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Rh welcomed with joy the ultimate restoration of British government. Moreover, the Native States remained staunch. It is true that certain minor Chiefs joined the rebellion, but the leading Princes of India were steadfast in their allegiance to the British Crown. Thus the principal assistance given to the rebel Sepoys came from a small number of disaffected nobles and deposed officials, who in their turn found support only from the lawless and restless spirits of their neighbourhoods, no longer restrained by a powerful government.

The Mutiny was thus primarily a military rising, aided and abetted to a limited extent by a proportion of the hereditary criminal classes. It was a rising, moreover, confined in great measure to the Sepoys of the Bengal Regular Army. For many years prior to the outbreak these men had shown a bad spirit, to be attributed in part to discontent at changes affecting the condition of their service, and in part to pampering and lax discipline. The discipline of this Army had in fact been weakened by an encouragement to Sepoys to make frivolous complaints to head-quarters, and to think lightly of the authority of those over them. At the same time there had been a marked deterioration in the character of their regimental officers, while the inefficiency of not a few officers of higher rank in command of divisions and districts completed the evil. At this particular juncture, moreover, the proportion of British to Native troops in India was dangerously small. The warnings