you are still very young I imagine you may soon acquire a competent knowledge by such reading, suitable to avail yourself of it on any emergency.

I must now recommend you to keep those who may be under your command in that degree of subordination and obedience which the service requires.  But you must never forget that your inferiors, even the Private Man who serves in the ranks, is your fellow soldier and fellow-man, and that you are bound to show him every attention and humanity in your power.  This was one of the many good qualities for which your father was remarkable, for which he was beloved by all ranks; and I hope you will imitate him.  I must now conclude by recommending to you to let me hear from you once a year, at least, or oftener if an opportunity offers.  Nothing can give more pleasure than to hear good accounts of you to

     Your affectionate godfather,

     MALCOLM FFRASER.

In short you must never forget that you may at times become responsible for the lives and honour of those under your command as well as for your own, and, it may even happen, for that of your King and Country, in some degree, and that you are to act accordingly.  All this with more and much better you may read or hear from others; but I flatter myself that you will not think the less of it as coming from me.

It must be admitted that the soldier’s ideal in that age for the British army was as high as our own.  We are accustomed to think that a hundred years ago drunkenness was hardly accounted a vice.  Perhaps it was not in civil life, but in the army, in young Nairne’s time, sobriety was the rule.  Writing on May 20th, 1807, he says that few in the army resort to drink, as a pleasure, even at Gibraltar, where wine is cheap and plentiful; the allowance in the regiment after dinner is but one-third of a bottle, and only now and then when there are guests is it usual to depart from this allowance.  The deadly dullness and idleness of Gibraltar were its chief defects, the young officer thought.

There had been futile talk of peace.  On August 13th, 1806, Ker wrote to Murray Bay from Edinburgh:  “We expect to hear of Peace between this country and France.  The Earl of Lauderdale has been sent to Paris to treat.  But what sort of peace can we make with Bona Parte?” What sort indeed?  Peace was not to come during Tom Nairne’s lifetime.  He was getting ready meanwhile for an enlarged career.  At Gibraltar he pressed his guardian to purchase him a captaincy.  Those were the bad old days when promotion in the army went largely by purchase and Tom had been Lieutenant for little more than a year when, at a cost of L1,000, Ker bought for him the desired rank; he attained to this dignity at the age of nineteen.  The purchase strained his resources severely but his family got some comfort out of the thought that he was advancing.  There was an excellent library at Gibraltar and he had good opportunities for self-improvement of which he promised to avail himself.  But the promise was hardly realized.  At any rate Tom gave a very poor account of his own doings for, after he had returned to England, he wrote to his mother (from Chelmsford Barracks on March 19th, 1808) a not very flattering account of himself at Gibraltar: