212 ting what he sought, he received an appointment on the general staff as assistant adjutant-general of the Ceded Districts, an office which he held for some years. His sword being thus doomed to rest in its sheath, he betook himself to those literary occupa- tions with which so many of our Indian officers have honourably filled up their intervals of leisure, and the result was the history of his own regiment, under the title of an Historical Record of the Madras Euro- pean Regiment, which was published in 1843. Nor were his proper duties the while neglected, but were performed with a diligence which called forth the repeated thanks of the general in command of the Ceded Territories. But the military rather than the civil department of the service was still the object of his longing, and in this he had the prospect of being gratified by the breaking out of the second Burmese war. His regiment being ordered out for Burmah, he hurried to rejoin it, but was met on the way by the announcement that he had been appointed adju- tant-general of the Madras troops under Sir Scuda- more Steele. On the termination of the war he was left in charge of the Madras troops in Burmah, and was actively employed in putting down the insurrec- tions that followed in various parts of the country, a service in which his diligence and ability were re- peatedly and highly commended by the governor- general of India. But his zeal and labours were too much for the climate, which laid him prostrate; and a brain fever had nearly deprived him of life, when by the care of his friends he was so far recovered as to be embarked in a steamer bound for England, which he reached in June, 1854. On his return to his native climate the health of Neill was rapidly recovering, when the cheering prospect of occupation tended to complete the cure. The Crimean war broke out, and among the various plans for conducting it, our government had resolved to organize and discipline an army of Turkish sol- diers commanded by British officers. For such a service our officers who had been in India were reckoned to be best adapted, in consequence of the nature of their military experience among Asiatics; and amidst the appointments which took place for this Anglo-Turkish contingent, General Vivian, who had been adjutant-general of the Madras army, was selected as its commander, and Colonel Neill to be his second in command. Impatient to commence his duties, Neill was so fortunate as to be among the first who were conveyed to the Bosphorus; and on assuming the command at the camp of Bayukdere of the division assigned to him, he commenced the work of discipline in good earnest, and was soon able to report his recruits as "good and steady, very smart under arms, and painstaking to a degree." But this orderly spirit unfortunately did not prevail over all the departments of this Anglo-Turkish force. The Bashi- Buzoukhs, an irregular kind of cavalry, although brave and serviceable enough in action, were, like the moss-troopers of our old Scottish armies, more intent upon spoil than the cause for which they fought, making plunder of friend and foe without distinction; and in consequence of their excesses a military commission was established, having com- plete authority to try and punish the offenders, with Colonel Neill for its president. In such active hands the office was not likely to remain a dead letter; and on the second day of its proceedings two notorious trespassers having been tried and convicted, were punished each with 500 stripes administered "with a stick, to the enlivening strains of a quick march played by a band of music," in accordance with the military customs of the Turkish army. The punish- ment was a wholesome check upon the Bashi-Bu- zoukhs, but it was necessary to continue the inquiry, and having done this he detected and fearlessly ex- posed the corruptions of the whole system, and pro- ceeded to the remedy. This stern but necessary severity was so displeasing to General Beatson, the commander of the Bashi-Buzoukhs, that he published indignant contradictions to Neill's statements, which led to a long and angry controversy, and twelve officers, among whom were one brigadier-general, three lieutenant-colonels, and three majors, retired from this branch of the service. But firm in his rectitude, and confident that these wild troopers might be converted into a gallant efficient cavalry, the colonel persevered in his unwelcome reforms until his services were justly appreciated by our government, so that Lord Stratford, the British am- bassador at Constantinople, required General Beat- son either to adhere to the regulations of Neill in the management of his soldiers, or resign his command into the hands of the latter. It was now the hope of Colonel Neill that he should be called into active service—that he should have an opportunity of dis- playing the powers he was conscious of possessing, and win those military distinctions which he reason- ably regarded as his due. But here, as on former occasions, his hopes were disappointed. Sebastopol fell, the war was terminated, and there was no fur- ther need of the Anglo-Turkish contingent. "It has certainly been provoking," he wrote in one of his letters, "that we have been kept back, and thrust out of the way; however, we have the satisfaction of knowing that we have succeeded admirably in organ- izing this contingent. ... I have seldom seen men who move better, and are more easily handled in the field; at ball-practice they are first-rate. Dur- ing the winter, when we were several times threat- ened, the fellows turned out in the highest possible spirit. Whether the force will be kept up remains to be seen. The French will be averse to it, as giving us so much more influence. The sultan is anxious to have British officers to organize his army, and the report is that they will be lent to him. I of course will stay if the government and Company will allow it." But amidst these surmises for the future the contingent was disbanded, and Colonel Neill returned to England. During his stay at home, previous to the expiration of his leave of absence, his time was chiefly spent with his wife and family, interrupted at intervals by a vexatious correspondence with the authorities connected with the affair of General Beatson and the Bashi-Buzoukhs. In the midst of these, however, he was gratified by the kindness of some of the directors of the East India Company, through whom cadetships were obtained for two of his sons. But on the 16th of February, 1857, the hour of parting came, and he set out for India, where he landed on the 29th of the following month. His regiment in the meantime had gone to the Persian Gulf, in the expedition of General Sir James Outram, and Neill was about to rejoin it, but was prevented by tidings that the war in Persia had terminated. On the re- turn of his regiment of fusileers he was appointed to its command, his senior officer having been obliged to go to England in bad health, and he entered upon the duties of his office with alacrity. In this, one of his cares was to keep the younger officers from ac- quiring a habit of excess in drinking, and to cure a young gentleman of this fault he kindly invited him to live with him in the same house. He had only been two weeks thus employed when the earthquake shock commenced under which all India reeled, and our eastern empire all but toppled down. Colonel Neill had just made arrangements for a per-