The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-06 00:00:00

RECEPTION." ,
General Clay then returned thanks in English :
" Gentleraen,—lt is quite unexpectedly that I find my-
self paying a visit to your ancient capital, the cradle of the
Russian nation. Indeed it was before my arrival that you
had arranged this dinner in honour of Mr. Jeremiah Cur-
tin, my esteemed friend, who does not regret the pains ho
took to learn yourmagnificent language ; nor should I have
accepted the invitation you kindly sent me unless I knew
that in the generous Russian heart there is room enough for
friendship and goodwill towards both. I gratefully receive
and acknowledge, in my name and in that of my country-
men, those expressions of friendly esteem which the citizens
of Moscow have been pleased to employ in regard to the
people of the United States. I am proud at finding the
name of our President joined with the name of Alexander
IL—that glorious monarch, whom God gave to the living
generation as a guarantee of prosperity to Russia and as an
honour to humanity forall time to come. Fate had reserved
it for these two rulers of two great nations to devote them-
selves to the work of freeing the slave and making all men
equal before the law. I cannot look upon this coincidence
otherwise than. as a special dispensation of Provi-
dence, which, both in monarchies and republics, in its own
mysterious way, steadily and unceasingly promotes the
liberty and civilisation of the human race. Let us bow
reverentially before the Divine will. Let us, in obedience
to this will, maintain, foster, and consolidate that friend-
ship between the Russians and Americans which lle him-
self has inscribed with indelible characters in the records
of history. Let us love each other as we love our own
domestic hearths, as we love our country and national
honour. Let us keep up those feelings of amity and good-
will, and remain true to them as wo mean to remain true
to liberty, which, though it may often require the blood of
martyrs and heroes to water its course, will yet be cher-
ished for ever."
The words of General Clay elicited much ap-
plause. He was succeeded by M. Gorboff, a Mos-
cow manufacturer, who, as his countrymen had done
before him, spoke Russian :
" Your Excellency— I have been charged with the agree-
able commission to welcome you in the name of the Mos-
cow merchants—to welcome you as our guest and as the
representative of a country which has so often and so so-
lemnly expressed its sympathies with Russia. I sincerely
regret my being unable to address you in your own lan-
guage, and can only wish that the foreign sounds falling
upon your ears at this moment may convey to you the
sympathetic feelings which we, the Russians, shall ever
-liiirbour for the honour, the interests, and the greatness of
the country whose Plenipotentiary you are. We, the
citizens of Moscow, the most Russian of all Russian
towns, congratulate ourselves on being able to repay a
small portion of the debt of gratitude we owe to your com-
patriots for the hospitable reception they lately gave to
the Russian mariners in New York. The sympathies we
feel and utter are real and heartfelt. They are based
upon a similarity of interests and peculiarities, which
will come out more and more strongly as the development
of both countries progresses, and which will, we trust, affect
the destinies of the world. I do not mean to indulge in
vainglorious phraseology. What I say I believe to be true—
it is my political creed, it is the political creed of all Russia.
Here are two immense colossi—Russia and the United
States. With their unmeasured extent, inexhaustible re-
sources, and peculiar population they confront tha ancient
kingdoms of Europe like beings of another kind. They are
two riddles which have not been solved as yet, but whose
mot, we confidently hope, will become one day apparent,
when Russia and the United States will have attained to a
more prosperous, powerful, and influential position in the
world than any of the older and earlier developed States.
Both you and we may proudly point to those proofs of irre-
pressible vitality which we have given whenever we were
left to our own unfettered genius and the promptings of the
people's heart. Just now both of us have issued from a
period of the greatest difficulties. Our troubles were com-
mon, and so is our triumph. It is the consciousness that the
power of both countries is unshakable which is the source
of our mutual sympathy, and causes both peoples to look
upon each other with feelings of unqualified respect, jus-
tice, and esteem. Either people confiding in its own energies
naturally admires the other which is equally powerful. It is
the love of the strong for the strong which binds them to-
gether. Our interests, too, are not likely to clash. But
lately we (the Russians) had to negative the absnrd demand
of our German neighbours, who wanted us to reduce our
tariff for the benefit of their own manufactures. Such an
egotistical attack on the benefits of our industry the Amer-
icans have never made. They have never envied, never im-
perilled the growth of Russian manufacture. They have
never offended the feelings of the Russian merchant, but
always behaved in a way which allowed us, and even made
it obligatory upon us, to honour and support their country
and their flag. To quote your President in his recent Mes-
await co to Congress, both of us are in a position quietly to
ming events,'
that much whichand both of us may entertain hopes
seems difficult in our internal affairs,
and is calculatedeitzumaawaken doubt, will be eventually settled
by the force of
stances.' Animated with these feel-
ings I beg to proposo double toast—a toast which will be
readily responded to
bi
n all
heart of every man livin tresent, and re-echo in the
o boundless expanse of both
our empires—a toast togeporosperity, indivisibility, and
steady aggrandisement of
great and glorious United
States of America, and to the
orthodox Russia." perpetual welfare of our own

. The passages relative to the alleged
similarity be-
tween the two countries and their " Peculiar institu-
tions" were greeted with thundering applaqse.
The
orchestra having played the " Star
spangled ban-
ner," Mr. Curtin, the American Secretary of Lega-
tion, begged leave to address the company in their
Awn native Russian :

" Gentlemen,—General Clay, my respected chief, being
unable to express himself in Russian, it becomes my gratify-
ing duty to thank you for the friendly wolcomo you have
givenits in your own language, a language which I am happy
to say is no longer unknown to me. From the depth of my
heart I thank you for all you have said in honour of my
country. Being fully aware how ardently Russia is beloved
by all present, I am convinced that the toast in which you
Vended her namo'with that of America was not only an
act of courtesy towards your guests, but also a friendly
greeting offered them by sincere and faithful well-wishers
of their country. TO me, and to all my countrymen, no-
thing can be more satisfactory, more gratifying, than that
brotherly toast which 1 havo just heard proposed and jubi-
antly
i received in the ancient capital of the Russian Czars.