non-commissioned officers and men
of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers,--I consider it a very great
privilege to have been asked to present your regiment with new
colours on the eve of its departure for India. It occurs to me
in presenting these colours that they are to replace those which
were given to you about thirty-one years ago by my lamented
father, and which through three campaigns your regiment has
carried with honour and success. You will in a few years
celebrate your 200th anniversary, and during that time your
regiment has served in nearly every quarter of the globe, and
seen as much or more service than any regiment in the Army. You
have served at Corunna, Salamanca, the Peninsula, Waterloo,
Alma, Inkerman, Sebastopol, Lucknow, and, coming down to more
recent times, Ashantee. I feel sure that there will always be
the same emulation among those who serve in your ranks as there
has been in the past, and that the good name of your regiment
will always be maintained as prominently as it is now. You are
now on the eve of departure for India, and nobody wishes you
'God-speed' more sincerely than I do. I feel sure that, whatever
your services may be, they will be such as will bring credit to
your regiment, and will add additional proofs of the valour for
which it is so justly celebrated."

Colonel Elgee made a suitable and soldierly reply, thus concluding: "I
am sure that wherever the colours are carried--whether before an enemy
or in the performance of our duties at home in times of peace--the
regiment will always maintain the high reputation it has won. On the eve
of our departure for India, we beg to express our heartiest wishes for
the health and happiness of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, your
Royal Highness, the Princess of Wales, and the remainder of the Royal
Family."

The line having been reformed, His Royal Highness had the whole of the
officers drawn up on each side of the drums, and as they saluted and
passed to their posts, each was individually presented to the Prince and
Princess by the Colonel. A few more movements, and the ranks were
closed, the line broke into columns to the right, and marched past to
the jetty, where they embarked on board the _Malabar_. After luncheon,
the whole party from the Royal yacht, including the Princess Beatrice,
who had arrived in the _Alberta_ to receive the Empress Eugenie and take