Royal Agricultural Society : Oxford, 1839; Cambridge, 1840. 221 
whose interests, hopes, objects, and pursuits were connected with 
the cultivation of the soil. 
Whatever else (he continued) may tend to enrich and beautify society, 
that which feeds and clothes comfortably the great mass of mankind should 
always be regarded as the great foundation of national prosperity. I need 
not say that the agriculture of Eugland is instructive to all the world ; as a 
science, it is here better understood ; as an art it is here better practised ; 
as a great interest, it is here as highly esteemed as in any other part of the 
globe. The importance of agriculture to a nation is obvious to every man ; 
but it, perhaps, does not strike every mind so suddenly, although certainly it 
is equally true, that the annual produce of English agriculture is a great 
concern to the whole civilised world. 
After speaking of the great advantage to agriculture which must 
result from the formation and operations of the Society, Mr. 
Webster went on to remark that societies on a similar principle 
had been found very advantageous in the United States, and that 
among other means of improving agriculture they had imported 
largely from the best English breeds. 
I am sure (he continued, alluding doubtless to Mr. Thomas Bates of 
Kirkleavington) that a gentleman who has to-day deservedly obtained many 
prizes for stock will not be displeased to learn that I have seen, along the 
rich pastures of the Ohio and its tributary streams, animals raised from 
those which had been furnished by his farms in Yorkshire and Northumber- 
land. 
In conclusion, Mr. Webster made a noble response to the 
fraternal tone of Earl Spencer in proposing his health : — 
The noble chairman (he said), was pleased to speak of the people of 
the United States as kindred in blood with the people of England. I am an 
American. I was born on that great continent, and I am wedded to the 
fortunes of my country, for weal or for woe. There is no other region of 
the earth which I can call my country. But I know, and I am proud to 
know, what blood flows in these veins. I am happy to stand here to-day, 
and to remember that, although my ancestors, for several generations, lie 
buried beneath the soil of the Western continent, yet there has been a time 
when my ancestors and your ancestors toiled in the same cities and villages, 
cultivated adjacent fields, and worked together to build up that great struc- 
ture of civil polity which has made England what England is. 
Confirmation lias been received from various sources, includ- 
ing the vivid reminiscences of Mr. W. P. Hoblyn, of The Fir 
Hill, St. Columb, Cornwall, and others who were present, of the 
statement appended to this striking speech in the first volume 
of Webster’s collected works, to the effect that “ he made a deep 
impression on those who heard him.” His Ci flowing eloquence,” 
says a later writer, 1 “ contrasted strangely with the hesitating 
and involved sentences of Lord Spencer, whose style of speaking 
in the House of Commons, subtracting nothing from his great 
1 Hon. Francis Lawley, in his report on the Exhibition of Horses at 
Kilburn. See Journal, Second Series, Vol. XV., p. 572. 
VOT. V T. R. — 18 
Q 
