this honorable House, I return my warmest acknowledgments.

I should not do justice to the illustrious and noble commander with whom I have had the honour of serving, or to those brave troops under his command (whose gallantry and discipline I have had such frequent opportunities of witnessing) did I not assure you, it is to them I consider myself indebted for being placed in this highly honorable situation; I should be greatly deficient also in what is due to myself were I to omit expressing my sincere and most heartfelt thanks to you, Sir, for the very gratifying manner in which you have conveyed to me the sentiments of my country on this and on a former occasion; thus conferring upon me an additional mark of distinction, which it will ever be my pride to acknowledge. Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton, In this House your name has been long since enrolled amongst those who have obtained the gratitude of their country for distinguished military services; and we this

day rejoice to see you amongst us, claiming again the tribute of our thanks for fresh exploits and achievements.

Wherever the history of the Peninsular war shall be related, your name will be found amongst the foremost in that race of glory; by your sword the British troops were led on to the victorious assault of Ciudad Rodrigo; by your daring hand the British standard was planted upon the Castle of Badajoz; when the usurper of the Spanish Throne was driven to make his last stand at Vittoria, your battalions filled the centre of that formidable line before which the veteran troops of France fled in terror and dismay; and by your skill, prudence and valour, exerted in a critical hour, the enemy was foiled in his desperate attempt to break through the barrier of the Pyrenees and raise the blockade of Pampeluna.

For the deeds of Vittoria and the Pyrenees, this double harvest of glory in one year, the House of Commons has resolved again to give you the tribute of its thanks;

and I do therefore now, in the name and by the command of the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled, deliver to you their unanimous thanks for your great exertions upon the 21st of June last, near Vittoria, when the French army was completely defeated by the allied forces under the Marquess of Wellington's command.

And also for the valour, steadiness and exertion, so successfully displayed by you in repelling the repeated attacks made on the position of the allied army by the whole French forces under the command of

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Marshal Soult between the 25th of July and 1st of August.

Upon which Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Picton said,

Sir,

Being entirely unaccustomed to speak in public, I have great difficulty in

expressing the high degree of gratification that I feel at the very flattering sentiments which this honourable House has been pleased to entertain of my services, and at the very handsome manner in which they have been communicated. I have always, Sir, regarded the thanks of this honourable House as one of the highest honours which could be conferred upon any officer; as the unquestionable evidence of past and the greatest incitement of future services.

But I can apply individually to myself but a small part of the high commendations which have been so liberally and handsomely bestowed; a great proportion is unquestionably due to the generals and officers commanding brigades and corps in the division, for the judgment and gallantry with which the services alluded to were invariably executed; and to the officers and troops in general, for the spirit and intrepidity which bore down all resistance, and secured complete success in all the important enterprizes on which the division

had the good fortune to be employed during the whole course of the war in the Peninsula.

It will ever be the height of my pride and ambition to share the fortunes of a corps eminently conspicuous for every high military qualification, and, actuated by a spirit of heroism which renders it truly invincible. With such instruments, Sir, you will easily conceive that it cannot be difficult to obtain success; and it would be unfortunate in the extreme if we failed entirely to reflect some of the rays of the great luminary that directed us.

Veneris 24 die Junii, 1814.

Lieutenant General Sir Wm. Stewart,

I have to thank you, in the name of your country, for a series of signal and splendid services; and first, for that which your gallantry achieved in the battle of Vittoria.

When the usurper of the Spanish crown put his fortunes to the last hazard, it was