There are moments in a man's life when there is a contest between the lip and the eye, whether we should smile or cry. I am sure you would not like to see me cry just now, but there is a certain amount of sentiment in an affair of this sort. For a person in my position it is rather trying. I feel very much like the little boy you all knew in your nursery stories. The boy had a pie, and "he put in his thumb and pulled out a plum and said 'What a good boy am I.'" That is what I feel now. I suppose I should feel like a philanthropist. You probably all know what a philanthropist is. A philanthropist is an old gentleman, probably with a bald head, and he tries to make his conscience think he is doing good all the while he is having his pocket picked. _In reply to a vote of thanks._ "A SPLENDID FELLOW." [Illustration:"_A philanthropist is an old gentleman, probably with a bald head._"] It has been wisely said that there is nothing a man will not believe in his own favour. Well, after the way you praise me I believe I am a splendid fellow altogether. But one's name is not always spoken of with that reverence with which a lord's name ought to be mentioned. Still, I suppose there is such a thing as ignorance among men about those who do not live in the same station as themselves, and I always put it down to that. Some day or other they may come to find out that what they say against Lord Tredegar is not all true. _St. Mellons' Show, September 29th, 1909._ NATURALLY A CONSERVATIVE. You will not wonder that I am in a graver mood than is usual on these occasions. For more than 30 years my lamented father occupied this chair, and I believe he was present on every occasion of this kind. In that time, the show has been raised from a very small one to be one of the most important in the country. My father has left me, amongst other possessions, an hereditary trust in the shape of this Agricultural Show. If I have given any hope that I shall fill the position as my father filled it, I shall feel very much flattered. It is not my intention to make great changes. There is no way of showing disrespect more than in making great changes, turning everything topsy-turvey, as if we knew everything better than those who went before us. I am naturally Conservative, and come of a Conservative family. I intend to keep to what was good of my late father. I have inherited a great trust in this show, and I hope that in future it will be seen that the show has not lost its prestige, its popularity or its utility. _Tredegar Show, December 15th, 1875._ POLITICS ON THE BRAIN. Everybody now has got politics on the brain. We dream of politics and we almost drink politics--at least, we have been drinking politics to-night. So far as I am concerned, I should like, Rip Van Winkle-like, to go to sleep for the next two months and wake up to find the general election over; only then I should like to wake up to find it had gone the right way.