The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-02 00:00:00

THE SHERIFFS' INAUGURATION

DINNER.

The inauguration banquet of the new Sheriffs, Thomas
Challis, Esq., Alderman, and Robert W. KeneardasEsq.,
took place yesterday at the London Tavern, when.up-
wards of 220 guests partook of a most magnificent enter-
tainment provided by Messrs. Bathe and Breaeh, the
liberal proprietors of the London Tavern. The dinner
was on a more than usual scale of splendeur.
The services of a rather questionab:e brass band bad
been secured, and Messrs. Hawkins, Hobbs, Lockey,
Machin, Hatton, and Gear,
enlivened the proceedings of
the evening with some admirable singing. Mr. Harker,
as toast-master, officiated in a most becoming manner.
The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor occupied the chair ;
and amongst the guests we noticed Lord J. Russell,
M.P., Mr. Masterinan, M.P., Mr. Lyall, M.P., Mr.
Hudson,
M.P., Mr. Bankes, M.P. (the Cursitor Baron),
the Lord Chief Baron, Alderman Sir C. Hunter,
Alderman Sir James Duke, Alderman Kelly, Alder-
man Hamphery, Alderman Gibbs, Alderman Thomas
Wood, Alderman Carroll, Alderman Farncotribe, Alder-
man Sir W. Magnay, Alderman Moon, Alderman
Musgrove, Alderman Hughes Hughes, Alderman Sid-
ney, the Under-Sheriffs Bayliss and Tilleard, his Excel
lency the Belgian Ambassador, M. Beauveux, the Rev.
Dr. Russell, Mr. Commissioner D. W. Harvey, Mr. D.
W. Wire, Mr. Bircham, the Master and Wardens of the
Butchers' Company, the Master and Wardens of the
Carpenters' Company, the Matter of the Haberdashers'
Company, and many other gentlemen well known and
highly respected in the city of London.
• The cloth having been removed, and the usual loyal
and national toasts having been duly proposed and
most heartily received,
The LORD MAYOR gave '° Prosperity to the Trade and
Commerce of the city of London.'
Drunk with three times three.
Mr. J. DILLON briefly responded to the toast. He
crusted that with the citizens of London commerce might
not be employed solely with the view of enriching indi-
viduals, but that it might be made an instrument in the
hands of Heaven for civilising mankind, for ameliorating
the institutions, and for improving the laws of the
country to which we belowesd.—(Cheers.) Regarding
this as the great aim of commerce, he could not but
congratulate the citizens of London upon having elected
as their representative in Parliament the Noble Lord
near him whose talents and acquirements, whose honesty
and integrity, had raised him to the proud position of
Prime Minister of this country.—(Loud cheers.)
Ur. Alderman CHALLIS (Sheriff) said, the next toast
upon the list was that of the " Right Hon. Lord John
Russell, and her Majesty's Ministers."—(Cheers.) That
was a toast which had always been received by the
citizens of London without respect of political parties,
and however desirous they might be upon the present
occasion, and however proper and suitable it might
appear to the gentlemen by whom he was surrounded to
do honour to their illustrious guest, he was sure he
should do no justice to that Noble Lord's feelings if be
were to introduce, upon the occasion of proposing his
health, any sentiment which might be likely is produce
the slightest discord.—(Cheers.) There were features,
however, connected with the circumstances in which they
were placed, and which came more immediately under the
,uperintendence of the Sheriffs, to which he might allude
without introducing any difference of opinion, and which
he thought he might advert to, because he believed that
the wise discretion and wisdom which belonged to her
Majesty's present Ministers were likely to conduct such
questions as conduced to the social advancement and
civilisation of the people to a happy and successful issue.
—(Cheers.) They were too apt to associate the word
"civilisation" only with the notions of such light and
liberty as they themselves enjoyed; but if they could be
conducted to the cells of our prisons, and thence to the
habitations of the poor, they would behold a very different
picture from that which they were in the habit of
witnessing, and they would see that their own country
and their own neighbourhoods required civilisation
and improvement.—(Loud cheers.) The question to
which he would first allude was the amelioration of the
poor-law, if not in principle, at least in its ad-
ministration, so that the witty aphorism of a late witty
member of the Church of England may not continue to
be true—that if they made the gaols too comfortable the
poor would be more ready to break in than the guilty to
break out.— (Hear, hear.) It was often his lot to see, as
an administrator of the law, that the underlings of the
poor-law system treated the poor in such a manner that
they would rather commit crimes in order to be sent to
gaol, than enter the workhouse.—(Hear, hear.) Then
With regard to the amelioration of the criminal law, he
should be glad to carry out every reasonable principle of
improvement which could be effected, everything which
could tend to make the law what it ought to be—a
praise and encouragement to them that do well, and a
terror to evil doers. Upon the question of education, he
believed he might safely say that the integrity, the
honesty, and the firmness of purpose of her Majesty's
Ministers would bear down all the petty jealousies and
prejudices which might disturb the community upon that
subject, and he trusted that they would all unite heart
and hand in carrying out some great general measure,
having for its object the education of the people. It was
not desirable that be should say-more upon that subject
in the presence of their noble guest. The efforts of his
noble friend to ameliorate the condition of the country
—his endeavours to preserve all that was sound and
admirable in the constitution, and to obliterate all that
was worthless and inimical to the liberty of the subject,
were matters of history, and would be remembered by a
grateful posterity when the feuds and animosities which
had connected themselves with those endeavours should
have been forgotten.—(Loud cheers.)
The toast was drunk with three times three and the
most unbounded applause.
Lord J. RUSSELL immediately rose, and silende having
been restored, he spoke as follows returning you
my grateful thanks for the honour you have done me I
shall not attempt to enter into any of those difficult
debateable questions to which the worthy proposer of
the toast has alluded. No doubt those top.cs are of the
utmost importance. All I will venture to assure you is,
that to those subjects on which he has touched, and to
many others relating to the welfare and prosperity of
this country, her Majesty's Ministers will give their un-
ceasing and conscientious attention, and will endeavour,
whether in administering, or in proposing measures for
legislation, to submit and to carry out such measures as
they believe to be beat calculated to promote the benefit
of the great country to which they have the honour to
belong.—(Loud cheers.) In so stating, I should say that
t is part of the duty of her Majesty's Ministers, in con-
sidering this vast empire, to convey from those parts
which are strong succour to those parts which, however
distant, are weak; and again, to carry relief from those
parts which are in a state of prosperity to those which
are unfortunately in a state of suffering and privatioa.—
(Cheers.) Of this I am convinced, that if you in this
city of London, partaking and sharing in the feeling
of the whole country, and indeed speaking the
feeling of the whole country, have a sympathy with
all parts of this great empire, then all our fellow-subjects
who live in the Queen's dominions may rely upon our
assistance in their hour of their need—may rely that we
consider them as brethren, living under the same crown,
and as having the happiness to live under the same con
stitution. And I trust that we may see extended to
other parts of the world those blessings of freedom
which we have had so long established amongst us, and
which, with the light of the Gospel, I trust, will pervade
all parts of the globe.—(Cheers.) I will only now add,
that in proposing to you the health of the Sheriffs, lam
sure, from the earnest you have already had, you will be
convinced that those gentlemen will pay the utmost
attention to the important duties which devolve upon
them.—(Cheers.) I am sure that any plans of reform
and amelioration which may come before them will re-
ceive from them the fairest consideration—the result of
an anxious desire to promote the welfare of all—of the
lowest, of the most guilty even of their species; and I
am sure that in so doing they will earn the approbation
of the citizens of London.—(Cheers.) Let us hope that
those great problems, many of which have hitherto
been hid in obscurity, but which, nevertheless, are
matters well worthy of the attention of statesmea—
matters relating to the social condition of the com-
munity—will receive such attention, that both here
and elsewhere the condition of the great mass of
mankind may be improved; that not only may our
gaols be made places of less suffering, and greater
hope of reformation, but that by more attention to the
means of instruction many may be preserved from the
guilty course on which they now outer, in utter igno-
rance of their duty both to God and man.—(Cheers.)
That ignorance you must all see does not, ought not, to
belong to this enlightened, free, and Christian country ;
but it is quite true, as your worthy sheriff has observed,
that in times of the greatest civilization, and, in a metro-
polis like this, where the greatest civilization is supposed
to prevail, yet while that very civilization la progressing,
it does, somehow or other, leave behind it in its
progress
persons among the poorer classes of society, who, as I
believe, receive less instruction, have less information,
and oftentimes live in a more miserable and degraded
state of existence, than was the case with any portion of
so forward.—(Cheers.)
centuries ago when civilization was not
is
is
now known to us all.
Let us pursue these usefnl paths ;
of improvement—let us
pursue them with the hope that we shall not only do
good to such of that description as may be amongst us,
but that other nations will strive with us in that honour-
able emulation, and that we shall seek to surpass one
another more in our endeavours to raise the community
to which we belong, than in those disastrous acts to
which, by a false notion, glory and renown have been
Attached. By so doing we may hope to have an era
before tie, riot only of future prosperity, but an era in
which we may retied theP we have done our duty to all
our fellow men—in which we have padeayouped to im-
prove their condition not only in point of wealth, but
g
have striven to raise them in that moral relation which
shall constitute our highest pride as men and Christians.
—(Cheers.) I beg leave toive you the healths of the
Sheriffs.—(Loud cheers.)
Mr. Sheriff and Alderman CHALLIS responded to the
toeet, He could assure them that they entered upon
their Office with a full appreciation of the responsibilities
which attached to it,
W4lteepr irifiggice the office
could c )11:mend should be dovetail to
peepoeee pf general
utility and practical beneficence.—(Cheers.)
Mr. Sheriff KENNARD reiterated the sentiments of hie
liFeeseteßn reward,
gf
It to
heir merit
health that
colleague, and added that it would be his greatest pleas
oapsi:ito4seqwe.l.4digiNe4ehis4lialictg
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Lord JOHN RUSSELL then gave the health of the Lord
Mayor. His Bight Honourable Friend had now served
through so great a part of the year, his merits were so
well known to them, the way in which he had performed
the duties of his office, and his munificent hospitality,
of which so many of them had partaken, were so noto-
rious in the City, that he was sure he need not say one
word more in proposing to them the health of the Lord
Mayor.—(Loud cheers.)
The Loan MAYOR expressed his extreme gratifica-
tion at the manner in which his health was received.
He had only six weeks to remain in office, and he trusted
during that period he should continue to give that satis-
faction to his fellow-citizans which up to the present
time his conduct had elicited.—(Cheers.)
Mr. Sheriff KENNARD then proposed as a toast,' The
Lord Chief Baron and the Judges."
The LORD CHIEF BARON, in responding to the toast,
remarked that he had always felt, and never more fully
than since he had had a seat on the bench, that the pure
administration of justice was mainly indebted in this
country to the large share in its administration which
belonged to the people themselves, and they might rely
upon it that it was mainly to the institution of trial by
jury that the administration of justice, both civil and
criminal, had obtained, as he believed hat it had, such
general acceptation throughout the civilised world.
—(Cheers.) As long as there was a competent appeal
by trial by jury there would not only be an enlightened,
but there must be an incorruptible administration.—
(Hear, hear.) He could not help making one remark
with respect to criminal administration. They might rely
upon it that the question of the suppression of crime did
not depend upon the manner in which they were to deal
with criminals in gaol. It depended upon the mode in
which they treated the oppressed, the poor, and the
ignorant who were not in gaol. By taking care of
those classes, and instructing them, taey would repress
crime, and would prevent the gaols heing filled. Let
them, then, as far as possible, raise the humbler classes,
give knowledge where they found ignorance, and ever
relieve where they met real distress.—(Loud cheers.)
After a number of other toasts, including the health
of the Curaitor Baron, of the Members for the City,
responded to by Mr. Masterman, of the Aldermen of
London, and of the late Sheriffs, the company separated
at a late hout