tranquil waters of the Mississippi; later, a woodman, with axe and arm felling the immemorial trees, to open a way to unexplored regions for his tribe of wandering workers; reading no other book than the Bible, the book of great sorrows and great hopes, dictated often by prophets to the sound of fetters they dragged through Nineveh and Babylon; a child of Nature, in a word, by one of those miracles only comprehensible among free peoples, he fought for the country, and was raised by his fellow-citizens to the Congress at Washington, and by the nation to the Presidency of the Republic; and when the evil grew more virulent, when those States were dissolved, when the slaveholders uttered their war cry and the slaves their groans of despair-the wood-cutter, the boatman, the son of the great West, the descendant of Quakers, humblest of the humble before his conscience, greatest of the great before history, ascends the Capitol, the greatest moral height of our time, and strong and serene with his conscience and his thought; before him a veteran army, hostile Europe behind him, England favoring the South, France encouraging reaction in Mexico, in his hands the riven country; he arms two millions of men, gathers a half million of horses, sends his artillery 1, 200 miles in a week, from the banks of the Potomac to the shores of Tennessee; fights more than six hundred battles; renews before Richmond the deeds of Alexander, of Cæsar; and, after having emancipated 3,000,000 slaves, that nothing might be wanting, he dies in the very moment of victory-like Christ, like Socrates, like all redeemers, at the foot of his work. His work! Sublime achieve. ment! over which humanity shall eternally shed its tears, and God his benediction!

AFTER-DINNER SPEECH. Re-uniting the Hearts and Hands of England and America. By SIR HENRY LYTTON BULWER.

MR.

R. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN, if it be true, that I have been so fortunate as to contribute in any way to the friendly relations which at present exist between the two countries, it is simply because I have taken a plain downright course for effecting this object. The fact of it is, gentlemen, that, according to old customs, when any causes for difference, however slight, existed between our two governments, down sat Her Majesty's Representative at his desk, and down sat the United States Secretary of State at his desk, and each penned to the other very pithy and pertinent despatches, showing the great motives for grievance there were on both sides, and then those despatches were carefully circulated throughout both countries; but when there were only causes for mutual good-will and satisfaction, no one thought it worth while to take notice of so simple a fact, nor to state to the English and American public what strong reasons, both in sentiment and interest, there existed, for their maintaining the closest and most friendly relations with each other. This was the old school of diplomacy, gentlemen; but I am of the new school-and my theory and practice are just the reverse of what I have been describing. I am for keeping as quiet as possible all those small differences which must occasionally take place between any two great States, having vast and complicated interests; but which differences are always easy of adjustment when they are not aggravated by unfriendly and untimely discussion. And I am for making as public

as possible, on all occasions, those great points of union that must connect two nations, which not only, as my honorable friend Mr. Lawrence has said, have one origin, and speak one language, but which also transact their greatest amount of business with each other. Why, gentlemen, in what possible manner can difficulties of serious character arise between two nations thus situated, except through mutual prejudices, which, having been suffered to grow up, will be apt, until eradicated, to create a wrong impression as to the real policy and feelings of the one and the other? My endeavors, then, gentlemen, have been to remove all such prejudices; ay, and to replace them by sympathies. For this purpose, as my friend Mr. Walker justly said, I have addressed myself not merely to the American mind, but to the American heart. For this purpose, I have thought it essential, not merely to correspond formally with your State department, but also to have frank and free communication with your noble and intelligent people. For this purpose, I have mixed with your public men, studied your institutions, taken an interest in your affairs, partaken of your festivities, conformed to your habits, and always been willing, not only to eat a good dinner with you, but to make a bad speech after one. Gentlemen,

I should be quite satisfied to take, as my reward for these efforts, the eloquent and far more than deserved encomium which has been passed upon me by the distinguished gentleman who proposed the toast I am responding to. But my mission had also another reward-another result-which, if I am not wearying you, I will state as being not only interesting to our two communities, but to the world at large; I mean a

treaty by which Great Britain and the United States, without infringing on the rights of the humblest individual or the smallest State, have agreed, on one condition, to protect the construction and guarantee the security when constructed, of any canal or railway which may open a passage across Central America, between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. And what was that one condition on which our two governments thus insisted? Why, that they should not, either separately or conjointly, possess one single privilege or advantage, with respect to such canal or railway, which should not be offered, on equal terms, to every other nation on the face of the globe. Gentlemen, I do confess that I am proud that such a treaty as this should have been entered into by the United States and Great Britain; and I will also add that I have a humble pride in stating that one of the signatures attached to that convention is the name of the individual who has now the honour of addressing you. Gentlemen, I lay a great stress upon this fact, because I felt when I signed that instrument to which I am referring, that I laid the foundation stone of a great and equitable alliance between our two countries;-an alliance which should not have for its object the wronging or despoiling, but the benefiting and protecting the rest of mankind; and surely, gentlemen, if such an union were ever required, it is at this moment; -for at this moment the world is, as it were, violently vibrating between two extremes, and appears of necessity to demand some regulating influence, to moderate and steady its oscillations;-and where, gentlemen, can such an influence be better found than in the cordial union of Great Britain and the United States?

It is true that you live under a Republic, and we under a Monarchy; but what of that? The foundations of both societies are law and religion. The purpose of both governments is liberty and order.

more you love your Republic, gentlemen, the more you detest those principles of confusion and division, which would destroy it. The more we love our Monarchy, the more we cherish and cling to those principles of equity and freedom which preserve it. In this, indeed, lies the great moral strength of our close connexion. Hand in hand, we can stand together, alike opposed to the anarchist, who calls himself the friend of the People, and to the absolutist, who calls himself the friend of the Throne. Long, then, gentlemen, let us thus stand together, the champions of peace between nations, of conciliation between opinions-and if, notwithstanding our example and our efforts, the trumpet of war should sound, and that war to which it calls us should be a war of opinion, why, still let us stand together. Our friends, in that day of conflict, shall be chosen from the most wise, the most moderate, and the most just; nor, whilst we plant the red-cross of England by the side of the stars and stripes of America, do I for one instant doubt but that we shall leave recollections to our posterity worthy of those which we have inherited from our ancestors.