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Les diagrammes sulvants lllustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 32 X 1 2 3 4 5 6 • "" •J I • SIR WALTKR SCOTT OENTENARY DIXXEg. SPEECH or Mr. CHAS. MATHEWS, AT THK HWAhWf^^ppjj CENTENARY DINNER. AT St. JAMES CLUB, iiTir August, i8;i. MONTREAL: CA2fiTTB i'RINTINC KOl'SK. 1871. ?1\ S 33-i. t^3 PREFACE. Earlv in the summer a meeting of gentlemen was held for the purpoM of devising means for the due celebration of the centenary anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott. At this meeting a Commiitee was appointed, and a number of conferences took place on the subject. If was fitund, however, that owing to the season of the year at which tl» anniversary occurred, and the fact that many persons were absent from the city with their families, it would be difficult to ensure such a public demonstration as would be worthy of so important an event. The general public celebration was, therefore, abandoned, and instead, the founding of a " Scott Scholarihip" iu the University of McGill, was resolved ui on. It was still, however, felt by a number of gentlemen that there should at least be something more to mark the centenary anniversary of so great a tnan as Sir Walter Scott ; and while considering the matter an event occurred which led to the dinner at St James' Club. Mr, Charles Mathews had accepted and was fulfilling an engagement at the Theatre RoyaU The suggestion was made that if he, a conteniiH)rary and personal friend of Sir Walter Scott, could be induced to lend his assistance, something might be done. He was oinsulted on the subject, and tiie result was the dinner at St. James' Club House, particulars of which are here given. Less formal than some demonstrations which took place elsewhere, the circumstance of Mr. Mathew's presence at this dinner, and the personal references to Sir Walter Scott which he was able to make, render the St. James' Club dinner worthy of record among ihemany demonstrations which marked the general reverence for the memory of a great and good man. <^^s THE SCOTT CENTENARY. THE CELEBRATION AT ST. JAMES' CLUB. On the evening of Friday, nth August, a number of gentlemen, members of St. James' Club, and their guests, celebrated the Centenary of Sir Walter Scott by a dinner at the Club House, Dorchester Street The following ate the names of those present : Sir Hugh Allan, Mr. Cmas. Mathbws, Mr. E. H. King, Mr. R. B. Angus, Mr. G. A. Drummond, Mr. F. W. Thomm. Col. MoPPATT, Mr. HuiToif, ■ Mr. CoTTB, Major WoRSLEV, Mr. RosK, Mr. Rbbkik, Mr. W. RvLAND, Mr. Camrron, Mr. Stewart, Mr. DuNLOP, Hon. Hbnrv Starkm, Capt. pRvoR Mathbws, Mr. C. J. Brvoubs. Mr. H. S. Macoougall, Mr. A. C. HooPBR, Mr. Jackson Rab, Mr. Lbcgr, Mr. Cramp, Mr. Thos. WhiTB, Jr., Mr. Sheldon Strphkns, Mr. Pkbntics, Mr. G. Stephen. Mr. Db« RiriERBS. Capt. Bbnyon, Mr. Cbawpord, Mr. Dbsdarats. ■ The chair was occnpied (by request) |,y Mr. Charlet Mathews. After the removal of the cloth, Mr. Mathews gave the usual standard toasts, which were duly honoured. Mr. Mathews then gave the toast of the evening, and, in doing so, said: ,' Oenti.kmem, Under any other circumstances. I should begin by apologising for placing myself in the onerous position I now occupy; but since you have done me the honor to invite mc to it, I conclude that it is not only a compliment to myself but a pleasure to you to sec mc here. (Cheers.) With this flattering unction I conddently plunge into the task I have undert.iken. I will not say that I am unfitted for it, for that would be casting a slur upon your judgment in electing me • but in doing so (knowing me so '. ;. you will not. I am sure,' have reckoned on any brilliant c.isplay of eloquence on the occasion, but will be content to hear me address you in my own gossipy way, and allow me to chatter on with you ns among old friends, instead of astonishing you with any elab- orate bursts of oratory, carefully prepared, as for a grave and formal assembly. (Hear, hear.) There is no doubt that I ought, by right, to be a Scotchman to-night ; but here in Canadi that necessity is not ^o strong as it would be at home, seeing that abroad the distinction between Scotch, English and Irish is not so marked. Here we are all " Britishers ; » and after all. the works of the great man wh.«,e centenary we celebrate, are in reality c.m,nnpolitan.-l)cl.mKing to no country, to no n.itl.n,ality.-a.s well appreciated in Kngland, Ireland. France, Italy, (Jerniany. and wherever a printing press is to 1« found.' a« they arc in Scotland ItHclf. (Checrn.) I am quite aware that no Scotchman will allow this. To him it icen equally subjected to his delightful treatment ; and if his I„idy of the Lake, Marmion, Rob Roy, Guy Manering, He:? t of Mid Lothian, and so many others cnt'ear him to Scotland, his Ivanhoe, Nigel. I'everil, Quentin Durward and others make him equally dear to England and France, and thus we all claim kindred. (Cheers.) If Shakespeare was " n.;t for an age, but for all time." so Scott was not for a nation, but for the world at large. (Cheers.) He was the i)ioneer of a new epoch in Literature. What was the state of things before he burst upon the world? The novels of Smollett and Fielding, admirable as they were, had I)ecome too coarse for the delicacy of the ane. as those of Pigault Lcbrec had bcconie in France. The Sir Charles Grandisons and Clarissa Harlows of Rich- ardson, sinning in the opposite extreme, had grown wearisome from their conventional and stilted affectation of over delicacy; while the namby-pamby :)roductions of the Minerva press had 10 brought novels Into such disrepute that they were forbidden articles, and their perusal was not only held as pernicious, but the,r readers were actually objects of ridicule, the character of Lydia Languish having been expressly written by Sheridan to represent the type of the young Pedrus who indulged in them. 1 he niflated romance of the Miss Porters were certainly less objectionable, but were fantastic and uurcliable.- unreal and unprofitable ; and the wild creations of Ann Radcliffe were mere vehicles for exciting the imaginations and harrowing the feehngs. Miss Burney and Miss Edgeworth were undoubtedly writers of higher merit. ]^t it was reserved for Scorr to strike out a new vein,-to create a new era in composition.- to give works of fiction a higher character.-to combine with interest of story.^with truth of history and accuracy of detail, *-the elegance of diction and the tersenes. of the essayist.- the stamp of nature.-the perfect delineator of character with, out exaggeration. -the inculcation of the soundest, sweetest and most unaffected morality.-so artistically blended that you have at once the charm of the novelist with the precision of the historian. (Cheers.) The effect of his first book was «lectnc-a flash of lightning. It struck home to all hearts , .t was a revelation. He was not aware of what he had done himself. On sending the first published copy of Waverley to his friend Moorett, he speaks of it as '• a small anonymous sort of a noveI."-says that he began it long ago.-mislaid the manuscript for some time.-found it in an old cabinet.-took a fancy to it. and wrote the last two volumes in three weeks He did not, expect it to be popular, he said, in the south, as much of the hnmour was local. He did not put his name to II I It, fearing so trifling a work miglit injure his reputation as a poet. He never for a moment imagined that the novelist was doomed to throw the poet into tiie shade, and that in a short time all Europe would ring with the fame of this "trifling anonymous sort of a novel," and the centennial celebration of the author's birthday be observed wherever civilization ex- tended. (Cheers.) For twenty years he proceeded from success to success, from triumph to triumph, pn :ing some thirty matchless works, which have been translated into every European language, and have never been surpassed. He founded a schooUhich has given us countless worthy disciples, enriching our literature with admirable works of fiction-novels which, as he himself says, he may surely claim as the style "Which he was born to introduce, Refined it first and showed its use." But I am telling you nothing but what you know better thatt myself, and as Sneer says in the "Critic,"—" If her'Walter knmos all this, why does her Christopher go on teliing'him ? " and he is right. So I'll turn at once to what you don't know, and. as briefly as I can, give you one or two personal remin- iscences. It is not vanity that prompts me to introduce my^lf into the subject, but an excusable pride j for if a Scotchman is proud of being Scott's townsman, or even his countryman, - of having been born in the same hemisphere,-surely I may be pardoned for feeling equal pride in having been honored with his intimacy,-of having visited him in Edinburgh, and been his guest at Abbotsford. (Cheers.) The first tir.ie I had the gratification of meeting him was on a memorable occasion. It was at a breakfast with Lord Byron in his rooms at Long's IS Hotel. Scott, Terry, my father and myself made up the party. How I came there I don't know.-being then a mere boy of twelve or thirteen ; but I suppose my father managed it for me, and I have never forgotten it. I was all eyes and ears. Byron and Scott were both in high spirits, and it was a meeting to remember. Scott mentions it in his diary, and says it was the last time he ever met Dyron. Little did I think then that nearly sixty years afterwards I should be presiding at the centenary of his birth at Montreal. The next day my father and myself accom- panied him to Kenil-Aorth and Warwick, and had the delight of roaming through the ru^n with the distinguished man who was afterwards to expand and perfect his observations in the splendid novel founded upon them. The next time it was my good fortune to meet him was six or seven years later at another equally interesting breakfast. It was at Sir Francis Chantrey's, when he was sitting for the admirable bust that you all know' 80 well. Chantrey stood at work at one corner of the room, while Scott, drawn out by my father and one or two others (Allan Cunninghan I think was one), kept us in a constant state of delight by his endless anecdotes and pleasantries, his face lighting up at each sally with that comic expression so exquisitely caught and transferred to marble by Chantrey. (Cheers.) There is in thf bust a play about the long upper lip and a twinkle of the r'ye that conveys the exact expression . of Scott when on the point of delivering some touch of humour. On my return from Italy. I think in 1825, I again met him at a memorable dinner-party, at James Ballantyne's house, in Edinburgh, in company with Jeffrey, Wilson, Peter Robertson, Playfair and other notabilities ; and I remember with pleasure * I 13 Sir Walter in liis diary mentions the occasion, and speaks of me as having " grown up a nice lad, who sang songs of his own composing, in the style of Coleman and James Smith, with much spirit." Many a time after did I diue with him in Castle Street, and was honoured with an invitation to stay with him at Abbotsford, — visiting DryLurgh and Melrose, as I had pre- viously done Hawthorne Den and Roslyn with the great Sir Walter fur a Cicerone. (Cheers.) But to what is all this tend- ing > perhaps you will say. Well, I will tell you, and confess that I had a private object in view when I took the chair this evening. I am by profession an actor ; but I am not o/i/j> an actor, I am an ardent lover of the art I profess, and being often pained by hearing derogatory remarks respecting it, I am only too glad to seize upon any opportunity of exalting it in the eyes of the world. Now this was an occasion that I could not let slip. There is no greater guarantee for the worthiness of a thing than the estimation in which it is held by men we honour and respect ; and there never was a more enthusiastic admirer and supporter of the Drama than Sir Walter Scott. From his earliest youth to his latest hour he took the liveliest interest in its welfare, and derived the greatest pleasure from the society of its most distinguished professors- John Kemble, Mrs. Siddons, Charles Young, my father, his ♦ dear and long-cherished friend and companion Terry, William Murray, the excellent Edinburgh manager, Charles Mackav, the Scotch actor pronounced by Sir Walter the perfect repre- sentative on the stage of his delicious creation of the l?ai]Iie Nicol Jcrvic, and hosts of others whom he always spoke of in the most friendly and frequently in the most affectionate terms «4 of regard. " I M,,^,.. „y, ^. ,„ ,,^ „ "7"' 7 °"'-^ The, a>„,,, give ,„ .0™ ew ,2 by .h. pec„„ari.y Of .heir habi« and .,„d,es-.„ dJelll says-and nothing more " HerecU.u' ^ "^ '^'"^'^ Person after fiftv , 7 ^" '^"^ ^'»'^ *» a theatre alter fifty years, and savs that he had nof .:« thealre. He bough, a share in ,he Theatre Royal, Edinburgh "d for many years took a. ac.ive par. in its n, nagemenf- ve-upenn,endir,g.he rehearsal Of ,„.e or .wo dramas f„,„d.d on h,s own novels. And now J come .o .he crownin. h -ferred by hi. npo„ .he Thearrical prlfl: "'orr « aW,shmen. of ,he fund f.r .he relief of decayed ac?ors L Mmburgh, Sir WaUerwa, asked .o .ake .he char a. ," .nd here m ,he presence of some 300 gen.,e„,e„,-here a' » e.,„g . poor acors. a«er .wen.y years of n.ys.ery.-L Grea, Unknown, ,he Great Magician, .he Wizard of the North confessed his secret and for the Sra. tin,. „„ 1 ■™"°™' the anlhor nf .1, „. ■""''' ''™*''' himself the author of the Waverly Novels I Was not this a .riumnh fo .y profession > (Cbeers,. After having shrouded his el for so many years from .he whole world • aft^r h, ■ :X;r:o:t.rtta:vr"-^'^^^^^^^^^ 'mportant disclosure with which the newspapers teemed for weeks, and which was received wih .".crest by the whole civilized world. (Cheers., This was .L '5 feet I wished to j-emind you of-an event which will ever be remembered by the members of my profession as one of the most gratifying compliments they have ever received, and which must. I think, surely exalt that profession in the esti. mation of the public (Cheers.) I have done, gentlemen, and I hope I have not trespassed too long upon your patience. I will now give you the toast of the evening : The hundredth anniversary of the day which gave birth to one of the greatest men that ever adorned society -who, next to Shakespeare, has entwined hinfself around the hearts of his fellow men-whose pen was never polluted by an unworthy or a coarse expreasion-whose works were invariably " distinguished by the cleaioit .pirit of honour, the most un- affected homage to religion-the m9st refined taste, the most chivalrous generosity of sentiments, and were throughout marked by good feeling and good sense. All honour to the day which gave birfli to a great author and a great man. (Cheers.) A number of volunteer toasts follo^ved. which were severally responded to, and with speech, song and sentiment, a most pleasant evening was passed. /xM SfAh9;.-8.N.C. 3 3286 02683998 v..