Chapter II: Before the London Chamber of Commerce

The second annual dinner of the London Chamber of Commerce, which was incorporated in 1881, was held on the evening of January 29, 1883, in the Cannon-street Hotel, the Right Hon. H. C. E. Childers, M. P., Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the chair. The company, which numbered about 180, included representatives not only of the great commercial communities of London and all the most important of our colonies, but of the English-speaking race in every part of the world.

On the chairman’s left sat the Hon. J. RUSSELL LOWELL, D. C. L., United States Minister.

In proposing “The Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom and of the Whole World,” he said:

MR. CHAIRMAN, MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,--I was a few moments
ago discussing with my excellent friend upon the left what
a diplomatist might be permitted to say, and I think the
result of the discussion was that he was left to his choice
between saying nothing that had any meaning or saying
something that had several--(_laughter_); and as one of
those diplomatists to whom the Under Secretary for Foreign
Affairs alluded a short time ago I should rather choose the
latter course, because it gives one afterwards a selection
when the time for explanation comes round. (_Laughter._)
I shall not detain you long, for I know that there are
speakers both on the right and on the left of me who are
impatient to burst the bud; and I know that I have not
been selected for the pleasant duty that has been assigned
to me for any merits of my own. (_Cries of dissent._)
You will allow me to choose my own reason, gentlemen. I
repeat, I have not been chosen so much for my own merits
as for the opportunity afforded you of giving expression
to your kindness and good feeling towards the country I
represent--(_cheers_)--a country which exemplifies what
the colonies of England may come to if they are not wisely
treated. (_Laughter and cheers._) Speaking for myself and
for one or two of my compatriots whom I see here present,
I should certainly say that that was no unpleasant destiny
in itself. But I do not, nor do my countrymen, desire that
those great commonwealths which are now joined to England
by so many filial ties should ever be separated from her.

I am asked to-night to propose the “Chambers of Commerce of
the United Kingdom and of the World,” and I might, if the
clock did not warn me against it--(“_Go on_”)--if my own
temperament did not stand a little in the way--I might say
to you something very solemn on the subject of commerce.
I might say how commerce, if not a great civilizer in
itself, had always been a great intermediary and vehicle
of civilization. I might say that all the great commercial
States have been centres of civilization, and centres of
those forces which keep civilization from becoming stupid.
I do not say which is the _post_ and which the _propter_ in
this inference; but I do say that the two things have been
almost invariably associated.

One word as to commerce in another relation which touches
me more nearly. Commerce and the rights and advantages
of commerce, ill understood and ignorantly interpreted,
have often been the cause of animosities between nations.
But commerce rightly understood is a great pacificator;
it brings men face to face for barter. It is the great
corrector of the eccentricities and enormities of nature
and of the seasons, so that a bad harvest and a bad season
in England is a good season for Minnesota, Kansas and
Manitoba.

But, gentlemen, I will not detain you longer. It gives
me great pleasure to propose, as the representative of
the United States, the toast of “The Chambers of Commerce
of the United Kingdom and of the Whole World,” with
which I associate the names of Mr. C. M. Norwood, M. P.,
vice-president of the Associated Chambers of the United
Kingdom, and the Hon. F. Strutt, president of the Derby
Chamber. (_Cheers._)

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