The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-20 00:00:00

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BANQUET AT THE 111ANSION-HOUSE.

Last evening the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress
a distinguished company
the Mansion-house. The Duke
accepted an invitation, but at
about 200. The band of the Coldstream
and a party of vocalists, under the
E. Ball, were in attendance. The
in
the
Egyptian
Academy and
gyplastlti
ma no
moment
tm was a t
of Cambridge had
toaststhe jo‘frwma:lyrre:
guests numbered
directionstream Guards,
entertained the members of the
ee
prevented from attending.
' given, General ICnollys responding
and Lord Dello for the Vpo
1
bishop of York, whose name was
House of Lords, referred to the ,rit•
IbleenturhencietitCtcllytihTr7wl
no nursery for nteera• The Arch,
coupled with ;be
;otsnetobtalstidasosrea;blei°;ostricise.w hi:I:::
nbly, and in which
certainly young speakers, its f 'et:
civility being far more discouraging than hor-rii'tid
and clamour of the stormiest public meetings,Y.
Although, however, it was at present doing; little
partly because but little was expected of it, .d
partly from faults in its constitution which ai.
might
be easily rerneclied,•he hoped that these criticisnls
would bring out latent talent, and that its place in
the estimation of the country would
not be per-
manently affected. The Lord Mayor next proposed
,
" Lord Stanley and the House of Commons ' re-
marking that, thanks to his Lordship's administra-
tion
of foreign affairs, a terrible war had been rvented, and that England had never stood so pwelle
with foreign countries as now. Lord Stanley, who
was warmly cheered, remarked that as his experi-
ohniding usual o r
ence of the House of Commons (and he had now
been a member of it 19 years) increased, the higher
his estimation of it became—not merely for its .
integrity and honesty of purpose, qualities not so
rare in this country as to call for special
cow,.
mendation, but for its judgment, sagacity, r,nd
common sense. He knew no assembly in, the
world where a man was more secure of a hearing for
his opinions, whether popular or unpopular, pro-
vided he had reasons for holding them, and there
was no body which more quickly or unerringly-
discerned which of its speakers were worth hear-
ing and which were not. Like every such assem-
bly it contained four classes— members who had
something to say, and who could and would say its
well ; those, a very numerous class, who had often
a great deal that they might say, but who could. not
or did not like to say it publicly, though they ren-
dered valuable service in forming and guiding
opinion ; those who had nothing to say and who
said nothing ; and those who, having nothing to
say, said it on many occasions and at considerable
length. This fourth class, he was happy to think,
was very limited in point of numbers. Adverting
to the Reform Bill, Lord Stanley expressed a con-
fident hope that the moral and social characteristics
of the house would be little affected by the change,
for the traditions of centuries were not swept away
in a few months or years. The great majority of
its members would still have nothing to hope and
nothing to fear either from the Crown or the people,
and it was a great satisfaction to think that there had
never been so complete a union of feelings
and interests as subsisted at the • present
moment between the landed and the
mercantile and manufacturing classes. A
constitutional change was naturally attended
with some anxiety, but the house had played a great
and useful part in the history, not only of England,
but of the world, and he believed that, come what
might, its power and influence were not likely to
be diminished. The toast of the evening, " The
health of the President and Members of the Royal
Academy," followed, in acknowledging which Sir
F. Grant adverted to the obligations of art to the
merchant princes of Venice and Antwerp, and last,
but not least, of the city of London. The Academy,
he added, had never been in a more flourishing po-
sition, and while it had long adopted the ballot it
had recently passed a Reform Bill in some respects
more advanced than that now being discussed in
i Parliament, female students now being admitted to
its school, and a prize in an important class being
i carried off last year by a lady. The healths of the
Lord Mayoress, which were warmly received, and
ithose of M. Gallait and the representatives of science
and literature, were sulscquently
given, the prin.
i cipal guests retiring shortly before 11 o'clock.