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part of an old cemetery, where those who died of cholera in 1848 had been buried, was slightly disturbed in widening a road; cholera at once broke out in the houses on the other side of the road, and rapidly spread into the town. In 1867 the regiment was sent to Dublin, where the jail guards over Fenian prisoners were pretty stiff. Even as captain I was on guard every third day; and once I was told there was no relief, and that I must continue for another twentyfour hours. To any one else these guards would not have been pleasant, but as I was working up for the Staff College, the inside of a jail, where one was not disturbed by visitors, was rather an advantage.

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CHAPTER X.

STAFF COLLEGE.

FROM Ireland the regiment went to Canada; but as I had passed for the Staff College, I was left at home, and went to the college in February 1868.

The old Staff School at Marlow must have supplied some good men to Wellington in the Peninsula, otherwise the French Government would not have subsequently sent over a special commission to inquire into its organisation. After Waterloo the Staff School, with many other military institutions, gradually died out. Nominally under the name of the Senior Department at Sandhurst, it just kept its head above water; but it was not until the Crimean mismanagement and disasters showed the necessity for a properly trained staff that a scheme for a staff school was brought forward, and the present Staff College built. Entrance to it by officers of a certain length of service, and with special recommendations from their colonels, was to be by competitive examination in mathematics, languages, and certain military subjects. To induce officers to compete, all staff appointments were for the future to be given only to men who had successfully passed through the college.

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The scheme was received, as such reforms usually are, with a great flourish of trumpets, and the public at once jumped to the conclusion that every officer who got through the Staff College must consequently be a perfect staff officer. In due time it was discovered that the days of miracles were over, and that a staff college course, although it might improve a good officer, could not put an active energetic brain into the head of a man who did not possess it, no matter how good he might be at competitive paper-work examinations.

For the failures of the Staff College careless commanding officers have been almost entirely to blame. Consignment to permanent half-pay would not have been too severe a punishment for some colonels who recommended officers for the Staff College, apparently because they were useless in their regiments, and they were glad to get rid of them.

The subjects given for the entrance examination at the time the college was opened were not altogether what they should have been, and the course of study, as well as the selection of instructors, required reform. In time considerable alterations were made, and although still capable of improvement, the college is worked on very different lines from what it was when I joined it.

Instruction in military administration and law, as also that in fortification, artillery, and schemes for the attack and defence of positions, was excellent. Military history lectures were interesting, but could hardly be considered as particularly instructive; but what some of us thought fully made up for defects in this branch of the work was the mental exercise as regards original thought which the writing of memoirs on cer

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tain portions of a campaign gave us. As for military surveying and sketching in those days, although there was an instructor, there was no instruction given worth mentioning. Old cadets who had been through Sandhurst and Woolwich really taught those who came to the college ignorant of those subjects.

There were instructors for French, German, and Hindustani, and a passing-out examination had to be gone through in one or other of these languages. No matter how well an officer might know a language, he had to put in a certain amount of attendances in one of them.

Mineralogy and geology were also taught. These were both hobbies with which I was already well acquainted, from attending lectures at the School of Mines in Jermyn Street, and always investigating quarries and mines whenever I got a chance; and I took them up as they counted in the final examination, while the fact of their being more an amusement to me than a study gave me time for other work. There was an excellent laboratory at the college, and as I had only a theoretical acquaintance with chemistry and electricity, I took full advantage of it, putting in all my spare time in what used to be known as the abode of bad smells. The information I acquired in it, more especially in food and water analysis, was most useful. Only one officer besides myself of my batch went through a complete course of chemistry and physics. I worked steadily for about eighteen months at the first-named, but even then felt I was only on the fringe of a most fascinating science. As regards its utility for a staff officer, that certainly may be questioned, but as I should never have such a chance of working in a laboratory again, I did not think I

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was wrong in giving such time to it as I could conveniently spare. A very childish system of competition for place on leaving the college was in operation when I was there, thereby putting a premium on what paid best in marks and not on what was most useful. We had an amusing incident with reference to marks. Only certain languages were allowed to score for place at the final examination, but there were several languages in which an officer might pass, and those who successfully got through were mentioned in the annual report. One of my batch applied to be examined in modern Greek, and a magnificent specimen of a Greek priest one day appeared in the anteroom: he was a fine-looking man with a great beard and a long black robe reaching almost to the ground, whilst on his head was a tall black hat with the brim on top. The subject of marks rather puzzled him, but when the candidate for examination informed him that 1200 were full marks, and that if he was good enough in the language to get 800 he would be perfectly satisfied, "Eight hundred marks!" exclaimed the priest. "You shall not have less than two thousand. I do love the English!"

Although part of the time at the Staff College might have been employed to better advantage, the two years there-exchanging ideas with men who had served in various capacities in different parts of the world-was in itself a professional education of no small value. The habit of steady work also for an average of some eight hours a-day had somehow a permanent effect on the mind, making one feel ever afterwards that one was neglecting one's duty if not working at something professional. I had a curious instance of this even before leaving the