46

HISTORY OF

[general remarks.

For the Battle of Waterloo (besides other marks of honour, and professionaladvantages, not granted for an}*' other Battle), every soldier present receiveda Medal and Ribband; a Distinction made more valuable to the humblerranks, by the same Ribband and the same Medal having been conferredupon all classes, from the Commander of the Forces to the youngest drum-boy . 7

Thus, numerous young Officers and Soldiers who before that occasion werenever exposed to the Enemy’s fire, have been distinguished by a proud markof their Sovereign’s favour; while veterans of many Campaigns, and of manysanguinary Fields, remain without even a piece of Ribband, to shew that theyhad long served their Country with fidelity and zeal, and had often risked theirlives in her defence.

It is consequently evident that there have been three distinct arrangementsfor conferring Honorary Medals, of which that for Waterloo only can be con-sidered liberal; but a much more limited plan of conferring such rewards would,perhaps, be both most just and most expedient, by rendering actual deeds, andnot mere presence in Battle, the qualification; or, to use the words of the Dukeof Wellington, “ Medals should be granted for important Actions only, and tothose engaged in them in a conspicuous manner, whatever might be their rankin the service.” 8 —“ Every Officer should feel that he shall receive the mark

7 It is said in a preceding page, that the suggestion to confer a Medal on every Soldier who wasat Waterloo, originated with the Duke of Wellington; but it should have been added, that during theDebate in the House of Commons on the Address for a National Monument in honour of that Victory,on the 29th of June 1815, the Right Hon. William Watkins Wynn proposed, that a Medal should begiven to each of the survivors, of the same materials for Officers and Men, so that they who had beenfellows in danger, might bear the same Badge of Honour. To shew how great was the value attachedto such Distinctions, Mr. Wynn related the following interesting anecdote. After the Battle of theNile a patriotic individual caused a number of Medals to be struck, and distributed among theSeamen who were present in the conflict. Mr. Wynn said he had heard from several Officers thatthe effect produced by them was of the most gratifying kind; and that many of those gallant men,when dying in a foreign land, had expressed, in their last moments, the most anxious solicitudeabout the disposition of those Medals, the record of their services on that glorious day. Somewished that it should be buried with them: others that it should be carefully transmitted to theirfamilies; but all of them placed more value upon that small Medal than on any other property theyhappened to possess. Adverting to this fact, with reference to a Medal being given for Waterloo,a writer in the “Quarterly Review” observed, “Let us hope that what was then done by a liberalindividual, may now be done by a wise and grateful Government; and if the Medal should be givento all the Allies who were in the Field that day, its moral influence would be such that few subsidieswould ever have been so well bestowed.” Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, vol. XXXI. p. 1052.Quarterly Review for July 1815, vol. XIII. p. 523.

8 Vide p. 49, postea.