And the Rev. Dr. Charles F. Dole, the minister of the church already alluded to, said of him:

In his home and in his friendships he was the incarnation of thoughtfulness and unselfishness. His ample memory and well-stored mind, his discriminating appreciation and enjoyment of beautiful things, together with his kindly and genial humor, rendered him one of the most delightful companions. At the same time he was familiar with the most profound problems of life and death. Like the best practical men of affairs, he was essentially an idealist and a believer in principles. One felt that he would have gone unflinchingly to the stake, if truth, or duty, or love, had commanded.

It was in this spirit of simple chivalry that he threw aside the pursuits of the scholar and enlisted as a private in the ranks in the great Civil War. But it was no less in the same spirit of consecration to the public welfare that he contributed his services and his money, as long as he lived, to every good cause, whether for education of the poor blacks at the South, or for needed reforms in his own city. His cheerful willingness seemed to know no bounds. His religion was the direct outcome, as well as the inspiration of his life. It was pre-eminently the religion of the Beatitudes and of the golden rule, quiet, earnest, and efficacious.

SPECIAL MEETING OF THE COUNCIL

11 JUNE, 1909

A SPECIAL MEETING of the Council was held on Friday, 11 June, 1909, at four o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. THOMAS MINNS in the chair.

Present, Messrs. Henry Winchester Cunningham, Henry Herbert Edes, Frederick Lewis Gay, Albert Matthews, Thomas Minns, Henry Ainsworth Parker, Henry Ernest Woods.

The following is an extract from the Records of the meeting:

The Council of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts wishes to place on its Records a testimony of its sense of loss in the death of JOHN NOBLE, and its appreciation of his character and of his services to this Society.

John Noble was born in Dover, New Hampshire, 14 April, 1829, and died in Boston, Massachusetts, 10 June, 1909. Graduating at Harvard College in 1850, first scholar in his Class, he entered of right the Society of Phi Beta Kappa, in the affairs of which he always took a keen and active interest, striving constantly in many ways to promote its welfare.

After a service of several years on the teaching staff of the Boston Latin School, Mr. Noble graduated at the Harvard Law School in 1858, and was admitted to the Bar and to the Bar Association. While a successful practitioner of law in Boston he was appointed, in 1875, Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for the County of Suffolk, an office he subsequently held by election and re-election until his resignation in 1908. In this capacity he superintended the colossal work, covering a period of nearly twenty-five years, of arranging and binding in twelve hundred folio volumes the Court Files of the Commonwealth from 1630 to 1797.

Mr. Noble was a member of most of the leading college societies; and in after life was in fellowship with many organizations for the promotion of learning, historical research, and philanthropy. He was an Overseer of Harvard College from 1898 till his death. He received from Dartmouth College in 1902 the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.

Elected to membership in this Society soon after its formation, Mr. Noble at once entered heartily into its activities. By his written contributions to our Transactions and his devoted service as a member of the Council, as Chairman of the Committee of Publication, and especially as Corresponding Secretary, he gave proof of the sincerity of his frequent observation, that the Colonial Society and its success were very near to his heart. Strong and affectionate in his feelings, upright and faithful in his public and private conduct, loyal to duty and to his friends, and exemplary in all the relations of life, he has left with his colleagues a pattern of rectitude and devotion to duty to be long remembered, and the memory of a steadfast and generous friend.

ANNUAL MEETING, NOVEMBER, 1909

THE ANNUAL MEETING of the Society was held at the Algonquin Club, No. 217 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, on Monday, 22 November, 1909, at six o'clock in the afternoon, the President, HENRY LEFAVOUR, LL.D., in the chair.

The Records of the last Stated Meeting were read and approved.

Mr. ABBOTT LAWRENCE LOWELL of Cambridge was elected a Resident Member.

On the recommendation of the Council, the name of the Hon. JAMES BURRILL ANGELL was transferred from the Corresponding Roll to the Honorary Roll.

The Annual Report of the Council was presented and read by the Rev. HENRY A. PARKER.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COUNCIL

Since the last Annual Meeting, five Stated Meetings of the Society have been held. As we are still without a building of our own, we are again indebted to the American Unitarian Association for its continued hospitality in lending us a room for our meetings in its building on Beacon Street, a courtesy which the Council has gratefully acknowledged.

Since the appointment of an Editor of Publications, five years ago, six volumes have been completed, a seventh is nearing completion, and the text of an eighth is largely in type. With the material on hand we may hope to maintain, if not to increase, the rate of publication. It is obvious, however, that to accomplish this purpose a large and immediate addition to the Publication Funds is imperative; and it is also of the first importance that a permanent fund

of $25,000 should be secured for the payment of the Editor's salary, which was provided for by the liberality of some of our members for five years, now drawing to a close.

The publication of the early Harvard College Records, made possible through the generosity of Mr. Frederick Lewis Gay, is progressing satisfactorily; and the Society has other material on hand the publication of which can be, and should be, hastened by a special contribution to our funds.

The Society was honored by an invitation to be represented with other learned societies at the inauguration of Abbott Lawrence Lowell as the twenty-fourth President of Harvard College. Mr. Henry Herbert Edes was appointed our delegate, and at the formal reception of the delegates presented an engrossed address of salutation from this Society.

During the year the Society has lost by death four Resident Members,

JOHN NOBLE,

CALEB BENJAMIN TILLINGĦAST,

ARTHUR LAWRENCE,

EDWARD EVERETT HALE;

one Honorary Member,

SIMON NEWCOMB;

and two Corresponding Members, —

WOLCOTT GIBBS, .

WILLIAM REED HUNTINGTON.

JOHN NOBLE became a member of the Society soon after its foundation and at once entered heartily into its work, contributed many valuable papers to our Transactions, and at his death was Chairman of the Committee of Publication and Corresponding Secretary. In all his relations with the Society he showed the same qualities of diligence, uprightness, and faithfulness which his associates on the Board of Overseers of Harvard College, in the Courts, and elsewhere recognized as characteristic of him. In his death, the Society has sustained an irreparable loss.

CALEB BENJAMIN TILLINGHAST, long a picturesque figure in the streets of Boston, had an interesting career as an educator and jour