272 The King s Troopi in India. March, 



is this short of the usual period of service of the Company's servants ? 

 If the cadet then will soon qualify himself for office, because he is 

 looking forward to a residence of twenty-two years, what is there to 

 prevent the King's officer, who we see must have the very same expec- 

 tation, from learning the languages, but despair of benefiting by the 

 acquisition ? The fact, however, is, the King's officers of the same 

 standing shew no very remarkable inferiority in this respect to the Com- 

 pany's. But still it will be urged, does not the Company's officer enter 

 the service with an understanding, that he and his compeers are entitled 

 to fill staff employments ; and on the other hand, does not the King's 

 officer equally kno^v that he has no such privilege, and little chance by 

 custom or courtesy of obtaining such advantage ? Each party goes with 

 a perfect foresight that their destinies are not the same. The King's 

 officer incurs the risk and disadvantage voluntarily, and with a full 

 knowledge of the case, and on his own head fall the consequences. 

 Where is the injustice ? It may be partly so ; but to describe one fact 

 and to misrepresent another, is not to justify the practice. It is true 

 that the Company's officer starts with this privilege and the King's 

 without it. It is true also, that the Company's officer goes by choice, 

 but not that the King's officer goes a voluntary victim. Numbers are 

 eager to sell or exchange on the first rumour of banishment to India — a 

 fact that speaks the contrary, trumpet-tongued. But were the case 

 otherwise, who but a Company's officer is hardy enough to regard the 

 practice as equitable, or treat the consequences with indifference ? 



Nor is this the sum of the disadvantages attending the King's officer. 

 He is liable to be mulct on his pay also by the state of the currency. 

 His services are paid in rupees estimated at 2s. T^d., but if he remit to 

 England, the same rupee sinks at once to Is. lOd. — and even on his 

 death, remittances made to the war-office, the proceeds of his effects are 

 rated by the one-and-tenpenny rupee. 



Such then is the general state of the King's officers in the India ser- 

 vice. They are regarded with jealousy, as mercenaries rather than 

 protectors, as a degraded caste ; excluded almost entirely from offices 

 of trust and emolument ; stript of pecuniary advantages enjoyed at 

 home ; in peace, thrust into cheerless and unaccommodated garrisons, 

 or relegated to unprivileged stations ; in war exposed to all the severer 

 and more perilous service ; and finally, when, after the exhaustions of 

 twenty years, with nothing but the withering prospect of half-pay, 

 should any wish to procure engagements among the native princes, not 

 only deprived of the opportmiity of even thus improving their circum- 

 stances, but unfeelingly and peremptorily driven from the country. 

 Common humanity, if not a sense of self-interest, would place the two 

 services on the same footing — would assimilate the pay and allowances, 

 and promptly make up the difference between the half-pay of the one, 

 and the retiring pension of the other. As it is, a captain in the Com- 

 pany's service at the end of twenty-two years retires on £180 per annum ; 

 the King's, after nearly the same, or the very same period, on £127. 

 If the Company has had the service, in God's name, let no mean and 

 petty jealousy interfere to preclude common justice. Can the Govern- 

 ment at home be clear of all blame, for not securing these advantages, 

 when it lends its troops to the Company ? 



Thus far have we directed our strictures to the treatment of the King's 

 officer, rather than to the Kmg's troops generally — treatment so marked, 



