A Brazilian Tribute to Britain.

Listen to what a Brazilian has said of our Homeland:—

And Great Britain, gentlemen. What man is there, who is really a man, who would not glory in belonging to a race capable of producing this people, that vies with all others in sincerity, virility, and creative power? Spiritually it is from this race that emanates in modern times the world of free humanity. Great Britain's conception of justice has imbued with liberty all those nations which have had the good fortune to be born of her stock, or to have come in touch with her. During a century in her enviable home there page 11 has reigned that peace so intimately coupled with the austere and industrious bent of her subjects. But when her gates were forced open by a transformation of which history knows no equal, the most non-militant of all races under the sun was changed into a real hive of invincible warriors; from her castles came forth the very flower of her nobility to teach her people by a glorious death the grand simplicity of dying in the sacred cause of justice; the most wonderful military organisation enveloped the land in an impenetrable armour: the country, awestruck, beheld arise there, improvised in but two years, an immense army, and from that little island, whose destruction her enemies already looked upon as accomplished, there suddenly arose an unexpected grandeur, unlooked for, serene, clear, and inviolable, before which the myths of ancient Titans pale into obscurity and the mountains of the world sink in insignificance.

Because by the might of her fleets, Britannia rules the waves, her armies are battling in every quarter of the globe where blood is being shed, and with the boundless resources of her wealth, of her credit, and of her invincible determination to prevail, she sways the Titanic struggle like a sleepless genie of victory in the clouds enveloping the world with the fog of war.

These, gentlemen are first and foremost the nations to whom we owe our moral code, ouremancipation, our liberty, our civilisation, from whom we have absorbed the lessons of liberty and justice, who have given us our laws, our government, and our best statesmen, who have instructed us in belles lettres, in statesmanship, in our industries, who with their wealth have given birth to our prosperity and with their sympathy, wisdom, and liberality have enabled us to maintain our credit, and, with it all, they have never coveted our land, have respected our independence have honoured our weakness, and never wavered in their confidence.

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We could wish for no more proven loyal and firm friendships.

Yes, we may use the words of a poet of the United States of America, and say of Britain:—

She hath erected reason's sovereignty, Because wherever human speech is known

The touch of English breath does make thought free;

Therefore, for ever is her glory blown About the hills and flashed beneath the sea.