1 Increase of
2 irregular
3 cavalry,
4 Superiority of
5 the European
6 soldier,
7 The efficiency
8 of Native ar-
9 tillery.
10 266 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS.
11 aslice or two from the loaf; the whole must be de-
12 voured -for security’s sake. As yet, the only in-
13 crease to the army has taken place in the irregular
14 cavalry branch: the proposed augmentation in the
15 Native infantry has been for the present aban-
16 doned.
17 The cause of the outcry against raising new regi-
18 ments of European infantry or cavalry is the
19 expense; but surely if the European soldiers be
20 more efficient than thrice the number of Natives,
21 or rather, if the former possess qualities which
22 are looked for in vain among the latter, it is obvious
23 that the European soldier must be less costly than
24 the sepoy.
25 Already the Anglo-Indian army of Bengal num- °
26 bers seventy-four regiments of Native infantry, but
27 possesses only two of European infantry. The
28 Queen’s government allows a certain number of
29 regiments for India, because in all probability some
30 doubts formerly existed in England, as to whether
31 the European soldier, disciplined under officers who
32 never leave India, could be equal to the men
33 drilled in Europe. There is no longer any ground
34 for this opinion. The Bengal European infantry
35 was proved in the late war to be equal to the regi-
36 ments in Her Majesty’s service.
37 Now, it will be seen from what occurred in the
38 war with the Sikhs, that Natives may be made as
39 efficient artillery-men as Europeans, and the Sikh
40 artillery proved that this branch of their service
41 could not have becn better served, or have done