of the Home Government. He had insisted in 1784 on a reduction of the Company's troops; and, a few years later, when circumstances rendered it necessary to increase the English garrison, he had resisted the Company's demand that the addition should be made to the local force in its employ, basing his resistance on the ground that consolidation of the two armies was expedient, and 'sooner or later, must be attempted.' The maximum of the local force was then fixed at 12,000 men. The necessities of the Crimean War had led to this maximum being raised to 20,000; and when the Mutiny broke out, about a third of the European army in India consisted of local troops.
The question now arose as to the proportion of the increased European force to be assigned to the local army. Strong professional jealousies at once blazed out. The Company's servants, civil and military, watched with alarm an impending curtailment of their traditional privileges. The Indian Government, still smarting from the effects of a system which subordinated the defence of India to the necessities of English politics, backed up its officials in demanding a substantial increase of the local army. Lord Canning urged that at least a moiety of the European army should consist of local troops. The Military Committee of the Indian Council made a still bolder claim, namely, that of the whole European force, all the Artillery, three-fourths of the Cavalry, and two-thirds of the Infantry should belong to the local army. These proposals were little likely to find ac-
