16 



ferred that it should be likewise true of many others ? 

 The subject commePids itself to our attention with 

 peculiar interest, and I cannot doubt but that it will 

 receive the consideration it merits. 



Associations directed to the promotion of horticul- 

 tural pursuits are of comparatively recent date. It 

 was reserved to that country, from whence the in- 

 trepid band of Pilgrims came, to found an empire in 

 this Western hemisphere, to become the pioneers in 

 this acceptable work, as she had ever been in all 

 others that had a tendency to shed a lustre upon her 

 name, and to impart to other nations the influence 

 of her beneficent and glorious example. The time 

 has passed away, and with it the excitement, I trust, 

 never to be revived, when to speak in commendation 

 of the institutions of Great Britain, would subject the 

 eulogist to the suspicion that he was distrustful of 

 those of his native country. I leave to abler hands, 

 and more gifted minds, the correction of those un- 

 manly and illiberal personalities, that have degraded 

 the literature of England in relation to our manners 

 and habits, and the uncharitable and mistaken views 

 of our government, and the administration of its laws, 

 which have been furnished by itinerant book-makers, 

 in return for the generous hospitalities of our country- 

 men, and thus made the only adequate return of which 

 they were capable. 



The Horticultural Society of London was estab- 

 lished in 1805, under the highly flattering auspices 

 of distinguished scientific and practical men, and was 

 the first institution of the kind that had been founded 



