289 
HISTORICAL NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ARTILLERY. 
[No. HI.] 
BY 
MAJOR F DUNCAN, L.L.D., &c., 
Royal Artillery. 
The accompanying extract from the Records of the East Kent 
Militia possesses considerable interest to the Royal Artilleryman. The 
order appeared in the same month as that in which the 8th Battalion 
was formed: it contains the arguments used at the time for an aug¬ 
mentation of the corps, for it shows that an infantry regiment of 
militia was being employed in the capacity of gunners : it was issued 
by a General, famous both in life and in death. Sir John Moore; and 
it reveals the expectation of imminent invasion which prevailed during 
a critical year in England. 
Nor is the order without humorous features. The modern reader 
may well smile at the pompous prophecies of a French Army baffled 
on its landing by finding an enemy satisfied with a few yards' start in 
retreating, and proudly conscious that “it is the last shot that tells." 
And there is a delicious sarcasm in the sentence which reminds the 
brave amateurs that careless and premature firing encourages an 
opponent, — a sarcasm which doubtless secretes between the lines 
records of some loose gun-practice which had come under the observa¬ 
tion of the gallant General. 
But humorous or pompous, it was expressive of an earnest feeling 
in England. In this very year the English Ambassador had been 
insulted in the Tuileries: and English blood—plebeian or patrican.— 
boiled at the insult. Against the expected invasion,—the blow thought 
certain to follow the word,—the gallant East Kent were arrayed as 
auxiliaries to the Royal Artillery, and as such received high commen¬ 
dation. 
There is a purpose in cherishing these old traditions. There is no 
greater folly than in deliberately forgetting them. 
EXTRACT FROM REGIMENTAL RECORDS. 
EAST KENT REGIMENT OF MILITIA. 
Marched to Eungeness, 8 tli July, 1803. 2 Companies detached to Forts Moncrieff 
and Sutherland , near Hythe. 
Inspected by General Moore , 28 th September , 1803. 
