Je vous prie, Monsieur le Ministre, de recevoir nos remercimens les plus sincères et de les transmettre aussi à ceux qui professent de si nobles sentiments à notre egard, en assurant Monsieur Everett que Son Altesse le Grand Vizir conserve le plus agréable souvenir des rapports qu'il a été dans le cas d'entretenir avec lui lors de sa mission à Londres.

Je saisis l'occasion de vous offrir, Monsieur le Ministre, l'assurance de ma parfaite considération.

SIR, - I have had the honor to receive the private letter which you were so good as to address me, on the 28th of June, to communicate to me the speech made by the Hon. Edward Everett at the dinner given by the city of Boston to H. E. Mehemmed Pasha, now on a mission in America.

The Imperial Government has been profoundly affected by the feelings which the city of Boston has shown in favor of his Imperial Majesty the Sultan, my august master, of which the honorable orator was pleased to be the

organ.

I beg you, sir, to accept my most sincere thanks, and to transmit them to those who profess such noble sentiments in our favor, assuring, at the same time, Mr. Everett that his Highness the Grand Vizier retains the most agreeable recollections of the relations which he entertained with him during his mission to London.

I embrace this occasion, sir, to offer you assurances of my perfect consid

eration.

To JAMES WILLIAMS, ESQ.,

[Signed,]

Minister Resident U. S. of America.

MAHMOUD.

WASHINGTON ABROAD AND AT HOME.*

Mr. MAYOR:

I FEEL greatly honored by the manner in which you have called upon me to respond to the toast given to the memory of Washington. I have elsewhere thought it right to say, that to be named in connection with him is an honor so far beyond any desert of mine, that there would be a degree of vanity in thinking it necessary even to disclaim it. You will give me credit, if not for the self-knowledge and humility, at least for the good taste, which would lead me to put far aside any such association with that great name, which, more than any other name of human renown, has drawn to itself incommunicably the gratitude and affection of his own countrymen, and the admiration of mankind. But I may, without presumption, return you my thanks for affording me the opportunity of giving utterance, on your behalf, and on behalf of the city of Boston, to the emotions with which the mention of that illustrious name, ever honored, ever dear, must warm the bosom of the true patriot, on the anniversary of our national independence.

I feel, sir, more and more, as I advance in life, and watch with mingled confidence, solicitude, and hope, the development of the momentous drama of our national existence, seeking to penetrate that future which His Excellency has so eloquently foreshadowed, that it is well worth our while,

Speech at the public dinner in Faneuil Hall, on Monday the 5th July, 1858, his Honor F. W. Lincoln, Jr., in the chair.

that it is at once one of our highest social duties and important privileges, to celebrate with ever-increasing solemnity, with annually augmented pomp and circumstance of festal commemoration, the anniversary of the nation's birth, were it only as affording a fitting occasion to bring the character and services of Washington, with ever fresh recognition, to the public attention, as the great central figure of that unparalleled group, that "noble army" of chieftains, sages, and patriots, by whom the Revolution was accomplished.

This is the occasion, and here is the spot, and this is the day, and we citizens of Boston are the men, if any in the land, to throw wide open the portals of the temple of memory and fame, and there gaze with the eyes of a reverent and grateful imagination on his benignant countenance and majestic form. This is the occasion and the day; for who needs to be told how much the cause of independence owes to the services and character of Washington; to the purity of that stainless purpose, to the firmness of that resolute soul? This is the spot, this immortal hall, from which as from an altar went forth the burning coals that kindled into a consuming fire at Lexington and Concord, at Bunker Hill and Dor chester Heights. We citizens of Boston are the men; for the first great success of Washington in the Revolutionary war was to restore to our fathers their ancient and beloved native town. This is the time, the accepted time, when the voice of the Father of his Country cries aloud to us from the sods of Mount Vernon, and calls upon us, east and west, north and south, as the brethren of one great household, to be faithful to the dear-bought inheritance which he did so much to secure to us.

But the fame of Washington is not confined to our own country. Bourdaloue, in his eulogy on the military saint of France, exclaims, "The other saints have been given by the church to France, but France in return has given St. Louis to the church." Born into the family of nations in these latter days, receiving from foreign countries and inheriting from ancient times the bright and instructive example of all their honored sons, it is the glory of America, in the very

dawn of her national existence, to have given back to the world many names, of which the lustre will never fade; and especially one name, of which the whole family of Christendom is willing to acknowledge the unenvied preeminence; a name of which neither Greece nor Rome, nor republican Italy, Switzerland, nor Holland, nor constitutional England can boast the rival. "A character of virtues so happily tempered by one another," (I use the language of Charles James Fox,) "and so wholly unalloyed by any vices, is hardly to be found on the pages of history."

It is delightful to witness the generous recognition of Washington's merit, even in countries where, from political reasons, some backwardness in that respect might have been anticipated. Notwithstanding his leading agency in wresting a colonial empire from Great Britain, England was not slow to appreciate the grandeur and beauty of his character. Mr. Rufus King, our minister at that time to the court of St. James, writing to Gen. Hamilton in 1797, says: "No one who has not been in England can have a just idea of the admiration expressed among all parties for General Washington. It is a common observation, that he is not only the most illustrious, but the most meritorious character which has yet appeared." Nor was France behind England in her admiration of Washington. Notwithstanding the uneasy relations of the two countries at the time of his decease, when the news of his death reached Paris, the youthful and fortunate soldier, who had already reached the summit of power by paths which Washington could never have trod, commanded the highest honors to be paid to his memory. "Washington," he immediately exclaimed, in the orders of the day, "is dead! This great man fought against tyranny; he consolidated the liberty of his country. His memory will be ever dear to the French people, as to all freemen in both hemispheres, and especially to the soldiers of France, who like him and the American soldiers, are fighting for liberty and equality. In consequence, the First Consul orders that for ten days black crape shall be suspended from all the

standards and banners of the republic." By order of Napoleon, a solemn funeral service was performed in the 'Invalides,' in the presence of all that was most eminent in Paris. "A sorrowful cry," said Fontanes, the orator chosen for the occasion, "has reached us from America, which he liberated. It belongs to France to yield the first response to the lamentation which will be echoed by every great soul. These august arches have been well chosen for the apotheosis of a hero."

How often in those wild scenes of her revolution, when the best blood of France was shed by the remorseless and ephemeral tyrants, who chased each other, dagger in hand, across that dismal stage of crime and woe, during the reign of terror, how often did the thoughts of Lafayette and his companions in arms, who had fought the battles of constitutional liberty in America, call up the image of the pure, the just, the humane, the unambitious Washington! How different would have been the fate of France, if her victorious chieftain, when he had reached the giddy heights of power, had imitated the great example which he caused to be eulogized! He might have saved his country from being crushed by the leagued hosts of Europe; he might have prevented the names of Moscow and Waterloo from being written in letters of blood on the pages of history; he might have escaped himself the sad significance of those memorable words of Fontanes, on the occasion to which I have alluded, when, in the presence of Napoleon, he spoke of Washington as a man who, "by a destiny seldom shared by those who change the fate of empires, died in peace as a private citizen, in his native land, where he had held the first rank, and which he had himself made free!"

How different would have been the fate of Spain, of Naples, of Greece, of Germany, of Mexico and the South American Republics, had their recent revolutions been con

* I take this order from "Choix de Rapports, Opinions, et Discours, prononcés à la Tribune Nationale, depuis 1789 jusques à ce jour." Tome XVII. p. 171. It is inaccurately given in Alison, Vol. V. p. 291.