If variety of taste is to produce opposition in working, or dissipation of strength and talent, what a cruel answer the Present gives to the Past! But, if it is to raise the Regiment in the eyes, not merely of military critics, but of that other world of science, across whose threshold not a few Artillerymen have passed with honour, then the variety of tastes working together, and yet independently—conducing to the one great end—is the noblest response that can be made to those who showed us in the Regiment's earliest days how to forget self in a noble _esprit de corps_. ----- Footnote 13: Macbean's MSS. CHAPTER XIII. To 1755. A NUMBER of interesting events can be compressed into a chapter, covering the period between the end of the war in Flanders and the year 1755. The dress and equipment of the Regiment underwent a change. In 1748, the last year of the war, the field staffs of the gunners, their powder horns, slings, and swords, and the muskets of the matrosses were laid aside, and both ranks were armed with carbines and bayonets—thus paving the way for the step taken in the year 1783, when the distinction between the two ranks was abolished. The non-commissioned officers retained their halberds until 1754, when they were taken from the corporals and bombardiers, who fell into the ranks with carbines. In 1748, black spatterdashes were introduced into the Regiment, for the first time into any British corps. In 1750, the sergeants' coats were laced round the button-holes with gold looping, the corporals, bombardiers, and the privates having yellow worsted looping in the same way. The corporals and bombardiers had gold and worsted shoulder-knots; the surtouts were laid aside, and complete suits of clothing were issued yearly.[14] At the end of the war, the Regiment consisted of ten companies, and for the first time, reliefs of the companies abroad were carried out, those at Gibraltar and Minorca being relieved by companies at Woolwich. The strength of the Regiment remained unchanged until 1755, when six new companies were raised, making a total of sixteen, exclusive of the Cadet company. The year 1751 was marked by several important Regimental events. The father of the Regiment, old General Borgard, died; and was succeeded by Colonel Belford. The vexed question of the Army rank of Artillery officers was settled by the King issuing a declaration under his Sign- Manual, retrospective in its effects, deciding "the rank of the officers of the Royal Regiment of Artillery to be the same as that of the other officers of his Army of the same rank, notwithstanding their commissions having been hitherto signed by the Master-General, the Lieutenant- General, or the principal officers of the Ordnance, which had been the practice hitherto." From this date all commissions of Artillery officers were signed by the sovereign, and countersigned by the Master-General of the Ordnance.