nation has been blessed.
Its harvests have been plenteous; its varied industries have thriven;
the health of its people has been preserved; it has maintained with
foreign governments the undisturbed relations of amity and peace. For
these manifestations of His favor we owe to Him who holds our destiny
in His hands the tribute of our grateful devotion.

To that mysterious exercise of His will which has taken from us the
loved and illustrious citizen who was but lately the head of the nation
we bow in sorrow and submission.

The memory of his exalted character, of his noble achievements, and of
his patriotic life will be treasured forever as a sacred possession of
the whole people.

The announcement of his death drew from foreign governments and peoples
tributes of sympathy and sorrow which history will record as signal
tokens of the kinship of nations and the federation of mankind.

The feeling of good will between our own Government and that of Great
Britain was never more marked than at present. In recognition of this
pleasing fact I directed, on the occasion of the late centennial
celebration at Yorktown, that a salute be given to the British flag.

Save for the correspondence to which I shall refer hereafter in relation
to the proposed canal across the Isthmus of Panama, little has occurred
worthy of mention in the diplomatic relations of the two countries.

Early in the year the Fortune Bay claims were satisfactorily settled by
the British Government paying in full the sum of L15,000, most of which
has been already distributed. As the terms of the settlement included
compensation for injuries suffered by our fishermen at Aspee Bay, there
has been retained from the gross award a sum which is deemed adequate
for those claims.

The participation of Americans in the exhibitions at Melbourne and
Sydney will be approvingly mentioned in the reports of the two
exhibitions, soon to be presented to Congress. They will disclose the
readiness of our countrymen to make successful competition in distant
fields of enterprise.

Negotiations for an international copyright convention are in hopeful
progress.

The surrender of Sitting Bull and his forces upon the Canadian frontier
has allayed apprehension, although bodies of British Indians still cross
the border in quest of sustenance. Upon this subject a correspondence
has been opened which promises an adequate understanding. Our troops
have orders to avoid meanwhile all