. However, in 1774 the
importation was prohibited, and all male children born after 1784 were
declared to be free.

Nowhere was there a more courtly and elegant society than in Newport.
The rules of etiquette were rigorously adhered to, and there was no
jesting on so sacred a topic as the honor and respect due to those whom
the good rector of Trinity was wont to allude to as moving in higher
spheres. De Segur a year or two later says of it: "Other parts of
America were only beautiful by anticipation, but Rhode Island was
complete. Newport, well and regularly built, contained a numerous
population, whose happiness was indicated by its prosperity. It offered
delightful circles composed of enlightened men and modest and handsome
women, whose talents heightened their personal attractions." To-day,
Newport is the rendezvous of the best society of the land. Handsome
women and clever men meet and greet there, but can the society be more
distinguished than, from this description, it must have been a century
ago? We wonder if the stately dames who in the eighteenth century held
court here would quite approve of the _laissez-aller_ of modern
intercourse. The youth of to-day, whose highest praise for his fair
partner of the cotillon is often that she is "an awfully good fellow,"
has little kinship with his ancestor, who used to wait at the
street-corner to see the object of his devotion go by under the convoy
of her father and mother and a couple of faithful colored footmen,
thinking himself happy meanwhile if his divinity gave him a shy glance.
The gay girl of the period, who scampers in her pony chaise down the
avenue from one engagement to the other, and whose most sacred
confidence is apt to be that she adores horses and loves "pottering
about the stable," is, with all her charms, quite different from the
blushing little beauty of 1780, who in powdered hair, quilted petticoat
and high, red-heeled shoes gave her lover a modest little glance at the
street-corner, thinking it a most delicious and unforeseen bit of
romance to have a lover at all. But other times other manners, and
nineteenth-century men and women are no doubt as charming in their way
as were our pretty ancestresses and their gallants of a century ago.

The prosperity of Newport received a check from the Revolution. The
English occupation resulted in a vandalism that destroyed the fine
mansions, turned public buildings, and even Trinity Church, into
barracks for