At the public banquet given to Sir John Tenniel. on
Wednesday, Mr. Balfour, who presided, declared that Sir John Tenniel's chief and almost unique title to ad- miration was that, though a satirist, he had never once lapsed into vulgarity or venom, but had consistently exerted his powers for the furtherance of peace, humanity, and civilisation. Mr. Choate, in a most entertaining speech, (jeclared that Sir John Tenniel had been keeping . a school for statesmen for the last fifty years,—a school of morals, virtues, manners, discipline, politics. and principle. The pictures in Alice," according to Mr. Choate, illustrated the characters and tendencies of public men. Analogues of that great character, the White Rabbit, might be found in the American Senate and the House of Lords. The Dodo, the Mock Turtle, the Cheshire Cat, and the Jabberwock were reflected in every Legislative Assembly where English was spoken, and traces of them were to be found in the Courts of Justice. In short. the beauty of these books and their illustrations was that. every man could find his picture in them if he looked for it. Only that afternoon he had found the position of an Ambassador burdened with postprandial functions accurately described in " Old Father William."
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