soiled with a night spent in the guard-room—
he will have to attend to his stable or other duties,
and will be obliged to attend a parade at two or
three P.M. He has barely time to clean everything
else belonging to him if he look sharp about
it, but what time to clean and dry his belts?
On parade the men right and left of him have
clean belts, as they have not been on guard, and
this makes his look the more dirty. Yet for
"dirty belts" there is no excuse admitted,
and his captain orders him three days'
confinement to barracks:—to the damage of his
temper, and the probable destruction of his true
soldierly feeling.

Within the last three years there has been
a general adoption of knickerbockers by most of
our volunteer corps and by men taking much
exercise on foot. Even in the French army,
long trousers have, within the last fifteen
months, been gradually abolished, and a
modification of the wide Zouave dress (in fact,
only a red imitation of the British knickerbocker)
has become the universal wear of the
French infantry. Not so in our service. The
old shape of trouser is still the only one allowed,
and the old ammunition boot—perhaps the worst
ever invented for a pedestrian—still is the
"regulation," although by English volunteers and
French infantry the "Balmoral" lace boot is
accepted as the best for work. A French officer
told me not long ago, that the new pattern of
short loose trousers and lace-up boots, which
has lately been adopted for their infantry, was
copied from the knickerbockers worn by the
English volunteers; and he expressed his wonder
that so excellent a walking-dress had not found
favour in the regular English army. I consider
that if two equally strong and healthy men were
put to walk a given distance, the one dressed
from his waist downward according to the
French infantry regulation, the other according
to the English, one would be good for a
distance of at least five miles more in the day than
the other. The short white gaiter over the boot,
which also forms part of the new French
regulation dress, is an excellent mode of keeping the
feet cool during a long hot march, and it is the
more wonderful that it has not been adopted in
our service, from its good qualities having been
for many years proved in our Highland
regiments. As with the dress of our troops, so
with their arms. I am only forty years of age,
yet I held a commission in the service when
there was hardly an officer above the rank
of major, throughout the army, who did not
strongly object to percussion taking the place
of flint muskets. Then, again, when Brown
Bess gave way to the rifled fire-arms, what a
storm it raised amongst all the seniors of the
service!

Some years ago, when our troops and those of
France were on their way to the Crimea, I saw
at Malta a couple of French soldiers who had
landed from a transport, and were fraternising
with some of our men in the Florianna Barracks.
When I passed through the barrack-room in
which the .Frenchmen, more than half-seas over,
were entertaining themselves, they were busy
upon an inspection of each article of dress
belonging to their hosts, and under pretence of
getting a light for my cigar, I remained near
them. They did not much approve of anything
that was shown them, but when they came to look
at the British great-coats, their wonder passed
all bounds. One thing is certain, that both in
make and material no great-coat, cloak, top-coat,
or wrapper, ever was invented more simply and
completely an encumbrance to those who are
obliged to carry it about. And this in a country
where the best of cloth is made, and wherein the
art of rendering various textures waterproof, is
better understood than in any part of the world!
In most garrisons or regular standing camps,
the soldier on sentry has a cover called a sentry-
box to get under in bad weather, but in the field
he must stand or walk about for two hours,
exposed to rain, wind, or snow, after which he is
relieved and goes to sleep for two hours, again
to take his turn in the open air. For such work
surely he ought to have an outer covering
impervious to weather, or which would at any
rate keep him as dry as possible. The English
soldier is provided with a long-skirted garment,
of a cloth so thin, that, when held up to the
light, it looks more like green baize than
anything else. This coat is so far from turning
off water, that it becomes soaked through and
through in half an hour. For his head, ears,
or neck, the English soldier has no protection
whatever, and the glazed leather of his shako
serves as a water-pipe to convey all the rain
that falls upon it down his back. The inevitable
consequences are, that no sooner does one of our
regiments or brigades go on active service, than
the men who have to do night duty, fall sick, and
our hospitals are full. Not so the Frenchman.
He of the line regiments has a compact well-
fitting great-coat of stout warm cloth, which in
cold weather he wears over his vest, or fatigue
jacket, and which, when he marches in summer,
he wears by itself. As for the Zouaves and
Chasseurs, they have a large cape of very stout
waterproof cloth, with an ample hood that comes up
over the cap, arid keeps all dry and warm about
the head and neck. Moreover, besides these
garments, there is provided for every man on
sentry, and handed over to each man as he
relieves his companion, a large Arab cloak with
arms and hood,—a waterproof coat that can be
put off and on in a moment, and that covers the
soldier from head to foot, keeping him warm,
and keeping his rifle as well as his knapsack and
accoutrements dry. Something of this sort
should be introduced into our service, only it
would be preferable that every man should have
one to himself, and that they were made of stout
oil-cloth, so that in camp the men could use them
to spread under their bedding. These cloaks
should be in addition to good stout watch coats,
of a thick warm cloth, coming well down to the
knees, and with large hoods which, in very cold
weather, or during rain, the soldier could draw
over his head. Such an outfit of top clothing
might at first be expensive, but the better the