Bless each true workman and his toil,
In lonely room, or noisy mart,
By morning beam, or midnight oil,

Who honors Heaven in honoring Art.

The President announced the first regular sentiment, as follows:

Our Seventeenth Triennial Festival,- We commemorate the occasion, with a deep sense of gratitude to the founders of our Association.

There was no response to this, and the second regular sentiment was announced: :

The President of the United States. Music-"Hail Columbia." The third regular sentiment:

Our Good Old Commonwealth, -To science and the mechanic arts a kind and cherishing mother.

The President said that, as they could not have the old lady in propria persona, she had sent his Excellency to represent her, and he introduced Gov. Gardner.

SPEECH OF GOV. GARDNER.

His Excellency upon rising was loudly applauded, and spoke substantially as follows:

MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:- Our good old Commonwealth is properly remembered thus early in your list of sentiments. She is proverbially proud of the mechanical skill of her artizans, and for generations has she exhibited her interest in their welfare by enactments for their benefit, and legislation to promote their interests. They, too, have ever evinced their participation in her renown and their intimately blended interest in her prosperity and good repute, by the superiority their skill has imparted to her products, by their inventive industry, their high personal integrity, their lives of usefulness, and, in days gone by, by their heroic deaths.

Should I be called upon to designate a fair specimen of all that is noble in the character of Massachusetts, of all that we can boastingly turn to and feel proud of as a state, whether it be the bounteous products of her soil, the beauty of her daughters, or the steadiness of purpose so peculiar to New England character, and the cultivated industry that is so honored in her sons, perhaps I could select no truer symbol, no happier type, than the scene before me. (Cheers.)

Where could a sample of true nobleness of character, of untiring industry and energy, or of any of the traits which so especially mark the busy minds of our honored state, more naturally or more properly be found than at the festivities of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association? It is to pay just homage to that portion of her sons, from whom she has long had shed such lustre upon the written annals of the past, and the living pages of the present, that I am rejoiced to arise in response to this sentiment.

The industry of our mechanics has covered the face of Massachusetts with thriving villages and teeming cities; it has

built our ships, which are specking every sea; it has laid down and supports the railways which are woven over our state like a spider's web; it has thrown solid walls across every stream, to exact its tribute upon the mill wheel ere it is permitted to resume its wonted course to its ocean home; it has erected the giant manufactories, which, while furnishing clothing for the antipodes, at the same time provide markets for her agricultural products, and give occupation to her sons and daughters.

The industry of our mechanics, too, has by its consequences created many a happy home, furnished the amenities and luxuries of life to thousands of households, planted our fields, filled our gardens with annual beauty, stored our libraries, built our school-houses, and erected our churches. It has furnished the basis from which has flowed that constant stream of munificent charity which blesses both the giver and receiver; it has planted the colossal fortunes which have founded our hospitals, and our benevolent and charitable institutions. Yes, Mr. President, should I affirm that the whole face of Massachusetts was changed by the industry and intelligence of her mechanics, I feel that I should say nothing but what in my judgment could be substantiated. Every great improvement of our agriculture, our commerce, or our manufactures, the three chief material elements of the prosperity of any community, can be traced primarily to the inventive. genius or unflagging industry of mechanic skill. The successive gradations of progress from the days of the Indians to this our era of wonderful results, the startling advance in science and arts which almost every week witnesses with us, are spoken into being by this "sesame."

But while everything else has changed with magical rapidity since we became a nation, in one thing there is, there can be, no change, no progress, and that is in the incorruptible patriotism of the mechanics who compose your Association. (Great applause.)

All else may change, and may improve, but that love of country, its institutions, its freedom and its history can never die in the hearts of the descendants of those illustrious men who founded your time honored institution. Invoking their memory as an example for you and for all, I resume my seat with thanks for the kindness with which you have received me and which I shall ever remember. (Renewed applause.)

Fourth regular sentiment,

Our venerable Honorary Member, Josiah Quincy, Sen.,―The active usefulness of his life is more honorable than the laurel crown of a conqueror. (Great applause.)

The President said he regretted exceedingly the absence of Mr. Quincy, and would read the following letter, which had been received from him:

MESSRS. JOSEPH M. WIGHTMAN, L. MILES STANDISH, OSMYN BREWSTER, THACHER BEAL, AND JOSEPH BATES:

Gentlemen :- - I respectfully acknowledge the invitation of the government of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, to be present at their eighteenth triennial festival, and extremely regret that my period of life compels me to decline the proffered honor. I do not, on this account, feel a less interest in the occasion. Paul Revere, Thomas Dawes, Benjamin Russell, and the other founders of your Association were my friends in youth and manhood. Their memories are dear to me in old age, from their private virtues and their public spirit. The seeds of American independence were scattered by no hands more liberally or wisely than by those of the mechanics of Boston. I rejoice that the spirit which characterizes the founders of your Association survives, and still actuates their successors.

I offer the following sentiment:

The Mechanics of Boston, - They were among the first to aid the rising of the sun of American freedom; they will be among the last to aid in perpetuating any spot which prevents its blessings from being universal.

I am, gentlemen, with great respect, your obedient servant,

Quincy, 12th October, 1857.

JOSIAH QUINCY.

The President said that, in the absence of the oldest Honorary Member, he would call upon the youngest Honorary Member of the Association, one whose talents commanded the highest esteem of the Association and of his fellow citiHe then introduced Hon. George S. Hillard.

zens.

Mr. Hillard (who was upon the floor of the hall) rose and was received with applause. He said that this was an unexpected blow. Having an engagement in the early part of the evening, he had well hoped that in the obscurity of the lower hall he might have escaped. He had in some degree enjoyed this entertainment from that confident expectation; for he held that no man can heartily enjoy any entertainment when he has in the background the prospect of making a speech. It had been his fortune, in recently compiling sundry school books, to be obliged to examine much of the common-place literature found in such works thirty or forty years ago. Among these was the old story of Dionysius and Damocles; and it seemed to him very absurd that a man should sit down to a meal with a drawn sword hanging over his head, supported only by a single thread. He thought this was a mythical narrative, covering a moral truth, in the form of an invented narration. He thought that Damocles must have been a lawyer of Syracuse, who was occasionally invited to dine with his master, Dionysius; and that, on one occasion, he was asked to a dinner at which a numerous company of ladies and gentlemen were assembled, and Dionysius said to him, "About half past seven o'clock I shall want you to make a speech." That was the meaning of the sword which hung so imminently over his head. (Laughter.) That made the wines all flat and the viands all tasteless. Was not this a

true interpretation of the legend? (Laughter.)

He came there mainly to thank the Society for the honor bestowed upon him by making him an Honorary Member. He could hardly feel that it was deserved. He was not a mechanic; his hands had no cunning in the business which they followed;