But there is one feature at which a government can always aim as adding to the landscape of Great Britain.  In a very famous but too little read novel, “Pelham,” by the late Lord Lytton, there is a passage which always struck me greatly.  It is where Pelham goes to see an uncle from whom he is to inherit a great estate, and he asks what the uncle has done to beautify that exquisite spot.  The uncle says that he has done nothing but added the most beautiful feature of landscape, which is happy faces.  Well, the Government in its immediate neighborhood has little to do with making happy faces. [Laughter.] It certainly does not make its opponents happy, except on rare occasions when it leaves office, and it is not always so fortunate as to make its supporters happy. [Laughter.] But I believe that in this country all governments do aim in their various ways and methods at making a happy population around them; and in that respect, in adding happy faces to the landscape, whether we fail or whether we succeed, we have a good-will in the work, and I am quite sure we have the hearty encouragement of the great and brilliant assembly which I address. [Loud cheers.]

GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA

FRIEND AND FOE

[Speech of George Augustus Sala at a banquet given in his honor by the Lotos Club, January 10, 1885.  The President, Whitelaw Reid, sat at the centre table, having on his right hand the guest of the evening.  He said, in welcoming Mr. Sala:  “The last time we met here it was my pleasant duty to give your welcome to an old friend.  Now you make it my duty—­still a pleasant one—­to give your welcome to an old enemy. ["Hear!  Hear!”] Yes; an old enemy!  We shall get on better with the facts by admitting them at the outset.  Our guest was more or less against us in the great struggle twenty years ago in which everybody now wishes to be thought to have been with us.  He did not believe this nation would down the slaveholders’ rebellion and he did not want it to; and he wrote frankly as he believed and wished. [Laughter.] He never made any disguise about it then or since; and for that, at least, we think the better of him! [Applause.] He came of a slaveholding family; many personal and social influences drew him toward those of our countrymen who were on the wrong side; and now that it is all over, we bear no malice! [Applause.] More than that; we are heartily glad to see him.  The statute of limitations runs in his favor; and his old opinions are outlawed.  He revisited the country long after the war—­and he changed his mind about it.  He thought a great deal better of us; and we in turn found his letters a great deal pleasanter reading.  We like a man who can change his mind [applause]; and if a bit of international frankness may be permitted in the good-fellowship of this board, perhaps I may venture to add that we particularly like to discover that trait in an Englishman! [Applause and laughter.]