A copy of Spelman's "Relation of Virginia," recently printed from the original manuscript, formerly in possession of Dawson Turner, Esq., of England, and presented by its present owner, Mr. J. F. Hunnewell, of Charlestown, was laid on the table, for which the acknowledgments of the Society were ordered.

An anecdote related by Dr. Ellis brought up an inquiry as to the days on which certain anniversaries (including what was formerly called "Negro Election Day") were celebrated in Boston, there being some difference of opinion among the members.

Dr. SHURTLEFF stated that the election day which acquired the name of "Negro Election Day" was the General Election Day, on which the General Court of Massachusetts assembled and chose its officers, including, in colonial times, the Governor, Deputy-Governor, and the Assistants. This day by the Colonial Charter occurred on the last Wednesday in Easter Term. As this term ends the Monday after Ascension Day, which comes on Thursday, election day would fall on the day before Ascension Day, which would vary from year to year, happening sometimes as early as the 29th of April, and sometimes as late as the 2d of June. By the Provincial Charter, the General Election Day occurred on the last Wednesday of May, and so continued from May, 1693, to the adoption of the Constitution of Massachusetts. By the Constitution the same day was established, and continued until the year 1832. This was one of the principal holidays in Massachusetts until the change of the day was made to the first Wednesday in January; the others, in Colonial and Provincial times, before the Declaration of Independence, being Commencement Day at Harvard College, and the Anniversary Day of the Artillery Company. From time immemorial the negroes (servants and apprentices) had the General Election Day for a holiday; and in Boston were allowed to have the unmolested use of the Boston Common, with an equality of rights and privileges with the white people. Persons, whose knowledge of Boston and memory of events extend back more than fifty years, will undoubtedly remember very vividly the transactions and enjoyments of that gala day, when persons of all ages, complexions, and tongues, gave themselves most freely and unrestrainedly to their will and inclinations. The sessions of the General Court were generally adjourned so as to make more than one session each year; and after the adoption of the State Constitution there were two regular sessions, one in winter and the other in summer. When the day of assembling of the legislature was changed to the first Wednesday of January, the two sessions

were held together as one. The Annual Training Day and Muster occurred in May; and after the change of Election Day from May to January, the Muster took place on the old election day in May. On the first Monday in June, Artillery Election Day, annually occurred the anniversary parade and election of officers of the Artillery Company (now known as the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company), when the colored people were proscribed, and were not allowed by the whites to appear on the Common, but were hooted and driven from it with reproaches, insult, and force. It was on "Artillery Election Day," in the year 1817, that the great calamity occurred in Boston Harbor, when the negro boy, William Read, "blew up the ship" called the Canton Packet, owned by the Messrs. Perkins. The boy had been allowed to go on shore on General Election Day, but was not permitted to leave the vessel on Artillery Election Day. The old taunt, which was thrown to every negro on this day, is fresh in the memory of persons who have lived half a century: "Who blew up the ship? Nigger. Why for? Because he could not go to 'lection and shake paw-paw." The game of Paw-Paw, or props, was played with four small shells, known to naturalists as the Cypraea Moneta, and was one of the gambling games much practised by the boys of Boston. This day is now a gala day in Boston in consequence of the annual parade of the Artillery Company, and the commissioning of its officers on the Common by the Governor, who keeps up the old ceremony of "taking his seat" in an arm-chair provided for the purpose, in a tent called the Governor's Marquee.

On the fourteenth day of July, annually, the blacks in Boston celebrated the commencement of the measures for the abolition of the slave trade, by a procession, discourse, and dinner. The discourse was delivered by a prominent clergy man, and all the proceedings were conducted in an eminently orderly and respectable manner on the part of the colored people, although the whites made the whole affair one of ridicule. and fun, calling the day" Bobalition Day," publishing a burlesque handbill with mock descriptions of the processions and dinner, and pelting the procession with rotten oranges and eggs, and otherwise insulting the blacks. Of late "Abolition Day" has not been publicly observed in Boston, yet the recollection of the parade has not entirely been forgotten.

The President then remarked that we had the best classical authority for the idea, that it was sometimes allowable to indulge in a little trifling; and, in the absence of any graver matters, he would venture to present an old copy of verses which he

had found among his family papers, and which proved that no less distinguished persons than the members of the Royal Society of England had followed the well-remembered maxim of Horace, Dulce est desipere in loco. The lines were addressed to Dr. Hans Sloane, the founder of the British Museum, who succeeded Sir Isaac Newton as the President of the Royal Society, by some one of his contemporaries, and probably one of his colleagues, who had been making a foreign tour, and whom Sir Hans had asked to bring him back any curiosities he might meet with in his travels. It does not appear, from any thing contained in these doggerel lines, that the writer had crossed over to our side of the Atlantic; and there is thus nothing specifically American in the wonders described in them. But they give a humorous idea of what was considered worth laughing at by the savans of England more than a century and a half ago, and were probably designed to ridicule some of the early extravagances of scientific empirics and charlatans. The word knicknackatory," with which one of the lines concludes, and which can hardly be found in any dictionary of that day, or of this, is rather a happy coinage of an expressive name for a miscellaneous collection of odd things, and might even find an application in our own times.

66

The lines probably fell into the hands of a great-grandson of Governor Winthrop, who was a member of the Royal Society while Sir Hans Sloane was its President; and he seems to have regarded such a jeu d'esprit too characteristic of the period to be destroyed. They are now submitted without recourse, leaving our Publishing Committee to decide whether they are amusing enough to be reproduced. The title of Dr. given to Sloane seems to indicate that they were written before 1716, when he was made a Baronet, and would have been styled Sir.

I. H. to Dr. Sloane, who desired him to send him all the Rarities he could meet with in his Travels.

Since you, Dear Dr., sav'd my life,
By turns to bless and curse my wife,
In conscience I'm oblig'd to do
Whatever is enjoyn'd by you.
According then to your command,

That I should search the Western Land,
And send you all that I can find,
Of curious things of every kind,

I've ravag'd air, earth, sea, and caverns,

Wine, women, children, tombs, and taverns;

And greater rarities can shew

Than Gresham's children ever knew ;
Which Carrier Dick shall bring you down,
Next time the waggon comes to town.

First, I've three drops of the same shower
Which Jove in Danäe's lap did pour;
From Carthage brought the sword I'll send,
Which help'd Queen Dido to her end;
The snake skin which, you may believe,
The serpent cast which tempted Eve;
A fig-leaf apron, it's the same
Which Adam wore to hide his shame,
But now wants darning, Sir; beside,
The jaw by which poor Abel died;
A whetstone, worn exceeding small,
Which Time has whet his teeth withal;
The pigeon stuff'd, which Noah sent
To tell which way the waters went.
A ring I've got of Samson's hair,
The same that Delilah us'd to wear;
St. Dunstan's tongs, as story goes,
Once pinch'd the Devil by the nose;
The very shaft, as all may see,
Which Cupid shot at Antony;
And, what beyond the rest I prize,
A glance of Cleopatra's eyes:
Some strains of eloquence which hung,
In Roman times, on Tully's tongue,
Which long conceal'd and lost had lain,
Till Cooper found them out again.
Then I've, most curious to be seen,
A scorpion's bite to cure the spleen;
As Moore cures worms in stomach bred,
I've pills cure maggots in the head,
With the receipt how you may make 'em,
Το
you I leave the time to take 'em.
I've got a ray of Phoebus' shine,
Found in the bottom of a mine;
A lawyer's conscience large and fair,
Fit for a judge himself to wear.
I've choice of nostrums how to make,
An oath a churchman will not take.
In a thumb vial you shall see,
Close cork'd, some drops of honesty,
Which, after searching kingdoms round,
At last was in a cottage found.

I hain't collected any care,

Of that there's plenty everywhere;

But, after wondrous labor spent,
I've got three grains of rich content
It is my wish, it is my glory,
To furnish your Knicknackatory;
I only beg that, when you shew 'em,
You'll fairly tell to whom you owe 'em,
Which will your future patients teach
To do as has done, yours, I. H.

JUNE MEETING.

A stated meeting was held on Thursday, the 12th instant, at 11, A.M.; Vice-President ADAMS, in the absence of the President, in the chair.

The Recording Secretary read his record of the last meeting. The Librarian read his monthly list of donors to the Library. The Corresponding Secretary announced the acceptance of the Hon. Benjamin R. Curtis, who had been elected a Resident Member at the May meeting.

The Vice-President, the Hon. C. F. ADAMS, noticed the decease of our associate member, the Hon William Minot, since the last meeting of the Society, as follows:

It becomes my duty to note the decease, since the last meeting, of one of our most venerable and respected members, Mr. William Minot. Though never taking any prominent part in the public action of life, no person passed his days in the performance of duties more useful to society or honorable to himself. Confidence in the fulfilment of obligations of pecuniary trusts is only merited by a life of the purest integrity. The many who reposed it in him during the long course of his active career had cause to congratulate themselves, when reflecting how much shifting sand was visible always around them, that they had built their house on a rock.

Mr. WATERSTON, from the Standing Committee, offered the following resolution :

Resolved, That this Society has heard with deep emotion of the death of their venerable associate, the Hon. William Minot, who, after a long, diligent, and useful life, has, in the full maturity of age, tranquilly passed away, leaving us one less representative among the living binding us to the generations that have gone.

Resolved, That the President of the Society, the Hon. Robert