The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-16 00:00:00

Oxfordshire Members on Public Affairs.

OXFORD, Thursday.
Last night a grand civic banquet took place at
the Town Hall in this city. Among the guests
present were the Right Hon. E. Cardwell, M.P.,
the Right Hon. J. W. Henley, M.P., Col. North,
M.P., Colonel Fano, M.P., the Recorder of Oxford
(the Queen's Ancient Sergeant, Mr. Sergeant
Manning), the Vice-Chancellor, the High Sheriff,
the Senior Proctor, the Public Orator, the Masters
and Provosts of the various Colleges, the Mayors
of Abingdon and Woodstock, and a large number
of the principal inhabitants of the city.
The Town Hall was beautifully decorated for the
occasion.

The MAYOR (Mr. Alderman Thompson) occupied
;he chair.

After the various loyal and patriotic toasts had
been given and responded to,
The MAYOR proposed " The Health of the City
Members," which was most cordially received.
Mr. CARDWELL, on rising, was received with
loud cheers. He said—Mr, Mayor and Gentlemen,
I have been accustomed to rise and return thanks
for this toast with feelings of gratitude and joy;
but I regret to say that to-night those feelings are
allied more to sorrow than to joy, when I reflect on
the state of health of my respected colleague Mr.
Langston. Your mayor has truly said that he has
been faithful to you, and you, gentlemen, will be
faithful to those who have been so faithful, and
therefore it is that you testify towards him your
sincere respect and cordial regard. (Cheers.) For
my own part I esteem the privilege of representing
Oxford in Parliament as the highest honour to
which I can aspire, and so long as you extend to me
that privilege I will not attempt to repay you in
words only for the kindness which you have shown
to me. (Cheers.) I hope I shall never show myself
unworthy of that steadfastness of principle and
conduct which you will naturally expect from any
one whom you may select to the high honour of
representing
you in Parliament. (Cheers.) Gentle-
men, I have the pleasure to-night of sitting by the
side of the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, and I need
not remind you that in the summer of this year the
city was honoured by the visit of the Prince of
Wales, and sitting by the side of the Vice Chancel-
lor I would beg to remind this meeting that upon
that occasion I was selected as the recipient of a
high honour and mark of favour on the part of the
taken e t
University of Oxford. (Ceheeeerms.),
and That
have mark
their favour I most highly esteem,
the liberty to recur to it, not in reference to myself,
even to express the gratitude I sincerely feel to the
university, but as a proof of the connection which
exists between the university and the city. (Cheers.)
That connection is extremely valuable, and reflects
equal honour upon either party. (Cheers.) It is
impossible for us to assemble together as we have
done on the present occasion without a feeling of
wonder and gratitude at the circumstances in which
this great country is now placed. We have just
gathered in a harvest more bountiful perhaps than
any harvest in the experience of my right hon.
friend Mr. Henley, large and valuable as that expe-
rience has been, for he is, I may safely say, one of
the most experienced farmers in the county. In the
north of England, with which part of the country I
am more particularly connected, I am glad to say
that those scenes of recurring distress with which it
has
been visited are now passing away, and that
things are more promising than could have been
anticipated for the suffering county of Lancaster.
(Hear, hear.) I, for one, was always sanguine upon
this point, and believed that the trial through
which we were passing would not only be borne
with great heroism, and would result in a state of
undiminished prosperity to the country at large, but
I did not believe that we could have gone through
the first, and even two years of such a terrible cala-
mity as that which it has pleased Divine Providence
to afflict us with, and yet that the country would
present such a happy contrast to almost every
country in the world.
am sure, then, that I only
echo the sentiments of this meeting when I sax
with that
that we cannot contrast the happy position of the
British Empire at the present moment
of other countries without a sincere feeling of
gratitude to Qod for the great blessinga which