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despatches, the brevet of Major, medal with three clasps, 5th class of the Medjidie and Turkish Medal, and Knight of the Legion of Honour). Also in the campaign in China in 1860 with the 3rd Foot, including the netion of Sinho, in which he commanded the advanced guard, and the taking of Tonghoo; in command of the advanced outposts towards the Taku Forts, and as Allied Com. missioner (most favourably mentioned in despatches, medal with clasp and Companion of the Bath)."
It was at a crisis when every rifle was of the greatest importance that I used one "with remarkable effect," especially when cut off from our position by the Russian column that occupied the ground whence the 95th Regiment had charged the enemy down the hill. For the campaign of 1860 in China, I was commended by Lord Napier of Magdala, the general of my division, for "good judgment, determination, and high military qualities," and recom- mended to the Commander-in-Chief by Sir Hope Grant, who commanded the expedition, in the following words :-- "I would most strongly recommend this officer to the favourable consideration of His Royal Highness. He was one of the most active and useful officers in the field, who was in a position of great responsibility, and who performed his duties to my entire satisfaction."
When His Royal Highness selected ine for this practical stamp of Royal as well as Parliamentary honour and approval, I was at the time only a Colonel, and I think it will be found---I have not the necessary "Army List” here to refer to that no one junior to me, in age, or in length of service, was on that roll of honour. So far from asking for it, I never gave His Royal Highness or any one else the glimmer of a hint that I expected it or even thought of it. The extra 1001. a year which it gave was, from a pecuniary point of view, immaterial; but my soldier's heart rejoiced at being picked out by the Commander-in-Chief, at such a
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time and under such circumstances, for what was so coveted a distinction.
No one can possibly have a higher sense of military duty than I have. My views on the point are well known. I have always held that, war being a condition of our present existence, unquestioning obedience in military matters is a vital necessity, and that the service demands the most complete sacrifice of individual feelings in all good soldiers of whatever rank, as I have shown from Ensign to Lieutenant- General Commanding. I was unemployed and doing no duty whatever as a soldier when I was compelled to protect myself against the Commander-in-Chief's shameful treat- ment of one whom he had stamped with his approval as one of the best officers in the service-a treatment that was thoroughly in keeping with what I had written to him in my letter of the 28th February, 1888, and repeated to the Marquis of Salisbury in my letter of the 28th of last February.
Although I have strenuously withstood the attempts of His Royal Highness to cast a slur upon my character as a good soldier, and notwithstanding the irreparable injury that I have sustained by being compulsorily retired, in the way I was, from a profession which had my whole heart, and by the lining out of my name from the list of K.C.B.s on the occasion of Her Most Gracious Majesty's Jubilee, I have left no effort untried, I have spared no pains to obtain a peaceful settlement. I have no false pride, and for the sake of peace I repeatedly expressed my willingness to withdraw the letters that gave His Royal Highness so much concern; but when the suggestion to do so was coupled with the promise of a K.C.B.ship, by way of a bribe, I was too angry at the time to do anything but protest against such a suggestion, so that it might not be supposed at the Horse Guards that I was willing to accept the chivalric
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