Last week we gave a statement of the reductions ordered
to be made in India, as applicable to the rank of Captain : a more detailed account appears in yesterday's Chronicle.
" At four stations of the Bengal army, viz. Barrackpore, Duin Dum, Ber- harnpore, and Dinapore, the officers are, on the next relief, to receive canton- ment, instead of field allowances. The difference will appear from the follow- . ing statement.
NATIVE INFANTRY.
Field Allowances. Cantonment Allowances. Difference. Lieutenant-Colonel 1,020 820 201 Major / Captain and Surgeon 411 371 40 Lieutenant and Asst. Surgeon. 254 _ 635 145 224 1 ..., , '-■
:re 30 z m . =
Ensign... .......... .......... 200 ............... 180 ...... 20 " The number of officers to whom the arrangement applies, bears but a small proportion to the whole number (about one-seventh), and applies to those officers only while serving in these particular stations." The above statement in no respect alters the view of the case which we gave. The reductions are not less because they fall in succession on the whole of the army. The complaint of the officers is, that they are to be deprived of allowances in certain cases where they are essen- tial to their comfort, and where they have hitherto been enjoyed; it is no answer to say they are not deprived of them in certain other places. It is true, the amount of the reduction is small, but this is in itself an additional cause of irritation. Were the sum large, the saving would be so important that the plea on which it proceeds might be believed ; but who can credit men who clamour about bad times and falling profits, and proceed to remedy them by a tax so evidently un- productive? Whether the Company is to press the regulation or not, will depend in a great degree on their feeling of security against so formidable an enemy as they have stirred up. Perhaps, after all, the Courier may be right, although we confess we deem the argument none of the strongest. The officers may have memorialized only be- cause it is customary. Yet we would hardly have the Directors trust to this. Men with muskets in their hands are not to be tampered with. The petition of the Half-Castes--the shutting up of the Courts of Justice—the impatience of the troops—if they do not portend an immediate storm, do not betoken a long continuance of fair weather. The sky is evidently lowering. Had the Company not been so very zealous in shutting out British settlers, such a case as the present could not have occurred. The European merchant would have ba- lanced the European soldier.- The free admission of Englishmen and English capital is a late remedy, but we hope not too late, if the Pak- " liament of England act the part which rational men expect from it. The natives at Calcutta have lately petitioned that they May be al- lowed the benefit of British civil law.
