Speeches. Literary and Social by Charles Dickens

[On the above evening a Soirée of the Leeds Mechanics' Institution took place, at which about 1200 persons were present. The chair was taken by Mr. Dickens, who thus addressed the meeting: ]

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,-Believe me, speaking to you with a most disastrous cold, which makes my own voice sound very strangely in my ears-that if I were not gratified and honoured beyond expression by your cordial welcome, I should have considered the invitation to occupy my present position in this brilliant assemblage in itself a distinction not easy to be surpassed. The cause in which we are assembled and the objects we are met to promote, I take, and always have taken to be, _the_ cause and _the_ objects involving almost all others that are essential to the welfare and happiness of mankind.