238 
THE BROME-WALTON FAMILY. 
j East Indies. 
Louisbourg. 
Africa. 
Field Artillery Train ” on a serviceable footing. Situated between 
the two great naval ports of Cherbourg and Brest, and with mixed yet 
loyal populations, the position of these islands appeared precarious. The 
theory then had not become converted into the modern withering axiom, 
that “all defence must inevitably succumb to sustained attackand 
although these islands must ever rest with the dominant naval power, 
yet coups de main were then the order of the day. The Governor, 
having reported the existence of a wide-spread conspiracy to do violence 
to the vents of the largest and most valuable gunes, demanded supplies 
of Nurembergian belts, while the Board of Ordnance proposed to 
guard the vents by additional troops. This ludicrous dispute occupied 
the consideration of the King and the Privy Council, on a certain 1st 
April, whose quaint decision is thus recorded on p. 144 of the Ordnance 
Royal Warrants Book, 1758-60 
“At the Court of St. James’s, 1st day of April, 1758. 
Present, 
The King’s Most Excellent Majesty, in Council. 
Whereas there was this day read at the Board a Report from the Right 
Honorable the Lords of the Committee of Council for the Affairs of Jersey and 
Guernsey, dated 80th of last month, . . . His Majesty, taking the same into 
consideration, is pleased, with the advice of His Privy Council, to approve of 
all . except as to the Article which proposes a Guard to be placed to 
secure the Yents of the Guns instead of the 53 Iron Hoops and Padlocks pro¬ 
posed by the said Governor; and to Order, as it is hereby Ordered, that His 
Grace the Duke of Marlborough, Master-General of the Ordnance, do cause the 
sending over the aforementioned 53 Iron Hoops and PadlocJcs to secure the Vents 
of the Guns (Sd.) W. Sharp.” 
Nothing connected with the interests of the Army was too bagatelle 
for the King and the Privy Council in past centuries. In one of the 
Ordnance record books, temp. Charles 11., the King and Council had 
before them a petition from the Governor of Chester Castle for re- 
placement of blankets or bedding, on which occasion (if the writer’s 
memory serve him) it was His Majesty who directed that the petition 
be remanded to the Governor to ascertain how long the articles had 
been in use and by how many men. Imagine our Empress-Queen and 
Her Council being occupied in this 19th Century with such trivialities ! 
Foreign Expeditions, 1758. 
Our canvas is too limited to depict the several operations of the Royal 
Artillery in the East Indies, by sea and land, and the successful stand 
made by Lieut.-Colonel Aldercron, R.A., to preserve the command, 
patronage, and promotion of the Royal Artillery from the aggressive¬ 
ness of Admiral Boscawen, Naval Commander-in-Chief. The siege of 
Louisbourg, rendered abortive in 1 757 by escape of the French fleet to 
Cape Breton, was to be proceeded with to the successful issue painted 
in Chapter IY. The hearts of Lancashire, in particular, and of the 
trading community in general, were to be made glad by the recovery 
of our African possessions, Senegal and Goree, from which the French 
had dispossessed us in 17th century—for with these islands we captured 
