Essays, military and political, written in India online

times, will glow with the brilliant addition made to them after an interval
of thirty-six years, the greater portion of which has been subject to the
ordeal of public life.

'- [In the same pages, and in the traditions of a grateful people, will live
the recollection of the wise measures by which you have encouraged educa-
tion, and contributed to the permanent improvement and happiness of
those committed to your charge.]

" We desire, my Lord, to have and preserve in Calcutta some personal
memorial of one who has received the highest honours from his Sovereign,
and the thanks of his countrymen, while ruling this great empire : we
desire it, my Lord, as a testimony of our respect for your private and ad-
miration of your public character, and as a legacy of deep interest to those
who will come after us.

"We have, therefore, to ask that your Lordship will permit a committee



CONGRATULATORY ADDRESSES. 359

to place itself in communication with you for the purpose of carrying out
the object we have in view, and it remains for us only to bid your Lord-
ship farewell, and to convey to you our earnest hope that it may please the
Almighty to bless you with years of health and strength, to enjoy the
honours you have nobly won, and to deserve yet further the gratitude of
your country, by enforcing in the Senate that principle of enlightened rule
which recognizes peace as the surest guarantee for the prosperity and hap-
piness of mankind."

In an appropriate and feeling reply, Lord Hardin ge
expressed his gratification at the handsome testimony
of the approbation and personal regard of the inhabi-
tants of Calcutta, and in the course of his speech thus
gracefully recommended cordiality and unanimity be-
tween the two great classes of the community : —

" It is also very flattering to me to observe that this address has been
agreed to by the united voice of the European and Native inhabitants of
this great city, the capital of Her Majesty's Eastern Empire ; and I may
-allude to this fact, because I am impressed with the belief that the happi-
ness of the Native population depends upon the existence of a thorough
identity of interests among all classes of the community. By the en-
couragement of such a feeling, our power will be more firmly consolidated,
our national character more pre-eminently exalted, and our influence more
beneficially exercised in promoting the prosperity of British India."

The Friend of India, of the 30th of December, in
echoing the sentiments of the community at large, thus
concludes an elaborate notice of Lord Hardinge's ad-
ministration : —

" But we must draw this lengthened sketdh of Lord Hardinge's career
to a close. His brief administration has been crowded with events of the
deepest interest and importance. To it appertains the distinguished honour
of having extinguished the last enemy left to us between the Himalaya
and Cape Comorin, and removed the apprehension of future hostilities.
Though his Lordship has been engaged in large military enterprises which
have terminated in making the will of the British Government as para-
mount in Peshawur, as it is in Jessore, no one has dreamt of threatening
him with a Parliamentary inquiry. His measures have been characterised
by so much justice and moderation as well as vigour, that although they
have resulted in an extension of territory and influence which Lord
Ellenborough himself might have envied, he has not roused the outcry of
party hostility. He has reduced the numerical strength of the army
without weakening our means of defence ; and he delivers the empire to
his successor with an excess of income over expenditure, and in a state of
such tranquillity as to inspire the hope of large resources for the future
triumphs of peace."

Before his departure. Lord Hardinge must also
have received the reports of the speeches made at the



3(30 liORD HARDINGe's INDIAN ADMINISTRATION.

parting dinner given by the Court of Directors to Lord
Dalhousie, and in them had an earnest of the greeting
that awaited him in England. On the occasion referred
to, the Premier of England, addressing the Grovernor-
General elect, expressed his conviction " that he would
show, as his immediate predecessor. Lord Hardinge,
had shown, that resolution in administering justice, for-
bearance towards all neighbours and foreign powers,
attention to the arts of peace, and sedulous care for
the improvement of the internal condition of India,
which are compatible with the utmost spirit, the utmost
courage in repelling any aggression that may be made
— meeting and conquering those who choose to con-
stitute themselves the foes of the British empire in
India."

The Chairman of the Court of Directors, himself a
distinguished member of the Bengal Civil Service,* at
the same dinner, when proposing the health of Lord
Hardinge, eulogized him no less than Lord John Eus-
sell had done.

Thus, amid the plaudits of the people whom he had
ruled, and already stamped by the approbation of the
home authorities, closed the administration of Lord
Hardinge.

We bid adieu to his Lordship with every hearty
good wish. He found India held by a discontented
army, threatened by invasion, and almost bankrupt.
He, in all senses, righted the vessel, restored confidence
to our ranks, to our allies, and our dependants ; reple-
nished the public purse, tranquillized the frontier, and
brought peace and security to the long distracted Pun-
jab. He had his reward ; but the title and the pension
which he earned were but a small portion of his recom-
pense. His best reward was in the conviction of his
* Mr. Henry St. George Tucker.



HIS DEPARTURE FROM INDIA. 361

own noble heart that he had honestly and bravely done
his duty ; that he left behind him more than a hundred
millions whom he had largely blessed by enlightened
and just measures ; and that, returning to his native
land, he was regretted by those he left behind, and
warmly welcomed by men of every shade of opinion,
as the pacific warrior, the happy statesman; the man
who, in reality, "brought peace to Asia!"



THE INDIAN AEMY.

[written in 1855-56.]

Eecent discussions and events have proved, to the
dullest understanding, the necessity of military reform
throughout the British army. The evidence before the
TSast India Committee, the Report of the Promotion
Commissioners, and, finally. Roebuck's Crimea Report,
have laid bare deficiencies, and shown that, with the
^^:glr^y^^^^'l ^^^ Tnnral TOidiexJahs, in thft worlrl, -yyith tf^^
m-avest and Jhe^^stroages^^ most chivalrous

officers, and the largest resources of any nation^ ancient
or modern, Great Britain is wanting in almost all the
requisites of an efiicient army. Our meaning is well
expressed by a friendly critic. Baron Bazancourt, in his
" rive Months in the Camp before Sebastopol :" —

" The English, those soldiers whom it is impossible to disturb in the
midst of the battle, those human walls which may be pierced by the
heavy fire of the enemy, but never beaten down, experienced a great mis-
fortune at the commencement of the expedition. A defective internal
administration decimated their forces more effectually than war. There
was amongst them an amount of demoralization of which I cannot give
the terrible account. The soldiers lay down before their huts looking sad,
sullen, and exhausted. The horses died by hundreds. Inkerman had
decapitated the head of the army. The vice of an improvident organiza-
tion devoured the rest. It is the war in Africa which has preserved us.
We owe our safety to our habits of encamping, and to our expeditions
into the interior of countries. The necessity thus incurred of making
provision for the smallest details, has been of the greatest utility to us in
the Crimea."

India is England's Africa, if she knew how to avail
herself of its opportunities. But such is not the case.



DEFICIENT MILITARY ORGANIZATION. 363

Here we have our camp life, and our expeditions ; how
many benefit thereby ? Hundreds of officers, especially
of the royal army in India, with every opportunity, go
through their career, live and die, in the most child-like
helplessness. They have no object, or at least the very
smallest, to a worldly mind, for exertion. They are ac-
customed to have everything done for them. To be fed,
clothed, barracked, encamped, all without a thought on
their part ; when, therefore, a necessity for using their
senses arises, they are like babes. All goes wrong.
European soldiers are exposed in long useless marches,
in the hottest months, are paraded and sometimes even
made to march during those months in full dress cloth
clothes. Sepoys, in their lines, are equally ill dealt with.
Much hardship, and even many deaths, are the result.
A good deal has been done to remedy the most glaring
evils. Eeform is afoot : but after a hundred years' ex-
perience of Indian warfare we are still nearer the ABC
than the Z of a sound, practical, military administration.
We neither clothe nor arm our troops according to com-
mon sense. They are not even rationally fed. The
sepoy is perhaps the best paid soldier in the world, and,
the large majority of them, the worst fed. The Euro-
pean is at times too highly fed. Eating and drinking,
rather than heat or cold, send him to his grave. In the
matter of finance, thousands are spent uselessly to-day ;
lives are sacrificed to-morrow to save a few rupees. We
might interminably run on and ofier scores of examples ;
mortality-bills and bills of expenditure. At present we
can only glance at the bare facts. There notorieties
need no examples for Indian readers.

The startling disclosures of the Times correspondent,
and of the Crimea Commission, for a time turned attention
to India ; and the Press, usually little prone to do justice



364 THE INDIAN ARMY.

to the Indian army, all at once found a panacea for all
Crimean and home shortcomings in Indian officers and
Indian arrangements. East India Company's servants
at once rose to as undue a premium as they had shortly
before been, and are already again, at an unfair discount.
A Bengal civilian was offered the post of Commissioner
in the Crimea Commissariat inquiry, and the same able
and energetic gentleman might have been the superin-
tendent of the Smyrna Hospital. Indian contingents
were called for. Certain leaders of public opinion would
have sent elderly subadars and sepoys to the Caucasus,
or the Crimea ; and some would have done still worse,
and have transferred bodily many of our European
battalions from India to the seat of war. Even our
hitherto very worst department, the commissariat, was
suddenly, and for the nonce, trumpeted into fame, and
it required Sir Charles Trevelyan's personal knowledge
and matter-of-fact evidence to convince the British
public that they would not gain by superseding Mr.
Eilder by one of Jotee Pershad's proteges. The names
of some excellent soldiers were introduced into the dis-
cussions. Cheape, Steel, Stalker, Edwardes, Mayne, and
Chamberlain obtained due praise; some others more
than due. But the hot fit passed. India is again for-
gotten. Another Cabul, or another Sebastopol, is re-
quired to remind England of India's existence. In the
interim, out of the 6215 officers of the Indian army,
two or three dozen, some good and many bad, have been
permitted to take part in the great European struggle,
although there are scores, nay hundreds, of the best
who would gladly join, and who might, under proper
arrangements, be temporarily spared. We fear that the
chief permanent result will be a considerable increase to
our present stock of self-conceit. We forget that, on a



INDIAN SHORTCOMINGS. 305

small scale, we have had our own Balaklava and our own
Scutari a dozen times over ; and that from the days of
Hyder All down to those of Akbar Khan, Providence
only has saved onr armies from destruction by hunger
and thirst as well as by the sword. The exposures by
the Press of incompetency, neglect, and cruelty in the
Crimea, have done good. The eyes of England being
on the hospitals, the harbours, the tents, and the
bivouacs of the army, it will hardly again be exposed
to the scenes of 1854 and 1855, that struck so much
horror into every British heart. To have got rid of the
fine gentlemen who do not like real soldiering, is itself a
gain. To have obtained a commander possessed of phy-
sical strength, is a greater.

We are by no means so certain of the good effect of
English discussions on Indian affairs. The gross igno-
rance with which everything Indian is discussed in
England is well exemplified in the mention, during
these discussions, of Brigadier Mayne. Few Indian
officers have been more before the public, during the
last fifteen years, than Mayne. Yet the Press, while
lauding his military qualities, must needs dilate on his
experience with wild tribes, and in raising irregular
levies ; the fact being, that he never raised a single
troop or company, and that all his experience has been
with as civilized soldiers as any in India.

But to our subject — the Indian army. Both the
writers, whose historical works are professedly reviewed
in this article, go over the same ground — the British
conquest of India, from the earliest days down to the
settlement of the Punjab. Mr. St. John chiefly sketches
political, while Captain Rafter restricts himself to mili-
tary events. Both praise the army and, in the main,
the Grovernment of India; but while Captain Eafter



366 THE INDIAN ARMY.

(a nom de guerre^ we presume *) would knock away the
" twenty-four stools " that have worked out the present
glorious consummation, Mr. St. John, more logically,
advocates the maintenance of a system which, in his
opinion, has worked so well.

Captain Eafter professes to have been in India, but it
would be difficult to elicit the fact from his book. Both
writers have evidently crammed, with the purpose of
cramming their readers. Country gentlemen and mem-
bers of Parliament will accordingly be as often misled
as instructed when they seek for information on contro-
verted subjects from their pages. The old jog-trot is
followed. There is no original information, and little
of any sort in either book but what is superficial.
Captain Bafter's book, though dedicated to Lord Gough,
omits the battles of Eamnugger and Sadoolapore, and
makes Agnew and Anderson retire to " a small fort out-
side the town " after the treacherous attack on them at
Mooltan. Neither writer has gone much further for his
facts than Mill, Wilson, Thornton, Malcolm, and Or me.
Captain Rafter seems never to have heard of Williams,
Broome, Buckle, or Begbie ; nor is Mr. St. John ac-
quainted with Prinsep, White, or other well-known
writers on politico-military events.

The Synopsis of Evidence taken before the Select
Committee of the House of Commons in 1834, is a
mine of information, and the man who understandingly
studies it, and the first and second Reports of 1852,
will rise from them with more knowledge of Indian
affairs than he could obtain from all the published ab-
stract histories, Gleig and Macfarlane included. We
say understandingly ; for the subject of India, in any de-
partment, is not to be taken up as mere holiday amuse-
* Apparently an erroneous supposition.



SMATTERERS. 367

ment. The fignres in the Blue Books would frighten
Babbage. They have given us a dozen headaches. But
the less abstruse matters discussed require previous
knowledge to enable the reader to separate the chaff
from the grain — to appreciate the sound sense of a
Colonel Alexander or Grrant, and the nonsense of a Sir
W. Cotton or a Sir E. Perry.

For instance ; Sir E. Perry is an able English Judge
and an enlightened reformer ; but he made holiday trips
into the interior, and therefore presents himself as ;per-
sonally acquainted with the wants of India. Himself
unversed in any Indian language, he would introduce
English into Courts where the judge alone understands
it, where the mass never can do so, where the smattering
that may be attained by a few attorneys or others would
give them an unfair influence were such a proposal car-
ried into effect. Sir Erskine's proposed re-distribution
of the army and transfer of it to the Crown was, how-
ever, an interference of a different sort, involving a
more immediate danger. He would have better evinced
his wisdom by showing more modesty in the discussion
of a question so foreign from all his previous pursuits.
With respect to Sir W. Cotton, one anecdote will express
our views regarding his Parliamentary evidence. Being
asked on Committee by Lord Grough whether men of
the Concan " are not so peculiar with regard to their
castes ? " he replied, " No, they are not ; but now we
get Bengal men of a caste that we prefer very much,
called the ' Purdesee ' caste ; if they had any caste be-
fore they came to us, we never heard of its interfering
in discipline." We much tloubt whether either the
gallant interrogator or respondent knows what is the
caste of the Concan men, or even whether they are
Hindus or Mahommedans. They certainly do not



368 THE INDIAN ARMY.

know that " Purdesee " means foreigner, and that the
Bombay " Purdesee " is simply the Brahmin and Eaj-
'poot of the Bengal army. Indeed they are entered as
such, to the number "of 6928 in Mr. P. MelvilFs Table,
at page 11, of his second examination.

In a previous essay we have afforded some informa-
tion relating to all branches of the Indian army. We
profess here to offer few new facts ; but, with the aid of
the mass of evidence before us, to correct some errors, and
to sketch the present and ]3ast condition of the army,
and also to point out many points in which its efficiency
may be improved without increasing its expense. Cost-
ing now eleven millions a year, or little short of half
the revenue of the country, the army cannot be increased
without risk of bankruptcy. Eeform and adaptation,
not numerical increase, then, are required. Eeform in
the Prench rather than in the English fashion ; not in
pipe-clay details, but in arms, accoutrements, and drill;
above all, in tone and morale. In putting not only the
right sort of soldier of all raiihs and creeds in the right
place, and giving him an object and a motive for simple
duty, but offering him inducements to zeal and exertion.
In short, to substitute to a certain extent, rewards for
merit, in lieu of for old age. Our remarks must neces-
sarily be desultory, and will touch the prejudices and
even the interests of many. They will, therefore, not
be popular ; but we trust they may be useful.

We have vainly sought for exact detailed states, at
different periods, of the Indian army, in Blue Books, in
histories, in army lists, as also from private sources.
Captain Eafter quite misleads his reader. He gives two
European regiments, instead of three, to each Presidency,
though a third was raised a twelvemonth before his book
was published. He calls all the Engineers " Eoyal Corps.''



INSUFFICIENT INFORMATION. 369

What he means by "twelve regiments of irregular in-
fantry" and " sixteen of local militia" in Bengal, we are
at a loss to imagine. The expression, " militia," smacks
of his book being a " get up " in Paternoster Eow.
Unfortunately we have no militia in India. AH, are
mercenaries — the most faithful in the world, but still
mercenaries. The men who foug-ht aerainst us under

J^Mahratta and Sikh banners are now our trusty soldiers^

^ They are ours to the death, so long as we keep covenant

with them. Their salt is their country and their banner.

^fV^e cannot expect and do not deserve more : we have

done little to induce personal attachment in sepoys or in

any other class. The time, we hope, is coming, when

both will have greater reason than at present to fight

^for love of our supremacy.

The evidence before Parliament has scarcely assisted
us more than Captain Pafter has done ; we have puzzled
ourselves for very many hours over the Blue Book
figures and tables, but have not succeeded in reconciling
the statements of »the different authorities or even the
evidence of the same individual at different times. We
have, therefore, concocted a table for ourselves, which
will be found on the other side of the page.



B li



370



THE INDIAN ARMY.



Tabular Statement of the Army of India in January 1856, includhig all
and Irregular Corps offi^ceredfrom the Line ; also







02


1


43

4


^




0)




t






d






1^


<






^






1

02




^


o


1


1


5

1^


i


s


f1




>>
§


1






o


o


1


^
>,


O




Presidency.


ceo


It-


1— 1
m

1




1


1


.2
1


s
§
^
^


1






r






2|


1


1*


|2i


1— 1


o


®


Bengal . . .


2,907


1


14


9


4


6


3






1,200


Madras . .


2,019


...


4


6


...


4


2




}


1,369


Bombay . .


1,289


1


4


4


• . .


2


2




)




Total






















Corps,






















&c., &c. .


...


2


22


19


4


12


/








At an aver-






















age of . .




700


1,100


140


110


337


640








Total






















strength


6,215


1400


24,200


2660


440


4,044


4,480


1,530


7,490


2,569

1



Grand Total



Of the 6215 officers, 782 are medical. Invalid officers are not included,
but simply those on the strength of regiments. Police Battalions and
P(^lice Horse are not included, but only corps included in Army Lists. The
one weak corps of Cutch Horse is counted with the two strong regiments
of Scindc Horse as a total of three average corps. In the same way tv/o



APPEOXIMATE STRENGTH.



371



Rer Majesty's and the HonourahU Company's Troops ; all the Contingent,
the Field Regular and Irregular Guns attached.





















h3


f

1 — 1

1












Subordi-




1






Veteeans.


^9

-11


nate
MedIcal.


Guns.


as
















!^ r^


a
1


1


o


.




r^ -+3 ^

8^§






u




12


^1


1


is

1




g-


1




1

P3


1


c3
1


^
f


w


«


1—1


p^


W


^ o


W


^


M


l-H


3


74


41


10


31


368




D2




320


198


78


3


52


6


8


4


304


2,941


1




17


138


24


3


29


8


3


6


28


483


w


...


235


78





9


155


55


21


41












518


1,000


1,100


930


450


580




3,424












9,000


170,000


51,150


9,450


23,780


700


300


339


652




...



323,823



and tliree corps or detachments are occasionally clubbed. The grand total
323,823 includes 48,519 European officers and soldiers ; and 275,304 natives,
516 field guns, as also a small mountain train, are attached. Three hun-
dred battery guns and as many mortars might be brought into the field
within a month.



B B 2



372 . THE INDIAT^ ARMY.

"We submit tliis account to our readers with mucli
confidence, as containing a nearer approximation to the
total strength of the Army, and even of its details, than
any other published document.

In preparing the above table we have derived assist-*
ance from Mr. Philip Melvill's evidence, but have not
always been able to ascertain his meaning, nor are we
satisfied that his figures are always correct. Most of
ours are taken from the Army Lists. Mr. Melvill gives
no details of the contingents, but clubs them at 32,000
men, which is above their strength.* We have entered
them in our table, with other Irregulars, under their
several heads. Artillery, Cavalry, and Infantry. It will
be observed that we estimate the Army at 323,823,
which though differing in detail, closely agrees with
Mr. P. Melvill's total of 289,529, added to 32,000
contingents. Our total strength includes 1400 Dra-
goons, 24,200 Eoyal Infantry, 2660 Horse Artillery,
4044 Foot Artillery, 6215 ofiicers of the Company's
Army, 9000 Company's Infantry, 700 veterans and
300 Ordnance, Warrant, and IST. C. Staff, making a total
of 48,519 European officers and soldiers. The 275,304
natives include 2569 Sappers, 4480 Foot and 440 Horse
Artillery, 9450 Eegular and 23,780 Irregular Cavalry ;
also 170,000 Regular, and 51,150 quasi local or Irregu-
lar Infantry,! and 516 guns, are attached, 138 being
Horse Artillery.

This vast army occupies about 1,350,000 square miles



* Since writing the above we have especially the Guicowars, are neither

observed that Mr. Melvill reckons officered nor disciplined. — H. M. L.

the Guicowar and Mysore contin- t They are more regular than the