The Sun.
London, England, 1850-03-23 00:00:00

Con to enable the Commissioners to at once commence
the building with perfect confidence in ultimate success.
The conference with the Royal Commission com-
menced at eleven o'clock in the morning, and broke up
at three o'clock in the afternoon.

HIGHLAND SOCIETY of LONDON=
Oa Thursday evening the members of this venerable
society held their anniversary festival, in commemo-
ration of the victory of Alexandria, at the Free-
masons' Tavern, when an elegant dinner was provided
for the occasion by Mr. Bacon, the proprietor of the
tavern, a haggis (chieftain of the pudding race) hav-
ing been sent all the way from Dingwall for the feast.
The society was established in 1778, and incorpos
rated in 1815, " for preserving the martial spirit,
dress, music, and language, the remains of Celtic li-
terature, and the antiquities of the ancient Caledo-
nians ; encouraging a kindly feeling between High-
landers in all parts of the world, and in other respects
promoting the general welfare of the northern parts of
the kingdom."
Lieutenant-General Sir James Macdonell, K.C.8.,
presided over the festivities of the evening; and
amongst the company present we noticed—Major-
General Sir Jelin Rolt, K.C.8., Colonel Sir John
M. Wilson, Sir Juhn Campbell, K.C.H., Colonel
Crabb, Sir Charles Forbes, M.D., Captain John
Forbes. B.N. Captain Lamont, R.N., Captain Jay,
R.N , The dhisholm, W. Bisset, Esq., of Lessen-
drum ; A. White, Esq., Deputy-Inspector-General of
Hospitals; the Rev. Chas. Mackenzie, Alex. G.
WK.-el:he Colonel Brandling, Major Money penny,
Dr. Es re, .1. A. Beaumont, Esq., James olurrny, Esq,
Major 1114 Queer, G. Hein, Esq., D. C. Guthrie, Esq.,
Hon. Edward Wrottesley, S,r Robert Murray, Bart.,
Charles It. Mackenzie, Esq, &c.
The company consisted of about one hundred
gentlemen, many of whom were dressed in military,
naval, and Highland costume; and the gallery, across
the foot of the magnificent room in which the festival
was held, was filled with a number of elegantly-
dressed ladies. The baud of the Caledonian Asylum
boys played during the dinner, and subsequently the
Queen's piper and his brother, the Society's piper,
played several airs, appropriately filling up the pauses
in the entertainment.
We have seen a larger proportion of the company
present arrayed in the Highland garb on former oc-
casions ; but the festivities of the evening were car-
ried forward with unusual spirit, and the sense of
enjoyment never appeared to flag for a moment.
Mr. C. Cooper, on the special request of the Chair-
man, sung the fine old Jacobite song, " Heigh Johnny,
Cope," with so much of true taste and genuine nation-
ality of feeling, as to elicit the enthusiastic accla-
mations of the company over and over again. Upon
Mr. Cooper the mantle of Wilson, the Scottish vo-
calist, whose death we had recently to deplore, may
be said to have fallen. He sings the airs of Scotland
with a pathos and a beauty scarcely, if at all inferior
to poor Wilson, and which point to him as his only
legitimate successor.
Departing in some measure from the prescribed list
of toasts, the Chairman gave to the festival a pleasing
absence of formality, which would not otherwise have
characterised it. 'Le usual loyal toasts having been
drunk,
The Gallant CHAIRMAN next gave " The navy and
army." He cheerfully gave the precedence to the
sister service, because he himself belonged to the
army.
Captain Foanes, R.N., returned thanks for the
navy, and in a vivid and true sailor-like style de-
scribed the landing of the British force, as he had
witnessed it under cover of the English fleet on the
beach, prior to the memorable battle of Alexandria.
Major-General Sir Joule etoer returned thanks for
the army in suitable terms.
Mr. GUTHRIE, in a very able speech, proposed the
health of the Chairman, and in doing so made honour-
able mention of the heroic conduct of Sir James
Macdonell, while defending the farm of nougounenat
against the French at the battle of Waterloo.
The Gallant CHAIRMAN responded to the toast in a
corresponding spirit.
The CHAIRMAN then rose to give the toast of the
evening. He said as there were strangers among the
company, he would take the oppportunity of stating
that, from the commencement of this corporation it
had annually commemorated the victory of Alexan-
dria, with the view of doing honour to those who had
taken part iu that memorable achievement. He had
now to propose to them that they should drink to the
memory of Sir R. Abercrombie and the heroes who
fell with him in Egypt.
The toast was drunk by the company standing, in
solemn silence.
Captain FORBE°, R.N., acknowledged the toast.'
Colonel CRABBE, of the 74th Regiment, returned
thanks to the toast of " The Visitors."
The CHAIRNIAN then gave " Prosperity to the
forthcoming Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures
in 1851," to which Mr. WESTMACOTT responded.
The toast of " Chiefs and Clans" having been
given from the chair, and drunk with the greatest
enthusiasm,
The CHISUOLM rose to acknowledge it. Ifs said
he had hoped on that occasion there would have been
Present another individual of that order to which he
himself was proud to belong, another Highland chief,
who would have relieved him from the duty which
had new devolved upon him. But to speak the truth
he (the Chisholm) had so often been culled on to re-
spond to that same toast, and generally before
many whom he now addressed, that he
found it somewhat difficult for the hundredth
time to play on the same chord, and to produce a
varying sound.—(Cheers.) He would assure those
whom he now addressed that the topic was one of
which he should never become ashamed.—(Renewed
cheers.) And why was he proud to stand there, as
one of the order of chiefs and clans, to respond to
that toast in the name of that order, and iu the name
of the clansmen who formed the most material part
of that order ? Why was he proud to stand there to
answer for them ? It was simply because he believed
national institutions to be the real basis of the cha-
racter which his countrymen had earned, and which,
up to this day, he was proud to say they had never
disgraced.—(Cheers.) He might be asked, us he had
been asked recently, why should he in the pre-
sent day, whilst they as well as others acknowledged
the integrity and unity of this country, take part in
any society the object of which was to keep alive any
peculiar sentiment of nationality ? His short re-
sponse to such a question was this—because he was
proud of nationality.— (Cheers.) But in these days
of utilitarianism he might be expected to give some
better answer than that, and his answer was, because
he believed a spirit of nationality to be so essentially a
mainspring of action in promoting emulation among
the various classes and the various nations which
form our united kingdom, and to give so essential a
stimulus to their exertions, that he thought it was
useful to keep it alive.—(Cheers.) That nationality
was already recognised in the services which were re-
presented by the Gallant Chairman himself and other
gallant gentleman whom he saw around him. They
found in the British army, that the spirit of nation-
ality was recognised; and, if he might be allowed to
indulge his pride, he thought that spirit of nationality
might be carried even still further into the sister pro-
fession.—(Hear, bear.) He could not forget that a
certain frigate was manned by some of the natives of
this isle, who had been cradled on the billows, which
wash our northern and or western shores, and that
that frigate and that crew were sailing under the
command of a certain rum Commander of the name
of Napier.—(Cheers and laughter.) And it would take
a good ship and a smart crew either to capture or to
out-sail her. But they were not allowed to dwell on
theories. They had practical experience before them,
and the British army furnished them with that expe-
rience. They had heard this evening allusions to
Corunna and to Sir John Moore.—(Cheers.) He
(The Chisholm) spoke in the presence of those who
had had more experience than himself, and whose
military education might, perhaps, have enabled them
to form a better judgment than his own; but he
knew no name he would pay greater homage to than
that of Sir John Moore.—(Cheers.) They saw the
advantage of appealing to nationality on the occasion
when he drew up his horse on the heights of Corunna.
When Sir John Moore passed his lii,;hlanders,
what were his words? They were words which
might well be mentioned in such an assembly as
that, in the presence of those who bore part in the
dangers and who witnessed the glorious achievements
of his countrymen in Egypt—(Cheers)—and they
might well be mentioned at a meeting of the High-
land Society on the 21st of March. His words were
"Highlanders I Remember Egypt." (Great
cheering.) Did any one whom he addressed think
that there was a heart which beat beneath the broad
plaids of that gallant and isolated clan which did not
respond to the spirit-stirring encouragement which he
gave?—(Cheers.) Did they think at that moment
there was a single man who had not the firmly-knit
brow, the firmly-compressed lips, and who did not
preserve the death-like silence which characterizes
the Highlander in the hour of difficulty and
danger? Did they think there was one who did not
feel within himself that he would remember the deeds
which his father had done ?—(Cheers.) What was
the result ? When the spirit of the gallant Moore
was ebbing away, and when the wounded man was
being borne in the plaid of a Highlander, he asked his
staff—" Do the Highlanders stand their ground 1"
He was told by an officer that they did, and ere the
spirit of Moore fled to its rest, the same officer wes
enabled to tell him "The Highlanders are advancing."
Now be (The Chisholm) held that was an illustratien of
theeffect of nationality. Bespoke under the correction
of military men of
,experience, and he said he could
not lay his hand on a regiment which had in aty way
distinguished itself and which had not been animated
by that feeling of nationality. He spoke not now of
his own countrymen alone, but of those of every other
1 part of the dominions which formed our common

country. And he thought there was not a Highland
regiment which might not have been led into action
by the same memorable words of Moore on the
heights of Corunna, whether it were the 26th Came-
roniam., the 42d Highlanders, the 74th, or any other.
It might be that among the too thick sprinkling of
black, and blue coats, which he (The Chisholm) saw
around him, fur he would rather have seen more kilts

—(Laughter)—there might be Sir Joshua Walmslsy,
Mr. Cobden, or some other member of the Peace
Society.—(Laughter.) If so, he had one word to
say to them, and it was this, that the recollections of
glorious achievements in war were the elements
which constituted the distinctive characteristic of the
glory of the Highland soldier, which made him, he
would not say the best, for he believed the English,
the Irish, and the Welsh soldier might be just as
good as he was, but among the best of soldiers, these
were the elements which made him one of the best
citizens of the world. There was, in the first place,
a spirit of loyalty to his Sovereign, which was born
with him.—(Cheers) In the next place, there was a
spirit of subordination which he held to be bred in
him, and which took its rise from the orders of chiefs
and clans.—(Cheering.) And then there was the
indomitable courage which possessed him, and
if any one doubted that, he •(The Chisholm)
would appeal to the gallant officers around him : and
then there waa that endurance of suffering and diffi-
culty which nothing in the world could subdue, and
thew were tempered by that practical morality which
has for its basis the only foundation of all true
morality—namely, a good religious education.--
(Cheers.) And that brought him (The Chisholm) to
say--and he said it with confidence—that wherever
he might meet a countryman, be would not use the
words which Sir John Moore addressed to his
Highlanders, but he would say, " Highlanders,
wherever you are, remember you are Highlanders."
(Cheers.) There was a talismanic power in that
word, and he repeated it, that there was not one who
bore the name that would dare to disgrace that name,
or who would do an act which would sully the deeds
which his fathers had done, or the glories of his
country, the
" Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood."—(Cheering.)
_ _

Other toasts followed, including that of the "Branch
Societies," "G. Bain, E,q , the lion. Secretary,"
" The Ladies," &c. The proceedings were sustained
with great animation till a late hour.
In conclusion, we may mention, that in the Com-
mittee-room we were shown a painting by Mr.
M'ian, representing a party of Highlanders defend-
ing a pass, which the distinguished artist has gener-
ousrty given to the society, with the view of the picture
beisig raffled, or otherwise disposed of, for the pur-
pose of contributing to the relief of the frightful des-
titution which now pervades the Highland district of
Moidart, a spot well known as the first place where
the Pretender landed.