The Uncommercial Traveller

railway for a large military dep?t, and for other large barracks. To the best of my serious belief,

ted into the ranks, by the beastly inversion of natural laws, and the compulsion to live in worse than swinish foulness. Accordingly, when any such Circumlocutional embellishments of the soldier’s condition have of late been brought to notice, we civilians, seated in outer darkness cheer

of the army, there exists under all disadvantages as fine a sense of duty as is to be found in any station on earth. Who doubts that if we all did our duty as faithfully as the s

s accidentally accompanied, took this direction as we took the up-hill direction, because the object of my uncommercial journey was to see some discharged soldiers who had recently come home from India. There were men

y and bravery; but, a change of circumstances had arisen, which, as they considered, put an end to their compact and entitled them to enter on a new one. Their demand had been blunderingly resisted by the authorities in

e national honour. It will have shown these men, in the scrupulous good faith, not to say the generosity, of its dealing with them, that great national authorities can have no small retaliations and revenges. It will have made every provision for their health on the passage home, and will have landed them, restored from their campaigning fatigues by a sea-voyage, pure air, sound

Liverpool.—For, the cultivation of laurels in a sandy soil,

oans and pains during the performance of this glorious pageant, had been so distressing, as to bring tears into the eyes of spectators but too well accustomed to scenes of suffering. The men were so dreadfully cold, that those who could get near the fires were hard to

an of some celebrity. In his personal character, he is as humane and worthy a gentleman as any I know; in his official capacity, he unfortunate

did the men fall into this deplorable st

knowledge,’ answered Pangloss, ‘but I have grounds for asse

heap of maggots, and the excrement of maggots. The peas were even harder than this filth. A similar handful had been exper

gan, when Panglo

f all possible

quest, holden on some of the men (who had obstinately died of their treatment),

ke my stand,’ said Pangloss, ‘by the pork

may so misuse the word,’ said I. ‘Would any Ins

ave been passed,’

there—’ I began, when Pa

ewhere,’ said he; ‘but I am prepared to prove that the autho

authority in my life, who was not th

ice has been regularly stored and served out in our navy, surely that disease, which us

, from which it appeared that the lime-juice had been bad too. Not to mention that the vinegar had been bad too, the vegetables bad too, the coo

, a little irritated, ‘Were t

respect?’

drunkards,’

t the dead men had been examined after death, and that they, at least, could not possibly have been habitual

as low as these men have been, could not recover under care and food, as the great major

s, then,’ said Pangloss. ‘Alw

e workhouse, and asked him w

d pounds of theirs; the agents have nearly a hundred pounds m

t up-stairs, ‘this is not the best

ards, one after another. I find it very difficult to indicate what a shocking sight I saw in them, wit

and thumb. Here, lay a man with the black scurvy eating his legs away, his gums gone, and his teeth all gaunt and bare. This bed was empty, because gangrene had set in, and the patient had died but yesterday. That bed was a hopeless one, because its occupant was sinking fast, and could only be roused to turn the poor pinched mask of face upon the pill

nly susceptible, but the efforts he made to subdue any expression of impatience or suffering, were quite heroic. It was easy to see, in the shrinking of the figure, and the drawing of the bed-clothes over the head, how acute the endurance was, and it made me shrink too, as if I were in pain; but, when the new bandages were on, and the poo

ooked, in a moment, as if he would have made a salute, if he could. ‘We shall pull him through, please God,’ said the Doctor. ‘Plase God, surr, and thankye,’ said the patient. ‘You are much better to-day; are you not?’ said the Doctor. ‘Plase God, surr; ’tis the slape I want, surr; ’tis my breathin’ makes the nights so long.’ ‘He is a careful fellow this, you must know,’ said the Doctor, cheerfully; ‘it was raining hard when they put

too weak, and had crept back to his bed and laid himself down on the outside of it. I could have pronounced him, alone, to be a young man aged by famine and sickness. As we were standing by the Irish soldier’s bed, I mentioned my perplexity to the Doctor. He took a board with an inscription on it from

them, reading various papers and periodicals. I took the liberty of inviting my official friend Pangloss to look at those convalescent men, and to tell me whether their faces and bearing were or were not, generally, the faces and bearing of steady respectable soldiers? The master

ht four things of Pangloss. Firstly, to observe that the Inquest was not held in that place, but at some distance off. Secondly, to look round upon those helpless spectres in their beds. Thirdly, to remember that the witnesses produced from among them before that Inquest, could not have been selected b

and as I have a great respect for non-commissioned officers as a class, I sat down on the nearest bed, to have

er at the Inquest, sergeant, that he never saw

ehave very

take, sir. The men of my own mess had no hammocks. There were not hammocks enough on board, and the men of the two n

eezed-out me

s were used by other men, who wanted h

ree with the evide

A man can’t, when he

men sell their b

new it for a fact at the time—that it was not allowed to take blankets or beddin

men sell their c

a more truthful witness than the sergeant.

an

in the rainy season, by bad roads—no roads at all, in short—and when they got to

ard, for example, who sold cl

g to rekindle with health, travelled round th

ta in the rainy season

very sev

ave thought that the men (even the men who got drun

them, and when we got into a cold latitude,

disinclination for foo

seen the f

e of

the state of th

unt of this volume, he could not have settled that question better. I bel

me-juice, vegetables, vinegar, cooking accommodation, water supply, and beer, all taking to drinking together and going to ruin? ‘If not (I asked him), what did he say in defence of the officers condemned by the Coroner’s jury, who, by signing the General Inspection report relative to the ship Great Tasmania, chartered for these troops, ha

workhouse (a very good workhouse, indeed, be it understood), was so shocking and so shameful, that as an Englishman I blush to remember i

navenged, and if it do not result in the inexorable dismissal and disgrace of those who are responsible for it, their escape will be infamous to the Gove