The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-14 00:00:00

PASQUETTO SIR B. NAPIER.

The East India United Service Club entertained Sir
Robert Napier at dinner on Monday evening. A large
crowd waited in front of the house in St. James's-square,
and cheered the.gallant guest on his arrival. The com-
pany, numbering 100, included the Right Hon. W. E.
Gladstone, Sir Bartle Frere, Colonel French, M.P., Sir
Stafford Northcote, Field-Marshal Sir John Burcovne,
air C. Staveley, &c., &c. _

In proposing the special toast of the evening, Sir BARTLE
FRERE, who presided, alluded in complimentary terms
',43 the services rendered by Sir Robert Napier for the
.oenefit of. his native country, and warmly eulogised
his whole character. He would ask them to drink his
health as men who had known him as only Indians knell
each other— as a man who for forty years had never for-
gotten a friend, who never knew what it was to do a as-
3ourteous or unkind thing—as a man who, in this age of
Mammon, amidst every temptation, had led a Wszneless
and pure life, such as a cynical misanthrope could.hardly
think of in the poems of the knights of old. As his fellow-
soldiers and fellow-werkers, he asked them to drink his
tong life and long enjoyment of those honours which her
Majesty, with the united voice of the people, had con-
Eerred upon him.
The toast was drunk with the greatest honours.
Sir R. NA/um said : I can hardly hope to express ht'
fitting words how deeply I feel the honour which you are
doing me this evening. If anyone had told me forty years
ago, when I arrived in Calcutta, a second-lieutenant of
Engineers, without a connection in the country, and
without a friend except my contemporaries who went out
with me, that I should receive from the Indian services the
welcome which has been accorded to me to-night, I should
have thought it a dream indeed. I value highly the too
flattering expressions which my friend Sir Bartle Frere has
used towards me. I value still more the approbation which is
%hewn of my services by men who have known me during the
Whole of my Indian career. (Cheers.) I have always felt
t a high honour to be a member of the Indian service. It
a service which from small beginnings raised and pre-
ferved for England an empire which has been governed as
!lo other empire or colony hevs ever yet been governed.
(Cheers.) I speak of the civil as well as of the military
service ; indeed, it is often hard to say which is which, for
in India soldiers have been civilians, and civilians have
been soldiers. Both services are full of honoured names.
I will not go over the list which has been so often
set before you, but we need net look far even in
she present day for honoured and distinguished names
belonging to men who are capable of doing all that the
history of England skews to have been done heretofore.
(Cheers.) I will not now recount or fight over again the
recent campaign; but I may say that it has exhibited
most completely the amalgamation of the Indian and the
English services. During the entire expedition no ono
311.9 thought for a moment to which service he belonged.
Et was said happily in the House of Lords the other
evening that the cheers given to the Beloochee regiments
by the Europeans were the knell of the Indian mutiny ;
and there is no doubt that the Abyssinian campaign has
'given another assurance of the amalgamation of the
Cndian and English services. (Cheers.) Gentlemen,
I shall always remember with the greatest pride
and gratitude that I have won your friendship and have
received the welcome you have given me this evening. I
may add that it is one more proof of the amalgamation of
which I have spoken that I have been called upon to com-
mand a mixed force of English and Indian soldieks sent
'rem the shores of India, and that I am perhaps the first
Indian soldier who from a simple lieutenant, having
nothing hut his name and his sword to begin with, has
won the high honour for which her Majesty has been
pleased to designate me. (Loud cheers.) I have thought
seriously whether I should be wise in accepting the honour
xhich I am informed is to be conferred upon me, and one
great motive for my acceptance of it is that it is conferred
upon me as a member of the Indian service. (Loud
cheers.)
Mr. GLADSTONE returned thanks for the House of
Commons. The two Houses had never been more unani-
mous and harmonious, not only in appearance but in spirit,
than when they attempted to acknowledge—he would not
say repay—the debt they owed to the distinguished army
that had so successfully carried out the Abyssinian expe-
dition. Burke had said that the age of chivalry had ptlased
away, but even he, had he lived to contemplate the noble
and unselfish career of their distinguished guest, doubtless
would have thought that there was yet one man in which
.t still survived, and he hoped it still lived in many others.
'Cheers.)
The CHAD: MAN then proposed " The Secretary of State
cor

Sir S. NORTHCOTE returned thanks for himself and for
the Secretary of State in Council. (Laughter.) The
whole of the details of the late expedition had been cast
upon his department, and for those who had co well
performed their work he claimed all the praise that
aad been lavished upon them. They bad all worked
;heir hardest, and it was highly pleasing to know
;hat their exertions had ensured the success of the expo•
iition. (Cheers.)