Anglo-Californians and Lord Beacoasfield.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3155, 29 March 1879, Page 1

Anglo-Californians and Lord Beacoasfield.

The following report of the presentation of the gold and silver casket to Lord Beaconsfied referred to in our cablegrams some months back may be interesting, as showing somewhat the feeling entertained by Americans towards England and the present Ministry. Mr W. G. Harrison, the gentleman entrusted with the presentation, was formerly a resident of the Thames, and is a brother of Mr J. Harrison, County Clerk, Coromandel, and Mr It. Harrison of the same place • :<— The presentation to Lord Beaconsfield of an alluminated address and a gold and silver casket from the British residents in California took place in the drawing room of the Prime Minister's official residence, Downing street. The deputation, which consisted of Mr W. G. Harrison (San Francisco) and Mr C. H. Bosman (Eastern Agency, London, representing Mr Alex. Forbes, chairman of the San Francisco Committee), were accompanied by Viscount Castlereagh, M.P., Sir Gilbert Greenall, Bart., M.P., Mr D. Maclver, M.P., Mr J. H. Puleston, M.P., specially representing British residents in the United States; Alderman Cottoe, M.P., Mr Ritchie, M.P., Mr Elliott, M.P., Mr J. P. Corry, M.P., Mr Mulholland, M.P., Mr A. G. Marten, M.P., Mr Goldney, M.P., Sir Julius Vogel, K.C.M.G. (Agent-General for New Zealand, representing the British Colonies.) Mr Maclver, M.P., who introduced the deputation, said:—My Lord Beaconsfield, I hare been asked to introduce this deputation, and I need hardly say, looking round me, I hare no personal claim to the honour which has been conferred upon me. I hare beside me Mr -Puleston, who was himself at one time a resident in the United States of America, and also the senior, representative of. the City of London, but for all that I feel that the large constituency which I represent —the borough of Birkenhead, which, though remote in itself, form» no inconsiderable part of the great port of Liverpool—has very close and intimate relations with our friends in California. The gentleman whom I desire to present are fellow-countrymen, who, although resident in that far-distant land, yet love to cherish the ties which bind them to their brethren here. They desire to express the respect and admiration which they feel—which we all feel —for yourself personally, and to show their trust and confidence in the Government of which you are the head* a confidence which is shared not by conservatives alone, but by all who love our native land and wish her well. My lord, these thoughts will be better expressed by Mr Harrison and \. Mr Bosman, bdth Californian friends, than by me; and it would be unbecoming of me to do more than call upon the other members of the deputation who desire to address your lordship. . Mr W. G., Harrison saidr-As a delegate of a large portion ;of the British residents in San Francisco and the other portions of California, it would be indeed * pardonable if I were to occiipy your time i:<l endeavouring to express any nar-Aiioi witiment iv reference to, theErne gr^incatipn I feel in being introduced to , **•• man whom we regard in California and formy^^£ JS° pleasure whicli the letter I ha. to receive from you on the 14th December gave me. It is a letter which has' become famous, and which I am sure will occupy a place in history, and I kn,?W nothing your lordship can say or do which will more gratify my friends in California than the expressions contained in that letter. We deeply sympathise with its feeling, and are exceedingly grateful to you for it. : Your lordship will possibly wish to know something of the people I have the hbiiour to represent. It may be your lordship is. to use an ordinary phrase, as well posted in these matters as I am •' but it is the desire of the British residents in California to say to your lordship that long before the Berlin Conference they had placed the utmost confidence aud trust in you, not at tho expense of more feeling of sentiment, but at the expense which'touches Englishmen more readily—At the expense of their pockets. We had some twelve or thirteen cruisers lying in our harbour, and some six or seven hundred thousand tons of wheat about leaving it, and if it had been the policy of your lordship's Government to declare war in the interests of England, we must have been for the time being ruined. Yet we were willing to sacrifice all we had'rather than the intercstof England should suffer. (Ifoar, liear) There was a time in the history of the country when its foreign policy did not make everything as bright and brilliant as it is now in the estimation of those residing in distant lands. There was a time when we felt bitterly and keenly our unprotected condition. It was not pleasant for us to be told that the nation which had made nations was about to unmake~ herself. (Cheers.) It was not pleasant for us to be told that the world-famous army of England was reducod to a corporal's guard, nor >! pleasant to bo told.that the Admiralty | simply used the navy of England as so I many playthings. We did not believe | niucli of that, but we did believe that ! there was one. man iv England at least i who was big enough and great enough to speak out the country's feelings, and say thus far and no furthur shalt thou go. We are grateful to this man, who came forward and said sufficient to tell those people who are inclined to calumniate our country and our friends that the men who had made history had still another chapter to write. (Cheers.) We have to thank you most gratefully for the condescension

you have shown in accepting this recognition of the great services you have rendered, as we think, not merely to England and the British Isles, but to the whole world—(renowned cheers^and we think your influence is not such as can be employed in settling petty disputes of even a small nationality. We think that your ideas and views are those simply consistent with the condition and the circumstances of a great empire. (Hear, hear.) "We have given the world a language, and we wish to have that language spoken emphatically wherever it is heard. We think your lordship does speak emphatically. There is no question about what you say, and very little question about what you do. When you returned from Berlin we in California rejoiced with those in London, and we rejoice still, and the sentiments we expressed then and express now in this address are still the sentiments of your fellow-countrymen in Calafornia. I will | take the liberty to read the address prepared by the British; residents of California, and which I may say is the composition of a very sincere admirer of your Lordship. Your admirers are not limited to the male sex, for this address was written by a lady, Mrs Captain Payton, of San Fraccisco. (Cheers.) Lord Beaconsfield, who was warmly received, in acknowledging the address, said—l remember when I returned from Berlin I was much gratified when, among the many addresses of congratulation which I received from the kindness and indulgence of my countrymen, I observed how many there were that came from her Majesty's colonial subjects. I must say that I was not surprised at the expression of sympathy with the fortunes of their fatherland by my colonial fellow-subjects. There are many reasons which must create between the mother country and the colonies feelings and sentiments of great interest, and those feelings are impressed upon them daily by the life which, though remote, they still live. It is an English life. They have the same institutions, the same laws, the same language, and the same faith; and therefore one perhaps ought not to be so startled as one is when one receives these expressions from our colonial fellowsubjects. But let me remember also this, that still one cannot entirely free oneself irom the consciousness that those expressions of sentiment come from those who are very far distant, and there is a certain element of interest peculiar to expressions of sympathy that come from those of your fellow-countrymen who are settled in remote regions, which adds to their interest, when compared with expressions of regard from those among whom you live arid have your daily experience. Well, in the present case that feeling is very much heightened, for to me there is something infinitely touching when I remember that this offering from my fellow-countrymeß is not even from the colonial subjects of her Majesty. It is an offering from Englishmen in a distant foreign land, in a most peculiar country — a new State, but yet a celebrated one ; a State remarkable for its unbounded energy and illimitable experience, pursuing a course of-life of so absorbing a character that it would seem at first that it would hardly give an opportunity for them to think of anything but that in which they were engaged ; and yet they remembered with kindness, and with sympathy, the trials and triumphs of the mother country—the England which you have described in his address as the land which they so much love, and have found time to stop short in their extraordinary labors, amid the golden rivers, and their crags glittering with treasure, even to bestow a thought on a statesman whose only merit, perhaps, is this, that he has always wished to maintain the greatness of their common country. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, in the address just read to me, yon have alluded as the chief foundation for this magnificent offering and this expression of your confidence and kind feeling to the Treaty of Berlin, in the negotiation of which I took some part, and therefore I allude to it at the present moment. (Hear, hear.) I look upon that settlement as a settlement which will secure the pacification of Europe; (Cheers.) It was not a patched-up settlement which was intended to humiliate any Power—(hear, hear) — for had it humiliated any Power, the elements of permanent and enduring peace would necessarily have been wanting. (Hear, heat.) But it was a settlement drawn up. by some of the most experienced and ablest of public men, whose object w&s to secure an enduring passification of Europe —(hear, hear) — and I must express my opinion that that object will be fnlly and completely attained. (Cheers*) A little while ago, when we were nil of us scattered in all countries, there seemed to have been a sort of conspiracy to persuade the world that the Treaty of Berlin was in fact a mere phantom. No doubt there may be persons who may consider it to their interest that that treaty should not be carried into effect; but it is not the feeling of the signataries, and the sigriataries of that treaty ha?e resolved that it shall be carried into effect, because they do not recognise there is any security lor the peace of Europe but in the policy which is built upon those lines. (Cheers.) Therefore I would wish to impress upon you that whatever, you may have heard, you may look upon it as a fact in politics that the Treaty of Berlin is an instrument which wil be maintained and carried into effect, and that the consequences of that course will be, as I hope, the enduring peace of Europe. (Loud cheers.) Every day something occurs which adds to the further fulfilment of that treaty, and I have no doubt that when the time arrived which is contemplated in that treaty as the term necessary for the fulfilment of all its conditions, the world will recognise that that fulfilment is complete. (Cheers.) You have alluded in the address to the acquisition by this country of a celebrated part of the world—the Island of Cyprus. Upon that uubject, therefore, as you have alluded to it, I would also make one remark. In occupying the Island of Cyprus every condition on account of which that policy was adopted by her Majesty's Government has been entirely fulfilled. (Hear, hear.) rihe Island of Cyprus was occupied as one which we thought most qualified to be a powerful maritime and military post for the English nation; s» that there present in cur force we might support the Sultan in his sincere schemes for the regeneration of his dominions. (Hear, hear.) So far as the conditions on which we adopted that policy are concerned, they have, I say, been completely fulfilled. (Cheers.) As a military station it has the capacity of receiving an illimitable amount of military power; as a naval station, I have the highest authority in the service-men who have only recently

visited that island, and who entirely confirm the report upon which we assented to its occupation—that with very little expense, and, whnt is still more important, with a very slight expenditure of time, there will be a harbour at Cyprus, at Famaftusta, that will accommodate thft whole of her Majesty's Mediterranean fleet; and it will be as a naval station second not even to Malta. (Hear, hear.) Besides these qualities, as a maritime and military post, which was the object we wanted to accomplish in occupying it, it is an island blessed by nature with a teeming soil, and, notwithstanding all that has been said—much of which has been exaggerated— with a climate equal to any semitrepical climate. It has also in itself natural riches, which I have no doubt will be developed, and I believe that the possession of that important position will be instrumental to the great | cause of social progress and national advancement. (Hear, hear.) The history of Cyprus is a romantic history; but in all its records I will venture to say that there is no incident so romantic as that of a body of Englishmen working in the El Dorado—the real El Dorado which they have discovered —pursuing labors of so fascinating and absorbing a character as those which are pursued by my fellowcountrymen in California, who yet amid all the excitement of their unparalleled life can still stop and reflect upon the fortunes of the much-loved country which they have quitted, and who, in this golden casket, offered to me by the youth of California at this moment, have shown how deeply they feel for those who are trying to uphold the country which they so much love. (Hear, hear.) What return can I make for this beautiful offering which you have given to me ? I cannot send you golden caskets or emblazoned addresses like those which I have just received, but I can send you gratitnde and sympathy. I can ask you who return to California to tell those who remembered me that I shall never forget them., (Hear, hear.) And believe me, beautiful as this object is, precious in its material, fine as a work of art, deeply interesting from the history of your life which it encloses in the mineral treasures which have already affected by your industry the fortunes and the character of (he world—this casket encloses something still more precious to me, and that is the expression which has jnst been read of your kindness and regard. (Cheers.)