every-day sort of mortal, perfectly fit for the general run of office and diplomatic duty in the situation of the individual whose gallantry brought about such a result, and where would now have been the Prussian monarchy? Berenhorst, from whom we take this anecdote, adds, that the prompt and decisive act of bravery here related, was never reported to head-quarters, and only became known to the King by chance conversation, a circumstance that, in connection with the subject on which we are writing, is deserving of particular attention.

Again as to the number of officers being so great that they could not all be provided for in time of peace, it can be urged only as an accusation against the authorities, who under such circumstances augmented that number before those who had direct claims, (desks full of written promises,) were provided for. Perhaps it will be said, that these promises were only conditional, and in mere wording they may have been so, but they were binding in honour; for no one could be so ignorant of human nature as not to be aware, that men so anxious for employment and promotion, as distressed H. P. officers, would found sanguine hopes on such promises; they must be estimated, therefore, by the meaning which they were certain of conveying to the individuals to whom they were given, and not by any interpretation put upon them by official subtilty. If a man promised to pay a thousand pounds as soon as he shall have the money at his disposal, we cannot tax any delay as a breach of faith when we know him to be destitute of funds; but if he wantonly encrease the number of his bonds, and pays his new creditors, before his original pledges are fulfilled, we have then a right to say that he has not kept his promise; and this is what the old officers of the army, who hold unfulfilled promises, may safely say to the authorities by whom they were granted.

We know very well that much of this sort of conduct was forced by the Government upon the military administration; but should not that administration have taken a higher stand in favour of their subordinates, and would they not have been supported by the nation in such a manly line of conduct? The army had fought themselves into favour with the country; all ranks of people exulted in the bravery displayed by their friends and relatives, the most peaceful citizen was proud of being connected, if but by country, with men who had performed such gallant actions, and rejoiced in the thought, that as a Briton, even such would have been his own conduct had chance placed him in the ranks of war; there was a liberal feeling towards the army that a jacobinical press and a miserable set of penny-wise politicians have not even yet been able to shake, and which would as readily have aided in defending the true interest of the army against the plebeian meanness as against the patrician ambition to which it has been sacrificed. If it was right to permit old officers to sell their commissions, the Government itself should have bought them up and cancelled them, not only with an economical view, in saving the country from being burdened with a number of young annuitants, but also for the purpose of preventing military rank from becoming too cheap, and a mere representative of so much wealth instead of being a proof of the highest

order of merit.

Though we think we have pretty well settled the objections grounded on the "number of officers to be provided for," so con

stantly urged against our just claims to promotion, employment, and a provision more suited to our services, we have still a question to put on the subject that will probably be more easily asked than answered. Why are there so many officers in the army? Will you, my Lord Duke, Marquis, or Earl, who have yourself risen, or hurried your sons and relatives so rapidly over the heads of the mere deserving soldier of fortune, be pleased to answer us? You cannot, or your official conduct must, as you will see presently, have been directed towards preventing the causes of their necessary increase. Some politician of the twopence-half-penny school will therefore reply to our query; for gentlemen could never so strongly have urged a reduction of our numbers, unless able to show the cause of our being too numerous, nor would they so constantly have meddled in military affairs without at least some knowledge of military organization. What! no answer? Are Cocker and the ready reckoner consulted in vain? If so, we plain men must take upon ourselves the task of instructing not only the right-divine, but also the right-elective statesmen.

It was low avarice constantly counteracting its own narrow views, and the unchivalrous and unpatriotic feelings that, totally unchecked by the descendants of the leaders of Cressy and Agincourt, became so prevalent and fashionable towards the end of the last century—a period as facetiously termed the age of philosophy as the present is called the age of intellect-crushed the military spirit of the country, reduced the army to a shadow, and discouraged, almost to a prohibition, all striving after military fame or knowledge; so that when the hour of danger came, as come it will again, we had neither soldiers nor officers, though abundance of high-born generals. Brave and able men were not wanting, but how they were to be transformed into soldiers no one could tell; so that the only plan was to step into the beaten track, to drill away on to the forefinger system of tactics, to add battalion to battalion, and thousands to thousands. But men taken from the plough, the loom, and even from prison, governed by a rod of iron, looked upon as the outcasts of society, and only taught to pipe-clay belts and to pull a trigger, could not of themselves be expected to perform any very splendid or creditable actions in the difficult and appalling trade of war, so that it became necessary to augment the number of officers just in proportion to the insufficiency and turbulent disposition of the soldiers. As we only thought of opposing numbers to the numerical strength of Napoleon's mighty armies, immense numbers of triggerpullers were necessarily embodied, but without an efficient mode of training, or an energetic system of fighting, they had, of course, no means of bringing the war to an early or cheap conclusion. The idea of economising, by raising the military profession by means of rewards, encouragement, and a mode of training that should have rendered the few capable of contending with the many, never, it seems, entered into the head of promoted peer or popularity-courting commoner; the best energies of British soldiers were, therefore, left dormant, while their best blood was shed, and countless millions were squandered in the constant endeavours to save pençe.

We have here, very briefly, attempted to show what has been the conduct of the Government towards the old officer of the army; much could no doubt be added, but as our object is to reform and not to up

braid, we trust we have said enough on this single point of an extensive and even yet unfinished subject. As to the many civil situations that might, with honour and advantage, have been filled by H. P. officers, and should, in gratitude, we think, have been bestowed upon them, instead of being constantly made the rewards of Parliamentary interest, and not of services, they cannot well be taken into account here; as such a consideration, however much to the purpose, would lead us too far away from the purely military part of the question to which we have for the present been endeavouring to confine ourselves. That it was the duty of any Government pretending to be liberal and enlightened, to reward by all the fair means in their power the individuals who had deserved so well of their country as the men who had fought and gained its battles, needs, of course, no demonstration: and if any set of ministers thought that they fulfilled that duty by merely heaping wealth and honours on some half-dozen of the superior officers of the services, they must, in fact, have been so deplorably ignorant of human nature, and of the feelings and situations of men in ordinary life, as to be far beyond the reach of either censure or advice.

It will hardly be expected that we should at present make any comment on the continued refusal to grant some cross, or mark of distinction, for general service, together with a suitable and becoming uniform to the officer on H. P. lately so anxiously sought after by all ranks. Whatever philosophy, with her grave face, may say, the world in general attach value to these trifles; and as it ought to be the first principle of military organization to raise men in their own estimation, these decorations, that would have gratified the feelings of officers, and raised them even in public estimation, should have been granted without a moment's hesitation. And as they would not have cost the country a single farthing, their continuing to be withheld seems so wanton a perseverance in an ungracious course, that we cannot well account for it, unless by supposing that the uniform once proposed in this Journal was deemed too elegant a dress for so obnoxious a class as the H. P. members of the United Service.

But" the bravely-patient to no fortunes yield:" if the old officers of the army have been ill used, and the term is a feeble one, they have the consolation of knowing that they not only performed their duty, but surpassed whatever could have been expected from them; they may be sure, therefore, that they have the generous and the manly feelings of the country in their favour, and in England these feelings will prevail at last, notwithstanding the paltry exertions of littleness and disaffection and justice, though tardy, will in the end be done to men whose actions in war have been surpassed only by their sufferings in peace.

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CHERBOURG REGATTA.

I HAVE waited in the hope that some one of your numerous correspondents, more competent to the task than myself, would have furnished you with an account of the brilliant regatta which was this summer given to the Royal Yacht Club by the inhabitants of Cherbourg. This fête, however, has not yet been noticed in the United Service Journal, and, although not as fully acquainted with all the details as I could wish to be, and having only my memory to trust to for what follows, I am yet induced to offer you, as a small tribute to the courteous and hospitable bearing of our neighbours on the opposite coast, some record of the gay proceeding.

You must know that many of the Royal Yacht Club yachts, induced by the government of France having liberally made their vessels free of the French ports, had been in the habit of visiting Cherbourg in the summer, and there supplying themselves with wine. This naturally led to an increasing intercourse between the yachters and Cherbourgians, and the latter readily adopted the suggestion of M. le Magnen, a spirited individual of the place, to celebrate the annual visit of their English friends by a regatta. Subscriptions were accordingly set on foot, and two handsome cups purchased. The one, value one hundred guineas, to be run for by cutters; the other, value fifty guineas, by schooners of the Royal Yacht Club, the members of which were invited to visit Cherbourg on the 27th of August. The invitation was accepted, and on the 25th of the month, between twenty and thirty sail of yachts, including those of the Irish Clubs and some private vessels, left Cowes for Cherbourg, with Lord Yarborough, the Commodore of the Royal Yacht Club, at their head. Baffling and light winds delayed the greater part of the fleet until the morning of the 27th, by which time, however, the whole had assembled in the roads; and a glorious sight it was. The Commodore's noble ship, Falcon, in all the perfection of a British man-of-war; Lord Vernon's handsome brig; the rakeish schooners of Capt. Wyndham, Mr. Brett, and Mr. Williams, and the tremendous cutters of Lord Belfast and Mr. Weld. Then came the long line of powerful seventies, fast fifties, and smart fortyfives. The Fanny, Iris, Blue-eyed-Maid, the Vampyre, Neuha, Heron, Turk, the Druid, Liberty, Medora, all

"Courting the fickle Zephyrs as they came,"

and filling the roadstead with gay pennons and gayer crews. The deep blue burgee of Colonel Madden, in the Ganymede, told where lay the yachts of the Royal Northern Yacht Club, and the "Harp and Crown on a green field" marked the ensign of that right antient body the Cork Water Club, and the graceful form of its representative, the Little Paddy. Hosts of gay dressed spectators crowded along the Esplanade, anxious to witness a sport which the greater part had hitherto only known by name, and both bright eyes and spectacles were impatiently directed to the fleet.

At one o'clock the cutters started for the gold cup, time being given for tonnage; the course, three times round the breakwater. It is to be regretted that the arrangements of this race had not been more carefully studied, for it was soon evident that the time which had been

allowed between the starting of each class of yachts, was by no means equal to their difference in tonnage, and the consequence was, that the smaller vessels, having too great a start for the larger class, maintained their place a-head, and before Lord Belfast's Louisa had little more than completed one round of the course, the race was won by the Eliza of Capt. Garth, a little cutter of thirty-five tons. The Irish yachts were not entered, the regatta having been given exclusively to the yachts of the Royal Yacht Club, of which club the inhabitants were, perhaps, alone cognizant. Although not on their own account, the crew of the Little Paddy were, however, I understand, actively engaged in the cause of Mr. Saunderson on board the Neuha, and a ludicrous incident is said to have taken place on board this yacht as she was coming to after the race. As the story goes, a small French sailboat, having a row-boat in tow, stood right across the bows of the Neuha as she was rounding the winning-post, and so effectually planted themselves in the way of the yacht, that her helmsman, although avoiding the larger, was unable to steer clear of the smaller boat, and dashing stern on to her broadside, the Neuha stove in the unfortunate punt, capsized her, and sent a cargo of affrighted Cherbourgians-you, no doubt anticipate, "into the sea," and so it was feared; but no, with the exception of one individual, they all effected their escape into the little sailing-boat, to which they had been attached, and this sufferer, more active than his companions, managed to scramble on to the bowsprit shrouds of the Neuha, and from thence to the bowsprit-end. From hence he was cheerfully making his way into the vessel, no doubt congratulating himself on his lucky escape, when one of the crew of the Little Paddy, a fine Milesian-looking young fellow, with huge black whiskers and a flaming red cap, went towards him to aid his progress, calling out in the encouraging expression of his country-"Never fear, my hearty, never fear!" Whether it was the red cap, or the black whiskers, or the "unknown tongue," or the tout ensemble does not appear; but certain it is, that Monsieur, although now nearly arrived at the windlass and about to step aft, no sooner got a fair view of the cap and whiskers of the Emeralder, than he faced about and scrambled back, with all the velocity he could command, to his former perch on the bowsprit-end; nor was it until a countryman of his own, who happened to be on board the Neuha as pilot, had repeatedly assured him that the gentleman in the red cap had no hostile intentions towards him, that he mustered courage to step upon deck. When there, however, philosophy came to his aid, for some expressions of regret and condolence on account of the accident having been addressed to him, he replied, Mais, Monsieur, ce n'est rien, per

sonne n'est perdu."

The evening was ushered in by a ball given by the inhabitants to the Members of the Royal Yacht Club, to which also all the other English visitors were bidden, and an entertainment more suited to the occasion, or more characteristic of that good taste and apposite courtesy, for which the French nation is so distinguished, cannot well be conceived. The locale was a room of considerable dimensions in the Royal Arsenal, and had been fitted up expressly for the occasion. The walls were divided by pilasters, formed of evergreens and flowers, into compartments, which contained, in letters of gold, the names of British