And it may be added here, also, that the legislature of New Hampshire supplemented the above appeal of Gov. Wentworth with a prayer to the king, never, under any circumstances, to admit of the slightest infraction of the boundary line, thus determined and established according to his royal will and pleasure; and to the credit of that province and state it may also be stated here that that work, the boundary line as then established and recorded, has never been called in question by either.

Newspaper correspondents and others have agonized over the matter more or less, but the state has never gone back on her own record.

Jonathan Belcher to the Board of Trade. 7 May 1741.

Indorsed Massachusetts, new Hampshire Letter from Mr. Belcher Governor of New England, dated at Boston ye 7th of May 1741, concerning a difficulty, arisen upon ye construction of His Majesty's Judgment respecting ye Boundaries betwixt ye Province of Massachusetts Bay and that of New Hampshire.

This is a very important document, and, as will be seen, effectually disposes of all claims New Hampshire may have been supposed to have to a slice of Massachusetts, and forms a very valuable and important state

paper.

In connection with these documents Mr. Spofford has also received copies of three very important and valuable. maps relating to the boundary line controversy of 1741.

No. 1 is a map of Merrimack river and the boundary line at three miles distant on the north side thereof, by

is about 18x24 inches, and bears the following inscription on the upper left hand corner, enclosed in scroll work:

To

His Excellency Benning Wentworth Esqr. Captain General & Commander in Chief over His Majesty's Province of New Hampshire This Map is Humbly Inscribed by

His Excellencys

Most Obdt. Servt.

George Mitchell Surv'r.

And immediately under this we find the following note:

By Lines drawn on the North side of ye River there is as much land as water, which have their corresponding parallels at three miles distance; but as ye Sudden Bends renders it impracticable to come up to the Truth, the difference is divided equally in General.

In the lower left hand corner is the following note:

Received April 20th, with Governor Wentworth's Letter dated at Portsmouth in New Hampshire 6th March 1741&2

In the Lower right hand corner is the title enclosed in scroll work.

A MAP

Of the River Merrimack
from the Atlantick Ocean
to Pawtucket Falls de-
scribing Bounds between
His Majesty's Province of
New Hampshire and the
Massachusetts Bay, agree-
able to His Majestys Or-
der in Council 1741

On the back of the map we find the following sworn statement:

George Mitchell makes Oath, that this survey made by him of the River Merrimack, from the mouth of said River to Pawtucket Falls, is true and exact to the best of his skill and knowledge, and that the line described in the plan is as con

formable to His Majestys determination in Council, as was in his power to draw, but finding it impracticable to stick to the letter of said determination, has in some

places taken from one Province, and made ample allowance for the same in the next reach of the River.

the New Hampshire Commissioners to the legislature of that state, shows the survey to have been made and platted with a wonderful degree of

accuracy.

This latest survey and plan were

Thus it will be seen that Mitchell was no tool or emissary of Belcher's, but he drew the boundary line according to his interpretation of the King's Decree, as it appears from examination of the map that he surveyed the river, made his plan, and then proceeded to lay off a strip of land three miles wide on the north side thereof.

This he did by first drawing straight lines along the north shore of the river, passing so as to take one half of the river into his estimate, projecting these lines from the ocean to Pawtucket falls, and then draws the boundary line at three miles distance from these straight lines. Consequently no part of his line appears on the south side of the river. Mitchell does not seem to have understood the gymnastics of modern surveying.

This map shows no small degree of artistic ability in the surveyor who projected it, so much so that Mr. Spofford already has applications for copies from parties interested in works of this description.

But this map not only indicates a superior draughtsman, but a remarkably skilful and accurate surveyor.

His plan of the river, reduced by pantograph to the scale of the map accompanying the recent report of

appliances, by a skilful and experienced surveyor but recently from the United States Government survey of the Mississippi river, and neither time nor expense was spared to make it as accurate as could be platted on a scale of 2,500 feet to one inch; still, on comparing this latest product of modern skill, it is little more than a fac simile of Mitchell's work done with the rude instruments of a century and a half ago.

MAP NO. 3.

inches, and is the work of the same This map is on a sheet about 24x36 surveyor, and executed in the same general style as No. 2. The title reads as follows:

A Plan of the Rivers and Boundary Lines referred to in the Proceedings and Judgment to which this is annexed.

Geo. Mitchell Surveyor

Note

Reed Dec 20 1737 with Letter from ye Commissioners for settling the Boundary Lines between ye provinces of Massachusetts Bay & New Hampshire

Cenr 79

The commission of 1737, it will be remembered by persons familiar with this question, reported in substance as follows:

That if the second charter of the Province of Massachusetts Bay covered all the territory that the first charter covered, then the line should commence at the Atlantic ocean,

three miles north of the mouth of the Merrimack river, and thence running westerly and northerly, keeping at three miles' distance from the river to the junction of the Winnipiseogee and three miles further north, thence due west to his majesty's other dominions; but if it did not, then the dividing line should begin at a point three miles north of the Black Rocks and thence due west to his majesty's other dominions. These lines are all shown on the plan.

But both parties appealed from this decision, and the matter was carried before the king in council. This august body seems to have been run by New Hampshire's paid agent, one George Tomlinson, and the line was established at three miles north of the river to Pawtucket falls, and thence due west, etc. This gave New Hampshire some 700 square miles of Massachusetts more than that Province had ever claimed, consequently her willingness to pay all the expenses of running the lines that make the area of that state to-day 1,400 square miles larger than Massachusetts.

These records and maps are not only interesting historical documents,

but they show past all controversy that the boundary line matter was settled by the king's decree, that the execution was served, the land set off, the lines run and marked on the ground, the plans returned, accepted, and recorded, and the whole business executed as perfectly and thoroughly as it was possible to fix any division line anywhere at that time. It was all done with the cordial assent and concurrence of New Hampshire. Massachusetts protested against it, but without avail. The line thus established has been the line of jurisdiction ever since. Massachusetts set the bounds stones at the angles in 1827 they are all there to-day, and mark the angles in the line. Mr. Spofford has run on the ground, and there is not the slightest doubt of its correctness substantially, and why any person should now suppose for a single moment that a boundary line thus established by both parties can be changed at the option of one, and without the consent and against the wishes of the inhabitants living near it, is a mystery we shall not attempt to solve. Exchange.

lowed him to work as a farm hand near home; and with one hundred dollars saved from his wages, and a like sum left him by his grandfather, he determined to get an education. Rev. Enoch Pond was his instructor in the preparatory studies required for admission to Brown University, which he entered in 1818 and graduated

from in 1822 with high honors. Having secured university honors, he taught in the academy at Wrentham, Mass., one year, and began theological studies at Princeton in 1823. In 1825 he was licensed to preach, and took charge of a Congregational church in Sangerfield, N. Y., where he remained four years. At this time the agitation against secret societies was at its height, and Mr. Peirce being a member of the Masonic fraternity, his congregation and himself could not harmonize. He resigned his pastorate, and for a while left the active work of the ministry. After teaching a while in Goshen, Conn., as principal, he left for Michigan in 1831, having been appointed by the Home Missionary Society for work in the (then) territory of Michigan. His first missionary work was in Marshall, Calhoun county, in July, 1831. In May, 1832, the Congregational church of Marshall was organized with five members, one of them being Mrs. Peirce, the wife of the pastor. Mr. Peirce is remembered for his kindliness of speech and manner, his selfsacrifice, and his truly Christian life. His thorough acquaintance with the sacred writings made his labors as pastor eminently successful. His missionary labors were brought to a close in July, 1838, when he was appointed supertendent of public instruction at the organization of Michigan as a state. He had been nominated to this office in 1832, but his nomination was not confirmed by the legislature until July 26, 1836. Previous to this time very little attention had been paid to education in Michigan. Most of the new settlers were poor, and their time was fully occupied in clearing up their

land and providing for their families. Some of the leading men had held discussions on the subject, but no authorized system of education yet existed. Among those who were becoming interested in educational matters, Gen. Isaac E. Crary, a graduate of an Eastern college, and Mr. Peirce were the most prominent. They met frequently, and earnestly discussed the theme with increasing interest. They agreed to make an effort to have the education of the youth of Michigan a distinct branch of the government, and that its affairs should be in the hands of an officer, and thus give it an importance it could not otherwise gain. They prepared an article on the subject, which was presented to the convention, and, by its adoption, became the organic law. The law thus adopted provided for a state superintendent of instruction. In the creation of this office, Michigan was alone; and to these men, Messrs. Crary and Peirce, belongs the credit of the formation of a bureau of education in the (then) new state. The office came to Mr. Peirce unexpectedly, although he had for a long time been satisfied that the interests of the school system, then in its incipiency, demanded such an officer. He had no thought of the office for himself, but was expecting to busy himself in missionary work. He soon found his new position gave him plenty of work. At the July session of the legislature an act was passed requiring him to prepare and submit plans for the organization and support of primary schools, a plan for a university and branches, and for the disposition of primary school and university lands, to the legislature,