with him. Nothing that he ever did, however, justified any such suspicion. While loyal to his government, and anxious and proud wheresoever its influence became extended, he would never purchase such desirable attainments by any form of duplicity. Falsehood and deception may have their missions, but in his judgment not even a kingdom should be secured by a wrong. Truth was no mean pillar in holding up the world. His convictions were always deeply grounded, and the product of generous, pure, and conscientious thought.

The happiness and prosperity of our common humanity were the most potent factors in his creed. In one special feature he was distinguished above all his contemporaries who supported or controverted his viewsthat was in the melody of his voice: amid the excitement of debate and throes of feeling, he never forgot that words were as fully entitled to a rich garb and musical utterance as when speaking on milder and less important occasions. In this respect he challenged the admiration of his foes as forcibly as he won the applause of his friends. In his charities he was liberal, discriminating, and systematic, and he rejoiced when any cause involving true benevolence was brought to his notice. His sympathies were always on the side of the oppressed, and he labored with enthusiasm wherever any great and permanent good was likely to be accomplished, and in every field of endeavor he was preeminently loyal to his convictions. Under the principles which he so heroically avowed in parliamentary halls America has indeed become what he predicted-" the Rising World."

Joseph M Hartley

THE INSTITUTION OF THANKSGIVING DAY, 1623

GROWTH OF BOSTON ANTICIPATED

As " Thanksgiving" has now become a national festival, the manner in which it was first instituted has a peculiar interest. In the autumn of 1623, after the fruits of the harvest were gathered in, Governor Bradford sent out a company for game, to furnish dainty materials for a feast. God had blessed their labors, and this was to be a feast of thanksgiving. So they met together and thanked God with all their hearts for the good world and the good things in it.*

The Puritans felt the vast importance of sacred things, and were strenuous in carrying out their principles. They were careful to leave off labor at three o'clock on Saturday afternoon to prepare for the Sabbath. They went to church, heard sermons twice a day, each two hours long, heard prayers and sang psalms of proportionate length, and enjoyed it. The tithing-man passed round with his staff of office, on the one end of which was a brass ball, on the other a tuft of feathers: with the former he tapped the heads of the men who fell asleep during the sermon; with the latter he gently tickled the faces of the drowsy women.

They were not (in 1645) so democratic as to make no distinctions in social life. The term "gentleman" was seldom used; the well-born and the well-bred by courtesy received the title of Mr., while the common folk were dignified with that of Goodman or Goody. These titles were sometimes taken away by the court as a punishment. It is recorded that Mr. Josias Plaistow robbed an Indian of corn, for which he was sentenced to lose his title of Mr., and thenceforth to be known only as Josias. Their luxuries were few indeed, but the women prized none more highly than that of tea. In those days it was customary for them to carry their own. china cup and saucer and spoon to visiting parties. To be the possessor of a “tea equipage of silver," was deemed a worldly desire, to be sure, but not of an objectionable kind; it was commendable.

The people were prosperous. Industry and self-denial had wrought wonders. Says an enthusiastic chronicler of the times: "The Lord hath been pleased to turn all the wigwams, huts, and hovels the English dwelt

* From the excellent Concise History of the American People, by Jacob Harris Patton, A. M., Ph.D., published by Fords, Howard & Hulbert.

in at their first coming, into orderly, fair, and well-built houses, well furnished many of them, with orchards filled with goodly fruit-trees, and garden flowers." The people had numerous cattle and herds of sheep and swine, and plenty of poultry; their fields produced an abundance of wheat, rye, oats, barley, and Indian corn; and they could furnish fish, lumber, and many commodities for export. "This poor wilderness hath equalized England in food, and goes beyond it for the plenty of wine; and apples, pears, quince-tarts, instead of their former pumpkin pies. Good white and wheaten bread is no dainty; the poorest person in the country hath a house and land of his own, and bread of his own growing-if not some cattle."

These good things were not obtained without labor. Of the thirtytwo trades carried on, the most successful were those of the coopers, tanners, shoemakers, and ship-builders. "Many fair ships and lesser vessels, barques, and ketches were built." Thus the chronicler anticipates the growth of Boston, which," of a poor country village, is become like unto a small city; its buildings beautiful and large-some fairly set with brick, tile, stone, and slate-orderly placed, with comely streets, whose continual enlargement presageth some sumptuous city." They had their soldiers, too, and a "very gallant horse troop," each one of which had by him "powder, bullets, and match." Their enemies were graciously warned that these soldiers "were all experienced in the deliverances of the Lord from the mouth of the lion and the paw of the bear."

Though there has been associated with these colonists a certain austere manner, chilling the heart of cheerfulness, yet let it not be forgotten they had their innocent pleasure parties, especially when the neighbors joined to aid each other in harvest-time or in house-raisings. The farmers and their families were accustomed to go in groups at least once a year to spend a season at the sea-shore and supply themselves with salt and fish. They usually went at the close of harvest, when the weather was suitable for camping out. If they rejected the festival of Christmas as a “relic of Popery," they instituted Thanksgiving, and enjoyed it with as much relish as the entire nation does to-day.

Jacob Harris Patton

LA SALLE'S HOMESTEAD AT LACHINE

Where is that block of four hundred and twenty acres of land on the lower Lachine road, reserved in 1666 by Robert Cavelier Sieur de la Salle as a homestead for himself? *

Samuel de Champlain established while governor of French Canada, between the years 1609 and 1615, three fur trading posts; one at Tadousac, one at Three Rivers, the other at the head of the Lachine rapids, the old Sault St. Louis, which for nearly fifty years was the most important trading post in the whole colony. This was about thirty years before the foundation in 1642 of Montreal by Maisonneuve, and fully fifty years before the appearance of La Salle at Lachine. The post established by Champlain at the head of the rapids was built upon the present Fraser homestead farm, on the exact site where the ruins of Fort Cuillerier may now be seen, ruins which have been often designated as those of La Salle's home. Close by stood the old English king's posts, the most celebrated military point in Canada during the war of 1812, the transferring post of navigation prior to the building of the Lachine canal. Every British soldier, every British regiment sailed westward in bateaux from this post and returned here at the end of the war. A full account of the post and of all the buildings about it at the time of its evacuation in 1826, was given in my Sixth Summer Morning Walk around Montreal.

The writer is one of the very few now living who can recall and picture in its almost primeval beauty the shore of the St. Lawrence river from the foot of the La Salle common to the Windmill point. The scene within these two short miles embraces the La Salle common of 1666, the English king's posts of 1812, the intended homestead of La Salle, the ruins of Fort Cuillerier built on the site of Champlain's fur trading post of 1615, the old Penner farm, the St. Lawrence bridge, and the present novitiate of the Fathers Oblats built on the spot on which Fort Remy of 1689 stoodwithin the ground of the palisaded village of old Lachine laid out by La Salle in 1666. There is not another historic two miles on the whole river front of the noble St. Lawrence from Gaspe to Kingston to compare with this in its interesting places connected with the early history of Canada.

* The priests of the seminary of St. Sulpice, feudal owners of the island of Montreal, granted La Salle a tract of land at an exposed and dangerous place, to which, in mockery of his schemes, was afterward given the nickname of Lachine. These schemes involved no less than the discovery of a way to China across the American continent.-EDITOR.

All Canadian readers, and others who take an interest in La Salle, will be pleased to know that in placing before the public an account of this property in 1884 I offered the site for a monument, still open to public acceptance. Canadians should bestir themselves and do something worthy the memory of so great a man, the brightest figure either in Canadian or American history. Lachine is the only place in Canada in which he had a home. Two and a quarter centuries ago this Frenchman, then an adventurous youth, left Lachine in his bark canoe on a romantic voyage of discovery. He traversed, or rather coasted, all our great inland lakes, traveled through dense forests untrod by civilized man, sailed down turbulent and unknown rivers, even reaching the mouth of the grand Mississippi. Where does history exhibit another such a character? Canada should be proud to do honor to her La Salle, and Canadians should vie with each other in paying a tribute of respect to his memory. Truly La Salle has left his footprints on the sands of Canada. Will Canadians allow them to be blotted out?

La Salle, it is true, needs no monument along our river. No storied urn, no animated bust, to perpetuate or transmit to future generations the great deeds of his life. This whole northern continent of America, boundless and vast, bears unmistakable traces of his travels. His discoveries. and explorations were all made in the interest of old France, the land of his birth, the country he loved. Therefore, so long as the noble St. Lawrence winds its course seaward and our great inland lakes exist as feeders thereof, or the great and broad Mississippi rolls its mighty waters to the main, these river banks and lake shores, if all else were mute, will silently testify to the memory of that youthful hero.

Scotchmen above all men are jealous of family traditions, holding them nearly as sacred as Holy Writ. When this homestead came into the possession of my grandfather in 1814, the interesting tradition was handed down to him through the former French occupants, the Cuilleriers, the Lapromenades, and others, that on the exact site where then stood in 1814, and still stand the ruins of Fort Cuillerier, was Champlain's fur trading post of 1615, and that the three farms of the present Fraser estate, having a frontage on the lower Lachine road of nine acres by a depth of forty-six and two-third acres, a block of four hundred and twenty acres of land bordering and adjoining the La Salle common of two hundred acres, was the veritable four hundred and twenty acres reserved in 1666 by La Salle as a homestead for himself. These three farms of the present Fraser estate are still intact, the common adjoining them is still well known, and the ruins of Fort Cuillerier built on the site of Champlain's fur post exist to