shores of Western India, by prospects of promotion and riches; which are generally realized, as they are indefatigable and very economical. They call themselves Brahmans and Rajpoots, but are many of them artizans.

The Mahrattas are the descendants of the same men who successively, under Sewajee, the Bhow, Sindiah, and Holkar, so often carried desolation and death over the finest provinces of Hindostan, immemorially the prey of every adventurer. They are mostly cultivators of the soil, and the greater part probably never enrolled among the predatory bands of their native land. From their vicinity to Bombay, being mostly the inhabitants of the Kokun and Deccan, a large part of the army is formed of them. They are excellent soldiers; obedient, patient, and brave. Being of an inferior tribe, although pure Hindus, they are not subject to the troublesome religious observances imposed on the higher classes, some of which strike at the root of military order. To this facility may be ascribed, in a great measure, their superiority (particularly that of their cavalry) in Hindostan. Being of the middle size, their small compact bodies are formed to support fatigue, and by the tenour of their lives, inured to it. Excellent horsemen, making their horse-furniture both tent and bed; scarcely ever out of the saddle, and frequently travelling fifty and sixty miles a-day, what could the proud, indolent Mussulman or the superstitious Rajpoot do against such odds?-the latter, for instance, who must consult his Brahman before he could mount his horse?

Quitting, however, the enumeration of their qualities as cavalry, they have a number of advantages of the greatest moment to an infantry soldier in India; they can finish the remains of a meal when cold; they can cook and eat without stripping or bathing; they are allowed to eat almost every kind of meat except beef. They appear to be derived from the Rajpoot stock (as, indeed, are almost all the tribes in India), and, consequently, many assume the surnames of Yadow, Chohan, Solunkhai, &c.

The natural desire of a man, after a long absence, to revisit his native place, the comparative nearness of their towns and villages, added to their being at home under the authority of a different Government, induced them to desert more frequently than most other classes; but, when well-treated, and attached to the service, there can be no better soldiers,

The Gujuratties are mostly from Surat, and a few from the northern parts; they are Fraush, and Bheels or Koolies.

The first is a very impure caste, and there are but few of them in the army; the latter assume the names of the Rajpoot tribes, and there is little doubt but they are descended from them.

The Koolies of Gujurat, from what I know of them, appear to be peculiarly well-qualified for our native battalions; those from the northern parts are generally tall, stout, and well-made; their capability of bearing fatigue and their hardihood are proverbial; they make incredible marches on their plundering expeditions, and, when taken, meet death with the most heroic indifference. They have no prejudices,-are from necessity abstinent, and would make excellent soldiers in our service. Indeed, I have known very valuable men of this class in our battalions.

The Jews also form a considerable portion of our army. In language, manner, dress, and appearance, they scarcely differ from the people among whom they have been for so many ages residing, the Mahrattas of the Kokun. Surat has, or had, a fine race of these men, I believe merchants, from Bussora and Bagdad. The Kokuni Jews are, however, more like Hindus, although, on examination, the fair complexion of their women and children,

and some peculiar features, point out their origin. The Jews would, perhaps, exceed all the rest of the native soldiery in usefulness, if it were not for a strong propensity to drunkenness. They have neither the pride nor the insolence of the Mussulman, nor have they any of the troublesome religious etiquette of the Hindu. They can mostly read and write the Mahratta language, and many read the Hebrew character, which, with the tongue itself, is taught, at Bombay and Surat, to those who have application enough to learn it. It might be expected, indeed, that the Jews would serve men cordially who shew no partiality, and who have both power and inclination to reward their merits. They are generally stout, active men.

The Mussulmans are both Soonnis and Sheahs, but the latter are the most numerous. Like the generality of the Mahummudans, they are bigotted, intolerant, and vain. The service, however, has to boast instances of rare fidelity among them. It is unfortunate that we have to do in this army with the worst description of this people, those who enlist with us being mostly ignorant debauched men; this is the character of the majority. As they do not form a very considerable portion of the Bombay battalions, it is extraordinary, under the circumstances before-mentioned, that so large a proportion should have obtained commissions in the native army; but so it is-the proportion of officers much exceeds that of the privates. Some of the Mahummudan native officers are highly respectable, gentlemanlike men, and an honour to their profession.

Of the Christians and Hindus of Malabar and Kanara, I can say but little. The latter are generally of low caste, but clean and soldierlike in their dress and appointments. Those of the corps to which I belonged, appeared to me too fond of strong liquors.

The Purwarrics appear to have received the term Purwarri from their invariably inhabiting the suburbs of towns in India. They are a division of a people who exist, scattered over every part of Hindostan, under the denomination of D'heres; but in the Kokun, I am informed, there are numerous villages entirely composed of them.

The privileges and advantages the Purwarries enjoy with us (and which they could not expect to meet elsewhere), warmly attach them to the service; and as by intermarriages they frequently become as one family in our battalions, so they consider and make its quarters, wherever they may be stationed, their home. Were it not for the dislike and contempt in which the other classes hold them, they would be the best people to employ as soldiers here; for they have no prejudices to interfere with their duty. The contempt of the other classes of Hindus arises from their employment to carry burdens, and in filthy offices, as that of scavenger, &c.; also, because, from poverty and hunger, they are compelled to eat carrion. This habit, most likely originating more from necessity than choice, the unfortunate D'heres might, I think, be easily prevailed on to abandon; and, for the rest, their good qualities are undeniable. They are strong, well-formed, faithful, and brave. Having, as I have observed, a peculiar interest in the welfare of their employers, who certainly have great claims on their gratitude, in times of danger, not now dreamed of, I venture to say, a reliance may be placed on their fidelity, and a degree of support derived from their attachment, which in these peaceable times cannot be appreciated.

Many intelligent and worthy officers in the Company's service dislike entertaining this useful class of men, because, for a chief reason, they are unfit to employ as guards about the persons of Hindus of distinction, or in intercourse,

as attending their processions or ceremonies. But it appears to me, the less regular sipahees are permitted to attend on native chiefs of other Governments, the better; and, as a full answer to the objection, it may be alleged, that, in the native regiments, Brahmans, Rajpoots, &c. all fall into the ranks with, and, of course, touch them, without esteeming themselves in consequence impure; and, if that be the case, how could those be defiled who never come in contact with them at all? It is not, however, intended to recommend that battalions should be formed of them exclusively; but that, instead of rejecting them, they should be encouraged in the service, and receive every just consideration.

ABOLITION OF CORPORAL PUNISHMENT.

TO THE EDITOR.

SIR: I lately returned to this great capital from a remote part of the empire, to which I had retired, after having served the Hon. East-India Company between forty and fifty years. Whilst in my retirement, I had heard of the orders issued by Lord William Bentinck, abolishing corporal punishment in our native army, and that of Sir Charles Metcalfe, granting an uncontrouled freedom of the press in our Indian possessions.

Having passed the greatest part of my life in India, and having, whilst there, been entrusted with responsible posts, in which I had opportunities of studying the native character, I trust I may be permitted to make some remarks on both these orders, which appear to me to have been rashly promulgated, and leading to the most disastrous results, unless their baneful consequences be speedily averted.

Before entering upon these remarks, I think it right to premise, that the impracticability of abolishing flogging in the British army, constituted as it is at present, without having recourse more frequently to capital punishments and much more severe minor punishments, as in the French and Prussian services, has lately been ably discussed in Parliament, when the opinions of the Duke of Wellington and other celebrated military characters were decidedly against its abolition: the Duke of Wellington having emphatically advocated, before the Committee of Military Inquiry," The necessity of all minor punishments being supported by the fear of some final and more severe infliction, to induce submission to those lesser corrections, by which recourse to the greater can alone be avoided."

To the justness of this remark every officer, who has been entrusted with the command of troops in our colonies, and attended to their discipline, must subscribe; it is to a judicious use of its application that the admirable discipline of the British army in the colonies (where the men are far removed from their country and friends) can alone be ascribed; and if this is allowed to be the case in the British army, the same rule will apply with incalculably greater force to that of the East-India Company, where, from the very elements of which it is composed, innovations apparently trivial, as should have been recollected by Lord William Bentinck, have led to the most dismal scenes of horror and massacre.

Our dominion in India, a government unprecedented in history, is upheld solely by the idea entertained by the natives of the discipline and irresistible power of our military force; in the composition of this army, we have at least ten native soldiers for every European; and it is, therefore, to the fidelity of the former, their attachment, and their discipline, that we owe our dominion

over the fairest portion of the Moghul empire, and one hundred millions of its inhabitants.

The very existence of this army and of our eastern dominion has been put in imminent peril of instant annihilation by the late order of Lord William Bentinck, who, totally disregarding the military principle recommended by the Duke of Wellington, of all minor punishments being supported by the fear of a more severe infliction, has, on his own responsibility, in direct opposition to the opinions of three commissions, formed of the most experienced and most competent officers at each presidency, made the tremendous experiment of abolishing corporal punishment in our Indian native army, when he himself was on the eve of quitting India, leaving it to his successors and the devoted officers of the Company's army, to avert, if possible, the fatal consequences to be apprehended from his infatuated decree, when he should be out of the reach of danger. The effect of this order, as stated in the proceedings of the Committee of Military Inquiry, has been, to reduce the Company's native army to a state of the most alarming disorganization; the sepoys having, since its publication, when drawn up under arms, set their European officers at defiance, calling out to their commanding officers, on parade, that they know they dare not punish them, whatever irregularities they might be guilty of;whereas, prior to its publication, they had been in the most perfect state of discipline and subordination, and had, from the time they were first led to victory under the transcendant genius of a Clive, been famed for devoted attachment to the Government; resisting the tempting offers of the ruler of Mysore to enter his service, when suffering the greatest hardships and enduring the most rigorous captivity; and, afterwards, remaining faithful to their colours when, from a long arrear of pay, they were obliged to sell their children; and, at a more recent period (overcoming their religious prejudices), volunteering by whole corps to embark on board of transports, and to proceed on foreign service to countries totally unknown to them, many detachments, under native officers, making forced marches of astonishing length to enable them to join their corps previous to embarkation. This army, Lord William Bentinck, by a stroke of his pen, dooms to destruction, under circumstances which, from the impossibility of finding any rational excuse for his conduct, might lead one to suppose that he wished to imitate Nero, who played upon the lyre whilst Rome was in flames; or that he was acting under the suggestion of some demon, who, like the Familiar of Faust, in the guise of a humble adviser, gained his confidence, to compass our ruin.

Lord William Bentinck has been unable, in his examination before the Committee of Military Inquiry, to assign any reason in extenuation of his conduct; on the contrary, he avows a deplorable ignorance of every circumstance connected with the important subject upon which he decides so summarily. He, indeed, mentions, as a motive for abolishing flogging in the native army, his wish that people of the highest castes should enter our army; and he also says, that he knew but little of the character of the Madras sepoys, in comparison with those of Bengal.

If Lord William Bentinck is so well acquainted with the character of the Bengal sepoys, he ought to know, that the Brahmins, the highest caste that enters the Bengal army, are not those who make the best sepoys; that, on the contrary, every disturbance in a Bengal corps, when ordered on foreign service, or on any other occasion which they conceive may interfere with their caste, can be traced to them, although others may be made their instruments, when proceeding to acts of violence; and that the Mussulmans, Rajpoots, and

other castes, who enter our corps, are, on that account, preferable to Brahmins, as sepoys. No respectable man, of any of these castes, ever contemplates the chance of his suffering corporal punishment, when entering our service; and officers, who have commanded sepoy corps, know that, when the men are treated with kindness (and they are very sensible of kindness), when due consideration is shown to their prejudices, and their officers manifest an interest in upholding their respectability, they can be kept in the strictest discipline without there being any necessity for having recourse to the lash, or "the final and more severe infliction," excepting on very extraordinary occasions, when the culprit is discharged; though the power of inflicting it is indispensable, " to induce submission to those lesser corrections, by which recourse to the greater can alone be avoided."

Lord William Bentinck's professed ignorance of the character of the Madras sepoys must appear surprising to those who recollect him as Governor of Madras. Has Lord William Bentinck forgot the mutiny at Vellore, when the unfortunate European officers and soldiers were awoke from their sleep, in the dead of the night, to sink into the sleep of death? Has he forgotten, that that catastrophe was occasioned by the publication of an order altering the turband of the sepoy, which designing men made a pretext of, to alarm them with the idea of their being forced to become Christians? Has he also forgotten, that strong symptoms of discontent, which were openly shown in some corps, were reported to head-quarters, and that those reports were disregarded? On most people, possessed of ordinary feelings and sympathizing in the sufferings of their fellow-creatures, these events would have made a lasting impression, and would have for ever prevented them from risking a repetition of a similar tragedy—far less of running the risk, in opposition to the opinion of the most experienced officers. Lord William Bentinck's notorious and almost incredible want of memory, as proclaimed to the world in his examination before the Committee of Military Inquiry, must be his apology on this occasion, and will lessen our surprise at the obtuseness of his feelings, as he therein avows, that he does not recollect whether any of the officers of the three military commissions, whose opinions he desired previous to abolishing flogging in the native army, were favourable to its abolition or not;-notwithstanding that the question, on which he desired information, involved the discipline of an army of between two and three hundred thousand men, and the happiness of one hundred millions of people.

The next point to which I would wish to call public attention, as affecting the discipline of our native army, is the attempt made by Lord William Bentinck, previous to his quitting Madras, to abolish the establishment of sepoy recruit-boys, attached to each battalion of sepoys by Sir Archibald Campbell, when governor of Madras. Ten sepoy recruit-boys were allowed, by that enlightened governor, to each company, with the view of attaching to the service old and deserving soldiers with large families; and the consequence was, that, in our subsequent wars, desertion was a very rare occurrence in the Madras corps, although a very frequent one at the other two presidencies, where no sepoy recruit-boys were allowed to a battalion. Sir George Barlow reduced the number to eight per company; and one of Lord William Bentinck's last acts at Madras was an attempt to reduce the establishment altogether, and thereby to sever the last band of attachment between the sepoy and his officer, and to destroy the encouraging expectation the former rationally cherished, of obtaining a provision for some of his family, provided he performed his duty faithfully and to the satisfaction of his superiors. Thank