same manner as in the single form, viz, by all the people,* over whom they are to rule.

Some of the Princes of the Tribes of Israel, may seem to be Rulers of fifty thousands, or of fives Orders of Myriades: yet the Office of the Princes was not onely under that notion, but also as an head of a civil society, a kindred, an eminent part, a division of the Commonwealth: for some of the Tribes had but four Myriades, and some but three, and therefore could not in that way and order have a Ruler of five Myriades. Therefore they must needs be instituted under another consideration, viz, as being the head or chief Ruler over an eminent part, or division of the Commonwealth, being civilly divided into such societies.

CHAP. VIII.

So much for the Platform of the Lords Government. Now it remains to consider of the Laws by which these Rulers are to Govern the Lords people. The written Word of God is the perfect Systeme or Frame of Laws, to guide all the Moral actions of man, either towards God or inan the Application whereof to every Case according to its circumstances, must be by the wisdom and discretion of the Judges, guided by the light of the Scriptures, and a pure Conscience.

The judgement and determination of a Cause, is nothing else, but the particular application of the Cause, according to all its circumstances, unto the Rule and Standard of Gods Word.

The Records of which judgements, are equivalent to Humane Laws. Which so far as the Case with all its circumstances considered is rightly applyed to the Rule of the Word, is a deduct, from Scripture, and bindeth the Consciences, both of Judges alway so to judge in the like case, and the people so to walk.

Which Records to order wisely, and publish for common

* Or orders of men.

instruction and edification, is a work of great wisdom, and tendeth much to Gods glory, the good of the people, and the facilitating and expediting justice, among them. All Strangers, are to be accounted under the Government of those Orders where they reside, and where their business lieth; so as to have the benefit of the Government of the Lord, as our own people have.

FINIS.

A DISCOURSE

PRONOUNCED BEFORE THE SOCIETY, OCTOBER 31, 1844; ON THE COMPLETION OF FIFTY YEARS FROM ITS INCORPORATION.

BY JOHN G. PALFREY.

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY:

THE Completion of a half century since your association was incorporated has appeared to you a fit occasion for looking back to its origin and surveying its labors, and you have been pleased to direct me, as one of the least busy of your number, to put together some such account of its designs and its proceedings as the short time allowed by your arrangements would permit. I undertake the task with great diffidence of my ability to do it any justice, but with a promptness which not to show would be to prove myself a very unworthy member of your industrious brotherhood.

Our society takes its date from the year 1790. The generation immediately preceding that then upon the stage had had occasion to expend its energies in toils far different from those of science. The close of the Seven Years' War, in which the New England colonies, especially Massachusetts, had borne so onerous a part, was scarcely followed by a short breathing space before the contest of the Revolution began. Eight years of anxious struggle for independence, and six years more of exhaustion and disorder before a government was organized under the Federal Constitution, afforded little encouragement to pursuits requiring quiet and leisure for their votaries, and a settled state of the public mind for their due appreciation and patronage. Two learned societies, the American Philosophical Society, founded in 1769, and the American

Academy, in 1780, were of earlier origin; but the multiplication of such institutions was not to be looked for till more tranquil times, and especially attention was more likely to be turned to the sources of the history of the country, from the period when it had vindicated an independent nationality, and had won a place for its history by the side of that of the other families of man.

The original idea of this society has been attributed to our late estimable fellow-laborer, Mr. Thomas Wallcut. It appears, however, to be a more probable account which ascribes the first movement to Dr. Belknap and Judge Minot.* Dr. Belknap had removed from Dover, New Hampshire, to Boston three years before. In the preparation of his "History of New Hampshire," of which the first volume was published in 1784, he had been made to feel the want of access to some full repository of materials for recovering the story of our early times. Judge Minot, who, by his "History of the Insurrections in Massachusetts,' had manifested and cultivated his ability and taste for this department of study, -Judge Sullivan, then preparing for his "History of Maine," and Dr. John Eliot, who had been long laboring on the collections finally incorporated into his "Biographical Dictionary," had experienced the same need of a more sufficient apparatus. Mr. James Winthrop, of Cambridge, and Dr. Peter Thacher, of Boston, had an inclination for such pursuits, and were in possession of original historical materials, thought to be of value. Mr. Wallcut, with a genuine antiquarian quλonovía, had been in the habit of transcribing important ancient papers, to place them beyond the reach of accident. These gentlemen, with Dr. James Freeman and Judge Tudor, of Boston, and the Honorable William Baylies, of Dighton, men

* These statements are printed as they were delivered. A friend has since called my attention to an obituary notice of Dr. Belknap, published in the Columbian Centinel for June 25, 1798, and understood to be from the pen of Dr. John Eliot, who could not have failed to be well informed upon the point in question. The following is an extract: -"The Historical Society have lost their most laborious and diligent member, and the founder of their institution. He frequently met

with disappointment from the loss of valuable papers, and he often mentioned to his friends in New Hampshire and Boston, that it was necessary to preserve them by multiplying copies, and making it the principal duty and interest of an association to collect them, and to study their value. The proposals of Dr. Belknap met with the approbation and encouragement of several gentlemen in this town and its environs, and the society was incorporated in 1794.'

of a kindred love of antiquity and truth, were the first associates. At a meeting, at which they all were present, except Judge Minot and Mr. Baylies, our society was organized on the 24th day of January, 1791; some preliminary arrangements having been made, at an interview some weeks before, between Drs. Belknap, Thacher, and Eliot, and Judges Tudor and Winthrop. Judge Sullivan was chosen President; Dr. Belknap, Corresponding Secretary; Mr. Wallcut, Recording Secretary; Judge Tudor, Treasurer; Dr. Eliot, Librarian; and Dr. Thacher, Judge Minot, and Mr. Winthrop, the Standing Committee.

The objects of the society were described in its constitution to be, "the preservation of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and records, containing historical facts, biographical anecdotes, temporary projects, and beneficial speculations"; and "a collection of observations and descriptions in natural history and topography, together with specimens of natural and artificial curiosities, and a selection of every thing which can improve and promote the historical knowledge of our country, either in a physical or political view." The society was to consist of thirty resident and thirty corresponding members, a number afterwards doubled; * and stated meetings were to be held in each quarter of the year, an arrangement subsequently changed to that of a meeting every month.

The first meetings took place at the houses of Judge Tudor and Judge Sullivan; after a few months, the society obtained the use of an apartment belonging to the Massachusetts Bank, in a building erected for a linen factory, on land now occupied by Hamilton Place; in January, 1794, by the liberality of the projectors of the Tontine Crescent, on the south side of Franklin Street, they were enabled to place their collections, which had now become considerable, in the upper chamber of the centre building of that structure. The society's act of incorporation bears the date of the 19th of the following month. Its

The members are chosen by ballot, in the form prescribed by the society's vote of August 29, 1815, that, " In balloting for members, and in taking any questions by yeas and nays, the law and custom of our forefathers be adopted, as it stands in the Statute of Elections 1643, mutatis mutandis, -For the yearly choosing of Assistants, the Freemen shall use Indian Corn and Beans, the Indian Corn to manifest election, and the Beans contrary.'