terial, political, or moral, in binding together, in one indissoluble brotherhood, this vast association of American States. It is hardly too much to add, that it seems to have been Providentially prepared, as the great centripetal enginery, which is destined to overcome and neutralize forever those deplorable centrifugal tendencies, which local differences, and peculiar institutions, and sectional controversies have too often engendered.

The President of the United States, in his admirable reply to your own most appropriate address, Sir, welcoming him within the lines of Boston, reminded us that his illustrious predecessor, Washington, occupied eleven days in travelling by express from Philadelphia to the neighboring city of Cambridge, in one of the most critical emergencies of our local history. Let me remind you, also, of a similar experience in the journeyings of another of his predecessors. In the recently-published diary of our own John Adams, will be found the following entry, dated at Middletown, Connecticut, on the 8th day of June, 1771:

"Looking into the almanac, I am startled. Supreme Court at Ipswich the 18th day of June; I thought it a week later, 25th; so that I have only next week to go home, one hundred and fifty miles. I must improve every moment. It is twentyfive miles a day, if I ride every day next week.”

John Adams startled,— and, let me say, he was not of a complexion to be very easily startled at any thing, — at having only a week for going a hundred and fifty miles! Startled at the idea of being obliged to go twenty-five miles a day every day for a week! While here, but a moment since, was his illustrious successor, who, having already travelled nearly five hundred miles in twenty-four hours, and having spent three or four days. in Newport and Boston, which we hope have been as delightful to him as they have been to us, is now on his way back, and is about to reach Washington again, before the week in which he left there is fairly at an end!

And here, Mr. Mayor, I turn, in conclusion, to what to-day, at least, in the minds and hearts of us all, is the great charm of this modern miracle of rapid intercommunication. It is that it enables us to see, to know, and to enjoy personal intercourse with the great, the good, the distinguished, the admired, of our own

land and of other lands. We can take them by the hand, we can see their faces, we can hear their voices, and we can form ties of mutual respect and regard, which neither time nor distance may afterwards sever.

There have been those here to-day whom none of you will soon forget; and there is at least one of them to whom I had particularly proposed to myself the pleasure of alluding. I refer to the Secretary of the Interior, the Honorable Alexander Stuart, a noble son of old Virginia, with whom, in other years, I have been associated in Congress, and whom I am always proud to call my friend. He has already taken his leave of us, Sir; but I am sure we all desire to follow him with our good wishes, and to assure him, that though out of sight he is not out of mind. But let me congratulate the company that we have another Alexander Stewart still left at the table — a distinguished son of Nova Scotia - an eminent citizen of Halifax-a high functionary of the Provincial Government-whom it has been my good fortune to have at my side during the last hour, and who is every way entitled to our highest consideration and respect. With a view of introducing him to the company, I propose, as a sentiment,

"Prosperity to Nova Scotia and the City of Halifax, and the health of our distinguished guest, the Honorable Alexander Stewart, the Master of the Rolls."

AGRICULTURE.

A SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE DINNER OF THE MIDDLESEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, AT LOWELL, OCTOBER 24, 1851.

[In reply to a complimentary toast by the President of the Society, the Honorable E. R. Hoar.]

I AM greatly obliged, Mr. President, by the friendly manner in which you have presented my name to the company, and greatly honored by the cordial reception they have given to it. I have come here, as you know, at the invitation of the Middlesex Agricultural Society, most kindly communicated by yourself, as their President, to witness their cattle show and ploughing match, and to listen to the lessons of experience and the words of exhortation which might be addressed to them by my excellent and able friend, Mr. Child.

Let me add, that as one of the Trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, and one of its delegates to the State Agricultural Board, I hardly felt at liberty to neglect such an opportunity of observing the progress of agricultural improvement in this good old County of Middlesex; a County which abounds alike in the memorials of a glorious past, and in the evidence of a prosperous present; whose soil is enriched with the best blood of the fathers, and adorned with the noblest institutions of their sons; and which, in the person and example of its own Prescott, leading on his patriot band at Bunker Hill in a farmer's frock, gave a pledge and an earnest, that no degree of devotion to agricultural pursuits, or to any other material interests, would ever interfere with the readiness and the resolution of its citizens, to do their full share in maintaining and vindicating the rights and liberties of their country.

I need not assure you, Mr. President, that I have been greatly gratified and delighted by all that I have seen, and all that I have heard, here to-day. I only wish that it were in my power to contribute any thing, in return, to the instruction, or even to the entertainment, of this assembly. But "silver and gold have I none." I have no rich crops to tell you of, no fat cattle to describe, no new theories of the potato rot to propose; and the most that I can do, is to express, in a few unpretending words, the deep interest which I cannot fail to feel, as a humble member of the community, in whatever relates to the improved cultivation of the soil, and still more to the improved condition of all who are concerned in it.

It would be quite superfluous, Sir, for me, or for any one, to say a syllable, on such an occasion as this, as to the importance of agricultural pursuits. It is enough for us all to remember, as I am sure we all have remembered while we have partaken of this substantial repast, that it is agriculture, which supplies the table at which the whole human family are fed; that it is agriculture, which is the appointed minister, the chosen handmaid, of our Heavenly Parent, in His gracious response to our morning prayer, that He will "give us this day our daily bread."

And even more superfluous would it be to speak of agriculture as an honorable occupation, and one worthy the attention and pursuit of the most intelligent and enlightened among us. To say nothing of other countries, or of other ages, or of other men, what higher testimony could be borne to the honorable character of any human occupation, than to say that it was the favorite occupation of Washington, -the pursuit which he exchanged with regret even for the highest honors of the Republic, and to which he returned with eagerness at the earliest moment of his retirement from public service. Washington, Sir, is known to us by many titles as the General of our armies, the President of our Republic, the Saviour of his country-and there is really no title too good, or even good enough, to bear his name company. But there is none under which that name will be longer remembered, or more gratefully cherished by posterity, none with which he himself would have been more proud to have it associated, than that of the Farmer of Mount Vernon.

But, Mr. President, I am not here to flatter the farmers. And if I desired to do so, it would be rather a dangerous experiment at a moment when we are within ear-shot of so many of our fellow-citizens who are engaged in other pursuits. I shall not say to them, as the old Roman poet said, that, when Justice winged its flight from the earth, it made its latest abode, and left its last traces, among the homes and in the hearts of the husbandmen. For, I cannot forget, that that noble Association of Massachusetts mechanics, for which my friend, Mr. Lincoln, has just responded, and of which I enjoy the cherished distinction of being an honorary member, adopted long ago for its motto "Be just and fear not; " and I believe there is no body of men in the land, who more scrupulously "reck their own rede,” and practise according to their own precepts.

Nor shall I tell the farmers, as they have been told from high quarters, in more recent days, that they are the "best part of the population;" for I know they would scorn any compliment. which should be paid them at the expense of their brethren in other pursuits. It is enough for us all to admit that there is no better part of the population, unless, indeed, it be their own wives and daughters, as represented in yonder group, whose privilege is always to be styled, "the better part of creation." There are none better entitled, certainly, to the respect and confidence of the community, or to the protecting and fostering care of the government of the country. And let me add, Sir, that if the farmers do not receive their full share of this governmental care and protection, it is their own fault; for though our friend, Mr. Child, has clearly proved to us that they do not constitute the most numerous class in our own State, they are unquestionably in a great majority in the country at large, and can have their own way, whenever they see fit to assert their power and vindicate their rights.

Mr. President, I would gladly have said a more serious word, before taking my seat, in reference to the importance of some provision being made, either by the liberality of individuals, or under the patronage of the State, for the promotion of agricultural education, and the diffusion of agricultural science. But the sound of the car-bell is already in my ears, reminding me