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

' something which I shall be glad to look back upon in
after life. Therefore I kept to my purpose, notwith-
standing that towards the conclusion of the story, I
daily received 'scores -of letters of remonstrance,- espe-
cially from the ladies—God bless them "for their tender
mercies—the Professor was quite right when he said
that I had not reached •to an ddequale • delineation of
their virtues ; and I fear that I must go on blotting
their characters in endeavoilrino• .to reach the ideal I
'have in my mind.-(Cheers.) These letters were, how-
ever, combined with others- from the sterner" sex, and
some of them were not altogether free from personal 1
in-
vective. But notwithstanding I kept to my pu se ;
and lam happy to know that many of those who •a rst
condemned me are now foremost in their approb ion.
If I have made a mistake in detaining you with this
little incident, I do not regret having done so ; for your
kindness has given me such a confidence in you that
the fault is yours and not mine. I come once more to
thank you ; and here I am in difficulty again. The dis-
tinction you have conferred upon me is one which I
never hoped, and of which I never dared to dream. That
it is one which I shall never forget, and that while I live
I shall be proud of its remembrance, you must well
know. I believe I shall never hear the name of this
noble capital Of Scotland without a thrill of gratitude
and pleasure. I shall love while I have life her people,
her hills, and her houses, and even the very stones of
her streets ; and if in the future works which may lie
before me you should discern—God grant you may—a
brighter spirit and a clearer wit, I pray you to refer it
back to this night, and point to that as a Scottish pas-
sage for ever more.—(Loud cheers.) I thank you again
and again for the honour you have done me, and I drink
to you all with a heart as full as my glass, and far less
easily emptied, I assure you.—(Great laughter and
cheering.)
The CHAIRMAN then gave " The Lord Provost and
Magistrates of the City," which was acknowledged by
the Lord Provost. -

The CROUPIER then rose and said, I beg leave to
begin the few observations which I have now to lay be,
fore you, by repeating a remark of the Chairman, which
must have struck every one as well founded-aI mean as: • • '
to the peculiar time which has been chosen to receive
our distinguished guest at a public entertainment. His -
visit to Scotland necessarily fixed the period. But even- *"
had there been no other reason, I presume to think the
time has been happily chosen, because, in these days of
turmoil, we can all meet here, not merely as in a truce,
but on the common ground of generous sympathy and
admiration ; for our illustrious guest has struck a
chord to which every generous bosom must respond.
—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) Although the toast as-
signed to me is, I am sorry to say, a memory, it is not
a inesiory of that kind which is likely to interfere
with those feelings of generous enthusiasm and admira-
tion which throb in the heart not only of every Scots-
man, but of every man of sentiment and feeling. The
time has now passed away, when the memory of Scott
should be received with saddened brow. It is now un-
necessary to receive the annunciation of this toast with
the stifled murmur of the muffled drum. It should ra-
ther be sounded by the loudest blasts of the trumpet of
fame, re-echoed by every rock of his native land.—
(Great applause.) We return after the lapse of time to
the nomination of that great man, as the worshipper of
nature revisits the scenes of his early association—
" Unwearied in that service,
Rather say with warmer love—
Oh, with far deeper zeal of holier love."—(Cheers.)
Of the merits or Scott, it would be presumptuous and idle
for any man to talk at the present time. When he arose,
although the soil had yielded some fruit in literature
and science—although we could boast of Robertson, and
Hume, and Smith—although we could point to one
wondrous boy, who, in glory and in joy, had followed
his plough upon the mountain side—(Applause)—still
the rugged soil was but ill cultivated. It was left for
Scott, however, to make of our ragged rocks a blooming
garden, "in which immortal amaranths and palms
abound." By the power of his early poetry he drew
aside the veil by which our misty mountains were
concealed from the eye of the stranger. As a writer
he roused .the noblest sentiments of the chivalry of
the olden time. As a delineator of Scottish charac-
ter, he has made all our virtues, all our follies, and
' perhaps our vices—but with a kindly hand, open and
known to the world. If, however, it be idle to praise him
as a writer, it is still more idle to speak of him as a pri-
vate individual in his " own romantic town." That
great and good man, who had spread benevolence and
kindness around him, has been lost, not only to the so-
ciety of Edinburgh, but to the world. His spirit, how-
ever, still lives amongst us—it hovers over us at this
hour. With a dissection perhaps unexampled, all his
thoughts and actions have been laid bare to the world ;
and has he not stood the test ?—(Cheers.) Of all his qua-
lities, perhaps his generosity of character, and his utter
want of jealousy of the works of others, were the most
remarkable. With what enthusiasm and cordiality
would the author of Waverley have hailed the ad-
vent of the author of the " Pickwick Papers."—(Great
applause.) With what delight would the author of
" Kenilworth " have greeted the author of " Oliver
Twist ;" and with what keenness would he have looked
with his piercing eye to see " Humphrey's Clock " about
to strike aenin.-(Hear, hear.) To compare Mr. Dickens
with Sir Walter Scott would be to insult both your un-
standings and his own taste and feelings. But this at
least I will say, that he is a faithful follower in the same
path. His writings are characterised throughout by the
same fresh and ceaseless admiration of external nature,
the same kind and generous sympathy with all the
noblest and best feelings of the- human heart,
the same tenderness and truth, and the .same
powerful and quick. ilisPriminationof character. It would
indeed be delightful to see brmight together some of
theithest creation, I should ju.sl—lila tirsee -nssesiabled
in one association Caleb ITalderstonerakaking hands with
Sammy Weller—(Laughter)—Davy Gellatly jumping
with delight to meet his brother Barhaby Rudge; and
to observe with what sympathy and kindly affection.
poor Jeanie Deans would have looked upon the unfor-
tunate Nelly.—(Loud and tremendous cheering.) Or
to take another illustration in a comic vein, if he
could have got a peep into Do-the-Boy's Hall, can you
have any doubt that Dominie Sampson would have
exclaimed " Prodigious!"—(Great laughter.) This, it may
be said, is a strange way of proposing a memory; but
I am sure you will all beleve it proceeds from no want
of respect for the glorious name of Scott. Such a feel-
ing can exist in the breast of no one, least of all in that
of any individual whose pride it is to have taken by the
hand the most illustrious man of his age and country.
Let us imitate him at least in the spirit of genuine hospi-
tality, in the admiration of genius from whatever quarter
it comes, and in veneration for all that is good and
great. I know not whether the toast should be drank
in solemn silence or with acclamation ; but I think it
will not check the enthusiasm with which it has been
received should some of my friends comply with my re-
quest of following it up by the heart-stirring glee of
Roderick Vich Alpine Dhu.—(The toast was then drank
with applause ; alter which a party of gentlemen com-
plied with Mr. Robertson's request.)
Mr. ADAM BLACK, who, on rising, was loudly cheered,
said—Mr. Chairman, the subject which has been en-
trusted to me is one of such boundless extent, and
reaches so far back into the dark recesses of antiquity,
that it might have deterred even a learned doctor from
making it the theme of a toast. I suppose, however,
the Committee thought that a member of that craft
which has been said to drink their wine out of the skulls
of the learned, was bound on this occasion to attempt to
acknowledge his obligations to his benefactors, by giving
the " Universities of Great Britain and Ireland."—(Loud
cheers.) But it is not particular classes only that have
been benefited by the Universities of our country. The
benign influence of literature and science and morality
has flowed from them through all the ramifications of
society, advancing civilization, promoting the arts, and
elevating the character of the country.—(Cheers.) The
venerable Universities of Oxford and Cambridge can
boast of having continued diffusing the light of science
for 200 years before the earliest of our Scottish Univer-
sities was founded.---(Cheers.) To Oxford belongs the
transcendent glory of having educated, and placed in the
Chair of Divinity the man who shook to its foundations
the spiritual despotism which then enthralled Europe,
and who first opened the fountains of Divine truth to
his countrymen by translating the Scriptures into the
mother tongue—the intrepid Wickliffe—in defence of
what he considered truth, braved that power before
nieectriso.n)
\Tv hhiec the
ips rd dneisvte or
sfiot
iuers Kin
rneg se
nqtui
taliel nailed.—(Lod oo
e uddi sct
of more magnificent colleges, more wealthy endowments,
and and a greater host of learnedProfessorsfraonm and
alumni
ignorance or
' but
I hope I shall be excused if, eithere preference national partiality, I give the
re-
cent and less richly endoweds Universities of Scotland%
i
especially to that which the
rite to the more
pride of our own city,
•
Chairman—(Loud cheering)-and
in other name; illustri-
ous
the world of literature,
not only Britain, but in
which numbers among its professors our distinguished
.vho have raised its reputation to the
sion of great men, which have been oe:npi, d by a iricees-
and the chairs of
—(Cheering.) Nature hits
genial climate and a fruitful soil—
denied to Scotland a
highest pitch, to be transmitted, we trust, with undimi-
nished lustre to future ages.
ted by the educational
advantages Universities, which have
but she has been richly compensa
advantages of her schools
stations of the highest responsAility
so as to fit them for
department,
raised the character and intelligence of her inhabitants.
in every and they are found in every quarter
of the globe promoting their own respectability,
practical meet's of
the science and literature derived
from our educational
institutions.—(Loud
benefiting the human race by
cheering.) lt is the
glory of the
Scottish Universities, that they are open to
; that
none are excluded by sectarian tests—that the terms
of admission are so easy as to render them accessible to
he humble ranks—that the sons of the small farmer
and the mechanic are seen to vie with the sons of the
wealthy landlord and the Peer for University distinctions
—(Cheers)—that the prejudice of caste—of gownsmen
and townsmen—is almost unknown ; that the students
and the other sections of the population are so blended
together, as not only to live on friendly terms, but, by
reciprocating their information, so that the benefits of
the University are spread among the other members of
the community.—(Renewed cheers.) We find Robi-
son, when a student at the University of Glasgow, con-
sulting with Watt, the mechanic,—each assisting tlye
other in bringing to maturity the wondrous inventions
which are nowgaining such incalculable rower over mat-
ter, and promoting to such an astonishing extr_nt the
commercial pursuits of the world—an extent, which is
yet unknown.—(Protracted cheers.) But I fear that if
I have the honour of speaking in the presence of any
natives of the Emerald Isle, that they may complain that
I have not done justice to Ireland.--(Hear, hear.) I
beg, however, to assure you, Sir, that if lam to blame
on this head, it is not intentional, but solely because I
cannot do her that justice which she deserves.—
(Cheers.) If she possesses but one University, and
that only acquired about four centuries after the esta-
blishment of the great English Colleges, yet her histo-
rians claim for her the honour of having been the Uni-
versity of Europe during the early ages of Christianity,
and the claims are not unfounded. ; for the number o