"native army must continue to be by seniority," how is it possible to "accelerate the attainments "of rank and command," and to "confer high "rank by local commissions, while the indivi"duals to whom it is granted are yet efficient "for the duties to which it may call them," without applying to this purpose a disproportionate amount of the public income? This problem will be found to involve contradictory conditions; and we must, therefore, choose between a system where high rank may, in time, be attained by all, the wise and the simple, without interest, favour, or affection, but where it is necessarily accompanied with the infirmities of age; and one where the highest rank may be attained by men in the prime of life, where merit may be excited and rewarded, while mediocrity is not tasked to exertions, and charged with responsibility beyond its competence, but where the claims of long and honourable service may be superceded by those of birth and wealth. If we prefer the former plan, individuals may be spared the stings of envy, but the whole body will be dispirited by the tediousness of their progress towards rank and command; those who have risen to high stations will, generally, be ill-qualified for the discharge of its duties, and the in

terests of the state will be sacrificed to a vain desire to consult the comfort and satisfaction of all. The latter is the only plan compatible with the efficiency of an army, or which can draw into its ranks the younger sons of the aristocracy, and those who are animated by a secret consciousness, that if preferment should be attainable by the display of skill and enterprize, they would not fail in the pursuit. In an army so constituted, the officers are of two classes; those who are sure of rising within a certain number of years to a rank wherein, exclusive of other advantages, they may meet with opportunities of acquiring distinction; and those who have no higher aim than that of securing a decent livelihood. In the Indian army, the officers are of a.description somewhere between these extremes. The proposition for permitting" the sale of com"missions and exchanges between the English "and local branches of the army, under regula"tions which guarded the efficiency of the local "branch," that is, as far as was consistent with the observance of the principle of seniority, would, doubtless, mitigate the inconveniences of that system, which might be still further reduced by investing the commander-in-chief with the privilege of recommending for brevet rank those

whose gallantry in the field had been conspi

cuous.

The disallowance of the rank of colonel to officers who rise to the command of regiments in the Indian army, while it is allowed to those who have been similarly promoted in the Royal Artillery and Engineers, is a grievance so glaringly severe and unjustifiable as to call loudly for instant and retrospective redress. On the other hand, it would be reasonable to make a revised distribution of staff-employments between the English and local branches of the army, by which a somewhat greater proportion should be allotted to the former than they now enjoy. Great progress has been made in allaying jealousies and promoting emulation; and the removal of the few obstacles which remained should be objects of generous and unceasing solicitude.

One cause of dissatisfaction is the difference of 4 per cent. between the rupees issued to the civil and military services on the Bengal establishment. In the upper provinces, where the Sonat rupee is current, the difference of 4 per cent. is added* to the salaries of civil servants;

By a late regulation, those nominated to appointments in

and, in the lower provinces, where the Sicca. rupee is current, the difference is deducted from the pay of the army. For many years after the establishment of the British power in India, the variety of rupees was extremely troublesome; at last they were reduced to four descriptions, the Sicca, the Sonat (or Furruckabad), the Madras, and the Bombay rupee; exclusive of those which are coined at Hydrabad, Nagpore, Lucknow, Gualior, and other places beyond the Company's provinces. Habit being less wedded to one standard and denomination of coins than of weights and measures, it is more easy to introduce uniformity in the former than in the latter: but the measure is not unattended with difficulty, public establishments being unwilling to submit to a reduction in the nominal amount of their pay, if a rupee of the highest intrinsic value be adopted as the standard, and the payers of the land-revenue and other taxes being equally averse to an enhancement in the nominal amount of their payments, if a rupee of the lowest intrinsic value be adopted; especially as the reduction in the one

the upper provinces since the date of the regulation, do not receive the difference.

case and enhancement in the other would generally have the effect of destroying the rotundity of the sum, and presenting an ugly fraction which it would be desirable to get removed by what would seem to each individual a slight increase of pay and decrease of tax. In the only instance in which the circulation of a rupee of lower value has been extended, (as when by Reg. XI. of 1819, the coinage of the Benares rupee was discontinued, and the Futtyghur rupee of 24 per cent. less value substituted,) government considered it preferable to leave the nominal amount of the land-tax undisturbed, relinquishing the difference claimable from the Zemindars.

It so happens, that the value of two shillings (including the seignorage) is about the average of that of all the rupees coined by the British government in India. It is worthy of inquiry, therefore, whether it would not be practicable to coin only one rupee throughout the whole of British India, containing as much pure silver as there is in two shillings, (gr. 161.44,) and to secure to government the same profit which is derived in England from the seignorage of 6 per cent. by the introduction of an abundant gold coinage, consisting of gold mohurs exactly coincident in value with sovereigns, and exchanging