The American Squadron, commanded by Rear-Admiral Cotton, which arrived on
Monday at Portsmouth, has met with a very cordial reception. On Wednesday the Mayor and leading citizens entertained five hundred American and three hundred British sailors and marines at luncheon, and striking speeches were made by Mr. Swaim, the United States Consul, and Lieutenant - Commander Wood. Mr. Swaim, after declaring that the President could never forget that when Americans wanted friends England was the one nation which stood by them, related a striking incident that occurred at Montevideo during the war with Spain. They were expecting the Oregon,' they knew she would be short of coal, and they could not buy a pound of fuel. At this juncture a Scotsman came to his house and said that though he had no power to sell, he had eight hundred tons on board, and " he pitied the American Captain who would not put his ship alongside, take the bags of coal, and then cut the painter.' " As it turned out, the Oregon' did not call, but " such an act of friendship which defied law and order touched his heart." Lieutenant-Commander Wood, speaking in the same strain, observed that the time of danger and peril accentuated the ties of kinship. "In China years ago and in China much later, in Samoa, and in the memory of those who served in the Philippines, where they had the benevolent neutrality of Sir Edward Chichester, who endeared himself to every American who was present,—on all these occasions Americans had been imbued with a lively sense of their obligations. God forbid that the need should ever come to call out these obligations, but if it did the Americans would be bankrupt in national honour and in manhood if they did not respond."
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