In all armies composed of involuntary soldiers, that is, of soldiers who are anxious to quit the ranks and return to peaceful occupations, but cannot do so, much of the drill to which they are subjected is adopted merely with a view to keep them from pondering too much upon the miseries of their present condition, and from indulging in those licentious habits to which a strong sense of these miseries, and the recollection of the enjoyments of peaceful life which they have sacrificed, are too apt to drive them.  No portion of this is necessary for the soldiers of our native army, who have no miseries to ponder over, or superior enjoyments in peaceful life to look back upon; and a very small quantity of drill is sufficient to make a regiment go through its evolutions well, because they have all a pride and pleasure in their duties, as long as they have a commanding officer who understands them.  Clarke, in his Travels, speaking of the three thousand native infantry from India whom he saw paraded in Egypt under their gallant leader, Sir David Baird, says, ’Troops in such a state of military perfection, or better suited for active service, were never seen—­not even on the famous parade of the chosen ten thousand belonging to Bonaparte’s legions, which he was so vain of displaying before the present war in the front of the Tuileries at Paris.  Not an unhealthy soldier was to be seen.  The English, inured to the climate of India, considered that of Egypt as temperate in its effects, and the sipahees seemed as fond of the Nile as the Ganges.’[31]

It would be much better to devise more innocent amusements to lighten the miseries of European soldiers in India than to be worrying them every hour, night and day, with duties which are in themselves considered to be of no importance whatever, and imposed merely with a view to prevent their having time to ponder on these miseries.[32] But all extra and useless duties to a soldier become odious, because they are always associated in his mind with the ideas of the odious and degrading punishment inflicted for the neglect of them.  It is lamentable to think how much of misery is often wantonly inflicted upon the brave soldiers of our European regiments of India on the pretence of a desire to preserve order and discipline.[33]

Sportsmen know that if they train their horses beyond a certain point they ‘train off’; that is, they lose the spirit and with it the condition they require to support them in their hour of trial.  It is the same with soldiers; if drilled beyond a certain point, they ‘drill off’, and lose the spirit which they require to sustain them in active service, and before the enemy.  An over-drilled regiment will seldom go through its evolutions well, even in ordinary review before its own general.  If it has all the mechanism, it wants all the real spirit of military discipline—­it becomes dogged, and is, in fact, a body with but a soul.  The martinet, who is seldom a man of much intellect,