Rev. Convers Francis, the learned Professor, wrote from Cambridge:-- “Most heartily do I thank you for your _great_ speech on Maritime Rights, which adds another to your many claims on the nation’s gratitude. It is a thorough, exhaustive, and most able piece of argument,--by far the most so which that question called forth,--and extorts praise even from enemies.” John Penington, the bookseller, wrote from Philadelphia:-- “I have delayed reading the ‘Maritime Rights’ speech till I could enjoy it in the pamphlet form, corrected. It is an admirable compend, a perfect _multum in parvo_. It is a verification of the adage, that ‘Doctors don’t like to take their own physic,’--our friend Bull being no exception to the rule. I feel much obliged to you for the treat you have afforded me.” Alfred Pell, an intelligent Free-Trader, intimate with England, and manager of an important insurance office, wrote from New York:-- “I have a long letter from [Admiral] Dupont. He wrote when his last advices from the North were of the 22d December, so that he could not have known what action the Government had determined upon; yet he says, ‘Few persons in the fleet approved of the action of Commodore Wilkes, and some of the most intelligent condemned it _in toto_, yet all allowed that it showed high moral courage on the part of Wilkes.’ … You show we do not stoop to conquer, and I am sure that our friends on the other side will feel like the lady’s maid spoken of by Swift, who said ‘that nothing annoyed her so much as being caught in a lie.’” John E. Lodge, merchant and personal friend, wrote from Boston:-- “Your speech is more complete even than Mr. Seward’s note; it is considered here as your very happiest and ablest effort. The English will open their eyes at some parts of it.” Willard P. Phillips, merchant, wrote from Salem:-- “The truth is, that at last you have satisfied even the commercial community, and they acknowledge that you have more than ‘one idea.’ They express surprise to find that you have attended to anything but Slavery, which they supposed had occupied all your thoughts and all your time. I am sure that your speech has made many who have heretofore opposed you feel much more kindly towards you; and I congratulate you, both upon this change of feeling towards you, and also upon the delivery of your speech, which, so able and clear, has satisfied even the doubtful ones that the surrender of the ‘two old men’ was right.” Stephen Higginson, merchant, wrote from Boston:--