Sir, I have done. I came to your shores an exile: you have poured upon me the triumph of a welcome such as the world has never yet seen. And why? Because you took me for the representative of that principle of liberty which God has destined to become the common benefit of all humanity. It is glorious to see a free and mighty people so greet the principle of freedom, in the person of one who is persecuted and helpless. Be blessed for it! Your generous deed will be recorded; and as millions of Europe's oppressed nations will, even now, raise their thanksgiving to God for this ray of hope, which by this act you have thrown on the dark night of their fate; even so, through all posterity, oppressed men will look to your memory as to a token of God that there is a hope for freedom on earth, since there is a people like you to feel its worth and to support its cause. * * * * * VIII.--ON NATIONALITIES. [_Speech at the Banquet of the Press, New York_.] At this Banquet, Mr. Bryant, the poet, presided, and numerous speeches were delivered, among which was one by the well-known author, Mr. Bancroft, lately ambassador in England. This gentleman closed by saying, that when the illustrious Governor of Hungary uttered the solemn truth, that Europe had no hope but in republican institutions--that was a renunciation to the world that the Austrian monarchy was sick and dying, and that vitality remained in the people alone. And as he uttered that truth, not his own race only--not the Magyars only, but every nationality of Hungary, all the fifteen or twenty millions within its limits--all cried out that he was the representative of their convictions--that he was the man of their affections, that he was the utterer of truths on which they relied. Our guest crosses the Atlantic, and he is received; and what is the great fact that constitutes his reception? He finds there the military arranged to do him honour. And among those who, on that day, bore arms, were men of every tongue that is spoken between the steppes of Tartary, eastward, towards the Pacific ocean. The great truth that was pronounced on that occasion--I do not fear to utter it--was, let who will cavil, _la solidarité des peuples_--the sublime truth that all men are brothers--that all nations, too, are brethren, and are responsible for one another. The chairman also spoke eloquently in introducing the third toast, which was briefly, LOUIS KOSSUTH. As Mr. Bryant pronounced his name, Kossuth rose, and was received with multifarious demonstrations of enthusiasm. At last he proceeded as follows:--