The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-09 00:00:00

THE BENGAL SEPOY.

(Prom the Morning Herald)
We published on Tuesday some remarks upon the-
condition of the Bengal Sepoy, and the cireum-
st traces which inevitably render him, under our pre-
sent orginisation, not only an untrustworthy, but a
dangerous soldier to his employers. It will be our
duty at present torefer to the conditionof the regiMen-
tal officer in the Company's service, and paint out
the necessities which not only destroy his Or • ency
in his own person, but undermine the authority
and lower his prestige in the eyes of those who for
the benefit, and indeed safety of the empire, ought
to look to him as the zonrce both of . reward and
punishment. In ftet, the officer should be to the
sepoy what they themselves designate, in their
figurative language, "the distributor of bread."
Such was the state of things when the sepoy was
an efficient and loyal soldier. It requires very
little knowledge of the state of our Indian army
to discover how completely the relative position of
the officer and sepoy has been altered in the course
-of the last few years ; and how perversely measures
have been adopted which could result in no other
effect than to destroy all feelingA, not only of
respect or gratitude, but even of salutary fear on
the part of the latte-.

This subjec, has been so frequently mooted of
late that we might perhaps have passed it over,
wens it not that the short-sighted policy which pro-
duced such disastrous effects requires to be exposed,
'not only in its action and effect, but also in its
motives and object*.
We shall sum up shortlythe practices which are,
according to our views, most influential in produc-
ing the present disastrous condition ,of the native
service in Bengal.
The most obvious of the practices, and perhaps
in its results the most mischievous as regards the
officer, hISt beeli the habit adopted, in the increas-
ing ratio for several years back, of feeding the civil
by drafts from the military service of the Company.
The result, ono would have supposed, of such a
,system might have been easily foreseen ; but, as we
hope to show, the motive to its adoption was so
strong as to overcome alt considerations even of the
most ordinary prudence.
At the first glance it will be obvious that such a
practice deprived the military set vice of two classes
of men—those whose capacity and talent rendered
them eligible for staff and civil appointment, and
those whose interest set them above the ordinary
routine of the service.

It may be s yid that the second class were perhaps
no great loss, but their removal not improbably in-
creased the feeling of hopeless and the sense of
wrong inevitably engendered in the minds of those
who were left behind, even more than the selection
of superior men, whose claims to employment might
more easily have been admitted by their less for-
tunate comrades.

However this may be, it is undeniable that the
mere regimentsl officers became to be regarded as
an inferior class—a view which was naturally con-
firmed when it was remarked that inefficiency or
misconduct in those who were selected for employ-
meet upon extra-regimental duties was punished
by sending the delinquent back to his regiment.
The effect upon the minds of men so neglected and
so looked upon may easily be conceived ; and, with-
out wishing to say one harsh word, it may be
easily believed that the regimental officers of the
Bengal army aro not equal either in zeal or effici-
ciency to their predecessors of 30 or 40 years ago.
To all this, however, was added another cinnu-
lative load, which aggravated the evils which we
have already commentet on. This error was the
system of concentration of authority in the hands
of the highest functionaries of the' army, whereby
the regimental officers were deprived of all control
over the soldiers. We have.been given to under-
stand that the most trivial matters, even the
reduction of an insubordinate or inefficient havil-
dar-serjeant to the ranks, was of necessity referred
to head-quarters, and not unfrequently the sentence
of the regimental court-martial was reversed. In-
deed, we have heard upon good authority that the
first symptoms of bad feeling in a cavalry regiment
which has taken a con.spicuous part in the revolt
showed thetisselves immediately after the replace-
ment infront of the regiment of a non-commissioned
officer, in defiance of the sentence of a court-mar-
tial by which he had been degraded.
It is hardly necessary to dilate upon all the dis-
locations of community of feeling which such a sys-
tem must prlduce ; and from what has been said
We think that every one can form his own opinion
as to the causes which have led to our present evils.
There is, however, an additional matter upon which
the public mind ought to be informed, and for
giving this information there will be no time except
the present moment, as, at er the next mail, public
attention will be of necssity diverted from causes
to effects.
We believe the origo mali in all these transac-
tions has been the deficiency of the revenue in our
Eastern empire, which, as at present administered,
has not by any means increased iu amount in an
equal ratio with its territorial aggrandisement.
It is not necessary to enter into details of figures,
but it will be sufficient to state that the expendi-
turs of our magnificent Indian empire very consi-
derably exceeds the net receipts of the revenue. A
vary large part of this expenditure consists of the
salaries, &c., of the civil servants of the company ;
and as the funds are utterly unable to bear an in-
crease of the number of civil servants required for
the administration of the new provinces, if paid at
the same high rate which has hitherto been consi-
dered necessary for those employed within that por-
tion of the empire which existed before the late ad-
ditions, a dilemma arose. Now, as the reduction
of the salaries of the original civil servants was a
matter which would not be entertained by the
Court of Directors—and, indeed, could not be so
with any justice to those who bad already received
their appointments—a means must be found by
which efficiency and economy might be combined.
It will be easily seen that an officer weary of
the routine of regimental service, and, perhaps,
pinched in his means, would be only too happy to
be employed at a rate much below that at which
a civil servant would be retained for the same
duties—and such has proved to be the case.
Now, be it remarked, these men are never re-
placed in their regiments, and in consequence the,
duties of the army were left to he performed by a
class too small for the work, and deteriorated by the
abstraction of their best men.
Let us remember that within the last few years
the whole of Scinde, the vast resources of the Pun-
jaub, the greater part of Burmah, part of Pegu,
large tracts of the Nizarn's country, and last, not
least, the entire kingdom of Oude, have been
added to the Indian empire ; and that the whole,
or nearly the whole, administration of those coun-
tries has been entrusted to the officers withdrawn
from the military service. Surely, on considering
this, it will be easy to form an opinion of how
completoly inefficient the regimental administra-
tion must have become.
Nevertheless, with regard to the financial point
of view, far worse remains behind. It is generally
agreed that great changes, of which the following
may be regarded as the most important, are per-
emptorily required :7--
A considerable increase of European troops;
This will cost money.
A considerable increase of officers to each regi-
ment.
This will cost money.
A considerable increase of the civil service ; as,
if it were sufficient, it would
dar to supply thenot have been neces-
sary to rob the military d
want of civil servants.
most important points, the
ofo an theentirei
yEuropean artillery in
subAsntideutliaostn' one of
lieu!of that now existing ; in fact, our opinion is,
that there never should be another native gunner
trained in India.
This will cost money.
The? question then arises, where is it to come
from
The last Parliamentary return announces
ro
the frightful fact that the deficiency of revenue
with regard to expenditure amounted to the sum
of 1,707,3641., and we all know that Lord Dal-
housie's tamperings with the Four and Five per
Cents. has rendered the possibility of raising a loan
a matter of very considerable doubt.
Now, is there not something here that requires
inquiry ? We know that the comparatively small
islands of Cuba and Java return large surpluses
over expenditure to their Dutch and Spanish
masters, and that in Java the inhabitants have
become comparatively wealthy and independent ;
while, the population of that empire of 'which the
dominions of the Great Mogul form only an item
are poor and oppressed, and the empire itself is
absolutely bankrupt.
This is a sorry prospect. It will, hroewieikveell.y, be
a
necessary to examine hereafter if we
derive Comfort from a review of our relations with
neighbouring States—Nepaul, Cashmere,
• and Russia.