We can hardly deny that this is a critical moment in our history. Perhaps we never held a greater place in the world :probably we were never more fiercely and universally distrusted. There is a blessing on those of whom all men speak evil, but it behooves those who are in such case to see that they give no real cause of offence. You know that in our competition with foreign nations to-day in trade and manufacture we need to take stock of our resources and strain every nerve to make them available, we have to maintain our old name for first-rate goods and honest dealing. So it is in our political relations with foreign powers, and, it may be added, in that personal intercourse with foreigners-which tells for so much just because, I am glad to say, politics are not mechanical, but human : we need now more than ever to be careful what type of citizens we send into the world. Our institutions will be worth little if they do not produce a civic character which is finely tempered to just issues, which is gentle, if it nay be, as well as honest, which has learnt not only the mastery over circumstance, but that secret of