Page:Our Indian Army.djvu/25



Singular Phenomenon of British Power in India – The Anglo-Indian Army the Instrument by which it was attained – Summary View of our Indian Possessions – Popular Feeling against the Company's Government – Real Improvements effected in India – Present Anomalous Position of the Company – The Morale of our Anglo-Indian Army – Its first faint Dawn and present Magnitude – Its numerical Strength and respective Establishments – Present Rate of Officers' Pay and Allowances – Peculiar Advantages of the Company's Service – Character of its Native Troops – Interior Economy in Cantonments and in the Field – Concise View of the Indian Navy.

the eye of the philosopher our Indian Empire presents the most extraordinary political phenomenon that has ever existed; and such as, in the present state of the human mind, can never be expected to occur again. What the Persian monarchs, in the zenith of their power, only partially effected – what Alexander, in the unrivalled glory of his conquests, had only obtained a glimpse of – and what the Romans, in the wondrous extent of their dominions, never even ventured to contemplate, has been accomplished, effectually accomplished, in less than a century by a small company of English traders, living and keeping their commercial officers at a distance of fifteen thousand miles from the seat of their power and wealth, and the theatre of their great exploits.

This is a fact which speaks trumpet-tongued for the unbounded intelligence, the consummate ability, and the indomitable courage of the handful of individuals who, by their counsels in the cabinet and their gallantry in the field, have effected so marvellous a work; and added to the original power of Great Britain not only the fame and glory, but the solid resources of such a conquest