BROAD/ILE! fl HISTORY OP:- TILE REIMGA:L. A/IKE: * WanervIes there is

human and action there is -always a subject for the historian, if he has t knowledge of it and skill to treat it. The history of un arm involves an aecount of thepeople, and the °lemma the, people, frm .whom its soldiery are- aown. The drill, the discipline, the interior economy of- the force, the military characteristics and modes of fighting, might all be4eld or insinuated by a philosophic tactician who had also the " ars seri- heal." Traits of the commanders and officers, varying from.a passing sentence to a biographical notice, might be properly min- gled with an account of the military exploits; and as these last would regard the soldierly conduct as much as the result of the campaign, smaller " affairs " and individual actions would be rightly introduced if possessing intrinsic merit, or pointing -a mili- tary moral by the reverse. The strange variety-of persons whom necessity and a turn for adventere, when nothing else is left; bring together in an army, would also furnish curious topics. For ex- ample, Donellan, who was banged in 1781 for the murder of his brother-in-law, Six Theodosius Boughton, served under. Clive during.the conquest and settlement of Bengal. In mentioning the fact in a note, Captain Broome, perhaps anxious for the honour of the cloth, states that the mother of Sir Theodosius acknowledged herself the murderess on her deathbed, and acquitted Donellan. The tradition of the neighbourhood.pointed to her as procuring a conviction.; but we 'meet this version of the mystery for -the.first time.

To treat the history of an army, or any branch of it, in the way we have hinted at, might be difficult;. not only from the variety of research required, but from the freqnent impossibility of finding say particulars about individuals, search as we may The great requisite, however, is mental variety in the writer who would carry out a history on- the plan indicated. "Where there's a will there's a way." Not that the will can discover things that do not exist; but much can be gathered by indefatigable inquiry,that will never be found by those who do not look, while the habit of mind, the purpose of the writer, will impart some of its own cha- racter to the book even in,the absence of materials.

Captain Broome has not aimed at this variety in his History of tie Bony& Array. In fact, sufax as he has yet gone, it is rather mfull military history than the history of an army in -a strict sense. He notices, indeed, the statistics of its early stages, and the first formation of any particular arm or regiment; hilt• this is e done briefly, and so incidentally, that the same might be done in &miscellaneous history. The first volume of Captain Broome's t week is substantially a history of the conquest and regulation of Bengal by Clive, with the proceedings that gave rise to it ; the civil matters being briefly dismissed, while the military are related t at ample length and withinuch professional detail. As to -display ' the glories of the Bengal Army is one object of Captain Broome, he fully notices those minor affairs which. general -history scarcely naen.tions or altogetheroverlooks. Thouglthis plan does not deviate se much from- the usual method of writing history as to be entitled to the praise of originality on this score, he has a military man's knowledge of those points which characterize military actions, and he displays them effectively. The book has also the interest that belongs to great events ; for though some of the battles were small enough if measured by the number of troops engaged, the present Indian empire rested on. the result. Whether so much amplitude will possess equal interest in the ensuing years, may be doubted, independently of the inconvenient length of the work which it will occasion. Nearly six hundred pages are occupied with about ten years.

The volume furnishes some gleanings on the progressive growth

of the Bengal . Its first recorded nuoleus is in the year 16.52, when it consiste of " an ensign and -thirty men to do honour to the principal agents." By 1678 there might appear to have been ,j the germs of an artillery, because Shaistah Khan, the Governor of c Bengal, demanded the assistance of a party of English " gun- ners '; but they probably belonged to the shipping. In 1681 the factory Bengal was made independent of Madras, and the new Governor took with him from the latter settlement " a corporal of apenwved fidelity and courage, with twenty soldiers," not to serve s Ma protection. against the natives, but to act against free traders, or " interlopers " as they were called. In 1683 further prepara- tions were made against the interlopers ; a company was sent from Madras with arum for another company, and our anther infers the farce must have increased to about 250 troops. This, however, was only a spirt : in 1695 a reformer cut down the army to, two sergeants, two corporals, and twenty privates ; and by 1707 the numbers had not greatly increased over the 250 of 1683. In 1705 an artillery came into being, in the shape of a "gunner and his crew " ; which naval style was abrogated in 1748 by the establishment of a regular artillery company. The total cost of the military force from 1729 to 1734 was as follows,—large for the numbers, but people in those * History of the Rise and Progress of the Bengal Army. By Captain Arthur Broome, Bengal Artillery. Rime the First, Published byl3midi and Elder. to ter, be paid in India, if they were not alloirsdlorythero,-

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VG .1.1..../11 1, :1 J111 sd ift.,;util 3A .creii aid. (be hue ?..noitelde risd3 bits *IOW RAI lit Loofa 3edi ismw io iq td lo atio Na ion; ,golo4 dire u Male abool s moos aye ..111 :Iwo him Jut:4,1d,, ne ArPfk slaw a/duets-I hal--4 In 17-13 a 'militia/ h.Whetanetlisheff Mdtiti,leAlifiblihvotegatifst troops and a misoellstneteusigiatlinringibib thdi whom q 5711,01 •

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sealed his own fate and gave rise to theipresenhoTeidient ernpiteLT.

In 1695 the Di -enlistmentof " Caffres or Blacks," on the'. *ebindleflgreaVete blienpriesi.44 lid" every recruit sent from England cost the Ceinpany 301." The real founder of the present Sepoy force:was -Clive, and. that as soon as he recap, tared Calcutta..

"Another point to which Clive turned his.attention, with that wonderful diReginlinMiOn and foresight which peculiarly -marked his character, was the

hrorganization of an efficient :native regular force; and at this early period -he ad .emumeneed the formation of a battalion of ,Sipaltia, and had already raised some three or four hundred men, selected with a due regard to their physical and other military qualifications. Hitherto, the-native. hoops em- ployed at Calcutta when required;-designated 'Buzarries,' were nothing more thawRinkundas,arinedanciequipped theinualliative inanner, with- out any attempt at discipline or regularity ; and even-at. Madras and Bom- bay, the Sipabis which wecenegularly maintained there,--aad who were gene- rally termed Telingas„ from theciircunistanee that those originally employed came from the, province . of Telingana,..--althaugh supplied with European arms and accoutrements, still adhered to the native style-of dress and equip- ment, were subject to very little discipline or drill, and were under the im- mediate 4command of thear.own countrymen. Such was the condition of the Sipales that had come. rouricl from .Madras with the expedition; and though not wanting in courage and activity, they were never looked upon as capable of opposing, or as even, fit to his taken into account when brought against an European! enemy. "Clive wisely determined to.make the experiment, f 8agianilating them, as far: S practicable to the European battalion; and accordingly, not only far- ms' lied the new corps: ith arms and accoutrements, but with clothing of the Europeaufashien, drilled and disciplineathem as regular. troops, and appointed an European officer to command and non-commissioned officers toinstruet and drill them. Such vas the-04,nel of the First Regiment of Bernal Native Infantry, called tram. its 'equipment the, ' Tall Pultun ' or ,Red,Regimeat,' a name which it long Maintained. This system, which was soon found to answer admirably, was speedily imitated at the other Presidencies of Bombay and Madraa. At the,peried now-more immediately under consideration, the experiment was in its infancy ; only a few. hundred men having been yet raised, end their training,,as may be.suppostsl, not very faradvarreed.- It must be borne in mind, that the class of men then available for service, and of whom the earliest corps were -composed, werea very different race from what could. now be obtained in or about Calcutta. The Moosulman conquest of the imovinoe, She -condition of actual independence of the court of -Delhi maintained by the late Nawanbs, the frequent changesin the go- vernment, and the continued hostilities occurring, induced many adventurers from the Northward to come down in search of service, and led to large drafts being made on the population of Behar, Oude, the Boob, Rohilcund, and van beyond the Indus, to meet demands for troops on particular emergen- cies, who were liable to be again thrown on their own resources, as soon as he occasion for their services had passed away. It was from such men and their immediate descendants that selection corps en and subsequently ently aue and about Calcutta,- were found Fithans a few Jaths, some"Rajpoots, and even Brahmins. The ita! ives of- the province were never entertained as soldiers by any party. The majority, however, of the men in the ranks in early years were Ideceuilrefine, owing to the circumstances stated."

Tuolose this very-succinct notice of the early Bengal Army, vie. will take an account of the death of Sooraj-oo-Dowlale the last Im- pepal Nabob of Bengal. On the'2d of July news was brought to the city that Sooraj-oo-Dowlat had been. captured ; report Which -excited some commotion amongst the Newell-14 troops. lie had icaohed Rajmahal, where the rowers of his boat,. fatigued with excessive toil, were obliged to rest for the night; and-he took shelter in the buildings. of a deserted garden : here he was discovered at day- break by a fakier named Dana Shah, whose nose and ears he had ordered to be cut off thirteen months before, when on his march against. the Nawaub of Purneah. This man recognizing him, immediately made the circumstance known to a brother of Meer Jafder, named Meer Daood, then Governor of the town; who at once eent .off-a party of-troops that had arrived in quest of him they made him poisoner, and hastened with him to Moorshedabad, which they reached about midnight on the 2d of July ; and immediately brought their prize to Meer daffier Khan, bound like a common felon, in the . very palace where but a few, days before &shad reigned as a despotic mo- narch. Trembling and we,eping;Soorakoo-Dowlait prostrated himself before his kinsman; and in the most abject-Dummy implored for life-alone. Meer amer Khan appears to have been moved, either by ooinpasaion for the fallen endition of his former master and rival, .or touched with compunction at the recollection of the benefits be himself had received from Ali. Verdee Khan, who.died. with the-conviction that these favours would be repaid by fidelity to his grandson and heir. But whilst these thoughts were,passing- in Meer Jaffiees mind, his son Meerun, a youth of a fierce and cruel disposition, who greatly resembled Sooraj-oo-liowlalana his character, though wanting:in the arse grace of manner and advantages of parson, loudly and urgently insisted that the prisoner should be put to death. " Thenew Nawaub ordered him to be removed to a place of security ; when he was taken to a distant part of the building, and confined in a miserable chamber, awaiting further orders. Meer Jaffier Khan now.consulted the several officers present as to his disposal. The better class, either from con- tempt of the weak and pusillanimous character of the deposed prince, from whom they considered.= apprehension need be entertained, or else from re- gard to the memory of Ali Verdee khan, and some probably from political and personal motives, recommended that his life should be spared, and that he should he kept in a state of mild but secure imprisonment. Others, how- ever, to obtain favour with Meerun, or to prove their zeal, dwelt on the dan- ger of escape and revolution during his life, and urged the necessity of re- moving him and thus avoiding all such risks. Meerun, observing his father's unwilluigness to pronounce a decision, advised him to retire to rest, promia- inghe would himself take care of the prisoner. Meer Jaffier Khan, affecting to understand froth this that no violence was intended, retired to his private apartment; when Meerun immediately sent one of his own followers, named „1730 evm!..„731 -; UM, • • I eel 1 irq !defect-Rano ,a,-; hind sit hoe Add a 31sernirl lerievossti 1.10)7.9 aid ea had mon ,hurmsg

habitants .

1"Iniedhee 13.%P'eliat‘ttilaIRlilfiffilar3Ail9arPRVIIFis death. The bo irons in - en ese in ans into room convolved. the unfortunate prisoner that his Ifelewas seffltir.; the fear of death ov6igaiiii him, and he burst intitarr1eitg,ony* mei-seine laffilratation. At length he recovered himself stifficepUtly to ash save tdInake his ablutions and say. hia prayers : his executiot imparrent7eroniplOte their wort and obtain their reward, complied so $i . to alasit ever his behd* pot of water that stood in the room ; the leader' ' ' stabbed-him with* digger, and the swords of his accomplices completedtlwr uthhws work. The following morning his man. gled remains were .pLlobelAi. an elephant and expuaed throughout the city ; what:hey Arent rfinallir ibenr ,to thtt tomb mf Vetdisi Mum; aid there 169 lir9. 31W1.ilfog 11,1WitAig..41:Ad western 3 tea. Ve31° 9 91e4 Egtintv her4 fftt ;hit 4" 4.1f ' i , ii „ nested mists' V 113 " tikeritls in inthirl kothidr,gdodiandeevilrfft el oeil 4-fer.:: bu.s atui u ,i0 -ill ['Awl,: