India had relapsed into a state of profound peace and security: the Chinese expedition under the efficient command of Sir Hope Grant had embarked; and his work accomplished, Lord Clyde gave over the command to his successor Sir Hugh Rose and sailed from Calcutta on June 4th after taking a final and touching farewell of Lord Canning. Honours met him before he reached his native land. On his arrival in Paris the Emperor Napoleon summoned him to an audience; the Duke of Cambridge hastened to announce to him that her Majesty had graciously conferred on him the colonelcy of the Coldstream Guards. He reached London in time to take his seat in the House of Lords, and to speak and vote in favour of the Bill for the amalgamation of the armies of India. Nothing could be more flattering than his reception by all classes of his countrymen, but with the retiring modesty which characterised him, he shrank from all attempts to make him an object of popularity. The freedom of the City of London had already been conferred upon him in his absence by a vote of the Court of Common Council; and soon after his return he and Sir James Outram were the recipients of Swords of Honour presented by the conscript fathers of the city, followed by a banquet at the Mansion-House. A few weeks later, when the thanks of the House of Lords were voted to the China force whose exertions had resulted in a satisfactory peace, Lord Clyde declined to receive the tribute paid him for his services in the preparation of the expedition, unless it was shared in by his coadjutor Lord Canning.
After a visit in Paris to his old Crimean comrade General Vinoy, he travelled on the Italian battlefields of 1859 and held some pleasant interviews with Della Marmora and Cialdini, old soldier-friends of the Sardinian Contingent in the Crimea. In the autumn of 1861 he was selected to represent the British military service at the manœuvres of the Prussian army, and on the termination of the manœuvres he had the honour of being received by the Royal Family at Brühl. In November of the same year he accompanied Sir John Lawrence to Windsor on the occasion of the first Chapter of the newly established order of the Star of India being held by Her Majesty, and was installed as a Knight of the Order.