Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-11-24

W ,lCAhB az Tile
head is thrown down until the audience
sees the back Of the head-this is the his
tory of one of Bulwer's rasping, un-
pleasant sentences. He throws his Land
with faultless cuffs straight out; clasps
the fingers tightly TO the palm; then
draws it under his arm, as a man would
pulling in a gudgeon-and that is his ges-
ture. He should appear only in print. To
those who could shut their eyes las did,,
and listen to what he said, his speeches on
Saturday night were very good indeed He
is the first man whom, in long experience
of London divines, / have heard put a
single remark worth making into the in
evitable toast to the Queen; for it certainly
was worth noting, az he said, that the reign
of Victoria had, above all others, seen
literary men raised to political power" a
sign of the civilization that ever seeks to
draw closer the legitimate union of knowl-
edge and power" His speech in propos-
| ing the toast of the evening was certainly
perfect thing of its kind.
It closed as follows:
81 cannot but think that wherever our
American kinsfolk welcome that presence
| (Dickens) or hang spellbound on that voice,
| they will irresistibly feel how much there
| is of fellowship and unison between the
hearts of America and England. (Cheers. /
So that when our .countryman quits their
| shores he will leave behind him many a
new friend to that old fatherland which
greets them through him so cordially in
the accents of the mother tongue. Cheers. I
And in those accents what sense of price
less obligation, personally to him, but
| through him to the land he represents,
must steal over his American listeners
How many hours In which pain and sick
ness have changed into cheerfulness and
mirth beneath the wand of his enchant,
ment. lCheers.J How many hard COM
Blatant, beaten down in the battle of life
and nowhere on this earth is the battle of
life sharper than in the Commonwealth of
America-has taken hope, and courage
and force from the manly lessons Of this
unobtrusiVe teacher. GCheers.] No wonder
the rising generation of those who have
learned to feel and to think in our language
should eagerly desire to see face to face the
| man whose genius, from their very child
hood, they have turned for warmth and
light as instinetively as young plants turn
to the SUM- But must not forget that it
is not | whom you have come to hear; and
all that I could say, had 10 vindieate the
| fame of our guest from disparagement or
cavil, would seem but tedious common
| place when addressed to those who know
| that his career has passed beyond the or
| deal of cotemporaneous criticism, and has
found in the applause Of foreign nations a
foretaste of the Judgment Of posterity.
| [Cheers.l | feel, indeed, as if had al.
ready too long delayed your natural impa-
thence for the toast / now propose; "A
prosperous voyage, health and long life to
our illustrious guest and countryman,
Charles Dickens"
A score of times was this speech inter
| rupted by ringing cheers; but when Dick
| ems arose he had to stand long while the
shouts and thunders stormed upon him.
Men leaped upon chairs, tossed up napkins.
waved not only glasses, but decanters and
| half-emptied champagne bottles, over their
heads-not without baptizing sundry per,
sons under them-and then there was a
pressing up the aisles from the lower tables
until Dickens wus girt about by solid
wall of his friends Twice his throat fall
tered as he began the glow Of his face
came before the words, and all felt that it
was asacred moment with him. His speech,
fine as it was, could not equal the impress
sion of that first look He said
No thanks that can offer you can ex-
press my sense of my reception by this
| great assellblage, nor can in the least
| suggest to you how deep the glowing words
of my friend the Chairman, and your ac-
| ceptanee ofthem, have sunk into my heart.
But both combined have SO greatly shaken
| the composure which / am used to COM
| mand before an audience, that I hope YOU
| may observe IN me some traces of an elo-
quence more expressive than the richest
words. (Cheers")
After referring to the trials and labors
of his literary career, Mr.. Dickens thus
spoke of his proposed voyage to America
And now, passing to the immediate oc-
casion of your doing me this great honor,
| the story OF my going again to America is
very easily and briefly told. Since / was
there before vast and entirely new gene
ration has arisen in the United States.
Since | was there before most of the best
known of my books have been written and
published the new generation and the
books have come together and have kent
together, until at length numbers of those
who have so widely and constantly read
me, naturally desiring little variety in
the relationship between us, have expressed
strong wish thatI should read myself
Cheers. This wish, at first conveyed to
me through public channels and business
channels, has gradually became enforced
by an immense accumulation of letters
from individuals and associations of indi-
viduals, all expressing in the same hearty,
homely, cordial, unaffected way, kind of
personal interest in mel had almost said
a kind of personal affection for me [cheers1
which | am sure you would agree with me
1t would be dull insensibility on my part
not to prize. Little BY little this pressure
has become so great that, although, as
Charles Lamb says, my household gods
strike terribly deep root, / have torn
them from their places, and this day week,
atthis hour, shall be upon the sea. You
will readily conceive that / am inspired
beside by natural desire to see for myself
the astonishing change and progress of a
quarter Of century over there, to grasp
the hands of many faithful friends whom
/ left there, 10 see the faces Of the multi
tude of new friends upon whom / have
never looked, and last, not least, to use nv
best endeavor to lay down third cable
cheers of intercommunication and alli-
ance between the old world and the new.
Loud cheers. Twelve years ago, when
Heaven knows little thought / should
ever be bound upon the voyage which
now lays before me, wrote in that form of
my writing which obtains by far the most
extensive circulation, these words of the
American nation i know full we'll,
whatever little notes my beamy eyes may
have deserted in theirs, that they are
kind large-hearted, generous, and great
people Hear.l In that faith / am go
ing to see them again; in that faith /
shall, please God, return from them in the
spring in that same faith to live and to
die. 1 told you in the beginning that 1
could not thank you enough, and Heaven
knows / have most thoroughly kept my
word A laugh. If l may quote one
other short sentence from myself let il i'm
ply all that have left una2id, and vet
most deeply feel. Let il, putting girdle
round the earth, comprehend both sides of
the Atlantic at once in this moment, and |
say, as Tiny Tim observes, God bless us
every one"
Speeches we're made also by Tom Tay- |
Ior, Sir Edward Landseer, Anthony Troll
Iope, Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, and |
Blackstone, of the Haymarket Theater. |