SIR HENRY BULWER IN NEW YORK.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 650, 25 October 1851, Page 4

SIR HENRY BULWER IN NEW YORK.

The anniversaries of the ancient society of St. George, in New York, are usually celebrated with much display. At the dinner on the 23rd ult., the chief speaker was her Majesty’s Minister, Sir Henry Bulwer. If the report in the New York Tribune be correct and unembellished, Sir Henry has madehimself completely master of the peculiarities of Yankee phraseology ; and he was most successful in indulging in a humour not over much refined. Here is a sketch of the national character of his couutryinen: —,*» John Bull is a very queer individual to understand variable as his own climate, stiff and reserved to foreigners—shy and distrustful even to himself; nobody can understand him blit those who speak his own language. An American friend, who came from Europe the other day, said to me, ‘John Bull is a down-

right man!’ (This gentleman whole English character at one XT 11 * 3 I think there may be smarter men L®’ N °*. Bull His motto is, ‘ J handsome does ;’ ,but he never nrZ 8 he does not perform. lam theX 8 the world to say there are not faster I® 80 John Bull, but every one even by sight, knows what he lacks?’ hin > he makes up in bottom. (Ch eefB ter.) If you want to try his quS must try him in a long race. Of S ’ desires not to be slow, but he is more 0 ?’ 8 he to be sure. He desires to ‘ go-ah fia d “^ Bs all do, but not to go head-over-heah A 88 * e terA Others bavft snrr.ooo_j i_? .* ALaugL ing the mountains of the moon and b u -i? machines to ride in the He I ** high soaring. He wilt tell you that tuj honours of the woild are the railroad an?? steamboat. There is downright soli t • what he does, and steadiness in a]] J,;. * ,n ments. In fact, he is the type of th. right. When he holds out his hand J?®’ open or shut, he does it in such J J*, ® r way that you say, ‘That’s the man I . for a friend ; the man I would have V 55 ‘ honest enemy.’ ” (Cheers.) Mm And here is Brother Jonathan : “ Vjw allow me now to propose to you a neJ.5 dear relation of St. George—St. J ODs 2 I have just come from visiting him in the character of a Virginia planter; I .hook hands with him last summer as a Westem farmer. I have dined with him socially as New York merchant; I honour him as M American statesman, and though there may h e older saints in the calendar, there is not t better one. (Applause.) There is none who would sooner give his best bottle of wine to a friend, or take the best bottle his friend could give him. (Laughter.) There is none more skilled in turning a penny, or more splendid in spending a guinea. (Cheers.) Nobody can make a better speech, and among his other qualifications, I must say that there is no better seafaring man, He has a vessel at sea now, about which there is some alarm. That ship bears as its freight the language nf Shskespeare, the code of Blackstone, and the creed of Christ. I think I tee from its topmast the Union Jack, and hear from its crew the cry of a “ long pul), a strong pull, and a pull altogether.” Let us then drink to the great ship of State, may no north winder south wind impede its progress or endanger its precious freight.” Sir Henry appears to have proposed a great number of toasts some of them clothed in very questionable English—and upon the health of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton being proposed, he said that “as he had spoken so frequently, and as there was a chip of the old block present (pointing to Mr. Lytton), be hoped they would call on him to respond.” Mr. Lytton (a son of the distinguished novelist,) was unanimously called for, and rose at last to reply to the compliment paid to his father. He is a young man of about twentyoYie, and bears a strong resemblance to the early portraits of Bulwer. As the proposer pt the toast had referred to his father as a great man, he regretted there should be so small a son to speak for him. After all the big guns which had gone off through the evening, he would not detain them by a display of petty fireworks. But he deeply felt the honour paid to his father. The appreciation shown to English authors in this country was returned by the estimation in which American authors are held in his native country. This mutual feeling spanned the ocean like a rainbow, the emblem of friendship and peace. This evening had proved to him that, though a bookbinder may bind the works of an author, he cannot bind up the great community of his friends. Mr. Lytton was loudly cheered throughout his speech, fl? generally congratulated at the close. Here are a few of the toasts to which ioreig u diplomatists, and local and municipal authorities, paid honour; —“ Ancient Recollection, derived from a common origin, strengthen the friendly feelings with which St, Nicholas greets the banner of St. George in the city which his ancestors founded.” —“May 16 Scandinavian race be as truly united with t e Anglo-Saxon as the English with the Amencan.”—“ Benevolence, Compassion, Charity and Disinterestedness-r-the four support all benevolent institutions-”^' 1 r ® Fair Daughters of Acadia, who, like 7® blem of their country, ‘bloom snow !- ”