Harry Smith was raised on 27th February, 1847, to the full rank of Major-General, dating from 9th November, 1846. He received a further gratification in an address from his native town, Whittlesey, which had been prepared by the Rev. G. Burgess, his old schoolmaster, then in his 82nd year. His reply evinced that warm attachment to his birthplace and native land which had been shown in so many of his private letters during his long exile. At length he was to see them again. Already in November, 1846, he had told his sister that he had taken his passage in a steamer which was to leave Calcutta in the middle of March, and that he would not “go mooning about the continent,” but “come straight home.” He sailed as he had said, and reached Southampton after eighteen years’ absence from his native land on 29th April, 1847.
CHAPTER XLVII.
(Supplementary.)
IN ENGLAND ONCE MORE—A SERIES OF OVATIONS—LONDON, ELY, WHITTLESEY, CAMBRIDGE—APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.
Sir Harry Smith was received at Southampton by the General commanding the South-Western District and a guard of honour. Salutes were fired, and bells set ringing, and he landed in the presence of thousands of spectators. The corporation presented an address, and had prepared a civic banquet. Next day he travelled to London in a special train, which was put at his disposal by the South-Western Railway Company.
On the 6th May he dined with Her Majesty at Marlborough House; on the 7th he received a deputation from the inhabitants of his native town of Whittlesey, who were desirous of making him a presentation. It consisted chiefly of old schoolfellows.
A series of invitations poured in from Her Majesty the Queen, the Duchess of Kent, the Dukes of Wellington, Montrose, and Beaufort, the Earl of Ripon, the Lord Mayor, Sir Robert Peel, Sir J. Cam Hobhouse, Sir De Lacy Evans, etc.[162] On the 18th May his old friend and commander, Sir Andrew Barnard, presided at a dinner in his honour given by the Senior United Service Club. On the 20th the freedom of the City of London was presented to Sir Harry at Guildhall. He returned thanks for the honour in stirring sentences such as came naturally to him.
“It has been my fate to call upon the British soldier to follow to victory, and never have I known him to fail. The fear of defeat never entered the bosom of any one man whom I have seen with the blood of John Bull in his veins” (great cheering). “So long as England is true to herself and loyal to her Sovereign, she will stand, as she now stands, the paramount power of the world” (immense applause).