scene twenty miles distant, on the following day, at Ticonderoga,

“the Gateway of the Nation,” where was built Fort Carillon, in 1755-6, around which struggled the flower of contending armies of three sovereign nations for its control; another scene, sixty miles distant, at Plattsburgh Barracks, on a plateau overlooking Valcour Island, where occurred one of the chief naval engagements of the Revolution, the report of which electrified the Continental Congress, and also overlooking Plattsburgh Bay, where occurred the decisive naval engagement of the War of 1812, in which the American fleet under Macdonough defeated and routed the British fleet under Downie; and still another scene twenty-five miles distant, on the following day, in the city of Burlington, under the shadow of the university which had been burned during the War of 1812, and whose corner-stone was relaid by Marquis de Lafayette in 1825, and where stands a statue erected to his memory, on a sloping hillside overlooking Burlington Bay, that beautiful Baiae of our inland sea, and the clear waters of the historic lake walled in on the west by the rugged and occasionally snow-capped peaks of the Adirondacks; and the fifth scene, forty-five miles distant, on the following day, at beautiful Isle La Motte, which was the first land in the Champlain valley visited by Samuel Champlain, which had been for two centuries or more the common meeting place of warring Indian tribes, and which became the rendezvous of missionaries, and where in 1666, was built Fort Ste. Anne, and where High Mass was first celebrated in the State of Vermont, and where was stationed the Carignan-Salières Regiment of 600 French veterans. At each of these scenes were Indian pageants, moved from place to place on a floating island, participated in by 150 descendants of the native aboriginal tribes that occupied the Champlain valley, and enlivened by military and naval forces, with formal addresses, speeches and poems, by the President of the United States and the distinguished diplomats, orators and poets in attendance, presenting anew the story and thrilling events that have transpired in the Champlain valley since its discovery three centuries ago. This will afford some conception of the great drama of the Champlain Tercentenary Celebration, in which Samuel Champlain, the navigator, colonizer and apostle of civilization in that valley, _Chevalier sans peur et sans reproche_, was the hero and central figure.

On this occasion we are profoundly touched at the generosity and friendship of President Fallières and the French people, exhibited in the presentation by the distinguished delegation who have come from France, of this allegorical bust “La France,” by Auguste Rodin, and we gratefully accept the same in the name of the New York and Vermont Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commissions, in behalf of the people of the two states, as well as of the people of the United States, and through you, Monsieur Hanotaux, and other members of your delegation from France, we tender to President Fallières and the people of France, who have so generously contributed to the purchase and presentation of this beautiful bust, our grateful appreciation and acknowledgments.

This work of art, coming as a voluntary expression of the good will and cordial feelings of the French people for Americans who have shown some appreciation of the discoveries and services for humanity of one of the most noted French explorers among many, who were first to open up the interior of this continent to the onward march of civilization, is an imperishable testimonial of that abiding friendship existing between the peoples of the two foremost Republics in the world, which have done so much for the liberty, equality and fraternity of mankind. When we reflect upon the evolution of French institutions from Charlemagne to Fallières, the progress of the French people in the arts and sciences within the last century, and the contributions that they have made to these, and to literature and to art, as well as to the world’s diplomacy and intellectual development, we do not wonder that the Republic across the sea, which you represent, gentlemen, is aglow with vitality and energized by new and expanding ideas, and is forging forward as one of the most progressive and powerful nations in the world. Had not the French people been open to new ideas, possibly they would not have responded to the appeals of Franklin and our other patriots during the Revolution, and the Marquis de Lafayette, Count de Rochambeau, with his 6,000 soldiers, Count de Grasse, with his fleet, and others, would not have crossed the Atlantic to aid the Colonies in their struggle for independence.

Lafayette and others carried back with them something of the inspiration which they had derived from their experience in this country and from their contact with General Washington and other patriots, and their reports did something to arouse the National Assembly of France, and the princes and potentates of European nations to a realization of the evidences of the Republican movement in America as well as in Europe, which culminated in making most of the nations of western Europe more democratic and responsive to popular liberties. On the establishment of a Republican form of government in France in 1848, the President of the United States transmitted a message to Congress, in which he said: “We can never forget that France was our early friend in our eventful Revolution, and generously aided us in shaking off a foreign yoke and becoming a free and independent people. We have enjoyed the blessing of our system of well regulated self-government for nearly three-fourths of a century, and can properly appreciate its value. Our ardent and sincere congratulations are extended to the patriotic people of France upon their noble and thus far successful efforts to found for their future government liberal institutions similar to our own. It is not doubtful that under the benign influence of free institutions the enlightened statesmen of Republican France will find it to be for her true interests and permanent glory to cultivate with the United States the most liberal principles of international intercourse and commercial reciprocity, whereby the happiness and prosperity of both nations will be promoted.” A fitting response to this was made by the National Assembly of France, and there have from that time forth existed cordial relations between the two sister Republics. These relations were emphasized in the presentation by the French people of the colossal statue “Liberty Enlightening the World,” by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, unveiled with elaborate ceremonies on Bedloe’s Island in New York harbor, on October 28, 1886. When the Rodin allegorical bust “La France” is in its permanent home by the Champlain Memorial Light at the Crown Point Forts near the head of Lake Champlain, it will be on the highway of travel by water between New York harbor and Lake Champlain, through the enlarged and improved Champlain Canal nearing completion, and so be brought into communication with the statue of Liberty, and will do something to restore the interest of travelers as well as of our French-American citizens, in the history of that region, for 150 years under control of the French nation, and within a few miles of which at Ticonderoga, Montcalm and others achieved imperishable fame, and will be a further lasting expression of the artistic temperament and proverbial generosity of the French people toward the people of this nation, the genius of whose institutions has been more or less reflected in the evolution of French institutions during the last century. As an expression of one of your most renowned sculptors, it will awaken a deeper interest of the people in that valley in art, which has been ideally expressed in this allegorical bust “La France,” in a way to symbolize the marvelous genius of the French people.

The members of New York and Vermont Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commissions bid you, gentlemen of the French delegation, a most cordial welcome to our shores, and tender to you their deep appreciation of the gift which you bring from your people. (Applause.)

V. FRENCH DELEGATION ENTERTAINED BY THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

On May 2d, The Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York entertained at luncheon the French delegation in the Hall of the Chamber on Liberty street, New York City. Ambassador Jusserand and the visiting delegation and other invited guests were presented to President A. Barton Hepburn by Hon. McDougall Hawkes and then seated on the dais. The flags of the United States and France were entwined behind the President’s chair.

In welcoming the distinguished visitors, President A. Barton Hepburn said:

When this country was struggling to win a place in the sisterhood of nations, without facilities for manufacturing the necessary means for defense, or money to purchase the same, at war with one of the most powerful nations of Europe, supplemented by the inspired hostility of the then powerful tribes of surrounding Indians, poor in purse, rich only in patriotic resolve to win their freedom, with credit shrouded by the gloom of possible, if not probable failure—at this critical juncture France came to our support, with soldiers and ships of war, and rendered the greatest aid in winning our independence.

In addition, France loaned us money. The amount was not large, indeed it was small, compared with present day loans or transactions, but the loan was made at a time when our continental currency was so depreciated, that it has given to our language an expression of worthlessness,—“not worth a continental.”

It was real, metallic money, and the ring of that money resounded throughout the colonies; it strengthened credit and renewed confidence. It was tangible evidence that a great nation believed in us—believed in our future.

At the Battle of Yorktown, which was the crowning victory that assured our independence, France furnished thirty-six ships of the line—the colonies none; of the land forces engaged, France furnished 7,000 veterans—the colonies 5,500 regulars and 3,500 militia. The French fleet, under De Grasse, had previously defeated the British fleet and driven them from the Chesapeake, thereby depriving Cornwallis of all hope of reinforcements from New York, and also cutting off all hope of escape.

We won our independence, but in our self-gratulation, let us not forget the magnitude of the service, and the extent of our obligation to France. Hostility to England, as well as love for America, may have inspired her action, but even so, it does not lessen the service rendered to us.

This powerful alliance kindled anew the fires of patriotism, and roused a countrywide feeling of gratitude and love for France, which has ever since continued. May this feeling grow in intensity with succeeding years!

God grant that these two great commercial nations may find prosperity and happiness in the paths of peace, and side by side, shoulder to shoulder, may their joint influence make for peace and happiness throughout the world. (Applause.)

I have read that the figure upon the coins of France—a woman sowing—symbolizes the idea that France sows while others reap. That is eminently true of the United States and eminently true of North America. When we recall that Canada, the Ohio territory and Louisiana once belonged to France, and recall how relatively small the Spanish province of Florida and the British colonies along the Atlantic Coast were, we realize what an empire on this continent, extending from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, was once the territory of France.

Her intrepid explorers, her patient priests and devoted missionaries sowed the seeds of civilization in this great territory, and the harvest of their labors we are reaping year by year.

The magnificent statue of Liberty, that ornaments and dignifies our harbor—the creation of a great French artist and sculptor—Bartholdi—was a gift from France.

Our guests visit this country at the present time to place a bas-relief, “La France”—the creation of another great French artist and sculptor—Rodin—upon a monument erected by the states of New York and Vermont, at Crown Point Forts, in memory of the great explorers in this western world, chief among whom ranks Champlain.

Our country was born amid the martial airs and chivalric heroism of the arms of France, and consecrated with the blood of her soldiers and sailors, and ever since she has given continuing proof of her friendship, both actual and sentimental—witness the presence of this distinguished delegation.

Surely our hearts ought to go out to France, as they do, in reciprocal good will, and our prayers be offered, as they are, for her peace, prosperity and happiness.

It is a pleasure and privilege for the commercial representatives of this state to receive and welcome you gentlemen, and I appeal to your kindly imagination to conceive the cordial greetings which we all feel, but which my language fails to express. (Applause.)

President Hepburn then introduced the French Ambassador, J. J. Jusserand, who spoke eloquently on the importance of the extension of the commercial relations between France and the United States and also in appreciation of the hospitality shown in this country to the French delegation, comprising distinguished officials and civilians from the Republic of France.

President Hepburn then presented His Excellency, Gabriel Hanotaux as follows:

“He has won fame as a statesman and as a scholar. For many years he was Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of France, and in the world of letters has achieved that most enviable distinction—a member of the French Academy. I have the pleasure of presenting M. Gabriel Hanotaux.”

M. Hanotaux was greeted with loud applause and spoke in French.

ADDRESS OF M. ALBERT AUGUSTE GABRIEL HANOTAUX

_Monsieur le Président_: Si je jette les yeux autour de moi, ma pensée et celle de la délégation tout entière se porte vers les énergies humaines que vous représentez autour de nous. C’est la puissance des États-Unis d’Amérique, c’est cette activité inlassable qui a couvert de ses oeuvres et de ses conquêtes un continent et la planète entière se détournant de ses travaux pour nous faire un splendide et chaleureux accueil. Cette réunion, ces fleurs, ces drapeaux, tout se réunit pour faire sentir à la France combien elle est chère à cette vaillante cité new yorkaise. Mais il y a quelque chose de plus chaud et de plus précieux dans l’accueil que vous nous faites, c’est le mouvement du coeur. Comment vous exprimer notre reconnaissance?

D’ailleurs n’est-ce pas la générosité américaine qui a déterminé le voyage de la Délégation française?

Il y a quelques mois notre éminent ambassadeur, Monsieur Jusserand, qui veille avec tant de compétence à tout ce qui peut rapprocher les deux pays, nous avait signalé la prochaine érection sur les bords du lac Champlain d’un monument en l’honneur de notre vaillant compatriote. Il pensait avec raison que la France ne pouvait rester indifférente à ce beau geste qui en continue tant d’autres analogues. Mais comment la France manifesterait-elle sa gratitude, comment participerait-elle à cette glorification d’un de ses enfants?

Seul, un appel au public et un appel à l’art pouvaient avoir une portée suffisante pour répondre. Par les soins du comité France-Amérique que nous représentons ici, les deux manifestations simultanées se sont produites: le public français a compris et a rapidement souscrit les listes en tête desquelles il trouvait le nom vénéré de Monsieur Fallières, Président de la République Française. En même temps l’art avait fait son oeuvre, et le sculpteur Rodin avait conçu et exécuté l’image de la “France” que nous avions sollicitée de son génie.

C’est cette image que nous avons apportée ici pour qu’elle soit scellée au pied du monument de Champlain, comme un cachet et un sceau authentiquant une fois de plus la fidélité de nos sentiments communs et nos souvenirs.

Vous avez bien voulu arrêter au passage dans cette grande ville la délégation qui va porter le bronze au lieu où il est destiné! Vous savez qu’elle appartient aux diverses grandes institutions et corporations françaises, au Parlement, à l’Académie et à l’Institut, à l’Armée, à l’Université, au Conseil d’État, à l’Industrie, au Commerce, et qu’elle contient trois membres descendant des familles qui ont combattu ou servi à l’époque de la guerre de l’Indépendance, Choiseul, Rochambeau, Lafayette, dont nous avons ici le petit-fils, le Comte de Chambrun. Celui-ci a reçu, en outre, une délégation spéciale de M. le Président du Conseil, Monsieur Raymond Poincaré, et il le représente personnellement.

Ainsi, par-dessus les Océans, une même pensée nous unit. Les États-Unis élèvent un monument à un Français. La France vous envoie, par nous, son tribut de gratitude: une fois de plus les deux grandes démocraties pensent et agissent à l’unisson.

Je ne veux pas tenter ici un parallèle presque impossible entre les deux Républiques, l’une vaste, puissante, jeune, pleine d’élan et de grandeur, l’autre plus à l’étroit sur son territoire resserré dans la vieille Europe, mais elle aussi, active et toujours jeune, éprise d’action, amante de la beauté, apportant à la réalisation de son idéal la plus noble culture peut-être qu’il y ait au monde, puisqu’elle remonte à deux mille ans en arrière aux temps où César conquit la Gaule et où le Christ naquit. Ce qui caractérise toutefois les relations toujours cordiales et toujours fidèles de ces deux pays, c’est que, se développant parallèlement, ils ne se heurtent nulle part. Je crois exprimer un fait réel, à la fois très simple et très fort, en disant, qu’entre la France et les États-Unis d’Amérique, il y a plus d’aptitude à se connaître et à se comprendre qu’entre deux autres pays du monde, quels qu’ils soient.

Et, si l’on me demande pourquoi, je répondrai en employant la formule d’une des proclamations de la Nouvelle-Angleterre, avant la guerre de l’Indépendance, parce que ce sont deux pays “où l’on ne connaît ni suzerains, ni seigneurs, ni princes, mais seulement le peuple.”

Tout donc porte les deux Républiques à l’entente et à l’union: des souvenirs communs, un objectif pareil, une conception semblable de la vie publique. La République américaine et la République française sont les deux filles aînées de la liberté. 1787, l’année de la Constitution américaine et 1789, l’année qui inaugure l’ère moderne en France, ce sont deux grandes dates de nos histoires, et deux grandes dates de l’histoire du monde.

Avec un point de départ presque simultané, les deux pays out suivi leurs voies diverses, l’un occupé à se saisir d’un territoire immense, pliant aux nécessités de cette vie énorme et dispersée ses institutions à la fois fédéralistes et unitaires, ouvrant au vieux monde un asile tutélaire et développant sur son sol, grâce à cet afflux permanent du trop plein des forces humaines, une civilisation qui est l’héritière de toutes les civilisations; l’autre plus unitaire et plus centralisé; plus ramassé et plus fondu, plus traditionnel, mais plus alourdi par le poids du passé, travaillant à faire entrer, dans ses vieux cadres historiques, les puissances d’énergie que la vie moderne exige des sociétés qui veulent garder leur place et leur rang dans la grande famille humaine.

Après cent ans de cet effort parallèle, les voici donc qui apparaissent toutes deux en pleine possession de leur valeur, et avec la conscience de ce qu’elles sont et de ce qu’elles doivent être. N’est-ce pas le moment pour elles deux de se considérer mutuellement et de s’apercevoir, une fois pour toutes, que dans cette marche parallèle, elles se complètent souvent et ne se contrarient jamais?

Puisque je parle ici devant les représentants les plus autorisés du commerce américain, il me paraît facile de prendre le commerce en exemple.

Le commerce est entre les peuples le premier et le plus indispensable des biens. Qui dit commerce dit bon vouloir réciproque, confiance mutuelle et paix. Il est incontestable, qu’à l’origine de toutes les civilisations se trouve le _commerce_, et quand les premiers navigateurs européens, à commencer par le plus grand de tous, Christophe Colomb,—ont été vers l’Occident à la recherche des terres nouvelles, que prétendaient-ils, sinon trouver des chemins et des débouchés nouveaux? C’est du commerce qu’on peut dire avec raison “Mens agitat molem.”

Or, précisément, dans le commerce franco-américain, une heureuse entente de nos intérêts réciproques nous conduit à cette conviction que, là aussi, bien peu de choses nous séparent, tandis que beaucoup nous rapprochent. L’Amérique produit en abondance des matières premières dont notre industrie a besoin; la France produit des substances alimentaires, et des articles où se distingue spécialement le goût français, et dont le luxe croissant des Amériques aura sans doute toujours besoin. Sur ces bases, les conditions d’une harmonie bien équilibrée peuvent sans trop de difficultés se dégager. Aussi voyons nous que la France est de toutes les nations de l’Europe (l’Angleterre exceptée), celle qui fait le plus d’affaires avec les États-Unis proportionnellement au chiffre de sa population et à l’étendue de son territoire, confirmant ainsi l’observation que je faisais tout à l’heure, à savoir que les lois de l’histoire doivent combiner nos efforts, et que, seule, une erreur inexcusable pourrait les séparer.

C’est pour étendre et appliquer cette opinion,—j’irai jusqu’à dire cette doctrine,—que le comité France-Amérique s’est fondé à Paris, et qu’il est venu devant vous pour travailler au développement des bonnes relations si heureusement existantes entre les deux pays. Dans tous les ordres de manifestations cordiales, on nous trouve et on nous trouvera. C’est là notre rôle et nous le revendiquons hautement.

Relations économiques, relations intellectuelles, relations sociales, relations artistiques, dans tous ces ordres d’idées, nous travaillons dans le même sens et c’est à cette initiative de notre part que nous vous prions de répondre par des sentiments et des actes analogues. Nous sommes venus vers vous; venez vers nous à votre tour.

On dit, de la pensée américaine, qu’elle se formule en termes d’action “to think in terms of action.” Eh bien! nous, nous avons formulé notre sentiment en termes d’action, en venant vingt bons compagnons j’ose le dire, appartenant aux diverses activités françaises, vous apporter pour une grande commémoration, une chose éminemment française, une _oeuvre d’art_.

Nous avons mûrement réfléchi avant de prendre ce parti et nous vous prions d’y réfléchir à votre tour. Nous n’avons aucun titre officiel; nous sommes de simples particuliers, mais nous nous sommes choisis (si vous me permettez cette expression ambitieuse) dans le désir de ne pas être trop indignes de vous et de votre confiance.

Il y eut un temps où pour la découverte des pays transatlantiques, les premiers pionniers sont partis volontairement de nos rivages: Champlain fut le plus glorieux parmi ces Français: ceux-là étaient _les volontaires de la foi et de l’espérance_. Il fut un temps où d’autres volontaires partirent pour servir une cause juste et légitime: ceux-là furent _les volontaires de la Liberté et de l’Indépendance_. Les temps sont changés; les grandes oeuvres sont accomplies. Cependant, nous aussi nous venons spontanément, pour maintenir, du moins, ce qu’ont fait nos aïeux, et nous sommes _les volontaires de l’Amitié_.

Comment cette amitié qui est un sentiment et qui est la fleur de l’âme s’exprimerait-elle mieux que par une oeuvre d’art, c’est-à-dire la fleur du goût et du génie humain?

L’art, en effet, est l’essence du travail des siècles et ses oeuvres seules survivent aux siècles. Une civilisation achevée s’exprime par l’art: l’art résume toujours ce que l’humanité sent et pense.

Par quoi connaît-on la grandeur de l’âme artistique, sinon par les monuments artistiques, l’Egypte, la Grèce, Rome, le Moyen-Age nous ont transmis leur pensée par cette langue universelle et immortelle qui s’appelle l’art. Ce que l’humanité veut faire connaître d’elle-même à l’avenir, elle le confie à l’art.

Et c’est pourquoi, comme un symbole de l’amitié franco-américaine, nous avons choisi une belle oeuvre d’art due à notre grand sculpteur Rodin.

A bord d’un bâtiment nouveau et qui s’appelle “La France,” une délégation française est venue pour vous remercier de célébrer un Français.

Par la pensée, par le commerce, par le goût du grand, du beau, du juste, par une foi identique dans la paix entre les hommes, les deux grandes démocraties que l’Océan seul sépare, sont faites pour s’aimer, se comprendre et s’unir.

Nous demandons aux Chambres de Commerce américaines de seconder l’oeuvre d’union que nous avons enterprise.

Merci aux Chambres de Commerce américaines. A tout jamais prospérité, grandeur, bonheur et gloire, à la grande République des États-Unis d’Amérique! (Loud applause.)

President Hepburn introduced the next speaker as follows: There are few homes in this country in which the benign face of Washington does not look down upon the family activities. Serious contemplation of the face of Washington must soon bring into perspective the face of that great Frenchman with whom he was so closely associated, whom he so highly esteemed, Lafayette. We are fortunate in having with us to-day a direct descendant of the great Lafayette, his great-great-grandson. He is upon this delegation as the personal representative of the Premier of the present government of France. I take great pleasure in presenting Count de Chambrun.

Count de Chambrun spoke in English.

ADDRESS OF COUNT DE CHAMBRUN

_Mr. President and Gentlemen_: The very character of the present solemnities which have brought this delegation to America awakens with us in France a peculiar feeling of sympathy and grateful retrospection. Our intellectual world, our literary men—all who are versed in historical research and who cherish the great memories of the past—look back with love and pride upon the one time humble heroes whose venturous spirit and whose wonderful foresight made of their own mother country the glorious promoter of civilization. Indeed, the ties uniting France and America have always been popular with us, and our public men have ever justly prized their great and valuable importance; but, in the present instance, the Prime Minister of the French Republic has desired to be personally represented. He, also, a patriot and a man of letters, cannot refrain from emotion when he recalls that page of our common history, when a countryman of ours with scanty means, but with vast courage and genius opened new lands and new prospects to the achievements of humanity.

And this is why M. Raymond Poincaré wishes that his own tribute should not be lacking where honors are bestowed upon our brave Champlain; it is my good fortune, gentlemen, to be the bearer of this heartfelt tribute in memory of the early traveller now famous among our great explorers.

Curiously enough, at different stages, it has been the destiny of Frenchmen to play on this proud continent a decisive part in the interest of the world’s progress. Whether as pioneers in the northern and western dominions, at a remote period when these lands were yet unknown, or later on, in time of need, when the United States sought freedom and independence, was it not Frenchmen who came again with helping swords in a new American cause, where, as volunteers and soldiers, their hearts became enlisted.

But on the other hand, we citizens of France do not forget that it was upon your virgin soil that free institutions were first sown of which we in turn were able to fully harvest.

The declaration of the American Independence preceded the declaration of the Rights of Man, and Republican Government in America preceded the establishment of Free Government in France.

Mutual action at decisive moments, as we see, has blended together the histories of France and of the United States with ever beneficial effect, leaving to-day in the hearts of both nations an unparalleled feeling of esteem and constantly well-wishing affection. (Great applause.)

President Hepburn said: “Only a few years ago we wanted the world, but now we want the air above it. We have with us to-day one of the pioneers in navigation of the air, the man who first crossed the English channel in a heavier than air machine. I present to you M. Louis Blériot.” M. Blériot said:

He had been carried away on the wings of the eloquence to heights where it was imprudent for an aviator to risk himself, and he would express simply, but with profound sincerity in behalf of French industry the great admiration which they, the workmen of old Europe, had for the great and daring efforts of America to conquer the air. That work brought men together, and united especially the citizens of America and France, already brothers by ancient bonds. Thanks to science and industry, distances were diminishing. They admired Edison and did not forget Fulton, as they recollected all those who had contributed by their invention or their initiative to widen the field of the activity of humanity. He looked forward to the time when the birds of France and the birds of America would settle on each others’ shores. (Applause.)

Addresses were also made in French by M. Louis Barthou, formerly a member of the French Cabinet, and others. They were enthusiastically received. At the luncheon which followed the meeting a toast was given in honor of the President of France which was responded to by M. Hanotaux, after which Baron D’Estournelles de Constant made an eloquent address. Since their return to France and the election of M. Raymond Poincaré to the Presidency of that Republic, M. Louis Barthou has been made President of the Council of Ministers. It is very gratifying to the many friends in America of M. Barthou that he has been so signally honored by the French nation.

VI. FRENCH VISITORS AND CHAMPLAIN COMMISSIONERS ENTERTAINED AT TICONDEROGA, LATER INSPECT CHAMPLAIN MEMORIAL LIGHTHOUSE AT CROWN POINT, WHERE THEY FORMALLY PLACE THE BUST “LA FRANCE” AND THEN JOURNEY TO PLATTSBURGH. REPORT TO PARIS

The members of the New York and Vermont Lake Champlain Commissions accompanied by His Excellency, M. Jusserand, the French Ambassador, Governor Mead of Vermont and the members of the French delegation left New York on the night train, May 2d, in special cars, which were detached from the train the next morning at Fort Ticonderoga station. The French visitors were entertained at breakfast by Mr. and Mrs. Stephen H. P. Pell at “The Pavilion,” their summer home, while the members of the Joint Commissions were entertained at breakfast by Commissioner Howland Pell in the Block House, rebuilt by him in the Germain Redoubt overlooking the Lake. Several hours were spent in looking over the ruins, fortifications and restorations, the details of which were explained by Mr. and Mrs. Stephen H. P. Pell, who own Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence. The visitors were greatly interested in all they saw, and especially the French lines, the scene of Montcalm’s victory in 1758 and the place where the battle occurred. The ancient flag of France with the Fleur-de-lis was displayed together with the Tri-color and each was saluted with formality.

Members of the delegation and Ambassador Jusserand called on Commissioner Pell at the Block House in the Germain Redoubt, where light refreshments were served.

General Lebon and other members of the delegation were quick to see the strategic importance of Ticonderoga as a military fortification to command the passage of vessels up and down the lake as well as the passage of troops through the valley. In their judgment France made no mistake in taking possession of Ticonderoga and taking her stand there and at Crown Point in her efforts to control this entire territory. The history of the struggle has been graphically described by Parkman and others and the thrilling events, culminating in and about this “Gateway of the Country,” have been given realistic settings by Ira Allen, Hon. Lucius E. Chittenden, Rev. Joseph Cook, Dr. Hamilton W. Mabie, Percy MacKaye and others. These were well known to most of the visiting savants, who were profoundly impressed with Ticonderoga and the overtowering Mount Defiance on the southwest and the commanding position of Mount Independence across the narrow lake on the southeast. All these were occupied by military forces at times during the struggle for the control of the territory.

The Commissioners and visitors left on a special train at 11.30 A. M. for Port Henry, where they were met by Commissioner Walter C. Witherbee, Hon. Frank S. Witherbee, Lieut.-Gov. Thomas F. Conway and others. While going from Ticonderoga to Port Henry, lunch was served on the train, so that upon their arrival at Port Henry, while they were being escorted to the steamer, the Witherbee band played the Marseillaise, and to the delight of the French guests, it also played the airs of several French folk songs familiar to the visitors and known to their grandparents. They proceeded directly to Crown Point Forts. This was their first experience on Lake Champlain, their first view of the memorial in the process of construction. It was far enough along, however, to reveal its stateliness and artistic design. The impression it made on M. Fernand Cormon, President of the French Academy, and on M. René Bazin, M. Étienne Lamy, M. Gabriel Hanotaux and other members of the French Academy may be drawn from the remarks of M. Hanotaux and others. Suffice it to say here that the visitors were pleased with the artistic memorial lighthouse, which, in addition to its utilitarian uses, is designed to symbolize the illumination of the light of civilization first shed in the valley by Champlain and his followers. After inspecting the memorial they suggested the permanent location for the bust “La France,” which had been temporarily placed in position and was inspected by the people from all parts of the Champlain valley. The bust was draped with the flags of the United States and the Tri-color of France and from all parts of the memorial lighthouse floated pennants and the Stars and Stripes in profusion.

Chairman H. Wallace Knapp presided at the formal exercises and in his opening address said:

_Gentlemen_: The course of the Tercentenary observations has received an interruption by a voice from across the sea. It is a friendly voice. It is a voice that is heard wherever men struggle to be free or seek to advance their welfare. It is the voice of France that spoke to us in the dark days of our early history, and bade us be of good cheer.

All through the critical periods of our history the French people and their Government have been our friends. They join us to-day in memorializing our past. They have the right to do so, for France and America have suffered and triumphed together for the same high cause and the memory of our debt to this liberty-loving people can never be forgotten. It is fitting that they place the Memorial Tablet here. It expresses to us love and friendship and they may be assured that we will guard it with proud and zealous care.

I now take great pleasure in introducing to you the acting Governor, Lieutenant-Governor Conway.

Lieut.-Gov. Thomas F. Conway in the course of his address of welcome said:

_Gentlemen_: I had the pleasure on Wednesday evening of extending to you on the part of the State of New York the appreciation of its citizens at your coming to our shores, but it is a double pleasure to welcome you to Lake Champlain, rich in French history and the pride of every one who may rightfully claim the Champlain valley as his birthplace. We believe that you will find this one of the most charming lakes you have ever visited and we trust that you will appreciate its beauties as do its inhabitants and its many visitors.

Chairman Knapp then introduced Gov. John A. Mead of Vermont.

Governor Mead in welcoming the visitors said:

The people of the Green Mountain State join with the people of the Empire State in welcoming the members of the distinguished delegation from France who have come to bring the seal of the Mother-Country to the memorial of one of her most distinguished sons. The Vermont Commission in order to do honor to that distinguished son, Samuel Champlain, united with the New York Commission in erecting this stately joint memorial to commemorate his memory, which is revered by the people of both states. We count it the greatest privilege that can fall to the lot of any man to be born along the shores of this beautiful lake, which Champlain considered worthy to bear his name.

Chairman Knapp then presented the French delegation, saying: Many Commissions have come from France to us, but all of France has never been so well represented as it is by our guests to-day. They bring in their hands the gift that has been contributed by all the classes of all the French people.

I have the pleasure of introducing to you the Chairman of the Delegation, M. Gabriel Hanotaux.

ADDRESS OF ALBERT AUGUSTE GABRIEL HANOTAUX

The states of Vermont and New York raise this monument, torch-bearer to the glory of the first Europeans who saw their territories and who foresaw their future prosperity. A French delegation has come to thank the constructors of this magnificent monument and to seal upon its base, as a sign of gratitude, an image of France.

This work of one of our greatest sculptors, Rodin, is of modest size, but it certainly expresses well what we have wished to say; it will bear testimony among you of the quality of French taste; it will depict to you France, such as we Frenchmen conceive it, such as we love it. See this countenance, smiling and at the same time grave, these delicate and pure features, these full cheeks indicating health, this firm look expressing resolution and sincerity. It is France as she wishes to be and as she is.

The France of the Crusades, the France of Joan of Arc, of Louis XIV and of Napoleon, of the Revolution, the France of the Richelieus and of the Champlains, that France cannot forget those who have worked and suffered for her, she gathers together their memory, she thanks those who remember. To the friendships and smiles that are offered her, she replies by a smile and a sincere and faithful friendship.

To mention only the most recent events: In 1910, a statue of the great Washington was offered to Versailles by the State of Virginia; in December, the Surrender of Yorktown, by J. P. Laurens, was solemnly inaugurated in the Court House of Baltimore. In 1911, commemorative monuments were erected at Savannah, at Annapolis, at Mobile. Everywhere we find memorable proofs of American sympathy. How could we do otherwise than respond?

And it is for this reason, these acts and so many similar ones having been noted through the vigilance of the Ambassador of France at Washington, that the Committee of France-America, encouraged by the French Government, took the initiative of a subscription in order to bring to the lighthouse of Champlain a souvenir of French gratitude. The subscription includes, in the first rank, the President of the French Republic, Mr. Fallières; the President of the Council of Ministers, Raymond Poincaré, the Ambassador of France at Washington, Mr. Jusserand, the majority of the French ministers and a great number of our fellow-countrymen, anxious to express their gratitude and their sympathy to the American Republic.

The delegation here present bears no official character, but Mr. Jusserand accompanies it as the representative of the French Government and the Count de Chambrun appears in it as the representative of the President of the Council. The greatest French institutions also have their representatives therein; The Institut de France, the Parliament, the French army, the State Council, the University, Industry, Commerce, the Press; finally, the descendants of three of the families that have, from the very beginning, shown their sympathy for the Franco-American cause.

Friendship—it is with this word that I wish to close, as it expresses the real character of the sentiment that animates the Committee of France-America and which its delegation has endeavored to convey in coming to you. We are friends of the great American democracy; we come toward it with outstretched hands, saying: Accept this friendship that is offered you and in return grant us yours. We have nothing more to offer you than this image of that which we love best in the world, France; and we ask nothing more of you than to understand how lively, spontaneous and sincere this sentiment is.

Since the American democracy is at the head of the great human civilizations, since it always marches forward, without, however, forgetting the bonds that bind it to the past; since it has a noble heart, a generous soul, and since, according to the word of the Latin writer, nothing human is foreign to it, we come to remind it that these sentiments are also those that animate the French democracy; and, as the two ideas are to-day united in the same monument, so may the two words be drawn closer together in the name of our Committee, France-America. We beg of you not to allow the memory of this ceremony to be effaced from your hearts, since the memory of Champlain is commemorated by you. We now confide to you the image of our beautiful France. Watch over it as over an eternal pledge of gratitude, of devotion, and of friendship. (Long applause.)

Commissioner Louis C. Lafontaine was then introduced and received the gift in the following manner, speaking in the French language:

_Excellence, Messieurs de la Délégation Française, Mesdames, Messieurs_: C’est un grand honneur pour moi, comme membre de la Commission du Troisième Centenaire de la découverte du Lac Champlain, et au nom de mes collègues, de recevoir le buste “La France” dont vous avez mission du peuple Français de venir déposer au pied du Mémorial Champlain.

La Commission se plaît à voir dans ce beau geste de la mère-patrie de Champlain le couronnement de ses efforts pour la glorification de l’un des plus illustres fils de la France.

Votre mission est maintenant remplie, mais nous vous prions de vouloir bien en accepter une autre, celle de transmettre à la nation française, les remerciements les plus sincères et les plus cordiaux de la Commission Champlain pour l’honneur qu’elle lui a fait en choisissant un si grand nombre parmi les plus illustres de ses enfants pour leur conférer l’honneur de venir apposer ce cachet d’amitié au Mémorial Porte-Lumière destiné à perpétuer le souvenir du Grand Champlain!

This concluded the formal exercises.

The visitors were then shown the ruins of Fort St. Frédéric and of the English Forts, now included in the state reservation known as the Crown Point Reservation, which are among the best preserved original fortifications of the country.

The discoveries which are being made in and about the old French Fort under the direction of Annie E. (Mrs. Walter C.) Witherbee, are such as may lead to the rewriting of a description of these forts. She has located the ovens and found the oven doors, candle-sticks, snuffers, glassware, blue and white china of Fort St. Frédéric, built in 1731, the underground drain, from the English Forts, built of stone two and one-half feet high, resting on a solid rock and twenty inches in width in perfect condition. She has also found the casemate and bastions around the English Forts, which were built in 1759 by Amherst. She has opened up the old forge and found many relics such as a gun-carriage, chairs, knives, spades, iron bars, bolts and other articles. The most remarkable discovery from a geological point of view was that of a glacier mill 14 feet and 7 inches in depth, containing spherical stones, unknown in the vicinity. Mrs. Witherbee has procured copies of old charts and maps from British archives relating to the region. She is also making a valuable historical collection of books, manuscripts and autographs of persons, who have written about or have been occupants of the forts now in ruins, but included in the State Reservation. These will throw new light on the history of the region to the lasting credit of Mrs. Witherbee, who intends to continue her researches in this hitherto unexplored field.

At three-forty o’clock, P. M., the Commissioners, accompanied by His Excellency Ambassador Jusserand and the French delegation, boarded the special train for Plattsburgh under the escort of Hon. John H. Booth and Hon. John B. Riley. Upon their arrival at Plattsburgh, they were officially welcomed by Mayor Andrew G. Senecal, the Guard of Honor, and St. Jean Baptiste Society in full uniform. The depot was trimmed with the American and French flags and the U. S. Reservation at Plattsburgh Barracks had been put in readiness by Colonel Cowles, Post Commandant, for the reception of the visitors to witness a dress parade in their honor. As they entered the Reservation, a national salute was fired and the regimental band played La Marseillaise and the Star Spangled Banner. The Fifth Infantry in full dress uniform was drawn up and saluted the distinguished visitors with military honors. Colonel Cowles and his staff were formally presented by Hon. H. Wallace Knapp to Ambassador Jusserand, M. Gabriel Hanotaux, General Lebon, Count de Chambrun, M. Étienne Lamy and others. The visitors were escorted to the temporary platform, whereupon the Hon. V. F. Boire, speaking in French in behalf of the people of Plattsburgh, welcomed the visitors. The English version of his address is substantially as follows:

_Gentlemen_: It is a great pleasure as well as a special privilege to welcome you to the city of Plattsburgh and the county of Clinton on this important occasion of your peace errand. It is a pleasure to welcome you for many reasons. The personnel of your delegation has so many illustrious and honored names; so many of them dear to the hearts of the American people, that we welcome you individually and personally, and we feel that you should be at home here. In the average American heart, there is enshrined on either side of George Washington the memory of Rochambeau and Lafayette, so no man bearing either name is a stranger in the country of Washington, nor is he a stranger here, who is accredited from their native land.

As representatives of the great French Republic, you are welcome to the nation that the old France sustained and befriended in the hour of its almost hopeless struggle for liberty. You are twice welcome in this particular spot; discovered and explored by the great Champlain, trodden by the intrepid foot of Montcalm, and sought out by the zealous heart of Jogues. It would be impossible to honor us more than to permit us to see and hear representatives of so many branches of French activities and learning, of men and institutions that have made for the progress and enlightenment of the world; and in this particular locality, where there are so many descendants of the French, this occasion affords an entirely distinct and peculiar pleasure to the people.

Significant at this time and indirectly connected with your visit, and of interest in connection with your visit, are the great peace projects now planned between the United States and the British Empire. One is the Quebec-Miami International Highway which is an assured fact, as a result of which a great International Highway is actually being built, connecting the southern part of Florida with the city of Quebec, and linking Canada and the United States with a strong bond of friendship and good will. This road will pass through the city of Plattsburgh and its length will be dotted with monuments dedicated to peace. And it is intended that all travellers of this highway between Canada and the United States will pass beneath an arch dedicated in the hope that no hostile foot will ever tread beneath. This we believe to be a practical peace pact.

The monuments and arch just referred to are part of the second and most widely known of the peace projects. By that I mean, the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of peace between the English speaking peoples (which also seems to be an assured fact), to occur in 1914. By a singular coincidence, the year 1914 will also mark the one hundredth anniversary of the last war between French speaking and English speaking peoples. It would seem to me a most lamentable thing if this celebration were not made a double celebration in commemoration of the one hundred years of peace between the great French speaking peoples and English speaking peoples as well as between the English speaking peoples. And let us hope that the year 1914 will also witness the adoption of all the Arbitration Treaties under French speaking nations and English speaking nations;—and thus we may hope that the year 1914 will not only be as a monument to the century of peace in the past, but that it will also be a monument for the peace of the centuries that are to come.

The visitors demonstrated their pleasure over his remarks by vigorous applause. M. Étienne Lamy was then introduced and, speaking in French, told of the pleasure of himself and his associates at the hearty reception they had received at every place they had visited since coming to America and said that at no place was the reception more cordial than at Plattsburgh. General Lebon was the next speaker and his remarks were also in French. He spoke of the great achievements of the French people in all walks of life and especially in the military sphere. Count de Chambrun spoke in English and told of the great friendship which has existed between France and the United States ever since the first blow was struck by the colonies for liberty; how the Republic of the East, through him and his associates, sent greetings and promises of everlasting friendship to the Republic of the West. M. Gabriel Hanotaux spoke briefly in French and Ambassador Jusserand made a few remarks in both English and French, expressing his pleasure in again visiting Plattsburgh. The Saranac Chapter of the D. A. R. turned out in force with their regent. Mrs. George F. Tuttle, and were accompanied by the Nathan Beman Chapter of the Children of the American Revolution bearing the American colors. The D. A. R. delegation was seated on the grandstand at the left of the French visitors.

Mrs. George F. Tuttle, the regent of the Saranac Chapter, D. A. R., and president of the Nathan Beman Chapter, D. A. R., of Plattsburgh, both of which organizations took part in the reception of the French Delegation, expressed her pleasure and that of her Chapter at taking part in welcoming the visitors, and also said:

The Saranac Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution and Nathan Beman Society, Children of the American Revolution wish to extend greetings to the French delegation who have so honored us by their presence. It may be of interest to one of this distinguished company, the Count de Chambrun, to know that among the Daughters who listened with delight to his remarks, was one whose mother, Mrs. Frederick Sailly, had the pleasure of entertaining, as the wife of Major Russell, at Fort Niagara, the Count’s honored ancestor, General Lafayette.

After regimental dress parade the visitors were returned to the depot by automobile and left for Montreal on the regular 6 o’clock train, expressing themselves enthusiastically in appreciation of the festivities arranged in their honor in this country.

One of the French delegation, M. Gaston Deschamps, on May 3, 1912, reported to _Le Temps_, published in Paris, the exercises at Crown Point and Plattsburgh, which is a graphic description of the impressions made upon the visitors on that occasion. From that report we excerpt the following, giving the English instead of the French original:

People have come from all the cities and towns about Port Henry; from all the villages and hamlets near the Canadian frontier, to greet the French delegation. A band of musicians advances and plays the “Marseillaise”—a Marseillaise slow, sweet, as though languishing from the affectionate and cajoling tenderness of our friends in the United States and New France. Our Marseillaise lends itself admirably to that metamorphosis, and the warlike march of the Army of the Rhine easily becomes, when one beats _adagio maestoso_ time, a hymn of solemn measure and touchingly religious.

Hon. Walter C. Witherbee, one of the most distinguished citizens of Port Henry, is the President of the Inauguration Committee of the Champlain Monument at Crown Point. For several years he has devoted the best part of his time and his efforts to the work of the American and French commemorations of which we to-day see the happy outcome. He has applied himself with all his heart to this intellectual and moral enterprise, and he has brought to the service of his tenacious idealism all the practical judgment of an excellent business man. I have learned—not from him, for Mr. Witherbee is modesty itself—all that he has done for the celebration of the third centenary of Champlain. Treasurer of the New York Commission, he is the one especially who, with Senator Henry W. Hill and Mr. John R. Myers, put through the necessary measures before the Government at Washington, to the end that the commemorative festivities might be exceptionally brilliant.

Mr. Clinton Scollard has sung the glory of Champlain:

A valiant son of that intrepid line Which gave fair lustre to the fame of France.

Another poet, Mr. Percy MacKaye, has celebrated in his “Ballad of Ticonderoga” the heroic defenders of Fort Carillon. Dr. Daniel L. Cady has dedicated a whole bouquet of lyric verses to the picturesque beauties of Lake Champlain and to the bravery of the good sailor of Saintonge:

The Brouage sailor * * * * * * Long live the Xaintongeois * * *

It seems to me that at certain times “Young America” is in truth “Old France.” This impression is strengthened still more after we have embarked on the steamer which is to take us to the opposite shore of the lake, to the promontory where the monument to the heroes of this magnificent fête is erected. This monument is not yet finished. But the figure of the “Lord of Champlain, geographer to the King, and captain of the Navy of the West,” is present in all minds because on the pedestal of granite, under the gleam of the lighthouse, it is visible from top to toe in the eyes of all sailors in quest of a good route in these parts. Here he is, with his good face, a trifle broad, and very strong, his moustache curled up at the ends, and his small pointed beard in the fashion of Louis XIII.; his lips, prompt to reply, but skillful in keeping a secret; his large, thoughtful forehead, his eyes full of dreaminess, and at the same time skilled in the exact knowledge of men and things by the habit of his profession of watching the caprices of the inconstant sea, of the changing heavens, and of the varying breezes. His lake, that “Sea of the Iroquois,” whose Odysseyan distances he skimmed in birch-bark canoes paddled by tattooed Hurons, with whom he felt at home—being, in the words of a narrator of his voyages, “a man who was astonished at nothing, and a ready talker, knowing how to accost these people tactfully and to accommodate himself to their ways”—his lake we overlook to-day from the bulwarks of a steamer decorated with all the splendor of holidays. His work is finished. What he foresaw, what he predicted, what he prepared, has been realized. Civilization has laid hold upon all these countries where he was the first explorer and of which he foretold in his writings the future harvest. Here is the landscape whose picture he has described so vividly that one can, after having read his “Voyages and Discoveries”, easily find one’s way and recognize the different points; the immensity of this lake, whose fertile shores stretch in endless perspective; the hillsides covered with forests; the islands “where there are plenty of walnuts and vines and pretty meadows.” * * * In place of the encampments stockaded by the Iroquois or by the Mohegans, filled with the noise of the tom-tom and the war dance, there are now pleasant country houses where men and women of a less turbulent race can henceforth enjoy a happiness which is no longer menaced by the unreasoned impulses of a primitive and barbarous humanity.

As our steamer pulls out from the port and traverses the waves, gilded by the sun, in the track which the achievements of Champlain have traced, we see the buildings of Port Henry rise one above the other like an amphitheatre among the forests in the woodland clearing. On the battlefield where the conqueror, peaceful and brave, was forced to use his blunderbuss, there are now shipbuilders’ yards, warehouses, factory chimneys. * * * The horizon, under the vast dome of the blue sky, is beautified by the whiteness of the snows, which shine with a silvery splendor on the tops of the Adirondack Mountains and of those Green Mountains which have given their ancient French name to the American State Vert Mont (Vermont).

The weather is marvellous. This is the most beautiful day of our trip; a day of brightness and of glory; what the Americans call a “glorious day.” A fine breeze which comes from afar makes the gay colors of the oriflamme flutter from the halyards of the ship. The French delegation is gay. We are happy to see this admirable scenery, which was discovered by the eyes of a Frenchman. One of our number is especially captivated by the beauty of this spectacle; it is the great painter Cormon, appointed more than any one else, as one who could understand and feel the charm of this vision, because his art is exercised and triumphs by turns in the magnificent understanding of primitive times and in the fine meaning of the beauties imagined by the modern æsthetic. We are happy to see that his ready and true pencil has caught in passing some of the scenes from the fairyland before us. Our notes on the trip will thus be much more accurate because of a true, exact and sincere illustration, which would have been the delight of honest Champlain.

In honor of the heroes of this festival, and to please us, Mr. Witherbee’s musicians play the airs which were most pleasing to the good mariners who came with Champlain from Saintonge or from Aunis—the old songs of Old France. “C’est le roi Dagobert,” “J’ai du bon tabac dans ma tabatière,” “La bonne aventure, ô gué.” * * *

Apropos of this, a Canadian whom I met at this delightful festival of French remembrance told me that these songs, brought by Champlain’s sailors, preserved by Montcalm’s sailors, still exist among “our people” all through the country.

“Among us are still played on the hurdy-gurdy those refrains of long ago. We transmit them in the family, from father to son, like a charming echo of the far away mother country. If you come to our French villages in Canada, Monsieur, to Beauharnais, to Saint Hilaire, to Maisonneuve, to Sorel, to Trois-Rivières, you will hear all sorts of pleasant couplets which come in a direct line from Angoumois, from Normandy, from Saintonge, from Poitou—and I, too, come from Poitou.

“So, then. Monsieur,” adds my Canadian questioner, laughingly, “We will sing you some Poitevine songs, which will recall your childhood days and the quaint melodies of the country-folk over there. We have a good collection of them. You will only have the embarrassment of choice.”

And that good Frenchman of Canada begins to name over for me a whole string of ancient sayings, which have retained the perfume and, as it were, the melancholy softness of the gardens of the past. First of all a “danse ronde”:

Dans ma main droite y-a-t-un rosier Qui fleurira, manon lon la, Qui fleurira au mois de mai. Entrez en danse, joli rosier! Et embrassez, manon lon la, Et embrassez qui vous plaira.

Indeed, I have heard that ingenious melody at home. To hear again, so far from home, the words and the spirit of our old rural France, hard-working all the week and always ready to dance and to “baller” during the Sunday leisure, is an impression not to be forgotten and which at first seems like a dream.

“We also have,” my Canadian said to me, “the ‘Clear Fountain.’ Everybody in Canada knows that romance, which came from Normandy. We also have some ‘chansons de filasse’ (flax songs) sung in tremulous voice by our good grandmothers: ‘En filant ma quenouille.’ Our Bretons have preserved their sea songs: ‘A Saint-Malo, beau port de mer.’ Or ‘Dans les prisons de Nantes.’ And also:

Fringue, fringue sur la rivière Fringue, fringue sur l’aviron.”

While thus, in that fine light, on the limpid water, under the tender blue of a crystal sky, the heroic and charming soul of our ancestors was evoked, our ship, surrounded by a whole fleet of decorated barks, draws near the pier at Crown Point and stops in front of the monument of Champlain. This monument is a lighthouse, of gray granite, sparkling with grains of mica which shine in the sun like the facets of precious stones. The location of that edifice is well adapted to the calling and the glory of him who was in these parts the guide of navigators. In front of that lighthouse, on the prow of a symbolic vessel, there stands upright the figure of the good pilot whose wake we have followed. * * * While awaiting the completion of the statue, which has been begun, we have fastened to the pedestal the image of France, modelled with infinitely delicate love by the strong hand of the sculptor Rodin. That will be a token and, as it were, the sign of the mother country on the monument which commemorates and consecrates a French achievement.

At the moment when that image, veiled by the flags of France and of the United States, is uncovered, appears to the gaze of the assembled crowd, the Marseillaise vibrates in the resonant light. Our American friends and the Canadians present applaud and cheer. We are deeply moved, we Frenchmen, before this figure, where we recognize clearly the force and the sweetness of the mother country, the uprightness of her thoughts, the loftiness of her sentiments, the nobility of her generous desires. Never has an artist’s idea better expressed by the sovereign gift of art all that there is of depth, of rarity, of the unique, in hearts animated by the imperative desire to maintain the dominion of France; to enhance her glory. The head of the French delegation, M. Gabriel Hanotaux, of the French Academy, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, accompanied by the French Ambassador and the Governors of the States of New York and of Vermont, delivers that precious pledge of remembrance and of hope to the friendship of the American people. His eloquent words are most appropriate to the occasion which reunites us, to the decorations which astonish us, to the character of the great man whose admirable work gives us, at the end of three centuries, the joy of seeing in this place the infinite results of a French undertaking. The orator, in reviewing the life and work of Champlain, points out how similar to Corneille was the soul of that contemporary of Richelieu, and how this discoverer of new ways, this builder of towns, this initiator of civilization into the New World, this idealist, prompt in the realization of his ideas, has succeeded by the power of a thoughtful desire, preparing his projects far in advance by prudent thought, wisely conceived, rapidly executed—having, in a word, as a historian has said in the temperate and forceful language of long ago, “the intentions of all he did.”

After M. Hanotaux, the Governors of New York and Vermont spoke. Their excellent discourses, warmly applauded, reminded me again how well the history of Champlain is known in America. In him they honor by turns the incarnation of the genius of France; the honor and chivalry of France. To that explorer, to that colonizer, they give that beautiful name of “honest man” which our ancestors of the seventeenth century claimed more passionately than any other title: navigator, explorer, honest man. * * *

After that moving ceremony we were taken in automobiles to the ruins of Fort Frédéric, which was constructed in 1731 by the Marquis de Beauharnois. The whole population of Port Henry comes with us; they surround us, showing us every courtesy.

In a group of children I see a pretty little boy with blue eyes.

“Doest thou know French”?

“Yes, sir.”

“What is thy name”?

“Henri Pigeon.”

With a name so extremely French one does not need a certificate of origin. A French priest, Father Guttin, professor in the College of Saint-Michel at Burlington, on the other shore of Lake Champlain, told me that Henri Pigeon is one of many children of a very honorable and hard-working Canadian family. The father of that child works in the mines at Port Henry.

PLATTSBURGH, Same Day, _May 3, 1912_, 5:30 o’clock.

The train, since leaving Port Henry, has traversed the left bank of Lake Champlain. As we pass I notice shores of golden sand, hills thickly shaded by foliage, pines, whose brilliant verdure glows on the azure of the blue water. Here is the island of Valcour. * * * What a pity not to be able to stop at all the stations on that railroad, with its many villages with French names.

Plattsburgh is nearly the last American town before reaching the Canadian frontier. It is full of remembrances of the War of Independence. The Federal Government of the United States has established a strong garrison there. Here again swift automobiles await us. The owner of one of these brilliant vehicles literally carries me to the threshold of the station, at a lively pace, and on the way said to me, in a calm, jolly voice:

“I am French, Monsieur; this is my son Raymond. We have only half an hour to see our countrymen. And, well, we want to make the best of it.”

All this was said with a pleasing country accent. It is the accent we use in our country. * * * The auto stops at the entrance to a training field, where the Fifth Regiment of Infantry of the Regular Army of the United States is ranged in order of battle. The American Government wishes, at that last station in her territory, to do us great honor, due, no doubt, to the presence as a member of our delegation of General Lebon, former Commander-in-Chief of our First Army Corps.

The General takes his place on a platform in front of the public stand. The regiment band plays the Marseillaise, which is followed by the solemn notes of the American hymn, the Star Spangled Banner. The Mayor of Plattsburgh addresses us in French, bidding us welcome. The procession starts immediately. A very excellent showing of troops, by a young colonel (Calvin D. Cowles), who manages a fiery horse most excellently, and who is surrounded by a body-guard of officers dressed in uniforms heavily adorned with gold braid and shoulder pieces of blue silk. A faultless procession; the sections well in line, the pace lively, the carriage very military. When the starry flag passed, everybody stood up and removed their hats. This scene is framed in a background of mountains and the blue line of the lake, now lighted by the slanting rays of the setting sun. After the military carriages had passed the colonel, accompanied by his staff, came and stood before the stand, and with a sweeping gesture saluted us with his sword. The American nation could not bid a more magnificent farewell to a delegation in which figure the descendants of Rochambeau and Lafayette, and who belong to a nation faithful to the traditions of a memorable fraternity in arms.

SAINT JEAN, Same Day, _May 3, 1912_, 7 o’clock.

We have crossed the frontier. The evening falls over the Canadian fields. From a clock exactly like those in the French parishes there comes the aerial call of the Angelus. * * * Instantly, in the station of Saint Jean there is heard a great clamor. “Vive la France!” Imagine an immense crowd, packed around the train, preventing it from starting; waving three-colored banners; singing at the top of their lungs the songs of this land and of the home land; the songs which, among us, are sung to welcome parents and friends. Hands are extended; eyes seek other eyes. One might call it the reunion of a family a long time separated. We are happy to meet again. We detain each other. * * * There are so many things to say to each other. * * * Everyone who has been present at this Canadian welcome will treasure in the depths of his heart the remembrance of that moment never to be forgotten.

This journey has been fertile in rapid and diverse impressions, carried away, alas! too quickly by the flight of time. It was at times like artificial fire; too quickly vanished. * * * But this here—and I purposely make use of a familiar phrase, which will be well understood by the French on both shores of the Atlantic—this, is in truth the bouquet! (Ceci, c’est véritablement le bouquet).

GASTON DESCHAMPS.

VII. THEY VISIT CANADA, NIAGARA FALLS AND SAIL FOR FRANCE. IMPRESSIONS AND COMMENTS BY FRENCH VISITORS ON EXPERIENCES IN AMERICA

Their reception by the Board of Trade and Chamber of Commerce and Citizens Association in Montreal was very hospitable. A banquet was tendered the visiting delegation in the evening of May 4th and on the following day a luncheon was given them by the Franco-American Committee of Canada. Their reception at Quebec on May 6th was also very cordial. They were greatly interested in the city founded three centuries back by Samuel Champlain. They visited its churches, its Parliament buildings, the Heights of Abraham, and placed a wreath of flowers on the tomb of Montcalm. They were pleased with the majestic sweep of the St. Lawrence, the Falls of Montmorency and with the bracing air of Quebec, whose surrounding hills were white with snow. Among the many who united in entertaining them while in Canada were Senator Raoul Dandurand, President of the Franco-American Committee of Canada, Sir Lomer Gouin, Premier of the Province, M. Monk, Minister of Public Works, Lieutenant-Governor Langelier, M. Montagu Allan, Vice-President of the Franco-American Committee of Montreal, Mgr. Bégin of Laval University, Messrs. R. W. Reford and Chaput, Presidents of the Canadian Chambers of Commerce, M. Revol, President of the Montreal Chamber of Commerce, M. Montpetit and M. de Crèvecœur, M. Ferdinand Roy, President of the Canadian Institute at Quebec, and many others. The mental exhilaration of the visitors increased as they moved about amid the French speaking people of the Province, where the descendants of French colonists with French customs dominated its language, its laws and its institutions. On their return to France they spoke very appreciatively of their visit to the Dominion of Canada, its hospitable people and of its possibilities.

On their return from Canada via Niagara Falls, they were met there by Senator Henry W. Hill, Secretary of the Commission, and were entertained at luncheon by General Francis V. Greene, who in faultless Parisian French paid a glowing tribute to their countrymen. He escorted them about the Falls and showed them the power plants on the Canadian shore and took them in a special car around the Gorge Route. They were deeply interested in the Falls, the Whirlpool and power houses. They took the evening train for New York, where they embarked on _La Provence_, May 9th, for France.

Commissioners Howland Pell and Senator James A. Foley and Viscount de Jean of the French Embassy at Washington, Senator Raoul Dandurand of Montreal and others were on the dock to bid them “farewell” and “bon voyage.” Each gentleman of the delegation was presented with a photograph of the Waldorf-Astoria banquet and each lady with a bouquet of La France roses.

All the delegates were charmed with the cordiality of their reception, both in the United States and Canada, and most of them expressed their intention of coming again.

M. Gabriel Hanotaux, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and president of the delegation, in a conversation before _La Provence_ left the quay, said:

I believe that the time has come for closer relations to be developed between France and America from many points of view. There is one point beyond doubt. We have seen recently that when France withdraws her financial support from any international project the carrying out of the project is at any rate delayed. France is a rich country, and has money to invest, but she must first see that her interests are safeguarded. In America the thing that struck me and most of the delegation was the prodigious activity everywhere. Everything in the country gives evidence of unique strength which must play a great rôle in the world. I am really charmed with my first visit to the United States and Canada and hope to have an opportunity of coming again. We in France are convinced that trade can be improved to a great extent. The present statistics do not, however, give France her proper place, as a great deal of the French trade passes across the Atlantic on British, Belgian and German vessels and is credited to the first port of debarkation, although many of the American exports eventually go to France.

M. Gabriel Hanotaux, in referring to French literature, said:

The greatest error appears to exist in American and British minds on the subject of French literature. I myself know that the French love a pure literature and I am certain that that kind of writing is the only kind that is profitable in France itself. All the modern French writers, too, are of the same opinion. The indelicate French books appear to be written only for the foreigner, for they have no vogue whatever in France.

On a prior occasion M. Gabriel Hanotaux expressed the pleasure of the delegation at the reception given it in this country, saying that from the moment they had placed foot upon this soil they have been captivated and carried away in a whirlwind of cordiality and good-fellowship. About the reception by President Taft the French statesman said:

The President, despite his overwhelming occupations, received us at his table; in the very kindest manner he honored, in our persons, the thought which has brought us here. He was so kind as to give us personally, in connection with our visit, assurances of his encouragement and approval; which have been for us an ample reward. These countless acts of friendship of all kinds we have looked upon—and rightly so—as being addressed to our beloved mother country and to the Government of the French Republic which has so splendidly encouraged and aided us in the accomplishment of our mission.

On its return from America, the French delegation which had attended the Champlain exercises, was entertained in Paris at a grand dinner, on June 17, 1912. It was a truly brilliant assemblage, presided over by M. Raymond Poincaré, President of the Council, and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Prominent among the large number at the tables were the sculptor, Rodin; Paul Hervieu, of the French Academy; Louis Barthou, deputy and former Minister; General Brugère, former vice-president of the Conseil Supérieur of War, and president of the United States section of the Franco-American Committee; and many others eminent in the official, military, naval, financial, literary and art circles of France. The aviator, Blériot, was a guest, representative of a putative new science. Many ladies also graced the occasion.

Among the Americans in attendance was the American Ambassador, the Hon. Myron Herrick, to whom the presiding officer, M. Poincaré, in his opening remarks, most happily referred as having come “to testify that his country, less near to us by parentage than is Canada, is still just as near at heart.” American hospitality, he said, which surprises and charms the French, whenever they cross the ocean, is but an expression of a constant memory. “As Monsignor Ireland so well says: ‘The United States forget nothing. In learning the history of his own country, an American learns to love France. The Past has not ceased to be felt in the Present. American sentiment is unable to detach itself from France. Emigrants, it is true, arrive in vast numbers on our soil; but there is a something, I know not what, in the air we breathe, that assimilates them in less than a generation. And the new-comers become like the earlier ones.’”

M. Gabriel Hanotaux, of the French Academy, President of the Franco-American Committee, reviewed the experiences of the French delegation in their journey to Lake Champlain, and in his very felicitous remarks, “addressed, across the seas, a salutation of thanks and of gratitude, on the part of France to the United States of America and to the Dominion of Canada, in response to the welcome extended by these two countries, last month, to the French delegation visiting Lake Champlain.” He drew a lively picture of incidents of the journey, especially of the arrival at Ticonderoga:

“It is impossible to express the emotion which we felt when we saw that there was the goal of our journey; that our feet would tread in the footsteps of our great compatriots of by-gone ages; that this little bay was where Champlain embarked, in the Indian canoes, to go to discover, southwards, the land where sprang up Boston and New York; that here were those famous passes, defended, later on, foot by foot by the French heroes of the 17th and 18th centuries; that these ruins are of Fort Carillon; that these fields, these hills and woods, were the battle ground where Montcalm had fought and conquered; and that here, in a word, was the lake toward which we had fared all these weeks, and where we came to enshrine, at the foot of the commemorative monument, the image which we had brought, with precious care—from the land of France, on the ship _La France_, the image of France!”

The speaker paid graceful tribute to the genius of Rodin; dwelt upon the welcome which the delegation had met with in Canada; thanked all who had contributed to the pleasure and success of the mission, and concluded by proposing the health of the President of the United States, His Majesty George the Fifth, the people of all Latin America, of the delegation’s hosts in the United States and Canada, and of the Franco-American Committee.

He was followed by Senator Dandurand, President of the Franco-American Committee of Montreal, who spoke of Canadian development, and of the relations of Canada and the United States. At the close of his address he was invested with the insignia of the Legion of Honor.

Then followed the address of the Deputy, Louis Barthou, which sparkled with wit and happy hits. The speaker paid particular tribute to M. Hanotaux; dwelt upon the enthusiasm with which their delegation had been met, and made repeated acknowledgment of the courtesies they had received. His Excellency, M. Puga-Borne, Minister from Chili, spoke briefly, and was followed by the American Ambassador, Mr. Herrick, who happily acknowledged the compliments and courtesies bestowed upon him and his country, and closed by proposing the health of the President of the French Republic. The exercises were concluded by a brief address from the presiding officer, M. Raymond Poincaré, who referred to the part which the Franco-American Committee had borne in the carrying out of the Champlain commemorative project.

On May 25, 1912, the newly-appointed Ambassador from the United States to France, Mr. Myron T. Herrick, and Mrs. Herrick, gave a reception at the American Embassy to the French delegation which represented France in the Champlain ceremonies. Some seventy guests were present, and were welcomed by the Ambassador in a felicitous speech, to which M. Hanotaux replied most happily in behalf of the delegation. M. Antonin Dubost also spoke on the unbroken amity so long existing between France and the United States.

The _Courrier des États-Unis_ of November 10, 1912, published an address delivered at the annual meeting of the Five Academies by M. Paul Vidal de la Blache, delegate of the Academy of Moral and Political Science. On the occasion referred to, M. Frédéric Masson, of the French Academy, presided. M. de la Blache said in opening his address:

“_Gentlemen_: In the course of a journey which a French delegation made last spring, to pay homage to the memory of Samuel Champlain, there was one day interesting above all others. I am sure none of our company will lose the memory of it. Many have eloquently expressed the impression which they cherish. Impressions of travel are usually fleeting; they become dim by their very multiplicity, and the daily train of events soon relegates them to the limbo of the forgotten. However, the memory of this day has not ceased after several months to spring freshly to mind. Such is the quality of countries which are stamped by the seal of history. To know the regions upon which the eyes of Champlain rested, to press under foot the fragments of palisades upon which was spilled the blood of the soldiers of Montcalm, is assuredly a moving experience.”

The speaker found that a visit to places thus endowed with associations, was like reviewing history condensed. He sketched the course of history in the Champlain valley, recalled the scenes of strife between Iroquois and Huron, English and French, English and “Americans of the Union.” “These memories,” he said, “crowded upon our thought and took form as we visited the scene which served to frame them.” The speaker lightly reviewed the varied scene as presented to the French visitors passing northward from New York to Ticonderoga. When he found himself on the battlefield of July 8, 1758, he exclaimed: “How fiction pales before history!” The memories of Montcalm and his army are so vivid that he sees again the memorable conflict of the old days. “This corner of historic earth,” he said, “by turn the property of the State of New York and of Columbia University, in 1818 passed into the hands of an old New York family. The descendants of Mr. William F. Pell honor themselves in preserving the souvenirs of the past, which they have in keeping.” He described the work of restoration which has been done at Ticonderoga, and dwelt with pleasure on the reception accorded the visitors at the old house with its souvenirs, its old furniture, pictures and relics, and with its distinctive portico, or veranda, which M. de la Blache found an interesting feature of Anglo-American Colonial architecture, from New England to Virginia.

Crossing to Crown Point, he reviewed in like strain the scenes and the associations of the place. At Crown Point, the speaker was overwhelmed by the memory that here, in 1609, came Champlain with his Algonquin allies. In a few picturesque sentences, he sketched the first conflict in this region, of white man against Iroquois, not forgetting to emphasize the higher mission which Champlain sought to accomplish.

Of the exercises which were held at this point, where M. Hanotaux delivered a notable address, M. de la Blache spoke at length. It was, he said, a ceremony very beautiful in its simplicity. “Around us familiarly crowded the people of the neighborhood, worthy farmers with something of a Puritan aspect, an attentive throng in which mingled many French Canadians; for we had come near to the actual boundary line of the languages.” “While the orator recalled the expressions by which Champlain described the country which revealed itself to us, our attention sought and found the distinctive features in the setting of this scene. Opposite, on the western shore, reared the massive granite of the Adirondacks, wooded, and partly covered with snow, the silhouette of which recalled, in grander proportion, that of the mountains of Morvan, seen from the south. On the other side, the more distant outline of the Green mountains, bathed in the luminous calm of a spring-time day.”

In similar vein, the speaker described his progress down the lake to Plattsburgh, where he recalled the associations of 1814. Thence on to the first Canadian town of St. John: “The fading day permitted us only to dimly see in the shadows of evening the Grand Isle, Isle La Motte, Isle aux Noix, which Champlain describes as ‘These beautiful islands filled with the finest woods and prairies,’” etc. The speaker passed on in his address to recall his visit to Montreal and Quebec, with tributes to the heroes of France who have made this region famous. “There remains to-day in our minds,” he says, “a sentiment of high regard for those who inspired in 1909 the commemoration of the tercentenary of Champlain’s discovery. Resulting from the initiative of the states of New York and Vermont, and endorsed by Federal authority and later honored by the participation of France, this celebration has taken a more general character than the mere glorification of a great man. It signifies the adoption by America of all the heroes who have contributed to our greatness. This homage was not confined to Champlain; it is shared with Montcalm, it is addressed to La Salle, to Marquette, whose statue appears in the Capitol at Washington; to Maisonneuve, the founder of Montreal, to whom is reared a statue upon one of the city places; to La Clède, whose statue is reared in one of the parks of St. Louis; to Joliet, to d’Iberville, to Hennepin and Duluth, and to many others who, on Lake Champlain, on the Ohio, on the Great Lakes, or on the Mississippi, were the pioneers of a dominion, which should come to be realized some day, but far after them and otherwise than they would have conceived. Doubtless America honors herself in honoring and adopting our glories. With this act of courtesy mingles a strong sentiment of pride. It costs us nothing, however, to associate ourselves with an homage which concerns us, and from which we can draw a sense of consolation.

“The names which I have recalled are more popular in America than in their own country. We show ourselves forgetful of their fame, as if to make their memories bear the blame of our failings. A somewhat pusillanimous feeling makes us neglect this part of our historic inheritance, as one turns aside from painful memories, the bitterness of which he fears. These regrets assuredly are justified. ‘_Sic vos non vobis_’: such is the phrase which springs to the lips. I do not believe, however, that such should be the last word, nor the final sentiment at which we ought to stop. In an address delivered three years ago, July 4, 1909, on the occasion of the Champlain Tercentenary fêtes, Cardinal Gibbons said: ‘We are much indebted to France for the great men whom she has sent to our country.’ Must one see in these words only a passing compliment? Rather do I perceive therein the emphasis of history. These Frenchmen, above all others, had prophetic vision of the extent and dimensions which this continent could afford to political domination. They perceived with larger vision than the tenacious colonists who applied their Puritan virtue and their practical sense to inlaying their settlements, one by one, between the sea and the Appalachians. These were the founders; but we may ask whether, without the perspectives opened by our countrymen, without their example and the emulation which it stimulated, this powerful unity, of which our epoch has seen the accomplishment from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, would be realized. There is a something in the views, the plans, of this generalizing spirit, characteristic of our compatriots. Thinking of France, they have outlived the grandeur of the United States. Since by commemorations and by monuments, America honors herself by reminding us that in her eyes, as happy inheritor, a part of her present grandeur is the work of Frenchmen of other days, it becomes us to take her at her word. In the work of civilization, as it evolves, each bit of metal which the old nations throw into the crucible adds a quality and communicates its own resonance to the ingot which comes out. Doubtless it is to recover this past, which arouses hope within us—something besides the memory of deceit, the sense of having lost what the heroic contemporaries of Richelieu and Colbert caught sight of, for their country. Our American work is not to be summed up as a failure. It is the Americans themselves who recognize this and who say it.”

VIII. IMPRESSIONS OF M. RENÉ BAZIN

In the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ for September, 1912, is published a pleasant article by M. René Bazin, of the French Academy, entitled “Paysages d’Amérique,” in which he gives a graphic and poetic account of his American visit as a member of the French delegation, which presented the statue of France for the Champlain memorial. He tells of the voyage, paints vividly his first impressions of New York, chats of his visit to Washington, with many fresh impressions of scenes and people. His article, which is in journal form, brings him to Lake Champlain, May 3, 1912. After noting various incidents of the journey north, he continues:

Since last evening we have traveled by special train to the banks of Lake Champlain. Early this morning, the sensation of being still awoke me. I opened the window of the Pullman and saw that we were stopped on a siding, in the open country. Day was breaking; the sun had not yet risen. Before me, at the right of the railroad, were low lands, grassy, wild, like neglected pastures. Further on, a great house under the elms, and further yet the waters of the lake, the gleam of which came to me in rays between the white mists which rolled up. The silence was perfect. It was the season, already past with us, when the blackbirds at day-break poise themselves on the top of the trees.

Nothing was lacking. The outlines of the hills beyond the lake and above the mists, were of a vivid blue, and, suddenly, the globe of the sun showed itself. Presently a great heron, seeking the woods, came on wing, his legs like a rudder, and crossed over the bank. I hear the sound of the beats of his short wings; I hear the coming of a train on the distant horizon, and the noise is so sharp that it makes me realize the immensity of the land through which it spreads. Primitive peace is still here. I go out; I notice at the left of the line the successive level of wooded hills, the highest of which have the appearance of mountains. These are the Adirondacks. They call them “Green Mountains” in the country. But they look out upon the morning and the myriads of buds massed together clothe them in purple. Oaks, perhaps; probably maples; this beautiful maple which has two red seasons.

About eight o’clock automobiles come for us. I get into the first, with Hanotaux and two others of our companions. We have not a long road to go. On one side, clear woodland; a short approach, a turning to the left, a fine descending curve planted with green trees, and we are before the steps of a great villa on the shores of the lake. Our hosts for the morning, Mr. and Mrs. S. H. P. Pell, came to us on the veranda. The automobiles stop and at once a little boom of cannon is heard ahead of us. We look in the direction whence the shot comes and we see the grass of the field all starred with tricolor flags. A second automobile arrives. It is saluted as were ourselves. In the fine house,—very well lighted, very white, ornamented with family portraits and with old engravings representing scenes of other days in this place so enriched in history, we are greeted with a graciousness and a knowledge of the world which is manifested through a considerate and sincere heart. There are some moments in which plain people and simple actions become arguments in favor of a country. I shall never again hear the American spirit ill-spoken of without recalling the hospitality of the Americans of Ticonderoga. The name is an Indian name of the fortress which was entrusted by Louis XV. to the Marquis de Montcalm. The French have said, say, and will say, “Carillon.” At Carillon, July 8, 1758, the Marquis de Montcalm had only 3,570 regulars, 87 marines, 85 Canadians, and 16 Indians, under his command,—that is to say, 3,758 soldiers. But he was entrenched in the woods and he had a refuge in case of need. Abercromby commanded an army of 16,500 men and he came on to conquer this feeble enemy and to establish finally English dominion over Canada. The hour was not yet come. Once more, although the enemy was brave and determined, France with unequal arms was victorious.

Entering Mr. Pell’s house, we were reminded of this date, these figures, and of their fine significance. We remembered that in this forest where we are, Montcalm in early morning, throwing off his jacket and crouching under the branches of a tree, said to his men who labored to gather the stones for the intrenchments, “Children, the day will be hot!” We recall that at evening in the same place, as the fading light of day was prolonged by the reflection of the lake, he wrote: “What a day for France! The little army of the King conquers his enemies. Ah, what troops like ours! I have never seen their equal!”

In how many parts of the world, among others, cannot memory speak to us thus softly of the glory of our arms! But what is delicious here is that a foreign family which entertains us, also remembers, and that it understands, and that it recognizes something beyond the mere history.

While they served us with a well-ordered breakfast—there were even fruits from California and Florida in aromatic wine—our hosts and the parents of our hosts spoke to us of that France that they know and love, of Cartier, of Roberval, of Champlain, “father of the aborigines,” of the missionaries, of Frontenac, of Vaudreuil and of Montcalm. These names lived again and those of their adversaries.

We learned that Mr. Pell has sought to buy all the lands around Ticonderoga where the French and English fought, so that no one shall build a hotel there and lessen the sacred character of this landscape. Is it not a fine stroke, and does he belong by chance to this “material civilization,” of which they have made in respect to Americans so much reproach, so much hard compliment? We go out of the house; we cross the field, and, the ground falling away a little, we are in front of a square fortress of stone, protected by ditches. The proprietors have restored it, but the great part of these old stones are truly stones of war, and the black rafters of the chambers have become brown by the smoke of pipes which were lighted in the hard winter of this climate by the lost and almost abandoned children of the regiments of France.

One thinks of the reproaches which they would have made to the news brought by the Indians, to the wind which howled, to the snow storm.... The fort is decorated in our honor. On its front, a bronze plaque bears this inscription: “Germain redoubt constructed by captain Germain, régiment des Gardes de la Reine, in 1758, by order of the marquis de Montcalm, in command of the fortress of Carillon.”

The extent of the old covered way, cut through to-day, brings us to the interior of the earthworks. Before us, at 500 meters, high glacis crown the hill and conceal just at the roof line a construction which would have served as quarters for the officers. I notice two flags waving at the end of two great flagstaffs, and more below, like a basket of violets moving, for the wind is brisk, where they have been planted. But no one explains to me yet what we have come to see, and Mr. Pell, who walks with me, stooping, picks a woolly leaf of a wild plant, and says to me: “Keep it as souvenir. Right here, some years ago, we set out to make an excavation. At the first stroke of the pick the workmen uncovered some bodies clothed in trimmed uniforms. They were immediately ordered to cover them up and not to disturb them.” We were moved. I continued to ascend the hill. One has to turn a little to find the entrance into the fortress of Carillon. A dozen cannon outside are still pointed towards the lake and towards the little neighboring mountain, “The mount of France” which drew the English artillery. I enter the enclosure of the fortress. It is trimmed up. It awaits France. Ah, see who has come—_La France!_ and she sees in front of the wall of Montcalm’s old quarters, ten silken standards which the wind lifts and lets fall heavily on the staffs; violet squares bordered with white, blue panels barred with red, many-colored banners, all the standards of the regiments of France which were represented at the battle of Carillon. The victorious colors live again in the light, and a little above, dominating the broken walls and the roofs, two great flags protect the others, command them and explain them; the starry flag of young America and the banner of ancient France, all white and strewn with Fleur-de-lis. My eyes fill with tears, and I really think that two tears have fallen. I am sure that they said, “Long live this American who has a deep heart.” They say still other things and I feel myself living wholly in the France of other days.

The house of the fort has become a museum; swords, guns, ammunition, letters, keys, spades which were broken in throwing up the entrenchments, engravings of several periods, are there hung on the walls or arranged in showcases; even an old watch, which the journal of the fortress, likewise preserved, states, had been lost among the ruins. We linger there and I notice that our traveling companions speak less as time passes. But when we have made the round of the walls of Carillon and when we notice in the full light of ten o’clock in the morning all the country which the old fort commands, words come again; joy, also; the ground descends from there down to the lake, narrow at this point; the hills rise gradually and the blue of the distance defines itself in clear lines upon the pale azure of the horizon. Some one says: “Do you not notice how that resembles the plain of Pau, as seen from the terrace?” Indeed, if I efface from my memory the image of blue waters, which the waters of Lake Champlain disturbed by the melting snows do not at all resemble, and which do not reflect the sky, the two landscapes have a similarity. Even the atmosphere is transparent here, revealing the elevated conformation of the distance. Another of our companions, who soon notices the extended form of the lake and the color of the trees on the lower level, says, almost at the same moment, “I believe I see the Vosges with Retournemer and Longemer.” In other ways we recognize here French harmonies.

Some hours later, we are on a point of land quite far from the fort of Carillon, at the foot of a white stone lighthouse. The light overlooks a stretch of bad rock land, standing in the midst of low places and fields which stretch out behind it. What a desert this would be, and from the origin of the world, this spur on which break the short waves of Lake Champlain!

But to-day the people of the American towns, those who live in the Adirondacks, those from the other side of the water, miners, farmers, and various workers, or trout fishers, who have come to prepare for the coming season, have assembled at Crown Point Forts. Some horses, picketed, browse in the fields; others are hitched to the branches of a hawthorne—the remains, perhaps of an old plantation, set out by the hand of a jealous old French soldier. Some American carriages, a little seat on four very light wheels; some wagons, twenty automobiles, are scattered on the grass, while around the lighthouse, on all the levels of the rock, are seated upon benches or on the ground a mixed population, intimate, badly controlling the children who race around like young quail; listening, understanding—or pretending to understand—the speeches which glorify Champlain. The bronze medallion which represents France, the work of Rodin, brought by us, is already set in its niche in front. The wind blows; it causes to vibrate the ten cords stretched from the lantern of the lighthouse to the ground in a crown, and flaps the big canopy and all the flags which ornament it. And as my mind wanders when the speeches are in English, I listen to what the flags are saying:

“Do you see them, these people seated in the front row? They don’t belong here.”

“It’s plain that they don’t belong here. You’re not saying much of anything: Are they tanned by the open air? Have they the free and easy way of the American citizen?”

“I suppose that they are from Paris?”

“You have a very simple way of being sure of it, my dear. Did you ever hear such a noise! Listen! When they are from Paris, there is never any lack of talk!”

“—Precisely, the orator proclaims himself; he comes from Paris.”

“Not of great extent, this France?”

“Not very formidable?”

One flag, smoke-blackened, said:

“Not very serious?”

Then, the English flag, which had said nothing, snapped a blow so sharp that a whip wouldn’t have been better.

“Very serious, my dear. I’ve known the French. I’ve known the French at a time when you were not such a much, be it said without offense to you. I have known Champlain. He had a jovial way. He was usually pleasant. The Indians said of him: ‘We like to hear you speak. You always have something pleasant to say.’ But, believe me, I understood him: it was as a colonial and a rough adversary, I say adversary, because that is the name that one gives to his old enemies when they have become his friends, you understand?”

“Pretty well.”

I leave the flags, ruffling. I think of this brave man, whose fête this is, at this moment, in his little sleepy and grass-grown town of Brouage: of the dreams of glory that were his, all youthful, like those of a good many men of his time, and which he accomplished because he had a heart capable of suffering for his love. For he loved France. He left her, the better to serve her. He bore with him, to the West Indies, and afterwards to Canada, a poor companion, a perfect and holy image. Almost alone among the savages, having carried upon his strong shoulders, oars, provisions and the blanket for his bed at night, enured to heat, to cold, to mosquitoes, to long exiles and the perpetual treason of men, over these identical grounds where we now are, he made his way to discovery, beholding a new world reveal itself about him, and giving it to his Lord in heaven, as he gave it to his King, secretly, hourly, by each glance with which he took possession of this unknown world. For he says: “Kings should not think of extending their domination in infidel lands, except to establish there the reign of Christ.” Commerce was not forgotten. But what superior humanity! It is still living, only disregarded. Champlain has passed here. I realize that this landscape has been reflected in his eyes as it is in mine. This landscape? Is it indeed sure? Where are the trusty witnesses? Not the meadow, which is new. Not the trees, too young for him to have known, nor the waters, which have changed, nor the clouds, nor even the ancestors of the spectators assembled on this strand. We can scarcely say that the movement of the sun sang as to-day, the same verse in the hymn universal.

M. Bazin concludes with a running account of his continued journey to Montreal and Quebec, recalling at length their wealth of historic associations.

IX. COMMENT IN APPRECIATION OF THE VISIT OF THE FRENCH DELEGATION AND HONORS CONFERRED

The mission of the French delegation proved to be of far deeper import, than the mere presentation of the Rodin bust, gratifying to Americans as was that superb gift on the part of its donors. It awakened in the people of this country, quite as much as it did in the members of that delegation, renewed interest in the activities and achievements of the peoples of the two Republics, which are the foremost democracies of the world. M. Hanotaux, a scholar, a statesman and a diplomat and his distinguished colleagues, are among the foremost citizens of France. They represented the several departments of the Government as well as the various trades and professions in the civil life of that Republic. Commerce and industries were represented by M. Antoine Girard, Counsellor of Foreign Commerce. Their reputation had long been established in science, in literature and in the fine arts and also in jurisprudence, in statesmanship and in diplomacy, as exemplified in the genial and charming personality of Ambassador Jusserand. They are among the present day celebrities of the French nation and were invited to become members of the Embassy on account of their individual standing in the official, social and intellectual life of that Republic.

One cannot read their addresses and their reports to Paris of the impressions, which they formed on their visit to America, without appreciating the spontaneity of their tributes to the American people and to their institutions, the warmth of their expressions of good will and generous impulses towards the people of this nation and their gratitude for the deep interest shown by the people of the United States, and especially by those of Vermont and New York, in commemorating the achievements and the character of one of their countrymen.

The unreported addresses of Baron D’Estournelle de Constant, member of the French Senate and the representative of France at the Hague International Peace Tribunal, and of M. Louis Barthou, ex-Minister of Justice and one of the leading Parliamentarians of the Chamber of Deputies, will long be remembered for their urbanity, for the breadth of their views, and for the brilliancy of their eloquent periods. The addresses of M. Hanotaux and others and the foregoing reports of Gaston Deschamps, of M. de la Blache, the geographer of the University of Paris, and of René Bazin, of the French Academy, disclose the character and beauty of the style of the French littérateurs. Wherever the members of the delegation went, they were gratefully welcomed and entertained in stately manner. The social functions taxed the powers of endurance on the part of the visitors to their full extent. They made hosts of friends and gave Americans opportunity to meet them and to become acquainted with gentlemen and ladies possessed of the rare culture and refinement of French life. Their visit was timely and did much to strengthen the ties that bind the peoples of the two Republics in friendly accord. They made an impression on the people of this country that will be quite as enduring as the bronze testimonial of the good will of the people of France towards those of the United States, firmly set in the granite base of the Champlain Memorial at Crown Point Forts and there was voiced by the friends, whom they made in America, the sentiment, _Vive la France_.

Some months after the return of the French delegation to France, Commissioner Walter C. Witherbee was appointed by the President of the French Republic a Knight of the Legion of Honor, which was formally and appreciatively acknowledged by this Commission.

Knighthood in the Legion of Honor was also conferred by the President of France upon Hon. Frank S. Witherbee, a member of Preliminary Champlain Commission and President of the Lake Champlain Association, which participated in the entertainment of the French delegation at the Waldorf-Astoria banquet on May 1, 1912.

Hon. A. Barton Hepburn, President of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, which entertained the French delegation at luncheon on May 2, 1912, has recently been decorated by the President of France with the honorary rank of Officer in the Legion of Honor.

The French Government has recently presented to Honorable Charles B. Alexander, member of the Society of the Cincinnati, who gave a reception on April 30, 1912, to the French delegation in his beautiful home at No. 4 West 58th Street, New York City, the artistic Sèvres bisque group of national manufacture, known as “Télémaque chez Calypso,” by the sculptor, M. Louis Simon Boizot.

Knighthood in the Legion of Honor was also conferred by the President of the Republic of France upon President John H. Finley of the College of the City of New York, who has taken deep interest in the life of Samuel Champlain and in French colonization in America. His felicitous remarks at the Waldorf-Astoria banquet on May 1, 1912, were genuinely appreciated by Ambassador Jusserand, the members of the French delegation, and all others in attendance. President Finley was the Harvard Exchange lecturer under the Hyde Foundation in 1910 at the University of Paris and at ten other French universities.

In February, 1913, His Excellency, Raymond Poincaré, President of the Republic of France, appointed Henry W. Hill, Secretary of the New York Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission, a Knight of the Legion of Honor, in recognition of his public, literary and other services in connection with the Tercentenary Celebration from its inception in 1907 to the conclusion of the Final Report of the Commission in 1913.

These delicate and touching expressions of appreciation on the part of President Fallières, President Poincaré, Ambassador Jusserand and the citizens of France of the courtesies shown to the members of the French delegation, while in the United States, are still further evidences of the warmth of the kindly feelings existing between the people of that Republic and those of this nation, and are gratefully appreciated.