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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 146, 23 June 1868, Page 2

A writer on the British army, in the Moniteur de Soir, speaks as follows of the Scotch soldier : — ' The Scotch soldiers form, without contradiction, the cream of the British troops. The Highlander is the prototype of the excellent soldier. He has all the requisite qualities, and not one defect. Unluckily for Great Britain, the population of Scotland is not numerous. Saving, it is true, to the point of putting by penny after penny, the Scotchman, for all that, is honest, steadfast, amiable in his intercourse with others, enthusiastic and proud j chivalrous when the question is about shedding his blood. The old traditions of clanship subsist ; each company is grouped round an illustrious name, all and every man in it is sure to be the captain's cousin. The Highlanders have a strange sort of bravery, which partakes at once of French fire and English calm. They rush on with impetuosity ; they charge with vigor, but they are not hurried by anger. In the very hottest moment of an attack, a Bimple order suffices to stop them. Formed in square, one would take them for Englishmen ; in charging with the bayonet, you would swear they were French. For the rest, they are of Celtic origin, and the blood of our fathers, flows in their veins ; but the blood has a little cooled down by the severity of their climate. In the eyes of the Turks the Scotch had one enormous fault, that of showing their legs. In our eyes they have but one defect, a slight one, but still excessively annoying — their depraved taste for the screaming of the bagpipes. We know that the Highlanders would not get under . fire without being excited by their national airs, played on this discordant instrument. One of their generals having put down this piercing music, they attacked the enemy on one occasion so languidly that the bagpipes had to be restored to them, and they then took the position. In a word, we repeat the Scotch are magnificent soldiers.' ' What part of speech is man ?' said a pedagogue to a sailor boy pupil. « A verb air,' replied the latter. * A verb is it ? ' said the teacher ; ' please give me an example. 'Man the yards ?' was little Tarpaulin's instant response. Judy knows a man so hard up that he even sleeps on tick. Long Odds. — Tall husband and short wife.