So ended the Train of Artillery for Port Mahon, which the reader will remember was one of those quoted in 1716 as a reason for some permanent force of Artillery at home. Since 1709, with a short interval in the time of the Seven Years' War, a train had remained in Minorca; but now, overpowered by numbers, the force of which it was a part had to evacuate the island. It was a stirring time for the Foreign establishments, as they were called in pre-regimental days: that in Gibraltar was earning for itself an immortal name; those in America were within the clouds of smoke and war which covered the whole continent; and this one had just been compelled to die hard. Of the four, which were used as arguments for the creation of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, only one remains at this day—that at Gibraltar. Those at Annapolis and Placentia have vanished before the breath of economy, and the dawn of a new colonial system; and in this brief chapter may be learnt the end of the other, the Train of Artillery for service at Port Mahon. _N.B._—It is worthy of mention, that during this siege, three non- commissioned officers, Sergeants-Major J. Swaine, J. Shand, and J. Rostrow, were commissioned as Second Lieutenants in the Regiment, by the Governor, for their gallantry. They were afterwards posted to the Invalid Battalion. CHAPTER XXVII. THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. THERE are few campaigns in English history which have been more systematically misunderstood, and more deliberately ignored, than the American War between 1775 and 1783. The disadvantages under which the British troops laboured were many and great; they were not merely local, as in most English wars, but were magnified and intensified by the unpopularity of the campaign at home, by the positive hostility of a large party, including some of the most eloquent politicians, and by the inflated statements of the Government, which made the tale of disaster— when it came to be known—more irritating and intolerable. Soldiers will fight for a nation which is in earnest: British soldiers will even fight when they are merely the police to execute the wishes of a Government, instead of a people. But in the one case they are fired with enthusiasm,—in the other, their prompter is the coldest duty.