The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-19 00:00:00

A CRIMEAN BANQUET AT PARIS.

The Moniteur of Friday publishes the following
account of a banquet given at the Palais Royal, by
Prince Napoleon, on the 14th inst., to those Gene-
ral officers actually at Paris who took part in the
war in.the East.

Among the guests were Admiral Hamelin, the
Duke of Malakoff, Marshal Canrobert, Marshal
Bosquet, Generals Regnaud de Saint Jean d'Angely,
de Salles, Niel, De MacMahon, Thiry, Dalasme.
There were 52 guests present.
Prince Napoleon had asked Prince Jerome to
preside at this military assembly, among whom

were nine officers of the first Empire, nearly all of
them Waterloo men.

At dessert his Imperial Highness Prince Jerome
rose and proposed the following toast:—

To the Emperor, to the Empress, and to the Prince
Imperial ! to whom I wish, for the welfare of our beloved
country which he is called upon to govern, the courage,
the wisdom, and cleverness of his august father. The
health of the Emperor !

His Imperial Highness Prince Napoleon then
rose and said :

Gentlemen, I propose the health of the Cammandrs in
Chief of the army in the Crimea—of those men of arms
who have bad the glory of adding new victories to our
military annals—of Marshal St. Arnaud, that bold soldier,
who died after the Alma, having for a'svinding sheet the
tricolour flag of regenerated France ; of Marshal Canrobert,
who knew how to keep up the army under most difficult
circumstances, and handed over to his successor, as he
himself expressed it, an army hardened by war and ready
for any enterprise ; of Marshal Peliesier, Duke of
Malakhoff, who has immortalized himself by the capture
of Sebastopol, and knew how, by bis persevering energy,
to triumph over difficulties and obstacles which sur-
rounded him on all sides. Allow me, gentltmen, to
mall with a sad emotion our brothers in arms
who have died like worthy sons of France. The
bitter regret we feel at their loss is lessened only
by the results that have been obtained. I do not
wish to talk politics at this meeting of comrades of the
battle field. I only wish to recall the military results of
the war. They are great, because the present army has
shown itself worthy of our fathers ; the glorious traditions
of the Republic and of the first Empire have been renewed
by you. Posterity will say that at Moscow our fathers
vanquished the Russians, but were compelled to give in to
the elements; while at Sebastopol you have overcome the
elements, and vanquished the. Russians. In hiatory 1854
will respond to 1812 ! The immense advantage of the war,
I say it with pride, is that you have proved that France still
has her "Grand Army."
The Marshal Duke of Malakhoff replied as fol-
lows :

Monseigneur, it is for me to reply to the toast which your
Imperial Highness has just given to the army in the Crimea,
and to thank you for having assembled us around the brother
of the Emperor Napoleon 1., the most illustrious of the
last representative of his immortal time; his presence here
reminds us that the army of which your Imperial Highness
has just praised the prowess has nobly followed the great
example bequeathed by its predecessors. The praises which
your Imperial Highness has bestowed upon the army which
I had the honour of commanding will be the more appre-
ciated by it. because it remembers with happiness that your
Imperial Highness shared its labours and contributed
valiantly to its first successes. Your Imperial Highness
responded to the tlrughts of us all by recalling in this
allusion to glorious remembrances the companions in arms
that we have lost, and I thank you for having honoured
their memory by associating them so nobly with our regrets
I propose, Monseigneur. your health and that of his Im-
perial Highness Prince Jerome Napoleon,

His Imperial Highness Prince Jerome responded
as follows :

I thank Marshal Pelissier for having associated my
name with the remembrance of the Grand Army. lam
happy to be able to respond to it by proposing a toast to
our brave army and navy, and especially to our glorious
army of the Crimea, which, with the rapidity of the eagle,
seized upon the first opportunity of placing itself worthily
by the side of the old phalanxes of Marengo, Austerlitz,
and Jena. The Health of the Army and Navy of the
Crimea!

The last toast was proposed by Marshal Canro-
bert. He said .

Monseigneur—Called upon as a former General in Chief
of the army in the East to respond to a toast given by your
Imperial Highness to that army, I beg of you to allow me
to commence by paying here a just tribute of praise and
regret to my illustrious predecessor, Marshal S. Arnaud,
who, falling enshrouded, as it were, in his triumph of the
Alma, was happy enough to make known to the world the
glorious part which your Imperial Highness took in that
deed of arms. Allow me, also, Monseigneur, to call to
mind here the noble support which you gave to all the
severe and dangerous labours at the commencement of the
siege of Sebastopol; and allow him who had the honour
of being your second General in Chief to mention here that
on the 16th of October, when the assaulting columns were
preparing for the attack of the morrow upon the town, if
the expected result of the double fire by land and sea should
render the assault necessary, your Imperial Highness in-
sisted upon having the honour of leading them. At a
later period, Monseigneur, when a cruel illness compelled
you to leave the army, your Imperial Highness never ceased
to show that you were always present there in your heart,
and, availing yourself of your exalted position, you suc-
ceeded in relieving the victims of war, over whom you
never ceased to watch. I thank you, then, Monsigneur,
in the name cf the army of the East, whose Generals, my
companions in arms, assembled by your Imneridl Highness
round your august father, will heartily join with me in
nroposing. with the health of the Emperor, that of your
Imperial Highness.

The recent souvenirs of the war kept up the
convivality of this familyfete,destined to strengthen
the bonds of fraternity which unite the com_
manders as well as the men of the army.