_Tredegar Memorial Corn Exchange, Newport, September 4th, 1878._ The Mayor has spoken of the commercial spirit which, he stated, has recently been evinced by the Tredegar family. His Worship in that respect erred a little, for several hundred years ago there was a gentleman who called himself Merchant Morgan. He sailed on the Spanish Main, and brought back with him a great deal of money which he had made in trade--or otherwise. From that day to this, the Morgans have been very well off. Later, there were ironworks in Tredegar Park, carried on by Sir William Morgan. Those works paid also, and when he had money enough Sir William Morgan removed them away, restored the green fields, and left other people to attend to the works. _Mayoral Banquet, Newport, December 15th, 1881._ Sir Henry Morgan played an important part in the stirring drama of Empire-building. His name has become a household word, and his daring exploits on the Spanish Main in the 17th century rival in song and story the heroic adventures of Drake, Frobisher, and Hawkins. It is mainly to him that we own the island of Jamaica, the most wealthy of our West Indian possessions. He was not a plaster saint, it is true; but it is incorrect to call him a pirate, for there is no gainsaying the fact that all his actions were justified by instructions he received from time to time from his Monarch, Charles II, who countenanced every movement of his, and even empowered him to commission whatever persons he thought fit, to be partakers with him and his Majesty in his various expeditions and enterprises. He was cruel in the ordinary sense of cruelty exercised in warfare, no doubt, but only when in arms against the blood-thirsty Spaniards. As a leader of men he was never surpassed by any captain of the seas, and in his glorious conquest of Panama--which the great Sir Francis Drake in 1569 had failed to take with 4,000 men when the city was but poorly fortified--Sir Henry ransacked it in 1670 when it had become doubly fortified, having with him only 1,200 men, and without the aid of any pikemen or horsemen. The charges of cruelty and rapacity levelled against him are beneath contempt and criticism. The Spaniards tortured and murdered wholesale, and who can wonder that the heroic Welshman made just reprisals, and carried out the Biblical adjuration "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," when punishing the apostles of the Inquisition and assassination.