RECEPTION AT HEREFORD.*

MR MAYOR, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

I RISE to make my grateful acknowledgments for these unexpected honors; I wish I could find words that would do full justice to my feelings. My first thanks are certainly due to my friend and host, your worthy representative, (Mr Clive,) who has done me the honor to introduce me to your hospitality. I am bound to thank him for all his kindness, and not least for this last act of kindness to us all, that of procuring us the gratification of the presence of the ladies of Hereford at this festive board.

I am indeed, Mr Mayor, under the greatest obligations to you for this most unlooked for and courteous reception. When I left town a few days since, it was with no other expectation than that of a little repose after the duties of the season, a mouthful of pure country air, a glimpse of the lovely scenery on the banks of the Wye, a hasty glance at your venerable cathedral, one of the most interesting of those consecrated and time-honored structures, for whose restoration I beg to express my best wishes, and a passing survey of the field of the labors and charities of your Herefordshire philanthropist, (the Man of Ross,) whom Pope has immortalized. This is what I promised myself; temptation enough, you will think, with that of the hospitality of a respected friend, to draw any one from London in September. But to all this you have been pleased to add the gratification of honors and

* Remarks made at a public reception at the city of Hereford, on the 9th of September, 1843, in acknowledgment of a toast given by E. P. Clive, Esq., M. P.

courtesies, public and private, as flattering as they are unexpected.

Little, certainly, did I think, sir, when, a few years ago, I had the satisfaction, in my own country, of making the acquaintance of the gallant relative (Colonel Clive) of your respected chief steward and representative, that a short time only would elapse before I should have the pleasure of meeting him again in his own home, and receiving at his hands, and those of his honored parent, these distinguished attentions. I trust that an increased facility of communication between the two countries will have the happy effect of making us all better acquainted with each other; and that the mighty ocean, which seemed spread between us as a barrier, will become more and more the highway of a kindly intercourse.

It has gladdened my heart, since I came to Hereford, to hear the sentiments of good will towards America expressed by so many gentlemen who have visited it. I can say for my countrymen, that they are never happier than in receiving with merited kindness the worthy and intelligent from the father-land. During the past year, a nobleman, towards whom there is but one feeling of respect and good will in his own country, (I need scarcely say that I allude to Lord Morpeth,) has traversed the United States, winning golden opinions in every part of America, and showing my countrymen. that the highest rank and oldest blood are not incompatible with the simplest manners and most sterling qualities of character.

We can, for the most part, offer to the traveller from Europe but the attractions of a new country, the wild charms of unimproved nature, the interest of a recent civilization. To the American traveller in England there is an interest of a peculiar and opposite kind. It is different from the gratification of a tourist's curiosity in visiting spots made famous by historical association; different from the food which is furnished to a classical enthusiasm in Italy and Greece. The American visits England with something of the feelings with which a dutiful son, after wandering long in foreign climes,

returns to the roof which sheltered his infancy, and makes his pilgrimage to the churchyard where his parents are laid

to rest:

"Where'er I tread 'tis haunted, holy ground;

No spot of thine is lost in vulgar mould.”

I am sure, Mr Mayor, I shall not here or elsewhere be misconceived in uttering these feelings. I am a loyal son of America, and I desire at all times to discharge my duty to the government and country which I have the honor to serve, as you, sir, would wish an English minister to a foreign government to discharge his duty to his own,-zealously and faithfully. But I rejoice above all things when I can unite with this paramount obligation the pleasing office of cultivating kind feeling between the land of my birth and the land of my fathers. The right reverend bishop, in his eloquent remarks to the company, has observed, that it is the duty of the clergy, as ministers of a pure religion, to promote peace on earth and good will towards men. It is scarcely less the province of the ministers of friendly, and especially of kindred nations, to coöperate in the same good work. There are no two countries on earth united by ties like those which bind the United States and England; none which possess within themselves equal means of being mutually beneficial to each other. Let us hope that, in all coming time, their only struggle will be, which shall outstrip the other in the race of civilization, their only emulation, which shall bear the palm in the arts that adorn and improve our common

nature.

I renew to you, Mr Mayor and gentlemen of the corporation, my sincere thanks for your kindness, and tender to you, and to each person in this most respectable company, my most sincere good wishes.

SAFFRON WALDEN AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.*

AFTER making his acknowledgments to the president of the society and to the company for the toast which had just been given, and avowing his concurrence with the opinions expressed from the chair, on the subject of the treaty of Washington, Mr Everett said, —

It is with no ordinary feelings of satisfaction that I find myself a visitor to the ancient and respectable county of Essex. It is a name familiar to me as that of one of the four counties into which the ancient colony, now state, of Massachusetts was divided, in the very infancy of the settlement. Many of the first emigrants came from this part of England, and the affection which they cherished for their native country was shown by perpetuating the names of its counties, cities, and villages in their new home. A great majority of the names of places to which I have been accustomed from childhood, meet me again in different parts of England.

Nor is it familiar names of places only that I encounter. In every part of England which I have visited, I find local recollections, which, though perhaps weakened for you by familiarity, possess a great interest for us. Your lordship has acquainted me with a circumstance of which I was ignorant before, that one of the greatest men in the history of modern science lies buried in this neighborhood. I refer to Harvey, the illustrious discoverer of the circulation of the blood. After the troubles and vicissitudes of a life which,

* In reply to a toast from the president of the society, (Lord Braybrooke,) at the public dinner at Saffron Walden, on the 13th of October, 1843.

notwithstanding that brilliant discovery, might be called an unfortunate one, Essex received him at last to close his mortal trials, and he lies buried at Hempstead, four miles from this spot. His career (if I may adventure an allusion so far from the immediate business of the day) teaches us a useful lesson. When the great idea of the circulation of the blood was first propounded by him, the age was not ready to receive it, especially in his own country; he lost his practice as a physician, almost his good name. But the lapse of time has redressed the contemporary wrong; his name has taken a place in the list of great discoverers; his fame is coëxtensive with the civilized world; and I have the happiness this day, a pilgrim from a country scarce known to exist when that discovery was made, to offer this humble tribute to his memory.

There is, perhaps, no subject, my lord, in reference to which the experience of other countries can be more advantageously consulted than agriculture, whether we have regard to climate, natural products, or modes of husbandry. When North America was settled by emigrants from Europe, it was almost wholly in a state of nature. Indian corn and one or two other vegetables were rudely cultivated by the native tribes; but in general the new-comers were dependent on what they brought with them, and the crops to be raised from European seeds, roots, and trees, propagated on the other side of the ocean. Such is our obligation to Europe, in the temperate regions of America, in reference to the fruits of the earth. But this debt we have in some degree repaid. I need not tell you that the husbandry of the old world is indebted to America for the article which, next to the cereal grains, furnishes food to the greatest number of persons. I allude, of course, to the potato. There is another agricultural product of vast importance to us, and well known, though not cultivated in England. I mean the maize, or Indian corn. Some of your agricultural writers have thought that it might be domesticated in this country; but your summers are probably not hot enough to ripen the grain. There is another American agricultural product; I do not know if I can safely name it here; I am not an admirer of it myself