The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-05-09 00:00:00

DINNER TO MR._ CHARLES DICKENS,

IN NEW YORK.

On Saturday, the 18th ult., a dinner in honour of
Mr. Charles Dickens was 'it eh at behoonb:oss, Nevr
York, by the press (d the United States.

Although but few of those who wore present on this occa-
sion hail previously met Mr. Dickens (says the New York
Times was nevertheless, for them, if not for lihn, a re
union in very truth. "Familiar In our mouths as household
words' are the names and sayings anti doings of the eharac-
band Ms creation, ant through them, long ago—some of us
when first we began to run and read—we had au introdue.
tion to their author. It was like meeting an out friend,
who hail often entertained us, and endeavouring, in a
feeble way, not to discharge, but to convey to him a
sense of our indebtedness. About 200 gentlemen sat down
to table. The dining hall was tastefully decorated with
the British and American colours, and the tables were
adorned with bouquets and vases of flowers. Mr. Horace
Oseety pr.sidol, and 1.41 his right was the guest of the even-
ing. Some delay was caused in tile commencement of the
festivities by the sudden illness of Mr. Dickens, and it was
reported that lie would lie unable to attend, but to the great
gratilicatltn of the assemblage he made his appearance lottie
reception room at 6.30 o'clock, and at oneo entered the
dining room leaning on the aria of the chairman. The cloth
having been removed, Mr. tireely role and proposed the toast
of the evening.

Mr, Dickens, who on rising to respond was received
with such loud and long-continued eheerikg that Ito
had to stand for some time awaiting an opportunity to
speak, spoke as follows :

Gentlemen,—l cannot do better than take my cue from
your distinguished president, and refer in my first remarks
to his remarks in connection with the old, natural associa-
tion between you and me. When I received an invitation
from a private association of working members of the press
of New York to dine with them to-day, I accepted that com-
pliment in grateful remembrance if a calling that 51 85 once
my own, and in loyal sympathy towards a brotherhood which,
hi spirit, I have never quitted. Sod, good.) To the whole-
some training of severe mwspaper work, when I
was a rely young man, I constantly refer my first
successes ; wet my sons will hereafter testify of their
father that Ike was always steadily preuit of that ladder
by SI Welk he rose. Great cheering., If it were otherwise. I
should have lint a very poor opinion of their father, which,
perhaps, upon the whole, I have not. ;Laughter and cheers.)
Hence, gentlemen, under any eiromistances, this company
would have been exceptionally interesting and gratifying to
me. But whereas I supposed that, like the fairies' pavilion
in the " Aralikm N ights," it would he hut a nure handful,
kind I finkl it turn out, like the same elastic pavilion, capable
of comprehending a nmltitude, so) much the moire proud am
I of the honour if being your guest ; for you win readily be-
lieve that the more widely representative of the press in
America my entertainers are, the more I must feel the good-
will and the kindly sentimehts toward me of that vast insti-
tution.
,Applause.) Gentlemen, so much of my voice has
lately been heard in the land, and I have for upwards of
four hard winter montlw, so contended against what I have
been sometimes quite admiringly assured was "a true Ameriwin
catarrh " laughter —a possession which I have through-
out highly appreciated, though I might have preferred to
lie naturalised by any other outward and visible means—
renewed laughter —I say, gentlemen, so much of my voice
has lately been heard, that I might have been contented
with troubling you no further from my present standing-
point, were it not a duty with which I henceforth charge
myself, not only here but on every suitable occasion, what-
soever and wheresoever, to express my high and grateful
sense of my second reception in America, and to bear my
honest testimony to the math mat generosity. andmaguanimity.
;Great applause Also ti declare how astounded I have been
by the amazing changes that I have seen around me on every
side, changes moral, changes physical, changes in the amount
of hUld SW/lined and cultivated, changes in the rise of vast
new cities, changes in the growth of older cities almost mat
of recognition. shanges in the gniwth of the graces and
amenities of life, changes in the press, without whose ad-
vancement no advancement can take place anywhere. !Ap-
plause. Nor MR I, beliCVO 1110, so arrogant Its 1.11 suppose
that in five and twenty years there have lwelt no changes in
me, and that I bad nothing to letun and no extreme im-
pressions to correct when 1 was here first. Applause.)
And, gentlemen, this brings me to a point on which I have,
over since I landed here last November, observed a strict
silence, however tempted sometimes to break it, but in
reference to which I will, with your good leave, take you
into my confidence new. ("Coon, go on.", Even the press,
Icing human, may be sometimes mistaken or misinformed,
and I rather think that I have in one or two rare instances
known its information to be not perfectly accurate with
reference to myself. (Laughter amt applause.) Indeed,
I have 115,W met again been more surmised by printed
news that I have read of myself than by any other printed
news that I have ever read in my present state of ex-
istence. Laughter.) Thus, the vigour and perseverance
with which I have for some months past been collecting
matmilds for, and hammering away at, a now look on
America, have much astonished me—renewed laughter—
seeing that all that time it has been perfectly well known
to my publishers on both sides of the Atlantic that I
positively declared that no consideration kin earth should
induce me to write one. (Laughter.) Bat what I have
Intended, what I have resolved upon hail this is the eon
',deuce I seek to place In' you , is, on my return to Eng-
land, in my own English journal, manfully, promptly,
plainly, in my own person, to bear, for the bawd of my
countrymen, such testhnony to the gigantic changes in
this country as I have hinted at to-night. Applause.)
Also, to record that wherever I have been, In the smallest
pieces equally with the largest, I have been received
with unsurpassable politeness, delicacy, sweet temper,
hoepitality and consideration, with unsurpassable respect tow
the privacy daily enforced on me by the imbue I,f iny
avocation here and tile state of my health. Applause.)
This testimony ski long as I live, and so long as my de-
scendants have any legal right hi my Stinks, I shall cause
to be republished, as an appendix to every copy if those two
looks of niine in which I have referred to America.
Tumultuous applause.; And this I will do and cause
to Ike done, not hi mere love and thankfulness, but because I
regard it as an act of plain justice and honour. Bravo,"
and cheers Gentlemen, the transition from my own
feelings toward and interest in America to those if the
mass of my countrymen seems to ts; a natural one; bid
whetlier or no, I make it with an express °Meet. I
was paged in tlds very city, about last Christmas time,
whether all American was not at some disadvantage in
England, as a forchp.er. The notion of aii American's being
regarded in England as a foreigner at all, of his ever being
thought of or spoken of in that character, was no unCon,
moldy incongruous and absurd to me that my gravity was
for the MI rment quite overpowered. As (30011 as it was re-
stored, I said that for years and years past I homed I had
had as many American friends, and had received as mauy
American visitors as almost any Englishman living, and that
my unvarying experience, fortified Sty theirs, was that it was
enough in England to be an American to lie received with
the readiest respect anti recognition anywhere. Thereupon,
out of half-a-dozen people, stuldenly snake out two, one
an American gentlenian with a cultivated taste for net,
who, finding himself on a certain Sunday outside the walls
of a certain historical English castle, famous for its
pictures, was refused admission there, aciainling to the
strict rule of the establishment on that day, lint who on
merely representing that lie was an American gentleman,
on his travels, had not only the picture gallery, but the
whole castle placed at his immediate disposal. (Laaghter
The other was a lady, who, being in London, and
having a great desire to see a particular museum, was
assured by the English family with whom she stayed
Glut it was impossible, because the place was closed for a
week, and she had only three days to remain. Upon tlekt
lady's going to the inuseum, as she assured ire, abine, self.
introduced as an American lady, the gate flew open, as it ,
were, magically. I gun unwillingly bound to add that tlw
lady certainly was young and extremely pretty. Laughter.,
Still, the porter of that institution is of an obese habit,
and, accenting to the host of my kilwervation of him, not
very impressilde. Great laughter and cheering. Now,
gentlemen, I refer to these trifles as a collateral assurance
to you that the Englishman who shall humbly strive,
as I hope to do, to be in England as faithful to America
as to England herself, has no previous conceptions to con-
tend against. Good, good. , Points of difference there
have been, points of difference there are, points of dif-
ference there probably always will be, between the two great
peoples. But broadcast in England is sown tile sentiment
that these two peoples are essentially one—greid applause
—and that it rests with them jointly tO uphold the great
Anglo-Saxon race, to which kilr president has referred, and
all its great achievements before the world. ;Bravo.) If I
• know anything of my comitrymen, and they give me credit
fir knowing something—if I know anything of lay country
men, gentlemen, the English heart is stirred by the flutter
I his of those stars ankl stripes, as it is stirred by no other flag
that flies, except its own. ;Great appluuse.' If I know my
countrymen, In any and every relation toe aril America,
they begin, not as Sir Anthony Absolute recommended lovers
to begin, with "a little aversion," but with a great liking
and a profound respect ; and whatever the little sensitive-
ness of the moment, or the little official passion, or the little
official policy, now or then, or here or there, may be, take my
word for it that the first, enduring, great popular considera-
tion in England is Is generous construction of justice. (Bravo
Finally, gentlemen, and I say Ms subject to your correction,
do believe that from the great majority of honest minds on
both sides, there cannot be ahsent the conviction that it
Iwould be better for this globe to be riven by all earthquake,
Urea by a comet, overrun by an Iceberg, and abandoned to

the Arctic fox and bear, than that it should present the
spectacle of these two great nations, each of whom has, in
its own way and hour, striven so hard and so successfully for
freedom, ever again being arrayed the one against the other
Cfmnultuous applause, the whole company standing up And
cheering again and again.) llentlemen, I consist thank your
president enough, or you enough, for your kind reception of
my health and Si my poor remarks; but, believe me, I do
thank pm with the utruinst fervour of which lay soul is
capable. 'Loud applause.)
At the conclusion of Mr. Dickens's speech the band struck
up 'Uo.I Save the Queen," and the whole company, rising,
joined in singing the air.