which come under the general denomination of
local employ, to some of which these wrong
men in the wrong place may doubtless be safely
appointed.

One quotation more on the subject of
distinguished service promotion:

"Promotion for distinguished service is
retained as an imperial prerogative. It is to be
solicited only in the case of officers of high
rank who have attained the prescribed limits
of age, or who are about to retire from the
service with permission to retain their rank.
They must be among the ten seniors of their
grade, and have claims on the score of
distinguished merit."

These selections from the Austrian regulations
with regard to promotion in the army are
given for what they are worth. The system
here developed is found to answer in a great
European army, and, from this point of view,
seems worthy of a certain amount of respect
and consideration. Some of its conditions
would no doubt prove unsuitable to our English
institutions, such as that contained in the second
clause of this document, and in which provision
is made for the promotion, under certain
circumstances, of non-commissioned officers to the
rank of sub-lieutenant. To such a rule as
this we English people should be very much
disposed to demur, and, probably, with reason.
The rank and file of our army is composed of
a much lower class of men than are to be found
in the other European services. This is partly
owing, no doubt, to our dispensing, in this
country, with the conscription, which obtains
for the continental armies the pick of the young
men throughout the different countries where it
is in force, while we are left to take what we
can get in the way of recruits—" what we can
get" being too often the very refuse and off-
scouring of society. At any rate, be the reason
what it may, one thing seems certain, that the
granting of commissions to non-commissioned
officers who have served in the ranks always
proves in this country to be more or less of a
failure. The man thus elevated is not at ease
in the society of his brother-officers, who have
had advantages of education and bringing up so
widely different from his own. Nor are these
last any more at ease with him. Indeed, as far
as an outsider can judge from hearsay, not
much attempt is made at intimate association
in these cases, a sort of mutual feeling existing
on both sides that any such attempt would not
be likely to lead to satisfactory results.

That greater prizes than are at present within
the reach of what we call the " common soldier"
should be possible of attainment by him is, on
the other hand, a consummation much to be
desired, and it is for those who are practically
acquainted with such matters to say whether
certain military functions of an honourable and
lucrative nature might not be set apart as rewards
for distinguished services performed by private
soldiers and non-commissioned officers. But
these offices, supposing such to exist, or to be
hereafter brought into existence, should still be
for men who do not hold commissions, and
should not by any means elevate the individual
who should be successful in getting any such
post above the social condition of a non-
commissioned officer.

With the exception of this particular rule
relating to promotion from the ranks, the
Austrian document before us seems to contain
much that it might be useful for us to
consider. It is one specimen, among many others.
No doubt similar statements relating to this
subject, as published by other nations, might
be consulted with equal advantage. Unquestionably
we are wonderfully unlike other countries,
in nearly all respects; and in consequence of
this dissimilarity, it is most difficult for us to
adopt any of their practices. Still we do
occasionally, in connexion with non-military matters,
take hints from without; and there seems to be
no particular reason why we should not do so
with regard to any such army arrangements as
we are constrained to admit are more successfully
organised in other nations than in our own.

FITZ-GREENE HALLECK.

THE name of this American poet is but little
known in the British islands. Very few British
readers have read his poems, and fewer still
possess them. On his mother's side, Mr.
Halleck descended from John Eliot, "the Apostle
to the Indians." Born in Connecticut, in 1795,
he was brought up amidst the prejudices of his
locality and the passions of his neighbours; but
in him, as in all the more cultivated men and
women of his nation, there is discernible a
yearning of the mind, a hankering of the heart,
towards the islands of his forefathers.

    We are not parted from the friends we love,
        Because between us rolls the broad salt sea.

Mr. Halleck when eighteen years of age, in
1813, went from Connecticut to New York,
working in mercantile and banking-houses until
he became the confidential assistant of John
Jacob Astor, the wealthy speculator in land.
When Mr. Astor died, in 1849, he returned to
Connecticut, having become a trustee of the
Astor Library. The poems of Mr. Halleck
must be viewed as verses written in the leisure,
or recreative hours, snatched from business.
Versification can be learned only by imitation,
and a versifier does not become a poet until he
can compose new melodies, and embody in them
fresh themes. Most of Mr. Halleck's poems are
poetical studies and exercises, by a lover and
imitator of the poetry of his day; and this
character belongs to all his serious pieces and some
of his gayer effusions. His translations show
that he never attained a thorough mastery of
his art. His Marco Bozzaris is, indeed, a fine
poetical exercise, very highly and carefully
finished, and admirably suited for declamation;
but neither in the music nor in the matter is
there any originality. Halleck's genius was