newspapers of the formation of the various
corps, we merely shrugged our shoulders, and
said " Ah!" in rather an admonitory tone; and
it was not until the announcement that the
Queen would probably receive the officers and
review the troops, that the possibility of there
being a Grimgribber regiment dawned upon us.
I am bound to confess that the idea did not
originate with me, but with Jack Heatly, a
young stockbroker, who was always looked
upon as a dangerous character, and who, when
at a very early stage of affairs he joined a
metropolitan rifle corps, was considered as having
booked himself for perdition. Under cover
of the darkness of night, and with
extraordinary mystery (for even his bold spirit
quailed at the audacity of his plan), Jack paid
me a visit one evening last December, and
imparted to me his ideas for the formation of the
Grimgribber volunteers. The first of his large-
souled propositions was that he should be made
captain; the second, that I should undertake
all the work; the third, that I should
mention the scheme to all likely persons, in my own
name at first, but, if it met with approval, in
his.

I was struck with Jack's magnanimity, and
fell into his views; so likely persons were seen,
and agreed at once to the rough outline of the
scheme – Grimgribber should have a rifle corps;
that was decided on; all detail could be entered
into at a public meeting which should be forthwith
advertised and held in the lecture-room of
our Literary Institute. The consternation into
which the drab-coloured portion of our population
received this announcement cannot be
described; the head-shakings, the hand-upliftings
were awful, and the accusative case of the
second person singular was joined to every verb
of monition and reproach, and applied to us
rigorously. But we managed to make way even
against this, and we held our meeting. One of
the county members had promised to preside,
and at eight o'clock the room was crammed and
beginning to grow noisy, but the county member
had not arrived; then I, as secretary, explained
this to the meeting, and proposed that some one
should take the chair, and some one else
accordingly took it and had just reached a
triumphant point in his peroration, when the
door was burst open and the county member
walked in, in a white waistcoat and a rage,
and we had to begin all over again. But
still we had a very great success. I had drawn
up a set of rules based on those of Jack Heatly's
former rules, and these met with great approval;
an enemy had obtained admission, and he caused
some disturbance by uttering a very loud and
sarcastic "Hear, hear!" after one of them
which inflicted a fine of five shillings for
discharging the rifle by accident; and when I sat
down, he rose and proceeded to comment on
this rule, declaring it absurd to punish a person
for an offence committed accidentally. But
Jack got up, and in an oration of unexampled
eloquence, completely demolished our adversary,
by proving to him what a consolation it would
be to the surviving relations of any unfortunate
person who might be thus killed, to think that
the cause of the accident had been made to pay
for his carelessness. And then an old gentleman
long resident in the village, and reputed to
have been the author of some very spirited
verses on the Prince Regent's coronation which
actually found their way into print, rose, and
recited some poetry which he had forged for
the occasion, in which Britannia was
represented as bestowing crowns of laurel to
each of her " commercial sons," and this
brought the meeting to a close with a storm of
triumph.

OUR COUNCIL AND ITS FUNCTIONS.

On a convenient desk outside the meeting-room
we had placed a large broad sheet, to
which each intending "effective" member was
to sign his name, and before the lecture-hall was
closed we had seventy signatures. The seventy
pledged ones met the next day and elected
their officers – Jack Heatly, of course, being
chosen captain; his brother, lieutenant; and I
myself receiving the distinguished post of
ensign. To any gentleman content with moderate
exercise and a good position, I recommend the
ensign's berth; his lungs are left intact, for he
never has to shout the word of command; he is
never in that awful doubt which seizes upon
the other officers as to whether they are " on the
right flank," as he has simply to walk behind the
rear rank in the centre of the company; he is not
liable to be shot by the enemy, or by his own.
men; and he can gain a character for smartness
with little trouble, by merely occasionally uttering
the caution, " Steady, now!" " Easy in the
centre!" " Keep your fours in the wheel!" and
such-like mandates delivered in an admonitory
voice. He is, in fact, the Lord Burleigh of the
company, and best comports himself by grave
silence and stern military aspect.

When the selection of officers had been made,
we set to work and chose certain gentlemen to
be members of council. We had seen that
other corps had a council, and it was therefore
necessary that we should have one; but, beyond
checking the expenses of the regiment, we were
not at all clear as to what were the council's
functions. We soon found out. The members
of the council were exclusively privates, and it
appeared that their first and most urgent duties
were to oppose every arrangement made by the
officers, and to endeavour in every possible manner
to set the corps by the ears. Did Jack Heatly, as
captain commanding, issue an order, the council
was down upon him like a shot, had him up like
Othello before the Senate, and harangued him
with Old Bailey-like politeness and Central
Criminal Court etiquette; did the lieutenant,
a shy and retiring young man, make a mistake in
his word of command, he was summoned the
next day before the Vehmgericht, had his error
pointed out to him, was told to make himself
immediate master of the few instructions
contained in very small type in a fat red-covered
quarto volume of some eight hundred pages,