have faced all dangers of climate and battle; which, because he has
money, to lodge at the agent's, will place him over the heads of men
who have a thousand times more experience and desert: and which, in the
course of time, will bring him all the honours of his profession, when
the veteran soldier he commanded has got no other reward for his bravery
than a berth in Chelsea Hospital, and the veteran officer he superseded
has slunk into shabby retirement, and ends his disappointed life on a
threadbare half-pay.

When I read in the GAZETTE such announcements as 'Lieutenant and Captain
Grig, from the Bombardier Guards, to be Captain, vice Grizzle, who
retires,' I know what becomes of the Peninsular Grizzle; I follow him in
spirit to the humble country town, where he takes up his quarters,
and occupies himself with the most desperate attempts to live like a
gentleman, on the stipend of half a tailor's foreman; and I picture to
myself little Grig rising from rank to rank, skipping from one regiment
to another, with an increased grade in each, avoiding disagreeable
foreign service, and ranking as a colonel at thirty;--all because he has
money, and Lord Grigsby is his father, who had the same luck before him.
Grig must blush at first to give his orders to old men in every way his
betters. And as it is very difficult for a spoiled child to escape being
selfish and arrogant, so it is a very hard task indeed for this spoiled
child of fortune not to be a Snob.

It must have often been a matter of wonder to the candid reader, that
the army, the most enormous job of all our political institutions,
should yet work so well in the field; and we must cheerfully give
Grig, and his like, the credit for courage which they display whenever
occasion calls for it. The Duke's dandy regiments fought as well as any
(they said better than any, but that is absurd). The great Duke himself