whose luxuriant and productive territory is little less extensive than the whole of Europe, with an active, ingenious, and industrious population of one hundred and fifty millions![1]
But whatever may have been the merit of those who at the council-board concocted plans for the accomplishment of this vast result, no one will venture to deny that the Army of India was the great instrument by which those plans were carried into execution; and no one, whatever may be his sectarian or political bias, can refuse to that instrument the glory it has won in many a sanguinary field, from the days when its scanty units were led by a Lawrence and a Clive, to those when its hundreds of thousands have been wielded by a Napier, a Hardinge, and a Gough.
To trace the gradual rise and progress of this vast military establishment, and to give a narrative of its struggles, its victories, reverses, and ultimate success, from its incipient glories in the Carnatic to its crowning triumphs of Sobraon and Goojerat, is the object of the present volume; nor in the whole range of military history, perhaps, shall we find a more picturesque, a more heroic, or a more adventurous period, illustrated by more personal daring, or characterised by more enduring fidelity, and more devoted attachment.
That the religious prejudices of the Sepoys, whether Hindoo or Mahommedan, were formerly great obstacles to the general utility of the Indian Army, is a well-known fact; but it is equally certain that those prejudices have long yielded to a more generous confidence in the honour and integrity of their masters, which has given a much wider – indeed, it may be almost said, an universal – scope to their capabilities. This was evinced even at so early a period as our Expedition to Egypt, when Sir
- ↑ "India yields a gross revenue of about thirty millions sterling a year – maintains an army of nearly four hundred thousand men, of whom forty thousand are Europeans, at a charge of upwards of twelve millions a year – and affords appointments, as covenanted servants or commissioned officers, to ten thousand English gentlemen, who receive incomes from the age of eighteen to the end of their days, averaging in one case a thousand, and in the other four hundred pounds a year." – Dr. Buist. "Tract on India."
