Here you have a capital opportunity of distinguishing yourself. In this speech you can introduce all sorts of allusions, not only to the grievances of the day but to the peculiarities of your friends in the audience and to private matters known to them and to you, but not of general interest to the world at large. You can make yourself agreeable by alluding to the bankruptcy of one, the divorce of another, the manner in which a third allows himself to be henpecked, and so forth. All this will tend to make the evening jolly. But before you attempt the radical allusions in the text, be sure that they will "go" with your audience — if not it will be a case of "Laudataur ab hiss." Of course, if you find that you have tumbled into a radical set — a Lord-hater abyss — you can go a-head with the speech as we have written it. Only take care.