Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/654

592 master, and 2 doing duty officers (Europeans), 16 native officers, and 696 natives of all ranks.

The total strength of the army of India in 1873 was G162 European officers, 60,174 European non-commissioned officers and men, and 123,671 natives. The supreme military power is the Viceroy and Governor-General in council. The military member of that council is de facto War Minister, and the military department of the Govern ment of India the War Department. The Commander-in- Ohief of the army is the executive military power, and the responsible adviser of Government, as well as local Cora- mander-in-Chief in Bengal. The Madras and Bombay Presidencies have military departments and local com- manders-in-chief, but subordinate to the supreme Govern ment of India ; each presidency, however, has certain local peculiarities in its own military system and its own army departments. The army departments are the commissariat (charged with the supply of provisions, forage, fuel, light, and transport), the ordnance department (charged with the custody and supply of all warlike stores), the clothing department, medical department, stud department, &c. The commissariat is officered from the combatant ranks of the army, the subordinates being also drawn perma nently from its ranks, and is a most excellent and power ful department. The ordnance department is officered from officers of the Royal Artillery, who, as &quot; commissaries of ordnance,&quot; have charge of the various arsenals and magazines in the country. The whole of British India is divided into divisions and districts, and the command is exercised by royal or Indian officers according to a pro portion fixed. The staff is selected from the officers of the British corps in India, the staff corps, and the Indian army, and the system is similar to that in England and the colonies, except that the tenure of brigade majorships is limited to three years. The following table shows the detailed constitution of the army of India in 1873:—

Bengal Army. Madras. Army Bombay Army Total Europeans. Artillery Horse Field Batteries... Heavy and Mountain ) Batteries ) 4 lo 1 12 1 58 6 Garrison Batteries Engineers Companies Cavalry Regiments 11 1 6 6 1 2 5 1 1 22 3 9 Infantry Battalions Natives. Artillery Mountain Batteries. ) 32 4 9 9 2 50 6 Cavalry Regiments 2G 4 7 37 Engineers Companies Infantry Battalions 10 60 10 40 5 30 25 130 Strength Europeans Natives 41,055 62,955 [13,214 33 963 12,067 26 753 66,336 123 671

The following gives the strength of the several arms:— Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery Men , ,, Guns, European. 45,962 4,347 12,306 370 Native. 101,134 18,575 896 36 The Punjab field force of 4 batteries of artillery, 5 regi ments cavalry, 4 regiments Sikh infantiy, and 6 regiments Punjab infantry, is included in the Bengal army. The &quot; Hyderabad contingent, of 4 field batteries, 4 cavalry and G infantry regiments ; the &quot;Mysore&quot; troops, of 6 regiments of cavalry and 4 of infantry ; the &quot;Nair brigade,&quot; of 2 Battalions of infantry and four guns; and other minor local forces and contingents, are not included in tiie above. The Bengal army is composed chiefly of Mahometans, Brahmins and other Hindu castes, Rajpoots, Jats, Pun- jdbees, natives of Trans-Indus, and hill-men. Some are regiments entirely of one race, as the Ghoorkas, while others are mixed entirely or by companies ; but the com position of every regiment has been definitively laid down. There are no special restrictions on caste or race, but care is taken to prevent an undue preponderance of any class. Enlistment is purely voluntary. Recruiting is carried on by parties detached, or by non-commissioned officers and men on furlough. Pay and pension are fairly good, though depreciated by the general rise in prices ; pension being obtainable by men invalided after fifteen years service. The native officers are appointed from the non commissioned officers, and though a respectable body of men, are not sufficiently educated. It is, however, con templated to give natives of rank and position direct commissions. The British officers of the Indian army, generally, are obtained through the medium of the staff corps, which is filled by volunteers from the British army, and now supplies the native armies of India with regi mental officers. The Madras native army is composed of a few Christians, Mahometans, and Mahrattas, and a large number of Telingas or Gentoos, and Tamils. The infantry battalions are organised as in the Bengal army. The cavalry are mostly composed of Arcot Mussulmans, descendants of the soldiers of the Nawab of the Carnatic. This cavalry is not &quot; silladar,&quot; as in Bengal or Bombay, and the native estab lishment is weaker, consisting of 12 native officers, 75 non-commissioned officers, and 300 privates. The army is recruited as in Bengal, but has a peculiar institution of its own, viz., the &quot;recruit and pension boys&quot; (sons of soldiers or pensioners) attached to each regiment, and transferred to the ranks when of sufficient age and approved of, a valuable institution, and one which gives a powerful hold upon the fidelity of the men. The Bombay army resembles that of Bengal in recruiting, organisation, and equipment. It is composed of a few Christians, some Brahmins and Rajpoots, and other Hindu castes, but mainly of Mahrattas and Purwarees, with a few Punjabees and natives of Trans-Indus. It is difficult to draw comparisons between the soldiers of our Indian forces, recruited from so many different parts of the empire. The most warlike, undoubtedly, are the inhabitants of Scinde, the Punjab, and Trans-Indus. Perhaps next come the men of Rohilcund, Rajpootana, Oudh, and the Mahrattas. These races possess a greater aptitude for military training, and are generally of a better physique than the inhabitants of the Southern Peninsula. But it is too much to affirm that the former are &quot;born soldiers,&quot; the latter only &quot; soldiers by education.&quot; The ploughshare has already replaced the sword in many parts, and more and more are once turbulent tribes becoming peaceful tillers of the soil. Of the actual value of native troops it is still more difficult to form a true estimate. The Sikhs, both as friends and foes, have proved them selves gallant soldiers, not unworthy of being matched with Europeans. The ordinary Sepoy, under the guidance of British officers, has furnished many examples of heroism and devotion. It is said that a Bengal regiment success fully stood the brunt of a charge from the French at the battle of Porto Novo in 1782 ; and the devotion of dive s Sepoys at Arcot has passed into a proverb. At the siege of Dehli in 1857, native regiments sustained losses which few European troops could have borne, and crowds of men in hospital, with wounds only part healed, volunteered to join in the final assault. But without their English officers they are of little value; the Asiatic, as a rule, cannot face the European, and it would be dftBgerous tc 