The Press. — London, England, 1857-11-28 00:00:00

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 28,1857. duties which need not be inserted here. Whenever a regiment of European cavalry marches, a portion of native soldiers is ordered to accompany it. With regard to trusting the native cavalry, they have on many occasions done good service. India never can forget the native regular cavalry (6th Regiment) at Seetahuldie; they were few in number and were outnumbered beyond all measure, but they did wonders, and with their leaders, Fitzgerald and Smith, were the admiration of all India. Again, the oth Cavalry, under Colonel W. Pattie, were said to have turned the day in our favour by their splendid charge at Meeannee. It is true that there are instances of the native cavalry not advancing, but there have been very plausible reasons assigned in palliation. Even the European cavalry have sometimes hung back in former as well as in later times. Mix them together, Europeans and natives, and you will find that they will always charge. I would therefore have at least half natives, if not more, with each regiment. If there are six troops in each regiment, let two of them be Europeans, armed with revolvers, and arm the four native troops with common pistols ; in other respects they should he alike. When well led, no soldiers fight better than the native cavalry ; the two mixed would cause emulation, and with Europeans leading there would be nothing to apprehend. The regiments of European infantry require perhaps in a greater degree the aid of native troops to take certain duties which it would be imprudent to impose on Europeans. It is therefore evident that some native armed men—either Burgundauzes, Chuprassies, Nugeets, police, irregular corps, or native troops of the line—must be stationed wherever there are European troops and accompany those troops on the line of march. The question then is, which of these different classes will be the best? To be efficient, any one of them must enter the service on the same terms on which a sepoy is enlisted, for general service any where by sea or land ; they must be subject to the same drill, the same discipline ; they must carry arms, and they should be under the control of Euro pean officers. They should also be strictly military, i.e., under the orders of the commander-in-chief. I maintain that no better system can be adopted than t) recruit from among the natives of the country, but with a very different feeling as to caste than has hitherto prevailed. There are some men who, from their known occupation, it might perhaps be as well not to enlist, but Christiana should be admittei as well as any other class. With regard to the formation of regiments of infantry, I would suggest that each regiment should be composed of two flank companies of Europeans, and eight companies of natives,—the Europeans to have the Enfield rifle, and the natives to be armed as formerly with the firearms called " Brown Bess." Every officer to be armed with a revolver, to be worn as a part of his accoutrements. The two European companies the - - k match for the 100 strong each would be more than a eight companies of sepoys without their officers ; this has been abundantly proved in the late conflicts under Neill, Havelock, Wilson, and Eyre. Without European officers, the sepoys seldom show pluck. There are seventy-four regiments of the line in Bengal, 1,000 strong each, making a total of 74,000 native soldiers; deduct two companies from each, and you have a reduction of 14,800 sepoys, leaving 59,200. But it is not necessary perhaps to have so many. Reduce the total, then, of the regular regiments of Bengal to fifty, at 800 each, which would amount to 40,000, and the number of Europeans at two companies to each regiment would amount in the whole to 10,000 men. If 40,000 men (natives) are considered too many, strike off two companies from each, wh;ch will leave only 600 natives to each regi ment, or a total of 32,000 natives with 10,000 Euro peans. Each regiment would then have eight companies, of which two would be European and six native—eight being the best number of companies for manoeuvring. If desirable (as it seems to be), the same system can be pursued at Bombay and Madras. Suppose, then, that 800 be the established number of natives for each regiment, and that the number of regiments be reduced, Bengal to 50, Madras 30, and Bombay to 18, the three Presidencies would stand thus : Natives. Enropeane. Bengal.... 50 Regiments 40,000 .... 10,000 Madras 30 Ditto Bombay .. is Ditto ..... 14,000 .... 3,800 75,000 19,000 The regiments of Europeans (Queen's or Com pany's) which, in additiun to the above, would re main as heretofore, would of course be stationed by the local authorities according to the wants of the service. The number required deserves the most serious consideration of the Government. __ It may perhaps be urged that these Europeans mixed with natives would be scattered over the country, and if required to act as one body they would be ill prepared ; but this need not be the case. If that excellent t , ybtem of collecting troops for brigade exercise be carried out in India, as it should be, the flank companies would have ample practice to enable them to act in a body if so required. Major Mansell, a very smart officer of the st3ril Foot (some time in 1809-10), had to form a light infantry regiment at Cawnpore ; accordingly the light com panies from some eight or ten regiments at various stations were directed to assemble at that station. These companies were very improperly placed under the command of an officer in the royal service. He could not speak a word of the language ; but on parade the men understood him because the word of command is always given in English, and the bugle sounds were well known. Mansell was a very good officer, and much liked. In a very short time he had an admirable regiment of light in fantry. I understand that when Sir Archibald Campbell ordered out some native regiments against stockades in the vicinity of Prome, in Burmah, in 1825, the deputy-quartermaster-general (the late Major Jack son) urged the general to send a party of Europeans with each regiment to lead the storming parties. The general declined, and the result was rather disastrous. Mixing Europeans and natives is by no means a new idea—it has long been adopted in the horse artillery, where one troop of a brigade was composed of natives, the remainder of Europeans. In the foot artillery the Europeans and the natives were con• stantly on duty in the same battery, though not in the same battalion. In Affghanistan, the 13th Light Infantry (Queen's) were long associated with the 35th Regiment of Native Infantry, especially at Jel• lalabad ; they became much attached to each other, and gave proofs of their regard for each other on many occasions. The same may be said of the 93rd Foot (Queen's), who were mixed up with the 26th Native Infantry when entering the Khyber Pass from Peshawur in 1842. They are said to have cheered each other in the advance, and the two regiments ever after showed a strong attachment for each other. Uniting Europeans and natives in the same regi ment would he beneficial in more ways than one ; and there can be no doubt that had the system of mixing them together obtained previous to the late outbreak, the result would have been very different. But surely, whatever reorganisation may take place, or under any circumstances, it is to be hoped that the European officers will never again be left so utterly at the mercy of any natives, whatever their caste may be. Irregular corps may be cheaper, and they cer tainly so far have an advantage over our regular regiments that they have fewer officers to murder, but, on the other hand, there are fewer officers to lead them in a charge. It is said that there are 30,000 Sikhs embodied to be formed into regiments. There is no admixture of other castes. We know what a turbulent set the Sikh soldiers were, even under Runjeet Singh. It will not be politic to retain such a body wholly Sikhs. They are warlike, and have lately done us good ser vice ; so did the sepoys formerly. It was not un usual in the Sikh army for the men to rise against their officers : would any one guarantee that they would not do so with our officers? It will be prudent to run no risk. We have already suffered severely for placing too much confidence in those who had faithfully served us from their youth, and had always been well treated. N. THE DELHI PRINCES. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,--I have cut the inclosed paragraph, relating to the capture and death of the Delhi Princes, out of this day's Times. It being given without comment of any kind, it may be presumed that the Times, as well as the journal from which it is copied, views with ap proval, or at any rate without disapprobation, the reported conduct of Captain Hodgson. But as lam sure that there is not an officer or a gentleman in the three kingdoms who will not deem such a mode of entrapping these Princes (however guilty they may have been) to be utterly infamous, and the killing them with his own hand, while seated in their carriage, the act of an assassin, I do hope that some inquiry may be made into the matter, with a view of ascertaining whether there really be any truth in the statement or not. If there be not, it is due to the character of Cap tain Hodgson that it should be authoritatively contra dicted ; while if there be, it is equally due to the character of the nation that its uniform should he stripped from the back of one by whom, in that case, it has been so disgraced. One way or other the question must be set at rest. For it is shameful that Captain Hodgson should be allowed to lie under such a stigma if unmerited ; and equally shameful that the country, while declaiming with justice against the treachery and atrocities of the sepoys, should be 1153 thought for an instant by the people of Europe to countenance acts of treachery and atrocity in its own officers quite as infamous as theirs.—l have the honour to remain, air, your most obedient servant, A FIELD OFFICER. Tuesday, November, 24th, 1857. THE DELHI PRINCES.—We have been favoured with the following extracts from the letter of a 3 wing officer to his friends in England. It is dated Dog shaie, a place about forty miles from Delhi, the 20th of September last :—" A few days ago Captain Hodg son (of ours) went out and captured the King, and brought him in a prisoner. He is at present con fined in his own palace. A few days later be went out again, and came up with the King's sons and grandson. He had only 100 native horsemen of his own regiment with him, and the enemy about 10,000, 3,000 of whom were fully armed sepoys. Hodgson saw it was of no use attacking them, so he sent an emissary to tell the Princes that the game was up with them, and that they had better surrender, whioh they did after some time, and came up to Hodgson, who immediately surrounded the carriage with his men. He sent for their arms, and, after hesitating some time these also were given up, with seven ele phants and lots of stores. On reaching the gaol Hodgson ordered the Princes out of the vehicle ; they, imagining all was right for themselves, began (native-like) to talk, and say they hoped there might be an inquiry into their conduct. Hodgson said ' cheeproks' (be quiet), and ordered them to take off all their fine clothes. When this was done he said, Now get in again,' and ordered the driver to pro ceed. lie then beckoned to one of his men, and asked for a carbine, and with his own hand shot each and all of the three Princes. He then took their bodies into the city, and laid them out for inspection in front of the Kotswallie, where these wretches had laid out their victims during the massacre. There are lees upon lacs of treasure and prize property in the city, and if the city itself was put up for ransom it would fetch upwards of fifty lacs.—Ayrshire Express. THE INDIAN GENERALS. THE LATE GENERAL NEILL. AT a meeting of the Commissioners of Supply of the county of Ayr, the chairman, Colonel J. Ferrier Hamilton, called attention to the lamented death of one of their number, General Neill. Sir James Far gusson, of Kilkerran, proposed, and Mr. James Campbell, of Craigie, seconded, the following resolu tion, which was unanimously agreed to : That the Commissioners of Supply desire to record the regret and sorrow which they have felt in hearing of the death of the late General Neill, and their deep sense of the loss the country at large has sustained in the untimely end of that gallant general's career, who during the short period of hi■ service in Bengal had contributed so largely by his energy, courage, and military skill to the check which has been given to the revolt of the native army and to the brilliant achievements of the British forces and the loyal portion of the native army. That the chairman shall convey to the bereaved widow and mother of General Neil a copy of the foregoing resolution, in the hope that this expression of sympathy, combined with the recollection of his glorious death and the universal admiration of his great qualities and services, may afford to them some consolation under their deplorable calamity. The Times announces that the chairman of the East India Company will propose to the directors a grant of 5001. a year to the widow of General Neill, in addition to the allowances due to the family of an officer of his rank who falls in action. Her Majesty has also, in the most gratifying terms, signified her permission that the widow may assume the title of " Lady Neill," which would have accrued to her if her husband had been fortunately spared to enjoy the dignity of a K.C.B. Generals Wilson and Havelock have each been raised to the dignity of Baronets, under the respec tive titles of Sir Archdale Wilson of Delhi, and Sir Henry Havelock of Lucknow. MISSIONS IN INDIA. A MEETING was held on Thursday at Willis's-rooms to promote the extension and enlargement of the missions of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in India, The Archbishop of Canterbury took the chair at two o'clock. Among those present on the platform were—the Bishop of London, the Bishop of Oxford, the Bishop of Moray and Ross, the Bishop cf Jamaica, the Bishop of Nova. Scotia, the Bishop of Montreal. the Bishop of Huron, Sir W. I'. Wood, Mr. Palk, MA'. The room was com pletely crowded, and a great number of persons were unable to obtain admission. Several resolutions in accordance with the object of the meeting were pro posed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, the Bishop of Oxford, dm. I • - I