[Speech of Lord Farrer Herschell at the 130th annual banquet of the
Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, November 15, 1898. Lord
Herschell was present in this country as President of the Joint High
Commission appointed to arbitrate the dispute between Canada and the
United States relative to the Bering Sea seal fisheries. Alexander E.
Orr, President of the Chamber, proposed the toast to which Lord
Herschell spoke: "The Future Relations between Great Britain and the
United States--a determined union of heart and purpose will carry the
forces of justice and humanity the world over."]
MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE:--I
assure you that I am most deeply sensible of the warm welcome that you
have extended to me, and grateful for the manner in which you have
received the words which were uttered introducing me to you. But I can
assure you that I rejoiced to hear the cheers with which this toast was
greeted, not merely because they were a compliment to myself, but
because I was satisfied that you were regarding me rather in the
character of a representative of my country, and that there rang in
those cheers sentiments of good will to the country that I have the
honor to represent to-night. [Applause.] And I heard in them something
more than that--they indicated to me a conviction that in the
continuance of good relations between your country and mine, there were
involved blessings, priceless blessings, to the countries we love so
well. [Applause.]
I can assure you that all my countrymen reciprocate the feeling which
has been expressed; that they desire, as you do, that the cordial
relationship should continue, and that they have toward the United
States of America nothing but feelings of good will and a desire for its
welfare and progress. [Applause.] I have said--all my countrymen. I
ought, perhaps, not to have been so bold. There are some fools in all
lands. [Laughter.] They are the product of every soil. No nation has a
monopoly of them. [Laughter.] But with these exceptions, I can speak, I
think, for all my countrymen. The echoes of those now distant events of
a century and a quarter ago, which left much soreness behind them, have
died away in England. [Applause.] We can rejoice as much as you rejoice
to-day, in the fact that you are one of the leading nations of the
world. [Applause.] And there is to me a peculiar interest in the fact
that I, who have had the honor to fill the office of Lord Chancellor,
should be here as the representative of my country engaged in
negotiations between Great Britain and the United States. A century and
a quarter ago or more, a predecessor of mine in that high office made a
most unfortunately foolish prediction. He said, with reference to these
(at that time) colonies: "If they withdraw their allegiance, we shall
withdraw our protection; and then they will soon be overrun by the
little States of Genoa and San Marino." [Laughter.] I am happy to say--I
must say it for the credit of the office--that there was even then a
distinguished lawyer who was to succeed the Lord Chancellor to whom I
have referred, who made a speech at which to-day neither I nor any one
else need blush. But I could not help thinking of those words when I
reflected that I was here negotiating with the representatives of a
mighty nation of seventy millions of people, who have not been overrun
by the little Republics of Genoa and San Marino [laughter], although
undoubtedly, in a sense very different from that which the speaker
intended, you may have been overrun by the natives of some of the
Italian towns. [Laughter.]
Gentlemen, there is to-day in my country, as in yours, a pride in the
United States. We cannot forget that if you won your independence, if
you achieved your liberties, if you laid the foundations of your
constitution, if you prepared for such a nation as exists here to-day,
you were at that time colonists of Great Britain. The men who laid the
foundation stones of the United States, in which you to-day glory, were
those who had gone out from amongst us, who had in the country of my
birth imbibed for the most part their traditions of liberty, and their
desire and determination to achieve it; and, therefore, with no
misgiving, with nothing but a feeling of pride, we may rejoice in your
success and in your progress. We long ago admitted the follies and the
wrong-doings of those times, as freely as you could insist upon them
yourselves. [Applause.]
I am not going to dwell upon that aspect of the case to-night, because I
am quite aware that sometimes the ready admission of wrong-doing is
rather irritating than soothing. [Laughter.] I remember once hearing a
learned counsel, who was conducting the trial of a case before a judge
of great ability but not of the best of tempers, put a question of a
character such as to shock any one accustomed to be guided by the rigid
rules of evidence. Strictly in confidence, I don't think he had the
least idea that it was a wrong question, but the learned judge
interposed and said: "That was an improper question, Mr. so and so."
"Yes, my Lord, it was very improper." "Yes," said the judge, "you ought
not to have put the question,--a most improper question." "Yes, sir; I
ought not to have put it, a more improper question never was." And the
more the judge reproached him the more submissive he became, until he
drove the judge nearly mad. [Laughter.]
Gentlemen, there has been a great deal of discussion lately as to the
exact nature of the bond which united Great Britain and the United
States. Some one says blood is thicker than water, whereupon another
with perverse ingenuity begins at once to analyze the blood and
discovers that the elements are not, when resolved, precisely the same.
That, it is said, is the bond of the Anglo-Saxon race; whereupon a
Scotchman insists, or a Welshman insists, that it is not all
Anglo-Saxon, that there is something Celtic in its constitution, and
that to speak of it as the Anglo-Saxon race, either in my country or in
yours, is not in strictness historically accurate. Another finds that
they are the great English-speaking peoples, whereupon an ingenious man
points out that there are people in Great Britain and its dependencies
to whom the English language is not the most natural means of
communication, and that not every inhabitant of the United States is a
perfect master of the English tongue. [Laughter.]
Well, then, I saw an ingenious argument the other day to prove that it
is a gross impropriety to speak of England as the mother country; that
the two countries were really in the relation of sisters, and that we
ought to call them sister countries, and not speak of them as mother and
daughter. I am not going to enter into any of this controversy to-night.
The probability is that none of these suggested explanations is a
completely adequate explanation of the bond that binds the two nations
together, but that in each of them is to be found some element of truth.
I am not going to dwell on them to-night; I prefer a practical rather
than a theoretical view of any subject, and they all agree in this: a
tacit assertion of the fact that there is a bond which unites Great
Britain and the United States such as unites no two other nations
[applause and cheers]; and they express a realization of the fact that
there is a very close relationship between the two countries. Now,
undoubtedly we have at times said nasty things of one another
[laughter]; but then that is not proof that we are not near relations.
[Laughter.] Indeed, it might, perhaps, be cited by some as evidence the
other way. We have sometimes seemed to be very near serious--what shall
I say?--attacks upon one another. But, again, that is no proof that a
close relationship does not exist between us. It is not impossible that
at some future time, when we are either of us menaced by the
intervention of some third party which seriously threatens our existence
or our prosperity, we may find that, whatever differences arise amongst
ourselves from time to time, we shall be ready to unite in defence of
each other against a stranger. [Applause and cheers.] A friend of mine
who is a great champion of woman's rights, and a man of the most
chivalrous disposition, when walking home one night, found a man and a
woman, husband and wife, in serious controversy, and the man was just
about to strike his wife. With his usual chivalry he intervened between
them. In a moment they were both upon him [laughter], and he had much
ado to withdraw himself from their clutches. May not that, perhaps, be
an indication of the kind of action which relations may show who are not
always perfectly peaceably disposed toward one another?
Gentlemen, I rejoice to think that I am here to take part in an
endeavor to compose such differences as exist at present between the two
nations. There is another bond of union beyond the natural one to which
I have alluded, and that is the commercial interests of the two
countries. I know there are some who think that no country can gain in
commercial prosperity or make real progress in commerce except at the
expense of some other. I believe that to be a profound mistake. I do
not, of course, deny that a particular interest here or there--perhaps
many interests--may suffer from the stress of international competition,
but I think we take too narrow a view when in gazing on the industrial
world we fix our eyes upon this local spot or that, and consider how
this or that particular place may be affected. Our interests are more
widespread, strike deeper roots, roots in more different directions than
we are at all times ready to admit or to conceive. And of this I am
perfectly certain, that where two nations are so closely bound up in
commercial intercourse as we are, neither of those nations can possibly
progress in commercial prosperity, without a reflection of that
commercial prosperity upon the other nation with which it deals.
[Applause.]
Gentlemen, many of the events which to-day bulk largely in our eyes will
look strangely insignificant when seen through the vista of time; but of
this I feel satisfied, that if the men of to-day by their actions can do
anything to put upon a permanent basis cordial, friendly relations and
co-operation between your Republic and the British Empire, these actions
will grow in men's estimation larger rather than smaller, and
generations to come will rise to call those blessed who put the
relations of the two countries upon a sound and satisfactory footing.
[Applause.]
Gentlemen, however successful we may be, as I trust we shall be
successful, in composing such differences as now exist--in the nature of
things it is impossible but that difficulties from time to time will
arise--in the future, how are we going to treat them? In what spirit
shall we meet them as they arise? It sometimes seems to me strange that
nations which, after all, are but collections of individuals should deal
with their differences in a manner in which sensible men as individuals
never would dream of treating them. [Applause.] We seem, somehow, when
once we have taken up a position, to feel as if it were impossible to
withdraw from it. We must adhere to it, whether originally we took it up
wisely or unwisely, whether it was sound or unsound. We lash ourselves
into a white heat over the differences that arise, although the
relations that they bear to our national life and our national interests
may be of comparative insignificance. If an individual were to deal in
that way, always to stand out in every case for his strict rights,
always to be prepared to contest everything, to adhere always to what he
claims as his right, to get into a rage with his neighbor because he
would not see as he saw himself--well, we should call that man an
intolerably quarrelsome fellow who was not fit for civilized human
society [cheers]; and yet, as nations, apparently there seems nothing
strange in our doing that which, as individuals, we should be the last
to dream of doing.
A friend, a former colleague of mine--now, alas! no more,--told me that
he was, many years ago, travelling up to London with an owner of race
horses who was accompanied by his trainer. When they arrived at the
station near the metropolis where the tickets are collected, the
ticket-collector came, and my friend said, "My servant has my ticket in
the next carriage." The ticket-collector retired and presently came back
rather angry and said, "I cannot find him." My friend said, "he is in
the next carriage--or the next carriage but one; he is there." As soon
as the ticket-collector retired for the second time the trainer leaned
forward and said, "Stick to it, my Lord, you will tire him out."
[Laughter and cheers.] Is not that sometimes a little indicative of the
spirit in which we are inclined to act nationally when we have taken up
any position, even though it be a false one?
Gentlemen, it seems to me that these questions of our future relations
with one another are questions of special moment just now. You are at a
parting of the ways. It would be presumptuous, as it would be unwise, in
me to forecast or to attempt to forecast the decision at which you will
arrive on questions that have yet to be solved. But, putting these
questions that remain for solution aside, and dealing only with the
events as they are now known and fixed, it is impossible not to feel
that this year marks an epoch in the history of the United States, and
the relation which the United States is to bear to Great Britain, and
the relation which Great Britain is to bear to the United States; and
the spirit which is to animate those two peoples becomes of more
importance than it ever has been before. I rejoice to see those flags
joined as they are around this room to-night. [Applause.] God grant that
they may never be flaunted in defiance of one another. [Applause.] I
rejoice to see them united in concord, not in any spirit of arrogance
toward other peoples, not as desiring to infringe the rights of any
other power, but because I see in that union a real safeguard for the
maintenance of peace in the world [applause], and because I see more
than that--I see the surest guaranty of an extended reign of liberty and
justice. [Prolonged applause.]