Page:A General Biography of Bengal Celebrities Vol 1.djvu/82

THK ATROCITIES OF THE MUTINY. 73 • "It is impossible to deny that immediately after • the first successes over the rebels, the work of re- tribution was carried a little too far, and that too' in a manner not to be expected from the agents of a civilized Government At the town of Allahabad only, nearly eight hundred men were hanged between the 6th June and 16th July. The Sikhs were let loose upon the towns people to wreak summary vengeance for the N murder of a comrade. Brigadier Neill's course from Benares to Allahabad was marked by corpses of villagers all of whom did not approach his force with hostile intentions. We will not speak of other atrocities commited by soldiers over whom, if discipline had been exercised, it would have had its sway. The river sides for miles presented an array of demolished homes. That the population thus punished harboured many who deserved the severest punishment that could be inflicted, we will not deny. . But the result proved that the principle of English law— that it were better that ten guilty should escape than that one innocent should suffer-^errs less in res* pect to sound policy than the converse maxim of the blood-hunters. A renewed attack upon Benares was the consequence of the severities of Brigadier Neill's course. That chronic disaffection of the villagers and the readiness with which they have again joined the rebels on both sides of the river attest the ill effects of similar proceedings on the part of our authorities. Well may, therefore, the Governor- General caution the local authorities." (Vide Hindoo Patriot, September ioth, 1857.) The Native Press then in its infancy was not strong enough, as it is now, to resist the evil influ- ence of the combined agitation on the part of the Anglo- Indian Press and the non-official European- com- munity. Under such circumstances. Hurish Chunder acted the part of a. saviour of his country by rightly interpreting the views of the Natives towards the Go- 10