On the 1st of July, 1751, regulations were issued, under the sign manual, for establishing uniformity in the clothing, standards, and colours of the several regiments; in which the facings of the THIRTY-FOURTH were directed to be of _bright yellow_. The first, or the King’s colour, was to be the Great Union; the second, or regimental colour, to be of bright yellow silk, with the Union in the upper canton; in the centre of the colour, the rank of the regiment in gold Roman characters, within a wreath of roses and thistles on the same stalk. The costume of the regiment at this period was three-cornered cocked hats, bound with white lace, and ornamented with a white loop and a black cockade; scarlet coats faced and lined with bright yellow, and ornamented with white lace; scarlet waistcoats and breeches; and white gaiters. In December of this year, Colonel the Honorable Henry Seymour Conway was removed to the Thirteenth Dragoons, and King George II. conferred the colonelcy of the THIRTY-FOURTH Foot, on Colonel the Honorable Charles Russell, from major in the Second Foot Guards. [Sidenote: 1752] [Sidenote: 1753] Early in the year 1752, the regiment embarked for Minorca, the second of the Balearic islands, situated in the Mediterranean, near the coast of Spain: this island had fallen successively under the dominion of the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Vandals, the Moors, the Arragonese, and the Castilians; in 1708 it was captured by the British, and it was ceded to Queen Anne at the peace of Utrecht in 1713. In this small island, which is diversified with hills and valleys, and in some parts rich in vegetation, and abounding with the necessaries and many of the luxuries of life, the THIRTY-FOURTH were stationed several years. [Sidenote: 1754] Colonel the Honorable Charles Russell died on the 20th of November, 1754, and was succeeded in the command of the regiment by Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Earl of Effingham, from the second troop, now second regiment, of Life Guards. [Sidenote: 1755] [Sidenote: 1756] While the regiment was stationed at Minorca, the undetermined limits of the British and French territory in North America, occasioned a war between the two kingdoms; and early in 1756, the French monarch prepared a powerful armament for the capture of the island of _Minorca_. The French expedition, commanded by Marshal Duke of Richelieu, arrived at Minorca in April, and effected a landing at Ciudadella; and no part of the island being fortified to resist so powerful a force, excepting _Fort St. Philip_, situate on a rocky promontory at the entrance of the harbour of Port Mahon, the several detachments were withdrawn from the interior, and assembled in the fort, where they resolved on making a desperate defence, in the hope of being reinforced.