The cause of the great superabundance of general officers arises from nomination to a superior grade being a form of reward for political services which costs little. Every successful revolution brings with it a fresh crop of generals and colonels, as a lesser rank would be despised. I know a general who kept a small provision shop, and have seen him selling candles in full uniform. A counter-revolution made him fly the country, and for some time after he was acting as groom in some French seaport.[18] A Minister of War wishing to please a courtesan, gave her a commission in blank, which she sold for about five pounds. President Salnave raised a common workman to the rank of general of brigade. As he had no money to buy a uniform, he began by stealing a pair of gold-laced trousers from a tailor’s shop, but did not do it unobserved. Chase was given, and the culprit fled to the palace, and took refuge in Salnave’s own room, who, however, handed him over to the police. The stolen trousers were then fastened round his neck and a rope secured to one ankle, and in this manner the new general was led round the town, receiving every now and then blows from the clubs of the soldiers. When he was quite exhausted, they mounted him on a donkey with his face to the tail, a placard with the word “Thief” fixed on his breast, and the gold-laced trousers still tied round his neck. The great majority of the officers are in reality civilians, without any military training whatever, but they have a hankering for wearing a uniform, which is partly excusable on account of the respect with which the lower classes regard an officer. The blacks laugh a little at their own love of gold lace. One day, whilst entering the cathedral with the diplomatic and consular corps in full uniform, I heard a negro say to his companions, “Gardé donc, blancs là aimé galon too!” (“Look, the whites also like gold lace!”), and a grunt of acquiescence showed that they were not a little pleased to find that the whites shared their weakness. “Too,” by the way, is almost the only English word which remains to testify to our former presence in the island.