Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 343, May 1844Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 343, May 1844
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
long excluded, the truth remains unchanged of that of which Lake, and
many others since Lake of those who best knew India, have in vain
striven to impress the conviction on the authorities at home--the
paramount importance of a large intermixture of _British_ troops. "I am
convinced that, _without King's troops_, very little is to be expected
... there ought always to be at least one European battalion to four
native ones: this I think necessary." And again, in his despatch to the
Marquis Wellesley, the day after the arduous conflict at Laswarree--"The
action of yesterday has convinced me how impossible it is to do any
thing without British troops; and of them there ought to be a very great
proportion." It is true that the regulation lately promulgated by the
Duke of Wellington, that the heavy cavalry regiments shall in future
take their turn of Indian service, will in some measure remedy the evil
in that branch where it is most felt; and will at once increase their
military strength in India, and diminish the length of absence of the
different corps from Europe. The misconduct of the native regular
cavalry, indeed, on more than one occasion during the late Affghan war,
has shown that they are not much to be depended upon when resolutely
encountered. They are ill at ease in the European saddles, and have no
confidence in the regulation swords when opposed to the trenchant edge
of the native _tulwars_; while, on the other hand, the laurels earned by
Skinner's, Hearsay's, and other well-known corps of irregular horse,
might almost have induced the military authorities in India to follow
the example of the Mahrattas, who never attempted to extend to their
cavalry the European discipline which they bestowed on their infantry.
The sepoy infantry has ever been _sans peur et sans reproche_; yet,
though some of the most distinguished regiments of the Bengal army were
in the field before Gwalior, the honour of storming the death-dealing
batteries of Maharajpoor, was reserved for the same gallant corps which
led the way to victory under Clive at Plassey--her Majesty's 39th--and
which has now once more proved its title to the proud motto emblazoned
on its standards, _Primus in Indis_! The words of Lord Lake, (to refer
to him once more,) in his account of the battle of Delhi, might have
been adopted without variation by Lord Ellenborough in describing the
late actions. "The sepoys have behaved excessively well; but from my
observations on this day, as well as every other, it is impossible to do
great things in a gallant and quick style without Europeans;" and we
trust that, whenever the time shall arrive for the return of the present
governor-general to Europe, he will not fail to avail himself of the
weight which his personal experience will give him in the councils of
the nation, to enforce the adoption of a measure which, sooner or later,
will inevitably become one of absolute necessity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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