and but few instances where some books are not listed. Law, medicine, theology, the classics and English literature made up the bulk of these collections.

The Decline of the Old System.

This social system reached its maturity from 1750 to 1775, that is, during the period in which the great men of the Northern Neck were maturing. With the Revolution the system collapsed, from causes which may be briefly enumerated. In the first place, the years preceding the Revolution had been rife with extravagance and speculation-against which evils such men as Landon Carter had long protested. This course had seriously crippled many large planters before the Revolution and, had that event not occurred, it is safe to say many planters would have been ruined by their own recklessness. The second influence in the overthrow of the old system was inherent in the Revolution itself-the failure of a foreign market, low money values, inability to market commodities. A still more potent factor, however, was the abolition of entails and the consequent division of the large estates. It not unfrequently happened that a man who had lived on a lavish scale left so many descendants that the shares of each were so small as to preclude any attempt at the old scale of living. The last element in the overthrow of the old social system was the disestablishment of the Church of England The Established Church, with its claims upon the property of every man, gave strength to the aristocrats who formed its communicants, and received strength in turn from their patronage. Once that church was placed on the level with dissenting churches, its followers no longer could boast any spiritual superiority over their neighbors.

The surest evidence of the overthrow of the old order of things is the appearance of new names among the office holders. The smaller land owners who, before the Revolution, had been of no importance, rose rapidly; they held the offices in the militia, they were justices of the peace, they went to the legislature, they ousted the former undisputed holders of office. In Spottsylvania and in Fairfax counties, the influence of the merchant classes from Fredericksburg and from Alexandria was plainly felt. It is perhaps unjust to say that these new leaders cherished resentment against their aristocratic neighbors, but it is manifest that they were determined to claim and to maintain their rights.

From 1790 the decline of the old social aristocracy was rapid. Estates were divided, subdivided and again divided; old family seats were sold, and old names lost their prestige. New families sprang up, who bought the old estates, increased the number of slaves and established a new order of living. It was however, from the old ante-Revolutionary aristocracy, not from this post-Revolutionary society that the leading men of the Nineteenth century in the Northern Neck were called. They maintained an open hospitality and a generous style of living in the period prior to the War between the States, but they had neither the fortunes nor the estates of the original aristocracy.

The War between the States definitely brought an end to this second aristocracy and impoverished all alike. Nevertheless, there remain at present some vestiges of the old order of things. A few estates remain in the hands of the descendants of the original ante-Revolutionary aristocracy and are the centre of the social system of today. One observes, upon close examination, that the old families cling

together and maintain the traditions, if not the splendors, of their ancestors.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-The source-material for social life in The Northern Neck is abundant but not generally accessible. Magazine of History and Biography (Richmond, 1893-1908, Vols. The Virginia I-XVI), and the William and Mary Quarterly (Williamsburg, 18931909, Vols. I-XVI) contain many documents. In the latter are the diaries of Landon. Carter and James Gordon, residents of the Neck during its period of greatest prosperity. Fithian, Philip Vickers: Journal and Letters, 1767-74 (Princeton, 1900), is most important as the expression of a Northern tutor who remained for more than a year in the family of Councillor Carter of Nomini Hall. Journal of a Young Lady of Virginia, 1782 (ed. E. V. Mason, BalThe timore, 1871), is a brief but suggestive narrative by one of the younger members of the Lee family. The Diary of John Harrower, 1773-76, in The American Historical Review (Vol. VI, pp. 65-107), is also valuable. Of court-records only those of Spottsylvania county, 1721-1800, have been published (ed. by W. A. Crozier, New York, 1905). These are chiefly important for names. temporary works are: Byrd, William: The important consett, New York, 1901) and especially his Progress to the Mines, 1737; Writings (ed. John S. BasBeverley, Robert: History of Virginia, 1722; Hartwell, Blair and Chilton: Present State of Virginia and The College, 1727 (written 1695-96); Jones, Hugh: Present State of Virginia, 1724; Keith, William: History of Virginia, 1738. Genealogies mentioned may be traced through the excellent Finding list published in The Virginia State Library Bulletin (Vol. I., No. 1).

Important authorities are: Patomack and The Rappahannock (New York, 1892), a most unConway, M. D.: Barons of the satisfactory account; Glenn, Thomas: and Those Who Lived in Them (First Series, Philadelphia, 1899, conSome Colonial Mansions taining an able article by Kate Mason Rowland on "The Carter Family"); Meade, William: Virginia (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1861, a standard authority); Pryor, Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Mrs. R. A.: The Mother of Washington and Her Times (New York, 1903); Slaughter, Philip: History of St. George's Parish (New York, 1847, 2d ed., Richmond, 1890), and History of Truro Parish (ed. E. C. Goodwin, Philadelphia, 1907).

DOUGLAS S. FREEMAN,

Richmond, Va.

CHAPTER VI.

THE OLD RÉGIME IN VIRGINIA.

Characteristics of the Period.

N the first shipload of colonists in Virginia there are said to have been "four carpenters, twelve laborers and fifty-four gentlemen," and the leader of that adventurous expedition complained in bitterness of spirit of the policy which sent such settlers into the American wilderness. But it did not take him long to learn that no one of the carpenters or laborers could fell more trees in a day than one of his "gentlemen adventurers"; and if he had been endowed with the vision of prophecy he might have taken courage, to see that in the permanence of the race qualities which these men possessed and exhibited, lay the foundations of the greatness which their successors of the same strain were to achieve and illustrate upon the continent of America.

In a democratic age, and among a composite population, it has become not unfashionable to decry the claims of inherited talents and of transmitted social and political abilities, and to forget the significant saying of the greatest of the English political philosophers, that "people will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors." But the impartial scientist, regardless of political sentiment, vouches for the value of persistent and continued race and family characteristics, and the newly developed law of eugenics proclaims their tremendous importance in the progress of human events.

Professor N. S. Shaler, of Harvard University, in 1891, wrote as follows:

"I sought to find a body of troops, whose ancestors had been for many generations upon our soil, and whose ranks were essentially unmixed with foreigners, or those whose forefathers had been but a short time upon this continent. It proved difficult to find in the Northern armies any commands which served the needs of the inquiry which I desired to make. It seemed necessary to consider a force of at least five thousand men in order to avoid the risks which would come from insufficient data. In our Federal army it was the custom to put in the same brigade regiments from different districts, thus commingling commands of pure American blood with those which held a considerable percentage of foreigners, or men of foreign parents. I found in my limited inquiry but one command which satisfied the needs of the investigation, and this was the First Brigade of Kentucky troops in the rebel army. In the begining of the war this brigade was recruited mostly in the slave holding district of Kentucky, its ranks being filled mainly with farmers' sons. It is possible to trace the origin of the men in this command with sufficient exactitude by the inspection of the muster rolls. Almost every name upon them belongs to well-known families of English stock, mainly derived from Virginia. It is possible, in a similar way, to prove that with few and unimportant exceptions these soldiers were of ancient American lineage. Speaking generally, we may say that their blood had been upon the soil for a century and a half; that is, they were about five generations removed from the parent country.

"When first recruited, this brigade contained about five thousand men. From the beginning it proved as trustworthy a body of infantry as ever marched or stood in the line of battle. Its military record is too long and too varied to be even summarized here. I will only note one hundred days of its history in the closing stages of its service. May 7, 1864, this brigade, then in the army of Gen. Joseph Johnston, marched out of Dalton, eleven hundred and forty strong, at the beginning of the great retreat upon Atlanta before the army of Sherman. In the subsequent hundred days, or until September 1, the brigade was almost continuously in action or on the march. In this period the men of the command received eighteen hundred and sixty death or hospital wounds, the dead counted as wounds, and but one wound being counted for each visitation of the hospital. At the end of this time there were less than fifty men who had not been wounded during the hundred days. There were two hundred and forty men left for duty and less than ten men deserted.

"A search into the history of warlike exploits has failed to show me any endurance of the worst trials of war surpassing this. We must remember that the men of this command were at each stage of their retreat going farther from their firesides. It is easy for men to bear great trials under circumstances of victory. Soldiers of ordinary goodness will stand several defeats; but to endure the despair which such adverse conditions bring, for a hundred days, demands a moral and physical patience, which, so far as I have learned, has never been excelled in any other army.'

Nature and Man in America. (New York, 1891, p. 275.)