82 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1881. 



" magistrates " enjoined by the Constitution to " cherish the 

 interests of Literature, and the Sciences," &c., &c.; to encourage 

 private societies and public institutions, rewards and immunities, 

 for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences," &c., &c. 



Some, who are disposed to concede your right to " immunity,'' 

 would yet restrict it to the bare Hall of Pomona ; as being that 

 portion of the Real Estate of the Corporation wliich is most 

 largel}' used for your technical or scientific purposes. But the 

 rest of your Estate is permanently leased, as the whole is occa- 

 sionally ; because your necessities compel : because the rents 

 derived therefrom constitute your only means for stimulating 

 research and rewarding successful achievement ; because, if one 

 per cent, can be levied lawfully, one hundred per cent, might be, 

 to the extreme of confiscation : — in that way violating the theory 

 of the Constitution and evading its letter which would " cherish " 

 and protect such " immunities." 



I have also, in former Reports, asked you to take notice of an 

 apparent lack of impartiality, on the part of the Assessors, in 

 the allowance of actual exemption from Taxation. It does not 

 appear, from the books of the City Treasurer, that a dollar is 

 received from assessments upon the property of any Religious 

 Society in Worcester. Yet such Societies are notoriously, — even 

 ostentatiously engaged in rivalry with " private societies and 

 public institutions," which have no other resource than their 

 rents wherefrom to supply " rewards for the promotion of agri- 

 culture (Terrae-culture ?) arts, sciences," «fec., &c.; and even 

 maintain kitchens for the pious delusion and snare of the unwary 

 who anticipate, in a theological soup, somewhat more than a gill 

 of oysters to the quart of water ! Thin ! do you say ? " Too, 

 utterly, too "! 



The Statutes relating to " houses of religious worship " enact 

 that " portions of such houses appropriated for purposes other 

 than religious worship, shall be taxed at the value thereof to the 

 owners of the houses." 



At Puritan " Chapel " a woman lectures upon " the develop- 

 ment of character in schools — tickets 15 cents." All the while 

 there are spacious entries and halls, unused ; in the High-School 

 Building, which cost a Quarter-Million ; that might seem pecu- 



