UNITED STATES AND CANADA 265 



No Birmingham man who has been permitted to 

 take a part in its active busy Hfe, who has assisted 

 in any degree in its amazing development, but feels 

 that gratitude to the mother city which is the foun- 

 dation of local patriotism, which distinguishes 

 Birmingham, I think, above all great cities of the 

 Empire, which has been the secret of our past 

 success, and which is the earnest of our future 

 progress — (cheers) — and sure as I am that you 

 share this feeling with me, I join with you in the 

 hope that we may be permitted to co-operate, 

 without regard to differences on other points, in the 

 endeavour to secure the prosperity of our town and 

 the welfare and the happiness of the vast population 

 which finds a home within it. (Hear, hear.) The 

 other idea which runs through the addresses which 

 have been read is the sense of kinship with the nation 

 across the Atlantic from which my wife has come. 

 That is not at all a new feeling in Birmingham, 

 which has always been sympathetic with the people 

 of the United States, and never more so than in the 

 time of their greatest trial in the great crisis of the 

 union, when the eloquent voice of our senior member 

 — (cheers) — now, unfortunately, hushed for a time 

 by illness, was raised again and again in this very hall 

 to defend the integrity of the Republic against those 

 who sought or who desired its destruction ; and 

 that feeling of nearness has grown, and has been 

 constantly maintained in Birmingham, while at the 

 same time it has developed and extended to the rest 

 of the United Kingdom, until at last I believe there 

 is now one sentiment of universal goodwill and of 



