Page:Earl Canning.djvu/78

than usually independent mood, thought proper to rescind a departmental order, which had been passed in 1845 as to some details of the Sepoys' pay, and to denounce it as 'impolitic and unjust.' Dalhousie at once responded to the challenge, and in incisive language reproved the attempted encroachment on his authority. Napier, angry and rhetorical, declared that he had acted in 'a moment of great public danger,' and that he was dealing with 'an army of 40,000 men, infected with a mutinous spirit.' Dalhousie denied the mutinous spirit and derided the alleged danger. The result was to commit Dalhousie to the theory that the condition of the native army was satisfactory. He received, however, some serious warnings as to the soundness of such a view. Once again Burma supplied the occasion. In the second Burma War the 38th N. I., a distinguished regiment, was invited to embark for Arakan. Such a journey was beyond the terms of its engagement. It would imperil caste. The men declined to go. Dalhousie was unable to compel them. They were in their right. The Great Lord Sáhib was known, in soldiers' circles, to have suffered a repulse. Such triumphs are dangerous to those who win them. The Sepoy was tasting the pleasure of having his own way, and was learning how to get it. The difficulty was one of the troublesome legacies which Dalhousie bequeathed to his successor. When Lord Canning arrived in India, it had become acute. The conquest of Pegu necessitated a permanent Burma