The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-01 00:00:00

ORN INC SUN,

learned and holy men whom she furnished to the world af,
that time, earned for her the honourable name of the Isle o '
Saints—(Cheers)—and as her population has greatly in-
creased, we are warranted in calculating that her phi-
loscplaers and saints, though occasionally a little uproari-
ous, have multiplied at least in the same proportion.—
(Great laughter and cheers.) As I have trespassed so
long upon your time, I must draw to a close by giving,
not the Rose, the Thistle, and the Shamrock. but the
Universities of Great Britain and Ireland.—(The toast

Was drunk with all the honours.)
Professor Akiscne returned thanks for the honour con-
ferred on the Universities of Great Britain and Ireland.—
(Cheers.) He was sure they all knew that their distin-
guished guest was an adept in the science of human na-
tureawhich was akin to moral philosophy. He possessed
one quality which medical men might envy—the power
of solacing and soothing the tedious hours of sickness
and disease.—(Loud cheers.) He was sure that one and
all of them were happy in having the opportunity of
Paying homage to the genius of their distinguished guest,
and of‘expressing their gratitude to him for the great
amount of innocent amusement which he had conferred
upon many thousands, he might say many millions, of
his countrymen.—(Great cheering.) .41
Mr. Crreareaas NEAVES, advocate, said, they were met
there this night to do honour to one great master in one
great department of imaginative delineation—let them
rot then forget to do justice at the same time to the sister
art of poetry.—(Cheers.) He asked the meeting to give
their tribute of applause to the names of Wordsworth,
Campbell, and Moore.—(Loud cheers.) After alluding
to the times of Shakspeare, Spencer, Waller, Cowell,
Cowper, and Burns, the Learned Gentleman said the
soil of our country in the present days .was not less pro-
ductive of poetical genius than in past times, as a proof
of which he need only mention the names of Words-
worth, Southey, Cowper, Byron, Scott, Rogers, Moore,
Campbell, Wilson—(Loud and prolonged cheers)—and
Moir—a longer list than any which had ever concen-
trated their rays in one blaze of beauty.—(Renewed
cheers.) Mr. Neaves concluded an eloquent speech, by
asking the company to drink the names of Wordsworth,
Campbell. and sloore, and the long list of contemporaries
of which their country could boast.—(The toast was
drunk with the greatest enthusiasm.)
Mr. J. T. G ORDON, in proposing the Memory of
Barbs, said, he had no feeling of sorrow—he had no
words of melancholy preface to utter, in asking a cup of
tributary respect to Robert Burns. On the contrary, it
was with a pride, which, though national, he yet knew
to be so just and true, that he exulted in it, and with an
enthusiasm which perhaps only a Scotsman could un-
derstand ; although none knowing the kindness and gen-
tleneas and at the same time the manliness of Burns,
wow appreciate that enthusiasm better than their dis-
tinguished guest. Surely it needed nothing to recom-
mend the memory of him, whose memory was as green
at that moment as the leaves were then on his own banks
of Doon, and which flowed as freely through the width
and length of the lanai as the waters of his beloved Nith.
He was it man, that would have been of mark in any
way. Born of that stalwart race—our country's honour
—inured to their hardships, accustomed to their toils, it
'night have so pleased Heaver., that he should have passed
his life the admiration of his village, for
" The might that slumbered in a peasant's arm."
But it was otherwise decreed. And when the air of
poetry :noved the latent strings in his heart, beautifully
and swela:ng mine over a whole people the straies that
showed
". The might that slumbered in a peasant's soul."
The fabled horse of old struck out with his hoof a foun-
tain from which the Muses drank ; but when this pea-
sant's plough .;.reoke the clod, the people of Scotland
soon after heard the'lark rise to the sky, and saw the
daisy droop its withaved head as they had never done he-
fore, -because they }lac; quaffed an intoxicating cup from
a well which they felt 11,111 given glory to the grass and
splendour to the ilower.--4,lpplause.) ~W ere they not
justified in the adoration alnica't approaching to idolatry
with which the people of Scot.and regarded the me-
mory of Burns ? And idolatry it
.it were, it was not
the worship of a false fire.--e Cheers.-
1-a were needless,
it were idle to enter upon the character Of Ike: Ilse on his
merits or his failings—for failings he had, since tht:Te is
no clay so purified in the furnace of earthly trial as to
be spotless. But surely if ever facility and felicity were
combined, it was in him. Not easier does the wind
shake the down from the thistle than did the stirring of
genius shake off from his soul those in many senses
numerous strains embodying the most exquisite fancy's
tenderest sentiment, and the sublimest aspirations.—
(Much applause.) But one word more. It was cer-
tainly no small praise, that even now as the world
passed, when mental cultivation was everywhere ad-
vancing, and in the race of knowledge men were, pressing
on each other's heels, amid the various,arts, and accom-
plishments, and manifold aequireeaents of our present
time, there was not a man but came back gently and
sweetly to the natural song sung by. our native bard.
The Learned Gentleman sat down amidst enthusiastic
cheering.
Mr. DICKENS said—l have the honour to be entrusted
-with a toast, the very mention of which will recommend
itself to you, I know, as one possessing no ordinary
claims to your sympathy and approbation, and the pro-
posing of which is as congenial to my wishes and feel-
ings as its acceptance must be to yours. It is the health
of our Chairman—(Loud cheering)—and coupled with
his name, I have to propose the Literature of Scotland—
a literature which he has done much to render famous
through the world ; and of which he has been for many
years—as I hope and believe that he will be for many
more—(Loud cheers)—a most brilliant and distinguished
ornament. Who can revert to the literature of the
hand of Scott and of Burns,. without having directly in
his mind, as inseparable from the subject, and foremost
in the picture, that old man of might, with his lion
heart and seeptred crutch—Cristopher North ?—(Loud
cheers.) lam glad to remember the time when I be-
lieved him to be e real, actual, veritable old gentleman—
that might be seen any day hobbling along the High-
street, with the most brilliant eye—but this is no fiction—
and the grayest hair in all the world ; who wrote not
because he cared to write—not because he cared for the
wonder and admiration of his fellow-men, but who
wrote because he could not help it—(Loud cheers)—
because there was always springing up in his mind a clear
and sparkling stream of poetry which must have vent,
and, like the glittering fountain in the fairy tale, draw
what you might was ever at its full, and never languished
even by a single drop or bubble.—(Cheers.) Ihad so
figured him in my mind, and when I saw the Professor
two days ago striding along the Parliament House, I
was disposed to take it as a personal offence—l was
-vexed to see him look so hearty—l drooped to see twenty
'Christophers in one—l began to think that Scottish life
was all lights and no shadows—(Loud cheers)—and I
began to doubt of that beautiful book to which I have
turned again and again always to find new beauties and
fresh sources of interest.—(Cheers.) It has been the
happy lot of Scotland that her great writers have loved
to exhibit her various forms, whether in scenes of soli-
tary grandeur or her simple village ways. The mighty
genius who lately departed from you was equally at
home in the wild grandeur of Highland scenery or
the burning sands of Syria, and in the low haunts of Lon-
don life ; while there is not a shepherd or a peasant who
bas not his type immortalised in the verse of him whose
hand was on the plough while his heart was with the
muse. There is not a glen or a lonely haunt in the
Highlands which has not been visited by Christopher
in his shooting-jacket, with a heart as free and wild as
the winds that swept over him. His voice has been
heard from the lonely heaths and the snow-drifts of the
mountains—in the highways of Edinburgh—and in the
caves of the Covenanters. By his genius every foot of
ground in Scotland has been pictured to the dwellers afar
off as a fairy land.—(Loud cheers.) It is difficult to follow
the Professor through all the scenes he has depicted with
such exquisite beauty, from the varied stores of his
rich and teeming
.fancy; so that the epitaph of Gold-
smith
may be applied to him, that there was no sub-
ject btat he touched, and nothing which he touched
that he did not adorn.—(Cheers.) But the literature
of Scotian d comprises other names which are familiar to
you—poets, historians, critics, all of the foremost rank.
The Learned Lord, whom I am proud to call my friend,
(Cheers)—to whom, by his fine taste and just apprecia-
tion of the beauties of an author, literature owes so
much, and to the generosity of whose nature those who
have borne high testimony—the au-
are opposed to him
thor of Matthew Wald and Adam Blair, who has lately
depicted with a vivid colouring the.. last days of the
mighty genius who departed
on the banks of the river he
loved so well—the gentleman who is present amongst
us, and who, under the signature of Delta---(Loud
cheers)—has given the world assurance of a poet, and
has raised in us- all admiration • which we would fain be
sit liberty to increase still farther by. ineethig him oftener
—these and other names are all includetrin the toast,
which we drink to do honour not to them, butao our-
sertes.—(Loud cheers.)
Professor WILSON said, this was not the first time that
he had had the honour of presiding at such a mee ti
eg ares
this, and, though sadly deficient in that energy and
live genii.* which he was said to possess; yet he mould
yield to:tuaman its that deep affection for his native land
which characterized its inhabitants ; and in allowing that
their feelings-occasionally kindled a sparkling of some-
thing like' genius in his own breast, and whieli attracted
some notice to the humble efforts he had made. In his
(Professor W.'s) own person he bad never been indiffe-
rent to the fame and reputation of others—sometimes he
had brought forth neglected merit--(Cheers)—and with
.respect to the literature of Scotland, he might be permit-
ted to say that in some departments it was distinguished
mat at this moment by some still living, and in some
only lately. They have made a most distinguished
figure, and given delineations of the national character
:that would last for ever. The names of Hamilton, of
Grant, and of Brunton (lie continued) are not li'; ely to
the forgotten. They have indeed parted from us, but
their memory is fresh and green ; and it may be said of
them, not one line they ever wrote could they have
wished to blot. They had the true genius of their
country ; they'were true to the earnestness and piety of
the religion which characterised their native land ; and
they drew mealy beautiful pictures that will last for ever.
There are two distinguished • female writers amongst us
yet—there are others—but allow me to mention the names
of Ferrier and Jotanstone.--(Cheers.) The Learned Gen-
tleman then referred. to the progress of the fine arts,
which, he said, were alt conceived and executed in the
same spirit to poetry and fiction. lie would close in a
few words, by ,-mentioning the name of his distinguished
and excellent fried, Mr. William Allan. They all knew
how adventurous leis youth was, which led him far from
his native country ; ;end they all knew that, impelled by
his adventurous spiria and genius, lie studied the man-
ners, customs, and habits of thosejwho lived in other
dimes, and that he had produced on the, canvass these
pictures of the customs and habits of those countries,
and thus made them visible to all who • had an opporta-
nity of beholding them. He likewise devoted his genius
to
themes connected with his own
.Professor concluded bycountry. The Learned
proposing
:and the Fine Arts the health of Mr. Allan
Mr. ALLAN returned leis humble arol sincere thanks
for the honour they
had done him, and expreaeati his de-