"Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred."
More than two-thirds of that heroic band were killed, wounded, or made prisoners. "It is magnificent," said a French general, "but it is not war."
In the end, Sebastopol fell, and Russia was obliged to make peace. Many people thought that the whole war was a mistake, and that all the war accomplished could have been gained by peaceful means.
The year which followed the end of the Crimean War saw a great rebellion against British rule in India. It is known as the Indian "Mutiny," because it was confined almost entirely to the native soldiers, or Sepoys, who made up more than nine-tenths of the British army there. It was largely due to uneasiness among the native peoples at the introduction of railroads, and European ways, and to interference with native religious customs. Its immediate cause was a rumor that some new cartridges which were given the troops were greased with beef-fat and hog-lard. The Hindoos regarded beef-cattle as sacred, and the Mohammedans hated everything which came from the hog; so both Hindoos and Mohammedans joined in the revolt.
It was in May, 1857, that the Sepoys first mutinied. They slew their officers, and proclaimed an aged Prince, Emperor of India. In one place, the officers, warned by telegraph, ordered a review of their troops at daybreak. When the columns were in front of the cannon—behind which stood white gunners with port-fire lighted—the command was suddenly given, "Pile arms!" and the Sepoys dared not disobey. They were disarmed, and the mutiny was prevented from spreading to that province.
Sepoys
Other places were not so fortunate. At Cawnpore, the British were obliged to surrender, after standing siege for some time, and men, women, and children were put to death. At Lucknow, the garrison, together with 450 women and children, held out for three months, amid the greatest hardships. A relieving expedition fought its way to them, but it was not strong enough to bring back the besieged through the hostile country. A second expedition was long in coming. But one day a Scotch girl, in the camp, suddenly startled up from her sick bed, crying:
"The Campbells are coming! Don't you hear the bagpipes?"
At first they thought that her mind was wandering. But she was right. It was a body of Scotch Highlanders, of the clan of the Campbells, marching to their relief, with the bagpipes playing at the head of the column. This time the force was strong enough to bring the garrison away.
After some further fighting, the rebellion was put down, and the rebels were severely punished. Ever since the Mutiny, a larger proportion of British troops has been kept in India, so that a danger might not again arise. Also, the Mutiny showed the necessity of making a change in the government of India. The old East India Company was dissolved, and the British government itself took over the rule. In many ways, some consideration was shown to the wishes and prejudices of the Indian peoples, and in 1877 the Queen was proclaimed Empress of India. On the whole, British rule had been a great blessing to India; but it is very natural that the educated natives should seek, as they are now doing, to have a larger share in the government of their own land.
Topics for Thought and Search
Write an account of the character and home life of Queen Victoria.
Read an account of George Stephenson and the invention of the locomotive engine.
Compare the means of communication and travel in 1700 with those in 1800, and those in 1900. Mark those which came in the reign of Victoria.
Write an account of Sir Robert Peel.
Read aloud Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade."
Gladstone and Disraeli
The best known statesman of the reign of Queen Victoria was William E. Gladstone. He was for sixty-two years a member of the House of Commons, and was four times Prime Minister. He was the greatest political speaker of the latter half of that century, and his name is connected with some of the most important laws of that time.
Mr. Gladstone was born at Liverpool, in 1809, the same year that Abraham Lincoln was born. His parents were of Scottish descent, and his father was a successful merchant. When he was eleven years old, he was sent to the great school for boys at Eton, which many noblemen's sons attended. At that time there was much flogging in English schools, and much fighting among the boys; Englishmen defended both as good things, because they said that they made the boys sturdy and self-reliant. From Eton, Gladstone went to Oxford University, where he ranked very high in Greek and Latin, and also in mathematics. In after years he never forgot his interest in learning, and amid his active political life he carried on much reading and study.
Eton College
Gladstone was always very much interested in religion, and for a time he wanted to become a clergyman of the Church of England. Instead, he followed the wishes of his father, and entered political life. He became a member of the House of Commons in 1833, the year after the great Reform Bill was passed. He owed his first seat to the favor of a great nobleman, who controlled one of the "rotten boroughs" which had not yet been reformed.
For many years Gladstone acted with the aristocratic party, and was described as "the rising hope of the stern, unbending Tories." But he was a member of Sir Robert Peel's Cabinet when it repealed the Corn Laws, in 1846; and when the Tory party was split into two, on that question, he followed Peel against the Protectionists. Thirteen years later, he joined the Whig (or Liberal) party, and, after he came to be its leader, he gradually became more and more radical, until finally a number of his followers deserted him and joined the Conservative party. Late in his life Mr. Gladstone summed up the changes in his political principles in these words:
"I was brought up to distrust and dislike liberty; I learned to believe in it. That is the key to all my changes."
When the Civil War broke out in America, in 1861, the upper classes of Great Britain sympathized with the South. The Southern planters were great landlords, like the English nobles and gentry, and had the same aristocratic ideas; moreover, Englishmen admired the dashing courage which the South showed in fighting the richer and more populous North. They disliked the North, because of the tariff which it put on English goods, and because the war prevented England's getting the cotton it needed to run its factories; besides, Englishmen did not believe that the North was sincere in opposing slavery. Gladstone shared these feelings, in part, and in 1862 he said:
"We may have our own opinions about slavery; we may be for or against the South. But there is no doubt that Jefferson Davis and other leaders of the South have made an army; they are making, it appears, a navy; and they have made what is more than either, they have made a nation."
Long afterwards Mr. Gladstone admitted that it was a great mistake for him to make such a speech. The Northern States were already very angry with Great Britain for its favor to the South, and this speech made people think that the British government intended to recognize Southern independence. Matters became worse when Great Britain permitted Southern cruisers, like the Alabama, to set out from British ports and destroy the shipping and commerce of the North. At times, there was real danger of war between the United States and England.