The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-02 00:00:00

FAREWELL DINNER TO MR. AN7HONY

TROLLOPE.

The colleagues and friends of Mr. Trollope—and,
as had been aptly remarked in a public announce-
ment, the words are in this case synonymous—gave
him a hearty leave-taking on Thursday in the ap-
proved English form of a " farewell dinner." The
scene was the large banquet-hall of the Albion Tavern,
and the number of gentlemen present was nearly a
hundred. It is pretty generally known, we be-
lieve, that the best part of Mr. Trollope's life, up to
the present time, has been devoted iu a great mea-
sure to the public service, and that the sphere of his
labours has been the Pest-office. As Charles Lamb
said of the India House, so may the author of
" Barchester Towers," and " The Three Clerks,"
and a goodly row of truthful fiction, say of St.
Martin's-le-Grand, that his principal " works" are
hid away somewhere behind Sir R. S►nirke's lonic
portico. The company who gathered last evening
to speed the parting guest had for president Mr.
Scudamore, to whose energy and faithful service the
public is mainly indebted for the Post-office savings
banks ; and the croupiers were Mr. E. Yates and
Mr. G. Chetwynd. On the left of the chairman—
Mr. Trollope, of course, sitting at his right hand—
was the Secretary of the Post-office, Mr. Tilley ;
and among the most prominent persons at table
were the Accountant-General of the India House,
Mr. Goodliffe ; Dr. Farr, Mr. Partington, Mr.
Synge, Mr. W. Page, Dr. Lewis, Mr. Ashurst, Mr.
Bokenham, Mr. Parkhurst, Mr. Boyd, Mr. Good,
Mr. I)u Plat Taylor, and 11. Trollope.
Though the least important business of any great
dinner, public or nearly public, or even largely
social, is dining, it should, in fairness to the esta-
blishment which had been entrusted with the fur-
nishing of yesterday's feast, be said that there was
no fault whatever to find with the material part of
the affair. When that part had been disposed of,
the chairman called upon the company to drink the
loyal toasts, and seized very heartily on the occa-
sion to speak of the much improved relations of
public servants to the State, and therefore to the
Crown. The time was, he said, when his hearers
were called "' Government clerks," when to abuse
Government clerks seemed to be the province of
every witling, when all tongues and pens were
against them, and when the hard words of the news-
papers were made still harder by ingratitude, see-
ing that a very large share of support was said to
be derived by the press from public offices. Gover-
ment clerks groaned long under this treatment,
and at last said, " We won't be Government clerks
any longer ; we'll be the 'civil service,' and have a
good opinion of ourselves." From having a good
opinion of themselves, it very naturally followed in
time that everybody bad a good opinion of them,
and came in time to regard them as a great pillar
of the State. In this pleasant way the chair-
man of the evening entertained his listeners,
who, having, in his own quaint words, " begun
to begin this evening" with the enjoyment
of brisk and genial oratory, and of excellent part-
singing by those distinguished amateurs the
"Moray Minstrels," were all the better prepared to
hear Mr. Scudamore's eulogium on their distin-
guished guest. He began by saying that farewell
dinners were no very extraordinary things, but that
the occasion of taking leave was seldom like the
present. They had frequently to bid farewell to
some working brother who could work no more, or
who, at all events, was entitled to take his rest.
But now they were parting from one who relin-
quished a proud position while he had vigour to
improve it. Mr. Scudamore, having shown that
times had mended for the faithful and able servants
of the public, laughingly referred to olden days,
when, as he told his hearers, a young scot, raw to
official existence, had asked him whether it was
possible for a Post-office clerk to be Lord Mayor of
London. " I told him," said the chairman, " that
Post-office clerks were by virtue of their duties spe-
chilly exempt from having to serve as Lord
Mayor ; but if he had pushed me a little closer,
and had asked whether I thought it possible for a
Post-office clerk to work cheerfully and well in his
station, and at the same time to raisa himself into
the first rank of literature, I think I should have
answered that the struggle to become Lord Mayor
' would be of the two things the moat hopeful. And
if the raw Scotch clerk had asked the question not
only of Post-office clerks in general, but of Mr.
Anthony Trollope in particular, I must still have
given a despairing reply; for in my early acquaint-
ance with our honoured guest, though I soon learned
to love and esteem him, I no more discerned the
likelihood of his ever keeping half England breath-
lessly waiting to hear the Yes or No of Lilly Dale
—immense cheering at this point—than, iu looking
attentively at the outer shell of an oyster, I could
attain to a just valuation of the pearl inside." Mr.
Scudamore then proceeded to consider the true
causes of Mr. Anthony Trollope's success. 'They
were not alone, he said, the natural ability and the
vigour of constitution possessed by him, but they
were in a chiefer degree his strong recti►ude of pur-
pose, his manly confidence in himself, and the de-
termination to do to his very utmost what his post
of duty required. And here Mr. Scudamore quoted
from a lecture given six years ago by Mr. Trollope,
within the walls of the Post-office, in which lecture,
speaking of the Civil Service, he said, "There is no
profession by which a man can earn his bread in these
realms admitting of a brighter honesty, of a nobler
purpose, or of an action more manly and indepen-
dent." Continuing to quote from a report of the
same lecture, the chairman laid an earnest emphasis
on the following words :---" He who for every half-
a-crown gives service to the full value of half-a-
crown, surely with him need be no servility, no
feeling of favour. In such a case the workman
confers the favour, and may fairly feel within
his own bosom that he does so. It is, however, in
the power of men to reverse the matter altogether,
and to place the balance clearly on the right side.
For every half-a-crown that they receive let them
be careful to give work to the value of three-and-
sixpence, and then let them not care a straw for any
man. He who so arranges his weights and measures
never does care a straw for any man." In closing
his words of cordial leave-taking, Mr. Scudamore
appealed to his audience to say whether any one
among them, when coming of mornings to his office
work, had not felt a joyful pride for the Civil Ser-
vice, in seeing fellow-passengers by 'bus or rail
intent on reading " Frawley Parsonage," or " Orley
Farm," or some one of the many sterling books
written by the comrade and friend at his right hand.
It is not necessary to say that the response made the
room ring, and that it rang louder and longer when
the chairman called upon them all to drink to the
health of one of the staunchest servants the Civil
Service had ever had.

Mr. TROLLOPE'S speech, in reply, was excellent in
every respect; characterised by his strong humour,
but at the same time tinged with sadness. He
said he was giving up a position which he had
held for thirty-three years, and he could not
but feel that he was ending the worthiest part
of his life. He was, he said, compelled to take
the step by the exigencies of another calling,
which, dear as it was to him, was not so dear as
had been the work he had taken up as a boy, and
was now throwing away from him. 'There was, he
thought, some matter for grave reflection in this.
Ile had done his Post-office work without fear of
the public or the critics. Would it not have been
better for him to have stayed in the old home and
done the work his hand had found to do ? lie pro-
ceeded to answer this question, and to explain his
well-matured reasons for being on with the new and
off with the old love. Incidentally he touched, as
he might have done with his pen, in a manner at
once gay and thoughtful, on little personal themes,
interesting specially to his hearers. Ile drew a pic-
ture of a large square room looking out on Gold-
smiths' Hall, in which chamber lie had begun his
official life, 33 years ago, "as a junior assistant
probationary temporary extra clerk," condemned to
11 years of preliminary service without any 'my, the
I2th year rewarding him with the sum of £9 2s. 6d.
In this room there were five gentlemen who took
measure of him and his clothes, and who seemed to
find him a foot too short in wisdom, and a foot too
short in stature. He took measure also of them, and
found them wanting. One of those gentlemen, grown
uld in office, had gone to that bourn whither all old