t with the
restrictions which hedge round a Foreign Minister, and in their anxiety
to get speakers they will look anywhere. On one occasion I received an
invitation to go to Canada to attend a banquet at a Commercial Club in
one of the principal Canadian cities. It would have given me great
pleasure to be able to comply with this request, as I had not then
visited that country, but, contrary to inclination, I had to decline.
I was accredited as Minister to Washington, and did not feel at liberty
to visit another country without the special permission of my Home
Government.

Public speaking, like any other art, has to be cultivated. However
scholarly a man may be, and however clever he may be in private
conversation, when called upon to speak in public he may sometimes make
a very poor impression. I have known highly placed foreign officials,
with deserved reputations for wisdom and ability, who were shockingly
poor speakers at banquets. They would hesitate and almost stammer, and
would prove quite incapable of expressing their thoughts in any
sensible or intelligent manner. In this respect, personal observations
have convinced me that Americans, as a rule, are better speakers
than.... (I will not mention the nationality in my mind, it might give
offense.) An American, who, without previous notice, is called upon to
speak, generally acquits himself creditably. He is nearly always
witty, appreciative, and frank. This is due, I believe, to the
thorough-going nature of his education: he is taught to be
self-confident, to believe in his own ability to create, to express his
opinions without fear. A diffident and retiring man, whose chief
characteristic is extreme modesty, is not likely to be a good speaker;
but Americans are free from this weakness. Far be it from me to
suggest that there are no good speakers in other countries. America
can by no means claim a monopoly of orators; there are many elsewhere
whose sage sayings and forcible logic are appreciated by all who hear
or read them; but, on the whole, Americans excel others in the
readiness of their wit, and their power to make a good extempore speech
on any subject, without opportunity for preparation.

Neither is the fair sex in America behind the men in this matter. I
have heard some most excellent speeches by women, speeches which would
do credit to an orator; but they labor under a disadvantage. The
female voice is soft and low, it is not easily h