INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.-To Citizens of Tioga-Samuel P. Lyman-Edgar A. Barber -George Bliss-James Bowen-Pacific Railroad Convention............ SLAVERY.-TO William Jay and Gerrit Smith-John Sears-John Quincy Adams- Jabez D. Hammond-Austin Pray-Thomas Clarkson-Colored Citizens of New York-Colored Citizens of Albany-Gerrit Smith-Salmon P. Chase-National THE M'LEOD CASE-To Peter B. Porter-Thomas Ewing-Lovell G. Mickles-Eliphalet Nott, D.D.-John Quincy Adams.. MISCELLANEOUS.-Holland Land Company, Citizens of Chautauque County-St. Nicholas Society, Robert H. Pruyn-Irish Testimonial, W. J. MacNeven-St. Andrew's Society, Albany-Adopted Citizens of Philadelphia, Stephen E. Rice-Extradition of Fugitives from Justice, H. W. Rogers-De Witt Clinton, Edward C. Delavan -State Credits, William Brown-Prison Discipline, Rev. John Lucky-Religious Liberty, John Dillon Smith-State Credits, William Brown-St. George's Society, B. H. Downing-Law Reform, Benjamin Cahoone-Cunard Steamers-Schools, William Palmer-Militia Duty, Samuel Parsons-Schools, Rev. John Hughes, D.D. -Seneca Indians, Jacob Harvey-Condolence, Louis Gaylord Clark-Schools, Benjamin Birdsall-Irish Repeal, Edmund S. Derry-Dickens's Notes, Henry L Webb-Irishmen of Auburn-Ireland and Irishmen, James Maher-Barbecue at Cherry Valley, James Brackett-New York Prison Association-Kossuth, Citizens L. Liverpool-II. Chester-III. Dublin-IV. Dublin, Robert Emmett-V. Belfast- VI. Glasgow, Moore, Watt-VII. Edinburgh, Slavery, Burns, Hume-VIIL York, London, Windsor-IX. Cobbett, Peel, O'Connell-X. Holland-XI. Arrival at Paris-XII. Paris, Chamber of Deputies, Louis Philippe-XIII. Lafayette at Paris-XIV. Lafayette at La Grange..... ORATIONS AND DISCOURSES. THE TRUE GREATNESS OF OUR COUNTRY. PATRIOTISM is allied to philosophy, and inseparable from benevolence. A virtuous citizen is not satisfied with knowing that his country is great, and free, and happy; he desires to understand why it is so, what are the elements of its empire, how long they will endure, and what will be their perfect development; because he knows that his country and his race are immortal, and he feels assured that, although mortal himself, he shall not altogether perish. We have the authority of Lord Bacon to the effect that "the true greatness of kingdoms and estates, and the means thereof, is an argument fit for great and mighty princes to have in their hands, to the end that neither by overmeasuring their forces they lose themselves in vain enterprises, nor, on the other side, by undervaluing them, they descend to fearful and pusillanimous counsels." The same profound philosopher remarked that "the greatness of an estate in bulk and territory doth fall under measure, and the greatness of finances and revenue doth fall under computation. The population may appear by numbers, and the number and greatness of cities and towns by cards and maps. But yet NOTE-This discourse was delivered in Baltimore, on the 22d of December, 1848, before the "Young Catholic Friends' Society" of that city. The same discourse was also substantially delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Union College, and before the Literary Society of Amherst College, in 1844.-Ed. there is not anything among civil affairs more subject to error than the right valuation and true judgment concerning the power and forces of an estate. * * There are states great in ter * ritory, and yet not apt to command; and some that bear but a small dimension of stem, and yet apt to be the foundation of great monarchies." Let us attempt to make such a valuation of "the power and forces" of our country; not merely to "blazon and amplify" a theme pleasing to national pride, but to obtain its necessary and useful instructions. Comprehensive national greatness requires ample space, in a suitable region, a large population possessing mental activity and resolution, and a government well adapted to the character and condition of the people, and conducted with wisdom. Our territory is a belt across the continent, approaching on either side the limit of the temperate zone. It is not broken into separate and distinct fragments, divided from each other by impassable mountain-barriers, by intervening states or provinces, or by seas subject to hostile intrusion; but it is one whole dominion, continuous, compact, and inseparable. We need scarcely say that its climate is salubrious, and that its land and waters are rich in stores for the supply of human wants in every stage and condition of social life. Nowhere does man find more abundantly than here the rocks of endless variety and the trees of numberless kinds with which he builds and adorns his dwellings, his defences, his temples, his roads, his wharves, and his ships; the plants and animals which supply him with subsistence and minister to his health, his comfort, and his pride; the minerals from which he forges his implements of peaceful toil and of mortal strife, and the precious metals by which, in the ever-enlarging circle of exchange, he compares the values of all appreciable things. Long-branching rivers with deep channels, and broadly-expanding lakes with spacious bays, all connected or capable of connection, offer necessary and convenient facilities for free intercourse, mutual traffic, and public defence; and these natural bonds, multiplied by artificial ligaments-roads, canals, railroads, and telegraphs, continually extending and fastening upon every part of this comprehensive region-hold it together in union as indissoluble as it was inevitable. The American continent, with its adjacent islands—a continent |