Lord Palmerston on the Prince's visit.
At a public banquet in
London, Lord Palmerston thus alluded to the reception of the
Prince of
Wales in
America:
‘
"You have alluded to an event which has awakened the deepest interest in the mind of every Englishman.
I mean the visit of the
Prince of
Wales to the
North American continent.
It was to be expected that when the future hope of
England visited the subjects or Her Majesty in our North American provinces, he would be received with that enthusiastic affection which becomes a loyal and attached people.
Our anticipations have not been disappointed.
The reception of the
Prince, has been worthy of the people who gave it, and honorable to the family of which he is so distinguished a member, and we may hope that that visit will cement more closely those ties which, I trust, are long destined to bind together that mother country.
[Hear, hear.] But we had not an equal right to expect that when his Royal Highness visited the
United States he would be received with anything more than the courtesy which civilized nations accord to distinguished members of the reigning family of another country.
But I must say it has been most gratifying to witness the cordiality, the heartfelt kindness, the generous hospitality, and I may say the enthusiastic delight with which that illustrious
Prince was welcomed by our cousins in the
United States.
[Cheers.] They have shown themselves, indeed, to be a noble and generous people-- they have shown that they have not forgotten the common stock from which they and we have sprung; and, in spite of events, which, if not buried in oblivion, might have produced some slight alienation between us, they received our future Sovereign — and I trust that future may be long distant — they received the eldest son of our gracious Sovereign, not as if he were a stranger belonging to another land, but as if he had been born in their own country, and had been a citizen of their own Republic.
[Cheers.] I trust, gentlemen, that the remembrance of the generous kindness thus exhibited by the people of the
United States will ever be cherished by the people of these kingdoms.
I believe the memory of the
Prince's visit will long survive in the breasts of the
American nation, and these mutual recollections will tend more closely than ever to knit together those two great branches of the same noble, and I will say illustrious stock.
[Cheers.]
’
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