The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-22 00:00:00

PUBLIC DINNER IN CORK TO

MR. SERGEANT MURPHY.

Oa Thursday evening the friends and admirers of Mr.
Sergeant Murphy entertained him at a magnificent din-
ner at the Imperial lintel, with a view to testify their
esteem and admiration of the high abilities of the Hon.
and Learned Gentleman, as also to /mark their strong
approbation of the admirable and Oki,- ut manner in
which he had, during the period of his representation of
the city of Cork, conducted the mercantile and other
important interests committed to his trust. All reeks,
all ',lasses, all creeds, all parties were represented ; and
mingled together in unity and Lartneny were to be, seen
the ultra Tory, the uneoinpromising repeeler, the honest
Whig, and the unflinching Radical ; no jetty diff:rence
existed ; no narrow distinction was suffered to inter-
pose. At seven o'clock precisely the. company sat down
to dinner. Francis B. Beamish, Esq , presided. The
vice-presidents were—Andrew Spearing, J.P., Thomas
H. Hewitt, John H. Burke, and Julius Besnard.
Among the letters of apology was me from Lard John
Mariners, now travelling in the south of Irelend,
After the usual loyal toasts had been duly honoured,
'The CHAIRMAN rose and, after some prefatory ob-
servations, said—Gentlemen, we are here not as a political
party.—(Hear.) It is to me highly gratifying to find so
many of my fhllow citizens, entertaining as they do, ho-
nestly and sincerely, their different political and religious
opinions, assembled in this room to pay a well-merited
compliment to a distinguished fellow citizen. He came
amongst us here not as a political man; he has been one,
and, whilst so, no one doubts that he acted the character ,
of an upright man.—(Hear, hear.) It may be permitted
to me to state that I had the high gratification of pro-
posing our distinguished guest as a representative for
his native city in the year 1841, and whilst I did so I
proposed him because I felt a confidence in the man ;
and though parties supposed, in consequence of his hay-
ing passed a great many years on the other side of the
channel, that the national feeling which ought to belong
to an Irishmen was altogether lost sight Of, the result
proved that my anticipations were correct, that my ex-
pectations were fulfilled.—(llear. hear) Gentlemen, he
was returned for your city, he filled the position of re•
presentative for four years.—(Hear, hear.) I will not
allude to any political matters ; he has ceased to be your
representative, but during the period that he filled that
position I will venture to say there is no man in the
community who will assert that he was an inefficient
member—(Hear, hear)—and whilst he supported the
political views which he professed at his elevation, he
never lost sight of the position he filled when once ele-
vated—that he was one of the representatives of the city
of Cork, and that his duty was to attend to the wants
and interests of a commercial community, without refer-
ence to party politics.—(Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, his
voice, as a party man, of course he gave with the party
whom he supported ; but in his duty as a repre-
sentative he never lost sight of the interests of those
whom he was bound to protect—the great commer-
cial body of your city.—(Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, we
never ought to forget the services of such a man, and I
cannot help believing, for I am rather railway inclined,
that there le a feeling abroad at present that such a re-
presentative, distinct from mere party politics, would be
looked to be the united voice of the people of Cork, and
that we should not be upbraided with the taunt that,
because a representative voted for this party or that, we
deprived him of his position; but when we find a man of
real and substantial merit, he should be continued in
that capacity; and that we yet may hope to see Sergeant
Murphy filling the proud position he once occupied.
—(This anticipation was responded to with enthusiasm
which no words can express, every gentleman present
exerting his voice to the best of his ability to testily his
approval of the chairman's aspiration.) Gentlemen, I
will/now give you " our distinguished townsman, Fran-
cis Stack Murphy—we feel proud of his talents and suc-
cess—we are grateful for his services while representing
our commercial community, and we hail his arrival in
Cork as affording an opportunity of tendering to him our
acknowledgments and certifying our respect and es-
teem."—(This toast was received with expressions of the
most ardent and unanimous enthusiasm, each one pre-
sent disregarding the narrow prejudices of party poli-
ties, and the petty trammels of sectarian feeling, and
vieing to do honour to the distinguished object of their
attention in the most emphatic and gratifying manner.
It was truly such an occasion as has been seldom, per-
haps never, witnessed, and which will not be readily ob-
literated from the memory of those who bad the pleasure
of participating iu its proceedings.)
Air, " lloth net a meeting like this make amends."—
(The appropriateness of this air elicited the laughter of
the company.)
Mr. Sergeant MURPHY then rose, and the acclamations
with which his name was received were renewed, and,
if possible, increased with tenfoli vigour. The bursts of
cheering were loud. prolonged, and continuous; and for
at least ten minutes there was no cessation of the enthu-
siastic demonstration of feeling that hailed the rising of
the Hon. and Learned Gentleman. When at length
order had been finally restored, Mr. Sergeant Murphy
proceeded to speak as follows:—Mr. Bearnisit and Gen-
tlemen, it would indeed be affectation in me, accustomed
as I have been by the usages of the profession to which
I have the honour to belone, as well as the Parlia-
mentary position which, by your fevieir, I enjoyed, to
say for one moment that I should bring myself to plead
guilty, under ordinary circumstances, to any feeling of
embarrassment in addressing an ordinary assemblage.
But, sir, I do feel that I am under the influence of extra-
ordinary circumstances; and I do feel that this is an
extraordinary assembly. Gentlemen, it is my duty, as
it is also my inclination, on the present occasion to avoid
all topics that might for a moment interfere to interrupt
this, which I will denominate, a night dedicated to con-
cord and harmony, and as one selected for the purpose
of paying to me a distinguished compliment.—
(Hear, hear.) Such is my intention; but it would
be an ill return if I did not, as it were, in a sort of
common feeling with you all, recapitulate to you
the years that have passed since I had the honour to
know you; the feelings I entertained, the sensations
I experienced, and make you, in fact, part and
parcel of the elevation I have derived from your
favour, and show you the impulses that agitated my
mind when I rendered you with efficiency my services.—
(Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, mine was a peculiar position.
My esteemed and excellent friend, our chairman, has
alluded to it; and I wilt not disguise from you, for I hope
it is no disgrace to an individual in my present position
to state that long, long antecedent to the period when
you honoured me with the distinguished and eleeated
position of your representative, these matters of ambition
had crossed my youthful mind, with the belief—perhaps
an idle and dreamy one—that some day I would have
the honour of representing you; and, gentlemen, lam
now proud to feel that the realisation of that which then
seemed but a dream has ere now been accomplished.—
(Hear, hear, and cheers). I felt, gentlemen, when I had
selected another land for the pursuit of my professional
duties, I tied in some measure estranged myself from the
circumstances that might lead to such a distinguished
honour had I remained amongst you; but though I felt.
so, I also felt that I had ties at home that bound me in-
separably to you; and that I could draw upon the un.
tarnished mez its of others besides my own, paltry as they
were—(No, no)—as an earnest of the sincerity of one
who was otherwise unknown to you.—(Cheers.) I be-
lieved, as far as I was concerned, I could appeal to asso
ciates amongst you, without reference to polities Or sects,
and I considered that however wayward ray path I could
still trust to the pledge of true hearts ; and I ain
proud to say that I met and received that ple lge in a
moment of, what I may term, ambitious presumption.—
(" No, no," and cheers.) When I heard of the retirement
of my excellent and esteemed friend, our chairman, I
was attending to my professional duties on circuit, in
Liverpool, I. immediately tendered my services.—(Hear.)
I felt the course I was about adopting would involve me
in deep and serious controversy ; but I had the sanction
of my own feelings, which, however insufficient my
abilities, told me my heart was in the right place, and
also that my intentions were honest.--(Gaud cheers.) I
came amongst you, and I must confess I was received
with much more welcome and cordiality than I had an-
ticipated.—(Renewed cheers.) I was vouched for, and
sincerity and rectitude guaranteed, not, I must say,
from my own merits, but by the integrity of those who
had lived long amongst you, and whose merits were
known, I am proud to say, and also appreciated by you
—(Cheers) —and I went to represent your interests in
the Legislature with a deeper sense of obligation on me
than if I had been one long known and highly trusted by
reason of long and faithful services.—(Cheers.) I am
aware that with regard to your mercantile concerns I
was ignorant ; but I also knew that I had ever, by a
mere request, an overflowing fund of information in your
intelligence and capability, and freely and generously it
war tendered to me.—(Hear.) I have been spoken of
by my excellent friend in relation tat another state of cir-
cumstances in connexion withmyself, that is with regard
to the position I hold elsewhere—in England.—(flear.)
As I said before, I knew it was a venturous thing to
leave my own country with a view to labour for the
acquirement of a station which I subsequently attained.
—(Hear, hear.) Sir, I can only say this, when I left
my country I left it impressed—thoroughly and deeply
impressed—(Hear, hear)— with the strong and warm
feeling that has ever actuated, and I hope ever
shall continue to actuate me, that I possessed a pride of
country—(Loud cheers)--and with me it was a leading
principle of my resolve and determination never to dis-
grace by any possibility the country I was leaving for
another.—(Renewed and prolonged cheering.) Sir, I
believe I had to encounter strong prejudices—but, at the
same time, prejudices not incapable of being overcome.—
(Hear, hear.) I felt, sir, that I had to come in contact
with persons less sensitive than my own countrymen ;
but yet I relied on my culture here.—(Hear, hear.) I
believed that good breeding and good manners to the
extent of a man's position were also favourable qualities.
—(Heer, hear.) I believed that a fair and hor.est exhi-
bition of any ability was a quality which in that coun-
try
(England) would not be overlooked if honestly ex-
ercised—(Hear, hear)—and, finally, I believed there
was there presented to me a guerdon of approbation and
reward for the perseverance and assiduity which I should
exercise.—(Hear, and cheers.) But if I hold a position
in that country—which indeed it would be affectation in
me to deny—(Hear, and cbeering)—to whet do I oweeit
but to the suffrages of my fellow-citizens, which enabled
me to enter that arena, which is the only one, after all,
from which distinction can spring? Yes, to those suf-
frages that placed me in the station which I occupied,
often one of antagonism with men of great distinction,

of ability and power, of min d anti intellect, such as might
well rebuke the overweening vanity of competition, un-
less the individual who waged it was thoroughly imbued
with the conviction that such competition was both use.
ffraileannad, lif Aorr:or3reaabaish,
lle.— (Hoar, and cheers.) My esteemed
has already said. as I have also
already stated, and will abide by. namely, that we are
not met for a political purpose.—(Cheers.) It will there-
fore be my duty to avoid all allusion to polities of any
sect or kind —(flear ) Bat there is one great and grand
paint on which every m,n can meet his f.-Ilow-man
without reference to sect or p .rty, namely, the ground
of oar common country.—(ll,ar, hAar, and cheers.) We
meet here no doubt imbued with feelings of an opposite
nature ; for while it is to me a source of }tortoni and
fAeasure, it is also a source of d.ep pain and sorrow to
think that at a moment when such a distinguished com-
pliment is being-paid me that I should come amongst
you at a time when our country is affording such an un-
precedented spectacle of misery as at the present she
presents. But if I feel that, I have presented to my
mind an equally great consolation ; because I have a
belief in that which has been already stated by our ex-
cellent chairman, that it is our lot to have the affairs of
this country administered by a resident nobleman, an
Irishman of practical information and honest intentions;
a nobleman whose wishes and views are conscientiously
employed to do all in his power to ameliorate the con •
dition of the people.—(Hear, and cheers.) And I
equally believe, whatever we may think here in Ireland
to the contrary, that Ireland has aroused the attention
not only of England. but of all le.urope, and that it is
itnpossibleshe can fail to call for nn interposition from
England that must have the effect of remedying her
wants and distresses.—(Hear, hear.) There are some
things in the circumstances of the present times which,
I verily believe, will have the effect that necesdty ever
imposes ; things that will teach the people ; will give
them a greater reliance on self-aependence ; will
teach them to look to that as a surer means from
whence to dedve sustenance and support, and
in the language of the toast, cause good to come
of evil, by exciting them to pursue a course of indus-
trious occupation, which in the end will prove a
blessing, teough emanating from the present
awful and disastrous visitation.—(Hear, hear.) It does
often happen that the brightest dawn will fellow the
darkest night; and out of the misery which I now
lament, as well as all in common do, I trust that such
benefit will succeed as will bring together in friendly in-
tercourse and communication all classes of men, and
teach them to combine and unite all creeds and classes
for the purposes of general and unbiassed benevolence.—
(Hear, and cheers.) I cannot suppose . that such is an
improbable conclusion to arrive at when I find here,
even in my own humble person, that there are occasions
that can combine men of all creeds, and classes, and
parties.—(Loud cheering.) I know also if there be one
cause beyond another which can give unity of sentiment
to my fellow-countrymen, it is the cause of charity and
benevolence, with the sustentation of the miserable and
distressed.—(Renewed and prolonged cheering.) Gen-
tlemen, if this be a dark picture, yet there are many
matters that give me the intensest consolation as to
future prospects.---(Hear, hear.) I have watched the
feelings of the country, in which, I may say, I have been
naturalised. I have seen the transitions of public opinion
in that country; and instead of a contemptuous allusion
to this country at present, there is a strong and powerful
feeling in the minds of all classes and parties, and they
are now beginning to see and believe that the only true
way to make England prosperous is to make Ireland
prosperous also.—(Cheering.) I believe that conviction
to be so thoroughly impressed on the minds of all states-
men, no matter what their politics, that in future, instead
of considering Ireland their greatest difficulty, as placed
in political ant Tonism with both contending sections,
they will look to it, and regard it as the knitting bond of
unity between men of all creeds, claises, and parties.—
(Hear, and loud cheers.) Think what Ireland would
be if that were effected.—(Hear, hear.) The cry or fa.
mine in Ireland last year was what got up the tocsin's
sound of free trade in England—(Hear, and cheera)—
and that awful visitation of Providence justified the en-
actment of free-trade principles, as also crowned the
efforts of that great and wise Minister who had con-
ducted them to their final acconsplishment.—(Vociferous
cheering lasted several minute:, mingled with cries of
Peel, Peel "). The misfortune of Ireland ought to
carry this lesson to the people of England of reciprocal
kindness; for, by the visitation on the food of one country
the people of the other were enabled to do that, which,
under any other circumstances. they could not have
readily effected.—(Hear, hear.) Owing to the condition
of Ireland, a free commerce has been established that
cannot fail to be the basis of great and enduring pros-
perity in both countries.—(Hear.) And I am delighted
to see that in the present day we live in times when,
thank God, the intelligence of the middle classes is not
alone repesented, but it is the very nucleus and main-
spring from which have emanated those who not only
give laws to England, but who further in France unite
all mercantile interests to hearken to the lectures of free
trade and unshackled commerce such as have rung
throughout E-tgland.—(Cheers, and cries of" Cobden.")
All this had been effected by the middle classes, and,
therefore, it was the bounden duty of England, when
hailing the great victory of free trade, lately achieved,
to ask herself if anything save the providential visitation
on this country, could have induced all sects and
parties, to have supported and acknowledged
the great principle of free commerce as the basis
of the prosperity of the kingdom ? Let her
ask that, and the conclusion she should arrive at was,
that the visitation on the Irish staple crop had precipi-
tated the result.—(Hear, hear.) All this had arisen
from our misfortunes; and though that consequence has
followed, I do believe it will be for the good of the entire
empire; and that is another reason why we should re-
joice that the darkness of the hour is passing over us.—
(Hear, and cheers.) And, allow me to say, I can fore-
see the regeneration of this country, and I do believe
that here, and united as we are and combined with
England's prosperity, she will and must come forward
to our assistance.—(Cheers.) There are many other
matters which occur to my mind that are matters of
aongratulation to us. I will avoid all political topics,
but it is not political of mo to say I feel that there is a
greater amount of nationality amongst you now than
when I last had the honour to be amenaet you.—(Cheers.)
I have been delighted to perceive that there has been a
national literature which has not only struggled into ex-
istence, but arrived'at a culminating point amongst you.
—(Holar, and cheers.) In England you have been
looked to with a feeling of interest because of the talent of
your works; and you also have shown the fruits of
the impulses of your genius in the manufacturing line;
for now the clank of the hammer of the iron ship-
builder rings en your coast, as will be mentioned in a
subsequent toast--(Hear, and loud cheering)—which
was not the ease when I was last amongst )ou.—(Hear,
hear.) In the matter of Icon ship-building—a most im-
portant element, by the way, of commerce—you are
taking a rivalry with England, and claiming by
your competition her acknowledgment of your ability.
—(Loud cheers.) I have seen matters of yours that
have done you honour since I was here last; and it is
delighting to me, and I know you will participate with
me in the feeling, when I inform you that, as regards
the profession to which I h rve the honour to belong, a
tewnsman of yours, the son of Dr. Willis, has been
lately by the most competent authorities admitted to be
the first man at the English bar.—(Loud cheers.) I
have seen in the person of a gentleman who has suc-
ceeded me in the representation of your city that which
has also been vouched to me by the highest and greatest
authority in the land, that it was not alone the publicly
expressed opinion of the late great Premier, but his ad-
mission also within the circle of private friendship and
intercourse, that your representative, Mr. M.Carthy,
made the most distinguished opening speech which that
great man, Sir Robert Peel, had recollected to have
heard for a term of thirty-five years within the walls of
St. Stephen's Chapel.—(Renewed cheering.) I have
seen, and I have known that these distinctions belong
to your city, and that they are esteemed and cherished
by your brethren at the other side, by men whose abili-
ties, I will say, it would not alone be an honour to emu-
late, but a very difficult matter indeed to attempt to
rival—(Hear, hear.) I have seen the tone of the press
of the sister kingdom changed; I have seen an extracted
respect paid to yourselves and to your efforts in every
way, whether in the walks of genius or mechanism ;
and, believe me, I was proud to see such promise given
to an earnest elevation and exaltation of the char,lcter
of the people of Ireland.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.)
I am, I repeat, delighted to believe that everything that
has been done in this country, without respect to
political influence, has emitted from that germ of
nascent spirit of which as an Irishman I must ever feel
deeply proud.—(Cheers.) All these have been matters
of consideration that have crowded on my mind, as also
matters of consideration to me as an Irishman when
separated from you, and which, I will confess, have
nerved me in my efforts in pursuit of my professional
avocations; for I reflected that, with such brilliant ex
ampler as had been set me by my countrymen, I at least
should not prove recreant to such high and exalted
teaching—(Great cheering)—and I was therefore de•
termined to uphold the honour and dignity of my coun-
try in my own person.—(Renewed cheering, that lasted
several minutes.) These, gentlemen, have been matters
of strife with me in my own mind; and, gentlemen, if I
have succeeded in overcoming them, how amply have I
been repaid, and how large is the recompense I am now
receiving at your hands!--(Cheers.) If, in the language
of the song which accompanied the toast of my name, it
was asked, " Doth not a meeting like this make
amends?" I say in reply, there are no amends to be
made to me.—(" Yes, yes,' and cheering.) I think there
exists no reason why amends should be made; and I
think I hold too high a position in your best and kindest
feelings to think for a moment that amends were neces-
sary.—(Hear, hear, and renewed cheering.) But, gentle •
men, if they were to be made, where, I ask, is the meed
of approbation which any public man has ever received
more distinguished—shall I say more sincere and heart-
felt—than the present?—(lmmense cheering.) It is not
alone " my youth's early friends" by whom I see myself
surrounded, but by men whom, in the humility of my
earlier youth, I was taught to honour and respect; by.
let me say,• the thousand and one faces that I how see
looking upon me with the recognition and recollection of
friendship and esteem, and many of whom, though op-
posed to me in political feeling, I have ever felt. proud
and happy within the varied intercourse of life and ac-
quaintance.—(Bear, hear, and loud cheers.) It is such
recollections as these that make we happy, and teach me