could in twelve months in England. With
downright hard drudgery and rigid economy,
a man and wife may save from twelve to
twenty pounds per week here, if they have
any luck at all; but you must not think you
get it without working for it. You have to
work, and work hard, but you get good pay.
I have seen scores of people that have been
here twelve and eighteen months, that have
not saved a dollar—they gamble it all away
as they get it. People go to the gambling
houses every day till they get into such a
loose habit. They are opened all day on
Sunday, and some are never closed, neither
night nor day. Some men will come from the
mines, and put a pound of gold on the table
at a time, and in less than an hour lose a
fortune."

THE MODERN SOLDIER'S PROGRESS.

PART III.

At the period when Maurice arrived in
Halifax, the Lieutenant-Governor of the
province was in England, on leave, and during his
absence the command of the garrison devolved
on the senior officer for the time being, with
additional pay and allowances, and the title
of "Commandant." In this office the Lieutenant-
Colonel of Maurice's regiment found
himself invested at the moment of his arrival;
not, however, to his surprise, for he was
aware of the Lieutenant-Governor's absence,
and had embarked in the first transport, in
order to profit by his seniority as soon as
possible.

Colonel Stormy was a man who, in the
course of a tolerably long military career, had
seen some service, here and there, though
none of the most brilliant kind; a circumstance
partly owing to the nature of the expeditions
in which he had served, and partly to the
natural wrong-headedness that distinguished
him. It was not his fault, to be sure, that
Flanders should first have called for the
display of his abilities; but if he had not
been so obstinately bent on mistaking a celery
bed for the trenches before Courtray, he
would not have received that shot through
his left leg which gave him an agreeable
limp for the rest of his clays. It was through
no mistake of his that Whitelock's army
surrendered at Buenos Ayres; but if he had
followed that prudent General's example, he
certainly might have escaped the lasso which
would either have strangled or made him
prisoner, in a skirmish there, if a friendly
sword had not severed the obnoxious cord.
It was not he who was responsible for the
failure at Walcheren; but he might, perhaps,
have avoided the fever, if he had followed the
advice of the regimental surgeon, and not
have gone to bed in his wet boots, after
reconnoitring all day in a fog, without orders to
that effect. Unfortunate expeditions, in
short, were the scenes of all his exploits, and
it was his peculiar fate to illustrate them to
his own disadvantage. We are wrong, however,
in saying "all," for, at the battle of
Moose Island, in the Bay of Fundy (which
was not recorded on the regimental colours,
and is, indeed, remembered by few, having
been somehow eclipsed by Waterloo) where
Colonel Stormy was not present—at the battle
of Moose Island, he carried a village of
wigwams, at the head of his grenadiers, in
very gallant style; and had the capture of
that island made him master—as he supposed
—of the key to the whole American continent,
he might possibly have received the Order of
the Bath, which he always considered his due,
and grumbled at the Horse Guards for
withholding it. But, if he did not obtain that
merited distinction, he held Moose Island with
his regiment, against all comers, for full six
months after peace had been agreed on, and
during that time acquired the taste for absolute
government which he never afterwards
lost an opportunity of developing.

This taste was aided by the pecuniary
recommendations of "a command," and, as a
soldier and a Scotchman, he had a keen appetite
for all the loaves and fishes that came in
his way. His talents for civil government
were on a par with his military qualifications,
and hot water was, consequently, the element
in which he chiefly resided. Colonel Stormy
did not deserve the entire application of
Dryden's celebrated lines, but he laid claim
to one which he made peculiarly his own;
and nobody who had the fortune to serve
under him, was slow to discover that the
Commandant was not only "stiff in opinion,"
but most assuredly also "ever in the wrong."
To complete this outline of the man, whose
position enabled him to sway the destinies of
so many of his fellows, it must be added that
he was excessively passionate, but—as a set-
off to the less amiable traits of his character—
he was quick to forgive, of a jovial temperament,
and sufficiently good-natured when not
particularly thwarted. As all persons in
authority in the army have their sobriquet,
we may as well mention that the colonel was
familiarly known as "Mad Jock."

A regiment, under the command of an
officer such as we have described Colonel
Stormy to have been, was not likely to maintain
a very high reputation for discipline, in
spite of the exertions of two steady-going
majors and an adjutant, whose strictness
bordered very closely on severity; and as long as
Colonel Stormy had no other object to engage
his attention, the regiment was knocked
about like a shuttlecock—at one moment all
work and at another all play. But the
commandantship of a garrison, composed of three
complete regiments, besides Artillery and
Engineers, and a numerous local staff, gave
Mad Jock a wide field for interference, and
left his own corps comparatively undisturbed,
while it afforded its more responsible officers
an opportunity of getting the regiment in
order.