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80 the defects which at that time impaired the efficiency of the native army. He called attention to the dangerous numerical disproportion of the native to the European force. He insisted on, the danger of high military commands being entrusted to men whose only claim rested on seniority, and whose incompetence was, in many instances, notorious — on the 'sullen discontent' which the existing rules excited in aspiring native soldiers — the inadequate pay — the scanty and long-deferred pension, the narrow possibilities which bounded the ambition of 'the man who lives and rots without hope.' He pointed out how 50,000 soldiers of the King of Oudh, turned adrift for no fault of their own, and an equal number of his dependents, were all looking to the British Government for compensation — and how Oudh, with its 246 forts and innumerable smaller strongholds, hidden in impenetrable jungles, afforded a congenial refuge for despair and disloyalty. 'We shall be unwise,' he said, 'to wait for the occasion. Come it will, unless anticipated.' The Sibylline leaves were scattered to the winds, and even while he wrote, the hours, during which anticipation would be possible, were passing rapidly away.