(To the Editor of the Evening Star.)

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3893, 21 June 1881, Page 2

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.)

Sib,—"Bashi Bazonk" says it is necessary, to bring the Engineers into prominence, that they should fire a match with the crack company or battalion, and if the Engineers lost the match, still thejr would have gained a point by the honor they would attain by being competitors in a rifle match with the Scottish. War does he not tell the truth for once and admit that the crack company are afraid of a beating, and that that is really the reason Mr Bazouk has beatired himielf in the matterl? Captain Small may think it an honor to fire the Scottish, but among the shooting men of the Engineers he is singular in that opinion—if he really hold* it. The fact of a majority of over twothirds of the team who fired in the other match having been taken into other com* panics, only goes to prove what, hat been frequently asserted, that the Engineer* Company is a nursery for fcome of the. other companies in the district, notably the Scottish; and further goes to prove that it is a feather in Captain Small's cap that, although his best men hare been frequently pilfered from him, he is still it* a position to come to the front with a first-class team, able to give the whole of the battalion a proper dressing down, including their best men (taken from the Engineers). I think I can identify Mr Bazouk with "Crossbow," who writes in the Advertiser, when he talks about the superiority of the carbine over the not> discarded Zulu gun. When the Zulur had the medium, they could use them so well that they were compelled to gire the, carbines points, and now could do it iagi^j; if armed with the same weapon, or are conceited enough to think so. •• Bashi Bazouk" fires his great gun when he talks about the impracticability of the Zulu chief. Perhaps, Sir, it would be well to analyse this word impracticability in so far as Captain Small is concerned. It seems to me .that it ought to be altered to the word nnworkable, for it is well known that many of our upper crust are desirous of making the acquaintance of the Engineers under another name (No. 4 Scottish would suit them nicely), but the Zulu chief spoiled their little game as I hope he will live to spoil many another emanating from the Big Tammany on the Corner.—l am, Ac, Assmai.