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(From the New York Herald, 4th inst.) MOVEMENTS OF FATHER MATTHEW. THE CALLS AT THE CITY HALL. TAKI.\(< THE PLEDGE. THE MEETING AT THE TABERNACLE. The Apostle of Temperance held a levee yes terday, in the Governor’s room, of the City Hall, from ten to one o’clock, and was visited by thou sands; and none welcome him more than the poor and humble who have lately come out from Ire land. About noon, a committee, (consisting of Messrs. Smith, Cowdin, and Oakes,) from the various tem perance associations of Boston, w 7 aited upon him. • Dr. J. V. C. Smith, chairman of the committee, thus addressed the venerable man; Reverend Sir —The fame of an extraordinary influence you exercise over men of depraved habits, in turning them from the debasing vice of intemperance, to a recognition of the responsibil ities we are under to society, w’as long ago, waft ed from the old w r orld to the new. Although strangers, we are the representatives of the advo cates of a doctrine you have taught with gratifying success in your own country. This delegation is from the North—the metropolis of New England —a region in which the most abundant natural productions, according to the declarations of a traveler, are, granite and ice. But, sir, the hearts of the inhabitants are neither as hard as the for mer, nor as cold as the latter. It is our express business to ascertain when it will suit your con venience to visit the city of Boston ? When may the friends, an army of well-wishers to humanity, expect your arrival ihere, to strengthen and en courage them ? While greeting you as a bene factorof the age, we pray that a blessing may fol low your mission to America, which contemplates the noble purpose of raising the drunkard from degradation to a position of respectability, from misery to comparative happiness, and from moral death to intellectual life. Father Mathew responded as follows : Gentlemen — l heartily thank you for the kind attentions you have thought proper to bestow 7 upon an individual so humble and so feeble as myself. I feel that I have much to do in America in behalf of the cause of temperance. 1 have but just arrived in this great city—l intend to visit Albany, and shall be happy to visit Boston, and shall probably be able to do so early in August. I trust, gentlemen, that although w r e are now strangers, w 7 e shall soon become better acquainted and, in the meantime, you will please to convey to those whom you represent my sincere thanks ior sending this delegation so great a distance to extend to me this invitation. Ample notice will be given in regard to the precise time of my visit to your city. At half-past one o’clock he w'ent to Brady’s daguerreotype rooms, in Broad w ay, and had his likeliness there to gratify his friends. It hangs there among the likenesses of the eminent men of the day. He then w'ent out to drive to see some things about New York w ? hich strangers consider worthy of regard. Previous to the reverend gentleman leaving the Irving House for the City Hall, in the morning, be w'as w r aited on by a deputation of his own countrymen, who expressed themselves delighted at the reception given him by the brave people of America. Mr. McGrath, on the part of the depu tation, read an address which he w r as*deputed to deliver, on behalf of the temperance society of which he is president. Father Mathew replied in his usual affectionate manner. Their en thusiasm knew 7 no bounds, and they wept tears of j°y ori beholding him. They pressed forward with the utmost eagerness to shake him by the hand. Many of them knelt before him and kissed his hand, in despite of every effort of his to pre vent it. One poor fellow, named Francis O’Con nor, came forward and asked for the pledge.— Father Mathew replied, that though it w 7 as not his intention to have administered it there, he could not refuse, and accordingly he directed O’Connor to kneel dowm, and repeated the words of the pledge “to abstain from all intoxicating drinks, and to discourage intemperance in others,” and the postulant repeated it after him, w 7 hen Father Mathew gave him his blessing, and the poor man went away, delighted beyond measure that he was the first to take the pledge from Father Mat thew in America. In a few minutes after, an Irishwoman named Mary Fagan, knelt at his feet and likewise took the pledge. Three or four more received it, including a man who had been on a drunken spree, and bore the marks of it on his face. The number who shook hands w 7 ith Father Mat thew was immese ; among them, many who thank ed God they had taken the pledge from him in Ireland. Men, women and children, of all grades in society, thronged to touch him, as if he possess od some healing power. Many of the most dis tinguished citizens thought it a high honor to shake hands with him, and a host ot ladies w 7 ere intro duced to him, among them Mrs. Larrian, who pre sented him with several copies of a temperance tale written by herself. FATHER MATHEW AT THE TABERNACLE. Last evening, pursuant to advertisement, a re ception was given to the Apostle of Temperence in the Tabernacle, Broad w 7 ay, by the American Temperance Union. The building was pretty well filled, but not crowded. The fine brass band of Mr. Dingle performed several airs, with great eclat , before the proceedings commenced. At ten minutes before eight o’clock, lather Mathew en tered the Tabernacle amidst loud cheers. H e was accompanied by the mayor and the commit tee of arrangements, who retired, for a few ini” nutes, to a waiting room, when the Apostle ot Temperance again made his appearance, which was the signal for a renewed burst of applause. He looked remarkably well, and has evidently improved in health and spirits since his advent to our shores. The band then struck up “ ba vourneen Deelish,” in exquisite st\ le. Re\. Dr. DeWitt, of the Reformed Dutch Church, then opened the proceedings with prayer. The Secretary of the Temperance Union, Rev. Mr. Marsh, said he w'as sorry that the eve ot the anniversary of the declaration of American In dependence had lessened the number of the au dience. He had no report to read of statistics — he had only one report to make, and that was, that Father Matthew was come. (Loud cheers.) That report Dr. Cox would read for them, and circulate it, too, over the land. (Hear and laugh- ter* Rev. Dr. Cox, of Brooklyn, then came forward and, taking a glass of w r ater, he raised it and said —Before I begin I must take my text. (Laugh ter.) Having taken a copious draft of Croton, he said he hoped they w r ould not place much depen dence on him, for he had sympathised so much wiih the atmosphere of late, that his physician forbade him to attend, and yesterday he respond ed to the order. To-day, however, he changed his mind, and he was now before them. Ihe great theme of temperance was in some respects like the glorious gospel of the blessed God ; it did not depend upon a flimsy variety. f L ruth was un changeable, and even the same God was not tired of his gospel, and w 7 ould not be tired of temper ance. till he ceased to seek the highest good of man. (Cheers.) They were all mortgaged to the 4th of July, since 73 years ago; and that no doubt kept maiiv away this evening ; but temperance was a duty” just as much as patriotism. The ancients were in the habit of praying for a sound mind in a sound body. The Christians of the present day would do well to apply this sentiment to them selves. The associations that belonged to the place and th.e occasion naturally threw’ back his thoughts to the gem of the ocean, green isle of the sea. (Enthusiastic cheering.) There was a pretty large sprinkling of Irish in the human nature of Americans. (Hear and laughter.) He was de scended from the Irish himself, but he w r as twist ed on the way with Wales, England, and Scotland. (Roaro of laughter.) lie bad vldiicd liclaild Some time ago, and he had the opportunity of seeing what a misrepresented soil it was; that it w r as productive, and fertile, and beautiful—the soil of genius, if its growth were not checked in the bud. (Loud cheers.) “ 111 fares that land, to every vice a prey, When wealth accumulates, and men decay.” But oh, how ill when poverty accumulates and men decay. Temperance was a sovereign anti dote to poverty. We recollect the time w hen the word alconol was but as an inkling of Arabic, like the Alcoran and other Ales. It was a curious fact, that alcohol, like the Alcoran did come from Arabia, and he doubted which of them had done most mischief among mankind. Those skilled in the Arabic say, that it means a pure ointment, fra grant and grateful to the senses, which, when poured on the head of a grandee, would qause a deligdtfuland refreshing halo around it. Many called it happiness, but it was an insidious, mur derous poison—a terror among the nations. He had been thinking of one or two scripture texts; one w T as where the Boaneges wished Christ to call down fire from heaven to destroy the Samari tans ; when Christ rebuked them, and said, “ 1 am not come to destroy men’s lives but to save.” What a glorious sentiment. The ot her text w 7 as, “ For the devil w r as a murderer from the begin ning.” Peter advised the wise to “ add to their knowledge temperance.” He asked them to pause a moment, and reconnoitre the antidote of lemperance though they knew 7 it already. It was like some of the rare excellencies of Providence and Christianity. He often thought they were not sufficiently thankful for the air they breathed.— They had now 7 got the cholera in it. They were not thankful for the glorious light of heaven, nor for cold water, that beverage of Paradise with which Adam and Eve celebrated their marriage in the garden of Eden. (Loud laughter.) When God surveyed the creation, and saw that all was good, there was no alcohol—not a drop of it. — It was not till the earth was smitten for man’s sin, that this cursed draught was found. When man sinned, then there was a retrograde to decay, thence to fermentation, but not yet to alcohol, for that requires the art of the distiller. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) Alcohol had no more nourishment as a drink, then a flash of lightning. (Appla use.) The temperance cause belonged to no Island, to no country. It w 7 as the cause of the whole world, and of all races from the Caucasian to the Malay. It was a republican principle, for it w’as a great leveller ; but, unlike the devil, temperance levelled upwards. (Laughter.) He had sometimes seen a fustian aristocracy, embroidered and strutting He had once travelled wfitha gentleman-—it was raining, and there w 7 as no railway much less a telegraph. When they came to an inn the gen tleman got his symposium, and wished him (Dr. Cox) to join him ; but he would not, upon which the gentleman said. “We understand each other —we know chemistry. It is all right to bewilder the vulgar with these theories; but absurd for wise men to pay attention to them.” He (Dr. Cox) told the gentleman that, wise as he was, al cohol would make a fool of him, and the brutes would be his superiors, when they trampled upon him. He was a barrister; and he (Dr. Cox) told him that he (Dr. Cox) was no gentleman ; that he was merely a man ; actually flesh aiad blood, and that if he put alcohol in his mouth it would steal away his brains. That gentleman became paralysed from intemperance and joined the tetotalists when it was too late. He died—a proof this bow little alcohol cares for embroidery. It bad been said that religion had nothing to do with temperance. This was true, if by religion was meant sectarianism. But he must first take the soul out of his body before he could separate temperance from religion, for man was made in the image of God, and alcohol degraded him be low the brutes. He was too glad to agree with men in what they held in common, to waste his time in trying to And out in what they differed.— It was seventy-three since the Declaration of Independence came forth from the State House in Philadelphia, when erst he was a boy, and in his plays drew in the first inspirations of liberty under this arched empire, with shining stars, and the eagle flying in the middle. (Cheers.) Eu rope would not hesitate to admit that, though the older country, America is the mother country of temperance. (Repeated cheering.) It was be cause Americans prized it, that they honored Father Mathew, who had struggled and labored till he enrolled nearly six millions of his country men. He was sorry to have to inform him that in this “excelsior” city, there were numerous groggeries. He loved Ireland. He visited it once on purpose and at the time he did not in tend to go there. (Laughter.) He will not say how much intemperance had to do with this. He then adverted to intemperaucein Ireland, former ly having infected the clergy ; and he said the whole of Europe were looking to see how Father Mathew would be received here. There influ ence, therefore, upon thedestinies of Europe was beyond calculation. Let them imitate the virtues of Washington and not say with Cain, “Am Imy brother’s keeper ? ” The Secretary, Rev. Mr. Marsh, thOn read the following address from Chancellor Walworth, President of the American Union, who was stay ing at Saratoga, and could not be present on ac count of the illness of his daughter : Dear Sir —Permit me, not onty as an individ ual, but also as President of the American Tem perance Union, and in behalf of all the friends temperance throughout the United States, to wel come you to America. And may that kind and merciful Providence, which has protected you in your passage across the ocean, and brought you in safety to our shores, preserve your life, your health, and your strength, during your sojourn among us. Your labors in the cause of Christian charity and benevolence, but more particularly in the promotion of temperance in your native land, have made vour name familiar to us, not onlv from the commencement of the glorious temper ance revival upon the banks of the Shannon, in August, 1839, but from that earlier period, when vou were indoctrinating your fellow townsmen of Cork in the true principles of temperance —tola! abslinance from all that can intoxicate—at your semi-weekly meetings at the Horse Bazaar in ihat city. And allow me here to say, what certainly is not undeserved praise, that it is the common opinion of the friends of temperance, and of most of the friends of Ireland on this side of the At lantic, that your continued and disinterested labors in this cause alone, have done more to relieve and elevate the oppressed and down trodden people, of your own beautiful isle of the ocean, than the noble political exertions of all the self-devoted patriots, of whose services and sacrifices in her cause Ireland has so much reason to be proud.— It was an honor to one of your ancestors to have been the great standard bearer of England’s fourth Edward in his contests with the house of Lancas ter, for the throne of a kingdom. But in the es timation of all who love their fellow-men, who glory in the triumphs of the cross, and who seek the eternal as well as the temporal happiness of the human race, it is infinitely more honorable for his descendant to be the great standard bearer of the king of kings in this war against the demon of intemperance. Desolation has marked that monster tyrant, not only in yourown native land, for which God has done so much and man so little but in every other land which ha* been subjected to his besetting and iron rule. It is he who in every land furnishes tenants for prisons, and vic tims for the gallows. He causes the deluded fa ther to corrupt the appetites and the morals of his son, by holding the intoxicating cup to the lips of the confiding youth. He persuades the infatuated mother to poison the smiling infant at her breast by creating in it an unnatural appetite for intoxi cating drink, before it is able even to lisp her name. It is this monster who makes so many wives widows, and so many children orphans; and who so often destroys the happiness of the domestic fireside. He enters the halls of science, and deprives them of their brightest ornaments! He often has polluted the sanctuary of justice, perverting the impartial trial by jury, or soiling the purity of her ermine. And, what is still worse, and most to be deplored, he sometimes enters the halls of the living God, and corrupts and de bases the priest at the altar. Continue, therefore, reverend sir, to bear aloft this broad standard of total abstinance, as you have hitherto done until this monster tyrant, who carries on this dreadful warfare against the peace and happiness of the whole world, shall be forever dethroned. And may all the friends of humanity, and particularly all the friends of the great king ot kings, whose standard in this cause you have so long been, aid and sustain you in this warfare, until this monster of iniquity is not only driven irom Ireland and America, but also from the earth, to his own ap propriate realm, the bottomless pit. Many of your countrymen upon their arrival in this land of freedom, fall into the hands of the destroyer, and soon find that they have escaped oppression at home only to become the slaves of a more grinding oppression here. May you r counsels, therefore, enable them to escape the withering curse of intemperance. In this land of their adoption, and other millions here, as mil lions in Ireland have already done, will still rise up and call you blessed. Thousands of the suf fering poor of Ireland have blessed those philan thropists of America who, from their abundance, contributed to relieve the wants of those who were perishing with famine ; but your previous exer tions in the cause of total abstinence there, had done more to save the starving poor of Ireland from actual starvation, in the da vs of her calamity, than all the pecuniary contributions for their re lief, which were so liberally bestowed on this side of the Atlantic. \V e welcome vou, there fore, to America, not only as a standard bearer in the cause 0 f temperance, but as a true Christian philanthropic, who loves bis fellow men, and whose disinterested and untiring exertions in the cause of benevolence, mav well be followed bv the most enlightened friends of our common Sa viour, in all parts of the world. And fear not, dear sir, that any sectarian feelings will impede vour welcome to the hearts of other philanthro pists here, who also love their Saviour and love their fellow r -men ; and who believe no sinner can be acceptable to a God of infinite goodness and merev, which does nothing to benefit other*. For rest assured dear Sir, that one w hose liberal Chris tianity ha* provided a resting place for the dying poor of all denominations, where the Catholic and Protestant mav mingle their ashes together, until the trump of the arch-angel shall awake the sleep ing dead, will receive a cordial welcome from ev erv one who endeavors to practice that heaven born charity, which teaches us to treat the suffer ing and the needv of all classes and denomina tions as our neighbors, and the whole familv of man as our brethren. We cordially welcome you then to our country and to our homes. The reading of this document was received with loud cheers. “Patrick’s Dav” was then struck up by the hand, when the whole meeting rose in honor of Ireland. Father Mat-new then came forward and was re ceived with a tempe*t of applause. He thanked the meeting with all the feeling* of a w r nrm heart, for the kind reception tlev had given him. The reception he had met with vesterdav, fareyeeded his expectations, for he had expected nothing of the kind from the great. American people. He would acknowledge that he was an instrument in the hand* of God, in reforming the Trish people. Fie saw they were overw helmed with the vice of intemperance; he knew it. was from their position and not their hearts, and that they wanted hnt enlightenment and persuasion. He saw there wore great difficulties to contend wfith ; there was a mighty pressure from without; hut he felt a mightier pressure wfithin. and the result was that more than five millions had taken the pledge.— (Cheers.) He wa* sorrv to hear that in this coun fry *o many Irishmen had broken the pledge. In Ireland not more than five in every 100 violated it. Fie hoped, after his vi*it through the Flnifed State*, that those who had here broken their vows, would here he restored to the fold of temperance. Though he felt his heart throb with pleasure ves terdav, he felt also sad when he refleeted upon the millions he had left behind him in his native land, exposed to the horrors of ptnrvntinn ; anti he wished that the hundreds of thousands upon wdiom the workhouse had shut its gloomv gates, and those who could not find an asvlum even there, W’ere in this free and hnppv land. He did mot intend to speak on the subject of temperance to-night, for he labored under a cold, and he hoped upon some other occasion, when he had better health he w’ould do so ; hut he could not help now thanking them for the honor they had conferred upon him, Loud cheers followed the conclusion of the rev erend gentleman’s speech. The band then struck up Garrvowen. Rev. Mr. Schneiler, of the Catholic Church, Brooklyn, then in a warm address welcomed Fa ther Mathew to America, and invited him to Brooklyn. The whole meeting then sung “Sparkling and Bright” led by the by the band, and E. W. An drews, E=q. Rev. Dr. Cox then pronounced the benediction and the meeting separated. What is better than Presence of Mind in 3 railway accident? Absence of body.— Punch*