Also it has the honour of enrolling upon its list of donors
and vice-presidents the great name of Longfellow. I beg to propose
to you to drink "Prosperity to the Newsvendors' Benevolent and
Provident Institution."
SPEECH: MACREADY. LONDON, MARCH 1, 1851.
[On the evening of the above day the friends and admirers of Mr.
Macready entertained him at a public dinner. Upwards of six
hundred gentlemen assembled to do honour to the great actor on his
retirement from the stage. Sir E. B. Lytton took the chair. Among
the other speakers were Baron Bunsen, Sir Charles Eastlake, Mr.
Thackeray, Mr. John Forster, Mr. W. J. Fox, and Mr. Charles
Dickens, who proposed "The Health of the Chairman" in the following
words:-]
Gentlemen,--After all you have already heard, and so rapturously
received, I assure you that not even the warmth of your kind
welcome would embolden me to hope to interest you if I had not full
confidence in the subject I have to offer to your notice. But my
reliance on the strength of this appeal to you is so strong that I
am rather encouraged than daunted by the brightness of the track on
which I have to throw my little shadow.
Gentlemen, as it seems to me, there are three great requisites
essential to the perfect realisation of a scene so unusual and so
splendid as that in which we are now assembled. The first, and I
must say very difficult requisite, is a man possessing the
stronghold in the general remembrance, the indisputable claim on
the general regard and esteem, which is possessed by my dear and
much valued friend our guest.
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