4 
The Toast List was as follows : — 
(1.) The Queen. 
(2.) The Prince of Wales 
and the rest of the Royal Family. 
(3.) The Royal Artillery, 
responded to by 
Field-Marshal Lord Roberts, Y.C., K.P., &c. 
(4.) The Senior Officers of the Regiment, 
responded to by 
General Sir Lynedoch Gardiner, K.C.V.O., C.B., 
who said |—• 
“ Your Royal Highness and brother officers, I feel it an honour to be called 
upon to respond for the Senior Officers who have been retired by age, but I fear I 
shall prove but an indifferent spokesman in succession to my father, who responded 
for the corps 36 years ago on the occasion of our first annual dinner in London, 
H.R.ll. the Duke of Cambridge in the Chair. 
Wonderful as the changes and discoveries have been since the Queen came to 
the throne and much as they have been discussed, there is one which closely con¬ 
cerns us and which 1 have not heard noticed, viz.: the improved position of the 
officers of the R.A. with regard to those of cavalry and infantry. 
Owing to the office of Commander-in-Chief being totally distinct from that of 
Master-General of the Ordnance, a wall of separation had been built up for more 
than 100 years between the purchase and non-purchase branches of the service, 
i.e., between the cavalry and infantry under command of the Commander-in- 
Chief and the R.A. and R.E. under command of the Master-General of the Army 
—forming a barrier between the two, of which, I am sure, the junior officers of 
the present day can have no idea. 
Up to 1848, when Sir Robert Gardiner was appointed Governor of Gibraltar, 
no artillery General had had a command except at Woolwich, the Head-Quarters 
of the Regiment, and this was natural enough for these appointments, being 
entirely in the gift of the Commander-in-Chief, were given solely to the officers 
under his command. 
In every Continental army artillery Generals had had their full share of com¬ 
mand. The Emperor Napoleon, the conqueror of Continental Europe (but not 
of Great Britain), began life as an officer of artillery and as such rose to command ; 
but it is not too much to say that if his rival and opponent and eventual con¬ 
queror, the great Duke of Wellington, had commenced his career in the artillery 
instead of the infantry, he would probably never have commanded an army in the 
field. 
Many of my brother officers will remember that in the latter years of his life, 
my father printed and circulated to every member of both Houses of Parliament 
and others a series of pamphlets on the disabilities and requirements of the R.A. 
One of these referred solely to the non-employment of our General officers. 
This pamphlet happened to be read by the late Earl Grey, a statesman of very 
independent character, just at the time that the Government of Gibraltar fell 
vacant in 1848. It was customary for the Colonial Secretary, in any case where 
the Governor of a Colony held a military command, to refer the name of the 
selected Governor to the Horse Guards before submitting it for the Queen’s 
approval; and although the Duke of Wellington was the Commander-in-Chiefi 
Lord Grey sent in my father’s name for Pier Majesty’s confirmation without con¬ 
sulting either the Duke of Wellington or my father himself. He was at that 
time in frequent communication with the Queen and the Prince Consort, and the 
