Bill Clinton: “My Lord Chancellor, Madam Speaker, Lord Privy Seal, the Lord President of the Council, Mr. Prime Minister, my Lords, and…”

“My Lord Chancellor, Madam Speaker, Lord Privy Seal, the Lord President of the Council, Mr. Prime Minister, my Lords, and Members of the House of Commons. To the Lord Chancellor, the longer I hear you talk the more I wish we had an institution like this in American Government. I look out and see so many of your distinguished leaders in the House of Lords, and I think it might not be a bad place to be after a long and troublesome political career. [Laughter] My wife and I are honored to be here today, and I thank you for inviting me to address you. I have been here to Westminster many times before. As a student, I visited often, and over the last 20 years I have often returned. Always I have felt the power of this place, where the voices of free people who love liberty, believe in reason, and struggle for truth have for centuries kept your great nation a beacon of hope for all the world and a very special model for your former colonies which became the United States of America. Here, where the voices of Pitt and Burke, Disraeli and Gladstone rang out; here, where the rights of English men and women were secured and enlarged; here, where the British people's determination to stand against the tyrannies of this century were shouted to the entire world: Here is a monument to liberty to which every free person owes honor and gratitude. As one whose ancestors came from these isles, I cherish this opportunity.…”