distinct bodies. We do not want Indian regiments cemented together by the bond of a common country or faith, but we want regiments composed of various elements, incapable of cohesion or absorption, yet under the strong hand of the European fit for powerful and united action. It is this mixture of unity, as a whole, with diversity in the component parts, which gives the perfect organisation. Such a body is safe to the State, and terrible to the enemies of the State alone.

Separate regiments may revolt and do mischief any day, but a separate troop or company can hardly rise in mutiny, because the other troops or companies would at once combine to cut off the offender.

But as it will be found practically impossible to carry this mode of organisation out in every case, we must, as the only safe alternative, grasp still at the principle here set forth. If we cannot have enough mixed regiments, then to make up the deficiency, the Punjab must garrison Hindostan, Hindostan the Punjab.

The latest researches of our best antiquarians show that the old Romans employed the levies from one province to hold the garrison of another. We must to some extent do the same. A Sikh will not mutiny at Benares, to run the gauntlet thence to Lahore amidst a nation of enemies. Neither will the men of Hindostan try a second time the experiment of running from Lahore to Benares.

A few words in conclusion on the character of the British officer who is to lead these regiments,

and who, instead of being thwarted by a system of centralisation, should have full power over his men. Sir Henry Lawrence's system being the best for our purpose in forming a regiment, we may take Sir Henry also as our model of a regimental commander. The Friends of M. Guizot called him "un rosier en fer;" this is just the description of what Sir Henry was, of what his bosom friends, Lake, Reynell Tayler, and Robert Napier still are. Men of this stamp have a marvellous power over rough natures; but whether we have the "rosier" or not, the "fer" is absolutely indispensable in a leader of Sikhs or Afreedees. The almost superhuman power of Nicholson over the Sikhs was to be found in a perfectly just, yet relentlessly firm temper, and a bold and noble presence. "The tramp of his war-horse might be heard two miles off." Such was the description given of Nicholson by a rough Sikh who wept over his grave. A mere easy, good-natured man, who can only be nurum (soft), and never gurrum (hot), will not do for the Sikhs. The mixture of quiet benevolence and justice, with an ardent spirit, chains them to a leader for ever.

CHAP. XII.

RELIGION AND EDUCATION.

I PROCEED now shortly to consider the duties of the British Government with regard to religion and education in India.

The mysteries of the native mind have been so far disclosed during the revolt, that it seems less difficult by the light thus given to discuss the great and kindred questions of religion and education. If one fact was, during the late troubles, more clearly demonstrated than another, it was this, that the body of the natives hated our system of village schools, whilst they clung to our colleges. The reasons for this preference and aversion appear to be these: The village schools were generally supported by a subscription of one per cent. on the Government revenue. The influence of local officers was enough to induce the landholders to grant this cess, but at heart the ignorant Zemindars looked upon the whole scheme with suspicion and aversion, as calculated to interfere with their religion and their pocket at the same time.

On the other hand, the payments to the colleges were purely voluntary; and the education given in the English language, and in the missionary col

leges in the Christian doctrine, had the effect of enlisting the affections of the students. The boy, who had been instructed in the morality of the Gospel, and had tasted the literature of the West, grew up as a man into the admirer and often the partisan of the English. During the course of the mutiny, numerous English scholars who had offices under our Government came in to us at Agra, from Oude, Rohilcund, and the Doab. All evinced a spirit of determined loyalty to their British employers, and many suffered death merely as English scholars, at the hands of the mutineers. A Bengalee Baboo* at Furuckabad or Cawnpore, was almost in as great peril as a Christian, so long as those cities were in the hands of the rebels. Not that the Baboo had personally any taste for the honours of martyrdom ; for to tell the truth, he was the veriest coward under the sun, but simply because the Sepoy instinctively hated the English scholars, as part and parcel of the English community. But the students of Agra, Furuckabad, Benares, Delhi, or Bareilly, who had been instructed either at the Government or Mission Colleges, behaved in a much bolder manner, and often at the risk of their own lives openly declared their adherence to the British cause.

It is further to be remarked, that it is education in and by the English language, and that alone, which has seemed to chain the student to our fortunes. Some of our bitterest enemies were the

* These men are generally employed as English writers in Upper India.

native doctors and surgeons who had studied European science in the vernacular all their lives.

I here introduce a letter written to me on this subject by the Reverend Principal of the Agra Church Missionary College. It will have weight with those who know, as I do, how entirely free Mr. French is from any bias of mind or professional prejudice :

"From what Dr. Anderson* tells me of the youths of the Delhi College, and from what I have observed personally of the conduct of my boys in Agra, I have no hesitation in stating it as my conviction, that the result of an English-more particularly of a Christian English education-is to bind to us the hearts of the youth of this country by a link stronger than any other which has been yet discovered.

"The boys' good feeling and well wishing towards the English Government seems to have been almost precisely proportionate to the length of time they had been under our training and the extent to which they had imbibed our religious, moral, and scientific teaching. It was not merely that they professed a hollow attachment to our interests when they saw which way things were likely to turn; but throughout they showed themselves capable of taking an honest and independent part in the support of those principles of order and just government with which their education had led them to sympathise. When among them, I quite

* Professor of Moral Philosophy at the Government Colleges.