dispute their empire? Happy Quito! and happy thou, illustrious Quitinian Society, seeing that thou art about to confer happiness on a country so deserving of thy benefits! And you, gentlemen, whom I shall always name my friends and companions, I question not but that your united efforts will be crowned with success, and that each of you will apply himself more and more to that which the love of the country requires, laying aside every other consideration for the public good and utility. Small, even very small, are the means and resources which Quito possesses; but if we all of us unite with the spirit of patriotism, without leaving the smallest room for envy or sloth, Quito will resuscitate, and we shall all of us resuscitate. Let us begin, let us begin, seeing that with constancy and union we shall certainly triumph. That which is never undertaken, can never be brought to a conclusion; and there is not in any kingdom a more mortal paralysis than that of doing nothing. We are all of us poor; but we shall all be rich, if we propose to ourselves, as our guide, to be loving friends of the country. I am aware of the superior obligation which the character of bishop imposes on me; and it is full in my remembrance, that one of the five vows I made, on the day when I received the very unexpected notice of my being elected bishop of Quito, was, ‘that all my incomes, all my books, and all my voice and pen, although weak, should be employed for the benefit and succour of my beloved diocess.’
This eloquent discourse concludes by a tribute of the most cordial thanks to the president, the founder of the Society—felices nos imperio tuo—and by an address to his lady, whom the bishop beseeches, in the most energetic terms, to found,
