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think that the first instinct of a people truly proud of their history and ancestry would be to show their pride in some tangible and visible fashion, to preserve the records and set them forth for their children and all the world to see. But New Brunswick has not done this. Of course her failure to do so is not due entirely to lack of public spirit, for New Brunswick is poor and many other things must be provided; but neither does poverty alone explain it, for the province has men of fortune as wealthy as many elsewhere who give largely to such public and worthy purposes.

But is the time not ripe, in these years of relative prosperity, and at the turn of the centuries, to establish a Provincial Historical Museum in St. John? The New Brunswick Historical Society is the proper body to initiate a movement to that end. Happily, there is no lack of historical buildings in St. John for this purpose, but there is one singularly adapted both by associations and by position for it, the old Ward Chipman house, undoubtedly the most interesting historical building now standing in the city. If this building could be acquired, modified to suit the new use, made the home of the Historical Society and of the Provincial Museum of New Brunswick History, placed in charge of a proper custodian, kept open and made useful to the public, it would form a great factor in the intellectual development of the province. The situation is charming, and the ground in the vicinity could be laid out as a small park, in which large objects of historical interest, such as cannon, etc., could be placed, and trees and shrubs from historical localities could be planted. Two manifest difficulties occur one, that such a building is not fireproof, and hence the collections would be endangered. This is true, and a fire-proof building would be better; but such a building would be so expensive as hardly to be practicable at present, while on the other hand, with "slow-burning" floors and fire-proof doors, and particular care in