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This State responded to the news of the battle of Lexington, by promptly sending one thousand men, under command of Nathanael Greene.

When the inhabitants of Boston were in distress she sent them money and provisions.

The true spirit of those Revolutionary Heroes is well shown in the decisive boldness and patriotic determination with which the General Assembly removed from office the tory Governor Wanton.

Rhode Island made the first explicit movement for a general congress, and a few days later was the first to elect delegates to the

same.

After a sharp contest, Capt. Abraham Whipple of this city, the hero of the Gaspee, captured an armed packet under command of the English captain, Wallace, near Conanicut island. Thus to one of our citizens belongs the honor of firing the first gun upon the ocean, at any part of his Majesty's navy in the American Revolution. Rhode Island immediately commissioned Capt. Whipple, commodore, and placed him in command of two armed vessels, and this was the commencement of the American navy. Our State declared herself to be an independent State, two months before the Declaration of Independence by the Congress.

The news of that Declaration was received with great rejoicing throughout this State. All arms belonging to the king were destroyed, and a fine of £100 was ordered to be imposed on all persons who should in any manner acknowledge the supremacy of the king of Great Britain.

During that winter of suffering at Valley Forge, the Rhode Island troops suffered more than others on account of scarcity of clothing. To prove that our troops were not lacking in bravery, we need but to mention the capture of Gen Prescott by Col. William Barton.

When the British occupied Newport, the inhabitants of Providence removed from the city; the college exercises were suspended, and the college buildings occupied for barracks and a military and naval hospital.

When Gen. Gates was removed, Gen. Greene, on the recommendation of Washington, was appointed to the position. Of her Revolutionary soldiers, America knows but one name more immortal; Rhode Island owns no greater name.

At all the principal battles she was well represented, and her troops were repeatedly complimented for their bravery and soldierly bearing.

At the battle of Yorktown our troops led the charge, and the first sword that flashed in triumph over the conquered heights of Yorktown was a Rhode Island sword.

While her neighbors willingly paid the imposts laid by congress, she refused. But her two years' resistance was not in vain; the result was a new bill with the more objectionable features removed.

During the session of the Continental Congress her delegates were on the most important committees, and several times received special thanks.

The long delay on the part of this State in adopting the Federal Constitution, has sometimes been considered a stain upon her history. But in refusing to ratify the constitution, she neglected no duty; she violated no right of her sister States. She with them had agreed that the "Articles of Confederation" should be perpetual. They broke their faith, and adopted a new constitution. Well might the people

of our State refuse to surrender ever so small a portion of that liberty, which to them had been a long-established fact. A jealousy of more powerful States had, with too good reason, been deeply implanted in the Rhode Island mind. The memory of former sufferings could not at once be effaced.

The smallest of the American colonies, she was the first to strike a blow for liberty, the first to declare herself independent, the first to propose a general congress; and having ratified the Articles of Confederation, she held to them till every other State had by a peaceful revolution withdrawn from them. But having secured important guarantees of her rights, by pledges of several amendments to the federal constitution, she finally accepted it as the supreme law of the land; and having thus accepted it, true to the symbol of her emblematic anchor, she will hold fast to that constitution though every other star should be blotted from the azure blue of the American Flag.

Give the world half of Sunday, and you will find religion has no stronghold of the other.-Sir Walter Scott.

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES.

A COLLOQUY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.

BY MRS. M. B. C. SLADE.

SCENE-A group of boys and girls, talking, before schooltime.

John. Now, boys, I'm willing to own that I was agreeably disappointed in the work the teacher gave us yesterday.

James. What was it?

John. He asked us to spend an hour in searching out the meaning of various geographical names.

James. I don't see the sense of that. It is enough for me to learn the long, hard words, without troubling myself about what they mean.

Charlie. The meanings are often a very great help, by pleasant association, in fixing the names in the memory.

Sadie Yes; as, for instance, to know that Kingston, Cronstadt and Konigsberg, all mean "King's town."

Mary. Or that Mount Blanc is "White Mountain," from its eternal snows; Montenegro," Black Mountain ;" Monterey, "King's Mountain ;" Montevideo, "Mount Prospect;" Montreal, "Royal Mount;" and Piedmont "At the foot of the Mountain."

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Annie. Then to know that Popocatapetl means Mountain," helps us to remember that it is a volcanic. Lucy. And that Himalaya means "Abode of Snow," fixes the fact of the great height of those snow-capped summits.

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Kate. I have learned several very poetic meanings; such as that of the lovely Lake Winnipiseogee," The smile of the Great Spirit ;" the musical falls of the Minnehaha, are Laughing Water;" the pleasant city of Valparaiso is the "Vale of Paradise :" the Euphrates signifies "To make glad," because the annual overflow of that river, like that of the Nile, enriches the land and makes glad the hearts of the people.

John. Another pretty name is Venezuela, or, "Little Venice;" so called by the Spaniards, because some Indian villages, found by them, built on piles, in Lake Maracaybo, reminded them of the mode of building in Venice.

James. Yucatan had a funny origin. The Spaniards asked the natives, "What is the name of your country?" The Indians responded, "Yuca tan?" meaning, "What do you say?" The Spaniards took the question for a reply, and called the country, Yucatan.

Harry. The Balize also came by its name in a singular way. An English pirate, named Wallace, had made it one of his haunts. The Spaniards called it after him, "Waliz," which was soon corrupted to Balize.

Sadie. Some names have comical meanings, thus Papua means "Frizzled hair," the origin of which name is evident when one remembers the enormous frizzled heads of the natives.

John. If frizzled heads give the name to the country, don't you think, girls, there is a little bit of danger, if present styles continue, that our country's name will have to be changed to Papua?

Kate. Not a bit more than that those enormous rubber boots you boys wear, should change us to Patagonians; which is from Patagon, the Spanish for "a man with large feet." Magellan found the natives with their feet thickly wrapped in furs, and so had the mistaken notion that their feet were very large.

Mary. Here is a queer name, Prairie du Chien. How do you suppose the people of that town would like to be told that they live in a "Dog meadow ?"

Annie. It must seem laughable to our western prairie farmers, that the sterile rocks of Labrador should have been called Terra Labrador, or, "Cultivatable land;" this was, however, to distinguish the country from the still more barren Greenland.

Lucy. The Sierras have interesting names. Sierra itself, meaning "A saw," is applied to mountain ranges, because they present in the distance against the sky, the appearance of the edge of a saw. Sierra Leone is "Lion Mountains; " Sierra Madre is "Mother Mountains; "Sierra Morena is "Brown Mountains;" and Sierra Nevada is " Snow Mountains."

John. Many names have a religious significance. Thus Cape Gracios a Dios means "Thanks to God;" Havre de Grace means "Harbor of Grace;" Natal was so called by Vasco de Gama, because he discovered it on Christmas, the "Day of the Nativity."

James. It seems as though the pious Catholic discoverers have adorned the earth with sacred names; thus we have Santa Cruz, "The Holy Cross ;" Espiritu Santo, "The Holy Spirit ;" San Salvador, "Holy Saviour;" Santa Fe, "Holy Faith ;" San Domingo, "Holy Sabbath.”

Charles. And I think every Saint in the calendar has, somewhere, a river or mountain, island, city, or lake, bearing his name. Mary. Yes; they seem to be all over the earth, just as their pictures are everywhere hung in the Catholic churches, though some are irreverently used, as St. Kitts for St. Christopher.

Kate. It is singular what very little things give names to great countries. There is in the east a little animal something like a rabbit. Solomon says of them, "The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks." One name of these little creatures is Saphan. Now when the Phoenicians came to the coast of Spain, and found it infested with rabbits, mistaking them for the little cony, or saphan, they called the country "Sphanih," or land of conies; from which came Hispaniola, and from that our Spain.

Sadie. Here is a pretty name-Margarita means "a pearl," pearls having been found in great numbers on the shore of that island.

Mary. Rather pleasant for all our Margarets, to know that their name has so pure and lovely a meaning.

John. But rather hard on the Lenas among you, to know that the Lena river is so called from its sluggish motion-Lena meaning "a sluggard."

James. Many of the river names are interesting. Mississippi means "Father of Waters;" Meïnam is "Mother of Waters;" Ohio is the "Beautiful River;" Missouri is "Smoky Water," as you would believe if you should see where its turbid stream enters the hitherto clear waters of the great river. Harry. I have some river names. Kansas is "Muddy water;" Nebraska, "Flat water;" Saskatchawan is "Swift current ;" the crooked Orinoco is a "Coiled Serpent;" just as the Tweed is the "Winding river;" and Niagara, with its thundering cataract, means "Thunder of waters."

Charlie. Among the many Rios, we have Rio del Norte, "River

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