The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-10-24 00:00:00

11 be liki-ppy, to

fulfil that which I am placed her
the " Health of the Emperor of the French and our noble
Allies," who so Well supported us in , the g
which we are met this day to commemorate

to perform by propo-sir,

(Great

cheering.)

The i'oSst was drunk. with all the honouirs
tact Pour la Syri'."

Air : " Par-

The French- Consul, M. de Burgraff, who was received
with loud applause, then rose and said : The gallant General
who has just spoken to you in such terms of our alliance, and
of the hearty feelings of the Brit sh, Sardinian, and French
army, that I should only have said a few words to return
thanks, if your cheers had not brought. to us the remem-
brance of your exertions; of your pains, of your joys, of
your victories in the Crimea. Yon heard them, officers
and soldiers of the 20th and the 33rd regiments, when mas
terine yourselves the Russian batteries; at Alma you saw
the Zouaves crowning the heights on your left sid^
Light Brigade, you re,
'-igue, your adinir

; your

'collect -them, when the Cl

de Afriqu~,
.4tuLl arms, came art.
your heroic Cluirge at B4aitlava. (Cheers.) Guards, these
cheers are still in your memory, for they are coupled with
your victory at Inkermann ; and you, Royal Irish, you will
not forget that, after you had housed yourselves in Sebasto_
pol, they hailed your happy but unwilling return. (Loud
cheers.) Those events are living in our hearts, but you must
not believe that we will forget those labours which did not
shine so brilliantly, but which were not loss glorious. We
remember well your weary watching nights, your fights,
steel to steel, hand to hand, when you could not know
friends from foes ;• your suffering on the sick bed,.and your
constancy in enduring the greatest privations. It was your
high sense of discipline which made you master such hard-
ships. Too many are missing to-day, and if we give our
regrets to those who are no more, let me, as a Frenchman,
join my hearty welcome to the welcome of Ireland, to the
arty of Sebastopol. (Loud cheers )
Mr. Butt—l rise to propose a toast which happily re-
quires no words to recommend it. It, is that of the guests.
whom it is our pride and honour to receive here to-day,
"The Crimean Heroes ;" words never more appropriately
used than when applied to the men, of the British army—
who have borne their part in the Crimean campaign—the
men who are now sitting around us; the men, who, from
the storm of shot and shell, and from fields of death and
danger, have borne back the flag of their country in honour
to our shores. (Loud cheers.) It would not- be easy, my
lord, for any person, oppressed with the grandeur of this
scene, to find words to convey feelings far less deep than
those which stir our hearts just now. Few words, I
believe, are best. I wish I could find those which
would adequately convey these feelings—which would fully
say, welcome to our guests ; a thousand welcomes in
the old phrase of our native land ; a thousand wel-
comes, with all the cordiality of the Irish heart—to those
who have fought for us in far off lands, welcome to our
countrymen whom we have invited here to-day—l say our
countrymen, whether they be Irish, English, or Scotch.
We acknowledge all as our countrymen ; while each of us
remembers our own native land, we may surely now unite
them in one name more glorious than any, for it includes
the armies of all. (Hear, hear, and cheers) Ido not, my
lord, attempt to sketch the glories of a campaign which is
now history, Let me say, however, that in that campaign
the qualities of the British 6oldier have been exhibited in a
new light. We all knew before his power when he came to
the charge of the cold steel—the world well knew the des-

perate valour that could climb the ravirrs of Alma ; as long
ago the heroes rushed up the heights of Quebec. History
had long ago more abundantly testified the unflinching
courage which taught the British soldier to keep his place
or die upon h;s post, but there was something still to be
added to his fame. There was a her,)ism of a still higher
kind—we have around us the men who showed it—the
heroism that could, night after night, in long vigils, in the
midst of disease and privations—enemies more terrible than
the foe, descend to the trenches, without the excitement of
fame, or of the glory of the battle—the heroism that
battled with want, and with cold, and with hardships, that
bore with neglect from home, and triumphed over all—the
heroism of patient and almost hopeless endurance. These
were qualities which the late campaign exhibited as they
never had been before. For these qualities it is that the
Crimean heroes will he prominent on the page of history.
Other engaeements may be compared besides those of the
Alma or Inkerrnann, or even the charge of Balaklava ; but
when men want to illustrate the endurance of the British
soldier, without question they will turn to the long and
dreary winter of Sebastopol. And as such heroism is
without precedent in the past, let us earnestly hope that
no British army may over be called on to encounter
such sufferings again. The toast which I propose includes
all branches of our service. The campaign was one in
which each won their
glories. If speaking of the infantry,
we hink of the charge of the Alma, or the resistance of
the Inkermann, is there any man whose heart does not beat
higher when he remembers the terrible enemy that came on
the situated squadron of our horse to rush on death at
Balaklava. (Hear, hear, and loud cheers.) If we think of our
artillery, the right arm of our service, or our engineers; we
have the record of the opinion of the Russian general as to
the nature of their fire. (Hear, hear.) Our naval forces
shared in the glories of this siege; and when Russian ships
below the water stopped our men.of-war in a way they
never would have done over it, our sailors were not to be
aeated of their fight, and the naval brigade will never bo
forgotten. The only complaint I have ever heard of them
was, that the sailors could not be prevented from popping
their heads above the trenches. (Laughter.) And though