twang in his voice like that of a well-played jew'sharp, if it's in awrder, I'd jest like to inquire the price of cawn at Cheapside.' It was an effective reductio ad absurdum. A rustic Cicero, in a town. not far off, whom for some reason the physicians of the village had displeased, once filled up a lull in the proceedings with, Mr. Moderator, I move that a dwelling be erected in the centre of the graveyard in which the doctors of the town be required to reside, that they may have always under their eyes the fruits of their labors.'

"The talkers were sometimes fluent, sometimes stumbling and awkward. The richest man in the town, at the same time the town-treasurer, was usually a silent looker-on. His son, however, president of the county agricultural society, an enterprising farmer, whose team was the handsomest, whose oxen the fattest, whose crops the heaviest, was in speech forceful and eloquent, with an energetic word to say on every question. But he was scarcely more prominent in the discussions than the poor broom-corn raisers, whose tax was only a few dollars. There was the intrigue of certain free-thinkers to oust the ministers from the school-committee, the manoeuvring of the factions to get hold of the German colony, a body of immigrants lately imported into the factory village to the north. These sat in a solid mass to one side while the proceedings went on in an unknown tongue, without previous training for such work, voting this way or that, according to the direction of two or three leaders.

66

Watching it all, one could see how perfect a democracy it was. Things were often done far enough from

the best way. Unwise or doubtful men were put in office, important projects stinted by niggardly appropriations, unworthy prejudices allowed to interfere with wise enterprises. Business was sometimes blocked by angry disputes over petty questions. Yet in the main the result was good. This was especially to be noted, how thoroughly the public spirit of those who took part was stimulated, and how well they were trained to self-reliance, intelligence of various kinds, and love for freedom. The rough blacksmith or shoemaker, who had his say as to what should be the restriction about the keeping of dogs, or the pasturing of sheep on the western hills, spoke his mind in homely fashion enough, and possibly recommended some course not the wisest. That he could do so, however, helped his self-respect, caused him to take a deeper interest in affairs beyond himself, than if things were managed without a right on his part to interfere; and this gain in self-respect, public spirit, self-reliance, to the blacksmith and shoemaker is worth far more than a mere smooth or cheap carrying-on of affairs.”

Is there anything more valuable among AngloSaxon institutions than this same ancient popular moot, this old-fashioned New England town-meet- Tributes to its ing? What a list of important men can be value.

cited who have declared in the strongest terms that tongue can utter, their conviction of its preciousness!1

1 John Stuart Mill: Representative Government, p. 64, etc. Tocqueville: De la Démocratie en Amérique, I, p. 96, etc. J. Tou Smith Local Self-Government and Centralization, p. 29, etc. M Constitutional History of England, II, p. 460. Bluntschli: quote H. B. Adams, Germanic Origin of New England Towns. Jefferson

however, the people were farmers, like their ancestors, reaping great hay-crops in June with which to fatten in the stall long rows of sleek cattle for market in December; or by farmer's alchemy, transmuting the clover of the rocky hills into golden butter.

"From far and near, on the first March-Monday, the men gathered to the central village, whose people made great preparations for the entertainment of the people of the outskirts. What old Yankee, wherever he may have strayed, will not remember the townmeeting gingerbread,' and the great roasts that smoked hospitably for all comers! The sheds of the meeting-house close by were crowded with horses and sleighs; for, in the intermediate slush, between ice and the spring mud, the runner was likely to be better than the wheel. The floor of the town-hall grew wet and heavy in the trampling: not in England alone is the land represented; a full representation of the soil comes to a New England town-meeting,—on the boots of the freemen. On a platform at the end of the plain room sat the five selectmen in a row, at their left the venerable town-clerk,1 with the ample volume of records before him. His memory went back to the men who were old in Washington's administration, who in their turn remembered men in whose childhood the French and Indians burned the infant settlement. Three lives, the town-clerk's the third, spanned the whole history of the town. He was full of traditions, precedents, minutiæ of town history, an authority in all disputed points of procedure from whom there was no appeal. In front of

1 Charles Williams, Esq., known and beloved far and near as “Dr. Charles."

the row of selectmen, with their brown, solid farmer faces, stood the Moderator, a vigorous man in the forties, six straight feet in height, colonel of the county regiment of militia, of a term's experience in the General Court, thus conversant with parliamentary law, a quick and energetic presiding officer.1

6

“It was indeed an arena. The south village was growing faster than the Street,' and there were rumors of efforts to be made to move the town-hall from its old place, which aroused great wrath; and both south village and Street' took it hard that part of the men of the districts to the north had favored a proposition to be set off to an adjoining town. The weak side of human nature came out as well as the strong in the numerous jealousies and bickerings. Following the carefully arranged programme or warrant, from which there could be no departure, because ample warning must be given of every measure proposed, item after item was considered, a change here in the course of the highway to the shire town; how much should be raised by taxes; the apportionment of money among the school districts; what bounty the town would pay its quota of troops for the war; a new wing for the poor-house; whether there should be a bridge at the west ford. Now and then came a touch of humor, as when the young husbands, married within the year, were elected field-drivers, officers taking the place of the ancient hog-reeves. Once the Moderator for the time being displeased the meeting ruling as regards certain points of or Moderator,' cried out an ancient citiz

1 Colonel Horatio Hawks.

his

however, the people were farmers, like their ancestors, reaping great hay-crops in June with which to fatten in the stall long rows of sleek cattle for market in December; or by farmer's alchemy, transmuting the clover of the rocky hills into golden butter.

"From far and near, on the first March-Monday, the men gathered to the central village, whose people made great preparations for the entertainment of the people of the outskirts. What old Yankee, wherever he may have strayed, will not remember the 'townmeeting gingerbread,' and the great roasts that smoked hospitably for all comers! The sheds of the meeting-house close by were crowded with horses and sleighs; for, in the intermediate slush, between ice and the spring mud, the runner was likely to be better than the wheel. The floor of the town-hall grew wet and heavy in the trampling: not in England alone is the land represented; a full representation of the soil comes to a New England town-meeting, -on the boots of the freemen. On a platform at the end of the plain room sat the five selectmen in a row, at their left the venerable town-clerk,1 with the ample volume of records before him. His memory went back to the men who were old in Washington's administration, who in their turn remembered men in whose childhood the French and Indians burned the infant settlement. Three lives, the town-clerk's the third, spanned the whole history of the town. He was full of traditions, precedents, minutiae of town history, an authority in all disputed points of procedure from whom there was no appeal. In front of

1 Charles Williams, Esq., known and beloved far and near as Charles."

"Dr.