’You and the old gentleman can divide it between you, and I will double it for you, if you like.’

I delivered the message before all the officers to their great amusement; and the poor man was obliged to carry back his bag of gold to the Amil.  The Amil is the collector of revenues in Oudh, and he is armed with all the powers of government, and has generally several regiments and a train of artillery with him.

The large landholders build these mud forts, which they defend by their Rajput cultivators, who are among the bravest men in the world.  One hundred of them would never hesitate to attack a thousand of the king’s regular troops, because they know the Amil would be ashamed to have any noise made about it at court; but they know also that, if they were to beat one hundred of the Company’s troops, they would soon have a thousand upon them; and, if they were to beat one thousand, they would soon have ten.  They provide for the maintenance of those who are wounded in their fight, and for the widows and orphans of those who are killed.  Their prince provides for neither, and his soldiers are, consequently, somewhat chary of fighting.  It is from this peasantry, the military cultivators of Oudh, that our Bengal native infantry draws three out of four of its recruits, and finer young men for soldiers can hardly anywhere be found.[8]

The advantage which arises to society from doing the soldiers’ duty with a smaller number has never been sufficiently appreciated in India; but it will become every day more manifest, as our dominion becomes more and more stable—­for men who have lived by the sword do not in India like to live by anything else, or to see their children anything but soldiers.  Under the former government men brought their own arms and horses to the service, and took them away with them again when discharged.  The supply always greatly exceeded the demand for soldiers, both in the cavalry and the infantry, and a very great portion of the men armed and accoutred as soldiers were always without service, roaming over the country in search of it.  To such men the profession next in rank after that of the soldier robbing in the service of the sovereign was that of the robber plundering on his own account. ’Materia munificentiae per bella et raptus.  Nec arare terram, aut expectare annum, tam facile persuaseris, quam vocare hostes et vulnera mereri; pigrum quinimmo et iners videtur sudore acquirere, quod possis sanguine parare.’ ’War and rapine supply the prince with the means of his munificence.  You cannot persuade the German to cultivate the fields and wait patiently for the harvest so easily as you can to challenge the enemy, and expose himself to honourable wounds.  They hold it to be base and dishonourable to earn by the sweat of their brow what they might acquire by their blood.’[9]