selves, hid and away even as Rasselas in the mountains 

 of Ethiopia. A people whose unchecked primal freedom was 

 after strengthened by the light hand of laws that conserved 

 what they most desired ; whose personal relations with their 

 rulers were of such primitive character as to make the Gov- 

 ernment in every sense paternal ; the petty tax on imports at- 

 tending its administration one practically unfelt ! 



A people whose land was dotted with schools and churches, 

 to whose maintenance their contributions were so slight as to 

 be unworthy of mention. The three separate religious de- 

 nominations, holding widely different tenets — elsewhere the 

 cause of bitter sectarian feeling, — was with them so unthought 

 of as to give — where all topics were eagerly sought — no room 

 for even fireside discussion. Side by side, "upon the voyage," 

 — as they termed their lake or inland trips — the Catholic and 

 the Protestant knelt and offered up their devotions — following 

 the ways of their fathers, — no more to be made a subject of 

 dispute than a difference in color or height. 



The cursings and obscenities that taint the air and bru- 

 talize life elsewhere, were in this quaint old settlement un- 

 known. Sweet thought, pure speech, went hand in hand, clad 

 in nervous, pithy old English, or a "patois" of the French, 

 mellowed and enlarged by their constant use of the liquid 

 Indian tongues, flowing like soft-sounding waters about them, 

 their daily talk came ever welcome to the ear. 



Where locks for doors were unknown, or, known, unused, 

 where a man's word, even in the transfer of land, was held as 

 his bond — honesty became a necessity. Lawyers were none. 

 Law was held to be a danger. Still the importance attached 

 by simple minds to an appearance in public, the amusing belief 

 cherished by some, that, if permitted to plead his own case, 

 exert his unsuspected powers, there could be but one result, 

 brought some honest souls to the Red River forum, with matter 

 of much monent, "the like never heard before." None can 

 read the quaint, minutely-detailed record of these " causes 

 celebres" that shook the little households as with a great wind, 

 without a smile, nor resist the conviction that no scheme of 



