The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-09 00:00:00

THE MILITIA. AND THE LINE.

The following letter has been addressed to a con-
temporary by " A Practical Recruiter" :—Sir,—
Will you permit mo through your columns to call
the attention of the authorities to a eircums,ance
which tends very materially to paralyse the efforts
of the recruiting parties dispersed throughout the
country—viz., the condition upon which men be-
longing to militia regiments are permitted to enlist
into the regular army ? Under existing regulations,
before a militiaman can be enlisted, it is necessary
that the sanction of the Secrwary for War shall in
each case be obtained by his commanding officer, a
process which usually occupies some three weeks;
added to which, if ho has not be At embodied, he is
compelled to pay the sum of 18s. 6d. for his dis-
charge.
I need not point out that this has practically the
effect of preventing the very class of men who are
not only the moat eligible, but the most likely to
offer themselVes, from joining the ranks of our army.
Common sense, surely, demands that every facility
should be afforded these men to embrace a service
for which their previous career may be fairly pre-
sumed to have given them a taste, and in some mea-
sure to have qualified them. Indeed, one would
have thought that an additional inducement in the
way of bountyought to be held out to them, instead
of their being obliged, in some cases, to forfeit
nearly one-half of the ordinary bounty, simply be-
cause they had during the late war served their
country.
It has born decided that all the militia are not to
to called out, because, as Lord Palmerston justly
remarks, it would be paying a heavy price to em-
body the militia of the United Kingdom for-56 days
on the chance of obtaining a few volunteers.

Let an order be issued-directing a free discharge
to be at once granted to every militiaman desious
to enlist on his being found " fit" for the service,
and offer a double bounty (4/. instead of 21.) to such
men as have been embodied 12 mouths, and I have
no fear that a sufficient number of volunteers wiil
be obtained to meet the present emergency.

PIOUS GAMBLERS.—On of the most amus;ng in
stances of external piety wo remember to have wit-
nessed was in a Madrid club, where every night,
towards 12 o'clock, a rouge-et-noir table opens.
Occasionally it has happened that when the game
ma.' at the hottest, the table strewn with gold and
notes, eagerness to be real ou the flushed counte-
nances that craned over the green cloth, there was
heard in the street without the tinkle of
the boll that announces the passage of the }lost.
Instantly the game was suspended, the gamblers
knelt upon their chairs or on the floor, and crossed
themselves and mumbled prayers while the conse-
crated wafer passed on its way to some dying
man's bedside. The sound of the ball and of the
steps of the priests grew fainter, and as it died away
the gamblers vesurned their seats, again grasped
Vieir gold, and stretched their necks, and once
more it was "Rouge gagne et la couleur."—Black-
wood's Magazine fur Sept.
Tun SICK CURATE.---‘' Ah," said Mrs. Pettifer, "it's
a thousand pities his father and si,ter can't come and
live with him, if he isn't to marry. But I wish with all
my heart he could have taken t some nice woman as
would have made a comfortahl home for him. I used
to think he might take to Eliz i Pratt ; she's a good girl,
and very pretty; but I 'see no likelihood of it now."
" He'd need have somebody, young or old," ob3erved
Mrs. Linnet. " to sea as he wears a flannel waiscoat, an'
changes his stockins when he comes in. It's my opinion
he's: got that cough we sitting i' wet shoes an' stacking,
au that Mrs. Wagstaff's a pour addle-headed thing—she
doesn't half tek care on him." "Oh, mother," said R.-
beeca, " she's 41 very pious woman. And I'm sure she
thinks it too great a privilege to have Mr. Tryan with
her not to do the best she elm to make him comfortable.
She can't help her rooms being shabby. " I've nothing
to say again' her piety, my dear; but I know very well
I shouldn't like her to cook my victual. When a man
comes in hurgry au' tired pity won't feed him, [ reckon.
Hard carrots 'nil lie heavy on his stomach, piety or no
piety. I called in, one day when she was dishin' up Mr.
Tryan's dinner, an' I cau'd see the potatoes was as wa-
tery as watery. lt,'s right enough to be speritial —l'm
no enemy to that ; but I like my potatoes mealy. I
don't see as anybody 'all go to heaven the sooner for not
digestin' their dinner—piovidin' they don't die sooner,
as 'nayhap Mr. Tryan, will, poor dead man."-7-Black-
wood's Magazine.