THE JERSEY, ALDERNBY AXD GUERNSEY CO IF IS 



years ago, bishop of Peterborough, was selected, in 

 1861, to preach in the Abbey of Westminster to the 

 guests of England at the Great Exhibition of all na- 

 tions, and astonished the educated foreigners by the 

 grace and purity of his French idiom. The whole 

 expenses of government are defrayed by the English 

 crown, which maintains military governors, garrisons 

 the forts and pays the militia, recruited on the Prussian 

 model — every male adult being compelled to serve a 

 definite period in drill, and being liable to service in the 

 narrow circle of his home in case of wan Under these 

 circumstances, military life is made a pleasure ; and, the 

 rifles and ammunition being always at hand, the hardy 

 fishermen and oyster-dredgers, rocking on a calm sea, 

 amuse themselves in their leisure by friendly emulation 

 in shooting-matches at birds and rocks, and the frequent 

 encounters between parishes and regiments on shore 

 for small prizes at the fairs and revels, which still keep 

 up the memory of the old Norman festivals, give ample 

 opportunities of testing their skill It is not an uncom- 

 mon thing for one out of the four regiments of Jersey 

 militia to boast of one hundred men of their rank and 

 file who can be backed to hit the bulFs-eye at five hun- 

 dred yards. 



"Upon all considerations, therefore, the Channel 

 Islands have a fair claim to be thought to have suc- 

 ceeded to those fortunate islands of the West whose 

 existence had puzzled the brains of the learned before 

 the hopes they gave rise to culminated in the discovery 



