| 312 | https://dickenssearch.com/items/show/312 | Banquet in Honour of the Guild of Literature and Art, Manchester | | Banquet in Honour of the Guild of Literature and Art, Manchester (31 August 1852). | Dickens, Charles | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=40&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1852-08-31">1852-08-31</a> | | | | | | | 1852-08-31_Speech_Guild-of-Literature-and-Art-Manchester | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Dickens, Charles. 'Banquet in Honour of the Guild of Literature and Art, Manchester' (31 August 1852). <em>Dickens Search</em><span>. Eds. Emily Bell and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. </span><a href="https://dickenssearch.com/speeches/1852-08-31_Speech_Guild-of-Literature-and-Art-Manchester">https://dickenssearch.com/speeches/1852-08-31_Speech_Guild-of-Literature-and-Art-Manchester</a><span>.</span> | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=97&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Athenaeum">Athenaeum</a> | | | | | | | | | | | | Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen, On behalf of the company of friends who act with me in more senses than one, and on my own part, who am their representative and mouthpiece here, I beg to tender you our best thanks for the splendid recognition with which you have honoured us tonight. I do so with a feeling of unusual earnestness, because I am, believe me, in common with one and all of those friends, deeply and truly sensible of the heartfelt cordiality with which we have ever been received in this noble town. Gentlemen, from our first assumption of the actor's craft here, on behalf of a worn-out man of letters– the author of many excellent pieces still constantly produced upon the stage, but with no kind of advantage to himself, and with no kind of remembrance of him that I ever heard of – down to this happy hour, our Manchester audience has been so true to us, so heartily with us, so affectionate towards us, that in playing to it we have always felt as if we were playing to one great-hearted friend. And, I do assure you, that when our little curtain shall fall tomorrow night, for the last time, probably, upon that beaming countenance and that encouraging voice that have now so often gladdened us, we shall feel a sorrow of no mimic kind, and a regret at parting that will outlive the fiction of the scene. Gentlemen, after what you have heard so eloquently said by my friend, Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, on the scheme to advance which this little body of friends have been associated together, I feel it would not be reasonable in me to trouble you with any observations respecting its general claims, or the immense service which has been rendered to it by Manchester. In taking the field to promote that object, we thoroughly and sincerely knew it to be a good one; we thoroughly and sincerely knew it to be a just reproach to letters and to art that it had been too long neglected; and were thoroughly and sincerely resolved to do all that in us lay to help the need which we knew to exist. Gentlemen, our little labours have indeed been labours of love. Careful business consideration of every detail of this project, and the most solicitous regard to the more pressing exigencies and weaknesses of our order, must now constitute the strength of this Guild, and must now be the foundation of its steady claim to general public support. What we have done is merely to set it going, and to give it, as we hope and believe, a steady onward impulse. If I wanted – speaking in my managerial capacity – if I wanted any assurance, which I never did, for I hope I have long known better, that men of imaginative pursuits could co-operate as steadily and staunchly as any other order of men, I should find it in the undeviating punctuality, regularity, order, forgetfulness of self, and consideration for others which, behind the scenes, off the stage, in the bare daylight when the lamps were out and there was no gilding on the gingerbread, have linked our little association together in most unusual ties. And, gentlemen, if I wanted any assurance to you that we were not likely to be very wrong-headed and mistaken in the objects we have at heart, I should find it in the fact that every one of the three eminent writers to whom we had the high gratification of rendering most timely assistance by our theatrical performances before the Guild was devised, has since been placed on the Pension List; and that, I know, with a delicate consideration for their feelings, most truly affecting to themselves and most truly honourable to Her Majesty and Lord John Russell. I have now the great gratification, with the chairman's leave, of proposing to you to drink, ‘Prosperity to the Manchester Athenaeum’. I cannot disguise from you that I feel a kind of radiant godfatherly satisfaction in proposing the toast, for I can never forget that I had the honour of presiding over the first of its great meetings. I can never forget that I am one of its honorary life members, and that my parchment of enrolment in that capacity occupies a proud position upon my study wall at home. In short, gentlemen. I belong to the family, and I contemplate the family greatness tonight with a glow of family pride. Long, therefore, gentlemen, I most sincerely pray, may the Manchester Athenaeum flourish, a pattern to the rising enterprise and energy of England, and a vigorous branch of that great social tree, which, under the name and form of such institutions, has happily for all sorts and conditions of men, struck its roots deep in this land. Long may all political divisions and party dissensions be forgotten here, and very long may my old friend Mr. Crossley, in the character of an allegorical lion, lie down with the radical in the form of an allegorical lamb, on this peaceful neutral ground. Long, very long, gentleman, may the Manchester Athenaeum increase and prosper, work and strive a noble emblem of the wonderful place in which it rears its head; and long may its young men be generously united to advance generous objects, and render such faithful public service as they have rendered to the Guild of Literature and Art. I beg to call upon you to drink ‘Prosperity to the Manchester Athenaeum.’ | 18520831 | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=4&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Manchester">Manchester</a> | | | | | | | | |