, for some years past, has slowly but surely been alienating the
attachment, and breaking down the military spirit, of our native army.
We refer to the distribution, by order of Lord Ellenborough, of badges
of honorary distinction, as well as of more substantial rewards, in the
form of augmented allowances,[38] &c., to the sepoy corps which have
borne the brunt of the late severe campaign. Right well have these
honours and gratuities been merited; nor could any measure have been
better timed to strengthen in the hearts of the sepoys the bonds of the
_Feringhi salt_, to which they have so long proved faithful. The policy,
as well as the justice, of holding out every inducement which may rivet
the attachment of the native troops to our service, obvious as it must
appear, has in truth been of late too much neglected;[39] and it has
become at this juncture doubly imperative, both from the severe and
unpopular duty in which a considerable portion of the troops have
recently been engaged, and from the widely-spread disaffection which has
lately manifested itself in various quarters among the native
population. We predicted in July, as the probable consequence of our
reverses in Affghanistan, some open manifestation of the spirit of
revolt constantly smouldering among the various races of our subjects in
India, but the prophecy had already been anticipated by the event. The
first overt resistance to authority appeared in Bhundelkund, a wild and
imperfectly subjugated province in the centre of Hindostan, inhabited by
a fierce people called Bhoondelahs. An insurrection, in which nearly all
the native chiefs are believed to be implicated, broke out here early
in April; and a desultory and harassing warfare has since been carried
on in the midst of the almost impenetrable jungles and ravines which
overspread the district. The Nawab of Banda and the Bhoondee Rajah, a
Moslem and a Hindoo prince, respectively of some note in the
neighbourhood of the disturbed tracts, have been placed under
surveillance at Allahabad as the secret instigators of these movements,
"which," (says the _Agra Ukhbar_) "appear to have been regularly
organized all over India, the first intimation of which was the Nawab of
Kurnool's affair"--whose deposition we noticed in July. The valley of
Berar, also, in the vicinity of the Nizam's frontier, has been the scene
of several encounters between our troops and irregular bands of
insurgents; and the restless Arab mer