MR RUSSELL LOWELL ON AMERICA AND ENGLAND.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1307, 8 October 1883, Page 2

MR RUSSELL LOWELL ON AMERICA AND ENGLAND.

«. At the banquet to Mr Henry Irving, given in St. James' Hall on July 4, Mr J. Russell Lowell, the American Minister, in the course of his speech in reply to the toast of " Literature, Science and Art," said : — " Now the Fourth of July has several times been alluded to, and 1 believe it is generally thought that on that anniversary the spirit of a certain bird known to heraldic onithologists — and, I believe, to them alone — as the spread-eagle — (laughter) — enters into every American's breast, and compels him, whether he will or not, to pour forth a flood of national self-laudation. This, I say, is tlie general superstition — (laughter), — and I hope that a few words of mine may serve in some sort to correct it. I would ask you whether there is any other people who have confined ' their national self -laudation to one day

in the year. — (Laughter aud cheers.) I must be allowed one remark of personal experience. Fortune has willed it that I should see as many, perhaps more, cities and manners of men than Ulysses, and I have observed one general fact — and that is, that the adjectival epithet which is prefixed toall the virtues is invariably the adjective which geographically describes the country that I am in. — (Laughter.) If, for instance, no to take any real uame, I am in the kingdom of- i illiput, I hear of the Lilliputian virtues. I hear courage called by that name ; I hear common sense, I hear political wisdom, I hear all of thera called by that name. When I cross to the neighbouring Republic of Blefuseu — and since Swift's time it has become a Republic — (laughter and cheers) — I hear all these virtues qualified as Blefuscan. — (Laughter.) I am very glad to be able to thank Lord Coleridge for having, I believe for the first time conpled the name of the President of the United States with that of her Majesty on an occasion like thia — (Cheers.) And I was struck, both in what he and in what our distinguished guest***' said, with the frequent recurrence of an adjective which is comparatively new — I mean the word ' English-speaking.' We continually hear nowadays of the ' English-speak-ing l-ace,' of the ' English-speaking population.' I think this implies, not that we are to forget — not that it would be even well to forget — that national emulation, and that individual pride, which are implied in tbe words ' Englishman ' and ' American '; but I think the word does imply that there are certain perennial and abiding sympathies between all the men of a common language. — (Cheers.) I am sure that all our chairman has said with regard to the welcome which oui distinguished guest will receive in America is true. His emm nt talents as an actor, the dignified — I may saj the illustrious — manner in which h. has sustained the traditions of thai succession of great English actors wh< from the time of Burbage to his owr has illustrated the English stage, wili he highly appreciated thqre as here.— (Cheers.) Aud lam sure 1 may als< say that the chief magistrate of Eng land will be welcomed by the Bar of th< United States — (cheers) — of which lan an unworthy member, and perhaps al the more warmly welcomed that h< does not come among them to practis* — (Loud laughter.) He will fine English law administered, as I thinl he wili agree with me in saying, ablj administered by judges who, lam sorrj to say, sit without the traditional wuj of England — (laughter) — and since ] came here a friend of mine has greatlj lamented this to me, as somethiii< perhaps prophetic of the decay whicl was sure to follow so serious an in novation. I answered with a little story which I remember hearing fron my father who remembered the las! clergyman in New England who stil continued to wear a wig. At first ii J bocame a singularity, then it tended k become au ' enormity, and the good doctor concluded to leave it off. Bu' i there was one poor woman among hi j parishioners wlio' lamented it sadly, and waylaying the clergyman as he cann out of church, she said, 'Ah, dear doctor, I have always listened :o yout sermons with the greatest edificatiot and comfort; but now that the wigi; gone, all is gone.' — (Loud. laughter.) ] thought I saw some signs of encourage ment in the face of my English frienc after I had consoled him with thai very little story."