wash his hands at the pump at the rere of the barracks, not more than a few yards distant, when he would return and join the party.

“Fall in immediately, sir,” shouted the corporal, a tyrant in his petty way, and known to have an inveterate dislike to Kennedy.

“When I have washed my hands," was the reply of the latter, as he ran to perform his ablutions.

This was all that passed on the occasion. The vindictive corporal immediately placed him under arrest, and a court martial having been called next day to investigate the charge, unfortunate Joe was found guilty of a breach of discipline, and sentenced to three hundred lashes, which were duly administered in the riding school, in the presence of the assembled regiment.

Our worthy commandant wound up a long lecture, which he delivered on the enormity of the offence, by the following injudicious, and andignified remarks:

"And now, sir, I have long waited for this opportunity of teaching you better manners and a proper respect for military authority. You are well known as an old, and, I fear, incorrigible offender, and are sufficient to spoil the younger soldiers in the regiment by your example. I will teach you and all who hear me, that fatigue is a duty, and a very important one too. I trust this will be a warning that you will recollect to the latest hour of your existence. Take him down."

How far the punishment inflicted was in proportion to the offence, or the allocution justified by the occasion, I will leave others to judge. This much I may be permitted to observe, that had the culprit been any other than poor Joe, the offence would, in all probability, have been overlooked or treated as a joke. I admit that in a depot where there are generally to be found characters of the lowest and most motley description, and these too, principally composed of young men, but recently subject to the

bonds of military restraint, a certain degree of strictness, perhaps more than is generally observed with the older members of a regiment, may be necessary. But it may be fairly questioned if scenes such as I have described are not rather calculated to strike the young soldiery with disgust and hatred, than to impress them with a high notion of the justice or impartiality of military legislation. This I know that desertions have been but too frequently the result of them.

Another exemplification of the manner in which "the little brief authority" of the army is abused, will be found in a circumstance that occurred to myself. It is, or at least was, in those days, the practice on a Saturday afternoon, as a relaxation from the ordinary routine of drill, to give over the garrison to the Quarter Master and his subordinates for fatigue duty. The men were told off in parties—some to assist in cleaning the barrack yard, some in making roads or wheeling gravel, and others in

exercising their taste for horticultural pursuits in the commandant's garden. Some of duller capacity had easier tasks assigned them, such as cleaning windows; and others, luckier still, were set to clean the knives and forks or the boots of the serjeant-major and his wife.

To my lot fell the window cleaning, and it so happened that a pane of glass, which had been previously cracked, in the serjeant-major's window, gave way while I was in the act of rubbing it, and fell to pieces on the pavement. This was certainly no fault of mine, so I duly reported the accident, and at the same time pointed out the state of the window when I commenced my task. The serjeant said the thing was impossible-he could not have mistaken the original condition of the sash, nor was the evidence of the other soldier who was employed in the same room with me deemed worthy of the slightest credit. A non commissioned officer is never knowu to fall into error, but more particularly in a case where the

acknowledgment of the fact in dispute may be attended with expense to himself. The pane was smashed and I was the delinquent, or at all events I was the party selected to make good the damage.

As a preliminary step, and to record how impartially justice was administered, it became imperative upon me to go down to the Quarter Master's office, where a book was kept in which all deficiencies or repairs chargeable to the soldier were duly registered, and to which he was required to affix his signature as a voucher for the correctness of the claim. This was too much-not only to compel me to pay for damage which I had not occasioned, but to place upon record my having done it. I considered it a duty to resist, and flatly refused to comply with what I could not help considering a most impudent attempt at imposition.

I was immediately ordered to hold myself in readiness to appear before the commandant at the office, and was shortly after brought be