The Sun.
London, England, 1847-09-16 00:00:00

DINNER TO THE EARL OF
DALHOUSIE.

E W

NI a

On Tuesday night a public dinner was given to
the Earl of Dalhousie, in Edinburgh, on the occa-
sion of his leaving this country to undertake the
duty of Governor-General of India. The dinner
took place in the Music-hall, the walls of which
were tastefully ornamented with flags and devices
of various kinds, while the centre of the room was
lighted up with two splendid candelabras beautifully
festooned with flowers. The gallery was occupied
by the band of the 3d Dragoon Guards, who per-
formed between the different toasts, and the orchestra
was filled with a brilliant company of ladies. The
number of gentlemen who sat down to dinner was
upwards of four hundred. The chair was occupied
by his Grace the Duke of Buccleucb, who was sup-
ported on the right by the guest of the evening—
Lord Dalhousie—the Duke of Argyll, Lord Ely
bank, Lord Dunfermline, the Lord Justice-General,
Lord Dalnieny, Sir George Warrender, General
Riddell, Principal Lee ; and on the left b y the Lord
Provost, the Earl of Morton, Lord Kinnaird, the
Lord Advocate, the Honourable B. Primrose, Sir
John Hope, M.P., Sir. J. S. Richardson, Sir
David Baird, W. Gibson Craig, Esq., M.P., Hon.
and Rev. E. B. Ramsay, Dean of Edinburgh, and
Mr. Maconochie of Meadowbank. The duties of
croupier were discharged by the Earl of Rosebery,
who was supported by Lord Polwarth, the Earl of
Devon, Lord Belhaven, Lord Colville of Culross,
Lord W. Douglas, the Right Hon. Fox Maule,
M.P., Sir George Clerk, M.P., the Honourable W.
Dundas, Sir G. Montgomerie, Sir D. Wedderburn,
Sir C. Monteith, Sir H. R. Campbell, Sir Adam
Hay, Sir C. D. Ferguson, Sir G. M'Neil, the Dean
of Faculty, Sir James Forrest, Charles Cowan,
Esq., M.P., Peter Blackburn, Esq., of Killearn, &c.
After the usual loyal toasts,
The CHAIRMAN rose to propose " The health of Lord
Dalhousie." He said—lt is extremely gratifying to
me to preside as chairman on this occasion. This
meeting, gentlemen, is not one of any political party.
Politics have no business here. This mark of respect
is not given to my Noble Friend with any reference to
his political opinions ; and hence we see present a
mixture of men of all parties and opinions, to take
leave of our noble guest upon the occasion of his as-
suming
the government of one of the most important
portions of this mighty empire.—(Cheers.) Gentle-
men, this is one of those occasions of which any man
may feel justly proud. We are met to show our
respect and esteem for his private character and
worth ; and at the same time to acknowledge the
great ability which he has displayed in the discharge
of his public duties. He is not going out an un-
known man to India. He is not going out an untried
man.—(Cheers.) In private life I can speak with
confidence regarding cur noble guest, as he has for
many years been one of my most intimate friends ;
and I can safely affirm that in private life there is
no man can stand higher than he does.—(Hear.)
And, gentlemen, his public character is known to
you all. It is well known to his country, for he
has given ample evidence of his abilities in the
Senate, more especially in carrying on the business
of a most laborious executive office ; and I believe
I may say, without fear of contradiction, that no
one could deserve a higher meed of praise for the
manner in which he discharged the duties of the
office to which I have referred.—(Cheers.) Allow
me to express our warm feelings towards him, and to
hope that he will enjoy health and prosperity in the
career on which he is abeut to enter.—(Cheers.) The
government of that vast empire must be attended
with great difficulty, when even in this civilised por-
tion of the globe the duties of the government are so
onerous and difficult. His Lordship, however, has
not only to conquer the difficulties to which I have
referred, but he has this other difficulty to contend
against, namely, that his mode of administering the
affairs of that immense country will have to be com-
pared with such illustrious predecessors as Hastings,
Wellesley, Clive, and others whose memories must
be familiar to you all.— (Cheers.) He has also this
other difficulty, that he goes out with high opinions
formed of him. He will see the difficulties, how-
ever, which his predecessors encountered, and he will
know how they in some cases failed and in others
succeeded. Not only has his Lordship the difficulties
of the civil administration to attend to, but he has
also to contend with hostile foes, fighting mighty
battles, and often with but small means to do so. I
trust that he will imitate the sagacity, the perseve-
rance, and the prudence of him who immediately pre-
ceded him, and who, I trust, has laid the foundation
of a lasting peace in that mighty empire.—(Cheers.) I
trust that his Lordship may be able and qualified to
consolidate that peace, and to promote those great
social improvements which are so much needed in
that vast empire, and that after having spent that time
which may usually be expected of Governors-General
in India, he may return to his native country unim-
paired in health and strength by his arduous duties,
taxing alike both body and mind, and be received by
his old friends whom he left behind him, but whose
hearts he carried out with him.
The toast was drank with three times three, and
one cheer more.

The Earl of DALHOUSIE, who was received with
loud applause, said—lt has been my g )od fortune
upon many previous occasions in my career to receive
from friends, and from those among whom I have
lived, many most gratifying marks of the regard and
attachment which they entertained towards me, but
never until now had I a knowledge of the full measure
of friends and neighbours' kindness—never until
now had I a full knowledge of the utter hopelessness
of the attempt to make a fitting acknowledgment of
it—(Applause)—for as my Noble Friend on my
right (the Chairman) has observed, when I look about
me and see by whom 1 am surrounded, I find that it
is no party triumph, no occasion of political excite-
ment that has called forth your attachment, but that
you have met for the sole and single purpose of once
again, before I go from among you, offering me an-
other mark of that regard and esteem of which you
have so often assured me before—of tendering me
your testimony that my character as a public servant
has hitherto met with your approbation—(Applause)
—and that you desire, before I go, to breathe and
renew your good wishes for my future prosperity in
my career. When these all come upon me—when it
would seem that my foot was upon the very deck that
is to carry me away—when your voice seems as the
last cheer to waft me from the shore—and when I
know that I have a long and painful separation—
though splendid be the exile, it is an exile still—
believe me that a scene such as this knocks hard at the
door of my heart, and calls forth emotions which make
me feel as it' it were impossible that in the expression
of my gratitude there could be any exaggeration, and
makes me painfully conscious that no words can give
a fitting utterance to the real emotions of my heart.—
(Applause.) Pretty, and fanciful, and finical thanks
I would be loth to offer you. Simple thanks is all I
have to tender you ; and I do indeed thank you from
the very bottom of my heart.—(Applause.) If there
were a circumstance more gratifying to me than an•
other—more gratifying to my recollections of the
past and of my love of auld lang syne—it is that you
are met to congratulate me on my noble appointment
in the very place where I first set out on my political
career—(Great applause)—that as it is in the
city of Edinburgh you are met now, so it was
in the city of Edinburgh that I first entered on
public life., It is not so long ago but the
youngest of
you may remember that it was in the city of Edin-
burgh that my friends opened my political career.
Not to flatter you, I cannot in my conscience say
that you proved the tenderest of masters.—(Cheers
and laughter.) I must acknowledge that fairly spread
as that cradle was you rocked it somewhat roughly,
although at the time, believe me, gentlemen, you
never did any man a better turn. I recollect when an
old East Lothian voter, at whose door I stopped one

••
morning--and a cold bitter morning it was—when
setting out to canvass that county, said to me, " A
stout heart, my Lord, to a steep brae."—(Laughter.)
If at any time of my career I have shown a stout
heart, it was you of the city of Edinburgh—you
who cordially supported me, and you also who cor-
dially opposed me—who first taught me how to make
use of that stoutness.--(Applause.) I indeed be-
lieve that if you had accepted me without a contest
as your representative, I would, in all probability,
have turned out a spoiled child, and fit to be trained
fur nothing but a carpet knight.—(Great laughter
and applause.) Your treatment of me was, how-
ever, widely different—for you began by giving me an
undeniable and unmistakable thrashing—and b y giv-
ing ins the wholesome advice, that as
soon as I could
to thrash somebody else.—(Renewed laughter.) You
sent me into the world •hardy and rough, and ready
to fight anybody, until I find myself in the position in
which I am now proud to stand.—(Applause.) I have
never ceased to acknowledge, and I will never cease
to do so, that whatever may have been my success in
public life, the foundation of that success was truly
and deeply laid in the contested election for the city
of Edinburgh. I will not be guilty of the affectation
of pretending not to be able to judge of the measure
of that success. lam proud—most proud—that your
feelings should have called you together on such an
in the life of any public man as that of his
being appointed Governor-General of India. I re-
gard that appointment as one of the very noblest
which it is in the power of the Crown of England to
bestow.—(gear, hear.) And I regard it with pride
and with deep gratitude that the Company who ad-
ministers the affairs of that mighty empire should,
utterly unsolicited by me, and with but two or three
exceptions, personally unacquainted with me, have
done me the honour to have selected me to the first
office in that wondrous empire over which they rule.
—(Applause). And lam even the more proud that
4the relation which has been made should have received
'the assent of the Crown by the advice of the leaders
of that political party in the State to which I have
-always been opposed. My Noble Friend in
the chair '
justly ohser,A that this is no place for
,politics not shall I, in what lam about to Jay, per-
.

mit one word of politics to fall from my lips. The
peculiarity of the position in which I stand is, how-
ever, such that I must beg your permission to advert
for a moment in passing to the circumstances in There
that appointment took place.—(Hear, hear.) lhe
is none of youbutsvillrem
maxims emberthawt ohneetiatmhoenggrte
many wise and sagacious
soldier and statesman whose health you toasted thish;et
evening, has often in his lifetime recorded in his writ-
ings, and of which he himself, from the commence-
ment of his official life to the hour at which I speak,
is a living illustration in his constant devotion to the
service of the Crown and the interests of his country
—you will all remember that the answer which the
Duke of Wellington gave when about to be appointed
to an inferior command was, that he had eaten the
King's salt, and that he would serve the King in what-
ever capacity he might be invited to do so.—(Ap-
plause.) lam prepared to act upon that maxim. I
have always held that every public man who has once
served the Crown is hound in duty not to withhold at
a future time his services, when invited on public
grounds to do so, provided he can do so without sacri-
fice to the political opinions which he has maintained,
and which he still maintains, as sound and true in his
estimation.—(Great applause.) Twice since their
accession to power have the present confidential ad-
visers of the Crown invited me to give my advice,
co-operation, and aid to her Majesty's Government—
once as a member of the Administration, and once in
another capacity. Twice have these offers been made
to me, and twice have they been declined ; and if the
offer of the assent of the Crown to the appointment
made by the Court of Directors of the East India
Company had been accompanied by the condition
that I should give them political support or should
even observe political neutrality, I should have felt it
my duty once again to have declined.—(Great ap-
plause.) lam sure that there is not a gentleman
who sits at these tables that will not believe me when
I say that I would not consent to sacrifice any of the
political principles which I deem to be sound and pure,
even though it were to place in my hands, as it was
in this case, the administration of an empire.—(Hear.)
I hasten to add that no condition whatever was an-
nexed to this office.—(Great applause.) lam bound
to say, and even though I were not bound to say it I
would hasten to say it with pleasure and gratitude,
that it was impossible for any men to have behaved
more frankly, more confidentially, and more honour-
ably towards me than her Majesty's advisers did
throughout all this matter.—(Cheers.) When the
assurance was given me that the acceptance of this
appointment would leave me in entire and unques-
tioned possession of my own personal independence in
reference to party politics—when I was assured, as I
was promptly and unreservedly, that my acceptance
of office would establish no party claims upon me—
then I felt that I was bound to test the principle
which I entertained and had previously enunciated;
and lat once resolved to risk the misinterpretation
and misconstruction of motives—the risk and pos-
sible loss of the confidence of my old political friends ;
and in addition to this, to sacrifice, as my noble friend
has said from the chair, much personal and domestic
comfort and encroachments on my political position
in this country—even at the sacrifice of every atom
of this, I felt that I was bound, as a servant of the
Crown, to give my assistance to her Majesty's ad-
visers when I was asked to do so, and especially when
asked in times of difficulty and confusion such as
these; and lat once consented. to, serve the Com-
pany who so honourably tendered me this office ; and
I rejoice to return to the service of a Sovereign whom
I served before, and who, in the amplitude of her
goodness, had rewarded me so far beyond my deserts.
—(Great applause.) I have thought it right to make
this explanation. It is hardly necessary for me to
state that the moment that I assume the government
of India politics are unknown to me. Party politics,
above all, while I administer the government of that
kingdom, have no existence in my mind.—(Great
applause.) I feel most deeply the great and distin-
guished honour which has been imposed upon me in
the appointment which I have received ; and I am
most keenly alive to the tremendous responsibility
which has, in consequence, been conferred on me. At
times—and who marvels that it should be so?—at times
I feel a more than doubt of the sufficiency of my ca-
pacity and my experience for the gigantic task which
has been laid on my shoulders. But when I recol-
lect that I have every reason to believe that I shall
receive from those who appointed me, and from the
Ministers of the Crown, full and unreserved confidence
in the discharge of any duty; and when I recollect the
numberless able and distinguished, the numberless wise
and gallant and excellent men who crowd the ranks
of every branch of the noble service of the East In-
dia Company, I return to a feeling of confidence
that, guiding and correcting my judgment by their
advice, and leaning in well-founded confidence on
their aid and co-operation, I shall be enabled, by
God's blessing upon my administration—upon which
even in such an assembly as this, I will not be de-
terred from saying I constantly and hopefully lean
—to administer the affairs of that empire so as to
meet the approbation of those under whom I act, and
thus secure the lasting benefit, the great and perma-
nent improvement of the kingdoms and people whom
they send me to govern.—(Great applause.) Lord
Dalhousie concluded by referring to the public
dinner over which the Duke of Buccleuch presided,
which was given to his (Lord Dalhousie's) father in
Edinburgh eighteen years ago, on the occasion of his
proceeding to India to take the command of the
forces in that part of the world; and after adverting
to the pleasurable emotions which the expressions of
attachment and approval shown to his father on that
occasion called up in his breast, and to the influence
which it had in encouraging him in the discharge of
his arduous duties, said that the memory of this
evening would have a like effect upon him. No pros-
perity, however bright, should ever dazzle him to
fwrget it—no adversity, however dark, should ever ob-
scure his thoughts. They had shown him heartsome
cordiality—they had encouraged him in his task—
and had bid him heartily God speed in the course on
which he was about to enter.
The Noble Lord sat down amidst loud applause.
The CHAIRMAN then gave " Her Majesty's Minis-
ters." Their duties were arduous and their responsi-
bilities great ; and it gave him pleasure to state that
in the appointment of Lord Dalhousie to the Go-
vernor-Generalship of India, they bad shown that
they were not influenced by party feelings or predi-
lections. Ile trusted that all the difficulties of the
Ministry—and no Ministry need hope to exist in this
country without encountering difficulties—would
speedily be overcome, and that they might be enabled
so to act as to promote the honour, the interests, and
the welfare of this country.—(Cheers.)
Mr. Fox MAUL; M.P., returned thanks. Differ.
ing although many of them did in political opinion
with the Government, he believed that there was not
one among them who did not fully sympathise with
the singularly difficult task which the Government
had, in these times, in carrying on the public affairs
of the empire. He was quite sure that her Majesty's
Ministers would feel deeply the honour which had
been conferred upon them. He knew that they felt
much the support which they had received from men
of all parties when they assumed the reins of govern-
ment, with the horrors ofa famine impending, which the
bounteous hand of Providence had now been pleased to
avert.—(Applause.) He did not deny that he con-
sidered that the Government was entitled, on the
present occasion, to the thanks of all who bore the
name of Scotsmen—indeed, of all who looked with
any degree of approbation upon men selected for the
public service, independent of party polities, and re-
commended only by their talents. He viewed the
gh(.cr,aniappointmentlt,ei,utieerrsat.t)oiethh,Beoaufehtihheiswoabsl Noble
convinced Friend withth at thhee
wsincerest
)
he Governmentb thatbegged
d thha d
say,
a chosenNvas
hboi
only instance in which, independentege of political
connexions, her Majesty's Ministers had selectediltimairehtyne
for high administration : as an exemplification of which
he referred to the ease of Lord Elr,io
, who was ap-
pointed Governor of Canada.—(Cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN then gave "The Lord Provost and
Magistrates of Edinburgh."
The LORD PROVOST returned thanks on behalf of
himself and brother magistrates, and then proposed
" The Health of his Grace the Duke of Buccleuch."
The Duke of BUCCLEUCH shortly replied.
A variety of other toasts were given, and the meet-
ing broke up about twelve o'clock.

SThelN;:luloLwAilngi,F fTroßtnUEt,
hAeNDeCinAcrimlnTaAtLi It NOTiorningTßtiE.
Herald,
takes the shine off anything in the " local items" line
we have seen for many a day :—" As a gentleman was
passing along Fifth-street, he passed a place where some
boys were playing at marbles. One of them, in shoot-
ing his marble cleverly, put it under the gentleman's
foot. The gentleman slipped, and stumbled against a
lady also passing, precipitating her, along with himself,
upon a large hog, who was examining the gutter geolo-
gically for debris. The hog, frightened out of his pro-
priety, bolted off, and ran between the legs of another
gentleman, who, in falling, drew the string of a kite
from the hands of a boy. The kite of course fell, and in
falling frightened a span of horses attached to a waggon
near by. The horses ran down an alley. A man, who
was building a fire in a carpenter's shop, by which they
passed, started up to see what was the matter, and in
so doing dropped his lighted match among the shavings.
A fire was the consequence. The engines assembled,
and in the hurry consequent upon the alarm, a man fell
in the track of one of them, and had his arm broken,
which ended this budget of accidents for the day."
Quere—ls the boy who shot the marble responsible fur
all the consequent damages?
ACCIDENT AT BURNTISLAND..—On Sunday after-
noon a little boy, named Wilson, was amusing himself
at the turn-tablo at the terminus of the Edinburgh and
Northern Railway, and having succeeded in putting it
in motion, he put his foot down to check it, but the ina•
petus which it. had received twisted his foot round,
crushing it very severely, and broke his leg a little above
the ankle. Not long ago a brother of the little boy fell
ever the pier at Bruntisland, and was so in.j.qed that his
life was long despaired of.—Forth British