The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-03 00:00:00

PRICE. ----id.
STAMPED ....sd.

Dinner given by the London Scottish
Volunteers to Lord Elcho.

A dinner was given last evening at the Freemasons'
Tavern, by the London Seottish Volunteers to their Lieut.-
Colonel, Lord Elcho, with the special object of congratu-
lating him on the successful result of the Volunteer In-
quiry Commission, fur the appointment of which his lord-
ship moved in bis place in Parliament, and in the labours
of which he took so active a part. The hall presented a
very gay and interesting appearance, being hung with the
banners of the various clans, and filled with volunteer and
other uniforms of Highland costumes, the grey and blue of
the London Scottish Rifle Volunteers of course preponde-
rating. A number of ladies witnessed the proceedings from
the gallery.

The chair was occupied by the Marquis of Abercorn,
S.G., one of the captains of the corps--the croupiers being
Major Sir David Baird, Bart., Captain Conway, Private
Sir Stuart Donaldson, and Private J. W. Malcolm, M.P.
Among those present were Lord Elcho, the Earl of Airlie,
the Earl of Fife, Lord Colville, the Lord Advocate, Lieut.-
Colonel the Hon. Charles Lindsay, the Hon. Arthur Kin-
naird, M.P., Sir Roderick Murchison, the Hon. F. Byng,
the Hon. Major Anson, Captain Sir Malcolm Macgregor,
Colonel M•Murdo, C. 8., Captain Page, Colonel Cole, C. 8.,
Colonel M'Leod, Captain Mildmay, General Veitch, Dr.
Halley, and others.
Several others of the nobility and commanding officers
were invited, but were unable to attend.

About 350 sat down to dbaaner,
After the cloth was drawn,

The CHAIRMAN, who on rising was received with loud
and prolonged cheering, proposed •0 The Health of her
Majesty the Queen."
The toast was drank with three times three.
The CHAIRMAN proposed the " Health of his Royal High-
ness the Prince of Wales, Duke of nothesay, Lord of the
Isles, the Princess of Wales, and the rest of the Royal
Family," which was drank with the usual honours.

The CHAIRMAN,:iII giving " The Army, the Navy, and
the Volunteers of Great Britain and the Colonies," said it
would be presumption in him, a simple volunteer, in the
presence of such distinguished officers of the army and
navy as were around him, to do more than to refer to their
noble deeds, which had raised our nation to the first posi-
tion in the world. The deeds of our soldiers in the wilds
of the Crimea and on the plans of India showed that the
British soldier of the present day was not unworthy of that
honourable and distinguished title. (Loud cheers.) He
begged to couple with the toast the name of Mr. George
Bain, an old Peninsular soldier; Capt. Sir. M. Macgregor,
R.N. ; and Lord Colville of the volunteers.

Mr. BAIN responded on behalf of the army; and Sir
MALCOLM MACGREGOR for the navy.
Lord COLVILLE, in responding for the volunteers, said
he believed in his heart that no man had done more good
to the volunteer service than Lord Elcho. (Hear, hear.) He
hoped that he might long continue to reap the reward to
which he was entitled—namely, the continued success of
the volunteer force of the country. (Loud cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN then rose and said it was now his pleasing
duty to propose what was emphatically the toast of the
evening—" The Health of their Noble Lieutenant-Colonel,
Lord Elcho." (Cheers.) It had been his pride and privilege
to have been acquainted with his noble friend for more years
than either of them would care to number. He knew him a
youth at college, where he was foremost in all those athletics
sports and exercises which predicate the man of energy and
of action. (Loud cheers.) He had known him for many years
an active and influential member of the House of Commons.
When, in late years, the suspicion of foreign insult threw
all the civilian blood of England into military action, his
noble friend, with his energy, his eloquence, and his sound
discretion, threw himself into the van of the volunteer move-
ment. (Cheers.) To that energy, that eloquence, and that
sound discretion was owing, in no small degree, the success
of the greatest national movement of our age. (Hear.) Lord
Elcho, by setting an example of obedience to authority,
had shown that to be one of the greatest of military excel.
lencies and the foundation of discipline, and had thereby
been the means of raising it to the position it now occupied.
(Hear.) Not content with that, he had also become the
president and prime mover of the National Rifle Association
—an association which had been the means of the diffusion
throughout the country of a new means of defence. Lord
Elcho, by his energy and his influence in the House of
Commons had obtained from Government that effective
support which alone was wanting to root the volunteer force
indelibly in the soil of Great Britain. (Cheers.) If Lord
Elcho had been present at the birth of the volunteer move-
ment—if he had nursed it in its infancy he had also pro-
cured for it that assistance which would give it permanency
and strength. (Cheers.) He need merely say that through
his instrumentality an annual additional sum of £200,000
had been granted for the volunteers, including the sum of
20s. for every effective, and 10s. for every private who had
passed through his musketry practice. (Hear, hear.) There
were other minor, but very important concessions, relating
to the personal staff and musketry instructors, all of which
tended to the success and stability of the volunteer corps.
They wished on that occasion to testify their sense of the
benefits which had been through the instrumentality of
Lord Elcho, he might almost say by Lord Elcho, conferred
upon them—they wished to take that public opportunity of
expressing their respect for him personally, and their gra-
titude for his services. (Loud cheers.) He begged to give
them " The Health of Lord Eleko."

The toast was drank amid loud cheers, with " Highland
honours."

Lord ELclio, in rising to respond to the toast, said—My
lords, gentlemen, and brother volunteers—There are cir-
cumstances and events in all our lives which, whether
they be for joy or for sorrow, impress themselves inde-
libly upon our hearts and minds, and, as it were, burn
themselves into our very souls, and when words are ut-
terly wanting to give expression to the feelings which
struggle in vain for utterance. When I look around me,
and when I see this great and brilliant assembly,
and when I think that it is composed of so many
of my distinguished fellow-countrymen and brother volun-
teers, words may well be wanting to me, as they now are,
to express to you my thanks of gratitude for this great
kindness. (Loud cheers.) I only trust you will not mea-
sure my thanks and gratitude by my words. Still the
simplest form of words is oftentimes the best and most
expressive ; and I can assure you from my heart that I
thank you for your kindness to me, and that the reception
you have given me to-Right shall never be forgotten by me
or mine. (Loud cheers.) It is almost this day four years
since I was told that a gentleman—then almost a stranger
to me—Dr. Halley, wished to see me, and he came, with a
drawing of a Highlander in a grey kilt, and informed me
that the Highland Society wished to re. establish the Lon-
don Scottish Rifle Volunteer Corps. I say re-establish,
because the London Scottish Corps existed in ISO 3, when
something like a million volunteers stood forth, and by their
gallant appearance opposite Boulogne, turned aside the
threatened invasion. and made the invader think it was
better to lead his legions against Austria rather than to the
shores of Great Britain. (Loud cheers.) Having thrown
my heart and soul into the volunteer movement, I eagerly
embraced his proposal, as I was glad to see that my country-
men were not backward in so good a cause, but were pre-
pared to assist in the defence of their country. I entered
into the project without over imagining that I was to be its
commander, and without having an idea of the pride and
pleasure of that position, and still less of this ovation—for
I can give it no other term—which your warm, true, loyal
Scottish hearts have given me. (Loud cheers.) Pride and
pleasure I have indeed felt at this connection, when within
little more than 12 months I marched past her Majesty at
the head of the London Scottish Rifle Volunteer Corps—
(loud cheers)—and when our inspector, Colonel M'Murdo,
on that occasion as on others, stated that they distin-
guished themselves, and, by their soldierlike bearing and
discipline, maintained the martial character of our northern
race. (Loud cheers.) In mixing with the corps I
have
known, with many whom otherwise I should never
ds to the
known, and who I trust will remain my firranh?aens been al_
end of our lives. (Cheers.) This conneucutio
most without alloy. A slight breeze ouc
ewd
thatatthaellcume;
mencement of our career, but thenveyro.
friction, and to such
machinery will heat a little froma
lend to fracture of some part.
an extent sometimes as willl
lLeondon Scottish was not ex-
(Cheers and laughter.)
Theoaughter)—we had occasionally
empt from this peculiarity—(laughter)—we
eventually to a fracture; that
makeances
ausb
thatl i c thwe
retirement of some of the members of the
would
is littlet o
sayo: e
tor - htehaetirneg_ti
corps—l do not allude
old grit
disturbances •
had been some slight in our ranks,
that there to this merely
or for the purpose of raking up
• ungracious, and uncalled for on the
be unwise, present oc-
casion, but I do so for the purpose of mentioning the fact
that those gentlemen who, from conscientious motives, then
felt bound to retire from the corps, are now members of
(Loud cheers.) We are told that if ' a limb of the human
body is fractured and re-united, the spot so re-united be-
comes its strongest part, and so our fracture has led to our
being more strongly cemented together than at first
—(loud
we were
—(loud cheers)—and I can safely say I have no warmer or
better friends in the corps than those gentlemen who at one
time felt bound to leave it, (Loud cheers.) Well, then,
looking as I do to the past with pride and satisfaction, and
at the united state of
the corps—united as it is from na-
tional, personal, and regimental feelings—l shall not be far
wrong, I am sure, when I predict permanence to it, cape •
cially as long as we retain Capt. Page as adjutant. (Loud
cheers.) There is many a volunteer corps and many a vo-
lunteer commander who want to have him as their adju,
tent; but we will not let him go. (Cheers and laughter.)
So long as we retain him as an adjutant, I may safely pre-
dict that the London Scottish corps will not be less efficient
than other volunteer corps. (Cheers.) I also trust that
this occasion, which has brought together so many Scotch-
men, many of whom do not belong to the corps, may result
in their interesting themselves in the success of what may