The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-19 00:00:00

From the day when he first filled a subordinate
grade in the service down to the recent period in
which he held the highest position to which the
favour of his Sovereign and the confidence of his
country called him, his career has been one of au-
checkered success. (Cheers.) The gallant way in
which my noble friend proceeded in the East, the
rapid journey he undertook at a few hours' notice,
the success which attended him through all his
operations, and the ultimate triumph of the good
cause which he had in hand, bear sufficient testi
mony of themselves to his conspicuous merits, and
amply account for the distinguished position which
he so worthily occupies in the army and in the
hearts of his country men—(cheers)— and any com-
pliment which can be paid him by Englishmen,
and in which I may have the honour and ad-
vantage of joining, must be especially grate-
ful to my own feelings, because I may
perhaps regard it as, in a certain sense at least,
paid partially fto myself. (Hear, hear.) My
gallant friend has had so much more military ex•
perience than myself that I hardly feel justified in
venturing to praise his high professional qualities ;
but, in my humble judgment, there is not to be
found a finer and more gallant soldier, or a more
admirable citizen, than my excellent friend Lord
Clyde. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, before I sit down
permit me for one moment to touch on the present
defensive state of the country. I have served in
different parts of the world, and have therefore
seen something of the army. Certainly, some years
ago, when I first joined, the service, though most
efficient, was numerically very weak, and had no
auxiliary. Circumstances having unfortunately
since then required the country to be put in a very
different state of preparation than before, I am
happy to say that not only has the strength of the
army greatly increased, and its condition become
such as I think gives the nation reason to be proud,
but it now possesses two valuable auxiliary forces
in our Militia and Volunteers. (Hear.) And I can
only sincerely hope that these various bra' riches of
our service will remain so united andblended togs..
ther in cordiality and good feeling all 10 render it
utterly impossible for any foe ever to ,menace the
safety of this great and prosperouS country.
(Cheers.)
Admiral Sir M. SEYMOUR briefly returned thanks
on behalf of the navy, and was understood to ex-
press his opinion that in a short period England
would be in possession of as fine a fleet of iron-
plated or other ships as any one of her neighbours.
The CHAIRMAM said he had now to propose the
toast of the evening. It was with great pride
that that company had that day enrolled among
its honorary members a gallant soldier, who
had faithfully served his country in all climes and
in every rank, from the ensign to the commander-
in-chief. (Cheers.) When that terrible mutiny
broke out which for a time threatened the ruin of
our Indian empire, public opinion, as reflected by
the press, which was generally right in the main,
singled out one man as the fitting person to cope
with so great an emergency. That man was Lord
Clyde—(cheers)—and how he had earned for. him
self the title of "pacificator of India" was now
matter of familiar history. (Cheers ) However
freely he had risked his own life, the noble and
gallant general had ever been particularly careful
of the lives of his soldiers; and the splendour of
his victories derived additional lustre from the
fact that they had been attended with no unneces-
sary bloodshed. (Hear.) He therefore called upon
them all heartily to drink health, long life, and
happiness to their youngest honorary member, tl-e
Right Hon. Lord Clyde. (The toast was enthusias-
tically honoured.)

Chorus—" See, the Conquering Hero Comes."
Lord CLYDE, on rising, was greeted with pro-
longed cheers. He said,—Mr. Chairman, your Royal
Highness, my lords, and gentlemen, I feel deeply
the great honour which you have conferred upon
me. There is nothing which is more welcome to the
soldier than the esteem and good opinion of his
fellow-citizens. (Hear.) The freedom of this ancient
and princely corporation I gladly accept, and I
thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your
goodness in bestowing it upon me. (Cheers.) I have
also gratefully to acknowledge the kiiid and friendly
manner in which this distinguished assemblage has
received the proposal of my health; and here, gentle-
men, as a simple soldier, I might stop, for a life spent
in camps has not made me an orator. (Cheers.) But
his Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief has
done me a great honour by alluding to me in
te. am which I could never have anticipated.- I
must therefore express to his Royal Highness my
grateful sense of the warm manner in which he was
pleased to speak of my humble services in India.
His Royal Highness mentioned the fact of my
having proceeded to that country at very short
notice. In doing that I only obeyed a common call
of duty, and there was nothing in it. I went to
join an army containing many officers and men
whom any man might have been justly proud to
command. (Cheers.) His Royal Highness has
also paid me a compliment for my exertions con-
nected with the fitting out of the expedition to
China. Now, in that respect I was merely an in-
strument in the hands of the Governor-General,
and to that great man—for Lord Canning is a
truly great man—belongs the credit really due for
that service to the country. (Hear, hear.) And,
while speaking of these matters, let me say I can
never forget the singleness of heart, the devotion to
duty, the manly intrepidity which animated every
soldier, from the highest to the lowest, in the late
Indian campaign. (Hear, hear.) Nor must I omit
to pay the humble tribute of my admiration to the
untiring exertions and the fearless behaviour of the
civil service of India, whose efforts, united to those
of the army, were happily instrumental in restoring
tranquillity to that great dependency.
The health of the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs next
followed, to which the LORD MAYOR suitably re
sponded.
The CHAIRMAN then gave " The House of Lords,"
associating with it the name of Lord Chelmsford.
Lord CHELMSFORD, in returning thanks, said he
did not know why his name should have been coupled
with this toast, unless it was because in his person
they had an example of the facility with which
the House of Lords admitted within their body
men who could not boast of noble blood. His
noble and gallant friend, the distinguished guest
of that evening, was another instance of the
readiness of the Peers to receive into their order
any persons who were deemed entitled to a
place in it. His gallant fiend might be said to
have opened the door of the House of Lords with
the point of his sword ; and, for himself, he
had found another means of entrance ; but both of
their cases illustrated an important peculiarity of
that august assembly. (Hear, hear.) It had been
said by those who disparage the House of Lords
that it was an exclusive body, separated from the
rest of the community, and hemmed in by a num-
ber of extraordinary privileges. Now, he had
always been at a loss to understand what were the
peculiar privileges of the House of Peers which
they did not possess in common with the represen-
tatives of the people, and he had found, after great
research, that they only amounted to this—that, if
a peer took care to commit a crime of sufficiently
high magnitude, he would be safe from inquiry by
the House of Commons, and could only be tried by
his peers, from whom in such case he was scarcely
likely to receive very much sympathy. (Rear,
hear, and a laugh.) The noble and learned lord
then referred to the guest of the evening in these
terms :—The services of my noble and gallant
friend are too well known to require any eulogy
from me. They live in, the hearts
of his country-
men, records
and will be written in the imperishableti has a debt
of our history. But, while t
the nation
lord which it is
to pay to the noble and
gallant
forbear to avail
anxious to discharge,
icannot
myself of this opportunity to
lto him. I can never
express the deep grati-
tude which I personally!e
forget the long and anxioeus months I passed when
those who were most dear to me were
shut up in
a narrow space, behindwerak and crumbling
defended by a small but gallant band, surrounded
by a host of
infuriated enemies thirsting for their
blood, despairing of relief, and having nothing
before them but the sad alternative of self-destruc-
tion, or of falling victims to cruelties from which
the imagination recoils with horror. You may
conceive what sickness of heart there was in the
long-deferred hope of their deliverance—how the
arrival of every mail was met with the trembling
apprehension that it might convey tidings that the
bitterness of death was past ; and with what
a burst of heartfelt joy the glad news was at
last received of their rescue, by the skill and
courage of one whom I now for the first time
thus publicly hail as their noble deliverer. (Cheers.)
You will understand, then, how the name of Clyde
should be a household word in our families,
associated with every feeling of gratitude and
respectoldier-
and o n•e
(Hear, hear,) I know that the simple
like spirit of my noble and gallant friend would
would
ment of
almost shrink from this public acknowledgment
services which he regards only as th%_inesgtsdeafty:a;
but that cannot reatraha the !veruur