FROM SOLDIER TO CIVILIAN. 109 



vailed in India: "At the age at which officers 

 become colonels and majors not one in fifty is able 

 to stand the wear and tear of Indian service. They 

 become still more worn in mind than in bod3\ All 

 elasticity is gone ; all energy and enterprise worn 

 out ; they become, after a fortnight's campaign, a 

 burden to themselves, an anno3?'ance to those under 

 them, and a terror to every one but the enemy ! 

 The officer who commanded the cavalry brigade 

 which so disgraced the service at Chilian wala was 

 not able to mount a horse without the assistance of 

 two men. A brigadier of infantry, under whom I 

 served during the three most critical days of the late 

 war, could not see his regiment when I led his horse 

 by the bridle until its nose touched the bayonets ; 

 and even then he said faintly, ' Pray, which way are 

 the men facing, Mr Hodson ? ' This is no exaggera- 

 tion, I assure you. Can you wonder that our troops 

 have to recover by des|)erate fighting, and with 

 heavy loss, the advantages thrown away by the want 

 of heads and eyes to lead them ? " 



"A seniority service," he adds, "like that of the 

 Company, is all very well for poor men ; better still 

 for fools, for they must rise equally with wise men ; 

 but for maintaining the discipline and efficiency of 

 the army in time of peace, and hurling it on the 

 enemy in war, there never was a system which 

 carried so many evils on its front and face. 



'•' I speak strongly, you will say, for I feel 

 acutely : though I am so young a soldier, yet the 

 whole of my brief career has been spent in camj^s, 

 and a year such as the last, spent in almost constant 

 strife, and a great part of it on detached and in- 

 dependent command, teaches one lessons which 



