by mere dint of purchase-money, commanded
this man, whom I could not but feel was in
every respect my superior as a soldier. This
gentleman had been three or four times
wounded in India, wore a couple of medals,
and had been mentioned in General Orders.
He could never rise to higher rank than he
had already attained, for the want of money
to go into the regimental market with.

The other officer I mentioned—the riding-
master—was the senior lieutenant in the
regiment. He had never been in the ranks,
having entered the corps when it was in
India, where he had seen a great deal of
service, some fourteen years before I got my
first commission. This officer had purchased
both his cornetcy and lieutenancy, but his
father having lost his fortune by the failure
of a Calcutta bank, was unable to help
him with any more money, except a small
annual allowance. The consequence was
that he remained a lieutenant, although every
captain in the regiment, as well as the major,
had joined the corps as youngsters since he
entered it, and none of them had ever seen a
shot fired in anger; whereas this officer had
gone through three campaigns in India.

I remained about six years longer with
the regiment, and during that time lived
like most of my brother officers. The
never-varying monotony of English military
life affords no scope for the working
of those energies which seem natural to the
Anglo-Saxon race in all countries and all
professions. This every officer begins to feel
after a certain length of time. So long as the
end and aim of existence is hunting, shooting,
horse-racing, dining at mess, or making one
of a jovial party in London at the Army and
Navy Club—known familiarly as the Rag and
Famish—a commission in a crack regiment
has a certain charm, which to most men, on
the younger side of thirty, is most seductive.
But after that age, the mind begins to want
the realities of life, and to desire some
advancement in social position, fortune, or
even an increase of responsibilities—even of
cares. Thus it is that so many officers leave
the service after having been about ten or
twelve years in the army exactly at a time when
they have learnt their duties and are likely to
serve their country with the greatest efficacy.

After ten years of a pleasant, but useless
—although, perhaps, not positively wicked
life—I sold out, obtaining from my successor,
a like sum to what I had paid for my rank,
and became once more a private gentleman.

How is it possible that with such a military
system, the English army can ever be in time
of war useful to the country? I grant that
our apprenticeship in the Crimea has taught
our troops something of the art of war; but,
should they not have known this from the
commencement? What should we say of a
barrister who, when a brief was put into his
hands, began only then to study the law?
Or, would we not be greatly surprised at a
doctor who, when called to a sick man's bed-
side, asked for time to consult his medical
books?

THE PORCUPINE CLUB.

AT Constantino, Algeria, there are several
clubs or societies of porcupine-hunters,
whom the Arabs call hatcheichia, because
they smoke hatchich, or hemp, instead of
tobacco. The members of these clubs are
of Kabyle origin. The title of hatcheichi,
or a man who loses his reason by indulgence
in smoking, is the cause and the permanent
mark of the contempt with which
the other natives regard them. To console
themselves for the reprobation of the Algerian
public, they meet every evening, to howl
like wild beasts, and to smoke to the sound
of the tom-tom, till they drop to the ground,
overcome by the influence of drowsiness and
hatchich. Between the different clubs there
exists so fierce a rivalry, that, before the
taking of Constantine, on the fête-day of
spring, the members belonging to the Gate
of El-Kantara and of the Gate Jebia used to
engage in bloody battles, in which clubs were
the only offensive and defensive arms
employed. It was worse than the rows at
Donnybrook fair, inasmuch as the Arabs are
more habitually sanguinary than the Irish.
One would have thought that these assassins
(as the etymology of their name justifies us
in calling them) would have bestowed their
hunting aspirations on nobler game than a
poor inoffensive porcupine. The French
authorities soon put an end to these encounters
within the walls of the town, but the
hempen coterie contrived to make up for the
lost time when they reached the theatre of
their sporting operations. Their passion for
porcupine-hunting is not easily understood
by persons unacquainted with the difficulties
they are obliged to overcome in order to take
a single head of this prickly game.

The porcupine resembles the badger in its
manners and habits; only nature has armed
it with a cuirass to protect it from the hyenas
and jackals, who often dwell in the same
burrow. It digs its retreat to a great depth,
and always at the foot of a rock. In the
environs of Bougie and Ghelma, the French
soldiers caught fabulous quantities of porcupines,
with snares made of brass wire. It is
probable that they formerly abounded in the
outskirts of Constantine, which are very
rocky, and full of burrows swarming with
jackals; but the hatcheichia must have
exterminated them, since none are left.

The porcupine-hunters generally open
their campaign towards the close of winter.
As they are obliged to make a march of
several days before their sport can begin; as
each of these excursions lasts for at least a
month, and as they are aware from experience
that their habits shut them out from
Arab hospitality, they wisely make preparations