"Connect-de-coot,' exclaimed Monsieur de Tocqueville, as he suddenly rose with the enthusiasm of a Frenchman. Vy messieurs, I vill tell you, vid the permis sion of de presidante of this festival, von very leetal story, and then I vill give you von grand sentiment, to dat little State you call Connect-de-coot. Von day ven I was in de gallery of the House of Representatif, I held one map of the Confederation in my hand. Dere was von leetle yellow spot dat dey call Connect-de-coot. I found by the Constitution, he was entitled to six of his boys to represent him on dat floor. But ven I make de acquaintance personelle with de member, I find dat more than tirty of the Representatif on dat floor was born in Connect-de-coot. And then ven I was in the gallery of the House of the Senat, I find de Constitution permit Connect-de-coot to send two of his boys to represent him in dat Legislature. But once more ven I make de acquaintance person. elle of the Senator, I find nine of de Senator was born in Connect de-coot. So den, gentlemen, I have made my leetle speech; now I vill give you my grand sentiment:

"Connect-de-coot, the leetle yellow spot dat make de clock-peddler, de schoolmaster, and de senator. De first, give you time; the second, tell you what you do with him; and de sird make your law and your civilization,—and then as he was resuming his seat amidst roars of laughter, he rose again, and with that peculiar gesticulation which characterizes all Frenchmen in moments of excitement, he shook his finger tremulously over the assembled confreres, and exclaimed to the top of his voice, Ah! gentlemen, dat leetle yellow State you call Connectde-coot, is one very great miracle to me.""

We have said that Connecticut had two hundred and fiftytwo, and Massachusetts two hundred and twenty-two of these members of Congress. As matters stood when the census of 1860 was taken, the population of Connecticut was to that of Massachusetts as one to two and two-thirds, very nearly, and on this basis, to make her equal to Connecticut, in the production of this class of public men, she should have had six hundred and eighty-two. But it is just to Massachusetts that we should not reckon solely from this stand-point, and we will therefore give the population of the two States at other periods. In 1698, Cotton Mather, in his Magnalia, furnishes a list of Churches in the different Colonies, and from this we will draw our first item:

In most of the estimates hereafter to be made, in order that

we may be just, we will reckon the population of Connecticut as one-half that of Massachusetts. On this basis we should have found, enrolled on the books of Congress, the names of five hundred and four of the sons of Massachusetts. But we

find two hundred and twenty-two.

And now we wish to introduce another class of facts which will show a similar result. Dr. William B. Sprague of Albany, in his most rich and valuable volumes, "Annals of the American Pulpit," has brought within easy reach an immense mass of materials bearing on this question. He devotes two large volumes to the Congregational Pulpit-two to the Presbyterian-one to the Episcopal-one to the Baptist-and one to the Methodist. We have gone through all these volumes and drawn out their unconscious testimony upon the point now before us, and this is the result.

From the whole Congregational field, in this country, reaching from the landing at Plymouth, down to the living generation, though not including it, he has selected three hundred and fifty men, whom he deems worthy to stand in his stately record. Of these, sixty-two were born in the old world, and came to this country in its early years; and they were, in truth, a glory and a light in these little Commonwealths. After passing these, we reach the men born on our own shores. Now, in this matter, Massachusetts had altogether the advantage for a long time. Her colonies were older and stronger, her College was in operation for sixty years before Yale College was founded, and, as we turn along from man to man, through the earlier part of the volumes, Massachusetts actually numbers up some forty of these native-born worthies, while as yet Connecticut has only four or five. But when the whole record is finished, it stands thus: Massachusetts has one hundred and forty-eight of these men, Connecticut one hundred and two, the rest of New England twenty-three, and fifteen were born out of New England and moved hither. Without any early advantage, Massachusetts should have had two hundred and four. With her early advantage, she had one hundred and forty-eight.

We turn next to the Presbyterian denomination, which lies almost entirely outside the boundaries of New England. As a matter of course, a majority of its eminent divines will be born within its own fields. Nevertheless, New England has always supplied many prominent men for Presbyterian pulpits, and this has been more especially true in the years nearest our own time, and which do not, to any great extent, come within the scope of this survey. The whole number among the Presbyterians, deemed worthy of place in this roll of honor, is two hundred and fifty-five. Of course there is no distinction here of Old and New School. The eye of the writer sweeps over the land and takes in the whole Presbyterian field. Of the two hundred and fifty-five thus enrolled, fiftyfive were born in the old world, one hundred and forty-seven grew up in the bosom of the Presbyterian Church, twenty-six were natives of Connecticut, twenty-three of Massachusetts, and four came from other parts of New England. To make her equal, Massachusetts should have fifty-two; she has twentythree.*

The three other denominations to be noticed are to be found over all the land,-and as New England is so small territorially, when compared with the rest of the country, we shall not expect, of course, the large proportion of the eminent clergymen of these denominations to be produced within her bounds.

With the Episcopal pulpit the case stands thus. The whole number of men on the roll is one hundred and fifty-one. Of these forty-five were born in foreign lands, twenty-eight in Massachusetts, twenty in Connecticut, four elsewhere in New England, and fifty-four in other parts of the country. Massachusetts is ahead here in point of actual numbers, but she should have had forty.

We give now the statistics of the Methodist pulpit. The whole number embraced in the record is one hundred and eighty. Of these twenty-three were foreign-born, twelve were natives of Connecticut, nine of Massachusetts, eleven of the

* Three of the historians of the Presbyterian Church are natives of Connecticut: Dr. Foote, afterwards of Virginia, Dr. Sprague, and Dr. Gillett.

rest of New England, and one hundred and twenty-five were born in various parts of the country, out of New England. The State of Maryland has been eminently fruitful in eminent Methodist divines.

And, finally, we notice the Baptist denomination. Here we find one hundred and sixty-eight names. Of these twentythree were from foreign parts, twenty from Connecticut, forty from Massachusetts, eighteen from the rest of New England, and sixty-seven were born in the United States out of New England.

In this last item alone, Massachusetts stands upon an exact equality with Connecticut, according to our basis. The southern tier of towns, in Massachusetts, bordering upon Rhode Island, and feeling strongly the influence of Brown University, seem to have been especially fruitful in the production of distinguished Baptist ministers.

It should be said, moreover, for the other portions of New England, lest they should feel humiliated by this review, that these statistics range for the most part over times antecedent to the present century, when their institutions were comparatively in their infancy. But this same argument, as between Massachusetts and Connecticut simply, as already intimated, gives Massachusetts a decided advantage, and yet in the actual result she is in a very marked degree inferior.

We must not, in passing, forget to add, that the learned, eloquent, and widely known author of these volumes--"Annals of the American Pulpit"-is himself a native of the same little State, and drew all his early culture from this fruitful source. He was born in the green and pleasant Hop River valley, in that part of the town of Andover which anciently belonged to Hebron. By good fortune, a few years since, we chanced to meet him, amid these scenes of his early home, where his mind was acted upon by the thronging memories of the past.

Having thus embodied the evidence to be derived from this survey, we turn to another source of information. We will regard the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut as alike parent colonies, and Harvard and Yale Colleges as parent in

stitutions, though Harvard had sixty years the start. In the course of time, population spreads out over the rest of New England, and institutions of liberal learning spring up here and there, in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, as also in the two parent States. Now we wish to ascertain from what impulses these institutions started into life, and whence the men were drawn, who held the chief places in them. After Harvard and Yale, the next in order was Brown University, founded in 1769; and then follow Dartmouth College, 1771,-Williams, 1795,-Middlebury, 1802,—University of Vermont, 1804,-Bowdoin College, 1806,-Amherst, 1822, -Trinity, 1824,-Wesleyan University, 1831,-and Tufts College, 1853. Norwich University in Vermont,* of recent origin we omit, having failed in getting the statistics.

* Since the above was in type, we have learned the facts respecting this institution. Norwich University, chartered in 1884, and going into operation in 1835, has had for its Presidents, Capt. Alden Partridge, a native of Norwich, Vt., a graduate of West Point-Gen. T. B. Ransom, a native of Woodstock, Vt.-Henry S. Wheaton, Esq., a native of Wrentham, Mass., a graduate of Brown University-and Rev. Edward Bourns, LL. D., now in office, a native of Ireland, and graduate of Dublin University.

+ We have given our reason for leaving out Harvard and Yale in this table. Harvard has had many Presidents, mostly Massachusetts men. The present occupant is the twenty-first. The average term of office of her Presidents has been a little less than eleven years. Yale has had nine Presidents, with an average term of eighteen and one-third years.