In the year 1830, during the Resident ship of the Honorable R. Cavendish, and four 3 year alter the departure of Sir R. Junking from the scene of his labors, the Raja was permitted to assume the actual government. The time of the Raja’s minority, when the country was administered by British officers under the Resident, was long remembered with favor by the people. Nothing occurred to disturb the peace at large during the next seventeen years; the country was quiet and prosperous; and the security, afforded by a firm and just rule, was a great stimulus to banking and trade. In the year 1848 an impostor named Raghobharti Gosain, pretending to be Appa Sahib, raised an insurrection in Berar, but the disturbance did not extend to Nagpur. Raghu III died in December 1853 without a child, begotten or adopted. The Marquis of Dalhousie, then Governor-General, declared that the State of Nagpur had lapsed to the Paramount Power. This order was confirmed by the Court of Directors of the late East India Company and by the Crown, and Nagpur became a British Province. Form 1853 to 1861 the Dominions of the Bhonslas were administered by a number of officers. At whose head was the commissioner of the ‘Nagpur Province? The even course of affairs in that period was broken only by the local events connected with the Mutiny. It is not believed that Nagpur had any communication with the disaffected centers of the disturbances unrest appeared in the city. The chapattis had indeed been circulated, but here, as in other parts of India, their import was certainly not understood by the bulk of the people, amongst whom they failed to attract any particular attention there was noticed, however, about the end of April, on the part of some of the leading Muhammadans of the city, an unwonted opposition to the orders of Government on the subject of extra-mural sepulture. This opposition was met by decisive action; intra-mural sepulture was prohibited, and the order was obeyed, but not without covert hints that the time for issue of orders by any British Government was not far from its close. The behavior of the Muhammadans was from this time carefully watched. In May 1857 Mr. Plowden was Commissioner, and Mr. Ellis, Deputy Commissioner, of Nagpur. The troops stationed at Nagpur belonged to the Nagpur irregular force, and consisted of a regiment of irregular cavalry, largely recruited from the local Muhammadans, a battery of artillery, and a regiment of Hindustani infantry. Kamptee was garrisoned by two regiments of infantry and one of cavalry of the Madras army and two European batteries.
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