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94 their eyes shut, and with a coil of red tape round their minds. Calcutta and its suburbs contained, in 1857, a native population exceeding half a million. In one of the suburbs lived the deposed King of Oudh, with a large following of retainers, not one of whom was disposed to love the Government which had made them exiles. To guard this large population there was but one weak wing of an English regiment, occupying Fort William. But there was a large body of Englishmen in Calcutta — merchants, lawyers, traders, clerks in public offices — who, apprehending the nature of the crisis far more clearly than the Government had apprehended it, were ready and anxious to place their services at the disposal of the Governor-General for the repression of disorder. There were also others — Frenchmen, Germans, Americans, — who were inspired by a similar sentiment. The feeling which animated these men was as simple as it was disinterested. They said in so many words to the Government: 'The situation is full of peril; you are short of men, you have to control a large population in Calcutta, and you have within call but two English regiments; there are three armed native regiments at Barrackpur, ready to emulate the conduct of their comrades at Mírath, why not utilise our services? We can furnish a regiment of infantry, a regiment of cavalry, and a battery of artillery; our interests and your interests are identical: use us.'

There was not the smallest approach to panic among these men. They were sincerely anxious to help the Government in the terrible crisis. What panic there was was confined entirely to the higher official classes and the scum of the Eurasian population. It was in the exercise of the purest patriotism, then, that the merchants and traders of Calcutta, English and foreign, offered their services, between the 20th and the 25th of May, to the