careful. Has he bit any of the children yet? If he has, have them shot, and keep him for curiosity, to see if it was the hydrophobia.

And so he runs on for a page or two with most excellent fooling.

6

The mirth of the letters is in the Essays also, and a great deal that is better than mirth. The wealth of Lamb's mind was expended upon Elia,' and that unique book must for ever preserve his fame as a poetical humourist. To quote from it in Fraser' would be impertinent, for it is familiar to all lovers of literature. When once we yield to it, the charm of these Essays is irresistible. We enjoy their flavour as the epicure enjoys his feast, and like to taste them leisurely. No one cares to read'Elia' off as he might read a modern novel, and perhaps the book is not always seasonable. In certain moods of mind it may fail to find us, may be too good for us; but when we are in our better frames' 'Elia' comes to us as a friend, and we welcome with open mind the delightful humour, the sweet philosophy, the tender confidences, the large humanity of its incomparable author.

JOHN DENNIS.

A

6

IRREGULAR WARFARE.

DISTINCTION must be made between troops called 'irregulars,' from peculiarities in their mode of enlistment, but who are drilled on scientific principles, and bands of undrilled men having a competent knowledge of arms, but unacquainted with any save the simplest formations. There have been many regiments of cavalry in our Indian service that were called irregular, but which differed only from the ordinary troops' in that the men, as individuals, provided their own horses and arms. Their drill was cavalry drill, and their movements were regulated by the rules of the service. In South Africa, on the other hand, we have had attached to H.M. regular forces, and in one unhappy instance opposed to them, very many bodies of volunteer horse, irregulars and guerrillas, of whose modes of warfare but little is known at home.

The campaigning services of the irregulars cannot be overestimated; but it is a noteworthy fact that these were in an inverse ratio to the measure of their drill and assimilation to the ways and manners of regular troops. Brigadier-General Wood expressed the very highest gratification with the services performed by Uys's Boer Light Horse, saying, in effect, that he could have done but little without them; but these men, the least disciplined in the division, lost but one officer and two privates in the war; whilst, on the other hand, Weatherley's Border Horse, which used to ape cavalry ways, were, together with a troop of the Frontier Light Horse, cut to pieces at 'Hlobane. In mobility irregulars of any sort proved superior to regular troops; but it was early noticed that a too complete kit and too perfect equipment almost at once reduced the activity of a corps, inducing petty martinetism in the officers, and a too great attention to detail and routine on the part of the non-commissioned ranks. When the irregular is hampered with a quasi-military outfit he becomes, to some extent, merely an ill-disciplined, slovenly soldier, a parody on the military man pure and simple; but stripped of all unnecessary weight, free from responsibilities about stores, baggage, and the like, he is, what he ought to be, a guerrilla in the temporary service of the Government, acting in support of the regular army. When the irregular is, in addition to being tricked out like a soldier, put under the orders of a trained military officer, his usefulness has still further departed. The army man must have things done in due order; sentries must be relieved, and parties marched off in good set fashion; there must be requisitions in triplicate, and proper departments must be moved, and, worst of all, fatiguing drills and absurd parades must be held, so that the appearance of the corps may, if

Besides these hampering regularities our absurd system of challenging and parolling, shouting from sentry to sentry, and otherwise diverting the minds of men engaged in duties requiring strict watchfulness, is introduced, and the soldier, instead of using when on post all his vigilance to observe the enemy and preserve himself and his comrades, spends half of his time studying how regularly to perform duties' burlesqued from the barrack square and drill ground routine of the army. How different the methods of such a corps as Uys's Boer Light Horse or Joubert's Mounted Infantry. A few illustrations from the latter will fully display what is in the writer's mind when he speaks of really irregular forces. A mass meeting was being held at Paarden Kraal on December the 16th, 1880. The people attending were provided with their own guns, cartridge belts, horses, saddles, and accustomed bits and bridles. Some had spurs, and perhaps twenty per cent. had waterproof coats, or blankets, in addition to their ordinary clothes; but there were no kits, canteens, water bottles, forage nets, or other service fooleries. On the ground were about two hundred waggons piled with bedding and camp equipage, biscuit, extra ammunition, and in some instances spare cooking utensils. The meeting was neither more nor less than an armed political picnic.

A resolution is passed, 'the field is to be taken at once, and all movements of troops within the Transvaal to be stopped.' A leader mounts his horse, names his staff, and calls aloud to Vryvillegers,' volunteers, to prepare to muster. In an instant there is a hurrying to and fro, men without blankets are borrowing or taking them by order from neighbouring waggons, horses are being caught, and three pounds of biscuit or bread per man secured and thrust into saddlebags or wrapped within the blanket and strapped to the saddle. Ten minutes pass. 'Spring maar op ' (Mount) is the word, and close on a thousand riflemen are in the saddle, and without further order, except what might be derived by the taking up of the route at a canter by the leaders, these hastily prepared troops move off the ground, picking up a formation as they go; but they go out by districts whose names are given, each district led off by a lieutenant or Boer field-cornet.

A general remains behind to disperse the meeting and muster a less quickly provided force from those who cannot possibly start for the battlefield without revisiting their homes. Of the men first taken out 300 are destined to execute a march of 280 miles in a country where hotels and bait places are few and far between, and where available accommodation or food is limited to a demand equal to the needs of ten travellers per day. We shall accompany them to see how they fared. When a halt had to be called for the sake of the horses, beasts bought or taken from any farm en route or near the halting place, were slaughtered, and the flesh roasted or broiled, the favourite dish being the carbonado,' made on a cleaning rod. Then, at the leader's word, 'We must ride; saddle up,' horses are caught again. Once more the chief goes on in front and the troop is off,

but each hurrying up to his place in the column, and those delayed by restless horses or slight difficulties about broken girths or empty pipes galloping till they get to their troops. Hence there is no delay in the start, the pace from the first is the pace of the leader. In the same way if any falls out upon the line of march, or delays to water his horse, or to pick out a stone from his foot, all move on without regarding him, and he gallops to regain his station. When a town was entered men got a short halt, food in a regular way, and a re-supply of bread or biscuit; and if a man reported his trousers frayed and unwearable, or a new hat necessary, the nearest shop supplied it to requisition, and the discarded article was left behind, as, save what he stands upright in, no irregular should have anything to wear. Finally the country rises to meet the ridge of the Drakensberg, and here it is all but perpetually raining in summer. No matter; without tents, huts, or shelter of any sort, the general and his men proceed to take up the ground selected for defence, a position especially chosen to prevent reinforcements or relief reaching the hostile garrisons in the country behind them. A few stones or rather rocks, with the natural hollows of the ground, sheltered these hardy troops from the winds; but the men lay on the bare earth in their clothes, each upon his ever ready rifle, save some sixth of the division, who formed the Brandtwacht,' or outpost of fire, between them and the now fast assembling foe. Then were brought from neighbouring farms waggons belonging to men on the commando, tents belonging to shepherds, spare horses, flour, and necessaries of all sorts, and a standing camp began to be formed. Later, as the war news spread, parties of Boers came in who had travelled long distances with their waggons, and these brought with them coffee, sugar, and cooking utensils of the plainest. After a little there was a waggon to every ten men on the ground, and there were, perhaps, thirty tents, but still everyone slept in his clothes, and the comforts of life were sternly disregarded. The commissariat was of the simplest. Requisitions were verbal, and had to be attended to with real promptitude. 'General, I want meat and flour.' 'How many men have you?''Forty-six.' Foster!'-'Yes.' 'Give six bullocks and a bag of flour. It was done, and that was all said on the occasion. The applicant had brought with him his own men to take the cattle and flour; he saw them get what they wanted and galloped off to his troop. Mr. Foster, can I get a shirt?' Whom do you belong to?' 'Yes, what size do you take?' 'Put it on here. Leave the old one; it will do for some Kafir.' So it went on all day at the store waggons; hats, shirts, boots, everything that a man really needed he could get, but he had no extras; when he could wear things no longer he got new ones. If an officer were starting on a journey he simply left behind him for redistribution whatever he had got, and then rode off with a stripped saddle, knowing full well that wherever he arrived he must get what he wanted, and that without fuss, requisition, or

others, the best were given out at once, no man knowing what a day might produce, and 'first come, first served,' was the rule to rich and poor alike.

With all this there was still economy. Waste, except occasionally of meat, was utterly unknown. Time, transport, and money were saved. There were no troublesome departments to get into confusion, no civil authority or clerk to obstruct things military. There was simply a chief storekeeper, who was called a commissary, and he had but two duties to perform-to get all he could for the use of the army, anyhow or from anywhere, and to give all that he could to persons really requiring supplies. When reinforcements came up with waggons for the conveyance of such men as had no horses, each waggon brought oat-hay or corn, meal or flour, but wherever they came from, the stores were given to the commissary, and in his charge became, as it were, the personal property of the general and of his deputies, to be called for and issued how and when they might.

In all things the Boers were irregular, but with them to be irregular was to be practical. Everything was sacrificed to mobility, and with what result? That the whole force could be brought into action, even in the face of a surprise (as on Feb. 27, 1881), in from nine to twelve minutes.

The story of that surprise and its fatal event can now be told from a point of view hitherto closed against English readers. The Boer army was, on February the 9th, 1881, engaged in the following enterprises sieges of Rustenburg, Potchefstrom, Pretoria, Standerton, Wakkerstrom, Lydenberg, and Marabastadt; occupation of Laing's Nek, and defence of the road leading viâ Hebron from the Diamond Fields into the Transvaal. The army of the 'Nek' consisted of 1,437 men, of whom no less than 300 occupied a vast standing camp or laager, formed of 280 waggons drawn up in hollow square, seven miles to the rear of the centre of the position, on the banks of the Coldstream, a tributary of the Buffalo. When it was known that Brigadier General Sir Evelyn Wood had arrived at Pietermaritzburg on his way to join Sir George Colley, Joubert determined to break up this laager,' and send the cattle, waggons, and men to their homes rather than weaken the main body or permit his defence to be hampered by the existence of a standing camp, liable to be destroyed by a cavalry and artillery raid. How this was effected will illustrate irregularity.

General Joubert caused it to be known, or it was known, that Divine service would be held on Sunday, the 13th, at the Nek.' The time came; the Rev. Mr. Akerman officiated, and the general later took his place as speaker to the congregation, which, on the termination of the service, became a mass meeting. The Boer general in speaking, as also did the preacher, faced to the east; but this may have been only to bring the sun behind them, as it was already evening. Joubert said there were many things he had to complain