The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1809-11-21
FROM THE LONDON Examiner.
DINNER IN HONOR OF THE
IMMORTAL PITT"

In Ireland. a death is the life of whole
ncighborhood; the friends of the deceased
sembie on the occasion to unite melancho.
ly with miitn, TO ask him N plaistiye cries
hozuhe could haze tcfi them and to get drunk.
lhis soiemnity isscali.d a make, aud is CIR
-iis ed To the lower orders. The English have
their 7uakeS also, but only amoilg the great ::
the ceremony however is much The same.
"great minister" dies: his friends, not
content with single wake, have en- annual
one; they assemble with the same mixed
sensibiity to grow melancholy or merry IS
the past or present feeling predominates. to
ask the great mn how he could have left
them, and to Shed a prO.usion of wine If a
joke or jeuz. d'esprit goes round, thea they
all laugh; if the great mans name is men
toned, then they all look sorry nothing can
be more naturai:--all the essential differ
cnce between the Irish and English solemnitv
is. that the Irish do not get drunk till they
nave commenced, while the English are ma
niiestly intoxicated beforehand: with the
former, intoxication is the effect; with the
latter, it is, in every sense of the word, the
cause.
IT posterity, asst may be apt to do, should
regard this festival as "a remnant of northern
barbarism-if 1T should not see the inspiring
connection between dead man & a dinner,
or be able to conceive how the same wine
that % giaddens the heart Gf man. should
also dispose him to solemn sadness-it should
recoisect that the English naver thought il
necessary to pay public dining testimony
to the merits of their great statesmen, poe S
and philosophers: the Immortality of those
great men never depended upon eating, aud
drinking and ranting: TO make foolish speech
es would have had as little To do with the
memory of Chatham, as TO get drunk would
have had do with ccie nrt g.
verses, with Milton: but to the memory O,
great placemen and other such " illustr ious'
characters, dinner has most excellent aln-
sion. In the hrSt place, their memory, a,
the savages believed oftheir deceased ances
tors, perpetua,ly stands in need of refresh
mcnt: secondly, all the objects as the dinner.
as the loaves and the fishes, &c. nav. even the
very seas, tend to remind the assembly OF
the blessings they have enjoyed under the
great mans dispensation: and thirdly, as il
was the practice of ancient devotion to offer
corn 70 Ceres the giver of corn, and wine 60
Bacchn8 the wine bibber, SO the gratitude
OF the assembly is best displayed in the So
lemn sacrifice of the above mentioned good
things to the memory Of the " iilustrious' -
and lever to be lamented'' donor:
Mr.. Pitt'S anniversary was kept in this
manner the other day; and in spite of those
writer's who object TO the festival, no place.
man. think, could have met with more an
propriate honors than to be drunk AS he was
IN tact, cannot see what the most fastidious
1T those writer's would have, when they re
collect that the meeting has been eulogizef
! by MIR. Fitzgcraid in poetry. and bv tho
Morning Post in prose. 1t is trne. object
ons had been made, very solemn objection
| by the Pittites themselves, to the same t;nI
of meetings among other people the mimic
tiers who assembled for political purroses 81
the London tavern protested, it must he ron.
fessed against the men who assembled fo,
! pouical purposes ut the grown y .3uchor
ard they certainly did maintain with preaI
veh0mence, that TO meet for such purpose,
at the Cro4v', and .dnc6or was violation q
decency, and true patriotism. But then the
Cases are so different For instance ST,
FrGHctS BtTden, baronet, is NOT Mr.. ,Joh,
InSteS, East indian director therefore nc
has 40 n8ht to be the head of public Ia.
! bic :--secondly, Mr.. WGrdie M II. IS not
mr.. PerceUai, the chancellor o. the exche
querj merJoy'e, he has no right 70 i've hi.
| opinion in public: thirdly, the cause Of the
people is quite distinct thing from ;he
cause Of Pin; therefore, the people have No
right to dine together foGrthly. the peoufe
pay for the places but the ministers en;o,
| them thcrGore. the people must keen a,
home, aud dine as well as they can. and hold
their tongues like good children, while the
placemen may 80, and eat, and talk where
| yer, whenever, and whatever they please
II these reasons do not satisfv INV readers
they must have the very stOmachs of the
London livery. Mr.. Canning, it mus, be
allowed, does not $50 so far in this respec; as
| ms " illustrious" aud "ever to be lamented,
Colleagues, but when he was a. ked in ths