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98 not likely ever to give up the notion that officers bearing his commission were entitled to a pre-eminence over those who held their appointments from a commercial body of his own subjects. It was calculated that at that epoch the whole European and native forces of Bengal and Madras did not exceed 70,000 men. Of these, 5000 only were King's troops; the Company's 'Europeans,' or Englishmen recruited by the Company in England, were about the same in number.

These latter were 'a set of wretched objects;' and Cornwallis saw at once that in order to raise them to the standard, the discipline, and the efficiency to which they subsequently attained, the Directors should be allowed to recruit openly, and the recruits should be subjected to martial law, and be placed under the command of their own officers until the date of their embarkation for the East. Dundas looked far ahead, and actually prepared a memorandum for the amalgamation of the Royal and the Company's troops into one army. Cornwallis admitted that if the Company's troops consisted only of Englishmen the amalgamation would be a very easy matter. But he saw a great difficulty in dealing with nearly four hundred officers serving in native regiments, who were, as a rule, the best men in the army, and who were well acquainted with the languages, manners, and religious customs of the Sepoys. So the amalgamation was deferred for three quarters of a century,