No. 9 COMPANY, 2nd BATTALION,
Reduced 1st February, 1819.

List of Captains who have successively commanded the Company, as far back as can be traced, down to introduction of Brigade System, in 1859.
  *       *       *       *       *
1782Captain Thomas Paterson.
1790Captain John Macleod.
1793Captain Thomas Desbrisay.
1799Captain William Robe.
1800Captain Robert Wright.
1802Captain Daniel Gahan.
1804Captain George Forster.
1804Captain Benjamin Fenwick.
1812Captain David Story.

No. 10 COMPANY (afterwards No. 8), 2nd BATTALION,
Now "A" BATTERY, 14th BRIGADE.

List of Captains who have successively commanded the Company, as far back as can be traced, down to introduction of Brigade System, in 1859.
  *       *       *       *       *
1782Captain Thomas Davis.
1783Captain F. M. Dixon.
1793Captain Charles Robison.
1803Captain John Dyer.
1804Captain George Desbrisay.
1814Captain Thomas J. Harrison.
1819Captain Thomas Paterson.
1825Captain Courty. Cruttenden.
1826Captain Hamelin Trelawney.
1831Captain Thomas Grantham.
1843Captain T. C. Robe.
1851Captain Evan Maberley.
1856Captain J. E. Thring.

CHAPTER XVII.
During the Seven Years' War.

At this time the Regiment well deserved the motto it now bears, "Ubique." The feeling uppermost in the mind of one who has been studying its records between 1756 and 1763 is one of astonishment and admiration. Only forty years before, the Royal Artillery was represented by two companies at Woolwich; now we find it serving in the East and West Indies, in North America, in the Mediterranean, in Germany, in Belleisle, and in Britain, and yet it was by no means a large Regiment. In 1756 it contained eighteen companies, and by the end of the war it had increased to thirty, exclusive of the cadets; but when we reflect on the detached nature of their service, we cannot but marvel at the work they did. If England must always look back with pride to the annals of this war, so also must the Royal Artilleryman look back to this period of his Regimental History with amazement and satisfaction. It was a wonderful time,—a time bristling with ubiquitous victories,—a time teeming with chivalrous memories—Clive in the East, and Wolfe in the West—British soldiers conquering under Prince Ferdinand at Minden, under Lord Albemarle at the Havannah, under Amherst at Louisbourg, and under Hodgson at Belleisle,—English Artillerymen winning honours and promotion from a foreign prince in Portugal; and at the end, when the Peace of Paris allowed the nations to cast up the columns in their balance-sheet, England, finding Canada all her own, Minorca restored to her, and nineteen-twentieths of India acknowledging her sovereignty. It was a golden time: who can paint it? Who can select enough of its episodes to satisfy the reader, and yet not weary him with glut of triumph? And shall it be by continents that the deeds of our soldiers shall be watched? or on account of popular leaders? or by value of results?

With much thought and hesitation it has been resolved in this work to choose subjects for complex reasons. Who can think of England's Field Artillery without thinking, at such a time as this was, of Minden?—of her siege Artillery, without remembering Belleisle? And yet what would the History of the Regiment at such a period in England's annals be, if the names of Phillips, Macbean, and Desaguliers were unspoken?

Happy coincidence that enables the historian to combine both,—that bids him, as he writes of Minden, write also of Phillips, who was the head, and Macbean, who was the hand, of the corps on that proud day; and as he tells of the wet and miserable trenches at Belleisle, with the boom of its incessant bombardment, tell also of him, the brave, the learned Desaguliers, wounded, yet ever at his post! But is this all? The Seven Years' War, without America having a chapter given—America, which was the cradle of the war, as it was the scene of its greatest triumphs! Where shall we turn to choose on that continent some scene which shall be noble and pleasant to tell, and shall not wander from the purpose of this work? The mind clings instinctively to Wolfe, eager to narrate something of the Regiment's story over which his presence shall shed a lustre, in memory as in life. Quebec is eagerly studied, reluctantly laid aside, for on that sad and glorious day only a handful of Artillerymen mustered on the Plains of Abraham. So the student wanders backward from that closing scene, and on the shores of that bay in Cape Breton where Louisbourg once stood in arms, he finds a theme in which Wolfe and this Regiment, whose history he fain would write, were joint and worthy actors. And what prouder comrade could one have than he who was the Washington of England in bravery, in gentleness, in the adoration of his men?

These three episodes of the war, therefore, have been selected for separate mention. In the present chapter the general outline of the war will be glanced at, and domestic occurrences in the Regiment described.

The Seven Years' War owed its immediate origin to the quarrels in America between England and France. Under the impression that the time was favourable for recovering Silesia, which had been awarded to Prussia at the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, Austria secured Russia, Saxony, and Sweden as allies, and ultimately France; while Prussia obtained the alliance of England. The commencement of the war was unfavourable to England. Minorca and Hanover fell into the hands of the French, and remained so until the end of the war. But they were avenged by the victories of the British troops under Prince Ferdinand at Crevelt and Minden; and by the victories of the King of Prussia over the Austrians at Prague and Rosbach. The capture of Belleisle by the English compensated, to a certain extent, for the loss of Minorca. The capture of Louisbourg, Quebec, Montreal, and ultimately the whole of Canada, added lustre to the English arms in the West, as that of Pondicherry did in the East; while even Africa contributed its share to English triumph, in the capture of Senegal from the French.