Three articles in the Edinburgh Review for this quarter deal
with America. One is on "Stonewall Jackson," that right- minded, wrong-headed soldier, a new Life of whom has lately been written ; one on "Sir George Trevelyan and the American Revolution"; and one—the most interesting—on "The United States as a Military Power." We quote from the latter some statistics as to the pay of American soldiers;—" The term of service is three years, with the option of re-engagement (a very large proportion re-engage). The rate of payment commences at is. 9d. a day, increasing gradually, after two years' service, to is. 10; d. ; after three years', to 2s. Oid. ; after four years', to 28. 2d. ; after five years', to 2s. 6d. There are no stoppages." "After five years' service a corporal has 2s. 9d. a day, a sergeant Ss. 2c1., and a sergeant-major 3s. 10d. In time of war all the above rates are increased 20 per cent." Only about 15 percent. of applicants are accepted as recruits. The American Government places its white and coloured troops on precisely the same footing. "Slavery in Modern Scotland" describes a sort a slavery which existed in the coal-mines and " salt-pans " of Scotland up to the beginning of the present reign. The miners received wages, but were not allowed to move away from their master's. estate. They were bought and sold with the property. Their children, though born free, were almost always bound in infancy to the men who owned their fathers. The system began in an attempt made at the time of the Reformation in Scotland to pro- vide a maintenance for able-bodied beggars. It ended because the stiff-necked Scotch slaves managed to oppress their masters. Mining became a social degradation. Freemen would not take the work. The enslaved insisted on twice the wages a free labourers, and a maintenance in old age. The masters gave up the system in self-defence. This reminds one of the new fairy- story in which the altruistic giant became the slave of the prisoners in his dungeon, and toiled miserably all day to provide food for their insatiable appetites.
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