fourscore as he was to resume the helm, and steer the Ship of State, if the pending elections should result, as some of them hoped, in rendering it necessary for the Marshal-President to withdraw before the end of his Septennate. There is authority for saying that he himself was dreaming of a near triumph, and did not scruple to say to at least one who conversed with him, only a few days before his death, "I shall die President." But death got the start of him; and his dreams, so far at least as they were personal, died with him.

It was my good fortune to know M. Thiers personally, in Paris, thirty years ago. Even before that time, I may be pardoned for remembering that some utterances of mine in the House of Representatives of the United States had attracted his notice, and been the subject of complimentary remark in the Chamber of Deputies. The earliest recognitions of a young man are ever the most gratefully cherished, and the last to be forgotten, as one becomes an old man. My opportunities of meeting him were, indeed, but rare and at long intervals; and the difference of language for he could not, or certainly would not, speak a word of English was always a serious impediment. But no one could be with him for a moment without perceiving the nervous energy, the intellectual agility, the sparkling wit, and the determined will, which animated his little frame, almost giving to a pigmy the proportions of a giant. Like Humboldt and the great Napoleon, he allowed himself but few hours of sleep or rest. The wonder was that a nature so electric and intense could sleep or rest at all. If his formal speeches were sometimes conversational in their form and tone, his conversation, when I had the privilege of listening to it, had all the animation and eloquence of a formal speech. I cannot forget that I was a witness and a delighted hearer of one of his most remarkable exhibitions in the Corps Législatif; and I have in my hand a pamphlet copy of the Speech to which I listened, with one of his latest photographs, kindly sent me by himself. It was in December, 1867, when, interrupting M. Émile Ollivier, he exclaimed: "We are here, sometimes Italians, sometimes Germans: we are never Frenchmen. Let us be French!' That ejaculation, twice repeated, "Soyons

Français!" was uttered with an emotion-I might call it an explosion — which cannot be described; and it produced an impression which convulsed the Chamber, and even shook Paris itself to its centre. It recalled to me some of those scenes in the House of Representatives of the United States at Washington, when John Quincy Adams, who had so many elements, physical and intellectual, in common with Thiers, turned upon some Southern or it may have been some Northern assailant, and carried the House and the country by storm.

My last interviews with Thiers were but two years ago, when I was repeatedly at his temporary residence, the Hôtel Bagration, and dined with him, in company with his cherished friend, our Minister, Mr. Washburne. He had then lately received his certificate of membership of our American Academy of Arts and Sciences, signed by our Vice-President, Mr. Adams, and an invitation to our Bunker Hill Centennial, which seemed particularly to gratify him. He had been chosen one of the Honorary Members of this Society many years before. In the course of conversation, he alluded to having read something of Professor Dana's of Yale College, asked whether I knew him, and begged me to present to him his compliments and respects. His mind had evidently been engaged on some of the materialistic theories of modern philosophy, from which it revolted; and he used language to me not very unlike that which he is reported to have used in his literary Will, where he says "he has thought much about religion in his retirement, and has become convinced that it is the basis of every organized society. He will die, therefore, believing in God, one and eternal, the Creator of all things, whose mercy he implores for his soul."

In this cursory account of the career of M. Thiers, I have attempted no delineation of his character. He has been called an adventurer; a man of expedients, without fixed principles;

1 Professor JAMES DWIGHT DANA, a Corresponding Member of the French Academy of Sciences, as well as of many other foreign Academies, and to whom the Royal Society of London has recently awarded "The Copley Medal," the highest honor in their gift, "for his biological, geological, and mineralogical investigations, carried on through half a century, and for the valuable Works in which his conclusions and discoveries have been published."

a man of many inconsistencies, now for a Monarchy, now for an Empire, now for a Republic, -only to be accounted for by a vaulting ambition, and a selfish seeking of opportunity and power for himself. I dare not contest such imputations; but, certainly, I am unwilling to concur with them. I leave them all for those who can pronounce upon them with authority, from points of view not commanded by one at so great a distance.

For myself, I prefer to think of him, and to speak of him, as a grand example of a self-made man, who filled up the long measure of his protracted life with strenuous labors for literature, for history, for the fine arts, and for his country; overcoming the -obstacles of humble birth and adverse fortune by indomitable courage and perseverance; yielding neither to the blandishments nor to the menaces of kings or emperors, of conquerors or communes; and achieving at last his greatest glory by inestimable services to his native land.

One attribute of Thiers will, indeed, never be disputed by anybody, his intense attachment to his own country, his ardent and passionate love of France. In that we may all recognize a golden thread binding together all his inconsistencies into a grand whole of Patriotism, and giving ample justification to at least one part of the enviable inscription which was engraved on the plate of his coffin,

"PATRIAM DILEXIT, VERITATEM COLUIT."

THE EARL OF ST. GERMANS.

REMARKS AT A MEETING OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, NOVEMBER 8, 1877.

THE interesting remarks of Mr. Winsor in regard to the old Bradford manuscript volume in the library of the Bishop of London, at Fulham, recall to me the consultations on that subject which I held, many years ago, long before Mr. Motley was our minister in England, with Archdeacon Sinclair, with Sir Henry Holland, and with the Earl of St. Germans, and which resulted in the conviction that nothing less than an Act of Parliament would be considered as authorizing its transfer to America.

The venerable Archdeacon died in 1875, and Sir Henry somewhat earlier. The death of Lord ST. GERMANS has just been announced, and I cannot mention his name without referring briefly to our obligations to him as a Society. He was not one of our members, either Corresponding or Honorary; but we were primarily indebted to his kindness, some years ago, for a most interesting communication. He was a lineal descendant of the noble-hearted Sir John Eliot, who died in the Tower of London, as a martyr to free speech in Parliament, in 1633; and from his family papers were obtained the invaluable materials for the Life of that great English statesman and patriot by the late John Forster.

In that Biography, a brief reference was made to a correspondence between Sir John Eliot and the famous John Hampden on the subject of emigrating to New England. By the favor of

Lord St. Germans, in answer to an application of my own, the correspondence thus referred to was examined; and it proved, as I felt sure it would prove, that the "Conclusions or Reasons for planting New England," which were prepared by Governor Winthrop before he left England, had been communicated to Eliot while in the Tower, and had been the subject of consultation between him and Hampden.

We had often heard before, that the English patriots of the Commonwealth period were, many of them, in intimate association and correspondence with our Puritan leaders. But such authentic evidence that two of the foremost of them all,whose lives, had they been spared, would have influenced the course of events in England so prominently and pre-eminently, - were in immediate consultation with the founders of the Massachusetts Colony, had never before been produced.

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It was well said by John Forster, in his note to me communicating the papers: "The questions raised by this curious discovery are, indeed, full of striking interest.” . . . “ I am not without hope of what a closer examination of the papers may bring. Were the matter to end here, however, resting where it does, there is a new and striking interest contributed to a transaction which, more largely than any other in history, has affected the destinies of the human race."

I am not aware that either Lord St. Germans or Mr. Forster himself ever found time for that "closer examination of the papers." Something may still be hoped for, now that the papers have passed into the possession of a younger generation. Meantime, I am glad of an opportunity of reminding the Society of their indebtedness to Lord St. Germans, and of expressing the high respect and affectionate regard I had for him. He was one of my oldest and most valued English friends, and one with whom I had exchanged occasional letters for a full term of thirty years. This friendly correspondence gave me an opportunity, more than once, during the progress of our late Civil War, to make informal explanations and suggestions, which were sure of being turned to the best account

1 These papers may be found in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, for July, 1865.