On July 4, 1851, he hosted the first of his Independence Day dinners, featuring the elderly duke of Wellington as guest of honor. Beneath a portrait of Queen Victoria and a Gilbert Stuart of George Washington, the British minister in Washington and the American minister in London drained an oak loving cup and toasted the start of the Great Exhibition in London’s new Crystal Palace. Because Congress wouldn’t finance American exhibitors, Peabody played the impresario, paying to display Cyrus McCormick’s reaper and Samuel Colt’s revolvers. But not all of Peabody’s July Fourth pageants of Anglo-American friendship followed the desired script. In 1854, when Peabody toasted Queen Victoria before President Pierce—an act Washington thought arch heresy—James Buchanan, the U.S. ambassador in London and later President, indignantly stormed from the room.
Drain v. to draink the contents of
Drain an oak loving cup 轮流喝双柄橡木大酒杯
Impresario n. one who sponsors or produces entertainment
Play the impresario 充当主办人的角色
Reaper n. one that reaps, especially a machine for harvesting grain or pulse crops 收割
Pegeant n. a rich and spectacular ceremony 盛会
Arch adj. mischievous
Heresy n. a belief that rejects the orthodox tenents of a religion 异端
金立群译文
1851年7月4日，他第一次举办独立日宴会，邀请年长的威灵顿公爵做主宾。在维多利亚女王的画像和吉尔伯特・斯图尔特绘画的乔治・华盛顿的肖像下面，驻华盛顿的英国公使和驻伦敦的美国公使轮流举起双柄橡木大酒杯干杯，为在伦敦新水晶宫举办的盛大展览会的开幕祝酒。因国会不向美国的参展者提供资助，皮博迪充当主办人的角色，为赛勒斯・麦考密克的收割机和萨缪尔・科尔特的旋转装置的展示出资。但是皮博迪在7月4日英美友谊的庆典表演，并不都是按照理想的脚本演出的。1854年，皮博迪当着皮尔斯总统的面，向维多利亚女王祝酒——华盛顿人认为这是极大的异端行为——这时，美国驻伦敦大使，后来当了总统的詹姆斯・布坎南愤慨地拂袖而去。
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