The two first detachments of the Native contingent ordered to
Malta have sailed from Bombay, and the Times correspondent at Calcutta telegraphs that the men have gone most willingly. They are weary of peace, and eager for fighting. At Mhow, the native officers of the 23rd Bombay Native Infantry besought their colonel to let the regiment go, and the cry was taken up by the Sepoys. in Madras, the 25th Regiment, which has been selected, was filled up by volunteers from the 15th, and that whole regiment, though it has only just returned from a three years' tour of duty in Burmah, expressed itself anxious to enlist. In Bengal, commanding officers report that recruits are coming forward eagerly, so that second battalions could at once be formed ; and in Madras, the commanding officer of the 9th Regiment had 1,000 applications to fill up a few vacancies. This account is the more remarkable, because the Government took the opportunity, not very judiciously, to give the troops ordered for service a new uniform, a French-grey turban, a red tunic, Zouave trousers, white gaiters, and English boots, which in other days might have created a mutiny. The enthusiasm is believed in India to be due to soldierly feeling, but we are not sure there may not be in it some hatred of the Rwsians, who are believed, especially in Northern India, to desecrate mosques and temples. Native opinion, both in the North and in Madras, is a good deal influenced by Persian feeling, the Persian being still in native eyes the man par excellence of cultivation and esprit.
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