The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-20 00:00:00

INAUGURATION OF THE CLIVE

ST-ITUE.

SHREWSBURY, THURSDAY.
After the inauguration of the statue, a banquet
took place at the Lion Hotel, under the presidency
of the Mayor, Mr. W. Burr, supported by Earl
Stanhope, Earl 'Powis, Lord Hatherton, Viscount
Hill, Sir Charles Wood, Secretary for India,l‘lajor
Herbert Edwardes, the distinguished Indian hero,
and a largo number of ladies and gentlemen con-
nected with the Clive family and with the county.
The banquet was of the most sumptuous descrip-
tion. During its progress, " the loving cup" was
passed round in accordance with ancient usage—
an enormous silver tankard, presented by the Cor-
poration of Shrewsbury to the great Clive a hun-

dred years ago.
Mr. SLANEY, M.P., pro osed the "Army and p
Navy," which was responded to by Sir GEORGE
POLLOCK for the first and Admiral GOWEN for the

latter service.
Colonel HERBERT EDWARDES proposed " The
Memory of Lord Clive." (Cheers.) In the course
of an eloquent speech the gallant soldier said—
Some people deprecate such memorials as these and
call them hero-worship; in my judgment they are
wrong. The giver of empires is indeed God; but
God works through human means, and when He
pleases to give e-zipire to a people he gives them a
man-like Clive, and in honouring the instrument
we do but honour the Providence that wields it.

(Cheers.) It is the true spirit of Christianity to
honour all men in their degree ; and the age that
shall cease to do so—the age that shall look
unmoved on the bygone genius and greatness of
its country, is certain to be an effete and little
age—an age without power of its own, an age with-
out poetry or conception or enthusiasm, an age
without faith on earth or reverence in heaven. De-
fend England from a worn-out age like that. (Ap-
plause.) Others there are who say they are quite
willing to pay honour to a hero, provided that he
be perfect, and that Clive was a man of imperfec-
tions ; that they have read history, and know that
his errors were as glaring as his service were great.
They doubt if it be right to honour such a man.
These objections I respect, though I think them
hard and leaning not only towards uncharity but
ingratitude. Let us look back along the ranks of
our great patriots; or the defenders of our country
by sea and land. I name no names, but ask you to
review them in your memories, and say to whom
should we have given the public monument and the
household niche, had we reserved our gratitude for
a man without a flaw ? (Cheers.) The best of them '
could only have carved beneath his bust, " I was a
man !" If we, too, feel that we are men let us hon-
our what is good and great in our fellows, while we
sorrow for their faults, taking a lesson from the
gold-diggers, who never find the pure metal pure,
but much mixed with dross and dirt, and whose
labour it is to fling away the dross and make the
gold their own. Approaching the memory of Clive
in this spirit, we cannot but do it honour—great
and lasting honour—such as can only be expressed
in marble. If we look up to Clive, the boy on the
steeple of Market Drayton, or descend with him to
head his playmates in a skirmish with the towns-
men ; if we sail with Clive the youth to India, and
listen while he weeps over the home and country
he has left ; if we watch Clive, the man stooping
wearily over the desk in peace and leaping up at the
sound of war, flinging away the pen, shouldering the
musket, serving as a volunteer, winning a commis-
sion, daring to devise the capture of Arcot, daring
to take it with 500 men, and daring to hold
it against 10,000 for fifty days, with a starving
but devoted garrison, rejecting with scorn the
bribes of his besiegers, and victoriously repulsing
them in three desperate assaults; if we behold him
in the first pride of military success submit conten-
tedly to serve under his old commander Lawrence,
and refusing to accept a sword from the Court of
Directors unless Lawrence got one too, if we see
him chosen at Madras to revenge the murder of
123 Englishmen in the black-hole at Calcutta, if we
are compelled to stand by and see Clive, the Orien-
tal intriguer, stooping to win a victory over false-
hood from the traitor Omichund, if we escape with
him into the open air and tented field, and forget
what we have witnessed in the Cabinet, as Clive
the soldier once more grasps his sword, and leads
3,000 men across the Ganges to contend with 60,000
for the empire of Hindostan, calmly laying down
to sleep in the grove of Plassy while the battle
languished, and rising refreshed to turn the tide of 1
Imperial victory ; it we walk with Clive the con-
queror through the golden vaults of his allies, and
see the giver of a kingdom, and the founder of an
empire, believing himself moderate as he accepts
the fortune only of a noble ; if we return with him
to England, and see him rejoicing to enrich his
friends and relatives, and pensioning his old com-
mander ; and when the affairs of Bengal. fell into
diSorder, once more, at the call of masters who had
ill-used him, leaving his country and his wealth to
sail again for India ; if at this crowning period of
his life we look on with unmixed pride and see first
how Clive the civil reformer cleansed the corrupt
administration of the State, and next how Clive
the military reformer grappled with a demoralised
army and put down mutiny as none have done it
since—if at this noble period of his career we learn
that while retrenching others he impoverished him-
self, and conferred upon the army he had re-
buked th-9 noble charity of £60,000; if,
lastly, we re-land upon the shores of Eng-
land and behold with . shame and sorrow our
ignorant country permitting a faction, smarting
undeF Clive's retrenchments and reforms, to im-
peach Clive's Indian Administration, adding " the
pangs of wounded honour" to the agonies of disease,
and breaking the balance of a noble mind—surely
in this history, if we find much to extenuate, much
to censure, and much to deplore, we find much to
admire, much to honour, much for which English-
men must feel proud and thankful. (Great ap-
plause.) It was he, indeed, under Providence, who
laid the foundation of our Indian empire—an em-
pire which in extent is now 14 times greater than
the British Isles; nearly 2,000 miles from north to
south, and 1,500 from east to west ; with a popula-
tion of nearly 200,000,000. That empire is not
without its cares and pains—chiefly, I believe, be-
cause we have shrunk from doing our Christian
duty ; but if, on the whole, it be a glory to our
country, and the ceaseless marvel and envy of
foreign nations ; if it develops the resources of two
hemispheres, and confers blessings on mankind ; we
owe it all to the genius and the greatness of Clive'
and it is fit that Englishmen should do honour to
his memory. (The gallant Colonel concluded amid
loud and long sustained applause.)
Earl STANHOPE said, I have been requested to
propose the next toast—" The Government of India,
at home and abroad," and I am sure we feel it on
this occasion a great privilege to have among us
the Secretary of State for India. (Cheers.) Con-
sidering the many calls upon his time, and the
many duties that devolve upon him, more espe-
cially as the opening of Parliament is now close
at hand, I think he has paid no common tribute of
respect to the memory of Lord Clive, and no com-
mon compliment to the town of Shrewsbury, in de-
voting the few hours of leisure at his command
to coming here. (Cheers.) I may venture to say
that I have known Sir Charles Wood ever since I
entered public life, now, I am sorry to say, 30
years ago. And though we have often happened
to differ on public questions of great moment,
that has never on any occasion prevented me from
feeling towards him sentiments of cordial personal
regard, nor from acknowledging the ability which
he brings to hear on public affairs. and the upr'.glit
spirit with which he has dealt with all questions in
which he has been concerned. I may add that al-
though he is the chief of the civil service of India,
in which capacity he will, no doubt, presently ad-
dress you, he is not the only member of that service
present, for we have also present a gentleman who
has been conspicuous for his exertions on the Clive
committee, and who in his general character is` not
only a faithful and intelligent servant of the public,
but has distinguished himself as the able historian
ssf several public transactions. I rejoice that the
Indian civil service should be represented here, not
only by its official head, but by one of its most
gifted and meritorious servants. It once fell to my
lot to be,
'Wood, butottoi the office now held by Sir Charles
of Sir Robert Peel
eesecretary under the Administration
was called in the l\lito that office which in those days
but which in ti.est of London the Board of Con-
trol,neda.stern part of London was
better known as the I
I had frequent ißoard. In that capacity
opportunitiessery of observing' the great
ability which the civil
thaenitrsdof India brought to
bear on the discharge of
to
htaies both in India
and at home, and I am happy
public op-
portunity of bearing this ample testimony‘?this to those
suggested
services. There is only one other remarlNvsvel
to me by the proceedings of this day. -
Lord Clive that in his youthful days he was read ~f
washed by an active and daring spirit, by great
courage and readiness, but not by any aptitude
:foe .4 tidy. Colonel Ed vardes has well told 3on
bow ho was noted for climbing up the lofty
steople of Market Drayton, and how he led the
skirmishers against the townsmen. Now when
-eye
find him distinguished by an active and daring
spirit of fearless courage, and. by no aptitude for
stady, and that in India he was distin-
uished in every way, not only as a warrior, but
as the founder of a system of civil government, I
confess I am inclined in some degree to doubt
whether the undeviating standard of proficiency in
books now required for the civil service in India
may be really on all occasions the best adapted for
the future welfare of the empire. (Cheers.) lam