1883.] TRANSACTIONS. 35 



rank with injustice, as this exemption from taxation of corpo- 

 rate property, upon pretexts that are merely specious ; an ex- 

 emption tliat is complete as to themselves, — partial and inequi- 

 table as it affects others. The omission from assessment of the 

 widow, and orphan ; whose mite scarce suffices to keep the wolf 

 from their door ; is one thing. It is not, at any rate, a statutory 

 injustice. Nor has it any relation to the shameless shirking of 

 their solemn duty, by the professed disciples of the Living God, 

 whose explicit injunction to them was that they should " render 

 unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's." 



Hating wrong ; and particularly that flagrant manifestation of 

 it which is involved in special Privilege ; with implicit faith in 

 the ultimate power of Truth ; I am enlisted for this war. 

 Against principalities or powers ; things present or to come ; 

 with whatsoever might is in me, I shall continue lo wage it to 

 the end. 



Upon the return of the writer from Illinois ; in which superb 

 State he had spent years of that younger and brighter life, to 

 which a lingering memory recurs as to one of those dreams of 

 Arcadia that I cannot doubt have been experienced by all who 

 hear me, once at least in their lives ; he found the Worcester 

 County Horticultural Society in fortunate and thrifty exist- 

 ence. It was object-teaching, still : as it had been in the old 

 Town Hall : teaching from example as it continues yet, with ex- 

 treme insistence upon excellence ; object-teaching as, it is to be 

 hoped, it shall endure so long as this Trust is maintained intact, 

 and inviolate. William Lincoln had gone to his rest ; and other 

 duties claimed the attention of Emory Washburn: but Fred- 

 eric William Paine, John Milton Earle, and Clarendon 

 Harris, were earnest and instant, as when of old they aided to 

 assort, analyze, and explain that floral conglomeration — the en- 

 tire mass of flowers collected by the pupils of the public schools. 

 The writer sought not, — as he could not desire, — more congenial 

 or privileged association. The active energy of Worcester was 

 enlisted in behalf of the young Society ; for the lust and rust of 

 riches had not then enervated the life of the town, and sapped 

 its reserved, or latent force. His name was enrolled, in due 



