copy of the latter for the press, speak of it as an address "which, in the principles it recommends, and the historic research and statesmanlike views it disclosed, was so entirely worthy of the family name you bear, and one which, in the eloquence and power with which it took possession of the mind of the hearer, gave full proof that the city of Boston, in its public speakers and leading minds, had not fallen away from the town of Boston of earlier days and dearer associations."

He availed himself of the late long recess to visit England, France, and other parts of Europe. Shortly after his departure for England, Edward Everett, writing to a friend in Massachusetts, says of Mr. Winthrop, " A better specimen of America never crossed the water;" and the tenor of all notices from England gives us the impression that this remark has been fully justified by his reception in that country, as indicating the estimation in which he is held by the leading men of the father-land.

That all he has seen in other countries has but served to confirm and rivet his affection for his own, we feel well assured. On the 4th of July last, writing from the top of the Righi, in Switzerland, to a friend in New England, who permitted us to make an extract from the letter, he says: "It is no infelicitous coincidence that an American should be upon this interesting spot on this anniversary of his country's independence. Last night I slept on the borders of the Lake of Lucerne. This morning I passed by the chapel of William Tell'and the three fountains of Grütli, where the first confederation in favor of Swiss liberty was concerted, and from thence came up to this pinnacle of mountain liberty; and here we are admiring other countries, but remembering our own, and wishing that the three hundred miles' circumference over which our eyes extend could be stretched to three thousand, so that we could see the land we are sighing after, and the friends who make it so dear. Never have I felt a stronger yearning after my own country than at this moment. God bless her forever! There is no land like her. We may see here and there a richer cultivation -here and there a more splendid ceremonial-here and there a more magnificent mountain or lake; but we can find nowhere else a people, a whole people, so comfortably conditioned, so intelligent, so educated, so free."

This surely is not the language of a man in whose bosom beats a heart insensible to the claims of patriotism, or of one who, in conforming to the customs of other countries while sojourning in them, is wanting in loyalty to his own.

It is well known that at the Convention held in Springfield, Massachusetts, in September last, a resolution was introduced by Mr. Palfrey, now a member of the House, declaring "that the Whigs of Massachusetts will support no man for the office of President and Vice President but such as are known by their acts or declared opinions to be opposed to the extension of slavery." Mr. Winthrop opposed this resolution, and prevented its adoption, avowing his determination to support a slaveholder for the Presidency, should he be the candidate of the Whig party.

He is now Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States, chosen at a time when the two great parties in that body were nearly equally divided. The accompanying correspondence, which preceded his election, and looked to the imposition of conditions which should secure it, speaks its own commentary:

"Copy of a letter from Hon. John G. Palfrey to Hon. R. C. Winthrop, dated

"56 COLEMAN'S, WASHINGTON, December 5, 1847.

"DEAR SIR,-It, would give me pleasure to aid by my vote in placing you in the chair of the House of Representatives; but I have no personal hopes or fears to dictate my course in the matter, and the great consideration for me must be that of the policy which the speaker will impress on the action of the House.

"Not to trouble you with suggestions as to subordinate points, there are some leading questions on which it may be presumed that you have a settled purpose. May I respectfully inquire whether, if elected speaker, it is your intention

"So to constitute the Committee of Foreign Relations and of Ways and Means as to arrest the existing war?

"So to constitute the Committee on the Territories as to obstruct the legal establishment of slavery within any territory? "So to constitute the Committee on the Judiciary as to favor the repeal of the law of February 12, 1793, which denies

trial by jury to persons charged with being slaves; to give a fair and favorable consideration to the question of the repeal of those acts of Congress which now sustain slavery in this district, and to further such measures as may be in the power of Congress to remedy the grievances of which Massachusetts complains at the hands of South Carolina, in respect to ill treatment of her citizens.

"I should feel much obliged to you for a reply at your early convenience, and I should be happy to be permitted to communicate it, or its substance, to some gentlemen who entertain similar views to mine on this class of questions.

"I am, dear sir, with great personal esteem, your friend and servant, "JOHN G. PALFREY."

"Mr. Winthrop to Mr. Palfrey.

"WASHINGTON, COLEMAN'S HOTEL, December 5, 1847.

"DEAR SIR,-Your letter of to-day has this moment been handed to me.

"I am greatly obliged by the disposition you express 'to aid in placing me in the chair of the House of Representatives.' But I must be perfectly candid in saying to you that, if I am to occupy that chair, I must go into it without pledges of any sort.

"I have not sought the place. I have solicited no man's vote. At a meeting of the Whig members of the House, last evening (at which, however, I believe that you were not present), I was formally nominated as the Whig candidate for speaker, and I have accepted the nomination.

"But I have uniformly said to all who have inquired of me, that my policy in organizing the House must be sought for in my general conduct and character as a public man.

"I have been for seven years a member of Congress from our common state of Massachusetts. My votes are on record. My speeches are in print. If they have not been such as to inspire confidence in my course, nothing that I could get up for the occasion, in the shape of pledges or declarations of purpose, ought to do so.

"Still less could I feel it consistent with my own honor, after having received and accepted a general nomination, and just on the eve of the election, to frame answers to specific questions like those which you have proposed, to be shown to a few gen

tlemen, as you suggest, and to be withheld from the great body of the Whigs.

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eply, therefore, as I should regret to lose the distinction which the Whigs in Congress have offered to me, and through me to New England, for the want of the aid of a Massachu setts vote, I must yet respectfully decline any more direct reply to the interrogatories which your letter contains.

"I remain, with every sentiment of personal esteem, your friend and servant, "ROBERT C. WINTHROP."

"Hon. J. G. PALFREY, &c., &c."

On taking the speaker's chair, to which he was conducted by Mr. M'Kay, of North Carolina, and Mr. Vinton, of Ohio, Mr. Winthrop thus addressed the House:

"Gentlemen of the House of Representatives of the United States:

"I am deeply sensible of the honor which you have conferred upon me by the vote which has just been announced, and I pray leave to express my most grateful acknowledgments to those who have thought me worthy of so distinguished a mark of their confidence.

"When I remember by whom this chair has been filled in other years, and, still more, when I reflect on the constitutional character of the body before me, I can not but feel that you have assigned me a position worthy of any man's ambition, and far above the rightful reach of my own.

'I approach the discharge of its duties with a profound impression at once of their dignity and of their difficulty.

"Seven years of service as a member of this branch of the national Legislature have more than sufficed to teach me that this is no place of mere formal routine or ceremonious repose. Severe labors, perplexing cares, trying responsibilities, await any one who is called to it, even under the most auspicious and favorable circumstances. How, then, can I help trembling at the task which you have imposed on me in the existing condition of this House and of the country?

"In a time of war, in a time of high political excitement, in a time of momentous national controversy, I see before me the representatives of the people almost equally divided, not merely,

as the votes this morning have already indicated, in their preference for persons, but in opinion and in principle, on many of the most important questions on which they have assembled to deliberate.

"May I not reasonably claim, in advance, from you all, something more than an ordinary measure of forbearance and indulgence for whatever inability I may manifest in meeting the exigencies and embarrassments which I can not hope to escape? And may I not reasonably implore, with something more than common fervency, upon your labors and upon my own, the blessing of that Almighty Power whose recorded attribute it is that 'He maketh men to be of one mind in a house!'

"Let us enter, gentlemen, upon our work of legislation with a solemn sense of our responsibility to God and to our country. However we may be divided on questions of immediate policy, we are united by the closest ties of permanent interest and permanent obligation. We are the representatives of twenty millions of people, bound together by common laws and a common liberty. A common flag floats daily over us, on which there is not one of us who would see a stain rest, and from which there is not one of us who would see a star struck. And we have a common Constitution, to which the oath of allegiance, which it will be my first duty to administer to you, will be only, I am persuaded, the formal expression of those sentiments of devotion which are already cherished in all our hearts.

"There may be differences of opinion as to the powers which this Constitution confers upon us; but the purposes for which it was created are inscribed upon its face in language which can not be misconstrued. It was ordained and established 'to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.'

"Union, justice, domestic tranquillity, the common defense, the general welfare, and the security of liberty for us and for those who shall come after us, are thus the great objects for which we are to exercise whatever powers have been intrusted to us. And I hazard nothing in saying, that there have been few periods in our national history when the eyes of the whole people have been turned more intently and more anxiously to