BEAD.
915
regain her national prosperity at a bound. He accordingly addressed a despatch to Mr. Evarts^ pointing out that the Busso-Turkish War had closed every grain port in Russia^ except one^ and that Ame- rica could actually deliver wheat at that point at a less price than the Bussians oould^ 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 conclu- sion, said : " We shotild strain every nerve, not only to furnish the world with breadstuff s, bujb also the ships to carry them." General Bead'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 subse- quent prosperity of America was substantially based. General Bead 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 Wash- ington. 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 Govern- ment and of the opposite party. For his literary and scientific ser- vices 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 Bussia Company, of the Society of Antiquaries of Xiondon, 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 Advance- ment of Science. He was president of the American Social Science Congress at Albany in 18G8, 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 He has made a series of rich collections of unpublished historical documents in each coun- try which he has visited.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 his- tory of America, and upon English antiquities. During a visit to Swit- zerhmd in 1879 he discovered a series of important tmpublished letters frome some of the most dis- tinfl^shed men in Europe of the eighteenth century, including Vol- taire, Bousseau, 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 ele- gance and logical eloquence, and possesses the power of swaying large audiences. General Bead received the thanks of his govern- ment for his prompt and efficient protection of American persons and interests in the dangerous crisis in Greece in Feb., 1878. Shortly after- wards, the United States Congress having, from motives of economy, suppressed the appropriation for the Legation at Athens, General Bead 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 Stivte, Mr. Evarts, addressed to him a letter expressing the extreme regret of the United States Government at his retirement, concluding thus: 3 N 2
