able, and in truth not at all creditable to our forefathers. There is something highly amusing in the tone of annoyance with which Stith remarks the indifference of his contemporaries to his labors. After speaking of his intention to have included. many more interesting documents, he says, "But I perceive, to my no small Surprise and Mortification, that some of my Countrymen (and those too, Persons of high Fortune and Distinction) seemed to be much alarmed, and to grudge, that a complete History of their own Country would run to more than one Volume, and cost them above half a Pistole. I was, therefore, obliged to restrain my Hand, . . . for fear of enhancing the Price, to the immense Charge and irreparable Damage of such generous and publickspirited Gentlemen." This, we may suppose, was the reason why the work was never carried beyond the year 1624. If it had been carried down, on the same scale, to the year of publication, 1747, it would have made an eight-volume history of the colony of Virginia, a work of such bulk that even "Persons of High Fortune and Distinction" in Virginia might be excused for hesitating to support it.

Yet these persons might have done well to sustain him, for his "History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia" is an excellent piece of work, pleasing in style, accurate, and fair. That it is too prolix, however, is a thing that cannot be denied; and this is the more to be blamed because the proportions between the different parts show us clearly that the author was dominated by his materials, rather than master of them, and that he relates much of his story at great length simply because it is in his power to do so. Thus, out of the seventeen years which he treats, he devotes three-fourths of his space to the first three years and the last five, evidently because materials were most abundant for these. For the years 1607-1609 he could draw on the most detailed portion of Captain John Smith's narrative, a 'source the complete trustworthiness of which he seems in general not at all to doubt, though disposed to make considerable allowances for personal pique and party spirit in regard to Smith's ex

pressions concerning the Virginia Company; "Not," he says, "that I question Captain Smith's Integrity; for I take him to have been a very honest Man, and a strenuous Lover of Truth."

When this esteemed guide leaves him, the ex-president of William and Mary falls back upon the papers in the Capitol at Williamsburg and the collection of documents made, for historical purposes, by his late uncle, Sir John Randolph. With the year 1619, however, his narrative widens into a very copious account, which is derived, in a far greater degree than has been generally supposed hitherto, from one of the sources which he mentions. The mode in which he refers to it is as follows: "But I must confess myself most endebted, in this Part of my History, to a very full and fair Manuscript of the London Company's Records, which was communicated to me by the late worthy President of our Council, the Honorable William Byrd, Esq." The records so described have a curious history, and one which, it may be remarked parenthetically, authors have almost invariably related incorrectly. In 1624, King James I. seized the papers of the Company and dissolved it. Shortly before this, in anticipation of such a seizure, certain officers of the Company had secretly caused to be prepared an attested copy of the records of its proceedings, during the last five years, to serve as evidence for their justification in case of prosecution. The copy, when completed, was intrusted to the president of the Company, Shakespeare's friend, the Earl of Southampton. On the death of his son, the Lord High Treasurer Southampton, in 1667, the two volumes of the copy were bought of his executors, for sixty guineas, by Captain William Byrd of Virginia, and for more than a century formed a part of the extensive library of the Byrd family at Westover. These are the two volumes of which Stith made use, and he appears to have used them very freely. All subsequent historians have referred to them, but to all appearances they have not really used them. It would take too long to relate how most of them passed into the possession of Thomas Jefferson and then into

that of Congress. In the library of Congress these primary sources for the history of our first colony have now been buried for sixty years, and all efforts to make them public have hitherto failed before the apathy of Congress and the difficulties presented by its cumbrous machinery.

We have little time left in which to speak of a fifth work, though it was in reality the best of them all, was written by a man of conspicuous station, lieutenant-governor, chief justice, and finally governor of Massachusetts, and was bodily associated with a striking event in our revolutionary history. The book referred to is the history of the colony and province of Massachusetts by Thomas Hutchinson, the famous Tory governor. The scene alluded to was in the time of the Stamp-Act troubles, when already the first volume of the history had appeared. A Boston mob, of the sort which in our school-days we are taught to venerate as gatherings of liberty-loving patriots engaged in resisting oppression, attacked the lieutenant - governor's house. The fact was that he had disapproved of the Stamp-Act policy, and had opposed it by every legal means. But liberty-loving patriots engaged in resistance to oppression cannot be expected to give attention to defences so subtle. They broke in the doors and windows, demolished all the furniture in the house, and destroyed or scattered all the books and papers of the occupant. A clerical neighbor made efforts to save these last, and nearly all of the invaluable manuscript of the second volume of the history was thus preserved. Although it had lain in the street, scattered abroad several hours in the rain, yet so much of it was legible that the author was able to supply the rest, and to transcribe it. In spite of the loss of materials, the second volume was published nine years later. "I pray God," says the writer in his preface, after speaking of the riot, "to forgive the actors in and advisers of this most savage and inhuman injury, and I hope their posterity will read with pleasure and profit what has so narrowly escaped the outrage of their ancestors." It is wellknown that in this same year the gov

ernor retired to England, from which he never returned. Long afterwards, and years after he had died in exile, his grandson, at the request of the Massachusetts Historical Society, published the third volume of the history. The recent publication of his "Diary and Letters" has made clear to a generation more disposed to be just to those who were faithful to their king, that Governor Hutchinson was, both in patriotism and in character, fully the equal of his opponents. Of his qualities as a historian there is but one opinion. He was industrious in research, and had access to many materials, especially those collected by Cotton Mather, for Mather's son was his brother-in-law. He wrote with excellent judgment and in a good, though not brilliant style. "His mind," says the late Dr. Deane, eminently a judicial one; and candor, moderation, and a desire for truth, appear to have guided his pen." Even the third volume, which treats of the period from 1749 to 1774, the period in which he was himself so large a figure in the bitter political contests which led to the Revolution, is written with much fairness. The spirit with which Hutchinson approached the history of the colony and province is shown by a note found among his papers, and written near the end of his life, in which he says:

was

"In the course of my education, I found no part of science a more pleasing study than history, and no part of the history of any country more useful than that of its government and laws. The history of Great Britain and its dominions was of all others the most delightful to me, and a thorough knowledge of the nature and constitution of the supreme and of the subordinate governments thereof I considered as what would be peculiarly beneficial to me in the line of life upon which I was entering; and the public employments to which I was early called, and sustained for near thirty years together, gave me many advantages for the acquisition of this knowledge."

Here again, as in the case of Cotton Mather and Prince, we may suggest a parallel with the European movements. Hutchinson's approach to historical study was mainly from the point of view of the student of institutional history. In Europe, by the middle of the eighteenth century, the age of erudition had been succeeded by an age mainly devoted to

E

ZRA STILES became the pastor of the first church in Newport in 1755. He belonged to an age when a minister's settlement meant a life work, when changes among them were Regarding his daily life among his people, it appears from his memoir to have been his custom,

rare.

"First, in the morning to offer secret prayer to God; then calling his family together to read a chapter of the Bible in course & perform family prayer; then to read by himself one to three or four chapters in course with frequent references to the original Hebrew and Greek, and to the commentators ancient and modern- that lately he had made much use of the Zohar, in which with the Syriac he now daily read a portion. At ten or eleven he walked abroad and visited his flock.

After dinner he read an hour or two and then visited again. In the evening he read one or two hours. Between nine and ten he attended prayer in his family. About eleven he retired to bed, and committed himself and all his concerns to God in secret prayer."

His diary of this time gives the following account of a spinning match held at his house; and others of a similar character frequently occurred:

"26th of April, 1769. Spinning match at my house. Thirty-seven wheels. The women bro't their flax and spun ninety-four fifteen knotted skeins about five skeins and a half to the knot of six ounces. They made us a present of the whole. The spinners were two Quakers, six Baptists, twenty of my own society. There were beside fourteen reelers. In the evening and next day Eighteen 14 knotted skeins more were sent in to us by several that spun at home the same day. Upon sorting and reducing of it-the whole amounts to one hundred and eleven fifteen knotted skeins. We dined sixty persons. Whipple sent in 4 lbs. Tea, 9 lbs. Coffee, Loaf Sugar, above 3 qrs. Veal, 11⁄2 box Wine, Flour, Bread, Rice, &c. &c. -or to amount of about Twenty dollars, of which we spent perhaps onehalf. In the course of the day the spinners were visited by I judge six hundred spectators."

Mrs.

From his journal, December 25, 1772: "Xmas kept in three congregations of this town. Mr. Kelly has begun it in the first Baptist Church here, but only as a Lecture in the afternoon, at least the people only consider it in this

light, though he means it as an anniversary of Christ's Nativity. This looks more like keeping Christmas than anything that has ever before appeared among the Baptists and Congregationalists in New England-about one hundred and fifty years from the first planting of New England."

In the spring of 1775, public commotions incidental to the beginning of the Revolutionary War scattered his flock. He writes:

"How does this town sit solitary that was once full of people! I am not yet removed, though three quarters of my beloved church and congregation are broken up and dispersed."

A letter from General Washington informing the people of Newport of the burning of Falmouth, and of the danger

SO

near to them, being received, Dr. Stiles decides that it is no longer expedient to keep his family together at Newport, and writes to his wife's brother, the Reverend Mr. Hubbard of North Haven,

Connecticut, asking him to care for one of his children as follows:

"NEWPORT, 28 June, 1775. REV. AND DR. SIR: When I received your sympathizing and kind Letter, I little thot of giving you the Trouble of one of my Children, while at the same time, I felt a sensible gratitude to yourself and sister for your generous offer. However the gloomy and dangerous Prospect of Things and the Events foreseen by many as coming upon Newport (tho' I don't so clearly foresee them) have determined me to send Kezia and comit her to your care, if you shall be pleased to take the Trouble of her a few months only, or till the present dark Cloud is blown over, For when Things shall be restored to Tranquillity, I shall choose to keep my Children around me. I pray you Sir to have a tender vigilance over her, and to order her with all Authority. I comit her to sister and yourself, and have charged her to be obedient unto, and treat you both with the greatest submission and Duty. I should like she might be kept to business of Spinning, Milking, Dairy, etc., so as to lay a foundation of a notable Woman. Pray counsel her on the great things of Religion and Virtue and Sobriety, and call upon her daily to read her Bible. My love to sister and Respects to all friends. I am Sir, affectionate Brother,

Your

During this season of anxiety in Newport, Dr. Stiles's eldest son was a student at Yale College. He writes to his father in the following words, Aug. 15, 1775:

"Honored Father: I write continually but receive no answers. My love for all the family as well as my duty forbid my neglecting opportunities to inform of my welfare. As to my health this climate will never suit- I am attended constantly with a most violent cold and apt to be feverish. The weather is hot to extreme. The earth dry fruit in great plenty. Mr. Lewis' is gone home. I am alone. expect him back to-morrow. I hear nothing of Kezia of late. The President has been visited by a severe fit of the ague. - some students here but not manyfriends as well as relations are in health. My classmate Brooks was kind enough to inform me of this by Mr. Scribner. I have now commenced Sophomore. My hurry obliges me to conclude, with my best wishes for the preservation of you from the rapacious maws of a devouring enemy. A letter from home would be agreeable to inform how all do. I remain your most dutiful and ever obedient son,

EZRA STILES, JUN. New Haven, Connecticut Hall."

Miss Betsy Styles.

FROM A MINIATURE.

On the blank sheet is written "Received Aug., 1775," and a list of the number of men wounded, killed and miss

1 A friend and tutor in College.

Ezra Stiles.

FROM AN OLD PRINT.

ing from several regiments is added by the same hand.

On the 23d of October, 1775, a meeting of the Newport society was called, and it was decided to hold no regular church services during the winter, on account of the unsettled state of the community.

Another letter came from General Washington, urging upon the people the necessity of caring for their families, in view of the impending calamities. Dr. Stiles hires a house at Dighton, Massachusetts, and here he leaves his family, himself returning to his beloved home, where he continued his pastoral work, as far as was possible, and preached on Sundays to congregations of soldiers.

He received, shortly afterwards, a call to settle in Portsmouth, to succeed President Langdon of Harvard College. He writes:

"It has pleased God to break up and scatter my dear flock, but my pastoral relation with them is not dissolved, and I am ready to serve any vacant church for a year, or until the end of the war, if they wish in that way to accept my labours."

He is invited to come, on the condi