The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-08-26 00:00:00

SCOTT CENTENARY BANQUET AT
BELFAST.

In jinni...ding the tnnast of the evening., The Memory
of Sir Walter Scott,- at tine Centenary Banquet at
lielfa.st, Lord nutferin said :--
" Although it has freitnently been my duty to presinle at
meetings organized In the interests of literature, my chief
ditty as chairman has coinslAtisi In advocating the claims of
struggling anthorship rather limn in marshalling a votive
processiinn to the shrine of genies. If, therefore. in pro-
PinsM g to you the toast of the e Veiling, ft toast to the eternal
memory of Sir Walter Sett (cheers), I am not able ado-
ituntely to express the sentiments of !home whose thought and
fee jogs I am commissioned to present, f must ask pole
for,iveness on the plea that obvious reasons naturally
conneet my sympathies with the many who Melee rather
than with the few who attain. Even were it otherwise
--ev,it were this chair to-night occupied by the worthiest
relat-scntative id the living generation if literary men
—even Inc might find it difficult to translate in articulate
language the passion of admiration, pride. gratitude. which
I, stirging ut on every side annual me at the Illelit if his
nano! whose pen has befttleathed its a body of imaginative
literature, in liroSe and verse, 1411411 as never yet ennanated
Irian a single Main, imr is possessed by ally other nation in
the worbi. ((heers.) To attempt to analyse. to eatali
to describe the multiform aspects of sir Walter Scott's
genius would be a me-less task. (('heers.) Nor is this the
occasion for delivering a liter:try essay. However compre-
hensive might Inn the enumeration, there is scarcely one of
my hearers is-hi would not feel bow eold and bald and vapid
we, the attempt lii depict in words those magical princesses
my in hich the author id the Waverley Novels has woven int,n
lone memories, nay even into our very existence, a series of
romantic visions, representative of so many different eras
and different countries. ill Med by every sentiment that
Can balell our hearts or eleVate One natures; enriched by
the taint sulith annul picturesque portraiture, sparkling with
wit and humour. fraught with antiquarian yore, and steeped
in a golden atmosphere of piietic description whose lustrous
halo time itself shall never quench (cheers), for the creations
inf genius are immortal : they float supreme, detached froin
space and time and, happen what linty to the fair fabric of
modern eivilitatifin, amid all chance and Change, the 1.111-
tennus array Of breathing meal and women with which Walter
Scott has peopled the realm of Milos shall never fade
Irons out their sphere. (('heers. The landscapes he has
spread shall never cease to smile, nor the tears evoked
by his pathos ever fail to llow. Renewed cheering.)
Fresher interests, newer ambitions, alien inspirations may
take possession of mankind, the bollial system at to-day may
be marten into something utterly diverse and strange.
The centre of gravity id modern thought may Inn transferral
to another hentisphere, but sisure, amen all ephemeral
mutations, will rise the deathless scenes evolved at the
batch of his mystic Wand. Ntenn may ennme alit men nifty gin,
the glory of States and continents may decay, toff the fes-
tive wassail in Itranxholin Ilall will never falter. (Applause.)
No cheek will stay the sh' ' • How id Surrey's chivalry
across the 'Fill. (Cheers.) Itruee's reeling back will still
defy the storms and tides of Atornish. No saint of years will
dim the brightness of Di Vernon's eyes, ine quench the martial
fervour of Dundee, or bow the pride of Ravenswmal.
Wandia will still jest and offer his fool's neck tin save his
master Cedric. (('heers.) Domini° Sampson will still shout
' prodigious' over his folios (laughter and cheers), and
Dalgetty rejoice in his re ' isrences of Guatavus,
while the stately processions id gallant knights and fair
, holies, and that-fearing Covenanters, mut reckless Cavaliers,
I of lusty yeomen, and ical llightlanninnell ami swish: peasant
lasses will preserve Wart through countless generations the
memory of what may have come to he all obsolete sinendy
and the ancient types of a transmuted race. (Cheers.)

_
•' When Thurytibles sat down to write his history, with
prophetic pride he milled it an 'eternal possession,' and so
it has proved itself to be, but as the super-incumbent air
e.nnlenaes and compresses the underlying strata of which our
atneisphere is eontposed, on, pail rrt.et, with the expansion
of time, do the cycles of bygone history shrink and narrow
down beneath the mass of added matter, until we find the
achievements Oa dynasty despatched in a 'telegraph. or the
incidents of a century in a single sttntence. (I,aughter) lint
the airy creations of fancy are subject to no such ilistiguriug
abridgment. If they live at all, they survive intact—(hear,
hear —and, like the vestiges of tliat ancient vegetation which ,
are tound imbedded in the fragments if a ruined world, they I
displty, in all their pristine integrity, each delicate line anti
tilament whirls composed the tracery 44 their exquisite 'dine-
ture. Applause.)
" Turning, however, from a consideration of the enduring
character of Scott's creations, I would wish to say a few ;
words on the retuarkable infinence his works have exercised,
not merely no the general literature of his age—for 1111011 ann:
trite a topic it would lie superfluous to enlarge. but mitre
espeetally on the national character of his countrymen.
There in no doubt that until his marvellous genies adormil
and dignified with the lustre of picture wine description
and the glamour of poetical illustration the harsh elements
of tteotch history and the rude characteristics of pri-
mitive Scottish lift-, Ow estimation in which Scotland
and icotelimen Were held by the rest of their country-
men and by Europe was very different from what it
In at present. When the founders of the liialnlannni and Agrl-
cult,ral Stalely sought in render their newly-invented
motto, Ofisit flfurf,,. altar A rfe,' into the vernacular. a
mitai .tw critic of their tat. suggested AS a tranalation,
ton torrolitters, now thieves Mel he probably thotight this
egg aidennn sarcasm characteristic of their history, while
trio, the priming allll4.na emitaißed hi the authors of the
last century it is es ident that neither the Highland nor
the !,owland distriets In the country were tlem invested
eat those romantic associations which now haunt every
vale. and hill, and river iti that lovely Land. (Hear, hear.)
But :to the alchemy of sunshine can transmute the rugged
from, of sonie weather-worel cliff to 11 beeline of gold, or
the torm-rent clouds of evening to crinia ei network, so
the marvellous genius of Scott eenverteil the stern mate-
vials with which he had to deal into a aeries id repretien-
I mauls whigh exhibited, indeed, the perferridann ingeninot
Seeloeurna in all its native energy, but mellowml by the
atmosphere of chivalritnnn rionance lie threw around its
wilder achievemesd:. A pplause ) Until the border rivets.
the Highland ratemn, the ruthless barons, and the rugged
ciansiiien whose feats of daring do tory.: the staple of hie
tales have witnessed their own resurrection in his pages, tile
interpretation he put upon their oplestionable careers would
probeidy scour to them as a gratifying but surprising
revelation. And yet, perhaps, the point of view from Which
Ids gifted teseperament enabled Sir Walter Scott to regard
the rude annals of the past might tie nearar Inn the truth
titan that which tlie Modesty of hie Models might lowe Per-
ndtted them to fiVienie for, if only • dulled perception
were capable of a similar insight, there in no doubt that to
each if us the drama 4.1 his earthly exigence, no matter
hour nionotr.aolit; OF Matter of fact its avocations, would
appear es fraught with marvel and Vontanee as any poet's
dreams or idealist's conceptions. toot neither the tocenaliies
nor the ohligettens.of elliVeley can ever pass away WWI even
in this dull, milouriesa, work•a-day world of ours, are there
not Cantles of Indolence to be stormed, fair impriatmed
Virtues to be liberated, dragon. of Vice to be overrun and
man, t: itnightly tpt.t of high emprise to be attempted
in the intereat. of ;um fellow creatures? Be that, however,
as it may, there is one pe„uligrity connected with Smut's
faculty of romance which should not .att, teluotieed, and
that is the unfailing vein of homespun commonn area° mint
revelence for Nature which restrains and keeps within well
ordered I.untle tine moat exuberant flight. of his !magma-
Hon. No matter how heroic the mould of his creations,
they are invarLthly human beings ; when he seeks to produce
an ideal it is not by eliminating its mortal attributes. but
by ,thowlim if hoW much perfection these mortal attributes
are capable. (Applauhe.)

'I have thus ventured to dwell on what Scott has done for
the national repute of Scotland torn particular remain. It has
always appeared tie me that, if only there should arise
Zrania 'buyThteli‘..e"6 faormriad asua:l',7effaurild and
gliecluot't4S, "wiPtra.
capacity to display In the same indicating way the thousand
romantic incidents f which the soil of Ireland has been the
theatre, and of portraying in a befitting manner the host el
characters of which we have a right to be proud, that many
of the distressing elements which now discolour and disturb
the current of Irish sentiment would disappear. We Ore
naturally an imaginative and sensitive people, with en
almost passionate longing for synriathy and cimsideration,
and yet, owing I believe, in u great measure, to a want
of a 'cafes cater;' we are the only nation In Europe
without either a history or a school of historical romance.
Yet the materials for a whole history and its attendant
literature, sparkling with picturesque incident and heroic
achlevenhud, and illuminated lip the record of each deeds
of valour, patrniUsm, and self devotion as no uountry in the
world coal boast, lie scattered up mid down our libraries in
the greatest profusion. Were these once exhumed, and the
inumerati le dramatic situatb ms they contain displayLsi under
similar genial and impartial auspices, to which the pest of
Scotland owes no WWII of its celebrity, that restless, un-
easy hinging for a more gratifying retrospect which we now
experience would find in them its legitimate satisfaction, and
with a calmer spirit we might proceed to tread that career
of industrial and material prosperity which Hes before us.
(Applause.)
" llaving thus made a few brief allusions to some of Scott's
qualities as an author, I would wish, before I sit down,
to say one word an to his life (Hear. The story of that
life I need not repeat. It is knows to all : its bright
commencement, its meridian splendour, its unhappy
close (hear, hear): and yet. perhaps, in its chief disaster
will be (mind Scott's greatest glory and our most useful
lesson. (hoar, hear) Imbued, as he was, from childhood
with the spirit 44 ballad poetry, with a luau of feudal mu
nificenee and the pomp of chivalry, it is evident that
he had determined almost at the outset id his career, or at
Instal as smut so Isis genius gave him tho means of doing so,
to erect the material substance of one of those stately ban,
Mal visions hi which his soul delighted: And who cannot
eater With him Wit., bin pejeet Stirling (1,111 tile
princely stock of Burchaich, a ith every dale and hill
around him eloquent with the prowess of the sold World
rillll4llB of his blood, penetratwil with all that was
most noble In the spirit id ancient chivalry, who
that knows the end does not watch with yearning,
tearful sympathies the slow Ws/Mous realization of his
conception. HA the illottalig the one timid
the new crowned lowers of Abbotsford, while the lesiden
clouds aro gathering on the others, which tarry is their
bosom destruction both to them mid to their founder? And
yet, when all Ia Over, and the vision ahatter“l, the hearth
desolate even of descendants, what figure, if id romance,
rises before 141 in greater grandeur, with a nowe stately
hearing, more hal and eldialniu.s, than his whose sense of
honour disdained all compromise mid compoisition, mid
gave his brain, his health, his life in pawn to the task-
masters rather than that a single creditor should lose a
penny by the generous confidence he had placed in ethers?
(Applause.)

" Ladies &Rd gentlemen, I have now diseharged my task, bow
inadequately and imperfectly none know better than myself.
I have but touched the subject as the hand ,1 an infant
might try to grasp a globe turning it this way and that. But
I have felt that upon such an OCCILSI.I as the present there
would he something of desecration in seeking to dissect WO
intimately those thoughts awl feelings Which animate us
all. Each one of us is Warr of how much all that is loftiest
in his aspirations and chivalrous in his character is owing to
Walter Scott, met, having led you a few brief steps towards
his shrine. I think it better to sontent myself with ;Mowing
each tie. 4 you to worship there w itic the e perfect re-
verence of his OWII individual :admiration.- (land and prv•
longed cheers.)