The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-30 00:00:00

COL. JACOB ON THE BENGAL ARMY.

The following letter hds been addressed to a
c ntemporary :
S:r,—l observe that a pamphlet, which appeared
some years since, and was much condemned in
India at the time, for the bad feeling the author
exhibited towards the officers of the Bengal army,
has been republished, and is now lying upon the
tables of military subs.
As some .of the statements contained in this
pamphlet liave been quoted at public meetings as if
they were correct, and deductions drawn therefrom
to the disadvantage of the men who are now en-
gig 'd in India upholding British supremacy with
their blood, I solicit a small space in your columns
to expose one or two of this tissue of absurdities
and misrepresentations.
The officers of the Bengal army, as a body, hive
always regarded Major Jacob's pictures of them.,
selves and their sevice with calm indifference, if not
contempt ; but the late Lord Fitzclarence, who
was Commander-in-Chief at Bombay when the
pamphlet appeared, seemed to see so much male-
volence and desire to create ill-blood between the
two w-rvices that he publicly reprimanded Major
Jacob in general orders.
I shall first remark that Major Jacob is ignorant
of the native languages. In fact, he has rather a
contempt for such acquirements. He can neither
r ad nor write any of the many languages of the
people among whom he has spent the best portion
of his life. The elegant tales of the "Bagh o
Millar" are "filthy stories," and he prefers to
speak a jargon infinitely worse than Mr. Brown's
French to expressing himself like a gentleman and
educated person. Accordingly his 'knowledge of
the natives is deep. We shall see. "To such an
incredible extent has this helplessness been carried
and recognised by authority, that a Bengal sentry
cannot think of striking the gong at his own
quarter-guard, and men called Punta Pandays are
actually maintained and paid for by government to
do this duty for than)." "For them !" For whom,
.the Punta Pandays or government ? Shade of
Cohbett !

There being no clocks, a gong is suspended to a
triangle before every guard-house on the Bengal
side, and it is the special duty of a person appointed
for the purpose to keep watch day and night. To
enable him to do so with regularity he is supplied
with two half-hour glasses ; when the sand of these
runs out be rises and strikes the hour. But
he must eat and sleep ; when thus occupied, the
men of the guard discharge his duty. The man
is called " Pandee," because he is always a Brah-
min, although it does not follow that he belongs to
the family of Pundoo ; he may be a Missr, Tewar-
rie, or any other of the order. He 'is employed
solely for the sake of keeping regularity of time,
which could not be obtained from the sleepy heads
of the guard. I ask, confidently, any military
man, if a sentry is a proper person for this work ;
and yet Major Jacob would have him leave his
post, put down his musket, and strike the hours.
This is a plain statement of a custom which pre-
vailed before the English arrived in India ; we see
what a wonderful story has been woven out of it
—"ab Imo disce omnes." Major Jacob would
have his readers believe that there is no such thing
as caste in the Bombay army. I wish it was true,
for I am really very anxious about the fidelity of
th, Hindostanees in that service, knowing they are
the near relatives of the villains now in Delhi— I
have seen a great deal of the Bombay army, and
served with it. I was ten days, on ono occasion,
with two companies of a native infantry regiment,
on board a steamer. One of h&c was the light
company, the men were all Oude men of high caste,
and very proud their captain was of them. The
other company was composed of all sorts ; they were
dirty pe )ple, unclean in their habits, and filthy
beneath the red rag. They brought on board with
them women and children, g, a's, fowls, and dogs,
and lived together in a very nasty way. The light
company stood aloof from them, and were station( d
upon the plop, to be out of the dirt. One of these
Oude men said to a comrade, purposely to be
beard by me, knowing that I was a Bengal offi-
cer, " The Bombay service is only fit for pig'
driver," So much for there being no taste, ac-