M 



AFTER-DINNER SPEECH. 



[at a FOURTH-OF-JULY gathering, in LONDON, OF AMERICANS.] 



R. CHAIRMAN AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I thank 

 you for the compliment which has just been tendered me, and to show 

 my appreciation of it I will not afflict you with many words. It is 

 pleasant to celebrate in this peaceful way, upon this old mother soil, the 

 anniversary of an experiment which was born of war with this same land 

 so long ago, and wrought out to a successful issue by the devotion of our 

 ancestors. It has taken nearly a hundred years to bring the English and 

 Atnericans into kindly and mutually appreciative relations, but I believe 

 it has been accomplished at last. It was a great step when the two last 

 misunderstandings were settled by arbitration instead of cannon. It is another 

 great step when England adopts our sewing machines without claiming the 

 invention — as usual. It was another when they imported one of our sleepiilg 

 cars the other day. And it warmed my heart more than I can tell, yesterday, when 

 I witnessed the spectacle of an Englishman ordering an American sherry cob- 

 bler of his own free will and accord — and not only that but with a great brain 

 and a level head reminding the bar-keeper not to forget the strawberries. 

 With a common origin, a common language, a common literature, a common 

 religion and — common drinks, what is longer needful to the cementing of the 

 two nations together in a permanent bond of brotherhood? 



This is an age of progress, and ours is a progressive land. A great and 

 glorious land, too — a land which has developed a Washington, a Franklin, a 

 Wm. M. Tweed, a Longfellow, a Motley, a Jay Gould, a Samuel C. Pomeroy, a 

 recent Congress which has never had its equal — (in some respects) and a United 

 States Army which conquered sixty Indians in eight months by tiring them out 

 — which is much better than uncivilized slaughter, God knows. We have a 

 criminal jury system which is superior to any in, the world; and its efficiency is 

 only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don't know any- 

 thing and can't read. And I niay observe that we have an insanity plea that 



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