The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-08 00:00:00

THE BRITISH ARMY IN INDIA.

(FROM THE TIMES' SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)
BOWLEE, IN BUSSAHIR, HIMALAYAS,
►SEPT. 14.

It can scarcely be expected that in my present
locality I can collect any very useful or important
information respecting the progress of events in
Lower India ; but such inteligence as I receive
tends to confirm me in the belief that our rule is
gradually acquiring its old strength and re-assert-
ing its supremacy with daily increasing vigour and
success. The gallant affair of Colonel Robertson's
column in Central India cannot but produce a most
salutary effect on the disaffected. Nearer to the
north swift punishment has overtaken the madmen
of Mooltan. The Sultanpore district, in Oude,
which lately swarmed with rebels, is now so quiet
that Sir Hope Grant was, by our last accounts,
about to ride to the shores of the river opposite
Allahabad, and to cross over to the quarters of the
Commander-in-Chief. The surrender of the Rajahs
of Rampore and Shahghur is a most significant
index of the state of the insurgent cause, and
of the prospects of their leaders. But few,
indeed, except those who despair of mercy,
are arrayed in arms against us outside the king-
dom of Oude, but it cannot be denied, never-
theless, that we have taken over the charge of the
Indian Empire from the Company in troublous
times. Let her Majesty's advisers take good heed
lest it prove to the Crown a "dainnosa hareditas.
is "
India not secure, and it never can be securely ours
till a great change has been effected in the feelings
of the people and in the machinery of Government.
True it is that India has never known a rule under
which she has enjoyed so large a measure of peace,
prosperity, te nrity to life and property, and justice.
True it is that, whatever may be the objections of
Hindoo or Mussulman to our persons our manners,
our religion, or our institutions,, they will admit
that our rule has in general been just and our pur-
poses high. They may dislike the Englishman,
but they must allow the Sircar Company has been
in the main an able, a powerful, and a just Govern-
ment. But that is not enough ; for the future
there must be changes in the whole system of
Government and in our social relations with the
people of India, and it must .be established" in
practice, as it is proclaimed in theory, that the
time is come when India shall be governed for its
own good, and not for the advantage of a small
fraction of a small class of Englishmen.
• The native prophecy has now been justified. The
rule of the Company lasted 100 years ; it has ceased
to exist in-the very year iklich popular-seers and
popular passions fixed upon for its extinction, but
in its place has arisen the throne of England, and
the same race under a different name and aspect
will hold sway over the vast provinces and the
myriad populations which have been given to us in
trust for some greater purpose than the growth of
indigo, or the cultivation of sugar and cotton. It
will no longer suffice for us to be content with the
limited credit which may be derived from the com-
parison of our administration with that of Akbhar
or Aurungzebe. After a long and troubled infancy,
India has been weaned, and is now handed over to
the Imperial Government. But it has been weaned
in tears and in blood ; it is torn by fierce passions,
and. it will require many a year of anxious care
before the effects of the contest have been effaced.
We are now for the most part engaged in pro-
viding restraints and taking security against
future excesses. In these very securities there is
danger. In providing them we are exhausting
our own means of self:protection, and in doing so
we fail to do all that is required, for we still feel
the necessity of using the native element in large
proportions. As we have used it hitherto that
element is -full of hazardous matter. I venture to
say that if the history of the Bengal army were
written battalion by battalion, it would be found
that nearly every regiment in it sometime or ether
had been disaffected and was tainted by traditions
of disorder and infidelity. But there was a great
officers, and
onof tthhee
opffiarteerosf
otflietheCoQmopeaenoy,s, of
rin'ty s
to keep the country in the dark as to the real
state of affairs. General after general lavished
encomiums on an army which they now say
they always knew to be unsound. General order
after general order lauded the conduct of regi-
ments in the field wherein the sepoys had behaved
notoriously ill ; Governors-General one after the
other praised the army which was their secret fear
and dread, or left India in ecstasies at its fidelity
and discipline, till one more cautious, sagacious, and
foreseeing than his predecessors told them that he
left them without any just ground of complaint.
As to the personal courage of the natives of India,
either Hindoo or Mussulman, there is ample eyi-