censure it merits, the Government itself becomes a party in the commission of the fault, and is justly open to the deep condemnation such conduct calls for. It is not, under such an arbitrary Government as this, to be expected that every or any inferior officer will bring to its notice the sins of omission, or commission, of those high in authority. Almost certain ruin to themselves would be the consequence; such, at least, is the universal impression on our minds in this service. It cannot, or ought not, justly to be said, that the Medical Establishment is not sufficient for the duties required of it. If it is, why is it not increased? But the fact is not so; for we see many civil stations with a medical man, even where there are but two or three civilians; and at some of these, where there are troops and a medical man in charge of them, who could easily attend the civilians also, and even the jail, where there is one. I will now proceed to mention another of the impolitic measures of our masters, and one which tends to bring the European officers into disesteem with the Native soldiers. It is the scarcity of European officers with Native regiments, thereby causing three-fourths of them to be mere boys, who ought to be at school. They are admitted into the service, or rather allowed to join regiments, and have charge of companies, much too young; many at 15 and 16, with the manners, appearance, and pursuits, of 12 or 13, mere children. Is it to be supposed that old men, such as our companies consist of, can respect and look up to such childish things as their guardians and leaders? Or is it to be supposed that children, thus prematurely let loose from school, will pay attention to the grave study of language and military duty, the customs, prejudices, and leading features of the Native character, or that they can duly appreciate them? No their object naturally is amusement, and all which trenches upon this desire is considered an irksome task, which they will never learn, unless forced to it. They either ought not to be admitted into the service under 17 or 18, or they ought to be kept in depôts, (not in or near Calcutta,) in classes, and their final admission into the service depend upon their scale of qualifications in the language, customs, &c., of the country. Another impolitic measure is the system of the Commissariat and executive department of public works, wherein every European officer is under such suspicion, that he is obliged to take an oath to the expenditure of every rupee which passes through his hands; whilst the Native sircar, or babboo, under him, who, in fact, has the expenditure of the money, is exempted from this; plainly implying, that more trust is reposed in his honesty that in that of commissioned officers. These things are seen, felt, and commented on by the Natives; and the unavoidable conclusion they draw from them is, that the European officers are no longer worthy of confidence. The general feeling of this army is, that, let your cause be ever so just, you never can obtain redress against the arbitrary authority of the local Government, however unjustly exercised. Such, without fear of contradiction, I aver to be the almost universal feeling; I believe I might say the universal feeling, but that I am an exception (the only one I know of) to it; but the time, trouble, and risk, attending the prosecution of any appeal against Government, is such as to deter most men from persevering in the attempt. Ask the Bengal army if such is not the fact; and then ask common sense if such a feeling could so have pervaded it, without strong grounds for its predomination? Another cause of just dissatisfaction and complaint is, the regulation (I believe) of 1824, of the Court of Directors, (in my opinion erroneously interpreted by the local Government,) confining the allowances of companies to officers actually present with the headquarters of their regiments. A more unjust and impolitic measure never could have been thought of. By its operation, the captains and senior subalterns, who alone are eligible for detached duties, see their allowances sacrificed in favour of those who, from their standing in the service, or want of qualification, are incompetent to perform them, and by this incompetency enjoying the emoluments of the senior's absence. This measure is not only unjust in itself, but has a direct tendency to deter the juniors from qualifying themselves, either by a study of the language, or knowledge of their military duties, for the more important ones of their profession; for, accordingly as they rise in qualification, their allowances are curtailed. Another cause of discontent is, the erroneous idea with which young men enter this service. It was, some 35 or 40 years ago, a good service, and the delusion still exists in England; consequently young men come out with sanguine expectations, not only of speedy promotion, but of being able to live upon their allowances in a comfortable and even luxurious manner; but they have not been above 12 months in the country ere they find the fallacy of these expectations; they find they can scarcely exist as gentlemen upon their allowances, and that the chances are about six to one against their reaching the rank of field-officers; or, if they do hope to reach it, it must be so late in life as to make it as a matter of indifference. Thus they plod on, without exertion or interest in their profession. I know also, that with many in England, the pension is wofully misunderstood. Parents fancy, and inculcate the idea, that if their children are so unfortunate as to reach only the rank of captain, after 25 years' service, they are entitled to retire upon the handsome pension of their pay, which they erroneously consider between 600l. and 7001. per annum, instead of 1801. When the present allowances of the Bengal army were fixed, Futtyghur was a frontier station; and the principal part of the army was confined almost to the banks of the Ganges, with the advantages of water-carriage, and every necessary article of consumption 100 per cent. cheaper than at present. Look at our boundaries now, and the distance of our stations from the source of supply; more than half the army removed hundreds of miles from this advantage, and the expenses of moving increased three-fold, can it be fairly said that our allowances are not reduced? Officers and soldiers of his Majesty's service get an increase of pay for length of service in particular ranks; not so those of the Company. Officers of his Majesty's service get also what is termed blood-money,—a twelvemonth's pay on being wounded; not so those of the Company. Children of his Majesty's officers have the advantages of education at a reduced expense, and a fair field open to their exertions being rewarded with commissions; not so the Company's. The circumstance of an officer's having spent his life in the service of the Company, gives him no claim to look to the reward of a commission for any of his children; while the necessary sum he is obliged to remit to England for their education, is increased by the breach of contract in our honourable masters in the depreciated and false value of the coin in which we are paid. His Majesty's officers in their temporary service in this country, where duty calls them, have increased allowances, to put them, as it is said, on a par with those of the Company, who are tied for life to this destructive climate. Compare their situations but for a moment, and see where the scale of advantage preponderates. It is between twenty and thirty years since I entered this service high up in the lists of lieutenants of my regiment, since which I have seen very many regiments added to the establishment, and yet have no prospect of being a field-officer before I have served thirty years. I am convinced, I speak within bounds, when I say no officer, (with the exception, perhaps, of two or three lucky ones,) who has entered this service within the last ten years, has a chance of rising to the rank of a field-officer under a period of thirty-eight years' service. Interest also in the distribution of appointments prevails too strongly, to the exclusion of the claim of length of service; and the usages, and even published regulations of the service, are departed from, whenever strong interest exerts its influence over them, who, from the temporary nature of their situations, cannot feel a proper interest in the permanent and future welfare of the service at whose head fortune has placed them. The junior officers of this army have strong and just cause of complaint against commanding officers of regiments, who too frequently, following up the example of the higher authorities in their want of consideration towards their European officers, neglect their just claims to consideration and attention, and suffer them to be injured and insulted, though plainly authorized and called upon to uphold them by the regulations of the service. Two instances have just come under my own observation in proof of what I have here advanced, but I dare not give you the particulars, as it might be the means of pointing me out for persecution. With such want of con sideration and attention to the European officers, is it to be wondered at, if, under such treatment, they should fail in that respect and attention'due to their commanding officers; or if such treatment should influence them in their conduct to those under their command? Let common sense answer this question, and then look for one of the causes of the diminution of attachment and respect in the Native soldier to his European officer.* Many of our cantonments swarm with European and Native traders in indigo, cotton, &c. Shopkeepers, half-caste writers, civil officers, &c., occupying bungalos, frequently to the exclusion of officers belonging to the station, and producing a scarcity of them, which raises the rent or price of those we occupy much beyond the fair value, to the great detriment of our interests; but I am running into a detail which would occupy volumes, and which was foreign to my intention, for, I confess, I have not abilities to do justice to the subject, without tiring both you and your readers. I therefore leave it, in hopes some one more able (more zealous for the weal of our masters I do not acknowledge) will enter fully into the causes of, and remedy for, the lamentable deterioration of the Bengal army. MILENSIS. TO A LADY SINGING. † THOSE Soothing tones so richly steal Oh, dark-haired minstrel,-sing again! Yet Love so soon his way will win Where Pleasure opes her golden door, That lest the traitor now glide in, Oh, dark-haired minstrel,-sing no more! A. B. * We are left,too, to the mercy of every Commander-in-Chief, who, for the sake of patronage, may (as has been done by the present one, in the measure of partially removing regimental officers (majors) to the command of regiments to which they do not belong,) set aside the long established usages and constitution of this army, to the great detriment of the just rights and expectations of deserving officers." + From The Literary Souvenir' for 1828. 120 RECOLLECTIONS OF COLOMBIA, IN 1812. WE embarked at Cumana, on board an American schooner, for La Guayra, in company with our friend, Captain M- and two Colombian officers. The moon shone resplendently, and we enjoyed the pleasure of a charming breeze, which assured us that we should soon be wafted to our destined port; this we had great reason to desire, owing to the miserable accommodation afforded by our conveyance, and on account of our stock of water, which proved to be of a most fetid description, notwithstanding the solemn assurance of the captain, that it was the production of some celebrated spring in the neighbourhood of Bunker's-hill. The anchorage here is, perhaps, the worst in the world, though it might be rendered perfectly secure by constructing a pier, which could be accomplished with facility, and at a trifling cost; such an undertaking has been submitted to the consideration of the Government, but, like many other good projects, it was discarded, from the indifference of these people to improvement. Exposed as the shipping are here to every agitation of the ocean within any moderate distance of the land, vessels have repeatedly been driven on shore; even in calms the sea often rolling tremendously, when there is no wind, so that no precaution could obviate the evil. The Custom House, which we visited with our luggage, is rather an extensive building, and here are the Government offices and a suite of rooms for the use of the Governor. It is the practice in Colombia to present your passport to this personage, who has always a question or two to entertain you with, particularly if you should be so unfortunate as to arrive direct from England, as the people here profess abundance of regard for the natives of that country, and are very obsequious towards Englishmen in general. As we had dined with this gentleman a short time previously at Cumana, our conversation was confined to a few common-place remarks, which did not occupy him long, when the gallant Colonel A-, with a mixture of pride and politeness, bade us buenos dias, and retired from the audience-chamber; it was the only time we had the honour to kiss his Excellency's hand. We knew La Guayra to be a wretchedly dull place, with an atmosphere ill-calculated for the constitution of an Englishman, and the greater part of the town in ruins, from the effects of the dreadful earthquake of 1812. We were conducted to a posada, some five minutes' walk from the Government House, and we made our appearance just in time to partake of a tolerably generous supply of the luxuries of the country, converted into French, Spanish, and Italian dishes, on which we contrived to fare sumptuously enough. The company consisted of European and American agents, masters |