Page:Historical Record of the Fifty-Sixth, Or the West Essex Regiment of Foot.djvu/58

48 of Lieut-Colonel Barclay, and of the officers, and the good disposition of the men, are evident, and could alone have led to the state in which the Regiment now is.”

The regiment was stationed successively at Port Louis and Mahebourg until 1826, when, after upwards of twenty years’ service abroad, it embarked at Port Louis for England, on which occasion the governor stated in general orders, dated the 27th March,—“If circumstances should again call for his Excellency’s services in the field, he will feel happy in having the Regiment placed under his orders, as experience has fully proved to him, that a corps distinguished for good conduct in quarters, is always to be the most depended upon in the presence of the enemy.”

After landing at Portsmouth in June, the regiment marched to Cumberland Fort; in September it embarked at Portsmouth for Hull, where it joined the depôt companies.

In January, 1827, the regiment quitted Hull for Manchester, and in October it marched to Liverpool, where it embarked for Dublin. On the 29th of October Sir John Murray died, and King George the Fourth was pleased to confer the colonelcy of the regiment on Lieut.-General Matthew Lord Aylmer.

New colours bearing the words “” and “;” with the device of a and, and the motto Montis Insignia Calpe, (which had been confirmed to the corps on the 27th of December, 1827, in consequence of an application from Colonel Barclay,) were presented to the regiment, with the usual solemnities, on the 4th of April, 1828.

In May the regiment marched to Londonderry; in the autumn the head-quarters were removed to Newry; and in August, 1829, to Birr.