At this Banquet, Mr. Bryant, the poet, presided, and numerous speeches were delivered, among which was one by the well-known author, Mr. Bancroft, lately ambassador in England.  This gentleman closed by saying, that when the illustrious Governor of Hungary uttered the solemn truth, that Europe had no hope but in republican institutions—­that was a renunciation to the world that the Austrian monarchy was sick and dying, and that vitality remained in the people alone.  And as he uttered that truth, not his own race only—­not the Magyars only, but every nationality of Hungary, all the fifteen or twenty millions within its limits—­all cried out that he was the representative of their convictions—­that he was the man of their affections, that he was the utterer of truths on which they relied.

Our guest crosses the Atlantic, and he is received; and what is the great fact that constitutes his reception?  He finds there the military arranged to do him honour.  And among those who, on that day, bore arms, were men of every tongue that is spoken between the steppes of Tartary, eastward, towards the Pacific ocean.  The great truth that was pronounced on that occasion—­I do not fear to utter it—­was, let who will cavil, la solidarite des peuples—­the sublime truth that all men are brothers—­that all nations, too, are brethren, and are responsible for one another.

The chairman also spoke eloquently in introducing the third toast, which was briefly, LOUIS KOSSUTH.  As Mr. Bryant pronounced his name, Kossuth rose, and was received with multifarious demonstrations of enthusiasm.  At last he proceeded as follows:—­

Gentlemen.—­I know that in your hands the Independent Republican Press is a weapon to defend truth and justice, a torch lit at the fire of immortality, a spark of which glisters in every man’s soul and proves its divine origin:  and as the cause of my country is just and true, and wants nothing but light to secure support from every friend of freedom, every noble-minded man,—­for this reason I address you with joy, gentlemen.

Though it is sorrowful to see how Austrian intrigues, distorting plain open history into a tissue of falsehood, find their way even into the American press, I am proud and happy that the immense majority of you, conscious of your noble vocation and instinct with the generosity of freedom, protect our sacred rights against the dark plots of tyranny.  Your Independent Press has likewise proved that its freedom is the most efficient protection even against calumny; a far better one than restrictive prevention, which condemns the human intellect to eternal minority.

I address you, gentlemen, with the greater joy, because through you I have the invaluable benefit of reaching the whole of your great, glorious, and free people.