The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-05 00:00:00

GRAND SOIREE at MANCHESTER,

FRIDAY MORNING.—The Manchester Athenaeum,
which is so prominently connected with. the meeting we
have to report, was established i❑ 1836, for the purpose
of affording to " the you; h of the middle classes," those
intellectual advantages which can only be obtained by
wealth or the combination of numbers. The Institution
possesses a noble building in Bond-street, erected from
the designs and under the superintendence of Mr. C.
Barry, and has a library of a very extensive and useful
character. Its present number of members (upwards of
1,700), is a large increase upon the numbers shown in
former and less prosperous years. Last year a great
effort was made to redeem the Institution from a debt
accumulated during seasons of distress. This effort was
projected and conducted, we believe, by two members of
the Institution—Mr. P. Berlyn and Mr. E. Watkin, who
were determined that an Association possessing so many
attractions should, if possible, be saved to the town in
its entire usefulness. As a consummation of this effort
a grand soiree was held in October, 1843, under the pre-
sidency of Mr. Charles Dickens. The soiree last even-
ing was on the same plan, but was intended to draw the
attention of the public more forcibly to the importance
of increasing the number and efficiency of Institutions
having in view the advancement and diffusion of useful
knowledge.
Mr. D'lsraeli, in a most handsome and ready manner,
complied with the earnest wishes of the Committee that
he should preside ; and the attendance was most nume-
rous and gratifying.
The following noblemen and gentlemen were upon the
platform ;—Lord J. Manners, M.P., Lord Ranelagh,
the lion. G. S. Smythe, M.P., Mr. C. Kemble, Mr. M.
Gibson, M.P., Mr. R. Cobden, M.P., Mr. J. Peel, Mr.
Brotherton, M.P., Mr. J. Bright, M.P., Mr. R. Hill,
Mr. W. C. Taylor, LL.D., Mr. S. C. Hall, Mr. J. Ather-
ton, President of the Athenaeum ; the Rev. Canon Clif-
ton, the Rev. R. Vaughan, D.D., the Rev. J. J. Tayler,
8.A., the Mayor of Manchester, the Mayor of Salford,
Sir T. Potter, Knt., &c.
A meeting was held in the Athenmum-room in the
morning to receive deputations from the local Societies
in the district. The number of tickets for the soiree sold
was 3,176, and, including the guests, about 3,200 ladies
and gentlemen were present.
A full military band was in attendance, and altogether
the hall presented a most brilliant and magnificen
spectacle.

Mr. D'IsaAELT, on taking the chair, was loudly
cheered. He immediately rose and spoke as follows :
When I last had the honour of addressing the members
of the Manchester Athemeum they were struggling for
the existence of their institution. It was a critical mo-
ment in their fortunes. They had incurred a consider-
able debt in its establishment ; the number of its mem-
bers had gradually, and even for some years, considerably
decreased ; and in appealing to the sympathies of the
community, they were, unfortunately, appealing to those
who were themselves but slowly recovering from a pe-
riod of severe and lengthened suffering. A year has
elapsed, and the efforts that you thus made to extricate
yourselves from those difficulties may now be fairly ex-
amined. That considerable debt has been liquidated ;
the number of your members has been tripled—l believe
quadrupled—and I am happy to say that your fortunes
have rallied, while that suffering and surrounding com-
munity once more meet together in prosperity and suc-
cess.—(Cheers.) I think it not importune, at this mo-
ment of security and serene fortune, that we should
clearly understand the object for which this great
struggle has been made. Under circumstances which,

, if not desperate, filled you with the darkest gloom, you
resolved like men to exert your utmost energies ; you
' applied yourselves to those difficulties with manly
energy—with manly discretion. Not too confident in
yourselves, you appealed, and appealed successfully, to
the softer sex, who you thought would sympathise with
an institution intended to humanise and refine.—
(Cheers.) Dux firmina facti might indeed be the motto
of your institution, for it was mainly by such'influence
that you obtained the result which we now cele-
brate.—(Cheers.) But if the object which you had at
stake was of so great importance, if it justified exertions
so remarkable, made too at a moment when energy was
doubly valuable, because you were dispirited, it, I think,
should not be unwise for us now to inquire what was the
object for which we then exerted ourselves, whether it
was one which justified that great sacrifice, and if it
was, to ascertain why it was ever imperilled. To-night
we are honoured by many who, like myself; are stran-
gers, except in feeling, to your community. We are
honoured too by the presence of deputations from many
societies in this county and the north of England, who
acknowledge a sympathy and an analogy of pursuit with
the Athenaeum of Manchester. It will be well, then, to
place before them briefly for their instruction, and per-
haps it may not be without profit, to remind you what
that institution is that you have struggled to uphold, but
the existence of which was once endangered. I think
it is seven or eight years ago that some of the leading
members of your community, remembering perhaps that
theirs was a time when they regretted that for them such
advantages did not exist, thought they would establish
in this great city some institution that might offer to the
youth of Manchester relaxation which might elevate,
and a distraction which would save them from a sense-
less dissipation. They thought that the time had arrived
when a duty devolved on those who took a leading part
in communities that they should sympathise with the
wants of the rising race, and therefore they resolved to
establish an institution where those advantages that I
have referred to might be supplied. With these views
they resolved, in the first instance, that some place
should be supplied where the youth of Manchester
might become perfectly acquainted with the passing
mind, and passions, and feelings, and intelligence of the
age. That idea was the foundation of your news-room.
They rightly understood that the newspaper was the
most effective arm of the press. It may indeed be con-
sidered as the infantry of the press. It is not a complete
battalion—you require ordinance and artillery, a brilliant
cavalry, above all you require the staff of the comman-
der. in•chief, that, without absolutely or actively inter-
fering in the fray, surveys all that occurs, and is ready
at all times to apply itself to the quarter which requires
counsel ; but still you may consider the journal as
the most efficient arm of the press. With these views
they furnished a chamber, in which the members of the
Athenaeum might be perfectly acquainted in the perusal
of the chief journals of the empire, with all that was pass-
in the country—all that was agitating and interesting
the public mind, which might supply them with that in-
formation, and guide them in forming those opinions
which it was the duty of every citizen of a free commu-
nity to be acquainted with, and to entertain.—(Cheers.)
But, conscious that however qualified the journal is to
stimulate curiosity, to assist investigation, to guide opi-
nion, the knowledge of that individnal hat is limited
only by the press is in danger of becoming superficial,
you thought that the members of this Institution should
have some means of consulting the more mature opinions,
the more accurate researches of the literary mind of this
and other countries, and wisely you made the chamber
in which they might read the newspaper, an ante-room
only to the library.—(Cheers.) You formed a collection
which is now not contemptible in numbers, for you may
count it by thousands. What, however, is not so great
as many of you most desire, which in passing I may be
permitted with great humility to say is deficient in one
respect, which is no disgrace to it, because it is a defi-
ciency which is shared by every great collection in this
country. and I believe in Europe—but which I should be
glad, and you would be proud, to be supplied in Man-
chester—l mean in that department which may be de-
scribed. as a commercial library.—(Cheers.) 'Wenches.
ter, that was once merely an assemblage of manufac-
turers, is now a great mercantile emporium, and at slight
expense and with no great diffiulty, if there were suffi-
cient zeal, you might make a collection of all those inte-
resting tracts on commerce which, at various times dur-
ing the last century, have appeared in England, which
with difficulty you can refer to, but which would form
in your collection a peculiar and interesting body of
commercial literature, and which, by the bye, you, cannot
find in the national repository of this country.—
(Cheers.) You, who had thus furnished the members
of this Institution with the journal which gave them
the information and feelings of the man—the library
where they might correct the hasty opinions which per-
haps that passing criticism is apt to engender—you knew
there were many not deficient in ability, not deficient
in aptness or feeling, to whom the very ceremony of
reading is irksome, and who require to be appealed to
by another means perhapsatfirst sight more captivating.
Therefore you formed a theatre were lectures were
given, where the experiments of philosophy, the investi-
gation of literature, and the prolusions of art, were ren-
dered agreeable to the audience by the charms of the
human voice. You were not content with having raised
an institution, where the journal, the library, and the
lecture-room were always prepared to enlighten or to
amuse,—you remembered those wise words of Charles
V., who said that " the man who knew two languages
had two souls and two lives"—and, therefore, you esta-
blished classes by which the youth of the city might
initiate themselves in a knowledge of the modern lan-
guages.—(Cheers.) Your plan was comprehensive ;
but it was not limited even by this fourth division. You
know witeslellf uponthat the
inasfcrieeencecoaunidapryrutice of , in a country that
pr
self-govern-
ment, it is the duty, at least it is the interest of all men,
public with per-
stopiebuoi
t3a.b, able
dto, f epxopssricbslse,themselvesueinne
; therefore you
established a discussion society, an institution in har-
mony with the political life and the social manners of
England. Having thus amply provided for the forma-
tion of the mind of your new and rising community, you
still remembered (borrowing a happy idea from those
races of antiquity to whom you owe your name) that
any education which confined itself to sedentary pur-
suits was essentially imperfect, that the body. as well as
the mind should be cultivated—you wisely, and ,in no
common and ordinary spirit, established a gymnasium.
—(Cheers.) These are the principal characteristics of
your institution. There are others on which it would be
wearisome to dwell ; but I have placed before you six
principal objects that you had desired to attain. Having
taken this large and comprehensive view of the wants of
your society, and meeting them with a spirit so liberal
and large, you took the best and wisest step. You knew
well the effect that architecture produces on the human
mind ; you determined, therefore, that your establish-
ment should be embodied in an edifice that should please
the imagination and satisfy the taste. You invited the
most eminent of modern architects. Under the roof of a
noble elevation you supplied the means for pursuing those
studies that I have indicated ; and this is a simple account
of the Manchester Athenaeum. It is difficult to conceive
how a nobler purpose, if for a moment we dilate upon it,
could have animated your intentions. When we remem-
ber the class of your community for which this institu-
tion was particularly adapted—when we conceive, diffi-
cult as it is, surrounded as we now are with luxury and
pleasure—when we attempt to picture to our imagina-
tions what is the position of a youth, perhaps of very
tender years, sent, as I am informed is very frequently
the case, from a distant district, to form his fortunes in
this great metropolis of labour and of science—when we
think of that youth, tender in age, with no domestic .