1793. At the time when the 33rd were at Taunton, the following was copied into the Secretary's Common Letter Book, coming from Nepean to Hobart on October 19th, 1790: "South Britain will shortly be left in a very defenceless state. Three battalions of Guards are now under orders for foreign service. Exclusive of the remainder of the Guards and a few dragoons, the Thirty-Third will really be the only regiment left." The regiment contrived to recruit, however, for there were in camp on the 6th of November, 1788, 22 sergeants, 10 drummers, and 318 rank and file towards completing its establishment of 400. Early in 1792 orders came for the 33rd to proceed to Ireland, where the Whiteboys were giving such trouble that troops were required to put an end to their lawless depredations. Many detachments were engaged in something like patrol and police duty, so as to deal with these disorders. Lecky shows how the Whiteboys traversed the country, often in the daylight, wearing white cockades, with all the audacity of open insurgents, breaking into gaols and releasing prisoners, burning houses, and intercepting provisions until some towns were actually threatened with famine. The call for extra troops in Ireland was imperative, and the 33rd were sent to Dublin in 1792. In August, 1793, affairs were so critical in the West Indies that a force was collected for service there, under the command of General Grey. Its strength was to be 14 regiments, and the flank companies of 14 more, and some artillery. Eight of the regiments at the last moment were diverted for Lord Moira's operations in La Vendée, and the denuded force set sail. The flank companies of the 33rd were with 1794. Grey, and reached Barbados on the 6th of January, 1794. The army, although numbering 7,000 men, was by no means adequate to the task assigned to it. The force at the General's disposal was brigaded thus: First Brigade: Sir C. Gordon, 15th, 39th, 43rd. Second Brigade: Thomas Dundas, 56th, 63rd, 64th. Third Brigade: John White, 6th, 58th, 70th. GRENADIER GUARDS-Colonel Campbell. Ist Battalion: Grenadier Companies of the 6th, 8th, 12th, 17th, 22nd, 23rd, 31st, 41st, 56th. 2nd Battalion : Grenadier Companies of 9th, 33rd, 34th, 38th, 40th, 44th, 55th, 68th. 3rd Battalion: Grenadier Companies of 15th, 21st, 39th, 43rd, 60th, 64th, and 70th. LIGHT INFANTRY BATTALIONS-Colonel Myers. Ist Battalion 2nd Battalion : Light Companies of 6th, 8th, 12th, 17th, 22nd, 23rd, 31st, 68th. Light Companies of 15th, 33rd, 34th, 35th, 38th, 40th, 41st, 44th, 55th. 3rd Battalion Light Companies of 21st, 39th, 43rd, 56th, 58th, 60th, 64th, and 65th.1 Grey was successful in whatsoever he attempted, the flank companies of the 33rd taking part in some desperately hard marching. But the mortality among the troops was fearful, fever raging to such an extent that battalions were sometimes incapable of taking duty, because so many of the men were down in sickness. The authorities at home seem to have forsaken this army utterly, as if leaving it to its fate. It must have been so when Fortescue was able to write thus of the troops: "Since they had left England not one 1 Fortescue's List. scrap of stores had been sent to them; their clothes were in rags, and they had no shoes to their feet." Grey determined to make a night attack with some of his woefully depleted battalions on Fort Fleur d'Epée, which he had bombarded incessantly for days. The attack failed, the men being in such an exhausted state, and when the force retreated the flank company of the 33rd, like others, had been practically wiped out. Netherlands Campaigns CHAPTER XVI A DISASTROUS NETHERLANDS CAMPAIGN THE French Revolution resulted in something more than anarchy for France, for when she declared herself a republic, her Government, such as it was, proclaimed itself "the enemy of monarchies at large." France was at war, even while the Reign of Terror was in full operation, with various Powers in Europe. Pitt, the great War Minister, determined if it were possible that England should remain neutral. He was anxious for "peaceful recuperation, and commercial development after such an exhausting period of war, as of late. The French Convention, however, forced his hand by its revolutionary intrigues. When news came that Louis XVI had been executed, the French Ambassador was ordered to leave the country. The response was instant and expected, for the French Convention declared war against England and Holland on February 1st, 1793. The British army was immediately augumented by 25,000 men, a great number of whom were raised by forming one hundred independent companies of one hundred men each, and drafting them into separate battalions. Troops were at once sent over to Holland, but, before long, in spite of the first disasters to French arms, the patriotism of France rose to so high a level. 1 Fortescue. 1793. $794. that an army of a million men was in the field. When the campaign of 1793 came to an end the achievements of the Allies were by no means satisfactory. The campaign of 1794 brought the 33rd into the fighting. It was memorable, moreover, because it brought a young officer into the regiment, who added lustre to the English army, and ultimately became Duke of Wellington. The rapidity of Arthur Wellesley's promotion was remarkable. He was an ensign in the 41st when he was seventeen years old, joining the regiment on the 7th of March, 1787. On the 26th of that same month he was a lieutenant; on the 30th of June, 1791, he was promoted to a captaincy; on the 30th of April, 1793, he joined the 33rd as Major; that same year, on September 30th, he was Lieut.Colonel of the regiment, and remained in his command (as Colonel on May 3rd, 1796) until the year 1802, when he was advanced to the rank of Major-General. Yet up to the time when the 33rd were sent to Flanders Wellesley had seen no active service, and his qualities as a soldier in war time had to be proved. It has even been said that his habits just then were scarcely such as to give much promise of future greatness. The 33rd had been detailed for the expedition which the English Government had contemplated sending to Brittany under the command of the Earl of Moira, to create a diversion for the French Royalists; but the serious aspect of affairs in the Netherlands brought about the abandonment of that enterprise, and the regiment was sent over to reinforce the Duke of York. The 33rd were then at Cork, but Wellesley, now their Lieut.-Colonel, embarked towards the end of May, and sailed to Ostend, but not in time to take part in the opening of the campaign. Matters were more serious than any of the newly-arriving regiments anticipated, for the situation of the Allies was deplorable in the extreme. "The incapacity of their leaders -the absence of all good understanding among them |