through individual patronage and favour, take trustworthy men from the army,-in short, promote them to posts where they would be useful, and where the station and emolument would amply reward past services; but do not begin to give them regimental commissions, with any ulterior view, unless the individuals are singularly worthy to hold them. The report of the commissioners is against the system; nearly all the officers who have been examined are against it: nay, I will venture to assert that all soldiers, however gladly they might look to a chance of promotion themselves, would prefer being commanded by men who have not risen from the ranks rather than by those who have. Exceptions, excellent exceptions, there are; but they are few, and only prove the rule. It occasionally happens that young men (and I could mention three or four who came under my own knowledge) of most respectable family and liberal education have had spirit enough to serve in the ranks for a time in hopes of getting commissions, and succeeded. It is an error to suppose that a feeling exists in the service against these people simply because they have been private soldiers. No. The feeling is against the vulgarity, the coarseness, the absence of refinement which characterise those who have not been accustomed to gentle society in their youth. The annoyance rests in being obliged to associate every day at dinner with a man whose manners are such as might be met with at one's father's second table. No moral excellence in the promoted sergeant can make up for his barrack-room fashion of pushing in his opinion, unasked and uncalled for, on all subjects, whether au fait or not; of talking with his mouth full; of spilling his soup over his neighbour's duck trousers; of murdering the king's English; of shovelling peas down his throat with the end of his knife; of helping you to half-inch thick slices of ham; of sprawling his elbows over the table; of scratching his head with his fork; in one word—and that a coined one-of being guilty of all those Yankeeisms which distinguish the lout from the gentleman. The commissioners, in the course of their inquiry, frequently asked, if those who were thus brought to the mess. there, and could enter into the society He I have at this moment a friend in the army who had been at the junior department at Sandhurst, but unfortunately left it before completing the course of study necessary to securing him a commission. His parents were both dead, and his friends either could not, or would not, purchase one. went to the Duke of York, then commander-in-chief, told his tale, and said he would serve in the ranks, provided his royal highness would gazette him to an ensigncy (if he was recommended by the colonel of his regiment). The duke took him at his word. The lad, though nephew to an exalted and learned dignitary of the church, enlisted in the regiment where his grandfather had been a captain, and to which I at the time belonged. He joined us in India, conducted himself to the satisfaction of every one he came ་ སྙི《་ ( ང་ in contact with commander-in-chief at Calcutta, who appointed him to the first vacancy that offered it was confirmed at home; and, if I recollect right, those of our youngsters who had been his brother cadets at Sandhurst made him a present of his sword. We received him with open arms; and, when he was afterwards appointed to another regiment, we lost him with regret. Then, he was essentially a gentleman, though he did rise from the ranks. It would be cruel, indeed, to make a law that no non-commissioned officer should thus rise; but as a plan for general adoption, I must confess that I know of none more mischievous. This affection for inferior persons is the prevailing cant of the day, and, naturally enough, obtains most with those who may not stand affected by it. It is easy for people who are quite unconnected with the army, except having to legislate for it, to talk plausible nonsense about philanthropy, and so forth; but it behoves those who depend upon it for rank, distinction, employment, bread, to examine how matters exactly stand. I want to see the service improved as much as any no-flogging voter can. I should even like to see a certain intellectual acquirement, to be ascertained by a positive test, made necessary to the attainment of a first commission; but I do not wish to see it clogged with men, whose educations have ended far short of where others begin. The recommendation coming from Mr. Hume and his clique is just part and parcel of that bad democratic feeling which has been so carefully fostered among the unthinking classes of the community, which has unsettled the minds of men who would have plodded on to their graves contented and happy, had they not been worried into thinking themselves aggrieved; and which in this case seems to be-though one may charitably hope it is not--chiefly insisted on for the purpose of sowing discontent among the privates of the army, and creating disaffection for their officers, in order that the time may come when the present loyal soldier shall turn his bayonet against legitimate authority, instead of obeying and respecting it. A standing army is, make the most of it but necessar solute madness is it first to goad the tiger, and then unmuzzle him; drivelling infatuation to make any collective body sensible that it possesses unrestrained power, and hope it will not abuse it; miserable ignorance to be unaware that in troubled times a favourite leader at the head of his forces has always become Dictator, and then subverted his country's liberties. This very system of raising officers from the ranks was the main lever that lifted Napoleon into his imperial seat. One boon I would grant to the deserving non-commissioned officer, as it is recommended in a letter to the commissioners (Appendix, p. 127), hy manding in Ceylon. Major-General Sir John Wilson, com "The hope of reward is one of the strongest incentives to good conduct, and the army has, under Lord Hill, had ample proof that this principle has not been overlooked. It has seen that the door to preferment has been (as it will, no doubt, continue to be) from time to time thrown open to the deserving noncommissioned officer, who may thus aspire to the higher ranks of the profession. I would, therefore, in conformity to so just and encouraging a principle, recommend that sergeant-majors, having served a certain number of years, of which so many as sergeant-major, and whose moral and military conduct shall have been unimpeachable, should be allowed to retire from the service with the rank and half-pay of ensign. Thus the old non-commissioned officer, whose time of life is an objection to his being promoted in the regiment, would then be enabled to look forward with pride and confidence to the just reward of his long and honourable service. The trifling difference between the pension of sergeant-major and the half-pay of ensign, and the comparative few to whom the boon would be due, lity of raising any reasonable objection would, I presume, preclude the possibito the adoption of a measure calculated to uphold the estimation, and to encourage the exertions of one of the most useful and important classes in his majesty's service." Here is a wise, just, and humane I was quartered in Fort St. George, THE MAX X X X X closed, and the regi (the 89th) applied to be invalided, and appeared before a medical board at Madras for that purpose. He was asked how long he had been in the service? Thirty-three years. How long a non-commissioned officer ? Twenty-two. How long sergeantmajor? Twelve (I think). What disease did he complain of? Oh, there was not so very much the matter with him, except that he had generally pains about his knees and shoulders, and sometimes they were pretty sharp; but he wanted to go home to his native place, and see if there was any one belonging to him alive there. Was he capable of performing his duty? Oh yes! he could still do some duty. And what will the reader suppose was the upshot of all this? The board pronounced his claim inadmissible, as there was yet more work in him! So thirty-three years' service, a great part of which, too, under an Indian sun, wound up with the Burmese war (where the 89th bore a prominent part), was not sufficient work to get out of a man, who must have been always an efficient, trustworthy soldier, or he never could have held the responsible situation in which I saw him. What became of him afterwards I do not know. In the Gazette of the 22d April, three sergeant-majors have been promoted to ensigncies,--I suppose with the intention of allowing them to sell, thereby realizing 450/. I hope my supposition may prove correct, as it would be an excellent mode of remunerating these old soldiers for past services. The observations I have made are chiefly applicable to infantry of the line. The ordnance corps of artillery and engineers, and the staff corps attached to the quartermaster-general's department-- of which, by the way, as I happened to know a good deal of that scientific body in former times, I am sorry to find only one company in the army list--are on a different footing entirely; and I shall touch upon them when I take the Woolwich Academy and junior department of the military college at Sandhurst in hand, which I purpose doing at some future day. I have yet a few words to say about private soldiers, before I conclude my paper. After having perused attentively the 5928 questions and answers torothe pose the bulky volume of the Commissioners' Report upon the system of military punishments, I find that all authorities agree in attributing almost every delinquency in the ranks, more or less, to the prevalent vice of drunkenness; and several propose remedies, the chief of which are, moral and religious instruction by a clergyman; fines for drunkenness, or stoppage of pay while absent from, or incapable of duty, through dissipation, on the principle that a labouring man receives no wages when he cannot earn them; and the establishment of regimental savings' banks. Of the first there can be no question, and we may hope to see chaplains attached to corps for the benefit of both officers and men; they may be had cheap, from the lot of Irish curates who will be thrown out of bread by Lord Morpeth's contemplated appropriation-bill; and the other two would have an excellent effect. But, with reference to the latter, I have seen no plan proposed that I think so good as my own, which is to combine them upon these principles:-1st, No work, no pay; 2d, The man who does the incapable man's work, in addition to his own, should be remunerated at the incapable man's expense; 3d, The best men, being least often absent, have most work; 4th, Most money is invariably laid by by the best men. Keeping these principles in view, my method is, first, to establish a savings'-bank in every regiment, on the system of savings'-banks in general. Secondly, every soldier found drunk to be fined five shillings, which is the fine a magistrate can inflict by the civil law for such an offence; in addition to any other punishment that may be awarded. Thirdly, every day that he is away from his duty, whether through punishment or voluntary absence, his pay to be stopped; except just so much as will afford him bare subsistence. These fines and stoppages then to form a fund, under the control of a committee of regimental officers, the commanding-officer at its head, instead of being credited to the public; for the public has no right to the money, the work continuing to be done by others, who find an extra night on sentry and the guard-bed, or an extra horse to dress, any thing but phans left destitute, occurring in the regiment, might be relieved from this fund; a small portion might go to the regimental school (though I have not quite made up my mind about this); and the residue be added half-yearly to the capital in the savings'-bank, to increase the dividends thereon. Should the commander-in-chief and secretary-at-war hit upon a better plan, I hope they will not adopt mine; but when Lords Hill and Howick read this article, I think they may, faute de mieux, give it a trial. Since the appearance of the paper on "Courts-Martial and the Cat-o'nine-tails," in our last month's Number, a new Mutiny Act and Articles of War have been issued to the armyor, rather, they were in process of being issued at the time of our publication which differ somewhat from the preceding ones. By these "articles," the corporal punishment which a general court-martial can award is limited to 200 lashes; a district, or garrison court-martial, to 150 lashes; and a regimental court-martial, to 100 lashes. This is just a sort of "chip in porridge "a sop to stop the yelpers. But there is an excellent clause also introduced, which, I have no doubt, will materially tend to the improvement of the general discipline throughout the service; which is "Any soldier who shall absent himself without leave, for any period not exceeding five days, and who shall not account for the same to the satisfaction of the commanding-officer, may be deprived of his pay for the day or days of such absence, by a direction to that effect by such commanding-officer." In conclusion, I beg to say, that if persons suppose it is the wish of officers serving in his majesty's army to suppress, or hold back, any information, of any description, that may throw light upon their profession, or imagine that there are "secrets of the prisonhouse," which they are afraid will not bear the broad noonday glare, I say that they "ken neither the heart of a soldier nor the honour of a gentleman." J. U. S. Club, May 5th, 1836. CUTTING-OUT ASHORE; OR, A BOLD STROKE DURING THE PEACE OF AMIENS. By Jove! he was a noble fellow, Johnson; And though his name than Ajax or Achilles Sounds less harmonious, underneath the sun soon We shall not see his likeness."-BYRON. "NED JERVIS, as I'm alive!" exclaimed a tall, fine, and fashionably dressed young man, stopping short in front of me, as I was taking a regular quarter-deck walk up and down before the Mansion House, in London, lost in a deep reverie, and totally unobservant of the busy throngs of people hastily brushing by me; and at the same time holding out his hand, which I immediately shook most warmly, although I had not the slightest idea who the individual was, claiming so intimate an acquaintance with both my name and its owner. "You have the advantage of me, though I ought to know that face too." "I think so, indeed. You won't cut me, I know, if I tell you who and what I am, though others have," he added, after a slight pause, and a shade of care passed suddenly athwart his joyous, laughing countenance, which, although scarred by more than one sword-cut, and marked and bronzed evidently by constant exposure to the weather, was not in the slightest degree either aged or haggard, and plainly indicated that not many more than six and twenty summers' suns could possibly have shone upon its surface. "James Wilson." "Wilson! I heard you were gone to the dogs long ago," I exclaimed, before I could check myself, seizing his hand again, and almost wringing it off in my joy at meeting with him. "Much obliged to those who told you so; but it has not quite come to that yet; and, if I may make free to say so, the cut of your jib is a good deal more like as if you were going that way. You look as seedy as if you had been up all night." "I have not been in bed, nor even asleep for three," I interrupted. "And," continued he again, “independent of your face being drawn out as long as the maintop-bowline of a seventy-four, or that of a chap after a four-and-twenty hours' locins badger's, notwithstanding you're my junior by a year." "If hard drinking and heavy anxiety will have any effect upon it," I replied, "I only wonder I have any left at all." "Can money help you?" inquired the kind-hearted fellow. "If so, say the word, and a couple of thousand is at your service in a quarter less no time! for I run my last three cargoes without the loss of a ropeyarn; and, besides, I have got so d-d few friends, that I can afford to help any of them in a squall." “Thank you, thank you, for your kindness, all the same; but it's not money that I want just now. I am going to play the fool once more in half an hour, and risk my life to punish a scoundrel, as soon as I have cut my sister out of a madhouse, which I intend to take the liberty of doing before another twelve hours have gone by, if I get hung at Newgate for it. Have you a mind to help me?" "Why, as to the first part of the business which you propose, I am a readymade fool to any body's liking,—so that game comes quite natural to me; as to the second, my life's always at risk for the gain of a few paltry hundreds; and as to the third, I'd lend a hand to cut any woman out of hell, let alone your sister. But who ever put her therein the madhouse, I mean?" Step into my phaeton-" "Phaeton!" "It's waiting hard by at the corner of Princes Street," I continued, without regarding the interruption, "and drive up with me to Offley's, where we'll dine, and I'll spin you the whole yarn as we go along. Take the ribands, Wilson, will you, as soon as we get in-my hand shakes so, I'm fit for nothing hardly now-and drive slowly, -for I must wait for my cousin, who will not be up in town till six, before I can do any thing more in this mat |