nd gaiter, in as much as it conceals
defects of limbs; but, on the long run, it is far to be preferred; it
lasts better, keeps cleaner, and does more comfortable service to its
wearer, than any thing else. One point not sufficiently attended to by
our military authorities, and yet which affects the health of the men,
is, that their trousers, whether in parade or for service, whether for
winter or for summer use, should be made of such a woollen fabric as
will allow of frequent washing. It is impossible for the cleanliness of
the soldier to be sufficiently kept up without this; and the material
now used for plaids of various kinds, or the common blanketing for
sailors' clothes, might be easily modified, so as to be suitable for
this purpose. Linen trousers are indispensable for foreign service of
some kinds; but for summer clothing at home, a light white blanketing,
which has the curious faults of being cool in warm weather, and warm in
cold, is the proper substitute; our men often get sudden chills in
summer evenings, which send then to the fever ward, and the cause is
mainly attributable to undue exposure in insufficient clothing. To
complete the lower portions of the soldier's dress, let him wear either
the shoe and gaiter, or the low boot; either is good, there is hardly a
choice--comfort preponderates in favour of the gaiters--ornament in that
of the boot.

And now for the head-gear of the British Achilles: a touching and a
troublesome subject, which has bothered all heads, from those of the
humble wearer up to the field-marshal, who is content under the
shadow--not of his laurels--but his plumes--to design any kind of
uncomfortable and ugly thing that strikes his imagination, and to clap
it on the cranium of steady veteran and raw recruit. Truly we have been
most unfortunate, aesthetically speaking, in our military caps; and, to
go no further back than Peninsular recollections,--from the
conico-cylindrical cap of Vimiera to the funny little thing with a flap
up in front of Vittoria and Waterloo, down through the inverted
cone-shaped shako of recent days--until we have come to the very bathos
of all chapellerie that now disgraces the heads of too many among our
infantry regiments--all has been bad. Never, since the day when men
first armed their heads for the fight, has there been seen such a
paltry, ugly, useless, bastard kind of a thing as the last cap turned
out for the British army. With its poke before and behi