Volume I Part 26 (2/2)

The lord mayor was simply dressed in black, without any other adornment than a ma.s.sive gold chain.

I asked the lady if he had not robes of state. She replied, yes; but they were very heavy and c.u.mbersome, and that he never wore them when he could, with any propriety, avoid it. It seems to me that this matter of outward parade and state is gradually losing its hold even here in England. As society becomes enlightened, men care less and less for mere shows, and are apt to neglect those outward forms which have neither beauty nor convenience on their side, such as judges' wigs and lord mayors' robes.

As a general thing the company were more plainly dressed than I had expected. I am really glad that there is a movement being made to carry the doctrine of plain dress into our diplomatic representation. Even older nations are becoming tired of mere shows; and, certainly, the representatives of a republic ought not to begin to put on the finery which monarchies are beginning to cast off.

The present lord mayor is a member of the House of Commons--a most liberal-minded man; very simple, but pleasing in his appearance and address; one who seems to think more of essentials than of show.

He is a dissenter, being a member of Rev. Mr. Binney's church, a man warmly interested in the promotion of Sabbath schools, and every worthy and benevolent object.

The ceremonies of the dinner were long and weary, and, I thought, seemed to be more fully entered into by a flouris.h.i.+ng official, who stood at the mayor's back, than by any other person present.

The business of toast-drinking is reduced to the nicest system. A regular official, called a toast master, stood behind the lord mayor with a paper, from which he read the toasts in their order. Every one, according to his several rank, pretensions, and station, must be toasted in his gradation; and every person toasted must have his name announced by the official,--the larger dignitaries being proposed alone in their glory, while the smaller fry are read out by the dozen,--and to each toast somebody must get up and make a speech.

First, after the usual loyal toasts, the lord mayor proposed the health of the American minister, expressing himself in the warmest terms of friends.h.i.+p towards our country; to which Mr. Ingersoll responded very handsomely. Among the speakers I was particularly pleased with Lord Chief Baron Pollock, who, in the absence of Lord Chief Justice Campbell, was toasted as the highest representative of the legal profession. He spoke with great dignity, simplicity, and courtesy, taking occasion to pay very flattering compliments to the American legal profession, speaking particularly of Judge Story. The compliment gave me great pleasure, because it seemed a just and n.o.ble-minded appreciation, and not a mere civil fiction. We are always better pleased with appreciation than flattery, though perhaps he strained a point when he said, ”Our brethren on the other side of the Atlantic, with whom we are now exchanging legal authorities, I fear largely surpa.s.s us in the production of philosophic and comprehensive forms.”

Speaking of the two countries he said, ”G.o.d forbid that, with a common language, with common laws which we are materially improving for the benefit of mankind, with one common literature, with one common religion, and above all with one common love of liberty, G.o.d forbid that any feeling should arise between the two countries but the desire to carry through the world these advantages.”

Mr. Justice Talfourd proposed the literature of our two countries, under the head of ”Anglo-Saxon Literature.” He made allusion to the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin and Mr. d.i.c.kens, speaking of both as having employed fiction as a means of awakening the attention of the respective countries to the condition of the oppressed and suffering cla.s.ses. Mr.

Talfourd appears to be in the prime of life, of a robust and somewhat florid habit. He is universally beloved for his n.o.bleness of soul and generous interest in all that tends to promote the welfare of humanity, no less than for his cla.s.sical and scholarly attainments.

Mr. d.i.c.kens replied to this toast in a graceful and playful strain. In the former part of the evening, in reply to a toast on the chancery department, Vice-Chancellor Wood, who spoke in the absence of the lord chancellor, made a sort of defence of the Court of Chancery, not distinctly alluding to Bleak House, but evidently not without reference to it. The amount of what he said was, that the court had received a great many more hard opinions than it merited; that they had been parsimoniously obliged to perform a great amount of business by a very inadequate number of judges; but that more recently the number of judges had been increased to seven, and there was reason to hope that all business brought before it would now be performed without unnecessary delay.

In the conclusion of Mr. d.i.c.kens's speech he alluded playfully to this item of intelligence; said he was exceedingly happy to hear it, as he trusted now that a suit, in which he was greatly interested, would speedily come to an end. I heard a little by conversation between Mr.

d.i.c.kens and a gentleman of the bar, who sat opposite me, in which the latter seemed to be reiterating the same a.s.sertions, and I understood him to say, that a case not extraordinarily complicated might be got through with in three months. Mr. d.i.c.kens said he was very happy to hear it; but I fancied there was a little shade of incredulity in his manner; however, the incident showed one thing, that is, that the chancery were not insensible to the representations of d.i.c.kens; but the whole tone of the thing was quite good-natured and agreeable. In this respect, I must say I think the English are quite remarkable. Every thing here meets the very freest handling; nothing is too sacred to be publicly shown up; but those who are exhibited appear to have too much good sense to recognize the force of the picture by getting angry. Mr. d.i.c.kens has gone on unmercifully exposing all sorts of weak places in the English fabric, public and private, yet n.o.body cries out upon him as the slanderer of his country. He serves up Lord Dedlocks to his heart's content, yet none of the n.o.bility make wry faces about it; n.o.body is in a hurry to proclaim that he has recognized the picture, by getting into a pa.s.sion at it. The contrast between the people of England and America, in this respect, is rather unfavorable to us, because they are by profession conservative, and we by profession radical.

For us to be annoyed when any of our inst.i.tutions are commented upon, is in the highest degree absurd; it would do well enough for Naples, but it does not do for America.

There were some curious old customs observed at this dinner which interested me as peculiar. About the middle of the feast, the official who performed all the announcing made the declaration that the lord mayor and lady mayoress would pledge the guests in a loving cup. They then rose, and the official presented them with a ma.s.sive gold cup, full of wine, in which they pledged the guests. It then pa.s.sed down the table, and the guests rose, two and two, each tasting and presenting to the other. My fair informant told me that this was a custom which had come down from the most ancient time.

The banquet was enlivened at intervals by songs from professional singers, hired for the occasion. After the banquet was over, ma.s.sive gold basins, filled with rose water, slid along down the table, into which the guests dipped their napkins--an improvement, I suppose, on the doctrine of finger gla.s.ses, or perhaps the primeval form of the custom.

We rose from table between eleven and twelve o'clock--that is, we ladies--and went into the drawing room, where I was presented to Mrs.

d.i.c.kens and several other ladies. Mrs. d.i.c.kens is a good specimen of a truly English woman; tall, large, and well developed, with fine, healthy color, and an air of frankness, cheerfulness, and reliability. A friend whispered to me that she was as observing, and fond of humor, as her husband.

After a while the gentlemen came back to the drawing room, and I had a few moments of very pleasant, friendly conversation with Mr. d.i.c.kens.

They are both people that one could not know a little of without desiring to know more.

I had some conversation with the lady mayoress. She said she had been invited to meet me at Stafford House on Sat.u.r.day, but should be unable to attend, as she had called a meeting on the same day of the city ladies, for considering the condition of milliners and dressmakers, and to form a society for their relief to act in conjunction with that of the west end.

After a little we began to talk of separating; the lord mayor to take his seat in the House of Commons, and the rest of the party to any other engagement that might be upon their list.

”Come, let us go to the House of Commons,” said one of my friends, ”and make a night of it.” ”With all my heart,” replied I, ”if I only had another body to go into to-morrow.”

What a convenience in sight-seeing it would be if one could have a relay of bodies, as of clothes, and go from one into the other. But we, not used to the London style of turning night into day, are full weary already; so, good night.

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