their truthfulness, and the light they throw on those abuses which sometimes creep into the sister service. Marryatt deeply regretted on his deathbed having written these novels, which, however, appear to us to contain more good than harm. If Marryatt felt thus for having penned such comparatively harmless fictions as "Newton Forster" and "Peter Simple," what will the sensations of the author of "Les Trois Mousquetaires" and "Les Mystères" be when their inevitable hour arrives? We wind up this article with a few remarks on the works of Fennimore Cooper, who has been styled, not inappropriately, the American Walter Scott. During a long life he continued to pour forth, with a facility of composition and a fertility of imagination rarely equalled, story after story, down almost to his very last hour, the worst of which are readable. Having served in the American navy, he had the advantage, like Smollet, of being equally at home on shore and afloat. His interminable novels are almost wholly illustrative of the services, not only of his own country, but ours also of course with a bias in favour of the former, as was natural, though we do not think Cooper has treated us so unfairly, on the whole, as might have been expected. His "Last of the Mohicans," and "The Pilot," may be taken as specimens of his best stories. The first is, perhaps, the best description of life in the backwoods that ever was written; and the sea scenes in the latter have certainly not been surpassed by any writer on either side of the Atlantic. His "Long Tom Coffin" may be placed in the same rank as "Tom Pipes," and "Hatchway." Can praise go higher? A laughable embarras occurred when "The Pilot" was dramatized at the Adelphi. The American ambassador and his family, with a large party, attended the first representation of the piece, doubtless anticipating great gratification at witnessing the discomfiture of the Britishers, and the triumph of the stars and stripes. But what was the surprise -the mortification-of the Yankees to find, when the curtain rose, that the dramatist, with an allowable amor patriæ, had turned all the Americans in the novel into Englishmen, and all the Englishmen into Americans, and made the latter the defeated party! The ambassador's box resembled a disturbed ant-hill. Never were Yankees in such a pucker! Almighty tarnation! What was to be done? Could such indignity be borne? Long Tom Coffin an Englishman! a Britisher! There was nothing for it but to "avoid," as Touchstone phrases it-to quit the theatre incontinently; which the Yankees all did. THE STAFF OF THE INDIAN ARMY.-A General Order by the GovernorGeneral of India publishes a letter from the Court of Directors, extending to the Queen's officers the staff appointments hitherto held by Company's officers, under certain conditions. They must be "up" in the native languages, and familiar with the habits and feelings of the native troops. No appointment is to be held for more than five years. WE hear it has been decided that chaplains of the forces and assistantchaplains shall be permitted to live out of barracks, and that the following rates of lodging-money, including the commuted allowance in lieu of fuel and light, are to be issued to them, viz. :—To chaplains of the forces, 4s. 6d. diem; to assistant chaplains, 3s. Od. per HALF-YEARLY PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS AT SANDHURST NEAR FARNBOROUGH STATION, HANTS. THE half-yearly public examinations at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, were held on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th of June, before a Collegiate Board, at which were present his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, the General Commanding-in-Chief; Major-General Sir G. A. Wetherall, K.C.B., the Adjutant-General of the Forces; MajorGeneral Sir R. Airey, K.C B., the Quartermaster-General of the Forces; Major-General Sir H. D. Jones, K.C.B., the Governor; Colonel C. R. Scott, the Lieutenant-Governor; and Lieutenant-Colonel P. L. MacDougall, the Major and Superintendent of Studies. His Royal Highness was received, on the morning of the 4th, by a royal salute, and by the battalion of gentlemen cadets under arms. After the military inspection, his Royal Highness and the Commissioners proceeded to the Board-room to hear the examinations. In the Mathematics, Gentlemen Cadets Harvey J. De Montmorency and Oswald R. Middleton were examined in the differential and integral calculus, &c. In practical mechanics, Gentlemen Cadets William A. Le Mottee, Claude S. S. Pinkerton, Frederick A'Court, George Baker, and Joseph W. Fitzgerald. In plane trigonometry and mensuration of planes and solids, Gentlemen Cadets William L. K. Ogilvy, Hugh R. H. Wilson, Henry A. Ingles, George M. Cardew, Charles W. Creyke, Lancelot A. Gregson, William L. Auchinleck, Howell Davis, William H. S. M. Browne, Thomas B. Cowburn, Malcolm J. R. Macgregor, Richard R. Gubbins, and John Garforth. And in Euclid, Gentlemen Cadets Charles W. Lee, Henry A. Ingles, Malcolm M'Neill, John W. Z. Wright, Charles M. Prendergast, Frederick J. Fane, John E. H. Peyton, George S. Robertson, John Wilmer, Hercy P. Wolferstan, Henry V. Brooke, Henry M. Pryor, John F. A. Grierson, Henry B. Jackson, Horace R. Spearman, Robert Stratford, Albert L. Walker, William Moffett, Francis Russell, Arthur H. Vincent, and Frank A. Horridge. In fortification, Gentlemen Cadets Harvey J. De Montmorency, Claude S. S. Pinkerton, Oswald R. Middleton, John E. H. Peyton, Hugh St. G. Barton, and Thomas B. Cowburn, passed the Board in the attack and defence of fortresses; and Gentlemen Cadets Harvey J. De Montmorency, Claude S. S. Pinkerton, George M. Cardew, Malcolm M'Neill, Richard R. Gubbins, Charles W. Lee, Charles W. Creyke, Hugh R. H. Wilson, William Boycott, Howell Davis, William A. Le Mottee, Henry B. Jackson, Arthur H. Vincent, John Garforth, William L. K. Ogilvy, Frederick Karslake, William H. S. M. Browne, Malcolm J. R. Macgregor, and Joseph W. Fitzgerald, in permanent and field fortification. In French, Gentlemen Cadets John C. S. Fremantle, Walter P. Bagenal, John R. Trevilian, Alexander Ewing, William Moffett, Edward Gunter, Malcolm McNeill, John Garforth, George S. Robertson, William W. Madden, William H. S. M. Browne, Frederick A'Court, Pelham T. Pelham, and Arthur H. Vincent. In German, Gentlemen Cadets Champion Jones, William Boycott, Elsden P. H. Everard, Arthur H. Laurie, Henry V. Brooke, Robert H. L. Anstruther, Frederick J. Fane, William C. Ralston, Cortlandt Skinner, William Moffett, William R. MacPherson, and Henry C. Sharp. In Latin, Gentlemen Cadets Howard P. Cox, Francis M. Salmond, William W. Maddon, George J. H. Pearson, Lancelot A. Gregson, Robert Viscount Hereford, William G. McCrae, and Winship P. Roche. Finally, in history, Gentlemen Cadets Henry M. Pryor, Geo. R. Gibbs, Anthony Rowband, Geo. B. Deare, and Edward Gunter. The examination of the classes in fortification was accompanied by a regular course of drawings, illustrating the construction and uses of permanent and field-works, and the attack and defence of fortresses. Out of doors the usual variety of temporary bridges for military service had also been formed during the term, for the instruction of the classes; and intrenchments, saps, making gabions and fascines, &c., &c., with other practical siege operations, had been carried on by the Gentlemen Cadets themselves. In the course of the first day's examination the Board proceeded to the margin of the lake, to witness the dismantling and formation of a pontoon bridge by the Gentlemen Cadets of the fortification classes. On the second day, the Commissioners visited the riding-school, where a class of Gentlemen Cadets were put through the regulated movements of military equitation. The Prizes of the term were awarded as follows:- : GENERAL MERIT AND GOOD CONDUCT.-Gentlemen Cadets William L. K. Ogilvy and John Garforth. MATHEMATICS.-Senior Class-Gentleman Cadet Oswald R. Middleton. Junior Class-Gentlemen Cadets David P. Murray and Frederick Henniker. FORTIFICATION. - Senior Class-Gentleman Cadet Harvey J. De Montmorency. Junior Class-Gentleman Cadet Henry A. Ingles. MILITARY DRAWING.-Gentlemen Cadets William L. K. Ogilvy, Richard H. O'G. Haly, and Arthur H. Vincent. LANDSCAPE DRAWING.-Gentleman Cadet Henry McL. Hutchison. FRENCH.-Senior Class-Gentleman Cadet John C. S. Fremantle. Junior Class-Gentlemen Cadets Arthur H. Laurie and Thomas P. Green. GERMAN.-Senior Class-Gentleman Cadet Champion Jones. Junior Class-Gentlemen Cadets Baldwin K. Whiteford and Thornton Scovell. LATIN.-Gentleman Cadet John G. Wilson. HISTORY.-Gentleman Cadet Henry M. Pryor. RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.-Gentleman Cadet Pelham T. Pelham. At the close of the examinations, the following Gentlemen Cadets were declared to have completed their qualifications for commissions, and were accordingly recommended by the Commissioners to his Royal Highness the General Commanding-in-Chief, in the order of their acquirements and merits, to receive ensigncies in the line without purchase: 1. Arthur W. A. N. Hood. 2. William H. S. M. Browne. 3. Frederick Karslake. 4. Frederick A'Court. 5. William A. Le Mottee. 6. George M. Cardew. 7. William L. K. Ogilvy. 8. Harvey J. De Montmorency. 9. Hugh St. G. Barton. 10. Hugh R. H: Wilson. 11. Oswald R. Middleton. 12. Claude S. S. 17. Gentlemen Cadets A'Court, Le Mottee, Cardew, Ogilvy, De Montmorency, Barton, Wilson, Middleton, and Pinkerton, having, moreover, each passed examinations beyond the required course for commissions, were rewarded with honorary certificates of approbation. The whole number of gentlemen brought forward for examination on this occasion, in the different branches of the College course of instruction, was in the mathematics, 41; in fortification, including the actual construction in the field of saps, mines, intrenchments, gabions, fascines, &c., 25; in military surveying, 15; in the Latin, French, and German languages, 34; and in general history, ancient and modern, 5: -making a total of 120 examinations. The examination of the Officers in the Senior Department with respect to their attainments in military science, took place, in part on Thursday, June 4th, when the officers traced on the ground the magistral lines of a redan with flanks; two redans connected by a curtain; a front of fortification for part of a bastion fort or of a tête de pont, with a portion of a line of retrenchment en cremaillère; and at intervals on the several tracing lines poles were set up by the officers, on which were marked the profiles of the parapets. Besides illustrating the mechanical details of the construction of field-works, these tracings served to illustrate the descriptions given by the officers, in answer to questions proposed by the Commissioners, of the principal circumstances involved in the occupation of ground as a military position, in the disposition of redoubts for its defence, and the obstacles which may be opposed to the advance of an enemy towards it. It may be mentioned, as an instance of the facility which the officers had acquired in tracing field-works on the ground, that, by order of the Governor, Sir H. D. Jones, three of them traced, by a construction purely geometrical, and without instruments for measuring angles, the magistral line of a regular pentagonal redoubt, each side of which was 60 feet long. The line was laid down in ten minutes, when the rules of construction, with the uses of redoubts, in general, were explained by Captain Ross, unattached. The oral examination in Mathematics and Fortification was continued on the following day before Major-General Sir Harry D. Jones, K.C.B., the Governor; Colonel C. R. Scott, the Lieut.-Governor; and Lieut.Colonel MacDougall, the Major and Superintendent of Studies. On this occasion Captain Ross gave a demonstration of the equality of parallelopipods, which have equal bases and altitudes, and he explained the general relations of prisms and pyramids to one another; he described the operations performed on the ground in conducting a topographical survey of a country; he enunciated the trigonometrical theorems employed in the computations of the distances of the objects from one another, and investigated the process of obtaining, by geometrical construction as well as by computation, the distances of two points on the ground from three others whose positions are given. He veri fied the rules of Napier by showing their conformity to the six theorems for right-angled spherical triangles, which he deduced from one general theorem expressing the cosine of an angle in terms of the three sides of any spherical triangle; and he gave applications of the rules in the solutions of several cases which were proposed. He showed how to find the latitude of a station by two observed altitudes of the sun with the interval in time between the observations; he explained the corrections which the observations require, whether taken at sea or on land, before they can be used in the solution of the problem, and showed how to make the necessary allowance for the movement of the ship between the observations. The same officer gave also formulæ for the corrections which are made in geodetical observations on account of terrestrial refraction, the curvature of the earth, &c. The usual examination of the officers by answers given in writing to problems in mathematics, and questions on the principles of fortification, had taken place on a preceding day; and the solutions, together with the report on the relative merits of the officers and the degrees of progress made during the preceding terms at the College, were submitted to the Board of Commissioners. Among the solutions given by the officers in this manner those of Captain Ross consisted in transforming an hexagonal figure into an equivalent triangle with a given altitude; in explaining by a geometrical construction the method of fixing the situation of a point with relation to three others which were given in position; and in computing the volume of an excavation made in the side of a hill of a given form. He also gave an explanation of the manner in which the correction is found and applied to the middle time between two observations made when the sun had equal altitudes, on account of the change in his declination during the interval. He explained the general principles of the stereographical projection of the sphere, and applied them in projecting a triangle in which there were given two angles and a side opposite to one of them; he further investigated expressions for the radii vectores in a conic section, both in rectilinear and polar co-ordinates. The written solutions by Captain Ross of questions on fortification consisted in explanations of various points in the system of Carnot; in descriptions of the measures used in the attack and defence of field redoubts; in details respecting the positions and formation of ricochetting batteries, with the processes of advancing towards a besieged fortress by single and double sapping. In the oral examination on Military Science the officers gave extempore answers to question which were put to them concerning the general principles of fortification; the nature and uses of the several works; the modifications which are likely to be introduced in that branch of the military art, in consequence of the improvements now being made in artillery and small arms; together with descriptions of the deviations which have been made by the engineers of Germany from the principles of construction hitherto followed by those of the school of Vauban. At the conclusion of the examination, Captain Ross, unattached, received the usual certificate of qualification, to which were added notices of his superior attainments in military surveying and the French language. |