The Sun.
London, England, 1856-06-30 00:00:00

BANQUET AT THE ARMY AND NAVY
T9_ ckE_NERAL SIR W. F. Fru,-
LIAM'S, BART.

Evelyn Marston,. By the author of "Emilia
Wyndham," " Two Old Men's Tales," &C., Vic.
3 vols. Hurst and Blackett.
It is always a source of satisfaction to peruse
those works in which talent is pre-eminently dis-
played; but when, added to the merit and supe-
riority of the subject, the object is of a high and
noble nature, the interest is increased tenfold.
With the best intentions, it is not possible for an
author of mediocrity to produce any (striking effects
on the mind of the reader. It is also an acknow-
ledged fact, that to influence in the right direction,
and to incite or inspire to the pure and the good,
is an achievement not always attained by the
highest intellect, or the brightest imagination. The
combination of the will and the power is rare as it
is excellent ' • and it is this union which has created
so universala respect, while it has called forth un-
bounded admiration for the previous productions
by the author Gf Evelyn Marston. Far from dete-
riorating in the present instance she has improved.
There is a softness and serenity infused into the
tone of the composition, which is not to be found
in her former writings ' • at the same time the
spirit that gives life and lustre to the thoughts,
and that rules the actions, possesses equal fire and
fervour as when demonstrated in a more ungenial
and harsher form. The heroine is a noble cha-
racter ; she is drawn after the fashion of nature,
and in accordance with the rules of truth. Her
virtues are bright and shining—of their own in-
trinsic excellence, and genuine worth, sufficient to
make lovely their favoured possessor with the mcst
splendid of moral adornments. Her faults are
also apparent in the same ratio ; there is nothing
hidden, mystical, or surprising about her.
It is the purpose of this story to evidence and illus-
trate the warfare waged between the rival and
hostile qualities. There i I not a fabulous or ro-
mantic legend of the good fairy, or beneficent geni
atter a short struggle, and brief strife, overcoming
and destroying the evil ones. The far-seeing and
deep-thinking know that this is not the way in
which the lesson of life is to be learned. It is not
by the rapid, but the slow, that a change is effected;
and this we see in the career of those before us.
Those who are led away by appearances might, at
'first sight, imagine, that with Evelyn's good sense
and kind heart, and witn Armand's talents, they,
could not tad to prosper and succeed. On consi-
deration it will be seen what is here suggested is
likely to have occurred. Their very merits mjli •
tated against their comforts. Evelyn's generous
temper made her go beyond the limits of prudence,
while the very genius of her husband rendered him
more keenly alive to wants which could not al-
ways be satisfied by the exercise of that genius.
The passage of their lives in which they first settle
in 'their new home is a. most touching picture,
sketched with a force and tenderness, than which
nothing can be imagined more powerful—Armand,
in his early day dreams of fame and glory, had
followed in fancy his brilliant creations, and traced
his high endeavours towards splendour and excel-
lence in his profession, till their realisation pro-
mised to be sublime ; while Evelyn had on her
side, in her secluded home, worshipped the beau-
tiful, as he had paid homage to the grand.
The course of their life was very different to what
they had suppozed. After all his plans and efforts,
his toils, struggles, and exertions, the gifted artist,
the enthusiastic dreamer, could do nothing. The
cares of poverty, the clouds of mischance and mis-
fortune, came between him and his hopes, until at
last he could work no more ; while Evelyn, in her
bright ideas of the good and happiness she could
effect found herself too weak to succeed. In the
hour of trial they acquired other knowledge ; Ar-
mand showed " how sublime a thing it is to suffer
and be strong," while-Evelyn, in her love and ad-
miration for the beauties of art and nature, learned
to reverence in her mind, and illustrate by her
character, a higher, holier, and happier light than
any that the rainbow-hues of the artist can create,
or the most magnificent scenery disclose. It is
painful, while pleasing, to behold the change ; for
all was not smooth to the outward, as it was not
straight to the inward senses. Years of hardships,
both mental and physical, did not effect their
mighty agency, and fulfil their lofty mission, with-
out leaving many a sad trace, as well as a glorious
record behind. Something more had sunk in the
unequal struggle, and perished in the bitter waters'
of strife, than the elasticity of spirit and buoyancy
of feeling that were the day-spring of Armand's
hopes, and the crown of Evelyn's rejoicino. It is
this that vindicates the truth and force of nar-
rative from the charge of exaggeration and over-
straining for effect. In no out ward advantages,
and in no inward amelioration did these two suf-'
ferers find themselves richer at the close of this
period of their sombre lives. Beauty had faded
when it should have shone in its meridian splendour,
youth waned when it ought to have smiled in its
bloom, genius decayed at the time for its fruition,
and yet the possessors of thes6 blighted blessings
were not afraid. They were not happy certainly,
for human nature must feel, but they had one trea-
sure that could not vanish with the rest—
" What nothing earthly gives, nor can destroy,
joy."
It soul's calm sunshine, and the heart-felt
It is in accordance with the former probabilities,
when they whom we have watched in poverty are
restored to wealth, for it is those who have been
differently born and educated who feel the state
the most, which contains the numberless daily
deaths of the mental energies. The spirit that
faints within is peculiarly that of the sensitive and
refined, not the attendant of the hardy frame that
goes forth as a giant on his course, to subdue by
toil, that he has been. accustomed to consider the
staff of life from his youth upwards. Hence those
interesting pilgrims, on the journey of life, were
only restored to their original position, the difference
to which bad been through so many years one of
the chief sources of misery. Not that any one
could imagine them again so unsubdued by what
had passed as to revive their pristine freshness of
feeling, any more than that age can renew its
youth, or night return to morning. Yet they
were capable of appreciating the good gifts, if they
did not revel in their enjoyment, as they would
once have done. Second only in interest to these
primary objects of attention is Da Chastel, the
father of Armand, a genuine hero, in the truest
sense of the word; he did not seek display, and he
was not desirous of advantages for himself, but no
aspirant to honours ever toiled, and no miser ever
heaped up gold with more avidity than did he
labour in his vocation. Born of the brave and en-
ergetic Huguenots, he preserved, in the country
of his adoption, all those superior qualities of the
race that had shed lustre on the land of their
birth. Very different to the brilliant ideas that
kindled the genius of his son Armand were the
stern and solemn notions of his father. "He loved
the grave and serious views of life ; he hated
luxury ;he despised pleasure. His great Master,
who died upon the cross for mankind, was ever
before his eyes; and the :martyr-spirit which sup-
ported him, chained to the bench of a galley under
the burning sun of Languedoc, lived yet where it
is, perhaps, more difficult to preserve it. The
daily sacrifice of his ease, of his tastes, of his time,
to the good of others, was still maintained." In
pursuance .of this endeavour to benefit his fallen
countrymen, Du Chastel engaged in an enterprise
that promised great advantages to the distressed
unemployed weavers of Spitalfields. Subsequent
ruin, total_ and complete, was the consequence ;
and the bitterest of ail sufferings to -the bankrupt
was the thought, that he was from that time
powerless to help the needy. But the blessings of
those who were ready to perish went with him to
the last of his trials, and nerved him anew to the
encounter. It is pleasant to think of him at last,
as called home, in the evening of his days, to rest
'inc the fair country of his naiivity. "The Chateau
of Peristal, in rich and beautiful Touraine, among
uplands crowned with dine woods, and glowing
with purple, awl crimson vineyards, which sweep
down in bold, undulating outlines to the wide-
flowing Loire." Such was the new home to which
the wanderer was welcomed. It is not always that
the poor " find true friends in those who have
themselves been - poor ;" but the present sufferers
were pre-eminently those to fulfil such a hope.
Evelyn Marston was the pride of the Du Chastels
in prosperity, as she had been their comfort in ad-
versity. From them she drew her knowledge of
the great in life, and she was their best consoler
and their truest helper in the dark days that come
to all, out which were long and frequent to the
family when she entered its circle. It is only the
noble nature which will be influenced aright, and
the fine disposition that will seek to be instructed,
although conscious of innate power. It is the
bright example of so shining a character that en-
dues the work before us with so rich a grace and
BO exalted an excellence. It renders it worthy of
the preceding compositions of its author, which
pass far beyond and high above the province and
duration ' of- the novel of the day. From being
the favohred, Companion of lettered ease, they be-
come subjects of study and contemplation in graver
moments, and rank among the lasting and stand-
ard preductions of the time. "Evelyn Marston "
-is certain of success, from its brilliant style and
effective combinations, its depth of feeling, and in-
tense interest; while, from the purity of its pur-
pose, its high principles, noble language, and
heroic spirit, it has achieved the crowning glory of
having deserved it.

At the above grand banquet, on Saturday, covers were
laid for 110, and the company sat down to dinner at a
few minutes 'after 8 o'clock., The chair was taken by Col.
Daniels. •On the right of the chairman sat the guest of
the evening, Sir W. F. Williams, who wore the insignia
of the Ordez:'of the Bath, the Grand Cross of the Legion
of Honour, and the-Order of Medejie. On the left of the
chairman were Cols.. Lake and Teesdale, the aides-de-
camp of the gallant general. On entering the apartment
Sir W. Williams •-was• received with. several rounds of
cheering, the entire company standing, till the gallant
general bad taken his seat. .
The cloth having been removed, Col. DANIELS (the
chairman) proposed the usual loyal toasts, and alloethe
health-of his Majesty the Emperor of the French.
-TheCHAIRMAN then, in appropriate terms, proposed
to his brothers in arms " The health of the-gallant de-
fender of Kars, Sir William Fenwick Williams." •
General WILLIAMS rose amid a scene of great enthu-
siasm, and when a partial cessation of the cheering per-
mitted him a hearing, said—Colonel Daniels, my com-
rades and brotherofficersin both services—ln rising to
return my most sincere thanks to you for the high honour
you have done me, if I felt any apprehension of breaking
down in the task which I have to perform in addressing
to you a few words as a soldier, I should be cheered and
encouraged by seeing Colonel Daniels, an old and intimate
feiend of many years' standing, and many other old faces,
here around me. (Hear, hear.) And I may add -that lam
happy to see EO many new and young faces—the heart's
blood of the army—here, to do me honour to-night.
(Cheers.) This reflection will cheer, me—will buoy me up
for the few minutes lam about to address you. The
terms in which C.ilonel Daniels has propoied my health,
and the manner in which you have responded to this
proposition —the enthusiasm with which you have drunk
it—do, I assure you, demand my inostsincere—my most
hearsy thanks. (Hear.) When I look around this room,
and witness this scene, and then call to mind that I was
one of the original members of this club—that out of the
25 years I have been in the army, I have -passed 23 in
foreign service, and that whenever I returned to Eng-
land, either for recreation, or on account of ill-health,
this has been my home—that in this room I have break-
fa-ted and dined day by day—l say to myself that if, on
the day I first put down my name as a member of this
club, any man told me that I would live to see such a
day as thieet wouldhave conceived that he was whisper-
ing nonsense to me. (Cheer's.)"- Gentlemen, I assure
you that what I say I feel ; but the honours and enco-
miums which have been passed on me must not be ac-
cepted by myself alone. My career—whatever it may have
been—which has receive-I so much honour—my history is
associates with that of both my brother officers kho are
present here this evening. (Hear, hear.) But I must
tell you there sits Colonel Lalee—(cheer)—there sits the
man who was continually by my side working by day at
the fortificatious and watching unceasingly by them at
night. (Cheers.) There, too, sits Teesdale. (Cheers.)
Alas ! Tnompson is no more—l cannot present him to
you, but I can assure you that they never would have
lived until the eventful day of the 23th of September if
I had not laid upon them the iron hand of discipline.
For day by day they were engaged with the enemy, aro'
it was only my stern word of command which preserve 1
them up to the last day of the struggle. Let me also
point out to you my young secretary—a youth whom
I took with me from his mother, and who proceeded
step by step in his career until the eventful day when,
taking the command of a battery, he did, I assure
you, most essential service to our cause. (Cheers.)
I wish to associate myself with thee my gallant com-
panions in arms, and to share with them the honour
which yore have bestowed upon me. (Oheers.) I
have a sacred duty to perform also in brihging to your
notice the constant encouragement which I received
from the Minister of State under whom I was particu
larly engaged—l mean Lord Clarendon His de.patc ,es
when they arrived among us produced as it were a kind
of electrical shock which impelled us to goon. We w ire
not at the time a melancholy crew- -we were laughing, we
were merry, we were like men that would not be extin-
guished. We were suirounded by very great difficulties,
but whenever the despatches arrived they produced a
most extraordinary effect upon us. Not only were these
despatehes read among us,' but there were numerous pri
vats letters read from that nobleman, and if we had not
ou the receipt of them exerted ourselves to the uttuoktof
our power, and valued our lives at the worth of a straw,
we should not have been worthy of the moue of Begliste
men. I can assure you that the very soldiers who served
with me were ready to die for him. Oa a former occasion
at the banquet at the Trinity House, I hatati.opportu-
nity of returning my thanks to Lerd Palmereton, an•
other noblemaa with whom my career began. It was
Lord Palmerston who sent me oat to these countries.
I had returned four or five times befera I came under Lord
Clarendon. I receive t faith L ird Palmerston the great-
estrkindness and the greatest consideretioe, and to that
kindiaos and that consideration I assure you I owe my
present position. This, gentlemen, is what I particularly
wished to say with regard to myself and the Eogli- 1.1
army. I must now tell you about the glory of the-Turkish
army—men who, when I came to thein, were starving,
'were without clothes—men without hope; but such was
their confidence in the efforts which I was able to make
for them, that they stood by ins in the most galla it man-
ner. No troops on earth could nave behaved better than
those men ; for instance, on one occasion, at the battle
of the- 29th Sept , about which you have all read —they
had been working atlxiay and watching at night at those
fortifisatisns but I wished to speak to you particularly
about the
.29th September. They were not on this
occasion an unruly, undisciplined force behind walls,
but Were disciplined soldiers, standing behind their
eutrenctiments. Colonel Lake could tell you what
they did, for no one could help admiring their c urage,
their disci, line, their file fire, their rolling fire. I assure
you that neither the Guards of London nor those of Paris
could have surpassed them. From early dawn till an
hour after midday that fire continued—the noise of a
thousand drums never ceased for a moment, therefore
you may suppose what soldiers they were. When the
enemy got into those intrenchments, which in conse-
quence of the absolute necessity for protecting other
poiots, were, the time, unmanned, they were driven
out again by those brave little fellows at the point of
the, bayonet. (Great applause.) There is also a sacred
duty which I have to perform, because when you recol-
lect how much blood has been spilt for the defence of
Turkey we must all feel some gratification in knowing
that there is still some vitality in that country—(cheers)
—and that if Turkey be true to herself, and if foreign
nations will hold a high tone towards her, she is safe from
the power of Russia, which will never prevail in Ismail.
There is one point more to which _I wish to allude before
I sit down, and that is, that although I was nut sorting
with the army in the Crimea, I was attached to it, and
received my instructions from that great and good man
who unhappily did not live to see the result of the war
mean Lord Raglan. (Cheers.) The last moments
of that gallant nobleman were embittered and greatly
so, from the total want of system which we experienced
when we began the war. We bad, in fact, been asleep
for forty years, and when we went into the war we were
sent out half awake. I cannot adequately describe to
you the joy, the almost electrical shock which was
caused by the arrival of the news of the victories of the
gallant army in the Crimea, while we were in the centre
of Armenia. When the story of Alma, of Inkerman,
and afterwards of the fall of Sebastopol was brought t
us, nothing could exceed the enthusiasm of those fine
Turks, and you may easily suppose what our joy and
enthusiasm were- at bearing the welcome news of the
glories achieved by that brave infantry which never yet
turned its back on a foe. (L ,ud cheers.) I say that
infantry which never turned its back, which from the
days of Wolfe has been the foundation of our greatness,
whose courage nothing can shake, or ever will shake.
(Loud cheers.) In this respect I believe that our army is
second to none. (Cheers.) I believe, my good friends and
brother efficers, I have said all that it ianecessary to say
upon Mich an occasion as the present. You may imagine
the emotion which I feel. I could and would -say many
things more, but I think that at the dinner-table there
should be some limit to speeches, and, therefore, I con-
elude with proposing all your healthy.
Gen. WILLIAMS then proposed " The Chairman, the
C mmittee, and the Secretary," and shortly afterwards
• the health of "The Officers of the Army in the Crimea."
Mr. OTwAY, M.P., proposed a toast, to which (2,0 ones
Lake responded, in honour of the gallant and distin-
guished officers who acted on the staff of Gen. Williams
during his Eastern campaign.
Gen. PROCTOR proposed `.‘ The health of Gen. Moura
vieff, the commanding officer of the Russian troops be-
fore Kars." He trusted that there was no one present
who would not be ready to estimate true merit whet-
ever found, to do honour to a brave man and a soldier,
whether friend or foe.
The toast was drunk with loud and prolonged cheering.
General WILLIAMS, in replying to the toast, said—ln
-rising to return thanks for the honour • which you have
done to my friend, General itlourat ieff, I can assure yeti
that I never performed a duty more grateful to my heart.
I believe that 'in the military profession—and I will not
except any country on the face of the earth—there is not
one-who adorns that profession more highly than General
Meurayieff. (Cheers.) He is a "man of the olden time."
(Loud cheers.) He ie one of the most upright, honest,
existence.
IvFe From
oh
fie
iveetreyd tin
veryom esnet
.
bwrea ve ,
enteredand kindhis
camp, men n i
vera losses on his army, we were received with a charm, a
frankness, and a delight which all gentlemen feel when
although
they receive a friend. He received us iu his camp as corn.
i•ades, ale) from that time till the time we quitted the
Russian .d iminions we were treated with the greatest
kindness. It may be said that to be sure such
chivalry was to be expected from such high quarters ; but
when I tell you that he was equally kind and humane to
the Turk---tothe Turkish soldier—to the suffering, siarv-
ing host who went out to deliver theme. Ives up that day,
then I think you will give a cheer for General Moura-
vieff. (Great cheering) From that moment every ar-
rangement which humahity could suggest, and which
the most.extensive commissariat could execute, was car-
ried out. (Hear, hear.) Ttiey clothed and re-clothed the
Turks. (Hear, hear) As children of the desert, some
of these Turks sold their clothesenot to buy drink, but
to buy sugar or anything that way. (Hear.) They acted
and were treated like children of the desert. (" Hear,
.1 hear," and cheers.) I wish to say also a word respecting
the army of General Mouravii-ff—that splendid army—
that army of polished steel. I assure you it was magnifi-
cent. It was with the greatest devotion to the Sore-
reign -that they came down upon us, from day-dawn
to sunset, for seven mortal hours ; although they sus-
tained the most severe losses, there was not a single mo-
ment of hesitation in the efforts and movements of that
fine army. They came forward, attack after attack, in a
For the 'purpose of avoiding the numerous fires which
take place in the fields and woods of Spain during the manner which would have gladdened the heart of every
-soldier to have seen. When they were assailed by a fire
summer season, the governor of Cordova has interdicted : as well directed, as beautifully directed as evercatne from
to the peasants the use of phosporie matches from July 1 a position, they never recoiled until the moment when
to September 15.
j they were ordered to do so ; and when the game was up