LORD CHARLES BERESFORD'S REMINISCENCES. LORD CHARLES BERESFORD'S autobiography is as

jolly as a novel by Lever. It has been related that a timid boy, after reading Charles O'Malley, was cured for ever of his nervousness; the peculiar outlook upon life, which regarded all personal danger as an uproarious joke, bad somehow brought the boy's emotions into a truer perspective, and he was no longer afflicted by what Matthew Arnold called "an almost blood- thirsty clinging to life." One can imagine that Lord Charles Beresford's book might easily effect similar cures. It is a rollicking narrative, in which anecdotes of adventure, examples of ready wit, and social mishaps leave more impression on the mind than the serious chapters on politics and on naval policy and administration. We shall serve our readers best by quoting from the book. The stories have all that intangible but invaluable quality of being obviously enjoyed by the writer. We must particularly refer the reader, however, to the chapters describing the Sudan War of 1884-5, in which dangerous and strenuous campaign Lord Charles Beresford played an honourable and gallant part. These chapters are a very happy example of simple and direct narrative, the simplicity having its natural reward of vividness. Lord Charles Beresford entered the Royal Navy in 1859. In those days candidates had no severe examination to pass, but Lord Charles Beresford was nearly undone when he came to sign his qualifying certificate. "Do you always sign your Christian name ' William ' with one '1'?" asked the examiner. It was a critical moment, but Irish resource supplied a suit- able answer. "Only sometimes, Sir," said the candidate, and the examiner, with a grim smile, passed him. In spite of the ease of the examination, Admiral William Bowles said to the author : "Bless me, I know many an Admiral who could not pass the examination you have passed. Good • The Memoirs of Admiral Lord Charles Beresford. Written by Himself. With 33 Illustrations. 2 vols. London : Methuen and Co. [308. net.]

Heavens, what they expect boys to do nowadays!" In the Navy which the boy thus entered there was much latitude in the use of uniforms. No rules prescribed the patterns of caps or great-coats. One Lieutenant used to wear his stripes longitudinally up his arm. Some officers, for the sake of economy, on going ashore used to transfer plain buttons to their uniform coats. Discipline was far from rigid :—

" In the old days, we would often overhear such a conversation as the following :—Officer : Why the blank dash didn't you blank well do so-and-so when I told you ? '—Man : Why didn't I? Because if I had I should have been blank well killed and so would you.'—Officer : 'Damn you, sir, don't you answer me ! I shall put you in the report:—Man: 'Put me in the ruddy report, then.' And the next day the commander, having heard both sides, would say to the officer: Why, the man was quite right.' And to the man : 'You had no right to argue with the officer. Don't do it again. Now get away with you to hell.' And everyone would part the best of friends."

These easygoing conditions were more natural before the general introduction of steam, as the seamanship of the men was in a higher relation to that of the officers than it is to-day, in spite of the great improvement of education among the blue- jackets. It was the seamanship of hard experience, and it should be remembered that many men were imported from the Merchant Service comparatively late in life. Lord Charles Beresford, in fact, had a taste of the Navy very much as Marryat knew it. Till the rule of silence was introduced the

shouting in the ships during an evolution or exercise was tremendous. Sir William Martin reformed the discipline of the Fleet. Naval Discipline Acts were passed in 1861 and 1866, and flogging was virtually abolished in 1879. As Lord Charles Beresford truly says "Now we have proper discipline and no cat. In former days we had the cat but no proper discipline." The "roaring sixties "—to borrow an epithet from another period—were, of course, hard-swearing days, but Lord Charles Beresford noted a certain reservation in the use of blasphemy

"Although in the old days I have heard men blaspheme on deck, blasphemy was never heard aloft in a gale. To be aloft in a whole gale or in a hurricane impresses the mind with a sense of the almighty power of the Deity, and the insignificance of man, that puny atom, compared with the vast forces of the elements. In later life, I once said to a young man whom I heard using blasphemous language in a club : 'If you were up with me on the weather yard-arm of a topsail yard reefing topsails in a whole gale, you would be afraid to say what you are saying now. You would see what a little puny devil a man is, and although you might swear, you would be too great a coward to blaspheme.' And I went on to ram the lesson home with some forcible expressions, a method of reproof which amused the audience, but which effectually silenced the blasphemer."

The first ship Lord Charles Beresford sailed in was the glorious old three-decker Marlborough,' with auxiliary steam. During his time in her he was guilty of a characteristic

escapade :—

"One night I went ashore, taking a painter and two men. We lowered the painter over the edge of the cliff, and he inscribed on the cliff in immense letters, "Marlborough," Star of the Mediter- ranean.' Next morning the whole Fleet, not without emotion, beheld the legend. Another brilliant wit went ashore on the following night and altered the word Star' into Turtle.' My reply was the addition Until the " Queen " comes out.' After this exploit I was sent ashore to clean the cliff."

That was at Malta, where Midshipmen and seamen used to hire horses at 2Ei. 6d. a day. One day the author heard a sailor remark to another, "Get off that there 'oree, Jack, 'e's a beast ! " "He ain't no beast at all," was the answer. "'E's the cleverest 'orse I ever see. He chucks me up and he catches me, he chucks me up and he catches me—why, 'e's only missed me three times in a hour !" Unlike the legendary sailor, Lord Beresford was an excellent rider and driver, but he was judged capable—we suspect with good reason—of treating his superiors, who entrusted their safety to him, as Sam Weller's father treated the voters on the way to the Eatan- swill election :—

" The members of the Board of Admiralty came down to Plymouth to witness the autumn military manceuvres. I offered to drive them all in my coach ; and they were settled in their places—Mr. Goschen the First Lord, Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, the Earl of Camperdown and Mr. Shaw-Lefevre—when out of the house came Rear-Admiral Beauchamp Seymour. Get down!' he shouted. Gentlemen, you must get down.' They asked him why. You don't know that boy,' said Seymour. He's not safe. He'll upset you on purpose, just to say he's upset the whole Board of Admiralty !' And he actually ordered my guests off my coach, so that they had to go in barouches." It was characteristic of the author later in the Sudan to enter in his report under a certain date : "Employed repairing camels' sides by plugging them with oakum." Lord Wolseley laughed when he read it, yet this rough surgery was successful, as the tar acted as an antiseptic. Lord Charles Beresford always took tandem harness with him when he went to sea, and drove the most ill-assorted animals together in various parts of the world. On one occasion, during the Duke of Edinburgh's cruise in the Galatea,' he was driving Com- mander Adeane to a picnic at Sydney when the horses bolted —horses lie had bought for 29 as reputed runaways Away we went, down the hill as hard as the horses could gallop. The next thing I saw was a train of carts laden with mineral waters'comino. up the hill and blocking the whole road. The only way to avoid" disaster was to steer between a telegraph pole and the wall. It was a near thing, but we did it. I gave the reins of one hems to the commander and held on to the reins of the other. 'Then I was aware, in that furious rush, of a melancholy voice, speaking close beside me. It was the voice of the com- mander, speaking, unknown to himself, the thoughts of his heart, reckoning the chances of mishap and how long they would take to repair. It mkt: 'An arm, an arm, an arm—a month. A leg, a leg, a leg—six weeks. A neck, a neck, a neck—O! my God ! "

Lord Charles.. Beresford always tried to be really a handy man, and he learnt in his time to repair boots, make sails, chip boilers, trim bunkers, stoke fires, drive engines, and so forth. His resourcefulness was invaluable in the Sudan, when, for example, he improvised a method of hauling boats through the rapids of the Nile, or, again, when he devised his own methods of treating camels as described in the following

passage:—

" When a camel falls from exhaustion, it rolls over upon its side, and is unable to rise. But it is not going to die unless it stretches its head back ; and it has still a store of latent energy; for a beast will seldom of its own accord go on to the last. It may sound cruel ; but in that expedition it was a case of a man's life or a, camel's suffering. When I came across a fallen camel, I had it hove upright with a gun-pole, loaded men upon it, and so got them over another thirty or forty miles. By the exercise of care and forethought I succeeded in bringing back from the expe- dition more camels, in the proportion of those in my control, than others, much to the interest of my old friend Sir Beavers Buller. He asked me how it was done ; and I told him that I superintended the feeding of the camels myself. If a camel was exhausted, I treated it as I would treat a tired hunter, which, after a long day, refuses its food. I gave the exhausted camels food by handfuls, putting them upon a piece of cloth or canvas, instead of throwing the whole ration upon the ground at once."

As for the author's descriptions of the fighting in which he took a well-known part—at the bombardment of Alexandria, where he commanded the Condor,' and at Abu Klea----we Can find space to quote only one passage. It tells how Fuzzy Wuzzy broke the British square at Abu Klea

I laid the Gardner gun myself to make sure. As I fired, I saw the enemy mowed down in rows, dropping like ninepins; but as the men killed were in the rear of the front rank, after firing about forty rounds (eight turns of the lever), I lowered the eleva- tion. I was putting in most effective work on the leading ranks and had fired about thirty rounds when the gun jammed. The extraction had pulled the head from a discharged cartridge, leaving the empty cylinder in the barrel. William Rhodes, chief boatswain's mate, and myself immediately set to work to unscrew the feed-plate in order to clear the barrel or to take out its lock. The next moment the enemy were on top of us. The feed-plate dropped on my head, knocking me under the gun and across its trail. Simultaneously a spear was thrust right through poor Rhodes, who was instantly killed at my side. Walter Miller the armourer was speared beside the gun at the same time. I was knocked off the trail of the gun by a blow with the handle of an axe, the blade of which missed me. An Arab thrust at me with his spear, and I caught the blade, cutting my hand, and before he could recover his weapon a bullet dropped him. Struggling to my feet, I was carried bodily backwards by the tremendous impact of the rush, right back upon the front rank of the men of Number 4 Company, who stood like rocks. I can compare the press to nothing but the crash of a theatre crowd alarmed by a cry of fire. Immediately facing me was an Arab holding a spear over his head, the staff of the weapon being jammed against his back by the pressure behind him. I could draw neither sword nor pistol. The front ranks of our men could not use rifle or bayonet for a few moments. But the pressure, forcing our men backwards up the hill, presently enabled the rear rank, now occupying a position of a few inches higher than the enemy, to fire over the heads of the front rank right into the mass of the Arabs. The bullets whizzed close by my head ; and one passed through my helmet. The Arabs fell in heaps, whereupon our front rank, the pressure upon them relaxing, fired, and fought hand to hand with the bayonet, cursing as the rifles jammed and the shoddy bayonets twisted like These chapters are, we think, the most vivid we have ever read on the subject.