than 486,5027. 13s. 6d.; and we have little doubt that up to the present time the civil labour has cost more than 600,0007.* Now, as Colonel Tulloch urged before these barracks were erected, why should not the men hut themselves? There are clay, gravel, and sand on the spot, with abundance of small wood that no one will buy, not more than eight miles distant. Soldiers have hutted themselves at Maroon Town, in the West Indies, at 257. per head. The buildings would not be such permanent structures as the contractors have put together: we should miss the architectural façades for the officers' quarters, and the 'moulded cornices' described so maliciously by the Times' correspondent; but we should have serviceable huts which would last for eight or ten years. There can be little doubt that the men would

be healthier in them than in vast barracks. The process of building would supply the kind of exercise which would amuse as well as instruct, and the plan would certainly save money to the State. Considerably more than one half, or 647-9 per thousand of our soldiers have been recruited from the agricultural population, to whom the erection of earthworks and building of all kinds would be somewhat familiar. Of the remaining number 294-7 have been trained to mechanical trades. Surely from this force handicraftsmen could be selected to perform much of the work of the army. Bakers, cooks, tailors, and bootmakers could be found to supply the wants of the regiment, and relieve us from the incubus of Weedon and its viewers. We place more confidence in a system in which the artisan soldier will reap the fruits of his labour, than in athletic games, which are not to be neglected, but which become irksome when they are enjoined upon the soldier by regulation. Serious exertion, too, with a useful result, is always more invigorating in the long run than exertion which leaves no result at all. Work, in short, within reasonable limits, is more healthful than play.

During the disastrous months of the Crimean campaign, Mr. Galton proposed to give a series of lectures to the reinforcements about to proceed to the seat of war, on the shifts available in wild countries. He went to the museum of the United Service Club at the hour he had advertised, but as his audience amounted to but one soldier, he discontinued his efforts to make known those wrinkles he had acquired with so much suffering himself. The substance of these intended lectures he has since amplified into a book, which is one of the most interesting little volumes

* Whilst the civil workman is called in to do the work of the soldier at home, strangely enough we send out the soldier to do the work of the emigrant abroad. A force of Royal Engineers has lately left these shores for the purpose of discharging this office in British Columbia.

we ever read, and which should be in the hands of every campaigner, whether military or otherwise. Had our soldiers been acquainted with its contents when our commissariat broke down, they would have been able to lighten their miseries in a considerable degree. The services which he extracts from a single piece of stick are almost inconceivable; and when there seems to be no further hope, he shows how the difficulties may often be overcome by the aid of the very circumstances which appeared to have caused the breakdown. His makeshifts and expedients are, it is true, at times rather rough; and Ensign Firebrass, as he looks at his neatly-polished little boot, would perhaps be startled at being told, that on a march, 'pieces of linen a foot square, smeared with grease, and nicely folded over the foot cornerwise,' form a capital substitute for socks; or that breaking 'a raw egg into a hard boot before putting it on greatly softens the leather.' Such announcements may be horrifying in the midst of luxury, but in hard circumstances the most nicely got up London dandy would be grateful for the hint. Many a poor soldier at any rate would be glad to know that even on a plain where there is nothing except the turf beneath his feet, protection is at hand if he were aware how to avail himself of it. He need only turn up a broad sod seven feet long by two wide, and if he succeeds in propping it up on its edge, it will form a sufficient shield against the wind,' and even against a drifting rain, provided he plants his turf between the weather and himself.

As regards the in-door amusements of the soldier, we have but little belief in regimental libraries. The recruit from the agricultural districts will not read such volumes as generally form the bulk of these collections. A Scotch sergeant or two will thumb over Rollin's Ancient History,' or Robertson's "History of Scotland,' but the majority of the soldiers will not look at them. I have never heard of a reading army,' said the late Dr. William Fergusson; and we agree with him as far as what are called standard works are concerned. The soldier can be amused, however, with a lighter class of literature, and there is the certainty of pleasing him with a newspaper. This is the reading he selects for himself in the public-house, and why not condescend to consult his tastes? Major-General Lawrance stated that the system had been tried in some garrisons with excellent effect, of providing a room where the men could procure papers, coffee, and a pipe. 'We approach the soldier,' says Robert Jackson, with the dram-bottle in one hand, and the lash in the other.' Things are not so bad as in his day, but the temptation and the punishment are still provided; and to reduce

reduce both as much as possible, we should employ pleasant preventives, both of a moral and physical kind.

The

The question of food is intimately connected with the health of the soldier, and, as far as we can see, no attempt has been made by the commissariat to adjust it satisfactorily to the varying conditions to which he is subjected. The Truck system, which has long been abolished by law in the payment of workmen, is still maintained to some extent in the army. soldier is nominally paid 13d. per day, but out of this the authorities stop a certain sum, which varies with the markets, for the rations and other necessaries supplied to him. The quantity of the ration is fixed both for service at home and abroad. At home he has 1 lb. of bread and lb. of meat inclusive of bone, an additional lb. of bread being given to troops encamped in England. Abroad the ration consists of 1 lb. of bread or lb. of biscuit, and 1 lb. of meat either salt or fresh, the additional lb. being given to compensate for the inferior quality of foreign compared to English meat. There are one or two exceptional rations, but at home or abroad, in peace or in war, the ration (the quality of the meat being considered) is the same. Simplicity may be urged in favour of the system, but we fear this is its only merit, and we are not at all surprised to find the following remarks in the Report: 'We are of opinion that no ration can be fixed upon which shall be adhered to in both peace and war. The conditions of life are so different in the two cases, that whatever is suitable for the one must be either too much or too little for the other.' Common sense would clearly point out that the ration which would be amply sufficient for the soldier in country quarters, whose principal occupation is lounging along the street, or leaning upon a bridge, would go but little way to maintain the wear and tear of a man when exhausted by the fatigues of an active campaign. The degree and nature of his labours then may be gathered from the following extract from the Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the Supplies of the Army in the East:

'The average weight carried by a soldier on the march, including food and water for the day, is probably not less than from fifty to sixty pounds, and while carrying that burden he is frequently required not only to march considerable distances, but also to move rapidly, and make other great exertions. In the ordinary course of his duty he is called upon to watch during the night at longer or shorter intervals, whatever may have been his previous exertions. He is exposed to every vicissitude of temperature, and often to the inclemency of the weather, by night as well as by day, and must be ready to turn out

when

when required, at any hour, and under any circumstances. He must generally be content with the shelter of a tent, whatever the climate may be. When engaged in siege operations, he has to perform, mostly during the night, the work that a railway labourer performs by dayexcavating and removing earth. When stores are to be landed, he is often required to do the work of a dockyard labourer. When employed in active service the soldier, therefore, requires a diet as nourishing as that which is requisite to maintain the physical powers of any other man engaged in hard labour involving frequent watching and exposure.'

That is, the soldier is required at times to be a railway navvy, and something more; but unlike the navvy, he is not allowed to replenish his inward man according to his natural desires, but according to a certain fixed regulation. As well may a stoker limit his engine to a hundredweight of coals a day, and expect to get any speed out of it he pleased. The navigator, whilst executing heavy work, is known to eat as much as six pounds of meat a day. Now we question if any navigator ever worked harder than the common soldier in the trenches before Sebastopol, yet he was expected to perform his task on one pound of meat, fresh or salt, equal to three quarters of a pound of English beef or mutton. The salt meat too is vastly less nutritive than fresh ; and in case the lemon-juice fails, as it did in the Crimea, scurvy and its allied diseases are sure to follow its use. Well may Dr. Christison have remarked 'that any scientific person conversant with the present subject (dietaries) could have foretold, as a certain consequence, sooner or later, of their duty, that the British troops would fall into the calamitous state which befell them in the Crimea.' It must be evident again that the soldier during a Canadian winter requires more meat than he does between the tropics. In cold climates the nitrogenous and carboniferous food should predominate; in warm climates a larger amount of vegetable food is required. The exact amount of the different kinds of food, however, requires a special study; but surely chemistry, which has so admirably catered for the varying wants of prisoners undergoing fluctuating amounts of exertion, could find no difficulty in furnishing proper dietary tables for the British army in different parts of the globe.

The Commissioners, in their Report, fully convinced of the injustice even at home of keeping stalwart English soldiers upon half a pound of meat, recommend that it shall be increased to a pound. They have stated their inability to fix the amount of the war ration. But it is not sufficient that there should be a supply of good and adequate food. The soldier must have means of properly preparing it. It is bad

enough

enough to confine him to beef and pork for the whole term of his service, but it is adding to the injury to give him only a single method of cooking it.* At present,' says the Report, 'in barrack and hospital but one mode of dressing food is recognised or provided for. Coppers for boiling exist in every barrack, but no meat can be baked, roasted, boiled, or stewed. When a soldier, therefore, enters the service, he has the prospect of dining on boiled meat every day for twenty-one years." 'It is beef and bouilli one day, and bouilli and beef the next, for twenty-one years,' says Mr. Brown, the surgeon-major of the Guards. The result is, that the soldier does not consume even the small amount of animal food that is apportioned to him. 'I have gone into the barracks at nine or ten o'clock at night, and I have seen half a dozen basins of soup not touched; the men would not eat it,' says the same authority. So much for the bouilli; and as for the beef, General Sir R. Airey says, 'the men are perfectly sickened of it. I have seen the meat, after it has been boiled down to shreds, thrown away; the men would not look at it.' One error is the parent of another: as the men cannot eat the same unvarying mess for ever, they send their meat to the baker's, and defray the expense out of their vegetablemoney. This diminution of their vegetable diet tends to produce diseases of a scorbutic character. The Commissioners only speak with the universal voice when they recommend that the soldiers shall have the means of roasting, stewing, baking, and frying, as well as of boiling. Dr. Balfour, who has the medical charge of the boys in the Royal Military Asylum at Chelsea, has already put the plan to the test. Formerly the boys, like the soldiers, were fed perpetually on boiled meat; but of late years they have been treated like the rest of the community, and the result has been that the mortality has fallen from 9.7 per thousand to 4.9 per thousand. The greater part of this improvement is attributed by Dr. Balfour to the greater variety in the food and the mode of dressing it. The system effected a saving of 3007. a-year- the boys eating the whole of their victuals with a relish. I was able to get them into good condition by distributing the same amount of meat over seven days that they had previously had in four.' The French, as all the world knows, are wiser upon this point than ourselves. They have in every barrack a sort of small batterie,' says Sir R. Airey, and the men are using their stewpans all day long; they make stews,

*Since General Peel came into power, cooking-ranges, and other appliances, have by his direction been introduced into several of our barracks. It is fortunate for our army that the War-Office is presided over by so able and upright an administrator.

and