The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-31 00:00:00

ists, editors, leader-writers, and essayists ; here a
special correspondent just returned from chronicling

;he Cornish tour of the Prince of Wales ; there a

dramatic critic, wondering whether he shall get
back to London in time to drop in at the Haymar-

ket opening ; next to him a favourite actor glory-
ing in a well-earned holiday. Here was the veteran
litterateur whose ' working life' has extended over

seventy years [Charles Knight] ; there the young
men whose names are just becoming familiar to the

public ; and there also were two of the great scenic
artists [Grieve and rrelbin] who so delightfully
reproduce the views of other lands and bygone
times upon our stage. Of the party were Messrs.
Charles Dickens, John Forster, John Absolon,
Alfred Austin, Sidney Blanchard, Charles Collins,

Sterling Coyne, Peter Cunningham, Thos. Grieve,
John Hollingshead, Charles Knight, George Clowes,
Percy Fitzgerald, Godfrey Turner, John Oxenford,
Wm. Telbin, Benjamin Webster, W. H. Wills, and

Edmund Yates. Nearly all these gentlemen are mem-

berg of the Guild of Literature and Art—a society

once profanely designated The Sleeping Beauty,'
as, by some flaw in its charter, it was kept in a state
of inaction for several years. This was the society
for the benefit of which Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton
wrote ' Not so Bad as we Seem,' a play which
was first performed at Devonshire House before the
Queen, and afterwards throughout the country, by

that celebrated band of amateurs amongst whom
were to be found some of the gentlemen above-
named, with Mark Lemon and Frank Stone,
Augustus Egg and John Leech. The legally pre-
scribed period of inaction having expired, the Guild

members are now at liberty to fulfil the excellent

purpose for which they were incorporated, and they
have commenced operations by building three houses

on a piece of land generously presented to them by

Sir Bulwer Lytton, situated between the little town
of Stevenage in Hertfordshire, and the donor's an-
cestral house of Knebworth. The expedition on

Saturday was for the purpose of inspecting these
houses, which are just completed, and afterwards
of progg.",a,ing tM Knebworth, Sir Bulwer Lytton
haying invited the party to luncheon.
" After inspecting the houses," adds the Filineur,
" the company drove off to Knebworth, where they

received a cordial welcome from the owner, and

where a large party of the county gentry had

been invited to meet them. Sir Bulwer Lytton's

hospitality," adds the writer, " certainly knew

- -
no distinction of party, for amongst his guests
were the Earl and Countess Cowper and
Lady Florence Cowper, the Right Hon. William
Cowper, First Commissioner of Works, the Hon.
PI enry Cowper (Sir Bulwer Lytton's Liberal col-
league), together with Sir Minto Farquhar, Sir
Drummond Wolff, Colonel Bulwer, Mr. Henry
Bulwer, Mr. Loch, C. 8., Mr. Charles Kent, and
a great many ladies," together with a large num-
ber of other guests, most of them connected
with the principal families of Hertfordshire.
The visitors—including amongst them, thus, not
only the members of the Guild, but representa-
tives of most of the chief families of the county—on
arriving passed through the house on to the terrace,
thence wandering through the gardens, which are laid
out with exquisite taste, and are so arranged
that at every turn some new charm surprises the
visitor. The principal apartments were subse-
quently visited, and after spending some time in
looking at the pictures and articles of virtu with
which they are filled, the company repaired to the
grand old banquetting hall, draped with the ban-
ners of successive generations of the Lyttons, where
a sumptuous luncheon was served.
Large as:this;banqueting-hall of Knebworth is, it
was hardly large enough to contain the crowd who
pressed into it for the luncheon. Here--standing
upon a chair at the upper end of the Hall, in the
midst of the densely thronged assemblage—an as-
semblage amounting altogether to about two hun-
dred—Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton proposed, in the
following graceful and eloquent terms, most grade-
fully and eloquently delivered, the toast of the
day !
Ladies and Gentlemen, he said, Unaccustomed as I have
beento public speaking, especially during the last four weeks
—(laughter)—l rely upon your indulgence for the few words
with which I shall preface the toast I am about to invite
you to drink. Some amongst you may remember that this
old hall was once turned into a stage for the performance
of one of Ben Jonson's comedies, in which play several
gentlemen of the county took parts, in company with a guest
of mine here present whose name is "household words" "all
the yearround." (Laughter and cheers.) It was on that oc-
casion that the idea was started of establishing a sort of
literary guild or brotherhood, which might tend to bring
scholars and artists, and men of letters, more familiarly toge-
ther, and secure to learning and genius, when bowed
down by old age or poverty, some modest independence
and honourable refuge, attended not by ministerial pat-
ronage nor by the alms of the begging hat, but by the
respectful sympathy of our own fellow labourers.
(Cheers.) Well, in order to get the necessary funds for
the commencement of this scheme it was agreed that one
of the party should.write a play, the faults of which were
redeemed by the excellent acting and by the distinguished
names of the artists and authors who performed it. Out
of the profits of that play—so performed—we were enabled
to erect that building which some amongst you may have
seen in the neighbourhood of Stevenage, and which we
flatter ourselves does honour to the artist who has planned
it. (Cheers.) That building comprises three homes for
artists, or scholars, or men of letters, modest in themselves,
but still of a character that gentlemen may inhabit, and
with each of those houses we are enabled to bestow a small
but assured annuity. That building is now finished—Mr.
Charles Dickens and other friends and members of the
Guild have come down to-day to inspect it—(hear, hear)
—and now I come to the toast which I wish to propose to
you. I invite you to drink "Prosperity to the Guild of
Literature and Art," coupling with the name of a man who
has taken a most effective part in its formation, and whose
visit to our county upon an occasion connected with that
literature of which he is so resplendent an ornament is an
honour to ourselves we must all greet, and an event we
shall all remember—(cheers)—the name of a man whose
writings are equally the delight of the scholar and theyarti-
zan, whose creations dwell in our hearts as familiarly and
as fondly as if they were our own kinsfolk, and who has
united unrivalled mastery over the laughter and the tears
of millions with as gentle and as sweet a philosophy as
ever made the passions move at the command of virtue.
(Cheers.) Ladies and Gentlemen, I now invite you
to drink " Prosperity to the Guild of Literature and Art,"
coupling with the name of our illustrious visitor and
fellow-countryman— Charles Dickens ! (Loud cheers.)
The toast was drunk with great cordiality. ,
Mr. Charles Dickens, stepping immediately after-
wards on to the chair upon which Sir Bulwer
Lytton had but a moment before been standing,
then responded to that Toast as follow :
Ladies and Gentlemen—lt was said by a very sagacious
person, whose authority I am quite sure my friend of many
years will not impugn, seeing that he was named
Augustus Tomlinson, and was the guide, philosopher, and
friend of Paul Clifford—it was said by that remarkable
man, " Life is short, why should speeches be long ?"
(laughter)—an aphorism so sensible under all circumstances,
but particularly under these circumstances, with such de-
licious weather and such charming gardens near at hand, and
the rather because my friend's remarks have been, as his
speeches always are, quite exhaustive of the subject in
hand, and not the least exhaustive of his audience. (A
laugh.) In thanking you for the toast with which you
have done me the honour—an honour I very much prize—
of associating my name, allow me to correct an omission
which my friend has fallen into, and to assure you of
what his modesty prevented him from mentioning, that
these houses in question would never have been built, could
never have been built, but by his zealous and valuable co-
operation—(cheers) ; and also that the pleasant labour out
of which they arose would certainly have lost one of its
greatest charms and one of its strongest impulses if it had
lost his ever ready sympathy with that class in which he
has risen to the foremost rank, and of which he is the
highest ornament. (Cheers.) Having said this much as
simply due to my friend, I can only say on behalf of my
associates that the ladies and gentlemen whom we shall
invite to occupy these houses will never be placed in
them as being under any social disadvantage. They will
be invited to accept them as artists receiving a mark of
respect and an assurance of high consideration from some
of their fellow-workers. They will be invited to occupy
them as artists who, we hope, will often exercise their
calling within those walls for the general advantage,
and they will also claim on equal terms the hospitality of
your generous and hospitable neighbour. Having thanked
you on behalf of my brothers and sisters—for ladies be-
come members of the Guild—and myself, I am sure I may
take the liberty of giving utteraLce to your feelings not
less than to my own in proposing health, long life, and
prosperity to our distinguished lost. (Cheers.) You all
know very well that when the life and beauty
now, overflowing this hall shall have passed out of exist-
ence, crowds of people, not yet born, will come here to see
where he lived and wrote (Cheers.) Setting aside the
orator and statesman—for, happily, we know no party here
but this agreeable party-4laughter)—you know very well
that he is a very great man—whose connexion with Hert-
fordshire every other county in England will envy for
many a long year to come. (Cheers.) You know very
Well that when this hall is at, its darkest and emptiest, you-

can make it, when you please, at its brightest and fullest by
peopling it with the creatures of his brilliant fancy.
(Cheers.) Let us all wish that there may be many more of
them—the more there are the better we shall be, and—as he
always excels himself—the better they will be. Now, ladies
and gentlemen, pray listen to their praises and not to mine,
and let them, and not me, propose his health. (Cheers.)

The toast having received from all present an
enthusiastic reception, Sir Edward briefly re-
turned thanks, at the close of his remarks
suggesting that the young ladies and gentle-
men present, with all those who liked dancing, should
adjourn to the gardens outside, where, he ex-
pressed a hope, they would find some amusement !
A hope realised to the full by a joyous concourse,
who, until the sun went down, enjoyed el fresco
quadrilles, waltzes, and Sir Roger de Coverlies iu
the green pleasaunce of a quaint old bowling-
green surrounded by walls of luxuriant holly-hedge
—the music of the dance being performed by Mr.
Godfrey's matchless band of the Grenadier Guards.
And so ended—late on Saturday—the happy day
passed at Knebworth by the two hundred partici-
pators in Sir Bulwer Lytton's hospitality.

Mr. Charles Dickens and the rest of the founders
of the Guild may now, surely, be regarded as hav-
ing done their part of the work, leaving thereby a
substantial legacy to literature and art, which
admits of almost any amount of expansion here-
after.

CANADA.

QUEBEC, JULY 21.

A petition to the Governor-General has been
circulating through Canada asking an investigation
regarding the statement of the Federal Consul-
General at Detroit at the Convention respecting the
Reciprocity Treaty. It is alleged that the Consul
has, during his residence in Canada, been engaged
in secret efforts to procure the annexation of that
country to the United States.

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