swore they would shoot the first man that attempted to stop them. Nothing intimidates a mob so much as fire arms, and the threat had the desired effect. They succeeded in gaining the open country, and reached their barracks in safety; but were immediately placed under arrest, and sentenced to three hundred lashes by a court-martial summoned to investigate the offence. CHAPTER VI. And every brother rake will smile to see THAT habits inimical to the health and morals of the British soldier prevail to a more alarming extent in India than in any other of our military stations, whether at home or abroad, is a fact that will not admit of dispute, although there may be some difference of opinion as to the causes to which it is to be attributed. Notwithstanding all that has been said and written on the subject, it strikes me that an important feature of the inquiry has been altogether lost sight of, namely, as to how far the present canteen regulations may assist in checking or aggravating the evil. To most persons unacquainted with the country, the assertion will no doubt appear strange, that the restrictions imposed by the authorities on the quantity of liquor allowed to each individual, and the time at which it is to be served out, are calculated to produce an effect directly contrary to that which is intended. Such is, however, my firm belief, and if my readers will bestow a few minutes patient attention on the subject they will perhaps concur with me in opinion. Equal, if not superior, in physical organization to the troops of almost every other country, it has often been demanded why the soldiery of Great Britain stand so much lower in the social scale. The answer is a simple one-because the whole scope and tendency of military legislation is calculated to degrade the soldier in his own estimation, and to leave his moral feelings no room for play. He is regarded as a mere animal endowed only with brute instincts, and the consciousness of this humiliating fact lowers many a highly gifted and sensitive mind to the common level. Once a man's sense of moral responsibility is destroyed, it cannot be expected that he will become either a good soldier or a useful citizen. The motives that incite other men to exertion, and the feeling of self respect which prevents them from yielding to temptation, are wanting in his case; for it seems the policy of the military code not to encourage anything which might develope his better instincts or elevate his mental faculties. Dealing with the material of which the mass is composed as brute matter, the agency by which it is shaped, and fashioned into the automaton form, dignified with the name of soldier, is of corresponding harshness and severity. Penal regulations and restrictions greet the unfortunate tyro at every side, and the few indulgences that his hard lot admits of are watched and curtailed at the pleasure of his superiors. Is it to be wondered at, therefore, that he should feel a sort of savage gratification at breaking through restraints which those in authority do not impose on their own conduct, and which savour of unnecessary despotism. Hatred of oppression seems a principle implanted in our nature, and to this impulse, rather than to any real passion for the vice prohibited, may be traced much of the evil complained of. But there is another objection to the present regulations, which appears to me to possess even greater force. To any person of ordinary reflection it would seem impolitic on the face of it, to drive the soldier from his barracks in quest of an indulgence which he ought to find there. In the first place, the wallop or spirit of the country is one of the vilest and most unhealthy compounds that was ever distilled, |