text:  I am speaking in the presence of those who are as much as if not more conversant with business than myself and they will contradict me if I am not right when I say that great symptoms of improvement in the trade and industry of the country have manifested themselves; which symptoms are of such a nature that they do not appear to be the result of momentary excitement produced by some fallacious experiment but of the paramount re-establishment of commerce and of a fresh era in the prosperity of the empire