On the 13th of October, the same year, Mackenzie offered to raise
a second battalion for the 78th, and on the 30th of the same month
the King gave him permission to raise five hundred additional men on
the original letters of service. But this was not what he wanted,
and on the 28th of December following he submitted to the Government
three alternative proposals for raising a second battalion. On the
7th of February, 1794, one of these was agreed to. The battalion
was to be formed of eight battalion and two flank companies,
each to consist of 100 men, with the usual number of officers and
noncommissioned officers. He was, however, disappointed by the
Government; for while he intended to have raised a second battalion
for his own regiment, an order was issued signed by Lord Amherst,
that it was to be considered a separate corps, whereupon the
Lieutenant-Colonel-Commandant addressed the following protest to Mr
Dundas, one of the Secretaries of State:
St Alban Street, 8th February, 1794.
Sir, - I had sincerely hoped I should not be obliged to trouble you
again; but on my going to-day to the War Office about my letter
of service (having yesterday, as I thought, finally agreed with
Lord Amherst), I was, to my amazement, told that Lord Amherst had
ordered that the 1000 men I am to raise were not to be a second
battalion of the 78th, but a separate corps.
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