The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-12 00:00:00

I‘.

[PRICE 4D. STAMP :5 D.]
- • -

THE BENGAL ARMY.

• , .
(From- the Times.) ,
We republish this' morning a doeumetit which,
under aily circumstances, - would 'be deserving of
public attention, but which recent occurrence have
invested with siegular interest. It contains kite/views
of Brigadier-General Jacob—better known; per-
haps, as Colonel John, Jacob,_of the Scinde Horse
—upon the constitution and discipline of the Ben-
gal Army, and a sketch of the reforins which, in
his opinion, were required to in:matte more detir-
able aharacter to that force. It mast be understood
that the remarks in question were' penned some
time ago, and it will, of course, be seen that the
evil has now exceeded the scope of ordinary treat-
ment ; but the opinions of such an authority still
possess great value both in explanation of the past
and instruction for the future. .
Two points will strike the reader' as not a little
remarkable—first, that. Col. Jacob, while probing
; to the bottom every- defect in the Bengal Army,_
omits all allusion to the *ithdrawal of officers from
lea* regiments on Staff .or .politioal employment;
and, secondly, that he actually ascribes to thetoft-
cers as a body many of those Asiatic habits which
in the present day they were presumed to have
lost, and which one of our correspondents so ably
juatified them fox discarding.: It would, indeed,
be ,unfortunate if Europeans •in the Bengal ser-
vice adapted .theinselVet to tbe :ways of Hin-
&sten in_ those- xe exaueively, where' tlee.
assimilatima couldreet'Bprbduotive Of ' nothing
but &fitment, and we may'hope- that the de-
fects alluded to 'were always partial; and did
not prove permanent. As regards the abstraction,
of officers from their regiments—a subject on which
there can be little doubt either as a question of fact
or 'a question of expediency, it is possible that Col.
Jacob may been less struck with proceedings which
were common to his own service also. As a Bom-
bay officer, he contrasts with his own experience
whateyer is peculiar to Bengal, but overlooks, per-
haps, arrangements which, though manifestly ob-
jectionab'e in themselves, were not more disadvan •
tageous to one army than the other.
The substance of the document, as might be ex-
pected, tends rather to the confirmation of opinions
already prevailing than to the introduction of any
new theory. Eight serious defects are specified as
damaging the efficiency of the Bengal Army, five
of which relate to the position of the, officers,;, two
to the character of the soldier, and one tothe very
ceinprehensive result of the whole. Besides the
Orientalisui of tone above noticed, Colonel Jacob—
speaking, no doubt, with the peculiar sensitiveness
'natural, on such a point, to a Commander of Irre-
gulard—deplores and condemns the curtailment of
the authority which should be lodged with regi-
mental commanders, the want of cordiality and fra-
ternity which should exist among the officers them-
salve., and the " entire absence of a 'proper `con-
fidence" between there officers and the native
troops. This last remark may appear snnewhat
strange after the striking examples we have
recently seen of the trust which was almost
invariably placed by European officers in the loy-
alty of the Sepoys up to the very moment of mu-
tiny ; but, ween Colonel Jacob proceeds to explain
himself, his observation is found to point only to
the very facts which we are at . this moment wit-
nessing. There is confidence enough in the case,
but it it is not a "proper" confidence, not a, confi-
dence that is well grounded or justified upon trial.
Officers in the field imagine that they are followed
by their men, and suddenly find themselves unsup-
perted—oxamples of which desertion occurred
more than onee in the Sikh campaigns. They know
nothing of mutinies hatching under their -very
eyes, and- believe in the fidelity of their ,troops
tura they find them in open rebellion against au-
thority. This is precisely what has happened now,
though on such a scale and with such characteris-
tics as probably Colonel Jacobin his most despond-
ing mood never dreamt otauticipating.
It is in the description, however, of the Bengal
Sepoy that the document before us is Most in-
structive, and after I erusing it we can only
wonder, as the author himself did, how "even the
outward semblance of an army" could ever have
been mainta ned while such customs- prlailed.
Everything in the Bengal Armyturued upon caste.
Higaseaate men almost-exclusively were enlisted,
A140.-014L-WcrO permitted to set their caste and its
requirements above every , Consideration of disci-
pline or duty. The "lazy and-insole -t Brahmins"
who filled the ranks of -the army refused
to dig, to build, or to perform any one of the thou- -
sand services as needful in a campaign as righting
itself. A regiment of cavalry on arrivin at its
helting-ground would decline to pieket, u saddle,
!
or groom its own horses, and would wait f hours
in conceited indolenc ) till servants of sub Ordinate
caste came to do the work for them. Another
story told of these fanatical coxcombs is so out-
ra,:•3lll, that it reads like one of the best Anaerican
exaggerations. At the quarter-guard of a battalion
on duty is kept a gone., which is struck for' signals
according to regulations, but a Bengal' sentry
would not demean himself by touching the instru-
ment at his very elbow, and the gongs were
sounded by men kept and paid for the purpose !
But this part of the tale has hitherto been only
half told. Colonel Jacob admits us to a vie* of
the case which places the point in a light far more
significant than before. Assuming that allindoo
has imbibed all these conceits so thoroughly that
they have b: come inherent elements of his very
system, it of course follows that if we engage the
services of high-caste natives we must dolso with
the necessary obligations, and take the men with
their drawbacks as well as with their recolannenda-
Lions. Colonel Jacob, however, expressly tells Us,
and upon authority which lye one can itapeS,ch, that
this aisumptihn is utterly unfounded, and that the
incredible pretensions of the Bengal Sepoy are
based, not upon the inexorable precepts of his reli-
gion,•but simply upon his own subtle and design-
ing policy. These men can forget their cape when
they please to do so, and are glad enough, indeed,
to put it out of the way when they see' that it
brings disparagement rather than indulgence. In
the Bombay army such pretensions are never heard
of, whereas there is no doubt about the identity of
the two cases. In that army, says Colonel Jacob,
" hundreds and thousands of men from Hindostan,
from the same villages, of the same caste, and even
of the same families, brothers by the same fathers
and mothers as the fine 'gentlemen of the Bengal
army, are seen in the ranks, shoulder to shoulder .1
—nay, even sleeping in the same tent, with the
Mahratta; the Dhor, and the Pursvarree, ;without
scruple or thought of objection." Afterwards, too,
we are told that the Bombay soldiers will build
houses, manufacture bricks, and, in short, " turn
their hands to any labour which they may be or-
dered to execute," without any talk of defilement
or degradation.
-Clearly, therefore, the evil has lain less in the
systeia of caste itself than in the system by which
castes were unnecessarily recognised. It is impos-
sible, indeed, to give a more complete or com-
prehensive explanation of the whole case than is
contained in the author's simple remark, that the
Bombay Sepoy prides himself upon being a sol-
dier, the Bengal Sepoy, upon being a Hindoo
Let the reader but consider what a world of error
has been involved in the policy thus expressed.
We have not been maintaining a military force
in Bengal ; we have been preserving a hotbed
of Hindooism. We have taken the very preju-
dices most obnoxious to eiVilization and authority,
and pampered them with extraordinary solicitude.
We have enrolled Hindoos on terms of their own
dictation, recognized them as Brahmins while we
paid them as soldiers, given them adnfogaeinniseives
which they would never have accitici;ethoat tehmeyiom.
.iegrhot.
and placed arms in their hands,
feel their own strength and. terrify their
The word "" Sepoy'
Army consisted, not of soldiers, u
is a ethisnobinetro.
of
BOruarbPrußle.Ynnsg—al
o off
them ens sevrlvroi
ceguided t their conduct,
pretensions nooft bt
by theeil. rule
creed.s
It was an institution for the elevation of Brahmin-
ieva awl the preservation of caste. ,This is really no
exaggerated picture., Colonel Jacob himself re-
-mules, that " a native soldier in Bengalis far more
afraid- of an offence against caste than 'an offence
against the Articles ;of Tear,", and he relates an
anecdote of the .Sepoys of a regiment demanding,
and obtaining', the dismissal of a 'comrade who,
though an excellent soldier, fell short of the
Brabminical standard of purity. • After this, eve
can certainly wonder no longer that in the Bengal
Army there should have been " an* entire-absence
of proper discipline," nor will it be otherwise than
favourable to the work of re-organization that the,
old framework of such a force has been annihilated
altogether. ,

FOREIGN . .
WINE.—The quantity bf • foreiga .ordma'y
wine imported into France from the 3011 k EMT., ,1854)
when the import duty was first reduced, up to the 30th
Juni:ilea., amounted to 1,305,287 -hec.; that of liqueur
wine' to 47,072, and of brandy to 687,729.. The_ quart-
tities imported in the month of June la* were reapic•
I tiVely 55;700, 2,491; an 4 49,71 f hecteLtree:

NE \‘ S P \TER

I-

1.41
- THE BRITISH -PBERAGA
• MAJESTY ACCUSZO"
• .• 4; .4\l
While the public" 'are interested _in the elevation
of Mr.' Macaulay and Lord R. Grosvenor to the
peerage, itr;aay not be catt, of place to lay before
Our-readers a brief resumes of the titles thus far eon-
ferric' since her Majesty's accession. '
•
On the.2l.etdaY•of Jtme,JB37, Queen Victoria,
on coming to the Throne, found-the House of Peers
cornpoed of about 450 members, .exclusive of the
spiritualtives. H leorlordss
atinedsty,s first theotacchtawnadsltroishgivreeparriesenta
Eng-
lish title to the Scottish Duke of•Roxhurghe, then
just of age, by creating him Earl inne's' 'ancYto ele-
vate to the Earldom of Leicester "the: late father of
the House of Commons and friend 'other fa*, Mr.
T. W. Coke, of Holkham, who had.often refused the
inferiordignity of a baron.- At the coronation in June,
1838, Mr. Ponsonby, the ex-member for Derbyshire,
Mr. Hanbury-Tracy, for.Tewkesbury, Sir J. Wrot--
tesley, for Staffordshire, and Mr. P. Methuen, for
Wiltshire, all of whom had. lost :their seats at the
previous general election, were adva,neecrto the
English baronies of De Manley, Sudeley, Wrotte.s-
-i ley, and Methuen. At the sometime her Majesty.
conferred English baronies On the Irish Lords Lts-
' more and Carew, and on the Scottish Earl of Kin-
tore, advancing Lords King and Dundas to the
earldoms of Lovelace and•Zetland, and the Earl of
Matlgrave to the Matquisite of Normanby, and
summoning the present Duke of Leeds to the Upper
House as Lord Osborne. In the course of the same
.year the title of Lord Vaux of Harrowden was re-
vived in the person of Mr. Cr; Mostyn. In the course
of the following year Lord-Melbourne elevated to
the Peerage a "batch-" of his own more immediate
'ftiends and supporters, including his own brother
Fiederick; long ambassador at Vienna, who became
Lei(' 'Behuvale; Col. 'Talbiat,-many year's the Libe-
ral member for the county of Dublin, as'Lord Fur-
nivel ; Sir J. T. Stanley, as Lord Stanley ot Alder-
leY•; Mr, V. Stuart, -nue Lout Stuart de Decies ;
Briawnlo we. who-hart ong, Ott for t'ite/connty
`Armagh;:- as Lord, tiirgon ; atid %Mr: Beilby-
TbdiaipsOn, as' Lore title.which had
7 for u short time been . enjoyed by his brother, the
late Sjr .17. Lawley ; while Mr. A. French, the
veteran M.P...for Roscommon, accepted the title of
De Freyne. At the same time in Mr. C. Leigh the
ancient barony'of
,Leigh Was revived,' and Mr. R.
ColbOrne, who had sat for many years for Wells
and other places, became Lord Colborne, the first
and the last of that title. In the same year the late
Lord Ponsonby, then ambassador at Constantino-
ple, was promoted to a viscountcy which has since
expired with him ; Mr. Alattrcromby, after a four
years' tenure of the Speakership, was advanced to
the title of Lord Dunfermline ; the ancient Camoys
title was also revived in the person of Mr. T. Stoner,
who had sat for Oxt;rd
,fora feW Weeks in the fir t
reformed Parliament. About the same Mr. S.
Rice, on resigning the Chancellorship of the Ex-
chequer, became Lord 'Monte? gle of Brandon ; Lord
Auckland, the Governer-General of India, was ad-
vanced to an earldoin ; while, the titleS
,cof Lord
Keane and Lord Seaton were conferred on ,two gene-
ral officers who had seen more thau the ordinary
share of military service. In 1840 Mr. M. Stapleton
obtained in his favour the revival of the ancient
Barony of Beaumont, and Sir J. Astley, the ex-
member for Norfolk, that of Hastings. In 1841
another "batch" of elevations were gazetted just
before the retirement of the iMelbourne INlinistry.
English baronies were then conferred on the Scotch
Earl of Stair and the. Irish Earl 'of Kenmore, while
Sir J. Cancpbellbecame at a leap Lord Canipbell and
-Lord Chancellor of Ireland • Sir H. Vivian 'and Sir
H. Parnell were made respectively Lords Vivian and
Congleton, the late Duke ef, Norfolk and the present
Earl of Gosford at the same time being 'called to the
Upper House in their father's- baronies,:ancl Lords
Barham and Segrave being.aclvonced' to the Earl-
doms of Gainsbo rough and Fitzllarclinge. Not long
afterwards Mr. P. Thompson, then Governor-
General of Canada, -was created Lord Sydenham,
but the title, we believe, became extinct within the
year. In Aug., 1841, Lord Melbourne resigned,
having conferred. no leas than 42 coronets in four
years. It is but justice•to his sure-ssore the late Sir
R. Peel, to state that he discontinued the established
practice of conferring the honours of the peerage
with a lavish stand. On taking office hs found that
there were two gentlemee whose services he re-
quired in the Upper House. They were the eldest
sons of peers, and had long enjoyed seats in the
Commons. These noblemen her Majesty was pleased
at once to call to the Upper House iu their fathers'
baronies, and they are now the Earls of Derby and.
Lonsdale. At that time the late Lord Hill, the Co m-
mauder-in-Chief at the Horse Guards, was advanced
from a barony to a frountCy. Sir R. Peel remained
in office till the close of 'the summer of 1846, just
five years ; 'but - dtiring that
_time the only other
English peerages. conferred were the Barony.of Met-
calfe (since extinct),o,n the late Sir C. T. Metcalfe,
'the E trldern of Ellesmere on Lord F. Egerton, and
sale Vieetassisay of Harding' on Sir IL litarclinge,
besides the advancement of Gen. Gough to a barony
and ofLord E‘lenborougn to an earldom, for their
Indian careers. On their
_return to office in Sept.
1846, the Whig part, renewed their practice of in-
creasing the Peerage. In the five yearsduringwh:ch
Lord J. Russell hold office we find the Earl of Dal-
housie advanced to a naaelnisate' Lords Strati, rd
and Cottenhain to earldoms, and Lord Gough to a
viscountcy, while the baronies of Dartrey, Milford,
Elgin, Clandeboye, Eddisbury, Londesborough,
Overstone, Truro, Cranworth, and Broughton were
conferred respectively upon Lord Cremorne, Sir R.
B. Pbillipp', the Earlof Elgin, Lord Dufferin, Mr.
E. J. Stanley, Lord A. Cenyngham, Mr. Jones-
Loyd, Sir T. Wilde, Sir R. M. Rolfe, and Sir J.
C. Holkouse.• -Mr. Byng, toa, was called to the
Upper House as Lord Strafford. It was the boast
of Lord Derby that during his brief Ministry of
1852 he had advisei -her Majesty to raise to the
Peerage three iudiviluals, and three only—Sir E.
Sugden, Lord F. Somerset, and Sir S, Canning,
since better known to our readers as Lords St.
Leonard's, Raglan, and Stratford de Redcliffe.
Lord Aberdeen did not avail himself of ,his Pre-
miership from 1852 to 1855 to confer. a single
Peerage on his friends. The first 'English coronet
beStowed by Lord Palmerston was the unhappy
life Peerage which lit upon the head of Baron
Parke, but subsequently exchanged for one with a
less questionable title. Since then Sir G. Heath-
cote bas been made Lord Aveland ; Sir E. Lyons,
Lord Lyons ; Mr. E. Strutt, Lord Belper ; and
the late Speaker, Mr. S. Lefevre, Viscount Evers-
ley. Lords Kenmore and Talbot de Malahide have
been honoured with English baronies, and Lord
Shelburne . has been called to the Upper House its
his father's barony of Wycombe ; and now, last of
all, we chronicle this day the elevation of Lord R.
Grosvenor and Mr. Macaulay to the coronets of
English barons.

SINKING OF A, STEAM-SHIP AND Loss OF LIFIG—
A_ telegraphic message was posted of Lloyd's yesterday,
announcing the loss of the Dutch screw steamer Sophie,
of and from Rotterdam, which foundered early that
morning near Dungeness, after being in collision with
the William Hutt, a screw steamer, with a serious loss
of life. The Sophie was a first-class vessel, and belonged
to some merchants at Rotterdam. It is reported that
she left that port on Wednesday night, and about one
o'clock yesterday morning she was a few miles off Dun-
geness, making her way down Channel for Bristol, when
she came in contact with the William Hutt. She
immediately began to fill, and in a comparatively brief
period she went down in several fathoms, carrying with
her the captain, ten of the crew, and two female passen ;
gars. The survivors of the crew, 11. individual., were
picked up by the William Hutt, and landed at Dover in
the course of the morning. Some of the poor fellows
when rescued were in a very exhausted condition. They
received every attention from the Dutch Vice-Consui of
the port. Several boatmen have gone totaetsrhtellyhveiipcinciftTytiohliseef
the sunken wreck to, save what
ww aap property
serloaopesetir may be cast
up. The morning was dark a,,d stormy, with r
Whether both ships exhibitede
sl:ntehdeautsßurailstloilghfotsraarre.bmreaaiich
s seized, and her officers
London,ll
to 20, yiere arrested upon
aost4onfoadptbahhescei
reawes
hwchae:
Customs
amounting
ei nscoieeundni
nga.l
tul
nsaTb.gr
been
teei
osnn Sh
sdaoet
wt ht
aeai
Through the intervention of
ituomr.emc ha kyr, gteh
eo f
consulsmuggling.
i n
Theand manned by bA a
Hutt
ft e
ws h h
:he w.
.sustsaihnetehdreesvdtteamsraseeadlawei:aecsrorsnettlaientaiusoeen.
dd
her voyage •

LAIYVISIITIBISMEN
T.-I
—Among the numerous extraordinary
cures without'
medicine effected by Du Barry's Delicious
Health-Restoring Revalonta Arabica Food of Indigestion
(Dyspepsia),, Flatulency, Constipation, Nervous, Bilious, and
Liver Complaints Cough, Asthma; Consumption, and Debi-
lity the following are not the least remarkal?le :—Athol-
Porter. gun.
street, Perth, May 2, 1848.—Thirteen years' cough, indiges-
-tion, and, genreral debility have been removed by Du Barry's
etdxrci:l22lendtisTßeovvallenstaso. Arabieca Food. James
-Hear sir,—l am happy tb inform you
relieved me from; in incredible
Nov:,
'lB5O
that
c which, d ." .• 11 •
food, has
mint, he last eight
' • all kinds .of medicines had been •tried• in vain. `My
accumulation
iCoineeollfe excellent
fl.
Yea"' - •Previous to taking your food were the
feelings dud suircringpx
iv
„c
b.i.lish
' • Indigestion, ne ousn ss, ito ess, Wee-
following :
liver, und • kidneys, costiveness • palpitation
affec-
tions of the . •
of the .hcart, noises 111 the ears, patins in _almost all the
body, low spirits, general debility, . loss .bf memory,
wretchedness, thoughts of self-destruction,
..MaryGodsmark.
Supported by testimonials from the celebrated Professors cf
Chemistry, -Dr: Andkew. Ural, Dr., Shorlandl Dr.
Harvey;
Dr. Campbell ; Dr. Gattiker ; Dr. Wurzer ; Dr. Ingram ;
Lord Stuart de Decies; the Dowager Counties of Castl(..
stuart; Major-Gen., Thonias King,
p coldmany othqr respectable
persons, whose health lias been„refitored by it, after all other
means -of cure had failed.: 'Suitably packed with full in-
structions., In canisters, lib, 2s. 9d. ; 21b. 4s. 6d. ; 51b,
11s ; 121 b, 225. The 12113,canisters are 'sent carriage free,
on receipt •of Poi4-ofAcuurder.—Barry Du Barry, & Co.,
77, Regent-street, tendon. , IMPORTANT CAUTION against the
fearful dangers Of eptuiousimitations :—The Vice-Chancel.
log
.Sir. William Page Wood granted...au_lujuiaction on the
10th March, 18;54, against Alfred Deeper Neville for imitating
," Da BATria Revaluate Arabica _ Foci. :-..' ...e..

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