore?

The first months of the rebellion were a fight for dear life, a constant
struggle to avert entire annihilation, for to all who were there it
seemed as though no power on earth could save them. But Providence
willed it otherwise, and after the full extent of the danger was
realized, gloomy forebodings gave way to stern endeavours. Men arose,
great in council and in the field, statesmen and warriors--Lawrence,
Montgomery, Nicholson, Hodson, and many others. The crisis brought to
the front numbers of daring spirits, full of energy and resource, of
indomitable resolution and courage, men who from the beginning saw the
magnitude of the task set before them, and with calm judgment faced the
inevitable. These were they who saved our Indian Empire, and who, by the
direction of their great organized armies, brought those who but a few
years before had been our mortal enemies to fight cheerfully on our
side, and, carrying to a successful termination the leaguer of Delhi,
stemmed the tide of the rebellion, and broke the backbone of the Mutiny.

The interest excited amongst all classes of our countrymen by the events
which happened during the momentous crisis of 1857 in India can scarcely
be appreciated by the present generation. So many years have elapsed
that all those who held high commands or directed the councils of the
Government have long since died, and the young participants in the
contest who survived its toils and dangers are all now past middle age.
But the oft-told tale will still bear repetition, and the recital of the
achievements of Englishmen during the great Indian rebellion will fill
the hearts of their descendants for all time with pride, and incite them
to emulate their actions. In the hour of danger the heart of the nation
is stirred to its profoundest depths, the national honour is at stake,
and that heritage bequeathed to us by our ancestors must at all hazards
be preserved. Thus it happened in 1857, and the result is well known. So
it may again occur, and with confidence it may be predicted that, as of
yore,