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order of Knighthood on any other terms than those of the services which it had been my good fortune to have the opportunities to render to Queen and country. Naturally as my offers to withdraw these letters were not accepted, I have always considered myself free to make what use of them I like, and this licence I of course extend to any Member of Parliament who will take up my case. I have the less reluctance to take this course, because the neglect to accept my offers of withdrawal has been followed by emphasising the ill-treatment I have received by again leaving my name out of the list of Birthday Honours.
As I yield to none in the store I set upon the character of an English gentleman, I was grieved and astonished to find that the Prime Minister has followed in the steps of His Royal Highness and neglected even to acknowledge the receipt of my letter to him of the 24th ultimo inclosing the printed letters to His Royal Highness and Lord Knutsford of the 18th ultimo. I am the more surprised at this discourtesy as Lord Salisbury has hitherto acknowledged the letters I have addressed to him, and went so far as to forward to the Commander-in-Chief at my request a copy of my letter of the 29th November 1890. I can only suppose that Lord Salisbury has taken his cue from the Royal Duke, as he would learn from the copy of my printed letter of the 18th ultimo to His Royal Highness that the Commander-in-Chief had sent no acknowledgment of my recent letters to him. Thus many have been turned against me by the attitude of the Royal Duke, and amongst others my old and revered chief Lord Napier, as shown at page 22 of my application for a Court-Martial. Of course it may be that the Marquis of Salisbury thinks me a most unreasonable man, and that I ought to be content with the condescension of His Royal Highness in his letter informing me of my appointment to be Colonel of a regiment. Here is the letter, dated
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"Horse Guards, War Office, 5th March 1891," although the Duke was in Egypt at the time: "I have the satis- faction to acquaint you that Her Majesty the Queen has been graciously pleased to approve of your appointment to the Coloneley of the 1st Battalion the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers."
But they forget that I was actually entitled to the 1,000l. a year which accompanied the coloneley of a regiment as from the 17th of last January on the Military Secretary's own showing, and that I could not be kept out of it unless the Commander-in-Chief again broke faith with me, as he did in the matter of the K.C.B.ship. For I have throughout adhered to the old rate of pay (25s. a day) thus depriving the Government of even the shadow of a pretext for any breach of faith. Another thing which would have made their continued ignoring of my claims still more glaringly indefensible is that on the 8th April, 1890, a regiment was given to Lieutenant-General Guise, who, according to the Army List, had not been employed since he was Colonel, while I who had served as Lieutenant-General Commanding had been ignored when a vacancy had occurred in my old regiment, the 95th. Under these circumstances, and having at p. 131 of Brochure 13, informed His Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief that I would not voluntarily address" to him any more communications, it was to the Secretary of State for War that I addressed my inquiries about a regiment and about the 1,000l. a year to which I would be entitled. My letter of inquiry was handed to the Military Secretary to answer, which he did by return of post in a letter of the same date as that of His Royal Highness announcing my appointment. I conclude that this expedition in answering my inquiries was due to the forwarding by the Marquis of Salisbury of my letter to him of the 29th November, 1890, to His Royal Highness.
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630