t FAREWELL Address at the Farewell Banquet given to Mr. Choate, by the Lord Μ' Y Lord Mayor, Mr. Balfour, my Lords and Gentlemen,-Certainly this is the crowning hour of my life. At any rate, it is positively my last farewell benefit upon the English stage. To be received and fêted by the Lord Mayor of London, who holds the most unique and picturesque office in the kingdom, who bears upon his breast the badge which his predecessors in direct succession have worn for more than seven hundred years, the Chief Magistrate of this wonderful City, the centre of the world's commerce and the seat of the British Empire; to have my health proposed and my obituary pronounced by the Prime Minister, who bears upon his ample shoulders all of this great globe which the British drum-beat encircles, supported as he is too by such a number of possible Prime Ministers of the future, all ready and willing in the fulness of time, with consummate self-sacrifice, to relieve him of this great portion of his duty; to see present also so many members of that august but occult body, the Cabinet, who labor in secret, but to-night for my sake have come out into the full glare of the bright electric light; to be honored by the presence of the Foreign Secretary with whom I have had such delightful intercourse, Lord Lansdowne, from whom no secrets are hid; and then to find that so many of the famous men of England of all professions, parties, and opinions have come here to-night as my friends - I could look almost every man in this company in the face and claim him almost as an old friendI do not dare trust myself to speak at all about it. I can only thank the Lord Mayor for his magnificent hospitality, and you, all my fellowguests here, for your inspiring presence. I am sure that you will indulge me, before I say the fatal word "Farewell," in a few words in response to what has been so eloquently said to you by the Prime Minister. Altogether too much credit has been attributed to me for the happy, the delightful relations that now exist between our two countries. If I have contributed in the least degree to maintain and preserve what I found already existing, the last six years will be the proudest of my life. But, gentlemen, the real credit of this happy state of things belongs not to me or to any Ambassador, but it belongs to the two men who are responsible, and have now for some years been responsible, for the conduct of our relations, no longer foreign relations - I mean Lord Lansdowne and Mr. Hay. The diplomatist who should try to pick a quarrel with Lord Lansdowne would be a curious crank indeed; because he would have to pick it all himself; Lord Lansdowne would be no party to it. And, happily, so it is with Mr. Hay. Never were two statesmen more happily matched, for the noble game that is entrusted to them. When the noble marquis escapes from the ennui of Downing street and the tiresome visits of Ambassadors, to his beloved retreat in the extreme southwest of Ireland, he finds himself in the next parish to the United States, with nothing between us and him but fresh air and salt water. And I think I have noticed that he catches and reflects the breezy influences of that close neighborhood. At any rate, I have always found that my best time for dealing with him on American questions was when he returned refreshed and invigorated from that near approach to the Western World. Always, the policy of the Foreign Office, so far as I have observed it, has been one of fairness, frankness, justice and simple truth, and I hope that he has found our State Department the same. No single man can claim exclusive credit in this happy result. You all know how constant, how unceasing your gracious Sovereigns and our highminded Presidents have always been in the same direction. I wish to say here to-night that I have never been called into the presence of his Majesty the King or of his illustrious mother that I did not find them full of expressions of sympathy and friendship for the country that I represent. I well remember the last interview that it was my honor to have with your late illustrious Queen. It was immediately after a frightful conflagration had occurred in America, where many lives were lost. She knew all about it, she had studied all its details, and was as full of sympathy and sorrow as if the disaster had occurred in her own dominions. And as for his Majesty, the King, why, his instinct for peace is so unceasing, his genius for conciliation so perfect, as he has been showing to the world in this very last week, that it will be impossible hereafter as long as he lives for any of the other nations to quarrel with his own people. I have been asked a thousand times in the last three months, " Why do you go?" "Are you not sorry to leave England? Are you really glad to go home?" Well, in truth, my mind and heart are torn asunder by conflicting emotions. In the first place, on the one hand, I will tell you a great secret. I am really suffering from homesickness. Not that I love England less, but that I love America more, and what Englishman will quarrel with me for that? There is no place like home, be it ever so homely, or, as the old Welsh adage has it, "east and west, hame is best." My friends on this side of the water are multiplying every day in numbers and increasing in the ardor of their affections. I am sorry to say that the great host of my friends on the other side are as rapidly diminishing and dwindling away. "Part of the host have crossed the flood, and part are crossing now," and I have a great yearning to be with the waning number. And then, on the other hand, to make a clean breast of |