The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-20 00:00:00

[NICE SD.

,out tak. of
expressing his thanks as an Englishman- for the cor-
dial welcome he had received in every country it had
been his fortune to visit. He said "as an English-
man," bee;- was something rare in the annals of
fore:gner should travel into almost
.he Continent, and should in each
publicly to sympathise with prin-
he happened to be identified in his
.se principles being applicable, as
;bought, only to the domestic.con-
swn people —(Cheers) Without
entering on a question which even there might be
considered to embrace controverted points, he merely
submitted the fact of an Englishman being so re-
ceived abroad as a proof, at all events, that they were
enlarging the circle of their sympathies, that the
sphere in which political action was working was
widening in their day; that instead of separate nations
viewing each other with that narrow, jealous spirit
which once was mistaken for the particular patriotism,
they were becoming willing to enter into more gene-
rous calculations of their own and their neighbours'
interests; and the whole world was approaching the
time when it would, as he hoped and believed, be dis-
coverd that the interests of all were identical.—(Loud
cheers) Well, he had observed at the two extremes
of his peregrination a curious feature ; at one and the
other extreme of Europe he had found the Oriental
type predominant. In Andalusia he had perceived
the remains of the Moors, as evidenced in the dress
and habits of the inhabitants and their architecture ;
and at Moscow, the old capital of the Czars, he en-
countered the remains of the Tartars, the former
predominance of the race being testified by the same
signs, in the dress, the buildings, and the customs of
the people. At these two :imits, and, indeed, without
so direct an assimilation at such opposite points, the
reflection had perpetually been forced upon him,
"We are so similar, there is so little real difference
between us, in our moral attributes at all events so
directly the same, alike in our sympathies and our
antipathies, and having thus so palpable a cause for
union, what was it, he had wondered, that had made
this one family of man so long enemies ?"—(Cheers.)
There was a little comedy with a deep moral which
had lately been performed with great success
at Paris, entitled Faute de s'Etittndre. The
plot rested upon a series of mistakes ; the par-
ties in the scene, because they were ignorant
of the
.original intentions of each other, consummated
a variety of blunders, and were subjected to innu-
merable hardships; and at the conclusion it was dis-
covered that each might have been very happy Wane
had only known whit the other had been about.--
(Laughter.) Through all Europe he believed the
same play had been played by successive Govern-
ments, a misunderstanding being the best defence for
all the mischief they had occasioned.—((dear, hear.)
At times the comedy had become a tragedy, and
human happiness and human life had then been sacri-
ficed, simply because general ignorance prevailed of
the one common good.—(Cheers.) And, therefore,
they could only find out the means—and sometimes
in Manchester they had been vain enough to suppose
they had discovered the key of the secret—to demon-
strate to the different nations of Europe that their in-
terests were identical and universal, they would con-
fer the greatest blessing on humanity ever devised
since the creation of the world.—(Cheers.) In that
most interesting country—interesting to them all,
and with which so many of their associations of lite-
rature were connected—he meant Italy—he found a
new life springing up; and when he inquired how it
was that Italy now began to make itself heard and
felt through the rest of Europe, he had come to the
conclusion, from all he had witnessed, that the rege-
neration arose from the quiet progress of thought
and intelligence dependent upon the better educa•
tion of the people.—(Hear, hear.) He had found
that in that country great efforts had been recently
made for the education of the masses; to his asto-
nishment he had discovered that in almost every
town of 15,000 or 20,000 inhabitants, there were
established several infant schools, supported by vo-
luntary contributions and superintended by Italian
nobles. lie had even at Turin fallen in with a
school where a Marquis attended daily as director ;
joining the children in their play and riding with
them on a rocking-horse.—(Laughter.) There were
now, in Italy, as there had always been, leading
minds, great and striking individualities, in all
directions--men who had been engaged in discussing
every question of social importance; in every town
of Italy men were to be met with who took a deep
interest, not only in schools, but in prison discipline,
and all other questions affecting the moral condition
of the people. He had been especially amazed at
the number of practical people who sympathised
with their efforts and controversies in England on
the subject of political economy. Every lawyer,
every counsellor, in Italy, now studied that science
as a part of his professional education, and hence
arose the deep interest there taken on that subject in
which they had so long and so arduously engaged in
England. To this quiet, slow, and gradual influence
of the few on the many, and not to popular commo-
tions and angry outbreaks was the existing hopeful
condition ofltaly attributable. Violence and revolution
retarded progress ; and he traced to institutions which
had been everywhere founded in that country, kindred
in their characteristics to the Athenaenm, though not
exactly the same, all the improvements which had
lately arisen there.—(Hear.) lie joined with the
werthy Chairman in saying that it was by the pro-
gress of the human mind alone that Governments
could progress, or that good Governments could be
maintained at all. He agreed further with the Chair-
man in saying that in these times public opinion con-
trolled Governments ; and he would say still more
emphatically, speaking from experience, that there
was no such thing as despotism now, in the old sense
of the word—that public opinion ruled more or less
everywhere—ruled better in proportion as the people
were wise; and give him the compound ratio of in-
telligence among the people, and he would describe to
them the character of the Government, no matter
what might be its form or structure.—(Cheers.) If
they inquired from him, after his long tour, what
now recurred to his memory with the sincerest plea-
sure, he was bound to say it was Italy and the
Italians—not on account of those monumental re-
mains which demonstrated the boast of the Italians
that they had twice given civilization to the world,
but because of the enjoyment he had derived from
intercourse there with the minds of some of the
most distinguished men of the day.—(Hear, hear.)
He liked intercourse best with existing intellect ; he
passed by the aqueducts, the tombs, the columns,
and the ruins ; and among the Italians were at this
moment to he found, not indeed among the mass of
the people, but in the middle and upper classes, some
of the most amiable and accomplished and interest-
ing men now living.—(Hear, hear.) He argued that
in the present effort that was being made in Italy
they would see progress just in proportion as the
people became more and more enlightened. They
had in Italy now, as always, a first-rate natural
it h
quality n e race ; and if the people were but left
to themselves—if they but obtained that privilege
which we claimed invariably fur ourselves—if the
Italians were only permitted, unmolested, to work
out their own regeneration, he doubted not that that
same race from which civilization had twice before
proceeded to the rest of Europe, would again effect
their redemption.—(Loud cheers.) He earnestly
seconded the ads ice of the Chairman to all young men
with respect to the study of the modern languages,
and lie (Mr. Cobden) could speak feelingly tin that
topic. Oh, if he had his time over again, and were
in the beginning placed in the situation oufl
dnot
many
of the young men in that hall, he w
arrive at the age of twenty-five years a
ob-
taining the perfect mastery
of
French. German,
and Italian. Perhaps one hundred years
hence Eng-
lish
would be spoken by awithout
beings than had yet existedf
intercourse for the tea_
veiling greaterbot numberatt this
isot human
moment
French was the language o
Manchester be-
yelling Englishman
cauesefrom this part of the world would start in cheap
eciln ethveerystucodryneir of the continent ;
ani he recommend
n
he hoped, ere lung, to see the time when opera-
ttrivain3s to Paris.—(Loud cheers.) He wished to see
the
different
people of the world married instead of
those matches between princes from which spring so
much turmoil and confusion.--(Cheers.) Ile would
not deduce any more morals from his voyaging. He
had returned home, as he had set out, satisfied that
it was in institutions like the Athenaeum they could
find, not only the great distinctive character of the
English people from the whole of Europe, but that
there also they must seek, in the improvement of mind
among young men and adults, that superiority which
in some respects we did possess over the continental
nations.—(Cheers) With those nations we get the
credit cif having within ourselves the character and
spirit of associations ; how could that spirit be better
directed than to the maintenance of such institutions
as this ? They might take for granted that if they
could not co-operate successfully for such an object
they would fail in any other movement they might
undertake.—(Cheers.) He exhorted them, therefore,
to maintain this and kindred institutions on groundsses
of
p
public and private ; he had seen many ha
society and had been engaged in n
scenes of gratification, and he declared
l hhe were to look
•
honestly and conscientiously, thatf
derived
the greatest
satisfaction, he would point ?ir
back to that from w hich he hadt
iay exciting
thine
to them,
n
pursuits which
were now fortunately accessible to every member of
the Athenaeum.— (Cheers•) Ile assuredly had not
found the greatest delight in the agitating movements
He told his fellow-citizens of
of a public meetipg-
th
known were those now in the possession
he had ever
lm intercourse with intellectual
Manchester candidly, that the intensest enjoyments
f there--the ea
o- a mind, communion with the departed dead by
meansof books at his own' fireside.—(Applause.)
DI R. W. EMERSON next addressed the assembly.
His present position reminded him of au anecdote of
his :own country, When a deputation of ruined

°rid, that a
every c try of tl
find men pr red
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own country he:
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