J. S. J. Gardiner, who followed it up with one on Summer, also in the Anthology. In the same number, Buckminster gave a forcible defence of the imagery and epithets of the poet, which the next month was replied to by the assailant, and in the following number was strengthened by the other side; and this also was counteracted by another parody of the lyric inspiration, in which Gray's Odes were caricatured. A fourth attempt at the ludicrous, by our president, contained something unguardedly personal from the satirist to his antagonist, which produced strong though silent emotions of sympathy in many of the party. In an instant, the writer threw the inconsiderate effusion into the fire. From that moment, no allusion was made in the club to Gray's merits." In 1806, when Mr. Savage was a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts, he gave an oration on the progress and advancement of commerce; and in 1812 he pronounced the Phi Beta Kappa oration. Mr. Savage was elected a State representative several times, first in 1812; to the State Senate, first in 1826; to the Executive Council, first in 1830, and is an overseer of Harvard College. In 1819 Mr. Savage visited Demarara. He was elected to the Common Council first in 1823, to the board of Aldermen, first in 1827, and to the school committee. In April, 1823, Mr. Savage married Elizabeth Otis, widow of James Otis Lincoln, Esq., and daughter of George Stillman, of Machias, Me., an officer of the Revolution; by whom he had one son, James, and three daughters, one of whom married Prof. William B. Rogers, of the University of Virginia, 1849; another daughter married Amos Binney, of Boston. Mr. Savage was a delegate to the State convention on the revision of the constitution in 1820, and was actively engaged in the debates. In a discussion on education, he remarked, the common schools are the children of religion, and religion not the child of town-schools. He hoped that the children would never succeed to destroy their mother. An abstract of his excellent speech against religious tests appears in the printed journal of the convention. Mr. Savage published, in the year 1825, The History of New England from 1630 to 1649, by John Winthrop, first Governor of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, from his original manuscripts with Notes to illustrate the civil and ecclesiastical concerns, the geography, settlement, and institutions of the country, and the lives and manners of the principal planters. The learned Notes of Mr. Savage to this work will ever rank him among the most profound antiquaries of his country. But would it detract from the reputed candor of Mr. Savage, should the Notes to a new edition of this work be entirely divested of his own expression of sectarian feeling? Whenever Mr. Savage has restored the true reading, he has accompanied it with a note of reference to the corresponding word or sentence in the first edition as inserted at the bottom of the page. Who will suppose that Gov. Winthrop could say, in speaking of a night which he was obliged to pass in the woods in consequence of losing his way, that it was through God's mercy a weary night, instead of a warm night; or, that one Noddle, an honest man of Salem, was drowned while running wood in a canoe, instead of carrying wood; or, lastly, that all breeches were made up, and the church saved from ruin beyond all expectation, instead of breaches? The good sense and impartiality of Mr. Savage's comments form a singular contrast to the strong and unqualified partiality too often extended by editors towards authors whom they have labored to render famous. The last days of James Savage are devoted to antiquarian research. "During the summer of 1842," says he, "in a visit to England, I was chiefly occupied with searching for materials to illustrate our early annals; and, although disappointment was a natural consequence of some sanguine expectations, yet labor was followed by success in several. Accident threw in my way richer acquisitions, which were secured with diligence." These comprise gleanings from New England history, extending along one hundred pages in the Massachusetts Historical Collections, of names of early settlers, extracts from records, and an account of rare books and tracts written in New England. May the shade of Prince environ our antiquary! His last, best days are intensely devoted, both by day and sometimes to the last hour of night, in preparing an elaborate work exhibiting the early genealogy of the first settlers of New England; and no subtle divine or civilian ever followed up the minutest point of doubt with more conscientious regard to accuracy, which will render him the most eminent genealogist in America. The very exordium to the oration of Mr. Savage, at the head of this article, exhibits the ruling passion of his mind; for he says: "If the accidental advantage of generous birth may well be a cause of congratulation to an individual, how greatly ought we to exult, my countrymen, on a review of our national origin! Descended from the only people to whom Heaven has afforded the enjoyment of liberty, with a well-balanced government, the means of securing its continuance in an age of general refinement, in a season of universal peace, our fathers began the controversy which ended in the glorious event that we this day celebrate." Mr. Savage published, in the New England Magazine for 1832, a History of the Adoption of the Constitution of Massachusetts, a performance of great merit. In the paragraph on popular representation in the Legislature, of which he had been a member, he remarks: "Twenty years ago I had a right to a seat here, when the representatives were seven hundred; and one town favored the commonwealth with its delegate whose constituents were so few that, had an equal proportion through the State been allowed to show equal kindness, the number would have exceeded five thousand and three hundred. A stranger might have been astonished at the manner in which Mr. Kuhn, the doorkeeper, performed his anxious duty; and he would perhaps have irreverently said, that the members had been subjected to the treatment which carcasses undergo from the inspector-general of provisions. "In the diminution of the State, by the loss of Maine," continues Mr. Savage, in a note, "the relative weight of Hull has increased. Instead of one five thousand three hundred and twentieth, it is now one three thousand and eighteenth of the whole. But it has had no representative since, and I presume never had before." The wellknown accuracy of Mr. Savage is proverbial. We know not the man of more scrupulous nicety; but in this point of Hull he is off his guard. The editor of this work, being descended of the far-famed peninsula, of which is an old saying, "As goes Hull, so goes the State," feels some ambition that its representation be accurately stated. The General Court records show that Hull sent John Loring as its representative in 1692; the venerable Benjamin Cushing in 1810; and since 1812, Samuel Loring, the justice of Hull, who was also of the house in the two years previous. The facetious editor of the Boston Courier, Mr. Kettelle, whose sprightly articles over the signature of Peeping Tom at Hull have extended its fame, said of this wateringplace: "While stands the Pickerelæum, Hull stands; when falls the Pickerelæum, Hull falls; and when Hull falls, then roof and rafter of Boston town come tumbling after." One of the most profound instances of antiquarian research in James Savage appears in his argument on ancient and modern dating, comprising the report of a committee of the Pilgrim Society, of which he was chairman, on the question of the day to be observed as that of the landing of the Plymouth Pilgrims. It has been stated that the Hon. Judge Davis urged an attention to this subject in the year 1830, being of opinion that the date was Dec. 21, instead of the day usually celebrated. Moreover, it is stated in the Perpetual Calendar for Old and New Style, prepared by Dr. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, printed in 1848: "Our Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth on Monday, the 11th day of December, 1620, O. S. By the New Style, this occurrence would be on Monday, Dec. 21, 1620, and not on Dec. 22, as was erroneously adopted at Plymouth, at the first celebration of that event. This error arose by adopting the correction of eleven days, in use after the year 1700, it not being noticed that this event happened in the previous century, when ten days only were required." The protracted existing doubts on this point induced the Pilgrim Society of Plymouth to appoint a committee, Dec. 15, 1849, to consider the expediency of celebrating in future the landing of the Pilgrims on the 21st day of December, instead of the 22d day. The learned report, prepared by Mr. Savage, tending to establish the former date, was unanimously accepted by the committee; and accepted unanimously, also, by the Pilgrim Society, May 27, 1850. Mr. Savage enlarges, moreover, in this document, which should be perpetuated in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, on mistakes in relation to the date of the surrender of Louisburg, to the date of the landing of Endicott, in Salem, of the landing of Winthrop in Charlestown, of the naming of Boston, which Judge Davis ascertained in 1830, and to the mistake of the Historical Society regarding the period of the confederation of the four New England colonies. And, in conclusion, Mr. Savage very pleasantly remarks: "Why should we celebrate a day later, for that of our fathers' landing? The truth should be good enough for us; and that is the only reason for preference of one day to another. When, by habit, the right day has become the day of reverence, it will be wondered why the wrong was so often observed." Indeed, we cannot leave this subject without noticing an error of the American Antiquarian Society, alluded to in the Perpetual Calendar, in adopting Oct. 23, 1492, as the date of the discovery of America by Columbus, for the annual meeting of the society, instead of Oct. 21, which was the actual date, and arising from the same cause as that of the Pilgrim Society. We hope this investigation will prevent the recurrence of similar mistakes, and, with Shakspeare, "Let's take the instant by the forward top; Mr. Savage is a man of untiring industry. He prepared the index to the Ancient Charter and Laws of Massachusetts Bay, and revised the work for the press, published in 1814. He edited Paley's works, and the press-work of American State papers, in ten volumes, selected by John Quincy Adams. He is president of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and editor of a few volumes of its Historical Collections, and contributor of many valuable articles in that work, and in the Boston Daily Advertiser. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the New York Historical Society; and is a vice-president, and has been treasurer, of the Provident Institution for Savings in Boston, of which he was the principal originator, on its foundation, in 1816. HENRY ALEXANDER SCAMMELL DEARBORN. JULY 4, 1811. FOR THE BUNKER HILL ASSOCIATION. In this performance of Gen. Dearborn, delivered in the presence also of the State executive, he remarks: "On Bunker's ever-memorable heights was first displayed the lofty spirit of invincible patriotism which impelled the adventurous soldier to brave the severest hardships of the tented field, and endure in northern climes the rugged toils of war, uncanopied from the boreal storm and rude inclemencies of Canadian winters. On that American Thermopyla, where, wrapt in the dim smoke of wanton conflagration, fought the assembled sovereigns of their native soil, the everlasting bulwarks of freedom, and thrice rolled back the tremendous tide of war, was evinced that unconquerable intrepidity, that national ardor and meritorious zeal, which secured victory on the plains of Saratoga, stormed the ramparts of Yorktown, and bore the bannered eagle in triumph from the shores of the Atlantic to the furthest confines of the wilderness. "By that destructive battle were awakened the most exalted faculties of the mind. Reason, unrestrained, burst forth in the plenitude |