The death of Colonel F. Battye, of the Guides, on
the bank of the Panjkora, has called attention to the services of this family of, we think, five brothers, sons of Mr. Q. Battye, himself an Anglo-Indian of repute. Colonel 0. Barnes, in the Times of Tuesday, reports that four of them have died upon the field,—Frederick at the head of the Guides ; Rich- mond, "killed in action in the hills ; " Wigram, killed in Afghanistan while leading the Guide cavalry ; and Quentin, killed during the siege of Delhi. There are many of these "fighting families" both in the Army and the Navy, though few have enjoyed such chances of dying gloriously as the Battyes, and their existence suggests at least a doubt whether competitive examination ought to be the so!e door of entrance to the State service. It suggests, too, another doubt not pleasing to democrats,—whether the laws of heredity, so cer- tainly true in the case of animals, are entirely false in the case of men,—whether the chance of a Napier's making a soldier, for instance, is not appreciably better than the
chance of a Brown. " Sir Christopher Mings," replies Mr. Beesly—the poet—but the question is not as to the fact, but as to the chance of the fact occurring.
