A suggestion has been offered this week for the enlistment
of Sikhs, who could be obtained in any numbers, who are excellent soldiers, and who are willing to volunteer for European service. There are two formidable objections to that scheme. One is that we cannot stretch the Mutiny Act over India, and cannot dispense with it in the case of troops employed in the United Kingdom ; and the other is that the practice would introduce the frightful element of race hatred into every quarrel. Imagine the effect of a charge on a London or Dublin mob by a copper-coloured regiment ! We would not trust even the Guards not to sympatisiza with their countrymen ; and besides, a Sikh regiment, good as it is for fight- ing, would, if once let loose in a European district, leave traces behind it which would make their further employment quite im- possible. The Sikhs entertain quite Biblical ideas about old men and young maidens being given as spoil to the victors.
