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progress and improvement which have been made. We rejoice to-day, and justly rejoice, in the greatness of this Empire and the extension of the dominions of the Queen. But for the maintenance of such a vast structure there must be solid foundations at the base, and these foundations can only be found in a prosperous and contented people. (Cheers.) lam myself able to testify that it was not always so. I can remember when the people of this country were neither prosperous nor contented ; when disorder was rife amongst the masses of the people, who were 3 impatient of suffering and intolerant of their | miserable lot. Any one who knows the social ana.Z history of this country for the first six years of the Queen's reign—from 1837 to 1843 —and ,:;, remembers what the sufferings were in the great towns, and still more perhaps in the rural districts, will be able to form some conception of the marvellous improvement which has taken place in the stability of the nation, in the growth, not only of its members, but in the health and wealth, in the moral no less than the physical fibre of the people. (Cheers.) That has been a distinguishing feature, to my mind, of this auspicious reign—of people better fed, better 4 clothed, better housed, better educated; crime | diminished, and taxation decreased. That is the solid base upon which this vast Empire rests. (Cheers.) I can recall the fears of the brave, and the follies of the wise, who believed that the extension of popular power would endanger the Constitution. And yet, in these sixty years, measure after measure of democratic reform has been sanctioned, and each extension of popular right has only strengthened the Monarchy and increased the confidence of the people. Queen Victoria has never feared her people. (Cheers.) Decade after decade has passed with these reforms, and the Sovereign has never been more trusted or more revered, and, as the right honourable gentleman well indicated, this enlarged democracy has been peacefully and insensibly incorporated 5 with | the framework of an ancient Throne. We celebrate to-day, and gladly celebrate, with just pride the gathering of the representatives of our distant colonies. They are communities who went forth instinct with the same love of freedom which was native to their parent State. They carried that spirit beyond the seas, and it has borne the fruit of their self-government and self-reliance. (Cheers.) But in this memorable growth of our race and of our Empire there has presided over two generations of men one figure, which has presented to the world the British name with a noble simplicity and greatness which have 6 not been known before, and which will live for ever in the records of this nation. | Sir, it has been asked, what has been the office which the Queen has performed ? That office has been the supreme tie which has bound together various classes and diverse races in these vast dominions, and which has held them in one united whole by a Sovereign partaking of the spirit of the people, and gathering them in growing affection around her throne. (Cheers.) The blessing which was invoked by the patriarchs of old was length of days and multitude of offspring. Surely, never has a Sovereign been surrounded by a more illustrious progeny both in her family and among her subjects. Her subjects are to be found on every shore, and her children's 7 children are established in every State. ] There have been glorious reigns in the great traditions of this land —reigns of strife and storm, of peril and of conquest; but if I might be permitted to affix an adjective to the characteristic of this reign I should call it a sympathetic reign. (Loud cheers.) It has appealed to the heart of the nation, and it is the heart of the nation still more than its pride which speaks to-day and addresses Queen Victoria in the sixtieth year of her reign. She has made her people feel that she was the companion of their joys and the partaker of their distress, and in all their 8 fortunes —whether ill fortunes or good fortunes—her sympathies have never | been wanting in that touch of nature which makes the whole world kin. (Cheers.) That has always been present in the case of the Queen in a sense unknown before, in that the present Sovereign can be justly called the mother of her people. (Loud cheers.) In the fulness of her years and of her grace those children gather around her to-day with the sentiment of filial devotion. The Queen has passed through bitter sorrows, and none so great as that which took from her the wise counsellor and consort who supported with her the burden of her Empire in former days ; but 9 in all her desolation she never forgot her care and duty to the nation. (Cheers.) It is | not for me to attempt to portray a character known, admired, and loved by all. Those who have served her in any capacity will ever cherish the memory of her gracious kindness, of her upright justice, her ripe experience, and her constitutional fidelity. (Cheers.) Her public as her private life has been a lesson to all in every station. First in virtue as first in place, she has added dignity to a mighty throne, and deserves the passionate loyalty of a free people. She will leave to those who come after her larger dominions and a happier people; but what is more, she will bequeath to future time the imperishable inheritance of a sovereign example. 10 (Loud and prolonged cheers.) | (c.) At the rate of 150 words per minute. Takes 5 minutes. Athens has always been audacious in the extreme, and her defiant little navy has of late been making quite a stir upon the Mediterranean. But the Athenian fleets of to-day are insignificant, both in numbers and their relative strength, compared with those which the ancient city sent out on the same waters. Of course the individual ships are bigger now, though not so much larger as many imagine. But the Athens of Pericles feared no "intervention of the Powers," for she was herself the greatest Power of them all. Long before England she boasted of the strength of her " wooden walls," and was the almost undisputed mistress of the sea. In her best days her admirals feared no odds, and always held their own, sometimes routing fleets that outnumbered their own fully three to one. How this marvellous superiority was attained —how the old Greek warship was built and manned | and handled in battle—is a curious and interesting problem. Without going into pedantic and confusing technicalities I shall endeavour to make plain the nature cf the vessel