Henry Stone.
Boston,
January 1, 1892.
American Ideas for English Readers.
I.
BEFORE THE EDINBURGH PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTION.
On Saturday evening, November 6, 1880, the directors of the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution entertained Mr. James Russell Lowell, American Minister, at dinner in the Balmoral Hotel in that city. Dr. W. Smith, senior vice-president of the institution, occupied the chair, and among others present were the Earl of Rosebery, Lord Reay, Principal Sir Alexander Grant, the Rev. Professor Flint, and Professor Blackie. Mr. Lowell, in returning thanks for the toast of his health, said:
He thought that they in America had done quite their share of work in their short life, although he was always inclined to question the statement that they were a young people. It was supposed, somehow or other, that they were autochthonic; that they had sprung from the earth of America, as the Athenians were said to have done from the soil of Attica. But it was nothing of the kind. If he might be allowed to say so, they began where those in this country left off. It must be remembered that they took with them all the traditions of English freedom and of English civilization, and that they not only maintained them, but, in his humble judgment, carried them further. (Cheers.)
Mr. Lowell concluded by referring to early association on his part with Edinburgh.
Afterwards, proposing “The health of Mr. Carlyle and the Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh,” Mr. Lowell said that—