“ What connection the person entrusted with a matter of such vital importance could see in these two Regiments is quite beyond the imagination of a soldier, and gives rise to the id=ea that he must have drawn them out of a hat. The 27th has a glorious history of two centuries; the 108th was only raised by the East India Company in 1854, and has no more to do with Ireland than the Russian Guards.
Look at the 31st Huntingdonshire and the 70th Surrey “linked” together at Kingston. Is every Huntingdonshire man who wishes to join his county Regiment to walk all the way to Kingston to enlist? ”

“ And yet more incumbent is it on us to listen to no arguments of theory that would reduce the number of our commissioned officers. Our Army is so small that, more than any other, for the sake of judicious daring, [x] and of judicious economy of life, it must be well, brilliantly, and carefully led. And this cannot be when sparse officers are whelmed in a confused mass of men. ”

“ The plains of Upper India are reduced to their true proportions; the Central Provinces, Malwa, and Western Bengal reveal their actual ruggedness at a glance; and Southern India, from the Vindhyas to Cape Comorin, proclaims its real height above the sea-level. ”

“ The second 18th Dragoons was raised in Ireland by Lord Drogheda in 1759 as the 19th Light Dragoons, it became the 18th in 1763, and served in Holland in 1799; during the Peninsula war at Corunna, Vittoria, Nive and Orthes, also at Quatre-Bras and Waterloo; its uniform was scarlet with white facings; it was disbanded in 1822 when it was the 18th King’s Irish Hussars; its uniform then was blue with white facings. ”

“ At the close of the eighteenth century it was known as the “Royal English Dragoons.”
[21]
SECOND DRAGOONS.
The Regiment was raised in Scotland from three Troops of “Scots Dragoons” and Independent Troops of Dragoons, and is the oldest Regiment of Dragoons in the British Army.
It is said= by some authors that its uniform when raised was stone-grey.
It bears the Thistle within the Circle and motto of St. Andrew “Nemo me impune lacessit,”—also “Second to None.”
It also bears an Eagle in commemoration of its capture of the Eagle of the 45th French Regiment at the battle of Waterloo. ”

“ It follows, therefore, that a man of Sussex wishing to enlist in his county Regiment, first has to go into the “43rd Brigade Depôt,” and then may find himself in the 107th Bengal Infantry, which Regiment he never intended to serve in at all!
But the above examples of ill-matched couples will suffice.
Is it wonderful that soldiers with the least gleam of esprit de corps desert? ”

“ The object of the following pages is to bring under one head the information that is scattered through Despatches, Army Lists, Gazettes, Books, Magazines, &c. concerning the History of the different Regiments of the British Army; and to enable anyone at a glance to ascertain whether a certain Regiment served during a certain campaign, or was at a certain action, or what its Title or Uniform was at a certain date. ”

“ Then, as another blow to the old constitution of [v] Regiments, and a reduction of their fighting power, we have the new “Brigade Depôts,” and “Linked Battalions.”
Do not the pages of the Army List, with this last heading, betray the fact that the Regiments must have been “linked” together by some one who was incompetent to do so?
Take the 27th Inniskilling, a Regiment essentially Irish in its character and composition, “linked” to the 108th Madras Infantry. ”

“ By this Chart, any person, however ignorant of the subject, may, by an hour’s attention, obtain a clear view of the broad lines of Indian History, and of the evolutions which have resulted in the dominion of Her Majesty as EMPRESS OF INDIA. It will be found invaluable for Educational Purposes, especially in Colleges and Schools, where an Indian career is in contemplation. ”

“ The officers, commissioned and non-commissioned, have all but disappeared, and the ranks are filled by over-educated boys, who consequently think they are as competent to lead their comrades as their officers.
Moreover, we now see all ranks looking forward to the time when they shall be turned out of the Regiment, instead of, as formerly, looking on it as their home for the best part of their lives. ”

“ The greatest difficulty has been the compiling of the lists of Campaigns, &c. in which the various Regiments have borne a part.
All those that appear on the Colours have been given, although many are of inferior importance to many that do not; moreover many Regiments [xii] have received distinctions for actions in which others shared who do not possess any record of the fact upon their Colours.
The dates given are those in Haydn’s “Dictionary of Dates,” which is assumed to be correct, and, in the case of a capture of a place, the last day of the siege or capture is given. ”

“ A map of this kind brings before us such a picture of the surface of a given country as no ordinary map could ever do. To the mind’s eye of the average Englishman, India consists of ‘the plains’ and ‘the hills,’ chiefly of the former, the hills being limited to the Himalayas and the Nilgiris. ”

“ To the historical as well as the geographical student such a map is an obvious and important aid= in tracing the course of past campaigns, in realising the conditions under which successive races carried their arms or settlements through the Peninsula, and in comprehending the difference of race, climate, and physical surroundings which make up our Indian Empire. ”

“ The Regiment is one of those that came from Holland with King William III.; it was then known as “the Old Holland Regiment.”
It bears “the Antelope” which is said= to have been granted for the capture of a Colour of “the Royal African Regiment” at Saragossa, which bore that badge; also “the Rose and Crown.” It is said= to have once borne the motto “Vi et armis.”
Its MS. Records say its facings were once of a peculiar colour, Orange with a shade of Dutch Pink, this was before 1742. ”

“ HINDUSTANI, HINDI, &c.
[Dr. Forbes’s Works are used as Class Books in the Colleges and Schools in India.]
Forbes’s Hindustani-English Dictionary in the Persian Character, with the Hindi words in Nagari also; and an English Hindustani Dictionary in the English Character; both in one volume. By Duncan Forbes, LL.D. Royal 8vo. 42s.
Forbes’s Hindustani Grammar, with Specimens of Writing in the Persian and Nagari Characters, Reading Lessons, and Vocabulary. 8vo. 10s. 6d. ”

“ The first Regiment especially raised for sea service was “His Royal Highness The Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regiment,” raised in 1664. Its uniform was Yellow with Scarlet facings. It was incorporated into the present Coldstream Guards in 1689. ”