The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-02 00:00:00

ON, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 2, 1366.

The Lord Chief Baron and Earl Granville
in the Cinque Ports.

The biennial banquet of the Dover Sailors' Home
took place on Tuesday evening at the Lord Warden
Hotel, Dover. Earl Granville, Lord Warden of the
Cinque Ports, presided, and was supported by the
Lord Chief Baron (Sir Fitzroy Kelly), Sir Brook
Bridges and Sir E. C. Dering (the members for
East Kent), Major Dickson, M.P., Mr. Knatchbull-
Hugessen, M.P., Admiral Hall, Sir Luke Smithett,
the Mayors of Dover and Folkestone, Cols. Elwyn,
R.A., Chapman, R.E., M`Mahon, Cox, &c. The
customary loyal and patriotic toats having been duly
honoured,
The LORD CHIEF BARON rose and said he felt
much flattered in being able to propose to the com-
pany "The Prosperity of the House of Commons."
Retrospecting to the time in which it had been his
fortune to be connected with the house, he remem-
bered with great gratification the associations to
which it had led. In looking around he saw men
who were entitled to the respect and confidence of
their country, and he scarcelyknew an occasion more
worthy of their care and solicitude than the present.
He would impress upon them the necessity of keep-
ing continually in view the prosperity of the navy
as one of the first of the great duties they had to
perform. Whatever might be the shortcomings of
the House of Commons, and whether they did
stand in need of that reform and improvement
which some are so eager to force upon them, they
could not at least be reproached with any indiffer-
ence to the prosperity and well-being of the navy.
They had always—at least during the time he had
had the honour to sit in the House of Commons—
devoted their sincere efforts to the promotion of the
strength, the interests, and the prosperity of the
navy, and he did not doubt that they would con-
tinue to do so. He trusted that the hon. gentlemen
present would make it a point to keep the House in
mind of its duty in respect to every measure which
tended, in a greater or less degree, to insure the
safety on sea and the comfort on land of the mariners
of England. First and chiefly, he hoped they would
not be unmindful of the necessity of increasing and
enlarging the harbours of refuge. Just consider how
many shipwrecks, how great an amount of suffering
and loss of human life, might be avoided even in a
single year, if there were more harbours of refuge
along the most dangerous and exposed parts of the
English coast. And that brought him to consider
the harbour of Dover, for which tho Legislature has
already done much, and for which he trusted it would
yet do a great deal more. He was sure that Earl
Granville, as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports,
would do his best to promote the prosperity of the
town. He would just mention that, despite some
little dispute which had arisen on the subject, Dover
was still the first of the Cinque Ports. But it was
not within the power of man, either by harbours of
refuge or by any other works, to obviate the calamity
of shipwreck ; and then it was that this admirable
institution was called upon to exercise its beneficent
influence. It would ill become a stranger among
them to enlarge upon the inestimable benefits which
the Dover Sailors' Home confers upon so many of our
fellow-creatures; but he could not help remarking
that it was when a man was reduced to the utmost
extremity, and the most forlorn condition in which it
is possible to contemplate any human being, that this
great institution steps in and affords health and com-
fort to the distressed. Neither were the benefits of
this institution limited to their fellow-country-
men. Its benefits extend to mariners who come
from every part of Europe, and more especially
the sailors from the opposite shore ; he alluded
to the French, and to whom he was happy to say
each year binds us stronger and stronger. He hoped
the illustrious Sovereign of that country might con-
descend to cast an eye upon this institution from
which so many of his subjects had been relieved in
Cases of the greatest and severest of human suffering.
Returning to his original subject, he hoped that the
House of Commons would direct its efforts to the
advancement of the navy, and would never forget
the Sailors' Home. (Applause.)
Sir E. DERING, in responding, observed that he
had been a member of the House of Commons since
before the time of the Reform Bill of 1832, and he
thought that to return thanks for such a body was
an honour of which any man might be justly proud.
No doubt all thought that House susceptible of great
improvement. He believed it was the general feel-
ing among all parties that it was desirable to come
to an amicable and friendly settlement upon a ques-
tion which for years and years had disquieted the
public. Although it might be that the House of
Commons, constituted as it now is, reflects iu a great
measure the virtues, the weaknesses, and he might
say the prejudices, of the great mass of our country-
men more clearly, more decidedly, and more
promptly than any other public assembly, yet, what-
ever their feelings might be as to the present consti-
tution of the House of Commons, they should recol-
lect that that House, constituted as it now is, is iden-
tified with the greatest period of the country's his-
tory, with all the great persons of whom they are
justly proud, and who had contributed largely to
the welfare and prosperity of the country. Of all
schemes he knew of none which would be regarded
with greater satisfaction by all Masses than if some
proposal was made which would take Sailors' Homes
out of that dependence in which they existed by the
casual and voluntary subscriptions of individuals,
and place them on a better foundation.
The Rev. W. YATE, the founder of the Dover
Sailors' Home, of which institution lie continues to
be the hon. secretary, here read the annual report,
from which it appeared that the Home had received
227 wrecked crews, consisting of 2,000 men of dif
ferent nations.

Earl GRANVILLE then rose rose to propose " Prosperity to
the Dover Sailors' Home." He attributed the honour of
his selection to preside to the respect for the ancient office
which he now by the Sovereign's gracious pleasure most
unworthily held. They were probably aware that, but for
the contest of precedence between two of the oldest of the
Cinque Ports, the ceremony of his installation would have
taken place before. He rushed in to act as mediator, and,
as mediators generally got served, he effected no good, and
was glad enough to come out of the contest unscathed.
They would all agree with him that that ceremony could
only take place where all was perfect harmony and con-
cord. He did not mean to say that ho should not himself
have felt the compliment of a public installation ; on the
contrary, he should have been highly gratified, but he con-
sidered it somewhat unreasonable that any compliment
should be paid to the present Lord Warden, who had not
an historical character at all, which was not paid to some
of the greatest men in the kingdom, which was not be-
stowed upon Lord Liverpool or the Duke of Wellington,
nor on Lord Dalhousie, and was only revived in honour
of that statesman (Lord Palmerston) who, despite the di-
versity of political opinions, by a service of 50 years to his
country, and by his character, both public and private,
insured the respect of all classes in the country, and became
the most popular statesman that ever guided the counsels
of a country. To co-operate in a work like the present
was an honour that the greatest Lord Warden might not
be ashamed to share in. To argue against the Sailors'
Homo even the eloquence of Lord Derby or Mr. Gladstone
would prove vain. He enjoyed with the other privileges
of his office a most beautiful view from his residence both
across the downs and on the sea. On some days the sea
was dotted with vessels, on others 40 or 50 large vessels
were to be seen in all the beauty of full sail. On another
occasion, as had occurred during the last three weeks
a sight was to bo seen which in his opinion could
not be seen in any other port in the world—four or five
hundred vessels motionless, fastened by their anchors, or
lazily turning with the tide, while the swiftness of the
steamer gliding by in defiance of wind and tide formed a
striking contrast ; and then, simultaneously, the whole
would set sail, and keep clear of each other in a manner
which to a landsman would seem incredible. In such a
scene it was impossible not to be struck with the variety
which the metropolis poursforth to every part of the known
globe. There was, too, that fatal white line which marks
the meeting of the waters over the Goodwin Sands, a line
which reminded them of the dangers and perils to which
sailors are subject, even when so near to:their native shores.
The other day he read the speech of a member of Parlia-
ment (Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen), who took the chair on
the last occasion of this kind, in which ho made some appro-
priate remarks in reference to the Great Harry of the Eliza-
bethan period, and he (Earl Granville) could not help com-
paring it with the Great Eastern of our own times. He had
a doubt as to whether the Great Harry was nut more beau-
tiful than the Great Eastern, but of course there could not
be the slightest doubt as to the superiority of the latter
vessel in other points. Its last feat was to accomplish the
greatest event of modern days by completing a link be-

tween us and America. Admiral Hall had alluded to the

pleasure which he felt on finding Sailors' Homes established
in America, which was, he believed, the stimulus which
urged him and his colleagues on to such laudable exertions.
However proud they might be in the existence of our com-
merce and the progress which they were continually