o
the sepoys will have a good effect in tending to give to regiments
more active and intelligent native officers? Old sepoys who are not
so will now have less cause to complain if passed over, will they
not?'

'If the sepoys thought that the increase of pay was given with this
view, they would rather not have it at all. To pass over men merely
because they happen to have grown old, we consider very cruel and
unjust. They all enter the service young, and go on doing their duty
till they become old, in the hope that they shall get promotion when
it comes to their turn. If they are disappointed, and young men, or
greater favourites with their European officers, are put over their
heads, they become heart-broken. We all feel for them, and are always
sorry to see an old soldier passed over, unless he has been guilty of
any manifest crime, or neglect of duty. He has always some relations
among the native officers who know his family, for we all try to get
our relations into the same regiment with ourselves when they are
eligible. They know what that family will suffer when they learn that
he has no longer any hopes of rising in the service, and has become
miserable. Supersessions create distress and bad feelings throughout
a regiment, even when the best men are promoted, which cannot always
be the case; for the greatest favourites are not always the best men.
Many of our old European officers, like yourself, are absent on staff
or civil employments; and the command of companies often devolves
upon very young subalterns, who know little or nothing of the
character of their men. They recommend those whom they have found
most active and intelligent, and believe to be the best; but their
opportunities of learning the characters of the men have been few.
They have seen and observed the young, active, and forward; but they
often know nothing of the steady, unobtrusive old soldier, who has
done his duty ably in all situations, without placing himself
prominently forward in any. The commanding officers seldom remain
long with the same regiment, and, consequently, seldom know enough of
the men to be able to judge of the justice of the selections for
promotion. Where a man has been guilty of a crime, or neglected his
duty, we feel no sympathy for him, and are not ashamed to tell him
so, and put him down[11] when he complains.'

Here the old Subadar, who had been at the taking of the Isle of
France, mentioned that when he was senior