The ex because there were not sufficient officers to lead the men. pense of fitting out the expedition that followed in consequence, would more than have paid a full complement of officers to the different regiments for ten years. "2d. At the commencement of the Burmese war, Colonel Bowen's detachment was defeated at Doodpatlee for want of officers to lead the men; and Captain Noton's detachment (1300, with only nine officers) were annihilated for want of a sufficient number of the latter. Had these two detachments been successful, the spirits of the enemy would have been damped, and peace on our own terms would, in all probability, have been the immediate consequence, instead of the ruinous war now carrying on; the expense of which has already been more than would have paid a full complement of officers to the whole Indian army for almost half a century. "3d. The defeat of Colonel Smith, C. B., near Rangoon, was really occasioned by want of officers; when the few he had fell, the men broke and ran away. "It would, beyond a doubt, be the greatest possible saving to Government, if the Directors were compelled to keep the army efficient. To do this they should: "1st. Abolish all extra and provincial battalions, and raise regulars in their stead. The irregulars are encouraged in India on account of the patronage they give the local Government. Their utility was proved at Ramoo, where they were the first to fire on the regular troops, and at Tek Naaf, where they went over in a body to the enemy. These are the only two places where they have been tried. "2d. An addition of 24 Lieutenant-Colonels in Bengal, 18 at Madras, and 12 at Bombay, to afford a supply for Government commands and high staff situations. "3d. Three additional Captains, six Lieutenants, and one Ensign to every regiment. The The "4th. A handsome allowance for commanding a regiment to induce field-officers to serve. At present they prefer the most petty staff appointment, as it is more lucrative, ergo, in this vile country considered more honourable, than the command of a regiment. consequence is, you see captains and subalterns in command. late announcement of 400 rupees per month was a mockery, as every Lieutenant-Colonel had 320 deducted for batta and stationery at the same time; and to those who had guide and half-mounting money before, the increase is an absolute loss to a considerable amount." SIR, CHARACTER OF MARCUS BRUTUS. To the Editor of the Oriental Herald. Jan. 28, 1826. On the recommendation of a friend, whose devotion to the cause of the people is exemplary, and on whose literary taste and judgment I could rely, I have very lately procured all the volumes of your work. While going through them, as fast as what leisure I can command will allow, I hasten to express my approbation of the manner in which you have blended utile dulci, and connected the great and growing interests of the East with the cause of freedom and humanity in every quarter of the globe; or, according to the poet, Wherever the footsteps of man shall be found. You have not failed also to present before your readers the bright examples of the olden time; and, while counteracting, at the expense of very large personal sacrifices, the Oriental despotism, at length avowed, as the principle of their rule, by the Tea-Men of Leadenhallstreet, vulgo dicto," the Honourable Court of Directors," you have brought to our recollection the achievements of those who had the advantage of opposing themselves to a less ignominious, though a justly reprobated tyranny. I refer especially to an excellent article in your sixth volume, (p. 31,) On the Character of Marcus Brutus,' for the purpose of offering some addenda, which I trust may not even now be unacceptable. Cicero is very justly quoted (p. 40) as expressing his attachment to that great Roman, and to the deed which avenged the republic that Cæsar had betrayed. On another occasion, the same commendatory language occurs respecting the whole band of patriots who acknowledged Brutus for their chief. I refer to passages in Cicero's Second Philippic,' which I cannot more appropriately introduce than in a quotation from that grand assertion of a people's rights, of which all Europe once rang from side to side, the Pro populo Anglicano Defensio. There Milton says, (cap. v.) as I have endeavoured faithfully to translate him : The most excellent persons of his age slew the tyrant Caius Cæsar in the senate-house. That deed Marcus Tullius, himself one of the best of men, and publicly declared to be the father of his country, has celebrated with distinguished praises; among other places, in his Second Philippic,' I will briefly quote him: "To some were wanting the means of concert, to others the courage, to others the opportunity, to none the inclination." Again, he says, "What action was ever performed, O, holy Jupiter! either in this city, or through the world, greater, more glorious, or more worthy of mankind's eternal remembrance? I refuse not to be included, as if in the Trojan horse, among the chief of those by whom it was concerted."' 1 Ca. Cæsarem tyrannum excellentissimi ejus ætatis viri in Senatu interfecerunt; id factum M. Tullius et ipse vir optimus, et pater patriæ publicè Milton, referring again to this subject, (p. 159,) thus regrets the bard necessity of destroying a tyrant so accomplished for government as was Cæsar:--Sanè si cui unquam tyranno, huic parcitum vellem; quamvis enim regnum in republ. violentiùs invadebat, erat tamen regno fortasse dignissimus. (Truly, if any tyrant ought to have been spared, I would have spared him; for, though he violently subverted the republic, he appeared most worthy to have reigned.) That the author of the Defensio,' while he admired the talents of the man, should have abhorred the purpose of the tyrant, and thus have been prepared to applaud the deed by which Cæsar perished, is not surprising. Nor could Brutus easily fail to find a panegyrist in Algernon Sidney, who had declared that the execution of Charles was the justest action that ever was done in England, or any where else." Yet that Cowley should have selected Brutus for his hero was not to have been expected. He had hazarded his life as a spy, in England, for the exiled Stuarts, and thus had nearly become a martyr to their unworthy cause; a transaction which his biographer, the time-serving Bishop Sprat, the flatterer of both Cromwell and Charles, has thus plausibly described: "It was thought fit by those on whom he depended, that he should come over into England, and, under pretence of privacy and retirement, should take occasion of giving notice of the posture of things in this nation." The royalist-poet, however, dedicated an ode to "Excellent Brutus," in which he excuses, or rather applauds, his successful attempt on Cæsar : Can we stand by and see Our mother robb'd, and bound, and ravish'd be, Pleas'd with the strength and beauty of the ravisher? Or shall we fear to kill him, if before The cancelled name of friend he bore? Ingrateful Brutus do they call? Ingrateful Cæsar, who could Rome enthral! Bishop Hurd very reasonably conjectures that "the subject of this Ode" was "chosen by the poet for the sake of venting his indignation against Cromwell." To what higher principle, indeed, can be attributed the selection of Brutus for a hero, by one who was hazarding his life in the attempt to supersede a government so comparatively beneficial as the Protectorate, even with all its defects of origin, form, administration, to which we cannot be insensible, by the restoration of the Stuarts, with all their gross pretensions to divine and hereditary right, and in the person of the second Charles, the most profligate of their race; thus described by Horace Walpole (Lord Orford) dictus, miris laudibus, cum alibi passim, tum in 2d Phillippica celebravit. Pauca recitabo. Omnes boni quantum in ipsis fuit, Cæsarem occiderunt; aliis consilium, aliis animus, aliis occasio defuit, voluntas nemini. Et infrà. Quæ enim res unquam, proh sáncte Jupiter, non modo in hac urbe, sed in omnibus terris est gesta major, quæ gloriosior, quæ commendatior hominum memoriæ sempiterne? In hujus me consilii societatem, tanquam in equem Trojanum, includi cum principibus non recuso.-DEFENCIO, 1651, p. 154. 150 Final Volume of the East India Military Calendar. more than eighty years ago, when, probably, the Stuart's character had not been so justly appreciated as at present : Fortune, or fair, or frowning, on his soul, Nor learn'd his ripen'd age, nor knew his youth; He liv'd an Atheist, and a bigot died. From such a prince of any race, or from even a puny imitation of such an original, may every people protect themselves, who indulge in the costly luxury of regal government! POPULARIS. FINAL VOLUME OF THE EAST INDIA MILITARY CALENDAR. (From a Correspondent.) THE services of the following officers, amongst others, are given in this volume. It would exceed the limits of this portion of our work to insert the names of the numerous officers respecting whom honourable mention is made; but the intelligence now given will be interesting to all military readers : Major-Gen. J. Arnold, C. B.; Lieut.-Col. T. A. S. Ahmuty; Major C. H. Baines; Lieut.-Col. H. Bowen; the late Lieut.-Col. R. Bowie; Capt. J. T. Blunt; Capt. A. W. Browne; Capt. T. Blair; the late Lieut.-Col. R. Barclay; the late Lieut.-Col. G. Ball; the late Major J. Bolton; Major-Gen. Sir T. Brown, K. C. B.; the late Col. Bannerman; Lieut.-Col. W. Blackburne; the late Lieut.Col. W. Cowper; Lieut.-Col. P. T. Comyn; the late Major J. Canning; Lieut.-Col. A. Cumming; Lieut.-Col. T. H. S. Conway; Lieut.-Col. J. M. Coombs; the late Capt. J. Crawford; the late Capt. D. Carpenter; Capt. M. Clarke; Lieut.-Col. H. E. G. Cooper; Lieut.-Gen. Sir T. Dallas, K. C. B.; Major P. Dunbar; Major H. E. Downes; the late Lieut.-Col. C. Deare; the late Maj.-Gen. J. Erskine; the late Col. W. East, C. B.; the late Col. C. Frederick; Lieut.-Col. W. Forrest; the late Col. W. Flint; Capt. J. Franklin ; Lieut.-Col. M. Fitzgerald; Capt. M. R. Ford; Lieut.-Col. H. Faithfull; Capt. A. G. Fisher; Lieut.-Col. Greenstreet; Capt. T. Grant; Major W. Gordon; Lieut.-Col. W. Garrard; the late Col. P. Galliez; Capt. A. Gibson; Major J. Garner; Lieut.-Col. R. J. Huddleston; Major E. Hindley; Lieut.-Col. A. Hay; Capt. F. Heron; the late Major G. Hutchinson; Major E. Hardy; Lieut.Gen. Sir R. Jones, K. C. B.; Capt. J. Jones; Brigadier A. Knox; Lieut.-Col. J. Simond; Lieut.-Col. J. Lindsay; the late Lieut.-Col. W. Lambton; Lieut.-Col. W. Lindsay; Major W. Lloyd; the late Lieut.-Col. W. Lane; Lieut.-Col. W. Lamb; the late Col. J. Little; Capt. R. Langslow; the late Lieut.-Gen. T. Marshall; Major Morison; the late Major-Gen. Macan; Lieut.-Col. J. Morse; the late Col. G. Muir; the late Col. C. Mackenzie, C. B.; Capt. W. Marshall; Capt. T. Martin; Lieut.-Col. J. A. P. Mac Gregor; Lieut.-Col. W. Miles; General T. M. Marriott; Major-Gen. Sir T. Munro, K. C. B. & Bart.; Major C. Marriott; Lieut.-Col. G. Machonochie; Lieut.-Col. T. Newton; the late Major-Gen. Sir D. Ochterlony, G. C. B. & Bart.; Major T. Pierce; Major-Gen. G. Prote; Lieut.-Col. J. Pester; Lieut.-Col. J. L. Richardson; the late Lieut.-Gen. C. Reynolds; Lieut.-Col. H. Roome; Major E. J. Ridge, C. B.; Capt. H. Ralfe; Lieut.-Col. J. Robertson; Lieut.Col. J. Rose; Major W. Richards; the late Major W. Roughsedge; Major J. A. Say; Capt. J. Sutherland; Capt. H. Sinnock; MajorGen. J. Simons; Lieut.-Col. T. H. Smith; Lieut.-Col. J. Swinton; the late Lieut.-Col. T. Salkeld; Major S. R. Strover: Major G. M. Steuart; Col. H. S. Scott, C. B.; Lieut.-Col. W. Turner; the late Col. Woodington; Capt. J. G. Willim; Major E. F. Waters; the late Major C. W. Yates; the late Capt. G. Yates; and many others. Memoirs of those distinguished Commanders-in-Chief in India, the late Lord Lake and the Marquises of Cornwallis and Hastings; and also of the Duke of Wellington; together with many original and valuable military papers, are introduced in this final volume, which has been just published. NATIVE PRESS OF BENGAL. As the operations of that great moral and intellectual engine, the press, must always be matter of interest to the well-wishers of our Native subjects, we shall give a few particulars from a valuable article which lately appeared in that excellent work, the Friend of India,' on the 'Progress and present State of the Native Press.' The respectable authors observe, that " society must have reached a certain point in the career of improvement, ere it is prepared to enjoy those advantages which the press confers. To us (they add) it appears, that India has already made such progress as to be able to turn the press to immediate account. Here the mind has long been in a state of culture; institutions and social relations, founded on the development of the faculties of the mind, have for ages existed. Books have been written, with greater or less accuracy, on the various branches of knowledge," &c. But from the monopoly of learning by the sacerdotal caste, and their consequent contemptuous neglect of the common vernacular language, the body of the people remained in profound ignorance till the |