an allusion, but with that gravity and seriousness which belong to the highest interest of man.

The declining state of his health led him, within the last few years, to withdraw himself almost wholly from society. He passed a winter, two years ago, in the West Indies, highly enjoying the genial climate, studying with delight the boundless profusion of the tropical Flora, but with no substantial improvement of his health. On the 11th of the present month, (March, 1840,) he died at his fireside in Boston, suddenly, and without pain, at the age of seventy years.

The last time I saw him was at the delivery of the preceding discourse, on the evening of the 2d of January. He was pleased then to express his kind approval of my humble effort to do justice to the munificent foundation of his nephew; and it is with deep sensibility that I now bring it to a close, with this feeble tribute to the memory of one of the earliest, kindest, and most respected of the friends of my youth.

DR ROBINSON'S MEDAL.*

MR PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:

I PERFORM a very agreeable duty in appearing as the representative of my learned and ingenious countryman, Dr Robinson, to receive this beautiful medal, which the Royal Geographical Society has been pleased to award to him for his late valuable work. I beg leave, on his behalf, to make to you and to the council of the society those grateful acknowledgments which are due for this distinguished honor, and for the emphatic and discriminating commendation which you have bestowed on the "Biblical Researches." The favorable opinion of the Royal Geographical Society, expressed in this public and authentic manner, will give the character of a standard work to a production which had already been received with no ordinary degree of public favor. I am sure that my learned countryman will feel himself encouraged and stimulated, by the society's flattering notice, to the still more zealous pursuit of the studies and researches, of which he has already reaped so brilliant a reward.

Permit me to say, sir, as the official representative of the United States of America in this country, that the circumstance which has procured me the honor of your kind invitation this day, is of the most gratifying character. It affords me high satisfaction that a countryman of mine should have

Reply to the speech of the president of the Royal Geographical Society, (William R. Hamilton, Esq., F. R. S.,) on occasion of the award of the society's gold medal to Rev. Dr Robinson, of New York, for his "Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai, and Arabia Petræa," on the 23d May, 1842.

produced a work deemed worthy of these testimonials of approbation, in reference to a land which, more than any other on the surface of the globe, concentrates the affections of the Christian, that is, the civilized portion of mankind; a land which to the interest of a long series of the most extraordinary incidents and revolutions, going back to the dawn of history, unites that higher and more sacred interest which belongs to it as the theatre of events, compared with which the vicissitudes of human things sink into insignificance.

Allow me, sir, in conclusion, to observe that this act of the Royal Geographical Society will be viewed with pleasure by my countrymen at large. They will consider it as a proof that our two countries, though politically distinct, are regarded by this most respectable association as members of one community of letters; and that you are disposed to cherish and strengthen those good feelings which ought to prevail, and, I trust, ever will prevail, between two nations of common language and kindred blood. This disposition, let me say, sir, is cordially reciprocated by the men of science and literature in America; and on their behalf, as well as that of the individual immediately concerned, I again express my thanks for the honor done to him by the society, and the eminently kind and courteous manner in which you have been pleased, Mr President, to carry their purpose into effect. I shall lose no time in conveying their medal to Dr Robinson; and I am sure that I have but imperfectly anticipated the grateful sentiments with which its reception will be acknowledged by him.

BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT MANCHESTER.*

MY LORD AND GENTLEMEN:

I MUST Confess that I rise under some degree of embarrassment to return you my thanks for the compliment you have been pleased to pay to me. The only circumstance that at all relieves that embarrassment is, that I cannot but feel that your kind notice is intended to reach far beyond myself, that it is intended mainly for the people whom I have the honor, however unworthily, to represent. On their behalf, I may, without impropriety, accept all your kindness, as I do, most cordially; thanking you for them, as well as for myself, for the reception which you have been pleased to give me at this time. Such a welcome as this is enough to make me feel that I am not a stranger. It is enough to make me feel, that, in crossing the ocean, I have but come to another native country, if I may so call it, the country of my fathers, where I can enjoy the charities of hospitality in exchange for those of home.

And permit me to express the opinion that there is something very peculiar in the relation between our two countries, well calculated to form a basis, as I trust it does and ever will, of kind feelings between them. The connection of colony and mother country, which formerly subsisted between England and the United States, is of course not new in the world. From the beginning of history, Egypt, Greece,

* Response to a toast given by the president of the British Association for the Promotion of Science, (Lord Francis Egerton, now the Earl of Ellesmere,) at the public dinner, 25th May, 1842, on occasion of the meeting of the Association at Manchester.

and Rome sent out their colonies to relieve a superabundant population, or in the spirit of commercial enterprise, or to consolidate their distant conquests; but there can, in the nature of things, be no example, in ancient history, of such a relation as exists between us. Small companies of adventurers, actuated by the highest and noblest feelings that can influence the heart and govern the conduct of men, traversed a mighty ocean, which bore them all at once from the mature arts of civilization to the wildest nature - from the England of the seventeenth century into a savage wilderness, unknown till then to the rest of mankind. Here they laid the deep and broad foundations of free states, destined, under a multitude of causes, which it is impossible for me here even to glance at, in the maturity of time to grow up into a great family of communities, independent politically of the mother country; but still, in their common language and origin, forming with that mother country one commercial, social, and intellectual community, destined, I believe, as such, to fulfil the highest ends in the order of Providence.

Let us look at it for a moment only as a sort of scientific phenomenon. I chanced this morning to step for a short time into the geological section, (and I only regret that I could not stay there longer,) when I heard my excellent friend, who has just taken his seat, (Professor Sedgwick, of Cambridge,) discoursing in that eloquent and fervid manner of which he has just given us so pleasing a specimen, on the similarity of the Devonian rocks with the strata which have been observed on the other side of the Irish Channel. He said, if I understood him, that he thought it certain that they were the same, and expressed his "delight" at the circumstance. Suppose, then, that the same similarity were traced by one of your members between the geological formations of our two countries; suppose that, arriving on the coast of America, he should find there on landing, the peculiar strata with the most characteristic fossils of Great Britain; suppose that my friend, the president of the geological section, at this end of the table, (Mr Murchison,) should make us a visit in the west, as he has ventured so far