]
The other resource of the Mahomedans, and of the Gentoos of certain of
the higher castes, was the army. In this army, nine tenths of which
consists of natives, no native, of whatever description, holds any rank
higher than that of a _Subahdar Commandant_, that is, of an officer
below the rank of an English subaltern, who is appointed to each company
of the native soldiery.
[Sidenote: All lucrative employments in the hands of the English.]
Your Committee here would be understood to state the ordinary
establishment: for the war may have made some alteration. All the
honorable, all the lucrative situations of the army, all the supplies
and contracts of whatever species that belong to it, are solely in the
hands of the English; so that whatever is beyond the mere subsistence of
a common soldier and some officers of a lower rank, together with the
immediate expenses of the English officers at their table, is sooner or
later, in one shape or another, sent out of the country.
Such was the state of Bengal even in time of profound peace, and before
the whole weight of the public charge fell upon that unhappy country for
the support of other parts of India, which have been desolated in such a
manner as to contribute little or nothing to their own protection.
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