only willingly, but gladly. This is already the new line along which
they are advancing, and their best friends can do them no greater
service than to encourage and assist them in it; their worst enemy could
do them no greater injury than to deflect them from it.

This is a very imperfect way, I am aware, ladies and gentlemen, of
presenting the matter, but I hope you will accept it and believe that I
am sincere in it. Accept my assurance of the great pleasure I have had
in coming here this evening.

I remember, when I was a boy, hearing your great fellow-townsman, Mr.
Beecher, in a lecture in Richmond, speak of this great city as "The
round-house of New York," in which, he said, the machinery that drove
New York and moved the world was cleaned and polished every night. I am
glad to be here, where you have that greatest of American achievements,
the American home and the American spirit. May it always be kept pure
and always at only the right fountains have its strength renewed.
[Prolonged applause.]




GEORGE M. PALMER


THE LAWYER IN POLITICS

[Speech of George M. Palmer at the annual banquet of the New York
State Bar Association, given in Albany, January 18, 1899. President
Walter S. Logan introduced Mr. Palmer in the following words: "The