Mr. Smalley, of the New York Tribune, said:
“Having been away so long from home, I have, perhaps, no right to say what they think there, though the perseverance and enterprise of our friend Mr. Field have brought England so near to America that we ought to be able to know what is going on at home as if we were living in New York. Independently of that source, I think one is entitled to say that the feeling in America responds to the feeling of Great Britain in a degree which it has not for the last seven years. I heard with pleasure from Mr. Field that he had sent the Alabama debate to New York, an instance of public spirit for which the two countries owe him a debt of gratitude; for through it there is, I suppose, this morning in every journal in America, certainly in every large journal on the Eastern coast, full tidings of the debate. It is, perhaps, such a message as was never before sent from one country to another. It was my fortune to listen to that debate. No newspaper report can give such a notion of the tone and temper of the House as hearing it conveyed to me. It was not only the sincere purpose, it was not only the enthusiasm and earnestness, the good-will to America which every speaker showed, but there was a certain electric sympathy which seemed to pervade the House. It manifested itself in cheers for every liberal sentiment and every kindly expression that fell from the speakers’ lips. Several members of the House came to me as I sat under the gallery, and with what I may be pardoned for calling an almost boyish enthusiasm, said, ‘Is not that capital?’ as some sentence of conciliation and of justice fell from the lips of Lord Stanley, of Mr. Forster, or of Mr. Mill. Now, sir, I should not be loyal to the journal which I represent if I did not say that this authoritative declaration of a changed feeling in England is sure to be welcome in America. Not one but many journals came to us from the United States in advance of this debate breathing a similar spirit. The cloud which for years has hung between the two countries seems to be passing away, and it would be ungrateful not to believe that a spark along this cable has helped to dispel it. At any rate, I cannot make a mistake in saying that any disposition to close up the old quarrel, any wish for future union which English lips may utter, is sure to find a cordial echo from the press on the other side of the Atlantic.”
On the same evening Mr. Field said:
“I now propose a toast: ‘The memory of Richard Cobden, who proposed to the late Prince Consort that the profits of the exhibition of 1851 should be devoted to the establishment of telegraphic communication between England and America, and who, later, desired that the English government should supply one-half of the capital necessary to establish telegraphic communication across the Atlantic.’ Mr. Cobden’s argument was this: ‘I am opposed to the government giving an unconditional guarantee, because it is a bargain all on one side. If you fail, then government pays the loss; if you succeed, you reap all the benefit. But I will advocate, with all my power, that the government shall supply one-half the money necessary to establish telegraphic communication between England and America, and in the event of success that they should have half the profit.’ If the government had followed his advice they would to-day be receiving half the dividends on the Anglo-American and Atlantic telegraph stocks. I hope this consideration may lead them to pursue a liberal policy in regard to the extension of the telegraph to India, China, and Australia.”
This toast was drunk in silence, all present rising.
Before dinner this note was handed to the chairman:
“House of Commons, March 10, 1868, 7 P.M.
“My dear Sir,—I have cherished to the last the hope of coming to see you, but unhappily it is now arranged that Lord Mayo will not speak until after dinner, and I therefore fear that my presence at the only time of the evening when it would have been of use will be impossible. I should have much enjoyed, and I had greatly coveted, the opportunity your kindness offered—speaking a word of good-will to your country—but I am detained here by a higher duty; for there is in my judgment, no duty for public men in England which at this juncture is so high, so sacred, as that of studying the case of Ireland, and applying the remedies which I believe it admits.
“We shall lie here until midnight, but not without thoughts of your festival and of the greatness of the country with which it is connected. You are called upon to encounter difficulties and to sustain struggles which some years ago I should have said were beyond human strength. But I have learned to be more cautious in taking the measure of American possibilities; and, looking to your past, there is nothing which we may not hope of your future.