6o ROYAL ROCK BEAGLE HUNT. 



Feeling as I do in this matter, I could not take a course different from that 

 which I have the honour to announce in this letter ; hut I think it only rif,^ht to 

 say that I am supported in the belief that no other was open to me bj' the 

 strong feeling of my battalion, and by the general public opinion of this neigh- 

 bourhood. 



I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant, 



(Signed) V. A. King, 



Lieutenant-Colonel commanding ist Chesiiiie 

 Rifle Volnnteei- Corps. 



The Under-Secretary of State for War. 



Before sending this letter, Colonel Kini:^ showed it to many of his 

 friends, seeking their counsel and advice. Several of ihem begged him to 

 suppress it, and to treat the slight, if slight it was, with dignified silence. It 

 was pointed out to him tiiat the great Brutus had once retorted to a friend, 

 who remarked on the fact that his statue did not appear amongst the great 

 men of Rome, " I had rather that men should wonder why I had not a 

 "statue, than that they should wonder why I had." Colonel King's fellow 

 citizens, even his political opponents, all knew that he well merited any 

 distinction that could be conferred on a volunteer officer, and tlie reason why 

 he was passed over on this occasi(Jn was freely discussed in the press. 

 As this event occurred under a Liberal administration, the Tory papers 

 sided with Colonel King and applauded his decision, while the Liberal 

 papers rather condemned his action as being impulsive and not justified by 

 the circumstances. Newspaper cuttings of all sorts on the subject have been 

 preserved by Colonel King in his scrap-book. 



To all Colonel King's friends, it will seem a pity that for so slight an 

 occasion he should have thought fit to sever his connection wiih the 

 volunteer force. Having been a leading spirit in the movement from the 

 outset, it would have been a fitting complemer.t to his career that he should 

 have died in the service ; and we may be sure that his successor. Colonel 

 Cunningham, would gladly have waited for his promotion. Though severed 

 from his old battalion. Colonel King did not withdraw his interest in its 

 progress and success. He was permitted to retain his rank and the right 

 to wear the uniform of the corps, and he continued to manage the Cheshire 

 County Rifle INIeeting, to which he had been a liberal subscriber from 

 its inception. 



In conclusion, it may without hesitation be said of Colonel King that 

 few men, if any, have done more for the volunteer force than he has done. 

 For the twenty-two years during which he was in command of the ist 

 C.R.\\, he devoted a great portion of his time, and much of his means, 

 to the interests of his battalion and volunteering generally. The writer 

 of "Volunteer Notes" in the Manchester Courier wrote of him: — 



His beneficence and generosit}^ were unl)ounded, and although the seal 

 of secrecy prevents us saying one word about his wide-spread pri\ate bene- 



