ishment. Had he been
suffered to remain in the regiment he could never have hoped to rise
after having been flogged, or sentenced to be flogged; his hopes were
all destroyed, and his spirit broken, and the order directing him to
be dismissed was good; but, as I have said, he lost all hope of
getting into any other service, and dared not show his face among his
family at home.'

'You know who ordered the abolition of flogging?'

'Lord Bentinck.'[6]

'And you know that it was at his recommendation the Honourable
Company gave the increase of pay with length of service?'

'We have heard so; and we feel towards him as we felt towards Lord
Wellesley, Lord Hastings, and Lord Lake.'

'Do you think the army would serve again now with the same spirit as
they served under Lord Lake?'

'The army would go to any part of the world to serve such masters--no
army had ever masters that cared for them like ours. We never asked
to have flogging abolished; nor did we ever ask to have an increase
of pay with length of service; and yet both have been done for us by
the Company Bahadur.'

The old Sardar Bahadur came again to visit me on the 1st of December,
with all the native officers who had come over from Sagar to attend
the court, seven in number. There were three very smart, sensible men
among them; one of whom had been a volunteer at the capture of
Java,[7] and the other[s] at that of the Isle of France.[8] They all
told me that they considered the abolition of corporal punishment a
great blessing to the native army. 'Some bad men who had already lost
their character, and consequently all hope of promotion, might be in
less dread than before; but they were very few, and their regiments
would soon get rid of them under the new law that gave the power of
dismissal to regimental courts martial.'

'But I find the European officers are almost all of opinion that the
abolition of flogging has been, or will be, attended with bad
consequences.'

'They, sir, apprehend that there will not be sufficient restraint
upon the loose characters of the regiment; but now that the sepoys
have got an increase of pay in proportion to length of service there
will be no danger of that. Where can they ever hope to get such
another service if they forfeit that of the Company? If the dread of
losing such a service is not sufficient to keep the bad in order,
that of being put to work upon the roads in irons will. The good can
always be kept in order b