arch happened to be in the wet. The consequence
was, infinite discontent, and desertion to a great extent--a thing never
heard of in the service before.

It may be conceived with what disdain those frivolous, yet mischievous,
innovations must have been regarded by those Russian officers who had
known the reality of service. Suvaroff was then in Italy with his army.
One morning a large packet was brought to him by an Imperial courier. To
his astonishment, and the amusement of his staff, it was but models of
tails and curls. Suvaroff gave vent to a sneer, a much more fatal thing
than a sarcasm, in some Russian verses, amounting to--

"Hair-powder is not gunpowder;
Curls are not cannon;
Tails are not bayonets."

The general's rough poetry was instantly popular; it spread through the
army, it travelled back to Russia, it reached the Imperial ear; the
Czar was stung by the burlesque, and Suvaroff was recalled.

Few things are more remarkable, than the slowness with which common
sense acts, even in matters which should evidently be wholly under its
guidance. It might appear that the mere necessities of war would dictate
the equipment of the soldier; namely, that it should be light, simple,
and safe, as far as is possible. Yet the equipment of the European
soldier, at the commencement of the French war, seemed to be intended
only to give him trouble, to encumber him, and to expose his personal
safety. The Austrian soldier's dress was an absolute toilette. The
Prussian, even with all the intelligence of the Great Frederic to model
it, was enough to perplex a French milliner, and to occupy the wearer
half the day in putting it off and on. The English uniform was modelled
on the Prussian, and our unlucky soldier was compelled to employ his
hours in tying his queue, powdering his hair, buttoning on his
spatterdashes, and polishing his musket-barrel. The heavy dragoons all
wore cocked hats, of all coverings of the head the most unprotecting and
the most inconvenient. The French light troops, too, all wore cocked
hats. The very colour of the royal French uniform, as well as the
Austrian, was white, of all colours the most unfitted for the rough work
of the bivouack, and also injurious, as shewing the immediate stain of
blood.

It actually took twenty years to teach the general officers of the
European armies, that men could fight without spatterdashes, that
hair-powder was not heroism, and that long tails were only an im