The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-23 00:00:00

The Late Field-Marshal Lord Clyde,

On Wednesday afternoon a public meeting of the noble-
men and gentlemen of the county of Lanark, and of the
merchants, bankers, and other citizens of Glasgow, was
held in the Merchants'-hall, for the purpose of taking steps
with a view to the erection in Glasgow of a monument to
• the late Field-Marshal Lord Clyde. Amongst those present
were the Right Hon. Lord Belhaven, Sir Archibald Alison,
Sir James Fergusson, Sir James Campbell, Mr. Walter
Buchanan, M.P., the Lord Provost, Colonel Alison, the
Lord Dean of Guild, &c.
ThEYLORD PROVOST, who was called to the chair, said
they had not met under the idea that any monumental
statue was necessary to perpetuate the memory of Lord
Clyde, for he believed that history would do the memory of
the departed hero that justice to which he was so well en-
titled. But, considering that the departed soldier was a
citizen of Glasgow, it would indeed be strange if those of
his own time should not leave to posterity some lasting me-
morial showing the estimation in which they held the many
great and gallant services of his lordship—services which
commenced with his early years. (Applause.) The Lord
provost also mentioned that, in endeavouring to raise a
monument to Lord Clyde, it was not intended to ask large
sums. The desire rather was that the subscriptions should
be extensive in number, and while the maximum subscrip-
lion was of a limited character, it was hoped that a large
number of small contributions would be received. The feel-
ing of the committee was that the whole community of
Glasgow should aid in the effort to erect some monument
to Lord Clyde worthy of his name.
Sir ARCHIBALD A.Lisort then addressed the meeting as
follows :--My Lord Provost and gentlemen, &c.—l am sure
1 express the unanimous opinion of all whohear me, when I
say that the country owes your lordship a debt of gratitude
for the trouble you have taken in giving it, by this meeting,
an opportunity of expressing the feelings with which all
are animated towards the late lamented Field-Marshal Lord
C England has already taken the lead on this subject;
committee has been formed in London, having at its head
the e'
lydfirst in rank and the first in station, to promote the erec-
tion of a suitable memorial to his memory in the metropolis
of the empire ; and the unanimous voice of the nation has
procured a last resting-place for his remains in that time-
honoured fane where the poets, the philosophers, and the
statesmen of England

" Sleep with her Kings, and dignify the scene."
It is not fitting at such a time that Scotland should he un-
' mindful of one of the most illustrious of her sons— that
Glasgow, his birthplace, should be without a monument to
his memory. Such a testimonial is wanted, not to do honour
to the dead so much as to testify the feelings of the living—
not to record his deeds, but to evince our sense of their im-
portanee and to excite the emulation of our children by
giving to it a suitable expression. I shall not attempt, at
this time and in this
place, to give any summary of the
deeds of the lamented Field-Marshal, from the time when
he joined the British army in 1808, amidst the wooded cliffs
of Portugal, on the eve of the battle of Vimiera, to that
when he closed his long career, by trampling under foot the
last embers of the Sepoy insurrection on the banks of the
foaming Raptee, beneath the shadow of the mountains of
Nepaul. I will not speak of the young- hero who led the
forlorn hope at the first assault of St. Sebastian, or of the
" thinlred line" at Belaklava, which has become a house-
hold word over the whole civilised world. I shall men-
tion only four circumstances which demonstrate in what
estimation, when danger threatened and it became indispen -
sable to bring real merit to the front, he was held by those
under whom he served. When victory on the banks of the
Alma quivered in the balance, and the noble regiment of the
Fusilier Guards was crushed by the Russian fire from the
Great Redoubt, it was Sir Colin Campbell, at the head of
the Highland Brigade, who made the decisive charge, and,
immediate orders of the Duke of Cambridge,
in conjunction with the Grenadier and Coldstream Guards,
droveunde hrttheememy from their formidable stronghold and won
When the long and dreary winter
the fight. (Applause.)
set in, and it had become essential to preserve at all hazards
our connexion • with Balaklava—the magazine of the army
—it was to Sir Colin and his hardy Highlanders, in con-
junction with an equally brave body of Frenchmen, under
General Vinoy, that the duty of defending the communica-
tion was assigned—the post of honour as the post of dan-
ger. -When the British were repulsed from the Redan, it
was to Sir Colin Campbell and the same Highland division
that the task was intrusted of renewing the assault, an
assault prevented only by the retreat of the enemy. And
s tereedischargep 1t
reply,
when Hindustan was involved in the horrors of the Sepoy
revolt, and our Indian dominion rocked to its foundation, it
was to Sir Colin Campbell that Lord Palmerston applied to
4, restore a falling cause and a sinking empire ;" and then it
" •morrow morning." And well and
nobly
was that, when asked when he could set out, he gave the
memorable
that, the last and most important,
duty
u hd o ia
im by his country. Without going into
details with which all are familiar, suffice it to say that
d
when he advanced in November, 1857, from Cawnpore, to
effect the deliverance of the long-beleaguered garrison of
Lucknow, he bore the fate of India on his sword's point,
for he was marching with 6,000 men—our last reserve—to
assail 60,000, entrenched to the teeth in the capital of Oude,
with 15,000 victorious rebels threatening his rear and com-
munications. If he had failed in his enterprise, India for
the time was lost, and the renown of the British name for
ever dimmed; for had our Eastern poseessions been torn
from us by our own troops, where would have been our
prestige as a great, our security as an independent, Power ?
I will not seek to magnify his victory by dwelling on the
immensity of the interest then at issue; it is enough to
say that never in British story was contest engaged in
where the stakes were heavier or the victory more nobly
won. (Applause) I would rather linger, in a few words,
over his private character, known to a narrower circle than
his public exploits, but not less deserving of interest
and admiration. His mind was simplicity itself;
he never harboured a thought which did not belong to the
heroic character. Heart and soul were wrapped up in his
public duty. lie was ambitious, but it was for his country,
not himself. Like the Roman General whom Tacitus has
immortalised, he "sought rather to be than to appear great,
and thus the more he shunned praise the more was he de-
serving of glory." Too noble to be envious, too simple to
be ostentatious, he was ever ready to bestow praise on
others, and desired only to conceal from observation his own
great exploits. He was alike superior to the love of gain,
the first impulse of ordinary, and the thirst for praise, the
"last infirmity of noble minds." His modesty was such
that it amounted to a fault, for it often exposed him to mis-
construction, and made him appear what he was not, in-
different to the gratitude of his country. Tho thought of
being the object of admiration in public assemblies, so often
coveted by eminent men, was so painful to him that he
would do anything to avoid it. After the sword had been
presented to him at Glasgow in 1856, he said to me, "I
would rather have stormed the Redan." And when about
to embark from India, on his return to Europe in 1860, he
wrote to me, imploring in the most earnest terms that I
would endeavour, if possible, to have him spared the agony
of any public reception in Glasgow. And if it be true that
the "ruling passion is strong in death," we may well eaY
that this was his ruling passion, for he left an express
injunction on his executory that no mention should in any
e
posthumous memoir be made of his actions, exeep_t in
simplest terms and without eulogy of any kind. He
he
avaricious, but it was only of the blood of his solefits;
He never
was prodigal, but it was of his own life alone.
would owe to force whathe could gain by skill, and his first
Id be accom-
plished in every combination was how itcou
profoundly with the least loss to his men. versed
in strategy his plans were generally successful, and the de-
-•
sired end attained with a surprisingly
and it was necessary small loss of life.
But when the decisive moment arrived,
to strike with an iron gauntlet, no one could strike a heavier
blow, and no oneever preceded him in the field in delivering
it. He rode with the foremost skirmishers the attack on
the Russian redoubt on the Alma, and the Commander-in-
Chief in India resumed his old post of leader of the forlorn
assault of the Shah Nujeof Mosque at Lucknow.
hopeNo
generalon the
eNvas
over
more solicitous for the welfare of his
soldiers, or exceeded him in the eloquence with which in
moments of danger he animated their courage. lie was too
generous to be wealthy—toe independent to be early pros -
perous.
Tle. rank which he attained—the peerage, the field
Manhale; baton, were all earned by his right arm; and the
fortune which he left was the reward of his public services,
not earned by his private exertions. What he gave away
during his life would have made a handsome competence for
an ordinary man. In a word, he was, to use the expression
of the Roman annalist, " a man of ancient virtue, in all the
duties of life most admirable." (Loud applause.) Sir Archi-
bald concluded by moving the following resolution :
" That this public meeting, deeply impressed with the
loss which the country has sustained in the death of Colin
Campbell, Lord Clyde, and anxious to testify their high ad-
miration of big military talents, and gratitude for his illus-