said: "British oppression has effaced the boundaries of the sev eral colonies; the distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylva

REV. EZRA STILES, D.D., LL.D., PRESIDENT OF YALE COLLEGE, 1777-1795. [From the painting in the Trumbull Gallery, New Haven.]

nians, New-Yorkers, and New-Englanders are no more. not a Virginian, but a New-Englander."

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There is, I think, an undue tendency in these days to exaggerate the differences between the colonies; and in bringing them to the eve of a great struggle it is needful to consider how far they were different, and how far they were one. fact, the points of resemblance among the different colonies far exceeded the points of difference. They were mainly of the same English race; they were mainly Puritans in religion; they bore with them the local institutions and traditions; all held slaves, though in varying proportions. On the other hand, they were subject to certain variations of climate, pursuits, and local

institutions; but, after all, these were secondary; the resemblances were more important.

The style of architecture prevailing throughout the colonies. in the early part of the eighteenth century gives proof enough that the mode of living among the higher classes at that period must everywhere have been much the same. The same great square edifices, the same stacks of chimneys, the same tiles, the same mahogany stairways, and the same carving are still to be

seen in the old dwellings of Portsmouth, Newburyport, Salem, Boston, Newport, Philadelphia, Annapolis, and Norfolk. When Washington came from Mount Vernon to Cambridge as commander of the American army, he occupied as head-quarters a

house resembling in many respects his own; and this was one of a line of similar houses, afterwards known as "Tory Row," and extending from Harvard College to Mount Auburn. These were but the types of the whole series of colonial or rather provincial houses, North and South. Sometimes they were built of wood, the oaken frames being brought from England, sometimes of bricks brought from Scotland, sometimes of stone. The chief difference between the Northern and Southern houses was that the chambers, being less important in a warm country, were less ample and comfortable in the Southern houses, and the windows were smaller, while for the same reason there was much more lavishness in the way of piazzas. Every one accustomed to the old Northern houses is surprised at the inadequate chambers of Mount Vernon, and it appears from the diary of Mr. Frost, a New England traveller in 1797, that he was then so struck with the smallness of the windows as to have made a note of it. The stairway at Arlington is singularly disproportioned to the external dignity of the house, and there is a tradition that at the funeral of Jefferson the stairway of his house at Monticello proved too narrow for the coffin, so that it had to be lowered from the window. All this was the result of the out-door climate, and apart from these trivial variations the life North and South was much the same-stately and ceremonious in the higher classes, with social distinctions much more thoroughly marked than we are now accustomed to remember.

We know by the private memoirs of the provincial periodfor instance, from the charming recollections of Mrs. Quincy -that the costumes and manners of the upper classes were everywhere modelled on the English style of the period. Even after the war of independence, when the wealthier inhabitants. of Boston had largely gone into exile at Halifax, the churches were still filled on important occasions with gentlemen wearing wigs, cocked hats, and scarlet cloaks; and before the Revolution the display must have been far greater. In Maryland, at

a somewhat earlier period, we find an advertisement in the Maryland Gazette of a servant who offers himself "to wait on table, curry horses, clean knives, boots and shoes, lay a table, shave, and dress wigs, carry a lantern, and talk French; is as honest as the times will admit, and as sober as can be." From this standard of a servant's accomplishments we can easily infer the mode of life among the masters.

A striking illustration of these social demarcations is to be found in the general catalogues, now called "triennial," or quinquennial," of our older colleges. Down to the year 1768 at Yale, and 1773 at Harvard, the students of each class will be found arranged in an order which is not alphabetical, as at the present day, but seems arbitrary. Not at all; they were arranged according to the social positions of their parents; and we know from the recollections of the venerable Paine Wingate that the first thing done by the college authorities. on the admission of a new class was to ascertain by careful inquiry these facts. According to the result of the inquiry the young students were "placed" in the dining-hall and the recitation-room, and upon this was also based the choice of college rooms. Had they always retained this relative standing it would have been less galling, but while the most distinguished student could not rise in the list, the reprobates could fall; and the best scholar in the class might find himself not merely in a low position through his parentage, but flanked on each side by scions of more famed families who had been degraded. by their own folly or vice. There could not be a more conclusive proof that American provincial society, even in the Eastern colonies, was founded, before the final separation from England, on an essentially aristocratic basis.

In the same connection it must be remembered that in the eighteenth century slavery gave the tone of manners through all the colonies. No matter how small the proportion of slaves, experience shows that it affected the whole habit of society.

In Massachusetts, in 1775, there was probably a population of some 350,000, of whom but 5000 were slaves. It was enough; the effect followed. It was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, not in Virginia, that Longfellow found his tradition of the lady who was buried by her own order with slave attendants:

"At her feet and at her head

Lies a slave to attend the dead;
But their dust is as white as hers."