of sorrow, of peril, of exile, of death and of lofty triumph
which that book tells,--which the hand of the great leader and founder
of America has traced on those pages.

There is nothing like it in human annals since the story of Bethlehem.
These Englishmen and English women going out from their homes in
beautiful Lincoln and York, wife separated from husband and mother from
child in that hurried embarkation for Holland, pursued to the beach by
English horsemen; the thirteen years of exile; the life at Amsterdam "in
alley foul and lane obscure;" the dwelling at Leyden; the embarkation at
Delfthaven; the farewell of Robinson; the terrible voyage across the
Atlantic; the compact in the harbor; the landing on the rock; the
dreadful first winter; the death roll of more than half the number; the
days of suffering and of famine; the wakeful night, listening for the
yell of wild beast and the war-whoop of the savage; the building of the
State on those sure foundations which no wave or tempest has ever
shaken; the breaking of the new light; the dawning of the new day; the
beginning of the new life; the enjoyment of peace with liberty,--of all
these things this is the original record by the hand of our beloved
father and founder. Massachusetts will preserve it until the time shall
come that her children are unworthy of it; and that time shall
come,--never.

ADDRESS

OF THE

HON. THOMAS F. BAYARD.

[Illustration]

ADDRESS OF AMBASSADOR BAYARD.

Your Excellency, Gentlemen of the two Houses of the Legislature of
Massachusetts, Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow Countrymen: The honorable
and most gratifying duty with which I am charged is about to receive its
final act of execution, for I have the book here, as it was placed in my
hands by the Lord Bishop of London on April 29, intact then and now; and
I am about to deliver it according to the provisions of the decree of
the Chancellor of London, which has been read in your presence, and the
receipt signed by me and registered in his court that I would obey the
provisions of that decree.

I have kept my trust; I have kept the book as I received it; I shall
deliver it into the hands of the representative of the people who are
entitled to its custody.

And now, gentlemen, it would be superfluous for me to dwell upon the
historical features of this remarkable occasion, for it has been done,
as we all knew it would be done, with ability, learning, eloquence and
impressi