ou that I am most deeply sensible of the warm welcome that you
have extended to me, and grateful for the manner in which you have
received the words which were uttered introducing me to you. But I can
assure you that I rejoiced to hear the cheers with which this toast was
greeted, not merely because they were a compliment to myself, but
because I was satisfied that you were regarding me rather in the
character of a representative of my country, and that there rang in
those cheers sentiments of good will to the country that I have the
honor to represent to-night. [Applause.] And I heard in them something
more than that--they indicated to me a conviction that in the
continuance of good relations between your country and mine, there were
involved blessings, priceless blessings, to the countries we love so
well. [Applause.]

I can assure you that all my countrymen reciprocate the feeling which
has been expressed; that they desire, as you do, that the cordial
relationship should continue, and that they have toward the United
States of America nothing but feelings of good will and a desire for its
welfare and progress. [Applause.] I have said--all my countrymen. I
ought, perhaps, not to have been so bold. There are some fools in all
lands. [Laughter.] They are the product of every soil. No nation has a
monopoly of them. [Laughter.] But with these exceptions, I can speak, I
think, for all my countrymen. The echoes of those now distant events of
a century and a quarter ago, which left much soreness behind them, have
died away in England. [Applause.] We can rejoice as much as you rejoice
to-day, in the fact that you are one of the leading nations of the
world. [Applause.] And there is to me a peculiar interest in the fact
that I, who have had the honor to fill the office of Lord Chancellor,
should be here as the representative of my country engaged in
negotiations between Great Britain and the United States. A century and
a quarter ago or more, a predecessor of mine in that high office made a
most unfortunately foolish prediction. He said, with reference to these
(at that time) colonies: "If they withdraw their allegiance, we shall
withdraw our protection; and then they will soon be overrun by the
little States of Genoa and San Marino." [Laughter.] I am happy to say--I
must say it for the credit of the office--that there was even then a
distinguished lawyer who was to succeed the Lord Chancellor to whom I
have referred, who made