Oxford Democrat

A grand banquet was recently held at Glasgow, in commemoration of the inauguration of the statue of Queen Victoria by Mr. Buchanan, the American Minister. In response to a toast in honor of the United States, and I cannot feel myself a stranger in a strange country in the presence of this company. I feel that I am in the presence of relatives and friends, and I am glad that, by mere accident, I happened to be here on this occasion.

We have not as yet done much to cultivate the arts in America, but we have a taste to admire them: and the statue of the Queen that was disclosed to the wondering and admiring eyes of the people of Glasgow to-day, did not produce a warmer feeling of admiration in the minds of my artistic friends than it did in my own mind, rude as it is in matters of the kind. [Applause] And why should I feel myself a stranger in a strange land here? We speak the same language, we worship the same God, and the distinguished authors of Scotland are as familiar as 'Household Words' to the whole population of America. Every child born in the greater portion of the United States of America has as good a right to receive a common-school education as he has to breathe his native air and drink of the fountains of his native country, and the poetry of Burns and of Scott, the romances of your distinguished novelists, and the works of your distinguished historians are read from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains. [Hear, hear] I never have been in Scotland before, but I confess I had very strange reflections, and very agreeable ones, in travelling through Glasgow to-day. You certainly are a great people. You made the most famous raids in bygone times that ever were made by mortal men, and these desperate conflicts have been ennobled, and all the world has been made to understand their nature, by your poets and novelists. But the better age of utility has succeeded the age of romance, and I think the most perfect specimen of that is in the reflection that there is a steamboat now plying on Loch Katrine. Alas for poetry and romance after that! [Laughter and applause] With regard to the two countries, although much has been done to make them enemies, and although vexed questions have arisen to estrange them, yet countries which God has united, the folly of men cannot put asunder. [Continued cheering] And I do trust and hope and believe that all the clouds that have been for a long time, and to some extent are yet, lowering upon us, will be buried in the deep bosom of the ocean. With Glasgow we certainly have stronger ties than with almost any other city in the world, because I have no doubt that the citizens of Glasgow not only entertain an affection for us, because we are bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh, but they are a trading people, and we are a trading people, and they like good customers. [Hear, hear, and laughter] I therefore trust and hope that the bonds of mutual friendship which unite us and them at present, and unite us both with the whole Empire of Great Britain, may become stronger and stronger and may be perpetual. [Prolonged applause.] [Home Journal.]