As usual the Fourth of July was celebrated on Monday at the U.S. Consulate-Geveral, the Court Room of which had been changed into a reception room for the occasion, The Committev this year confined their invitations almost entirely to United States citizens, us the Consulate is only largo enough to accommodate a limited number of people. Consequently the usual throng and crush of previous years were. not observable, All who came were heartily welcomed, and among the guests of other nations were some Chinese officials, Mr. Jamieson, H.M. Consul, Herr von Huss, Austro-Hungarian Consul-General, the Consul for Japan, and Captain Clutterbuck, H. M.'s Senior Naval Officer.
On the platform with Consul-General Leonard were Captain J. P. Roberts to whom was deputed the duty of reading the Declaration of Independence, Mr. J. G. Purdon, Chairman of the Municipal Consul, and: Dr. Wheeler," who opened. and closed the meeting with: prayer. During the proceedings the Tow Band played " Hail Uclumbia" and other tunes, and concluded, ut the request of the Consul, with " Home, Sweet Home" after which the guests and hosts retired to the refreshment rooms. of Theionly; address. given was delivered by the Consul-General as follows Feuiow. Cimizens anp. Frrenps:—As in this outpost of ancient civilisation, the Americans.coming' together. to. celebrate, establishment of the youngest.among the great nations, our first thought is that this is our Columbian year; the four hundredth. anniversary of that achievement'as wonderfal in-story as eventful in. history—the Discovery of the New World.
Did. time and temperature admit, this mightbeanappropriate occasion to detail the exceedingly fortunate: physical conditions. that have contributed to make our country what it is.
'The record of the years of discovery and conquest following Columbus; of adventure and hardship, of barbarous' slaughter. of savages and plunder of the defenceless, forms a history of strange experiences and ellens: progress culminating in the existence, to-day, of half world of nations lying beyond' the islands that he found; no ove of them such a nation as he or any of the New World discoverers would have dreamed of.
We may. well doubt whether any one of the s piratical admirals of those days, who sailed forth to conquer strange realms for. their divine sovereigns and.their holy church, could have conceived of themselves as the forerunners of nations and governments based upon political and. religious freedom.
When, after about three centuries. of varying success in conquering and colonist ing, our own nation was gathered into an independent. people, the experiment: in government which the Fourth of July inaugrated had for its field a country extraor-dirianly fitted foritssuccess. Within its great area of varied productiveness and unsurpassed mineral resources, not even yet fairly known, with its vast system of seas and natural waterways, there was, from the start, "full scope and verge enough" for every form of industry; where any discovery, physical, mechanical or scientific, had fair chance for trial and development.
We have a country unique among countries in ita capacity for self-support. Were the United States, by some deplorable catastrophe, cut-off from community with the rest of the. world, were the Atlantic and Pacific to become impassable, it could be a self-supporting world to itself, capable thing ni for the loppy existence of a of producing within its boundaries every-
prosperous people.
It would not be extravagant to claim that fora century to come our country could comfortably accommodate all its own increase of population without recourse to. the foreign colonisation that costs European countries such vast ex; tures of both money and men.
We do not all of us realise that ours is second to no other as a colonizing nation the difference being that our colonizing is done at home. One of the most interesting political, industrial, and social movements of modern times has been the colonieation
jeany all ano of forty-four states, since Americans within the United States. the original thirteen, have been, during their territorial condition, practically colonies from the older states; and such is still the condition of the few remaining territories.
American has been, truly, a grand arena 1 for a grand demonstration of the capacity of man for self-government.
It is doubtful whether anywhere else, or at any earlier. period such a government as ours could have been established. Nowhere else in the then known world would a republic have been allowed to exist so: independent of other nations; and, certainly, nowhere, within this quadro-centenial period, has any other. people been favoured by nature with such independence, not-has made its own history 20 entirely, for itself, or so self-reliantly as that country The perfect adaptation of our system: of government to our country. has indi the wisdom of the. meu who, io-1776- pro claimed it in the: Declaration of Independ~ ence and, in 17688, established it in the constitution ofthe United States; a' form of government toward which, ever since-its establishment, all other governmetita have been fetiding. oat We are justified in thiuking'that nowhere-. else has representative government been so succveeful, and in arguingfrom the past and Present prosperity of the Republic an equally prosperous future.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.