Another objection to the Board of Health is conveyed in a word not
so large as the other,--"Delay." I would suggest, in respect to
this, that it would be very unreasonable to complain that a first-
rate chronometer didn't go when its master had not wound it up.
The Board of Health may be excellently adapted for going and very
willing and anxious to go, and yet may not be permitted to go by
reason of its lawful master having fallen into a gentle slumber and
forgotten to set it a going. One of the speakers this evening has
referred to Lord Castlereagh's caution "not to halloo until they
were out of the wood." As regards the Board of Trade I would
suggest that they ought not to halloo until they are out of the
Woods and Forests. In that leafy region the Board of Health
suffers all sorts of delays, and this should always be borne in
mind. With the toast of the Board of Health I will couple the name
of a noble lord (Ashley), of whose earnestness in works of
benevolence, no man can doubt, and who has the courage on all
occasions to face the cant which is the worst and commonest of all-
-the cant about the cant of philanthropy.
SPEECH: GARDENING. LONDON, JUNE 9, 1851.
[At the anniversary dinner of the Gardeners' Benevolent
Institution, held under the presidency of Mr., afterwards Sir
Joseph Paxton, Mr. Charles Dickens made the following speech:-]
I feel an unbounded and delightful interest in all the purposes and
associations of gardening.
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