GENTLEMEN. The first toast I shall have the honour to offer to your notice, is one that always takes precedence of all others, and one the proposing of which is at all times a pleasing duty for a chairman to perform, knowing the hearty response it is sure to meet with in an assembly of loyal and dutiful Englishmen. "Be England what she will, With all her faults she is my country still."-Churchill. Gentlemen, Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria has ever been a favourite with Englishmen ; and they have many causes to be proud of herGod bless her! She has ruled this nation with a silken cord, and is beloved by the whole of her subjects the high and low, the rich and poor. "England is safe, if true within itself."-Shakspeare. B Gentlemen, as a monarch her conduct has been most exemplary; as a Queen, a pattern worthy of imitation by all nations through all ages. We have seen her as a maiden, a wife, a mother, and a widow, and in each of those characters she has won our esteem and respect, and we have ever been proud as Englishmen to call her "Ours." As a maiden, a wife, and a mother, she has in each of life's various phases set a pattern well worthy of imitation, and we have all been anxious that our daughters might be seen walking in the path, so beautiful and heaven-like, pursued by her most Gracious Majesty. "'Tis better to have loved and lost, Tennyson-IN MEMORIAM. Gentlemen, proud and happy must be the nation. that is governed by such a monarch! Happy must be the people who live in these peaceful times. The time has been, and that well within the memory of some of the oldest of those now assembled, when the nation was not so prosperous, the people not so happy. The country has at times been plunged into expensive and sanguinary wars, but we live now at peace and goodwill with the whole of the world. I therefore give you "The Health of the Queen," who reigns in the hearts of all her subjects. "England! with all thy faults, I love thee still- The Queen; and may she ever merit the esteem and love of her people. |