Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, January 1885Various
General
Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, January 1885
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals
powerful means of attacking, namely, her preponderance in naval power.
England and Germany are not likely to be embroiled in war, England and
France are too closely connected all over the world to wish to be so.
If Germany and France unfortunately come to blows again, England can
exercise the benevolent neutrality of 1870, and proudly, firmly, but
calmly, remain in possession of her distant island.—_Army and Navy
Magazine._
HOW THE COLDSTREAMS GOT THEIR MOTTO.—The Coldstreams were
raised in the year 1650, in the little town near Berwick-on-Tweed
from whence the regiment takes its name. Their first colonel was the
renowned George Monk (afterwards Duke of Albemarle), a General in the
Parliamentary army and an Admiral of the fleet. It is owing to this
latter fact that a small Union Jack is permitted to be borne on the
Queen’s color of the regiment, a proud distinction enjoyed by no other
corps in the service. In the year 1660 brave Monk and his gallant
Coldstreamers materially assisted in the happy restoration of the
English monarchy, and to perform this patriotic and eminently loyal act
they marched from Berwick-on-Tweed to London, meeting with a warm and
enthusiastic greeting from the inhabitants of the towns and villages
through which they passed. After the Restoration was accomplished the
troops were paraded on Tower Hill for the purpose of taking the oath
of allegiance to the King, and among those present were the three
noble regiments that form the subject of this brief history. Having
grounded their arms in token of submission to the new _régime_, they
were at once commanded to take them up again as the First, Second and
Third Regiments of Foot Guards. The First and Third Regiments obeyed,
but the Coldstreamers stood firm, and their muskets remained upon
the ground. “Why does your regiment hesitate?” inquired the King of
General Monk. “May it please your Majesty,” said the stern old soldier,
“my Coldstreamers are your Majesty’s devoted soldiers, but after the
important service they have rendered your Highness they decline to take
up arms as second to any other regiment in your Majesty’s service!”
“They are right,” said the King, “and they shall be ‘second to none.’
Let them take up their arms as my Coldstream regiment of Foot Guards.”
Monk rode back to his regiment and communicated to it the King’s
decision. It had a magical effect. The arms were instantly raised amid
frantic cries of “Long live the King!” Since this event the motto of
the regiment has been _Nulli Secundus_, which is borne in gold letters
upon its colors beneath the star and garter of the Royal House. There
also appear upon its colors the names of “Lincelles,” “Egypt” (with
the Sphinx), “Talavera,” “Barrosa,” “Peninsula,” “Waterloo,” “Alma,”
“Inkerman,” and “Sevastopol.” In the year 1850 this regiment held its
jubilee banquet to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of its
birth.—_London Society._
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Popular Astronomy, p. 145.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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