“I ask him therefore to take that unction to his soul in reflecting over this entertainment, and assure him that when on behalf of all of us I now wish him a very warm farewell, health and happiness in the future, and add a hearty ‘God bless you, old chap,’ we mean we admire him, that we are his friends, intend to remain so, and bitterly regret his departure from amongst us--(loud and prolonged cheers). “I have now to call a toast to him, Gentlemen, as a typical soldier, a capable official, an undefeated sportsman, a prince of good fellows, and a man of mark amongst us.” The toast was drunk with enthusiastic cheers, the band playing “For he’s a jolly good fellow” and “Auld Lang Syne,” in both of which the whole company joined in singing the chorus. Lord William Beresford stood up to reply, and after the hearty round of cheering with which his rising was greeted had subsided, spoke as follows:-- “Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,--Before I attempt to reply to the speech in which your Chairman has praised me much more than I deserve--(No, no)--I must ask you to notice that even the old schoolfellow and friend he is, he is unable to bring it to my charge that I am orator, and I must own I feel at a great disadvantage in this respect compared with him, and if the few words which I have risen to say seem to any of you to fall short of what they should, believe me that it is not because they are not spoken from the heart--(hear, hear, and cheers)--but because of my inability to give expression to what I feel, and surely it would be no reproach to anyone if at a time like this he found it very difficult, if not almost impossible, to thank you in adequate terms, not only for the manner in which you have accepted and endorsed the altogether flattering description that Mr. Moore has given of me and of my career in India, but also for the feelings of good fellowship which prompted you to ask me to be your guest here to-night--(cheers). “I can imagine no greater honour than to find myself at the close of one’s sojourn in India invited by 180 of one’s fellow-countrymen in Calcutta to a social meeting like that of to-night--(cheers). The invitation came to me as a most complete, unexpected and most gratifying surprise, and will, I assure you all, add to the brightest and happiest recollections of my last weeks in India--(hear, hear, and cheers)--which must, alas! of necessity contain far more of pain than pleasure in them, for no one can cut himself off finally from a country in which he has been employed for eighteen years, and those the best of his life, in which he has made most of his best friends, and mixed as I have tried to do in all its sport and pastimes, without feeling a shock in doing so--(cheers).