practical service, and, as he lately testified, the friendships he made there among his own pupils afforded him the chief solace and happiness of his life. Yet even in that excellent vocation of training the young it may be thought that if he had let political diversions alone and confined himself to building up another Rugby like a Dr. Arnold, the final outcome of his efforts at Quincy would have been more lasting and more successful.

So marked a figure and type of character cannot but be long missed in this Society and wherever else he has made his presence familiar. And here, in the region of Massachusetts Bay, where successive generations have seen him, heard him, told anecdotes about him, commented upon his looks, his figure, his manners, the substance of his edifying exposition, whether on lecture platform, at political gatherings, or in the conclave of learned societies; or have read his many letters to the local press, correcting errors of the times, literary, social or historical, after his brusque and incisive fashion, with copious and convincing citations and a wealth of accurate informationall will miss his pungent and brilliant censoriousness. Among the most finished and thoughtful productions of his fertile pen we may place his scholarly address on John Milton, delivered at the celebration of this Society in December, 1908, and his Phi Beta Kappa oration read at Cambridge a few years earlier, on Peace and War; to which may be added the volume of his collected Lowell lectures upon "Italian Poets since Dante." To witty versifying he had turned for variety in old age with something of his youthful effervescence; for in a number of the "Harvard Graduates' Magazine" issued within a twelvemonth may be seen a light poem on "The College Bell,” which he contributed in humorous parody of Edgar A. Poe.

We should almost have thought that time touched William Everett lightly, like another Anacreon, had we not marked how aged and saddened he looked at Harvard's last Commencement; or had we not attended his last Lowell Institute course, scarcely five months ago, when, lecturing upon a most congenial topic, "The Orators of Great Britain," his last public appearance in this familiar city, he found himself so feeble that he had to be helped up stairs and to sit at the desk while he read quietly from his manuscript.

To recall fitly the two Everetts and describe graphically the

successive careers of illustrious father and son may some day engage one of our younger biographers; but his pen should be a sympathetic one, capable of delicate delineation and

contrast.

Mr. SANBORN read extracts from a paper on " Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson," to disprove the charges made against them of being unbelievers and atheists. He also dealt with Gouverneur Morris's conduct towards Paine in France.

Mr. WINSLOW WARREN read the following paper:

At the April meeting of this Society in 1898 I made some informal remarks as to the closing of the Boston Custom House under the Boston Port Bill in June, 1774, and also as to the loss of the Customs Records at the time of the evacuation of Boston in March, 1776.1

I then stated my doubt of the truth of the tradition that the Customs Records were carried to Halifax. This doubt has been much strengthened by later investigation notwithstanding the statements by Edward Winslow, Sen., who was Registrar of Probate for Suffolk County in 1776,2 and the last acting Royal Collector in Boston, in the letter following, that the Records of the Probate Office, Registry of Deeds, and Custom House were packed up and sent on a transport to Halifax.

It seems that George W. Murray, of New York, wrote to Edward Winslow in New Brunswick March 4, 1811, stating that Judge Cushing made application soon after the organization of the State of Massachusetts for the records that had been taken away, and that the request was not complied with until after the Revolution, when, however, not all the missing books came back; and that he- Murray was informed that a gentleman named Fitch had found in a trunk two books marked on the back "Suffolk" that he would like to regain possession of.3

4

The reply to this letter is in the possession of Rev. W. DeLoss Love of Hartford, Connecticut, and is as follows:

1 2 Proc., XII. 192.

2 Winslow's commission to this office, dated July 24, 1775, is printed in 2 Proc., 11. 233.

"Winslow Papers," 1901, published by the New Brunswick Hist. Soc.,

666;
4 655.

-

Kingsclear, N. BRUNS'K, 7th. April, 1811.

DEAR SIR, Your letter of the 4th March from N. York has been handed to me by Gen'l Coffin, and I regret that it is not in my power to give you full satisfaction upon a subject which cannot fail to excite considerable Interest and Concern. The following facts however, adverted to in your letter are within my recollection:

When Boston was evacuated, F. Hutchinson Esq: was Judge, and I was Registrar of Probate, for the County of Suffolk, and I was at the same time Acting Collector for the Port of Boston.

On the morning of the evacuation the Public Buildings were in possession of a Licentious Rabble, the doors of the Offices were forced, and the Records and papers were exposed to instant destruction. Having a party at my Command, and impressed with a due sense of the importance of preserving them, I found means to pack up and place on board a Transport not only the records of the Probate Office, but also those of the Registry of Deeds and Custom House. The latter office had been peculiarly exposed having been occupied as a Military Guard Room the preceding night. At that time Sam'l Fitch Esq., who was Judge of the Court of Vice Admiralty, had been several days embarked on board ship with his family; one of them (a very interesting daughter) was dangerously ill.

On our arrival at Halifax I made application to the Governor of the Province to take the Books and papers into the protection of his Government. Accordingly a place was assigned them in the Surrogate's office in Nova Scotia, under the care of the Surrogate Gen'l Mr. Morris reserving a right of access to them upon any emergent occasion by Judge Hutchinson, who was to remain there.

The Packages were at that time in perfect good order, but whether every Book (particularly of the Register of Deeds Office) was included in the packages (formed amidst scenes of such confusion), it is impossible for me to say. The Anecdote respecting Mr. Fitch I never heard mentioned, altho' I was upon the terms of great intimacy with him and his family, nor do I conceive it probable that he should have encumbered himself with two large folio Volumes of Public Records, in which he had neither interest nor connection, and that at a time when he was sinking under the pressure of Domestic anxieties and afflictions; if such volumes were by any accident found in his possession, I should conjecture that they belonged to the Court of Vice Admiralty, which were ex-officio in his charge.

I left Halifax with the King's Army, and remained with it till the end of the war. Several applications were made for the restoration of the Records, which were rejected, and after the publication of the Treaty they were delivered by Judge Hutchinson, under proper authority, to a committee appointed by Governor Hancock to receive

them, safe and entire as I afterwards understood from the Judge. I believe a Mr. Kent1 who was at one time State Attorney was one of the Committee..

ED. WINSLOW.

Ordinarily this letter would seem to be conclusive as to the Customs Records, but it was written thirty-five years after the event, and there are many circumstances to show that Mr. Winslow's memory was defective, or that the books he thought were shipped, were not all sent, and in fact that only the Probate Records actually went. The letter states that the Records sent were to be subject to the order of Foster Hutchinson, Judge of Probate, and were all returned after the Peace Treaty to Governor Hancock.2

I have recently come into possession of a letter from Foster Hutchinson to Thomas Cushing, of the Governor's Council in Massachusetts, which has never been published, and which not unlikely was the "application" referred to by Mr. Murray. It will be noticed that it refers only to the Probate Records. The following is a copy:

HALIFAX, 16th Janry, 1778.

SIR,- By a Cartel which arrived here a few days since I recd. a letter from you inclosing an order from what you call the Council of your State, setting forth that I had carried away the papers belonging to the Probate Office of the County of Suffolk, and that I should be desired to return them to be lodged in the said office for the benefit and relief of the poor widows and orphans to whom they more immediately relate. Agreeable to which order you desire me to deliver them to the Capt. of the Cartel and address them to your care.

In answer I think proper to let you know that the order is founded upon what is false in fact, and the pretended motive for making such order [is] not the true one as I believe. I am very certain it is not the most prevailing one, but as many of the orders I have seen from your pretended Council are of the like sort, I am the less surprised at this.

The papers were not carried away by me, but sent on board a transport by express order of His Excellency General Howe, and by him delivered into the custody of the Government here, where they will remain until I, or whoever may succeed me in the office, shall apply for them.

1 Benjamin Kent.

2 The papers now printed supplement those given by Mr. John T. Hassam in 2 Proc., XVI. 113-120.

As to the motive assigned for desiring them to be sent back, viz. the relief of widows and orphans, it is not likely any great regard can be had for those unhappy persons by those who, exciting the people to an open revolt, have contributed all in their power so amazingly to increase the number of these miserable objects.

You say the presumption is the papers were carried away to prevent them from ruin and destruction. I believe you are right in supposing

that to be one of the principal reasons. Another take it was to prevent their being made use of by persons who were in open rebellion against their lawful Sovereign. That reason still subsists, and perhaps the other also. I think you may rest assured the papers will not be returned, whilst you pretend to act in the office, or any other person, without authority derived from the King.

I am at a loss which most to wonder at, the assurance or weakness of the order. To suppose that a person, who is one of the legal Council of the Province of the Massachusetts, would give any attention to an order from persons who have no legal title to a seat in that Council, and deliver papers belonging to an office of which he was in the legal possession to one, who had usurped that very office, and whose every act must be null and void, is such effrontery as is unparalleled anywhere but among yourselves.

I apprehend the time is not at a great distance when the poor deluded misled people, who have already suffered greater inconveniences and miserys from the tyranny of their new fangled Government, than the most inveterate enemy of Great Britain could ever pretend their posterity would suffer from any acts of the British Legislature, will have their eyes opened and again feel that happiness which is only to be enjoyed under the British Constitution, and of which they have so long been deprived by their wicked oppressors; and when those persons who have usurped legislative authority, conscious of their incapacity to govern a State, will shrink back to their respective occupations, if the extreme clemency of the best of earthly Sovereigns shall permit them to escape with impunity. Your most humble servt. FOSTER HUTCHINSON.

Honble Thomas Cushing Esq.

George W. Murray's letter says that he was informed that a gentleman named Fitch had found in a trunk two books marked on the back "Suffolk." Supposing the information to have been correct, those books could hardly have been Customs Records, for it is not likely that Royal Customs Records would have been so marked. The mark would indicate County Records or possibly Court Records.

The fact that, as Winslow says, the Records sent were put