and instruments in the invasion of British India. He did not then mean to say the danger was proximate, but simply that we should never cease to contemplate it as possible, and, without incurring any unnecessary expense, should suit our means of defence to those of eventual attack.

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CHAPTER VI.

Russian Ambition-The Russian Army-Army of India-Bengal Sepoys-The Persian Route to India-Policy of Persia-The Persian Army-Route to India-State of Khorasaun-Advance of the Russians-Probable Disasters-Koordish Allies-Route of the Oxus-Dismissed Sepoys-Passes and Defiles of Cashmere-Approach to our Indian Frontiers-Our Defensive Positions-The Indian Army.

HAVING in the first volume of this work cursorily alluded to the subject of an invasion of our Indian empire by Russia, I now shall submit to the reader some observations on that most interesting and vital topic, a portion of which, shortly after the termination of my overland journey, in the year 1830, I presented to the Earl of Clare, when his lordship was at the head of the government of the presidency to which I have the honour to belong. It is not so much my intention to discuss the probability of an invasion by Russia, connected as it is so intimately with the politics of

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Europe, as to refer to the practicability of such an occurrence. If such an expedition is ever undertaken, we may be assured it will not be set on foot until that bold and wily government, which never sleeps, is prepared to execute whatever ambitious design it might contemplate; we may therefore safely assume that, if the attempt be made, it will be with all necessary preparations and due provision of warlike materiel.

The first and most important point is, to know one's enemy. How many victories have been gained by the weaker power, solely from the presumption or ignorance of its more powerful opponent. Now, as our struggle would be for existence as well as empire, we ought to leave nothing to chance, but correctly calculate the means opposed to the threatened attack. Whether the sepoy of British India could stand against the Russian soldier, can only be decided by considering the physical powers of both. Of the latter I will now speak; and the

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comparison between him and the former, I shall leave to my brother officers of the native infantry regiments to draw.

To calculate the amount of the Russian disposable army is extremely difficult. If we were to give credence to the reports published upon the Continent under the direct authority of the cabinet of St. Petersburg, we should conclude that its strength was prodigious. A few years ago, nine hundred thousand men were quoted as being ready to take the field. But one simple fact will reduce the calculation in a marvellous degree. When Bonaparte advanced to the ancient capital of the Muscovites, with one hundred and thirty thousand men, he outnumbered all the forces which the emperor Alexander could bring against him. The Russian army did not certainly exceed ninety thousand men-there were, perhaps, fifty thousand men on the Turkish and Persian frontiers; and, assuredly, the maximum was not in excess of one hundred and fifty thousand fighting men. During the last

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campaign against the Ottoman Porte, however, their exertions were more considerable: in the year 1829, many Russian officers admitted to me, that they had lost seventy thousand men, and, during the following year, nearly double that number fell. grand army of the Balkan amounted to about forty-five thousand infantry and cavalry, which in less than a year was reduced to a moiety of that number. We may, therefore, safely estimate the whole force employed in this most unjust and aggressive war at two hundred and fifty-five thousand men to which may be added the army of the Araxes, under Field Marshal Paskewitch Erivanski, amounting to about ten thousand more. They have thus a force of two hundred and sixty-five thousand men. Russia could not muster another soldier to send into the field. To effect even the present numerical force, the whole empire was so entirely denuded of troops, that, had the Polish insurrection then occurred, that ancient kingdom might now have been independent.