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

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that unanimity of feeling pervaded all around.—
(Cheers.) The time of evening was come when length-
ened orations would not be appropriate ; and it was diffi-
cult to enter upon that large question of general
educationand the diffusion of knowledge without dwel-
ling longer upon their attention than he was entitled to
do, and rendering himself liable to the charge of re-
peating what had been already better said than he could
say it by speakers that had preceded him. There was
one point, however, upon which he would touch, viz.,
the effect which the public taste for literature had upon
authors. The author now rested, not upon the patron-
age of the great, but on the solid rock of public
opinion. It was now no longer necessary to court
the great by servile dedications, as in the clays of
Dryden —literary works were launched upon the world
depending on nought but their own merits. They
were addressed to that best of tribunals—public opinion ;
whose permanent approval would only fall on those
works which deserved to be enduring.—(Cheers.) The
Athenaeum, whose interest they were met to support,
was an institution eminently calculated to diffuse a taste
liar literature and science amongst its members. Its in-
fluence must 'be beneficial.—(Cheers.) Many of their
educational institutions had not succeeded to the extent
which could be wished.—(Hear.) Some did not much
serve the class fur whom they were intended, though
otherwise beneficial—as the mechanics' institutes—to
which few mechanics belonged.—(Hear.) Others had
allowed themselves to be diverted from the object for
which they were established. The Manchester Athe-
naeum was secure from most of the dangers which had
visited many kindred institutions.—(Hear.) It had
sprung from the spontaneous exertions of its first sup-
porters. It leaned not on the frail reed of patronage—
(Cheers)—but on the independent spirit, the energies of
its own members.—(Cheers.) That was the solid foun-
dation which would render its structure permanent.
The constitution of the Athenaeum, to use the words of
the excellent report which had been read, was demo-
cratiC.—(Hear.) The members had the government of
the society to which they belonged—the library was
open to works of varied kinds, science and literature, the
gravest and the lightest. Some other institutions were
managed by strangers ; their libraries were restricted to
particular works to suit the taste or caprice of persons
in authority ; the subscribers had not the free choice of
the books they might desire to peruse. All these re-
strictions were adverse to the full benefit wltich society
would derive from better and more liberal organiza-
tions. How many of our charitable endowments bad
been permitted to be misapplied—(Loud cheers)—and
classes had the benefit of endowments they were never
intended to enjoy.—(Cheers.) It was, however, a happy
reflection that the prejudice against education and the
diffusion of knowledge amongst the humblest classes
was passing away. If we search the records of the past
What strange jealousies have existed upon the subject of
the spread of learning t those jealousies have found place
in minds of the most exalted as well as the most humble.
—(Hear, hear.) We find men of high degree despising
knowledge, because it might be accessible to all—(Hear,
hear)—und the humble. from some indefinable dread re-
jecting the teaching of the schoolmaster. Shakspeare
well describsd these feelings when he makes Jack Cade
A
laugh)—say to Lord Say, " Thou hest most trai-
torously corrupted the youth of the realm in creating a
grammar-school ;—(Laughter)—and, whereas, before,
our forefathers had no other books but the score and the
tally; thou has caused printing to be used ; and, contrary
to the King, his crown, and dignity, thou hest built a
paper-mill."—(Laughter.) Those days have pissed
vatvey.—(Clieers.) - The men of all political and religious
tee-aria now argued the refining influence of intellectual
pursuits, and With education we shall become a Letter
tied a-happier people.—(Cheers.) He cordially wished
prosperity to the Manchester Athenaeum. Might similar
institutions spring up over the length and breadth of the
land, extending their benefits to the remotest districts.
ffset us hope that. with the progress of education there will
lbe aroused a desire to acquire knowledge amongst all
et asses, and that the humblest artisan and the rudest
pee 'ant may be brought under the humanizin inuence
of iteetual and moral culture. Then will theft acred
lessen e. tumour all man" be a living reality—(Hear)—
and Eneien„l will become as remarkable.for the mut.ual
and social happiness pervading
rsspect,'tsentle
exalted to the lowly, as she is now
her fisinllies,'6:ini
uring skill and commercial en-
eminent fer that manuts' It ``erin the elevated position
terriao which' has placed .
which she now' holds amongst the nations of the earth.
M. D'leriaeLt then rose and said—My Hon. Friend
who last addr'essed you has dilates: very justly upon the
advantageous position which modern authors occupy in
contradistinct:on to those who flourisheu a century back.
We ere honoured to-night by the presence or ths, youngest
and not the least successful of the authors of the new
generation.—(Cheers.) He is the last literary knight
that, has entered into the tilt. lam sufficierely
src-
quai4ted with his opinions to know that he prefers wevy
much the modern practice to the old one. lie has alrnest
this reotnent arrived among us, and quitted the Continent
for the pleasure of making your acquaintance. I have
now the pleasure of introducing to you
Mr. Sancrite, M.P.. who said—lt is with no ordinary
sliffidenee that I venture to address you upon this occa-
sion. It would be at all times a difficult matter to speak
to an assembly thus attended by distinguished men, thus
presided over by genius, and thus superintended by
beauty.—(Cheets.) But lam less unnerved by the ex-
ternal splendour of this fair pageant than by the thought,
the idea, the elevated,lprinciple of which it is the .ex-
pri•ssion. You represent a great necessity. It seems to
me that you, the men of Manchester, have determined
to do honour to literature, in a land where literature
has too long been neglected. It seems to me that with
a spirit worthy of a younger and freer age, you have
resolved to- proffer to the author and the man of letters
a reward of a simpler and less sordid character than the
pay- of this newspaper or the hire of that review. Or
with yet more profound and far-sighted intentions •ou
may have resolved to redress the anomalies of a
'country, which is governed by its journals, but where
the names of its journalists are never mentioned ; of a
country where by the most unhappy of conversions it
la- the inventions which make the fortune, and it is
the - inventors who starve.—(Great cheering.) Of a
country where, if a man of science aspires to its highest
honours—the sufrcages of his fellow-citizens—that man
of science will poll by units, where the mere politician
pulls by hundreds.—(Cheers.) And it seems especially
meet; and right, and fitting, that you, the men of Man-
chester, should correct these evils, because there is an
old,. un intimate, and natural alliance between literature
unttcornmerce.—(Cheers.) It is in virtue
,of this alli-
ance that you cannot but regard with sympathy the ho-
mage which you see done by foreigners to letters. Why,
the eery Ambassadors whom they send to this Court are
so many reproaches to our neglect of them. IVho is the
Ambassador from Russia ? A man who has risen by
his pen. Who from Sweden ? The historian of Bri-
tish India.—(Cheers.) Who from Prussia ? A pro-
fessor. Who from Belgium ? A man who has risen by
literature. Who from France ? An author and an his-
torian.—(Cheers.) Who from America ? An anther
and professor.—(Cheers.) But it requires no extraor-
dinary spell of divination to prophecy to the literature
which shall derive its impulse from such a meeting as
the. present—which shall result from such incentives—
which shall be fostered an encouraged by such sympathy
as yours, a destiny, yet more lasting and auspicious, be-
cause as it will not be patronised by monarchs, nor
fashioned by nobles, nor confined by prejudice, so it will
be free, independent, universal, and tolerant commerce.
—(Loud cheers.) It is, therefore, only natural,
that with this idea of this meeting, I should
feel a diffidence, . and, when I find myself, tie it
were, face to face'with a great thought, which carries
we down among future generations into the very pre-
sence of immortality, that with that there mingles
something et astonishment. My feelings, to compare
small things to great, are those which David litinie
describes in his remarkable letter to Gibbon, on reading
his history :--`• Forgive me," he says, " if I have read
-our work with as much surprise as admiration; because
it has appeared,to ine.that, while we in Scotland have
done great things for literature, you in England have
surrendered yourselves to absurd and barbarous factions."
—(Cheers.) This meeting is an earnest and a guarantee
that these absurdities shall cease, and these barbarities
have an end.—(Loud cheers.) But here, even in this
pleasaet hour of convivial intercourse, when men of till
parties and all shades of opinion are met to interchange
the amenities, and courtesies, and fair civilities of life, it
is impossible nut to remember how mazy and how illus-
trious have been the victims of these absurdities,
these barbarities,—or, what is worse, these vulgarities
of ,our party,warfare. Remember the fate of our last
great man. Reenember how he was proscribed as an
adventurer, becahse he was born to no hereditary fortune;
and then, when the gentle judging and the generous—
wljen men with large thoughts and fine feelings—when
the few rallied round him against the many—he was
again branded and proscribed, because they were a few,
as a eaballer and intriguer. Remember hcw in high
life his views were thwarted, his spirit cowed, his
heart broken—how he pasted to his grave—
and then you . will understand ho'w, through
calumny avid misconstruction—through such men's envy,
and the insults of men yet smaller—lie must often have
Fined for somosuch neutral ground as this, to which his
harassed spirit might have flown away, and been at rest.
.A.nd how, in the prospect of a happier hour, of advanc-
ing toleration, such,as this meeting affords—even with
such eloquence as we have heard to-day—there are few
among ussnow that fifteen years have passed over his
grave, who will hesitate to exclaim with me—" Oh, for
-one hour of George Canning I"—(Loud cheers.) But
'even among thoiceetho hear me there may be some who
think that I am stating. results too grave and too im-
remit to this meeting in thus speaking of advancing
t,aleration ; there may be some who argue it a mere
ennu.stenication,.and nothing more. Such I think no
our
his. opinuan ; because it is impossible to study
for hog last half-century, and not perceive
our history'
has always been foremost in the great
that Munches._
41"
work of national ',Advancement. It is not because you
did as much,perhaP;;As all our subsidies, or all our arms,
in our long war with '..apoleon—it is not because, since
the peace, you have dose far more than all our Mi-
nisters to promote the common wealth—but it scents
to me that you who have carried your national tri-
umphs to the remotest corners of the earth, have yet
remembered that there -was another world to conquer.
Nor will your triumph+ in She spiritual world be less
remarkable. Becauee, dust same creative power which
sin the, world of action' is called inventioti, end minis-
ters to than, this sishe:ereative power in the world of
genius;-thought is called geus; and governs and provides for man.
But in either sphere, whether of thought or action, it is
your high .and holy mission to benefit mankind.—
(Cheers.)
eFhere is nothing small, nothing selfish,
?nothing partial,nothing exclusive in the temper of
British commer&.—(Ch!ers.). It was out of a spirit as
Catholic that the humanities first sprang. It will be out
of a temper no less',
siatholic that here, in the metropolis
you I will
of English enterprise'', great hingewill again be done,—
(Ch (Cheers.) Been. at VW „risk ot; fatiguing
ittistrate my meaning. There is a city which is the
common birth-place of free commerce and free litera-
ture, It was at Mayence, .An a time of darkness and op-