mention—and I'm in America, I feel lonesome,
that's a fact."

As Jeremiah finished his story, we came near
to Memphis, and all landed, safe and sound,
from the Jacob Swan.

            THE BEAUTIFUL GATE.

It is a fair tradition, one of old,
That, at the Gate of Heaven called Beautiful,
The souls of those to whom we ministered
On Earth, shall greet us as we enter in
With grateful records of those lowly deeds
Of Christian charity, wherewith frail man
Proffers his humble loan unto his Lord.

May we not so believe, since He hath said
That, inasmuch as it was done to one
Of those his little ones, 'twas done to him?

Oh, think if this be true, how many eyes
Whose weeping thou hast stilled, shall glisten there,
How many hearts whose burthen thou hast shared,
And heavy feet whose steps were turned by thee,
Back to their homes elastic through the joy
Of new found hope, and sympathy, and love,
Shall welcome thee within the Gates of Bliss,
The Golden City of Jerusalem!

     THE CORPS OF COMMISSIONAIRES.

THOROUGH trustworthiness is as the soul of
honour. It is something to have fought and
bled for one's country by sea or land, and to
have retired with wounds upon a good name and
a pension. But many a brave soldier invalided
upon a pension that is not a livelihood has found
it more desirable than possible to make the
crown a pound. Now, however, there is one
thing, at any rate, that he may do to that end.
The invalided soldier and sailor may be proud to
enter a well-disciplined corps that earns for the
wearer of its uniform the confidence of strangers,
and enables him to live by his honour in a calling
that depends for its very existence upon the
trustworthiness of those who follow it. Any
corps organised for the service of the public
upon such terms is one of which the invalided
soldier may make it a really noble object of
ambition to uphold the good name himself, and to
keep the more thoughtless of his comrades from
abusing it.

There is now firmly established such a corps
of trusty pensioners ready to be useful in many
ways to the people of London and some other
of our great cities, but especially of London,
in the Corps of Commissionaires. It was
established about five years ago by Captain
Edward Walter, who saw—in the creation of such
a body of industrious volunteers pledging themselves
to the necessary strictness of discipline—a
way of giving honourable employment to the
invalided soldiers and sailors who deserve well of
their country, but with the best will in the world
to earn their bread, find it very diflicult to earn
anything beyond the scanty pension to which
they have become entitled by wounds and good
service.

There is continual want, all over town, of a
direct and safe hand by which to secure the
immediate transmission of messages, letters,
parcels; want, in short, of a ready and complete
supplement to the postal service in which
anything can be done that lies within the power of
a prompt, intelligent, and faithful messenger.
The disabled soldier cannot stand with his
medals on his breast at the street corner as an
isolated applicant for trust of this sort. To do
that, he must beg by word of mouth or by
placard, for the public confidence in himself as
a poor and unknown speculator, so taking a
degrading road to an extremely doubtful end.
But, let the trustworthy men be banded together
in a corps as well disciplined as any in her
Majesty's service, let the discipline asked for by
these men on their own behalf be notoriously
such, and so firmly maintained that want of
integrity in any one entails certain dismissal, and
the uniform of such a corps will be the dress of
gentlemen, though worn only by men who have
seen active service in positions technically below
the grade of the commissioned officer. The
dress will be the badge even of more wealth than
that which clothed Dives in purple and fine
linen:

For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich;
And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honour peereth through the meanest habit.

Give the corps a distinctive name as the Corps
of Commissionaires, military organisation under
a clear ruling head, and an easily known uniform,
which is not a "mean habit" for honour to
peer through, and each Commissionaire may take
his daily post in the way of business with the
credit of the entire corps placed to his account.
This uniform tells not only what his business is,
but that he may be trusted in it, and the life that
was committed to forced idleness and poverty
becomes honourably useful, and is saved from
the pinch of want.

Captain Walter having hit upon this method
of befriending the old soldier, not only
suggested it, but carried it out by his own personal
energy. He began with seven men. By steady
increase from year to year, that number has
already grown to two hundred and sixty-four.
Twenty of these are in out-quarters; one
hundred and twenty are in permanent situations,
exclusively employed in great houses of business,
or wherever else there may be continual need of
a reliable messenger. Of the Commissionaires
stationed conveniently at various points in the
streets of London, there are fifty in the east
central, and forty-nine in the west central
districts; while there are twenty at the
headquarters down Exchange-court, in the Strand,
ready for immediate service from that station, or
for temporary supply of any post from which the
Commissionaire who attends it has been sent on
a duty that will keep him more than four hours