The Sun.
London, England, 1840-06-23 00:00:00

origin, as demonstrated by the very great and useful purposes to I
which it has been magnificently and consistently contributory--
-)Cheers.) England is great, noble, and glorious, but without
the press England could not be great, noble, and glorious as she
has been, as she is, and, I trust in God, as she will never cease
to be. Those who concur in that sentiment—and where is the
man that can dissent from it ?—will feel a deep interest in the sus-
tainment of this admirable institution. The labourers in that
less conspicuous, but surpassingly useful department of political
literature confer upon the country obligations incalculably large.—
(Loud cheers.) But many, too many of them meet with a fate
very different from their deserts. It is often the fortune, of
men of high attainments and of cultivated minds, struck down and
paralyzed by sudden malady, their mental faculties benumbed by
the touch of age, to be reduced to privations to which misfortune
has exposed them. Men of high intellect, it is true, have the.
highest zest for enjoyment, but they are the noon who have also the
deepest pains.—(Hear, hear.) I was struck with an expression—
a phrase taken from Otway—uttered by Mr. Thornton in the
course of his statement with respect to the financial condition of
men of talent. He used the phrase " aspiring thoughts." It was
taken from Otway :
Tell me why, good Heaven,
Thou mad'st me what I am, with all the spirit,
Aspiring thoughts, and elegant desires,
That till the happiest man ? Ali! rather why,
Base-minded, dull, and Gt to carry burdens,
Didst thou not form me sordid as my fate?
Why have I sense to know the curse that's on me

Is this just dealing, nature?"
—;Cheers.) These words were written by one who drew from his
heart. It is fur the purpose of saving men like Otway from the
miseries he sustained that this institution has been established ; and
that it may succeed, to the God of genius. of literature, and bene-
volence, I offer my devoutest a4pirations.—(Enthusiastic and pro-
tracted cheering.)
" The Tarantula," by Signor F. Lablache. . .

Mr. Donn, the Treasurer, then read the donation and subscrip-
tion lists received at this anniversary festival, which amounted
to many hundred pounds. Amongst the names we caught were
the Marquis of Normanby, 10/. ; the Earl of Lonsdale, 101. ;
Simon Grey, Esq., 5/. ; a friend and ed,tor, 20/. ; Wynn Ellis,
Esq., 51. ; H. T. Hope, Esq., 101. ; Mr. Justice Erskine, 101. ;
Mr. W. Attwood, 5/. ; J. Whiting, Esq., 5 guineas ; the Attor-
ney-General, 10 guineas; the Earl of Liverpool, 51.; G. L. Blunt,
Esq., 51. ; Alderman Harmer, 10 guineas; S. Bellamy, Esq., Si. ;
Sir M. A. Shee, 3 guineas ; Lord Sando,i, 5 guineas ; Henry
Kemble, Esq., 10 guineas; Sir Moses Montefiore, 5 guineas ; Vis-
count Strangford, 5 guineas ; T. B. Estcourt, Esq., 10 guineas; It.
Gordon, Esq., 5 guineas ; T. N. Talfourd, Esq., 5 guineas ; Sir
William Follett, 51.; G. H. Ward, Esq., 51.; Gordon, Esq.,
3/. ; More O'Ferrall, Esq., 51. ; nichd. Thornton, Esq., 5/. ; Al-
derman Thomas Johnson, 3/. ; J. Murray, Esq., 10 guineas ;
B. Bond Cabbell, Esq., 10 guineas ; It. L. Shell, Esq., 51. ;
Percival W. Banks, Esq., 5/. ; Colonel Yorke, 5 guineas ; William
Wire, FAq., 10 guineas; Dr. Rolfe, '2 guineas ; the Hon. T. Den.
man, 61. 10s., M. D. Hill, Esq., 5 guineas ; T. M. Gibson, Esq.,
5/.; Charles Hindley, Esq., 201.; James Coppock, Esq., 51. ; Dr.
Croly, 1 guinea; Lord F. Egerton, 2 guineas; Mrs. Waylett, an-
nually, 1 guinea; Henry Colburn, Esq., 10 guineas ; Charles
Williams, Esq., '2 guineas annually; Mrs. Anderson and Children,
5 guineas; Miss Lewis, 1 guinea; Mrs. Henderson, 1 guinea; Mr.
Blount, Governer of the Chelsea Water Works, in addition to
201., 5/. ; Dr. Rolph, from Canada, 2 guineas ; Mr. Smalley, of the
Morning Advertiser office, 5 guineas ; J. Marrett, Esq., 2 guineas,
&c., &c. ; many of the above formed the second and third subscrip.
tions of the parties.
Mr. PcisclYAL BANKS—My Lord and Gentlemen, one more toast
remains to be given—one snore bumper—the sweetest, if
not the last, remains to be quaffed. To me the honourable
duty of proposing that toast has been entrusted. For-
tunately, it requires neither the abilitity to recommend nor the
eloquence to adorn which has been displayed by the preceding
speakers. Its own merits are so bright and so pe-
culiar that your hearts will have leaped to reoognise it ere my lips
can pronounce " the Ladies."—(Cheers.) But perhaps upon a
solemn occasion like the present, when we are assembled in the
name of charity, I may be permitted to add a very few words. I
will not detain you by any panegyric upon the graces and perfec-
tions of womankind; not that I admit the theme is exhausted,
even for me—not that you would entertain it coldly ; but because
I think their best celebration, and that which their hearts would
most desire, is in that silence which is born of admiration! Nor
will I dwell upon that devotedness of affection evinced by woman
In the several relations of life, which leaves us her debtor from the
cradle to the grave—a devotedness of affection which, in its purity
and intensity, draws nearest the Divine love ; for it clings to its
object not alone during the ordinary calamities of our career—not
alone after we have been abandoned by all the world beside, but in
the spirit of heavenly mercy it winds itself around the sinner, even
after he has fallen from himself, and can assume a voice in the
language of the poet, saying—
" I know not, I care not if guilt's in thy heart,
But I know that I love thee whatever thou art."

I propose not, then, gentlemen, to delay you upon subjects like
these, which are rather matters of feeling than of speech—they lie
too deep for words ! But here are we now elated with the enjoy.
ment of all those things which lend enchantment to the blithest
hours of our existence—the refreshment that strengthens—the
wine that maketh glad—the breath of oratory—the voice
of song—the Influence of beauty; but so far from wrapping
up ourselves in measureless content—so far from sharing the
churlish philosophy of that heathen upon which Lucretius has
wasted such a noble genius—so far from gaining a zest to our own
secure pleasures by the spectacle of the dangers, the struggles, the
sufferings of others, I do well believe that, on the contrary, our
feelings and impulses bid us only turn the more warmly and the
more earnestly to the consideration of the less happy lot of fel.
low mortals, and of the means whereby some portion of the bless.
ings granted to ourselves, may be imparted in the shape of necessa-
ries, and if possible, of comforts, to those who need them.—(Cheers.}
Can I then--can I, gentlemen, speaking in your name, re.
(rain from pouring forth our most fervent acknowledgments to
the ladies who have shed the light of their countenances
upon this day, and by their presence afforded us the most fa-
vourable omen—the most gracious guarantee of the success—the
enduring and increasing success—of those efforts in which we
are engaged ? If, speaking of the human form, Lord Bacon was
right in declaring it the noblest temple to the Divinity, with
equal justice might it be, perhaps, observed that woman is the
chosen embodiment and representative of charity arid loving.
kindness upon earth ; and that these are found always and every-
where in her heart. The shrine may vary in its outward form
and colour; it may be decked, as it were, with exquisite loveliness,
or it may be pitiably rude, but within it is still the same—the
same whether it be reared in the snows of Lapland or the Ara-
bian desert—the wigwam of the Indian, or the palace of an Eu-
ropean king: Neither poverty nor barbarism can block up its
approaches—nor can wealth nor ►uxury—nor the excess of civi.
lization—desecrate its ever.living purity. The unanimous testi.
mony of travellers declares that in regions the most inhospitable
and savage—where in the men there was no mercy, and scarcely
a feeling to distinguish them from the beasts of prey—yet amongst
the women they found--
"Pity, and tears, and tenderness."