The Sun.
London, England, 1831-05-02 00:00:00

ROYAL ACADEMY.

On Saturday the Members of the Royal Academy gave
their anniversary dinner, at their apartments, Somerset-
house, which was attended by a numerous assemblage of
guests of the first rank and talent, among whom were his
Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, the Lord Chancellor,
ColonialL
rd Privy
Department,, Seal, Secretaries
reptaesr•
First Lord
.' of the Treasury, President of the Council,
tn::dFoorrecignn,t..ainad.
iesideonft of the lithe
ißon
ee
r
General Commanding-in Chief, ChirfJustieta of the King'i
Renck and Counnon Pleas, Plaster of the
Chancellor, the Lord Mayor, Chtveritoe of the Bank, Master
and Warden of Dulwich College, President of the Royal
Colleges of Physicians and Surgeon,, Surveyor-General,
Field Officer in waiting. Russian, American, ifinovcrian,
Netherlands, Swedish, Danish, Brazilian, Sicilian, Bava-
rian, Ministers; Dukes of Norfolk, Somerset, Devon-
shire, Argyll ; Marquis Camden, Earls Carlisle, Cowper,
Spenoer, Bathurst, Grosven,r, Rossyln, Lotted:de, Essex,
Brownlow, Morliy, Gower; Archbishops of Canterbury
and York ; Bishops of Winchester and Llandaff; Lords
De Duristanville, Farnborough, Grantham, F. L. Gower,
Right Hon. (i. Agar Ellis, Hon. Sir Willoughby Gordon,
J. Swinburne, G. Phillips, R. Inglis, A. Carlisle, F.
Freeling, 11. Wheatley, Messrs. J. H. Gres n, T. Coke,
R. Ridley Colborne, W. Sotheby, E. R. Tunno, J. Nash,
S. Rogets, G. B. Tyndale, J. Harman, W. Well, J. Tur-
ner, Washington Irving, W. Y. Ottely, Captain Wool-
more, Rev. Mr. Bury, &c. &e. Among the toasts usually
given was the fallowing :—" The health of the noblemen
and gentlemen who have honoured us with their company
on t'lis occasion."

The LORI) CHANCELLOR returned thanks, and spoke
neatly as follows :—" Mr. President, and Gentlemen of
the Academy—Accidental circumstances having placed
me in the situation of being called to return thanks un
behalf of your guests for the honour you have ju•t don•:
them, I feel assured that in expressing the delight with
which I always assist at this periodical assemblage, I sptak
their sentiments alto, It is, indeed, nut more a display of
the triumph of the fine arts than of the deep interest which
the most distinguished classes of the community take in
their progress ; and well they may ! Of those pursuits
what has not been said, what panegyrics not pronounced,
hundreds, almost thousands, of years ago, by the most elo-
quent of tongues! That they are the ornament of pros-
perous fortune and the solace of adverse, give a 2-st to our
daily toil, and watch with us through the sleepless night,
enliven the so itude of the country, and tranquillise the
bustle and turmoil of the town ;-.-all this is true, but it
is not the whole truth. All this they do, and much more.
The Sae art• ar•e great improvers of mankind ; they are
living sources of refin•ment—the offspring indeed of ci-
vilization; but, like her of Greece, whose piety they have
so often cammemorated, nourishing the parent from whom
their existence was derived—softening and humauiz•ng
ihe characters of men--assuaging the fierceness of the
wilder passions; substituting cairn and harmless enjoyment
for more perilous excitement—maintaining the innocent
intercourse of nations, and affording one more pledge of
peace, their great patroness and protectresses she is, of all
that is most precious and most excellent among men. It
becomes us all, then, most diligenqy to to.tet• them. It
is the duty of the Government, it is the interest 'of the
coootry. No station is so exalted, no fortune so splendid,
as not to derive lustre Stout bestowing such patron tee
lot so obscure at sot to participate in the benefits thee
diffuse. And I have therefore a singular satisfaction in
being at liberty to announce to you upon this occasion that
a 2neiety of much infloriscas, over which I have the honour
to preside, and of which the object is the improvenn-nt el
all conditioou at the people, has been occupied is
turing4 u plan which has been soevessfally completed for
eztrAding the enjoyments vi the fine arts to the h►;mblest.
classes of his Majesty's subject•. Permit me to propose,
not to those I now address, but those whom from accident
I represent on the present occasion, the " health of the
President and Members of the Academy."

It is strange that the anti-Reform party its
the University a Cambridge should seket as their cham-
pions gcatkmen so devoid of politicat principle and enn-
sistency as Messrs. PE and Gotitatuttrs, who by their
sudden change of si4e ors the Catholic question bare given
the world a pretty good itloa of what is to be expected
from them, in can, they ever find their account in support-
the- cause which they at present oppose.

Wo understand, that on the termination of
tie election for Canahridge a correct list of the vote" will
be published in red and black ink, thus affutding to the
public an opportunity of judging of the sentiment+ of vac?i
individual on the great question which now agitates the •
countqr‘
The Duke and Duckett of Gi.ourevrEn will, it it Ps-
pected, leave town is's-day on a visit to their MAJSSTIL
at the Palace at Whither.