PROVINCE 



4ST>0 



PROVINCE 



sociation. Butler Hospital, one of the first to 

 be established in the United States for the 

 treatment of the insane, occupies splendid 

 grounds in the east part of the city along the 

 Seekonk River. Other important institutions 

 are the Rhode Island Hospital, Rhode Island 

 Homeopathic Hospital, the Dexter Asylum for 

 the Poor, Saint Joseph's Hospital and the state 

 institute for the deaf. 



Industry. Providence is an important indus- 

 trial city; the value of all manufactured prod- 

 ucts annually exceeds $132,000,000. It is one of 

 the foremost cities in the. United States in the 

 manufacture of jewelry and silverware. There 

 are over 300 establishments engaged in this 

 industry, and the annual value of their com- 

 bined output exceeds $22,750,000. It also stands 

 high in the manufacture of woolen and worsted 

 goods, mechanical tools, textile-mill machinery, 

 files, boilers, engines and screws. Other indus- 

 tries include dyeing and finishing textiles, the 

 refining of gold and silver sweepings, slaughter- 

 ing and meat packing, and the manufacture of 

 rubber and rubber goods, oleomargarine and 

 furniture. The wholesale and jobbing interests 

 are extensive. 



Providence is a port of entry whose imports 

 for one year sometimes reach $2,300,000. The 

 city has a magnificent harbor, and prior to 

 1840 was an important port, but it has inade- 

 quate facilities for accommodating the largest 

 freighters. A state pier large enough to dock 

 ocean steamers was completed in 1914, and seri- 

 ous efforts are being made to revive foreign 

 commerce. 



History. Roger Williams, seeking but failing 

 to find religious liberty, first in Massachusetts 

 Bay, then at Salem, bought lands west of Nar- 

 ragansett Bay from the Indians, and in 1636, 

 with a small company, settled on the site of 

 Providence. In 1638 he organized .here and 

 became pastor of the first Baptist church in 

 America. The burning of the British cruiser 

 Gaspee in 1772, near Providence, was one of 

 the first openly-antagonistic acts prior to the 

 War of Independence. The British occupied 

 the town during a part of the war. The city 

 suffered a property loss of $1,000,000 as a result 

 of a severe gale and flood in 1815. Providence 

 became a city in 1832. H.W.M. 



Consult Greene's The Providence Plantations 

 for Two Hundred and Fifty Years; Powell's 

 Historic Towns of New England. 



PROVINCE, prov'ins. This term, in its 

 Latin form provincia, was first used in Roman 

 times, to indicate a conquered district which 



was governed by an official sent out from 

 Rome. The name came from the same root as 

 the verb to conquer, and thus could not be 

 correctly applied to a free and independent 

 state; but this shade of meaning was lost, and 

 in the Middle Ages sovereign states which 

 united to form a greater state frequently made 

 use of the name. Thus Holland after it freed 

 itself from Spain was called the United Prov- 

 inces. In modern times in certain European 

 countries, as Italy and Spain, a province is one 

 of the units into which the country is divided 

 for purposes of local government. 



The Canadian Province. When the term is 

 used without qualification in North America, 

 it is understood to refer to one of the divisions 

 which go to make up the great Dominion of 

 Canada. There are nine of these, in addition 

 to the two territories. Some of them are very 

 large ; one has an area of little more than two 

 thousand square miles; but the greatest one 

 has no more right to be considered a sovereign 

 state than the smallest. In all essential mat- 

 ters of government they are alike, and each 

 has precisely the same relation to the central 

 or Dominion government. For a discussion 

 of the government of a province, see the ar- 

 ticle CANADA, subhead Provincial Government, 

 page 1119; see, also, subtitle Government in 

 the articles on the various provinces. 



Necessity for Such Divisions. Before taking 

 up the study of a province as a political unit 

 the pupil will want to know the reason for 

 the division of the country into such compara-, 

 tively small districts. The provinces did not 

 simply ''happen;" various causes, political, geo- 

 graphical, historical, determined the boundaries, 

 to be sure, but the necessity for such a sub- 

 division has been proved by the history of 

 centuries. No large country can be successfully 

 governed as a unit. 



Even though the capital of the country were 

 placed exactly in the center and were given ex- 

 cellent communication with all parts of the 

 country, the hundreds of thousands of square 

 miles which make up Canada could not be 

 properly governed from that one point. Close 

 to the capital, no doubt, the system would be 

 most efficient, every one would find his in- 

 terests protected and his rights assured. But 

 in distant regions the supervision would be 

 certain to relax and the firm control to cease, 

 and this would be increasingly the case as the 

 distance from the governing center became 

 greater. Division into provinces has been 

 found to do away with this difficulty. 



