Part 38 (1/2)

I aments to other classes of citizens who assemble here to join with the

I see with pleasure the successors and followers of the Mathers, of Clarke, and of Cooper; and I aratified, also, by the presence of those of my own profession, in whose ireat a portion of my life has been passed It is natural that I should value highly this proof of their regard We have walked the sauided together by the lights of Dana, and Parsons, and Sewall, and Parker, not tonames, not unknown or unhonored either at home or abroad As I honor the profession, so I honor and respect its worthy members, as defenders of truth, as supporters of law and liberty, as men who ever act on steady principles of honor and justice, and froh hein this vast assembly, I perceive, Gentlemen, many citizens who bear an appellation which is honored, and which deserves to be honored, wherever a spirit of enlightened liberality, hu men, I enerations, they have contributed unifore They have founded institutions of learning, of piety, and of charity They have explored the field of huht out the causes of vice, and want, and ignorance, and have sought theht be removed and extirpated They have poured out like water the wealth acquired by their industry and honorable enterprise, to relieve the necessities of poverty, ads of distressed insanity, open the eyes of the blind, unstop the ears of the deaf, and shed the light of knowledge, and the refornorance and crile acts of benevolence, but whole lives of benevolence, such as this? May He reward the reward thement, in that day which is to coh the advantages of all the porandeur of the world!

Gentlemen, citizens of Boston, I have been in the midst of you for twenty years It is nearly sixteen years since, quite unexpectedly to myself, you saw fit to require public service at islature If, in that long period, you have found into be approved, and iven than to be reprehended, and if we meet here to-day better friends for so many years of acquaintance and mutual confidence, I h reward

I offer you again, fellow-citizens, ood wishes; and I propose to you as a toast:--

”The City of Boston: May it continue to be the head-quarters of good principles, till the blood of the Revolutionary patriots shall have run through a thousand generations!”

FOOTNOTES

[113] Speech delivered at a Public Dinner in Faneuil Hall, given by the Citizens of Boston to Mr Webster, at the Close of the Session of Congress, on the 24th of July, 1838

[114] An extra session of Congress had been called by President Van Buren, in Septeeneral suspension of specie payments by the banks

[115] Hon John Davis

[116] See the Speech above, page 383

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY[117]

In the spring of 1839, Mr Webster went for a short tiland

He went in no public capacity, but his reputation had preceded hiuished consideration He was present at several public festivals, and his addresses appear to haveis the only one, however, which was reported at any length It was delivered at the first Triennial Celebration of the Royal Agricultural Society, held at Oxford, on the 18th of July

Three thousand persons were at table Earl Spencer presided, and, in introducing Mr Webster, said they had ”already drunk the health of a foreign e of having aners, not e thelish farmers, such as he believed never had been witnessed before, but which he hoped ners was one gentleuished character, froreat country, whose people ere obliged legally to call foreigners, but ere still our brethren in blood It wasto hiht knohat the farland really were, and be able to report to his fellow-citizens the manner in which they were united, fro their peaceful and ave,--

”The health of Mr Webster, and other distinguished strangers”

The toast was received with much applause

MR WEBSTER said the notice which the noble Earl at the head of the table had been kind enough to take of him, and the friendly sentiments which he had seen fit to express towards the country to which he belonged, deratified in having it in his power to pass one day aland; that England of which he had been reading and conversing all his life, and now for once had the pleasure of visiting

I would say, in the next place, continued Mr Webster, if I could say, how ratified with one portion of the exhibition for which we are indebted to the forricultural Society, and that is, the asseland When persons connected with some pursuit, of whatever description, assemble in such nuard; but I freely confess that I am more than ordinarily moved on all such occasions, when I see before e of those whose interests, whose hopes, whose objects and pursuits in life, are connected with the cultivation of the soil

Whatever else may tend to enrich and beautify society, that which feeds and clothes coarded as the great foundation of national prosperity I need not say that the agriculture of England is instructive to all the world; as a science, it is here better understood; as an art, it is here better practised; as a great interest, it is here as highly esteelobe

The iriculture to a nation is obvious to every man; but it, perhaps, does not strike every h certainly it is equally true, that the annual produce of English agriculture is a great concern to the whole civilized world The civilized and commercial states are so connected, their interests are so blended, that it is a matter of notoriety, that the fear or the prospect of a short crop in England deranges and agitates the business transactions and co world

It is natural that this should be the case in those nations which look to the occurrence of a short crop in England as an occasion which may enable them to dispose profitably of their own surplus produce But the fact goes lish capital,--the centre of commercial speculations, where the price of coed for the whole world, where the exchanges between nations are conducted and concluded,--its consequences are felt everywhere, as no one knows better than the noble Earl who occupies the chair Should there be a frost in England fifteen days later than usual in the spring, should there be an unseasonable drought, or ten cold and wet days, instead of ten ware in Europe and America is more or less affected by the result