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

•.--„
SOIREE OF THE MANCHESTER

ATHEN2E UM.
MANCHESTER, FRIDA.T.—The annual soiree of the
Manchester Athenaeum was held last night in the
Free Trade Hall, under the able presidency of
Archibald Alison, Esq., F.R.S., E., &c., the eminent
historian. The attendance was not so numerous as
upon past occasions, a circumstance attributable
solely to commercial depression, and not to any
Abatement of public interest in the institution. The
large size of the hall had the effect of making the
asse Dblage appear a smaller one than it was in reality.
The platform was pretty fully occupied. The gal-
leries were not by any means crowded, and there
was ample space on some of the back seats in the
body of the hall. Still there were not fewer
than 1,700 or 1,800 persons present—a large number,
considering the limitation mainly to members of the
instution, and the state of the times. The seats in
-he body of the hall were so arranged that those in
the side compartments converged towards the plat-
form, and thus the faces of all the assembly were
turned toward the speakers. A quadrille band was
stationed at the end of the hall, opposite to the plat-
form.

Besides the distinguished President, there were
among the invited guests Mr. Cobden, M.P. The
moment the Honourable Gentleman was seen upon
ail platform, this being his first appearance before a
public assembly after more than twelve months' ab-
sence from England, long and loud cheering, rever-
berating from all parts of the hall, welcomed him to
his fellow-citizens of Manchester. There were also
present Mr. Etnerson, the essayist, from Concord,
America; Dr. Bowring, M.P., Mr. George Cruik-
shank, Viscount Brackley; M.P., Mr. W. H. Ains-
worth, Mr. Blackwood, publisher of the magazine, and
other well-known characters.
Notes of apology for absence were read from the
Rev. G. R. Gleig, Mr. John M'Gregor, M.P., Hon.
C. P. Villiers, M.P.. Mr. Milner Gibson, M.P. Mr.
Brotherton, M.P., the Rev. the Dean of Manchester,
and the Bishop elect, whose letter is to the following
effect :

" King Edward's School, Birmingham,
November 13.
" Sir,—l beg leave to acknowledge, with thanks,
the favour of your letter received this morning. For
the:expressions of goodwill personally to myself which
it contains, I feel obliged, and trust the issue of My
future connexion with the town of Manchester will
prove it to be my most sincere and earnest endeavour
that I may merit them.
" You will oblige me by communicating to the
directors of the Manchester Athenaeum my thanks for
the great honour they haie done me, by the invita-
tion to their annual soirée, and my regret that I shall
be unable to accept it. The nature of my engage-
ments here is so uncertain, and the various calls upon
my time so pressing at the present moment, that I do
not feel at liberty to undertake a duty I may be un-
able to fulfil, however much my wishes may incline
me to do it.
" I trust I shall at no time be found indifferent to
the claims of any institution, having for its object the
diffusion of sound knowledge and cultivation of taste.
You will much oblige me if, when quite convenient,
you will forward to me a copy of the rules or bye-
laws of the Manchester Athenmum, that I may give
them, as I am fully desirous to do, the best attention
in my power.
I have the honour to be, Sir, your faithful servant,
" JAMES PRINCE LEE.
" F. Robinson, Esq., Honorary Secretary to
the Manchester Athenwum."
The other absent apologists were Mr. James Prior
and Mr. G. L. Craik.
The CHAIRMAN then addressed the meeting, and
was loudly applauded on rising. Ladies and Gen-
tlemen--When I look around me on this magnificent
assembly—when I recollect that it is, as it were, the
heart and soul of Manchester itself, the centre of the
commercial greatness of England —when I call to
mind the splendid eloquence with which you have
been addressed from this place, I know not whether
feelings of pride or humility should be uppermost in
my bosom ; of pride that your directors have deemed
me worthy to succeed the many eminent men who
have already filled this chair; of humility that I
should be in most respects so unworthy to occupy their
place. When I reflect on the graphic powers and
touching pathos which have made the works of Dickens
known wherever the English language is spoken
throughout the earth—when I recollect the brilliant
eloquence and caustic energy which have rendered
Disraeli the object of admiration alike in the senate
and the nation—when I call to mind the flashes of
genius which glance like reflected sunbeans from the
impetuous stream of Sergeant Talfourd's eloquence,
and the graceful oratory and generous sentiments
which, more even than his high descent, add lustre to
the name of Morpeth, I feel at once what a distinc-
tion is conferred, and a responsibility is imposed, by
the chair, in which the too flattering kindness of the
directors of this institution has now placed me.
Among the many reasons for admiring the choice
which the directors have made of my predecessors,
it is not the least that it evinces so marked a supe-
riority to all the distinctions of opinion and party,
demonstrating that you regard literature in its
noblest aspect, that of a great republic, the members
of which should have only one object—the discovery
of truth; who should feel no rival, but the rivalty of
doing good; and no enmity but against the enemies
of humanity.—(Cheers.) In one respect only I feel
that I have some title to occupy this place—in one
particular only I may perhaps be of service to some
of those who hear me. Though known to y,ou
chiefly, if not entirely, by my writings, I am, not
in reality a literary man. Literature has been the
delight, but it has not been the occupation of my life,
and the works which have procured me the high
honour which I now enjoy have been but the amuse-
ment of evenings, after days spent in the discharge of
laborious duties.—(Cheers.) I can thus speak from
my own experience of the possibility of uniting
business and literature. I can tell you from personal
knowledge of the solace it affords to a life of labour,
and how it forms, as it were a link between the
active and speculative world. I may perhaps possess
one qualification for addressing. an institution which
aims at uniting the energy of commercial enterprise
with the refinements of literary thought. Tt ere is
another circumstance which renders the honour now
conferred in a peculiar manner grateful to me, and
which I hope I may be forgiven for alluding to. I
have lived so long in Scotland that it is gene-
rally believed that I belong to that country ;
but, though my ancestors were Scotch, I was
not born to the north of the Tweed, and when
your kindness recalled me to this country, it
recalled me to the land of my birth.—(Applause.)
I was born at no great distance from this city, in the
neighbouring county of Shropshire'. My earliest re-
collection of the paternal home is of the solitude and
seclusion of an English parsonage-house, and if any-
thing I have since done has rendered me worthy of
your favour, it is owing to the example I then saw,
and the precepts I then received. Nor has the long
period which has since intervened weakened the re-
collections of infancy ; not a long sojourn among the
mountains of Scotland, not the grandeur of the Alps,
nor the beauty of the Appenines, have been able to
dim the vision of its surpassing loveliness. I still see
in dear vision the Severn stealing through its grassy
meads, the storied summits of the Caerdoc and Law-
ley, the woods of Acton Burnell Hill sleeping on
their placid lakes; the Wrekin, arising in solitary
majesty; the sun setting behind the ridge of Cader
Idris.—(Cheers.) I see that the names I have men-
tioned are as household words to many who hear Me;
but if they are so to y'ou what must they be to me
who am recalled to their, vicinity after an absence of
so many years, to fill a place which the descendant of
the Howards was proud to occupy ? Interesting as
such assemblies as this must be at all times, and in
all places, there is something peculiarly
appropriate for them in a great commercial
city such as Manchester. There is a natural
connexion which has made itself manifest in every
age between commerce and intellectual eminence ;
and the greatest steps in human improvement, the
greatest marvels of human exertions, have arisen from
their combination. It was to the commercial city of
Tyre that we owe the invention of letters —that won-
derful and almost superhuman discovery, which'first
gave permanence to the creations of thought, and
sends forth the "winged words" of genius to make
the circuit of the globe, and charm while it endures.
It was its fortunate situation on the highway from
Asia to Europe, since re-opened by British enterprise,
which gave its early celebrity and enduring fame to
ancient Egypt; and we owe to the caravans of the
desert, more even than to the power of the Pharaohs,
those wonderful structures, the Pyramids of Cairo and
Temples of Luxor, which, after the lapse of four thou-
sand years, ,still stand "erect and unshaken above the
floods of the Nile."

" Turn over to the land,
Where on the /Evan shore a city stands,

Built nobly—pure the air, and lig-ht the soil;
Athens ! the eye of Greece, mother of arts,
And eloquence."
and we shall find that the genius, the taste, and the
fancy which have rendered the city of Minerva hn-
mortal—which have caused its name, after the lapse
of two thousand years, to• be adopted by an institu-
tion animated by a similar spirit in a distant and then
barbarous land—was owing to the combined efforts