INSIDE THE CHANNEL That little incident threw some light upon Major Hockin's character.

It was not for himself alone that he was so particular, or, as many would call it, fidgety, to have every thing done properly; for if any thing came to his knowledge which he thought unfair to any one, it concerned him almost as much as if the wrong had been done to his own home self.
Through this he had fallen into many troubles, for his impressions were not always accurate; but they taught him nothing, or rather, as his wife said, "the Major could not help it." The leading journals of the various places in which Major Hockin sojourned had published his letters of grievances sometimes, in the absence of the chief editor, and had suffered in purse by doing so.

But the Major always said, "Ventilate it, ventilate the subject, my dear Sir; bring public opinion to bear on it." And Mrs.Hockin always said that it was her husband to whom belonged the whole credit of this new and spirited use of the fine word "ventilation." As betwixt this faithful pair, it is scarcely needful perhaps to say that the Major was the master.

His sense of justice dictated that, as well as his general briskness.

Though he was not at all like Mr.Gundry in undervaluing female mind, his larger experience and more frequent intercourse with our sex had taught him to do justice to us; and it was pleasant to hear him often defer to the judgment of ladies.