ship; they are the gift of God to the human race, and no one claiming under a grant from the State of New York can arrogate to himself any dignity or 'patent of nobility' by reason of such ownership. These wonders of nature confess no human authority or control. What the present claimants have obtained under the grant from the State is a legal right to exclude others from certain standpoints where they might view these impressive sights, and this right is subject to the power of the State, in the exercise of its prerogative of eminent domain, to resume possession of these lands, so as to restore to mankind the right freely, without money and without price,' to gaze upon these marvelous works of God. It is only for about three-score years and ten, the limit of a single short human life, that the present proprietors or their ancestors have had any title to these lands. The wonders and beauties of the place were just as great for hundreds and thousands of years before the State of New York made its grants as they have been since. For the supposed dignity of ownership we can certainly see no propriety

in a pecuniary award."

*

*

THE RESERVATION PURCHASED AND DEDICATED. The report of the Commissioners of Appraisement, awarding $1,433,429.50 for the lands to be taken by the State was confirmed by the Supreme Court, October 27, 1884. In 1885, the Commissioners of the State Reservation at Niagara submitted the award to the Legislature and asked that the amount named be appropriated. This was the final ditch to be carried in the campaign, and renewed efforts were put forth by the Commissioners of the Reservation, the Niagara Falls Association and the other friends of the movement to secure the consummation of their longcherished plan. Addresses were made before the legislative committees; petitions were circulated and sent to Albany with innumerable signatures; addresses were printed and distributed widely; the newspapers took up the subject liberally and enthusiastically, and the whole country was aroused. On April 30, 1885, the bill was passed and became a law by the signature of Governor Hill; and on May twentieth, another "Act to provide for the maintenance and management of the State Reservation at Niagara," enlarged the powers of this Commission so as to give it full control of the Reservation.

On July 15, 1885, in the presence of a vast assemblage of citizens of the United States and Canada, the Reservation was formally dedicated and opened to the public. The Hon. Erastus Brooks presided and made the opening address. The RightReverend the Bishop of Western New York, A. Cleveland Coxe, offered prayer. The President of the Commission, the Hon. William Dorsheimer, announced the completion of the proceedings for the taking of the land. The Governor of the State. the Hon. David B. Hill, accepted the Reservation in the name of the State and declared it open to the people. An oration* was delivered by James C. Carter, Esq., of New York; and addresses were made by the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, the Hon. John Beverly Robinson, and the Attorney-General of Ontario, the Hon. Oliver Mowatt.

With these ceremonies, the State Reservation at Niagara became un fait accompli, and several years of earnest publicspirited work received its triumphal reward.

OBSTACLES OVERCOME.

Before proceeding to the consideration of the task with which this Commission was now confronted, it is instructive to review the obstacles which had been encountered and overcome in securing the creation of the Reservation.

First may be mentioned the vis inertiae of general public sentiment. This was the first movement in the country on so large a scale for the purchase by a State of property for purely aesthetic purposes. New York State had done nothing of this sort before. It was without precedent; and people who were afraid to do anything that somebody else had not done before were hard to convert to the doctrine of public proprietorship in natural beauty - the right of the people to enjoy, unmolested in person and unoffended in sight, the marvelous works of God as manifested in the exceptional natural scenery with which He had endowed the State of New York. The campaign of education conducted by the advocates of the Reservation, and the legal utterances of the Commissioners of Appraisement, some of which we have already quoted, have done a great deal toward forming a more intelligent public opinion on this subject, and have materially advanced the movement for the protection of American scenery throughout the country.

Another great obstacle was the erroneous notion generated by the use of the term "International Park" in connection with the proposed Reservation. People whose conception of a "park" was an area of land, laid out with neatly trimmed lawns, formal pathways, geometrical flowerbeds, composition statuary and cast-iron benches, imagined that it was proposed to take a vast tract on each side of the Niagara river, extending from far above the Falls to below the Whirlpool, and lay it out with

conventional designs of paved roadways, and other artificial embellishments of decorative landscape gardening. It took some time, therefore, to disabuse their minds of this idea and to convince them that the true object of the movement was a Reservation of natural beauty, not a formal park, and that the sole aim was to restore the landscape as nearly as possible to its normal condition and preserve its "beauty unadorned."

Another class of objectors were those who thought the plan too modest. Public opinion has grown more liberal on this subject during the past twenty years, but it can safely be said that a more ambitious plan at that time would have ensured defeat, and we are convinced that the limits of the Reservation determined twenty years ago, were, under the circumstances, wisely chosen.

There was also strenuous objection from some of the riparian owners and concessionaires whose property would be taken and whose privileges would be abolished by a free public Reservation.

To disarm the hostility from these and other sources at that day was a task of no small dimensions, and the triumph achieved was proportionally great.

THE WORK OF THE RESTORATION.

A reference to the table given hereafter will show that the Legislature was slow to outgrow its conservatism and that for the first few years the appropriations for the work with which the Commission was confronted were very meagre.

The Legislature even refused to accept the generous offer made by Mr. Albert H. Porter, in 1887, to convey to the State a valuable plot of ground abutting the Reservation, to be used