The banquet at Southampton to Mr. Eyre came off on
Tuesday, about one hundred gentlemen being present. The principal speakers were Lord Cardigan, Lord Hardwicke, the Rev. C. Kingsley, Lord Shrewsbury, and Mr. Eyre himself. Lord Cardi- gan's point was that Lord Palmerston never deserted his subordi- nates. " In those days the Imperial Government stood by their governors, and carried their case through Parliament. No gover- nor, no matter what might be the cruelties—if they were cruelties necessarily committed on those occasions, was ever seriously found fault with ; no governor placed in such a position ever was injured for life." There is just the point, Parliament having decided that the cruelties were unnecessary. Lord Hardwicke defended the ex-Governor on the old plea that he saved the colony—putting it, however, very moderately and very well—and Lord Shrewsbury said he was a peer, and came there not to defend Mr. Eyre, but to support him. Mr. Kingsley's extraordinary outburst we have noticed elsewhere, and Mr. Eyre's was, except in the close, the best speech of the evening. The man is so thoroughly brave that he can face the national censure and still keep calm, and the cool- ness of distributing praise under such circumstances to his subor- dinates is really effective. Mr. Eyre's only arguments were that Englishmen scarcely realize a tropical revolt—which is Prue in part—and that ladies would not have attended the banquet if they had believed him guilty of cruelty, which is unfortunately contradicted by all history. Women, like Mr. Kingsley, regard strength more than the way in which strength is employed.
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