in their predictions. To administer indeed towards that good understanding which the good of the colony requires should subsist between the local legislature and the governor, it would be a most judicious step to have all the salaries of governors paid in future by the colonies they ruled over, instead of by the mother country stipulating for a certain fixed sum annually for them, just sufficient to keep them in a state of proper respectability, and leaving it to the discretion of the local legislatures to give as much more as they pleased: so that individuals in future would not be fond of courting such appointments with the view of enjoying a comfortable sinecure, heedless whether their conduct gave satisfaction or not; but on the contrary, none except such as were zealously disposed to exert their abilities for the benefit of the colony they governed, and to make themselves popular therein, would be desirous for such an appointment.

With respect to the East Indies, also, a strange delusion seems to exist regarding the impolicy of encouraging the settlement of British subjects there, as well as the increase of their half cast descendants, and christianising of the great body of the native population. To argue that those partaking of the same flesh and blood, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, and imbued with the same feelings and prejudices, would more readily rebel against us than those opposed to us in all these respects, would be tantamount to a belief that children will more readily combine for the destruction of their parent, than even strangers over whom the ties of natural affection have no control. As long as those differing in descent and in religion far outnumber the European progeny, common sense would point out to them the propriety of clinging to the fortunes of a country to which the affinities of blood, language, and religion, allied them, and which upheld their superiority over the others, in preference to overturning the power of their parent country, and thus subjecting themselves to the control of those from whom they so essentially differed. Even the profession of the same religion would serve as a great bond of union between the two countries; and hence proselytism to the Christian religion ought to be zealously though cautiously pursued; and this will be most speedily and effectually attained by leading the youths through a system of instruction which will destroy their native prejudices, expand their minds, and teach them to reason. By doing this alone, without inculcating into their minds a single Christian precept, the cause of idolatry in India would quickly fall; for it is too absurd to stand for a moment against the lights which knowlege will hold up against it. It is calculated that not more than five per cent of all the Europeans who emigrate to India ever return; and hence how

necessary is it not to train up a population of English descent to obviate in some measure the immense waste of life here displayed, and serve besides as a link of connexion to unite the destinies of the two countries together. By permitting the descendants of Europeans, nay even all native Christians, to occupy stations in India on an equality with their English brethren, a greater stability would doubtless be given to our Indian supremacy, and a greater impulse to the commerce existing between the two countries; for even on commercial principles, the proselytising of India should be encouraged, considering what a greater consumption there will be in all mercantile commodities when the population can eat what they like, drink what they like, and wear what they like, instead of as now when tied down to a diet of the simplest vegetables, and to dresses generally of the simplest and cheapest form and material.

CHAP. VII.

Standing armies-immeasurable superiority of the discipline and science of civilised nations over the undisciplined bravery of uncivilised hordesEquality of courage among all nations-Mode of education tending rather to infuse greater confidence than add to the innate courage-Discipline so tending Obliging the cowardly to be as effective as the brave-Enabling a body of men to act with the energy and unity of a single individual, and on established scientific principles-Passive obedience necessary to such -Active and passive courage-Superiority of the latter over the former under a state of discipline-French and English actions as illustrations— Necessity of standing armies to prevent civilisation from being again overthrown by barbarous hordes-Standing armies and the liberty of the press the two most powerful instruments of civilisation-Examples of past history in confirmation-Danger of annihilating the system of standing armies.

The truth of Bacon's aphorism that "knowlege is power," is in no case more forcibly illustrated than in that of military organisation and science; for whether we compare the military skill and discipline of the civilised nations of antiquity with the undisciplined bravery of the uncivilised hordes opposed to them, or even those of modern date, we are struck with wonder and astonishment in every case at the immense superiority displayed by the former over the latter. The pigmy band of disciplined Romans under Lucullus who advanced with a certainty to victory against the numberless undisciplined hosts of Tigranes, scarcely excite more astonishment in the mind of the reader, than exploits of the same kind in more recent times: for to the 4500 British troops who advanced undaunted to overturn the powerful empire of Burmah, the observation of Tigranes might have been with equal aptitude applied, "they are too few for soldiers, and too many for am

bassadors. Man born in every condition of life inherits the same natural portion of courage; it being only the circumstances under which he is placed, and his mode of education, that more fully develope it; which may be said to be accomplished more by the acquirement of a greater degree of confidence in himself, and a proportionate contempt for his opponents, than in any actual addition to the share of courage with which he had been originally endowed. If we consider courage to be a contempt of death, of pain, or of danger, what people portray these in a greater degree than the pusillanimously looked on natives of Bengal, who fearlessly ascend the funeral pile to sacrifice themselves on the bodies of their relatives, precipitate themselves from precipices, or throw themselves before the death-dealing wheels of the chariots of their divinities with the most callous indifference, or inflict tortures on their persons which make Europeans shudder to think of: yet with all these tokens of innate courage about them, what despicable soldiers do they not make; it being to the mountain tribes that our Indian government looks for the filling up of the ranks of the army, never to the timid-consider natives of the pins of Bengal. If, however, they were habituated to arms from their infancy, and had confidence inspired into them by a few successful encounters, they would no doubt become ultimately as good soldiers as the more warlike tribes around them, whom they might equal in physical powers. There is scarcely, however, an individual existing who is totally void of fear, the amount of courage varying in every person from the highest to the lowest scale; and therefore, on undisciplined hordes being brought into action, the bravest rush on in front, while the more cowardly follow in their rear, till the first falling victims to their temerity, the whole body becomes one disorderly mass of terror and confusion. It is the province of discipline to make the cowardly as efficient in contest as the brave, which is accomplished through the medium of fear: for the whole secret of discipline rests on this, and which we see fully portrayed in the manner in which an army marches to actionthe captains and other superior officers only marching in front to direct and encourage their men, while the subalterns and noncommissioned officers march with drawn swords and pikes in the rear, to keep the cowardly from flinching: for when it comes to be a matter of consideration with a soldier whether he shall run the chance of falling by the ball of his antagonist, or the having the certainty of being run through by the sword of his own officer, he will naturally prefer the chance to the certainty, and bear himself out as boldly as his cowardly spirit will admit of. In an undisciplined rabble, each man being doubtful of the support of his neighbor is constantly looking warily round

him to assure himself thereof, and ready to run the moment he sees others in the slightest degree disposed to follow the like course; while a disciplined body marches boldly on, confident that those who are inclined to swerve from the contest will be compelled to their duty, so that there is no misgivings in the mind of any one with regard to the want of support on the part of his comrades; and while thus each man in the undisciplined host marches on in doubt, in the disciplined on the contrary he marches on in confidence: in the latter one united impulse thus urging on the whole, while in the former every one is actuated by an impulse of his own. Discipline, therefore, operates as much in a beneficial way by impelling the heterogeneously influenced mass to combat through the medium of fear, as it does by rendering it docilely subservient, both in its most extensive and most minutely complicated movements, to the will of the master-mind that presides over it: while knowlege by expanding the human intellect, enables civilised man not only to be constantly devising new weapons of destruction, and rendering others more powerfully effective; but by enabling also those so endowed to take more extended views of the art of war, and make more extensive and effectively combined arrangements than those over whom knowlege has not yet shed her deifying influence: civilised man is thus placed as far above his yet untamed fellow-being in power, as he confessedly is in almost every other quality of which man has reason to be proud.

As the keystone of discipline is passive obedience, hence those nations celebrated for passive courage will, when equally disciplined and as ably commanded, always possess as great a superiority over those celebrated for active courage, as the man who is cool in argument will over the irritable and passionate. A body of Englishmen, therefore, equally well-disciplined and commanded with a similar body of Frenchmen, have always beaten, and will always beat the latter. A man possessed of active courage can never be brought so perfectly into a state of passive discipline as the man of passive courage, and is more liable to the influence of a panic besides: the one requiring to be urged on by successive impulses, pouring onwards like a torrent at one moment, and retrograding as suddenly and speedily at another; while the other moves firm and steadily onwards from a single impulse given, -neither flushed into precipitation by the success he may meet with, nor driven to despair by reason of a repulse. The man of passive courage becomes usually more desperate and obstinate in his resistance the more he is pushed to extremities, in which state he is as dangerous to approach as the lion when set at bay; and in fact, the English have gained all their most brilliant victories when

reduced as it were to something like a state of despair: Poictiers, Cressy, Agincourt, and Waterloo, attest the truth of this. The calm and resolute man will always possess an immense advantage over the fiery and impetuous, in whatever way they may be opposed; and when, at the battle of Maida, the whiskered veterans of France observed the beardless Britons halt composedly within some twenty paces of the muzzles of their muskets, and in the midst of a murderous fire from them disencumber themselves of the blankets at their backs, which tended to embarrass in the forthcoming contest with the bayonet, no wonder a sudden terror should seize on them, when seeing men so decidedly bent on making serious work of it, by the cool fearless courage thus displayed in their preparations for it. The English also maintain a great superiority over the French on account of their superiority in boxing; for when an Englishman knows he can generally beat two or three Frenchmen in this way, he will seldom hesitate to face the like number with any other weapon; this giving a confidence to an English soldier, and making him look down with contempt on his adversary: for although it is a good maxim for a general to treat the talents and courage of his adversaries with respect, it is no less a good rule to teach the body he commands to despise them, as by this means he secures their advancing with greater confidence, and behaving with greater energy in the contest. The English also maintain a further superiority which I have before indirectly alluded to-that of being capable, by reason of their passive courage, of being impelled onwards to battle by fear, as much as by encouragement; while the French, by reason of their active courage, can only be excited on by the latter. It is an observation of a French general, that "you must keep constantly speaking in a cheering manner to Frenchmen in battle, while Englishmen you must threaten in order to stir them up to greater exertions;" and in this there is much truth, for although in English discipline both encouragement and threatenings can be effectively employed, in French discipline the former is only capable of being efficiently had recourse to, by reason of the dissimilar spirit of the two nations. Encouragement alone, however, will never urge a coward on to danger, it is downright fear that will accomplish this; and hence it is no wonder we always find the French fail when the contest is to be decided by the bayonet, for the cowardly portion of them quickly deserting their brave comrades, the latter have sense enough to follow speedily the example, seeing it is hopeless to contend single-handed against the compact mass impelled onwards on them. It has also been a fashion in the French army, since the period of the Revolution, for the officers to mix more familiarly with the men than is allowed in the British service, which militates strongly too