The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-25 00:00:00

country house. But hie heart is so large that the welcome
of an individual does act content him, and Tam so proud
of. my guest that the welcome of an individual does net
, satiety me for iim ; and therefore he is here to-day to
receive the welcome of all classes and of all parties of
Englishmen in this great Rational meeting. Gentlemen,
may those cheers with which I knew you will receive
the toast I am about to propose be borne across
the Atlantic, and assure the United States of our affec•
tole for their people and of our respect for their repre-
sentative. (Hear, hear.) I give you the "Health of
his Excellency William Dallas, Minister Plenipotentiary
from the United States of America ;" and allow me to
add one sentiment—Laeting, Concord between America
and England. (Load cheers.)
Mr. DALLAS.—Gentlemen--It is impossible for me
to allow the flattering manner in which you have re-
ceived the toast so kindly introduced by the distin-
guished gentleman who presides to pass without the ex-
pression of my warmest thanks. A stranger to you all,
I deeply feel the hospitality of your welcome, though, in
truth, my short experience in England has given me
more than reason enough to expect it. For the generous
allusion made to the ineitntions, the progres', and the
prospects of mycountry, let me also return in my private
as' well as in my pubic character the most cordial
acknowledgments. Youthful among nations, and per-
haps in the estimation of many whom I ad.lrels, far from
faultless, she has nevertheless undeniably achieved in the
general cause of civilisation, in science, in art, in me•
chanics, in human elevation and improvement, what
may well justify the encomiums from such enlightened,
discriminating, and candid men, In no sphere cf social
action are the United States better entitled to your es-
teem than in the very ono with which this banquet is
connected. They recognise their agricultural interest.
their planters, and their farmers as their predominant
interests—the interest that wields the power, originate
the wealth, cherishes the manly freedom, and promotes
the happiness of their entire people. (Cheers.) You cae
make no advance on that subj..ct whioh will not meet
with their sympathy and co-operation. In the vast val-
ley of the Mississippi, amid measureless plains of ex
haustless fertility, millions of my countrymen accept as
the noblest of human pursuits the cultivation of their
own soil. (Hear, hear.) Their chief aim and delight is to
stock their farms with cattle of the best breeds, and
they hail as more worthy of their gratitude and their
applause than military exploits or political victories every
onward step in practical husbandry. (Cheers.) I wish,
gentlemen, I felt competent and at liberty to engage
a few moments of your altention in adverting to
American movements similar to your own. They
are numerous in every separate State of our confederacy.
Impelled, as here, by the highest intellect and the truest
patriotism, their combined results might be regarded as
an offering not wholly unworthy of your acceptance.
(Hear.) But I cannot venture so far ; and although I
am really sensible that an interehange of agricultural
reports would constitute a powerful bond of national
amity and peace, still I shrink under the warning of one
of your own venerable proverbs, to which my Lord Ham-
let might, perhaps, apply his epithet of " somewhat
musty," inculcating the folly or futility of carrying
coals to Newcastle. (Laughter.) Gentlemen, I repeat
the expression of my thanks, and will now give you the
only good thing which belongs to the address that I
have made. It is in the shape of a sentiment—" 111
honour and success to the Agricultural Society of
Herta !" (Loud cheers.)

The next toast was the health of the Lord Vernlam,
the Lord-Lieutenant of the county, which was warmly
responded to.
The CHAIRMAN—It isle now my pleasing duty to give yon
the familiar toast of" Prosperity to the Herta Agricultu-
ral Society." I hear from all sides that you have had an
exceedingly good show to-day ; that although the exhi-
bition of stock has not been particularly numerous, it
has been exceedingly good of its kind, and that you have
had a more than ordinary display of farming implements.
I congratulate you. I could have wished that this toast I
had been assigned to one who, haviiig addressed you less
frequently upon the same subject, might have given to
his general remarks upon the utility of these societies the
attractions of novelty, or by one who, being a practical
agriculturist, might have offered to you some valuable sug.
gestions on points of detail. lam relieved, however, in
some degree from my apprehension of inability by the
speech just delivered by our distinguished guest, the Ame-
rican Minister, in which, in the true spirit of American
expansion, he has travelled over a great deal upon which
I might have liked to address you, and has embraced
even thesentiment of the toast I am about to propose. I
couldhave wished he had gone on, and that, in his own elo-
quent way, he had taken the subjec'., entirely to himself ;
but still, if it be true that " out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaketh," I ought to be in no want of
words, when I see before me so many of my friends and
neighbours, all united in that great object of progress
and improvement by which every department of industry
not only maintains its own rank in the various divisions
of society, but contributes to the national stock cf intel-
ligence and wealth. (Cheers.) It is quite true, as Mr.
Dallas has implied in the course of his speech, that the
object of these societies is not merely that of bringing us
together in good fellowship and friendly communion. It
is true, also, that their benefits do not limit themselves
to a handful of successful competitors. Every time that
we meet we not only reward the skill of the husbandman
and the cattle breeder for the current year, but we make
each meeting a milestone, as it were, in the highway of
the national progress. (Cheers.) Every year some new
ideas are communicated, some new invention or im-
provement is exhibited which furnishes reflections for
the year that follows ; and thus each year ought to find,
and does really find, us in advance of its predecessor. It
ie true the farmers may not know the progress which
they themselves make, and it is also true that we must