r part of India
these rulers have been displaced, and British rule has been established.
Where native rulers remain, they are bound to administer their affairs
in accordance with the views of the Sovereign Power. Over a part of the
Indian continent the rule commenced more than a hundred years ago, and
from decade to decade it has extended till it now embraces its present
vast proportions. It extends beyond India. In the North-West we have
entered into what properly belongs to Afghanistan, and from Burma a
large extent of territory has been taken; so that the east as well as
the west coast of the Bay of Bengal has come under our rule. To all
appearance the rule is as firmly established as if it had come down from
ancient times.

[Sidenote: INDIA CONQUERED BY INDIAN SOLDIERS.]

It would be a great mistake to suppose that India had been conquered for
England by its own people. If they had been left to themselves, no part
of it would now belong to us. The small European force has always been
the backbone of our armies; but in every battle native soldiers have
formed the great majority. The French gave us the example of employing
native soldiers to place their country under European rule. In the
dissolution of the Mogul Empire, thousands of warriors were ready to
fight the battles of any one, European or native, who would pay them
well. The example of the French was followed by the English, till India,
from Cape Comorin to the mountains of the north and the north-west, came
under their sway, to an extent and with a completeness and firmness of
grasp never reached by the Muhammadan power in its palmiest days. Each
Presidency--Bengal, Madras, and Bombay--has had its own native army, in
1857 amounting altogether to 240,000 men. In the Bengal army, by far the
largest of the three, there has never been a single native of Bengal
Proper. It has been entirely composed of north countrymen, to a large
extent of Brahmans, and Chhatrees the old fighting caste of India, who
have entered our service on account of its good pay and good treatment,
though alien from us in everything by which one people can be alien from
another. Many of the native soldiers have been Muhammadans, who are
intensely averse to us on both religious and political grounds. Under
the influence of friendly intercourse and good offices performed to each
other, a kindly feeling often sprung up between officers and men; but as
a body they were mercenary troops fighting