making the fellows of the first division 'parse;"" and it was thought to be an innovation and a gross indignity to which we ought not to submit; and many in the second division said they would make a row about it the next week when they went in to Latin. When the next week came, the second division went in with a pretty determined resolution not "to parse." The Monday morning recitation—the course of instruction at Cambridge not being quite so secular as it is now - was in "Grotius De Veritate," and, as it is not the most elegant and classic Latin, Mr. Folsom did not deem it necessary to examine us in its construction; but in the afternoon recitation in Livy, one or two others having previously read and translated, Huger, of South Carolina, having given a correct but rather rhetorical rendering of the passage he had read, Mr. Folsom selected a brief clause, and asked him to give the construction of that clause. Huger immediately said, "I shall not parse, sir," and sat down, amid the cries of the division,"Good, Huger! don't parse." There was hissing and scraping for a few moments. After it had subsided, Mr. Folsom said very calmly and pleasantly: "I am surprised, young gentlemen, to witness this exhibition of feeling. I am under authority, as you are, and must obey the instructions given me by the Corporation to examine you in the construction of the Latin language. Huger, will you give me the construction of that clause?" Huger then rose, and said in a very blunt way: "No, sir: we didn't come to college to learn to parse: we learnt that at school. We came to college to read the Latin Classics, and get instruction in Latin Literature. Parsing in college is an innovation, and we don't mean to submit to it." And again the cry was, "Good, Huger! don't parse." Most young tutors would have stopped here, dismissed the division, reported us to the Faculty. Huger would probably have been expelled, the class thrown into rebellion, and its whole college course, and the whole life perhaps of many of its members, seriously affected. But Mr. Folsom's patience, forbearance, wisdom, and tenderness saved us. Waiting till we again became silent, he said: "Young gentlemen, I should be very sorry to get you into difficulty at the very beginning of your college course by reporting to the Faculty the scene that has just occurred. I should be exceedingly sorry, Mr. Huger, to bring you under censure. Your brother was my classmate, and is my intimate friend: I love and honor him. I know how anxious he is that your college career should be honorable and improving to you; and I should be sorry to be in any way instrumental in disappointing him. But I must do my duty.

Will you give me the construction of that clause?" Instantly Huger rose, his eyes glistening, and his lips quivering with emotion: "With all my heart, sir: I will do any thing you ask me to;" and throughout the division the cry then was, "Good, Huger! parse it. We will all parse, sir."

This incident seemed to me not unworthy of being recounted here. I have always felt that Mr. Folsom acted with noble patience and magnanimity on this occasion, and displayed qualities of mind and heart worthy of the most affectionate respect. The remembrance of it has always been gratefully cherished by the members of the class of 1825; and it was this remembrance that led me a few weeks ago, at considerable personal inconvenience, to attend his funeral at Mount Auburn, and to lay the tribute of reverence and gratitude on his grave.

Some interesting memoranda of Mr. Folsom's career were added by Mr. SIBLEY; and some characteristic incidents were related by Mr. GEORGE B. EMERSON.

JANUARY MEETING, 1873.

A stated meeting was held on the 9th of January, at 11 o'clock, A.M.; the President, Mr. WINTHROP, in the chair.

The Recording Secretary read the records of the last meeting. The Librarian read his monthly list of donors to the Library.

The President noticed the decease of the Rev. John Stetson Barry, a Resident Member; and of Mr. George Catlin, a Corresponding Member, as follows:

Rev. John Stetson Barry, whose death has occurred since our last meeting, was elected a Resident Member of this Society in 1855. He had before that time written a History of the Town of Hanover, in the old county of Plymouth; while it had been in part through his fortunate discovery that the original of Bradford's History of Plymouth had been traced to the library of the Bishop of London at Fulham. He was at the time engaged in writing a History of Massachusetts, which was afterwards published in three large volumes, the last of them in 1857. Though, perhaps, not adding very greatly to

what was already known, it was a popular and successful work, and reflected no small credit on the diligence and capacity of the writer.

Mr. Barry had been but a rare attendant on our meetings of late, and had been constrained by the state of his health, and by other circumstances, to suspend his historical pursuits. But there are many who can bear witness to the patience and fortitude with which he endured the infirmities and misfortunes of his later years.

I am authorized by the Standing Committee to propose the customary Resolution of regret for his death, and to name our associate, Mr. Charles C. Smith, to prepare a suitable Memoir of him for our "Proceedings."

In the death of Mr. George Catlin, our Society has lost one of its oldest Corresponding Members. He was elected in 1838. Born in the valley of Wyoming, Penn., he practised at the Law, which he had studied under his father, for a few years, and then betook himself to the work of a portraitpainter. In this relation he made a specialty of illustrating the Aboriginal race of our country, and painted not less than two hundred heads of living Indians. His gallery was a very remarkable one, attracting great interest and attention everywhere; and he published several valuable volumes illustrating the lives and manners and habits of the tribes from which he had taken his subjects. Other works of his have been published both in America and in England; but he will be remembered principally by his writings and paintings and collections connected with the Indians, which were of the greatest importance and value, and which entitled him to a much higher appreciation and remuneration than he ever received. He died at Jersey City, near New York, on the 23d of December last, in the seventy-sixth year of his age.

Hon. Mellen Chamberlain and Winslow Warren, Esq., were elected Resident Members.

The President read the following letter from Mr. Jonathan Mason relative to the Book of Records of the "South Boston Association":

Hon. ROBERT C. WINTHROP,

President of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

DEAR SIR, -I propose committing for safe keeping to the Historical Society the Book of Records of the South Boston Association, whose charter commenced in 1805 and expired in 1851, imagining

that it may possibly be a valuable book of reference to some future historian of Boston proper, when the accomplishment of the proposed filling up of the acres of flats with a continuous line of wharves and docks shall have been perfected by the State, City of Boston, and other parties. The Records contain the names of many of our early esteemed and respected fellow-citizens: the Hon. Harrison G. Otis, William Tudor, Gardiner Greene, Hon. Judge Hubbard, and others, as proprietors. It may be well for me here to state, that I have never during the past twenty-two years since the expiration of the charter had an application to show these Records; and am now under the belief that most of the proprietors, and all of the officers with exception of two, one eighty-eight and the other ninety-one, are dead, excepting myself. At your leisure and convenience, please notify me if it be accepted or declined.

JAN. 3, 1873.

With great respect,

I am very truly yours,

HOTEL VENDOME, COMMONWEALth Avenue.

The volume was gratefully accepted.

JON. MASON

The President read a letter from the Hon. James W. Gerard, executor and legatee of the late General William H. Sumner, offering to the Society a fine portrait of the General, said to have been painted by Wilson. The portrait was exhibited at the meeting, and the thanks of the Society ordered for the gift.

The President read the following communication from the proprietors of the Old South meeting-house in Boston:

BOSTON, Dec. 20th, 1872.

At a meeting of the proprietors of pews in the Old South meetinghouse in Boston, held this day, in the chapel in Freeman Place, the following vote was offered and adopted, to wit:

:

Voted, That the Standing Committee are hereby authorized publicly to announce in behalf of the Society, and to enter into any agreement therefor, subject to the approval of the pew proprietors, that the Society will sell the Old South meeting-house to the Massachusetts Historical Society, to be kept as a historical building, and to be preserved in its present form and condition, subject only to the lease to the United States Government, the price to be paid for the house to be the fair value to be determined by three disinterested persons; the sale to be on the condition that the same shall be kept for ever in substantially its present condition, to be used as a place for occasional divine worship and for other purposes, in accordance with the views of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

MOSES MERRILL, Clerk, pro tem., of the Old South Society

Mr. EDMUND QUINCY, Chairman of the Standing Committee, to whom the above communication had been submitted, made the following report:

At a regular meeting of the Standing Committee held on Monday, Jan. 6, 1873, the President laid before it the annexed communication from the proprietors of the Old South Meetinghouse. The committee propose to the Society the passage of the following resolutions in relation to it :

Voted, That the Massachusetts Historical Society is profoundly sensible of the honor done to it by the Proprietors of the Old South Meeting-house in selecting it as the custodian of the venerable and historical edifice of which they have the charge, on the conditions named in the votes officially communicated to it.

Voted, That while the Society most sincerely shares the just wish of the Proprietors that the Old South Meeting-house should be preserved as an historical monument, it deeply regrets to say that its funds, could they all be properly devoted to this object, would be entirely inadequate to meet even the most moderate valuation that could be put upon the estate.

Voted, That should the interest in the preservation of this Building, which has been so widely expressed throughout New England and the nation at large, be strong enough to induce the contribution for that purpose of the sum at which the value of the building may be fixed, the Historical Society will cheerfully assume the responsibility of its custody; and will, for itself and its successors, engage that the conditions annexed to their offer by the Proprietors shall be faithfully observed.

Voted, That the Corresponding Secretary be instructed to communicate these votes of the Society to the Proprietors of the Old South Meeting-house.

All which is respectfully submitted by the Standing Committee. EDMUND QUINCY, Chairman.

The report was accepted by the Society.

Mr. PARKMAN spoke of the great value of the historical collections of Pierre Margry, of Paris, and expressed a wish that measures might be taken to induce the Congress of the United States to aid in the publication of them. He submitted a petition to that effect, and offered the following Resolution, which was seconded by Mr. Adams, and unanimously adopted:

Voted, That this Society earnestly recommend such action on the part of Congress as shall insure the speedy publication of the valuable historical collections of M. Pierre Margry, of