sible to contemplate, with any degree of gravity, the rhodomontade that is displayed in it. Major General Gowdie who, on the 24th of March, publicly declared his incompetency to judge of the circumstances which deprived him of the services of Major Macdowall, whose conduct as Deputy Adjutant General he had highly approved, this General, on the 10th of April, states, in all the pomp of substantive authority, that he was persuaded the Government had never intended to deal severely with Major Boles, and that, upon certain conditions, he, Major General Gowdie, would make it his business to get Major Boles reinstated, &c. Such professions, however well they might appear at first view in an official communication, were calculated to produce a feeling very different from respect among the officers of the army, who were perfectly acquainted with the extent of General Gowdie's influence, as Commander in Chief. But the bitterest indignation of these officers was raised, when they found, that he who had for many years enjoyed the opportunity of associating with men of honourable principles and generous sentiments, had lent his name, and the shadow of authority, which was allowed him, for

the purpose of completing the ruin of an individual, whose greatest imputed crime might, according to the General's acknowledgment, have been expiated by his saying,

6.6

He was sorry." And when they considered the insidious insinuation, which was intended to prevent them from relieving the wants of Major Boles, by deceiving them into the belief that he had been contumacious, although General Gowdie was perfectly aware that Major Boles could not consistently, either with principle, or with duty, originate any apology, or express his contrition in any other terms than those he had already used, for an act which it would have been criminal in him to have declined. However, the disposition and character of Major Boles were too well known to admit of any credit being given to this insinuation, and, upon the whole, the letter of General Gowdie did much mischief. In allusion to one of the expressions contained in it, it was called the odious and indelicate production, and served as an object of much ribaldry and jocular mirth.

About this period, a circumstance occurred, which gave another proof of the relative situation of the head of the military

establishment, and afforded a further eluci dation of the terms upon which Major General Gowdie was fain to bear the nominal title of Commander in Chief. At the time he succeeded to the command, his kinsman, Lieutenant John Wilson, held the situation of personal Aid-de-Camp to himself; but as he hoped soon to be able to procure a more advantageous situation for Lieutenant Wilson, he gave a positive promise that Lieutenant J. Scott, Adjutant of the 1st battalion, 22nd Native regiment, should be appointed his Aid-de-Camp; accordingly, when Lieutenant Wilson was appointed Assistant Adjutant General to the Northern division, Lieutenant Scott and his friends expected that he would be called to the Presidency, to the family of Major General Gowdie; they therefore experienced great surprise and chagrin on finding that General Gowdie's promise could not be kept, and that Lieutenant Scott could not be appointed. This information was communicated by a letter from General Gowdie, in which he expressed much concern on account of not being able to fulfil his engagement, as the Governor, Sir G. Barlow, had told him that he could not permit Lieutenant Scott to get

any appointment, because his name was among the signatures to a certain memorial, which had some months before been addressed to the Court of Directors. The General notices, that he is obliged to take into his family, as Aid-de-Camp, Lieutenant Walker, a man whom he had not seen, and of whom he knew nothing further, than that he was a relation, or dependant, on Lieutenant Colonel Barclay, the Town Major, and Military Secretary to Sir G. Barlow. This explanation fully acquitted General Gowdie to Lieutenant Scott, and his friends, of any intentional breach of his word in failing to fulfil his promise; but afforded to all the army an opportunity of remarking the striking contrast which existed between the actual power possessed by him, and that which he vaunted forth in the letter respecting Major Boles. He therein professes not only his ability to reinstate, but intimates, that he was in some sort informed of the intentions of Government, when they suspended that officer, without meaning to deal severely with him. Such a contradiction produced conclusions not very favourable to the General.

The latter events which have been mentioned, were not calculated to produce any

convulsion among the officers of the army, although they served to rivet more strongly in their minds the sentiments of detestation and abhorrence with which they viewed the prevailing system, and its authors. Of the same description were the vexatious measures adopted respecting Lieutenant Colonel Sentleger and Captain James Grant: they were considered merely vexatious towards individuals; and the horror which was felt at the prospect of the consequences that might result from manifesting resentment so frequently as occasion was given for it, accompanied by the hope that it might yet be possible to prevent an open rupture, and that regular order might subsist, until a decision on the great question might be received from Europe, induced the moderate to inculcate forbearance, and disposed all to practice it. Nearly three months had at this time elapsed, since the departure of General Macdowall; it might, therefore, reasonably be hoped that he was now well advanced on his way to England; and as Colonel Capper had joined him at Ceylon, that the common superiors of the parties in dissension might, through the means of those officers, obtain a fair statement of