The Express.
London, England, 1853-05-07 00:00:00

TURKEY.

The correspondent of the Hamburg Nachricliten
writes from St. Petersburg on the 23rd ult.: "Affairs
in Constantinople have taken a turn unfavourable to
Russia. We learn that the Turkish reform party is
looking up again, and even the present Divan has
shown itself inclined to its views since the arrival of
Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. Under these circum-
stances Russian diplomacy will to all appearance
have to content itself with an engagement by the
Porte to abstain from future conventions in respect
I of the Holy Places without the concurrence of the
cabinet of St. Petersburg."

PRESENTATION OF THE SHARSPEARE

TESTIMONIAL. TO KOSSUTH.

Yesterday evening, one of the most crowded
meetings ever seen within the walls of the London Tavern
took place, the object being the presentation to M. Kossuth,
ex• Governor of Hungary, of a magnificently-bound copy of
the Works of Shakspeare, paid for by subscriptions of one
penny each from upwards of 9,000 of the working classes,
male and female, of England. Long before the hour of
meeting all the passages leading to the great room were
densely thronged ; and so great was the crowd in the room
itself that several persons fainted from the ?restore.
Among the company on the platform were Sir J. %Velma.
ley, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Gilpin, Alderman Wire, Mr. Bate-
man, and several other prominent members of the liberal
party is the City of London ; and in the gallery were
Madame Kossuth and family, and several Hungarian ladies
of distinction. The chair was taken by Lord DUDLEY
STUART, who entered the room about 7, accompanied by M.
Kossuth, Mr. Nicholay, and some of the more distinguished
of the Hungarian exiles. M. Kossuth looked exceedingly
well, and was received with a hearty burst of English wel-
come, which was renewed again and again, before the pro-
ceedings were allowed to commence. Prominently on the
platform was placed the testimonial itself, consisting of a
neatly constructed model of Shakespeare's house at Strat-
ford-on-Avon, in which was placed a splendidly bound
copy of "Knight's Shakspeare," ornamented with the
arms of the distinguished exile, and elaborately decorated
in crimson silk and gold. On the treat was a silver plate,
with the following inscription :
" Purchased with 9,216 pence, subscribed by English men
and women, as a tribute to Louis Kossuth, who achieved
his noble mastery of the English language, to be exercised
in the noblest cause, from the page of Shakspeare."
On the motion of Mr. GILPIN, Lord DUDLEY STUART
was voted by acelsmation to the chair.
His LORDSHIP, on taking the chair, said that having been
called on to take the chair on this important and glorious oc-
casion, it would perhaps be expected that he should address
a few words to the meeting. The occasion which called
them together hsd originated in a spontaneous movement
of the working classes, guided in some measure by • man who
was well known in the literary world, Mr. Douglas Jerrold.
That noble class of men upon whom, after all, the whole
community depended, immediately upon the arrival of M.
Kossuth in this free country—(cheers, laughter, and cries of
"no police spies ")—thought right to offer to the illustrious
patriot a testimony of their regard and esteem. The
noble lord, after one or two further observations, concluded
by introducing
Mr. D. Jaanom to the meeting, who, on coming for-
ward, was received with loud and general cheering.
Mr. DOUGLAS JERROLD said—Most unaffectedly do I
wish that the duty, imposed by the noble chairman on my
feeble and unpractised powers, had been laid upon any
other individual snore equal—he could not be less—to the
11 due fulfilment of this difficult but withal most grateful task.

Sir, when it became known to Englishmen—already stirred,
animated by your consura mate mastery of their noble
language—when it became known to them that you had
obtained that "sovereign sway and masterdom" of English
speech from long study of the page of Shakspeare,—u hen
it was known that your captivity had been lightened
by the lesson you had an nobly set yourself, by the
achievement of the lesson you have since so often,
so faithfully, and so triumphantly repeated to ad-
miring thousands, when this was known, your
words, most potent in themselves, had to Englishmen a
deeper meaning and a sweeter music—for they could not
but hear in the utterance of the pupil an echo of his tenon.,
of the world's teacher, their own Shakspeare. It was then
proposed to pay to you a tribute at once thankful and sym-
pathetic. It was then proposed to offer for your acceptance
a copy of the works of Shakspeare, and this is the result
—a copy of the works of Shakspeare enclosed in a case mo-
delled after the house in which Shakspeare first saw the
light. The cue bears this ioscription " Purchased
with 9,215 pence, subscribed by English men and women,
as a tribute to Louis Kossuth, whn achieved hie
noble mastery of the English language, to be exer-
cised in the noblest cause from the page of Sbakspeare.”
Sir, it is my faith that Shakspeare himself—whose
written sympathies, like the horizon, circle the earth—it is
my faith that Shakspeare himself may happily smile •
benign, approving smile, upon this small tribute, alike
honourable to the many who give, as to the one who re-
ceives, the gift. For in the poet's own words—
Never anything sin be amiss,
When humbleness and duty tender It.

_...trained by men and women of
_..,..iitions—these pennies are so many acknow-
ledgments of your wondrous eloquence, are so many tributes
to the genius, that, seeking our language at the " pure well
of English undefiled," has enabled you to pour it forth M a
continuous stream of freshness and of beauty. There is not
a penny of the thousands embodied here that is not as the
pules of an English heart, sympathetically throbbing to
your powers of English utterance. Very curious would it
be to consider the social history, the household history of
many of these pennies; for among them are offerings of men
of highest genius, as of men whose human story is the story
441'4 labour, whose social dignity is the dignity of daily
work. Represented by a hundred and twenty pennies are
here a hundred and twenty pilots, sailors, and fishermen of
Holy Island. And it is to men such as thew that your
waste has been musical at the fireside—has come, a word of
strength and strange delight, upon the English sea. Sir, it
would be a long—and with my doing—an especially tedious
I endeavour to attempt even partially le individualise the
tributes of which this testimonial is the psodnet.
athere it is; en enduring, sympathetic record of your
glorious task. Sympathetic I say, for dull and
sluggish must the imagination be that cannot in some sort
follow you in the Sholswerean selteshooling of year cap-
tivity. That cannot rejoice with Toe —the rejoicing scholar
—es from the thick and cumbwea shroud of foreign
words came forth a spiritual beauty ; an immortal
lovelies, to be thenceforth a part of your spi-
ritual nature. it fie, I say, impossible not to be
glad with yon, the Shakspeassaa pupil, as. one by one
ges made the acquaintance, no not the acquaintance, but
albs lifolong friendship of the men and women of our ins.
metal Shakspeare. It is impossible not to glow anal
triumph with you as all his mighty creations ceased to be
golden shadows, half-guessed mysteries---standing revealed
as great Impactions, solemn truths. It is impossible.
when at tenth the whole grandeur of oar poet, like an
eastern sunrise, broke upon you—not to sympathise wit/tithe
Sash, the thrill of triumph that powered you, having
mastered Atakspeare; it may be, a rapture almost as full,
almost as deep, almost us penetrating as that you felt, when
fliatcleat the Anstitians. It is impossible not to sym-
pit with you ia your hours of pupilage when
you stadied the laegnage of our poet, it xi equally
impossible for free Englishmen not to admire and thank
you for the glorious:use you hews made of a glorious wee-
p'''. Sir, on the part of thousands I herewith present to
you this testimonial, in tribute of their admiration, their
sympathies, their best wishes. And, sir, hoping, believing,
knowing that the day will come when you shall again sit at
your own fireside is your own liberated Hungary, we fur-
ther hope, that sometimes turning the leaves of these word-
wealthy volumes, 'you will think of Englishmen as of a
people who had for you and for your cause the warmest
admiration and the deepest sympathy; and animated by
these (Whop, resented with scorn, almost unutter-
able, the dastard attempts to slander and defame
you. The day will come—for it is to doubt
the solemn purposes and divine end of human
nature to doubt it—the day will come when the darkness
that now benights the greater part of continental Europe,
will be rolled away, dispersed by the light of liberty like
some suffocating fog. The day will come, when in Prance
men shall re-inherit the right of speech. The day will
come, when in Austria men shall take some other lesson
from their rules but the stick ; and the day will come,
when in Italy the temporal power of Pope, that red plague
upon the brightest spot of God's earth, will have passed
away like a spent pestilence. That day must and will
come. Meanwhile, sir, we wish you all compatible happi-
ness; all tranquillity, ill peaceful enjoyment of the sacred
rights of private life in England—in this England, that
still denounces the political dictation of a foreign tyrant, as
heretofore she has denounced and defied his armed aggres-
sions. For to submit to the one, is to invite the other,
At the conclusion of Mr. Jerrold's speech the teithitg.'l
nial was formally presented, and so anxious Iwo As Mesh -
ing to see it, that it was obliged to be lifted ifpfliqphesed
in a prominent place in the gallery. ors
M. KOSSUTU then came forward and wiikeigire# 494
enthusiastically. The whole meeting rose ma'am**
again and again, the ladies waving their hands is Wel
the gentlemen their hats. It would be i acre-
rately to describe the enthusiasm. As soon as IN
restored,
M. KOSSUTH said—Raving, upon serious honsilloradon

And these
almost all