The movement was a most popular one, and gifts of horses were sent in from every direction. The public subscribed liberally, Captain Bridges alone giving L1000 towards the expenses of the Victorian Bushmen. The officers selected for the New South Wales Bushmen were Lieut.-Colonel Airey in command, Major Onslow, three captains and fourteen subalterns. The movement was so popular and subscriptions so liberal, that it was decided that 100 men should be sent from South Australia instead of the fifty originally proposed. Colonel Williams, of the New South Wales Contingent, was appointed principal medical officer for all the Australian Contingents serving in South Africa. The departure of the Bushmen on the 17th of January was a magnificent climax to the many magnificent demonstrations of patriotism which had been evidenced throughout the Colonies. INDIA'S CONTINGENTS Between the Australasian and Canadian Colonies and the Volunteer Contingent from India there is a certain difference which it is necessary to recognise. In the Colonies, the movement to help the Mother Country in her need, though prompted and encouraged by popular enthusiasm, patriotism, and donations from private and public resources, was suggested, voiced, and supported by the respective Governments, the Premiers of which acted very prominently in the enterprise, whereas in India, the offer of military assistance was a spontaneous impulse springing from individual patriotism and carried out by private enterprise. India, being a Crown Colony, could display her loyalty in no other way. Her position was somewhat similar to the Home Establishment, and her regular British troops were under orders for South Africa in exactly the same way as were the Home forces. Nevertheless, India was not backward in independent demonstrations of loyalty. English officers from various native corps, who, in ordinary circumstances, could serve only in their respective Indian Contingents, now came forward and volunteered for active service in aid of the Imperial cause in South Africa. The "men" volunteered from all directions. Dapper young Calcutta merchants, sporting tea-planters from Assam, gallant indigo-planters, and dashing roughriders from Bombay, Assam, Bengal, Cawnpore, Mysore, and all manner of districts unknown even by name to the Little Englander sent in their appeal, and pressed to be allowed to play their part in the defence of the Empire; and thus the smart regiments known as Lumsden's Horse, the Railway Contingent, and the Ceylon Mounted Contingent came to be recruited.