instructed at Birkenhead in the manufacture and management of steamengines. The difficulties which they encountered at the outset are thus described:

"From the mouth of the Orontes to Bir, a distance of one hundred and forty-five miles, the sappers as well as the other soldiers and seamen were employed in transporting the materials for the construction and armament of two steamers across a country of varied and difficult features, intersected by a lake and two rapid rivers. Boilers of great weight were forced up hills inch by inch by means of screw jacks; and through the unflagging exertions of officers and men, and their patient endurance of suffering and fatigue, was accomplished one of the most gigantic operations of modern times."

Two of the sappers died in consequence, and another was lost in a storm which they encountered whilst ascending the Euphrates, after their return from Bombay.

As if in order to extend the range of their operations to a hitherto untried element, and the more thoroughly to realise their lately-acquired motto,* the sappers became in 1838 engaged in working under water, for the purpose of removing sunken vessels. Two ships, one off Tilbury Fort, and the other off Gravesend, were blown up by them with the aid of some civilian divers; but in the following year they undertook, unassisted, the removal of the Royal George, which had lain for nearly sixty years at the bottom of Portsmouth harbour, and rendered the anchorage very unsafe. As the work could only be carried on during the summer months, it lasted for five years, and during that period several of the men became very expert in submarine labour. One especially, Corporal Harris, acquired a knowledge and experience here which enabled him afterwards to execute the difficult task of deepening St. George's Harbour, Bermuda, by removing coral reefs at the bottom of it.

In 1836, a small detachment of the corps under Lieutenant Vicars, R.E., was attached to the force under Lord John Hay, employed against Don Carlos in Spain. It consisted at first of volunteers from the different companies in England, and comprised, of course, some of the worst characters in the corps-men to whom the frequency of punishment in their present situation had made any change acceptable, and whom their officers were only too glad to part with at any price. However, strict discipline, active employment, and the admixture of some reinforcements of a better stamp soon gave a tone of steadiness to the men, and brought out their better qualities. They did good service at the attack of Anatza Gaña and Oriamendi, and being afterwards attached to the army of General O'Donnell, narrowly escaped being taken prisoners at the siege of Aindoin. Before they left Spain they received the thanks of Lord John Hay, and had become regarded as a most invaluable force by their Spanish allies.

In 1838, government accepted a contract for the tithe surveys in England, allowing ninepence per acre for the work. This being very much

beyond the cost of similar works executed by the Ordnance, the contractors were enabled to outbid the government in their price for civilian assistance. Consequently the non-military surveyors in government employ resigned their posts, and the authorities of the Horse Guards, in order to supply the deficiency, and render themselves more independent for the future, largely augmented the survey companies. Even this plan, it was found, was insufficient; for the men, after being thoroughly educated for their duties, either deserted or purchased their discharge; and therefore, with a view to creating sufficient inducement to them to continue in the service, the working pay, which had hitherto never exceeded two shillings a day, was raised to three, and subsequently to four. In addition to this the number of non-commissioned officers was increased, in order to quicken and facilitate promotion.

One corporal and seven privates accompanied Captain Trotter in 1840 in his expedition to explore the river Niger. They entered its mouth in August, but the crews became so enfeebled by fever that it was found necessary to abandon the enterprise. They returned to Fernando Po in the middle of October, and in the course of the next year the sappers were sent back to England.

About this time, the British government having resolved on making a permanent settlement on the Falkland Islands, a detachment of the corps was sent thither under the command of Lieutenant Moody, R.E.,* to erect a government house and other buildings at Port Louis, the capital of the colony. The whole population of these miserable islands only amounted to about two hundred souls, from various sources, and of a loose and heterogeneous character. One of the principal duties, therefore, of the sappers consisted in maintaining order, and a hill near Port Louis still commemorates, under the name of "Hearnden's Hill," the non-commissioned officer who superintended the police department of the islands. In 1843 the seat of government was removed to Port William, and the company remained there building a town, making a harbour, and generally nursing the infant settlement till 1848, when it was removed.

In 1843, it being found necessary to define accurately the boundary line separating the possessions of Great Britain in North America from those of the United States, some sappers and miners, having undergone a preliminary training at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, were despatched across the Atlantic under the command of Captains Pipon and Robinson. Their number was at first but six, but was afterwards increased to twenty. The importance and responsibility of their duties are described by our author (perhaps a little pedantically) to have consisted in

"The taking and calculating observations for latitudes and longitudes, and for absolute longitudes by lunar transits, and culminating stars, to discover the azimuthal bearings of the line as defined by the treaty of Washington."

The survey likewise included the chief natural and artificial features of the country, in order that the line might be at any future time more easily discoverable. An ingenious method of ascertaining the difference

Now Lieutenant-Colonel Moody, Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-inChief of Vancouver's Island.

of longitude in a case where the usual method of an interchange of chronometers could not be adopted, is thus described:

"Between the north-west branch station and Quebec, a hill some twenty miles from the former and visible from the latter, was selected as the station for an observing party. Captain Pipon, therefore, established his transit instrument on the plains of Abraham, with a pocket-chronometer, tent, provisions, and gunpowder. Sergeant Bernard M'Guckin removed to a range of hills from the Lake Hill station, and encamped himself and his labourers on the highest point of the range, which was covered to the top with dense wood. Climbing the height, and finding that he could see back to the Lake Hill and forward to Quebec, he set his labourers to clear away the summit, except one high tree, which he stripped of all its leaves and branches likely to intercept the free range of the observations. At the base of this tree he constructed a high platform, and every evening, for two hours, at intervals of ten minutes, the sergeant fired flashes of gunpowder, by hoisting the charge, with the assistance of a pulley, to the top of the tree, with a slow match attached. The result of the experiments was most successful."

Deficient as our campaigns at the Cape naturally have been in scientific features, yet nowhere has the value of our scientific corps been more thoroughly felt. This may appear strange at first, but will be easily understood if we bear in mind that the wars with the Caffres, though tedious, expensive, and bloody, were in reality nothing more than a series of skirmishes and forays on both sides, which affording but little scope for combined movements or recognised systems of tactics, depended in a great measure for their success on the aggregate amount of individual judgment in the troops engaged. In this respect the sappers, from their peculiar habits of self-reliance, acquired in situations of independent responsibility, were superior to troops who had been trained as much as possible to regard themselves and to act only as parts of an organised whole. Sir Harry Smith was especially pleased with their conduct both in action and in camp; and on one occasion complimented them thus: "Well done, my lads; you can build works, and storm them too." In these campaigns, also, it was found that they derived no small advantage, especially at the first start, from their industrious habits, and regular employment when the rest of the army was inactive; and it was on this account that they were less affected by the fatigues of long marches, and appeared to exhibit a greater endurance.

In 1846, part of a company was employed under Captain Yolland in the survey of the town of Southampton. The result was the most elaborate plan that had yet been completed by the corps. It was executed on a scale of sixty inches to the mile, in a minutely accurate and highlyfinished manner, by two non-commissioned officers; and was subsequently presented by the Ordnance to the town of Southampton, amongst the archives of which it may still be seen. But perhaps the most important and most responsible duty discharged this year by the sappers was the superintendence of the government works in Ireland. In many parts of that country roads were being made and repaired in order that employment and wages might be found for the starving population. In the direction and supervision of these works was required not only shrewdness and industry, but also unflinching integrity. Great frauds had been

perpetrated by and upon the local overseers, who, partly under the influence of intimidation, partly from a wish to court popularity, allowed inferior and insufficient labour to be paid for at the full price. A great deal of the money likewise found its way into the hands of the farmers, who (it was reported) employed the people on their own farms, and thus saved their own pockets at the expense of the public charity. To remedy these defects was no easy task. Stationed by himself in the midst of a hungry and reckless people, the non-commissioned officer to whom the charge of the work was entrusted, had every inducement which fear or odium could furnish, to neglect his duty. Without force to back him he had to overawe the turbulent, and by his own unaided vigilance to exact a just amount of labour from men whom the sharp pangs of famine alone compelled to work, and whose object, therefore, was to keep body and soul together upon the least possible amount of exertion. Not unfrequently, too, his remittances ran short or were delayed, and it required then no ordinary amount of tact to keep the labourers from breaking out into violence and bloodshed; and no small credit is due to the temper and forbearance of either party, that not a single case is recorded of a sapper having been maltreated in the performance of his duty at this period.

Besides that of Southampton already alluded to, surveys were taken of Pembroke and Windsor, and in 1848 the great one of London was begun, and finally completed in June, 1850. Most people will remember the "crow's nest" which was for a long time hanging on to the ball and cross of St. Paul's, like Mahomet's coffin, between heaven and earth. From this position were visible the signal staffs erected on the loftiest buildings of the metropolis and the adjacent hills, and the relative angular distances were thus determined. This formed the groundwork of the plan, and upon this basis a minute and comprehensive survey was filled in. In addition to the exact position of every alley and separate building, the gradients and relative height of every street was ascertained and noted. As the work could not well be carried on while the streets presented only a moving mass of vehicles and passengers, it was begun soon after daybreak, and continued until the streets became too thronged.

In 1851, Lieutenant-Colonel Reid having been appointed chairman of the Executive Committee of the Great Exhibition, two companies were placed under his orders to carry out the details of management. To them the building was entrusted by the hands of Messrs. Fox and Henderson; and in their care it remained, together with all internal arrangements, from the business of unpacking in the spring to that of packing up in the autumn. The superintendents of the former operation had their virtue not unfrequently tested by bribes offered by the owners of goods for priority of time or space. Many such cases were reported to the committee, and it is believed that none of these offers were accepted. At night the building remained entirely in the care of the sappers, in whose charge also was the machinery provided in case of fire, the means of ensuring proper ventilation, the registration of the thermometers, cleaning of the building, and superintendence of a party of forty boys employed every morning in sweeping the floors. At the close of the building, a sum of 600%. out of the surplus proceeds was distributed

amongst the non-commissioned officers and men, and each received, according to the length and value of his services, a memento of this most arduous but pacific duty.

We have now brought down the history of this memorable corps from its first organisation to a period within the personal recollection of the youngest of our readers. We have seen the unpopularity which greeted its formation, and the results which have proved the success of the experiment. The rapid and continual augmentation of the companies has been the consequence, and the nature of their duties increasing with their numbers, it becomes hard to say whether we ought to admire most their services in war or peace. In this brief sketch from the original narrative much has been already omitted, and not a little might be added that has occurred subsequently. We have not alluded even passingly to the volunteers who accompanied Sir John Richardson in his Arctic voyage, and for the sufferings and hardships of Captain Grey and his companions in New Holland and South Australia his own narrative may be consulted. The deeds of the few gallant spirits who shared Omer Pasha's Danubian campaign, the less brilliant but no less useful services of their brethren in the Crimea, are still too freshly remembered by us all to make it necessary to remind our readers of them. Since the Crimean war the corps has again changed its name, and is now included under the general head of "Royal Engineers." To any one who wishes to judge of the literary taste and industry of the non-commissioned officers, we can confidently recommend the work before us.

IN January, 1798, I entered upon active business as assistant to a medical man in Weimar. He was a strange, precise person, rather eccentric in his habits. Well do I remember his black coat and kneebreeches, his tight-fitting stockings, shoes and brilliant buckles, with his hat invariably under his arm; for he never wore anything on his head whilst in the open air, but, as if by the rule of contrary, when he was in the house his head was always covered with a dark blue velvet cap, from which hung a long black tassel. He spoke in short, concise sentences, and very much to the point, though tart and cold. One of his many peculiarities was a continual nervous kind of grunt, which never ceased during the day, and before I became accustomed to it, it cost me many a