The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-07-19 00:00:00

DINNER TO SIR ALLAN MACNAB

At the entertainment given by the British American Asso-
ciation to Colonel Sir A. Macnab, at the Thatched-house
Tavern, St. James's-street, London, on Friday evening,
covers were laid for nearly 100 gentlemen.
The Duke of Richmond, who filled the chair, was sup-
ported on the right by Sir A. Macnab, Sir F. Burdett, Bart.,
M.P. ; the Right Hon. Sir G. Murray, Sir D. Macdougall,
Sir John Osborn, Bart. ; Sir R. Barclay, Bart. ' • Sir J. Duke,
M.P. ; Mr. Masterman, M.P. ; and on the left by Lord
Aylmer, the Earl of Dunmore, Lord Dunboyne, Sir P. Mait-
land, Sir W. Ogilvie, Bart. ; Sir Francis B. Head, Bart. ; Sir
J. Hav, Bart. ; Sir G. Jackson, and James Holford, Esq.
Sir R. Bronn officiated as vice-president.

Among the other distinguished persons present were—
Lord Winterton, Mr. Malcomb, Mr. Sheriff, Mr. Andrews,
Mr. Robertson, Mr. Archibald, Mr. Tulloch, Mr. Urquhart,
Mr. Ross ; Drs. Bell, Ifill, Mortimer, and Chisholme ; Cap-
tain Randolph, R.N. ,• Captain Moorsom, Captain Kerr, Mr.
Bukerfield, Mr. Dodd, M.P. ; Mr. 0. Gore, • Mr.
Baldwin, M.P. : Mr. Ogden, Attorney-General for M.P.iastern
Canada ; General Alexander ; Captain Drew, R.N. ; Dr,
Rolph, Mr. Walter, Mr. H. Hughes, &c.
Letters were announced from the Marquis of Huntley, the
Marquis of Bute, the Earl of Gosford, Lords Macdonald,
Prudhoe, and Seaton, Sir G. Cockburn, Sir H. Douglas, Sir
J. Macdonnell, Sir J. Kempt, and Sir A. Maclaine, ex-
pressing their regret that absence from town on previous
engagements prevented them from being present.
The dinner, with all its adjuncts, displayed great taste and
magnificence.
The Rev. Dr. Worthing said grace.

After the cloth bad been removed

The noble Chairman gave in succession the usual loyal
toasts:—" Her Majesty the Quee,i," "The Queen Dowager,"
" His Royal Highness Prince Albert," and " Albert, Prince
of Wales, and the rest of the Royal Family," which were
drunk with three times three.

" The Army and Navy " were then given with the usual
enthusiasm, and
The noble Chairman next rose to propose the health of
that gallant and distinguished individual who sat on his right
hand. He felt that they owed him a debt of gratitude which
it was not easy for this country to repay. (Cheers.) In
timeaiof no ordinary difficulty and danger he came forward
with all the influence of his personal character—an influence
which could not have been gained if his neighbours had not
well known that he eminently deserved it,—he came forward,
resisted and overthrew the unfortunate outbreak which took
place in Canada. (Cheers.) He called it outbreak, because
he thought they would all agree with him, that in meeting
upon such an occasion as the present to do honour to Sir
Allan Macnab they ought not to say anything in that room
which could arouse any feeling of hostility on the part of
any individual. (Cheers.) He must, however, say, that he
thought he had some right to complain of the course which
had been taken by his gallant friend Sir George Murray,
who, profiting by his experience in the Peninsula, and avail-
ing himself of the secret advantage the British always took
of the French by breaking ground, had said a great deal of
what should have been left for him in proposing this toast.
(A laugh.) But it had been received in a manner which
showed that nothing was required from him, either to
heighten the compliment which had been paid, or add the
enthusiasm with which Englishmen upon such an occasion
would always welcome the gallant and brave defenders of
their country. (Cheers.) Having for the last three days
been engaged attending and speaking at very large meetings,
he really felt himself little competent satisfactorily to dis-
charge the duties of the office he had undertaken ; but he
felt the utmost satisfaction in proposing the health of their
distinguished guest, and he hoped when he returned to
Canada he would assure the loyal inhabitants there, that
Englishmen looked upon them as fellow-subjects, fellow-
countrymen, and brothers, whose paramount duty it was to
cultivate warm feelings of good-will towards each other—
(cheers,)—that Englishmen felt they were one and all in the
same boat ; and whatever enemy might arise to threaten or
to assail them, Englishmen would maintain their cause—
Englishmen would protect and defend them—Englishmen
would compliment and reward those who did their Canadian
brethren service ; for in so doing they supported the flag of
England, under which Nelson triumphed and Wellington
conquered. (Loud cheers.)
The toast was drunk with three times three, and one cheer
more. .

Sir A. MACNAB, in rising to respond to the toast, was re-
ceived with loud and reiterated cheering. The gallant officer
spoke as follows :—.My lord duke and gentlemen, the flatter-
ing manner in which you have proposed my health, and the
enthusiasm with which it has been received by so distin-
guished a company as the present, demand my warmest gra-
titude. I hope, however, no man will believe that I am
vain enough to suppose, that any services which I may have
rendered either to the colony from which I came, or the
empire of which it forms a part, could possibly entitle me
to this highly flattering mark of your regard. I therefore
merely consider myself on the present occasion as the for-
tunate individual in whose person a well-merited compliment
is intended to be paid to the loyalty and devotion of the
people of Canada. (Cheers.) It certainly will be most
cheering and gratifying to the inhabitants of that country to
find that five of their former governors not only continue to
take a lively interest in their welfare, but are at all times
ready and willing to do them any service in their power.
In common with the people of Canada I was much gratified
by the publication of a despatch from the noble lord, then
Colonial Secretary, to the late Governor-General of Canada,
in which he was pleased to assure the people of that country
that " their loyalty should be encouraged and rewarded :"
my reason for alluding to this promise is, that I see near me
a gallant and distinguished officer who for many years
had settled with his family in Canada, and who, on the
breaking out of the insurrection, leaving his family in the
woods, immediately joined the volunteers under my command,
although a sailor, marched with me from the home district
to the western section of the country, then back again to the
Niagara frontier, and never quitted the field so long as there
was a rebel to be found in the country. (Loud cheers.) I
have now the gratification of publicly declaring in Eng-
land that no service could have been more difficult, more
dangerous, or more gallantly performed than the destruction
of a vessel employed to succour and sustain those who were
in arms against her Majesty ' • and I well know that I express
the sentiments of the people of Canada when I state, that
they look forward with intense anxiety to see the loyalty and
gallantry of Capt. Drew generously rewarded. (Loud cheers.)
They feel that he, in an hour of grave emergency, rendered
them a great and important service, which, as loyal and ho-
nest men, they never can forget or too highly appreciate.
(Cheers.) Gentlemen, Upper Canada is a country that
requires nothing but a healthy population to make it one of
the finest countries in the world. We have long felt the
want of population, and there is no portion of the world
whence we so naturally or earnestly desire to receive that
population as from our beloved father-land. I was there-
fore delighted, on my arrival in this country, to find an asso-
deysirSaebrvilec a es
purpose,ltaving jt
ciation had been formed, and was fast ripening into matu-
rity, which, if
carried into successful operation, will confer
incalculable_i benefit both upon Canada and the parent state.
N
been
did
not solicited
hesitate b y thisone
moment associationomt in for so
grant-
ing them, undertaking to carry out to the utmost of my
apso we
atsh
ogsesni
be
lrea
theim p
wr
evl efamr
ee not
fo ft
ht
eh e
pceooipi nl
et rv,y, ,h
oa nsdh
aplrlom tsettlee
in the provinces of British North America. (Cheers.) In
taking farewell, my
et
o ml e yof
fellow-countrymen this
lord duke and gentlemen, of the just and
generous
countr3'- t
will,
the
o numerousn my ret u
marksrnto Ca-
nada, be no less my duty
than my great pleasure and delight
to
recount r o p
f
kindness and attention I have
can only add my sincere receivedhope that
at your hands, and I
the glorious connexion
between Great Britain and her North American colonies
may continue as long as the waters run and the g
I beg again to thank you most sincerely for the Latsisougrrows.
have done me, and beg to drink all your good healloisu
(Loud cheers.)
At a subsequent period of the evening the Chairman
gave
" Dr. Rolph, and success to his emigration scheme," when
Dr. ROLPH said, that he felt deeply indebted to his Grace
for the very flattering manner in which he had been pleased
to propose his health, and to the company for the responsive
enthusiasm with which it had been received. Ilis first suc-
cess and subsequent influence, he could not forget, had
arisen from his attendance at the great northern meeting at
Inverness in 1839, at which his Grace had presided with his
usual effect. (Cheers.) It was indeed a most gratifying
circumstance to him, that his gallant friend Sir A. Macnabb,
whom, for years past, lie had earnestly urged to visit Great
Britain, had been received with 6o much respect on his arri-
val, and with such warm demonstrations of regard on his de-
parture. On his own return to Canada, on each successive
occasion, during the last three years, he had earnestly endea-
voured to convince the warm-hearted inhabitants of that
splendid colony, that the great bulk of the people of the
United Kingdom felt the deepest interest in their welfare and

depla

prp»perity, it we; tale, and much to
the period when, under misenided impulses, r:n attempt wa.
made. to bring about a separation from Great Britain, there
were not wanting individuals in this country to justify that
insane and treasonable effort, who even wished the British
soldiery defeated, and anticipated with delight the dismem-
berment of the empire. Happily they were but few in
number, insignificant in character, and contemptible in
influence. The great body of the British people felt, that
if England lost her colonies, or was prepared to abandon
them, she would be, what she would then certainly deserve
to be, but a colony herself. ("Hear, hear," and cheers.)
Better prospects, however, have since dawned on Canada :
she had come out of a severe and trying ordeal not only un-
scathed, but triumphant. So cheering, indeed, had her
altered prospects become, that not only did those of our
fellow-countrymen wno now left the shores of Great Britain
for the American continent give Canada the preference, but
those who had taken up their abode in the United States
were returning by thousands to the peaceful sway of their
beloved monarch, again to live under the protecting influence
of the British flag. (Loud cheers.) During the present
year it had come to his personal knowledge, that larger
numbers of wealthy settlers and a greater amount of British
capital had proceeded to Canada than during any year since
the standard of old England had been planted on the heights
of Abraham by the gallant and immortal Wolfe. The pre-
sent compliment, so justly due, and so handsomely conferred
on their guest, Sir Allan Macnab, would prove most grateful
and agreeable to the inhabitants of Canada generally. They
would view it, as indeed it should be viewed, as a marked
compliment paid to themselves. They would consider it a
guarantee that the defence of Canada was highly acceptable
to the British people, and an earnest that they generally
desired to see it an incorporated, integral portion of the
British empire. (Loud cheers.) Another excellent result
would follow from this gratifying scene. A just discrimina-
tion would henceforth be made between that portion of the
American continent under the British sway, which had
always honourably maintained its faith, performed all its
obligations, preserved its credit, established its probity,
and sustained its character, from those portions of the
' same continent where the dishonest doctrines of repu-
diation had been boldly proclaimed. (Loud cheers.)
Every loan hitherto raised in Great Britain, for whatever
part of America, had been confounded under the common
name of American security; and Canada had not only just
cause of complaint for this mistake, but had suffered most
severely from the delinquencies of others, and from a sup-
posed participation in the principles of repudiation, which
she utterly denounced and abhorred. (Cheers.) It was,
therefore, fervently to be hoped, that as the current of
emigration had been fully restored to Canada, the free in-
vestment of British capital would as certainly follow. The
special object of his mission to England was the promotion
of emigration to the magnificent province of Canada. It was
certainly a source of unbounded gratification to know that he
had secured the support and co-operation of so large a
portion of the British nobility and people to aid in this great
undertaking. It had always appeared to him, and it had been
greatly deplored in Canada, that hitherto emigration had been
voluntary and unaided, and that no scheme of colonization
had ever been attempted. A combination comprehending
the extensive landowners in Canada—those deeply interested
in the removal of the surplus population from their densly
peopled estates in this kingdom—with the aid of a portion of
the unemployed capital of the mercantile and commercial
classes, would supply very great and most important deside-
rata. In the hope that such a combination could be advan-
tageously effected, it had afforded him much pleasure to find
that a powerful association hail been formed on these princi-
ples, and contemplating these objects, and trusting that their
well-directed exertions might prove serviceable to the mother
country and the colony, he looked with intense anxiety to its
success. The noble lord the Secretary for the Colonies, in one
of his lucid and pnwerful despatches to the Governor of New
Brunswick, equally applicable to Canada, had thus happily
expressed himself:—" Fully agreeing with you, that the esta-
blishment of a class of landowners possessed of capital,
applicable to the cultivation of the land and to the employ-
ment of labour, would conduce to the rapid growth and to
the solid prosperty of the colony, I yet think that the ob-
ject is owe not likely to be effected by the direct interference
of her Majesty's Government. All which it appears to me
that the Government can do towards promoting the coloni-
zation of New Brunswick is by placing a moderate price
upon the public lands, and rendering their acquisition easy,
by circulating also correct information concerning the
colony, so that parties may judge of the means which it
affords for the profitable employment of capital ; and as re-
gards the lower orders, by regulating their conveyance to
the colony without the undue enhancement of its cost. The
rest must be left to the inducements which the natural re-
sources and advantages of the colony may present ; in short,
to the operation of private interest." On these just and
natural principles it did appear to him that an extensive
scheme of colonization could be effectively and most profitably
carried out. (Cheers.)
" Westward the tide of empire holds its away,
" The first four acts already past,
" The fifth shall close the drama and the day,
"Time's noblest offspring is his last."—(Cheers.)