Page:The Earl of Mayo.djvu/178

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170
THE EARL OF MAYO

and he enjoyed a personal popularity with the army, both Native and European, such as few Governor-Generals of India have ever won.

'Every shilling that is taken for unnecessary military expenditure,' he wrote in 1870, 'is so much withdrawn from those vast sums which it is our duty to spend for the moral and material improvement of the people. I admit to the full that a complete and an efficient military organisation is the base and foundation of our power here. We are bound to see that every officer and man is fit for immediate service, and that every arm and every military requisite is maintained in a state of the utmost efficiency. I believe that in the proposals which have been made, these principles have been strictly adhered to.'

A single sentence of the last Despatch which Lord Mayo lived to issue on the subject of army reform will fitly conclude this branch of my narrative. 'We cannot think that it is right to compel the people of this country to contribute one farthing more to military expenditure than the safety and defence of the country absolutely demand.'