other way in a position of authority over him,
that he seems oftenest to have come into
collision. He accuses this officer of inflicting
humiliation upon him in many ways, and
especially on one occasion when, D. having been
absent from muster, Colonel Newton loudly and
roughly reprimanded him before a junior officer,
saying " that others should not suffer because
he chose to run riot;" that " he would make
him parade so many times a day," with other
insults, all spoken in so loud a tone of voice
that the non-commissioned officers and others in
the outer room could hear him distinctly. This
Colonel Newton does indeed seem to have
pursued his junior with a most venomous and
insatiable hatred, for we find him some time
subsequently, and after he had actually left the
regiment, going out on a certain field-day to
Wormwood Scrubbs, riding behind Colonel D.
in plain clothes, and giving a command to the
men who were at that moment under Dawkins's
charge.

The issue of this case, as conveyed in
the decision of the commander-in-chief, is
rather bewildering. The decision is, " that
there was nothing against Colonel Dawkins's
character or honour as a gentleman, and that
his statements were, his royal highness
considered, partly true; also that it was not a case
for a court-martial. But after the opinion of the
court, he gave Colonel D. the option of selling
his commission, otherwise he should recommend
her Majesty to exercise her prerogative
of placing him on half-pay."

Would that these men of war could be
persuaded by any means to make less war with
each other. There is no end to the intestine
strife which is waged among them, no end to
their squabblings and bickerings. They remind
one sometimes of schoolboys, more than men
with a business to attend to. Like boys,
they tell tales out of school, as in the case
of one Colonel P., representing the
commander-in-chief in certain investigations going
on in India, who, quarrelling with one Major
F.—also engaged in the same investigations,
but on behalf of the Bengal commissariat—
appeals, in the heat of argument, to the opinion
of the commander-in-chief, and then, when the
major, also in the heat of argument, states that
"he has no respect for either the public or
private character of the said commander-in-
chief," goes and tells what the naughty major
has said, and gets him removed from his post in
the commissariat.

Occasionally the quarrels among the gallant
gentlemen are of a different nature altogether.
Sometimes, for instance, it will happen that
some veteran officer, some old brigadier, " whose
heart still beats towards the fair," will manifest
a passion for some lady, into whose society
Destiny has thrown him, but who, alas! is no
longer free to respond to the brigadier's passion.
Then will it happen further that the brigadier
will write love letters to the lady during her
husband's absence "up country"—the scene
taking place in India—that a male relation will
interfere, that the brigadier will repent, and
promise to write no more love letters, but
shortly afterwards will become hardened again,
falling to with the pen and ink and the rose-
coloured paper more sedulously than ever; till at
last the husband of the persecuted lady, hearing
the news, threatens to horsewhip the amorous
brigadier, who thereupon is compelled to retire
from the service, and is heard of no more.
Cases of this sort are not unknown.

Any person possessed of tolerably observant
faculties, who will take the trouble of paying a
little attention to the class of " difficulties"
which we have been considering in this paper,
will hardly fail to be struck by the fact that
a very great number of the disturbances
which occasionally take place in " the service,"
occur at meal-times. A large proportion of
these differences of opinion seem to originate
at or after mess; which, to persons of a
comfortable and well-disposed nature, is a grievous
thing to think of. Imagine a man, as we have seen
just now, who has newly set down to dinner,
starting up again that he may take to kicking a
chinniah. It is monstrous.

Here is an instance of a very bitter dinner-
table squabble, which must have been exceedingly
bad for the digestion of both the parties
concerned in it. The difference of opinion
seems, in this case, to have originated in
certain horse transactions, and the quarrel would
appear to have run its course with an almost
unparalleled rapidity. The dispute is between
Cornet Delacour and Veterinary-Surgeon
Anthony, and the subject of it is a race, in which
the latter gentleman has been guilty of the
monstrous offence, in Cornet D.'s eyes, of
running a horse as his own which is, in fact,
the property of somebody else. The veterinary
surgeon denies that this is the case, upon which
Mr. Delacour, becoming heated, tells Mr.
Anthony that there is not a single horse in his
stable which is, bonâ fide, his own property,
but that they all belong to a certain Captain
Tempest; a statement which so enrages Veterinary
Surgeon Anthony, that he informs Cornet
Delacour, in so many words that he is a " d—d
liar and a cur!" One of the witnesses
examined at the court-martial, in the course of
which these particulars come out, testifies that
on hearing these remarkable words, Mr. Delacour
turned round, and said to those sitting
near him; " Now, boys, we 've got him."
Another witness merely says that Cornet Delacour
looked much astonished. All agree that
his answer to the remark of the veterinary
surgeon was that he (Mr. Anthony) " might
shut up, for that he was nothing more than a
d—d stud groom of Captain Tempest." [The
reader cannot fail to be edified by the charming
candour with which these officers, and gentlemen,
express their opinions of each other in
their after-dinner talk.] On hearing this
accusation, Mr. Anthony becomes very furious,
is with difficulty kept in his seat, vows that he
will personally assault the individual who has
dared to insult him, and ultimately, when this