Hon. JOHN TRUMBULL, of New York, was chosen a Corresponding Member.

Voted, That the Treasurer be authorized to borrow a sum not exceeding thirteen hundred dollars, and to give for the same the note of the Society, on demand, with interest at the rate of five and a half per cent, payable half-yearly.

Present Appleton, Austin, Bradford, J. Davis, I. P. Davis, Francis, Gardner, Palfrey, Pierce, Quincy, Ripley, Savage, Sparks, and Willard.

[Two Resident Members died since the last annual meeting, the Rev. B. B. Wisner and the Hon. Nathan Dane, of whom no memoirs have appeared in the Society's publications. They are here supplied. — EDS.]

Hon. Christopher Gore; $180 for rent from the Phrenological Society; $100 for admission fees and assessments; $24.50 from sales of books; and $20 on account of interest on note of Phelps & Farnham. The payments were $1,800 on account of the Treasurer's notes; $70.46 for interest, taxes, and insurance; and $401.75 for miscellaneous expenses. The note of Phelps & Farnham, which was credited as cash in May, 1826, and still remained unpaid, was properly charged back to the Society. So far as is known to the editors, the curious blunder in the Treasurer's account and the Auditors' report remained undiscovered until it was noticed in examining the Treasurer's books for the purpose of this publication. - EDS.

Notice of Rev. Dr. B. B. Wisner.

Benjamin Blydenburg Wisner was born in Goshen, New York, Sept. 29, 1794, being eldest son of Polydore B. and Maria (Blydenburg) Wisner. His father was an early settler there, and one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church in the town; a lawyer by profession; and, for some years before his death, District Attorney for the Western District of New York. When Benjamin was three years old, the family removed to Geneva, New York. The lad was fitted for college, as were so many at that day, by the pastor of the church with which the family worshipped; entered the Sophomore class in Union College, Schenectady, in 1810; and graduated, when nineteen years old, in 1813. He taught an academy at Johnstown, New York, a year; was at home more than a year, arranging family affairs, after his father's early death; and was tutor at Union College for three years. During his tutorship, he joined the Presbyterian Church, and began the study of Theology with Professor Andrew Yates, D.D., of the College. In the fall of 1818, he entered the Princeton Theological Seminary, as he had entered college, one year in advance; was licensed to preach in June, 1820; preached as a candidate before the Presbyterian Church in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and declined a unanimous request to become its pastor. On recommendation of Dr. Miller, of Princeton, he was invited to the Old South pulpit in Boston, then vacant from the recent death of Rev. Joshua Huntington, and was ordained its pastor, Feb. 21, 1821. Here he labored with success until the failure of his health in 1832, when he was dismissed, and appointed Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions; the change of employment, and the extensive travel involved in it, having the effect to restore his physical vigor. For more than two years, he discharged the duties of his new vocation

with great energy and singular ability, when, in February, 1835, he was suddenly stricken down with malignant scarlet fever, which, in five days, terminated his useful career, at the age of forty years and one hundred and thirty-three days. He left a widow, Sarah (Johnson) Wisner, but no children.

Dr. Wisner received his Doctorate in Theology, in 1828, from his own college. He had taken, and at the time of his lamented death was holding, with distinguished ability, many important positions in the general work of the Church, being, among other like assignments, a member of the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and a Trustee of Andover Theological Seminary.

He was elected to membership in this Society, May 5, 1831.

He left behind him the following publications:

1. A Sermon on the Death of Mrs. Miriam Phillips, preached 18th May, 1823. Cambridge, 1823. 8vo.

2. A Sermon before the Foreign Missionary Society of Boston and Vicinity, 1824. Boston, 1824. 8vo.

3. A Review of Dr. Channing's Discourse preached at the Dedication of the Second Congregational Unitarian Church, New York, Dec. 7, 1826. Boston, 8vo.

4. A Sermon on the Death of Hon. William Phillips, June 3, 1827. Boston, 1827. 8vo.

5. The Proper Mode of conducting Missions to the Heathen. A Sermon delivered before the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians and others in North America, Nov. 5, 1829. Boston, 1829. 8vo.

6. The History of the Old South Church in Boston. In four sermons, delivered May 9 and 16, 1830. Boston, 1830. 8vo.

7. A Sermon on Sabbath Schools, delivered in the Old South Church, 1830. Boston, 1830. 8vo.

8. Review of "The New Divinity Tried"; or, an Examination of Rev. Mr. Rand's Strictures on a Sermon by Rev. C. G. Finney. Boston, 1832. 8vo.

The third and eighth of these were published without the author's name. The first, fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth are in the Society's Library.

H. M. D.

Memoir of Hon. Nathan Dane.

Nathan Dane was born at Ipswich, in the parish then called “The Hamlet,” now the town of Hamilton, on the 29th of December, 1752. His father was a prosperous farmer; but, with a family of twelve children, he could ill afford the cost of a liberal education for one of the number. The subject of this sketch, therefore, worked on his father's farm till he was of age, meanwhile availing himself of such limited means of culture as his native neighborhood afforded. He prepared himself for Harvard College with little or no assistance, entered college in 1774, and graduated with high reputation in 1778. He then took charge of a school in Beverly, at the same time pursuing his legal studies with Judge Wetmore, of Salem. In 1782, he commenced the practice of law in Beverly, where he resided for the remainder of his life.

He very early rose to a foremost place in his profession, for his thorough and accurate legal knowledge, for an acumen which to those who knew him in his prime seemed unsurpassed, and for a fidelity and integrity that won implicit and unmeasured confidence. In my boyhood there survived an authentic anecdote of his skilful employment of scientific aid to save a client's life. He was appointed to defend a man indicted for setting fire to a dwelling-house in the night, -a crime then punished by death. The evidence against the prisoner was conclusive, and the fire occurred at what was reputed a night-hour. But Mr. Dane procured from his friend and late pastor, President Willard, a calculation, by which it appeared that the first rays of twilight had shot above the horizon a few minutes before the latest instant at which the crime could have been committed. It was contended, therefore, and successfully, in the prisoner's behalf, that the crime might have been perpetrated by daylight. Mr. Dane continued his legal practice for thirty years or more.