If the President of this Institution had been here, I should possibly
have made one of the best speeches you ever heard; but as he is not here,
I shall turn to the next toast on my list:—“The health of your worthy
Treasurer, Mr. George Moore,” a name which is a synonym for integrity,
enterprise, public spirit, and benevolence. He is one of the most
zealous officers I ever saw in my life; he appears to me to have been
doing nothing during the last week but rushing into and out of
railway-carriages, and making eloquent speeches at all sorts of public
dinners in favour of this charity. Last evening he was at Manchester,
and this evening he comes here, sacrificing his time and convenience, and
exhausting in the meantime the contents of two vast leaden inkstands and
no end of pens, with the energy of fifty bankers’ clerks rolled into one.
But I clearly foresee that the Treasurer will have so much to do
to-night, such gratifying sums to acknowledge and such large lines of
figures to write in his books, that I feel the greatest consideration I
can show him is to propose his health without further observation,
leaving him to address you in his own behalf. I propose to you,
therefore, the health of Mr. George Moore, the Treasurer of this charity,
and I need hardly add that it is one which is to be drunk with all the
honours.
* * * * *
[Later in the evening, Mr. Dickens rose and said:—]
So many travellers have been going up Mont Blanc lately, both in fact and
in fiction, that I have heard recently of a proposal for the
establishment of a Company to employ Sir Joseph Paxton to take it down.
Only one of those travellers, however, has been enabled to bring Mont
Blanc to Piccadilly, and, by his own ability and good humour, so to thaw
its eternal ice and snow, as that the most timid lady may ascend it twice
a-day, “during the holidays,” without the smallest danger or fatigue.
Mr. Albert Smith, who is present amongst us to-night, is undoubtedly “a
traveller.” I do not know whether he takes many orders, but this I can
testify, on behalf of the children of his friends, that he gives them in
the most liberal manner.
We have also amongst us my friend Mr. Peter Cunningham, who is also a
traveller, not only in right of his able edition of Goldsmith’s
“Traveller,” but in right of his admirable Handbook, which proves him to
be a traveller in the right spirit through all the labyrinths of London.
We have also amongst us my friend Horace Mayhew, very well known also for
his books, but especially for his genuine admiration of the company at
that end of the room [_Mr. Dickens here pointed to the ladies gallery_],
and who, whenever the fair sex is mentioned, will be found to have the
liveliest personal interest in the conversation.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am about to propose to you the health of these
three distinguished visitors. They are all admirable speakers, but Mr.
Albert Smith has confessed to me, that on fairly balancing his own merits
as a speaker and a singer, he rather thinks he excels in the latter art.
I have, therefore, yielded to his estimate of himself, and I have now the
pleasure of informing you that he will lead off the speeches of the other
two gentlemen with a song. Mr. Albert Smith has just said to me in an
earnest tone of voice, “What song would you recommend?” and I replied,
“Galignani’s Messenger.” Ladies and gentlemen, I therefore beg to
propose the health of Messrs. Albert Smith, Peter Cunningham, and Horace
Mayhew, and call on the first-named gentleman for a song.
XV.
ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM.