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Leader (1850-1860), 21st May 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 9, IIDIA,. . ¦" • ¦ AND ' • INDIAN PROGRESS...

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      . ^ France. Paris, Thursday, 6j P.M. The...

      called upon to give a vote which surprised and afflicted ife- ^ -to sanction the extra budgetary expenditure , Whose enormous progress nothing seemed to be able to stay , in spite of the complaints made every year , which Government admitted to be just . Under the present system the items of expenditure are decided by the respective Ministers , and the ^ hamber is compelled to approve or reject them . mi toto , while , as the supplementary credits are asked lor year after year * the balance of the public accounts for any one twelvemonth is not effected until several years afterwards . the speaker protested

      against what he termed the absorption of surplus by anticipation , which he said would prevent the Government from maintaining arid increasing their popularity . But what was the strangest and most significant part of his speech , was that in which he insisted upon the urgent necessity of completing the sinking fund * repealing the 10 per cent , addition to the taxes imposed for the purposes of the Russian war , and of increasing the salaries of Government officials ; and this at a moment when France has plunged into a costly war , has borrowed 20 , 000 , 000 sterling , and contemplates the imposition of new

      taxes . ' , ¦ ** x Another member said ^ that when Government asked for additional expenditure to be incurred they ought to state how they proposed to meet it , and not content themselves " with the stereotyped phrase that it would be provided for out of the ordinary resources of the budget . " It is not improbable that we may have a new illustration of the old saying , " When the cat ' s away the mice AVill play . "

      Twr^T The Lexdee. 641

      TWr ^ T THE LEXDEE . 641

      Iidia,. . ¦" • ¦ And ' • Indian Progress...

      IIDIA , . . ¦" ¦ AND ' INDIAN PROGRESS . ¦ " ' . . "¦ ¦ ¦' . — ' » r—~ - .

      Indian Army Organisation. Rilhe Report O...

      INDIAN ARMY ORGANISATION . rilHE report on Indian army organisation , ineoni-¦* - ¦¦ plete ' and undecided as it is , is one of the most extraordinary documents- ever produced . The questions proposed for consideration were of the greatest national importance , and they have been treated as if they were of importance to the officers and military friends of the three presidencies , and in subservience to the invested rights , privileges , and perquisites of the officers of the English home army . The English soldiers themselves have not been considered . These vices are too common ; for an officer is apt to look upon everything as it affects the interests he has possessed himself of by

      purchase or by nomination , . without' any reference to the interests of those whom he is appointed to serve . The Indian civil service is not without the same defects . What experience hag pointed out , and the public expect is , that provision shall be made for the gradual suppression of the native regular army , as the present sepoys in the Madras and Bombay regiments die off , to the restriction , of irregular troops , to the abolition of native artillery , to the establishment of hill stations for European troops , militia , ' and settlers , and to the maintenance of India by a European military force being a

      conhave a large body of English officers and sergeants ; and , if properly managed , this would be the means of keeping a large number of both classes in India . Let all soldiers of good conduct be encouraged to pass an examination , as all classes of Government servants do , in the native languages , and let their military service count with then * police service . Let there be , too , a fair prospect of promotion in the police , and the Indian police would become a favourite service , and would enlist large numbers of English , so that in time , as the resources of India increase and prices rise , the mounted police will consist solely of Europeans , as it is desirable the police ofV the great cities should likewise be chiefly composed of the same class .

      The reporters , provide for a native army , consisting of battalions of mixed races and castes , hoping thereby to limit mutiny , oblivious of the fact that it will matter very little whether natives of one caste or set are kept together in battalions , when by help of the post-office , of which they so well understand the use , and by other means of communication , the whole body of Poorbeahs , and the whole body of Mahomedans in the army will combine their separate detachments , and then the leaders of the Brahmins will combine with the leaders of the Mahomedans for . a general plan of action as heretofore . Opposition to the Feringhee is a sufficiently defined cause to bring together discordant elements ..

      When a good hold is got of the hill regions , the natives can be enlisted as now in local corps , like Highland regiments , as their families remain at home as hostages . At present these corps are kept in the hills for local service , while the English ai'e condemned to the plains ; and yet in Sylhet , Assam , Darjeeling , and KLiimaon for instance , English regiments could be most carefully Cantoned . The hill regiments have been recalled at the close of the war , but only one English regiment has obtained a hill station , and the English troops in ihe hills consist solely of draf ts of invalids .

      The question of supplying India with regiments of the line , or English regiments for local service , has been largely debated , but the true elements of the question have not been considered . The grand object appears to be , to provide for the disbanded officers of the Bengal army , and to give them good berths . Under any rational system there would be no difficulty in supplying India with any reasonable number of English recruits , if the , plan of short service- corps , to which we lately alluded , were carried out . For the sake of a free passage and a suburban allotment , there are plenty of young men who would enter for three years ' service without other bounty , and without extra

      pay . Three years' services would , therefore , cost 61 . a year , or 4 d . a day . If , as in the French service , soldiers understanding trades were allowed to work at their trades , paying the substitutes who did their military duty , whereby the whole regiment get extra pay out of the general resources , without any burthen to the Treasury , then we believe that the garrisons of Calcutta , and of every great city in India , could be well worked , while a body of Englishmen , trained to military service , would be distributed over the country , available as a reserve . We pointed out that many so recruited would remain soldiers for prolonged terms , or permanent service , but the option of shor . t service would be a great inducement .

      The basis , ' however , of Indian military organisation is the extension of the hill staitions and colonisation , and the provision of branch railways . This , it should bo borne in mind , will create in India , in the ' course of a few years , a . large and effective army of Englishmen , which wjll not cost the Treasury a farthing ; for with the hills held by Englishmen , InUia cannot revolt , or must bo reconquered . Unfortunately , nothing is said in the report on this subject , nor was it made one of the questions for consideration . We are glad to see that Colonel Burlton energetically' protests against the large native army countenanced by bis brother commissioners .

      Btituent part of the general army . What the public is likely to get is very little . The artillery is to be held by Europeans , except in some garrisons of unhealthy climate $ whereas there is hardly one of these places which is really necessary for military purposes ; and they ought to bo as soon as possible dismantled , for wherever kept up they must he sources of danger , as in the hands of black artillery they give rallying points for future insurrections N ^ o arsenals should be kept in any such places '; and we are quite sure if the hill stations wore properly organised there is no garrison in India whicli could not be supplied by quarterly drafts of artillery from the hill

      stations ; but then railways should be laid down , by which reliefs can be brought down in a day , instead of reliefs being three months on the road The 03 rd Regiment , on the reduction of Oude , had the good luck to bo rewarded with cantonment in a hill station , but at the last advices it had not yet readied its destination . Lord Clyde is anxious , for his health ' s sake ,, to reach Simla , and ho hat * been a long time on the miserable roads . There is another useful recommendation in the report , and that is , that as a large native police is now being enrolled , a military organisation , should be avoided as far as possible . Those best acquainted with India , consider that the police should

      Eastern Bengal Company—Whereby, If Appro...

      Eastern Bengal Company—whereby , if approved , the parties who have laboured are to get nothing for their time and expense , and those who have done nothing are to reap the fruits of the others ' toil . , Colonel S . T . Christie , 80 th Foot , has leave to Darjeeling . . Lord Stanley ' s announcement of a fee-simple tenure for India has been received with great satisfaction out there . The Friend of India , which has so long laboured in the cause , congratulates Mr . Macleod Wylie and those who have been firm in maintaining this demand . It pertinently alludes

      to Lord Stanley ' s declaration . in the House ; of Commons , that it is most important to open the unoccupied lands to European colonisation . All the Sunderbund grantees , all tea-growers in Assam , all miners renting of Government , all planters in territories like vVynaad or Darjeeling , it is observed , may now , if they have inclination or capital , become owners of the soil . The Friend of India expresses no less satisfaction with the application of the system to zemindaries . " Bengal is to be sold , " this will be of the

      and the editor maintains step greatest benefit to India . Every Englishman or native , who holds direct of the State , may emancipate himself at once from all further risk of agency or dependence on the collector . No . native can sweep away his property in an hour by neglecting to pay his rent—^ no distressed Chancellor of the Exchequer raise his rent on the Jand which he has cleared . That single measure will , the editor firmly believes , place Lord Stanley a century hence in the front rank of Indian benefactors . .

      The Friend of India points to the necessity of providing that the large zemindaries may be divided for the purpose of redemption , so as to facilitate the gradual progress of the measure . Simla was , at the last advices , in the state of expectation , Lord Clyde not having yet reached . The telegraph is being extended to the station , which ought to have been done long since . The town is fast being filled with residents , and the hopes of house proprietors are raised . A club and family hotel have been opened . A brewery has been established , under the superintendance of an experienced man from England , with a large supply of hops and good water , and it is expected that

      Simla beer will rival that of Mussoories , Kussowlee , and the- Neilgherries . As we observed lately , the new tariff will favour the manufacture . It is feared that the consumption will be hpiited by the ill-success of the hill brewers as yet in making a beer that will keep . When the radway system is extended there must be a great beer trade . In the up part of Assam the authorities have had another brush with the Abors , who gave us so much trouble last year , and beat back a detachment with their poisoned arrows . This time they besides

      had a party of fifty sailors to deal with , two companies of Assam Light Infantry . Two of their villages , about thirty miles from Debwoghur , were token and burnt . Twenty of our men were wounded with poisoned arrows , and one died . This tribe has proved a great obstruction to our progress , but has been gradually compelled to yield . Captain Eckford , commanding Mynpoonc Levy , has leave for the hills north of Dehra . This is a strange destination for one attached to Mynpoorie , for it mig ht have been thought he could have found one nearer .

      Lieutenant I-jt . Collingwood , 48 th Bengal N . I ., has leave to the Dolira hills , and so has Lieut . Sloman , 61 st Foot . Ensign II . Brodrick , COth Rifles , has leave to Nynee T ' al , together with Capt . J . L . W . JNunn . Leave for Rawul Pindco and Murreo hns been given to Lieut . E . Borrowcs , 80 th Foot . The exploring party who went to discover a Bite for . a Sanatorium , in the Vindhyau range , have returned . It consisted of Dr . Copper , Vr . Maophoroon , Dr . 0 .. J . Smith , and Capt . Shakespear . They ascended the Galoo Purwarthmn , or Hill of Wind , the highest peak of the range , and returned in good health . Jt is understood they were much pleased with their expedition , and that they have reported favourably of the practicability of forming a Sanatorium ibr Europeans . It is to be hoped this recommendation will be adopted , as such an establishment is much wanted in that

      The efforts of Sir Macdonuld Stophenson , Dr . Archibald Camp boll , and Mr . Hyde Clarke have been successful in scouring a railway from Calcutta to Darjeolinff , in favour of which the Indian Gqvernment lias reported ; but as the -Govern " ment is indisposed to grant a separate company for this district , it is proposed to give the line to the

      The M adras G overnment have finally sanctioned the surveys . for the branch railway to tho foot oj the Noilgherries , and huve approved of tho plan of

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 21, 1859, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21051859/page/9/