At the same banquet Mr. Choate made a speech which
cannot :ail to touch the heart of every Englishman who reads it. "No man," said Mr. Choate, "could find himself in a community more disposed to manifest loyal friendship than I found the people of London and England to be. I soon found that they had little use for the gush and chaff which some- times seem to go well here. I found that the vigorous and manly assertion of the American character and interests and rights was more calculated to propitiate their favour and the favourable consideration of anything I had to offer than any attempt to flatter and cajole. I found that they were very much like people I had left at home; that they were deter- mined to maintain their own character and their own rights ; and that they wanted and expected the representatives of other people to meet them in the same fashion." That is one of the finest compliments ever paid by a great orator to a nation, and what makes it the more striking is the fact that it was not meant as a compliment, but was the sincere report on the facts made by a distinguished New Yorker to the business men of New York.
