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INDIA.—MILITARY CHANGES.
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between ; there was an extent of , I think , five or six miles to land upon ;—then certainly the operation was beautifully conducted ;—6 , 000 men sprang on shore , and all jumped out of the boats at once . " Sir John does not believe the landing- in the Crimea could have been effected if the Russians had properly contested it ; and he observes that light guns , even threepounders , will sink boats quite as well as heavier artillery , and such guns , on Armstrong's principle , can easily be carried from place to place . It is remarkable that Sir John Burgoyne is as unwilling- as other old-school officers to meet the case fairly , and look upon arming and training the people as the only way out of the difficulty . If a French armv were landed on our coasts , he believes
it would at once make for London , " where success would put an end to the war ; " and he coolly adds , " If you could keep them from London for a month or two , you would make a very good fight of it , I have no doubt . " The country cannot be satisfied to " make a good fight of it" after a delay that would ruin half the commercial firms in the kingdom , and so destroy credit as to bring all provisions to a famine price . Nothing short of a moral certainty of rapid success in operations of defence can be held sufficient , and there is but one way to obtain this—namely , by a general arming and training of all the ablebodied men willing to lend their aid . Such projects as fortifying Shooter's Hill are only fit for the honesty of Newgate or the intelligence of Bedlam .
No artificial structures can equal the natural fortifications of our country . It is the Grovemirient , and the Government only , that stands in the way of our having a countless host of trained defenders ; and good " officers wovdd convert our hills , hedges , and copses into far better lines of defence than any costly apparatus of permanent works . Nothing , however , should be left to chance , or to the last moment . All approaches to the metropolis , and to every city of importance , should be surveyed -with , reference to a good plan of action , ¦ and- , volunteers and regulars should have districts assigned to them , so that no time should be lost . We have officers quite competent to arrange the whole thing with the greatest facility ; but we fear they are not in favour with the red-tape mediocrities who occupy the War-office , nor with the . parasites who disgrace the Court . -r
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AT present , our local regular army of India consists of 229 , 333 men . Of these , 4 , 980 are officers , and 13 , 884 European privates . This number is exclusive of the Queen's troops and of irregular forces . By an Act passed last session , the Government was empowered to raise 30 , 000 European troops , anfl-foi ^ n ^ hmn- ^ as-tlie-East-India ... Company .. ( lid , into a local force
of all arms ; but Sir Charles Wood has asked for leave to bring in a Bill to repeal the Act . It is the intention of the Government to haVe in India no local force of Europeans , but the regular army administered by the Horse Guards . The Government in India , in like manner , proposes that the whole local native force , regular and irregular , horse and foot , shall be put down , and a constabulary substituted ,
so that Her Majesty's troops will constitute the entire military garrison of India . We can hardly believe that such a scheme is contemplated to the extent signified , and still less that it will ever be carried into execution . At the same time , it is so confidently announced by the Council in India , in Parliament , and by journals of which the influence is great in proportion to the ignorance of the general public on such , a subject , that we are compelled to notice it .
Our empire in India was won by men who studied on the spot the means of conquest . No expedition ever went forth from our shores for this purpose . The adventurers , who , in time accomplished the great work , were traders ; and , though they were occasionally assisted by the national forces , as France contended against England in India for superiority as she contended in America , they achieved the conquest in the main by their own means . They studied the character and disposition of the natives , and used them to subjugate their country . The work was done rather by art than force . The majority of the soldiers
by . jwhich Clive _ and Hastings gained their great victories consisted of natives . When our " tradersweiit thither , they found India occupied by conquerors , quarrelling about their booty . They found , too , the natives divided into enstos , amongst which was -a numerous military caste , bearing something of a sacred character , winch , lived and could only live by bearing anus . That caste furnished them with soldiers . It had been so employed by tliti Mussulman conquerors of India , and those who had to contend against them found their tools in the Rohillns and others . Having merged all patriotism in superstition , their sword wns commanded by the best paymaster . The art which
gained victories , crowned them with rewards . It was , m fact , nothing new that the inasterdom over India should be gained and maintained by a foreign race , using its own children for the jjurpose * Our trading adventurers won an empire , preserved and extended it by deferring to the-prejudices of the . natives . They stooped to conquer—followed , as Burke says all rulers must , in ordei to lead , * and were successful beyond example . A totally different line of policy is to be pursued by our Treasury officials . They are to retain the country , conquered by
the help of the people , in spite of them , and ostentatiously avow their object . Sir Charles Wood , about the humblest of loquacious and routine statesmen , is to reverse the policy of Clive and Hastings , vY ; yI , lesley , and their successors . That the natives cannot now be managed like their forefathers ; that the Sepoys , renowned through a whole century for unswerving fidelity , have mutinied , been disbanded , and decimated ; that the Government of India has become involved in difficulties , and European residents have been the victims of terrible excesses , is more due to
our inattention to the principles by which the natives were nrst trained to out service , than to any change in then " - character . If they have grown presumptuous , we have grown careless . Both might be in degree reckless . There is no evidence of any change in the men , there is abundant evidence 6 f gross negligence in the authorities . These have left the regiments without adequate officers ; they have riot watched over discipline , and have lost the art of training the men to obedience . Nor is the fact without significance , that the same class of men , especially our military authorities , and authorities in every part of the empire , have
declined in efficiency . They haye not in themtlie soul of improvement , and only improve from external conrpulsion . The late disastrous mutiny , with all its dire consequences , was the fruit of their mismanagement , rather than of vice in the men . The judgment is hasty and erroneous which condemns them instead of our officials , and from one frightful example jumps to the conclusion that a native military force can no longer be relied on . It ought to bey with , the additional-care and precautionsof whichlate events have taught us the necessity . To break lip the system by which an empire was won , instead of renovating it after it has been allowed to degenerate , is to run with the eauses that hasten
decay . . : Instead of arming and brigading the natives to serve its , they are to be taxed , merely to pay the European force which is to keep them obedient . "This is the vulgar notion of routine and vulgar statesmen . At the same , time they are expected to believe that the new system , which shuts them out from power , neither flatters their prejudices , nor conforms to their social policy , is for their benefit . A few money-making bankers and dealers may find their account in the new system , and their support may encourage similar men in a ruinous " course . —\^ OliQTild 4 iige ^ o-be-infoi i me d-hmv-iG . o v ^ t-ii met it # & ££££ §__
the disbanded troops will be disposed of . Hou- can the caste , doomed to arms , find other occupations ? Can it be absorbed , as the comparatively few soldiers disbanded from time to time , on the cessation of war , are absorbed in Europe , into the mass of the miscellaneous population ? Is it not rather more likely that the superstition which destroys patriotism , will now be for the military caste a bond of union ? Will not the disbanded soldiery be driven to unito in self-defence ? May not the . alternative for them be conquest or starvation ? And may we-not expect that by excluding them from military service , we shall increase the force to be subdued , and shall cavvt ; out lor our
own troops more work than they can perform ? The new system will enlist a vast population , no longer divided under many rulers , and easily communicating one with , auother , against us ; while the old system enlisted the better and an always increasing part in our service . The new course st : ems eminently dangerous , and our children , if not ourselves , will have to deplore the delusion which induced us to substitute as the principle of our Indian rule the arrogant ignorance of Canon Itow for the deferential knowledge of Leadenhall Street . The great empire was won by deferring to the ' sooial institutions of the Hindoos , and what then may we expect from a policy which sets them at defiance ?
The consequences of this threatened change in the military means by which we are to hold India will be very important , at home . It implies a permanent addition to the standing army , ami .. VQ , the power of the Horso Guards , of at least 30 , 000 men to replace the Indo-European troops . If the plan be curried out to the lull extent mentioned , another 30 , 000 men , with all tlie start appointments belonging to such a body , will scarcely su ( lice , however skilfully , they may be handled , to secure our dominion in Tndia . A permauenfc addition of at least < J 0 . , it ' not 1 ) 0 , 000 men , or even more , will be made to our army , officered as it yet is and likely to bo exclusively by the connections of tlie aristocracy , and perverted , as it ever has
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584 The Leader and Saiwday Analyst . [ June 23 , I 860 .
India.—Military Changes.
INDIA . —MILITARY CHANGES .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 23, 1860, page 584, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2353/page/4/
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