by natural conditions and the life and occupation of their people. This would hardly justify the creation out of it of seven or eight towns, especially against the overwhelming protest of its people. I do not find in the case of Longmeadow any course of conduct by the majority towards the 'minority which constitutes a grievance and justifies a separation. There appears to have been no unfair division between the two villages. of the burdens and benefits of their town government, or of their town officers, no excessive tax-rate or valuation, and no injustice in the holding of their town meetings. On the contrary, its tax-rate has been low, much below the average of the Commonwealth, and the lowest in its county. I am informed that no complaint has ever been made to the assessors, of unequal or unjust valuation, and that the petitioners have asked for no appropriation from the town which has not been. granted, and have, through their counsel, admitted at the hearing a year ago that they came to the Legislature without a grievance.

Except upon the question of division, the inhabitants of the town seem to have lived happily and prosperously together for more than a hundred years.

It further appears that if this bill is enacted, among the results which follow will be,

First, The division of a town at present below the average of the towns of the Commonwealth in population, area, polls, and voters, and below the average population of the nineteen towns of its county.

Second, The creation of a town with a population of only five hundred and seventy, and a little over one hundred voters, and without a single industry, a town smaller than any in Bristol, Norfolk, and Essex counties, or, with six exceptions, in Plymouth, Worcester, and Middlesex counties.

Third, That there will be great inequality made by the division in the burdens of taxation and town government upon the two villages; that substantially the whole of the bank and corporation tax will go to the smaller village, and will be sufficient to pay for the care of its highways, schools, and poor; that, on the basis of past expenditure, the tax-rate of the smaller village can be reduced from $9.50 per thousand to about $4, while the tax-rate of the larger village would be increased to over $13.

The Commonwealth is asked, therefore, against the emphatic protest of this town, to interpose her superior authority, and forcibly to divide it, with no substantial grievance as the basis of such action, but with the certainty that there will result great inequality in the burdens upon the separated villages.

I believe such action is not only contrary to a sound and well-established policy of the Commonwealth, but also to a just and healthy public sentiment, which seeks to lessen rather than increase the great inequality in taxation and in the public burdens and benefits between different localities.

While the rights of a minority in any community should be carefully protected and upheld, the rights of a majority in such community are also entitled to respect. Among these is the fundamental right, if not forfeited by their own misconduct or controlled by a supreme public necessity, of preserving undivided and unimpaired their town existence, with its history and traditions, its long and honorable life.

POLITICAL SPEECHES.

SPEECH

AT MIDDLESEX COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CLUB, BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1885.

HE time has come when it is my duty and pleasure to ask your attention to the words of wit and wisdom, of congratulation and counsel, which always flow at Democratic love-feasts to temper the digestion, but which also, by reminding us of the principles, history, and purposes of our party, strengthen our loyalty to it, and make us proud of the faith that is in us. Before I call upon those whose familiar voices are old friends to you, and to the party in its battles are the "bugle blasts" that are "worth a thousand men," will you pardon me if I inflict myself upon you.

For the honor of presiding over this club, I am deeply grateful. Kindly overlooking my many faults, you have chosen me, I presume, because you thought the honor might well be given to ripe old age spent in party service, and you knew of none older in the faith than one who was born a veteran Democrat. I only ask that the same kindness which has chosen me to this office may bear gently with me while I endeavor to discharge its duties.

As to-day our party nationally assumes power and responsibility, passing from opposition and criticism to the duty of legislation and action, it is most fitting that the Democrats of old Middlesex should meet and

organize to hold up the hands of the administration. I believe that a "decent respect to the opinions of mankind" requires our party everywhere to declare what it believes to be the principles and policy that will govern its administration. It is no time for a doubting, hesitating, halting policy. There are promises to be kept, professions to be lived up to, grave questions to be met by wise and prudent statesmanship, and the living principles of Democracy to be ordained as law, -all for the honor, peace, and prosperity of a happy, united country. Speaking for the Democrats of Middlesex county, I do not believe that their idea of Democratic administration and statesmanship is to stop by the wayside to gather in the spoils, but rather to march on, under our fearless, honest President, to make a party victory the country's good. I appeal to the patriotism of our party that in 1860, under the lead of Douglass, passed from power rather than extend a National evil; that in 1876, when Tilden was elected President, gave up power rather than disturb a Nation's peace, I appeal to that patriotism to listen to a just public sentiment that asks for an unselfish administration. I believe our party will serve the country rather than itself, and legislate for the "silent suffering many" rather than devote its whole energy to reward the eager few. There are many offices that shape and execute the policy of an administration that should be filled by its friends, many that have been used for "offensive partisanship" that should be emptied of men who have forgotten to be servants of the people. But to make the whole civil service the spoils of victory is to perpetuate an evil we have fought for years, a principle that obstructs legislation, and a practice that has developed a feudal system of political servitude. Let Massachusetts Democrats still

demand, as in 1882, that "fitness, not favor, should be the passport to public service," still demand "a system of civil service established by law, protected by law, that, like government itself, it may be the agent of law, and not of men; to the end that it may be kept free of all corrupting dependence upon political favor and patronage," and again, "favor the principles" of the legislation that seeks to cure this evil by enacting into law the tests that Jefferson first stated and adopted.

Then our grand old party, filled with patriotism and unselfishness, is ready to enforce the ideal of Jefferson, "a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned."

Let us be Bourbons in our love and devotion to Democratic principles, traditions, feelings; but ever remember that our party to-day are, in the words of Macaulay, "legislators, not antiquaries;" that it is time for us to pay a rational and manly reverence to the old founders of our party, not by superstitiously adhering to what they in other circumstances did, but by doing what they in our circumstances would do.

Gentlemen, I propose a health to President Cleveland. May God bless and prosper him, and may the Democracy stand true to him, and he to it, as with honest purpose and unflinching courage he gives to the country the blessing of a Democratic administration.