No. 2. Meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. 



63 



guished individual present, the Hon. A. Ste- 

 venson, Minister of the United States, as an 

 honorary member of the societj', said, tJiat 

 he well knew the farmers of Ens^land, and 

 that they would all warrant him in saying, 

 they wished, one and all, for peace and tran- 

 quillity ; peace at home and abroad, was what 

 they wished, what they frayed for ; they did 

 not wish to see other nations laid waste, that 

 they might be prosperous, nor was it their 

 interest or their desire, that other people's 

 farms should be destroyer, their barns burnt 

 and their towns and villages plundered; and 

 those who wished for the blessings of peace, 

 we were happy to meet half way, and in this 

 spirit do we meet the good wishes of the 

 American people, whose representative at the 

 court of our sovereign, did them the honour 

 of being present on that occasion. The dis- 

 tinguished individual to whom he alluded, 

 was one of that great nation, which had 

 sprung from ourselves, and he (tlie President) 

 in the name of the farmers of England, 

 wished it every prosperity, and that it might 

 long continue in peace with this country, cul- 

 tivating with her those arts and sciences, 

 which tend to better the condition of the hu- 

 man race, and add to its happiness. 



With respect to the honourable gentleman 

 himself (Mr. Stevenson) he was a tried friend 

 of agriculture: he felt interested in the im- 

 provement of agricultural science in Eng- 

 land, and they would, that the same good 

 should extend to America ; for the object was 

 not only the agriculture of the land we live 

 in, but the agriculture of the whole world !" 

 • Mr. Stevenson was most loudly cheered 

 when he presented himself to the meeting. 



" It would," he said, " be unworthy ajfec- 

 tation, if he did not say he felt proud at the 

 manner in which his name had been received 

 by that, the most remarkable and imposing 

 scene he had ever witnessed in the course of 

 his life — not a very short one. — He must re- 

 turn his thanks to the noble President for the 

 manner in which his name had been given, 

 but he feared he should not be able to do jus- 

 tice to his feelings on the occasion. The 

 kind and hospitable reception which had been 

 given to him, and the very gratifying manner 

 in which his name had been associated with 

 that of their two countries, demanded his 

 grateful acknowledgments; he received it 

 with pride and satisfaction. Deeply sensible, 

 however, as he was of the honour done him, 

 he should but inadequately convey his feel- 

 ings, if he confined himself to an expression 

 of his individual feeling. In relation to him- 

 self personally, it was but a matter of little 

 importance ; but in another sense, looking to 

 such an assembly as that, representing "not 

 only the great agricultural interest of Eng- 

 land, bat of tlie United Kingdom, the kirTd 



and liberal sentiments which had been ex- 

 pressed would do good, and strengthen those 

 relations of amity and peace which existed 

 between the two countries. He, therefore, 

 thanked them in the name of his country, 

 and at the same time assured them that no- 

 thing would be more acceptable to the go- 

 vernment and the people of the United States, 

 than sentiments like those that had been so 

 kindly expressed. Their noble President had 

 been pleased to express a wish, in allusion to 

 the late regulations between the two coun- 

 tries, that the present relations of peace and 

 concord might happily long continue, for the 

 benefit of both — he need hardly say how cor- 

 dially he united in this wish ! This was, for- 

 tunately for mankind, not an age of war ; the 

 time had long since passed, when hostility 

 and war was I'egarded as the natural state of 

 man, and peace only a dangerous and difficult 

 experiment. The soldier and the sword, he 

 thanked God, were no longer the only secu- 

 rity for nations — the schoolmaster and not the 

 loarrior was abroad ! Moral power was tak- 

 ing the place of physical force, and the rulers 

 of the world would now learn, if they had 

 not already, that they must look for security 

 to their thrones, to moral, and not to physical 

 power, and to the virtue and intelligence of 

 tlieir people. In this enligiitened age, when 

 the love of peace and knowledge, of Chris- 

 tianity, were overspreading the earth, was 

 there one Briton or American — one wise or 

 good man — who would not look upon a war 

 between two such countries as England and 

 America, as one of the greatest calamities 

 that could befal mankind ! A war against 

 interest, kindred, language and religion, and 

 for what 1 — not tor principle — not for national 

 honour ; not for conquest ; but a war to settle 

 the geographical lines of a treaty of boundary 

 — the subject legitimately of negotiation and 

 peaceable adjustment ! 



But England and America, he said, were 

 too wise to enter into any such war. Nei- 

 ther, he was sure, would feel itself called 

 upon, in vindication of its honour or in de- 

 fence of its rights, to embark in war — the 

 security for peace is in the wisdom and pru- 

 dence and foresight of the rulers of the two 

 countries, and in the virtues and intelligence 

 of their people. Their noble Chairman had 

 done him no more than justice in supposing 

 he had done every thing in his power, both 

 officially and individually, to cherish and in- 

 vigorate the friendly relations of their two 

 countries, upon the preservation of which, he 

 believed, the prosperity of both nations essen- 

 tially depended : he therefore only spoke the 

 sentiments of his own country, when he as- 

 sured them that its people and government 

 desired peace — solid, permanent peace, with 

 all nations, but especially, good understanding 



