LEAVES FROM AN INDIAN DIARY.

Evening Star, Issue 8399, 27 December 1890, Page 2 (Supplement)

LEAVES FROM AN INDIAN DIARY.

- ■»• [By a Veteran.] No. 42. Did I ever see Sir Charles Napier ? Oh, yea, I aa w him once for about half an hour, in the beginning of 1846. That is a long time ago, but I remember him quite well. Some men's faces impress themselves on one's memory. When the Sikh war broke out in 1845 Napier waa in Soinde, and on the 24th December received orders to equip a column to co-operate with the army under Sir Hugh Gougfa. In six weeks' time he got together 15,000 men, with fifty-four field guns and a siege train. With these be started north : wards, but by the time he reached Bahawalpore the battle of Sobraon bad been fought and the campaign finished ; so, leaving his foroe standing, he proceeded alone to Lahore to pay Sir Henry Hardinge a flying visit. Aa I have told you before, I waa detained with the siege train at Khoonda Ghat, near Ferozepore, where we had a bridge of boats over the Sutlej. One morning I saw an oldish military man with a very hooked nose, sharp eyes, and a great deal of grey hair pottering about looking at the construction of the bridge, and asking a lot of fuestions. That was Sir Charles Napier, as found out afterwards. But though I never saw him except that once, I of course heard a great deal about him, both as Governor of Scinde and afterwards when be was Com-mander-in-chief of the Army in India, from May, 1849, to the end of 1850. Those who wrote his life were of course bound to see nothing but good in him, and without doubt he did much for Tommy Atkins, but he was full of eccentric whims, the outcome of vanity, which liked doing things differently from other people. He was ever impatient of control, whether it was the Duke of Yorke, Lord Bathurst, Lord Dalhousie, Mr Adams, the Governor of Bermuda, or whoever waß over him— they were always wrong, and he was always right and had a grievance. He was like the Irishman who said " If there's a Government I'm agin it." To the Court of Directors of the H.E.I.C. he was simply insolent, referring publicly to them as " a Bet of East India traders." It was the nature of the man to be always fighting somebody, but in Lord Dalhousie he met more than his match, and had to retire. He took a special delight in upsetting the findings of courts-martial. It waa even betting whether he would say the sentence waß too severe or too lenient; but in either case tbe prisoner would be let off. Another set of men for whom be had a fine contempt were the officers of the Public Works Department. The annexation of a new province required the massing of troops in new positions, which necessitated the erection of an immense amount of barrack accommodation which could not be raised by the wave of a magician's hand, but had to be built in a very laborious way. Engineers were few, their assistants young, their subordinates indifferently trained, and contractors did not exist, so that the work of building was very heavy. Native bricks, running about 150 to the cubic foot, were few, and got principally from old tombs or buildings. Fuel for burning new bricks was scarce, and carriage bard to be got. Roads were mere tracks, and nullas and streams were unbridged, yet Napier would write furious letters at what he called delay. As I had some months' experience of the work at Jullundur (not under Napier, thank goodness), I know well what the difficulties were. To look after the whole of the buildings in the Jullundur Doab there were one major and two subalterns of engineers, besides a few European subordinates. Troops were located at Jullundur, Phillour, Kurtarpore, Kapurtulla, Nakoda, Tunda, Booderpind,' Mokerian, Hosheyarpore, and Hajeepore. At Jullundur *there were two batteries of European artillery, H.M. 61st Folt, two regiments Native cavalry, four regiments Native infantry, and a company of sappers. At each of the other nine stations there were one or more regiments, and tbe stations were ten or twenty miles apart. Napier served under Sir John Moore at Corunna, and was taken prisoner. Then he waa wounded at Coa, under Crawford. After this he commanded a regiment at Bermuda and on the coast of America; then the Northern district during the Chartist riots. But his one command of a body of troops in action was in Scinde. At Meeanee he had a mere brigade—"twentytwo hundred," as he calls it—against groat odds, and his arrangements for the battle were excellent; but, instead of remaining outside and directing the movements of his troops, he goes, like an irishman at Donnybrook into the thick of the fray, and has several times to be rescued. The same thing happens at Dubba—he goes into the middle of the fighting, and ia rescued by some of the men. Yet he pretends he is not fond of fighting, and bemoans the necessity for it. He was quite as bad as Gough,

with his " Arrah, let mo at them." His pluofc no one doubts; but hia Wisdom ia, to aay the least of it, eocentrio and questionable.