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Weekly London Letter.
By Andrew Blackmore.
The King's Impression of his tour.
The King and Queen were the guests of the City of London at
a luncheon given in their honour at the Guildhall within twenty-
four hours of their return from their recent historic tour of
Canada and the United States of America. They were received with
unbounded enthusiasm by a brilliant gathering, whose affectionate
regard for the Royal guests was expressed by the Lord Mayor in his
speech of welcome.
The most important and impressive contribution to the eere-
mony was the King's speech in reply. With moving simplicity he said
that the first, and deepest, impression of the journey was that,
even in this age of Lachines andmass production, the strength of
huran feeling is still the most potent of all the forces affecting
world affairs. As a North American historian has written, "Over
all nations is humanity." In the country from which he had just
returned the King had found an object lesson of mutual tolerance
and understanding, which might be studied with advantage by the
nations of distracted Europe.
Men of almost every race, of many creeds, and of divers
political faiths live within the geographical limits of the
United States of America; "yet first and foremost they are human
beings - over them all is humanity." They live together in peace
and amity, composing whatever differences there may arise among
them in the light of reason instead of by the arbitrament of force.
To the "gradual weaving of that fabric of humanity", Great
Britain can claim to have made some contribution. The political
institutions of both Canada and the United States, of which the
fabric was woven, were "British in their origin, British in their
slow and almost casual growth, and grounded root and branch on
British faith in liberty and justice."