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regain her national prosperity at a bound. He accordingly addressed a despatch to Mr. Evarts, pointing out that the Russo-Turkish War had closed every grain port in Russia except one and that America could actually deliver wheat at that point at a less price than the Russians could, owing to their heavy duties and their want of facilities for handling grain. He declared that a grain fleet should be immediately despatched from New York to peaceably capture the European markets, and in conclusion, said: "We should strain every nerve, not only to furnish the world with breadstuffs, but also the ships to carry them." General Read's suggestion was acted upon, and the exports of breadstuffs and provisions from America rose within a twelvemonth 73,000,000 of dollars, thus giving a grain supremacy upon which the subsequent prosperity of America was substantially based. General Read revisited his native country in 1874, and was received with the warmest demonstrations of welcome by all political parties, banquets being given in his honour at New York, Albany, Philadelphia, and Washington. In England he has been the guest of the Queen at Osborne, and of the Prince and Princess of Wales at Sandringham, and the recipient of marked attentions from the leading members of the Government and of the opposite party. For his literary and scientific services he has received the thanks of the State Department of the United States, of the National Academy of Design, of the English East India Company, of the Russia Company, of the Society of Antiquaries of London, of the Archaeological Society of Greece, and of the French Academy. He took a deep interest in the foundation of the French Association for the Advancement of Science. He was president of the American Social Science Congress at Albany in 1868, and a vice-president of the British Social Science Congress at Plymouth in 1872. He is an honorary Fellow or Member of a great number of learned bodies. He had received the thirty-second degree in Masonry in America, and Greece gave him the thirty-third and highest, and he was made an honorary member of the Supreme Council in Europe and America. He has made a series of rich collections of unpublished historical documents in each country which he has visited. Among the more remarkable are those upon the Franco-German War, including the siege and the Commune; upon modern and mediaeval Greece, upon the colonial and revolutionary history of America, and upon English antiquities. During a visit to Switzerland in 1879 he discovered a series of important unpublished letters frome some of the most distinguished men in Europe of the eighteenth century, including Voltaire, Rousseau, Gibbon, Frederick the Great, Malesherbes, and a host of others. He is the author of many public addresses, official reports, learned papers, and an important historical inquiry concerning Henry Hudson, published in 1866. As an orator he is distinguished by elegance and logical eloquence, and possesses the power of swaying large audiences. General Read received the thanks of his government for his prompt and efficient protection of American persons and interests in the dangerous crisis in Greece in Feb., 1878. Shortly afterwards, the United States Congress having, from motives of economy, suppressed the appropriation for the Legation at Athens, General Read volunteered to carry it on at his own expense, which he continued to do until Sept. 23, 1879, when he resigned. On this occasion the Secretary of State, Mr. Evarts, addressed to him a letter expressing the extreme regret of the United States Government at his retirement, concluding thus: