unsuccessful in calculating the effects of their own mines, yet they occasioned the besieged great annoyance. "The successful termination of this siege is most fortunate; for had we failed here, it would have been impossible for us to attack any other place this season; unless, indeed, we calculate more than prudence would dictate upon the co-operation of that doughty commander, General Panic. He is, indeed, so frequent and faithful an ally of ours, that I think Government ought to erect a temple to their best friend, with this inscription over the portico :-" Te nos facimus, Fortuna, Deam coloque locamus ;" and round the baseVerum sunt in his quidem virtutis opera magna, sed majora fortunæ.' "Meantime, affairs in camp have not been going on well; a bad spirit has appeared amongst the sepoys. A man of the 15th having been knocked down senseless by a shot, was carried into the hospital, and first the arm and then the temporal artery opened, without effect; it was concluded, therefore, that he was dead, and the surgeon went on to other men; in a short time, however, some of the soldiers, on raising the cloth with which the poor man was covered, found him weltering in his blood, and report says, quite dead. Upon this they made a great uproar, attracted almost the whole regiment to the spot, and exclaiming, that it was not enough to make use of their best exertions whilst alive and well, but that we actually bled them to death when disabled, raised the corpse upon a litter, and paraded it through their camp, so as, you may imagine, to create a very extraordinary and very discreditable ferment, considering time and place. The disturbance, however, was got over in the course of a very short time; but inquiry will, of course, be made into the origin and conduct of the affair. "The next unpleasant occurrence was the blowing up of about 3000 rounds of ammunition by a shot from the fort. The explosion is described as tremendous, and the blaze it created, by setting fire to a large mass of materials for the approaching assault, awfully grand. By the exertions of the artillery, and particularly of Captain Brook, an acting commissary in the ordnance line, the fire was soon got under ; not, however, before it had done very great damage, and drawn a very heavy cannonade upon that part of the trenches, thereby serving to show our troops what they had to expect when they advanced to the attack; a spectacle particularly edifying to men in that situation. "The last, but not the least, annoyance we have to complain of, is the desertion among our troops; three or four of the foot and one of the horse-artillery, one sapper and miner, and some fifty sepoys, are said to have deserted to the enemy. What can have been the cause of this, it is impossible to conjecture; but the effect is sufficiently evident in the precision with which the guns of the fort were directed the morning after the first artilleryman had gone over. He had observed, it seems, the spot where the commander-in-chief usually placed himself to observe the progress of the siege, and so correctly did he point his gun, that at the first shot he shivered the branches of the tree under which his lordship was sitting, and the party had scarcely time to change its position, when another broke the leg of one of the servants in attendance. Doubtless, too, it was this man, who, seeing the incautious exposure of our ammunition, directed the unlucky gun that destroyed it. I am at a loss to conceive what can be the cause of this desertion; whether to the very small number of officers present with their companies, to the hard work of the siege, or to the very tempting offers of the enemy. The last reason, however, may account for the fact of no Europeans of other regiments having been decoyed away; for the enemy would not think it worth while to purchase any but an artilleryman or a miner at a high price. The labour is certainly immense but surely the wretches who go over must know that they must· labour still harder with their new masters. An officer of artillery writes: "I have been on duty in the trenches for six days together, with only one interval of twelve hours." Now, if this occurs to the officers, the men, we may be assured, are not much better off; and that they should be dazzled by the great increase of pay, and promises of sensual gratification, that are said to be held out to them by the enemy, is not very surprising. But the fact, whatever may be the reason of it, is exceedingly disgraceful, and has accordingly greatly injured the character of the corps, notwithstanding the great and acknowledged exertions of all engaged. "But let us turn to a brighter subject: Though the artillery are out of favour in Hindoostan, they have distinguished themselves very much in the Ava territory; and it is to them that the conclusion of peace is mainly to be attributed. By some chance, it appears, the Madras artillery were, in the advance from Prome, attached to the Bengal division of troops; whilst the Bengal artillery was doing duty with the Madras division. The Madras, therefore, took the lead; but Sir A. Campbell was so taken with the praises bestowed by General Cotton upon the Bengal folks, that he availed himself of the first opportunity to change the arrangement, and ordered them to come to the front. And fortunate it was that he did so; for, a few days after the negociation for peace was commenced, the army still advancing, Sir A. Campbell came suddenly upon an extensive stockade, with the enemy's whole force drawn up in imposing order on the opposite side of a small river. In the confusion of the moment some guns were fired, and Sir A., thinking the negociation was again about to be broken off, sent for his reserve artillery. In an instant they were put in motion; and though the distance was nearly six miles, and no other cattle but bullocks were to be had, Colonel Pollock, and the whole party, came up at a trot, and took such a commanding position opposite the enemy's works, that he would have been able to enfilade two faces of their stockade, should an attack be determined on. The Burmese, however, saw their disadvantage, and subsequently agreed to all our terms. The officers who have come round say, the scene that was exhibited on this occasion was exceedingly interesting:-The two armies drawn up facing each other, and only apparently waiting for an order to pass the intervening stream, and commence the attack; the enemy bold in their numbers, and the strength of their position; when suddenly the opposite bank is crowned by those guns which had so often rendered their fortifications of no avail : instantly their spirits sink; an uneasiness and wavering is perceptible throughout their ranks; and the flag of conciliation and peace is once more unfurled. "The terms of the treaty you will see by the public papers, and you will agree with me, that most fortunate it is that we have got off so well; for, though the constancy of mind and undaunted intrepidity of Sir A. Campbell, and the excellent conduct of the troops under his command, are beyond all praise, and will consti tute one of the brightest pages of our history, it can never be denied that the war itself was unnecessary, and this expedition, in particular, most unadvisedly entered upon. But, says our quaint old friend Montaigne, La pluspart des choses du monde se font par elles-mesmes. Fata viam inveniunt. L'issue autorise souvent une très-inepte conduite.' And so let us discuss the matter no farther." DISADVANTAGES OF THE MEDICAL SERVICE IN INDIA. To the Editor of the Oriental Herald. SIR, It is extremely humiliating to the members of the medical profession in India to feel how much their views are overlooked in the different arrangements that take place for the improvement or amelioration of the condition of the military generally. This oversight is the consequence chiefly of a want of community of interests between them and the ruling parties, and requires public representation to draw the attention of the proper authorities to it. Let it not be said that these lines, being addressed to you, are the mere ebullitions of a discontented imagination. They are written by a person deeply interested in the subject it is true, but purely with the view of attracting the notice of those able and willing to redress our grievances; memorials from the military in bodies being interdicted as mutinous, and those from individuals being attended with the effect of destroying their prospects in the service, designating them troublesome characters. In the late arrangements for the organization of the army, the whole of the military officers, from the colonel downwards, have benefited-particularly in the first, the lieutenant-colonel, majors, and older captains, and that too without reference to the augment tation of the army arising from the increased proportion of the highest rank, or that of colonel, to the others. The contrary is the case in the medical department. There not being any increase of the highest rank or members of the Medical Board-the juniors only benefited by the new arrangements or increase. Upon comparing the proportions which the highest ranks of the different departments bear to the others, it will be observed how lamentably small is that of the medical, particularly of the Bengal establishment; that of the Bombay one to forty; the Madras one to sixty-nine; and the Bengal not one to one hundred and fifteen! whilst in the military department, the proportion of the highest rank, or that of colonel, is as one to twenty-two! If it be supposed that the medical branch has other advantages, to make up for deficiency in this point, and slowness of promotion, I can only say that I know of none. Their allowances, while in the service (whatever they may have been), are not superior now, while the retiring pay falls very far short of officers of the same number of years' standing in the service. There is no instance I believe, or not more than one, of a medical officer (I write of the Bengal establishment) attaining the situation of member of the Medical Board, and being able to retire on the pension attached thereto, under a service of forty years; and the pension, when obtained, is only about one half that of a military officer of the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant, which is now obtained under a service of thirty years. It is to be observed too, that medical officers, besides not attaining their highest rank in equal time with the military officer, labour under a disadvantage peculiar to themselves-that of not being able to retire on the pension attached to the situation of member of the Medical Board till after having served two years in the situation, even although obliged to leave the country on account of ill health. In the King's army, to make up, I suppose, for the want of gradation of ranks, the pay of regimental surgeons increases in a certain ratio with length of service, and some arrangement of this kind is more necessary in the Company's army, to induce men to toil on with a regiment thirty years and upwards, which they are frequently obliged to do. As the law now stands, surgeons, on retiring after a certain number of years' service, are entitled to full pay,-the pay to be the same as that of an officer in his Majesty's service of the same rank. Does not this entitle the surgeon to the increased pay corresponding to the number of years' service at the time of retirement? All the departments in India, both civil and military, have been brought forward so much beyond the medical, that unless something shall also be done for the latter, it is not to be expected that respectably-educated persons will enter the service, in this department, five or six years later in life than the others; consuming as much during this time, in their peculiar education, as the others should be receiving. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, J. E. AN EAST INDIAMAN DESTROYED BY FIRE.* She laugh'd with light, she proudly bore along, The land of the East was their own- Or lets the billow rock her to her sleep; The moaning winds across her cold deck sweep, Whilst young, frail bosoms, fr.ught with passions, weep. The voices which sang through the morning hour At length, 'mid darkness, stillness, and the night, The flame is rising on the rolling wave, The minute gun is sounding on the grave; And forms of beauty dare the swell ng deep, Whilst sterner bosoms bear the fire-blast's sweep. The wayward sisters o'er the ocean press, And hail the victims flying in distress; This hour is theirs-this two-fold hour of doom, And they the busy heralds of the tomb. The fire-lit billow is lifting its head, The winds are rolling the mariner's bed Death's pallid steed bears through the viewless air, And Death in his triumph is reigning there. The shrieks are louder, crash is heard on crash, Her keel is parted-now asunder riv`n, Her masts, her sails, are by the storm-wind dr ̊v’p; * From Sybil's Leaves,' &c. &c.; just published, |
