The Press.
London, England, 1858-02-06 00:00:00

THE PRESS, FEBRUARY 6,

An old gun or two and a few rounds of ammunition
might be put in each, and in time of war it might be ad-
visable to hire a few matchlock peons for their defence.
" No danger," he adds (and here his opinion
of mud forts is worth quoting), " can result
" from their weakness, as if the enemy in
" force were to take possession of them all,
" there would be no difficulty in getting them
" agsin. I never saw a mud fort worth any-
" thing excepting against cavalry." Secondly,
ho recommends the villages to be inclosed
with bound hedges and gateways :

Where the main body of the army marches, where
strong detachment of good cavalry with cannon or of
infantry goes, the bound hedge will be no defence ; but as
nine parts in ten of the native armies are looties or bad
cavalry, as these do nearly all the mischief, and they can-
not penetrate the hedge, I am of opinion that they ought
to be made, particularly as, if all the villages are open, and
the inhabitants fly to the bills, all the villages will be burnt
or otherwise destroyed.

But the most efficient defence, he declares,
against marauders is, after all, an organised
guerilla corps :
_ _

A small corps of infantry, lightly armed and accoutred,
' with three or four piecesof light artillery, to be used as
occasion might require, togethe• with the garrisons in the
hill forts, under active and merciless partisans, would do
more towards defending the Barahinahal and its inhabi•
tants against looties than a large army.
That this recommendation is based on sound
and practical experience we see in the vain
efforts we make by our heavy columns of
Europeans to suppress the bands of marauders
now desolating Central and Western
Colonel Wellesley also drew up most able
minutes upon the policy of supplying the
Nizam with a contingent of our own, which
should replace a dangerous element then at
the Nizam's disposal—viz , 14,000 natives dis-
ciplined by French officers—and which views
wore carried out with complete success.
Affairs became more complicated, and
Arthur Wellesley's active mind was fully
employed drawing up matured plans of attack
and defence, and making every possible pre-
paration for• the provision of stores and trans-
port for the army. No colonel ever took
so much care of his men, or exhibited such
forethought and eoonomy in providing not
only for their individual wants, but in their
general efficiency offering a practical example
to the whole army.
Lord Moruington about this time, 1798,
despatched Colonel Wellesley to Madras to
organise the commissariat for the approaching
campaign. Arthur Wellesley undertook the
duty with all the vigour and energy to be ex-
pected from him. In his indefatigable exer-
tions to supply the army with stores and
transport, he found the " Rules of the Ser-
vice" to be prolific in impediments. No man
more respected the rules of the service, and
he submitted with patience to all their ob-
structions, though he never neglected an
opportunity to bring them into " working
order." He writes to his brother, 31st Oct.,
1798, from Madras :
The spirit of all the public and private letters has been
to make preparations. If there are no bullocks, or not a
sufficiency ot them. there is no effectual preparation ; and
u nothing can procure them when they will be wanted
excepting making the advances immediately, I have urged
the propriety ot doing so, and of adhering to the spirit
rather than to the letter of orders which evidently must
have been written when the Government of Bengal were
not aware of the methods in which bullocks can be procured
n this country.

" I have likewise prevailed upon Lord Clive," he
adds, " to appoint a commissary of stores, and
" I think he will appoint a commissary of grain
" and provisions. Matters will then be
" brought into some shape, and we shall know
" what we are about, instead of trusting to
" the vague calculations of a parcel of block-
" heads, who know nothing, and have no
" data." Six days later he writes in high
spirits that the advances for 40,000 bul-
locks have been made, and everything was
" going on well." We shall not follow him
throughout the approaching campaign. " The
plot thickens," he writes on the 28th of
December, and on the Ist of January, 1799,
entreats his brother to send all his things as
soon as he can, "particularly my potatoes."
He left Madras for the camp at Wallajah-
Nuggiir, to take command of the Nizain's con-
tingent, consisting of " four rapscallion Latta-
" lions of infantry, tho 3:lrd Rogiment, six
" battalions of sepoys, and 10,000 cavalry,"
trliiuh with estop followers ikwl all ftunouiltO4