, and with a high hand, all attempts at mutiny or insurrection, so
as to direct the great resources of the Punjaub to the assistance of the
other provinces, and especially during the siege of Delhi. The services
of that great man have never been sufficiently acknowledged by the
British government.

In the presidencies of Bombay and Madras the army and people, with few
exceptions, remained quiet, and to a considerable extent were loyal.
In Central India the disturbance was universal, and the contingents of
native princes burst into open hostility. The presidencies of Madras and
Bombay were much endangered by this state of things, but "field forces"
were organized in the presidencies, by which the rebel districts of
Central India were penetrated from the south and west, until the revolt
was crushed. The troops of Madras displayed more loyalty than those of
Bombay. Some of the Bombay regiments mutinied, bringing upon themselves
a swift and terrible punishment.

In the eastern districts of Bengal there were only the perturbations
caused by the great earthquake of revolution, which had its centre far
north and west. The disposition to insurrection in Assam and Chittagong
was kept down by astonishingly weak forces. Along the Assam frontier a
few troops sufficed to preserve tolerable quietude. A small detachment
of British sailors, acting as infantry of the line, awed a vast region
of eastern Bengal.

The native troops of the Bengal army, stationed on the eastern shores
of the Bay of Bengal, showed the same disposition to revolt as upon
the eastern land confines of that presidency; but the people of Pegu,
Martaban, and the other provinces on the sea-coast, were loyal.
The troops there were mostly European, and were moved up the bay to
Calcutta, as occasion demanded and opportunity served.

In Lower Bengal the people were too unwarlike to aid the troops who
mutinied.

Upper Bengal and the dominions which had been recently wrenched from
the King of Oude, were the grand foci of mutiny and rebellion; although
Jhansi, Delhi, and Meerut, were also centres of active revolt.

Agra, the queen of the upper provinces, suffered much. Mr. Colville
acted with prudence, temper, and energy; but committed the general
fault of the officials, civil and military, of placing too much
confidence in the native troops.

Benares, the ecclesiastical capital of heathen India, was more loyal
than any city in the disturbed regions. The protection