who, with his able subordinates, had saved that province at the very outset, and thereby in truth saved India, was equally firm in mercy and in justice.  The Queen herself, who had very early appreciated the gravity of the situation and promoted to the extent of her power the speedy sending of aid and reinforcement from England, thoroughly endorsed the wise and clement policy of the Governor-General.  Replying to a letter of Lord Canning’s which deplored “the rabid and indiscriminate vindictiveness abroad,” Her Majesty wrote these words, which we will give ourselves the pleasure to quote entire:—­

[Illustration:  Sir John Lawrence.]

“Lord Canning will easily believe how entirely the Queen shares his feelings of sorrow and indignation at the unchristian spirit, shown, alas! also to a great extent here by the public, towards Indians in general, and towards Sepoys without discrimination! It is, however, not likely to last, and comes from the horror produced by the unspeakable atrocities perpetrated against the innocent women and children, which make one’s blood run cold and one’s heart bleed!  For the perpetrators of these awful horrors no punishment can be severe enough; and sad as it is, stern justice must be dealt out to all the guilty.

“But to the nation at large, to the peaceable inhabitants, to the many kind and friendly natives who have assisted us, sheltered the fugitive, and been faithful and true, there should be shown the greatest kindness.  They should know that there is no hatred to a brown skin—­none; but the greatest wish on their Queen’s part to see them happy, contented, and flourishing.”

These words well became the sovereign who, by serious and cogent argument, had succeeded in inducing her Ministers to strike strongly and quickly on the side of law and order, they having been at first inclined to adopt a “step-by-step” policy as to sending out aid, which would not have been very grateful to the hard-pressed authorities in India; while the Queen and the Prince shared Lord Canning’s opinion, that “nothing but a long continued manifestation of England’s might before the eyes of the whole Indian empire, evinced by the presence of such an English force as should make the thought of opposition hopeless, would re-establish confidence in her strength.”

The necessary manifestation of strength was made; the reputation of England—­so rudely shaken, not only in the opinion of ignorant Hindoos, but in that of her European rivals—­was re-established fully, and indeed gained by the power she had shown to cope with an unparalleled emergency.  The counsels of vengeance were set aside, in spite of the obloquy which for a time was heaped on the true wisdom which rejected them.  We did not “dethrone Christ to set up Moloch”; had we been guilty of that sanguinary folly, England and India might yet be ruing that year’s doing.  On the contrary, certain changes which did ensue in direct consequence of the Mutiny were productive of undoubted good.