Star.
London, England, 1814-01-15 00:00:00

O,CONING's SPERCII re or ELECTORS
OF LivEltpoott,

sotfay last, this highly accomplished Orator and
.iened Statesman was entertained by his Con-
e'
at the Liverpool Arens, Liverpool, with a
lost sumptuous festival. HisiSpeech upon the wea-
r.% vas one of the most brilliant which 'ever fell
b' lir. We give it at fall length—to curtail
fro -
. be to mar it—every passage in it is equally,
soul
004_ . ' : •
onhis health being alrank, Mr. CANNING rose and,
messed himself as follows : •
GENTLEMEN —As your guest, I thank you from
in vArt for dr honourable and affectionate reception
Tl
0;cil you have given me. As the representative of
terponl, lam most happy in this opportunity of
setting my constituents again after a year's experi-
and a year's separation—a year,
ence 0.1. each other, _ _
gie eventful in the annals of. the world,
. and
'singe within itself such a-series of important
twoojans and of stupendous changes, as might.
bye filled the history of an age.
Gentlethen—ln the sentiment which has been'
totpled with my name, you are so good as to express
youracknowledgments for the-attention which I have.
paid to business and to the interests of your
your I _
You, Gentlemen, have no doubt, recollect
town.
the terms Upon which I entered into your service ;
and you are aware, therefore, that I claim no parti.
COW acknowledgment at your hands for attention to'
e interests of Liverpool, so far as they are hiapli-
owl sOth the general interests of the country. I
tine at the same time that, collectively and indivi-
dually, I have not been wanting to all or to any of
you, in matters of local or individual concern. But
I ,!could not do fairly by you if I were not to take
this opportuity of saying, that a service (certainly I
not pretend to say without difficulty, or without
burden in itself) has been made light to me !se-
ri{ all exaMple, by that institution which. your
itrificeace -..ud provident care has established—l
that office ?fs London, through which your cor-
iiidelice with your Members is now carried on.
I bid no pretention to stipulate for this singular
k of attention, and neither will it, I hope, be
ought presuroptuoas in me to say that it might
tore been impossible for me to discharge the service
Lich I owe you in a way which would have satis-
,.. every man's feelings; that I might, in spite of
my endeavours, have given offence in some in-
ice, by unintentional delay or omission; it I .had
been provided with some such medium of coin.
unication between us. Ot an individual, absent
id meritorious, it is as pleasinic as it is just to speak
ell: and I rhould not do justice to the gentleman
bon you have appointed to conduct, the office in
iuestion (with whom I had no previous actittaint.
ace), if I were not to bear public testimony to his
,erit ; and to assure you that it would be difficult.
find any one wno would surpass him in zeal, in.
aid industry.
"Having dispatched what it was necessary for me'
to say on points of local interest, I know,Gentlemen,
that it is your wish, and T. feel it to be my duty, that
I should now proceed to communicate to yon' my sen-
timents to the state of public affairs, with the same
frankness which has hitherto distinguished all our ui-
tercourse with each other. Gentlemen, that duty is
one which it does not now require any effort of cou-
rage to perform. To exhort to sacrifices, to stimulate
to exertion, to shame despondency, to divert from
untimely concession, is a duty of a sterner sort, which
you found me not backward to discharge, at a period
when, from the short period of our acquaintance, 1
was uncertain whether my freedom might not offend
you. My task of to-dap is one at which no man can
take offence. It is to mingle my congratulations
with your rejoicings on the events which have passed
lam passing in the world. •
" Gentlemen, if in contemplating events so widely
(Iliad almost said so tremendously) important, it-
were possible and pardonable to turn one's view for
a moment to considerations merely local- or indivi-
dual, 1 should say, that, while to Great Britain,
while to all Europe, while to the world and to pos-
terity the events which have recently taken place are
matter of joy and ctingratulasion, there is perhaps no
collccOn of individuals who are more entitled than
the company now assembled in-this room, in great
pin I presume identically the same, and altogether
reprisenting the same interests and feelings, as that
orivitieh I took leave in this room about fourteen
months ago, to exult in those events and to derive
ham them,. in addition to their share of the general
loyoa special and selfish satisfaction.
"'We Cannot forget, Gentlemen, the appalling
omens, and the awful predictions under which I se-
parated froth you at that time. I oemember that I
was.tahoht to believe that when I returned to renew
my actluaintance with my constituents I should find
the grass growing in your streets. Probably you
must recollect that the penalty denounced upon you
for your election of me was -famine to the poor ;and
difficulties to the rich. In spite of that warning you
did me.the honour to elect me ; in spite of the other
warning I.ventured to meet. you here again. Ido
not patriot that my election, as was intimated at
the time, has' arrested the bounty of PROVIDENcu and
turned back the course of the seasons. On the other '
hand, it is fair to admit, that this is not the season of
the year at which it would be possible for me to esti-
ma_ to correctly the amount of superfluous and uapro-
fitahle vegetation with winch your streets may be
'fuming. But without presuming to limit the energy
ti productive nature, of this at least one may rest
satisfied, that the fields . have not been starved to
011.1 e your quays with verdure ; that it is not by
t(;onomizing in the -0“11611111511 of the harvest that
tmture has reserved • her vigour for the pastures of
your Exchange.
" But, Gentlemen, I am sure you feel with me that
these are topics which I treat with levity, only be-
ta. use they are not, nor were at the tithe when they
were seriously urged, capable of a serious argument
they did not furnish grounds tin which any man
'mold rest his appeal to your favour, sit on whish
your choice of any man could be justified. If I bait
condescended to revers to them at all it is because I
would leave none of thaw recollections untouched
Which
the comparison of .our lost me". 8 with the
present I know suggests to your minds as well as to
I own—and because I would, as far as its melies,
enamour to banish from all future use by exposing