One of the most admirable of his little speeches was that on unveiling the bust of Fielding at Taunton, 4 September, 1883. He spoke as an author, as one who had reflected upon the great office of literature, and as a critic who could measure Fielding’s power by the standard of Shakespeare and Cervantes, and perhaps even more effectively as one of the English race who was enough differentiated by his American birth, and enough instructed by his familiarity with racy men of the soil, to appreciate the essential English manliness of the great writer. This address is indeed one of the most striking commentaries on the fitness of Lowell to act as a spokesman for the common Englishry of two countries. His point of view was at once that of an onlooker and of one indigenous. Three years later, when reprinting the address in his volume “Democracy and other Addresses,” he refers to one passage in the speech as follows: “I am constantly bothered by the disenchanting effect of my sense of humor (of which I speak in the Fielding address) which makes me too fair to both sides. This often makes me distrustful of myself. I am sometimes inclined to call Genius not ‘an infinite capacity for taking pains’ (though that is much), but an infinite capacity for being one-sided.” There was a somewhat humorous episode in Lowell’s career in the autumn of 1883. It is a time-honored custom at the ancient and sturdy little University of St. Andrews for the student body to elect once a year a Lord Rector of the University whose duties are limited to a single address. There is a tacit understanding that politics shall not enter into the election, and that the choice shall be the students’ own, without interference from the officers of the faculty. This does not of course preclude an interest on the part of professors, and Shairp, Campbell, and Baynes especially took a lively interest in the proposal that Lowell should succeed Sir Theodore Martin. At first Mr. Mallock appeared as opposition candidate, but his name was withdrawn when it was found that he had been set up by some indiscreet person with a view to bettering his chances for Parliament, and the Right Hon. Edward Gibson was proposed. A protest was lodged against Lowell’s nomination on the ground that he was an alien. The whole business created a lively discussion in and out of print, and _Punch_ entered the lists with these lines:-- “An alien? Go to! If fresh, genial wit In sound Saxon speech be not genuine grit, If the wisdom and mirth he has put into verse for us Don’t make him a ‘native,’ why, so much the worse for us. Whig, Tory, and Rad should club votes, did he need ’em, To honor the writer who gave _Bird o’ Freedom_ To all English readers. A few miles of sea Make Lowell an alien? Fiddle-de-dee! ’Tis crass party spirit, Bœotian, dense, That is alien indeed--to good taste and good sense.”