On this question, Mr. Disraeli's position in the debate in the House of Commons was so strong and impregnable, as well as in reference to the integrity and independence of the little kingdom of Belgium, that scarcely anyone could be found to dispute it, while it is at least remarkable that Mr. Bernal-Osborne, whose support of Mr. Gladstone's Government cannot be disputed was equally forcible upon the same subject,; but he has this advantage, that his early career commenced as a soldier, in one of the most distinguished regiments in Her Majesty's Service, the 7th Fusiliers. The conclusion of the Debate on the new Treaty as regards the neutrality of Belgium, seems to have afforded little satisfaction to our French neighbours, whilst it has created disapprobation among ourselves, since even the moderate and courteous Journal des Débats, in reference to Earl Russell's speech on this question observes, that it would have been more consonant with our dignity, and unquestionably more explicit and straightforward had the British Government distinctly caused both belligerents to understand that a violation of the neutrality of Belgium was a declaration of war against itself, as it is, the French Journal concludes, there are more protocols on a subject possessing far too many already.

In referring to Messrs. Cardwell and Childers' recent ill-advised retrenchments, the British nation would do well to recal to mind, aud bear it well in memory for the future, the wise counsels and forcible admonition of Lord Overstone, not issuing from a soldier, but a Peer, whose wealth and high character acquired, as a banker should merit, a much more lasting remembrance than what they seem to have inspired, since in all the discussions that have arisen no one has reverted to them, and yet what was his opinion? Should a foreign invader affect a successful landing on the British shores, even for a single week, millions would not repay the misery, wretchedness, and misfortune, that would prove the inevitable result, although the enemy might be exterminated in that short period.

Lord Palmerston observed that steam has bridged the Channel, and as it seems fated that the British nation will only recognize one hard task-master, Disaster, will they wait till burning homesteads, ruined towns, bombarded cities, and ravaged fields, and unburied thousands, make them sensible of what the realities of War actually are? What would these be to the sacrifices they would be called upon to make, compared to what the late Duke of Wellington aptly termed, the small premium of insurance necessary-simply to place the country in a fit state of defence to resist foreign aggression? Too truly has it been observed, and not by naval and military men alone, that what was witnessed in the reign of William the Third, may yet occur again, and too late the people of England awake to the knowledge, that the security of their sea-girt island, upon which they so implicitly relied, has altogether disappeared.

It is to provide against such a contingency, that it is earnestly to be hoped, whichever party may be in power, that a repetition of the late fatal policy may not again occur. When the invasion of England was contemplated by the first Napoleon, an incident occurred, as related by Bourrienne, and other French authorities, arising from a conversation between him and the celebrated Admiral Trehouart, which it would be well for the Government and people of Great Britain to remember, a caution to soldiers and seamen on this point being wholly unnecessary, since they are too well aware of its truth. The French naval commander had made bitter complaints of the finest of the fishermen along the shores of France having been taken by the conscription and drafted into the Army, instead of being sent into the Naval Service, their place being supplied by recruits from the interior, who, for years were absolutely useless, since it took at least seven years to make a good man-of-war seaman, whereas a year was perfectly sufficient to turn out a complete soldier. The Emperor strongly dissented from this conclusion, and told the bluff and free spoken Breton that it required at least two years to make a really efficient infantry soldier, notwithstanding the aptitude of of the French for a military life, while in regard to the cavalry and artillery the minimum of service requisite to render men of these branches of the service completely au fait to their profession, was under no circumstances less than five, an opinion in which the late Duke of Wellington fully concurred, while on another point, the two great rival commanders were perfectly in accord, viz., that it was only in the field of actual warfare the soldier's training could be completed, the latter, indeed, as a reference to the Gurwood Despatches will shew, first expresses his conviction that a soldier who has seen even one campaign is worth three who have not; while two years later he goes still further, and in a despatch to Lord Bathurst, intimated that he considers a man who has been brought into actual conflict with the enemy, and experienced the vicissitudes of a military life on the field, is worth five who have not! And yet men of this description are those whom Mr. Cardwell has recently disbanded! The late Marshal Soult was wiser in the measure he took, when the cry for military economy arose in the Chamber of Deputies after the settlement of the Egyptian affair in 1840, owing, it is not improbable to his recalling the episode at Boulogne, and the words of his Imperial Commander, since in complying with the popular demand, he at once sent one hundred thousand infantry to their homes, and when some dissatisfaction was expressed at so sweeping a measure, he assigned as the reason for his not disbanding one single Cavalry or Artillery soldier, "that they could do infantry duty, but in the event of a sudden emergency arising, could not be replaced, whereas a few weeks would be sufficient to recal the former to their colours!"

Mr. Gladstone has declared that the sinecure office of Lord Privy Seal with its income of five thousand a year, notwithstanding public opinion on the subject, is requisite to secure the advantage of the counsels of elderly statesmen, who otherwise could not hold a seat in the Cabinet, and this, at the period skilful artizans and practised soldiers were being dismissed by the score. The answer to such a declaration is best found in the practice observed abroad, when, if the presence of an elderly and experienced but infirm statesman is requisite in the Ministry, he takes his seat as Ministre sans Portefeuille (Minister without a Portfolio,) a moderate table allowance, and not always that, being the only recompense awarded him for his services.

In a pamphlet I have recently published on the Cadet system,* as practised in the Continental armies, and advocated not only the advisability, but the necessity of its being re-established in the British Service, the which has attracted considerable attention, not only among military men, but in the circles of civil life, I little thought at the time of the fearful scenes that would so quickly arise to corroborate its accuracy and truth. But in the action at Woerth, the Germans themselves admit that in the 76th Regiment of the Line, out of eighty-four officers, seventy-five were either killed or wounded, while in the Grenadier Guards the loss was almost equally severe. The French, on their side, as candidly confess that the killed and wounded among officers of all grades has been something appalling, of the entire Staff of Marshal McMahon, he himself alone escaping, and the question cannot but arise should a similar scene of slaughter occur in the British ranks, how could or would the vacancies be supplied ?+

There is one other point to which I wish particularly to draw public attention, and that is, the matériel at command for forming particular regiments for foreign service in our Eastern Empire, the which would diminish the number of officers said to be wanting employment in that country, the one solitary objection that could be raised to this proposal being easily rectified in giving officers and men to understand that on being ordered upon service in Europe, they were to be placed altogether on a par with their English comrades. There are still several officers living who served in bygone years in the old Madras Rifle Corps. This regiment was composed of officers and men selected from all the Native corps in the Presidency, each company having three officers

* Letter to the Right Honourable Edward Cardwell in reference to the Cadet System as practised in the Austrian, Prussian, Russian, and most of the Continental armies; with a few General Observations relative to the welfare and discipline of the British Army.-Ross, Herefordshire. William Hill, Gazette Office.

At the Battle of Waterloo, the entire British Force, including the King's German Legion, consisted of only forty-two thousand men, out of which four hundred officers perished.

Generals Sir Robert Vivian, Sir John Campbell and Freeman, Colonel Cramer, Captain Troloppe and myself.

U. S. MAG. No. 502, SEPT, 1870.

H

attached to it. At the Battle of Mahidpore, the corps was thrown across a river then scarcely knee-deep, to cover the advance of the British Army. Scarcely had they passed, than one of those phenomena occurred by no means singular in India, since in the space of a few minutes a tremendous fleche broke from the neighbouring hills, and the river was filled from bank to bank! The peril to which the gallant Rifles were exposed was extreme, but neither officers nor men for a moment quailed; the ground was, fortunately, extremely favourable, and scattered among the low brushwood and thick gorse bushes, they brought a steady and persevering fire to bear upon the artillery alone. Fortunately the enemy's cavalry acted in the most dastardly manner, and gallopped from the field without firing a shot or drawing a sabre (a defection which so provoked Holkar's artillerymen, that turning round some of their rear guns, they gave them several smart volleys as they departed),* and, released from their most formidable adversaries, the Rifles obstinately maintained their ground, though the slaughter among them was fearful.

The cavalry, the more particularly the old 22nd Dragoons, made desperate efforts to pass the river and succour them, but to use the expression of an old sergeant, who afterwards passed into the 13th, "we only got an infernal licking ourselves, without being able to assist them brave Rifles." Fortunately, after several hours the river so far subsided as to allow the army to cross, but of the eight hundred men, and thirty officers who went into action, (I quote from memory, and may, therefore, in some measure be inaccurate in reference to the numbers given), one hundred and fifty of the former, and two of the latter alone remained untouched, the rest being either killed or wounded, and it is worthy of remark, that the two who escaped were the Colonel and Adjutant, who scarcely once dismounted during the entire action. I have adverted to this subject from the circumstance of having been in the rear of the Austrian army during the campaigns of 1859 in Italy, and hearing both from its officers, and subsequently those of the French, how fearfully their men suffered, and the heavy losses they sustained from the heat and malaria, the more particularly around Mantua, while on the Turcos neither one or the other produced the slightest impression. If this is the case with southern Germans and French, who are more or less habituated to warm climates, what would occur under similar circumstances to Englishmen, who, as if some perverse destiny ever pursued them, suck up malaria like a sponge.

There is also another advantage to be derived from having regiments of this description, and that is by being brought into Europe, they would have the opportunity of judg ing of the wealth, power, and influence of England, which it *Colonel Blacker, Sir John Malcolm, the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone, Grant Duff, and other Anglo-Eastern historians.

is notorious they were altogether ignorant of at the commencement of the Indian Mutiny, and in this respect we might take a lesson from Russia. Up to the year 1835, the Government of St. Petersburg not only had to contend against their Circassian adversaries, but were compelled to be constantly on the alert against revolts in their Georgian and Mussulman Provinces. After much discussion, the now celebrated Regiment of Karabaugh or Mussulman Cavalry was raised on the principle of our own Irregular Horse in India. The term of service was for three years, at the expiration of which period they were to return home at the Government expense, and a fresh corps enlisted to replace them. They were sent to Warsaw, which ever since has formed the head-quarters of the Regiment, and I was at Tiflis where it returned the commencement of the year 1838. A splendid fête and dinner awaited them on their arrival, and several days afterwards I took the opportunity of conversing with a number of the men and officers in regard to how they liked Europe and what they thought of Warsaw. From one and all I received the same reply, they were well satisfied that every effort against the Muscovite power and government was absolute madness. From this period, and the sudden and unexpected swoop made into his Caucasian Provinces by the late Emperor Nicholas in 1837, in which peculators and petty tyrants, embracing Generals, Colonels, and Intendants, (commissaries), had their epaulettes torn from their shoulders in front of their men, and were banished to Siberia, knouted or imprisoned in fortresses, the Southern Provinces have ever remained perfectly tranquil.

BEN BURTON; OR, BORN AND BRED AT SEA.

BY WILLIAM H. G. KINGSTON.

CHAPTER XV.

Captain Oliver had directed me to meet him at the "George," and I found him standing on the steps of that aristocratic hotel to which very few midshipmen of those days ever thought of going. My mother, being well acquainted with the internal economy of a man of war, had provided me with a chest of very moderate dimensions at which no first-lieutenant however strict could cavil. It and I were deposited at the hotel, and the waiter seeing the kind way in which the Captain treated me, must have taken me for a young lord at least, and ordered the porter to carry it forthwith inside.

"And now you

"That will do," said the Captain as he eyed it. must come and get measured for your uniforms, and procure other necessaries, as I hope we may be off in two or three days at furthest."