Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/132

 their regimental drill. Some may say that amusement, when compulsory, is no longer amusement; but there is a wide difference between being compelled to amuse ones'self and having no amusement at all. Every European regiment should have its gymnasium under cover and protected from sun and rain, where the men might play rackets, bowls, billiards, concerts, comedies, &c., at all hours of the day. If the racket courts, in almost every cantonment, were covered with roofs, they might be made much more useful than they are at present when without roofs.

Soldiers in all countries assist in the construction of public works; more especially those connected with their own cantonments or barracks. Fatigue duty is common in other British colonies, even in hot ones, as Malta, Corfu, and Gibraltar; but in India, unless at some urgently required field-work, it is unknown. There the British soldier does nothing for himself but clean his accoutrements—every thing else is done for him—whilst,like an unused musket, he becomes rusty and enervated by sheer idleness.

6. SOLDIERS' GARDENS.—Perhaps the best way of giving exercise and occupation to the soldier would be the establishment of regimental vegetable gardens, and telling off a certain number to gardener it. These institutions would be useful in two ways; they would afford healthy exercise