pounds sterling. This was not supposed to
include his horse; which, taking one with
another, was supposed to cost about sixty
pounds more. Thus the entire regiment,
numbering seven hundred sabres, costs the
country no less a sum than one hundred and
forty-seven thousand pounds, without calculating
the enormous expenses attending
passage of the regiment in steamers, from
Bombay, up the Red Sea to Suez, thence
across the Desert to Cairo, down the Nile to
Alexandria, and from that port, by steamers,
to Balaklava.

I left the Kirkee station with a deep
impression of the value and excellence of the
discipline of the Tenth; but with the notion
that there are many very grave faults
connected with the manner in which the men are
dressed and armed and the weight which
their horses have to carry, which must
detract from the efficiency of the regiment when
in the field. It seemed in fact, as if government
tried how effectively they could, by bad
regulations and obsolete rules as to weapons
and clothing, impede and hinder in every
possible way the use to which light cavalry
should be put on a campaign. Imagine, for an
instant, a horse of fourteen hands two inches
in height having to carry, for a long day's
march, a hussar, who with all his accoutrements,
weighs twenty-two stone, or somewhere
about the burden he would have to bear, if
either three Newmarket jockeys, or two
average-sized whippers-in of hounds, were to
get upon his back! What chance would an
animal carrying this have, when the march
was over, of charging as a dragoon's horse
ought to charge,—or of pursuing an enemy
with the slightest chance of overtaking him.
When, in addition to this, we take into
consideration the very inferior weapons which the
hussars—and indeed, all English cavalry, for
that matter, as all are armed alike—carry, is
it a matter of astonishment if, on more than
one occasion, our mounted troops, both in
India and elsewhere, have failed in the hour
of need to be fully up to that mark without
which there can be no efficiency of any sort
amongst soldiers?

From Poona, I proceeded to a military
station some seventy miles further inland
in the Deccan, called Ahmednuggur. On
my way thither, I stopped for some time
at the small cantonment of Seroor, which
used in former days to be the
headquarters of the Poona division of the army;
but is now only occupied by one corps, the
Poona Auxiliary Horse. The men of this
regiment are all natives of Hindostan, or the
north-west provinces of India. Throughout
the corps, the weight which each horse has to
carry when his rider is in marching order, is
only ten and a half stone—exactly half that
with which the Hussar horses are burdened.
The men are clad in a most becoming native
dress, and their clothing, as well as their
arms, are perfectly uniform throughout the
regiment. On the head is worn a red turban,
very much of the same shape and make as
the white turban which the Zouaves of the
Guard may be seen wearing in Paris. The
coat is a sort of frock, which descends
to the knee, of a dark-green colour, and
fashioned round the neck so as to leave that
part perfectly exposed, in the same way that
the jackets of the Zouaves are made. On
their legs the men of the Poona Horse wear
high boots of thin black leather, resembling
those known in England by the name of
Napoleon boots. But what struck me most
forcibly were the arms of the regiment, and
their great superiority over those provided
for English dragoons. Their carbines are
light useful weapons, of excellent finish, and
so light, that even a weak man might use
them on horseback with perfect ease. Instead
of the mere ordinary half-cock and full-cock,
with which the arms of the English service
are furnished, the carbines of the Poona
Horse have a third cock, which raises the
doghead or hammer well off the nipple, but is
sufficiently near it to prevent the copper cap
falling off. The use of this for fire-arms meant
to be carried by mounted men, is obvious.
Nearly all the accidents which happen to
persons carrying loaded guns, arise from the
doghead being left down on the nipple, and
the gun, musket, or carbine being suddenly
struck causing the cap to explode. But with
the carbines of the Poona Horse this is next to
impossible. The swords are the curved native
weapon, and are kept as sharp as razors; the
scabbards being of leather, lined with wood.
I felt many of the swords, and found them all
almost sharp enough to shave with. The
troopers told me that the drawing of swords
is avoided as much as possible, and I observed
that in general the sentinels and others
performed their duties with their swords in the
scabbards. The sword and pouch-belts were
one and all of black patent leather, so that no
time was taken up in cleaning—if cleaning
the process can be called—with that
mixture of white filth called pipeclay. Speaking
afterwards to an officer of the Company's
Service on this subject, I remarked how much
better the weapons of the Poona Horse were
than those carried by the Tenth Hussars.
The reply struck me as one which would have
shocked some of our elderly English generals,
who look upon every order that is issued from
the Horse Guards as second only to what is
to be found in Holy Writ. "The carbines of
the Poona Horse," said this gentleman, "are
ordered out from England by officers who
have had. experience in Indian warfare; those
carried by the Hussars are only sent out by
the Horse Guards."

The Poona Horse is a regiment of what are
termed Irregulars. Anlrregular Horseman, is
one who provides his own horse, saddle, arms,
accoutrements, for a certain sum monthly,
included in which, is the food and forage for
his horse. The sum paid by Government to