Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/100

74 the power which he had already lost. Less wisely, perhaps, they had permitted him to enjoy the shadow after he had lost the substance.

At the moment, and for some time previously, the feelings of the King and his family had been considerably excited against the English ruler, in consequence of correspondence which had taken place with reference to the succession. Bahádur Sháh was an old man. A rumour had reached him so far back as 1849-50, that Lord Dalhousie had not been indisposed to deprive the House of Taimur of the shadow of splendour still remaining to it. Rumour had told the truth. The acknowledged heir to Bahádur Sháh, Prince Dárá Bakht, had died in 1849. The next in the strict line of succession, Prince Fakir-ud-dín, had been born a pensioner. Lord Dalhousie was inclined to admit his accession to the chiefship of the family upon less favourable conditions than those which had been recognised in the case of his father. In plain language, Lord Dalhousie believed that the natives of India, the princes as well as the people, had become 'entirely indifferent to the condition of the King of Dehlí or his position,' and, considering the danger of retaining an  'imperium in imperio'  in the very heart of the ancient capital of India, he had desired to take the opportunity of the death of the immediate representative of the House of Taimur to sweep away all the privileges and prerogatives which had kept alive a pretentious mock royalty in the heart of the empire.

The Court of Directors gave Lord Dalhousie full power to act according to the views he had imbibed on this subject, but there was much difference of opinion in the India House, and Lord Dalhousie wisely deferred action. Meanwhile, rumours of the impending change had reached the palace, and had roused the most furious