39S REMARKS ON 



Bible ; the second, upon the wonderful adaptation 

 of the Anglo-Saxon race to all climates, situa- 

 tions, and circumstances, — a facility of constitu- 

 tion which has spread them from Hudson's Bay 

 to the Gulf of Mexico — which is fast peopling 

 Australasia, and which has changed the govern- 

 ment of a hundred millions of people in the East : 

 the third, bequeathed to us by the immortal 

 Watt. By his invention every river is laid open 

 to us, time and distance are shortened. If his 

 spirit is allowed to witness the success of his in- 

 vention here on earth, I can conceive no appli- 

 cation of it that would meet his approbation 

 more than seeing the mighty streams of the 

 Mississippi and the Amazon, the Niger and the 

 Nile, the Indus and the Ganges, stemmed by 

 hundreds of steam-vessels, carrying the glad 

 tidings of " peace and good will towards men" 

 into the dark places of the earth which are now 

 filled with cruelty. This power, which has only 

 been in existence for a quarter of a century, has 

 rendered rivers truly " the highway of nations," 

 and made easy what it would have been difficult, 

 if not impossible, to accomplish without it. We 

 are the chief repository of it : our mineral wealth, 

 and the mechanical habits of our people, give us 



