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29, 1861.] pretty verandahs, of our officers’ bungalows in India. Each was surrounded by a large and neatly trimmed garden, forming as pleasant a rural retirement for a gentleman as could be conceived of. A large store had been erected on the plateau in a convenient position by the suttler at his own expense, whereat all the little luxuries, except liquors, that a soldier might require, were obtainable at very moderate cost. The entire slope or plateau whereon these various buildings stood was kept by assiduous mowing and grubbing as smooth and trim as any gentleman’s lawn, and the gardens at the base of the cliffs, notwithstanding the depredations of the locusts, were all that could be desired, forming a strange contrast to the wilderness amid which they stood. Availing themselves of the military protection, several settlers, crossing the intervening wilds, had arrived from the adjacent frontier, and squatting in eligible positions without troubling themselves about title-deeds, had built for themselves little log shanties on the verge of the military reserve, cultivated little patches of maize, raised poultry, and drove a thriving business with the garrison in dairy and farm produce.

On the completion of the new quarters, the progress of which had been regarded with great interest, the troops joyously took up their abode therein, abandoning their former dwellings to a slow decay with military insouciance; as few being disposed to remember the happy hours once passed within those now dilapidated walls, as to meditate on the transitoriness of all material things and of the joys dependent thereon, that their decay might have suggested.

The popular transport on attaining a comfort previously unknown to many, and in the pleasing anticipation of indefinite repose, was disagreeably checked by the ominous remarks of the more thoughtful and experienced soldiers.

“Yes, yes,” would croak one of these veterans with a grim smile and wise wag of his head, “it’s very snug indeed, as you say, Jenkins, or O’Flaherty,” as the case might be, “very pleasant indeed, if—it would only last. But that’s exactly where it is, d’ye see; our comfort’s too great to last long. It’s not our luck, by ——. [sic] That old ass of a colonel of ours is so proud of his work, that, like the foolish hen that must go clucking about to let all the neighbourhood know that she has laid an egg,—he’ll be writing in his own praise to Washington, and the Secretary of War will come to the conclusion that Brazos is a great deal too good for the dirty old th. Mark these here words, lads, that’ll be the end of the matter.”

Men very readily turn from the contemplation of a disagreeable future to the enjoyment of the present; and of course the auditors of these sinister prognostications soon recovered from their temporary discomposure, and resolved not to believe in the possibility of what they secretly apprehended. But their confidence was precipitate, for within two months from the first occupation of the new quarters, the contemned predictions were justified by the event. A general order arrived, commanding the immediate advance of the regiment to the Rio Grande, and the occupation of the vacated posts on the Brazos by the very corps which had previously played the part of the cuckoo. Sic vos, non vobis, nidificatis, aves!

Though many of these soldiers were recruits, who, having recently joined, had not personally felt the grief of leaving the pleasant posts in Arkansas; yet each man, associating himself with the part of the corps whereto he now belonged, and claiming a share in its glory, felt as if he had been individually wronged in the former instance. It may be imagined with what wrath the regiment again turned its face to the wilderness; certainly, were curses operative, the gentleman then at the head of the War Department has a very unpleasant prospect before him.

The merits, in an economical point of view, of the military system that it has been the object of the writer to describe, can only be distinctly apprehended by ascertaining approximately the expense incurred by the State in the erection of the post in question;—which the reader may be assured is not ideal, but really existent, having very recently been taken possession of by the revolutionary authorities of Texas.

Assuming that on a average 130 men, or a third of the force present, which is an excessive estimate, had been receiving extra pay for two years at the rate of twenty cents daily, or six dollars monthly (about twenty-five shillings), in addition to their military pay proper; the total sum paid to troops for labour would not have exceeded 18,000 dollars. The entertainment at the post of means of transportation,—already, however, existent, and which would have been present there whether there had been work of this description or not,—the cost of forage, artificers’ tools, iron and iron ware, and other material, amounted to perhaps as much more. Thus these works cost about 36,000 dollars; or only 7,200l. beyond the sum which would necessarily have been expended in supporting in mischievous and unprofitable idleness the troops thus usefully, economically, and even with reference only to themselves, beneficially employed in the public service. Had artificers been engaged from civil life, in addition to the enormous expense of transporting them many hundred miles to the scene of their labours, not one would have accepted less than forty dollars monthly, with his rations, quarters, and liquor. Supposing that only 100 private artificers had been employed, and estimating the rations at ten dollars per mensem, the cost for artificers’ labour alone would in a year have been 60,000 dollars, or 12,000l. What would have been the cost of similar buildings here, and how incalculably it would have exceeded 7,200l. it would be superfluous to say.

The analogy between the military discipline of republican America and republican Rome deserves consideration. The Roman soldiery, in place of being an aggregation of worthless drones, supported in vicious indolence by the laborious industry of their fellow citizens, contributed as much to the commercial prosperity of the Republic by their toil, as to its aggrandisement and renown by their swords. The pioneers of civilisation, the legions, to establish the supremacy of Rome, made roads, erected bridges and aqueducts, built cities,