When Napoleon, escaping from captivity in Elba, re-appeared in France, and the armies of the allies were again summoned to the field, at the instance of the Duke of Wellington the whole corps of Sappers and Miners was sent to Brussels to join his Grace’s force, and were employed in constructing indispensable field-works, or improving the fortifications at Ostend, Ghent, Tournay, Oudenarde, Boom, Antwerp, Lille, Liepkenshock, and Hae. At the battle of Waterloo the Royal Sappers and Miners were not engaged, but three companies were brought conveniently near, to act in the event of their services being needed. After the battle, all the companies of the corps moved with the army towards Paris, and rendered valuable service in the construction of pontoon bridges. After the capitulation the men were encamped in the vicinity of Paris, until they could be removed to other stations or sent home. Two companies remained with the army of occupation; and in the naval victory of Algiers three of the companies worked at the guns with the seamen of the fleet, and gained equal credit with the navy and marines for their noble support. In the Canadas the Sappers and Miners rendered themselves very useful, especially in the formation of a new citadel at Quebec; their efficiency also in pontoon work was universally acknowledged; of all the soldiers in the army no men more deserved well of their country—useful as they were alike in time of war and peace. “Indeed,” says Sir John Jones, “justice requires it to be said, that these men, whether employed on brilliant martial services or engaged in the more humble duties of their calling, either under the vertical sun of the tropics or in the frozen regions of the north, invariably conducted themselves as good soldiers; and by their bravery, their industry, or their acquirements, amply repay the trouble and expense of their formation and instruction.” In taking a bird’s-eye view of the formation and growth of some of our military institutions, the Rev. G. R. Gleig thus speaks of the corps: “Besides the infantry, cavalry, and artillery, of which the army was composed, and the Corps of Engineers, coeval with the latter there sprang up during the period of the French Revolution other descriptions of force which proved eminently useful, each in its own department, and of the composition of which a few words will suffice to give an account. First, the Artificers, as they were called, that is to say, the body of men trained to the exercises of mechanical arts, such as carpentry, bricklaying, bridge-making, and so forth, which in all ages seem to have attended on a British army in the field, became the Royal Sappers and Miners, whose services on many trying occasions proved eminently useful, and who still do their duty cheerfully and satisfactorily in every quarter of the globe. During the late war they were commanded, under the officers of engineers, by a body of