Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/62

 across the seas. Here we are so respectable that we have to depend upon England for our gossip.

In 1906, Mr James Bryce, afterwards Lord Bryce, on being appointed British Ambassador to the United States, wrote:

Thank you heartily for the kind words you have sent me, nothing could have given me more pleasure than your assurance that I have none but well wishers on your side of the House in the responsible task I am undertaking. It is a great wrench to leave the House of Commons after 27 years, but the sense of parting is softened and sweetened by the recollection of all the kindness one has met with there. If I can be an instrument in doing anything to help you in the great enterprise of cheapening Trans-atlantic post, it will be done gladly.

Sir William Harcourt sent the following letter, from Malwood, Lyndhurst, on July 6th, 1899:

Your kind and generous letter has given me sincere pleasure. It has always been my first ambition, in whatever situation I found myself, to stand well with the whole House of Commons and to do what seemed to me best for the interests of that great Assembly, which is the true representation of a great people. If I have been able to earn the good will of my opponents as well as my friends I shall have succeeded beyond my hopes, and such a result is a