It is now thirty years since the first International Exhibition took place in London, and then for the first time Colonial exhibits were shown to the world.  Since that time, from the Exhibitions which have followed our first great gathering in 1851, the improvements that have been made are manifest.  That in itself is a clear proof of the way in which the Colonies have been exerting themselves to make their vast territories of the great importance that they are at the present moment.  But though, my Lord Mayor, I have not been to Australasia, as you have mentioned, I have sent my two sons on a visit there; and it has been a matter of great gratification, not only to myself, but to the Queen, to hear of the kindly reception they have met with everywhere.  They are but young, but I feel confident that their visit to the Antipodes will do them an incalculable amount of good.  On their way out they visited a Colony in which, unfortunately, the condition of affairs was not quite as satisfactory as we could wish, and as a consequence they did not extend their visits in that part of South Africa quite so far inland as might otherwise have been the case.

I must thank you once more, my Lord Mayor, for the kind way in which you have proposed this toast.  I thank you in the name of the Princess and the other members of the Royal Family, for the kind reception their names have met with from all here to-night, and I beg again to assure you most cordially and heartily of the great pleasure it has given me to be present here among so many distinguished Colonists and gentlemen connected with the Colonies, and to have had an opportunity of meeting your distinguished guest, the King of the Sandwich Islands.  If your lordship’s visit to his dominions remains impressed on your mind, I think your lordship’s kindly reception of his Majesty here to-night is not likely soon to be forgotten by him.

HUGH C. WALLACE

THE SOUTHERNER IN THE WEST

[Speech of Hugh C. Wallace at the fifth annual banquet of the New York Southern Society, February 21, 1891.  The President, Hugh R. Garden, occupied the chair.  In introducing Mr. Wallace, he said:  “It was said of old that the Southerner was wanting in that energy and fixedness of purpose which make a successful American.  No broader field has existed for the exercise of those qualities than the great region west of the Rocky Mountains.  We are fortunate in the presence of a gentleman whose young life is already a successful refutation of that opinion, and I turn with confidence to ‘The Southerner of the Pacific Slope,’ and invite Mr. Hugh C. Wallace, of the State of Washington, to respond.”]

MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:—­For more than one hundred years upon this continent a silent army has been marching from the East toward the West.  No silken banners have waved above it, and no blare of trumpet or beat of drum has heralded its progress.