of each other. The second is when, having
nothing to say, we are expected to fill a void in the minds of our
hearers. And I think the third, and most formidable, is the necessity of
following a speaker who is sure to say all the things you meant to say,
and better than you, so that we are tempted to exclaim, with the old
grammarian, "Hang these fellows, who have said all our good things
before us!" [Laughter.]

Now the fourth of July has several times been alluded to, and I believe
it is generally thought that on that anniversary the spirit of a certain
bird known to heraldic ornithologists--and I believe to them alone--as
the spread eagle, enters into every American's breast, and compels him,
whether he will or no, to pour forth a flood of national self-laudation.
[Laughter and cheers.] This, I say, is the general superstition, and I
hope that a few words of mine may serve in some sort to correct it. I
ask you, if there is any other people who have confined their national
self-laudation to one day in the year. [Laughter.] I may be allowed to
make one remark as to a personal experience. Fortune has willed it that
I should see as many--perhaps more--cities and manners of men as
Ulysses; and I have observed one general fact, and that is, that the
adjectival epithet which is prefixed to all the virtues is invariably
the epithet which geographically describes the country that I am in. For
instance, not to take any real name, if I am in the kingdom of Lilliput,
I hear of the Lilliputian virtues. I hear courage, I hear common sense,
and I hear political wisdom called by that name. If I cross to the
neighboring Republic Blefusca--for since Swift's time it has become a
Republic--I hear all these virtues suddenly qualified as Blefuscan.
[Laughter.]

I am very glad to be able to thank Lord Coleridge for having, I believe
for the first time, coupled the name of the President of the United
States with that of her Majesty on an occasion like this. I was struck,
both in what he said, and in what our distinguished guest of this
evening 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-speaking race," of the "English-speaking
population." I think this implies, not that we are to forget, not that
it would be well for us to forget, that national emulation and that
national pride which is implied in the words "Englishman" and
"