Production Note
Cornell University Library produced
this volume to replace the
irreparably deteriorated original. It
was scanned using Xerox software and
equipment at 600 dots per inch
resolution and compressed prior to
storage using CCITT Group 4
compression. The digital data were
used to create Cornell’s replacement
volume on paper that meets the ANSI
Standard Z39.48-1984. The production
of this volume was supported in part
by the New York State Program for the
Conservation and Preservation of
Library Research Materials and the
Xerox Corporation.	Digital	file
copyright by Cornell University
Library 1994.C^xccliciiaj (pile 0u tjl 11\ Ro n o ui M c 5Li me^Kij c
. R bOi'alami i cO Raj e :> h j > U m Ixuxiiet 4\vlxaot6tnau| aticO^bnij
fet|	o| tlii!Cclaib^ §tatav
onC^alux^aij, tlie Kv'ciihj-iiiit^ aj Oil uiclt
0it<2 riiou^an^, nine Juiii^u?^ an^ j^vViv
<xt	~(X>t<>ila/THE PILGRIMS OF THE UNITED STATES
President:
W. BUTLER DUNCAN
Vice-Presidents:
MORRIS K. JESUP
JOSEPH H. CHOATE
Lieut.-Gen. H. C. CORBIN, U. S. A.
Admiral Lord CHARLES BERESFORD, G.C.V.O., K.C.B.
Sir PERCY SANDERSON, K.C.M.G.
Secretary:
GEORGE T. WILSON,
120 Broadway, New York.
Treasurer:
WM. CURTIS DEMOREST,
60 Liberty Street, New York.
Executive Committee:
STEWART L. WOODFORD, Chairman.
Baring, Hugo
Beresford, Lord Charles, G.C.V.O.,
K.C.B.
Choate, Joseph H.
Corbin, Lieut.-Gen. H.C., U.S.A.
Darrell, E. F.
Demorest, William Curtis
Duncan, W. Butler
Ewart, R. H.
Griggs, John W.
Harvey, George
Jesup, Morris K.
Mabie, Hamilton W.
Mackay, Rev. Donald Sage, D.D.
McCook, John J.
Noble, Herbert
Ogden, Robert C.
Owen, F. Cunliffe
Sanderson, Sir Percy, K.C.M.G.
Smith, R. A. C.
Speyer, James
Ward, George Gray
Whitridge, Frederick W.
Wicker, Cassius M.
Wilson, George T.
Wortley, Ralph M. Stuart
Wykes, HunterIDouglas	& Co*
Hew Jgopf*BANQUET
IN HONOR OF THE
RIGHT HONORABLE JAMES BRYCE, O.M.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary from
Great Britain to the United States
AT THE
Waldorf-Astoria
Saturday, March 23, 1907
Four hundred and fifty-two were present, and during the speeches more than
one hundred and fifty ladies were in the boxes.
At the President’s table the following were seated:
THE PRESIDENT OF THE PILGRIMS OF THE UNITED STATES
in the chai?‘
His Excellency
The Right Hon.
James Bryce, O.M.;
Hon. Levi P. Morton ;
Hon. Joseph IP. Choate,
LL.D.; Hon. Leslie M.
Shaw; Major-General Fred-
erick D. Grant, U.S.A.; Hon.
Jacob Gould Schurman,LL. D.,
D.Sc., Pres. Cornell University;
Hon. Seth Low ; Mr. Edwin A.
Alderman, D.C.L., LL.D., Pres.
University of Virginia ; Rt. Rev. Albert
E. Joscelyne, D.D., Bishop-Coadjutor
of Jamaica ; Hon. John C. Spooner,
U.S.S.; Hon. James B. Reynolds, Ass’t
Secretary U. S. Treasury ; Col. Hugh L.
Scott, U.S.A.,Commandant West Point;
Mr Justice E. Henry Lacombe ; Mr.
John H. Finley, LL.D., Pres. College
of the City of New York; Hon. John
H. Edwards, Assistant Secretary
U. S. Treasury; Hon. Herman A.
Metz, Comptroller, New York ;
Brigadier-General Theodore
A. Bingham, Police Com-
missioner, New York; Mr.
Robert Frater Mun-
roe, Saint Andrew’s
Society; Dr. Neil
M acphatter, Pres,
Canadian Club.
His Excellency
The Hon. Charles
E.	Hughes, Govern-
or of the State of New
York; Mr. Woodrow
Wilson, LL.D., Lt.D.,
President of Princeton Uni-
versity ; Gen. Horace Por-
ter ; Right Rev. George Wor-
thington, D.D., Bishop of Ne-
braska ; Rear-Admiral Joseph B.
Coghlan, U. S. Navy ; Hon. T. H.
Newberry, Assistant Secretary of the
U. S. Navy ; Hon. Paul Morton ;
Hon. Alton B. Parker ; Mr. Justice
Edward Patterson ; Hon. William
R. Willcox, Postmaster of New York;
Rev. H. M. McCracken, D.D.,LL.D.,
Chancellor of the University of the City
of New York ; Sir Caspar Purdon
Clarke ; Mr. Patrick Francis
Murphy ; Mr. J. E. Grote Hig-
gins, President of St. George’s
Society; Dr. Walter Eyre
Lambert, President of the
British Schools and Universi-
ties Club; Mr. John Lloyd
Thomas, President of St.
David’s Society; Dr.
F.	J. Bowles, Presi-
dent of the Cana-
dian Society.
The Chairman:
Ladies and Gentlemen:	I have received a letter from the
President of the United States regretting his inability to be4
present with us to-night, in which he says, “ I wish I could
accept, but it is simply out of the question.”
And then referring to the probable absence of the mem-
bers of his Cabinet, he adds, “ We are all of us as busy as we
can be.”
I have also received the following cablegram from General
Earl Roberts, President of the Pilgrims in London:
“ In the name of the London Pilgrims, I heartily join with
you in honoring the Right Honorable James Bryce. May
peace and international goodwill successfully crown his efforts
as British Ambassador.” (Applause.)
Pilgrims of the United States, Ladies and Gentlemen :
It is our honored custom to toast the Chief Magistrate of
our own nation and the august ruler of the nation of our guest.
And I propose on this occasion to combine—I see you smile
—and I admit the word “combine” is not especially popular
nowadays, but are there any two prominent personalities more
actively interested in securing for all nations that for which we
as Pilgrims stand—Peace on earth and good will among men—
than are the President of the United States and his Imperial
Majesty King Edward VII ?
It seems, therefore, to be eminently proper that we should
combine these two in one toast.
I ask you, gentlemen, to fill your glasses and rise with me
and drain a bumper to
“The President and the King.”
(The toast was received enthusiastically, the entire company
standing and the orchestra playing “The Star-Spangled Ban-
ner ” and “God Save the King.”)
And now, fellow-Pilgrims, this is indeed a notable occasion;
and (turning to Mr. Bryce) it is your presence here, sir, which
makes it so. I have the greatest pleasure in extending to you
the heartiest welcome which men can give to a man, and by per-
mission I add the same from the fair and representative women5
who have honored us with their presence here to-night. (Ap-
plause.)
You do not come to us, Mr. Bryce, a stranger. We know
you well, and we respect you the more because you have shown
in your writings such a comprehension of us and of our com-
monwealth as has not been exhibited since de Tocqueville, or
has not at least been so clearly formulated. My duty, however,
is not to do more than to welcome you.
The honor of proposing your health devolves upon the ex-
Ambassador to Great Britain, who has lately been promoted to
be an officer in this Society. (Laughter and applause.) He
has returned to us, sir, and we are delighted to have him back,
warm with the recollections of the many kindnesses and cour-
tesies he received at the hands of the British people and espe-
cially of your Sovereign the King. We appreciate these evi-
dences of friendship, for they tend to bind together our two
great and almost homogeneous nations.
I ask the Honorable Joseph H. Choate, Vice-President of
the Pilgrims, to propose the health of our distinguished
guest. And before he does so, I ask you, my fellow-Pilgrims,
to rise with me and make the welkin ring with three rousing
cheers for the British Ambassador.
(Three cheers were given amid great enthusiasm.)
Hon. Joseph H. Choate:
Mr. President and fellow-Pilgrims: You see what a fine thing
it is to be a young Pilgrim—(laughter)—young enough to be
called upon to relieve our venerable President from the per-
formance of the duty that should have fallen upon him. I
should like to turn the tables, first, upon his Excellency, if you
will permit me. I wish I could introduce you to him instead of
introducing him to you. And I will begin by introducing to his
Excellency this company of men and women ; for if he only
knew them as well as I know them he would understand that this
demonstration is no idle compliment, that it is an expression of6
the best sentiment of this city and country and an outburst of
enthusiasm and goodwill for him and the great country that he
represents. (Great applause.)
It is a most pleasant duty that has been entrusted to me, to
propose the health of his Excellency, the British Ambassador,
and I shall endeavor to do it briefly and pertinently. I shall
indulge in no abstractions. I shall say nothing to-night of
“ Hands across the sea.” Partly because I have exhausted my-
self on that sentiment on many former occasions, and because
that delightful but somewhat threadbare sentiment has been en-
trusted to another speaker, who will bring to it all the freshness
of novelty and will sing that favorite old song to an entirely
new hymn. (Laughter and applause.) Neither shall I venture
to say anything about our common language, our common his-
tory and our common literature; nor will I claim any owner-
ship in our Chaucer, our Shakespeare and our Milton, because I
do not venture to encroach upon the province—the peculiar
province—of the distinguished guest of the evening. (Laugh-
ter.)
I know very well that a living Ambassador in actual service,
even he, has rights—rights that ex-officios and back numbers are
bound to respect. (Laughter.) I speak not for myself only,
but for these numerous back numbers and ex-officios who are
about me on either side—Governor Morton (applause), General
Porter (applause), and Mr. Shaw, and last, though not least,
Senator Spooner (laughter and applause). We are all ex-offi-
cios and back numbers. We are really as good as dead, although
we don’t want to have that fact generally known.
Now, let me say a little about Mr. Bryce in the concrete and
not wander off into these diversions, which might amuse you
but would give you little light on the man that we are met to
honor. I can appeal to a close and long-abiding friendship with
our honored guest—six years of intimate association with him,
in which my regard and affection for him were constantly
growing. I remember also that he was among the first to greet
me when I landed in England, and the last to bid me farewell7
when I left. (Applause and cries of “ Hear, hear.”) It would
be strange indeed if I did not take great delight in this oppor-
tunity of presenting him on this first occasion of his appearance
as an Ambassador before a public audience in America. I con-
fess that long before I knew Mr. Bryce I was very much at-
tached to him. I had a very ardent sympathy for him as a
brother lawyer, and there are a great many in this room who
know how close that tie is. The tie of the lawyer to the lawyer
is close, although perhaps the tie of the lawyer to the client, or
the client to the lawyer, is a little closer.
Now, in the year 1862, Mr. Bryce was admitted at Lincoln’s
Inn as a student of the common law—Lincoln’s Inn, one of
those grand old nurseries of the law and cradles of liberty; and
he must have had a very, very long legal lineage, for I find on
the same register that another James Bryce—if it was another
—a man of exactly the same name, James Bryce, was admitted
at the same Inn nearly four hundred years before, in 1478—
fourteen years before Columbus discovered America. Now,
think how far back he traces his legal line. You remember Dr.
Holmes’s answer to the anxious mother, that asked him how
early a boy’s education should begin. He said, “ Why, ma’am,
at least 200 years before he was born.” (Laughter.) But this
man has had 400 years of nurture and training in the law. What
the Tudors planted and watered found its full fruition in the
glorious reign of Victoria and of Edward VII. And who can
wonder that, with such nurture and such origin, he has such ex-
treme felicity in the handling of great social and constitutional
and legal questions and knows our history all by heart?
(Laughter and applause.)
Well, I love to study these registers of the Inns, and I found
in this register of Lincoln’s Inn another very striking coincident
and one very interesting to all Americans, for at the same time,
on the very day before, there was admitted in the same Inn
another great friend of America—Sir George Trevelyan. (Ap-
plause.) They both came to great fame and distinction. Each
was Chief Secretary for Ireland and each has contributed very8
greatly to the illustration of the history of America. While one
has endeared himself to us by the “ American Commonwealth, ”
the best book ever written about our political and constitutional
customs and institutions, the other has found his way to our
hearts by his “ History of the American Revolution,” the best
narrative that has ever been given of that great conflict which
secured our independence, and out of one nation, very small as
it was then, has made two of the greatest nations of the world
as they stand to-day. (Tremendous applause.)
To have practiced at the Bar of England, as our friend has
for fifteen years, is a great education in itself, as I personally
know. To have been for twenty-three years Regis Professor of
Civil Law at Oxford surely was a sure foundation for the success
that has followed him as statesman, as author and as citizen of
the world. Certainly no more wholesome training could be
had for public life in which he has been engaged, and for the
many great offices which he has filled with so much distinction.
Our whole experience shows that the law is the true entrance
and avenue to public and political life. It was not always so,
even in America—to-day the paradise of lawyers, and which
everybody, from the President down, seems to be doing his best
to make more and more of a paradise for them. (Great laughter
and applause.) I say it was not always so, even in America,
because in the good old colony days of New England there were
no such things as professional advocates, and when John Locke,
the celebrated philosopher, made his famous constitution for the
Carolinas he expressly provided that there should be no lawyers
and that nobody should plead for a fee. And in order to make
sure that the constitution and the laws should be protected by
the total absence of lawyers, he further provided—and I call
Mr. Bryce’s especial attention to this—that there should never
be any comments or criticisms upon constitutions or laws, so
that they might be perfectly easy and plain to be understood
by everybody. (Great laughter.) Now, I would like to know
what would have become of Mr. Bryce or myself if the Constitu-
tion of Locke had continued in force until this day? I am9
afraid neither of us would have made any considerable progress;
but fortunately we have outgrown the wisdom of the philoso-
phers, and I think that Mr. Bryce will agree with me in advis-
ing all aspiring young men of the English-speaking race that if
they hope ever to become Ambassadors from either half of it to
the other they shall begin by the study and the practice of the
English law.
Well, now, we are under a tremendous debt of gratitude for
the splendid gift that he gave us. I suppose you would like it
better if I should state exactly what that gift was. It was a
very rare gift. It was a gift that so wise a man as Robert Burns
seemed to have doubted whether it could ever be given to any-
body, for it was his constant and never-failing prayer :
‘ * O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!”
And that is exactly what Mr. Bryce gave us now nearly fifteen
—yes, eighteen—years ago.
I believe it was Dean Swift who said that the man who made
two ears of corn grow, or two blades of grass grow, where only
one grew before, would deserve the everlasting gratitude of
mankind. But what are we to say of the man who made all the
people of a great nation think twice as much of themselves as
they ever thought before? I believe when he began writing
that book his original idea was to explain us to his own country-
men, but he ended in explaining us to ourselves. And it was a
very great service that he did us in that way. Don’t you see
the comparison between Christopher Columbus and James
Bryce? Christopher Columbus discovered America to all the
rest of the world, but Mr. Bryce was the first one who dis-
covered America to herself. (Applause.) So if we ever think
too much of ourselves, as some of his more critical and less
indulgent countrymen are sometimes fond of saying—if we
do think too much of ourselves, it is very largely his fault.
It was he that struck the blow that first inflamed our bump of
self-esteem.IO
I need not tell you how very richly his path has been strewn
with civic wreaths and laurels, or what a commanding place he
has taken among learned and scholarly men—what a great
traveller he has been, how he has permeated the whole of South
Africa, what Alpine summits he has mastered, how alone he
reached the dreary top of Mount Ararat, seeking for some traces
of the Ark and of our origin and common progenitors; and he
has confidentially told me that he did find a stick of timber on
top of Ararat that he thinks might possibly have composed a part
of Noah's Ark. (Laughter and applause.)
Well, that is not all that can be said about Mr. Bryce, although
I do not want to weary him by expatiating upon his merits. You
know very well how his published studies in history, in litera-
ture, in biography, have enriched our literature, how many Uni-
versities have claimed him for their own. Why, it would take
from now until after the hour that the President has assigned
for our adjournment simply to enumerate them. To his own
Alma Mater, Glasgow, you might add Edinburgh, Aberdeen,
St. Andrews, Cambridge, London, Oxford, Budapest, Victoria,
Toronto, and I really don’t know how many more. And you
know something of the great offices he has filled at home—mem-
ber of Parliament for I don’t know how many years—they never
could get him out; and then, besides that, he was Under Secre-
tary for Foreign Affairs, President of the Board of Trade, Chan-
cellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and, last but not least, Chief
Secretary for Ireland. I knew him for six years as one of a
little band that constituted the forlorn hope of his party for all
those years in the House of Commons; but, as Shakespeare
says, “ the whirligig of Time brings in his reverses ” here as well
as there, and now he has been taken away from one of the great
offices under the British Government, and from a great place in
the Cabinet to come and fill his post at Washington, which is
the crowning honor of them all. (Great applause and cheering.)
If a thorough knowledge of the people and the history and the
character of both countries—the country from which he comes,
and the country whom he comes to visit, makes, as Machiavellisays it did, a perfect Ambassador, why, there could have been no
happier choice than he. Think of the elements that go to the
composition of the man! Born in Ireland, and yet not an Irish-
man; of Scotch descent—a thorough Scotchman; a long-life
resident in England, representing for many consecutive years a
great Scottish constituency—his knowledge of the people that
he represents is only equalled by that keen insight by which he
has seen through us—for he has seen all the way through us.
He knows our merits, our failings, and we always hope that he
will be “to our failings a little blind and to our virtues very
kind,” and do all he can to enlighten our minds.
It is nearly a score of years since he produced his book. He
will find now great changes have taken place—tremendous
developments. Some of the prophecies in which he indulged—
for he was a prophet—some of his prophecies, I say, in which he
indulged, have not turned out to be exactly as he thought, but
most of them have been strikingly verified, and some of those
perils which he foresaw for us in the far distant future are now
already upon us. In all our hopes, in all our apprehensions, we
may be sure always of his constant sympathy. Let us hope that
he may long remain among us, and that both countries together,
whose abiding friendship no man can doubt, will by his aid be
found working together for the advancement of civilization and
justice, and, above all, for the peace of the world. In the coming
summer, at The Hague, we are to have a grand opportunity for
co-operation in an earnest endeavor to limit the chance of war,
to put an end to the relics of barbarism which still disgrace it,
to secure the rights of neutrals and to advance the great cause
of arbitration and of peace. Let as embrace the opportunity
and make the most of it, and I am sure that our distinguished
guest will say “Amen!”
Gentlemen, I have now the very great pleasure of presenting
to you and asking you to drink his health, His Excellency the
Right Honorable James Bryce, the British Ambassador to the
United States. (Wild cheering and great enthusiasm.)12
The Right Honorable James Bryce (who, on rising, was re-
ceived with vociferous cheering):
Mr. President, Pilgrims of the United States, Ladies and Gen-
tlemen: I am overwhelmed by the reception which your kind-
ness gives me. It is one of the most striking and most im-
pressive of the many signs of confidence and of friendship of
which I have been the fortunate recipient during the last three
months. It is enhanced to me on the present occasion, in the
first place, by the character of the audience which I see before
me, which includes so much of all that is most eminent and most
influential in the professions, in business and in public life in
New York State and City, comprising a number of those whom
I see on each-side of me here who belong to the class which Mr.
Choate has described as back numbers and ex-officios, but who,
if Mr. Choate will permit me to say it, are more aptly described
by the Japanese when they call them “ The body of elder states-
men.” (Great applause.)
Ladies and gentlemen, it is further enhanced to me by the
fact that this toast has been proposed by my old and very dear
friend Mr. Choate himself. I need not tell you he is an old
friend, for you could have told that from his speech; because
friendship played a very much larger part than fact in the
description which he was kind enough to give of me. Neverthe-
less, although I feel how much friendship went to the making
of it, and how far too indulgent and kindly he was, I thank him
none the less truly and deeply for it. It used to be said that no
one could be an Ambassador both faithful to the interest of his
own country and acceptable to the country to which became; or,
at any rate, continue both. But Mr. Choate, in London, refuted
that old and cynical maxim. (Great applause.) We admired
and respected him when he came there, from what we had heard
of him; we admired and respected him more as we came to know
him; and when, at last, he was departing, we could safely say
that every year he had stayed among us we had loved him better.
(Tremendous applause.) And I will venture to add that the
news that he was to represent the United States at the comingi3
Hague Conference was received with a universal satisfaction and
pleasure by all those who in the great countries of Western
Europe knew what a part he had played in diplomacy. He will
be equally acceptable to Germany, France, England, Russia and
Italy. (Great applause.) And may I add further that I think
the public opinion of Europe will not less acclaim the selection
of the other representative of the United States, whom I have
the pleasure of seeing here to-night? (Renewed applause.)
Mr. Choate has been kind enough to confer a great and new
favor upon me to-night. He has discovered for me an ancestor
of whose existence I did not know. I never was able before to
trace my family further back than to the reign of King Charles
II., but now Mr. Choate has extended it for two centuries further
back, to the reign of King Edward the Fourth. His well-estab-
lished character for accuracy makes me feel sure that he had
good grounds for connecting those whom I know a little about
in the reign of Charles II. with this distant progenitor in the
reign of King Edward IV. I shall proceed to fill up the inter-
mediate links. Two centuries is a gap of no consequence
whatever to a professional genealogist. Let me also thank Mr.
Choate for the mention that he has made of that very old and
valued friend of mine, Sir George Trevelyan. As you know,
he has written the best—and, if I may venture to say so, the
most sympathetic and the most graphic—description of your
Revolution that has been given to the world. Often have I told
him what a welcome he would receive were he to visit America.
I may now safely assure him of the reception which the Pilgrims
of the United States would give him.
And that reminds me that I am addressing a body of Pilgrims.
When I was a child I thought of a pilgrim as a man who wan-
dered barefoot to a sacred shrine, with a brown cloak and hood,
carrying a staff, and wearing a shell, and fasting most of the
time. You, I think, have departed a good deal here in New York—
and have departed, certainly, a very great deal on this occasion—
from the ascetic habits of the early pilgrims. I see no trace re-
maining of the shell, unless I am to find a revival of it in the14
profuse use you make of the clam and the oyster. (Laughter,)
The pilgrims of old were accustomed to receive hospitality, and,
sometimes, to compel it. They were often like the Crusaders—
pilgrims of war. You are pilgrims of peace, and you bestow a
generous hospitality on those who visit your shores. In these re-
spects, at least, the change is greatly for the better.
Mr. Choate has been kind enough to refer to my book upon
the United States. I am sensible that it was a bold experiment
for a stranger, upon the strength of three flying visits, to attempt
to describe a nation so vast and a polity so complicated as yours
is. And yet it was not quite so daring a venture as you may
think, because when I wrote that book I did not in the least sup-
pose that it would be read upon this side of the ocean. I wrote
it entirely for the benefit of the Europeans—the benighted
European, who did not know anything about America, and sadly
needed to know it. And I will tell you another secret: It was
you that wrote that book. It was written out of conversations
with Americans. I am not fond of speaking, and whenever I
speak in public in the United States it will be under compulsion
I shall speak; but I am a good listener, I will venture to claim
that, and I wrote this book out of the conversations to which I
listened. I talked to everybody I could find in the United States,
not only to statesmen in the halls of Congress, not only at dinner
parties, but on the decks of steamers, in smoking cars, to the
drivers of wagons upon the Western prairies, to ward politicians
and city bosses. I talked to austere Puritans from Connecticut,
who probably regretted the Blue Laws of that State; and I talked
to dudes in New York City, although I believe that word has now
fallen out of use. Science may have renamed the species—I am
sure the thing continues to exist. They were politicians, languid
gentlemen who would not so much as soil their fingers with a
ballot paper; but they were much more pessimistic than my Puri-
tans from Connecticut. Naturally, there was a great deal of
diversity in the opinions that I received from these different
classes—from Republicans and Democrats, from Western men
and Southern men, and Northern men, but It was my good for-x5
tune to have kind and wise friends who helped me to reconcile
these differences; and what I had to do was, out of these conver-
sations to which I listened, to build up sentences and paragraphs
and chapters until the book which you wrote appeared in three
volumes. (Laughter and applause.)
I believe that you received that book with so much kindness
because you took it to be the effort of a stranger to see and com-
prehend your country and its conditions and its people with the
eyes, not of a stranger, but of a native, with something of that
faith and that hopefulness which seemed to me to be inherent
in the American temper. And so I like to think that you are
welcoming me here to-night because you believe that I come as
a messenger of friendship from the Old Country, and because
you believe that there is no message which I personally am so
glad and so proud to have to deliver. (Tremendous applause.)
Ladies and Gentlemen, I trust you will believe that that mes-
sage represents the deep and real sentiment of the British people.
Mr. Choate has said that this subject is threadbare. That is
true, and I will not attempt to dwell afresh upon the old theme,
especially as it will be treated by a gentleman whom I see a little
way to my left, who I have no doubt will enlighten and brighten
it more than I could do. / And I will even resist the temptation
Mr. Choate has held out to me to descant upon the literature we
have in common—a subject with which I could easily keep you
occupied till the light of morning breaks; but I do wish to take
this opportunity of making clear, if I can, two features of this
friendship of ours which are not always understood. In the first
place, ladies and gentlemen, the friendship I am speaking of is
not an official and diplomatic friendship. It is not one concerned
with formal documents and political combinations. It is quite
true there does exist between the countries an official and a
diplomatic friendship—and happy we are that it should be so;
but I am now speaking of something which is still better and
which goes far deeper, I am speaking of something which is felt
not only by the King and the government, and I need not tell
you that you have no warmer and more cordial friend than Kingi6
Edward. (Tremendous applause.) His friendship dates from the
time when he visited your country and stood by the tomb of
George Washington. It is held—this friendship whereof I
speak—not only by the King and the Government, but by millions
of people to whom formal documents and official relations, are
unknown. It is held by the British people apart from their State
and their Government. It is held by them because they have an
interest in and a feeling towards you which is stronger than any
other feeling except that of patriotism for their own country and
their own Empire. And this warmth of sympathy is not entirely
a matter of race and blood. Perhaps too much has been said of
the community of race. We all know that you are by no means
wholly of English, Scottish and Irish origin. Many streams of
population have flowed into this country, many stocks have gone
to the making of your people. And from that diversity of
stocks you have gained much, as we also in England in our
time have gained much, from those who have come to our
shores. Let me pick out of the many instances but two only.
A century ago there died here a famous citizen of New York
City, one of the most brilliant and striking figures in the
history of your Republic, who came as a boy from the West
Indies, Alexander Hamilton; and only the other day there
died here another citizen of New York, one of the most
public-spirited, most high-minded and most respected of your
statesmen of the last generation, as well as one of your most
impressive orators, who came as a political refugee from
Germany, Carl Schurz. And we all know how much America
owes to her German settlers and to her Scandinavian settlers.
It is not only race that links, it is also the literature that was pro-
duced ; it is the institutions that were framed in the days that
your ancestors and ours lived together in the ancient island
homes. Into that literature and into the benefit of those insti-
tutions all of you, to whatever European stock you belonged—
into that you have all entered. Among the many in England
whose knowledge is slight of literature and of institutions there
are thousands and thousands of people to whom America isi7
known and is an object of keenest interest, because it is the land
to which their brothers and their children have gone, because it
is the land which stands to them for human equality, which
stands to them for an open and free career for every man which
promises to their eyes a future in which the masses of the people
will fare better than they have ever done elsewhere. But let me
add also—strong as this feeling is, there is nothing exclusive in
it, there is nothing to which any other nation can object. We
in England do not wish, because you are our friends and we are
your friends, that you should be one whit less the friends of any
other great nation. (Great applause.) I do not ask you when
I speak of what your ancestors and ours did in common before
the separation of 1776—I do not ask you to forget what you owe
and what we owe to the other great countries—to Italy, the
mother of poetry and painting and music; to France, the bril-
liance of whose intellect has so often irradiated Europe; to
Germany, rich in those treasuries of thought and learning on
which we draw every day. On the contrary, all the great nations
work and labor together for the common end. Let us recognize
them all. (Great enthusiasm and cheers.) International amity
is not, as some people, apparently, would have it, like conjugal
affection. If conjugal affection is to produce its due fruit of
happiness and peace, there must be an exclusive devotion of each
to each, into which no third person can be admitted on equal
terms. No, international amity is rather like the friendship of
men in which there is plenty of room for many at once. And the
more international friendship rises into the sense of human
brotherhood, the more it feels how much better peace is than
strife, and how much better love is than hatred, the wider will
be the range of its beneficent influence. I am glad to say that
at this moment we can look out over the world with cheerful
eyes. The horizon of the world is unusually free from clouds.
There is, indeed, if I am to speak with perfect and scrupulous
accuracy, one quarter only in which any clouds are visible. I
mean the Near East—and that is a quarter in which America is
not concerned. All the great States of Europe are at peace andi8
likely to continue in peace. Not one of them has got anything
to gain from a disturbance of peace. Indeed no one anywhere—
and assuredly not the business world of New York and London—
has anything but injury to expect from disturbances of the peace.
Some people think that newspapers profit by wars or unions of
wars, but when I see the tremendous array of questions which
are pressing upon and filling the minds of the American people I
think the newspapers have plenty to do at home without requir-
ing a war to enliven them. All the great peoples honestly de-
sire, all are looking with hope and sympathy, expectation, to the
work which your representatives and ours are going to undertake
at The Hague Conference, and most earnestly do we hope and
pray that none of the great nations will be disturbed by any out-
break of international trouble. You and we—you in America
and we in England—have many a heavy task to deal with for
which we need our full and undivided energies. In the old days
when you and we were still one nation, we had a great mission.
It was a mission for the world as well as ourselves, it was a mis-
sion not merely to proclaim freedom but to make freedom secure,
to show how freedom ought to be built upon the foundation of
the civil rights of the individual and of the supremacy of the
law, to work out freedom through the development of represent-
ative institutions. When we parted into two nations we each
pursued the old mission in our own several ways. We in Eng-
land popularized our constitution, and, gentlemen, if it had been
more popular in 1775, either there would not have been a part-
ing or it would have been a parting of a very different and far
better kind. Alas! we learned to popularize our constitution too
late. But we have now so popularized and developed it that it
has become a model for many of the free countries of Europe.
We have founded new self-governing communities beyond the
seas, of whose progress in Canada and Australia we are justly
proud. We have acquired and we administer vast territories in
which we are giving order, peace and civilization to what we
call the backward races of the earth.
And you have had your mission, too. You have got rid of19
slavery, a melancholy feature of the earlier days of this Republic,
for which, I must frankly own, England was partly to blame.
You have established perfect religious equality, and yet you
remain none the less a religious people. You have made greater
progress than any other nation in giving comfort, enlighten-
ment and opportunities for progress to the individual citizen in
whatever station he may be born and to whatever national stock
he may belong. And, yet, how much there is still for you and
for us to do.
May God keep far from us anything which should distract
either you or us from the task of working with all our energy to
make our peoples prosperous, tranquil and happy. (Tremendous
applause.) The friendship of nations and the co-operation of
nations, and especially of those nations who by their sympathies
are best fitted to help one another, ought to be put upon the
highest ground. That ground is the service to humanity at
large which America and England can render to generations yet
to come, who in future, prolonged further than imagination can
reach, will gain or will suffer by what Englishmen and Amer-
icans think and do to-day—a day which history may ultimately
pronounce to have been a supreme opportunity for the fortunes
of the race. (Tremendous applause and cheering.)
The Chairman:
The great State of New York, in the person of her Governor,
welcomes our distinguished guest. I ask you to drink to the future
prosperity and welfare of the Empire State, which toast will be
responded to by our guest—His Excellency Charles E. Hughes.
His Excellency the Honorable Charles E. Hughes:
Mr, President, Ambassador Bryce, Ladies and Gentlemen: Our
distinguished guest, by virtue of his careful study of American
conditions, should be proof against surprise, but it must be
something of a shock to him to find the Governor of a State
taking part in this international function. This may add to
that “ immense complexity,” which, it is said, “startles and at20
first bewilders the student of American institutions.” As our
guest has said, 4 ‘ The American state is a peculiar organism,
unlike anything in modern Europe or in the ancient world,” and
the fact that the Governor of a State should join in the welcome
to an Ambassador from the Court of St. James may well be
thought to emphasize in an unique way our satisfaction at his
coming. (Great applause.)
I confess to some uneasiness in this presence, falling as I do
outside the bounds of the courteous intercourse of diplomacy,
but well within the limits of the observation of the student and
historical analyst. In the luminous treatise to which reference
was made by Mr. Choate, written by our candid friend, whose
friendship justified his candor as his candor revealed his friend-
ship, I find these words descriptive of the State:
“ The State seems great or small, according to the point of
view from which one regards it. It is vast if one regards the
sphere of its action, and the completeness of its control in that
sphere, which includes the maintenance of law and order, nearly
the whole field of civil and criminal jurisprudence, the super-
vision of all local governments and unlimited power of taxation.
But if we ask who are the persons that manage this great
machine of government? how much interest do the citizens take
in it? how much reverence do they feel for it? the ample pro-
portions we have admitted begin to dwindle, for the persons
turn out to be insignificant and the interest of the people to
have steadily declined.”
I find no flattering words for the Governor in the “ American
Commonwealth.” (Great laughter and applause.)
Mr. Bryce:
Oh, yes, Governor, there is another passage; there is another
passage there.
Gov. Hughes:
Perhaps our good friend refers to this: “ The State Executive,
it is said, has little to do and comparatively small sums to
handle. Legislation, it is explained, has in the several States21
pushed itself to the furthest limits and so encroached on subjects
which European legislatures would leave to the Executive that
the Executive discretion is extinct and the officers are the mere
hands of the legislative brain, which directs them by statutes
drawn with extreme minuteness, carefully specifies the purposes
to which each money grant is to be applied and supervises them
by inquisitorial committees.” (Great laughter and applause.)
There is just one word of comfort in the hopeful conclusion,
‘‘A State Governor, however, is not yet a nonentity.,, (Re-
newed laughter.) Now, while there is life there is hope that we
may be able to supply material for a new edition.
But however lowly may be the estate of a Governor in the
light of the impoverishment of his official powers, he may rise
extra-officially to the dignity of expressing the sentiment of the
people of the State and to a power which is commensurate with
the public opinion which he interprets. And, therefore, it is
peculiarly grateful to me to have this opportunity to voice the
sentiment of the people of the State of New York—the citizens
of the United States organized as the State of New York—in
extending the most hearty welcome to the keen critic of our
institutions, the instructor of our youth, and the bearer of mes-
sages of good will from a great and friendly nation. (Cries of
“ Bravo,” and great applause.)
Nearly a generation has passed since he won our admiration
for the care and thoroughness of his research and the breadth of
his scholarship. A friend of mine recently commented on the om-
niscience of the British schoolboy to whom Macaulay was always
referring in his contemptuous appraisals of his adversaries’ igno-
rance: “Every schoolboy knows” was Macaulay’s coup degrace.
But I am safe in saying that every American college boy who
knows aught of his country knows his Bryce. And when we
learned that Mr. Bryce was to come to the United States to
represent Great Britain, a thrill of pleasure went through the
length and breadth of the land, because he came to us, in a very
important sense, as our own.
From time immemorial lovers have looked into each other’s22
eyes and said in softest accents: “How blissful it is to be under-
stood!” We like to be understood. And it is a happy augury
that with such unfeigned delight and complete satisfaction we
may welcome one who has attained the highest eminence as a
specialist in the study of American institutions. (Cries of
“ Hear, hear,” and tremendous applause.)
The Chairman :
The President has honored the Pilgrims by the appointment
of two of its members to represent the United States at The
Hague Conference. They are both here present to-night, and
“ we love them for the friends they have made.” One of them,
General Horace Porter, having distinguished himself in war, now
seeks to complete the picture by doing ditto in peace, and will
say a few words to us in response to the toast of “ Peace among
Nations.”
General Horace Porter :
Mr. President and Your Excellency:	I think that the Pilgrims
will be safe to-night in saying to our distinguished guest what
the little boy said to General Grant, when presented to him at a
reception just after the war, “I have heard you spoken of, sir.”
Now, my ancient colleague abroad has said that we must not
talk any more about “ Shaking hands across the sea.” Well, we
can do better to-night; we can shake hands across the table. But
I was surprised to hear my colleague speak of us, and look sig-
nificantly at several of us when he did so, as back numbers,
the late—apparently the last—Federal appointments: he surely
forgets the consolation in the poet’s words, “ Time’s noblest off-
spring is the last.”
The early Pilgrims, when they landed on Plymouth Rock—
and I say this with confidence, notwithstanding the contention
of our Brooklyn friends that they landed on Plymouth Church—
those Pilgrims had the ingenuity of thought and fertility of brain
that never deserted them, for as soon as they found themselves*3
on that rock-bound coast in midwinter, short of supplies of food
and raiment, they immediately created a government founded
upon a common poverty and called it a commonwealth. (Laugh-
ter and applause.) And perhaps it was this circumstance which
suggested to His Excellency the writing of that immortal book,
“The American Commonwealth.”
Our guest, who knows not the method of indirection, has come
to us direct from England here. He has not followed the exam-
ple of Governor-Generals, naval and military officers, coming from
England here, who generally come around through Canada and
remain there a certain time, it is said, to break their fall and to
reorganize their accent. He comes directly from the land of St.
George to the land of George Washington, and I know that he
will feel more at home when he begins to realize that here in
New York we, too, live on an island. (Laughter.) But when he
casts his eyes around upon these tables and sees the numerous
specimens of that peculiar form of original sin that is put up in
quart bottles, he will be made aware that we are not always and
entirely surrounded by water here. (Great laughter.)
Now, I tried in conversation with our distinguished guest this
evening to claim some racial kinship with him, because my ances-
tors came from near the spot where he was born. I could not
trace them as far back as Mr. Choate has traced the Ambassador's,
but I could go back about half that time and trace them back to
that good old Scotch-Irish stock. And I may say that I went
over there a good many years ago to look up my ancestors, and
between Londonderry and Belfast I met a man who I thought
could inform me. He looked like an informer. (Laughter.) I
explained the historical fact that my ancestors nearly 200 years
ago had emigrated from about that place and that I had come
back there to look them up. Said he, “ You say your ancestors
emigrated about 200 years ago from about this spot; well, then,
why are you looking for them here ?” (Laughter.)
Now, on the first occasion that I ever had the pleasure of visit-
ing the mother country I happened to arrive in London on the
fourth of July, and at a reception that evening a member of that24
sex which is alone permitted to say wicked things to men
remarked to me that of course England would have to get rid of
the American colonies some day; it might just as well have been
on the fourth of July as any other day, but she didn’t know why
they executed that document on that day, as it was understood
to be about the hottest day in the whole year. I said that history
was silent on that subject, and tradition made no mention of it,
but it was our belief that our forefathers in their infinite wisdom
foresaw that the anniversary of that day would always be cele-
brated by speeches and that it had been selected because it was
one of the longest days in the year in order to give American
eloquence a fair chance. (Laughter and applause.)
Now, our great purpose here to-night is to tender this very cor-
dial greeting to the eminent scholar, educator, philosopher, trav-
eller, writer, diplomat and statesman who stands now within our
gates. He has spoken very frankly to-night; he has not spoken
with that air of mysticism that characterized the old diplomats in
ages gone by. Why, in those days a true diplomat if he thought his
hair knew what his brain was thinking of would have shaved his
head. (Laughter.) And he usually curled his mustache around
the corners of his mouth in the form of a parenthesis, so that
every sentence that he uttered might look like a mere inadvert-
ent phrase. (Laughter.)
I am sure His Excellency will agree with us in what Froude
once said, that while the separation of the American colonies
may for a time have crippled the supremacy of England, it
founded the supremacy of the English race. (Great applause.)
It is hard to believe that not many years ago the two branches,
the members of this great English-speaking family, found their
blood flowing in battling with each other. Now we are accus-
tomed to speak of blood being thicker than water. And so much
the better, for the thicker the fluid the less likely ijt is to flow.
(Applause.)
Your Chairman has asked me to say some words in regard to
“ Peace among the Nations. ” Now, I have been in my life on both
sides of this question. I began my career just at the breaking25
out of our great Civil War, when men’s minds were turning more
towards saltpetre than to Saint Peter. I was engaged in the
army in helping to make men downright; now I am engaged in
diplomacy, essaying the still more difficult task of trying to make
men upright. In our efforts to bring about peace among nations
we have encountered great discouragement in endeavoring to
secure that which is the fond dream of every intelligent citizen,
of every loyal statesman; but we must not be discouraged.
Whenever a Peace Congress, or a Peace Conference, has met we
know there have risen up many sceptics who predict defeat. Now,
let us see what encouragement we can derive from what has been
accomplished by these conferences. They have secured greater
respect for flags of truce; they have prevented the use of poisoned
weapons and explosive bullets; they have commanded the recog-
nition as neutrals of the representatives of the Red Cross on the
field of battle; they have secured immunity from capture of hos-
pital ships, whether furnished by peaceful societies or by bellig-
erents; they have brought about useful decisions, which have
been incorporated in international law, defining more clearly the
important rights and duties of neutrals; they have done much in
systematizing the great principles of international law—and
international law may perhaps best be defined as a codification
of the common sense of nations. (Great applause.)
Now let us see how the causes of war have been eliminated
with the ages. The most fruitful cause of war at one time was
religion. We never expect, now that religion has become so
liberal, that it will bathe the nations in blood for the sake of a
dogma or a creed. Another fruitful source of war was eager-
ness of nations to rush into newly discovered countries to seize
a portion of the territory. That has been virtually eliminated,
for about all the countries have now been discovered and ex-
plored, and the last one—the dark continent of Africa—has
been so parcelled out that probably no further disturbance will
arise there. A Sovereign cannot now make war to show his
prowess in the field or to prove that he is more skilled in battle
than his warlike ancestors. It is the age of Parliaments, and2 6
the representatives of the people must first debate the justifica-
tion for a war, and during those debates hot-headed people are
given time to cool off. Then there is the vast expense of war
to-day, which deters tax-ridden countries from contemplating it.
A great international tribunal has been organized, to which
many questions will doubtless be submitted for peaceful settle-
ment. Arbitration has done very much to prevent wars; but,
unfortunately, not always with satisfactory results, because the
arbitrators are often chosen because they are friendly to the
parties to the dispute, and in their friendship, in trying to please
both, they merely split the difference and suit neither one. What
we want is a permanent tribunal which will settle all interna-
tional controversies upon the immutable principles of justice and
of right. What every nation wants is justice. Every nation is
entitled to that. It should ask nothing more.
Now let us see how wars have been reduced in duration. We
read of the Hundred Years* War, of the Seventy Years’, of the
famous Seven Years* War; in our own great war the duration was
four years, and since that time there has been only two-years’
wars. One of the most encouraging features is that the most
distinguished soldiers, after seeing the horrors displayed upon
the field of battle, have become the most ardent and uncom-
promising apostles of peace. (Great applause.)
Washington, after spending so much of his life on the field in
the French and Indian wars, and the War of the Revolution, in
that immortal farewell address, which some think the greatest
document of uninspired wisdom ever penned, says that we must
avoid all entangling alliances abroad that might bring us into
conflict. And the most combative soldier of the age, after a
war in which he commanded all of the Union forces and became
President, it was largely owing to his love of peace and horror
of war that made him conspicuously instrumental in bringing
about the settlement of the Alabama Claims and giving to the
world its greatest lesson in diplomacy by settling peacefully the
the most delicate and serious question between the two greatest
Powers of earth by peaceful arbitration without recourse to the27
cruel arbitrament of the sword. And only yesterday the Chief
Magistrate of our nation, having served in the Naval Depart-
ment and on the field of battle, brought to the peaceful shores
of our Republic the distinguished representatives of the Imperial
forces that were waging the most appalling war of modern times
in the Orient, and they remained until they executed a treaty
of peace which ended that gigantic struggle. It was the soldier
who had become the pacificator. It was the “Rough Rider ’>
smoothing the path of peace. (Great applause.)
But let me ask, not to detain you longer, is it too wild a flight
of fancy, is it a too fond dream, to predict that some day we
may hope—and not in the very long future—that Governments
may be led to believe that a country’s prosperity depends upon
public tranquillity, that the nations may be knit together by a
mutual intercourse of good offices, that the ink of the scholar
may become as potent as the blood of the martyr, and that the
white-winged dove of peace may spread his pinions over all
lands; that wars may cease, which waste a national substance;
that commerce, which is a nation’s life-blood, may flourish; that
the science of destruction may give place to the arts of civiliza-
tion; that all international disputes may be settled upon the im-
mutable principles of justice and of right, and that the blessings
of peace may become the common heritage of mankind? (Tre-
mendous applause and cheers.)
The Chairman: The last toast will be responded to by one
who, finding himself among 500 Scotchmen, where I also pre-
sided, described himself as “by extraction Irish, by speech Eng-
lish, by residence American, but by choice half Scotch and
half Seltzer.” (Laughter.)
However you take him, he is a Pilgrim and a good one, and
his preference for Scotch was undoubtedly a compliment to our
guest from Aberdeen. He has just returned from London, where
he was present at the send-off to the British Ambassador, Mr.
Bryce, at the dinner given by our brother Pilgrims of London,28
and he will tell us how they treated this composite Irish-Eng-
lish-American-Scotch Pilgrim.
Gentlemen, I have the honor of introducing to you Mr. Pat-
rick Francis Murphy.
Mr. Patrick Francis Murphy:
Mr. President, Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen: I have
listened with attention to the picturesque description of my
geographical infidelities; I have been born, evidently like the
distinguished guest of the evening, in Aberdeen, County Cork,
England. (Laughter.) And now I am coquetting with Amer-
ica. A man who woos four nationalities is apt to be spurned by
all, and left on the international doorstep as an anonymous
child. (Laughter.)
The honor and pleasure was accorded me of attending the
banquet given to the Right Honorable James Bryce by the Pil-
grims of London. His Excellency was surrounded by the most
distinguished men of Great Britain. They had known him, and
it gave to the occasion a fitting personal quality. The event
was remarkable, in that in their tributes of affection and admira-
tion there were no exaggerated claims. They felt that simply
to state what he was, and had done, was better than any eulogy.
Their attitude was English and imperturbable—(laughter)—
that the merit of a thing well done was to have done it. They
did not feel constrained to enlarge upon it, no more than they
felt obliged either to defend the Ten Commandments or to brag
about them. (Laughter.) Just as the best part of the beauty
of a face is that which the picture cannot express, so the lis-
teners felt at that banquet that there was something finer in the
man than in anything that had been said. (Great applause.)
Noble and distinguished speakers referred to the former Ameri-
can Ambassador, Honorable Joseph H. Choate, in testimony of
the high and respectful consideration they entertained for him—
of his triumphs at banquets—the diplomacy of digestion—that
time vanished before him as he spoke, and they even forgot
about the British climate. (Laughter.) The privilege was ex-29
tended me to respond to the toast “The Pilgrims of New
York.” Rising with difficulty—which fortunately was mistaken
for modesty—and explaining to the brilliant audience that the
Honorable Secretary had just informed me this was no ordinary
affair; that the Pilgrims dealt with the nations of the earth; he
delicately implied that there were dignitaries from every nation
present; and that under the communicative warmth of banquets
a careless tongue blossoming into speech might cause inter-
national misunderstandings. (Laughter.) The Secretary feared
the pungency of Hibernian sauce. All the other speakers were
diplomatists. They needed no admonition. Diplomacy is the
art of shrouding the truth with the splendid ornaments of rhe-
toric, and doing it with an apparent air of frankness. It is the
genius to grasp that fine line of distinction between odor and
perfume. I explained to the Chairman, Lord Roberts, and
the distinguished gathering, had I known the gravity of the
occasion, all expressions of impromptu wit, should they occur,
would have been submitted to the Chairman before the dinner.
(Great laughter.) His Lordship subsequently assured me that
my fears were groundless, (renewed laughter and applause)
he and the Archbishop of Canterbury had closely followed me,
that the possible expressions of wit referred to did not occur.
(Great laughter and applause.) The English Secretary paid a
gracious tribute to his illustrious American colleague, Mr. George
T. Wilson.
As oceans unite rather than divide countries, New York knows
more of London than of San Francisco. The Pilgrims is com-
posed of a limited number of distinguished gentlemen. It co-
exists in London and in New York, and it may be said its mem-
bers lead a blameless double life. (Laughter and tremendous
applause.) The duties attending the office of secretary are far-
reaching, and here is where we literally need “ Hands across
the sea.” There is no one man who can be sufficiently ambi-
dexterous. There is only one instance known where recording
angels acted in this twin-like capacity. I refer to the famous
Irish Historical Society. You will remember they had two sec-3°
retaries, because one could not read and the other could not
write. (Great laughter and applause.)
After an absence of years His Excellency the British Ambas-
sador will find new phases in American life. Henry James,
after an absence of twenty-five years, has just revisited his
former American home, and has written another book. What
struck him forcibly and impressed him most was the foreigner.
There was no escape from the alien. Being lost among the hills
of New Hampshire, he inquired his way of the first man he met.
He was an Armenian. But if Henry James had remained here
custom would have soon reconciled him. Men are not born
adapted to conditions of a country; it is conditions that adapt
men. Our distinguished guest of the evening will probably find
in America that prominence has a penalty that follows it like a
shadow. It may be, as the Governor of the State has said, that
it is blissful to be understood; but to be a great man is to be
misunderstood. His time is generally employed in explaining
to interviewers what he meant in his last interview. (Great
laughter.)
This is the land of unlimited opportunities. Opportunity was
represented by the ancients with hair in front; behind she was
bald. Seize her by the forelock, you may hold her; but if once
she passes by it is impossible to catch her.
America is so fruitful that every man feels guilty who has not
grasped some golden-haired opportunity. It is not considered
good form to talk about money in society, but it is customary to
think about it. (Great laughter.) English Peeresses are re-
cruited from the ranks of American heiresses. Now that the
Radical party has attached itself to the Cabinet of the Honorable
James Bryce’s party, it may be well to state here it would be a
sad blow to American capital if anything should happen to the
House of Lords.
The Honorable James Bryce is the author of “The American
Commonwealth.” It was he who said that Lincoln belonged not
only to the United States but to the whole civilized mankind.
There our distinguished guest told his own story—that he was a3i
citizen of the world, that his heart was no island cut off from
other lands, but rather a continent joined to them. Of all his
Britannic Majesty’s Ambassadors to America he seems to be the
friendliest—a man who comes among a people, who accepts
them as God made them, who enters into and understands
their life; not only will he be regarded with favor, but he will
accomplish it without sacrificing any of the interests of his own
country. (Tremendous applause and cheers.)