Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 4

[274] gatherings were given by the first two in his honor. He¹ spent an evening also at Jacob Bright's, and an hour or² two in the lobby of the House of Commons, one afternoon,³ exchanging greetings with his friends in the House,— John and Jacob Bright, Sir Wilfred Lawson, Joseph Cowen, Samuel Morley, Henry Richards, Duncan McLaren, Benjamin Whitworth, and Sir Thomas Bazley. One day was given to Kew, Twickenham, Hampton Court, and⁴ Richmond, and another to the Handel Triennial Festival⁵ at the Crystal Palace. Mr. Garrison attended and spoke briefly at the annual meeting of the National Woman⁶ Suffrage Association; and at a meeting in behalf of the London School of Medicine for Women he listened to⁷ speeches by the Earl of Shaftesbury, Mr. Stansfeld, Mrs.⁸ Westlake, Prof. Fawcett, Miss Jex Blake, and Dr. Garrett-Anderson. He also heard a liberal discourse by Dean⁹ Stanley at St. Stephen's. One of his pleasantest mornings¹⁰ was spent at Argyll Lodge, in Kensington, where he breakfasted with the Duke and Duchess of Argyll and their¹¹ daughters,—John Bright, Hon. Charles Howard, and Hon. Lyulph Stanley being the other guests; and he had a cheerful interview also with Lord Houghton, who was just then¹² confined to his room by a painful accident, but who insisted on seeing him, though other callers were turned away.

The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society would not consent to Mr. Garrison's leaving London without receiving some mark of attention from them. Among the fifty gentlemen present at the breakfast which they¹³ tendered him, at the Devonshire House Hotel, there were over a dozen members of Parliament, including William E. Forster, Evelyn Ashley, and Sir George Campbell, who all spoke. The guest of the occasion had understood that it would be entirely informal, and was unprepared for any speech-making, but he complied with the request of the President (Edmund Sturge) that he would give some account of the progress of the colored people in the South since emancipation, and spoke with ease and fluency to deeply interested auditors.