GRAND MILITARY BANQUET
TO THE
OFFICERS OF THE THIRTY-FOURTH REGIMENT,
AT DUBLIN.
General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, Bart., gave a magnificent entertainment at Morrisson’s Hotel, Dublin, on Tuesday evening, the 25th June, 1844, to the Officers of the Thirty-fourth Regiment, of which corps the gallant General is Colonel. Every delicacy in season, and every variety of the choicest wines were supplied in profusion. The distinguished entertainer, and his guests, were pleased to express themselves in the highest terms of the entire arrangements made by Mr. Baker for the occasion. The fine band of the regiment played during the evening some of the newest and most admired pieces of music.
After the health of Her Majesty had been drunk,
Sir Thomas gave the health of Colonel Airey and the Officers of the Thirty-fourth Regiment. In introducing the toast, the gallant General spoke nearly as follows:—Colonel Airey and Officers of the Thirty-fourth Regiment,—I beg most unfeignedly to assure you, that this is a most gratifying occasion to me; and I have looked forward to it with the greatest pleasure. Ever since the regiment returned from foreign service, I have been most anxious to meet with the Officers of so gallant a corps, which has distinguished itself on every occasion, and in various quarters of the globe; although I never had the good fortune to have the regiment immediately under my command, yet I have fought with it in many of the same battles. Even as far back as 1796, I fought with it at the capture of the island of St. Lucia. I also served with it in the Peninsula, and in all the battles which they proudly bear upon their colours, with the exception of Albuhera. We fought together at Vittoria, the Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, and Orthes; and I consider that the regiment ought to have had Toulouse added to the others, and I regret that the high authorities decided otherwise. But the Thirty-fourth Regiment occupied a most important situation during that action, of which I was an eye-witness, being the nearest division to that of Lord Hill’s; and the returns of the killed and wounded on these various occasions, amounting to nearly 1800 men, proclaim that the regiment had borne the brunt of many a severe and hard-fought battle. I assure you, gentlemen, it is a source of great gratification to me that I have been enabled to record all these gallant deeds, and more particularly that of Arroya de Molinos. In that brilliant affair the Thirty-fourth Regiment took the French Thirty-fourth Regiment prisoners, together with its brass drum, and Drum-Major’s Staff, &c.; and in consequence, the gallant corps to which you belong is permitted to enjoy a distinction that has fallen to the lot of no other regiment—that of wearing the white and red tufts in their caps. But this and the other heroic deeds will be imperishably recorded in the History of the Regiment, a copy of which I intend to present to every Officer, and also some copies to the library, that when any officer or soldier joins the regiment, he may, on reading all these gallant exploits, be animated with the desire of upholding that esprit de corps which has happily ever subsisted in the regiment, and which I hope will ever continue. I cannot here omit to notice how much we are indebted to Mr. Cannon, of the Adjutant-General’s Office, for the pains and labour he has bestowed, to enable us to print these records, and to give a faithful detail of all our early operations, deduced from the most authentic sources. Next to the bravery before the enemy, I admire the conduct which has marked the regiment, wherever it has been quartered; and it is with a feeling of pride I say, that in every place in which it has been, both Officers and men have left with the high opinion of the inhabitants. Gentlemen, I assure you this visit associates itself with many remote and pleasing recollections, as I consider myself one of the few connecting links left which unite the army of the last century with that of the present; and I am happy to think, in drawing a parallel betwixt the two, the contrast is all in favour of the latter. In the first place, we are now a much more scientific army; next, we are an infinitely better educated body, and much more sober, as relates both to Officers and soldiers; and thirdly, as to our movements,—When I first joined the army, there was no officer to be found in a regiment who could give a sketch of a country, or delineate a position; now, in consequence of the establishment at Sandhurst, there are few regiments without several of the officers who are qualified, not only to give a sketch of a country, or delineate a position, but to construct field-works, or to undertake the siege if necessary. With regard to education, it was then difficult to find even a serjeant who could read and write, or keep accounts; whereas, now, almost every soldier in a regiment is so far educated, and there are 700 out of the 800 men of which the Thirty-fourth is composed, who can read and write. The period that I allude to was when I was quartered in this city, in 1792 and a part of 1793. Dundas’s system was then introduced into the service. Before that time no uniformity existed in our military movements, nor even in the words of command; for if an officer was sent from one regiment to another, he would not have understood them, since regiments moved according to the fancy of their respective commanding officers. Now, as the Thirty-fourth, about the time I am speaking of, had been long in America, its movements were principally those of light troops; and a favourite one was that of moving from the centre and flanks of companies by files. I have had the advantage of serving in the first and second campaigns of the war with the Austrian and Prussian armies; and I may say I have seen almost the whole of the European armies in motion upon a large scale; and I consider that the British, in point of quickness and accuracy, stands foremost; and nobody will doubt that their physical strength and moral courage are superior to that of any other nation. It is all one to the British soldier where his enemy may be,—whether in his front, flanks, or rear,—he will fight him as long as his officer orders him, as at Waterloo, where whole faces of the squares were swept away with round shot, still the British soldier was found immovable. And although you may characterise the British soldier as the lion in the field, yet the most noble of all his traits, according to my estimation, is his humanity after a battle, when the lion suddenly changes to the lamb; and I never saw an instance in all my service in which the British soldier committed an act of cruelty upon his fallen enemy[17]. Next to the British soldier, I consider the Russian the most formidable while placed in position, although he cannot move[18]; and I may instance the fact in support of this, that at the battle of Borodino, the redoubts were five times taken by the French, and as often retaken by the Russians. Napoleon, finding he could make no impression on their iron front, made a flank movement with his army during the night, and got betwixt them and Moscow. It is too much the idea amongst the continental armies, that if their centre is pierced, or their flanks are turned, the battle is lost, as at the unfortunate battle of Jena, which the Prussians lost, and which decided the fate of their country. The same may be said with regard to the Austrians, at the battles of Wagram and Asperne, which led to the occupation of Vienna by the French, and to peace. How widely different with the British soldier! While in Paris, in the year 1815, I had many conversations with French officers of high rank, who argued strongly, that by all the laws of war, the English had lost the Battle of Waterloo, as their centre had been pierced, their flanks turned, and their artillery were in possession of the French. Could these gentlemen have possibly paid a higher compliment to the British army, although they wished to turn that compliment to their own account. When Napoleon saw the English army drawn up in position for the Battle of Waterloo, he remarked to Marshal Soult, “There are the English, I have got them at last, and I think it is nine chances out of ten that I have them all before night.” The Marshal, who had had a great deal of experience of the English, while opposed to them in Spain and in the South of France, replied to the Emperor, “Your Majesty certainly sees the English army, but you will find them like trees, rivetted to the ground.” I may here mention, in confirmation of this, that when the Kremlin was re-occupied by the Russians, the portfolio of Berthier, the War Minister, was found, giving a return of the French army in Russia, amounting to 400,000 infantry, and 80,000 cavalry. There were also found secret reports from the French Marshals opposed to the English in Spain, and addressed to Napoleon himself, stating that the French army could not be got to withstand the English when they came in close quarters! I have been long anxious to get the regiment to come to Scotland, that I might have an opportunity of uniting the bond of friendship and good understanding with myself and with the Officers more closely, and particularly as it is now ninety-eight years since it was in that country. In the year 1746, the regiment fought at the Battle of Culloden, and by a singular and rather extraordinary coincidence, my father fought with it in that action as Aide-de-Camp to the Earl of Home. I felt exceedingly gratified in examining into the interior economy of the regiment, to find that it is perfect and complete, both as to barracks, hospitals, and school; and I regret that my right honourable friend, Sir Edward Blakeney, the Commander-in-Chief, is not here to receive the report, as also in reference to its movements in the field: It is impossible for me to express too high an opinion of Colonel Airey, and the hearty co-operation he must have received from his officers to have enabled him to have brought the regiment to its present state of perfection; he could only have accomplished it by establishing a chain of responsibility throughout all ranks, where every individual discharged his proper duty, and to which we may ascribe the brilliant victories we always obtained under our great and invincible leader, who strictly enforced this amongst all ranks of his army, and which enabled him to declare to me his conviction, after the battle of Toulouse, when the army was about to be broken up, that he had commanded the most perfect army that ever was in existence. In conclusion, I fear I have occupied a good deal of your time, but I was anxious that you should hear many of these important military facts, from an individual who has passed above fifty years in the service, and who, in following up his profession, has crossed the tropics twelve times, the equinoxial line twice, and circumnavigated the globe, besides having been in America and other parts of the world.
“Quæque ipse miserrima vidi,
Et quorum pars magna fui.”