hich was loudly
cheered.]

MR. CHAIRMAN, MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN:--I can scarcely find
fitting words to express my gratitude for the warm and genial manner in
which the toast of "American Literature" has been received by this
distinguished assembly. I wish that the honor of responding to it had
been placed in worthier hands. Two at least of our most eminent men of
letters I thought were in England, or near it--one, that most original,
subtle, poetical and graceful of thinkers and essayists, Mr. Emerson
[cheers]; the other, one of our most distinguished poets and
prose-writers, second to none in the highest spheres of imagination and
humor: Mr. Lowell. [Cheers.] I had hoped to meet them both, but I look
in vain for their friendly and familiar faces. In their absence, I
venture to return thanks most sincerely, but briefly, for the eloquent
and sympathetic words with which the distinguished prelate has spoken of
our literature. I do so in behalf of the eminent poets and prose-writers
in every department of literature and science, many of whose names
tremble on my lips, but the long roll-call of which I will not
enumerate, who are the living illustrators of our literature, and who it
is a gratification to know are almost as familiar and highly appreciated
in the old land of our forefathers as they are at home [cheers]; but I
for one like to consider them all as fellow-citizens in the great
English-speaking Republic of letters--where all are brothers, not
strangers to each other. And as an illustration of this, I believe that
it is not long since one of our famous poets whose exquisite works are
familiar in every palace and every cottage all over the world where the
English language is spoken--Mr. Longfellow--was recently requested to
preside at one of your meetings. [Cheers.]

I can produce nothing new on that great subject, which seems the
inevitable one for an American on such an occasion as this, the
international bond of a common language, a common literature, and
centuries of common history and tradition, which connects those two
great nations, the United Empire and the United Republic. May the
shadows of both never grow less and may that international bond
strengthen its links every year! [Cheers.] What is the first hallowed
spot in the Transatlantic pilgrimage of every true American? What is the
true Mecca of his heart? Not the hoary tombs of the Pharaohs, and the
one hundred gated cities of the Nile. Not the Ac