Page:Visit of the Hon. Carl Schurz to Boston, March 1881.pdf/82

Rh on the system of ballot in the second Egyptian dynasty! By the time they had got down as far as the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, the crowned heads, having from their delay taken heart of grace, came with bayonets and put an extinguisher on the whole thing. And another reason we had for undervaluing them was not a reason, but the good old-fashioned British prejudice which we had drunk in with our mother's milk, to look upon all foreigners as outside barbarians; for it is well known that, until a very recent time, our English cousins regarded the Prussians simply as a mob who looked on while the British won the battle of Waterloo. Since then, it has been discovered that the Prussians can not only look on, but, if necessary, take a hand.

See how the wheel of time brings up strange events! One of the young men who then took the Liberal side, and of whom we thought very little, has come to this country to give us the model of all future officers of the Interior,—a man who at that time was ignorant of our language, every word of which is pronounced as it ought not to be pronounced, and every construction or which is entirely against all preconceived ideas; a man who had no knowledge of our government, or, what is quite as important, of our misgovernment,—he came hither and has done all this. There is a lesson to us here, seriously and philosophically, Mr. President, when we think how we used to talk in Know-Nothing times. I suppose most of the gentlemen present are