214 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
Gladstone said in part: “The union of the two countries 
means, after all, the union of the men by whom they are in- 
habited; and among the men by whom they are inhabited 
there are some whose happy lot it has been to contribute more 
than others to the accomplishment of what I will venture to 
call that sacred work. And who is there, gentlemen, of them 
all that has been more marked, either by energetic motion or 
by happy success in that great undertaking, than your chair- 
man, who has gathered us round his hospitable board to- 
night? His business has been to unite these two countries by a 
telegraphic wire; but, gentlemen, he is almost a telegraphic 
wire himself. With the exception of the telegraphic wire, 
there is not, I believe, any one who has so frequently passed 
anything between the two countries. I am quite certain there 
is no man who, often as he has crossed the ocean, has more 
weightily been charged upon every voyage with sentiments 
of kindness and good-will, of which he has been the messen- 
ger between the one and the other people.” 
