684
MILITARY (Contd.)
so long, confident they are entrusted to those who will ably protect and guard them under every circumstance; and should the corps be called into active service, I feel assured they will do honour to their Queen and country, and fully maintain the high reputation already gained by the British army in all parts of the world.
"Our best wishes are offered for the honour, welfare, and happiness of the 95th Regiment.
"We deliver these Colours, gentlemen, to your safe keeping, and trust in God that if ever they are unfurled in war, it will be in a just and righteous cause.
General D'Aguilar then addressed the Regiment, and Colonel Campbell replied.
(To be Continued)
The ceremony of presenting new Colours to the 95th Regiment (now the 2nd Sherwood Foresters) at Murray Barracks, Hong Kong, on February 15, 1848, was described in the previous article.
The officers and men were addressed by General D'Aguilar, who said:
Colonel Campbell, officers, non-commissioned officers, and men of the 95th Regiment, It is with feelings of no ordinary satisfaction that I am called upon to take part in the honourable ceremonial of this day.
My long friendship for General L'Estrange, the Colonel of the Regiment (and whom I am too happy to represent on this occasion), my personal esteem for your immediate Commanding Officer, and my entire respect for the Ladies who have graced these proceedings with their presence, and honoured the Regiment by presenting to it these Colours in person, all these things have contributed to make me justly proud of the place assigned to me on this flattering occasion. (Mrs. Campbell had handed the Queen's, and Miss Campbell the Regimental Colour, to the Ensigns appointed to receive them).
Soldiers! The ceremonial which you have witnessed is not one of mere form. It has been consecrated with religious solemnity, in order to impress more strongly on your minds your highest military duties. It inculcates loyalty to your Queen, obedience to your Officers, devotion to your Country.
The Colours which you have received this day, are composed of the three colours of the United Kingdom. They are a type of that union which forms our strength in peace and our defence in war.
It will be your duty, under all circumstances and in every situation, to consider them as your Head Quarters, to look upon them as your Home in Garrison, your rallying point in the Field, and to defend them to the utmost, as your predecessors in arms have done, who nobly fought and bled in the service of their country.
The same honourable career is open to yourselves; all you want is the occasion, and I feel satisfied that you will profit by it.
But of one thing be assured, there is no road to distinction in war that is not founded upon discipline in peace. If you mean to defend these Colours with success, if you mean to emulate the conduct of the old 95th, whose name you bear, if you will rival them in honour and renown, and aspire like them, to the character