misconduct in the battle of Purwan-Durrah, against Dost
Mohammed, November 2, 1840.

It may be said that we are unnecessarily multiplying instances, and that
these symptoms of local fermentation are of little individual
importance; but nothing can be misplaced which has a tendency to dispel
the universal and unaccountable error which prevails in England, as to
the _popularity of our sway in India_. The signs of the times are
tolerably significant--and the apprehensions of a coming commotion which
we expressed in July, as well as of the quarter in which it will
probably break out, are amply borne out by the language of the
best-informed publications of India. "That the seeds of discontent" says
the _Delhi Gazette_--"have been sown by the Moslems, and have partially
found root among the Hindoos, is more than conjecture"--and the
warnings of the _Agra Ukhbar_ are still more unequivocal. "Reports have
reached Agra that a general rise will erelong take place in the Dekkan.
There have already been several allusions made to a very extensive
organization among the native states[41] against the British power, the
resources of which will, no doubt, be stretched to the utmost during the
ensuing cold season. Disaffection is wide and prevalent, and when our
withdrawal from Affghanistan becomes known, it will ripen into open
insurrection. With rebellion in Central India, and famine in Northern,
Government have little time to lose in collecting their energies to meet
the crisis." The increase of means which the return of the army from
Affghanistan will place at the disposal of the Governor-General, will
doubtless do much in either overawing or suppressing these
insurrectionary demonstrations; but even in this case the snake will
have been only "scotched, not killed;" and the most practical and
effectual method of rendering such attempts hopeless for the future,
will be the replacing the Indian army on the same efficient footing, as
to numbers and composition, on which it stood before the ill-judged
measures of Lord William Bentinck. The energies of the native troops
have been heavily tasked, and their fidelity severely tried, during the
Affghan war; and though they have throughout nobly sustained the high
character which they had earned by their past achievements, the
experiment on their endurance should not be carried too far. Many of the
errors of past Indian administrations have already been remedied by Lord
Ellenborough