y my presence to express the deep and
universal feeling of sympathy which moves the entire American people
for the British people in their hour of sadness and trial.

I need hardly say how profoundly I feel the high honor that you confer
upon me; an honor great in itself, and great because of the ancient
historic associations connected with it, with the ceremonies incident
to conferring it, and with the place in which it is conferred. I am
very deeply appreciative of all that this ceremony means, all that
this gift implies, and all the kind words which Sir Joseph Dimsdale
has used in conferring it. I thank you heartily for myself. I thank
you still more because I know that what you have done is to be taken
primarily as a sign of the respect and friendly good-will which more
and more, as time goes by, tends to knit together the English-speaking
peoples.

I shall not try to make you any extended address of mere thanks, still
less of mere eulogy. I prefer to speak, and I know you would prefer to
have me speak, on matters of real concern to you, as to which I happen
at this moment to possess some first-hand knowledge; for recently I
traversed certain portions of the British Empire under conditions
which made me intimately cognizant of their circumstances and needs. I
have just spent nearly a year in Africa. While there I saw four
British protectorates. I grew heartily to respect the men whom I there
met, settlers and military and civil officials; and it seems to me
that the best service I can render them and you is very briefly to
tell you how I was impressed by some of the things that I saw. Your
men in Africa are doing a great work for your Empire, and they are
also doing a great work for civilization. This fact and my sympathy
for and belief in them are my reasons for speaking. The people at
home, whether in Europe or in America, who live softly, often fail
fully to realize what is being done for them by the men who are
actually engaged in the pioneer work of civilization abroad. Of
course, in any mass of men there are sure to be some who are weak or
unworthy, and even those who are good are sure to make occasional
mistakes--that is as true of pioneers as of other men. Nevertheless,
the great fact in world history during the last century has been the
spread of civilization over the world's waste spaces. The work is
still going on; and the soldiers, the settlers, and the civic
officials who are actually doing it are, as