The Queen's own Regiment was reviewed on Blackheath, in June, 1728, by his Majesty King George II., and furnished a guard of honour to her Royal Highness the princess Amelia, during her residence at Tunbridge Wells, in June and July, 1728. [Sidenote: 1730] In June, 1730, the regiment embarked for Gibraltar, and was employed in that fortress in 1740, when it was blockaded by the Spaniards, with whom war had been declared in 1739; but no serious impression was made on the place at that time, nor at any subsequent period of the war, which was terminated in 1748 by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. [Sidenote: 1741] Lieutenant-General Kirke, after commanding the regiment upwards of thirty years, died on the 1st of January, 1741; and was succeeded on the 12th of August following by Colonel Thomas Fowke, from the Forty-third Regiment. [Sidenote: 1749] In 1749, the year following the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the regiment embarked from Gibraltar, and proceeded to Ireland. [Sidenote: 1751] Prior to 1751, the several regiments, both of cavalry and infantry, had been called after the names of their respective colonels: on the 1st of July of this year, a royal warrant was issued, for regulating the clothing, standards, guidons, colours, &c., of regiments, in which _numerical_ titles were given to the regiments of horse, dragoons, and foot. In this warrant the _Royal Regiment of Foot_, from its antiquity, was numbered '_The First Regiment of Foot_;' and the QUEEN'S ROYAL being the next in seniority, was numbered '_The Second Regiment of Foot_.' [Sidenote: 1755] General Fowke was removed to the 14th Foot, and was succeeded in the Colonelcy of the Second, or Queen's Royal, on the 12th of November, 1755, by the Honourable John Fitzwilliam. [Sidenote: 1756] From the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, arts and sciences, trade and manufactures, had greatly flourished in England, and a rivalry existed with continental Europe for pre-eminence in advancing refinements and civilization. This prosperous state of things was interrupted in 1756 by war with France, and hostilities continued during the remainder of the reign of George II., and for three years in the reign of his successor George III. Peace was restored in 1763 by the treaty of Paris. This war had been pursued with vigour by Great Britain, whose fleets and armies triumphed in all quarters of the world. The Queen's Regiment was kept on duty in Ireland, which country was threatened by France with invasion. That nation, however, found sufficient occupation for her troops elsewhere, and the threat of invasion, as on other occasions, terminated on the part of France in wasteful preparations and presumptuous boast. [Sidenote: 1760] Major-General the Honourable John Fitzwilliam was removed to the 2nd Irish Horse, (now the 5th Dragoon Guards) and was succeeded by Sir Charles Montague, K.B., on the 27th of November, 1760. [Sidenote: 1765]