[23] "Our action on the 23d Sept. was the most severe battle that I have ever seen, or that I believe has been fought, in India. The enemy's cannonade was terrible, but the result shows what a small number of British troops will do."—The Duke of Wellington to Colonel Murray, Gurwood's Despatches, i. 444. "It was not possible for any man to lead a body into a hotter fire than he did the picquets that day at Assye."—Letter to Colonel Munro, ib. 403.
[24] See our Number for July 1842, p. 108.
[25] The strength of the Mahratta army, at the time of Lord Auckland's visit, was estimated at 35,000 men of all arms, including 15,000 irregular cavalry and 250 guns, besides the Ekhas, or body-guard of 500 nobles, privileged to sit in the sovereign's presence, who were subsequently disbanded by Jankojee for disaffection. The infantry was divided into four brigades, and consisted of thirty-four regular regiments of 600 men each, and five regiments of irregular foot, or nujeebs. A few of Dowlut Rao's French officers still survived; the remainder were their sons and grandsons, and adventurers from all parts of the earth. Not fewer than 25,000 troops, with nearly all the artillery, were generally at headquarters in the bushkur, or camp, of Gwalior.—See Asiatic Journal, May 1840.
[26] "We see much more of Toryism than of truth in this opinion," observes the Eastern Star, as quoted in the Asiatic Journal for December; "and we believe the man who entertains it, the last who should ever be entrusted with power in this empire. It is as dangerous a delusion as it would be to imagine we could do without an army at all."—Pro-di-gi-ous!
[27] See an extract from the Madras United Service Gazette, in our Number for Feb. 1843, p. 275, note.
THE FREETHINKER.
"With us ther was a Doctour of Phisike
In all this world ne was ther non him like
To speke of phisike and of surgerie:
He knew the cause of every maladie,
Were it of cold, or hote, or moist, or drie,
And wher engendered, and of what humour,
He was a veray parfite practioner—