In our notice of this amusement at the late Festival, we recollect to
have said—“The ice has been broken, the pleasure has been felt, and
we shall be mistaken if the next effort be not more successful.”
This prediction, intended at the time to be applied to future
festivals, we did not expect to be so soon, so completely, or so
successfully fulfilled, as in the instance we now have the pleasure
to record. This entertainment was given at the Town Hall on Tuesday
evening last, in celebration of the attainment of his majority by Mr.
S. Palmer, the grandson of the late Danby Palmer, Esq., whose
extended private connections and still wider mercantile pursuits have
bequeathed to his grandson a more numerous portion of friends than it
is the lot of most persons to enjoy at an early period of life. The
invitations were sent out with such hospitality, the preparations
were on so munificent a scale, that the spirit of the donor seemed to
diffuse itself not only to all those who were about to be present,
but to all the inhabitants of the borough. The novelty, the
continued arrivals, the firing of cannon, the banners floating at the
Town Hall, and in various parts of the town, the gay appearance of
the ships in the harbour, most of which were decorated with pennons,
as were several vessels in the Roads—all aided in keeping alive the
expectation, so that in the evening the Quay, around the hall, was
crowded with persons anxious to see the company—so anxious, indeed,
that the carriage windows were assailed by men and women jumping up
to get a peep at the interior. The company began to assemble about
half-past eight, and on entering the ball room were announced by
name, and received by Mr. Palmer and his mother and Miss A. Burton
(to whom, we understand, Mr. Palmer is about to be united.) These
ladies appeared in very elegant Court dresses, and Mr. Palmer in a
full-dress Court suit. Till ten o’clock the company continued to
arrive, at which hour Mr. Palmer opened the Ball by leading off a
country dance with Miss A. Burton. We never saw a similar
entertainment combining so great a variety of character. The
brilliancy of the colours and the constant succession of costumes,
the reliefs, the contrasts, and the varying shades, reminded us
forcibly of those beautiful combinations formed by the kaleidoscope,
of which, visually, this scene may be said to have been an animated
representation. On the one side of a quadrille was to be seen the
gawdy Spaniard, leading with haughty dignity the lively Mrs. Ford of
the Elizabethian age; while behind him stood pondering o’er the
fleeting vanity of this world the solitary Friar; opposite ranged the
joyous Sailor, indulging his mirth at the expense of the courtly
dignity of his fair partner. At one end was the Old Gentleman of two
centuries since, in all the gravity and politeness of that age,
leading forth some sprightly Tyrolese; while at the other was a
Chinese Mandarin, paired off with a black-eyed Gipsy; a little
further, and the Scotchman promenaded with the brilliant Circassian;
the Frieselander with the simply-dressed Quakeress; the Queen of
Scots with the bronze and fierce Turk; the reckless Massaroni with
the lively Mrs. Page; the dark Colombian with the prim lady of an
hundred years ago; the Forester with the Flower Girl; the haughty
Knight Templar with the simple Swiss Peasant; the chivalrous Pole
with the heavy Russian; the youthful Ivanhoe with a French Peasant;
and to crown the diversity, Day and Night were to be seen at once,
arm and arm with a Chimney Sweep.
April 14th.—The Preston (Capt. Woodthorpe), with passengers, for Prince
Edward’s Island and Quebec, had been towed down the Harbour.
May 5th.—This number contains the following account of the Borough
Election, consequent upon the rejection of a Reform Bill:—
The Mayor, in opening the proceedings, said that the electors were
met to exercise an important trust, that of electing two persons to
represent the Borough—a trust at all times of the greatest
responsibility, but certainly never more so than at the present
eventful crisis. Determined as he was to act with strict justice,
and with that fairness and impartiality which were the best ornaments
of the office he had the honour to hold, he entreated that the
contest in which they were now about to be engaged might be conducted
on both sides with that order and decorum that forbearance and
moderation due from gentlemen to gentlemen, and from man to man.
(Cheers.)
Mr. B. Dowson, in a brief but emphatic address, put in nomination the
Hon. George Anson, this was seconded by R. Palmer Kemp, Esq.
T. Clowes, Esq., then proposed, in an address replete with sterling
sense and strength, C. E. Rumbold, Esq., seconded by J. Shelley,
Esq., who adverted to the circumstance of Mr. Colville being a
merchant connected with the West Indian Trade and a supporter of
colonial slavery.
I. Preston, Esq., jun., and — White, Esq., nominated A. Colville,
Esq., and J. Lacon, Esq., jun., and Mr. J. Laws nominated W. Bliss,
Esq.
Col. Anson and Mr. Rumbold addressed the electors at considerable
length, pointing out the merits of the measure they supported, during
which they were enthusiastically cheered.
Mr. Colville also spoke at length, amid much tumult, during which he
was interrupted by loud yells of various kinds—attacking the Bill for
its disfranchising nature, and defending colonial slavery.
Mr. Bliss had not arrived at that time.
A poll was determined and immediately opened and continued till five
o’clock on that and the following day, when the numbers were
announced by the Committee of Anson and Rumbold to be—
For Col. Anson 748
Mr. Rumbold 748
Mr. Colville 503
Mr. Bliss 497
The poll was adjourned till Monday.
On Sunday morning, however, Messrs. Colville and Bliss left the town,
or, as our correspondent writes, “May Day became more than commonly
exhilarating, by the agreeable information quickly diffused through
the town, that the enemies of freedom and of the Constitution had
fled, happy in evading and escaping from merited punishment, so
irritated were the minds of the lower class of society against these
obtruders, without a shadow of claim to their suffrages, that, by
their flight on Sunday morning, they probably escaped an ablution in
the waters of the beautiful river Yare.”