ELECTED SINCE THE PASSAGE OF THE ACT OF 1857.

MEMBERS DECEASED.

Resident, Honorary, and Corresponding Members who have died since the publication of the last volume of Proceedings, June 1, 1869; or of whose death information has been received since that date:

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

THE

ANNUAL MEETING, APRIL, 1869.

HE Society held its Annual Meeting this day, Thursday, 15th April, 1869, at eleven o'clock, A.M.; the President, the Hon. ROBERT C. WINTHROP, in the chair.

The Recording Secretary read the record of the last meeting. The President said that the business of the Monthly Meeting would be proceeded with before that of the Annual Meeting was taken up.

The Cabinet-keeper reported a gift to the Cabinet, of one hundred and forty-two engraved portraits from our associate, Mr. Whitmore.

The Corresponding Secretary read letters of acceptance from Charles J. Stillé, of Philadelphia; from William W. Story, of Rome, Italy; and from Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster.

The letter from Dean Stanley here follows:

SIR,

DEANERY, WESTMINSTER, Feb. 27, 1869. I beg to return my sincere thanks for the great honor which has been done to me by my election as an Honorary Member of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Few rewards can be more deeply felt by an Englishman than the knowledge that any of his labors have been appreciated by his kinsmen on the further side of the Atlantic, and that he has in any way contrib

uted to strengthen those bonds of intellectual and moral sympathy which make us feel that, amidst whatever differences of government, civil or ecclesiastical, we are still of the same flesh and blood, heirs of the same great race and language, —and hoping for a like glorious future. It is one of the many charms of my present position in Westminster Abbey that one of the monuments in its walls is inscribed with the name of a Governor of Massachusetts, at a time when our countries were still undivided. I shall now regard it with a fresh interest, and shall hope to welcome any members of your Society to the Abbey, not merely as American citizens, but as my colleagues in the same institution. I beg to remain, yours faithfully,

ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY,
Dean of Westminster.

The Rev. CHANDLER ROBBINS, Cor. Secretary.

The President communicated from Francis Lieber, LL.D., a pamphlet by him, entitled "Fragments of Political Science on Nationalism and Inter-Nationalism."

He also communicated from W. F. Goodwin, Captain in the United-States army, now stationed at Richmond, Va., a book, in fac-simile, of the arms of Goodwin, and of Bradbury.

The President read a letter from A. W. Thayer, Esq., UnitedStates Consul at Trieste, in which he presented to the Society a copy, kindly furnished by Barone Revoltella for the purpose, of a book, entitled "Il Diciasette Maggio M DCCC LXVII nei fasti della chiesa tergestina per la sapiente generosa pietà di Pasquale Barone Revoltella Imperituro: Memorie per Luigi Cesare Dr. Pavissich, Trieste."

A beautiful volume, entitled "The Melrose Memorial," was presented to the Society, by the Town of Melrose.

Suitable acknowledgments were ordered for these several gifts.

The President read the following letter from the Rev. W. H. Milman, which, he said, though not intended for publication, was too interesting to be lost to our Proceedings : —

15, CORNWALL GARDENS, QUEEN'S GATE, W., March 2, 1869. MY DEAR SIR, I write at my mother's request, who even yet does not feel equal to acknowledging for herself kindness so great as

yours and Mr. Motley's, to thank you heartily for the handsome and affectionate tribute paid by you publicly to the memory of my dear father, and for the letter you were good enough to write to her.

I must also ask you to express to the Massachusetts Historical Society, my mother's gratitude for the Resolution of appreciation of my father's life and labors, and of sympathy with herself in her bereavement, passed by the Society.

The great sorrow consequent upon her loss has been not perhaps diminished, but emptied of much of its bitterness, by the gratifying testimony which has been borne by the foremost men of all classes and of all parties on our side the Atlantic, to the brightness of my father's talents, to the genial loving-kindness of his disposition, to the purity and simplicity of his character; and now it is a very great additional consolation to hear voices from across the ocean, which assure us that in the New World, too, he had won the admiration, the esteem, the affection of all that is most distinguished there; of all there whose kindly regard and approval is most worth having; whose praise is praise indeed.

You know my father never wrote to secure applause, never suppressed a conviction or modified an expression to gain it; yet when he had done his part, and his work had to be judged, there was no favorable verdict for which he looked more eagerly, or which more assured him that he had done well what he had done, than that which came to him from the great new home of our race.

As Mr. Motley signed his name to your letter to my mother, may I ask you to communicate to him this our answer?

Believe me, my dear sir, yours very truly and gratefully,
WILLIAM H. MILMAN.

The Honorable ROBERT WINTHROP.

The President spoke of the death of the Hon. George Folsom, a Corresponding Member, in the following language: —

The death of the Hon. George Folsom has recently been announced by an ocean telegram. He has been on the roll of our Corresponding Members since 1836. He was born on the 23d of May, 1802; was graduated at Harvard University in 1822; studied law in the office of Judge Shepley, at Saco, Me.; and, while a student there, wrote a history of some of the early settlements of that part of our country.

He