battalion of the 60th, and several Africans from my own corps, the -th West India regiment figured in the "Guard Report."

The day passed over in the intellectual manner usual with Subs on duty, namely, in writing out and tearing to pieces the Guard Report, -leaning over the parapet of the draw-bridge,-yawning over Dundas,— and arranging and re-arranging the papers in my writing desk. Evening came. The guard was turned out at "gun-fire." I heard the drums of the different regiments, encamped or hutted at small distances round the town, beat the tattoo. My regimental coat and wings (for I was a Light Bob) were exchanged for the more comfortable blue surtout. The white beaver, the heavy costume of the day, gave place to a light and easy foraging cap; and my net hammock, from the Spanish main, was slung sufficiently low to allow my toe to reach the ground, that I might give it the see-saw motion so agreeable to a West Indian.—“ Who goes there?" shouts the sentinel at the gate.-" Rounds."-" What rounds?""Grand rounds."-" Guard turn out."-Clash sound the horse's hoofs of the field officer on duty, as he retires from his examination of my post, and all is still again.

At eleven o'clock I rouse myself, tie my bandana tight round my throat, and visit the sentinels: nothing more to do till morning. I light my cigar, take a farewell glass of my swizzle, (cold rum and water, very weak, and which a West Indian only can mix,) and, reclining in my hammock, compose myself for a nap. In vain; the annoying buzz of the musquittoes, and the close atmosphere of the guard-room, precluded the possibility of sleep. I arose and opened the jalousie to admit the sea breeze, whose sudden and low moaning was just beginning to be heard. How lovely was the scene that met my view! The moon had only just risen over the smoke-cloud that constantly hangs on the summit of Mount Soufriere; which, lighted by her radiance, seemed like a palm tree of the brightest amber, gradually reddening to a flame colour, at the point where it emerged from the crater of that ever-smoking furnace. The mountain itself rose dark, and giant-like, in deep shade; its outline clearly defined against the cloudless transparent brilliancy of a tropical sky. Here and there a straggling moonbeam found its way to the bottom of some of the numerous ravines on the mountain's side, and sparkled with brilliant light reflected in the streams below. In the plain at the foot of the hill, stood the town of Basseterre; the low flat roofs of its houses, covered with the dew, glittered bright in the moonlight, which, as usual in that climate, was so clear as to render even the gay colouring of the verandahs and galleries plainly distinguishable; while, in the foreground, the ramparts and glacis of Fort Matilda frowned in black and solemn grandeur. The night breeze blew cool and sweet: a thousand lizards chirped shrilly beneath the window; while the melancholy tones of the sentinels, as they sung forth, with prolonged and varying cadence, the customary warning of "All's Well," harmonized sweetly with the monotonous booming of the sea, that broke upon the shore below the fortress.

Leaving the window open, I resumed my place in the hammock; and, while viewing the prospect before me, and inhaling the fragrance of my cigar, sweet and pleasing ideas of country and of home rose gradually within my mind. The landscape slowly faded from my view: the thoughts of kindred, of friends, and of the green banks of the Shannon, continued to mingle undefinedly with lofty palm trees, smoking mountains, cigars, swizzle, sentries, grand rounds, rum, and prisoners of war;

-in a word, I was fast asleep; and so might have continued until morning, had I not been awakened by an unusual commotion in the men's guard-room, separated from mine by a thin wooden partition only. The confusion of tongues at Babel was order and regularity compared with the uproar I now heard. The Irish serjeant's brogue, as he alternately swore and blarneyed, rose clear and sonorous over the guttural grumbling of the Germans, the rumbling burr of the Northumbrians, and the jabbering, monkey-like squeak of my own negroes; while at intervals I thought I could distinguish the low moanings of one in pain. To snatch my sabre from the table, and run into the adjoining room, was the thought and work but of a minute; and if the confusion of noises only was astounding, the scene that met my eyes, on crossing the threshhold, was perfectly alarming. A huge wood fire, that incongruous but invariable appurtenance of a West Indian guard-room, threw its fitful beams on the rough and marked features of the whole assembled guard, who were congregated round a black soldier of my own regiment, nay of my own company, who lay on the hearth, agitated almost convulsively. His face, as the fire-light gleamed on it, was deadly pale. Yes, my friend, a black man can look pale; and nothing can be more horrible than the colour which at such a time the negro assumes. The blood forsakes the countenance; the lips become of a dull, yellow white; a circle of bluish tinge surrounds the eyes; the red veins in which, being swoln and filled with blood, seem of the hue of fire; while the ivory whiteness of the teeth imparts to the whole face a character almost demoniacal.

I elbowed my way with difficulty through the circle, for authority seemed lost I shouted, stamped, swore, and at last was heard. "What is the meaning of all this confusion ?"

"That black spalpeen has run away from his post, and never stopped to look behind him," says the serjeant. "Where was he stationed ?" "In the archway by the prisoners' quarters." "Turn out the relief then, and post another sentinel." Grumble went the Germans; the Northumbrians rumbled out their dissatisfaction; the negroes squeaked, but no one moved. All the Irish blood in my veins rushed to my head, and I was in "a tundhering big passion," as the serjeant afterwards defined it. I again, and again demanded the cause of all this uproar. No answer. I at length, by dint of shaking, kicking, roaring, and thumping, drew an answer from Blackie himself; who gasped out, while his mouth opened and shut like a dying dog-fish, "Oh Massa Coptin !— (all the officers are captains with the West Indian soldiers,) oh, Massa Coptin, me savee-sartin me safe-sure me go da kicke raboo-me die -me go da Guinea-me see da Jumbee !" I was but a new-comer in the colonies, and did not understand him. I demanded an explanation from the serjeant. "Sure, and plase yer honour, he says he saw the 'White Gentleman,' that is the devil, your honour.' "The superstitious scoundrel! the prisoners have been endeavouring to terrify him," exclaimed I; "turn out the relief this instant; take off his accoutrements; make a prisoner of him, and follow me to his post."

This was soon arranged; the sergeant and three men were selected; the word was given,-"With ball-cartridge, prime and load;" and off we marched towards the massive archway, dividing the lower from the upper compartment of the fortress, where the sentry had been posted, and where the French prisoners were locked up during the night-time. We reached the spot. It was at the entrance of a long covered way, or bomb-proof casemate, arched overhead, that we halted; on each side of which was the row of

VOL. III.NO. XIII.

F

doors leading to the prisoners' quarters, and over each door, just at the spring of the arch, was a corresponding row of windows. The wind blew fresh and cool in our faces as we looked up the passage, whose extremity was lost in darkness; but the moon threw her beams from behind us as we stood, enlightening a few paces within the avenue, and marking on the walls and ground a distinct, "cut shadow," forming a perceptible division between the clear, bright moonlight without, and the thick, gloomy darkness within the archway. I tried each door-all was fast; the sound of heavy sleepers from within, shewed, that whatever had disturbed Blackee, had not alarmed the prisoners.

I passed through the archway. A lofty traverse, and its accompanying shallow ditch, divided it from, but did not prevent access to, a battery beyond. I passed round its end, and stood in the open space. Why I was alarmed, I know not, for I had often been there before; but true it is, a feeling of solemn awe crept over me, on finding myself within the precincts of a bastion, in whose ramparts were deposited the remains of such officers, whether English or French, as in former times had died within the fort. The low ridges of earth covering the British dead, were invisible among the rank and luxuriant growth of tropical vegetation; but the wooden crosses, at the head of the resting-places of the Frenchmen, were clearly distinguishable, although the huge building from which I had just emerged, threw its gloomy shadow over the limited space; solemnizing, but not darkening the spot, where those, who had once fought fiercely in the "battle plain," now slept side by side, the calm, long sleep of death. I threw a hurried and inquiring glance round its boundary. No living object met my view. Slowly and pensively I returned to the soldiers I had left beyond the arch; all there continued still, and remained so for upwards of half an hour; at the end of which time, weary of inactivity, I placed one of the men on the duty which his fellow had abandoned, and proposed returning to the guard-house with the others.

Scarcely had I turned my back for this purpose, when a shriek of terror burst from the newly placed sentinel; who, after for about a second presenting his musket down the archway, flung it violently from him, and fled precipitately, as also did the sergeant and his comrades. My eyes followed the direction of the levelled musket, and I do not fear being accused of cowardice when I say, I followed the example set me, and also ran away; for never did a more fear-inspiring object meet the human vision, than that on which my terror-stricken gaze was now riveted. The moon, as it shone brightly into the avenue, shewed me, near the summit of the arch, and almost on a level with my head, floating towards me, a human form, self-sustained in air, the arms of which were stretched out, as if to enfold me within their grasp. It was clad in a short tunic, of transparent white, which shewed more pure in contrast with the pitchy darkness behind it; the head was not quite severed from the body, but hung upon the breast, attached to the neck by a slight portion of the skin on one side. The legs were tossed to and fro in such a manner as clearly shewed that the bones had been broken in many places; and from the severed neck a stream of crimson blood gushed over the white raiment even to its feet. Covering my eyes with my hand, I fled towards the guard-room, and had nearly reached it, when the sound of distant laughter from the vessels moored below the fort struck on my ear, as if a ray of sunlight had pierced through the thickest darkness. The consequences of my conduct flashed at once upon my

A Soldier's Recollections.

mind. I halted-my breast heaved--my knees trembled—and a profuse perspiration rushed from every pore.

*

Mustering every energy that fear had left me, I slowly retraced my steps. The feelings of the condemned criminal, as he paces between his cell and the fatal gibbet, would be a state of bliss compared with what I suffered, as I endeavoured to muster in my mind every motive that could stimulate me to exertion.

At length I stood trembling and breathless on the spot I had quitted. Slowly I raised my eyes, and shuddering, closed them in terror, though nothing met my view within the dreary void before me.

The heavy toned bell of the fort tolled the hour of one. Reassured, I gazed more earnestly towards the summit of the arch, and beheld, while the deep note of the bell yet sounded in my ear, the same frightful object emerging, as it were, from the solid masonry of the roof. It now hovered over my head in a horizontal position, which, as it floated nearer and lower, was changed for an upright one; the breast dilated and swelled, as when one draws a heavy suspiration; no sound accomAt my feet lay the panied the motion. Despair gave me courage. loaded musket of the sentinel: I seized, and, cocking it, viewed the object of my dread more earnestly. The suspirations were continued, and I now saw that the head was but one unshappen battered mass of red raw flesh.

Assuming as military a tone as terror would permit, I shouted, "Who goes there?" No answer.

Again and again I shouted the soldier's challenge, though each time fainter and fainter. I now fancied I could almost touch it. Bringing the gun to my shoulder, I took aim,-'twas within a foot of the musket muzzle,-I fired. The loud echo was repeated a hundred-fold, reverberating hollowly from the arch before me, and more sharply from the grave-yard beyond. Thick smoke filled and obscured the passage. I could not have missed,-my courage was as the nerve of despair. Slowly the breeze dissipated the dense smoke; and there, fluttering wildly, like an eagle over its prey, and certainly now not more than two feet from my head, was this "thing of fear and dread." I sprung upwards, and I felt a slight resistance. Something snapped clasped it in my arms. loudly; and a cloth, cold, dank, and damp, as the covering of the dead, enveloped my head and shoulders!!! 'Twas no❝ unreal shade :”—I felt 'twas substance. Terror vanished, and I became on the sudden strangely valiant. Sounds of human life were around and about me: the prisoners were alarmed, and talked loudly in their quarters. Lights moved towards me from the guard-house, with the sounds of measured footsteps. It was the serjeant and the entire guard. They moved in line, steadily, and with ported arms, ready for the charge; and low at my feet lay the object of this warlike preparation. And what was it?—A shirt of white linen! which had been pinned by the sleeves to a drying line, reaching from a window of the casemate to the opposite one; to the collar was pinned a red nightcap and a pair of red garters, (the seeming stream of blood ;) and to the bottom was attached a pair of stockings, (the jointless legs of my GHOST!) The line being rather slack, it had been wafted backwards and forwards in the breeze that blew down the passage, causing it to advance and recede; and as it bellied with the wind, it seemed to dilate and to diminish in form, causing the before so evident suspiration, and giving it the appearance of supernatural ani. mation.

F 2

Need I say that the Court-Martial passed a lenient sentence on the poor black delinquent who had quitted his post? Need I enumerate the jests and jibes that poor I endured from my brother officers? And need I describe how sheepish I looked when, as I was beauing two belle Guadaloupeans round the Place de Mars, one Sunday evening after garrison parade, I heard my serjeant say, in no dulcet strains, to a comrade, as he touched his cap in passing: "There! that's the Irish officer who caught the Ghost!"

G.

MONOPOLY, OR FREE TRADE, IN BANKING.

THE subject to which we would direct the reader's attention through a few pages, has been forced upon our notice by the strange article in the last Edinburgh Review. That earnest pleading for the prolongation of the Charter of the Bank of England, does not so much surprise as it disappoints us; for, though we well knew the amount of convenience of such an Institution to the Treasury Minister, we were not prepared to expect from the individuals now at the helm of affairs-individuals whose career in opposition was principally distinguished by the acquaintance to which they pretended with the works of Adam Smith,-we were not prepared to expect from the liberal Lord Althorp, a proposal for that Charter's immodified renewal. We take the article, it will be observed, as at least a demi-official one; and it doubtless contains a pretty accurate approximation to the present creed of Government.

The Edinburgh Review, upon Banking, has never indeed been thoroughly equal to the subject. In sundry of its former productions, we descried that lack of power to take firm grasp of the question, which argues a mind not practically acquainted with details, and content to rest its opinions on the ground of a few doctrinal generalities; but assuredly, our remembrance of its many good deeds, on behalf of Economical Science, would have prevented our imagining that it could press forward at so critical a moment, and for the single purpose of delusion, with a piece of ill-digested dogmatism, of which it is difficult to say whether the premises or pretended inferences are the more incorrect and exaggerated. Anxious, as it is, to mislead, and reckless about the quality of an assertion, provided it subserve that one purpose, we believe the article will fail through its very excess of zeal. The impression immediately arises on perusing it, that it is an overreach. The downright purpose in the author's mind is not concealed with sufficient skill; and the extravagant eagerness of his endeavours to perform what he esteems to be his work, deprives him of moral authority, and throws over all his reasonings the suspicion of sinister design.

A great confusion of ideas pervades the paper, for want, apparently, of a previous and discriminating view of the ground on which it is made to rest. The confusion originates in the assumption that the fact of overissue is an ultimate fact, or dependent solely upon the Banker's caprice; whereas it is invariably the consequence of some peculiar commercial state, upon which, indeed, the system of Banking must always exert signal influence for good or for evil; but an influence guided and determined by other principles than the Banker's mere recklessness