45 



saying, when asked by your President to make a speech, 

 I have not the thoughts. It is many years since I was 

 here. If I dared to remember, I shouhl say it was as 

 early as 1854 or 1855 that I was last present in this 

 very town to participate in the last celebration of the 

 anniversary of your society which I had the honor to 

 attend. I remember it perfectly well. It was an out- 

 door affair, small in numbers, with no such a feast as 

 this, with no such an assembly as this. There were 

 Avooden benches and bare tables, and little to commend 

 it except the eloquent speeches of distinguished gentle- 

 men who were present. If the vegetables and the cat- 

 tle of the county have improved as much as the people, 

 I would like to see them ; for, as I now look upon this 

 assembl}'^, and having hurriedty ridden through your 

 town, by the kindness of a friend, I can say that any 

 city or any town would have reason to congratulate it- 

 self upon the success of its industry and the prosperity 

 of its devotees. 



Ladies and gentlemen, this year is an era in the in- 

 dustry of the world. From this year of 1867 will date 

 a new future — a future that shall not tend to discord, 

 wars and quarrels, and that shall bring the whole 

 intellectual power and spirit of the nations of the 

 earth to the expansion and the enlargement of the 

 pursuits of industry. I regard the exhibition of the 

 world's industry at Paris as the most memorable event of 

 modern times ; and although there might be justification 

 for dwarfing it in comparison with victories or defeats 

 of armies or nations, in battle, if we could (which we 

 cannot do) measure and correctly weigh the consequences 

 of the exhibition of the world's industry in the capital 

 of France this year, we should be willing and able to 



