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

011ening

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1847

Another—the fifth—of the annual soirees of the
Manchester Athenwum attested yesterday evening
the continued success of that remarkable and most
interesting institution. Eloquence has again streamed
from the lips of another—its fifth--chairman ; but it
is no longer the eloquence of the novelist, the senator,
the barrister, or the statesman, it is the scholastic
oratory and picturesque rhetoric of a distinguished
lining historian. We cannot but admire the impar-
tiality of selection which has hitherto imparted such
a beautiful dissimilarity to the different anniversaries
of the foundation of the Athenaeum. Political parti-
sanship has in no manner influenced those to whom
this privilege of selection has been entrusted. The
literary reputation of the individual has from its
very commencement been regarded as the only qua-
lification, and the fraternal sentiments inspired by the
republican spirit of literature, have, for the
time being, extinguished all the qualms of
faction, and all the isolating predilections of clique.
The Genius of humanity has exercised his undisputed
sovereignty over the hearts and imaginations of the
Muhaul?, without the most shadowy distinction of
class, of policy, or of religion. His footsteps have
been followed successively by those who had already
acquired celebrity, the one by the pungency of his
satiric wit, the other by the poesy of his declamation,
and the other by the unaffected grace of his intelli-
gence, and the alluring suavity of his disposition. It
was but just, therefore, that the chair of the Man-
chester Athenaeum should be occupied, on its fifth
anniversary, by one worthy in every particular of
following such predecessors. After the hearts of the
auditory had been stirred by the magic language
of those four gifted and impassioned orators,
it was but reasonable that another should be looked
for possessing intellectual powers of compatible emi-
nence. Bearing in mind the inimitable characteristics
of the writings of CHARLES DICKENS, and the en-
nobling principles of brotherly love inculcated by
him with such an irresistible combination of drollery
and tenderness—remembering the caustic sarcasm
which is the predominating embellishment of the
Parliamentary orations and political novels of Dis-
RAELl—recollecting, moreover, the dramatic and
forensic genius of T.&LFOURD, and the union of so
many accomplishments and of so much spontaneous
gentleness in the person of Lord MORPETII, it was
essential that no ordinary man should be chosen as
their successor, or otherwise that the character of the
assemblage would for this year be eclipsed. By in-
viting Professor ALISON to the presidency of the
Athenaeum the difficulties of the alternative were
obviated.

Supposing even that the principal advantage result-
ing from this admirable institution were the periodi-
cal congregation of distinguished men in the Free-
Trade Hall at Manchester, it would be eminently
deserving of eulogium, seeing that the annual soiree
of the Athenaeum has heretofore rendered their minds
subservient to the interests of the population. It
has conduced to the fraternization of solitary genius
and collective mediocrity. It has brought into
acquaintanceship the moral labourers d
sical labourers of the age—the people and the phy-
their
teachers—the wisdom of the closet, and the ignorance
of the mart. If only in this, it has been beneficial,
for it has aided the course of popular education by