SIR PETER LUMSDEN.

(By "Jehu Junior," in Vanity Fair.)

There is no older or better family in Scotland than that of the Lumsdens, which came originally from Cumberland. Its name is enshrined in the famous Ragman Roll, which gives the list of those who swore fealty to Edward I, at Berwick, in 1296, and it has been established in Aberdeenshire for some 100 years. Lumsdens served with the Scottish Arciiers in France and Germany, a Lumsden was ono of Gustavus Adolphus' colonels, and it was Sir James Lumsden who on a famous occasion defended" Diiudeo till his detachment was recluoed to eight men, so that he was taken and his body hung over the gateway of the town. In the'beginning of the present century there went out to India Thomas, a younger son of the house, who was the first subaltern enrolled in the- Bengal Horse Artillery, who became a colonel, and who warred'valiantly for England all his life. He left three sons to the Queen's Indian Army. William Lumsden fell storming a gate before Delhi with Nicholson's column. Harry Burnett Lumsden was originally one of the Punjab political officers selected by Henry Lawrence, raised the Corps of Guides, and fought in every border campaign from 1810 to 1857. Sir Peter was born in the camp at Muttra on the 9th November' 1827, and is now in his eight-and-fiftieth year. He was .sent home to school in Aberdeenshire, was afterwards at Twickenham and Wimbledon, and at 20 entered Addiscombe College,1 whence he went to India. Young Lumsden proved a true Aberdonian, frank of speech, uncompromising in conduct, plain and straightforward, and fearless in action. He made some enemies, because he would do no jobs, nor even so much as recommend a field officer for a C.B. on account of an action in which not a shot was fired; but those under whom he has served have never failed to become his fastest friends, among whom he has counted such men as Lord Clyde, Sir John Lawrence, Lord Napier of Magdala, Lord Strathnairh, and Lord Sandhurst. He is the only officer in the Army who has held both the quarter-master-generalship and the adjutant-generalship, besides having been chief of the staff of the Indian Army. He was selected by Mr Gladstones Government to conduct upon the spot the delimitation of the Afghan frontier with the Russians. Long left by that Government to await the arrival of Russians who never came, ho displayed great tact when they did come, in avoiding with them a conflict', which he had been ordered to decline. The massacre of tho Afghans at Fenjdeh, which followed as a matter of course, was succeeded by the presentation of a sword of honour to its perpetrator, Komaroff, on tho part of Ihissia; and on the part of England by the recall of Sir Peter, whose warnings had been proved to be only too well founded, and whose presence on the frontier was regarded as a danger to Russia equally by the Czar, and by tho Czar's personal friend and political tool', Mr Gladstone. Sir Peter was, therefore, ordered home, and it is to the Tories that lie owes the honour, all too tardily bestowed on him, of being made a Sir Peter is eminently a frontier officer. He had been sent on a mission to Afghanistan iv 1857; and in the Afghan war his knowledge of tho country, the people, and tho language proved invaluable. He has always shown himself as ready in action and as fertile in resource as he is - prudent in council. He is a great worker, yet a modest man who has never pushed himself. He is thoroughly honourable and completely honest, has an iron frame, and is fearless alike of personal danger and of official response bility. In short, Sir Peter is a splendid soldier and au independent man.

—Since Dr Tanner pullod through his 40 days of fasting little has boen heard of him. He has since become a radical vegetarian, and does not even tolerate the eating of eggs, milk, butter, aud cheese. Tanner has joined tbe new community or sect of Faithists, in New Mexico. —Two thousand transport horses wero wanted for tho autumn manojuvres of 1873. They wore obtained with the greatest difficulty, and 1500 of the 2000 had to be imported from France. That single fact may give some idea of our national destitution iv transport—transport without wliich the finest army in the world is a stationary mass of men to bo out-manoeuvred, starved, and unrounded at leisure.—St. James' Gazette.

—There is no Sunday in Peru. The shops aro open on that day as usual, and in the afternoon bull-fights, cock-fights, and similar public entertainments are always held. Tho women always go to mass in the morning, and do up the religion for the entire family, as very few men are ever seen in the churches. . —England was (till tho Declaration of Paris in 1856), and will be (should she repudiate that Declaration), a naval power, commanding the obedience of Russia by her power of arresting on tho high seas that export of Russian produce which is all that the Russian Cabinet can give to great proprietors to induce them to submit to what is really a foreign Government.—Vanity