May 2 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Sent to McClure May 2 Postal-check contains 5,614 words. $825 or $850.7. for 7.30 sharp. / Royal Library Fund Hotel Cecil, (Entrance east wing.) Lord Chief Justice of England. (Earl of Crewe is Lord Houghton’s son)” [NB 43 TS 9].

At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to T. Douglas Murray. “I think I will wait until you come, for then I can have the copy which I corrected. I shall not need it until four or five days before the 30th. Even three days before would answer.” Sam praised the weather in London, which he wouldn’t trade “for Italy” [MTP].

In the evening at the Royal Literary Fund dinner, Hotel Cecil, Sam offered his response to a standard toast to literature. It was perhaps the first public gathering he had made since the family’s return to London from Sanna. The New York Times, May 3, p.2 reported the event:

MARK TWAIN AT A DINNER.

Tells London Literary Men He is Going to Run for the Presidency.

LONDON, May 2.—Baron Russell of Killowen, Lord Chief Justice of England, presided at the annual dinner of the Royal Literary Fund this evening. More than a hundred persons prominent in the literary and kindred professions were present. Baron Kelvin, Baron Davey of Fernhurst, Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, the Canadian High Commissioner; Anthony Hope Hawkins, and Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) were among the guests.

Mark Twain, in responding to the toast to literature, in a humorous speech, said now that he was on the way to his own home he intended to run for the Presidency, because there were not enough candidates yet in the field. {Laughter.} Referring to the copyright discussion now before the House of Lords, he said he hoped that if the bill giving copyright thirty years after the death of the author, which was disguised perpetual copyright, was passed, its example would be followed in the United States.

Notes: Hawkins is mentioned in Sam’s Apr. 24 response to an unidentified on the invitation committee; Charles Russell, Baron of Kilowen (1832-1900) would die Aug. 10.; William Thomson, Baron Kelvin (1824-1907), Scottish physicist and engineer; Baron Horace Davey (1833-1907), English judge; Donald Smith, Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal (Quebec, Canada) (1820-1914).

The Literary World, (London) May 11, Vol. 61, p.437 ran a short summary of Sam’s toast:

Mark Twain made one of his peculiar and characteristic speeches. Among other things he said:

He was on his way to his own country to run for the Presidency, because he thought there were not yet enough fanatics in the field, and those who were in the field were too much hampered by their principles, which to him meant prejudices. He as a Liberal of the liberalist, a Radical who was in favour of every thing that anybody else was in favour of, and a few more. He did not want to hamper himself, he wanted to satisfy the whole nation, because a President who represented the opinions of a little more than half the nation could be little more than half a President. He was in favour of temperance and intemperance, of morality and modified immorality, of a gold standard and free silver; he was in favour of all these views, and of as many more as the American public liked to bring forward. He had been an editor and a publisher, and an author and a lawyer, and a burglar, and he was on the way up. He was arrested and carried before a Committee the other day to give evidence on copyright. He was glad to hear that a Bill was to be introduced in the House of Lords which practically gave perpetual copyright except to Shakespeare and a few others, and he hoped that the United States would follow suit.