Ixxxii APPET^DIX. 



natui-al and so convulsive to society, as the strain to keep things 

 jixeA^ when all the world is, by the very law of its creation, in eternal 

 ^progress ; and the cause of all the evils in the world may be traced to 

 that natural, but most deadly error of human indolence and corrup- 

 tion — that our business is to preserve, and not to improve. It is the 

 ruin of us all alike, individuals, schools, and nations." 



From the returns of six of H. M. regiments, serving in the same 

 presidency, who have arrived in this country within the last eight 

 years, we find that the average of mortahty amongst the officers is one 

 in every regiment yearly, and the average number arriving with each re- 

 giment was 371 . Taking the aggregate of the whole number in the six 

 regiments, viz., 226, this gives less than three per cent, as the yearly 

 ratio of deaths amongst European officers, which taUies exactly with 

 the number we before quoted from Dr. Hutchinson's tables " of 29 in 

 1,000 for aU tropical stations, where British troops are stationed." 



We might extend the subject much further, and furnish melancholy 

 details of the mortahty amongst the children of our European soldiery. 

 The same causes, viz., impure air, bad water, improper food, confine- 

 ment to the barrack, want of amusement or employment, tell with ten- 

 fold power upon the offspring, whether born, under such adverse cir- 

 cumstances, of sickly parents, or experiencing such a change in their 

 habits and mode of Hfe, on arriving in this country. 



Taking the returns of two regiments, that reached India last year, 

 we find, that in one there have been bom 44 children, of whom, at the 

 end of the fifteenth month, there are only 29 surviving, shewing a loss 

 of 27 per cent, within ih.e first year. 



In another regiment, 52 children have been bom within fourteen 

 months, of whom 32 have died in the same period, giving a ratio of mor- 

 tahty equal to 33 per cent, during the first twelvemonth of their hfe 

 in India. 



In another case, taking the children born in England or on board 

 ship, who arrived with the regiment in India, eight years ago, out of 

 159 (the original number) no less than 112 have perished. Of the re- 

 maining 47, how few, in all probability, will grow to manhood ! Hence 

 we see that, whether we take 100 children imported from England, born 

 of healthy parents, or 100 children bom of the same parties within the 

 first year of their arrival in India, still the melancholy result is the 

 same — proving, beyond all doubt or question, the system of barrack- 

 life amongst our European soldiery in this country to be totaUy un- 

 favorable to colonization* 



