Wet, cheerless was our bivouac last eve, but still we spoke
Of fighting and of winning, to-morrow, when day broke:
That day the thundering echoes of cannon in our front
Had louder grown until around had raged the battle's brunt
At last the carnage ended, and our regiment's retreat
Was marked by many wounded, who shrieked beneath our feet!
But here in closer order rides past a Lancer Troop—
They had but late been charging like falcons when they swoop.
How few there are remaining! Now the river's bank is gained;
The Trumpeter's white charger with blood on neck is stained.
His snowy flanks are heaving; he shudders on the brink,
Then, gently urged, he halts again, and stoops his head to drink.
He cannot ford the river, for lost are strength and speed:
The Trumpeter, dismounted, now swims beside his steed.
Together they have struggled; he will not let him die,
And soon he stands beside him though the balls are rushing by.
He takes him by the bridle;—would lead him to the town,—
Too late,—for life is ebbing,—the gallant steed is down!
Ah! long I saw that horseman kneel by his charger's head,
And when at last he left him, I knew the horse was dead.
How fiercely as he passes that comrade on the plain,
Remounted on the morrow, shall sound the "charge" again!
ON A FOREIGN WAR SHIP'S SALUTE TO THE QUEEN'S STANDARD AT OSBORNE.
With their deep voice, monotonous and slow,
The cannon's thunders roll along the sea;
But 'tis in reverence, and to work no woe
Those sounds here reach the shore and onward flee
Past the oak woods that climb the grassy lea,
To strike thy terraces, and palace fair
With stately salutation offered thee
Who of these potent realms the crown dost wear.
So to the fabric of our future fame,
Set in the green oak of our Empire's might:
Shall history's voice, with measured praise, proclaim
Thy life-long love of justice and of right,
And the good era that thy reign hath been.
To hail thee, reverently, Victoria, Queen.
SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES.
Some of the Speeches, and a few of the answers to Addresses, delivered during Lord Lorne's term of office in the Dominion, are printed in the following pages.
On taking leave of his constituents in 1878, in a speech delivered at
Inveraray, Lord Lorne said:—
Judge of the wishes of our colonies, not from your own point of view only, but from that of their interests also, and from that of the well-being of the whole Empire, whose glory and power is at once the best result and the surest guarantee of the freedom which is yours, and which the colonies inherit from you. Many of you know well, because many of your relations are settled there, the great British Colonies of North America. The Dominion now stretches from ocean to ocean across that vast continent, embracing lands of every nature—some valuable for corn, some for pasture, for timber or for other treasures which will in future centuries make the country one of the richest on the earth—for coal and other minerals. As your former member is about to join the number of your friends who are already there, you will allow him to say a good word for those provinces of the Dominion, the threshold of which civilisation has already passed, and whose fair vacant chambers tempt the settler from the Old World to enter further and to occupy.
Some years ago, at a public meeting in Glasgow, I took the opportunity to describe the temptations offered by the Canadian Government to men employed in agriculture here to settle in Manitoba, and since that day, as before it, hundreds of happy homesteads have risen, and the energies of the Dominion have been directed towards the completion of that railway which will make Manitoba as accessible as is Inveraray. Now, let me again invite attention to this great Province and the vast territories beyond. In Argyleshire we have too few men, and we want more to settle with us, but Canada is a formidable competitor even to this fair country; and in other places, in the towns of this land, there are plenty of men who would do well, if they can hold the plough, to follow the gallant example of their countrymen who have added glory to Britain by forming another great British nation. Instead of leading an unhealthy city life, it were well that many of our townsmen should take to the life-giving work of a settler in the agricultural regions of Western Canada, where they are likely to live longer and to be happier than is the lot of the great majority of mankind.
On embarking at Liverpool in 1878 for Canada, Lord Lorne spoke as follows in reply to an address presented by the Mayor of that city:—
We shall not forget the attention we have received, nor the great demonstration made by the people of Liverpool, of the interest entertained by them in the good of Canada, and of the love borne by the whole country for her children across the Atlantic. You who dwell at this great port, and see so many leave their native land for distant climes, will not misunderstand me when I say that we do not lightly leave you. The heart is often sad at leaving home when the ship is about to start and the anchor is being weighed, however cheery the voices of those who raise it, and hearty the farewell greetings of friends on shore. It is, however, the duty of those who go, to look forward and not back, and it is pleasant to think that across the water we shall find ourselves among our own countrymen and in our own country, among the same institutions as those we know here and under the same flag. We shall find the same laws and the same determination to uphold and abide by them, the same love of liberty as we have here, and the same ability to guard it in honour and order, the same loyalty to the Throne for the same cause, because it is the creation of freemen, the bond of strength, and the symbol of the unity and dignity of the British people Where in the British North American provinces we do not find men of our own stock, we are fortunate in finding those who descend from the noble French race—that race whose gallantry we have for ages learnt to respect and to admire—the friendship of whose sons to the Empire and their co-operation in the public life of Canada, which is adorned by their presence, are justly held to be essential Nowhere is loyalty more true and more firmly rooted than among the French Canadians, enjoying, as all do, the freedom of equal laws and the justice of constitutional rule. In conclusion, I will only say that nothing has struck me more than the enthusiasm manifested towards Canada among all classes of the community in England and Scotland wherever I have of late had an opportunity of hearing any expression of the public mind. Crowds at any public gathering have always given cheers for Canada. The great gathering of to-day is a renewed symptom of the same favourable augury, for a good augury I hold it to be, that men in the old country are ready to call "Hurrah for Canada!" On the other side of the ocean they are as ready to call "Hurrah for the old country!" and these cries are no mere words of the lips, but come from the heart of great peoples. So long as the feelings which prompt these sayings endure—and endure, I believe they will—we may look forward with confidence to the future, and know that those bonds of affection which have been knit by God through the means of kinship and justice will not be sundered by disaster or weakened by time. (Great cheering.)