previous next
[199]

Letters expressing sympathy with the objects of the meeting were also received from the Earl of Shaftesbury, Lord Houghton, Sir Charles Lyell, Sir T. F. Buxton, Goldwin Smith, Charles Buxton, M. P., Professor J. E. Cairnes, Thomas Hughes, M. P., and many others unable to attend. Of these we give but one:

Sir Charles Lyell to F. W. Chesson.

73 Harley Street, June 22, 1867.
1 dear Sir: I regret that my engagements are such as to prevent me from assisting in the arrangements for a public breakfast to Mr. Garrison, who has done so much for a cause in which I warmly sympathize.

I will do what I can in making the intended meeting known among those who I know will be glad to contribute to its success.

Believe me, dear Sir,

Very truly yours,


Those who were familiar with Mr. Bright's oratory averred that he had never spoken with more grace and simple eloquence, or with deeper tenderness and feeling, than characterized the beautiful address with which he introduced the post-prandial exercises of the occasion. Its effect upon his audience was most impressive, and a common baptism of spirit seemed to pervade the great assembly, which listened as if entranced. His opening words were as follows:

The position in which I am placed this morning is one very3 unusual for me, and one that I find somewhat difficult; but I consider it a signal distinction to be permitted to take a prominent part in the proceedings of this day, which are intended to commemorate one of the greatest of the great triumphs of freedom, and to do honor to a most eminent instrument in the achievement

1 W. L. G. Breakfast, p. 17.

2 Here it will not be inappropriate to cite the following private tribute from Charles Darwin (Mss. to W. P. G., October, 1879): ‘I thank you also for the Memorials of Garrison, a man to be forever revered.’ ‘It will ever be a deep gratification to me to know that your Father, whom I honor from the bottom of my soul, should have heard and approved of the few words which I wrote many years ago on Slavery.’ (See the “Journal of a voyage,” passim, and particularly the chapter on Brazil.)

3 W. L. G. Breakfast, p. 17.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

Sort places alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a place to search for it in this document.
Brazil (Brazil) (1)

Download Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text.

hide People (automatically extracted)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
October, 1879 AD (1)
June 22nd, 1867 AD (1)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: