Halifax 
delight to the eye. She ought to be ashamed 
of being less than that. 
But she is not a gem, and she is not ashamed. 
She is puffed up with pride. She is proud of 
her soldiers and of her forts, of her parks, and 
of her public buildings, and of her harbour. 
She has red-coated soldiers, and many of them. 
They are more numerous even than the forts, 
and they are always on the streets, where they 
lend a certain appearance of festivity to the 
otherwise dull town. Their presence is deco- 
rative, but individually these soldiers are not 
very impressive. Many of them are certainly 
round-shouldered ; and with their bright red 
coats and tiny round caps perched on an angle 
of the head and held in place by straps under 
the chin, they look so irresistibly like the long- 
tailed gentleman who sits on the hand-organ 
and doffs his cap for pennies, that it is difficult 
to contemplate them with the respect due to 
their glorious calling. They are gathered in 
from the remote districts of the mother coun- 
try, and present the appearance of having been 
gathered recently and before they were quite 
ripe. 
As to the forts, if a city wishes to glory in 
135 
