ak, for it is to these that we are met to do
homage. I mean integrity, devotion to pure ends, a high ambition, manly
independence, and honor that never knew a stain. Why should we disguise
from ourselves that there are great prejudices to the profession of an
actor? Who does not know that our noble guest has lived down every one
such prejudice, not falling into the old weakness of the actor, and for
which Garrick could not escape the sarcasm of Johnson, of hankering
after the society and patronage of the great? The great may have sought
in him the accomplished gentleman, but he has never stooped his bold
front as an Englishman to court any patronage meaner than the public, or
to sue for the smile with which fashion humiliates the genius it
condescends to flatter. And therefore it is that he has so lifted up
that profession to which he belongs into its proper rank amid the
liberal arts; and therefore it is, that in glancing over the list of our
stewards we find every element of that aristocracy upon which he has
never fawned uniting to render him its tribute of respect. The ministers
of foreign nations--men among the noblest of the peers of
England--veterans of those professions of which honor is the
lifespring--the chiefs of literature and science and art--ministers of
the Church, sensible of the benefits he has bestowed upon society in
banishing from the stage what had drawn upon it the censure of the
pulpit--all are here and all unite to enforce the truth, the great
truth, which he leaves to those who come after him--that let a man but
honor his calling, and the calling will soon be the honor of the man.

Gentlemen, I cannot better sum up all I would say than by the words
which the Roman orator applied to the actor of his day; and I ask you if
I may not say of our guest as Cicero said of Roscius--"He is a man who
unites yet more of virtues than of talents, yet more of truth than of
art, and who, having dignified the scene by the various portraitures of
human life, dignifies yet more this assembly by the example of his own."

Gentlemen, the toast I am about to propose to you is connected with many
sad associations but not to-day. Later and longer will be cherished
whatever may be sad of these mingled feelings that accompany this
farewell--later, when night after night we shall miss from the play-bill
the old familiar name, and feel that one source of elevated delight is
lost to us forever. To-day let us rejoice that he