The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-02 00:00:00

foremost to open his doors to nun of all classes
and shades of opinion, and often after a
stormy debate has he welcomed to his
mansion the leadErs of the opposition
and been glad to exchange the heat and burden
of the day of strife in the political arena for the
amenities of social intercourse and the charm of
congenial intellects, This feeling imparts a chi-
valric sentiment to the rude and rough encounters
of public life, and seems to carry one back to the
days when honour was more thought of, and in-
dividuality was more prominent. Thus may
straightforward men in the prosaic days of the
nineteenth century share somewhat the noble re-
cognition of the knights of old—
_

" Of the stern joy that warriors feel
In foemen worthy of their steel."

Lord PALMERSTON also made an address at
the University, where he received the honorary
degree of LL,D. He said that the honours con
ferred ❑pon him that day were doubly grateful to
him both as regarded the present and the past.
He said that it some times occurred to one who
revisited the scenes of his youth to find himself
unknown, and the place that once was thriving
now deserted. How different from what happens
to-day, said his Lordship. He then alluded to his
connection with that city in far-oft days, in this
forcible passage :—" It is pleasing to me to revisit
this building in which during three winters I was
daily and constantly bestowing earnest attention
upon the instruction I there received. For my
own part, gentlemen, I am fairly free to confess—
to employ a word which used to be a
cant term in the House of Commons, ' I am
proud to acknowledge'—that if I have been
in any way successful in public life, if I have
been enabled to steer my course in a manner satis-
factory to my own conscience, and to meet the
general approval of my fellow- countrymen, it has
been that in those three years which I passed in
this city I was furnished by able hands with charts
and compasses, which taught me how to steer my
course, to avoid many of the dangers to which the
voyage of life is exposed, to pursue in safety that
career which I was destined to follow."
This is a pleasing interlude to the dull monotony
of the political drudgery, and the heavy burden
cares of the State which inseparably attend upon
the life of such a man as Lord PALMERSTON. Also
it might serve as an incentive to the young men
around him. "Go thou and do likewise" might
be addressed by their preceptors to those eager
spirits entering on life so live and act during a
long course of chequered years, that if here-
after you re-visit the scenes of your
youth, you may look back from the confines
of your age with satisfaction on the prospect. The
most trying test of human actions and motives, is
to return in mind at least to the days of " anld Lang
syne." Our Premier has stood this ordeal, and may
be congratulated on having so successfully acquitted
itittheli of the arduous duties that devolved upon
him, and on having exhibited a spirit worthy of a
veteran statesman full of years and honours, but as
buoyant as ever, and as reE.dy to do service to his
SOVEREIGN and his country as when, half a nen-
'ury ago, he entered on the career of public life.