'The views and opinions of Brigadier General John Jacob, CB. Aide-decamp to the Queen; Aide-de-camp to the Governor General of India, &c. &c. &c.; late commanding in chief the British forces in Persia; at present commanding the Sind Irregular Horse, and Political Superintendent of the North-West frontier of Sind.' [‎91] (122/481)

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ciency of army organisation; yet this seems not to have
been thought of on any hand, and has not even been
noticed by late writers on the subject.
Yet it might have been remembered that the best
cavalry the world ever saw (and acknowledged to have
been so by universal consent) was an English silidar corps—
the Ironsides of Cromwell. The excellence of these soldiers
did not depend on their being large men or small men, or
heavy or light, or anything else with respect to their mere
carcasses. It was caused by their high moral nature and
mental culture. And the private soldiers of Cromwell
were eagerly sought for as officers elsewhere, and the whole
history of the world could not show their peers.
Experience gained in real work, and upon a sufficiently
extended scale during a period of many years, has con
vinced me that the principles which rendered the soldiers
of Cromwell irresistible may still be applied with like
effect; and that even with the poor Asiatic something may
be done in this way, for it is working in the right direction,
in the path of nature's laws. Man's power—that which
constitutes him man and not brute—depends on his brain,
not his muscles ; on his mind, not his body. Improve the
moral and intellectual being of the men ; lead them
upwards and onwards by their best and noblest attributes,
and not through sordid hopes and fears,—make them love
their duty, and do it, because it is right to do so, —and
success will attend our endeavours, be the material worked
on European or Asiatic.
But how different in its operation is this principle—of
attracting by adequate inducements the men best suited to
the military requirements of the State, of supplying these
men with the best weapons possible, and of developing
all their powers—from that which at present obtains in our