The Press.
London, England, 1855-11-10 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, NOV. 10, 1855.

POSTSCRIPT.

Tim Lord Mayor's Day went off with the usual
eclaL The civic procession, much curtailed in its
fair proportions, left the Guildhall at twelve, and
proceeded, as usual, to Blackfriars, and from thence
by water to Westminster, where the usual ceremo-
nies took place, and the Mayor returned to Guild-
hall. The banquet, acct.rding to annual custom
concluded the proceedings of the day. The guests
numbered some hundreds, Cabinet Ministers occupy-
ing, as usual, the conspicuous posts at the dinner.
The health of the Prime Minister being drunk,

Lord PALMERSTON, on rising, was received with
much cheering. After returning thanks on behalf
of his colleagues and himself for the compliment, the
noble viscount proceeded :
Those persons who are charged with the conduct of
public affairs must indeed be unfit for the duty which de-
volves upon them if they are insensible to that great prin-
ciple of commercial enterprise which I am sure is conse-
crated by those who sit within these walls. (Cheers.)
Commercial enterprise is one of the main foundations of
the greatness and power of nations. It advances
civilisation, it promotes the intercourse of nations,
it tends to unite mankind in the bonds of
common brotherhood, and when war unfortu•
nately happens, commerce then furnishes those
means by which war can be alone successfully carried
on, and by the prosecution of which we can return to a safe,
honourable, and lasting peace. (Cheers.) It must at all
times be deemed by high-minded men one of the noblest
positions to which man can aspire to be charged with the
conduct of the affairs of a great nation like this
—(cheers)—but if ever there was a moment at which
those who are charged with those affairs must feel pecu-
liarly proud of the honour conferred upon them, and alt o
peculiarly sensitive of the deep responsibility which
that honourable charge imposes upon them, the present
is, beyond question, the greatest which perhaps ever
existed in the history of this country—(cheers)—for
never did a nation present a nobler spectacle to the world
than the British nation does at the present moment.
We have entered into a great contest, not rashly, not
hastily, not with levity, but upon full and mature delibe-
ration—we have entered on that contest because we felt
that the war was necessary as well as just (loud cheers) and
this nation evinces from one end of the country to the other,
a steady and calm, but full and deliberate determination to
submit to any sacrifices which the conduct of the war may
entail (renewed cheers) and to show itself equal to every
exertion which the prosecution of the war may require,
to exhibit a constancy in carrying on the war, and to
submit to those sacrifices, and to continue those exertions
till peace shall be obtained upon conditions such as
we may be entitled to demand. (Renewed cheers.)
We have present on this occasion the represents.
tives of those three allies with whom we are united in the
enterprise we have undertaken. We have at this board the
representative of our faithful ally his Majesty the Emperor
of the French—( loud cheers )—that great ally who has,
I must do him the justice to say, by the magnanimity
of his mind, by the farseeing policy which directs him,
by the honesty and single-mindedness of his policy,
cemented the union between the two nations, which
too long have been divided by jealousies and mistrusts
of each other, which T hope will from this time, in the
words of my noble friend the French Ambassador, for ever
continue to animate the two nations as confiding friends.
( Cheers.) We have at this board the representative of the
Sultan, in whose cause we have entered into the war and
whose subjects have nobly shown that they were worthy of

ININNii.