The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-26 00:00:00

A court dinner of this ancient and worshipful
company was held last evening, at which the
Prime Warden, T. Boddington, Esq., presided ;
ngst the guests were the Right Hen. the
Lord A. 1., ?or, Vice-Chancellor Sir R. T. KindemleYl
Major-General Sir J. Burgoyne, Bart., Admiral Sir
H. Keppel, Mr. W. M. Thackeray, Major Teesdale,
Mr. Sheriff Conder, Sir S. M. Peto, Colonel French,
M.P., Sir R. Ferguson, M.P., Mr. COmmissioner
Murphy, Mr. J. Steel, M.P., Mr. S, M. Greer,
M.P., Mr. J. Boyd, M.P., Mr. J. Clark, M.P., and
other gentlemen, The ban vet and the wines
were, as usual, of an exquisite theicn and quality.
After the loyal toasts, that of " The Army and
Navy" was proposed, in reply to which
General Sir T. BURGOYNE said it was his firm
conviction that the British army was the finest itt
Europe, that its officers were by natural tempera..
ment and previous habits well adapted for their
profession, and that if, as had been stated, it was
the most expensive army in the world, the common
accounts of its mismanagement and extravagance
were greatly exaggerated ; but the liberal pay, the
punctuality with which it was issued, the excel-
lence of all the appointments, and the care taken of
the soldier, all of which were causes of considerable
expense, were also causes of the perfection of our
army, which would otherwise lose its prestige and
fall into the same degraded state as was seen in
some other countries.
Admiral Sir IL KEPPEL, in replying fof the
-meen-said he was sure that all who were there'
present must approve of the energetic measures
which had lately been taken to render the British •
fleet what it ought to be, and to provide for the
manning of the ships and for the improvement of
the condition of the seamen, who would always be
found, he was sure, untie c.wf the same good stuff as
in former days. The
.want of a naval comMander-
in-chief, however, was greatly felt, whose duty it
should be to select and appoint among the officers
those who were fittest -for appointments and pro- -
motion, instead of their being left to a civilian, a
political first Lord of the Admiralty. In saving
this he did not allude to the present energetic 'irst
Lord ; but in general the want of a naval comman-
der-in-chief to superintend the patronage of the
navy was greatly felt.
The PRIME WARDEN then proposed the toast of
"The House of Commons," with which he coupled
the name of Sir R. Ferguson, and referred to the
measure of parliamentary reform now before that
house. He remarked that whatever might be the
denominations of parties now, whether they were
called Whigs or Tories, it was evident that, with a
view to the great social interests of the country,
they were all occupied in the consideration of the
distribution of the franchise, the extension of the
suffrage, and the more equal representation of pub-
lic opinion in the House of Commons; and.a most
creditable scene was displayed, when all sides and
parties were thus listening with so much courtesy,
consideration, and self-denial to the discussion of
this bill.
Sir R. FERGUSON briefly acknowledged the toast.
The health of the Lord Mayor, the health of Mr.
Sheriff Conder, and the health of the Prime War-
den himself, were successively proposed and re-
sponded to ; after which,
The PRIME • WARDEN proposed the " Health of
the Members of the Legal Profession.",
Vice-Chancellor Sir R. KINDERSLEY, in replying,
remarked that in the Court of Chancery, which .
had•got an ill name for its delays, matters had been
so much improved that now there were no delays,
and last week one of the judges was obliged to ab-
stain from sitting on one day because there was no
case to be heard. He observed that the spirit of
independence which characterised the bench and •
the bar of England was found, more or less, in the
bench and the bar everywhere, and even, as he was
informed, in that remote country which might be
regarded as the foot of Europe, and where liberty
had to suffer the most cruel oppression.
Mr. Commissioner MURPHY also responded to the
toast.
The PRIME WARDEN then proposed the toast of
" The English Literature of the Present Day," in
connexion with the health of Mr. W. M. Thackeray
—a novelist, philosopher, and humorist—whose
works were familiarly known and universally ad-
mired.

Mr. THACKERAY acknowledged the toast, re-
marking that some of his fellow-labourers in the
same field of literature were better able to speak
than he was ; and for example, the author of " The
Caxtons," who was also the right hon. member for
Hertfordshire and Secretary of State for the Colo-
xies, had made a good speech two days ago, and
another novelist, who was the right hon. member
for Buckinghamshire, was likely to make a good
speech very shortly. For his own part, he felt that
one of the highest rewards of literary labour was the
gratification of finding what friendly feeling existed
towards him in the minds of people who had
never known him, except by what he had written.
Au instance of this occurred to him the other day
at Brighton, where a wounded Indian officer, an
entire stranger to him, came up to him in the street
and told him that the hours of pain had been soothed
by reading somethinc, which he (Mr. Thackeray)
had written ; and when be was in America the
other day a great Arctic traveller, the late Dr.
Kane, told him how, during the endless night of a
dreadful winter in the regions of eternal ice, one of
a party on board ship had been appointed to amuse
the rest by reading aloud to them one of his humble
stories. To him (Mr. Thackeray), who was not an
Unkind man at heart, in spite of what had lately
been said in certain papers to the contrary, these
assurances, that he had been able to give any plea-
sure to his fellow-creatures were the best recom-
pense he could obtain.
The PRIME WARDEN next proposed the health of,
a member of the House of Commons, Mr. William
Stirling, not only as an author whose admirable
biographical and artistic works placed him in the
first ranks of our literature, but as a member of a
committee which had been formed for an object
which reflected the greatest credit upon this coun-
try, the relief of the destitute Neapolitan exiles
Settembrini, Poerio, and their fellow-sufferers, who
had taken refuge on our shores. They all s ell
knew that in 1848 all Europe was seized with a
universal wish for liberal and free institutions.
The government of Naples put forth a reform, and
several of these men were enlisted in the good work.
The ebullition, however, subsided ; the King re-
sumed his despotic sway, and turned against those
who had supported him when histhrone was in dan-
ger. They were consigned to dungeons, where for 10
long years they were incarcerated to expiate their
only crime—a too ardent aspiration for constitu-
tional liberty. At length their imprisonment was
changed to exile to America. They had now landed
on our shores; they had been received as became a
free country, and the first men of the land had
come forward to assist them. With a good taste,
that did the committee and themselves great credit,
they had refused any public demonstration in their
favour. In their absence, therefore, he might be
permitted to offer on behalf of the Fishmongers'
Company the expression of their sympathy in con-
nection with Mr. Stirling, one of their kind sup-
porters.
Mr. STIRLING, in answering the toast, said that
these Neapolitan gentlemen were sixty-seven in
number; they were many of them old men and in-
valids, and nearly all had suffered severely. Their
crime was, that, at the invitation of their sovereign,
they had joined him in an attempt to assimilate the
institutions of their country to those of England,
and for this they had been consigned to that ten
years' imprisonment which Mr. Gladstone had
described and made known to all Europe. They
had, as soon as they arrived upon our shores, ex-
pressed a desire that their presence here should not
be used for the purpose of agitation, or to create
any popular excitement with which they could
have no sympathy, or to render our relations with
foreign countries more delicate and difficult than
they were. He was sure these gentlemen were
well deserving of our sympathies, and he trusted
the appeal now made for their relief would be gene-
rously answered.
The entertainment, which included a selection of
good music, then terminated.

EMIGRATION TO THE CAPE OF GOOD ROPE.—
Emigrants for Algoa Bay were embarked on Tuesday at
Plymouth, on board the ship New Great Britain, consisting
of 275 souls, equal to 221} statute adults, sent out by the
Hon. Mr. Field. They comprise agricultural labourers and
domestic servants; also labourers and mechanics for the
harbour works at Port Elizabeth ; and likewise several
fishermen for the fisheries on that coast.
[ADVERTISEMENT.I—Rarey's Horse and Cattle Improv-
ing Food improves the stamina, vigour, endurance, and
muscle of ill-conditioned or apparently worn-out Horses,
Cows, Bullocks, Calves, Sheep, and Pigs. It causes no
extra expense, as it contains far more and better nourish-
ment than its cost of lid. per feed supplies in corn or
hay; hence ensures an actual saving. In a short time it
improves the appearance and value of horses and cattle by
20 to 30 per cent. Rarey and Co., sole importers, 77, Pic-
cadilly, Quadrant, London. Packed in tins of about
feeds, 6s. ; of about 90 feeds, lls. ; in casks of about 450
feeds, 505.; of about 1,000 feeds, f.,5, being about lid. per
feed. Goods forwarded on receipt of Post-office Orders.
Important Caution—Beware of spurious imitations offered
by the-ignorant and unscrupulous. • All iwitators will be
proceeded against.