were effective; nor could the movement arrest the progress of reform.
Changes rapidly followed one upon another. The European officers of the old Native Army and those of the Company's European troops who did not accept service in the new Royal Regiments, formed with freshly recruited Native soldiers the new Indian Army. This army was enlisted for general service, and reconstructed on what is known as the irregular system; a system somewhat severely applied and with doubtful results to the Native cavalry and infantry of all the three Presidencies. The levies which had been raised during the Mutiny were formed into Line regiments or disbanded, and, as we shall see presently, the Native Army was largely reduced.
The necessity for providing for the large number of officers whose regiments no longer existed gave the military authorities much concern during this anxious period. The interests of the officers conflicted in some measure with those of the public service; and a not altogether successful compromise was arrived at which resulted, in 1861, in the formation of the Indian Staff Corps. The principle on which the old Company's army was officered had no doubt been faulty, inasmuch as it led to the practice of detaching from regiments the best officers to spend the rest of their service in civil duties unconnected with a military career. But the new system was equally faulty, inasmuch as it enabled young officers to abandon a military career almost at the outset
