a speech at which to-day neither I nor any one
else need blush. But I could not help thinking of those words when I
reflected that I was here negotiating with the representatives of a
mighty nation of seventy millions of people, who have not been overrun
by the little Republics of Genoa and San Marino [laughter], although
undoubtedly, in a sense very different from that which the speaker
intended, you may have been overrun by the natives of some of the
Italian towns. [Laughter.]

Gentlemen, there is to-day in my country, as in yours, a pride in the
United States. We cannot forget that if you won your independence, if
you achieved your liberties, if you laid the foundations of your
constitution, if you prepared for such a nation as exists here to-day,
you were at that time colonists of Great Britain. The men who laid the
foundation stones of the United States, in which you to-day glory, were
those who had gone out from amongst us, who had in the country of my
birth imbibed for the most part their traditions of liberty, and their
desire and determination to achieve it; and, therefore, with no
misgiving, with nothing but a feeling of pride, we may rejoice in your
success and in your progress. We long ago admitted the follies and the
wrong-doings of those times, as freely as you could insist upon them
yourselves. [Applause.]

I am not going to dwell upon that aspect of the case to-night, because I
am quite aware that sometimes the ready admission of wrong-doing is
rather irritating than soothing. [Laughter.] I remember once hearing a
learned counsel, who was conducting the trial of a case before a judge
of great ability but not of the best of tempers, put a question of a
character such as to shock any one accustomed to be guided by the rigid
rules of evidence. Strictly in confidence, I don't think he had the
least idea that it was a wrong question, but the learned judge
interposed and said: "That was an improper question, Mr. so and so."
"Yes, my Lord, it was very improper." "Yes," said the judge, "you ought
not to have put the question,--a most improper question." "Yes, sir; I
ought not to have put it, a more improper question never was." And the
more the judge reproached him the more submissive he became, until he
drove the judge nearly mad. [Laughter.]

Gentlemen, there has been a great deal of discussion lately as to the
exact nature of the bond which united Great Britain and the United
States. Some one says blood i