§ COLONEL SYKESsaid, he rose to ask the Secretary of State for India, what amount of truth there is in certain statements made in The Times newspaper of Saturday, the 19th of May, that the regular Native army of India under British authority consisted of 250,000 sabres and bayonets; that this great Sepoy army rose in mutiny, and it has all vanished; that the army of the East India Company has dissolved, even as the Sovereignty of the Company has dissolved; and that "a quarter of a million of disciplined Native soldiers has been destroyed;" that the Company's European army has, with a strange fatality, followed the fate of the Sepoys, and disbanded themselves. Further, he wished to ask whether it is not the fact that about 11,000 of the late Company's European troops are not still embodied, comprising European regiments that have gloriously distinguished themselves in numerous battles: together with a body of artillery equal to any in the world; and whether 1551 fifteen regiments of the old Bengal army, eight regiments of Regular Light Cavalry, and fifty-two regiments of infantry of the Madras Native army, and three regiments of Bombay Light Cavalry, and thirty-one regiments of Infantry, all regular Native troops, do not still continue embodied in a state of loyal efficiency?
§ SIR CHARLES WOODsaid, he had no objection to answer the question of the hon. and gallant Member; but he wished to observe that if, in addition to the multifarious subjects on which he and his Colleagues at present were expected to give information, they were to be required to enlighten hon. Members on what were really matters of history, a serious impediment would be caused to the transaction of public business, which did not go on with so much speed even at present as was desirable. It was, he thought, a historical fact that almost the whole of the Bengal Native Army mutinied. Out of seventy-four regular regiments, only eleven remained faithful; four were disarmed, and had since had their arms restored. The other fifty-nine had disappeared. As to the Madras Army, insubordination broke out in one regiment; but the remainder of that force and the Bombay army had exhibited no general signs of open mutiny. It would, he held, be an act of madness to re-establish the Bengal Native Army in its former dimension. As regards the European troops, 11,000 and upwards remained in India, more than 10,000 having taken their discharge—in other words, about half went away, while the other half remained. The whole Native army of India, he might mention, amounted to the number mentioned by his noble Friend—namely, to 250,000. He hoped the reductions would proceed more rapidly during the present year.