mind to it, can think of a score that he has been brought up on, unless he is a very sophisticated person indeed. Horseshoes, and Friday, and walking under a ladder, and odd numbers, and picking up pins, will do for texts. Letters to rats are still written now and then, and have as much effects as they ever had. We have not altogether broken with the past!

ARMY AND NAVY

N June, 1801, when Europe and America were both

IN

payers of tribute to the Barbary States, for exemp

tion from piratical attacks on their shipping, the Bey of Tunis met with a serious loss. A fire broke out in his palace and consumed fifty thousand stands of arms. He immediately sent for the American consul and remarked that he had "apportioned his loss among his friends," that the share of the United States was ten thousand stands, and that they must be furnished without delay. "It is impossible," replied the consul," to state this claim to my government. We have no magazines of small arms. The organization of our national strength is different from that of every other nation on earth. Each citizen carries his own arms, always ready, for battle. When threatened with invasion, or actually invaded, detachments from the whole national body are sent by rotation to serve in the field: so that we have no need of standing armies nor depositories of arms.” 1

The most picturesque feature of the military system thus forcibly expounded to the sulky and incredulous Tunisian despot was May Training, which many New Englanders of the older generation remember as the favorite holiday of their boyhood. Besides the inspections, mock fights, and miscellaneous evolutions, there were shooting matches, feats of strength, side shows, fakirs, and other accessories of the modern county fair. Boys saved their coppers for months and walked barefoot

1 Life of Gen. William Eaton, Brookfield, 1813, pp. 204-5.

for miles to enjoy the fun. When they were eighteen years old, they were themselves liable to military duty.

Mr. Thomas was so good an American, and his annual represented the life of his time so well, that we should be surprised if he did not refer to the obligations of a citizen in military matters as well as in civil. We shall not find him lacking in proper spirit. In the Farmer's Calendar for September, 1811, there is a suggestion to parents: —

If your sons have no uniform for trainings, you ought immediately to see that they are supplied. Send them to training neat and clean, with good equipments, and inculcate in them the principles of subordination and decency of behaviour while under command.

In 1816 the Almanac gives a table of fines which affords a certain amount of curious information. The "two spare flints, priming wire, and brush" recall forcibly the progress of gunmaking in the course of a century. Everybody has seen flints, but few of the younger generation have ever snapped a flintlock, and "a flash in the pan" has become a mere figure of speech, as archaic in its flavor as "hoist with his own petard." As for "priming wires and brushes," they are preserved as relics and curiosities, but most of us have very hazy ideas of their exact function. However, it is high time to give the table of penalties.

MILITARY FINES, ACCORDING TO THE LATEST MILITIA LAW, PASSED IN 1810.

Do.

Do.

Deficiency of gun, bayonet and belt, or ramrod

of cartridge box, cartridges or knapsack
of two spare flints, priming wire, or brush

Disorderly firing, not more than 20 dollars nor less than

Neglecting to warn for exercise, not more than twenty dollars nor less than

Neglect of regimental duty

Disorderly behaviour, not more than 20 dollars nor less than

Neglecting to meet to choose officers

Giving false information, or refusing to give names of persons liable to do military duty

Unmilitary conduct of musicians, not more than twenty dollars nor less than

Neglect of towns in providing ammunition, not more than five hundred dollars, nor less than

In case of detachment, and orders to march, for release, if paid in twenty-four hours after,

The enrolled Militia consists of persons from eighteen to forty-five years of age. Annual inspection, first Tuesday in May, when the rules and articles are to be publickly read to the companies. Each captain must parade his company on three several days in addition to the annual inspection.

All persons between the age of forty and forty-five are exempted from all military duty, by paying annually to the Town Treasurer the sum of two dollars, on or before the first Tuesday in May, and produce his receipt to the commanding officer before the first Tuesday in May, in each year.

This table is repeated yearly until 1829, with a shift in the lower limit of exemption from forty to thirty-five, according to the law of 1822. After 1829 there are various modifications, as the statutes changed. In 1831 we find this significant provision:-" Treating with ardent spirits on days of military duty, and at elections of officers is prohibited; and Courts Martial may punish for all

offences by reprimand, removal from office and fines not exceeding $200. at their discretion." This was at the time of the great temperance movement in New England.

One of the offences mentioned in the table of fines is "Neglecting to meet to choose officers," for which a penalty of one dollar is imposed. This reminds us of the most distinguished occasion of the kind, the Artillery Election of the Ancients and Honorables. A description of the ceremony, with a respectful tribute to the Ancients themselves, may be found in William Tudor's Letters on the Eastern States, published in 1820:

Among the public institutions, there are two which deserve particular notice. The first is a military company, which was incorporated in the commencement of the colony, to form a school for officers; but religious feelings were strongly united with military ones in its establishment. It now contains between one and two hundred members, who are, or have been, almost every one of them, officers, either in the regular service or in the militia ;of course, among the privates, are generals, colonels, &c. The original intention was, that this should be a school for military discipline and instruction, and that they should keep in mind their duty to religion, so as to form a corps of Christian soldiers. For this purpose, their anniversary is publicly celebrated, — the governor, and other persons in civil authority, attending it, and going in procession to a church, where an appropriate sermon is preached to them on the joint duties of the Christian and the soldier. After this annual sermon, they have a dinner in Faneuil Hall, to which a large number of guests are invited; — and in the afternoon, the company escort the governor to the Common, where he receives the insignia of the officers for the past year, and confers them on those who have been elected to their places. A short speech is made on giving and receiving these commissions. This company is now on a respectable footing, but perhaps more might be made of it. Their anniversary, however, affords one of the prettiest fêtes we have. It is called the Artillery Election,