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Two or three years afterwards I read in the newspapers a brief announcement of the fact, that a Dr. Seguin, of Paris, had succeeded in educating idiots. I flew to her who would be most likely to sympathise in my joy, shouting, ''Wife, my prophecy is fulfilled. Idiots have been educated."

And lo! here, to-day, on this platform, I behold the man the very Dr. Seguin, who more than twenty years ago accomplished that which, until it had been done, it seemed absurd to expect. This excellent philanthropist has recently came to reside in a distant part of our country. Hearing of the occasion which has brought us all to this place to day, he hied him hither, that he might witness with his own eyes the laying of the corner stone of the first building in this country ever dedicated from its foundation to the instruction of idiots. If Dr. Seguin is not yet sufficiently familiar with our language to make himself intelligible to you in a speech, I trust he will at least consent to stand up before you, that you may see the man to whom our common humanity owes so much.

He is a French gentleman. And here I must be allowed to pay a tribute of gratitude to that people to which, by birth, he belongs. It is due to them; and I wish some one was now in my place who could to the subject ample justice. It is due from us. Most of us, probably, were educated to distrust the French -- to esteem them lightly. Our teachers in this matter have been the English -- the last people in the world who should be trusted to give us a true estimate of the achievements and character of the French. Whatever may be true of their volatility, it is certain that no people have been so ingeniously, as well as actively and patiently benevolent as the French.

"They were the first to attempt some improvements in the discipline of prisons. To them we owe the entire and most benignant change that has taken place in the treatment of the insane. It was a Frenchman who invented the methods by which the deaf and dumb may be instructed in all knowledge that does not come by hearing alone. A Frenchman, too, it was who contrived the instructions and pointed out the means by which the other senses may be made, in a great measure, to supply the want of sight. And to-day we have reason gratefully to acknowledge that Frenchmen were the first to descend into the lowest depths of human wretchedness. They were the first to conceive (and they persevered in their experiments until they proved) that even idiotcy is a condition susceptible of improvement -- that idiots can be educated. And here we have with us, in our very midst, the man -- the Frenchman -- to whom, under God, the subjects of this terrible malady; their relatives; the communities in which they were born, and our common humanity owe more, perhaps, than to any other individual. He is entitled to an expression of our respect and gratitude. Let the name of Edward Seguin hever -sic- be forgotten.

"Here, too, we have the gentleman, selected by our Legislature because of his well-known success and his eminent qualifications, to take charge of the novel and inestiable institution established upon this spot. In a few months, Dr. Wilbur, with his family, his assistants and pupils, will come to dwell in the edifice that is to be erected on these foundations. They are to become our fellow citizens. They are to be, in a great measure, committed by the State to our sympathy and co-operation. Fellow citizens of Syracuse, Onondaga county, central New York! Let us to-day give them every assurance of a hearty welcome, and hereafter show to the people of our great commonwealth, by our intelligent appreciation of the important work to be done within these walls, and our generous aid of those who shall be placed here to do it. Let us show that Syracuse was a well chosen location for the New York State Asylum for idiots."

Mr. Titus, of New York, in introducing Dr. Backus to the assembly, made the following remarks:

Citizens of Syracuse:

"There is a name in the history of our State, which you will ever delight to honor -- I allude to DeWitt Clinton. His intelligence comprehended the extent of the rich resources deposited in central New York, and apprehended the embarrassment which prevented the development of those resources. He saw that the failure on the part of nature to supply a ready navigation was the cause of that embarrassment. His genius devised -- his resolution prosecuted -- his energy brought into successful operation yonder artificial river as a remedy for the great natural deficiency; and his name will forever stand identified with the prosperity and riches of your city.

"This day you are giving your encouragement and aid to an enterprise devised to remedy the natural deficiency, which, heretofore has operated as a controlling embarrassment in all efforts for the mental development of an unfortunate class of our population. This asylum for idiots is destined to be for its pitiable inmates an artificial channel for moral advancement, as beneficent and enriching as has been the Erie canal for your material prosperity. The munificence and sympathy which you have thus early manifested in behalf of the poor idiot is a warrant that, hereafter, this asylum will occupy in your charitable considerations a position corresponding with that of the canal in your business thoughts.