29 

 malities of the interview by the Anglo-Saxon ceremony of 

 shaking hands. The proceedings were of " admirable length,'' 

 certainly not exceeding fifteen minutes ; and yet, as I recall 

 them, I have seldom witnessed a more striking tableau vivant. 



Two hours later, from the steps of the Cay)itol, Seward ad- 

 dressed the citizens of Minnesota in a speech which to this 

 day attracts more attention on both continents than any 

 single discourse of his life. How constantly in the London 

 press do we hear the changes rung on these memorable 

 sentiments ? 



" I can stand here and look far into the North- West, and 

 see the Russian as he busily occupies himself in establishing 

 sea-ports and towns and fortifications, as outposts of th(3 Em- 

 pire of St. Petersburg, and I can say " go on ; build up your 

 out-posts to the Arctic Ocean ; they will yet become the out- 

 posts of my own country, to extend the civilization of my 

 own country, to extend the civilization of the United States 

 in the North-West." So I look upon Prince Rupert's Land 

 and Canada, and see how an ingenious people and a capable 

 and enlightened government are occupied with bridging rivers 

 and building railroads to develope, organize, create and pre- 

 serve the British Provinces of the North, by the Great Lakes, 

 the St. Lawrence, and around the shores of Hudson's Bay ; 

 and I am able to say " it is very well ; you are building excel- 

 lent states, to be hereafter admitted into the American 

 Union." 



I was in Washington between the date of tlii« and another 

 speech of his to which I shall presently refer, and while yet 

 Mr. Seward, then Secretary of State, l)elieved in his pre- 

 diction of liS60, and was honored by an introduction to the 

 great statesman, who was then busy with his scheme for the 

 purchase of Alaska. The angry looking scar of a dirk, wound 

 he had received in the neck from a would-be assassin was 

 still fresh ; but he had many questions to ask about this 

 country, and after shewing me an Alaskan kyack, spear, bone 

 implements, and many curiosities, j-ecently sent to him, he 

 stood with me before a large map of the continent and said 



