ministry, and one of them, in particular, begged His Majesty to consider that the man was actually mad. "Mad, is he?" said the King; "well, if he be, I wish he would bite some of my other generals."

A VETERAN VOLUNTEER.

When the threatened French invasion was expected in 1803, a general order was issued from the Horse Guards, dated 2nd December of that year, commanding that (in case of a landing being effected in any part of the kingdom) all officers below the rank of general officers, and not attached to any particular regiment, should report themselves, in person, to the general officer commanding the district in which they might be resident; and all general officers not employed on the staff were requested to transmit their addresses immediately to the Adjutant-General. The veteran General Reid, Colonel of the Eightyeighth, or Connaught Rangers, although in his eightysecond year, forthwith obeyed the summons, and forwarded his address in the following characteristic letter:

"London, 6th December, 1803.

SIR,-In obedience to the orders of His Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief, expressed in the London Gazette of Saturday last, for all General Officers not employed on the Staff to report to you their address, I have the honour to inform you, that I am to be found at No. 7, Woodstock Street, near Oxford Street; that I am an old man, in the 82nd year of my age, and have become very deaf and infirm, but I am still ready, if my services be ac

cepted, to use my feeble arm in defence of my King and Country, having had the good fortune on former occasions to have been repeatedly successful in action against our perfidious enemies, on whom, I thank God, I never turned my back.

"I have, etc.,

66

JOHN REID, General,
"Colonel of the 88th Regt.

"The Adjutant-General."

FREDERICK THE GREAT.

Frederick the Great having been told, in the way of remonstrance, by one of his generals, that he had seen many campaigns, replied, "So has the jackass that carries my pack." The bare fact of having been on service, or present at many engagements, does not, in itself, make a good officer.

A YOUTHFUL HERO.

Voltaire has related a most striking incident which occurred at the battle of Dettingen, on the 27th of June, 1743, the last action in which a British sovereign was present; it is that of the Count of Boufflers, aged ten years and a-half, who had his leg shattered by a cannon-ball: the little fellow received the wound, saw his leg amputated, and died with equal undauntedness; such courage, allied to youth, is said to have drawn forth tears from all present.

PRESENCE OF MIND.

While stationed at Jersey, a soldier of the Thirtyfirst Regiment displayed the following example of

courage and presence of mind:-On the 4th of June, 1804, a salute had been fired in honour of the anniversary of the birthday of King George III. The bombardier, whose duty it was to deposit the slow match in the magazine on the Town Hill, at St. Heliers, after the performance of the ceremony, neglected to observe whether it was extinguished; it unfortunately was still alight, and set fire to the building; there were within the place three hundred and twenty-five barrels of powder, and from its central situation, an explosion would have destroyed the greater portion of the town. Private William Pentenny, of the Thirty-first Regiment, assisted by two inhabitants of Jersey, broke open the magazine, when another moment's delay would probably have been too late, the fire having nearly reached the spot where the powder was deposited, when he entered. With infinite coolness and decision he carried the nearest barrels away in his arms, and continued so to act until the whole stock was removed out of danger. This important service was highly appreciated. The Patriotic Fund at Lloyd's awarded Private William Pentenny a pension of £20 a-year, whilst the States of Jersey conferred an additional £12 upon this deserving soldier, and presented to him a gold medal, struck on purpose to commemorate the achievement, which he was permitted to wear. The Governor, MajorGeneral the Honourable William Stewart, ordered a ring of silver lace to be worn round his arm as a further distinction.

WELLINGTON AND NAPOLEON.

In "Recollections, by Samuel Rogers," under the

head, "Duke of Wellington," it is stated, "Bonaparte I never saw; though, during the battle [Waterloo], we were once, I understand, within a quarter of a mile of each other. I regret it much; for he was a most extraordinary man."

MARQUIS OF HASTINGS.

The Marquis of Hastings, son of the Earl of Moira, who served with the Duke of York, in Holland, and was afterwards Master-General of the Ordnance and Governor-General of India, from 1812 to 1822, also Governor of Malta, died in November, 1825, on board the "Revenge," in Baia Bay; he left a letter, in which, amongst other requests, he directed that his right hand might be amputated, and preserved until the death of the Marchioness, when it was to be placed in the coffin and buried with her. This singular request was carried out, as desired.

LEGAL AND MILITARY DUTIES.

It appears by a letter from William Blathwayt, Secretary at War, dated Whitehall, 24th of January, 1703, to Colonel John Livesay, Twelfth Foot, at Jamaica, that the Duke of Marlborough, at the solicitation of Sir Salathiel Lovell, Recorder of the City of London, approved of his son, Captain Lovell, of Livesay's Regiment, who had studied the law, to continue his practice in Jamaica, "so far as may be consistent with the service of the regiment, and his duty as captain."

Legal and military duties are also combined in the following recent instance, the report of which appeared in the Daily News of Friday, May 27th, 1859:

"Court of Exchequer, 26th May, 1859.-THE TOGA AND THE SWORD. A case having been mentioned, in which Mr. Slade, Q.C., was leading counsel, the Lord Chief Baron said-Mr. Slade, who is a Lieutenant-Colonel of the Yeomanry, is 'retained' at head-quarters in his discharge of his military duties (laughter), and he has begged that time may be given him, after the campaign is over, to come here and resume his toga. (Laughter.) His application is granted."

SOBRIQUETS OF REGIMENTS.

Previously to the issue of the royal warrant of 1751, which directed the Number to be painted, or embroidered, on each colour of every regiment, it had been the practice to designate regiments by the names of their Colonels, adding, in some instances, the colour of their Facings, particularly when two regiments were commanded by colonels of the same name :-for example, the Nineteenth were commonly called the "Green Howards" between 1738 and 1748, in order to distinguish them from the Third Regiment, or Buffs, of which General Thomas Howard was the colonel during that period.

The facings and breeches of the Third Foot, or the Buffs, and the Thirty-first Regiment were of the same colour, and the following tradition has been preserved in the latter corps, in reference to the battle of Dettingen, when King George II. mistook it for the Third Foot, and called out "Bravo, Buffs," with a view of animating the men to further gallantry; when reminded that it was the Thirty-first, and not the Old Buffs, his Majesty then rejoined, "Bravo, Young