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in-Chief s Staff , there is nothing to stimulate the ambition of a Queen ' s officer , while the Company ' s , serrajats may aspire , not . only to military , hut to civil , appointments of high honour and emoluments . An officer of the Native Army who has attained a competent knowledge of two oriental languages may hope to become the Chief Commissioner of a district ar important as the Principality of Wales , or to represent the Supreme Government at the court of a native T > rince ruling
over millions of subjects . . And even if he fail to carry off the highest prizes for merit , or interest , he may look with some confidence to an enviable post in the Commissariat , to the command of a Contingent or Irregular Corps , or to the lucrative office of Acting Engineer . In the beginning , this exclusive system was thoroughly consistent with that adopted by the Company in the general management of their affairs . A body of merchants , having formed a notable scheme for
enriching themselves by trading with " the gorgeous Bast , " obtained from the sovereign of the day the privilege of debarring all others from the display of similar enterprise . It was in furtherance of this narrow-minded policy that the nucleus was formed of the present Bengal Army . When the first factory was established at Hooghly , in the year 1652 , the armed force stationed therein was limited to " Ensign and thirty men , to do honour to the principal Agents . " But only
thirty-one years afterwards the Company increased this number to . 250 European soldiers , not as a defence against the native princes , but expressly to prevent alt , competition on the part of other adventurous Englishmen—contemptuously designated as " interlopers" in all the public documents of the times . With the same view , a man-ofwar was sent out from England to cruise in the Bay of Bengal ,, with orders to " suppress a class of freebooters , acting equally against
the exclusive privileges of the Company and the interests of the nation . " Subsequently , through an egregious misconception of the simplest principles of commerce , and by a series ^ of fortunate blunders , the East India Comp ^ a ^ 7 " ^ " ^^^^ ^?< u " ght"i ; o the verge of ruin , stumbled upon an empire , and from being dealers in colonial produce became the
rulers of * many millions of copper-coloured men . Now , thi s marvellous result was not achieved without the aid of a large auxiliary force from the Crown , whose servi ces demand a more adequate requital than they have yet received . For the spirit of monopoly that originated the Company ' s success has unhappily been perpetuated in their administration , until the British Parliament has been
compelled to interfere and to suppress their most cherished and exclusive privileges . Not only has the eastern trade been thrown open , but the Civil Service of India has ceased to be the apanage of half a dozen Scotch families . It now only remains to complete the demolin tion of the absurd imperium in wtperio , a mercantile community possessing a standing army well nigh independent of their own Government , and ruling over a people many times more numerous than the immediate
subjects of their sovereign . And this desirable consummation may bo easily and equitably effected by reorganising the Indian Army , and by its conversion : into a Colonial Abmt , on the same footing as the various corps known as the Canadian , Ceylon , and West Indian regiments . It 18 commonly supposed , or at least stated , that India is the best military school for the English army , a fallacy than which there can be none greater . For , in the first place , the discipline , in that' torrid climate ia necessarily leas atriot : than in > Europe , and the men ,. taringtinoEQ . ' money and leisure ^ at comnwuidy
generally acquire habits not commendable in a British " soldier . Besides , when , a regiment is ordered home , by far the greater portion volunteers to remain ,: and few of those who originally left their native land ever set foot on it again . Of the officers , too , more than one-third are placed on half-pay , so that it cannot- be truly said that the experience of
warfare obtained in India is essential to the efficiency of our home army . And it must also be borne in mind that for every regiment to be relieved there is one to be sent out , and that it frequently happens that , while either corps is proceeding to its destination , the services of the two regiments are lost to the State for upwards of a year at the same time . Undoubtedl y , the presence of a
few European regiments is hi ghly important , and . perhaps indispensable , to the security of our Eastern Empire ; but it is by no means necessary that they should be detached from the Queen ' s service in Europe . The European corps already in the pay of the Honourable Company have , on more than one occasion , proved themselves equal to the regular line , and it would be far less expensive to augment this force by a given number of permanent regiments than to persist in the present system of reliefs . And their efficiency would be the greater , because their officers the
might be required to pass through same tests as to lingual attainments to which the officers of the native army are now subjected . But it is well known that the Queen's officers rarely ma ke any progress in the ^ Oriental tongues , so that in the field they are quite unable of themselves to obtain any information as to the country , or the movements of the enemy . This Colonial Abmt , "then , -would consist
of European and of Native-regiments , to be distributed over the entire Indian Empire , including Ceylon , without reference to the artificial and troublesome distinctions of Presidencies , which only tend to foster a spirit of jealousy and illwill . Officers in any other branch of the British service might be permitted to exchange into this force , and to enjoy every privilege air present the exclusive property o ' f-the Company ' s troops , on proving
themselves capable of discharging the peculiar duties of the post which they sought to obtain . In the hour of need this army would be available for any quarter of the globe . It might be poured through Egypt into Europe , and landed at any point on the shores of the Mediterranean or the Euxine ; or it might be employed to occupy the coasts of Western Africa or of China , or the islands in the southern seas . There would thus exist but
one British army , united by common interests and sympathies . At home we would have a well-organised militia , ever ready to repel all foreign aggression , and a standing army , in a high state of discipline , capable of being hurled at any moment on a given point . And abroad , a colonial army inured to diversity of climates and skilled in a diverd to
sity of tongues , and at all times prepare maintain peace and tranquillity in our most distant possessions . These three services , though distinct , might differ from each other less than do the various arms of artillery , cavalry , and infantry . And having all a similar duty to perform , they should , in common justice , be encouraged by similar hopes , and recompensed by similar rewards .
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THE MORAL OF THE RECEPTION LAST WEEK . "It is easy to bo wickedly virtuous , " says a prosperous Whig , when you reprobate the extinction ,, by perjury anil maesaore , of the liberties of a great nation * An unsuccessful liberticidfr ana a weak criminal ia odioua * but this
man is successful and strong ; and therefore a nation of freeEoea follow " the right instinct " in-giving him a popular ovation .-Is this all the hope we have for the liberties of * mankind ? Is this the end of Revolutions ? Has a nation so full of intellect and generous aspirations struggled so terribly and so long , only that it may become a fit subjeet
for a despotism which rises by the hand of a St . Abnaud , which rules through Mornys and Persignys , which stands by Jesuitism and bayonets ? The base moral frivolity , the utter ingratitude towards all who have tried to advance humanity , the abject despair of political virtue and human progress which this prostration before a liberticide evinces , are sad omens for our race .
It is a folly or an hypocrisy to say that France wants rest . This is not rest ; it is suppression , which will lead in the end to worse unrest . The only thing that can give rest to a nation worthy to be free is the manful effort which shall bring her storm-tost liberties to shore . " A rebellion—a civil war—a restoration—a reaction—furious factions—scaffolds running with blood—another rebellion ! This nation wants rest ! " So might William of Orange have said in 1688 . And then , having fusilladed London into peace , he might have gone to Amsterdam and talked of his " convictions "
to a land of liberty without danger . ' If despotism be just in France , why do we make war against the despot of Russia ? Is it because the despot of Russia is really a social necessity , and because he has not extinguished in Blood the liberties of a free people ? You talk of this despotism as required by the interests of civilisation . Civilisation is ~ not material prosperity , such as sheep may enjoy under a shepherd . Civilisation is something moral , and its source is freedom of thought . But the Jesuit , supported by the gendarme , stands triumphant over freedom of thought in
France . Is any one so weak and so ignorant of history as to be misled by the popular beginnings of despotism ? Can any one be cheated of free institutions by seeing " Emperor by the will of the people" on a coin , or be bribed to relinquish them by a magnificence in architecture , easy . to . thpse who can take any man ' s money at their will ? Augustus was elaborately affable . Augustus was tribune of the people . Augustus found Rome brick , and left it marble . Augustus banished , confiscated , proscribed . After Augustus came Tiberius , Caligula , Claudius ,
Neho . We arc told that God forgives , and that man ought to forgive , the past . The suppression of French liberty is not past . Now , while we are feasting Louis Napoleon , his ^ noble victims , whom we once feasted , are living ia exile , or bowing their heads in shame at home . of civic
Now , amidst the crapulous transports adulation , hundreds are being tortured to death by the fevers of Cayenne—condemned as disturbers of society by the man who raised the standard of civil war in his own selfish interest at Boulogne and Strasburg . God and man may forgive the robber , but not while his knee is on the breast , and his hand on the throat , oi hia
victim . , , We are told that France has condoned the coup d ' etat . Who heard France pronounce this condonation ? Let the French pressi be free for a day , and if the voice it utters is that of condonation , we shall regard the slavery ot France for the future without horror , thougu not without sorrow . ., . Englishmen must not mistake what tuey have llone in the eyea of Franco and Europe . To grasp cordially the hand of the actual ruler of Franco , and to join with him heart . iym any enterprise fop the benefit of the- two natonfl would have- been w « U . All Europe would lurt *
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gg ^ TiHJfc li E A lfr-Ei Bu [^ Aa ? TTBDAY ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 28, 1855, page 398, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2088/page/14/
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