proceeded on to Bengal.  In April, 1840, the regiment embarked for China, where it distinguished itself, and suffered much from climate.  In gaining possession of the heights which overlook the city of Canton, on the 25th May, 1841, “as the two brigades advanced together, there was some little rivalry between the 49th and 18th regiments, as to which should have the honor of commencing the attack upon the two forts.  The 49th, having the advantage of a shorter and perhaps rather better road, got the lead, which they maintained; so that the left brigade carried BOTH the eastern forts before the 18th came up, and with little loss."[148] In February, 1843, after the Chinese had been coerced into a peace, the 49th returned to Calcutta, and the following month embarked for England, where the head quarters arrived on the 24th August, after an absence of nearly twenty-two years—­an example of the arduous services in which the British infantry of the line is constantly engaged.  The 49th, (the Princess Charlotte of Wales’,) or Hertfordshire regiment, bears on its colours and appointments the distinctions of Egmont op Zee, Copenhagen, Queenstown, the Dragon, and China.

On the 27th August, 1844, new colours were presented to the 49th, at Winchester, by Lady Pakenham, the wife of Major-General the Hon. Sir Hercules Pakenham, commanding the district, the colours being first consecrated by Doctor C. R. Sumner, the Lord Bishop of Winchester, who thus addressed the troops: 

Soldiers of the 49th, I have solicited and obtained permission of your gallant commanding officer to address you a few moments before I invoke the blessing of Almighty God upon the colours which are never to be sullied by any act of yours, and are not to be abandoned but with life itself.  And let not any man marvel that I, a man of peace, come among you, who are men of war, for I hold that there is not a truer man of peace than a Christian soldier.  When he conquers, it is not for national aggrandizement, nor the mere raising of your names, but for the insuring of peace in future time.  Many a brave man has bled on the field, or expired on a bed of agony, that his countrymen might be preserved from the horrors of war.  With respect to the services of the 49th, I might go back to a time antecedent to the present century.  We must remember what a debt of gratitude we owe to your companions in arms for their prowess in many a well-fought field.  And what did we not owe also to the naval power for the preservation of our soil from the insults and the cruelties of our enemy?  I must bid you look back to the recollection of those days when you won glory in Holland, Copenhagen, and Canada, and since in India and China.  I remember well the stirring phrases used by the great captain of the age, the commander-in-chief of the British army, the Duke of Wellington, when he asked for the thanks of parliament to the army of China—­those were stirring phrases indeed—­they were