the trouble to consult. There were sepoy levies in Bengal forty years before this date. We could help the historian to authentic notices of native troops as early as 1707.

Mr. Alison entertains a most exalted opinion of the magnificent state of the Indian sepoys. He says,

Each private sepoy is attended by two servants; in the field there are, at an average, nine followers to every two fighting men.. when the pay given to a private soldier is so considerable as to admit of his keeping two servants in the camp and a still greater number in the field, no want of recruits will ever be experienced.-P. p. 33-34.

*

The historian, in the above passage, has betrayed an entire mis-comprehension of the real state of the case. He has apparently been led astray, by some statements, which he has readprobably, correct enough in themselves, but not sufficiently explanatory for the guidance of those, who have no local experience or information to assist them to a right understanding of the facts so succinctly stated. It may be true that the number of camp-followers with an army in the field exceeds the number of fighting men, in the ratio set down by Mr. Alison, though we are inclined to think that the estimate is somewhat overdrawn -but we certainly were not before aware that this prodigious mass of suttlers consists of the personal attendants of the sepoys. The camp-followers of an Indian army are perhaps the most motley crew which is ever set in motion by a word: but these multifarious components of the great living mass are wholly, or were chiefly the salaried servants of the native soldiery no more than the varied ingredients of the magna caterva of tag-rag and bobtail which may be seen moving down the slopes of Epsom downs, at the close of the Derby day, are the personal attendants of the gentry who have just before quitted the course. These camp-followers are ghomastas, shroffs, buneahs, butchers, tradesmen of every possible description-thieves, beggars, camel and horse-dealers, officers, servants, &c. &c.-a vast number of each denomination being attended by their relatives and dependents. Nor, must we omit to specify a fact, perhaps unknown to Mr. Alison, a vague reference to which has not improbably led him into the error now under notice that every horse with the army, be it ridden by an officer or a trooper, is attended by two men-a syce (or groom) and a grass-cutter: and that every camel has also its personal attendants. That every soldier in the mounted branch of the service has two servants to wait upon his horse is undeniably true; but these servants are entertained

* The usual calculation is that the camp-followers are triple the number of the fighting men. But, as respects the mounted branches of the service, this estimate is somewhat under-drawn. With the latter the number of camp-followers is, probably, as five to one. But the great bulk of an army consists of foot-men.

and paid not by the trooper, but by the Government which he serves. The soldiers themselves, both in cantonment, and in the field, have generally a share in a personal servant, paid by themselves whilst a native officer has a servant of his own, if a subadar perhaps more than one-but Mr. Alison will find upon enquiry that this is the full extent of the sepoy's suite. That the native soldier is liberally paid we admit. But his personal expenditure is not heavy. If he indulged himself to any great extent, he would be unable to save, as with few exceptions he ever does, so large a portion of his monthly income, to be remitted, or carried home to his family. This saving propensity is one of the most striking and the most honorable characteristics of the native soldier,-one, which contrasts, most favorably with the selfish, and often brutal prodigality of his European brethren in arms. "They never take their wives or children with them to their regiments, or to the places where their regiments are stationed. They leave them with their fathers or elder brothers, and enjoy their society only when they return to furlough. Three-fourths of their income are sent home to provide for their comfort and subsistence, and to embellish that home in which they hope to spend the winter of their days. The knowledge that any neglect of the duty they owe their distant families will be immediately visited by the odium of their 'native officers and brother soldiers, and ultimately communi'cated to the heads of these families, acts as a salutary check on their conduct; and I believe that there is hardly a native regiment in the Bengal Army, in which the twenty drummers, 'who are Christians, and have their families with the regiment, do not cause more trouble to the officers than the whole eight hundred sepahis."*-As the sepoys send home to their families three-fourths of their salaries, they must pay their two servants out of the residue, which is to supply all their personal wants. This residue is something less than five shillings a month.

We feel some disposition to question the accuracy of Mr. Alison's characterisation (at page 35) of the native cavalry; but the theme is an ungrateful one, and we willingly let the panegyric of the historian pass-the more especially as the cloud, which at one time overshadowed that branch of the service, has more recently been well nigh dispersed. But there is a confusedness in his account of the manner, in which the Indian army is officered, that calls for more distinct notice. At page 361, Mr. Alison says:

The immense host is entirely under the direction of British officers, nearly five thousand of whom are employed in this important service; but

* Sleeman's Rambles and Recollections of an Indian official.

the non-commissioned officers and subalterns always were natives, and the avenue to more elevated promotion is now open to the most deserving of the number.

We do not quite know what meaning Mr. Alison may have intended the above passage to convey, but we are certain that the meaning which it does convey is something very remote from the truth. Some of the "non-commissioned officers and subalterns" of the sepoy regiments are, it is true, natives; but in both capacities the natives are ridden over by Europeans, and their real authority reduced to nil. What "more elevated promotion is now open" to the native soldier we have not yet discovered.

Before passing on to one or two more important points, which we purpose to notice at greater length, we may briefly allude to a few minor inaccuracies, which certainly ought not to be found in such a work as Mr. Alison's history :

Such a treaty was immediately concluded with the Hindu potentate, on terms highly favorable to the English; and shortly after hostilities commenced, by Colonel Clive marching with two thousand men against the French fort of Chandernagore, on the Hooghly, eighty miles above Calcutta.— Page 53.

Mr. Alison will, doubtless, be surprised to learn that Chandernagore is little more than twenty miles from Calcutta.*

For the first and the last time in his life, Clive called a council of war: the proverb held good and the council declined to fight; but the English general consulted only his own heroic character, and led his troops against the enemy.-P. p. 55-56.

Mr. Alison appears to be ignorant of the fact, that Clive himself voted against fighting; and that, too, not in the ordinary course of things, confirming the judgment of his inferior officers, for contrary to all custom-all propriety—he was the first to give his opinion. The historian in a note adds this comment. "The shelter of numbers is never sought but by those 'who have not the moral courage to act on their own conviction; true intrepidity of mind never seeks to divide respon'sibility ;"-a bitter, though unintended censure on the conduct of Clive, who not only sought the opinion of others, in an emergency, but apparently endeavoured to bias their opinion, by most irregularly declaring his own. It is true that the "heroic character" of the heaven-born general was but for a brief season extinct-his courage and constancy soon re-asserted them

As Admiral Watson with his ships of war, the Kent. Tiger, &c. sailed up to Chandernagore and attacked the fort from the river, this mistake is rather curious. The sight of a British fleet eighty miles above Calcutta would, indeed, be an astonishing one. For a very animated description of the capture of Chandernagore, we may refer our readers to Mr. Macfarlane's "Indian Empire."

selves, and regardless of his own previous decision and that of the eight officers, who voted with him, he resolved, on the very same night, to advance; but Mr. Alison's account of the affair, which contrasts the heroic character of Clive with the pusillanimity of the council, is obviously calculated to mislead. No one, relying on his authority, would believe that the transaction occurred as we have stated it.

Again, at page 73, we are told, that,

The death of his (Hasting's) rival, the Maharajah Nuncomar, left him without a rival in civil administration, &c. &c.

As Francis was in India, and Clavering alive, at the time of Nuncomar's execution, Hastings, by no possible figure of speech can be said to have been without a rival.

Of the vices of Mr. Alison's style we may give the following examples :

The British were sheltered, in the early part of the day, by a high bank from the cannon-shot of the enemy; treachery and disaffection reigned in their ranks; and before Clive led his troops in their turn to the attack the victory was already gained.-Page 54.

Mr. Alison here says that treachery and disaffection reigned in the ranks of the British. He means to say that they reigned in the ranks of the enemy.

Lord Clive was one of the greatest generals and bravest men recorded in history. Page 61.

One more example will suffice. Mr. Alison appears to be strangely neglectful of the rules of relative and antecedent

In order, however, to carry into execution the pacific views of ministers at home, a nobleman of high rank and character, Lord Cornwallis, was sent out by Mr. Pitt, who united in his person the two offices of Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief.- Page 96.

It is here not Lord Cornwallis, but Mr. Pitt, who is said to have "united in his person the two offices of Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief."

These, it may be said, are small matters; but we repeat that it is because they are small matters we consider them all the more amenable to censure. A work of such high pretensions ought not to be disfigured by such ignoble errors. We have no toleration for the slatternly habits of the woman, who flaunts it in velvet and diamonds, whilst there are holes in her gloves and darns in her stockings.

But we willingly pass on to the consideration of more important matters.

Capt. Coote (afterwards Sir Eyre Coote) and five others voted for the advance.

At page 39, Mr. Alison, with reference to the tried fidelity of the Sepoy Army, observes :

At the mutiny of Vellore, which shook the Indian empire to its foundation, and was brought on by an absurd interference with the religious feelings of the troops, the sabres of the native dragoons were dyed as deep as those of the British, in the blood of their unhappy countrymen.

It is probable, we think, that if a Wellesley, and not a Bentinck, had presided over the Government of Madras in 1806, Mr. Alison would have given a somewhat different account of the causes of the Vellore mutiny; because he would, in that case, have taken greater pains to arrive at a knowlege of the truth. There was no "absurd interference with the religious feelings of the troops." There were certain alterations introduced into the uniform of a portion of the Native Army-alterations, which the sepoys, prompted thereto by designing parties, construed into an intention to "interfere" with their "religious feelings :" but it is no more in accordance with strict historical truth to affirm that the Madras authorities "interfered with the religious feelings of the troops," because an act, bearing no reference whatever to these feelings was thus designedly and maliciously misconstrued, than it would be, to impute to them a similar gross and culpable indiscretion, because an attempt was made, and not altogether unsuccessfully, to impose upon the ignorance and superstition of the natives, by alleging that the benevolent efforts, instituted at that time to introduce Vaccination into India, had for their end the inoculation of Hindus and Mahomedans with the views of Christianity. No Government is, in such cases, fairly chargeable with the evils arising from the gross ignorance of one part of its subjects and the malicious machinations of another part,teaching the more imbecile to "believe a lie" and stirring them up to the resistance of never-contemplated aggressions. No sagacity-no fore-sight can be proof against the malignant misrepresentations of designing men, who make a harvest of the credulity of their weaker brethren. If the causes of the Vellore mutiny did lie in an alteration of the head-dress of the sepoys and certain other less important equipments, the charge now preferred against the Madras Government would, for these reasons, be essentially unjust ;-but the truth is that the new head-dress produced the mutiny only as the last straw, is said, in the proverb, to break the camel's back. If the sepoys had not been induced to believe that they were about to be converted into topiwallahs, some other leperous distilment would have been poured into their ears-some other offensive innovation would have been attributed to Government-and