600° King's and Companys Troop? in India: (Dre! 
all probability Colonel McCreagh was not’ born when ‘Colonel’ Carpenter” 
entered the ‘sérvice:| This, I submit, ‘is’ avery hard’ case indecd; and 
I would not find it difficult to supply others similar’ to” it ‘in tinfaitness! 
in the India army. bloa oa sud 
Suppose we put the case, that two young gentlemen of cightec enter, 
one the’ King’s, the other the Company’s service ; at the age’ rae 
are they situated? ‘With any thing like fair’ chances; any’ pire d 
interest, the gentleman in the King’s service is a major of some stand: 
ing; and looking out for his brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel:’ af his’ 
interest happens to be good, or his career fortunate, hé’ ay’ be acs” 
tually of that rank. The Indian officer is a captain, with three’ ‘or four’ 
senior to him in his regiment, a prospect of being seven or eight years 
before he is major, and the certainty of being then junior to some seventy 
or eighty, among whom he must work up by regular seniority. This” 
regulation we owe to Lord Cornwallis, who thought he was doing ‘the’ 
service much benefit by it, but who, in fact, has thereby exposed the” 
officers to gross injustice, and actually done incalculable injury to the’ 
service itself. It is a fact, that officers in command now in India have 
been there for from thirty to forty years on an average; and a shorter” 
time cannot be expected to elapse in any case as long as the systeni 
continues as it is. What the value of an officer, after some five and” 
thirty years’ residence in India, is, and how competent he may be on an 
average (there are, of course, splendid exceptions) to perform any duty 
which requires energy of mind and body, I leave to the imagination of 
your readers. 
By the extreme tardiness of this promotion the India officer loses. 
his chances, in a great measure, of the honour of his profession. There 
are captains in India this moment who are as capable of commanding 
armies, and who with detachments have performed actions on as large 
a scale as any major-general in the service; and yet these men are 
kept from the honours of the Bath, which are, bestowed liberally on 
officers in the army junior to them in real.standing; and who have in 
fact seen no service, or performed actions of individual skill or bravery 
to be compared with many among them. Now if a debarment from 
rank and military honours, as compared with the King’s army, be not a 
sufficient difference in favour of the latter, I do not know what to say. 
I leave out of sight the extra mortality of the India regiments, 
occasioned by the climate; and yet something ought to be allowed 
for that. If the artificial regulations of the service render it hard for the 
India officer to rise to equivalent rank, the natural causes of life and death 
make it still more difficult. The former arrest his course when he is major, 
—the latter are at work to arrest it in every step of his progress. If a list 
of fifty officers who had gone into the King’s service in 1800, and another 
of fifty others of equal age who had in the same year entered the Com- 
pany’s, were made out, it would be found that two of the former had 
survived for one of the latter,—that the bulk of the King’s officers 
were colonels, some of them generals, hardly any of them captains, — 
(I speak, of course, of those who continue in the army, )—while in the 
Indian army not one would be found above the rank of major. Is this 
peculiarly symptomatic of favoritism towards the India officer ? 
I know that the staff employment and command in irregular corps 
give the Indian officer a great deal of pecuniary profit, which excites 
the jealousy of the line. And I admit that many captains, nay, some- 
times subalterns, make more money than even generals in the King’s 
