Influenced by these considerations, Colonel Green submitted the suggestion to the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor of Gibraltar. Too well aware themselves of the disadvantages of the system of _civil_ labour in carrying on the works of The fortress, they were favourable to the trial of any experiment that promised success; and in recommending the plan to the attention of the Secretary of State, they expressed their decided opinion that many advantages would certainly arise to the service and the fortress by its adoption. The royal consent was accordingly given to the measure in a Warrant, under the sign manual, dated 6th March, 1772; and thus originated the corps, whose history is attempted to be traced in these pages. The Warrant authorized the raising and forming of a company of artificers to consist of the following numbers and ranks, with the regimental pay annexed to each rank:— s. d. 1 Sergeant and as adjutant[1] 3 0 a-day. 3 Sergeants, each 1 6 ” 3 Corporals 1 2 ” 60 Privates, or working men skilled in the ” following trades:—Stone-cutters, masons, miners, lime-burners, carpenters, smiths, gardeners, or wheelers, each 0 10 1 Drummer 0 10 ” —— 68 Total. And officers of the corps of engineers were appointed to command this new body, to which was given the name of “The Soldier-Artificer Company.”[2] ----- Footnote 1: The rank of sergeant and adjutant—an odd combination certainly—was not adopted. The senior non-commissioned officer was styled sergeant-major. The authority for this are the muster rolls and returns of the company. But it is not a little remarkable that, in opposition to the fact, evidence should exist of the best kind for veracity, to oppose the averment. The error appears on a tablet built in Charles the Fifth’s wall adjoining Hargrave’s parade at Gibraltar, to the memory of the widow of the first sergeant-major of the corps. Thus runs the epitaph:— To the Memory of MARTHA, wife of THOMAS BRIDGES, Sergeant, and as Adjutant to His Majesty’s Artificers' Company. She departed this life, 4th February, 1773, Aged 38 years. ------- A more loving wife or friend sincere Never will be buried here— Charitable she was to all, Altho' her income it was small. Excuse the stanza. Perhaps the sergeant-major was a tetchy man, obstinate in maintaining his rights, and took this private opportunity of asserting his warranted rank and publishing the military anomaly in imperishable marble. Footnote 2: