Some writers contend that we hold India by the power of opinion; others, by the power of the sword; and these latter even go so far as to say that, if the natives but knew their own strength as well as it is known to the European governors of India, not many years would elapse ere we saw the last vestige of our proud dominion in the East crumbling to ashes beneath our feet.
On a competent knowledge of the country, and the character of its inhabitants, we do not feel disposed to concur in this opinion. On the contrary, we think that the natives who compose our Indian Army are perfectly good judges of their own strength, as well as of their own interest, and therein lies our confidence. They are by no means ignorant that the 40,000 European troops we have in the country[1] could not stand for an instant before the 250,000 natives of the soil who comprise the remainder, could they, with a reasonable cause and practicable hope of success, form a coalition for their expulsion. But this implies an absolute impossibility; for nothing can be more mutually antagonistic than the materials of our Indian Army. The Mussulmaun and Hindoo are at daggers-drawn on the score of religion, and the sectarian animosities of the Soonies and Sheahs amongst the former far surpass the deadliest hostilities of our own most frantic bigots; while the incommunicative pride of Hindoo caste is an effectual bar to anything like conspiracy between the Brahmin and the Vaisya, the Soodra and the Rajpoot.
As well, therefore, may it be expected that the sands of the desert shall adhere and coagulate as the heterogeneous materials of our Indian Army, in anything like a general conspiracy, to shake off the English yoke. But even could they do so, what possible object could they hope to obtain by it? There is no such thing as an uni-
- ↑ Since 1837, the last year of peace, we have added 16,000 men to our European force, at a cost of more than half a million a year. In 1837, our European troops of all arms amounted to 27,814 men, and in 1850 they numbered 43,579. Every English soldier is supposed to cost 100l., from the time of his enlistment until he commences active service in India.
