SIR CHARLES NAPIER AND THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 563, 6 September 1851, Page 4

SIR CHARLES NAPIER AND THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT.

In returning thanks for his health having been drunk nt a diuitei given to him by the Bjculla Club at Boinbav, jnst before his return to Europe, Sir Charles Napier said — " Gentlemen,— lt is with some difficulty tliat T rise to thank you for the toast which you h.ive just chunk, and the flatteiing manner in which it has been received by you, preceded as it was by one of the most eloquent^ speeches I ever heard. I cannot help feeling myself most highly praised— more praised tlian 1 deserved to be, and that in the most eloquent language ; but you can only have in reply a plain speech from a poor soldier, who, parsing here on his way home, was quite unpiepared for the high honour jou have done him. I see here as well as soldiers not a lew civilians. lam eupposed to be an enemy to the civilians in this country — such is not the case — this was ever far below me. Gentlemen, you must allow me large latitude this evening, for, I did not know what 1 was to say before I stood up. Sir William Yardley (who proposed the toast) has praised me lar beyond anything to which I can lay claim, but there is one point in which he has not gone farther than he ought— in saying that I should be the first to feel hurt at any piaise to me in deterioration of Lord Gough. Lord Gough T venerate as a soldier, and there is no nobler beart than that which beats m the bosom of Loid Gough. Sir W. \ ardley heaps upon my shoulders all the glory of the conquest of Scinde ; that sjlory 1 beg to share with the armies of India : if something was due to me for arrangement, much was due to the soldiers who fought. Here. I see \Y lattice, Leeson, Wyllie, and dozens of otheis I could point out around roe ; and there is the brave Bengal 9th, and the hardy little corps of Madras Suppers. I love the armies of all the three Pves-idcncies, and cannot pass any of them, but must confess my predilection for the Bombay aimy. I say this not to the prejudice of the annies of the other Presidencies. I have seen among them soldiers as stanch as could anywheie be found, but I fiist served ■with the Bombay army, and I love it most. lam now 70 years old, and am, I am afiaul, become a little prosy ; ha ! — but you must forgive an old soldier. In .Bombay jou havo good qualities, but you are inclined to hide them. Theie is a biave and gallant soldier who rose from the ranks now at this table. He was the fust to plant the Briu&h colours on the walls of Mooltan. But a regulation — that thing above all others cursed — prevents that gallant soldier from sharing in the benefits of n fund which, incase of his death, would place his widow above the reach of want. Gentlemen, that regulation ought to be broken. (Great cheering.) I am afraid, gentlemen, you must submit to a wild, rambling speech, but you must have patience with me. There were two or three below me of whom I must speak — I like to come to points much better than many of my neighbours do — officers who did more for rue than I could ever do for them. The first whom I would mention is one who fell — Biown, of the Bengal Engineers, and Major M'Murdo, of whom, being nearly related to me, 1 cannot speak ; and there is JMeerza Ah Akbar, my monsbee, who followed me thiough all my battles, and was with me in every action, who executed all my orders, and, without giving him more than his due, did as much towards the conquest or Scinde as a thousand men. This man I find here m Bombay, dis. graced, without employment, and a beggar, I don't wish to find any fault with Government, but this I know Meeiza AH Khan has had the benefit of no trial, but has been condemned anheaid. After the conquest of Scinde, again, I cannot take to mjbelf all the praise •which Sir William Yardley has heaped upon me, I am deeply indebted for assistance in its rule by two of the collectors — there were three of them, but I saw two — M^jor Goldney and Major Rathborn. ILese gentlemen followed me in war, but they did more for me in time of peace, and they did much to uphold ihe hoi> our of India in Scinde. The credit of the mle of Scinde is due to those gentlemen as well as to me, and to them you must give it. I take ciecht to lmself for my zeal to my country, and the welfare, honour, and glory of India. lam called an enemy to the Directors. No, I am not; but when I am ill-tieated 1 icsist. This is mere independence — independence of spun, which, old as I am, I hope I may carry to the grave with me. Fifty-seven years ago I received my commission — I received it then rejoicing as a boy, and through your kindness I now finish my career lejoiciug as a man. I Lave never felt real anger with any body ; sometimes, indeed, I have felt anger for a moment, and I have often ■wished for a good broomstick, and to have been within three yards of the object of it. Eveiy one ha 3 their little peculiarities, and I'll not hide mine. I turn to the interests of Bombay. Scinde has been conquered, no matter bow, or when, or for wlut leason — it has been conquered, and when I rode through Scinde tho other day I saw whole seas of giain. lam not much of a farmer, but 1 know the difference between wheat and barley; but there were others with tue who -were practical men, and who assured me that the riches of that soil were almost boundless. Your steamers can j go right away up the north-west provinces to Lahore, and numberless other places up there, and will eventually bung down the whole riches of tbat part of India to emich Bombay. I met a little man named Anatoon ; Le was a little man, like one of those small steam-tugs, amall to lock at, but of tremendous power. This Arratoon told me that he had felled a quantity of the most splendid timber up there ; it was of a very fine kind, and of the finest growth, and all that Arratoou wanted to bring this splendid timber to your Bombay dockyard was the assistance of Government to protect it on the way down, and prevent its being plundered by rajahs and robbers on the way. Well, Arratoon applied to the Marquis Dalhousie for protection, but ho was asked to prove tbat he had the means of bringing it down ! What Jiad Governmentto [do with means? Is it not enough for it to let everyone look after their own means? lam not much of a politician, but I know that trade must be fostered by Government in the first instance, that it may be able to support Government in the second. Bat this is not much to the purpose. We know there is a produce, were it only brought down, and then we should see Bombay enriched with all the riches of the noitbwest. Bombay, from its locality — from its being the Dearest of any of the presidencies to England — will Boon beat Calcutta in grandeur. And there is Kurracchee, which when I left, a short time ago, had only some five thousand inhabitants ; when I saw it the other day it had twenty-five thousand inhabitants. This is by reason of the conquest of Scinde, and on account of the conquest of Scinde Bombay will soon be the capital of Tndia." In proposing the " Indian Army" Sir Charles Napier said — " When I came out heie I thought 1 was to be Commander-in-Chief, but I was mistaken — yes, gentlemen, egregiously mistaken. I found tbat I was merely a soit of monster adjutant, nor even as a monster adjutant complete, but like a half-caste bullock — neither one thing nor t'other. Gentlemen, I do not believe that any one of the Commanders-in-Chief who went befoie me know exactly what they came out to do ; and I'll tell what is more, gentlemen, — by 1 don't exactly know myself. Here with your regulais and irregulars, your rangers, your Bheel corps, and I don't It dow what else, yon have an army of four hundred thousand men who are fit for anything. Where a Britishnofiicer leads, you will ever find the black Sepoy follow. In the pass of Kohat, where not a shot would have been fired, I saw the noble Sepoys covering* their officeis and carrying off the wounded and fallen. 1 never think of the Sepoy without admiration, nor of the Bombay 25th without affection. The troops of India are, I think, equal to almost any troops ; indeed, I think there is no difference between them and oui own British troops ; but, gentlemen, it is my opinion that they have not enough of officers. Give them enough of British, officers, and they are a match for any aiiny in the world."

[From the " Spectator," March B.] ArTER what lie has said in India, Sir Charles Napier is bound to prosecute the leoiganization of the Indian armies. Sir Charles has accused divers sections in those armies of indiscipline; he has made a sweeping charge against officers of dishonesty in money matters; and Ins farewell speech just received in this country, roundly charges the supreme authorities with management the most neglectful and vicious. These charges ought to he refuted hy investigation, or superseded by thorough reform. The ulterior question, whether it is desirable to retain or abandon India, has comparatively little to do with the immediate question before us: if we do give up that empire it ought not to be because we pi ore incapable of retaining it, or through the coercion of disaster nor ought we to suirender it to any alien rival: so long at •we retain India, our aimies ought to be capable of their office, to the veiy last; and that the empire should be a deliberate gift, on wise grounds, to its native races. Let no unfair use be made of tho extraneous gossip mixed up with the business in Sir Charles Napier's speech : it is the rambling speech of a man no longer young, not bom to be discreet, not studied m closeness of argument ; but the matter is of a substantial and very important nature. Sir Charles's knowledge none can question: if he is exaggerating the facts or perverting them from malicious motives, let sutli a misus« of the facts he shown; but meanwile, every man who has

tin* welfaie find honour of the Butish empitp at lied it will pxppct from government and Paihament a thorough inquiiy,and, if it piove necessary, a thorough eastigaUon of our military system in India. Lot us leview the cbargps advanced by the retned veleian. lie says that the company's forces are undpr-officered. Thp impottance of this matter cannot be overrated. We in England have repeatedly bten perplexed by the most conflicting accounts as to tha behaviour of the Native troops — repoits of unsoldieilv conduct in the Company's forces, — European, as well as native, — clashing with tbe most emphatic eulogiums on the conduct of those very forces, especially of tbe Native troops. Complaints that the tioops were under-officered have before reached us ; it is a common and too often a just complaint from forces in actual service; but Sir Charles now applies the charge to tbe whole of the Company's forces. If the motive i-» economy, it is a bad economy: if our tenure of India is more costly than profitable, the faulty balance should be redressed, not by stinting tbe needful materials of military strength, but by developing tbe productive resources of our territory; a process which would bind it to us by the double tipof self-support md interest. The fact distinctly avei red by Sir Cbailes Napier, that tbe Indian forces are under-officered, may help to explain many disasters in tbe past; unless it be amended, it may explain many needless wars and disasters in the future. Sir Charles proclaims that the administrations of the armies is unjust. We pass over his allubion to an interpreter who hud been disgraced for no obvious reason, because that affair is not stated with distinctness. But he says that there is too much of the aristocratic element in the Bombay Army— his favourite army, from old associations, and not worse in lespect of favouritism, we presume than the foices either of Madras or Bengal. Probity, ability, energy, those gieat elements of military strength, are repressed under the "baneful" influence of "regulation " Sir Charles gives an example, in a gentleman who had risen from the ranks, and whose family — his widow and children — if he died, would not be entitled to pension. Such an example of monstrous injustice cannot but tend to sap that faith and zeal which are the very springs of allegiance. Wo will not depart from the record before us, to othei things, such as the batta dispute in Madras; but Sir Chailes's speech supplies quite enough to prove that the poison of injustice lurks in our military system to a clangorous extent. If to be high born or well connected is necessary to advancement in the showy regiments at home, the claim of merit ought to be peremptory at least among the troops in active service ; and especially in India, where so much depends upon the armies. A third charge advanced by the parting Comman-der-in-chief is, that the Government is ignorant of what it commands — does not know itsownnrnws — does not even know how many it commands ! We pass over Sir Charles's complaint that he was not really Comman-der-in-chief—that he wus under the control of " boy Politicals" — because it is tinctured by personal feeling ; but when he avers that no one could tell him what it was that he was to have under his command — when he declares that it was his own industry only enabled him to make an approximate reckoning that he had come thing above four hundred thousand men under him — we acquiie a faint idea of the extent, the laxity, and therefoiethe precarious condition, of our military sj'Stem in ] ndia. On this showing, it is quite clear that one source of bad management is sheer wholesale ignorance in the responsible govornors. In a word, it appears from this farewell speech, that our military system in India is tainted with injustice ; is badly organised, in a degree sufficient to account for any serious calamities ; and that the system, throughout its extent, is actually not known to those who administer it. It is not we that say this, but Sir Charles Napier, late Commander in-Chief of the Indian Armies, selected for that post because he was the ablest and most vigorous of our Generals in active service, and is npxt to the Duke of Wellington, who lias not been in India for upuaids of forty years, the most illustrious of all our commanders.