Mr. Thompson (another tenant) proposed the brother and sisters of Lord C——, and the younger branches of the family. He said facetiously enough: “Experience has probably taught all of us that it is rather a misfortune that there should be an only child in a family, and that there is very apt to be in this case a spoiled urchin on one side, and not at all unlikely two silly parents on the other.” Of course, this produced laughter, and the speaker went on in the same strain, till he remarked finally that he sincerely hoped “not only that there would always be an heir to the N——l family, but younger branches also.”
Lord C——’s younger brother answered quite as well as he had been addressed: “I was not prepared to speak to you on the present occasion. I was flattering myself I should get through the whole of these proceedings without having to pass through this ordeal.... As younger branches, we grow out further and further from the parent stem, until we are at length lost among the other trees of the forest, while the other and older branch continues to tower upwards.”
A speaker, whom we cannot resist designating by a synonyme which is no longer a disguise, “Lothair,” and who shared these festivities, proposed “the ladies” in a humorous speech, beyond which we must make no further quotations. “Somebody,” he remarked, “in speaking of these festivities, has said that this entertainment had some peculiar features distinguishing it from other entertainments of its kind; as, for instance, it is now half-past three in the morning, instead of about five or six in the afternoon (laughter). It has also this peculiar feature, ... that it is not confined to a lugubrious class of men in black, talking nonsense about the army, navy, militia, and volunteers (renewed laughter). Here we have a few toasts brought in as an interlude in the middle of an entertainment of which it may be said, ‘It is not good for man to be alone,’ whatever Mr. Spurgeon may have observed to the contrary.”
The speaker has since been the subject of an ovation fully as demonstrative as that in which he took a secondary part last October, and we may hope that, in years to come, Cardiff may rival Rutland in the mediæval character of its princely entertainments.
The birthday cake was home-made, and a chef-d’œuvre of the family housekeeper. Its weight was 120 lbs., and its structure four tiers of confectionery, displaying medallions of the arms and crest of the family; the silk banner (besides many smaller flags) surmounting it bearing the name and date of birth of Lord C——. Never, indeed, could there have been more gratifying feelings manifested, and never could a series of the kindest hospitalities have passed off with more perfect satisfaction. Throughout the whole week there was nothing but good feeling, every one vying with each other to do the utmost to make all succeed. Not a contretemps occurred—all as Lord G—— could have wished, and so well deserves it should be. There were most regretful faces the next day, when, after breakfast, the time of parting came; all, we believe, heartily wishing it could begin again.
This sketch, which to us has all the personal attraction of a family record, may perhaps not be uninteresting to some descendants of those old English families, who are as worthily represented on this side of the Atlantic as they are in the mother country.
The poetry of the olden times has not yet quite departed from the feudal soil of England; and, in these meetings of true friendship between two of the most powerful classes of the country, we may read a promise of a common cause being made by their united influence against the sickening aggression of insensate communism, and the spread of licentious ideas. In this all good men and true, whether of Old or New England, are heartily agreed. But what strikes us even more is the beautiful picture here displayed of the revived spirit of the olden faith, quickening the pulses, guiding the lives, and hallowing the pleasures of a new generation of Englishmen. Here are the senators, the lawgivers, the soldiers of the future, assembled under the auspices of the old church, putting into generous practice her ideas of ample hospitality and unquestioning charity; here are England’s best men bowing like happy children to the customs and the influence of the faith brought to them by Augustine and Wilfrid; here is the church represented by the best blood and the most chivalrous class of England’s sons, who take their place and raise their voice to-day in society, in the courts, and in the senate, with a fearlessness and a freedom which a hundred years ago would have cost them their heads! The Catholic Church stands now in a proud and high position, a social conqueror on the same soil which she conquered once already by the splendor of her learning, and the resources of her material energy. The lands her monks reclaimed from barrenness, the universities her friars adorned with their matchless genius, after having been torn from her by violence, are virtually holding out their arms to her again, and the Gothic chapels that crown the abbey demesnes of new and wealthy converts are but the practical translation of that better wealth poured back into her bosom by the converts of the schools and universities. In England, more than in any other land, the Christian may exclaim in triumph: Christus regnat, Christus imperat, and, for the encouragement of the future, may confidently point to the records of the past, and say with Constantine: In hoc signo vinces.