I know that all men now take a part in the question, and that they will no longer bear to be imposed upon now they are well informed.

My reliance is firm and unflinching upon the great change which I have witnessed--the education of the people unfettered by party or by sect--from the beginning of its progress, I may say from the hour of its birth.

Yes; it was not for a humble man like me to assist at royal births with the illustrious prince who condescended to grace the pageant of this opening session, or the great captain and statesman in whose presence I now am proud to speak.

But with that illustrious prince, and with the father of the Queen I assisted at that other birth, more conspicuous still.

With them and with the lord of the house of Russel I watched over its cradle--I marked its growth--I rejoiced in its strength--I witnessed its maturity--I have been spared to see it ascend the very height of supreme power--directing the councils of the state--accelerating every great improvement--uniting itself with every good work--propping honorable and useful institutions--extirpating abuses in all our institutions--passing the bounds of our dominion, and in the new world, as in the old, proclaiming that freedom is the birthright of man--that distinction of color gives no title to oppression--that the chains now loosened must be struck off, and even the marks they have left effaced by the same eternal law of our nature which makes nations the masters of their own destiny, and which in Europe has caused every tyrant's throne to quake.