THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
293 
a practical acknowledgement on the part of the authorities that the artillery 
was under-manned—and his first act was to report that he considered the 
measures taken by Col. Smith necessary and right. After 11 years of peace, 
at a time when annual practice was unknown, a short course of practice for 
the gunners would not have been superfluous; but not only was there not a 
single round of service ammunition allowed for this purpose, but the supply 
of blank cartridges was insufficient for the field days. The cartridges had to be 
subdivided, and to such an extent, that at one of the field days the force of the 
powder was not sufficient to expel the tubes from the vent; the tubes stuck 
fast, to the merriment of the other troops and the spectators; and the artillery 
was sent back to barracks that the tubes might be extracted. The gunners 
were as deficient in numbers as the drivers and horses; the detachments could 
only muster five or six men each; and “ there were no men in reserve, to replace 
the sick or the store guard.” 1 2 The English wheels, which had excited such 
admiration in 1815, were now a laughing-stock to the Portuguese. The 
tires were fastened on the felloes by long nails, instead of bolts with nuts, 
and pieces of the tire were constantly flying off, especially when the batteries 
moved at a trot. The gun detachments had to be held responsible that these 
pieces were not lost! The cavalry farriers had a contract for their shoes and 
nails; but shoes for the artillery horses were issued out of store, and were of 
such a “monstrous size” 3 that they all had to be reduced to fit the horses. 
This reduction had to be carried out in a field-forge with a charcoal fire, and 
involved an extraordinary amount of unnecessary labour. The nails were so 
bad that “ there was no end of re-shoeing going on; and on the return of the 
batteries from ordinary exercise, or even watering order, a dozen horses or 
more required the shoeing-smitlTs attention in each battery.” 3 The result was 
that a number of the horses got sore or tender feet, from constant shoeing 
and re-shoeing. Nor was this all; for, from time to time, large fatigue parties 
of the already overworked gunners had to scour the drill ground in search 
of broken nails and shoes. Fortunately the expedition did not fight, and 
returned to England after peacefully occupying Portugal for some months. 
As years rolled on, matters went from bad to worse. Like Tithonus, the 
field artillery grew, day by day, more attenuated and more enfeebled; until at 
last, in 1848—a year damned to eternal fame in the annals of the regiment—it 
had almost ceased to exist, except in name. In that year was heard a voice 
in the military wilderness—a voice proclaiming with no uncertain sound that 
England was “ actually without a field artillery.” 4 “It is a delusion,” said 
Sir Bobert Gardiner, “ it is a delusion to say England has a field artillery. 
There is not a single 9-pr. horsed in the British service.” 5 “ If any sudden 
emergency rendered it necessary to send field artillery from Woolwich to any 
threatened point on the coast } fourteen guns would be the utmost (really 
1 The above details are due to Mr. Lazenby, Governor of the Brecon County Gaol, who served 
in the expedition to Portugal in the Ordnance Department, as Asst. Conductor of Stores. 
2 Mr. Lazenby’s MS., in my possession. 
3 Mr. Lazenby’s MS. Mr. Lazenby assures me that the Letter Book of the Head-Quarter 
Office, R.A. would amply prove that Sir John May’s exertions to alter this state of things were 
unremitting.; but that the parsimony of the home Government rendered all his efforts unavailing. 
4 “ Illustrations of the Numerical Deficiency, &c., of the Royal Artillery,” by Sir Robert Gardiner. 
1849, p. 10. 
5 “ Report on the Numerical Deficiency, &c., of the Royal Artillery.” 1818, p. 8. 
