556 The United Service Smoke-shop : a Winter Sketch. QMAY, 



Aleck, that Fife never asks a favour of me?" Because, Sir, your Ma- 

 jesty has not left him a favour to ask for, replied Duff. " O ! yes, there 

 was one he ought to have asked for" (rejoined the Sovereign) ; " but when 

 you write to him, tell him the KING has presented his brother with the 

 Colonelcy of the Gordon Highlanders, as a proof of his esteem for an 

 old friend and gallant soldier !" This was positively the first intimation 

 General Duff received of his Majesty's gracious intention. 



Major Claymore. I can well believe it, Sirs : it was like the man, and 

 worthy the KING ! 



Lt. Col. Towlter. Long may he live ! (muttering to himself as he 

 drains the glass), how damned small the tumblers are grown since the 

 pace. 



Capt. Clever/i/. What a sweep amongst the generals lately ! Death 

 has been busy with his scythe mowing down on an average one a month ! 

 Seven regiments vacant in little more than half a year ! fine patronage 

 for Lord Hill. 



Lt. Col. Towlter. Lord Hill ! Bathershin ! 



Capt. Cleverly. Why, though Lord Hill is not the fountain of honour, 

 he is the channel through which the grateful stream must flow, and it 

 surely gives his heart (as kind a one as ever beat within a soldier's 

 breast !) sincere pleasure to be himself the harbinger of his Sovereign's 

 favour to many a brave comrade of former days ! 



Lt. Col. Towlter. I never could understand the principle on which 

 selections of officers for regiments (as they fall vacant) are made ; has 

 not interest a good deal to say in the distribution of these matters ? 



Major Claymore. No doubt high political interest will always have 

 its influence ; but you saw the 79th regiment bestowed on Ferguson, 

 who always was a thick- and- thin opposition man in parliament. 



Capt. Kilkenny. I wonder Fred. Ponsonby has not obtained a regi- 

 ment no man stands higher in the profession. 



Major Claymore. He is yet but a young major-general, and besides 

 having been always a cavalry man, he no doubt looks up to a regi- 

 ment of dragoons, and these things are not every day gifts. 



Capt. Kilkenny. Sir Henry Fane got a regiment of dragoon guards 

 fifteeen years since, when as young a major general. 



Lt. Col. Towlter. Ay, but he was a Fane. Three Fanes in parlia- 

 ment and the uncle privy- seal. 



Capt. Kilkenny, Well, Four Ponsonbys in parliament, and the father- 

 in-law president of the council! Seeing these things, I am led to believe 

 that these favours are more impartially distributed than any others within 

 the royal gift : for example Sir John Elley got a regiment of dragoons 

 the other day ; he had nothing to recommend him but the character of 

 a good soldier during forty years' service. 



Lt. Col. Towlter. Yes, there 's good sense in such promotions. 



Capt. Geehogan. Sir John Elley and myself were brother soldiers in 

 the same troop eight-and-thirty years ago : he was a fine, tall, lathy, 

 active fellow, and no man in the service was ever a greater favourite 

 with the ladies. Zounds! there was not a landlady from Windsor to 

 Westminster that would not have emptied the till into his laced hat, had 

 he asked it. 



Major Claymore. Do you ever go down to Croydon now, Captain, to 

 take a look at the waggoners ? 



Capt. Geehogan. I paid a visit last summer to my old friend Basil 



