The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-06 00:00:00

BANQUET TO THE HON. MR. ING_ERSOLL,
THE AMERICAN MINISTER.

The Hon. J. R. Ingersoll, who succeeds Mr. Abbott
Lawrence, as American Minister to the British Court,
was entertained at a splendid banquet on Monday even-
ing, given by the American 'Chamber of Commerce, at
the Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool. Sixty gentlemen, in-
cluding the Earls of Derby and Sefton, sat down to
dinner, the chair being occupied by Mr. Eyre Evans.
After the usual loyal toasts had been given,
The CHAIRMIN proposed " The health of tb e Presi-
dent of the United States." (Cheers.)
The Hon. J. R. INGERSOLL briefly returned thanks.
The CHAIRMAN said he had now arrived ,at -what, in
banquet phraseology, was called 'the toast of .the even-
ing. It was, " The health of his Excellency the Hon.
Mr. R. Ingersoll, ambassador from the United States to
the Court of St. James's." (Vehement cheering.)
The toast was drunk with loud applause.
The Hon. Mr. INGERSOLL, in responding to the toast,
spoke nearly as follows :—Mr. President, my lords and
gentlemen, a public compliment in England is altogether
welcome. It is especially so in Liverpool, because it
sounds like home, and comes near to the heart of an
American. (Hear, hear.) I accepted it with the utmost
gratitude—l receive it on behalf of my country, and I
return it cordially in behalf of that country and of my
very humble self. We are in the midst of Liverpool.
Our hosts are the American Chamber of Commerce of
Liverpool ; their guests' are i dik die ushed noblemen,
officers, military and civil, ands they enlightene:d gentle
men. Both are representatives of a social, a. political,
and a commercial principle—they grow out of the close
intercourse of two great nations. (Applause.) Wherever
Liverpool has led the way towards the existence of a
general feeling which I must say I have had the happi-
ness to meet in this country wherever I' have had the
happiness to be, of kindness and goodwill towards my
country, and Liverpool has a right to lead in almost
everything—it is equally to be rejoiced at, for the cause
and effect. If, however, it has happened that the
sentiment throughout the country and the sentiment in
Liverpool are each but the echo of the other, it amounts
to the same thing, and both are welcome. Liverpool might
be called, it would not be doing injustice to the other
places which might put in claims for it, the Queen of the
Ocean, entitled to wear the crown, entitled to wield the
trident of Neptune, not as the sceptre of war, but as an
emblem and instrument of marine power of peace and
harmony. (Loud applause.) The great metropolis of
the country, which for ages has stood unrivalled in her
relations, might put in her claims. Our own city of
New York, which stands with her long arms stretched
out to reach towards Liverpool, might also advance some
claim to a similar position. But Liverpool has done
much towards such a result. Here she stands upon the
very edge of English ground, with her magniiicent docks
pushed into the very waters- of the ocean, ready to send
out her freights, with the course of every descending
sun, to the now not distant land, and to receive appro-
priate returns. But Liverpool is not merely a place
which commerce departs and to which commerce re-
turns. Her inhabitants are in the habit of calling her a
seaport, with great modesty, as if the seaport were the
great characteristic that belonged to her. It is true that
she is a noble seaport—that she has done everything al-
most which can be conceived, is doing it as its popula-
tion advances and its wealth increases, for the purpose
of making this, her seaport, if not the first, as near
as may be the very first, in the world. (Loud applause.)
It is at present, I believe, the largest for exporting com-
merce. But independent of all that, Liverpool does
herself great injustice if she does not pride herself upon
her domestic and internal arrangements. (Hear.) The
seaport is but the gate to a magnificent town—it is the
opening to the hospitality, and wealth, and all the
elegancies of polished life . Your architecture is as
chased as your public institutions areliberal and charita-
ble. (Applause.) Your docks, which I have had the
honour to visit to-day under the best of auspices, that of
the Mayor of Liverpool—(applause),—are amongst the
most magnificent works that can be conceived ; but if I
were to specify an object which struck me this morning
as especially entitled to the respect and consideration of
a stranger, it would be that public libragyrwhere yours
men were drawn off from the haunts of vice, from theg
tendency to dissipation, from possible evil company, by
occupying their minds with every sort of proper amuse-
ment and instruction. (Applause.) A tribute of this
kind is due for the hospitality received and the kindness
manifested ; but it is not exactly what I want to bring to
the consideration of this company, that is, that in Liver-
pool there is the best opportunity of cultivating that kind
of good feeling already referred to, which begins in the
spirit mentioned by the chairman, and may, perhaps,
terminate in the same Anglo-Saxon feeling which one
day, in defence of constitutional liberty, may call us,
shoulder to shoulder, in the defence of our common and
equal rights—(applause);—it is, that the stranger, com-
ing from my native land, reaches first the port of Liver-
pool, derives his first impressions here—makes his first
and fine pasturages, and the robust population, and the
ac-
quaintances here. Before he passe
ability, and wisdom, and patriotism which he will find
s on to the green fields,
in the interior, he has seen all that is wise, benevolent,
and charitable in Liverpool --it is that at last, after
paying his visit to this blissful and blessed land, he re-
turns to his own country through the town ofLiverpool, and
carries with him those last impressions, which are likely
to be the strongest, to his own country, to his own
friends, to his own family, and to his own people. (Ap-
plause!) Mr. President, it is the circumstance of form-
ing associations such as that to which I have alluded,
and of giving them force and influence during our con-
tinuance in this country, which give rise to the occasions
which have taken place, some of late, some of weeks,
months, or years ago, which I will call for a moment
to the attention of all who listen to
me,
reciprocated, and with a zeal and feel which have been
feeling which I trust
never will be forgotten, either on the
part of those who
receive or communicate them. On the 19th of June last,
in the river Congo, on the coast of Africa, an American
brig ran aground. She was beset
bY about'3,ooo savages,
who with their hideous yells, armed with muskets,
sabres, and bayonets, and fortified with ropes and
ladders, were about ascending the vessel ; and when
every individual on board would have been massacred,
her Majesty's brig Dolphin, Pprnallanded by Lieut, Wood,
came first to the rescue Of 'this vessel. 'He sent a can-
nonade on board, threw shell -Amon the Approaching
fol-
lowed by' which burst and dispersed them.
the Firefly, Commander
savages
Seymour, who gave like
He was
aid, and, with the assistance of these two vessels, 3,000
irtiimeevlyeryassoisnteanes, wouldshe have
savages were dispersed, the American brig got off, and,
hacebrukntvo°b:lll"haged I h
edeilmmiieate .these L
T. since I have been
-.4,ets. to the Foreign
beenasiapnb Department,
rht
neodtgmel
ascteanrnp resumeodtt ay:
with the thanks.of the
President of the
United States. This is one side of the picture ;in Liver-
pool you have recently been made acquainted with ano-
ther. As the American mail steamer, the Pacific, was
making her voyage from New York to Liverpool,' she
took a somewhat northern passage, and encountered a
vessel at sea waterlogged, quite helpless, loaded with
timber, and therefore in no danger of sinking, but in
danger of going to pieces. The sea Was so rough that it
was impossible at the moment to send a boat to her, and
it is likely those individuals would have perished-16
Britons—but they were in the presence of Americans,
who stood near, if necessary, to sacrifice their lives in
the attempt at succour. They remained six hours in the
neighbourhood of the vessel ; found it then possible to
p
send a safety boat down ; arrived at the James Stephens ;
she who were on their
brought them
;and
which exist
delighted
n took
safety
voyageaofee l ky
on board
to
tho
e assist—restored
tN—Glasgow—ands thesor
ew,
to
rilte6dm
whomisthev Britons,ourer
fellow-citizens were
a 1
l' and
these dible cir-
cumstances, friendly as they are—brotherly as they un-
doubtedly are—may be aided most materially by cir-
cumstances of intervening interest% which undoubtedly
exist between eethnetsheectiwrcoamcosutanntricees ;enfidarest it is proper, there-
fore,s
between brothers and friends, more than strangers,
should also be noticed. It is within the recollection of
some individuals now living that the first parcel of cot-
ton from America was brought, I believe, into this port.
blteetnookgrsoowmne
in
nime
America.be
for
etheThe people believed that it had
little parcel has since
grown to 3,000,000 bales a year. England received two-
thirds of this quantity, or 2,000,000 bales, and our own
country consumes the rest. This is one bond of union.
(Applause.) We have 19,000 vessels engaged in the
traffic between the two countries, amounting to about
3,000,000 of tonnage—by which vessels, which are the
transporters of every species of commerce between the
and we are as near astwithstandmg that the Atlantic
rolls between us. (Applause.)
it is possible to be, no
one country and the other, a bridge is almost built be-
tween one country and the other,
But there' are other
capitalists—
we men of enterprise. Your capital, the accumulation
sometimes of generations of hereditary
imes of labeoaulrtehd indus-
try,some-
sources of interested intercourse. You are
times of prudent economy, 9
here, and the one and the
our enterprise seeks capital
assistance and advantage, and
other are thus a mutual
of goodwill. These are
which tend to foster the best
couple
seeks investment on throther side of the Atlantic ;
some of the circumstances which us together ,
ties—
but there are other circumstances—more important

" Which round the hut are woun',
And cannot, will not be undone."

Our daughters aro married to your sons—our sons are
married to your daughters. A constant communica-
tion between these countries of affection, blood, and
marriage subsists, and thus the ties are rendered almost
sacred—(applause)—to break them would be like intro-
ducing commotion, disturbance, and civil war the
worst of wars, into either of our countries, on the one