now our representative at the Court of St. James, Mr. Phelps may well be supposed to speak with authority, when he says "The pretended prosecution of the pretended American claims to English property is carried on with such persistence and ingenuity, by the men engaged in it, that I despair of being able to make their credulous victims understand what an utter imposture and delusion the whole business is." If such words are unheeded, librarians need not be surprised if their warnings go for nought. Mr. Lucius P. Goddard has brought us a bound copy of the rare Goddard Genealogy of 1833, to which he has added some manuscript notes and a prospectus for a new edition. Upon a critical examination of a diary received many years since from the late Mr. Parley Goddard, of Worcester, and marked by Dr. Haven "autobiography," Mr. Lucius P. Goddard has found it to be in the handwriting of the Hon. Edward Goddard, of Framingham, who was born at Watertown, Mass., March 24, 1675, and was a member of his Majesty's Council for the Province of Massachusetts Bay. It is to be regretted, not that the worthy Councillor has given us so much of the results of his introspection, but that he has recorded so little as the result of his outlook upon the surroundings of that early and interesting period of our history. In acknowledging the gift of a fine specimen of Continental currency from Mrs. C. A. B. Lilley, of Montpelier, Vt., we shall be pardoned for quoting a paragraph or two from her letter of presentation, as it not only states facts and shows the spirit in which deposits are sometimes made, but also suggests the especial care with which such gifts should be preserved. She says: "I wish to present it to the American Antiquarian Society in memory of my mother, Mrs. Hannah Bliss, it being preserved through her care. She was eight and my father twelve years old when the war of the Revolution commenced. Four of my father's brothers entered the army, two of whom died in the service. The other two served through the war and drew pensions in their old age. My parents, Frederic and Hannah Bliss, with their three children, went from Rehoboth, Mass., in the winter of 1793 and 1794, to settle in Washington County, Vermont, where ten more children were born to them, of whom I was the youngest, except one, and the last survivor." Mr. S. N. Dexter North sends a separately printed copy of his special report on the newspaper and periodical press, made for the tenth United States Census. Appendix D gives a "List of the Bound Files of the American Newspapers in the Possession of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.," furnished by us. It is all the more conspicuous since it stands alone, where a complete catalogue of the other important newspaper collections of America should appear. An early and persistent effort to obtain extra copies of this list for the use of scholars has thus far been unsuccessful. Mr. James C. Pilling has supplied us with one of the hundred copies of the proof-sheets of his Bibliography of American Linguistics, of eleven hundred and thirty-five large quarto pages. We are indebted to John T. Hassam, Esq., for Part I. of the reprint of the Genealogical Gleanings in England by Mr. Henry F. Waters. While this Society in its corporate capacity has not subscribed to the fund for carrying on these researches, it should be said that the individual interest is manifest in the fact that its President, VicePresidents and a score of members are contributors to it. We are indebted to Professor George L. Vose, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for an effort to collect for us all printed matter bearing in any manner upon that important institution; and to Messrs. Drew, Allis and Company for a gift, thrice repeated within a few years, of a quantity of their Rochester, N. Y., Directories. The United States War Department sends the sixth volume of Dr. Billings's Index-Catalogue of the Library of the United States Surgeon-General's Office, a work which already has a world-wide reputation. In acknowledging numbers of the New Series of the Iowa Historical Society's Record we note for the information of our North-Western correspondents, the fact that we lack of the First Series, known as the Annals of Iowa, those of January, July and October, 1873, and January, 1874. The receipt of the beginning of a New Series of the Bulletin of the California Academy of Sciences, also suggests that we want of the First Series, volume one and all after volume seven, part one, with title-pages for volumes three and five. The Maine, Maryland and New Jersey Historical Societies and the State of New Hampshire send evidence of a continuation of the good work of the preservation of history. Our wide-spread membership should encourage such undertakings in their States as a means of saving valuable historical material. The consideration of such gifts and givers encourages us to believe that a Society of the character, breadth and usefulness of our own, has not only a past and a present, but a future. In the valuable brochure upon Public Libraries and Schools, received at the hands of its author, Mr. Samuel S. Green, the following brief but pertinent description of a good librarian is especially noteworthy. He says: "The things he really needs are interest in the work, knowledge of books, a good education, good manners and good sense." The second qualification named, that of a knowledge of books, impressed itself forcibly upon my mind while recently preparing, for the seventh general meeting of the American Library Association, a paper on the best use of duplicates. This knowledge must necessarily be both internal and external, and for the latter a careful study of the broad field of catalogues of all classes, languages and times may be found useful. Certainly the light and shade thrown by to-day's comparison of a New York or Leipsic Catalogue with a Quaritch or Trübner of London, or a It is thought that in this Dufossé or a Champion of Paris, would furnish food for reflection. While Willard's Body of Divinity, a folio which only a divinity school library with plenty of shelfroom would greatly desire, and of which we have several extra copies, is priced at ten pounds ten shillings; and the first edition of our founder's History of Printing at six pounds six; the first two volumes of our Archæologia Americana, which we sell for nearly four pounds, are called home for one pound ten. connection, two early Harvard logues which have lately been examined, and which remind one by their rarity of the Harvard broadside triennial catalogues, will be found to contain suggestions of interest. The latest of these, "A Catalogue of Duplicates in the Library of Harvard College for sale," a duplicate copy of which has, by special request, been sent to the Astor Library, bears no date, but was presented by our first President in 1825, probably soon after it was printed. Upon its title-page Dr. Thomas has written, as was his custom, Value 10 cts." and throughout the list appear his single, double and triple checks of preference. Early English folios and quartos seem to have commanded the highest prices, as witness the following: "Baxter Rd. Christian Directory, or Summary of Practical Theologie and Cases of Conscience, fol., London, 1673, $3.50." "Doddridge Philip. Family Expositor, or a Paraphrase and Version of the New Testament, &c., 6 vols., 4to. London, 1760." $3.50 each. "Justinus Martyr. Apologiae duae et Dialogus Cum Triphone Judaeo, Cum Notis et emendationibus Styani Thirlbii, fol. Londini, 1722." $8.00. Josephus Flavius. Works Translated by Whiston, fol., London, 1737." $10.00. Comparison of the above with the low figures attached to the following samples, many of which are rare New England imprints, will astonish buyers of early Americana, and lead us to hope that President Thomas's purchases were as numerous as 66 Also 12mo. Bangor. "Alden Timothy. his checks would seem to indicate: "Mather Cotton. Christian Philosopher. A Collection of the Best Discoveries in Nature, with Religious Improvements. 8vo. London, 1721." $1.00. "Mayhew Experience. Indian Converts, or Some Account of the Lives and Dying Speeches of a Considerable Number of the Christianized Indians of Martha's Vineyard. 8vo. London, 1727.” $1.00. "Protestant Religion Maintained &c., against one George Heath [Keith]. 12mo. Boston, 1690 (5 copies).” 25 cents. "Results of Three Synods of the Churches of Massachusetts. 12mo. Boston, 1725." 25 cents. "Scripture Bishop Vindicated. By Eleutherius. Eusebius Inermatus. By Phileleuth. Boston, 1733 (3 copies)." 50 cents. Collection of American Epitaphs with occasional notes, 5 vols. 18mo. N. Y., 1814." 50 cents each. "Eliot John. Up-Biblum God (Indian Bible). 4to. Cambridge, 1663." $24.00. "Joutel. Journal du dernier Voyage que feu M. de la Sale fit dans le Golfe de Mexique pour trouver l'Embouchure et le Cours de la Rivière de Missicipi. 12mo. Paris, 1713." $1.00. "Lopez de Gomara. Historia de Mexico. 18mo. Anvers, 1554." $3.50. "Winthrop, John. Journal of the Transactions and Occurrences in the Settlement of Massachusetts from 1630 to 1644. 8vo. Hartford, 1790." $2.50. "Mather Sam. Life of Cotton. 12mo. Boston, 1729." 50 cents. If your patience is not exhausted by this bibliographical tour, let us look back one step farther, but still within our nineteenth century, at another and even rarer Harvard Catalogue, presented by Rev. Dr. William Bentley, a duplicate of which, priced from our own copy, we recently placed in Harvard College Library where strangely enough it had escaped preservation. The title is "Catalogue of Books to be sold by Public Auction at Francis Amory's Auction Room, Boston, immediately after the sale advertised to commence December 20, 1813. The following books being |