The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-12 00:00:00

DINNER TO SIR C. NAPIER AT

CHELTENHAM.
(From the Gloucestershire Chronicle.)
On Thursday evening a banquet in honour of Sir
Charles Napier, the conqueror of Sinde, was given at
the Queen's Hotel, Cheltenham. The Earl of Ellen-
borough presided on the occasion, and the company con-
sisted of about 120 gentlemen, principally men.bers of
the military and naval professions, many of whom had
seen service, some in those extraordinary achievements
in India which have rendered British prowess more re-
nowned than ever throughout the world.

The Earl of ELLENROROUGH, in proposing the toast
of the evening, said—Gentlemen, I have now to pro-
pose to you that we drink " The health of our illus-
trious guest, Sir Charles Napier."—( Loud cheers.) If
Sir Charles had come amongst us with no other recom-
mendations than those which have been furnished to us
by the knowledge which we possess of his great ser-
vices at the head of his regiment in the Peninsula—of
his long and most enlightened government in the
lonian Islands —of his most judicious administra-
tion of the very difficult duties entrusted, in a time
of much public commotion, to the General of the most
disturbed district of the country— we should have been
proud to have received him amongst us ; we should
have rejoiced to see him here. But, gentlemen, I pass
by those matters, however justificatory they may be of
our approbation and acknowledgment. We receive our
Illustrious guest here to-day as the conqueror and ad-
ministrator of Sinde.—(Loud cheers.) We receive our
illustrious guest as a man who has carried the arms and
the empire of his country into the valley of the Indus,
and secured the establishment of its rule there by the
hold he gave it on the affections of the inhabitants of
the country.—(Cheers.) We shall ill appreciate the
services my Gallant Friend has performed if we do not
look back to the circumstances under which he entered
on that command in which he has made his name illus-
trious. He did not go, as other generale have gone to
India, to receive the command of a well appointed, self-
confidant army, in a friendly country, accustomed to
victory, where everything was easy to a man of the most
ordinary ability. Gentlemen, my Gallant Friend went
to Sinde almost Immediately after the occurrence of a
great calamity—of a disaster, to which in its completeness
history affords no parallel since the destruction of the
legions of Varus. That disaster had shaken all India;
our allies were no longer to be trusted as heretofore; the
confidence of the troops in themselves and their officers
was impaired. In the midst of these difficulties, at the
moment when a combined movement perilous in charac
ter, in the estimation of all men who understand the art
of war, was in operation for the re-occupation of Caubul,
at that moment my Gallant Friend was placed in the
command of the army in Sinde. It has been imputed
to our gallant friend by those who have been desirous of
undervaluing his services, that he is responsible for the
expulsion of the Ameers and the occup ition of Sinde.
It is not so.—(Cheers.) My Gallant Friend is not re-
sponsible for that measure.—(Cheers.) If it were an
error, after an example of successful treachery at Caubul
which resulted in the destruction of a division of the
army and in danger to the British empire; if with such
an event it were an error summarily to punish those who
attempted similar treason, who on the very day that
they signed the treaty were devising the means of de-
stroying the British General by whom it was signed, if
it were an error to reward the long hereditary fidelity of the
Nawaub of Bhawulpoor, to which fidelity, on which
reward has been so well bestowed, we are indebted for
everything done at Bhawulpoor—if it were an error to
abolish slavery whenever it could be abolished—if
it were an error to bring the armies of Bombay and
Bengal into communication, to carry up the army to
protect the flank of another army, and to conduct
15,000 men to Bhawulpoor—if it were an error to bring
down yet another force to Kurrachee, with a view to
operations in the Red Sea and in Egypt, rendered
essential for our communications with India—if it were
an error to get complete control of the trade in opium to
improve the public revenue; —if, gentlemen, these are
errors, my Gallant Friend is not responsible for them—
they are altogether errors to be accounted for by the
Government which he served.—(Cheers.) My Gallant
Friend had the clear, simple, the unclouded and un-
blighted honour of having maintained and carried into
execution the instructions he received.—(Cheers.)
Without my Gallant Friend's prudence —e ithout his
ability, it may be doubtful whether those instruc-
tions could have been properly carried out. It is
to him due that with a most careful provision
against every possible occurrence of danger he should
have had his army equipped—that he should be
able to make that almost romantic march into
the desert, which more than any other achieve-
ment of modern times has excited the enthu-
siasm of the Duke of Wellington.—(Loud cheers.)
It is due to my Gallant Friend that Hyderabad had
been taken—to him by his careful precautions the vic-
tory is to be ascribed. It is to him due that in a sub-
sequent campaign in the hills, by a most scientific
choice of position, by most extraordinarily wise and well
considered combinations in the movements in the army,
in operations conducted 70 miles from his base and com-
munications beyond the desert, that he had attacked,
totally subdued, and totally extinguished the enemy.—
(Cheers.) Gentlemen, it is to Sir Charles Napier that
the glory is to be ascribed—that, having made all the
provision possible to be made by a General for securing
the victory in battle, he himself thought of every man
else, but least of himself.—(Cheers.) He was the man
of all others who exposed himself to danger ; and he
was a brilliant example to the whole army.—(Cheers.)
It is due also to him that he always improved a victory
—(Cheers)—he never allowed a victory to be gained and
the advantages of that victory to be lost, by at once ad-
vancing on the retreating foe, and securing all those ad-
vantages. You will understand much better that/ I do,
as military men, the qualifications of my Gal-
lant Friend. But I venture to speak of his
services, not in a military character, but in
subjunction to his country's interests. There never has
been, is, or ever will be, any name so great as his
in Sinde, because no name but his is associated with jus-
tice—justice—justice—(Loud cheers)—to all men, in
the execution of the most unlimited power and authority.
In the state no quality excites so much admiration as
justice, because it is, of all qualities, the most rare to be
found in association with absolute power.—(Cheers.)
My Gallant Friend had absolute power in Sinde; and no
man has imputed to him one act of injustice in the exer-
cise of it.—(Cheers.) My Gallant Friend had every op-
portunity of obliging friends, of doing that most condu-
cive, I regret to say it, to the obtaining of a great name
in this country—he disdained them all; he left Sinde
without having perpetrated a single job—having on all
occasions selected, to the best of his judgment, the men
best fitted to perform the duty required by the public
service. Gentlemen, I can tell you more; I can tell you,
that the very men my Gallant Friend subdued joyfully
became his subjects and cultivators under him, and that
there are no men now in Sinde more contented under the
Government of this country than the very men who im-
migrated into Sinde after having been subdued by him
on the hills. I have told you facts within my own know-
ledge; Ido net believe I have stated one single cir-
cumstance that is not perfectly correct; I do nut think
that I have in any degree overrated the services my Gal-
lant Friend has performed. And now, gentlemen, I pro-
pose that we drink my Gallant Friend's health, that we
wish that for many years he may live, and that, as we
may, as men of peace, wish, he may not have another
opportunity of showing in Europe those splendid Eel'
tary talents for war which, above all men in existence, 1-
he possesses, for the purpose of maintaining the honour
and extending the empire of his country.---(Cheers
Sir CHARLES NAPIER in reply said, that eulogium
coming from a man like Lord Ellenborough —a man who
is worshipped in India—a man who, throughout the
whole empire is admired and worshipped—in an ad-
miring army honoured beyond everything, and glorying
in having his approbation—gentlemen,
to be praised
by such
a man is very trying to the feelings of a
zealous soldier who is unfortunate enough to be the
subject of it.—(Cheers and laughter.) But, gentlemen,
conscience obliges me to say that I was a simple
agent in the affairs that Lord Ellenborough has re-
ferred to; all orders emanated from the Governor-
General, and they were executed by the army, and in
the execution of those orders it was that I learned the
great courage and ardour of the Sepoys, when led into
battle by my brother officers.—(Cheers.) Gentlemen, I
perceive many of those officers whose intrepidity gained
me sb much honour, and I shall never forget their ser-
vices; I perceive around me several of those brave men.
I arm sorry to say Pool is not here, who led my own
glorious 22d Regiment, and broke the enemy with dread-
ful slaughter.—(Cheers.) But I see my gallant Welsh
artilleryman Lloyd, whose iron artillery vomited forth
death on the enemy.—(Cheers.) I see also Wiley, who
fell wounded while cheering on my friends to battle;
and I see young M'Murdo, who gallantly threw himself
sword in hand into the very midst of the enemy.—
(Cheers.) Gentlemen, I cannot look around me without
feeling all I owe to these brave men, times past come back
to my memory; I think of those far away—those who
fell fighting sword in hand, grasping their arms blood-
' stained and dying.—(Cheers.) Gentlemen, when I think
of these things, the battles we have fought in Sinde come
fresh before me vividly and glowing, like pictures new
varnished by the painter, and then I feel utterly unable
to express my feelings of obligation to those troops to
whom under Lord Ellenborough, and after his departure
under Lord Hardinge, I owe whatever merit attaches to
the zealous soldier who has tried to execute that portion
of the deity which is assigned to military men, leaving
the disposal of events to that great Power who, in the
words of the poet, " binds Nature fast by faith, leaves
free the human will."—(Cheers.) Gentlemen, I will not
detain you any longer by my nonsensicel gabble._
(Cheers.) But the high encomiums of Lord Ellenbo-
rough, lam free to say that amongst so many of my
countrymen, have perfectly orerset me. I therefore
drink all your good healths; and I thank Lord Ellenbo-
rough for all his support of me, I may say, in the coarse
language of military men, against a set of damned
scoundrels—(Laughter)—and without whose support I
should have been crushed by a rascally press and a ras-
cally Government.—(Loud cheers.) But I will say no
more.—(Renewed cheers.)
Sir CHARLES NAPIER again rose and said—Gentle-
men, I do not like to trespass on your attention again,
but Lord Ellenborough has confided to me a toast
which I shall drink with all my heart and soul. He
has desired me, and it is with great cheerfulness that I
propose " The health of the Army in India."—(Cheers.)
An apprenticeship of seven years with the army and
soldiers of the three presidencies has made me master in
the art. I have served an apprenticeship, and am eter-
nally attached during the rest of my life to the Indian
army.—(Cheers.) I can speak of my services—l have
served now fifty-four years in the Queen's service, and
I love the Queen's service ; but I love also the Indian
army, and I feel to all intents and purposes a Sepoy of
the Indian army.—(Loud cheers.) A great many were
not aware of the position of the Indian army. I my-
self went out to India, having 'read, as most foolish
people do, some few things—for none of us study our
profession as we ought to do. I went out to India an
ignoramus in 1841, thinking that India might too in.