The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-01 00:00:00

TILE DURR OF ItiCHAIOIVD AND THE
VETERANS OF THE PENINSULA.

At Edinburgh, on Wednesday evening, the Duke of
Richmond was entertained at dinner by a company of
• •

above 50 war modal officers in the different services, in

. . _
recognition of his Grace's services in precuring for the
regimental officers and men who had served in the Penin-
sular and in other campaizns the distinctions of the war
medal. Major-General Geddes, presided, and
Rear-Admiral Montgomerie occupied the vice-chair-
Nearly all the company wore decorations of the Penin-
.

aular, Waterloo, or Indian campaigns.
The customary loyal and military toasts having been
givers and received in a spirited manner,
General GEDDES proposed the health of their noble
and gallant guest. He said—We owe the Duke, of Rich-
Toond a deep debt of gratitude, and if we poor soldiers
and sailors are unable to pay it we will, at any rate,
honestly acknowledge it. No war
io usemedal, recipient
a soldier's can
ever forget the Duke of Richmond. _
phrase, he " spoke up" for us with a kindness and feeling
that said much for the goodness of his heart, and with
an earnestness and an energy that could not fail to be of
good service to us. The Duke et Richmond is a soldier
himself, and a gallant one, as you all know. (Cheers.)
He was in the personal staff of the Great Duke who
so often led the armies of England to battle. He served
in the ranks of one of our most distinguished regiments,
the 52d, and he has scars, as well as decorations, re-
ceived in battle. (Cheers.) When his Grace sheathed
kis sword after the long war he did not fall back upon
a life of inactivity. He takes his place, we are proud
to think, in the councils of his Sovereign and of the
nation ; he gives time, talent, means, and energy to the
improvement of agriculture ; and now that we have
again entered on war we find him at the head of one of
the regiments of defence—the militia. (Cheers.) lam
sure that, if I have failed to do all the justice to this
toast that it deserves, you will not fail to drink with all
respect and in all sincerity "The health of the Duke of
Richmond." (Prolonged cheering.)
The Duke of RICHMOND, in reply, said—Gentlemen,
General Geddes has said that my humble services in
favour of the army and navy can never be repaid. Gen-
tlemen, I beg to tell you that these feeble services have
been more than amply repaid by the kindness which 1
have received from the recipients of the war medals both
in London and on the present occasion. It 'is true, as
has been said by your President, that it was my good
fortune to be a humble sharer in the glories of the Pe-
ninsular and Waterloo armies. When peace was esta-
blished I returned to this country, and I then felt that
the people of England bad forgotten the services of
those to whom they were indented for the peace—the
long peace which has since existed. It is most true that
the Government of the country then recommended the
Sovereign to give medals to the general officers and other
superior officers, and to the admirals and those command-
ing in the fleet. Gentlemen, Ido not think that they
conferred one honour more on these gallant and illus-
trious individuals than they were justly entitled to ; but
still, as I have been a regimental officer, and had wit-
nessed with admiration the sailors and marines doing
their duty to the country, I felt regret that the regi-
mental officers of the army, the lieutenants of the navy
not commanding, and, more than all, our non-commis-
sioned officers, our warrant officers, our private soldiers,
and our sailors had received no decoration of proof of
our regard ; and, speaking of rewards to our heroes now
engaged, 1 would say that I do hope, before this war is
at an end, many gallant sailors and soldiers will be pro-
moted to the peerage, to add lustre to the roll of the
hereditary nobles of England. (Cheers.) But, with
he conviction that no general officers or admirals can
win victories alone, and that they must be ably and
efficiently supported by those who hold rank under
them, and by every soldier and sailor undertheir com-
mand, I thought it my duty to ask thatevery man who had
done his Sovereign and his country service should be
enabled to wear on his breast the distinguiAing mark
that he had done his duty. (Cheers.) It was certainly
a novelty to make so large a request, and therefore a
considerable delay intervened before it was granted. I
did not ask it as a boon ; I asked it as a just reward fur
honourable service, and as such I stated in the House of
Lords I would alone receive it. I was met bs' the state-
ment that, even though the officers and men received the
medal, they would not be got to wear it ; but I well
knew, gentlemen, that those who held that language bad
collected it from the red-tapists of Downing-street.
(Laughter and cheers.) I knew that they had never
watched at the picket-fire, or listened to thii seamen's
yarn, else they would have known that each 'one of our
gallant men would be as proud of his modal as the
proudest peer of the country. (Cheers.) Hut, gentle-
men, I had no claim in this matter, save that of bring-
ing it before the notice of her Majesty's Government,
for I knew full well that the kind heart of the' Sovereign
under whose rule it is our pride to live would only be too
happy to show her feelings of regard for theist who had
supported her predecessors—the kings of this country—
in the late war. (Cheers.)
The Duke of RICHMOND, in Proposing " Lord Raglan
and the British Army," said—l rise with the greatest
possible pleasure to propose the toast which has been
placed in my hands—with the greatest possible pleasure,
because it is to the good health of one with vihom I was
a boy at Westminster School, who afterwards was a
comrade of mine on the staff of the'Duke of Wellington,
and for whom and with whom, from that time to the pre-
sent, I have been on terms of the deepest friendship.
Uu public grounds I era quitaiuro that there is no meet-
ing that can take place in any part of Great Britain or
Ireland that would not receive with acclamation the pro-
posal of drinking to the health of Lord Raglan and the
brave army serving with him in the Crimea. (Loud
applause.) Gentlemen, at an early period of life
Lord Raglan joined the Duke of Wellington's staff.
He was soon made his Military Secretary. He went
through the arduous campaigns of the Peninsula
with him, and was present at the crowning victory of
Waterloo. Many of you must also be acquainted with
his services is the post he since occupied at the Horse
Guards. I believe I speak the sentiments of the great
body of the old officers of the Peninsular war when I
say that he always treated them with kindnea, while
in the administration of the duties of his office he showed
the utmost desire to do his duty to his country. In
short, he always showed a clear head and a kind heart.
(Cheers.) Now that he has been most propetly sent out
to the Crimea, I will not here enter into the disputed
subject of whether our army went out there too late,
or whether they ought to have gone out at all. That
is no business of Lord Raglan and the brave and heroic
Men under his command. (Hear, hear.) They were
ordered on a particular service ; they have gone on that
. a •rvice, and as you must all have read those despatches
of Lord Raglan which, I think, do him more credit
than, perhaps, all his career at the Horse Guards, you
may have been led to suppose, from his own modesty
as to his own services, and from his desire to give the
army all the credit, that he himself had not been there
at all. (Applause.) His army has been exposed to
great hardships and great privations. In Bulgaria they
lost large numbers of men by cholera and other dis-
eases, which, though they have been experienced by
our armies in India, they scarcely expected to encoun-
ter in Europe. That decieased the strength of the bat-
talions, and, thus diminished in force, they were sent
to the Crimea, where they have found more difficulties
to contend with than probably they anticipated when
they left the shores of England. I again repeat. that
I will give no political opinion at all. My views in
politics, as is well known, are strongly opposed to the
present Government, but I have no politics when the
question of supporting the war is concerned. (Cheers.)
I throw them aside—l fling them away with the
scabbard which we have cast from us, and I say that
at the present moment, when the battle for the
freedoM of the civilised world is to be fought in the
Crimean land, I would, if I had the supreme power now;
send every native sailor, marine, and soldier who is fit
for foreign service out to the Black Sea, with this excep-
tion alone, that I should reinforce the fleet in the Pacific.
(Cheering.) Gentlemen, we cannot afford, as the Duke
of Wellington said, to have little wars. Never mind
expense; that is a secondary affait. You owe it to the
bravery and the heroism and the gallantry of our sol-
diers who are now in the Crimea that they should be
reinforced, and that their brigades should be stronger
than battalions ; and you owe it to the country at large
that they should be strongly reinforced, and the sooner
the better. (Renewed cheering.) At the risk of in-
truding on your time, I would call your attention for a
moment to the gallantry of the blue' jackets in that
country. I happen to know that there are no men who
have worked better or more heroically in -the batteries
than those men who have been landed from the ships.
It is complained that they have not done impossibilities.
Now, they have done what they were ordered to do,
and you have no right to ask more : pet mit me to say
I should have blamed them had they done more than
they were ordered to. But, gentlemen, Ido feel that
one of the great advantages that have accrued from the
peace is the kindly feeling that is now shown and that
has so long existed between our army and navy, and
which I hope and trust will ever continue to exist, with-
out anyrivalry between the professions except that honest
emulation of each attempting to do better service to his
Sovereign and his country than the other has the oppor-
tunity of doing. (Applause.) Certainly, I cannot sit down
without expressing the high satisfaction it has given me
to_cfi:ld that the heroic soldiers of France those men‘°ll 131 we, or most of us, were opposed to for so many
yea are now our allies, and with whom, almost from
the,
have
suoulBcortravlrar to the present moment, our officers
new p
at this. neras(eie.a.r.r and entirely " fraternised," as the
am not one of those who are surprised
here present whohear, There is no Peninsular officer
opposed to the French h)ntot remember that, when we were
roops in the Peninsula, the no
moot our cross-belts were
besid off, the soldiers of the two
armies would fleet the same rivulet, washing
their muskets in the satanenedstrieam,
t resole biastts9l.lari(ncgheweristl.;
each other their baranfedeylilw
of
There always was
zee," on the part of the
English towards the French i7B
which was
also felt by tI es French te w_a(r,d, telai er
henegawlf,s,rl,tieh'.ai
en(dAcphpel
earuss)e_. )
We fought not ass sava,ges
portant
rof
shall
that, .11 perenineef
talcuityd awreidotwreusttothe
hr tier degrade ourselves into being
onl, if it be true that nine of the Russian trop ,g
dered our wounded melt, I only hope that tio
of their inhumanity will take place. (Cheers.) We
roust look for their puni,:li:::cnt to the universal eov-
tempt of all inaukind. (Cheering%) Gentlemen, 1 give
you "Field-Marshal Lord Raglan's Health, and the
British Army." I had only hoped that I should have
been enabled, in doing so, to designate him by that step
in the peerage which I think he has so gallantly won,
Oho toast was drunk with great enthusiasm.) -
After some other toasts, .
Admiral MONTGOMERIE proposed "The health of the
Duchess and Family, including his Grace's son in-law,
Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar."
The Duke of RIcHmoND, in reply, said, as a soldier's
Wife, and as a soldier's daughter, he was quite satisfied

that the Duchess of Richmond would feel deeply grate-
ful to the veteran officers of the war who had conferred
so many acts of kindness on her husband. The man-
ner in which the company had received the mention of
his son-in-law was also deeply gratifying to him. He
(the Duke) was no young soldier ; and he would tell
them that he was proud of the conduct Prince Edwaril
had pursued. Of the rank and position which
would have entitled him to go upon the staff, where,
as they all knew, there was so cinch greater comfort
to ibe obtained—if comfort there was in war—he had
gone out with his battalion, and at the head of his coin-
pany, from which he had not been absent a single day.
(Applause.) He (the Duke) felt as all felt where one
so much beloved was undergoing the dangers and pri-
vations of war, but he trusted in Providence that his
son-in-law might be restored to them. (Applause.)
1 Among other toasts were, "The Memory of Welling-
ton," "The Heroes of the Peninsula and Waterloo,"
i " The Memory of those who had fallen in the Crimea,"
I &c.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.—Nov. 30.

COURT OF BANKRUPTCY.
(B4fore Mr. Commissioner Goulburn.)
IN RE ISIDORE BCRNSTEIN.
The bankrupt was a tailor in Essex-street, Strand,
California, and Melbourne ; in the latter being also a
commission agent and merchant. He was adjudicated a
bankrupt at Liverpool ; but the proceedings have been
transferred to this Court. This was a meeting for the
proof of debts and choice of assignees. Mr. Evans (of
Liverpool), Mr. Murrough, and Mr. Robins appeared
for creditors.
The bankrupt (examined) said he left Melbourne in
July last with his housekeeper. Her name was Mary
Ann Ward. He booked himself in the name of John
Smith—no, Francis Smith. He booked the young lady
in the na ne of Clara Smith. She came with him as
Mrs Smith. He said, in an examination at Liverpool,
that all the money he had was 21. 103., and produced it.
In the presence of Mr. Commissioner Perry be took
from his pillow 4001., and handed it to Mr. Evans.
Several debts having been proved the case was ad-
journed.