book in which he makes notes of nothing at all
—only pretends to do so, embracing the
opportunity of peering into that old-fashioned
compartment of it which once held pounds but which
is now debased by harbouring pence. He will
tell you of a friend who sends him all the news
and a post-office order occasionally besides.
He affects cigars and wine at such times, and
steals mysteriously into some hotel in the town
to order a dinner for one, himself, which shall
remind him of old times. A few days afterwards
he will borrow sixpence from you in a
shamefaced manner, as if he were committing
some unpardonable act, and promises to pay you,
"old fellah!" on the 15th inst., when the letter
containing the money order shall arrive. He
could obtain his discharge-money at any time
from home, but he won't ask for it; and he bears
his imaginary troubles like a martyr, until his
"friends" eventually give in and whisk him away.

Next comes the simple recruit. Quite
bewildered, and knowing nothing, and learning
nothing. It takes him a month to learn
his "facings." He can never clean his
appointments in a satisfactory manner, though he
tries his very best, but fails most lamentably.
The old soldiers give him up as a bad subject
at last, on whom they have wasted their professional
skill. He becomes acquainted with the
"guard-room" and cells, and drags on a hopeless
existence in hospital and prison alternately.

There is another class of men who enter the
army, and who have scarcely mastered their
drill before they open an account in the
regimental defaulter-book. Many of these who
entertain a horror of courts-martial, manage to
occasion an immense deal of trouble, by placing
such an interval between the committal of each
offence, as that their conduct shall only entail
upon them a brief sojourn in the provost, or a
tour of the barrack-square in heavy marching
order. These are very calculating individuals.
They keep up a constant barter of pleasure for
pain. So many days' absence from quarters, and
enjoyment of pleasure, equal ten days' pack-drill
and confinement to barracks. Then they have
a happy knack of earning so many "drunken
chalks" within the year, usually one or two
under the limited number, and will wait patiently
for a new leaf in time's calendar to run up a
fresh score with justice.

Then there are recruits from Ireland, very
noisy and demonstrative, and much afflicted
with the "blarney." Scotch recruits, who are
very "canny." There might be convened on
short notice a congress of recruits in which every
county in England and Wales should have its
representative. Foreigners frequently enlist in
our army. A French Zouave once presented
himself in complete marching order, to receive
the enlisting shilling at Chatham Barracks.

The standard of height for recruits often
varies. In the Roman army it was fixed at five
feet seven inches, which is now, we believe, the
average height of the male population of Europe.
The length of service was twenty-five years, and
even longer if necessary. The custom of "attesting"
recruits, derives its origin from the Roman
soldiers' oath of obedience to their leaders.

The recruits of the present day are not so
well built, or so finely proportioned as formerly.
Both the standard of height and the chest
measurement have been frequently reduced within
twenty years. It was a common occurrence for
a regiment to march eighteen or twenty Irish
miles in one day, and that, too, loaded with the
old-fashioned knapsack, the rolled coat, and
sixty rounds of ammunition in pouch. The
writer is in a position to affirm that not one-half
of our young soldiers of to-day would be equal
to the performance of this feat.

The subject of physical development in the
army is beginning to receive that careful
consideration at the hands of the authorities, to
which its really vast importance entitles it.
Every facility is now afforded the British
soldier, of improving himself morally and
intellectually; and the recent establishment of
military gymnasia, with a view to his physical
culture, has placed the power within his own
hands of making another man of himself. The
recruit will henceforth be required to undergo,
at least, three months physical training
before taking his place in the ranks. This is a
wise proceeding on the part of the government,
and one which will repay in future years any
present trouble or expense. The usual course
of recruits' drill is really not sufficient to enable
him to perform all the duties which are required
of the drilled soldier. He may be expert in
the handling of his rifle, and he may be well up
in drill; but something more is necessary. His
physical stamina, and powers of endurance,
should be improved, to enable him to bear the
fatigues and hardships incidental even to a
modern campaign. The recruit is too soon
loaded with the knapsack: an ingenious piece
of torture even to those who are well accustomed
to it, than which nothing worse of its
kind can possibly be conceived. The extraordinary
sensations which are experienced when
it has been worn for any length of time, would,
if enumerated, occupy at least a column of this
periodical. A few of the most vivid must
suffice, though a practical realisation of its horrors
for an hour or two, would carry more forcible
conviction with it than any amount of description.
Firstly, then, you are half strangled by
the tug of your knapsack on your stock, you
feel an insane desire to shout or sing in order to
relieve the dreadful oppression of your chest,
and you are surprised that you do not go off
into a real apoplectic fit. Your throat becomes
hot and parched, your eyeballs are alarmingly
strained, and the sensation popularly known as
"pins and needles" is experienced from your
shoulders to the tips of your fingers. Shake off
the monster, and you distinctly feel his ghost
occupying his place as oppressively as himself,
for a good hour afterwards. An army medical
author recently assigned this knapsack as the
cause of there being so many recruit invalids
in the service. Many inventors have
endeavoured to remedy some of these evils, but very