The Express.
London, England, 1857-04-04 00:00:00

DINNES TO ME. TRACEERAY AT EDINBURGH.

Mr. Thackeray was entertained to dinner on
Thursday evening in the new Royal Hotel, Edinburgh.
The company comprised many of the moat distinguished
names connected with literature, science, and the fine arts in
Scotland. Lord NEATE. occupied the chair, the croupier
being Mr. W. Stirling, of Keir, M.P.
After the usual preliminary toasts,
. .

The Coat gran proposed " the health of Mr. Thsckeray,"
their distinguished and honoured guest. His lordship paid
so eloquent and graceful tribute to the merits of Mr. Thacke-
ray, and entered into a lengthened review of his works and
style, and pronounced a high walegium open their tendency
to promote truth end cultivate virtue. He defended the dis-
tinguished author's recent lectures from the charge of dis-
loyalty, contending that in dealing with such a subject
the voice of truth should not be stifled by that of flattery,
and concluded by remarking on the philosophical treatment
and benevolent spirit that characterised all his writings.
. . _

Kr. Lord Neave• and
gontite=stave to yea se best I may fur the int-
end kespiesik p with widen you have been
=d le mesh* tom ad /tea the whist and Pm'
or inhume whki I bon hod ham end= I have met
with inky the whale time that I Isom ban roaming
throng! thatimi. Wireseir I have boom hem Dimitrise
to I can awes you that I ham mot with a
I missies es sneer* mil is greet as your own ; et
whalawar town have laid I bare found the kindest
had snatched out to shahs Woe, the worm* Minds ready
to make me welcome, asid the most estmerdinary
sympathy, and goodness, meal Liaihig, wadi maladies;
—if I may ho allowed betoy me—chew. towards me.
(Ch If this kind of rompsign to to contane—isoh
X 1 7 Y to go on—if I sin Is he kneed may deg 4
this mop. er in way almost equerfewl—eNew we to wiy
desms% Nei via libiesse, sad with
tide , y re !sift y bowl wt et ssy sees&
fi). It is quite an erne to seppeso that
I am $ mew any benevolent beep et swy pa-
rer with my leilow-ergatora My liWnses is
to wet onshilassom ad mannians, and velazd
bage magma in al Ine peopbassang whom I go.
I read in mores and worse of ithie aidedthat
such is my nay teak, that sash is the dreary 000upation
of my esistonto. It is said that if I try to musk of a
good men, I randier him absurd, and mean, end vulgar;
and at a good women, that she, too, is foisend vapid,
and imigaidcwat—that it is only. with vice that
arawhow stir my hosiness in • and, in Ins,
that to *gm wiebsilmes, and sallishnosi, man-
nom my tee. I know that this sad be true, be-
own I sad it • very abort time ego in • Liverpool
newqmpar Clasgbior) ; and aot only in • Liverpool
w
lint in • Liverpool_ ,awwhich was ltr'Sestali ustroppar. (NommW lanr.) This
anionsel these feta which I ham boon
yes, Wally sentrery to the theory at Lord
Noavaimdesa' Caton Sig new says the Scotch agerspopi_ or,
" saying anything kind shoot anybody ;" and the Liverpool
newspsw which pigged my lecture backed up the splines
of the- &Mt with. -" Catch him prng anybody et wr-
ing onythleg geed anybedy." Ha lone notkdeg that is
lovable ; be rein nothing thetileirieshie. And yet I
thought that in flea
plimsoll to oune liaerilMemetehly astisiet
head
mweische who hell heel headsets el bet I had
rebel Doh*, ash Pawatila, Jetween,
wed the Ittentry ma, lie win et set mil the me at war"
the good son el the tiny vhsta I Atha usee thew the
Star and Gator we et these old deg& (Applorma) I
bed that in thew keteses I Mil optima be torso
net of or and in beings end In
gitzragartsrumlia‘kikolfhte the Quota (cheers) ;
I here hmli to motion Ems, whether it
was die honks of the CIA, se man ems of the
it ems in New lagloind se In qd
was In germ pest ha in Lenin is ins
lithos of the mambo of the er le the
audio= dthe Wwit-ewlor dr swalreislis,
Yee* be the
West by the beaks el the Me, glary sa the Awaken
ontliml—sehwever I la to asatka bar rassa, it yea re.
oohed with lest e ermine, mad with the at lesirthlt
them And Irby ine*Wlt wee sot cateccasteethespeelm;
it wan n sespertel the troth ; it was biome the ilea eit
the Ansehmi—the people al New Odom • yeeragrarze.
the right et Akehmaitweit ego—ell reeshei wed
Wed with doe elegiewee the pea claim be hew width
that issly bee who en weedily holds that peat and awful
slinaliss whisk eeom esewpies. It le ay loyalty that
ig WWI eweilsa, owl iseaattLthet I aw trying to
Otag 7vc gra, Orr in Amencs—in
phaogsiphis or New I lmd spoken about
George IV. la Mom of praise ad abated reverence, do
you believe they would have hailed his maw with cheers, or

have be uel it with anything •hke Teepee*? They would
have laughed in my face if I had so spoken of him. They
know what I know and yea know, and what number" of
equeetnieh loysliata who sleet to cry out &genet my
lectures know, that that man's life was not a good Hre:.
that that king was not soffit a king as we ought to love, er
regard, or honour. (Cheers.) And I believe, for my jet.
that in speaking the truth, as we hold it, of a bad so
we are paying no diareopeet at all to a good one. (Chesiramile
Par front it. On the contrary, we degrade our own home,
awl the Sovereign's by unduly and tweedy praising
aged the mere elaverer and dimmer is one who mum forty of
el keen, with dash-note., and pays with fells rein his
trines to Carer. (Cheer.) I don't disguise that I feel
somehow an my trial here for loyalty, fur honest Engine
fething. ("No, no:" and chain) I do nut hold any de,.
rrevolutiwry o opinions. lam sure them is many a
enZwative here who might follow my opinions er at say
rate who might hear them out, and nut be very ouch
alarmed at them when I had got to the end. As far as
know of my political opinions, I belong to the clams that I ass
around too here—the elms of lawyers, and inerelante, sad
toluenes, and men who are striving on in the world, of mm
the educated middle clamee of this country. And, belong.
ing to them, my mytemthiat and my desires an with them.
If it happeued that we were all here =amenably of noblenee
and airb we should no doubt form a Viscounts govemateee
and think it the best dell Governments possible. (Cheerio
If • difficulty arose in China for instance, we shuttle look
for my Lord Duke A. to go out and settle the difeelty, ee
' we should ask Earl IL to go if my Lord Duke A. were not
inclined. If a Minister woe wanted at Wiehingem,
should mud my Lord A. to fill the place; or if a ranee,
were wanted elsewhere, there would be some other lord
who would be epees ready to accept the one. If
we had a war, we should select a noble lord teen the
Hone Guards to till the plum of Commander-in-Chief.
theer cavalry
—ob.led eowels4lo*ddeetiMlanotlet
a number of gentlemen of the lost families to go en the see
of these noble lords (Cheer. and laughter) If I, for
example, weer the noble lord who occupied a high peition
at home' and eapeciully if I should possibly have • relative
in a fardistant lend where the war was going en, I should
meet undoubtedly and must justifiably write out to them in
authority at head-quarters to take care of my relative.
((heal laughter.) Against that system I could scarcely
protest, became it is perfectly natural. I think it is quite
fair that a noble lord should scud out and my, " Per haven's
sake take are of Dowbe—penewed laughteie—but for aeon
our side I think that we are hound also to look after
Tull and Mae. (Loud cheers.) Tall and Met belong to
our family; they are of the working, sturdy, middle dome.
(Cheers.) They are men in whom he, as I believe, the
safety, the hope, and the main part of the intelligence of
our country. It is to their party that I would like to say
that I belong, and I hope that toy confewien will (wry no
disloyalty with it, and will meet with no eery emotes
disapproval hoe the strongest Conservative present.
(Applause.) Of the kinduese with which you, ley Lord
Heaves, have been pleased perionally to speak of me, and
the esteem in which you hold my wens, it does not Loeme
me to ',peek ; but I assure you that 1 am meet grateful
and thankful to think if I can have in the course of lay
life's labour. merited such an encomium as I have had
teem you—(cheers)—and if, after the night is over, yon,
genie-men, are pleased to confirm the sentence which my
kind judge, here mated, has passed upon rue, it will always
be a source of great gratification to tue to think that he has
made a righteous award, and it will be a melee of immense
pleasure to my children to remember bow very kiudly, and
how very hospitably, and how very generously you have
treated we. (Long continued cheer.)
Mr. SitiLitul, M.P., in propoant,,,, " the Seotch line
vanities," remarked that they could not boast the great en-
dowments, or the great petromee, or the peened considera-
fon which their sister univeretes in Enema tad Ireland
possessed; they had had the privilege sometimes of educating
men like the Margate of Lansdowne, Lord Palmerston, or
Lori John Rumen, but they never had the chance of send-
ing them to parliament. (Neer, hear.)
Professor Beeeete returned thanks, wishing rather that
this duty led fallen on him 30 or 40 ars ago as he could
then have spoken of the Scotch a• the but et uented people
in the world, language which could now scarcely be ventured
upon even in • Wigtown or a Caithness presbytery. With
the single exception of the medical faculty repro-exited here
by the breadth and majesty of the learned pr..fessor (Simp-
eon), whom a recent poet had described as uniting the front
of Bitechue with the head of Jove—(Laughter)—the
Scotch universities did not stand where every true Scotch-
man would desire them to meted. They had starved their
echools so much that the pupils were but half educated, and
the consequence was that the prefemors Lad to expend their
strength on drilling raw, mieenible boys in their elementary
limos instead of leading them into the hum shrines and the
penetralia of science. lle hoped the new parliament would
not separate without doing something to place the Scottish
univinities on a higher platform than that on which they
bad hitherto stood. (Applause.)
The Rev. Dr. MANNA, in giving" English Literature,"
obeerved that, as a clergyman, ho had the greatest pleasure
in joining with his fellow-townsmen in the present tribute
of sidnetenon for the talent of Mr. Theekeny, and in the
expression of gratitude for the many hours (de:queen en-
jentient which they had had in the perusal of hie writings.
He would even venture, on the part of his profession, to
claim Mr. Thackeray as an ally, and to thank him fur the
great service which he had rendered in the came which was
common to them all—of epreading among their countrymen
all kind, and gentle, and high, end pure, and Christian see-
timeats and principle.. Ile coupled with the Weld the name
of Mr. Stirling, who replied,
Mr THAetelsee in proposing " The Fine Arts and the
Royal Scottish Acideery,' said—lt in now my duty to ask
you to drink a toast which I am sure you will drink without
any pressing, and lam glad, in doing so, to k my
thanks to ten artiste who have held out their ha to me
this evening. I assure you that I have been a constant
visitor ut the building with the Doric pillars not far off,
fur I have spent no less than Is. 6d. for various catalogues—
(laughter)—and I have come away with the strong idea that
the battle between the lion and unicorn is not altogether de-
cided—(a laugh)--and Ido not know what colours ought
to have precedence on the pallet, and whether it should be
those of England or of Scotland. lam perfectly certain
of this, however, that the President of our acedemy could
not paint, sad would own himself that ho could not
paint so good a portrait as the President of yours. I em
perfectly (retain thet there is a certain Frencie Grant in
London who could paint a picture se well as any Seotehman
out of London, cc any man in almost any other country. I
know that one of our chief painters—one of our naturalistic
mbool—comes to draw his inspiration from Scotland, and
that he finds his most noble rocks, his most beautiful
lakes bin most splendid deer, and his most wonderful
heather here. I know that a week ago I shook bands
with a young painter' a leader of the Young England
school in Perth, and that he last year found his autumn
leaves, and his beautiful grass, and hie glorious sunset,
worthy of Giorgione hinioelf, by the hanks of the Tay. I
know the young Queen of the French naturalistic whoa
came into your country, and has fallen in love with it, and
has taken away from it a little ark of her own, carrying
with her many of your animals, (Cheers) I cannot ray
what particular power it may be in our country which
creates this immense attachment, bat I begin, I assure you,
to feel it myself. (Cheers) What vitality is it in the air
which cameo all you Seotchnum to have each an intense'
nationality P Not that your artiste cannot go to other plane
than to Scotland. Yesterday, in the course of one of those
visits of which I spoke to the Royal Academy's Exhibition,
I wee taken by Lander into the marred garden of Olivet. I
wandered also with Harvey back into old times, and saw dear
aid Joha Bunyan standing at the gate of Bedford gaol. I
passed a little door, and there I was away from John Bunyan,
;Levey was arrying me on still, and I stood on the deck
of Columbus's earave and we looked out and saw land across
the Atlantic. Then I went with Noel Paton, who led me on
to the moonlit regions of fairyland, and looked at the beam
tiful crowds of creatures that danced, and frisked, and gam-
bolled around Oberon and the beautiful Titania. Then he
brought me away from that fairy place into a place Min
mote pleasant—from fairy land into love land—and I
beheld a young couple sitting in uncommonly close con-
versation under the glee. of Hesperus, that bright
Mar, who I ant sure would wink at what that couple were
going to do next. (Laughter.) And I thought to myself
how-delightful, and how cairn, and bow pleasant, and UV
superior Is your calling and your burinees—the =islets yen
worabip —to the noise, and the turmoil, and the struggle, and
' the excitement which have been going on all over Scotland
—except in your Audios and in your galleried—to that im-
memo noise and bustle of elections, which, I sin ewe, Mr.
Cowan is very glad to think is over. (Laughter.) Your
I mistress is always young. It deem not matter to you what
' dark conspirators are attempting to oust Mr. Cowan from
hie seat. (Much laughter and cheering.) I have hosed
of several. Your city is standing there, calm and
=, and bright, and beautiful ; the great castle
down the great street that leads to Holyrood ;
end Arthur's Seat is enveloped in Met, or is covered with
cloud, or is golden with sunshine. What matters who is
elected at Leith, and whether Mr. Miller, or whether the
Lord Advocate triumphs there? The waves as before,
come rolling into the Firth from the sea. What matters
it at Aberdeen whether Colonel Sykes or Mr. Leith is
elected? The great, calm, old gray city of Aberdeen, and
its University, with its crowned towers, still "its calmly on
the sands, and looks towards the ocean; the Don rushes
by Seaton Wood., and under the dim arch of the old
bridge, away towards the see. (Cheers.) As I was musing
upon the vast superiority of your calling over other cell-
ist" I was met by a couple of friends of wino—politi-
cians, in this city—and I heard these gentlemen engaged
In the deepest consolation about the lam return from
the Lochfin burghs, or about John o'Groat's Home, or
shout who was to be the member for the Orkneys.
(Laughter.) And peering away from their conversation, I
thought I would go into your gaiter,' and there, to my sine
prise, I found that the painters had 'been dotting, and bad
been candidates for public applause too. The landscape
painters had been at their work, and, as I looked round, I
saw that Peerage° in Perthshire wore Harvey's colours in
spite 'of the act—laughter and chars)—that Locheline
Castle, and Inverloehy Castle, and Irvine Mill wen admirsely
represented by M'Culloch—(cheers)--that Arran from the
large Combese had been most triumphantly amused by
Milne Donald—(cheers)—and that though Edward Ellice
may certainly It for St. Andrew's in the next parliament,
D. 0. Hill has achieved a much greater triumph, and made
St. Andrew's sit for him. (Laughter and prolonged cheering.)
The other toasts were—" the Chairman, ' by Mr. Stirling;
"the Drama," by Mr. R. Chambers, to which Mr. 1.1111011
Rommel replied; the Preis," by Professor George Wilson,
for which Mr. Watson, of the lament, brieliy returned
thanks; and "the Croupier," by Mr. Cowan, M.P.
The company Replanted 'batty alter 11 o'clock.