Dec. 12.--Annual meeting of the Bostonian Society. The following were chosen directors for the coming year: Thomas C. Amory, William S. Appleton, Thomas J. Allen, Joshua P. Bodfish, Curtis Guild, John T. Hassam, Hamilton A. Hill, Samuel H. Russell, and William Wilkins Warren. The report on the library showed a total of 520 volumes, and many pamphlets not yet enumerated, being an addition of 184 volumes, and 126 pamphlets during the year. The report of the treasurer showed: Balance of last year, $3,857.85; receipts, to make a total of $4,736.65; expenditures, to leave a present balance of $1,992.23. It was announced that Mr. D. T. V. Huntoon, the secretary and treasurer, declined a re-election, being about to take a journey for the benefit of his health. The vacancy was not filled.
Jan. 14.--Monthly meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Dr. Green, as one of the executors of the will of John Langdon Sibley, read that part of the will in which he has constituted this society the residuary legatee of nearly all his estate. This amount is by far the largest sum of money ever given or bequeathed to the society, and will place the name of Sibley among the greatest benefactors of historical research. It was voted that a committee consisting of Judge Hoar, Mr. Cobb, and Professor E. C. Smyth be appointed to consider and report to the society what action should be taken in view of this munificent bequest.
Mr. R. C. Winthrop, Jr., communicated thirty-two letters, written between 1693 and 1699, from General Lord Cutts to Colonel Joseph Dudley, then lieutenant-governor of the Isle of Wight, and afterward governor of Massachusetts. They contain incidental reference to William of Orange, and many public men of that period, as well as to the campaign of the allied army in Flanders, and the evident sincerity and soldierly bluntness of the writer renders them quite entertaining. Lord Cutts was not merely a famous commander, but a poet, and his verses are quoted by Horace Walpole. Mr. Winthrop expressed a desire to learn where a picture of him might be found, and he discussed the authority and probable date of various portraits of Governor Joseph Dudley, and his wife, Rebecca Tyng.