THE FIFTIETH REGIMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 626, 28 November 1863, Page 7

THE FIFTIETH REGIMENT.

(From the Argus.) It is recorotvl that when the Kniperor Nicholas was on his visit to Uneland. his chief curiosity was to see one of the regiments if the British line. The gorgeous cavaliers in silver aad sold— the BtalwaTt Grenadiers of |the hou«ehold guard— had little attraction for the Muscovite eye. The Cz jof all the Rnssias had as good show of troops cs these, by tens' of thousands, in his own capital, The Imperial Chevalier Guard the famous cock-nosed giants of the Preobajioski regiment— lhfse, in thews and stiture, in splendour of equipment, and in perfectiipßx of discipline, might match tl.e six foot defenders of Knigbtsbridge nnd of Windsor. "Show dip," sii/l Kich. la^, "the soldiers who win your battles in India, in China, and in Atnsrica, who maiotiin the British dominion over your surjpet race?— who carry the English name over half the habitable globe." Nor is it anything but natural that foreigners should turn from our corps iFeliie to admire our ordinary regiments of the line. Almost every other European state can surpass us in military parade-r-in the pomp and crcunis^ice of war^-in the decorative part of soldiery. Tty y have almosb'all of them some picked body of men \o show, equal to the best of our household regiments. The Imperial Guard of France maintains its old reputation, and in all its branches may vie In oppearant-e with the choicest tro ps of any country. The Cent Garde — elite d'Sffle — have, perhaps, no equal in the world for and pieturesqueness. It is ! in the co uposition of her ordinary battalions of the_ line that England shows her' singular ' preeminence. It is in the modest roll of the numbered foot regiments where lies her peculiar gory. It is these who have carried her arms viftorious in a thousand battles— who have shielded the little island "set in blown seas and storming showers"— w.ho preseve her empire over a hundred races— who have extended her name, enlarged her bounds, and proteoted and borne her s fe through ail her dangers. Thtfic are our true househo'd troops, for they cuard evc-ry British household from London, to Calcutta, from Auckland to Quebec thess our native warriors of the triple Biitish blood, m>re famous than the Maiaon dv Hoi, the tinselled guardsmen of the Empire, or the mailed monsters o f the Russian despot.

Conspicuous even among the regiments of the Biitish line, U the splendid regiment which the Himalaya has brought to our shores. More fortunate than moat of its compeers, the Fiftieth—the Fighting Fiftieth— the " diity half- hundred"— has con.trive4 to win a special plaoe in the memory of all Englishmen, for its deeds of Valour, done in nearly all the great' battle-fields of the present century. The proud roll ot' names e.-nblazoned on its banners are ia themselves a glorious witness ta the character of the regiment. |n Egypt, in Spain, in India. In the Crimea— wherever the fighting the hottest— there the Fiftieth has been alwajs at the front, " The fierce and formidable regitnent" has well deserve'} the designation whioh it won f rom our great military historian Jn < gjpt, it played a conspicuous part iv the famous achievement of Abercromby. In Spain, it wib the earliest regiment Jo the field, and one. of the last to quit it. From the opening day of Vimiera to the last desperate struggle on the Pyrenees, the Fiftieth bore a part in all the gr«at Spanish battieß. At Corunna, under their heroic commander, afterwards the conqueror of Scinde/they guarded fie rear of; the British host agaiagt the. fury of Soult, &%

contributed m d.-ily to the glory of the day, At Almarez, at Mas a, and on a dozen m m> fieMs, it wastheir fate i,n bear the c'.iel brunt of ihe day, and to turn the doubH'ul fi.'ht into a M.-toiy, The next generation found them hotly engaged on the \vv k<? of the Sutlrj, and, as u-nwl f.>reiao*t among the fight jr*. At Moodkee and at Ferrze&liAu they mainly contributed to retrieve the battle, and to preserve our empire, when wavering in the ba'ance through the iDcvpacity and foolhanliness of our geuerals; and at "the cronning mercy" of Sobraon, it was the bayonets of the Fiftieth which proved the final destru t ; ou of the Seiko, array. At again, these (ilutt)ns had more than theirsha c of fighting; and feil to on Man rut ta with the same gO3d will as they had (!o:ie on Seikli. Returned to Europe, a still grander field of glory awaited the Fiplning Fiftieth. The doeds of the regiments form a part of the stirring story told by the \-rime.sn historian ; and in all the episodes of that great duel of gi.mfcs on the plateau before Sevastopol, the name of the Fiftieth occurs. They shared in all tha glodes of their bluudeii'ig generals at Alma —they met and turned bajk the Russian attack at Inkcmann— shoulder to sh ulder with the^ guards, they inuintaiued the "thin red line" ag iust the Russian greycoats, on that dull November morning ; -and for this deed alone they thould be to us what the "fighters at Marathon" were to the Athenians. Once moie there is work for the Fiftieth, and a new foe, foroiiilab'c perhap3 as any which has exercised the fighting pow -is of the regiment, now demands its presence. Let U3 wish it a hearty Godspeed in its present adventure, aad the old suciess to its new banners.