The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1906-07-31

VINO gave me birth. More Than miro
years have passed since ghe ,yaS r.
hSh rom US her ashes rest near the
shores OF Mobile Bay under the mag
noIias. You can. therefore imagine
the comfort that came to my heart
To-Day as friend after friend expressed
to me his or her vivid RECOLLECTION u
my mothers beautiful life and char
acIef. 10 those who still cherish. af-
ter so long a time. A swee memory
Of her | owe a debt Of gratitude which
cannon attempt TO express and yet
can not all conceal.
After such a long absence / trust
you VIII pardon these brief illusions
10 IhfngS personal To myself. | have
not forgotten that / am here tonight
to Join with you in the centennial ceIe-
bration Of the opening Of the first
brlck building erected at New Bern
Tor school purposes, the centennial Of
the old academy of which / was q
pupil in my early youth. | have been
fnuch interested in an account | nave
Secn Of the provisions made for he
New Bern school prior TO 1906. Ny
patcrnal grandmother, whose nader
name was Mary Hannis. and who
would be one hundred n twenty
seven years old if She were living now,
, often told me i'm my childhood Of her
school days in the old colonial palace
which survived the Revolutionary
War. ! see it stated in the account
to which l have just referred that.
after the end Of the war, the local
authorities Of New Bern passed an
order setting apart a room in the old
palace for school purposes. In that
room it was. no doubt. that my grand
mother went to chool. In her day
she said that the Iife-sized portraits
of George /, George II. and George III
were still hanging upon the walls. She
ha6 good naGnn n have u vivid racn1-
lection of the old palace because her
family came to New Bern as q part of
the official household of one of the
colonial governors. You all know the
'"t"rv OF the destruction Of the old
palace by fire. l remember perfectly
,ne DriCh stable that survived. larger
than an ordinary residence, which was
converted many years Z into a
Church Home by members of the
Episcopal church. The fact that New
Bern vas the official residence of
the English colonial governor should
always remind us of the ~clOSeneSS of
the connection between this commun-
ity,-EngliSh to the core SOt6l in
thought and feeling,-and the mother
country from which our forefathers
came. The Swiss founders of New
Bern seem to have given it little more
than its name. They came, they
founded, and then vanished. Where
1tI S'u MIA dIlIplIS Jul oItl
or even in our local traditions any
thing, excepting, perhaps, the name
of Pollock street, that perpetuatcs the
memory of our Swiss founders? An
c%eStOrS they cannot be called, be-
cause the permanent settlers Of this
city came directly or indirectly from
the British Isles. In no part of New
England or Virginia can you find an
old town more distinctively English
than New Bern in every element that
enters into and fixes the character Of
civic life. When | have been asked,
as l have been many times, what it
was that prompted me to devote TWEEN
ty years of my life to writing a His
tory of the English Constitution, I
have always replied that l was born
and reared in an English community
in North Carolina whose people are
almost as English i'll blood, instinct
and culture as the people Of Kent,
Sussex or Middlesex.
Il desire to emphasize a single
thought tonight, in connection with
this common-school celebration, q
thought embOdying the belief that the
moral and intellectual connection be-
tween the peoples of the British Isles
n their descendants in the United
States should grow closer as time goeS
on. When the student of World-poli-5
ties looks out upon that vast and
growing aggregate which we call the
family of nations he sees two mighty
forces standing above the rest who
have Il common system of law. a
common system of political institu-
tons, and q common code of politi-
morality which they are rapidly
diffusing through the Medium of the
English language now more widely
spoken than any other in the world.
The dominant political principle which
these two mighty powers are popular
is the principle of representa-
tive government now being adopted
every State that aSpireS to march
in the van of modern progress. h
English idea of representative govern
has established itself in Japan
and it is upon the W Of organization
n despotic Russia. In every part of
the civilized world political power
will soon be vested, on the English
and American plan, in celebrates
representatives will gather in
assemblies. Upon the wisdom,
conservatism and virtue of such cleo
torates the future of the world must
depend. The fountains from
which such wisdom, conservatism and
must be largely drawn are the
cOmmon-School systems existing II
exist in the several nations in
which n electors must be trained.
The two greatest celebrates that ever
existed are now to be found in the
British Isles and in the United States.
the last one hundred years
these two celebrates have passed
through a process of marvellous ex-
At the date of the Reform
bill of 1S32 the number of electors
in the United Kingdom hardly ex-
ceeded 400, 900. Since that time, by
The constant extension of the fran
chise. the numbe has grown to o
7. 0 0 While the great UNIVERSE
-.+,- rlN n no nrNU Ar
the commOn-SchOol system now beng
developed by their side is very young
indeed. The people of h United
have only in recent years
public schools in which TO
train the youths who are passing
every year into the electorate which
that vast aggregate we call
the British Empire. The supreme
senate in that empire is the House OF
whose majOrities govern
the empire according to the commands
received from the seven millions or
- who now cast their votes IN