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 ol