generally, those promotions were well received; nor did the recipients ever dream, that for less services, much greater rewards would be granted.

In my last paper, speaking of the strange way in which honours were distributed, I said, the only excuse would perhaps be found, that the official person, whoever he is, who has the recommendation and power of awarding honours, must have been tipsy. At present, I think he is stark mad! Only look at the late distribution of the order of the Bath in India, and compare the services there with those for which all retrospective honour has been denied, with a perseverance beyond example, and then say, if I am not right in my conclusion.

The war of the Peninsula commenced under the first dawn of light that shone upon nearly benighted Europe, conducted by the greatest military leader we have had since the days of Marlborough, opposed to the best Generals and troops of continental Europe, and carried on with various success for a period of six years, comprising numerous battles, sieges, and grand strategic movements; it terminated on the soil of the enemy's country, and contributed most directly to the overthrow of an ambitious military power, and to the peace of the world. To the instruments of this great, and I may say, quite unexpected success, no mark of national favour, beyond the thanks of the two Houses, was generally bestowed;-a sprinkling of favours fell on the heads of superior ranks, but no ray of Royal favour ever reached the juniors. The extension of the Order of the Bath scarcely reached below the officers in command of regiments, and in no instance descended to that of Captain, although, in the instances above quoted, he had obtained as distinction the rank of Brevet-Major. Mark the difference: our troops entered Affghanistan, to say no worse of it, on a speculative errand, and by the course of ill-directed measures, fell into partial confusion that brought on disaster. To redeem our character, we advanced again; and after two sharp skirmishes with undisciplined barbarians, we again reached the capital; when finding the country neither tenable, nor worthy of any attempt to that effect, we have abandoned it, leaving the bones of some thousands of our people, and an incalculable amount of treasure behind. I have called the two actions skirmishes, for they did not exceed in amount or seriousness twenty affairs of posts in the Peninsula, and were decided in the course of an hour or two. For being present in these short combats, certain Captains were selected for the Brevet of Major: they had scarcely been drawn from the oven of promotion, and the batch had not time to cool, before they were again dubbed Companions of the Bath, and formed the first edition of that nature ever published. In addition to this, all the officers, noncommissioned officers, and privates, engaged in these last operations, have received, or are to receive, a silver medal. I put some stress on the word "last," because those that entered Affghanistan the first time, had the same promise; but "hope told a flattering tale," they never received their bit of silver, and a great portion of them could not come to claim it.

The Senior Lieutenants of ships in the ever-glorious and memorable battles of Camperdown, St. Vincent, the Nile, and Trafalgar, got the rank of Commander, and nothing more. For peppering the inofensive, defenceless, and almost helpless Chinese, in a manner more

like a battle with snow-balls among school-boys, than a real combat with soldiers; and where the poor wretches were tumbled over their parapets like young rooks in the month of June, for the performance of this exploit, the First Lieutenants have not only been made Commanders, (which nobody would grudge them,) but are in addition made Companions of the Bath, (query, salt-water Bath?) Such a disproportioned reward for services of the present day, and continued refusal of the claims of the old war officers, whether it proceeds from a red, a blue, or a green coat, can only be produced by the most case-hardened obstinacy, or the blindest fatuity. It has roused the indignation of every sailor and soldier of days gone bye; and however it may be softened down in future, it will scarcely ever be forgiven. Let not the perpetrators of this monstrous act of partiality shelter themselves, by saying that it would be inconvenient and troublesome to perform an act of retrospective justice. The whole affairs of the Order of the Bath are retrospective; for its extension did not take place until the war was entirely over, and our troops in possession of Paris.

I can easily enter into the indignant feelings of many old officers at this "untoward event," and would fain try to look for some topic of consolation; but the only thing that I can find is but scurvy comfort after all, that the foolish and indiscriminate way that the title of K.C,B. was bestowed on all commanding officers, as stated in my last paper, joined to the present instance, will tend at once to sink the Order of the Bath to a level with that of Guelph, and only one remove above the Dooranee!

PERSONAL ADVENTURES AND EXCURSIONS IN GEORGIA,
CIRCASSIA, AND RUSSIA.

BY LIEUTENANT-COLONEL G. POULETT CAMERON, C.B., K.T.S., &c.,

EMPLOYED ON A SPECIAL SERVICE IN PERSIA.

PART II.

(Continued from No. 166, page 44.)

CHAP. II. FROM THE AXIE AND DON TO KHARKHOFF.-THE OLD CHATEAU. FROM the junction of the rivers we diverged in our route to visit the Armenian colony of Nakhsheerwan, which in former days (they themselves assert a century ago, but the exact period I could not ascertain,) emigrated from the city of that name on the banks of the Araxes, during the time of one of those outbursts of bigotry and intolerant persecution on the part of its Mahomedan rulers, and by the gladly accorded permission of the Russian Government settled on the spot where the town is at present situated, and have since prospered to a considerable extent. Notwithstanding, however, their long residence there, they still retain the dress, language, and customs of their forefathers; the former being that of the Persian Armenians, and the second the Tatar-Turkish, which, as I have previously observed, is the general language throughout the whole of the North of Persia.

The colony is prettily situated, possesses a handsome church, and its

community are said in no wise to differ from the general character of their race, being sober, quiet, and plodding, wholly bent upon and eager in one pursuit, that of gain.

From thence nothing worthy of any particular mention transpired till our arrival at the town of Isume, which occurred on the morning of the 30th, about an hour after daylight, and which was marked by an incident which might have been productive of some disagreeable consequences. The day was just breaking when both my companion and myself were at once awakened by a sudden shock, which caused us both to start up. My own impression was we had come in full charge upon another carriage or conveyance of some kind, but on looking round we could see nothing, and the britska was proceeding at its usual tearing pace. On drawing up at the post-house, however, (a remarkably fine building, and looking the very picture of luxury and comfort after the miserable receptacles of a similar description we had hitherto passed,) we found three of the spokes of the off hind-wheel smashed, while, in addition, the box of it was all but actually flattened.

The feld-jäger immediately had recourse to his usual straightforward mode of inquiry, by laying his whip over the shoulders of the driver, as, pointing out the disaster, he demanded the cause, having evidently, as well as ourselves, been fast asleep at the time of its occurrence. The fellow growled something by way of reply in what was intended to be a deprecatory tone of voice, which elicited a still further degree of energetic manual remonstrance from the courier, who, however, suddenly appeared to remember that thrashing the author of the mischief was not the way to repair it, the which it was necessary to effect as speedily as possible, to guard against any undue detention.

He accordingly proceeded into the town, and in a short time returned with several artisans, who, after a careful and diligent examination of the carriage, promised to set all right again in the course of four or five hours. This was very agreeable intelligence, as we had begun to experience some degree of apprehension relative to whether our stay must not have been prolonged for an equal number of days. A further pleasing incident awaited us, in finding that the soldier in charge of the post-house had served in the Army of Occupation in France in 1814, where he had turned his residence to good account, in acquiring a considerable proficiency in the culinary art, the benefit of which we had now the pleasure of experiencing, and, for the first time since quitting the Caucasus, we sat down to a clean comfortable breakfast, with appetites in every way sharpened to do justice to our new friend's valuable and (to hungry travellers at least) never-to-be-too-highly appreciated

talents.

This important business despatched, we strolled through the town, which contains a very large and well-frequented market-place, and a bazaar of some extent. It was Sunday, and as the whole population, in their holiday costume, were pouring out at the hour of eleven for attendance at high mass, we both entered the principal church, and remained throughout the service.

It was a handsome building in the Russo-Tartar style, and no congregation could be more devout or more attentive to their religious duties than that assembled under its roof; indeed, a devoted attachment to his faith forms a strong characteristic in the mind of the Russian peasant.

U. S. MAG., No. 171, FEB., 1843.

We quitted Isume shortly after mid-day, the carriage having been repaired, if not with the grace of its former appearance, at least with a strength which apparently guaranteed its standing not merely a journey to St. Petersburg, but throughout the whole of Europe; and with an admonitory crack over the head to the driver from the feld-jäger, as an intimation to him of the consequences of his neglecting to guard against further breakage, we started.

On leaving the town, for the first two miles nothing could be more execrable than the road; it was literally a bed of sand, and the britska sunk so deep that we were obliged to get out, and put our shoulders to the wheel, absolutely to force it along: it was fortunate the distance was not great, as we were pretty well tired when we reached the end of it. Half-way between the town and the next post we came across the line of march of a regiment of infantry, a remarkably fine body of men, who were en route to the southward. It struck me in passing they were of higher stature, and possessed a far greater degree of parade-precision in their appearance than the troops I had hitherto fallen in with in Georgia and the Caucasus; they were, however, far behind in the veteran and service-like exterior which distinguished the latter.

The next morning at sunrise we arrived at the city of Kharkhoff, the seat of the government of that name; on entering which I must confess my first feeling was disappointment. I had been led to expect all sorts of Russo-Greco-Scythico-Tartaric churches and buildings of every description, instead of which we drove up to a handsome comfortable hotel, (this, by-the-by, was a source of some, perhaps not a little, degree of satisfaction,) with several fine buildings adjoining, the whole presenting an appearance similar to what might have been expected on entering a city in one of the German States, with the difference of a slight incident, which occurred at the moment of our arrival, and which, marking it as peculiarly Russian, consisted in the hostess, immediately on catching sight of my uniform, proceeding to a respectable family, who occupied the best suite of apartments in the house, and directing them to vacate them on the instant for the benefit of the General who had just arrived! It was only on observing the bustle occasioned by a hasty compliance with this peremptory mandate, and ascertaining its cause, that I was enabled to stop so arbitrary a proceeding, entailing so much annoyance upon its occupants, by declaring that I had no occasion whatever for the rooms in question, and even if I had, under existing circumstances, most assuredly should not take possession of them.

Though this intimation caused some degree of astonishment, every declaration of "Mon General" was of course immediately acquiesced in; and, provided with apartments of a less showy but equally comfortable description, my companion and myself, after the luxury of a warm bath, enjoyed the further pleasure of several hours of sound repose.

Kharkhoff, in addition to being the seat of the government of that name, is the capital of the Ukraine. It is an extremely handsome modern city, which, like Odessa, and many others, have sprung up within the last half-century in the South of Russia. It contains several uncommonly fine streets and well laid-out squares, the various mansions and buildings of which are large and spacious, while two public hospitals, (one for the reception of the insane,) in addition to their noble exterior, are said to be equally as well organized in their interior discipline and arrangement.

The university is said to be one of the most flourishing throughout Russia, considering the short period that has intervened since its foundation. The library is mentioned as particularly good, as well as extensive, while the system adopted towards the students is of a nature that may in some measure account for the numbers with which its colleges are invariably filled. By far the greater part of these youths are of the Cossack tribes, from all parts of the empire; those from Russia Proper being few in number in comparison.

Many of the shops and magazines are extremely handsome, presenting to the eye of a purchaser everything he might wish for in the bazaars or fashionable lounges of London, Paris, or Vienna; for though, like most places in the interior, but very little commerce is carried on, from the enormous expense attending its transport by land-carriage, yet, similarly to Nidjneinovogorod, there is held at Kharkhoff an annual fair, certainly not so celebrated or so extensive as the former, but sufficiently so as to render it a similar wonder on a lesser scale, since the sales at this meeting are said to amount to upwards of a million sterling. The following morning, my fellow-traveller not having the same locomotive propensity as myself, while rambling through one of the squares with a little boy, (the son of the gentleman towards whom I had behaved so generously and disinterestedly, in not taking what of right Delonged to himself! and who had volunteered to be my guide,) I was suddenly accosted by a tall, fine, soldier-like looking man, about fiveand-forty years of age, in plain clothes. There was something in his tout ensemble irresistibly pleasing, and while his countenance, and voice in particular, was marked with an expression and accent of the deepest sadness, his manner possessed the highest polish and most finished goodbreeding.

"May I solicit the honour of knowing, Sir," he said, addressing me in French, "if you are from Saxony?"

I replied in the negative.

"You are not, then, French ?" he resumed.

I answered that I was not, but an Englishman.

"English!" he said, with an air of the deepest disappointment; "and yet," he continued, after a pause, "who so ever ready as your nation to proffer sympathy and consolation to the unfortunate. I have fought, Sir, against your countrymen in many a hard contested field; but all that I have ever heard or witnessed of England, whether individually or as a nation, has but engendered feelings of esteem and respect."

We walked on together, and as we proceeded he related to me his history. He had served from his youth in the Lancers of the Guard of Napoleon, during which period he had been present in most of the campaigns in Spain, Germany, and France. On the fall of the great military Chieftain he had quitted the service, despite the splendid offers held out to him to remain by the Emperor Alexander, on the incorporation of the kingdom of Poland with the Russian Empire, and had resided chiefly abroad. On the breaking out of the late revolution he was travelling in the United States of America, from whence he has. tened to return; but arrived too late to take any part in that ill-fated struggle, had he entertained any such intention, though, owing to the suspicion of the Imperial Government that such was his design, he had been ordered to proceed to, and reside at Kharkhoff, where he had ever since remained under surveillance of the police.