The Express.
London, England, 1861-05-16 00:00:00

CHARLES KNIGHTS HISTORY of ENO-
LAND. The Mann Volusse. price tur. ad. . sad tart
it, prim n ed. Ina be Pabla.l.c.l 1.11 ti.c lath kat.
ancillary aad Wain H. Boarcrit Arne.. Elanstren. LG

111116 dm, New sad Cheaper Shams, octavo, 10a.
HIaTORICAL LECTURES on the LIPIE of
00ft LOllll JIBUN CHRIST. Beteg the Hainan Lectures
fte Ifte Yew Mt •y C. J. ILLLIODIT, B. It. thalami Pr...Naar
et MI MI IN the Velvirdo of Csaohrldge
Lagoa : Padget. Ira, awl Beers. We Strom,.

Seemed Ludes, jest pehlinherf, pd ls .pp 911,
PitAYB and RIVIEWS.—A I'mtest addressed
u. Illehorp of eallebery, Ace . Cc., with • new Preface
Mei eastaaalog further information of Importance
esssistews. iwoneedinire. and powers of Cuero-
.
y Ilia Rev. K. B. Kiumutu, I.L. own, Rector a
140011, Ihrrist.

O. A. GALAS NNW NOVEL.
THE SEVEN SONS of MAMMON
•Pleas In TEMPLE EAE•
A tattoo linganne Our Tan sad Cwntry Itsaders.
him lit. Moot/sly.
The irst rotas* pp 6.4. prise I* *1 . Dow ready. Caws. 1*
0112. •• Temple Bnr." 12A Vlatnatrest London.

LIP et LONDON. —The PUBLICATION of
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THE ILLUSTRATED TIMES of SATURDAY
nest. May 111, will contain various SNORAVINGM repro-
's:Mins Incidents in the Civil War In the United Mateo, from
Sketches by American Artists. Mee Portrait of General Beaune
mird. CNN 111,11611 T inAltief of the Southern Confederate A/nu—
lls,a of the new Flatteries Tbomterbolt and Etna—
Review of Volunteers at imbulton—Portralt of the Duke of
Manchestar—Arrival of Chinese Indemnity Money at Tien Sing—
Salmon risking on the Rhine—Portrait of General Renedelt,
Ocuamanding the Austrian Troops In Venetia, and other inte-
resting subjects. Price 2;4 . free by post, 4 stanips.--0111m, 2,
Clilkerimestreet, Strand, W.C.

than oaten, or which attract • more general attention
abroad • and amongst these perhaps the most prominent
are parliamentary eloquence and the public press. I know
that certain persons would mot allow the oratorical art to
be isideded ta the peak literary alanfication. We have
in France en illustrious saffeleeted body, whom duty is to
mind& as high se possible the standard of literature. I '
men the French Academy . Well. I have often heard that
fir-famed company abusedfor having included in her On l
Lion leo Limo a dam of the veteran of our parliamentary ;
Wile. (Laughter.) I deal know if the reponch is always
• nterested ; bat, at any rata I don t find it well :
founded. I don't look at the Philippics of Demosthenes 1
or the invectives of Cicero, against eatable or Varese, as .
indignant ornaments of Greek or Roman literature, and
I don't mune that Englishmen would allow the speeches i
of Bolingbroke, of Fox, of Burke, of Causing, or of Feel
sot to be ischeled among the great intellectual works 1
whin this country has protocol I would not quote here ,
the mean ef your public men of this day ; but I dare say
1 that 'nobody will contradict me when I assert that they
I have sot dumeented from their forefathers, and I could ,
show at this very table living proofs of the troth of my
assertion. I know that England does not enjoy the exclu-
sive privilege of breeding clever speakers, and I might at least
name OM ciontry which is the first in my affection, and which
bona of preesning • set of public orators—unfortunately
now lb the half-p, y list—(laughter)—but as nomerous as
was ever men In the assemblies of any country or of nay
op, (Cheers.) lam certain also that peat national power
will in or is 'lent, displayed in all those more or less
I new parliaments which are now happily sitting in sway i
(Closers.) But it has been your good
tlici of , Zialtristais your wisdom, that you have ere-
neatly. wined interruption, for • long course of }Mrs,
eajoyed doom represeetative institution and that binn-
ing has likela to in tone of public speakers in this country
a penliar chanter—humorous without frivolity, practical
and not trivial, eloquent but never degenerating into mere
rhetorical amptiecatioos ; in • word, the country appears
to me to present the real pattern of modern parliament),
eloquence. (Chien.) Then something may be said
lof the daily or periodical pries. I know I come to
a subject rather delicate to be touched upon in this
and above all by me ; but I hope I keep within
thigaecLits over which I ought sot to trespass when I say
the press cannot reach its real aim we exert fully in bene-
ficial without freedom. Ido not contend that this
freedom may have the same extent, or be submitted to the
same rules, in all countries ; but it nate upon certain prin-
ciples which are keen by any man in his good sense, and
ought to be resonated by any legislator of good faith. Nor
would I deny that the freest proms may make some mistakes,
or create some wrone--misleed public opinion ups
certain persons or certain questions ; bat remember that
it is the law of God that nothing eara be perfect in this ,
world. (Hear, hear.) Ono day. I was talking on this matter
with an illustrious statesman in my own country, • mode-
rate but staunch liberal—l don't know why I should '
omit his name, for I don't know any some more entitled
to universal esteem and respect—le Dec de Broglie.
And liter having carefully examised the inconveniences
and advantages of the liberty of the he expressed his
*nice as follows :—"I sin peeper to see honest sad good
men oceasionlly alumniated , provided that one day or
another the mask is torn off the face of the dishonest and
the naked." Well, I my that • really free press nearly
always expresses the (minims and feelings of the great ma-
jority of the community, make them preponderate, sad
that nine times out of ten the majority inclines towards the
best and wisest course. (Cheers,) The press exerts upon
the executive power an action at the sane time stimulant
sad restrictive. It vents many rash decisions, and it
points z
out many things which are to be done, and which
a stogie man toot always perceive without the help of oe
the bandied of the press. Its action is felt at the
lowest degrees of administrative hierarchy. I have bees
myself a public servant of my country—teen, hear)-and I
know by my own, unfortunately not very long, experience,
that nothing impremee • public man with • keener sense of
his duty, sorbing =fortes upon him the obligation of mai-
tatieg carefully babes he bans any resolution, or of *Mead-
* contently to every part of hie duties, than the kaow-
ledge that all his acts or his omissions will be reported
beton his countrymen, and commented open—ant always
la • very friendly by., (Rear.) Even is anther point of
view, the press when it is egged cannot give the same
weight to Its literary judgment, nor exert epos literature
the same healthy IaIIODOO. (Hear, bear.) I know that the
liberty of the prem, has existed, or exists more or less
in many other countries of Europe ; but it has been sub.
mitted by mins circumstances, or hymnlike:al changes of
legislation, to an intermediate state of collapse or over-
ezeinenet, which too often throws it wrong ways, or at
least pevented it from having the full power for doing
goat.' (Hens hear.) Webodycan deny that the contioental
press writers have to fight with difficulties which are to be
ociesidered, enchain they have to display • degree of cheer-
fulness, and ones of courage, whirl does them
peat credit. But nothing can replace the free air
which people breathe in this happy land, and which I hops
some good wind will one day or other diffuse upon the
whole of Europe. (Hear.) For no event, no family mho-
tarmacs, no nooses of others will alter the opinion I enter-
fain on this point, and which, I may say, I have sulked
with the milk of my nurse • sad I will
,persevere in repeat-
in with the peat BMW: historian, ' Fotior periouloes
therms quieto ssrvitlo.' I prefer liberty with it dangers
to a quiet servitude. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, if I have ex-
tended myself more than I ought to have done upon some
pewter character of your present literature, my quality of
foreigner will perhaps be an excuse for a liberty which one
of your countrymen sitting hi this chair might not have
taken. However, I know well that the object of this insti-
tution is not merely English, merely literary, but, above all,
ecamepolitaa and charitable. (Cheers.) It is ant by giving
prism to essays, or conferring distinctions, that you en-
tonne, the noble literary profession. It is by charity
not • mean, noisy, or humiliating one, but • noble,
secret, and well-applied charity. (Cheer.) Your unseen
hand is always extended to help the young man in his first
and unsuccessful trial, the old one, who at the end of his
career is betrayed by his strength, the widow and the
orphan, who are left destitute by • sudden rind unforeseen
event. (Amnon) Aid you do not confine yourselves
within the precincts of these islands ; you seek everywhere
those who have fallen with honour in the great literary
contest, whether they are born in the Arctic regions or in
the barbarian weenies which extend south of the Medlin-
mean ; and when I say so Ido sot seek a mere effect of
words—l sonic of ads. (Hear, hear.) It is the greatest
privilege of those who are called to mole at these meet-
rap that your record, are open to them, and the only
drawback of the great matisfactiou which eelts from this
isepection is that your chairiaan is not allowed to disclose
what he has seen. But you practise charity is it events-
Beal way, and your left hand must not know what your
right hand has done. There is only one case of timely as-
sinuses given by the society to which I may allude, because
it has been Andy brought before the public, and brought
bythamae
tan.dvere man who was interested in it, sod this man was .
It is impossible not to feel real emo
Lion is seeing the autograph lines by which this
illestrious writer declares that without the help he bed
received from this intonation he would have been use
▪ to finish tie work called "Le Notches," the ant
which created his reputation ; so that if An misty had
not existed the glory of that great name would perhaps
have been lost for Fiance and the Belles Latina. Bat 1
sewn that after this example nothing an be added to
show what action this institution may have upon literature
and the mutual relations of unions; bat the very Dame of
your president (Lord Lansdowne) is also a symbol, for it
means absence of prejudice, high taste for art and letten,
practical liberalism, and universal Madness. (Cheers.) I
conclude, then, in drinking to the prosperity lithe Literary
Feed, sod to the heath of the president, the Marquis of
Wedowee. . . _ . .. . .

The toast was mart enthusiastically drunk.
Mr. G. GODWIN then read a list of subieeriptiosa, which
ioaluded the usual donation from her Ilsjesty, of 1001. ;
2,000 fr. from the Duke d'Aumale, 10 guineas from the
Count de Paris. asd 10 guineas from Mr. Disraeli. The
total was swirly 9001.

Mr. I.IiiiMILL, oe meg to propose " The Health of the
Chairman," was received with much cheering. He mid—
Gentlemen, the list of those who have now for MOM than
two-thirds of a sectary presided over the anniversary festi-
vals of the Royal Literary Fund is no mean roll. In it may
be found the names of many meo eminent in letters and
public life—the names of illustrious princes, end especially
the name of one prince near the throne, whose sympathy
with all that tends to the development et the bursae is-
land hes gained for him the respect et enlightened
TIMAGVIL But, gentlemen, I doubt whether our chair
has ever bees Riled udder circumstances mere intending
then thous which attach to it this day. (Chem) It is
filled by the son of ea ancient house, that has been ems.
meted for centuriee with the development of the most
brilliant and most refined of modern nations, himself the
Load deeemidnet of a great monarch whose same is is-
dissolublv connected with the moat resplendent period of
modern literature. (Cheers.) The claims of our chair-
man to-day to our sympathy and cmifidenoe do not de-
peed on the past. or oe the deeds of those who have pre-
soiled him. Those claims are present, and they are per-
sonal. (Cheers.) If it be true that the most classic order
of literary composition is that where the writer in whom
the TWA's* of action and contemplation blend is enabled
te give to us the regalia of his own experience, to describe
tile seines he has himself witnessed, sad to record the sweats
legit he has. poehspi. In sour degree himself occasioned.
then I say that oar chairmen on urge so undistinguished
claim to emigre in that department. We are indebted
totuba pen for that picture, and with which no deabt you
me familiar, et the origin sod character of that sew arm is
meant gesso witch seas to cooties the diesipline
gisepowles Win is .cd go goers When we nod this
and meg }seashore we we ascot forget that
dterw7terse
observed gee is the tented field, which he
shared, and that he dos led them to war and to victory.
My bride sad patlesee, the same pen has analysed in
amiss* Gaul age of the moot remarkable campaigns of
Omar ; and gig I may say, in language which iterary
antis geld net learsga, that be has treated a subject of

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