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the whole of this district was covered with the stubble of sugar-cane; and I might have added that every storehouse and barn attached to the different mansions scattered over it was filled with barrels of sugar. In throwing up these works, the sugar was used instead of earth. Rolling the hogsheads towards the front, they were placed upright in the parapets of the batteries; and it was computed that sugar to the amount of many thousand pounds sterling was thus disposed of."

SUPPOSED ORIGIN OF SASHES.

Sashes are believed to have been invented for the ease of wounded officers, by means of which (in case any of them were so badly wounded as to render them incapable of remaining at their posts) they might be carried off with the assistance of two men. They are now reduced to a very small size, and of course unfit for the original purpose.

SIXTY-NINTH REGIMENT WITH NELSON.

The Sixty-ninth Regiment served as Marines, and was present at the battle off Cape St. Vincent, on the 14th February, 1797, which gained a peerage for Sir John Jervis. Nelson disobeyed the signal to tack in succession, and ordered his ship to be wore, which brought him into action with the "Santissima Trinidad," 136, the "San Joseph," 112, the "Salvador del Mundo," 112, the "St. Nicolas," 80, the "San Isidro," 74, another 74, and another first-rate. Troubridge, in the "Culloden," immediately joined, and most nobly supported him. According to Southey's "Life of Nelson," Captain Berry, who had lately

been Nelson's first-leutenant, was the first man who leaped into the enemy's mizen chains. Miller, when in the very act of going, was ordered by Nelson to remain. Berry was supported from the spritsail-yard, which locked in the St. Nicolas's" main rigging. A soldier of the Sixty-ninth broke the upper quarter gallery-window, and jumped in, followed by the commodore himself, and by others, as fast as possible. The cabin doors were fastened, and the Spanish officers fired their pistols at them through the window : the doors were soon forced, and the Spanish brigadier fell while retreating to the quarter-deck. Nelson pushed on, and found Berry in possession of the poop, and the Spanish ensign hauling down. He passed on to the forecastle, where he met two or three Spanish officers, and received their swords. The English were now in full possession of every part of the ship; and a fire of pistols and musketry opened upon them from the admiral's stern gallery of the "San Joseph." Nelson having placed sentinels at the different ladders, and ordered Captain Miller to send more men into the prize, gave orders for boarding that ship from the "San Nicolas." It was done in an instant, he himself leading the way, and exclaiming, "Westminster Abbey, or victory!" Berry assisted him into the main-chains; and at that moment a Spanish officer looked over the quarter-deck rail, and said they surrendered. It was not long before he was on the quarter-deck, where the Spanish captain presented to him his sword, and told him the admiral was below, dying of his wounds. There, on the quarter-deck of an enemy's first-rate, he received the swords of the officers; giving them, as they were delivered, to Wil

liam Fearney, one of his old "Agamemnon's," who, with the utmost coolness, put them under his arm.

LAST OF THE QUEUES.

"Horse Guards, 20th July, 1808.

"General Order*:-The Commander-in-Chief directs it to be notified that, in consequence of the state of preparation for immediate service in which the whole army is at the present moment to be held, His Majesty has been graciously pleased to dispense with the use of queues until further orders.

"His Royal Highness desires the commanding officers of regiments will take care that the men's hair is cut close in their necks in the neatest and most uniform manner, and that their heads are kept perfectly clean by combing, brushing, and frequently washing them. For the latter essential purpose it is His Majesty's pleasure that a small sponge shall hereafter be added to each man's regimental necessaries. By order of His Royal Highness the

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"Commander-in-Chief,

"HARRY CALVERT, Adjutant-General."

The mode in which this order was carried into effect is thus related in the

* It is well known in the army what attention is paid to anything published in this manner, of which the following anecdote may be an instance :-During the year 1777, two soldiers went twice in one day to hear some celebrated preachers whose doctrines were diametrically opposed to each other. "Well, Tom," said one, "which of them do you think is right; for you see how differently they preach ?" "Why," replies the other, "I shall not believe either until it comes out in general orders."

"Narrative of the Campaigns of the Twenty-eighth Regiment since their return from Egypt in 1802, by Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Cadell, Unattached, late Major of that Corps."

"On the 24th of July, a general order arrived from the Horse Guards, which, droll as it may appear, gave universal delight; it was to cut off the men's queues.

"A signal was immediately made for all haircutters to repair to head-quarters.

"As soon as they had finished on board the headquarter ship, the adjutant, Lieutenant Russell, proceeded with them and a pattern man, to the other troop-ships. The tails were kept till all were docked, when, by a signal, the whole were hove overboard, with three cheers."

The regiment was on board ship at Spithead, on its return home from Gottenburg, and shortly afterwards proceeded to Portugal.

CURIOUS TRAIT IN LORD HILL.

In the "Life of Lord Hill," by the Rev. Edwin Sydney, A.M., it appears that the sensibility of that gallant general was such as to faint, in his boyhood, at the sight of blood when one of his schoolfellows had cut his finger. After one of his achievements in the war, this fact was brought to his recollection by a lady, with the remark that she wondered how he could have acted with such coolness and vigour in the midst of the dreadful scenes of carnage surrounding him. "I have still," he replied, "the same feelings; but in the excitement of battle all individual sensation is lost sight of.".

After he had entered upon his military duties he could not witness a prize-fight from the windows of his lodging without fainting.

His delicate health prevented his joining in the athletic exercises of his more robust companions; but his little garden and his numerous pet animals testified his systematic care and attention, by their succeeding better than those of his schoolfellows.

WOLFE'S FAVOURITE POEM.

The following anecdote of this celebrated general, deserves well to be remembered. The late Professor Robinson, of Edinburgh, at that time a midshipman in the royal navy, happened to be on duty in the boat in which General Wolfe went to visit some of his posts the night before the decisive battle of Quebec. The evening was fine, and the scene, considering the work they were engaged in, and the morning to which they were looking forward, was sufficiently impressive. As they rowed along, the general, with much feeling, repeated nearly the whole of Gray's Elegy (which had recently appeared and was yet but little known) to an officer who sat with him at the stern of the boat, adding, as he concluded, that "he would prefer being the author of that poem to the glory of beating the French to-morrow." To-morrow came, and the life of this illustrious soldier was gloriously terminated, amidst the tears of his friends and the shouts of his victorious army.

There is a good anecdote preserved of this officer, for it is said that when George II. proposed giving the command of the expedition against Quebec to General Wolfe, great objections were raised by the

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