second regiments of New York Volunteers honored me by designating me as their agent to present a sword to Lieutenant. Morris for his gallantry and good conduct in the encounter of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and who was subsequently killed in the bloody battle of Molino del Rey. He was a grandson of Robert Morris, of revolutionary fame, who is justly cherished as one of the most distinguished of the many bright names that adorn the annals of your state. "Well did he sustain the heritage of patriotism bequeathed to him. I knew him, esteemed him, loved him, and can scarcely realize that I shall see his face no more. It seems but yesterday that, buoyant with hope, and panting for future distinction, with a heart which was the home of courage as of filial piety, he turned his step toward Mexico, and as he bade his gray-haired parent what to neither of them seemed an eternal farewell, he exclaimed, in the language and in the agony of Esau, 'Bless me, even me, oh my father" "But why do I drag before you a sorrow so sacred? “That ark of grief, let me not touch presumptuous.' Let me rather call to remembrance the soldierly qualities which made him beloved in life, lamented in death, and which have associated his name with the glory of his country. Like the brave Baxter, he died young. But, as we have been wisely warned, the period allotted to our mortal existence is at most but a span, and he had already lived longer, and to nobler purposes, than many whose years have been protracted to extreme old age, but who have crept through life like some sullen stream to a marsh, without honor or observation. He met death— which must come to all-boldly, and in the discharge of duty, with the dew and freshness of youth upon him, ere disease or sorrow had quenched his spirit. "While private affection weeps over his tomb with a chastened sorrow, a grateful country will cherish his memory, fragrant through coming years as incense poured forth." We cease to wonder at the results achieved in the face of so many obstacles, and with such disparity of numbers, by the armies of the Republic, when we recur to the striking examples of intelligence and patriotism-of which this is but one instance in many—by which their whole progress has been illustrated, from the Rio Grande to the city of Mexico. Among the many published addresses of Mr. Maclay, we notice one delivered upon the occasion of the annual meeting, in Boston, of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, held in Faneuil Hall. Among the speakers we perceive the names of Webster, Everett, Winthrop, Cushing, Quincy, and others. In reply to a toast complimentary to New York, Mr. Maclay, after drawing a comparison between New York and Boston, and alluding to the historic associations connected with the latter, spoke as follows: "I may be pardoned, however, for alluding to one of the ef fects by which a cultivation of the pursuits of your society seems invariably accompanied. Let him who will deny the utility (using that word in its narrowest sense) of one of the departments of horticulture (to me the most delightful), yet will he deny that it furnishes auxiliaries to virtue by substituting, for more exciting pleasures, a pure and rational employ. ment? I never pass through the crowded streets of my own city, by any habitation from which flowers are visible, without feeling-however humble that habitation may be that there dwells beneath that roof something of taste, and refinement, and virtue. Who here is prepared to say that those delicate and fair creations of the Divine Benignity are not designed, as they are most assuredly adapted, to awaken other and higher emotions in our bosoms than any which a mere perception of the beautiful has power to excite? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow! is the injunction of that wisdom which has connected moral sentiments with natural objects; so that the student of Nature may regard not only the forms, and coloring, and delicate pencilings which are the characteristics of these objects, but also the sensibilities which they awaken, and the qualities of which they are expressive. Take the meanest flower that scents the gale, inhale its perfume ('sweet as the breath of morn'), see its varied hues (which art can imitate, but can not equal), observe the harmony pervading its whole formation, mark the design of which the most insignificant portion of it gives evidence, call in your thoughts from the ordinary pursuits and selfishness of life, and abandon yourselves for a moment to the images and the associations of innocence and purity of which it is so lovely an emblem, and how secretly, yet how surely, is the mind elevated from the gift to the Giver! 'In that bless'd moment, Nature, throwing wide By the impure, and hears his power denied.' "Perhaps there is no state in the Union in which the science of horticulture can be more successfully pursued, or in which a fairer prospect of benefit to the great masses of the community is held out from its cultivation, than the State of Massachusetts. "The surface of your commonwealth is dotted with beautiful villages and towns, the inhabitants of which, deriving their livelihood from mechanical and manufacturing employments, furnish a ready and an increasing market for horticultural products. Nor to any one who has at heart the prosperity of your state, can there be a more interesting contemplation than to behold the obstacles which Nature may have interposed in the character of the soil in the vicinity of these villages gradually giving way before the instructed industry of the horticul turist. Lands reclaimed from absolute waste; the ruggedness of Nature softened by the means and appliances of Art; neat cottages smiling amid gardens and orchards, where early and late fruits-those raised with much, and those with little care -are taught to grow in obedience to the will of the cultivator. Thousands of poor but happy children, repaying, with their assistance, the love of their parents, and trained from infancy to habits of industry and observation, these are the results which the society proposes for its aim and attainment. May every prosperity attend its labors! The formation of the habits to which I have alluded in the young are, of themselves, worth all the efforts which have been made. Sir James Mackintosh once very truly said, that we think from our opinions, but we act from our habits. "I had anticipated much gratification from visiting your exhibition. A friend, now present, when in New York, had given me a description of what I might expect to see. I thought I had made sufficient allowances for the excusable enthusiasm of a resident of your state and a member of your society; but when I walked through the rooms of the beautiful edifice erected by the society-above all, when this scene of beauty broke upon my view, I felt ready to exclaim, as the Queen of Sheba did when she came from afar to see the riches of Solomon, 'The half has not been told me.' "Without consuming any more of your time, let me propose for a sentiment, "Prosperity to the city of Boston and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society."" We have taken notice of the appointment of Mr. Maclay, by the Assembly of the State of New York, as one of the commissioners to investigate the affairs of the New York and Erie Rail-road Company, and to examine into the complaints made in the Legislature against some of the locations of the line of this road. In the prosecution of this duty, he went through the southern tier of counties of the state, from the Hudson River to Lake Erie-a region of the state destitute of the facilities for travel enjoyed by other portions, and, therefore, rarely visit ed by the tourist, but which contains scenery far more varied and romantic than can be found in the hackneyed route from the sea-board to the Falls, which is annually thronged by those who either dare not disobey the behests of fashion, or are ignorant of the many attractions which would so well repay a far more fatiguing journey. But we do not differ in this respect from other nations. Who has not heard of the lakes of Killarney, for variety of land and water scenery the glory of the Brit ish Isles? But, although reached from London by a journey of a day and a half, and this, too, by rail-road and steamboat, thousands annually pass over to the Continent instead of visiting them; and, as one well qualified to remark has lately observed, "Infinitely greater is the number of those who may speak from a personal knowledge of Como and the Jura, than of those who can hold discourse of Innisfallen and Glena." While at the village of Owego, in the course of the journey through the region of which we have spoken, Mr. Maclay remained to visit Glen Mary, the residence of N. P. Willis. This visit was made in company with a literary friend, and the impression produced upon their minds is thus gracefully recorded: "The village of Owego lies on the banks of the Susquehanna, which is at this point a lovely and a gentle stream, only swelling into the force and magnitude of a mighty river when the freshets of spring and autumn give it unwonted capacity. In this respect the Susquehanna differs from the Delaware, VOL. I.-P whose current is uniformly more swift and turbulent, as, chafing with every obstacle in its progress, it flows "Mountain curved along.' "Nothing could exceed the beauty of the scene which met our eye. The waters sparkled with the moonbeams, the village itself was brilliant with the luster of the night, its white cottages gleaming at intervals like the tiny silver palaces in the Eastern fable-in truth, it was the very night in which to visit Willis! "Our route passed by many a pretty dwelling that we were half disposed to believe was the one of which we were in quest, but the distance described to us as that at which the place of our destination was situate was not accomplished until about three miles had been passed over. We had the recollection of Bartlett's picture of Glen Mary very vividly in our minds, and were on the qui vive to determine whether it was sufficiently accurate to enable us to recognize the original. A faithful guide it proved to be, for we instantly traced the correctness of the pictured similitude in the first glance which we caught of the house. It was situate in a gorge of meadow-land bordering the Owego Creek, the prettiest of all the many daughters of the Susquehanna, and where gently-flowing waters, skirted by noble trees, are the leading and loveliest pictures of the landscape. We were soon at the house, which is a Tuscan cottage, with lattices and portico, and embosomed with foliage. "It looks-precisely as it was intended by its occupant it should look like a neat and tasteful abode, without pretension to any thing but the beauty of good order, and yet one at which no one could gaze for a moment without discovering that there was a fitness and a propriety about it, just carrying out our ideas of what a cottage should be-such a one as we do not find in books of architecture, but in the simple imaginings of quiet good taste. In the neatness of the gravel-walks which lead from the roadside, and in the profusion of beautiful shrubbery which is every where around, are seen the proper accompaniments to this cottage of the glen. "So sweet a spot of earth, you might, I ween, Have guess'd some congregation of the elves, To sport by summer moons, had shaped it for themselves.' "Willis himself opened the door to us, and a single glance at |