There is no Fame so liable to decay as that which has been acquired
by the subordinate Soldier. The admiration and applause too, which
follow military deeds, however brilliant, are but fickle passions,
as they successively transfer their affections to every new
conqueror, and all are too often buried in the same grave, after
the trumpet of war has ceased to sound.
To drag from the land of forgetfulness, actions, long lain in
oblivion; to place the revolutions and the achievements of a
corps, endeared to its Country by a train of loyalty and valour,
in one connected and analysed point of view, were the leading
motives which urged the Author to essay a history of its origin
and progress. Whilst he laments that the undertaking has not been
allotted to superior talents, at the same time he will venture to
affirm that it could not have been prosecuted with a stronger zeal.
Never was military prowess more loudly called for, than at the
present crisis.--Ardour should be raised in every rank. It is a
plant, which, by fostering attention flourishes and grows; but if
neglected, soon droops and dies. Courage is the natural birth-right
of an Englishman, and it needs only a directing hand, under
Providence, to give it an invincible aim.
It is policy then, as well as justice, to stamp upon record the
feats of the meanest, anxiously to search for worthy examples in
every walk, and to proclaim them to their brethren, and to the
world, as merited tributes, and powerful incentives to achievement.
The Author regrets that his range has been so limited, and that, in
many instances, the adduced anecdotes have not been more specific;
but the foundation stone is laid, upon which a structure may yet
be reared. He trusts, therefore, that the following request may
not be unavailing, which is,--That his brother Officers will have
the goodness to preserve, in written memorial, the names of those
gallant fellows who may hereafter distinguish themselves, as well
as a minute description of the circumstances.
As error is a bye path to knowledge, he anticipates from the
members of his own household, corrections of the many defects which
have unavoidably crept into a work of such miscellaneous detail.
A Soldier from his infancy, he begs that the public, and _those who
controul its opinions_, may be tender with the lash! It would be a
pity to bring a veteran, for his first offence, to the halberts,
and that too for grammatical inaccuracies.--He has taken up the pen
merely to be useful, not in the pursuit of literary fame.
The arrangement of his subject will appear classed under distinct
chapters, which engross the events of each separate year, excepting
such as comprehend the intervals of peace; a season that yields
little interesting matter, and what is uniformly comprized in one
division.
An Appendix is added, which contains the essence of every Act of
Parliament now in force, so far as they affect the interests of the
families, the widows, or representatives of the forlorn orphans of
Seamen and Marines. A reference to it, will enable the Clergyman
or private Gentleman, to become the immediate and solid friend of
these meritorious and destitute objects, as the regular mode of
transaction and correspondence is clearly pointed out, by which, to
realize their little properties.
The Author takes this public method of tendering his warmest
thanks to the many respectable characters in this loyal spot, who
have befriended his labours, and to that wide circle of Royalty,
Nobility, and Gentry, who, although strangers to him, have yet
deigned to countenance the humble individual, from affection to his
Corps.
BIRMINGHAM, 15th Nov. 1803.