THE BRITISH ARMY ON THE CONTINENT OE EUROPE. 
165 
Konniggratz, but no one ever speaks of the conduct displayed by Oldersliaw and 
Lis men, and yet none of the performances I Lave mentioned surpasses tLeirs. 
hut I am glad I Lave Lad tlie opportunity to refer to it now. I Lave often Lad 
to speak of Field Artillery and of its performances, but I Lope I Lave not overlooked 
all tLat tlie otlier brancli of our Regiment Las done; for I feel tliat whatever 
branch we may belong to we must, as gunners, all take a pride and interest in such 
a feat as I Lave just described, and it should be a great satisfaction that we Lave all 
of us a share and an inheritance in the glorious deeds which our predecessors 
carried through with so much credit to our cloth. 
REPLY. 
Dr. Maguire —General Maurice, I must congratulate myself on Laving been 
able to elicit such admirable speeches as those to which we have just listened— 
admirable from every point of view as displaying great historical knowledge and 
a fine spirit and desire to raise the tone of the humbler ranks of the service. I 
may as well explain, gentlemen, that these red marks 1 represent about one-sixth 
of the actions in which the British have been engaged from 1558 to 1856 on the 
continent of Europe. With regard to what Major May said, really I have nothing 
to criticise; everything he said I am sure is perfectly accurate and I am very much 
indebted to him for supporting me so well. He referred to some of the very 
greatest battles in which the British officers have fought and he referred to 
Barrosa. Well, the artillery did very well there. The charge was sounded by 
Paddy Shannon. Paddy Shannon was not a man of much education and he got 
into bad habits after the Great Peace. He was about to be flogged in Ireland 
and he said to Colonel Gough, “Are you going to flog Paddy Shannons, I the boy 
that sounded the charge that got you the eagle for the regiment ? ” “ Take him 
down,” said Colonel Gough. 
Then the speech of Colonel Yorke, though short, was very much to the point. 
He mentioned the action of the 5tli Company of the Western Division. Here were 
great men struggling in adversity. Lord Bacon says a good retreat is equal to a 
great advance, and certainly this battery deserves, with its record of 50 actions 
and sieges, a good niche in the Temple of Eame. 
Then the speech of Major Murdoch was really a very remarkable one I thought, 
and contained a wonderful amount of information with regard to a class of officers 
about whom little is known, including men like John of Austria and Spinola and 
others; and a peculiar feature with regard to the “ invincible Spanish infantry ” 
mentioned by another officer was that it was recruited from men of every nation 
—any man that was distinguished for “ derring doe ” was commissioned in the 
old Spanish armies. This state of things long continued. Prince Eugene was 
no Austrian, and at the battle of Eontenov the commander of the French was 
Marshal Saxe, a Saxon, but I do not agree with another gallant Major that the 
British nation should think it is going to fail because the Spanish nation failed. 
We must not give up encouraging our men, and why should a nation think it is 
going to fail? I am sure Major Simpson’s spirit in speaking of Tommy Atkins 
and wishing him to be imbued with the knowledge of what his predecessors have 
done is an excellent spirit and that he is in Major Simpson’s hands under very 
competent and inspiriting instruction. Then, gentlemen, with regard to what 
another officer said,as to the army serving on the sea ; of course Major Murdoch was 
On large wall maps. 
