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this, the expression and cast of his genius alone was 

 Gallic. He shared with Voltaire the capacity for using 

 the highest literary form to enlighten the humblest 

 reader or confute the keenest partisan. In his jour- 

 nalism, he prefigured the homely familiarity and the fami- 

 liar humor which is alike the might and the weakness, 

 the strong tower and the open pitfall of the American 

 newspaper in this century. But in all he wrote and in 

 much that he did, he foreshadowed that apprehension 

 and appreciation of form for wit's sake which yearly 

 draws us as a nation nearer to the critical standards of 

 France in art and in letters. The historian of France 

 therefore approaches the diplomatic career of Frank- 

 lin acquainted not only with the environment in which 

 he discharged his great services, but aware of the men 

 and the models, the method and habit of thought 

 which profoundly influenced the conscious and uncon- 

 scious development of Franklin from the nian of busi- 

 ness into the man of science, and from the man of science 

 into the man of affairs. To the historian of the Hugue- 

 nots, the chronicler of the great Cardinals, the deep 

 and unsparing student of the causes which prepared 

 in France the field in which Franklin won his last and 

 closing triumphs, these triumphs have a meaning and 

 interpretation lost on other men. I need not remind 

 you that our next speaker ascends this platform with 

 this special equipment for his work in treating of the 

 diplomatic services of Franklin, and I feel equal honor 

 and good fortune in introducing to you, as the last 

 speaker of the evening, Dr. Henry M. Baird, of the 

 University of the City of New York, who will speak 

 upon 



