ot acquire the rank, you must remember that you
cannot become a _good general_ or even a good officer without first
acquiring a competent knowledge of your profession. For this
purpose (tho' I never had any proper knowledge of those matters
myself yet I am sensible of my deficiency) I would have you study
and read such books as treat of fortification and encampments; and
as you are still very young I imagine you may soon acquire a
competent knowledge by such reading, suitable to avail yourself of
it on any emergency.

I must now recommend you to keep those who may be under your
command in that degree of subordination and obedience which the
service requires. But you must never forget that your inferiors,
even the Private Man who serves in the ranks, is your fellow
soldier and fellow-man, and that you are bound to show him every
attention and humanity in your power. This was one of the many good
qualities for which your father was remarkable, for which he was
beloved by all ranks; and I hope you will imitate him. I must now
conclude by recommending to you to let me hear from you once a
year, at least, or oftener if an opportunity offers. Nothing can
give more pleasure than to hear good accounts of you to

Your affectionate godfather,

MALCOLM FFRASER.

In short you must never forget that you may at times become
responsible for the lives and honour of those under your command as
well as for your own, and, it may even happen, for that of your
King and Country, in some degree, and that you are to act
accordingly. All this with more and much better you may read or
hear from others; but I flatter myself that you will not think the
less of it as coming from _me_.

It must be admitted that the soldier's ideal in that age for the British
army was as high as our own. We are accustomed to think that a hundred
years ago drunkenness was hardly accounted a vice. Perhaps it was not in
civil life, but in the army, in young Nairne's time, sobriety was the
rule. Writing on May 20th, 1807, he says that few in the army resort to
drink, as a pleasure, even at Gibraltar, where wine is cheap and
plentiful; the allowance in the regiment after dinner is but one-third
of a bottle, and only now and then when there are guests is it usual to
depart from this allowance. The deadly dullness and idleness of