Page 146 of 147 SPEECH: THE ROYAL ACADEMY DINNER. LONDON, MAY 2, 1870. - Speeches: Literary and Social

{7} "That this meeting, while conveying its cordial thanks to Charles Dickens, Esq., for his presence this evening, and for his able and courteous conduct as President, cannot separate without tendering the warmest expression of its gratitude and admiration to one whose writings have so loyally inculcated the lessons of benevolence and virtue, and so richly contributed to the stores of public pleasure and instructions."

{8} The Duke of Devonshire.

{9} Charlotte Corday going to Execution.

{10} The above is extracted from Mrs. Stowe's "Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands,", a book in which her eaves-dropping propensities were already developed in a sufficiently ugly form.--ED.

{11} Alas! the "many years" were to be barely six, when the speaker was himself destined to write some memorial pages commemorative of his illustrious friend (Cornhill Magazine, February, 1864.)--ED.

{12} Mr. Henry Dodd had proposed to give five acres of land in Berkshire, but, in consequence of his desiring to attach certain restrictions, after a long and unsatisfactory correspondence, the Committee, on 13th January following, rejected the offer. (Communicated.)

{13} Claude Melnotte in The Lady of Lyons, Act iii. sc. 2.

{14} Mr. B. Webster.

{15} Romeo and Juliet, Act III. Sc. 1.

{16} Robert Browning: Bells and Pomegranates.

{17} R. H.

{18} Carlyle's French Revolution. Book X., Chapter I.

{19} Henry Thomas Buckle.

{20} This and the Speeches which follow were accidentally omitted in their right places.

{21} Hazlitt's Round Table (Edinburgh, 1817, vol ii., p. 242), On Actors and Acting.

{22} An allusion to a well-known Sonnet of Wordsworth, beginning-- "The world is too much with us--late and soon," &c.--ED.

{23} Alluding to the forthcoming serial story of Edwin Drood.

{24} The Honourable John Lothrop Motley.

{25} February 26th, 1851. Mr. Macready's Farewell Benefit at Drury Lane Theatre, on which occasion he played the part of Macbeth.--ED.

{26} MACBETH, Act I., sc. 7.

{27} The Bishop of Ripon (Dr. Longley).

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		"The literature is an strange machine which swallows, it absorbs all the pleasures, all the life deeds. The writers are vampires." George Bernard Shaw