Chapter II [excerpt]

     Referring to the great loss which the whole of the civilised race had sustained by President M’Kinley’s death, the Mayor said that they welcomed Sir Henry especially that day when their brothers across the sea were passing through so sad a time, because he had done more than any one else to cement the great friendship existing between the two nations which they then enjoyed.

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     Mr. Mayor, my Lord Bishop, ladies and gentlemen,—I am very proud to have taken part to-day in this national celebration of the millenary of the great Alfred, the great Saxon king. When the Royal Institution did me the honour of naming me as their representative to attend this celebration, I gladly acceded to the request, and when, further, your Right Worshipful Mayor invited me to aid in another way the good cause, I replied that I should be happy to be of any service in my power. A thousand years of the memory of a great king, who loved his country, and made it beloved and respected and feared, is a mighty heritage for a nation, and one of which not England alone, but all Christendom ought to be proud. The work which Alfred did he did for England, but the whole world benefited by it, though most of all did it benefit the place for which and in which it was done. In the thousand years which have elapsed since he was laid to rest in that England in whose making he had such an important part, the world has grown wider and better, and civilisation has marched on with mighty strides. But through all the extension and advance the land which he consolidated, and the race who peopled it, have ever been to the front in freedom and enlightenment, and to-day, when England and her many children, east and west, north and south, are united by one grand aspiration of advancement and progress, it is well we should celebrate the memory of him to whom in so large a measure that advance is due. May I add that all that race which looks up to King Alfred and knows his memory as a common heritage, all that race is to-day united in bitter grief for one who to-morrow a mourning nation is to lay at rest. President M’Kinley was at once the advocate and emblem of noble conduct, of high thought and patriotism. He, like his predecessor of a thousand years ago, worked not only for his own country, but for all the world, and his memory shall be green for ever in the hearts of our loyal and expansive race, in the hearts of all English-speaking people. I thank you, sir, for the most kind and cordial expressions you have used concerning me. It has been a great happiness to me to be here to-day, and I am thankful that you, ladies and gentlemen, have listened to me so patiently and so kindly.