for strangers, and the
history of the world furnishes abundant instances of such an army being
as formidable to their employers as to those against whom they have been
employed. In the course of time our native soldiers were more and more
trusted; important places were garrisoned by them, military stores were
entrusted to them; and nothing was more natural than that in the more
ambitious of their number the thought should spring up that the time had
arrived for expelling the stranger, and seizing the power within their
grasp. In thus acting they could make themselves sure of the sympathy of
their countrymen.

[Sidenote: CAUSES OF DISSATISFACTION.]

The Sepoys have been treated in the matter of pay, clothing, and food,
as they never were under native rulers; but they have been subjected to
strict discipline, and they have been cut off from the much-prized
privilege of foraging, or rather plundering. They have at different
times complained loudly of unjust treatment. Alleged breach of promises
of pay, and their being sent to fight our battles in foreign countries
such as Burmah, China, Persia, and Afghanistan, and to parts of India
foreign to them, have been prominent among their causes of complaint.
They have not confined themselves to complaint and remonstrance; they
have again and again broken out into mutiny, which has led to some
regiments being disbanded, and the mutineer leaders being severely
punished. Years before 1857 it was asserted by persons eminently
qualified to judge, like Sir Henry Lawrence, that grievous mistakes had
been committed in the administration of the native army, and that our
safety demanded great changes in its treatment and distribution. When
one reads the statements they made, and the warnings they gave, the
wonder is the mutiny did not sooner occur. Lord Ellenborough, before
leaving India, declared the Sepoys were our one peril in India, and
characteristically proposed we should keep them in humour by keeping
them always fighting.

All other causes of revolt were light compared with the charge often
advanced and believed that we were bent on the destruction of their
religion. From the outbreak at Vellore in 1806, on to the great mutiny
of 1857, this charge was persistently made. The Sepoys were allowed all
the religious liberty compatible with military obedience; they had every
facility for following their religious customs; they were fenced off
from Christian influences as no other par