Independence Day was celebrated by the usual annual dinner given
by the American Society, and excellent speeches were made by the American Ambassador and Mr. Chauncey Depew. Mr. Choate began by saying that notwithstanding his long residence in England, he could not claim or admit that he had become an Englishman. " If it were so, he should describe himself as an Englishman of the seventeenth century with all the modern improvements that went to make the American of to-day." After tracing out in a most interesting fashion the memorials and relics of famous Americans, of which England and London were full, Mr. Choate suggested the erection of two memorial statues to show that all this talk of union and affection and reconciliation was something more than talk,—a statue of George Washington in the City of London and a statue in Washington of the great Queen Victoria, "the friend of America from the beginning to the end of her reign, who, in at least one critical moment, abso- lutely saved them from conflict with the country over which she ruled."
Previous page
