"Amidst the contending opinions which have prevailed
upon other questions, the public voice has been
loud and general in admiration of your splendid
achievements. It is your praise to have inspired
your troops with unshaken confidence and unbounded
ardour--to have commanded, not the obedience alone,
but the hearts and affections of your companions in
arms; and having planned your operations with the skill
and promptitude which have so eminently characterised all
your former exertions, you have again led the armies of
your country to battle, with the same deliberate valour,
and triumphant success which have long since rendered your
name illustrious in the remotest parts of this empire.
Military glory has ever been dear to this nation; and great
military exploits, in the field or upon the ocean, have
their sure reward in royal favour, and the gratitude of parliament."

Sir Arthur, in his reply, observed:--

"No man can value more highly than I do the
honourable distinction which has been conferred upon
me--a distinction which it is in the power of the
representatives of a free people alone to bestow, and
which it is the peculiar advantage of the officers and
soldiers in the service of his majesty to have held out
to them as the object of their ambition, and to receive
as the reward of their services."

The opening allusion of the speaker to "contending opinions on other
matters," was intended to mark the sense of the house that Sir Arthur