The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-19 00:00:00

doling 4.7‘.-zlint:

LONDON, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1849.

A farewell banquet of no inconsiderable interest
was given on Saturday evening, by the Learned
Members of the Oxford Circuit, to the distinguished
man recently elevated from the position of their
Leader to the most venerable dignity that can be
awarded in the legal profession. Very nearly ninety
persons assembled together on that occasion, in order
to evince by their attendance, and also, be sure of
that, by their enthusiastic plaudits, their affectionate
regard for Mr. Justice TALFOURD and their cordial
gratification at the reward of his abilities, the fulfil-
ment of his destiny, and the realisation of his noble
and exalted ambition. No eulogiums, we are
satisfied, were ever more heartfelt, as they certainly
were never more conspicuously deserved, than
those pronounced on the celebrated guest, at once a
poet and an orator ; nor were words of panegyric
ever more earnestly enforced by the acclamations of a
similar body of gentlemen. Although the avowed
purpose of the meeting was to proffer this genuine
tribute of respect and admiration ; and although the
appearance among those present, of such men as
lIALLAM, the historian, added lustre to the enter-
tainment, we shall not cause any surprise by saying
that the principal event of the evening was the
feeling and eloquent address in which the newly-
created Judge bade his brethren of the bar
farewell. After a career upon the Oxford cir-
cuit of no less than eight-and-twenty years'
duration—a career, too, so brilliant in its promise, and
so doubly brilliant in its consequences—it was im-
possible that a warm heart like that of Judge
TAL-
FOUED should remain unmoved by the prospect of a
foul separation, that a generous temperament like his
should continue unaffected by the ardour of his old
companions, that his susceptible nature and fervid
imagination should preserve any degree of impassable
and imperturbable stoicism when listening to so many
voices, and grasping so many hands of friendly
congratulation. His reply to the speech of his
eminent successor in the leadership of the
circuit, Mr. WHATELEY, Q.C., was perhaps one
of the most happy efforts of a speaker invariably
felicitous. The graceful and unaffected modesty with
which Judge TALFOURD spoke of his own advance-
ment, as, under DIVINE PROVIDENCE, largely attri-
butable to the encouragement of those who might be
vulgarly regarded as his jealous and captious compe-
titors ; the gentle reminiscence of his humble origin
and youthful obscurity; the genial and exhilarating
tenderness with which he called to mind the pleasant
scenes, the agreeable memories, and the kindly
thoughts blended together in his circuit associations—
envelope his speech with a charm which must even
prove potent over those who are not honoured with his
friendship. 'We know not which to prefer among his
different remembrances—that of his maiden speech
before the bar at Reading, the place of his nativity,
when, according to his own acknowledgment, he
rose with trembling and emotion—that of his quiet
sojourn among the grey cloisters and monastic edifices
of Oxford, when, lodging with some undergraduate,
he half fancied himself a student, although the great
blessing had never fallen to his lot of an university
education—that of his gradual descent into the vale
of Evesham where that perfection of an English
landscape first greeted his attention that
of his passage through the good town
of Shrewsbury, and thence by a continuous
stream of beauty to old Gloucester ; or that of each
scene becoming more and more familiarised, with his
perpetually renewing friendships, " until at last
every place in the circuit seemed like another feast
and another home, reviving scenes of half-remembered
pleasures." Prom all this fascinating volubility on
the part of Mr. Justice TALFOURD it will not be
difficult for his old associates to re
cognise that in
assuming to himself the pitiless impartiality, and the
other inexorable qualities befitting one in his vene-
rable position, his heart beats not the less warmly
under the judicial ermine • than it did of
yore
under the stuff gown of the unknown but aspiring
barrister. It is this beneficent combination of the
more lofty with the more lowly attributes of intellec-
lectual greatness and moral goodness which has so
peculiarly endeared Judge TALFOURD to those who
have been fortunate enough to be thrown into his
company; it is because the kindly eyes of a true and
genuine nature have beamed under the shadow of his
bay leaves, that his literary achievements have pro-
voked so little jealousy in opposition ; it is because the
suavity of a generous disposition and the sincerity of a
gentle deportment have been perceptible through all,
even the most impassioned of his forensic altercations,

that his removal from the leadership of his circuit is
so truly and deeply regretted even while the members
of the bar of that circuit are felicitating, themselves
upon his recent and well-merited elevation. Revert
ing to the long period of his labours over the Oxford
circuit, extending, as we have already intimated, over
no less than eight-and•twenty years, Mr. Justice
TALFOURD on Saturday remarked that that long vista
was to him " eloquent with thought and feeling and
friendship." How much of that thought, that feel-
ing, and that friendship owe their efflorescence to the
genial glow of his mind, heart, and genius it needs
not us to particularise ; but the knowledge that a
nature like his is not only fruitful in itself, but
capable of exercising a fruetifying influence over
others, must be some consolation to him now that he
is compelled to witness the diversion of old thoughts,
the rupture of old feelings, and the severance of old
friendships. Though sundered from his accustomed
companions, his spirit is still present, his name is still
cherished, and his memory will long survive amongst
the memhers of that circuit in which Judge TAD.
FOURD acquired such affectionate sentiments of
attachment, and built up so brilliant and enviable a
reputation.

The late accounts from Rome plainly discover the
arriere pensee of M. DE F ALLOU X and his coadjutors
in dispatching a French army to Rome. Their in-
tention was, that having restored the POPE, that
army should on its return to France become a nucleus
for the formation of a new army of the Faith, to stir
up civil war in France, for the restoration of the elder
branch of the BOURBONS, and of the parti-preire, and
to this end we find that no means are left untried by
the Triumvirate of Cardinals, acting in this respect
under the inspiration of the Abbe. DB FALLOU X,
who has recently been appointed by the POPE
to an office of trust, dignity, and emolument,
to shake the allegiance of the army to the Republic,
and to accustom them to Legitimatist ceremonies
and to Legitimatist emblems. As a proof of the
means employed by these Cardinals to debauch the
1 French troops, and of the gratitude which they feel
to the PRESIDENT of the French Republic for having
restored them to power, we may mention the following
incident. On the 2d of November a grand religious
ceremony was celebrated at the Church of St. Louis,
at Rome, in honour of the soldiers of the French
Republic who had fallen during the siege. At this
ceremony, all the French troops were required to
be present, and the catafalque of the dead, placed in
the centre of the church, was not unornamented, as
republican simplicity would seem to require, it was
not adorned with republican emblems as it should
have been, had it been considered that the solemnity
of the occasion required some ornament, but on the
four corners of this catafalque placed in the centre
of the church in honour of the soldiers of the
French Republic were engraved four enormous
fleurs de Lys. It might have been thought
that the humiliating position assumed by -M.
ODILON BARROT in the debate on the Roman ques-
tion, and which justly occasioned his dismissal from
office by the PRESIDENT, would have been considered
by the park-pretre as a sufficient atonement for his
former peccadilloes ; but no ! the clerical Camarilla
are outrageous against him for having ventured to
hint that the motu proprio was not all that might be
expected from the Porn. In the meantime the Porn
himself seems to be the mere puppet of ANTON ELLI and
his Camarilla, as indeed he has been ever since that
night in November, 1148, when the Bavarian Am-
bassador spirited him off to Gaeta, where, if report
speaks true, he was retained in complete captivity,
King Bomze. acting as gaoler. The poor weak-
minded man has been recently wandering between
Benevento and Portici, now promising to return
immediately to Rome, again declaring that he will
not return until the French have left the city;
at one moment proposing to place him-
self under the guardianship of the Swiss
regiments, at another blessing CORDOTA
and the Spaniards, and beseeching them to remain
for his protection. The last accounts represent
him as having announced his intention of re-entering
Rome on the 28th instant; but such is the vacillation
and indecision of his character that no dependence
can be placed upon him, and, as he has returned to '
Portici, the probability is that he may remain there
for the winter. In the meantime the priests are
carrying matters with a high hand at Rome. Dr.
ACHILLI is still incarcerated in the dungeons of the
Inquisition, and the Cardinals now openly avow that
the crime of which he is accused is that he, a Catholic
priest, abjured Romanism and embraced and preached
Protestantism, and we observe that the Catholic cor-
respondent of a morning Contemporary offers a q'uaai-
justification of the conduct of the Cardinals, although,
if the Rev. Mr. NEWMAN, a Church of England
priest, who recently abjured Protestantism and ern-
, braced and preaches Romanism, were to be impri-
soned by the authorities in this country for so doing,
that writer would, no doubt, join in the outcry
that would be set up on the occasion. The French
soldiers are in general disgusted by the constant
attendance which they are called on to give at
the ceremonies of the Romish Church, and by
their long absence from their native land, to which
they will return with a bitter remembrance of the
insults that have been heaped upon them by the
sacerdotal tyrants, whose sway they have assisted in
restoring in Rome, and with an ardent desire of
avenging them on those who would subject the fair
land of France to a similar debasing rule. Every-
thing seems to indicate that the French army will
be recalled from Rome at no distant day, and when
that day shall arrive the Romans will, no doubt, give
an excellent account of their sacerdotal oppressors.
Should the French army remain in the Eternal City
much longer, they will be compelled by circumstances
to interfere to protect the Roman people against those
priestly misgovernors who at present plunder, im-
prison, and murder them with impunity.

• .40;7, •
• wio • V44.' •••-•
Wrrifr'.);lL*
111111111 i,,.. '11.1(4;.:1111b.1.,
,c: •-'";77‘7l.lllNlip.
- • ~••• qt • OS -414.• • ' "••• -
4•lt .• • '