Massacre at Cawnpore

‘Miss Wheeler defending herself against the sepoys at

Cawnpore’

‘English Homes in India’: Engraving (unknown)

Edward Armitage, ‘Retribution’ (1858)

Cecil Doughty, ‘Indian Mutiny’ (1857)

Massacre of the English Officers and their Wives at Jhangi (1858)

‘The Indian Mutiny’, Quarterly Review (October, 1857)

• WITH the terrible details of the Bengal Mutiny so fresh before us, its occurrences rather news than history, its issue though certain yet incomplete; with the blood of our countrymen not yet dry, and the cries of our countrywomen still ringing in our ears, it is hard to write calmly of an 'event which must ever be numbered among the most appalling atrocities in the annals not only of Britain but of the world. There is no longer any fear, at least for the present, that our proverbial apathy on Indian affairs will prevail; and we may rely on the strong sense and the sound heart of the British people for taking a far deeper interest in the miseries and indignities to which our brethren in the East have been subjected, than ever was given to their most glorious victories, or to the widest extension of our power. It may be among the blessings which already seem to be arising from this fearful trial, that our eyes shall never for the future be blind to the enormous responsibilities and interests which our Indian empire entails. If we are to continue to call 150 millions of men our fellow-subjects, India must no longer be viewed with the indifference with which both government and people of England have hitherto regarded it. It cannot for the future be to us a mere commercial mart, a provision for the cadets of our middle classes, a resource for superannuated generals or impoverished nobility, a thing of the city, of a clique, of a department; it must become an integral part of our Home Government, and the full power of national intelligence and opinion must be brought to bear upon its interests and resources.