58 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Opportunity is all that is needed, in order to gain distinction. 

 This has been verified in numberless instances. Women have distin- 

 guished themselves in sculpture, in painting, in astronomy, in poe- 

 try, in general literature, and in the most heroic devotion to vital prin- 

 ciples. When financial skill i»required, they often manage business 

 with singular ability. The fortunes of the husband are often in 

 the hands of his wife, inasmuch as his own power of exertion de- 

 pends greatly on her. His moral strength is inconceivably in- 

 creased by her sympathy, her counsel, her aid. 



The influence of women is also an item of importance in the 

 political affairs of the State and Nation. It is quiet, steals over 

 us imperceptibly, perhaps, but moulds many rash opinions into 

 channels more safe and just. 



A late writer says : " It is not presumptuous to believe that 

 if Henrietta, the wife of Charles I., had been born a Huguenot, 

 instead of the daughter of a Catholic king, the civil wars, the 

 Commonwealth, and the Protectorate of England, would never 

 have been." The same Henrietta was the mother of James II., 

 whose devotion to the Catholic church caused his expulsion from 

 the throne, and the revolution which seated William and Mary 

 upon it. Henrietta, therefore, may be said, in a certain sense, to 

 have changed the course of modern English history, and affected 

 thereby the destiny of the world. Who shall say that women 

 wield no political yower ? 



Having spoken of some of the leading topics which seemed ap- 

 propriate to advance your own views, I beg in closing to say that 

 the surest safeguards of our institutions are with us. Our agri- 

 cultural blogsings are too numerous, too diversified, and too 

 closely connected with civil and individual liberty, ever to be sur- 

 rendered at the call of faction, or sacrificed upon the altar of 

 party. 



Our pursuit is eminently religious in all its bearings, for no man 

 with ordinary perceptions can walk through fields luxuriant in 

 verdure, through forests in which autumnal hues of every shade 

 are so richly and beautifully blended — watch the swelling bud, 

 the waving corn, and golden harvest, and not feel the conviction 

 strong upon him, that there is over man a Superintending Provi- 

 dence of love, and wisdom, and power. 



Our profession is also the best school of thought, for it tends to 

 relieve nearly every want to which human nature is subject ; ele- 



