AUGUST 3.- Pemberton Square was chosen as the site for the new Suffolk County Court House.

AUGUST 6.— Death of the Hon. John Batchelder, a well known citizen of Lynn, Mass. at the age of eighty. He was a native of Topsfield, Mass., but went to Lynn when a young man. He taught school in Ward 5 for thirty years previous to 1855, and was elected to the Massachusetts senate that year. He was also in the same year elected city clerk and collector of taxes. He was re-elected to the senate in 1856 and 1857. He was the first treasurer of the Lynn Five Cents Savings Bank. He afterward taught the Ward 6 Grammar School, and held that position ten years, and then became a member of the school board. The last office held by him was that of postmaster, being appointed by President Grant in 1869.

At a meeting of the Battle Monument Association, held at Bennington, Vt., on the 12th of August, there were present Governor Pingree, who presided, Senators Evarts and Morrill, Professor Ferry of Yale College, Lieutenant

Governor Ormsbee of Brandon, and other gentlemen. The report of the special committee was read, and a resolution passed accepting the design of J. P. RINN, of Boston for a Battle Monument. A committee was then appointed to report the details to the President of the United States and the governors of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, which action will entitle the Association to receive the appropriations made by Congress and the Legislatures of these states for the monument. The fund now amounts to $80,000.

On August 12th, General HENRY KEMBLE OLIVER died in Salem, Mass., at the advanced age of eighty-five years. He was born in Beverly, Mass., Nov. 24, 1800, a son of Rev. Daniel Oliver and Elizabeth Kemble; was educated in the Boston Latin School, and Harvard College (for two years) and was graduated from Dartmouth College. After his graduation, he settled in Salem, and as Principal of the High and Latin Schools, and also of a private school, he was virtually at the head of the educational interests of the town for a quarter of a century. In 1848, he moved to Lawrence, Mass., to become agent of the Atlantic Mills. While living in Lawrence, he was appointed superintendent of schools, and in recognition of his services the "Oliver Grammar School" was founded.

At an early day General Oliver became interested in military affairs as an officer of the Salem Light Infantry and in 1844 he was made Adjutant General of the Commonwealth, by Gov. Briggs, and held this office for four years. During the war he served with great satisfaction as Treasurer of the Commonwealth, and performed the most arduous duties in a very faithful and acceptable manner. From 1869 to 1873 he was chief of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and ever after that became interested in reducing the hours of labor in factories and in the limitation of factory work by children. From 1876 to 1880 he was mayor of Salem, and displayed almost the same vivacity and energy in discharging the duties of this office, as an octogenarian, that he had shown in his youth. He was master of the theory and history of music, a good bass singer, a good organist, and the author of several popular

compositions. Of these "Federal Street" seems likely to become permanent in musical literature. In his youth he sang in the Park street church in Boston and for many years he led the choir of the North church in Salem. "Oliver's Collection of Church Music" is one of the results of his labors in this direction. In conjunction with Dr. Tuckerman he published the "National Lyre." He was a member of the old Handel and Hayden Society and the Salem Glee Club, both famous musical organizations of his early days. In 1825 General Oliver married Sally, daughter of Captain Samuel Cook, by whom he had two sons and five daughters, as follows: Colonel S. C. Oliver, Dr. H. K. Oliver, Jr., Sarah Elizabeth, who married Mr. Bartlett of Lawrence, and who died about four years ago, Emily Kemble, who is the wife of Colonel Andrews, U. S. A., Mary Evans Oliver, who has been the faithful attendant of the general in his declining years, and Ellen Wendell, who married Augustus Cheever of North Andover.

AUGUST 13.- Boxford, Mass. celebrated its bi-centennial. Among the addresses was one by Sidney Perley, author of the "History of Boxford from 1635 to 1880," who spoke particularly on the formative period of the history of Boxford, alluding to the fact that Boxford was a frontier in 1635 and was then a wilderness and the fighting ground of the Agawam and Tarantive Indians.

AUGUST 19.-Third annual meeting of the American Boynton Association held in Worcester, Mass. The Secretary said that he had been able to trace over three hundred families back to William and John Boynton, who settled in Rowley, Mass., in 1638. They came from Yorkshire, England, and the family there is traced back through thirty generations, to 1067, when their estate was confirmed to them by William, the Conqueror. It was reported that work is being pushed in the prepartion of the family memorial to be published.

AUGUST 19.- Centennial of Heath, Franklin County, Mass. incorporated February 14, 1785. The celebration had been postponed to August for the sake of convenience. About 2,500 people attended the exercises. The principal addresses were by John H. Thompson, Esq., of

Chicago, and Rev. C. E. Dickinson of Marietta, Ohio.

In describing these the Springfield Republican said of the town:

"In 1832 the population was 1300, but by the census just taken the town shows but 568 inhabitants. This decadence is attributable to emigration and the railroads. Its wealth has consisted chiefly in the men and women who have here been reared and educated for lives of usefulness. Indeed few towns of equal population have sent out so many who have honored themselves and their native town as Heath. Its Puritan characteristics have lingered like a sweet fragrance, and their influences are still felt. From this little hamlet have gone out into other fields a member of Congress, two judges, ten lawyers, thirteen ministers, twenty-nine physicians and many teachers; twenty-three natives have been college graduates, and thirtyeight, not natives have also been collegians. If the women have not occupied as public position as the men, they have been no less useful. Forty-five have graduated from various seminaries and several have become well known missionaries and teachers. It was in this town, too, that Dr. Holland spent his early life.

AUGUST 19.-Twelfth annual gathering of the Needham family, descendants of John Needham, who built the Needham homestead at the cross-roads known as Needham's Corner on the Lynnfield road at South Peabody, Mass. John Needham was famous in his day and generation as the builder of the solid old stone jail in Salem in 1813, the same massive structure which has just been remodeled. Back of him in the time of the Puritans, there were George Needham and his three brothers and a sister, who came to Salem very early in its infancy, and whose lineal descendants scattered all over New England, John Needham died in 1831 at the age of seventy-three. At the family gathering six generations were represented, and a large number of the branches of the family as well-the Needhams, the Newhalls, the Browns, the Stones, the Nourses, the Galencias and others.

AUGUST 26. - Centennial celebration of Rowe, Franklin County, Mass. Like Heath, the town was incorporated in February, 1785. The historical address was by Hon. Silas Bullard of Menasha, Wis.

W. T. Spear has just finished a history of North Adams which he has spent a long time in compiling. He has written the history of the town from the time of its settlement in 1749 to the present time, and says he has gleaned many facts from old town records which have never been published. He will publish his work in small book form and sell it at fifty cents a copy.

F. Wally Perkins, a topographical engineer in the employ of the United States coast and geographical service, is making a geographical survey of the Connecticut river from South Deerfield to its mouth. Part of the expense of this survey is borne by the government and the rest by the state, the object being to locate certain topographical and geological features in the valley.

It has not been definitely stated where in Boston the proposed statue of Willliam Loyd Garrison will be placed, but it will either be in West Chester Park or Commonwealth avenue, with a preference for the latter. The city engineer is now engaged in making plans for the pedestal, which is to be of hammerd Quincy granite, about ten feet in height. In the statue Mr. Garrison is represented sitting in an easy chair apparently at peace with all the world, the great struggle in which he was a prominent figure having been brought to an end. Beneath the chair lies a file of the Liberator, which suggests the iron will of the man in his conflict with slavery, and the strength of his purpose is further shown in the following inscription on the side of the pedestal "I am in earnest; I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will not retire a single inch; I will be heard."

The General Court has a double survival in the State Legislature and the town meeting. And the most curious part of this survival is that the Legislature of this State still retains some judicial functions. It is, we believe, the only State where this is the case. The Legislature of Massachusetts retains the name of the General Court, but contents itself with purely legislative work while our own Legislature is still Supreme Court in equity. This has descended to it as an inheritance from the General Court of colonial times.—[New Haven (Conn.) Vers.

From the annual report of Major C. W. Raymond on the improvement of rivers and harbors in Massachusetts it appears that the cost of the improvement of Newburyport harbor during the year was $31,560, and $9,868 remains available. The object of the improvement is to create, at the outer bar, a permanent channel one thousand feet in width, with a least depth of seventeen feet at low water. The amount required for the completion of the project is $205,000, provided the entire sum is appropriated for the next fiscal year. It is proposed to expend the money in the rapid completion of the jetties already under

construction.

The proceedings of the Bostonian Society at its annual meeting in January, 1885, have just been published in pamphlet form. It embraces much valuable data. The illustrations consist of a fine heliotype view of the Old State House, from the east end, the home of the Society; and a copy of its well-devised seal, in the heraldic coloring. The experiment of a cheap pamphlet giving a summary historical sketch of the Old State House has been successful, and another similar publication is contemplated.

Rebecca Nourse, who was the first person hanged as a witch at Salem, in 1692, notwithstanding her repeated affirmation of her innocence, has just had a monument erected by her descendants. On one side of it is the legend concerning her, and on the other these lines of the poet Whittier :

"O Christian martyr, who for truth could die,
When all about thee owned the hideous lie.
The world, redeemed from superstition's sway,
Is breathing freer for thy sake to-day."

In his address at the unveiling of Ward's statue of "The Pilgrim," erected in Central Park, New York, by the New England Society in the city of New York, Mr. George William Curtis said:

"Holding that the true rule of religious faith and worship was written in the Bible, and that every man must read and judge for himself, the Puritan conceived the church as a body of independent seekers and interpreters of the truth, dispensing with priests and priestly orders and functions; organizing itself and calling no man master."

THERE have been earlier biographies of John Brown, the martyr of Virginia; but by none of them have his character and acts been told so fully and judged so fairly as now by Mr. Sanborn. His later biographer, furthermore, has had access to all the papers and letters, that remain, bearing on Brown's life, and of these he has made the very best possible use. In the arrangement of the materials at his command, Mr. Sanborn has shown admirable taste and judgment, and, without seeming to be a eulogist, has contented himself with allowing his hero to speak for himself, or rather to plead his own case. Viewing the case as a whole, with its back-ground of antecedent history, no fair-minded person can longer regard John Brown as either an adventurer or as a madman. He was by nature, however, enthusiastic; he believed that he had a mission in this world to fulfil, and that, the freedom of the slaves. This mission he cherished uppermost in his mind, for its accomplishment he labored and suffered incessantly, and for it he died. He lacked one quality,- discretion. His pioneer life in New York, his thrilling adventures in Kansas, where he fought slavery so fiercely that he saved that state from being branded with the curse, his unwise but conscientiously-conceived and carefully planned attack on Harper's Ferry, his capture, trial and death, as told in Mr. Sanborn's pages make up the warp and woof of a story, which surpasses in interest anything of the nature of a biography that has been published for many a day. John Brown has been dead a ful! quarter of a century; the object of his ambition has been accomplished, but by other hands and brains; the prophetic visions of his stalwart mind have been more than fulfilled. History will do him justice, even if the book now before us has not already done so, as we think.

Immediately after the execution, the body of the martyr was borne to North Elba, N. Y., and, on the 8th of November, 1859, it was laid away

some unaccountable reason, to furnish even an extract from that pathetic and pointed address, which came from Wendell Phillips, while standing by the open grave. If Mr. Phillips ever spoke more beautifully than he did, on that memorable day, we have never known it. We sincerely hope that, in a future edition, Mr. Sanborn may be led to insert the address in the pages where they so properly belong.

THE theme of Prof. Hosmer's narrative* was born in Boston, Sept. 27, 1722, and graduated at Harvard in 1740, and studied law. He was not a lawyer and neither did he make his mark as a merchant although he engaged with his father in the management of his malt-house. This early life of Samuel Adams is portrayed with more than usual interest in this biography. Then with great care we are given the salient points of his career as a representative in the Massachusetts General Court, as a leader of the Boston patriots in their resistance to British oppression, as a member of the Continental Congress and in other public offices. We are shown Samuel Adams as a man without great business or professional talents but wonderful in counsel, a cool headed patriot, an adroit tactician, and above all a thorough democrat. To mingle with the common people was his delight; he was a frequenter of the Caulkers' Club, popular with blacksmiths, ship carpenters, and mechanics. He was not a great orator; but sometimes, rising with the greatness of the subject or occasion was the most effective speaker to be heard.

The two features of Professor Hosmer's work which impress us most forcibly are its fairnesr and its readableness. We have had one worthy life of Adams before this in Wells's three volume biography, a work highly valuable in its abundance of matter, but hardly so impartial as the smaller and more recent biography. In its preparation, Professor Hosmer has availed himself of Mr. Wells's work, of the Adams Papers in Mr. Bancroft's possession, and of copious materials in the Boston libraries. He has thus had every facility for his task and he has used them to the best advantage.

*Samuel Adams. By James K. Hosmer. American Statesman Series. Boston: Honghton, Mifflin & Co. Price $1.25.

In general interest this book is second to no other in the series of American Statesmen, so far published. The story opens well and does not diminish in interest to the end. The author, although now a St. Louis man, is himself from the old Adams stock, and has amply shown his capacity to prepare a concise and permanently valuable life of the sturdy American patriot and town-meeting man, Samuel Adams.

THE only fault which we have to find with Mr. Drake's book* is, that he has not done himself justice in his title. The title which he has chosen is expressive neither of the size nor of the contents of his work. We read at least one hundred pages before we find a New England legend, and the only account of the folklore that we have been able to find is in the author's introduction covering about six pages. Properly described, the work deals with New England history, of the most romantic character occasionally interspersed with a great deal of very tedious moralizing,— a blemish of style which Mr. Drake seems quite unable to avoid. The book, despite many features which annoy, is valuable, and ought well to repay publication, To the young especially it ought to prove interesting, since it makes plain to them many familiar tales of early childhood. The publishers, as usual, have done their level best to make it a very beautiful book, and have of course succeeded.

THE second volume of the Life and Times of the Tylers concludes the work. It is the volume which is the more important and will prove the more interesting to readers in general. It comprises the events and incidents of the public life of John Tyler,- from his induction into the Presidency in 1841 to his death while a member of the Confederate Congress of 1862. It must be remembered that these volumes are edited by a member of the Tyler family; a fact, which leads us to say that an impartial history of Fresident Tyler's administration of the pertinent matters which preceded it, and of the reflections upon its policy, cannot be naturally expected from a person interested, or from an actor in the politics of that period.

*A book of New England Legends and Folk-Lore, in Prose and Poetry. By Samuel Adams Drake. Illustrated. Boston: Roberts Brothers.

Life and Times of the Tylers. By L. H. Tyler. Richmond, Va.: Whittet and Shipperson. 2 vols. $6.00.

By the operation of the Constitution alone, Tyler became President. At that time, he was not considered by his party, and, after he had obtained the office by the death of General Harrison, he straightway placed himself in direct opposition to the party which had nominated and elected him Vice President. The son, who is the author or editor of these volumes, appears to be forgetful of this fact; for on no other ground can we account for the bias which he exhibits from the first page to the last. His duty, he thinks, is to defend his father's administration, and this idea leads him into trouble at the very begining. He says: "The Whig party of 1840 had nothing to do with bank, tariff, or internal improvements,"— when all the world knows the contrary! There can be no doubt,- indeed there never was any doubt that the Whig leaders of 1840, no matter by what pretexts they gained votes and power, were committed to a national bank, to a protective tariff, and to internal improvements. The measures, which the Whigs in Congress introduced and passed,-only to be vetoed by the President-were Whig measures, and would certainly have been approved by General Harrison, had he been alive.

The Whig party gained a great deal in the election of 1840; but it lost all by the contingency which made John Tyler president of the United States. Why he was ever named on the electoral ticket is itself inexplicable. He distinguished himself only by virtue of his mistakes, from first to last inexcusable; and the biography, by the son, is distinguished only by

destroy its value

inuendoes and a current of bitterness which as historical authority. This is much to be regretted; because an unprejudiced life of John Tyler has long been needed.

That portion of the volume which deals with Mr. Tyler's part of the Peace Congress, and his share in the exciting events preceding and during the first year of the war of the Rebellion, will arouse no discussion. The letters which these concluding pages contain are particularly valuable, for they show the state of public feeling in the South at that time. Notwithstanding our adverse criticism of certain portions of this volume,- and we have plainly stated our reason we still welcome the work in its completeness. It adds much to our stock of knowledge, lets in light where light was needed, and is withal commendable as an addition to the material data of our national history.