aristocracy to render political rights fairly; but also by which the economic dollar flowing out of capitalist's coffer or laborer's pocket can renovate and fructify the whole movement.

By this extraordinary exercise of social force in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the face of the world was rapidly changed, Napoleons being elevated, or in turn crushed, by the way. The greatest exponent, the largest interpreter of this universal social force, working through particular individuals, was the historic Jew. He was little comprehended then, he is not wholly understood to-day. Anyone can see that the new economic dispensation did not endow the feudal descendants of fabled Roland or historic Richard with new privilege; nor did it allegate to the robber dynasties of Napoleonic marshals the administration of the new powers of society. It went to the Ghetto for new administrators, in the persons of shivering Shylocks and abject Isaacs of York. The scions and representatives of these new social administrators came out on the enlarged Rialto, the modern Bourse.

I hinted in the beginning, rather than affirmed that Newport was a wayside product of the whole social eighteenth century. The Jew, with his enlarged intelligence and creative skill, went into an appreciative and responsive atmosphere.

The "metropolitan" community, as it called itself in 1712, had come to be an important mart. Dr. McSparran and Douglass substantially agreed in reporting the commerce. of 1750 to 1760. Butter and cheese, grain, fat cattle, fine horses, pipe staves and lumber were among the exports, largely to the West Indies. The Narragansett pacers were famous, pacing "a mile in little more than two minutes, a good deal less than three," according to the worthy parson. There were above 300 vessels of sixty tons and more, including coasters, in the export trade. In 1749, there were 160 clearances for foreign voyages.2 In 1770, there were at least 200 vessels in the foreign and 400 in the

1 Updike, Narragansett Church. p. 514.

Rhode Island Historical Magazine Vol. VI., p. 310.

coasting trade, the population having grown to 12,000. After 1707, trade in sugar, rum, and negroes grew rapidly. Sugar and molasses were distilled at Boston and more at Newport. The slaves were generally carried to the West Indies, sometimes to Newport or Boston. Much capital from Boston assisted in the business at Newport.2 Privateering in the French and Spanish wars was a stimulating element in commerce. The Wantons, Ellerys, Malbones, indeed almost all the names are represented in this warring

commerce.

Rev. James Honyman3, Scotchman and rector of Trinity from 1704 until 1750, was conciliatory in his ministry. drawing hearers from all the surrounding country. Dr, McSparran, Irishman of Narragansett, learned, acute, disputatious, was a keen sectarian, believing in anybody's establishment, if he could not have his own. He found in 1721 "a field full of briars and thorns."

"Here liberty of conscience is carried to an irreligious

extreme.

114

We get a wider outlook and more judicial report from Arthur Brown, son of a rector of Trinity. He lived in Newport until 17 years old, then entered Trinity College, Dublin, becoming Senior Proctor and Professor of Greek. He wrote:

"The innocence of the people made them capable of liberty. Murder and robbery were unknown. During nine years at Newport from 1762 to 17715 (I speak of my own knowledge) only one person was executed, a notorious thief and housebreaker one Sherman. The multiplicity of secre

taries (sic) and strange wildness of opinions, was disgusting to a reasonable mind, and produced as great a variety, though with no such pernicious effect as in the reign of Charles the First; upon the whole, however, there was more genuine religion, morality and piety diffused than

'Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, Vol. II, pp. 455-469. * Annals Trinity Church.

• Updike, pp. 511, 514.

p. 94.

It will be remembered the population was 12,000. And we should compare the legal and criminal experience of England at same period.

.

in any country I have ever seen. The state of literature in America was by no means contemptible. The refined culture of such a people must find expression in art, though the century was not fruitful in the plastic arts. John Smibert, another Scotchman, is considered to have been the first artist of note in America. He came to Newport with Dean Berkeley and painted many portraits there. Robert Feke, little known, but one of the best colonial artists, practised there in the mid-century. Gilbert Stuart, the marvellous delineator of Washington born in Narragansett, educated in Newport, was formed at the beginning by these collections of pictures. Cosmo Alexander, an artist of repute, spent two years in America, mostly on the island; he taught Stuart and first took him to England. Washington Allston was fitted for college in Newport. Edward G. Malbone, born at Newport in the revolutionary time, was self-taught and the atmosphere of the island-paradise lighted up his palette. Benjamin West said of his "Hours" that "no man in England could excel it." There is in the delicate lines of this bit of ivory a "dignity, character and expression" inspired by the whole ideal life I have attempted to set forth. We have in these words, the criticism of a sympathetic artist. I would note also a certain grace which is the refining excellence of beauty.

The grace of culture may be rendered in a picture; its strength and force must be represented by a man or men. Ezra Stiles, though not the outgrowth, was a collateral product of our island. Coincident with the Jewish immigration, he became minister of the Second Congregational Church in 1756, at twenty-nine years of age, influenced "partly by an agreeable town and the Redwood Library." He was Librarian during most of his twenty years sojourn. Corresponding with European authors, he solicited books for the Redwood. His folio Homer is preserved fully annotated by him in the original Greek. He became President of Yale College, the natural precinct of Jonathan

1 Rhode Island Historical Magazine, Vol. VI., pp. 161, 168-171.

• Arnold. Art and Artists in Rhode Island. p. 9.

Edwards' who had told the previous generation that the "existence of all exterior things is ideal."

Stiles formed Chancellor Kent, and Channing inheriting his Newport teachings said "in my earliest years, I regarded no human being with equal reverence." If he had done no more than to affect seriously these two men, America would owe him a great debt.

This happy community was fatally damaged by the Revolution, when its commerce fled to the safer port of Providence. Many of its citizens were loyalists, and the armies of both contestants trampled over the city. The society created by its peculiar culture was scattered, and the true "Paradise of New England" ceased to be.

1 We should note the sympathy, correlative though not derived, between Edwards and Berkeley. "The soul in a sense, has its seat in the brain; so in a sense, the visible world is existent out of the mind; for it certainly in the proper sense, exists out of the brain. Space is a necessary being if it may be called a being; and yet we have also shown, that all existence is mental, that the existence of all exterior things is ideal." Cited from Edwards by Sereno E. Dwight. Life and Letters of Berkeley. p. 182.

HIS

DID BENJAMIN FRANKLIN FLY ELECTRICAL KITE BEFORE HE INVENTED THE LIGHTNING ROD?

BY ABBOTT LAWRENCE ROTCH.

One of the best known events in the life of Franklin is the story of his electrical kite and how, from this experiment, he deduced the identity of lightning and artificial electricity which led to the invention of the lightning-rod. Not only is this taught in our schools, through the popular biographies of Franklin, but many scientific treatises contain the same statement. I shall endeavor to show in this paper:

(1) That the kite-experiment was probably performed later than has been supposed; (2) that even before this experiment certain buildings in Philadelphia were provided with 'points,' probably as lightning-conductors; and (3) that prior to Franklin's first account of the kite-experiment he had drawn up precise directions for placing lightning-rods upon all kinds of buildings.

As is well known, Franklin's early electrical experiments are described in letters to his friend, Peter Collinson of London, who, because the Royal Society refused to include them in its Transactions, had them published in London under the title: Experiments and Observations on Electricity, made at Philadelphia by Mr. Benjamin Franklin and communicated to P. Collinson. The first edition, in two parts, appeared at London in 1751 and 1753, and the four subsequent editions contain also the later papers reprinted from the Philosophical Transactions, as well as other matter. This work was