No. 226.
Mr. Lowell
to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
London, May 19, 1883. (Received May 31.)
Sir: I have the honor to report that the International Fisheries Exhibition promises to be far more successful than even the most sanguine of its projectors had ventured to hope. The wisdom of Congress in [Page 422] making so liberal an appropriation in furtherance of its object is entirely justified, both by the substantial encouragement given to the enterprise at its inception, by this proof of interest on the part of the United States, and by the fact that the section devoted to our country is more valuable than that of any other, and valuable for reasons of which we may very properly be proud.
I have the highest authority for saying that, quite apart from any consideration of intrinsic interest or curiosity, our share in the exhibition is superior to all others in virtue of the scientific intelligence shown in its arrangement and classification, thus rendering it more instructive than any other. This is especially gratifying because it is a triumph of a far higher kind than could be won by any ingenuity in our contrivances for the breeding or mechanical perfection in our implements for the taking of fish, though in these also we may safely challenge and in some cases defy comparison.
The credit of this unquestioned success is due undoubtedly in the first place to Professor Baird, whose absence is universally regretted, but hardly less to the intelligence, zeal, and untiring energy of Professor Goode and his assistants, who literally worked day and night in order to be ready for the day fixed for the opening of the exhibition.
I shall naturally have occasion to Write again and more fully on this topic, when more perfectly informed, but could not deny myself the pleasure of reporting to you the impression already made in this international competition by the genius for organization of which our countrymen have here given proof, a faculty certainly not the lowest among those that distinguish the social and civilized man.
I have, &c.,