The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-15 00:00:00

LON DON, MO DAY EVENING, uC 1 OBEli 15, 1855.

fusion, and said—l rise merely to volunteer a word as a
member of that assemblage which has been mentioned.
I can only Fay of the House of Commons that it sympa-
thises with the noble and generous sentiments of the city
of Glasgow, which has exceeded all other places and cities
in its benefactions towards the patriotic fund. Here as a
humble individual,. and proud of representing the greatest
constituency in the world out of London, I say that the
manifestation you have made to-night does honour to

Scotland. (Manifestations of impatience.) lam not gifted

with the powers of eloquence of those to whom my hon.
friend has alluded, but I have the conscientious satisfac-
tion of an honest heart, and belong to a country having
an ancient, honourable, and glorious history. Would to
God that every town in the United Kingdom would imitate
what Glasgow had done to-night. Would to God that
every nobleman like the one of ancient royal race pre-
siding here would do the same as he has done to-night.
I do say that the alliance between France and England
is, on the part of the Emperor of the French, one of
great sincerity. (Mr. M'Gregor attempted to proceed
with his speech, but the increased impatience of the au-
dience prevailed, and he sat down.)
The CHAIRMAN—I quite agree with the gentleman
who has sat down about the beneficence of Glasgow.
That is one reason for which I feel proud of my position
here, namely, that in the locality in which I reside so
noble a spirit should be manifested. The toast I have
now to propose is "The Crimean Army, and welcome
to the victorious heroes who have returned." The sub-
ject of the Crimean campaign is a wide one, and I shall
not speak of it at length, because I should be speaking
of what many here understand m i_s katte; than I. St,ll,
, I cannot help sayingsa.few words wi i'Maassitosabargas.7
lant deeds performed by our countrymen at the scene of
war. At the very commencement of the war I think
the wonderful power of England was shown by the mag-
nitude of the transport service. So soon as our troops
;ended on the shores of the enemy was fought the battle
of Alma. And who is not proud of being a Briton who
thinks of the field of Alma ? (Cheers.) Who is not
proud, I may add to many here, of being a Scotchman
who thinks of that occasion ? (Renewed Cheers.) Then
came the glorious fight of Inkerman, which long will
live in history. And Balaklava, perhaps unequalled
for chivalrous valour. Quintus Curtius, jumping into
the gulf, was not a finer hero than every man, private or
officer, who charged at Balaklava. (Cheers.) I have
h4ard such a sentiment from several of them, and among
others from one who won at the sword-point every dis-
tinction he wears, and who cried like a babe when be
talked of Balaklava. I cannot talk of the Crimean cam-
paign without alluding to our allies, to such names as St.
Arnaud and Bosquet, among our French allies, and La
Nlarinora among the Sardinians. Proudlyas the French
and English may carry themselves, Sardinia is their
worthy ally. (Cheers.) It is strange, certainly, and
never, to be forgotten, that we have seen the army of
France and England directed against a common foe for
the first time in the memory of man. But while we
congratulate ourselves, and thank Providence for our
success, we must not forget the fallen foe who have gal-
lantly struggled against us, who have gone to rest, who
have deserved well of their countrymen. Let us not
forget also, in celebrating this glorious victory, that we
raise ourselves in our own estimation by praising our foe.
I wish that feeling bad been more carried out. I regret
expre-sions which have been made use of in regard to the
Russians, because, though none can be more gratified
than I for victories vouchsafed, we ought to be generous
to a fallen foe. (Applause.) We must not forget that
the Russians have fought bravely, that they have fought
band to hand with the best troops of Europe, and that
this war has raised from its ranks one who has distin-
guished himself like General Todleben, and others high '
in position in the Russian service. It is a most gratify-
ing thing to me to preside on this occasion—grateful to '
and myself with such an assembly before me. With re-
gret,
then, fcr those who have fallen in a good cause, I
turn to those now around me, and beg to propose, "The
Crimean Army, and welcome to the victorious heroes
who have returned." (Cheers.) I beg to couple with
the toast the name of Sir James Fergusson.
Sir J. FERGIISSON, in rising to reply, was received
with cheers. He said,—l hardly know how to use
terms sufficient to express my gratitude to you for the
honour you have done me in calling me up in this place
to return thanks for the army, the praises of which you
have so justly sounded, by drinking to them in a manner
which will convey to the hearts of those gallant men who
ere still in the field the sympathy which their country
Feels for them. (Cheers.) It was not until to-night, when
I came here, that I knew the task which was to fall to
my share. I anticipated that a gallant general who has
maintained the honour of our country would have been
'ere to do what I am about do do so inadequately, or
hat some of the other gentlemen who are still in the
atuks of the service would be deputed to the task. I
ern no longer in the army, and feel that I stn unable to
lo justice to the toast, yet I assure you, that there are
lone who feel more deeply the motives which have die-
'ated your expression of feeling this evening. (Cheers.)
There are none who feel more the honour which belongs
to them for having served in the ranks of the army, and
there are none who will remember longer, and with feel-
ings of deeper gratitude, the manner in which the toast
has been received. (Cheers.) Allow me to say that so
rong as this is the way in which the humble soldier is
to be received on his return home—if these are the feel-
ings by which the large body of one of the most influen-
tial towns in the country are actuated, we need not fear
that the might of the country will be put forth to carry
on a great and glorious war. When a humble soldier is
thus received by his countrymen, it demonstrates that
she heart of the country beats in unision, with the army
in the field, and that even the lowest soldier in the ranks
,s not forgotten. (Cheers.) I regret tbatei sin not
better able to acknowledge the toast, but allow me
in conclusion, to return thanks, most cordial and heart-
felt, for the great honour you have done am. (Cheers.)
The Duke of MONTROSE then said—The toast which
has last been given was especially devoted to the British
army, and the enthusiastic manner in which you re-
received it was intended to do all the honour and confer
all the praise which you could upon the bravery and the
courage of our own victorious soldiers. But at the same
time we must recollect that that army has been asso-
ciated with another, emulating it in its bravey and cou-
rage, and sharing with it all the hardships of the pro-
tracted struggle of the past year. Gentlemen, to them
a awed of praise and honour is also due, and it would be
impossible for me to paint in too vivid terms the truth
and faithfulness which have characterised the conduct of
our allies, or for you to do more than justice to the re-
ception of such a sentiment. If we turn to the pages of
history, we shall see all through them the two great na-
tions of England and Franceacting with rivalry, constant
through many ages, honourable to the feelings of both
nations, but unfortunately mixed up too much with
feelings of antagonism and animosity. It has remained
for our days and our eyes to see that rivalry changed
into an emulation only of friendship and good feeling--
to see those two nations associated in the same cause
that of liberty and civilisation to Europe—engaged in
the same glorious struggle, animated by the same views
and sentiments, and the same staid determination to
resist the encroachments of that grasping Power which
has threatened not only the freedom but even the ex-
istence of Europe. But, gentlemen, in speaking of that
army it is impossible that we should overlook—we ought
not to overlook—that master mind which has given ani-
mation to it, which has directed the feelings of the
nation of France into friendship towards us, and into
that unexpected channel to which I have referred. The
Emperor of the French has shown, throughout the pro.
areas of this war and the negotiations attendant upon it,
the clearest perception of the course that ought to be
pursued, and the steadiest determination to bring it to a
successful termination. He has throughout been
faithful to all his engagements with his allies. He
has not faltered when others were timid and inactive;
lie has given strength to their counsels. He has shown
that determination which I have no doubt will en-
able us to arrive at the successful termination to which
we have looked. Upon this occasion we should be want-
ing in honour to ourselves did we not give utterance to
those feelings and sentiments towards him. I may
say it is a pleasing illustration of the state of things
to which I have alluded that the speaker who will,
I believe, respond to this toast should be a noble
duke and a native of France connected with this country
by ties of family, but one who in former times served in
the great army of the late Emperor Napoleon. (Loud
applause.) The Duke of Coigny shared in those trials
and dangers, and bears noble testimony in his own
wounds to his own courage. It its indeed pleasing that
. he, after having been our enemy, is now come to witness
I this alliance, and to state that he and his countrymen
are firm and true friends of the British nation. I think,
gentlemen, I have said enough Ito induce your cordial
7 reception of the toast which I have to propeee to the

Emperor of the French and our bravo allies. But at the
same time I cannot help referring to another nation
which has lately also become one of our allies, and to
which the noble duke in the chair has already referred.
He has spoken of the gallant army which belongs to that
nation, and its deeds of bravery done in former times,
and I think one great cause of congratulation on onr
part that that nation should have joined us is, not so
much on account of the bravery of her army, but that
she is one of the few countries of Europe which enjoys a
free and liberal constitution. While the whole of Ger-
many has been governed by a wavering and vacillating
policy, while Austria has been afraid to barely give utter-
ance to those feelings it is anxious for us to believe its
Government is actuated by,—while Prussia has aided in •
almost every respect the policy of Russia, Savoy alone
has boldly supported the policy of western Europe, and
has lent its army to join in sharing the triumphs of the
associated armies of England and France. With three
such nations joined together, we must look and trust
that we shall never be induced to yield and embrace an
ignominious and useless peace, one which will yield !to
good for what welave fought, but leave us merely the
degradation of failure, aid the spectacle of having insen-
sibly resisted the efforts of the nation with which we are
at war. I trust you will do all honour to the toast I
have to propose—" to tho Emperor o f the French and
our brave allies." (Prolonged applause.)
The DUKE DE COIGN; who was imperfectly heard,
said,—l belong too much to my country not to feel ready
to express my thanks for any honourable mention of
her, and to wish for the prolongation of the life of an
Emperor whom Providence has gianted no in ono of the
• •
7tnest'critleal periods of history. " Let him then live for
many, many long years, this other great Napoleon, who
has, without any other help but the power of his
name, relieved us from a period of revolutionary agi-
tation, and who, with the immense and powerful
assistance of the great and mighty Queen Victoria,
has saved the rest of Europe from the shame of sub-
jection to Cossack dominion.. (Cheers.) I have said
enough, I hope, to persuade you that, whether qualified
or not to return you thanks, I do it in the most warm
and hearty manner. I beg the noble duke and this com-
pany to accept my cordial expression of gratitude, and,
on behalf of my country, I must thank the noble duke
most heartily for what he said about our happy alliance
—that alliance which, I am proud to say, has been the
constant dream of my life. Yes, gentlemen, I may
boast that it has been a dream always present to me,
even when I was fighting against you. (Cheers.) After
every battle I could not help deploring that two great
nations like yours and mine could not come to a good
understanding. (Cheers.) I hoped, if it pleased God,
that would not long be the case. Now that we are in
possession of that formidable alliance, lot us hope that
we shall remain friends for ever. If, after the present
bloody war is finished, we are again called to the field,
let us hope that it will be, as the noble viscount at the
head of the Government said, in his beautiful speech at
Romsey, not face to face, but side by side. (Continued
cheering.)

M. MAUBOUSEIN, the Consul of France, spoke in
French. The following is a translation of his remarks :
—I have the honour to thank your Grace for the toast
which you have just proposed, and I thank you, gen-
tlemen, most sincerely for the enthusiastic manner with
which you have received this testimony of respeot
towards his Majesty the Emperor, my august Sovereign.
If your cordial acclamations could at this moment be
heard at St. Cloud, be assured tbat their Majesties, the
Emperor and Empress, would sincerely appreciate them;
and if these acclamations, too, could be carried to the
Crimea, be persuaded that our brave soldiers would re-
ceive them with bounding hearts. For they love the
Emperor well, who proves to them more effectively every
day the truth of the French maxim, a just and strong
military belief, that each conscript, on quitting his native
village, has in his haversack the germ of an epaulette,
and sometimes of a marshal's baton. With respect
to the perfectly happy harmony which now exists
between the two countries, further cemented as it has
been by her Majesty the Queen having lately placed her
foot on the soil of France, each of us can see with what
high respect and gratulation and with what hearty ad-
miration the French nation has welcomed her Majesty
the Queen of Great Britain. That this union may prove
eternal is the prayer which every good subject of both
countries ought to offer up. (Applause.)
Sir A. ALISON, on rising, was greeted with loud cheers.
He said—Little more than 11 months have elapsed since
we were assembled in this city to commence that noble
subscription which was to testify the sympathy of Britain
with its defenders, and in which Glasgow bore so dis-
tinguished a part ; and the day on which we met has
become immortal in British annals. (Hear.) By a sin-
gular coincidence, at the very time when we were en-
deavouring to celebrate, in inadequate strains, the he-
roism of our troops, the best blood of England was shed
in a glorious conflict, and Inkerman took its place beside
Marathon and Thermopylae in the annals of military
glory. (Cheers.) Even then I rejoice to say the ancient
prowess of Scotland stood conspicuous, for on that very
morning the telegraph, in announcing the bloody fight at
Balaklava, had told that in the wreck of the Ottoman
troops the Highland Regiments had 'stood firm ; and in
the glorious charge of the Heavy Brigade, which broke
through the Muscovite horse, the Scots Greys had taken
the lead. (Loud cheers.) Since that time what a mo-
mentous year has been passed—what alternations of
hope and fear, of grief and exultation—what courage and
perseverance on the ode hand—what steadiness and de-
votion on the part of our enemies ! I t has, indeed, been
a mighty contest, and mighty beyond all example have
been the means employed on both sides. 210,000 French
soldiers, 80,000 English, and 15,000 Piedmontese, with
1,200 guns, have been sen t from the remotest parts of Wes-
tern Europe to the theatre of conflict on the shores of the
Crimea, and they have been confronted by at least an equal
number of Russians. (Hear.) The annals of the world
will be sought in ♦ain for the waging of such .a war at
such a distance and with such means. In comparison
with it the army of Alexander, the legions of Rome, the
hosts of the Crusaders, sink into insignificance. Pro-
portionally great have been the successes achieved in
the terrible strife which ensued. Three victories in
pitched battles in the field—an arduous and unparal-
leled siege of 10 months' duration, terminating in a de-
cisive triumph—the total destruction of a fleet of 18 sail
of the line and 100 vessels of war—the capture of a first-
rate fortress, with 6,000 pieces of cannon—anti the bloody
defeat of an army of 150,000 men signalised the campaign
before the allied armies had been a year in the peninsula.
(Cheers.) Neither the storms of autumn nor the snows
of winter—neither the floods of December nor the heats
of July—neither the sword of the enemy nor the poison
of pestilence have been able to arrest that invincible host.
(Loud cheers.) More than all, they faced during 10
long and dreary months the fearful service of the trenches
—the most arduous that ever fell to the lot of soldiers
to discharge. Theirs was none of " the pomp or cir-
cumstance of glorious war ;" theirs was not the rush of
the assault, the clang of the charge, or the roar of the
platoon ; nothing but the horrors and solitary discharge
of unobtrusive duty. Theirs was the silent advance at
midnight into the enemy's outposts, when the deadly
rifle was pointed from behind every rock, and death met
them at every turn ; theirs was the long weary night
watches in the trenches, when the wintry sky was illu-
mined only by the flying projectiles, and if they closed
their wearied eyelids for a few minutes a bomb burst by
their side, and they were snatched from sleep to eternity.
They suffered and perished in fearful multitudes, but
they suffered and perished in silence ; others not less
courageous succeeded as the first fell in the deadly strife
in the trenches—

" They were true to the last of their blood and their breath,
And like reapers advanced to the harvest of Death,"
till the awful struggle was brought to a termination, and
the allied standards implanted on the ramparts of Sebas-
topol. With truth did our troops in the trenches feel,
when they beheld battery after battery blown into the
air, tower after tower wrapt in flames, ship after ship
sinking in the deep, that the hour, not of victory, but of
conquest had come, and that in the flames around them
they beheld the self-immolation of an empire. (Cheers.)
Let it not be said that it is in a foreign or unnational
cause that this noble blood has been shed. It was
poured forth like water in the great and enduring con-
test which from the earliest time has divided mankind
—the strife of Greece against Persia, of Rome against
Scythia, of the Cross against the Crescent—the ever-
lasting struggle of European freedom against Asiatic
despotism. Let it not be said we have changed sides in
this conflict. We have changed allies, but not principles.
We stood by Russia when she was the last refuge of
Europe against the ambition of the first Napoleon ; and
we stand by France when she is the bulwark of Europe,
under the third Napoleon, against Muscovite aggres-
sion. I see here a change of men, but not of objects ;
and as long as there are inscribed on the banners of
wehis. Against the
'France the device of oucoour to the