maintained a steady and well-directed, if not a heavy fire. Had the calm lasted, he would probably have sunk rather than have surrendered; but happily a westerly breeze sprung up, and, rippling across the waves, soon filled his canvas, and carried him and his gallant crew into safety. The loss of the _Helma_, notwithstanding the tremendous fire to which she had been exposed, was only one man killed and two men wounded, but her upper rigging and sails were much torn by the shot. Had the gunboats been well handled, it is difficult to believe that she could have escaped; but the inferior gunnery of the Spaniards was proved on many occasions during the war. The bombardment for some weeks had gradually slackened, and by this time was reduced to a discharge of three shells in twenty-four hours; which the English soldiers, from an idea that the Spaniards intended by the number some allusion to the Trinity, with much more profanity than humour named _Father_, _Son_, and _Holy Ghost_. Captain Drinkwater gravely observes that probably the Spaniards _might_ entertain a bigoted respect for that mystical number, and, remembering the heretical condition of the English, might apprehend some efficacy from it in the great work of “converting the garrison to the Catholic faith;” an attempt at jocosity not much more successful than that of the soldiers! Uncle Toby, in Sterne’s great fiction, tells us that “our army swore terribly in Flanders.” There seems good reason to believe that they swore terribly and acted vilely in Gibraltar. A wide chasm separates the British soldiers of to-day from the British soldiers of yesterday. They were then recruited from the lowest classes, the scum and refuse of society, the outpourings of our jails, and it was with difficulty that even a terribly rigid discipline kept them in order. They were ill-fed, ill-paid, ill-treated; and their moral character was of the very lowest. But to-day the soldier is thoughtfully cared for, not only as regards his material but his moral and intellectual wants. Hence the ranks of our army now include a large proportion of respectable young men, who are aware that good conduct will place great prizes within their reach. The only bonds between them and their predecessors are those of loyalty and courage. The soldiers of Napier who stormed Magdala are as eminent for their courage and faithfulness as were those of Elliot who defended Gibraltar. In these virtues they could not surpass their predecessors; but in all other respects they are unquestionably above them.