=Second General Award.=--This was the first general award of medals for 166 years, when Simon's medal was given to those engaged at Dunbar in 1650. However, the official war medal for all ranks is now an established institution, and, it is said, sometimes given with too free a hand. But the soldier has a substantial record of his services on the field of battle--not even now, to my mind, satisfactorily complete--and but a small recognition of his country's appreciation; while those interested in the traditions of our race, those who recognise that in the grim and terrible business of war the better part of man is frequently called forth, will find the means of collecting an interesting record of great deeds, and incidentally materialising the history of the epoch-making nineteenth century, and these dawning days of the twentieth, when we had hoped that the dark spectre of war might have been replaced by the radiating figure of peace. But the war drums still throb, the battle flags are still unfurled; and it is good, when duty has called, in the nerve-wracking suspense and in the loud clamour of war, that fortitude, loyalty, honour, and the love of fatherland have shone above the horrors, and made us proud of the men who wear on their breasts the badges of the brave.
=Continental Waterloo Medals.=--Several other medals were issued for Waterloo, notably the Hanover, Nassau, Saxe-Gotha, Altenburg, and Brunswick medals, also the Belgian silver star.
=Nassau Medal.=--Fredrich Duke of Nassau was the first to issue a medal for Waterloo--that was on December 23rd, 1815. It is a small silver medal 1⅒ in. in diameter, with a lug stamped with the medal, through which ribbon could be run for suspension. On the obverse is the bust of the Duke, and the inscription FRIEDRICH AUGUST HERZOG ZU NASSAU. Underneath the truncation are the letters I.L. On the reverse, to the left, is a standing figure of Victory, holding in her right hand a palm branch, while with the left she is represented placing a laurel wreath upon the brow of a Roman soldier; in the exergue is DEN 18 JUNI 1815, and round the figures DEN NASSAUISCHEN STREITERN BEY WATERLOO. The medal, issued unnamed, was suspended from a dark-blue ribbon with orange edges.