India had relapsed into a state of profound peace and security: the
Chinese expedition under the efficient command of Sir Hope Grant
had embarked; and his work accomplished, Lord Clyde gave over the
command to his successor Sir Hugh Rose and sailed from Calcutta on
June 4th after taking a final and touching farewell of Lord Canning.
Honours met him before he reached his native land. On his arrival in
Paris the Emperor Napoleon summoned him to an audience; the Duke of
Cambridge hastened to announce to him that her Majesty had graciously
conferred on him the colonelcy of the Coldstream Guards. He reached
London in time to take his seat in the House of Lords, and to speak
and vote in favour of the Bill for the amalgamation of the armies
of India. Nothing could be more flattering than his reception by
all classes of his countrymen, but with the retiring modesty which
characterised him, he shrank from all attempts to make him an object
of popularity. The freedom of the City of London had already been
conferred upon him in his absence by a vote of the Court of Common
Council; and soon after his return he and Sir James Outram were the
recipients of Swords of Honour presented by the conscript fathers of
the city, followed by a banquet at the Mansion-House. A few weeks
later, when the thanks of the House of Lords were voted to the China
force whose exertions had resulted in a satisfactory peace, Lord
Clyde declined to receive the tribute paid him for his services in
the preparation of the expedition, unless it was shared in by his
coadjutor Lord Canning.
After a visit in Paris to his old Crimean comrade General Vinoy, he
travelled on the Italian battlefields of 1859 and held some pleasant
interviews with Della Marmora and Cialdini, old soldier-friends of
the Sardinian Contingent in the Crimea. In the autumn of 1861 he was
selected to represent the British military service at the manœuvres
of the Prussian army, and on the termination of the manœuvres he
had the honour of being received by the Royal Family at Brühl. In
November of the same year he accompanied Sir John Lawrence to Windsor
on the occasion of the first Chapter of the newly established order
of the Star of India being held by Her Majesty, and was installed as
a Knight of the Order.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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