Why should such symbols of the god-like principles of singlemindedness, impartiality and retribution be allowed to disappear from the figure of Justice and from our arms?

Now, looking over a collection of the arms of the original thirteen States, it will be observed that no one of them adopted for their arms as supporters, emblems so suggestive of lofty principle and purpose as did the State of New York, and indeed the arms of most of them have no supporters at all. Although Virginia has a Liberty it is not as a supporter, but as an avenger of tyranny; New Jersey has Ceres with Liberty as supporters, but the other States have nothing of the one kind or another, suggestive of virtues or duties. Whence arose the eminent distinction of New York in this feature of her arms? In the first paper I spoke of the three men on the committee, Jay, Morris and Hobart as judges on the bench; we have now to add to their number a fourth, also a judge, Chancellor Livingston, and a fifth, George Clinton, a member of the bar, the first governor of the State and for the longest period of any one of them. In the absence as yet of detailed written records of the history of the origin of our arms, it is but reasonable to give due credit to those four dispensers of justice, as having been led, both by their education, professions and character, to exhibit the virtue of Justice as one of the pillars of the State along with Liberty.

It should serve to enhance the respect with which the arms of the State should ever be regarded, to dwell upon the character of these men, thus eminent in position in the State, with whose names we must hereafter always unavoidably associate this device. Of Clinton and Livingston, the two new members of the commission, I do not need to say a word more than that theirs are the two statues of her citizens which were selected by New York to adorn the national Walhalla at Washington. But it is worth mentioning that four of these five men named on these committees were grad uates of American colleges. Jay graduated from Columbia, in 1764; Morris from Yale, in 1746; Hobart from Yale, in 1757; and Livingston from Columbia, in 1765. It is not a fact that should surprise us that the influences of a liberal culture should appear in the determination of such men regarding the symbols of the new State, even if they did not personally originate them. And it is worth remembering that the acted drama had been introduced in New York since 1753, and the plays of Shakspeare were repeated on the boards of the theater.

The liberal education which these members of the committees of the convention had received testifies that they were men of as high culture as any to be found in the thirteen colonies. This, with their personal history, gives us the assurance that they were either thoroughly competent themselves to devise arms for the State with the symbolical perfection and heraldic completeness which we find in our arms to-day; or to influence and approve of the adoption of such rich insignia if prepared for them by another person under their direction. In their numerous traits they surpass in beauty

and dignity any thing which had been devised for any of the colonies up to that time. And they do, therefore, in every aspect in which we may regard them, rightfully claim our highest respect.

The arms which these fathers of the State have left us as their legacy bring us on the one hand into the direct use of a symbol which for now nearly four hundred years, when found in its appropriate place, has suggested to the mind of the beholder the interests which belong to the name of York. With the difference that the symbol of the Highlands and the Hudson being conjoined in the same shield with that of the sun, the sight now suggests to us the interests and sympathies of the people of the whole State of New York. If there be any one who has any doubts about the significance and grand expressiveness for this State of that portion of the device of the arms which represents the great geographical feature of the State, the chasm of the Hudson river, let him familiarize himself with the eloquent descriptions of the marvelous geographical position of New York in the Union as given repeatedly by Hon. Horatio Seymour in his discourses touching upon the subject, and his doubts will disappear.

The briefest summary of the meaning of our arms is, that the shield symbolizes in the full sun the name and idea of Old York and the old world; the mountains, river and meadow, with the ships, convey the name and idea of the New York of the new world. This New York is supported by Justice and Liberty, and discards monarchy. By exhibiting the eastern and western continents on a globe, the old and new are brought together, while the eagle of the crest proclaims, "Westward the course of empire takes its way."

The process of retracing our steps to where the State started from in 1777 may seem needlessly tedious; it has, however, taken several of the States more than three years to render complete their remedial legislation in the same circumstances; and if the plans of the commissioners are communicated to the people for discussion before attempting any legal enactment, the result will probably be such measures as will secure a fixedness and unchangeableness in the representation of the arms wherever used in the State.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your most obedient serHENRY A. HOMES.

vant,

STATE LIBRARY, ALBANY, April, 1881.