MR. PRESIDENT, YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESSES, MY LORDS, AND
GENTLEMEN:--I need not, I am certain, assure you that nothing can
be more gratifying to the feelings of any man than to receive that
compliment which you have been pleased to propose and which this
distinguished assembly has been kind enough so favorably to entertain in
the toast of his health. It is natural that any man who is engaged in
public life should feel the greatest interest in the promotion of the
fine arts. In fact, without a great cultivation of art no nation has
ever arrived at any point of eminence. We have seen great warlike
exploits performed by nations in a state, I won't say of comparative
barbarism, but wanting comparative civilization; we have seen nations
amassing great wealth, but yet not standing thereby high in the
estimation of the rest of the world; but when great warlike
achievements, great national prosperity, and a high cultivation of the
arts are all combined together, the nation in which those conditions are
found may pride itself on holding that eminent position among the
nations of the world which I am proud to say belongs to this country.
[Loud cheers.]

It is gratifying to have the honor of being invited to these periodical
meetings where we find assembled within these rooms a greater amount of
cultivation of mind, of natural genius, of everything which constitutes
the development of human intellect than perhaps ever has assembled
within the same space elsewhere. And we have besides the gratification
of seeing that in addition to those living examples of national genius
the walls are covered with proofs that the national genius is capable of
the most active and admirable development. [Cheers.] Upon the present
occasion, Mr. President, every visitor must have seen with the greatest
delight that by the side of the works of those whose names are familiar