Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-05
"The Embassy" Passes.

Britannia is pitching her tent on
new soil in Washington this week and
abandoning the premises which have
been her diplomatic headquarters In
this Capital for more than threescore
years. The old embassy on Connecticut
avenue IS putting up its shutters, pre-
paratory to succumbing to the wreckers,
and John Bull enters into possession of
new, capacious and palatial quarters on
Massachusetts, avenue. The establish
ment long known as The Embassy"
for other countries maintained only le-
cations, is no more. With its passing,
great pages Of Anglo American relations
fade into history
1t was in 1857 that the rambling old
mansion, whose mansard architecture
ranked as a work Of art in those days,
was first occupied. Sir Edward Thorn
ton was Queen Victoria's Minister at
the Yankee court. He served here for
fourteen years, the longest term achieved
by any British envoy to the United
States, though Sir Julian date Lord
Pauncefote was entering upon his four
tenth year when he died at Washing
ton in 1902. Following the Thornton
ministership, eleven Britons have rep
resented their respective sovereigns In
this country. The name of each Of
them in itself conjures up memories
Of great episodes in the annals of the
two English speaking nations.
Sir Edward Thornton (1S67-1S81)
was followed by the Hon. Lionel S.
Sackville West, whose career as British
Minister was summarily terminated by
President Cleveland in 1888, when the
Minister was trapped into an Interior
ence in the pending American presi-
dental campaign. Then came the
eventful ministership-a mbassadorship Of
Pauncefote C1sS9-19O2), in which events
like the Boring Sea controversy, the
Venezuelan incident and the Hay
Pauncefote Panama Canal treaty en-
livened and sometimes severely strained
Anglo American relations.
In 1902 and 1908 Sir Michael Herbert
was British Ambassador to the United
States. From 1903 to 1907, Sir
Mortimer Durand was here. During
the ensuing six years we were favored
and honored by the presence Of James
Bryce, whose authorship of 1.-The
American Commonwealth" has made
him almost as much Of a man of
Ax,arinao ne - rr,oi{eb 1aktare AFtar
Bryce. the deluge of the World War,
and the ambassadorship Of another
Briton highly sympathetic to and with
the American people. Sir Cecil Spring
Rice. Lord Grey of Fallodon, Viscount
Reading, Sir Auckland Geddes and Sir
Esme Howard are the names who
adorned the ambassadorial roster at
THE Embassy" in the span between
1918 and 1880. Sir Ronald Lindsay, like
each and all of these spokesman of Brit
ain on the Potomac, typifes the high
traditions which she associates with her
diplomatic representation at this
metropolis of the Western World.
So hail and farewell to the noble old
pile which houses these momentous
memories! Within its walls great works
of peace were wrought. Queen Victoria,
Kipling's Widow O. Windsor" will no
longer beam down from her golden
frame at the head Of the grand stair
case upon the galaxies of brains and
beauty so often gathered at THE EN-
bassy." She reigned from that eminence
over two generations of unbroken Anglo
American friendship. AS she takes a
place of similar honor in the new
embassy, may it be to enter upon
another long era of unalloyed amity
between the peoples who speak in COM
mon the tongue of Milton and Lincoln!