upon this subject; I have had occasion to express them; I have done so fearlessly, and will do so again when the occasion presents; but I protest against the propriety of the Executive in reviewing the positions and carping upon the language of members of the Legislature spoken in the discharge of their duty, in an executive message. Much as the inhabitants of the southern counties and their representatives have differed from the Senator from the Fourth, they have found in him one merit, which in these times ought to be regarded above all price he has been above hypocrisy and double dealing. He has chosen his position and maintained it; has been easily found, and has misled no one. He has not raised confidence to betray it, nor lavished professions at one time to be belied at another. He has been an open as well as a determined opponent, and has contented himself with being upon one side. He has not had one set of principles for one section, and another for another, nor has he left them in a shape to be construed agreeably to the sentiment in the meridian where they are promulgated, or as necessity may require. He has raised himself like a solitary rock above the ocean's storm, and "grand, gloomy and peculiar " has withstood alike the sunshine and the tempest, and now stands forth a memorable illustration of the truth that "Pigmies are pigmies still, though perched on Alps, ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE FAIR OF THE QUEENS COUNTY AGRICUL TURAL SOCIETY, October 17, 1843. THE earth was by Divine appointment to furnish man's subsistence. When, as sacred history informs us, the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them, and there was not a man to till the ground, man was created and placed in the garden; not to vegetate in passive luxuriance, like the herbs and plants which adorned his paradise, but to dress and to keep it and though by reason of his defection he was driven from its enjoyments-his state of calm and happy innocence changed to one of solicitude, toil and endurance-the ground cursed for his sake with thorns also and thistles, and it was ordained that in the sweat of his face he should eat his bread-it is evident, that in the economy of his creation, as well as in the appointment of his lot after the fall, he was destined for active employment. Practical agriculture is coeval with the history of man. One of the sons of our common progenitor was a tiller of the ground, another was a keeper of sheep. Noah and his descendants after the flood planted and cultivated vineyards, as well as reared cities and established kingdoms. Many of the laws of Moses have for their object the regulation of flocks and herds, and the cultivation and enjoyment of fields. The children of Israel, on coming to the possession of the fair land of Canaan, after wandering in the wilderness a period of forty years, addressed themselves to its cultivation. When the prophet Elijah passed by and cast his mantle upon Elisha, he found him ploughing in the field with twelve yoke of oxen before him, himself with the twelfth; and the servants and oxen of the affluent Idumean were engaged in the same pursuit when they fell a prey to the rapacity of the Sabeans. Many of the most interesting and poetic incidents of Scripture are touching the harvesting and gleaning of fields, and other rural occupations, and its pages are replete with descriptions of the management of flocks and herds, sheep shearings, threshing floors and other employments of husbandry. The ancient Egyptians tilled the ground with so much success, that they were enabled to withstand the consuming influences of a famine of seven years duration, and to supply their neighbors who were destitute and in want, with corn from the royal granaries. And although in their blind spirit of idolatrous devotion, they attributed the invention of an art so useful, to their god Osiris, they applied their energies to aid the profuse liberality of nature, or, as they believed, the munifi cence of their deity, and rendered the fertile banks of the Nile still more productive by irrigation, drains and embankments. The aboriginal inhabitants of Greece were strangers to this primeval art, and subsisted upon the spontaneous productions of the earth, until they were led by the Egyptians, to whom they were indebted for the science which has rendered classic Greece immortal, to its successful cultivation. But they too, true to their idolatrous instincts, attributed the productions of the soil-the rewards of their own industry-to the kindly care and keeping of their tutelar goddess, Ceres. In the glowing and poetic age of Homer, Laertes laid aside the kingly robes of office for the peaceful pursuits of agriculture. Hesiod sung of the labors of the field; Xenophon and Aristotle and other Greek writers of eminence furnish numerous and interesting notices of rural affairs; and the Carthaginians, by agriculture, prepared Sicily to be the granary of Rome. The ancient inhabitants of all-conquering Rome divided their time and energies between war and husbandry. Cincinnatus came from the plough to discharge the duties of the office of dictator, and sought the earliest opportunity consistent with his country's honor, to lay aside the power and dig nity of station and return to the employment from whence he was called; and Regulus, a Roman senator, in a spirit worthy of imitation by modern legislators, sought retirement from the senate for a season, that he might preserve his little farm from dilapidation and ruin. Whether the hardy Roman pitched his tent or ploughed his field-whether he wielded the weapons of war, or the implements of husbandry-the sword or the ploughshare-the spear or the pruning hook, his action was characterized by the same unyielding, irrepressible energy and vigor. The laudable pursuit of agriculture was not neglected by the patricians until the seductive influences of wealth introduced luxury and artificial manners with their corrupting consequences, and even then, many, cherishing the early virtues of their nation, continued to give the occupation their personal attention ;—while others, like political farmers of modern times, preferred to farm by proxy, and performed it by their slaves. The attachment of this people to the pursuits of agriculture may be found detailed in the writings of Pliny, Cato and Virgil, all of which abound with practical suggestions on the various duties of the husbandman. The ox was scarcely less esteemed by them than by the ancient Egyptians, by whom he was worshipped, and their books contain numerous suggestions for the breeding, breaking, feeding and working of this, their favorite animal. They drove their plough, a rude implement, scarcely an apology for the utensil of this day, with and without wheels, with and without colters, and with shares of various kinds; and they tried, but with what success is uncertain, the experiment of reaping with machines. Hay-making was performed by them after the manner of the present day, and the practice of fallowing their land, and of weeding and watering their crops, was universal. We have, then, the high authority of history, sacred and profane, for declaring that agriculture is a dignified and timehonored calling-ordained and favored of heaven, and sanctioned by experience; and we are invited to its pursuit by the rewards of the past and the present, and the rich promises of the future. While the fierce spirit of war, with its embattled legions, has, in its proud triumphs, "whelmed nations in blood, and wrapped cities in fire," and filled the land with lamentation and mourning, it has not brought peace or happiness to a single hearth-dried the tears of the widows, or hushed the cries of the orphans it has made-bound up or soothed one crushed or broken spirit-nor heightened the joys of domestic or social life in a single bosom. But how many dark recesses of the earth has agriculture illumined with its blessings! How many firesides has it lighted up with radiant gladness! hearts has it made buoyant with domestic hope! How many How often, like the good Samaritan, has it alleviated want and misery, while the priest and Levite of power have passed by on the other side! How many family altars, and gathering places of affection, has it erected! How many desolate homes has it cheered by its consolations! How have its peaceful and gentle influences filled the land with plenteousness and riches, and made it vocal with praise and thanksgiving! It has pleased the benevolent Author of our existence to set in boundless profusion before us the necessary elements for a high state of cultivation and enjoyment. Blessings cluster around us like fruits of the land of promise, and science unfolds her treasures and invites us to partake, literally without money and without price. The propensities of our nature, as well as the philosophy of our being, serve to remind us that man was formed for care and labor-for the acquisition and enjoyment of property-for society and government-to wrestle with the elements around him; and that, by an active exercise of his powers and faculties alone, can he answer the ends of his creation, or exhibit his exalted attributes. His daily wants, in all conditions of life, prompt him to exertion, and the spirit of acquisition so deeply implanted in the human breast, that "ruling passion," so universally diffused through the whole family of man, is the parent of that laudable enterprise which has caused the wilderness to bud and blossom like the rose; planted domestic enjoyments in the lair of the beast of prey, and transformed the earth from an uncultivated wild into one vast store-house of subsistence and enjoyment. What can be more acceptable to the patriot or the philanthropist, than to behold the great mass of mankind raised above the degrading influences of tyranny and indolence, to the rational enjoyment of the bounties of their Creator? To see, in the productions of man's almost magic powers, the cultivated country-the fragrant meadow-the waving harvest-the smiling garden, and the tasteful dwelling, and himself, chastened by the precepts of religion, and elevated by the refinements of science, partaking of the fruits of his own industry, with the proud consciousness that he eats not the bread of idleness or fraud; that his gains are not wet with the tears of misfortune, nor wrung from his fellow by the devices of avarice or extortion; his joys heightened, his sorrows alleviated, and his heart rec |