ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS, 

 Dnrin" the Twentieth Annual Fair- 



BY FLETCHEE WEBSTER, ESQ., BOSTON, MASS, 



Mr. President and Gentlemen: 



It is not without diffidence that I appear before you. I stand in 

 the presence of practical men, to address them on practical subjects. 

 I see before me gentlemen, who are either manufacturers, or me- 

 chanics, or merchants, or agriculturists, or men of science, each one 

 of whom has vastly more knowledge, general and detailed, than I 

 can possibly have, on all the branches of his particular pursuit or 

 profession; and it is on these pursuits and professions, and their re- 

 lations, that I am expected to speak. 



Nor are those whom I have the honor to address on such subjects,, 

 mere followers, contentedly plodding on in a beaten route, to whom 

 there may be an opportunity of communicating some startling intel- 

 ligence; but, on the contrary, whatever intense thought, acute per- 

 ception, inventive genius, and enlightened observation can compass, 

 is daily applied by them to the improvement, and extension, and 

 elevation of their various professions, and with how much success, 

 let not only what we have here seen, but let our daily experience 

 declare. 



Each wonderful machine which the mechanic constructs or the 

 manufacturer uses, is an improvement, either in nicety of execution, 

 celerity of motion, economy of expense, or increase of power over 

 former constructions. Each new ship which plows the vexed ocean, 

 is, in model, or arrangement, or apparel, superior to its predecessors,, 

 deemed almost perfect. 



