Many instances of semi-religious honour paid by natives to the
tombs of Europeans have been noticed.
40. There are, I believe, many Jemadars who still wear medals on
their breasts for their service in the taking of Java and the Isle of
France more than thirty years ago. Indeed, I suspect that some will
be found who accompanied Sir David Baird to Egypt. [W. H. S.] Such
old men must have been perfectly useless as officers. Sir David
Baird' s operations took place in 1801.
41. The rate of pay of Jemadars in the Bengal Native Infantry now is
either forty or fifty rupees monthly. Half of the officers of this
rank in each regiment receive the higher rate. The grievance
complained of by the author has, therefore, been remedied. The pay of
a Havildar is still, or was recently, fourteen rupees a month.
CHAPTER 77
Invalid Establishment.
I have said nothing in the foregoing chapter of the invalid
establishment, which is probably the greatest of all bonds between
the Government and its native army, and consequently the greatest
element in the 'spirit of discipline'. Bonaparte, who was, perhaps,
with all his faults, 'the greatest man that ever floated on the tide
of time', said at Elba, 'There is not even a village that has not
brought forth a general, a colonel, a captain, or a prefect, who has
raised himself by his especial merit, and illustrated at once his
family and his country.
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