26 CAWNPORE.
We had, indeed, been negligent. We had been
improvident even unto madness. Some twenty
thousand European troops were scattered over the
continent of India ; for the security of which seventy
thousand are now held to be barely sufficient. In
the May of 1857, from Meerut in the North-west,
to Dinapore in the South-east, two weak British
regiments only were to be found. In these days,
a battalion of English infantry may be placed at
any important city in our dominions within the
twenty-four hours. Then, all the field-batteries
throughout the entire region of Oude, with a single
exception, were manned by native gunners and
drivers. Now, in every station on the plains, the
artillerymen, the trained workmen of warfare, without whom in modern times an armed force is helpless,
are one and all our own countrymen. Then, our
only communication was along roads which the first
rains turned into strips of bog, and up rivers treacherous with crossing current and changing sand-banks. Now, through the heart of every province,
there runs, or soon will run, those lines of rail and
lines of wire, which defy alike season and distance.
The natives of India possess a sharp insight into matters that come within the limits of their own sphere, but are strangely ignorant of all that passes beyond those limits. The sepoy ringleaders knew to
