This honour is alone borne by the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, the lineal descendants of the gallant band of Englishmen in the service of the East India Company at Madras, who in the year 1751, under the incomparable Clive, laid the foundation of our Indian Empire. In those days Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, was a city of about 100,000 inhabitants, dominated by a fort almost in ruins. It lies some sixty miles south-west of Madras, and Clive determined not only to effect the relief of Trichinopoly, then besieged by the French, but also to strike at French supremacy by seizing the capital of their most powerful ally, the Sovereign of the Carnatic. He left Madras on September 6, 1751, in command of a small force of 200 Englishmen and 300 sepoys, with but three field-guns. Of his officers, eight in number, four, like him, were "writers" in the Company's factory. Five days later Clive had thrown himself into the half-ruined fort of Arcot, which had been hastily evacuated by its garrison, mounted the guns, which had been abandoned, repaired the defences, and made every preparation for a siege. A month later the siege commenced in earnest, 10,000 trained troops of the Nawab, aided by 300 French, drawing a close cordon round the fort, whilst a siege-train directed by Frenchmen opened fire on its walls. Macaulay, in his brilliant essay on Lord Clive, has borne eloquent testimony to the heroism both of the leader and the led (I have not the space to dwell on the details of the siege)--how the sepoys, with starvation staring them in the face, brought their rations of rice to their English comrades, with the remark that the water in which it was boiled was sustenance enough for them; and how, after being beleaguered for fifty days, in which he had lost one-third of his force, Clive repelled a final assault, and was enabled to assume the offensive against his disheartened and discomfited foes. Arcot was a prelude to a campaign in which many gallant actions were fought--actions long since forgotten, and which are unrecorded on our colours. Trichinopoly and Covrepauk are no less worthy of emblazonment than Reshire or Koosh-ab. But, alas! no connection can now be traced between the sepoys who fought under Clive and the regiments of our native army, whilst the identity of the First Madras Europeans has for a whole generation been hidden under the title of "Royal Dublin Fusiliers."