What a spectacle does this meeting present! It must be a source of pride and gratification to every true-hearted Pennsylvanian. Here are assembled the executive and legislative authorities of the commonwealth, several members from the State to the present Congress, as well as those elected to the next, and the Board of Canal Commissioners, enjoying the magnificent hospitality of the city and the incorporated districts adjacent—all of which, in fact, constitute but one great city of Philadelphia. What important event in the history of Philadelphia is this meeting intended to celebrate? Not a victory achieved by our arms over a foreign foe. Not the advent amongst us of a great military captain fresh from the bloody fields of his glory; but the arrival here of a peaceful commercial steamer from the other side of the Atlantic. This welcome stranger is destined, as we all trust, to be the harbinger of a rapidly increasing foreign trade between our own city and the great commercial city of Liverpool. All hail to Captain Matthews and his gallant crew! Peace, as well as war, has its triumphs; and these, although they may not be so brilliant, are far more enduring and useful to mankind. The establishment of a regular line of steamers between these two ports will prove of vast importance both to the city of Philadelphia and the State at large. And here, let me observe, that the interests of the city and the State are identical—inseparable. Like man and wife, when a well-assorted couple, they are mutually dependent. The welfare and prosperity of the one are the welfare and prosperity of the other. “Those whom Heaven has joined together, let not man put asunder.” If any jealousies, founded or unfounded, have heretofore existed between them, let them be banished from this day forward and forever. Let them be in the “deep bosom of the ocean buried.” The great Central Railroad will furnish the means of frequent and rapid intercommunication between the city and the State. In the course of another year, Philadelphia will be brought within twelve or fourteen hours of our Great Iron City of the West—a city of as much energy and enterprise for the number of inhabitants, as any on the face of the earth; and, I might add, of as warm and generous hospitality. I invite you all, in the name of the people of the interior, to visit us oftener than you have done heretofore. You shall receive a hearty welcome. Let us become better acquainted, and we shall esteem each other more.