'Lowndes Square, March 1876.
'My dear Adye,—You were so kind as to send me and ask me to read your reply to Mr. Holms. When I was at Gibraltar, Drummond Hay, our Minister at the Court of Morocco, sent me over the Grand Vizier and the Commander-in-Chief of the Moorish Army.
'They were solemn, silent, but not unobservant parties. Amongst other things, I showed them some long-range seaward artillery practice. When they saw the little flag shot down two or three times, they turned to me, and simply said, "The Spaniards may go to bed!" I think Mr. Holms may go to bed.
'Yours truly, my dear Adye,
'Richard Airey.'
I also received the following letter from Mr. Gladstone:—
'September 1876.
'Dear Sir John Adye,—Amidst a great pressure and many interruptions, I have been able to gather very interesting information from your valuable pamphlet. For the last three years my attention to current public questions has been much relaxed, while the work of dilapidation incident to an unrefreshed memory has gone on. I do not now recollect as I ought, the precise terms of the present contract of the soldier with regard to the three years, which I have been accustomed to regard as the proper term of short service. To reaching that term for the British Army, I attach (ignorantly) a great value, with this idea among others, that it will very greatly popularise the service, besides its favourable bearing on the question of marriage.
'It will be a great pleasure as well as advantage to me, if I should have an opportunity of resuming the conversation which we began under Lord Sydney's hospitable roof.
'Believe me, faithfully yours,
'W.E. Gladstone.'
FOOTNOTES:
[102] Treatise on Construction of Ordnance, 1877.
[103] Textbook on Rifled Ordnance, 1872.
[104] Treatise on Construction of Ordnance, 1877.
[105] Artillery, its Progress and Present Position, 1893. By Commander Lloyd, R.N., and A.C. Hadcock, late R.A.
[106] Clode's Military Forces of the Crown, ii. 214.