“My dear Sir Harry,
“Many thanks for your most kind letter just received. I really am delighted to find that all my friends approve of my speech the other day. I felt it was a duty I owed to the Officers of the Army to state what I did in their favour, they having been most unjustly assailed from all quarters, and not a soul to take their part, which I felt was too bad. Never are there a set of men who have worked harder, and their trials have been great. You know my devotion for the service. I could not allow such imputations to go by unanswered. The Departments have been very bad, though I admit their great difficulties, but the Army, as far as troops are concerned, cannot be improved.
“I remain, my dear Sir Harry,
“Yours most sincerely,
“George.”
In May Sir Harry received with great pleasure from Prince Adalbert of Prussia the beautifully illustrated volume on the First Sikh War written by the lately deceased Prince Waldemar, who had fought in those battles as a volunteer, and had gained the esteem and affection of his comrades.
On the 25th July Sir Harry wrote to Major George Simmons—
“I have not been myself since the 18th June last. I went to Preston to inspect some militia and a Depôt Battalion of the line, and I was wet for six hours. George, on one 18th June, I did not much mind a wetting. Age is a bore. Ah, poor dear Lord Raglan! He died, I fear, of a broken heart. I desire you write ‘Dear Harry S——,’ and not ‘Dear General,’ you old humbug. Juana sends you and yours her love, as does your old comrade,
“Harry Smith.”
As General in command of the Midland District, Sir Harry was present at Birmingham on 22nd November, when Prince Albert laid the foundation stone of the “Midland Institute.” On rising to reply for the “Army and Navy,” he called forth vociferous cheering by the words, “I pray my country not precipitately to make peace. Let peace be based upon the surest foundations.”
A letter of Lady Smith’s dated “31st March, 1857,” reminds us of the regulation ordering all officers to leave the upper lip unshaven, of which the effect is seen in portraits of Sir Harry after this date. “Your uncle is, thank God, quite well. His moustaches are growing very nicely, and I do think they become his dear old face.” A week later he wrote to his nephew, Mr. George Moore Smith, of Whittlesey, his native place, to express his delight at “the pluck” he had shown during some riots, when the rioters had cheered him for going in among them.
On 5th May the Manchester “Art Treasures” Exhibition was opened by Prince Albert, who wrote the same night to the Queen: “After luncheon [at Abney Hall] we donned our uniform, and drove with an escort, etc., etc., to Manchester, some six miles, and through the town—Sir Harry Smith upon his Arab ‘charging the multitude.’”[226] On 29th June the Queen and various members of the Royal Family, including Prince Frederick William of Prussia, newly betrothed to the Princess Royal, visited the Exhibition. It was Sir Harry Smith’s duty to make all the military arrangements, and he rode on the right of Her Majesty’s carriage in the procession. When the Queen was about to knight the Mayor, she turned to Sir Harry for his sword, telling the Mayor at the same time that it had been “in four general actions.” On receiving it back he respectfully bowed, and, stooping over it, pressed the hilt to his lips. Her Majesty afterwards expressed a wish for the sword, saying, “Do you value it very much, Sir Harry?” and, needless to say, it was at once presented to her. Sir Harry had worn it from 1835.[227]