DIVIDING THE SPOIL—THE DECCAN PRIZE- WE have often smiled at
those captivating illustrations of the glories of war, which head the handbills that one sees stuck upon the hoards or dead-walls about town, inviting " fine young men " to join sonic regiment recruiting for Indian service. The dra- goon charging with uplifted sabre would be fair enough, provided only that it had below it a man tied up to the halberds, or lying in agony amongst a heap of dead, or even a Chelsea pensioner with one limb less than Nature had provided him with. But we also remember one most seductive placard, with a wood-cut, like those that the theatres exhibit of some striking scene in a new play,— and as unreal,—representing a group of soldiers, (privates of course) in full dress uniform, dividing the splendid spoils of some conquered Rajah ; sharing amongst themselves not only his silks and shawls, but ropes of pearl, gold, and gems. We can fancy how the ardour of a Chopstick or a Cockney would be fired by such a dazzling display of the spoils of war; and how he would burn to WE have often smiled at those captivating illustrations of the glories of war, which head the handbills that one sees stuck upon the hoards or dead-walls about town, inviting " fine young men " to join sonic regiment recruiting for Indian service. The dra- goon charging with uplifted sabre would be fair enough, provided only that it had below it a man tied up to the halberds, or lying in agony amongst a heap of dead, or even a Chelsea pensioner with one limb less than Nature had provided him with. But we also remember one most seductive placard, with a wood-cut, like those that the theatres exhibit of some striking scene in a new play,— and as unreal,—representing a group of soldiers, (privates of course) in full dress uniform, dividing the splendid spoils of some conquered Rajah ; sharing amongst themselves not only his silks and shawls, but ropes of pearl, gold, and gems. We can fancy how the ardour of a Chopstick or a Cockney would be fired by such a dazzling display of the spoils of war; and how he would burn to • tread the path of glory, dressed in a uniform garnished with sheep- skin and worsted braid, and mounted upon a charger dight in trap- pings that cost him nothing but the cleaning. His wages are small, or he is out of work, and he is half-starving. He adjourns to the beer-shop, and soon gets pot-valiant ; and goes straight to the recruiting-depot, his only fear being that he should not be . qualified by stature or health. The recruiting-sergeant eyes him with a knowing leer, and tells him that he'll make as smart a soldier as ever fought under the great WELLINGTON. He is abashed by the compliment—the only one he ever bad except from his sweet- heart—and looks sheepish ; till he receives his bounty-money, . and has his battered hat bound with particoloured ribands then he assumes that reckless air of jollity with which men blus- ter off reflection when they have done a foolish thing, and spends the rest of the day in a diunken dream of delight at having made some change in his condition. He is awoke next morning by the . trumpet-call, and finds himself imprisoned in a barrack, the butt of his future companions ; and is as much astonished by the heartless jeers of the petty tyrant of to-day, as he was with the flattery of the civil sergeant of yesterday. Finding himself fixed for life, he makes up his mind as well as he can, and feels inclined to revenge his folly by entrapping others into the same predica- ment. The drill and the discipline of the riding-school sicken him of the smart uniform and spirited horse, before he has got either; and he pretty soon finds out that the plunder is shared in a very different fashion from that pictured in the placard. But, cured as our new-fledged hero is by this time of his romantic no- tions of military glory, we fancy that even he must be astonished at the ingenious mode of dividing the spoils of war, as in the case of the Deccan Prize-money.
The complaints of delay in the division of the prize-money due to the surviving portion of the Army of the Deccan, have beon loud and frequent. The cause seems now sufficiently obvious; and is of' itself a proof that the functionaries at the Horse Guards have some conscience left, to overcome whose scruples such a pro- tracted struggle has been necessary. Else we should be almost so uncharitable as to impute a want of conscience to the authori- ties who award to one lucky man, who happened to be Com-
mander-in-Chief, such a sum as 30,987/. Gs. Id. for his share of the booty, and to the common soldier just 13s. 8d.,—which is somewhere about a forty-five thousandth part of what the Com- mander has for his share.
We do not doubt the correctness of the calculation, even to the farthing; nor that the scale is the usual one in such cases. We dare say it is regarded by at least one person as just ; the fortu- nate holder of the great prize in the lottery of war will not quarrel with it. But we should like to know upon what data it is calcu- lated. Supposing it to be estimated equitably according to the relative value of the services of each person, we come to the con- clusion that a Commander-in-Chief is worth more than forty-five thousand common soldiers, or twenty-two Lieutenant-Generals, or thirty Major-Generals, or sixty Colonels, or a hundred and twenty Lieutenant-Colonels, or four hundred Captains, or seven hundred and fifty Subalterns, or twenty-two thousand Sergeants. Let us not wonder any more at the number of officers to a regi- ment, seeing how much more valuable they are than soldiers !
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