The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-21 00:00:00

to,:r
VTIN LONDON MONDA Y-
. 1

Naval and Military intelligence.

for the Mediterranean will each take out a number
of troops for the overland route to India.
Capt. J. Wm. Callman Williams, of the Royal
Marine Artillery Corps, has been appointed In-
structor in Fortification and Mechanical Drawing
to the Royal Naval College, vice Savage, deceased.
VICTORY, GUARD SHIP, CAPTAIN G. H. SEY-
MOUR, C.B.—On the water being pumped out of
No. 3 dock, we had an opportunity of examining
her bottom ; her lines are exceedingly fine, with an
entrance and run like a cutter. She was built at
Chatham in 1768. It is 21 years since she was last
docked at Portsmouth. The Victory has leaked for
a long time past ; yet, although we have ready
means at hand, in the shape of divers and material,
not a thought seems to have occured to the officials
about the necessity of examining any portion below
the water line. Her bottom presented a most
singular appearance when the dock was dry, being
covered from stem to stern with oysters, mussels,
and animalcuke ; npwards of six bushels of the
finest oysters were detached from the copper
sheathing, some of which measured five inches in
diameter, and which apparently were devoured
with great relish by the dockyard workmen. As to
mussels there must be at least two eartload>•. About
18 feet from the stem, and four from the water line
on her starboard bow, is a sight worth looking at,
and it is pretty evident that ever since the Victory
has been at her present moorings she has been
chafing on her bridle chain ; this ground away her
copper sheathing for 13 streaks down towards the
keel, and no doubt shortly after the worms had it
all their own way, for they have positively eaten
through the whole of a space of 10 feet by the
average of 3 feet. These destructive insects have
penetrated completely through the outer planking
to the timbers, making for themselves cells quite
honeycomb ; the inner part of some of the planking
not being thicker than a piece of orange-peel, any
shock given to the ship would have allowed the
pressure of the tide to have broken through in a
body, and down would have gene Nelson's old
Victory. Her copper is generally in excellent
order, and she appears yet as though she would well
last another century.
There are vacancies for boys for school appren-
tices on board the Victory at Portsmouth. The
boys must be over 14 and under 16 years of age ;
ovor four feet eight inches high, from 14 to 15 years
of age ; over four fe?t ten inches high, from 15 to
16 years of age ; able to read and write well ;
strong, healthy, and well-grown ; free from all
physical malformation ; and must be able to pass
a strict medical examination. They must have
the consent of parents or nearest relations.
They are well cared for, educated, and have
certain employment until they are twenty-eight
years of age. All candidates from a distance
must come at their own expense, and if rejected,
must find their way back to their friends at their
own expense. As it is desirable that boys should
be-properly clothed as soon as possible, it is impera-
tive that they bring 2/. with them for that purpose.
The Locust, 3, steam-vessel, Lieut.-Commander
J. B. Field, arrived at Portsmouth yesterday
morning from Plymouth, with seamen-gunners, lent
to the Agamemnon for the cable voyage, and super-
numeraries.
PEMBROKE DOCKYARD.—The newly launched
first-class frigate the Melpomene, pierced for fifty
guns, is being rapidly jury-rigged by the seamen-
riggers sent round for that purpose, who will navi-
gate her to Portsmouth, where she is to be imme-
diately commissioned. The staff of the 2d depot
battalion has been again ordered to Pembroke.
This staff was removed to Preston early in the
spring. The depots of the 25th, 85th, and 91st
Regiments of Foot are to join the garrison at Pem-
broke. The depot of the 51st Foot is under orders
.o leave, and two companies of the 9/th have left
o join head-quarters.

The depots of the 25th, 85th, and 91st Segiment
of Foot are to join the garrison at Pembroke. The
depot of the 51st Foot, is under orders to leave,
and two companies of the 94th Foot have left to
join head-quarters. The staff of the second depot
battalion has been again ordered to Pembroke.
This staff was removed to Preston early in the
spring. The newly launched first-class frigate, the
Melpomene, pierced for 50 guns, is being rapidly
jury-rigged at Pembroke. She is to be immedi-
ately commissioned at Portsmouth. 1
On Saturday orders were received at Chatham
by Col. H. Jervis, commanding the troops at the
provisional battalion, directing reinforcements for
the 83d and 86th Royal County Down Regiment
to be held iu readiness to emb Ark for India for the
purpose of joining the head-quarters of those regi-
ments. The detachments will number 48 non-
commissioued officers and men, and will go out in
charge of Ensign W. Thomson, 78th Highlanders,
and Ensign G. S. Jackson, 86th Regiment.
With the view of having the recent order promul-
gated from the Horse Guards carried out relative
to the formation of a second company to each of
the Indian depots at the provisional battalion,
Chatham garrison, the General Commanding-in-
Chief has directed an order to be forwarded to
every officer on the home station who is at present
absent from head-quarters on leave to proceed at
once to join his Indian depot at Chatham, for the
purpose of officering the second company now be-
ing formed. The strength of each depot is to be
raised to 200 men, exclqsive of officers, and when
the whole of the companies are formed. there will
be an available reserve of upwards of 5,000 Indian
troops at Chatham ready for embarkation at the
shortest notice. The following officers have already
joined their respective depots at Chatham garrison:
—Capt. G. W. Wallace Carpenter, 7th Royal Fusi-
hers, who takes the command of the depot of the
corps ; Capt. W. Egerton Todd, 81st Refit. ; Capt.
Spier Hughes, 84th Regiment, who takes the com-
mand of the second company now being formed ;
Lieut. F. G. King, Slat Regiment. ; and Ensign
Walter Morrison, 64th Regiment.
The head-quarters of the Medical Staff Corps,
under the command of Major S. G. Bunbury,
which have for some time past occupied the huts
at Prince Henry's Bastion, Chatham, have been
removed to Chatham barracks, in order to make
room for the 3d depot battalion, under the com-
mand of Colonel C. Elmhirst, which will be quar-
tered in the huts. The Falkland Island Corps
has also been removed from the huts to St. Mary's
barracks.
In consequence of the success attending the rais-
ing the 2d battalion of the 23 Foot Government
has determined to augment the army by the forma-
tion at Shorncliffe, of a 2d battalion of the 4th
Foot, in strength equal to a complete regiment,
and orders have been issued to commence recruit-
ing for that purpose.
The United Service Gazette says :—"A good ser-
vice pension of 1001. per annum has been bestowed
upon Colonel J. R. Young, half-pay sth Foot,
Fort Major, at Fort George, Inverness, an officer
who entered the service 42 years since."
The letters of our Malta correspondent extend to
the 15th of September, and report the arrival on
the 11th of Her Majesty's steam gunboat the Vigi-
lant, from Algiers, off which port, on the Bth, she
left the British squadron, under Lord Lyons,
shaping its course from Malta and the lonian
Islands. Her Majesty's screw steam gunboat the
Wanderer left Malta at 11 a.m. on the 11th of Sep-
tember for Cagliari, with a summary for telegraphic
communication of the intelligence from India
which reached Suez on the 4th by the Pekin from
Bombay. The Russian Government steamer Pitz-
sunda, arrived at Malta on the I2th from London
and Gibraltar, with stores, and left for Odessa,
having on board Captain Andraeff and Engineer
Labelle, of the Imperial Navy. In a postscript our
correspondent advises the arrival on the 14th of
the Indus from Southampton and the Vectis from
Marseilles. Both left for Alexandria on the morn-
ing of the 15th. The Valletta arrived at Malta
from Alexandria on the morning of the 15th.
The steam transport Lebanon, Captain Cook, ar-
rived at Portsmouth on Saturday night from Cepha-
lonia, whence she sailed on the 7th inst., with Brevet-
Lieutenant-Colonel Blount, Captains Cassidy
and White, Lieutenants Light, Grace, Saunderson,
Sparke, Ethelston, Cox, Thornton, Wilkinson,
and Wolsey ; Ensigns Marshall and Cavendish,
Adjutant Covey, Surgeon O'Leary, Assistant-
Surgeon William'', Quarter-master Tunks, 581
non-commissioned offices and privates, 39 women,
and 52 children of the 58th Regiment ; also one
private of the 3d Buffs. The troops will land

to-day.
The Hydaspes, steam vessel, which lett Wool-
wich with an artillery force for India on Friday,
has been detained at Gravesend, in order to com-
plete her cargo with a large quantity of an improved
description of shell, which is being prepared at the
lab -,rat,-)ry department of the Royal Arsenal.
Hitherto shells have been nearly filled with gun-
powder, in which the bullets were placed. It was,
however, invariably found that the bullets were
completely flattened when the shell exploded, thus
impairing their destructive power when fired at
any given object: This drawback arose from the
fact that the force of the gunpowder caused the
flattening of the bullet., by concussion, with the
shell, at the moment of explosion. After repeated
experiments under the superintendence of the
sklect committee of Royal Artillery officers, an im-
provement was discovered which entirely obviates
the previous inconvenience. This consists in sub-
stituting sulphur for the gunpowder, which under
the former plan surrounded the bullets, and in-
troducing a mailer quantity of gunpowder into
the shell by means of a cylinder. The result has
proved that the alteration increases the destructive
agency of the shells, as the bullets are not injured
and a greater distance is obtained. Since Friday
workmen have been employed in the. laboratory
department, night and day, in fitting and adapting
the shells in store for firing by the new process,
and large quantities have been forwarded in barges
to the Hydaspes. As the troops are now on board,
the vessel will proceed on her voyage after shipping
as many of these missiles as can be immediately
prepared.
Five regiments are to embark from Cork for
India before the end of this month, viz., three in-
fantry and two cavalry. It is expected that a por-
tion of the remainder of the 56th Regiment will
sail from that garrison about the 22d.
The Kohinoor freight-ship arrived at Portsmouth
on Saturday morning from the Thames to embark
provisions, &c., from the Royal Clarence-yard,
Gosport, for Hong Kong.
The Ireland and Babiana steamships were both
expected hourly at Portsmouth yesterday to em-
bark troops for India.
The Prussian corvette Amazone, Captain Kuhn,
left Spithead on Saturday morning for Dantzic.
The Chesapeake, 51, screw frigate, Capt. Vat
son, C. 8., is expected to leave Spithead for Cal-
cutta early this week, although about 50 short of
her complement.

The Wellington, 72, Captain John Moore, is still
over on the west shore, Sheerness, fitting out for
the coast-guard. She will require a sort of refit
and overhaul previous to being placed in ordinary
as an advanced coast-guard ship.
The Termagant, 25, screw, Lieut. Colin C. A.
Kane, was paid off alongside Portsmouth jetty in
most creditable and excellent order and in unpre-
cedented time. A new plan was, for the first time,
adopted. Each man's money, instead of being
counted out to him at the table, was wrapped up
in paper and sealed, with the man's name written
upon it. A whole ship's company of 300 bands
were paid in less than one hour and a half ' • nor is
this all, for by the wise precaution of Lieutenant
Commander Kane no crimps or prostitutes gained
admission into the ship, and thus the blue jackets
were saved much of the usual ri sults. Every man
walked out of the ship sober and cleanly. The
performance of Mrs'. Brice (daughter of the late
Admiral Searle) and her talented children afforded
the highest gratification to officers and craw ; the
main deck was fitted up for the occasion, and a
most li boral contribution was the result. As regards
the youngest child—only four years of age—silver
was literally showered upon her by the delighted
crew. _ _ _ _ _ _

.........
The Ganges, 84, flag ship, Capt. Fulford, left
Sheerness on Saturday morning at 11.30, in charge
of Mr. George Brockman, master commanding the
Wildfire, for Portsmouth. She was towed out by
the African and Widgeon tug steamers about three
miles to the eastward of the Big Nore, when, in
consequence of the heavy sea and wind prevailing,
they both ast off, the Ganges making all sail (wind
N.N.E.) for Prince's Channel. The wind, how-
ever, chopping round more to the eastward, sho
was obliged to come to an anchor near the Mouse.
crlewl—adv:az.nee
She remained there all Saturday night. This vessel
left Sheerness, notwithstanding Nvrairlpke.on board at Portsmouth her future ad-
ear
and Ant
forir Admiral I t
hl to .
SouthL L. Baynes,paoi
fi
op. a y
Shetlie
The steam ship rntot withstanding all her efforts, some
150 A.E.. of her sea complement.
will ptaii!'o3ll7)?n, which left Southampton
convey them to Alexandria yesterday,
200. troops at Malta and
cross the desert to Suez , from whence they will
will , andlea on to India. The
thereh on the 4th.
steam ship Colombo,
proximo with the East India anvedssoo China mails, will
embark for Alexandria 400 or
probable
steam ship Australasian, which leaves thoePrse. The
12th proximo with the Australian mails, will
em-
bark 600 troops for Alexandria.. It is'
that the whole of the mail packets which leave there

CAUSES OF THE INDIAN REBELLION
AND CONDUCT OF THE ReßEts.

The true and, we might almost affirm, the sore
cause of the ludian insurrection was the
construction of the army_ of, b Rtnual _
7 tcially
,riafs as that of the me-
trop parti-
s sts
• " , half of which eon-
cipated in by that of B
—that is, of what are called
Poorbies, which signifies "Easterlings," men re-
cruited in the FLione provinces that furnish the bulk
of the
presidency—that dseaninc ler In
:F.
of the Bengal army. We are informed, in the offi-
cial correspondence laid before Parliament, that in
the first infantry regiment that mutinied, there
were no fewer than 409 Brahmins and 150 Raj-
poets, or men " descended from princes," for that
is the literal Waning of the word. There is no
reason to believe that the proportion of these pre-
tenders to high birth and divine origin was less in
the other 73 regiments of infantry, so that we have
here, out of a force of perhaps 70,000, no less than
40,000 of the most inflammable materials that could
possibly be brought together. The remaining
fin-
doos of a regiment were even more fastidious in
matters of caste than the Brahmins and Rajpoots
themselves, and the Mahomedans superadded to
the prejudices of the Ilindoos their own peculiar in-
tolerance. On the plea of caste, military subordina-
tion was defeated or set at defiance. The &pop of
Bengal, for example, refused to perform fatigue la-
bour like Europeans and other India'i troops. To
we a hoe or a pickaxe was derogatory to caste.
Thy would enlist only fur home service, and go
abroad only when* they pleased. The pretext of
caste, in short, ended in throwing power into the
hands of the common soldiery, and taking it away
from their European officers ; otherwise, it ended in
the creation of an armed force without discipline
and without subordination, and ripe for that rebel-
hop, with all its unutterable horrors, which at
length broke out and is now raging over an extent
of 1,500 miles. _ _

residence bad the presticr•
sufficiently
we oursio-

Here is General Jacob's account (published seve-
ral years ago, when the terrible event 3 that have
occurred were contemplated by no one) of this dan-
ger mob of soldiers, for it wanted the most es-

iential qualities of an army. General Jacob, as most
of our readers are aware, is an officer of the Bombay
service, well known for his talents, enterprise, and
long experience of Indian troops, qualifications
which have justly called him to the command of
that portion of our army still remainiug in Persia.
The effect 0' enlisting men of a certain caste or creed,
to the exclusion of others in the Indian army, is to sub-
ject that army to the control, not of the Goxerament and

„,. of eight centucies, which
for the choice. In this matter

_.,.tea may be said to have set our rebellious
the example, for until the last 30 years we
coined money in the puppeCs name, inscribed with
his language, and actually feigned to hold our do-
minion from him at the very moment that he was
our pensioner and virtually our prisoner. Besides
this, Delhi had the further most substantial seduc-
tion for the rebels, that we had ourselves converted
it into a fortified arsenal, and abandoned it with
its immense warlike stores to their unsuspected
guardianship. All the time, in fact, that we were
wasting millions in protecting ourselves against the
phantom of foreign invasion, the r sk we rau at home
from the presence of a monster army composed of the
most warlike and the most bigoted tribes of the
people we had subdued, never entered fora moment
into our calculations.

Among the secondary causes that precipitated a
rebellion which under any circumstances was inevi-
table, one of the most noticeable in our opinion was
the great change which the Indians saw iu operation
on the very face of the country, in the shape of
canals, railways, and electric telegraphs. To their
rude, narrow, and ignorant understandings, these
changes seemed to bode nothing less than a design
to Europeanise their country, and to overthrow
the whole system of their cherished superstitions.
As to the atrocities and treacheries perpetrated
by the rebels in the course of the insurrection,
history, or at least, European history, assuredly
affords nothing parallel to them. They began with
the beginning of the revolt, and seem to have con-
templated extermination for their object, not less
than the gratification of every fierce Asiatic pas-
sion. In these demoniac crimes Mahomedans and
Hindoos have been equally implicated ; but in the
most prominent instances the perpetrators were cer-
tainly the " mild" Hindoes, of which the exqui-
site type was Nana Sahib a Mahratta Brahmin.
We have looked for a parallel to the atrocities of
our long cherished and petted Sepoys in those com-
mitted by the insurgent negro slaves of St. Domin-
go some sixty years ago, but find the crimes of
the slaves to have fallen far short of those of
the Indian freemen. The annals of the Indian
people themselves would, however, yield many
a precedent. One of these made a deep impres-
sion in this country seventy years ago ; we allude
to the cruelties of Dewi Sing, whom Edmund
Burke designated " the infernal fiend."
This miscreant was an agent of Warren
Hastings, and a high-caste Hindoo. The bare re-
cital by Burke of his crimes against nature and
society made the English ladies of that day faint i
Westminster Hall ; and beyond a question many
of the atrocities of the present rebellion would pro-
duce the like effect, could we imagine their rela-
tion possible in any public assembly.—Examiner.

the articles of war, but to that of Brahmins, and Gos
seine, Moolahs aad Fakiers. By this system a man is not
to be chosen for his fitness to be a soldier, his willingness
and strength, durability and courage, but because he is
a teice born worshipper of Vishnu. Whatever his other
qualifications, if a man think that a stone with a patch
of red paint on it is not to be worshipped as the Creator,
still more if he have been a shoemaker, &c., he is not to
be admitted into the ranks of Cie Bengal army, for her
of offending the lazy and indolent Brahmins. The con-
sequences are ruinous to discipline. By reason of this
a native soldier of Bengal is far more afraid of an offence
against caste than the articles of war, and by this Means
a degree of power rests with the private soldier which is
incompatible with all healthy rule. Treachery, mutiny,
villainy of all kinds may be carried on among the private
soldiers unknown to their officers, to any extent where
the men are of one caste of -Hindoos, and where the rules
of caste are more regarded than those of military dis-
cipline. To such an extent does this evil exist, that I
have known a Bengal commanding officer express his
regret at being compelled to discharge an excellent sepoy
because the other men had discovered him to be of
inferior caste, and had demanded his d.a nissal.
And he proceeds to say :
To sueh a state of helplessness has the recognition of
caste in the ranks brought the Bengal Sepoy that a regi-
ment of native cavalry, as I have repeatedly witnessed,
is unable to picket, unsaddle, or groom its horses until
the arrival of its syces and grasseutters, sometimes, as I
have seen, for several hours after the arrival of the regi-
ment at its ground. In a Bombay regiment, before
that time had elapsed, the horses would have been
picketed, fed, and watered, stables would have been over,
the tents pitched, and the men have had their breakfast.
To such an incredible extent has this helplessness been
carried and recognised by authority that a Bengal sentry
cannot think of striking the gone at his own quarter-
guard, and men called " Gunta gone
are actually
maintained and paid for by Government, to do this duty
for them.
The wonder is, not that such a force should now
revolt against its employers, but that it did not re-
bel and break up long ago. This was probably pre-
vented by the constant employment afforded to it
by our continued career of conquests. That career
lied at length ended, and the Bengal Sepoys, vain
and ignorant, had seven long years' peace to brood
over their own imagined strength, and to compare it
with the fancied weakness of their masters. To
short-sighte I and unprincipled men the temptation
was, ne doubt, considerable. The correspondence
laid before Parliament has given the proportions in
the three Presidencies of the native force to the
European. In Bombay the proportion was 10 to
1 ; in Madras 17 to 1 ' • while in the army of Bengal
there were no fewer than 25 Sepoys, to every Eu-
,pean or British soldier. So vast a numerical supe-
riority naturally elated then, and we have only to
add the appetite for plunder, the awakened animo-
, si lee of race, and all the allurements of anarchy to
men of licentious dispositions and ungovernable
passions, thoroughly to understand the motives and
objects of the mutiny.
The existence in the heart of our Indian empire
of a mercenary army composed of the conquered
people, and that army not only indulged, but pam-
pered and flattered in all its anti-social and anti-
military prejudices, is surely an all-sufficient ex-
planation ot the rebellion, which, following the
general law of such events, drew after it the scum
of Indian society in the shape of liberated convicts,
furious fanatics, and hereditary robbers. Others
causes are assigned, but they are either mere pre-
texte, or circumstances of little comparative signi-
ficance. Among these is the alleged appre-
hension of being converted to Christianity by the
peaceable and unobtrusive labours of our mission-
aries. This is put forth in the foolish and impu-
dent proclamation issued by the rebels of D--111i, and
it is, strangely enough, believed by a few credulous
p ople among ourselves. For seven centuries
our Mahemedau predecessors in power went on
proselytising usually by foul and violent means,
and the fruits ot their efforts are some ten millions
of converts, the real prop of their power through-
out their long dominion. Aud now it is most
illogically argued that the means which were the
mainstay of their authority must prove the over-
throw of ours. We need only add to this
argument drawn from history and common sense,
that in those parts of India, the southern, in
which Christian conversion has most success, there
has at leastias yet been neither mutiny or insurrec-
tion.
Of all tlin occurrences that, have aided the mutiny
of this viciously constituted army, we sincerely
b lieve that annexation of native states, in defiance
of the native laws of inheritance, has been the most
operative and useful to their cause. This is to be
seen in the atrocities perpetrated at Jhansi, in the
rising against us of the whole kingdom of Dude,
and now, in the intrigues of Sattara within the
territory of Bombay, followed by the mutiny
of oue of the reuitnents of that Presidency, a
corps recently levied in the Mahratta terri-
tory—that is, in the territory that was once that of
annexed Sattara. It was very true that such
annexations, or other forcible seizures of territory,
under one pretext or another, were at all times
normal incidents of Indian history without occa-
sioning rebellions. Mshomedans seized upon
territory belonging to Maliotnedans. Sometimes
even one tribe of Mahomedane, or one tribe of
iiindoos, seized on territories belonging to other •
tribes of their respective co-religionists, without
insurrection. We ourselves, in the course of our
conquests, had done the very same thing in the
cases both of Mahomedans and Hindoos, as in the
examples of Rohilcund, Benares, and Scinde, with-
out exciting the slightest commotion ; and such
would ursquestionably have been the case now had
there been no corrupt army ripe for rebellion to
take advantage of our annexations.
S ,me have inaisleJ, but without a tit de of founda-
Von f the assumption, that the conspiracy against
our authority is purely a Mailomeden plot, the
Hind 3os having only been drawn into it by
Mahemedan intrigue and seduction. Both
religionists have alike united for the overthrow of
our power, as they would do in any other move-
ment that pre,ented to their narrow understand-
ings the same opportunity of license and plueder.
The truth is that the majority of the Ma,homedans
f India are, as to pretensions of caste, and in
everything but a few religious dogmas and a few
external observances, juet as much flitidoo ; as the
Ilinioos themselves,- differing from them, in fact,
not mere than the followers of &dune do from
these of Jain among the latt.ir, end less than tire
f dlowere of Nana, the founder of the religion of
trio te'iklie do from ether. In the Madras Presi-
dency, whore thtre has been no mutiny, (=tee half
the infantry and nearly the whole of the cavalry is
Alahomedaus, whereas in Bengal, where nearly the
whole army has revolted, there are in the infantry
but two Mali oredans to live Hindoos, whi!e of th':
cavalry one helf are Hindoo-e If the mutiny, then,
had been of M ihomisclan origin, it ought to hive
taken place in Madras and not in Bengal. As we
have above said, the miles of the Mahotnedans of
India are but psrtially converted Hindoos, while
the few whose forefetliers were of a different race
from Ili.uloos are at present but half castes, with
all the prejudices of Ilindooiem lying heavily upon
them.

THE MADRAS ARMY.

As to the setting up
recent events have totally annihilated, in so
by the rebel oepoes for as the Bengal army is concerned, and consider-
An experiment—we learn from the last letter of
our Bombay correspondent---is being tried in India
.the result of which will be looked for in this coun-
try and throughout Europe with anxious expecta-
tion. In consequence of a requisition from Cal-
cutta, the 17th and 27th Madras Native Infantry,
the Bth Madras Native Cavalry, and a company,
of Native Artillery (with native drivers), have been
embarked at Madras for Bengal. Tile loyalty of
our Madras army is abort to be put to a severe test
—a test to which, it is evident, it has been deemed
unsafe to subject the army of the sister Presidency
in the Deccan. " I direct your attention," writes
our correspondent, " to the significant fact that no
Bombay native troops have yet found their way to
the mutiny of Delhi, or been employed out of the
Presidency."
Events may show that we have been mistaken ;
but we confess we are sanguine in our expectation
that the Madras army will stand the test. It is in
composition and character essentially different from
the armies of either of the other two Presidencies.
In the Bengal Infantry, in 1852, of a tetal of 83,946
men, 12,699 were Mahometans, 26,983 Brahmins,
and 27,335 Ragpoots. In the Bombay Infantry,
in the same year, of 25,938 men, 1,920 were Ma-
hometans, 6,928 Brahmins and Ragpoots, and
8,037 Mahrattas. Whereas in the Madras Infantry,
still in the same year, of 44,191 men there were
only 2,037 Brahmins and Ragpoots, and 452 Mah-
rattas; and, though there were 15,790Mahometatis,
these were mixed up with (so-called) Genteos, of
whom 16,590 were of Telinga, and 4,792 of Tamil
race. It is evident from this statement that in the
Bengal and Bombay armies the least loyal castes or
races bear a much larger proportion to the whole
than iu the Madras army. But our opisdon, that
the Madras army will be found more trustworthy
at this crisis than the armies of either of the other
Presidencies, rests upon other considerations besides
those of mere caste or race.
The profession of soldier, like every other profes-
sion in India, is in a great measure hereditary. The
Bengal army was originally composed of soldiers
who had been trained the armies of the native
Princes of Hindostan, and is stillrecruitedfrom the
descend lists of such soldiers. Toe traditii ma of the
Bengal army have scarcely anything in them that
identifies it with their English rulers. The Bengal
sepoys cherish the remembrance of times when,
under native chiefs, they enjoyed much greater
licence and far higher consideration that they en-
joy under the English Government. From a
mistaken notion of the best way to conciliate their
affections, the Bengal sepoys have had much that
they have inherited from old times in respect of
discipline, tolerated and connived at. To the anti-
English spirit which has thus been developed and
strengthened in their ranks, we owe in a great de-
gree the present mutiny. We do net mean by this
that intrigue and conspiracy have not been at work
among them ; but simply that, but for the cir-
cumstances to which wo have adverted, the in-
triguers and conspirators would have found it much
more difficult to debauch the whole of the Bengal
Army.
The condition and character of the Bombay
Army are essentially different. The far greater
part of the territory of the Bombay Presidency is
of comparatively recent acquisition, and its army
—on its present scale—is of equally recent origin.
The Bombay army is as yet too young for the
esprit-de-corps to have impressed upon it a decidedly
peculiar character of its own ; and it is composed of
most heterogenous materials. More than one-
third of the whole army are Mahrattas ; and of
the remaining two-thirds the greater part is com-
posed
classes s from a daormstayni—s f
almostrom the
entirely
s e
ooffrewchriuciiti
made up. The reductiou of the Mahrattas is yet
sed
too recent for their soldiers to have acquired a tra-
ditional loyalty to their regimental colours ; and
{;he men recruited from the Deccan sympathise
with the Bengal Army. We think we can trace
the results of this composition of the Bombay
Army in recent events. It lacks that esp? it•de-
corps which has made the army of Bengal rise in
mutiny like one mare But it contains within it
elements hostile to British rule, which are easily
wrought upon. To this we owe the partial muti-
nies which have already taken place, and shall owe
th ese which there is too much reason to fear are yet
to follow.
The Madras Army has, unlike the Bombay Army,
a very marked character of its own ; and this cha-
racter differs materially from that of the Bengal
army. The first nucleus of the Madras army
was formed long ago, of soldiers who had little or
no intercourse with the armies of the native
Princes of Hindostan. The original territory of
the Madras Presidency was in a great measure iso-
lated from Hindostan proper. On the north-east
it was separated from Bengal and Behar by an im-
practicable, hilly, kingly region, thinly inhabited,
and for the most part by savage tribes of aborigines.
From Mysore to the Nerbudda, a large portion of
the country above the Ghauts was occupied by the
Mahrattas ; and the same race held possession of
a broad belt of country, which shut out the Nizatu's
territories from Central India, and extended as far
west as the almost uninhabited mountain region
which separated Madras from Bengal and Behar.
This impracticable country and theMahrattas toge-
ther acted as a cordon sanitaire to preserve the Dec-
can from the contagion of the politics of Hinclestau.
The social diseases of the Deccan were all its own.
The Nizana had practically thrown off his allegiance
to the Mogul. Ryder and Tippo openly set the
Mogul at defiance. The native princes in the ex-
treme south of the peninsula had ceased to have
ally political relations with the north. The Eng-
lish at Madras and the native states in their imme-
diate vicinity formed a political system entirely
apart from that of Hiudostan and Central India. They waged war and contracted treaties among
th mselves ; they sometimes joined together to
resist the encroachments of the, Mahrattas, and
predatory confederacy.
sometimes members of this defensive league would
break from the rest and court the alliance of that
Madras army tcv.s d-vel,,pel, and from them it
Under such auspices the
took its tone. Its original nucleus was a l and of
faithful and devotel vassals of the English.s
successive augmentations were derived from States
wh:ch had been accustomed to act in concert wi ii
us, and were gradually absorbed into our domi-
nions. The presence of Mahratta hostility con-
tinued long enough to confirm in the Mal as
Army a spirit identified. with English interests.
The military traditions of the Indian army are
more English than Indian. It is this that
indueee us to repose in the loyalty of the Madras
Sepoys a cenfidence which we have never reposed
in those of Bengal or Bombay—a confidence which
of the Mogul puppet at Delhi, the family ably shaken in respect to the army of Bombay.
of that insignificant persena,g) had in his With all this confidence, however, it is impos-
favour the prestige of three, while his place of sible to watch without deep anxiety the trial that /3

1857

about to made of the-loyalty of the native army
of Madras by sending it into the volley of the
Gangeu. Much more may—must—depend upon it
than the suppression of a great mu my in Bengal.
Come what may, we can never hold India by the
exclusive agency of European troops. If we are to
remai❑ masters of India we must continue to em-
ploy large numbers of native soldiers. Where are
we to get them? The Ghoorkas are talked of : ex-
cellent soldiers, but limited in number. The Sikhs:
they have in general conducted themselves well
hitherto ; but our experience of them is too short.
The Bheels, Jats, &c. : they are on too low a scale
of civilisation to be efficient alone, or as a large
component part of an army. if the Madras Army
continue loyal, we have there the nucleus of a new
army, upon which may be formed one sufficiently
large for our purposes out of whatever may be
found more or less trustworthy throughout our In-
dian dominions. Mutiny and insurrection are still
spreading eastward through Bengal. They have
reached SagOwiie in the north and Midnapore in
the south. It is possible—a possibility which it
would be unsafe to overlook in our contingent ar-
rangements for the future—that mutiny and insur:-
rection may spread as far as Dacca and Din egspore.
It is possible that Wilson may be compelled to fall
back upon Umballa, as Havelock has been com-
pelled to fall back upon Cawupore. It is possible
that the mutinous spirit which has displayed itself
at the extreme south and at the extreme north of
the Bombay Presidency may break out in other
quarters. A private letter from Bombay informs
us that the Marine Battalion there has " refused
duty." It is on the cards that our possessions in
Bengal and Bombay may be limited for a time to
the Residency Cities. Even though this were to
be the case in all the three Presidencies, we know
well enough the resources, the courage, and the
_dogged pers.everance of England to feel assured that
we shall yet reconquer India. With these three
pieds-a-terre, and our navy, we can and shall du it,
even though driven to such an extremity. But if
the Madras Native Army keep staunch—as we
hope and believe it will—our labour will be im-
mensely lightened, let things go bow they will in
Bengal and Bombay.—Daily News.