MILITARY EQUITATION.

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have not rejected his suggestions by reason of his not belong-ing to their own choice corps of aristocratic sucklings, andantiquated pipe-clayed martinets. Thanks to the universalprogress of knowledge, the days of military, as well as civil,pigtails, lard and Hour, tight clothes and stocks and gaiters,•are gone by for the then doll-made soldiers. Many thingsremain; but, at last, the cat-o’-nine-tails even must giveway, and soldiers will be treated as reasonable beings.

A very good sytem of arming was adopted in the Russianarmy I am speaking of, with respect to the non-com-missioned officers. These were all furnished with a double-barrelled “under and over” carbine. The upper barrelrifled, the under one smooth; so that with the one theycould pick off the enemy’s officers; with the other, firequickly, with common cartridges. The only mistake inthese pieces was, their being of a much smaller calibre thanthe other pieces of the army. The great facilities producedby all the fire-arms of a force being of one and the samecalibre, will one day be as much appreciated by other author-ities as they are by the French , who have long sinceadopted them. The British infantry musket is of thecalibre of eleven balls to the pound ; the cavalry carbine orpistol is of eighteen to the pound ; the naval pistols, an armmuch used, is of thirty-two balls to the pound, although thepistol itself is of a length and weight double what it oughtto be. The small arms of the French army and navy, of alldenominations, are of one and the same calibre, that is, six-teen balls to the pound, so that any French cartridge willsuit any fire-arm either in the land or sea service.

At the period I am speaking of I remarked a very im-portant defect in the equitation of the English cavalryattached to the Anglo-Russian corps. It was the 20th LightHorse, commanded by Colonel Taylor. The stirrups wereworn so long that the riders were fixed to the saddle “ upon