we have had a numerous meeting of members to-day, there have been some absent, and I don't think we should do justice if we did not remember them; therefore I beg leave to propose their very good healths."

Our absent Members.

CATCH---" A boat unto the ferry."

Honest Men and bonny Lasses.

SONG---" Sic a Wife as Willie had."

May the Friends we meet elsewhere, have always the smiles on their countenances that those have who are present.

Prosperity to the Shakespeare Club.

SONG---Mr. Bellamy.

Our next merry meeting.

Mr. Rimington left the Chair amidst the most rapturous plaudits, when Dr. Brown was unanimously called upon to succeed him, and the greatest harmony, hilarity, and conviviality prevailed till a late hour.

SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY

OF THE

SHAKESPEARE CLUB,

November 30, 1825.

MR. E. RHODES IN THE CHAIR.

THIS Club assembled at the Tontine Inn, on Wednesday, November 30, 1825, and partook of a sumptuous dinner, provided with Mr. Lambert's usual good taste. The Chair, on this occasion, was occupied by Mr. E. Rhodes, than whom few are better able to appreciate the merits of the Bard and the man. Mr. Thomas Pearson and Mr. John Sykes were the Vice Presidents. After the cloth was drawn, and " Non nobis, Domine !" sung,

The President said,-" We are this day marshalled under the banner of Shakespeare; and in return for the compliment we are paying to his talents, and the way in which we are honouring his memory, we will lay his pages under contribution, and make them promote this day's enjoyment. You will, therefore, I trust, honour me with your indulgence, if, during the toasts that may be proposed from the Chair, I endeavour to connect them with some appropriate accompaniment from the text of Shakespeare. With this short prelude, permit me to give you, as the first toast of this day

The King.

M

Longer than I have time to tell his years;
Ever beloved and loving may his rule be;

And when old time shall lead him to his end,

Goodness and he fill up one monument."

The President." Departing from the usual routine of toast giving, and having drank, with becoming enthusiasm, "The King," our next toast shall be

The land that King governs-England.

"This royal throne of Kings-this scepter'd isle

This earth of Majesty-this seat of Mars

This other Eden, demi Paradise;

This fortress, built by Nature for herself,
Against infection and the hand of war-
This happy breed of men-this little world-
This precious stone, set in the silver sea-

This blessed spot, this earth, this realm, this England."

To "The King and Old England for ever" we have paid our united tribute of homage and attachment; but we will not deprive the presumptive heir to the Crown of that notice to which he is, by rank and birth, entitled. I must, therefore, call upon you to join me in our next

toast:

The Duke of York and the other branches of the Royal Family.

The President." Previously to proposing my next toast, permit me to offer a few observations. This Society was established, now almost seven years ago, for the purpose of doing honour to the talents and the memory of Shakespeare---certainly one of the brightest (if not the very brightest) stars that ever adorned the literary hemisphere of this or any other country. His name is identified with the language which his mother first taught his lips to utter---the language in which he wrote and spoke---the language of his country. When this lan

guage is lost and forgotten, the name of Shakespeare may perish, but not till then. Dr. Johnson observes, in his preface to the dramatic works of our immortal Bard, that "the sand heaped by one flood is scattered by another, but the rock always continues in its place. The stream of time, which is continually washing the dissoluble fabrics of other poets, passes, without injury, by the adamant of Shakespeare."

It is too much to say that there are no objectionable passages in the dramas of this great poet of human nature. These, whenever they occur, may partly be attributed to the prevailing taste of the day in which he wrote; but the many soul-ennobling sentiments scattered throughout his pages, and his innumerable beauties, are the emanations of his own exalted mind. His excellencies are his own-his defects belong to the age in which he lived. To use his own language, he has "held the mirror up to Nature---shewn Virtue her own feature, Scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time its form and pressure."

Dr. Johnson, in his very admirable prologue, delivered by Mr. Garrick, at the commencement of his theatrical management at Drury-Lane, gives so characteristic a sketch of the power of Shakespeare's poetical genius, that I cannot deny myself the pleasure of quoting it:

"When Learning's triumph o'er her barbarous foes
First reared the stage, immortal Shakespeare rose;

Each change of many-coloured life he drew
Exhausted worlds and then imagined new ;
Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign,
And panting time toiled after him in vain ;
His powerful strokes presiding truth confess'd,
And unresisted passion storm'd the breast."

After these prefaratory observations, permit me to propose
The Shakespeare Club, and success to it.

SONG" The Mulberry Tree."

The Chairman proceeded :---" Gentlemen, this country has at all times, and under all circumstances, preserved its independence. When the states on the Continent of Europe were prostrated, one after another, before the ambition of one of the most talented men that ever appeared, England, although agitated by different parties, preserved her political institutions, and she rode out the storm in which other nations were wrecked or foundered. A difference of opinion prevailed amongst us on minor objects of policy; but all concurred in, and all felt the force of that principle which constitutes "The love of country." Should England ever be endangered, the danger will be ultimately averted by that feeling, which, under circumstances of the most appalling nature, will, I trust, ever distinguish the people of this realm."

"This England never did, nor ever shall

Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror ;
But when it first did help to wound itself—
Come the three corners of the world in arms

And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue

If England to itself do rest but true."-King John.

Love of country and a total oblivion to all party feeling.

DUET-" All's well."

after

The Chairman.- "Will any man venture to say, the burst of feeling with which the last toast, and the quotation from our favourite bard, have been received, that the writings of Shakespeare are inimical to public virtue, or subversive of moral feeling? What preacher, or what poet, has ever represented the love of country, or the love of virtue, in more glowing or more enticing colours, than the man whose memory we are this day assembled to honour. Connected with these observa