१८५७ का स्वातन्त्र्य समर (वीर विनायक दामोदर सावरकर - अंग्रेजों द्वारा छपने से पूर्व प्रतिबन्धित महाग्रन्थ)

THE SUMMING UP
opinion just. It is a proper revenge for the annexation of
Oudh. You have consciously left the royal road of justice
and have entered the thorny path of deceit and selfishness.
What wonder, then, that your feet are bleeding by the
self-same thorns? You were laughing when you sowed
the seeds of revenge ; why do you, then, blame the
people when the self-same seeds have borne fruit in
due course ? " ⁶
When Calcutta itself had such a hazy and misty idea
of the extent of the Revolutionary movement, we can
easily understand how England, which depended for its
information solely on the mail news from India, at first
slept the sleep of ignorance, and then, when suddenly
awakened, became possessed by terror and behaved like
a madman. When the news of Barrackpore, Berhampore,
Dum-Dum, and other places reached England, all eyes
were turned towards India. But soon, everything became
quiet and all began to feel safe again. On the 11th of
June, the President of the Board of Trade said, in reply
to a question in the House of Commons, " There is now
no reason for anxiety as regards the late unrest in Bengal.
For, by the dexterity, firmness, and quickness of my
honourable and noble friend, Lord Canning, the seeds of
unrest sown in the army have been completely rooted out."
These are the sentences which the Parliament heard on the
11th of June. On that date in India, eleven cavalry regi-
ments, five field-batteries of artillery, at least fifty regi-
ments of infantry, and nearly all the sappers and miners
had risen in open revolt ! The whole of Oudh was in
the hands of the Revolutionaries ! Cawnpore and Luck-
now were besieged ! The Revolutionaries had taken more
than ten millions of Rupees from Government treasuries ;
and all this, at the moment when, owing to the dexterity,
firmness, and quickness of Lord Canning, " the seeds of
unrest had been completely rooted out."
6. Red Pamphlet.
271