Page:Earl Canning.djvu/158

152 avocations in order to assist the Behar authorities at a moment when things were at the worst in that Province. His assistance had been invaluable in maintaining tranquillity and in checking outbursts of Muhammadan excitement. The return made by English newspapers for these valuable services had been unfortunate. 'He has,' wrote the Commissioner, 'been the object of ceaseless vituperation. The most treacherous motives have been attributed to him, and he has become, in fact, the bête noire of the English press. The main ground of attack against him has been that he was a Muhammadan. The whole of the Calcutta press, apparently without exception, have taken up the idea that this is a Muhammadan rebellion, not merely in the sense that the Sepoys were worked upon by individual Muhammadans — which may or may not be true — but that the entire Muhammadan community is disaffected, and merely waits its opportunity to rise and throw off the British yoke. I need not point out how destitute of foundation this notion is, how entirely unrestrained many millions of Muhammadans in Bengal have been during the last five months, except by their own feelings of loyalty, and how quiet the Muhammadan villages of Southern Behar have been, while Bráhmín and Rájput villages were rising round them. Articles like this have a direct tendency to excite disaffection among large masses of the population, and to convert what is now a military revolt into a national rebellion.'

'Your Majesty's petitioners submit,' so ran the