e sun never sets. And now you have
laid eyes on the mother-country, on which it appears the sun never
rises. Then you begin to compare legislative bodies, Parliament and
Congress. You find that in Parliament the members sit with their hats on
and cough, while in Congress the members sit with their hats off and
spit. I believe that no international tribunal of competent jurisdiction
has yet determined which nation has the advantage over the other in
these little legislative amenities. And, as you cross the English
Channel, the last thing you see is the English soldier with his blue
trousers and red coat, and the first you see on landing in France is the
French soldier with his red trousers and blue coat, and you come to the
conclusion that if you turn an English soldier upside down he is,
uniformly speaking, a Frenchman. [Laughter.]

We could not tarry long in France; it was the ambition of my travelling
companion to go to Holland, and upon his arrival there the boyish antics
that were performed by my travelling companion in disporting himself
upon the ancestral ground were one of the most touching and playful
sights ever witnessed in the open air. [Laughter.] Nobody knows Mr.
Depew who has not seen him among the Dutch. He wanted especially to go
to Holland, because he knew the Pilgrims had gone from there. They did
not start immediately from England to come here. Before taking their
leap across the ocean they stepped back on to Holland to get a good
ready. [Laughter.] It is a country where water mingles with everything
except gin--a country that has been so effectually diked by the natives
and damned by tourists. [Laughter.] There is one peculiar and especial
advantage that you can enjoy in that country in going out to a banquet
like this. It is that rare and peculiar privilege which you cannot
expect to enjoy in a New England Society even when Mr. Choate addresses
you--the privilege of never being able to understand a word that is said
by the speakers after dinner. But we had to hurry home. We were
Republicans, and there was going to be an election in November. We
didn't suppose that our votes would be necessary at all; still it would
look well, you know, to come home and swell the Republican majority.
[Laughter.] Now when you get on that ship to come back, you begin for
the first time to appreciate the advantage of the steam lanes that are
laid down by the steamship company, by which a vessel goes to Europe one
season