merely endorsing on the proceedings, "His
Royal Highness approves the finding, and
judgment, &c."

Another gentleman is brought to trial for
"falsely asserting that he had pulled Major
Mein by the nose, and taken his (the prisoner's)
feet from the Hudibrastic seat of honour."
This puerility was made the subject of serious
investigation, and resulted in the "cashiering"
of the officer who had so unluckily omitted to
justify his Hudibrastic metaphors by any
substantial foundation of truth.

There is a grandiloquence in some of the
"Findings" beside which the periods of a
common judge's charge sound humdrum enough.
In the case of an officer mysteriously and
wonderfully named "Sir Hungerford Hoskyns,"
"His majesty expressed his regret that Sir
Hungerford Hoskyns should have so lulled
himself into a conviction of the fairness of this
transaction." Not even the distinguished
officer who in a late investigation spoke of that
wonderful building phenomenon— "foundations
fading like mists before the sun," and who
"marshalled" what he called his "troops of
evidence," could equal this happy expression.

There are some more inscrutable findings up
and down through the books, such as two cases
where officers were tried for killing their
opponents in a duel. There was no question that
the victims were killed, and yet the others were
"honourably acquitted." And yet, almost in
the next page, is found the cashiering of a
"Surgeon O'Meara" for merely "carrying" a
challenge.

Apropos of this duelling question, there was
a certain Major Armstrong who was brought to
trial for some misconduct by the famous Sir
Eyre Coote, the hero of Pondicherry, in the year
eighteen hundred. He was "honourably
acquitted;" on which, he instantly sold out of the
army, to avoid any unpleasant restraint on his
further proceedings, and sent a challenge to his
accuser. The courage of the Indian general
was above suspicion. It had been proved to be
almost reckless in the famous siege, and his
conduct on this occasion showed a discretion
surprising in one of his cloth. He indicted the
challenging major criminally, who was found
guilty, sentenced to the old-fashioned fine of
thirty merks, and, what was more serious still,
to a year's imprisonment.  "His majesty" was
so gratified with this conduct, that he had a
letter written to Sir Eyre Coote, which was
afterwards directed to be read to every regiment
in the service.

It points an excellent moral, not usually found
in documents of this description. "His
majesty," it runs, "has been pleased to direct that
it should be signified to you in the strongest
terms, that by having had recourse to the laws of
the country on this occasion, you have betrayed
a spirit truly commendable as a soldier, and
peculiarly becoming the station you hold in his
majesty's service, to which you have rendered a
material benefit, by furnishing an example which
his majesty has ordered to be pointed out as
worthy of the imitation of every officer under
similar circumstances." In which monition is
contained a wholesome "caution" not unprofitable
at the present moment; and yet, by the
curious fatality that waits on military composition,
not undisguised by doubtful English. That
signifying of approval "in the strongest terms"
would suggest awkward associations of reproof,
and "betraying" a spirit which is commendable,
is unusual.

In the case of Major Ottley, "his majesty"
also spoke out very distinctly, and in terms
which even more directly suit the present times.
The case was promoted by an officer named Ross,
but was not established. Said his majesty: "To
prefer accusations which cannot be maintained
reflects much disgrace on those who bring them
forward." And accordingly it was notified to
no less than nine officers who had been
concerned in "bringing forward" the accusations
they could not "maintain" that "his majesty
had no further occasion for their services." In
Gordon's case, too, his majesty spoke out very
candidly, and, indeed, with a freedom which it is
a pity is not more common in our times.
"Neither prosecutor nor prisoner have acquired
any credit by the manner in which they have
conducted themselves during this trial, each of
them industriously pressing extraneous matter
upon the court, to the extreme protraction of
the proceedings, and each of them, as if urged
by a rooted animosity, endeavouring to depreciate
the character of the other."

THE SMALL HOURS

WHO knows the small hours as well as I do?
—I, Hyson Nightstare, of Wakefield. Who
knows so well the theory of unrest in all its
ramifications? Whose eyes so often as mine
have peered sleepless into the darkness, or
watched unrefreshed the first glimmerings of the
cheerless dawn?

Now, I hold that it is one of the first laws of
philanthropy—with which quality, when I have
had a good night, I am running over—to make
known to one's suffering fellow-creatures the
consolatory fact that there are others who suffer
too. It is a great function to become the
mouthpiece of a certain section of the world,
to speak the sentiments which it feels, so that
the members of that section may be able to say,
"Yes, this have I felt too. I did not know
that any others beside myself went through such
experiences as these. Come, there are others
as ill off as I am; lo! I will be patient."

Night is a terrible time. There are certain
hours which one should know nothing about.
Nature intended them to be passed over in
unconsciousness. I am no medical authority—
albeit there are medicaments whose uses,
methinks, I understand as well as another—soda,
for instance, and rhub—but no matter—I am
ignorant, I say, of many things connected with
the human frame, yet I fancy that at certain
periods of the night or morning there are queer
changes that the body is liable to, unhallowed