“This homage to the chief who drew his sword

At the command of duty; kept it bright

Through perilous days; and soon as Victory smiled

Laid it, unsullied, in the lap of Peace.”

INDIA—SERINGAPATAM—ASSAYE—1787–1806.

The proximity of two such formidable rivals as France and Britain, notwithstanding the friendly intervention of the Channel, has occasioned on both sides thereof an almost perpetual series of alarms, jealousies, and feuds, too often resulting in wars of the most stupendous magnitude, generally involving in their toils the other kingdoms of Europe. It is of one such crisis we write, when France, politically meddling with the affairs of Holland, excited the suspicions of our Government, and occasioned the combined interference of Britain and Prussia, to preserve, no doubt, the “balance of power.” Contemplating an appeal to arms, each prepared for the expected struggle. France and Holland possessing a large colonial empire in India, and both having a rival and antagonistic interest in the politics of that country to the new-born power of Britain, each marked that far-off land as an important theatre of strife. Hence, our legislature determined to strengthen our forces in that quarter of the British world by the addition of four new regiments, ordered to be raised in 1787. Two of these, the Seventy-fourth and Seventy-fifth,[[D]] were raised amongst the Highlanders of Scotland; and the others, the Seventy-sixth and Seventy-seventh, in England, or generally throughout the kingdom. No sooner were these completed—nay, in the case of the Seventy-fourth, before being completed—than they were shipped off for immediate service in India; whilst the question of their maintenance was installed in Parliament as a subject of bitter wrangling between the home Government and the East India Company, affording a theme for the genius of Pitt to work upon, and in the end to triumph, in the passing of the “Declaratory Bill,” which saddled the East India Company with the expense. This Bill was afterwards confirmed by Acts passed in 1791, and again in 1793.

[D]. The Seventy-fifth has just received the Royal permission to be styled the Seventy-fifth, or “Stirlingshire” Regiment.

Of these regiments, thus raised, the Seventy-fourth claims our present attention. It was assembled at Glasgow under command of Major-General Sir Archibald Campbell, K.B., and was largely composed of Argyleshire Highlanders—the Campbells and their kin. To meet the urgent demand for reinforcements, every soldier as yet available for duty was at once forwarded to India, followed by a second instalment of six companies, which completed the regiment, in 1789. Landed at Madras with an effective strength of 750 men, the Seventy-fourth, brigaded with the Seventy-first and Seventy-second Highlanders, joined the army of Major-General Medows in 1790. The Earl Cornwallis assuming the command, advanced upon Bangalore, which was taken by storm; thereafter the regiment was with the Highland Brigade in the fruitless expedition against Seringapatam. Detached during the winter for service in the Baramhal district, the Seventy-fourth was very conspicuous for its spirited but ineffectual attempt to storm Penagra, an almost impregnable hill fort, which was only saved by the natural obstacles that defended it, and defied the most desperate efforts of our Highlanders to surmount. In 1792 the siege of Seringapatam was once more undertaken, and considerable progress had been achieved, when the intervention of peace disappointed our army of the anticipated prize.

Brigaded with the Seventy-second and Seventy-third Highland regiments, the Seventy-fourth was engaged in the operations which brought about the surrender of the French settlement of Pondicherry. The garrison, in consequence, became prisoners of war, but the officers released on parole were hospitably entertained by the captors. Amid these hospitalities, an incident occurred which displays in bold relief the generous gallantry of the officers of the Seventy-fourth. With the French officers they were present in the theatre, when the former, in love with the new-born ideas of republicanism, in course of the evening vehemently called for the revolutionary air “Ca Ira.” This was objected to by the British; and from the uproar of words, a serious disturbance arose to break in upon the harmony, and bewilder and terrify the orchestra. Happily, the senior officer of the Seventy-fourth, stepping upon the stage, obtained silence, and addressing the audience in a firm but conciliatory manner, stated that the British officers had agreed not to insist upon their objections, but were prepared to sacrifice their feelings on the subject, seeing such might gratify their French friends and the ladies who had seconded the request. No sooner had the air been played, amid the acclamations of the French, than the same officer asked the audience to uncover to the National Anthem—“God save the King.” Rebuked by this generous forbearance, and heartily ashamed of their rudeness in so insisting upon their own gratification, the French felt themselves outdone in gallantry, and only too glad of an opportunity to repair the discord they had bred, granted a ready consent; and the Royal Anthem was only the more vociferously welcomed that it had been forestalled by the revolutionary ditty “Ca Ira.” Ever afterwards the utmost cordiality subsisted between the representatives of the two nations.

In 1798, when the war with France required a great financial effort adequately to sustain it on our part, and when the patriotism of the public liberally and voluntarily contributed to the national funds for the purpose, the men of the Seventy-fourth voted eight days’ pay; the non-commissioned officers a half-month’s pay; and the commissioned officers a full month’s pay, towards the vigorous prosecution of the war—“a war unprovoked on our part, and justified by the noblest of motives: the preservation of our invaluable constitution.”