f--he could answer for
them all--that they were deeply impressed with the meritorious
objects which it has in view, and of their anxious wish to promote its
interests. For himself, he hoped he might be permitted to say that he
was rather surprised at finding his own name as one of the Patrons,
associated with so many individuals of high rank and powerful influence.
But it was an excuse for those who had placed him in a situation so
honourable and so distinguished, that when this charity was instituted
he happened to hold a high and responsible station under the Crown, when
he might have been of use in assisting and promoting its objects. His
Lordship much feared that he could have little expectation, situated as
he now was, of doing either; but he could confidently assert that
few things would give him greater gratification than being able
to contribute to its prosperity and support. And indeed, when one
recollects the pleasure which at all periods of life he has received
from the exhibitions of the stage, and the exertions of the meritorious
individuals for whose aid this Fund has been established, he must be
divested both of gratitude and feeling who would not give his best
endeavours to promote its welfare. And now, that he might in some
measure repay the gratification which had been afforded himself, he
would beg leave to propose a toast, the health of one of the Patrons,
a great and distinguished individual, whose name must always stand by
itself, and which, in an assembly such as this, or in any other assembly
of Scotsmen, can never be received, not, he would say, with ordinary
feelings of pleasure or of delight, but with those of rapture and
enthusiasm. In doing so he felt that he stood in a somewhat new
situation. Whoever had been called upon to propose the health of his
Hon. Friend to whom he alluded, some time ago, would have found himself
enabled, from the mystery in which certain matters were involved, to
gratify himself and his auditors by allusions which found a responding
chord in their own feelings, and to deal in the language, the sincere
language, of panegyric, without intruding on the modesty of the
great individual to whom he referred. But it was no longer possible,
consistently with the respect to one's auditors, to use upon this
subject terms either of mystification or of obscure or indirect
allusion. The clouds have been dispelled; the DARKNESS VISIBLE has
been cleared away; and the Great Unknown--