THE FIFTIETH REGIMENT

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 7, Issue 441, 28 November 1863, Page 3

THE FIFTIETH REGIMENT

[From the Argus.] It is recorded that when the Emperor Nicholas was on his visit to England, his chief curiosity was to. see one of the regiments of the British line. The gorgeous cavaliers in silver' and gold — the stalwart Grenadiers of the household.guard — had little attraction for the Muscovite eye. The Czar of all the Russias had as.good show of troops as these, by tens of thousands, in his own capital. The Imperial Chevalier Gaard, the famous cocknosed giants of the Preobajinski regiment— these, iv thews and stature, in splendour of equipment, and in perfectnesa of discipline, might match the

six-foot defenders of Knightsbridge and of Windsor. " Show me," said Nicholas, " the soldiers who win your battles in India, in China, and in America — who maintain the British dominion over your subject x*aces — who carry the English name over half the habitable glohe." .Nor is it anything but natural fehat foreigners should turn from our corps dCelite to admire our ordinary regiments of tne line. Almost every other European state can surpass us in military parade — in the pomp and circumstance of* war — in the decorative part of soldiery. They have almost all of them some picked body of men to show, equal to the best of our household regiment?. Tue Imperial Guard of France maintains its old reputation, and in all its branches may vie in appearance with the choicest troops of any country. The Cent Garde — elite d'elite — have, perhaps, no equal in the world for stature and picturesqueness. It is in the composition of her ordinary battalions of the line that England shows her singular pre-eminence. It is in the modest roll of the numbered foot regiments where lies her peculiar glory. It is these who have carried her arms victorious in a thousand battles— who have shielded the Jittle island " set in blown sea 3 and storming showers" — who preserve herempire over a hundred races — who have extended her name, enlarged her bounds, and protected and borne her safe through all her dangers. These are our true household troops, for they guard every British household from London to Calcutta, from Auckland to Quebec — these our native wai'riors of the triple British blood, more famous than the Maison dv, Hoi, the tinselled guardsmen of the Empire, or the mailed monsters of the Kussian despot.

Conspicuous even among the regiments of the British lines, is the splendid regiment which the Himalaya has brought to our shores. More fortunate than most of its compeers, the Fiftieth — the Fighting Fiftieth— the '-dirty half hundred" — has contrived to win a special place iv the memory of ali Englishmen, for its deeds of valour, done in nearly all the great battle-fields of the preseut century. The proud roll of names emblazoned on its banners are in themselves a glorious witness to the character of the regiment. lit Egypt, in Spain, in India, in the Crimea,— wherever the fighting was the hottest — there the

Fiftieth has been always at the front. •' The fierce and formidable regiment " has well deserved the designation which it won from our great military historian. In Egypt, it pla}'ed a conspicuous part in the famous achievement of Abercrotnby. In Spain, it was the earliest regiment in the field, and one of the last to quit it. From, the opening day of Viiniera to the last desperate struggle on the Pyrenees, the Fiftieth bore a part in ah the great Spanish battles. At Corunna, under their heroic commander, afterwards the conqueror of Scinde, they guarded the rear of the British host against the fury of Soult, and contributed mainly to the glory of the day. At Almarez, at Maya, and on a dozen more fields, it was their fate to bear the chief brunt of the day, and to turn the doubtful tight into a victory. The next generation found them hotly engaged on the banks of the Sutlej, and, as usual, foremost among the lighters. At Moodkee, and at Ferozeshah they mainly contributed to retrieve the battle, and to preserve our empire, wbeu wavering in the balance through the incapacity and foolhardiness of our generals; and at the "crowning mercy " of Sobraon, it was the bayonets of the Fiftieth which proved the final destruction of the Seikh. array. At Punniar, again, these gluttons had more than their share of lighting ; and fell to on Mahratta with the same good will as they had done on Seikh.

Returned to Europe, a still grander field of glory awaited the Fighting Fiftieth. The deeds of the regiment form a part of the stirring story told by the Crimean historian ; and in all the episodes of that great duel of giants on the j)l<iteau before Sebastopol, the name of the Fiftieth occurs. They shared in all the glories of their blundering generals at Alma — they met and turned back the Kussian attack at Inkermanu — shoulder to shoulder with the guards, they maintained the '■ thin red line " against the liussian greycoats, on that dull November morning, and for this deed alone they should be to us what the figh ters at Marathon were to the Athenians.

Once more there is work for the Fiftieth, and a new foe, formidable perhaps as any which baa exercised the fighting powers of the regiment, now demands it presence. Let us wish it a hearty God-speed in its pi'eseut adventure, and the old success to its new banners.