What I have written above with reference to the life of the cavalry officer will apply in a great measure to that of the officer of infantry as well, with the exception that, owing to his means being usually considerably more limited, the latter is unable to take part as freely as he would like in the sports of hunting and racing, and the costly game of polo, which come as a matter of course to his more richly endowed brother officer. The sporting foot-soldier, having no point-to-point to win in his own regiment, consoles himself by having a cut in at the races of the local hunt, and, if a light weight and keen on polo, will manage to see a good deal of hunting from the backs of the game little ponies he has played all the summer. He must console himself with the reflection that every lot has its compensations, and if he cannot break himself by owning race-horses, he is quite at liberty to lose his money in backing the horses belonging to wealthier men. Taking the soldier all round, the sporting blood flows hotly through his veins, and the man who can not afford to gratify his tastes to the full at home, will find little difficulty in getting transferred to a battalion in India, the poor sportsman's paradise.

In India the life of the young officer is very different from that to which he has been used at home. In the first place, he cannot fail to realize that in India he is the representative of a conquering race, which holds by the sword the possessions which the sword has won. The moral aspect of this situation cannot but have a strong effect in moulding the character of the young soldier, even if in the humblest grade, and doubtless contributes largely to acquiring the habit of command and the air of authority which so soon become part of the nature of the British soldier in the East. The trooper will hardly have been brought to an anchor before she will be invaded by swarms of natives in their picturesque dresses, armed with "chits," or letters of recommendation from previous masters, all anxious to enter the service of the newcomer. If well advised, the novice will be exceedingly chary of engaging one of these gentry, who are quite likely to desert him on his journey up country at the first favorable opportunity, taking with them as much as they can conveniently carry away of their new master's effects. If the young soldier is on his way to join

a British or Queen's regiment, so called in contradistinction to the native regiments in the Indian army, his future brother officers will probably have sent a reliable man to meet him and conduct him to his new corps, and under the protection of this individual his journey up country, whether by "dâk" or rail, will probably be made with the greatest comfort possible under the circumstances. The ordinary life in India, and the peculiarities of travel in that country, have been already made so familiar to the world at large that it is not my intention to allude to anything with which the ordinary reader or traveller is likely to be already familiar. Into the rie intime of the soldier the enterprising globe-trotter has not yet. succeeded in penetrating, and it is with peculiarities in which it differs from the life of the civilian that I now propose to deal.

In his regiment at home the officer is accustomed to living in government quarters, to being waited on by a soldierservant, and to being dependent for the comforts of his existence on a mess occupying a portion of the barracks built solely for that purpose. In India he will find these conditions, as a rule, non-existent. In very few places are there officers' quarters owned by government; the rule is to find the officers of a regiment occupying bungalows, rented from a private individual, in the neighborhood. of the lines of the regiment, while the mess buildings will, as a rule, be similarly rented by the mess as a whole. In most cases the officers will go shares in bungalows, two or more officers to each house, and the younger ones will often have many of their servants in common, though each will, of course, keep a bearer or butler, the title varying with the presidency in which he is serving, exclusively for his own service. In Bengal, in addition, it is usual for each officer to keep a khitmutgar, whose duty it is to wait on his master, and on his master alone, at mess and when dining out. The service of a dinner by these well-trained and silent servitors, moving noiselessly in their bare feet, is as good as can be met with anywhere in the world, and is apt to spoil the man accustomed to it for the rougher ministrations of the homegrown mess waiter.

Life in most parts of India may be roughly divided into the life of the cold weather,

and the struggle for existence during the grilling days and almost hotter nights of the rest of the year, when in many places existence is only possible by the continued use of punkas and thermantidotes, and other appliances indigenous to the country. Needless to say, in the hot weather a determined effort is made to get away to the delights of the nearest hill station, life at which elysiums has been made familiar to all by the graphic pen of Rudyard Kipling, who has also brought vividly before the most unimaginative of mortals the miseries of the lot of the unfortunates condemned to swelter through the arid summer months in the plains. During this trying time military duties are naturally reduced to a minimum, though musketry still goes on in many places, and the professional zeal of the keenest soldier is generally easily satisfied with the one parade a day (Thursday, the general military holiday throughout India, excepted), which parade is held in the early morning before the sun has had time to acquire his full power, being usually over by eight o'clock.

Orderly-room and breakfast have now to be attended to, and when this is over the rest of the day is given up to an endeavor to get cool, to sleep, and to pass away the time till it is possible to venture forth for the game of racquets, polo, or tennis, which is required to provide the exercise necessary for health. This over, the club will be visited for a "peg," Anglicè drink, and a game of pool or billiards before dinner, and the evening may be brought to a conclusion with more billiards or a rubber of whist. The hot weather will also afford the sportsman an opportunity of putting in for leave to visit Cashmere, or to make an excursion into the Terai in quest of tiger. Leave is given with a free hand in India. In times of peace within our borders any officer can count on his two, three, or even four months' leave in the year, which compares favorably with the two and a half months' obtainable in the winter at home. But the leave season is brought to a conclusion with the arrival of the cold weather, when the military training of the troops is taken seriously in hand, and when camps of exercise, involving much hard work on all ranks, are annually formed at the principal military centres.

Besides this revival of activity in purely military directions, the cold weather will also witness a great quickening of social activity in nearly every station, the fair occupants of the numerous bungalows in the larger cantonments returning from the hills, where they have been dancing, picnicking, and flirting away the summer months, to enter with a renewed zest on the same occupations with fresh fields to conquer and fresh game to subdue.

In some places fox-hounds, imported from England, which have been sent to the hills during the hot weather, are brought back to their kennels, and the ardent horseman abandons the fascinations of pig-sticking for the tamer pursuit of the jackal, which is in some instances carried on with all the pomp and circumstance of fox-hunting at home. At many places cricket is now in full swing, and race-meetings and the great polo tournaments give a zest to existence which had been sadly wanting in the torrid months, now almost forgotten. The British officer in India is as keen on racing as his brother at home; and if he wants to gamble, facilities for doing so are supplied by the selling lotteries, which take the place of the accommodating book-maker. Horseflesh is cheap in India, though high-class polo and racing ponies certainly command fancy prices, the latter, miniature race-horses of 13.2 and under, taking the place of the thoroughbred in England; but every subaltern can possess his "tat," and the "sport of kings" can be indulged in by men who would find it impossible to be more than spectators at home. For this reason, and for the facilities that exist for the pursuit of every sport at a moderate expense, India is indeed a paradise for the average Briton-that is to say, if he can retain his health, a condition which is more easy to fulfil in these days of improved sanitary knowledge than it was in the past.

Unfortunately, owing to the falling rupee, the poor man is becoming daily at a greater disadvantage in India, but even now the young soldier of a hardy stock, of scanty means, and keen on gratifying the sporting instinct, which forms such a strong characteristic of his race, can do worse than throw in his lot with the British army in the "Gorgeous East."

career of conquest and annexation in the islands of the seas adjacent to our shores and in distant parts of the world, or adhere to the peaceful continental policy which has heretofore characterized our national course, is by far the most important question yet presented for the consideration of our people in connection with the existing war with Spain. To even the most careless observer of current events it must be evident that the avowed purpose for which the war was commenced has passed almost entirely out of the public mind, and that, if not wholly abandoned before hostilities cease, it will be accomplished merely as one of the incidents attending the success of our arms, while other results having a permanent and controlling influence upon our future national life and character may make this struggle with a feeble monarchy in Europe the commencement of a new era in the history of the great American republic. Spain may not be able to maintain her existing dynasty, or even her present form of government, and yet it may be that she has provoked a conflict which will mark the beginning of a radical change in the domestic and foreign policy of the United States, and possibly the beginning of a revolution in the opinions and aspirations of our people which may ultimately prove fatal to the simple republican institutions under which we now live.

The only causes for the intervention which resulted in the present war, as stated by Congress in a resolution approved by the President, were that "the abhorrent conditions which have existed for more than three years in the island of Cuba, so near our own borders, have shocked the moral sense of the people of the United States, have been a disgrace to Christian civilization, culminating, as they have, in the destruction of a United States battle-ship, with 266 of its officers and crew, while on a friendly visit in the harbor of Havana, and cannot longer be endured." For these reasons only it was declared that the people of the island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free

the United States to demand, and the government of the United States does demand, that the government of Spain at once relinquish its authority and government in the island of Cuba, and withdraw its land and naval forces from that island and its waters; and that the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, directed and empowered to use the entire land and naval forces of the United States, and to call into the actual service of the United States the militia of the several States, to such extent as may be necessary to carry the resolution into effect. Even if the resolution had stopped here, it would have been perfectly plain that there was no purpose of conquest or annexation, because the right of the people of Cuba to be free and independent, which includes a right to establish and maintain a separate government of their own, was distinctly declared; but, in order to give the world positive assurance of our unselfish purposes, the resolution concluded with the unequivocal statement that "the United States hereby disclaims any disposition to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island, except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people."

This demand, with the disclaimer incorporated in it, was at once officially transmitted to our minister at Madrid for delivery to the Spanish government, with the announcement that a response must be made within forty-eight hours. That government having prevented the delivery of the demand by the summary dismissal of our minister, Congress promptly declared that war existed between the two countries from the date of that act, and we are now engaged in the prosecution of hostilities for the reasons and purposes set forth in the resolution. Unless bad faith is to be imputed to our government, the conclusion is inevitable that if this demand had been complied with, the whole purpose of our intervention would have been accomplished, and no further proceedings of an unfriendly character

would have been taken. If we were actuated by any other motives or enter tained any other purposes, then was the time to declare them, in order that our own people and the world at large might fully understand the grounds upon which it was proposed to justify our action. Honesty is the best policy for nations as well as for individuals, and having thus explicitly declared the purpose for which the war was to be prosecuted, we cannot, without serious injury to our national character and standing, enter upon a crusade for the spoliation of the enemy's territory. Such a course would not only forfeit the respect and confidence of other nations, and deprive us in large part of the sympathy which our declared position has secured for us, but might provoke such unfriendly proceedings upon the part of other governments as to embarrass our operations and greatly prolong the struggle. But our national honor is pledged, and ought to be sacredly preserved, no matter what view other nations may take of the subject. Even if the permanent acquisition of the colonial possessions of Spain were desirable under any circumstances, we could not afford to seize and hold them as the result of a war professedly prosecuted solely in the interest of humanity and the right of the people to govern themselves as independent communities.

It is urged by some, however, that we should appropriate the territory of the enemy as an indemnity for the expenditures incurred in the prosecution of the war, but it is obvious that such a course would be wholly inconsistent with the motives avowed by Congress as a justification for the intervention. It would place us in the humiliating attitude of demanding compensation for our humanity and love of liberty. It was perfectly evident from the terms of the resolution that war was expected to follow a refusal by Spain to comply with our demand for the liberation of the suffering people of Cuba, and it was of course well known that war could not be prosecuted without an enormous expenditure of money and a great sacrifice of life and property; and yet a solemn pledge was made that we would not attempt to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over the very territory which furnished the whole cause for intervention. It would be a mere quibble to say that the pledge applied by

its terms to Cuba only, and that we are therefore free to seize and appropriate Spanish territory in every other part of the globe. The declarations of the government must be taken as a whole; they announced the motives for the intervention and the object intended to be secured; and the pledge was incorporated only to give additional and positive assurance to the world that no other motives influenced the action of the government, and that no other object was contemplated.

But, independently of the declarations which immediately preceded the commencement of hostilities, are we not impliedly pledged, by our past policy with reference to this hemisphere, not to make acquisitions of territory or establish governments in other quarters of the world? For three-quarters of a century this government has steadily maintained the position that it would not permit European powers to "extend their systems to any portion of this hemisphere," and several times we have been on the verge of serious collisions with other nations on account of a real or supposed purpose on their part to disregard our policy in this respect. At the time this policy was announced by President Monroe it was distinctly understood that it was equally incumbent upon us to abstain from all interference with the internal affairs of European nations. In October, 1823, Mr. Jefferson wrote to President Monroe: "Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves in the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to intermeddle with cisatlantic affairs." And Mr. Monroe, in his message of that year, speaking of our policy in regard to Europe, said it was "not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of its powers." He also declared in the same message, as a part of the policy he was promulgating, that "with the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere." This policy was announced at a most critical period in our history. The Holy Alliance had been formed, and by an addition to its compact in 1822 had declared "that the sys

tem

of representative government is equally as incompatible with the monarchical principles as the maxim of the sovereignty of the people with the divine right," and the parties to it therefore engaged "in the most solemn manner to