tary, medical, and retiring funds of their own, contributing certain donations and monthly subscriptions, in view to benefits in the form of passage-money, furlough allowance, equipment, pensions to families, &c. All these have worked well, excepting in the case of the retiring funds, which have for the most part failed, in consequence of the difficulty of reconciling the jarring interests of officers placed in different circumstances. But even the failure of the retiring funds as a system has, in a measure, been modified by the permission accorded to officers to receive from their regimental brethren a sum of money in consideration of retirement from the service, and consequent acceleration of regimental promotion.[1]
Thus it appears, from the foregoing brief statement, that our Anglo-Indian Army at present comprises five brigades of horse artillery, eighteen battalions of foot artillery, twenty-one regiments of native cavalry, six regiments of European infantry (exclusive of the Queen's troops), one hundred and fifty-five battalions of native infantry, eighteen hundred Sappers and Miners, and about seventy regiments of irregular cavalry, and infantry, and local militia; whereas, less than a century back, the native troops in the Company's service amounted to a very few Sepoy battalions, which were at first employed merely as an appendage to the Company's European force, with a captain, adjutant, and some sergeants attached to them. With the skill which these communicated, and the use of musketry, they easily vanquished the irregular troops of the native princes, with their matchlocks and other defective arms; but when the latter began to improve their military system, and introduced European tactics, it became necessary to raise our Sepoy force to a higher degree of efficiency. The complement of British officers was, therefore, progressively increased, and the native corps were more and more assimilated to regiments of the line – an improvement which was brought
- ↑ Stocqueler. "Handbook of India."
