war.

have given the example." Louis XVI., who had been nervous over the popularity of Franklin at court, now joined in the general joy, and in January, 1778, a month before the treaty was signed, he promised three millions of livres. By the treaty of commerce, each party was to be placed on the footing of the most favored nations. The King of France promised his good offices with the princes and powers of Barbary. Liberal provisions were made in regard to the fisheries, and the American contention that free ships give freedom to goods and to persons, except to soldiers in actual service of an enemy, was adopted. The absolute and unlimited independence of the United States was announced as the essential object of the defensive alliance, and both parties agreed not to lay down their arms until assured of peace by treaties terminating the In 1843, when the Prince Joinville visited America, he went to see Eleazer Williams, the reputed son of Louis XVI. and of Marie Antoinette, Dauphin of France, Louis XVII., who was said to have been abstracted from his revolutionary prison in Paris and brought to America by an agent of the royal family. At this time he was a missionary of the Episcopal Church among our Northern Indians, amongst whom he had been reared. It is said that Joinville offered him a large sum of money if he would renounce his claim to the French throne, and that he refused. In this interesting person the French prince, reversing the received historical version of the relations of Louis XVI. and Vergennes to the American struggle, said, "The King encountered an opposition from the Count de Vergennes and the Court when he took the suffering cause of the Americans in hand. He was moved by the representations of the American Commissioners, and the Queen was no less urgent to save the sinking cause of the American people. My grandfather and my father were present when the last struggle took place between the King and the ministry upon the articles of the alliance with the United Colonies of America. That day-it was a happy day for the Americans, but for the King, it was the day of his death. Yes; that day, when the King put his name to the instrument he sealed his death-warrant." Again he said, "But for those powerful aids no monuments are raised to perpetuate his memory. Louis XVI. ought to be placed next to George Washington as a liberator of the American people." When urged by the English Cabinet to reconsider his acts, Louis XVI. said, "No consideration in life shall make me stoop to opposition. I will rather risk my crown than do what I think personally disgraceful. If the nation will not stand by me they shall have another king, for I will never put my hand to what will make me miserable to the last day of my life." The alliance was followed on March 20, 1778, by the presentation of the American

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Commissioners at Court, and the King said to them, "I wish Congress to be assured of my friendship." After the ceremony the Commissioners visited the wife of Lafayette, and dined with the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and two days later they were presented to Marie Antoinette, who, yielding to the most generous impulses in behalf of the Americans, made their cause the ruling passion of the French Court, as it had been of Paris and of the French nation. George Bancroft expresses the same sentiment with the Prince de Joinville, when he says, "Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, when they embarked for the liberation of America, pleasure on the prow and the uncertain hand of youth at the helm, might have cried out to the new Republic which they fostered, 'Morituri te salutant,'' The doomed to die salute thee.'" On May 4th Congress unanimously ratified the treaties, expressing the "wish that the friendship so happily commenced between France and the United States might be perpetual," and the King of France was proclaimed " the protector of the rights of mankind." At Valley Forge, Washington and Lafayette and the Continental army celebrated this great event on May 6th by a salute of thirteen guns, a running fire of all the musketry, and the army, drawn up in two lines, shouted, "Long live the King of France!" "Long live the friendly European powers!" and, as our historian records, the ceremonies were closed by a huzza for the American States." In the meantime Beaumarchais, the agent of Louis XVI. and of his cabinet, was actively prosecuting the work of forwarding aid to America. In 1777 he forwarded three of his own ships, carrying 200 pieces of ordnance, 25,000 muskets, 200,000 pounds of gunpowder and other ammunition. He engaged the services of fifty accomplished officers, amongst whom were La Rouerie, Pulaski and Steuben. Several other ships were sent out during this year, and the disbursements of Beaumarchais reached by September 5,000,000 francs. Congress was under the impression that these supplies were gifts from the French Government, and never thought of making remittances to Beaumarchais, who consequently became embarrassed, but was reimbursed by the advance of another million of francs by the French Government. Beaumarchais continued his advances to America, and in 1779 as many as ten vessels sailed at one time for the colonies, though few of them reached their destination. At that time Congress was in his debt as much as 4,000,000 francs. America readily acknowledged her obligations; she was without the means of paying them then; but she redeemed her honor, for although the payment of the claim met with obstacles, the claim was finally and fully paid, and the final settlement was made with Beaumarchais' heirs, in 1835, by the payment of the final balance of 800,000 francs.

France made good her alliance, offensive and defensive, with the United States. She was now engaged as the ally of America in an offensive and defensive war against England. It is no part of our writing to follow in detail the history of that war, nor to repeat what all our histories contain, the operations of the naval and military forces of France against the English armies and navies in America. On the eighth of July, 1778, a French fleet, under Count D'Estaing, arrived in American waters. It was at D'Estaing's persuasion that Marie Antoinette proposed and secured the preparation and despatch of this powerful fleet to America, which consisted of twelve ships of the line and three frigates. In August Congress received with every honor Conrad Alexander Gerard, the French ambassador, and expressed the nation's acknowledgement of "the hand of a gracious Providence in raising them up so powerful a friend." When Lafayette arrived at Versailles, in February, 1779, Marie Antoinette eagerly asked him, "Tell me good news of our dear republicans, of our beloved Americans?" Gerard wrote from America to Vergennes, "I have had many conversations with General Washington. . . . . I have formed as high an opinion of the powers of his mind, his moderation, his patriotism and his virtues, as I had before from common report conceived of his military talents and of the incalculable services he had rendered to his country." Congress solicited portraits of the King and Queen of France. The naval operations of the French fleets under D'Estaing and De Grasse, the military operations of Rochambeau's army of six thousand French soldiers, the eagerness of the French soldiers to serve under Washington, the brilliant achievements of the French armies, the victories of De Grasse, the united operations of the French and Colonial armies, the glorious campaigns they fought together, their victories over the British armies, the culmination of the struggle at Yorktown, the co-operation of the French fleet at Yorktown, the victory of Yorktown the result of American and French valor, prowess and skill; the surrender of Cornwallis to Washington at Yorktown, the end of the war, and, above all, Peace, with independence, are all subjects for the general historian. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to detail all the services rendered by France to the cause of American independence. The Prince de Joinville has stated in general terms that France, in the American Revolution, lost thirty-five thousand men and twenty-five ships of the line. And Mr. Stone, in his book on "Our French Allies," mentions that the expenditure of the Government of Louis XVI. in aid of the Americans had been estimated at 400,000,000 livres. An accomplished American naval officer, an author and leading authority on naval historical subjects, in his scholarly and exhaustive book "Influence of Sea Power Upon

History," says: "Will it be too much for American pride to admit that, had France refused to contest the control of the sea with England, the latter would have been able to reduce the Atlantic seaboard? Let us not kick down the ladder by which we mounted, nor refuse to acknowledge what our fathers felt in their hour of trial. The successful ending of the struggle for independence was due to the control of the sea-to sea-power in the hands of the French, and its improper distribution by the English authorities."

Would it not be more correct historically to say that it was by combination, union and co-operation of the French naval forces with the land forces under the able, brilliant and untiring military prowess of Washington, with the aid of the French officers and soldiers, that, under Providence, achieved the Independence of America?

RICHARD H. CLARK, LL.D.

Scientific Chronicle.

REFINEMENTS OF MODERN MEASUREMENTS.

THE word "measure" in ordinary language is mostly restricted to the evaluation of space and time; as when, for example, we say that a stick measures 4 feet in length, a floor measures 500 square feet, a block of stone measures 2 cubic yards, a cask 40 gallons, that a day is 24 hours long, though we know that for many people it measures but little in breadth, and still less in depth.

Among scientists the word has a far more comprehensive meaning. With them "to measure" is to ascertain the amount, or quantity, of anything whatsoever, provided that quantity can be expressed in figures. Thus, we measure force (under which is included weight), energy, heat, light, magnetism, electricity, vibrations of all kinds, etc. But though we recognize differences of degree, we do not, according to the scientific acceptation of the word, measure thoughts, or affections, or emotions.

Few people are aware how much the progress of practical science depends on the possibility of exact measurements, and to what a degree of refinement these measurements have been pushed in modern times. Though we use the term "exact measurement," yet no scientist will claim that any measurement ever made can be proved to be absolutely For example, let us take the simplest kind of a case, say the

linear measurement of a rod of brass.

Now, one man, using the best instruments that are to be had, will measure it a dozen, or a score, of times, with all possible precautions as to changes of temperature and of atmospheric pressure, etc., and will get a different result every time. They may not differ much, but they will differ at least by some small amount. The experimenter will then take the average of all these determinations, and will find a length say of 11.2386 inches. Though he knows he is very near, he will not say that is the true length, but will express his doubt by writing 11.2386 + .0001, which means that the value of the last decimal must be somewhere between the limits of 5 and 7. It may, indeed, be just 6, but is not necessarily so. A true scientist never says a thing is so unless he be perfectly sure of it.

Another man equally skilled, with the same instruments, and using all the same precautions, and going over his work at least an equal number of times, might get 11.23857 +.00002, so that the last figure of the result might be anywhere between 5 and 9. The results obtained by these two men might or might not, according to circumstances, be deemed very close, but it is evident that they could not be called absolutely exact. In the strict sense of the word, no measurement of anything can ever be called absolutely exact.