Page:A General Biography of Bengal Celebrities Vol 1.djvu/78

 HIS CAREER AS A JOURNALIST. DURING THE MUTINY OF 1S57. 6£ this revolt, bringing in its train untold miseries to the nation. Hurish Chunder first wrote on the subject in the Hindoo Patriot of the 21st May, 1857. "The horrible details of the Mutiny and massacre during the last few days have fallen upon a state of public feeling utterly unprepared tq receive them- even after the seditious misconduct, and disbandment of two regiments of the line. It was certainly known that a spirit of disaffection pervaded the entire native; army ; but there were specious reasons for supposing that it could rise to the culminating point and mani* fest itself by deeds only in the distant and disliked cantonments of Bengal, The favourite stations of Meerut and Delhi have, however, been the scene of mutineering violence such as has no parallel in. the, military history of British India. Full particulars have not yet reached Government." In this very opening article Hurish Chunder took the side of the. Government, and vindicated its, policy thus: — "Government has beei* censured for dealing too leniently with the ^Jutjneers in ftengaL We can scarcely conceive what other punishment than dis- missal from a most desirable service could be awarded to men who at worst were misbehaving under a delusion, and were guilty of passive Mutiny only/ It would have hardly been consistent with the principles and the dignity, not to mention the policy of the In- dian Government, to have made every soldier pf tbe 19th and 34th Regiments of Bengal Infantry martyrs in the eyes of their countrymen, and such they would have been, if the forfeit of their lives or liberties were exacted from them for persisting in a course of pass- ive insubordination in obedience to what every one 1 believes to be the dictates of his conscience/' The article was concluded thus : — " The Govern- ment may now act with, a rigour proportioned to the .of which rumours