VISCOUNT WOLSELEY. (1833) GARNET JOSEPH, VISCOUNT WOLSELEY, K. C.B., G.C.M.G., formerly Field Marshal Commanding-in-Chief of the British Army, is the son of Major G. J. Wolseley, and was born at Golden Bridge House, near Dublin, June 4, 1833. He entered the army in 1852, and was engaged in the Burmese war. In the Crimean campaign he distinguished himself by almost reckless bravery, was wounded severely, and received the Legion of Honor and the Order of the Medjidie. He next took part in suppressing the Indian mutiny, and was mentioned in dispatches and raised to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. During the Chinese campaign he acted as Quartermaster-General. When the expedition was organized to the Red River in 1871, Sir Garnet was given the chief command. The success with which he carried out the operations of this campaign established his reputation; and from that time forward he has been selected on such occasions as demand great military skill and high qualities as a leader. He was the successful commander of the expedition against the King of Ashantee in 1873-74. He was soon afterwards sent to Natal to arrange some difficulties of administration and colonial defense; in 1878 he was made administrator of Cyprus; and in 1879 he was dispatched again to South Africa, to succeed Lord Chelmsford in command of the forces engaged in the Zulu war, which he soon brought to a successful termination. He was Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Egypt in 1882-for which he was raised to the peerage; of the Gordon Relief Expedition in 1884-85-after which he was made a Viscount; was Commander of the Forces in Ireland from 1890 to 1895, and Field-Marshal, Commanding-in-Chief of the British Army during 1895-1900. Viscount Wolseley has written a 'Narrative of the War with China in 1860'; 'The Soldier's Pocket-Book,' a work on field maneuvers, and he came forward in 1877 as the editor of a novel, Marley Castle.' He has also written various articles in the magazines, A Life of the Duke of Marlborough,' and 'The Decline and Fall of Napoleon.' Upon the 7th of October, at daybreak, we fired twentyone guns from the high earthen ramparts, near which we halted the evening before, and upon which we had kept large fires burning during the night. These measures were adopted for the purpose of intimating to our cavalry and the French the position we had taken up. A cavalry pa trol, under an officer of the quartermaster-general's department, started, as soon as it became light, with orders to ascertain their position and communicate with the French, who were found to be at the Summer Palace, our cavalry being about two miles to their right. Sir Hope Grant, accompanied by Lord Elgin, rode thither in the course of the day for the purpose of seeing General Montauban, who said that as soon as he learned Sir Hope Grant's intention of marching upon Youen-ming-youen, he also made for that place, and fell in with our cavalry during his march, when both proceeded together until they reached the large village Hai-teen, which is situated close by the palace. Our cavalry brigadier, naturally disliking the idea of getting his men entangled in a town of which he knew nothing, skirted it to the eastward, whilst the French proceeded direct through it and reached the palace gates. About twenty badly armed eunuchs made some pretense at resistance, but were quickly disposed of and the doors burst open, disclosing the sacred precincts of his majesty's residence to what a Chinaman would call the sacrilegious gaze of the barbarians. A mine of wealth and of everything curious in the empire lay as a prey before our French allies. Rooms filled with articles of vertu, both native and European, halls containing vases and jars of immense value, and houses stored with silks, satins, and embroidery, were open to them. Indiscriminate plunder and wanton destruction of all articles too heavy for removal commenced at once. When looting is once commenced by an army it is no easy matter to stop it. At such times human nature breaks down the ordinary trammels which discipline imposes, and the consequences are most demoralizing to the very best constituted army. Soldiers are nothing more than grown-up schoolboys. The wild moments of enjoyment passed in the pillage of a place live long in the soldier's memory. Although, perhaps, they did not gain sixpence by it, still they talk of such for years afterwards with pleasure. Such a time forms so marked a contrast with the ordinary routine of existence passed under the tight hand of discipline, that it becomes a remarkable event in life, and is remembered accordingly. I have often watched soldiers after the capture of a place wandering in parties of threes or fours through old ranges of buildings, in which the most sanguine even could scarcely hope to find anything worth having; yet every one of them bore about them that air of enjoyment which is unmistakable. Watch them approach a closed door; it is too much trouble to try the latch or handle, so Jack kicks it open. They enter, some one turns over a table, out of which tumbles perhaps some curious manuscripts. To the soldier these are simply waste paper, so he lights his pipe with them. Another happens to look round and sees his face represented in a mirror, which he at once resents as an insult by shying a footstool at it; whilst Bill, fancying that the "old gentleman" in the fine picture-frame upon the wall is making faces at him, rips up the canvas with his bayonet. Some fine statue of Venus is at once adorned with a mustache, and then used as an "Aunt Sally!" Cock-shots are taken at all remarkable objects, which, whilst occupying their intended positions, seem somehow or other to offend the veteran's eye, which dislikes the in statu quo of life, and studies the picturesque somewhat after the manner that Colonel Jebb recommends to all country gentlemen who are desirous of converting their mansions into defensible posts. The love of destruction is certainly inherent in man, and the more strictly men are prevented from indulging in it, so much the more keenly do they appear to relish it when the opportunity occurs. Such an explanation will alone satisfactorily account for the ruin and destruction of property which follows so quickly after the capture of any place; tables and chairs hurled from the windows, clocks smashed upon the pavement, and everything not breakable so injured as to be valueless henceforth. Soldiers of every nation under heaven have peculiarities common to all of the trade, and the amusements which I have just described are amongst them. The French most certainly are no exception to the rule. If the reader will imagine some three thousand men, imbued with such principles, let loose into a city composed only of Museums and Wardour Streets, he may have some faint idea of what Youen-ming-youen looked like after it had been about twenty hours in possession of the French. The far-famed palaces of a line of monarchs claiming a celestial relationship, and in which the ambassador of an English king had been insulted with impunity, were littered with the débris of all that was highly prized in China. Topsy-turvy is the only expression in our language which at all describes its state. The ground around the French camp was covered with silks and clothing of all kinds, whilst the men ran hither and thither in search of further plunder, most of them, according to the practice usual with soldiers upon such occasions, being decked out in the most ridiculous-looking costumes they could find, of which there was no lack, as the well-stocked wardrobes of his imperial majesty abounded in such curious raiment. Some had dressed themselves in richly-embroidered gowns of women, and almost all had substituted the turned-up mandarin hat for their ordinary forage-cap. Officers and men seemed to have been seized with a temporary insanity; in body and soul they were absorbed in one pursuit, which was plunder, plunder. I stood by whilst one of the regiments was supposed to be parading; but although their fall in was sounded over and over again, I do not believe there was an average of ten men a company present. Plundering in this way bears its most evil fruit in an army; for if when it is once commenced an effort is made to stop it, the good men only obey; the bad soldiers continue to plunder, and become rich by their disobedience, whilst the good ones see the immediate effect of their steadiness is to keep them poor. I do not believe that it is attended with such demoralizing effects in a French army as it is in ours. The Frenchman is naturally a more thrifty being than the careless Britisher, who squanders his money in drinking, and "standing drink" to his comrades. Three days afterwards, when the French moved into their position before Peking, they seemed to have regained their discipline, and their men were as steady under arms as if nothing had occurred to disturb the ordinary routine of their lives. (1847) W. G. WOOD-MARTIN, J.P., D.L., was born in Woodville, County Sligo, July 16, 1847. He was first educated at private schools, and later in Switzerland, in Belgium, and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He is the oldest surviving son of the late James Wood of Woodville, and Anne, the eldest daughter of Abraham Martin of Cleveragh, Sligo. He married in 1873 Frances Dora, the eldest daughter of Roger Dodwell Robinson of Wellmont, County Sligo. His publications are 'Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland,' 'Pagan Ireland,' 'The Lake Dwellings of Ireland,' 'The Rude Stone Monuments of Ireland,'' History of Sligo County and Town,' and 'Sligo and the Enniskilleners.' He was at one time editor of the Journal of the Society of Antiquaries of Ireland; and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He was Aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria, and is now to the King (militia); he was Colonel commanding the Duke of Connaught's Own Sligo Artillery from 1883 to 1902. KEENING AND WAKE. From Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland.' The assembling of the Irish peasantry at funerals and wakes, and the keening may be described in the Latin lines, of which the following is a free translation:— "Delaying not they hasten, speeding fast, And reach the house, to find a medley strange, In the islands off the west coast of Ireland, where ancient superstitions still linger in greatest exuberance, no funeral wail is allowed to be raised until three hours have elapsed from the time of death, as the sound of lamentation might hinder the soul from leaving the body, and would also place the many demons lying in wait for it on the alert. At an Irish wake the keener is almost invariably an aged woman: or if she be comparatively young, the habits |