RANDOM SHOTS

Is a capital collection of stories, anecdotes, incidents, and scenes illustrative of Life in a Camp duringactive service. We are shown how custom inures men to hardship and danger, till the schemes necessary to bear privation become matters of merriment, and Death is so constantly present that he even ceases to be thought of unless he takes some peculiar or striking shape. We see as in a mirror, the gay and reckless character of the campaigner, Lere to-day,-gone to-morrow— changing his fare and his bed as often as his whereabouts—snatching any kind of pleasure within his each—utterly indifferent as to what lie may suffer himself, and not over nice as to what he may inflict upon others; yet in the main a goml-natured fellow when at leisure, animated by a brotherly esprit de corps, full of sentimental sympathy, and even disposed to render active service to strangers, if it can be given without inconvenience. To say that the author of this picture is in manner somewhat broad and roystering, with a spice of camp morality in his tone, is merely saying that lie is as he ought to be: perhaps a little wordiness—a dwelling upon non-essentials, in the manner of a sailor spinning a yarn—is a fault equally natural, but less agreeable.

Though the book is a collection of independent stories, there is a connecting chain throughout ; the framework being a kind or auto- biography, which commences with our author's parentage and edu- cation at a Scottish parochial school—notices his appearance as wine-merchant's clerk—and traces his career through hevuu and the Local Militia, till lie readies the object of his ambition, a commission in the Line. His first taste of service was at Wal- cheren ; but his personal narrative is confined to a part of the Peninsular war beginning with the retreat to Torres Vedras and ending with the battle of Salamanca. By a little management, however, he contrives to tell some anecdotes of Mooasfs retreat, and to throw in a story or two about Waterloo and Paris. it should also be observed, that some sensible observations on the personal management of soldiers on service are scattered through the volume, wilt several military hints that aiTear judicious.

In making quotations, the only thing to be considered is our space; and this being determined, their variety as a sequence. Let us first take

A CIVILIAN'S DEBUT, OR AIR. ROGERS UNDER FIRST FIRE.

Mr. Rogers, as already stated, had the day before arrived from England, al au officer of one of the civil departments attached to the light division ; and, as might be expected on finding himself all at once up with the outposts of the army, he was full of curiosity and excitement. Equipped in a huge cocked-hat, and a hermaphrodite sort of scarlet coat, half military and half civil, lie WAS dancing about with his budget of inquiries' when chance threw him in the tray of the gallant and lamented Jock APCulloch, at the time a Lieutenant in the Rifles, and who was in the act of marching off a company to relieve one of the picquets for the night. M`Culloch, full of humour, seeing the curiosity of the fresh arrival, said, " Come Rogers, my boy, come along with me; you shall share my beef-steak, you shall share my boat-cloak, and it will go hard with me but you shall see a -Frenchman too, before we part in the morning."

The night turns out a tremendous stormy one, but passes away of course.

As usual, an hour before daybreak, M'Culloeh, resigning the boat-cloak to his dozing companion, stood to his arms, to be ready for whatever changes day.. light might have in store for him : nor had he to wait long, for day had just begun to dawn, when the sharp crack from the rifle clone of the advanced sea. tries announced the approach of the enemy ; and he had just time to counsel his ten itied bedfellow to make the hest of his way back to the division, while he himself awaited to do battle. Nor had he much rinse fur preparation ; for, as Napier says, " Ney, seeing Crawfurd's false dispositions, came down upon them with the stoop of an eagle. Four thousand horsemen, and a powerful artillery, swept the plain ; and Loison's division coming up at a charging pace, made towards the centre and left of the position." M'Culloch, almost instantly, re- ceived several bad sabre-wounds, and, with five-and-tweuty of his men, was taken prisoner.

Rogers, it may be believed, lost no time in following the salutary counsel he had received, with as clever a pair of heels as he could muster. The enemy's artillery had by this time opened ; and, as the Devil would have it, the cannon- balls were travelling the saute road, and tearing up the ground on each side of him almost as regularly as if it had been a ploughing-match. Poor Rogers was thus placed in a situation which fully justified him in thinking, as most young suldims do, that every ball was aimed at himself. He was half distracted; it was certain death to stop where he was ; neither flank offered him the smallest shelter, and he had not wind enough left in his bellows to clear the tenth part of the space between him and comparative safety: but where life is at stake, the imagination is fertile; and it immediately occurred to hint that by doming the cocked-hat he would make himself a less conspicuous object ; clapping it, accordingly, under his arm, he continued his frightful career, with the feelings of a maniac and the politeness of a courtier ; for, to every missile that passed, he bowed as low as his racing attitude would permit, in ignorance that the danger had passed along with it,—perforating, to all appearance, a continued rotatory sort of evolution, as if the sails of a windmill had parted from the building and continued their course across the plain, to the utter astonishment of all who saw him. At length, when exhausted nature could not have carried him twenty yards further, he found himself among some skirmishers of the 3d Cacadores, and within itfew yards of a rocky ridge, rising out of the ground, the rear of which seemed to offer him the long-looked-fur opportunity of recovering his wind ; and he sheltered himself accordingly.

This happened to be the first occasion in which the Cacadores had been under fire: they had the highest respect fur the bravery of their British officers, and had willingly followed where their Colonel had led; but having followed him into the field, they did not see why they should not follow another out of it; and wl en tl ey saw a red coat take pest behind a rock, they all immediately rushed to take advantage of the same cover. Poor Rogers had not, therefore, drawn his first breath, when he found himself surrounded by these Portuguese warriors; nor had he drawn a second, before their Colonel (Sir George Elder) rode furiously at him with his di awn sword, exclaiming, " Who are you, you scoundrel, in the uniform of a British officer, setting an example of cowardice to my men ? Get out of that instantly, or I'll cut you down !'

Rogers's case was desperate; he had no breath left to explain that he had no pretensions to the honour of tieing an officer, for he would have been cut down in the act of attempting it: he was, therefore, once more forced to start for another heat with the round-shot, and, like a hunted devil, got across the bridge, he knew not how. But he was helm sup for England the same day, and the Army never saw him more.

A NIGHT ATTACK.

Colonel Beckwith at this time held the pass of Barba del Puerco with four companies of the Rifles; and very soon experienced the advantage of having an eye alive, for lie had some active neighbours on the opposite ride of the river who had determined to beat up his quarters, by way of asevrtatning the fact The Padre of the village, it appeared, was a sort of Vicar of Bray, who gave information to both sides, so long as accounts remained pretty equally balanced

s between them ; but when the advance of the French army for the subjugation of Portugal became a matter of certainty, he immediately chose that which seemed to be the strongest, and it was not ours. The Padre was a famous hand over a glass of grog ; and where amusements were so scarce, it was good fun for our youngsters to make a Padre glorious, which they took every opportunity of doing; and, as is not unusual with pertly. la 4144; state (laymen as well LA eadres), he iavw.iably fancied himself thy WY sober man of the party ; so that the report was conscientiously given when he went over to the French General Ferey, who commanded the division opposite, and staked his reputation as a Padre, that the English officers in his village were in the habit of getting blind drunk every night, and that he had only to march over at midnight to secure them almost without resistance. • Ferry was a hold, enterprising soldier ( I saw his body in death after the battle of Salamanca); he knew toa man the force of the English in the village, and probably slid not look upon the attempt as very desperate, were they even at their posts teddy to receive him ; but as the chances seemed to be in favour of every enemy's head being " nailed to his pillow," the opportunity was not to be re- sisted, and accordingly, at midnight on the 19th of March, he assembled his force silently at the end of the bi idge. The shadows of the rocks which the rising moon had just cast over the place prevented their being seen ; and the continuous roar of the mountain torrent, which divided them, prevented their being heard even by our double sentry posted at the other end of the bridge, within a tew yards of them. Leaving a powerfia support to cover his retreat in the event of a reverse, Ferry, at the head of six hundred chosen grenadiers, burst forth so silently and suddenly, that, of our &nil& sentry on the bridge, the one was taken and the other bayoneted without being able to fire off their 'deem A sergeant's party higher up among the rocks had just time to lire off as an alarm ; and even the remainder of the company on picquet under O'Hare bad barely time to julep up and anatah their rifles, when the enemy were among theni. O'llare'a men, however, though borne back and unable to stop them for an instant, behaved nobly, retiring in a continued hand-to-hand per- sonal eneounter with their hies to the top of the pass; when the remaining com- panies under Sidney Beckwith having just started from their sleep, rushed for- ward to their support, and, with a thundering discharge, tumbled the attacking column into the ravine be'ow, where, passing the bridge under cover of the the of their supporting body, they resumed their former position, minus a consider- able number of their beat and bravest. The Colonel, while urging the fight, observed a Frenchman within a .yard or two, taking deliberate aim at his head. Stooping suddenly down and picking up a stone, he immediately sbyed it at Lim, calling him at the same time a " scoundrel, to get out of that." It so far distracted the fellow's attention, that while the gallant Beckwith's cap was blown 0) atom)), the head remained untouched.

The whole concern was but the affair of a few minutes, but we nevertheless looked upon it as no inconsiderable addition to our regimental feather.

MARCHING, AN A WI% Marching is an art to he acquired only by habit, and one in which the strength or agility of the animal loan has but little to do. I have seen Irishmen, and all sorts of countrvinen, in their own country, taken from the plough-tail- huge, athletic, active fellows, who would think nothing of doing forty or fifty miles in the course of the day as countrymen—see these men placed in the rank as recruits with knapsacks on their backs and a musket over their shoulders, and in the first march they are dead beat before they get ten miles.

I hive heard many disputes on the comparative campaigning powers of tall and short men ; but as far as my own experience goes, I have never seen any difference. If a tall man break down, it is immediately noticed to the disad- vantage of his class ; but if the same misfortune befall a short one, it is not looked upon as being any thing remarkable. The effective powers of both in fact depend upon the nature of the building.

HINTS TO OFFICERS.

The most difficult and at the same time the most important duty to teach a young soldier on fist coming into active service, is how to take care of himself. It is one which, in the first instance, requires the unwearied attention of the officer ; but he is amply repaid in the long run, for when the principle is once instilled into him, it is duly appreciated, and he requires no further trouble. In our battalion, during the latter years of the war, it was a mere matter of form inspecting the men on parade, for they knew too well the advantages of having their arms and annunuition at all times in proper order to neglect them ; so that after several weeks marching and fighting, I have never seen them on their first ordinary parade after their arrival in quarters, but they were tit fur the must rigid examination of the greatest martinet that ever looked through the ranks. The only thing that required the officers' attention was their necessa- ries; for as money was scarce, they were liable to be bartered for strong waters.

• The young soldier, when he first arrives in camp or bivouac, will, unless forced to do otherwise, always give in to the languor and fatigue which oppresses hint, and fall asleep. Ile awakens most probably after dark, cold and comfortless. He would gladly eat some of the undressed meat in his haversack, but he has no file on which to cook it. lie would gladly shelter himself in one of the nu- merous huts which have arisen around him since he fell asleep, but as he lent

no hand in the building he is thrust out. Ile attempts at the eleventh hour to do as ()tilers have done ; but the time has gone by, for all the materials that were originally within reach have already been appropriated by his more active neighbours, and there is nothing left tor him but to pass the remainder of the slight as he best can, in hunger, in (add, and in discomfort; and he marches before daylight in the morning without having enjoyed tither rest OF refreshment. Such is often the fate of young regiments for a longer period than would be believed, filling the hospitals, and leading to all manner of evils. On the other hand, see the old soldiers come to their ground. Let their feelings of fatigue be great or small, they are no sooner suffered to leave the ranks than every man rushes to secure whatever the neighbourhood affords as likely to contribute towards his comfort for the night. Swords, hatchets, and bill-hooks are to be seen hewing and hacking at every tree or bush within reach ; huts are quickly reared, fires are quickly blazing ; and while the camp-kettle is buffing, or the pound of beef frying, the tired but happy souls are found toasting their toes around the cheerful blaze, recounting their various adven- tures, until the fire has done the needful, wken they fall on like men, taking special care, however, that whatever their inclinations may be, they consume Au part of the provision which properly belongs to the morrow. The meal niched, they arrange their accoutrements in readiness for any emergency, (caring little for the worst that can held them for the next twenty. four hours), when they disnose themselves for rest; and he their allowance of sleep long or abort, they enjoy it ; fur it does one's heart good to see " the rapture of repose that's there."

The volume before us was produced in consequence of a critic's charging a former one with being "too short ;" and the author intimates, that if the same opinion be entertained about the present, the public " may have another." For ourselves, we shall be glad to see a continuation, though not because of its shortness. On the other hand, we could, in the words of Captain MARRYAT to Mr. NEALE, " score out about thirty pages, and improve it not a little."