The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-04 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, NOV. 4, 1867.

We have certainly been fortunate in having the
dulness of the autumn season enlivened by a suc-
cession of banquets and ceremonies. At Manchester
and at Edinburgh there have been grand doings, and
the public have gladly turned from the harassing
circumstances of social life at home, and the vexa-
tious occurrences abroad to discuss on more pleas-
ing topics. On Saturday last a most interesting
affair took place, and the Freemasons' Tavern pre-
sented a brilliant spectacle on the occasion of the
complimentary dinner given to Mr. CHARLES
DICKENS, previous to his departure for America.
No pains were spared to render the arrangements
of the evening as perfect as possible, and we are
happy to say that all was most successful. The
walls of the room were decorated, and on the
panels were the various works of Mr. DICKENS in
gold letters. Lord LYTTON performed the duties
of chairman, and acquitted himself in the most
felicitous manner. In proposing the toast of the
evening the noble lord made a most interesting
speech, in which he said neither too much nor too
little. He commenced by a most ingenious
comparison between the sovereignty of the State
as represented by constitutional government, and
that other royalty of a very different kind which
does not always meet with due homage. He who
wins and adorns it has often to depart from the
sphere of his triumphs unconscious of the effects he
has produced, and of the empire his thoughts have
bequeathed to his name. " Happy is the man who
makes clear his title-deeds to the royalty of genius,
while he yet lives to enjoy the gratitude and the
reverence of those ho has subjected to his sway."
It may be observed en passant that this is more
applicable to the present race of authors, a circum-
stance which redounds greatly to the taste and
credit of the generation in which we live,
and it is no exaggeration to say that no one
living offers a better proof of it than the distin-
guished guest of Saturday. In the course of the
illustrations of his varied and vigorous discourse,
Lord LYTTON said that a Roman poet had declared
that Nature had sought to distinguish man from
the inferior animals, and gave tears and laughter as
the most special and noblest attributes of humanity.
" This humanity itself obeys an irresistible instinct
in rendering homage to all who refines it by tears
that never enfeeble, and gladdens it by a laughter
that never offends."

Mr. DICKENS Will visit no strange country in
going to America, for his works are there as fami-
liar and popular as they are here. Whatever irrita-
tion or anger may occasionally exist between our
country and that of America, it ii perfectly
true that on both sides of the Atlantic
it is a grand thought that we are related
to each other. No more potent agency brings about
that affinity of feeling than the fact that both na-
tions speak the same language. As the noble
Chairman said, " It is the one mother tongue that
their poets must sing, in which their philosophers
must reason, and their orators argue for truth or
contend for fame." Hence it follows that a writer
who is honoured alike in the Old World and in the
New must be welcome on the shores of the
far West, and his influence may serve to
dispel some of those differences, or to soften
some of those asperities which have arisen of late.
MACAULAY has said that literature has established
a tie stronger than the tie of consanguinity between
us and the commonwealths of the Valley of the
Mississippi, and how true is that forcible declara-
tion of the principles, won by the peaceful and yet
glorious agenciesof thought and feeling over the more
barbarous exploits of naval and military prowess.
Mr. DICKENS was most warmly received on rising
to make his response, and expressed his feelings in
language that was rendered the more effective from
its simplicity, and the more eloquent from its
genuineness and.earnestness. He declared, indeed,
that his welcome that night would have been a re-
proach to him had he not thought that from the
earliest days of his career he had always
striven to be true. Respecting the difficulties
that attend the path of the self-made, Mr.
DICKENS said that they had all heard a
good deal lately about the dragons that infested the
way, and of cliques, sets, coteries, and barriers that
kept one man up and held another down, but that
he could speak from experience, and say that he had
never met with them. He began to tread the path
when very young, without influence, introducer, or
adviser, and he had never experienced their in-
fluence.

Concerning his visit to America he drew a pleas-
ing picture, and adduced many potent reasons for
his visit there. A new generation has sprung up
in that mighty land since he was last there, and
some of his best-known books have been published
since then. No one can wonder that a great writer
should desire to see those who have expressed so
warm and so deep an interest in him as the Ameri-
cans have done in CHARLES DICKENS and his
works. He has accordingly relinquished for a
season the engagements and pleasures of his
home and his life among us, and will cross the seas
to find, however, beyond these seas, a new home
and new friends in those who already are familiar
with him. He will see the progress a quarter of a
century has made in that wonderful land ; he will
meet many ho wishes to see from old asso-
ciations and new ideas, and though last, not
least, he will use his best endeavours to lay down
s third cable of intercommunication between the
Old World and the New.

Some persons have been pleased to animadvert
upon various expressions that are' found in Amen--
can States," but it hardly needed Mr. DICKENS'S
disclaimer of them some years ago in the compre-
hensive words he alluded to on Saturday, that what-
ever motes his beauty eyes had described in theirs, he
knew full well that they were a kind, large-hearted,
generous, and great people. In that he expects to
return from them in the spring, and in that faith to
live and die. Mr. DICKENS most appropriately con-
cluded his expressive speech in these eloquent
words :—" If I may quote one other short sentence
from myself, let it imply all that I have left unsaid,
and yet deeply feel—let it, putting a girdle round
the earth, comprehend both sides of the At-
lantic at once in this moment. As Tiny
Tim observed, God bless us every one.' "
It was a fitting thing that a great author should