ADDRESS 



The invitation to address you, while fully appreciated^ 

 has been accepted by me with much hesitation, for the 

 reason that during the existence of the Essex Agricultural 

 Society, which extends over a period of ninety years, it 

 has at its annual meetings listened to orations from many 

 of the most illustrious men in our State. It was a relief 

 to ascertaiu, however, that the addresses had not always 

 been made by men experienced in the art of farming. I 

 found occasionally that lawyers had addressed you on 

 some of these annual reunions. Perhaps it would be well 

 to bear in mind Lord Brougham's description of a lawyer, 

 "a legal gentleman who rescues your estate from your 

 enemies and keeps it himself." Matthew Arnold in a 

 well-remembered line describes a bird in Kensington Gar- 

 dens " deep in its unknown days employ." But peace to 

 the poet its employ is all too certain. Its day is spent in 

 struggling to get a living ; and a very hard day it is. So 

 it was with the first settlers in Essex County. "If the 

 land had been all the same, the struggle for life had been 

 all the same, and if the struggle for life had been all the 

 same, life itself had been all the same." 



In our Essex County there were two regions, the mari- 

 time and the agricultural. In the former, the belt along 

 the shore, the peo[)le became fishermen ; in the latter, the 

 inland district, the people were farmers. Tlie fisherman's 

 life is a precarious life, he becomes hardy, resolute, self- 

 reliant. The farmer's life is a settled life, he loves his 

 liome and lie becomes domestic and quiet. He lives, or 



