The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-14 00:00:00

TEE -0-ON Lo ,Or

to.authority. The camas of this are various, part de-
pending on what has been mentioned above, but chiefly
on the abominable systig of recognising caste in our
ranks, and on the absurd system of promotion, whereby
the native officers are absolutely useless.
"The remedies are, of course, as described with respect
to those causeti.
" The Edith evil is of a very grave and important na•
tura. The effect of enlisting men of a certain caste,
Or
creed, to the exclusion of others in the Indian army, is to
subject that army to the control, not of the Gcreernment
and tho Articles of War, but to that of -Brahmins and
' Goseins, Moollahs and Fukheers. By this system, a man
is not to be chosen on account of his fitness to be a sol-
dier, his willingness and strength, docility and courage,
bat because he is a twice born worshipper of Vishnoo.
Whatever his other qualifications, if a man think that a
stone with a patch of red paint on it is not to be wor-
shipped as the Creator, still more if he have been a shoe-
maker, &c., he is not to be admitted into the ranks of
the Bengal army, for fear of offending the lazy and inso-
lent Brahmins. The consequences are ruinous to dis-
cipline. By reason of this a native soldier in Bengal is
far more afraid of an offence against caste than of an
offence against the Articles of War, and by this means a
degree cf power rests with the private soldier which is
entirely incompatible with all healthy rule.
" Treachery, mutiny, villany of all kinds, may be car-
ried on among the private soldiers, unknown to the offi-
cers, to any extent, where the men are (f one caste of
Hindoos, and where the rules of caste are more regarded
than those of military discipline. 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 dis-
missal. To a Bombay officer such a state of affairs ap-
pears incredible ; it amounts to open mutiny ; but it is
the normal state of the Bengal army at present. It is
curious that, though the Bengal Sepoys have contrived
to have it believed that their religion is concerned in this
business of caste, in our ranks nothing is farther from
the truth. In conjunction with the system of promo-
tion which prevails this attention to caste keeps all real
power in the bands of the private soldiers ; and, as they
think, saves them from much trouble and annoyance ;
but when they assert that this evil is a necessary conse-
quence of their religion the Bengal Sepoys state the con-
, trary to truth.

"This is positively proved by that which takes place
in the army of Bombay, wherein hundreds and thousands
of men from Hindoetan, from the same villages, of the
!lame 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, nay, even sleeping in the same tent with the
Maharatta, the Dher, and the Purwarree, without
scruple or thought of objection'. The one prides himself
on being a Hindoo, the other on being a soldier. Which
pride is the best for our purpose ? This system of re-
garding caste is the original cause of many other evils
in the Bengal army ; and much of what has been said
regarding the adoption of Asiatic manners tells again
heavily here.* The Bombay Sepoy, whatever faults he
may have, has one great excellence, which is, that he
'aims on the European soldier as his model in alt things
pertaining to soldiership, and endeavours to imitate him.
Lie the European soldier, the Native Sepoy of Bombay
will turn his hand to any labour which he may be
ordered to execute. . .

"If the lines require cleaning, &c., a working party
of Sepoys is ordered out as a matter of coarse, with
pickaxe and powrah, and the work- is well dor.e. 'TLe
technical term ' working party' is as familiar in the
mouth of a Bombay Sepoy as shoulder arms.' Nay, I
have known more than once the men of a Bombay re
ginaent to volunteer for such work as building their offi-
cers' houses, mess-room, &c., and to do the work well,
too—making the bricks, mixing the mud, &c., entirely
by therneelvet. Tuffs would not be credited by the
greater part of the Bengal army, and to such a state of
haplessness has the recognition of caste in the ranks
hi-ought the Bengal Sepoy that a regiment of native ca-
valry, as I haverepeatedly witnessed, is unable to picket,
unsaddle, cr groom its horses until the arrival of its syces
and grasecuttera, sometimes, as I have seen, for several
hours after the arrival of the regiment at its ground. In
a Bombay regiment, before that time had elapsed, the
h rtea would have been picketed, groomed, fed, and wa-
tered, stables would have been over, the tents pitched,
and the men have had their breakfast. To such an in-
credible extent has this helplessness been carried and re-
cognised by authority that a Bengal sentry cannot think
of striking the gong at his own quarter-guard, and
men called Gunta Pandays' are actualy maintained
and paid for by Government, to do this duty for them.
It is the khansaiteaum, kitinntgar, hookah-burdar, &c ,
over again. The remedy is obvious ; never allow any
reference to caste when enlisting men. If others now in
the service object, let them be told that Government
does not care one pin whether its Sepoys be Hindoos or
Mussulmans, or Brahmins, or Purwarees, so long as
they be good soldiers, and that if they do not like the
roles of the service they may leave it. If they still ob-
ject, or make any difficulty about the matter, discharge
them on the spot. There are millions of better men ready
to occupy their places: Let also the use of intrenching
tools be part of the drill of the Sepoy, as much as is the
musket exercise, and when he has learn this let him be
occasionally employed in working parties, &c., to pre-
vent his forgetting it again. This trifle would be found
to possess much more importance than at first sight ap-
pears to attach to it.
" The seventh evil, the bad system of promotion, is
the worst of all ; its effects ars crushingly ruinous. In
Bengal army the promOtion of natives is made to depend
on seniority only, so that if a man keep clear of actual
crime, and lives long enough, he must become a com-
missioned officer, however unfit for the offile.
" Under this system, the private soldier feels himself

entirely independent of his ofcers—he knows that thoy

neither hasten nor retard his advance in the service. He
has nothing to do but to live and get through his duties
with listless stupidity, and with the least possible trouble
to himself. No exertion on his part can help him—no
talent, courage, fidelity, nor good conduct is of any
avail. Confidence and pride in each other between men
and officers cannot exist. There is no real co-operation
—for, the one being powerless to aid, the other becomes
careless of offending. This is the effect on the private
soldier. The system is equally, if not more baneful as
respects the native officers, commissioned and noncom-
missioned. The whole of the native commissioned offi-
cers are entirely useless, the amount of their pay is a
dead loss to the State, every one of them is unfit
for service by reason of imbecility produced by old
age, or where in rare instances the man may not be
altogether in his second childhood he is entirely useless
from having been educated in a bad school. All should
have been pensioned long ago ; but, alas, if the present
system of promotion be continued, the gettipg. rid of
these poor old gentlemen, who cut such painfully ridicu-
lous figures in the Bengal regiments, would be of no use
whatever, for the non-commissioned officers who would
have to be promoted in their places are but little better ;
even the very naiques (corporal,) are almost too old for
service. How very different is the state of affairs under
a proper system of promotion by merit alone I
"It gives the commanding officers of regiments and
companies a good deal more trouble certainly in making
promotions ; but how are they repaid 7 If they really
and honestly do their best to choose the men for pro-
motion without partiality, favour, or affection, lint by
merit and fitness alone, it is soon found Abet every man
in the regiment (at least all who are fit to be in cur
ranks) exerts himself to aid his officers. A degree of
vigour and activity amounting to a new life is infused
into every part of the regiment. The men, seeing all
the prizes of the service within their reach, exert them-
selves to obtain thew. They can only obtain their end
by becoming soldiers, by learning their duty, and per-
forming it to the satisfaction of their superiors.
"The native officers, being chosen with regard alone
to their qualifications and their fitness to hold commis-
sions, are alike proud of the distinction they have
acquired by their appointments, and able to perform
their duties. • They are not enfeebled by age, and the
consciousness that their respectability and success in life
depend on their own conduct makes them exert them-
e elves willingly and zealously its maintaining the discip-
line and reputation of the service in which they acquire
honour. The ill effects of the one system and the
excellencies of the other appear to me so self-evident
and have• been both proved on so large a scale that I
should consider it to be insulting to the understanding
of my readers were I to enlarge on it.
" With such a system of promotion, the good and the
had, the clever and the foolish, the brave and the timid
the energetic and the imbecile, are nearly on apex.
,The
(bilis:Era are powerless for good, and the men, keeping
just clear of open violence, have their own way in all
things. It is astonishing, and says much for the good•
Less of the raw material of the Bengal army, that under
snob arrangementsthe whole fabric has not entirely fel:en
to pieces. The thing is rotten throughout, and discipline
there is none; but it is wonderful that even the out-
ward semblance of an army has Leen still" maintained
Under such deplorable mismanagement.

" The eighth evil, the want of discipline, is the
necessary consequence of what has been already
described. In speaking of want of discipline Ido not
only mean that which is shown by serious mutinies
and tni:conduct on , extroardinary occasions, but also as
evinced in the ordinary every-day routine of duty in
t'le Bengal army; this is such as to be almost incredible
to an officer of the Royal army, or in the other armies
of India. The first thing done by a Bengal Sepoy
when. he mounts guard is to strip himself of arms,
accoutremente, and die Thing ; the muskets are piled.
and a sentry is po,ted, who. remains, generally (not al•
ways), properly accoutred, &c. ; all the others, includ-
ing non-clnamissioaed officer?, dsarm and strip; if there
be any water near they go and dabble in it after the
fashion of all Hindoetanees, otherwise they cover them.
selves with sheets and go to sleep, qui e naked, with the
exception of a lungootee. When the sentry thinks that
he has been on long enough, ha bawls out for some one
to relieve him ; after a while up gets a Sepoy trent be-
neath his sheet, and after a few yawns and stretches puts
ea Ina clothea and accoutrements, but does not take his
6 eri tibnhetreu:hniedeveret
musket ; that would be too much trouble and endanger
ei 1
.a:;:k3::tut
ehi
.ni
Attends
musket
wholekse
with
front
he i
u; )
,b and
ri
d thenh goes
occupies
hist to
place the
awayn t sentry,
underi
,en Nmoanws,and strips like the others. No
Bombay officer t tie relief; e remains fast asleep
thie state of things I have myself
1 yet I have been
that this is the regr bY
should be borne in mind,
four men are allowed to a also,
------ -lima cases. It is so astonishing to a
assured
he cannot help remarking on it ;
numerous Benal officers
ay of mounting guard, It
that in the Bengal army
sentry, instead of three as with

prejudices,
to-wardi the
" The feet is that when•
English officer shows by his habittulia°l7 givi:grz°larne.adeeregrt:te,
Sepoys that he feels their caste,
marks of inferiority, 'which excite only his 48c',., to be
the Sepoys endeavour to keep. such caste
as,much as possible out of sight, will never antic"' &c''
them to
interfere with duty, and will never willingly obtrude
them on notice at all.

the other armies, so that a Sepoy
with them is on sen-
try only six hours altogether' -1-,,ring
-
his tour of 24 hours,
instead of eight, as usual
"But it is .-
army to relies',by. means uncommon in the Bengal
intervals
um
guard once a-week, and even at longer
:'- -
mho. • , when the state of affairs above mentioned
.7:- ~ take place, even if it were not so on other occa-
sions. This was the case when the Bonibay and Bengal
troops met at Peshawur, and considerable grumbling
and complaining took place when Sir H. Dundas insisted
on the guards being relieved daily. To the mind of any
practical soldier no further proof is necessary on this
subject—want of discipline. He must at once see that
where guards are relieved weekly, where the sentries
relieve each other as they please, and where the whole
guard strips naked thern can be no discipline whatever.
It is useless to ask whether a man can read and write
when you find that he does not know a letter of his al,
phabet. If it were necessary, however, I could adduce
abundance of other facts to the same purport. The re-
medy is apparent from what has been said before. Such
are some of the reforms peculiarly required by Bengal.
Bat there are many others, equally requisite, with re-
gard to the native Indian army generally; for instance,
with respect to the regimental orderly room.
" The commanding officer of every regiment- should,
every day of his life, hold his orderly room in some con-
venient public place, where the commanding officer, his
staff, and all the European officers not otherwise engaged
should assemble. Here all regimental business should
be transacted in public; every man in the regiment
should have an opportunity every day of seeing his com-
manding officer.

"Everything being done with perfect openness in the
presence of all the English officers, many common sources
of discontent and of grievance, real or imaginary, would
be removed. Every officer would be habitually well ac-
quainted with everything relating to the regiment, and
would be undergoing a course of education calculated
better than any other to fit him for command in his turn.
" While the habitual daily presence of all the English
officers around their commanding officer would afford
him the best possible support in doing right, and impose
the most effective check on wrong, a very ordinary mor-
tal might, under such an arrangement, be safely trusted
with absolute powers, while no officer's qualifications
could ever be for a moment doubtful. Where everything
is open to the public, common sense has the fairest
chance of prevailing, and ' regulation' need be but little
intruded.

" Officers need be troubled as little as possible with
form, dress, ceremony, and matters of etiquette at their
daily orderly room ; and the inconvenience of daily at
tendance would speedily be overcome by an increasing
feeling of interest in all regimental affairs, and all
irksomeness would be removed by the grant of leave of
absence when required for any rational purpose.
" The arrangements here contemplated appears to me
to be of the very highest importance to the welfare of
the native army of India; and I may observe that I have
myself practised what I here teach for 15 years together
with the happiest effect.
" I will now conclude with a few observations on the
late order concerning passing in the native languages,
by which, with the best possible intentions, our hon.
masters have done such an amount of injustice to their
servants that if the order be really and strictly carried
into effect the greatest injury to the army and to our
Indian empire must ensue.
" In the first place, the Hon. Court of Directors pro-
claim that the only post in their service for which a
knowledge of the native language is not a necessary qua-
lification is the command of their regular native soldierE:
officers who do not pass are to remain with their regi-
ments. Secondly, An officer by natural talent and study,
may be a first-rate engineer, or peradventure an astro-
nomer, but nature may have denied him the peculiar
talent of acquiring language, and he has in consequence
thither passed in Hindostanee, Mahratte, nor Persian.
Government requires an engineeror an astronomer ; by
the order of the Hoe. Court they must appoint, not the
man who is well acquainted with astronomy and physi-
col science, but some one whose leisure has been occu-
pied, and whose mind has been improved, by the study
of the indecent and obscene stories and of the childish
fables of which the Hindostanee literature consists, but
who knows not a vernier from a mural qaadrant, nor
Jupiter from Venus. Nature has given us all, even the
best of us, but very limited faculties ; some excel in one
respect, some in another, each may do excellently well it
placed in that position for which his natural talents and
abilitfes are suited ; but to attempt to force all men to
be linguists is no more reasonable than to compel thorn
to be all of one size of body ; what between stretching
and compressing, the whole human race- might be de-
stroyed, but no uniformity of size would be produced. It
is quite as unreasonable to say that a man is unfit for
staff employ because he has not the gift of tongues, as it
would be to say so because he was no musician ; a want
of an organ of language is probably quite as common as
the defect of the organ of tune. Bat does either defi-
ciency imply that the man is fit to command the native
infantry soldiers of the Indian army and fit for nothing
else ? Has any Government on earth such an amount of
talent at its disposal that it can afford to press all into
one mould without fatal injury to efficiency ?
" I have served my hon. masters long, and at least
zealously. They have told me that I have done them
good service, and they have given me high praise. I
have never been absent from my duty, and have al-
ways performed it to the full satisfaction of my
superiors. I am tolerably acquainted with the natives
of India, in intimate association with whom I have
passed the best part of my life. But, on the oller
blind, I have not passed in any language and cannot
read even the Bagh-o-Bahar. Wherefore I am vir-
tually told by my hon. masters that as I have been
so long in their service they will not now positively
turn me out, as - incapable, from the place I
have held with so much undeserved praise from them
during the last ten years; but my lieutenants, who have
hitherto, I flatter myself, held me in some considerable
respect and esteem, and whom I have endeavoured to
confirm in what seem to me to be soldier-like ideas, are
now told that to prevent my bad example affecting them,
to prevent their becoming such an imbecile as their
commander, in spite of his thinking them the best men
in the army to be his lieutenants, and his never having
had a fault to find with one of them, and in spite of all
their zealous and- gallant services, and their honourable
wounds, they are now told, I say, they shall all be turned
out of their appointments if they do not immediately
pass an examination in the Hindostanee language. Teat
is to say that seven years' honest exertion, and brilliant
service in the field, including a most honourable share
in hard-fought and important battles and siegez, with
frequent commendation in public despatches, &a., alto-
ther imply, in the opinion of our hon. masters, a degree
of merit and capacity not to be compared to that
acquired by the study of filthy Hindostanee stories.

4 Let the Hon. Court at once rescind an order which
will defeat the object contemplated in it ; which has dis-
gusted or will diggust many of their best, most tried, and
most valued servants ; which will make contempt and
ill-feeling take the place of honest pride and generous
zeal ; and which cannot but deeply injure their army
and India in general.

"'I have had abundant opportunity of judging of this
matter, and I solemnly assure my honourable masters
that it is notorious that their officers who have passed
in the language are not only not the most able of their
servants, but that they have as a body (there are bril-
liant exceptions of course) less knowledge of that len;
guage for practical purposes than the unpassed ; that is
if language be intended to facilitate the cimmuuication
of ideas between man and man, and not for concealing
thoughts. This may appear paradoxical, bat a little
consideration soon shows that it must be s While
the young man has been studying booke, the other has
been studying men. I have on hundreds of occasions seen
a youthful genius who had passed in the language, en-
t'rvly at a loss to understand the expresso is used by a
common. peasant, and quite incapable of maintaining a
conversation with him, while one of the unpassed who
could no', read a word in a Hindostanee book, but had
been accustomed to associate with the people, would
talk with the man with perfect fluency. A knowledge
of the people of India, of their thoughts gabits, feelings,
beliefe, desires', wants, &c., is learnt, not from Hindo-
stanee books, but from intercourse with the people
tiaemselves. And my honourable masters may well be-
lieve me, when I tell them that such knowledge is of
far more importance to their service and to India than
the most intimate acquaintance with all the Hindostanee
books ever written.

"Another subject of vital importance to India, not
only to the army, but to all the services, and to the
whole people of the country, natives as well as Euro-
peans, is the furlough regulations.
"The existing-rules are not adapted to the present
state of things, they belong to days long gone by, when
a period of 12 months or more was necessary to receive
from England an answer to a letter from Bombay.
"Moreiver, the present rules regarding leave of ab-
sence are exceedingly unfair in another respect. Thew
tendency in every way is to favour the least valuable
servants of Government—those who are csainually
suffering from real or imaginary sickness, and on that
account continually absent from their duty.
"It is an undoubted physiological fast, that hard-
working, energetic men, who continually exercise them-
selves in bodily and mental occupation, suffer the least
from ill health. They have no time to be sick. Autho-
rities are agreed on this point. For example, Copland
(Med. Lect„ page 562) says :
" ' When the mental energies are depressed by grief,
anxiety, disappointment, fear, &c., the powers of life are
less able to oppose the debilitating causes of disease
which invade them from without, and of which nature all
the exciting causes of fevers, I articularly those which
are specific or contagious and miasmal, generdlly par-
take in a most marked manner. Oa the other hand,
when the mind is elevated by success, by hope, by con-
fidence, and the other exciting passions. the depressing
causes make little or no impression upon the constitu-
tion, and individuals thus circumstanced almost always
escape from diseases, which readily invade the fearful,
the dejected, and the disappointed.'
"Again, Copland, Med, Dict , p. 920, paragraph
118 ; Confidence, continued mental oocupation, and.
moderate excitement, are especially efficacious in resist.
ing the causes of most fevers. .

‘" There is a moral courage sometimes posses, eti by
persons, the weakest, perhaps in respect of physical
power, that enables them to resist infectious and epi-
demic influences more successfully than the most robust,
who are not thus mentally endowed.'
"On the other hand, it is certain that a large portiin
of the sickness which causes so many officers to be
absent from their duty in India is produced by feebleness
of character, by idleness, laziness, listlessness, or lan-
gour.
_ _ _

"Now, I would not for a moment wish to lessen the
indulgencies granted by a beneficent Government to
such of its faithful servants as might have the misfortune
to be suffering from ill health. I would leave the rules
regarding leave of absence on sick • certificates a 3 they
arc, but assuredly I would so order matters that long-
continued, honest, unremitting, and valuable labour
should be deemed to coastitufe at least as god a title-to