four years. From the latter place, they were
sent to Bermuda, and after a sojourn of two
years in that island, went on to Canada, where
they remained four years: making, in all, ten
years' foreign service, during which time the
corps had to change its quarters fourteen times.
The regiment was then ordered home, at the
time when the mania for dosing our troops with
a plentiful supply of Aldershot had come into
fashion. To Aldershot the corps was sent on
its return from Canada, and there it was kept
hard at work drilling for a whole year. When
its twelvemonth was over, the 110th was sent
to the north of England, and there broken up
into four or five parties at different stations. A
few months later, it was again united, and
ordered to Dublin, whence, after being in garrison
for six months, it was once more scattered
through various towns in the south of Ireland;
and although it changed quarters five times
during the next two years, it was not brought
together until ordered to prepare for embarkation
to the Cape. At the Cape the regiment
remained three years, and thence it was ordered
to the Mauritius, where it was stationed for
another three years. By that time my son had
been nearly twenty years in the service, had
been promoted from captain to major, at a
cost altogether of four thousand five hundred
pounds, and was looking out for his next step
of lieutenant-colonel; for, the commanding
officer had given out that if a certain sum of
money could be made up by those able to
purchase, he was willing to send in his papers,
and sell out. My son was not the senior major
of the regiment, but the officer of that rank who
stood before him on the list, could not pay
beyond the regulation sum for the step. He
therefore withdrew his name from the purchase
list altogether, and allowed my son, who was
ten years his junior in the army, and fifteen
years younger than he in years, to pass over
his head, and become his commanding officer.

This last promotion was a very serious
expense to me. My son's lieutenant-colonelcy
cost six thousand two hundred pounds from
first to last; and yet, in order to let him live
properly and pay his way as he went along,
I had still to allow him two hundred a year
besides his pay. The regiment by this time
had been sent to Australia, where it was to
finish its tour of foreign service before returning
home again. In due time their turn came,
but not before my son, owing to severe indisposition,
wished either to retire on half-pay or sell
out. Here he met with the difficulty mentioned.
Having paid six thousand two hundred pounds
for his various steps, he asked the same amount
from the major who would obtain promotion if
he retired. This, however, he could not obtain.
The major, who was now first for purchase,
together with the captain who was to succeed to
the vacant majority, the lieutenant who would
get the vacant company, and the ensign who
would get the lieutenancy, could not make up
among them all, more than five thousand five
hundred pounds. My son gave them some
little time to decide, but, finding that the
money was not forthcoming, he negotiated an
exchange into another regiment, in which he
knew he could get the required sum whenever he
wanted to retire from the service. His commission
was his own, he had paid highly for it, and
why should he not make the most of his property?

Although my son recovered his health, and
did not immediately sell out of the army, he—
like the great majority of commanding officers—
could not afford to wait for his rank of major-
general. Had he done so, all the money he had
paid for his commissions would have been
forfeited, and the loss of more than six thousand
pounds was much more than my fortune
would allow me to sustain. Knowing this, my
son sent in his papers, and retired at the very
time when by his knowledge of the service and
his experience in charge of a regiment, he was
eminently fitted for a higher command. For,
just as the best rectors are those clergymen who
have had long experience as curates, and just as
the best bishops are those who have done much
duty as parish priests, so no military man can be
an efficient major-general who has not had
experience as commanding officer of a regiment.
And yet, with our present system, these are the
very men who are excluded from the promotion,
unless they are wealthy enough not to care for
the sinking of five or six thousand pounds!

My son had entered the army at seventeen
years of age, and he retired from it after a service
of twenty-five years. He was forty-two years
of age when obliged, so to speak, to adopt a
life of idleness, being too old to take to any
other calling. Had he remained a few years
longer in the army, he would have been so near
his promotion to the rank of major-general, that
the officers to be promoted by his selling out
would not have given him as much as he asked,
and would have insisted on making their own
terms with him. Retiring as he did, some
years before his turn for promotion could come
round, his step was all the more valuable to his
successors; and therefore he got from them the
price he had given for his rank, which was all
that he asked.

I often think how different the career of my
two sons: the one in the army: the other who
has lately entered the navy. The former,
although a good officer, always ready for his work,
and very fond of his profession, could not get
on without money. At every turn, money was
required for this step, that promotion, or the other
rank. Money, bargaining, and marketing, formed
the only means by which he got to the top of
the regimental tree, and yet it was because he
had not money enough at command that he was
obliged to sell out while yet comparatively a
young man. On the other hand, if my son in
the navy behave well—if he become proficient
in what is required of him—he is certain
to get on. Nay, more: the better he
behaves, and the more he distinguishes himself,
the more certain he is to advance in the
service. Why should the army and the navy of
the same country be conducted on such totally