fully under the influence of the men of caste. As an immediate counterbalance to the Hindoos of the Army they are useless, and would as a body obey whatever instructions they got from them. The explanation of this is, that the Southern Pariah of Madras and Trichinopoly, has long experienced the civil equality of the British subject. He has in many employments with the European community acquired a consciousness of independence. He has been born and reared free, and never known what it is to be an outcast. The Telinga Pariah on the other hand, is, in his ordinary position, the slave of the Brahmin, his mind and body alike in thraldom. He is generally a farm laborer, who receives only his food, and an occasional blanket; a serf, who is daily made to feel his degraded position. It is but lately these Telinga Pariahs have been taken in any numbers. Their admission into the ranks has not yet much changed their normal condition, but we may expect the impartiality of treatment all classes receive in the military service will gradually make itself felt on them, and that they will catch from their Southern brethren some of their independence.

The Pariah, as he is seen in the ranks of a Native Infantry Regiment, does not in many things contrast favorably with his fellow-soldiers. He is seldom so cleanly or so sober; his habits do not always gain for him the position denied him by his extraction; and though disregardful of the pretensions of others, he cannot, in general, be said to have acquired the corrective feeling of self-respect. There is no distinction whatever made in the treatment of this particular class of our soldiery. They may rise from the ranks precisely the same as a Mahomedan or Hindoo; but justice requires they must have the same qualifications, and their claims be made dependent on their fitness for promotion. We have three Pariah non-commissioned officers, and the case of one of them shows most strongly that caste, or rather the want of caste, is no bar to his maintaining the superiority proper to his rank. It happens he is one of the best Havildars in the corps. He passes over no faults, and exacts the promptest obedience from all under his command. His own careful performance of duty, enables him to keep up a strictness more feasible perhaps to one in his comparatively isolated position, than it would be to others. He is, while we write, Havildar Major of a detachment at some distance from the Regiment, the medium of all orders issued by the Officer Commanding, and obliged to exercise a general control over all the non-commissioned of his party.

The INDO-BRITONS, of whom we have very few, are employed

in the Band and as Drummers, and are of the same description as are seen all over India. They are generally the sons of European soldiers.

Having thus gone over the composition of the Regiment, we may now re-arrange them under a different form, from that adopted by Government, which will show the grouping of the men into well-marked, distinctive classes more vividly.

Distribution of Castes in the

Regiment of Madras
Native Infantry, 1st July, 1859.

We may remark that it is not quite correct, in the above, to call Hindoostanee Soodras high caste Hindoos, but we have added them to that class, as shewing best the group to which practically they belong.

In spite of discordant materials we may safely aver that all ranks in the Madras Army work well together. This is due probably to the fact that no individual element has ever been permit

ted to preponderate to such an extent as to thwart discipline. It has never been concealed or unknown that such as enter our service must part with some of their prejudices. But it is not the case that there has been any undue interference with the more essential points of their religion. There must ever be conceded a respect for the trust and belief of others, our fellow creatures; and we should remember that many customs in our creeds, acquire to each of us an importance dependant, not on themselves, but on the reverence time has thrown over them. Viewed in this light, we candidly think that in the Madras Army, the obstacles from caste are no greater than would be felt from getting together, in any quarter of the globe, men of so widely different countries and persuasions. Our recruiting field is immense-from Lucknow to Cape Comorin; and the really heterogeneous collection we have is but seldom realized. We have seen a guard before going on duty, drawn up in line, with the touch well preserved and composed as follows. The right hand man was a Rajpoot from Oude; next to him stood a Chuckler (Chumber) from Madras, whose proximity elsewhere would be pollution; on his left stood a Mahomedan of strict belief and old family; the last in the line being a Tamul Soodra from the Southernmost district of India; the whole was commanded by a Native Christian! Could any more discordant materials be selected from European nations; and when thrown together, would they be as forbearing to one another, or obedient and loyal to their masters, as our noble fellows have been?

The tone of our service being fixed, the natives have to a certain extent accommodated themselves to it; and there is a priviledged license allowed them by the outsiders which is curious enough. They do things with the corps they dare not do in their villages; and in the ranks submit to what they would not off duty. Thus in the town from which we write a Pariah must not, and would not, dare to touch even a Soodra. In the line on parade, the men are correctly sized, and a Hindoo of any caste may find himself between a Pariah and Chuckler, and be jostled to his heart's content for an hour at a time. There are many other little differences between the Military and Civil Hindoo or Mahomedan; and the laxity on the part of the former is excused by his being considered, when he enters the Army, to have joined the "Sipahee-ka-zat"—the soldier caste.

A Rajpoot must find it a difficult thing to stomach a reprimand from a Pariah. But it is clearly understood, and steadily enforced with us, that official rank overrides all social superiority; and in a lengthened service we have never known a taunt or insult on the score of caste, form a cause of complaint. Our axiom, most rigidly carried out, is that on duty, the fact of beSEPTEMEER, 1859,

S

ing a fellow soldier levels all distinctions. The Havildar Major of the Regiment is a "Culler", a man of the thief caste, but no one is more respected or could be more readily obeyed. He has a wonderful genius for accounts and a high character for probity. All collections of money for general purposes are invariably entrusted to, and managed by him, to his own exceeding relish, and the satisfaction of all parties. Speaking of general subscriptions, we may mention one, which shows that even with the many differences between our men, they are capable on some occasions of a considerable catholicism. And first we may say that no Fuqueers, Brahmins, or Byraghees are allowed to reside in the Lines. They are of course allowed to come and beg, but none are permitted permanently to occupy huts among the sepoys. This is a rule most stringently enforced, and we believe with the happiest effect. To each Regiment however there is attached a Cazee and a Brahmin. The former has charge of and reads prayers in the Musjid, there always being one exclusively for the use of the corps, and performs the necessary ceremonies at marriages, births, and deaths among the Mahomedan community. The latter always comes to morning Roll-call, warns the men of the unlucky hours of the day; and tells of the proximity of festivals, and the existing condition of the moon and stars. He only is authorized to officiate on occasions of feasts and family epochs among the Hindoos, when the services of a Brahmin are required. Both these functionaries are chosen by the men, and sanctioned by the Commanding Officer. Once installed, they will allow no poachers on their premises, and form an excellent check on any enterprizing outsider who may try to get to the weak side of the sepoys. They have no pay from Government, but each man in the Regiment gives half an anna monthly, the higher grades a little more, and the whole is divided into three shares. One goes to the Cazee, another to the Brahmin, and the third to the Barrack-sweeper. Somewhat low company certainly for their religious teachers to be classed with an old woman whose sole occupation is to sweep out the Barracks. But the fellowship shewn in the mutual assistance of Hindoo and Mahomedan, is a lesson of tolerance few would believe the native capable of giving us.

The Madras Regiments are hutted in regular" Lines." That is, their small houses run in continuous streets, facing inwards, one for each company; while a large street runs through the middle of the whole, and so divides the right from the left subdivision. There is a bazaar attached, with a Cotwall and two Peons, paid by Government, to maintain order. Most busy, bustling places the lines and bazaar are, for, as most people now know, the Madras Sepoy has always his family with him.

Wherever he may go in India, unless it be on service, there go wife and child, who look on themselves as part and parcel of the Regiment quite as much as the husband does. We believe this point in the organization of the Madras Army to be one of immense advantage to the men themselves and to the Government. In conversing with the men, and with the Natives of the Deccan generally, regarding the late Revolt in Bengal, they have invariably instanced the fact of the Bengal Sepoys being bachelors, or, if married, living apart from their families, as though not a cause of the mutiny, still one of the principal evils in the condition of the Army, which permitted so reckless an exhibition of bad faith. They speak most strongly and unanimously on this abnormal position of the Bengal Sepoy, viewing it as a violation of one of the primary laws of society. A few days ago a Hindoostanee of the Regiment returned from Jaulnah, where he had been on leave. We were talking of the doings of the Hyderabad Contingent, in which he had many relations. We remarked, "It is somewhat strange in such a disturbed place, and where the men must have been exposed 'to evil influences, that the Infantry of the Contingent, who are all Hindoostanees, should have been so perfectly staunch." He at once replied; "They all have their families with them, how could they revolt!"

In our Army bachelorhood is always advanced as a cause of any piece of folly or wickedness a Sepoy may commit; his being married, always cited as a test of trustworthiness. Accordingly we find that not only in theory is marriage a soberer, but in positive fact and reality, no surer method can be devised of reclaiming a thoughtless soldier, than by tying a wife round his neck. It is constantly prescribed by us as a cure for the mischievous vagaries of our scamps, they themselves not unfrequently, when in trouble, asking leave to get married; naively adding that after that, there is no fear of their going astray. The sedative dose is often increased by the addition, not only of wife and child, but of their poor relations. And this brings out one most admirable quality of our men-the self-denial and patience with which they submit to be burdened by their kith and kin. If the one thinks it no shame to eat the bread of idleness, he must certainly be encouraged by the stoic endurance of his benefactor.

The military objections to the families are as nothing compared to the political advantages. When ordered to the field or on foreign service, they are of course left behind; and while in garrison their presence is an unmixed good. The joys, sorrows, and responsibilities which attend, in ever varying phases,