The Sun.
London, England, 1830-10-28 00:00:00

READING SCHOOL MEETING.

Last Tuesday, being the day of the .50th School
Meeting since Dr. Valpy became master of Reading
School, was appointed for presenting to him the
splendid service of plate subscribed for by his
pupils. The office of presenting the plate was as-
signed by the committee to Mr. Baron BoHand, who
was one of Dr. Valpy's earliest scholars, and who
had written the inscription, but he was prevented
from attending by the necessity of visiting some
very aged relatives in Yorkshire, and Mr. Talfourd
was requested to fill his place. The entire area of
the spacious school-room was laid out with an ele-
gant breakfast, to which 160 ladies and gentlemen
sat down at ten o'clock. Atter breakfast the plate
was arranged on the desk which has been for fifty
years occupied by Dr. Valpy at the head of the
school; the scholars of the school were all admitted
and lined the room on each side, and Mr. Talfourd
being called for, to express the feelings of the sub-
scribers, advanced to the desk and addressed Dr.
Valpy nearly as follows r---
" In the absence of your distinguished scholar, who
should have been the organ of our sentiments to-day, but
who has been detained in a distant part of the country, I
have been suddenly called to the high and unmerited
honour of representing that large body of your pupils, who
now offer to you this little token of their affection and
gratitude. In this pleasure there are more than 250
sharers,—men scattered through different parts of this and
of other countries, but all acknowledging one home of their
early hopes, loves, and joys, to which their thoughts have
often delightedly reverted, and to which they have them-
selves been ever welcomed with boundless hospitality and
unfailine. kindness :—of ages ranging through a large por-
tion of human life, yet all alike young in the vivid percep-
tion of the happy days they spent under your care ;—of far
different avocations and degrees in this world's wealth and
esteem, but all equal in that great treasure of imperishable
recollections over which its chances have no power, and in
those principles of integrity and honour which have been
instilled into them here ;—of opinions various as those of
free men will be in a free country on the greatest subjects
of speculation, but all animated by one sentiment of regard
for the institution in which they were fostered, and fur
bier who has raised and adorned it throuii .50 years. In
your kind and partial eyes (ever used to look indulgently
on our imperfect performances), this gift, we well know,
will not he esteemed lightly ; but weoffer it with un almost
painful sense how inadequate it is to betoken our feelings
towards you, and how powerless are all words to express
them. if in any place we should feel the insufficiency of
words to convey our thoughts and wishes, how must this
sense press upon our mind's, in the place where I have the
pleasure to address you I Here, all around has a silent
eloquence beyond that of words, every old familiar object
has a speech and a language ; the years long past are rush.
ing by us, and more than echoes talk along the
walls.' Here have your peaceful victories been won,
here have we shared in the blessings of an education in
which learning anti charity met together ; here have our
minds been led on, not by the straight and barren march
of intellect, butits easy, varied, and delightful journey ; here,
have we listened, on how many Sabbath evenings ! to pre-
cepts which the virtues and labours of the week exemplified,
and which fell upon tke heart of joyous and unthinking
boyhood, in tones fit to awaken its first sympathy with
human infirmity and sorrow. Here, do we hail and wel-
come you on the close of 50 years of honourable toils on
which the seal of time is already set ; and we rejoice to
believe, that here that system of instruction, in which the
charities of life are interwoven, will yet long be v:tal, or
administered by one who is endeared to us by a double tie,
as our schoolfellow and your sun ; who has emulated your
learning and your fame, and who, we trust, through warty
years will here impart to others those lessons which be
has learned so well, anti infuse into our children, and our
children's children, the principles and the feelings which
he, together with us, has drawn from his father. And
now, dear and honoured master, accept with this little
offering, our earnest wishes and prayers, that you may yet
long be spared to us ! As your season of labour has been
protracted beyond the usual period in which num is called
to work, so may your season of repose be lung and happy
Long, very long, may you live to enjoy the store of
triumphant recollections which y our active life has
gathered ! Long, very long, may you live to share in
our success, and rejoice in our joy Long, very long, may
you exult in the consciousness that you have done its much
good, that you have diffused as much happiness, and, allow
tout to add, that you have excited as much veneration and
love, as any individual of your time ! May Gad preserve
and bless you !
_

The plate consists of a set of three silver salvers,
richly chased, and an elegant soup-tureen and cover,
after the pattern of the Warwickshire vase. When
the cheering which followed Mr. Talfourd's eloquent
speech hail subsided, Dr. Valpy rose. The vene-
rable gentleman was so much affected that for some
moments he was unable to proceed.
" Great griefs," at length, he said, " are silent,--so
are peat joys. There are occasions on which the re-
membrance of friends snatched from us recurs with fresh
bitterness. Some years ago a similar tribute was paid
to that dear saint in heaven, my lamented wife. If ever
there was a woman adored by all who knew her, it was
this object of my affection. I appeal to you who knew
her, whether I hive overcharged this picture. If spirits
have any sense of what is passing below, that blessed spirit
is now hovering over you whom she loved. I do not kno.v
that I can prove that spirits of departed frimis are sensible
of our actions, but it is art idea from which I have gained
rnuct► comfort in many a trying hour. I heartily wish
those husbands and wives who hear toe, will never feel
such a privation, until they reach a ripened age. I cannot
accept this tribute of your affection without sensations
such as no language I have ever learned cuts describe. My
pilgrimage has been accompanied with many thorns, and
illuminated with some few flowers, but this is the fairest
Hower, the brightest rose that has ever Shone on toy path.
I cannot say more. You say this is a tribute of your gra-
titude, but on the present occasion, the debt of gratitude
becomes due, not trout you to tae, but from me to you.
—Dr. Valpy finished his affecting address amidst the
deafening applause of the company.
The whole scene was most impressive and affect-
ing ; almost all the company were in tears, and the
enthusiasm of the schoolboys seemed quite boundless.

A new provincial journal contains the follow-
ing phasing specimen of editorial naivete :—" How to
multiply the Mends of this paper. Speak and write of
its leading facts to your friends; try to augment file
number of its subscribers among yonr acquaintances;
communicate to its editor all the valuable information io
your own immediate neighbourhood ; and, when they are
good for any Ming the lucubrations of your own friends