to the States as a part of their sovereign power, subject only, in case of navigable streams, to the power of the Federal Government to regulate and promote commerce between the States;

That as a consequence, the United State have no such right either of ownership, regulation or control;

That the rights of consumers to the use of the water are dependent upon State and not Federal laws, and subject to State regulation and control exclusively unless the use is interstate;

That the Federal Government owns the public lands as a proprietor and not in its sovereign capacity;

That the Federal Government has no power or jurisdiction to fix rates or regulate the use or disposition of water within a State; That the power to fix rates or regulate the use of water not given to the Federal Government by the Constitution cannot be bestowed by act of Congress as a condition to the leasing or sale of the public lands;

That absolute property in and dominion and sovereignty over the soils under the tide-waters in the States are reserved to the several States;

That public lands owned by the United States are not subject to taxation by the States; and

That the power of Congress to legislate or exercise sovereignty over lands within a State is confined to lands acquired by the Federal Government for certain specific purposes with the consent of the State.

PRESERVATION OF NEW ENGLAND ANTIQUITIES

We note with pleasure the progress made by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities in its chosen field. During the past year this Society made its fifth acquisition when it took title, on August 1, 1916, to its most valuable piece of real estate, namely, the property near the corner of Lynde and Cambridge streets, Boston, containing the Harrison Gray Otis house, built in 1795. The property was acquired by means of gifts from fifteen persons, aggregating $22,725, and is subject to a mortgage of $8,000, due partly to repairs.

The Society also owns the Swett-Ilsley house in Newbury, Mass., built about 1670, which is let as a tea-room and for the sale of antiques; the Samuel Fowler house in Danversport, built in 1809, which is occupied by the Misses Fowler; the Cooper-Austin house in Cambridge, built about 1657, which is let to Miss Blanche E. Colman, an interior decorator, as a studio; and the

Laws house in Sharon, N. H., for which the Society seeks a tenant for the summer of 1917.

The Society was organized in 1910. Mr. Charles K. Bolton of Shirley, Mass., is President; Mr. William C. Endicott of Danvers is Treasurer, and Mr. William Sumner Appleton of Boston is Corresponding Secretary. The headquarters of the Society are in the Harrison Gray Otis house, with address at No. 2 Lynde street. Boston.

BICENTENNIAL OF BOSTON LIGHT

The First Lighthouse in America

On September 25, 1916, a tablet commemorating the 200th anniversary of Boston Light was unveiled at the Boston Light Station at the entrance to Boston Harbor, Mass., under the auspices of the United States Government. The tablet bears the following inscription:

BOSTON LIGHT

Built at this Place by the Province of Massachusetts, was first lighted September 14, 1716, Old Style, destroyed 1776, and rebuilt 1783.

This tablet has been placed by the United States Lighthouse Service September 25, 1916, in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of the first lighthouse in America.

Secretary of Commerce Redfield invited as his guests the Governor of Massachusetts, the entire Massachusetts delegation of Senators and Representatives in Congress, the chairmen of the Appropriations Committees of the Senate and House, of the Senate Committee on Commerce, and the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, the Mayor of Boston, officials in charge of various government offices in Boston, representatives of Boston Commercial, maritime, and historical organizations, representatives of the press, and officers of the Department of Commerce and the Lighthouse Service.

The official party was taken to the island on which the station. is located by the lighthouse steamer Mayflower. The whole program was informal. The tablet had been placed just inside the

entrance to the tower. Brief remarks were made by Governor McCall of Massachusetts, on behalf of the State; Mayor Curley of Boston, on behalf of the City; Mr. Worthington C. Ford, on behalf of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and Secretary Redfield, on behalf of the department and the Lighthouse Service.

Boston Light has had an eventful and interesting history during its 200 years of existence. First built by the Province of Massachusetts at a cost of £2,385, it was captured and recaptured several times in the early days of the Revolution, and finally demolished by the British in 1776 at the time of the evacuation of Boston. It was rebuilt on the same site in 1783, immediately after the close of the war, and with eight other colonial lights then in operation was taken over by the General Government in accordance with the act of Congress of August 7, 1789. The height of the tower was increased in 1859, and the buildings have been renovated and the apparatus and equipment improved from time to time as needed, so that despite its age the light station is for all practical purposes essentially modern and up to date. It displays an incandescent oil-vapor light, giving a white flash of 100,000 candlepower every 30 seconds, visible 16 miles in clear weather, and as an auxiliary aid in foggy weather sounds a powerful first-class steam siren, with a double blast of five seconds each every minute.

OLD SOUTH MEETING-HOUSE IN BOSTON

Apropos of the efforts for the preservation of old St. John's Chapel in New York City, mentioned on page 191 preceding, the following facts concerning the preservation of the Old South Meeting-House in Boston, Mass., are of interest.

The old South Church of Boston - which, historically, is the third Congregational church gathered in that town,- has had three meeting-houses. The first was a wooden structure built on what is now the northeast corner of Washington and Milk streets

* The members of the Old South congregation make a distinction between the words " meeting-house" and "church." Mr. Richard Hale, Treasurer of the Old South Association in Boston, says: "This building was never a church. A church is the visible body of Christ. The physical structure in which they meet is a meeting house."

in 1669. It was demolished on March 3 and 4, 1728-9; and in the same month the building of the second edifice of brick began on the same site. That meeting-house is still standing and is the historic "Old South." Religious services were discontinued in the brick meeting-house after the great Boston fire of 1872, in which it was damaged; and in 1874 the property of the New Old South on Boylston and Dartmouth streets was first occupied.

It is not our purpose to recount the many interesting historical events which happened in the Old South Meeting-House at Washington and Milk streets which endear it to patriotic Americans, but rather to tell how this building, standing as it does on an extremely valuable site on one of Boston's busiest business streets, was saved from threatened demolition.

After the congregation decided to worship elsewhere, following the fire of 1872, the building was leased to the United States and used for post-office purposes for two years from December, 1872. In 1876 it was advertised for sale in these words:

THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH BUILDING

All the materials above the level of the sidewalks, except the Corner Stone and the Clock in the Tower, of this ancient and historical landmark building, which has now come under the auctioneer's hammer, will be disposed of on Thursday, June 8, 1876, at 12 o'clock noon on the premises, on the corner of Washington and Milk streets.

The spire is covered with copper and there is a lot of lead on roof and belfry, and the roof is covered with imported Welch slate. 60 days will be allowed for the removal.

Terms cash.

The news that the meeting house was to be sold and demolished aroused a storm of popular protest, but too late to prevent its sale, and on June 8 it was sold at auction for $1,350, to be removed in 60 days. The work of destruction began at once, but after the clock had been removed from the tower and the solid masonry attacked, the prominent business house of George W. Simmons & Son stepped in and bought the right to hold the building uninjured for seven days. On June 14, a mass meeting was held within its walls,- one of the most remarkable ever held within its precincts. Wendell Phillips and others pleaded for its preservation. The Committee on Preservation also had

the help of James Freeman Clarke, James Russell Lowell, Charles W. Eliot, and other prominent citizens in arousing publie spirit. The women of the town were leaders in the campaign for preservation.

Months of strenuous efforts followed. But the practical problem which had to be faced was the raising of the money with which to buy land on which the meeting house stood. At length, on September 2, 1876, after many consultations, the Citizens Committee offered the Standing Committee of the Old South Society $400,000 for the property. The offer was accepted, and on October 11, 1876, the Old South Society conveyed the property to Mr. Royal M. Pulsifer of Newton. Mr. Pulsifer paid $75,000 cash; the New England Mutual Life Insurance Co. loaned $225,000 on first mortgage, and Mrs. Mary Hemenway advanced $100,000 on second mortgage. Mr. Pulsifer obligated himself to the ladies' committee to turn the property over to them if they raised the purchase price within a reasonable time. Then followed meetings, entertainments, balls, and other efforts to raise money to purchase the property from Mr. Pulsifer. Some of the meetings and entertainments were remarkable. One fair, held in the meeting-house in December, 1877, netted $36,000. Other sums were received from rents, the sale of easements, and damages for land adjacent to the meeting-house taken by the City by condemnation* and the last $20,000 was appropriated by the State of Massachusetts.

The Old South Meeting-House, therefore, no longer belongs to the religious body or Old South Church, but to an entirely separate corporation styled the Old South Association which was incorporated by chapter 222 of the acts of 1877, approved May 11, 1877. The corporation consists of the Governor of Massachusetts, the Mayor of Boston, the President of Harvard University, the President of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the President of the American Antiquarian Society, the President of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society, and two persons elected by the Boston City Council ex-officios, and about sixty

It is an interesting coincidence that as the City of Boston took part of this property for the rapid transit subway, so the new Seventh avenue subway runs under the porch of old St. John's in New York.