refusal of the Home Government; but to have done so and to have given way to violence would have been a virtual abnegation of authority, and would not in reality have removed the disaffection. In this dilemma, Lord Canning at length gave a free discharge and passage home to all who wished it, and about 10,000 men then left for England. The cost is said to have been a million sterling. Many of these men, after a short holiday at home, re-enlisted in various Queen's regiments and returned to India. The general result, however, was that ere long the local European troops ceased to exist as a separate force, and became merged in the army of the Empire. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 49: _Political History of India_, Major General Sir John Malcolm, K.C.B. (John Murray, 1826.)] [Footnote 50: Gleig's _Life of Sir Thomas Munro, Bart, K.C.B._] [Footnote 51: _Essays_, by Sir Henry Lawrence, 1859.] [Footnote 52: Kaye's _Sepoy War_, 1865, vol. i.] [Footnote 53: _Rulers of India: Earl Canning_, by Sir H.S. Cunningham, K.C.S.I.] [Footnote 54: Shadwell, _Life of Lord Clyde_, ii. 419.] CHAPTER XV RECOLLECTIONS OF THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY In May 1859 I left Calcutta, having been appointed to command the Royal Artillery in the Madras Presidency. Speaking generally, the affairs, both civil and military, of Southern India had remained for many years in a condition of comparative inaction and tranquillity. Indeed, ever since the great campaigns towards the close of the last century, ending with the fall of Seringapatam and the death of Tippoo Sahib, the tide of war had drifted away to the north-west, and the Madras army had thus been deprived of much active experience in the field. Fortunately, even the Mutiny had failed to entangle the southern native troops in its disastrous meshes. As a term, perhaps, of undeserved reproach, Madras was often called the benighted presidency. Shortly before my arrival a new Governor, Sir Charles Trevelyan had been appointed, and being a man of great energy and ability, soon succeeded in temporarily galvanising the administration into unwonted life and activity. His somewhat abnormal qualities were not, however, generally appreciated. One of his first efforts was to improve the sanitary condition of the large native city, which stretches for a mile or two along the flat, sandy, surf-beaten shore. During the latter years of the last century the city had been enclosed on its land front with a series of old bastions and curtains and a continuous stagnant ditch--works which were intended as a defence against the hordes of Mahrattas and Pindarees who were then in the habit of swooping down on our cities and settlements. But these hostile races had long ceased their swoopings and lootings, and the decaying fortifications were not only obsolete, but by their existence prevented a due circulation of light and air, and were highly insanitary. Sir Charles accordingly decided on their entire removal,