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tic labors of the Dutch, of which I have spoken, and to the 

 artificial drainage of our English fens — that the terrors of 

 the Maremme have in a measure been bridled in — that the 

 Val di Chiana, in so far as it lies within the borders of 

 Tuscany, has been drained and dried — and that cheerful 

 health and rich crops prevail over large tracts of country, in 

 which it used to be almost certain death to linger. 



Among a Republican people, I, who owe allegiance to a 

 constitutional Monarchy, may be permitted to name to you 

 Leopold the First, of Tuscany, as the principal author of 

 all this good. Whatever our opinions on other matters may 

 be, we shall all, I am sure, agree in this, that those men 

 are great and worthy to be honored, who having been 

 gifted by God with large means and great opportunities, 

 make use of those means and opportunities for the glory of 

 God and the good of their fellow creatures — who, instead 

 of war and scarcity, and suffering and death, promote peace 

 and plenty, and health, and the multiplication and prolon- 

 gation of human life — the moral lesson of whose life 

 inculcates the truth that man's proudest triumphs are not 

 those he achieves over his fellows, but those which he 

 gains over himself, or by which he compels the unwilling 

 powers of nature to minister to the material comforts of 

 mankind — who encourages what will unite instead of dis- 

 tract, what will cement instead of divide the nations of the 

 world — as that broad belt of water which laves alike the 

 shores of your country and mine, instead of separating, as 

 in former years, now binds us together more closely than 

 if the same continent contained us. 



As the promoter of such ends for twenty-five long years 

 in his country of Tuscany, the name of Leopold the First 

 will not sound unpleasantly even in your republican ears.* 



* For an account of the reign of Leopold, see Napier's Florentine History, 

 Vol. VI, and for a detail, with drawings, plans and maps, of the engineer- 



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