The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-12-09
aDOwNING STREET."
Mr.. Choate Tells En~gIishmen of the
Names Origin.
New York Times.

New York Times
The offices of the British government,
which occupy a building erected some thir-
ty years ago In a court or cul-de-sac called
Downing street, have, as everybody knows,
become so identified with the name of the
locality that Downing street" is often
used as the synonym of the British Foreign
Office, the Home Office, the Colonial Office,
or the India Office. In his address at the
lord mayors banquet a few days ago Mr..
Choate, the American ambassador to the
court of st. James. in replying to the
toast, 'The Foreign Ministers" said that
he doubted whether many within the sound
Of his voice knew why IL was called Down
ing street" He continued:
Now, at the school which I had the
good fortune to attend, i am afraid to say
how many years ago, in Massachusetts
the best colony that was ever planted IN
der the English flag, and planted in the
best way, because you drove them out TO
shift for themSelveS-at that school,, over
the arch of every entrance, there were in
scribed the words 'Schola publica prima'-
the first school organized in Massachusetts
and underneath was inscribed the name
of George. Downing, the first pupil of that
school. Then in Harvard College we find
him a graduate of that institution in the
first year that 1t sent any youths into the
world, the year 1912. He soon found his
way to England. He became the chaplain
OF Colonel Oakey's army under Cromwell.
and he soon began TO display the most
extraordinary faculties in the art Of d.
plOmacy OF any H1a OK Ills Qay. II WdS the
old diplomacy. 1t was not anything like
the new diplomacy that Lord Salisbury and
the foreign ministers here present practice.
Il was the old kind. Downing developed a
wonderful mastery of the art of hoodwinix-
ing, in which that kind Of diplomacy chiefly
consisted. In the first place he hoodwinked
Cromwell himself, which showed he was n
very astute young man, and persuaded him
to send him as ambassador to Tie Hague.
Well, after the Protector died. he tried his
arts upon the Rump, and he
the Rump. and they reappointed him am
bassador to Tn Hague. And when the
restoration came, he practiced his willy arts
upon the Merry Monarch, and induced him
to send him again as ambassador to The
Hague. Three great riumphs In diplomacy
all by one man. In those days, when the
King shuffied the cards-and / believe he
shuffled them very often-changes of office
took place as If by magic, and he who had
been in the Foreign Office was transferred
to the Wal Office, and he who had been in
the Board of Works was transferred to the
Home Office, with the same happy facility
with which those changes now take place,
by the mere nod of the prime minister.
Downing seems to have had opportuni-
ties which none of her Majesty's present
ministers enjoy--he made lots of money,
and, finally, he induced the Merry Monarch
to grant him a great tract of land at West
minister provided-or so the grant ran-that
the houses to be built upon the premises
so near to the royal palace, shall be hand
some and graceful. If you will stand at
the m~outh-Shau / call Ii the h?-Of
Downing street, and gaze across the way
TO Whitehall, where Charles in his merry
moods was always banqueting and looking
out of the window, you will appreciate the
reason of this provisO. So he built him a
house possibly in Whitehall, and he built
more mansions between there and West
minister Abbey, and the old annals of the
time describe those houses as pleasant
mansions having a back front upon st.
James's Park-the exact description of the
Foreign Office to-day. For it also has a
back fronting on st. James's Park, and
really il is the most important side, be-
cause that is where her Majesty's minister
in and put, with a private key by the back
Downing would nave been hailed to Tyburn
and hanged by the neck until dead, but
he won his way into the favor of King
Charles by claiming that the King must
forgive his past backslidings because of the
vicious principles that he had sucked in in
his early New England education.
Finally he died, and by his will he de-
vised his mansion and estates and farm at
to his children, and now they
are long since gone, leaving no rack be-
hind except a little bit of ground one hun
dred yards long and twenty yards wide,
sometimes narrowing to ten, which bears
still his ilIastrious name. 1t is the small
est. and at the same time the greatest,
street in the world, because IL lies at the
hub of tho gigantic wheel which encircles
the globe under the name or the British
empire. 1t is all American. / have shown
YOU why it is called Downing street. But
why, Lord Salisbury, is IL called a Street?'