La Reine désire que j’exprime à Votre Majesté combien elle est sensible à la nouvelle preuve d’amitié que vous venez de lui donner, en lui portant un toast, et en prononçant des paroles qui lui resteront chères à jamais.
Votre Majesté connait les sentiments d’amitié qu’elle vous porte, à vous, Sire, et à l’Impératrice, et je n’ai pas besoin de vous les rappeler. Vous savez également que la bonne entente entre nos deux pays est l’objet constant de ses désirs, comme il l’est des vôtres. La Reine est donc doublement heureuse d’avoir l’occasion, par sa présence ici en ce moment, de s’allier à vous, Sire, en tâchant de reserrer, autant que possible, les liens d’amitié entre les deux peuples. Cette amitié est la base de leur prospérité mutuelle, et la bénédiction du Ciel ne lui manquera pas!
La Reine porte la santé de l’Empereur et de l’Impératrice!
ON PRESENTING NEW COLOURS
TO THE
2nd BATTALION OF THE 13th (“PRINCE
ALBERT’S OWN”) LIGHT INFANTRY,
AT HARFORD RIDGE, NEAR ALDERSHOT.
[FEBRUARY 21st, 1859.]
The act which has just been performed, simple as it is, has the highest significance for the soldier! You have received in these colours the emblems of your country and your Sovereign, and of your regiment as a part of the British Army. It is your country’s, your Sovereign’s, and that army’s honour which is bound up in them, and which you will henceforth have to guard and to defend; not by your valour alone in action, and your endurance under the hardships of campaigns, but also during the monotonous duties of peace and under the temptations of inaction—placed in different societies, under different climes, and in different parts of the world.
The British soldier has to follow these colours to every part of the globe, and everywhere he is the representative of his country’s power, freedom, loyalty, and civilization. The 13th has a fair name in the world, won chiefly in distant lands—the West Indies, America, Africa, and Asia; and its defence of Jellalabad has proved that it is capable of evincing the highest qualities of the soldier. You may point with just pride to the fact that those qualities, displayed so conspicuously under Sir Robert Sale, were but now exhibited to the admiration of mankind by Sir Henry Havelock, an officer trained in its ranks!
You are a new, a young battalion, sprung with surprising rapidity together with others from a patriotic people, for the rescue of the country’s mightiest interests threatened in the East. During the short time you have been together you have worked hard to assume the honourable position intrusted to you, and I may now congratulate you on your success. That the military authorities should think you fit and worthy to take your place in the Army of the Cape, shows that your exertions are appreciated and that entire confidence is reposed in you.
I feel proud that you should bear my name to that promising country.