When, in the winter 1854-5, the institution of the Victoria Cross was suggested, the Royal Warrant for which was not issued until 1856, nearly all the senior officers disliked the innovation, and our Government, realising this feeling, hesitated to entrust them with the selection of the recipients of the distinction. In one battalion the men were instructed to nominate a private soldier. They, as in all good regiments, reflected the views of their officers, as regards the innovation, and unanimously elected a comrade who, being trusted for his sobriety and honesty, used to carry down the grog-can at dinner-time to the trenches, and so, not only enjoyed a "soft billet," but was never under fire except for one hour in twenty-four. A perusal of the despatches and of the _London Gazette_ announcing the bestowal of decorations is like reading of the mortal combats described in Virgil's Twelfth Book of the "Æneid," and fills the mind with admiration. It is perhaps only soldiers who can fully appreciate the enduring courage of the Munster Fusiliers, who, after losing half their numbers by drowning, and by fire of shrapnel and bullets, with their Brigadier-General, his Brigade-Major, and most of their Regimental officers down, could reform into remnants of Companies, and after a night without food, follow a Staff Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Doughty Wylie, from the beach up to the Old Castle, and assault successfully Hill No. 141. These men are, indeed, worthy descendants of their predecessors who carried the walls of Delhi in 1857. No soldiers can read the story of the heroism shown by the 1st Lancashire Fusiliers commanded by Major Bishop; how they jumped ashore under a hurricane of lead which was rained on Beach W, and how they broke through the wire, and had by 10 a.m. carried three lines of hostile trenches, without feeling proud of the people of the "Clothing Towns." The men are worthy of their forefathers, who at Minden in 1759 advanced in line with "Colours flying and Drums beating" against a mass of hostile cavalry, which they defeated. I hope that the young soldiers of the King's Own Scottish Borderers may be taught to recall, not only the deeds of their predecessors at Namur, 1695, and the glorious victory of the infantry over a mass of hostile cavalry, which they shared with the Lancashire Fusiliers; but also what their battalion did on Y Beach of the Dardanelles on April 26 last, when after many hours of fighting, causing the battalion a loss of 50 per centum, the survivors held with determination a trench which had been constructed for four times their number of effectives; and then, when orders were given to abandon the position, how the courage of a small Rear-guard enabled all the wounded, ammunition, and stores to be safely re-embarked.