446 A. D. ALMA AND INKERMANN. Ch.31 September the final order was given to embark, and on the 14th and two following days the troops were safely landed at 1854. Old Fort, about thirty miles from Sebastopol. On the 20th the two armies marched towards the Alma, where the Russians were posted in great force, and in a position regarded by themselves as unassailable. The work to be accomplished was an arduous one. “The passage of the river was to be effected by an army whose line extended for three miles, in the face of batteries and artillery, and dense masses of infantry covering the hills." Every difficulty, however, quickly vanished Battle before the courage and enthusiasm of the soldiers. The English of the faced the tremendous batteries, and, amid crashing volleys of grape and musketry, carried everything before them by the unfailing bayonet. The French scaled the ravines, springing from crag to crag with wonderful rapidity, and by evening everything was won. The victory was immediately followed by a night march to the south of Sebastopol, where the port of Balaclava was secured. The troops were now only nine miles from Sebastopol, and the allied fleets were in the offing; but new difficulties presented themselves. Seven Russian ships of war, sunk at the mouth of the harbour, rendered entrance impossible, and cholera again began to accomplish its deadly work. Alma. The siege commenced on the 17th of October, but proceeded slowly. On the 25th the conflict at Balaclava took place, ever memorable for a charge made, under a misconception of orders, by a body of cavalry, numbering about 600 men, on Charge the entire Russian army supported by artillery. The result Bala- was at once glorious and disastrous. Prodigies of valour were clava. performed, but impossibilities rendered all such efforts vain. at Of the 607 who went into action, only 198 returned. The next great fight was on the 5th of November, at Inkermann, where, for three hours, in the darkness of a cold and wet morning, 8,000 English soldiers, many of whom had been all the night in the trenches, withstood successfully 45,000 Russians. The battle was not one of strategy. It has been THE GREAT HURRICANE. 447 well described as "the soldiers' battle." It was simply "a Ch. 37 series of dreadful deeds of daring, of sanguinary hand to hand A. D. fights, of despairing rallies, of desperate assaults-in glens and 1854. valleys, in brushwood glades, and remote dells." The English were well supported, as soon as the attack was known, by the French, under General Bosquet, and the Russians were obliged Battle to retreat, leaving at least five thousand men dead upon the field. The loss of the British was severe; 462 were killed, mann. and 1,952 wounded, among whom were 42 officers dead, and 103 wounded. Sir George Cathcart, Brigadier-General Strangways, and Brigadier-General Goldie, fell on this occasion, at the head of their regiments. "The camp of Inker hurri cane. On the 14th the great hurricane occurred. was one wide scene of desolation; the roads became impassable; the men were exposed to the bitterest cold, and the driving rain and sleet: even the wounded were deprived of their frail shelter. At night there came on a snow storm, and amidst The this conflict of the elements a cannonade and sortie from the Russians. The destruction at sea was terrific; eleven transports were wrecked off Balaclava. The steamship Prince, a magnificent vessel of 2,700 tons, full of the most valuable stores, went to pieces on the rocks. A few days before, she had landed troops; but the loss of her entire cargo, consisting of winter clothing for 40,000 men, shot and shell, and those medical stores which were an absolute necessity, grievously increased the calamities of this fatal season." The sufferings of that winter will never be forgotten. The siege made little progress; the army was without shelter and clothing; the sick and wounded were perishing for want of timely aid. England was filled with grief and indignation. A parliamentary investigation was called for, and every effort Winter was made, both by the Government and by voluntary sub- in the scriptions, to alleviate the sufferings of our brave countrymen. The Russians, meanwhile, were gradually strengthening their position. By March (1855), the struggle, which had never ceased, began to assume a new form. Night battles, of Crimea. 448 A. D. CAPTURE OF SEBASTOPOL. Ch. 31 more or less importance, multiplied; the siege works of the Allies drew nearer and nearer to the Russian lines; and on 1855. the 9th of April the second bombardment of Sebastopol commenced. A railway was now laid from Balaclava to the camp, and stores of all kinds arrived rapidly. In May, the Sardinian contingent landed. The supplies that reached the Russians by the Sea of Azoff were cut off by a successful operation of the fleet; and on the 6th of June a third great effort was made by the allies. The battle of the Quarries, as it was termed, ended in the capture of the Mamelon; and on the 17th and 18th further assaults took place, but still without success. Ten days afterwards Lord Raglan died, universally Fall of regretted. On the 16th of August the battle of the Tchernaya was fought and won; on the 5th of September the last great cannonade commenced; and on the 8th the Malakoff and the Great Redan fell into the hands of the Allies. Sebastopol was immediately shrouded in flame by the Russians; its great works were effectually destroyed; its entire fleet was sunk; the enemy evacuated the place, and the English and French troops took possession of it. The bombardment of Sweaborg, the capture of Kinburn, and the battle of Kars, where the Turks, under the guidance of English officers, performed wonders, closed the campaign of 1855. The Czar Nicholas had died on the 2nd of March; but his son and successor, Alexander II., the present Emperor, showed little immediate disposition to favor any change of policy. Sebas topol. No movement of importance took place on the part of the Allies after the destruction of the sea works of Sebastopol, and the division of the booty, which included 3,800 cannon, and half a million of shot and shells. Negotiations for peace soon Treaty after commenced; and on the 30th of March, 1856, a treaty was signed, which led to the immediate withdrawal of the troops, whose last work was the erection of simple memorials to the dead. The spots where these white stones stand, mark the burying-places of the departed, and have ever since been sacredly respected by the Russians. of peace. ANNEXATION OF OUDE. 449 The Crimean war proved fatal to the Aberdeen ministry. Ch. 31 On the 29th of January, 1855, it fell to pieces, and Lord A. D. Palmerston soon after accepted office. This position he re- 1856. tained till February, 1858, when, in consequence of an adverse vote of the House of Commons on the bill relating to "Conspiracy for Murder," the Whig minister resigned, and Lord Derby once more became Premier. The new administration did not, however, last much more than a year. In the month of June, 1859, Lord Palmerston returned to power, and still conducts the government of the country. India. INDIA, after the peace of 1849, commenced a new phase in its existence. Hitherto wars, necessary indeed, but costly and destructive, had prevented the Government from giving that attention to internal improvements, and the development of the resources of the country, which had long been felt needful. But now, under Lord Dalhousie, who felt a deep Railinterest in the welfare of the people, progress in this direction ways in became practicable. Canals were dug; roads formed or restored; surveys for railways extensively undertaken; and the great trunk road from Calcutta to Delhi and Lahore was constructed, over the first hundred miles of which a railway has since been laid. The electric telegraph, which at present extends over 4,000 miles, was about this time introduced; and a noble pier and harbour, at the mouth of the Indus, opened the trade of that great and important river. Oude. In February, 1856, the annexation of Oude was accomplished, by which 25,000 square miles of territory and five millions of people were brought under British rule. Upwards Annexof seventy thousand of the Sepoys in the English service had ation of been drawn from these territories, where the landowners, like the military chiefs of old, dwelt in fortified castles, defended by artillery. The act of annexation has been much blamed as tyrannical and unjust. The defence of it is to be found in the horrible atrocities which were committed by the native government. Immediately after this settlement of the affairs 450 STATE OF THE BENGAL ARMY. Ch. 31 of Oude, Lord Dalhousie resigned his appointment, and Lord Canning came out as his successor. A. D. 1857. On the 1st of November (1856), war was declared against Persia, in consequence of the Shah having, contrary to treaty, beseiged Herat. Troops were immediately forwarded from War in Bombay, and, by the 10th of December, Bushire was capPersia. tured. In the month of January following (1857), General Outram, who had been appointed Commander-in-Chief, arrived with additional forces, and prepared to carry on the war with vigor. But hostilities were not prolonged. A treaty of peace was signed at Paris in March, and by the 5th of April, the war was at an end. We must now briefly recount the sad story of the fearful mutiny of the Bengal army, which soon after followed, and, for a time, greatly endangered the empire of India. Early in the year 1857 ill-feeling had been more than once manifested by the native troops. The pretext for the discontent was, that some rifle cartridges, which had been sent from England in 1856, were made up with paper greased by a mixture of cow's fat and hog's lard. By this agency it was pretended their caste was to be destroyed and their religion texts overthrown. The true grievance has never been satisfactorily griev ascertained, but there is little reason to doubt that many things combined to bring about the catastrophe. "The pre Pre and true ances. disposing causes," it has been well remarked, "belong partly to the constitution of the Bengal army, and partly to the progress of events which foreshadowed the introduction of a new era. From the abolition of Suttee, to the exemption of native christian converts from the forfeiture of their rights of inheritance, and the permission to Hindoo widows to remarry,—from the formation of the first metalled road to cover India with a network of railroads and electric telegraphs,there is not a single good measure which has not contributed something to impress the military priests with the conviction that, if they were to make a stand, they must do so soon, else |